Godzilla - is he a good guy???

[me]

They're showing back to back Godzilla movies on the Sci-fi channel today, and I'm wondering...
...do the people in these movies always love Godzilla?
The people are watching Godzilla attack monsters, and they're rooting for Godzilla... but doesn't Godzilla attack people, too? Did he turn into a good guy somewhere along the way? Or are the people just rooting for the lesser of two evils?

BTW, I love bad movies, but Godzilla movies are probably too bad for me... or they're a different kind of bad that I don't really like. Anybody feel the same way? I think it's all the nonstop fighting with no dialog to make fun of- I think that's the reason I might not like them.

[StatCat]

It really depends on the film, I'm not the top Godzilla expert but I am a fan and I have seen, and own a lot of the films. I read the godzilla compendium which also brought up my knowledge on the subject. He attacks people in every movie almost, collapsing buildings= dead people obviously purposely or not. I can't really say the films are non stop fighting, there is a lot of dialog and story in some of them. The films on sci fi today were from Hedora to Mecha Godzilla (films 11-14) This is when godzilla basically played the good role. He was adapted a little more for children in earlier films a little before these. Some of my favorite godzillas came out in the 60s and 70s, just can't rekindle that with the later films that totally wrote out these movies continuing for the original godzilla.

[Squishy]

Starting back with Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster (1965, I think?), Godzilla started teaming up with other monsters and fighting to save the Earth, all the way up to Terror of MechaGodzilla (1975)--including tag-team matching in Godzilla vs Megalon and Godzilla vs Mecha-Godzilla. At times (notably Godzilla vs The Smog Monster/Hedorah) he even communicates with humans, and actually shook hands (ewwww) with Jet Jaguar (EWWWWWW) in ...vs Megalon. Godzilla--friend to children everywhere!! (Fart.)

In the four earliest films, he was a cruel right bastard, tearing Angilas' throat out, burning King Kong and burying him alive, killing Mothra, and trying to mash her offspring!!  

The later series that StatCat mentions is known generally as the "Heisei" series:

Godzilla 1985
Godzilla vs Biollante
Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle For Earth
Godzilla vs Mecha-Godzilla (2)
Godzilla vs Space Godzilla
Godzilla vs Destroyah

In these, Godzilla really has no set role as "hero" or "bad guy;" it changes with the situation. (For example, when King Ghidorah is devestating Japan in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla saves the day--promptly becoming a new, even greater threat to mankind. In ...vs Space Godzilla, he is minding his own business--raising a son--when both mankind and his decidedly evil space-doppleganger bust his chops, making him the underdog.) Big G is simply a huge force to be reckoned with and automatically attacks any other monster that appears; everything goes from there.

Beyond the Heisei series, there are the newer ones, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla X Megaguiras, (unreleased in the US) and the upcoming Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: Daikaiju Soukougeki. In all of these, Godzilla is a nasty, cruel, destructive, hostile customer, but I wouldn't classify him as "evil."

(However, Mothra, Biollante, Jet Jaguar, King Seesar, and the human-friendly Minya and Godzilla Jr. could be considered "good," even if many of them have caused their share of fatalities and property damage. Gabara is a cruel bully, so he's "evil," even if he hasn't killed anyone. All the others are simply doing what instinct or mind-control tells them, so they're not really evil--even if Megalon sucks. )

[StatCat]

They did overplay the whole godzilla- friend of children thing in some of the movies (godzilla's revenge especially, I hate that movie for that and the stock footage use.) Or what about special messages (godzilla vs Hedora = pollution problems)

[Flangepart]

I wonder how Japanese history plays into the Godzilla Mythology. It does provide the "Root Structure" for that Bonsi tree. In an island nation, full of wars and general uncertinty, an attitude of"Oh,well, here we go agine" might be expected. A force of nature, like a tsunami or earthquake, is a faceless threat, an abstract. But Kaiju are living beings, and have a...personality?... that other forces have not. When's the last time you got stared at by an earthquake? G and his kind do things with a deliberation that mindless energy releses don't have. He seem to have only a primtive awareness of human action, most of the time, and has no connection to human feelings and needs. In the Gamera new series, that connection was an important part of the plot! As a Kaiju becomes mo...humanised?...moral questions could come into play, and have to be accounted for. But, as "Simple" animals of great power, Kaiju are a concept to be reconed with, as much as a force.