#ask-drakos

Well first off, I take issue with the idea that they don’t have characterization.  While they may not be the cunning Joker-esque supervillains a lot of fans turn them into, Ghidorah and Gigan do have personalities beyond just being “bad guys.”  The combination of the puppetry and sound effects give Ghidorah a distinctly manic vibe no other kaiju in the series can match - he’s a giggling monster who flails around in hysteric glee while razing the world, shooting gravity beams in random directions haphazardly.  There’s a distinct chaotic joy in how Ghidorah goes about his rampages that no other kaiju in the series has.  As for Gigan, his creator said he was designed with the theme of a “dirty fighter,” and he totally lives up to it - he’s a thug with a billion tricky weapons who runs the minute things go South.

Are they the most in depth characterizations in the history of film?  Nah, but they suffice.

If I were to build on those... well, I like the implication that Ghidorah is what Godzilla could have become had the story gone the route it always threatened to, i.e. a monster that destroys worlds.  That’s the big concern in every movie where Godzilla plays a villain - that, if he isn’t stopped, Godzilla will annihilate all of humanity and end life on earth.  Ghidorah is a monster that has destroyed at least one planet, and if we take that to be as meaningful a connection as I do, then the difference in Ghidorah and Godzilla’s behavior is pretty stark.  Godzilla’s default emotion is fury, whereas Ghidorah’s is glee.  Godzilla treats his rampage as revenge, whereas for Ghidorah it’s pleasure.  Godzilla still has a purpose behind his fury - there’s a wound he’s lashing out over.  Ghidorah’s motives devolved beyond that - he’s not the wrath of nature, but just a force of destruction for the sake of destruction.  If you take the idea that all the kaiju are essentially nature spirits in varying degrees of corruption, Ghidorah is what happens when the corruption is TOTAL - he’s past the brink, a monster that is incapable of returning to his former balanced state.

I really like the idea that Ghidorah and Mothra are the two extremes that all other kaiju form a spectrum between - Mothra is a kaiju as it should be, a guardian of nature, and Ghidorah is what happens when civilization’s relationship with nature completely deteriorates, becoming little more than just a wild force of destruction and entropy.  Godzilla is firmly in the middle between them.

I think a lot of that interpretation is already in the text of the Godzilla series as is, just subtly - but I’ve never been shy about admitting that I can be guilty of reading too much into things.  Regardless, if I were to “alter” Ghidorah I’d just make these things more blatant.  I don’t think he actually needs a lot of added characterization - a giggling golden space dragon that spits gravity beams in all directions and constantly spasms with manic glee is pretty good material to work with.  There’s a great tonal dissonance in having this beautiful, glittering dragon move in a completely daffy fashion while unleashing unimaginable havoc - there’s something so obviously off about it that makes him work really well.  Not a lot needs to be changed.

(for even more words to say the same shit I said here, please check out my Ghidorah ICHF)

Likewise, I don’t feel like there needs to be a lot added to Gigan.  He’s already got a great punk rock look going, and loads of dirty tricks up his sleeves - buzzsaws, hammer claw hands, laser beams, etc.  Just make what’s already there more blatant - play up the sadism and the cowardice, maybe give him a few more hidden weapons (there was one piece of art I saw where Gigan’s hammer claw hand popped open to shoot a spiked ball and that would be cool as heck to see), and you’ve got a perfectly fine villain.

As for designs...

Some people try to play up the “space monster” angle for Ghidorah, often going in some very Cthulhu mythos directions, but I think that misses the point.  A dragon that comes from the stars is a very classic mythological image, and the mythological roots of the monsters in the Godzilla series are often overlooked by western fans.  I’d like a design that plays that up rather than downplaying it - which, in the end, is what the originaly design did, with the crescent moon shaped horn and mane of hair.  I’d like to throw in the crown of horns from the Heisei design because they look cool, and the spikey tail clubs of the GMK suit because they’re another set of weapons for the golden king of terror.

Idk! Completely unrelated, what do you think of this handsome young salamander-ape I drew? They live on the avian homeplanet.

comm for @ask-drakos 💖💖 thank you <:

i'm sorry but. that sounds. Disgusting

it was like cold pizza