GojiBean
Your resident irradiated Kaiju King
Hoyo!
So I've a topic I want to discuss and see differing opinions on. The use of nostalgia in story telling, and whether or not you think it should have its limits, or be used freely without limitation.
For example, as is obvious from my avatar, I'm a Godzilla fan. The new King of the Monsters film that came out last year by Michael Dougherty had A LOT of nostalgic moments in it. However, as a writer, I found that the inclusion of said moments lacked a lot of the substance, integrity, and meaning of the original moments from which they were inspired. And to me, many of those moments would have been better off saved for later when there was more world building to back them up rather than throwing them into our laps and expecting nostalgia alone to do the heavy lifting.
Make sense?
For example: The inclusion of the Oxygen Destroyer (which I will refer to as OD from now on).
... This is going to be a bit of a rant, so I apologize ahead of time. Lol.
The Oxygen Destroyer is the only device that humanity has ever created that's successfully killed Godzilla (way back in 1954's original Gojira film). Its creator, Doctor Serizawa, was adamant that it only be used as a tool for scientific testing and discovery. He knew that if its existence was made public, people everywhere, particularly world governments or power hungry psychopaths, would try to get their hands on it and weaponize it. And with as much destructive force as a prototype version the size of a bottle cap had to almost immediately liquefy fish in a fish tank and reduce them first to skeletons, then to nothing, imagine how devastating one the size of a missile would be?
When Ogata (the other part of a love triangle Serizawa is in with Emiko, Serizawa's fiance) is told of the OD by Emiko he comes to Serizawa's lab to take it and use it as a weapon against Godzilla. Serizawa, naturally, takes issue with this and a fight breaks out in which Ogata is injured. Serizawa apologizes, and reinforces the position that the OD can't be used as a weapon. Ogata says Serizawa's fears about the OD's misuse may be a reality someday, but right now Godzilla IS reality and is destroying Japan. He also reinforces that, as a scientist, Serizawa has a responsibility to use his knowledge and inventions for the betterment of humanity. And Godzilla stands in the way of that.
Serizawa's internal conflict is only overcome when he hears a mournful song by children on the radio after Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, and he burns all of his research documents and, when the OD is deployed against Godzilla, cuts his air line and sacrifices himself to ensure that the OD will never be used again. Because as long as Serizawa is alive, so is the OD.
Following its deployment, Godzilla is killed. And that is the OD's legacy. It's the only weapon ever to work on Godzilla that's created by humanity.
All of this is the story behind the OD. But in King of the Monsters (2019), the OD is introduced as a prototype weapon and dropped like any normal bomb on Godzilla. And like any other normal bomb, the OD fails to kill Godzilla. It only weakens him and forces him into the Hollow Earth to recover. Later, a nuke is deployed on Godzilla to revitalize him and undo all of the damage the OD did which effectively makes the OD pointless.
The reason I say the OD was rendered pointless is because the most important part about this is that Godzilla is weakened. And the OD isn't required for that because Godzilla can be weakened in any number of different ways such as fighting Ghidorah and Rodan (who had been beaten into submission by Ghidorah just a few minutes before the OD dropped). Have a 2 on 1 and beat the crap out of Godzilla and you get the same result and the film ultimately remains the same with the only difference being the OD isn't used.
So in my humble opinion, it would have been better not to include the OD in King of the Monsters. And the reason is that using it, and having it fail, (to me at least) tarnishes the legacy of the original device as the only weapon to successfully kill Godzilla. It no longer has that 100% success rate it could boast previously. Toho, the company behind Godzilla's creation, is co-producing the Monsterverse films with Legendary. And thus all the Monsterverse films are canon to the franchise. The OD now, because of Dougherty's hasty inclusion of it, has a 50% success rate. And that, to me, is a bit detrimental to the memory of the OD, as well as the Monsterverse films since the world building didn't back up the device's inclusion. There was no setup or tease for it, and no backstory to the device itself. It was simply thrown in as a plot device to conveniently weaken Godzilla for the sake of including it because "nostalgia."
So, that's the end of my rant. I know, about time right? Lol.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Should nostalgic moments like this one have their place and be used carefully? Or does it matter to you at all whether or not what came before is adhered to with any kind of guidelines? Maybe you think it's fine if you include whatever simply because you can?
Let me know! I'm always down to hear about different opinions and to see your reasoning as to why you feel that way! I'm not here to be combative or tell anyone they're wrong, nor will I try and debate. Simply discuss.
Thanks!
So I've a topic I want to discuss and see differing opinions on. The use of nostalgia in story telling, and whether or not you think it should have its limits, or be used freely without limitation.
For example, as is obvious from my avatar, I'm a Godzilla fan. The new King of the Monsters film that came out last year by Michael Dougherty had A LOT of nostalgic moments in it. However, as a writer, I found that the inclusion of said moments lacked a lot of the substance, integrity, and meaning of the original moments from which they were inspired. And to me, many of those moments would have been better off saved for later when there was more world building to back them up rather than throwing them into our laps and expecting nostalgia alone to do the heavy lifting.
Make sense?
For example: The inclusion of the Oxygen Destroyer (which I will refer to as OD from now on).
... This is going to be a bit of a rant, so I apologize ahead of time. Lol.
The Oxygen Destroyer is the only device that humanity has ever created that's successfully killed Godzilla (way back in 1954's original Gojira film). Its creator, Doctor Serizawa, was adamant that it only be used as a tool for scientific testing and discovery. He knew that if its existence was made public, people everywhere, particularly world governments or power hungry psychopaths, would try to get their hands on it and weaponize it. And with as much destructive force as a prototype version the size of a bottle cap had to almost immediately liquefy fish in a fish tank and reduce them first to skeletons, then to nothing, imagine how devastating one the size of a missile would be?
When Ogata (the other part of a love triangle Serizawa is in with Emiko, Serizawa's fiance) is told of the OD by Emiko he comes to Serizawa's lab to take it and use it as a weapon against Godzilla. Serizawa, naturally, takes issue with this and a fight breaks out in which Ogata is injured. Serizawa apologizes, and reinforces the position that the OD can't be used as a weapon. Ogata says Serizawa's fears about the OD's misuse may be a reality someday, but right now Godzilla IS reality and is destroying Japan. He also reinforces that, as a scientist, Serizawa has a responsibility to use his knowledge and inventions for the betterment of humanity. And Godzilla stands in the way of that.
Serizawa's internal conflict is only overcome when he hears a mournful song by children on the radio after Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, and he burns all of his research documents and, when the OD is deployed against Godzilla, cuts his air line and sacrifices himself to ensure that the OD will never be used again. Because as long as Serizawa is alive, so is the OD.
Following its deployment, Godzilla is killed. And that is the OD's legacy. It's the only weapon ever to work on Godzilla that's created by humanity.
All of this is the story behind the OD. But in King of the Monsters (2019), the OD is introduced as a prototype weapon and dropped like any normal bomb on Godzilla. And like any other normal bomb, the OD fails to kill Godzilla. It only weakens him and forces him into the Hollow Earth to recover. Later, a nuke is deployed on Godzilla to revitalize him and undo all of the damage the OD did which effectively makes the OD pointless.
The reason I say the OD was rendered pointless is because the most important part about this is that Godzilla is weakened. And the OD isn't required for that because Godzilla can be weakened in any number of different ways such as fighting Ghidorah and Rodan (who had been beaten into submission by Ghidorah just a few minutes before the OD dropped). Have a 2 on 1 and beat the crap out of Godzilla and you get the same result and the film ultimately remains the same with the only difference being the OD isn't used.
So in my humble opinion, it would have been better not to include the OD in King of the Monsters. And the reason is that using it, and having it fail, (to me at least) tarnishes the legacy of the original device as the only weapon to successfully kill Godzilla. It no longer has that 100% success rate it could boast previously. Toho, the company behind Godzilla's creation, is co-producing the Monsterverse films with Legendary. And thus all the Monsterverse films are canon to the franchise. The OD now, because of Dougherty's hasty inclusion of it, has a 50% success rate. And that, to me, is a bit detrimental to the memory of the OD, as well as the Monsterverse films since the world building didn't back up the device's inclusion. There was no setup or tease for it, and no backstory to the device itself. It was simply thrown in as a plot device to conveniently weaken Godzilla for the sake of including it because "nostalgia."
So, that's the end of my rant. I know, about time right? Lol.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Should nostalgic moments like this one have their place and be used carefully? Or does it matter to you at all whether or not what came before is adhered to with any kind of guidelines? Maybe you think it's fine if you include whatever simply because you can?
Let me know! I'm always down to hear about different opinions and to see your reasoning as to why you feel that way! I'm not here to be combative or tell anyone they're wrong, nor will I try and debate. Simply discuss.
Thanks!
