Zagato

File:Zagato artbook.jpg

Zagato (ザガート Zagāto) is the primary antagonist of the first season, his younger brother is Cail Lantis (introduced in the second arc and season). When he is first introduced, he is seen as a terrible villain who has kidnapped the beloved Princess Emeraude, watching cruelly as Cephiro crumbles without its Pillar. However, this image is far from the truth.

Story

High Priest to Princess Emeraude and Clef's right-hand man, Zagato fell deeply in love with the beautiful and kind Princess. Despite her best efforts to put Cephiro first and foremost, Princess Emeraude fell in love with Zagato as well. When Emeraude goes missing, Zagato came forth as having had kidnapped Princess Emeraude. In reality, Emeraude was so upset by her lack of will that she imprisoned herself in the water dungeon to avoid seeing Zagato (Note: The anime differs whereas Zagato did abduct and imprison Emeraude in order to protect her and prevent her from summoning the Magic Knights without success). Zagato does not reveal this to the Magic Knights or Cephiro's people, aiming to destroy the knights when they come after him and in turn, making everyone think and letting them believe he was the bad guy. Only Emeraude and Clef (and Inouva in the anime only) knew of his true intentions from the start.

The reason Zagato is this way is because of his deep love for Emeraude and equally deep hate for Cephiro's Pillar System. The Pillar must devote every moment of their existence to praying for Cephiro and never seek happiness from anything except seeing the planet prosper. Zagato was tormented to see Emeraude chained down as such and even more so when she had to resist the love that had grown between them. He decides that instead of Emeraude returning as the Pillar and continuing to be a slave to Cephiro, he would rather have Cephiro cease to exist.

In the end of the first season, he is killed in battle by the Magic Knights in a final attempt to protect Emeraude; his last words tell her to "be free." His death caused Emeraude to become lost in her own grief and rage, causing her to also be killed by the Magic Knights, who were forced to do so.

Abilites

Zagato is noted to be extremely strong. In his first appearance, he was able to sneak up on Clef, and turn him to stone. While Clef did notice Zagato it was a split second to late, and that it was only because it was Clef the Master Mage he attacked. Nobody else would have notice Zagato's presence at all. Further, He is noted to have been the one to turn Inouva (who is originaly a magical beast) into a human, brainwash the captain of Emeraude's guards Lafarga, and most impressive of all, actually create what resembles a Rune God, allowing him to fight all three of the fully powered Magic Knights and their Rune Gods and dominate the fight for most of the battle. During his fight with Hikaru outside Rayearth's shrine, he used a white, blue tinged blast of energy which both descimated Hikaru's defences and strip her of her armor in one strike (and her armor was in it's second to last state of evolution).

Trivia

• Zagato is the name of an Italian automotive design studio.
• Zagato is voiced by Lex Lang and Jūrōta Kosugi. (Zagato and Lantis share the same voice actor in English and Japanese.)