TR-0009 Tager

TR-0009 Tager (テイガー), also known as Iron Tager (アイアン＝テイガー), and the Red Demon (赤鬼), is a soldier of the 7th Agency and loyal subordinate to Kokonoe Mercury. He is a playable character in the BlazBlue series.

Appearance
Tager is massive in stature, standing just under 8 feet, and has a body with muscles bulging out of each and every corner. His most defining trait, however, is his crimson red skin, a side effect of being injected with demon cells. Tager has spiky black hair, possessing a white streak. He wears orange goggles without reflection that do not show his eyes. He wears a dark red-colored 7th Agency uniform, but with a sleeveless top. He has golden rods attached on the darker red cross on his back, and two black gauntlets made of complex machinery.

Personality
Tager is a serious, mature cyborg. Well known as a fearsome mechanical juggernaut to the enemies of the 7th Agency, he is feared by many, having earned him the alias “Red Demon” whereas in truth, he is very calm and calculated, only engaging in violence when necessary. He places great trust and faith in Kokonoe, and will follow orders without complaint. However, there have been some occasions where he follows his own intuition and judgment to choose what to do in a situation, especially true in the case of orders he believes to be rash, immoral or cruel.

When fighting, Tager can become fierce and determined, taunting his opponent while fighting and goading them into anger, but will be quick to stop when victorious or no longer in danger.

Within the 7th Agency he is known as a solid, dependable soldier, a resourceful and reliable field agent and a passionate scientist. Relationships with his colleagues, both former and current, are both professional and amicable. In Calamity Trigger, he is seen chatting pleasantly with Litchi, then a member of the 7th Agency, about his new assignment as Kokonoe’s field agent; Litchi mentions that Kokonoe’s tasks must be gruelling to give “our Tager” cause for complaint, signifying his established status as a quiet, skilled professional. He tests the 7th Agency’s newest recruit Makoto without reservation, he gives her his open and honest opinion each time and the two have a relationship somewhat akin to a father and a daughter as the story progresses. When Tager bests Makoto in combat in his Arcade story INCEPTION, he offers her advice on how to progress in life, with friends and on the battlefield, baffling Kokonoe and emotionally touching Makoto.

However, when encountering Arakune, he expresses his heartfelt grief that someone he had once seen as a brother has become something far from human, and sees his duty of bringing him down as a kindness to a suffering loved one. Whenever Kokonoe orders to kill Arakune, Tager will always hesitate and allow him to escape.

Tager’s hobbies include reading mystery novels and constructing ships in bottles.

History
Originally the leader of a mercenary troop hired by the 7th Agency to retrieve Machine God: Nirvana in the 4th Hierarchical City of Naobi, the mission was intercepted by Azrael and the man who would come to be known as Tager suffered a mortal wound during the mission.

The only facts revealed about Tager during Bullet’s recollection of him is that he was well-respected as a strong leader and valued as a dependable friend. It was revealed in BlazBlue: Centralfiction that he was conscious during Kokonoe’s operation on him, and he specifically asked her to not tell Bullet about him.

that which is inherited
After being taken back to the 7th Agency’s headquarters, Tager was in critical condition, with suspicions being raised about him not surviving his injuries. He was later taken to Kokonoe’s lab where she ran numerous tests on him and found that he was compatible with demon cells. She operated on him later on.

When the World Void Information Control Organization launched its assault on the 7th Agency laboratory, Kokonoe dispatched Tager to prevent all Control Organization forces from reaching the Kiln by any means necessary. The mission was much more difficult that anticipated due to the presence of Imperial Guards; Tager and the rest of the 7th Agency soldiers were pushed back to the 28th sector, with Tager’s right arm being disabled. When the Kiln went haywire and started snatching nearby soldiers, Tager immediately took charge, ordering that all soldier stay away from the hectic sphere. Relius Clover’s plans coming to fruition, Tager could only ask how a human could do such a thing to other people; however, the call was cut short when the cyborg’s screams echoed down the communications line.

At the end of the story, Tager received far too much damage from the previous incident, leaving him with no recollection of the previous events; Kokonoe decided it was for the best that he was to never remember what happened, as “no human should ever have to witness what happened down there”.

BlazBlue: Remix Heart
After have been operated on by Kokonoe, Tager was originally to have the Red Grimoire be used as his power source. However, Kajun Faycott’s understandable failure to find the grimoire led to Kokonoe attempting to find an alternate power source for the soldier. He was present, although deactivated, next to Kokonoe when she made the call to Kajun to find out about the status of her mission.

Trust You


Tager’s memory begins after waking from surgery performed by Kokonoe, following the events in that which is inherited. She introduced herself as he scanned everything about her, noticing her shabby appearance. It was at this point that she gave him his name, 'Tager', claiming that she came up with it on the spot; Tager himself was unable to remember his real name despite the effort he put in. After an uncomfortable silence, he then went on to ask why he was there, to which Kokonoe white-lied about his origins, skimming all important details. Trying to recall his origins once more, Kokonoe warned him that doing too much may damage his engine, ringing alarms in Tager’s head as he realized that he wasn’t truly all himself. He was soon able to move thanks to some intervention from Kokonoe’s part. She then revealed that she had injected him with demon cells and that he was a splendid match; whatever the cells didn’t heal, she replaced with machinery. Tager immediately understood what she meant as he looked into the reflection of some nearby glass.

Soon after his resurrection, Kokonoe sent Tager onto his first mission; to retrieve the Murakumo Units Lambda-11, Mu-12, and Nu-13 during the confusion that still lingered from the Burning Fields. He covertly snuck in and found that Mu’s casket was empty (due to her adoption), as was Nu’s (due to transportation to the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi in the short story an evil sign). Tager retrieved the casket that contained Lambda as Kokonoe issued a warning stating that she would rot if left too long. While inside the complex, Tager saw a “green colored shadow”.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
When the salvage mission for Hakumen was interrupted by him fading away into another location, Kokonoe called up Tager to return to the 7th Agency headquarters where she would fill him in on the information and then send him to retrieve the leader of the Six Heroes.

After being told that Hakumen was somewhere within the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi, Tager proceeded to Orient Town where he thoroughly scanned the sector and began to plant devices needed to secure and teleport Hakumen later on. However, he was cut short by Noel Vermillion and had to cut short his communication with Kokonoe. She questioned why a 7th Agency soldier would be present in a city locked down with a Level D Alert Warning, yet Tager refused to move and the two fought. The Red Demon nearly lost until the Arch-Enemy Event Weapon - Demon Guns: Bolverk caused Noel to faint from extreme fatigue. Kokonoe quickly opened up the communications line and gave Tager a quick talk on what the Event Weapons do and what they are capable of; this later changed into the field operative getting berated on going easy on Noel because of her gender. Out of the goodness of his heart, Tager scooped up the unconscious Noel and took her to the nearest doctor’s office. During the True ending when Hakumen halted Kokonoe’s attempts to teleport him away using the Power of Order she called on Tager to aid Ragna. However, Tager informed her he was already engaged in combat while Arakune’s insane laughter could be heard in the background.

Trigger Shift
After taking Bang Shishigami to Litchi Faye Ling’s clinic, Tager watched him wake up from afar, marveling at how tough the ninja must be to wake-up from substantial injuries so quickly. He then received a call from Kokonoe, ordering him to come back and that the retrieval mission of Hakumen was a success. Tager questioned what should be done about Arakune, leading to silence and another order to return to headquarters.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, he was sent by Kokonoe on a mission to capture the true holder of the Blue, Noel Vermillion. When he arrived in Kagutsuchi, Kokonoe teleported Lambda-11 to him and told him to fight her so that she could analyze her performance. Afterwards, Kokonoe told Tager to meet up with an agent to obtain an item for her. Tager headed to the rendezvous point, the Kagutsuchi Museum, and encountered Makoto Nanaya who, after giving her the password, handed a disc to him. She then attempted to ask about his mission, but he refused to say anything. She later left after giving him a warning that she would show no mercy to those who harm Noel.

Not long after, Tager picked up a Blue reading and headed to Orient Town. There, he found out that the reading was from Ragna who was just fighting Lambda and had already left. Before he could continue his search for Noel, he was discovered by Litchi who asked to speak with Kokonoe. Knowing that Litchi intended to ask about Arakune, Tager told her that Arakune chose his path knowing full well the risks and that she should just let Tager and Kokonoe handle him. Before Litchi could argue, Kokonoe ordered Tager to subdue Litchi to which he reluctantly complied. After rendering her unconscious, Tager took Litchi to her clinic and lied to Linhua by telling her that Litchi collapsed from exhaustion.

After reaching the Hanging Gardens, Tager began to become frustrated with his lack of progress. However, he was soon met by Hazama who began tormenting his mind through his experience with the Sin Architects. Kokonoe snapped him out of it by ordering him to fight Hazama and not think about anything else, but Hazama easily defeated Tager and began torturing him further. Kokonoe told him to retreat, which Tager complied just before Hakumen and Valkenhayn arrived on the scene. After being taken to a safe location, Tager thanked Hakumen for his assistance. Hakumen then questioned his loyalty to Kokonoe to which he stated that he has the utmost faith in her. Hakumen then reminded him of the nuclear warheads that Kokonoe has stockpiled and asked once again.

In the True Ending, he escorted Noel and Makoto out of Kagutsuchi.

Powers and abilities
Story-wise, Tager is infamous in the world for his fierce appearance and frightening stature, and his combat prowess matches if not exceeds his reputation; his intelligence and cyborg body only adding to his collective arsenal. Tager has stood toe-to-toe with high-threat targets such as Hakumen, Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi and Relius Clover, as well as his former colleagues Arakune and Litchi Faye Ling, two beings who stream power from the Boundary. Thanks to the modifications that Kokonoe had made to him, Tager is also the only being capable of deploying an Eclipse Field.

Gameplay-wise, Tager is noticeably the slowest character in the game, moving at a crawl and being unable to dash (mentioned in Teach Me, Miss Litchi!). Tager’s strength, however, lies in his power, defense and his unique ability to magnetize opponents to draw opponents in to negate his mobility disadvantage. When in close proximity, Tager can grab his opponents, tossing them around the arena for extreme damage, or alter the properties of his grab to add additional magnetism; in addition, he is also able to grab opponents on the floor and apply additional magnetism or even go the simple route and pluck his foe out of the air and slam them on the ground.

Tager’s Drive is Voltic Battler (ボルテックバトラー). Attacking his opponent with electrically-charged strikes, he magnetizes their bodies which he can then use to immediately pull enemies towards him with certain attacks., ensuring they can never escape his reach. His Overdrive, Voltic Field (ボルテックフィールド), automatically pulls them towards him if they’ve already been magnetized.

In addition to his normal electromagnetic grapples and throws, Tager can also build and hold Spark Bolt charges, allowing him to fire a large, very fast ball of pure electricity that sends any struck opponents straight towards him. His gauntlets also work to destroy most projectiles while closing distance.

In addition to Tager’s standard electromagnetism, he is able to build up a charge over time that can launch opponents away

His Astral Heat, King of Tager (キングオブテイガー), combines an extreme magnetic pull with a leap that puts Tager and his enemy into the atmosphere, crashing down to leave only Tager rising from a dust-shrouded crater.

Trivia

 * Naming
 * “Tager” is an uncommon name with Australian roots, it is a variant of the name “Togar”, which means “smoke”.
 * It is likely that the name of Tager’s theme, “MOTOR HEAD”, is a reference to the rock band Motörhead.
 * Other
 * During his last appearance in the Episode 7 of BlazBlue: Alter Memory, the white streak of Tager’s hair is missing.
 * Tager’s birthday is also the International Day to End Impunity.
 * In BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Tager will guide the player through the section Intermediate- Application.
 * Going through Tager’s voice clips in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift hints at some unused move concepts, and the possibility of a playable Kokonoe in this era.
 * When Amane Nishiki uses his Astral Heat on Tager, he appears as a toy.
 * In the story, Kokonoe repeatedly enhances Tager’s armor, but makes it heavier for him each time. This would explain his low speed and high health in the game.
 * The fact that he'll only fight if necessary might be a reference to Optimus Prime from the Transformers series.