Balthier » Deeper

Balthier appears as a cocky man always claiming to be the leading man, ready to take the "main character" position when things are played right. Well, I can't blame him. If I was in a game where Vaan was the main character, I'd oust him at every turn, too.

Balthier first appears in the story as someone who is taking advantage of the grand fete's lack of guards in order to infiltrate the palace and take a bunch of goodies for himself! Vaan is very adamant about not handing over the Goddess Magicite, because since he found it first, it was his. Great, street rat logic. You gotta love it. Balthier unflinchingly replies that once he takes it from Vaan, it'll be his. That shut him up.

Due to the fete being a big phony trap to get people to attack, the Ifrit caused Vaan, Balthier, and the bunnielicious Fran to be trapped in the Garasmythe Waterway. Balthier's not too happy about it, though, since his clothes were filthy. A man-beast has got to keep up appearances, yeah? After educating Vaan in the ways of setting up intelligent Gambits, the group meets Amalia, a member of the Resistance. Surprisingly, she looks a lot like Ashe from the game's opening. Unfortunately, after getting through the sewers, the group is caught by Vayne and put into prison, awaiting execution.

Here, we are introduced to the not-so-fanservicey Ba'Gamnan, who is obviously gay for Balthier because he keeps on chasing after him. Anyway, due to Fran's good nose (and possibly "tipping" whoever gave her the information), the group found a way to get out of the prison and escaping certain death by taking a secret route through the Barheim passage. On the way, they pick up the assumingly deceased Basch fon Rosenberg. Lots of dead people are showing up, ne?

Then Vaan needed to get to Bhujerba to save Penelo, since Balthier was the one who contacted Penelo in front of everybody. So, Ba-Gamnan, ever jealous of anyone who has Balthier's attention, kidnapped Penelo once news of Balthier's escape rang loud. It's not easy being popular is it, you man-beast you? In exchange, Vaan offered the Goddess Magicite in exchange for a ride to the floating island. "The gods are toying with us", Fran appropriately commented.

After Vaan's fangasming over Balthier's airship, the Strahl, the group took off to save Penelo from Ba'Gamnan and his sick games. At the entrance, the group met an odd little boy who called himself Lamont. While Balthier and Basch exchanged a look, I assure you that it was one of confusion toward Lamont, and not attraction directed to each other. No, the dialouge "why don't we involve the kid in our midnight rendezvous too? ;)" does not appear in the script or on screen. Eventually, Lamont reveals himself to be none other than Prince Larsa Ferrinas Solidor, and right after Penelo was rescued the little pervert stole away Penelo! Oh noes! That's not your mommy!

After meeting with Marquis Ondore and having Basch pointy his huge sword at him (you naughty boy you), the group is arrested and boarded on the warship Leviathan. Rescuing Ashe and Penelo is in order after the Goddess Magicite, actually the Dusk Shard, is handed over to Judge Ghis from Vaan. Blah blah blah, boring stuff until the party decides to go to the Tomb of Raithwall.

Ashe offers herself to Balthier... to be kidnapped. In exchange, Ashe would lead Balthier to the Tomb's inner sanctum, where a treasure lies. What a crock; it turns out to be the Esper, Belias. "I'd prefer something a little more... tangible" was probably what he was thinking. Shrugging it off, the group was caught by the Arcadia Empire once again once they left the tomb and put aboard the Shiva.

After Fran's rather dramatic outburst of her dislike of bondage (despite her getup) the group faces against Vossler, and blah blah blah. Basically, since Balthier had no more motive, Ashe proposed to him by giving him her ring was forced to give him her ring to be escorted to the Garif land Jahara. Man, that was a classic scene... Ashe asking all heroic with the shard, and Vaan killing the tension with a "do you know how to use it?" line. That earned him a nasty look from the princess.

Larsa tells Ashe to become queen, restore Dalmasca, and declare peace with the Empire in order to avert a huge world war. Though the group's feelings are mixed, the group must travel to Mt. Bur-Omisace beyond the Golmore Jungle in order to speak with the Gran Kiltias, so he may vouch for Ashe's identity. Only problem? The bloody jungle is sealed, and only the viera can undo it. Fran's a viera, so there should be no problem, right? Eheheh... yeah, right.

Turns out that Fran left the Forest out of her own volition, and accepted banishment fifty years ago. As to how and why she met Balthier and chooses to travel with him is anyone's guess.In any case, the group has to go rescue Fran's sister, Mjrn, who was trapped in the Hennes Mines. Another fetch quest. Oh joy.

After witnessing a spooky otherworldly event with Mjrn, the group receives permission to pass the Golmmore Jungle and head to Mt. Bur-Omisace, where the Gran Kiltias sends the group on yet another fetch quest; go to the Stilshrine of Miriam, and you'll find the Sword of Kings, which can destroy nethicite. Before meeting with the Gran Kiltias, Balthier says a cryptic line concerning fathers and trust with Larsa...

Upon returning with the sword, the group finds that Mt. Bur-Omisace was attacked. Balthier makes a fateful decision, and tells the group to head toward Draklor Laboratory in Arcadia. In a pit stop at the Hunter's Camp in the Phon Coast, Balthier reveals to Ashe the truth; Balthier's father, Dr. Cid Bunansa, is the mad scientist utilizing and lusitng after the deifacted nethicite shards, and what's more, Balthier used to be an Imperial Judge before he became a sky pirate. His original birth name was Ffamran Mid Bunansa.

After a lengthy journey, the party finally reached Arcadia. Balthier reluctantly introduces the group to Jules, his former love-client a seller of information. While Balthier leaves the group temporarily and gives Jules some chops to give the others, Jules instead makes the group earn their own chops. Darn that Jules. Jealous ex-lovers are always like that, aren't they?

Once the gorup meets Dr. Cid, it dawns on Balthier that has inadvertently followed in his father's footsteps this entire adventure by chasing after nethicite, or the shards, at Ashe's beckoning. After Cid's escape and being aided by the help fo another sky pirate by the name of Reddas, the group endsup in Balfonheim. Another quest will lead them to Giruvegan, where they suspect Dr. Cid is headed.

After a lengthy forest excursion into the Feywood, which is reminiscent of a night-long party with too many hallucinogenic drugs, the gorup travels to Giruvegan where Ashe meets the Occuria. The Occuria reveal themselves to be the immortal beings of Ivalice who want to play with humans like chess pieces on a giant game board against who-knows-what. Oh, right, Venat, the Occuria who was a blasphemer and trying to have humanity bring its own history back into its own hands for whatever reason. They send her on yet another fetch quest to attain the Sun-Cryst and make new shards of deifacted nethicite to claim power.

After a lot more backtracking and experience farming, as well as many puzzles and boss fights and lots of filler and blah blah de blah, the group finds out that they've been playing into Dr. Cid's hands, but with the help of Reddas the party manages to destroy the Sun-Cryst so no more deifacted nethicite may be made. Of course, Reddas dies in the process, but whatever. He appears to have been Judge Zecht because the writers were bored.

The Bahamut rises, the group enters and battles both Gabranth and Vayne. That boss fight was a freakin' biznatch by the way, but the second time around I used Bubble Belts. Those helped a lot. Anyway, the Bahamut, now falling, is about to decimate Rabanastre. Uh oh. Balthier tells Vaan to take everyone but himself and Fran out via the Strahl while he and Fran try to go alleviate the damage.

In the game's finale, Balthier and Fran supposedly sacrificed their lives to make Bahamut not destroy Rabanastre, and they succeeded on the latter part. In the game's epilouge, Balthier and Fran are alive and well, steal back the Strahl, and during the ending montage Balthier is shown cuddling a cute little baby that was presumably had with Fran. (It has also been suggested that htis image is also a flashback image of Dr. Cidolfus and a baby Balthier as well.)

Disclaimer: Spoiler warning. The information in this section was typed up because, frankly, there's not enough information in Final Fantasy XII for me to do things directly. The game requires a lot of speculation, so you have to read between the lines a lot of the time. If you don't like the interpretations I make at three o'clock in the morning, go and make your own site. You can join the dozen and a half other sites out there.