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Godzilla Minus One vs Suko!

Mothra and Shimo are not impressed

(It did not go according to plan...)

In Goji's and Kong's eyes, they look like this:

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Not to claim Godzilla x Kong was a deep film, but credit where it’s due, it has by far the most respectful portrayal of indigenous people in all of the Kong films.

This is not a high bar and I’m NOT saying it’s the pinnacle of progressive film work, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Spoilers below, of course.

For those of you who haven’t seen any of the older Kong films outside of the Monsterverse, the general plot beat is that a wealthy businessman/philanthropist/greedy asshole goes to Skull Island to find something new to make a lot of money (film for the OG/Peter Jackson and Oil for the 70’s film), and comes across a tribe of “barbarian” natives who kidnap the beautiful white woman whom they sacrifice to Kong, whom they worship.

It’s such a cliche that even Peter Jackson does it in his 2005 film (and it’s possibly even more racist than the older ones):

As you can see, there is a very familiar pattern

The Iwi tribe of the Monsterverse is handled very differently

In Kong: Skull Island, it actually does try to play into previous viewers perceptions; we meet the Iwi as the protags stumble upon their village ruins and are surrounded by. Tension is tight, and it looks like it’ll be a repeat of the previous films… until the character of Hank Marlow arrives and diffuses the tension entirely, revealing that the Iwi have been generous and caring hosts to him.

And yes, while they do worship Kong, it’s not out of fear, but rather that Kong protects them from the hazards of Skull Island. The Iwi are the ones who help the crew get a working ship and aid them in escaping the island.

This is followed up in Godzilla vs Kong, where we tragically learn that a massive tropical storm (I think implied to be due to King Ghidorah hurricanes) sank the entire island and left Jia as the sole survivor of her tribe, saved due to Kong protecting her from the rising floods.

Kong and Jia are then seen as a near inseparable duo, further twisting the “beauty and beast” dynamic of the previous films, making it more about how they are both alone except for each other. Kong even learns sign language from Jia in one of the best movie reveals of the series:

It’s even Jia who is able to give Kong the morale boost to save Godzilla from Mechagodzilla.

And then we get into Godzilla x Kong. Kong and Jia, while having a new home, still feel isolated because of their cultures (or lack thereof) and make excuses to see each other as much as possible. Which is turned on its head as Kong finds other Apes and the Iwi tribe have returned (or at least) an offshoot of them, as the protectors of humanity who calls Godzilla to their aid.

I was a bit wary of making them telepathic, but I liked that they used it more like a separate language than a superpower, with Jia serving as that bridge as she finds her culture, her adoptive mother accepts that Jia may want this life more than one back home (where she felt out of place), and Jia becoming ANOTHER bridge as she helps resurrect Mothra who goes onto make Godzilla and Kong form an alliance!

Ultimately, Jia parts ways with the Iwi on good terms to live with her adoptive mother, happy to know there are people of her culture she can visit and Kong lives on with his people.

But I especially appreciate a moment in the film that pretty much lampshades the older Kong movies.

One of the characters is filming himself and others as they venture into Hollow Earth, desperate to get his fame and fortune in making people realize he was a hero and not a conspiracy theorist (he was a spy for Apex Labs, the ones who built mechagodzilla in the first place). Another character is an animal doctor and naturalist, who points out that, historically, native populations don’t tend to do well when exposed to the modern world.

Add on to the fact that the Iwi are telepathic and know how to use crystals to alter gravity in Hollow Earth, they would absolutely be the target of government operations and experimentation. Aka, a far more grand version of what happens in the older Kong films.

The film ends with the footage not being used and the Iwi living in peace, having Mothra once more to protect them.

Like I said, it’s not groundbreaking stuff, but I appreciate how different it is.

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The fire nation's defeat was technically Azula's fault.

Zuko and Iroh were branded traitors and failures. Azula was given specific instructions to capture them, dead or alive. Azula had them both red-handed in Ba Sing Se. Instead of doing what she was told, she asks for Zuko's help and she clears his name in return.

Now, it could be argued that without Zuko's help, she would've been pummeled into submission by Aang and Azula. Well, then after his usefulness was used up, she had a chance to pull yet another fast one and apprehend him without having to lie to Ozai.

Zuko acted suspiciously. He made Azula doubt that Aang really died and she began to think that Zuko may have had something to do with his survival. Instead of searching for proof of Aang's survival and informing her suspicions to Ozai, she puts unnecessary risk on herself and sets up a gambit that was ultimately pointless in more ways than one.

If Azula did what she was supposed to do, Zuko and Iroh would be dead or put in prison which leads to Zuko never finding out about the plans with the comet, Aang never finds a firebending sifu, the FN gains victory unopposed, and Azula can reign as Fire Lord.

In short, by choosing to lend Zuko a hand more than once, she indirectly did Team Avatar a huge favor.

Boom: Butterfly Effect.

The FN's MVP was also Team Avatar's MVP. I do enjoy the irony.

I wonder though, what would the Gaang's, Azula's Zuko's, Iroh's, Ozai's, and all of FN's reactions when realizing this epiphany?

It would break Azula.

...no seriously. It would break her.

While I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say that the defeat of the Fire Nation was her fault (cause there's no way in hell she could've seen bringing Zuko home would end up with his betrayal of Ozai), I do think she was hurting already with Zuko betraying her. If she was torn up about Mai and Ty Lee turning on her, I have no doubt she'd feel the same about Zuko regardless of what her relationship with him is right now. Add on to the fact that this is a girl that is hoisted with way too much responsibility than she is able to handle (being driven to become perfect at any cost), a revelation like this would destroy her.

And the fallout wouldn't be pretty. At all. It would probably rival her breakdown at Sozin's Comet, if not be worse. Hell, I think Zuko and Iroh would be a bit concerned for her. Zuko did seem somewhat regretful at her state after the Last Agni Kai and Iroh (while not Azula's biggest fan) probably wouldn't be that callous to brush her off.

Ozai would hate her though. Hate hate HATE her though. He puts on so much pressure for her to be perfect. What do you think the abusive piece of shit is going to do when he puts two and two together. Might even disown her on the spot, which will cause her to spiral even more. And she'd probably lose a lot of support in the Fire Nation for indirectly letting an unpopular successor on the throne, which would cause her to spiral even further.

...kind of why I don't really want to put the blame on the Fire Nation's defeat on her since the poor kid doesn't need that on top of her failures already. Besides, I think the defeat of the Fire Nation can better be laid on Ozai's feet. I mean, he was the one who banished Zuko and mistreated both him and Azula. If we want to go indirect, he set up a domino effect. And directly, he wasn't able to consolidate the Fire Nation's gains at the end of the war which led to a huge rebellion movement. And he certainly didn't seem to want to get involved with fighting Aang during the Day of the Black Sun which could've stacked the odds further against him when the firebending was turned back on. Mind you, this was before Zuko showed up. Like he was sipping tea while Azula was holding the Gaang off.

That being said, I could see him pass the buck off on Azula for the Fire Nation's defeat. Which would lead into the scenario I just outlined above.

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More of Goji’s self indulgent fan fiction 💛

The man that walks alone and stands for others

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Watching Kong swinging Suko around to beat the absolute shit out of the other monkey titans was peak cinema. No scene in any Kaiju film can top that, and I will die on this hill. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

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"Hell itself."

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Godzilla x Kong New Empire but it's the Spongebob Movie

I had this idea BEFORE the movie even came out lol

This took longer than I thought! Please appreciate it!

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When Mothra talks, nobody talks.

And that's a fact!

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(shes making fratricide legal)

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Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire's New Groove

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Godzilla X Kong: How it Should Have Gone

GxK is definitely a step above it's predecessor. Actually, it's several hundred steps, if I say so myself. Aside from improving on every aspect that felt lacking before, it also gave us the glorious return of everyone's favorite Queen of the monsters (well, it almost didn't, but that taught me the value of test audiences). HOWEVER, just like everything about Godzilla in this film and the last, I felt that his and Mothra's reunion was a little too rushed. I had a feeling it would be that way well before I saw the film, so I said to myself "if you want something done right, do it yourself.

And so, I did. And I threw in some good Mothzilla angst for good measure. And frankly, I'm darned proud of it. Anyone who wants to give it a dub is welcome to do so (with proper crediting, of course)!

Here's hoping that Adam Wingard decides to finally put the monkey away for more than five minutes and give Big G's character a chance to shine in a way that doesn't involve fighting in the next movie (no offense to Kong at all, but I think his really good story is told, it's done).

So, who wants to hear my pitch for a "Godzilla X Mothra" story?! Haha, just kidding. Unless...

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Clingy Pouty Azula? ...clingy azula?

Clingy pouty azula!

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a very quick sketch drawing my versions of the Gjinkas, with the newer updates from the movie

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Godzilla and Kong's teamwork in a nutshell

No wonder they always fight...

Inspired by this video:

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Azula my beloved

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𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘦, 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦! by 𓆩𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚜༒𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚢𓆪@MissAndyDandy

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Azula in the last Agni Kai