Games and Philosophy: Shadow of the Colossus and the Teleological Suspension of the Ethical 

I bet all serial killers think this lmao

I love this but I think it's a bit more symbolic about an internal journey than literal about external existence. I think that the love is not a romantic one but a universal one and the killing is symbolic. It is killing of your egos, your attachments, the worldly desires that get in the way of existing in the universal which is to love all things unconditionally.

I definitely had this sensation every time their sort of soul and essence pierced through wander.

please do more of these :D

Best explanation for the games i've heard. +1

You've awakened within me an intense desire for something I never knew I needed until now: The Bible as read by GeekyGlassesTV

Dude, how the fuck do you not have a ludicrously huge number of subscribers?

Damn, GG, totally caught me off guard... The dev's interpretation of Søren's philosophy is something I never picked up on, at least not consciously. Told my girlfriend I love her, immediately after watching. You've improved so much from an already stellar start. Intelligent, thought provoking, extremely well made and with a unique Geordie garnish of humour throughout. Easily one of the most captivating videos I've watched in a long time. Incredible work GGTV, please keep it up!

I just watched a video on "Kirky" recently. Wouldn't have expected to see him here.

Simple Bean was right, I did like this a lot. On a base level I do agree with this idea. Except I can also see a ton of critiques for making a hierarchy out of ethical/universal. Like, what if the love isn't mutual or consenting? If we bring the social element of love back into the conversation, that the social element needs to exist for it to fit the definition of love, then we bring the universal back down to the ethical. So, like most things, I'm going to go with a cop-out and say that the moral is most likely an evolving conversation between the ethical and the universal. If the universal takes president over the ethical, then we will still need the ethical to either determine if someone was truly acting in the interest of the universal, or if they were being simply unethical, or if the ethical needs to change in response to seeing a case of someone more clearly exposing the universal.

Oh man, this one is amazing. Amazing idea, good analogs, and kick-ass accent.

This is a great analysis. But I wish to make a suggestion: Love may not be the only emotion in the Universal. What makes love fundamentally different from the other emotions? It’s more positive? Let’s say that no emotion is inherently or conceptually good nor bad. They can only be seen as bad in the eyes of society when the individual selfishly validates the emotions. In other words, when to validate their emotions they did so at the expense of somebody. The protagonist of “Shadow of the Colossus” basically did this. He went on a bloodthirsty campaign in order to save his girl, thus validating his love for her but at the expense of the creatures & humans. However, this selfish act is rewarded. Based off of that, we can say that love shouldn’t be put on a pedestal above the other emotions. If we agree that all emotions are fundamentally equal, then that means they all exist outside of the *Ethical* & within the *Universal*. Let’s use anger, a commonly frowned upon emotion, as an example. Some random fuck walks up to you & kicks you in the balls. In a fit of confusion & rage, you pull out your gun & shoot them dead. You will obviously be judged by the *Ethical*(aka Society) & be labeled as evil. However, in the realm of the *Universal*, you merely acted selfishly to validate your emotion(s). Thus, you can’t be judged as good/evil. With these premises(1- All emotions are equal. 2- All emotions exist outside of the *Ethical* & within the *Universal*. 3- the protagonist selfishly sought to validate his love), then we can conclude that to exist within the *Universal*, one must forgo societal opinion & be willing to act selfishly to validate their emotions. Was I philosophizing or just bullshitting?(as if you’re reading lol) LET ME KNOW

Not seen any of your other videos. This was good. Not entirely sure I agree with you, but I get it, and you bring up some interesting points. Despite loving almost every aspect of Shadow, that killing seemingly-innocent beings thing never sat well with me. And you've interpreted that in a new and thought-provoking way. It is a different, some would even say better, sort of 'nobility,' or 'goodness,' that drives Abraham to agree to kill his beloved son Isaac, even though nothing less than God asking for that would get him to do so. But I'm not so sure I could do that, as I'm incredibly opposed to murder. (Back in Biblical times it didn't seem to be such a big deal some of the time. Perhaps back then life was cheap? Personally I don't really hold with that, but what do I know?) Perhaps if God asked me to murder even, say, my worst enemy, I would still say 'no, my gut tells me that murder is wrong.' And maybe that would be 'passing the test,' the way Abraham passed it? That actually brings up an interesting point. Maybe, to someone like myself, it would be harder to murder my worst enemy than the person I love most in the world? Maybe both feel like I'm being tested by God, and to pass the test I have to murder the one I love most, and spare the one I love least? Choose the action that's hardest to do? That sort of reasoning suggests the answer to the question, 'Is there one ultimate rule we can learn and follow in order to be perfectly moral beings?' is, 'No.' I mean, of course the answer would normally be 'no,' because context can change everything, but I'm going further than that. Perhaps it's possible to even find a 'rule of perfect morality,' that accounts for context. If so, even such a rule, I feel, would struggle to cope with the above situation. (Which is a bit annoying, because the OCD part of me really wants one good rule here...)

Nice commentary, but I disagree with Kierkegaard's thesis. It's easy to hide behind a greater purpose and a greater moral level to justify everything. Terrorists are driven by faith and a greater purpose as well, can we say their actions are justified? They are exactly like Abraham eventually, and no matter their faith, all of them remain dicks. In SotC, it's hard to guilt Wander in the first place, but not because he acts because of his probable love for Monod, but because the game maintains the ambiguity about who is/are the good guy(s), if there's any. Is Dormin a terrible death god sealed away because of the danger it represents for life, and Lord Emon the hero of the story just trying to save the world no matter the price? If that's true and Wander knows it, he is criminal. But we can also see Dormin as a neutral entity who masters life as death, was just locked because of the fear a bunch of fanatics had for what they didn't understand, and who's just trying to find freedom. In this case, there's nothing wrong in Wander's quest to save Monod. In any case, we can understand Wander's action as we can find reasons to Abraham's or terrorits', but this is by no means a justification (hi Nier: Automata) By the way, in both case, Emon will never be justified for what is cult did to Monod, no matter the cause, you can't justify the murder of a human being (hello Last of Us this time)

Amazing video. Seriously this was fantastic. I just finished this masterpiece of a video game recently and your video just brought a whole new appreciation for it.

Very interesting perspective, I thought I knew everything about this game but this video is different from all the other analysis. good job!

This was great, I'm always glad to see good content on SotC!

This is one of the best videos regarding this game I've seen so far. Amazing.

shitty things in the name of a perceived worthy cause are still shitty

wrong point of view, mono sacrified is the main reason for wander do what he do,the colossi are not live beings, they are incarnated seals to broke the idols, that´s what dormin says and he dosen´t lie. colossi appear one by one whitout a trail. the game tell us self-sacrifice is worth it. sacrifice is unacceptable, you can't claim that wanda is a killer(he´s not), when you eating meat for taste in real life or not? fact, dormin is NIMROD.

@2:02 “And ehh.. I *am* God so y’know.. ya kinda have to.” 💀💀

Please keep doing these, they're really really good.

As a Christian, it's so nice to click on a video and not have to immediately close it because the presenter just wants to shit talk the Bible. Thumbs up and a share is coming your way. This is an amazing way to contextualize and modernize Biblical stories and show the complex possibilities of video games. A+ and gold star!

I always thought of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus had a biblical fable feel to it. Your analysis is the best I've seen. More like this please :)

Doing good work, friend. This parallel is very well drawn out, and well explained. A leap of faith is not necessary for my like and subscribe!

This was 4 years ago? Wow.

Good interpretation.

That's very interesting... But if you kill innocent people to save a person you love, then you're still doing something evil. Kirky was just weird.

this a big reason why adore this game so much. I want to love someone as much as wander loves mono

Love it, mate! Keep up the good work!

This shit is hilarious

holy.... shit

this is so weird.. i just today was playing this game again and you make this amazing video.. thanks for uploading it

That tongue twister of a title though.

Reminds me of stuff from the "Jekyll" tv series.

Dude, great job. I really love it when someone has the ability to break down the ultimate meaning behind a story. This is one of those great stories that has an underlining meaning and they stuck to it quite hard. Great job explaining this. Keep it up!

I only now realized Isaac is mentioned in this, haha nice or maybe I missed this episode when I came out first.

When you first described this to me as your most pretentious video yet and gave a short description I thought it was just a bit silly. I then ended up watching it all and holy shit, I'm on board like. well played.

Really Cool Video 👍🏿👌🏿👌🏿

How can I NOT click on a title like that?

This is your best video yet! This is the reason I subscribed to you; this video has given me new found appreciation for Isaac in the Bible. Although you have said some great things, I would like to emphasise a parallel. In the story with Isaac it is written that once he became aware of the sacrifice, he was for the most part passive. At 5:24 you mention how to Colossi are mostly passive. Could this be a further parallel that once both Isaac and the Colossi realized they were being slain for "True love" that they then became passive because they knew their deaths would be for the greater good: unconditional love? Please respond.

Fantastic write up, great insight.

Just to inform you, the picture at 0:23 is of the danish author H. C. Andersen, not Søren Kirkegaard, haha

excellent.mate

More like this! Fantastic video.

Deep....

why would the horn have anythong to do with evil? the horns mean uniqueness, specialty.

This was fantastic! Thanks!

Probably one of the best videos I've seen in ages! One of my favourite gams, fave on PS2 easily and the critique is spot on :)

4:00 😦 y?

more of this please.

congrats on the 12k subs.

Does this apply to Cap in Civil War?

great stff man..certainly not for every one even though you nailed it..again..great stuff :)

The video essays are great, I'd be glad to see more of them.

this was really cool and interesting :) i loved it

Good thoughts, I agree, thumbs up, and subscribe... But... In the context of the game are the colossi not fragments of Dormin? So what ethical dilemma is there in killing them? Can it even be called murder? o.O?

Wow, that's some awesome contextualizing. Not sure it necessarily speaks canon but that's the nature of this game. Fantastic piece.

These are awesome. Please don't stop making them.

Dude, I love you. Thank you for making these videos.

This video was amazinnnnng

loved the idea, I've never looked at it that way

Love this

*slow claps*

That story of Abraham and Isaac was foreshadowing for Christ’s crucifixion

Also fun fact: Isaac wasn’t abrahams first born

First, God never wanted Abraham to kill Isaac, it was a test of obedience. He followed through up until, but stopped him, seeing his faith. Isaac was always meant to carry on his line and was told so. Just where does it say that the colossi are alive? I could have sworn that the point of the entire thing was Wander's self sacrifice in the end (hints of this by becoming a demon progressively). Not the greatest video observation.