Shadow of the Colossus/Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[The Archer]]: Wander is a hell of a shot with a bow {{spoiler|and in the [[New Game+]], a spear}}, but can't use a sword to save his life. See also [[Possession Implies Mastery]].

** [[Horse Archer]]

* [[Badass Normal]]: Wander stumbles often, has poor balance, is untrained with his newly-acquired magic sword, and can only hold onto ledges for no more than a few minutes, yet still manages to murder his way through a veritable menagerie of mythic monsters. On the other hand, he can shoot arrows accurately while riding at full gallop, which takes ''years'' of training in real life. He's also able to take a multi-story fall and essentially ''walk it off''.

** [[Badass Abnormal]]: Wander actually gets stronger with each Colossus he kills plus heals automatically from his wound. This strength is due to the fact that after every kill {{spoiler|he gets possessed by more of Dormin's essence.}}

* [[Bottomless Bladder]]: Wander never has to eat, drink, or do anything else throughout his long and arduous quest. His life throughout the game consists of finding and killing Colossi. On the other hand, though optional, he can eat lizards and fruit for stat boosts, and sleeps when the player isn't playing: loading a save from a shrine involves waking him up with a button press.

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: He never runs out of arrows. And he can pull them out of absolutely nowhere. If you're bored enough, try climbing a tree and firing arrow after arrow into it - eventually the arrows will teleport back to Wander's hands! And if that gets old, you can also riddle the Colossi with the ''Harpoon of Thunder''.

* [[Cursed with Awesome]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the game, Dormin possesses Wander's body completely and turns him into what is presumably Dormin's true form, which the player has full control over. The only problem is he's so big compared to the hall he's in that he can't stand up to his full height and has to crawl (slowly) and can't turn around properly. }}.

* [[Determinator]]: Is he ever; since he's not the best fighter, this is his biggest strength in fighting the Colossi.

* [[Screw Destiny]]: Whether Mono's fate was [[curse]]d or not, Wander is going to do whatever he can to reverse her death.

* [[Spell My Name with a "The"]]: Because of ambiguous characters in it, his name is variously translated as "The Wanderer", "Wander", and in what is almost certainly a mistranslation, [[Gender Blender Name|Wanda]].<ref>"Wander" and the transliteration of "Wanda" have the same characters in Japanese</ref>

* [[Tragic Monster]]: When he's possessed, at least from Lord Emon's point of view.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Lord Emon tells him that he's been used {{spoiler|just before having him shot and stabbed.}}

The object of Wander's quest is to bring her back to life after being sacrificed, and she's thus the reason he's willing to free Dormin.

 

* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Despite being a corpse exposed to the open air for the entire game Mono retains her pristine beauty. Wander, however, becomes progressively more dirty, dishevelled, and corpse-like himself with every Colossus he slays.

* [[Disturbed Doves]]: One new dove appears at Mono's shrine after each Colossus you defeat.

* [[Empty Shell]]: She's dead the entire game, and we don't know anything about her. Wander's drive to save her and someone's - possibly Emon's - use of her as a [[Human Sacrifice]] are the only hints we have as to why she may or may not have been important to these characters.

** Arguably, the [[Colossus Climb]] sections are a manifestation of this trope: the Colossi do tend to shake a lot when you're climbing on them, which often makes the climb the most difficult part of the battle.

* [[Uniqueness Value]]: What makes killing them such a [[Player Punch]], since once they're down, no one else will get to see them in their glory again.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: If you subscribe to the idea that the Colossi are not living things, or else don't technically die {{spoiler|since they seem to be fragments of Dormin's soul, each fragment of which is released when all the weak points of any one Colossus are neutralised}}. In any case, this seems to be Wander's attitude towards them.

* [[What Measure Is a Non Unique]]: Every Colossus is different. Some fierce (Cenobia, Celosia, Dirge), some majestic and powerful (Phaedra, Gaius), some terrifying (Pelagia, Quadratus). And you have to kill them all.

* [[Nightmare Face]]: The mask.

* [[Tactical Suicide Boss]]: {{spoiler|When you stand in front of him he raises his paws to crush you, leaving his weak points vulnerables.}}

 

=== Gaius - Terrestris Veritas (The Earthen Truth) ===

* [[Blade Below the Shoulder]]: The only Colossus with a melee weapon attached.

* {{spoiler|[[Didn't Need Those Anyway]]: The first thing the player needs to do is trick Gaius into breaking its own armour, leaving a gap for Wander to climb up later.}}

 

=== Phaedra - Equus Prime (The Great Warhorse) ===

** [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]: A giant horse with crab-legs.

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Up to this point, the other Colossi simply grunt or roar when you stab their vitals. Phaedra ''[[Hell Is That Noise|screams]]''.

 

=== Avion - Avis Praeda (The Delta Phoenix) ===

* {{spoiler|[[Annoying Arrows]]: Annoying enough to force it to attack you.}}

* [[Big Badass Bird of Prey]]: ''Very'' big. Its tail alone is about fifty feet long.

* [[Giant Flyer]]: It enters the arena by soaring in and perching on a tower in the middle of the lake.

* [[High Altitude Battle]]: One of the highlights of the game.

* {{spoiler|[[I Shall Taunt You]]: Just being there isn't enough to get it in reach.}}

 

=== Barba - Belua Maximus (The Goliath) ===

* [[Breath Weapon]]: Kuromuri is the first Colossus Wander meets which is capable of attacking him from a long distance. Once it spots Wander, Kuromuri's mouth glows a violent yellow and its body convulses. It then spits something that can be described as electric poison; it's a yellow, sparking bolt that, when it hits something, explodes in a cloud that Wander reacts to by covering his mouth. Stand in the cloud and Wander's health bar goes down disturbingly quickly.

* [[Deadly Gas]]: The aforementioned cloud.

* [[Technicolor Toxin]]: Yellow poison gases.

* [[Wall Crawl]]: Despite its presumably immense weight, Kuromuri can effortlessly crawl up the sides of the arena in order to reach you, though it doesn't like doing so unless you are clearly out of reach and it knows where you are. If it can see you from the ground, it'll shoot projectiles at you. If it can't, but it spotted you through one of the archery windows, it'll clamber up to poke its head through and fire off a series of shots. {{spoiler|When it does this, Wander can nip around to another vantage point and shoot arrows into its legs, or shoot its soft underbelly through the archery windows. Fire enough arrows in the right places and Kuromuri will fall, leaving its underbelly exposed.}}

{{reflist}}

 

[[Category:Characters]]