Bakunawa

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This is Bakunawa. Magnificent is she not? But she is missing a vital component. The drone you call "Pangu". The one that's in the room with you right now.

- Merga, revealing Bakunawa to the heroes

Bakunawa
Game	Freedom Planet 2
Playable as	Sash Lilac Carol Tea Milla Basset Neera Li
Theme
Bosses
Boss	Aaa * Rail Driver * Astral Golemech Askal Corazon Tea * Corazon 2.0 Serpentine * Titan Armor 2.0 Merga Syntax * Bakunawa Fusion

Bakunawa is an ancient starship that serves as the main setting for the third and final act of Freedom Planet 2. Merga plans to awaken this starship and use it to devour Avalice's celestial moon, in an act of vengeance upon the Royal Magister and the earth dragons for the enslavement and genocide they committed against the water dragons.

Appearance

Bakunawa is a massive starship that resembles a snake-like dragon, much like the dragons of East Asian mythology. Its size and length surpasses even that of Lord Brevon's Dreadnought. Built into its core is a super laser designed to harvest minerals from moons, which is converted into energy for Bakunawa to travel through space.

Story Overview

Bakunawa was the ship upon which the earth dragons used to travel through space, until it crash-landed on an unknown planet. Upon making contact with said planet's native species, they use their technology to help them prosper and survive, even condensing their energy reserves into the relic that would be called the Kingdom Stone, and even giving the planet a name: Avalice. However, the native water dragons weren't so lucky, for they were enslaved by the earth dragons in order to repair Bakunawa so they could leave the planet. Before its completion, the water dragons rebelled against the earth dragons after an "accidental" test-firing of Bakunawa's mining laser killed thousands of water dragons. As the two dragon races go to war, Bakunawa remained inoperable at the bottom of the ocean in a location now known as the Gravity Bubble. The existence of Bakunawa may have passed into legend as the dragon that came to Avalice in ancient times.

Many years later, Merga, the sole remaining water dragon, was freed from her crystal prison after the Kingdom Stone was destroyed following Lord Brevon's defeat. Merga made it her goal to exact revenge on the earth dragons by obtaining Bakunawa for herself. Apparently, the earth dragons' drone Pangu is a key component to Bakunawa. With assistance from her sympathizers: the airship pilot Corazon Tea, the tarsier mechanic Aaa, the (wannabe) superhero Captain Kalaw and the earth dragon hybrid Askal, Merga obtained Pangu and rendered the Bakunawa operable. With Pangu installed, Bakunawa is awakened and is piloted into space by Merga, travelling to the moon to harvest the energy required to initiate space travel, devastating Avalice in the process. With assistance from Serpentine, Team Lilac manages to board the ship and defeat Merga's allies. Shortly after, Serpentine and Syntax used Code Black to try and take over Bakunawa in an attempt to escape Avalice and reunite with Lord Brevon, only to be defeated by Team Lilac, who proceeded to confront and defeat Merga soon after.

At the climax of the fight (if the player had found all 13 Time Capsules), Lilac, the other sole surviving water dragon, tries to convince Merga to let go of the past, believing that she can be better. But Merga is bent on getting her revenge, until Pangu meets certain parameters and plays a static recording from Merga's lost love, Cordelia. Upon hearing the scrambled message, the team felt sympathy for the distraught Merga, asking her if this is what Cordelia would have wanted. Suddenly, Syntax is revealed to have stayed onboard Bakunawa after Serpentine's defeat, hijacking and fusing with the Weapon's Core via Code Black and continuing the moon harvesting for her own goals. In the end, Syntax was ultimately defeated by Team Lilac with help from Merga.

After the final battle, Bakunawa sustains too much damage, causing its systems to shut down and crash back onto Avalice, splashing down in the ocean off the coast of Shang Tu, sinking all the way down to the sea floor. From there, Team Lilac, along with Pangu, Askal, Aaa and Corazon escape from the ship and swim up to the surface, leaving Bakunawa behind on the ocean floor, where it will likely remain during future events.

Stages

Bakunawa is divided into 8 stages, including 1 Hub Area, 2 boss stages and a secret final stage that can be unlocked if certain conditions are met.

Stage	Name
	Bakunawa Rush
	Rest Area
	Refinery Room
	Clockwork Arboretum
	Inversion Dynamo
	Lunar Cannon
	Merga
	Weapon's Core Requirements Collect all 13 Time Capsules Defeat Merga

Trivia

• Bakunawa is named after a mythical sea dragon of the same name, who is also known as the "Mooneater", being one of many references to the Philippine culture in Freedom Planet 2 and the main gimmick of Bakunawa itself being capable of harvesting moons.
• The name Bakunawa is believed to originally be a compound word meaning "Bent Snake", from the post-Western-Mayalo-Polynesian words *Bakuq ("Bent"/"Curved") and *Sawa ("Large Snake"/"Python"), which makes sense, given its snake-like appearance.
• Given that Bakunawa is designed to gain energy for space travel by harvesting moons, it is probable that the earth dragons intended to harvest Avalice's moon in order to leave the planet, which would have condemned it to destruction, while possibly resulted the water dragons' rebellion.

Gallery

Bakunawa poster by theCHAMBA.

Bakunawa concept art by DanSyron.

Screenshot of Lilac in Bakunawa Rush, first released in GalaxyTrail's official Discord server.

3D model from a deleted tweet by Strife.

Bakunawa's awakening.

The silhouette of Bakunawa, seen on the platform boxart for Freedom Planet 2.

Bakunawa seen leaving Parusa at the start of Bakunawa Chase.