The Giant was always a bit confusing. It did not seem to fit anywhere. Here is a long read about a theory I had today.
During the release of Black Ops 3, Jason Blundell mentioned that not every map is released in chronological order. At that time, many believed the Giant to be a ‘future’ map. However, as we got new maps, nobody really paid attention to it anymore.
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I have reasons to believe that the Giant takes place after or during Blood of the Dead.
The (lone) Richtofen in the opening cutscene of Blood of the Dead hands over the Kronorium and says the Kronorium is now changed. This Richtofen then steps in a portal and teleports away, leaving our Primis BOTD crew stranded in the labs at Alcatraz.
Note that the Richtofen who teleports away in the opening cutscene doesn’t have his Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey with him. He is all by himself. Also notice that the Icarus plane is missing from Blood of the Dead.
Where is this Icarus plane at this moment?
It is on the rooftop of the Der Riese facility in The Giant.
I think that the Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey that belong to the (lone) Richtofen from the opening cutscene (NOT the ones we play as in BOTD) used the Icarus plane to travel to the Giant. The (lone) Richtofen that teleports away by using the portal goes to either Shadows of Evil (to first aquire the Summoning Key) or travels straight to the teleporter in the Giant to kill the Ultimis version of himself. (I believe Richtofen doesn’t go to Shadows of Evil till later on. He never mentions having the Summoning Key during the Giant. I believe he teleports from BOTD to the Giant teleporter from the Giant intro cutscene.)
This is why Primis keeps mentioning awakening the test subjects in the Giant. They are talking about Victis back in Blood of the Dead and not their Ultimis versions at the Der Riese facility.
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Also I think that the Richtofen in the Giant acts similair to the (lone) Richtofen we see in the BOTD intro: he seems very stressed and shows little to no sympathy.
The (lone) Richtofen says the following in the intro of BOTD: *You’re late! Two for each of them, survival depends on it…ya, ya, ya, you remember! Argh, there’s so much to do. A vessel for Maxis, the opening of the gateways…*
The Richtofen in the Giant says the following when you start a game: *MAXIS! No… wait… Compose yourself, Edward. Mission… accomplished. Temporal disruption achieved. The future is changed!”* “*I must work quickly! There is so much to do; the vessel for Maxis, the radios, the opening of the gateway. Nein! I’m getting confused! Curse these 115-induced illusions!*”
Dempsey says the following at the start of a game in the Giant:
“*Field report. Dimensional insertion point was off. We were too late. Richtofen interrupted established continuity. What happens next is… uncertain. Allied operatives MIA. I have no choice but to continue the mission alone.*”
This implies that Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey arrived by plane too late. It seems like they didn’t want Ultimis Richtofen dead as well. Also, they don’t understand why he did it. The dimensional insertion point being off is hinting at them travelling through different dimensions.
Nikolai says the following at the start of the Giant:
“*Are you nothing but an agent of chaos, Richtofen? Many years have we hunted you…*”
Dempsey again:
“*Infestation confirmed. Positive identification of 115 on site. (sighs) As expected, my memory’s slipping. Unable to determine current jump count to this location. Two at least, maybe more.*”
That’s why we see the Icarus plane in Shadows of Evil and Zetsubou no Shima. Apparently, it took many years for them to find their (lone) Richtofen and they went through at least two ‘jumps’ (SOE and ZNS).
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One thing I could not place anywhere was Nikolai mentioning another Nikolai in the Giant and killing at least three Richtofen’s:
“*I wonder what happened to other Nikolai. The one who walked with fools…*” (Implying he knows about the Ultimis crew).
*”It’s not all bad news, Nikolai. We may have failed in our mission, but at least there is one less Richtofen to deal with. If it is any consolation, tell him that the first one was the hardest. I should know, I’ve killed at least three Richtofen’s. There was the one in the fire, the one with the boat hook, and the one – what? No one told me. Sorry, forget what I just said. Everything will be fine.”*
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Let me know what you think!
Also, there is still an [unsolved cipher](https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/The_Giant/Ciphers_and_Scrap_Paper?file=Cipher4_TheGiant_BO3.png) for the Giant.
TLDR:
The location of the test subjects (Victis) is unknown to Primis Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey. As the lone Richtofen from the BOTD intro teleports away, his Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey try to find him. They take the Icarus plane from BOTD and travel through dimensions (SOE/ZNS) and finally end up at the Giant. Here they meet up with their Richtofen again.
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[The Icarus plane on the roof of the Giant](https://preview.redd.it/ndnuci79jmva1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e3e3c52a546e3ba543985b2838d33ee738508cc9)