The Colossus[1] is an enormous Atlesian mech under command of Special Operative Caroline Cordovin that was first introduced in "Stealing from the Elderly". Its purpose is to defend the city of Argus if giant Grimm were to attack the city from the ocean. While not in use it is stored inside the Argus Military Base.
Appearance[]
The Colossus is as tall as the Atlesian Military Base situated in Argus. It has a stocky build, with a rectangular cockpit and long, armored legs. Its left arm has a joint and a hand with two fingers and a thumb. Its right arm is a cannon with rotary slots, and a large blade is fitted to the back. All but one of the rotary slots in its right arm contains a form of Dust which can be utilized to fire either beams of Dust or large explosve blasts. The rotary slot without Dust is a retractable missile pod, which can fire multiple warheads simultaneously once exposed.
Features and Capabilities[]
The Colossus has a cannon in place of its right arm with several rotary slots. Each slot contains a type of Dust for the cannon to fire, excluding one which opens up to fire missiles. The mech can also generate a shield of Hard-Light Dust from a shield generator on the back, which can form barriers all over the mech - most notably over the left hand. The Colossus can also transform its hand into a large drill for close combat.
Despite its lumbering size and bulky shape, the machine is notably very fast, able to run and lunge over great distances in the water.
History[]
The Colossus is something of a relic of a bygone era, having been developed during the "old Atlas" days, thus having Atlas' old colors – grey and bronze.[2] Currently, it is positioned in the city of Argus. The machine was deployed as a coastal defense weapon to defend Argus from giant aquatic Grimm.
In "The Grimm Reaper", the right foot of the Colossus is seen on top of a building in the base.
The Colossus is fully seen in "Stealing from the Elderly". Rather than scrambling fighters, the Argus Military Base opens up to reveal the mech, piloted by Caroline Cordovin herself. She fires a warning shot at the Manta airship Weiss Schnee and Maria Calavera hijacked, temporarily disrupting its electrical systems. Refusing to let the two escape, Cordovin continues her pursuit of the airship.
In "The Lady in the Shoe" and "Seeing Red", the mech battles Ruby Rose, Weiss, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Qrow Branwen, Oscar Pine and Maria. While fighting the Colossus, Qrow and Ren disable the hard-light shield by destroying its generator in the back of the body, before Ruby disables the cannon, just as a Leviathan attacks Argus.
Young Cordovin and the Colossus on an Atlas military poster
In "Our Way", Cordovin manages to cut off the damaged cannon and proceeds to kill the Leviathan while it is encased in stone by using the mech's drill. Afterward, Cordovin allows Ruby and her team to leave while she proceeds to join the other airships in finishing off the Grimm.
In "Ultimatum", the subway in Atlas features a promotional poster of the Atlas Military with Cordovin and the Colossus.
Trivia[]
- The Colossus is based on the Iron Giant from the Iron Giant animated film.[3]
- Its giant drill attack on the Leviathan is based on the anime Gurren Lagann.[3], which is also the favorite anime of Kerry Shawcross, RWBY's showrunner and co-creator.
- The Colossus vaguely resembles a leather boot, which fits with Cordovin's allusion to the Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.
- The fight between Ruby's Group and the Colossus was inspired by the boss fight against the giant machine Engels from Nier: Automata.[3]
- The Colossus was originally planned to be introduced in "Breach" along with Caroline Cordovin in an earlier draft of the episode.[3]
- RWBY: Amity Arena Card Bio:
- The greatest anti giant-Grimm weapon ever created in Remnant. The Colossus is almost as great an achievement as our floating city. Argus shall never fall as long as the Colossus stands even if a leviathans were to attack it.
References[]
- ↑ "Our Way" Episode Description
- ↑ Soctt Zenteno's Twitter
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
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