Discussion YMMV / GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019

Should Rodan really be listed under Draco in Leather Pants? I ask because that seems to me to rely a bit too much on Alternative Character Interpretation. The entry's only claim to Rodan being a Draco is the amount of aggression he shows compared to Godzilla and Mothra, but it ignores the part where Rodan attacked only after being provoked and it doesn't mention how the novelization explicitly points out that that would've been regarded by an animal atop its home as a territorial challenge.

Troper Derv0s B 2 added this to Strawman Has a Point:

"A surprising number of viewers reacted this way to the government's Gotta Kill 'Em All demands regarding the Titans. Said viewers argue that while the ending proves The Extremist Was Right, with what little the human race knows about the Titans at the film's start, the demand comes off as highly understandable. Of course, this argument ignores the fact that Monarch have already established before the film's start that the Titans are ecologically essential, and that the government are basically getting it into their heads that they somehow know better than the professional Titan experts."

I think the fact that the entry argues with itself disqualifies it for the trope. What do you say?

I thought I should bring it up here before posting it on the article due to the previous edit war and its conclusion, but I'd like to propose a new Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry for Mark Russell, drafted below — since I think it's fair to say based on the aforementioned evidence I provided that some people feel this way about him, and I've seen less evidence used to post U.U. entries on other YMMV pages:

Whilst Mark Russell is supposed to be somewhat sympathetic due to his Backstory; to viewers who saw the 2014 movie and know that the MUTOs were responsible for the San Francisco attack while Godzilla stopped them, his personal grudge against Godzilla comes off as being misplaced at best, or completely unjustified at worst.

If no-one has any arguments against this, I'll post this to the page in eight days.

I don't want to linger on this for any longer than I have to, but is there any actual meat to the Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry that has recently been contested? I'd be willing to hear evidence for it as long as it's from reliable sources. And I don't want the Edit War to escalate any further.

I think Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy and Moral Event Horizon are being misused.

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: "While the movie garnered great viewer reviews, mainly from fans of the franchise, some found it hard to enjoy the unrelenting dread that begins with Ghidorah's reawakening and doesn't end until Godzilla defeats him. The shock value of the massive casualties Monarch's military support suffers becomes numbing after the encounter with Rodan BLANK and refuses to let up again. BLANK also becomes completely unsympathetic once BLANK's true motivations are revealed, yet gets lots of screentime that's obviously trying to milk viewer sympathy and point to character depth that's just not there. This was part of the Critical Dissonance the film suffered, since many viewers ignored the human plot anyway." The trope is "both sides involved in the main conflict are equally unlikeable" or "the heroes' efforts amount to nothing and the universe still sucks." If the story features clearly defined heroes and villains and the ending delivers a positive outcome, then it doesn't qualify.
• Moral Event Horizon: "BLANK firmly crosses it by releasing Rodan and killing hundreds of evacuating civilians in the process, showing exactly how deranged BLANK is." The trope is when the character stops being likeable and the narrative never again portrays him as anything other than a black-hearted villain. Since BLANK tries to solve things in the end, BLANK might no longer qualify.

What do you think?

Two things:

1. The Designated Villain trope is IMO not applicable. His stance is actually pointed to as justifiable, ("Dude hates Titans." "Yeah, well you would too if you were him.") he's actually presented as much more reasonable about it than any other Titan-hater in the movie ("Look, I want him dead more than anyone, but unless this is a fight you KNOW you can win, for God's sake stand down!") and he even comes to terms with it as Character Development over the course of the movie. He's not presented as a villain at all.

2. I feel like the three Unintentionally Unsympathetic entries on this page are off, and that they'd be better off as entries on separate tropes. As follows:

Dr. Serizawa & Emma Russell: I don't believe they're meant to be unquestioningly right or sympathetic, though there is probably something to be said for the film's MESSAGE and the handling thereof. This should combine the essence of both into a single entry and more appropriate trope:

• Strawman Has a Point: A number of people in the movie, representatives of the US government in particular, are portrayed as in the wrong for wanting to kill the Titans before they awaken. Especially underscoring this is that BLANK. However, considering the sheer destruction the MUTOs inflicted last time (not to mention the damage Godzilla did stopping them), not wanting to risk global destruction purely because Monarch don't want Titan blood on their hands due to research that is, at best, still largely theoretical despite years to run research on them is a reasonable stance to take, on the face of it, and no-one could have known that BLANK. Not helping is that the most vocal and unquestioning proponent of the Titans' benevolence is Emma Russell, whose beliefs and plans are considered insane and dangerous even by the rest of Monarch and who BLANK.

Dr. Chen: Seems like someone took a lot of offence to that part of the movie. Let's dial back on that and move it elsewhere:

• Critical Research Failure: In one scene, Dr. Chen questions Jack's view of mythological dragons, saying that while in the West dragons are portrayed as dangerous monsters who must be slain, in the East they are benevolent creatures who bring wisdom, prosperity and redemption. Granted it is true that dragons are generally portrayed in a more positive light in the East than they are in the West, but Eastern mythology still has its share of malevolent dragons such as the Orochi — a liquor-guzzling, maiden-eating monster that would fit right into the Western dragon-slaying narrative.

Any questions?

EDIT: The stupid discussion page doesn't recognise spoiler tags for some reason. Removed plot-sensitive information for now.