Godzilla

Godzilla is a gigantic, aquatic reptile known as the King of the Monsters. He first appeared in Godzilla. To date, he has appeared twenty two Godzilla films.

Origins[]

In Godzilla, it is proposed that Godzilla was a type of prehistoric intermediary reptile related to both land and sea reptiles that slept deep underwater for millions of years feeding on deep sea organisms before being disturbed and enhanced by an American hydrogen bomb test. Dr. Yamane proposes that the original Godzilla might have been living among others of his kind prior to the detonation, but the H-bomb completely destroyed his home and drew him out. This idea is supported by official artwork of the 1954 Godzilla living with other Godzillas underwater before a huge explosion destroys his habitat, killing his companions and burning and enraging Godzilla and drawing him to the surface. After the original Godzilla is killed, Yamane proposes that other Godzillas may have survived to the present day and could be awakened by future nuclear tests. This explains how in the various continuities that encompass the series, multiple individual Godzillas have appeared. In the continuity of the Showa era, a second Godzilla appeared only a year later alongside Anguirus, and proceeded to be featured in the remaining films until the fifteenth film in the saga.

In the Heisei era, it is theorized that Godzilla was a type of dinosaur called a Godzillasaurus that had survived the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period living on Lagos Island that was mutated by nuclear tests performed on a nearby island called Rongerik in the 1950s. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the Futurians take the Godzillasaurus away from Lagos Island and place him frozen in the Bering Sea, hoping to prevent his creation, only for him to actually become Godzilla in the first place by being mutated by a nuclear sub crash. Godzilla then is awakened by a volcanic eruption in 1984 and turns his sights on Japan. It is later clarified that the first Godzilla which attacked Tokyo in 1954 was a separate individual from this Godzilla, and still was awakened by the H-bomb test in 1954 and attacked Tokyo before being killed by the Oxygen Destroyer.

Appearance[]

In the films, Godzilla is depicted as a gigantic reptile with rough, bumpy, black scales, a long powerful tail, and black and white dorsal plates (called scutes), shaped like snowflakes. His origins vary somewhat from film to film. In particular, mutation is presented as an explanation for his enormous size and strange powers. Godzilla's design is composed of a mixture of various species of dinosaurs; specifically, he has the body and overall shape of an old model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the long arms of an Iguanodon, and the dorsal plates of a Stegosaurus.

Personality[]

Godzilla, in Godzilla, is a creature whose underwater habitat was completely destroyed by a hydrogen bomb test which also killed his family and burned and scarred him. Enraged and driven from his home, Godzilla took out his rage upon humanity, destroying any boats that he encountered and later laying waste to the city of Tokyo. In the subsequent films of the early Showa era and the Heisei era, Godzilla is an animal with at least semi-sapience that stumbles upon human civilization without any malicious intent, only destroying man-made structures or obstacles like buildings when the humans provoke him, or, when dead-set on arriving at a certain location. As the Godzilla series continued into the 1960's and 1970's, the terrifying monster developed as a character, and has since become a savior of the Earth, saving the world from other monsters like King Ghidorah, the Showa Mechagodzilla, and Biollante, alone or alongside other monsters like Rodan, Anguirus, and Mothra.

According to Mothra's Shobijin's translation of Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla's conversation in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla only "hates humans because they hate him," suggesting that Godzilla never had any true malicious intent but was only reacting to constantly being attacked by humans. Rodan later agrees with Godzilla's statement.

Powers and Abilities[]

Over the years, Godzilla has possessed many powers and abilities to use against his opponents. Godzilla is generally considered to be the most powerful kaiju.

Atomic Breath[]

Godzilla's signature weapon is his distinctive atomic breath. Godzilla's dorsal plates glow ominously, and then he lets loose with a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. This power is commonly mistaken for breathing literal fire, which Godzilla only does in the Marvel comics, The Godzilla Power Hour and other non-film media such as the Recommend! Godzilland OVAs.

The intensity of Godzilla's atomic heat ray has changed over the course of his film appearances, varying from a stream of superheated vapor, such as in the 1950's and 1960's, to a beam with explosive and kinetic properties, in the 1970's and onward. In the Heisei series, Godzilla's atomic breath is portrayed as a powerful focused blue laser capable of causing large explosions and severely wounding some monsters such as Rodan and Battra when fired at point-blank range. According to the book Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works, the temperature of Godzilla's standard atomic breath in the Heisei series is 500,000 degrees Celsius. The ray is portrayed as being blue.

Nuclear Pulse and Magnetic Powers[]

In addition to his very deadly atomic breath, Godzilla can also emit atomic energy in all directions from every inch of his body in a short-range pulse. The pulse was first seen in his fight against Biollante. Godzilla used the nuclear pulse throughout the Heisei series. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla found a way to generate powerful magnetic fields from his body after being struck several times by lightning, which proved devastating against his metallic foe. This is the only time Godzilla ever used this power. In the film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2, Godzilla demonstrated another ability that may have been a variant of his nuclear pulse. After being struck with Mechagodzilla's Shock Anchor harpoons, Godzilla discharged a form of energy up the cables, severely damaging the robot's internal mechanisms. However, this was not the only time Godzilla ever used this ability. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla discharged energy through his physical blows in his offensive against the sinister space mutant SpaceGodzilla. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2, Godzilla also demonstrated the ability to give off huge amounts of radiation and heat after absorbing Fire Rodan's energy. This heat proved to be so intense that it caused Super Mechagodzilla's synthetic diamond armor to literally melt, allowing the mech to be easily destroyed by Godzilla's spiral ray.

In the film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, when Godzilla's body temperature begins to approach critical due to his meltdown, he constantly emits more powerful orange-colored nuclear pulses. While these pulses were ineffective against the Super X3, they did stun Destoroyah a few times and caused the area surrounding Godzilla to erupt in flames. In this case, the nuclear pulses appear to be uncontrollable and are a symptom of Godzilla's meltdown.

History[]

Showa Series[]

The Godzilla series began with the Showa series, which ran from 1954 to 1975. Aside from the first fifteen Godzilla films, the Showa series is considered to include various other kaiju films, including Rodan and Mothra. The Showa series is characterized by a loose sense of continuity, with most films only referring to the events of the film directly before them, as well as a lighter tone, save for Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The Showa series introduced some of Godzilla's most famous monster costars, including Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla.

Heisei Series[]

The Heisei series marked Godzilla's return after a decade's absence, as well as a transition between the reign of the Showa Emperor Hirohito to that of his son Akihito, now dubbed the Heisei Emperor. After several failed attempts to revive the Godzilla series, they finally produced the sixteenth entry in the franchise, The Return of Godzilla. The Return of Godzilla ignored all previous films except for the original film. Despite being released during the Showa era (as the Heisei era did not begin until 1989), The Return of Godzilla is considered the first entry of the Heisei series, due to sharing continuity with all of the films in the Heisei series which succeeded it and due to the nine-year gap between it and the fifteenth film in the saga. The Heisei series lasted for seven films and ended with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.