Monarch: Legacy of Monsters takes more than just monsters to extremes

Extremists aren’t born, they’re made. That’s another layer of commentary that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has brought to the forefront of the show with its latest episode. Spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters follow.

As the series has gotten later into its season, the commentary that is often associated with the Godzilla franchise (in non-American productions) has slowly been coming to the forefront of the series in very satisfying ways. This episode continues with commentaries about rewriting history that have been present in previous episodes, but the main focus is on the idea that the extremists that those in power want to stop, they’re the ones who created them in the first place. Not only does this apply to military and governments, but it applies to corporations as well, as they’ve essentially become their own governments if they’re large enough and wealthy enough.

What sets off the commentary in this episode and makes everything so apparent is the rewriting of history that Tim is creating regarding the Randas and the origins of Monarch. “Your grandparents graciously let them in,” Tim says with pure conviction in his words despite the fact that we, the audience, know that’s an absolute, bald-faced lie after the ending of the previous episode. That quick showcasing of how history surrounding Monarch has so effectively been rewritten paves the way for Lee to go down the path that he’s on. Is he still a good man? Based on what he’s done so far?

Yes, he is. But the actions that he takes in this episode, namely taking over the Monarch base by force, demonstrate the path that he’s walking down effectively. He’s not there yet, but the path that he’s walking is the path toward becoming the extremist that everyone claims he is. A path that was laid out when Monarch was first torn from his hands by the US government. For Lee, every action that’s been taken against him has swung the pendulum to where he is now, which is someone that hasn’t hurt anyone yet but seems poised to at any second if they get in the way of his righteous campaign against Titans.

But this isn’t just the case for Lee, but also for May or, as we find out in this episode, Corah. She wasn’t forced into her position in life by the actions of the government like Lee was, but rather, she was forced into her situation by a corporation with a terrifying amount of power. So much power in fact, they are the reason she has an alias and a fake passport, as they could find her anywhere, which they do. But much in the way of Lee, she was created because of the actions and power-hungry nature of her bosses, so she did what she thought was right when she discovered they wanted to harness the power of the Titans.

She erased everything that the company had on the subject. She saw what was happening, saw that it was horrific in scope, tried to stop it, and when all else failed, took matters into her own hands. She became an extremist in the eyes of the company (a company that will end up building Mecha-Godzilla as we saw in Godzilla vs. Kong), but she kept her conscious clean. She wanted to help the world but was made to do so in a way that she couldn’t have imagined.

Is this commentary perfect when it comes to real world applications? Of course not. But Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is doing an excellent job of using its monster-setting to explore these interesting social commentaries in satisfying ways.