Avatar

Gojirahkiin's Madhouse

@gojirahkiin / gojirahkiin.tumblr.com

Just a place where I can follow all my friends, favorite subjects, and any random thing that catches my eye.
Avatar
Avatar
navalta-gfx

Pinky x Stinky: Bros for Life

So I’m super hyped for GXK. I love that Godzilla runs and is now PINK!! It looks like a fun ride and I can’t wait to see the boys work as a team.

It’s been quite the decade of the monsterverse and kaiju media as a whole. Ten years ago I never thought we’d have such a steady flow of giant monster stuff. The US giving us the fun spectacle of Godzilla, and Japan exploring the message and metaphors of Gojira. I think having both is what has kept this property going for nearly 70 years.

On top of that we’ve gotten Pacific Rim, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Kong, and even Gamera (more Gamera please). As long as they keep making em, I know I’ll always watch em

Avatar

Restless Souls: the Origins of the Most Evil Godzilla

It's no secret to anyone that Godzilla has run almost the entire morality spectrum in terms of morality in his 60+ career. He's gone from being an allegory for the hydrogen bomb to a destructive force of nature to a defender of the earth and back again, sometimes within the same film. It is to be expected for a series that's been around for so long with various creators having their own interpretations and view of the character, and how societal norms have changed over the years.

In this regard, the version seen in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (or GMK for short) is...unique.

This particular version of the king of the monsters is widely considered to be the most malevolent he's ever been. Granted, he's no stranger to being a bad guy and causing catastrophic amounts of death and destruction. But this incarnation is especially monstrous. There's a number of times where he almost seems to smile or sneer at the terrified civilians he's killing, whereas most versions are just rage incarnate. Even his design looks wrong, with those milky white blank eyes making him appear more like a ghoulish harbinger of death as opposed to any actual animal.

Well...there's an in-universe reason for why this particular Godzilla is so destructive than normal.

Hirotoshi Isayama: “This animal contains the restless souls of the countless people who perished during the terrible battles that took place during the Pacific conflict.”
Yuri Tachibana: “Their souls? In Godzilla?”
Hirotoshi Isayama: “In Godzilla, the souls of all those people have combined to bring life to the monster. Believe me, I have tried to warn people but they refused to listen. They think I'm mad.”
Yuri Tachibana: “But tell me, why does Godzilla keep attacking Japan? Why does it want to destroy us?”
Hirotoshi Isayama: “Because the Japanese people want to forget what happened... They have deemed it preferable to forget the pain and agony they inflicted on all those people!”

(Copied from Wikizilla)

To sum up, this version of Godzilla is explicitly said to be supernatural in origin. He's effectively the amalgamation of millions of souls that were killed in the Pacific and Chinese theaters that were unable to rest in death possessing the corpse of the original Godzilla that was killed in the first movie. And when you have that much undiluted hate and malice in one giant undead monster, you have a recipe for a particularly malevolent entity.

Interestingly enough, Japanese folklore does tell of a similar entity which might have inspired the creators.

According to Yokai.com, the Gashadokuro is a particularly terrifying yokai. The amalgamation of the souls of fallen soldiers who were denied proper burials, the Gashadokuro is a gigantic skeletal monstrosity formed by the bones and skulls of the deceased and animated by an unearthly hatred for the living that denied them their rest. Nearly unstoppable due to its size and strength, the Gashadokuro was a nightmarish being who's whole existence was to wreck havoc and death upon the world.

Given how spiritual beliefs and legends play in the narrative of GMK, Godzilla does have an uncanny resemblance to the Gashadokuro. Him going out of his way to kill civilians and innocents lines up perfectly with the Gashadokuro's hatred for mortals. Even his design looks less like a living animal and more like a corpse, with dead blank eyes, bony spines, and a bloated stomach full of decomposing gasses. And ultimately, he was almost unstoppable in the film, killing off three monsters awakened to defeat him and the majority of the JSDF. All of which lines up with the legend.

Which is what makes this version of Godzilla so destructive and malevolent. All that rage and hate of the restless dead created this monstrosity who's only purpose was to hurt and kill. Effectively, he's less a living being, and more an unrelenting engine of death and hate.

Avatar
gojirahkiin

I wondered about the big belly a lot after I heard it criticized. I knew he was possessed, but I didn’t realize he was also a zombie. The beating heart at the end made me think he’d been straight up resurrected, but if the restless spirits did a half-assed job of that it explains a lot.

Avatar

Biollante is love

Avatar
gojirahkiin

I like the reference to the deleted scene of all the flowers blooming, but even moreso the idea that each of those flowers was another Biollante! Would they be mindless minions? Would they all think they were the real Biollante? Or would be they be her “daughters” in a way? So many possibilities!

You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.