# Could we kill something like Godzilla? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371 "2014-02-27T01:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/61 "2014-03-04T21:34:50Z")
Call Superman. Kill both franchises once and for all. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/62 "2014-03-04T21:45:24Z")
Cannot we look at the possibility of saving the life of this poor creature? Godzilla is the last of it’s kind and should be preserved for future generations to see and enjoy. Perhaps we could use sleep-inducing darts and then transport the animal to a safely constructed preserve where it could live out its life without being victimized by our warmongering society. Think of the tourist business such a zoo could do! Furthermore, our scientific knowledge would certainly be more enhanced by a living Godzilla than by a slaughtered one. He make look a monster, but is not Godzilla also a sentient being deserving of our compassion? Could not this poor misunderstood lizard become a symbol to help us overcome our prejudices toward so-called “monsters”? Is not the real monster within us in our desire to kill an animal whose actions are but a by-product of our inability to co- exist with creatures so different than ourselves? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/63 "2014-03-05T01:45:20Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Cannot we look at the possibility of saving the life of this poor creature? Godzilla is the last of it’s kind and should be preserved for future generations to see and enjoy. Perhaps we could use sleep-inducing darts and then transport the animal to a safely constructed preserve where it could live out its life without being victimized by our warmongering society. Think of the tourist business such a zoo could do! Furthermore, our scientific knowledge would certainly be more enhanced by a living Godzilla than by a slaughtered one. He make look a monster, but is not Godzilla also a sentient being deserving of our compassion? Could not this poor misunderstood lizard become a symbol to help us overcome our prejudices toward so-called “monsters”? Is not the real monster within us in our desire to kill an animal whose actions are but a by-product of our inability to co- exist with creatures so different than ourselves? Look, if we put him in a nature preserve and build a wall around it, that might work for the short term, but then people would probably start worshipping him, and performing Og-knows-what kind of rituals to appease him, and policy rationality would go out the window, and then where would we be? Far better to move him to Titan. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/64 "2014-03-05T03:16:07Z")
For Japanese problems, I give you Japanese [solutions.](http://cdn.motinetwork.net/animeotakus.org/image/anime/1302/overkill-such-thing-wave-motion-gun-battleship-yamato-starbl-anime-otakus-1360916096.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/65 "2014-03-05T03:27:32Z")
I prefer the _Venkman Gambit_: “We’ve been going about this all wrong. This Godzilla’s okay! He’s a sailor, he’s in New York; we get this guy laid, we won’t have any trouble!” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/66 "2014-03-05T03:52:41Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Look, if we put him in a nature preserve and build a wall around it, that might work for the short term, but then people would probably start worshipping him, and performing Og-knows-what kind of rituals to appease him, and policy rationality would go out the window, and then where would we be? Well, then we have to find a really out of the way place to put him. Like maybe an island off Costa Rica. Sorna or Nublar would be good ones. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/67 "2014-03-05T05:48:14Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Well, then we have to find a really out of the way place to put him. Like maybe an island off Costa Rica. Sorna or Nublar would be good ones. An island? For a creature that came out of the ocean? I don’t think so. We need a high plateau with cliffs on all sides, the kind of place you’d need an airship to get to. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/68 "2014-03-05T07:52:02Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > An island? For a creature that came out of the ocean? I don’t think so. You don’t think the computer controlled electrified fences would hold reptiloid monsters? Don’t see why they wouldn’t… > [@](#): > > We need a high plateau with cliffs on all sides, the kind of place you’d need an airship to get to. Nah… we’d get lost there… ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/69 "2014-03-05T14:53:18Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > We could build some giant robots. Probably need a couple of pilots for each. Better make them analog and nuclear though. And no alloys! :eek: Curse you!! The flash backs had just faded! Months of therapy wasted! Analog [hic] Reactor [hic] EMP [hic, hic, hic] ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/70 "2014-03-06T16:21:41Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > You don’t think the computer controlled electrified fences would hold reptiloid monsters? Don’t see why they wouldn’t… > > Nah… we’d get lost there… Controlled by a UNIX System. Anyone might know that and be able to release the beast… even a kid! ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/71 "2014-03-06T17:19:14Z")
> [@slowlearner](#): > > It has always intrigued me that, less than a generation after Tokyo was incinerated by American B-29 Superfortresses there was a Japanese movie about an unstoppable monster attacking and burning Tokyo. I’ve long thought that in the Godzilla movies, Godzilla represents the United States military. He’s huge, strong, and strange, and he even spews out radioactivity as a last resort. Just like the United States, Godzilla comes out of the Pacific Ocean and destroys Tokyo…and it’s Our Fault for disturbing what we should not have disturbed ( a dual symbolism of “Pearl Harbor awakening a sleeping giant” and “Mankind letting the nuclear genie out of the bottle”). At first he seems an invincible, malevolent monster. But in the following movies, a child (the new generation of Japanese) strikes up a friendship of sorts, and Godzilla now serves as Japan’s protector against new monsters (the US as a bulwark against communist China and the Soviet Union). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/72 "2014-03-06T17:51:37Z")
That… makes a surprising amount of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/73 "2014-03-07T01:52:08Z")
Not bad. There’s the core of a film school thesis in there. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/74 "2014-03-07T06:53:00Z")
Does that mean Cloverfield represents the chaotic terrorist tragity of 9/11? There was a lot of shaky-cam on 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/75 "2014-03-07T12:49:37Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Does that mean Cloverfield represents the chaotic terrorist tragity of 9/11? Was that when the terrorists flew planes into our spellcheckers? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/76 "2014-03-07T14:48:49Z")
Oopsy. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/77 "2014-03-07T15:30:41Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Was that when the terrorists flew planes into our spellcheckers? Yas, wes e hurrible trajety ahl urond. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/78 "2014-03-07T17:39:29Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Cannot we look at the possibility of saving the life of this poor creature? Godzilla is the last of it’s kind and should be preserved for future generations to see and enjoy. Perhaps we could use sleep-inducing darts and then transport the animal to a safely constructed preserve where it could live out its life without being victimized by our warmongering society. Think of the tourist business such a zoo could do! Furthermore, our scientific knowledge would certainly be more enhanced by a living Godzilla than by a slaughtered one. He make look a monster, but is not Godzilla also a sentient being deserving of our compassion? Could not this poor misunderstood lizard become a symbol to help us overcome our prejudices toward so-called “monsters”? Is not the real monster within us in our desire to kill an animal whose actions are but a by-product of our inability to co- exist with creatures so different than ourselves? Look, this is a unique life form and NONE of us has the right to arbitrarily wipe it out… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/79 "2014-03-07T17:58:16Z")
Godzilla is protected by the finest[Plot Armor](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotArmor). He can only die if the writer allows it. And if the writer allows it, he could die from a stray shot from a water pistol. However, the writer is not invulnerable. That’s Gozilla’s weak point: [non-gentle persuasion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_(novel)) of the writer responsible for his invulnerability. The writer is the shield generator on the forest moon. All we need is a strategically-place car crash, an axe, a blizzard, and a tribe of Ewoks and Godzilla’s a dead dead lizard. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371/80 "2014-03-07T23:36:34Z")
> [@Interrobang](#): > > Now, something like Yog-Sothoth, there’s no way we could touch it. There is if you ask nicely enough 😉 > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Actually given that it produces offspring with human women, the problem is that we’d really like for it to stop touching us. Hey that was a misunderstanding, she was totally coming on to me [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-kill-something-like-godzilla/682371.md?page=5)