Stein vs Faust

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."-Marilyn Monroe

Doctor Stein: Soul Eater's eccentric stitched scientist.

Doctor Faust: Guilty Gear's unstable murderous medic.

There's many a saying on how thin the line between madness and genius is, and these two have crossed it significantly. For all their quirks, they've made a reputation for themselves on just how dangerous and frightening they can be. But just because they're criminally insane, doesn't mean they can't care, still having a tender side...somewhere in there. Will Faust become another experiment, or will Stein get a new makeover? Let's find out on a DEATHBATTLE...blog.

Before the Verdicts...

Starting off more simply, despite the insanity of Guilty Gear's lore and timeline, canonicity shouldn't be all too hard to nail down for Faust. Taking into account the games first and foremost, any other canon secondary materials will also be used for this blog. As for Stein, this is where it gets a bit weirder. Due to the divergence in canons between the manga and the anime of Soul Eater, the manga will take precedence over anime, but both will be used. Another important factor is due to the fact Fire Force exists within Soul Eater's broader narrative, it will also be taken into account. 

Background 

Stein

"To me, everything in this world is a research subject. Including myself, of course."

Taking a clear inspiration from Mary Shelly's classic novel, Stein is an enigmatic and strange teacher at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Starting out as a very troubled child, Stein had a rather selfish and violent conviction, and upon analysis from doctors, it was clear there was something undeniably wrong with him. Upon joining the DWMA, he was positioned as Spirit Albarn's meister. Despite his often unjustified actions, Stein rose up the school's ranks, and even became recognized as the "strongest meister" at the time. In the present, Stein now lives in his weird stitch house, befitting of his aesthetic, he was said to be a threat that must be extinguished by the DWMA, the reason being...it was actually just a ruse facilitated by Lord Death in order to teach a very harsh lesson on Soul Resonance. After the reveal, he moved into the school as a teacher for our protagonists, much to their dismay. Through the rest of his story, he stood as an unstable mentor to our young heroes, struggling with his intense madness, only worsened by the attempted ressurection of Kishin Asura. But regardless of his many, many flaws, deep down, Stein is a teacher who only wants the best for his students, and as callously as he may act, he cares about the people close to him a lot more than he'd admit.

Faust

"Your imitation was flawless! Even my victory just felt like luck, but... I have to ask: what do you gain from doing all this?"

Getting his name from the old Germanic legend, Faust is one of the strangest characters in Guilty Gear. At least the strangest recurring one, sorry Leopaldon. Beginning as a highly regarded surgeon, such a position was lost upon the death of a young patient of his, with him spiraling into a murderous rampage because of it. After the tournament, Faust regained his conscience, and was about to end his own life due to his overwhelming guilt, but was stopped upon learning it was an outside force that caused this. After the fact, Faust how dedicates his life to finding out the truth, as well as helping the people who need it most. Throughout the games, Faust has been all over the place in terms of motives, morality, and design, with these aspects often reflecting how degraded his mental state is at the time. Ultimately though, across all his appearances, the reigning desire to heal and redeem both others and himself has rung true, even if it's not exactly by the most conventional methods. 

Experience/Skill

Stein

Considering the fact Stein is called both a genius, and the strongest graduate of the DWMA, it's not surprising the guy's got skills. He's skilled enough to win a quick draw, even at a disadvantage, and could hold his own against an immortal swarm of enemies for hours on end. Most impressively, he's managed to match and outsmart Medusa in combat, who has over 800 years of experience. But his intelligence isn't just rooted in combat, as he's created antidotes to mind control, and resurrected somebody in the form of a zombie.

Faust

Before he was really a fighter, Faust was still an excellent surgeon, with that carrying over into his battles, utilizing it to perform conventionally impossible surgeries on his foes with ease. He's said to have cured every sickness under the sun, and described by the narrator as having godlike healing abilities. In terms of combat, his zany fighting style and odd amount of strength has allowed him to keep up with highly experienced enemies like Nagoriyuki, who's a well versed samurai, and likely centuries old.

Equipment 

Stein

Spirit

In the world of Soul Eater, there are both meisters, and the weapons they use. Said weapons also being people, sorta like a bisexual anime version of Transformers. In Stein's case, his weapon partner is Spirit Albarn, who's both the father of main protagonist Maka Albarn, and also a total loser. His functionality is turning into a Death Scythe, and despite their clear animosity, Stein and Spirit can kick some major ass as a duo. Outside of basic scythe functions, Spirit can also be used to fire soul-based energy beams, create a protective spiritual body, and can perform the Witch Hunter technique, which is considered particularly powerful.

Marie

Since Stein is a player, he actually has two weapon partners, this one being Marie Mjolnir. Fitting of her last name, Marie is able to turn into a comedically large hammer. Her special abilities lie in lightning, with her being able to shoot out massive bursts of electricity in one go. A major application of Marie's is "Izuna", or "Lightning Rope", and it functions by wrapping around the user's wrist, syncing up to their nerves, and enhancing their motor functions significantly through electrical impulse. This gives Stein a speed boost large enough to blitz a once formidable opponent, and passively leaves afterimages. The only drawback to Izuna is the fact it places severe strain on the meister's body, which could potentially even be fatal if abused. For less combat centric means, she also emits a wavelength that soothes the mind, which can be used to help counteract Stein's encroaching madness. Okay, I lied about the lack of combat thing, the wavelength can also be used to instantly explode people who're infected by madness.

Faust 

Margarita

Faust's go-to weapon, having held onto it in pretty much any Guilty Gear media he's wound up in. Despite not necessarily being supernatural, the scalpel sits at a soberingly massive six feet tall, and makes one wonder where he got this thing in the first place. Also the reason it's called "Margarita" is due to wordplay that only really works in Japan due to the kanji. 

Mini Fausts

In the move "What Could This Be?", Faust can summon these weird little plushie versions of himself, holding miniature scalpels of their own. Despite how inanimate they look, considering the fact they walk and attack of their own volition, they seem to possess some form of sentence. When hit, they enter a rage and lunge at their opponents, being weirdly clutch in some matches.

Miscellaneous Items 

In the aforementioned move "What Could This Be?", Mini Fausts aren't the only thing he can summon. Like a demented cartoon character, Faust can spawn a variety of objects from practically nowhere. Some notable ones include bombs, multiple meteors, several healing items, a 10,000 ton weight, a trumpet that summons a stampede of Mini Fausts, and an actual black hole. An important thing to note is that when using an Overdrive, Faust can throw three of the items listed above sequentially. 

Abillities 

Stein

Soul Wavelength

Like music, souls too have wavelength and frequencies. When attuned to a weapon, the power of both is amplified in order to strengthen their souls. When a high amount of synchronization between meister and weapon is achieved, Soul Resonance techniques are born, which are essentially heightened abillities unique to the pair. Even without a weapon on hand, Stein was capable of nullifying Black☆Star's attack by controlling his soul wavelength to match it's frequencies.

Soul Perception

In the universe of Soul Eater, the ability to see and interact with souls isn't exactly novel, but when a person is able to see the souls of those still living, that's when it becomes exceptional. Before fights, Stein oftentimes observes the souls of his opponents, and can use this perception to pick apart their personalities and dynamics with other souls easily. 

Soul Menace

By resonating with his soul, Stein is capable of directly injecting his soul wavelength into other people's body through contact. By attacking the soul's frequency upfront, it bypasses the body's conventional defenses, and can cause intense damage, even to those with more resilient souls. If one Soul Menace didn't do the trick, Stein can hit with several in quick succession, and can use two at once for a devastating final blow.

Soulthread Stitches

Taking into account his whole look, it's not much of a surprise stitches come into his arsenal sooner or later. Through touch, Stein can bind people with these stitches in order to restrict movement, and when stitching inside a person's body, he can render the target completely immobile, though the downside is that he also has to sit still due to the concentration required to pull it off.

Faust

Magic

In the world of Guilty Gear, magic is a limitless source of natural energy that the characters are able to hone for their supernatural capabilities. Across the series, magic has both solved and caused a majority of the conflicts. Stemming from the Backyard, magic is inherently a transcendental force of energy, which gives the user a small grip on the fundamental information behind reality. In order to use magic, one must use twelve percieveable words from a hierarchy to manifest the effects in the form of chords. This practicalized form of magic is called a "spell".

Bodily Mutation 

As it should be apparent by now, Faust isn't exactly a normal human. This is due to his own medical expertise, using the skill to modify himself. With this ability, Faust demonstrates a consistent ability to pretty much break the laws of physics, being as funny as it is upsetting. His odd bodily traits are most exaggerated in Strive, where he shows the ability to mildly duplicate, shapeshift, and uh, eating people whole. Oddly enough, this power also seems to translate to other people, considering the fact Faust can modify an opponent's face in impossible ways.

Spatial Deformation 

As a convenient way to enter a fight, Faust has used these odd doorways that spawn out of nowhere as his transportation method. While this may seem like some inconsequential gag, Faust legitimately warps space and time to achieve this effect, allowing for makeshift teleportation. On higher levels, these doors can be charged up massively, to an extent they can neutralize an incredibly powerful energy sphere. At its core, Spatial Deformation is considered one of the most powerful varieties of magic, requiring a high understanding of magic's theoretical underpinnings, as well as being adept at the manipulation of reality's information.

Resistances 

Stein

Madness Manipulation: Despite his susceptibility to madness on his own, Marie's comforting wavelengths provided a means to quell his devolving mental fortitude. 

Sound Manipulation: Spirit was capable of clashing with Ragnarok's supersonic screeches, even when they typically damage other weapons, like Soul.

Faust

Black Holes & Gravity Manipulation: Considering the fact Faust throws them around, and is only mildly affected by their gravitational pulls, he should have a fair resistance to black holes and their effects.

Battlefield Removal: Because of his doors, sending Faust away would only really stall him. The doors are also shown to have at least interstellar range, if not much higher.

Stats 

Stein

Strength 

• As previously mentioned, Stein is the strongest graduate of the DWMA
• Considering his lauded status, he's logically stronger than Gopher, who tore apart hills (70.84 Kilotons)
• Bested Black☆Star in a sparring match, who could pick up and throw the moon's tooth (34.12 Teratons)
• In the anime, Black Star also has a feat in which he created massive dust explosions by running (7.6 Gigatons)
• Should be superior to one of his students: Death the Kid, who was empowered by BREW, with BREW being durable enough to take a large explosion (271.1 Kilotons-7.3 Megatons)
• Maka considers Spirit to be extra heavy, and especially powerful, with Maka taking a severe beating from the Kishin Asura, could noticeably damage him with Soul, and in the controversial ending to the anime, punched the Kishin out in base 
• The reason this is all so impressive is due to the fact Asura could battle Lord Death, who inherited Shinrabanshoman's godhood, a being that was strong enough to outmatch humanity's collective unconscious; said unconscious containing the concept of the world, laws, higher planes, and mathematics, and is frequently stated to be beyond normal reality 

Speed

• Matched Black☆Star in a previously mentioned fight, who is quick enough to outrun his own shadow, and dodged laser beams (0.43c)
• Black☆Star's "rival" Mifune deflected a DWMA rifle round; those same models can be shot from ground to moon level at high speeds (Mach 8,015.4) 
• While using Izuna, he speed blitzed Justin Law, who evaded rays from the sun 
• A fellow Death Scythe user, Dengu Dinga, could react to and refract beams of light
• Outsped an early Crona to the point of moving faster than their eyesight
• Using Asura as a scaling metric, the Kishin, and similarly Stein, would be far superior to an unamplified Shinra, who can time travel via moving faster than light

Durability 

• Survived being drilled in the stomach by Medusa 
• Took the brunt of Witch Hunter by catching it with his bare hands
• Spirit, without a Meister, blocked a hit from Crona, who could hold the moon's mouth open (664.75 Teratons)

Faust 

Strength 

• Left a small crater from furiously stomping due to Chronus's supposed feigned ignorance
• Weaker fighters like Potemkin could punch through the Earth (8.83 Megatons)
•  Creates and throws around small black holes (1.24 Yottatons-0.13FOE)
• Ramlethal considers Faust a powerful opponent; Ramlethal is strong enough to almost kill Sol Badguy, who's powerful enough to hold a singularity in his fist (3.3 Yottatons)
• Sol's weapon Outrage is also stated to possess infinite energy multiple times (Universal+)
• Nagoriyuki comments on how strong Faust is,  with it being shown that Nagoriyuki could rival Merged I-No in a fight 
• In this state, I-No can prevent the Backyard's collapse, with the Backyard being a higher dimensional world that is beyond space and time, producing infinite possibilities 

Speed

• Beat Zato-ONE within an inch of his life, who kept up with Johnny's light speed slashes
• Kept pace with Slayer, who casually kicks people into other galaxies (442 Billion c)
• Due to fighting characters like Ramlethal, Faust should be in the ballpark of other Valentines such as Jack-O, who flew from Earth to a nearby galaxy (33 Trillion c)
• Nagoriyuki's respect for Faust is impressive for speed as well, due to the fact demi-humans transcend time, and exist in infinite timelines at once (Immeasurable)

Durability 

• Survived getting jumped by a horde of Robo-Kys
• Held up against the Hydra, who's fought with Kliff Undersn for seven days; Kliff has battled Justice, who could obliterate Japan (3.33 Quettatons)
• Faust's strongest doors contained the energy of Delilah, who's stronger than Bedman was, with Bedman being able to cause Absolute World, which merges conventional reality with the Backyard

Weaknesses 

Stein 

As mentioned more than enough, Stein isn't exactly the most well put together individual, and while Marie's wavelength may stall his insanity, it's not a perfect fix. A less personal weakness is those carried by Izuna, as for all its power, prolonged uses can lead to intense strain on the nervous system, and can ultimately lead to death if activated for too long.

Faust

In terms of mental state, Faust is arguably even less stable than Stein is. Oftentimes, Faust struggles with his innate bloodlust, and can let it loose if worse comes to worse. His mental state isn't his only weakness, as extensive use of his strongest magic can also damage his mind even further, along with distorting his body.

Verdict 

Stats

Beginning with stats, both have a wide variety of ranges to be covered. For Stein, he's far superior to his students, who have showings such as being powered by BREW, which could withstand 271.1 Kilotons to 7.3 Megatons, and in both adaptations, Black☆Star has impressive feats, such as kicking up massive dust trails and throwing the moon's teeth, getting to 7.6 Gigatons and 34.12 Teratons respectively. His weapon partner Spirit could also take attacks from Crona when not in his scythe form, with Crona's feat of lifting the moon's entire mouth getting to 664.75 Teratons, placing them, and Stein by proxy, at a Large Country level. To say the ability to destroy a country is weak would be rather silly, but compared to Faust, the doctor is outgunned tremendously. While making a small crater and scaling above Potemkin's punches aren't cracking past the Country level ranges, Faust has a variety of ways to heavily outmatch. Whether it be taking attacks from the Hydra, who's strong enough to damage someone on par with Justice: the being strong enough to vaporize Japan for over 3.33 Quettatons, pick up and toss around a black hole for 1.24 Yottatons to 0.13FOE, and through scaling Faust to Sol, he's packing literal infinite energy from Outrage. To ballpark it, the comparison between Stein and Faust's power is asking what's stronger, the energy of a big country, or enough energy to destroy stars, and even spike beyond finite measurement. Of course, with the weirdness of both series, there's arguments to place the two much higher. Due to his scaling to Maka, he's thus in a similar range to the Kishin Asura, with Asura being strong enough to contend with the power of God. Because of Fire Force and Soul Eater's interconnectivity, this essentially means Asura is powerful enough to battle with someone stronger than the collective unconscious itself, which both contains conceptual worlds, as well as seemingly existing within a higher dimension. For Faust, due to contending with Nagoriyuki, who can damage I-No's merged state. In her God form, I-No stabilizes the Backyard, a place beyond space and time, which spawns all possibilities. Faust has another backing feat of stopping Delilah, who's superiority to Bedman entails she's beyond the power to fuse reality and the aforementioned Backyard into one. Going off of these arguments, the two are practically flat equal, though Faust's arguments are a tad more direct than Stein's, especially with the Backyard's more consistent higher dimensional status.

In terms of speed, it's rather similar to attack potency and durability. Stein is keeping up with opponents fast enough to consistently react to light and lasers, with one specific calc getting to 0.43c. Going off of rather low metas for Faust's speed, he can brutalize someone able to keep up with light speed attacks, and creeping into higher levels, he's matching speeds of up to 442 Billion and 33 Trillion times the speed of light, with those feats being performed by characters like Slayer and Jack-O. Just like the difference in power, Faust takes an obscene edge, trouncing Stein's best speeds easily. However, unlike power, the more complex feats aren't saving Stein in this case. It's no surprise Shinra's God form outmatches his base, that can travel through time with speed. As impressive as it sounds, the feat comes with caveats. It is consistently and blatantly described as only surpassing light speed, and judging by the fact encroaching such a speed would similarly allow for minor time travel in theoretical physics, Shinra isn't exactly immeasurable, but more just vaguely faster than light is. Vs desensitisation is real when being faster than light isn't considered fast anymore. Giving Stein Shinra scaling, Faust would still take a speed edge in the trillions, but taking into account Nagoriyuki's losses to Faust, it means our beloved surgeon can keep up with a transcendental entity that exists in all timelines simultaneously, putting him beyond the conventional speed formula entirely.

To cut the jargon, any way you shape it, Faust is taking stats safely. Even with the weirder cosmic scaling, Faust takes consistency, and nets an Immeasurable speed boost from it, being so much faster than Stein's superiority to light it's not even funny. Okay maybe it is a little funny.

Arsenal/Abillities

While neither are exactly Batman in terms of equipment, the two have a handful of weird stuff to throw at each other. In Stein's court, his Death Scythes are far better tools than Margarita, considering the fact Death Scythes shoot lasers and Margarita doesn't. More specifically, Spirit and Marie both have considerable area of effect, and can amplify Stein's strength and speed to far higher degrees. The only problem is that as fast as Izuna may make Stein, it's only blitzing people as fast as he was, and certainly isn't putting him above Faust. Considering the fact Izuna will also eventually kill Stein if he uses it too much, a once valuable asset may solidify Stein's defeat even quicker. His other weapon, Spirit, could actually severely damage Faust assuming they're comparable in power with a good Witch Hunt, but again, the damning issue of speed prevents this from being realistic. The best case scenario for Stein is if Marie could potentially explode Faust with all that madness vested in him, but the problem is the fact Marie seemingly needed to make contact with a foe, which makes me think I need a tally for how many times the speed gap will be mentioned. For Faust, his arsenal may not be as flashy or fleshed out, but consider this; Faust can throw around all his weird objects in large amounts, and when you're being swarmed by an army of Mini-Fausts, or having meteors and black holes bouncing all over the arena, it'll be very hard to block or dodge, not even factoring the difference in speed.

So, not looking good for Stein here, do his natural abillities help him clutch the fight? Wellll uhhh, no. Not really. Sure, a good Soul Menace could put Faust down for the count, let alone three, but if we're doing that tally idea, that's seven times we're bringing up speed. Emotion reading won't exactly help either, since it's pretty clear Faust isn't all that stable, and Stein really lacks a means to exploit that issue before he loses. It's unlikely Stein could disrupt Faust's magic either, considering how different souls and magic are here. Magic in Guilty Gear is information pulled from the higher dimensional backyard into our world, and aside from a few musical based analogies ascribed to magic and souls, the comparison isn't enough to justify wavelength nullification being effective. We could call it a day there, but Faust's abilities add even more flame to the pyre. His physics breaking body could allow for heightened mobility and generally just confusing the shit out of Stein, but Spatial Deformation is where it becomes key. Considered one of the strongest magics in the world, Faust can bend space-time to create portals and teleport, meaning it's even more unlikely Stein's attacks will connect. But Spatial Deformation isn't just defense, as Faust innately manipulates reality's fundamental information, or could just throw Stein into space, or some other location if he gets sick of fighting, both of which are more than Stein can resist against.

Tertiary Factors 

In terms of being a doctor, Faust is undeniably Stein's better, but in terms of actual fighting skills, Stein admittedly has Faust beat. Faust can keep up with an ancient vampire samurai in skill, but Stein matched a witch who's bare minimum 800 years old, and did battle with immortal monsters for hours on end, giving him an edge in skill and endurance. Though, don't think Faust is completely out, as his unpredictability and strange fighting style has allowed him to keep up with characters far more conventionally skilled than he is in the past.

Conclusion

Stein

"Don’t you see the reality is that truth long ago became nothing more than a shadow of itself; it’s a mere echo of the past now… The world is one big moral gray area, it just makes you feel safer that it can be categorized into good and bad, but that’s not how it actually works.”

Advantages:

• More skilled combatant over all
• Soul Menace could likely kill Faust
• Attacks like Witch Hunter could severely damage Faust, taking equal stats into account
• Marie's wavelengths may cause Faust to explode if it connects 
• Wider area of effect with weaponry
• Banger soundtrack
• The Magnus Archives

Disadvantages:

• Higher tier scaling is less consistent than Faust's 
• Much slower regardless of which end you use
• Contact based wincons are highly unlikely to land
• Can't nullify Faust's magic
• Lacks a counter to Spatial Deformation 
• Gets overwhelmed by Faust's large assortment of objects
• Less adept as an actual doctor

Faust

"It is true... The joy of death and destruction is still with me. But people have the ability to choose. And my hands, blood-stained as they may be, are needed somewhere. The joy of knowing that is far more important to me."

Advantages:

• More reliable high ends, with lower ends dwarfing Stein's 
• Absurdly faster when using any end of his scaling
• Spatial Deformation allows for high maneuverability, and is more potent than Stein can resist 
• Large array of tools to mess with Stein
• Stein's wincons are much less likely to land
• Superior in the medical field 
• Banger soundtrack
• Faust synthesis 

Disadvantages: 

• Lower endurance and less skilled in actual combat
• Susceptible to manipulation of soul wavelengths if they land 
• Margarita is a less versatile weapon than Spirit or Marie
• His own projectiles can damage him if he's too close
• Radiohead fan

Fitting how weird these two are, this matchup was a very strange one to cover, considering how high both could potentially be placed due to Soul Eater's connection with Fire Force and Guilty Gear's extensive lore, but ultimately, Faust has what it takes to win. Stein was certainly a tough opponent considering his skill, endurance, and ability to damage the soul, but Faust had the speed, power, magic, and really weird extended material ability descriptions to grab the win in those gangly hands. Stein has always been a cut above the rest, but really dissecting this fight, it's clear to see Faust, and Faust alone, will take this victory. The winner is...

Faust!