Godzilla 1998 is one of the most tragic & sympathetic Godzilla incarnations seen in film. This thread is about why I find this to be the case, and I will use events from the film & comparisons to other Godzillas in my explanation

But 1st, let’s define the terms. Sympathy is basically the feeling of being sorry for someone, feeling pity and sorrow for the misfortune of another.

A sympathetic character is a fictional character in a story whom the writer expects the audience to identify with &care about, if not admire. These characters are often the protagonists of stories, but side characters& even antagonists can fall into this category

An unsympathetic character is is a fictional character we don’t feel sorry for. Generally these are antagonists.

In fairness, sympathy isn’t a universal trait. A character many people feel bad for some individuals loath/detest or r apathetic. However, there are often times when an reader says a character is unsympathetic , it says more about the reader than it does about the character imo.

Like you can have sympathy 4 a bear that were exterminated for getting too used 2 humans. Even if the death of the animal were justified/necessary, I suspect most people would find that is a sad situation, &feel sorry 4 the animal... but some people don’t.

Even if some people find a character to be unsympathetic, there r ways to have most of an audience connect with/feel sorry for a character. These writing strategies are often used for films and tv shows, books and video games, and in this case are seen in the character of G98

What makes a sympathetic character? 1 major way is to have them show vulnerability, such as through a power disadvantage early in the film. Make a character struggle.

Sympathy is more than likability. Audiences want more than likability, they want interesting. As long as we’re human, vulnerability will always be interesting.

G98 is more vulnerable than most Godzilla incarnations, with military firepower able to pierce his skin & even kill him. Godzilla is pained/saddened by the loss of his children. He is able to be outsmarted& trapped in the saddest scene of the movie.

In some ways, G98 has had to struggle more than other incarnations, and that helps make the character interesting.

After his family dies, Godzilla is too angry and single minded in his attempt to take revenge that he is able to be trapped and killed.

Another way is through positive moments &character traits. Instead of dialogue talkin about y they should b sympathetic, give a character scenes that endear them 2the audience. G98 has a few of these. Godzilla shows curiosity& a gentle intelligence in a great 1st scene with Nick

Godzilla is generally peaceful, &bears no malice toward humanity. Never goes out of his way to intentionally attack innocent people, Godzilla caused damage while trying to feed on fish or using the city as a home/nest.

It’s tragic situation, because despite Godzilla being an intelligent, peaceful animal with lots of positive aspects, G98 still unintentionally caused a lot of damage and through its rapid reproduction rate was a threat to humanity.

Unfortunately, mankind saw no way to coexist (not that they tried to find a way), &therefore Godzilla had to be killed.

5 other ways to make sympathetic characters &how it relates to G98:
1)Give a character needs/wants. Establish a vulnerability &a need to accomplish something. Godzilla needs a place 2nest, collect enough food for himself &his young, escape the military, &later avenge his children

2)Character has strong convictions/stands for something. Godzilla usually avoids violence throughout the film, up until his children are killed. Then Godzilla is incredibly focused on avenging them. Godzilla stands as a product of humanity’s misuse of nuclear power.

3)Make a character an underdog. Some of the most sympathetic characters struggle against seemingly impossible odds, trying to find success despite the bleak circumstances.

In an interesting twist, Godzilla is an underdog in this film. Godzilla is in a human dominated world, and humanity uses whatever power is necessary to keep it that way.

4)Give the character idealistic qualities. People like characters with qualities they also aspire to have. Ex. A villain with a strong sense of loyalty and honor.

In this case, Godzilla is a peaceful, intelligent, curious creature that forms a strong bond with family, while still being a giant monster.

5)Give a character formidable foes. Adversaries often form difficult challenges for a character to face, &these challenges bring out the best in a character. At that time in 1998, what challenge could be more formidable than the US military?

Godzilla had to outthink and out maneuver his opponents. He had to concoct clever strategies to defeat attackers.

There are of course other ways to engender audience sympathy, like design. Characters that look more human/beautiful or have soft/round shapes are generally more sympathetic than inhuman angular creatures.

Godzilla, despite the comparisons to theropod dinosaurs, has a lot of human aspects in his design. He’s an interesting mix of man and monster, allowing for a human connection but it’s still distant and animalistic.

I will also mention sound design& musical themes. Playing an appropriately sad theme as your character goes through a tough moment helps set the mood/influence the audience. Ex. The theme from “Up”.

The themes that play as G98 tries to revive his dead child, &during his own death in 98 heightens the emotion of the scenes.

So, despite being a giant chimeric monster that threatens humanity, Godzilla is still a sympathetic character thru his positive character traits, challenges & vulnerabilities. Even tho his destruction at the film’s end had to happen for humanity to survive, it’s still tragic.

Especially so because it was humanity’s fault for creating him. Imo, Godzilla 1998 perfectly embodies this quote by Ishiro Honda:

Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. They do not attack people because they want to, but because of their size and strength, mankind has no other choice but to defend himself...

After several stories such as this, people end up having a kind of affection for the monsters. They end up caring about them

B4 I continue, some things can make a character unsympathetic: purposely going out of your way to kill innocent people for no reason/because you’re angry. Basically intentionally making innocents suffer for selfish gain.

Add too many negative traits and a character is unlikely to be viewed in a sympathetic light.

The alien xenomorph, gmk Godzilla, darkseid and emperor palpatine are a few characters that most audiences don’t feel bad for. They may be cool to watch, but they aren’t very sympathetic.

In the original film, G54 is a victim of nuke testing, but there aren’t many (if any) scenes that make us feel bad for the kaiju. We are told he used to eat the virgins sacrificed on odo isl, &his habitat was prob destroyed. It’s thought there may be others, but we don’t see them

All we see is an invincible, destructive monster that travels thousands of miles to attack innocent people.

84 is more animalistic, and needs radiation to survive. He’s somewhat sympathetic, as He’s drawn to humanity& a lot of the destruction he causes is self defense/just walking around. However, he still is seen attacking innocent people on purpose.

There’s no reason for him 2attack Tokyo as there’s no nuclear power plant there. The amount of destruction he caused makes him less sympathetic, especially when attacking humans isn’t just an accident. Also, there’s no shown backstory where he loses his family or becomes mutated

Very few positive traits make him sympathetic in the film(no sign of high intelligence, he’s not a peaceful/gentle giant). When he’s defeated at the end they try to make you feel sorry for him through the characters.

Later on the heisei Godzilla is given higher intelligence, and other more redeeming traits. But he even when he’s slightly more heroic Godzilla purposely kills a lot of innocent people.

Other incarnations like shin, polygon, and a Kiryugoji are antagonistic, kill a lot of innocent people and have few aspects that would make the audience feel sorry for them. Gmk is outright evil. You aren’t supposed to feel bad for that Godzilla.

I would argue that the additional strong negative traits rob many Gzilla incarnations of audience sympathy (unless audience views r clouded by bias, such as attribution of positive traits/experiences of the Showa Godzilla 2 gmk)...

while the more positive traits +struggles of the 98 Godzilla make him a sympathetic character.

98 never purposely attacks innocent people with malicious intent. He is peaceful and shows intelligence, curiosity, memory, and sadness. Unlike other incarnations, you actually see his family and the strong bonds they share, and you see them die.

You see Godzilla nudge 1 of the babies, trying to revive it. Afterwards, he only attacked those responsible instead of random civilians. After being shot, he slowly suffered while trapped on the bridge. Following some sad moans, you look into his eye, and his heart stops beating