Like the characters in the “Fast and Furious” movies, Mothra cares deeply about family. The 1961 Toho film bearing her name — her first appearance — follows her from egg to infant, then cocoon, and finally to her fully realized winged form. This arc has remained central to the character ever since. Mothra first encountered the King of the Monsters in 1964’s “Mothra vs. Godzilla,” in which a mother Mothra is killed by Godzilla near the end of the movie. Multiple Mothra eggs then hatch and ultimately avenge their mother’s death.
In 1992’s “Godzilla vs. Mothra,” the Heisei-era iteration of the classic kaiju rivalry, the same life cycle takes place over the course of the film. As one of the only Toho monsters who consistently has children, Mothra ensures a sort of artificial immortality. There’s always another egg somewhere waiting to be found and hatched. The unfortunate side effect of that fact, of course, is that Mothra dies far more often than most kaiju.
