Blank (Final Fantasy IX)

Blank is a temporary player character in the game Final Fantasy IX. He is one of the members from Tantalus, and is thus a Thief. He is Marcus's best friend, Marcus often calling him "Bro."

Appearance and personality
Blank is a young man with auburn hair and pale skin. He has unusual scars across his body where he's been seemingly patched up with darker skin tones, most notably over the left side of his face. Blank's red hair is spiked upwards, with a thick leather belt acting as a headband which also covers the upper half of his face. He wears very little clothing, with brown briefs, leather gloves with a fur trim, black boots, large leather belts around his torso and another slung across his body as a weapon holster, and a brown knee-pad on his right knee.

Blank is best friends with Marcus, and very close with the other members of Tantalus. He's somewhat competitive towards Zidane and also considers himself a "ladies man." He is very kind and is quick to help out a person in need, rescuing various characters in several scenes and patrolling the streets of Alexandria to make sure they're safe.

Story
Blank is first seen on the Prima Vista. He participates in the first fight against Baku and is next seen acting out his part in the play. The purpose of the play is to be a present for Princess Garnet of Alexandria's sixteenth birthday but also to act as a guise for Tantalus to kidnap her. He participates in a staged sword fight with Zidane and eventually accompanies him into Alexandria Castle, where he disguises himself as a Knight of Pluto in order to kidnap Garnet.

Steiner finds him, and Blank leads him back to the Prima Vista where Zidane is hiding with Garnet, who ran away with Zidane to escape the castle. Blank eventually reveals himself when Steiner performs his Armor Break on him. Blank, however, stuck Oglops in his armor, which Steiner is afraid of. Blank then piloted the Prima Vista out of Alexandria; however, the ship is shot down by Queen Brahne and lands in the Evil Forest.

Blank helps rescue the survivors and provides Vivi with some medicine after Zidane rescues him from the Prison Cage. After Zidane leaves with Vivi and Steiner to find Garnet, Baku orders Blank to follow them. Blank arrives just in time to rescue Garnet; however, the Evil Forest begins to petrify after Garnet is released. During the escape, Blank is caught by a Plant Spider while trying to protect Zidane and gets petrified along with the forest but not before he throws Zidane a Continental Map. Blank is then left as good as dead.

Later in the game, Marcus returns to the Evil Forest with some Supersoft to rescue Blank. He takes him back to Alexandria, where they are just in time to save Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi from Zorn and Thorn. Blank then participates in the struggle against Brahne, along with Marcus, Steiner, Beatrix, and Freya. He and Marcus had to carry out the the other three, who were injured. Eventually, Ruby, Cinna, and Baku show up as well.

However, after Brahne's death, Ruby decides to open up a mini theater in Alexandria, and Marcus, Blank, and Cinna help her. They decide to take Vivi to the first show and use him as a decoy so that Ruby will not scold them (Blank in particular) for lateness. Blank and Marcus also help patrol the streets of Alexandria at night.

After the destruction of Alexandria, all of Tantalus except Ruby returns to Lindblum to rebuild their headquarters. Blank is asked by Cid Fabool IX to accompany him, Zidane, and Zidane's friends on the Blue Narciss to find Kuja. Blank pilots the ship to the Desert Palace and then to Esto Gaza. After Cid turns back into a human and builds the Hilda Garde III, Blank stays in Lindblum to help the rest of Tantalus rebuild. He shows up in the ending as he helps put on another show for Garnet.

In Battle

 * List of Blank's Swords.

Blank is a thief and thus has speed and high physical attack power. He equips swords as his main weapon, and he uses the same equipment as Zidane, minus the daggers and thief swords. He also can wear the female only Lamia's Tiara. Blank shares the same character slot as Amarant. His levels carry over, but his stats do not. A high level Blank would make Amarant weaker stats-wise, as he would lose levels where he could have gained stats with the right equipment.

Abilities
Since Blank is only a temporary character, he has no support abilities; however, he can steal in battle, similar to the other thieves. Any successful steals from Blank contribute to the attack power of Zidane's Thievery ability, even before this skill is acquired.

Trivia

 * In the Dawn of Souls and subsequent remakes of the original Final Fantasy, Blank is one of the automatic names the player can choose for the Thief Job.

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