The Sky Rider is one of my favourite characters (as if you didn’t know that already) and by far the most mysterious. He has also become known as the “fourth rider” by the Empire because the Empire only discovered his existence after documenting the first three human riders who soared the skies on the rebel dragon. We might know what he was (a rebel drone), but no one knows who he was. His personality was never exposed, so we cannot empathize with his motives. The absence of personality has injected the Sky Rider with a healthy dose of mystery.

A character who leaves fans forever curious is the best example of how to keep people in suspense. Team Andromeda had plenty of time to later peel away a few layers of mystery surrounding the Sky Rider, but instead chose to allow his secrets to die with him. We never even scratched the surface. What’s stranger is that green energy bursts out of his wound when he dies as if it was escaping from his body. We assume that this energy was his lifeforce and was keeping his body alive like blood flowing through an animal’s veins to supply its body with energy.

The final words of the Sky Rider can be heard drifting through episode 7 of Panzer Dragoon Orta, aptly named Forbidden Memories, where you pay a visit to Sestren’s memory banks. This was perhaps a tribute to him, or a way to bring a smile to the faces of older fans by letting us know that he hasn’t been forgotten. Why Sestren was monitoring him raises more questions but this confirms what we already know: he was important in the greater scheme of things.

I love the idea of the green life force that spirals out of the Sky Rider and into the unknown possibly being the Divine Visitor. The Divine Visitor decided not to take control of Kyle because its only means of opening a direct path to Sestren (the Sky Rider) had just died, in which case it waited for another window of opportunity to present itself. The green energy can either serve as a clue pertaining to his nature, or can be an untold story unto itself. The truth is still open for debate.

The thought that the Dark Dragon saw the Blue Dragon as neutralized the moment his rider was dead might cross an observer’s mind… because his rider was the Divine Visitor. No but in all seriousness because the drone riding the Blue Dragon was the bigger threat than even the Tower destroying dragon himself, which is probably the case or was at least true at the time.

If the Sky Rider was able to use the Tower to gain access to Sestren, then he would have posed a threat so huge that the Dark Dragon simply could not have afforded to ignore it. That would explain why the Dark Dragon shot off into the distance after killing him. It’s possible that the dragon was no longer a threat to him, especially without a rider.

I want to believe that the Sky Rider was an actual Ancient who came back from the old world to set old wrongs right. The fact that green lifeforce shoots out of his wound the moment he dies could be all the proof we need to prove that the Ancients weren’t entirely human. The fact that we never know forces us to wonder.

If the Sky Rider was Lundi, the dragon rider from Panzer Dragoon Zwei, then it would have showed how much the first dragon rider changed, and would have been an unexpected plot twist. I would have preferred it that way because it would have tied up a loose end and made his sacrifice more meaningful. It’s not easy to watch heroes die in a world where there are none, but it teaches us that we cannot rely on others to save us; we have to save ourselves. In the end Lundi was only human but became so much more. He came from nothing and ended up changing the world.

Let us have our wild speculation; sometimes it’s enough to entertain us from now until the end of time. To become lost in the possibilities. It’s impossible to say no.