GIANTS
The giants of Greek and Roman mythology are covered here. See also Titans.
Berserk Ogre -- Boss Troll -- Fire Gigas -- Giant -- Giant Soldier -- Hill Gigas -- Ice Gigas -- Iron Giant -- Ogre -- Ogre Chief -- Ogre Mage -- Sea Troll -- Troll -- Thunder Gigas
The giant is one of the most widespread mythical creatures, if not the most widespread. Variations are found in stories worldwide. This one's a giant in name only - he's not much bigger than the other characters. The size of his sprite means that it's impossible to tell whether he's a Norse giant, Mayan giant, Fijian giant or whatever. As such, he's simply a generic giant.
IMAGE: Illustration of a giant from Grimm's Fairy Tales
The gigantes (singular gigas) were the Greek giants - they included the hecatoncheires and cyclopes. I would've put them on the upcoming page on the Greek and Roman giants if it weren't for the fact that the FF gigantes owe more to Dungeons and Dragons than classical mythology. D&D divides giants into a number of groups, including fire, hill, frost and storm. Similar distinctions are found in legends, however: Greek mythology has the fire-breathing Kakos and Typhon, and Norse mythology has the frost giants, the first of whom, Ymir, was formed from ice, and his descendants from his sweat, and the firey giant Surt who will burn the world at Ragnarok, the Norse Armageddon.
IMAGES: Ancient Greek depiction of the gods at war with the heka-gigantes (the giants born from Uranus' blood) -- A fire giant from D&D -- A hill giant from D&D -- A frost giant from D&D -- A storm giant from D&D
This monster should not be confused with The Iron Giant, a 1999 animated film. While the 1968 book it was based on has been republished under the same title, it was originally called The Iron Man, and so was unlikely to have inspired FF2's Iron Giant. Rather, it got its name from the simple fact that it's an armoured giant, or possibly a large metal golem.
Ogres are man-eating giants found in European folktales, while ogre mages are from D&D. D&D ogres also have chieftains, which may have inspired FF's ogre chiefs.
IMAGES: A D&D ogre -- An ogre mage from D&D
Trolls are from Scandinavian folklore, and are usually thought to be be giants (hence their inclusion on this page) but actually coem in all shapes and sizes - for example, when the carcass of an unidentified beaver-like animal fell from the sky onto a Swedish town during a thunderstorm (which is bizarre in itself) in 1708, townspeople believed that it was a troll. A troll's precise characteristics are hard to define - the ones that appear in the famous folktales The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Boots and the Troll could easily have been simply savage humans. Sea trolls are most likely derived from the marine scrags (saltwater trolls) from D&D, and it's possible that boss trolls were inspired by the fact that D&D's trolls have tribal chieftains.
IMAGES: A D&D troll -- A scrag - aquatic troll - from D&D
Back to...GIANT
FIRE GIGAS, HILL GIGAS, ICE GIGAS, THUNDER GIGAS
IRON GIANT
OGRE, BESERK OGRE, OGRE CHIEF, OGRE MAGE
TROLL, BOSS TROLL, SEA TROLL
INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES
BY GAME
GROUPS
