Colossus Climb: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Some mountains are scaled. Others are slain."''|''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' [[Tagline]]}}

The smaller character attacks the bigger character by climbing his body, avoiding his [[Mighty Glacier|ponderous opponent]] long enough to attack a [[Attack Its Weak Point|vulnerable spot]]. Can involve climbing on fur, hair and clothing, or can alternately involve invasion ''under'' clothing. The climb may be made easier when combined with a [[Gulliver Tie Down]]. If the attacker is swallowed, this can quickly lead to a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]].

 

 

A milder form has a small child trying to bring down an exceptionally big thug, but it almost never works.

Since most western animation is designed as kid-friendly stuff, this will most often not be done to a female character, and the vulnerable area attacked will not be the ''most'' [[Groin Attack|vulnerable area]].

 

 

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* Some recent toothpaste commercial, as explanation for the fifth "dentist of five". As a slight aversion, the vulnerable area is ''the'' [[Groin Attack|vulnerable area]].

* A commercial for Capri Sun V has a young boy being attacked by a Cybear, a giant machine/bear hybrid. The kid manages to kill the 'marauding Ursa Machina' by leaping onto his back with a trampoline and ''stabbing him with the Capri Sun straw.''

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'' has one of these in the Bahamut SIN fight. It gets harder than usual because the monster flies. At the end of the fight is is a scene where Cloud is [[Fastball Special|thrown further and further up in the air]] by a succession of allies until he can finally reach the monster.

* In ''[[Macross 7]]'', a friendly [[Fan Service]] example from [[The Movie]]. One of the giant alien Meltrandi women shares a campfire with the hero and the kid sidekick. The kid has a quite innocent play session in her cleavage (she's at least 30 feet tall, and her breasts are easily the size of beanbag chairs, and the kid is about four years old).

* ''[[Naruto]]'' does this to {{spoiler|the Four Tails Bijuu}} in the Fourth Shinobi War, {{spoiler|in order to free him from Tobi's control}}.

 

** That is if someone who had superstrength wasn't around to serve him up a [[Fastball Special]].

*** Often times Wolverine is almost more than likely capable of climbing his way up to take them out head on.

* In Issue 20 of Archie Comics' ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'', a [[Giant Mook|giant Foot Soldier]] is unleashed and begins destroying the city. After an initial futile assault is launched on its shins, they climb up in search of a vulnerable spot. Turns out that they {{spoiler|only wind up being a diversion so that a fireman-turned-dragon (thanks to an old curio shop owner's powder) can defeat it.}}

 

* In the movie version of ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'', the hero climbs up on top of a giant bug that's attacking his squad. He blows a hole in the bug's body, drops a large explosive in the hole, and jumps off.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' movie ''The Return of the King'', where Legolas climbs the Oliphant and shoots it in the head with arrows after [[Film/Awesome|singlehandedly wiping out the entire archer platform and sending it to earth]].

* The twins vs. [[Combining Mecha|Devastator]] in ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'' ends up like this.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Shrek]]'' when Puss in Boots attacks Shrek (including an ''[[Alien]]'' style chest burst, no less).

 

== Literature ==

* In most adaptations of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', the Lilliputians use this, as a swarming attack, against the title character.

* ''A Rustle in the Grass'' by Robin Hawdon is a [[Mouse World|novel about ants]] told in a [[Heroic Fantasy]] style. At one stage the anthill is attacked by a bird and the ant hero drives it off by climbing up its body to attack the bird's eye.

* The Mechas in [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Empire'', apparently designed by a particularly [[Genre Savvy]] engineer, are nearly impossible to climb on. Our heroes have to get creative to take them out, by pushing on the legs to upset the balance, and then hitting it with two cars. {{spoiler|They find a much, much easier method once they link up with the National Guard in the form of AT-4.}}

** And back in ''Ender's Game'', Ender attacks the virtual Giant in a video game by leaping onto him and [[Eye Scream|digging into his eye.]]

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* This is standard operating procedure for Elementals in ''[[BattleTech]]''. Elementals are 8' tall [[Power Armor]] wearing [[Super Soldier]] troopers, [[Designer Babies|genetically designed]] by [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|the Clans]] to be anti-Mech infantry. As even the smallest 'Mech is still over 6 meters tall, Elemental teams, operating in groups of five, often enact a Colossus Climb to destroy enemy 'Mechs, mostly to [[Attack Its Weak Point]]. Because of the construction of some types of 'Mechs, which often lack humanoid features like hands, this trope is considered a perfectly sensible tactic instead of a suicide run.

** However, there are some Inner Sphere infantry units, who are not 8' tall nor clad in armor that can resist 'Mech-scale weapons, who will occasionally try to do this with varying degrees of success. It is possible for simple infantrymen to inflict critical leg damage to enemy 'Mechs this way, and the novels describe at least three instances where a 'Mech was captured or destroyed by infantry making climbs.

 

== Video Games ==

* [http://www.nitrome.com/games/skyserpents/ Sky Serpents] by [[Nitrome]].

* Quite literally occurs in the fight with Colossus in ''[[Mega Man Legends]]: [[Prequel|The Misadventures Of Tron Bonne]]''.

* Many of the enemies in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' can be approached this way; anything big enough can be climbed on.

** A subversion happens with Giant Ursula where you don't have to climb since you're all underwater.

* In the battle against the giant Butcher in ''[[Psychonauts]]'', Raz must use the boss's own arm to reach his face for a melee atack.

* In ''[[Sonic Rush Series]]'', the (sort of) final boss is a giant mech, and to attack you have to wait until it punches the stage, then run over its arm and shoulder to spin attack its head.

** The Egg Golem from ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' had platforms on its back pop out during one of its attacks, allowing Sonic to attack the control device on top. However, in the Dark story's version of events, Sonic [[Cutscene Power to the Max|reached the top in one jump.]]

*** Later in the same game, Shadow has to grind up a <s>rail</s> "support pipe" on the Biolizard's neck in order to reach its back, where its weak spot was.

** Inverted at the end of ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', where {{spoiler|Sonic has to save the colossus he's running all over rather than try to destroy it.}}

** In ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'', the boss of Blizzard Peaks is a whale. Smack it open, jump inside to an obstacle course, then smack this weak spot at the end for [[Massive Damage]]. Literally. While most bosses in this game take loads of hits, only 3 times of reaching this spot (different course each time too) is needed.

* In ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', El Gigante must be killed by shooting at him for a while, then climbing onto his back and slashing at the parasite controlling the beast as it emerges. Of course, the player can also just shoot the parasite as well, but that doesn't look nearly as cool.

* Another computer game that features this is ''[[Rayman]] 3: Hoodlum Havoc'', where Rayman needs to run up the villain's arm to reach the magic thing in its back, in the second stage of the final boss battle.

* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', the frost giant Ymir falls under this trope as you must jump in his oversized club to initiate a [[Quick Time Event]]; the only way to hurt him.

** Although you skip the climbing and use cannons to get on top, it's also how you deal with Arcade.

* The Sin battle in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.

* ''[[X-Men|X-Men 2 in Clone Wars]]'' for the [[Sega Genesis]] does this quite impressively on its second, third, AND fourth levels. Video games typically struggle with portraying one of the X-Men's major antagonists, the colossal robots known as Sentinels; often they are shrunken down to only slightly larger than human so they make a more manageable obstacle for the player. ''Clone Wars'' gets around this by having the X-Men attack a Sentinel maintenance facility while the Sentinels are off-line. You spend two levels fighting your way up scaffolding to reach one of the Sentinel's heads, and one level going ''inside'' a Sentinel and fighting a [[Boss Battle]] against its reactor core, then running partway back down the scaffolding before the facility explodes from the power overload. Parts of two Sentinels' bodies are visible in the background throughout the levels, and they are true to their gigantic depictions in the comic books and television shows.

** The ''Wolverine'' game on the X-Box 360 and [[Play Station 3]] has an AWESOME fight with a fully functional Sentinel. It's completely to scale, towering over anything and everything in the game, and you climb it in boh phases of the fight to destroy it. Hell, the second part of the battle has you doing this AS YOU BOTH FALL FROM THE STRATOSPHERE. The game could have ended there, and lost NOTHING.

* The boss Eligor in ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]'' is a giant centaur-like creature which can only be damaged if the player hits its eye. This can only be accomplished by destroying the jewels on it's four legs, its two crossbows, finding a way to get under it and behind it without being crushed, and finally climbing up to its back and attacking its eye all while avoiding its various attempts to knock you off again. A certain glyph can skip a large part of this process however.

** [[Bonus Boss]] The Forgotten One in ''Lament of Innocence'' is a colossal demon, but instead of climbing you fight him from an elevator.

* Someone has made a special map for ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' that has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNlFyxcncVc one of these].

* In ''[[Lufia|Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals]]'', Gades' [[One-Winged Angel|true form]] involves one of these. Sadly, there wasn't much to it, and the real challenge came from the rematch with his previous form.

[[Deadpan Snarker|Rayne:]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|I have bowel in my hair...]] }}

* In a unique non-boss example, ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' requires the player to climb atop the eponymous giant mechanical shark of [[Down the Drain|Clanker's Cavern]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* Disney's classic short of ''The Brave Little Tailor'' features Mickey defeating the giant in exactly this way.

** Not to mention ''Giantland'', ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'', and, in a way, ''[[Runaway Brain]]''. Somewhat reversed in ''Gulliver Mickey,'' as ''he's'' the giant. There have also been instances where Mickey has latched onto Pete's back or climbed up him, as in ''Two Gun Mickey'' or in the ''[[House of Mouse]]'' episode "The Broken Thermostat."

* In ''[[Ben 10]]'', if Ben is forced to go into a fight as the six-inch-tall Grey Matter, this is generally a big part of his strategy.

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', while combating a giant monster made of [[Dead Baby Comedy|paraplegics]], Stewie climbs on the arm to get to the head (Joe).

* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'': Toward the end of Season 4, this happens twice with Ulrich and the aptly-named [[Giant Mook|Kolossus]]. First, to fight [[The Dragon|William]] on its shoulder, and then to dispatch the giant itself by striking its two weak spots; Ulrich manages to do this but is crushed by the falling Kolossus.

* Once on ''[[Chowder]]'', Schnitzel and Chowder had to climb a giant to make a delivery. Not to the giant, to the guy living on top of the giant.

* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', over-eager mountaineers try to climb a park ranger - even though all persons involved are normal-sized.

* A human face becomes the location of the [[Final Battle]] between anthropomorphic white blood cell [[Osmosis Jones]], voiced by [[Chris Rock]], and evil virus, Thrax, voiced by [[Laurence Fishburne]]. Along with Thrax, Ozzy is ejected out of his host and lands on the upper face of Shane (the daughter of Osmosis's home, Frank, and whom Thrax intends to infect and kill after disposing of Frank). During the battle, they plunge into the murky watery depths on the tip of her sclera, avoid being crushed by her oncoming blinking eyelid, and commence [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME76Sg7J6fk battling on one of her eyelashes].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Skullkickers]]'', [[No Name Given|Shorty]] defeats the giant worm-thing by climbing it with his axes, chopping his way ''into'' its head and rooting around in there until it dies.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Saturday Morning Cartoon]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]