INTERNET ANGEL

In this essay I will —

— No, we already know where this is going. Is Zagi a madman or a tragedy? Well, the answer to that could simply be, yes.

Except, I don’t entirely think it’d be fair to consider him just some madman. Now, keep in mind that the game really doesn’t give much insight to Zagi, so most of this purely stems from what little we do know about him.

When we first meet him, he makes a strong appearance. The whole overconfident, “prepare to die, Flynn Scifo” speech, and then when you get to beat the first half of the fight with him, he makes a comment that generally wouldn’t stand out to much. About how now he truly feels alive, and how he hasn’t had a fight like the one with “Flynn” in years. Easy to interpret that as a throwaway line, never to be thought on again, but I think it’s pretty important.

Especially considering the next time you see him, on the boat from Port Nor. He mildly seems disinterested and apathetic before realising that the people he’s wanted to kill (or the person he’s been told to kill, really, in his eyes) are Yuri and the party. Once he notices that, his demeanour shifts into a more excitable one, and he’s more eager in his pursuit of, well, murder.

And then Yuri comments on his strength, which I wholeheartedly believe was something that genuinely could have had an impact on Zagi. Sure, plenty of people likely commented on his talents and strength before, but how many of them bested him or were on equal footing with him? A compliment and acknowledgement of his strength from someone who he lost to could easily hold more weight to it and seem more meaningful.

I think there sparks Zagi’s obsession. He’s more determined to seek Yuri out at that point. In fact, that’s exactly what he does. Every other time we see him, he’s determined to fight Yuri, and for Yuri to hate him.

And sure, maybe we can write it off as Zagi’s crazy and has crazy fantasies, and that could easily be true, but combining that with some of his earlier comments and how determined he is for Yuri to hate him? It actually brought to mind the idea that maybe Zagi genuinely has a lower self esteem (to the point he believes that people can only hate him, so he may as well enjoy it) and depression, which leads to him enjoying the thrill of a losing fight, one where he might die. One where he probably will die.

I did a post before about how combat and sparring is Zagi’s love language — to an extent, I think that’s true, too. I think he genuinely does find it the easiest way for him to communicate, and in a way, that adds a twisted layer to wonder why he is that way, and it’s something we’ll never get an answer to. In that same breath, I don’t think Zagi typically knows what love is, much less what a healthy kind of love is, and so has a twisted perspective of what love is. Perhaps, and this is mainly speculation, love and hate are very interchangeable or intertwined to him.

Anyway, he seeks Yuri out. Nordopolica, he comments on it being because of his arm, and wanting revenge. At Heracles, he comments on wanting Yuri to hate him. He wants Yuri to focus on him and put all his effort into fighting him. Why? If Zagi wins, that’ll be an exciting experience because he beat the person who bested him three times before that, and I think Zagi believed that they’d continue to fight against each other after that, because I don’t truly believe Zagi wants Yuri dead. If he loses, then Zagi gets to die, and he’d die happy. He’d die doing what he loved. Fighting and having a challenge.

Now, why do I think that Zagi doesn’t genuinely want Yuri to actually die?

If Yuri dies, the thrill he feels — and the enjoyment of life he gets around him — also fade away, because Yuri won’t be around.

Which leads me to Tarqaron. Where Zagi meets his end, and where Yuri does kill him. I think Zagi desperately was craving Yuri’s approval (to the point he was asking his opinion on Zagi transforming his entire body to a blastia) and seemed to still be a little surprised by Yuri coldly responding before killing him.

But Raven comments afterwards that Zagi wasn’t always that way, and that something happened to him after meeting Yuri — which kind of makes me think that my theory on Zagi being depressed, or maybe lacking true purpose, might actually be correct. And whilst it naturally doesn’t justify what he does, it certainly adds another layer of tragedy to him that I can empathise with.

when writing yeager, i considered thinking about how he never had a last name in the actual series, and when writing him, i often refer to him with the last name seibert (which means bright victory, which i think feels like a name that fits yeager pretty well).

moving on from that, i headcanon that zagi was also adopted by yeager, except he adopted zagi from a different circumstance from the kind gauche and droite were in - which plays a pretty large part in why zagi is the way he is. i like to think that zagi was taken in from a situation most people would be considered inhumane (most of the time, my brain loops back to zagi being raised by a barbaric group, mostly isolated from civilisation, and wasn't well-cared for). we know that yeager canonically cares for people (one look at the donations he made and how he treated gauche and droite gives that away), and i think that if he saw a child in a situation like that, that he wouldn't let a child live a life like that. for as cruel and sadistic as yeager could be, i don't know, i never really saw him as willing to let something like that happen if he had the power to do something about it.

i could imagine that zagi was a handful for yeager to take care of (and by comparison, droite and gauche were far easier). i see zagi not adjusting too well to a change in living conditions, and being a bundle of chaotic energy that would leave yeager more than slightly perplexed on how to approach. despite that, i think yeager would be one of the few people zagi would be more likely to listen to and respect, even though that definitely took a lot of time for zagi to respect and become trusting of yeager.

droite, gauche and zagi - these three have probably been my favourite to think about interacting. zagi ends up seeing droite and gauche as sister-like figures, and they both see him like a brother to them. i feel like their relationship/bond could have been expanded on in-game. at the very least, it was clear zagi worked with leviathan's claw - knowing their thoughts and feelings on him would have been interesting, but alas, i'll do the work myself. a silly little image is zagi sneaking into the kitchen and stealing cookies for the two girls of a night when they're supposed to be sleeping. bonus points if he's gotten them cookies as an apology for scaring them so badly with one of his stories (i get the feeling that zagi's the type of person who thinks he's telling a funny story when in reality? he's recounting some kind of traumatic event that leaves others speechless).

i feel as though the rest of leviathan's claw more coldly tolerates zagi's existence - he's loud, obnoxious, confident. i doubt it'd matter all too much to zagi. kind of an if they keep out of his way, he'd keep out of theirs. though, if they did get in his way (and as an extension, ordered him around/undermined him), we already know he doesn't care much if he kills them.

every time i replay this game (which has been a lot), i think about this scene (and zagi in general) a lot. i have a lot of thoughts and headcanons about zagi as a whole, but i think a lot of zagi's interactions with yuri did stem from wanting to have some form of companionship. it was at nordopolica that became clear, i think (after yuri commented on zagi's strength on ragou's ship, i believe).

that's really not to say he went about it the right way, or that yuri was ever obliged to reciprocate, though part of me wonders whether zagi even knew how to properly make friends/companions, and his only means of communication was through combat (a running comment between my friend group being zagi's love language is sparring) — looking into further interactions (tarqaron comes to mind, where zagi was desperate to be the most important thing for yuri to focus on, even if it meant dooming the entirety of humanity). i often wonder if, to zagi, he perceived their fighting as a sign of strengthening their bond, and thought that yuri reciprocated the enjoyment he got from it. that clearly wasn't the case, but i think it adds a layer of tragedy to it: a one sided friendship (or relationship, depending on how you interpret zagi's comments) that meant a lot more to zagi than it ever did to yuri.