History MonsterVerse / TropesIToP

** In ''Film/Godzilla2014'', the [=MUTOs=] originally hatch from their spores, burrow to the surface and threaten humanity at large because an environmentally-harmful mining operation accidentally disturbed their tomb, ending their dormancy after tens of thousands of years.
** In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', [[IsleOfGiantHorrors Skull Island]]'s monsters were in check until the human expedition's arrival awakens the hostile, ecosystem-destroying and man-eating Skullcrawlers, including the Alpha Skullcrawler who stands a serious chance of besting Kong.
** In ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', the onset of the conflict goes back to humans abusing the environment and debating what to do about the Titans emerging: {{the government}} wants to wipe the Titans out because they see the Titans as the cause of rather than a byproduct of the world becoming a more dangerous place for humans, and this in turn drives a group of [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorists]] to deliberately accelerate the Titans' awakenings, unaware that some of the Titans they're awakening will destroy the world instead of healing it if they're unchecked. Furthermore, the government detonating a FantasticNuke in an effort to neutralize the awakened Titans only stops Godzilla from killing the most dangerous Titan of all (Monster Zero a.k.a. Ghidorah) there and then, and instead it enables Ghidorah to reign over the world unopposed, wreaking global destruction and almost succeeding in destroying humanity.

** Likewise, in the 2015 storyline of ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'', Monarch and the Randas are constantly at each-other's throats. but more than that; [[spoiler:the well-meaning Lee Shaw's plan to help Godzilla keep the Earth in check is the entire reason why the Earth becomes endangered again. The Earth and the Titans at large are in check and balanced, until Shaw's efforts to make that equilibrium permanent by forcibly closing all the entrances to the HollowEarth end up instead increasing pressure on the remaining portals, threatening to drive Titans to the surface anyway or at worst cause an EarthShatteringKaboom. Even when Shaw's warned of this, he ignores it anyway]].

* LightningBruiser: A lot of the Titans including Godzilla, Kong, Rodan, Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, the Skullcrawlers and the Skar King are ''far'' from being the MightyGlacier when it comes to max speed and reflexes.

* LogicalWeakness: Several of the Titans are presented with a realistic case of this. Godzilla's short arms have limited reach not unlike a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' which makes a smaller opponent like the male [=MUTO=] going for his head quite effective, and he actually needs ''breath'' when exhaling his Atomic Breath [[spoiler:which ultimately enables Mechagodzilla, as a MechanicalAbomination with no such bodily requirement, to win their BeamOWar]]. Ghidorah is a massive powerhouse, but because his body is built for flight, he can't swim and is at a severe disadvantage when Godzilla drags him under the ocean. Mechagodzilla, though technically Ghidorah reincarnated, lacks any kind of HealingFactor to repair damage to its machine body. Camazotz, having developed super-sensitive hearing to navigate in darkness, is extremely sensitive to sonic booms too close to his head. The Skar King, though physically agile and intelligent, is vulnerable to physical hits from a brawny Titan like Kong if his enemy manages to get a hold of him; and although [[RightHandAttackDog Shimo]] is his trump card, the Skar King needs to concentrate on directing and using his control crystal to make her obey him, which is difficult in the heat of a battle while he's actively being targeted.

** This also largely applies to the humans if the instalments are ordered chronologically instead of by release date. In ''Kong: Skull Island'', ''Film/Godzilla2014'' and the ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' 2015 storyline; [[BenevolentConspiracy Monarch]] are portrayed in a gray light, and they do some cold, insensitive or outright shady things for their own ends, whereas chronologically later instalments from ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' onwards portray them in a brighter light as a simple ResearchInc-esque organization who help the benevolent Titans to save the world. Meanwhile, the human antagonists transition over the timeline from heinous but {{tragic villain}}s ([[HeWhoFightsMonsters Colonel Packard]] in ''Kong''), and sympathetic [[AntiVillain anti-villains]] with noble end-goals whom have moral limits to how far they'll go ([[BrokenBird Irene]] and Sam in the 1990s-set ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'', [[MilitaryMaverick Lee Shaw]] in ''Legacy of Monsters''); into downright evil, amoral and genocidal [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist not-so-well-intentioned extremists]] whom never stop sinking to lower depths ([[MisanthropeSupreme Alan Jonah]] in ''King of the Monsters'', [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]] in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', and [[VanHelsingHateCrimes Raymond Martin]] in ''Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted'').

* NiceGuy: Ford in ''Godzilla'' (2014) goes out of his way to help a stranger boy who's been separated from his parents on a train ''before'' the monsters show up, and he takes all the grief and suffering around him quite well, all things considered. In ''King of the Monsters'', Drs. Graham and Coleman act kind and sympathetic, and the former doctor is described in the film's novelization as the most compassionate person Serizawa ever knew. In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Bill Randa is shown to have been a much friendlier and more amicable person in the 1950s than he was in ''Kong: Skull Island''. In ''Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire'', Trapper is a very jovial and all-round kind-hearted AwesomeAussie who works as a veterinarian for Kong.

* PrimateVersusReptile: The majority of Kong's {{Behemoth Battle}}s are against reptilian-looking opponents: his primary enemies on Skull Island are the Skullcrawlers, and he comes into conflict with Godzilla in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''.

* KilledOffscreen: Gunpei Ikari during the 28-year TimeSkip in ''Kong: Skull Island'', and the Sirenjaw that's killed by Kong before the cast find its carcass in the sequel graphic novel ''The Birth of Kong''. In ''Godzilla vs Kong'', the Iwi except for Jia have suffered BusCrash. In the backstory of ''Skull Island'', Annie's and Dog's respective fathers died in a MutualKill, although we only see the leadup to and the fallout of that event in flashbacks.

* LeanAndMean: Both Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla, despite being among the larger Titans, have very lean and lithe physiques -- they're also a lot eviler than the other Titans, being ''actively'' genocidal creatures who murder humans every chance they get. The orangutan-like Titan in the ''Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire'' teaser cuts a slender physique, and is implied to be a ferocious warrior Titan and an antagonist.

* LightIsNotGood: Ghidorah emits yellow lightning from his body, he causes superstorms filled with lightning wherever he goes, and he's an OmnicidalManiac seeking to globally wipe out all life as we know it, and taking pleasure in murdering humans wherever and whenever he can along the way. Ghidorah's reincarnation Mechagodzilla, who emits red light, is just as bad in personality, on account of Ghidorah's subconsciousness controlling him. Shimo has a bright blue-and-white coloration and emits pale light -- she's also the [[TheCaligula Skar King]]'s attack-dog which he uses to kill anyone in his way and with which he intends to plunge the Earth's surface into a deadly new ice age, although she's very much being {{forced into evil}} and actually has a [[LightIsGood benevolent personality]].
* LightningBruiser: A lot of the Titans including Godzilla, Kong, Rodan, Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and the Skullcrawlers are ''far'' from being the MightyGlacier when it comes to max speed and reflexes.

* LogicalWeakness: Several of the Titans are presented with a realistic case of this. Godzilla's short arms have limited reach not unlike a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' which makes a smaller opponent like the male [=MUTO=] going for his head quite effective, and he actually needs ''breath'' when exhaling his Atomic Breath [[spoiler:which ultimately enables Mechagodzilla, as a MechanicalAbomination with no such bodily requirement, to win their BeamOWar]]. Ghidorah is a massive powerhouse, but because his body is built for flight, he can't swim and is at a severe disadvantage when Godzilla drags him under the ocean. Mechagodzilla itself, [[spoiler:though technically Ghidorah reincarnated, lacks any kind of HealingFactor to repair damage to its machine body]]. Camazotz, having developed super-sensitive hearing to navigate in darkness, is extremely sensitive to sonic booms too close to his head.

* MoralDisambiguation: In the first couple of movies, [[AdaptationalHeroism Godzilla]] and Kong are on humanity's side more due to circumstance than anything else. Godzilla causes mass destruction in his own right, and it's ambiguous how much he is out to destroy the more hostile [=MUTOs=] because they're disrupting the balance of nature at large, and how much he's just out to kill his natural enemy. In his debut in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', Kong is an AntiHero and not above massacring U.S. military forces when they unwittingly disturb and threaten his kingdom. Meanwhile, Godzilla and Kong's kaiju foes in early installments are [[NonMaliciousMonster simply doing what nature built them to do rather than being deliberately malicious]]. In subsequent movies; Godzilla, and especially Kong, become more heroic and pathic to humans, whilst the antagonistic kaiju get more petty, sadistic and/or genuinely AxCrazy.

* ProphetEyes: Methuselah in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', the one-eyed Camazotz in ''Kingdom Kong'', and the Frost Vark in ''Monarch: Legacy of Monster'' all have blank, milky eyeballs.

* LightIsNotGood: Ghidorah emits yellow lightning from his body, and causes superstorms filled with lightning wherever he goes -- and he's an OmnicidalManiac, seeking to wipe out all life as we know it, and taking pleasure in killing humans wherever and whenever he can. His reincarnation Mechagodzilla, who emits red light, is just as bad in personality, on account of Ghidorah's subconsciousness controlling him.

* MeaningfulName: Quite a few. Besides the Kaiju carried over from Toho and the ''King Kong'' franchise directly, and besides Ghidorah's RedBaron as the One Who Is Many in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters''; there's also the [[MoleMonster MUTO Prime]] being named after a mythical "Earthquake Beetle" in ''Godzilla Aftershock'', the Skullcrawlers' name describing their anatomy (and their Iwi name Halakrah translates to the accurate description "[[SuperPersistentPredator persistent enemy]]"), [[TheWormThatWalks Shinomura]] being named after a phrase meaning "''swarm of death''" in ''Godzilla Awakening'', [[MugglePower Apex Cybernetics]]' name referring to both their end goal and [[HumongousMecha the means they intend to use to accomplish it]] in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', and Annie naming her loyal megafauna companion on Skull Island [[GiverOfLameNames Dog]].

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* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: Godzilla's "Kiss of Death", shown in the 2014 movie, involves forcing his opponent's jaws open with his bare hands, leaning in close, and firing his Atomic Breath directly down their open gullet. In ''King of the Monsters'', Alan Jonah kills a Monarch scientist named Dr. Mancini with a headshot from six feet away, and Ghidorah defeats Rodan by having his [[MultipleHeadCase side heads]] grab Rodan's wings while his middle head fires a Gravity Beam into the bird's chest at range.

* ParentalNeglect: In the (now CanonDiscontinuity) backstory of ''Godzilla: Awakening'', Dr. Serizawa was on the receiving end of WhenYouComingHomeDad, which led to a reconciliation in his adulthood when his father revealed the truth of his work for Monarch. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization reveals that Serizawa repeated this parenting style with his son Ren, but unfortunately in Ren's case it led to him deeply resenting his father and finally turning into an AntagonisticOffspring upon his father's death. Joe Brody was implicitly neglectful towards his son Ford after the death of his wife Sandra, whilst both of Madison's parents (her father physically and her mother emotionally) repeated that pattern after her brother's death. In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Bill Randa was tragically an absent, distant father to Hiroshi who prioritized his work up until his death, and Hiroshi ended up repeating the pattern with his own children Cate and Kentaro which fostered significant resentment on their end.

* LethallyStupid: In the 2014 film, the military fire at Godzilla in the San Francisco Bay when there's still civilian evacuees on the Golden Gate Bridge trying to escape, plus their firing on Godzilla not only fails to harm him, it provokes him into destroying the bridge while acting in self-defence. In ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', Emma Russell releases Ghidorah on the world in the belief that he's ultimately beneficial for the world's renewal, not knowing he's actually an OmnicidalManiac who proceeds to slaughter any humans he sees for his amusement; meanwhile, the military attempt to kill both Ghidorah and Rodan on their own terms by firing their untested FantasticNuke at the creatures, but the bomb instead cripples Godzilla whilst failing to affect Ghidorah at all, enabling Ghidorah to initiate a global apocalypse which destroys numerous cities and claims countless lives. In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', Apex Cybernetics end up unwittingly [[spoiler:bringing Ghidorah back into the world and giving it a chance to pick up where its previous identity left off with razing the entire planet, because Apex were stupid and arrogant enough to think they could incorporate Ghidorah's NotQuiteDead remains and a practically-unknown energy source into Mechagodzilla and ''not'' expect it to liably backfire on them]].

* ParentalNeglect: In his backstory when he was a young man, Dr. Serizawa was on the receiving end of WhenYouComingHomeDad, which led to a reconciliation in his adulthood when his father revealed the truth of his work for Monarch. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization reveals that Serizawa repeated this parenting style with his son Ren, but unfortunately in Ren's case it led to him deeply resenting his father and finally turning into an AntagonisticOffspring upon his father's death. Joe Brody was implicitly neglectful towards his son Ford after the death of his wife Sandra, whilst both of Madison's parents (her father physically and her mother emotionally) repeated that pattern after her brother's death. Cate and Kentaro Randa's [[SecretOtherFamily shared father]] Hiroshi was away from home a lot, which fostered significant resentment in both of them, especially Cate whom he essentially sent away when she was freshly traumatized by G-Day.

* IgnoredExpert: Naturally, there's at least one instance per film. Monarch's advice against the military's NukeEm measures get ignored in both ''Film/Godzilla2014'' and ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' with catastrophic consequences, and [[GeneralRipper Packard]] in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' could've avoided a lot of casualties had he listened to Marlow. [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] in ''King of the Monsters'' and Ren Serizawa in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' both end up being villainous Ignored Experts to their co-conspirators toward the climax.

* LastRequest: In the 2014 movie, Sandra Brody's last request to her husband is for him to [[TakeCareOfTheKids take care of their son]], and ''his'' last request to their son is that he do whatever it takes to protect his family. In ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', Serizawa's last request is telling Mark Russell to take care of the former's colleagues.

* NiceGuy: Ford in ''Godzilla'' (2014) goes out of his way to help a stranger boy who's been separated from his parents on a train ''before'' the monsters show up, and he takes all the grief and suffering around him quite well, all things considered. In ''King of the Monsters'', Drs. Graham and Coleman act kind and sympathetic, and the former doctor is described in the film's novelization as the most compassionate person Serizawa ever knew. In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Bill Randa is shown to have been a much friendlier and more amicable person in the 1950s than he was in ''Kong: Skull Island''.

* NotSoStoic: Dr. Serizawa and Ford Brody are both presented as TheStoic, while [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] tries (and fails) to be TheUnfettered, and May Olowe-Hewitt tries to appear cold, detached and apathetic. Across the 2014 film, ''King of the Monsters'' and ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', all of them have moments where they're just pushed too far to not show emotion, due to a loved one dying or being threatened.

* OneSteveLimit: Names in the franchise which have respectively belonged to two or more different characters include Martinez, Sam, Walter, Rick (in the ''King of the Monsters'' {{novelization}}), Ilene, Michael (in the Monarch Sciences website), [[KrakenAndLeviathan Kraken]], and Tim.

* ParentsAsPeople: Joe Brody in the 2014 film genuinely loves his son but has been quite inattentive, first due to being the {{Workaholic}} and then due to becoming the ConspiracyTheory with an obsession with finding out what really caused his wife's death. Mark Russell was arguably too much of a prick to everyone around him who wasn't family to qualify for this trope in ''King of the Monsters''; but in the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, he's become a lot more sociable since his MovingBeyondBereavement, yet he's essentially swung from one parental extreme to [[MyBelovedSmother the other]] in an attempt to make up for five years of being an absent parent, and his egocentrism spills into his parenting style with Madison with how he projects his own idea of what would be ideal onto her and dismisses her complaints to the contrary.

* KarmicDeath: Packard and Ghidorah both respectively are killed by the very heroic Titans (Godzilla and Kong respectively) that they were attempting to murder; in Ghidorah's case, whilst Godzilla was the chief cause of his downfall, Mothra (who [[spoiler:Ghidorah earlier killed]]) and humans (whom Ghidorah actively wants wiped off the face of the Earth and has been actively slaughtering with sadistic glee) also played a part, all working together to see the three-headed Living Extinction Event defeated. In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', Walter Simmons and Ren Serizawa are both killed as a direct result of their hubris in [[spoiler:exploiting Ghidorah's remains as the control mechanism for Mechagodzilla and also taking advantage of the Ghidorah remains' effects on Godzilla for immoral EngineeredHeroics, leading to Ghidorah's subconsciousness hijacking control of the Mecha and killing them both]].

* KnightTemplar: The human antagonists in every film. Preston Packard in ''Kong: Skull Island'' is an AxCrazy GeneralRipper who thinks he's doing his duty by picking a fight with Kong and risking the Skullcrawlers becoming a threat to the rest of the world. Alan Jonah and [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' think they're being [[GaiasVengeance Gaia's Avenger]] by actively releasing all the Titans to decimate humanity, unaware that one of the Titans they've unleashed is [[spoiler:an invasive alien OmnicidalManiac who will create an even worse extinction event than humanity]]. And Apex Cybernetics in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' use a MugglePower agenda to justify themselves in light of humanity's relatively helpless state in the Titan power discrepancy.

* TheLostLenore: Over the course of the franchise, several human characters have been motivated by the tragic death of a spouse, often due to the kaiju's rampages. Joe Brody in the first film is traumatized by the death of his wife Sandra fifteen years prior, and he's led to the kaiju because he wants to know what caused her death. Bernie Hayes in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' is a widower, with the novelization furthermore stating that his wife's suspicious death by a car accident is his real motivation for setting out to expose [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]]. ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'' reveals that ''Kong: Skull Island'' WellIntentionedExtremist Bill Randa lost his wife Keiko to the creatures a decade prior and implies that it was part of the reason why he lost his series younger self's idealism [[spoiler:-- the cruel and tragic irony being that Keiko [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated wasn't really dead]], and she survived inside Axis Mundi's time dilation to the 21st century, but Bill died on the 1973 Skull Island mission before he could ever find out]].

%%* ParentalAbandonment: Kong's parents and Jia's parents.

* OncePerEpisode: Every movie has the main antagonist dying due to circumstances related to the head:
** In ''Godzilla 2014'', the female MUTO dies when Godzilla forces her jaws open and fires a torrent of atomic breath down her throat, completely disintegrating from the inside out.
** In ''Kong: Skull Island'', Kong rips out the Skullcrawler's guts by shoving his hand down the kaiju's throat, finally killing the beast.
** In ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', Ghidorah finally dies when Godzilla grabs the only surviving head in his mouth and vaporizes it entirely with his Atomic Breath.
** In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', Mechagodzilla is defeated the moment Kong rips his head out of his body.

* OminousFog: The expedition in ''Kong: Skull Island'' ends up amidst one whilst being attacked by a Skullcrawler. In ''King of the Monsters'', it's {{justified}} by Ghidorah's [[AliensAreBastards otherworldly]] WeatherManipulation powers.

* MustMakeAmends: The movie {{novelization}}s have a couple cases. In the ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' novelization, [[Characters/MonsterVerseMadisonRussell Madison]] wants to make up for her own part in helping the [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorists]] to unleash a [[OmnicidalManiac King Ghidorah]]-led army of {{Kaiju}} on the world when she takes matters into her own hands [[spoiler:by stealing the ORCA and risking her life to help the heroes put an extra dent in Ghidorah's plans]]. In the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization, Dr. [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Ilene Andrews]] admits during the mission to find Kong a new home that she feels guilty about Monarch's role in Skull Island's destruction by Camazotz.

* AnIcePerson: The Titan Scylla can emit massive quantities of liquid nitrogen into the environment, to the point where she can halt and reverse the melting of polar ice caps when directed to do so by Godzilla. The Frost Vark in Alaska can suck the ambient heat out of the area in front of its mouth in seconds, causing everything in the affected range to near-instantaneously freeze solid. Shimo has a "Frost Bite" BreathWeapon and is capable of freezing stretches of ocean solid.

* TheLostLenore: Over the course of the franchise, several human characters have been motivated by the tragic death of a spouse, often due to the kaiju's rampages. Joe Brody in the first film is traumatized by the death of his wife Sandra fifteen years prior and is led to the kaiju because he wants to know what caused her death. Bernie Hayes in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' is a widower, with the novelization furthermore stating that his wife's suspicious death by a car accident is his real motivation for investigating [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]]. ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'' reveals that ''Kong: Skull Island'' WellIntentionedExtremist Bill Randa lost his wife Keiko to the creatures a decade prior and implies that it was part of the reason why he lost his series younger self's idealism [[spoiler:-- the cruel and tragic irony being that Keiko [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated wasn't really dead]], and she survived inside Axis Mundi's time dilation to the 21st century]].

* {{Planimal}}: Many of the "megafauna" creatures which live on Skull Island are "florafauna", which combine animal and plant traits in their biology, and, according to extra materials, even their genetics. These include the part-moss Sker Buffalos, the part-bamboo Mother Longlegs {{giant spider}}s, the part-wood Spore Mantis and Swamp Locust, the part-cactus and pterosaur-like Leafwings, the part-tree Sker Buffalos, and the Aloe Turtle and Grass Hedgehogs (which are both {{exactly what it says on the tin}}). ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'' features a non-Skull Island florafauna living in HollowEarth, the Brambleboar -- appropriately, the Hollow Earth posits that the Hollow Earth is actually the direct or indirect origin of all of Skull Island's florafauna and other abnormal life.

* AnIcePerson: The Titan Scylla can emit massive quantities of liquid nitrogen into the environment, to the point where she can halt and reverse the melting of polar ice caps when directed to do so by Godzilla. The Frost Vark in Alaska can suck the ambient heat out of the area in front of its mouth in seconds, causing everything in the affected range to near-instantaneously freeze solid.

** A couple in ''King of the Monsters''. Despite how much of an ass he is, and despite the movie showing that he's ultimately in the wrong for believing that all the Titans including Godzilla should be indiscriminately exterminated, Mark Russell is proven correct about (A) misusing the new ORCA and trying to manipulate the Titans without understanding them creating an existential threat to civilization, and (B) Monarch not doing nearly enough to prepare for the Titans' awakening. Alan Jonah does a lot of kicking the son of a bitch when he rips into Emma Russell for needlessly dragging her unwilling daughter into their eco-terrorist plan (compromising their security), and into Madison for blinding buying into her mother's sales-pitch that releasing over a dozen MUTO- and Godzilla-adjacent creatures to heal the Earth, without realizing just how bloody and hard the process would really have to be.

** A couple in ''King of the Monsters''. Despite how much of an ass he is, and despite the movie showing that he's ultimately in the wrong for believing that all the Titans including Godzilla should be indiscriminately exterminated, Mark Russell is proven correct about (A) misusing the new ORCA and trying to manipulate the Titans without understanding them creating an existential threat to civilization, and (B) Monarch not doing nearly enough to prepare for the Titans' awakening. Alan Jonah does a lot of kicking the son of a bitch when he rips into Emma Russell for needlessly dragging her unwilling daughter into their eco-terrorist plan (compromising their security), and into Madison for blinding buying into her mother's sales-pitch that releasing over a dozen MUTO- and Godzilla-adjacent creatures to heal the Earth without realizing just how bloody and hard the process would really have to be.
** In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Monarch operative Tim gets a harsh but justified dressing-down from his superior after she discovers that he went after Bill Randa's files on his and Duvall's own ''without'' so much as alerting her, Serizawa or another superior as he should have because he [[SecretlySelfish wanted to play secret agents]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: There are quite a few cases. The biggest offenders are Admiral Stenz, whose support of the Oxygen Destroyer in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' directly causes Ghidorah's NearVillainVictory that takes up the second half of the film -- God knows how many of the people Stenz was trying to protect died horribly around the world as a result of this, to say nothing of how Ghidorah's victory would have spelled the extinction of humanity and all other complex life on Earth. Dr. Brooks, whose seismic operations on Skull Island in ''Kingdom Kong'' (a mistake of his which previously unleashed the Skullcrawlers in ''Kong: Skull Island'') debatably secures [[spoiler:the destruction of Skull Island's entire unique ecosystem by PerpetualStorm]], much to his horror. In the WholeEpisodeFlashback of the ''Skull Island'' series, Kong being cocky when he takes on the Killer Chameleons gets him injured, and unfortunately when he treats the wound afterwards he accidentally awakens the Kraken which causes Kong and the human cast a lot of death and grief throughout the series. In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Monarch felt this way about them telling the military about Godzilla, which drove the military to nuke [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated and seemingly kill]] him in 1954, although Godzilla actually survived and Monarch's actions ''did'' come with the silver lining of getting them the government-backed money and resources they needed to expand globally.

* NukeEm: At least thrice. In 1954, the military reacted to [[HeroWithBadPublicity Godzilla]]'s existence by blasting him with an atom bomb in an effort to kill him, over Monarch's objections that they needed to understand if he was really a threat first. The military in ''Film/Godzilla2014'' think it's a brilliant idea to retry killing Godzilla and his enemies by throwing an even stronger nuke at ''all of them at once'', and just hope it kills all of them instead of the radiation making even one of them even stronger. Then in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', the military have been working on an even more destructive weapon so they can kill Titans, and they throw it at Ghidorah and (somewhat unwittingly) Godzilla in a seeming panic without bothering to work out what precisely is going on, and the result is... well, the consequences that ensued made it an EpicFail on the military's part.

* IronicEcho: In ''Godzilla: Aftershock'', the U.N. Security Council throw Serizawa's "let them fight" line from the 2014 movie[[note]]referring to letting Godzilla fight the [=MUTOs=] so that Godzilla will remove the threat they pose and restore peace[[/note]] back in his face when they commit to an absolutely insane plan to stand by and ''let'' [[ExplosiveBreeders Jinshin-Mushi]] kill Godzilla. In ''King of the Monsters'', [[MisanthropeSupreme Alan Jonah]] quips "Long live the king" when Ghidorah usurps Godzilla as King of the Monsters, and later, Emma defiantly reiterates the same line as a pledge of allegiance to [[RightfulKingReturns Godzilla]] taking back his kingship from Ghidorah.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: There are quite a few cases. The biggest offenders are Admiral Stenz, whose support of the Oxygen Destroyer in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' directly causes Ghidorah's NearVillainVictory that takes up the second half of the film; God knows how many of the people Stenz was trying to protect die horribly around the world as a result of this, to say nothing of how Ghidorah's victory would have spelled the extinction of humanity and all other complex life on Earth. Dr. Brooks, whose seismic operations on Skull Island in ''Kingdom Kong'' (a mistake of his which previously unleashed the Skullcrawlers in ''Kong: Skull Island'') debatably secures [[spoiler:the destruction of Skull Island's entire unique ecosystem by PerpetualStorm]], much to his horror. In the WholeEpisodeFlashback of the ''Skull Island'' series, Kong being cocky when he takes on the Killer Chameleons gets him injured, and unfortunately when he treats the wound afterwards he accidentally awakens the Kraken which causes Kong and the human cast a lot of death and grief throughout the series.

* NotSoStoic: Dr. Serizawa and Ford Brody are both presented as TheStoic, whilst [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] tries (and fails) to be TheUnfettered. Across the 2014 film and ''King of the Monsters'', all have moments where they're just pushed too far to not show emotion, due to a loved one dying or being threatened.

* NukeEm: At least twice. The military in ''Film/Godzilla2014'' think it's a brilliant idea to throw a nuke at Godzilla and his enemies and just hope it kills all of them instead of the radiation making them even stronger. Then in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', the military have been working on an even more destructive weapon so they can kill Titans, and they throw it at Ghidorah and (somewhat unwittingly) Godzilla in a seeming panic without bothering to work out what precisely is going on, and the result is... well, the consequences that ensued made it an EpicFail on the military's part.

* ProphetEyes: Methuselah in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' and the one-eyed Camazotz in ''Kingdom Kong'' both have this kind of eyes.

* PsychopathicManchild: Ghidorah's [[MultipleHeadCase left head, San/Kevin]], displays a notably more childlike personality than the other two heads whilst having no compunctions against the atrocities that the middle head (Ichi) leads them in committing. This also applies to the guy who got his hands on a piece of Kevin's severed head, Walter Simmons, who displays all the giddiness and impulse control of an eight-year-old on Christmas morning when it comes to his immoral Mechagodzilla project.

** [[DraconAbomination Ghidorah]], as per usual, is a three-headed, two-tailed, murderously {{sadist}}ic golden dragon [[AliensAreBastards from space]], who lives to kill and destroy, and can [[BreathWeapon spit golden lightning-bolts]] from all three heads. In this specific incarnation, Ghidorah is operating on his power once more, [[MultipleHeadCase his three heads have independent personalities]], he [[TheStormbringer generates an otherworldly hypercane]] which grows stronger the longer he's active, and he can [[HealingFactor regenerate grievous wounds and lost appendages in seconds]] via feeding on energy. His severed left head also [[UndeadAbomination retains his telepathy and some of his consciousness]], possessing Mechagodzilla via the psionic uplink and causing the Mecha to exhibit Ghidorah's violent traits.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Godzilla comes across as the PrehistoricMonster equivalent of a GrumpyOldMan overall but has a genuine fondness for humans. Mark Russell can be a hotheaded asshole who thinks [[ItsAllAboutMe it's all about him]], but for all his many faults and failings as well as his unpleasant personality, he genuinely loves his daughter and he does have his compassionate moments. [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] used to be this in ''Godzilla Aftershock'' as a highly arrogant but truly committed member of Monarch, before their FaceHeelTurn.

** In ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'', Madison Russell is a young but kind girl and is the most well-balanced member of her grieving family. On the other hand, her mother Emma Russell, who kept custody of her after the divorce, [[spoiler:is an extremist EcoTerrorist who wants to instigate the {{Kaiju}} in a way which will kill millions of people, and she proves to be extremely arrogant and unbalanced]].

* MissingMom: Sandra Brody, Ford's mother in ''Film/Godzilla2014'', is killed by the Janjira reactor breach in the DistantPrologue. Meanwhile, practically nothing is known about Ishirō Serizawa's mother even after the release of ''Godzilla Awakening'', but the prequel seems to hint she either died in the Hiroshima bombing or otherwise left/died before the event (the baby Ishirō was in a different part of town from his father when the bomb fell, and Eiji chose to leave Ishirō in the care of his grandparents after the bombing).

* MonsterDelay: In Godzilla's movie debut, we don't see his full body until at least 1/4 through the movie. Like husband like moth, since in ''King of the Monsters'', Mothra's imago form's face and full body aren't seen by the audience until at least 30 minutes after the scene where she hatched. In both Kong's cinematic debut ''and'' his animated debut, his full appearance including his face is obscured in his first scene, and we don't see his full likeness until later on. A much more villainous case of this trope coming into effect is the extremely violent Kraken in the ''Skull Island'' series, which is only seen by its CombatTentacles (and a few glimpses of parts of its body in the first episode), before its full appearance is revealed in the season finale.

* NiceGuy: Ford in ''Godzilla'' (2014) goes out of his way to help a stranger boy who's been separated from his parents on a train ''before'' the monsters show up, and he takes all the grief and suffering around him quite well, all things considered. In ''King of the Monsters'', Drs. Graham and Coleman act kind and sympathetic, and the former doctor is described in the film's novelization as the most compassionate person Serizawa ever knew.

* OneSteveLimit: Names in the franchise which have respectively belonged to two or more different characters include Martinez, Sam, Walter, Rick (in the ''King of the Monsters'' {{novelization}}), Ilene, Michael (in the Monarch Sciences website), and [[KrakenAndLeviathan Kraken]].

* ParentalNeglect: In his backstory when he was a young man, Dr. Serizawa was on the receiving end of WhenYouComingHomeDad, which led to a reconciliation in his adulthood when his father revealed the truth of his work for Monarch. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization reveals that Serizawa repeated this parenting style with his son Ren, but unfortunately in Ren's case it led to him deeply resenting his father and finally turning into an AntagonisticOffspring upon his father's death. Joe Brody was implicitly this towards his son Ford after the death of his wife Sandra, whilst both of Madison's parents (her father physically and her mother emotionally) repeated that pattern after her brother's death.

* IslandOfMystery: Skull Island, as always, is a remote IsleOfGiantHorrors hidden away from the civilized world, home to various prehistoric and otherworldly monsters including King Kong. This incarnation of Skull Island, which is mostly a hot and humid tropical island, is cloaked from the outside world by a PerpetualStorm (which the island is usually within the eye of) and by magnetic anomalies which fool navigation instruments. The island is home to bizarre phenomena which include gigantic {{planimal}}s and aurora-like atmospheric anomalies. The source of most of the island's phenomena is that it's a gateway to the HollowEarth and the gravitational inversion inbetween the Hollow Earth and surface world. Skull Island is also home to the Iwi tribe, whom have survived under Kong's protection and are fortunately much friendlier than the natives of other Skull Island incarnations. The island hosts huge, ancient ruins from a time when the Iwis' original ancestors and Kong's ancestors were much more advanced and powerful. Many shipwrecks and WWII planes have disappeared from the outside world over centuries because they washed ashore on the storm-cloaked Skull Island, where their derelict wreckages remain.

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