Monarch Season 2 Just Explained Godzilla's Role Among The Titans In The MonsterVerse

This article contains spoilers for the "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 episode "Ends of the Earth."

It's the beginning of the end for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2. The penultimate episode, entitled "Ends of the Earth," just dropped on Apple TV, and it brought us much closer to this season's endgame. Titan X is now on Skull Island, awaiting a face-off with Kong. Titan X was brought there by Godzilla, who is attempting to help keep balance among the Titans. But those expecting a bigger showdown between the King of the Monsters and Titan X didn't get that. There's a good reason why.

Keep in mind that, at this point in Godzilla and Kong's timeline within the MonsterVerse, they haven't duked it out yet, as the show takes place before the events of 2019's "Godzilla: King of the Monsters." So, Godzilla storming onto Skull Island might not have made a lot of sense given what's coming, chronologically speaking. That said, "Monarch" revealed a key story reason as to why Godzilla didn't beat Titan X to death.

As Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) reiterates at the beginning of the episode, "Godzilla's not afraid of anything." So, why not fight Titan X? "What if he did what he needed to do?" Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) then poses. "You said Godzilla's role is to enforce order among the Titans," she continues before Tim (Joe Tippett) replies, "As far as we know." Keiko then takes her thinking a step further. "Godzilla might have been making sure it went back to where it's supposed to be. It didn't kill it because it didn't need to."

There we have it. Why is Godzilla king amongst his allies and adversaries? Because he rules like a king. Not always with violence, but with a sense of order.

Godzilla has more than 70 years of on-screen history. At times, he's been depicted as a violent force of nature to be reckoned with, more of a villain that humanity is nearly hopeless to stop. "Shin Godzilla" is a great example of this. As is the 1954 kaiju classic that started it all.

In the MonsterVerse, Godzilla has been positioned from the start as a force of nature that isn't directly threatening humanity. Rather, he's part of Earth's careful balance and is the most powerful Titan of them all. These creatures have been part of the planet for centuries, with Godzilla largely keeping them in check along the way. 2014's "Godzilla" was a divisive hit that kicked off the MonsterVerse, but it established that the monster would kill threats as needed, such as the MUTOs.

That continued in 2019's "King of the Monsters," which "Monarch" Season 2 is directly setting up. Godzilla battled Rodan and King Ghidorah to the death. However, he was willing to team up with Mothra, and many of the other Titans of the world bent to his knees, so to speak, when all was said and done. He didn't feel the need to pummel them all into the Earth just because he could.

This brief observation from Keiko in the episode helps explain why Godzilla handles certain Titans differently across encounters in the MonsterVerse. He didn't kill Titan X because he didn't need to. He killed Ghidorah and the MUTOs because those were true "there can only be one" scenarios. Godzilla doesn't default to killing, but he's more than willing to flex muscle when compelled to do so.

Keiko's explanation for why Godzilla didn't fight Titan X helps make other battles throughout the history of the MonsterVerse make more sense in retrospect. 2021's "Godzilla vs. Kong" battled the pandemic (and won) at the box office, coming out at a time when Hollywood wasn't even sure blockbuster cinema could work anymore. That was the primary battle from Warner Bros. and Legendary's perspective, and an important one at that.

On screen, it was all about King Kong duking it out with the King of the Monsters for our collective enjoyment. There were winners and losers in "Godzilla vs. Kong," but director Adam Wingard didn't leave much room for interpretation when it came to the movie's main event. Godzilla bested Kong but came shy of killing him, allowing the two to team up in order to defeat Mechagodzilla. An uneasy alliance of sorts was formed. "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" demonstrated how tenuous that alliance is, in practice.

Some might have viewed Godzilla not killing Kong as a cop out. Thanks to what we just learned in "Monarch," it actually makes a lot of sense in the universe. Kong has a place among the Titans. Godzilla killing him might have upset that balance. He just had to know that Kong understood who was truly king, which he did before all was said and done.

There are many, many interpretations of Godzilla. The MonsterVerse version couldn't be more different than the version in "Godzilla Minus One," for example. This interpretation isn't an omnipotent "kill or be killed" ruler of Earth. He's a force of nature who does what he must, but whose primary objective isn't death and destruction.

"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" is streaming now on Apple TV.