Setzer Gabbiani

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Setzer Gabbiani
Game series	Final Fantasy series
First game	Final Fantasy VI
Character designer(s)	Yoshitaka Amano
In-Universe Information
Class/Job	Gambler
Special ability	Slot
Desperation Attack	Red Card
Age	27

Setzer Gabbiani (セッツァー・ギャッビアーニ, Settsā Gyabbiāni^?) is a fictional character of the Square Co., Ltd.'s SNES role-playing game Final Fantasy VI. He is a gambler who owns an airship called the Blackjack.

1 Background
2 Slot
3 Quotes
4 Music
5 Kingdom Hearts II
6 External links

[edit] Background

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Setzer's past is vague; the earliest flashback depicts him as the familiar airship enthusiast / gambler. He had a female friend named Daryl, with whom his exact relationship with is not fully elaborated on. Daryl designed and built her own airship, the Falcon. She and Setzer used to race alongside each other in their airships together. During one such flight, Daryl split off from Setzer, saying she was going to try flying higher than anyone had before. Setzer had faith in her and told her that he would wait for her on "our hill." Setzer waited until after the sun had gone down, but she never returned (her airship was later found crashed in a far-off land). However the Falcon remained unused and intact, and Setzer entombed it along with Daryl's grave.

The player first hears of Setzer in Owzer's house in Jidoor. He is a notorious gambler who travels the skies in his airship Blackjack, and he has an infatuation with Maria, an opera singer. He has announced that he will abduct Maria during the piece "The Dream Oath: Maria and Draco". The main characters head to the opera house, where they use Celes as a decoy and thereby gain access to his airship when she is abducted instead of Maria.

When he discovers Celes is not Maria, Setzer promptly tries to throw them all off his ship. The party explains that they need Setzer's airship to reach the imperial mainland, but Setzer is reluctant because his ties with the Empire have made him rich. In the Japanese version, he complains that the Empire has ruined business for him. Setzer agrees to help out the player characters after losing a coin toss to Celes. She had used a double-sided coin, provided by Edgar, which had a head on either side, each side displaying the portait of one of the heirs to the kingdom of Figaro, Sabin on one side, and Edgar on the other. (Setzer learns this, but he loves their tactics and helps them anyway.) He takes them to the Southern Continent, and later, he helps them flee Vector, fighting his first battle with the party against the cranes.

When the World of Balance changes into the World of Ruin, the Blackjack is torn apart in the cataclysm. Setzer winds up in Kohlingen. When Celes, Edgar, and possibly Sabin encounter him, he is hesitant to rejoin them, but Celes snaps him out of despair. He directs them to Daryl's tomb, the resting place of his late friend. There they acquire the Falcon, the only remaining airship in the world, and they set out to find their friends and eliminate Kefka. He is one of only three characters that the player is required to find in the World of Ruin.

Setzer was born on February 8th, making him an Aquarius.

Setzer (and his airship, the Blackjack) has been referenced in "Hiro's Blog" on the NBC "Heroes" website.

[edit] Slot

Setzer's special ability is Slot, which uses a Slot machine to activate a variety of special attacks and techniques. With the relic Coin Toss, Slot is transformed into GP Rain, allowing him to throw GP at all enemies in battle, causing an amount of damage equal to the amount of GP that was tossed.

[edit] Quotes

"What's the most important thing in life? To be free of obligations! Otherwise you lose the ability to gamble..."
"Ha! How low can you get?! I love it! Alright, I'll help you. My life is a chip in your pile! Ante up!"
In the World of Ruin, when Celes and the party find him: "I'm just a gambler... I just want to be left alone... This world is too chaotic for me. What's worse, I've lost my wings..."
"I have nothing to lose but my life, and I got that for free!"
On Daryl: She was a piece of work...nothing scared her.

[edit] Music

In Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version, Setzer's theme is called "Setzer" -- disc 2, track 11 sample (help·info). His leitmotif is also found in the tracks:

Blackjack -- 2, 15 sample (help·info)
Epitaph -- 3, 9 sample (help·info)
Ending Theme [Character Medley] -- 3, 15 sample (help·info)
Ending Theme [Post-Character Medley] -- 3, 15 sample (help·info)
- Blackjack is also featured in the Final Fantasy VI arranged album Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale in the track "Blackjack" sample (help·info).

[edit] Kingdom Hearts II

Redesigned by Tetsuya Nomura, Setzer appears in Kingdom Hearts II as the champion of the previous Struggle battle tournament and thus defends his title in the current Struggle tournament. While the virtual simulation had Roxas beat/lose to (depending on the player's ability) the champ, the real Twilight Town's Setzer lost to Seifer Almasy. From his features and his battle ability, Setzer is a notable womanizer. He is voiced by Crispin Freeman in the English version and Ryotaro Okiayu in the Japanese version.

Setzer holds the distinction of being the first major Yoshitaka Amano Final Fantasy character to appear in the Kingdom Hearts series. When Sora challenges him to battle later on in the game, Setzer opens the fight by remarking his famous quote: "My life is a chip in your pile, time to ante up."

Originally, for the first game, there was a sharp hold off using any of Amano characters due to Amano not actually working for Square Enix at the time.^{[citation needed]}} In Kingdom Hearts II, Vivi of Final Fantasy IX, another character not originally designed by Tetsuya Nomura, was also featured.

Many fans were quite upset with the portrayal of Setzer in Kingdom Hearts II.^{[citation needed]} Not only was the actual look of the character changed greatly, but he was also given a much more showy attitude than in the original game, as seen when he attempted to bribe Roxas into throwing the match. The original Setzer, while possessing a sense of style, was actually a melancholy man, and was not as much of a playboy as shown in Kingdom Hearts II.