Adelheid Bernstein

Adelheid Bernstein, Adel for short, is a boss character from The King of Fighters 2003 and The King of Fighters XI. He, along with his younger sister, Rose, are the only known children of Rugal Bernstein.

He is voiced by Tetsuya Tanaka.

Development
Adelheid and Rose were added to widen the worldview of KOF with a separate but connected story to Ash saga. Creators have stated that he is the "other protagonist" of the Ash saga.

Story
Adelheid and his sister Rose reside on an airship called "Sky Noah". In The King of Fighters 2003, he would challenge fighters there at the behest of his sister. His story in The King of Fighters XI implies that he faced the Ikari Warriors Team and was defeated by them. He peacefully chats with Heidern and explains that he is only following his father's legacy. In his ending for the game, he seems to appear regretful for his actions and berates his sister for insulting his opponents.

The console edition of The King of Fighters XIII reveals more of Adelheid's cooperation with Heidern (in which he addresses him as "Colonel Heidern") as he tries to help the forces of good suppress the evil plans of Those from the Past. When Rose is finally freed, he reassures his sister he would punish those responsible for her subjugation.

Personality
Unlike his father, Rugal Bernstein, Adel is an honorable fighter, who exhibits good sportsmanship, as demonstrated when he is defeated in The King of Fighters 2003. He also loves his sister, that upon realizing something is wrong with her, he cooperated with one of his father's victims, Heidern, to get to the bottom of the plans of Those From the Past, and at the then-strange behavior of his sister. He rarely has the evil ways of his father and has helped those Rugal has wronged on many occasions, particularly and most notably with Heidern.

Abilities

 * Gather energy - Adelheid can channel energy from Gaia.
 * Sense - Adelheid can sense chi energy of those nearby.
 * Energy Projectile - Adelheid can fire projectiles of energy from his hands and feet. The Reppuuken is an example.
 * Energy Reflector - Adelheid can create a barrier that reflects projectiles.
 * Slashing hands - Adelheid's hands can pierce an enemy.
 * Slashing aura - Adelheid can create a cutting aura around his legs. The Genocide Cutter is an example.
 * Negative Energy - Adelheid can create a powerful pillar of energy to crush enemies, like the Gigantic Pressure. Though it looks like his father's, imbued with borrowed Orochi Power, Adelheid's is not powered by such.


 * Management - Together with his sister, they manage and operate the Sky Noah.
 * Public Relations - Adelheid can negotiate in a level of authority, much like how his father could. Of course, Adelheid does not use it for evil ends like his father did.

Fighting style
His style is very similar to his father's. Unlike his father, his moves are faster and is also easier to chain. On the other hand, his moves are significantly weaker in priority. It seems the mastery of his father skills is still a long way to go, considering his Desperation Moves (Genocide Cutter, Kaiser Wave) are his father's common special moves.

Unlike his father's moves, all of Adel's moves are written directly in German (examples being "G. Wand" and "G. Kreis"). His various specials and super moves all have a "G" initial beforehand; this is short for "grosse", an alternate form of "groß", the German word for "great" or "grand". His command normals have the "A" initial, probably from his own name. His throw lacks an initial.

Music

 * Revolutionary Etude - The King of Fighters 2003 (first half of theme)
 * R2 - The King of Fighters 2003 (second half of theme)
 * King - The King of Fighters XI

Appearances
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Mainline

 * The King of Fighters 2003 - bad ending final boss
 * The King of Fighters XI - potential mid-boss
 * The King of Fighters XIII - Story Mode

Mobile

 * Days of Memories (ninth title) - non-playable character
 * The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online
 * Kimi wa Hero
 * The King of Fighters All Star

Cameo
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 * KOF: Maximum Impact 2 - background cameo
 * KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation "A" - background cameo
 * The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout - background cameo in the Team Art of Fighting stage
 * The King of Fighters XIII - in the Sky Noah Stage

Trivia

 * Adelheid is a modern Dutch and German form of the Old High German female given name Adalheidis, meaning "nobility" or "noble-ness".
 * According to concept art in KOF 2003, Adelheid has albinism.
 * Based on the concept art in KOF XIII, Adelheid was supposed to be a playable character, but this idea was scrapped early on.
 * According to the art gallery found in KOF '99, there were early concepts of characters who resemble Adelheid and Rose since, including Adel's outfit and their panther mascot.
 * Adelheid's theme in KOF 2003 begins with a rendition of Chopin's "Étude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor", also known as the "Revolutionary Étude".
 * According to the developers, including rendition this on the Neo Geo system required a huge amount of memory, which ended up overwhelming the voice data of other characters.
 * His theme was remixed in KOF All Star, adding more elements from Revolutionary Étude to the song.