Panzer Dragoon Legende - FORWARD

	A science fantasy fanfic about a boy and his dragon based on the video game
series of the same name.

	Yep, that's right. Video game. Laugh if you want. Those of you who know me
will know that I take video games every bit as seriously as I do anime.
Maybe that's just me, but that's besides the point.

	So what made me decide to write about a *video game*, not to mention a
series with no more than three pages worth of text and dialogue? Panzer
Dragoon inspired me, which is a tall order for any work, and worthy of
attention. Suffice it to say that, IMNSHO, the Panzer Dragoon series is the
most visually rich ( I didn't say graphically beautiful - although it ranks
up there ), well orchestrated, and underrated pair of games on the market.
Flying on the back of a dragon as a gigantic sandworm fills the entire
screen... Soaring through a Venice-like city, cutting underneath
clotheslines in pursuit of a mammoth airship... Walking your young Kouriheat
through the shattered remnants of your village, broken windmills spinning
all around you... Fighting an exotic Mechanian airship in a gentle
snowstorm... Rocketing through a jungle as flitters and hostile animals bob
and weave around you... It was the most richly detailed world I had ever
seen inside a video game, and rivalled most major Hollywood productions. In
fact, the closest thing in recent memory to Panzer Dragoon in terms of depth
of scenery would be Waterworld, save for the fact that PD takes place mostly
over land and cost a heckuva lot less than $200 million to make.
	But most of all, who can forget that dramatic moment in the original Panzer
Dragoon's ( Panzer Dragoon Ein if you insist ) brilliant opening cinema when
the dragonrider was killed? Sublime. Deserving of a short-feature Oscar...
enh, maybe I exaggerate:). I'd say that when I saw that, I instantly became
a die-hard fan of the series. Even though I hadn't even played the game yet.
	Another thing which greatly attracted me to the prospect of a PD 'fic was
the fact that the world it occured in was largely undefined; even with all
this detail you're pretty much left in the dark as to the real natures of
the blue, black, and red dragons that feature in these games. The idea of
filling in these blanks appealed to me, and I've expanded *single sentences*
in the game's documentation and inside the game itself ( even though they
might just be the result of poor translation. Perhaps that was another thing
that drew me to Panzer Dragoon; it's the only game with speech in it that's
subtitled. The anime fan in me, huh? :) ) and ballooned them into
world-defining premises. I hope it works...

	Some of might recall an earlier premise fic I wrote based more loosely on
the original Panzer Dragoon. I trashed that idea as soon as I played Panzer
Dragoon Zwei; there were some plot elements in there I just had to take
advantage of ( the persecution of the Kouriheat as bringer of bad luck, the
Empire-Mechania war, etc. ).

	As for my tendency to explain a lot about the world this 'fic takes place
in - hence the label 'science fantasy' - well, I guess it's just my sci-fi
nature 8)

	This 'fic takes place between Panzer Dragoon Zwei and the original Panzer
Dragoon ( Zwei was a prequel to the original ). If you want to know how much
of the plot is from those games, pretty much everything directly related to
the red dragon - except its lineage - is from PDZ. 99% of the dragons'
powers ( save for that of speech ) is taken from the games, as are 99% of
the enemies. Near the end I took a few paragraphs from the original Panzer
Dragoon, but aside from that, most of it's original.

	I'll stop rambling now; I've said more than I wanted to anyway. The Panzer
Dragoon games might be short, and they might be on rails, but I believe they
will become classics as the first non-RPG's to successfully create a viable
fantasy atmosphere, one so deep and enthralling that it inspired at least
one bonehead to butcher it with a fanfic :) And yes, I left a few things
open in this 'fic... I might one day return to this world.

	btw, the last line *is* from Panzer Dragoon Zwei. I thought it only
appropriate. 

	Dunno if this fic's really appropriate here, but enjoy anyway!

									- MW
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