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Characters > The Sky Rider
Rewritten by Geoffrey Duke, August 2004
 
The Sky Rider is the heretofore anonymous *man* seen mounting the armoured blue dragon aka Lagi in Panzer Dragoon (judging from the rider's build and voice he is a he, at least). The name Sky Rider is taken from the heading "The Sky Rider Falls" in the English Panzer Dragoon manual for an introductory paragraph summarising the theme of the game. Whether the name Sky Rider (in capital letters) was meant to be an official name for the masked (and never unmasked) rider or not is unknown since every word in that particular heading is capitalized. He was a sky rider in a manner of speaking, yet fans have chosen to adopt the name Sky Rider as his first official name. Panzer Dragoon is meant to take place after Panzer Dragoon Zwei, making him the second rider. However, other than the information fans have gathered by drawing conclusions from his appearance and actions, nothing is known about him; he is killed by the Dark Dragon before he can introduce himself properly (he's shot cleanly through the chest by a bending laser beam and thus fatally wounded). Before surrendering to death the Sky Rider lands his dragon next to Kyle, a hunter who chanced upon the battle between him and the Dark Dragon, and reaches out his hand. There is much speculation surrounding the Sky Rider, so I'll list the facts we do know, and then the theories based on them:
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Sky Rider Facts:
1. He communicates through life-like telepathic imagery with Kyle after making arm contact, showing Kyle images of a black Tower while begging him to stop the Dark Dragon from reaching it.
2. At the point of death, his chest wound emits a stream of spiraling green energy particles.
3. His armour is bulky, seems improvised, and is a bony colour similar to the dragon's bony plating. Beneath his amour is silky black clothing and he wears silky black gloves. He is helmed similarly and cloth is wrapped around his mouth.
4. His gun bears a striking resemblance to Lundi's gun as seen in Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Sestren's fourth memory orb in Panzer Dragoon Saga.
5. The Sky Rider's exposed flesh around his eyes is flesh-coloured.
6. He refers to his dragon as "my dragon" as if it belonged to him.
7. Lagi, the blue dragon, mourns his rider's death by crying out in grief.
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Theories:
1. Why he could have been Lundi.
 
A popular theory among fans is that the Sky Rider was Lundi, the original dragon rider, only older, reunited with Lagi 18 years later, and wielding an upgraded gun, or a new gun obtained from the Seekers. Notice how the shape of their hats is similar. As we know, Lundi became the leader of the Seekers after Lagi left him at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and therefore could've acquired all the weapon parts or weaponry he required for whatever ancient horrors he was preparing to face from them. No matter how different Lundi's gun seems when compared to the Sky Rider's gun, they are admittedly very similar in design. If only the guns were identical, then we could finally put this theory to rest. By this time Lundi had fully become one with Lagi to the point where they shared each other's senses, which possibly means he was thereby able to communicate through Lagi. The green energy surging from his chest wound when he is close to death could be a product of the bonding process, or an inconsistency in the story Team Andromeda later wrote around. We have no way of ascertaining the truth since this has never happened to anyone else before or since. I'd like to think that Lundi found himself some Ancient Age (or drone) battle armour while he was researching drones at the Uru labs, otherwise the armour could've been constructed out of ancient relics like the armour the Seekers have a habit of wearing.
 
By the time Lundi and his dragon Lagi battle the guardian dragon of Shelcoof, Lagi has morphed into the Type 01 dragon. This is significant because Lundi ends Panzer Dragoon Zwei riding the armoured blue dragon and the Sky Rider begins Panzer Dragoon riding the same dragon as if Panzer Dragoon Zwei was meant to explain how the metamorphic dragon reached its current form. Also, at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, we hear the voice of Lundi say "And after all this, he is still with me"; afterwards, we're left wondering what exactly he means by this. Judging from Lundi's journals later found in Panzer Dragoon Saga, he meant that a part of Lagi was still with him spiritually in the form of the information he received from the dragon about how the Ancient Age came to an end, but what if he meant literally? This would explain why Lundi mysteriously disappeared not long after he became the leader of the Seekers: he was killed by the Dark Dragon after being reunited with his dragon. I think Team Andromeda at least originally planned for the Sky Rider to be Lundi; Panzer Dragoon Zwei was probably intended to give this unknown rider a backstory as well as tell us the tale of the dragon's humble beginnings.
*Update*: More than one official source has confirmed that the Sky Rider was not Lundi (specifically). However, games developers are sometimes prone to playing word games, so until the creators of the series confirm that the Sky Rider was not Skiad Ops Endow (the person Lundi became) I will remain skeptical.
2. Why he couldn't have been Lundi / why he was in fact a drone.
 
Something that has been highlighted many times is how similar the Sky Rider looks when compared to the drone riding the Dark Dragon. The suits of armour they are wearing are in fact identical with the sole exception of their contrasting colour-schemes, which of course, raises a few eyebrows. The Sky Rider and the Dark Dragon rider seem to be drones who share the same design.
 
When the Dark Dragon soars past the camera in Panzer Dragoon's epic introduction sequence when it's chasing Lagi through a submerged ruin, his masked rider comes into view for no more than a second, giving us the rare opportunity to examine him. On closer inspection, not only does the drone riding the Dark Dragon closely resemble the Sky Rider, but the gun he wields is a carbon copy of the gun wielded by the Sky Rider (which we see Kyle lift here). The Sky Rider's gun is probably of standard ancient design, nothing more.
 When Lagi leaves Lundi, Lundi's gun falls through his grasp perhaps never to be seen again. Bear in mind that this only happened in all but the true (armoured blue dragon) ending, so we have no way of knowing if he lost his gun at all at the end of the game. However, Lundi's gun and the Sky Rider's gun are clearly different.
 The Sky Rider has been likened to Azel many times because their overall appearances share obvious similarities. The combination of boney white armour and silky black clothing underneath sets the Sky Rider apart from other riders, and when compared to Azel, a confirmed drone, leaves no doubt that he can only be a drone himself. His armour is bulkier than what Azel wears but nowhere does it say that all drones look identical.
I think Team Andromeda wrote him to be a rebel drone like Azel but never wrote a full or more detailed background story than that. Even if Team Andromeda didn't give the Sky Rider an identity during Panzer Dragoon's development, just by laying eyes on Azel we now know what direction they decided to take him in. In the face of this mounting evidence, the Sky Rider must have been a drone who was perhaps prepared for the Heresy dragon in the Ancient Age. It is said that drones can seem identical to human beings, and the fact that the colours of his amour and clothing (when considered as a whole) are akin to the collective colours of Azel's drone outfit cannot be ignored or easily explained away. Drones can communicate telepathically (with their dragons for example), but we have never learnt the full extent of this ability from the actions of confirmed drones. The green energy seen coiling out of his body could only be a drone's life-force, since humans don't discharge energy from their wounds when dead or dying. A dragon's Bioluminary Oscillator glows the same light green blue-white colour when converting energy into bio-lasers, suggesting that a drone's body is fueled by the same type of energy. Azel may not have been the only drone stolen before the ancient civilization collapsed and reprogrammed to fight against the ancients; the Sky Rider could be proof of this.
Remaining possibilities:
3. The Sky Rider was an unknown man (not a drone) doomed to remain unknowable.
4. The Sky Rider was someone else perhaps so insignificant that Team Andromeda refused to let us know out of fear we'll hate them for keeping us in suspense for so long over something so trivial.
5. The creators have not yet decided on an identity, or his original identity is subject to change at a later date (which is why we were never told in the first place). Kind of like *we reserve this space* (that is until they decide to fill it).
6. The Sky Rider was a direct ancestor of the ancients, a race of people who perhaps weren't quite human.
7. Even the creators don't know who the Sky Rider was, as in they never gave him an identity or wrote a proper background story for him at the time of his creation.
The moment Azel awakens the Tower of Uru she appears to be the epicentre of a sudden profusion of green energy. The light pervades around her quickly expanding in circumference. Conversely, the energy is a darker green than what the dying Sky Rider releases, but a no less intriguing coincidence. The truth, as ever, remains to be seen.
When Lagi hibernated in Shelcoof after Panzer Dragoon Zwei, the wrecked ship lay somewhere in Georgius near Uru before Uru was flooded. Uru is the birth place of the drones according to the Seekers, and it's reasonable to assume the Sky Rider came from Uru if he was indeed a drone -- a place not far away. He might've stumbled upon Lagi by accident or sought Lagi out.
Personally, I had hoped the Sky Rider and Lundi were the same person; it would tie up loose ends and reveal the fate of the first dragon rider. The mystery is an integral part of the series, however, as it keeps us asking questions. We wouldn't want to know everything now would we?
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Related Articles:
Dialogue > Panzer Dragoon Script
Mysteries > The Mystery of the Sky Rider
Theories > Sky Rider Theory
Theories > Fourth Rider Theory
Theories > Heresy Rider Theory
World > Blue Dragon
Back to the Characters Section
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