When the Dark Dragon sends a fireball ahead of Lagi and the fourth rider, the heroes are blown high into the sky by the resulting explosion. When the fourth rider looks up, he sees the Dark Dragon diving in for the kill. The Dark Dragon rider fires a well-aimed shot into his chest that would later prove to be fatal.
Now, my question is, why didn’t Lagi shield his rider companion from the oncoming laser blast? If the fourth rider was one with the dragon, they would have shared each other’s senses, meaning Lagi would have seen the Dark Dragon swooping down as soon as the fourth rider did.
The only conclusion I can reach to explain why Lagi didn’t shield his rider is that the pair were never truly one unit. They had never become one.
Note: The term fourth rider is how the Empire has classified the person we’ve come to know as the Sky Rider (a name which comes from the English Panzer Dragoon manual) because the Empire only became aware of him after documenting the first three human riders.
Is it possible that Lagi didn’t react in time? The laser blast may have penetrated a shield anyway but Atolm manages to ward off a similar attack from Lagi in the FMV sequence aboard Craymen’s ship at the end of disk 1 of PD Saga.
Well noticed! I would have to agree, this does seem to suggest that the 4th rider never had a proper bond with Lagi. In the FMVs we see the dragons shield their riders and I think pandoras box(or one of the manuals) mentions that dragons shield their riders from both attacks and the wind as they fly(to prevent the riders falling off). In all other cases of dragon combat it is allways the dragon that falls before the rider(I think this is even the case for dragon mares.
However I allways assumed that the dragon protected the rider from all attacks with his own power regardless of whether he was aware of it or not. Maybe the 4th rider was not meant for Lagi at all and so Lagi was unable to guard him?
You know, funny enough, I didn’t know that the name “Sky Rider” came from the english manual… I thought it was something that fans made up! Interesting how in the manual, the Sky Rider says different words at his death. Also it states that it was his lifeforce that went spiralling off into the unknown… I wonder how accurate the manual is.
About the theory… perhaps, if the Sky Rider was a drone that might have something to do with it, but it’s difficult to come to any sort of conclusion.
I know what you mean Geoffrey but I’m afraid the development team didn’t think of that when they did that scene.
Well, as far as we know Lagi ain’t invicible, but I really don’t think you can take any conclusions from that scene unless of course you are saying that DD is cool !! ;D
Well we know the Sky Rider says, “don’t let him reach the Tower, my dragon knows the way”, because we hear those very words in Forbidden Memories (Smilebit was perhaps letting us know he hasn’t been forgotten, or that he was somehow important, or better still, to bring a smile to the faces of older fans).
The Sky Rider, may not even be a proper compound noun. In Japanese it could simply be sky rider.
The way the fourth rider was killed could be attributed to a lack of unity (Lagi would have seen that laser blast coming if the two were one unit who shared their senses with one another), or happened because the idea of Lagi shielding his rider or even two beings being one entity wasn’t fully developed at that time. I don’t know.
On an irrelevant note, ever wondered how dragons could’ve ended the Ancient Age? The stories of the dragon rider Lundi heard before meeting Lagi must have come from somewhere. I’m intrigued by the thought of human dragon riders (or just one) fighting the ancients to save the world.
There were a couple of instances in Saga where a shield should have gone up but didn’t…
The best example I can think of are the pre-emptive strikes by Atolm in discs 1 and 3. Surely Lagi noticed the shots in time to fire up one of those famous no-bp invulnerable shields?
[quote=“Arcie”]There were a couple of instances in Saga where a shield should have gone up but didn’t…
The best example I can think of are the pre-emptive strikes by Atolm in discs 1 and 3. Surely Lagi noticed the shots in time to fire up one of those famous no-bp invulnerable shields?[/quote]
I think he did, Edge didnt die after all. I dont think that it is possible for the rider to die before the dragon if the 2 are linked.
When the Grig Orig opens fire Lagi takes notice and prepares for it accordingly.
Either Lagi didn’t see the Dark Dragon in time to save his rider because the two never shared their senses with one another (in which case he didn’t see the imminent attack at all), or Lagi just didn’t react quickly enough.
I believe that the Sky Rider and Lagi were one unit. If they weren’t then how could the Sky Rider even be able to control him? You ask why Lagi didn’t shield the Sky Rider from the attack. Perhaps the question is rather why didn’t they, the unit, shield themselves from the attack? If you look at the first screenshot, you clearly see the Sky Rider looking down at the explosion instead of concentrating on the incoming laser blast. If they were synchronized, then the Sky Rider and Lagi were looking down, which would explain why Lagi didn’t react. Basically, it was the unit that didn’t react quickly enough. The Sky Rider seemed completely unprepared for combat. If his combat skill wasn’t good enough then it would affect Lagi as well making the unit less efficient. This also makes me question the possibility of the Sky Rider being a drone created for Lagi in the Ancient Age. A drone should have been prepared for combat.
The same way Lundi, Kyle and Edge did. Bonding with the dragon took time but before then all three could control the dragon to some degree.
The Sky Rider saw the Dark Dragon diving in for the kill; why didn’t he and his dragon react in time? Was it simply a matter of not reacting quickly enough? Maybe, but the Sky Rider still saw the laser blast coming.