Best/Worst Character Recreations/Incarnations

[Gojira tai Mosura]

Yeah, so what the title says. Just list off what you think were the best/worst character recreations/incarnations or even appearances for that matter.

Example:

Kiryu was the best MechaGodzilla incarnation, however, I thought that Showa MechaGodzilla was really lame.

Note: This is an example, please go into more detail.

Rules:
Do not mention Godzilla 1998/Zilla. We all know that he's widely considered to be the worst recreation in the Godzilla franchise. You're just beating a dead horse at this point.
Please go into detail about why you think said incarnation/recreation is better/worse than the others.
Please do not argue about other's opinions.


This might be a bit of a controversial opinion, but I thought that Heisei Godzilla was a step down from Showa Godzilla. Sure, he had a much more intimidating look (the definitive look, for that matter) but most of his battles boiled down to "Beamspam until the other monster falls over". In the Showa Era, you saw kaiju picking each other up and throwing them all over the place, punching, kicking and hilarious attacks. Just because you want to make the monster look dark and intimidating again, it doesn't mean you should make the suits so bulky and the arms so immovable that the fights have to be beamspam most of the time.
So in other words, Heisei Godzilla has got to be one of the worst character recreations solely because his suits ruined a lot of the battles in the franchise by making them unbelievably bulky. Showa really did the battles right, because the suits were nice and flexible.

[Godzilla The King]

I've always viewed Heisei King Ghidorah as the best Ghidorah minus his roar and origins. The design just looks so majestic and this Ghidorah actually can fight pretty good. This Ghidorah is the closest to living up to the hype that a destroyer of worlds can have.

[Space Hunter M]

Paleontologist Serizawa is easily the worst. Dr. Serizawa was a chemist, and Watanabe's character never grows to gigantic proportions while wielding an oxygen destroyer beam weapon.

[EmperorGhidorah]

I've always viewed Heisei King Ghidorah as the best Ghidorah minus his roar and origins. The design just looks so majestic and this Ghidorah actually can fight pretty good. This Ghidorah is the closest to living up to the hype that a destroyer of worlds can have.

I'd argue keizer ghidorah was a greater threat, but I, for the most part, agree with this statement.

[Godzilla The King]

For the worst reimagining it would have to be Little Godzilla. I'm not counting him as the same as Baby and Junior because at least those two looked like Heisei Godzilla. Little Godzilla was too cute and too radical a redesign. I'm seriously wondering how the Baby Godzilla became that and how Little Godzilla becomes Junior.

[Shannon Squid]

Paleontologist Serizawa is easily the worst. Dr. Serizawa was a chemist, and Watanabe's character never grows to gigantic proportions while wielding an oxygen destroyer beam weapon.

Joking aside, I'll agree with this. They took the fairly memorable character of Serizawa, the tragic and tortured guy who sacrificed himself....


And made him into a Fanboy who starred dumbly at the screen spouting exposition every now and then. And he didn't even have an eye-patch!

[UltramanGoji]

I don't think 2014 Serizawa should count. It's not a recreation, it's just an easter egg for the fans.

[Shannon Squid]

Would Keizer Ghidorah count? It kinda looked neat at first. But my initial impressions of it have stuck over time...It's an ugly design and didn't do anything other than beam spam. And ultimately pretty forgettable to me.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

I actually like GMK King Ghidorah better than the Showa or Heisei incarnations Godzilla fought. I feel like he was the only one who had any actual life or personality to him, and I think the twist of him being the hero and Godzilla being the villain is an interesting contribution to the overall Godzilla/Toho-verse. Plus I like his design too.

[ScootaVaran]

Worst:
Heisei Gyaos. They took a great monster and turned it into cannon fodder.
Heisei Rodan. It's not so much the creature but rather the execution.
Heisei Gamera. Nothing but a tool.
GMK Ghidorah. Trying to fix something that was never broken in the first place.
GMK Godzilla. No, this is not Godzilla. Gojira was able to do the dark version because it meant something, not you GMK, not you..

I'll do the best of later.

[BlankAccount]

Paleontologist Serizawa is easily the worst. Dr. Serizawa was a chemist, and Watanabe's character never grows to gigantic proportions while wielding an oxygen destroyer beam weapon.

Joking aside, I'll agree with this. They took the fairly memorable character of Serizawa, the tragic and tortured guy who sacrificed himself....


And made him into a Fanboy who starred dumbly at the screen spouting exposition every now and then. And he didn't even have an eye-patch!

Watch he'll lose an eye in one of the sequels.

[Beef Bigshot]

Watch he'll lose an eye in one of the sequels.

That would be pretty sweet.

Anywho 2004 anguirus I didn't like. He turned into a glofied porcupine and lost his character a bit. Also I'm not a huge fan of his design

[Dr. Professor]

Paleontologist Serizawa is easily the worst. Dr. Serizawa was a chemist, and Watanabe's character never grows to gigantic proportions while wielding an oxygen destroyer beam weapon.

Joking aside, I'll agree with this. They took the fairly memorable character of Serizawa, the tragic and tortured guy who sacrificed himself....


And made him into a Fanboy who starred dumbly at the screen spouting exposition every now and then. And he didn't even have an eye-patch!

Honestly, I don't believe he was supposed to be an incarnation of Dr. Serizawa. I think they just gave him the name as an homage to the original film.

[HayesAJones]

Showa boasts the best Angry, Rodan, and Gigan while Final Wars houses the worse. ESPECIALLY with Gigan. I hate FW Gigan.

And SOS Mothra simply can't be beat. It's design, powers, and role are all perfect.

On Mechagodzilla, Ghidorah, and even Godzilla himself, I'm split. The origin and role of Showa Ghiddy are the best we've seen of him, but I think I prefer Heisei as far as design goes. With Mechagodzilla, I like the design/suit of Kiryu best... it's a real beauty... but Showa is the best one all-around. As for Goji... well, I like all of them to some degree. Some more than others, but it's hard to decided on one to be the best or worst since Godzilla works in a lot of different ways as a character. I guess if I had to play favorites, I'd say that Heisei Godzilla is the best, but the likes of GMK and the last Showa version of the character chase fast at his heels.

[three]

Kiryu is the best MG. It's sleek and mechanical, yet eerily organic as well. It's not like the other two incarnations...if you pause the screen at Kiryu, it's almost like it's watching you back. Very creepy, very alive, the character is awesome all around.

Heisei King Ghidorah is the best to me. The earlier versions hyped up this thing and it was defeated by unconventional Kaiju tactics, such as slinging boulders and webbing, and ran like a coward. When faced with a legitimate battle, it gets its throat crushed, is beaten to death, and is completely eviscerated. How sad is that? Plus, it looks weird. I prefer the redesign both in purpose and in appearance.

Godzilla is defined by his Heisei appearance. I see it used or designs like it put on television more than any other, and this suggests it's easily recognised outside of the fandom. Not only that, but it looks like a city wrecking monster as opposed to a big dog (Showa) or mutant lizard (Millennium). Next closest winner is 2000, followed by GMK. After that it's a wide margin.

Angirus was at its best in the Showa era. So was Gigan. I don't think these two have ever been done justice outside of their original showings (Angirus put up a legit fight and Gigan was never quite as close to victory again).

Rodan has to be best shown in the Heisei film. It served a purpose beyond itself, and was a tough opponent. Very close second is its original film depiction, because it was tragic and really cool.

Mothra from SOS is easily the top of the list. There wasn't anything I didn't like about her, which is important. It was almost as if I could not find a fault in the design or implementation of it.

[Noble Saber]

GMK Ghidorah was probably the weakest incarnation of the three-headed dragon. Personally, while I think his design was decent, I could see why it didn't work for people, being very Varan-inspired. Most importantly, Ghidrah is supposed to be an evil, planet-busting demon dragon from space. When you make him a defender of earth, you take away his personality. Scootra said it best, they tried fixing what wasn't broken.

[HayesAJones]

Scootra said it best, they tried fixing what wasn't broken.

I think it's less of a case of them trying to 'fix' Ghidorah and more them stuffing Ghids into a role made for another monster.

Personally, I don't mind GMK Ghidorah since he stills plays opposite to Godzilla, but I understand why a lot of people dislike him.

[three]

Scootra said it best, they tried fixing what wasn't broken.

I think it's less of a case of them trying to 'fix' Ghidorah and more them stuffing Ghids into a role made for another monster.

Personally, I don't mind GMK Ghidorah since he stills plays opposite to Godzilla, but I understand why a lot of people dislike him.

I just hate the suit. Puppet arms are painfully obvious.

And the heads look ornamental, like they shouldn't move. Its like they should have been placed at the sides of a walkway up a large set of stairs, not on this costume.

[Mr. Xeno]

And the heads look ornamental, like they shouldn't move. Its like they should have been placed at the sides of a walkway up a large set of stairs, not on this costume.

I think that might have been the intention, as Ghidorah is supposed to be essentially a God.

Least/Favorite Goji is tough. I'm mostly burnt out on the Heisei design due to sheer overkill. I've seen that design more times than I've seen the back of my eyelids by this point. Personality and execution wise, my favorite incarnation is GMK. The sheer level of power that version was given made him terrifying. Watching the guardian monsters take him on was like watching a pug fight a bear. Design wise, my favorites would probably have to be the non-GMK millennium versions and G'68. They just nailed the looks perfectly, IMO, making him a cool-as-hell badass.

Also, I'm surprised no one has nominated G'14 as the best Godzilla incarnation yet.

Favorite Ghidorah is, hands down, ROMIII. I know people despise that movie, but KG himself was perfect. Not only was his design the most intimidating, but he actually earned the recognition of being one of the most powerful monsters in the series. I mean, the thing about KG (to me) is that, despite being considered an ultimate badass, he has an absolutely awful track record of getting his ass handed to him. ROMIII was the only time I truly felt that KG was a legit big bad. Hell, Mothra had to absorb the life from a 10,000 year old tree, the treasure of an ancient civilization, and 65 million years worth energy from the Earth to defeat him.

Least favorite Ghidorahs would be the Millennium ones, which isn't to say that I hate them. GMK Ghidorah was memorable due to his story, but was so radically different from his predecessors that he's essentially KGINO, and Kaiser was too underutilized to register, just like every other monster in Final Wars.

While we're at it, add Armor/Eternal Mothra as my favorite. Similar to ROMIII's portrayal of KG, Armor/Eternal Mothra was the only incarnation that I felt made Mothra a legit badass (she's in a similar situation to KG where she's considered one of the most powerful monsters, but almost always gets her ass kicked in every movie she appears). It's no wonder ROMIV was never made, because, at that point, no monster could ever stand up to her. Every fight would be about 2 minutes long and incredibly one sided.

Least favorite versions are the Showas. I can't really blame to filmmakers there too much, since doing a monster like her would be very difficult to do at that time, but she still looks absolutely terrible. I can't even accurately describe how terrible she looks. Just ugh.

Favorite MechaG is Kiryu, as explained above. The best balance between powerful and realistic accompanied by the perfect design. I have no idea how any future MechaG design could possibly outdo Kiryu.

Least favorite is easily Heisei. The design looks cool enough, but it's execution is just so. Fucking. Boring. The thing looks like it weighs actual tons, though, so there's that.

[Jiragozira14]

Least favorite is easily Heisei. The design looks cool enough, but it's execution is just so. skreeonking. Boring. The thing looks like it weighs actual tons, though, so there's that.

Heisei MG is pretty much just a mobile weapons platform, so it's supposed to be boring. :p

Plus the movie had the whole "natural vs artifical life" thing, so there's that theme in play, too.

OT: Best Godzilla is Showa, worst is probably Final Wars'.