Character Development: Kiryuu M. Knight

I'd figure I'd do something for Kiryuu like this as well. Because I found the old hard drive that has pretty much a lot of stuff from that era. Now, it doesn't have everything, but it has a lot. I think I'll do something like this for Jonathan Long as well.

But to repost what I posted up in the redesign....

Yes, that is the original Godzilla. Or as many refer to him as GOJIRA. ゴジラ The original Kaiju King. For those who kept stating that Godzilla vs. Neltharion–that Godzilla would win. That image–you were looking at the wrong Godzilla. No, Godzilla vs. Neltharion–as in Kiryuu vs. Neltharion–that one yes, I do believe Neltharion would get his ass royally kicked. I should have called Godzilla Has Met his Match "Godzilla Jr. vs. Neltharion". Because that's who was in that image. Kiryuu's son, not Kiryuu. Kiryuu's son isn't as powerful as his now reanimated cyborg pops.

Let me explain.

When the whole thing with the H-Bomb hitting Lagos in 1952 and then again in 1954, the two Gojirasaurs caught in the middle were a father and a son. How these two got there–well, let's look back about 130 million years ago–when friggin King Ghidorah showed up and pretty much caused 60% of all life on Earth to go extinct on one of his little destruction ships. And he decided to stop by and pick on a pack of Gojirasaurs, who are theropod dinosaurs no bigger than a human. That's right, Godzilla, both the first and the second, were no bigger than we are.

But then Mothra came by and saved two of them, a father and his son. And then they awoke when two H-bombs happened. One in 1952, and a second one two years later. Woopse. Nice, Mothra, you bitch.

Anyways, the original Godzilla absorbed more of the radiation of these two bombs than his son, and grew to 60 meters tall with an indigo hued heat beam that would make our sun blush on the amount of heat it produces–and also explosive power. He also became extremely strong and extremely insane! Yeah, that whole thing about Gojira running around like a sadist and demanding virgin sacrifices and blowing up ships for the shear hell of it–and later on for about a year or so–tormenting a poor island country who just got over one nuclear disaster ten years earlier and also had pretty much its own power and mind taken away by the conquering forces who bitch-slapped it because it decided to support the evil, gibberish yelling, genocidal racist 4 thousand miles away from it.

There, you happy people?

But this sadistic, crazy, mutated dinosaur who could exhale the heat of a blue-white star decided to pick on that poor little country who just got its army taken away and only left with enough power to maybe defend itself against a now rather pissed off China who got all butthurt over Nanking–among other things. So, the last thing they need is a rampaging 200-foot tall nuclear weapon on two legs who cannot fall by their rather out of date and hand-me-down weapons. So, what happens? About a year later–some Japanese patriot and WWII veteran with an eye patch created a chemical weapon that can only work in water–which can pretty much make water poisonous and destroys the oxygen in it–there by boiling off and releasing the hydrogen that was connected to it (yeah I dunno either) and pretty much asphyxiates all life forms in that water and also destroys their flesh–only leaving the skeleton. And this guy states he's so afraid of using it that he destroys his notes and then decides to kill himself when he finally kills off the rampaging, nutty, sadistic dinosaur who just leveled half his damned country. I am serious. Gojira doesn't just destroy Tokyo, he pretty much levels everything within the scope of a year or so.

Yeah, in the continuity that Kiryuu belongs into–Kiryuu–as Gojira–was rampaging and beating down Japan and the surrounding land masses for about a year or so. He died around 1955 after Serizawa finally got off his pretentious ass and use his weapon against him. Thanks, Serizawa, your slothfulness didn't help your country at all. But at least the Kaiju King is dead. It's no wonder why Kiryuu pretty much gave Serizawa the bird and recreated the Oxygen Destroyer himself and used it without hesitation against the REAL threat. And used it again against Megaguirus, and attempted to use it against King Ghidorah on the Ark. The Kaiju King. Salute him.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Well, around 1966–the Kaiju King had an heir and that's Godzilla Jr, a mutated Gojirasaurus who was the son of Gojira, who was about 10 meters shorter, not as powerful–and who's breath weapon was the color of frosty blue compared to the deep indigo Death Star blast his father produced.

It was clear right off the bat that this wasn't the original Gojira, but still no one had Serizawa to fall back on, and they had to get their fingers out of their own asses and try to figure out how to handle him. Junior had become kind of a nuisance. Yeah. Nuisance. He wasn't as sadistic and blatantly nasty as his father, he didn't outright want to kill humans because they exist–unlike his father–he was just lonely. And hungry. So, ever so often, Japan and parts of West Coast US, Hawaii, and Mexico had to deal with him as he swam around his giant pond–the Pacific Ocean–searching for his father's remains.

What happened to his father's remains? They were removed from where Gojira died. And then later on purchased by an industrial company who pretty much was responsible for creating medical prosthetics.

But some fun things happening–like random monster attacks here and there and Godzilla fighting that monster during the 60s and 70s. Think Showa series, but with the Millennium Godzilla running around instead of all those random looking suit Gojis. Then, a bunch of green monkey aliens from a planet slowly being devoured by a roaming black hole (those do exist) decided to make Earth their new home and they don't want to share it with the dominant species who already own it. And they figured that Godzilla Jr. would be a problem for them if they decide to take over the planet, so they build a robot Godzilla to fight him–called Mechagodzilla. And then Junior tore its head off and that same industrial company that bought Junior's father's remains also bought the head of the Space Monkey Mechagodzilla.

Huh. They must be planning something. I wonder what it is?

Well, if you all haven't guessed, it was to build a Godzilla robot of their own. Though Godzilla affected an area that man populated–pretty much about the same size as the area of Alaska and Texas combined, leaving relatively the REST of the 25,000 miles of Earth alone–people felt that he was a problem. Even if Godzilla's attacks consisted of maybe an appearance every 5-10 years or so. Yeah.

But Japan and at least the West Coast of America were willing to throw a few billion dollars at Gordon Knight and his company the Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research. And pretty much looking to score something, he builds the robot. The only problem is–it was a failure. LOTS of times. Apparently, the frame they built couldn't contest the 30 thousand tons of weight they built onto it. So, it kept falling apart. Also, the stupid AI kept burning out each time the Utah Foundation's Mechagodzilla tried to take a step. So, Gordon, Will, and Katsura all had this brilliant idea–the skeleton of Gojira could hold that weight, so, build the robot around it. They created biosyntech, built upon the G-Cells and Regenerator G-1 amino acid. And I call it Regenerator G-1, not Organizer G-1, because the amino acid regenerates Kiryuu and Godzilla's body parts, not organize them. The amino acid isn't a Librarian and Kiryuu and Godzilla are not books to be shelved. You organize books, you regenerate skin cells. See how it makes sense? I don't care what it's called in the damned movie! I go by the English version because for the first time, an English translation actually makes fucking sense! They use the correct adjective/verb/noun to pretty much state what it does. And yes, I do realize that each time I collab with ~G-Chaser, unless I'm the one posting it, Regenerator becomes Organizer. Or Organiser as it's spelled in Britain. But damn it, when I am in control of the story and I'm posting it, it's Regenerator G-1!

Then, Will creates the sophisticated AI, called K-1, who pilots the machine. And when they finally unleash Mechagodzilla (yes he was called that in the first story), Mechagodzilla actually does not do what he's supposed to do. He lets Godzilla go–not kill him. Also, he pretty much reverts to Gojira mode and does what he loves doing as Gojira–destroying Japan. Because now that Gojira has been brought back to life with a whole slew of new weapons–he just has to get his sadistic kicks in one more time and beat that poor little country once more.

And then as an added bonus, when Gordon and the others do manage to shut him down–Mechagodzilla takes a hostage in the form of Katsura Yugami, tying his system in with her brain. And if Gordon ever tries to pull the plug on Mechagodzilla, he'll be killing Katsura.

Told you, Kiryuu's a sadist.

And that's pretty much the backstory of Kiryuu–as he was when he was both Gojira and Mechagodzilla.

I originally wrote Kiryuu to pretty much be this rather dark–hardly altruistic creature, who only does what he's told because he knows he's getting something out of it in return. He doesn't kill off his son–at first because if he did, he gets scrapped afterwards. And Kiryuu didn't want to do that.

But over the years and about 8 different monster battles later, Kiryuu has grown as a character. He actually starts taking protecting both his son and humanity seriously, and a bit too zealously–to the point where when he does become the first computer citizen, and then someone in position of power and government–he bans the study of G-Cells and will outright hunt down anyone who attempts to use them or has them in their body.

Yes, he wanted to kill Alan Tyler. But now he treats Alan like the kid's his grandson. It's cute. Aw, the abusive parent is trying to take responsibility now.

But don't get him started if you mention M0-Cells, aka King Ghidorah cells. That's another thing about Kiryuu. Because he remembers vividly about how his kind died at the hands of King Ghidorah, Kiryuu is adamant on the three-headed dragon's destruction.

Kiryuu Knight has, through his own manipulations, has become President of the left-over districts and states of the US and Canada after the Sixth World. He's ran an industrial empire alongside other powerful and rich people. He froze his own son to prevent Junior from mutating even further during the rise in Mana levels of the Sixth World and even lied about killing him for 500 years.

And then during all the fun with the Insurrectionists of the Outer Colonies, Kiryuu was later blackmailed by Catherine Halsey to help the UNSC create the SPARTAN-II program, after the success of Project Orion. He was also the creator of every UNSC AI, including Cortana. How does he do it? Creating multiple personalities of himself through enormous trauma. And Catherine tormented Kiryuu's AI to produce Cortana. Let's just say when Cortana merged back with Kiryuu at the end of her life–he was grateful for getting that piece that Halsey stole from him back.

Kiryuu also became the President of the United Earth Government and Commander in Chief of the UNSC. He hired Telek 'Heros, a Covenant defector and that helped him win the war, among other notable people. Yes, I know the Chief. And then he disappeared–after the Ark blew up. And was found by Alan Tyler.

Though I will say, Kiryuu feels the biggest mistake he's ever made was listening to Telek about joining the Citadel Council–when Telek showed the Earthers how to operate a Mass Relay located on Charon. And believe me, he brings that up a lot during those stories. Hell, even Halsey brought it up once which of course made Kiryuu want to punch her right in the face–or breathe his death breath on her–but he had to behave himself.

Kiryuu served as Ambassador of Earth along side Udina (who he hated with a passion) for about five years. Then, after King Ghidorah showed up as Sovereign, and the Earth proved themselves by beating the crap outta him with the help of the rest of the Galaxy–Kiryuu was actually approached by the Citadel Council to become a Councilor himself. And he almost took it. But to the shock of EVERYONE, Kiryuu declined, realizing it was pretty much a publicity stunt and a ploy to wrack his AI for more info on King Ghidorah since he's pretty much the only thing living that's faced that monster time and time again and survived. So, Kiryuu retired from being an Ambassador to returning back to his company and sending Alan or Telek out on missions to pretty much discover things about King Ghidorah's plans, what the Illusive Man is doing–or finding out that Cerberus, when they brought Commander Shepard back–used G-Cells to do it with. Yeah, that didn't sit with Kiryuu, but he wasn't about to kill her because of it. Hell, he tells Liara that if she had gone to him, he would have used his own G-Cells to bring Shepard back with no questions asked or strings attached. And he even forgave Liara for lying to him about it. This shows you how much Kiryuu's changed over the years. He's not as nasty as he used to be. He's actually rather nice and approachable.

Now that we're winding down in the series, finally bring it to an end–it's nice to look back on who and what this green-dreadlocked Mechagodzilla is. And to give him an updated look as well.

As I stated, Kiryuu's design was that of Heisei Godzilla, at least his face was. His size and breath weapon was not. Though I did write a collab with Cyndi once in which we pretty much brought Kiryuu into her universe to serve as her Godzilla's father–and to meet Shezilla. And for that, I had to grow Kiryuu to 120 meters, because her Godzilla was Heisei Godzilla–and the size went with it. He was also a lot meaner and much more emotional in that story too. Dare I say it–a bit too much. Yeah, the story–though some liked it–wasn't all that great. Though I have taken a small project of my own, saved back that story and started rewriting some of Kiryuu's lines to make him a bit nicer to Satsuma–hell–more welcoming–but still a little apprehensive and disturbed that the scientist used his son's cells to clone him a mate. Kiryuu still acts like a concerned father, but his attitude in the revision is nothing more than that–rather than someone who is trying to seek a way to kill his own son due to Godzilla having some sort of mental retardation.

Yeah, I didn't like that version of Kiryuu at all.

But some good news ahead, the next story is all about Kiryuu and his son Godzilla–a regular ole kaiju story set 500 years into the future–the current time of the stories. And Kiryuu receives a call to go to Chicago where Megaguirus is and try to save his son from her experiments on him. And he discovers that Megaguirus creates a monster called Megalon (yes THAT Megalon) from Godzilla's G-Cells and M0-Cells and Kiryuu and Godzilla have to fight it. So, fun times!

And anyone who asks why does Kiryuu have hair? Well, here's the quote from the story that explains it....

"Mechagodzilla was created from the first Godzilla," began Katsura. "In a way, he is the first Godzilla. His muscle system was cloned from the skeleton of Godzilla. And that is not hair on his head, those are his synaptic cords. They are the thick nerve endings of his nervous system that controls the exterior weapons. And they are sensitive to the touch. We thought that he would not have to have head protection because Mechagodzilla's actual skin is quite tough, but those cords needed to be cover. So that is why we built the helm around his cranium, snout, and jaw. And also to hide his face. We want everyone to know that he is a machine and not a living thing."

But in reality, the main reason why I put hair on the original Gojira was this–he looks awesome with dreadlocks, man. Now it's become a staple of Kiryuu's characteristic that I can't see him without it.

Like Neltharion and his beard, dude. You just can't see him without those green dreads.

Kiryu Mechagodzilla © Toho (but all that history of his is MINE!) I'd say aside from the usage of copyright stuff, Kiryuu has become his own entity now.

But after reading all of that, do you see why I DON'T explain Kiryuu? I mean what I wrote up there is the abridged version. I didn't even get into the stuff about Biollante, or Kiryuu having psychic powers now–or Technomancy or any of that shit!