History Literature / Godzilla

%%* CrystallineCreature: The AncientAstronauts from beneath Antarctica turn out to be these.%%To be what?

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Kamacuras, a swarm of giant preying mantises who devour plant and person alike.

* CrystallineCreature: The AncientAstronauts from beneath Antarctica turn out to be these.

** Moguera is Russia's anti-kaiju mech rather than being Mechagodzilla's replacement as he was in the Heisei era.

* GiantFlyer: Eleven of the eighteen monsters in the series (Battra, Fire Rodan, Gigan, Hedorah, Kamacuras, King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah, MOGUERA, Mothra, Rodan and Varan) can fly under their own power. A twelfth (Mechagodzilla) requires the aid of the ''Garuda'' lifting aircraft, and a thirteenth (Megalon) is noted as having wings but is never actually seen flying. The airship ''Destiny Explorer'', at 890 feet long, also qualifies.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: In ''Godzilla at World’s End'', it’s initially believed that the main antagonist – the daughter of a scientist who died discovering the AncientAstronauts – is being possessed by the long-dormant, frozen aliens in their underground AdvancedAncientAcropolis as part of their bid to take over the world once more. As it turns out, SHE’S keeping THEM dormant so they won’t stop her, and her acts are a combination of desire for revenge on the world that drove her father to the situation that killed him, and she may or may not be influenced to do this by Biollante.

* CrystallineCreature: The AncientAliens from beneath Antarctica turn out to be these.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: In ''Godzilla at World’s End'', it’s initially believed that the main antagonist – the daughter of a scientist who died discovering the AncientAliens – is being possessed by the long-dormant, frozen aliens in their underground AdvancedAncientAcropolis as part of their bid to take over the world once more. As it turns out, SHE’S keeping THEM dormant so they won’t stop her, and her acts are a combination of desire for revenge on the world that drove her father to the situation that killed him, and she may or may not be influenced to do this by Biollante.

** The swarm of Kamacuras is now the result of alien parasites bonding with some praying mantis's, while in the Showa era they were mutated by nuclear testing. Varan also only appears after some meteorite pieces crash on Earth, but it's left ambiguous if he arrived from this or was only woken up by the crash after a deep sleep.

** The swarm of Kamacuras is now the result of alien parasites bonding with some praying mantis's, while in the Showa era they were mutated by nuclear testing.
** Gigan, Hedorah, Battra, Manda and Biollante are now enforcers for an underground civilization that wants to wipe out humanity. Megalon is among this group too, but his status here is similar to how he was in Showa canon.

* AdaptationDeviation: Nearly all the monsters (except for Godzilla himself, whose origins as a [[LivingDinosaurs living dinosaur]] that mutated after exposure to an atomic bomb remain intact, and King Ghidorah, who remains a roaming space monster that initially comes to Earth within an asteroid) have different origins from movie canon. Apparently, Toho preferred this approach.

* BehemothBattle: Par for the course with the ''Godzilla'' franchise, as the second, third and fourth books all feature battles between giant monsters.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Nick Gordon, after having a presence in the first three books, isn't so much as mentioned in ''Godzilla Vs. the Robot Monsters'', even by his old friend Brian Shimura. Robin Halliday is likewise completely absent from said book after being a major character in ''Godzilla 2000'' and ''Godzilla at World's End''.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Biollante and Mecha-King Ghidorah, who're respectively portrayed as neutral and heroic in the Heisei movies, are both heavily antagonistic in this series. Though this may be justified in Mecha-King Ghidorah's case since his normal self was closer to Showa Ghidorah than the Heisei version, and because he wasn't fully killed during ''Godzilla 2000'' before he became a cyborg.

** Biollante in ''Godzilla At World's End'', here reimagined as a monster from an underground world who wants to kill off humanity.

* Big Bad:

* IntrepidReporter: Every book has them. ''Godzilla Returns'' has Brian Shimura as lead character and Nick Gordon as a supporting one, ''Godzilla 2000'' has reporter Robin Halliday in a supporting role as she follows the story of Varan, while Nick and his crew report on the events of the climax. Both Nick and Robin are present during the main events of ''Godzilla At World's End'', and Brian reports on the climax of ''Godzilla Vs. the Robot Monsters''.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: ''Godzilla 2000'' and ''Godzilla at World's End'' each end in these, showing what the characters did in the aftermath of the final monster battles.

* MythologyGag: The Monsterverse films, particularly ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'' have so many coincidental parallels to this series of novels that one wonders if they served as direct inspiration.

* MistakenForRacist: ''Godzilla Vs. the Robot Monsters'' has Jack Strongbow, a Blackfoot brave with a strong dislike of Joel Mitchell, a white man working for the U.S. Department of the Interior. In one scene, his girlfriend, Theresa Rainbird, accuses him of hating Joel just for being white, completely ignoring the fact that Jack's best friend and almost brother Wayne is white, as are some other people he's friends with. For his part, Jack privately thinks that he has a whole host of reasons for disliking Joel, none of them related to race, but doesn't bother to voice any of them to Theresa because he knows that in the mood she's in then, she won't listen.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Nick Gordon, after having a presence in the first three books, isn't so much as mentioned in book 4, even by his old friend Brian Shimura. Robin Halliday is likewise completely absent from book 4 after being a major character in books 2 and 3.
* ColonyDrop: ''Godzilla 2000'' features a swarm of asteroids, including three that are large enough that an impact by any one of them could mean TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. They're stopped while still far enough out in space... but one portion remains, still on course for Earth, though it's now small enough that supposedly, it'll burn up in the atmosphere. It turns out to be holding King Ghidorah.
* DeadlineNews: In ''Godzilla Returns'', INN reporter Max Hulse, with a few members of his crew, stay in Tokyo Tower and continue to report on Godzilla's attack on the city, even as the monster approaches them, calmly accepting their fate and dying when Godzilla destroys the tower. This doubles as a CallBack to the original 1954 film, in which a group of Japanese reporters do essentially the same thing.
* DistantFinale: The epilogue of ''Godzilla Vs. the Robot Monsters'' takes place a year after the final battle in Tokyo.
* EmergencyAuthority: A little over ten months after the final battle in ''Godzilla 2000'', only a little of the catastrophic destruction caused by Godzilla's trek across America and the attacks by Varan, the Kamacuras and King Ghidorah (Rodan did comparatively little damage and Mothra only appeared in New York during the final battle) has been fixed. It's gotten to the point where, thanks to the recovery process achieving so little and the country being in such bad shape, the President of the United States declares a continuing state of emergency that effectively puts the country under martial law and suspends the upcoming presidential election for at least three months. He's even sending lawyers out to warn news stations not to release reports that make the current administration's efforts look bad. After the Babel Event that cut off all communications is over with and elections are finally held, the civilian populace quickly votes the current crop of politicians out of office, with their bloated, inefficient government programs being removed as well.
* GiantFlyer: Eleven of the eighteen monsters in the series (Battra, Fire Rodan, Gigan, Hedorah, Kamacuras, King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah, MOGUERA, Mothra, Rodan and Varan) can fly under their own power. A twelfth (Mechagodzilla) requires the aid of the ''Garuda'' lifting aircraft, and a thirteenth (Megalon) is noted as having wings but is never actually seen flying. The airship ''Destiny Explorer'', at 890 feet long, also qualifies.
* GlassCannon: Kamacuras, essentially. Its size makes it a clear threat, and it is capable of eating people and tearing apart anything in its way; but it can also be destroyed by jets and tanks fairly easily.
* HandicappedBadass: Michael Sullivan, lead pilot of Mechagodzilla, is paralyzed from the waist down.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In trying to stop the reopening of the old coal mine (also home to a large uranium deposit) in Cheeachaw Valley, which could threaten their own plans to open a casino in the same valley, members of the Mob set off explosives at the mine and flood it. As a result, the monster Baragon is released, and later ''eats'' one of the mobsters and an associate.

* TheMafia: Members of the Mob appear in book 4, secretly backing the startup of a casino at the Little Blackfoot Reservation in Cheeachaw Valley, Montana. Unfortunately, their efforts to stop a rival project (the reopening of an old coal mine that's also the location of a large uranium deposit) end poorly for them.
* MistakenForRacist: Book 4 has Jack Strongbow, a Blackfoot brave with a strong dislike of Joel Mitchell, a white man working for the U.S. Department of the Interior. In one scene, his girlfriend, Theresa Rainbird, accuses him of hating Joel just for being white, completely ignoring the fact that Jack's best friend and almost brother Wayne is white, as are some other people he's friends with. For his part, Jack privately thinks that he has a whole host of reasons for disliking Joel, none of them related to race, but doesn't bother to voice any of them to Theresa because he knows that, in the mood she's in then, she won't listen.
* ObliviousAstronomers: Subverted - two older astronomers discover the asteroid swarm months ahead of time, and a third, accidentally, is able to confirm their discovery, giving humanity more than enough time to figure out how to deal with the larger asteroids and then do so while they're still very, very far away.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Oswald Peaster, an elderly farmer in Kansas, thinks to himself at one point that "It's a bad thing when a father outlives his son.", once again lamenting his eldest child and only son's decision to join the army instead of taking over the family farm, a decision that had led to First Lieutenant Michael Oswald Peaster's death in Vietnam twenty-seven years before.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The only one able to pilot Mecha-King Ghidorah is Yisui, a young Mongolian girl (appearing about twelve when first introduced and sixteen when the main events take place four years later). Connecting with the monster's mind has some... extremely negative side-effects on her own mind.
* ShockAndAwe: Jack Strongbow uses lightning as a weapon against Baragon in book 4, and while it's not powerful enough to stop the monster (who's been mutated by exposure to uranium), it's key to the beast's final defeat: when Mechagodzilla zaps the creature with electricity, Baragon flees back underground to escape it and is buried in a cave-in caused by the robot's missiles. Played with by King Ghidorah and Megalon, whose energy attacks also resemble lightning bolts.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Books 2 and 3 end in these, showing what the characters did in the aftermath of the final monster battles.

* ImAHumanitarian: The Kamacuras, Varan, Rodan (the mutant adult), Baragon and King Ghidorah (after his upgrade into Mecha-King Ghidorah) are all seen to eat humans over the course of the series. A digital version of Godzilla also swallows an aircraft (presumably piloted) in a video game in ''Godzilla 2000'', but the real monster is never shown eating in-series (though it's known that he does have a stomach).

It consists of four books, with a fifth planned but unreleased:

* AdaptationDeviation: Nearly all the monsters have different origins from movie canon. Apparently, Toho preferred this approach.

* ImAHumanitarian: The Kamacuras, Varan, Rodan (the mutant adult), Baragon and King Ghidorah (after his upgrade into Mecha-King Ghidorah) are all seen to eat humans over the course of the series. A digital version of Godzilla also swallows an aircraft (presumably piloted) in a video game in ''Godzilla 2000'', but the real monster is never shown eating in-series.

*** It's unknown what monsters were going to be introduced, but rumor had it that either Destroyah or Space Godzilla, if not both, would have debuted in this.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Nick Gordon, after having a presence in the first three books, isn't so much as mentioned in book 4, even by his old friend Brian Shimura.

* IntrepidReporter: Every book has them. ''Godzilla Returns'' has Brian Shimura as lead character and Nick Gordon as a supporting one, ''Godzilla 2000'' has reporter Robin Halliday in a supporting role as she follows the story of Varan, while Nick and his crew report on the events of the climax. Both Nick and Robin are present during the main events of ''Godzilla At World's End'', and Brian reports on the climax of ''Godzilla Vs. the Robot Monsters''.