We always assumed that drones were made in the image of their human creators because all the drones we’ve encountered in the Saturn Panzer Dragoon series seemed human on the surface, but Abadd only seems vaguely human-like. Did Smilebit choose to give Abadd such an alien facade in order to remind us that the drones’ creators may never have been human at all, or is variety the spice of life?
I’m not interested in why Abadd seems so alien so much as I am curious to know why Smilebit chose to introduce such a robotic drone to fans of the series. Was there a reason behind his appearance? One can only wonder.
I always thought he was an incomplete drone, or drone whose human form part has been destroyed. If you cover him in flesh, he resembles azel…
Perhaps something went wrong during the process of his creation, which completely deformed his body.
Even the concept arts of Abadd showed Smilebit’s intention to make him appear very different from humans. Perhaps they simply wanted to emphasise the difference in personality between Abadd and Azel.
If anything went wrong during his creation process I don’t think he’d be assigned such a huge task. And he’s still pretty humanoid IMO in order to be created in image of his Ancient masters even if they were humans. On the other hand it’s propably MUCH tougher to create a drone that resembles a human as much as Azel did so perhaps they didn’t go through the trouble for Abadd since it wasn’t needed for him… Perhaps for Azel’s duties it was something she needed. Maybe she was supposed to interact with humans at some point therefor was given a perfectly human form, or rather, disguise.
Another thought:
What about the possibility of Abadd really being a “primitive” drone that actually got ABANDONED along with his mission objective? Perhaps Abadd could be a canceled project and the Ancients’ plans changed since the last thing Abadd was told? What if they have a different ressucitation (or a totally different) plan that may still take place and Abadd is not the one responsible for it and doesn’t even know of it?
[quote=“Al3xand3r”]Another thought:
What about the possibility of Abadd really being a “primitive” drone that actually got ABANDONED along with his mission objective? Perhaps Abadd could be a canceled project and the Ancients’ plans changed since the last thing Abadd was told? What if they have a different ressucitation (or a totally different) plan that may still take place and Abadd is not the one responsible for it and doesn’t even know of it?[/quote]
I’ve considered that possibility before. It’s certainly possible that Abadd was a failure and that he was never meant to be activated. It could have been a different drone that was supposed to complete the mission (we never did find out what Azel’s original objective was). I can’t imagine thought that Abadd would be a “primitive” Drone, since he does seem intelligent enough to be considered as a high-end drone like Azel.
When I first layed eyes on Abadd, I thought his skin had melted away or otherwise decayed…
I suppose we could describe him as a walking skeleton and not be half wrong.
I would like to know the reason behind his chosen appearance. His boney skin does blend with the white semi-organic material used to construct the ancient ruins for a start. Perhaps Smilebit wanted to draw our attention to the fact that Abadd was a living, breathing product of the ancients’ technology. Newcomers to the series could better associate him with the ancients.
He has effeminate features, that womb like structure… high-ish heel boots… I don’t know why the Devs made him that way, but I think it’s a cool concept.
It’s possible that Abadd was a first-generation drone - meaning a perfected prototype. Azel was one of the last drones to be created, and human features probably weren’t added until the creation of the second and third generations of drones.
i don’t really see any aspect of abadd as effeminate… or masculine for that matter (save for his voice). but i don’t think those adjectives would apply to him anyway. azel and orta had personalities where such things could be reflected. he was all about killin’ and completing his mission.
the missing hands were a little odd. do you think it was supposed to be as such? the hole looked like a natural formation rather than accident or incompletion, but those lack of hands…
When I say “primitive” I don’t mean he’s like a caveman or something, he’s obviously very intelligent. I only meant that he can be an older “model” that is now outdated compared to newer creations like Azel. He’s ofcourse high-end too if he was given that kind of mission at some point (even if it later was taken away from him in favor of a newer drone or canceled alltogether).
Wasn’t Azel the only other drone in the series?
I figure she was made to look human because she was the ultimate drone.
[quote=“Dopefish”]Wasn’t Azel the only other drone in the series?
I figure she was made to look human because she was the ultimate drone.[/quote]
i don’t remember that, but maybe i’m crrrraaaaaaazy
hey, was azel A drone that could interface with the tower of uru? or was azel THE drone made for interfacing with the tower of uru?
was abadd A drone that could interface with the cradle? or was abadd THE drone made for interfacing with the cradle?
I think all higher end drones could interface with most of, if not all of the ancients’ technology. That would explain why such drones were so rare.
We don’t know how high end the drones lived in the frontier villages were… And for them to pretend to be humans they must have been pretty high end… Yeah, so rare 
Lower end drones could’ve been made to seem human too for all we know. The ancients would have made more than a few higher end drones to meet the demands of operating the many complex ruins they built across the globe, but even 50 or so higher end drones only constitutes a handful. I’m sure they were quite rare (what we call a rare breed).
There’s also the information found in the drone record to take into consideration:
Because of the complexity of their
thought organs, their production
rate is extremely low. Therefore,
they will only be assigned to
priority locations.
I have a feeling we won’t be seeing too many drones like Abadd and Azel in future games.
I meant they must be quite intelligent in order to be able and pretend they are humans, not that they are high end because of their appearance.
i don’t know about that, through the typical events of the games we usually wind up with a weird drone of some sort to deal with.
question: do you think the skyrider/dark dragoon were “low end” drones we hear about? the sky rider seemed more human than abadd in everything but his looks.
The Sky Rider and the drone riding the Dark Dragon were certainly good examples of higher end drones. God knows what they really looked like underneath their masks, but the Sky Rider’s exposed skin gave me the impression he was human… in appearance.
The drone riding the Dark Dragon interfaced with the Tower outside of the Imperial capital, so there’s questioning his higher end status.
The fact that drones were created in the image of humans is the strongest proof we can find supporting the theory that thir ancient creators were indeed human. I would love to believe that Smilebit chose to make Abadd’s appearance such a drastic departure from the norm to remind us of another possibility. This may even be the case.
On the other hand, Abadd does arguably seem “human-like”.
i question it!
[quote]Unit 01… Confirmed.
After rendezvous, take Unit to full strength.[/quote]
since the dragon was the one that was effected when the unit was taken to full power, perhaps it was just referring to the dragon. and if so, then it was the dragon that was interacting with the tower!
and that would make sense right? the dark dragon was the tower’s guardian, not the drone.
i think the skyrider and dark dragoon were dumb drones!
If, and I stress the if, the Dark Dragon was a sentient dragon like the Heresy dragon, then it could’ve interacted with the Tower. However, the later Panzer games make it absolutely crystal clear that drones are required to operate the most complex of the ancients’ ruins.
The designation “Unit 01” was always meant to describe the Dark Dragon and its rider functioning as a unit. They were one of the fabled “dragon units” Panzer Dragoon Orta’s encyclopedia describes.
So, he was almost certainly a higher end drone.
I have always thought that drones who looked human were the more advanced drones due to the complexity of their design. Perhaps I was wrong.
