Line #5 Headscratchers/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019


1	!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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3	[[foldercontrol]]
4
5	[[folder: Does Ghidorah breathe?]]
6	* It's mentioned that the Oxygen Destroyer failed to harm Ghidorah in any way, because his body doesn't need oxygen in its processes. Yet in Antarctica, we see vapor clouds in his exhalations, meaning that some sort of respiration is going on. Not to mention Godzilla trying to drown him during the battle in Mexico.
7	** He may breathe something other than oxygen, or can breathe oxygen if its present but also can survive without it. And Godzilla wasn't trying to drown him in the underwater battle, he was trying to rip Ghidorah apart, to disable him enough to finish him off afterward. Getting him underwater was about inhibiting Ghidorah's agility while maximizing Godzilla's own, not drowning him.
8	** If this Ghidorah is anything like the Japanese incarnations, flying through space under his own power is very common, implying he has never needed oxygen to live.
9	[[/folder]]
10
11	[[folder: Gravity beams don't work underwater?]]
12	* Why exactly was Ghidorah completely defenseless when Godzilla dragged him underwater? Couldn't he fire his gravity beams in self-defense, which would have been helpful since water conducts electricity and would be more harmful to Godzilla there?
13	** Answering both questions here. It's not that Ghidorah couldn't use his powers or was drowning; it's how Ghidorah fights. Notice when they fought in Antarctica, Godzilla could overpower Ghidorah quickly and push him closer to the hole he popped out; he also overpowered him when he drug him underwater and kept him from escaping. Ghidorah is constantly fighting Godzilla from the edge of his greater range, using his flight to create small retreats to allow him to safely attack the physically stronger but smaller Godzilla, similar to a fight between a boxer and a slugger. When Godzilla finally got a solid hold on Ghidorah's body, Ghidorah freaks out and even fires bolts at random because he can no longer put a controllable distance between him and Godzilla. His fears are pretty quickly confirmed as Godzilla starts to dismember him and even the director confirmed Ghidorah was going to die if not for the interference of the OD.
14	*** Godzilla didn't overpower Ghidorah in Antarctica at all. He bit and choke-slammed one head but got his butt kicked throughout the rest of the fight. Ghidorah is clearly stronger on the land. Godzilla was better in combat in the water, so Ghidorah was also ambushed and panicked and lost.
15	*** Actually, watch the fight and pay attention to what goes down. the two charge each other and collide a considerable distance from the crater Ghidorah emerged from. Ghidorah is pushed backwards a step or two and then Godzilla bites his head and slams it before we cut away. when we cut back to their feet, Godzilla and Ghidorah lock up, and Godzilla begins to push him backward, and then we cut away again. We cut back once more, Ghidorah and Godzilla are now standing up, with a bit of distance between the two and Ghidorah knocks Godzilla down with a lightning blast but Godzilla quickly recovers and we see Ghidorah actually walking backward away from Godzilla before we cut away. Cutting back, Ghidorah once again has some distance between him and Godzilla before lightning blasting him again, Godzilla retaliates with his breath, misses and then gets knocked down by a triple blast of lightning and pushed into the crater...which is now right next to the two titans, indicating that Godzilla pushed ghidorah backwards , a sign that he was winning their shoving matches, and that ghidorah was giving ground the whole fight, which isn't a bad thing if you know what you're doing. It's not enough to simply look at the end result, but the exact blow by blow analysis of how we get to the results. It's telling that once Ghidorah had something to distract him, he immediately runs away from Godzilla when he climbs out of the pit. Checking out their second fight, Ghidorah is repeatedly shown wrestling with Godzilla, trying to push him to the surface and to break his grip, but Ghidorah fails to succeed in this endeavor each and every time and Godzilla continues to push him further and further beneath the waves before he then proceeds to dismember Ghidorah. For Godzilla to wrestling Ghidorah down so thoroughly as well as tear his head off indicates Godzilla is physically the stronger of the two, but on land Ghidorah is effectively able to keep a distance from him, rendering Godzilla's strength useless similar to how boxers can do the same to sluggers. To further make my point, the director has confirmed that [[https://twitter.com/Mike_Dougherty/status/1160742106840698880?s=19 Ghidorah was going to die at Godzilla's hands had the oxygen destroyer not been deployed.]]
16	** Godzilla only bit Ni and slammed him once the rest is him getting curb-stomped. He gets bitten when choke slamming Ni and when they grapple in the next shot we see of the fight he gets bitten and forced back by Ni towards the Osprey not Godzilla forcing Ghidorah back. He gets blasted on the ground, fired again, and then into the hole. He ran away because the military shot him and surprised him (he’d never been hit with missiles before). Ghidorah won the Arctic and Boston fights (round one against normal Godzilla) even though Godzilla was supercharged, had help from Mothra and got an early hit. Ghidorah is clearly stronger and beat him in 3/4 of the fights we know they had. Ghidorah was only losing underwater because he got ambushed and was panicking, not to mention water is Godzilla’s advantage on land, and in the air, Ghidorah is clearly superior.
17	[[/folder]]
18
19	[[folder: Who controls Ghidorah's body?]]
20	* While Ghidorah's heads are occasionally shown to bicker, his body never shows any sign of conflicting movements, suggesting the heads struggle for control. Does the middle head fully control the body while the others are just parasitic twins? Do they share control of the body, but the middle head dominates the other two to become the leader? Or perhaps the heads aren't actually separate consciousnesses, just different aspects of the same personality?
21	** The motion capture footage of the behind-the-scenes shows the middle head being in control of the wings, though it's unclear how much control over the rest of the body the other two possess.
22	** It's worth noting that in real-life examples of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycephaly "multi-headed" life]] (more accurately conjoined twins), control is split between each head, with each usually controlling one half of the full body.
23	** Unlike Conjoined twins, Ghidora is an alien who is presumably ''supposed'' to have three heads, so he probably has some sort of neurological mechanism to deal with stuff like that. Perhaps the three brains can unconsciously communicate what they want the body to do via a neural node located at the point of spinal intersection, with the central head having veto power in the event of a three-way disagreement.
24	** Alternately, the heads are just appendages for sensing and fighting, with the ''real'' control center in the body. At most, they'd have the marginal independence of an octopus's tentacles. The "bickering" heads could be a side effect of each head having reflexive ganglia that drive them to get snappy when foiled, sometimes even at each other, in the same way, a human might give themselves a stinging slap on their left arm by reflexively swatting at a mosquito with their right palm.
25	*** There might actually be something to this theory since the director outright stated Ghidorah has his neurons scattered throughout his body and limbs like an octopus, though there are a couple of bits that seem to be disproven and need to be cleared up. The director seems to lean towards the idea that Ghidorah's heads have independent minds; looking at them closely in the film shows that each head exhibits its own distinct personality beyond just "slapping himself." It's also worth noting this: Kevin does retain the exact nature and memories when regenerated as he did pre-decapitation (see the appropriate folder on [[WMG/MonsterVerse MonsterVerse WMG]] for more on that and on how that mechanic might work if Ghidorah's biology is octopus-like). Now, onto the central question of how Ghidorah's body locomotes with three minds: besides the above "neural node" explanation, if Ghidorah's three heads are somewhat similar to an octopus' tentacles, then perhaps Ghidorah has a fourth "octopus brain" inside the body. But unlike the heads' three minds, the "octopus brain" is more rudimentary, serving the function of coordinating the movements of the rest of Ghidorah's body with what the three heads want to do while preventing or minimizing conflict in Ghidorah's actions, in the event the heads disagree, or the left head gets distracted. This is similar to a scientific study indicating that an octopus' brain can, with time, get the semi-independent tentacles "in line," as it were, if the octopus' eyes and brain are aware of something that the tentacles' sensors can't detect.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder: Range of Godzilla's atomic breath?]]
29	* Godzilla's BigDamnHeroes moment to save Madison from Ghidorah looks fantastic, but he somehow hit a direct blast at him from some distance away? How far away can he use it effectively? And why not just fight Ghidorah from a distance, perhaps try to incapacitate him with his atomic breath from further away before moving in for the kill?
30	** Godzilla can fire from quite a distance (we don't know his max), but unless its a surprise attack, the further away he fires from the bigger the chance his opponent can move out of the way (amounting to vast wasted energy for Godzilla). And as we saw in their first fight, Ghidorah can dodge if he sees the attack coming.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder: Ghidorah's species?]]
34	* Since the likes of Godzilla and Kong are stated to be the last surviving members of a formerly populous species, what about Ghidorah? Is he a SingleSpecimenSpecies, or were there others of his kind?
35	** And given how utterly cataclysmic ONE Ghidorah is to all life on Earth, how would an ''entire species'' of them have thrived and survived on the planet without wiping everything else to extinction?
36	** Well, Ghidorah lived in ancient times when equally powerful monsters populated the Earth, so their ecosystem had an equilibrium. Also, they could go for the classic Showa-era Ghidorah (interestingly, the viral website does refer to him as "Monster Zero") and make him an extraterrestrial being.
37	** Possibly, Ghidorah IS the last survivor of his species... What happened to the others? Ghidorah did.
38	** It's possible that Ghidorah is a mutant abomination and the first of his kind.
39	** It's easy to miss, but it's explained in the film that Ghidorah is actually an alien kaiju from another planet who wound up stranded here. They don't go into ''how'' that happened, but, yeah, Ghidorah is so strange and cataclysmic because he's ''literally'' an alien, and he wants to terraform Earth to his liking forcibly.
40	** The Godzilla series has always been weird about its monster origins, but one thing has always been definite: regardless of film, Ghidorah has always been the only specimen of his kind, generally due to how powerful he is or how he was made.
41	*** Ghidorah being a SingleSpecimenSpecies isn't a definite, even in classical material. He was like that at first, but in later installments, they revealed other Ghidorahs.
42	* The novelization claims he’s a younger son who would not get territory and came to Earth to claim his own territory. So yes, they are more members of him if one can trust the novel.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder: Ghidorah's multiple personalities]]
46	* Are Ghidorah's three heads kind of portrayed inconsistently in the film? Supposedly, the middle head was supposed to be the sadistic and intelligent one, the right head the aggressive one, and the left head the dumb one, but some say that the left head is the sadistic one and the right head is the smart one.
47	** I think some interpret the left head's licking of the soldiers' ashes as sadism when it was likely some form of curiosity.
48	** There was a thing around the internet until recently where Ni (the right head) was credited as the head with the brains to chomp the Boston transformer when looking closely in the actual film reveals that it's Ichi (the middle head) who does that.
49	** Kevin (the left head) seems more eager than the other two heads when they're draining Mothra's radiation out of Godzilla. Depending on AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, this could mean Kevin is a PsychopathicManchild who enjoys fighting like several Titans but is getting carried away. He loves eating the radiation and isn't restraining himself like the other heads, or he holds a grudge over Godzilla ripping his head off in the ocean.
50	* Did the right head have any distinct personality? It just seems like he simply follows the middle head's actions, and the only notable thing he does is chomping down on the power generator to charge up their lightning-wing attack, hinting at some level of CombatPragmatism.
51	** It's been stated by Mike Dougherty that the right head is the most aggressive and bloodthirsty of the three, though that doesn't quite come across.
52	** Likely, he's the most eager to fight and the smartest in combat. When the middle head roars out a challenge to Godzilla, the right head's QuizzicalTilt can be seen as him sizing up his opponent and trying to analyze the situation, and later, before Ghidorah flees the Antarctica battle, the right head can be seen spitefully shaking his head. He's also the first to notice essential things in combat, such as the speakers in Fenway Park or the electrical transformer.
53	** Amongst the three heads, he can be seen near-constantly curling his lips in a silent snarl. Also, it doesn't really come across in the film, but according to the mo-cap actors who portrayed Ghidorah's heads, the right head wishes he was the trio's leader instead of the middle head, and they think he's more unpredictable than the other two.
54	* The consensus we as a wiki seem to have come to on the main page is that Ghidora's FreudianTrio is split into three semi-distinct personalities: The right head ([[YourOtherLeft Ghidora's right, that is]]) is the calculating and analytical superego, the central head is the bossy ego, and the left head is the base and impulsive Id.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder: Godzilla's temple]]
58	* Godzilla's hidden resting place is a highly radioactive area deep within the Earth where he goes to recover from his wounds. Given the hostility of the place, how did ancient humans even build the temple without the extreme radiation roasting them?
59	** It may have had lower radiation levels in the past, and Godzilla didn't start nesting there till after it got that way.
60	** Another possibility, considering how incredible the size of the ruins are (i.e., indicating the capabilities of those ancient people), is that the ancient people who built it had amazing technology or access to some sort of special protection from radiation that is superior to modern technology.
61	* The temple and surrounding city are a MythologyGag to Seatopia, an underwater civilization worshipping kaiju (seen in ''Film/Godzilla vs. Megalon''). A prequel surrounding it would perhaps be helpful for the [=MonsterVerse=].
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder: Mayfly Mothra?]]
65	* So Mothra hatched as a larva, pupated, and emerged as an adult all in the span of one day? Justified in the original films, as she is explicitly magical, but in the more realistic setting of the [=MonsterVerse=], it kinda sticks out, especially since it took the male [=MUTO=] 15 years to pupate.
66	** The Titans seem to have a form of intelligence that lets them know when something has gone, or is about to go, completely pear-shaped, anywhere on Earth (note how Godzilla went to intimidate[=/=]warn Monarch even before Emma awakened Ghidorah, then beelined for the Antarctica base himself.) They can also clearly understand the intentions of humans, either in a group or as individuals. When Emma said that "[Mothra] really wants to be born," she may have thought she was being poetic about the egg's sudden activity, but maybe she WAS accidentally right. It's possible Mothra sensed the intentions of the humans around her, hatched, and then sped up her own metamorphosis so she could be there to help Godzilla fight Ghidorah. Keep in mind, in the original series, Mothra is considered a divine entity, unlike the radioactive monsters or the alien invaders, so she may have both the foresight and the control over her own biology to pull this off.
67	** Are we sure that is a consideration still required? Monarch's materialists already got handed their crow with Ghidorah's impossible biology. What's to stop Mothra from proving the same way?
68	** The novel and the director both imply that Mothra is indeed a supernatural goddess in this continuity, so this is likely the case.
69	** Alternatively, Mothra seems to have Jellyfish immortality, constantly rebirthing herself after hibernation. Considering she's at least as old as Godzilla, there's no way she ''just'' came into existence as a larva. As far as natural explanations go, that seems the most likely.
70	** Given Mothra's tendency to die and be reborn so often, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that this version actually did have a short mayfly-like lifespan.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder: Benefit of the Titans?]]
74	* So, apparently, the radioactive emissions of the Titans are a good thing? I mean, they help plants grow, somehow, but isn't the radiation still, like, really bad for humans?
75	** Depends on how long the radiation stays at dangerous levels.
76	** Perhaps the radiation given off by the Titans is distinct from radiation that we're used to; maybe after being processed by the Titans, it stimulates organic life without damaging it.
77	** It's probably more complicated than that. Some of the Titans might actually be able to metabolize using pollutants like [=CO2=] and oil. Scylla ''was'' found under an oil field, so that ''can't'' be a coincidence. After all, creatures their size need an ABSURD amount of energy just to ''STAY'' '' '''ALIVE''' '', let alone move and fight.
78	** They likely turn 'negative' radiation into a 'positive' form as a byproduct of their biology. Remember, they ''eat'' radiation; emitting the same thing they take in wouldn't make sense.
79	** "Radiation" is a generic term for energy emitted by waves or particles. ("Ionizing radiation" is harmful and what most people automatically think of when they hear the generic word.) The fact that Godzilla's bursts of "atomic breath" don't render huge swaths of terrain uninhabitable for decades suggests that the energy the Titans emit is unusual in several ways.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder: Rodan down and out]]
83	* What happened to Rodan after Mothra stung him? He just sort of fell down and seemingly died, and then was gone for the rest of the fight, but then showed up alive and well at Godzilla's "coronation". Was he like, unconscious the whole time?
84	** "Well" is something of an exaggeration. He's clearly still badly wounded, a glowing molten hole in his body from where Mothra stabbed him. And if you look at when it happens, Rodan is not implied to die, as we can see him flailing about in pain on the ground.
85	** Mothra has a stinger, so it may well inject venom like a bee or wasp. Now, bees and wasps can kill similarly-sized creatures with their venom, but maybe Mothra's affects kaiju like bees and wasps do a human: nonfatal, but '''extremely painful'''.
86	** There's also the fact that Rodan didn't just get stung, he gets straight up ''impaled''. While he survived, it's not unlikely that he blacked out from the sheer agony of that.
87	** He may have been a little paralyzed from the pain, or he's a coward who managed to scramble away for cover until Ghidorah was killed.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder: Kong trapped?]]
91	* Where was Kong during the whole "Ghidorah summons the Titans" fiasco? Was he aware of it but had no means of leaving Skull Island? Or did he simply not care?
92	** Kong himself might be an alpha species and thus did not respond to Ghidorah's call. This could be why the Titans will be converging on Skull Island, seen in the newspaper clippings of the credits scene. The Titans may be going there to see who will be the new alpha, and Kong was sitting it out to wait for the winner between Godzilla and Ghidorah.
93	** Also, if Kong is like real gorillas in this respect, he probably can't swim. Though there might be tunnels that give him access to other parts of the world.
94	** In the novelization it's stated that Kong did hear Ghidorah's call but chose to ignore it as he's unconcerned with what goes on outside Skull Island.
95	** The last time Kong had contact with the world outside Skull Island, it didn't go well for ''any'' of the parties involved. Kong is probably the smartest of the Titans, and would certainly remember that.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder: 17 Titans?]]
99	* At the very end, where the Titans all bow before Godzilla, how many are present? There's Rodan, Behemoth (the mammoth-ape), Scylla (the spider), Methuselah (the mountain creature), and a female [=MUTO=]. Are there more in the scene?
100	** Those are the only ones I noticed in the scene. It makes sense that not all of them would be able to make it to the site of the battle in time.
101	** Also, let's not give Monarch credit where it's proven unreliable. There could be more. (And you know, for studio profits and merchandise, too)
102	** They only said they had discovered 17 worldwide, most still in hibernation. Ghidorah's roar might've just not woken ''everyone'' up.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder: New MUTO?]]
106	* One of the new Titans awakened was a Female [=MUTO=], whose presence Godzilla tolerates and actively bows before him. Aren't the two species natural enemies? Wouldn't they try to kill each other on sight?
107	** Presumably, with no male around, there is no risk of her reproducing. It is also possible the 2014 [=MUTO=] were only such a threat because they were a new generation that knew nothing about the current balance of power among the Titans. The movie's female [=MUTO=] may know her place and proper behavior.
108	** That seems likely, as the New [=MUTO=] bows to Godzilla, whereas the two in the 2014 film openly challenged and attacked him. Maybe Godzilla's beef with them had nothing to do with their attempt at reproducing but because they were openly defiant to his power.
109	* So, where was she during the first movie? How come she wasn't responding to the male [=MUTO=]'s mating calls like the other female [=MUTO=], are they monogamous and only breed with their assigned "sibling"?
110	** Or she knew Godzilla would hunt the others down and decided to stay out of it.
111	** She was probably within the Hollow Earth at the time; remember, Monarch took the other two above ground. Perhaps she was too far away to hear the call, or as put above they are monogamous, the two in the previous movie did seem quite taken with each other, either that or it's a first response gets the guy.
112	** The new [=MUTO=] looks different from the other two (grey skin, different crest, and two fewer legs), so it's probable that it's a different sub-species of [=MUTO=] that may lack the parasitic reproductive method of the other kind and has no animosity towards Godzilla's species.
113	*** She doesn't have two fewer legs, she has four front legs, two hind legs and a pair of smaller arms, just like the original Femuto of 2014.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder: Godzilla's super mode]]
117	* After Mothra sacrifices herself to protect Godzilla the dust from her wings triggers an orange glow in Godzilla. Did he absorb her radiation as she died? And why was Ghidorah trying to "leech" out this energy from him?
118	** To the first question, it seems likely her scales did something. Fans seem divided on whether the nuke or Mothra enabled Godzilla's burning form. As for why Ghidorah would drain Godzilla, he wants all the power he can get and recognizes the danger that energy may pose. He may also simply have to weaken Godzilla via the draining before he can have a chance of killing him.
119	** Look closely at Godzilla's first nuclear pulse, you briefly hear Mothra's roar and see a faint outline of her wings in the fiery explosion, perhaps hinting that Mothra's essence lives on within Godzilla, and in a way she is still fighting alongside him.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder: Ghidorah's middle head]]
123	* In the final scene, how come Godzilla's atomic pulses don't vaporize Ghidorah's middle head, unlike the other two? And it seems that this head was still alive even after being severed from the body!
124	** Perhaps its made of sterner stuff than the rest of the body? Perhaps the center head is the "true" body of Ghidorah's species, the rest of it just an extension that grows from it. Or maybe it's simply a reference to how the first head of the hydra of Greek mythology was immortal. There are several possibilities.
125	** Given Ghidorah's extraterrestrial nature perhaps BizarreAlienBiology is in play. He is after all an alien AnimalisticAbomination resembling a reptile, not an actual one.
126	** The middle head was the one to chomp down on the power station for a recharge. Possibly this action gave that particular head a little more energy with which to deflect the impact of the blast, albeit at the cost of the incoming nuclear blast hitting the ''other'' two heads even harder?
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder: Ghidorah's regeneration]]
130	* Since the three heads have different personalities, did the regenerated head have a distinct mind from the lost one, or was it just "respawned"?
131	** More than likely the latter. It still acted the same way as it did before it got decapitated.
132	** It does start acting more explicitly malicious and aggressive after regrowing, though. Perhaps it remembers the trauma of being severed and painfully being reconstructed?
133	* WordOfGod does state that Ghidorah's neurons are not centralized, sort of like an octopus' arms, so the regrown head retains the personality and memories of the original head.
134	** Given that the post-credits scene features Jonah acquiring a Ghidorah head, we may see him return in a future film.
135	** According to the director [[https://twitter.com/Mike_Dougherty/status/1136281731349323776?s=20 here]], the regenerated head indeed had the same personality and memories, due to most of Ghidorah's neurons being scattered in its body and limbs.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder: Godzilla's dorsal spines]]
139	* Why are Godzilla's dorsal spines in the trailer much bigger and more jagged than they were in the previous movie? Are they somehow linked to his powers and abilities?
140	** Perhaps it's not actually the same individual Godzilla, but another of his species?
141	** Or it's a sign of Godzilla continuing to evolve?
142	** It could be an indication of his strength in a way, i.e. the more well-fed he is on atomic energy the larger his spines grow. After all, by the end of the first movie he had the fallout from the nuke to feed from and possibly the female [=MUTO=]'s irradiated corpse as well. Additionally, humans could have been purposely feeding him nuclear waste to keep him away from populated areas, keeping him well fed, allowing his dorsal spines to grow.
143	** While we'll need to wait and see if the movie even acknowledges it, but the out-of-universe reason is simply the staff tweaking Godzilla's design to closer match the Japanese version. This includes bigger spines, a redesigned tail tip, and more claws on each foot.
144	*** If the rest of the franchise is any indication, the Doylist answer seems to be the correct one here - Godzilla has rarely looked the same in any two different movies, always for meta reasons, from suits getting too worn out to improved designs being thought of. In this case it's probably no different - they just implemented what they considered improvements to the design.
145	** Welp, if the prequel comic is acknowledged as canon, we now have an in-universe reason as well: a short time after the first film, Godzilla's spines were shattered in a fight with another [=MUTO=]. It seems he regrew them over the next five years.
146	*** And the film provides how he regenerated. It seems whenever Godzilla is badly injured or near death, he retreats to a temple hidden in one of the Hollow Earth tunnels he uses. This temple is located over some kind of wellspring of radiation, and both allow him to recover and to adapt his body over a period of years to handle better the conditions he is faced with. It's been theorized that this is how he lived for so much longer than the rest of his species.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder: The name "Titans"]]
150	* Are the monsters in the Monsterverse now officially designated as Titans, including Kong, the [=MUTO=] and the Skullcrawlers, or is it just a quasi-religious fanatic term that the ecoterrorists are using?
151	** Would that mean that "[=MUTO=]" is now the specific name of the particular sexually dimorphic insectoid species of the previous film and no longer a catch-all term for giant monsters in general?
152	*** [[FridgeBrilliance The U in M.U.T.O. stands for "Unidentified". But ]]ViralMarketing [[FridgeBrilliance shows that Monarch seems to have at least partially identified all or at least most of the Titans between the first movie and this one.]]
153	** We'll probably find out how far we're to take the trailer calling them Titans. Obviously, the trailer could be over-selling the seriousness due to Doughtery describing humanity's response to kaiju as being over-reacting in an interview. But then again given the director's previous two efforts some are thinking the series is going more literal with this line of thinking.
154	** The synopsis for the film indicates that another mysterious organization aside from Monarch is in play. Perhaps “Titan” is their term for kaiju.
155	*** WordOfGod confirms that once a creature is identified, the term [=MUTO=] no longer applies to it.
156	** The tie-in website refers to the PowerTrio of Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan as being in the Genus "Titanus", so it's probably safe to say that it's an official designation.
157	*** The classification of them being in the same ''genus'' seems dubious though, as a genus is a group of closely related species (think lions, tigers, and leopards), and a Permian lizard, a pterosaur, and an insect are clearly not closely related.
158	** From what we got in the film it looks like so far we are to take it they were worshiped like gods and we don't completely understand them. However, Ghidorah is pretty much completely alien and bizarre, and Mothra is handled in many ways that make one question how much SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome is still with the franchise going forward. The next film has promises to explore more of the origins, so perhaps we will get a more full-blown explanation next year.
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder: Restoring the world to Kaiju by ''killing Godzilla''?]]
162	* I find Emma Russell's allegiance to Titans a little questionable. If she did, won't Godzilla's death contradict everything she believes in?
163	** The film shows that Emma Russell is ''a crazy idiot''. The moment she reveals her true plans, everybody on Monarch -- and her own daughter -- call her out as delusional in some way, from Dr. Serizawa's visible horror at her plans to her daughter calling her "a monster." She even comes to her senses in the movie's final quarter and tries to thwart her own plan.
164	** Her plan also had a single fatal flaw (beyond all the moral problems with it). She assumed Ghidorah was a natural part of the world like the other Titans and thus would seek to restore balance, when in fact he was an alien invader who sought only his own prosperity and was only kept in check by Godzilla.
165	** And killing Godzilla was never part of her plan. Again, she had no way of knowing that Ghidorah didn't belong in our ecosystem at any stage, or that he would prove such a match for Godzilla, or that the military had a new weapon that might actually kill either of them. The plan was basically just "let the Titans do what they do," not realizing that what Ghidorah does is "be an OmnicidalManiac."
166	** It's also stated in one scene that the plan was to introduce the Titans one at a time over the course of weeks. Ghidorah was just the first target released after the Orca was completed. All the other Titans awakening and rising was because Ghidorah called them the alpha of the planet.
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:Getting Ghidorah's head]]
170	* The fishermen were shown to have dredged up the head Godzilla tore off Ghidorah but how did they get it without anyone noticing and reporting to Monarch, the thing is massive?
171	** With the world recovering from "the biggest disaster in history," it's not surprising that stuff like this could go unreported. Plus, there is noted to be a very lucrative black market in Titan blood and parts, adding incentive not to report discoveries.
172	** I feel like with all the mess Monarch and the US government gave the local fishermen in that area, many of them probably consider money far more important than reporting to the "proper authorities."
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:Legality of Oxygen Destroyer missile?]]
176	* The OD was seemingly developed by the US Military. If it works anything like the original OD, nothing will live for decades in the waters off the coast of Isla de Mara. Did the US unilaterally decide to send such a terrifying WMD into Mexican territorial waters, before the Mexican authorities could make an informed decision about the consequences to its wildlife and population?
177	** Maybe they could have figured it was a "better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" situation. Or maybe they ''did'' ask for permission without knowing how bad the OD would be (assuming it's as bad as in the original continuity), and Mexico gave it to them. They did mention it was still in development and they were launching early.
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	[[folder:Rodan: full of hot air]]
181	* OK, no, not literally, but somewhere along those lines: the movie shows that Rodan produces such ''tremendous'' amounts of heat he can melt rock into lava and his wings, particularly his wingtips, are constantly burning, giving them an ember-like appearance. Even the blood from an open wound glows bright yellow. A GiantFlyer of his size and shape is physiognomically and aerodynamically impossible, but could his internal heat actually be high enough to help keep him aloft?
182	** His internal volume is way too small for hot air to contribute to any significant buoyancy. It's ArtisticLicensePhysics through and through.
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder: "The one with the genitalia blurred out"]]
186	* The video shown at the Monarch court hearing of the [=MUTO=]'s mating rituals was allegedly the censored version with the genitalia blurred out. Except it's clearly seen in the video that it's the [=MUTO=]'s ''heads'' that are blurred out. Are they trying to imply [[BizarreAlienBiology that their heads]] ''[[{{Squick}} are in fact their genitalia?]]''
187	** To be fair, he did say "I ''think''". He might've just confused it with a different video.
188	** Didn’t understand that either. The guy probably just didn’t know what he was talking about as it’s highly unlikely their heads are their genitalia.
189	** That was the joke. Him saying, "I think this is the one where the genitalia are blurred out" and then having the ''whole thing'' get pixelated in the background while the camera is focused on him walking out is a funny juxtaposition for almost any in-universe reason you want to come up with.
190	** In ''Aftershocks'', the [=MUTO=] Prime's ovipositors extend from her face in the form of tendrils, so it's actually a fun bit of continuity since yes, the implications is the [=MUTO=]'s reproductive organs ARE in their heads.
191	** Which is a bit of FridgeBrilliance when you remember that the female [=MUTO=] already had fertilized eggs in her clutch, even though the male just touched noses with her and left right away. They actually ''mated'' there, as opposed to just courting.
192	[[/folder]]
193
194	[[folder: Madison heads home]]
195	* Why did Madison return to their house in the middle of a four-way monster fight? You'd think the safest route would be to head outward to the outskirts of town, but she barricades herself inside the house right smack in the middle of the battle!
196	** The novelization establishes that she was in the middle of a DespairEventHorizon, fleeing to the only place her not-working-properly-due-to-panic mind felt was still safe -- the home where she grew up.
197	** It's also a reasonable expectation that, if she believes either of her parents would come to find her, that would be the one place they'd think of as an "in case of emergency, gather here". Another matter is whether she underestimated the destructive potential of the fight or was irrationally hopeful it wouldn't get there.
198	[[/folder]]
199
200	[[folder: Methuselah cross-country traveling]]
201	* Methuselah, the mountain Titan, was said to have awakened in Munich, Germany. Yet somehow, he shows up at Godzilla's coronation in ''Boston''? Did he somehow manage to traverse the Atlantic Ocean? Behemoth awoke in Brazil, so he could have traveled up to Central America (and perhaps waded through the Panama Canal), while Scylla awoke in Arizona, also in North America, so her travel to Boston on foot also makes sense. But Methuselah, on the other hand...
202	** We see clearly Behemoth, Scylla, the female [=MUTO=], and Rodan. Did we see Methuselah at the gathering, too?
203	** He's there. The camera doesn't focus on him, but in the final shot where Godzilla roars into the sky, you can see five monsters bowing before him.
204	** He could have swam, or walked along the bottom (and perhaps used a Hollow Earth tunnel as a shortcut).
205	[[/folder]]
206
207	[[folder: Titans obeying Ghidorah?]]
208	* If Ghidorah is outside the natural order and an invasive alien species, then why are the Titans all responding to his alpha calls? And given that his endgame is to terraform Earth to make it inhospitable to all life but himself, wouldn't the other Titans seek to oppose him for their own self-preservation?
209	** He uses a form of communication that they understand, and so it seems due to this and his sheer level of power he counts as a fellow Titan despite his extraterrestrial origin (much as humanity as a whole seems to count as a fellow Titan despite our much more recent origin). As for self-preservation, most of the Titans have lived through many extinction events and vast climate changes. What Ghidorah seeks may be even worse, but they may not realize that until it is too late. Plus, they all know they lack the strength to oppose him and would likely just get killed if they tried, so obeying him is self-preservation (even if it only extends their lives a bit).
210	** Another possible factor could lie in his ability to regenerate. His regeneration could also include a remarkable ability to adapt to his surroundings. Since the Titans are arguably the greatest threat in his goal to terraform Earth he’d need to develop a means to deal with them without going through the difficult task of just killing them all.
211	** It's a bit WMGing but I think we may be leaving the "animals on instinct" idea behind in this franchise. As it seems like the Titans group is made up of the last of their kind or only one of their kind organisms, I think they are loyal to a leader more for the sake of "we have no one else" than anything else. When Godzilla calls the shots, he has kept them in line, and presumably, no one could best Godzilla in a fight to be the new alpha. On the other hand, Ghidorah could and sees the others more as pawns for his bidding. Mothra appeared to be the only one who dared not follow the new alpha, but in reality, Ghidorah probably would have executed any of the other titans when he tired of them, or they tried to challenge him.
212	** It's unclear in the film, but the human characters imply that Ghidorah isn't merely commanding the Titans but actually controlling them after he takes over as alpha.
213	** It's possible if you assume Ghidorah is more of a telepathic assaulter. His call is essentially brainwashing them by affecting their senses. Given the director's previous works heavily favoring TheFairFolk tropes, it wouldn't be surprising if he got that idea from there.
214
215	[[folder: Ghidorah’s heads personalities]]
216	* So which head is the most sadistic and which head is the least sadistic? It seems like the latter would go for the right head. Sometimes, he has been called the craziest, but other times, due to his tendency to lick dead corpses, the left head is considered the most sadistic. But usually, the middle is called the evilest head. The right head seems the least sadistic but which head is the least, most and in between in terms of sadism?
217	** Well, first of all, you're kinda splitting hairs here. Ghidorah as a whole is an OmnicidalManiac who just loves killing and destroying for its own sake, so "least sadistic" is a rather meaningless qualifier. It would also vary based on what, exactly, your definition of "sadism" entails. I would say the middle head, the dominant one likely responsible for long-range planning, is most sadistic; the right head, more a BloodKnight CombatPragmatist, is second; and the left, being more innocently curious but still likes killing for its own sake, is least.
218	[[/folder]]
219
220	[[folder: Godzilla sleeps off the Bahamas but got woken up in the Pacific by a nuclear sub?]]
221	* How did Godzilla get awoken by a nuclear sub in 1954 off the Marianas in 2014 but in this movie he's sleeping in not!Seatopia right next to Bermuda, with a natural nuclear reactor (presumably) for fuel? More to the point, why would Godzilla be away from said natural nuclear reactor in the Pacific to begin with? A fight with another Titan?
222	** The temple is implied to be where he goes to regenerate when he badly needs to heal and/or adapt himself. However, this doesn't mean it's where he spends most of his time, even in dormancy. Being near that much radiation for too long when he doesn't need it may not be healthy for him (much as eating too much can harm any living thing). He has a whole planet worth of Hollow Earth tunnels to move through and the natural radiation in the deep sea and underground to feed on, and chances are the nuclear sub just got too close to another spot where he happened to be sleeping/dormant.
223	** Atlantis is shown to be Godzilla's home for all intents and purposes, but that doesn't mean it's the only place he stays. Especially since his bizarre biology means he doesn't need to eat or sleep as we do. In addition to what the bove has said, it's entirely possible he just picks random sea floors to nest for years at a time.
224	[[/folder]]
225
226	[[folder: Godzilla and nuclear overload]]
227	* In 2014, Godzilla is shown taking the 15-megaton Castle Bravo blast to the face in the 1950s. He clearly has no ill effects from a much larger bomb. In this movie, a presumably smaller one puts him in immediate danger of melting down and exploding. That's.....odd. So, in the 1950s, he could absorb a much larger bomb without this, but in the 2010s, a modern one nearly kills him?
228	** Recall that despite the size of the bomb in the video being much larger, the actual lines in the movie state that the nuke they used on Godzilla in the past was much weaker than modern nukes. It is also possible that if he's in the cooling water/not engaged in a battle, Godzilla may be more capable of safely releasing excess radiation (recall the threat of meltdown is not mentioned until some time after the bomb hits him, and well after he left the water).
229	** Another possibility is the fact that the nuclear bomb could have been a Neutron Bomb, which is also known as Enhanced Radiation Weapons. They aren't big on yield but produce much more radiation than a regular bomb.
230	** Based on the apparent size of the explosion and how it completely shattered absolutely massive kaiju-scaled architecture, the bomb used on Godzilla at the temple is far larger than any nuclear weapon ever detonated or even seriously concepted in the real world. We're talking gigatonnish yields here. Which would indeed make Castle Bravo look like a firecracker.
231	** Godzilla was next to a radiation wellspring, too, so the bomb could've made the area 'flood,' so to speak. Would also explain the huge yield.
232	** From the size of the warhead assembly in the scene, it would seem to be similar in size to the W76 warhead assembly used on smaller MIRV warheads for Trident I missiles, which is a 95-kilogram Thermonuclear system that has a yield of 90 to 100 kilotons.
233	[[/folder]]
234
235	[[folder: How the heck does Behemoth eat?]]
236	* Real elephants and their extinct cousins only get away with having such short necks and humongous tusks because they have long, prehensile trunks that can gather edible plant matter from the foliage. But Behemoth's stubby trunk can't reach the ground, and the tusks would prevent it from lowering its head to feed. Its calicothere-paws are built for knuckle-walking and possibly digging, not grasping food and raising it to its mouth. We know this creature ''must'' eat physical food, not subsist off photosynthesis or radiation because dung from the Behemoth is cited as a very potent fertilizer. Yet its basic anatomy makes eating all but impossible for the critter.
237	** He doesn't seem to have a mouth, further compounding this issue.
238	** Well, they feed off radiation or something, right? So, presumably, there's no need for Behemoth to place food into its mouth manually.
239	[[/folder]]
240
241	[[folder: Rodan and the Oxygen Destroyer?]]
242	* If Rodan is an Earth-based creature, how did he survive the Oxygen Destroyer's detonation? He was knocked into the water after Ghidorah defeated him, right?
243	** Presumably, he had swum/flown out of range of the blast when the Oxygen Destroyer detonated. He's already out of the water when Ghidorah emerges to proclaim victory over Godzilla.
244	[[/folder]]
245
246	[[folder: How did ancient humans survive Ghidorah?]]
247	* If Ghidorah's just [[WalkingWasteland waltzing around is terraforming the planet]], how is there any record of him existing? Assuming Godzilla stopped him in time whenever he tried to destroy Earth, any nearby humans would've been reduced to paste.
248	** I forget if the source of this info is the novel or the various news articles we see in the credits, but the civilization that worshiped Godzilla and built that gigantic temple was actually quite advanced and thus able to stand up to Ghidorah. Ghidorah still killed most of them and destroyed their civilization, but with their weapons and technology, the humans were able to last long enough to help Godzilla win, and the survivors were able to leave some records.
249	** Ancient humans had symbiotic relationships with some terrestrial Titans, such as Mothra, who, according to WordOfGod, would protect her human followers in exchange for them protecting and singing to her egg whenever she was reborn. Such humans could have been under a Titan's protection when attacked by Ghidorah and witnessed their protector fighting Ghidorah off, thus living to tell the tale.
250	[[/folder]]
251
252	[[folder:How did Godzilla know that Ghidorah was about to be released?]]
253	* In the intimidation display scene, the humans realize that Godzilla is en route to Antarctica to deal with Ghidorah. But how could he have known that Ghidorah was about to be awakened? Emma and Jonah were planning it in secret, and unless Godzilla is telepathic, there’s no logical way that a gigantic ‘’animal’’ could have been aware of the motives of two humans.
254	* When they arrive at the Antarctica outpost, they say they are already getting an EKG signal from Ghidorah, so it's evident that he was already half-awake from the drilling. Perhaps Ghidorah was already subconsciously emitting some sort of signal that Godzilla managed to identify.
255	[[/folder]]
256
257	[[folder: How did Ghidorah get to Earth]]
258	* Frankly, I’m a bit surprised this hasn’t been brought up, but how did Ghidorah make his way through deep space to Earth?
259	** It's unknown; in the movie, they say the old legends claim he fell from the stars, but that's it. Perhaps it came hibernating deep inside an asteroid, or aliens purposefully left it here; our guess is as good as anybody in Monarch.
260	** I think it's worth noting that Ghidorah is an alien super-being that has abilities that quite simply don't exist on Earth, including a HealingFactor that enables it to regenerate parts in minutes, survive being frozen, and an Oxygen destroyer that almost killed the strongest thing in the world. It is ''entirely'' possible that he simply flew to Earth through the void of space. Which raises more disturbing questions: Where did he come from? Are there more? Why did he choose Earth?
261	** The novel states he was a younger son who wouldn’t get any territory due to being younger and came to Earth to get his own territory.
262	** It seems like they are running with it's an alien being that just doesn't follow our normal "rules" on Earth. In fiction and on Ancient Aliens, we tend to think aliens will follow all the rules we have tested and apply to us as Earth beings. If something like Ghidorah ever showed up and broke all those rules, humanity probably would be screwed.
263	** Earth has been hit by many asteroids and comets over its geological history; it wouldn't be too unbelievable, given the setting, if one of those proved to have carried a hibernating Ghidorah from another star system.
264	[[/folder]]
265
266	[[folder: Monarch kinda sucks at security and tactics]]
267	* OK, I could kind of buy the eco-terrorists taking the Monarch outpost where Mothra was being contained by surprise. But after that, it seemed that no attempts were made to bolster their defenses (both electronic and physical) and put everybody on a stricter security alert. Bear in mind that Jonah's forces were just a dozen armed people at most, and yet the Antarctica outpost fell so quickly they weren't even able to send a distress signal, and the hacking of the containment measures (something Monarch already knew was something the terrorists could do) in the Isla de Mara outpost went equally fast and unimpeded. Also, the terrorists leave their Osprey right in front of the Antarctica base, and when the Monarch forces arrive using that same entrance... they ignore the terrorists' only way of escape. Why not leave a couple of guards or at least do something to sabotage the villains' escape vehicle and strand them?
268	** Frankly, I thought the same thing, and I'll just chalk all that up to poor writing. Monarch has the full power of several governments and at least the American Military supporting them, but also can't protect their own bases adequately.
269	** Bluntly Monarch thinks of itself as a top-level organization when, in reality, it's a very poorly run and thought-out exercise in futility.
270	** Well, Monarch in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' and ''Film/Godzilla2014'' was a civilian research division with minimal or nonexistent authority over the military forces attached to them (or they were attached to, depending on how you look at it). Since Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=], it's evolved towards a paramilitary organization with a kaiju-hunting focus. But there's a lot of internal inertia to overcome; the civilian scientists aren't just immediately going to fall in with military discipline and security protocol, especially if it interferes with the efficiency of their research. Essentially, behind the scenes, there's probably a huge military-versus-civilian tug-of-war that results in security measures not being implemented or potentially ignored if they are.
271	** But wouldn’t it be in the scientists’ best interests to make some compromises with their Army security attachment liaisons? I’d imagine that having criminals (or, in this case, a trained, heavily armed, and highly well-funded group of mercenaries/eco-terrorists) kill your friends and colleagues while also doing who knows what with your Titan specimen isn’t exactly in your best interest.
272	** It seems that Jonah and company went from China straight to Antarctica, one of the most isolated locations on the planet. They might not have ''time'' to boost their security. People arriving to back them up isn't the most straightforward task; the base was also entirely off the record, so Monarch probably didn't realize Jonah knew it existed. As for Isla de Mara, it wasn't actually taken over or directly attacked: they got hacked, and their containment protocols were deactivated just long enough for Rodan to be released. Both of these are likely due to Emma being a high-ranking Monarch scientist and Monarch not realizing until after Rodan is freed that she's on the bad guy's side rather than just a hostage.
273	[[/folder]]
274
275	[[folder:Why Godzilla is the [=ONLY=] Titan to oppose Ghidorah?]]
276	* Shouldn't more Titans be willing to stand up to Ghidorah, like Kong?
277	** As far as we know, Kong was the ''only'' monster besides Godzilla and Mothra (one being a rival alpha and the other being a symbiotic species loyal only to Godzilla’s kind) that could resist Ghidorah’s alpha song, mainly because he just couldn’t care less about what happens in the world. He’s content to live peacefully on Skull Island, and [[HeroicNeutral only gets involved when it directly affects him]]. That said, Ghidorah’s song seems to have awakened something on Skull Island, which we’ll see in the sequel.
278	** As we see with Rodan (who was imminently overpowered) and Mothra (who only really distracted Ghidorah while Godzilla dealt the heavy blows and ended up dying when she tried facing Ghidorah alone). Some Titans are willing to challenge or oppose him; however, Godzilla is the only Titan actually powerful enough to defeat him.
279	[[/folder]]
280
281	[[folder:Ghidorah's alien DNA]]
282	* Graham mentions that Outpost 32 has DNA samples stored in a lab. Suppose they extracted and analyzed Ghidorah's genetic material. Shouldn't it have clued them in that Ghidorah isn't from Earth or at least made them aware that it's unlike any other Titan or non-Titan lifeform on the planet, so Ghidorah's BizarreAlienBiology would've been less of a curveball for Monarch?
283	** To be fair, Ghidorah can use the Alpha Call. ALL Titans seem to have some form of BizarreAlienBiology: Mothra can go from Larva to Moth in days and has ResurrectiveImmortality; Rodan is Burning Hot; Methuselah is a Planimal, and Scylla is AnIcePerson. Most of the Titans have some secondary ability that makes them something other than gigantic animals; even the [=MUTO=]'s look more alien than him, and they are terrestrial beings. Monarch probably dismissed it as just another weirdo for the menagerie, rather than "Holy Crap, ALIEN," Ghidorah's DNA would, at best, probably tell them nothing but the regeneration, which the sample might not have been conclusive to how strong they were, and the neurons scattered through the body thing, which most cephalopods have.
284	[[/folder]]
285
286	[[folder:The Russell residence]]
287	* In the final battle, it's shown that the Russell family home is in Boston. If so, why was the family in San Francisco during the first film's events?
288	** Mark states when talking to Vivienne that immediately after Andrew's death, the family at first went "back home to Boston" and tried to get through the grief together before Mark and Emma's marriage collapsed, and Mark moved to the Colorado mountains.
289	** The novelization explains that Emma got a job offer that required the family to move to San Francisco.
290	[[/folder]]
291
292	[[folder: It's a Skype call, it's a video recording; no it's neither?]]
293	* During Emma Russell's big speech, she's speaking through a live feed, but during it, it cuts to video footage. How is that possible? It cuts to this as if it was put in beforehand when it's impossible to do that with a live web broadcast. Yes, a news or TV station, but not a live web call.
294	** She's probably just using the "Share Screen" feature to display some videos during the call.
295	[[/folder]]
296
297	[[folder: Mark's grudge against Godzilla]]
298	* Why exactly does Mark blame only Godzilla for his son’s death? Obviously, Godzilla did unintentionally cause a considerable amount of damage in San Fransisco, but why doesn’t Mark ever consider that it could have been the actively hostile MUTOs that were to blame? The opening doesn’t specify one way or the other, and with only Mark’s words to go on, it seems a little biased and illogical for him to pin all the blame on Godzilla.
299	** Emotions aren't always logical. And besides, Mark hated ALL the Titans. Godzilla is just the one they talk about the most.
300	[[/folder]]
301
302	[[folder:Madison's blindness to her mother's insanity]]
303	* Why does it take Madison until after Emma releases Rodan to realize that Andrew's death drove her mother nuts?
304	** Emma previously had Madison witness friends getting slaughtered, forced Maddie to stay with her instead of going to Mark, detonated explosives several feet away from them, and forced Maddie to leave her father for dead at Ghidorah's mercy. It isn't rocket science for one to figure out that Emma has gone mad. However, Emma brainwashed Maddie into supporting the plan and following her. It's not until Madison finally hears other people's views about her mom's plan, and Emma releases Rodan against her pleas, making matters escalate and go downhill, that Madison realizes her mom's sanity took a bigger hit from Andrew's death than she thought.
305	[[/folder]]

Context Headscratchers / GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019