Godzilla: Your interpretation of the character.

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Which characterization would you prefer? Godzilla's practically fallen under many categories since he first popped up in '54. He's been a metaphor for the atom bomb, a wild animal, a misunderstood force of nature, a father, a heartless engine of death, a kid-friendly superhero... even an environmentalist!

I see Godzilla as many things. A victim of an injustice against nature (the atomic tests that mutated him) that was born of our desire to destroy, he hates us with a passion unbridled. This blind rage, coupled with the fact that he is a kaiju, has given him a bad rep with humans. At times, he sees no other alternative but to save us from some larger threat like King Ghidorah or an alien invasion, largely out of necessity. When we congratulate him for doing so, he snarls and spits in our faces. He's a fugitive, always running, but with nowhere to go.

witch godzilla or shall I say Gojira?

I think its no accident that a very crowded nation populated by repressed self-effacing hyperpolite, and hyperconformist people, created Godzilla.

Every Japanese longs to strike out and lay waste big cities.
All of us do occasionally- so the idea has legs.

But the appeal may go deeper.
Godzilla came out about the same time that America became enthralled with James Dean- a rebel without a cause. Japanes culture doesnt allow human rebels -so the urge to rebel becomes personified ( or lizard-ified) in the form a big scaly reptile.Both brooding stars took the world by storm.
Elvis, and rocknrolll also exploded on the scene about that time.

Like James Dean Godzilla "spits in your face, and has nowhere to run"as you said.

Anyone else?

I suppose I prefer the force of nature version that's not good or evil, he's just a gigantic animal and we're in his way, but it's nice to have the variety. The protector of Earth thing was fine for the 1970s and made for some fun films. The original film is also quite strong, with the monster depicted as a very clear metaphor for the atomic bomb, and we actually see the human suffering it causes. It's also nice to see some of the filmmakers get creative with their interpretations, like depicting the monster as being possessed by the souls of those killed in World War II. But overall, yeah, "my" Godzilla is the neutral one who's just around to remind us of how small we are.

I'm thinking of writing my own Godzilla fan series with a Watchmen-esque spin to it. Expect lots of character development. And gore.

One issue I've always had a problem with is that he's radioactive and whenever he destroys a city he probably leaves some radioactive contamination in his wake. Tokyo should be uninhabitable. And then there's the issue of the cost of the damage he causes every time he goes on a rampage--probably in the hundreds of billions of dollars (10s of trillions of yen), at least.

I've always loved Godzilla. I don't really have a single interpretation of him, but if I had to go with one it would be that he is a force of nature, not against or for humanity but just doing his own thing and destroying whatever gets in his way. This is what he is in the Hesei era movies, which were my favorites. I really like the atom bomb metaphor as well, and when he was possessed by the souls of people who died in WWII.