Before the final battle against Sestren, Edge and his dragon have to confront the five anti dragons. These look like clones of the dragon’s various forms from throughout Panzer Dragoon Saga, and are named as such: Anti-Basic Wing, Anti-Valiant Wing, Anti-Stripe Wing, Anti-Panzer Wing, and Anti-Eye Wing. They are the guardians of the core being of Sestren. The question is why would they take on the same forms as the previous incarnations of Edge’s dragon? Here I argue that the anti dragons were based on recordings made by Sestren of the last time that the various dragon forms existed in the Panzer Dragoon world.

You may have noticed that the backgrounds of the battles against each of the anti dragons are very similar to locations found throughout the game. When fighting the first of the anti dragons, the Anti-Basic Wing, the background looks very similar to the Garil Desert. Take out the strange orange mists of Sestren and you’ll find that it’s basically identical. The same goes for the next anti dragon; the background for the Anti-Valiant Wing looks suspiciously like the sea of Georgius. Furthermore all of the other anti dragons - the Anti-Stripe Wing, Anti-Panzer Wing, and Anti-Eye Wing - have backgrounds from other areas in the game.

At first I thought that this was only done for the purpose of showing off the various locations from Edge’s adventure to players one last time. But there is a set pattern in the order to which the backgrounds are displayed. Each background matches the last place that the particular type of dragon was seen in the game. Take for example the Anti-Eye Wing. When Edge and his dragon fight this beast there is a forest behind them. Athough thickly clouded in Sestren’s orange mists, it appears to be the same as the Forest of Zoah. This was also the last place that the Eye Wing was seen before it morphed into the Arm Wing. The same goes for each of the other backgrounds and anti dragon pairs which match up perfectly with the last place that the particular dragon form existed. It seems unlikely that this was a coincidence.

When the Eye Wing changed shape and the Arm Wing was formed, did the Eye Wing disappear forever? Perhaps the Eye Wing was not completely gone, but lived on in the Sestren dimension where it became a kind of ghost form, a shadow of what the dragon once was. A manifestation of a memory; an anti dragon. I believe the reason why the background is of the Forest of Zoah is because that was the last recording that Sestren made of the Eye Wing. As we know from the memory orbs featured in Panzer Dragoon Saga’s final battle, Sestren was keeping watch over the world. Indeed, Panzer Dragoon Orta’s narrator states that Sestren contained, “the history of the world recorded and unchanged.” The anti dragons could be based on recordings of the dragon’s various forms, like the Fused Shelcoof that Sestren throws at the Heresy Dragon in the final battle. Since Sestren likely had full control over all of the recordings, he could have made a manifestation out of them to turn the Heresy Dragon’s own abilities against him.

So why then is there no Anti-Arm Wing? You’ll notice that Sestren only throws out-of-service entities at the Heresy Dragon, such as the Fused Mel-Kava, Fused Golia, or Fused Drenholm. The reason for this remains unclear, but perhaps the Ancients created this limitation in Sestren’s programming by design as a safeguard; they could always design something more powerful than Sestren to destroy him later if he got out of control, but if he could use current entities in battle he would be equally matched with whatever new creation the Ancients devised. In any case, if you don’t find the Light Wing anytime in the game then there would never be the chance for the Arm Wing to no longer be in use. The same goes for an Anti-Light Wing; there is no guarantee that the dragon will find all of the D-Units and the baby dragon in order to become the Solo Wing. It would have been nice if Team Andromeda had included an Anti-Arm Wing and Anti-Light Wing for when players had changed out of those forms, but their may have been budget reasons or disc space limitations for not creating this content for the game. An example of this is the fact that Team Andromeda didn’t create a separate full motion video for the scene where Edge leaves for Sestren; it shows the Arm Wing regardless of whether the player has acquired the Light Wing or Solo Wing. In any case, I don’t think we should get too hung up on these inconsistencies when considering the likelihood of this theory; there were likely much more practical reasons for their exclusion than the lack of an Anti-Arm Wing or Anti-Light Wing being an intended plot element.

Having an Anti-Solo Wing in the game is where the theory seemingly doesn’t add up. When the battle with Sestren begins there is a dragon flying around the larger Sestren being which looks suspiciously like the Solo Wing. It could be the Anti-Solo Wing but if it was then that would be inconsistent with everything else that I have argued here. However, I think it is more likely that this dragon was Sestren, and that Sestren controlled the minds of both the larger Sestren being and the smaller dragon form. The reason why I think this Solo Wing look-alike was indeed Sestren is because it was present when Edge first encountered Sestren. After Edge tells Sestren to show himself, the Anti-Solo Wing approaches, telling the dragon, “I see you have returned, with a human”. It wouldn’t be as climatic if this was Sestren’s messenger speaking rather than Sestren himself, although of course this is not a confirmation that it was Sestren speaking. If the Anti-Solo Wing dragon was Sestren it is possible that the rebels who created the Heresy Dragon copied Sestren’s design for their own ultimate dragon form, similar to how the black Heresy Program’s appearance resembles that of the gold program (Sestren) who casts the “impurity” out of Sestren.

Team Andromeda may not have meant anything when they chose the backgrounds for the battles against the anti dragons but there’s always the possibility that the backgrounds and forms were present for the purpose that I have argued here.