Theories > Dragon Life Cycle Theory

Written By Geoffrey Duke and Solo Wing Dragon, January 2005 to December 2006

Solo Wing Dragon: The heresy dragon, in the original three Panzer Dragoon games, existed to free the world from the will of the Ancients. However, details of what exactly the heresy dragon is were complicated with the release of Panzer Dragoon Orta. The dragon, who prior the release of Panzer Dragoon Orta, was commonly believed to be a singular entity, was revealed to be two parts of a whole. The Forbidden Memories episode of Panzer Dragoon Orta contains a hidden memory orb that shows a conversation between the physical dragon and the golden 'heresy program' that once occupied the physical dragon's body. From what the conversation revealed, we now know that the heresy dragon was actually made up of two parts: the dragon's body and the entity that gave it a purpose (commonly known amoung fans as the "Heresy program").

While Sestren's memory orbs confirm that the same impurity was present in all three Panzer Dragoon games, how do we know that Lagi - the name that Lundi gave to the coolia baby at the start of Panzer Dragoon Zwei - was the same physical creature in all four Panzer Dragoon games? The Saga dragon was definitely the same creature as the Orta dragon, but what about the dragons in the first two Panzer games? After all, Lundi's Old Diary does speak of Lagi "discarding his body" and "reemerging with a new body", which would suggest that the heresy program left the physical dragon's body and 'downloaded' itself into a new form.

In this theory, we're going to be supporting the contrary. We believe that Lagi was born in Panzer Dragoon Zwei and lived through the entire 84 years of his life until his death at the end of Panzer Dragoon Orta - within a single body. We don't think that Lagi died at any point over the course of the four games, or changed bodies, with the exception of the different forms that he morphs into (in this theory Lagi's different forms are regarded as part of the same physical body). Lagi is the same dragon in all four Panzer Dragoon games.

Please note that this is a joint theory between myself and Geoffrey Duke. Each section of the theory will be marked with the respective author's name.

From humble beginnings.

Geoffrey Duke: It has always been my firm belief that Panzer Dragoon Zwei was meant to provide a backstory for the dragon seen in the original Panzer Dragoon. If it didn't, then that would defeat the purpose of the game being a prequel. Panzer Dragoon Zwei was always meant to tell the tale of the dragon's humble beginnings. After all, who could imagine that a mutant coolia would save the world and become a legend?

Solely in the context of Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei, where else could the dragon seen in the original Panzer Dragoon have come from otherwise? Panzer Dragoon Zwei was meant to clarify the dragon's origins, not be story of the birth and death of a single dragon. Bear in mind that we never see the dragon born in any other game.

Lagi's life was also spared by chance. If Lundi hadn't taken pity on him, the dragon would have died in its infancy. It's arguable that the dragon essence would move onto another coolia, but that's just taking another risk. Keep this in mind for later.

The Facts Surrounding the Panzer Dragoon Zwei Endings

Geoffrey Duke: In the primary endings obtained by not achieving a perfect score and not taking all the hardest routes in the game, we are shown the fate of whatever dragon you finish the game as/with. Here we watch Lagi and Lundi part ways, but not before Lagi shows him the truth concerning his mission via a sequence of mind warping visions. These endings are meant for our benefit as much as they are for Lundi's benefit. The game is peeling away the truth regarding the dragon's purpose for players through some cryptic imagery on top of showing us part of what Lundi is seeing.

During the primary endings the baby dragon and the blue dragon are shown overlapping while they both cry out at the same time. This is meant to convey the fact that they are the same dragon in a younger and older form, respectively. I can't interpret it any other way... in the context of Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Panzer Dragoon alone. Other moving images seen in the endings are overlapped but for a much briefer amount of time where they can to be said to fade to one another rather than overlap for the same significant amount of time. Images of Shelcoof and the Tower fade to one another while exploding, but the emphasis is clearly placed on the explosions (i.e. their destruction) rather than anything else.

Each ending in Panzer Dragoon Zwei shows the fate of whatever dragon form players finish the game with. Likewise, the true ending obtained by gaining perfect shot-down scores and taking all the most difficult routes containing the most challenging foes, shows the fate of the armoured blue dragon. In this true ending, for the want of a better description, we see the darkened silhouette of Lagi, now as the Type 01 armoured blue dragon fly off into the unknown directly overhead, and then we are shown clips from Panzer Dragoon, showing us what happens next in the timeline (the dragon destroying the Tower seen in PD. The sequence of moving images reveals the fate of the blue dragon you finished the game with, as I explained before, and also shows that Zwei provided the background story for the blue dragon we first saw in the original Panzer Dragoon. By now, it should be clear to players that Panzer Dragoon Zwei set the stage for the events that take place later in Panzer Dragoon. Panzer Dragoon Zwei was the game that explained how Lagi reached his current form in Panzer Dragoon; it was the story of this dragon's birth.

Sidenote: We know for a fact that Lagi became the armoured blue dragon by the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, because in one of Sestren's memory orbs, which are flashbacks of past events, we see Lundi riding an armoured blue dragon when fighting the guardian dragon of Shelcoof.

The Diaries of Skiad Ops Endow (aka Lundi)

Geoffrey Duke:

Excerpted from Dragon Book 3:

"Losing Lagi has left me numb, and the vision has left me overwhelmed. When he destroyed the ship, he entrusted me with his secret. The secret of him, and of the world".

Lagi, the dragon, entrusted Lundi with the secret of his existence. Here, Lundi regards Lagi as the inner personality of the dragon -- not merely its shell. Take note of this passage for later.

Excerpted from Dragon Book 3 again:

"In the center of the airship, Lagi laid still, his power completely exhausted. Lagi's body was stone cold, but I knew he was still alive. At least, deep inside of me, I believed so".

One day, Lagi will regain his power and return to the sky. And there will be another rider... Someone other than me.
But I won't be sad. As long as I do not lose what Lagi entrusted to me, he shall always be with me".

In this passage Lundi is confident that Lagi -- not the Heresy program, but Lagi -- will return to the skies one day. Of course, considering the fact that Lundi regarded Lagi as the dragon, I suppose Lagi himself could return one day as a newly shaped dragon.

Excerpted from the diary of Skiad Ops Endow:

"By destroying the Tower of the Sky, Shelcoof, our journey came to an end. Exhausting all his power, he discarded his body, and entered a deep sleep. I assume he has now reemerged with a new body, and chosen you as his rider".

The words, "discarded his body" seem to contradict Lundi's earlier statement (about Lagi returning presumably in the same body), unless of course, Lundi meant that Lagi shed his skin, or appeared to leave his body, and by new body he meant Lagi would literally return in a new body, leaving the old one behind. Perhaps whatever was said here in Japanese didn't translate very well into English, or could only translate into the word "discarded". Still, by new body, Lundi could have meant as a new form of dragon/new dragon form.

Lundi also thought Lagi entered a deep sleep, but at the same time thought the dragon "discarded his body". Now unless Lundi saw Lagi go into a dragon crest, his meaning is quite clear in my opinion: by re-emerging in a new body Lundi meant that Lagi would return in a new body by morphing into a new dragon, which he did in Panzer Dragoon Saga. However, Lagi didn't return in a new body (i.e. new form of dragon) for the events of Panzer Dragoon; he returned as the familiar armoured blue dragon to better tie the games together, so Lundi was wrong. One way of interpreting this is to assume that the soul of Lagi or the Heresy dragon (remember, Lundi regarded them as one and the same based on what we know if he knew of the Heresy's existence at all and wasn't just a name he applied to Lagi alone or both dragons as one which fans later adopted for the black four limbed dragon seen at the end of PD Saga), would somehow return in a brand new body completely regrown, or a new dragon form. In both cases, he was wrong unless we skip forward to PD Saga where the dragon did indeed return in either a brand new body or new type of body morphed from the old one.

Lundi writes that Edge's dragon has inherited the soul of his dragon, but Lundi always regarded Lagi and the Heresy program which are later revealed as separate entities, as one and the same, which means that interpreting these passages to mean that Lagi's soul was the golden Heresy dragon program while Lagi was merely a shell for it is based on shaky foundations.

If we think about it, we don't actually know when Lundi wrote this journal. Lundi could have written it long after the events of Panzer Dragoon, so he could have been referring to the same dragon in the same body... in a new body (new form) after the events of Panzer Dragoon had taken place.

Since he was privy to the secret of the dragon's existence perhaps he was also aware of the fact that Lagi and the Heresy were separate parts of the same whole, and yet he still expected Lagi himself to return. The "soul" to which Lundi was referring was Lagi's personality in a new body or a new dragon form. I must admit that this is assuming a lot. There's no way of knowing that Lundi knew his dragon was in fact separate parts united into one whole. It's just an assumption based on Lundi's eyes being opened to the truth. Along the same line of reasoning, why wouldn't he know?

A newer translation courtesy of our budding translater Kimimi...

"At the end of our journey together, after the Tower of the sky - Shelcoof and Georgious fell and things came to a conclusion, my friends power exhausted as expected, he cast away his flesh and entered a deep sleep. Now, once again his body has been reborn and awakened, and you have been picked as the new rider".

Lagi couldn't both discard his body and enter a deep sleep, unless he shed his skin, but this is open to interpretation. His body being reborn could still mean that his old body morphed into a new one much later in PD Saga which is the time Lundi is referring. Lundi may not have known they were seperate, so may even be saying that his dragon will return in a new body.

Solo Wing Dragon: As Geoffrey has pointed out, there are certainly many ways that Lundi's diaries can be interpreted. Having read two different translations of the original Japanese text of the Old Diary, the meaning of the passage remains just a clouded as ever. When Lundi talks about the dragon "discarding his body" or "casting away his flesh" we can't know for sure if Lundi was talking about the Heresy Program, the coolia, or a combination of both. Likewise, when Lundi says that he "entered a deep sleep" he could also be talking about any of those three possible entities.

I'm going to play on the defensive here and take a guess that Lundi was talking about both the Heresy program and the coolia as the same creature, whether or not he knew that they were two parts of the whole. After blasting Shelcoof from the sky, Lagi became exhausted and had to go into a form of hibernation in order to recover. Did he discard his body or the morph he was in? Who knows. Perhaps he needed to revert to a lesser form while recovering in hibernation, the "deep sleep" that Lundi speaks of (more on this theory later)? In any case, there are enough possibilities here for their to be *a* reason to believe Lagi survived the ending of Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Which brings us to the next game in the series...

The Appearance of the Armoured Blue Dragon in Panzer Dragoon

Geoffrey Duke: Lagi is the Solo Wing dragon in Panzer Dragoon -- the same dragon form he ended the game with at the end of Zwei. The lack of dragon sightings between the time spanning between Zwei and Panzer Dragoon indicate another adventure in which the Heresy dragon might've possessed another coolia didn't happen. Sestren would've seen something prior to Panzer Dragoon if that was true. The fact that Sestren only recorded the dragon being born once suggests that the dragon was in fact only born into the world once. An FMV flashback sequence showing a dragon being born into the world again wouldn't have bankrupted Sega.

It would've been easier to for the Heresy program to emerge in the same dragon (Lagi), rather than occupy another coolia unless the Heresy program could reshape a coolia faster than the year it took to evolve Lagi in Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Why download itself into another coolia only to go through the slow and painful process of growing up again (and take the chance of not being killed as a young helpless dragonling again), and evolving into the blue dragon again, when Lagi had already become the fully grown armoured blue dragon?

Lagi/the dragon only came out of hibernation when Towers were on the verge of activation. The Heresy program couldn't waste time evolving another coolia. It was waiting for an opportunity to enter Sestren (through an active Tower) as well as protecting humanity by stopping disaster before it started. It would be easier to come out of hibernation at the first sign of trouble rather than occupy another coolia and evolve it into a dragon in time to stop the Tower outside the capital and the Tower of Uru going active... again unless the coolia could grow up up overnight (which is entirely possible considering that the Heresy program is a dragon program designed to reshape other creatures into a dragon). The truth is we never see the Heresy program evolve another coolia into a dragon. I think this fact speaks for itself.

Solo Wing Dragon: In Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Lagi took a year to grow up. However after he entered battle he began to grow at lot faster. Lagi grew relatively slowly before he and Lundi set off on their quest, but once the pursuit of Shelcoof had begun he grew into the Blue Dragon in under two months. It seems that destroying enemies caused Lagi to grow somehow. The question is: when would the Sky Rider have had to opportunity to raise a coolia pup into the full grown blue dragon? If he had defeated hordes of Sestren's monsters to "level up" his dragon, surely Sestren would have recorded these events and shown them in the memory orbs at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga. Such a tale would be far from unimportant, storywise. Instead, the Sky Rider’s part to play is portrayed as insignificant and almost irrelevant.

The story of the original Panzer Dragoon was one of haste. The armoured blue dragon and the Sky Rider were chasing after the Dark Dragon; their goal was to stop him from reaching the Tower no matter the cost. The Sky Rider simply wouldn't have had time for anything else, raising a coolia pup included, unless he had spent *years* before hand. And if that was the case, surely someone would have noticed the two of them?

I mentioned earlier that Lagi may have had to change to a lesser form than his ultimate Blue Dragon form after destroying the Shelcoof, in order to recover from the battle. If this is true, why would the Panzer Dragoon Zwei true ending show the two blue dragon overlapping as if the story was meant to continue straight on from that point without Lagi going into any intermediate forms? The answer is symbolism; the Zwei ending could have been trying to show that they were the same dragon by showing two dragons that look identical, even if Lagi wasn't in his blue and white Solo Wing form for the whole eighteen years in between the two games.

The idea of the Sky Rider managing the raise Lagi through a few forms back into the Type 01 at least seems more feasible than him raising the dragon from a coolia again. Remember that Lundi's diaries speak of Lagi "casting away his flesh" and "entering a deep sleep", yet in none of the games is a second coolia mentioned.

The Dragon Survives?

Geoffrey Duke: The dragon didn't die at the end of Panzer Dragoon. He left footprints in the sand around Kyle as a reminder of his presence. He, therefore, could have survived the destruction of the Tower in one piece. He could have exhausted his power temporarily, but there's no reason to believe this was fatal. So why couldn't he survive the destruction of Shelcoof earlier (even with his energy completely drained)?

Why did Lagi Downgrade Himself to the Basic Wing Form for Panzer Dragoon Saga?

Geoffrey Duke: The answer is simple: players couldn't begin the game with the most powerful dragon. Also, this gave Team Andromeda the opportunity to experiment with new dragon morphes.

The information contained in Panzer Dragoon Orta states that a dragon can morph of its own free will to adapt to its surroundings. If Lagi randomly evolved into new dragon forms, and if these morphs weren't designed in the Ancient Age, then the chances of another dragon following the same evolutionary path are slim. When the dragon in PD Saga merges with the baby dragon found in Shelcoof, he becomes the Solo Wing dragon whose standard form is the Type 01 blue dragon. Not only can the Solo Wing morph into all the dragon forms Lagi morphed into in PD Zwei, but can also become the Dark Dragon, which is a form Lagi never adopted in the game. This suggests that his forms were all preprogrammed, but we also cannot forget the fact that the dragon in PD Saga could only become the forms Lagi took in PD Zwei after merging with the baby dragon. Not before. The dragon shouldn't have needed to merge with the dragon pup to become those forms if the Heresy program could morph into them at any time. Who's to say Lagi didn't assimilate the Dark Dragon after defeating it?

I won't deny that my argument here is based on a pretty weak foundation. I think it's more likely that the dragon could become the blue dragon in PD Saga to remind us that he actually was the armoured blue dragon from Panzer Dragoon. It's a way of reminding us of something we shouldn't forget and paying homage to the first Panzer game.

Solo Wing Dragon: One might assume that since the first dragon in Panzer Dragoon Saga looks totally different, and indeed is a lesser form than the Blue Dragon from Panzer Dragoon, the two creatures must be different dragons. Whilst this is an understandable assumption, I personally don't see why it has to be the correct answer. If you take into consideration the transformation of the dragon at a whole, you'll notice that dragon looks considerably different from its previous form at the start of every Panzer Dragoon game, the only exception being the original Panzer Dragoon, however we know that the dragon was the same physical creature in at least two of the games, those being Saga and Orta.

In Panzer Dragoon Orta, the form that the dragon begins in is the Base Wing class. Base Wing implies that it was a "starting" form, not so different from the Basic Wing in Saga, so one might assume that this was also the first form of a new dragon. But according to the conversation between the Heresy Program and the physical dragon in the seventh episode of Panzer Dragoon Orta, the dragon in Orta is the *same* physical creature as the dragon in Panzer Dragoon Saga. However there are certainly many reasons that the dragon looks different in Orta than he does Saga, mostly because he is no longer occupied by the Heresy Program. So the term "Basic Wing" doesn't automatically mean that it's the starting form of a whole new dragon. But whilst the Heresy Program leaving Lagi explains why he downgraded in Panzer Dragoon Orta, why would Lagi need to downgrade himself from the Blue Dragon to the Basic Wing before Panzer Dragoon Saga?

One theory that I have is that Lagi had to downgrade himself to the Basic Wing after destroying the Tower near the imperial capital in Panzer Dragoon. It's shown at the end of Zwei that taking out a Tower (Shelcoof) requires a tremendous amount of energy, so much that he had to enter a deep sleep (according to Lundi's account in the old diary). If it is the same dragon in all four games, Lagi would have reemerged from hibernation years later in the same Blue Dragon form, fully recovered from his assault on the Ancient ship. So, why would the Dragon have had to have downgraded after destroying the Imperial Tower but not the Shelcoof? Well, firstly we don't know for sure that Lagi didn't have to downgrade after assulting Shelcoof. But also, as we find out by playing Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shelcoof wasn't actually destroyed at the end of Panzer Zwei, just disabled. In the original Panzer game, the Tower is completely destroyed; there is no trace left of it on the island. Perhaps such a tremendous use of his energy caused Lagi to have to revert to a lesser form in order to survive, completely exhausted from destroying the Tower all in one go. Remember, this is the only place in the entire series where the dragon completely destroys a Tower in one go, he takes two attempts to destroy Shelcoof, and it is Azel who destroys the Tower of Uru. Perhaps Lagi had to downgrade more after destroying the Tower because be destroyed more of it than Shelcoof. If that were indeed the case, it would explain why it takes a whole game (Panzer Dragoon Saga) to get Lagi back from his Basic Wing form to a Solo Wing dragon again.

There seems to me that there's more evidence that the dragon "demorphed" at certain stages in his life, than there is that he died at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Lagi could morph to adapt to his surroundings, and changing back to the Basic Wing in order to survive could be another example of this.

The Mystery of the Dragon Crests

Geoffrey Duke: The area where Lundi found the dragon crest we see at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei (the heart of Shelcoof is completely different to the area where Edge stumbled on a dragon crest inside Shelcoof in Panzer Dragoon Saga, as shown here:

The hallway were Lundi finds his crest is massive and makes the room Edge finds seem small in comparison. If the crest Lundi sees here is a Type 01 Solo Wing dragon crest, then it's not the same one Edge finds. In Sestren's memory orbs in a flashback of this event Lundi finds a Sky Dart crest. Even if the Solo Wing crest seen in PD Zwei's true ending was located in another part of the ship in addition to the Sky Dart crest (which, again, is entirely possible), it's not the same the crest Edge finds.

One could argue that Shelcoof was out of scale in PD Saga. It may seem so from a distance but once Edge's dragon flies into the ship itself, we see a how small the dragon is on approach, not to mention how long the tunnels are inside.

Remember, if Lundi sees this crest in the hallway at the end of Zwei's true ending, it can't be the same crest Edge found. Also, the green light absent one moment and seen glowing on the crest the next could be entirely symbolic. We don't see the light glow until the screen fades to black, and it glows of the dragon's throat to emphasize why it was thought to be ominous. The game could be symbolically showing us why the green light was thought to be onimous: it's the single most distinctive mark of a dragon, the most feared of all of the ancients bio-weapons. Note that the green light is the first thing we see at the start of the game when the screen fades from black with a patch of green light floating over the screen before fading to natural light and attaching itself to the coolia the Elpis villagers kill, and the last thing at the end in the true ending when the throat of the dragon depicted in the Solo Wing crest starts glowing as the screen fades to black to accentuate the dragon's throat by glowing in the dark (so that it soon becomes all we can see). Nothing may have entered the crest at all.

However... assuming the Solo Wing crest we see at the end of Zwei was the crest Edge finds, who's to say that Lagi himself, or Lagi's consciousness, didn't enter the crest and exited it in a new (cloned) body before the events of Panzer Dragoon took place, and left the baby dragon Edge finds behind then? We have no idea when Shelcoof's bio-mechanical sentries started repairing the ship; Lagi could have left the crest before the events of Panzer Dragoon transpired and hibernated in another crest by the end of them, meaning he was still the same Lagi, just in new bodies that were carbon copies of the old ones. Same minds, different bodies.

What Purpose did the Dragon Crests Serve?

So where did the Heresy dragon go if he didn't store itself in the dragon crests? You'll find the answer in Lundi's journals: Lagi, his host, simply hibernated (slept). Of course, nothing rules out the possibility of Lagi himself or his consciousness entering the dragon crests and exiting at a later date in a cloned body. After all, if crests can store bodies, then why would the Heresy program feel the need to occupy new coolias?

Solo Wing Dragon: Even if there were other ways of reaching Sestren besides Azel opening the gate, or the dragon program could somehow use the dragon crest to enter Sestren without its host, we're still left without any firm evidence that the Heresy program ever entered Sestren between Panzer Dragoon Zwei's intro and Panzer Dragoon Saga's conclusion. The Heresy's departure from Sestren into the outside world wasn't something to be taken lightly; he was attacked by the gold dragon program and literally cast out of the network. If the Heresy program used the dragon crests to return to Sestren in between games, we're still left with the problem of Sestren being on the alert for the impurity and simply kicking it out again before it had the chance to do whatever it had planned to do within Sestren. We're shown how quickly the Anti Dragons surround Edge and his dragon on their visit to the astral passages at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga. Sestren simply wouldn't have allowed the Heresy program to reenter the network with such ease.

If the helpless Heresy program on it's own had somehow evaded the wrath of Sestren, and downloaded itself back into a new body or another coolia, we're still left with far too many mysteries about the origins of the new dragon. It seems to me much more believable that the Heresy program simply never entered Sestren between games in the first place, and therefore never left its host.

On the contrary, the dragon crests may well have been used as hibernation chambers or "nests" for the dragon. According to Lundi, Lagi went into a deep sleep at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Lundi also uttered the word "Lagi" when he looked upon the crest, which strongly suggests that Lagi hibernated inside the crest. The nest hypothesis also leads us nicely into the next section of this theory...

Where did the Baby Dragon Found Inside Shelcoof Come From?

Geoffrey Duke: Here's two more screenshots that should throw more fuel onto this speculative fire. The baby dragon found inside Shelcoof could, in actual fact, be Lagi's offspring -- proof lies in the fact that Lagi reproduces at the end of Panzer Dragoon Orta somehow. Lagi leaves "an heir", which brings forth the possibility that the baby dragon Edge finds was one such heir too. Edge even asks "is he the son of my dragon?" when you highlight the dragon with your cursor from a distance in Panzer Dragoon Saga as if Team Andromeda were trying to tell us something.

Why is it so impossible to believe that the baby dragon Edge finds is Lagi's offspring? Lagi somehow cloned himself here, so why couldn't he have left a clone in Shelcoof (perhaps as a spare host for the Heresy dragon)?

Solo Wing Dragon: One quote may not be enough to convince all of us that the pup was Lagi's offspring for certain, but again we have to ask ourselves why the quote would have been put there in the first place and why no other explanation is offered as to the origins of the pup?

The dragon was completely capable of asexual reproduction at the end of Panzer Dragoon Orta, so it stands to reason that he could have done so at other stages of his life. The question is: why did would Lagi leave this pup behind inside Shelcoof in the first place? As we know, the dragon pup's ultimate purpose was to transform Edge's dragon into the Solo Wing. It's possible that since Lagi had lost his Blue Dragon form earlier after destroying the Tower near the Imperial capital he needed some of his original DNA to revert back to the Solo Wing form, as strange as that sounds; Lagi's evolutionary patterns had taken a much different turn in Panzer Dragoon Saga, and the only way to return him to his original form would be to force a backwards evolution into the Solo Wing which had both the flexibility of his previous forms and the power of the Light Wing. If the baby dragon was Lagi's offspring, it would have inherited all of Lagi's original DNA and may have even grown into the Blue Dragon if it had been given the time.

It has been speculated that the pup is actually Lagi himself, rather than his offspring; After Lagi disabled the Shelcoof he entered the crest and returned to his original pup form. To me, however, it would make a lot more sense if the baby dragon was Lagi's heir (something that has been shown possible in Panzer Dragoon Orta), rather than Lagi being reborn as a baby again (something that has never been shown possible anywhere in the series).

Pandora's Box and the Empire's Perspective of the Dragon

Solo Wing Dragon: The Pandora's Box in Panzer Dragoon Orta features a number of entries that refer to the dragon from the Saturn Panzer games. Some of these passages - most notably, the ones that talk about each of the three playable dragons, the Blue Dragon, Lagi, and Edge's Dragon - seem to imply that they were indeed different dragons. However, lets take a look at that perspective of these encyclopaedia entities before confirming this as fact.

It's possible that these sections of the encyclopaedia were written by the Empire, as opposed to an anonymous writer who knew every detail there was about the Panzer Dragoon world. The reason that I suggest this is that because it is strongly implied that someone with a certain degree of ignorance about the history of the Panzer world, wrote some of the other passages in the encyclopaedia. Take, this excerpt from the Great Fall entry for example:

"It is said that the Seventh Emperor himself, deeply affected by the death of many of his subjects, rose to challenge the ancient ruins by using the power of the imperial fortress, Grig Orig. His Majesty sacrificed his own life to eradicate the foul creatures that resided within the ruins, and even disabled many of the surrounding ancient ruins with his valor."

If the person or persons narrating the encyclopaedia did indeed know everything about the events of the Panzer Dragoon trilogy, there would be no need to tell only the inaccurate side of the story, while conveniently choosing to ignore the real truth about the Seventh Emperor. Perhaps a historian from the Empire, whose viewpoint would have been distorted by the Empire's limited view of the entire picture, assumed that the dragons were different creatures, and wrote about them as such. Certainly if one section of the encyclopaedia can be purposefully wrong other passages could be based on people's assumptions as well.

Of course, there is information in the encyclopaedia that the Empire wouldn't have known about. The Empire would be unlikely to know about all of the pure types guarding the underground ruins, and of course the guardians within Sestren itself. I'm not suggesting that the entire encyclopaedia was written from the Empire's perspective, but certain parts of it do strongly imply that the writer didn't have a complete understanding about events in the Saturn games. The Great Fall entry and the information about the dragons are both found in the same World category of the encyclopaedia. Even Lagi's name, which is written in the encyclopaedia, could been obtained by Empire. Lundi spent around two months on his journey with Lagi, and stopped off at at least one caravan along the way (see Dragon Book 2). People who met Lundi would have most likely been questioned by the Empire for information about the dragon.

The Dragon in Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Panzer Dragoon Orta Look Very Much Alike

Geoffrey Duke: Until Panzer Dragoon Orta was released, we (the fans) were all led to believe that Lagi/the dragon and the gold dragon first seen at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga were the same dragon in different forms. However, we later discovered that these two distinct dragons were in fact "different parts of the same whole", as the creators at Smilebit put it.

When the Heresy program shaped the coolia Lagi into a dragon, it must have enhanced his intelligence, giving him a mind of his own. That explains why he chose to risk his life to save Edge's daughter, Orta; he felt obligated to Edge for sacrificing his life to save the world (all evidence points to Edge never returning from Sestren).

In Panzer Dragoon Orta, Lagi is beginning to show his age, and after splitting from the Heresy program, even resembles the mutant coolia he once was. Without the presence of the Heresy dragon to give him an unlimited supply of power, Lagi reverted back to being a mutant coolia (or rather, took a form that resembled a wild animal which could have once been a coolia). The rough texture and colour of his skin even resembles that of the coolia he once was.

Indeed, this could have been a new coolia, but I believe this was intended to show Lagi succumbing to the enfeebling grip of old age. Once they sunk their claws into him, there was no escape.

The Conversation Between the Two Halves

Geoffrey Duke: In Forbidden Memories in Panzer Dragoon Orta while exploring Sestren's data banks, Lagi takes a trip down memory lane where we witness a past conversation between him and the Heresy program who has switched colours from black as we saw at the end of PD Saga to gold which once occupied his body. In this flashback scene, the now conspicuously golden Heresy dragon tells Lagi that his body is "fragile and mortal now", which directly implies that Lagi was immortal before, not necessarily as in indestructible, but ageless with an endless supply of power perhaps. Why would an immortal body succumb to death at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei?

Also, if the dragon's body could withstand the destructive potential of the Grig Orig's beam cannon by being able to shield himself from it (and shield Kyle from the destructive forces coming from the PD Tower when the dragon blew it up), which was basically a modified Ancient Age weapon, then the dragon could withstand the destructive energies released by whatever Towers he chose to destroy. Who's to say he wasn't hibernating in Shelcoof when Lundi stumbled on him? Who's to say he didn't just blow up Shelcoof's core anyway as opposed to becoming a bomb? It must have had a power source. Even if/though Lagi did amass and unleash a torrent of energy himself to destroy these Towers (likely), draining all of his energy, he still survived nonetheless drained or not. As PD Saga shows, Shelcoof wasn't "destroyed" per se, as in obliterated, but was disabled. What remains parks itself in Georgius.

The golden Heresy dragon/program also asks Lagi if he wishes to remain in the world even though his mission had been completed. Remain? As opposed to what? Dying or resting with the Heresy dragon? I think it's safe to assume that Lagi chose potential death in the real world to save Orta over immortality as host to the Heresy dragon. Lagi only truly exhausted all of his power once split from there gold Heresy dragon program.

Also, Lagi/the dragon narrates the Japanese version of Panzer Dragoon Orta while the American/PAL versions of the game were narrated by the golden "Heresy" dragon we see here in a suitably amplified tone of voice, confirming that the Heresy program with its inexhaustable supply of energy lived on (Again, as opposed to what you ask? As opposed to destroyed himself), and could have offered Lagi immortality as well. Of course, you're wondering how Lagi could narrate his own death? Well now you know why this was changed for our version of the game.

Do you demand proof of this claim? Notice the oval or eye shaped lens through which both the AI governing Sestren and the narrator of PD Orta monitor the world. It's easy to assume from here that it's the Heresy dragon itself watching events unfold from within Sestren after it had assumed the mantle of AI. This is proof that the dragon did indeed live on, even if the term "rest" it uses to describe doing what needs to be done is arguably ambiguous when it claimed it needed to destroy itself after taking control of Sestren at the end of PD Saga (leading us to believe that the game's English translation was rather suspect).

The "Heresy" dragon was possibly a Tower guardian simply gone rogue (a lot of evidence points to this), activated by Sestren to protect the ancient ruins from intruders only somehow corrupted from the outside possibly by the same people, or otherwise simply decided that what his creators were doing was wrong of his own free will, which adds one more ironic twist to the story (a creation turning on his creators).

Was the Dragon Merely a Tool for the Heresy Program?

Solo Wing Dragon: At the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga, the two halves of the dragon go their seperate ways. The Heresy program remains behind in Sestren and possibly destroys itself, and the physical dragon leaves Sestren and goes to find Orta. The fact that the two dragon halves are distinct identities means that Edge's dragon wasn't simply a 'dumb' creature with no intelligent mind of its own. Edge's dragon wasn't just a biological tool that the Heresy Program used to complete its mission; both parts of the dragon were fully independant, intelligent entities. With this in mind, one has to ask themself why the Heresy Program would have made an exception for Edge's Dragon and allow him to carry on living at the end of PD Saga, but not the dragons found in Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei?

My answer to this question isn't complex at all, because the Heresy Program did allow the dragon to survive at the end of all the Saturn Panzer games. The Heresy Program never had to dispose of a host and move to a new host because it was the same dragon in the same body the whole time. Lagi the coolia was, after all, more than just a tool; he was a central character in the Panzer Dragoon trilogy.

Of course, this is assuming that the Heresy Program had any degree of compassion for his host dragons, and didn't just think of them as a means to an end. But I find it unlikely that the Heresy Program wouldn't have looked out for his hosts, even if that behaviour was just part of his programming. The Heresy Program showed *concern* that Lagi would die if he remained in the world outside of Sestren, showing that he cared for the dragon's wellbeing. Ask yourself what makes the dragons in the first two games any more worthy of sacrificing if they were indeed meant to be different dragons who perished after destroying the Empire's Tower and the Shelcoof?

Did Lagi Really Die?

Solo Wing Dragon: The dragon's life cycle ends after the final episode of Panzer Dragoon Orta, when the dragon, exhausted from both the battle with Abadd's mare and from old age, collapses and passes away, his legacy at an end. Certainly, the dragon's death cannot be denied here, but was this the moment that Lagi finally died once and for all, or did part of him live on in the baby dragon that he leaves behind?

"With the passing of the dragon, so died a part of Orta.

And yet, not all was lost.
The dragon had left behind an heir...
a symbol of proof that
the dragon had once lived.

And so a legend came to end.
But every ending leads to a new beginning."

To be honest, this part of the story is too vague for us to come to any real conclusion as to where the baby dragon came from, but if we take this final narration from the epilogue it's very easy to come to the conclusion that the baby dragon is meant to be the dragon's heir, not Lagi himself. Never have we been given any solid evidence that the dragon (not the program, the physical creature) could pass it's mind/soul into another living creature, so it would make a great deal of sense if this scene was meant to show the death and birth of two entirely separate dragons.

Not only did the dragon die, but the writers made a point of confirming his death, both by showing it and telling the player in an epilogue. This is something they didn't do for the other dragons (if the dragons in the first two games were were indeed supposed to be different dragons). In my mind, the dragon in Saga and Orta is no more important than Lagi and Kyle's dragon, so why didn't we get epilogues showing or explaining their deaths? Why should Orta's dragon receive special treatment? Of course, if the dragons were one and same then there would be no need to look for an answer to this mystery; the dragon would have been born once (in Zwei) and died once (in Orta), exactly as we were shown.

The Legend of Lagi Ends

Geoffrey Duke: There's a reason why Panzer Dragoon Orta's epilogue states that a legend came to an end (that legend being the dragon from the first four games), and why "the dragon" left an heir as proof that he once lived. The dragon in Panzer Dragoon Orta was a legend for a reason. There's a reason why the first episode in Panzer Dragoon Zwei is entitled "Destiny Begins", and why the last Episode of Panzer Dragoon Orta is entitled "The End of Destiny". The story that began in Panzer Dragoon Zwei ended in Panzer Dragoon Orta. We only see the dragon born once after the Heresy program was purged from Sestren (at the beginning of Panzer Dragoon Zwei). And we only see the dragon die once (at the end of Panzer Dragoon Orta). If Team Andromeda wanted us to believe that the dragons were different, they wouldn't have hidden that fact from us... not even for a second. It wouldn't have cost an arm and a leg to develop a five second long FMV flashback showing us the dragon being born again (at the beginning of or in Panzer Dragoon Saga for example).

Conclusion:

Solo Wing Dragon: So here's the evidence, at least, all that we've managed to scrape together from the little that there is in the games. In the end, there isn't actually all that much to go by, both for and against the dragon being the same creature in all four games. So we can't conclude without a doubt that it really is the same Lagi, in both body and mind, from Panzer Dragoon Zwei to Panzer Dragoon Orta. But ask yourself, is it a reasonable possibility that they were one and same all along? And if your answer to that question is yes, the time that we've taken to research and write this theory has been worthwhile.

Geoffrey Duke: In any case, my and Chris's only aim here was to provide all the known evidence supporting the notion that all the main playable dragons seen in each Panzer Dragoon game were all the same in both body and soul. In hindsight, I believe we became so focused on the tiny little details that we shut everything else out and lost sight of the bigger picture. Pure logic should prevail here, and where there's solid reasoning (like in Lance's theory) I at least try to keep an open mind. Drained of energy or not, the dragon was waiting when he slept to pass time arguably as much as to regain strength (if at all).