I only brought up power levels because as I said Rodan has done nothing differently from the Showa series than the other Big 5 other than he has no longer fought Godzilla on even ground. If you want to argue that Mothra, MechaG and Ghidorah have co started Godzilla I would argue Rodan has never done that other than he had a Solo film back in the day. I don't know how his popularity is in Japan but he is one of the few kaiju to get a new incarnation every time Godzilla does, he's in almost all Godzilla media, he made it to the Monsterverse and now a DC comic.HedorahIsBestGirl wrote: ↑Fri Mar 21, 2025 7:31 am I was just trying to make the point that "power level" has nothing to do with why Rodan's popularity has declined in the past 50 years...
But in regards to Mothra, she has absolutely not beaten Godzilla and Ghidorah on the regular. Both Godzilla and Ghidorah have vaporized her; Godzilla has done so twice. Mothra's two true victories over Godzilla have been hard-earned verging on pyrrhic. In 64, the twin larvae manage to subdue Godzilla via clever teamwork, and we learn one of them died of its injuries (presumably the one that got tail-thrashed repeatedly). And this is after the adult Mothra perished fighting Godzilla. In 92, Mothra and Battra manage to overpower Godzilla together, but Battra dies in the process. Mothra's victories against other kaiju like Gigan '04 and Rodan '19 have also come at a high cost. Mothra is not a powerful kaiju unless we're talking Mothra Leo, who is usually treated as a separate character - and no one is arguing about that fucker being a god-tier threat.
And before any of this gets misinterpreted as "this guy hates Mothra" - I like Mothra a hell of a lot, in large part BECAUSE she's an underdog who never gives up when facing down kaiju she has no chance against. I think that has endeared the character to a lot of fans. If we only cared about power levels, kaiju like SpaceGodzilla and Destoroyah would be in the Big Five.
Mothra beat Godzilla in 64, in 92 and in 03. I'm going off who won at the end of the films regardless of death. Mothra has stopped Godzilla period. As for Leo I was counting him in Mothra's victory count but like I said no one wants to talk about power levels.