Bartz Klauser

Bartz Klauser (Butz Klauser in the Japanese version) is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy V. He is the son of Dorgann, one of the original Warriors of Dawn, 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 has the ability to find his way through most terrains in his adventures. He appears to have white hair on Amano's artworks, but his sprite art depicts him with brown hair, which may be more fitting with his father's dirty blond hair. Bartz's eyes appear to be grayish or brown depending on the source. Officially, he is the tallest of the party in the entire game.

Bartz starts his adventure without many ambitions other than to wander around the world, stating that is what his father wanted and so he initially rejects Lenna's invitation to join her. However, his conscience betrays him (along with Boko's groans) to do the right thing, and so in his carefree way he chooses to defend the crystals. This decision in turn passes a lot of great powers and responsibilities to him, forcing Bartz to mature through the hardships the party must encounter, and even lead him to discover his father's origins and deeds, something that crafts on him the strong sense of justice he inevitably inherited from his father. Dissidia Final Fantasy expands Bartz's personality further, revealing him to be more playful and carefree than apparent, which brings him a lot of trouble, but in spite of his immature attitude, he eventually 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 little town of Lix where he lived with his mother Stella and his father Dorgann Klauser. Bartz's mother died while he was still young, and his father fell ill and died three years prior to the game's storyline. Bartz 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.

On advice from his late father, Bartz decided to go out and travel the world. Along the way, he found a chocobo he named Boko separated from the rest of its flock. From there on, Boko became Bartz's steadfast companion, and they continued to travel together. 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 she must go to the Wind Shrine, and so Galuf realizes he was heading there too. Initially, Bartz chooses to continue his wanderings, but Boko convinces him to help Galuf and Lenna. When following them, an earthquake starts, and Bartz rescues Lenna and Galuf, crossing through the goblin-infested area in the process. He then joins the party permanently, deciding his father would have wanted him to find out what was happening to the Crystals, a quote Galuf refuses stating it is just an excuse for Bartz to join Lenna for her good looks.

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 eventually reach a pirate hideout. Here (on Galuf's advice), Bartz tries to commandeer the pirate ship, owned by the pirate captain Faris. Although they are caught in the act and captured, Faris lets them take the ship to the Wind Crystal anyway. When they get to the Wind Shrine, they see the King of Tycoon just before the Crystal shatters into pieces. Tycoon entrusts the four of them with a quest to save the Crystals from an unknown evil. Tycoon names Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, and Faris the Warriors of Light and thus, they begin their journey.

From here on, 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. However, 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.

On the Torna Canal, the ship crashes due to a monster and Syldra (Faris's "pet") is left for dead, then the ship drifts towards the Ship Graveyard. While there, Bartz and Galuf discover Faris is a woman in disguise. When they reach the coastline Siren hypnotizes Bartz with the figure of his mother, but Galuf saves him due to his memory loss and not realizing who Krile, the illusion Siren conjures to trap him, really is. Eventually, they reach the North Mountain and save Hiryuu, Lenna's Wind Drake. Before they fly off, Bartz reveals his fear of heights, Galuf forces him to hop on the drake anyway.

When Bartz and the party arrive in Walse, they advise the King of the Crystal's destruction. At this time, another meteorite falls and a soldier warns the King of the monster Garula who has gone insane. The party leaves for the Walse Tower, defeats Garula, and finds the King of Tycoon at the time the Crystal shatters and the tower is submerged in the ocean. Bartz, Lenna, Galuf and Faris are rescued by Syldra who uses her last bit of strength to save them. Later, they teleport themselves on a meteorite and arrive to Karnak only to be imprisoned by the town guard. In prison, Bartz and company meet Cid Previa, who intends to escape from the cell next to the heroes, only to find himself trapped in their cell. After they meet, the Chancellor of Karnak releases the party on a request to save Queen Karnak who is trapped on the Fire-Powered Ship, which also holds the Fire Crystal. The party arrives and save the Queen, but the Crystal is destroyed.

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. Before sailing, Galuf explains he regained his memory due to Cid and Mid's similar relationship between him and Krile, as well as the real reason why the Crystals are being destroyed: because of Exdeath, a 1,000-year-old warlock who was sealed by the Warriors of Dawn.

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 under Crescent Island at the same time the Ronka Ruins turns into a gigantic floating battle station. Within the station, the party finds King Tycoon under control of Exdeath and as he attacks Bartz and Galuf, he also destroys the last Crystal and leaves for Galuf's world.

Galuf leaves in a meteorite with Krile. Bartz, Lenna, and Faris are left behind, but Bartz's strong sense of justice makes the two princesses realize the true importance of their fight. 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, and during the night the princesses are taken by a monster. Bartz fights the monster, but is unable to win and the three are taken to Castle Exdeath where Bartz fights Exdeath, but is unable to match the warlock. During Galuf's absence Bartz takes his role as the party's leader and defender. He confronts Exdeath directly during their stay in the prison of Exdeath's Castle, stands out for the party and gets punished for that, while at the time Galuf sees his friends suffer and jumps into action. Galuf saves the heroes from the castle and the four battle Gilgamesh.

After the battle in the Big Bridge, the castle's force field takes the party on a far away land, but they manage to reach Galuf's Castle and Bartz realizes Galuf is a king, along with the bad news that Krile's Wind Drake is dying, so Bartz and friends chooses to look for Dragon Grass to save the Wind Drake.

While searching for Dragon Grass, the party crosses the town of Quelb and meet Kelger Vlondett who tests Bartz, forcing him to repel his Lupine Attack. Bartz succeeds, thanks to his further training, and Kelger informs Bartz that none had been able to beat his attack. When Bartz explains his father trained him, Kelger asks his father's name, to which Bartz replies was Dorgann. It is revealed Dorgann was, along with Galuf, Kelger, and Xezat, part of the old Warriors of Dawn, who were the ones who previously defeated and sealed Exdeath. However, Dorgann had made Stella promise not to tell Bartz what Dorgann had done to protect the Crystals. Due to Stella's imminent death, Dorgann choose to stay to watch over the seal, and although he never told Bartz of his roots or his own doing, Bartz followed in his footsteps anyway, as would his direct descendant Linaly in Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals.

The party tracks down Exdeath in the Great Forest of Moore where he attacks them using the Crystals' power, knocking out the party. Krile then shows up, but her attempt to rescue them fails leading Galuf raise to fight off Exdeath alone. He manages to fend off Exdeath but falls in combat and transfers all of his powers on to Krile before dying, who replaces him as the new Light Warrior. The party continues onwards, infiltrating Exdeath's castle and supposedly killing him.

After Exdeath shattered the remaining Crystals of the Second World, the party blacks out and mysteriously find themselves back at Castle Tycoon. Here, Faris is welcomed back as the long lost Princess Sarisa, and a grand celebration is held to celebrate the heiresses' return. Bartz, Krile, and eventually Faris, sneak off - the first two on a suspicion that something is wrong, and Faris because she does not want to be a princess - leaving only Lenna behind when the castle is consumed by the Void's return. Although the rest of the party believe Lenna dead, she is actually retrieved by Hiryuu from the Interdimensional Rift, but is possessed by a demon of the Rift named Melusine. Melusine forces Lenna to attack her friends, but the injured Hiryuu knocks her out and forces the hostile spirit to leave her body. After the demon is slain, Lenna recovers and rejoins the party for the remainder of the game.

On the trip to Lix, Bartz visits his mother's grave for a long time and finally engraves his father's name on the stone, explaining to Faris that his father, Dorgann, would have wanted to be buried along with his wife. During the takeover of The Void around the world led by Exdeath, the town of Lix is devoured by it, bringing great deal of frustration to Bartz, which makes him drive the airship violently through the world, feeling powerless for losing all that ever had emotional meaning for him.

During the party's meeting with Ghido Bartz shows more of his leadership qualities as Exdeath emerges from Krile's shoe, disguised as a splinter, disables Faris, Krile, and Ghido, leaving Bartz to fight him on his own before Ghido resurfaces and fends him off. At the game's end, after having destroyed Neo Exdeath, the party separates briefly, but come together at the end as friends and Light Warriors once more.

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

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 was released in Japan from March to July in 1994, and the United States from 1997 to 1998. The series' setting takes place 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...?" was "「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 Batsu). Also, the "dimensional interval" may be the Interdimensional Rift. However, Bartz does not actually appear in the game.

Dissidia Final Fantasy


Chaos has summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate masters of evil. Cosmos, in an attempt to protect the Crystals, 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 also pursued by his enemy Exdeath, who acts with Kuja to trick him into endangering Zidane.

His first alternate form is directly based on his conceptual artwork by Yoshitaka Amano, whereas his second alternate outfit is based on his sprite form.

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 gets a second alternate form, which is based on his sprite picture.

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

Trivia

 * 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." This is probably because Butz is a homophone of "butts."
 * 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 dies.
 * Bartz's last name, Klauser, is a common German family name of Bavarian origin. Also, the RPGe fan-translation for Bartz's name, Butz, is a name of German origin (although not usually used for a first name, as it is generally a family name).
 * Bartz is one of the few main protagonists in the series to have had a good relationship with his or her father.

Bartz Klauser