Sage Harpuia

Harpuia is a fictional character in the Mega Man Zero video game series. He is voiced by Megumi Ogata. Harpuia is leader of the Neo Arcadian Rekkū Gundan ("Army of the Fierce Sky") with the title of Kenshō ("Sage General"). Harpuia's schematics were based on that of X's capabilities of air combat. He is one of the Four Guardians/Shitennō/translated as "The Big Four" in Japanese and oversaw two pupils, Herculious Anchus and Burble Hekelot. Like the other Guardians, Harpuia is fiercely loyal to X and Neo Arcadia.

Character history
Before the storyline of Mega Man Zero, Harpuia led an expedition to a Sunken Library (the same Sunken Library that appears in Mega Man Zero 3) to retrieve data from the ruins. Within this expedition was the Reploid, TK-31, whom later adopted the name Elpizo. Harpuia's first appearance is in Mega Man Zero, where he killed an entire Resistance unit on the ruins of a highway and nearly killed a Reploid named Colbor, had Zero not intervened and defeated Harpuia.

As a faithful Guardian, he defended "Area X" where Copy X resided but was defeated in the end of the first game. After his defeat, he once again leapt to defend Copy X from Zero but was told to stand down by his Master and did so. Copy X was destroyed soon after.

With the defeat of Copy X, Harpuia was appointed Leader of Neo Arcadia by the Neo Arcadian Government in Mega Man Zero 2. Under his guidance, Neo Arcadia continued to route out the Resistance, though surprisingly, it was he who found Zero unconscious in the desert and returned him to the new Resistance Base established by Elpizo. When Elpizo tried to infiltrate the sanctum of Neo Arcadia for the power of the Dark Elf, which was out of bounds even to Neo Arcadia's Highest Executives, Harpuia rushed to the Temple of Wind to halt Elpizo's progress in his Second form which resembles a flying machine.

He succumbed to the power of Baby Cyber Elves, however, and was forced to fight Zero whilst Elpizo made his escape. After his defeat by Zero's hand, he pleaded with Zero to protect X's body upon being defeated.

In Mega Man Zero 3, Harpuia recovered after his defeat at the Temple of Wind and later took part in a Mission to investigate a fallen spaceship, in which resided the banished Reploid, Omega. He defeated Omega, but ceased his attack when Copy X-MkII and Dr. Weil interceded. Harpuia reluctantly followed the new Copy X and Dr. Weil, but the relationship was filled with tension from the start. When Weil fired a missile containing Omega into a human settlement, Harpuia rebelled and fought against the improved Omega.

Omega defeated Harpuia and through the rest of the events of Mega Man Zero 3, Harpuia underwent repairs in the Resistance Base. After the repairs were complete, Harpuia initially refused to stay with the Resistance and work with them, but appeared during the last battle against Omega to help Zero.

Harpuia did not appear in Mega Man Zero 4, but it is clear that he was not in Neo Arcadia when Craft destroyed it from Ragnarok. Artwork from the Remastered Rockman Track - Physis clearly shows the Three Guardians along with the cyber-projections of Original X and Phantom (the Fourth Guardian), watching the remnants of Ragnarok falling from the sky. However, in an interview with the producers of the game in the Official Complete Works artbook, this artwork is nothing more than just a 'Service Cut', a.k.a Fan Service.

According to the Rockman Zero Official Complete Works artbook, Harpuia, along with Fefnir and Leviathan, died at the end of Megaman Zero 3 under Omega's explosion.

Other Appearances
Harpuia has his own mini-game in MMZ3 in which he rides Aztec Falcon, a boss in MMZ1 and seen with him on it in MMZ2.

In Mega Man ZX, the player finds two halves of a Biometal H, which after combining it with Biometal X becomes Model HX, a "Mega Man of Wind" resembling Harpuia's form. Biometal H may be Harpuia in some form or way, as it claims that it fought for humans centuries ago.

Trivia

 * The gender of Harpuia was highly debated over when he first appeared. Due to his appearance and how he spoke most people assumed Harpuia was a girl. This was disproved when Rockman Zero 2 came out though. his speech was not a girl's, just a young man's.