Warning: This page is Spoilers Off. You have been warned.
Mechagodzilla (The Mecha)
"And now... my Mecha. It's not only Godzilla's equal... but his superior. The Apex Titan of my own hand. It's time to show the world what you can do."
Portrayed By: N/A
Appears In: Godzilla vs. Kong | Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Species: Giant mech incorporating Ghidorah's organic remains
A bionic Titan emulating Godzilla's appearance and powers, secretly built by Apex Cybernetics five years after Ghidorah's defeat with the intent of usurping Godzilla and securing Earth for humanity as the dominant species. It later turns out to be made in part with King Ghidorah's remains, eventually rebelling to continue its past life's goals of killing Godzilla and annihilating the world.For the Toho versions of Mechagodzilla, see here.
open/close all folders
A-F
- Accidental Hero: The first time Mechagodzilla is activated, it inadvertently saves Madison by killing the Skullcrawler that was attacking her.
- Achilles' Heel: Even after Ghidorah's consciousness remnants hijack it, Mechagodzilla remains dependent on the Apex Hong Kong computer mainframe to stay online. If something disrupts this even for a second (say, having alcohol spilled on the main computer system), Mechagodzilla threatens to shut down.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the Toho films, Mechagodzilla's mechanical glowing eyes in each of their respective appearances are usually depicted as a brightened yellow, along with having a slight shade of orange into the mix. This one's eyes are nothing but an eerie red similar to Kiryu's berserk mode. And just like Kiryu, it goes rogue by proceeding to destroy a city while under the control of a deceased kaiju from the skeletal remains.
- Adaptation Name Change: Zig-Zagged. This incarnation of the character is technically called the Mecha in dialog, and Mechagodzilla is what a shocked Josh Valentine dubs it when Team Godzilla witness it. However, the specs screen during its activation dubs it 'Mec.Godzilla,' implying it really is called Mechagodzilla by Apex and The Mecha is simply a nickname. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has it exclusively referred to as Mechagodzilla.
- Adaptational Abomination: The previous three live-action Mechagodzillas were, no matter how powerful and dangerous they were, just machines. This one, however, is powered by enigmatic Green Rocks from an ultraterrestrial Acid-Trip Dimension, and the Reincarnation of a Draconic Abomination merged with its AI and what's left of Ren Serizawa's consciousness.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Zig-Zagged. At first glance, this Mechagodzilla could arguably be seen as the most powerful interpretation of the character to date. The Showa and Heisei counterparts packed far more firepower but were typically crushed whenever Godzilla closed the distance (however Godzilla on his own got beaten with ease by them even all but dying at the hands of the Heisei one, requiring outside help from other Kaiju to defeat both). The Kiryu version was able to fight him directly but was usually outmatched and could only work out a draw with outside help. The anime version could probably have beaten Godzilla one on one but was unable to activate. This version trades all of the flashy weapons for a more powerful atomic breath that can outmatch Godzilla's and is strong enough to not only go toe to toe with the Big G but utterly maul him to near death. He's also the largest version by a considerable margin if one doesn't count Mechagodzilla City from Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle. However, he mainly managed to beat Godzilla as easily as he did due to the latter being exhausted and injured from his fight with King Kong, though it's unknown whether Godzilla would have won or still lost but not as badly if he had been in better shape in their fight.
- Referring to the movie version of Mechagodzilla, Jared Krichevsky
who designed Mechagodzilla claimed that it would've run out of power and shut down on its own within twenty-four hours of going rogue. The novelization however briefly describes the Hollow Earth energy giving Mechagodzilla life as "unending" when describing the Mecha's P.O.V..
- Adaptational Intelligence: The Showa, Heisei and Millennium Mechagodzilla incarnations are largely robots with no mind of their own; though Kiryu gains one of his own once the Godzilla skeleton in him reawakens its spirit. The anime Mechagodzilla was only a container for the minds of the Bilusaludo aliens that built it, otherwise being a mindless weapon. This Mechagodzilla has Ghidorah's intelligence (or at least a Soul Fragment of it), and once it activates at the climax, it demonstrably knows exactly what it can do and how to exploit it.
- Adaptational Villainy: Zig-Zagged. The original Mechagodzilla was built by aliens in a plot to Take Over the World, and all variations since were built to combat Godzilla as a means of being humanity's best shot at protection. This version, based on the latter interpretation, was built by a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist to wipe out or enslave the Titans, due to his warped perception of mankind relying too much on them and having no defence against the possibility of them turning against us, and so he could ultimately usher in a global corporate dystopia. Even then, the previous incarnations of Mechagodzilla were only as evil as whoever was piloting them, with the closest exception being the Millennium incarnation who was possessed by the original Godzilla's bones (and ultimately ended up being a hero) — this iteration of Mechagodzilla becomes sentient due to being possessed by Ghidorah's bone, and it's evil to the end with a sadistic streak just like Ghidorah (Madison even speculates in the novelization that it would've repeated Ghidorah's attempt to wipe the world clean of life if it got the chance).
- Adaptation Amalgamation: This version takes aspects from every prior iteration of Mechagodzilla, along with Mecha-King Ghidorah from the Heisei era and Mechani-Kong from the Showa era.
- This is the third time a Mechagodzilla has been depicted in a villainous role, after his Showa counterpart's debut in the 70s and Mechagodzilla City from the anime trilogy (fourth if you count the Mechagodzilla from Ready Player One). His hands rotate like Showa Mechagodzilla, he's an alien cyborg, and APEX's False Flag Operation, to make Mechagodzilla a "savior" against a seemingly rampaging Godzilla, is reminiscent of how Showa's was initially disguised as Godzilla. Like Mechani-Kong, his arms are long and ape-like and he's capable of using them to punch and grapple with his enemies in ways other Mechagodzilla incarnations lacked the dexterity for. Also, Mechani-Kong was indirectly responsible for King Kong coming into conflict with another heroic faction—in the RKO cartoons, it framed him for crimes committed by its creator Doctor Hu. Here, Mechagodzilla is likewise the indirect cause of Godzilla and Kong's conflict.
- Like his Heisei counterpart, he was made from the remains of King Ghidorah, and his body is designed in ways that counter all of Godzilla's main abilities. His own Breath Weapon is more powerful than Godzilla's and in a Beam-O-War Godzilla comes out the loser. His armor is nearly impervious to damage save for fantastic amounts of heat. There are hints of Mecha-King Ghidorah, both in his origin, being made from Ghidorah's corpse, and the plot point of Ghidorah taking over to finish what he started was used in the manga adaptation of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II. His back spines are modeled on the spines of Mecha-King Ghidorah's mechanical head.
- Like Kiryu, he is a cyborg whose original consciousness reemerges and causes the mech to go berserk. Kiryu's habit of using his jets to shoulder ram and outmaneuver Godzilla also carried over to this Mechagodzilla. He also has a drill, but it's mounted on his tail rather than his right arm.
- Like the anime version, he's more or less autonomous and a threat to the entire planet and operates on a strange energy source that lets him run indefinitely. Japanese theatre programs refer to the metal used in his construction as Nanometal, just like the anime MG.
- Unlike the inflexible and bulky Tin-Can Robot designs of the other Mechagodzillas, its body is as lithe, flexible, and powerful as the Ready Player One version. It also has the same red eyes, unlike previous incarnations that have yellow eyes.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It wasn't intended to be self-aware, merely piloted by a brain interface that allows the pilot to use it as an extension of their own body. Too bad part of that interface is what remains of King Ghidorah. When infused with Hollow Earth energy, Ghidorah's consciousness emerges and fuses with Mechagodzilla's AI, taking over the Mecha and causing it to slaughter its creators and begin trying to level Hong Kong before turning its attention to Godzilla.
- Almighty Idiot: In the novelization, Mechagodzilla's perspective once Ghidorah's remains make it sentient heavily implies that the Mecha is insane; perhaps on account of the fact it was designed to merely be a Remote Body, and its processors and cognitive circuitry were never meant to end up crudely and directly hosting a complex alien consciousness that originally had an organic brain. Despite the Ghidorah skull retaining enough of Ghidorah's soul fragment to make Ren feel "a million years of rage rising in him, hatred that transcended time and space", Mechagodzilla itself apparently has no idea who or what it is and it's just "full of rage and the black joy of finally being".
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Mechagodzilla provides counterparts to villains seen in both the Transformers Film Series, Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe.
- Transformers: He's similar Galvatron, who was created with the intent of fighting other Cybertronians, much like how Mecha-Godzilla was made with the intent of combating Titans, only for the robot to be taken over by the consciousness of Megatron whose head was used to help in its creation, much like how Ghidorah does later in the film.
- MCU: He's similar to Ultron in that he's a robotic life form powered by an unknown Macguffin who starts out as a simple deterrent against foes too powerful for conventional militaries, but when he comes to life he decides to go on a rampage.
- DCEU: He's also got a bit in common with Doomsday. Both were created from the remains of an alien foe by unscrupulous captains of industry for the purpose of killing a hero. The two protagonists have to put aside their feud to defeat him, with one of them using an empowered weapon to deliver the killing blow.
- An Arm and a Leg: Once Kong gets a second charge to his axe, he systematically dismembers Mechagodzilla limb by limb. As Kong goes for the head, all it can do is scream in defiance desperately trying to ignite its red plasma mouth laser.
- Arch-Enemy: It's Ghidorah (or at the very least, an amnesiac/Almighty Idiot reincarnation of Ghidorah's Soul Fragment), taking on the role of Godzilla's other arch-enemy; an Evil Knockoff designed to be better than his hated rival in every way. It's hinted, particularly in the novelization, that Ghidorah's consciousness in the skull might have been aware the entire time and it played Apex like fools so he could have another chance at usurping Godzilla.
- Arm Cannon: It has arm-mounted plasma cannons in addition to its pincer-like claws and Proton Scream.
- Aside Glance: Mechagodzilla delivers his Evil Laugh while deliberately staring right at the audience.
- Attack the Mouth:
- He kills the giant Skullcrawler by firing his energy beam into its mouth, before lowering it to slice off the rest of its body.
- He attempts to kill Godzilla via the same "Kiss of Death" method that Godzilla originally used to kill the female MUTO in Godzilla (2014), but he's narrowly stopped by Kong's timely intervention.
- Awesome, but Impractical: It's extremely powerful... but there isn't a conventional power source in existence capable of actually powering it and it can only operate for a few minutes at a time. This is why a replica of the Hollow Earth energy source is required, as without it Mechagodzilla can't really remain active long enough to do much.
- Ax-Crazy: The moment after Ghidorah's subconsciousness infects Mechagodzilla and causes the Mecha to gain a Ghidorah-derived consciousness of its own, the Mecha kills all of the first humans it sees using its claws and its Proton Scream, before proceeding to challenge and attempt to kill Godzilla on sight – after the Mecha has worn Godzilla down, it spends a lot of time using its bare claws and the surrounding buildings over its onboard missiles to beat Godzilla into a pulp before it tries to finish him off. When Kong intervenes to aid Godzilla, Mechagodzilla at first just tries to shake him off so it can resume beating Godzilla to death, but eventually, the Mecha becomes just as hellbent on extinguishing Kong's life as Godzilla's. It's also speculated in the novelization that if Mechagodzilla succeeds in killing Godzilla and Kong, it will call out to the Titans around the world and instigate them to rampage over the planet once more just like Ghidorah previously did. The novel also heavily implies when describing the possessed Mechagodzilla's POV that there's something fundamentally wrong with the Mecha's consciousness because of the crude and unnatural way that it formed, and the vessel that it inhabits: the novel states that despite its consciousness coming from Ghidorah's skull, Mechagodzilla itself apparently doesn't know who or what it is.
- Beam-O-War: Once again, Mechagodzilla and Godzilla have one during their battle. It ends with Mechagodzilla's beam overpowering Godzilla's.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: It has a blade on the tip of its tail that can be rotated like a drill and used when its limbs are incapacitated or occupied.
- Big Bad: The true villain of Godzilla vs. Kong, due to actually being King Ghidorah reincarnated. It's also the true cause of Godzilla's city-devastating rampage around the world, as the Ghidorah remains are emitting a signal which Godzilla recognizes as a challenger to his dominance. There's also implications, particularly in the novel, that it was, consciously or subconsciously, manipulating Apex into building it a new body from the start. Notably, the first time Mechagodzilla has been the actual Big Bad of a Godzilla film, as all previous versions were either mindless war machines with their masters as the main villains or protagonists.
- Big Entrance: Shortly after dealing with Walter Simmons and Ren Serizawa, Mechagodzilla reveals himself to Godzilla and the entire world by carving and blasting his way out from Apex's headquarters with his Proton Scream, launching huge boulders and debris throughout the city of Hong Kong in the process.
- Blood Knight: Implied. As its fight against Godzilla goes on, Mechagodzilla continues pummeling him, throwing him around and brutalizing him with its bare claws and plasma punches and kicks whilst Godzilla can't fight back. To the point where one eventually has to wonder, how much is the Mecha drawing this out to make absolutely sure that the King of the Monsters is too weak to fight back, and how much is the Mecha doing it for the joy of making Godzilla hurt.
- Boring, but Practical: His arsenal and tactics, at least in comparison to Ghidorah's outlandishly otherworldly powers, are pretty standard ones for Kaiju: hidden weaponry on his body, his own version of the atomic breath (and only from one source this time instead of three), energized fists, jet thrusters that increase his speed and just straight-up fighting Godzilla without making a show before the fight. That's all he needs to efficiently overwhelm Godzilla and almost win even with Kong's assistance.
- Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Averted at first, unlike prior incarnations of Mechagodzilla, it's made very clear that no human-derived power source could ever hope to power Mechagodzilla for more than a few minutes. The primary objective of the mission to Hollow Earth is to analyze and duplicate a power source that can maintain the Mecha indefinitely.
- Breath Weapon: It's equipped with a blood-red energy cannon mounted in its mouth called the Proton Scream, in emulation of Godzilla's atomic breath. It's able to visibly wound a weakened Godzilla.
- Charged Attack: The mechanical beast can utilize the Hollow Earth energy within itself to boost its physical attacks for highly damaging effects. It mainly used those powered up punches on Godzilla numerous times, and it can even enhance its kicking power as well.
- Close-Range Combatant: Something setting this Mechagodzilla apart from its previous incarnations: rather than purely being a Walking Armory, it only displays two ranged weapons (its shoulder missile batteries and Proton Scream), which, while powerful, Mechagodzilla uses sparingly rather than spamming. Instead, this Mechagodzilla incarnation is likely the best melee fighter in any continuity so far, manhandling Godzilla with ease throughout the fight and repeatedly slamming him into buildings using its rotating claw hands.
- Conflict Killer: Downplayed. When Ghidorah takes control and Mechagodzilla starts rampaging, it leads to the Rivals Team Up between Godzilla and Kong to end him for good, however, he only comes in after both have had one last brawl with Godzilla being the decisive winner. He was also the entire cause of the conflict to begin with due to provoking Godzilla into attacking Apex.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Whereas the previous kaiju antagonists are organic creatures that are truly ancient in age or origin, and that threaten the world while seeking to benefit themselves through territorialism, sustenance, breeding or (in Ghidorah's case) sheer sadism; Mechagodzilla is a new manmade machine which was designed to defeat the Titans for a Muggle Power agenda, although the latter goes out the window once Ghidorah's Soul Fragment possesses it, causing it to become just as anti-human and unprovokedly sadistic as Ghidorah was.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He can utterly dominate Godzilla in a one-on-one fight countering everything Godzilla tries to employ to beat him, however, it's only because Godzilla is exhausted that their battle is so one-sided in his favor. Also...
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Kong stops it from delivering the final blow to Godzilla, and the Mecha is outmatched by the combined might of Godzilla and Kong, though only barely. Mechagodzilla still holds the upper hand for much of the fight, and it could very well have killed them both if it wasn't momentarily stalled due to Josh disrupting its satellite uplink systems.
- Cutting the Knot: During his final fight against Godzilla and Kong, whenever he's caught by both Kaiju, rather than try to overpower them, he uses the various weapons on his body to force one to let go and then beats down the other. For example, when Kong has his right arm and Godzilla has his left, Mechagodzilla uses shoulder-mounted rockets to blast Godzilla in the face and then starts brutalizing Kong.
- Cybernetic Mythical Beast: Apex built the Humongous Mecha in Godzilla's image, and they converted Ghidorah's undead neurology in its leftover head's skull into a telepathic piloting system to animate the Mecha. The latter had the side-effect of enabling whatever's left of Ghidorah's consciousness to overtake Mechagodzilla's programming once the Green Rocks were added to the mix, causing the Mecha to operate autonomously of its builders and go on a human-killing and Godzilla-killing rampage.
- Decapitation Presentation: At the end, Kong tears off Mechagodzilla's head and mechanical "spine", fountains of black oil still spewing and lights still flicking, and Kong roars triumphantly to the sky with it to proclaim his final victory.
- Defiant to the End: Even as Kong is hacking it apart limb-from-limb, Mechagodzilla still attempts to fight back and even tries to use his Breath Weapon in retaliation before Kong ruptures its core. The influence of Ghidorah might be a driving factor behind this steadfast determination.
- Deity of Mortal Creation: With the analogy that the Titans are gods in mind, Apex Cybernetics created the Mecha to be an artificial god of human origin acting as humanity's vessel through which to usurp Godzilla and become the supreme King of the Monsters. However, Apex's plans are not what make Mechagodzilla a Deity of Human Origin, as those plans are characterized as pure, unadulterated hubris and evil ambition – what makes Mechagodzilla this trope is that after it gains a mind of its own courtesy of Ghidorah and it turns against its creators, Mechagodzilla proves while acting of its own violent will to be powerful enough to seriously challenge (a weakened) Godzilla and Kong, and it probably would have beaten them and won under the circumstances if not for its satellite uplink being disrupted.
- Detrimental Determination: Subverted. It appears to be specifically focused on killing Godzilla above all, and when Kong gets involved in their fight in Godzilla's defence, Mechagodzilla's initial strategy is to just repeatedly throw Kong off without making sure to finish him off before it turns its focus back to pummeling Godzilla ASAP, which in turn enables Kong to get back up and blindside the Mecha repeatedly before the Mecha can finish Godzilla off. However, after Kong brings the (un-charged and ineffectual) Titanus Gojira-fin axe into the fight and he successfully throws Mechagodzilla on its back, the Mecha decides there and there to give Kong its full attention and immediately tries to kill him.
- Discard and Draw: As Mechagodzilla, Ghidorah trades his physical body's Gravity Beams, Healing Factor and superstorm generation for his own version of Godzilla's atomic breath, a drill tail, a massive arsenal of inbuilt weaponry, and extremely powerful arms. While this enables him to manhandle Godzilla and Kong for the majority of the final battle, once Kong gets in a good hit with his axe, Mechagodzilla rapidly loses ground as he lacks Ghidorah's ability to regenerate from said wound.
- The Dreaded: Every human in the city of Hong Kong runs away in fear when Mechagodzilla starts to attack everything in sight.
- Effective Knockoff: He's built in Godzilla's image, and he fully overpowers the former in a straight fight, something that no other incarnation of Mechagodzilla has ever accomplished (although Word of God says the two would've been on much more equal footing if Godzilla wasn't severely exhausted from boring a hole to the Hollow Earth and then dueling Kong afterwards).
- Enemy Mine: Mechagodzilla's very presence - and the consciousness of Ghidorah within him - winds up being more than enough for Godzilla and Kong to forgo battling each other and team up against him, though Kong needs some prompting from Jia to help Godzilla defeat the mechanical monstrosity.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Once Ghidorah's remains take over Mechagodzilla's programming, the Mecha pulls this on Walter Simmons while he's distracted Evil Gloating to Team Godzilla. Then Simmons turns and sees what's happening behind him, and barely gets out an "Oh, shit" before Mechagodzilla plows and kills him with a claw.
- Establishing Character Moment: In its introductory scene going through a test run against a live Skullcrawler, Mechagodzilla proceeds to subdue the creature almost instantly, then kills it in an excessively brutal manner; pulling the Skullcrawler's arms taught to the point of breaking, and slowly cutting the helpless creature in half with the Proton Scream. And this is happening before Ghidorah's subconsciousness possesses it. The scene emphasizes Mechagodzilla's sheer brutality by design, and establishes that it's very powerful comparatively speaking and thus Godzilla and Kong despite themselves will not be able to put it down easily.
- Evil Counterpart: He serves as one to Godzilla, being a robotic reflection of the alpha Titan which Walter Simmons built with the intention of being a tool to enforce mankind’s dominance over the Titans, also making him one to the Jaegers in Pacific Rim.
- Eviler than Thou: It's revealed that Apex Cybernetics are using Ghidorah's surviving skull's telepathy as the control for Mechagodzilla, which they've designed to be as powerful as Godzilla, for their megalomaniacal plan to enslave or exterminate the Titans in the name of Muggle Power. If you thought this was an insanely idiotic move on Apex's part, you'd be right, since the moment Mechagodzilla gains Hollow Earth energy as a lasting power source, Ghidorah's subconsciousness hijacks the Mecha, and it promptly kills Apex's chiefs and destroys their base while leaving Apex's plan in ruins.
- Evil Is Angular: Mechagodzilla has a much more cuboid and straight-edged anatomy compared to the mostly round-edged Godzilla, in addition to the Good Lips, Evil Jaws contrast. And this version of Mechagodzilla is decidedly a bad thing, since it was created by a monstrous Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist with the intention of murdering a particularly heroic incarnation of Godzilla without provocation, and its existence all round sent the world into a worse state than it began in – and this is before the Mecha got possessed by Ghidorah's soul.
- Evil Is Bigger: Though not as large as Ghidorah was, it's shown to stand significantly taller than Godzilla, and Kong for that matter, particularly during the Final Battle. As for the evil part, it's King Ghidorah reincarnated.
- Evil Knockoff: An anti-Titan Humongous Mecha armed to the teeth, which has been built by Apex Cybernetics in Godzilla's image with the intention of murdering and replacing him as humanity's defender after Apex's False Flag Operation has turned public opinion against Godzilla. Unfortunately, the Mecha works too well once Ghidorah's subconsciousness hijacks the system and makes the Mecha turn on its builders whilst challenging Godzilla.
- Evil Laugh: Mechagodzilla lets out a few mechanized, warped cackles just like King Ghidorah, signifying who's in the driver's seat. It's faint at first and easily mistaken for the machine simply charging up, but after he breaks out of the Apex facility it gets really obvious who's controlling the Mecha after leveling part of Hong Kong.
- Extremity Extremist: Other than using his A-74 Proton Scream and his built-in shoulder padded missiles, a lot of his physical attacks during his conflict with Godzilla in Hong Kong are spent on him throwing all manner of punches and haymakers with the powerful strikes of his clenched metallic fists (with Hollow Earth infused energy) and various grappling attacks such as groping Godzilla's neck to plow him into nearby skyscrapers with his clamped Power Pincers, and effortlessly spinning and tossing him around like a kaiju-sized rag doll. This method of brutalizing his organic counterpart is justified since the elongated length of the mecha's arms obviously have a lot of reach compared to the range of Godzilla's arms, but it's downplayed to an extent where Mechagodzilla is shown pulling off several outward kicks and stomps to both Godzilla and Kong.
- Eye Awaken: An ominous Glowing Mechanical Eyes variation happens whenever he's activated, often with a close-up on his optics.
- Eye Colour Change: Downplayed. Mechagodzilla retains the same Red Eyes, Take Warning color both when under human control and under Ghidorah's influence, but its eyes are flickering between red and white when it's in the process of being infected with whatever's left of Ghidorah's consciousness before it becomes mobile.
- Eye Lights Out: After his beheading by Kong, his eyes slowly flicker and fade away as Kong brandishes his severed head.
- Fights Like a Normal: A variation for a kaiju mecha. Compared to other Titans who either focus on their powers or bestial clawing and tearing to fight, Mechagodzilla primarily uses straightforward punches and kicks to beat the tar out of Godzilla. While he does use his shoulder mounted launchers and Proton Scream, it's done in a more complimentary manner, either to create an opening for his main attacks or land a decisive blow to keep Godzilla (and later Kong) from getting a chance to retaliate effectively. This is on top of his movements being remarkably human-like even with his wholly mechanical body.
- Final Boss: He's the final enemy faced in the movie, and the final enemy of the MonsterVerse Godzilla vs. Kong arc started from Kong: Skull Island as well as the whole movie universe overall — for now.
- For the Evulz: Mechagodzilla's first act upon emerging from Apex's base is to start leveling Hong Kong, unprovoked, before giving what appears to be an Evil Laugh.
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: Much like Kiryū from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., Mechagodzilla is an anti-kaiju mech, which looks completely robotic on the surface but has actually been made by integrating organic kaiju matter (a piece of Ghidorah's DNA in this case acting as a receiver for the Brain/Computer Interface in San/Kevin's skull). This organic matter eventually seizes control of the mech's systems and causes it to rampage. It's speculated by Bernie in the movie and explicitly confirmed in the novelization that there was an entire second Ghidorah skull inside the Mecha, but neither version of the story explains where the hell a second skull could have come from after the manner in which Ghidorah died during the previous movie.
- Fusion Dance: According to director Adam Wingard, when Mechagodzilla becomes sentient, its mind is a fusion of Ghidorah's consciousness in the skull and the Mecha's original AI creating a new personality. This is supported by the novelization, which indicates that the consciousness in Mechagodzilla has Ghost Amnesia and/or is an Almighty Idiot. The novelization version also hints that the mind of Ren Serizawa (who here suffers a Mind-Reformat Death when his consciousness becomes trapped in the Ghidorah-hijacked Mecha and drowns in its new mind) partly forms the Mecha's mind: the very moment Ren's mind fully dies is notably the exact same moment that the Mecha's own mind becomes fully realizednote .
G-M
- Gambit Pileup: Mechagodzilla is essentially this in the novelization. Walter Simmons wants to use it to make humanity the apex species of life on Earth again, Ren wants to use it to kill Godzilla for personal reasons, and it's hinted that Ghidorah's consciousness remnants in its remains are, whether it's self-aware anymore or not, manipulating Apex towards giving it a new body. In the end, Ren outplayed Walter, as he would've been in the perfect position to get rid of Simmons and do what he wanted his way had things gone as planned, but Ghidorah outplayed Ren.
- Ghost Amnesia: The novelization reveals that once Mechagodzilla's personality is fully formed by Ghidorah's consciousness hijacking the Mecha and devouring Ren's mind, the Mecha's newborn consciousness "did not know who it was, or what it was, but it was full of rage and the black joy of finally being".
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Played Straight. Mechagodzilla has very artificial-looking optics which glow with bright-red light whenever the Mecha's active, and they appear to flare with emotion once the Mecha becomes sentient. Note that the optics appear to glow brighter when Mechagodzilla is fully powered and possessed by Ghidorah's subconsciousness than they initially did during the earlier test run (when the Mecha was relying on limited manmade power and was under Ren Serizawa's control), presumably indicating the level of power supply and/or that Ghidorah is mentally a much vaster and more vibrant entity than a mere human's mind.
- Gone Horribly Right: Apex built Mechagodzilla to be an anti-Titan superweapon powerful enough to kill any Titan (including Alpha Titans) in a fight, and they designed it specifically so that they could kill Godzilla and usurp his dominance as the King of the Monsters. Ghidorah's consciousness or whatever's left of it in the skull could not have asked for a better machine to get hooked up to. Once said consciousness possesses Mechagodzilla, the Mecha goes on a rampage against both Godzilla and humanity, challenging the Alpha Titans (Godzilla in particular) exactly like Apex wanted it to, and implicitly threatening to pick up where Ghidorah left off at creating an extinction event instead of securing Apex's world domination if the Mecha wins. In fact, Mechagodzilla's rampage after Ghidorah hijacks its AI deconstructs humanity's desire to surpass nature and build the ultimate anti-Titan weapon. You wanted the ultimate anti-Titan weapon, Apex... you got the ultimate anti-Titan weapon.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Apex Cybernetics built Mechagodzilla in secret in their headquarters in Hong Kong to realize their Corrupt Corporate Executive's egotistical vision and use the Mecha to make humanity the uncontested dominant species against all the Titans, and Apex power it up by using (untested) Hollow Earth energy as a Black Box power source because the Mecha guzzles any other available power source much too quickly. The problem is, Apex are already using King Ghidorah's telepathic and little-understood remains as another Black Box in Mechagodzilla's neural system through which Ren can control the Mecha remotely. Once the Hollow Earth energy grants the Mecha a lasting power supply, whatever's left of Ghidorah's consciousness hijacks the Mecha and uses it to slaughter Apex and any other humans it sees.
- Good Lips, Evil Jaws: He has teeth-like protrusions in lipless metal jaws, and both the heroic Alpha Titans he fights have expressive and lipped faces.
- Haunted Technology: The novelization has Madison suggest that rather than simply being controlled by Ghidorah's remains, Mechagodzilla is actually possessed by Ghidorah's soul. Regardless, it contains the remnant of Ghidorah that has taken it over.
- Hell Is That Noise: It makes shrill, warbling, grating mechanical sounds that, in addition to being vast and echoic, sound straight-up unnatural even before Ghidorah's signature vocalizations enter the mix. Have a listen here.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Mechagodzilla inflicts and suffers this trope at the same time, taking the role of Big Bad from Apex and becoming the film's Final Boss, not because of the Mecha developing a will of its own but because Ghidorah's influence still lingers within the neural interface, and it finally uses the Mecha in the climax to finish what Ghidorah started. This allows Ghidorah himself to return as the Big Bad in the final act of Godzilla vs. Kong against the two eponymous Titans.
- Humongous Mecha: A gigantic man-made bionic designed to fight and kill Godzilla, which is made in Godzilla's image but is larger than him and equipped with several technological anti-Titan weapons. It's remotely piloted by a human until Ghidorah's influence takes control...
- Implacable Man: Once Ghidorah makes it go rogue, it's completely unfazed and undeterred by Godzilla or Kong — able to power through all of their attacks, even together, and wipes the floor with both of them at once without missing a beat. It's only thanks to a brief malfunction due to its remote control panel being sabotaged that any pause is given long enough for Godzilla to give Kong the means to kill it for good and even then it tries to kill Kong just before getting beheaded.
- Impossibly Graceful Giant: While this is a norm for the genre, Mechagodzilla justifies it. He is decked out with not only rocket-powered punches but has jets on its back to allow it to have incredible ramming power. As a byproduct, it is able to almost quite literally run circles around Godzilla. It takes Kong and Godzilla working together to pin it down and later having its control panel short-circuited, for them to really land any good blows on it. On top of his, his slimmer frame compared to Godzilla gives him more flexibility and agility to use.
- Intimidation Demonstration: Upon breaking out of Victoria Peak, Mechagodzilla just before it confronts Godzilla razes down half of Hong Kong Central with its Proton Scream inside of a few seconds, all within Godzilla's direct line of sight.
- It Can Think: It's unclear just how much influence Ghidorah's mind/s have on Mechagodzilla once Ghidorah's remains make it go rogue, but after the Mecha commits its first Kill All Humans actions and subsequently engages Godzilla, it displays frightening tactical thinking against him and Kong, and furthermore seems to be driven to target Godzilla specifically.
- It's Personal: Implied. When Ghidorah takes control, Mechagodzilla immediately goes after Godzilla upon singling him out in Hong Kong, with random destruction taking second priority to putting the King of the Monsters in the ground. Note that the novelization indicates the piece of Ghidorah's consciousness inside Mechagodzilla has Ghost Amnesia when it first hijacks the Mecha — the novel seems to subtly hint that Mechagodzilla's focus on killing Godzilla actually comes from Ren Serizawa's consciousness being devoured and assimilated in the Mecha.
- Jagged Mouth: Type 2. Mechagodzilla's jaws are mostly straight-angled and cuboid, except they have struts built into them which give the illusion that Mechagodzilla has jagged teeth at a distance, and the Mecha very much ends up being a vessel for evil rather than good. And that's not even getting into the actual buzzsaws that the Mecha's jaws conceal.
- Jump Jet Pack: It has six rocket thrusters built into its back, which allow it to jump or sprint forward with increased speed and momentum for its size and weight.
- The Juggernaut: He shows off his nearly unstoppable mechanical strength when giving Godzilla probably his worst beating ever. Even when Kong is revived to even the odds, Mechagodzilla is still able to overpower the two Alpha Titans together. Only after the humans momentarily short-circuit Mechagodzilla's satellite uplink are the pair just barely able to triumph.
- Kill and Replace: What Madison stated to Josh and Bernie in the Apex Facility after witnessing Mechagodzilla slaughtering a Skullcrawler, Apex intentionally crafted him to destroy Godzilla just to prove that humans are the dominant species as well as replacing him entirely via usurpation.
- Killer Robot: Like Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla desires to kill everything for the fun of it.
- Knight of Cerebus: The moment Team Godzilla stumbles upon him, their adventure gets a lot more serious and everything regarding Mechagodzilla itself is played dead seriously, especially it actually having Ghidorah's remains acting as its brain. When Ghidorah's remnant consciousness finally hijacks the Mecha and essentially makes it Ghidorah reborn, the stakes suddenly skyrocket from a grudge match between Godzilla and Kong to having to stop Mechagodzilla from killing them both and continuing from where Ghidorah left off.
- Lean and Mean: His overall body shape is noticeably slim compared to Godzilla's, and he's essentially the reincarnation of the cruelest, nastiest kaiju there is.
- Legacy Character: Due to Ghidorah's skull retaining remnants of the three-headed destroyer's consciousness which hijack the Mecha and grant it a personality with Ghidorah's sadism, it's essentially Ghidorah's successor.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite being an immensely shiny chrome all throughout and furthermore radiating bright red light, Mechagodzilla is decidedly the Big Bad of the film, especially after Ghidorah takes control.
- Lightning Bruiser: Extremely fast and agile, and one of the most powerful kaiju in this universe. Notably, his speed allows him to run circles around Godzilla much like Kong and the male MUTO did; and like Ghidorah and the female MUTO he has enough strength to manhandle and injure Godzilla; allowing him to handle Godzilla, later Kong, and then both Alpha Titans in a two-on-one fight.
- Living Mood Ring: Highly Downplayed, but when Mechagodzilla is fully-powered and is in the process of being infected by Ghidorah's subconsciousness, its optics flicker between red and bluish-white (the only time its optics display any other color) before reverting to red. Post-sentience, the light in Mechagodzilla's optics seems to get brighter when it's particularly agitated or excited in the Final Battle.
- Logical Weakness: Being a machine, Mechagodzilla lacks Ghidorah's ability to regenerate, and it likely lacks the biological tissue-based ability to heal damage entirely. Thus, once a way is found to actually deal damage, Mechagodzilla is defeated fairly rapidly, and doesn't need to be thoroughly vaporized like Ghidorah.
- Ludicrous Gibs: This is pretty much what Mechagodzilla is heavily reduced into after Kong decapitates him. All of his mechanical limbs are just lying about within the wrecked city of Hong Kong.
- Machine Blood: He bleeds a black, oil-like fluid as Kong hacks off his limbs with his supercharged axe. Much like Ghidorah's own black blood.
- Macross Missile Massacre: It just wouldn't be Mechagodzilla without mounting more missiles than a regiment of BattleMechs — the Mecha opens with a salvo that even Godzilla can't just shrug off. Mechagodzilla fires its missiles from shoulder-mounted pads throughout the film, but a look at the S.H. MonsterArts figure and word from concept artist Jared Krichevsky indicate that the Mecha also has a missile launcher in its chest.
- Make Way for the New Villains:
- In Kong's first movie, an enormous Skullcrawler served as the main villain. During its first scene, Mechagodzilla fights an equally massive Skullcrawler in the APEX facility, and manages to overpower and kill it in seconds.
- The moment Mechagodzilla gains sentience from Ghidorah's skull, it outright kills Simmons and also causes Ren's death. Caring nothing for Apex's false flag operation; Mechagodzilla proceeds to break out of the Apex HQ, razes half of Hong Kong's Island side without provocation (which likely ruins any remaining chance Apex had of salvaging their awry Muggle Power plan), and the Mecha tries to murder both Godzilla and Kong under its own power, nevermind the serious possibility that it'll pick right up where Ghidorah left off at having the other Titans raze the world.
- Man of Kryptonite: Aside from having King Ghidorah's remains as part of the Wetware CPU powering the beast, Mechagodzilla was specifically designed to exploit Godzilla's weaknesses, being able to move extremely fast via a propulsion system that lets him outright juke around Godzilla and attack his blind spots without giving him a chance to fight back effectively. His hands are claws meant to be able to dig into Godzilla's gills (his one main weak point), his tail is prehensile with a tip capable of drilling right through a Titan's flesh, and his weapon systems are explicitly Anti-Kaiju weaponry that can actually injure where conventional arms fail, as shown when Godzilla takes a salvo of them and actually slows down in his advance. He even has his own Breath Weapon with a distinct advantage over Godzilla's own... as Mechagodzilla doesn't need to breathe, he can maintain the laser indefinitely while Godzilla will eventually need to take a breath and end up taking it full-force for his trouble, with the laser being powerful enough to actually hurt Godzilla.
- Mecha-Enabling Phlebotinum:
- This version of Mechagodzilla is hit with a dose of reality, in that its systems and weapons use so much power that there literally isn't any power source in mankind's possession that can give the Mecha more than a couple of minutes of power before being sucked dry (and even then, the Mecha's Proton Scream only works at 40% power during this time). Apex successfully get around this by infusing Mechagodzilla with a synthesized copy of the Hollow Earth's energy source, which enables the Mecha to operate at full power seemingly indefinitely, albeit with some unexpected side effects.
- Furthermore, Jared Krichevsky has said that some of the alloys Mechagodzilla is made out of are fictional and fantastical, whilst these official stats describe Mechagodzilla's composition as "T-1 nanometal".
- Mechanical Abomination: An incredibly powerful machine powered by an unearthly energy source humanity doesn't understand and is possessed by the consciousness of a Draconic Abomination.
- Mech vs. Beast: Mechagodzilla was built by Apex In-Universe to be the Humongous Mecha "defender" in the standard form of this type of conflict (albeit for entirely Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist reasons). However, it becomes inverted when Ghidorah's influence takes control and makes the Mecha go rogue, with Mechagodzilla being the real threat and the Beasts (Godzilla and Kong) being the ones battling to save the world from the Mecha.
- Monster Mouth: Mechagodzilla has intimidating-looking jagged jaws, which themselves contain rows of buzzsaws designed to violently tear through the hide of any Titan that Mechagodzilla bites down on (although we never see the Mecha using them in combat).
- My Skull Runneth Over: Sort of. According to Jared Krichevsky, Apex used Ghidorah's skull to control Mechagodzilla because controlling the Mecha's entire body is too much work for a human brain to handle without a cerebral aid. He also implies that Ren's High-Voltage Death is what happens when someone is linked to the Mecha and the skull isn't backing them anymore.
N-W
- Near-Villain Victory: It has two in relatively short order during the movie's climax:
- First, Mechagodzilla gradually overwhelms and beats down an increasingly-weakened Godzilla to the point where he can't fight back, and the Mecha is literally less than three seconds away from likely finishing Godzilla off by firing its Proton Scream down Godzilla's throat at close range, when Kong intervenes and diverts the Mecha's beam away.
- About a minute later, Mechagodzilla manages to pin Kong and attempts to drive its tail drill into his temple, gradually wearing Kong out as the latter tries to hold it back. If it wasn't for Josh's actions causing Mechagodzilla to seize up and giving Kong and Godzilla a critical opening, it's likely that Mechagodzilla's tail drill would have painfully killed Kong, and then the Mecha would have been able to kill Godzilla while the latter was weakened.
- New Tech Is Not Cheap: It's one of the largest and most powerful superweapons mankind has ever developed, it guzzles so much energy that it's literally impossible for its builders to keep it running for more than a couple minutes at a time, and Jared Krichevsky estimates that Apex spent approximately three TRILLION US dollars on it.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: While the robot part is self-explanatory, the remaining husked skull of King Ghidorah retaining traces of Kevin's consciousness/memories/telepathy that later gains control of said robot after being empowered with the geothermal energies from the Hollow Earth to get revenge on Godzilla is mind-boggling itself.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When he finally faces off against Godzilla, he's absolutely brutal, savagely beating him to an inch of his life with staggering ease and nearly killing Godzilla before Kong arrives to help even the odds.
- Not Drawn to Scale: He appears to be of variable sizes, as even a big Skullcrawler is nowhere near Godzilla's proportions and Mechagodzilla extends its own (more humanoid) arms to near-maximum span to hold said Skullcrawler at its max extension. When fighting Godzilla, the Mecha is only a little bigger.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Double Subverted. Although it's not demonstrated in the film, one of the concept artists said here that it can swim in deep waters. However, the controls to the mecha are not proofed, meaning pouring alcohol on them causes it to short-circuit.
- Off with His Head!: How Kong ends him, tearing off the head with his bare hands. It seems Mike Dougherty wasn't entirely joking when he said decapitation is a Running Gag where Ghidorah's left head is concerned (in some form or another).
- Omnicidal Maniac: Implied. It's Ghidorah reincarnated, and its first three acts in its short life are killing its human creators on sight, leveling half of Hong Kong on sight, and challenging Godzilla on sight to a fight in which the Mecha almost succeeds in brutally killing the King of the Monsters. In the novelization, Madison inwardly speculates that Mechagodzilla will be very capable of taking over as the ruling Alpha after killing both Godzilla and Kong, and that it'll probably command the other Titans to essentially pick up where they left off when Ghidorah was in charge.
- Patricide: Jared Krichevsky has described Mechagodzilla as Walter Simmons' "son", and the moment the Mecha becomes sentient, it zeroes in on Simmons and makes him its very first kill as a sentient construct. The novelization hints that the Mecha might have targeted Simmons in retribution because it knew he was trying to control it.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Apex fuse the synthesized Hollow Earth Green Rocks into Mechagodzilla so that the Mecha can outpower and kill Godzilla as part of Apex's aims for Muggle Power and corporate hegemony. Unfortunately for them, doing this instead leads to Ghidorah's subconsciousness corrupting the system and merging with the Mecha's A.I.; causing Mechagodzilla to become autonomous, immediately turning on and destroying Apex, then set out to kill Godzilla on its own terms whilst presenting the very threat to the world that Apex claimed Mechagodzilla would circumvent. For bonus points, the Green Rocks which influenced this whole mess are heavily implied to be the same kind of energy which fuels Godzilla's bio-atomic metabolism and powers.
- Power Pincers: Both of its arms are equipped with four pincer-like claws that are powerful enough to lift and throw Godzilla through multiple skyscrapers.
- Reconstruction: Just like Godzilla and his former self, Mechagodzilla has been tweaked so that he's overall more believable as a weapon to kill Godzilla. His body is thinner and not as bulky as Godzilla's, letting him move with more flexibility. His long arms have clawed hands that allow him to grasp Godzilla without getting too close. He's received spine-mounted boosters that massively increase his mobility, allowing him to run circles around his opponent, so he can get in tons of hits before Godzilla can strike back. All of his weapons are explicitly meant to take down Kaiju and work very well; his tail is drill-tipped, giving him a way around Godzilla's tough hide, his Proton Scream is a continuous weapon and thus can overpower Godzilla's by simply pushing the latter until he has to breathe, and he has missile launchers all over his body to attack at any angle or height. Even the logistics behind him are addressed - there might not be any existing human-derived power source that can sustain him for any meaningful amount of time, but such a power source easily exists in a world filled with Kaiju. And getting him to actually be an aggressor to Godzilla is justified by him being controlled by Ghidorah's lingering consciousness.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When active, he has glowing red eyes — a trait he happens to share in common with Ghidorah — and he's anything but good news.
- Red Is Violent: Besides his Red Eyes, Take Warning, his internal power produces a bright, ominous-looking crimson light, standing in contrast to Godzilla's blue light. And not only was he built to be a weapon against the Titans, but once Ghidorah's influence overrides his programming, he deliberately begins trying to kill anything human or Titan that he sees.
- Reincarnation: Word of God and the novelization state that Mechagodzilla is a villainous case of this trope rather than Ghidorah Back from the Dead as an intact-minded Man in the Machine. Director Adam Wingard has described Mechagodzilla's mind as a "new personality" born when Ghidorah's remnant consciousness from the skull mixed with the Mecha's AI, and the novel states Mechagodzilla "did not know who it was, or what it was, but it was full of rage and the black joy of finally being". In any case, the Mecha is demonstrably just as genocidal towards humans as Ghidorah ever was, and even the dead space dragon's grudge against Godzilla seems to persist in the Mecha (based on how it seeks a fight against him and it initially prioritizes targeting Godzilla over Kong) — Madison in the novelization furthermore speculates that the Mecha will take up Ghidorah's original goal of becoming the reigning Alpha Titan and commanding the other Titans to ravage the planet.
- Remote Body: This incarnation of Mechagodzilla is controlled remotely by Ren Serizawa from the Skull Room, using Electronic Telepathy to essentially go through an engineered out-of-body experience where he jumps into the Mecha and manipulates it like his own body. At least, that's how it works until Ghidorah's subconsciousness sabotages the connection and takes control of the Mecha for itself.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: Mechagodzilla is basically a kaiju variation. Apex were clearly trying to emulate Godzilla as much as they could when they built the Mecha; modelling it after Godzilla's signature anatomy, giving it a parallel Breath Weapon and a similar-sounding roar, and, according to Jared Krichevsky, they even designed it to be able to swim like Godzilla. Beyond this clearly reflecting Apex's hubristic desire to basically become the King of the Monsters, it's as if Apex were planning to market Mechagodzilla to the public as a new and improved Godzilla after they framed the real Godzilla as a monster and killed him, the same way you'd market a new and improved vacuum cleaner model while comparing it to the old.
- Looking at his movements in battle and his body structure makes him eerily human-like, which gives him an edge against Godzilla.
- Roar Before Beating: He lets out a low, grating roar just before he charges into battle against Godzilla, once Godzilla has started charging for the kill towards him after they've singled each other out.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Played With. Mechagodzilla is apparently out to kill Godzilla specifically once Ghidorah takes over, and it's all too happy to slaughter any humans it sees just for the heck of it along the way. Whether this is because it remembers being killed by Godzilla and legitimately wants revenge or is just being a sadistic jackass is
up for debate. - Robeast: Deconstructed. While designed to be the ultimate anti-Titan mech, the machine's AI goes haywire when Ghidorah's consciousness take control after it was infused with Hollow Earth energy, killing its creators and leveling a large chunk of Hong Kong before turning its attention to Godzilla. Mechagodzilla's rampage shows what happens when you put a noted omnicidal Draconic Abomination's mind into a super-powerful Humongous Mecha.
- Robot Me: It was built by Apex as a robotic doppelgänger of Godzilla, which makes Ghidorah's influence taking it over and driving its actions all the more ironic.
- Robotic Psychopath: Given he's possessed by King Ghidorah, this is no surprise. Whether Ghidorah is completely in control or not, Mechagodzilla levels a large portion of Hong Kong and laughs about it before trying to brutally beat Godzilla to death.
- Rocket Punch: Downplayed. While Mechagodzilla can't detach its clawed fists as airborne rocket punches, it can supercharge its claws with blue energy (called a plasma punch according to Jared Krichevsky) to add a devastating extra kick to its punches. And it can do this while usnig the propulsors on its back to increase its forward momentum.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: While Mechagodzilla has always been an enemy of Godzilla, he never faced King Kong before. In the Monsterverse, Kong is the one who ultimately defeats and kills him.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- Mechagodzilla first appears on what looks like a pedestal, is intended to be humanity's own Titan to overthrow Godzilla (God), and it's ultimately the avatar for Ghidorah (the Devil) to return. In essence, Mechagodzilla is a false idol.
- Mechagodzilla is only seen in either the Apex compound or Hong Kong, both manmade areas, signifying how artificial he is.
- Ghidorah seems to be the basis for the mythological Yamata-no-Orochi. In the story, the Yamato no Orochi was defeated after it becomes drunk from consuming too much alcohol. Similarly, Mechagodzilla is weakened after Josh Valentine pours a flask of alcohol into its control panel and disconnects it from its satellite link.
- Running Gag: Besides the one with San/Kevin losing his head (see the General folder); in the novelization, it's shown that Josh and Bernie continue bickering over whether the Mecha should be called Mechagodzilla or "Robo-Godzilla". And as fate would have it, Guillerman and Mark Russell have the same debate when they first see the Mecha, despite not having heard either name from Team Godzilla. It also turns out its name really is Mechagodzilla according to Apex's tech specs during its activation.
- Sadist: Like Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla enjoys what it does. The first thing it does upon emerging from Apex's base is level a large part of Hong Kong, unprovoked, almost as soon as it lays eyes on the city. Then it lets out a mechanical noise that seems almost like an Evil Laugh as it turns its gaze on Godzilla. Mechagodzilla also seems like it's getting a kick out of beating Godzilla down, like a schoolyard bully.
- Satanic Archetype: As Ghidorah's reincarnation, he continues his predecessor's own analogy to Lucifer, even completing it, by being an intended servant which rebelled against its creators, Apex.
- Secret Weapon: Walter Simmons hints at Mechagodzilla's existence to the world on national television after Godzilla's Pensacola attack, without revealing precisely what it is (or that it's actually the cause of Godzilla's attack), and Team Godzilla's plot for most of the movie focuses on working out what Apex is hiding, culminating in Mechagodzilla's dramatic debut. It turns out that Apex's plan is to lure an aggravated Godzilla to Hong Kong with Mechagodzilla's signal, then set the Mecha on him to kill and replace him in one monstrous False Flag Operation so that they'll be hailed by the world as heroes.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: According to Jared Krichevsky, Mechagodzilla has an emergency self-destruct sequence, but it obviously didn't deploy when Ghidorah's subconsciousness overtook the Mecha and it went murderously rogue.
- Serrated Blade of Pain: Mechagodzilla's clawed fingers have rotating circular saws on their insides for cutting into the armor and flesh of any Titan the Mecha grabs onto, as do its jaws; although the saws' function isn't demonstrated in the movie proper. And this bucket of bolts is not a good guy in any sense, even before Ghidorah's subconsciousness possesses it.
- Shoulder Cannon: Compacted with missile launchers mounted into each of its shoulders which it fires at Godzilla several times.
- Skeleton Motif: Mechagodzilla is a silvery white color, has a skull-like head with sunken eyes and no lips, and long gangly limbs.
- Spell My Name With An S: The official toy merchandise spells its name as MechaGodzilla, but the film's subtitles and novelization call it Mechagodzilla.
- Strong and Skilled: Mechagodzilla was designed to be able to rival and attempt to surpass Godzilla in power, with a 460-foot metallic body that's armed to the teeth with the Proton Scream, missile launchers, thrusters, and plasma punches. It's also able to use and maneuver its body in an uncannily human-like manner, and once it gains a mind of its own, it seems to know everything about how to use its body and onboard weaponry against its foes; whilst exhibiting an almost trained-looking humanoid fighting style in close quarters (with Jared Krichevsky commenting that the Mecha has a lot of hand-to-hand fighting moves) – this is especially impressive since the Titan which Mechagodzilla's soul originally came from was a three-headed, winged Armless Biped with a very different body plan and abilities. Mechagodzilla proves to be one of the more powerful foes that both Godzilla and Kong have ever fought, coming very close to killing both of them even after they team up with each other against it (albeit partly because Godzilla and Kong were already heavily exhausted in advance of fighting the Mecha).
- Superior Successor: While Zig-Zagged in regard to King Ghidorah himself, Mechagodzilla is considered by his creator not only to be Godzilla's equal but his superior. This is BARELY if at all a hyperbole. That being said, while Mechagodzilla does overpower Godzilla and only failed to kill him because of Kong joining the fight against the Mecha, it's presumed by Madison in the novelization and further suggested by
Word of God that Godzilla would either not have lost as badly or even won had he been in better shape. - Swiss-Army Weapon: A Humongous Mecha intended to be a Remote Body for a human pilot (until Ghidorah's subconsciousness possesses it), which is armed with multiple rocket launchers, plasma punches, buzzsaw claws, a drill tail, and an all-destroying lazer breath weapon. While Mechagodzilla's primary design purpose is to overpower and kill Godzilla, the art book One Will Fall – The Art of the Ultimate Battle Royale reveals that Apex also intended to use it to enforce a corporate police state on the world afterwards.
- Tail Slap: Like Godzilla, it can use its tail to slap powerful Titans away. Mechagodzilla uses its tail to smack Kong clean off of its shoulders with brute strength, and later when the Mecha is on the ground, it swipes at Kong with its tail again to unbalance the latter and give the Mecha time to get back up.
- Terminator Impersonator: With its glowing red eyes, its silvery and skeletal look, its partially organic components, and its single-minded mission to kill Godzilla; Mechagodzilla is essentially a kaiju version of the Terminator in all but name.
- This Is a Drill: Downplayed. One of Mechagodzilla's many inbuilt weapons is the forked blade on the tip of its tail, which it can unfold into a four-pronged claw that rapidly rotates like a drill for the purpose of tearing and burrowing into Titans' bodies. Mechagodzilla briefly attempts to deploy this weapon against Godzilla when it has him pinned against a building, before Kong stops it, then it almost succeeds in driving this weapon into Kong's skull when it has him pinned.
- Throat Light: His internal power core's red light shines into his mouth whenever he's charging up his Proton Scream.
- Truer to the Text: This version of Mechagodzilla is much closer to its roots in the Showa Era. By having the brain of one of Ghidorah's heads, this gives it an extraterrestrial origin. Also, despite what its makers intended, this robot is no friend to humanity, or the Earth at large for that matter.
- Turned Against Their Masters: It was created by Apex under Walter Simmons' direction to be a weapon against Godzilla and the other Titans, using the remains of Ghidorah as a neural piloting system. However, once the Mecha is fully charged by the power source from the Hollow Earth, Ghidorah's malevolent will within the undead remains resurfaces and hijacks Mechagodzilla, causing the Mecha to target and kill Simmons, and obliterate the Apex headquarters in the process of emerging. The novelization hints that the Mecha was aware that Simmons had been trying to control it when it zeroed in on and personally killed him.
- Twitchy Eye: A variant. After whatever's left of Ghidorah's mind hijacks Mechagodzilla, the Mecha visibly twitches its neck when it takes notice of Godzilla and gives what seems like an Evil Laugh, as if Ghidorah or its influence doesn't have perfect control of the mechanical systems.
- Undignified Death: Suffers a slightly comical death at the hands of Kong where he is practically hacked apart limb from limb like branches off a tree, before having his head ripped off (spine included) by Kong's bare hands and presented as a trophy. What's more here, Ghidorah's left head seemingly cannot catch a break when it comes to being decapitated. For his part, he does his best to defend himself even when dying, as his last action before Kong kills him is to try and charge up a Proton Scream.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: The minute Apex get their hands on the energy formula needed to power the Mecha lastingly, Ren actually wants them to be somewhat cautious partly because they don't have even the vaguest idea how the energy source will affect Mechagodzilla's system (or Ghidorah's skull for that matter), but Simmons, in sheer lack of impulse control, insists on incorporating the energy source into Mechagodzilla and activating it immediately without any basic testing or study. The result: Ghidorah's Soul Fragment in the skull unexpectedly overrides Ren's psionic uplink and takes control of Mechagodzilla for itself, causing the Mecha to turn against and destroy its creators, then begin doing exactly what Apex claimed their weapon was meant to guard against. Whilst it's true that Godzilla was practically on Apex's doorstep when Simmons made the decision to invoke this trope, the novelization explicitly notes that Godzilla couldn't pinpoint Mechagodzilla and Apex's exact location so long as it was inactive and Apex could have logically waited for him to leave and bought extra time — integrating the Hollow Earth energy into Mechagodzilla on the spot, rather than gradually as Ren wanted to, turned a potential catastrophe into a surefire one.
- Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Bright red eyes on a lanky skeleton-like body. It's as if Apex was trying to make the most Obviously Evil robot they could.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Even though he's heavily equipped with lethal long-ranged precise weapons as most incarnations are built with, this Mechagodzilla pulls off one hell of a Curb-Stomp Battle, and while he does utilize his missiles and Proton Scream at times, he uses his devastating strength by beating the radiation out of Godzilla with repetitive charged plasma punches, bludgeoning uppercuts, as well as grappling his entire neck and bashing him into one building after another, which is no different than how a meathead bully pummels his victims by grabbing and slamming them into school lockers.
- Viler New Villain: Implied. As sadistic and evil as its past incarnation Ghidorah was in the previous movie, Ghidorah, being an invasive alien species to Earth, was theorized by the characters to be actively destroying the Earth because he needed to adapt to a planet that he didn't belong on (and might not have voluntarily fallen to) via xenoforming it to his own liking. Mechagodzilla doesn't have such an excuse: it seems to solely care about sowing death, chaos, world domination, and possibly also morally myopic revenge on Godzilla for their own sakes. On the other hand, Ghidorah was explicitly an Omnicidal Maniac whose actions threatened to globally kill all non-Titan life on Earth, whereas any omnicidal intentions that Mechagodzilla had for the Earth at large after killing Godzilla and wrecking Hong Kong are at most only implied.
- Villainous Rescue: Mechagodzilla, when still under human control, pulls an entirely accidental one when it grabs the Skullcrawler as the creature was a split-second away from eating Madison alive.
- Voices Are Mental: When Ghidorah's subconsciousness is in the process of hijacking Mechagodzilla, a faint repetition of Ghidorah's roar is audible, sounding increasingly mechanized as it goes on. When Mechagodzilla goes on a rampage, if you listen closely you'll definitively hear it producing some slightly-mechanized versions of Ghidorah's vocalizations from Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
- Walking Spoiler: While its existence was spoiled by the merchandise and trailers, it doesn't directly appear until relatively late in the movie, after Team Godzilla have infiltrated Apex's Hong Kong headquarters. Even then, the trailers and merch avoided showing how this version of Mechagodzilla is actually King Ghidorah reborn.
- Wave-Motion Gun: His Proton Scream, a supercharged take on Godzilla's Atomic Breath. He can charge it faster than Godzilla can, can use it repeatedly without pause, and in their Beam-O-War, he can easily overpower Godzilla's beam by just diverting more power into his own.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Mechagodzilla is a literal powerhouse, equipped with missile stocks and an all-destroying lazer, and it comes within an inch of killing an exhausted Godzilla and Kong; but...
- Even after Ghidorah's influence turns Mechagodzilla into an indiscriminate killing machine, the Mecha is still reliant on its satellite link to function. Its ultimate undoing: Josh spilling a flask of liquor into the vents of Apex's control panel, interrupting the link and causing Mechagodzilla to seize up momentarily, providing just the momentary leeway that Kong and Godzilla need.
- Concept artist Jared Krichevsky believes that it would be vulnerable to an EMP. One can only imagine how embarrassing it would be for Apex if their plot to kill Godzilla had succeeded and they'd subsequently set the Mecha against Barb the Queen MUTO, or even if the Mecha went up against any sufficiently bio-electric Titan.
- Wetware CPU: Played With. Mechagodzilla is supposed to be operated by a human controller through a cybernetic interface. However, when Mechagodzilla is activated, the human operator is rapidly disposed of, and Mechagodzilla goes on a rampage through Hong Kong. Why? Because Mechagodzilla is actually being controlled by what's left of Ghidora. So Mechagodzilla is in fact being controlled by an organic mind — just not the entity that its builders thought would be in control.
- Wipe the Floor with You: Seizing Godzilla's dorsal plates while initiating its jet thrusters, the Mecha drags him across Hong Kong and scrapes him against numerous buildings while Godzilla yelps in pain.
- The Worf Effect: Its first establishing act when it's still under human control is to utterly decimate a giant Skullcrawler, one of the baddies of Kong: Skull Island; effortlessly cleaving it in two with its Proton Scream.
- World's Best Warrior: Zig-Zagged. In-Universe, it was specifically designed by Apex to be able to defeat Godzilla in a fight. While it does become the only being seen thus far capable of absolutely dominating Godzilla once Ghidorah takes it over, Word of God and the novelization both suggest that Godzilla would've not done as badly in a fair fight, and perhaps would've won on his own if he wasn't already heavily weakened beforehand. Mechagodzilla also notably struggles more when fighting Kong than it does when fighting Godzilla; even if it does eventually get the upper-hand against the ape Kong is roughly as exhausted as Godzilla, indicating the Mecha was specialized for fighting Godzilla specifically. On the other hand, with Godzilla being of a unique powerset among other Kaiju and even above them as their "king", even Mechagodzilla being created "just" to beat him still means it has all those weapons and abilities to use on other Kaiju - in fact, its tail drill would have likely killed Kong had Team Godzilla not disrupted the Mecha's satellite link.
- Wrestler in All of Us: He does this effectively on Godzilla, employing left and right hooks to hit his gills, and Kong himself employs them against Mechagodzilla in the final battle.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Beyond having originally been built by Apex to deliberately Kill and Replace Godzilla, it's implied that Mechagodzilla once it's been possessed by Ghidorah's subconsciousness, will inherit Godzilla's position as the reigning King of the Monsters if it succeeds in killing him and Kong. In the novelization, Madison speculates that if this scenario plays out, then Mechagodzilla will probably take control of the other Titans around the world just like King Ghidorah previously did.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong crossover
- Behemoth Battle: He fights Batman's gigantic Mecha.
- Demoted to Dragon: In Godzilla vs. Kong, Mechagodzilla was the undisputed main villain of the film, even killing the two humans trying to use it. In this comic, Mechagodzilla serves as little more than Lex Luthor's personal toy.
- Villain Team-Up: Briefly teams up with a brainwashed Kong to take down Batman.
