#mlom meta

If you look at the way that 206 delved into Kentaro's character as a whole but in particular, that scene with May, it actually speaks volumes about where he's at that he thinks the only possible reason May would come to check on him after the death of his father is because Cate doesn't want her. He can't fathom that she was actually worried about him, that she wanted to make sure he was okay and that he was actually the first person she wanted to check on. Like, there had to be another reason for her to do all of that in his eyes and it's a reason that conveniently positions Cate as the first choice and Kentaro as "the spare".

Controversial Opinion Time 2.0: I think at least part and unfortunately, it's a big part of the problem with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 is that they assigned more importance to Shaw's character than he actually has in the story. There's a reason why he worked so well in season 1 and it was because he was a supporting character to Cate, Kentaro & May in the present day timeline and was on equal footing with Billy & Keiko in the 1950s timeline and taking him out of both of those positions and pushing him to the forefront in both timelines was a terrible decision. As was the choice to have three whole episodes dedicated to him. We got an episode dedicated to Shaw & Keiko cheating (with two episode setting it up and one episode about them actually cheating), another episode about Shaw & his father (which, I'm sorry but, a flashback episode after Hiroshi's death should have been about Hiroshi and specifically, about Kentaro/Hiroshi, following on from the opening flashback scene in Skull Island and showing more of their relationship to together along establishing Kentaro's story and where his grief was leading him and if it did have to be about Shaw, it should have been about Shaw & Hiroshi, given he wanted revenge for Hiroshi's death) and then another episode with Shaw talking to his past self and making the decision to leave Keiko behind (which is the episode that actually should have been about Shaw leaving Monarch, his relationship with his father and then returning to Keiko & Billy if we really needed that). I've seen so much discussion about this lately with this insistence that the issue is that they had too many characters to work with and they were trying to tell too many stories this season but, the more I think about it, the more I don't think that's the problem actually. I think the show went from treating everyone like they were in equal ground storytelling wise to treating certain characters like they were more important than others and they weren't able to actually handle that shift so, a lot of stories, characters and dynamics paid the price.

Something something Billy wanting to bring up a Titan and show the world what a real catastrophe looks like in response to Shaw's "death" in 109 vs. Shaw wanting to destroy Titan X by unleashing Godzilla on her in response to Hiroshi's death in 206.

I've seen a lot of people say it's unrealistic or ridiculous for Billy to have abandoned Hiroshi solely because he found out Keiko/Lee cheated and that there must be something more to it but, I don't know, I think it does make sense in the context of what we've seen so far of the 1962 timeline. Assuming the 1962 flashback in 2x03 is set after the one from 1x09, it would heavily imply that Billy listened to Puck and got his act together in order to make sure that Hiroshi didn't lose his father as well as his mother and uncle. He also looks to be in a better physical and mental state in that one scene in 2x03 than he was in 1x09. I mean, we saw how he was immediately after losing Lee. He was a mess. He was barely holding it together so it's not unreasonable to assume that reading that letter could've actually pushed him over the edge.

The more I think about it, the more I've realised that what bothers me the most about the fandom's response to how Shaw and Kentaro's grief is depicted is that it's quite literally the same response that the fandom had to how Cate's PTSD was depicted. There's so much "I understand he's grieving but..." or "I understand she has PTSD but..." before going on to completely undermine her PTSD and his grief because the show has chosen to depict it in a way that isn't comfortable or easy to digest. It's messy and it's ugly and harmful and destructive and it's becoming increasingly clear that a big part of the MLOM fandom (not everyone, just to be clear) either don't want to see grief and PTSD depicted this way or, they're unable to handle when it's depicted in a way that makes them uncomfortable or demonstrates the harm that can and does occur because of it.

I know someone is inevitably going to go: "well, they all went down there and all had the intention of saving Shaw so it's not only Cate's fault that this happened" but, I love the show's unwavering commitment to reiterating that this was actually Cate's fault because, it is. That's not hate or anything. It's the truth. Kentaro was never fully on board, Hiroshi was already having doubts and the moment Keiko, Verdugo and Tim showed up, everyone literally bailed on the plan and was going to leave except for Cate and I love that Cate is acknowledging that and that she should have listened to everyone telling her not to do it. It's not just blaming herself anymore. It's understanding and recognising what she should have done instead. It's not that she shouldn't have pressed the button. It's that she should have listened to the people around her when they told her what could happen if she did this and now, we're seeing Cate in the position where she understands this and can be the voice of reason to try and stop Kentaro from following in her footsteps and making the same mistake that she did.

I think we need to talk about the fact that the beach scene with Cate & Kentaro played out almost exactly the same as Kentaro's nightmare in 206 did with Cate's comment of "I told you it didn't want to harm us" and a Godzilla vs Titan X fight with a helicopter flying around them. This could just be foreshadowing or, they are directly teasing something with Kentaro potentially knowing the future. Because, before that scene on the beach, Cate never actually said anything to him about Titan X not wanting to hurt them and yet, in both his nightmare and in reality, she's acting like they've had that conversation before when technically, that never happened anywhere other than Kentaro's nightmare.