Three of my favorite games I have played ever since the Playstation 2 and Xbox era, were Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. The third one came out for the PS4 is The Last Guardian. Albeit bad game play mechanics and the controls feel off for a modern console, the story is compelling, heartfelt, and bittersweet. The whole lore and back story are all interesting and captivating to each and every one of those games. Here is my take and theory on how all the games are connected. This is purely just observational and my own opinion not factual evidence so take it as you may. I love hearing people's inputs and I do love to hear other gamers thoughts on this fantastic trilogy.
For a person who has just recently played the Shadow of the Colossus remake and going back to beat the Last Guardian for a second time, I'm really interested in what people think how all three games are related. I do agree that The Last Guardian does feel more like a sequel to the original two games but I have heard a lot of people say that is a prequel to Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. I do believe it is a sequel due to the insane amounts of technology given to keep the Tricos at bay, having more of a hive mind AI controlling the Nest, and the goo or essence that is in the barrels is somehow connected to all that.
But I would I like to expand on my theory. There is speculation and a backstory out there written by Fumito Ueda himself before Shadow of the Colossus went from having 24 colossi down to 16, that Dormin is not really a single entity or being that was trapped inside of the colossi. His original script included that the Dormin was actually a race of people that tried to be like gods. They once inhabited the Forbidden Lands (SOTC) and they slain all the colossi, these once peaceful neutral behemoths because they wanted to be like gods. After having slain these colossi, these Dormin started to fuel their shadow selves and began to mold together. Before you know it, these Dormin after destroying and bringing down colossi over colossi began to fuse and combine together to form what we see in Shadow of the Colossus. (And this makes a lot of sense if you play SOTC we see not only the remains of the Forbidden Land but also the remains of the fallen colossi that they destroyed because they wanted to be like the most high, the divine, etc. Also Ueda originally wanted 48 colossi, cut down to 24, and the finished product was 16. So imagine the Forbidden Lands with all this prosperity and colossi helping form all these magnificent buildings, shrines, palaces only to be halted and turned into ruins just because these Dormin were power hungry. I do believe that these are the original inhabitants of the Nest acting like that but I'm going to take it one step further...)
When the events happen in Shadow of the Colossus, Lord Eman encases these Dormin into idols that represent the colossi they destroyed. Therefore they become these shadows encapsulated and writhing in these idols that Lord Eman had split them into 16 different parts. And the remaining colossi, that the Dormin have not slain, all have symbols upon their bodies, their so-called weak points, holding the Dormin inside of these giants. I think by now a lot of people have played this game so we know how the story goes but by the end these Dormin all come back divided (notice on how every colossi defeated each Dormin member is separated) but they fuse all into one once they use the body of Wander (which is what they wanted originally to become like gods, now they can do so due to a host body, they even say "We have borrowed this boy's body.) This is what Lord Eman feared and it was from a selfish act on Wander's part to give the Dormin what they wanted to become like a god, which they realized could be done on a mortal plane not an immortal one. When the game ends Lord Eman casts the Sword of Light into the pool, which separates the Dormin piece by piece (actually we can notice this because at the end of the game when Wander is dragged into the pool, not all of Dormin gets thrown in but starts to shed which is all the individual Dormin getting thrown into the pool of water which is the ritual Lord Eman knew what had to be done...he knew by separating these Dormin was the only way they could not attain their power, they wanted to be like a god and the only way they could do that is by fusing all together. It is just that they needed a mortal body to complete the "ritual.")
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Backstory to Ico - Shadow of the Colossus - The Last Guardian: a personal theory
FanfictionSomething I decided to write because I am a huge fan of these three great games that have inspired me to become a better writer.
