Setzer Gabbiani

"A blackjack-playing, world-traveling, casino-dwelling free spirit..." -SNES version

"A gambling vagabond who finds freedom from society's narrow views of morality aboard his airship, the Blackjack..." -GBA version

Setzer Gabbiani is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a Gambler who lives on the wild side. He also is the owner of the world's only airship: the Blackjack. He was neutral at the beginning of the war, being reluctant to openly oppose the Gestahlian Empire after having made profits from their work. Setzer surname "Gabbiani" is the italian word for "seagulls", but also is similar to the italian verb "gabbare" that means "to trick, to cheat".

Story
Setzer was a gambler by nature and pilot by trade. When he was younger, he was involved with a girl named Darryl. She owned an airship called the Falcon. She obviously knew her risk-taking nature would eventually take its toll, because she casually mentioned to Setzer that the Falcon was his if she ever was unable to fly. Setzer, mortified by the idea, promised her that no such thing would ever happen and that he would only take the Falcon after having won it fairly. After a day of flying Daryl decided to go out on her own and push the Falcon to its limits. The ship crashed in a distant valley, and when Setzer found the remains he entombed them beneath the sea.

Shellshocked by the loss, he ended up impressing his desires upon a wealthy opera star named Maria. The pinnacle of his infatuation came when he threatened to kidnap her in the midst of a performance. He had a plan to disrupt a show and kidnap her. However, Locke Cole and his party were desperate for an airship, so he and the Impresario decided to foil his plan by having Celes Chere star in that night's show. Setzer abducted Celes, Locke followed him back to the Blackjack, and the party sought to negotiate for an airship.

Setzer was disappointed when he found out that Celes wasn't Maria, but he soon found the intelligent Celes to be much more attractive. Celes borrowed Edgar Roni Figaro's double-headed coin to broker a deal: if it landed on heads, Setzer would help the Returners reach the Southern Continent so they could rescue Maduin and the other Espers. If it was tails, Celes would agree to be Setzer's "woman" (the Japanese term refers to a woman that receives gifts from her man in exchange for physical favors). More amused than anything else, Setzer agreed, and he quickly noticed he'd been duped. But Setzer's inherent good nature made him pliant to the whole idea and he helped the Returners.

While the others were infiltrating the Magitek Research Facility in the north, Setzer stayed on the airship. When the others did not return, he went to Vector to check on them. He met them as they were fleeing the city and brought them onto the Blackjack to escape. The ship was badly damaged in the attack and almost unusable. Later, he went with them to Zozo to save Terra Branford.

Following the trip to Zozo he accompanied the party to Narshe, where the Elder decided to join with the Returners. Terra agreed to ask the freed Espers to limit their devastation to Vector, after which a coalition of Returners and Narshe guards would storm from the north. The plan was a success, and Emperor Gestahl appeared to have surrendered. He asked Terra if she would try to convince the Espers to negotiate peace, so she and Locke went to Crecent Island to convey the Emperor's message. Setzer and the others were still skeptical of the Emperor and decided to stay in Vector to judge his motives. Setzer and Cid Del Norte Marquez began to rebuild the airship while Edgar used his charms to learn the Emperor's true plans from a maidservant, who said the Emperor planned to capture the Espers. The rest of the party flew to Thamasa to warn Terra and Locke, but they were too late. Kefka had acquired more magicite and used it to revive the Statues and turn the Land of Espers into the Floating Continent.

One year after the apocalypse, with no wings to fly and nowhere to go, Setzer was wasting his life away in a bar in Kohlingen. Celes, Edgar, and Sabin Rene Figaro happened upon him in the bar and asked if he would rejoin their fight against Kefka. Setzer was initially unwilling, having lost any sense of purpose for his life, but again Celes's words convinced him. Setzer then took them to Darryl's Tomb to unearth the Falcon. He shared Darryl's story (and his pain) with the party, and as the Falcon went to the skies Setzer finally buried his grief.

Equipment and Stats
Setzer is the most customizable character of the party. As a Gambler, his weapons consist of cards, darts, and dice, but he can also equip several daggers.

In the GBA version Setzer gains a new gambler weapon, the Final Trump.

Abilities
Setzer's special ability is Slots. Slots work similar to a slot machine, except that they can be stopped manually by pressing the A button. The result that shows up will have various effects on allies or opponents. The better outputs, however, tends to be "rigged", meaning that sometimes, it cannot be rolled even if the player has perfect timing. If Setzer equips the Coin Toss Relic, Slots becomes GP Rain, which allows Setzer to do damage at the cost of some GP.

In the SNES version of the game there is a useful bug involving Setzer and the damage counter. The Offering is supposed to half all physical damages from its wearer, but as Fixed Dice has a unique algorithm for its damage output, the half damage aspect is ignored, allowing him to do 4x the damage he can normally do. This and the majority of SNES bugs were fixed in the release of Final Fantasy Anthology, however, this bug is still present in the GBA version.

Music
Setzer's theme is built off C major. The relative D minor that comprises his melody appears as a leitmotif in "Epitaph" and (like all the other characters) the "Ending Theme". It is notably absent in the "Blackjack" and the World of Ruin airship theme "Searching Friends".

Final Fantasy Tactics
The name Setzer crops out in the "Storm of 777" Proposition. The proposition is as follows:
 * The Blackjack, the casino ship is at the port. The slot machine at the left end of the ship is said to be loose.  You should try it out!

The outcome is as follows:
 * The Casino ship Blackjack is at the port Limberry castle. The slot machine on the left hand side gave us 777, the jackpot. Nothing happened so we asked Setzer about this.  He said he deliberately lowered the pay-off rate.  "Gambling's not fun unless there's some risk."

Kingdom Hearts II
Setzer makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts II, and is the only pre-VII character who appears in the game. He is the champion of the "Struggle" competition when the player is playing as Roxas in Twilight Town. If Roxas chooses to fight Setzer and wins, he gets the champion belt. This cameo has been subject to criticism, because he appears as an arrogant ladies' man. He was depicted this way in the original game as well to an extent, but it is heavily exaggerated here, to Edgar's extent.