Jeanne

Jeanne as she appears in Bayonetta 2

Jeanne is an Umbra Witch and Bayonetta's former rival. She appears to be on side of the angels and converses with most of the four virtues. Jeanne must be defeated four times throughout the game.

Background/Role

It is revealed early on that Jeanne was heiress to the Umbra clan 500 years ago, and her rivalry with Bayonetta has apparently existed for as long.

Her role in the game is to test Bayonetta in order to get her to reach her "true potential" and to help Bayonetta remember her past. Jeanne's fights always end with her loss but, to her, this is merely a means to an end.

Personality

Compared to Bayonetta, Jeanne is far more serious and aggressive in her personality. In the first game, she seems to enjoy both testing and taunting Bayonetta and has very little patience for the Laguna she works with, often killing them or abandoning them to their fate at Bayonetta's hands. She appears to always be one step ahead of Bayonetta, knowing more about her own past than she does, taunting her for it. She is incredibly rash, a trait she has apparently carried for years, as show in flashbacks to the past where she blatantly disregards Umbran law when challenging Bayonetta to combat. This is once again shown in the second game where she pushes Bayonetta out of a rampaging Gomorrah'sway with no regard to the consequences: her soul being knocked out from her body and dragged to Inferno.

Through Bayonetta's flashbacks, it is revealed that Jeanne was the one who stabbed her in the heart all those years ago, presumably leading to her being abandoned in a coffin at the bottom of a lake with few memories of her former self. However, in the end it is shown that she did it to protect both Bayonetta and the Left Eye and that it was a task she completed with great sadness. In fact, it is shown that she cares more about the Umbran legacy than her own life by one of her taunts. Her previous aggressive attitude to Bayonetta dissipates when she is freed from Balder's mind control and both her and Bayonetta maintain an air of friendly rivalry in their renewed friendship.

Appearance

Bayonetta

Jeanne is portrayed as a tall, slender, youthful looking woman with porcelain skin and a short, platinum silver hair, similar to pixie cut. Jeanne wears her signature body suit made by the clothing line "d'arc." It is red with a button design starting from the left side of her chest down to her right heel. The buttons open up, revealing a white layer underneath on the front of her right leg and on the back of her left leg. The suit has a rather large renaissance style collar that is worn similarly to a tie with her Umbran Watch resting right in the center of her bust. She has black furry cuffs on her arms, as well as wearing red open-toe heels, revealing perfectly manicured toes. Her glasses are red and feature a wing design followed by a few black feathers over her right ear. 

Bayonetta 2

Jeanne makes a reappearance in Bayonetta 2 with a makeover of her own. She has used magic to considerably lengthen and grow her hair to thigh-length, with it covering some of her face and reaching down her back (thus similar to Cereza's long hair in the first game). She wears a new outfit, a skin tight biker suit with angular shoulders and a vertical stripe design. Her Watch is now near her left shoulder. The suit has black accent stripes near the shoulder seams that follow inward, going down the length of her body. The black stripes also go down her arms, one on each. Instead of the semi-wedges she wore, she now wears red thigh high boots and gloves, also sporting the stripe design. The glasses she had with the wing design are instead being replaced by sliver and orange goggles which appear to have a cat/mask like design, as well as golden feather-like earrings with red jewels. She retains the use of her All 4 One, which have feline Musketeers acting as the charms over feathers, pointing towards her new cat theme.

Powers and Abilities

As an Umbra Witch, Jeanne has the same abilities as Bayonetta, although she has more experience at using them despite having been repeatedly beaten by Bayonetta in combat (this is likely because she was testing her instead of trying to beat her until she reached Isla del Sol). She is signed into a pact with a moth-like Demoness known as Madama Styx, her fists and feet appearing through Jeanne's Wicked Weaves, and has shown the ability to summon her fully in Climax Sequences and Umbran Climax in the second game. In The Broken Sky, Jeanne displayed some form telekinesis when she directed one of her bullets towards Bayonetta; when she did this her eyes turned red.

Jeanne's arsenal is vastly similar to Bayonetta's in terms of function, but they differ in what they are named, their color scheme, and the demons Rodin hunted down and sealed within the weapons. Like Bayonetta, Jeanne is adept with any weapon once it is in her possession and has masterful skill in the bullet arts.

It's hinted that Jeanne's primary weapon is the katana, Angel Slayer, which sets her apart from other witches.

Story

Bayonetta

Jeanne met Bayonetta when they were children and, as she said, they used to play together. As time passed, Jeanne became the Umbra Clan heiress. In her final test to become the leader of the Clan, she was told by the Umbran Elder that she had to choose an opponent; she chose Bayonetta, which broke the Umbran laws. After the Elder mentioned this, Jeanne just said "It would not be the first time we've faced each other." Some time after her defeat at Bayonetta's hands, the war between the Lumen Sages and the Umbra Witches started, in which Jeanne fought alongside Bayonetta. The war ended in the witches' favor, but the humans, fearful of their powers and instigated by Balder, started massive witch hunts that ended up killing almost all the witches. However, Jeanne and Bayonetta survived. Jeanne, fearful that the greatest Umbra treasure, the Left Eye, would fall in to the hands of the Lumen and the Laguna, sealed Bayonetta in a lake for 500 years.

In the present day, Balder had brainwashed Jeanne to work for the Lumen Sages, the counterbalance of the Umbra Witches. Despite having been an ally in the past, she is forced to both face Bayonetta and lead her to her "fate". Jeanne and Cereza, now known as Bayonetta, first meet each another again when a plane full of Laguna (summoned by the self-sacrifice of Vigridiannoblemen, which Jeanne witnessed) falls into Bayonetta and Enzo's position. After a brief fight with her fellow witch, Jeanne leaves without saying a word. Some time afterward they meet each other in Vigrid, where she tells Bayonetta that she disappointed her. They fight again for Bayonetta's Umbran Watch, and after the fight Jeanne leaves, saying that Bayonetta is not ready yet.

They fight three more times after this encounter. The first takes place on the Umbran and Lumen holy grounds, where she is found speaking to the Cardinal Virtue Temperantia and showcases her Beast Within abilities. The next occurs in a plane from the Valkyrie Military transport, where she converses with the Cardinal Virtue Sapientia and taunts Bayonetta about her relationship with Cereza. This ends in her being knocked out by a wave as she pursues a Bayonetta going to search for Cereza. Bayonetta confronts Jeanne for the final time on Isla Del Sol, where Jeanne activates the city security systems and seemingly kills both Luka and Cereza.

After talking about Bayonetta's fate as the Left Eye, they start an intense fight that ends up in one wall of a skyscraper of the island, after flying and fighting in rockets and other buildings that got collapsed. She also changes her normal clothes for a white version of Bayonetta's Umbran formal suit. After her final defeat, she comes to her senses. She tells Bayonetta that in the past they were not enemies at all, but friends, despite Bayonetta having been exiled and Jeanne having been the heir to the clan. Taking the gem from the Umbran Watch on Bayonetta's chest (which says "Jeanne and Cereza"), Jeanne reveals that it was not one of the Eyes of the World, but the last remaining piece of a seal she had placed on her in order to protect her 500 years ago. Jeanne tells her to "stand", and is then seemingly killed by two rockets that collide with the building.

In the final chapter, it is revealed that Jeanne did not die in the explosion of the building. Instead she used the red jewel that she used to seal Bayonetta centuries ago to protect herself from the impact and also break free from Balder's manipulation. When Bayonetta is awakened as the Left Eye and incapacitated by Balder, Jeanne rides to her rescue. When Balder mocks Jeanne regarding being disregarded for Bayonetta as the Left Eye, she responds that she doesn't care about the power and she is there to rescue her "Umbran sister".

When she pulls Bayonetta out of the statue's eye, she is apparently killed again by a shockwave from the statue, but returns in the end to help Bayonetta destroy Jubileus by using her hair in conjunction with Bayonetta's to summon Queen Sheba. After saving Bayonetta from an incoming rock, she ironically claims that "even after destroying that abomination, it is still is going to destroy the world" and that she is going to get her out of there even if it costs her own life, claiming that she is "one of a kind". After Bayonetta insists that they "both are one of a kind", they destroy Jubileus' body together and return to Earth.

At Bayonetta's funeral, Jeanne is disguised as a nun and praying to summon Laguna, just as Bayonetta did in the Prologue of the game. When the Laguna come down from Paradiso to claim Bayonetta's soul, Jeanne mimics the previous actions of her fellow witch further by proceeding to assault them. This is the signal for Bayonetta to rise from her coffin. Their friendship renewed, the two remaining Umbra Witches fight side by side against the Laguna in the graveyard.

Bayonetta 2

In a bright city scape after the events of the first game, just before Christmas time, Jeanne meets Bayonetta on her bike to comment on how things between the Trinity Of Realities have been unusual. She agrees to pick up some things for her and Bayonetta's party hat evening and drives off. When Bayonetta has to fight with an influx of angels hijacking the Platinum Stars display team, Jeanne appears flying one of the jets through the city to help complete their daily obligation to their demonic contracts. After a rail bridge is destroyed, the witches meet up where Bayonetta asks if Jeanne has gotten everything. Jeanne claims they can pick up missing caviar if they finish it up quickly. The pair engage with Belief in a battle which ultimately leads Bayonetta to call uponGomorrah to finish the angel off. However, the demon suddenly breaks free from his bonds and turns on his master. Jeanne notices this and quickly rushes to save Bayonetta and is hit in the process, knocking her soul from her body. As she laments that this isn't how things are supposed to end, Jeanne is then dragged down through a portal into Inferno. After dispatching Gomorrah, Bayonetta is seen holding Jeanne's lifeless body in her hands.

Bayonetta later learns that she Jeanne's soul can still be saved before it is completely absorbed into Inferno by reuniting the source of her long life, Jeanne's Umbran Watch, with her soul. In order to travel to Inferno, she also learns she has to go through the fabled Gates of Hell found at the sacred mountain of Fimbulventr. She urges Jeanne to hang on as she travels to the mountain to rescue her friend.

When Bayonetta eventually makes it into the depths of Inferno, the demon Alraune has captured Jeanne's soul in order to use the witch's power for her own. After a titanic battle, Bayonetta rips Jeanne's soul free and manages to barely make the time limit to save her. Jeanne awakens and begins to float off towards her body in order to revive, but not before warning her friend that something big is about to happen to the world and that she needs to be careful.

Jeanne later appears in her fully revived state in a fighter jet in order to escort Bayonetta and a young Balder to the top of Fimbulventr to rescue Loki from Loptr's clutches. She later summons Gomorrah to swallow Loptr's physical body after Bayonetta wins in her own fight with him. Several days later after the events on Fimbulventr, Jeanne accompanies Bayonetta in some shopping during the after-holiday sales, only to join her friend in fighting when more angels arrive following Enzo back from the mountain.

Appearances in Other Media

The Wonderful 101

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

Trivia

• Most likely named for "Jeanne D'Arc," better known as Joan of Arc. Given the many historical witches mentioned in various Accessories, it is likely that she is the Joan of Arc.
• Jeanne's watch contains the numbers 141216. According to Mari Shimazaki, the character designer for Bayonetta, it represents the year/month/date of Jeanne's birthday, which means Jeanne's birthday is January 6, 1412.
  • Interestingly, Joan of Arc also was born in the same year.
• The Couture Bullet available only to Jeanne, "Formal," suggests that Jeanne is a school teacher in her time off. This is supported by bonus concept art by Mari Shimazaki (which also reveals that Bayonetta is a nun in her time off, as seen outside the window). Her occupation is fully stated in Bloody Fate, as she chats with Bayonetta about their occupations, with Jeanne outright stating that she is happy "being a high-school teacher."
• Like Cereza, Jeanne had a cat doll when she was a child. However, hers appears to have been professionally made, in contrast to Cereza's Cheshire, which seems to be homemade. This shows how differently Bayonetta and Jeanne were raised.
• It is speculated that the Umbran Elder was Jeanne's mother, because clan leaders usually pass down their roles to children or close relatives. This is also evident through the fact that Jeanne was in training to be the next heir.
• It was made known by a interview in the Bayonetta Official Strategy Guide that Jeanne's method of entering Witch Time is a result of her always wanting push herself to her limits.
• When you are dressed like Cutie J and have Bloody Moon equipped, for the taunt, she says "Bring it" and makes the same pose ofViewtiful Joe's transformation.
• Despite not being the main character, technically Jeanne can be played in more levels than Bayonetta herself; she is both an unlockable playable character and one is forced to play as her at the beginning of the Epilogue.

Gallery

Jeanne's appearance in Bayonetta

Jeanne as a teacher

Jeanne as a child

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

Characters

Yuri • Celina • Nia Nochlain • Kira