Shadow of the Colossus/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


As a reminder, Fridge moments are individual to each Troper. Please sign your contributions.

Fridge Brilliance

  • So, Dormin speak in butchered, improper archaic, which is kind of funny. But then, it hit me: how long have They been sealed? They've probably half-forgotten how to speak in Wander's language! - Sparky Lurkdragon
    • That, or they've been sealed so long that the language they're speaking is a much, much more ancient form of the language the 'humans' speak, sort of like comparing how people talked in Shakespearian times to today. Language evolves. And if you have no one to talk to for god knows how long, the changes can be even more drastic.
  • You know those rumors about a seventeenth colossus? Total crock, right? That is until you realize that during the final battle, Wander becomes the final Colossus while under Dormin's influence!
  • For all of the fridge logic entries below, remember when at the end it turns out dormin orchestrated everything so that he could be restored? The collossi, being the scattered parts of Dormin (subconciously or not) WANTED Wander to kill them so that their essence could be released and gathered in one place, thus giving new life to their true form
  • One of the first things I noticed while playing Shadow of the Colossus was how clumsy the Wander's animation is--he runs like he's going to fall over, and his sword swings are ungainly and poorly balanced. I beat the first few Colossi before i realized--he was basically a child. He didn't understand what he was doing to the colossi. The actual story of the game became a lot more potent after that. -Shellocity]
    • Wander is described as being a young man, and certainly looks and acts like someone at least in his late teens. This troper simply took these details as pointing to the fact that he was a fairly average guy. While an excellent horseman and archer, his sword skills are nearly nonexistent. His stamina also helps to point toward his nomadic nature, hence his name.
  • Here's a subtle one, that I didn't notice until I started a second play-through (to do the challenge stages). Every time Wander defeats a colossus and gets inundated with the dark... um, whatever it is, he wakes up in the Temple. What I've noticed is that each time he does this, he changes a little. His skin gets more pale, his hair darkens, and he starts to get rather gaunt. By the end of the game, he literally looks like death warmed over -- given what happens, that's probably pretty close to literal. -User:Lone Paladin
  • This is one that a friend actually helped me stumble upon. I was playing the game when he remarked "This game is lonely. Like, there are no towns or anything." It hit me then; the gamespace is supposed to be a representation of Wander's loneliness. It also amused me to think about how I/Wander did not have notice this loneliness because of the goals before us but an outside observer could see it clear as day. Incidently, in my mind the gamespace is a better representation of Hell than the fire and brimestone representation as we have yet to find a torture quite as effective as complete isolation. -overthinkin' it
  • The Colossi all have weak points in the form of glowing symbols, which spew black blood when stabbed. Wander has that symbol on the back of his tabard. When Wander becomes a pseudo-Colossus and is attacked by Lord Emon's men, he's stabbed through the chest--through the symbol on his back--and a spray of black blood shoots out.
  • What does Wander turn into at the end? The Shadow of the Collossus!
  • Okaaaay, so the food items are fruit, that makes sense...and geckos. Wha? Why not the birds? Birds are generally eaten more often lizards by most peoples... Then you realize--the stat you're improving, by eating geckos? Your climbing ability.

Fridge Logic

WARNING - UNMARKED SPOILERS

  • Some of the stuff the colossi do is self-defeating. Hydrus is evidently a deep water creature, only coming up to take a closer look at Wander. Wander can grab its tail when it does so. Hydrus' next move, one might think, would be to dive down and force Wander to let go. Instead, Hydrus heads straight for the surface and spends several minutes rising above and sinking below the surface repeatedly. Handy for Wander, admittedly, but unless you're fast, Hydrus will at some point discover the benefit of diving deep. Why does it then persist in what looks like such a counter-intuitive tactic when you grab it a second time? - Blue Chameleon
  • Dirge doesn't need to open its eyes. It proves, repeatedly and conclusively, that it is quite capable of tracking Wander and Agro while it is blind in the sand. - Blue Chameleon
  • Pelagia's strategy requires you to trick it into rearing up so that its belly is exposed. Once you stab the weak spot enough times, Pelagia gets angry and destroys the building you were using to trick it into rearing up on its hind legs. Why didn't it just do that initially? It would have been the work of a few moments to destroy the building and either expose Wander or let him get crushed in the ruins. Yet, it felt the need to rear up on its hind legs and peer over the top at him. - Blue Chameleon
  • Phalanx lowers its fins at low altitude. Since it otherwise seems perfectly capable of lifting them out of range, it raises the question of why it chooses, at the one height when it is vulnerable to Wander, to lower them so that he can easily take advantage of them. - Blue Chameleon
    • Perhaps it lowers its fins to keep from crashing to the ground, as its air sacs take some time to heal and fill back up again. - Icy Legend
  • Many of the colossi fall for the same convoluted trick at least twice during your battle with them, apparently unable to learn from first experiences what even the most basic of life forms could 'learn' in one encounter. The worst offenders are those mentioned above. Are they terminally slow learners by nature? - Blue Chameleon
    • For all those above, I imagine that they ARE slow learners; they seem to run mostly on pure instinct.
  • It gets even more disturbing when you stop to think that at least 3 of the Colossi require you to go directly into the palm of their hands in order to get to the weak point and yet they never decide to do the logical thing and clench their fist thus ending the life of the protagonist.
    • What about when you're in the fist of Malus? You know, the fist that generates the fireballs?
  • Assuming each of the colossi house part of Dormin's essence/soul and that each colossus displays an aspect of Dormin's personality, it could be that the part of Dormin that speaks to Wander represents reason, after all it gives you hints on how to defeat the colossi and it explains why they don't revise their strategy: they simply have no power of reasoning.
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