Characters / Bayonetta Main Characters

aka: Bayonetta Titular Character

Bayonetta Main Character Index
Main Characters | Supporting Characters | Paradiso | Inferno | Alphaverse | Avalon | Other Characters

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This page contains some unmarked spoilers for Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, and Bayonetta 3.

Bayonetta

Voiced by: Hellena Taylor (EN, 1 and 2), Jennifer Hale (EN, 3), Atsuko Tanaka (JP)

^{Click here to see her appearance in Bayonetta 2}

^{Click here to see her appearance in Bayonetta 3}

"As long as there's music, I'll keep on dancing."

The main character of the series. Bayonetta is one of the Umbra Witches, a magical European clan that existed hundreds of years ago to protect the world's sacred darkness. However, she was born at the center of conflict – her parents were an Umbra Witch, Rosa, and a Lumen Sage named Balder, and their union led to the destruction of both of their clans. In the midst of the Witch Hunts that put her life in danger, Bayonetta was sealed away without her memories for five hundred years. Her awakening and resultant desire to remember her identity starts the events of Bayonetta.

Like other witches, Bayonetta's powers are the result of a contract with a demon of Inferno, hers being Madama Butterfly, and her skills in combat are a mixture of magical gunplay and martial arts. Contrary to her bloody origin and training, though, Bayonetta is an outrageously carefree person who handles the angels sent after her with a mixture of playful sadism, camp, and sheer joy, all while remaining untouched by the carnage and ruin around her. While initially aloof to her allies and acquaintances, Bayonetta eventually warms up to them and displays fierce loyalty and protectiveness even in the worst of circumstances. Bayonetta also has an extremely soft spot for children, and will often provide care and support to her "little ones" in the midst of her quests.

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• Action Girl: Strong enough to lift a bus and suplex dragons at least three times her size, able to slaughter angels and demons without batting an eyelash, can summon and control demons large enough to swallow a skyscraper... yeah, it's safe to say she qualifies.
• Action Mom: Cereza may not be her daughter, but Bayonetta protects her like one, and Cereza mostly calls her "Mummy" anyway. Subverted when it turns out that Cereza is actually Bayonetta as a child. Later played straight in 3, as in Viola's world, the latter is hers and Luka's daughter.
• Alternate Self: In 3, Bayonetta meets several different versions of herself in Alternate Tokyo, Qin Lan, Giza, and Paris. Towards the end of the game, she also meets two more versions who appear as she does in the previous games, implying the Bayonetta in each game is a different version, all of whom had similar adventures (the Bayonetta in 2 has the Mr. Cheshire cat doll belonging to Cereza, and in 3 she's holding both the cat doll and one of Loki's playing cards). It's heavily implied towards the end of 3 that the Bayonetta players follow is in fact a grown-up Cereza from 1.
• Ambiguously Bi: There’s no doubt she has interest in men, as shown by her teasing Luka in the first game and eventually getting together with him in the third game. However, some of her interactions with Jeanne, such as mentioning a wake up kiss after the latter is rescued by her in 2, their overall closeness, and some of the official artwork, can be interpreted as fairly flirtatious. She also likes inflicting a certain Torture Attack on the very female Joy angels in 1, where the Joy is bound in chains in a sexual manner and is forced to sit on a wooden horse.
• Ambiguous Situation: Thanks to 3 introducing the multiverse, it becomes difficult to know whether the Bayonetta in 3, much less in the previous two games, is the same woman or all three games follow their own versions of Bayonetta. At least two different versions of Bayonetta with her appearance from 1 show up, with one lacking the distinct mole she has on the bottom left corner of her lips. Furthermore, it's implied that the Bayonetta in 3 is a grown-up version of Cereza from the first game, as evidence by Bayonetta 1 asking her if she was crying while she was gone, harkening back to Bayonetta's words from the first game about ordering Cereza not to cry as its one of the things she hates.
• Amulet of Dependency: Bayonetta has an amulet called an Umbral Watch, which contained the Left Eye of Darkness ^note Technically it didn't contain the real Left Eye of Darkness, just a fake., enables her to control the Umbral Demons she summons, and makes her The Ageless as long as she serves Inferno by slaying the angels of Paradiso. If it's damaged her powers falter, and should it be broken she will lose control of any summoned demons, and begin dying, resulting in her death in Bayonetta 3.
• Animal Motifs: Butterflies. Her contract is with a demon called Madama Butterfly, she can sprout butterfly wings during a double jump, and her Pulley's Butterfly accessory allows her to summon butterflies to block attacks. This ties in with the Butterfly of Death and Rebirth symbolism, referring to her "death" following the loss of her memories and the "rebirth" she undergoes once she's awoken again. There's also a bit of cat in there in both with her Panther Within ability and in regards to her personality: snarky and aloof with claws everywhere... unless she isn't being watched, in case she'll let down her guard and show a bit of emotional vulnerability.
• Anime Hair: Not only is her hair ridiculously long, she uses it as her SOURCE OF CLOTHING, and controls it in such a way that it's a deadly weapon. In a developer interview ^note :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1wagWcrkQ&list=PLEYQ6LrlM_rGn8EZcretGy78Crr0K-cnQ&index=3 it's noted her radically different hairstyles in different games are not seen as a big deal to her. Rather, she changes hairstyles as readily and easily as she does clothing.
• Animorphism: She learns (or rather remembers) how to change into animals during the course of the game. She is very, very pleased by the development.
• Anti-Hero: A haughty witch wielding powers derived from a demonic pact who regularly leaves mass collateral damage in her wake and kills her enemies in creatively sadistic ways. On the other hand, she shows a soft spot for kids, deeply cares for her friends and allies , has risked her life to save the world three times, and almost never starts a fight unprovoked.
• Armed Legs: Provides the trope image. In the first game, she can sport freezing cold ice-skates, fiery or electrified claws, pistols, shotguns or bazookas on her legs, which she fires with her magic. In the second game, she can sport pistols, swords, chainsaws, or whips.
• Assist Character: Apart from her ability to summon demons, three of her accessories – Pulley's Butterfly, Infernal Communicator, and Sergey's Lover – let her summon helpers, being butterflies, the Little Devils, and ghostly copies of Madama Butterfly, respectively.
• Astral Projection: One of Bayonetta's many powers, which primarily sees use whenever she has to protect Cereza.
• Author Appeal: As Mari Shimazaki stated in her character design blog, "Glasses! This was something that Kamiya-san really pushed for, as he was aiming to differentiate Bayonetta from other female characters and give her a sense of mystery and intelligence. Of course, I think it is just because he likes girls with glasses." It got to the point that when executives took issue with her glasses, Kamiya threatened to stall or abandon the project altogether.
• Badass Adorable: Herself as a younger child in Origins certainly earns her the trope. Downplayed in 3 since she's still Ms. Fanservice as always, her new look makes more cuter than the last two.
• Badass Biker: In Chapter IX of the first game, she shows that she's just as skilled with a bike as Jeanne. She rides it up a crumbling tower in the climax of the first game, and even manages to make it jump hundreds of feet at once.
• Badass Boast:
  • She says this just before shooting Father Balder with a lipstick. It also doubles as a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.
    Bayonetta: "Don't fuck with a witch!"
  • She uses a variant of the above when talking with young Balder.
    Bayonetta: Sanity is a requirement for our kind.
    Balder: And your kind are...?
    Bayonetta: The kind of witches you don't fuck with.
• Badass Fingersnap: When she clears a Homunculi-fighting verse in 3, she dispels their barrier with a literal snap of her fingers.
• Badass in Distress: Near the end of the first game, she's captured by Balder and used to resurrect Jubileus. She is thankfully rescued by Jeanne, who was freed from Balder's mind control earlier. A similar situation happens in Bayonetta Origins, but by a weakened Singularity who seeks to recover his lost powers by killing the young Arch-Eve Origin.
• Bad Liar: Bayonetta stammers and provides an extremely transparent lie when the Masked Lumen asks her how she knows his name. It's one of the few times in the series where she's visibly nervous.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Her powers come from demonic pledges (some said demons definitely being evil and all being potentially dangerous) and she is going to end up in Inferno when she dies... but she's trained to use her dark powers for the sake of protecting and guiding humanity. And while in no way "warm", she's not a bad person when you get to know her by any stretch.
• Barrier Warrior:
  • One of her accessories, the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa, allows her to create a barrier in the form of the Umbra Witch symbol. If an enemy strikes the barrier, Bayonetta will counter with a punishing headbutt.
  • In Wii U and Switch versions of both games, having Bayonetta wear her Hero Of Hyrule outfit allows her to use the Hylian Shield in the same way as the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa, even if the latter isn't equipped.
  • Her Crow Within allows Bayonetta to surround herself with a damaging ring of feathers.
  • In the first game, Bayonetta can form a protective barrier around Cereza during escort missions while she fights the angels in Purgatorio. However, the barrier will only hold up for so long before it's destroyed.
• The Baroness: Inverted. She is a domineering woman that likes abusing her enemies and happens to be the protagonist. Though she might be sexualized, she does have some Rosa Klebb attitude.
• Bat Out of Hell: She can transform into a group of bats when hit by an attack to negate the damage and activate Witch Time.
• Battle Couple: Ends up becoming one with Luka in 3, after Luka embraces his new fairy-werewolf form while whaling down on Singularity.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Early in the first game, Bayonetta chooses to go to Vigrid despite Rodin's warning that something seems fishy, saying that the minor angelic mooks she's been fighting no longer satisfy her and she's "looking for something more high class". Certainly nothing says "more high class" like dealing with the god of Paradiso.
• Beehive Hairdo: She sports one in the first game, with the intention of it looking reminiscent to a witch's hat. It's Magic Hair that also forms her Spy Catsuit and is used in her most powerful attacks. She trades it out for Boyish Short Hair in Bayonetta 2.
• Beneath the Mask: It's slipped off a few times when Bayonetta thinks nobody's watching. In the first game, she looks almost worried after realizing Luka grew up thinking she killed his father. In Bayonetta 2, her efforts to wake up Loki and later Jeanne devolve into panic when she thinks they're dead for good — but the mask goes back on as soon as Loki shows he was faking and Jeanne regains consciousness.
• Big Damn Kiss: Her materialized soul gives Luka one near the end of Bayonetta 3 after he pledges to go with her to Inferno, then embraces him as they both are dragged down to the afterlife.
• Black Speech: For a heroine, she (along with Jeanne) speaks Enochian, the language of angels, to summon demons and torture weapons.
• Blood Knight: A heroic example and more tame than most, but she loves a good brawl and derives an almost erotic pleasure from punishing and killing angels (and enemies in general) a bit too much. Nearly every fight scene begins and ends with a smile on her face. And other than recovering her memories, she states that one of the initial reasons why she was going to Vigrid was because the weak angels being sent at her made her bored. This trait is played up in Bloody Fate, where she outright says she loves seeing angels' faces contort in pain.
• Boisterous Bruiser: When finishing a combo, she'll describe her own fighting as "excellent!" or "smashing!" to herself. She's good, and she knows she's good.
• Bondage Is Bad: Bayonetta hits all the Dark Action Girl points; she's a witch who sold her soul to hell for awesome magical power, summons demons to finish off her foes, and has some definite dominatrix elements. Her "Torture Attacks" are odd combinations of medieval torture devices and some BDSM elements (some more than the others), and she uses these to obliterate actual angels who are gigantic assholes in their own right.
• Born of Heaven and Hell: A variation. Her mother was an Umbra Witch with connection to the demons of Inferno and her father was a Lumen Sage, who are aligned with the Angels of Paradiso. Being female, she was raised as a witch and shows no particular affinity for the heavenly side of her ancestry.
• Boyish Short Hair: She uses her magic to give herself a shorter hairstyle in Bayonetta 2.
• Braids of Action: Her default look in Bayonetta 3 has a long braid on each side of her head, and a close look at her outfit reveals several more forming her skirt and waist ribbon.
• Bruce Lee Clone: Bayonetta becomes this when you give her the nunchuck-like weapons, Sai Fung. When you do the basic 5-punch combo, she even imitates Bruce Lee's Kiai. It's made even more awesome by the nunchucks having guns in them. The name "Sai Fung" is even a reference to Bruce Lee.
• Bullying a Dragon: Bayonetta invokes this trope after Loki plays a trick on her by making her think he was dead.
  Bayonetta: Do you really think it's wise to play dead with someone who can make you dead?
• Casting a Shadow: Bayonetta, like all Umbra Witches, can use dark magic, often channeling it through her weapons and can use it to bolster the strength of her physical attacks. During her fight with Iustitia, she focuses her dark energy into her hand to slice off one of its tentacles, and her "Wheel of Torture" Torture Attack has her impaling an angel on the spike wheel then focusing dark energy into her foot to kick it away with great force.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: As a testament to her boundless confidence, she'll regularly snark and make small talk with her enemies. During the prologue of the second game, she and Jeanne are more concerned with planning a Christmas party rather than the fact that the Angels of Paradiso are trying to kill them. This casualness rarely changes, even when entire worlds are being destroyed around her in 3.
• Cat Girl: When equipped with the Umbran Elegance #5 perfume, Durga causes Bayonetta to gain a tail and/or a pair of cat ears made of flames or lightning. The precise piece you get depends on where you have Durga equipped; hands gives Bayonetta cat ears, feet gives her a cat's tail. You need to have bought the second pair and equip them to both slots to get both the ears and tail.
• Celibate Hero: Surprisingly, given how openly flirtatious she is with everyone. Word of god states that, while she teases Luka, she'll never ever commit because of the negatives of a Mayfly–December Romance. Besides, him following her around does seem to annoy her. 3 reveals however that a version of the two of them would eventually have a daughter, who turns out to be Viola — And in the end, Arch Eve Bayonetta also returned his affections as they're dragged down into Inferno.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: When strolling up a cruise ship in the Prologue of 3, Bayonetta, who is wearing a simple sweater-and-jeans ensemble, decides to spruce up her looks, and so she grabs a teal drape, throws it over herself, and in a split second she's already wearing a haute couture teal dress.
• Character Development: Becomes a hell of a lot nicer by the end of the first game, and much wiser and more motherly by the end of the second. In the third she is at her most heroic, openly advising Viola to learn to fight for others and not just for herself.
• Character Tics: Licking her lips when she gets a new set of weapons to play with and adjusting her glasses with her guns when she's about to fight.
• Charge Attack: She can do this with every weapon through the Charge Modifier, which involves holding down the punch or kick button after the initial attack, but it's played straightest with her melee weapons, where she'll take a stance and build up power. Using the Charge Modifier with ranged weapons usually just makes Bayonetta fire them, although Sai Fung, Kafka, and the Charge Bullet technique play it straight. Wearing the Galactic Bounty Hunter outfit in Bayonetta 2 lets her fire a charge shot, even if she doesn't have the Charge Bullet technique. Also true of the Star Mercenary outfit, but only when Love Is Blue is equipped.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Even without taking her magic into account, no human can replicate half of the downright supernatural stunts she can pull off, much less while wearing clothing made from hair. Case in point: During the beginning of the second game, she kicks a jet high into the air, then leaps up several thousands of feet after it, all while wearing her "Sunday best."
• Child of Forbidden Love: She is the result of a forbidden union between her mother, the Umbra Witch Rosa, and her father, the Lumen Sage Balder. As punishment, Rosa was imprisoned for life, while Balder was exiled from his clan.
• Cleavage Window: Her outfit in the first game has this, although unusually for the trope, it doesn't actually show very much cleavage.
• Clothing Damage: Bayonetta's nun outfit takes some cuts during the opening chapter in the graveyard, before doffing the disguise entirely to reveal her usual outfit. Happens again in the opening chapters of 2 and 3.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Her Torture Attacks summon giant demons to create a Finishing Move, usually by repeatedly inflicting a lot of pain in a very short amount of time to her target.
• Combat Pragmatist: Bayonetta does not fight fair. To her, everything is fair game in a fight whether it's sneak attacks, using pieces of the environment, using her enemies' weapons against them, using the enemies themselves against each other, Bayonetta will use any and every advantage afforded to her to win.
• Combat Stilettos: She wears high heels with heels replaced with guns, which she uses to perform Gun Fu.
• Compressed Hair: She can hide it when wearing clothes, cover herself with it to form a battle uniform, extend it further for Umbran Climax or Serious Mode, and separate it entirely from her body for constructs or conduits. This, combined with how her default costume in Bayonetta 2 isn't connected to her hairdo, suggests that Bayonetta's hair is less like normal hair and more like a power source she can call upon or put away at will.
• Cosplay: The Wii U release of Bayonetta has her dressing up as Link, Samus, and Princesses Peach and Daisy. The Princess costumes in particular are Sexy Whatever Outfits while the Link outfit was designed to be very modest, but Nintendo insisted Link's Undershirt be removed and the tunic be more revealing. Bayonetta 2 adds a Star Fox costume to the mix, replacing Love is Blue with Arwings (and the fighter jet from the final chapter with a fully-functioned Arwing, smart bombs and all).
• Counter-Attack:
  • Several enemies in Bayonetta 2, like shield-bearing Accolades and the Masked Lumen in his second fight, can launch attacks that give Bayonetta a chance to counter in a quick-time event.
  • Her Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory lets her counter enemies with a headbutt if they strike her barrier.
  • When wearing the Evil Harvest Rosary, Bayonetta will create a mine-like magical counterattack when dodging attacks instead of triggering Witch Time.
• Creepy Crows: She can transform into a crow to slow her descent and use Feather Flechettes.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Her Torture Attacks and Infernal Climaxes practically scream this trope. Put simply, being Dragged Off to Hell will be a mercy after Bayonetta's done with you.
• Dance Battler: Bayonetta wields her weapons with incredible fluidity and grace, employing intricate acrobatics, and actually dancing for her long taunts and the Breakdance move. Some of the lyrics to "Mysterious Destiny" reference this.
  Girl, when you fight, it looks like a dance. You are magic. You're magic.
  Dance. Fight. Spin around. Spin around.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Deadly Sin ritual introduced in 3. By ripping out her own heart, Bayonetta can empower any demon she's contracted with. With Gomorrah, she can upgrade it into Sin Gomorrah turning it into a proper skyscraper-sized kaiju monstrosity that'd look right at home in a Godzilla movie. There are three drawbacks to the ritual, however; if a demon empowered by the ritual is defeated, Bayonetta suffers a huge backlash. Alternatively, some demons can't handle the boost in power for long. In Alternate Giza, a Deadly Sin empowered Phantom turns into an Action Bomb that can't handle the power boost, with the resulting explosion being so powerful it creates a near honest-to-god black hole. Lastly, the demon summoned by the ritual is inevitably so powerful or deadly that the area around Bayonetta will suffer even worse damage than usual. Every time she uses it in 3 it is in a situation where the location she is in is already destroyed or beyond saving.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite Bayonetta being a centuries-old witch whose powers stem from demons, she's by no means a bad person and can be nice when you get to know her. But she is a snarky, incorrigible Troll who will mess with you non-stop and won't hesitate to pump you full of holes if you cross her.
• Dash Attack: She can do this with the After Burner Kick, Stiletto, and Heel Slide techniques. The Umbran Spear, which requires purchasing Crow Within first, is her fastest, but its lack of damage and stagger makes it more suited to being a "dash" instead of an "attack."
• Deadpan Snarker: She regularly snarks at her enemies to reflect how confident she is. She tends to drop it when she gets serious though. Or when she gets mad. That's when you really should be afraid.
• The Determinator: Failure isn't an option for her, even when she's traversing Inferno or going after gods or crossing the multiverse.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Regularly does this to angels of all sorts, with demons being added into the mix in 2. Though her crowning achievements are full on gods at the end of each game, including Jubileus, Loptr-Aesir, and Singularity, though the third case was a case of Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu that led to a Heroic RRoD-induced end for her.
• Disappeared Dad: Thanks to circumstances, Bayonetta never gets to know her father. Either he's a Big Bad or he's time traveling to avenge his wife's death.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Dante of Devil May Cry, Gene from God Hand, and possibly even the titular character from Viewtiful Joe.
• The Diva: Bayonetta when not adventuring is quite the "opera star enjoying some recreation". She even manages to maintain the Diva personality while fighting.
• Diving Kick: Her descending After Burner Kick. May remind some players of Crimson Viper.
• Double Entendre: She is very fond of using these before, during and after battle. They normally have a clearly obvious and literal relation to what is happening, but she'll use a tone and word choice that gives obvious sexual connotations.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Bayonetta's Game Over screen depicts this and this becomes her fate at the end of 3 after Gomorrah breaks free of her control and tries to devour her. Thankfully, Luka was able to slay Gomorrah and vows to stay by her side.
• The Dreaded: Has become this in the second game. Angels and demons alike are right to be afraid of her. Her slaying of Jubileus has earned her quite the reputation among the Angels of Paradiso, leading some to refer to her as "the famed witch." Likewise, her invading Inferno to rescue Jeanne's soul has earned her the fear of some of the Infernal Demons.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: She wears a black Sexy Backless Spy Catsuit with gloves and Combat Stilettos, which double as her guns, and she can use whips to attacks. The only catch is that the whole costume is actually made out of her hair and that whips are usually hair as well. Her dialogue and personality aren't subtle about her dominant sexuality, but her Punish moves, Torture Attacks (especially the one she reserves for Joys), and the Umbran Elegance she wears for Kulshedra are the most blatant examples.
• Easter Egg: If she ends up firing at a wall, she'll shoot a B with her bullet holes.
• Erotic Eating: Bayonetta's Trademark Favorite Food are lollipops. In the intro of the first game, we even get a slow-mo close-up of her sucking on one, and such scenes continue in the sequels.
• Expy: Many fans have noted general similarities between her and Dante: a hunter of the metaphysical who wields tons of weaponry, snark and style.
• Extremity Extremist: Certain weapons in the first two games can only be equipped to certain limbs. In the first game, 修羅刃 -Shuraba-, Kulshedra, and Sai Fung can only be used on the hands, while Odette (ice-infused ice skates) can only be used on the feet. In the second, Takemikazuchi, Chernobog, and Kafka (bow) are all hands-only, while the Chain Chomp is the game's only foot-only weapon. Strangely, the sword (Rakshasha, Salamandra) and whip (Alruna) weapons in the second game can be fitted to hands and feet alike, most likely because they come in pairs.
• Fairytale Motifs: She's compared herself to Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in both games, whether through references or (in Bayonetta 2) outright calling herself "lost in Wonderland", referencing how she frequently gets caught up in bizarre plots.
• Fatal Flaw: Her pride and her insistence on doing everything herself carry her through most of the games' chapters, but when she actually starts going after the Big Bad, they're always more than she can handle on her own. Tellingly, both villains are only killed by a Climax summon Bayonetta performs in tandem with a second character, Jeanne in the first game and a young Balder in the second. In the third game, she not only has the help of two alternate versions of herself as well as Viola, but also accepts Luka's help in his faerie-werewolf form to fight the final boss.
• Faustian Rebellion: In the second game, due to the Balance of Good and Evil being thrown off, the forces of Hell are trying to kill Bayonetta, forcing her to fight them as well as the angels. Averted with a few demons, particularly Madama Butterfly, who continues to lend her assistance.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Her outfits accentuate her curves. Justified in that they're made with her Magic Hair. However, when wearing actual clothing (such as her nun's outfit or stylish shopping clothes), they're still form-fitting — and almost always suffer Clothing Damage at some point.
• Friend to All Children: Despite initial insistence to the contrary, Bayonetta has a soft spot for "little ones." Cereza is the first person Bayonetta shows genuine concern for, and she quickly warms up to Mouthy Kid Loki upon first meeting him in Bayonetta 2. She finally accepts it upon saving Loki from the Masked Lumen, as her next words are "What kind of adult picks on little children?!"
• Full-Contact Magic: With giant black fists and feet to back her up.
• Generation Xerox: When you see her mother in the second game, she looks exactly like Bayonetta, down to the hair style. This is why Cereza called her "Mummy" in the first game.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: Certain combos let her summon Madama Butterfly for a downward kick near the end, but she can also do this right off the bat with the Heel Stomp technique.
• Giant Hands of Doom: She can summon the massive hands of Hekatoncheir and Madama Butterfly through her Wicked Weaves. Or, if you have Mushroom Kingdom Princess or Sarasaland Princess as your current outfit, Bowser's fists will replace Madama Butterfly's.
• Godiva Hair: She turns this trope on its head. She is a witch whose default wardrobe consists entirely of her own magically manipulated Prehensile Hair. Not surprisingly, she uses her Prehensile Hair for other things sometimes, which, in turn, makes this both an inversion and an aversion of the trope. And when she's doing some serious witchcraft, not much is left on her person nor to the imagination.
• Godzilla Threshold: The "Sin Ritual" used by the main Bayonetta of 3 is treated like this. Involving summoning the true form of a powerful demon or transforming a demon into a more powerful form, as it tends to cause massive collateral damage even by Bayonetta's standards and severely taxes her powers, she only uses it when there are no better options and the region she is fighting in is beyond salvaging.
• Guest Fighter: She's shown up in Anarchy Reigns and Super Smash Bros. as a playable fighter. In the latter, she was initially DLC before being added to the core roster in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Gun Fu: Bayonetta can quadruple-wield pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers – and she can fire all four at once.
• The Gunslinger: Her signature weapons in both games is a quartet of massive pistols, and both cutscenes and gameplay show that she's capable of some astounding gunplay.
• Hart Man Hips: She noticeably has very wide hips which is made all the more noticeable by her constant sensual swinging of them during her signature Super Model Strut.
• Hates Small Talk: Her usual response to a boss enemy's rambling, hammy speech is to either shoot them or throw something at them to get them to shut up.
  Bayonetta: I'm not much for the talkative types. How about we have a little fun instead? You did plan on having fun with me, right? There'll be plenty of time for pillow talk afterwards.^note Becomes a Stealth Pun if Bayonetta actually uses Pillow Talk on them.
• Head-Turning Beauty: And how. Even outside of her status as an in-and-out-of-universe Ms. Fanservice, the opening of the prologue in 2 has her walking down a street in the real world wearing her Sunday Best dress, with several (male) onlookers openly gawking at her. A similar scene plays out on the deck of a cruise ship in 3 after she changes into a fancy dress.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: It's actually her hair that forms that outfit, but it has leather-like properties: black, shiny, and form-fitting.
• The Hero Dies: The fate of Arch Eve Bayonetta, after having gone into a Heroic RRoD to beat Singularity, shattering her own Umbran Watch and being dragged off to Inferno with Luka. Played straight but then reversed with the other two main variants. While they and their worlds were killed by Singularity "long ago" according to him, the variants from 1 and 2 are implied to have been revived thanks to Arch Eve Bayonetta and returned to their home dimensions.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • A short-lived one after she fails to catch Luka after Balder tosses him out a window to his apparent doom. It takes her a minute to recover from what she had just seen, and when she does, she rounds on Balder guns blazing.
  • In the second game, Loptr uses the Remembrance of Time to show Bayonetta the events of the Witch Hunts and that he killed her mother. When she recovers, Bayonetta is clearly shaken up and visibly sweating.
• Heroic RRoD: How she ultimately dies in 3. The fight against Singularity ends up royally taxing her abilities. Her Umbral Watch is left so brittle by the time Singularity is defeated that it immediately shatters on its own, ensuring that she gets dragged off to Inferno.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: She's the heroine, and yet she casually roughs up her friends (Luka and Enzo especially), and brutalizes her enemies with glee. And it's wonderful.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: with Jeanne and Madama Butterfly. She's close enough to Jeanne that, not only is the latter the only cast member of 2 that calls her by her first name, the impetus of the plot was Bayonetta fighting to rescue Jeanne. As for Madama Butterfly, while she could just be a Noble Demon when it comes to honoring her contract with Bayonetta, the two sharing a brofist is a bit more casual than a mere business relationship, and her profile notes their bond is more than just the contract.
• High-Class Gloves: Her regular outfits and the "Sunday Best" dresses she wears in Bayonetta 2 feature long gloves over her hands, alongside the disguise she puts on in 3 after boarding the cruise ship.
• Hot Witch: Bayonetta is an Umbra Witch with glasses and Sexy Backless Spy Catsuit. In fact, the entire games almost revolves around this concept, with her constantly getting naked after every combo or summoning demons to finish off a boss (partly because her clothes are made from her Prehensile Hair, which she uses for her most powerful spells), and doing sexy victory poses to the sound of a camera shot.
• An Ice Person: Apart from her Odette skates and her Undine flamethrowers, in the cutscene during her third fight with Jeanne, she freezes the moisture in the air to form a spear in an attempt to impale her.
• Idiot Ball: In 3. Summoning Gomorrah at the beginning of the game? Understandable, since she didn't know he'd attack her for trying to have him eat something that wasn't divine, and she had her Demon Slave ability to keep him in check. Summoning Gomorrah at the end of the game when she's running on fumes, knows Singularity isn't divine either, and she's still in range of her "pet?" Not a smart idea.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When she confronts Strider towards the end, Luka impales her with his claws, having not gained control of his faerie-werewolf form yet. Given the magical nature of her body, this injury doesn't actually bother her much, she soothingly noting that it is Luka who is afraid and shaking.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: They're made out of her Magic Hair.
• Improbable Weapon User: While many of her weapons are off-beat, in the original Bayonetta, she obtains a pair of demonic ice skates named Odette, fueled by the soul of a demonic witch of the same name with the power of ice.
  • Come the third game and her arsenal includes oversized clubs with sawblades that can be ridden and the door of a demonic clocktower.
• Improvised Clothes: At the start of 3, Bayonetta boards a yacht in search of someone and decides she needs to be more properly dressed for the occasion since there's a wedding going on, swapping her pink sweater for a turquoise impromptu dress. Said dress is made by one of the banners, by the way.
• Informed Flaw: In the first game, characters repeatedly claim she's afraid of her destiny and memories... not that this ever influences any of her decisions or ability to kick ass.
• In-Series Nickname: In 3, Luka has taken to calling her "Cerezita". It's noted in the character bios that he is the only man in the world she permits to use that name, and when Dark Adam uses it (after seemingly killing Prime Luka, no less), it results in one of the only times we see Bayonetta get genuinely angry.
• I Work Alone: Bayonetta pulls a gun on Rodin in the first chapter of the first two games when he implies that he's offering to help her. In Bayonetta 2, she actually starts shooting at him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • She can come off as a Sociopathic Heroine at first glance due to her causal sadism when killing angels and causing horrendous collateral damage during her fights that would have most normal people arrested for vandalism years ago. She can also deal out enough snark to give ol' Spider-Man lessons. But underneath it all is a girl who genuinely cares for her friends and unless you want a first-class, one-way, all-expense-paid trip to Inferno, don't even entertain the idea of harming them.
  • She may not pay heed to all the collateral damage from her fights, but she doesn't condone causing needless misery to innocent civilians. In 1, she reprimands the angels for going way overboard in demolishing a civilian bridge just to kill her, and in 3 she is definitely not amused when Singularity uses Perlucidus to mass-mind control the French military for his sick entertainment, and proceeds to immediately Mercy Kill them in droves.
  Bayonetta, after some Braves obliterate the bridge: "I know you don't want me here, but you could've been more subtle about it."
• Jiggle Physics: Surprisingly, despite their size her breasts are usually pretty much under control during the games. It's her butt that does the jiggling. Averted in a battle cutscene in 3 during a slow motion dodge.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: She has many fancy dress options, especially in the Wii U and Switch versions of the games. The second game bookends with each version of the "Sunday Best" outfit, which is a slinky Simple, yet Opulent dress that includes a huge hat and fur wrap.
• Kid with the Leash: An adult variation, but the opening of Bayonetta 2 makes it clear that the Climax Summons that she pulls off are less 'allies' and more 'tamed beasts'. When the world starts getting thrown out of balance, her command over them becomes much more fragile, losing her hold on (at least) Gomorrah, Phantasmaraneae, and Scolopendra.
• Killed Off for Real: 3 ends with Prime Bayonetta getting her soul claimed by Inferno after her Umbran Watch shatters from damage and overuse of her powers.
• Kung-Shui: Up there with the Hulk in sheer property-damaging capacity.
• Lady of Black Magic: She's an Umbra Witch who uses her Magic Hair to summon demons capable of causing great destruction, and acts in a cool and classy manner. She's also very sultry and sensual, from her appearance to her mannerisms.
• Lady of War: She's a cool-headed and classy lady who uses many graceful acrobatics in battle to effortlessly kill angels, and looking very fancy while doing so.
• Lascivious Beauty Mark: Bayonetta has a beauty mark on the corner of her mouth and she is a Dark Action Girl, Hot Witch with dominatrix and BDSM-themed weapons and attacks. Her default look is a skintight, Sexy Backless Outfit made of her hair paired with Combat Stilettos. This goes along with her playfully flirtatious, The Tease-like behavior, which includes flirting with enemies and allies alike, Erotically Eating lollipops for fun and for power-ups, and occasionally licking her lips when excited. Her oversexed Ms. Fanservice characterization is deliberately done to the point of camp.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Bayonetta 2 doesn't hide the fact that she's Cereza as an adult.
• Leg Focus: Given she's a Statuesque Stunner who presents as a Shameless Fanservice Girl and employs a Dance Battler fighting style, you better believe she has numerous scenes dedicated to higlighting her incredibly long, powerful and slender gams.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast, agile, strong as all hell, and hits like an out of control freight train. In 3, one of her Demon Masquerades allows her to partly transform into a train.
• Limit Break: Her Torture Attacks are the flashy one-time counterpart to her Super Mode, Umbran Climax. 3 gives her Masquerade Rage, which is essentially a weapon-dependent Torture Attack, which in turn can open up lesser enemies to her actual Torture Attacks.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Inverted. Bayonetta is the daughter of the Lumen Sage Balder and the Umbra Witch Rosa. She looks identical to her mother and, even though her mixed heritage made her an outcast, identifies purely as one of her mother's people.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: As a Torture Attack on Applauds, Affinities, and Ardors. Then she beheads them with a guillotine.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Her line after defeating Fortitudo.
  Bayonetta: You know, you're not nearly as ugly when you're screaming.
• Mage Marksman: Like other Umbra Witches, she uses guns alongside black magic.
• Magic Hair: Subverted. It appears that she is using her hair to make giant fists, giant feet, and giant dragons, but reading Antonio Redgrave's notes reveals that witches need a medium in order to summon these things. In theory, they could use anything, but hair is the most readily available. It's not that the hair is magic, more like magic things are happening to the hair. In Bayonetta 2, you can tell shit is going south when Gomorrah breaks out of her hair and goes on a rampage.
• Magic Knight: As an Umbra Witch, she mixes the magical Dark Arts as well as a large variety of other magic spells, items and accessories with her Super-Strength, skill with a huge arsenal of weapons and various brutal martial arts and acrobatic moves to decimate her foes.
• Male Gaze: You can never have enough mentions about how much her ass is shown.
• Mama Bear: Mess with her "little ones" — especially Cereza — and Bayonetta will take you down.
• Master of Threads: Wicked Weaves are spells which allow Bayonetta to summon any demon she has a contract with by using her clothes as a conduit. She can do partial summons by having her clothes transform into a limb belonging to her demon. This also has the side effect of briefly leaving her naked. As her outfit is actually made out of her hair, this makes the spell a cross between Master of Threads and Prehensile Hair.
• Meaningful Name:
  • You get "Bayonetta" by adding "T and A" to "bayonet", which is a melee weapon attached to a gun, which describes Bayonetta's fighting style nicely.
  • Alternatively, her name is also a Portmanteau of "bayonet" and the gun manufacturer "Beretta".
• Mercy Kill: As the games go on, she's forced to do this a few times and even has done them unintentionally. For starters, she killed Balder in the first game who was possessed by Loptr, a figure introduced in the second, being the only unintentional case. In Bayonetta 3, she's forced to kill Phantom Thief Rosa and Bayonetta, as well as a load of the french military. Given they were all possessed by Homunculi forcing them to act at Singularity's whims, it's a given.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: One of her Punish Attacks lets her do this to enemies, grabbing them by the leg and slamming them repeatedly.
• Misblamed: Luka spent the vast majority of the first game believing she killed his father. He was actually intentionally murdered by the angels she was fighting, but Luka could not see them at the time.
• Misery Builds Character: In Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, we find out when she (or at least the Bayonetta 3 version of Cereza) was very young, she was ostracized due to the circumstances of her birth, her mother was imprisoned, and she had to kill her mentor Morgana when she finds out the Umbran Witch was just using her as a pawn to free Lukaon's imprisonment. And that's not even getting into her mom being slaughtered alongside her entire clan later on. There's no wonder she grown up into the hardened Sadist of an Umbran Witch she is in the main series games.
• More Dakka: Bayonetta certainly is a fan.
  Bayonetta: (to Rodin) Guns. Guns! GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!!!
• Morphic Resonance: Her animal forms always feature the gold chains on top her clothing in some form: in the first game, this also applies to the ribbon in her hair and in the second game, her pointed shoulderpads.
• Ms. Fanservice: Oh yes, you better believe it. She is deliberately designed around sex appeal, to the point of campy parody, and has a sultry, flirty, dominatrix-like personality to go with it. Hell, the only problem her creator had when Rule 34 kicked in was that she was usually submissive in it — once she started being dominant, he had no complaints. It's also probably telling that when PlatinumGames designed Bayonetta's Link-inspired costume with an undershirt for the Updated Re-release, Nintendo of all companies said it would be a good idea to get rid of the undershirt because it would have otherwise been out of character.
• Multi-Melee Master: She is incredibly skilled with practically any melee weapon she can get her hands on whether it's katanas, light-sabers, axes, greatswords, claws, microphones, hammers, flails, staffs, scythes, bladed fans, dual swords, chainsaws, clubs the list goes on and on. This is taken even further in that she can wield a couple of these weapons on her legs too. She can even use traditionally ranged weapons like guns, rocket launchers and bows in melee combat.
• Murderous Thighs: In an early cinematic cutscene, Bayonetta uses her thighs to catch a ride on an Affinity, while shooting countless numbers of them out of the air, then using said thighs to spin the Affinity she rides on into the ground. A recurring method of combat for her in cutscenes is to grab an opponent with her thighs and flip or throw them to the ground.
• Naughty Nuns: Her first appearance in the first game has her in a form-fitting nun habit. She then gets clothing damaged.
• Nerves of Steel: As shown in the second game, so long as there is the slightest chance of saving a friend's life (even invading the Inferno), she doesn't ever seem to be nervous. When there's nothing she can do, she doesn't remain upset for long. Probably in part due to her overconfidence (which she usually can back up). Even whole universes being destroyed in 3 rarely shakes her for more than a few seconds.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Killing Father Balder in the first game erased the Right Eye of Light and caused an imbalance in the Trinity of Realities, which causes her demonic summoning of Gomorrah to go wrong and results in Jeanne Taking the Bullet and being sent to Inferno. In other words, she is partially responsible for the events of the second game (Balder never would have snapped to begin with if not for Loptr).
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Yes, you wouldn't believe, but she can do it.
• Not Afraid of Hell: Despite having a Deal with the Devil centered around being Dragged Off to Hell at the end of it, Bayonetta herself has absolutely no hang-ups over her eventual fate. Even when she has to brave Inferno for Jeanne, she has nothing but sass for anyone in her way. When her time does finally come in 3, she has no fear and does nothing to stop it and spends her last moments on Earth embracing Luka.
• Official Couple: She and Luka become this in 3, with the reveal that Viola is their daughter. That, and Luka willingly goes down to Inferno with her as her Umbral Watch is broken.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • She has an utterly hilarious one in the beginning of the first game, where she lands on Enzo's car, trashing it. The look on her face is priceless, as she really didn't mean to do that.
  • A considerably more serious example occurs in the second game: she starts off her clash with the mysterious man in white as her normal snarky self. Then she sees him initiate Light Speed and casually brush aside her bullets...
    Bayonetta: Oh my... you're a Lumen Sage!?
• One-Woman Army: Countless angels, demons and other threats have tried to kill her, and she takes them all down with style and class.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • By default, Bayonetta is a massive Deadpan Snarker who can throw out Deadpool-esque snazzy one-liners. But when she stops snarking, you have sorely and genuinely pissed her off and the final moments of your life will be in complete agony. Only a few characters in the series have triggered this reaction. ^note Father Balder, Loptr, Alraune, Dark Adam and Singularity; as well as if you count Gomorrah's betrayal in the second and third games To say it didn't end well for them would be the nicest way to describe it.
  • A far sadder example is at the end of Bayonetta 2, when she watches Balder trap Loptr within himself, effectively damning himself to become the monster he was in the first one. At this point, Bayonetta realizes who her father truly was, and as Balder is dragged through a rip in time, she screams "DADDY!" in a heartbreaking tone.
  • She barges in on Viola's fight with Strider in 3, mocking the faerie beast for "bullying Little Red Riding Hood", but when Viola reveals that he's Luka, her face falls like a rock. In the following conversation, she remains dead-serious until Viola promises she'll keep him safe.
  • She also stops smirking in 3 upon realizing that she and Viola had been tricked by Singularity into going into the Alphaverse to be trapped, spotting the real Dr. Sigurd's body powering the Homunculi nucleus and his ID card, which goes to show how dire the situation really is.
  • When foes try and out-dance Bayonetta, she usually entertains them for a moment with a playful dance off. And indeed, when her French counterpart in 3 challenges her to a dance-off, she reciprocates before the two duke it out. Moments before the latter fight, however, Singularity forces an army of possessed innocent soldiers to do a Thriller-esque number for no reason other than to spite her, and she's so pissed off at that she just sneers in disgust before commanding her most violent demon to start wrecking their numbers as a Mercy Kill.
• Oral Fixation: Aside from using special ones for health and power ups, Bayonetta frequently just sucks on lollipops for fun, and is often seen enjoying them during her casual activities. Best expect the camera to draw some attention to how much she enjoys them. In 2 Luka lampshades how he inadvertently got her addicted to them due to giving lollipops to child Cereza while she was under his care.
• Orgasmic Combat: Her in-game combat is really heavy on grunts and shouts, and she routinely remarks on how pleasurable combat is for her.
• Parent-Child Team:
  • Twice in 2. She fights alongside Rosa when she’s transported back in time to the Witch Hunts. When Bayonetta returns to the present, she and young Balder become a terrifyingly powerful one at the climax.
    Balder: We may not see our next step. We may stumble. We may fall off the path. But we always move forward! That is the power of man! Bayonetta, shall we illustrate?
    Bayonetta: Let's rock!
    (Asskicking commences)
  • In 3, she ends up fighting alongside her daughter, Viola, against Singularity.
• Passing the Torch: The lingering darkness of her — or more accurately Arch-Eve Origin — passes down her Bayonetta name to Viola after being defeated.
• Person of Mass Destruction: And one who really doesn't give much of a crap about what she destroys as long as it suits her ends. Best shown in her fights with Jeanne, Gomorrah, Father Balder, and the Masked Lumen, where she causes enough collateral damage that would get most people arrested years ago. Heavily Downplayed in that most of the destruction is usually caused by her enemy initiating or escalating the battle. Bayonetta herself doesn't seek collateral damage, she's just not deterred by it either. Which does make sense because she pretty much has Seen It All.
• Pistol-Whipping: Her most basic fighting style: with Scarborough Fair, Love Is Blue, or similar weapons equipped, her punches and kicks have her smack angels and demons around with the four pistols. Far more evident in cutscenes, where the audience gets a number of close-ups of her slapping the taste out of angels with them.
• Power Echoes: Her voice gains reverberations when she's in Demon Masquerade mode.
• Powered Armor: In the second game, when traveling back in time to the Witch Hunts, she wields the Umbran Armor. It's an extremely powerful weapon, able to even make Aesir fall to his knees with a single shot. One of her accessories, the Earrings of Ruin, allows her to use it instead of Umbran Climax.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: When she enters Climax mode (against gigantic angelic bosses in the first game and when she activates Umbran Climax in the second), her hair also grows.
• Power Nullifier: The Bayonetta 3 variant is the only person in the world capable of overturning phenomena once thought undisputable. This means that she is the only person who can fight Singularity on fair terms.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: In the first game, Bayonetta says this before shooting Father Balder with a "lipstick bullet".
  Bayonetta: "Don't fuck with a witch."
• Precision F-Strike: Being a bit nicer-mouthed than some of the other characters, her vulgarity uses this trope. In the first game, she says "I feel like a fucking celebrity in this town!" and "Don't fuck with a witch." The latter has a Call-Back in the second game: "The kind of witches you don't fuck with."
  • She gives an epic one when Dark Adam (i.e. a malevolent force that possessed and tormented the Luka she cares for) dares to call her "Cerezita" after they cause Luka (who she had just fought to bring back to his senses) to fall from the fortress they were fighting on, seemingly to his death. It's notably one of the few times in the series she has looked and sounded outright furious.
    Bayonetta: "You have no fucking right to call me by that name!"
• Prehensile Hair: Her special moves are pulled off with help from her hair. Also, her hair composes her entire freaking outfit. Needless to say, the more powerful special move she uses, the more hair she needs (like using it to make a spider several stories tall), and the more skin we see. Subverted that it's not the hair moving by itself - she's summoning demons by using her hair as a conduit.
• Pretty in Mink: In the opening of the second game, Bayonetta is going shopping at Christmastime, and she's wearing a white Pimped-Out Dress in the style of The Gay '90s that's topped with a silver fur wrap. At the end she's going after Christmas shopping in a pink dress with a white fox wrap. Both of these can be purchased at the Gates of Hell to be worn as alternate costumes.
• Punny Name: Bayonetta's name is a combination of two words associated with guns: Beretta, a well known gun manufacturer, and Bayonet, a knife attached to a rifle.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": She occasionally lets out wicked laughter during her fights. One clear example is when she activates Tartarus' Masquerade Rage in 3, where she gleefully laughs as she shreds her enemies during her "happy puppet show".
• Really 700 Years Old: Almost exactly 600 at the time of Bayonetta (of course while she was in a magical sleep for most of that time, other material makes it clear witches and sages can naturally live a long time). Presumably 603 at the time of Bayonetta 2. ^note Date of Birth: December 19, 1411
• Red Baron: "The Witch of Genesis" in Bayonetta 3.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • The emotional, warm, and vibrant red to Father Balder's cool, detached, and calculating blue, which is lampshaded in the eyes of Jubileus.
  • Meanwhile, whenever she and Jeanne clash, Bayonetta is the more cool-headed and lighthearted (usually) of the two, while Jeanne is a lot more hot-headed, wrathful and serious-minded.
• The Sacred Darkness: The Left Eye of the World that she bears (or more precisely that she is), overseeing the Darkness, is just as important as the Right Eye that oversees the Light. This is also the role of the Umbra Witches as a whole.
• Sadist: A rare heroic version, but she takes a little too much glee when killing enemies. In Bloody Fate, she outright says that killing angels and making their faces contort in pain really gets her excited.
• Scaled Up: A heroic example; in Bayonetta 2, she can transform into a cobra to swim more quickly.
• Serial Escalation: Not herself, but the enemies she fight seemingly snowball in scope and threat level as time passes. If the Origin timeline was to be believed, then Bayonetta started her career by slaying fairies in the Avalon Forest that don't do much other than threatening the local woods, followed by Angels who attempt mass genocide and a God of Evil who seeks to take over the universe, and finally a vicious madman of an Artificial Human who blows up over two thousand universes and kills all of their Bayonettas to merge all universes into a singularity where he rules over.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: The game takes Third-Person Seductress to whole new levels; she wears a variety of these, all made out of her hair. In Bayonetta 2, the backless outfit actually becomes functional in addition to alluring, since she can now use her demonic summons to become a Winged Humanoid. In Bayonetta 3, it's where the demon tattoos she's contracted with shows up.
• She-Fu: Mixed with Gun Fu and taken to ridiculous levels.
• Shoryuken: Her Witch Twist attack.
• Shoulders of Doom: A rare heroic version, as her 2 outfit gives her pointed shoulder pads.
• Showy Invincible Hero: From a story perspective, it takes an equally-strong Evil Counterpart to even inconvenience her. The first game's cutscenes have Bayonetta trashing everything from Affinities straight up to the four Cardinal Virtues; even Jeanne's fights only leave her out of breath, and Balder had to outsmart her via playing dead to capture her after losing their fight. Less prominent in the second game — aside from Gomorrah's betrayal catching her off-guard, Infernals don't give her much more trouble than the angels do, but the Masked Lumen and Loptr both end up either matching or outright defeating her. Even more downplayed in 3, as she ends up breaking her Umbran Watch and getting herself and Luka dragged into the underworld after she kills Singularity, but is instead capable of nullifying his Phenomenal Affirmation ability (and is thus the only person who can beat him in on a reasonable term) that otherwise makes him a full-blown Invincible Villain that's completely unstoppable and undoing all the death and destruction he causes to thousands of universes.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: This is one of Bayonetta's specialties; she really isn't a fan of long villain monologues, and her attitude is basically a "Shut up and FIGHT!" Any angel that decides to prattle on for too long tends to get promptly interrupted with bullets to the face. Her disdain for speeches is lampshaded in Bayonetta 2 during an encounter with the Masked Lumen:
  Bayonetta: Well, at least you're the silent type. The last sage I met spent 20 minutes rambling on and on!
• Slide Attack: Her Heel Slide and Stiletto attacks.
• Smug Super: Bayonetta brims with boundless confidence and has all the godly power to back it up.
• Sociopathic Hero: She takes a lot of delight in killing those angels and is generally apathetic to the horrendous collateral damage she leaves in her wake.
• Sophisticated as Hell: As Bayonetta says it, "If you get in my way, I will... how do the Americans put it? Oh yes. Bust a cap in yo' ass."
• Spectacular Spinning: A majority of her techniques involve her doing some graceful spins and twirls.
• Spy Catsuit: Her regular outfit resembles one, with a few odd touches here and there.
• Statuesque Stunner: Her actual height's unknown, but the camera loves to look up at her and the civilians we see in Vigrid and Noatun are always at least a head shorter than her.
• Stepford Smiler: The lyrics to "Mysterious Destiny" describe her as this.
  Bayonetta, you bury your loneliness deep down in your eyes.
  Sadness lies in your smile.
• Stripperiffic: She is a gun-toting witch wearing a Spy Catsuit made of her hair. That she strips off her body as she uses her magic. And turns it into a hair dragon while standing around in the nude.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She is implied to look exactly like her mother, Rosa, down to her outfit of choice. This causes Bayonetta's time-displaced child self, Cereza, to mistake her for her own mother.
• Summon Magic: She uses her hair as a medium to summon demonic entities to aid her in taking down enemies.
• Super Mode: Her Serious Mode in the first game and her Umbran Climax in the second game. Both of them back up every one of her attacks with a Wicked Weave.
• Supermodel Strut: Unless you make her run at full speed, Bayonetta treats every walk like a catwalk, swinging her hips and foot in either direction. Her stance is so exaggerated that even when standing still her feet are placed on the opposite sides of her center of mass. This is both to invoke Third-Person Seductress and to showcase her sexually confident and domineering nature.
• Super-Speed: Her Witch Time in a nutshell. By dodging at the last second, Bayonetta can boost her senses and physical abilities, allowing her to mercilessly pummel her opponents who are too slow to fight back. Her Bracelet of Time accessory allows her to activate Witch Time whenever she wants.
• Super-Strength: Even without her Wicked Weaves, Bayonetta is unnaturally and immensely strong despite her lithe figure, although this is mostly shown in cutscenes. She regularly tosses large enemies and bosses like ragdolls, can suplex Fortitudo, a giant dragon, with ease, and can slice of Iustita's tentacles with a single karate chop. At one point, after defeating Temperantia, she holds up a large trolley bus with one hand as easily as one would hold a ball and casually tosses it aside. The most ludicrous example of this would be headbutting a skyscraper into the distance.
• Suplex Finisher: In the opening cutscene of the first game, Bayonetta slams about five or six angels into each other, then suplexes all of them simultaneously, causing their heads to explode.
• Talk to the Fist: Bayonetta LOVES doing this to the Cardinal Virtues... sometimes multiple times in one conversation!
  Bayonetta: Ugh, another talkative type...
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: She's tall, she's dressed in black, and she rarely misses a chance to snark at her enemies.
• Taught by Experience: At the start of 2, Gomorrah deciding to attack her almost gets her killed and leads to an extensive boss fight. At the start of 3, when Gomorrah tries to attack her again, she breaks out the Demon Slave - which, going by Rodin's remarks, is a formerly-lost art.
• The Tease: Frequently does this with Luka to the point where it seems like she keeps saving him just to keep messing with him. It’s implied by Kamiya, that she does this for the hell of it.
• Technopath: Can use her magic to hotwire vehicles by jamming her middle finger in the ignition. And it's not limited to just land-based vehicles - the first game had her hijacking and riding a missile to get to Isla De Sol.
• Thinking Up Portals: Her Umbran Portal Kick in the first game. Bayonetta creates a portal in the shape of the Umbran symbol and sinks into it. She then reappears to crash down from above, striking a sexy pose.
• Third-Person Seductress: The series takes this to its logical conclusion; her magical hair forms her costume and is used for her attacks. This means that parts of her clothing disappear during attacks, and her finishing moves render her entirely naked aside from just enough coverage to keep it from getting an AO rating. The pure absurdity of the sex appeal on display in the trailers alone - never mind the final product - was almost certainly intentional on the part of the development team, many of whom are Clover refugees. Knowing their previous works^note Ōkami, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe, MadWorld,, they seem quite happy keeping a self-mocking sense of humor throughout.
• Time-Shifted Actor: She is voiced by Hellena Taylor and Atsuko Tanaka as an adult and by Joy Jillian and Miyuki Sawashiro as her child self, Cereza.
• Together in Death: For Arch Eve Bayonetta. At the end of 3, her Umbral Watch is destroyed. Luka was able to stop Gomorrah from devouring her soul before the two embrace and are dragged off into Inferno.
• Too Many Belts: Her first outfit has many buckled belts on the sleeves.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bayonetta is obsessed with lollipops. She's usually sucking on one in cutscenes, and almost all of the expendable power-ups that players can craft or win in Angel Attack are magical lollipops. Apparently, this was due to Luka giving them to Cereza aka her younger self.
  • In 2 and 3, both she and her Tokyo variant mention caviar.
• Tranquil Fury: She rarely outwardly expresses her anger. Her reaction to most situations is to normally snark it out. In fact, the only warning that you have severely pissed her off and have simultaneously carved your own headstone is her voice lowering a few octaves and the lack of any snappy one-liners. If that happens, make your peace with whatever made you and pray you at least end up in critical condition.
  (To Balder) I could never call the man behind this nightmare "Father!"
  (To Gomorrah) I'm not one for pets who don't listen to their masters.
  (To Alraune) Then it's going to be a bloody coronation. Now release my Umbran sister.
  (To Loptr) Then just try to take it back. You've destroyed more than you know.
  (To Dark Adam) You have no fucking right to call me by that name!
• Transformation Sequence: Happens when she switches from the aforementioned nun outfit to her other one. She also learns how to shapeshift later.
• Tricked-Out Shoes: Weapons are attachable to the heels.
• Trigger-Happy: Bayonetta has a permanently itchy trigger finger and won't hesitate to pull her gun on anything and anyone who pisses her off, including her friends.
• Troll: Getting a reaction out of people, including but not limited to teasing them, seems to her idea of good fun. Her usual target is Luka (in the first game at least), who she goes out of her way to embarrass. Mostly because he is an annoyance to her. Considering how much rescuing he needs, he's potentially earned it. She continues this when working alongside Viola in 3.
• Two Aliases, One Character: She and Cereza are the same person.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • Is thoroughly repulsed by Balder from pretty much the second they meet, but as soon as he throws Luka to his doom, Bayonetta whips out her guns and opens fire on the Lumen Sage with a look of absolute fury on her face.
  • In Bayonetta 3, when Singularity confronts her with loads of soldiers outfitted with homunculi that force them into his control and that they may even be aware of their condition, topping it off by mocking her with a synchronized dance at her akin to how she uses Demon Slave, she simply corrects her glasses, fiercely glares and orders Gommorah to kill them all.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In 3, her reaction to first meeting Strider (a werewolf-like being with a cape made of stained glass and a constellation of eyes) is little more than a snarky comment about his lack of "attachments". After The Reveal that Strider is Luka, Bayonetta's attitude is more concern about why than any questions as to what. Similarly, when Viola and Lukaon show up in the Alphaverse during the finale, she shows very little reaction to this ephemeral man who looks like Luka with Prophet Eyes in a stained-glass robe. Origins reveals that she's met faeries before, so the fairy presence in 3 isn't as new for her as it was for the players, and she might even recognize Lukaon all grown up.
• Use Your Head: She likes using a headbutt to counter an enemy's attack, whether it's part of a quick-time event or using a parry.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Both versions of Cereza seen in the first game and Origins are sweet and kind children who are thrust into unenviable and violent circumstances, heavily contrasting the domineering, violent sadist of an Umbran Witch she is in the present day. If the story in Origins was of any indication, there's no wonder why she would grow up that way.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where she gets the lipstick she uses to kill Balder.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She needs to remember how (and buy certain abilities back), but she gains this ability over the course of both games. Panther Within for Super-Speed, Bat Within to evade damage, Crow Within for limited flight, and – in the second game - Snake Within for enhanced swimming abilities.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Unlike the other Nintendo costumes, Bayonetta's Hero of Hyrule outfit isn't substantially altered from its source — aside from removing the undershirt and adjusting the length and tightness of the rest of the costume, it's basically the same, but it still fits her personality very well.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She quips a variant of this in the first game:
  Bayonetta: "Tentacles! Why did it have to be tentacles?"
• Wrestler in All of Us: She's fully capable of suplexing a dragon and a half dozen angels simultaneously.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: She is the child of an Umbra Witch and a Lumen Sage. While she doesn't use any angelic-oriented powers it is worth noting she can pick up and use their weapons if they drop them.
• You Killed My Father: To Father Balder, who is responsible for the witch hunts that killed her mother. In Bayonetta 2, this hatred transfers to Loptr, the actual culprit.

Bayonetta's Variants (Unmarked Spoilers)

Variants of Bayonetta, most of whom appear in Bayonetta 3.

• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Many of them are more proactive and consistent in their efforts to protect the world.
• Ambiguously Brown: Several of these come from distinctively non-European settings, unlike core-Bayonetta. β3 has a bit of a tan, but otherwise they look exactly the same.
• Barrier Maiden: Each Bayonetta is an Arch-Eve who serves as a lynchpin to her universe, with her death and absorption by Singularity serving as the proverbial nail in the coffin that allows Singularity to completely wipe out said universe from reality.
• Climactic Battle Resurrection: Prime Bayonetta is able to do enough damage to Singularity in the final battle that their absorbed souls are set free for just enough time to get their licks in before they get dispelled.
• Foregone Conclusion: Invoked and Exploited by Singularity himself to kill off these Bayonettas and collapse their universes. His strongest ability is "Phenomenal Affirmation", which changes the fate of the universes he attacks to a path he wishes. Naturally, it means the Bayonetta Variants are doomed to fail no matter what they do.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The Variants get killed off in the same chapter they were introduced.

Bayonetta (Records of Time: The Witch Hunts)

A Bayonetta who, during her childhood, is flung 500 years into the future during the events of Bayonetta. Her experiences there with her future self, or "Mummy", set a brand-new path for her and change history in her native timeline. See here.

Bayonetta (Records of Time: The End)

A Bayonetta who has followed an identical path to the main Bayonetta until the events of Bayonetta 2.

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• Alternate Self: This Bayonetta has lived an identical life to the main Bayonetta, and even still ends up teleported to the past. However, in this reality, she goes up against demons and angels and meets the Masked Lumen much later.

Bayonetta β0

The Bayonetta of Viola's reality. She looks nearly identical to the main Bayonetta from the first game, with a few tiny differences.

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• Action Mom: Is Viola's mother, and kicks just as much ass as the main Bayonetta.
• Decoy Protagonist: You play as her during the prologue, where she falls in battle against Singularity.
• Defiant to the End: Despite clearly being outmatched against Singularity, even as she's severely injured, her Umbran Watch cracked, and barely being able to even hold up her guns, she still keeps trying to fight back before Singularity manages to incapacitate and finish her off.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She is the Bayonetta shown dying in the very first teaser for Bayonetta 3, as evidenced by the absence of the main Bayonetta's beauty mark and her guns' collective name.
• Futile Hand Reach: Was reaching out towards her daughter Viola before she crystalizes and gets killed.
• Red Baron: "The Indomitable Witch".
• Spotting the Thread: She lacks the main Bayonetta's beauty mark, and her guns, while nearly identical to Scarborough Fair, are collectively called Whittingham Fair instead.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: This Bayonetta only appears in the prologue before being killed by Singularity, and in the Old Picture Book as Cereza from when she was still in training.

Bayonetta β1

A Bayonetta living in an alternate Tokyo.

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• And Now for Someone Completely Different: She has her own playable segment where she chases after Iridescent and takes out its core.
• Animal Motifs: Spiders, with the demon she's contracted with being a large arachnid.
• Cheery Pink: She's a variant with pink hair, and a cheerful attitude to match. Just before the Homunculi came crashing in, she was eagerly awaiting her version of Jeanne for a bowling challenge.
• The Fashionista: In keeping with the Akihabara motif, this Bayonetta has a much more modern fashion sense, albeit still quite bombastic.
• Friendly Rivalry: With her Jeanne, both of them engaging in various noncombat challenges but always ending in a draw. Bowling was next until the Homunculi came.
• Killer Yo-Yo: Wields the Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo. After her death, the main Bayonetta gets ahold of them.
• Red Baron: "The Street-Smart Witch".
• Smug Super: Even for a Bayonetta, this one is quite overconfident. She outright says she always gets what she wants.
  "When I see something I want, it's mine."

Bayonetta β2

A Bayonetta living in an alternate China.

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• Big Sister Instinct: When fighting against Singularity, she steps in front of Prime Bayonetta in hopes of using her chainsaw to protect her, and gets wiped out by Singularity.
• Chainsaw Good: Wields Dead End Express in battle. Also counts as a BFS.
• Eyepatch of Power: She's missing her right eye and wears a red eye patch to cover it up. It's never explained how she lost her eye, but the soldiers have no shortage of theories for it.
• La Résistance: This one is styled as the general of the Chinese army leading the battle against the Homunculi.
• Red Baron: "The One-Eyed Witch".
• The Stoic: Far more stoic and less smug than the average Bayonetta.
• Transforming Vehicle: Unlike the other Variants, she has a contract with a demon train. Aside from being a normal train, it can even summon cannon's, which Prime Bayonetta uses.

Bayonetta β3

A Bayonetta living in an alternate Cairo as its ruler.

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• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Though a kind ruler, this Bayonetta dislikes fighting and refuses to fully embrace her Umbran powers. When the Homunculi attack and Singularity targets her universe's Jeanne, Bayonetta finally chooses to fight and makes a demon contract with Malphas.
• Big Sister Instinct: After defeating the Boss Homunculi in the Cairo area, she saves Prime Bayonetta by taking her place, thus sacrificing herself into the void. The next time during their fight against Singularity, she dives over to Prime Bayonetta and shoves her out of the way, causing Singularity to wipe her out.
• Cool Mask: Wears a large ornate mask that cover the top portion of her face.
• Combat Hand Fan: Wields Simoon, twin fans forged from the feathers of baby Malphas. She can also throw them like boomerangs.
• Go Out with a Smile: As she saves Prime Bayonetta and throws her fan out to destroy any rubble that may hinder her, she smiles knowing she had avenged Jeanne and saved other realities.
  "Jeanne... did you see? I won..."
• Guest-Star Party Member: The fight against Stratocumulus has the player swapping between β3 controlling Malphas and the main Bayonetta controlling The Phantom.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Saves the main Bayonetta in exchange for her own life being forfeit.
• Insult of Endearment: Her version of Jeanne seems to call her "princess" with mild annoyance to her tone, but does truly care for her.
• Light Is Good: Is dressed in almost all white and gold, with her even being known as a kind ruler.
• Mercy Kill: Kills the Jeanne of her reality, who begs for death, after the main Bayonetta refuses to do so.
• Nice Girl: While Bayonetta(s) in general are almost always a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, this variant is the most outwardly kind.
• Princesses Rule: She is the ruler of her Desert nation, but her official title is "princess."
• Red Baron: "The Cloistered Witch".
• Single Tear: After taking out her Jeanne when Prime Bayonetta couldn't take the shot, a single tear runs down from her eye.

Bayonetta β4

A Bayonetta living in an alternate France.

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• Animal Motifs: Bats, with her outfit and contracted demon both being related to bats.
• Attack Reflector: She can use her hat to reflect a bullet Bayonetta shoots and toss it right back at her.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Her first interaction with Prime Bayonetta is this.
  Bayonetta: And what was that?
  Phantom Thief Bayonetta: Oh, that? A simple bonsoir. Just wait until I get really chatty.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: In keeping with her Phantom Thief motif, this Bayonetta has made a career of burgling ancient Umbran artifacts alongside her maman.
• Dance-Off: Instigates and performs a short one with Prime Bayonetta.
• Detachment Combat: When she takes on her demon form, her torso and lower body split apart.
• Fake American: In-Universe, possibly. Given that she's still a Bayonetta, it's safe to assume she was born in Vigrid, however she lacks a Vigridian (i.e., RP British) accent and instead has an American one.
• Gratuitous French: Despite her American accent (and the only Bayonetta to have one), being a Phantom Thief in France she occasionally drops French words into her conversations with Bayonetta.
• Hammerspace: One of her attacks has her summon multiple bowling pins from her hat. She also demonstrates this during the fight against Singularity.
• Magic Hat: Her hat can not only deflect attacks, but also acts as a weapon for her to summon bowling pins out of that attack her enemies.
• Magic Wand: Wields the cane Cadabra, one half of her Abracadabra weapon set.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Wears a thin mask over her eyes, and proves to be a deadly foe for the police and Prime Bayonetta.
• Momma's Girl: This Bayonetta was raised to adulthood by Rosa to be a powerful witch, and they continued their adventures together as partners in crime. As a result she's very attached to her and is not happy in the slightest when prime Bayonetta has to Mercy Kill Rosa.
• Phantom Thief: She is Papillon d'Ombre the 2nd, daughter and partner of Papillon d'Ombre (her universe's Rosa). Posing as traveling performers, they use their powers to locate and steal back Umbran treasures from around the world.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Unfortunately falls to this when a parasitic Perlucidus attaches itself to her.
• Red Baron: "The Phantom Thief Witch".
• Revenge Before Reason: Whether she is unaware or heedless of the reason Prime Bayo kills her mummy, she definitely is out to kill her Prime counterpart out of vengeance. Singularity even mocks her for this simple-mindedness.
• Together in Death: After Prime Bayonetta has to kill her — and having already killed the phantom thief Rosa as well — Prime Bayonetta hopes that this Bayonetta is "reunited with her mummy".
• Tranquil Fury: She sounds calm even knowing that Prime Bayonetta had killed her mother.
• Weaponized Headgear: Her top hat Abra, the other half of her Abracadabra weapon set.
• You Killed My Mother: When her reality's Rosa is killed by the main Bayonetta, this Bayonetta ends up fighting her in revenge.

Bayonetta 1

A Bayonetta resembling the main Bayonetta from the first game.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Both she and Bayonetta 2 disappear into purple particles after helping Bayonetta Prime out, making their statuses unknown.
• Big Damn Heroes: Arrives during the final battle at the nick of time, destroying a spear Singularity had set to murder a heavily weakened and incapacitated Bayonetta Prime with.
• Meaningful Echo: When she appears and saves Prime Bayonetta she asks her, "You didn't cry while I was gone, did you?" This implies the Bayonetta we've been playing all game was the child Cereza that Bayonetta looked after from the first game, now all grown up.
• Leitmotif: A snippet of "Mysterious Destiny" plays when she first appears in the final battle. The full song also plays when control shifts to her.
• Missing Main Character: She briefly takes over as player character while Origin Bayonetta is recovering from having her watch cracked. She wields Scarborough Fair, uses Beast Within as a Demon Masquerade, and can summon Madama Butterfly in her design from the first two games.
• Painting the Medium: When playing as her, the HUD changes to match that of the first game.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Is strongly implied to be the actual Bayonetta of the first game, and that all three games were in different universes.
• Red Baron: "The Witch in Remembrance".

Bayonetta 2

A Bayonetta resembling the main Bayonetta from the second game.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Both she and Bayonetta 1 disappear into purple particles after helping Bayonetta Prime out, making their statuses unknown.
• Big Damn Heroes: Arrives during the final battle at the nick of time, summoning Labolas to intercept one of Singularity's summons attempting to attack Bayonetta 1 and Bayonetta Prime.
• Guest-Star Party Member: She fights alongside Bayonetta 1 while Bayonetta Origin is incapacitated.
• Leitmotif: A snippet of "Tomorrow is Mine" plays when she first appears in the final battle.
• Mythology Gag: Unlike Bayonetta Prime and Bayonetta 1, who mainly rely on Gomorrah, she summons Labolas — who essentially took Gomorrah's place in the second game — to rip apart the Homunculi.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Is strongly implied to be the actual Bayonetta of the second game, and that all three games were in different universes.
• Red Baron: "The Witch with Discerning Eyes".

Bayonetta α / Dark Eve

The Bayonetta of the Alphaverse. She tried to stop Singularity, but fell in battle. Her consciousness managed to survive, but has merged with the remains of many Arch-Eves consumed by Singularity.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Like Dark Adam, Dark Eve is described in her bio as being a mindless force of destruction with virtually nothing left of her former selves. Yet, when fought at the end of the game she is clearly testing Viola with purpose, shows memory of the lessons Arch Eve Origin taught Viola during the game, and explains why Viola must defeat her. Viola also acknowledges her as her mother in the end, all suggesting that Dark Eve underwent some kind of change after Singularity's destruction and the restoration of the various worlds, and may even have no longer been just Dark Eve but a conduit through which Arch Eve Origin Bayonetta in Inferno could interact with Viola in the World of Chaos one last time. Yet, nothing is confirmed.
• Anchors Away: Wields Cassiopeia in battle.
• Dying as Yourself: Upon defeat, she transforms back into her normal appearance, passing on her title of Bayonetta to Viola.
  Bayonetta α: That was your final lesson, Viola. But for someone who's grown so much, perhaps the gift of a new name is in order: Bayonetta.
• Post-Final Boss: The true final boss of Bayonetta 3.
• Voice of the Legion: When Viola stumbles upon her, her voice sounds distorted as she brokenly calls her "kitty".
• The Worm That Walks: Her body is composed with the warped hearts of many Arch-Eves.

Jeanne

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle (EN), Eleanor Jackson (EN, Origins), Mie Sonozaki (JP)

^{Click here to see her appearance in Bayonetta 2}

^{Click here to see her appearance in Bayonetta 3}

"I stake my honour as an Umbra!"

Jeanne is a major antagonist in Bayonetta and a major protagonist in Bayonetta 2. An Umbra Witch of prodigious skill, Jeanne was Bayonetta's childhood friend and her frequent sparring partner, despite Bayonetta's stigma as an impure outsider and Jeanne's status as heir to the clan. When the Witch Hunts threatened the safety of her clan, Jeanne sealed Bayonetta away and spent the next five hundred years fighting the forces of Paradiso as the last of her kind.

She is on par with Bayonetta in battle, and similarly fights with four magical pistols, martial arts, and the limbs of a demoness, Madama Styx. However, Jeanne is much more serious and proud, holding her status as an Umbra Witch in high regard, and she often concerns herself with the supernatural workings of her world even when no one else does. She regards combat as a fierce, no-nonsense proving ground for skill, and is merciless to her opponents. However, she shows an emotional side sometimes, often being shocked at displays of friendship; she's also a daredevil who thoroughly enjoys performing dangerous stunts on her motorcycle.

A few alternate universe variants are shown in 3, and while the specifics of their relationship with a given Bayonetta vary, they are always close, be it as rivals, like sisters, friends, teacher and student, etc. In at least one universe, Bayonetta's refusal to embrace her powers caused the Jeanne of that world to become that universe's Arch Eve.

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• Adaptational Villainy: While she served a villainous role in the first game, it was only because she was brainwashed by Father Balder. In Bloody Fate, there is no mentioning of her being brainwashed, so it seems her villainy was deliberate.
• Alternate Self: A couple are introduced in Bayonetta 3; see their sections at the bottom of the folder.
• Ambiguous Situation: Origins implies her returning to fight alongside Bayonetta during the climax of 3 was via use of a magic called "soul projection" (as the effects when she dissolves away when her soul returns to her body look much the same as when she disappears in 3) presumably used after her soul was freed and potentially returned to her restored body. Yet as with the idea that almost everyone who died in 3 got restored to life when Bayonetta changed Singularity's phenomena, it is as yet not confirmed beyond doubt.
• Animal Motifs: Jeanne is the moth to Bayonetta's butterfly. Her contract is with Madama Styx, a moth-themed demon and her equivalent of Bat Within is a swarm of moths.
• Animorphism: She can transform into animals like Bayonetta.
• Anti-Villain: She's only attacking Bayonetta because she was brainwashed by Balder. She gets better, though. She also still gets a kick out of massacring the angels supposedly helping her.
• Attack Hello: On harder difficulties, Jeanne will start fights by immediately summoning a Wicked Uppercut directly under your feet.
• Badass Biker: She has her own motorcycle, complete with vanity plate, and gets a lot of screentime pulling stunts on it.
• Badass Creed: As the superhero Cutie J, she has her own creed that is equally badass, cheesy and endearing. She even belts it out word-for-word in Bayonetta 3!
  Those distant, hear the sound... Those close by, see the spectacle... Evildoers, fear final justice, because the Platinum Knight has arrived to defend the weak and innocent! CUTIE J IS HERE!
• Badass in Distress: The plot of the second game revolves around this. A freak accident involving a summoning gone wrong causes Jeanne's soul to be dragged to Inferno, giving Bayonetta only a day to rescue her before her soul is lost forever. Once she's rescued, she goes right back to kicking ass, and (in order) flies Bayonetta and Balder to Fimbulventr, holds off a massive dual army of angels and demons, and calls upon Gomorrah — the very demon that got her Dragged Off to Hell — to destroy Loptr's body.
• Badass Teacher: As revealed in the notes for the Bloody Moon and in Bloody Fate, Jeanne is a high-school teacher when she's not killing angels and does not take kindly to any harm coming to her students.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Jeanne can do it too. Of course, given the Final Battle's circumstances, breathing in space is the easy part. Maybe that's part of Jubileus' grace. Or maybe it's because of magic.
• Best Friend: Without a doubt is this to Bayonetta, as she doesn't even hesitate to dive into Inferno when Jeanne is in trouble.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her hairstyle in the first game. Bayonetta 2 switches things up, giving Jeanne longer hair and Bayonetta shorter hair.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The reason why Jeanne is attacking Bayonetta. If the other tropes on this page haven't clued you in, it wears off near the end of the first game.
• Child Prodigy: Origins reveals that Jeanne took to Umbran magic much more quickly than Cereza did; for an example, Cereza only figures out Restoration Magic after the third McGuffin, whereas Jeanne has already mastered it from the opening. While Cereza summoned her first Infernal at the tail end of the first chapter, Jeanne already knows enough of her way around Infernals to transfer Cheshire to a new body. This is reflected in gameplay, where Jeanne's version of Thorn Bind is an Area of Effect snare that can seize an entire formation of faeries and can begin casting regardless of their proximity, whereas Cereza has a slightly faster-casting Thorn Bind that can only affect a single enemy and only casts if she has one targeted.
• Coat Cape: In 3 Jeanne wears a snow leopard jacket like this.
• Combat Stilettos: She wears high heels with heels replaced with guns, which she uses to perform Gun Fu.
• Cool Teacher: Is said to be mild-mannered and popular with her students. And she's a Umbra Witch.
• Cosplay: Like Bayonetta, she too gets dressed up in various costumes (sharing most of them with Bayonetta in-game), although by her own admittance she doesn't quite enjoy it as much as Bayonetta.
• Dark Action Girl: Played with in Bayonetta, where Jeanne's associated with the holy-but-evil angels.
• Dark Reprise: "Blood & Darkness" is one to "Red & Black", signifying that Jeanne's not fucking around anymore.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • Her character model – not her outfit, mind you, but her body structure and chest size – was altered in Bayonetta 2 to make her more unique compared to Bayonetta, with whom she shared almost an entire character model in the original game.
  • In Bayonetta 2, Jeanne keeps her All 4 One moveset and animations from the previous game, while Bayonetta receives a brand-new set of animations and combos for Love is Blue.
• Drives Like Crazy: Not even the bustling downtown traffic prevents her from doing crazy stunts with her bike.
• Evil Twin: To Bayonetta, from fighting styles, to clothes, to glasses. No family relation, though.
  Bayonetta: Who are you? And don't you dare say my long-lost sister.
• Fanservice Pack: Inverted. Her chest is noticeably flattened in Bayonetta 2 when compared to her model in the original Bayonetta, which Word of God states was to further differentiate her from Bayonetta.
• Fleur-de-lis: The sigil appearing behind her name when she is introduced in battle and in her entry for the Hierarchy of Laguna book is a heavily stylized Fleur-de-Lis. Fitting, since she is strongly implied to be of French descent.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Not on her outfit, but rather, she has massive feather tassels hanging off of the ends of her two guns in the first game. The concept artist, Mari Shimazaki, put them there to accentuate her movements, much like Bayonetta's long hair. They vanish inexplicably when she changes into her identical-to-Bayonetta's leather costume during their last battle. The feathers are reminiscent of moth antennae, as accentuated in her transformations into a beast or a bird. They also contrast with Bayonetta's hair ribbons, which are meant to be reminiscent of butterfly antennae.
• Foil: To Bayonetta, in a few ways.
  • Jeanne's more of a daredevil than Bayonetta; she'll only choose to activate Witch Time through her One to Million to One Moth Within, and she takes 50% more damage from attacks (implying she's not trying to defend herself as much). In cutscenes, Jeanne tends to fight in close quarters, and her showy moves revolve around putting herself in harm's way, rather than the straightforward Camp that Bayonetta is known for.
  • Jeanne is also harsher to her enemies. Bayonetta often shows a bit of sadism in combat and likes to play with her enemies before killing them, and her battle shouts and taunts show that she maintains a sense of humor in battle. Jeanne's battle cries and taunts are dominated by wrath and rage, and by far more profane than Bayonetta's (incidentally, she only uses profanity during playable combat). Her Wicked Weaves are 50% more damaging than Bayonetta's, implying that she's putting more of her power into them.
  • Jeanne takes the plot much more seriously than Bayonetta, and provides drama and motivation during her scenes to contrast Bayonetta's comedy and flippancy.
  • Jeanne's personality, outfits, and body language paint her as the conservative, classy foil to Bayonetta's outrageous, sexualized Camp.
• Good Wears White: In the climactic battle of the first game, Jeanne aids Bayonetta while wearing the white outfit she wore in their previous battle when Jeanne was Brainwashed and Crazy. Jeanne wearing white before she snaps out of Balder's control could be seen as foreshadowing her Heel–Face Turn.
• The Gunslinger: Just like Bayonetta, she wields four guns.
• Heel–Face Turn: Jeanne starts out evil, but once her brainwashing at Balder's hands is undone, she goes through hell and high water for Bayonetta.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Her civilian clothing in the first two games is motorcycle leathers.
• Henshin Hero: Shown in 3: If she finds a teacup during her side missions, she will recite her Badass Creed, strike an Ass-Kicking Pose, then instantly transform into Cutie J.
• Hidden Depths: Concept art, Bloody Fate, and the sequel reveal that Jeanne's day job is teaching history at a high school.
• I Did What I Had to Do: During the Witch Hunts, after realizing what the enemies were after, she stabbed Cereza on the heart to prevent Cereza from awakening the sought-after Left Eye. This managed to delay the villain's Evil Plan for several centuries.
• Insult of Endearment: When Bayonetta makes a joke on Jeanne's expense in front of Dr. Sigurd, Jeanne playfully retorts with "You bitch!", and Dr. Digurd remarks what close friends the two witches are.
• Improbable Weapon User: Her ice skates are fueled by the soul of Karen, the vain and spoiled child from the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Red Shoes".
• Jeanne d'Archétype: When the Witch Hunts began, she was the most adamant to defend her clan – and still is, 500 years later. On the more obvious side of things, Jeanne shares both her first name and birth date with the actual Jeanne D'Arc – and her jumpsuit in the first game is "D'Arc" brand; an Italian couturier.
• Little Miss Badass: As seen in Origins, young Jeanne is already an accomplished and confident witch who stares down anyone who dares threaten her and her loved ones, as Singularity experiences firsthand, in contrast to her best friend young Cereza who is still an inexperienced witch with low self esteem.
• Living a Double Life: She actually lives three lives: A high school teacher, her city's local Super Hero, and an Umbra Witch!
• Mage Marksman: A gunslinger and Umbra Witch, just like Bayonetta.
• Magical Girl: She's either this, or a straight-up superhero when she dons the "Cutie J" costume, complete with a cute mask and dorky creed. A loving reference to Cutey Honey.
  "The battle uniform of the Umbra Witches. The strong, tightly woven hair forming this bodysuit repels all attacks. But in the hands of the seemingly mild-mannered schoolteacher Jeanne, the suit allows her to transform into the powerful Cutie J! Defending her city and her beloved students, she cuts through evil with her crimson blade, Bloody Moon! Those distant, hear the sound... Those close by, see the spectacle... Evildoers, fear final justice, because the Platinum Knight has arrived to defend the weak and innocent! CUTIE J IS HERE!"
• Mirror Boss: As an Umbra Witch herself, her fighting style is more or less identical to Bayonetta's.
• Motifs: Jeanne has a strong musketeer theme. She canonically fights with sword and gun, has pistols named after the four musketeers, has a modern steed in her motorcycle, might be Umbran royalty, and rocks a snazzy-looking feathered cavalier hat in an early cutscene. She's also very task-oriented and is motivated by duty and loyalty.
• Ms. Fanservice: Zig-zagged. Outfits initially unique to her, like her d'Arc outfit and her biker suit, are quite conservative. When playable, though, Jeanne has access to the same fanservicey outfits as Bayonetta.
• The Musketeer: Jeanne alternates between using sword and gun during her boss fights.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Origins implies her death in 3 was to some extent planned by her. Jeanne was fully aware of the manner of her death, even what she was wearing at the time and what the weapon that did it looked like, yet did nothing to change it, ensuring that the future she knew about (including Singularity being defeated and then traveling to the past to try to change this only to die for good) would happen. Rather than gamble on a future where she lived, she made sure that her death (temporary as, unknown to her, it may have been) served a purpose.
• Nominal Villain: Jeanne spends most of the first game as an adversary to Bayonetta, but is revealed to be under a spell after the fourth battle with her. After being freed, she aids Bayonetta in the final battle against Father Balder.
• Not a Morning Person: One doodle by Mari Shimazaki, the game's official artist, suggests that Jeanne doesn't like waking up early. In the second game, Bayonetta also remarks that Jeanne "never were a morning person".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: She slaughters the Big Bad's entire demon-angel army offscreen during the second game's finale. The next time we see her, she's waiting in the clear Noatunian air for her chance to leap into action, and there isn't a single damn scratch on her or the jet she rode in on.
  "I'll take care of them, Cereza. Hurry to the temple!"
• Only Mostly Dead: Played completely straight in the sequel, where Jeanne's body can last roughly a day before her soul becomes a permanent part of Inferno and she's dead for good.
• Perfect Play A.I.: Jeanne is the first enemy in the series capable of breaking out of your combos, adapting to your playstyle, and generally testing your ability to do something other than thoughtlessly spamming attacks. She'll do this in her first fight, which is in Chapter II, and she only gets tougher.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Jeanne comes fairly close as she can fire remote-controlled missiles at you during her last boss fight.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: It's not made clear if Bayonetta's specs are prescription, but Jeanne's certainly aren't; she only wears them once, during the first game's Epilogue while waiting for the Laguna to crash Bayonetta's funeral, and by Bayo 2 she's traded them out for a proper pair of biker goggles.
• Really 700 Years Old: She is around the same age as Bayonetta. ^note Date of Birth: January 6, 1412; sixteen days younger.
• Recurring Boss: Fought 4 times in the first game.
• Redemption Equals Death: Played with repeatedly in Jeanne's case as the game tries to show her supposedly dying after being freed from Balder's brainwashing. It's ultimately averted because she survives in the end.
• The Rival: Fits this trope best in Bayonetta, where she's bitter and resentful that Bayonetta defeated her on the night of her own coronation. Turns into Bash Brothers once her brainwashing wears off.
• Royal Rapier: Fights with one, named Angel Slayer, musketeer-style during the Witch Hunts. She uses it during her third and fourth boss fights, and it serves as her equivalent of Bayonetta's 修羅刃 -Shuraba- in both games.
• Shout-Out:
  • Her quartet of guns are called "All 4 One" altogether — or "Porthos", "Athos", "Aramis" and "D'Artagnan" individually. In the second game, their feather tassels are replaced by cat plushies wearing musketeer hats◊.
  • Her rivalry with the main protagonist bares in mind Vergil/Nelo Angelo's rivalry against Dante, with both of them coming from hack and slash games being made by Hideki Kamiya. Both of them also end up being brainwashed by the Big Bad, only to snap out of it. Otherwise though the characters have different personalities.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Never in dialogue, but Jeanne's taunts (and battle cries) in both games are quite profane, compared to Bayonetta's.
  "You motherfucker!"
• Spanner in the Works: Jeanne is responsible for derailing Father Balder's plan, because he didn't count on her snapping out of her brainwashing and saving Bayonetta.
• Taking the Bullet: Pushes Bayonetta out of the way of a berserk Gomorrah in the prologue of the second game, getting hit so hard her soul is knocked out of her body.
• Uncertain Doom: When we last see her in 3, she's run through by Singularity and her soul is absorbed by him. Her soul breaks free along with those of the slain Bayonettas and lends a hand in the final boss fight before fading away. Whether or not she's actually dead for good is never explicitly stated, and there is evidence she was restored along with most of the other lives Singularity ended, but considering the main theme of the game's story is that Cereza and her allies' story is over and Viola's story is now beginning, her chances aren't good.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Umbran cause, and Bayonetta once her brainwashing wears off.
• Vanity License Plate: The plate on her motorcycle reads "U1 QTJ" (Umbra #1 Cutie J).
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Jeanne is your first introduction to just how tough the game can get, especially if you haven't mastered dodging and Witch Time. She will break out of your combos at a moment's notice, put you into unbreakable combos of her own, and break out the Giant Foot of Stomping on you. Your first fight with her is Chapter II, less than a quarter of the way into the game, and she just gets tougher from there.
• Willfully Weak: According to Word of God, Jeanne is a compulsive daredevil, which is why she doesn't enter Witch Time if she doesn't use her Moth Within – that ability puts her at a far greater risk of being hit than simply dodging. Averted with her Wicked Weaves, which deal 1.5x the damage of Bayonetta's.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Father Balder had already previously decided that she was supposed to die in order to help Bayonetta regain her lost memories. However, she snaps out of her brainwashing at the last moment and escapes, coming back later to save Bayonetta from Balder.
  • Once Bayonetta goes to Alphaverse in a futile mission, Singularity promptly shanks Jeanne from behind.

Jeanne β1

A variant of Jeanne living in an alternate Tokyo. She is mentioned in Bayonetta β1's profile as her rival, and is first seen being slain by the Homunculi.

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• Friendly Rivalry: She and her Bayonetta are always competing against each other.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bayonetta β1 knows that something is wrong when she shows up for a bowling challenge between her and Jeanne... and Jeanne isn't there.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Is introduced getting killed off by the Homunculi.

Jeanne β3

A variant of Jeanne living in an alternate Cairo. She serves as Bayonetta β3's retainer and tutor; due to the princess' reluctance towards her powers, Jeanne has become the Arch Eve of that universe.

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• Insult of Endearment: The way she addresses her Bayonetta as "princess" has tones of this.
• Mercy Kill: Begs for this from Origin Bayonetta... who can't go through with it. Bayonetta β3 is the one who deals the finishing blow.

Luka Redgrave

Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal (EN), Daisuke Namikawa (JP)

^{Click here to see his appearance in Bayonetta 2}

^{Click here to see his appearance in Bayonetta 3}

"Sure, my colleagues laugh at me for chasing fairy tales... amongst other things..."

Luka is a significant supporting character in the series, being an antagonist of sorts in Bayonetta while being firmly on Bayonetta's side in the sequels. Like his father Antonio, Luka is an intrepid journalist dedicated to uncovering the truth, and also puts his talents to use in uncovering the mysteries of Vigrid's Lumen Sages and Umbra Witches. His interest in the subject began when his father – who was also investigating the clans – suffered a strange death that Luka witnessed and believed Bayonetta in some way caused; Luka's subsequent investigations eventually led to him encountering Bayonetta again twenty years later.

As a human, Luka has no special powers beyond seemingly really good luck, but he's often forced to keep up with everyone else anyway. His investigative instincts, coupled with a clever grappling-hook device, often get him into places and trouble that a regular person wouldn't normally be near, and he has a knack for uncovering local legends that play a vital role in the plot. Indeed, his sense of timing is such that even supernatural beings can't always see him coming. When not doing his research, Luka usually provides comic relief through his theatricality and his shameless attempts at flirting with attractive women, Bayonetta in particular – both of which make him a frequent target for Bayonetta's teasing.

As with Bayonetta herself, Bayonetta 3 details that the Luka of each main game is a separate variant that has led a very similar life to the others. Just as the main Bayonetta of 3 is Arch Eve Origin and has special significance in the multiverse, so too does the Luka of 3, he being the Arch Adam Origin that light and dark opposites from across the multiverse seek to influence and empower, turning him into something more than human.

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• Accidental Pervert: Nearly grabs Bayonetta's ass when she's pushing him down to avoid a deadly attack.
• Action Dad: Briefly at the end of 3 given that he's fighting to protect his future daughter, Viola thanks to his new faerie-werewolf form.
• Action Survivor: How many times should he have died again? One notable instance had him surviving being left on a missile during Bayonetta's fight with Jeanne, and he still got away and survived. Bayonetta is as shocked by this as the player. Another case is when Balder sets a few Affinities on him, who nearly yank his limbs out of his sockets, and then he's tossed out of the top window of Balder's skyscraper. The next time we see Luka, he doesn't have a scratch on him, but his surviving the fall is justified by Bayonetta's control over another missile. In 3, he drops the survivor part and becomes full on badass in his faerie-werewolf form.
• All Your Powers Combined: Lukaon gathers all the hearts of the Arch-Adams — aka the versions of Luka from throughout the multiverse — to combine to the prime Luka, giving him the ability to turn into his faerie-werewolf form without strain, and making him the Arch Adam Origin who can fulfill his purpose of guiding Arch Eve Origin.
• Alternate Self: In 3, a fey version of him named Lucaon is revealed, who is the King of the Fairies.
• Badass Normal: Luka may be a Plucky Comic Relief at times, he never fights and his only fantastical aids are his grappling hook and his glasses (in Bayonetta 2), but somehow, he's shockingly capable of some things that are completely over his head, or can show up and try to save the day wherever Bayonetta is. Luka is also extremely lucky and has survived everything the plot has thrown his way, and when you're a squishy human in this kind of setting, ninety percent of badassery is just showing up in the same place as the heroes and villains. By 3, the normal is dropped when he gains a faerie-werewolf form.
• Battle Couple: Ends up as one with Bayonetta for the final battle in 3 once he fully unlocks his faerie-werewolf form.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Downplayed in the last chapter of Bayonetta 2, Loki's had his Sovereign Power stripped out of him, Bayonetta is holding him in her arms, and Loptr has the Right Eye with intention to take the Left. Luka proceeds to swing in out of nowhere, get Loki out of the fight zone, free up Bayonetta to draw her weapons, and befuddle the crap out of the Prophet.
  • Played humorously at first in 3 when he tries to drop-kick Singularity from behind, and then played straight when he transforms into his faerie-werewolf form to help Bayonetta in the final boss fight against Singularity.
• Born Lucky: Anyone who survives around an Umbra Witch who doesn't dedicate herself to constantly protecting him qualifies as this. If we take the fact that he's part fae in 3, this is presumably one of his powers as the fae were associated with luck.
  Bayo: I don't know whether to shoot you or take you to Vegas for good luck.
• Butt-Monkey: Comes with the territory of being an apparent Muggle among the cast. He doesn't have it nearly as bad as Enzo though. He's an Iron Butt Monkey, however, to the point where he should be suspected of possessing quantum immortality...
• Call-Back: When escorting (carrying) Loki to Fimbulventr in Bayonetta 2, he is not ashamed to admit he preferred the "cute little Cerezita who weighs like ten pounds."
• The Casanova: He has a habit of flirting with any pretty women he sees. By 3, it's mostly reserved for Bayo.
• The Cavalry: Even for a Badass Normal, Luka's almost mystical with his rescue attempts.
  Bayonetta: (to Loptr) Just some fool always swinging in out of nowhere, albeit with absolutely impeccable timing. I suppose not even a god can see him coming?
• Character Development:
  • He spends his early screentime in the first game accusing Bayonetta as his father's murderer. But once the truth is revealed (the Angels were the ones who killed his father), Luka becomes loyal to Bayonetta and even tries to defend her from Balder, even if the latter threw him off a skyscraper moments ago.
  • By the events of 3 he seems to have left his womanizing antics behind, with his flirting directed only at the quite receptive Bayonetta and him even remarking she's the only one he wants by his side.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Luka giving a lollipop to Cereza in the first game, which signifies what Bayonetta's favorite sweet is.
  • He does this again with Viola in 3 to signify that she is his and Bayonetta's daughter.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He may be a shameless pervert, but he's ultimately a good guy who's very devoted to finding the truth.
• Cosmic Motifs: As Strider, he has a constellation pattern on his body.
• Creepy Monotone: Before his first transformation into Strider on-screen he mutters, "There is only...one...truth." as if possessed.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Thanks to being part-fae, he is able to turn into a faerie-werewolf in Bayonetta 3, but after some initial misgivings he gets control over this form and fight for good.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Luka, normal, unpowered human (at the time), tells off beings far more powerful than himself, including and up to Loptr.
• Disney Death: Gets thrown out of the top of Balder's building in 1. And he's seen later without a scratch on him.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Luka initially seeks revenge against the titular protagonist. But every time he meets her, he alternates between swearing revenge, and making clumsy, awkward sexual overtures. Presumably, it's kinda hard to remember what you were doing when you have... well, freaking Bayonetta standing in front of you. He loses his train of thought twice thanks to Bayonetta's cleavage. He's more composed on the surface in the sequel when speaking with Bayonetta, though Loki notes his eyes still betray how distracted he is.
• Dragged Off to Hell: He willingly goes to Inferno alongside Bayonetta at the end of 3.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Bayonetta nicknames him Cheshire in the first game, and while she eventually calls him by his first name, she still calls him Cheshire when he does something embarrassing. In Bayonetta 2, Luka admits he isn't used to her calling him something other than Cheshire.
• Establishing Character Moment: His introductory cutscene in Bayonetta 1 gives the player all the information they need about him:
  • He's being chased by a guard, presumably for being somewhere he's not supposed to be.
  • He stops in the middle of the chase to hit on a girl who seems rather intrigued by him, but falls on his ass while trying to be smooth.
  • He loses the guard through use of a Grappling-Hook Pistol.
  • And finally, his interactions with Bayonetta show that he has some kind of grudge against her, while she sees him as someone to mess with.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In 3, a closer look at Strider when you fight him for the first time shows that his "cape" looks quite similar to Luka's coat, foreshadowing that it's really Luka prior to his transformation later on. Also, isn't it a bit too convenient that Luka's first appearance is just after the first Strider battle?
  • In hindsight, his surname was a clue to where he'd end up. In 3, he chooses to go to Bayonetta into Inferno, which is associated with the color red.
  • A minor one comes from his acute sense of smell in 1 and 2 when he first appeared in both games. Canines are well known for their sense of smell after all.
  • In the first game, he mentioned how he was teased for "chasing fairy tales". In 3, he has a variant that's king of the fae.
  • In one cutscene from the first game has Bayo troll Luka by using lipstick to draw Facial Markings similar to that of Amaterasu, depicted as a wolf. Come 3 and Luka transforms into a wolf.
• Friend to All Children: He and Cereza get along very well. Cereza's fondness for him stayed with her as she eventually grew up into Bayonetta and an offhand comment hints he is in fact responsible for her preference for lollipops as an adult, which he kept giving Cereza while she in his care. Carries over to Bayonetta 2 somewhat when he helps an incapacitated Loki get to the top of Fimbulventr.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: In Bayonetta 2, he gets his hands on a pair of permanently enchanted specs from Rodin so he can see the angels (and Bayonetta) in Purgatorio whenever he wants.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: His only notable skill prior to 3 is making flashy getaways (and incredible timing when it comes to arriving in places).
• Half-Human Hybrid: Heavily downplayed, but the reason he suddenly transforms into a lupine form in 3 is that a past incarnation of himself was half fae (and one such incarnation in one universe survived to the present day), and the reverberations of the multiversal collapse initiated by the Singularity drove it to the surface and out of control.
• Handsome Lech: He rattles off the names of four Capcom ladies when he's trying to brag to Bayonetta about his supposed lovers. Dovetails into Butt-Monkey when you realize one is "Ammy", and gets worse when you see who these "ladies" actually are◊.
• Harmful to Minors: As a small child, he sees his father graphically slain, with lots of his father's blood splashing on the grave he's hiding behind. Unfortunately, the only other being he sees there is Bayonetta, as opposed to his father's actual killers, the angels she was fighting.
• He Is All Grown Up: Bayonetta seems to think so, but knowing her, she's probably just teasing him.
  Bayonetta: You've certainly bloomed, haven't you, my little Cheshire puss?
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: During 3 he's uncharacteristically self-admonishing during his second fight with Bayonetta, ashamed of his uncontrolled actions as Strider and calling himself a hateful monster. Bayonetta has none of it.
• Hero of Another Story: Most of what you'd call his heroics – like stealing vehicles and showing up in unlikely places – happen totally offscreen.
• Informed Ability: Played straight and averted in different contexts.
  • Luka is supposed to be a renowned journalist who is tracking Bayonetta to expose her to the world, but all he seems to do is general Butt-Monkey stuff. He does have a considerable amount of knowledge on the supernatural, though it's not made clear how much of that he picked up on and what he got from his father.
  • Averted in the movie, which shows him doing actual investigative work and tracking down evidence of Bayonetta.
  • Also averted in the second game, where he's in Noatun to discover the mysteries of Fimbulventr and you can find pages of his journal scattered about, showing that he's at least doing investigative work.
• Intrepid Reporter: He's pretty active in his investigations, sometimes to the point where he ends up in places he shouldn't be in.
• Iron Butt Monkey: The amount of abuse he gets will make you wonder how the hell he's still alive. In 3 Bayonetta lampshades how he always ends up coming back to her with a smile no matter what he goes through.
• Ironic Name: Luka means "Light" but in 3, he gains a dark wolf form.
• Irony: Bayo always likes to call him Cheshire after the cat and he owns three cats (and one puppy). In 3, he gains a lupine form.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He owns three cats, Claire, Trish, and Sylvia, and one dog, Ammy.
• Like Father, Like Son: By 2, he has fully adopted his father's look and profession.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Luka can be read as "Light" or "Bringer of light" which helps contrast him with the Dark Is Not Evil Bayonetta.
  • Lukaon is based off of Lycaon, whose name is writen as Λυκᾱ́ων and which can transliterate to Lukaon. Lycaon, King of Arcadia, was known for being the first werewolf in Greek mythology. Fitting for this Luka, as he becomes a fae-werewolf.
  • Finally, his surname hints towards his fate in 3. He gets dragged off to his death into Inferno, which is associated with the color red.
• Morality Pet: Not to the extent of Cereza, but Bayonetta does not like to see him seriously hurt.^note Since he was nice to Cereza and gave her her Comfort Food for the first time, it's instinctual. That, and she finds his antics amusing. 3 expands on this, with Bayonetta noting that one of Viola's lessons is to learn to fight for others, not just herself, and implying that Luka helped Bayonetta herself learn this as she remarks he'll give Viola lots of practice.
• Motive Rant: Much of his dialogue. Subverted in that he can't seem to decide what his motive is himself, leading to the comical sight of him constantly switching motives, sometimes from one sentence to another. 3 Reveals that he doesn't entirely understand his own motives, as his obsession with the truth is linked to a guiding "voice" that has been urging him on since he was a child. The way this voice makes his mind race sometimes spills out into his grandiose rants.
• Mr. Exposition: In Bayonetta 2, when he's not being a Big Damn Hero (...kind of), he plays this role.
• Mr. Fanservice: Let's just say there is a reason why the Ms. Fanservice Bayonetta fell in love with him and allowed him to knock her up.
• The Nicknamer: Refers to Cereza as "Cerezita," and refers to Viola as "Violeta" at least once.
• The Nose Knows: When he first appears in both 1 and 2, he's able to detect different scents. In the first one, he smells a hint of rosemary coming from the angels, and in the second game he can tell that Bayo is wearing a certain type of perfume.
• Non-Action Guy: He's tied with Enzo (maybe) as the worst fighter in the main cast, but he's on the Silver trophies, ranking him above Enzo, Loki, and Cereza. Averted in Bayonetta 3 when he joins in for the Final Boss fight in a new bestial form.
• Odd Friendship: At the end of Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta notes that he and Rodin appear to be getting along well.
• Official Couple: He and Bayonetta become this in 3, with the reveal that Viola is their daughter. That, and he willingly goes down to Inferno with Bayonetta as her Umbral Watch is broken.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Bayonetta 2, Luka aids Bayonetta by leaving pages of his notebook around Noatun in the hopes that she'll find them useful. They don't turn out to be very vital to the plot, but that doesn't change the fact that some of them are left in places that are damn near impossible for an ordinary human to reach, and the player usually ends up forced to carve a path through baddies of all kinds to reach those pages. Although angels and demons being in Purgatorio (and thus being unreachable from the human world) means the monster fights are excusable, the locations are NOT. In 3, he ups himself by crashing into the final battle after somehow jumping into a portal in bestial form.
• Only One Name: One of two characters in the series to avert this trope, the other being his father Antonio.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: In 3 he gains the ability to transform into a humanoid wolf-monster due to his fae connection that has multiple eyes and stained glass plates on his body.
• Out of Focus: In Bayonetta 2, Luka is largely sidelined in the story and doesn’t contribute much to the overall narrative in comparison to the first game.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: That's what happens when you don't have guns attached to your feet. Even in 3, while his faerie-werewolf form means he can support her and handle himself in battle, Bayonetta dominates him both times they fight each other, with the first time being basically a fun game for her that he ends up running away from.
• Papa Wolf: Literally in 3. He arrives for the final battle to protect his daughter, Viola, and can even turn into a sort of faerie-werewolf.
• Parental Substitute: For young Cereza.
• Prophetic Name: Luka means "Bringer of Light", relating to his Spanner in the Works role in the series. His surname is a foreshadowing of him being taken to Inferno.
• Precision F-Strike: "Oh, fuck me!!"
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "My. Name. Is. LUKA!" It gets hilariously inverted in the movie. It also happens in almost the same way in Bayonetta 2.
  Bayonetta: I told you to babysit her at home, Luka.
  Luka: How many times must I tell you?! My name is Cheshire! *beat*
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Briefly has these in 3 before he turns into the wolf dark fairy, Strider.
• Really Gets Around: Or so he claims.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Downplayed, but according to the lore entries in 3 an alternate universe version of him is the King of Avalon, possibly making Luka the king after his alternates hearts merge with him, and Viola possibly the rightful Princess of Avalon.
• Reincarnation: Implied, as Origins suggests that modern-day Luka is the reincarnation of Lukaon, the young faerie king that Cereza met and bonded with in Avalon Forest as a child. This would reframe his relationship with Bayonetta as a Reincarnation Romance.
• Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a pretty nice scarf. In the second game he ties it a lot more neatly. At the end of 3, the scarf is given to his daughter, Viola.
• Spanner in the Works: Luka's main superpower, aside from being Born Lucky. He disrupts events just enough to tip things on Bayonetta's side. In 3, it's revealed that his ability to tip the scales is because of the "Voice" in his head urging him to be at a specific area.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: His goal in the first game is to try to expose Bayonetta to the world after believing she killed his father.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: It's rarely shown, and is often disguised with creative camera angles, but he's a head taller than Bayonetta, which several cutscenes in 3 finally shows off. The "dark" could apply to his slightly dark color palette, as well his background of losing his father as a child.
• Too Dumb to Live: Y'know, Luka, it's a really good thing that Bayonetta isn't the murderer you spent twenty years thinking she was. Otherwise, calling out the person you accuse as your father's killer, while she's armed and you're not, in an isolated area with no potential witnesses for miles around, would have shortened your lifespan considerably.
• Took a Level in Badass: He ends up gaining a bestial form in 3 and he uses it to kick ass with Bayo in the final battle after Lukaon harmonizes all hearts of the alternate Lukas into Arch-Adam Origin Luka himself.
• Together in Death: Allows himself to be pulled into Inferno alongside Bayonetta at the end of 3 once her Umbral Watch shatters.
• Unfazed Everyman: Definitely by the end of the first game.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He shows up at Father Balder's lair at the end of the first game and picks him apart with an impressive Breaking Speech befitting of a journalist. Balder throws him out the window and continues his showdown with Bayonetta like Luka was never even there.
• You Are Worth Hell: He decides to be pulled into Inferno with Bayonetta in 3 when her Umbral Watch is finally destroyed.
• You Killed My Father: To Bayonetta. It was actually done by some Laguna, under Father Balder's orders.

Rodin, the Infinite One

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy (EN), Tesshō Genda (JP)

"You got halos. I got items. Welcome to the foundation of a barter economy."

Rodin is Bayonetta's armorer, and the bartender and owner of the Gates of Hell in his spare time. Menacing and dangerous, his weapons are powered by the souls of demons he personally beats into submission, but he prefers to watch Bayonetta put his "works of art" to use instead of getting directly involved in the games' storylines. Despite his bloody place in the cast, Rodin's shown a softer, more affable side on occasion, and cheerfully greets the player with cheesy jokes and pop-culture references whenever they visit his shop.

Rodin is also a fallen angel whose power used to be on par with that of Jubileus. Players can purchase the Platinum Ticket for 9,999,999 halos to restore his power and face him as the game's bonus boss. In Bayonetta, he manifests as Father Rodin, while in Bayonetta 2, he fights as the demon Rodin – both of which bear the Boss Subtitles of The Infinite One.

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• Absurd Phobia: His bio in The Wonderful 101 reveals he has one. It's small birds.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Rodin is by far and away one of the most powerful characters in the series, but he's perfectly content to simply sit on the sidelines and make weapons. Downplayed in 3 as you can summon him as a combat ally, but to do so you must first clear the game's main plot once.
• Alternate Self: Averted despite everyone else having them in 3. Due to him being from Paradiso, he can't have one as alternate realities only exist with the human world.
• Amazon Chaser: Implied in Bayonetta 2 when the player scans a Metroid amiibo in Rodin's shop:
  Hey, got somethin' here from the toughest bounty hunter in the galaxy. You know I love a badass with a big heart... or was it the other way around?
• Ascended Extra: In the original game, he was your blacksmith - and that's it. He would make weapons, and occassionally crack a cheesy joke or make a cocktail, the end. In 2, he plays a slightly bigger role. In addition to his Gates of Hell duties, he also personally takes care of Jeanne's body while Bayonetta retrieves her soul, and later joins in as a Guest-Star Party Member to capture Alraune's soul. In 3, he helps out heavily in the opening, but then returns to being mostly a passive observer (aside from providing Bayonetta a free weapon and sending his shop to most of the universes she travels to). Unless that is you unlock him as a summon, wherein he will assist directly in battle.
• Badass Santa: Shows up in Santa getup in Bayonetta 2 to deliver Bayonetta her new guns. The way he does it is beyond badass. According to Bayonetta, he might as well be the real Santa.
• Bald Head of Toughness: He's as bald as an egg, making it easy to see the slick tattoos he's got on his head, and alludes to his strength and toughness.
• Bald Mystic: In the first game, it's clear that the very bald Rodin is not a normal human, given his ability to go into Inferno to make weapons and the ways his eyes sometimes glow. You eventually learn that he's a fallen angel, with many allusions (like sometimes being referred to as Mephisto) marking him as a subtle Satanic Archetype.
• Ballistic Discount: Defeating him for the first time gets you his namesake Swiss-Army Weapon. One of the possible weapons it turns into is a chainsaw on your arm.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Despite being The Blacksmith, Rodin never fights with a weapon and prefers to use his fists. That said, given how immensely powerful he is, it's all he needs.
• Baritone of Strength: Though deep-voiced Rodin prefers to work as a bar owner and Bayonetta's armorer, he's a Fallen Angel and one of the most powerful characters in the entire series.
• Barrier Warrior: Can throw up a barrier to block enemy attacks as he cannot evade.
• Berserk Button: In 3, if you summon him as a Demon Slave and begin the dance but then refuse to follow through, he'll become enraged. Not just "enraged Demon Slave" enraged, but absolutely pissed. While most enraged Demon Slaves can deal some damage to you, Rodin will just outright one-shot you.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Even if he's not a stereotypical nice guy, he's still a friend of Bayonetta and tolerates her snarks and occasional slapsticks (such as when she shoots him in 2). Press his Berserk Button, however, and he will remind you very painfully that you do NOT fuck with the devil.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the prologue of 3 he rescues a tired Bayonetta and unconscious Jeanne underwater from Iridescent, a titanic homunculus, by throwing an entire skyscaper into it like a lance before it can swallow them.
• The Blacksmith: Though not in the traditional sense of the word. Whenever you bring him Gold LPs, he teleports into the bowels of Inferno and plays the angelic music recorded on the disc, summoning demons to him like moths to a flame. He then defeats the demons and uses their spiritual essence to forge new weapons for Bayonetta. The Hierarchy of Laguna text claims that Rodin's skills as a smith were legendary amongst the echelons of Paradiso, and that he often crafted weapons which struck terror into the hearts of The Legions of Hell.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Wields the hammer Yagyu in The Wonderful 101 and turned the sword Takemikazuchi into a hammer for the cool factor, which is a logical preference for someone who creates weapons.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's quite possibly the most powerful character in the setting (barring Singularity), and he's definitely the toughest opponent. He's also the single greatest blacksmith in the Trinity of Realities, having made all of the Angels their signature weapons and now makes the meanest and most brutal of demonic arms. That being said, he's quite quirky and says some of the most ridiculous things with a completely straight face.
  "You bring me enough of these halos and maybe I can buy a ticket to space. Always wanted to be a bald space marine."
  "Hey, check this out: "Whadda ya buyin'?" Hehehe, heard that in a game once."
  "No matter how much you ask, I'm not puttin' a chainsaw on your arm! Now, what do you want!?"
  "Welcome to the Gates of Hell. We've lit our prices on fire, so there won't be hell to pay... C'mon. I gotta say some cheesy shit sometimes."
  "Being a demon lets me read minds... You're thinking, "Shut up and take my halos!" Let's do this."
  "New shop rule: No shoes. No shirt. No service. Hair doesn't count. Hehe... Just kidding'! What'll it be?"
  "The world famous Rodin's. Where demons and gunsmithing go together like chicken and waffles. Hehe... Sorry. I'm mad hungry. What can I do ya for?"
  "Hey... Gimme a minute. I'm playin' this crazy game, and I gotta sprinkle some magic powder on a chicken... (finishes playing) Alright. What can I do for you?"
• Character Catchphrase: "Beautiful", said when Bayonetta is doing something particularly awesome, or earns a Pure Platinum medal.
• The Chew Toy: Downplayed. Rodin appears to receive a bloody beating every time Bayonetta hands him an LP, but he's actually just out of breath and the blood he's covered in belongs to the demon he just turned into a weapon. Except when he goes after the Chain Chomp, which is handed to Bayonetta without a scratch on it...
• Combat Sadomasochist:
  Rodin: I never thought a girl would beat my ass so hard. But I gotta admit, I kinda liked it.
• The Comically Serious: He does try to tell a joke now and then, but it's mostly negated by his intimidating presence. What really qualifies him for this trope are the odd things that happen to him sometimes, such as stuff falling onto his head, or the time he dressed up as Santa, complete with a beard or the time he's dressed up in penguin apparel for a chain of penguin themed pizza restaurants.
• Cool Shades: His sunglasses hide his eyes completely. In Tag Climax, they can also conduct his Eye Beams without sustaining damage.
• Dance Battler: In 3, he can be summoned by Bayonetta using the Rodin weapon, obtained after either defeating him in his boss fight or purchasing it for 9,999,999 Seeds after 100 straight losses to him. One particular move has him and Bayonetta performing a stunning musical number.
• Difficult, but Awesome: When playable. For starters, he has the slowest movement and attack speed of all the playable characters, he cannot evade attacks and cannot slow down time, he lacks the Wicked Weaves that his boss incarnation and the other playable characters have, and his only ranged attack is a weak eye beam. Basically, he's a charge character in a cast of rushdown characters. That said, he can erect a barrier to block attacks and has powerful, hard-hitting attacks and wide area stomps that make him great at dealing with large crowds.
• Dimensional Traveler: He can travel between the human world and Inferno at will. Bayonetta 3 explains that while the World of Chaos is comprised of a vast multiverse, there is only one Inferno and one Paradiso. Meaning that there is only one Rodin, who travels between the various human worlds to aid various Bayonettas who contract his services.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the second game, when fighting him. After he uses his raging demon attack, he's lying down casually on the ground, smoking a cigar, while Bayonetta lies unconscious... and naked. Real subtle.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first game has him emerging from a coffin, turning to the angels (and by extension, the camera) with a murderous expression, and scaring them off with a loud shout. Tells you all you need to know about him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Assuming one can regard him as evil that is.
  • In the first game, Rodin states that no matter how many times Bayonetta asks, he won't put a chainsaw on her arm. Can be subverted if the player chooses to obtain the Rodin or Salamandra weapons.
  • In Bloody Fate, he is disgusted by Enzo's shady business practice of overcharging families for funerals.
  • Is rather disgusted by Alraune devouring and torturing Jeanne offscreen, calling her a monstrosity to her face.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He may not be evil, but he likes to refer to himself as the devil... and he also enjoys using the shop screen as an excuse to say some of the cheesiest crap imaginable.
• Evil Laugh: Usually done in the form of a quiet, creepy chuckle. After talking to Bayonetta in Noatun, he lets out a more bombastic laugh as he returns to his bar, complete with Power Echoes. It's as unnerving as it sounds.
• Eye Beams: This is his ranged attack when playable in Tag Climax. In 3, this is one of his attacks in both his boss fight and when controlling him via Demon Slave.
• Fallen Angel: He used to be an angel before he was cast out of Paradiso. Aside from encouraging the player to unlock more stuff, Rodin wants Bayonetta to collect angel halos so that he can restore his true angel form if he gets enough of them. His angelic powers are restored for his Optional Boss fight in the first game, while his demon forms can be fought as an optional boss in the second and third games.
• Fingersnap Lighter: Tends to light his cigars with a plume of hellfire off his thumb. It even serves as his victory pose in Tag Climax.
• Giant Hands of Doom: His boss forms can use their own version of Wicked Weaves, being giant projections of his hands. He can also fire them like rockets.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes are sometimes seen emitting a red glow from behind his sunglasses. In Bloody Fate, his eyes glow purple instead.
• Graceful Loser: If you manage to beat him.
• Gratuitous English: In the games' Japanese dubs, his "Beautiful" catchphrase is left untranslated.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In 2 he joins you as an assist character atop an Insidious as you make your way to Alraune's palace. Though...given the fact that he can literally just one-shot everything instantly, it's more like you're the assist character.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Bayonetta thinks he has one; in Bayonetta 2, Rodin tries to complain about having to play Santa for Enzo's kids all the way through dinnertime, but she sees right through him and says he must've been delighted to.
• Holy Halo: Collects these. Seeing as how he is a fallen angel, it's only natural that he'd sport one of these when you return him to his true form. In a rather intimidating twist, the halo around his head is the same halo that Jubileus (i.e., a God) herself wears.
• I Got You Covered: Rodin tells Bayonetta he's not in Inferno to help her, but the verse he joins her for inevitably involves him one-shotting everything, including the minibosses, before they have a chance to attack either of them. Rodin was also near Alraune's palace when Bayonetta showed up, and a cutscene in chapter VII showed he was aware of Jeanne's time running out; the artbook for the second game suggests that Rodin (may) have came in to help bayonetta get to Jeanne on time this suggests that he showed up to keep Alraune's sentries from stalling Bayonetta. Presumably, he was aware that telling her this would end in him getting shot again.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Intimidating? Definitely. Morally ambiguous? Yes. Is he still a cool guy to hang out with? Yes. He's referred to himself both as "jollier than the average demon" and "the nicest angel you'll ever meet."
• Lightning Bruiser: In his boss forms, while his playable form is a Mighty Glacier. Rodin has ridiculous amounts of health, insane damage output, unbelievable attack speed — all the criteria you'd tend to associate with the Superboss gets cranked up here.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: When playable, he lacks Wicked Weaves and the ability to slow down time on his own. He also blocks attacks in place for his defensive move rather than dodging. Rodin's moveset is also less combo-friendly than the rest of the cast, and he is built for using burst damage to clear enemies off the screen before his opponents can outscore him.
• Mighty Glacier: When playable. His attacks are slow, he cannot evade enemy attacks, and he moves slower than most characters. But his sheer strength and ability to throw up a barrier compensates for this.
• Moveset Clone: His lack of maneuverability, focused power, and demon-based Super Mode make him play more like a Devil May Cry character than anyone in the Bayonetta universe.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: In both 2 and 3 he can feel that something big and dangerous has been happening in other realms, however, he can't tell anything more specific than that. In 3 in particular he admits the "storm" he felt has turned out to be worse than he thought.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Named after a French sculptor, Auguste Rodin. One of his popular works, a depiction of a scene from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, is called "The Gates of Hell."
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Having a title called "The Infinite One" doesn't exactly inspire visions of hope and peace.
• Neutral No Longer: Played with. While he's on Bayonetta's side, he won't go out of his way to actually interfere in her adventure unless absolutely necessary, such as when he pops up in Inferno in 2 when Bayonetta confronts Alraune. While he still maintains this position in 3 in as much as he doesn't join Bayonetta on her quest, He's seen defending her world from a Homunculi attack (and destroying several boss-level Iridescent all by himself), and Bayonetta can summon a demonic version of him to aid her in battle using the weapon sharing his namesake and he is explicitly invested in her success given how all the worlds are in danger.
  Rodin: I am with you, not for you.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Bartender, weaponsmith, Santa Claus, pizza delivery man, and he's a Co-Host on a Japanese talk show with an Alternate version of Enzo in the Shibuyaverse (and since Infernals and Angels don't have dimensional counterparts that means he has to show up once a week to film an episode with that universe's version of Enzo).
• Nice Guy: While he may be a demon (possibly THE demon), he's easily the coolest and nicest guy in the game. In the sequel, he even dresses up as Santa Claus for Enzo's kids and sticks around through dinner. By 3 he repeatedly and openly helps a number of other characters without complaint.
• Number of the Beast: His entry for his devil form in 3 lists his weight as "approximately 666kg".
• Occidental Otaku: He makes a few shout-outs to Japanese video games and likes Shinshu sake enough for Luka to bribe him with it; his outfit in Bayonetta 2 also shows some Japanese style.
• Odd Friendship: By the end of Bayonetta 2, he's struck up a business relationship of sorts with Luka, who now helps him advertise his bar in exchange for Rodin supplementing his journalism and supernatural studies with an "anonymous source" – implied to be Rodin himself.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Every time he gets a Gold LP, he goes to Inferno to beat a demon into a bloody pulp so he can turn it into a weapon. All in just a couple of seconds. Not so offscreen in the sequel, though, as while most weapons are obtained in the usual method, you do get to see how Alruna is made, due to it being made from Alraune, the last demonic boss fought in Inferno.
• One-Winged Angel: In Bayonetta 2, the boss fight with him starts off against his human form, but partway through he'll turn into a towering demon that rivals his Father Rodin form. This new form is (mercifully) absent when fighting against him in Tag Climax.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While he never drops his cool demeanor, he's noticeably much more worried and on edge in Bayonetta 3 when he realizes just how dangerous Singularity and the Homunculi are. He even lets Enzo crash inside the Gates of Hell throughout the whole ordeal.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After Bayonetta drags Enzo off to fly her to Noatun, Rodin decides to play Santa for Enzo's kids. He begrudgingly admits he enjoyed it.
  • He didn't HAVE to go out of his way to preserve Jeanne's body, or give Bayonetta the first Alraune weapon free of charge, either.
  • Played With in 3. While he claims that it’s because Enzo still needs to pay his tab, he DOES keep the mobster from rushing to his death by dragging him into the Gates of Hell and not allowing him to leave. Plus its not like human money has much real value to him.
  • Is implied to be watching over Viola and informing her parents of her progress after they are dragged into Inferno at the end.
• Playing with Fire: He can control fire, but mainly uses it to light his cigar. Father Rodin uses various fire-based attacks.
• Pocket Dimension: Both of Rodin's boss fights take place in some strange dimension apparently created by him. The fight with Father Rodin takes place in a heavenly realm that resembles Paradiso while the battle with his demon form takes place in a realm that resembles Alraune's palace. Bloody Fate shows that the Gates of Hell itself is a pocket dimension that he can create anywhere he wants.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: He makes several references to other video games and has a home run that would make the most skilled of baseball players jealous.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Rodin is one of the most powerful characters in the Bayonetta universe — he's an infamous fallen angel, he's the strongest playable character, and his boss forms have tricks like an HP to One attack that the player can only answer with skill. Conversely, in 2, Bayonetta can send Rodin on an errand to fight a Chain Chomp from the Lighter and Softer Mario series, where they're famed as either indestructible or very difficult to overpower. The Chomp wins.
• Power Floats: As Father Rodin.
• Power Gives You Wings: His Father Rodin form uses twelve peacock wings similar to Father Balder's, while his demon form plays this a little more traditionally with two feathered wings.
• Power Glows: As Father Rodin, he gets a glowing halo and red Tron Lines on his outfit.
• Power of the Void: One of his new attacks in his boss fight in 3 has him conjure a black hole that will suck Bayonetta in and deal massive damage, similar to an attack used by Singularity in the final boss fight. He's quite fond of using this attack to hold you in place while he pummels you with other attacks.
• Promoted to Playable: In Bayonetta 2's Tag Climax multiplayer mode.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: In a game crammed full with this trope, his boss forms' variations are the most impressive. His most frequently used technique involves pummeling you about half a dozen times in the space of a second, and his signature move is a reference to Akuma's Raging Demon and beats you so quickly that the game doesn't bother rendering it, instead presenting a blank screen and the sound of a beatdown. It also really hurts. In Bayonetta 3, Bayonetta can summon Rodin through Demon Slave and unleash the same attack exactly as Akuma does (Punch, Punch, Forward, Punch+Kick). It inflicts incredible amounts of damage, but Rodin will require time to recover afterwards before he can be summoned again.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Rodin is best known as the hardest Superboss in all the Bayonettas, having a rank equal to Jubileus as The Infinite One, and outright making weapons out of demon souls after he was kicked out of Paradiso. Aside from all these actions and being one of the scariest people you don't want to cross, he also apparently has loads of apparel with cute penguins on them, runs a pizza truck with them as his mascot, and if concept art is to be believed, he also has a nice, comfortable and yet very adorable looking bedspread.◊ In essence, he seems to adore cute things.
• Really 700 Years Old: He used to be an angel, meaning that he's much older than he looks.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His demon form is primarily black with traces of red all over, most notably his wings, which have red feathers.
• Running Gag: At least three times across the first two games, something big and hard (like a tombstone or sign) falls onto him, hitting him in the head, and breaking while he expresses absolutely zero reaction to it. Downplayed in 3; something does fall on his head, but it's just a slice of pizza.
• Satanic Archetype:
  • Oddly, all of the character art for Rodin in the unlockable extras never uses that name, giving his name as "Mephisto"^note A holdover from the development stage where that was his name, the name of a demon from German folklore, who is most prominently mentioned in the Faust legend and has occasionally been used as another name for the Devil himself. Appropriately, Rodin's role is broadly similar to the traditional devil: a fallen angel who is thwarted and punished for trying to conquer Heaven (and is feared by it) who rules his own "sub-basement" location after his punishment, and jokes about the "deals" he provides Bayonetta.
  • Played straight in Bayonetta 2. After the Superboss battle where he fights using his true demonic form, Rodin will congratulate Bayonetta, but then cryptically reminding her that "the devil always gets his due." Furthermore, his death animation in Tag Climax shows him being encased in a block of ice, a reference to Satan in The Divine Comedy.
• Scary Black Man: One of the most intimidating characters in the series and one of the most prolific examples in video gaming. He can do Badass Drink Mixing and make it look awesome, take down the nastiest of demons to make into weapons of dark magic, and even hit angels for home runs. And if you give him a special item, he becomes Father Rodin. In this form, he is considered to be so powerful that even JUBILEUS HERSELF feared him. That said, he's a pretty cool dude once you get to know him.
• Satan Is Good: While his morals can be ambiguous, He mostly helps the heroes defeat any threat to the universe. (Although he may not be THE devil himself as he refers to him as another being in the first game when Bayonetta receives the Scarborough Fair guns.)
• Shock and Awe: In 3, one of his new attacks in his boss fight is to fire bolts of red lightning at you. He can also unleash shockwaves by slamming himself from the air into the ground which electrifies any summoned Demons.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of his attacks when playable and as a boss.
• Shout-Out:
  • Loads of them to the Divine Comedy, and that isn't even including his dialogue.
  • When he Turns Red in the fight against him in Bayonetta 2, he turns into a demon form with wings, being a reference to the Devil Trigger mechanic.
• Smoking Hot Sex: His most powerful attack in the second game, is clearly meant to symbolize this.
• Soul Brotha: Groovy slang? Smooth delivery? Cool and badass? Rodin says yes to all three.
  Rodin: Right on, baby. Right on.
  Rodin: Chill, Bayonetta. Don't go shootin' up my target, ya dig?
  Rodin: Damn... some of these fools are really 'bout that life.
• Superboss: Across all three games, Bayonetta can fight Rodin after collecting the Platinum Ticket (which is ludicrously expensive). In 1, he's fought as "Father Rodin" the angel, whereas in 2 and 3, he fights Bayonetta as a demon.
• Super Mode: In the first Bayonetta, being given enough Halos allows him to return to his true form as "Father Rodin", sporting an outfit akin to Balder's but colored gold instead of where the blue would be. In Bayonetta 2, his new demon form is his version of Umbran Climax when playing as him, effectively making it his Devil Trigger.
• Super-Toughness: In the first game, he takes two coffin lids to the head and doesn't give a damn. In the second, after giving Bayonetta Love Is Blue, he stands in the middle of the street and catches the toy jet Enzo bought. A second later, a sign lands on his head, splitting in half, and he doesn't feel it.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's a suave looking, muscular man with a smooth sounding voice who just oozes with charisma and style.
• Thinking Up Portals: Rodin can create red portals that lead to his bar, or as Bayonetta 3 shows, brings the bar to his clientele. He also seems to utilize this to enter and exit Inferno, as the next trope shows.
• To Hell and Back: Waltzes in and out of Inferno on a regular basis. Seeing as how he tends to be soaked in demon blood whenever he returns from one of his trips, it can be surmised that the results of these escapades are rather... messy. This allows him to be the middleman between Bayonetta and Luka in Inferno and Viola on Earth in 3's epilogue.
• Top God: He sports a halo similar to that of Jubileus, the Angelic counterpart to Queen Sheba, i.e. the lord and master of Inferno. That Rodin has the same halo as one revered by the Lumen Sages and other angels as the creator implies that he was very high on the totem pole prior to his fall from grace, either as Jubileus' equal or being stronger than her.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Both in Tag Climax and in his tag battle in the story mode.
  • On paper, Rodin's slow attacks and high damage make his combo potential inferior to those of the other four playable characters. When combined with his area-of-effect attacks, though, a Rodin player can effectively sabotage their opponent by quickly clearing the screen and ending the verse with a passable combo score before the other player has time to build a better one with extensive weak attacks. As a result, Rodin performs poorly against boss verses, but excels in multiple-enemy encounters.
  • Rodin tag-teams with the player for one verse in Chapter X. The difficulty in getting a decent combo score for this verse comes not from the high enemy density, but because Rodin can immediately one-shot any enemy the player's trying to build a combo off of.
• Vanity License Plate: The plate on his pizza van in Bayonetta 3 is "NFINIT-1" (Infinite One).
• We Will Meet Again: Whenever you beat him in one of his boss forms, he'll make some cryptic threat and promise a rematch.
  Rodin: (first game) I gotta hand it to you. You sure let me have my fun. I never thought a girl would beat my ass so hard. But I gotta admit, I kinda liked it. You win... This time, baby.
  Rodin: (second game) Shiiett... Where'd that come from? Credit where credit is due, you just put your foot straight up my ass. You won this time, but remember, the devil always gets his due.

Enzo

Voiced by: Chick Vennera (EN. Bayonetta), John Kassir (EN, 2 and 3), Wataru Takagi (JP)

"You have any idea how much this is going to cost to fix? How the fuck do I always get wrapped up in this shit?!"

A mobster who operates in the city Bayonetta calls home. Like Luka, Enzo's primary role in the series is to provide Bayonetta with information. However, Enzo's information usually springs from underworld connections and takes the form of tips that put Bayonetta in the right place to track down what she's looking for. Enzo's "business" doesn't put him in a position to help out during the main storyline, so his appearances in the Bayonetta series are at the beginning and end of the game.

Enzo might be a feared, tough mobster in his day job, but in Bayonetta's world, he's a fish out of water. He (and his car) want nothing to do with the scenery-chewing angel fights that Bayonetta attracts, and heroes and villains alike seem to make a point of making his screentime miserable and humiliating. Still, Enzo seems to care about both of his "families", as much of his motivation for staying out of Bayonetta's business is so that he can come home to his beloved wife and children in one piece.

---

• Alternate Self: In Bayonetta 3, he has several incarnations that you can see in the multiverse.
  • In Alternate Shibuya, he's apparently an MC as can be seen on one of the screens.
  • In Alternate Qin Lan, he isn't visibly seen but the soldier that Luka bumps into has his voice, making it more than plausible that it's him.
  • In Alternate Cairo, Enzo is possibly long dead, as a temple Viola can walk into has a depiction of him like he's a Pharaoh.
  • In Alternate France, he's actually a police officer named Enzeau who's trying to bring Phantom Thief Bayonetta to justice.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Played for Laughs. The opening level in the first Bayonetta has him repeatedly attacked and nearly killed by angels, Enzo complaining about the situation happening on his birthday.
• Butt-Monkey: More than Luka. He's the one found on the worst level rating, Stone — falling on his ass, of course. It takes a very dark turn in 3 when his family is killed by the Homunculi attack, and the only reason he survived is because Rodin stopped him from doing something reckless.
• Captain Ersatz: Enzo is basically Joe Pesci, though he's more Harry or Vinny than he is Tommy DeVito or Nicky Santoro.
  • He's also an Expy and shout out of Enzo, a minor character with a similar role in the Devil May Cry series.
• Character Catchphrase: "Fuggetaboutit" and "motherfucker" seem to be the most common words he uses.
• Chew Toy: Life really hates Enzo.
• Chronically Crashed Car: Every time he gets a new car, it gets wrecked by Bayonetta's fighting in Purgatorio.
• Cluster F-Bomb: He drops more than everyone else in the game. Of course considering who he sounds like...
• Cool Car: Enzo has a pretty sweet ride. It gets trashed whenever Bayonetta starts fighting something, much to his hilarious chagrin.
• Cool Shades: They don't make him that cool, though.
• Desecrating the Dead: Enzo's first act in-game is pissing on someone's^note The game's director grave, establishing him as something of a Jerkass.
• Establishing Character Moment: Two of them in his first scene:
  • We meet Enzo as he finishes urinating on a tombstone (Hideki Kamiya's, no less!) and starts to talk shop about the body du jour with the nun performing the burial service — setting him up as callous, foul-mouthed, sacrilegious and utterly desensitized to the "business" he performs for the mob, but he's not too much of a Jerkass to brag about how his kids have baked him a birthday cake.
  • When the game's first Affinities show up and the "nun" and "body" start shooting and smashing them to shreds, all Enzo can do is hide and cower... until an Applaud snatches him up and flies off, and as Bayonetta jumps off of a cliff to pursue and free Enzo, she accidentally smashes his new car. Once the job is over, the subsequent interactions between him and Bayonetta/Rodin serve to show us that for all his tough mob experience, Enzo is the smallest fry in Bayonetta and Rodin's world... and that his smashed-up car is entirely his problem.
• Family Man: Gangster he may be, he still dearly loves his family. In 3, he's glumly looking at a photo of them in the Gates of Hell, implying that they were killed in the prologue. Thankfully, it’s reversed at the end.
• Fat Comic Relief: He's a portly fellow and he is quite comedic, due to the random misfortunes he's put through and his foul mouth. Not so much in 3, which is a signal that things are to be taken seriously.
• Good Parents: He's very attentive to both of his children, whom he affectionately calls "cute little fuckers". They also love him in return, since they made him a cake in the first game and that he was going to pretend to be Santa for them in the second while bringing them an absurd amount of gifts. He's actually indignant about getting caught up in Bayonetta's shenanigans in the second game because of the latter. And then, of course, there's his Vanity License Plate which has both of his children's names on them. Need we say more? Notably in 3, he's seen sobbing in the Gates of Hell while staring at a photo of his wife and children, all of whom are implied to have died due to the events of the prologue.
• Happily Married: 3 confirms that he's still married to Ed and Edna's mother and he's shown talking to her in the epilogue. In alternate Paris, Inspector Enzeau is also married, though he admits that she "hates it when I work late".
• Hidden Depths:
  • He might be foul-mouthed and temperamental, but Bayonetta notes in Bayonetta 2 that he's quite the family man. In 1, he may be Vitriolic Best Buds with Bayo, but he really does care about her.
  • A bonus piece that Mari Shimazaki drew for the Bayonetta artbook shows Enzo quite merrily kicking a slightly offscreen demon hunter's ass — well, at strip poker◊, that is. He even has a few cards hidden under his leg, the cheater!
  • Bayonetta refuses to call people by their name until they've earned it in her eyes, dubbing Luka "Cheshire" and Viola "Kitty", yet she always calls Enzo by his name.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rude and abrasive, and quite temperamental, but he's a loving father and is a genuine friend to Bayonetta.
• The Mafia: As revealed in the first game, he is employed by the local mob. Bloody Fate expands on this to explain he's their personal undertaker, they pay him handsomely to bury any bodies they need disposed of.
• Male Gaze:
  • He can't help but stare at Bayo rising to the heavens in her nun outfit during the opening cutscene.
  • Notably, Enzo shows no attraction to the prone and unconscious Viola, and is very flustered when he believes onlookers are confusing their relationship for romantic.
• Mr. Exposition: At the beginning of the first game he gives a quick summery of Bayonetta's backstory, which the witch quickly calls him out on. In the sequel he gives a brief history of the holy mountain, Fimbulventr, as well as a quick nod as to why Jeanne is calling Bayonetta 'Cereza' during the Prologue.
  Enzo: 20 years ago, you woke up stuck in a casket at the bottom of a lake. All you can remember is that you're a witch. But now you're stuck, because you've gotta sacrifice our halo-wearing friends everyday or they'll drag your ass back down to hell. I know I thought I got screwed, but bein' forced to slap around the divine for a livin'? That's really getting screwed!
  Bayonetta: If I needed a biographer, you wouldn't be my first choice.
• Near-Miss Groin Attack: The Butt-Monkey and Chew Toy Enzo gets this twice.
  • The first game has his groin very nearly smashed by a gravestone during the first graveyard battle.
  • Bayonetta 2 has Enzo's groin very nearly run over, complete with scooting back, when Jeanne makes her entrance via motorcycle.
    Enzo: MOTHERFUCKER!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's a short gangster guy who sounds a lot like Joe Pesci.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While him getting through serious amounts of slapsticks is played for laughs, his breakdown over the death of his family at the start of 3 is a sign that this is not the time to laugh.
• Odd Friendship: By the end of 2, both Bayonetta and Jeanne realize that actually do like having him around, and not just as a lackey.
• Rambunctious Italian: He's a loveable, comedic fellow whose most treasured things in his life are his wife and kids, whom he loves dearly, and a good friend of Bayonetta, and tends to be very expressive and open about how he feels, usually showing comedic levels stress and anger at whatever unfortunate situation he's gotten himself into.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • In 3, he's shown breaking down in tears at seeing a photo of his family in the Gates of Hell (as they presumably died during the Homunculi attack and the subsequent flood in the prologue) signaling that he's not going to be comic relief for the game and that the stakes are high.
    Enzo: Mi amore...Ed...Edna...
  • ...but while Prime Enzo might be pushed to the side, in alternate France you can run into his Alternate Universe self "Inspector Enzeau", who is less concerned about the world ending than catching his own universe's Rosa and Cereza.
• Shout-Out: Dante owes him money in one concept art.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: In a cast of characters where nearly everyone drops a couple of F-bombs, he still swears more than everyone combined.
• Sole Survivor: Of his family in 3 and that’s only because Rodin kept him from rushing out. Thankfully, their deaths were reversed in the end.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: In 3 an alternate universe version of Enzo (known as Enzeau) is a police officer attempting to arrest the Phantom Thief version of Bayonetta in an alternate Paris.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The Reset Button ending in 3 prevents his family’s deaths, and he gets to go home to them with nothing bad happening to him.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The picture we see of Enzo's wife isn't the best quality, but she appears to be a tall, slender, beautiful blonde to short, dumpy, and homely Enzo.
• Vanity License Plate: The plate on his car reads "ED N EDNA" — the names of his kids, as noted in Bayonetta 2.

Viola

Voiced by: Anna Brisbin (EN), Miyuki Sawashiro (JP)

"Look, we don't have time! If we don't stop them, then this world is history! And reality as we know it is wiped out for good!"

A rookie Umbra Witch with less than precise control of her powers, she suddenly appears in Bayonetta 3 to beg for Bayonetta's help in saving the Multiverse from the new threat, the Homonculi.

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• Action Girl: Inexperienced as she may be compared to Bayonetta, Viola is still a pretty good fighter and isn’t afraid to slice and dice any Homunculi in front of her.
• Alice Allusion: Aside from her demon being named Cheshire, Cheshire is known to smoke a pipe like the Caterpillar.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Much has been made of how similar Viola is to Nero of the Devil May Cry franchise. Both are new protagonists with a punk rock personality and design, are more emotional and crude than the older protagonists and have a more limited arsenal. She's even biologically the next generation of the hero's lineage, though Viola's the direct daughter of Bayonetta as opposed to being her niece like how Nero is Dante's nephew.
• Ambiguously Gay: Viola shows a certain admiration for the appearance of female humanoid demons in her notes on them, but beyond that, she simply doesn't have the time or opportunity for her sexuality to ever come up.
• Animal Motifs: Cats, specifically their more mercurial, comedic side. She's called "kitty" by Bayonetta, her shirt has a cat on it, and her Infernal Demon is a giant cat. Even her Demon Masquerade takes the form of a humanoid cat.
• Badass Adorable: Being a cute witch-in-training with a edgy punk rocker, she's a lot more wet behind the ears than Bayonetta and Jeanne that makes her come off as endearing. That said, she's still a capable Action Girl in her own right.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Just like Nero and Vergil from Devil May Cry, she can block all sorts of attacks. Hell, she can enter Witch Time by parrying, much like how Raiden enters Blade Mode.
• Boxing Battler: When her sword is transformed as Cheshire, she fights with boxing moves.
• Boyish Short Hair: She's modelled after a punk rocker aesthetic.
• Break the Cutie: She wails for the variants of her parents in despair when she sees Bayonetta and Luka go to Inferno together.
• Brief Accent Imitation: After Cheshire saves her from falling off a cliff, she remarks on how she's glad Bayonetta didn't see it, mimicking her and her British accent briefly. "You've only got nine lives, Kitty..."
• Butt-Monkey: Viola humorously suffers throughout the game, with her inability to fully control Cheshire biting her in the butt a couple of times, her pants being set on fire without her noticing for a few seconds, and passing out from dehydration in the desert.
• Calling Your Attacks: She has names for certain combos that she will call out when performing them, in contrast to the Enochian summon calls of the other playable characters.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • When she first meets Bayo, she tries to say that she's Bayonetta β0’s daughter but keeps quiet.
  • During the third fight against Strider, she tries to tell them really Luka that she's his daughter but Strider blasts her off of the Arc D'Triomphe.
• Captain Ersatz: Not Viola herself, but her Super Mode, resembling Terra's Trance form from Final Fantasy VI, and even the crescent-shaped blades of energy Viola can fire in that state is reminiscent of the latter's Riot Blade Desperation attack from Dissidia Final Fantasy. Fittingly, both girls are capable of this due to their father's side and invoke the substantial increase in power by tapping into it.
• Cat Girl: Similarly to Bayonetta's Demon Masquerade form and Luka's Strider form, Viola can transform into a humanoid cat-like faerie with insectoid wings.
• Character Catchphrase: Whenever entering combat, she has habit of announcing, "It's bacon time!!"
• Character Tic: Has a habit of slapping both of her cheeks whenever she needs to get herself back on track.
• Claustrophobia: When a large bell falls on her, she's curled into a fetal position and muttering how dark it is and that walls are closing in.
• Color Motif: Purple. Her name is derived from the color violet, Cheshire is a purple kitty and her Demon Masquerade form is also purple.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In many different ways.
  • Unlike Bayonetta or Jeanne, Hot-Blooded rookie Viola is sensibly dressed, cruder, aggressive and more hot-tempered, instead of the playful, classier, gaudier, and skimpier witches. She also leans towards blades as a signature weapon as opposed to using guns.
  • She only wields a small handful of weapons, and contracts with one demon, relying only on her athletics and powers. Even that one demon, Cheshire, acts like Nightmare from Devil May Cry, and does not grant Slave or Demon Masquerade abilities - or partial summons - once Cheshire is summoned on the field, the cat demon then pounces on whatever it pleases until Cheshire returns back into Viola's katana.
• Composite Character: Not necessarily design-wise, but her gameplay combines aspects of several different playable characters from Bayo 2.
  • Rather than a set of pistols, Viola uses a blade for her melee combos and darts for her ranged attacks, much like Balder's Holy Glaive and Feather Flechettes.
  • She activates Witch Time via blocking, a non-standard method that requires much more precision to use safely, similar to Jeanne needing to use Bat Within.
  • Her faerie transformation functions in a radically different way from Bayonetta's usual Demon Masquerades, similar to how Rosa used Umbran Armor in lieu of Umbran Climax.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Viola lacks a lot of versatility that Bayonetta has. With one weapon, an uncontrollable Demon Slave and only being able to apply Witch Time after parrying (instead of the much easier dodging), Viola can be very difficult to properly play for even franchise veterans. In exchange, her damage potential is extraordinarily high, with her basic combos dealing high amounts of damage and comboing enemies easily. Cheshire is also one of the best summons in the game, with numerous great moves, and the best Wink Slave summon in the game, which lets Viola dish out huge damage across the battlefield. Since Cheshire acts independently from Viola, she doesn't need to worry about cuing up his attacks like Bayonetta does with her demons, letting her focus entirely around dodging and attacking. Her basic attacks while Cheshire is out also consistently refill her magic gauge, allowing Cheshire to remain out for long periods of time. Played poorly, Viola fumbles around the play area, getting smacked by random homunculi with abandon. When played optimally, she demolishes most encounters in seconds.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Bayonetta calls her "kitty", much to her annoyance.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • With her parents, their names end with an a: we have her, along with Cereza/Bayonetta and Luka. And if you add her maternal grandmother, there's Rosa.
  • To her mother, with "Cereza" meaning "cherry" in Spanish to her own name meaning "violet" in Latin. This also applies to her maternal grandmother "Rosa" meaning "rose" in Spanish. There's also a color theme naming as well. Viola being based on the color "violet", "Cereza" which is based on red, and "Rosa" which is pink. On her fathers' side, there's both Luke and Antonio Redgrave.
• Flechette Storm: She uses throwing darts as her ranged weapons.
• Floral Theme Naming: "Viola" is Latin for "violet," as well the genus for the violet family.
• Foreshadowing: In hindsight, it was kinda obvious that she was Bayonetta β0 and Luka's daughter.
  • She has many similarities with Luka, particularly the use of a grapple gun, annoyance to Bayonetta giving her a pet name, and she's the narrator of the prologue like Luka in 2 and his father, Antonio Redgrave in 1. Also the fact that she has a stuff doll of Cheshire, which is what the younger Cereza had in 1.
  • Before the final battle, Luka tosses her a lollipop in a way that he handed the younger Cereza one. And on top of that, if one remembers Viola's Opening Narration, she notes her father would have always given her a strawberry candy when she was a kid. And it just so happens the lollipop Luka gave her was strawberry flavored.
  • The first words Lukaon asked her is whether or not she was similar to that beast-man and notes that she shared a bond with both the beast-man and Lukaon, suggesting a blood bond. Said beast-man is Luka which would later hint that Viola is Luka's daughter.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Being an Umbran Witch, she does have access to the healing lollipops, useful after getting impaled by Strider.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: She uses a grapple gun to traverse environments. Just like her father. In gameplay, it serves as her jump-extension, though it's replaced by her faerie wings after she unlocks the transformation.
• Growing Wings: Once she awakens her fae powers, she can grow wings to slow her descent the same way Bayonetta does while wielding Colour My World.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears the usual biker jacket as part of her outfit.
• Heroic Lineage: She is Bayonetta β0 and Luka's daughter.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Suffers through this in her boss fight with Strider in the alternate Cairo, awakening her own Demon Masquerade. She later does it to herself to activate Demon Masquerade.
• In-Series Nickname: Bayonetta calls her "Kitty" since her demon is named Cheshire. This is something that she shares with her father, Luka.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Her main weapon being either a tachi or an ōdachi, "Mab Dachi". It seals a contract with the demon Cheshire.
• Legacy Character: At the end of 3, she inherits the title of Bayonetta.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: In terms of abilities, share of plant-based names, and love of lollipops, she's basically a punk rock version of her mom, Bayonetta β0. However, much of her personality, particularly her clumsiness and unsuccessful attempts to appear cool, along with the use of a grappling hook pistol, bring to mind her father, Luka. By the end of the game, she inherits her mother’s variant’s glasses, and the title of Bayonetta, and her father's scarf.
• The Narrator: Like Antonio Redgrave and Luka prior, she states the opening narrations of 3. This is also Foreshadowing since she's basically taking the role of her father and grandfather.
• Our Fairies Are Different: She's quarter-Umbran Witch, quarter-Lumen Sage, mostly human, and a bit of fairy.
• Parrying Bullets: What she does when Jeanne shoots at her in the beginning, her way of entering Witch Time.
• Princess Protagonist: According to lore entries, she's actually the princess of all faeries and rightful ruler of Avalon, the fairy dimension.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Everytime Bayonetta calls her "kitty," she immediately reacts with "My/The name is Viola!" Just like her dad, Luka.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Since Viola can't use her sword when Cheshire's out, she engages in this trope instead. More advanced techniques have the sword spinning in place for a set amount of time, slicing up her foes while she simultaneously beats their faces in with her bare hands.
• Really Royalty Reveal: It hasn't happened in the games yet, but the character profiles indicate she's the rightful Princess of Avalon through her father's alternate self Lukaon.
• Rump Roast: After managing to dodge some falling debris, she ends up having to jump into a lake after said debris lights her pants on fire. You even have to control her to keep from running into anything!
• Self-Harm–Induced Superpower: After first awakening her fae transformation due to Strider impaling her, she continues to impale herself through her torso with her sword every time she needs to access the form, presumably to replicate the feelings of that moment. Given she heals up instantly it's not much of a downside, other than having to muster the will needed to stab herself like that to begin with.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: In keeping with her punk rocker aesthetic, she's a lot more liberal with her foul mouth than Bayonetta.
• Speed Blitz: When assuming her Demon Masquerade form, she attacks by teleporting around the enemy to bash them senseless from all directions at breakneck speed.
• Summon to Hand: She has this ability with her sword Mab Dachi, as Cheshire's doll form is attached to the handle. However, it has a range limit (if she's too far away then attempting to call the sword will do nothing), and rather than place itself directly in her hand she has to properly grab onto the sword as it flies toward her.
• Super Mode: She can combine Demon Masquerade with her fae ancestry to transform into a Cat Girl with butterfly-like wings.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Bayonetta watches Viola get caught by a falling bell she helps her out. It then reveals Viola being curled in up terror and having a panic attack. When Bayonetta tries to bring it up, Viola is doing a terrible cover up lie.
  Bayonetta: What was that? You wouldn't happen to be-
  Viola: Wha?! Hey, don't get it twisted! I'm definitely not horribly claustrophobic at all, got it?
• Sword and Fist: Viola primarily fights with her sword but can switch to a boxing-based fighting style when her sword is rendered unusable to summon Cheshire.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: She can throw her katana like a buzzsaw-slash-boomerang as part of her combo.
• Too Many Belts: Not only does she have straps between her jacket and plaid pants, but she has large belts with double belt buckles on her sleeves.
• Tough Spikes and Studs: She wears a jacket studded with spikes to go with her punk rocker aesthetic.
• Trauma Conga Line: 3 is NOT kind to her: First, she has to watch her version of Bayonetta (her birth mother) and Sigurd die in order to buy her time to escape. Then, after a long journey with the current Bayonetta, her hopes of a possible solution are dashed when it turns out the Alphaverse was just a decoy to trap them both, and the Dr. Sigurd that Jeanne had "rescued" turned out to be Singularity in disguise. Finally, after watching Bayonetta nearly die several times and revealing their connection, Viola ends up losing both her and Luka (her father) for good when they are dragged down into Inferno - as Luka decides to join Bayonetta so she wouldn't be alone — leaving Viola a sobbing wreck.
  Viola: Daddy... MUMMY!!! AAAAAAAAAGHHH!!! (bursts into sobs)
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Viola learns to tap into her fairy ancestry to transform after Strider-Luka impales her on one of his claws.
• Uneven Hybrid: Quarter-Umbran Witch, quarter-Lumen, and mostly human with a bit of fairy, so she isn't quite a Heinz Hybrid.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Being an apprentice witch, Viola is far less graceful in her fighting style. She can handle a sword well enough, but she prefers to face opponents head-on with parrying to activate Witch Time as opposed to the elegant evasion method usually used by Umbra Witches. Her damage output is also ridiculous, allowing her melt opponents within seconds if properly used.
• Use Your Head: She headbutts Strider in their third fight.

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