Mothra Leo and Zilla Junior's Birth: A Lazily Made Theory

I always chalked Mothra up to it just being magic or something.

And as for things not making sense, wait till you see what I have in store for Mechagodzilla...

Mothra is a diety, a god, and therefore can't be compared to normal animals, or even kaiju for that matter.  As for zilla, its both male and female, the film says male, but that isn't technically correct.  AS for zilla jr....different film universe, so not related really.

I dunno how. It's called plot convinence.

SciFi Explained

A diety that keeps dying lol. But I see your point. Still, why did she all of a sudden have a male offspring while all her other children were the practically identical twin sisters?

Zilla Junior isn't really a different film universe. It takes place after Godzilla 1998, and uses the same characters and backstory. Even if we were to say "different universes", Godzilla 1998 would have happened practically EXACTLY the same as it did in Godzilla The Series. 

All the responses make sense- from magic to being deities to plot convenience. It is fun to pick apart scifi movies but the Monsterverse seems to be an exception. It's got huge creatures that are over the top. There should be a suspension of what is real and accept the Monsterverse on its own terms imo.

I would give some plausibility to Mothra's and Godzilla's apparent confusion on gender. A real world example is the humble Seahorse. Enjoy this video that is less than 3 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaVcdYx0qWY&t=54s

I mean, male seahorses are the ones who carry and take care of the eggs, but that's different because here Zilla is supposed to be a male LAYING eggs. And Mothra is reproducing asexually, but somehow gives birth to a creature with very different genetics and powers.

Like the Space Jockey mystery of Alien, maybe it's best to leave some things a mystery and never be officially answered. That's most of what makes forums fun in the first place.

dk

But then what is the point of a question, if not to ask it?

 TheLazyFish I will try to be clearer. Questions should be encouraged if for no other reason to spark spirited debate. The "What if" that is the very core of scifi. Look at your own thread and see the ideas expressed. There is no definitive answer but members are having fun and using the ole' noodle to explore something we all love. I guess the Monsterverse should be fair game too. It is just so out of proportion that it seems a given to not nitpick too much.

Sounds pretty sappy but there it is.

dk

Yeah, that's definitely the fun part. Being able to partake in an interesting discussion about curious things in something we love!

Oh god, it DOES sound sappy when I (say? type?) out(loud? keyboard?)!

I veiw mothra's creation of an egg as normally as something more akin to the birth of a Phoenix and is some form of matter creation to create a clone. however, i feel Leo's creation was the result of mothra actually having mated with Battra. 

we do not know the organ system of Zilla and just that his father was able to reproduce asexually somehow. 

So getting back on track, I feel that Mothra Leo is supposed to represent the male of his species.

And I have officially started to accept that Zilla in Godzilla (1998) was a female, and that Zilla Jr. is actually a representative of the true males of the species.

Godzilla 1998 seems female due to the eggs, but then we could speculate on that. Was Godzilla able to inseminate eggs it already had? There was no evidence of another creature for copulation. It would seem that it was able to somehow lay multiple fertilized eggs in a football stadium (leaving the stadium undamaged lol!) I think it was probably an oversight on the writers' part and the producers may have thought the general audience wouldn't notice or ask any questions. 

dk

Unless Zilla was already pregnant when it mutated, or there actually was an unknown male counterpart. As confirmed by the show, there were plenty of "mutations" that already existed in the world that were never discovered, including another of Zilla's kind (Komodinatrix). So, an unknown male counterpart isn't entirely off the table.

 TheLazyFish It has been about 4 years since I saw 98. I saw no evidence or hint of prior impregnation. It is possible it was already pregnant at the beginning of the movie, but I think that would be a stretch for even casual viewers to make that connection. 

Then again, I think the behavior was mentioned that or at least hinted that Zilla may have been seeking a place to nest?

dk

Which is precisely why I believe that Zilla was already pregnant and didn't just randomly decide to have offspring. Besides the fact New York is incredibly far away from where Zilla originally lived, as well as there many opportunities for a good place to lay her eggs beforehand, I find it unlikely ZIlla decided to lay her eggs on a whim as much as out of necessity. Also, I doubt they would REALLY care if she was pregnant beforehand because GIANT MONSTER DESTROYING NEW YORK THAT'S LAYING EGGS TO MAKE 400 MORE OF IT AND OUR ONLY HOPE IS A WORM BIOLOGIST AAAAAAAH!!!! They kinda had... other concerns lol

Then it begs the question- how did Zilla become pregnant? 

Nearly 20 years ago I was presented with storyboard and production art from Mothra vs. Godzilla claiming Mothra, being a goddess, does not reproduce, she is simply reborn. The laws of the natural world don't apply to her and trying to shoehorn her as a "species" is the wrong way to go about it--Especially since science couldn't explain her in her debut film. (Which is the point.)

The storyboards and production art (that I wish I had saved) revealed the two Mothra larvae that hatch in Mothra vs. Godzilla are both the same Mothra that died. She's simply using two bodies because she realized two would be needed to defeat Godzilla. When one of them died before Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, it was because Mothra knew both bodies were no longer needed. This idea is heavily based on Buddhist beliefs.

I don't know if this same point-of-view applies to every continuity, but the Cosmos made it sound like the Mothra that hatched in Godzilla vs. Mothra '92 was somehow the same one that fought Battra millions of years ago. Perhaps it was, just in a former body.

It also needs to be made clear that the 1990s Mothra Trilogy stands on its own and is not a sequel to the Heisei Godzilla series or the original 1961 Mothra. Regardless, it's possible Mothra simply felt the need to reincarnate as a male for a change. And the fact Mothra Leo hatched while Mothra was still alive isn't an issue since the Showa series insinuated that she can be two entities at once--Plus the international titles for the Mothra trilogy are literally, Rebirth of Mothra, 2 & 3.

Even Dougherty seems to buy into Mothra's spiritual life cycle, claiming, "she knows it."

It appears Mothra is simply a physical form/manifestation for some sort of omnipotent god to interact with our physical world. How and why is above us. All we know is she's here and she can't die.

G.H. (Gman)

Thanks, that really cleared things up for me. 

@G. H. (Gman)

And what's the long explanation for Zilla in Godzilla (1998)?

It's garbage.

Are you talking about my theory for it or the actual movie, because either way you're right lol

The actual movie. I have no desire to look any deeper into that film than I already had to endure in 1998 and the immediate years that followed.

The movie wanted raptors, but it also wanted Godzilla to be a dude. So he was dude that had baby raptors. They thought through it about as well as anything else in that dumpster fire.

I enjoyed 1998 for what it was but can agree with people hating it for stepping out on the established canon/mythos. Back then, there was a lot of new research being done on dinosaurs and Jurassic Park was a juggernaut. It seemed like 1998 wanted a piece of that pie with a more agile creature and it was important that the tail didn't drag on the ground and was more lizard like. 

Since the franchise has changed hands over the past half century, I try to enjoy each movie on its own. The last Godzilla marathon I watched was out of chronological order and there wasn't much continuity. After a while of binge watching, it became a blur. I do remember the ones I liked most were the Toho movies though. Just a matter of opinion.

As for off shoots- I never liked Godzookie. It was just stupid.

It would be interesting to see a movie or even an hour long movie dedicated to Mothra only with no Godzilla. That could spur dozens of shows highlighting each character from the monster verse. For all I know, some one may have done it?

dk,
There are 4 Mothra movies with no Godzilla. Mothra had her own solo film 3 years before she entered the Godzilla franchise.

Mothra was based on a standalone Japanese novella.

Well Roland Emmerich did hate Godzilla

G. H. (Gman) Out of curiosity, have you read the original Mothra novel?

Xenotaris So he basically didn't give a care about what he was doing with the character. Which is how we wound up with Zilla (who I don't think is necessarily a bad monster in his own right, but he's a lousy Godzilla outside of the animated sequel series).

Y'know, say what you will about the MonsterVerse movies as a whole, but at the very least they put in actual effort to get the monsters right.

personally I love Zilla and even consider it a type of Godzilla, just wished it had its atomic fire breath and was a little stronger. I am with LazyFish and MinecraftDinoKaiju when saying this, I believe Zilla should have been considered a female rather than a male but Roland Emmerich decided that his Godzilla had to be a male no matter what even to the point when it defied biology.

I think Zilla/Godzilla98 needs a second chance to shine, perhaps the monsterverse could elevate this kaiju to Godzilla status?