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.

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 that is what his father wanted and so he initially rejects Lenna's invitation to join her. However, his own 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, which in turn passes a lot of great powers and responsibilities to him, forcing him to mature through the hardships the party must encounter and even discovering his father's origins and deeds, something that crafts on him the strong sense of justice that resided within his heart that 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
He was born in the little town of Lix, 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 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 was in the Tycoon area when a meteorite fell 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 wreckage of the meteor. Lenna explains to Bartz that she must go to the Wind Shrine, and so Galuf realizes that he was heading there too. Initially, Bartz chose to continue his wanderings, but Boko convinced 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 at that point, deciding that his father would have wanted him to find out what was happening to the Crystals, a quote that Galuf refuses stating that 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 Scherwiz. Although they were caught in the act and captured, Faris let 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 shattered into pieces. Tycoon entrusted the four of them with a quest to save the Crystals from an unknown evil. Tycoon named Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, and Faris the Warriors of Light and thus, they began their journey.

From here on, Bartz and the rest of the party reach the town of Tule, and meet Zok, an old friend of Lenna, 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 then speaks with him and entrusts him the key, believing that Lenna would be safe with him.

On the Torna Canal, the ship crashes due to a monster and Syldra (Faris' "pet") is left for dead, then the ship drifts towards the Ship Graveyard. While there, Bartz and Galuf discover that Faris is a woman in disguise. When they reach the coastline, Bartz is hypnotized by Siren with the figure of his mother, but is saved by Galuf due to his memory loss and not realizing who Krile 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, but is forced by Galuf to hop on the wind drake anyway.



When Bartz and the party arrive in Walse, they advise the King of the destruction of the Crystal. 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 guards of the town. 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 own 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, where upon he immediately leaves to talk to his grandfather. So with Mid and Cid working together now, they rebuild the Fire-Powered Ship and Bartz' party leaves to search for the last Crystal. Before sailing, Galuf explains that 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 sank into the ocean. So 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 reunite the remains of Adamantite in other meteorites to teleport themselves to Galuf's world.

When the party traveled 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 Exdeath Castle. There, Bartz fights Exdeath, but is unable to match the warlock. Later, Galuf saves the heroes from the castle and the four battle Gilgamesh.

After the battle in the Big Bridge, the force field of the castle takes the party on a far away land, but they manage to reach Galuf's Castle and Bartz realizes that 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 succeeded, thanks to his further training, and Kelger informed Bartz that none had been able to beat his attack. When Bartz explains that his father trained him, Kelger asks his father's name, to which Bartz replies was Dorgann. Here it is revealed that 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.

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.

The party tracks down Exdeath in the Great Forest of Moore. They are attacked by Exdeath, who uses the power of the crystals against them. Krile's attempt to rescue them fails leading Galuf to fight off Exdeath by himself. He then falls in combat and transfers all of his powers on to Krile before dying. The party continues onwards, infiltrating Exdeath's castle and supposedly killing him.

After Exdeath shattered the remaining crystals of the second world, the party blacked out and mysteriously found themselves back at Castle Tycoon. Here, Faris was welcomed back as Princess Sarisa, and a grand celebration was held to celebrate the return of the heiresses. Bartz, Krile, and eventually Faris all snuck off - the first two on a suspicion that something was wrong, and Faris because she did not want to be a princess - leaving only Lenna behind when the castle was consumed by the return of the Void. Although the rest of the party believed that Lenna was dead, she was actually retrieved by Hiryuu from the Interdimensional Rift, but was possessed by a demon of the Rift named Melusine. Melusine forced Lenna to attack her friends, but the injured Hiryuu knocked her out and forced the hostile spirit to leave her body. After the demon was slain, Lenna recovered and rejoined the party for the remainder of the game.

After having destroyed Neo Exdeath, the party separates briefly but come together at the end of the game as friends and Light Warriors once more.

Taking Leadership
During the absence and after the death of Galuf in the Great Forest of Moore, Bartz takes his role as a leader and defender of the group more than once. 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 suffering and jumps into action. Also, after the merging of the worlds, he, Krile, and Faris talk to the sage Ghido in his cave. Exdeath emerges from Krile's shoe, disguised as a splinter, disables Faris, Krile, and Ghido, so Bartz fights him on his own before Ghido surfaces again and makes him go away.

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 VIII
In the Japanese version, Gilgamesh says "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, he 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' 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.

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

Trivia

 * Though originally envisioned to be romanized as Butz, his name has never been romanized as such in any 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" in English.
 * Bartz's Dragoon costume is very similar to Kain Highwind's armor in Final Fantasy IV.
 * Bartz's Mystic Knight costume is very 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.
 * Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, Krile, Faris, Cid, and Mid are shown at the end of Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, when Mid finally can rest in peace.

Bartz Klauser