Raven

**Raven** (レイヴン, *Reibun*) is a character in the *Guilty Gear* series. He is one of three servants of Asuka R. Kreuz, and his right-hand man. An immortal from birth, Raven's body will completely regenerate even if it's reduced to ash. He ceased aging at the moment of his first "death," and has lived for over a thousand years.

## Character Design

Earlier in the series, Raven's skin was originally a pale light blue, which later faded into a more natural white hue. His most defining trait is the metal spike driven through his head, which protrudes from his forehead like a horn.

In his appearances prior to *Guilty Gear 2: Overture*, Raven wears a black body suit with a bird-shaped breastplate and long boots. His shoulders, forearms, and calves are pierced with long needles, and his forearms are loosely wrapped in bandages. His hair is long, varying between shoulder and waist length depending on the artwork. A ragged vertical scar runs across the right side of his face and across his right eye socket, which emanates a silver light, and a series of small needle piercings run parallel to the scar.

In *Guilty Gear 2: Overture*, Raven wears an elaborate mask with an asymmetrical cross-shaped visor and a golden coin placed over his left eye. He wears a wing-shaped black mantle with a collar designed to look like feathers; when closed the mantle cloaks his entire body. The back of the mantle bears the kanji *karasu*, the interior of the mantle is decorated with large glyphs, and he wears a green, bird-shaped emblem on his chest. Beneath the mantle he wears an armored black body suit with fin-like extensions on his arms and a kilt with hanging leather straps around his waist. He wears armor rings which have long needles affixed to them on the index and middle fingers of both hands, which he uses like claws in battle. His hair is shoulder length.

In *Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator*, Raven wears a wing-shaped hooded mantle; the hood features six metallic protrusions and is decorated with shapes that resemble eyes. A silver wing design is emblazoned on the back of the mantle. His shoulders are draped with green leather straps with cross-shaped silver buckles, and a larger cross buckle rests on his chest with the word "yata" written on it. Beneath the mantle he wears a black sleeveless vest with crisscrossed white bands, black pants, baggy black chaps attached to his waist with oversized buckles, and fold over boots with spiked studs and cross buckles. He wears black fingerless gloves and cross-shaped armor rings which have long, glowing red needles affixed to them on the index and middle fingers of both hands, which he uses like claws in battle. His hair is much shorter than previous appearances, his right eye is no longer damaged, and the iris and pupil of his left eye is replaced with a golden coin.

## Personality

Raven is generally calm and polite but has a penchant for masochism, as intense pain is one of the few sensations his immortal body can feel. After living for more than a thousand years, Raven grew incredibly jaded and bored with the world, discarding the values he once held. After encountering That Man, his life was given new purpose, and in gratitude Raven swore allegiance to him.

## Powers & Abilities

Raven fights using needles which are capable of stunning opponents and creating "Slowfields," which slow the flow of time on an object or person. He possesses a variety of other abilities including teleportation, dissipating into a cloud of feathers, and summoning ravens. It is said that his abilities in material displacement and spacial distortion outstrip even the likes of Faust, who is considered a virtual prodigy of Magic, which was demonstrated in their battle within extra-dimensional space during the Blackard incident in London. He is also abnormally strong, in spite of his lean and seemingly emaciated physique, as he idly blocked a sword thrust from Sol with only two fingers and the latter was unable to budge him. Due to his immortal body, he is incapable of experiencing any bodily sensation, including pain. Because of the nature of his immortality, he is capable of manipulating causality because of his constant and unchanging existence, as demonstrated when he easily pulled I-No from the past of the Crusades back to the present timeframe. Because he lacks the capacity to feel pain, he is able to contort and dislocate his limbs for unpredictable, long-range attacks. He can also regenerate from injuries, including decapitation, immolation and disintegration within seconds. In battle, Raven's excitement and murderous intent increases when his opponents are actually able to inflict pain upon his body, causing him to unleash more powerful attacks in turn. He can create explosions of raw magical energy, hurls spacial distortions as projectiles at his opponents and the coin in his left eye is a magical detonation device that is powerful enough to disintegrate both his opponent and himself.

He is also well-versed in the art of healing magic, often using it to heal the sick and wounded in his travels.

He has yet to exhibit his full strength as he rarely engages in battles due to his role as an observer and his masochistic nature.

## Musical Themes

* **"Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds"** - *Guilty Gear 2: Overture*
* **"TSUKI NO SHIHAI (The Moon's Domination)"** - *Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator*

## References and Allusions

* His name may be a reference to the pioneering British heavy metal band, Raven.
* His whole character might also be a reference to the comic book anti-hero "The Crow".

## TMNT X Pokemon

Raven is one of Shredder's top minions. Calm yet has a penchant for masochism, he likes to taunt the Turtles and wants to bring them pain and suffer.

## Trivia

* The story of Raven's first death matches up with the events of the historical Fifth Crusade, during which a German army of crusaders occupied the Egyptian port city of Damietta, but were forced to retreat due to dwindling supplies and were ultimately massacred in a nighttime ambush. This would likely indicate that Raven was born shortly before the dawn of the 13th century and experienced his first death in 1221.
* Raven's character portraits in *Guilty Gear XX* are traced from Ishiwatari's black and white illustrations in *Guilty Gear X - Lightning The Argent*, and his color scheme in these games is inconsistent with later appearances.
* In one of Axl's endings in *Guilty Gear XX* he encounters That Man and Raven, and Raven seems to know who Axl's parallel existence is. Prior to the reveal of Raven's backstory in *Guilty Gear 2* fans theorized that Raven was Axl's parallel self, perhaps hailing from a future timeline. However, in the *Guilty Gear 10th Memorial Book* and the *Guilty Gear Codex*, Ishiwatari stated that the fan theory was incorrect and that Raven's immortality and Axl's time slipping are unrelated. However, while he denies the idea of Axl and Raven being the same existence, he has maintained the notion that they are connected, as he stated in *Guilty Gear 2: Overture Material Collection*.
* The kanji on Raven's mantle in *Guilty Gear 2* is "鴉" (*karasu*), the Japanese word for "raven." Several pieces of his clothing as well as his needles are branded "LIVE." The letters etched on his visor read "oreno yutaka terada nawoittomiro," meaning "My body is a temple? We'll see about that." The text on his chest reads, "And mortal life shall cease, / A life of joy and peace."
* The coin placed over Raven's left eye is a reference to the Roman tradition of placing coins on the eyes of the dead; the use of a single coin is meant to convey that he's "half dead."
* The silhouette of Raven's mantle was designed to reflect his crow motif, and also as to resemble the capes worn by the heroes in *Gatchaman*, which Ishiwatari is a fan of.
* In *Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator*, the silver cross on his chest has the text "yata" etched on it, derived from "yatagarasu," a mythical Japanese crow with three legs that's sent from heaven to act as a guide.
* Raven's uncredited voice actor in the *XX* series was Shigeru Sakano, who also voiced Kliff Undersn. His Japanese voice actor in *Guilty Gear 2* and *Xrd* is Hiroki Yasumoto, who also voices the similarily-named Crow as well as Azrael from BlazBlue. Raven's English voice actor, Jamieson Price, also voices Leo Whitefang, who is likewise of German descent.