Balthazar Blake is one of the two main protagonists in Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He was a student of Merlin and a sorcerer. More than 1,000 years old, Balthazar has been searching the globe until he finds the Prime Merlinean, the descendant of Merlin and inheritor of his great magic powers. When Balthazar finally discovers him in 10-year-old Dave Stutler, he finds himself with a very reluctant sorcerer’s apprentice.
Background
Personality
Balthazar can be a kind and gentle man, but he can also be a serious and courageous sorcerer. When he sees Dave trying to win the affection from Becky Barnes, Balthazar chastises Dave for it as it would hinder him from his focus on studying the sorcery. In spite of his faith on Dave, Balthazar doubts whether Dave would able to fully embrace his destiny as Prime Merlinean; though he managed to convince Dave to study the sorcery under his tutelage, Balthazar only telling him that the main priority of the study was to defeat Horvath and seal him back inside the Grimhold instead of destroying Morgana and freeing Veronica altogether. That is until Dave's confrontation with Stone and Horvath made him demand the true purpose of his study and who was sealed inside the Grimhold.
His doubts for Dave to fully embrace his nature as Prime Merliean, and why he chastise Dave for trying to win the affection from Becky eventually revealed that he, in fact, was lonely and missing Veronica for centuries. Merlin's death, Horvath's betrayal, Veronica forced to use the Fusion spell on Morgana, all of them has became grave burden for him. These burdens also made him doubts to befriends with those whom he met in his journeys until he met Dave, whom turned out share some similarities with Veronica as both of them prefers the normal life instead life full of adventures and battles that they already had. Unfortunately, this also used by Horvath, whom sadistic enough to use the disguise spell on a nearby pedestrian to made her resembles Veronica as distraction for him so he and Drake could escape. In spite of this, after he eventually reveal his burden to Dave, his burden eventually lightened, and gone after reunites with Veronica. It was obvious that why he chastise Dave for for trying to win the affection from Becky not only would hinder his focus from his study in sorcery, but also afraid that it would also brought up his own happy times with Veronica that would hinder his focus in his quest.
His love with Veronica, which has started long ago, was something that keep him forward in his journey until he met and trained Dave that eventually became the Prime Merlinean. As Veronica saves his life by using Fusion Spell on Morgana, Balthazar has revealed planned to do the same in return (though he succeed in saving Veronica, this inevitably unleashed Morgana's ghostly form since her body only consists of floating mass of dust). His well-planned heroic sacrifice also something that made him tolerate Dave for giving Horvath the Dragon Ring due to him held Becky hostage albeit not letting him to join the battle as Dave have not had his Prime Merlinean powers awakened yet.
Trivia
- Balthazar's character basis are Dumbledore of Harry Potter series, Yoda from Star Wars, Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, and Yen Sid from Disney's Fantasia (as well as The Sorcerer from the poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Yen Sid based of), with Yen Sid and The Sorcerer being similar to him most.
- Soon after escaped from the Grimlock, Balthazar was shown wearing his signature fedora which implied to be conjured out of thin air (he never wore one prior to sealing himself with Horvath).
- He is portrayed by Nicholas Cage, whom also proposed the idea about the movie as he wanted to explore a mystic world with a magical character.
- Like other main characters in the film, Balthazar's character has undergo some changes in the film's scripts. In the early script of the film, Balthazar's background greatly contrasted to the final version: He is neither a centuries-old sorcerer nor even Merlinean from start, but rather former Merlinean wizard under Horvath's tutelage who sided with Merlineans after humbled by his ill-fated attempt to assassinate Aurelius Flood (Merlin's modern day successor before the Prime Merlinean) and his daughter Veronica Flood (early version of Veronica Gorloisen in the same script). Balthazar's exposure to Merlinean ways allowed him to see errors in his own path and fell in love with Veronica, only for it all ended in a tragedy during a fateful battle against Morganians in which he lost his newfound allies after Veronica perished in the fight and Aurelius dying from exhausting his strength to reseal their enemies along with Morgana's spirit. Little did he knows that Morgana took Veronica with her as her host at that moment and he remained oblivious to her fate until the later part of the story.
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