#everytime mothra defeats godzilla he comes back more sympathetically than the last time

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Mothra vs Godzilla: A Lesson in Nonviolence

The 60s are actually considered a golden age for Toho's kaiju movies. Aside from having branched out into exploring a number of different kaiju aside from Godzilla (Atragon, War of the Gargantuas etc.), we also saw the establishment of 3 members of what is widely considered to be the Big 5 of Toho's monsters (Godzilla having already debuted in 54 while MechaGodzilla would debut in the 70s). These are, of course, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mothra.

Mothra herself is the topic of today's post since Mothra vs Godzilla is widely considered by many to be the cream of the crop of this portion of kaiju movie history. Released in 1964, the story revolves around Mothra's giant egg washing up on the shore of Japan due to a hurricane. Mothra naturally wants her egg back (especially from a pair of greedy corporate honchos that wants to make a fortune off the thing), but shit hits the fan when it's revealed that Godzilla's been caught up in the hurricane and literally buried in a construction yard.

Naturally the JSDF steps in to try and stop Godzilla, throwing virtually everything they have outside of the kitchen sink at him. Jets. Tanks. Battleships. A repurposed powerline and electrified nets. Except not a damn thing works and all of them only serve to make Godzilla angrier and angrier. Mothra's the only one who stands a chance against him, but even then she's weakened from age and despite putting up a decent fight isn't able to defeat the enraged reptile.

The good news is that Mothra's egg safely hatches into a pair of larvae who continue the fight against Godzilla. Now considering how much punishment the dinosaur has taken, how exactly do the two manage to defeat him once and for all?

Wrap him in a cocoon and push him off a cliff, sending him plummeting to the sea below.

Admittedly it seems...underwhelming. But it also highlights a difference between how Mothra and the military handled Godzilla. The military wanted to outright kill Godzilla. Now while Godzilla's an undeniable threat, it's initially because of his sudden appearance and the military continuing to piss him off. He's not even the most hateable character in the film, with Kumayama and Torahata (those two scumbag CEOs) taking the cake. At most he's a violent monster who's enraged by mankind refusing to leave him in peace.

Which actually does speak to his origins. Remember, he was a stand-in for nuclear weapons, and no amount of firepower can do that.

The Mothra Larvae on the other hand? They're more focused on stopping Godzilla rather than killing him.

The silk's restraining, but it's not tough enough to hurt him. Hell, Mothra herself was able to claw her way out of her cocoon just fine in her debut film. And it's not like it's choking him either. He's still breathing fire. Pushing him off the cliff wouldn't actually do any damage since...well he's amphibious so he's not in danger of drowning. Hell, it's not even the first nor the last time he took a plunge off the cliff and came out just fine. Chances are he'll be able to claw his way out with no problem.

But again, it wasn't about killing Godzilla. It was about stopping him. Wrapping him in a cocoon and returning him to his natural habitat means he'll have ample opportunity to calm down without anybody bothering him. Rather than trying to stop him by violence, Mothra (or her offspring at least) stopped him in a nonviolent manner. Rendering Godzilla a nonthreat for the time being, and stopping the carnage.

After all, you can't exactly stop something spawned by some of the worst weapons humanity has to offer by throwing more weapons at him after all. In this case, it was the exact opposite of that. Which honestly makes this one of my favorite films in the series.

Helps that Mothra not killing Godzilla pays off big time for the world in the long run.