Giant

Giant

Alias: Chichi
Other Characters?: None
Movie: The Iron Giant
Group: Hero

Here I Go: Personality: The term "gentle giant" is usually applicable to the Giant, even if his original purpose for being created would have made him anything but 'gentle'. Most of the time, he is friendly and playful- much like a young child would be. However, he is also extremely carefull, never wishing to hurt or cause harm to anyone or anything. Now knowing the value of life and the concept of a "soul", he is brave and unafraid to face danger that may involve destroying himself, if it means saving the ones he loves (and in some cases, strangers). He models himself after Superman, after all! When angered, he would still refrain from hurting someone, perhaps only frightening them to show he is displeased by what they've done. However, the Giant does have a darker side to him, as he wasn't originally made for fun and games. When he recognizes something as a weapon, he seems to become what he was meant to be by his creator(s)- a weapon, himself. In this state, much similar to a human being in a trance or being hypnotized, as he forgets who he is and even who his friends are. It's likely that he wouldn't stop merely at eliminating weapons, although this isn't to say he can't stop himself- it's just particularly difficult to snap out of this state once, he's in it. When he recovers from this, he is always terrified that he may have hurt someone, and traumatized that he put people in danger. In short, he is a very sweet and loveable person as long as there aren't any weapons nearby.

History:The Giant crash-landed off the coast of Rockwell, Maine, where he received a large dent in his head that gave him a permanent case of amnesia. Only knowing basic instincts at the time to keep himself alive, the Giant knew that he had to eat metal. After devouring a television antennae, he set off for the power station- inadvertantly leaving a trail for Hogarth (from who's house he had eaten the antennae) to follow. Luckily, the boy did follow after him, as when he attempted to eat power generators he was thrown back by it's tremendous force- only to then become entangled in power lines. Hogarth, instead of running away terrified and leaving the Giant to die, rescued him by turning off the power grid. Though Hogarth didn't know it at the time, the Giant made carefull note of this.

The next day, Hogarth sucessfully lured the Giant out of hiding by placing a scrap of metal in an open area. The Giant, curious about the creature who had saved him copied his every movement: running, falling, "wigging out", and even attempting to talk- which he was clearly not programmed for, as he did so with great difficulty. Hogarth taught him some trivial things, such as what a rock and tree were, while deciding what to do with him- though he eventually decided to keep him a secret. Though Hogarth ordered the Giant to stay put, the robot still attempted to follow him home. While doing so, the Giant grew hungry and tried to eat train tracks, not knowing that this would cause an accident. To Hogarth's horror, a train was about to come across the tracks and face certain demise if the Giant didn't put them back together. Unfortunetly, the robot tried to be precise in placing them together, which caused the train to collide with him.

The Giant, now broken into peices, terrified Hogarth as he thought his "own giant robot" was now dead and would be discovered. He was amazed and relieved to watch as a repair signal was emitted from an antennae atop his head- (eventually) beckoning all of his peices back together again in the safety of Hogarth's barn. While in the barn, Hogarth offered to read him a "bedtime story"- showing him his collection of comic books. The Giant, a bit upset at the comic of "Atomo", a destruction-bringing robot, becomes fascinated with the story of "Superman"- another alien who landed on Earth and became a "good guy", as Hogarth had put it.

Hogarth, realizing the Giant needed more food, lead him to the outskirts of Rockwell, where he was almost allowed to eat a rusty truck until Dean McCoppin, of McCoppin scrap towed the car away. However, Hogarth led the Giant to the scrapyard owned by Dean, and even convinced the "artist who [sold] junk" to keep him there for a night.The next day, the Giant, Hogarth, and even Dean had some fun in the scrapyard and at the lake. That was, before Hogarth and the Giant witnessed a deer being shot in the forest. Here, the Giant was told by Hogarth what a 'gun' was, as well as the concept of death. The robot became quite saddened after this, clearly upset about the event he'd witnessed. Hogarth attempted to help him understand, telling him that "It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die." and that all things die. Even himself and Hogarth. However, Hogarth then explained what souls were, that even the Giant had one- along with everything good in the universe, and that they never, ever die.

Later, after being interrogated by Kent Mansley, Hogarth warns Dean and the Giant that the army was coming for the robot. However, Dean managed to disguise the Giant as an enormous metal statue, which fooled the army as well as get Kent in hot water. As the army (and Kent) leave, both the Giant and Hogarth began to play in the junkyard again. However, things took a turn for the worse when Hogarth used a toy gun. As the Giant now realized what guns were, what they could do, and overall that they were a weapon, it seemed to trigger a defense mechanism. Thinking that the toy was all too real, he recognized the toy as a weapon and a threat, and tried to eliminate the weapon entirely- narrowly missing Hogarth. Dean, thinking that the Giant had attacked him spontaneously, called him "a walking gun", which hurt and devastated the Giant. Traumatized by the fact that he'd almost killed his friend, the Giant ran away. However, after he did so, Dean realized that the Giant only reacted to the gun, and ran after him with Hogarth.

While running away, the Giant heard two boys screaming for help, as they were dangling off the edge of a building and about to fall to their deaths. Catching the boys just in time, the Giant then earns the townspeoples' trust and amazement , as they realized that the Giant never meant any harm after all. The army, now seeing the Giant out in the open and thinking that it was attacking the town, attempted to destroy the Giant- not knowing that meanwhile Hogarth is in the Giant's hand. After being shot straight out of the sky and experiencing a landing that wasn't as rough for him as it was for Hogarth, the boy was knocked unconcious. The Giant misinterpreted this as death, and his despair turned into anger, which was then mixed with the fact that the military was still attacking him.

Becoming a super-weapon himself, the Giant began to destroy tanks and attack without holding back. When Hogarth recovered, the Giant was so immersed in merely attacking that he even initially failed to recognize the boy, until he mentioned that "You are who you choose to be.". The Giant returned to normal, and the military stopped firing at him after hearing Dean's explanation of why the Giant attacked in the first place. Kent, very caught up in the moment and possibly beggining to go a bit insane, fired the missle which would not only obliterate the Giant, but the town as well.

When Hogarth explained to the Giant that when the bomb landed, everyone would die, the robot realized what he had to do. In a manner much like that of his own hero, Superman, the Giant left Hogarth with parting words; "I fix. You stay, I go. No following.". Hogarth told the Giant he loved him, before the robot rocketed into the Earth's upper atmosphere and collided with the missle- all the while remembering Hogarth's words "You are who you choose to be." before uttering "Superman" and being blown apart.

Months later back in Rockwell, a memorial statue by Dean has been erected in the Giant's honor and Hogarth recieved the only recovered part of the Giant- the bolt from his jaw. That night, Hogarth awoke to the sou,d of a small beeping noise- amazed and delighted to realize that somehow, somewhere in the world (Langjokull Glacier, Iceland to be exact), the Giant was still alive and repairing himself.

RP Sample:

(From an old site where I used to play the Giant.)
Relieved when the woman woke up, the Giant smiled and sat down on the ground, still trying not to shake the rocks. He was beggining to be able to tell when someone was afraid of him or not now, and he certainly didn't want this womman running away already. It seemed to make others a bit less nervous when he seemed shorter, so sitting down was a good bet. He wondered if the woman lived around here, or if she was traveling somewhere, too.

At her question about the rocks, the Giant shook his head, glancing at them for a moment or two before turning back to the woman. He was reminded of when Hogarth was teaching him what rocks and trees were, though he was quick to pick up many different things in the language and eventually able to speak whole sentances- just not all that often. "Not mine." The Giant said slowly, as he hadn't spoken to anyone else for a while, now.

"You have...name?" He asked, just as slowly- as if he was remembering each individual word with a tiny bit of difficulty. Though he understood words quite well, he couldn't speak them as easily. The Giant moved his hand towards her slowly and cautiously, as if she was made of glass and might break. "...Won't hurt you. I protect." The Giant said, a proud grin on his metallic face. He enjoyed trying to model himself after Superman.