MechaGodzilla does have its own folder on the character page, doesn't it?
I personally disagree completely, as the Ghidorah roars, the computer saying its being overridden somehow, it INSTANTLY leveling part of Hong Kong (something Ghidorah would do but Mecha Godzilla has no reason to be programmed to do), and the fact it clearly recognizes Godzilla makes me honestly confused at the interpretation.
I still disagree with Mechagodzilla being merged into King Ghidorah's folder. Hijacked by Ganon and possibly Grand Theft Me should adequately cover the three-headed dragon's takeover of it — and for precedent Kiryū isn't listed on the main Godzillas character page despite being built around the skeleton of and being possessed by the spirit of the original Godzilla.
Edited by Arawn999
I recently added an Informed Wrongness entry to the page which was deleted by another troper who gave the following reason: "There is no Informed Wrongness. Godzilla is benevolent. His interactions with humanity shows it." However, I do think my entry is a valid point towards this or at least towards being a one-scene case of Unintentionally Unsympathetic: it's obviously an argument which the filmmakers thought the audience would agree with but in actually doesn't make sense in hindsight. What do others think? My deleted example:
- * Informed Wrongness: While there's several bits of other evidence of Godzilla's benevolence to humans that Madison could use when giving Mark a What the Hell, Hero?, her statement that they saw Godzilla saving humanity with their own eyes in the previous film rings as hollow when you consider what kind of a threat Godzilla was fighting in the film. King Ghidorah would have brought the single worst extinction event in the planet's history if Godzilla didn't stop him, and the Earth's entire ecosphere is technically Godzilla's kingdom. To put it in context, it's like if a fireman saves a petting zoo from a fire, and then the wallabies in one enclosure all say that the fireman was saving them specifically and he must love wallabies.
What I mean with the above entry is while there are definite pieces of evidence of Godzilla's benevolence in the first two films that Madison could've used (Godzilla not taking revenge over the Oxygen Destroyer when he was revived, the Advanced Ancient Humans' coexistence with and worship of him, Godzilla keeping other Titans away from human cities in the KOTM end credits), the Boston Final Battle where Godzilla was fighting to save pretty much the whole planet and not just humans isn't really one of them.
Edited by Derv0sB2 Hide / Show Replies
The thing about Godzilla, at least to my understanding, is that he really doesn't particularly care about humanity. He's neutral towards us as long as we know our places and don't go out of our way to aggravate him. In KOTM, it's established that as the new Alpha, he's keeping the other Titans in line and those Titans helped fixed the world instead of destroying it under Ghidorah's command, but that's about the extent of his benevolence, really. Moreover, he's probably not even doing it on purpose: in KOTM his main goal was trying to stop King Ghidorah, which ended with him becoming King of the Monsters once he takes the title from Ghidorah in the ending. At the beginning of this film, though, it's established that all the other Titans are defeated offscreen by Godzilla for some reason, so maybe Godzilla doesn't like the idea of other monsters who could pose a threat to his Alpha status (his antagonism with Kong throughout the film helps support this as well), which would seriously impacts his supposed benevolence if that is the case.
In the end, Godzilla is only marginally better than the other Titans (with few exceptions like Kong and Mothra) in that he doesn't go out of his way to cause collateral damage if he could avoid it and is neutral towards humanity as long as we stay out of his way. Otherwise, he's just as destructive and dangerous as any other monsters.
Edited by Willy2537
I agree with you, that should still be accepted in the YMMV page, and the person who removed it had no reason for doing so besides not wanting their favorite gigantic force of nature lizard being called anything but fully heroic.
About the Unintentionally Unsympathetic trope, I don't really think the example applies, really: 1. Kong was minding his own business for most of the movie. It's the humans who dragged him along in their quest to the Hollow Earth, which requires Kong as a guide. It just happens that Kong belongs to a species that has a longtime rivalry with Godzilla's, so when he leaves the safety of Skull Island, Godzilla comes for him. As mentioned previously when I removed the example, it was Godzilla who initiated the attack. Kong was just sitting there on the ship and wasn't even posing any threat (hell, he's in the middle of a sea. What could he do to Godzilla?) He didn't go out of his way to aggro Godzilla into attacking at all.
2. Unlike Godzilla, who has that special instinct to sense Ghidorah's brainwaves through APEX's experiment with Mechagodzilla due to Ghidorah being his archenemy, Kong doesn't even know that Mechagodzilla exists until he sees him with his own eyes in the final battle. Saying that he 'gets in the way' of Godzilla trying to finish off Ghidorah once and for all is honestly unfair to Kong since he has no way of knowing what Godzilla is really up to. The fact that Godzilla is being hyper aggressive about it and attacks Kong first in both fights didn't help the Big G's case, too.
3. As for Godzilla, while he is the one who instigated the second fight by firing his atomic breath into the Hollow Earth and aggro Kong to retaliate even though it seems unnecessary since he just somehow decided to pause his hunt for Mechagodzilla to settle a score with Kong, it's implied from the movie that Godzilla senses that humans was about to make use of the unique material found in Hollow Earth to power up Mechagodzilla so the Big G was probably trying to stop it from happening, unaware that his attempt inadvertently destroys Kong's ancestral home in the process which understandably pisses Kong off so he goes to Hong Kong for Round 2 with Godzilla. What I'm trying to say is, Godzilla might have had a good reason to fire the atomic breath into the Hollow Earth as he was really trying to prevent humans from activating Mechagodzilla, it just happens that he aggravates Kong in the process by destroying his ancestral home.
In short, this is all just a big case of Poor Communication Kills for both Godzilla and Kong. Godzilla was trying to stop his archenemy Ghidorah once and for all but his instincts told him to engage Kong whenever he shows up because of the ancient rivalry between both species and there was no way that Godzilla could communicate what he's trying to do in a way that Kong understands, while Kong was really minding his own business for most of the movie who gets royally pissed off at Godzilla for attacking him both times so he decides to fight back. I don't think any of this counts as Unintentionally Unsympathetic, to be honest.
If there's anybody who's UU, it's humanity. Walter Simmons tried to paint himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to return humanity to its rightful place as the rulers of the planet by trying to eliminate all Titans through the use of Mechagodzilla, except that by creating Mechagodzilla in the first place, he turns Godzilla from neutral to hostile, and almost ruined everything when Ghidorah's conscious takes over Mechagodzilla and it goes rogue.
Edited by Willy2537 Hide / Show Replies
I think Godzilla really comes off as the bully here. We're told multiple times that as soon as Kong leaves Skull Island, Godzilla will be after him because tgere can't be two alphas. Godzilla initiates both fights with Kong (the second may be arguable, just trying to figure out what was going on downstairs that had his Goji-Sense tingling), but the intent of the film is clear: when not laser-focused on Ghidorah, if Godzilla senses a rival, he'll put that rival down, hard and fast.
I do agree about the humans. Apex were meant to be seen as villains, but Team Kong were on board with exploring Hollow Earth to find a way to stop Godzilla. That they didn't know it was Apex's fault Godzilla was percieved to be in need of stopping is only slightly mitigating.
Yeah, Godzilla seems to be 'on edge' the entire movie due to the lingering threat of King Ghidorah, even if he's reduced to just a head skeleton. The possibility that he could come back through APEX's Mechagodzilla project makes Godzilla hyper aggressive to anything he comes across including Kong, which isn't helped by Kong belonging to a species that he has an ancient rivalry with.
As for humans, I agree. Team Kong really has no idea what Maya Simmons and her APEX soldiers were really trying to do in the Hollow Earth. They're told that it 'could take down Godzilla' but they don't know the specifics, and they're really only there for the exploration and discovery. In short, APEX = evil.
Edited by Willy2537
Yeah. I don't agree with the "Kong keeps getting poor Godzilla's way" interpretation. . . but it is an interpretation. That's why this is YMMV, you don't have to agree with it. I think Godzilla comes out more unsympathetic, but that's my interpretation. So I just restored the hidden entry and added my counterpoint on Godzilla's behavior. I'm thinking of doing Alternative Character Interpretation for both Godzilla and Kong to cover these two very different interpretations of their behavior throughout the film.
(I've posted this on the Characters page too, but it has more visibility & is pertinent here as well)
I disagree with Mechagodzilla being lumped with King Ghidorah. The movie truly doesn't give us enough information to ascertain how much of it is indeed Ghidorah in a new body and how much of it is its own gestalt AI thing.
Overall it's completely open to interpretation whether it can be called the same character at all. It should either have its own folder or be under the "Mecha Godzillas" folder.
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