Inktober Day 12 - Yorda’s Mother
I've spent over a decade wanting to draw The Queen from ICO and I failed. I blame the eyes. Still, it's good I finally have something for one of the most beautiful games ever made.
Fighting in Ico was very limited, and clearly not the focus of the game as it was in its spiritual successor/prequel. The game was very much about navigating the castle and puzzle solving, and the escort mission that would endear many to the game's characters.
Yet the enemies were there, and they provide a bit of mystery to speculate on. What are those shadow creatures, exactly, and why do they serve the Queen? How did she come to wear such a cloak of shadows?
The List
For the purposes of this post, the enemies will fall into one of three categories:
The Queen
The Shadow Creatures
The Shadow Horned Children
The villagers we see at the beginning of the game escorting Ico to his prison are clearly not friends, but I can't credit them with any truly malicious intentions. They are doing what they think is best for the village, as misguided and ignorant as the decision is. Because of this (and the fact we don't see them after the opening), they won't be mentioned again in this post.
So, with that out of the way, let's tackle each category in turn, beginning with the Queen.
The Queen
As the only antagonist who speaks, is human, and acts as a boss in the game, Her Dark Majesty holds a unique role in the story. She is the mother of Yorda, undisputed ruler of the castle, and seeker of immortality. She also wields a dark power and commands the shadow creatures, which, as I've speculated on before, are related to Dormin.
Yet, based on some of her actions within the game, it seems she doesn't know everything. Her attitude toward Ico in particular is revealing, as she was very dismissive of him when she first met him.
"She lives in a different world than some boy with horns!" - The Queen, directed at Ico
Indeed, she seems completely unconcerned about Ico beyond the fact that he is attempting to free Yorda, her future vessel, from the castle. How could this be, if she knows enough to be capable of wielding her dark power, commanding an army of shadow creatures, and cheating death?
The simplest answer I can think of is that by the time she came around, the full knowledge of these matters had been lost, if anyone fully understood them at all. The ruling class held some of the knowledge regarding the forces at work, and eventually someone - namely the Queen - exploited matters to achieve a form of immortality. Based on the state of the castle and it's abandoned nature, it seems likely that the body we see was not the body she was born with, and Yorda was not the first victim.
But what happened afterward? The castle is abandoned, there are no signs of any settlements nearby that we can see (we have no idea how far the villagers had ridden to reach the castle), and the castle itself is in an advanced state of disrepair. What happened to the castle inhabitants?
The Shadow Creatures
I've speculated before that Dormin's essence - Their power - is inherently life giving. Well, a power that breaks the barrier of life and death may also be able to take a form of its own when commanded to, right?
That's all I really think the shadow creatures you face for most of the game are: beings born of the Queen's cloak with a single driving directive to follow: ensure that Yorda does not escape the castle.
The question then becomes, what happens when they die? All we see is that their eyes cease to glow and they dissipate like smoke. Does that power return to the Queen? Is that power just lost? Or does it end up somewhere else entirely?
This is a question I still haven't been able to puzzle out a satisfying answer for, since any answer could be 'right.' Consider it a hole in my theory or that my theory is incomplete if you must, but I just can't make up my mind about it.
The Shadow Horned Children
In one of the most tragic scenes in the game, Ico fights these shadow versions of himself, who never try to harm him and, when struck, dissipate, with their floating 'remains' entering one of the sarcophagi, which then glow.
Their connection to Ico is pretty clear, and Ico being a descendant of Wander is a confirmed fact. In light of the ending of Shadow of the Colossus, this can lead to some very interesting theories.
Collected over generations of sacrifice, these shadow horned children are the individuated expressions of the driving collective consciousness of Dormin, kept separate and unable to form a single entity. They are aware of or can somehow sense that Ico is of the same line, and this is why they do not wish to harm him. They also seem drawn to Yorda, but whether they are under the sway of the Queen or are acting of their own initiative is impossible to guess.
Conclusion
So there you have it. All of the expressions of power and the supernatural are related to Dormin. Questions are comments are always welcome, and I hope you look forward to my next post.
