Bartz Klauser

Bartz Klauser (known as Butz Klauser in the Japanese version) is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy V. He is the son of one of the original Warriors of Dawn, Dorgann Klauser, and a woman named Stella. His mother died from cardiac arrest when he was young, and his father died three years before the game begins. On advice from his father, Bartz decided to wander the world.

Before the player names him, he is known as ?, or ??? in the Advance version.

Personality and Appearance
Bartz has a slim muscular build and is quite athletic. Being a wanderer, he can find his way through most terrains. He has white hair in Yoshitaka Amano's artworks, with a tight-fitting shirt and trousers with various beads and sashes. His sprite art depicts him with brown hair, wearing a simple blue tunic, white shirt and trousers, and sometimes a red cape. Bartz's eyes appear grayish or brown depending on the source. In sprite form, his eyes are blue. Officially, he is the tallest of the party in the game.

Bartz is described as "a simple wanderer." He starts his adventure without many ambitions other than to explore the world, stating that is what his father wanted, and so he initially rejects Lenna's invitation to join her. However, his conscience (along with Boko's intervention) makes him change his mind, and shortly thereafter he is chosen to be a Light Warrior by the Crystals. This role forces Bartz to mature and form a greater sense of responsibility to the world, much like his father had during his own travels. Despite the gravity of the situation, Bartz retains his easygoing and friendly nature, and usually remains levelheaded to the point of being facetious about how the others are always "going overboard" with drama. However, he cares a great deal about his friends and is still affected by his parents' death, even though he often has trouble putting his feelings into words. He makes a point to look after Krile when she joins the party. Bartz also has a fear of heights, which dates back to when he was playing "hide-and-go-seek" as a child and almost fell down from the roof of a two-story house.

Dissidia Final Fantasy focuses on the playful and carefree part of his personality, which gets him into trouble. In spite of this he still shows his "serious" side that reveals his real strength, fitting Golbez's statement that "One must find for one self, the true power that dwells within."

Story
Bartz was born in the small town of Lix where he lived with his mother Stella and his father Dorgann. Bartz's mother died while he was still young, and his father fell ill and died when Bartz was seventeen. Following his dying wish, Bartz decided to travel the world. Along the way, he found a chocobo separated from its flock whom he named Boko and from there on, he became Bartz's steadfast companion.

Three years after Dorgann's death, Bartz is in the Tycoon area when a meteorite falls from the sky, so he and Boko decide to take a look. He finds a young woman, Lenna, being attacked by goblins. He helps her out, and they find an amnesiac old man named Galuf in the meteor's wreckage. Lenna explains to Bartz that she must go to the Wind Shrine and Galuf decides to join her when he realizes he was trying to go there too.

Initially, Bartz chooses to continue his wanderings, but Boko convinces him to help Galuf and Lenna. After a brief earthquake, Bartz rescues the pair from goblins for a second time. He joins the party permanently, deciding his father would have wanted him to find out what was happening to the Crystals, though Galuf teases him by saying he's only there so he can keep looking at Lenna.

On their way, the party finds a cave opened by the earthquake. As they venture through the cave they see a ship sailing without the wind, and reach a pirate hideout. Here (on Galuf's advice), Bartz tries to commandeer the pirate ship, owned by the pirate captain Faris. During their capture, Bartz and Galuf find out Lenna's true identity as a princess of Tycoon. The next day, Faris lets them take the ship to the Wind Crystal anyway. At a brief stop at Tule, Bartz and Galuf are confused by Faris' beautiful appearance while asleep. When they get to the Wind Shrine, they see the King of Tycoon just before the Crystal shatters. Tycoon entrusts the four of them with a quest to save the Crystals from an unknown evil and names Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, and Faris the Warriors of Light and thus, they begin their journey.

Bartz and the rest of the party reach the town of Tule, and meet Zok, Lenna's old friend, and ask for the key to the Torna Canal, but Zok claims to have lost the key. That night, Bartz awakens wondering if his father would have wanted him to be on such a quest. Zok speaks with him and entrusts him the key, believing Lenna would be safe with him. If the party visits the Pirate Hideout again, they will find chocobo tracks. Bartz discovers that the chocobo tried to follow them and somehow became injured on the way, finding his way into the care of the pirates' doctor. Bartz is quite anxious over him even though the doctor assures him that Boko will be fine.

In the Torna Canal, the ship is attacked by Karlabos and Syldra (Faris's "pet") is sucked into a whirlpool; Bartz and Galuf must hold him back from trying to follow. The ship drifts towards the Ship Graveyard. While there, Bartz and Galuf discover Faris is a woman in disguise, but Bartz shrugs at the discovery and doesn't think of her any differently. When they reach the coastline Siren hypnotizes Bartz with the figure of his mother, but Galuf is able to save them because he didn't remember the girl that the Siren used to try and ensare him. They reach the North Mountain and save Hiryuu, Lenna's wind drake. Bartz hesitates out of his acrophobia, but Galuf forces him onto the dragon anyway.

When Bartz and the party arrive in Walse, they warn the King of the Crystal's destruction, but the King refuses their counsel. Another meteorite falls nearby and a soldier warns the King that the monster Garula has gone insane. The party leaves for the Walse Tower and defeat Garula, but the crystal shatters regardless and the tower sinks into the sea. Bartz, Lenna, Galuf and Faris are rescued by Syldra, but the dragon is spent of her strength and drifts away on the current. The party returns to the second meteor, where Bartz accidentally discovers a wearp point to the second continent. They arrive in Karnak only to be imprisoned by the town guard. In prison, Bartz and company meet Cid Previa when he accidentally "escapes" into their cell. He introduces himself as the inventor of the crystal amplification machines, locked up by Queen Karnak when he realized his mistake and tried to stop its use. After they meet, the Chancellor of Karnak releases the party so that they can save the queen, who is trapped on the Fire-Powered Ship. The ship also holds the Fire Crystal. The party arrives and save the Queen, but the Crystal is destroyed by a possessed soldier and they narrowly escape the ensuing explosion.

Cid is frustrated by his mistakes and is unable to help Bartz and his friends, so they look for Mid Previa, Cid's grandson, who resides in the Library of the Ancients. The party finds him deep within the library, filled with monsters, and explain everything to him, whereupon he immediately leaves to talk to his grandfather. With Mid and Cid working together they rebuild the Fire-Powered Ship and Bartz's party leaves to search for the last Crystal. Galuf, having regained some of his memory after seeing Cid and Mid's relationship, as well as the reason the Crystals are being destroyed: Exdeath, a 1,000-year-old warlock who was sealed by the Warriors of Dawn and the crystals' power, is possessing various people around the world to destroy the Crystals in order to break free.

With the wind drake, Bartz is able to return to his hometown of Lix. The townspeople are happy to see him and the bard who has taken up residence in his house tells him to look around. The music box inside reminds Bartz of his mother's death and that night, he visits her grave. He explains to Faris that Dorgann would have been buried alongside his wife and carves his name on the stone.

After the party searches for the Earth Crystal on Crescent, the Fire-Powered Ship sinks into the ocean. When the party explores the nearby woods Bartz and Faris find a black chocobo and return to the Library of the Ancients to explore the Ronka Ruins. Once there, they encounter a possessed King Tycoon and reach a hidden facility and airship under Crescent Island at the same time the Ronka Ruins turns into a gigantic floating battle station. The party flies there with the newly-restored airship and unwittingly destroy the Crystal's guardian. King Tycoon prepares to destroy the crystal; while Bartz and Galuf ready themselves to fight him, Lenna and Faris stand between them. At that moment, Krile arrives and hits the king with a minor spell to break Exdeath's hold on him. The ensuing reunion is cut short when Exdeath arrives, taunting the party, and forcing the King to sacrifice his life to save them. As he dies, he asks that Bartz protect his daughters.

Galuf, his memory fully restored now, leaves for his world with Krile and forbids the others to follow. Bartz, Lenna, and Faris are left behind, but they soon decide together that they're not going to leave their friend to fight on his own even if it means never returning to their homeworld. They decide to go after Galuf by collecting Adamantite at Cid and Mid's suggestions from the four meteorites, in order to use their remaining power to teleport themselves to Galuf's world.

When the party travels to the Second World, Bartz, Lenna, and Faris arrive on a deserted island. During the night, they are attacked by Abductors sent by Exdeath. Bartz fights the monster, but is unable to win and the three are taken to Castle Exdeath to be used as hostages. When Bartz tries to confront Exdeath, Exdeath knocks him back with a powerful spell. Galuf has his army fall back, saves the heroes from the castle, and the four battle Gilgamesh.

After the battle on the Big Bridge, the castle's force field throws the party to the continent of Gloceana. Bartz apologizes for failing to help, but Galuf brushes it off. Spending the night in Regole, Galuf reassures him that their actions saved his army from the barrier (albeit accidentally) and asks why they followed him. Bartz is unable to say more than a mumbled "no particular reason" and tells Galuf not to worry about it. Shortly after that, they reach Moogle Forest and are picked up by Krile and her wind drake, who take them to the Castle of Bal. Bartz is shocked to find that Galuf is a king.

Krile tells the party that the wind drake is dying after the battle and its long flight and that the only place Dragon Grass can be found is Drakenvale, a place where none are said to have ever survived. Although the rest of the party is disheartened, Bartz simply proclaims that they'll be the first. While searching for Dragon Grass, the party crosses the town of Quelb and meet Kelger Vlondett. He questions their loyalties and challenges Bartz to a fight to test them. Bartz successfully repels Kelger's Lupine Attack, much to Kelger's shock. When Bartz explains his father trained him, Kelger asks his father's name. When Bartz replies that it was Dorgann, Galuf and Kelger are shocked and reveal that Dorgann, along with themselves and Xezat, were the four warriors who sealed Exdeath in the first place, and that Dorgann had refused to return after forcing such an evil entity onto another world. Although Dorgann and Stella never told Bartz so as not to burden him, Bartz wound up following in his footsteps anyway.

The party is summoned by the sage Ghido and try to visit him, but Exdeath sinks the island first. The party is picked up by Xezat's fleet and join him in destroying the Barrier Tower. Xezat becomes trapped in the lowest level and tells the party to escape without him as the tower falls, but Bartz is forced to knock Galuf out to get him out.

With the submarine used to infiltrate the tower, they find Ghido's lair in a now-underwater cavern. Finding a turtle inside, Bartz starts to poke and prod it over Galuf's protests until it speaks up, revealing itself to be the sage. Although Bartz is shocked and apologizes for his behavior, but Ghido mocks him for the rest of the game. He tells them to go to the Great Forest of Moore to protect this world's crystals from Exdeath.

This turns out to be a trap laid by Exdeath. After they enter the Guardian Tree, Exdeath forces the crystal seals to attack the party so that they will destroy them for him. He arrive on the scene to taunt them and uses the crystals' power to attack the party, slowly killing them. Although Krile arrives and tries to stop him, she falls to his magic as well. Galuf rises up and attacks Exdeath with the last of his strength, forcing the warlock to retreat at the cost of his own life. Although the party tries to heal him, Galuf dies and passes on his abilities to his granddaughter. The new party rushes to Castle Exdeath, but he again taunts them for fighting him without even knowing what his plans are. Although they seem to defeat him, Exdeath still shatters the crystals.

The party blacks out and mysteriously find themselves back at Castle Tycoon. Faris is welcomed back as the long-lost Princess Sarisa and a grand ball is held to celebrate her and Lenna's return. During the festivities, Krile ducks out and Bartz follows to check on her. When she tells him that Galuf's spirit is telling her to hurry, Bartz decides to investigate. They leave the princesses behind and--with a deal of good-natured teasing--go to check it out. Bartz seeks out Boko and finds him not just healed, but married to a chocobo named Koko with eggs on the way. Bartz gives Boko his hearty congratulations and the three of them continue, but they fall into a pit created by an Antlion. They defeat the monster, bicker about whose fault it was, and are rescued by Faris after promising they'll never leave her behind again. They find Ghido upended in his cave, and the sage tells them that the two worlds have now merged to one. The worlds were split to seal the Void a thousand years ago, and that is what Exdeath seeks. Exdeath appears before them again, having disguised himself as a splinter. Although Bartz and Faris try to fight him, only Ghido can match him, but it's not enough to stop Exdeath from using the Void. He consumes Tycoon Castle and Lenna with it.

On their way to seek the first tablet for the Sealed Weapons, the party passes the Guardian Tree and pause to mourn the people they've lost. Together, they resolve to defeat Exdeath and not allow any more sacrifices to be made. After retrieving the tablet from the Pyramid of Moore, they find Lenna possessed by Melusine, a demon of the rift that forces her to attack them. After Hiryu frees her, Bartz, Faris, and Krile destroy the demon and Lenna joins them again. Their relief is short-lived; as soon as they board the airship, Exdeath attacks with the Void worldwide. He uses it to consume Lix and several other places, and at the sight of his hometown's destruction Bartz flies into a rage. He pushes the airship to its absolute limit and nearly destroys it until the others finally calm him down.

After collecting the twelve Sealed Weapons Bartz, Lenna, Faris and Krile enter the Interdimensional Rift. They find Gilgamesh there, who greets them as a friend and gives his regrets for not being able to adventure with them before sacrificing himself against one of Exdeath's minions. The party reaches the last levels and fight Exdeath, aided by the spirits of King Tycoon and the Dawn Warriors. Though the Void transforms their enemy into Neo Exdeath, the Light Warriors finally defeat him. With the crystal shards and spirit of the Light Warriors, the crystals form again and the places taken by the Void are restored. Bartz resumes his wandering lifestyle. A year later, he reunites with the others at the Guardian Tree, where they resolve to continue protecting the Crystals as Light Warriors.

Battle
Bartz will be the most available playable character during the course of the game, so it's safe for the player to give him the task of being the "primary damage dealer". It's more optimal to give him physical jobs such as Knight, Monk, or Gladiator during the course of the game.

In the Gameboy Advance version, Bartz was given the innate element of Wind, therefore the Gladiator's Finisher ability will take this element when using this ability.

Stats
Each playable characters have slightly different base attributes and they are therefore slightly better suited for different task(s). Bartz has the highest raw Strength and lowest raw Magic, meaning that he's more suitable to use a job that focuses on physical strength. Below is the list of Bartz's base stats.

Musical Themes
Bartz's theme is generally considered to be "Home Sweet Home," which is played in Bartz's hometown of Lix.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Bartz is not seen, but Gilgamesh mentions his name after his defeat, and the party ponders who or what is Bartz.

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals
Bartz along with Lenna, Galuf, Krile, Faris, Cid, and Mid, appears at the end of Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, when Mid finally can rest in peace. Legend of the Crystals is a four-episode anime OVA released in Japan from March to July in 1994, and the United States from 1997 to 1998. The anime is set 200 years after the events of Final Fantasy V and follows Linaly, Bartz's descendant, and her friend Prettz.

Final Fantasy VIII
In the Japanese version, Gilgamesh's line, "Huh? Was it you...?" when he appears is "「ん？　オマエなのか・・・・？　バ・・・・？」" ("Huh? Was it you...? Ba...?"). The "Ba...?" in the end could mean he was talking about Bartz (バッツ Battsu), though he does not appear in the game. It is possible that Gilgamesh, at first glance, thought Squall Leonhart was Bartz due to their somewhat similar appearances.

Dissidia Final Fantasy


Chaos has summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate masters of evil and Cosmos has summoned warriors to thwart their plans. Bartz is one of these warriors and stands as the hero representing Final Fantasy V, opposing Exdeath.

As a roaming adventurer traveling with Zidane, Bartz and Zidane engage in a contest to find a Crystal, during which Bartz is captured. He spends much of his storyline spying on Chaos's forces as he attempts to find his way back to Zidane, his carefree quest ultimately ensnaring Zidane in a trap. Bartz is pursued by his nemesis Exdeath, who acts with Kuja to trick him into endangering Zidane.

His alternate outfit is based on his conceptual artwork by Yoshitaka Amano, giving him white hair and a black, red and white outfit.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Bartz reappears as a Warrior of Cosmos in the prequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy alongside all the other characters from the original. Here he is confronted by Gilgamesh, having wandered into World B by chance while traveling between worlds. Wishing to have their promised rematch with him, Gilgamesh does not realize that Bartz cannot remember him, but Bartz accepts his challenge.

He emerges victorious, and Gilgamesh fades back into the Void. Bartz later goes with Zidane and Squall to meet with Kuja, who is planning to betray Chaos, but the three are forced to fight him when Kuja is caught by the other Warriors of Chaos and attacks the three to save face. Bartz is eventually incapacitated by Kain as part of the latter's plan to save his comrades from the manikins.

Bartz's third outfit is based on his Freelancer appearance, giving him a plain blue tunic with white leggings and sleeves and green boots. As a bonus downloadable fourth outfit, Bartz takes on his Dancer appearance, wearing black pants with a green sash and a red shirt opened down the front to expose his chest.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy


Bartz is a playable character in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Bartz appears as a Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade, and can use the Goblin Punch and Spark Burst abilities.

Final Fantasy All the Bravest


Bartz is an exclusive character only available from the Premium Character Shop as a random downloadable content, he uses the Master Mime ability during battle.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Bartz is depicted in numerous cards in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. His cards show him in different jobs as well as his Yoshitaka Amano artworks, and Dissidia Final Fantasy artwork and renders. Most of his cards are wind-elemental though some of the job cards have other elements as well.

Etymology
Bartz is the pet name for Bartolomäus, the German form of Bartholomew, which in turn comes from the Aramaic bar-Talmay, or "son of Talmay". Talmay itself is a Hebrew name meaning "he of many furrows", or one who owns large tracts of land.

Klauser is a German family name derived from the medieval given name Klaus, short for Niklaus or Nicholaus, which means "people's victory".

Though originally envisioned to be romanized as "Butz", Bartz's name has never been romanized as such in an official localization of Final Fantasy V, and in the past, it was only romanized for the 1992 official strategy guide in Japan. English localizations have changed the romanization to "Bartz", likely because Butz is a homophone of "butts". In the English version of Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals he is referred to as "Batz", another transliteration of his Japanese name.

Trivia

 * Bartz's Dragoon costume is similar to Kain Highwind's armor in Final Fantasy IV.
 * Bartz's Mystic Knight costume is similar to the clothing of Minwu from Final Fantasy II.
 * Bartz is the only party member who is not royalty. Bartz later becomes the only male party member after Galuf is replaced by Krile.
 * Bartz is one of the few main protagonists in the series to have had a good relationship with his or her father.
 * Bartz is one of two named male main protagonists not to show romantic affection towards another party member (the other being Firion, although in the official Final Fantasy II novelization Firion gets together with Maria).
 * In the trailer for the iOS port of Final Fantasy V, both, Japanese and International names are shown for Bartz: "Bartz" is shown in the in-game cutscenes and battle shots, while "Butz" is shown in the part where the playable characters are presented.

Bartz Klauser