Alright well, people asked.
(WARNING: this post spoils some of the major twists in Godzilla: King of the Monsters)
Let’s begin with this shot from the trailer:
Now, this is already a borderline Renaissance painting in and of itself. I mean, look at the damn thing. The Beast rising from the fires of Hell in opposition to the cross? Are we sure this gif wasn’t unearthed from some abandoned house in Venice?
Anyway, the really amazing part here is that the trailer doesn’t show the context of this shot: namely, that immediately before this, Godzilla and Ghidorah have their second (of three!) tussles in the film and while Ghidorah manages to escape, Godzilla bites off one of this three heads. Immediately before this shot in the film, Ghidorah lands atop the active volcano and regenerates said injury, growing a brand new head.
Leaving aside the fact that this is a literal death and resurrection. in context. with a literal trinity. set against a cross.
Let’s crack open the Book of Revelation and take a peek. Namely, Revelation 13:3:
One of the heads of the Beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the Beast.
But wait, it gets better. That second line? “The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the Beast.”
What’s the big twist of the Godzilla: KOTM? That the eco-terrorists waking up the Titans intended to do it one at a time, so that they would destroy the world in a controlled fashion, allowing humanity to find new equilibrium with nature. But then they woke up King Ghidorah and he promptly flings their plan in the fucking garbage bin by hijacking the will of the other kaiju and sending them on a giant worldwide rampage.
People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the Beast, and they also worshiped the Beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
Godzilla: KOTM showcases its giant monsters as not only being giant monsters, but also takes a bit of Pacific Rim-esque flavoring by framing them as walking natural disasters, upsetting (or restoring) the natural balance. Rodan awakens with a volcanic eruption. Mothra is born amidst an earthquake. Ghidorah himself takes control of a massive hurricane.
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.
But KOTM doesn’t even stop there. It goes into the origins of these creatures not only as earth’s defense system, but it names them as Titans, directly explaining them as the literal Titans of Greek mythology who were cast down by the gods, showing how they were worshipped by primitive man, with Godzilla retreating to a very literal temple built to his honor when he needs to regain his strength. And Ghidorah, and his power over the other kaiju? As the film states: “A great dragon, who fell from the stars. A hydra, whose storms swallowed both men and gods alike. He’s not part of our natural order, and he’s not meant to be here. A false king.”
The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
And it keeps going! We’re introduced to Ghidorah when it’s revealed that he’s been found in the Antarctic, frozen beneath the ice for centuries or maybe millennia. We’re shown through ancient pictographs and tablets that he and Godzilla have thrown down before - mabye Godzilla is even the reason he’s been stuck in the ice all this time.
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
Of course, who is the ‘he’ who bound the dragon? If Ghidorah is the false king, the Antichrist in this framing device, it’s ultimately not hard to guess the opposite number. Someone who goes through a very literal death and resurrection arc, albeit aided by a nuclear device.
All to bring humanity out of an age of chaos into a new balance with the world around us. All backed by multiple montages of new life springing up in the ruins of the cities destroyed during Ghidorah’s rampage. And as asked of Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Serizawa; “so you’d want to make Godzilla our pet?” “No,” comes the reply, “We would be his.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
So, how much of this is deliberate? Hard to say. When it comes to the end of the world, with the multitude of religious texts we’ve written as a species over time, combined with the innumerable depictions of the end times in our science fiction and other media, eventually wires start to cross. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone just decided the framing of Ghidorah against the iconic symbol of Christendom would look cool and the rest is all just coincidence. But sometimes when the synchronicity is just right sometimes you get a metaphor that couldn’t be much more perfect no matter how unintentional it may be.
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
vaporwave
izzy806
