Character Profile: Tia Harribel

Harribel has dark skin (notably lighter in the anime), green eyes, and messy blonde hair which has three braided locks. She wears an oddly-cut variation of the Arrancar jacket that covers the lower part of her face downward, while baring a good portion of the lower half of her breasts; this jacket, unlike that of other Arrancar, is provided with a zipper running along its entire length that is opened from the bottom upwards (in the anime, this outfit is extended to fully cover her breasts, a black stripe showing where the original cut of the jacket was). The jacket's sleeves completely envelop her arms, terminating in black glove-like extensions at her extremities, which slightly gives her fingers the appearance of a cat's paws. Physically, she appears to be just as well-endowed as Rangiku Matsumoto. Harribel carries her Zanpakuto on her back (similar to Soifon). The sword itself is notably broad and short compared to others, and has a western-style guard.

The remnants of her Hollow mask consist of the sides of her face and her mouth, as well as an extensive area below and around her neck extending down to, and also covering, her nipples; she usually hides these Hollow remnants from view with her jacket (in the anime, the remnants are extended to cover the underside of her breasts due to censorship). Harribel's mask fragment give her a similar appearance to Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, at least in regards to the teeth. To date she has the most intact mask of any Arrancar not including the incomplete Grand Fisher (though the mask is removed upon her Zanpakuto's release). Her Espada tattoo is oddly placed on the left side of her right breast. The location of her Hollow hole is currently unknown, despite the fact that her release form reveals most of her body.

Harribel rarely speaks, and when she does, she's fairly serious. An example would be when she tells her Fracción that being afraid of an Espada's released form is a natural reaction. She calculated the battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez was more of a fight between two Espada than anything else. She tends to cross her arms when not engaged in combat.

Compared to her fellow Espada, who are usually arrogant, boastful, impulsive, battle-hungry, bloodthirsty, and egotistical, Harribel is composed, receptive, analytical, and prefers not to engage in combat; she is content on silently observing both parties until the fighting reaches its conclusion, and actually fights only when she is challenged and attacked by an opponent or commanded to fight by her superiors (though she appears reluctant to take orders from a higher-ranked Espada). Harribel's gender and associated rank in the Espada often draws the unwanted attention of other people; Nnoitra Jiruga attempts to provoke her into attacking him with a sharply-worded comment during the Espada meeting. She also catches the eye of Captain Shunsui Kyoraku, even to the point of him mentioning his (rather positive) opinion of her abilities to his opponent.

Before Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends broke into Las Noches, Harribel is usually seen in the company of Aizen and her fellow Espada - in Aizen's throne room, the debriefing room, and the room which houses the Hogyoku. However, she, like the other Espada, has her own quarters. Whenever she is present, Aizen usually greets the group with words such as "ladies and gentlemen of the Espada" or "brothers and sisters", apparently for her exclusive benefit. She views Aizen and his powers in high regard, which is reciprocated by Aizen to a certain extent, as he seems unconcerned with the prospect of his top three Espada fighting a numerically-superior force led by six Shinigami captains without his aid.

Strangely, Harribel seems to show some concern for her enemies. This was hinted when she observed Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow and was finalized when she asked Hitsugaya about his fluctuating reiatsu during their fight. Unlike most of her comrades, Harribel does care for her Fracción, as she is noticeably upset when she senses their presences fading. She is then shown angrily assaulting Hitsugaya seconds after their defeat at the hands of Head Captain Yamamoto.

Harribel initially appears as one of several Arrancar who attend the return of Ulquiorra Cifer and Yammy Rialgo after their initial intrusion in the human world. In her first appearance, she is shown to be one of those who witnessed the events recorded by Ulquiorra's peculiar ability to replay events using his crushed left eye. Both she and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez are the only Espada seen attending the meeting.

She is later also seen with several other Espada (including Grimmjow's replacement Luppi) during the creation of Wonderweiss Margera.

Harribel appears again during Aizen's meeting about Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora Sado and Uryu Ishida entering Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue. After Aizen warns the Espada to treat the intruders with caution, she enunciates his statement to more rowdy members of the group, a comment specifically directed at Grimmjow and Nnoitra. Nnoitra taunts her thereafter, at which point she challenges him to repeat his insulting diatribe, but before things are able to go out of control Grimmjow interrupts the brewing confrontation by attempting to walk out against Aizen's orders. She is seen brooding silently while Aizen subdues Grimmjow with his Spiritual Pressure to keep him in line.

During Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow, she and her Fracción watch from afar talking about the battle. She tells her Fracción that being afraid of an Espada's released form is a natural reaction and said that the battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez was more like an fight between two Espada than anything else.

When Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tosen invade the Human World, Aizen also brings Starrk, Barragan, Harribel, and their Fracción. Once Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tosen are trapped by Yamamoto's Shikai, Barragan himself assumes command and threateningly warms the other Arrancar he won't tolerate disobedience. Once all of Barragan's Fracción are killed, all the remaining Fracción and Espada pair up against the Shinigami and begin to battle. Harribel enters into battle with Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya, while his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto fights all three of her Fracción. During battle, she senses fluctuations in Hitsugaya's spiritual pressure as soon as Momo Hinamori appears to aid his lieutenant. Harribel questions her opponent on this, but Hitsugaya replies with a swift attack.

When her Fracción, Apache, Mila-Rose, and Sun-Sun, are effortlessly defeated at the hands of Head Captain Yamamoto, she ups her tactics against Hitsugaya. She says of her fallen subordinates that they fought a good battle. She then unzips her jacket, revealing her rank as the Tres Espada, third most powerful in Aizen's army. Hitsugaya finds it difficult to believe someone so strong happens only to be the third strongest of the Espada, but Harribel starkly warns him she hasn't yet begin to show him the extent of her power. She unzips the rest of her jacket to reveal the frightening remains of her mask covering the lower half of her face. Acknowledging the seriousness of this fight against such a powerful opponent, Hitsugaya activates his Bankai, but Harribel counters by directly charging at him.

After using her Proyectil Azul attack to injure Hitsugaya, Harribel decides to put a quick end to the battle and releases her zanpakuto with the command "Attack, Tiburón". She is enveloped in a cocoon of water and emerges in her selachian Resurrección form, equipped with a dangerously large sword-like weapon. Hitsugaya thinks it would be fatal to underestimate her now, but before he can even react she delivers a seemingly fatal blow by slicing off the right side of his body from his shoulder. Believing her enemy defeated, she says "One blow from the Shark, and the Ice Dragon sinks into the sea.".

Seeing Yamamoto on the side of battle, she approaches him and threatens to exact her revenge against him for taking the lives of her subordinates. Suddenly however, Hitsugaya appears behind her unharmed and nearly lands a fatal blow to her head, but she ducks and manages to slice off his ice tail. Wondering how her opponent survived unharmed, Hitsugaya explains he made an illusion of his image out of ice as a precaution once she released, this ice clone being what she struck down. Hitsugaya then tells Harribel to not underestimate the power of the Shinigami.

As their fight ensues, Harribel reveals her release form has the ability to create and manipulate water, which she uses as a long-range weapon by sending raging torrents at Hitsugaya, but he simply freezes them with his sword before they strike. He tells her that his Zanpakuto is the most powerful ice-type sword, and all water is his weapon, so none of her attacks will ever reach him. Hitsugaya sends Harribel's torrent of water rushing back towards her as ice, and she tells him it is he who is underestimating her. She melts his ice and explains the iron law of battle: when a fighter can use their opponent's attack against them, the opposite is also true. She sends Hitsugaya's melted attack back at him in a massive torrent of crushing water.

Hitsugaya, however, freezes most of the water before it can crush him. He sends shards of ice at Harribel, but she quickly melts them. Hitsugaya appears behind her and converts the water into ice, which manages to freeze her, though she breaks free quickly. He tells her another law of battle, that one faces the greatest danger when one uses their best attack. She sends jets of water at him, but he dodges. She releases a Cero from her sword, but it's a weak attack and only nicks one of his ice wings. He concludes that the reason her Cero was so weak is because both of them are waiting for the battlefield to become filled with condensation, from this he states that when that happens, Harribel will likely use the opportunity to finish him off with one massive blow.

Hitsugaya grows tired of waiting and states that he has never tried one of Hyorinmaru's special abilities in his Bankai before. He explains that he doesn't have to wait for water, as his sword is the most powerful ice-based Zanpakuto, and all water is his weapon and all of heaven is under his command. He then reveals his never-before-seen power, Hyoten Hyakkaso. The sky becomes filled with dark storm clouds, and Harribel looks up and wonders what is going on. Hitsugaya asks her name, to which she replies: Tia Harribel. Hitsugaya then states his name and rank before attacking. A hole in the sky opens, and snow begins to fall. Harribel attempts to melt the snow with her sword, but the moment her sword touches the snow, ice flowers begin to bloom on her body. As she is quickly encased in ice, Hitsugaya calmly tells her that once all one hundred ice flowers have bloomed, she will die. He then states that she won't be able to avenge her underlings after all. The one hundred ice flowers encase Harribel in a gigantic ice-flower obelisk.

Once Wonderweiss Margera arrives, he lets out a high pitched scream which shatters the ice holding her. She rises from the ice obelisk without any noticeable sign of injury and gives a cold stare to Hitsugaya. As Hitsugaya is contemplating the words of Sajin Komamura about fighting alongside the newly arrived Visored, Harribel goes to attack him while his back is turned. However, before she can, the Visoreds Lisa Yadomaru and Hiyori Sarugaki step in and deflect her blow, pushing her back. While Hiyori and Hitsugaya were arguing about who was shorter, Lisa Yadomaru suddenly charged at Harribel. She is then seen blocking an attack from Lisa and states that she thought that the three of them would come at her at once.

She is currently still alive.