Bayonetta (Character)

Bayonetta, as of Bayonetta 2

Bayonetta is the dynamic main character and eponymous protagonist of the Bayonetta series. She is a coquettish and mysterious Umbra Witch who possesses remarkable talent for bullet arts.

Profile

After a 500 year slumber in a coffin submerged at the bottom of a lake and awakening without any memories apart from her status as a witch, Bayonetta fights to find the truth about her past.

Personality

Bayonetta

For most of the game, Bayonetta can be seen as a calm character whose approach to her deal with demons is one of casual disregard. Often treating her weapons as mere tools to get the job done, save for her favorite set of guns (Scarborough Fair), she appears to enjoy her situation.

She rather enjoys fighting angels in a playful yet brutal manner and she maintains her cool even when up against powerful angels. In the beginning of the game she comes off as callous and nonchalant towards the other characters, though later on she becomes much more caring and concerned for their well-being.

She cares about her clan deeply the more she remembers, coming to despise her father for influencing the terrible execution of her people known as the Witch Hunts. She tends to enjoy using her sexuality as a means to an end in more instances than not, especially when it comes to taunting her enemies or teasing a man named Luka.

Bayonetta 2

Bayonetta seems to retain her playful and brutal nature towards her enemies. She seems much happier than she had previously and only seems to become serious when something happens to her close friend, Jeanne. Even in the face of new enemies she keeps her cool and continues to toy with them.

Appearance 

Bayonetta

Bayonetta is portrayed as a beautiful young woman who possesses a slender yet rather curvaceous and tall figure like others in her clan. She has black hair wrapped into a beehive-like hairdo and gray eyes; also, she has a mole located at bottom of her left cheek close to her lips.

Her main attire is composed of a skin-tight suit made out of her hair that has a rose design on the abdomen as well as long white gloves, black and gray heels and thin, gold chains; she also wears glasses that have the design of butterfly wings close to the lenses, three small belts strapped on each arm, and a pair of gold, cat-shaped earrings. She wears an Umbra Watch over her bust that contains red jewel previously thought to be the Left Eye.

Four metal symbols are attached to her hair, three of them are the shape of the crescent moon, the other is the symbol of her clan; also, Bayonetta has a hair ribbon wrapped around her hairdo that extends down to to her legs covered in demonic language.

Bayonetta 2

In the sequel, Bayonetta retains the use of a skin tight black suit, though the designs of the previous suit have been altered. The gold chains have been removed and silver jagged patterns resembling roses and thorns are placed along her thighs and stomach. Her gloves have also changed, with a Renaissance-style flair added onto each wrist.

The backs of her legs feature a diamond pattern down to her heels that expose her skin. The former 'sleeves' formed by her hair have now formed a cloak that drapes over her shoulders with points on either side. Both the cloak's medallion decorations and her earrings have changed to form a blue triangle-like pattern with hexagons, and inside these hexagons contain a shape resembling the Triforce from theLegend of Zeldaf ranchise.

Powers and Abilities

Bayonetta

Bayonetta has unprecedented skill for the Bullet Arts and shows near mastery of a new weapon whenever she picks it up. She is a highly proficient combatant, able to effortlessly slay the many angels sent to kill her and even defeat the highest ranking enemies without exerting much effort. She has even bested Jeanne in combat on several occasions.

She also possesses immense superhuman strength and endurance, shown on numerous occasions of being able to kick a building and send it flying like it weighed nothing, send a crashing satellite flying with one hit, or throwing around heavyweight vehicles and being hit head-on by a building and only staggering back slightly.

Bayonetta also has superhuman speed and agility, performing somersaults, backfilps, etc with ease. She also appears to be extremely perceptive, able to dodge attacks from all directions through anticipating her enemy movements in battle.

She also has a few unusual and unexplored abilites such as flattening herself (much like a cartoon character that was crushed) when she is hit by a large spherical enemy and using cryokinetic ability (she molds a spear out of water then breathes on it to freeze it).

Bayonetta 2

In Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta's mastery of the Bullet Arts has improved. With new movements and attacks to accompany her, her combat style has become more violent and fast-paced, the speed of her various flips and movements having increased compared to her exploits in Vigrid. She is also able to fire more bullets during her attacks and through more of her guns at once towards the enemy.

Story

Bayonetta

The story of Bayonetta begins in a graveyard in the present day. Bayonetta, disguised as a nun, acts out a funeral ceremony in order lure the Angels of Paradiso to her in order to fulfill her contract with Inferno. Casting aside her disguise, she is able to subdue them with ease with the help of Rodin. After her skirmish, Bayonetta travels with Enzo, a black market information broker, back to Rodin's bar in hopes of getting some answers regarding the Eyes of the World and the half that she carries in her watch. However, during the drive, the pair are ambushed by the crashing of a military plane and Bayonetta promptly takes to battle. There, she comes face to face with a mysterious young woman who possesses similar weaponry and magical abilities to her. Despite the two of them working together in order to fend off the angels, the stranger disappears without an answer, though Bayonetta remarks that she seems to remember her from somewhere.

Back at the Gates of Hell, Rodin comments how the fight with the mysterious woman seemed to set up to be coincidence and promptly gifts the witch with Scarborough Fair to prepare her for the journey ahead. Meanwhile, Enzo informs Bayonetta of the information he has managed to procure regarding the Eyes. The Right Eye showed itself briefly on the black market before it was withdrawn and its origin was traced back to the small European town of Vigrid. Convinced that reuniting the two gemstones will regain her lost memories, Bayonetta sets off across the globe to find them.

Upon arriving in Vigrid, Bayonetta is pursued by the angels everywhere she travels and encounters a number of faces from her past. She is first greeted by a mysterious voice who tries to assure her that it is watching her and making sure she will come to no harm. She also encounters the mystery woman numerous times who reveals herself to be called Jeanne and Luka, a journalist who claims Bayonetta is the one responsible for his father's death. Including her battles with the angels, she also comes face to face with and defeats the Cardinal Virtues one by one, who all hint that at her connections to the past war 500 years ago that sent both the Umbran Witches and Lumen Sages to ruin.

Bayonetta also meets a young girl called Cereza, seemingly lost from her home and who mistakes Bayonetta for her mother. Though she is not comfortable with the situation at first, Bayonetta comes to care for the child a great deal, especially as her memories seem to hint that she may genuinely be the girls' parent. After a fight with Iustitia at the airport, Bayonetta gifts Cereza with a ribbon from her hair, along with the advice to never lose something she loves. In this case, Cereza's own watch, a present she claims her mother gave her on her birthday. The girl vows never to take the watch off and wears it around her neck.

Though further battles and gradual reveals of her past life, Bayonetta meets Jeanne one final time at the Isla Del Sol. Jeanne reveals the truth at long last. 500 years ago, a law between the Witches and Sages compelled them to stay separate as the intersection of both light and dark would bring destruction. However, a child was born between a Witch and Sage in violation of this tenet: Bayonetta. Her birth sent the clans into a spiral of chaos and brought about their eventual extinction. The two witches fight all across the island city and Bayonetta is finally able to best her opponent for good. Jeanne reveals that the pair of them used to be friends as children and that she sealed Bayonetta away in her coffin all those years ago in order to keep the Left Eye safe from the forces of Paradiso. Before narrowly saving Bayonetta from an incoming missile strike at the cost of her life, she refers to her old friend by her true name, Cereza.

Bayonetta reaches the top of the Ithavoll Tower to confront the person behind her journey; the last of the Lumen Sages and her own father,Balder. Balder explains that Cereza is actually Bayonetta's younger self brought from the past to the present and that the experiences the girl had in this time zone would help to reawaken Bayonetta's memories in the present. He also reveals that the Eyes of the World are not gemstones, but people and that Bayonetta herself is the Left Eye whilst he is the Right. She engages in battle with him and despite having to use all of her strength to defeat him, she eventually shoots him down in the forehead with the lipstick formerly belonging to her mother. With Cereza safe, Bayonetta uses the portal Balder has in his office to return the girl to her real time and reminds her that there is nothing she cannot do.

However, upon returning to the present, Bayonetta is suddenly struck down with pain as Balder rises from their fight seemingly unhurt. Upon sending back Cereza, the girl never forgot Bayonetta's advice and continued to wear her Umbran Watch around her chest until she was grown up. When Jeanne tried to seal her away in the past, the ritual failed because of the watch and Bayonetta never lost her memories. Now fully restored, they awakened the Left Eye within her and she is promptly taken to the heavens in order to reawaken Jubileus, The Creator as part of Balder's plan.

Jeanne, having saved herself from death and broken free from Balder's mind control, follows the Ithavoll Tower's ascent into space to revive Jubileus and manages to break Bayonetta free from the giant statue that would serve as the god's body. With a reminder for her to finish this, Jeanne floats off into space and Bayonetta vows to do the deed. Balder is killed by the resurrection and the witch clashes with Jubileus in a final showdown that could decide the fate of the universe. Through her combat prowess and the help of Jeanne to summon Queen Sheba, Bayonetta sends Jubileus hurtling into the sun and plummets back to Earth with her friend in tow.

Some time later, Rodin, Luka and Enzo are all attending Bayonetta's apparent funeral after assuming she died in the descent. However, the nun overseeing the ceremony is revealed to be Jeanne and the funeral was another ruse to lure the angels there for another pact fulfilling fight. As the two witches fight on, Bayonetta places a bud of rosemary behind her ear and remarks how it signifies remembrance and also now suits her.

Bayonetta 2

After the events of the first game and defeating Jubileus, Bayonetta is in the middle of doing some Christmas shopping whilst dragging Enzo along in tow to carry her wealth of presents. She meets Jeanne, who explains she was looking into something that relates to how both Paradiso and Inferno seem to be acting strangely in regards to things that happened in the previous game. A fly-over the city by the aerial acrobatics display team Platinum Stars is suddenly hijacked by angels and Bayonetta takes to the skies to battle them. Jeanne quickly follows suit on her own hijacked jet. The two witches team up to take down a larger angel and Bayonetta summons Gomorrah to finish it off.

However, something goes wrong. Gomorrah escapes from his portal, lashing out at Bayonetta who is only barely pushed out of the way in time by Jeanne. Jeanne takes the hit instead, knocking her soul loose from her body and, as part of a witch's contract, sending her soul down to Inferno. Despite being able to win against the demon, Bayonetta is left with her friend's lifeless body. At the Gates of Hell, Rodin explains that Jeanne is not truly dead as a soul needs to be completely absorbed by another realm in order to be permanently lost. Bayonetta asks about whether the real entrance to Inferno could be used to save her. Though Rodin doesn't feel optimistic of her chances, he gives Bayonetta Jeanne's Umbran Watch as a reminder of how much time she would have before it's too late. If Bayonetta is able to bring the watch to Jeanne's soul, then she can be revived in the human world once again. With this in mind, Bayonetta then grabs Enzo again to take her there. Along the way, she learns that the sacred mountain of Fimbulvent contains a portal to Inferno that has so far never been found by human hands. With no other choice and a determination to save Jeanne, Bayonetta travels to Fimbulventr to find the literal gates of hell.

Upon arriving in Noatun , the town at the base of Fimbulventr, Bayonetta quickly finds herself fighting off angels and then meets a mysterious boy. Though initially a little at odds with one another, the boy explains how Bayonetta needs his power in order to reach Fimbulventr and that he needs to head there anyway. Introducing himself as Loki, Bayonetta strikes a deal with him to protect him from their assailants if he will show her the way to the mountain. Their journey to the mountain suffers various setbacks from angels and demons alike and Bayonetta also finds herself facing off against a Lumen Sage who seems intent on killing her guide. Luka also shows up in Noatun, keen to help with his journalism skills in order to help her out. It is here that she is first told about the legend of Aesir.

Eventually, the pair of them reach the real Gates of Hell, only to be stopped in their tracks by the Masked Lumen and a spirit projection of Loptr, a mysterious being who seems to know about Loki's identity. Unable to prevent the Masked Lumen from attacking Loki, Bayonetta faces off against Loptr and manages to hold her own until he beats her back. Loptr then encourages her to 'see' with the power of the Left Eye and shows her a vision of the past using the Remembrance of Time. Bayonetta is shocked to see that her father was not responsible for the Witch Hunts and that he tried to save her mother from her death before he was snatched away. She also manages to see a figure resembling Loki as the murderer before she snaps back to the present. As Loptr explains that it is the truth as it really happened, the Masked Lumen prepares to strike Loki down. The boy fires his cards at the Gates behind them and tells Bayonetta to jump in with him to escape. She complies and wakes to find herself in Inferno. Realising she has little time to rescue Jeanne, she makes her way into its depths.

Bayonetta finally makes her way into an infernal palace made of plant-life with some help from Rodin, eventually coming into conflict with the demoness Alraune. The demon has taken Jeanne's soul for her own in order to become more powerful and eventually rise up through the struggle for power that rages in Inferno. Realising that Bayonetta is an Umbra Witch as well as the fact she has a pact with Madama Butterfly, Alraune savagely attacks but is eventually no match for Bayonetta's powers. Before the witch can deal the final blow, Rodin interevenes and instead seals Alraune in a new weapon for Bayonetta to use. Bayonetta finally rescues Jeanne's soul and reunited it with the watch. When her friend doesn't initially wake up, Bayonetta falters and pleads with her to open her eyes. To her relief, she has made it and Jeanne begins to return to her body. As she leaves, Jeanne warns Bayonetta that something big is going to happen to world. With her mission complete, Bayonetta turns her attention back to Loki, who she realises is being attacked by the Masked Lumen. Intervening in their fight, the Masked Lumen reveals his true identity as a younger Balder and the pair fight once again. Just as he has gained the upper hand, Loki reappears and lets out an uncontrollable shockwave of blue energy, sweeping up Balder and Bayonetta into it.

Bayonetta finds herself 500 years in the past in Vigrid, during the Witch Hunts. To her shock, she meets Rosa alive and well and the two witches team up to fight back against the influx of angels determined to destroy their sanctuary. Aiding her mother in combat with both her powers and an Umbran mech armour, Bayonetta meets the younger version of Loptr. It's here that she realises her mother's eventual murderer would be Loptr, not Loki, and she instantly takes to battle. However, she is blasted away in an explosion and finds herself in the Crescent Valley. Balder, who has been transported back in time with her, meets with her and the pair enter the sanctuary to find Loptr having just killed Rosa. Bayonetta, realising that Loptr is the true enemy of Balder and not Loki, opens a portal back to her time and implores her father to follow her. As she leaves, she whispers 'Mummy...' under her breath in a final farewell to Rosa.

In the present day, with the help of a revived Jeanne in a fighter jet, Bayonetta and Balder make it to Fimbulventr to witness the older Loptr having taken hold of Loki. Loptr explains that he and Loki are two halves of the same soul and that together they were originally Aeisr. However, the good part of Aesir had split them apart when he had divided his power into the Eyes of the World. Loptr, the evil half of Aesir, had decided to take the Eyes back for his own use and to regain Aesir's power to rule over the realm. After Balder has the Right Eye taken from him, Bayonetta fights back valiantly against Loptr, but is ultimately subdued and has the Left Eye removed. Loptr, now having gained the power of his original self, mocks human free will, but Bayonetta scoffs at the motion and takes to battle again. With some help from Loki, who uses his remaining power to destroy the Eyes and weaken Loptr back to his original state, Bayonetta and Balder summon together and bring forth a fusion of Jubileus and Queen Sheba. The hybrid kicks at Loptr, propelling his physical body out to the ocean where a Jeanne-summoned Gomorrah lies in wait.

As Loptr's soul tries to escape to the spirit realm to be reborn elsewhere and try his plan again, Balder intervenes and absorbs the evil half, despite warnings from Loki that Loptr will poison his thoughts with pure evil intent. Bayonetta pleads her father not to do this and Balder reveals that he knew she was Cereza all along. He makes Bayonetta promise to be the one to stop him should he ever stray from his path thanks to Loptr and she obliges in his request to call him "Daddy" once more. She cries after him when he is transported back into his time, finally realising that he was not to blame for his schemes with Jubileus. Loki, having now done what he set out to do, begins to fade away. Bayonetta asks whether she'll see him again the boy replies that they may do so in the future when he is reborn again.

Several days pass since the events at Fimbulventr and Bayonetta and Jeanne are enjoying another shopping trip to take advantage of the after holiday sales. As the pair witness Luka helping Rodin out with advertising his bar, a woman and a baby in a pram walk by just as one of Loki's cards flutters out of it. Implying that his return would be sooner than she thought, Bayonetta then remembers that she completely forgot about Enzo. Upon realising that she left him flying a plane, Enzo returns in that plane with angels in pursuit. Despite her annoyance at ruining another dress, Bayonetta takes to the plane wings with Jeanne to fight against their aggressors as always.

Appearances in Other Media

Anarchy Reigns

 

Bayonetta appears as a playable character in the game Anarchy Reigns (Max Anarchy in Japan), an online beat 'em up developed by Platinum Games and published by Sega.

The Wonderful 101

Bayonetta alongside Jeanne and Rodin appear as secret unlockable playable characters in The Wonderful 101.

Gallery

Bayonetta's original look

Bayonetta's new look

Bayonetta with Jeanne

Bayonetta's early design

Bayonetta as she appears in Anarchy Regins

Bayonetta's title card from Anarchy Regins

Bayonetta alongside Jeanne and Rodin, as they appear in The Wonderful 101

Bayonetta dressed as Samus Aran

Bayonetta dressed like Princess Peach

Bayonetta dressed like Link

Bayonetta dressed like Fox Mccloud

Characters

Yuri • Celina • Nia Nochlain • Kira