Sazh Katzroy

Sazh Katzroy [sæz kætsrɔɪ] is a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII. He is a middle-aged man with an afro. After his wife died three years prior to the events of the game, Sazh looked after their six-year old son, Dajh, before he became a Sanctum l'Cie and was taken by PSICOM. Saving Dajh is Sazh's main motivation in the game.

Appearance and Personality
Sazh is a middle-aged man with a distinctive afro in which he keeps an unnamed Chocobo Chick. He wears a long, olive coat over khaki trousers, a white button-down shirt, and black buckled engineer boots. His l'Cie mark is on his chest, and is half-hidden under his shirt. He keeps his two pistols in holsters strapped to his thighs. In an interview with the Shonen Jump magazine, Yoshinori Kitase stated that Sazh was modeled after the American singer Lionel Richie, whilst Motomu Toriyama claimed Sazh's inspiration was "a character that would appear in an American comedy - like Eddie Murphy" in OPM UK magazine. Despite being physically the eldest of the Final Fantasy XIII playable party, Sazh has a youthful, carefree, and lively personality.

Sazh is basically a good-hearted man. In OPM UK, Toriyama went on to say "as for Sazh, we wanted a character that was mature." Sazh's relationship with his son, Dajh, serves as his drive for the game's journey. For Sazh, Dajh's safety and well-being is his main priority, and his selflessness is shown when he considers sacrificing himself to PSICOM to keep Dahj from becoming a Cie'th. He is silly at times, mostly when he is in near death situations, but underneath his appearance, Sazh has a strong will of justice and is always willing to help his teammates. Through his friendship with Vanille, Sazh is revealed to be ultimately forgiving, and through his quest to rescue Dajh, generally (but not always) hopeful.

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise
Sazh brought Dajh to Euride Gorge after Dajh begged Sazh to see a Sanctum fal'Cie. He stopped briefly at a souvenir shop to buy the Chocobo Chick as a present for his son, when Dajh wandered into the plant unsupervised. Sazh went looking for Dajh after an unknown force rocked the plant, but he was too late; the fal'Cie Kujata had awakened. How or why the fal'Cie awakened remained a mystery, but the consequences were clear: Dajh was found unconscious, surrounded by Sanctum officials. The young boy had been branded a l'Cie.

As a Cocoon l'Cie, Dajh was taken into the custody of PSICOM for testing. Three days later, Colonel Nabaat, the supervising officer, imparted some unsettling news to Sazh: his son had gained the ability to sense the presence of Pulse beings, but his Focus was still unknown. Without a defined Focus, the boy was doomed to become a Cie'th. Could his task be to discover lowerworld invaders? To destroy them? Sazh's mind raced as he tried to figure out a way to save his son.

After another three days passed, Dajh suddenly decided he wanted to attend the Bodhum fireworks festival. Due to Dajh's newfound l'Cie ability to detect Pulse beings, Colonel Nabaat permitted a PSICOM-supervised excursion to the coastal town. Sazh went along with his son to the fireworks display. Despite Dajh's innocent enjoyment of the spectacle, Sazh could not stop worrying about Dajh's future. The smiling face of his son, oblivious to the fate that awaited him, was more painful than the troubled father could bear. In Bodhum tradition, he wished upon the fireworks for Dajh's salvation. Meanwhile, the PSICOM team scouring the area discovered the fal'Cie within the Vestige, implying that Dajh must have reacted subconsciously to the presence of the lowerworld entity. After the fireworks, Dajh was taken back into PSICOM custody.

In the wake of the Purge, Jihl told Sazh that Dajh would be under supervision for an indefinite amount of time. Understanding that they did not have long to discover and complete his son's Focus, Sazh knew his son would ultimately be doomed to become a Cie'th under PSICOM custody, who planned to use his powers with other intent. He agreed to co-operate and requested to buy a colouring book for Dajh from a shop in Palumpolum; Jihl allowed this, and offered him use of the military airships in hopes of faster travel. Unknown to PSICOM, Sazh had no intention of travelling to Palumpolum, he just needed a chance to escape his PSICOM supervision. He managed to shake them out in the crowds of Bodhum, and he made the decision to board the train willfully in order to reach the Pulse fal'Cie. In the lines, he approached Lightning, another "volunteer", and the two allied in their quest to reach the Hanging Edge.

Final Fantasy XIII
Sazh and Lightning ride towards the Hanging Edge, where he assists her in stranding the train of Purgees and setting them free. Despite fighting alongside Lightning, she reveals very little about her motive. After defeating the Manasvin Warmech sent after them and fighting their way through waves of Sanctum forces, the two head towards the Pulse Vestige, where the Pulse fal'Cie Anima sleeps. He, too, keeps his motivations for finding Anima to himself. Inside the Vestige, Sazh explains the cruel fate of the l'Cie and the future that awaits them: becoming Cie'th. Lightning chastises him for resigning l'Cie's to death. When they reach Anima's Throne, Snow Villiers, Vanille and Hope Estheim unexpectedly join them in their plight. Whilst Snow intends to persuade the fal'Cie into releasing Serah, both Lightning and Sazh plan to use more aggressive methods. After confronting Anima, the fal'Cie retaliates by turning them all into l'Cie, before casting them down into the crystallized Lake Bresha.

When they awaken, Sazh asks if the lake is now frozen because of the fal'Cie, and how they ended up there. He prompts the others to determine their Focus and tries to remain positive. Without knowing their Focus, they fear they, too, will be doomed to become Cie'th. Their only clue of their Focus is a shared vision of Ragnarok destroying Cocoon. After leaving Snow behind at Lake Bresha, the group of four continue through the Lake and find an old airship. Sazh attempts to pilot them to safety, but at one point, Lightning takes the controls and begins shooting at the army ships until Sazh pushes her away. After escaping the army, Sazh inadvertently turns on a newscast about the Purge being a 'success' and an interview with a mysterious old man. Vanille asks Sazh who the man is, and he says, "Galenth Dysley, Murderer in Chief". Shortly after this, the ship is damaged and they are forced to make a crash landing in the Vile Peaks.

Despite Sazh's growing despair at his situation, he vows not to allow Vanille to continue on her own, and thus continues on running from the Sanctum alongside her. They attempt to follow Lightning into the Peaks, but their path is blocked by fallen machinery. Lightning finally rejoins them, before they are forced to fight a Dreadnought. After the battle, Lightning runs ahead whilst Hope chases after her, leaving Sazh and Vanille behind. The duo continue their passage through the Peaks when they stumble across an old power plant. Managing to get it back up and running, Sazh and Vanille finally rest for the night. Despite Vanille's insistence that they sleep at a reasonable distance from each other, Sazh awakens during the night to find her crying in her sleep beside him

Sazh and Vanille choose to continue their flight without a real destination in mind, leading them to the Sunleth Waterscape. When they see warships passing overhead towards Palumpolum, Sazh begins to worry for Lightning and Hope's safety. Torn between the slim chance of saving them and essentially walking into the Sanctum's clutches, Vanille persuades Sazh to keep running - in the opposite direction, to the city of Nautilus. Whilst crossing the Waterscape, Vanille asks Sazh about his family. He eventually tells Vanille Dajh's fate; he was turned to Cocoon l'Cie after Pulse l'Cie attacked the fal'Cie at Euride, and is currently in governmental custody. Sazh reveals his motives for boarding the Purge train to the Hanging Edge: he had hoped to destroy Anima, in case Dajh's still-unknown Focus would be complete with the death of the Pulse fal'Cie. As he begins to question Dajh's true Focus as a Cocoon l'Cie, he begins to wonder if it would logically be to destroy all Pulse l'Cie. If that is the case, then Sazh and his companions must die to spare Dajh's fate. Perturbed but silent, Vanille listens to Sazh's plight before they continue their journey towards Nautilus, in hopes of forgetting their problems.

Completing their trek through the Waterscape, they go through a hole in a fence to the Seabus Docks for a ship to Nautilus when it starts to rain. While waiting at the station, Vanille asks Sazh if he hates Pulse. Sazh responds that he did not always hate it, and had always been suspicious of the Sanctum's campaign against it. He tells Vanille that he believed the Sanctum was up to something, until he got dragged in. Now, he thinks that the Purge started because Dajh found the fal'Cie in the Bodhum Vestige, but Vanille tells Sazh that it was not his son's fault. Sazh tells her that she is right, and that the fault belongs to the Pulse l'Cie behind what happened at Euride. Vanille abruptly runs out into the rain; unbeknown to Sazh, the young girl had ran out to hide the tears sprung from his words in the downpour.

In Nautilus, Sazh continues to worry about Dajh's Focus, but also notices Vanille's sudden quietness and loss of spark. They see an advertisement for Eidolons on Parade and decide to go see it, but then a newscast showing Lightning, Hope, Snow, and Fang is shown. Sazh asks Vanille what is wrong after she lets out a surprised gasp. Not understanding that she reacted to Fang's appearance, he says that the army finally caught up to Lightning and Hope after all this time. While going to see the parade, Sazh tells Vanille that they need to loosen up and make the most of it, but his attempts to cheer her up only make her feel worse; Sazh remains oblivious to Vanille's true cause of upset.

After watching the Pompa Sancta, Sazh reveals that he no longer wishes to aimlessly run away; he will surrender to PSICOM in hopes of seeing Dajh one last time, even if it means his own execution. Vanille desperately tries to dissuade her friend by telling him who is responsible for the Euride incident if it means he will continue on his journey with her. Before she can reveal the culprit, the army attacks from above. Despite his earlier wishes to be captured, Sazh protects Vanille and tries to aid her escape.

They escape their pursuers, being chased through the Mall to the Fiendlord's Keep. After the pair destroys the Midlight Reaper, Dajh appears from the clock tower. Their reunion is short-lived, as Dajh is crystallized right before his father's eyes. Nabaat arrives with her troops, and the boy's Focus is revealed: to capture the servants of the lowerworld fal'Cie. As Sazh sinks into despair over Dajh's crystallized state, Jihl shows him a security recording from Euride Gorge. The tape reveals that Vanille and Fang disturbed the fal'Cie Kujata, who instinctively turned the lost Dajh into a l'Cie for its protection. As Vanille begins sobbing, Jihl sadistically tells Sazh that the one who stole his son has been at his side all along. Overcome with guilt, Vanille then flees deeper into Nautilus. Ordering her soldiers to stand down, Jihl asks Sazh whether he should finish the job or them. Without a word, Sazh pursues Vanille; Jihl allows Sazh to pursue the young woman, curious as to how much data they could collect watching two l'Cie fight.

When Sazh finds Vanille at the Fiendlord's Keep, he draws his pistols and aims at her in rage, and Vanille begs him to shoot her for the pain she has caused. Instead, Sazh lowers his weapons, furious that she thinks he will simply forgive her once she is dead. He drops to his knees, clutching his heart, as his Eidolon Brynhildr materializes from an orb of flame. Seeing that Vanille is willing to protect him from Brynhildr, Sazh rises, and shoots at the Eidolon. Sazh tells Brynhildr to come and get him, before he and Vanille tame the Eidolon. However, after Brynhildr vanishes, Sazh is still distressed, and he turns his pistol back on Vanille. Then he says that many things can be forgiven, but shooting kids is not one of them. As she breaks out into tears and cowers with the Chocobo Chick in her hands, Sazh places the pistol to his head and pulls the trigger. Vanille is captured by PSICOM, following Sazh's open-face casket as it is led into an airship by Jihl's regiment.

However, upon the airship Palamecia, Sazh is shown to be alive, as he couldn't bear to even take his own life. Jihl had returned soon after and taunted Sazh with the prospect of putting Dajh's crystal up for display as a monument in Eden, then taken the two captive, rendering Sazh unconscious and then having him carried away in the coffin, ready for them to be publicly executed in Eden. Whilst imprisoned together, Sazh learns all about Vanille's past and her recent awakening from crystal stasis. Vanille's story sparks a flicker of hope in Sazh for his son, hoping that Dajh, too, could eventually awaken from his crystal state. With a new reason to fight, Sazh helps Vanille overpower their guards. They break out of their cell on the Palamecia and reunite with the other four party members who have come for their rescue, and go on to confront Galenth Dysley. After he reveals himself to be the fal'Cie Barthandelus, he finally reveals the party's collective Focus: to become Ragnarok and destroy Cocoon. Sazh attempts to guide an airship off the Palamecia, but an unknown force drives it towards the Fifth Ark instead.

The party travel through the Fifth Ark, where they are challenged by Cid Raines. When they discover a Pulse airship in the Ark, Sazh pilots it to the world below, though they are forced to ride Bahamut when a dragon destroys the ship. The party decides to head to Oerba, before they finally return to the heart of Cocoon: Eden.

Down in Gran Pulse, Fang apologizes to Sazh for her involvement in Dajh's fate; an apology he readily accepts, knowing little could be done about it. When Sazh admits his fault in letting Dajh out of his sight, Fang asks Sazh if he intends to deal with the consequences of the Euride Incident on his own. Gesturing to the Chocobo Chick, he tells Fang that he won't have to, also pointing out that she is not alone, either. Sazh waves away his attempt to 'sound parent-y', but Fang assures him that he will get the hang of it.

During the Eden Grand Prix, the protagonists return from Pulse with their Eidolons, and Sazh rides Brynhildr in her Gestalt Mode. He saves Vanille, who had been knocked off a platform by a missile while being protected by her Eidolon, Hecatoncheir.

As the party discovers Orphan's Cradle and reaches the pool deep inside, they confront Barthandelus for the last time. The Sanctum leader conjures and shatters Dajh's and Serah's crystals before their eyes, hoping to kill their morale, but Sazh manages to comfort Snow and presses on in the knowledge that it is all just another of the manipulative fal'Cie's illusions. After Orphan's defeat and Cocoon's destruction, Sazh is crystallized along with the rest of the party. However, they shortly awaken from their crystal stasis on the grounds of Pulse, where Cocoon survivors are slowly gathering. From the crystallized globe of Cocoon appear Dajh and Serah. Father and son are truly reunited, and both of their l'Cie marks are wiped clean.

In Battle
Sazh uses a pair of pistols that can transform into an assault rifle. He can shoot with his guns from a range, but also use them in melee combat. He also has access to fire and lightning-elemental attacks (magical and physical) as opposed to Snow, who specializes in the elements of ice and water. However, his true strength is in his role as a Synergist, giving boost and support to his allies, and as a Commando, due to his Blitz ability, which is the strongest attack in the game the player can control.

Despite having relatively low stats during the main storyline, Sazh's battle efficiency greatly increases in the post-game sidequests, as his pistols offer a wide range of useful Passive Abilities that bolster his efficiency in both roles, such as Augment Maintenance and Stagger Maintenance. Sazh also has the second highest max HP by the end of the game. His Full ATB Skill, Cold Blood (Desperado in Japanese version), is a series of explosive shots that greatly increases the enemy's chain gauge.

Eidolon
Being a l'Cie, Sazh's Eidolon is Brynhildr, a female, fire-elemental knight, who can turn into a race car in her Gestalt Mode. Byrnhilder has multiple abilities that can be used effectively with Sazh's Synergist role that easily allow for a change of elemental damage.

Weapons
See Sazh's Pistols

Voice
In the English release of Final Fantasy XIII, Sazh is voiced by Reno Wilson. He is voiced by Masashi Ebara in the Japanese release, who has also dubbed for Eddie Murphy, Toriyama's inspiration for the character.

Musical Themes
"Sazh's Theme" is Sazh's primary character theme, a funky number heavily featuring piano, percussion, brass, and acoustic guitar. "Can't Catch a Break" is also often played in scenes involving Sazh, such as during the boss battle with Enlil and Enki in the Sunleth Waterscape. Both pieces have a jazz improvisational style that is quite unusual for the music of the Final Fantasy series. "Daddy's Got the Blues" is another piece on the soundtrack associated with Sazh, referring to his relationship with Dajh. The piece features an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, and is also heard in the Waterscape.

Kingdom Hearts Mobile
Sazh appears as an avatar in Kingdom Hearts Mobile. He and Vanille are the only two characters from Final Fantasy XIII to appear in the game.

Trivia

 * Sazh's crystal takes the shape of a chocobo feather.
 * Sazh has the most lines in the game.
 * Sazh's main Paradigm roles are Commando, Ravager, and Synergist. His specialist role is Synergist.
 * The Japanese name of Sazh's ATB full skill, Desperado, is named after Laguna Loire's Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII.
 * Tetsuya Nomura has stated in an interview that he would choose Sazh over Lightning to appear in a sequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy to represent Final Fantasy XIII.
 * Most of Sazh's guns are named after stars and star clusters, similar to those of Final Fantasy XII.
 * Though the subject of naming it is frequently mentioned, Sazh's Chocobo Chick remains unnamed during the course of the game.
 * Out of all six playable characters, Sazh has the shortest Crystarium expansion.
 * In Chocobo's Crystal Tower, the player can purchase a head accessory called the Afro for 350 Chocopoints. It features an animation where a baby chocobo would occasionally pop out, referencing Sazh.