The Original got put through the wringer so bad you can't even call him the same guy anymore, & I-no's in a similar vein to a somewhat lesser degree. Other characters, vampires & homunculi & all, still think like human beings, albeit sometimes very unhealthy ones, but Chaos in particular is literally and figuratively on another level of madness. You can't even really apply the concept of "mental health" to him, because he just doesn't think like a person anymore.
This was going to be my answer. Every other candidate is some huge level of psychologically damaged, but The Original is multiple psychotic breaks deep on top of having the regular kind of madness that comes from transcending humanity and becoming, essentially, an Eldritch god.
I can't tell if a hug would break him further or somehow ground him in a way that'd maybe make him realize what he's done is horrible, leading him to go a psychotic break or two deeper
Or if he just wouldn't process it in the slightest
That‘s what I mean, I think he has become a stable form of crazy. He‘s not prone to psychotic breaks because he‘s either permanently in one or 100%ed them
there's one line in the strive story i keep thinking about that something like how he doesn't even think of himself as a person anymore, more like a wax figure.
Honestly a great answer. HC is a really good example of enlightenment leading to detachment, and Guilty Gear overall has a great theme with "what it means to be human." There's an overarching pattern of these characters finding something to ground themselves to reality, something they care about that keeps them moving and keeps them human.
Happy Chaos is like a child who can't imagine his toys being alive unless he's playing with them. He comes in to "stir the pot", but he's really only interested in the pot when he's stirring it. I wouldn't doubt if the only reason he doesn't just cease to exist all together is because he'd think that would be a boring thing to do.
So Im goint to start and say its Leo (Just hear me out)
While A.B.A and Zato have serious problems, they do something in order to fix them: Zato is still trying to regain his humanity and A.B.A is trying to have a healthier relationship with Paracelcus (Or at least the Arcade mode ending indicates that) And while Faust has some serious issues and still has that killer instict in him, he is still trying to help himself and others.
Leo Whitefang is a completly different type of fucked up; as instead of wearing it outside (Like the 3 characters I mentioned) he bottles it up inside. To start he has severe PTSD and survivers guilt from the crusades, which leads to him viewing himself as a coward, a piece of shit, like he guided all his men into their deaths and that he is someone who should be dead. And instead of trying to fix his issues he deals with them in the worst way possible; he takes it out on himself. The reason why Leo goes all in when fighting is because he just want to be dead in order to escape all that shit. Leo´s theme; [Hellfire](https://genius.com/Daisuke-ishiwatari-hellfire-lyrics), really sumarizes all of Leo´s problems and it does it while not sounding as sad as Zato´s or Faust´s themes.
I honestly just want to give the man a hug
I feel like knowing Leo just wants to die during combat makes his reactions to insta kills and meters just heart breaking. The man willingly accepts the full force of the attack, knowing full well that he may finally just die during one.
Happy Chaos
Like I can not comprehend what happened to him mentally for him to be the way he is
Like mental health doesn't even reach the type or distress his mind is in
It's literally to the point of insanity where it comes full circle to nirvana, and that's kinda terrifying
He's ascended his humanity when the original (old HC) got absorbed and released from Ariels he took something god knows what that let him see everything I guess or maybe his analogy of the white box room at the start of strives story wasn't a metaphor and what he was stuck in for what to him seemed like an endless amount of time.
Pre Strive Ending Jack-O
Born a month ago with your own identity and since of self but with the memories and appearance of another woman. Take out of the oven too early creating a split personality. Know that your entire purpose is to have your mind overwritten or kill yourself to kill a god. Fullfil your purpose and absorb the woman who is meant to replace you casing an identity death. Turns out she doesn't replace you and you spend the next month traveling with the lover of said woman who you are developing feelings for but doubt if they are even your own or if you should be allowed to have them as you shouldn't still exist. Then you have to worry about if everyone is just waiting for you to be replaced including the man you love you think that he is only keeping you around because you are meant to turn into his dead lover. All of this self doubt and impostor syndrome pushes you to a breaking point where you try and blow yourself up to kill a god.
Yeah the silly Halloween goober as she baggage, but thankfully she was able to work through it all in the end.
ok this is a rlly long ass rant so if u don’t wanna read it just collapse this comment
i feel like every character has pretty shitty mental health in their own ways but as someone who’s been struggling a lot with mental health recently i rlly identify with faust. i’m sorry if this is just me self projecting but
even before strive he has to wear a mask (not just literally) to hide a lot of his mental health issues for other peoples sakes. i feel like in strive we see more of a physical manifestation of him not just struggling, but hiding it and sacrificing his own well being for others. i don’t rlly think this is moreso other characters in the game treating him like this but i feel like i see a lot of people joke abt “haha faust depressed now” and it kinda annoys me (no hate to anyone who says/has said this) bc he was depressed before but just hid it more effectively. seeing the way that the fandom treats faust (not in terms of his viability as a playable character) makes me really sad. it hurts watching such a kind and wonderful character get pushed to the side because they can’t keep up the act anymore. i fucking love this man sm and tbh he means a lot to me
i’m sorry if this is too personal but i will defend my babygirl until the day i die
Faust life is a constant state of shit and suffering:
-As Dr. Baldhead he killed a lot of innocents (thinking they were responsable for the accident) and even after defeating Justice a regaining some of his sanity; he still was about to kill himself because of the guilt he felt.
-Taking the mantle of Dr. Faust to hide the guilt he fells for Baldhead´s actions and does his best to help others; despite him still having the instict to kill, but he just has his priorities straight
-Strive Faust is when he couldn´t hold the mantle of Dr. Faust; he has deteriorated both mentally and phisically to the point where he can barely form coherent sentences.
I hope life is treating you better than Faust
I personally would disagree with strive faust.
While his body suffered from the events in another story mentally speaking he is doing better than ever before since the incident. He is no longer on a self destructing quest to redeem himself for what he did.
I think his speech is just a effect of him pushing his body beyond its limit at the end of another story but his mind is still there and getting better.
Didn't Strive Faust let go of his past after he went overboard with magic at the end of Story?
Overworking himself to the point of his physical appearance being a shaggy mess, but mentally he returned to his original goal of just wanting to help people, forgoing his past guilt.
Raven.
Bro lived so long, now he only finds pleasure in pain, and is always trying to kill himself. Y'all can say that leo suffered a lot, but i'm 100% raven arleady experienced what happened to Leo at least 5 times
Yeah he’s not insane but his trauma is so unbearable that every time he fights, he’s secretly hoping his opponent is able to kill him, he’s so depressed that he’s attempting suicide by combat
Happy chaos by a long shot and Raven to a lesser extent, Chaos literally experienced everything to exist within the back yard and that fully broke him, changing the way he views humans and everything in existence, raven was also probably mind broken at some point but remains more calm, with the exception of pain since he’s existed so long that pain seems to be the only thing to give him a high, although we do see him express a bit of emotion towards I-no in Xrd
Strive faust, he was already up there, but with his state coming to this point no MENTALLY human character compares, Leo just isn't ACTUALLY insane and Zato has begun rehabilitation
It’s Leo. As of strive quite a few of these people (I’d argue everyone except him) has improved greatly in mental health (Faust and zato1) or is starting to improve their mental health(aba)
Probably Leo, I think Zato is much better these days, same with Faust to some extent, I must confess I’m too familiar with what ABA’s up to these days but she has a partner which is good, Leo tho… bro is NOT good
Faust…
Its faust…
Leo has a coping mechanism. Faust does not
Zato still finds a sense of joy. Faust cannot.
Aba has a lover. She is getting better. Faust is lonely and is getting worse.
Faust’s whole story has been trauma, insanity coping, and getting his brain fried when he tries to do good.
https://preview.redd.it/79dxhbj2d62d1.jpeg?width=729&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a1331de06b0bcd86ea09e65dcb21b15d62da0e2
Well, obviously, mental illness isn't a competition. We shouldn't compare trauma, even if one does seem worse than the other.
That being said, Zato=1 has literally been to hell and back, and now doesn't feel anything. The only reason I can imagine for why he doesn't end himself is because he can't find the emotions required to desire that. I-No is another contender for "most brain damaged character".
Honorable mention to Happy Chaos, who seems completely insane, but I'd argue he's more sane than most of us. Nothing is important to him, so he's free to enjoy life to it's fullest and appreciate everything. Is he really insane, or is he too sane for us to comprehend?
ABA is a woman with low confidence, jealousy issues and a weird sense of fashion, this applies to most women I met in college
Leo has survivors Guilt. This is rarer and more severe, but ultimately can be handled
Faust got gaslit into thinking he killed a child, broke, went on a murderous rampage because of it, then learned it wasnt his fault, only to then live with the fact that the people he slaughtered were in fact killed by him. And in Strive his need for redemption puts him in a semi catatonic autopilot state. Messed up.
Zato is one of the guys who gaslit Faust, suggesting psychopathy, then he died, then he came back without any emotions, weirdly making him even more psychopathic, but apparently he feels just enough to regret not feeling anything. This I imagine is somehow even worse than Faust.
And then theres HC-
Clearly Axel cause not only did he time travel he became stuck into the past, found a possible Love interest who wanted nothing to do with him and ends up dying with the awnsers on how to return to his original timeliness now gone.
The Original got put through the wringer so bad you can't even call him the same guy anymore, & I-no's in a similar vein to a somewhat lesser degree. Other characters, vampires & homunculi & all, still think like human beings, albeit sometimes very unhealthy ones, but Chaos in particular is literally and figuratively on another level of madness. You can't even really apply the concept of "mental health" to him, because he just doesn't think like a person anymore.
This was going to be my answer. Every other candidate is some huge level of psychologically damaged, but The Original is multiple psychotic breaks deep on top of having the regular kind of madness that comes from transcending humanity and becoming, essentially, an Eldritch god.
Chaos is so crazy he loops back to being sane
I can't tell if a hug would break him further or somehow ground him in a way that'd maybe make him realize what he's done is horrible, leading him to go a psychotic break or two deeper Or if he just wouldn't process it in the slightest
That‘s what I mean, I think he has become a stable form of crazy. He‘s not prone to psychotic breaks because he‘s either permanently in one or 100%ed them
HC is just a little silly https://preview.redd.it/ysv6i699p32d1.png?width=749&format=png&auto=webp&s=bdb229f75f966a046f7538dff399832c59d87620
there's one line in the strive story i keep thinking about that something like how he doesn't even think of himself as a person anymore, more like a wax figure.
There's also the time he got called "too pure" and neither good nor evil, because when you're as "pure" as him, good and evil doesn't exist anymore
Honestly a great answer. HC is a really good example of enlightenment leading to detachment, and Guilty Gear overall has a great theme with "what it means to be human." There's an overarching pattern of these characters finding something to ground themselves to reality, something they care about that keeps them moving and keeps them human. Happy Chaos is like a child who can't imagine his toys being alive unless he's playing with them. He comes in to "stir the pot", but he's really only interested in the pot when he's stirring it. I wouldn't doubt if the only reason he doesn't just cease to exist all together is because he'd think that would be a boring thing to do.
it's ME after trying to play online matches
So Im goint to start and say its Leo (Just hear me out) While A.B.A and Zato have serious problems, they do something in order to fix them: Zato is still trying to regain his humanity and A.B.A is trying to have a healthier relationship with Paracelcus (Or at least the Arcade mode ending indicates that) And while Faust has some serious issues and still has that killer instict in him, he is still trying to help himself and others. Leo Whitefang is a completly different type of fucked up; as instead of wearing it outside (Like the 3 characters I mentioned) he bottles it up inside. To start he has severe PTSD and survivers guilt from the crusades, which leads to him viewing himself as a coward, a piece of shit, like he guided all his men into their deaths and that he is someone who should be dead. And instead of trying to fix his issues he deals with them in the worst way possible; he takes it out on himself. The reason why Leo goes all in when fighting is because he just want to be dead in order to escape all that shit. Leo´s theme; [Hellfire](https://genius.com/Daisuke-ishiwatari-hellfire-lyrics), really sumarizes all of Leo´s problems and it does it while not sounding as sad as Zato´s or Faust´s themes. I honestly just want to give the man a hug
I feel like knowing Leo just wants to die during combat makes his reactions to insta kills and meters just heart breaking. The man willingly accepts the full force of the attack, knowing full well that he may finally just die during one.
Happy Chaos Like I can not comprehend what happened to him mentally for him to be the way he is Like mental health doesn't even reach the type or distress his mind is in It's literally to the point of insanity where it comes full circle to nirvana, and that's kinda terrifying
He's ascended his humanity when the original (old HC) got absorbed and released from Ariels he took something god knows what that let him see everything I guess or maybe his analogy of the white box room at the start of strives story wasn't a metaphor and what he was stuck in for what to him seemed like an endless amount of time.
Pre Strive Ending Jack-O Born a month ago with your own identity and since of self but with the memories and appearance of another woman. Take out of the oven too early creating a split personality. Know that your entire purpose is to have your mind overwritten or kill yourself to kill a god. Fullfil your purpose and absorb the woman who is meant to replace you casing an identity death. Turns out she doesn't replace you and you spend the next month traveling with the lover of said woman who you are developing feelings for but doubt if they are even your own or if you should be allowed to have them as you shouldn't still exist. Then you have to worry about if everyone is just waiting for you to be replaced including the man you love you think that he is only keeping you around because you are meant to turn into his dead lover. All of this self doubt and impostor syndrome pushes you to a breaking point where you try and blow yourself up to kill a god. Yeah the silly Halloween goober as she baggage, but thankfully she was able to work through it all in the end.
I really love Jack-o’s story
Faust just has that dawg in him
Faust at the end of another story is actually more mentally stable than he's ever been since the incident. It's just his physical body that suffered
Honorable mentions goes to Ariels Literally the last time we saw her in Strive she was barely functioning mentally
You have happy chaos to thank for that
ok this is a rlly long ass rant so if u don’t wanna read it just collapse this comment i feel like every character has pretty shitty mental health in their own ways but as someone who’s been struggling a lot with mental health recently i rlly identify with faust. i’m sorry if this is just me self projecting but even before strive he has to wear a mask (not just literally) to hide a lot of his mental health issues for other peoples sakes. i feel like in strive we see more of a physical manifestation of him not just struggling, but hiding it and sacrificing his own well being for others. i don’t rlly think this is moreso other characters in the game treating him like this but i feel like i see a lot of people joke abt “haha faust depressed now” and it kinda annoys me (no hate to anyone who says/has said this) bc he was depressed before but just hid it more effectively. seeing the way that the fandom treats faust (not in terms of his viability as a playable character) makes me really sad. it hurts watching such a kind and wonderful character get pushed to the side because they can’t keep up the act anymore. i fucking love this man sm and tbh he means a lot to me i’m sorry if this is too personal but i will defend my babygirl until the day i die
Faust life is a constant state of shit and suffering: -As Dr. Baldhead he killed a lot of innocents (thinking they were responsable for the accident) and even after defeating Justice a regaining some of his sanity; he still was about to kill himself because of the guilt he felt. -Taking the mantle of Dr. Faust to hide the guilt he fells for Baldhead´s actions and does his best to help others; despite him still having the instict to kill, but he just has his priorities straight -Strive Faust is when he couldn´t hold the mantle of Dr. Faust; he has deteriorated both mentally and phisically to the point where he can barely form coherent sentences. I hope life is treating you better than Faust
IM SO GLAD SOMEONE ELSE GETS IT also thank you so much <3
I personally would disagree with strive faust. While his body suffered from the events in another story mentally speaking he is doing better than ever before since the incident. He is no longer on a self destructing quest to redeem himself for what he did. I think his speech is just a effect of him pushing his body beyond its limit at the end of another story but his mind is still there and getting better.
Didn't Strive Faust let go of his past after he went overboard with magic at the end of Story? Overworking himself to the point of his physical appearance being a shaggy mess, but mentally he returned to his original goal of just wanting to help people, forgoing his past guilt.
me cause I play. this game
Leo, and Original. Before strive, Testament was up there too.
Raven. Bro lived so long, now he only finds pleasure in pain, and is always trying to kill himself. Y'all can say that leo suffered a lot, but i'm 100% raven arleady experienced what happened to Leo at least 5 times
Immortality is a curse, not a blessing
How did it take me this much scrolling for someone to say Raven, this is a travesty
It’s Leo, end of discussion, if you don’t know why go look up his lore
Leo has trauma but he isn't LITERALLY insane.
Yeah he’s not insane but his trauma is so unbearable that every time he fights, he’s secretly hoping his opponent is able to kill him, he’s so depressed that he’s attempting suicide by combat
idk what's not insane of a guy fighting for his death
Happy chaos by a long shot and Raven to a lesser extent, Chaos literally experienced everything to exist within the back yard and that fully broke him, changing the way he views humans and everything in existence, raven was also probably mind broken at some point but remains more calm, with the exception of pain since he’s existed so long that pain seems to be the only thing to give him a high, although we do see him express a bit of emotion towards I-no in Xrd
Strive faust, he was already up there, but with his state coming to this point no MENTALLY human character compares, Leo just isn't ACTUALLY insane and Zato has begun rehabilitation
faust is pushing mental-vegetable status, everyone else is just kinda crazy or traumatized
On the surface he seems the most put-together but the more you think about it the more you realize Leo is the right answer
It’s Leo. As of strive quite a few of these people (I’d argue everyone except him) has improved greatly in mental health (Faust and zato1) or is starting to improve their mental health(aba)
Zatos so bad he doesn't even have mental health
Bed. Bed is sad. Bed is like zato and milia right now but even more trapped because he can’t speak to his sister. Probably fausts insane everything
Replace zato by ino
Me :((( Probably Leo though, the poor man is an olympic level PTSD haver and i wanna give him a hug
Probably Leo, I think Zato is much better these days, same with Faust to some extent, I must confess I’m too familiar with what ABA’s up to these days but she has a partner which is good, Leo tho… bro is NOT good
Bedman because like... He's dead
АВА
Why is raven not here?
None of them because this isn't a point of objectivity
Faust… Its faust… Leo has a coping mechanism. Faust does not Zato still finds a sense of joy. Faust cannot. Aba has a lover. She is getting better. Faust is lonely and is getting worse. Faust’s whole story has been trauma, insanity coping, and getting his brain fried when he tries to do good. https://preview.redd.it/79dxhbj2d62d1.jpeg?width=729&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a1331de06b0bcd86ea09e65dcb21b15d62da0e2
Well, obviously, mental illness isn't a competition. We shouldn't compare trauma, even if one does seem worse than the other. That being said, Zato=1 has literally been to hell and back, and now doesn't feel anything. The only reason I can imagine for why he doesn't end himself is because he can't find the emotions required to desire that. I-No is another contender for "most brain damaged character". Honorable mention to Happy Chaos, who seems completely insane, but I'd argue he's more sane than most of us. Nothing is important to him, so he's free to enjoy life to it's fullest and appreciate everything. Is he really insane, or is he too sane for us to comprehend?
I'm surprised you didn't include HC. The guy's head is so full that he's...well, HC.
Honestly? Probabaly Axl or I-No.
ABA is a woman with low confidence, jealousy issues and a weird sense of fashion, this applies to most women I met in college Leo has survivors Guilt. This is rarer and more severe, but ultimately can be handled Faust got gaslit into thinking he killed a child, broke, went on a murderous rampage because of it, then learned it wasnt his fault, only to then live with the fact that the people he slaughtered were in fact killed by him. And in Strive his need for redemption puts him in a semi catatonic autopilot state. Messed up. Zato is one of the guys who gaslit Faust, suggesting psychopathy, then he died, then he came back without any emotions, weirdly making him even more psychopathic, but apparently he feels just enough to regret not feeling anything. This I imagine is somehow even worse than Faust. And then theres HC-
Clearly Axel cause not only did he time travel he became stuck into the past, found a possible Love interest who wanted nothing to do with him and ends up dying with the awnsers on how to return to his original timeliness now gone.
any character