Bleach Fantasy II Round 11: Bambietta Basterbine vs. Rinoa Heartilly

Welcome back to another installment of Bleach Fantasy II where MechG & I once again collaborate on pitting the world of Bleach & the various installments of the Final Fantasy franchise. Last Friday, Bleach snatched another victory against FF (FF still leads 6-4 against Bleach), but many things can happen. Like MechG said, Bleach Fantasy II posts will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays. My daily schedule of Affinity, Watch-list, WBCR, & Throwback posts will be the same as always (if delayed, posts will be on weekends). Without further ado, let's get started on Bleach Fantasy II Round 11 ~ Bambietta Basterbine vs. Rinoa Heartilly. Take into account that Storyline and Powers/Abilities are the deciding factors. MechG & I will switch-off ever 3 rounds in giving the verdict. Let's jam!

Storyline (Bambietta)

Bambietta is first introduced when Yhwach, the Father of the Quincy, orders the fellow Sternritter to pretty much start a war with the Gotei 13 and leave no one alive. It is revealed that Quincy's are able to steal Bankai(s) and Bambietta, being one of the first Sternritter seen, steals Komamura's Bankai. She goes on an onslaught against various Shinigami, bur was forced to retreat on orders from Yhwach upon the arrival of special war potential, Ichigo Kurosaki. Following their retreat, Yhwach appoints Uryu as his successor much to everyone's surprise. Bambietta, displeased with this news, asks a fellow Wandenreich soldier to accompany her to her room only to kill him as a means of pleasure, boredom, and self-gratification. Bambietta is worried that with Uryu around, the state of the Quincy may be in jeopardy. Bambietta reappears once again during the 2nd invasion and is immediately attacked by both Komamura and Shinji. Bambietta finally shows off the "E" of her abilities and does critical damage to both Captains only for Komamura to turn temporarily human and thwart her from doing any more considerable damage. She is one of the first Sternritters beaten, but upon the arrival of the TGPZ sisters (despite Giselle recently unveiled to be a horny guy) ~ Bambietta herself was killed by Giselle and was turned into a zombie ~ unable to die or feel pain despite being impaled through the face & getting her arm cut off. Despite Bambietta being zombified, her abilities are still intact as she pretty much explodes everything around her ~ doing considerable damage to Ikkaku & Yumichika.

Storyline (Rinoa)

Rinoa Heartily is the daughter of Galbadia’s military commander, Fury Caraway and Julia Heartily. When Rinoa was just five years old, her mother died in a car accident and her relationship with her father gradually became strained. During her teen years, Rinoa left home and dated Seifer, a SeeD cadet. Through Seifer, Rinoa gained knowledge about SeeD services as mercenaries-for-hire. She would then join a group of rebels known as the Forest Owls whose objective is to overthrow the Galbadian government.

During a SeeD inauguration party, Rinoa meets Squall Leonhart and asked him for a dance (one of the more memorable scenes in the game), although her ulterior motive was to convince the SeeD headmaster, Cid Kramer to help her and the Forest Owls’ cause. Through Seifer’s help, Rinoa managed to convince Cid as Cid assigned Squall and two other SeeD cadets: Zell Dincht and Selphie Tilmitt to aid the Forest Owls. Rinoa sends SeeD to its first mission in kidnapping the Galbadian President, Vinzer Deling. Though the plan was successful, the group kidnapped a Vinzer Deling doppleganger, causing SeeD to lose confidence with the resistance group. Rinoa sent them on their next task to take over the Timber TV station, in which President Deling will make an announcement, and transmit a message of rebellion. However, due to heavy military presence, the plan eventually foiled, resulting in Squall berating both SeeD and Rinoa. Eventually during President Deling’s broadcast, a renegade Seifer takes Deling hostage, but was spirited away by Sorceress Edea. By witnessing the event on the Timber TV Station and finding out the Forest Owls’ base in the city of Timber was destroyed, Rinoa set out to find Seifer and the rest of SeeD. She orders SeeD to help her lie low while Galbadian forces search out the town. The group managed to escape to Galbadia Garden, in which Rinoa argued about Squall’s attitude and their opposing views on Seifer’s fate. After presuming Seifer dead, Rinoa disguises herself as a SeeD to avoid conflict and joins Squall’s group on their way to Deling City to meet with her father, Caraway. While meeting with him, Caraway locks Rinoa in another room as he reveals SeeD his plan to assassinate Edea. Able to escape, Rinoa carries out a plan to suppress Edea’s powers by tricking her to wear the Odine Bangle. By encountering Edea and offering the bangle, Rinoa faltered under Edea’s control and was rendered a sacrifice during her coronation ceremony. The plan would eventually foil as Squall and Irvine arrive to save her. After a few events in which Squall was appointed as SeeD commander, the Battle of Gardens ensues with Rinoa being in the middle of everything. After Edea’s defeat during the battle, in which it was revealed she was controlled by the sorceress, Ultimecia, Edea’s sorceress powers transferred to Rinoa. She began to act strange and revived a fallen Seifer before collapsing. Rinoa’s comatose status concerned Squall, leading him to take her to the Lunar Base Space Station above Esthar and find his sister, Ellone in order to cure Rinoa. Rinoa awakens under Ultimecia’s control and unlocks Adel’s Tomb before being drifted off into space to die. Rinoa would be rescued by Squall and was taken in by Esthar’s land base. Esthar officials insists on putting Rinoa to cryosleep, fearing her sorceress powers in which Rinoa agreed to do so, but Squall eventually stops the process. A plan to defeat Ultimecia would come into place, first requiring the dispatching of Seifer and Sorceress Adel. After Squall and his group defeated Adel, Adel’s powers transferred to Rinoa for Ultimecia to control, allowing Ellone to send both Rinoa and Ultimecia back in time so that Ultimecia can cast time compression. Due to its long process, it bided time for Squall and his group to battle Ultimecia in the future. Upon Ultimecia’s defeat, time compression unravels, leaving Squall and the rest to make their way back to regain their identity. Rinoa uses her sorceress powers to rescue Squall from being trapped in a Void to bring him back. The two, along with the rest of SeeD, later celebrated Ultimecia’s defeat in the Balamb Garden.

Powers/Abilities (Bambietta)

Much like any other Quincy, Bambietta possesses several Quincy abilities ~ Reishi manipulation, has immense spiritual power rivaling that of Captain-class Shinigami, wields a spirit weapon, and has a Quincy Vollstandig (pretty much Quincy's version of Bankai). However, her main power derives from her letter Bambietta "E ~ The Explode" Basterbine. She has the ability to turn anything her reishi touches into bombs. This ability of hers is un-blockable, but the downside is that it could be deflected if timed perfectly. She could also generate enough explosive energy around her to cause heavy damage to her surroundings. During her Vollstandig release, her abilities are amplified and she is able to take flight as well. One amplified explosion in her Vollstandig form was enough to critically injure Captain Shinji Hirako. She's quite "Explosive" to be around and if you aren't careful, she'll get "ticked" off and "Boom" on out of there.

Powers/Abilities (Rinoa)

In battle, Rinoa’s weapon of choice is the Blaster Edge, a long range, projectile weapon. Five types of the weapon are available for Rinoa to use, with Shooting Star as the fifth and ultimate Blaster Edge weapon. As a result of developing sorceress powers throughout the game, Rinoa possesses the highest base stats at level 100, excelling in strength, magic, and spirit, surpassing the whole party. Rinoa has two limit breaks: Combine and Angel Wings. Combine involves Rinoa’s dog companion, Angelo, assisting her in battle, possessing a total of eight special attacks in the limit break with Wishing Star being the most powerful attack in which Rinoa jumps on Angelo’s back, sending enemies into space, and attacking them a total of eight times, dealing great magical damage. Angel Wings is a limit break that is obtained when Rinoa unlocks her sorceress powers. The limit break allows Rinoa’s magical abilities to be 5x more powerful than the regular norm, especially since she enters a “Magic-Berserk” status. During her Angel Wing limit break, she is immune to status ailments such as berserk, confuse, and silence. Under her Angel Wing limit break, she is able to cast all three levels of fire (fire, fira, firaga), blizzard (blizzard, blizzara, blizzaga), and thunder (thunder, thundara, thundaga). Secondly she is able to cast status ailments such as confuse (causes enemies to attack one another), sleep, blind, silence, zombie (causes healing potions or healing magic to do damage when affected by ailment), bio (poison), and dispel (removes opponent’s stat buffers) as well as cast time mage-caliber spells such as slow and stop. Lastly, Rinoa can cast more powerful non-elemental magic such as the following: Holy, Meteor, Flare, Demi, Death, Pain, Quake, Ultima, and Apocalypse.

Verdict

From the get-go, I knew there wasn't much work/involvement with Bambietta's character since she, after all, was defeated easily by Captain Sajin Komamura and immediately turned into a zombie by fellow Sternritter Giselle Gewelle. We have no indication on whether or not Giselle will turn her back into her usual self or if actually she can revert back at all. With Rinoa, oh we definitely have a lot to work with. Storyline & Powers/Abilities alone, Rinoa dominates in all these fields because she has a very full plate. With Bambietta, her plate isn't even remotely close to half ~ it's just specks. Rinoa's relationship with her parents is heartbreaking considering her mother died and her father isn't on good terms with her, but with Bambietta ~ we get nothing. Yes, a character I was actually interested in wanting to know probably won't get her own backstory. I wanted to invest my time with Bambietta, but there's not much to work with ~ she came, saw, and went. With Rinoa, there's more on her plate considering she saved the main protagonist of FF VII, Squall. When you got a hottie to save the hero, that deserves a lot of credit. What did Bambietta do that deserves credit? Well, nothing. Again, I know this verdict is lazily written, but when this Matchup was announced, I knew instinctively that it was going to go for FF because Bambietta, despite being the cutest Sternritter, isn't developed and we may never know if she'll be back. I also need to note that Rinoa's array of attacks is most impressive in comparison to Bambietta who can only blow sh*t up. Enough rambling on this one, Rinoa takes this no questions asked. If Bambietta was more developed, had more capabilities as a Sternritter, & played more of a role, then I'll reconsider her more. FF wins!

So who do you think won this matchup? Bambietta Basterbine from Bleach or Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII? Comment below and let us know. Reiterating again, Bleach Fantasy Round II posts will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays w/MechG & I interchanging every 3rd matchups on giving the verdict. Bleach Fantasy Round II standings (7-4):

1) Yoruichi Shihoin vs. Prishe ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by MechG)
2) Uryu Ishida vs. Hope Estheim ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by MechG)
3) As Nodt vs. Vincent Valentine ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by MechG)
4) Kenpachi Zaraki vs. Jecht ~ Bleach (Verdict by Stillmattic)
5) Shunsui Kyoraku vs. Auron ~ Bleach (Verdict by Stillmattic)
6) Sui-Feng vs. Tifa Lockhart ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by Stillmattic) 
7) Mayuri Kurotsuchi vs. Barthandelus ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by MechG)
8) Sajin Komamura vs. Sin ~ Bleach (Verdict by MechG)

9) Toshiro Hitsugaya vs. Kuja ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by MechG)
10) Tia Harribel vs. Tidus ~ Bleach (Verdict by Stillmattic)
11) Bambietta Basterbine vs. Rinoa Heartilly ~ Final Fantasy (Verdict by Stillmattic)