Sympathy for the Monster

Japanese Officials: “Godzilla has torn through so many cities, what kind of terrible thoughts would drive a creature to do such a thing?” Shin Godzilla’s Thoughts: “ow ow ow ow”

I just wanna add one thing about Godzilla I’ve always had empathy for Goji due to one guidebook I found on the 1954 movie Godzilla was with his family chilling doing normal stuff until a hydrogen bomb dropped on their whereabouts wiping out everyone but Godzilla. It’s presumed he’s the one of the last of his kind. In the depiction we could clearly see Godzilla having smoother skin implying that Godzilla was burnt and poisoned by the radiation the bomb emitted. Godzilla’s scales were designed to look like the burnt skin of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. Godzilla in many ways was the victim.

Speaking as the creator of the Skyrim dragons (I modeled and textured all the dragons in the base game), I definitely wanted Paarthurnax to appear kind and elderly. And I made the Giants look like my father, so that players would not want to attack them!

I’ve always described shin as a scared child lashing out at the world around him. His rampage is not born of malice like 54’ or gmk’s Godzillas, but because he doesn’t know what to do. “Why does everything hurt? How do I make it stop hurting? Why can’t I make it stop hurting?! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP HURTING!”

I wonder how our architecture would change if giant unstoppable monsters regularly took a stroll through our cities.

"Since childhood I've been faithful to monsters. I've been saved and absolved by them because monsters are the patron saints of our blissful imperfections." -Guillermo del Toro

“Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy… They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy.” That quote gave me chills.

what I adore about the scene in HttYD when Hiccup finds a helpless Night Fury, he originally was going to kill it and bring it back to the village, but then, he saw this wasn't a mindless monster like he's been told, but a terrified animal acting on its nature, and thus he has empathy for this beast and lets it free. when he starts bonding with Toothless, he realises that the dragons really weren't the demons he was told they were "everything we knew about you guys, was wrong"

""Monster" is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just so used to being the cat." - Dr. Henry Wu

We always root for Godzilla.

that line from paarthunax: "what is better to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?" that sounds... rather self reflective of ourselves as well as "the monster"

Your point on sympathetic monsters in video games reminded me of a mechanic in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that’s legitimately sad. In the game, you will sometimes come across a large group of pig-like creatures called bokoblins being led by a far larger and smarter boss who will direct the smaller monsters in battle. However, if you manage to kill the boss from a distance without killing any of it's minions beforehand, the smaller bokos will actually start crying, implying that they are sympathetic creatures.

“Have you ever sympathized with a monster?” Quite literally my entire career in veterinary medicine and conservation can be traced back to godzilla 1998 among other things. Where I saw not a monster being slain, but a grieving mother attempting to avenge her children. It’s affected how I treat and connect with non human animals ever since.

I was disappointed that you didn't mention How To Train Your Dragon. Berk has a society of hardened vikings who see dragons as mindless monsters, but Hiccup when able to kill a helpless dragon, chooses to save Toothless. Hiccup had empathy. He could see the fear in Toothless.

I cried when they killed Godzilla in the 1998 movie. He was essentially just a lost, scared animal, and they brutally killed him while he was ensnared on a bridge by pummeling him with missiles. I know it had to happen, but it still makes me sad.

11:30 To anyone who hasn’t seen it, Shin Godzilla is a masterclass in eldritch horror and political satire. It is also handles horror incredibly well, opting to use tragedy instead of violence and tension. It very much deserves its spot in the video as on multiple rewatches, it becomes apparent how much agony Godzilla is in. I strongly urge watching it.

The monster that did it for me was Vicar Amelia from Bloodborne. When we see her she is in a cathedral, on her knees before an alter, praying while clutching a pendant to her chest. She knows what is about to happen, she is trying everything she has ever known to prevent herself from transforming but it is not enough. She transforms, it is a very rapid, visceral, and excruciating transformation told by her agonizing screams. When the transformation is over she is something else in both mind and body. No longer is she a human at heart but a beast, a beast that is now far too big to escape the cathedral, a beast that is both confused and in great pain from her rapid transformation. Worst yet… She is terrified. She realizes. She is now trapped in a room with You a Hunter. During the boss fight she never roars, she screams. She thrashes about while still clutching her pendant. She does not know what the pendant is but it is comforting to her previous human form. She’s a confused and scared newborn animal in a violent world who awakens to see herself forever trapped in a lair with another beast (you) whose soul purpose is to kill her.

Koda from brother bear as they explore a cave painting. "Those monsters are real scary. " (Kenai looks to the bear as the monster before Koda finishes his statement) "Especially with their sticks." Forcing Kenai to see the man with the spear as the monster, not the bear. One of the most beautiful and yet, saddening moments in the movie for me. Showing just how often the real "monster" is often the man.

I have always felt bad for the "monsters". As a kid I was all like "...so, we killed the giant animal that lived far away from society and disturbed no one for no real reason other than some idiots went to its territory and got killed?"

The way this video and so many of the comments are making me cry.. growing up as an autistic kid I just, always found animals to be much more... understandable. They didn't have weird societal rules and in fact a lot in media were a victim of these rules they don't have any reason to know or understand. Animals and animalistic monsters don't know they're "invading" human territory... they're just trying to survive.