The alignment of Godzilla over the years has seen some extreme swings from good to evil to everything in between. Most of the time, however, he has served as a force of nature that did whatever benefited him or was in keeping with his instincts.
Yeah, Godzilla levels entire prefectures of Japan in one fell swoop, but you shouldn’t read too much into it. He’s just doing what he does according to his nature.
One exception where that isn’t the case is the MonsterVerse. Starting with Gareth Edwards in 2014, Legendary Pictures has depicted the King of the Monsters as a just ruler who is only looking out for the ecosystem.
That’s why he goes crazy whenever he senses Ghidorah and anyone who doesn’t understand doesn’t see the whole picture. Godzilla’s ways are not our ways and he is misunderstood. All the people hurt and killed in his rampages are just collateral damage, nothing more.
Still, efforts to anthropomorphize the kaiju – that is, injecting human reasoning into his motives – continue. We may see layers of depth added to his mythos in Legendary’s continuity, which may impact his interactions with the new Titans.
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We are specifically alluding to Shimo here, the literal creeping Ice Age that will be introduced in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The supposedly female Titan is a puzzle at this stage where we’re only seeing glimpses of her form in images that routinely are struck by copyright claims.
We know little about her origin except for what has been gleaned from plot leaks. Their accuracy is questionable at best – it is the Internet – but they allege Shimo fought Godzilla once upon a time, long ago, and possibly for turf as animals do.
Self-proclaimed Godzilla megafan Ian Cassidy explored the potential backstory and clash between the King and Shimo in an X thread that may shed light on the suspected ancient rivalry. “The problem with that was that it was an honest challenge. She was fighting to keep her territory,” he posted.
“Godzilla came prepared to face off [against] an old enemy (some form of Ancient Kong or similar ape titan) who had driven him out of that lair when he was an adolescent. So it was a fair battle,” Cassidy continued.
When Godzilla x Kong fast-forwards to the present day from prehistoric times, the former headliner will be older, wiser, more established, and one would think more mature. However, age doesn’t always equal maturity – and it doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with prudence or justice.
Cassidy thinks this is a character flaw Godzilla will finally display in the MonsterVerse, which will render him less of a just king and more of an antihero.
“Now that he won, she had to find a new home. Suddenly, he’s at her new home, and he’s killing her?” he wrote. “I really hope the context is that she was stirring up trouble because as it stands, this just seems like he’s being anti-hero.”
The rumor swirling around Shimo is that she (or he) acts under coercion – if not full-blown mind control – at the hands of the Skar King. Needing a weapon that furthers his plans, he tries to conquer the world. Should that be the case then Shimo is a victim being punished more for unwillingly serving the tyrant ape monster.
How’s that for context?
On the other hand, as this is pure speculation at this point, we urge you all to use your judgment and take this as a rumor with the commensurate amount of salt until Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire comes out this spring.