June 2020 - Yusuf's Almanac

Shadow of the Colossus

How did a game with an unexplained story turn into a religion over time?

Blood, young sprouts, sky—and the one with the ability to control beings created from light… In that world, it is said that if one should wish it one can bring back the souls of the dead…

Although it says “PS4 (PlayStation 4)” on the box that I am holding, Shadow of the Colossus is actually a game released for PlayStation 2 in 2005. The one in the photo is the version released for the new generation game consoles in 2018. Nothing was changed except for the graphics. The story, the environment, the dialogues, even the birds and the fish were kept the same.

Let me briefly talk about the plot of the game. Mono, a woman that the protagonist Wander cares about, was sacrificed by the tribe’s shamans, as they believe that she had a “cursed fate.” Getting angry at this, Wander steals a magic sword from his tribe and travels to the Forbidden Lands with Mono’s lifeless body. A shaman had told Wander that, in the Forbidden Lands, there was a being that could revive the dead. Coming to the Forbidden Lands with Mono’s body, the magical sword, and his horse Agro, Wander makes a deal with Dormin, the being that the shaman was talking about. Dormin asks Wander to find and kill 16 colossi living in the Forbidden Lands. If he succeeds, he promises, Mono will come back to life. So, you take control of Wander from then on and try to find and kill those 16 colossi one by one.

This is the plot in its most basic terms. So how did this game turn into a religion over time?

Colors from the Neighborhood

A study in pink.

My neighbor was watching me pretty anxiously while taking this shot, thinking I might hurt flowers in some way.

Light meter is quite tricky. I couldn’t capture the true colors of these pomegranate flowers.

Reminds me of the pomegranate tree just next to our old house. I think only my mom fancied the tree in our neighborhood. Others either left some trash beneath it or just picked off its flowers.

Kinesis

The last daisies of this spring have also faded.

It symbolizes the end of spring and the transience of delicate beauties for me. Ultimately, transience is a vital constant of life. While many things change, it is only logical to think that the substitute will also be temporary. What daisies show me is that in order to smile a little more while your life goes on, it is essential to catch these changes before their time passes.

Otherwise, how much of our life would be under our control? If I am just standing there, not trying to blend my life with the thing that I want, can that “thing” be a part of my life. If I do not try to reach it, we will only be existing within the same moment as time passes, but we will not be breaking the wall between us.

Since humankind has always been in a constant race with “time,” there is a possibility that we will not have the chance to break these walls once again. That’s why we should try to break these walls. The flowers may bloom in the next spring, but time may run out. Or even if it doesn’t, when the die is cast, it may not show the same number.

I once met someone who said that the wind could bring back what was said before, so he listened to the wind when he was alone. He said that the wind would bring him sounds from very distant lands. He would listen and hope that the wind would bring him what he wasn’t able to hear once again.

This is his story.

This Journey of Mine

Since I have defined this blog as an “almanac”, it would be only logical to start my first post, “This Journey of Mine”, with a serious description and a suitable Polaroid photo:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell says that all the mythological stories that people have read for thousands of years can be summarized with this one sentence. The heroes are called on an adventure, they overcome obstacles, and come back from this adventure; changed and grown. A character is called to destroy a ring, overcomes obstacles, grows and returns; another character is summoned to travel across the space to save humanity, helps unravel the secret of black holes and return his home more mature. This theory shows itself in many stories, but what makes me embrace this theory is something different.