| “ | I can walk next to Dart. I have been working towards that. There is nothing we can do about the time we were apart, but I want to be with you forever! | „ |
| ~ Shana |
Shana (シェーナ, Shēna) is the deuteragonist in the 1999 video game The Legend of Dragoon and the childhood friend of Dart Feld. She lives in the town of Seles as the Mayor's adopted daughter and grew up to live in relative peace until the Sandoran raid, where she is kidnapped for unknown reasons. Taken to Hellena Prison, she is soon rescued by Dart and Lavitz Slambert and chooses to accompany them on their journey.
She is voiced by Akemi Okamura in the Japanese version of the game and by Donna Mae Wong in the English version.
Appearance[]
Shana has long brown hair that's tied into a ponytail partway down her back, and matching brown eyes. Her usual outfit is seen after being rescued by Dart and Lavitz; she wears a white short sleeve top with a blue cross design and red turtleneck along with brown shoulder pads and a brown belt, as well as white short shorts, white socks, and brown short boots. She also wears brown gloves and wields a bow and arrow which she took from Hellena Prison after both Dart and Lavitz defeated the guards who were monitoring her cell.
In her initial appearance in the opening cutscene before being taken to Hellena Prison, she was seen in a white sleeveless night gown.
As a Dragoon, Shana wears an elaborate set of Dragoon armor that's mostly white-silver and aqua blue.
Personality[]
Shana is very kind, compassionate, polite and ladylike. This makes her popular with the rest of the group and also with various characters encountered within the game. However, as the story progresses, she increasingly harbors fear and anxiety over what fate has in store for her, particularly regarding her unknown special power that emerges sometimes. She has a strong sense of responsibility and is frequently worried about slowing the rest of the group down, but courageously faces up her insecurities and often suffers alone instead of seeking out help. She also has a strong crush on Dart for much of the game, having grown to admire and respect him since their early days together as children, and while Dart mostly sees her as a baby sister at first, he eventually comes to reciprocate her feelings by late in Disc 2.
Pertaining to the mentioned qualities above, while Shana is brave enough to fight when it's necessary, she's also shown to strongly dislike unnecessary violence and is both sympathetic and merciful to her enemies, as demonstrated on occasions such as imploring Rose to spare Kongol alongside Dart after they defeated him for the second time, actively wanting to avoid the Virage they encounter in the Valley of Corrupted Gravity so they don't have to fight it, and when she looked on sadly when Lenus was dying after their second fight with her. She's also especially good with children, as demonstrated by her friendly interactions with Fa (who is mute at the time due to recovering from the shock of a wolf attack) while the group is at the mayor's house in Furni.
Despite her many positive traits, Shana's all-around pure-hearted personality and ability to win people over is shed in a somewhat darker light later on when it's revealed she's the Moon Child and harbors the Virage Embryo's soul in her, which is supposed to have the ability to make people adore them unconditionally. However, Shana was completely unaware of this power and her destiny, and would have very likely tried to expel this power from herself and fight to prevent the world's destruction if she hadn't been kidnapped and held hostage by Zieg (later revealed to be Melbu Frahma possessing and controlling him) for the game's last quarter.
Abilities[]
While she lacks the fighting experience of most, if not all of the other party members, Shana demonstrates pretty impressive marksmanship skills with the bow and arrow she wields since escaping from prison with Dart and Lavitz. Unfortunately, due to this long-range style of offense, she's the only main party member (aside from Miranda, who later replaces her) who can't use additions, the game's term for combo attacks triggered by well-timed button presses. Additionally, once she gains the White-Silver Dragoon Spirit, she gains the ability to use light magic, mostly in the form of healing spells alongside a couple of attacks. Stats-wise, she has weak physical attack and defense, making her rather vulnerable to enemies' regular attacks and unable to do as much damage as most of the other characters, especially due to the aforementioned inability to use additions. Conversely, however, she has very high magic attack, defense and speed, so while she's mostly effective as a healer, she also gets a lot of turns in combat and can have very effective offense if she uses either magical attack items or her light element attack, Star Children, against enemies that fall under the darkness element. The final Dragoon spell she can unlock is a very powerful one called White Silver Dragon, which simultaneously does a lot of damage and fully heals the entire party, with her magical attack prowess making it all the more deadly. However, it takes a lot of work and perseverance to level her up enough to access it, to the extent that even if she's used a lot, it's very unlikely it'll happen before she has to leave the party and is replaced by Miranda partway through the game.