ゴジラザウルス
Godzillasaurus
G-Series Appearances: 18, 20, 33
Other Appearances: Strange Tale of Genroku Era Odo Island
二代目 • 2nd Generation
Fist Appearance: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Subtitle: King of the Dinosaurs
Origin: Adolescent1 Godzillasaurus
Emergence: First sighted on Lagos Island, 1944.
Alignment: None
Height: 12 meters
Weight: 60 tons
History: A member of the Godzillasaurus genus lived peacefully on Lagos Island in the Marshall Islands until war broke out between Japan and the US in the 1940's. In 1944, the fighting between the two disturbed the dinosaur, which lashed out at the US landing forces. It was badly injured after being shelled by a US battleship and retreated into the jungle, but the US forces pulled back regardless, and the Japanese garrison it inadvertantly saved was picked up the following week. The Godzillasaurus slowly recovered from its wounds, until 10 years later when it was affected by the Castle Bravo nuclear test and mutated into the 2nd generation Godzilla.
Fist Appearance: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Subtitle: King of the Dinosaurs
Origin: Adolescent Godzillasaurus
Emergence: First sighted on Lagos Island, 1944.
Alignment: None
Height: 12 meters
Weight: 60 tons
History: A dinosaur living peacefully on Lagos Island in the Marshall Islands until the Pacific War disturbed it, causing it to attack the US landing forces. It retreated into the jungle after being injured, but after both the US and Japanese military forces left the island, time travelers from 2204 and 1992 teleported it into the Bering Sea. It eventually recovered from its wounds, and after a Soviet nuclear sub sank in the region in the late 1970's, it mutated into the 3rd generation Godzilla.
呉爾羅 • Gojira
Fist Appearance: Godzilla -1.0 (2023)
Subtitle: ???
Origin: Adult Godzillasaurus
Emergence: First sighted on Odo Island, 1945.
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Height: 15 meters
Weight: 61 tons2
History: The legendary monster of Odo Island was discovered during the last days of the war to be a real animal, a ferocious deep sea dinosaur which laid waste to the crew of mechanics stationed on the island in 1945. After the war, while migrating down into the Marshall Islands, the dinosaur was exposed to the Baker nuclear test on Bikini Atoll and mutated into an even worse monster.
Notes
1 - An observation made by chat when watching the English dub of Minus One during Maly's Monster Movie Monday is that the pronounced dorsal plates of the Odo Island Godzillasaurus might be a sign of sexual maturity. This doesn't sound consistent at first glance since the two are only a few meters apart in terms of size, but it does still make a lot of sense. Junior, after being rapidly mutated by the explosion on Birth Island and becoming a 40 meter tall - for all intents and purposes - adult Godzilla, still had the same underdeveloped dorsal plates, so there is a precedent. There's also the matter of their attitudes, as the Lagos one is nowhere near as openly hostile and only acted when it was directly fucked with. Additionally, in the timeline where Futurians don't mess everything up, that same individual ends up becoming the Godzilla that works with Mothra and Rodan to fight space monsters and eventually raises a kid. While the 3rd generation Godzilla was nowhere near that kind, it does still clearly have some sort of emotional connection with Shindo and does still fight space monsters. My guess here is that the GvsKG Godzillasaurus didn't have its own territory because it was too young, and so when it became a Godzilla it was less likely to result to open violence to solve all of its problems, so that was all learned behavior more than instinct. The Odo Island Godzillasaurus, then, behaves so differently because it's fully mature and intensely territorial... in addition to all the obvious subtext aboot the horrors of war. If we assume the Minus One individual is the same as the one that became the 1st generation Godzilla, then this could also explain why it headedd straight for Tokyo, as opposed to the 2nd generation Godzilla. However, to be clear, Minus One isn't a part of the 1954 continuity family and is a full reboot, so the logic behind it isn't necessarily meant to be consistent with the rest of the series. That said, it does line up very well, and it's a fun interpretation, so I figured I'd put it up here.
Another possible explanation for the design discrepancy is sexual dimorphism. I've previously hypothesized this to be responsible for the differences with the Millennium Godzilla, and while that's not totally consistent with the Minus Godzilla, that Godzilla was created with a different kind of nuclear weapon, which, if we're going by 1954 continuity family rules anwyas, does definitely have an affect on the resulting Godzilla. But, for now at least, I like the idea of the Lagos Godzillasaur being an adolescent more.
2 - Totally conjectural, as no official weight is given. I didn't do any math for this one either, I just figured that it's a little larger, so it's probably also a smidge heavier. A metric ton is very heavy, didn't think I needed to add a whole lot more than that.
