History Characters / MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary

* StrawCharacter: He seems to be one of the military in relation to the movies' GreenAesop. He's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who genuinely values the sacrifices of field troops under him and is concerned about safeguarding civilian lives, but he doesn't place high priority nor regard on respecting the planet's ecological power in the form of the Kaiju, with the Green Aesop often not sitting well with his main interests, and instead he attempts to subsume them with force (which both times goes horribly wrong).

* StrawCharacter: He's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure with straight priorities, who genuinely values preserving civilians' lives and the sacrifices of field troops under him; but he's somewhat narrow-minded and blind to the GreenAesop, since safeguarding as many human lives as possible takes precedent with the military over respecting the planet's ecology or its power.

* CommanderContrarian: {{Reconstructed}}. Stenz's desire to kill the good and bad Titans alike in both films using extreme manmade weaponry brings him into (civilized) conflict with Monarch, he considers Serizawa somewhat naive for his naturalist thoughts on the matters, and he's presented as being wrong in relation to the Monsterverse's intended messages about nature being beyond human control and human intervention being detrimental. He gets extra points for having not shifted his stance in the second film and being a full-blown UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. But Stenz doesn't personally have it out for the Monarch scientists, and is at least open to at least listening to suggestions. In both his appearances, after his preferred path causes NiceJobBreakingItHero, he ends up aligning himself more to Monarch's intentions.

* NukeEm: He's more civil and more open to reason about it than most examples, but his actions across his appearances and his phone call to a superior in the first film clearly show he has this attitude.

* CommanderContrarian: {{Reconstructed}}, and eventually subverted. Stenz's desire to kill the good and bad Titans alike in both films using extreme manmade weaponry brings him into (civilized) conflict with Monarch, he considers Serizawa naive for his naturalist thoughts on the matters, and he's presented as being wrong in relation to the Monsterverse's intended messages about nature being beyond human control and human intervention being detrimental. He gets extra points for having not shifted his stance in the second film and being a full-blown UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. But Stenz doesn't personally have it out for the Monarch scientists, and is at least open to at least listening to suggestions. In both his appearances, after his preferred path causes NiceJobBreakingItHero, he ends up aligning himself more to Monarch's intentions.

* CommanderContrarian: {{Reconstructed}}, and eventually subverted. Stenz's desire to kill the good and bad Titans alike in both films using extreme manmade weaponry (often with a reasonable logic for doing this) brings him into (civilized) conflict with Monarch, and is presented as being wrong in relation to the Monsterverse's intended messages about nature being beyond human control and human intervention being detrimental. He gets extra points for having not shifted his stance in the second film, and being a full-blown UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. But Stenz doesn't personally have it out for the Monarch scientists in any way even if he does consider their pro-monster attitudes naïve, and is open to at least listening to reason. In both his appearances, after his preferred path causes NiceJobBreakingItHero, he aligns himself more to Monarch's intentions.

* FantasticRacism: Not nearly as bad as Mark Russell, and he has no actual hatred of the Titans, but he generally just sees them as a threat to innocent civilians that is better being destroyed.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: He has some doubts about Godzilla's ability to defeat the [=MUTOs=], in spite of chasing one of the [=MUTOs=] out of Honolulu and hardly being affected by the Navy's gunnery in San Francisco Bay. He also underestimates the Oxygen Destroyer's effectiveness on [[spoiler:both Ghidorah (who survived due to his OutsideContextProblem [[AncientAstronauts alien nature]]) and Godzilla]].

--> ''See Characters/MonsterVerseBrodyFamily''

** His approval of a plan to lure Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] using nuclear warheads backfires ''quite horribly'' when the [==MUTOs=] steal the warhead in a highly-populated city before it can be used to lure them out to sea.

** To Serizawa, whom he holds a mutual respect for. One is Japanese and the other American, and they have a talk about the Hiroshima bombing at one point. One is a scientist and the other a military man. They're also both quite lean and elderly. In both his appearances, Stenz is reasonable but usually advocates killing the Titans, whereas Serizawa admires them and considers them crucial to the planet. Serizawa is focused on the balance of nature while Stenz is focused on human lives. Stenz advocates human intervention in Titan crises whereas Serizawa's iconic WhamLine summarizes his stance.
** Also to Emma Russell in the second film, though they never interact. Stenz cares about human lives and leans towards killing the Titans to protect people, nevermind the environmental ramifications of doing so and the potential future consequences for the planet, and he has no love (or hatred for that matter) for the Titans. [[spoiler:Emma deeply admires and reveres the Titans, and is bitterly misanthropic towards humanity, and is willing to risk (if not outright cause) the deaths of millions so that the Titans can restore balance]]. Emma believes the Titans are Earth's rightful rulers, while Stenz seemingly still hasn't listened to Serizawa's WhamLine about the arrogance of man in the second film. In the film, [[spoiler:Stenz attempts to kill Ghidorah and Rodan, while Emma attempts to free them (both their attempts are part of the chain of events that cause the same GoneHorriblyWrong ApocalypseWow)]].

* UnderestimatingBadassery: He has some doubts about Godzilla's ability to defeat the [=MUTOs=], in spite of chasing one of the [=MUTOs=] out of Honolulu and hardly being affected by the Navy's gunnery in San Francisco Bay. He also underestimated the Oxygen Destroyer's effectiveness on [[spoiler:both Ghidorah (who survived due to his OutsideContextProblem [[AncientAstronauts alien nature]]) and Godzilla]].
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: During the Senate meeting in ''King of the Monsters'', when the lead senator entertains the notion of humanity making Godzilla their pet and the other delegates start laughing, Stenz [[OnlySaneMan is visibly taken aback by the committee not taking the matter seriously]] and his facial expression is this.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While he treats Godzilla as a threat for good reason, he doesn't go out of his way like many military characters in these types of movies would and is always open to suggestions from civilian experts. Also, related to the above plan of using a nuke, he points out that they are out of other options and have to do all they can to protect the civilians on the coast; despite that he genuinely empathizes with Serizawa's perspective on the matter, especially after learning Serizawa and his father survived the bombing of Hiroshima. On the other hand, despite running things like a democracy, between the monster-worshippers and the KillEmAll approach he makes it fairly clear in both films which one he has more faith in - guess which one creates a major fuckup and which one manages to help clean up the new mess, twice.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: He has some doubts about Godzilla's ability to defeat the [=MUTOs=], in spite of chasing one of the [=MUTOs=] out of Honolulu and hardly being affected by the Navy's gunnery in San Francisco Bay.

* {{Expy}}

** He is also comparable to the American pilot from ''Hell in the Pacific'' for his rivalry and [[spoiler: friendship]] with a Japanese pilot who was also stranded on the same island.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While he treats Godzilla as a threat for good reason, he doesn't go out of his way like many military characters in these types of movies would and is always open to suggestions from civilian experts. Also, related to the above plan of using a nuke, he points out that they are out of other options and have to do all they can to protect the civilians on the coast; despite that he genuinely empathizes with Serizawa's perspective on the matter, especially after learning Serizawa and his father survived the bombing of Hiroshima. On the other hand, despite running things like a democracy, between the monster-worshippers and the KillEmAll approach he makes it fairly clear in both films which one he has more faith in - guess which one creates a major fuckup in both cases.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While he treats Godzilla as a threat for good reason, he doesn't go out of his way like many military characters in these types of movies would and is always open to suggestions from civilian experts. Also, related to the above plan of using a nuke, he points out that they are out of other options and have to do all they can to protect the civilians on the coast; despite that he genuinely empathizes with Serizawa's perspective on the matter, especially after learning Serizawa and his father survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

-->''"Thank you for the Fifth Grade history lesson, Mr. Coleman. But we still haven’t heard one good reason why Monarch shouldn't fall under military jurisdiction or why these creatures shouldn't be exterminated."''

-->''"I would not be asking anyone of you to take this leap if I did not have complete faith in your ability to succeed. Your courage will never be more needed than it is today."''

-->''"The way they tell it for thousands of years, the people on this island lived in fear. That's a hell of a long time to be scared. And then, the damnedest thing happened. Some of the things they were afraid of started protecting them against the things that were eating them."''

!!US Government

-->''"Thank you for the Fifth Grade history lesson, Mr. Coleman. But we still haven’t heard one good reason why Monarch shouldn't fall under military jurisdiction or why these creatures shouldn't be exterminated."''

* ProperlyParanoid: Zig-zagged. [[spoiler:Around halfway through the movie, Ghidorah takes control of the Titans of Earth and drives them to wipe out human civilisation, just like Senator Williams feared the Titans would do. However, that was made possible precisely ''because'' of the government's lack of trust in Godzilla and other benevolent Titans, as the Oxygen Destroyer took out Godzilla but didn't affect Ghidorah at all.]]

!!US Military

-->''"I would not be asking any one of you to take this leap if I did not have complete faith in your ability to succeed. Your courage will never be more needed than it is today."''

* GodzillaThreshold: He believes that utilizing nuclear weapons works as the least costly way of dealing with the [=MUTOs=]. He's aware that they feed off of radiation, but believes the sheer strength of the explosion will be enough to kill them, noting that, while the H-Bomb didn't kill Godzilla in 1954, it's a firecracker in comparison to what is at their disposal six decades later. In ''King of the Monsters'' he resorts to deploying an even more devastating weapon when it becomes clear just how incomprehensibly powerful [[BigBad King Ghidorah]] really is.

** His decision to [[spoiler:launch an Oxygen Destroyer missile at Godzilla and Ghidorah nearly kills the former but barely scratches the latter, leaving the omnicidal space dragon the uncontested leader of the Titans]]. If not for [[LittleMissBadass Madison Russell]]'s later intervention, mankind would've bought it right then and there.
** The Oxygen Destroyer missile ends up killing all of the sea life around Mexico City crippling the economy on top of the significant damage that Rodan ended up causing. [[spoiler:While King Ghidorah's head would likely have found its way into Jonah's hands sooner or later, the jobless fishermen selling it to support themselves ended up accelerating the process]].
* OnlySaneMan: In comparison to the other powerful US Government characters; Stenz is fairly reasonable and open. In both films his character is used to display the wrong way of engaging Kaiju but his decisions aren't framed in an unsympathetic light. Any disagreements he and the other main characters share are often respectable and he's willing to listen to the experts whilst the senators choose to butt heads over jurisdiction.

!!Army

-->''"The way they tell it for thousands of years, the people on this island lived in fear. That's a hell of a long time to be scared. And then, the damnedest thing happened. Some of the things they were afraid of started protecting them against the things that were eating them."''

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: He's rather mystified by the changes to the world that happened in his absence when the expedition team tells him about them, such as the moon landings and the fact that the US is now locked in a Cold War against the Soviet Union. Silvko even compares him to a time traveler for it.

* IgnoredExpert: Given the fact that he's been on Skull Island for 28 years, Marlow knows the place forwards and backwards and the places to avoid. When Packard wants to go find Chapman, Marlow argues against it but his advice gets ignored, and at the Boneyard, Marlow calls the area dangerous, only to be disregarded by Packard again.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marlow_hank.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:''"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..."'']]

-->''"Thank you for the Fifth Grade history lesson, Mr. Coleman. But we still haven’t heard one good reason why Monarch shouldn't fall under military jurisdiction or why these creatures shouldn't be exterminated."''

!!!'''Appeared In:''' ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters''

-->''"I would not be asking any one of you to take this leap if I did not have complete faith in your ability to succeed. Your courage will never be more needed than it is today."''

!!!'''Appeared In:''' ''Film/{{Godzilla|2014}}'', ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019''

-->''"The way they tell it for thousands of years, the people on this island lived in fear. That's a hell of a long time to be scared. And then, the damnedest thing happened. Some of the things they were afraid of started protecting them against the things that were eating them."''

* BadassGrandpa: Though 28 years past his prime, he holds his own well in battle and even wounds one of the Skullcrawlers.

* DisappearedDad[=/=]LongLostRelative: To his wife and son, whom he left behind when he crashed on Skull Island. [[spoiler: They reunite in the end.]]

* GratuitousJapanese: Before charging into battle against a Skullcrawler, Marlow draws Gunpei's sword and whispers "Death before dishonor" in Japanese. [[spoiler: As we later learn, Gunpei was killed by Skullcrawlers, so it might have been a tribute to him.]]

* ImportantHaircut: Before he leaves the indigenous tribe's village, he cuts his extremely unkempt beard into a proper BadassBeard. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, before reuniting with his family, he shaves it into a short mustache.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: His decision to [[spoiler:launch an Oxygen Destroyer missile at Godzilla and Ghidorah nearly kills the former but barely scratches the latter, leaving the omnicidal space dragon the uncontested leader of the Titans]]. If not for [[LittleMissBadass Madison Russell]]'s later intervention, mankind would've bought it right then and there.