History Characters / MonsterVerseMonarch

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: He's clearly meant to be the kaiju equivalent to Steve Irwin, another AwesomeAussie with a blonde moptop and upbeat love for wildlife.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite her cold demeanor which her partner Tim is not exempt from, she looks out for his well-being, [[spoiler:even after she breaks away from mainstream Monarch]]. She defends him to Verdugo after his cowboy approach to the Randas lands him in hot water, [[spoiler:and she finally goes out of her way to save Tim from getting hurt or arrested in Kazakhstan after she's joiced Shaw's RenegadeSplinterFaction in opposing Monarch]].

* CoolOldGuy: When we meet him again in the retirement home, he's still fairly spry and handsome (with a full head of [[SilverFox silver hair]], no less) for a man in his nineties. When Cate, Kentaro and May show up, he shows basically no hesitation in getting back into the action. This verges on Really700YearsOld as the characters in 2015 point out that for him to be a military officer in the 1950s (as he appears in the flashback timeline), he has to be in his early 90s, but looks like he's in his early 70s (and a spry one at that, as he's played by the 72 year old Kurt Russell). He shrugs this off as "good genes". [[spoiler:This is eventually revealed as the result of a botched expedition to HollowEarth leaving him [[YearOutsideHourInside time displaced upon his return]]]].

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: In the 50s trio in ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', she's the In-Between. Snarkier and less sweet than Bill, but gentler and less sour than Shaw.
* ThePromise: Hiroshi states in the ninth episode that she promised him just before her doom in 1959 that she would come back. [[spoiler:What saves this from being an EmptyPromise is that she ''did'' eventually come back to her son, over half a century late after being caught in the Axis Mundi's [[YearOutsideHourInside slower time flow]], and she mutters apologies to him for it]].
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Given that she was most likely in her early 30's when she fell into the Hollow Earth wormhole, Keiko would have been in her late 80's-early 90's in physical age while she's biologically in her 30's like Lee was when he briefly entered Hollow Earth and only to enter Japan 20 years later]].

* TranquilFury: She almost never raises her voice above a whisper nor does she physically lash out, even when she's ''simmering'' with anger (which is very often), such as when she realizes Tim has triggered a citywide Titan evacuation drill as a {{fire alarm distraction}} [[spoiler:or when Tim tells her that she's lived down to everything Shaw said she was]].

* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Even though all information so far indicates he is a competent member of Monarch his Hawaiian shirt indicates he is a lot more easygoing than most other members.
* KindlyVet: Marketing information for ''Film/GodzillaXKongTheNewEmpire'' on Trapper says he is some kind of Titan-Veterinarian.

A senior paleozoologist, and Dr. Serizawa's close protégé and assistant.

* ShadowArchetype: She is a mirror to everything Ishiro Serizawa stood for. Serizawa at least knows when to listen to his experts when they tell him about things he needs to know. Verdugo goes for the opposite direction. While she'll listen to her experts over gamma signals, she immediately dismisses any possibility of a Hollow Earth. Whereas Serizawa cares about multiple lives, including those working under him, Verdugo dismisses the possibility of someone trying to send out a signal which reaches Tim's breaking point that forced his hand in quitting. Whereas scientists and soldiers who work under Serizawa are loyal to him, Verdugo ends up driving people that were loyal to her, and they decide to break off from the organization.

''' [[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseAlanJonah Alan Jonah]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseRenSerizawa Ren Serizawa]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseWalterSimmons Walter Simmons]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Families]] ([[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Dr. Emma Russell]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Dr. Mark Russell]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMadisonRussell Madison Russell]]) | Monarch ([[Characters/MonsterVerseIshiroSerizawa Dr. Ishirō Serizawa]]) | [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Skull Island Expeditions]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary U.S. Government & Military]]-]]]'''

--> See [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell here]].

--> See [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell here]].

* ReluctantRetiree: Monarch forcibly retired him to a GildedCage in 1982 despite his objectuons, [[spoiler:after he came back from [[YearOutsideHourInside Axis Mundi]] twenty years younger than he should have been]].

* AlcoholicParent: Not him, but it's {{implied|Trope}} that his father was one. When Puckett laments what his father would think of the mess his bar brawl caused, Lee snarks that they could find out if they sober him up long enough to ask.

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: The ''Godzilla: Awakening'' graphic novel depicts him as a founding member of Monarch who was in on the existence of Titans in 1946, and who recruited Ishirō's father Eiji in that time. In ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'', Lee was apparently an ordinary Army lieutenant who was unaware of Titans and unaffiliated with Monarch as late as 1952 until his encounter with the Ion Dragon, and his role and presence in the Castle Bravo atomic bombing are markedly different in the series' depiction than in the ''Awakening'' depiction, firmly retconning the latter from the Franchise/MonsterVerse[='s=] canon.
* AntiVillain: He's technically the villain of the last few episodes, seeking to destroy all the portals to the Hollow Earth - something the audience knows would be a disaster. However, his goals are noble in that he's trying to stop another catastrophe like G-Day from ever happening again. Further, when [[spoiler:they end up marooned in the Hollow Earth, his main concern is Cate and May's safety]].

* CassandraTruth: He tries to tell now-adult Hiroshi what he encountered in Hollow Earth, but Hiroshi dismisses his claims and returns his pocket knife. As Lee tells Michelle, he's been trying to tell Monarch for years, and they didn't listen to him because they think he's crazy. Despite the fact that [[spoiler:he hadn't aged a day in the 20 years he was missing]].

** He's a Contrasting ''Prequel'' Antagonist to [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]] from the preceding live-action instalment, ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. [[spoiler:Like Apex, Shaw is initially an ally to the main human cast, but he has his own plans for "saving the world" from the threat that Titans pose to humanity, and they involve illegal operations and involve him accidentally ''causing'' an even bigger apocalyptic threat instead of fixing anything. However, Apex actively wanted to murder and usurp Godzilla to take his place as the Alpha Titan on Earth, then exterminate or enslave the other Titans for their own purposes; whereas Shaw recognizes that Godzilla is mankind's ally, and instead seeks to cut the other Titans off from the Earth's surface via closing the Vile Vortexes. Apex were an extremely wealthy, powerful, futuristic, techy and brazen {{corporate conspiracy}} with a lot of resources and influence, whereas Shaw leads a smaller, guerrilla RenegadeSplinterFaction of Monarch with limited resources that they steal. Apex were unscrupulous [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist not-so-well-intentioned extremists]] whom were ultimately motivated by power and ambition, and they didn't think twice about endangering millions of lives for their own ends, whereas Shaw is a true AntiVillain with firm moral standards who abhors the loss of human lives. Whereas Apex were purely using the main cast of ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' as pawns for their own ends and were happy to dispose of them when their usefulness ended, Shaw's affection for the main 2015 cast is genuine, and he goes back trying to save them after they've split off]].
** He also contrasts Irene from the preceding overall instalment, ''WesternAnimation/SkullIsland2023''. Both are morally gray and noble characters with standards, [[spoiler:who have lost the people they loved most including someone who [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated was not really dead]],]] they both lead an armed group who don't exactly operate inside the law, and they're both happy to work with their respective works' main heroes so long as they're not in the way. However, Irene was a botanist who had no interactions with nor awareness of Monarch, and her chief motivations were to get her long-lost {{missing child}} back off Skull Island. Shaw on the other hand is an elderly retired Army colonel who is intrinsically tied to Monarch's history and has a beef with their questionable conduct, and he is instead concerned with the bigger picture of safeguarding humanity against future Titan threats.
* CoolOldGuy: When we meet him again in the retirement home, he's still fairly spry and handsome (with a full head of [[SilverFox silver hair]], no less) for a man in his nineties. When Cate, Kentaro and May show up, he shows basically no hesitation in getting back into the action. This verges on Really700YearsOld as the characters in 2015 point out that for him to be a military officer in the 1950s (as he appears in the flashback timeline), he has to be in his early 90s, but looks like he's in his early 70s (and a spry one at that, as he's played by the 72 year old Kurt Russell). He shrugs this off as "good genes". [[spoiler:This is eventually revealed as the result of a botched expedition to Hollow Earth leaving him [[YearOutsideHourInside time displaced upon his return]]]].
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: [[spoiler:Hiroshi and]] Monarch dismissed his post-Operation Hourglass account of what really happened and his warnings about preparing for future Titan emergences for years. G-Day proved him right about the Titans coming, [[spoiler:and his account of the [[YearOutsideHourInside Axis Mundi]] is also true]]. The fact that Monarch ignored him to the point of denial is a major factor in why he's lost all trust and faith in the organization as it operates in the present day.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: When he first meets Keiko in 1952, it takes him quite some time to wrap his head around the notion that the respected and qualified doctor he's been assigned as security detail for is a Japanese [[SamusIsAGirl woman]], which was quite a normal attitude for his time.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'' reveals that Lee and [[spoiler:Dr. Keiko Miura fell in love with each other by 1955, but after he skipped an important military conference to pursue her and Bill Randa on a Titan-hunting expedition, General Puckett--who'd made it clear that if Lee attended the conference he'd be given control of Monarch to run as he saw fit, but if he didn't there would be unpleasant consequences--passed military oversight of Monarch to Lieutenant Hatch instead. Lt. Hatch proceeded to gut Monarch's funding, insult Keiko to her face for being Japanese while having the FBI dig up her past as an Imperial Japanese Navy officer, and say that the threat Monarch should really be hunting was [[RedScare Communist spies infiltrating American society]] instead of giant monsters. As a result Keiko was furious at Lee for having screwed the origanization she helped establish over out of jealousy, and she and Bill Randa grew closer until they fell in love and got married, leaving Lee initially bitter and alone]].
* DoesntTrustThoseGuys: In the present, he doesn't trust Monarch at all after they refused to believe him [[spoiler:about the HollowEarth]], and after he spent decades watching them do seemingly nothing but sit behind their desks while failing to prepare humanity for G-Day.

* FatalFlaw: Passion. Shaw is deeply driven by his emotions over reason, and it clouds his vision of the bigger picture and gets him into avoidable trouble. In 1955, he blows off an extremely important meeting that would have seen him put in charge of Monarch so that he can join his friends on a field mission, [[spoiler:particularly Keiko who he's fallen in love with,]] which leads to Lieutenant Hatch, who wants to sabotage Monarch for his own purposes, being put in charge instead. [[spoiler:In 2015, Shaw blows off Cate's warnings to him that his plan to seal off the HollowEarth is risking annihilating the world if he continues it once he hears that the data came from Monarch, whose history of being non-proactive to preventing Titan threats before they begin he has a chip on his shoulder towards, and to some degree because he feels a need to atone for his own past failings with his plan -- this sets off a chain of events which get him, Cate and May stranded in the Hollow Earth and lead to his possible death there]].
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: This is revealed to be a key part of his backstory, [[spoiler:and the true reason why he's {{older than he looks}}. During the disastrous venture to HollowEarth as part of Operation Hourglass in 1962, he's stranded in the Hollow Earth's Axis Mundi for little over a week, but due to the realm's [[YearOutsideHourInside time dilation]], when he returns to the surface, it's now 1982. He's confused by the sight of a color TV and a broadcast of a shuttle launch, and that's ''before'' he discovers his [[HonoraryUncle honorary nephew]] is now a cold young man or that Billy has been dead for years]].

* HisStoryRepeatsItself: He's haunted by his failure to save Keiko from falling to her [[spoiler:supposed]] death in the Kazakhstan power plant's reactor when he tried to [[TakeMyHand take her hand]], [[spoiler:which is a secondary factor in his present day self's crusade to forcibly seal off the HollowEarth]]. He's forced to go through it again near the series' end, [[spoiler:when Cate almost falls in the same spot where her grandmother did -- this time, Lee grabs her hand just in time, before they fall together]].

* IgnoredExpert: He's not a scientist, but he's been trying to warn Monarch how unprepared they've been for the Titans emerging for decades, to no avail. He rightfully calls out Monarch for not preparing the inevitable, which led to the disaster in 2014. Duvall ends up seeing his point and joins his side.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: His younger self in the 50s segments of ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'' is shown to be sardonic and somewhat aggressive, and he doesn't get off to a good start with Bill or Keiko in '52, plus he initially has some {{deliberate values dissonance}} when he first meets Keiko; but he's still a good man who cares a lot about his two colleagues' lives, and who got into a nasty bar fight with a pair of soldiers in '52 because he was outraged that they were drunkenly sexually harassing a Filipino barmaid, and he disparaged them as "bullies" when explaining himself to a superior officer.
* LoveTriangle: He and Billy both quickly become attracted to Keiko upon meeting her, [[spoiler:and eventually both men fall in love with her. She first falls for Shaw and reciprocates his feelings, but when he misses a meeting that would've given him operational command of Monarch so he could stay by her side, it drives a wedge between them. After that, she grows closer to Billy and falls for him, and they marry, leaving Shaw alone.]]
* MentorArchetype: {{Downplayed}}. In his original appearance in the now-{{canon discontinuity}} ''Godzilla: Awakening'', he's responsible for recruiting Eiji Serizawa into Monarch and subsequently becomes an old friend, though it evidently wasn't from Shaw that Eiji or his son gained their defining passion for Godzilla.

* ObiWanMoment: [[spoiler:In "Beyond Logic", during the escape from [[YearOutsideHourInside Axis Mundi]], he realizes that he can't escape with Keiko, Cate and May when their pod is caught in the exit rift's suction with him hanging onto the exterior by Keiko's hand, threatening to pull her out with him or weigh the pod down before it reaches the rift. He reassures Keiko that it's alright and tells her to live as he pries his hand out of hers, falling behind the pod to his [[UncertainDoom possible death]] amid the chaos of the rift's suction while the pod's occupants are transported back to Earth's surface]].
* OlderThanHeLooks: If he was thirty-something in the 1950s, that'd make him over 90 years old by 2015, but he looks a good two decades younger[[note]]Kurt Russell was 72 when the series aired and he looks remarkably good for his age[[/note]]. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d repeatedly by different characters. In casual conversation, Lee attributes it to good genes, but the truth is -- classified even to Monarch's most valuable agents -- [[spoiler:he led a recon mission to the Hollow Earth in 1962, [[YearOutsideHourInside and was down there for what he thought was a "week or so"... only to discover, once he escaped, that 20 years of real time had passed]]. He really ''is'' only in his 70s.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: A subdued case, but the opening of "[[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E9AxisMundi Axis Mundi]]" indicates that he served as a surrogate father to Hiroshi inbetween Keiko's fall in '59 and [[spoiler:the onset of Lee's own disappearance in]] 1962, while Bill was becoming withdrawn and distant from Hiro. Lee in turn admits in his old age that he saw Hiro as a [[LikeASonToMe son]].

* {{Pride}}: Like Admiral Stenz, Emma Russell, Apex Cybernetics and many other antagonists, Shaw makes the mistake of assuming nature will do just what he wants it to if he tries to force it. [[spoiler:He's trying to save the world from future hostile Titan incursions via forcibly sealing every HollowEarth passageway on the surface, unaware that doing so is implicitly increasing pressure on the remaining rifts and could potentially explode the planet's crust]].

* RankUp: In 1952 when he has his first Titan encounter, he's a lieutenant, but he gets promoted over the course of his Monarch career several times. In 1955, he's promoted to captain; in 1959, he's a major; and finally, he's a colonel by the time of his fateful Operation Hourglass mission in 1962 [[spoiler:which leads to his retirement upon his return]].

* SameCharacterButDifferent: While he is ostensibly the same character first introduced in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' he has an almost completely different backstory and appearance.

* SoleSurvivor: He was the only survivor of Operation Hourglass when [[spoiler:he landed in Hollow Earth. When he returned back to the surface, 20 years had passed while he was inside [[YearOutsideHourInside Axis Mundi]], and his nephew was an adult man]].
* TakeMyHand: The ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' trailer shows him standing on a ledge, desperately shouting and reaching out his hand to take Keiko's when she's dangling by a rope over a pit filled with insectoid monsters.

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:He lets go of Keiko's hands while his ship is being thrown back to the Hollow Earth rift. Considering Keiko survived under the same circumstances, he may yet return]].

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:She saves her granddaughter Cate from a Titan with an arrow]].

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:That fall that supposedly killed her? She ''lived'' through it, and has been surviving on her own]].

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: In the 50s trio in ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', she's the In-Between. Snarkier and less sweet than Bill but gentler and less sour than Shaw.

* DealWithTheDevil: Tim convinces her to make a deal with Brenda Holland of Applied Experimental Technologies in order to free May, who'd been abducted and blackmailed by them.

* DealWithTheDevil: Tim convinces her to make a deal with Brenda Holland of Applied Experimental Technologies (currently being rebranded [[spoiler:Apex Cybernetics]]) in order to free May, who'd been abducted and blackmailed by them. The deal gets May out of her legal trouble with AET at the price of enabling AET/[[spoiler:Apex]] to gain some ''lucrative'' influence with Monarch for future use.

* TranquilFury: She almost never raises her voice above a whisper nor does she physically lash out, even when she's ''simmering'' with anger (which is very often), such as when she realizes Tim has triggered a citywide Titan evacuation drill as a {{fire alarm distraction}} [[spoiler:or when Tim tells her that she's lived down to everything Shaw said she was]].

* DealWithTheDevil: Tim convinces her to make a deal with Brenda Holland of Applied Experimental Technologies in order to free May, who'd been abducted and blackmailed by them.

** In "[[MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E10BeyondLogic Axis Mundi]]", her granddaughter Cate delivers a speech which reminds Shaw of Keiko:

* CuriosityKilledTheCast: ZigZagged in ''Film/Godzilla2014''. Dr. Graham justifies Monarch not trying to kill the pupating Hokmuto because they were concerned that doing so might unleash a radiation cloud on the population, but it's also hinted that Monarch kept Hokmuto alive because they wanted to study a living specimen; which has disastrous consequences once Hokmuto has matured and started massacring anything in his way. Averted with the egg that ultimately hatches Femuto: Monarch removed it from Dagon's grave and analyzed it, but it was only ''years after'' they disposed of the egg due to its radioactivity that Femuto hatched for reasons unrelated to Monarch's experimentation.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: At the start of ''King of the Monsters'', the majority of the public is blaming them for the San Francisco incident, and they're consequently on trial by the government. It's implied the backlash is further influenced by Monarch's refusal to reveal what they know about the Titans or how many more there are in the world; but more than that, the government and the public have understandably adopted a [[WrongAssumption "destroy all monsters" mindset]] in the wake of the devastation Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] caused, and they aren't taking Monarch's arguments that attacking all the Titans is a bad idea seriously. According to the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization, Monarch apparently still have a somewhat controversial rep even after the ending of ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' vindicated their stance on the Titans. The guidebook of ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure'' states that Monarch have a ''mostly'' positive reputation, but they've been subject to controversy and endless conspiracy theories.

* IgnoredExpert: {{Reconstructed}} in ''Film/Godzilla2014'', where Graham and Serizawa's advice about letting Godzilla deal with the [=MUTOs=] is somewhat speculative and sounds outright esoteric thanks to Serizawa's choice of wording, making the military's (whom are portrayed as fairly level-headed if out-of-their-depth in this movie) dismissal of Graham and Serizawa's idea come across as understandable – the fact Graham and Serizawa couldn't give a direct answer to Stenz' question about how they'd minimize civilian casualties if they let Godzilla attack the [=MUTOs=] didn't help their case. PlayedStraight in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', where Monarch advocate seeking ways to coexist with the Titans due to their essential role in Earth's ecology and due to the likelihood that trying to exterminate the Titans on human terms would backfire catastrophically on humanity, but the government and military only care about trying to kill all the Titans to make humanity's existence (in their eyes) easier. Ultimately, in both movies, the military going with attempting to kill the Titans causes things to go [[FromBadToWorse from bad to]] ''[[FromBadToWorse so much worse]]''.
* JurisdictionFriction: In ''King of the Monsters''. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Admiral Stenz]] is nice about it, but besides that, the government and the military want to kill the Titans before they pose a threat to the world, and are annoyed by Monarch's unwillingness to play ball (which is due to the latter organization recognizing how [[WrongAssumption misguided]] the government's plan is and that attempting to wipe out all the Titans would do much more harm than good). It's expanded on in the {{novelization}}, which explains how Monarch's G-Team and other hired military forces come into this.

* OddlySmallOrganization: In ''King of the Monsters'', Monarch's G-Team don't seem to consist of more than a dozen or two dozen members, with few new soldiers appearing after the G-Team's assault force in Antarctica, which gets whittled down to four. This seems especially egregious for a major global organization like Monarch.

** Certain members have a ''really'' poor communication with their military escorts and/or organizations they work for. For example, Bill Randa didn't fully explain what was the purpose to head to Skull island, and it causes Packard to see Kong as an enemy.

* SharedFamilyQuirks: Lee thinks that her and Bill's son Hiroshi took after her, commenting that both Keiko and Hiroshi went after whatever they wanted and wouldn't let anything get in their way.

* HeadInTheSandManagement: ZigZagged overall. The military in the 2014 movie and the government and most of the public in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' '''perceive''' Monarch as a straight example, because of their refusal to try killing every Titan they find on human terms and their preference to let Godzilla do his thing. In actuality, Monarch are refusing because they know that eradicating the Titans or attempting to eradicate them would shoot humanity in the foot one way or another[[note]]Either humanity would cause their own mass extinction which would eradicate us within the next century or two without the Titans to maintain the ecosphere's balance, or our own arrogance would lead to us overestimating our ability to kill the Titans and they would decimate our civilization in aggravation[[/note]]. That being said, Monarch are still often highly indecisive when it comes to finding better solutions to dealing with the ''genuinely'' hostile Titans: Serizawa correctly tells Admiral Stenz that Godzilla can destroy the [=MUTOs=] for us and will then leave humanity in peace, but he fails to offer any specifics about how to minimize the collateral that that route would entail in order to convince Stenz that such a strategy ''doesn't'' equate to the military sitting on their asses while people die. In ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', Monarch are right that TheGovernment[='s=] plan would be tantamount to sabotaging ourselves as a civilization, but for all of Serizawa's preachings on finding coexistence, Monarch doesn't seem to be doing anything to make that ideal a reality, instead keeping the Titans contained and maintaining the status quo even while the government get closer to dissolving Monarch and enacting their plan (the EcoTerrorist [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] [[VillainHasAPoint calls Monarch out on this]]). In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', the HumansAreMorons trope is in full effect, and no one in Monarch thinks to investigate Apex Cybernetics, despite the corporation's suspiciously central whereabouts in Godzilla's attacks, until it's too late (in fact, Mark Russell outright dismisses [[NotNowKiddo Madison]]'s warnings about Apex out of hand) – this is downplayed in the novelization, where Mark and Director Guillerman ''are'' investigating Apex, but are still too slow to stop them [[spoiler:completing Mechagodzilla]] and they still don't call off the HollowEarth expedition which is ultimately crucial to Apex's success.

* RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything: {{Downplayed}}. In ''King of the Monsters'', Monarch are advocating – [[HeroWithBadPublicity much to the public's ire]] – that humanity find ways to cohabit on the planet with Titans instead of trying to exterminate all of them since it's mankind's best shot at survival, whereas the alternatives might actually be more trouble than they're worth in the end. The U.S. Senate, however, don't care to listen to what Monarch is saying at the hearings. And beyond Monarch's private experiments to positively manipulate the Titans' behavior with the ORCA... the organization's board are content to just sit around, make bets on whether Mothra is a good or bad Titan, and let whatever will happen with the government's plans ''happen''. Emma directly calls Serizawa out on Monarch's inaction under his leadership, and nobody has a direct counter-argument.

* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler: Her death is what causes Randa to turn from the cheerful and good-hearted researcher into a bitter cynic who tried to have Kong killed despite having shown no hostility. Subverted in that she survived, but Bill ends up being hers]].

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: This is revealed to be a key part of his backstory, [[spoiler:and the true reason why he's {{older than he looks}}. During the disastrous venture to HollowEarth as part of Operation Hourglass in 1962, he's stranded in the HollowEarth[='s=] Axis Mundi for little over a week, but due to the realm's [[YearOutsideHourInside time dilation]], when he returns to the surface, it's now 1982. He's confused by the sight of a color TV and a broadcast of a shuttle launch, and that's ''before'' he discovers his [[HonoraryUncle honorary nephew]] is now a cold young man or that Billy has been dead for years]].

* The Promise: In the 1982 flashback of "Axis Mundi", Hiroshi recalls that Lee had promised him he'd come back just before he disappeared and was presumed dead. Lee ''did'' make it back to Hiroshi eventually, but he was twenty years late [[spoiler:due to the [[YearOutsideHourInside slower flow of time]] inside the [[HollowWorld Axis Mundi]]]].

* ThePromise: Hiroshi states in the ninth episode that she promised him just before her doom in 1959 that she would come back. [[spoiler:What saves this from being an EmptyPromise is that she ''did'' eventually come back to her son, over half a century later after she'd been caught in the Axis Mundi's slower time flow, and she mutters apologies to him for it]].

* EurekaMoment: In "[[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E9AxisMundi Axis Mundi]]", she has a sudden realization while examining the gamma rays emitting from the Vile Vortices; [[spoiler:realizing that they're an artificial signal which someone stranded in HollowEarth is broadcasting]].

* PetTheDog: The one time when she ''isn't'' being cold, belligerent or downright acidic is when she condolently fills a hospitalized Kentaro in [[spoiler:on his half-sister and friends' apparent deaths]], showing sympathy for his loss.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite her cold demeanor which her partner Tim is no exception to, she looks out for him, [[spoiler:even after she breaks away from mainstream Monarch]]. She defends him to Verdugo after his cowboy approach to the Randas lands him in hot water, [[spoiler:and she finally goes out of her way to save him from getting hurt or arrested in Kazakhstan]].

%%* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther

* RankUp: In 1952, he was a lieutenant, but by the time he retired, he was a colonel.