Goro Maki and the Origins of Shin Godzilla!

[LSD Jellyfish]

It's outrageous to me that people would rather believe the "Shin is a micro organism parasite" or "Shin is a fish" theories that has been debunked numerous times instead of looking at this and the Goro Maki Journal which literally has his origin and 1st form in them, too bad the Goro journal was stealthily released because that's why there's so little coverage on it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comme ... _the_goro/

Never saw this somehow, but, I think it’s neat. Toho-licensed or not, it’s supplementary material from the film and I’m not sure if it really means much. However, the stuff mentioned there, fusing human DNA with other rapidly evolving DNA, would explain why Shin Godzilla goes from a very distinctive fish-like creature to a bipedal monster that eventually has very unsubtle human features. On top of that, it would explain the bipedal humanoid spawn at the end a lot more. It’s also pretty “Annoish” trope wise; experimenting with embryos and cloning was a big aspect of Eva, especially for a bereaved scientist.

I don’t think Shin Godzilla is literally supposed to be, or is, Goro Maki, but taking this all into account, based on what is stated directly in the film, implied by the film, and explained in supplementary materials, the story of Shin’s origins is pretty simple to understand, although the details on exactly how all this occurs is murky:

Goro Maki’s wife dies from cancer related to radiation.
Goro Maki works researching nuclear related issues, and eventually discovers a strange sea-life/fish/ancient shark/saurian organism (unclear which one, but it’s clear it may not nearly fit into the category) that’s feeding on radiation.

Surprised by its resilience, Goro Maki discovers the creature, and begins to experiment/study it. He quickly discovers the creature has a rapid ability to evolve, although it seems like in its natural habitat/circumstance(?) this didn’t happen.

Goro Maki continues experiments on the creature. If you believe the guide, it means he made an embryo and studied it in a rather bizarre/mad scientist way. It’s possible at this point Maki realizes the potential, and somehow realizes inserting some of his own human DNA will catapult the creature into a new stage of life.

Goro Maki perfects Shin. It’s ambiguous if he fused/fed himself to it, or transformed from it. It’s ambiguous if it’s just human DNA fused, or if any part of Goro Maki exists within Shin Godzilla. Maki’s corpse is never found, but he’s left hints and shoes, heavily implying he’s either fed himself to the creature, or just drowned himself after releasing his creation. The catalyst action begins immediately before Shin Godzilla properly begins.

My personal belief, based on the lyrics of Persecution of the Masses, and some brief moments by Godzilla+statements by Anno, is that Shin Godzilla is at some level conscious, and is continually and frighteningly fighting with its own body for control. The consciousness is dim, confused, sad and angry, and I think the music, visuals of some of the scenes, convey that.

Keep in mind I don’t know exactly what happened (no one does), but I think it’s an interesting backstory for a monster, which through its storytelling doesn’t make it a standard “mad scientist trope”. It doesn’t distract from what the film is really about, and adds a lot of emotion to something that would otherwise be pretty schlocky on screen. The Reddit post lists it as being unique for a Godzilla film, saying that this is the first Godzilla mutant experiment, but I think in a lot of ways it manages to carry a lot of the old Toho underlying messages and emotions. Nuclear waste and its altering of the natural world is the recipe for all these horrific disasters, and mankind’s ego and self-destructive behaviors are the catalyst.

Another interesting thing is that you might consider Shin Godzilla as a composite of not only Godzilla, but the Oxygen Destroyer. I’m not saying literally, but rather Godzilla 1954 was partially about revealing a world-altering scientific secret that was rooted in personal tragedy. It’s as if Maki is Serizawa, killing himself and releasing some horrible new weapon into the world, when he finally unveils his discovery to the world in Tokyo Bay.

Godzilla (1954) ends with Serizawa making a decision to kill himself with his scientific discovery in Tokyo Bay. Shin Godzilla begins with Maki making a decision to kill himself in Tokyo Bay, bring his scientific discovery to light.

[king_ghidorah]

Love that origin personally

[phillipw1954]

Idk if this is a thing people have come to conclude often or something else but I recently realized how Goro Maki is like an anti-Serizawa character.

Serizawa's personal conflict in the original Gojira is that he needs to relieve himself of the paranoia that the Oxygen Destroyer is giving him through its potential to cause destruction.
In the end, he sacrifices himself to destroy the OD and stop destruction from reigning down due to those who would misuse it.

Maki on the other hand sacrifices himself to Godzilla, seemingly aware of what destruction it could cause, fuelling it and driving it to attack Tokyo.

He sacrificed himself to fuel destruction, while Serizawa sacrificed himself to prevent it.

Thats such a nice unseen swap within Shin.

[AllosaurHell]

It's outrageous to me that people would rather believe the "Shin is a micro organism parasite" or "Shin is a fish" theories that has been debunked numerous times instead of looking at this and the Goro Maki Journal which literally has his origin and 1st form in them, too bad the Goro journal was stealthily released because that's why there's so little coverage on it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comme ... _the_goro/

Never saw this somehow, but, I think it’s neat. Toho-licensed or not, it’s supplementary material from the film and I’m not sure if it really means much. However, the stuff mentioned there, fusing human DNA with other rapidly evolving DNA, would explain why Shin Godzilla goes from a very distinctive fish-like creature to a bipedal monster that eventually has very unsubtle human features. On top of that, it would explain the bipedal humanoid spawn at the end a lot more. It’s also pretty “Annoish” trope wise; experimenting with embryos and cloning was a big aspect of Eva, especially for a bereaved scientist.

I don’t think Shin Godzilla is literally supposed to be, or is, Goro Maki, but taking this all into account, based on what is stated directly in the film, implied by the film, and explained in supplementary materials, the story of Shin’s origins is pretty simple to understand, although the details on exactly how all this occurs is murky:

Goro Maki’s wife dies from cancer related to radiation.
Goro Maki works researching nuclear related issues, and eventually discovers a strange sea-life/fish/ancient shark/saurian organism (unclear which one, but it’s clear it may not nearly fit into the category) that’s feeding on radiation.

Surprised by its resilience, Goro Maki discovers the creature, and begins to experiment/study it. He quickly discovers the creature has a rapid ability to evolve, although it seems like in its natural habitat/circumstance(?) this didn’t happen.

Goro Maki continues experiments on the creature. If you believe the guide, it means he made an embryo and studied it in a rather bizarre/mad scientist way. It’s possible at this point Maki realizes the potential, and somehow realizes inserting some of his own human DNA will catapult the creature into a new stage of life.

Goro Maki perfects Shin. It’s ambiguous if he fused/fed himself to it, or transformed from it. It’s ambiguous if it’s just human DNA fused, or if any part of Goro Maki exists within Shin Godzilla. Maki’s corpse is never found, but he’s left hints and shoes, heavily implying he’s either fed himself to the creature, or just drowned himself after releasing his creation. The catalyst action begins immediately before Shin Godzilla properly begins.

My personal belief, based on the lyrics of Persecution of the Masses, and some brief moments by Godzilla+statements by Anno, is that Shin Godzilla is at some level conscious, and is continually and frighteningly fighting with its own body for control. The consciousness is dim, confused, sad and angry, and I think the music, visuals of some of the scenes, convey that.

Keep in mind I don’t know exactly what happened (no one does), but I think it’s an interesting backstory for a monster, which through its storytelling doesn’t make it a standard “mad scientist trope”. It doesn’t distract from what the film is really about, and adds a lot of emotion to something that would otherwise be pretty schlocky on screen. The Reddit post lists it as being unique for a Godzilla film, saying that this is the first Godzilla mutant experiment, but I think in a lot of ways it manages to carry a lot of the old Toho underlying messages and emotions. Nuclear waste and its altering of the natural world is the recipe for all these horrific disasters, and mankind’s ego and self-destructive behaviors are the catalyst.

Another interesting thing is that you might consider Shin Godzilla as a composite of not only Godzilla, but the Oxygen Destroyer. I’m not saying literally, but rather Godzilla 1954 was partially about revealing a world-altering scientific secret that was rooted in personal tragedy. It’s as if Maki is Serizawa, killing himself and releasing some horrible new weapon into the world, when he finally unveils his discovery to the world in Tokyo Bay.

Godzilla (1954) ends with Serizawa making a decision to kill himself with his scientific discovery in Tokyo Bay. Shin Godzilla begins with Maki making a decision to lull himself in Tokyo Bay, bring his scientific discovery to light.

You wrote it so perfectly! Legit, your proposed origin reads like the opening text scroll to a Star Wars movie. I was even thinking about Goro being the reverse Serizawa the other day, I think that's 100% an intentional choice and is something that just rhymes with the series' ongoing themes. Goro being in Shin Godzilla (which while not confirmed seems to be implied a lot) could be another Anno metaphor, this time about how Godzilla is a man in a suit with Goro being the man trapped inside Godzilla in some way whether it be his entire autonomy in the beast, I just think that suits Anno's metaphorical writing style.

[ShinGojira14]

Another interesting thing is that you might consider Shin Godzilla as a composite of not only Godzilla, but the Oxygen Destroyer. I’m not saying literally, but rather Godzilla 1954 was partially about revealing a world-altering scientific secret that was rooted in personal tragedy. It’s as if Maki is Serizawa, killing himself and releasing some horrible new weapon into the world, when he finally unveils his discovery to the world in Tokyo Bay.

Godzilla (1954) ends with Serizawa making a decision to kill himself with his scientific discovery in Tokyo Bay. Shin Godzilla begins with Maki making a decision to kill himself in Tokyo Bay, bring his scientific discovery to light.

I never noticed that parallel! That's a great spot!