So I was doing some Bomberman related things and I suddenly came to a realization.

The Elemental Stones are incredibly powerful. All seven of them united had the power to bring Bomberman back from the dead after Mihaele absorbed a significant amount of their power, which tells a lot on its own. They made each of the Elemental Knights immensely more powerful than they otherwise would be.

I mean, all of the Elemental Knights had an Elemental Stone right? ...Nope. Of all the Elemental Knights Bomberman fought and defeated, Baelfael lacked an Elemental Stone. It would explain why he was so weak, yet at the same time, he wasn't all that much weaker compared to some of the other Knights. In the Japanese version, he still had his Instant KO attack, Hellfire. So he still retained some significant amount of power despite lacking an Elemental Stone.

Yet, doesn't that say something? Baelfael was about as strong as several of the other Elemental Knights despite technically fighting with a major handicap. I mean Bomberman had his Elemental Stone even. Baelfael was at a significant disadvantage.

Could giving Baelfael an Elemental Stone lead to an incredible power boost that makes him a far more dangerous opponent, much like Regulus and Zoniha?

Could it be that Baelfael is actually one of the strongest Elemental Knights but was only defeated because of his major disadvantages?

Mind = blown.

Holy shit. Holy. Shit. I had never considered this. You might be onto something. Though I doubt that the developers ever considered this either (he's written as the youngest, a brash fighter), given the backstory, this could be a logical conclusion to draw.

There's two other things I forgot to mention that prove Baelfael's power, both of which were only in the Japan release.

Baelfael's melee attacks were stronger. They actually stunned Bomberman (for the shortest of time, but again, handicap). This both displays power but also strategy, considering that stunning is better than damage given his arena. Bomberman can't swim so getting knocked in that water is lethal.

Baelfael also had a desperation phase at 2 HP, where he went crazy with the melee aggression. This puts Bomberman in an odd position, where he can only 'safely' dodge by wandering around the edge of the arena, but this is a danger in and of itself because he might off the edge or just get outright knocked off by Baelfael's stunning. So again, strategy.

But then there's just the sheer aggression of the phase. No other boss in the game has that level of aggression. Not even Regulus, who is made laughably predictable because he spams melee. Baelfael spams melee a lot too, but given his much smaller arena, it is actually more dangerous than Regulus doing it.

Baelfael is a stronger warrior than we thought.

Manfael? Or Baelwin? Baelfin.  

I kind of feel like the fact that he relies so heavily on melee attacks could simply indicate that he has less power than the other Knights, and so he has to strategize more (or he just has to go into a rage, and he's just lucky that the room has all that deadly water in it). But then, there's still the idea that he's lacking such power because he's lacking the Stone, and he's already pretty strong without his Stone, so... yeah, I'd buy it. I wouldn't say he's the strongest Knight, though. Regulus has taken several beatings while holding back his power, and still survived. The other Knights got trashed when going all out. The fact that Regulus can even walk away from a fight with Bomberman makes him either one of the most resilient or simply one of the most intelligent enemy in the whole franchise...

Great avatar, by the way. It's absolutely fantastic. Whoever drew it must be a beautifully awesome and incredibly talented person.