MONSTER DISCUSSION: Mothra (Showa)

[Lain Of The Wired]

I find it a bit insulting there's a discussion topic for the fucking Godzilla Tower, but not Mothra... So I'm here to fix that, discuss everyone's favorite giant moth here.

[Lain Of The Wired]

So I have a question about this incarnations origins, where did she come from, was she a product of nuclear fallout on the island, and if so, is that where the fairies came from, mutation?

[Ivo-goji]

We get a brief mention of Atlantis and Infant Island once belonging to a larger civilization that spanned the Pacific Ocean and South America, but its really vague and there's no mention of where Mothra fits in. But she's way too old to have anything to do with nukes, Infant Island has been worshipping her for centuries and her priestesses are clearly ancient in origin.

The book the film is based on had more details.

Bumping since I don't know where else to pose the question, but does anyone in the community know anything about the serial novel this film is based on, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra? The only way I've heard anything about it is from the commentary published with the Icons of Sci Fi Toho Collection DVD. They talk about how the novel was more political than the film and how it included elements about the Infant Island people's mythology that was cut from ShinIchi Sekizawa's script because of time constraints.

Supposedly the inhabitants of Infant Island had a six-day creation story similar to that of the Bible, which they relate to "Bulldog" Fukuda. In this story, two deities, Ajima the God of Eternal Night and Ajiko the Goddess of Day Light are responsible for creating the island. Ajima and Ajiko conceived a giant egg, containing Mothra, and two human beings, who populated Infant Island. They then conceived a clutch of small eggs, which hatched into caterpillers, which became moths and flew away. Ajima became infuriated for some reason and tore his own body into four pieces. Ajiko was grieved by this and commited suicide, breaking her own body into four pieces, which then became the Shobijin (reduced to just two Shobijin in the film).

I've never been able to dig up more on The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, and searches only turn up a summary like this I made on another forum in 2012, so I'm guessing not much is known about the novel outside of what's mentioned in the DVD commentary.

I'm sure TK's moon speak wizards could dig some stuff up about it.

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

So from what ive heard Mothra got older and shrunk in size in 1964? 'Cause she was freaking humongous in her film. Or just inconsistency?

[Loganrules115]

So from what ive heard Mothra got older and shrunk in size in 1964? 'Cause she was freaking humongous in her film. Or just inconsistency?

I think Mothra is larger in MvG than she is in her debut film.

[GodzillavsRayquaza]

So from what ive heard Mothra got older and shrunk in size in 1964? 'Cause she was freaking humongous in her film. Or just inconsistency?

I think Mothra is larger in MvG than she is in her debut film.

http://www.tohokingdom.com/kaiju/mothra ... #ioriginal
Nope, in the original movie she's way bigger. In fact she is larger than Final Wars Mothra.

Anyway, I really like this version of Mothra. It's not my favorite, but it's still good. I'm hoping this is the one Legendary takes the most inspiration from.

[Ivo-goji]

Its possible Mothra experienced her full life cycle over again in between the two movies.