Great White Shark

The Great White in-game

**The Great White Shark** is a large shark and major deuteragonist in ABZU.

## Appearance

**The Great White**'s design is similar to a real white shark's design, albeit with some notable differences. The white shark's right flank depicts 4 elongated scars and one through her right eye. Her dorsal fin, upper caudal lobe and both of her pectoral fins have identical tears in them. However, throughout the game these scars may be inconsistent.

Apart from her scars, the Great White's design is very simple. Her underbelly is a pale, colourless white and her skin consists purely of a monotone grey. The undersides of her pectoral fins are lightly tipped with black. The inside of her lower jaw is lined with multiple rows of teeth and is pale orangey-pink in colour.

## Location

The **Great White Shark** can be found all throughout the game as she watches the Diver by both guiding and following them. She is first introduced briefly at the beginning of the game in the kelp forest. Later, she makes an appearance during a current, the bottom of the ocean trapped beneath wreckage, and within the Great Harvester's core, where she eventually dies from energy loss and shortly after, suffocation. Finally, she reappears in the spirit realm, where the Diver defeats the Great Harvester along with the great white, completing the game.

## Behaviour and Background Information

The **Great White** is highly elusive yet equally as intelligent. While she does attempt to guide the Diver throughout the game, she displays unrestrained ferocity towards Harvesters and everything they create; this rage first manifests in the beginning of the game where the Diver's robotic drone companion is abruptly destroyed by her. Eventually, when the Diver releases her from the wreckage of a Harvester, she reveals her softer, friendlier and more intelligent side. She also allows the Diver to briefly comfort her as she dies.

Upon her revival, the Great White is one of the few - if not, the only - animal in the game to not swim away from or even attempt to flee from the Diver whenever they get too close. Additionally, the Great White will follow the Diver and even copy her movements when not being ridden; such behaviour is unique to this shark.

## Real-life information

*(Sourced from National Geographic - read the full article here.)*

The great white shark is a type of mackerel shark from the Lamnidae family, which also includes mako sharks, salmon sharks, and porbeagle sharks. Great whites are the largest of the bunch—and the world’s largest predatory fish.

Great whites are named after their white underbellies, but their topsides can come in a variety of browns and grays. This stark contrast between colorations is known as countershading, and it allows many fish species to blend in with their surroundings. Thanks to the immensely popular 1975 film, *Jaws*, which starred a massive great white, this species is one of the most recognized sharks on the planet. With bodies shaped like torpedoes and powerful tailfins, great whites can rocket through the water at speeds approaching 35 miles an hour (50 kilometers an hour). This speed and a bite force of up to 1.8 metric tons allows the shark to quickly inflict massive trauma on their prey, disabling their target and thus protecting against a counterattack.

Depending on their size and age, great white sharks target crustaceans, molluscs, sea birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals, including sea lions, seals, dolphins, and even some whales. Great whites will also consume prey that has already died, such as the large carcasses of dead whales, using their steak-knife-like teeth to carve off pieces of rotting flesh.

## Trivia

* Due to the Great White's abnormally large size, obvious lack of claspers, minor appearance differences exclusive to female white sharks and possible mating scars, it can be concluded that the Great White Shark in ABZÛ is female.
	+ Marine and fish biologists who played ABZÛ have commented on the Great White's gender, also believing her to be female primarily due to her scars. While it could be argued the scars were the result of fighting Harvesters, electrical burns and the scars they create differ significantly in both colour and shape from the ones featured on the Great White.
* The Great White Shark makes an appearance in Giant Squid's game "The Pathless". Due to very obvious hints scattered exclusively around "The Pathless", it can be inferred that the Great White's name is Basilla, and that she is a goddess or other divine deity. However, this is all speculation.
	+ Not only is she able to be reincarnated, but the Great White was worshipped by an ancient civilisation in ABZÛ, corroborating the theory she is some sort of god.