History Sandbox / MonsterverseRenSerizawa

* BlackSheep: Ren does ''not'' share his father's or his grandfather's views on humanity or the Titans, breaking away from the previous two Serizawas' HeroicLineage into full-blown villainy. Lacking several of his forebears' key traits (mindfulness of humanity's arrogance, compassion for others and admiration of Godzilla), Ren aligns himself with Apex's CorporateConspiracy to kill Godzilla and overpower the Titans at any cost [[spoiler:including but not limited to engineering horrific civilian casualties for the sake of a FalseFlagOperation]]. Whilst Ren does have more caution than Simmons about misusing the HollowEarth energy source, he still doesn't think anything of [[spoiler:turning '''[[OmnicidalManiac Ghidorah]]'''[='s=] [[DraconicAbomination science-defying neurological remains]] into a BlackBox for Mechagodzilla's '''brain''']]. From all this and his visible power trip [[spoiler:when piloting Mechagodzilla]], it's clear that if Ren ever heard his father's words about how the forces of nature aren't a toy, he didn't listen.

** He had the arrogance and stupidity to [[spoiler:turn an [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] DraconicAbomination[='s=] still-telepathic remains into the core of an artificial Titan's ''control system'']] without any regard for how it could potentially backfire, all so he could usurp the Old Gods; and he doesn't show any signs of caring about the ''millions'' of innocent people he and Simmons are knowingly putting in danger. Ren reaps what he sows when [[spoiler:Ghidroah reincarnates into Mechagodzilla]], promptly making Ren one of the first two casualties of the resulting disaster. What's more, Ren ironically dies before he gets to square off against Godzilla with [[spoiler:the Mecha]] ''at all'', almost as if the fates are telling him how small and unworthy of the God Incarnate's passing notice he really is.

* SmugSnake: The novelization confirms he's not much better than his boss in this regard. Ren thinks he's going to successfully kill Godzilla and dominate the other Titans; yet whilst [[spoiler:a Ghidorah-possessed Mechagodzilla]] ''does'' severely beat Godzilla and would have most likely killed him if [[spoiler:Kong hadn't intervened]], Word of God and the novelization itself have suggested [[spoiler:the Mecha]] only did so well because Godzilla was already heavily weakened at the start of their fight due to his earlier actions and that Godzilla would have theoretically fared far better, though still on the losing side and could even have probably beaten [[spoiler:the Mecha]] on his own if he was at full strength. Ren also [[WrongGenreSavvy believes]] he lives in a world where the HumanityIsSuperior trope is in effect – despite all evidence to the contrary, such as how ill-equipped Monarch's hi-tech for containing the Titans proved to be when Ghidorah awakened them. Although Ren is more cautious than Simmons when it comes to using an ''untested'' and eldritch BlackBox (the Hollow Earth energy), once Ren has had some time to fiddle around and figure out how such a Black Box works on a surface level, he thinks that's enough for him to be able to control it with complete confidence – to the point that Ren doesn't think it might still be an ''apocalyptically bad idea'' to [[spoiler:turn the still-telepathic remains of a demonstrably science-defying DraconicAbomination into the damned '''brain''' of an Alpha Titan-killing Mecha]]. [[spoiler:Ghidorah, or at least its SoulFragment,]] shows Ren just how insanely moronic it was to think this wouldn't backfire once the Hollow Earth energy is used to fully power [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvtropes_renserizawa.jpg]]

* AntagonisticOffspring: Although he doesn't appear (nor become a full-fledged villain according to the novel) until after his father's death, as the movie goes on, it becomes clear that any initial similarities Ren has to his father in the early scenes are superficial -- underneath his pretentions of wanting to help people better manage the Titans, Ren is the ''complete'' opposite of his father and opposes every value the late Dr. Serizawa stood for. Whereas Ishirō was a noble and humble naturalist who was critical of mankind's arrogance in their abilities, and who revered the Titans (Godzilla in particular) as forces of nature yet still passionately cared about human lives; Ren is an embittered and ruthless EvilGenius who believes humanity is destined to eclipse the Titans' power through technological advancement (directing the construction of [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] to that end), Ren personally despises Godzilla and wants to be the one to kill him, and he hypocritically never once thinks anything of helping Apex to put millions of innocent people in Godzilla's warpath. The grin of pure relish on Ren's face when [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla activates its Proton Scream under his control]] encapsulates perfectly how Ren basks in his creation's power and how his father's famous words about "the arrogance of man" mean nothing to him.

* BlackSheep: Ren does ''not'' share his father's or his grandfather's views on humanity, the Titans and Godzilla, breaking away from the previous two Serizawas' HeroicLineage into full-blown villainy. Lacking several of his forebears' key traits (mindfulness of humanity's arrogance, compassion for others and admiration of Godzilla), Ren aligns himself with Apex's CorporateConspiracy to kill Godzilla and overpower the Titans at any cost [[spoiler:including but not limited to engineering horrific civilian casualties for the sake of a FalseFlagOperation]]. Whilst Ren does have more caution than Simmons about misusing the HollowEarth energy source, he still doesn't think anything of [[spoiler:turning '''[[OmnicidalManiac Ghidorah]]'''[='s=] [[DraconicAbomination exceptionally science-defying neurological remains]] into a BlackBox for Mechagodzilla's '''brain''']]. From all this and his visible power trip [[spoiler:when piloting Mechagodzilla]], it's clear that if Ren ever heard his father's words about how arrogant man is to think they can control and overrule nature, he didn't listen.

* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: When [[spoiler:Ghidorah's subconsciousness hijacks Mechagodzilla]], the movie explicitly depicts Ren's connection to [[spoiler:the Mecha]] being severed and Ren bouncing back into his body, looking around the cockpit in confusion before [[spoiler:the skull]] [[HighVoltageDeath electrocutes him]]. In the novelization, however, it's a bit different: [[spoiler:Ren bouncing back to his body and his electrocution are omitted, and instead Ren's mind becomes trapped inside Mechagodzilla; unable to move his original body nor control the Mecha as the latter begins ambulating on its own, before the Mecha's new independent mind essentially [[MindReformatDeath drowns and replaces Ren's]]. Based on the placement of a scene transition indicator ''before'' the novel goes from describing Ren's last thoughts to Mechagodzilla's first thoughts, it can be inferred that the remains of Ren's mind were integrated into the Mecha's personality as Ren died; in any case, whatever was left of Ren's soul inside his cybernetic abomination's consciousness presumably perished when the Mecha was destroyed less than an hour later]].

* {{Foil}}: To Madison Russell, something which is slightly highlighted by the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, although they never interact mutually and directly. They're both cases of [[LikeFatherUnlikeSon Like Father, Unlike Child]] with a polarizing personality difference in regards to their respective fathers, both of them were raised by their respective fathers in a way which worked for said father but not for their child and caused strain in their relationship (MyBelovedSmother with a dash of FantasyForbiddingFather from Madison's father, ParentalNeglect from Ren's father), and it leads to both of them respectively rebelling against their fathers' beliefs (Ren on a much more massive scale than Madison). They also both lost their mothers at a young age. It can be argued that Ren and Madison are both somewhat reckless in regards to their self-preservation: Madison tends to head towards danger when she sets her mind on helping, and though she has succeeded in being a massive help, she's also twice almost been killed by a Titan and saved by sheer luck; while Ren is an EvilGenius who commits to a ''horrifically'' arrogant and TooDumbToLive method of achieving his EvilPlan which (though he's [[OnlySaneByComparison slightly less reckless about it than his boss]]) ultimately leads Ren and his allies [[SelfDisposingVillain to their destruction]]. Where Ren and Madison differ is that Madison still has her father, whilst Ren implicitly went dark-side as a result of his father dying before they could reconcile; and Madison has a profound connection to the Titans but is highly compassionate when human lives are endangered, while Ren is a MugglePower supremacist who callously and hypocritically puts thousands of innocent lives in Godzilla's warpath without a second thought. Essentially, Ren is a reflection of what Madison could have become due to her issues with her father in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''.

* HiddenAgendaVillain: In the film, it's never explained fully why Ren has joined Apex's [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] plan and gone against every single value his father stood for, but his DeathGlare at Godzilla hints [[ItsPersonal it's not just because he agrees with Apex's philosophy]]. The novelization provides a full explanation of Ren's motives.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The novelization shows that while he's not {{narcissist}}ic like Simmons, Ren is scarcely if at all less obscenely selfish than him. He's willing to [[spoiler:build Mechagodzilla, murder Godzilla (the very creature his father willingly gave his life to save, and an animal that likely has no idea of how it simply existing affected Ren's relationship with his father),]] and aid Apex in callously putting millions of innocent people in Godzilla's warpath; ''all because '''he''' has daddy issues''. Even before Ren snapped due to his father's death; when he's recalling how he used to hope him and his father would reconcile, his retroactive thoughts paint Ishirō as the only one who's at fault for their strained relationship, even though Ren already had a dim view of Godzilla and the Titans as far back as 2014, indicating it never occurred to Ren that his father might not be the only one who needed enlightenment and that Ren himself might have needed to change his views before they could reconcile. Though disgusted by Simmons' narcissism, Ren seems to think more about killing Godzilla for taking his father away from him and about fulfilling his craving to have [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]]'s power at his fingertips, than about any long-term plans he might have for "human advancement" afterwards.

** He had the arrogance and stupidity to [[spoiler:turn an [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] DraconicAbomination[='s=] still-telepathic remains into the core of an artificial Titan's ''control system'']] without any regard for how it could potentially backfire, all so he could usurp the Old Gods; and he doesn't show any signs of caring about the ''millions'' of innocent people he and Simmons are knowingly putting in danger. Ren reaps what he sows when [[spoiler:Ghidorah's remains show him what a ''real'' god looks like, with Ghidorah's subconsciousness hijacking Ren's Mecha for itself and]] promptly making Ren one of the first two casualties of the resulting disaster. What's more, Ren ironically dies before he gets to square off against Godzilla with [[spoiler:the Mecha]] ''at all'', almost as if the fates are telling him how small and unworthy of the God Incarnate's passing notice he really is.

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: He may look and sound like his father at first glance, but beyond that, about the only common trait they share is a genius-level intellect. It becomes clear as the movie goes on that Ren and his father could ''not'' be more different. Ishiro had an interest in nature and valued life, while Ren prefers technology and gleefully commits murder. Ishiro understands that humanity should adapt to the Titan's presence rather than control them, while Ren tried to pilot a mechanized Titan and failed miserably. Ishiro died an honorable death trying to heal Godzilla, Ren's death was barely a footnote in Mechagodzilla's ascension. Overall, Ren has absolutely none of his late father's humility, wisdom or compassion whilst practicing almost all the crimes, philosophies and fallacies which his father abhorred most. The novelization explains this is partly down to Ishirō repeating Eiji's [[WhenYouComingHomeDad distant and questionable parenting style]] on Ren, and it backfired horribly in Ren's case.

* MoreThanMindControl: Subtly {{implied}} in the novelization. It's strongly hinted in one scene that Ren's repeated usage of the [[spoiler:part-Ghidorah]] experimental psionic uplink has been impacting his mental state while Ren (being the arrogant god-wannabe he is) thinks he's been gaining further insights into his mind. Ren notably thinks while sitting inside the [[spoiler:Ghidorah skull]] that using the interface has been turning him into "the man he['s] meant to be", and after [[spoiler:the Mecha]] loses power during a test run, he feels an [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide almost drug-like compulsion]] to see [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla fully empowered]] because he feels that "Only then could ''he'' be what he was meant to be". This seems to imply that [[spoiler:Ghidorah's skull]] was subtly pushing Ren towards unwittingly giving [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] the HollowEarth element it needed so [[spoiler:the Mecha would be fully empowered and the skull's SoulFragment would be able to take control of the system for itself]], essentially turning Ren's feelings as a wayward son and his desire for godhood against him. It's not the only hint in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' that [[spoiler:Ghidorah's remnant consciousness was awake the entire time before it came into contact with the HollowEarth energy]].

* SmugSnake: The novelization confirms he's not much better than his boss in this regard. Ren thinks he's going to successfully kill Godzilla and dominate the other Titans where the Oxygen Destroyer, the [=MUTOs=] and King Ghidorah have all failed; yet whilst [[spoiler:a Ghidorah-possessed Mechagodzilla]] ''does'' severely beat Godzilla and would have most likely killed him if [[spoiler:Kong hadn't intervened]], Word of God and the novelization itself have suggested [[spoiler:the Mecha]] only did so well because Godzilla was already heavily weakened at the start of their fight due to his earlier actions and that Godzilla would have fared far better in their fight, though still on the losing side and could even have probably beaten [[spoiler:the Mecha]] on his own if he was at full strength. Ren also [[WrongGenreSavvy believes]] he lives in a world where the HumanityIsSuperior trope is in effect – despite all evidence to the contrary, such as how ill-equipped Monarch's hi-tech for containing the Titans proved to be when Ghidorah awakened them in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters''. Although Ren is more cautious than Simmons when it comes to using an ''untested'' and eldritch BlackBox (the Hollow Earth energy), once Ren has had some time to fiddle around and work out how such a Black Box works on a surface level, he thinks that's enough for him to be able to control it with complete confidence – to the point that Ren doesn't think it might still be an ''apocalyptically bad idea'' to [[spoiler:turn the still-telepathic remains of a demonstrably science-defying DraconicAbomination, who genocidally hated all humans when alive, into the damned '''brain''' of an Alpha Titan-killing Mecha]]. [[spoiler:Ghidorah, or at least its SoulFragment,]] shows Ren just how insanely moronic it was to think this wouldn't backfire once the Hollow Earth energy is used to fully power [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]].

* TooDumbToLive: Whilst he's rightfully wary of integrating the Hollow Earth energy into Mechagodzilla without any testing, he's as brainlessly arrogant as the rest of Apex when it comes to [[spoiler:using Ghidorah's skull as the BlackBox core of a control system for their 466-foot, armed-to-the-teeth HumongousMecha]] – in fact, given Ren's job, he most likely '''oversaw''' [[spoiler:the skull's conversion into a Mecha-controlling supercomputer. Bear in mind, this is the same Ghidorah whose biology is so alien (literally and figuratively) that it can in Dr. Stanton's words "violate everything we know about the natural order" to a degree beyond even the terrestrial Titans' standards, and who proved to the whole world when alive that he actively hates all humanity and wants the eradication of all multicellular life on Earth]]. The grin of glee on Ren's face when piloting [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] shows he's too enamored with the power he can now wield to even ''think'' about the risks surrounding the [[spoiler:not-completely-dead DraconicAbomination bone]] he's using to achieve it, and it leads to his death once [[spoiler:the skull's SoulFragment takes over the system]].