So I’m getting this out of the way before I go any further because it’s a subject I’ve been meaning to clear up but keep forgetting to talk about. A number of people keep asking me what Godzilla looks like, what design I’m using exactly. The answer to that question is two fold. First part, he looks like however you want him to. I purposely wrote his description the way I did so anyone could impose their own favorite version of Godzilla onto him. So if you favor one design over another, that’s how he looks in the story. The second and more tangible answer is that when I write Godzilla, the image I have in my head of how he looks for the story is how he appears in the IDW comic “Half-Century War” as that design seems to encompass all he best aspects of Godzilla’s appearances over the years. Just imagine that design done in a Star Wars Rebels animation style and you have the general look of Godzilla from this story. That’s the long and short of it, now onto the real meat of today’s discussion.
You know why I decided to set this story in the Rebels time period? Mainly because it opened itself up to more leeway. I could’ve gone the nostalgic route and had it set after New Hope with Luke and friends. But then I’d just be doing a story with almost entirely franchise based characters with little input of my own. People like Kamo probably wouldn’t exist and his story of an old aging soldier trying to get his government to remember him and value him would be lost. I also wouldn’t have been able to create my own fighter squadron. I’d probably just use Rogue Squadron. Who are cool... but not nearly as diverse as I would like.
Ever since I played Crimson Skies I’ve adored the fighter squadron concept. A bunch of cocky ace pilot hot shots with a devil may care attitude and a desire to set the skies on fire. I love arcade flight combat, it’s my favorite genre I wish there was more of today. I’m going to elaborate more on this later, but I just feel that the concept is incredibly liberating. How strong or tough you are doesn’t matter in a dogfight, it’s all about skill and outwitting your opponent, balancing your weaknesses and strengths to come out the winner. In that vein anyone can be an ace pilot, anyone can be an expert dogfighter. And it just in general makes for more interesting fights, because the 2-Dimensional plain is gone. Now you’ve all the space in the world!
With that in mind I created Moira’s Raiders and, besides making their leader a girl because fuck it I can do that, I could also give her some unique wingmen. I don’t like the idea of Hat Civilizations. No one country had people who all think and act alike, why would a species. Gorossk is my attempt to do something so very rare, a Trandoshan who isn’t evil. I like to think I came up with a good reason why. He didn’t want to taint the purity of the hunter by becoming a lowly slaver. His clan didn’t like the idea of losing out on quick credits and left him for dead, only being saved by those he had hunted for years, the Wookies. It’s a bit Dances with Wolves, sure, but at least it’s something different than “Trandoshans hunt and kill Wookies because reasons.” I would hope people would find this refreshing. As well as the idea of a Battledroid mechanic that’s been reprogrammed to be a good guy.
As an aside, I always felt really bad for those Battledroids in the Clone Wars series. I get they were comedy relief, but they didn’t seem all that bad. They didn’t want to fight, it was just their programming. Did we really need to slice and dice all of them? It just got really sad and depressing. So here’s Jetty, a Battledroid who wants to help the cause of freedom for once and isn’t getting used as canon fodder. Still has that annoying voice though.
Considering Ahsoka got a big chunk of this chapter, maybe I should move onto her. It’s challenging trying to figure out her state of mind. I’m not entirely sure what happened to Ahsoka after she left the Order. Only a few people at Lucasfilm are. I’d like to think that she has a number of mixed feelings about the Jedi, but still remembers them fondly now and again. That this rebellion of her is a way of doing the right thing, doing what she feels any Jedi in her position would do. That being save the Galaxy of course. If you’ve seen the trailer for season two of Rebels, you also know Rex is alive and didn’t go Order 66 on us. At least I like to hope he didn’t.
In my head, Ahsoka and Rex met up at some point during the Empire’s rise, did what little they could to save some lives and the retreated as far into the Outer Rim as possible. And as they sit there, trying to comprehend how everything has fallen apart so quickly, Rex asks “What do we do now, Commander Tano?” And Ahsoka responds, “We keep fighting, Rex. Because it’s all we can do.” And they start working to one day free the Galaxy from the grip of the Empire. Because they’re practically bros. Sappy? Perhaps. But screw it, everyone else gets to have their head canons. Until I’m proven wrong I’m going with this.
The point is, Ahsoka is in a very precarious position. She’s a Jedi of acclaim living in a totally different world, trying to lead a Rebellion and face her own demons. I have no doubt there are going to be a few problems arising between her beliefs and Kanan’s about the Jedi Order. What those exactly are remains to be seen. Of course I’m sure more people are interested in the obvious, Darth Vader, Anakin, her former master. For those who peeked at the spoilers for the coming premiere, you probably have an idea of what Ahsoka knows by now. So beware, this story is a bit spoilery for readers. I’ve already hinted at that. Like the Zillo-Beast, that’s a domino that will be toppled in due time.
You know, I was gonna have Godzilla kill Devo in this chapter. But I decided against it ultimately. I figured, I can probably do a bit more with this guy, let him stick around a bit longer. Maybe I’m just a sucker for Jet Packs. Speaking of which, I based the Jumptroopers design off the one I found on Wookiepedia. They may not be canon anymore technically, but that won’t stop me from mining the well.
Speaking of the Jumptroopers, the idea for them to land and scale Godzilla came from another IDW comic, where an aging daredevil stuntman is hired to climb Godzilla and collect samples from him. Over the course of the story he learns to respect and understand the monster and comes up with his own ideas about who and what he is. Devo was never going to experience anything that profound, but the idea of someone climbing Godzilla still intrigued me. So I went with it, because seriously, I’m surprised more people haven’t done this idea.
Considering how much I’ve been talking about it in story as of late, let’s consider Godzilla for a moment. What is his motivation? Why does he do what he does? The goal does vary, but the question speaks to what he is as a character. Like many long lasting icons, there are many interpretations of him and what he is. With that comes preferences. I believe I’ve said before I fall into the anti-hero/Superhero camp of Godzilla. I just prefer it that way. I see too many monster movies where the monster is just a mindless killing machine with little to no motivation. Only rarely do we see some sense of humanity behind the beast. Not too much of course, we don’t want to fully humanize him, but just some kind of actual emotion beyond bloodlust. You know what made the Predator interesting, that it had a code of honor and his face was incredibly expressive. Godzilla needs that too, no matter how he’s presented. I just find it works better when he’s not pure evil. I don’t begrudge that depiction, I think it more than has its place and deserves its time in the sun. I’m just not as interested in that representation.
Godzilla to me is... well... like Mad Max. In those movies, including the latest one, Max is an asshole. He’s in it for himself, he only cares about him and he just wants to get on with his loner lifestyle. However, the tough guy jerk persona is an act. He does care, he does give a crap. He’s a good person, he’s just a jackass on the outside half the time. Godzilla is the same way. He’s not really friends with humanity, he’s not really out to save them, but he does give a crap, eventually.
Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster is my favorite of the Showa Era for these reasons. Godzilla is an asshole for most of the movie, just wanting to cause destruction and fight Rodan because he’s a dick. Then Mothra shows up, cusses both him and Rodan out for being selfish and decides to fight Ghidrah alone. And her act of bravery is enough to move Godzilla and Rodan, make them realize that their fighting is pointless and they rush to help Mothra defeat the three headed alien dragon and save Earth. Godzilla is an ass, but he’s not heartless. That’s my Godzilla, that the Big G as seen in Rulers of Earth comic. He’s not in it to be the hero, but he’ll be the hero anyway, because someone has to.
So in the snippets we’ve seen from the King’s perspective, I’ve been trying to show that what he’s doing is not out of malice. He’s not a sadist. He’s here to teach a lesson, to punish those he sees as arrogant, to make some kind of point. What that point is exactly isn’t very clear, as I’ve tried to keep it ambiguous for now. His anger towards humanity in general is born of something primal though, a deep seated personal wrong. He doesn’t hate, but he won’t easily forgive. There’s a bit of a character arc for Big G in this story to say the least, starting out as an angry vengeful monster who only cares about punishing those who have wronged him and wreaking destruction. Over time though, I want to show him developing, learning a bit. Because Godzilla is a character, and he deserves to have some progression alongside our heroes and villains.
Speaking of the good guy Godzilla, I think I should tell you all now that the movie from 2014 is also one of my favorites. I know that film is a bit of a split between fans, and while I acknowledge many of their criticisms as legitimate... I don’t really care about any of them. I don’t mind that Godzilla takes awhile to show up. He always takes forever to show up. I don’t mind he’s got limited screentime, every moment he’s on screen is used to great effect. The teasing is annoying, but the pay off is friggin perfect at the climax. Godzilla is a hero in this movie, saving mankind from a creature they unleashed through their hunt for radioactive material and helped grow with their flagrant abuse of their nuclear power. It’s probably the first Godzilla movie in a long time that actually addresses the original message of the movies, that nuclear energy is dangerous and will probably kill us all if we’re not careful. We’re toying with something that is incredibly deadly and we may be about to suffer for it. Why else is Yucca Mountain a plot point? So please, try to understand, I love that movie. I watched it four times in the theatre. Do not harsh my buzz, please.
On the subject of American Godzilla movies, I encourage all to head over to Sci Fi Japan. The website is currently doing a series on the 1995 Godzilla movie that never was. Hearing about the production of the film has been incredibly enlightening. Heartbreaking, yes, but nevertheless informative. While I’m not going to say the movie would’ve bee perfect, I have a few problems with the script that I assume would’ve been corrected at some point before filming began, it is still vastly superior to what we did get in 1998. I have no doubt Gareth Edwards took some inspiration from the screenplay for the unfinished film to make the 2014 movie. One day I hope IDW will decide to finish what those guys started and make the comic adaptation of said movie. Dark Horse published the first draft of the Star Wars script after all, why not this? Like those who are disappointed to hear about unfinished Clone wars episodes, I feel like this story needs an outlet. It needs someone to tell it. An independent artist tried, but his website for the adaptation hasn’t updated in years. Someone needs to finish that thing, and soon. Just saying, I would buy it.
Then again it’s probably up to Toho. They’re very protective about the brand. When I met Chris Mowry at Comic Con last year, he’s the guy who writes Rulers of Earth, he told me that Toho wasn’t big on Crossovers. That’s why you’ve never seen the King square off against Gamera. It’s why this little idea of mine, this story I’m writing, will never happen. I suppose they have their reasons, but it is very disappointing. I guess the only way we’ll see something like Godzilla vs the Avengers is in that comic series from the seventies. Oh well, at least we still have fanfiction, where anything is possible.
I think that’s really all for now. Next time I’ll dig deeper into dogfights in fiction as well as a few more Kaiju subjects. We’ll see. Right now, I just wanna get to work on the next chapter soon. I got a lot of time to make up for.
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