Monster Discussion #48: Rodan (Heisei)

[Legion1979]

I don't think Rodan intentionally gave his life force to Godzilla.

Me neither.

Well you're both very silly.

GRRRRR you called me silly! I am so very, very angry at you right now. Arrrg!

[King Caesar]

Ya know, this Rodan lost a lot of the power the Showa version had. Rodan's strength is physically combat. He's decievibgky strong, and he utilizes that to his full advantage. Thanks to his Heisei (AKA: Beam Wars Age) appearance, we got a less agile and more blah Rodan. (Millennium FTW)

[Rody]

I stated this earlier; I don't think Heisei Rodan is that much weaker than Showa; he just went up against a much bigger & stronger Godzilla.

[RedZillaKing]

I don't think he's weaker at all. I love this incarnation of Rodan. For one it actually looks like a pterosaur. Also it was a mutant, so its ridiculous size wasn't as silly (in universe).

[Rody]

The pterosaur resemblance is actually the main thing I dislike about this version; it's more generic in appearance.

[Living Corpse]

The pterosaur resemblance is actually the main thing I dislike about this version; it's more generic in appearance.

THANK YOU! Someone throw a shit fit on another site when I said this design looks like ass.

[Rody]

I wouldn't be that hard on it. I do like it; I just prefer the '56 & '04 suits.

[King Caesar]

If the '04 suit wasn't red and resembled more of its Showa counterpart, it would be my favorite Rodan incarnation. For now, Rodan '56 is the coolest.

[Rody]

You know, I think I've figured out two things I like most about this incarnation.

One: the breastplate. While the '56 Rodan's armoring was good, it needed some tweaking. The '60s suits, on the other hand, had very sloppy-looking breastplates; and '04 Rodan's looks too bulky. The 1993 Rodan's breastplate looks the most natural and refined to me.

Two: the coloration. I refer not to Fire Rodan, but normal Rodan. I really like the variation in the shades of brown on his body, whereas the Showa Rodans were a more solid (& rather bland) reddish brown all over, and FW Rodan is a bit garish.

[kaiju115]

Honestly I like both versions of Rodan, except in Destroy All Monsters, he looked awful. For the Heisei Rodan, I liked the overall design, making him look more animalistic, though I still prefer the Showa version. The whole idea of giving Rodan and beam, it didn't bother me at all, I liked it. The millennium Rodan, I really enjoyed how he looked more like his Showa version, though I would have liked it better if his skin color was that traditional brown, instead of red.

[TokyoVigilante]

The intense coloration of Rodan in FW is suppose to be like that, though; it's part of the art direction and colour scheme of the whole film. A muted brown Rodan next to a terquiose and bright yellow Anguirus and bright red Ebirah would just look odd and not fit.

Heisei Rodan is to small, overall. I also don't like how stubby his neck is or how bobble-headed he is.
http://www.tohokingdom.com/concept_art/ ... an_01.html
^
My favorite Rodan design, bar none. I never see attempts at updating the design of the sixties look and when someone did, it looks wonderful.

[Rody]

I've been surprised lately realizing just how many red/reddish kaiju there have been; Rodan, Baragon, Ebirah, Kamacuras, Titanosaurus, Destroyah... it's almost overkill. That's part of the reason I appreciate Normal Heisei Rodan.

[kaiju115]

Yeah that is odd, though in Final Wars Kamacuras was green.

[JAGzilla]

I came into this thread prepared to defend Heisei Rodan's design, but after reading all the complaints here I decided to look at some pictures of the various designs for comparison (I don't have the '93 movie), and... yeah, I think I have to agree that he looks terrible. '56 Rodan's suit almost looks believable; this guy's stiff puppet looks like a toy. There's no question as to which one does a better job of saying 'monster'.

The heat ray I can take or leave. Rodan should be a powerful-enough physical fighter that he doesn't usually need it, but I don't mind him having the option for use against exceptionally dangerous enemies.

[king_ghidorah]

Some pretty sensible observations here. I kind of feel like most of you in prefering the brown Rodan...but if he's bird like at all it'd make sense that he'd be bright and ornate. I do prefer a diverse color scheme in kaiju...for a while it seemed as if most kaiju were brown, now it's red.

As far as my favorite Rodan...I like the concept art, and the idea of the FW Rodan the most even though I loathe the film itself. The execution in that film is kind of weak though. The wings look off, and Rodan looks a little too humanoid. Execution wise, the best Rodan is still the 56.

[Arbok]

I don't think Rodan intentionally gave his life force to Godzilla.

While the manga adaption made this overt that Rodan was saving Godzilla... it at the same time changed so many things that intent is never to be trusted.

That said, I always assumed that Rodan's sacrifice was intentional. The reason I say that is because Rodan briefly lifts up his head to look at Godzilla, and then tucks it in and begins to "wither away". While I don't think Rodan flew out there with the plan to save Godzilla, I do think once he was blasted again Rodan made the choice to expel the rest of his energy to resurrection Godzilla.

[Rody]

I don't think Rodan could have cared less about what happened to Godzilla - except that they BOTH were trying to save Baby. My guess is that Rodan realized he had no hope of defeating Mechagodzilla, so he did a "noble deed" and sacrificed himself; thus Godzilla could defeat MG and save Baby.

[kaiju115]

I agree, had it been the Showa series it would have been different, but in the Heisei series the two didn't get along that well. So yeah, Rodan sacrificed himself to save his half-brother.

[Kiryu2012]

I like Rodan's design. It makes him more realistic, and I find this Rodan to be a real scrapper as well. Him taking several Plasma Grenades without dieng is epic for me.

[kaiju115]

I agree, though if only the puppet would flap its wings in a more realistic way, still the design for Rodan looked pretty good.