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I made a similar thread the past month, but I have a few more scans now and explanations that I believe would constitute as definitive evidence of what I argued on said thread.
Namely, Gaia from God of War should be rated as being a Conceptual Embodiment and as having Type 2 Abstract Existence. The scans are as below:
Gaia's spirit herself manifests to Kratos, where she states that she is the ever-present representation of Earth and that she has been with him through all the events of his life. In fact, it is stated that the trees, earth, and rocks are Gaia herself, and that she is there with them:
In an official documentary, the developers state the following about Gaia's standing on God of War:
In other words, Gaia is the earth. She is its quintessential, most perfect representation. Gaia's existence is important and necessary for the continued existence of the world, since she was born as soon as the world was born, if not perhaps even before that ((all of this is literally what the word "quintessential" means). Starts to become even more abstract-sounding.
They also comment around this timestamp that this is what allows Gaia to be the literal narrator of the games and their storyline themselves, without it being a Fourth-Wall break. Because Gaia is literally the Earth itself and thus she can be there with Kratos at all times. David Jaffe comments a bit on this, and Cory Barlog comments on Gaia's "future plans" for Kratos. One might ask what that means?
Kratos uses the power of the Mirrors of Time in order to travel back through time, and he meets Gaia's avatar - more than one thousand years before the events of the game. Gaia recognizes him instantaneously, for she knows of his existence and is aware of her own plan.
This further shows that Gaia is a conceptual representation, and puts the previous statement of time ceasing to have meaning when it comes to Gaia entering her true, non-corporeal form into more context. Gaia, no matter whether it's future or past, is the earth, and thus she knows of absolutely everything that has happened, or will happen in the future.
The only reason why she was not able to know that Kratos would betray her is because Kratos was starting to unlock the Power of Hope from Pandora's Box (in itself the Power of Hope is an abstract power), which allowed him to deceive and go against the powers of the Sisters of Fate, who control fate itself and are aware of everything since they are the ones who actually control what happens. The developers comment on this immunity he gained, saying that Kratos is the only one who will not allow his fate to be mapped out by any deity. It is an interesting documentary to watch for this thread's sake.
Regarding Gaia's birth, it has been a little bit retconned because of Ascension coming out. The official manual for God of War 2 states under Gaia's entry that she was "born from chaos". The word Chaos in God of War has a dual meaning ever since Ascension was released:
1. The first meaning was that Chaos, much like in mythology, was the void of absolute nothingness and disorder that preceded the existence of the concepts, including space and time. It ended up spawning the Primordials.
2. The second meaning is that it is used to refer to the female, mother primordial who embodied Life itself, and pretty much the first being to come out of the Void of Chaos (the one I talked about beforehand).
Either way, however, this would similarly help us denote that Gaia was born from something abstract and that she came to be almost at the dawn of creation, which would support the scans above.
Conclusion
Gaia in God of War is an abstract being, who personifies Earth itself, with her existence being intertwined to the existence of the Earth, and vice-versa (the Earth being intertwined to her existence). So she should be considered both a Type 2 Abstract, and the Conceptual Embodiment of the Earth.
...And no, Gaia did not die at the end of God of War 3. Her physical avatar died. Please don't bring that up.
Namely, Gaia from God of War should be rated as being a Conceptual Embodiment and as having Type 2 Abstract Existence. The scans are as below:
- "THE EARTH SHOOK, as if shivering with a tremendous fever. Giant cracks appeared along entire continents, and small mountains rose as Gaia's spirit stirred. Formless, of the earth, the earth, and yet lacking in substance, she stretched and began to take note of the world as it had became after the war with the gods. [. . . For a Titan, time was meaningless, and yet she had to abide since it was so important to the short-lived mortals. Worse, time had ceased to have meaning because her physical form bad been ripped away, leaving behind only inchoate spirit."]
Gaia's spirit herself manifests to Kratos, where she states that she is the ever-present representation of Earth and that she has been with him through all the events of his life. In fact, it is stated that the trees, earth, and rocks are Gaia herself, and that she is there with them:
In an official documentary, the developers state the following about Gaia's standing on God of War:
In other words, Gaia is the earth. She is its quintessential, most perfect representation. Gaia's existence is important and necessary for the continued existence of the world, since she was born as soon as the world was born, if not perhaps even before that ((all of this is literally what the word "quintessential" means). Starts to become even more abstract-sounding.
They also comment around this timestamp that this is what allows Gaia to be the literal narrator of the games and their storyline themselves, without it being a Fourth-Wall break. Because Gaia is literally the Earth itself and thus she can be there with Kratos at all times. David Jaffe comments a bit on this, and Cory Barlog comments on Gaia's "future plans" for Kratos. One might ask what that means?
Kratos uses the power of the Mirrors of Time in order to travel back through time, and he meets Gaia's avatar - more than one thousand years before the events of the game. Gaia recognizes him instantaneously, for she knows of his existence and is aware of her own plan.
This further shows that Gaia is a conceptual representation, and puts the previous statement of time ceasing to have meaning when it comes to Gaia entering her true, non-corporeal form into more context. Gaia, no matter whether it's future or past, is the earth, and thus she knows of absolutely everything that has happened, or will happen in the future.
The only reason why she was not able to know that Kratos would betray her is because Kratos was starting to unlock the Power of Hope from Pandora's Box (in itself the Power of Hope is an abstract power), which allowed him to deceive and go against the powers of the Sisters of Fate, who control fate itself and are aware of everything since they are the ones who actually control what happens. The developers comment on this immunity he gained, saying that Kratos is the only one who will not allow his fate to be mapped out by any deity. It is an interesting documentary to watch for this thread's sake.
Regarding Gaia's birth, it has been a little bit retconned because of Ascension coming out. The official manual for God of War 2 states under Gaia's entry that she was "born from chaos". The word Chaos in God of War has a dual meaning ever since Ascension was released:
1. The first meaning was that Chaos, much like in mythology, was the void of absolute nothingness and disorder that preceded the existence of the concepts, including space and time. It ended up spawning the Primordials.
2. The second meaning is that it is used to refer to the female, mother primordial who embodied Life itself, and pretty much the first being to come out of the Void of Chaos (the one I talked about beforehand).
Either way, however, this would similarly help us denote that Gaia was born from something abstract and that she came to be almost at the dawn of creation, which would support the scans above.
Conclusion
Gaia in God of War is an abstract being, who personifies Earth itself, with her existence being intertwined to the existence of the Earth, and vice-versa (the Earth being intertwined to her existence). So she should be considered both a Type 2 Abstract, and the Conceptual Embodiment of the Earth.
...And no, Gaia did not die at the end of God of War 3. Her physical avatar died. Please don't bring that up.
