Personally, I don’t think that Monster-San comes from any D&D source. He comes from some source other than the Giant, but he never said D&D.
My money is still on Minilla, Godzilla’s son, but I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if that’s wrong.
Burlew takes intellectual property very seriously indeed. He is extremely protective of his own IP. I doubt he will violate someone else’s. The MITD *probably * isn’t any copyrighted or trademarked character or creature type.
Single panel appearances of DC or Marvel characters are legal as fair use and parody.
Besides, isn’t he called Godzooky?
Only in the cartoon. In the actual movie Son of Godzilla, his name is, indeed, Minilla. Godzuki was his nephew.
Ah, yes – Godzuki was featured in All Monsters Attack, Destroy All Monsters, and All Holes Filled with Hard Monsters.
I can’t figure it out.I don’t play a lot of D&D. Please just spoiler your idea. I promise not to be mad if you are wrong.
Ok, ok I see I have 3 requests.
[spoiler] Look, it doesn’t matter: even if I’m correct it doesn’t give a lot of insight into past events, though it will affect things during the endgame of course. Personally, I’m too quick to click on spoiler boxes, so I don’t want to just give things away. Instead, I’ll give you my methodology. I’m treating this like a magic trick: you should need a little effort (not too much) to find the answer. No, you don’t have to comb through hundreds of alternatives. This is a cheat sheet: the real work has been done by others.
Thread: MitD VIII: Everything we know about MITD (but were afraid Tarrasque)
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Note the detail. Hundreds of person-hours were probably spent on this project. This is the freaking 8th thread on the subject, each spanning dozens of pages.
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Click and skim section 1a: Directly from Rich. It provides the parameters of the puzzle. Rich says he’s dropped sufficient hints to get the answer.
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Skim section headings.
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Ok, now look at Section 3a: Suggestions that Fit the Big Scenes (FBS). There are 6 main candidates. After scouring the web for pics of the creatures and reflecting upon one of the iconic scenes, one stood out. For me.
I’m assuming it’s one of the 6 main candidates. See point 1: the effort at the Oots forum has been pretty exhaustive and if you don’t believe me click Section 3d. Just so you know, I had heard of only one of the main candidates before, and it isn’t that one.
Jophiel: Well if you haven’t heard of the creature (and I’d wager even money you haven’t), it doesn’t matter too much anyway, right? Anyway for those who care, these directions should be sufficient. Full disclosure: I’ve played D&D only once. [/spoiler]
Why don’t you just say it? Anyone who’s interested in playing guessing games can just hang out at the GitP forums and participate in the threads there directly.
Why are you being like this? Please, pretty please with a cherry on top, Just say what you are thinking.
Ok, I guess I misjudged things. I wasn’t trying to be difficult. Here’s my guess, for real:
[spoiler] Hagunemnon (Protean)
It’s a shapeshifting assemblage of body parts. It invoked something more like disgust or horror during the circus - but not fear. People weren’t running off in terror. It’s ugly and powerful, and has access to a wish.
Plus it would be difficult to draw - it has to be a little different in every rendering - so keeping it under an umbrella makes a lot of sense.
I thought the other options didn’t match Rich’s trademark concerns very well, and it seemed to me he wanted to pick a creature out of the D&D canon. After that it’s process of elimination. [/spoiler]
Thanks, that makes sense.
That’s not really a monster from the D&D canon, though, so much as it is a monster from Douglas Adams. Its inclusion in a D&D book was meant as a joke to begin with.
It’s also 100% impossible to rule out by any means, which I think detracts from the whole exercise.
I like the theory that the Monster in the Dark is a surviving member of the Eastern Pantheon.
I agree. My theory has always been that he’s Zeus - a notorious shapeshifter (hence his horrifying form) and the only member of the Eastern Pantheon we didn’t see die in the Crayons of Time. Plus, he pretty much has to be a god, seeing as he cast a Wish spell instinctively, without even knowing he was doing it. Only gods have that kind of power.
His youth, and lack of knowledge and experience would count against that theory.
That could be the result of severe mental and psychological damage (including memory loss) cased by the Snarl’s near-fatal attack. It’s also why he’s been stuck in the same form.
Yes - a god who has forgotten he was a god. I like the theory, which probably means it will prove to be dead wrong. 
Probably.
Still, there’s more to support it. For instance, he knows what the Astral Plane is like, but he can’t remember how he knows. And more importantly, he’s basically a good person, no matter how much his “friends” try to convince him he’s a monster. D&D Zeus is Chaotic Good.
Isn’t the Eastern Pantheon the ones that Azure City followed? The Greco-Roman guys should have been the Western Pantheon. North being Norse and South being Babylonian-Assyrian.
As for the MitD guess, I had no idea such a thing existed in D&D so I never would have guessed it anyway nor had any surprise in its reveal. If that’s what it is.
In D&D rules, Gods are immune from mind-affecting magic. The MITD has been affected by mind-affecting magic (in one of the prequel books), so it can’t be a god.
Nope. It’s North - Norse, South - Animals, West - Mesopotamian and East - Greek. See here.