Characters / MonsterVerse - Kaiju

Main Character IndexKaijuGodzilla | King Kong | King Ghidorah | MUTO | Mechagodzilla | Skull Island Kaiju & Other CreaturesHumansDr. Emma Russell | Families | Monarch | Skull Island Expedition | US Government & Military

---

Ancient and massive creatures that existed hundreds of millions of years ago, feeding on the nuclear radiation the planet generated. Most of them were wiped out, making way for new life to take their place, but some remained in hiding or hibernation, surviving the deaths of their kin in the process. Humanity's advances in nuclear power, strip mining, and other developments have begun to awaken them, drawing them to the surface and bringing destruction in their wake.

General

"This world never belonged to us: it belonged to them."

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Pretty much a standard for Godzilla and King Kong films. The sheer size of all the kaiju falls firmly under Artistic License – Physics — there is no way any of these creatures would be able to move as fluidly as they do without getting crushed under their own weight considering the Earth's gravity. This is especially egregious in Kong: Skull Island, where Kong manages to literally jump what must be thousands of feet in distance — the impact of a creature his size would send anything smaller sized in the vicinity flying but the humans running just a few meters away from him or so don't even trip. Even worse are all the flying monsters in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. But since the series is all about giant monsters fighting each other, it's forgivable.
• Adaptational Abomination: The MonsterVerse's Kaiju are portrayed in a significantly more Lovecraftian light than the Showa and Heisei movies' take. They're an allegory for forces of nature affected by climate change instead of an allegory for nuclear weaponry, with radiation merely being what wakes the Time Abyss-old creatures up from their long slumber instead of creating them, humanity is almost completely helpless to contain or control the creatures when they're active, and the Kaiju's primordial past and relationships with the Earth's ecosystems are given an emphatic air of mystery which makes their full nature seem unknowable.
• Adaptive Ability: It's implied over the films, and straight-up confirmed by a Monarch operative in the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization, that the Titans have this, and it's why the Monarch outposts' kill-switches failed to kill any of them when they awoke.
• Alliance with an Abomination: Many of the Titans used to have symbiotic relationships with humans thousands of years ago, protecting the humans from other, more hostile Titans, but the hidden message in the King of the Monsters Creative Closing Credits hints that it ended badly when ancient human civilization got too big for their breeches and attempted to manipulate the Titans. King of the Monsters in particular focuses on the concept of humanity striking up a beneficial and sustainable coexistence with the other Titans once again in modern times, and the ending proves it's very much possible.
• All Myths Are True: Some of the Titans are based on creatures from the mythologies of various ancient cultures, with the implication being that these Titans were the In-Universe inspiration for said mythological creatures (such as the Lernaean Hydra and Slavic Zmey being inspired by Ghidorah, angels being inspired by Mothra, and many other myths describing monsters and events which seem to correspond with other Titans and their collective history with humans).
• Animalistic Abomination: As a whole, their forms are a chimeric blend of various creatures from both the past and the present, and the MonsterVerse overall treats the Titans as gigantic animals, if intelligent and unfathomable ones. Despite not being mind-breakingly horrible to see besides the sheer magnitude of their presence, the Titans possess abilities bordering on the supernatural, are unfathomably old, and are extraordinarily strong.
• Animals Respect Nature: Ultimately subverted for most of the Titans. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Emma Russell believes that the Titans being set free will eventually create an ecological paradise for the humans who survive their awakening and strike up symbiotic relationships with them. In reality, it's not quite as simple as that: with the exceptions of the Alpha Titans who tend to be either good or evil, the subordinate Titans generally only seem to care about: (1) fulfilling their own instincts to feed or breed or hold territory, and (2) obeying their current Alpha's commands. When the Titans are under Godzilla's command, they're more or less peaceful and let Earth's ecosystems regenerate around them, but when the Titans are under Ghidorah's command, they help him to change the environment in a way which decimates all life as we know it faster than the Earth Titans' Fertile Feet can kick in.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Titans are indicated to function on a pack system, submitting to the most powerful of them as the Alpha. Other Alphas can exist and are capable of rebelling against the reigning Alpha (neither Mothra nor Kong answered Ghidorah's call to battle), but only one is considered the ruling Titan at a time. Ghidorah initially becomes the Alpha after his second battle with Godzilla, but Godzilla becomes the new Alpha after killing him in their third battle.
• Binomium ridiculus: An example that's played seriously, in this case. Titanus is used as the genus, whereas the species are named after their living representatives.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Discussed. While only Ghidorah truly qualifies as an alien, other Titans also possess such bizarre biology that it almost justifies the Acceptable Breaks from Reality.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Downplayed. The Titans have varying moral alignments, but generally there's a set pattern with a couple exceptions. The benevolent ones are Destructive Saviours who are committed to fighting off the evil ones and maintaining the balance of nature, even if they can't always concern themselves with individual human lives (especially not in the heat of a battle, since that's literally like a human warrior who's fighting for their life fussing over every ant that's trying to traverse the ground around them). The Destroyer Titans meanwhile tend to be concerned solely with satiating their instinctive drives to feed, reproduce and/or carve out territory for themselves in a way which threatens human population centers and entire ecosystems. Some of the Titans are also more wrathful than others when provoked by humans, such as Rodan.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: As of King of the Monsters:
  • Godzilla is associated with blue.
  • Kong is associated with orange.
  • Mothra is associated with green.
  • Rodan is associated with red.
  • Ghidorah is associated with yellow.
• A Dog Named "Dog": For the most part, the names Monarch give to each of the different Titans they discover refers to both the individual specimen and its specific Titan species, if it's the only one of its kind known to be alive at the time of discovery. The closest thing to exceptions are Godzilla and Mothra, whose species names are Gojira and Mosura respectively (and even then, those are just the two Titans' individual names in Japanese). The King of the Monsters novelization implies there may be multiple members of Mothra's species, or at least some related subspecies, still out there, presumably alluding to Battra.
• Dragon Their Feet: Subverted with the Titans subservient to King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). They arrive at Boston in the immediate aftermath of their master's death by Godzilla, and though Rodan looks like he's initially challenging Godzilla, it takes little more than a Death Glare from Ghidorah's killer for the Titans to bow and acknowledge Godzilla as their new Alpha.
• The Dreaded: It is natural for humanity to be intimidated by these giant prehistoric creatures that are more than capable of leveling an entire city within minutes.
• Dug Too Deep: The majority of the Titans have existed in hibernation underground for thousands to millions of years, and it's explicitly noted in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) that human activities including strip mining and seismic surveys are triggering their gradual reawakening and return to the world in modern times. Adding more to this trope, it's heavily implied some of the creatures, such as the vicious Skullcrawlers on Skull Island, might've influenced humans' lore of The Underworld.
• Enemy Mine: Kong and Godzilla don't really try to harm human beings, but they can and do on occasion butt heads. That being said, in the face of creatures like the MUTOs, the Skullcrawlers, Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla, they really don't have much choice but to stand together.
• Evil Takes a Nap: Zig-Zagged. Of the many Titans that are in deep hibernation around the world by modern times, some of them are ultimately good for the world despite their destructiveness, while others aren't. Rousing the bad Titans like the MUTOs and Camazotz from their slumber via mining operations is not recommendable, as they can kill the benevolent Alpha Titans and wipe out entire ecosystems whilst trampling over any humans that are in their way.
• Fertile Feet: Both Played Straight and inverted. King of the Monsters reveals that most if not all the Titans' radiation emissions stimulate the rapid growth of plant life, and are capable of replenishing entire ecosystems (such as terraforming the Sahara desert into a rainforest, reversing the melting of polar ice caps, revitalizing coral reefs, and enabling endangered faunal species to bounce back). This applies not only to Protector Titans such as Godzilla and Behemoth, but also to Destroyer-class Titans such as Scylla, and even the outright-antagonistic MUTOs^note King of the Monsters reveals that Las Vegas has been overrun by vegetation after the female MUTO rampaged through it — note that unlike the other destroyed cities in Godzilla (2014), Godzilla never went near Vegas, meaning that this instance was explicitly all the MUTO's doing.
• Genetic Memory: Dr. Lind quotes this word-for-word in Godzilla vs. Kong: it's the name of an In-Universe theory that all Titans have an evolutionary impulse to return to where their species originally evolved. The implication is that this influences Kong in the film when he discovers his ancestors' temple in the Hollow Earth.
• Giant Animal Worship: The Titans are basically gigantic, radioactive, intelligent animals, and many of them were worshipped as gods by ancient humans, including a civilization that were advanced enough to build a vast acropolis, as part of their symbiotic coexistence with the creatures. Kong in particular is still worshipped this way by the Iwi on the isolated Skull Island, whom Kong is highly protective of. Among modern humans, numerous individuals such as Dr. Serizawa and the Chen family in Monarch, and eco-terrorists Emma Russell and Alan Jonah view the Titans with reverence and/or believe that they're the true and rightful rulers of the Earth — unlike the standard form of this trope, said humans' attitudes are actually right to varying degrees, creating a positive take on the trope. The Titans are for all intents and purposes Physical Gods, the Alphas in particular are highly intelligent, and the events of King of the Monsters demonstrate that modern human civilization can coexist with and massively benefit from the creatures as their ancestors once did — the problems that occur throughout the movies are the result of people like Emma and Jonah valuing human lives too little while revering the Titans, or other people in general overestimating mankind's ability to control or manipulate the Titans.
• Giant Equals Invincible: Even the smaller Titans, like the male MUTO or Rodan, are still massive enough that most conventional human-made weapons have no noticeable effect on them, amounting to the equivalent of a pinprick to creatures of their size.
• Heavy Sleeper: By the time the films take place, Titans have been asleep all across the globe for so long many have been buried underground and civilizations have grown on top of them, while things like MUTO spores and Mothra's egg entered a form of suspended animation. How they don't all suffocate from being buried alive is never actually addressed. Skull Island (and Kong by extension) is the exception as it remains an active ecosystem, except for the Skullcrawlers, who aren't originally native to the island and mostly sleep underground.
• Humans Are Insects: Most of the Titans are generally indifferent to humans (except for Kong and Mothra, and later Godzilla), but won't make active efforts against them unless provoked. However, when humans do provoke them or humans are faced with actively malicious ones like Ghidorah, those Titans can easily wipe those humans out.
• Humans Need Aliens: When malevolent Titans pose a threat, generally humans' military and technology stand no chance at actually killing them and can usually do no more than hurt them or piss them off, and it Takes One to Kill One. Fortunately for humans, not only are many of the Titans capable of coexisting with humans if they fall in line under a benevolent Alpha Titan; but Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra are all willing to tolerate humans' presence and defend them by proxy, by fighting off invasions of their territory by the more hostile Titans to maintain their dominance. Adding more to this trope, it's indicated in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) that if humans were to somehow succeed in killing all the Titans, then even without the threat of Ghidorah, humans would be causing their own demise via Gaia's Lament and Global Warming without the Titans to maintain Earth's ecological balance.
• It Can Think: While they look like animals and humans explain their behavior with animal terminology, once someone gets up close and personal with Alpha Titans like Godzilla, Kong, Mothra or Ghidorah, it becomes very clear that they are more than mindless beasts.
• Jerkass Gods: From multiple angles, they're basically the Gods of the setting, but they're still animals (if intelligent ones), foremost motivated by primal instincts: territorialism, feeding, reproducing, defending themselves. Whilst some or even most of the Titans are capable of coexisting with groups of humans or humanity at large in symbiosis, acting to protect their human charges, they mostly don't really care about individual human lives any more than a human would care about individual ants in their ant colony, and many of the Titans won't hesitate to attack and kill if they feel threatened by humans. The only real exception is Mothra, and even so, she can and will kick human ass when she feels she's been crossed, even if she dispatches her human aggressors in non-fatal ways.
• Kaiju: Megafauna the size of tall buildings which evolved in prehistoric times, and have been hibernating in various subterranean and deep sea locations around the world for millennia, but are gradually waking up due to modern manmade activities such as nuclear testing and strip-mining. When they touch down, mankind's greatest weapons are next to useless against these creatures, with the only surefire thing that can kill a Titan being another Titan. The sentient natural disaster allegory is driven even further home in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), where the Titans' Fertile Feet is explicitly compared to forest fires and volcanic ash enabling fresh new growth, and where the Titans' global rampage under King Ghidorah's command creates a Natural Disaster Cascade. Every MonsterVerse movie features a Behemoth Battle involving the Titans, Primate Versus Reptile is likely when Kong is concerned, and Godzilla vs. Kong specifically sees the human villains attempt to engineer a Mech vs. Beast battle against Godzilla.
• Last of His Kind: With the exceptions of most of Skull Island's natives and (possibly) the MUTOs, the majority of the Titans are believed to be the last of their respective species.
• Long-Lived: All the Titans appear to be this, although centuries of suspended animation when they were hibernating underground probably helped. Many if not all of them are implied to be millions of years old not just as species but as individuals, with Godzilla: Awakening implying that the individual Godzilla has been around since the Permian period.
• Lovecraft Lite: Downplayed, but thematically relevant. The films constantly remind humanity of how utterly small it is and that its position as the dominant species of the Earth can be challenged by forces completely out of its control. However, humans time and again find a way to draw those same forces to mankind's protection rather than its destruction, sometimes out of complete coincidence. In the King of the Monsters novelization, Mark thinks that the Titans' tendency to take millennia-long naps might be the only reason that humans ever evolved at all. The redacted text in the end credits for King of the Monsters even notes that one of the historical names for the Titans was "Old Ones".
• Milking the Monster: An indirect case, but the news articles' print in the King of the Monsters Creative Closing Credits makes mention of the roaming Titans' ecosphere-revitalizing effects also being economically productive, creating an ecotourism boom due to people coming to see both the pacified Titans such as Rodan and also to see replenished ecosystems and wildlife populations such as pandas. And it's a source of revenue that's very much needed, due to the massive debt of cleaning up the destruction that was done to manmade settlements during King Ghidorah's rampage.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Mothra is White; being the kindest, gentlest, and most concerned with safeguarding the lives of the Titans, and Ghidorah is Black; being genuinely malicious and sadistic on a level beyond that of any other Titan. All the rest are different shades of Grey such as: being willing to kill humans who antagonize them but not being actively malevolent, and even being willing to safeguard humans who help them (Kong and Godzilla); acting out life cycles that are more than likely to get a lot of people killed (the MUTOs and Skullcrawlers); and being extremely territorial to the point of knowing homicide (Rodan).
• Multiple-Choice Past: In the 2014 film, Godzilla and the MUTOs are exposited as hailing from a Permian-period ecosystem during a time when Earth's surface was ten times more radioactive, and having retreated underground to feed on radiaton from the planet's core as the surface's radiation levels subsided. The King of the Monsters novelization however states this is only the leading theory, and a less popular (at the time) theory is that all Titans actually evolved specifically within the Hollow Earth – both Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong lend further credence to the latter theory. Mark at one point personally speculates in the King of the Monsters novel that the Titans might be descended from a chemically-different form of life that evolved before bacteria in the Precambrian so as to not need water or an oxygenated atmosphere.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: The Titans will obey the command of their Alpha (i.e. "king"), regardless of what those commands may be, such as working to destroy their own world to serve Ghidorah's own interests. Only other Alpha Titans, such as Mothra and Kong, will deny them.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: In King of the Monsters, upon usurping Godzilla as the new reigning Alpha, Ghidorah forces the other Titans to begin inflicting this trope on a cataclysmic global scale in combination with Ghidorah's own storm-wreaking Weather Manipulation; causing ecosystems to rapidly perish faster than they can adapt, and threatening to cause the most devastating mass extinction in the Earth's entire known history. Stenz states they're triggering earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, "and disasters we don't even have names for yet" on every continent, while the novelization reveals Rodan is also causing volcanic eruptions to throw gigatons of volcanic ash and gases into the atmosphere.
• Nominal Hero: The more "heroic" monsters are heroic in the sense that they're not actively trying to kill the human protagonists and are keeping the other creatures in check instead of allowing them to destroy the ecosystem. The heroic Titans focus mainly on going after those who are persistently trying to harm them, whether they be monsters or humans. Even the violent acts they do put out towards humans are completely natural because in those cases, said humans are invading their territory. Mothra comes the closest to being a full-on hero.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Kong and Godzilla aren't really concerned with attacking humans and focus more on killing their Kaiju opponents. Likewise, once Mothra hatches, she only turns violent after someone shoots at her. In Kong's case, however, he only attacks humans when they damage his home island or make efforts to bring him down. In general, something that's emphasized about the Titans is that, for the most part, they are not monsters, they're great big animals who act according to their instincts. Ghidorah is the odd one out in this regard – and there's a good reason for that, as he's an alien invasive species.
• Not the Intended Use: In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), it's explained that the Titans overall act somewhat like antibodies for the Earth to maintain its natural balance when it's thrown out of whack. However, when the alien King Ghidorah takes over as the Titans' ruling Alpha, he commands them to do the complete opposite: wreaking global natural disasters which do even worse harm to the global ecosphere than humanity already have, and threatening to cause the rapid mass extinction of all other multicellular life^note Described in the novelization.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: The various Titans are implied to have been the source of many mythological creatures (such as the Hydra, Scylla, Dragons, and the like) as well as being treated as Gods and Demons in many different cultures.
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: On top of being the inspiration of mythological deities, the Monarch website indicates Titans are also behind cryptozoological sightings and encounters. Bunyip and Mokele-Mbembe are among the seventeen Kaiju in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) (and are located at sites that roughly correspond to the Real Life cryptids' locations), and the novelization links Behemoth to the South American cryptid Mapinguary.
• Our Gods Are Different: The Kaiju are Physical Gods and are often described and considered In-Universe to be The Old Gods. Specifically, they consist of various ancient primeval "super-species" and/or the endlings of such species which evolved in prehistoric times (Ghidorah is the exception as an extraterrestrial invader). Traits, powers, and weaknesses vary, but they have some things in common. They're in the "Scarily powerful" spectrum, they have Near Immortality if not Advanced Immortality, they're Anthropomorphically Subhuman (being literal super-evolved animals), and their needs are in the "Sustenance and Sleep" category (they tend to cycle between being active and entering long periods of dormancy). Unlike most gods, being naturalistic, the Kaiju don't need prayers to function, although sources of radiation (which can be considered a sort of offering to them in later films) do feed and strengthen them. Morally, they're generally Exemplars; their temperaments vary from being Destructive Saviours to Destroyer Deities, with Mothra and Ghidorah being the most extreme Kaiju at either end of the scale. Generally, the MonsterVerse follows Henotheism (modern humans favor worship of Godzilla as their main Destructive Saviour, but they also worshipped other Titans in forgotten ancient times, and Mothra is still revered) and Polytheism (the Kaiju, as it turns out, have an Alpha-led hierarchy currently headed by Godzilla, but a rival Alpha can potentially overthrow him). The Kaiju did not create the universe or even the Earth as far as we know, but generally, they're considered essential to the maintenance and defense of the Earth's biosphere.
• Our Titans Are Different: "Titan" is the official term for them in-universe. They are ancient, zoological Animalistic Abominations, measuring dozens of storeys in height. They ruled Earth thousands and even millions of years ago, before retreating into dormancy; they're outright described within the setting as Physical Gods, and they were worshipped as gods in ancient humanian times. Many Titans are characterized as Elemental Embodiments (Godzilla is Water, Camazotz is Darkness, etc.), and their physical power is such that all of modern human civilization's arsenals are put to shame when pitted against such creatures.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Each Titan is easily capable of leveling swathes of an entire city, and that's when they're not even trying to attack us. For example, Rodan levelled an entire town with supersonic winds powerful enough to fling people and buses into the air, just by flying overhead. This is one of the main reasons why so many humans rightly fear the Titans or even hate them generally, and also why the government and U.N. are so eager to try exterminating the Titans before the events of King of the Monsters teach them a few important lessons about what they're dealing with.
• Physical God: Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra are worshipped as mostly-benevolent protector deities, while the Skullcrawlers, Rodan, and Ghidorah are feared as evil gods and devils. The sequel takes this even further; not only are they functionally invincible and extremely powerful (most human weapons can't do anything more than maybe annoy them), but their mere presence can cause massive environmental changes.
• Prehistoric Monster: They are massive, ancient creatures that live long before the birth of humanity.
• Put on a Bus: All the Titans that were awakened in King of the Monsters get this in Godzilla vs. Kong. The opening title sequence lists them as "Defeated"^note which could very well just be a Credits Gag given how it's presented like championship tournament matchups, and the news report mentions that Godzilla's attack on Apex Cybernetics in Florida is the first substantiated Titan sighting to occur in over three years, leaving the other Titans' fates uncertain. Godzilla Dominion and the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization reveal that Godzilla commanded the other Titans to return to hibernation after the events of King of the Monsters to prevent them from butting heads.
• Sealed Cast in a Multipack: There are more than seventeen living Titans all over the world (and those are just the ones Monarch already knew about), but by the time modern civilization rose, they've all gone into dormancy underground, in the ocean, and in ancient civilizations' remote sites. However, atomic testing and deep-digging operations in the 20th and 21st centuries have been more than enough to awaken them. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ghidorah seemingly awakens them all at once (until Godzilla sends them back to sleep).
• Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts: Implied. Although most if not all of the Titans possess near-human or even human levels of intelligence, they're still driven to follow inbuilt animalistic instincts foremost. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the Titans can be pacified or aggravated to murderous aggression by the ORCA's artificial Alpha frequency (with a hidden message indicating that the latter was the cause of the Hollow Earth civilization's downfall). The subordinate Titans that are awakened during said movie submit to whichever Alpha Titan is currently standing on top based purely on their dominance, which poses a serious problem when Ghidorah becomes the top dog (making the Titans help him to create an extinction event that the subordinate Titans themselves are unlikely to survive). In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla's territorial instincts drive him to seek out a fight with Kong as much as Mechagodzilla (whom Godzilla can sense as a rival Alpha) once the big ape has left Skull Island, creating further problems for all heroic parties.
• Stock Monster Symbolism: The MonsterVerse manages to keep a grounded and surprisingly realistic tone with each film put out because the monsters are portrayed less as giant animals playing the timeless plot of Kaiju vs. Kaiju and more as forces of nature pitted against each other while the humans stuck in the middle can only watch them in sheer awe or terror.
• Super Hearing: The kaiju communicate with each other in a similar manner to whales: they can hear and tune in to each other's sonar across thousands of miles or even from either side of the planet.
• Takes One to Kill One: Much to many humans' frustration, the Titans are so powerful and resilient regardless of their animalistic nature, the vast majority of human-made weapons have little to no effect on them; so attacks from each-other (Menace vs. Menace) are the only thing that can cause any substantial damage to them most of the time. So as much as the USA military and government hate to admit it, keeping the more benevolent Titans like Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra (Heroic Menaces) around is humanity's best and only option for survival, when the more hostile Titans like the MUTOs, Skullcrawlers or Ghidorah (Evil Menaces) show up.
• Terraform: Generally downplayed — the Titans' radiation's Fertile Feet effect and their other biological byproducts are capable of causing entire ecosystems to flourish and even create new ones, so long as they're answering to Godzilla and thereby are maintaining the natural balance instead of working against it. Godzilla: King of the Monsters reveals that several Titans have caused various manmade ecological damages to reverse, and Behemoth in particular has caused a rainforest to bloom through the Sahara Desert. Hostile Titans however are also capable of performing the hostile version of this trope, violently reshaping territorialized regions or even the entire planet to suit themselves whilst threatening all pre-existing life.
• Time Abyss: Most of the Titans are prehistoric, having been worshipped as gods by a civilization predating recorded history that is now only remembered in fragments of myth. In the King of the Monsters novelization, Mark speculates that they're possibly billions of years older than Monarch believes, the last remnants of a radiotrophic form of life that evolved during the Hadean period.
• Top God: They operate according to a zoological version of the King of the Gods type, where the strongest Apex Predator Kaiju acts as the pack Alpha via Asskicking Leads to Leadership and commands all the lesser Titans. Godzilla is the default and reigning Alpha, but King Ghidorah temporarily usurps him in King of the Monsters before Godzilla reclaims his title.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: In King of the Monsters, the awakened Titans around the world begin rushing to Boston after King Ghidorah's control of them is disrupted and (in the novelization) after the ORCA turning off amidst Ghidorah's Fenway Park attack stops the machine from keeping them pacified. Despite being scattered at different locations around the world ranging from a meager two states away to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean; Behemoth, Scylla, the Queen MUTO and the Leafwings all arrive in Boston at the exact same time just after Ghidorah's death.
• Yowies and Bunyips and Drop Bears, Oh My: We never see it, but a Titan named Bunyip is mentioned in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, located at a containment outpost in the middle of the Outback.

Worldwide

Major Kaiju

Mothra

"Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions over the earth. They were told not to harm the grass or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind."

Portrayed By: N/A

Appears In: Kong: Skull Island (cameo) | Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic - vision)

Species: Giant flying insect | "Titanus Mosura"

A giant, lepidopteran kaiju which Monarch found incubating as an egg inside an ancient temple within China's Yunnan Rainforest, referred to as the "Queen of the Monsters". She's considered an Alpha Titan in her own right who has a symbiotic relationship with Godzilla's species. After hatching, she proves to be the most benevolent of the Titans toward humans by far. She is woven throughout most secret mythologies and folklores as an angel of the clouds, a deified protector of humanity and the natural order. She possesses powerful bioluminescence which can shatter the skies and can be weaponized into "God Rays" if necessary, and a unique multi-stage evolution from an egg to a larva to a pupa to her imago form.

---

• Action Girl: One of all of fiction’s most powerful and iconic. She’s been given the honorary title of "Queen of the Monsters", and is said to be just as powerful as Godzilla. With her powers of flight, energy beam projection, and super strength (courtesy of her size), she’s Supergirl in the form of a Kaiju. A cave painting in viral marketing also implies she helped defeat Ghidorah the first time, which is directly referenced in the novelization.
• Action Mom: It's revealed that Mothra laid an egg before flying off to Boston to help Godzilla in fighting Ghidorah and Rodan. Played With, as Word of God confirms that the creature that hatches from the egg will essentially be a clone of Mothra with her Genetic Memory.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original films, she and Godzilla vary from allies of convenience to full-blown enemies. In this version, Mothra and Godzilla are indicated to have an ancient, symbiotic relationship, with her being the only Titan (other than Kong due to him being another Alpha Titan) not to submit to Ghidorah, and later sacrificing her life to save Godzilla. The head staff even half-joked about their relationship being romantic.
• Adaptational Mundanity: Downplayed. She is still very much a powerful kaiju, but some of her seemingly supernatural abilities here get a Doing In the Wizard explanation, changing her status as an explicit supernatural goddess to a case of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. Her magical energy rays are re-interpreted as bioluminescence (yet capable of clearing an entire sky full of Ghidorah's stormclouds), her connection with Godzilla is explained as a "symbiotic relationship", her Born-Again Immortality is explained with Genetic Memory, and the iconic Shobijin are instead humans with an uncanny family history of identical twin girls, descended from priestesses of Mothra. However, when Godzilla becomes Burning Godzilla after Mothra's apparent demise, her wings and distinctive call can be seen and heard in the radiation waves he unleashes against Ghidorah, implying her spirit is with him. It was later confirmed by the head writer that Mothra's power was intended to be supernatural, but they opted not to get too mystical with the films' setting.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Downplayed. Whereas the Toho versions of Imago Mothra look like something a child would take to bed at night blown up to ginormous size, MonsterVerse's Imago Mothra has a more bestial and fearsome design to make her look more animalistic and capable of defending herself.
• All Webbed Up: Mothra can use her silk attack to temporarily immobilize her targets, whether they are humans or other Titans.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Mothra is called the "Queen of the Monsters" for several good reasons. Incapacitating Rodan with her stinger and aiding Godzilla in taking down King Ghidorah (before and after her death) are just some of them.
• Audible Sharpness: Her forelegs make an unsheathing sound when she performs her attack posture.
• Authority Grants Asskicking: She's explicitly the Queen to Godzilla's King and another Alpha Titan like Godzilla and Kong. She shows this by defeating Rodan in single combat.
• Battle Couple: With Godzilla (since they are both the King and Queen of the Monsters) against Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
• Benevolent Monsters: Like her past incarnations, this Mothra is one of the best examples of the trope. Despite being a giant lepidopterran and the official Queen of the Monsters, with the potential to easily cause mass destruction, she's the most benevolent Titan by far when it comes to humans. She's firmly on Godzilla's side in the war against Ghidorah, it's heavily implied she has a benevolent telepathic connection with the Chens (and also one with Madison in the novelization); and even when she's provoked to defend herself against humans as a grub, she seemingly goes out of her way to dispatch them in ways that are non-fatal.
• Bequeathed Power: Upon being obliterated by Ghidorah, her radioactive remains fall on her crippled symbiotic partner Godzilla as he seems to mourn her death. It's indicated that this enables Godzilla to unlock his Burning Godzilla form without causing too much uncontrolled destruction and/or without the process killing him.
• Berserk Button: Seeing Monarch's containment field killing a bunch of flying insects in her temple is one perfect example to incur her wrath.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: A variant; she has a wasp-like retractile stinger concealed in her abdomen, which she uses to impale Rodan when he has her pinned.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Like her previous incarnations, Mothra generally has an angelic and compassionate nature. However, if you intend to desecrate her planet or harm the lifeforms smaller than her that she cares about, she will show you why she is known as the "Queen of the Monsters".
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: She's a Titan with the physical traits of moths, butterflies, and several other insect species.
• Big Damn Heroes: When the tide of the Final Battle has turned against Godzilla and Mothra; after King Ghidorah severely weakens Godzilla by dropping him from thousands of feet to the ground and the hydra is closing in, Mothra crawls atop Godzilla in continued defiance of the evil dragon. Cue the Heroic Sacrifice which ultimately gives Godzilla the power to annihilate Ghidorah for good.
• Big Entrance: Two of them. Her arrival at Castle Bravo is signified by her God Rays piercing Ghidorah's globally-spreading stormclouds like a shaft of sunlight, before she disperses the storm around her with a mighty blast of wind to leave the sky in that area clear. Her arrival at the Final Battle is signified by vibrant lights flashing through the stormclouds before she divebombs Ghidorah.
• Big Good: As with the Toho versions of her, Mothra is consistently shown to be the most benevolent and friendliest towards humans of all the Titans.
• Bioluminescence is Cool: She's a giant bug who has the ability to produce brilliant, dazzling light in varying colors when she's in both larval and imago forms, emphasizing her beautiful and angelic nature.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Permanently-attached blade. Her imago form has scythe-like raptorial appendages on her first two sets of limbs, which she uses offensively during the Boston battle.
• Blinded by the Light: She can use the brilliant light of her God Rays to temporarily blind her enemies.
• Blue Is Heroic: Mothra has blue eyes, and bioluminescence that allows her to glow blue when she's docile, and she's one of the only Titans alongside Godzilla whom rejects King Ghidorah's new dominance and actively opposes the evil hydra.
• Born-Again Immortality: Mike Dougherty confirmed that upon reaching her imago stage, Mothra lays an egg to reincarnate if she is killed. The egg is discovered in The Stinger.
• Bottomless Bladder: She has never been observed feeding or even attempting to eat, in the time between her larva form's birth and her imago form's death. Her Monarch profile doesn't mention anything about her feeding habits nor whether she's a carnivore, a herbivore, or an omnivore. Whilst her stinger and weaponized forelimbs are indicative of a predator, Word of God says these traits are purely defensive.
• Breakout Character: Godzilla & King Ghidorah may be the star hero and the star villain of King of the Monsters, but Mothra instantly resonated with fans and cast alike. Many of the cast have gone on record admitting she became their favorite character by the end.
• Breath Weapon: Her Projectile Webbing is fired from her mandibles.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The pacifistic, healing Gentle Girl to Godzilla's grumpy, belligerent Brooding Boy.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: In her imago form, she looks like a gigantic moth casting multicolored (primarily blue) light, and she's Not Afraid to Die. She bravely sacrifices herself defying King Ghidorah during the Final Battle, and it's suggested in the Creative Closing Credits (and outright confirmed by Word of God) that she will be reborn from the egg she has laid.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: You can typically tell what Mothra's current mood is based on what color her bioluminescence is glowing. This is best exemplified during the opening scene after she hatches from her egg. After one of the guards stupidly shoots her, her bioluminescence glows a bright fiery red as she angrily webs up the human guards. After Emma activates the ORCA, Mothra calms down and her bioluminescence immediately switches to a much softer and more peaceful blue.
• Composite Character:
  • Her base color scheme seems to greatly resemble that of the Showa Mothra. When her bioluminescence mixes in she seems to take on a look very similar to Rainbow Mothra or Armor Mothra. Her threat display against Ghidorah has her wings briefly change color to resemble Battra's colors, and her bladed limbs and upright stance in larval form seem to be references to him as well. Her light powers resemble the Heisei Mothra's dozen beam attacks, and the hidden stinger in her abdomen references the GMK Mothra. Her role in the Final Battle at Boston also resembles that of the Final Wars Mothra, since they both aid a Godzilla in fighting against a Ghidorah and his sidekick, defeat said sidekick, and use a fiery move as their final heroic acts in their respective battles. Just like the Anime Mothra, she can also manifest in visions to guide her allies (Madison in the novelization of King of the Monsters and Godzilla in the Dominion graphic novel).
  • With her large and powerful forelimbs, piercing stinger, and the fact that smaller insects are drawn to her presence like a hive to a queen, this Mothra is almost like a heroic version of Megaguirus from Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.
  • Mothra's role in the story of sacrificing herself to give a dying Godzilla a massive power boost brings to mind Fire Rodan in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
• Doing In the Wizard: This incarnation somewhat gets the fantasy-to-Sci-Fi type, with several of her previous incarnations' outright magical attributes being explained away scientifically: her relationship with Godzilla is suggested by Coleman to be an interspecies symbiosis, her magic light-rays are reinterpreted as bioluminescence, and her Born-Again Immortality uses Genetic Memory to pass on her memories and personality. That being said, Mothra's implicit Psychic Link to the Chen family (and also to Madison in the novelization), and the Chens' uncanny history of producing identical twin girls, among other preternatural abilities Mothra exhibits; lend some credibility to the idea that she could still be magic.
• The Dreaded: As with every discovered Titan, Monarch agents follow protocols to either contain or terminate Mothra after she has hatched from her egg. Emma Russell knows that any of those ideas is a bad idea.
• Dynamic Entry: She enters the Final Battle at Boston by bursting from the stormy sky in a flash of colors, catching Ghidorah off-guard with her Projectile Webbing.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in a cave painting in The Stinger of Kong: Skull Island, setting up her debut in King of the Monsters.
• Fisher King: The temple where her egg has been residing for 10,000 years is teeming with plant and insect life, reflecting her supreme benevolence and alignment to the preservation of life. When she hatches into her imago form and arrives at Castle Bravo amidst King Ghidorah's global apocalypse, both times her arrival is signified by Ghidorah's rainstorms dispersing to leave the skies clear again, signifying Mothra's peaceful nature and her commitment to restoring the natural balance which Ghidorah is trying to destroy.
• Foil:
  • To Rodan. Rodan fights for the strongest side and is associated with the color red, flames, and demons. Mothra is a benevolent, loyal being associated with the color blue and is often considered a goddess by those who worshipped her. Also, Rodan is an avian while Mothra is an insect Titan.
  • And to King Ghidorah. They're both intelligent, sentient, and powerful airborne Titans with high-pitched wailing vocalizations, they both influence the weather with their presence (Mothra clears up Ghidorah's stormy weather when her cocoon hatches, whereas Ghidorah creates catastrophic tempests), and both of them have certain natural ways of cheating certain death (Healing Factor for Ghidorah, plus his severed left head's decayed remains retain at least some of his consciousness, Born-Again Immortality for Mothra). Though that's about where their direct similarities end and give way to contrasts. Ghidorah is reptilian and Mothra insectoid. Mothra has a culture of human worshippers who've survived in some form to the present day, whereas Ghidorah is the Unperson. Mothra is very benevolent towards other life including humans, whereas Ghidorah is a Sadist Omnicidal Maniac. Life and hope are drawn to Mothra, whereas Ghidorah brings as much death and destruction as he can. Mothra produces mainly teal-colored lights and has multiple colors, whereas Ghidorah solely produces yellow-colored light and has yellow and gold colors. Mothra is initially reborn in a rainforest in the northern hemisphere whereas Ghidorah reawakens in Antarctica. One has a symbiotic relationship and possible genuine emotional connection to Godzilla, while the other is Godzilla's Arch-Enemy. One barely defeated Rodan while the other more or less Curb-Stomped him. Mothra possesses her allies (Godzilla) via symbiosis and common goals, whereas Ghidorah possesses his (Rodan and the awakened Titans) through domination. Even the elements they're meant to represent are opposites.
• Fragile Speedster: Implied. In her imago form, she's an agile and graceful combatant who relies on Hit-and-Run Tactics against Ghidorah. But when she's forced into an up-close-and-personal scuffle with Rodan, she comes out of the fight severely burned and weakened, and she almost loses the fight — although it should be noted that her injuries have a lot to do with Rodan being a Magma Man, and she managed to keep the fight up for quite a while before finishing it.
• Friend to All Living Things: Certainly Played With. She's no pushover, but she is the most benevolent of the Titans, and she attracts all manner of life to her — vegetation, insects — which would normally flee from any other Titan. The novelization even notes that her larval form's breath smells partly like hay. She also goes out of her way to avoid killing, such as when she's provoked into attacking Monarch's containment team; notably subduing them without killing a single one.
• Genetic Memory: When asked about Mothra's reincarnation process, Mike Dougherty commented on Twitter that she passes on her memories genetically.
• Gentle Giant: Despite her size and how intimidating she can be when her wrath is incurred, she's the most benevolent Titan that we know of. After hatching from her egg, she's docile and curious until some genius decides to shoot the 30-foot tall caterpillar, and even in her aggressive state, she notably dispatches Monarch's containment team in non-fatal ways. Upon being calmed down by the ORCA, Mothra allows Madison to approach her, gingerly moving her head towards the girl. In her imago form, Mothra is the only Titan besides Godzilla who both resists King Ghidorah's control and actively opposes his reign of terror, and in the novelization, it's implied that she's responsible for resuscitating Madison via a Psychic Link to the girl.
• Giant Flyer: Goes with being a moth-like Titan. In her imago form, her wingspan is said to be 803 feet, yet she can fluidly fly on the air.
• Glass Cannon: Although Mothra is incredibly powerful, she is easily wounded by Rodan's fire (although to give credit where credit is due, she managed to maintain and draw out the fight against Rodan for some time despite being on the ropes). In her weakened state, King Ghidorah's gravity beams finish her off in a single combined hit.
• Go Through Me: As Ghidorah bears down on an injured Godzilla, Mothra, battered and weakened from her fight with Rodan, puts herself between them. Even though she can barely muster the strength to take flight, she readily sacrifices herself to defend Godzilla, loyal to the natural order and to the true King of the Monsters to the end.
• Gold and White Are Divine: When she appears in the sky and beats back Ghidorah's spreading stormclouds, her God Rays manifest as near-blinding golden-white light emanating off her entire body. Fitting for a Titan who is compared to an angel In-Universe and is the only monster, besides Godzilla, to reject King Ghidorah's domination.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: At Castle Bravo, Mothra's blinding God Rays take on a brilliant golden color, and as the "Queen of the Monsters" she's one of the few Titans that refuses to follow King Ghidorah during the latter's reign of terror.
• Good Is Not Soft: Mothra is arguably the most docile and benign of the Titans, but she will not hesitate to throw down if you cross her by harming creatures under her charge, and if you're Ghidorah, she will show you why she is called the "Queen of the Monsters".
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: She has smooth-edged, sail-like wings, emphasizing her benevolent personality; compared to the more fiery-looking and bat-like wings of Rodan and Ghidorah respectively.
• Healing Hands: Apart from how Mothra's Bequeathed Power stop a severely-injured and radiation-overloaded Godzilla's nuclear meltdown and enable him to reach his Burning mode; in the novelization, it's implied Mothra's psychic influence resuscitates Madison when the latter is knocking on death's door.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Type 2 and 3. During the Final Battle, she dies charging at Ghidorah in defence of the downed Godzilla, which gets her atomized by Ghidorah's gravity beams. However, upon her death, her radioactive ashes which rain down on Godzilla enable the latter to unlock his Burning Godzilla form, implying she intentionally gave up her life so her King would have the power needed to end Ghidorah for good.
• The Heroine: Alongside Godzilla himself, Mothra qualifies for this trope too. She only becomes aggressive because someone had the bright idea to shoot her right after she hatched, and even then, she only trapped some of them in silk without killing them. Afterward, she's the only one of the Titans who is in no way responsible for lost human lives. She also had Undying Loyalty towards Godzilla, to the point she works with humans to help him. Fulfilling the morality portion of this trope is when she refuses to kill Rodan, merely maiming him enough to take him out of the fight.
• The High Queen: Mothra is Godzilla's counterpart, the Queen to his King, with the two species having some sort of symbiotic relationship where she is able to sense him, she comes to his aid in battling Ghidorah, etc.. She's also an exceptionally beautiful Titan to an unearthly degree. Mothra is not put under King Ghidorah's sway and remains aligned with Godzilla and humanity, and moreso she's portrayed as an exceptionally benevolent Titan who's far on the opposite end of the morality scales to Ghidorah. It's hinted at early on as upon hearing the Alpha Frequency, Mothra responds not with intimidation or submission but curiosity.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: In her imago form, she at first uses this approach when engaging Ghidorah in Boston, though based on how she draws her raptorial forelimbs right before Rodan intervenes, she might've gotten more physical with the three-headed dragon if not for Rodan forcing her into a one-on-one with himself. Either way, Mothra shows she's very much capable of brawling, as her fight against Rodan lasts for quite some time despite the heavy injuries she's received by the end of it.
• Hope Bringer: She's the one who proves that Godzilla is still alive, and humanity has a chance at killing Ghidorah with Godzilla's aid. Her arrival later turns the tide against Ghidorah, only for Rodan to be called in to oppose her.
• It Can Think:
  • Heavily implied when she heads to Castle Bravo — it seems like she came there so that the humans will tune into her and Godzilla's bio-acoustic communication and pick up Godzilla's vocalizations, thereby alerting the humans that Godzilla is still alive and they can help him. Furthermore, it's implied in the film (and confirmed in the novelization) that Mothra deliberately leads the Monarch submarine to the entrance to the Hollow Earth so they can reach Godzilla. This all implies that Mothra is actually smart enough to not only recognize the Monarch humans as allies of Godzilla, but to also realize that they have the capacity and resources as well as the motive to help Godzilla put a stop to King Ghidorah's reign of terror. This is the closest (at least before Kong) that any Titan has come to actively communicating with humanity — which, given the Chen twins are the analog to Mothra's Shobijin and seem to have a telepathic connection to her, Mothra may actually be genuinely capable of.
  • It's also implied during Mothra's Heroic Sacrifice that she knows what will happen when Ghidorah atomizes her, namely that her radiocative ashes will unlock Godzilla's Burning mode so he can kill Ghidorah for good, and it's why she makes the suicidal charge when she does.
• Lady of War: Everything about her, in contrast to the other kaiju, even Godzilla, is presented as beautiful, calming, and elegant. When she first appears, her wings unfurl smoothly. When she flies, her wings move gracefully. Even her roar is beautiful, almost like singing rather than the rough roars of the other kaiju. And as mentioned above, she's a badass queen. She's notably an Alpha Titan, meaning she's in the same tier of power as Godzilla and Kong.
• Leitmotif: Bear McCreary's work on the movie grants her a serene, exotic, and powerful score representing serenity, majesty, and the return of hope.
• Light 'em Up: She's the most heroic Titan around (more than even the fire-themed Godzilla), and her thorax produces beta-wave bioluminescence that can be weaponized through the markings on her wings, using the resulting God Rays to blast back King Ghidorah's spreading stormclouds.
• Light Equals Hope: After Godzilla is seemingly killed, and Ghidorah usurps Godzilla's dominance to begin destroying the world with nothing able to continue stopping him; torrential stormclouds perpetually darken the skies. When Mothra shows up at Castle Bravo, a blast of her God Rays clears the storm and bathes Castle Bravo in brilliant golden-white light. Her presence not only makes the cast aware that Ghidorah's control over the Titans isn't absolute yet, it directly alerts Monarch that there's a chance to bring Godzilla back and turn the tide.
• Light Is Good: Like Godzilla but unlike Rodan and Ghidorah, her cave painting is pure white, and she has numerous humans worshipping her, implying she is benevolent or at the very least non-aggressive. King of the Monsters outright confirms that she's a benevolent Titan who is firmly life-aligned, attracting all kinds of life to her that would normally vacate a Titan's presence, and that she's usually docile and curious toward humans (even when humans have aggravated her, she dispatches them in ways that avoid bloodshed; and it's hinted by her connection to the Chens and to Madison in the novelization that her fondness for humans runs even stronger than these outward displays). Mothra produces bright bioluminescence from her body, and also blinding God Rays to beat back Ghidorah's dark stormclouds, and her Bequeathed Power is key to defeating Ghidorah for good.
• Light Liege, Dark Defender: Inverted. Se and Godzilla are in the perfect position to be this, Mothra being the wise but delicate high queen who is literally associated with light and Godzilla being the Grumpy Old Man earth guardian, but she consistently seems to be the one trying to protect him, up to the point of self-sacrifice.
• Lightning Bruiser: Mothra's imago form is incredibly fast in flight, and she proves to be a dangerous opponent for Ghidorah and Rodan. Whilst her imago form relies on Hit-and-Run Tactics against Ghidorah, she holds out for a while in an up-close-and-personal fight against Rodan despite the heavy injuries she sustains.
• Living Mood Ring: You can typically tell what Mothra's current mood is based on what color her bioluminescence is glowing. This is best exemplified during the opening scene after she hatches from her egg. When she becomes agitated by Monarch attempting to use a containment field that kills several insects, her formerly bluish-white bioluminescence changes color to a bright fiery red; after Emma activates the ORCA, Mothra calms down, and her bioluminescence immediately switches to a much softer and more peaceful blue.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: Played With. She's a front-line combatant like Godzilla, but she doesn't have a high level of Super Toughness when it comes to sustaining damage, and she's more of a Fragile Speedster.
• Mama Bear: Played With in her first scene, where she doesn't react positively when Monarch's containment field fries a bunch of (normal-sized) flying insects in her temple, something which the director explicitly pointed out.
• Martial Pacifist: Mothra is by far the most gentle of the Titans and is described as pacifistic, but it's clear she's no pushover in a fight. This is made most clear when she responds to Monarch's Containment Field frying several of her insects with wary agitation, but it's only once one of the security team fires on her in a panic that she outright attacks (and even then, she dispatches them all in ways that notably don't involve her killing them). However, Mothra is entirely willing to help Godzilla kill Ghidorah because of the three-headed dragon's sheer threat and malevolence.
• Master of Your Domain: The novelization confirms the film's suggestion that it's no coincidence Mothra's cocoon hatches at the onset of King Ghidorah's takeover: she senses from inside the pupa what Ghidorah has started doing to the world, and it prompts her to accelerate her metamorphosis.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: This continuity presents Mothra in such a way that makes it ambiguous whether she's simply a huge and powerful ancient animal worshiped as a deity, like the other Titans, or if she's genuinely a supernatural goddess. On the Mundane side, several of her abilities and characteristics that were previously considered magical (such as her God Rays, her alliance with Godzilla, and her reincarnation cycle) get Doing In the Wizard treatment. On the Magic side, she has a strange, seemingly supernatural connection to a family line whom have an abnormal hereditary disposition toward identical twin girls in every generation; in the novelization, Madison's dream of Mothra during her Near-Death Experience can be interpreted as just that or as a sign that she too has formed a Psychic Link to the Titan; and both the Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong novels outright depict Mothra as possessing a degree of omniscience.
• Metamorphosis Monster: Shortly after hatching from her egg, she metamorphoses from a gigantic grub into an even-larger moth, capable of producing God Rays and beating back Ghidorah's storms. The trope is slightly discussed by Rick and Ilene while Mothra is pupating, debating what Mothra's imago form will be like.
• Mistaken for Romance: Barnes assumes that her relationship with Godzilla is romantic and is squicked out, until Coleman corrects him by saying it's likely their interspecies comradery is symbiotic.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: In her grub form, she looks like a giant caterpillar with arthropod-like mandibles, a vaguely armadillo-like back and surprisingly vertebrate-like eyes. Her imago form has a moth-like body with two pairs of mantis-like raptorial forelimbs and a wasp-like stinger.
• Monster Delay: An as-benevolent-as-monsters-come case with her imago form. When Mothra's pupa hatches, and when she later approaches Castle Bravo, her new form is largely obscured in silhouette save for her glowing eyes and wings. It isn't until her dramatic entrance at the Final Battle that we see Imago Mothra in full.
• Moth Menace: Although she's one of the more benevolent Titans, Mothra is still a very dangerous adversary to those she perceives as her enemies.
• Mother Nature: Implied. She attracts all kinds of teeming life to her, and she's nigh-universally benevolent in turn. Godzilla Dominion and the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization indicate her fusion with Godzilla via her ashes has granted the latter a frankly preternatural awareness of Earth's geological and atmospheric history and processes. Godzilla: King of the Monsters writer and executive producer Zach Shields commented that her vocalizations were intended to sound like "Mother Earth calling out to us."
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: As an insect, it makes sense for Mothra to have six limbs, though her first and second pair are scythe-like raptorial limbs reminiscent of the MUTOs', while her hind legs have two toes.
• Not Afraid to Die: She isn't afraid to fly at King Ghidorah in defence of her King while heavily injured, leading to her death by Heroic Sacrifice. Word of God confirms that Mothra has no fear of death, due to her Born-Again Immortality.
• Not Enough to Bury: In King of the Monsters, she gets vaporized by all three of Ghidorah's gravity beams, leaving nothing of her body but raining radioactive ashes.
• The Omniscient: In King of the Monsters, Mothra seems to sense inside her pupa when King Ghidorah has begun wreaking global destruction, even before Ghidorah's storms materialize above the rainforest (something which gets explicit attention drawn to it in the novelization), prompting her metamorphosis to speed up. Godzilla Dominion and the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization indicate that Mothra, true to past incarnations being a goddess of nature and the Earth, perceives and is aware of the Earth's entire history as well as the movements and harmonies (or disharmonies) of the planet's very elements; and that she furthermore passed this omniscient awareness onto Godzilla lastingly when she empowered him with her Heroic Sacrifice:
  "They were not the same recollections as those he had experienced himself; there were no colors or remembered shapes or even places, but instead a deep certainty. As his senses stretched to encompass the wind that blew from the heart of the planet and encircled the world above to meet the winds from the sun, as he could feel the slow rivers of molten rock flowing, colliding, swallowing land, giving birth to it, the cycle of hot rise and cold fall in the waters, the pumping heart of the oceans, everything that was now, so too did he feel what was, when the surface of the earth was liquid rock, when waters came, when ice covered everything, when the green life came and clawed its way onto bare rock. When many of his kind lived, fighting always, and the New Ones came to try to claim dominance."
• Our Angels Are Different: Mothra's Monarch Sciences profile compares her to an angel, and Word of God confirms that this is the effect they were going for. This helps her further contrast with Rodan, who is viewed in-universe as a demon. Mothra is directly allied with the "God" of the setting (Godzilla) in doing battle with Ghidorah and preserving the world's natural order, and whilst she gets heavily injured fighting Rodan, she still puts up a brave fight. She's one of the most purely benevolent Titans there are (with what we see of her, she comes across as even more flawless than Godzilla); she sails the skies on vast, sail-shaped lepidopterran wings; she produces brilliant light, including blinding God Rays which look like Rays from Heaven lighting up the sky; and she might be legitimately-supernatural compared to the other Titans.
• Physical God: She's a gigantic moth creature with God Rays, Weather Manipulation, the ability to unlock Godzilla's city-nuking Super Mode, Born-Again Immortality, and implicitly she's psychic. She's been worshiped as a benevolent goddess by numerous civilizations, including China's Yunnan Province and Birth Island in Indonesia. Whereas the other Titans are overall treated as Animalistic Abomination megafauna, there are some hints that some of Mothra's abilities might actually be supernatural in nature.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Comparably speaking. She's one of the smaller kaiju in terms of overall mass (her wings making up most of it), but she's so powerful that she can shatter the sky with her God Rays, and she shows enough physical strength to debilitatingly impale Rodan on her stinger and then throw the much larger and heavier kaiju off of herself. She's classified as an Alpha Titan and known as the Queen of the Monsters, meaning that despite her size, she's one of the most powerful Titans on Earth.
• Power Glows: She's constantly-bioluminescent, she has light-based abilities such as her God Rays, and despite her comparatively small stature, she's ultimately one of the most powerful Titans in the setting as Godzilla's symbiotic partner.
• Pretty Butterflies: She's a benevolent lepidopteran Titan, and she's explicitly (and effectively) portrayed as an exceptionally beautiful and magnificent creature to behold.
• Primary-Color Champion: Mothra's bioluminescence allows her wings to feature different combinations of colors, but she has blue eyes and produces blue light when docile, she glows red when she's pissed, and her God Rays are brilliant gold/yellow in color.
• Projectile Webbing: Like previous incarnations, she has a silk attack for restraining opponents, though it works differently for this version in the sense that it's a quick, short-ranged blast which pins them to the ground (similar to Spider-Man's webbing), instead of the long-range cocooning spray that older iterations used (similar to a String Shot move in Pokemon). Also, retaining this ability in her imago form is something unique to the MonsterVerse incarnation of Mothra.
• Pupating Peril: Discussed. When she's pupating, Ilene Chen and Rick Stanton debate what'll happen once Mothra reaches her imago form, more specifically whether or not the imago Mothra will be meaner. Fortunately, it turns out once her cocoon hatches that the imago Mothra is tougher but she's not malevolent.
• Rays from Heaven: When arriving at Castle Bravo in the wake of Ghidorah's global Armageddon, one of the first signs of Mothra's presence is a golden shaft of light piercing through the dark stormclouds overhead that are being spread by Ghidorah. Then the stormclouds break apart under a blast of divine golden light and wind, unveiling the angelic Queen of the Monsters hovering in the sky. It helps that Mothra was made to look like an angel and that this moment signifies the return of hope for the cast.
• Red Baron: She's known as the "Queen of the Monsters" and the "Giver of Life".
• Red Is Heroic: The first time Mothra's bioluminescent light turns red, it's strictly a case of Red Is Violent. After reaching her final form, the coloration of Mothra's wings becomes red when she is prepared to confront anything that threatens to kill all life on Earth.
• Red Is Violent:
  • In her introductory scene, her bioluminescence turns an angry red when Monarch attempt to use a Containment Field on her which fries several of the insects in her temple, signaling her agitation which turns to outright hostility and wariness of the humans once she's fired upon. The red color fades only once she's been fully calmed down by the ORCA.
  • When using her threat display against Ghidorah, desperately trying to keep him from killing Godzilla.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She's a beautiful, elegant creature of an Alpha Titan that's called the "Queen of the Monsters" and is Godzilla's symbiotic partner. And she's no less ferocious and hands-on than her King is when it come to saving the Earth from Ghidorah.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Her egg has been hidden away from mankind's world for thousands of years, within an ancient temple high in the mountains of the Yunnan province, China. When she hatches, Monarch attempt to use a Containment Field on her, but that goes out the window thanks to Jonah's interference which allows Mothra to escape into the rainforest. Fortunately, she's one of the explicitly-benevolent Titans.
• Seers: Inverted. Godzilla Dominion and the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization reveal that Mothra has an instinctive knowledge of the Earth's history, as far back as when the planet was a molten ball of rock (which is a time when Mothra likely hadn't even come into existence as a physical creature yet).
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's beautiful, delicate-looking, and graceful, but she can be one heck of a fighter in actual combat. Best shown during her fight with Rodan when, after being severely burned and pinned down by the avian Titan, she catches him off-guard by impaling him on her abdominal stinger.
• Sinister Scythe: Her forelimbs resemble those of a mantis, blade-like in shape and function, as Rodan finds out during their fight. Ironic, since she's the Titan who's the least likely to send any enemy who isn't Ghidorah to the Grim Reaper if she can help it.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Interestingly, she's the only Titan onscreen who has never tried to kill a human, even when provoked to action. When she's retaliating against Monarch's security team for attacking her, she traps them in her webbing instead of killing them outright (most notably, she at one point grabs a fleeing soldier in her mandibles, and instead of crushing or swallowing him, she hurls him into a nearby giant spider-web which immobilizes him while cushioning his impact), and it's implied this might have saved their lives when Alan Jonah and his group massacre the facility. Mothra is willing to help Godzilla kill Ghidorah, but this is portrayed as an acceptable exception to the rule considering Ghidorah's nature. By contrast, she merely wounds Rodan during their fight.
• Tiny-Headed Behemoth: Not so much in her larval form, where her head takes up 10% of her total body plan. In her imago form, however, Mothra's head looks miniscule atop her body, especially in proportion to her giant wings when she spreads them.
• Truly Single Parent: Once she's reached her imago form, she can apparently lay an egg which will continue her cycle of Born-Again Immortality via the Genetic Memory without a sex partner, as confirmed by Word of God.
• Undying Loyalty: To Godzilla. She's just about the only Titan who outright defies King Ghidorah's takeover in favor of continued loyalty to Godzilla, and she does not betray Godzilla no matter how dire things get for them. She even gives her life protecting him.
• Walking Techbane: When she's about to emerge from her cocoon, she causes power fluctuations and finally causes floodlights to explode.
• Weather Manipulation: Right before she emerges from her cocoon, Ghidorah's storm over the Yunnan Rainforest suddenly disperses to leave the night sky clear, something which the novelization draws attention to. When Mothra arrives at Castle Bravo, her God Rays and a blast of wind from her wings aree enough to disperse the stormclouds again.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: She beats back Ghidorah's stormclouds at Castle Bravo with powerful gusts of wind, seemingly generated from her wings.
• Wonder Twin Powers: According to Mike Dougherty, Burning Godzilla is part of her and Godzilla's symbiotic power, and Godzilla needs her to achieve it. It's unclear if Mothra can power Godzilla up into Burning Godzilla without dying, however.

Rodan

"For the Beast that comes up out of the Abyss will make war with them, and overcome them… and kill them."

Portrayed By: Jason Liles (Motion Capture)

Appears In: Kong: Skull Island (cameo) | Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Species: Giant flying reptile | "Titanus Rodan"

A massive, aerial kaiju resembling a mix of a bird and a Pteranodon, found by Monarch hibernating inside the vent of the volcano El Nido del Demonio (translates to "The Demon's Nest") in the Mexican island of Isla de Mara. Local legends refer to him as a demon of fire, and his common name is recorded in the temples of volcanically active regions. He possesses a magma-based internal combustion system coupled with geothermal armor that enables him to survive the super-high temperatures of his magma-filled resting place, whilst his vast wingspan is enough to create sonic thunderclaps that could level entire cities if he ever takes flight.

---

• Adaptational Badass: Unlike the clumsy Rodan of old who perished within the caldera of an active volcano, this incarnation of Rodan is not only larger and more powerful but is partially composed of magma. While he's lost some of his fantastic top speed, Rodan is far more agile and graceful in flight, easily destroying an entire squadron of jet fighters without suffering a scratch. This Rodan destroys a city by flying over it, turning buildings to rubble and flinging vehicles and people high into the air — previous versions, while capable of this same tactic, was never shown to have caused nearly so much devastation without aid from allied kaiju or another of his own species. He also fares better in combat than the Heisei and Millennium Rodans by a large margin.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Zig-Zagged between this and Adaptational Villainy. While Rodan was the villain of his debut film, he was subject to a bit of Characterization Marches On thereafter. Some versions of the character were displayed as either Godzilla's next best friend after Anguirus or an adoptive brother, and thusly relatively harmless towards humans — Rodan also despised King Ghidorah's evil in the Showa films and actively helped to beat him numerous times. The MonsterVerse Rodan by contrast is shown to be excessively aggressive and territorial (actively slaughtering Monarch's Gold Squadron in retaliation for shooting at him directly atop his volcanic home, even though they couldn't actually do any harm to him); and whilst he initially opposes Ghidorah out of the same territorialism, once Ghidorah becomes the reigning Alpha, Rodan promptly becomes his figurative and literal wingman against Godzilla, Mothra and humanity (notably, Rodan continues sticking by and serving Ghidorah even after the ORCA signal disrupts his control of the other Titans, though it's ambiguous whether this is just malice, or if it's because Rodan is still under mind control due to being in much closer proximity to Ghidorah than the other Titans are). Although Rodan is the first Titan to bow to Godzilla upon the latter's victory over Ghidorah, he only does so after seemingly trying to challenge Godzilla himself and receiving a threatening snort in response. The Creative Closing Credits indicate Rodan, whose new nest north of Fiji has become a tourist attraction, is now a lot more benign with Godzilla in charge — that being said, in the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization he's remembered as one of the more malevolent Titans. MonsterVerse Rodan is also more pragmatic than he was in previous outings, and not the Determinator he used to be.
• Adaptation Species Change: Previous incarnations always depicted Rodan as some variation of a Pteranodon. Here, he is hinted to predate not only the Pteranodon genus but the entire pterosaur order.
• Age Lift: Judging by The Stinger of Kong: Skull Island, Rodan is a lot older than his Toho counterparts.
• Alien Blood: When Mothra stabs him with her stinger, magma can be seen oozing out of his sternum. Special features on the King of the Monsters Blu-Ray confirm that Rodan has literal magma for blood as one of the physical adaptations that allow him to survive while sleeping inside an active volcano.
• All Flyers Are Birds: Subverted. Monarch has an ancient artistic impression of him◊ that depicts him with feathers and a distinctly birdlike tail; however, despite having some birdlike features (for instance, a very eagle-like head and raptorial talons, neither of which are features of any known pterosaur) and a distinctly bird-like call, he evidently lacks any plumage and has some clearly reptilian qualities, including leathery hide and teeth. The characters call him bird-like nicknames for simplicity's sake.
• All Myths Are True: Implied. Besides existing in Isla de Mara's local legends, Master Sergeant Nez thinks when she sees a video feed of Rodan that he's the Rock Monster Eagle, Tsé nináhálééh of Navajo lore.
• Always a Bigger Fish: After decimating Monarch's Air Force squadron, he gets quickly overwhelmed by Ghidorah. Notably, he runs (well, flies) into Ghidorah when he's seconds away from taking out the Argo and most of the film's human cast.
• Appease the Volcano God: Implied on the Monarch website; when traces of human blood are found in a cave painting of Rodan, Dr. Chen posits this as a possible reason for it.
• Armor Is Useless: Downplayed. His thick volcanic encrusted layer of armor that covers the entirety of his body gives him a major durability factor, as missiles from fighter jets leave behind no scratches on him, and even taking one of Ghidorah's Gravity Beams point-blank doesn't cause him any lasting damage. That being said, at the tail end of Rodan's clash with Mothra, he visibly staggers back a considerable distance when he's swiped by one of her bladed forelimbs, and a single well-placed, well-timed strike of Mothra's stinger (which is notably resilient enough to stand Rodan's internal magma) outright impales Rodan's shoulder.
• Badass Normal: Downplayed. Comparatively speaking, Rodan is able to at least put up a bit of a fight with King Ghidorah and nearly beat Mothra, but he's the only one of the four main kaiju in the film to not be an Alpha Titan.
• Beak Attack: Rodan's serrated beak is able to crush fighter jets effortlessly, and he tries to snap Mothra's head off with it in Boston.
• Berserk Button: Firing a bunch of missiles at Rodan in his own territory is more than enough to get him riled up, leading him to relentlessly massacre Monarch's Gold Squadron and pursue the Argo in retribution. He only stops once Ghidorah takes his notice.
• Big Entrance: When he awakens, his emergence from his volcano causes an eruption which is visible for miles and sends a shockwave over the island's surrounding waters.
• Breath Weapon: Some of the cave paintings seem to depict him firing a beam from his mouth. In the film proper, he does not — although he appears to spit fireballs from his mouth in one camera shot in the Washington D.C. scene, Word of God confirmed that's just an optical illusion from seeing him and the flame plumes from afar.
• Brutal Bird of Prey: His design is mostly based on birds of prey, and he's shown to be one of the most aggressive and destructive kaiju.
• Composite Character:
  • He's scaled like the Heisei Rodan in overall size (though far, far heavier), along with the fire powers of Fire Rodan. Rodan also lives in a volcano just like the original Showa Rodans, and his face is modeled closer to the Final Wars Rodan, as are his clawed wing fingers.
  • His role in the story as Ghidorah's dragon who battles Mothra brings to mind Gigan, Ghidorah's old sidekick.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: He has a shrill, grating, scream-like roar, and he's one of the more hostile Titans who becomes Ghidorah's vanguard. Listen here.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He ends up on both sides of one during his introductory scene as he has little trouble taking out the entire squadron of Monarch's fighter jet escort only to then be taken out just as easily himself by Ghidorah.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: While he loses fairly easily to Ghidorah, he still manages to last a couple minutes in a one-on-one fight with the three-headed Alpha Titan, and he gets some good hits in from what little we see.
• Death Glare: When one of the Gold Squadron jets flies away from beside his head, Rodan narrows his eyes almost mischievously, before he unleashes the devastating Spectacular Spinning.
• Dirty Coward: Averted. Unlike Ghidorah's usual sidekick Gigan, Rodan is no chicken. After terrorizing Monarch's air forces, he initially pulls back upon sensing Ghidorah, but then he doesn't hesitate to charge the three-headed monster despite being outmatched. It's even implied in the movie's final scene that he tries to challenge Godzilla, before the latter's stern glare makes him rethink himself and back down.
• The Dragon: No pun intended, with how his master is a literal dragon. After Rodan is defeated by Ghidorah in a fight and after the latter becomes the reigning King of the Monsters with Godzilla gone, whilst the other subordinate Titans do Ghidorah's bidding from afar around the world, Rodan becomes Ghidorah's vanguard. He accompanies Ghidorah to Washington D.C. and Boston, fighting on his behalf and continuing to do so even after the ORCA has disrupted Ghidorah's long-distance control of the other Titans.
• The Dreaded: Rodan is not called the "Fire Demon" for being a Gentle Giant. The islanders' reaction to the knowledge that the local Titan is about to awaken is completely natural, whilst the novelization notes he's something of a boogeyman among the islanders before his awakening.
• Drunken Boxing: Third Floor supervisor Andrew Honacker compared Rodan's combat style to a "drunk brawler". His aggressive behavior in the film generally seems to be similar to a drunken fool who's wanting to start a fight in a bar. Michael Dougherty has furthermore stated in the audio commentary that Rodan will fight anyone big or small.
• Dynamic Entry: He makes his entry at the Boston battle when Mothra is dive-bombing towards Ghidorah, flying under the cover of Ghidorah's hurricane beside her and blindsiding her.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He appears in a cave painting in The Stinger of Kong: Skull Island, setting up his debut in King of the Monsters.
• Elemental Armor: Played With. According to Mike Dougherty, Rodan's rocky armor is the result of literally absorbing the volcano's rock and magma into his body as an adaptation.
• Emerging from the Shadows: His entrance at the Boston battle is marked by Ghidorah's stormclouds glowing red, followed by the fiery streaks from his wings outlining his silhouette a second before he blindsides Mothra and engages her in a duel.
• Evil Counterpart: To Mothra, who backs Godzilla up in the final battle.
• Fearless Fool: Downplayed. He has an extreme reaction to Monarch firing on him above his home, but when he sees Ghidorah, he briefly pulls back, before unhesitatingly engaging the three-headed dragon despite being the underdog. In the aftermath of King Ghidorah's death, Rodan appears to briefly challenge Ghidorah's killer Godzilla, but is quick to back down and submit to his new Alpha after what Godzilla did to Ghidorah.
• Feathered Fiend: A downplayed Monster Bird, and featherless. He's modeled visually after birds of prey as well as pterosaurs, with a lethal, jagged beak, deadly talons and a ferociously territorial temperament.
• Fire Is Red: He stands out in King of the Monsters for his distinct burgundy color and his Hot Wings trailing red lava, and also for his volcanism-based biology and abilities comparative to the other three main Kaiju.
• Fisher King: The island he inhabits has a reddish-orange sky, and his forced awakening triggers a volcanic eruption, hinting at his Hot-Blooded temperament and that he's one of the more destructive and less benevolent Titans.
• Fragile Speedster: Implied. He's quite fast and ferocious, but he notably relies on a limited hit-and-run when he fights Ghidorah, and when fighting Mothra, all it takes is a single impalement from Mothra's stinger to take Rodan out of the fight.
• Furry Reminder: Rodan, who looks partially like a bird, seems to be trying to eat Mothra, who is a giant insect, at the tail end of their fight.
• Giant Flyer: Leathery Winged Avian type. A monstrous-looking Brutal Bird of Prey Kaiju, Rodan is antagonistic throughout his screentime. He attacks and slaughters Monarch's aerial forces with ferocious aggression (albeit only after they've provoked him), and he later becomes King Ghidorah's vanguard.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: He has pterosaur-like Hot Wings that look shredded at the edges due to his Volcanic Veins: a malevolent and non-comforting image compared to Mothra's wings, but still not as outright evil-looking as Ghidorah's bat-like wings, fitting with Rodan's moral alignment.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: When Rodan first meets Ghidorah, he attacks. After Ghidorah defeats him and (with an unwitting indirect assist from the US military) becomes the new King of the Monsters, Rodan becomes his vanguard, following him even after the ORCA disrupts Ghidorah's more long-distance control over the other Titans. In the end, when Godzilla overthrows the three-headed dragon, Rodan bows to Godzilla as the new Alpha.
• Heel–Face Turn: Slightly downplayed. He's an aggressively territorial Titan who massacres Monarch's aerial forces just after awakening (albeit only after he's been directly provoked atop his home), then goes on to become King Ghidorah's mass-murdering Dragon (no pun intended). When Godzilla kills Ghidorah and becomes the new reigning Alpha, Rodan is the first Titan to bow down to the new King, albeit only after he appears to make an intimidation display which earns him a Death Glare in warning from the Big G.
• Hellfire: A metaphorical case. This bloodred turkey is called the Fire Demon for a reason. His volcanic biology renders him searing-hot and enables his body to produce magma for blood, he emerges from an erupting volcano like a demon emerging from the subterranean mouth of Hell, and he's the Devil's minion during the movie. Rodan's fire is enough to severely cripple the Queen of the Monsters herself, fitting the analogy that Mothra is an angel whereas Rodan is a demon during this movie.
• Horns of Villainy: He has two horn-like spurs curving out of the back of his head. Fewer horns than his master Ghidorah, signifying that Rodan isn't as outright evil as the three-headed dragon but he's still malevolent and antagonistic during the movie.
• Horrifying the Horror: He's a ferocious, territorial Kaiju who is anything but afraid of a fight, yet he actually has an "Oh, Crap!" moment upon sensing Ghidorah is just ahead of him, implying that even he's afraid of the three-headed dragon. Still, this doesn't stop Rodan from challenging the hydra which is trespassing on his turf.
• Hot-Blooded: Figuratively and literally. He's a Titan with blood comparable to liquid magma, and he's an aggressively-territorial and combatively-merciless entity. He's easily provoked into attacking you relentlessly, and he won't back down from fighting the likes of Ghidorah if his territory is threatened.
• Hot Wings: With the Hot-Blooded personality to match. His wings are constantly smoldering with molten embers. Furthermore, surrounding a foe with his wings and immolating them is one of his strongest attacks.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the climax, he's suddenly stabbed straight through the shoulder and out his back by Mothra's stinger. It's enough to severely injure him and take him out of the battle, although he survives.
• Inertial Impalement: He suffers a non-fatal version when, mid-lunge while he's trying to kill Mothra, he ends up impaling his shoulder on her stinger. The wound causes Rodan to freeze up and then collapse, instantly bringing their fight to an end.
• It Can Think: Rodan's expressionism is not far behind that of Ghidorah's heads. Upon waking up, Rodan simply studies the town that has developed next to his volcano while he was asleep in seeming confusion — he only attacks outright when Monarch's Gold Squadron fire on him and his home, and even then he callously ignores the town while emphatically targeting the Gold Squadron and the Argo as his enemies. He clearly and notably makes a smug, devious facial expression just before he performs the aileron roll which devastates his airborne human targets, he has an Oh, Crap! face when he realizes he's just flown into Ghidorah, and he bows to Godzilla as the King of the Monsters only after taking a hint from the larger Titan.
• Jagged Mouth: Type 2 with a hint of Type 1. The "teeth" within his beak look like spiked protrusions jutting out of his jaws, while the previous incarnations were toothy birds, and he's an extremely territorial Titan who's vicious in combat, though he's still more animalistic than the unnaturally- and consciously-malevolent Ghidorah.
• Jerkass: While not evil like Ghidorah, he's not very pleasant to anyone or anything in the film. Whilst he has a legitimate provocation for attacking Monarch's aerial forces at Isla de Mara, he's clearly reveling in slaughtering them when he retaliates. Positioned directly opposite Mothra as Ghidorah's Dragon, Rodan viciously burns Mothra and tries to crush her with his jaws while he's answering to Ghidorah, and the first thing Rodan does after his three-headed master's death is to try challenging Godzilla himself before promptly backing down.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In the aftermath of Ghidorah's death, he seemingly tries to threaten Godzilla, based on the way he screeches at the latter and spreads his wings as if in an intimidation display. After a very pointed glare from the Big G, Rodan backs down, becoming the first to bow to the reinstated King of the Monsters. A very wise decision on Rodan's part, considering what the giant saurian in front of him just did to Ghidorah and to the whole of Boston just a few moments ago.
• Leitmotif: Rodan's theme is a bombastic and heart-pounding song with tribal drums and discordant trumpets, highlighting the chaotic and destructive nature of the Titan.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's been described as an A-bomb with wings, as his flight speed is practically supersonic, eradicating towns from the force of his wings that'll stir up a tidal wave of wind behind him. He also makes a sport out of slaughtering the fighter jets that provoke him into giving pursuit. He's no stranger to physical battles either, lasting roughly two minutes in a one-on-one against the otherworldly powerhouse that is Ghidorah, and single-handedly having Mothra on the ropes to the point of severely injuring her before she takes him down with a well-placed strike.
• Magma Man: In this incarnation, Rodan is a "bio-volcanic" creature. His body can radiate up to 1200°C (as noted in his Monarch Sciences profile), his wings appear to be constantly smoldering magma, and Word of God says that his skin is augmented by an outer layer of volcanic sediment as an adaptation to spending most of his life inside a volcano, acting as armor.
• Milking the Monster: The King of the Monsters Creative Closing Credits state that after he's calmed down under Godzilla's kingship and taken up residence in a new volcano, tourists are flocking to Rodan's new home to see him.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Just as Mothra is primarily based on a moth but also incorporates some traits from other insects, Rodan is primarily based on a Pteranodon (his wings in particular are shaped like those of the traditional depiction of pterosaurs), but his design also incorporates traits from some other animals. He incorporates traits from modern-day birds of prey (such as the shorter, sharper beak and the taloned feet of a modern-day eagle or hawk), he has a semi-detached hand on each wing similar to the detached thumb on a bat's wing, and he has a vestigial-looking toe similar to tyrannosaurids.
• Mugging the Monster: Monarch provokes him into chasing them with missile fire to draw him away from Isla de Mara after realizing Ghidorah plans to fight him. While it works, Rodan makes them pay dearly for it, fighting off and killing the entire squadron of fighter pilots accompanying the Argo.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ancient local legends in Mexico call him the "Fire Demon", which Mark sneeringly if accurately notes is not a comforting sign. It turns out Rodan is a highly-aggressive and territorial Magma Man Titan, who destroys an entire town without even trying and slaughters Monarch's Gold Squadron with extreme prejudice once provoked. The "Demon" part becomes all the more appropriate once he becomes the vanguard to Ghidorah (the Devil).
• Near-Villain Victory: During his fight with Mothra, Rodan appears to be winning, evident by Mothra's more apparent injuries. He manages to severely burn Mothra (which leaves her seriously weakened when she confronts Ghidorah again) and pin her to a building, and is tying to snap his jaws around Mothra's head before Mothra's stinger takes him down. He probably would have won if Mothra hadn't struck when she did.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Rodan becomes this upon acknowledging Godzilla as the rightful Alpha Titan, and he later tolerates the presence of human tourists while making a volcano north of Fiji, his new home.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Even though he only interacted with Godzilla near the end of the film, their own personalities are heavily contrasted almost in a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic significantly. He has an insanely bombastic approach to battling other Titans and will even go into direct confrontation such as when as he flew towards King Ghidorah without even thinking, became utterly careless during his fight with Mothra to the point where his recklessness costed him the fight, and lastly, he was even going to challenge Godzilla in a brash and foolish manner, only for the far more dignified and immensely solemn Godzilla to have him change his decision very quickly by delivering a prominent Death Glare to the former, and begins to regret his rash mistake by bowing to him.
• Not Quite Dead: After getting impaled by Mothra's stinger, the last that's seen of him for the rest of the Final Battle is him falling to the ground and writhing helplessly in pain — in the novelization, the humans outright assume he's dead. After Godzilla disposes of his sworn enemy, Rodan reappears with an open hole going all the way through his shoulder where he was stabbed, but otherwise none worse for wear — fortunately, at this point, Rodan is willing to consider changing his allegiance.
• Oh, Crap!: When he looks up from pursuing the Argo and senses Ghidorah is straight ahead through the intense storm, Rodan shrieks in alarm and immediately pulls back. Although it still doesn't stop him from trying to fight Ghidorah off by himself once he's gotten his bearings.
• Our Demons Are Different: Ancient denizens outright called Rodan the Fire Demon. This gigantic, dark, leathery-winged Magma Man is positioned opposite the angelic Mothra as Ghidorah's (MonsterVerse Satan's) second instead of Godzilla's, and when Ghidorah becomes the dominant Alpha and he creates a worldwide apocalypse, Rodan ferociously assists his new three-headed Alpha in turning the world into hell (in the novelization, Rodan outright instigates volcanic eruptions, adding more to the "demon" theme). Although this physical Animalistic Abomination is avian rather than humanoid, he has the red(ish) skin and horns (the crest on his head) to match the demon image; he emerges into the world from a fiery vent set inside a mountain; and he continues fighting for Ghidorah even when the other Titans have instead begun reacting to the ORCA, only ceasing and becoming peaceful after Ghidorah is killed. From a meta perspective, the way Rodan is supposed to be one of Godzilla's closest allies but here he becomes Ghidorah's thrall who ends up opposing Godzilla and Mothra almost makes him out to be a Fallen Angel who's been seduced over to Evil.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Rodan passively devastates an entire town in seconds, something even the MUTOs couldn't do, he rapidly and viciously demolishes Monarch's aerial forces and would've likely destroyed the Argo if not for Ghidorah's appearance, and he severely weakens Mothra and comes close to killing her in Boston; plus in the King of the Monsters novelization, he gives Lauren Griffin quite an aerial challenge at Washington D.C.. However, Rodan is all but dwarfed by the sheer power and malevolence of Ghidorah, who manages to curb-stomp Rodan in under two minutes where Monarch's aerial forces could barely fight for their lives against the bird; and Rodan doesn't even try to fight Godzilla at the end (wisely, mind you). It's implied Rodan is one of the more powerful non-Alpha Titans and would make a powerful foe if he was acting solo, but he has the misfortune of going up against multiple Alpha Titans and of being overshadowed by said Alphas' apocalyptic feud for the fate of the world.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Word of God describes him as an 'A-bomb with wings', and viral marketing describes him as being able to level a city with sonic thunderclaps — in the movie proper, he ravages Isla de Mara's village and sends people and buses flying like leaves in fall just by flying over, and the village wasn't even the center of his attention. In the novelization, this is expanded upon even further, as Rodan is able to somehow cause volcanoes to erupt just by flying over them.
• Physical God: Promotional material indicates this ancient, bio-volcanic bird was worshipped as a god of destruction and fire, showing a mural of him using blood as pigment, with Dr. Graham speculating that it was meant as an offering to ensure his benevolence.
• Power Glows: The underside of his mighty wings are perpetually blazing and sizzling, which also radiates a deep red and orange fiery glow that's accompanied by the intensity of lethal volcanic heat.
• Ptero Soarer: Gargantuan size aside, Rodan more closely resembles a plucked eagle than an actual pterosaur, from the bipedality to the erroneous, leathery-looking wing membranes, although it's probable that he isn't taxonomically an actual pterosaur at all. Regardless, the above still fits into the misconception that pterosaurs are closely related to birds^note In Real Life, only true dinosaurs are the ancestors of modern day birds. Rodan's other trope characteristics include the head crest (two of them for him), the use of his feet for grabbing similarly to a bird of prey, primarily being airborne throughout his action-packed screentime, a dull (burgundy) color, and excessive and unrealistic aggression. And as a Titan, Rodan is many times bigger than any Real Life pterosaur (or any airborne creature for that matter) in the fossil record. Although he doesn't have teeth inside his beak, his jaws do have a jagged shape on the outside. Rodan's bio-volcanic nature also means he's likely (and justifiably in this case) not a fan of water, although he recovers from being blasted by Ghidorah and plunged into the Pacific Ocean largely unhurt.
• Reconstruction: Whereas his previous incarnations have suffered from Badass Decay throughout the years, this Rodan takes the concept of his original 1956 incarnation and makes various design changes to make him more believable. He has much larger wings that can carry his weight in the air, a bio-volcanic physiology with magma blood and darkened, charred skin, eagle-like talons that he can use for attacking in mid-flight, and high spatial awareness that would be expected of a vicious flying monster. Also, he's clearly A Lighter Shade of Black to Ghidorah, being unpleasant and extremely territorial but not an Omnicidal Maniac, fitting his place as a secondary antagonist in the film.
• Red Baron: Rodan is referred to in myths as the "Fire Demon" and the "One Born of Fire." His other titles include "the King of the Skies" and "A Titan of Winged Fury."
• Red Is Violent: He's depicted as red-tinted (there are certain shots that suggest his body actually is red, but the lighting can make him appear darker in complexion). He's also a violently-territorial beast who inflicts ferocious destruction without mercy when he's provoked, and he functions as a secondary antagonist for most of the movie, though he submits to Godzilla and becomes more docile toward humans at the end.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: Shortly before and during Rodan's awakening, the sky of Isla de Mara is an ominous reddish-orange. When Rodan emerges, he quickly demonstrates his extreme power as a force of nature and also his wrathful personality; triggering a volcanic eruption, and leveling the island's village whilst chasing after Monarch's aerial forces.
• Roar Before Beating: After Monarch's aerial forces have effectively issued a challenge by firing missiles at Rodan and his home, Rodan shrieks at them directly before taking flight to pursue them. Rodan also roars when flying towards Ghidorah to engage him in combat. In the immediate aftermath of Ghidorah's death, Rodan appears to be issuing a challenge to Godzilla when he shrieks at him and unfurls his wings.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Although he's not at all an Alpha Titan, Rodan is called the King of the Skies as one of his Red Barons, and he doesn't mind getting his beak and talons dirty in defence of his territory or in service to his Alpha.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Rodan has been lying dormant in the magma chamber of the Isla de Mara volcano for millennia, prompting Monarch to build a containment site atop him in 1991. When he's awakened and breaks free, Rodan swiftly decimates Monarch's Gold Squadron deployed to slow him down like he's nothing more than a knife cutting through butter, and although Godzilla and Ghidorah both overshadow him in terms of power levels and presence, Rodan does severely weaken and come to killing Mothra, all on his own during the Final Battle.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: Whereas the first two MonsterVerse movies featured Canon Foreigners as the antagonists, King of the Monsters features King Ghidorah and a Ghidorah-serving Rodan as the Big Bad and The Dragon respectively.
• The Silent Bob: He may not be able to use human tongues, but Rodan's body language and actions speak for him: he's clearly a creature who is easily provoked into fighting when riled up, and he very much enjoys what happens next, but he has a decent degree of tact in that bird head of his.
• Spin Attack: At the end of his aerial battle with Monarch's Gold Squadron, Rodan performs an aileron roll, swatting all the remaining jets out of the sky using his wings and body.
• Spin-Offspring: More in spirit than anything, but Word of God has it that Rodan's depiction here was inspired by seeing the two original Rodans from the character's 1956 debut film perish in a volcano together, suggesting the possibility that maybe the original Rodan and his mate laid an egg in a volcano somewhere before they died.
  Dougherty: The idea was, what if those two Rodans actually did successfully lay an egg in some volcano and over thousands of years, the creature hatched and somehow adapted to living in a volcano.
• Stock Sound Effects: Some of Rodan's lower-pitched vocalizations are notably the same as the female MUTOs'.
• Stronger Than They Look: Rodan is a lot smaller than most of other Titans, especially Godzilla and Ghidorah (but larger than Mothra). Yet during his aerial scuffle with Ghidorah, he manages to tackle/shove the colossal hydra downward despite the difference in mass, and their scuffle lasts for about 70 seconds before Ghidorah takes him down.
• Super Speed: No doubt a significantly mobile and highly agile flyer who can move at utmost supersonic speeds. He also makes a sport out of the F-35 Lightning II and F/A-18 Hornet jets (that can fly at 1,200 and 1,190 MPH respectively), zooming and swerving around them with no effort whilst easily destroying them one-by-one, in quick succession.
• Tiny-Headed Behemoth: When Rodan spreads his wings wide, his head looks nearly nub-sized in proportion to the rest of him. Regardless, he's a fiercely territorial and aggressive Titan with a dark reputation.
• To Serve Man: During the Isla de Mara aerial battle, he tries to eat a fighter jet, and he devours the unfortunate pilot when they eject.
• Token Evil Teammate: By far the least concerned with human life. While Godzilla does his best to avoid unnecessary loss and Mothra is a Gentle Giant, Rodan destroys a city just by soaring over it, crushes fighter jets in his claws, and rips through a few more by swiping its wings. He was also considered a god of destruction and even a demon by ancient humans.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He starts out as one of the most destructive Titans and has no explicit loyalties, he eats a pilot trying to escape him, and he has to receive a Death Glare from Godzilla before bowing to him. That said, the Creative Closing Credits reveal that in the time since Godzilla's victory, many spectators are traveling to see Rodan at his new nesting site north of Fiji, implying that he's calmed down and is no longer so hostile to humans since Godzilla became the reigning King of the Monsters.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Right after Godzilla frees him from Ghidorah's dictatorship, Rodan's body language indicates he's looking to pick another fight, this time with Godzilla. An angry snarl from Godzilla prompts Rodan to reconsider how little chance he would have in such a fight, and he promptly bows to the new King of the Monsters.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Rodan's physical fighting style resembles Drunken Boxing and he's always on the offense, but he's a pretty damn good fighter even if he's Overshadowed by Awesome. He dispatches jets as if they're nothing but fragile toys, he manages to outmaneuver and dive-bomb Ghidorah in mid-flight, and he almost wins his battle against Mothra thanks to his bio-volcanic abilities, leaving her badly weakened. On top of that, the supersonic winds from Rodan's wings can create cyclonic drift streams, which can basically reduce an entire town to rubble without him putting in any conscious effort.
• Volcanic Veins: He's a bio-volcanic Titan with magma for blood, and his Hot Wings look like they have glowing orange veins running through them which leak out magma when he takes flight. Considering his aforementioned biology, those vein-like cracks in Rodan's wings probably really are his veins.
• Volumetric Mouth: If you look closely, you can see Rodan stretch his mouth open to almost 90 degrees a couple times.
• Walking Wasteland: He levels cities just by flying above them at supersonic speeds, even if they're not his target; causing a massive sonic wind to pass underneath him, powerful enough to fling people and buses into the air like they're pieces of paper. The novelization also reveals that Rodan causes volcanoes he flies over to erupt when he's under King Ghidorah's control.
• Wild Card: He switches allegiances at least twice in the film: fighting against Ghidorah, then serving under him as his Dragon after being beaten, and eventually submitting to Godzilla after the latter defeats Ghidorah. In the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization, it's clearly stated that people like Madison consider Rodan one of the worse Titans and are wary of him coming back after the events of the previous story. Interpretation varies whether Rodan's fluid loyalties are due to him being a cowardly starscream bootlicking whoever is the "Alpha" Titan, a minion who's Loyal to the Position, or an ally of Godzilla's who was brainwashed/enslaved by Ghidorah when the latter usurped the position from Godzilla. The director himself described Rodan's loyalties as "vague".
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: A big case, like his previous incarnations. When he takes flight after awakening, he causes supersonic winds beneath his 871-foot wingspan which level an entire town that he glides over, instantly hurling people and buses into the air like autumn leaves.
• The Worf Effect: Inverted. He's established as a living cataclysm in his Big Entrance, leveling cities just by flying and easily demolishing Monarch's air force like they're nothing. Then Ghidorah, who made his own Big Entrance in an earlier scene in the movie, shows up.
• Wreathed in Flames: He's a Magma Man and his wings appear to be smoldering constantly, leaving a trail of embers wherever he flies.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: He has yellow eyes, which are a huge contrast to his charred volcanic skin, and they highlight his mischievously vile expressions when more of his Hot-Blooded attitude comes out.

Others

Amhuluk

Appears In: Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

Species: "Titanus Amhuluk"

One of the off-screen Titans awakened by King Ghidorah, Amhuluk is a swamp creature that was sleeping under the Manpupuner Rock Formations in Russia. After Godzilla defeated King Ghidorah, Amhuluk attempted to take over Behemoth's territory in the Amazon before being driven off by Godzilla.

---

• Achilles' Heel: Majority of his body is only constructed by various amount of materials that he's able to easily replace for whatever sort of limb he can attach himself with because of his telekinesis. [[ https://web.archive.org/web/20211119051629/https://twitter.com/Drew_E_Johnson/status/1461563971064848388]] Although, Drew Johnson has claimed that a Titan is capable of destroying him by attacking his head. Any physical strike that's aimed at his nervous system will cause his entire body will collapse into a pile as a result, which would force him to restart the process of creating a brand new body from scratch.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: He seems to lack any ranged attack since he prefers to use brute force to defeat his opponents.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of numerous Titans mentioned by name in King of the Monsters, but his physical appearance wasn't revealed until the comic Godzilla Dominion.
• Extra Eyes: He has two prominent eyes, with eight smaller eyes surrounding them.
• Feel No Pain: He's basically insensible around any part of his "body". For as long as his head and spine are intact, getting attacked or injured isn't an issue for anywhere else.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Despite completely dominating Behemoth in battle, Amhuluk quickly yields when Godzilla decides to intervene.
• Psychic Nosebleed: He's able to extend his Combat Tentacles that are placed around his face and can use them on Titans that allows him to send a painful psychic attack into their brain capacity, but the effect of this attack depends how powerful or weak the victim is by either killing them or stunning them at the very least. The drawback from this is that it uses up a lot of energy as it is taxing for Amhuluk since it could end up as a Power Strain Black Out.
• Mind over Matter: It is revealed by Drew Johnson that Amhuluk is just a head and a spine that constructed a body out of old vegetation and plant matter.
• Overly-Long Tongue: He has a long tongue tipped with a barbed spike that almost constantly protrudes from his opened mouth.
• Plant Person: Most of his body is composed of dead vegetation, logs, branches, and moss.
• Power Glows: His eyes glow bright orange and there is a glowing blue light in the back of his mouth.
• Red Baron: In Godzilla Dominion he is referred to as the Inundator ("inundate" meaning to flood or overflow).
• Rubber Man: He can stretch his forelimbs to great length. This power is justified mainly because he's actually manipulating the length of his arm with telekinesis.
• The Tooth Hurts: Some of his teeth were knocked out from his jaws when one of Behemoth's tusks bashed him in the face.
• The Usurper: His attempt to take the Amazon Rainforest away from Behemoth by force is foiled by Godzilla.

Anguirus

A Titan with close ties to Godzilla. The skeletal remains of one were seen in Godzilla's home.

---

• The Cameo: Director Mike Dougherty confirmed via Twitter, that the remains of an Anguirus were inside the temple that housed Godzilla, teasing a future appearance.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Since Legendary didn't actually have the rights to use Anguirus, having a Freeze-Frame Bonus of a skeleton which "might or might not be Anguirus" was the best they could do.
• Mythology Gag: The remains of an Anguirus in Godzilla's home show that the two species lived together, a reference to how the two usually have a close friendship in the Showa-era Toho films.

Behemoth

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

Species: "Titanus Behemoth"

Behemoth is a lumbering, furry, mammalian creature with enormous curved tusks, looking something like a hybrid between a quadrupedal tusked ground sloth and a woolly mammoth with a short trunk. He is contained in Brazil but breaks free when Ghidorah instigates a mass awakening. The novelization also refers to him as "Mapinguary", after a Brazilian cryptid from Brazilian Folklore.

---

• Bottomless Bladder: Like Mothra, he's never observed feeding nor are his feeding habits mentioned in his Monarch profile.
• Breakout Character: Behemoth has 30 seconds of screentime and he immediately gains a tremendous level of adoration from the fandom.
• Cruel Elephant: Behemoth is incredibly aggressive and lays waste to Brazil when he is commanded by Ghidorah, but he returns to his natural Honorable Elephant personality following Godzilla's victory.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: He's horribly suffered an unapologetic beating from Amhuluk's savagery and power. So far, the only good clean hit that Behemoth was able to dish out was brutally decking him with one swift tusk swing to the plant beast's jawline.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He's described as "bio-seismic" and can create seismic impacts using his tusks.
• Extra-ore-dinary: There are small and stumpy ridges running down his back, in which, according to his Monarch bio, is actually composed out of granite that's mixed with other materials such as ore and metal.
• Fertile Feet: Is said to have restored the growth of plant life in its wake, due to its radioactive emissions stimulating their growth.
• Gentle Giant: When not controlled by Ghidorah, Behemoth is benign and classified as a 'Protector' by Monarch. He's also gigantic as his name would suggest. Godzilla Dominion even mentions Behemoth "isn't a fighter".
• Healing Factor: Godzilla Dominion reveals that he's able to regrow damaged tusks since one of them was severed by Amhuluk. After Godzilla quickly dispatched the treacherous swamp beast, one panel displays that the spot where his tusk was torn off is slowly regenerating itself into a brand new one.
• Honorable Elephant: Played with: he is portrayed as destructive under Ghidorah's command, but later proves to be a docile and beneficial creature once Godzilla takes charge. His actual profile reveals his normal behavior is benevolent.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: Combines features of a mammoth, a sloth, an ape, and a tapir.
• Planimal: Subverted. He's not particularly made of floral matter himself but his large tusks are covered in algae and dangling vines. On the other hand, his radiation can create an overgrowth of plants within his presence.
• Super Toughness: In one part of the novelization of Godzilla: King of the Monsters when all of the Titans were re-awakened by King Ghidorah's call, one of the Monarch members attempted to scorch Behemoth alive with white-blue flames to prevent him from emerging out of the outpost… it didn't even phase him in the slightest.
• Wolverine Claws: Aside from knuckle-walking, he possesses large claws that can be useful for combat.
• The Worf Effect: Poor Behemoth had one of his powerful tusks broken off in a skirmish with Amhuluk in Godzilla Dominion. Fortunately, Godzilla arrived to aid the weakened Behemoth and quickly forced the aggressive Amhuluk to retreat.

Camazotz

Appears In: Kingdom Kong (tie-in comic)

Species: "Titanus Camazotz"

A bat-like, vampiric Titan which lives in perpetual darkness and feeds on other Titans' atomic blood. He's among the Titans that were awoken by King Ghidorah in 2019, and following Godzilla's triumph, he goes on to threaten Skull Island and is ultimately responsible for the island's destruction. He never appears in any of the films, but he is mentioned in the Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong novelizations and fought Kong in the Kingdom Kong tie-in comic.

---

• Ancient Evil: The Iwis on Skull Island and the ancient indigenous peoples of Central America knew of and dreaded Camazotz thousands of years ago. He's one of the ancient Titans that are awakened by King Ghidorah, and his awakening is not good news for the world's ecosystems. Camazotz wreaks terror in San Diego, and a couple of years later he causes the extinction of Skull Island and all the Iwis sans Jia whilst he was trying to claim the island for himself.
• Animalistic Abomination: Although this trope can apply to every Titan, Camazotz gets bonus eldritch points. He somehow causes Ghidorah's remnant superstorm to shift location and merge with Skull Island's storm barrier to create The Night That Never Ends, whilst he's still underground and not even fully awake, and it's heavily implied that Camazotz was somehow psychically influencing Tam's coma.
• Arc Villain: He is the main antagonist of Kingdom Kong.
• Bat Out of Hell: Type 2, the Dire Bat. He looks like a demonic, undead corpse of a giant bat, he emerges from the depths of the Earth, he feeds on other Titans' atomic blood like a vampire, and he has an ear-piercing sonic screech as a natural weapon. He even has a swarm of much smaller, bat-like creatures serving as his minions! He invokes every bit of his namesake for this trope of the "Mayan Death Bat God".
• Bat Scare: Big time. Two years after Camazotz disappeared, Monarch are trying to drill into Skull Island's Vile Vortex through a cave they consider unassuming, unaware that Camazotz is right underneath them. The moment Monarch use dynamite to blast open the passage, the bat-like Camazotz and his swarm emerge.
• Big Entrance: His awakening on Skull Island is signaled by a debilitating sonic screech from deep in the Vile Vortex which is heard all over the island, followed by earthquake-level tremors and Skull Island's storm system closing in over the sky. Then Camazotz explodes out of the earth.
• Bloodsucking Bats: This bat-like Titan has a ravenous thirst for other Titans' atomic-rich blood, and he would have feasted on Kong's if he defeated him.
• Dark Is Evil: If the Titans are gods, then Camazotz is the God of Darkness. After being freed from King Ghidorah's control, Camazotz attempts to kill Kong and destructively terraform Skull Island to his own liking, spelling the certain ecological extinction of the island.
• Dragon Ascendant: When he first emerged in 2019, Camazotz was causing destruction because he was doing King Ghidorah's bidding alongside the other awakened Titans. When Camazotz re-emerges two years later, he's strictly following his own agenda, seeking to kill and feed on Kong and claim Skull Island as his new territory (which Dr. Brooks notes would have elevated Camazotz to Alpha Titan status if he'd succeeded).
• The Dreaded: Audrey Burns has PTSD from her first encounter with Camazotz and is still terrified of him, while Dr. Brooks has a grave Oh, Crap! when he realizes he's unwittingly hastened the Dark Titan's return. The Iwi were apparently also terrified of Camazotz, leaving an ancient warning about him in hieroglyphs.
• Dug Too Deep: Downplayed in his case. He emerges from Skull Island's Vile Vortex when Monarch detonates charges underground whilst trying to open up the vortex for manned exploration, but it's indicated that Monarch's actions only speed up Camazotz' emergence and the island's ecological destruction rather than outright causing it, since Camazotz was already moving Ghidorah's remnant superstorm into Skull Island's storm barrier before this (in fact, Monarch awaken Camazotz just as the Fujiwhara effect envelops the island).
• Ear Notch: The horn variation. His left horn is broken, and he's a vicious predator of a Titan.
• Energy Ring Attack: His sonic screech is drawn as a transparent Concentric Circle Beam.
• Giant Flyer: Leathery Winged Avians type. He's a massive, hideous Animalistic Abomination of a bat, who formerly rampaged under King Ghidorah's command in 2019, and afterward struck out on his own and serves as the main antagonist of Kingdom Kong, challenging Kong for dominance.
• God of Darkness: Known as the Dark Titan, Camazotz lives in darkness within the Hollow Earth and cannot stand daylight. After being freed from King Ghidorah's control, he seeks to forcibly usurp dominion over Skull Island from Kong and feed on the latter's atomic blood, permanently enshrouding the island within a perpetual storm which blocks off daylight and dooming the island's unique ecosystem to make it hospitable to himself.
• Good Lips, Evil Jaws: In stark contrast to Kong's expressive primate face, Camazotz has lipless jaws baring giant, monstrous fangs.
• Homefield Advantage: During his fight with Kong, he takes full advantage of being a Giant Flyer fighting a versatile but ultimately land-bound Titan who doesn't really have anything his size to swing off of, and it's when Kong has Camazotz on the ground that the latter is in trouble.
• Hostile Terraforming: Dr. Brooks theorizes that Camazotz permanently engulfs Skull Island in the Perpetual Storm because he seeks to usurp the island from Kong as his own new kingdom, and he first needs to darken the sky in order to block out all daylight (which is harmful to him). Godzilla vs. Kong shows that three years onward, trees on the storm-wreathed island are (somehow) still alive for the time being, but the Iwi have been wiped out and Kong can't live on the island anymore without an artificial bio-dome, due to the hostile new conditions. The novelization outright confirms that while it's a slow process, all plant, animal and Planimal life on Skull Island has either left, or is invariably drowning and dying; deprived of sunlight and whipped by constant winds and rainfall which are reshaping the terrain with floods and mudslides.
• Jawbreaker: Downplayed, but the last that's seen of Camazotz' face before Kong throws him back into the Hollow Earth, Kong's strike appears to dislocate his jaw.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Averted. Unlike most Kaiju, Camazotz keeps fighting to the bitter end. Even when it's clear Kong has taken the win and is letting him go with his life, Camazotz still tries to surprise-attack Kong, and he gets punched in the jaw and forcibly thrown into the Vile Vortex for his trouble before he admits defeat.
• Large and in Charge: He's a giant, malevolent demon of a Titan who commands a massive swarm of smaller creatures resembling miniature versions of himself.
• Logical Weakness: Since he's developed super-sensitive hearing to navigate in darkness and make up for his lost eyesight, Camazotz can be disoriented by something like, say, the sonic boom of a Raptor jet blasting right beside his head.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: His primary natural weapon is a "sonic screech" which has the power to disorient humans and other Titans for miles around with debilitating pain.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Are Captain Burns' night terrors and her hallucinations when Camazotz awakens purely down to her PTSD, or does Camazotz have Psychic Powers (like Mothra) which Burns has become sensitive to following her traumatic first encounter with him? When Burns is on the brink of despair while watching Camazotz fight Kong, one has to wonder, is it just the Titan's central role in her PTSD or is it a sign that he's psychically weakening her resolve to fight him by amplifying her fears? Probably the most Magic-supporting point of all is that Tam, who was rendered comatose after barely surviving Camazotz in 2019, comes out of her coma two years later, right after Kong has defeated Camazotz on Skull Island.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: He looks like a combination of a vampire bat and some kind of devil, with demonic-looking horns and armor on his back.
• Named After Someone Famous: Camazotz is named after and inspired by the Mayan "Death Bat God".
• The Night That Never Ends: He plunges Skull Island into this trope, by creating a Fujiwhara effect using Ghidorah's remnant Perpetual Storm and the island's storm barrier, enveloping the island in an endless typhoon which blocks out all daylight — and it ends up being permanent. Dr. Brooks explains that Camazotz does this because he can't stand daylight and he needs to circumvent it before he makes Skull Island his own kingdom.
• Prehensile Tail: He uses his tail as an extra grasping limb during his fight with Kong.
• Prophet Eyes: He appears to be missing one eye, but the other one is milky-white, and he's said to be blind. It also adds to his dessicated appearance which makes him look more like an undead monster than a living animal.
• Red Baron: The Iwi called him the King of the Deep and Eternal Enemy of the Sun, he's called the Eternal Bat in an Ancient Guarani prophecy, and his Monarch profile briefly refers to him as the Dark Titan.
• Red Herring: At one point in the comic, whilst Dr. Brooks is contemplating an Iwi legend which seems to prophesize Camazotz causing Skull Island's doom, Kong finds an ancient Iwi mural in a cave which depicts him or one of his kind seemingly being defeated – we're led to believe Camazotz is the cause of this seemingly-prophetic downfall. After Camazotz is defeated, Kong goes back to and uncovers more of the mural, with the comic's final panel revealing that the full mural actually depicts Godzilla bringing about the Titanus Kong's fall.
• Satanic Archetype: He has horns and bat-like wings, and he's associated with darkness, death and destruction. He emerges from the Hollow Earth (the underworld/Hell) with a legion of smaller minions (demons) at his beck and call, looking to remake Skull Island (the world as the Iwi know it) in his own image, and whilst doing battle with the island's benevolent Alpha Kong (God), Camazotz wreaks apocalyptic destruction on the island before he's defeated.
• Sense-Impaired Monster: According to his profile, Camazotz is blind from living in perpetual darkness underground for so long, but he can still navigate well with his echolocation and sense of hearing. Captain Burns exploits this during the Final Battle.
• Sensory Overload: He's on both the giving and receiving ends. His sonic screech causes humans and Titans to suffer disorientation and debilitating pain, and it can affect people miles away. Captain Burns uses Camazotz' own heightened hearing against him by using her jet to produce a disorienting sonic roar next to his head.
• Shout-Out: To Bagorah from the Dark Horse Godzilla comics and the Giant Bat from Godzilla: The Series.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In the MonsterVerse at large, anyway. He only gets a subtle mention in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and he only makes one full-fledged appearance in Kingdom Kong, but it's revealed that he's responsible for the near-extinction of the Iwi and the destruction of Skull Island before the events of Godzilla vs. Kong.
• The Swarm: He has a swarm of subordinate creatures resembling miniature versions of himself, which are barely the size of a Lockheed Martin jet, but can cripple and take down jet squadrons when they Zerg Rush them on their master's behalf.
• Teeth Flying: Some of his teeth were knocked out from his jaws when Kong punched him in the face.
• Villainous Legacy: Although Kong defeats Camazotz and throws him back into the Hollow Earth, Skull Island is permanently enveloped by the Perpetual Storm due to his actions, making him responsible for the permanent destruction of Skull Island's ecosystem before the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, which in turn leads Monarch to set about finding Kong a new home in the Hollow Earth.
• Weakened by the Light: He can't stand sunlight, so he needs to create The Night That Never Ends before he can emerge on Skull Island. Even during Ghidorah's global Titan rampage, he was only observed attacking San Diego at night.
• Weather Manipulation: He draws the perpetual superstorm left by the late Ghidorah away from its original fixed position above the Pacific Ocean, and into Skull Island's storm barrier in order to create a Fujiwara effect that will create endless night for him. What's more, Camazotz starts the process while he's deep underground, hundreds of miles away from Ghidorah's remnant storm's original position, and not even fully awake yet.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: He tries to kill Kong and claim Skull Island as his own, and Dr. Brooks believes that if Camazotz had succeeded, it would've cemented him as a new Alpha Titan of comparable rank to Kong, Godzilla, and the late Ghidorah.
• Zerg Rush: His minions are smaller than humans, but their primary strategy is overwhelming their master's enemies by swarming them in large numbers.

Dagon/Raijin/Adam

Appears In: Godzilla (fossil) | Godzilla: Aftershock (tie-in comic)

Species: Giant prehistoric amphibious reptile | "Titanus Gojira"

Dr. Graham: Is it him?
Dr. Serizawa: No. This is much older.

—Drs. Vivienne Graham and Ishirō Serizawa, Godzilla (2014)

A dead, fossilized member of Godzilla's species, whose remains were found when a mining company stumbled upon its subterranean grave in 1999. Dagon's remains were infected with two ancient MUTO spores which gave rise to the MUTO pair that terrorized the world in 2014. It's revealed that he was worshipped by Ancient Phoenicians and was killed by a MUTO Prime in 1100 BCE.

---

• Blood from the Mouth: Godzilla: Aftershock depicts Dagon's head on his fresh corpse lying in a puddle of what appears to be his own blood after he's died due to the MUTO eggs parasitizing him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The ancient Phoenician texts hint that Dagon's fight against Jinshin-Mushi/the MUTO Prime was short and disastrous for him.
• Disney Death: Subverted. As described in the Phoenician tablets, he was believed dead by the ancient humans who witnessed his fateful defeat by Jinshin-Mushi, then those humans rejoiced when Dagon awoke and returned to the sea (not unlike Godzilla's Disney Death in the 2014 movie). Except Dagon had been infested by the Prime with MUTO eggs, which afterward eventually killed him.
• Kaiju: He's a member of the same Titan genus as Godzilla. Although he's long dead in the present, Godzilla: Aftershock expands on his life, describing how he emerged from the sea and battled a MUTO Prime in view of Ancient Phoenicians.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The ancient Phoenicians called him "Dagon", an ancient sea god. The ancient Japanese called him "Raijin", a god of lightning.
  • Likely named Adam as a nod to him being the oldest known member of Godzilla's species.
• Posthumous Character: Dagon has been dead for thousands of years before the first movie begins, but his remains contain the MUTO spores that kickstart the plot. Godzilla: Aftershock sees Monarch looking at Dagon's grave for clues, and unearthing more of his history whilst investigating the origins of the rampant Junshin-Mushi.
• Red Baron: In Godzilla: Aftershock, the ancient Phoenicians/Japanese also refer to Dagon/Raijin as the Stirrer of the Abyss, the Lord of Lightning, and He Who bore the Fallen Star to its place of rest.
• Ribcage Ridge: His gigantic rib-cage forms this in the 2014 movie's Distant Prologue, serving as the audience's first glimpse into the MonsterVerse's world of primeval, long-forgotten Kaiju who are now emerging into humanity's world.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Dagon is the Can in this instance. Uncovering his remains is what exposes the MUTO spores to air and causes the male to dig its way to the Janjira power plant in Japan.
• Strong Family Resemblance: While blood relation is highly debatable, it's very hard to differentiate between Dagon and Godzilla in Godzilla Aftershock.

Genitor (Name Pending)

Appears In: Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

A Sub-Titan briefly encountered in Godzilla Dominion It took up residence in the wreck of Godzilla's old home near the Hollow Earth.

---

• Fiendish Fish: It is a huge Dunkleosteus-like monster that is hostile towards Godzilla.
• Hive Mind: All the tiny versions are an extension of its body.
• Large and in Charge: It commands a huge school of smaller versions of itself.
• Mook Maker: Not only creates but has a hive mind of its smaller versions.
• Sea Monster: A Dunkleosteus kaiju.
• Zerg Rush: Its school's primary strategy during their encounter with Godzilla.

Godzilla's Rival

Appears In: Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

Species: Giant prehistoric ape | "Titanus Kong"

A member of Kong's species who once fought and drove Godzilla out from one of his old lairs. He was eventually killed by Tiamat.

---

• Dead to Begin With: He was nothing but bones by the time Godzilla makes Tiamat submit to him.
• Killer Gorilla: He was aggressive and powerful enough to defeat and drive Godzilla out from his old lair.

Leviathan

Species: "Titanus Leviathan"

One of the off-screen Titans awakened by King Ghidorah, Leviathan was contained in Loch Ness, Scotland.

---

• Kraken and Leviathan: A giant, presumably aquatic kaiju. Whether it's the actual Leviathan is unclear.
• Mythology Gag: Though no Concept Art is known, Leviathan was described as looking to similar to "Nessie" from Godzilla: The Series; as an added Shout-Out, the Titan is located in Loch Ness.
• Stock Ness Monster: Being based on the Loch Ness Monster and all that.
• The Unseen: Unlike other minor Titans, Leviathan is only mentioned in passing and no concept art exists for it.

Methuselah

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Species: "Titanus Methuselah"

Methuselah is a gigantic quadrupedal creature with a dinosaur-like head, bull-like horns, and a mountain on its back. He is slumbering in Munich, Germany, but awakens when Ghidorah instigates a mass awakening. In the novelization, it's stated that he destroyed a village on the site in the Middle Ages before falling asleep.

---

• Adaptational Backstory Change: The novelization mentions an old legend which, if true, indicates that he flattened an entire village when he entered hibernation centuries ago.
• Affectionate Nickname: In his profile, Methuselah is called "Archie" by some of the Monarch workers, which is likely because of how he once isolated himself as an island in a Canadian archipelago.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: His profile notes that while he lacks elemental abilities, he makes up for it with sheer bulk and physical strength.
• Gentle Giant: His profile classifies him as a Protector and actually seems to be protective towards humans in a manner similar to Mothra and Kong when not under Ghidorah's control.
• Mighty Glacier: Isn't the most energetic Titan in terms of movement, mostly because of his mountain-like exterior. While he hasn't displayed any combat skills, his Monarch profile explains that he's built for taking wave after wave of attacks and is a lumbering tank.
• Monster-Shaped Mountain: Methuselah fits the bill rather perfectly, bonus points on how his back looks like one when he's underground.
• Mythology Gag: Methuselah, by comparison, is an obvious homage to Anguirus, a quadrupedal spiky armored dinosaur kaiju who was often considered Godzilla's best friend in Toho's films.
• Planimal: He's a living mountainous monster that has vegetation that grew out of his back when he was dormant.
• Prophet Eyes: While emerging out the ground, his blank beady eyes can be seen, and seem to be glowing ominously.
• Rock Monster: He is made almost entirely out of rock.
• That's No Moon: Methuselah appears to the naked eye to simply be a forested mountain when dormant. Then he starts moving.
• Turtle Island: Has an enormous mountain on his back that acts as a makeshift shell for protection, and has even disguised himself as a massive island once. If that's not enough, he's also carried various populations on his back to another area from disastrous predicaments.

Mokele-Mbembe

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (novelization)

Species: "Titanus Mokele-Mbembe"

A minor Titan who appears in the novelization of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, resembling an earless reptilian elephant with a long tail, crocodilian fangs, and a single horn. He is contained under Jebel Barkal in Sudan but breaks free when Ghidorah instigates a mass awakening.

---

• Alliterative Name: Mokele-Mbembe.
• Cruel Elephant: He is a Titan described as resembling a reptilian elephant with no ears, downward-curved tusks, and a long horn. When Ghidorah became the Alpha, Mokele-Mbembe is anything but a gentle giant.
• Horns of Villainy: He has a single horn curving from his forehead, and throughout his role in the novelization, he's causing mass destruction to his surroundings under Ghidorah's thrall. He even eats a Monarch operative Skullcrawler-style.
• In-Series Nickname: The Monarch workers assigned to him sometimes call him M&M.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: He is described as having many reptile-like features, but with an elephant-like face and trunk.
• Mokele-Mbembe: It's based on the saurian cryptid, although it's located in Sudan rather than the Congo. It has more focus in the novelization, where it's said to roughly resemble a cross between an elephant and a reptile, with a glowing green horn on its head, a lashing trunk, thousands of sharp teeth, and a whip-like tail fast enough to slice jets out of the air.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: He is described as having a crocodilian mouth with thousands of fanged teeth.
• Mythical Motifs: While named after a sauropod-like cryptid, his design seems to invoke the Grootslang, a creature from African legend that is half-elephant and half-snake.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: He uses his crocodile-like jaws to eat humans.
• Power Glows: The horn protruding from his head pulses a very faint green light.
• Tail Slap: Mokele-Mbembe's tail takes up two-thirds of his body length and is a devastating weapon — slicing clean through a pyramid.
• To Serve Man: He eats Keller before Nez and the other Jebel Barkal observation team members can react.

Na Kika/Kraken

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (novelization) | Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic) | Godzilla vs. Kong (novelization)

Species: Giant cephalopod "Titanus Na Kika"

A minor Titan who first appears in the novelization of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Na Kika (also nicknamed Kraken) resembles a massive cephalopod. She is contained in the Indian Ocean but breaks free when Ghidorah instigates a mass awakening. In Godzilla Dominion and the prologue of the novelization of Godzilla vs. Kong, she is captured by Titan traffickers and rescued by Godzilla.

---

• Action Girl: Zig-Zagged. Upon answering Ghidorah's call, Na Kika outsmarts the Monarch scientists by playing dead before she kills them all. Sometime later, she is unable to break free from the net that the Titan traffickers use to capture her, and she is forced to call Godzilla for help.
• Badass in Distress: A gigantic, city-destroying monster that's injured and captured by Titan traffickers in Godzilla Dominion, until she's rescued by Godzilla.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: She has dozens of hearts and brains, can shapeshift to the extent she can fake her death, and can rapidly regenerate from injuries. These are all based on the actual abilities of cephalopods but obviously played up in this monster.
• Chameleon Camouflage: They can change the color and pattern of their body, including the shell, to blend in with their surroundings. When Monarch first found Kraken, they were practically invisible without specialized sensors. And Kraken's natural disguising abilities don't end there...
• Giant Eye of Doom: The doctor in charge of the outpost monitoring Kraken is at an underwater lab, with a full view of Kraken's closed eye, when Kraken awakens. The doctor thinks Kraken is dying, until he sees that the eye has opened while he was distracted talking and now it's staring right in at him.
• In-Series Nickname: Officially designated "Titanus Na Kika", the Monarch personnel that kept watch over her called her "Kraken" instead.
• It Can Think: Na Kika tricks the Monarch outpost monitoring her into thinking she's dead, then cuts off the scientists' means of escape before drowning and devouring them.
• Kraken and Leviathan: A massive cephalopod monster. Whether she's the actual Kraken is not clear though.
• Master of Your Domain: They can manipulate and alter their own biology to an incredible degree. Na Kika can camouflage theirself like cuttlefish, and can feign termination of life functions by disguising their own radiation signature.
  Protective coloration was only the surface of what this thing could do. It could mimic other states. It could make sonar think it wasn't hearing anything, disguise its radiation signature.
  Play dead.^note From Godzilla: King of the Monsters — The Official Movie Novelization
• An Odd Place to Sleep: She was discovered sleeping on a seamount using a long-lost submarine as a pillow.
• Playing Possum: After being awakened by Ghidorah, she fakes her death to catch the Monarch scientists off-guard and effortlessly break free from the outpost she was contained in.
• Sex Shifter: It's mentioned in the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization that she can change sex at will (likely alluding to the fact the mythical Na Kika is male).
• Tentacled Terror: She's initially named after and likely inspired the Kraken of Norse mythology, with Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem being included after the section she debuts in.
• To Serve Man: She drowns and eats the scientists monitoring her.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like regular cephalopods, she can change the texture and color of her body and even her shell.

Quetzalcoatl

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Freeze-Frame Bonus)

Species: "Titanus Quetzalcoatl"

One of the Titans awakened off-screen in 2019. He is never seen on-screen or in any of the spin-off materials at any time.

---

• Feathered Serpent: Implied. He's named after the most famous example.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: His name can briefly be seen on one of Monarch's maps as one of the Titans who's been awakened and is now on a rampage.
• Giant Flyer: Implied, given his namesake. Given we never actually see him or hear him mentioned, it's still up in the air.
• Mayincatec: Downplayed. He's named after the Aztec god, but he was slumbering either in, under, or very close to Macchu Picchu, which was built by the Inca.
• Monumental Damage: Implied. His containment facility was either beneath or very close to Macchu Picchu, meaning he most likely would have destroyed the ruins during his rampage in 2019.
• Mythical Motifs: His name is taken from Quetzalcoatl (Kukulkan or Kukumatz to the Maya), the feathered serpent deity who was worshipped by many Mesoamerican cultures.

Scylla

Appears In: Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

Species: "Titanus Scylla"

Scylla is a gigantic cephalopod-like creature with squid-like tentacles, six crab-like legs, and a spiral shell; located in Sedona, Arizona.

---

• Action Girl: A titanic one at that, although she is quite easily defeated by Godzilla in the Dominion graphic novel.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Scylla resembles an ammonite with six crab legs, giving her a spider-like appearance.
• Combat Tentacles: She can use her tentacles to fight other Titans.
• The Dreaded: Scylla's profile explains that she is feared by the ancient cultures that crossed paths with her. Ancient Greeks would do their best to steer clear from her waters, while the Rapa Nui erected the famous Moai statues around the shores of Easter Island as megalithic scarecrows with the hopes that they would deter her.
• An Ice Person: Implied. A news article shown during the credits says that she is slowing the melting of the ice caps.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: Scylla resembles a massive cross between a spider and an ammonite, with six crab-like legs.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: Her profile states that Scylla is a scavenger by nature, and consumes Titan carcasses by processing nutrients from them and creates a disgusting bacteria that is capable of poisoning many oceans. Therefore, MONARCH's pathology teams have been ordered to dispose of any newfound corpses of the beasts before she has the opportunity to do so.
• Mythical Motifs: She was named for the sea monster of Greek mythology, and in the stinger is confirmed to be said sea monster.
• Mythology Gag: Scylla loosely resembles Kumonga, a Giant Spider kaiju from Toho's films, even emerging from the same place Kumonga attacked in Godzilla: Final Wars (Arizona).
• Poisonous Person: Her physiology produces toxic bacteria as a byproduct of her digestive process, which poisons nearby water sources.
• Removable Shell: She's able to separate herself from her shell while finding lost pieces of ship wreckage as a new form of protection until she grows a new one.
• Tentacled Terror: Scylla resembles a gigantic ammonite with crustacean legs, and has tentacles protruding from her head.

Shinomura

Appears In: Godzilla: Awakening (tie-in comic)

Species: Prehistoric supercolonial parasite

The monster that serves as the main antagonist in Godzilla: Awakening.

---

• Beware My Stinger Tail: In its dragon-like form, Shinomura's tail ends in a sharp, blade-like protrusion.
• Canon Foreigner: Much like the MUTOs, it is a reboot monster.
• Captain Ersatz: The monster's design and abilities use elements of Deathla (an unused Kaiju), Hedorah, and Destoroyah and a little bit of Ygramul the Many.
• Combat Tentacles: Due to its composition, Shinomura is able to grow two tentacles, which it uses on Godzilla on Moansta Island.
• Energy Absorption: Much like Godzilla, Hokmuto, Femuto, and all the other creatures of its timeline, Shinomura can absorb radiation like a sponge.
• Evil Takes a Nap: Originally, Shinomura and Godzilla (and for that matter every radiovore) fled deep beneath the earth as the radiation levels receded. Eiji Serizawa speculates that the surviving Shinomura laid dormant beneath the earth for millions of years, until the atomic bombing of Hiroshima woke it up and promptly drew it back to the surface.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: It has this with Godzilla, lampshaded during the exposition about their backstories: Godzilla retreated to the ocean while Shinomura retreated to a volcanic vent to feed on geothermal radiation following the Permian-Triassic extinction event.
• Flying Seafood Special: Looks like a giant manta ray.
• From a Single Cell: Its body is composed of thousands of individual cells that will grow into a new Shinomura if left alone.
• Giant Flyer: Its main form looks like an enormous arthropod-esque ray that can fly through the air.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: It kills one of the crew members of the Japanese tanker this way.
• It Can Think: When a piece of it escapes its tank in Monarch's HQ, it forms a tendril and pulls the same lever on the other side of the glass which the Monarch staff had previously thrown to feed it radiation, enabling it to regrow its massive form.
• Kill It with Fire: The only way to kill it is to destroy each and every cell. The most effective way? Burn it. The nuke that was used on Godzilla in 1954 was also used to kill what was left of it.
• Meaningful Name: Is named after Shi No' Mure which literally translates into "swarm of death". This makes sense due to the fact that Shinomura is really a conglomerate monster made up of smaller creatures.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Its name literally means 'swarm of death'.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In the MonsterVerse at large. It only appears in Godzilla: Awakening, but it's directly responsible for the formation of Monarch due to its years-long rampage around the world, long before Godzilla or Skull Island were known to exist.
• The Swarm: Shinomura is actually a colony of super-organisms, each about the size of a starfish, so when it's not in its composite Kaiju form, it can form a flying cloud.
• Throat Light: Shinomura has a blue glow in its mouth.
• The Worm That Walks: It consists of a mass of much smaller, single-celled organisms.

Tiamat

Appears In: Godzilla Dominion (tie-in comic)

Species: "Titanus Tiamat"

One of the off-screen Titans awakened by King Ghidorah, Tiamat is a female draconic sea serpent that was sleeping under Stone Mountain in Atlanta, Georgia. After Godzilla defeated King Ghidorah, Tiamat settled in a sea cavern below an atoll once occupied by a member of Kong's species. When Godzilla was looking for a new home, he came to the atoll and defeated her to claim it as his new resting place.

---

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: A variation. Her body is covered in razor-like scales that can inflict deep gashes into Godzilla's thick hide.
• Action Girl: The titanic kind. Tiamat puts up a good fight against Godzilla until he brings her out to dry land where he has the advantage.
• Alliterative Name: Titanus Tiamat.
• Combat Pragmatist: Pulls off an ambush to attack an unsuspecting Godzilla, and starts gaining the upper hand by using her hydrokinetic powers such as a whirlpool to drag him underneath the ocean while constricting him with her elongated body to have Godzilla held in her grasp, flares out the sharpened ridges on her scales to slice into his highly toughened skin, and even spits a cloud of corrosive acid into his eyes. She almost won since her own abilities gives her an edge in battle as she's seen to be a match for the King of the Monsters, highlighting that she's not the only aquatic Titan on Earth to have a major advantage when it comes to underwater combat.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of numerous Titans mentioned by name in King of the Monsters, but her physical appearance wasn't revealed until the comic Godzilla Dominion.
• Expy: Essentially a stand-in for Toho's Manda, with some traits of Titanosaurus.
• Glass Cannon: She proved to be a challenging adversary for Godzilla, by heavily constricting his body, slicing his impenetrable flesh with her sharpened scales, and dragging him deeper into the depths below. When Godzilla brought her into an undersea cave where there's dry land, he managed to quickly subdue her with his might until she retreated.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: She decided to literally turn tail and escape with her life after Godzilla brought her to dry land and outmatched her.
• Making a Splash: Drew Johnson revealed that she can make large water spouts in the ocean.
• Mega Maelstrom: Drew Johnson revealed that she can create maelstroms to pull her opponents underwater.
• Poisonous Person: She can spray toxic vapor from her mouth that can temporarily blind Godzilla.
• Purple Is Powerful: Tiamat has vibrant purple scales and she has proven to be a dangerous aquatic opponent for Godzilla.
• Sea Serpents: Resembles a giant eel-like fish with huge fins. Ironically, she was dormant beneath a mountain hundreds of miles from the ocean.
• Shout-Out: Tiamat's appearance and abilities greatly resemble that of Nessie from Godzilla: The Series.

Hollow Earth creatures

Warbats

Appear In: Godzilla vs. Kong

Species: Predatory winged serpents

A species of cobra-like serpentine Sub-Titans with fin-like wings that allow them to fly around the Hollow Earth.

---

• Alien Blood: They have bright-green blood.
• Bizarre Alien Locomotion: They're giant cobra-like snakes that can fly by using their oversized hoods as wings.
• Flight: The Warbats are capable of flight using their hood-like wings, which resemble webbed insectoid legs.
• Fragile Speedster: They zoom around the HEAVs with no problem, but as soon as Kong dives in, the Warbats aren't exactly sturdy enough to withstand his overwhelming strength. Hell, one of them Kong kills in pretty much a single hit.
• Good Lips, Evil Jaws: Their jaws are lipless and lined with needle-like fangs, compared to Kong and Godzilla's lipped mouths.
• The Great Serpent: Warbats are gigantic snake-like creatures that can fly.
• Human Hammer-Throw: Kong swings the fresh corpse of one Warbat by its tail to attack the second approaching Warbat.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The first Warbat Kong grabs ahold of gets hurled headfirst onto a sharpened rock, that just so happened to be conveniently placed on the ground.
• Informed Ability: They can produce and gush out venom within the glands of their hooded wings. Neither of the 2 featured Warbats that fought Kong had the chance to use the venom at all.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: They resemble giant snakes with fin-like wings resembling those of the classic Toho versions of King Ghidorah, as well as Shinomura. They also resemble King Cobra from Godzilla: The Series.
• Non-Indicative Name: The species may be referred to as Warbat, but by actual appearance, the only bat-like features these guys seem to have are the spiked tipped membranes within their hoods.
• Off with His Head!: Kong does this to one of the Warbats posthumously and drinks the blood out of their skull.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Giant, fearless predators living inside the Hollow World separate from the Earth's surface, who resemble giant cobras with the spiny hoods acting as wings that enable them to glide. With some human aid, Kong doesn't have much trouble killing two of them when attacked.
• Roar Before Beating: After Kong kills one of the Warbats and he gives the remaining one an intimidation display, the Warbat in question responds by rearing up and hissing, before it lunges at Kong and tries to kill him.
• Snakes Are Sinister: The Warbats are huge winged serpents, described by the official merchandise as being easily capable of ripping through armored vehicles with their fangs, and they're not friendly.
• Sudden Name Change: They were initially called "Nozuki" before the toyline merchandise changed their name to "Warbat".

Hellhawks

Appear In: Godzilla vs. Kong

Species: Predatory bat-like creatures

A species of large bat-like creatures with hooked beaks, which inhabit the Hollow Earth.

---

• Bat Out of Hell: Hellhawks mostly resemble bats and even hang from the ceiling, but have the beaks and talons of birds of prey.
• Brutal Bird of Prey: Leathery wings and lack of feathers aside, Hellhawks mostly resemble birds of prey, and are shown menacing Kong and his human companions after Godzilla's atomic breath provoked them.
• Giant Flyer: While tiny compared to the likes of Rodan or Mothra, they're still huge by human standards, equal to the size of the largest real-life pterosaurs.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: They have leathery bat-like wings and scaly skin, but have beaks and talons resembling those of a bird of prey.
• Shout-Out: Their name and appearance bring to mind the Fellbeasts from The Lord of the Rings (the ones in the books are explicitly stated to be beaked, featherless beasts, likely meant as an Evil Counterpart to the eagles).
• Zerg Rush: How they attack Kong and his human companions.

Rock Critters

Appear In: Godzilla vs. Kong

Species: Giant arthropod-like vertebrates

A species of large arthropod-like vertebrates that dwell the Hollow Earth's rocky lands, camouflaging to avoid predators.

---

• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Much larger than any bug, also they might look insect-like but are according to the VFX crew they are actually vertebrates and in concept art, you can see bones, despite this they're still smaller than most of the other animals in the Hollow Earth.
• Chameleon Camouflage: Their shells have rock-like textures that allow them to blend in their environments to hide from predators.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: They have characteristics of spiders, crabs, and scorpions, but have bones and are actually vertebrates.
• No Name Given: Neither the film nor promotional material gives the species a name only referring to them as Rock Critters. HBO Max's audio description of the film calls them "Arachno-Claws", after a similar creature from the 2005 film, but this is not oficially confirmed.

Scaly Quadruped

A Foetodon feeding on one of the Rock Critters

Appear In: Godzilla vs. Kong

Species: Predatory lizard-like creatures

A species of large lizard-like animals that live in the Hollow Earth's rocky ecosystem, feeding on smaller animals that cross their path.

---

• Breakout Character: Has a total of five seconds of screentime, but somehow became an internet sensation, even earning himself the nickname of "Doug" for his sudden popularity.
• Chameleon Camouflage: Implied. The individual seen ambushes one of the scattered Rock Critters and its skin resembles the rocky environment it hunts in.
• Mighty Glacier: Notably obese lizards who don't seem to move much beyond ambushes.
• No Name Given: Neither the film nor promotional material gives the species or individual a name, though the fans have nicknamed him "Titanus Doug". The film's HBO Max audio description identifies the species as Foetodon, a creature from Peter Jackson's own King Kong film, but this is not oficially confirmed.
• Single Specimen Species: Averted. Only one specimen is seen feeding on a Rock Critter, but two more are shown in an overhead shot watching Kong run through Hollow Earth. The novelization also shows several others of the species feeding on Rock Critters.

---