Monster Origins

[eabaker]

Ebirah- Lobster mutated by The Red Bamboo

As far as I know there's no definitive source on Ebirah's species, but the name certainly seems to suggest he's a shrimp, not a lobster.

Using Tanaka's book as a source once more, since he's one of the few to give specifics, but he refers to Ebirah as a crayfish, particularly "ebigani" (エビガニ), that was mutated by the liquid waste coming out of the Lecci Island factory.

Makes sense!

[Lain Of The Wired]

The first page has finally been updated, who else we missing?

[GodzillaFan1990's]

Desghidorah and Grand King Ghidorah are Ghidorah species' but different kinds related to each other in the same sense how Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals would be. I'd say same goes for Monster X as well since he's a species of Ghidorah considering his Keizer Ghidorah form.

I'd also say Kumonga shares the same origin as the Kamacuras' only he was once an native spider species.

Might as well add Legion too. She's of an extraterrestrial gigantic species of silicon-based insectoids.

[King of the Monsters]

These are ones I didn't see listed on the first page, or that were marked with ???

Showa
Jet Jaguar - robot built by Goro Ibuki
Megalon - giant subterranean insect worshiped as a god by the Seatopians
Manda - giant sea serpent guardian of the Mu Empire
Anguirus - Ankylosaurus disturbed by nuclear testing like Godzilla
Snowman and Snowman's child - last members of a race of ape-like creatures living in the Japanese Alps
Mothra - divine moth goddess of Infant Island
King Ghidorah - extraterrestrial monster, possibly created by the Garogas
Meganulon - prehistoric dragonfly nymphs living underground in Kitamatsu, disturbed by mining
Moguera - battle machines built by the Mysterians
Maguma - giant prehistoric walrus-thing living under the Antarctic ice
Dogora - space cell mutated by a radiation cloud in Earth's atmosphere
Mechani-Kong - robotic duplicate of King Kong built by Dr. Who

Heisei
Shockirus - sea louse mutated by feeding on Godzilla
Dorat - genetically engineered pets from the future (in the novelization they were engineered from DNA from a King Ghidorah carcass found on Venus)
Desghidorah - three-headed space dragon
King Ghidorah (1998) - three-headed space dragon (related to Desghidorah)
Fairy Mothra (1994) - tiny projection of Mothra used by the Cosmos to communicate with Miki Saegusa
Fairy Mothra (1996-98) - tiny Mothra used by the Elias for transport
Primitive Mothra - prehistoric ancestor of Mothra's species
Garu Garu - tiny robot dragon built by Belvera
Ghogo - presumably a creature engineered by the Nilai-Kanai
Legion - silicon-based insect aliens

[UltramanGoji]

I'd also say Kumonga shares the same origin as the Kamacuras' only he was once an native spider species.

Not so sure about this one, as I recall Reiko talking about the Kumonga as if it was already present on the island. It's been a while since I've watched Son of Godzilla though, so I might be wrong on this.

[King of the Monsters]

Not so sure about this one, as I recall Reiko talking about the Kumonga as if it was already present on the island. It's been a while since I've watched Son of Godzilla though, so I might be wrong on this.

Saeko (or Reiko in the dubbed versions) mentions that Kumonga was studied by her father. It's a giant spider that lives in the "valley of Kumonga" on the island. The dialogue indicates Kumonga was always there and always giant. Maybe the radiation storm could have made it bigger I suppose, but it's never discussed whereas with Kamacuras it's explicitly stated the radiation storm made them grow.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Updated once again, thank you.
The ones I'm missing now are the Final Wars monsters, and the Yamato characters

Also, were the Matango exposed to radiation, or naw?

[King of the Monsters]

Updated once again, thank you.
The ones I'm missing now are the Final Wars monsters, and the Yamato characters

Also, were the Matango exposed to radiation, or naw?

They mention in the film that the island where the Matango are found was exposed to nearby nuclear testing. I think the derelict boat they find on the island was even researching the effect of radiation on the island and was studying the Matango specifically. I assume the implication is the Matango was affected by atomic testing.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Updated once again, thank you.
The ones I'm missing now are the Final Wars monsters, and the Yamato characters

Also, were the Matango exposed to radiation, or naw?

They mention in the film that the island where the Matango are found was exposed to nearby nuclear testing. I think the derelict boat they find on the island was even researching the effect of radiation on the island and was studying the Matango specifically. I assume the implication is the Matango was affected by atomic testing.

Ok, awesome. That's what I thought, but couldn't remember right off. Thank you.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

Kumasogami: God of the Kumaso Kingdom living deep in the bowels of the land.

Orochi: The way I see it. He's a form of Tsukuyomi, god of the underworld and moon.

Kaishin Muba: He's something like the God of the Seas IIRC.

[tbeasley]

This is pretty neat -
GODZILLA - A QUESTION OF ORIGINS: AN ESSAY ON GODZILLA’S PLACE IN PALEO-FICTION
(I'm linking to Matt Frank's blog cause the original author's blog's layout is a nightmare to scroll through)

[Gerdzerl]

This is pretty neat -
GODZILLA - A QUESTION OF ORIGINS: AN ESSAY ON GODZILLA’S PLACE IN PALEO-FICTION
(I'm linking to Matt Frank's blog cause the original author's blog's layout is a nightmare to scroll through)

Excellent essay, I especially like this part:

What this essay has attempted show however is that while the idea that Godzilla is a mutant dinosaur, or some other kind of similar prehistoric reptile, is one which has been present throughout the franchise’s 60+ year history it is also not one which has been clear or consistent in its fundamental contentions.

Perhaps the key here is to think about the idea of Godzilla as dinosaur not in a strict scientific sense but rather in a symbolic one. As I often remind my students when doing my class on dinosaurs in popular-culture, much of the dinosaur’s power come from the fact that they are inherently liminal entities. This means that they exist simultaneously between two conflicting states of being. In the case of the dinosaurs their liminality arises from the fact that they are simultaneously both real and imaginary. They are real because we have their bones, we know they existed. But they are also imaginary because no human has ever seen one and so we must be content to use our imaginations to tell us what they were like. This fact transforms dinosaurs into a potent symbol. An empirically verifiable fantasy. In this way Godzilla, as dinosaur, lays claim to a status that other more purely fantastic creatures cannot.