Godzilla (MonsterVerse)

"Nature has an order. A Power to restore balance. I believe he is that power."

- Serizawa on Godzilla.

Godzilla is the main kaiju protagonist of the MonsterVerse franchise. He first appeared serving as the main protagonist of the 2014 film Godzilla. He later appeared in a cave painting in the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island, where he is fighting King Ghidorah, his ultimate nemesis. He fights King Ghidorah in the 2019 sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and will appear in Godzilla vs. Kong, where he is set to fight King Kong.

He is an incarnation and version of Godzilla, who made his presence known to the public in 2014 during his hunt for the two M.U.T.O.s, and the very kaiju whom existence kickstarted the foundation of Monarch, a secret governmental organization serving as the main protagonistic forces of the franchise.

He was portrayed by T.J. Storm in motion capture.

Origins
In this graphic novel, it is revealed that Godzilla is a prehistoric amphibious reptilian monster who fed off of Earth's natural radiation. Over the years, however, as the radiation emitted from the planet gradually declined, Godzilla retreated to the ocean depths, where it could absorb radiation from the Earth's core.

Discovery
For an incredibly long, albeit unknown amount of time, Godzilla remained dormant in the ocean, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures. That was until 1954, when he was awakened by a nuclear submarine due to sensing nuclear energy in it. Drawn by nuclear energy that utilized by humans to powered their submarines, Godzilla attacked and fed on American and Soviet nuclear submarines in the South Pacific Ocean, with each nation believing the other was responsible for the attacks.

Fighting Shinomura
After being discovered, the U.N. tried to keep him secret and destroy him with atomic bombs under guise of nuclear testing, all of which failed to do so. During that time, another giant monster, Shinomura, made an appearance and fought Godzilla until both were bombed under the guise of Bravo Tests. Whereas Shinomura was destroyed by the blast, Godzilla survived, and went to hiding since then. As result of the emergence of both monsters, an organization called Monarch formed to keep him secret and study him, as well as to prepare for the possible emergence of another giant monsters (which was later confirmed with the discovery of King Kong and the Skullcrawlers).

Cave paintings
Although Godzilla doesn't physically appear in this film, the monster can be seen in two of the cave paintings fighting his ultimate nemesis, King Ghidorah, during the post-end credits of the movie. The cave paintings of Mothra and Rodan can also be seen, although they don't physically appear in the film, and Godzilla's roar can be heard afterwards. Monarch fears Godzilla's existence, as they believe he poses a threat to humanity.

Pursuing the M.U.T.O.s
In 1999, the spores of two of his ancient enemies, known by humans as the M.U.T.O.s, were found in the Philippian mines. 15 years later (2014), the male M.U.T.O. hatched out of his chrysalis after 15 years of absorbing nuclear radiation from a power plant in Japan. Godzilla begins listening as the male M.U.T.O. lets out a mating cry to his recently hatched female counterpart, and attacks the creature as he is laying waste to a Hawaiian airport, though the male M.U.T.O. escapes by flying away, and Godzilla retreats into the ocean. By this point, he made his presence known to the public.

Arrival at San Francisco
After this, Godzilla, while still in the ocean, hunts the M.U.T.O.s while they're lured to San Francisco with a nuclear warhead by the American military. Godzilla surfaces just before hitting the Golden Gate Bridge, and the military opens fire with tanks and gunfire. This has little to no effect, however, and Godzilla descends into the ocean once again, but not before clearing his path by accidentally destroying the bridge during the confusion.

Fighting the M.U.T.O.s
Godzilla surfaces once again in San Francisco to confront the recently arrived male M.U.T.O., and the two battle all the way into the night, while a bomb disposal squad led by Ford Brody is sent in via HALO jump to defuse the bomb that was placed to lure the M.U.T.O.s to San Francisco. Shortly after their arrival, the female M.U.T.O. lays her eggs, and Godzilla makes a loud roar at her, prompting the both of them to fight. Godzilla gets the upper hand during the battle, but the male M.U.T.O. arrives, and both creatures take on Godzilla, who is quickly overwhelmed by the two of them.

Before either of them can kill Godzilla however, they're distracted by Brody, who saved the monster by destroying the female's recently-laid egg sacs. While the female is distracted by Brody, Godzilla used the opportunity to pummel her with his atomic breath. Before he can finish her off, the male M.U.T.O attacks Godzilla once more, but Godzilla fights back and manages to kill him by slamming the male M.U.T.O. into a skyscraper with his tail, rupturing the male M.U.T.O.'s internal organs in process. The impact, however, brings the entire building down on Godzilla, and he collapses to his hands and knees, extremely weak. He briefly looks at Brody in the eyes, before being consumed by smoke and debris.

Brody then escapes to the pier, where the rest of his unit is trying to send the bomb out into the ocean where it can detonate without risk of fallout hitting the city. The female M.U.T.O., still alive from her encounter with Godzilla, follows the radiation and kills the rest of the squad, leaving Brody alone to send the boat out to sea with the bomb. As the M.U.T.O. closes in on the bomb and Brody, Godzilla emerges from behind, grabbing her and blasting her in the mouth with his atomic breath, making her neck explode, before tearing her head off and letting it fall into the water.

Victory
With both M.U.T.O.s killed, Godzilla then collapses from exhaustion in the city, seemingly dead. When morning comes, however, Godzilla rises up from the ashes around him and lets out a triumphant roar as the humans below cheer and applaud for their supposed "savior", proclaiming him "King of the Monsters." With both of his enemies dead and with balance in nature restored, Godzilla descends back into the ocean to become dormant once again.

A Loose End
The battle against MUTO threat turned out to be far from over, as the greatest of MUTOs, MUTO Prime, emerged and about to continue what its fallen progenies started. Godzilla soon faces the new threat in multiple confrontations starting from an American military base in Guam. The two titans soon bring their battle to Barents Sea and later, Athena II Nuclear Power Plant in France at which Godzilla came close in facing the death's door with MUTO Prime nearly infected him with its MUTO eggs. The fight soon ends in a stalmate with both enemies exchanged roars before the latter retreated back underground. Godzilla returned to the sea, but is visibly injured from the encounter.

Around this time, Monarch had determined that the ultimate MUTO was the same one who slain Godzilla's predecessor, an older member of his kind that known to the ancients as Dagon, by infecting him with its parasitic eggs using its ovipositors. The deceased Dagon later entombed in a cavern in the Philippines, the same cavern which was unearthed in 1999 and confirming that the two MUTOs that unintentionally released before their eventual destruction at hands of Godzilla were none other that MUTO Prime's children. As if that was bad enough, MUTO Prime now sought to kill Godzilla in the exact same way with that of his predecessor. Fearing this, Monarch developed a plan to replicate the sonic pulses given off by the MUTO eggs in hopes of aiding their kaiju ally.

By the time two of Monarch's agents, Dr. Emma Russell and Tarkan Cavusgolu, arrived at a decommissioned nuclear submarine power cores in Nevada with the prototype ORCA sonar device developed by the latter, Godzilla and MUTO Prime already locked in combat. The two then join the fight by activating the device just as MUTO Prime is about to deliver a killing blow on Godzilla with its ovipositor, causing the MUTO to hesitate. Seeing an opening, Godzilla quickly grabs his foe and lift it onto his back before employing a Nuclear Pulse at a point-blank range through his damaged dorsal plates, launching the beast into the air and shattered its additional limbs in process. With the greatest of MUTOs weakened, Godzilla delivered a final blow by stomped the beast's skull, killing it.

After the fight, the exhausted Godzilla roared victoriously before weakly walking off into the sunset.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
In sequel to "Godzilla", Monarch and a recently-reawakened Godzilla travel to Antarctica where the team realize Alan Jonah's intentions to free a Titan encased in ice called "Monster Zero". Once there, Jonah's team ambushes the Monarch soldiers while Mark is unable to rescue Emma and Madison. In desperation, Emma frees and awakens the Titan herself. Monster Zero begins rampaging until Godzilla emerges through the ice, engaging in a fight that ends with Monster Zero flying away but Graham is killed in the ensuring mayhem. Much later over the oceans, Godzilla emerges from the ocean and engages Monster Zero, successfully tearing off one of its heads. In the midst of the battle, the military launches a missile known as the Oxygen Destroyer towards them, seemingly killing Godzilla, who sinks into the ocean. Monster Zero survives the missile unscathed and regenerates its missing head with a recovered Rodan, which becomes submissive to its rule, later. Eventually Monarch discovers that Monster Zero’s real name is Ghidorah, an alien who has usurped Godzilla’s position as the Alpha Titan.

Following Ghidorah’s ascension and the awakening of Titans around the world, Mothra emerges from her cocoon underneath the waterfall and flies to a facility in the Bermuda Triangle where she is able to communicate with Godzilla, who had survived the detonation and is recuperating in a chamber inside an underwater city. Monarch use the communication frequency to locate the pair, There, Mark and a Monarch team board a submarine to revive Godzilla, as they realize the natural process could take years. Ultimately, the team decide to detonate a nuclear weapon, allowing Godzilla to feed on the radiation, but due to earlier damages the submarine suffered from a vortex, the weapon system is offline. Serizawa volunteers to manually detonate the weapon, which revives Godzilla, At Fenway Park, Madison broadcasts a frequency that attracts all the Titans to its location. Ghidorah arrives at Boston and attempts to kill Madison, only for Godzilla to appear with Monarch's assistance to engage it. Mark leads a Monarch team to rescue Madison and escape the city before Godzilla overloads and emits a thermonuclear explosion. Mothra and Rodan arrive and fight each other while Godzilla battles Ghidorah. Mothra defeats Rodan, but is disintegrated by one of Ghidorah's lightning blasts, after an intense battle Mark, Emma, and Madison are reunited and attempt to restart the damaged ORCA to lure Ghidorah away from an injured Godzilla. As they are evacuated, Emma drives away with the ORCA to continue luring Ghidorah so Mark and Madison can escape, sacrificing herself in the process. Godzilla recovers and unleashes thermonuclear blasts, bombarding Ghidorah with atomic pulses that destroy him for good. Rodan and the other Titans then converge on Godzilla, bowing to him as their new "King of the Monsters".

Following the Titan outbreak, Monarch has divulged their information on the Titans to the public. News clippings reveal Godzilla’s swimming path having a restorative effect on coral reefs and fish populations, as well as him keeping the other Titans in check. Another article elaborates the discovery of ancient paintings displaying Godzilla battling Kong.

Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla is set to fight King Kong in this installment. Madison Russell, Mark Russell and Ilene Chen will also return, but it's unknown if they will side with Godzilla or with Kong.



Personality
In stark contrast of his more aggressive and misanthropic incarnations, MonsterVerse Godzilla never demonstrates outright hostility toward humans every time they cross paths despite hardly a Gentle Giant unlike his friend Mothra. In fact, he tries his best not to spark a conflict against them, even when they initially perceiving him as a threat, as shown through his interactions with military forces that surrounding him throughout his hunt for M.U.T.O.s and not retaliating when the navy fleet attacking him. Although responsible for some human deaths and destruction throughout his hunt for two M.U.T.O.s., said deaths and destruction was merely the result of his lackluster size and collateral damage from the fight against two kaijus. In fact, the destruction of Golden Gate Bridge in the events of his debut film could've been avoided had the military allowed him to find his own way to get past on his own.

Godzilla does however, displayed inquisitiveness in humans and able to tell that they are on the same side. This was shown when he sees Serizawa approaching him and placing his hand on his face, and later after he resurfaces and leans forward to inspect Mark Russell. Godzilla also displayed similar behavior upon seeing Ford Brody, apparently deducted him as the one who ruined M.U.T.O.s teamwork by destroying their nests which in turn, led to him indirectly saving his life by killing the female M.U.T.O.. It's implied that the reason of him against pointless conflict against mankind was stemmed from witnessing how formidable they can be, and thus encouraged other kaijus to do the same after defeating his nemesis King Ghidorah.

MonsterVerse Godzilla's personality evokes that "last samurai" archetype, and be a lone, ancient warrior content with solitude and preferring not to be a part of the world but has to resurface when certain types of events force him to appear and set things right. In Godzilla's own case, the imbalance of the nature of his home planet. Befitting to Dr. Ishiro Serizawa's theory of him as the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, Godzilla would go on his way fighting any aggressors who threatened the said balance regardless of the odds. This in turn, led to Monarch describing his behavior as that of a "protector," calling him an "ancient guardian of the natural world." Whenever Godzilla is not enraged and in combat, Monarch describes him as "slow, graceful, inquisitive even."

Godzilla's most notable relationships with other kaijus are with MUTOs, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. With Mothra, they are genuine allies, more so than than their past incarnations that prone to at odds with each other. This was evident through Mothra's undying loyalty towards him when other kaijus are coerced to serve King Ghidorah, and Godzilla himself in turn, avenged her defeat at hands of their common enemy. With MUTOs in general, he perceived them as uneasy ally at best (as some MUTOs such as the one that appeared in the events of King of the Monsters do respect him) and deadly pests and natural enemy at worst. With King Ghidorah, the two kaijus are fierce nemeses whose feud best described as the symbolic battle between light and shadow.

Overall, this is the most heroic incarnation of Godzilla to date, willing to risk his life to protect Earth from the evil Kaiju that threatens it, and acting as Monarch's ally.

Physical Appearance
In response of the previous deviating Hollywood incarnation that Toho denounced as a separate kaiju called Zilla, Hollywood filmmakers, who later worked on the ongoing MonsterVerse series, eventually recreated the Hollywood version of the character which is more faithful with Toho's Godzilla where this Godzilla is designed to resemble his original counterparts, particularly the 1954 version to keep his character in Hollywood movies consistent with Toho's. Even so, this Godzilla was given more natural physiology than the rest of his incarnations because in the MonsterVerse franchise, he was the last known member of a prehistoric reptillian kaiju species of the same name, which naturally evolved to gain their nuclear-based powers. Radiation during the era where Godzillas came to existence on Earth at that time was higher than in present day, resulting Godzillas's evolution into nuclear-enhanced kaiju worked naturally, evident from lack of keloid scars resulted from exposure to man-made radiation.

For the MonsterVerse incarnation of the character, his face is shaped very squarely, with a broad neck and possesses gills that enable him to stay underwater indefinitely. His eyes are a yellow color, and his teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as many previous Godzilla incarnations. His nostrils are more separate than previous incarnations, with them being in opposite sides of the snout. Godzilla's head and neck seem to lean forward more so than any previous design. His dorsal plates are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like the Godzillas from Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus. His claws are a black color, and his feet are wider and resemble an elephant's foot more than the other Godzilla incarnations' feet do. His skin is more reptile-like and crocodile-like as opposed of resembling keloid scars and rougher than the other incarnations, and is a blackish color. His body and tail are very wide as well, making him look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs.

Legendary Pictures has confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet, there are exactly 89 dorsal plates running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, feet that are about 59 feet and 6 inches long, and that his roar can be heard from three miles away.

Powers and Abilities
This incarnation of Godzilla has tons of abilities, many of them being more powerful than other incarnations' abilities:

Bio-atomic Nature
Being hailed from a species of reptilian kaiju that evolved to adapt and absorb natural radiation, Godzilla, like the rest of his kind, developed a bio-nuclear circulatory systems. Activating when threatened, a neutron flux is triggered that travels up Godzilla's dorsal fins to nucleosynthetic chambers in his throat and explodes into his atomic breath. His radioactive signature also makes it easy for Godzilla to be followed and monitored.

Strength
In addition with his great size, Godzilla is incredibly strong. In his debut film, it is shown that he is capable of smashing through the Golden Gate Bridge (though it was mostly accidental), outpowering the Eight-Legged M.U.T.O. with ease, manhandling both the M.U.T.O.s, and having a strong bite; he also killed the Winged M.U.T.O. with his huge tail, which can also bring down a huge building. He is also shown to strong enough to spin and throw the larger Ghidorah with ease as well as rip one of his heads apart.

Intelligence
Godzilla displayed the ability to learn and strategize to solve problems at hand. Throughout the fight against the M.U.T.O.s, he doesn't simply attacking head on, but also studying their pattern and weaknesses. When he killed the male M.U.T.O. by impaling him against a nearby skyscraper with a swipe of his tail, Godzilla targeted vital part on said M.U.T.O. to ensure of him unable to recover from his wounds. Upon discovering female M.U.T.O.'s susceptibility to his atomic breath and exhausted from being overwhelmed at the same time, Godzilla blasted her mouth to incinerate her innards and saved his energy reserves in process, effectively killing her from inside out and decapitated her in process. In his fight against King Ghidorah, he brought their fight underwater and would've won had the military severely crippled him with experimental Oxygen Destroyer and to everyone's horror, ensuring his said nemesis' escape and brief dominance over other kaijus across the world.

In addition of combat, Godzilla also displayed his problem-solving skills to avoid unnecessary conflict with others. He intimidated personnel of Monarch's Castle Bravo base not to attack him when they get into his way for investigating ORCA signal from Antarctica and later, deducting humans from a nearby submarine (particularly Mark Russell) observing him and have something to do with sudden nuclear explosion that revitalizated his systems before heading off to confront Ghidorah in Boston. He also acknowledged other kaijus who submitted upon him after Ghidorah's defeat, showing that Godzilla knows that the only way to win them and put them in their place is by defeating their alpha (Ghidorah).

Atomic Breath
Like his Japanese counterpart, Godzilla possesses Atomic Breath. Godzilla's atomic breath is a powerful, concentrated blue beam of pure radiation blasted from his mouth. It is strong enough to bring down the Eight-Legged M.U.T.O. in two shots, and he often uses it as a final blow on his opponent. The neon-blue glow on Godzilla's dorsal plates begins at the tip of his tail and goes all the way to the top of his neck in this film, and to let the audience know when he was going to fire it, an electric humming sound is heard. His eyes and numerous orifices around his scales also glow neon-blue moments before and when he unleashes the beam from his mouth, though this only occurs if he is in perfect condition and not hampered by MUTOs' EMP field.

The atomic breath that Godzilla demonstrated during his battle against MUTOs might not have been released in full strength unlike his counterpart, since in the graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening and later, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla was shown breathing a more intense and beam-like atomic breath, which could be stronger and as destructive as the atomic breath used by his Japanese incarnations when he is in better condition. Even so, he can only use it sparingly, as using the ability three times in a row would exhaust him. In King of the Monsters, his atomic breath is mostly ineffective against King Ghidorah. It can push Ghidorah back by a relatively short distance away, but Ghidorah is keen enough to avoid it in time if he knows Godzilla will fire at him. The atomic breath does nothing to harm or burn Ghidorah, forcing Godzilla to find alternative means to take down Ghidorah.

Nuclear Pulse
As revealed in Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla possesses the ability to emit a shockwave of atomic energy from his body at will as a short-range attack. MonsterVerse's version of the attack is shown to be strong enough to send a kaiju around MUTO Prime's size sailing and crippling it at the same time if deployed from point-blank range.

Amphibiousness
Using his gills, Godzilla is capable of living and breathing underwater. He is also a great swimmer. As this version possessed gills for swimming underwater, it's possible that he could swim far longer than his other incarnations.

Durability
Godzilla is immune to Conventional Weaponry and is tough enough to survive constant beatings from the two M.U.T.O.s, but the only body part that was least durable was his gills, as seen when he became panicked when one of the missiles hit his gills and forced him to retreat, and as a result, he destroyed Golden Bridge by accident.

Arms
It's shown Godzilla has small arms identically much like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which allows an opponent to leap onto his head and attack since he can't reach over and fight back. This was the case with the male M.U.T.O., in which he leaped onto Godzilla's head without being taken off. The male M.U.T.O. attacking Godzilla like this allowed the female M.U.T.O. to ram Godzilla into a building.

Gills
Godzilla's greatest weakness seems to be his gills. This was shown when the military (scared because he was a giant monster) shot at Godzilla's dorsal plates while rising out of the sea, but he didn't suffer any damage. When they fired at his gills, it caused him to accidentally smash through the Golden Gate Bridge, since he was suffering from a lot of agony at the time before continuing to hunt the male M.U.T.O.

This was also shown when Godzilla was being beaten down by the mated M.U.T.O. pair. At one point, he roared at the female M.U.T.O., but her mate attacked him, and after that, he suffered extreme agony when the female M.U.T.O. slashed through his gills with one of her claws.

Lackluster size
While not inhibiting him in combat, Godzilla's size can be exploited against him, as he unintentionally causes destruction (such as creating a tsunami when he surfaces near Hawaii, or when he plows right through the Golden Gate Bridge, cleaving it in half) as a byproduct. However, the destruction he inadvertently causes is of little concern to himself and is more of a danger to other, smaller lifeforms such as humans.

Oxygen Destroyer
On the same vein with his first incarnation, Godzilla is highly susceptible to Oxygen Destroyer. Nonetheless, he is able to survive the exposure from a single blast albeit severely crippled in process, forcing him to retreat to his lair to restore his health before his heart stopped beating which would kill him of cardiac arrest.

Reception
The company Toho disliked the Tristar Godzilla design a lot, and thus dubbed the monster "Zilla" (even though, legally and canonically, it's still Godzilla, as the real Zilla was in Godzilla: Final Wars). However, Toho loved the 2014 design of Godzilla, and because of this, they gave Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures the rights to 3 other monsters: Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. All three are set to appear in the 2019 sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Also, the design of the MonsterVerse incarnation of the character become basis of anime trilogy incarnation's, which featured in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of the Battle, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater.

Trivia

 * This Godzilla's recent design is based on the original 1954 design, the ShodaiGoji suit from the original Godzilla film, as director Gareth Edwards wanted to create a Godzilla design that's very modern, but still respects and resembles the design from the original Toho films.
 * This version of Godzilla's fighting style mostly resembles a bear and Komodo dragon's and only use his atomic breath sparingly, contrasting to other incarnations who use the breath attacks more often; however, this may change in future films.
 * This version of Godzilla is one of the friendliest towards humans. Ironically, his copyright holder Toho Studios refuses to make Godzilla a hero anymore in their domestic films for political and environmental purposes. His counterparts in Shin Godzilla and the anime trilogy are both metaphors for both the damage done by the United States for meddling in foreign affairs and the homeland disasters that struck Japan in the 2010s decade including the Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster, thus making him incredibly malicious and detrimental to the human race's fate.
 * Godzilla's Kevloid scars are a reference to the victims of the Hiroshima bombings.
 * He is credited as Himself in the sequel, despite T.J Storm is still credited for motion capture..
 * It is unknown why Godzilla and King Kong would fight each other in Godzilla vs. Kong, given the fact that they are both heroic monsters; this would classify both of them as Good Vs. Good.
 * However, it is safe to assume that they believe each other are a threat, with Godzilla believing King Kong is a threat to the balance of nature, and King Kong believing Godzilla is a threat to Skull Island.
 * Or that King Kong refuses to accept Godzilla as his king, and so he's challenging Godzilla for the title of King of the Monsters. The ending credits imply this because Godzilla and Kong were shown to be rivals since ancient times according to cave drawings.
 * This is the first incarnation of Godzilla to possess gills, the other being the Godzilla from the Toho 2016 reboot, Shin Godzilla, except that the latter only had gills in his 2nd and 3rd forms, not the entire movie like the MonsterVerse Godzilla did.
 * Godzilla is implied to be the last of his kind, as the MUTO spores were found in the fossilized skeleton of another member of his kind, suggesting that his species was wiped out by the MUTOs with him as the sole survivor.