Tag: Godzilla Mentioned

[THOUGHTS ON STORIES] Who’s the Protagonist (II) – Focusing on the Big Guy

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn Godzilla, Monster Movies, StoriesLeave a comment

[The header image was AI generated. I only wish I could draw that good.]

A couple of years back (more or less) I wrote a little on Protagonists. As a refresher, here are the terms as I see them as a Writer, Critic, and in general mad man:

  • Plot: A series of Action/Reaction events that form a story.
  • Protagonist: Character who’s choice has the greatest effect on the Plot.
  • Antagonist: Character that either opposes the Protagonist or is opposed by the protagonist. A proper Antagonist has a greater effect on the Plot than most.
  • Hero: The moral center of the Plot. They might not be the Protagonist, as that role isn’t a moral choice.
  • Villain: No shock, but a character that is the opposite of the Hero. Someone actively doing harm. They can even be the protagonist, as that role isn’t a moral choice.
  • Unfortunate Soul: Character who endangered by the Plot’s events that for reasons can’t do anything. They are never a Protagonist or an Antagonist, as they’re choices have little to no effect on the Plot.

Let’s add one final term, just for fun:

  • Force: An element that can drive the Plot that doesn’t have the agency of a Protagonist or Antagonist. It makes no conscious choice for or against, but actively effects the Plot.

That’s seems like a fine sampling.

Let’s look at a few stories, see how this shakes out. As I am who I am, we are looking at the three Godzilla movies that share the name Godzilla. Starting with the 1998 classic Godzilla.

Don’t make that face. It’s unbecoming.

Spoilers, for what it’s worth.

The Protagonist in Godzilla 98 is Nick Tatopoulos. He’s the one who makes all the choices that matter. He wants to stop Godzilla from causing destruction.

Opposing him as the Antagonist is, of course, Godzilla. All Godzilla wants is to roam about and be the best little monster it can be. Towards the end, with its offspring slaughtered, it actively tries to harm Nick. The size of its choices matter.

Ahem.

With Godzilla 14, things get interesting.

The Protagonists in this story are the bug like Muto. Everyone reacts to their choices. It doesn’t matter how they’re destructive. Being the Protagonist isn’t a moral choice, and every choice they make moves the Plot forward.

That said, once again the Antagonist here is Godzilla. He doesn’t want the Mutos to get what they want. They threaten his existence and until they stop, he won’t stop, either.

Now where does the human character, Brody, stand here? He’s the Hero. His actions, while important, don’t change the basic conflict between Muto and Godzilla. He helps Godzilla deal with the situation, unquestionably. But when everything is said and done, he does nothing that changes the Plot. If he wasn’t involved, the conflict would have continued and ended just fine without him.

Albeit perhaps not as happily for the world.

Now if you thought that last bit was wrong headed… well you ain’t heard nothing yet.

The Protagonist in the original Godzilla is the character you see the least: Daisuke Serizawa. Standing against him is the Antagonist… Hideto Ogata.

Yeah. That’s right. Godzilla doesn’t matter in his own first movie. at best he’s a Force.

Isn’t that wild? But hear me out.

What Godzilla is is unimportant. He doesn’t have to be a radioactive dinosaur. He could be anything from a giant octopus (which he almost was) to radioactive sludge.

What matters is that he’s a problem that needs solved.

Serizawa has the solution to that problem. It is his choice that matters the most in the movie. To refrain from acting means the threat continues unhampered. Acting, on the other hand, might unleash a far worse threat. In fact, Serizawa is pretty certain that it will.

Ogata, however, opposes this. He sees only the threat before them and forces Serizawa into a decision. And, in my humble opinion, that decision is the worst possible choice.

To reinforce this, remember there is only one scene between Serizawa and Godzilla. Godzilla, at the time, is minding his own business. His threat, while real and present, is also theoretical at that point.

As I’m throwing cod theory about, let me say that the real antagonist should have been Emiko Yamane. Ultimately she’s the one who betrays Serizawa on so many levels. But that’s expecting a little much from a film out of the Fifties.

Now that was fun. Might go back to this little thought experiment at another time.

[Site] Blathering As Writing Practice

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn Site InformationLeave a comment

Every week I need to post something.

It’s to encourage me to write. To make time in my “busy schedule” to write.

There are two problems with this.

Problem number one is that I don’t always think of something to write about. It happens.

I also sometimes think “This would be a good post” while at work, then when I come home wonder what I was thinking. Or the key to what I want to write is gone. Or I no longer have enough time to work on the project.

On the one hand you can’t force something into being. On the other hand, that’s just an excuse not to write.

Instead of doing what I was thinking of, I could write something I hadn’t. Do a stream of conscious thing. Let the words flow. The important thing is that I’m writing, and that the writing flows more or less logically from one point to the next.

That’s what this post is an attempt at doing. Super effective so far.

Problem number two really isn’t a problem. I actually am writing. I’m working on novel notes. Character work, world work, story work. Stuff I should have done years ago. Stuff I’ve been fiddling with for the past two years.

This, however, does nothing for the blog. And I am now paying good money for this blog.

Same holds true for the review site. For over a year I’ve been paying for it, and not once have I posted a review.

Put that aside for now.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I need to do something about it A bit of writing that interests me that I can post on site that I don’t force myself to do. Yet I actually force myself to do. If you can dig it.

An idea I’ve been toying with is doing a sort of review of The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Not of the collection, though, but the stories therein, starting with Dagon. They might not be long reviews. They might not be thoughtful. I might even skip some or all of the other tales. But I’ve had some thoughts rereading Old Providence, and maybe that would be worth fiddling with.

Connected to this thought (seriously, there is a link) I’ve been mulling over talking about a revelation I’ve had dealing with The Cask of Amontillado. Over the years this has become one of my favorite of Poe’s works, and I have a thing or two to say about it. Maybe not the most original of things. A fact that has stopped no writer from blathering before.

I have also figured out just why Godzilla keeps coming to shore at Japan. And there’s my little Anime Theory of Godzilla that simply must be aired.

I could, of course, mention the worst short story I’ve ever written. Seriously, knowing it’s existence is such a weight off my chest. Everything after it has been so much better because of it. The only problem here is that to do it justice (ha!) I have to reread it. A task I’m not certain I’m up to.

Oh dear God, is it bad.

As I’m restarting the site, I could revamp or rework some old school series. The Hell… ?! comes to mind on that, though I’ve not hit too many bizarre situations that warrant that title.

Well, except for the plagiarist who, in the process of apologizing for her theft, plagiarized an essay about plagiarism from I believe a magazine dealing with plagiarism. Something that is… Well it’s kinda… The Hell… ?!

And so on and so forth. The ideas are there. And next week I hope to do one of them.

Of course, I could again rattle on as I’m doing now. To be honest this stream of thought experiment hasn’t been a bad thing, all things considered. It just has to be on a subject that isn’t what I might be writing about.

That leaves potential things I might draw as fair game. Or not.

Anyways, see you next Friday. Or sooner. Or later. Whenever I plant myself here and write.

The Big Three (II): That Strangely Innocent and Tragic Monster

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn Monster Movies2 Comments

For me, Godzilla will always be a hero. The monster that stops the bad monsters from… well… being bad.

This, of course, plays hob with my watching some of his films. Especially the newer ones, which for some reason insist on making him the villain.

It’s not my fault. I grew up in the Seventies, during which time Godzilla really was a hero. When he appeared in his cartoon series everyone would cheer. Other heroes would fight him in the comics, but it was always a mistake to my mind. He didn’t mean to do bad things.

That was something a kid could understand. Other people made the rules, and they didn’t always tell you until after you broke them.

Now I understand and appreciate the movies where my big buddy is less than noble. I do. But I still root for him, deep down.

What’s the appeal? Outside of the face he’s a dinosaur that breathes fire?

Well for starters, he’s a very simple character. Very hard to get wrong, unlike, say, Spider-Man.

See, all Godzilla wants is to be. To do what he wants, when he want. If he wants to walk from Point A to Point B, that’s what he does.

Trouble is that he has a pesky habit of walking through cities. Literally.

That’s it. That’s really all there is to him. But with that you can have stories of him being a mindless beast, an antisocial creature, or a veritable demon, and they all work.

Some better than others, of course, but it’s not that hard to make a good Godzilla movie.

The other thing is that he’s unique in the fact that he has a cast. The opponents he faces are among the most memorable in film history. Dinosaurs galore. Flying three headed dragons. Bionic bounty hunters with blades in their belly. Giant insects. Even sentient sludge. Only his rival Gamera comes as close in terms of wildness (and technically has the King beat in pure weird monsters.)

Really, Godzilla’s the best.

Of the three, he’s the only one I’ve never fully parted with. There have been stories of his I won’t watch again willingly, but there was never a time I stopped watching the “modern” version of him.

Some of my favorite movies are Godzilla movies. I own entirely too many Godzilla action figures. Hats. Shirts. Tote bags.

Seriously, I might have a problem.

My hero, the King of the Monsters. Long may he reign.

Next, we travers time and space to talk about the final of my Big Three fictional heroes.