Talk:Bayonetta 2/@comment-189.235.61.129-20141002204119/@comment-1661895-20141002233937

The two games are essentially in a loop with each other so that they answer questions about both plotlines, including why Loptr's soul is destroyed at the beginning of Bayonetta 2, but not defeated until the end. It is a bit confusing because of the time travel aspect, but I'll try and summarise it in an easy way to understand.

The whole thing technically starts before the first Bayonetta after Loki has escaped into the future shortly before Loptr murders Rosa during the Witch Hunts. After she is killed, the younger Balder is taken 500 years in his future by the older Loptr's power and Bayonetta then finds her mother dead as she later remembers in her memories. In the present, Loptr tries to make Balder go after Loki, since Loptr and Loki looked alike at the time Rosa died. Because of this, Loptr hopes to manipulate Balder as a pawn in order to obtain Loki's Sovereign power to control the Eyes.

After Loki's power sends both Bayonetta and Balder back into the past briefly, Balder realises that Loptr is the true culprit and he travels back to the present day with Bayonetta to stop him. After Loptr is defeated when the Eyes are destroyed, Balder absorbs his soul and claims that he will never be able to be reborn in another era again on account of the Lumen Sages' eternal lives. In doing this, Loptr's essence of evil (as he is the bad part of Aesir) begins to corrupt his thoughts and Balder is returned back into the past.

Now, back in his own time period, Loptr's evil has corrupted Balder and essentially spurs him to perform his actions of the first game from the end of the Witch Hunts up until his plan to ressurect Jubileus. It should be pointed out that Loptr's soul is not directly controlling him, but its very prescence is making Balder perform evil actions. Because the Eyes still exist in the past, he is still able to control it's power and also knows that the two Eyes can unlock the power of creation when brought together. As a Lumen Sage, he feels that the light should have control and plans to use Jubileus to remake the Trinity in her ideal image. Bayonetta, obviously, stops him and manages to destroy Jubileus's body. The head later crashes to the ground and Balder is able to survive.

Loptr's soul, sensing that his 'prison' is weakening, tries to escape and Balder is able to come back to his senses thanks to this. He seals the soul back inside his body, knowing that when he dies, so will Loptr. He thanks Bayonetta for keeping the promise that she had made him in her past after Loptr's defeat (and one that she would later make at the end of the 2nd game) and dies. After Balder's death, the world begins to suffer frequent natural disasters because of the loss of the Right Eye, which has disrupted the balance of the planet. This is also the reason why Gomorrah turns on Bayonetta and sends her on her journey during Bayonetta 2.

Basically, Loptr's soul is transported into the past before the events of Bayonetta 2 which is why he is able to die before his complete form does at the end of the 2nd game. There isn't alternate timelines, the events of the two games just lead into each other.