Phoenix-Fightmaster

Enjoying my various Fronterra guest characters? Want one of your own? Well, with this offer, you can!

https://www.deviantart.com/phoenix-fightmaster/gallery/78687067/fronterra-guest-characters

For $25 a character, I'll redesign any single OC, to be as they would appear on Fronterra. Design and lore are included.

Rules:

- Given that these are redesigns for a specific setting, some redesigns may be more radical than others. I will always try to preserve the spirit of the character, but some changes are inevitable.

- This is NOT a case of "How I would make your character better." This is a fun creative exercise, both in character design and worldbuilding.

- You retain ownership of the redesign, and may use it as you wish.

- This is NOT a kink thing, but I'm fine with redesigning kink-characters.

"It's every woman's dream to be rescued by a knight in shining armor. Even if he wears it on the inside."

Every single person who has ever said that the sequel is better than the original owes me a PERSONALIZED apology.

Tonal consistency is not a strength when that tone is uniformly dull and dreary, people. It's a weakness.

So, obviously we have a few eras of the Godzilla series to get through before I can dive into that one. But I'll give my abridged thoughts here, since a lot of people have asked.

All in all, Godzilla vs Kong was pretty satisfying. Instead of artificially inflating Kong to be Godzilla's equal, they just told a story where he was the underdog. Winning fights isn't everything. Kong can be weaker than Godzilla and still be a compelling character. His being closer to human doesn't make him morally superior, but it does give him vulnerability. The two are very different characters, and that should be embraced, rather than downplayed.

Pleasingly, Godzilla's antagonism manages to make perfect sense in the plot and not screw him over. Kong gets more screentime, but Godzilla's played the Mysterious Stranger role in this series before. It suits him. Both of them part ways as heroes in their own right.

Mechagodzilla - and I don't think it's much of a spoiler to mention him now - was one of his nastiest incarnations to date, playing the "twisted, blood-soaked machine of death" angle that made the first one so great.

The human plot was the weakest of the four movies, but the monster plot was arguably the strongest - and when I say that, I don't just mean the fights. Godzilla and Kong are very much characters, and their motivations and desires are what moves the plot. The humans provide the vehicles and the explanations, but the story belongs to the monsters. In a series that has let the both of them emote from day one, this one manages to outdo even those in that department. I think you would sincerely be able to tell this story without dialogue and still get a pretty good understanding of the emotional core.

The real highlight, for me, was the Hollow Earth. I want more of this. I want a series about this. I want the adventures of Kong and the Hollow Earth Gang, with Godzilla as his grumpy but ultimately amicable neighbor, with a host of colorful titans who all have unique and bizarre bonds with human characters. I want this series to continue. But even if it doesn't, I feel like we've gone out on a high note.

Do I think it was better than King of the Monsters? Well, that's not really a fair question, IMO. King of the Monsters was an epic, world-shattering, emotional rollercoaster. Godzilla vs Kong is a more personal, small-scale story focusing on the two's effect on the world, and vice versa. They're filling different roles, with different goals. And both of them meet those goals with flying colors.

People have often asked me where to start, if they want to get into Godzilla. And frankly, that's a question everyone has a different answer for. So, rather than composing a prescription of films to consume - fun as that would be itself - I figured I'd just give my quick thoughts on every single movie the character has to his name. We'll uh, break this down by era.

Gojira - Where it all started. Gojira is a serious horror movie that deals not only with the horrors of nuclear war, but the cycle of violence and man's inhumanity to man. Godzilla himself is a vengeful figure, but he's one with pathos all his own. He must be stopped, but we must be careful not to repeat the mistakes that turned his rage towards us.

This isn't exactly a party film, but it is essential viewing to absorb the series. Though very heavy, I don't think it's overwhelmingly so. It's something you kinda have to be in the mood to take in, but if that mood is with you, it's an experience. It also contextualizes the character's story arc for the next several movies.

Godzilla Raids Again - A second Godzilla is discovered, locked in combat with another monster, and the nation rushes to protect itself from an inevitable repeat of the first movie's events. More of a traditional creature feature than the original. A LOT less somber, and more about community uniting to avoid disaster. Notable for introducing Anguirus, who is a fan-favorite. Overall, there's a lot less meat to this movie, in my opinion, but I do like the moodiness and sense of creeping dread Godzilla conveys. I'd probably enjoy it more though, if Godzilla would stop stealing Anguirus' roar!

Mothra - Not a Godzilla movie, but essential viewing just the same. On a remote island, two tiny women are captured and brought back to civilization as a sideshow attraction, only to summon their gargantuan, insect goddess to bring them home. Has a bit more of a thriller angle, as the human plot focuses on getting the twins back to Mothra, and minimizing the damage. A then-rare example of an outright good kaiju whose destructive wrath is our own doing. This movie helps set the tone of the entire Showa series!

Rodan - Also not a Godzilla movie, but these two are going to be major players in the series. When miners uncover a nest of giant insects, they think they've seen the worst of their problems. Then a pair of colossal pterosaurs hatch and begin soaring through the skies, destroying all in their wake.

Rodan is another movie where the monsters are a source of both terror and pathos, having a powerful familial bond. Their ultimate death is shown to be a tragedy, even if it does mark the end of the horror. And it would pave the way for much of the Godzilla series' energy. There was a time, after all, when it wasn't simply "The Godzilla Series". There was a time when he and Rodan stood eye to eye, as equals.

King Kong vs Godzilla - Relevant! So, this is notable for a few reasons, including being Godzilla's first appearance in color, for a series of strange creative decisions that elevated Kong to Godzilla-fighting condition, and for having one of the most notoriously unnecessarily butchered English dubs. It's the first time a Godzilla story has been intentionally lighthearted and action oriented. This is one of the movies I like to go back and just watch casually, because it sets the formula for a lot of the series. Being early in his career, Godzilla is explicitly the villainous monster this time, with Kong being a more lovable rogue who's in way over his head. I don't really mind that, though. Godzilla needs time to be a villain for his growth to mean anything, and Kong was kind of a dick in his own original film. It's nice that he has the chance to be a more overt good guy this time.

My own personal biggest experience with the movie, though, is probably when I was little and my dad tried to explain to me that Godzilla and Kong were just guys in rubber suits. He failed to convey that he meant this is how the movie was filmed, so I spent the next couple of years convinced that the movie was about two gigantic suit actors who have some inexplicable beef with one another.

Mothra vs Godzilla - Sort of a retread of 'Mothra' but with a few twists. Instead of having her priestesses kidnapped, Mothra instead loses her egg in a storm. While this wouldn't normally be our responsibility, a businessman decides to help himself to the egg, making it more difficult for Mothra to get it back. Things get even more complicated when Godzilla shows up, threatening Japan, the egg, and himself as he stumbles around, unsure where he is, bumping into landmark after landmark.

This is a classic, and it's easy to see why. With multiple plots intersecting, it really cranks up the sense of chaos that kaiju rampages are known for. It also has some iconic Godzilla scenes, such as him slipping off an incline and tumbling into a pagoda, or getting his tail caught in a tower and accidentally pulling it down. You get the impression that he's had a night.

The final battle is pretty impressively tense, given the radical difference in weight class and weaponry the two kaiju have. Appropriately enough, Godzilla isn't so much defeated as he is blindfolded and sent home. Is this foreshadowing?

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster - A lost princess turns up, claiming to be possessed by the spirit of a Martian, who warns of impending doom. Godzilla and Rodan both emerge and begin a territorial dispute that carries them all over the countryside. Meanwhile, a mysterious meteorite lands in the mountains before hatching into a brand new monster, bigger and more terrifying than any before!

Remember when I said MvG's intersecting plots crank up the chaos? Well, this movie takes it two steps beyond that, taking not two but three formerly distinct movie icons and pitting them against a brand new threat. Sort of a Godzilla-Avengers deal, but this movie has another important beat to it! Because, see, Godzilla's not exactly big on helping humanity. Humanity and he don't get along, and while he's brawling with this asshole, Rodan's on the same "fuck mankind" page. And our only real ambassador is a larval Mothra reincarnation.

But of course, Ghidorah isn't just a threat to humanity - he's a threat to all life on Earth. And as irritable as our kaiju friends are, neither of them wants to be the asshole who sits idly by while the new guy stomps a kaiju-child. And when they unite to stop Ghidorah's rampage, they encounter something they've never had before: Positive feedback.

In addition to being a glorious clusterfuck of plot threads, this movie is one of the most important entries in the series, because it definitively marks Godzilla's transition from villain to begrudging hero. While he's still no fan of humans, he's a monster with standards. And this characterization sticks with him. I am comfortable calling it my favorite of the Showa series.

Invasion of the Astro Monster/Godzilla vs Monster Zero - Contact is made with an alien society, and they want to borrow our kaiju to deal with their own pest! Wait, no, they just wanted to use them to invade us. False alarm, guys.

This movie is really more of an alien invasion flick that happens to use kaiju as the weapons of war. Due to spending the bulk of the movie under alien mind control, Godzilla and Rodan aren't as colorful as they were in the previous film, and that does hold it back for me. Still, as alien invasion films go, this one is not without its charm.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep - A group of weirdos are shipwrecked on an island guarded by a colossal, carnivorous crustacean! Oh, but is this nature run amok, or is there a human hand pulling the monster's strings?

This one is great. It's like an adventure movie that features kaiju, then slowly escalates into a Godzilla movie as the heroes discover him sleeping in a cave and decide to risk waking him up in order to stop the terrorist organization keeping them trapped and using Mothra's people as slaves.

There's actually a very important bit of dialogue around the midpoint, where one of our heroes worries that Godzilla, when awakened, will destroy the world. One of the others reassures him that that's not in Godzilla's nature. It seems that the stint with Ghidorah has changed some people's perception of Godzilla. And here he is, far from civilization, minding his own business, not hurting anyone. And when the island is about to go nuclear, the humans shout for Godzilla to get off and escape, feeling in some way ingratiated to him for helping them, even accidentally. Makes you think.

While not as over the top chaotic as the Ghidorah movies, Ebirah has a fun human plot, an interesting change of setting, and respectably doesn't feel the need to escalate the new monster. A giant lobster may not be as glamorous as a three-headed dragon, but we're still dealing with an armor-plated behemoth with bonecrushing pincers. Against a lone Godzilla, that's nothing to sneeze at!

Son of Godzilla - Scientists playing with a weather machine on a remote island discover that they've got a bit of a bug problem now. And what's that mysterious egg in the side of that mountain?

Son of Godzilla is another "Godzilla chilling on an island with giant arthropods" type movie, which is an element he seems weirdly natural in? It continues the previous movie's themes, showing Godzilla's softer side as he finds himself an unexpected parent, protecting his new protege from roving mantises and giant spiders.

Though this isn't exactly a popular entry in the series, I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. Okay, so Minya's design is atrocious. The Godzilla suit here isn't a pretty sight either, and we still appreciate the character. I can look past questionable design choices and appreciate Godzilla's character arc coming to a head as he moves on from his rage and shows genuine tenderness towards another creature.

Destroy All Monsters - You'd think this would be the last entry in the Showa series, wouldn't you? In the distant future of 2000 AD, mankind has formed an uneasy truce with the world's kaiju, keeping them contained on Monster Island. But when aliens bring down the forcefields and control the monsters, the world is thown into panic as cities around the globe are attacked! Can we infiltrate their base and free the monsters in time to stop their invasion?

This movie is noteworthy for being a sort of essential subgenre for Godzilla. Every timeline needs a version of the Destroy All Monsters plot: The Showa series, the Millennium series, the Zilla cartoon, most of the videogames... Aliens controlling all the monsters for an invasion is just a stock plot in the franchise.

While there's actually less monster action than it sounds like, what we get is quite memorable. I kinda wish they'd waited a bit longer to do this one though, so we could enjoy more cameos. As it is, it's still pretty great, and lets some fairly small time players have some time to shine. Kumonga, the once fiendish spider is now firmly on the side of good. Anguirus, the first monster to face Godzilla, is now willing to face down King Ghidorah without fear. Gorosaurus, a once small time adaptation of the T.rex that Kong bested, now breaks Ghidorah's back with a well-placed kick!

Marking Ghidorah's canonical death, this was a hell of an event all around.

Godzilla's Revenge/All Monsters Attack - Dialing the stakes WAAAAY back, our plot now centers on a bullied kid being kidnapped, and dreaming about visiting Monster Island. There, he helps Godzilla's son, Minya, stand up to a bully, and learns to show courage against his kidnappers.

This is VERY much a kid's movie, with most of the monster action being stock footage. Still, it functions as a sort of "Godzilla's greatest hits" track, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I LIKE Minya as a character. While overall one of the weaker entries in the series, I don't have it in me to call it out and out bad.

Godzilla vs Hedorah/Godzilla vs the Smog Monster - A mysterious monster terrorizes oil tankers and garbage barges, seemingly gaining strength as the waters grow more and more polluted. But surely it could never come on land!

I've already said that Ghidorah: the Three-Headed Monster is my favorite entry in this series, but this one gives it a run for its money. What we have here is a director who's way into dada, and wants to make a movie with a message, but actually has no idea how to do either. Thus, we get a ton of random cutaways to cartoons that ostensibly have an environmental motif, or show the damage Hedorah's doing, or just... well, scream at us for a moment. There are strange cuts, strange directorial decisions, and things that are clearly trying to say something, but I have no idea what. And also a freakish amount of gore.

This one is a WEIRD movie, and it only gets weirder the more times you watch it. Memorably, I recall one of those "The disturbing truth behind this popular media" type creepypastas, and most of the weird, spooky shit it made up was uh... stuff that's actually from the movie.

There's no way I can do the film's strangeness justice with words alone. This is something you have to experience for yourself, and being high can ONLY improve it.

Hedorah is a memorable kaiju, resembling a sort of sludgy sheet-phantom with gigantic eyes which my sources assure me are designed to resemble vaginas. Which the director was apparently creeped out by. She's also one of the most powerful monsters of the series, trouncing Godzilla in each confrontation and only growing more powerful.

Rather than boiling down to monster vs monster, the final battle is humanity working to build a device to dry the fiend out, while Godzilla just barely holds her off. By the time the smog monster is defeated, Godzilla is missing an eye, had the flesh seared off of his hand, has third degree burns from being shat on with toxic waste, and probably smells like a sewer full of burning tires. He actually seems to make eye contact with the general conducting the device, who is himself on the verge of tears from the stress of trying to fix the damned thing on the fly. There's a brief tension as Godzilla and the humans wait for one another to make an aggressive move, before they slowly turn around and all go home for some well deserved rest.

Godzilla vs Gigan/Godzilla On Monster island - A mangakka discovers that an amusement park is actually a cover for a group of alien invaders, who've decided to forgo stealing our monsters and brought a couple of their own!

This movie is kinda... by the books. There's nothing really new about it that stands out, but I'd be hard pressed to say anything particularly negative either. It's a vanilla late-game Godzilla movie. Probably most notable for introducing fan-favorite, Gigan, who is one of the most IMMEDIATELY recognizable kaiju in history. And also there's a scene where Godzilla and Anguirus just... uh... talk to each other. With, like, words.

It really speaks for this series that a film I describe as "Vanilla Godzilla" has a scene like that, doesn't it?

Godzilla vs Megalon - A gay couple's new robot becomes an object of interest as an angry civilization of subterranean humanoids require it to focus their own monster so that they may crush the surface world. In their defense, we tested some nuclear bombs that really wrecked their home. Kinda feel like they could've brought it up to us politely though.

The final battle sees the leader of the invasion calling the aliens from the previous movie and asking to borrow Gigan. Which they agree to. I have so many questions.

For real though, the highlight of the movie is Gigan's sudden and immediate friendship with Megalon. The two just hit it off the second they make eye/visor contact, and have the time of their lives ganging up on the robot. I have no wish to see Jet Jaguar harmed, but watching Gigan and Megalon high five as they take turns dunking on him still warms my heart.

We're at a point where the films are essentially their own plot, which Godzilla just shows up to get involved with at the end. It began with Gigan, but I think the seeds were planted in Hedorah. In the final beat of Godzilla's character development, the humans ask him for help, and he obliges, coming to put a stop to Megalon's rampage. From wrathful destroyer to antisocial asshole to cranky neighbor who's not so bad when you get to know him, to colleague, to, finally, friend. Godzilla has put his rage aside and found peace, which humanity returns in kind. Now protecting the Earth together, Godzilla is well and truly a hero.

This film has the noteworthy claim of being the subject of an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Let no one convince you that this is anything but a badge of honor.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla/The Cosmic Monster/The Bionic Monster - That's right, kids! One of the most iconic Godzilla villains actually didn't come in until the final chapter of Godzilla's original run!

So, try and stay with me. An Okinawan prophecy predicts mass destruction from some horrible monster, but a guardian of the royal family will rise to protect them.

The monster turns out to be Godzilla. But for some reason, his best friend Anguirus is at his throat. Turns out, it's a robot duplicate of Godzilla, who soundly trounces the original!

But who could build such a contraption? The terrorist organization from before? One of the numerous aliens we've already been invaded by? Nope! We've got a WHOLE NEW set of monkey-like aliens looking to get their colonialism on!

The plot pile-up is pretty standard for the series by this point, so what this film is REALLY memorable for is its musical score, giving the titular robeast a weirdly jazzy, smooth, swing-worthy theme song as he makes Godzilla spray fountains of blood. And when it comes time to summon the royal guardian, he must be sung into life, in a moment that takes five fucking minutes to get through!

Now teaming up with a stone Shisa with laser-mirror-eyes, Godzilla manages to narrowly defeat his doppelganger, pulling some brand new powers out of his ass to get the job done.

This movie is about what we've come to expect from Godzilla now, and just has fun with itself. Mechagodzilla is a surprisingly brutal opponent, seeming somehow to have plenty of personality for a cold, unfeeling machine. Murder is his art, blood is his paint, and the world is his canvas.

Terror of Mechagodzilla - A man who discovered an amphibious dinosaur is contacted by the space-apes to help them fix Mechagodzilla, in return for restoring his daughter to more-or-less life as a cyborg.

This one is, uh... weirdly somber and grim for what it followed. Coupled with Mechagodzilla losing his jazzy theme and over-the-top presentation, I kind of don't jive with it the way I'd like to. Still, it introduced Titanosaurus, who I guess I would describe as an alternate skin for Godzilla. She's a beefy, bipedal, amphibious dinosaur, but approaches it from a different angle. Her only real trick is creating hurricane wins by swishing her tailfin really fast, falling back on pure muscle. She's also one of the more tragic characters, spending most of the film under mind control and being seemingly killed by Godzilla the moment that control is broken. Maybe. Look, getting blasted in the chest, then falling into the ocean doesn't mean a monster is dead, guys. She literally lives in the ocean. She probably just went home.

Anyway, this movie isn't quite the high note I'd like to leave on, but it has its merits.

Final thoughts:

The Showa series is, no question, my favorite era of Godzilla's career. It was a series that always kept you guessing, never did the obvious thing, and didn't apologize for throwing curveballs at you. But more than that, it created a world where monsters were real. No two films followed the same characters, instead showing how people from ALL walks of life were affected by this world. It wasn't just soldiers, but detectives, pharmaceutical employees, mangakkas, thieves, engineers, reporters, actors, and so many more.

Godzilla himself had one of the most satisfying character arcs I've known, having a real and natural transition from villain to hero, over the course of several movies. A lot of people will write this off as them kiddifying Godzilla, trying to make him more palatable as audiences failed to take him seriously. These people are morons.

The films definitely did try to appeal to children, but not at the cost of their own integrity. Godzilla's growth as a character is exactly that. And rising above his tragedy, making peace with his demons, and finding a new calling in life is a journey that frankly, our world needs more of.

The Showa series were a series where anything could happen, and when it did, it would leave a lasting mark on the world. It was a story of redemption, coexistence, and triumph over tragedy. And it sticks with me, even today.

I admit, it's been a while since I started commenting, due to me withdrawing. But it seems like they're not going through a bunch? Is this Eclipse's fault? I know it's an unintuitive, hideous mess, but I was under the impression it was at least functional?