Fortitudo, the General of Father Balder and Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude and the Bringer of Flame, is an enemy boss in Bayonetta, one of the Auditio seeking to recover the Left Eye and revive Jubileus, The Creator. He is the first Auditio to be encountered and fought in a boss chapter and the only one to be fought outside a boss arena as a mini-boss.
He returns in Bayonetta 2, being summoned by the Masked Lumen and during the Witch Hunts chapters.
Hierarchy of Laguna
"Amongst the spiritually powerful of the Middle Ages, it was thought Paradiso held for all a Divine Will, and as a result, they developed heavenly logic. The concept of the "Cardinal Virtues" was born of this logic, and classifies Paradiso's Divine Will into four broad groups.
These Cardinal Virtues occasionally become physical manifestations of the great intentions of Paradiso, and are known as the Laguna, inspiring awe in the masses. Personifying courage and fortitude, Fortitudo has been depicted as a terrifying being sporting an enormous face and two dragon's heads. He is said to be capable of summoning magma flows at will."
Bayonetta
Fortitudo appears more frequently than most Auditio, as he leads the lower Laguna against the Umbra Witches. He first appears in the first scene in the game, far out of reach, where he fires fireballs at Bayonetta and Jeanne as they are fending off the warriors of Laguna.
During the first chapter, he personally fights Bayonetta and two other witches in a flashback sequence just outside the ancient city of Vigrid, but retreats after sustaining enough damage. He later ambushes Bayonetta, but is defeated.
He appears yet again to taunt and persuade Bayonetta to assist them in reviving The Creator. After exchanging insults with the witch, Fortitudo vanishes, just before unleashing a fiery cataclysm upon the city, overflowing the streets with lava and sending more angels to try to kill her.
Afterwards, Bayonetta proceeds to a ruined colosseum, where Fortitudo once again appears and attempts to persuade her to aid the angels. Bayonetta remains unconvinced, so Fortitudo challenges Bayonetta to a final battle. During the battle, he attempts to use his pyromancy and his fangs to subdue her, but to no avail. After sustaining brutal injury, he retreats to the rim of the Colosseum and reduces the arena to a lake of fire. Bayonetta pursues her foe using Witch Time to successfully navigate through the flying rubble. When she reaches Fortitudo, she pulls the hapless angel to the floor and decapitates one of his draconic heads. The detached head flounders helplessly while the hands of Inferno drag it into their realm. After Bayonetta removes his other head, Fortitudo obliterates the entire Colosseum in a desperate attempt to kill his enemy. However, Bayonetta escapes on a floating chunk of masonry and attacks once more. Fortitudo attempts to use his bulk and his tail to defeat the witch. However, he makes the fatal mistake of lashing out with his tail, as Bayonetta simply grabs his tail and flings him into the distance. With him stunned, Bayonetta summons a demonic bird of prey named Malphas. Malphas then proceeds to jab at him with its beak before tearing a hole through his face. Bayonetta then shatters the floating parts of the Colosseum, strikes the loose debris toward Fortitudo, then deactivates her Witch Time. The debris, freed from Witch Time, flies toward Fortitudo with frightening velocity before striking him. The multiple blows are too much for him and he is left mortally wounded.
Fortitudo, his face disfigured with a massive hole, speaks his final words, and compliments Bayonetta on her magnificent power. He then reveals to her that he is just a small sacrifice for the resurrection of "The Creator." Uttering a final prayer, he is banished to the depths of Inferno.
Courage
A clone of Fortitudo, simply called Courage, would appear before Bayonetta in Paradiso. Courage abandoned all tactic of his template and simply attacked her head-on, but due to his weak state, compared to Fortitudo, he was easily destroyed by Bayonetta. His death was shortly followed by Temperance, a clone of the next Auditio called Temperantia.
Another Courage appeared to confront Bayonetta on her way to Isla Del Sol, and attacked her from a distance which could be reached this time via weapons. This clone was also destroyed, and was also followed by another Temperance.
When in Chapter XV: A Tower to Truth, in the room with the Goddess Statue, taunting or attacking the Statue will cause one of Courage's dragon heads to emerge from the wall and fire at you. You cannot attack, but you can be damaged by the attack. Further taunting will continue to make Courage attack until the giant battery is disconnected from the room.
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate
Fortitudo appears in Bloody Fate, overseeing Jubileus' hibernation in Paradiso. During Bayonetta and Jeanne's last fight, Fortitudo spirits both of them into Paradiso when he feels the latter is hindering the ressurection of Jubileus. Jeanne's response is to throw remarks, shoot at him and tell him to go away. Scoffing off the bullets, Fortitudo then flies away, telling Bayonetta he will wait for her at the side of Jubileus.
When Bayonetta regains her memories of the Witch Hunts and Rosa's death, Fortitudo and several Temperantia appear before her and Jeanne, coming to claim the Left Eye. Jeanne intervenes, stabbing Bayonetta and sealing her inside the red jewel of the latter's Umbran Watch.
In the present, Bayonetta and Balder take their places as the Eyes of the World, Fortitudo and several Affinity then sacrifice themselves to Jubileus in order to empower her, disappearing into small sparkles of light.
Bayonetta 2
Fortitudo reappears several times in Bayonetta 2. First reappearing in Chapter IV: The Two Meet, he is summoned by the Masked Lumen Sage. Destroying the area used by the sage and Bayonetta for their battle, Bayonetta summons Labolas to deal with the Cardinal Virtue. Several times during this phase of the battle, the sage will channel with Fortitudo. If this is not interrupted, Fortitudo will blast the entire area with lava. Alternatively, interrupting the sage will cause Labolas to knock down Fortitudo. After dealing enough damage to the sage, Labolas will defeat Fortitudo by mauling him in mid-air, with the sage impaling Labolas in the forehead with his glaive.
In Chapter IX: The Gates of Hell, the mysterious Prophet forces Bayonetta to see a vision of the past: the point in time when Rosa was killed during the Witch Hunts. Balder, arming himself with his glaive to protect himself and Rosa from the oncoming mob of angry humans and Fortitudo, who declares that the Eyes of the World belong only to Jubileus.
As Bayonetta fights alongside Rosa in the Witch Hunts in Chapter XIII: Vigrid, the City of Deja Vu, Fortitudo appears and spots the two witches. He then flies down to fight them both, but they overpower him enough to grab both of his dragon heads and throw him away.
Fortitudo appears one last time in Chapter XV: Truth. After Bayonetta and Rosa defeated Temperantia from the cliffside of the clocktower, Fortitudo appears and destroys the clocktower with a fireball. Aiming a fireball at Bayonetta and Rosa next, the former grabs the latter before both of them can be struck, destroying part of the cliff and sending both witches down into the Crescent Valley.
Outside of story mode, Fortitudo can be fought in Tag Climax, his Verse Card must be unlocked by completing the first Witch Trials. Fortitudo also appears as part of Balder/Masked Lumen's Umbran Climax, with one of Fortitudo's dragon heads manifesting from above and attacking by snapping at enemies.
Description
Fortitudo is, like all Auditio, colossal in size compared to other Laguna. He takes the form of a two-headed dragon (which function as hands) coated in metal armor on the heads, necks, and partly on the wings, with jewels of similar colors on each forehead. The color of this armor is different for both sides, the left being blue and the right being red. His most prominent feature is the large upside-down face (which is a common trait on most Laguna, particularly his fellow Auditio) on his chest, which he talks through and operates his entire body with.
His clone, Courage, appears almost exactly the same as Fortitudo, but the armor and jewels are all green. Courage also tends to change size, as his first appearance is a mini scale of Fortitudo, but his second appearance may be closer to scale.
Abilities
Fortitudo has shown to possess a wide range of abilities. Natural abilities range from flight granted by his wings and breathing fire. He also possesses brute strength, frequently crushing structures and lifting a church into the air with one "hand", and being able to lift his own weight with his wings (far above normal atmospheric degrees). He does have more supernatural powers; he can teleport to different locations to speed up travel and cover areas in lava. He also seems to possess the ability to stand on walls, like some Laguna. Fortitudo speaks in the ancient language of angels, Enochian, that only the Lumen Sages and Umbra Witches understand.
Although Courage can breathe fire and fly, it is unknown if he shares Fortitudo's more supernatural powers, as he never performs them.
Mythology
Fortitudo represents the element of Fire and is based on the cardinal virtue of fortitude/courage/strength. His design could be seen as a cross between a Cherub (which has the faces of multiple animals), and a Seraph (who are, in mythology, draconic angels).
Fortitudo is largely inspired by medieval depictions of Archangel Michael: both are associated with fire and lead the divine armies, and are the member of their group that shows up most prominently. When not described as an "archangel", Michael is often described as a seraph or cherub, which may account for Fortitudo's appearance.
Trivia
- As the Cardinal Virtue of Courage, his role must be to encourage troubled people. However, when conversing with Bayonetta (not in his boss chapter), he seems to 'discourage' Bayonetta. Besides this, he also secretly encourages Bayonetta to fight him harder with his discouraging insults.
- Another thing that contrasts him to his role is that while he isn't outright cowardly, he mostly prefers to avoid violence and gets away in most of his battles.
- Fortitudo's vocals in game are provided by George Ball, with his voice in Bloody Fate being provided by Takahiro Fujiwara in the Japanese version and Dave Fennoy in the English dub of Bloody Fate.
- Fortitudo makes an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS, on the Umbran Clock Tower stage in the background.
- Bayonetta's line before her battle with Fortitudo, "Flock off, feather-face!", is a direct reference to Dante of Devil May Cry, who fires off this same line against Griffon before their battle.
- Fortitudo resembles the Epyon's Double-Headed Dragon Mode from mobile suit gundam series, Monarch Dodora and Cosmic Dodora from Star Fox Series, and Kaizor Ohrowchee from Wonderful 101.
Gallery
Bayonetta
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate
Bayonetta 2
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