Godzilla

"Long live the king."

- Unknown

Godzilla is the name given to the last surviving  member of a species of ancient,,  alpha predators from the 's  called Titanus gojira. He is also one of the Titans. After an in his era, Godzilla, and other monsters like him, retreated into the depths of the planet where they became dormant for millions of years and absorbed radiation from the Earth's core.

After the advent of humanity, Godzilla occasionally awakened and was sighted by early man. He was depicted fighting a three-headed dragonlike creature in cave paintings from an ancient era. Legends from islanders near  named him Gojira (ゴジラ),  where he was hailed as "king of the monsters." For whatever reason, he returned to dormancy deep beneath the Pacific Ocean until 1954, when an nuclear submarine reached the lower depths and awakened him again.

Godzilla, dubbed a M.U.T.O. before receiving its iconic name, menaced both American and submarines in the Pacific until the Americans attempted to destroy him in the late 1950s with ry under the guise of nuclear tests. Godzilla disappeared afterwards and was thought to be dead, but, in reality, had simply escaped to the lower depths of the Pacific once again. He would not reemerged for several decades, until 2014, when a pair of parasitic M.U.T.O. awakened and threatened his existence.

He reappeared in, , where he battled against the male MUTO, destroying the airport and much of the city in the process. The male parasite escaped and Godzilla gave chase, tracking the beast, and its newly hatched mate, to. There, the three titanic beasts battled, destroying much of the city. Though Godzilla was nearly defeated, he managed to overcome the two MUTO, killing them both before collapsing. Though thought dead, he reawakened the following day and retreated back into his home in the Pacific Ocean.

Prehistory
At the end of the, Godzilla fought against another colossal parasitic creature: the Shinomura. Moments after its victory, an enormous struck the planet, triggering an  that coincided with a reduction of radiation on the 's surface. Godzilla survived the event and escaped into the depths of the and fell into a dormant state, while absorbing radiation from the Earth's core.

Reawakening, 1945—2014
Godzilla awakened at least once after the extinction event and encountered early humanity. Its image was depicted in temple ruins found beneath the surface of the water, and it was depicted fighting with Ghidorah in ancient cave paintings. After these conflicts, it presumably returned to the depths of in the Pacific Ocean.

Sometime during this period, the creature became known as a legendary throughout the Pacific islands. The islanders took to calling him Gojira, a contraction of the words for "" and "." Despite this, it was believed only to be a tribal myth.

It awoke again after the in 1945 which ended.

Shinomura Incident
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also awakened a surviving Shinomura. The blast lured the creatures up from the depths and one specimen even appeared over Hiroshima shortly after the detonation of the bomb. Its appearance warranted the attention of Godzilla, who emerged from the depths to chase it off each time it tried to feed. The organization Monarch was established, in the wake of these events, to track and study Godzilla and other creatures like it.

In 1954, Godzilla emerged on Moansta Island to combat the two Shinomura. He managed to destroy one of the creatures, but the second escaped, and Godzilla gave chase in the sea. Shortly after, he emerged at, where the American military detonated an to kill both creatures. The final Shinomura was destroyed in the blast, and Godzilla disappeared and was thought to be dead. In reality, he was entirely unharmed and escaped back into the ocean. The incident was covered up as "atomic testing" by Monarch.

King of the Monsters, 2014—Present
After the incident in San Fransisco, Godzilla did not return to hibernation. Instead, he freely roamed the Pacific, where he was tracked by Monarch.

Behind the scenes
Godzilla was portrayed by (via motion capture) in the 2014 film Godzilla.

Appearances

 * Godzilla
 * Godzilla novelization
 * Godzilla: Awakening
 * Kong: Skull Island
 * Godzilla: King of the Monsters
 * Godzilla vs. Kong

Non-canon appearances

 * Godzilla: Smash3
 * Godzilla: Strike Zone
 * Godzilla video game
 * Godzilla: Kaiju Collection