Our Giants Are Bigger: Difference between revisions

[[File:Oars_comparison.png|link=One Piece|frame|The guys on the right aren't regular-sized humans; ''the tiny speck on the bottom is''.]]

The most common perception of the giant is the big, [[Dumb Muscle|dumb brute]] who [[Always Chaotic Evil|grinds people's bones to make his bread]]. But literal [[Gentle Giant|gentle giants]] are also featured in both legends and modern stories, who are somewhat friendlier (and sometimes [[Genius Bruiser|smarter]]) than the stereotype would imply. The evil types may be antagonists in their own right or serve as [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]] (pun intended) for an [[Evil Overlord]].

In [[Real Life]], the profusion of Giants in mythology is usually attributed to memories of childhood, when adults tower over you, and also the rivalry between young men and old men. Outside of mythology, when explorers have characterized the inhabitants of a newly-discovered land as "giants", it was usually because of a difference of only a few inches in height.

Really huge giants, in any real-world context, would fall victim to the [[Square-Cube Law]] in short order, but the vast majority of such beings tend to exist in fantasy universes that cheerfully disregard such things as the laws of physics in favor of creating a good story.

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[One Piece]]'' giants vary greatly in size, from Jaguar D. Saul being maybe thirty feet or so tall to the likes of Oars and his descendant Oars Jr., who are about three hundred feet tall. Apparently, there are entirely different types of giant and Saul considers it something of an insult to be considered one of the other kind. So far the ratio is 5 good giants to 1 evil giant, who also happened to be a zombie. And, apart from Oars, they do not seem particularly stupid ''or'' intelligent.

** It should be noted that Oars was controlled by part of [[Idiot Hero|Luffy's]] soul while he was a villain, but he did die by going into the cold wearing only a loincloth.

== Card Games ==

** In the Ravnica setting, giants are mostly soldiers for the Boros Legion, though some outcasts find a life as grunts in the Gruul Clans.

** Giants in the fairy-tale world of Lorwyn are ancient and mystical, yet still can be clumsy and whimsically dim-witted. Giants sleep for years or decades at a time, dreaming deep dreams, and when they awake they take on new names and purposes in life based on what they dream. Some ride absurdly large goats with wings.

== Comic Books ==

* Seeing on how it's based off [[Norse Mythology]], [[The Mighty Thor]] usually finds himself squaring off Frost Giants (the "Jotuns") or any sub-races like Storm Giants or Mountain Giants. Intrestingly, in the older books, Giants looked like 25 feet [[Gonk]]-ish, brutish humans but nowadays are more like huge [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]].

* The giants in the ''[[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' series are a friendly and advanced species. They have an affinity for stone and are excellent sailors. They cannot be burned, but they still feel the pain of intense heat. They are generally a very sedate and even-tempered people, but can sometimes be provoked into a state of [[Unstoppable Rage]].

* In [[Clive Barker]]'s "Books of Blood," the story "In the Hills, The Cities" deals with a traditional battle between two unorthodox giants which are beings composed of thousands of human beings from the rival cities of Popolac and Podujevo, all citizens working together to form a single, massive being which then fights the "giant" of the other city. Unfortunately, one year the harvest for Podujevo is less than anticipated, and as a result one flank of the giant is weakened and the city-giant collapses, killing all constituent participants and causing the city-giant of Popolac to go collectively insane with grief.

* There's a friendly giant in one of [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.

* In George RR Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', giants are a species of shaggy, ape-like people in the frigid north of Westeros. They stand around fourteen feet tall, wield crude clubs in battle, and ride woolly mammoths. A dwindling species, giants are little more than a legend to the majority of the continent. Wildlings believe that particularly large humans have some giant blood.

* ''[[Mirror Mask]]'''s giants look like bizarre statues, and they levitate above the ground, orbiting each other. They also [[This Is Sparta|SPEAK... VERY... SLOWLY.]] When one of them is pulled to Earth by shadows, it melts into the ground, and the other floats away.

* A member of a prehistoric race of giants, as yet undiscovered by paleontologists, appears in the ''[[Riverworld]]'' series.

* [[Stan Lee]]'s ''Riftworld'' series has a race of giants from [[Another Dimension]] -- they're basically scaled-up humans supported by [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]], genetically engineered by an alien AI. And nearly every one a [[Jerkass]].

* In ''[[The Challenges of Zona]]'' giants are actually mutant humans who both grow at an accelrated rate and never stop growing their entire lives. The two met so far are also [[Gentle Giants]].

* In ''[[Magnus]]'', the giant Tsavo is described "the last progeny of the second preternatural race of supermen spawned by fallen angels."

* In ''[[Dragaera|BrokedownPalace]]'', one of the four royal brothers is a human giant. It's mentioned that the family produces them every few generations, suggesting a genetic proclivity towards gigantism.

* ''Gargantua and Pentagruel'' By Rabelais has giant protagonists.

** The frost giant Ymir was so large that his corpse was used as the construction materials for ''the whole bleepin' universe''. When he was killed, his blood ''drowned'' all the other giants, except for two that were ''on a boat''.

** There's also Surtr and the rest of the fire giants, who play a major role at Ragnarok.

** The [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-angel]] Nephilim were described as giants.

** A similar example of a giant-as-antagonist: Goliath. [[Expanded Universe|Some versions of the story]] have him as a descendant of the earlier race. ''Earlier'' texts have him only six and a half feet tall, not the "usual" nine and a half.

** Some more examples would be the people who lived in the Promised Land, but since we only have the word of some very scared scouts, this may be a bit of exaggeration.

* There's also Jack In Irons, a creature of folklore that makes an appearance as an enemy in ''[[City of Heroes]]''.

* Another Jack, Jack the Giant Killer who seems to have met a truly amazing number of giants throughout the British Isles. Some had multiple heads.

*** It's also a pretty common trope in mythology, particularly Indo-European mythology. Supposedly, its linked to a cultural memory of the conquest or displacement of palaeolithic peoples by neolithic ones, represented by the civilised gods overthrowing an earlier, primordial race more heavily associated with the elements. The exact "alignment" of the primordials differs from culture to culture, and some, such as the Norse, include primordials ranging from the Lawful Good Vanir, a tribe of nature gods, to the Chaotic Evil fire-giants.

** Giants are different in Monte Cooke's ''[[Arcana Unearthed]]'' [[Dungeons and Dragons]] setting - they begin only slightly larger than humans and gain in size and power as they gain names. They're intelligent and highly magical, and they rule the world after saving it from the dragons.

** In the [[Eberron]] campaign setting, ancient giants formed a number of highly advanced civilisations across the continent of Xen'Drik. After a series of major cataclysms the empires lie in ruins. Most giants have regressed to a more primitive state, with some powerful exceptions.

** 3.5's ''Races of Stone'' and 4th Edition include the Goliath as a player race. They grow up to nearly 8 feet, which isn't large for a giant, but still the largest of any player race.

== Western Animation ==

** {{spoiler|He's actually a giant ''cook''.}}

* [[Shadow of the Colossus]], the eponymous colossi, natch.

* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'' II figures the only way to top the rancor from [[Return of the Jedi]] is to throw in a several hundred foot tall monster that is capable of ''crushing a rancor in it's hand''. And it ''still'' manages to get beaten!

** Giants in this series are apparently something along the lines of guardians created by the titans, not unlike the dragons. However, they tend to be more territorial and aggressive. Their second main duty is that they are the titans' craftsmen IE. the sea giant sculpted the sea floor and mountain giants... made mountains and stuff. They're almost all hostile, however, though there is a friendly sea giant god in Azshara and a faction of frost giants in Storm Peaks.

** The viking-like Vrykul probably count too. While they're much smaller than the actual giants, they're still well over twice the height of humans, and even the few Vrykul who ''aren't'' serving the Lich King are every bit as aggressive as giants tend to be portrayed.

* The protagonist of ''[[Doshin the Giant]]'' is an incarnation of the sun who appears every day at dawn, and grows larger by absorbing the love and hate of humans. The love giant, Doshin, wants to help humans, while the [[Super-Powered Evil Side|hate giant]], Jashin, wants to kill them and make them suffer. He starts off 10m tall, and can reach a maximum height of 301m.

* Giants in [[The Elder Scrolls]] are usually a metaphor used for gods. Some human cultures believe they descend from giants, in contrast to the elves who outright (and arrogantly) state they descend from the gods, though they both actually believe the same thing.

* The Gigas in ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' hail from the frozen far northern continent in the world of Vana'diel. They were employed as mercenaries by the [[Big Bad|Shadow Lord]], but after the Crystal War, all the Gigas in the Middle Lands were trapped, unable to come home. They now reside almost entirely in Qufim Island and Delkfutt's Tower, although some of them are in Tavnazia or the [[Grim Up North]] areas in or around Xarcabard.

** Or stuck in Korroloka Tunnel.

* ''[[Age of Wonders]]'' features universally good-aligned giants who are close allies of the dwarves (and speculated to be ''related'' to the dwarves). Even larger and more powerful entities called Titans fight for the High Men, being creatures of intense discipline and righteousness.

* The Qunari of ''[[Dragon Age]]'' are sometimes called giants by non-Qunari, and not without good reason: they tower over the other races, common specimens being at least seven feet high. Qunari are also born with horns, though some of them have them shorn (the Saarebas Ketojan, for example), and a rare few are born entirely without them (the Sten from the first game). Also unusually for giants in fantasy games, the Qunari have a very ordered society that dictates and cements an individual's place in society based on their talents, a strong urge to spread this philosphy to the rest of the world, a spectacular grasp of gunpowder weaponry in an otherwise [[Medieval Stasis|Medieval setting]], and a caste of mages known as Saarebas who are kept [[Slave Collar|collared]] and supervised at all times to prevent [[Demonic Possession|any form of corruption]]. (word of god succinctly described them as "militant islamic borg".

** Meanwhile, the [[The Usual Adversaries|Darkspawn]] borne from Qunari women-turned-[[Mook Maker|Broodmothers]], the Ogres, are the biggest and nastiest breed of darkspawn, outgrowing true Qunari by several metres. Fortunately, there aren't any Ogre [[Elite Mooks|Emissaries]].

* In Dante's ''[[Inferno]]'' the Ninth Circle is surrounded by a wall of giants imbedded up to their waists and wrapped in chains.

** The prequel, [[Vindictus]], has a currently-unreleased giant character named Karok. He wields a ''[[Telephone Polearm|battle pillar]]'', and can use grapple attacks on bosses.

* In ''[[Disciples]]'' and its sequels, the giants are related to the [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves]], as both as children of [[Norse Mythology|Wotan]], and often fight by their side. Vithar is a giant who protects the dwarven capital from their enemies and is Wotan's right-hand man. The titans are just as big but fight for [[The Empire]] (i.e. humans). They also appear to be [[One-Gender Race|all female]]. Additionally, there are wild giants who have no allegiance to any power. They aren't too bright, but anything using a ''tree trunk'' as a club can't be useless.

* In ''[[Dungeon Siege|Dungeon Siege 2]]'', there exist Agallan Giants, a race of [[Ultimate Blacksmith|Ultimate Blacksmiths]] who live in seclusion in the mountains and are easily 50 foot tall, and a good deal wide as well. Descended from them are Half-Giants, who are more sensibly sized but still tower over any human. They are the offspring of a group of banished and cursed Agallans who lost their enormous proportions and limitless lifespan. Because the banished group had no female members, they were forced to interbreed with other species, and the result was a [[One-Gender Race]] of Half-Giants whose gene pool is doomed to be [[Dying Race|diluted into nothingness]].

* Giants in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' are armored behemoths that the gods conscripted into manual labor. While the three in Sen's Fortress don't speak and are hostile to the player, the Giant Blacksmith is a [[Gentle Giant]] that is always happy to see the player.