Bleach: What Happened to the Female Sternritter? Did They Survive?

Out of all the Sternritter in Bleach, and there really were a lot of them, only five of them were female. Bambietta Basterbine, Liltotto Lamperd, Candice Catnipp, Meninas McAllon, and Giselle Gewelle are five Sternritter girls collectively known as the Bambies, and in this article, we are going to be dealing with them and their fates in the aftermath of their battle with Ichigo Kurosaki, as it happened in the most recent episode of the Bleach anime series.

Interestingly enough, although defeated, all the five Sternritter girls survived the war, as was confirmed officially in the Can’t Fear Your Own World light novel. Giselle and Liltotto, who rebelled against Yhwach, were healed by one of their own; Bambietta survived in her zombified form; Meninas and Candice were recovered by Mayuri and made into his subordinates, along with NaNaNa, who also survived the Quincy Blood War. So, despite losing the battle and being the victims of Yhwach’s Auswahlen, the five Sternritter girls managed to survive and are alive and well in the current timeline of the Bleach manga and anime.

The rest of this article will be dedicated to the fates of the five Sternritter girls. We are not going to provide you with all the individual details on each of them, but we are simply going to give you an overview of what happened to them by grouping those who had an identical fate in the series (the article will, thus, be divided into three groups). If you want more information on each of their stories, you can check out our articles on the topic. As for spoilers, we have to warn you that the article will contain some spoilers, so be careful how you approach some of its parts.

Bambietta Basterbine survived in her zombified form

Bambietta was first shown during the first invasion of the Seireitei when she fought Sajin Komamura and could steal his Bankai, although she could not kill him. Later, during the second invasion, she went with her fellow female Sternritter to find Komamura once again, but after the four of them abandoned her, she found Komamura, who was now sporting a new armor.

Captain Shinji Hirako soon arrived and took over the battle from Komamura, being very close to killing Bambietta, who was ultimately saved thanks to her Quincy: Vollständig, with which she managed to injure Shinji.

Komamura then returned to the fight and took over it while Hinamori took Shinj to safety. In his new, humanized form, Komamura was significantly stronger than Babmietta, and her attacks had absolutely no effect on him, as he did not feel any pain in his human form, which was just a shell.

Komamura managed to defeat the helpless Bambietta with relative ease, and he left her so badly wounded that she would have died.

It was then that Giselle and the other Bambies arrived, and Giselle promised to heal Bambietta, but she actually used her “The Zombie” to turn Bambietta into a zombie pawn of hers; Bambietta would later reappear during the fight with Mayuri, but she was, once again, defeated.

The Can’t Fear Your Own World sequel light novel, in which we learned that Giselle and Liltoto survived despite being beaten by Yhwach himself, revealed her ultimate fate. Bambietta was kept with them by Giselle, who turned her into a slave and continued to feed her blood to maintain her zombie form. Since Bambietta served as their main weapon in multiple battles in the light novel, we can affirm that she is technically still alive in Bleach.

Liltotto and Giselle were healed and saved by a fellow Quincy under Jugram’s command

Liltotto Lamperd and Giselle Gewelle were among the Bambies facing Ichigo when he returned from the Soul King’s Palace. Much to the amazement of the four Sternritter, Ichigo then suddenly stands behind them and confronts the female Quincy.

Meninas and Giselle wonder who ‘he’ is, to which Liltotto explains that this is Ichigo Kurosaki, which seems to shock Meninas and Giselle a bit. Unfazed by Ichigo being listed as one of the Special War Potentials by Yhwach, Candice attacks him directly with one of her lightning bolts, which fails.

Unlike Candice, Liltotto and the others seem to have more respect for Ichigo and his powers, commenting on Candice’s failed attempt to attack him directly as predictable, saying that Ichigo is unlikely to be bothered by such an attack.

Since Candice can’t do much against Ichigo alone, Meninas, Giselle, and Liltotto also decide to attack Ichigo with a Heilig Pfeil each, but their battle is ultimately a failure, as Ichigo defeats them. The four of them are then attacked by Bazz-B, who wants to take all the credit, but they are not defeated, and after some additional Sternritter arrive, the eight of them want to face off against Ichigo.

Ultimately, they are defeated but also rebel against Yhwach, which causes a rift between them. Liltotto is forced to devour PePe Waccabrada because he turned Meninas on her with her power and calmed down Meninas as well; Giselle was defeated in her battle against Mayuri. They ultimately went to the Palace and tried to face Yhwach but were defeated and left for dead.

Still, they were ultimately helped by a female underlying of Jugram’s, after which the two of them regrouped with Bambietta, traveling between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society in order to find a way to free their captured friends, Candice and Meninas, which they ultimately succeeded in doing. This was revealed in the Can’t Fear Your Own World light novel.

Candice and Meninas were captured by Mayuri’s Division and later freed

The story of Candice and Meninas is almost the same as that of Liltotto and Giselle. After the four of them all but incapacitated the 11th Division and threatened to kill Kenpachi, Ichigo Kurosaki appeared on the battlefield like a lightning bolt from the sky. Much to the amazement of the four girls, Ichigo was behind them momentarily and was ready to fight them.

As stated, Candice Catnipp was unimpressed with the fact that Ichigo was one of the Special Threats, so she attacked him directly with one of her lightning bolts. Ichigo could block Candice’s attack by grabbing her arm and simultaneously slamming her into a building.

The other female Quincy also attacked Ichigo, but this time as a team, but they are thrown into a building just like Candice. Unlike Candice, the others have more respect for their opponent and opt for a more intelligent approach to the fight.

Shortly thereafter, Candice rises from the ruins of the building Ichigo threw her against, incensed that the impact soiled her hair with dust. Candice swears revenge on Ichigo, but she is ultimately defeated by the Shinigami, who even manages to cut her arm off. Meninas also tried to defeat Ichigo, but even her superhuman strength was not enough. As Ichigo went ahead, they were ultimately defeated and left in the ruins of the Wandenreich (Liltotto defeated Meninas after the rebellion, and Byakuya defeated Candice).

The Can’t Fear Your Own World light novel revealed that both of them survived as well and were captured by Mayuri’s division and made into his subordinates; he used them for his experiments, but they were later freed thanks to Liltotto’s and Giselle’s efforts.