History Characters / MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary

'''[[center: [- [[Characters/MonsterVerse Main Character Index]] -]]]'''

The leader of a small regiment of soldiers assigned to transport a nuclear warhead to attract the M.U.T.O.s.

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/{{Godzilla}}''

[[folder: Admiral William Stenz]]

[[folder: Lieutenant Ford Brody]]

[[folder: Admiral Wilcox]]

[[folder: Colonel Diane Foster]]

[[folder: Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard]]

[[folder: Major Jack Chapman]]

[[folder: Captain Earl Cole]]

[[folder: Chief Warrant Officer Jackson Barnes]]

[[folder: Warrant Officer Glenn Mills]]

[[folder: Warrant Officer Reg Slivko]]

[[folder: Warrant Officer Joe Reles]]

[[folder: Staff Sergeant Anthony Martinez]]

[[folder: Lieutenant Hank Marlow]]

[[folder: Lieutenant Lauren Griffin]]

-->'''Sam Coleman:''' We believe that these Titans and others like themprovide an essential balance to our world.\\

--> ''See [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Brody Family]]''

* [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Humans]]

* {{Expy}}:
** He is a dead-ringer for the photojournalist from ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' for his role as the crazy outsider who had gone native and reveres a mysterious figure.
** He is also comparable to the American pilot from ''Film/HellInThePacific'' for his rivalry and [[spoiler: friendship]] with a Japanese pilot who was also stranded on the same island.

* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: He sees through Emma's MaskOfSanity from the get-go. He was concerned from the start that she might not be emotionally fit to be managing Monarch's Titan-studying activities due to [[OutlivingOnesOffspring the loss she suffered in San Francisco]], and his concerns deepen during his time with her.

* AntiVillain: Depending on which side of the character's Broken Base you're on, he can be seen as an example who's more often working with the human heroes than not. His personality and intentions are genuinely noble, but he tends towards NukeEm action which stands in direct defiance of the Franchise/MonsterVerse[='s=] aesop about nature's power and mankind's fallacy.
* CommanderContrarian: {{Reconstruction}}. Stenz is more level-headed and respectful of the experts than most military leaders in this type of movie, but he does have a tendency to disregard Monarch's advice when it comes to trying to kill the Kaiju with human means, and across both his appearances he's persistently skeptical of Monarch's more naturalistic or idealist ideas about humanity coexisting with the Titans. 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.
* ConsummateProfessional: PlayedWith. He's a dedicated, stern and no-nonsense military leader in the U.S. Navy, though he does show hints of a softer side in his sympathy for Serizawa and seeming second thoughts about using nuclear weapons in the first film. He's unfortunately also Lawful to a fault, and when making decisions he ethically doesn't have much room for the more philosophical/moral side of Serizawa's advice about Godzilla, on top of struggling to think outside of a normal military mindset. In both his appearances, his initial decisions cause things to go FromBadToWorse because of this.

* 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, since the H-Bomb that failed to kill Godzilla in 1954 is a firecracker compared to what's at their disposal six decades later. In ''King of the Monsters'', he and the military resort to deploying an even more devastating prototype weapon against Ghidorah, in an attempt to kill him and Rodan after both Titans awaken and escape Monarch's containment outposts.

* HeroAntagonist: He's technically on the side of good and has genuinely noble objectives, but his inability to perceive the Titans outside of a normal military mindset causes him to (civilly) clash with Monarch and dismiss their more [[TheXenophile Xenophile]] suggestions while resorting to NukeEm methods in an attempt to curtail the Titans. It can be argued that him and the military are ''directly'' responsible for things going FromBadToWorse in both the 2014 movie and ''King of the Monsters'' because they didn't listen and tried to sort out the Titan problem on their own terms, with devastating consequences.

* OnlySaneByComparison: Despite his FatalFlaw, in ''King of the Monsters'' he comes off as comparatively more reasonable than the other U.S. government figures such as Senator Williams -- 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. He actually almost seems to ''realize'' this in the senate scene, when he's stunned by the senators' laughter which shows they're not taking the Titan matter of discussion seriously.

* UltimateJobSecurity: {{Downplayed}}, but [[https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/William_Stenz as noted on his Godzilla Wikia page]], he's been promoted by two extra stars between the 2014 film and ''King of the Monsters'', despite the massive San Francisco fiasco which his decisions ultimately exacerbated. Possibly {{justified}} by the five-year gap between the movies meaning he made other accomplishments that earned him promotion.

* ConsummateProfessional: PlayedWith. He's dedicated, stern and no-nonsense military leader in the U.S. Navy, though he does show hints of a softer side in his sympathy for Serizawa and seeming second thoughts about using nuclear weapons in the first film. He's unfortunately also Lawful to a fault, and when making decisions he ethically doesn't have much room for the more philosophical/moral side of Serizawa's advice about Godzilla, on top of struggling to think outside of a normal military mindset. In both his appearances, his initial decisions cause things to go FromBadToWorse because of this.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He turns down Serizawa's advice in favor of NukeEm despite his respect for Serizawa, and though he remains polite to Serizawa, he seems to think the latter is against attempting to kill the Titans due to [[AdmiringTheAbomination his reverence of them]] and due to lingering fears about the Hiroshima bombing (in which case, Serizawa showing Stenz his [[TragicKeepsake father's watch]] could be NiceJobBreakingItHero). What Stenz fails to realize is Serizawa is actually saying that man is not nearly as big as it thinks it is, and that they're not merely trying to fight a living, giant threat but are dealing with eldritch physical forces of nature which they don't yet understand; and that attempting to forcibly subdue such important parts of nature with manmade means is certain to backfire and might if anything make things worse for us. Stenz gets extra points for seemingly not learning his lesson even after Serizawa verbally spells it out for him near the end of the first film, if Stenz' actions in the second film are any indication.

* FatalFlaw: ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' seems to have cemented narrow-mindedness as Stenz's Fatal Flaw. Despite maintaining a constant level head and despite his respectful demeanor towards Monarch, he's simply unable to think outside of a normal military mindset of treating the Titans like an active threat to infrastructure and civilians' safety, which is particularly problematic due to how the creatures directly tie into the [=MonsterVerse's=] GreenAesop. He sees the Titans merely as "things" and in terms of how much of a threat they pose and nothing else, and he misinterprets Monarch's protests against killing the Titans for naivete born of their AdmiringTheAbomination. Depending on [[YMMV/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Alternative Character Interpretation]], his role in ''King of the Monsters'' indicates he's either persistent in his [[FantasticRacism distrust of the Kaiju]], or he's choosing [[ToBeLawfulOrGood To Be Lawful rather than Good]] to a fault. Either way, him failing to wrap his head around the Kaiju as anything other than a potential threat and furthermore not taking Serizawa's advise more seriously has so far racked up two ''extreme'' cases of making things go FromBadToWorse.

** And to Colonel Diane Foster in ''King of the Monsters''. Both are high-ranking and decorated military officers who are charged with protecting human lives from Titan threats and cooperating with Monarch in that capacity, and one is a Caucasian-American male while the other is an African-American [[DistaffCounterpart female]]. However, Foster's relations with Monarch are considerably better than Stenz', as she's more likely to follow through with their advice and prosper for it. Foster is portrayed as a FrontLineGeneral whereas Stenz is primarily portrayed as an officer who operates from mission control.
* GeneralRipper: {{Downplayed}} in that he's selfless, has some respect for the experts he's provided and he's ultimately well-intentioned, but Stenz does overall function in a similar role. Though he's not as blind to reason as the government he serves; Stenz is persistently skeptical of the idea of coexisting with Titans or letting them fight due to his narrow outlook, he tends to think the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed far too early and resort to NukeEm methods, and he has a track record of [[IgnoredExpert deciding to dismiss Monarch's advice at the worst times]]. It's indicated in ''King of the Monsters'' that Stenz listening to his higher-ups is the ''problem'' rather than solution to his faults, as the government are indicated to be even less reasonable and forward-thinking than Stenz is. He overall tends to both fail to think outside the box, and to underestimate the consequences of his NukeEm measures as well as what the hell he'll do if his Nuke 'em attempt backfires until it already ''has'' backfired.
* 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, since the H-Bomb that failed to kill Godzilla in 1954 is a firecracker compared to what's at their disposal six decades later. In ''King of the Monsters'', he and the military resort to deploying an even more devastating prototype weapon against Ghidorah in an attempt to kill him and Rodan.

** It's unclear how much involvement he had in the military's decision to launch the [[spoiler:prototype Oxygen Destroyer]] beyond being the liaison who warned Monarch to get clear of the blast zone, but the weapon's usage is nothing short of an EpicFail of truly ''apocalyptic'' proportions. Stenz and the military were hoping the weapon would kill the rampant Rodan and Ghidorah, but it only succeeds in taking out the one Titan who was preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and with Godzilla out of the picture, Ghidorah promptly instigates the absolute worst-case scenario with the Titans: the creatures around the world razing humanity's cities into the ground and threatening to [[ApocalypseHow/Class5 drive the world into global extinction]] instead of renewing it.

** In his [[Film/Godzilla2014 first appearance]], he treats the Kaiju as a threat for good reason, but he's persistent level-headed, and he has enough respect for the Monarch experts he's provided to not just brush them off without first hearing what they have to say and he doesn't throw them off his advisory committee just because they disagree. Stenz' highest priority is explicitly the safety of civilians' lives, and he can honestly be credited with putting this at the forefront of his mind instead of being single-mindedly obsessed with the idea of killing a big monster (that's more than can be said for [[Film/Godzilla1998 the military officers who dealt with Zilla and his spawn]], or the government that Stenz answers to for that matter). He also seems to have serious second thoughts about his NukeEm plan in the first movie which Serizawa protests to, although he ultimately goes through with it. After Stenz's nuclear plan horribly backfires and leaves the military with their hands tied, he concedes to holding out hope that Serizawa is right about Godzilla destroying the [=MUTOs=] for them.
** ZigZagged in ''King of the Monsters''. He only contacts Monarch just ''after'' the Oxygen Destroyer has been launched against Ghidorah and Rodan, meaning Monarch are unable to give advice or even inform the military what precisely is going on at the location and whether or not such a drastic move is really necessary. It's also hinted in the movie and confirmed by the novelization that Stenz has remained persistently skeptical of both Godzilla's benevolence and the idea of humans coexisting with the Titans, despite Monarch's expert advice about the Titans' ecological necessity and despite Godzilla's benevolent display at the end of the first movie. That having been said, once the Oxygen Destroyer makes things ''apocalyptically'' worse with awakened Titans spontaneously ravaging the planet, Stenz and the military go straight to Monarch to get them onboard with helping combat the crisis, and if Stenz has any objections to the plan to [[spoiler:revive Godzilla with a nuke so he can defeat Ghidorah]] then he doesn't show them.

* 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 respect for nature and the long-term survival of humanity aren't exactly at the forefront of his mind, and he seems to think (or rather he erroneoulsy ''hopes'') that standard military tactics and manmade weaponry can solve any major problem including the Titans.

* UncertainDoom: In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, Stenz' submarine is apparently damaged at the Washington D.C. battle against Ghidorah and Rodan, and the last that's seen of him is a brief video feed showing his sub is flooding and suffering electrical fires before the signal cuts out, making it likely (given the environment where his sub was going down) that he died, although the novelization deliberately leaves it uncertain. A deleted scene (which was cut from the film because the director wanted to leave the door open for Stenz to return in a future instalment) depicts Stenz [[FaceDeathWithDignity Facing Death with Dignity]] and telling Colonel Foster via video feed ItHasBeenAnHonor before he's apparently KilledMidSentence by an explosion. If Stenz is dead, this arguably doubles as a KarmicDeath for his role in the Oxygen Destroyer which caused so much damage, as he wouldn't have been present at that battle if the O.D. hadn't been fired and enabled King Ghidorah to take over.

** His plan to kill the kaiju using the sheer physical force of modern nuclear bomb greatly underestimates the power of the Titans as would be demonstrated in ''King of the Monsters'' where a nuke exploding (relative) inches from Godzilla's nose did exactly nothing to him.
** 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 later overestimates the Oxygen Destroyer's effectiveness on [[spoiler:both Ghidorah (who survived due to his OutsideContextProblem [[AncientAstronauts alien nature]]) and Godzilla who was wounded but survived]].
* TheUnfettered: Whilst he's open to suggestions, he's so laser-focused on safeguarding civilian lives that he's rendered short-sighted to greater-scope issues, such as the ecological consequences of trying to kill the Titans.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Stenz and his military colleagues play this trope straight in the second film when they unexpectedly [[spoiler:fire the Oxygen Destroyer]], with Stenz being the one who warns Monarch of the coming strike. The weapon's use makes the military directly responsible for [[spoiler:seemingly killing Godzilla, and enabling Ghidorah to take over control of the other Titans and start unleashing its ApocalypseHow on the planet]]. Especially relevant when considering the director's suggestion that Godzilla would've beaten Ghidorah if not for the military intervention.
* WrongGenreSavvy: With his largely professional and reasonable attitude towards the {{Ignored Expert}}s, he's the kind of military leader that some disaster movies would be begging to have, avoiding some of the pitfalls that characterize other {{Commander Contrarian}}s. Unfortunately for him, in the [=MonsterVerse=], the {{Kaiju}} aren't just rampaging monsters whose deaths signal the return of peace but are directly tied to the GreenAesop, and his inability to wrap his head around such things makes him a rather ill-chosen liaison for adequately handling Titan crises.
* 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]]. He also looks quite stunned when Graham and Serizawa walk straight out of the important committee (and displease the lead senator in the process) based on a phone-call.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: {{Subverted}}. With how he's only present in the navy fleet scenes and featured in the trailers, it'd be easy to assume he'd end up dying in Godzilla's attack on the fleet. In the film however, he's still alive when Godzilla departs.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He looks to Team Kong for advice and takes their suggestions seriously, but he still doesn't just blindly do whatever they say, only following Nathan's suggestion that they turn off everything during Godzilla's attack once Nathan explains they'll be playing dead and making Godzilla think he's defeated them. However, it should be noted in relation to this trope, the novelization does specify that Wilcox officially answers to Dr. Lind during the mission instead of the latter being merely an advisor -- that being said, Wilcox doesn't hesitate to take command when Nathan intially has a DeerInTheHeadlights reaction to Godzilla's attack. Furthermore, unlike Admiral Stenz, Wilcox seems to be a bit more aware of the power discrepancy between man and Titan and that the best they can do is annoy the Titans or divert their attention.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: PlayedWith in the novelization, which shows him at one point looking at a photo of his family.

** It's unclear how much involvement he had in the military's decision to launch the [[spoiler:prototype Oxygen Destroyer]] beyond being the liaison who warned Monarch to get clear of the blast zone, but the weapon's usage is nothing short of an EpicFail of truly ''apocalyptic'' proportions. Stenz and the military were hoping the weapon would kill the rampant Rodan and Ghidorah, but it only succeeds in taking out the one Titan who was preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and with Godzilla unable to oppose Ghidorah, the latter promptly instigates the absolute worst-case scenario of Titans around the world razing humanity's cities and threatening to [[ApocalypseHow/Class5 drive the world into global extinction]] instead of renewing it.

** In his first appearance, he approves a plan to attempt killing Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] using nuclear warheads with more concussive force than the 50s bombs in the hopes it'll succeed at killing them where the 50s bombs failed, despite the serious risk (which becomes near certainty following the events of ''King of the Monsters'') that if any of the Kaiju survive the blast then they'll actually be ''empowered even more'' by the radiation ''and'' likely enraged. Unlike most examples of this trope, Stenz seems to have genuine doubts while he's preparing to enact the measure, but despite Serizawa's pleas against it, he sticks to it.

* OnlySaneByComparison: As narrow-minded and distrustful of the Titans as he is, he still comes off as comparatively more open to reason than the other U.S. government figures such as Senator Williams in ''King of the Monsters''. 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.
* PragmaticHero: PlayedWith. He has shades of a composed and logical ConsummateProfessional with HeroAntagonist shades but is ultimately severely incompetent at dealing with the Titans. Stenz is a strictly professional military man who is obviously operating on a Pragmatic Hero mindset when he (apologetically) chooses to use NukeEm measures to deal with the Titans despite Monarch's protests. Although he respects Monarch's expertise and has a polite and composed disposition, he fails to understand the Titans' nature and the GreenAesop, instead misinterpreting Monarch's idolization of Godzilla and other Titans as obscene naivete. He's strictly concerned with saving civilian lives and he's often unable to think or see outside of that particular frame of though. Ultimately, Stenz's and/or the military taking action which Monarch protests to in both films is what directly enables things to go FromBadToWorse.

** In his [[Film/Godzilla2014 first appearance]], he treats the Kaiju as a threat for good reason, but he persistently displays enough respect for the Monarch experts he's provided to not just brush them off without first hearing what they have to say, and he at least keeps them on his advisory committee when he disagrees with them. His highest priority is explicitly the safety of civilians' lives, and he can honestly be credited with putting this at the forefront of his mind instead of being single-mindedly obsessed with the idea of killing a big monster (that's more than can be said for [[Film/Godzilla1998 the military officers who dealt with Zilla and his spawn]]). He also seems to have serious second thoughts about his NukeEm plan in the first film which Serizawa protests to, although he ultimately goes through with it. After Stenz's nuclear plan horribly backfires and leaves the military with their hands tied, he concedes to holding out hope that Serizawa is right that Godzilla will destroy the threat of the [=MUTOs=] for them.
** ZigZagged in ''King of the Monsters''. He only contacts Monarch just ''after'' the Oxygen Destroyer has been launched against Ghidorah and Rodan, meaning Monarch are unable to give advice or even inform the military what precisely is going on at the location and whether or not such a drastic move is really necessary. It's also hinted in the film and confirmed in the novelization that Stenz has remained persistently skeptical of both Godzilla's benevolence and the idea that the Titans shouldn't be indiscriminately exterminated, despite Godzilla's benevolent display at the end of the first film. That having been said, once the Oxygen Destroyer makes things ''apocalyptically'' worse with Ghidorah reigning unopposed and leading the Titans toward creating a rapid extinction event, Stenz and the military go straight to Monarch to get them onboard with helping combat the crisis, and if Stenz has any objections to the plan to [[spoiler:revive Godzilla with a nuke so he can defeat Ghidorah]] then he really doesn't show them.

* TheStoic: Mostly the polite kind, who for the most part displays a calm and no-nonsense disposition.
* 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 the Kaiju with manmade force (which both times goes horribly wrong).
* StrawVulcan: He's somewhat this, at least in the 2014 film. He's calm and tries to be reasonable and logical with his efforts to neutralize the Kaiju, even when he plans to nuke them, but he's so objective and unwilling to go on a limb that he's dismissive of Serizawa's idealism about Godzilla being man and nature's guardian rather than its enemy and about the Kaiju being forces of nature beyond human control. Naturally, Serizawa is proven right in the end that Godzilla is their only real hope of neutralizing the [=MUTOs=], and later installments have only further proven Serizawa right about the Titans.
* UltimateJobSecurity: {{Downplayed}}, but [[https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/William_Stenz as noted on his Godzilla Wikia page]], he's been promoted by two extra stars between the 2014 film and ''King of the Monsters'' despite the massive San Francisco fiasco which his decisions about how to combat the Kaiju partly caused. Possibly {{justified}} by the five-year gap between the films meaning he made other accomplishments that earned him promotion.

* HeroAntagonist: He's technically on the side of good and has genuinely noble objectives, but in both his appearances, he turns down Serizawa and Monarch's suggestions (which are later both times proven to be the wisest course of action), and regards their reverence of the Titans as naivete and believes NukeEm type methods will get more beneficial results.
* HeroicLineage: PlayedWith. The novelization mentions his father was an ensign on the ''Indianapolis'' which helped transport the [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki atomic bombs]]' components.
* IdiotBall: In the first film, he starts off the hunt for the MUTO by demanding all search options be immediately brought to the table and furthermore relying on algorithmic Navy software to plot all of the kaiju's possible paths to landfall. But when he, his colleagues and Monarch realize the [=MUTOs=] threaten to become {{Explosive Breeder}}s, the only plan brought to the table is the NukeEm plan and Stenz settles on it almost immediately with no reasonable alternative plans having apparently been considered. It's even worse in the novelization's version, where Stenz first orders Hampton to bring him all options, but when Hampton just mentions the nuclear plan Stenz decides to settle on that straight away without even hearing the alternatives.

** 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.
** It's unclear how much involvement he had in the military's decision to launch the [[spoiler:prototype Oxygen Destroyer]], but the weapon's use is possibly the most severe case of NiceJobBreakingItHero so far in the [=MonsterVerse=] (see [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 here]] for details).

* FantasticRacism: Doesn't trust the Titans at all, and wants Monarch to work with the military to kill them before they awaken. The novelization suggests it's partly because of the damage Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] did at Hawaii, which is where she is from.

* {{Jerkass}}: Unlike Admiral Stenz who remains a ReasonableAuthorityFigure despite his faults, Senator Williams only listens to what she wants to hear, and she flat-out hates the Titans and wants them killed. She's also clearly scornful of Serizawa when accusing him of admiring the creatures.

* CommanderContrarian: {{Reconstruction}}. Stenz is more respectful and ConsummateProfessional than most military leaders in this type of movie, but he does have a tendency to disregard Monarch's advice when it comes to trying to kill the Kaiju with human means, and across both his appearances he's persistently skeptical of Monarch's more naturalistic or idealist (their non-strategic) ideas about humanity coexisting with the Titans instead of destroying them. 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.
* ConsummateProfessional: PlayedWith. He's dedicated, stern and no-nonsense military leader in the U.S. Navy, though he does show hints of a softer side in his sympathy for Serizawa and seeming second thoughts about using nuclear weapons in the first film. He's unfortunately also Lawful to a fault, and when making decisions he ethically doesn't have much room for the more philosophical/moral side of Serizawa's advice about Godzilla -- in both his appearances, his initial decisions cause things to go FromBadToWorse because of this.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He turns down Serizawa's advice in favor of NukeEm despite his respect for Serizawa, and though he remains polite to Serizawa, he seems to think the latter is against attempting to kill the Titans due to [[AdmiringTheAbomination his reverence of them]] and due to lingering fears about the Hiroshima bombing (in which case, Serizawa showing Stenz his [[TragicKeepsake father's watch]] could be NiceJobBreakingItHero). What Stenz fails to realize is Serizawa is actually saying that man is not nearly as big as it thinks it is, and that they're not merely trying to fight a living, giant threat but are dealing with eldritch physical forces of nature which they don't yet understand; and that attempting to forcibly subdue such important parts of nature with manmade means is certain to backfire and might if anything make things worse for us. Stenz gets extra points for seemingly not getting the point even after Serizawa spells it out for him near the end of the first film, based on his role in the second film.

* FatalFlaw: ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' seems to have cemented small-mindedness as Stenz's Fatal Flaw. He considers Monarch naive for their worshipful attitude to Godzilla despite respecting their expertise, seeing the Kaiju merely as "things". Depending on [[YMMV/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Alternative Character Interpretation]], his role in ''King of the Monsters'' indicates he's either persistent in his [[FantasticRacism distrust of the Kaiju]], or he's choosing [[ToBeLawfulOrGood To Be Lawful rather than Good]] to a fault. Either way, him failing to wrap his head around the Kaiju as anything other than a potential threat and furthermore not taking Serizawa's advise more seriously has so far racked up two ''extreme'' cases of making things go FromBadToWorse.

** 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, and both are TheStoic. In both his appearances, Stenz is reasonable but usually advocates killing the Titans, whereas Serizawa has [[WideEyedIdealist idealist]] shades and admires the Titans -- guess who [[NiceJobBreakingItHero makes things worse]] and who [[TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight proves to be right]]. Serizawa is focused on the balance of nature, while Stenz is more focused on human lives. Stenz advocates human intervention in Titan crises whereas Serizawa's iconic WhamLine summarizes his stance.
** And to Colonel Diane Foster in ''King of the Monsters''. Both are high-ranking and decorated military officers who are charged with protecting human lives from the Kaiju and cooperating with Monarch in that capacity, and one is a Caucasian-American male while the other is an African-American [[DistaffCounterpart female]]. However, Foster's relations with Monarch are considerably less strained as she's more likely to follow through with their advice than Stenz. Foster is portrayed as a FrontLineGeneral whereas Stenz is primarily portrayed as an officer who operates from mission control.
* GeneralRipper: {{Downplayed}} in that he's selfless, has some respect for the experts he's provided and he's ultimately well-intentioned, but Stenz does overall function in a similar role. Though he's not as blind to reason as the rest of the government, Stenz is persistently wary and distrustful of the idea of coexisting with Titans or letting them fight due to his narrow outlook; and he tends towards NukeEm methods (overall, he has a tendency to assume the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed way earlier than it actually has been), and making Monarch {{Ignored Expert}}s. It's indicated in ''King of the Monsters'' that Stenz listening to his higher-ups is the ''problem'' rather than solution to his faults, as the film indicates the government are even more unreasonable than Stenz is. He overall tends to underestimate both the Titans as anything other than a threat and also the consequences of his NukeEm measures, as well as what the hell he'll do if his Nuke 'em attempt backfires until it already ''has'' backfired.

--->'''Sam Coleman:''' We believe that these Titans and others like themprovide an essential balance to our world.\\

--->"''Thank you for the fifth grade history lesson, Dr. Coleman.''"

!!!'''Appeared In:''' ''Film/{{Godzilla|2014}}'', ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]''

* 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]].

[[folder: Warrant Officer Reles]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: After 28 years stranded on an uncharted, monster-infested island, Marlow manages to reunite with his wife and now-adult son]].

* OnlySaneMan: PlayedWith. He's narrow-minded and distrustful of the Titans in his own right, but he's somewhat reasonable and open compared to the other powerful U.S. Government characters. 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.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He evidently has a lot of respect for the Team Kong Monarch scientists' expertise on what he's transporting and their advise on the best course of action, and unlike Admiral Stenz, Wilcox seems to be a bit more aware of the power discrepancy between man and Titan and that the best they can do is annoy the Titans or divert their attention.

* UncertainDoom: He died at the Washington D.C. battle in a ''King of the Monsters'' deleted scene, with the {{novelization}} likewise suggesting his death. Since both are cut from the finished film because the director wanted to leave the door open for Stenz' return, his canon status is uncertain.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Although he perpetually aims to be this trope, it's arguably ZigZagged by his narrow mindset affecting his decisions.
** Among his RAF traits: In his [[Film/Godzilla2014 first appearance]], he treats the Kaiju as a threat for good reason, but he persistently displays enough respect for the Monarch experts he's provided to not just brush them off without first hearing what they have to say and to not just throw them off his advisory committee once he disagrees with them. Stenz can honestly be credited with considering the safety of civilians' lives first and foremost when dealing with the Kaiju, instead of being single-mindedly obsessed with the idea of killing a big monster without regard for the threat being bigger (that's more than can be said for [[Film/Godzilla1998 the military officers who dealt with Zilla and his spawn]]). He's expressly concerned with safeguarding people's lives because it becomes his top priority once the Kaiju endanger a population center, he demands a multitude of search options be put on the table early during the hunt for the male MUTO, and he doesn't bother trying to maintain the {{Masquerade}} anymore once over a million people are put in danger at Honolulu. He also seems to have serious second thoughts about his NukeEm plan in the first film which Serizawa protests to, although he ultimately goes through with it. After Stenz's NukeEm plan in the first film horribly backfires and leaves the military with their hands tied, he concedes to holding out hope that Serizawa is right that Godzilla will destroy the threat of the [=MUTOs=] for them; and in ''King of the Monsters'', Stenz seemingly doesn't hesitate to get Monarch onboard nor to align with their plan to revive Godzilla once Stenz and the military's actions have effectively put the entire planet in apocalyptic danger..
** On the other hand, Stenz repeatedly turns away Monarch's advice about ''not'' killing the Kaiju despite them having expertise in studying the Kaiju which he lacks, and he remains persistently skeptical of both Godzilla's benevolence and the idea that the Titans shouldn't be exterminated despite Godzilla's benevolent display at the end of the first film. The ''King of the Monsters'' novelization observes that Stenz has a narrow outlook on the Titans when it comes to considering Monarch's advice about their ecological importance or the negative consequences of killing them, and that unlike Monarch he has absolutely no intuitive understanding of what kind of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of nature he's dealing with. In ''King of the Monsters'', Stenz only contacts Monarch just ''after'' the Oxygen Destroyer has been launched against Ghidorah and Rodan, meaning they're unable to advise him against it or even inform him and the military what precisely is going on at the location and whether or not such a drastic move is really necessary.