This episode features the famous "Three Guards", and their gold and silver Sabre Tigers.
The Three Guards is the thirty-first episode from the anime series Zoids: Chaotic Century based on TOMY's Zoids model franchise.
Overview[]
This episode starts with a village - the City of Wind - being burnt to the ground by the Empire's forces. The event is watched, in disgust, by three old men, the leader of whom is named 'Wagner', who are pilots of one gold and two silver Sabre Tigers, as well as former warriors for the Imperial Army.
Van and his friends discuss their route to Guygalos, and note that they are passing through the 'Valley of Heroes' - an area famous for its once famous Zoid tournaments. Van gets in trouble when trying to remove the cover on his Liger so as to check out the competition grounds, but is instead picked up by the wind and blown away.
The Empire's forces, having razed the City of Wind (seemingly for no reason at all), are attacked by Wagner and his comrades. The three Sabre Tigers annihilate the renegade forces with quick success.
Van, after falling from the perch he was blown to, is invited by Rudolf to visit the City of Wind, which, Van remarks, is strikingly similar to his own home, the Wind Colony - and they excitedly rush toward the city. Once they see the settlement, however, they are dismayed, seeing the city completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Empire enlists Wagner and his team to attack and defeat Van and the impostor Rudolf. They accept, on the condition of no outside interference, and then challenge Van and Irvine to one-on-one combat in the ancient arena in the Valley of Heroes. Rudolf warns the two about the old men being the legendary 'Three Guards', but Van and Irvine decide to go up against them anyway.
Irvine goes up first, and he and the pilot of one of the silver Sabre Tigers face off, taking each other down and leaving two for Van. Van struggles, but manages to beat the second silver Sabre Tiger, though he takes sizable damage in the process. The battle is suddenly interrupted by the Black Redler division. Enraged by the breaking of a promise, Wagner takes down the Redlers. He at first muses that he is 'tired of hollow victories', but then, spurred on by cheers of support from the crowd watching, decides to fight Van in an old-fashioned battle 'without the use of special weapons', and jettisons the extra equipment off his Zoid, the last remaining gold Sabre Tiger. Van agrees to his request and withdraws his Blade Liger's Laser Blades.
The two then charge at each other, and Wagner manages to knock Van to the ground and corner him, but before he can strike the Blade Liger, he is distracted by hearing and seeing Rudolf up on the cliff with the crowd, and Van makes use of the momentary pause to deal the victorious blow. Defeated, Wagner asks Van to finish him off as being beaten has cost him his honour, but Van declines, saying the battle was fun, and lets Wagner live.
Zoids[]
See also:Zoids: Chaotic Century