|
Baran, the Dragon Knight, is a major villain from the Dragon Quest spin-off manga Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and its anime adaptations. (With the first adaptation ending after his defeat.) He is the mightiest commander of Vearn's Demon Army led by Hadlar, who rules the Dragon Division. He is in fact the long-lost father of the main hero Dai, who turned evil after the death of his wife. He tries and fails to bring his son to his side, but latter redeems himself out of love for him and sacrifices his life to protect him.
In Japanese, he was voiced by the late Unshō Ishizuka in the 1991 anime and Shou Hayami in the 2020 anime. In English, he was voiced by Dean Redman in the 2020 anime.
Nature[]
Baran is the current Dragon Knight, an extremely powerful hybrid created by the God of Humans, the God of Dragons and the God of Darklings (demons), with the Heart of a Human, the Magic of a Darkling and the Might of a Dragon. The Dragon Knight was created in the Dawn of Times, during an era of endless wars between the three races.
When he dies, the Divine Mother Dragon takes him away before giving birth to a new one, with the power and experience of his predecessors, to be raised as a demi-god until he can fight.
The 2020 anime places it in the Mystic Kingdom of Teran, a pacific land worshipping the God of Dragons.
Powers and Abilities[]
Baran is recognized as the mightiest Commander of the Dark Army (though in fact Mystvearn and Killvearn could match his mightiest form). While each Commander initially surpasses Hadlar in his speciality (in Baran's case Aura: energy stemming from life-force), his base form is at least equal to Hadlar after two power boosts from Vearn. Vearn himself believes that only Baran (before his son Dai) has the power to resist him.
In addition to his formidable might, he has access to the experience of the previous Dragon Knights, enabling him to analyse his enemies' fighting style with flawless accuracy and to adapt to pretty much any situation. Besides, those he lets drink his dragon blood get fully healed, and even resurrected in some case, mightier than before.
Humanoid Form[]
As the Dragon Knight, Baran is a perfect warrior, immensely strong, fast, spry, resilient and skilled with martial arts, swords and magic. He can shatter stone, tear metal, resist fearsome attacks, and overwhelm mighty warriors with a fast flurry of strong punches, without trying. While he favours close-range fights and seldom uses magic, he casts attack spells effortlessly. He is seen casting a basic Wind Spell Woosh matching its upgraded versions. He can also cast normal magic, to fly and teleport among others.
"Giga Break": Baran's finishing move.
Baran's Dragon Knight's Sword was forged by the gods from the unbreakable metal Orichalcos. It is described as the best weapon in the world, cutting through anything, and the only one that can bear a Dragon Knight's might without breaking.
As a nod to the Hero Class of the Dragon Quest games, only the Dragon Knight can cast Lightning Spells (without need for the Reclimatise Weather-Control spell), and infuse his blade with a spell for added power. With it, he casts the mightiest Lighting spell Kazap on his sword to land his deadliest attack in human form: Giga Break (Giga Gash in the games): A tremendous sword strike wrecking everything around in a blast.
Baran's best asset is his unique and extremely potent Draconic Aura, which makes his Dragon Crest shine on blue light on his forehead. His Aura shields him from every attack no matter how dangerous. The more he unleashes, the more intense it gets, radiating around in energy waves, levelling his surroundings and cowering hardened fighters with pressure. Baran can concentrate his Aura in his limbs to increase his blows, and fires Aura Blasts of variable might. By concentrating his Aura in his Crest, he fires a powerful beam that can pierce mountains at full power.
Dragonoid Form[]
As if his base might was not enough, he can assume his Dragonoid, form by prickling himself with the Dragon Fang ornament he wears on his left eye. This form fully unleashes his human, dragon and darkling natures, making him so powerful even Vearn is wary of him. His every stats are boosted, enough to level a city in seconds.
He can fly with his wings at extreme speed. His scales and claws make him even sturdier and deadlier. Finally, his dragon-shaped hand can cast a Dragon Knight's deadliest spell: Doraura, a tremendous, mountain-blasting energy beam. At full might, it can obliterate a continent.
Personality[]
Baran started as highly brave and stalwart, ready to battle a dragon clan (the mightiest monsters) and their god-like leader, or to sacrifice himself for his loved ones. Though he suffered from his nature, which barred him from setting down. He deeply loved his wife, comparing her warmth to the sun and being driven over the edge by her death.
Baran is now consumed by hatred, resenting humanity's ungratefulness and pettiness, becoming blind to its better aspects. He idealizes his wife as a treasure of whom humanity was unworthy, and reminding him of her only enrages him. He seeks to eradicate humanity and anyone siding with them. Baran wants nothing more than to reunite with his son, the main hero Dai, trying to convert him to his genocidal crusade, but he refuses to consider his own vision. He is so far gone that he would kill Dai's friends and mind-wipe him to mold him to his liking without second thoughts. As such, he only wants the son he would have raised, dismissing his peaceful upbringing as a "taint" to erase.
Baran is unflinching and uncaring, yet genuinely cordial to allies, and polite, if cold and terse, to enemies. He retains some nobility, refusing to harm women and non-fighters, respecting his enemies in earnest, fighting fair, and always warning enemies to stand aside, but relentlessly going all out if they keep standing in his way. Despite this, he greatly cares for his Dragon Riders, especially his surrogate son Larhalt, and in his own way deeply loves his son. However, his Dragonoid form is reduced to a block of pure rage who will not stop until his enemies are dead, without regard for fairness, wounded and bystanders. He would even fight his son to the death and laugh when he seemingly kills him.
After losing, Baran recognizes the merits of the human heart he forsook. He vows to stop Vearn apocalyptic goal and starts disliking pointless cruelty, but he only sheds his hatred after teaming up with his son. Opening up and learning to know him rekindles the hero he used to be, as seen when he starts calling him Dai instead of his given name Dino.
Biography[]
Background[]
Velther vs. Baran the Dragon Knight in the 2020 anime.
Around fifteen years before the start of the series, Baran did not partake in the world-wide war against Hadlar's Dark Army, being warring against an even more formidable enemy, Velzar the Abyss Dragon King.
He fought alone against Velzar's Dragon Clan in the Underworld, and witnessed his enemy nuke a continent of his domain with a Black Core: a devastating bomb fuelled by magic.
Baran killed Velzar and all his followers after months of gruelling battles, at the price of grievous wounds. Nearing death, he went to the Spring of Miracles, whose water could refill his strength, but collapsed before reaching it, until a young woman gave him water and saved his life. There he met Soala, the Princess of Alkeed Kingdom, and the two fell in love.
Baran, Soala, and their newborn son Dino.
Baran was initially welcomed warmly by the King and his people, but the nobles despised the prospect of some unknown warrior becoming king and slandered him, painting him to the disgruntled King as a survivor of Hadlar's army who was deceiving him.
Baran tried to go away not to cause trouble, but Soala was pregnant. So they fled and lived in a cabin in the forest of Teran, where they had a son named Dino ("mighty dragon" in Soala's language).
Alas, the King tracked them, believing that he tainted his daughter. Refusing to harm humans, Baran surrendered despite the soldiers posing no threat whatsoever, asking only for his son to be spared. The King agreed and sent Dino away by sea with guards. Baran was to be executed with Fire spells he could have easily withstood, sacrificing himself for his wife and son, but Soala barged to shield him, dying in his arms begging him not to hate humans.
Heartbroken, and outraged with the King only reacting to his daughter's death with disgust, Baran wiped Alkeed from the map. He searched everywhere for his son, only to find that his ship sank, seemingly with him. (Unbeknownst to him, Dino's crib drifted to Dermline Island, home to pacified monsters freed from the Dark Lord's control, where he was named Dai and lovingly raised by the wise lump shaman Brass.)
Having nothing left to live for and being revulsed by the selfishness of those he risked his life to save, Baran heard the voice of the Dark King Vearn, who convinced him to destroy humanity and corrupted him with words, making him the Commander of the Dragon Division of the Dark Army he was building. In the meantime, he took in Larhalt, the orphaned son of a darkling father and a human mother, trained him and made him one of his Dragon Masters.
Dark Army versus Avan's Disciples[]
Baran first appears when Hadlar gathers the Six Commanders of the Dark Army to their base of the Sovereign Rock Castle, after Crocodine, Commander of the Furfang Division is defeated. He single-handedly razed Ringaia Kingdom. Baran does not object when Vearn directly tasks Hyunckel, Commander of the Undead Division and a former disciple of the Great Hero Avan to track down the heroes, Avan's other disciples.
However, after he is defeated in turn and as Hadlar is planning a full-scale ambush of Valge Island, Hadlar suspiciously keeps Baran away, pretexting that he is needed to topple Carl Kingdom, the mightiest country in the world famous for his army of powerful knights.
After the ambush fails and Flazzard, Commander of the Blizzblaze Division is killed, Baran has effortlessly razed Carl, personally killing their mightiest knight who matched him with a sword but could not resist his Crest Beam. He gets visited by Zaboera, Commander of the Mystic Division, asking him about the hero Dai. Upon learning that Dai bears the Dragon Crest, he immediately understands who he is and that Haldar kept the information out of fear for his rank. Furious, he goes to the Rock Castle, announcing his intention to convert Dai to his side, no longer playing Hadlar's game. Pleased, Vearn states that Baran will be named Supreme Commander of the Dark Army if he succeeds.
Father Versus Son[]
As Dai, who longs to know who he is, has been identified as a Dragon Knight by the fortune-teller Nabara and her granddaughter Merle, he goes to the Dragon Temple under a lake in Teran, only accessible to the Dragon Knight. There, he meets Baran, who tells him that humans are the real evil and that his duty as a Dragon Knight is to destroy them under Vearn's orders. He effortlessly withstands the mage Popp's powerful Donk Gravity spell, stating that Dai is in fact his son Dino, whom he plans to take with him and enlist in the Dragon Division.
Dai refuses and attack with his Lightning-Sword combined attack, but Baran captures the lightning in his blade and retaliates with Giga Break casting Dai into the lake where he is rescued by his love interest, Princess Leona. Then a redeemed Crocodine tries to reason with Baran, who is disappointed that the Commander he respected the most is now his enemy. Crocodine overcomes his fears and faces the Dragon Knight, only to be effortlessly overwhelmed and nearly blinded. However, Dai combines his and Crocodine's mightiest attacks, breaking through the Draconic Aura and wounding Baran for the first time.
Impressed, Baran acknowledges Dai's friends worth and the might of their bond, but merely states that he will erase them and start anew. He resonates his Dragon Crest with that of Dai to erase his son's memories, turning the brave, headstrong hero into a meek, fearful and helpless boy. Exhausted by this, Baran retreats, warning his enemies that nothing will keep him away from his son. He summons the three Dragon Masters, Galdandy, Borahorn, and Larhalt, and they depart on their dragons. He then follows the link of their Crests towards the Royal Castle of Teran, where the heroes took shelter.
Helped by the King of Teran, the heroes place Dai in the deepest cell of the castle dungeons, to keep him away from his father under the care of Merle and Nabara. They try desperately to awake his memories, with Leona giving him the glaive she gifted him, but in vain. Popp pretends to desert, in fact sacrificing himself to stall Baran, who leaves him to the Dragon Masters but warns them not to underestimate him. However, Popp and the redeemed Hyunckel prevail and even gain Larhalt's Dark Armor Spear.
Baran attacks the castle, confronted by Princess Leona and Crocodine, with the latter goading him to unleash "Giga Break", to tank it as many time as needed to deplete Baran's magic while Leona heals him. Furious, Baran threatens then attacks Leona with Lightning Spells when she refuses to step aside, but Hyunckel barges in and saves her. He tries to appeal to Baran’s feelings by reminding him that the woman he loved was human, but it only results in making him so furious that he assumes his Dragonoid form and wrecks them all in seconds.
Feeling his father's call through his Crest, Dai is compelled to knock out the fortune-tellers and tear open his cell bars, his appearance being enough to prevent Baran from nuking the castle with Doraura. Baran convinces him that he is his father, by showing him his Crest, but Popp cannot bear the thought of losing the one to whom they all owe their lives. He sacrifices himself hoping to restore Dai's memory, latching on Baran and casting the Kamikaze spell, converting his entire life-force in a tremendous explosion.
Despite being vulnerable to that spell, Baran breaks free due to Popp's inexperience, but Dai does remember. He agrees that humans can be despicable but maintains that they remain worth fighting for. Enraged, he renounces Baran as his father. Baran tries to erase his memories again, but Dai resists by displacing his Crest on his fist thanks to his human heart, for the first time in history.
A clash of legend between two Dragon Knights.
Dai fights Baran channelling all his Draconic Aura onto his fist, and appears to gain the upper-hand, but only because he was holding back, unwilling to harm his son. Furious, Baran decides to kill his son with Doraura, but Dai teleports away.
Dai starts flying, to spare Teran from being nuked by a second Doraura, knowing that even Baran cannot cast such a spell thrice. Meanwhile, Princess Leona desperately tries to cast a Resurrection spell on Popp, who is mysteriously kept away from departing to the Afterlife by Dai's pet Gome, whom Baran knocked out earlier. (It is revealed much later that Gome has wish-granting powers, reacting to Leona's prayers.)
Dai withstands "Doraura" with his own Draconic Aura but his glaive is broken by his sheer might. Baran takes back his blade, and Hyunckel gives Dai his Magic Sword. He uses a weaker Giga Break, but Popp fires a spell while dead, Dai uses the opening to win the fight with his Avan Strash technique, breaking both swords.
Exhausted and returned to his human form, Baran praises the might of the human heart he so despised. As a token of respect, he drops some of his blood in Popp’s mouth to resurrect him and boost his power. He then departs, stating that he will leave the Dark Army, but will return to fight his son once more over the fate of humanity. It is revealed much later that he also gave his blood to each Dragon Master, not knowing whether they would resurrect.
Self-Imposed Exile[]
While Baran is away and Dai gets an Orichalcos Sword forged for him able to withstand his Draconic Aura, Zaboera and his son Zamza experiment to create a Superior Being, an incredibly powerful chimera replicating the Dragonoid. Vearn later orders Killvearn to assassinate Baran, who is tracked down after Dai destroys the Sovereign Rock Castle. Killvearn reveals the Dark King plans to destroy the surface, but he underestimated Baran, who slices him in two before he can react and resolves to stop his former liege before restarting his own revenge, however, unaware to Baran, Killvearn's blood had eroded the sharpness of his blade.
Father and Son Team Up[]
As Avan’s Disciples are investigating the Fields of Death, the lair of the Dark Army, the fat rat grappler Chiu discovers the entrance of the Vearn Palace, but is tortured by the Bishop Warrior Fenbren. Baran intervenes, commenting how unpleasant it is to witness the strong preying on the weak. He blinds Fenbren, who departs swearing vengeance.
Hyunckel, Crocodine and Popp find Chiu, whom Popp teleports to safety, and meet Baran who intends to kill the Dark King, but refuses to join them for he still hates humanity. Hyunckel notices that he plans to die and cannot let him do it for Dai's sake, even if he must fight despite knowing he is outmatched. He suppresses his power to tank his attack and retaliate, using his might against him, but the Queen Warrior Albinass barges in to kill both, Hyunckel sacrificing himself to save Baran. Puzzled but feeling guilty, he asks Crocodine how to repay him and decides to team-up with his son.
As the heroes are planning a raid on the Vearn Palace, Baran barges in and volunteers to break through the gates, whose seal could resist anything less than two Dragon Knights. At first, Dai is wary but knows they have no choice. The two stand in silence, with the grappler lady Maam, who was training away during their battle, noting that Baran looks more at peace that what she was told, before Dai asks about his mother, finally talking heart-to-heart with him. Baran and Dai go to the underwater gates that Chiu found, guarded by a vengeful Fenbren who is quickly dispatched by their combined effort. With that, they blast the gates open and are greeted by Hadlar, who turned himself into a perfect Superior Being.
Believing Hadlar to be no match for him, Baran decides to fight him, calling out his son's protests as renouncing his Dragon Knight's pride, but Dai demonstrates how powerful their enemy has become. Baran and Dai fight him as a team, with Baran slashing Hadlar's chest and discovering a Black Core, telepathically describing it to Dai through their Crests as a magic-powered bomb as destructive as a modern nuke. As such, they cannot risk magic attacks out of fear of detonating it, not can they tell Hadlar, as Vearn would instantly set it off.
Baran decides to behead Hadlar with Giga Break, using his Dragon Fang to counter his Ultra Combustion Slash technique. Alas, it fails and Hadlar strikes him with his claws, forcing Dai to take the blow and gets seriously wounded. Baran kicks Hadlar away and Killvearn now appears, gleefully explaining that his magma-like blood eroded his blade, greatly decreasing its edge, before healing Hadlar.
Hadlar attacks as Baran is healing his son, who recklessly withstands it wanting to fight with his father as family. Thus Baran decides to put Dai to sleep with the Kasnooze spell, and assumes the Dragonoid form he swore he would never see again. Fighting for his son, the Dragonoid overwhelms the Superior Being, punching into his chest to pull out the Black Core, much to Hadlar's horror.
Seeing that Hadlar knows, Vearn decides to detonate the Black Core, but Baran suppresses it with his Draconic Aura. He then sends Mystvearn to detonate it, which he does while unveiling his face, much to Baran's surprise for only Vearn could normally do it. Right before the explosion, Baran realizes the truth of Mystvearn's true form. Baran tries his utmost to stop the explosion but in vain, with the blast completely wiping out the Field of Death and the Vearn Palace taking flight. Vearn notices that Baran greatly weakened the blast, enabling the heroes to survive, but at the cost of his life. In his final moments, Baran tells Dai that humans are not so bad after all and that he is the true Dragon Knight.
Vearn appears and incinerates Baran to "pay his respect" as a taunt to a grieving Dai. Vearn crushes the heroes and the divine Mother Dragon takes Dai away. Unable to birth a new Dragon Knight, she grants Baran's Crest to Dai. Dai would eventually defeat Vearn with their combined might, helped by a resurrected Larhalt, with his father's soul advising from beyond the Veil.
In Video Games[]
Baran appears in the mobile game A Hero's Bonds and the PS5 game Infinity Strash, adapting the anime. He is a recurring boss, but he can be playable in the former's original story.
In A Hero's Bonds, he strikes or fires huge energy waves from his sword, and casts Zap. As a Dragonoid he punches, kicks, hammer kicks, surrounds himself with Aura to boost himself, blasts Aura waves by ground smashes, Aura explosions around him, his Crest Beam and Doraura.
In Infinity Strash, his human form is slow but tough. He strikes with his sword normally or with his blade infused with violet energy, dashes, stabs the ground or fires violet energy waves along the ground from his blade. He later blasts lightning before him and causes enormous Aura explosions around him. His Dragonoid form fights the same, albeit tougher, blasts his surrounding with lightning before casting Giga Break, and casts Doraura as a lasting giant beam.
Baran makes a cameo in the medley games Dragon Quest of the Stars, Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light and Dragon Quest Tact. In the latter, he casts Dragonoid Rage, dealing massive damage to the enemy party.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
The Dark Army The Dragon Masters The Royal Elite Guard Others | ||