Loch Ness Monster

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Loch Ness Monster
The adult Loch Ness Monster in Godzilla: The Series
Character model of the baby Loch Ness Monster in Godzilla: The Series
Nyssa in Kong: The Animated Series
Cyber-Nessie in Kong: The Animated Series
The Loch Ness Monster on the cover of "Magic King"
Alternate names Nessie, NyssaKTAS
Species Giant mosasaurGTS [1],
Aquatic sauropod-like creatureKTAS
Forms Baby, adultGTS,
Nyssa, Cyber-NessieKTAS
Relations OffspringGTS
Allies GodzillaGTS,
King Kong, Queen IonaKTAS
Enemies Godzilla (initially),GTS
King Kong (initially)KTAS
Designed by Fil BarlowGTS
First appearance The King Kong Show episode 10B,
"The Legend of Loch Ness"
Latest appearance Kong: The Animated Series
episode 25, "The Aquanauts"
Roar(s)
Godzilla: The Series adult

Godzilla: The Series child

Nyssa
Nick Tatopoulos: “At least they could've hired a real actor. This guy is embarrassing!
Elsie Chapman: “What do you mean?
Nick Tatopoulos: “And is that thing made of rubber?
Elsie Chapman: “I don't know, it's too blurry to tell. Maybe the creature-
Nick Tatopoulos: “Elsie, please. This is a publicity stunt. Tourism must be down in Scotland, so the locals faked an attack.
Nick Tatopoulos and Elsie Chapman discussing the validity of footage of the Loch Ness Monster (Godzilla: The Series episode 11, "DeadLoch")

The Loch Ness Monster, nicknamed Nessie, is a well-known cryptid said to reside in Loch Ness in Scotland. As a popular monster in cryptozoology and folklore, she has been featured in numerous media over the years, including episode 10B of the 1966 series The King Kong Show, episode 11 of the 1999 series Godzilla: The Series, and episode 25 of the 2000 series Kong: The Animated Series. Nessie was also planned to star in the Toho-Hammer Films tokusatsu co-production Nessie in the late 1970s, but the project never materialized.

Design

Proposed designs for the Loch Ness Monster in Nessie appear to be largely plesiosaur-like in appearance. Unlike plesiosaurs, however, these designs possessed two humps on their backs, a trait likely derived from many supposed Nessie sightings, and webbed claws instead of flippers.

In The King Kong Show, the Loch Ness Monster appears to be a long-necked red crocodilian creature with several triangular spikes or fins running down its neck.

In Godzilla: The Series, Nessie and her child are not depicted with the plesiosaur-like body that is popular in depictions of the cryptid. Both have a long, tan, serpentine body with a lighter underside, a darker tan dorsal fin running down their backs, brown patterns and spots covering their bodies, and a tear-shaped tailfin. They both have seven pairs of webbed claws and a hanging dewlap. Their heads have two orange eyes, two fins on the sides of their head, skeletal-like nostrils, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and two whiskers on the bottom jaw. There are few differences between the adult and child form, with the most prominent being the child's large, round eyes, that contrast its mother's more sunken pair.

In Kong: The Animated Series, Nessie's design once again deviates from the popular image, with her being depicted as something more like a sauropod with aquatic adaptations, much like how the Aquanauts resemble humans with some aquatic flourishes. She is mostly light green with a darker patch on her back, and instead of plesiosaur-like fins, Nessie has four limbs with webbed claws, and a pair of fluke-like fins on her tail. She has a small set of what appear to be gills behind her jaw, and a single row of sharp, white teeth. Her eyes are yellow with a dark green iris. The back of her neck appears to have armored plates, and she has a row of spikes running down her tail.

When she is possessed by Ramone De La Porta using his Cyber-Link Computer to become a mutant hybrid of herself and the human, she takes on a highly anthropomorphized look, with more defined webbed fingers and the glowing red eyes associated with De La Porta's mutants. The gills on her head become more prominent, and she takes on a much more sleek and muscular physique with additional gills or fins under her pectoral muscles and two long abdominal muscles. She grows fins on her forearms and along the sides of her tail.

Origins

In Godzilla: The Series, Nessie is suspected by Dr. Elsie Chapman to be a member of a species of mosasaur that had survived the extinction of their contemporaries in a block of ice that was then later released when glacial flooding creating the lochs thawed it out. They lived in the loch for thousands of years, appear on the surface every 20 years or so, and can be seen depicted in ancient artwork from the area. The monster is said to lure people into the loch. The famous "Surgeon's Photograph" of Nessie from 1934 appears to exist in-universe, but changed to resemble the creature's appearance in the show, which would suggest that in the context of the show, they were not faked. Elsie Chapman claims that she bears resemblance to photos believed to be of the monster taken in 1975.[1] If her species surfaces every 20 years, this would line up with the show's late 1990s setting. If the 20-year surfacing habit is, as Dr. Chapman proposed, part of a breeding cycle, it could mean that the adult Nessie seen in the episode was born around the time of the 1975 photograph, making her only about 23 or 24 years old.

In Kong: The Animated Series, Nessie's origins are largely unclear, but some time after the Atlantean colony at the future Loch Ness was destroyed by a great flood, either the monster seen in the episode, or one of her ancestors, became their protector. Whether this happened before or after the defeat of their original protector Kong at the hands of the dark god Chiros, and the colonial Atlanteans' subsequent evolution into the modern-day Aquanauts, is unknown. In the present day, the creature acknowledged as Nessie was named "Nyssa" by her friend Queen Iona of the Aquanauts, who regards her as the "last of her line." Whether this refers to Nyssa as the last of her personal bloodline or of her entire species is also unknown.[2]

History

The King Kong Show

"The Legend of Loch Ness"

Kong and the Bond family travel to Loch Ness, where Kong battles the monster.

Godzilla: The Series

"DeadLoch"

Nessie and her species lived in peace in Loch Ness for thousands of years, until her baby was kidnapped by a scientist at the nearby Pisces Institute named Dr. Trevor who intended to sell the one-of-a-kind newborn. Naturally, the mother began attacking the lab. H.E.A.T went to Scotland to investigate alongside Dr. Trevor, and left their base in submarines to find her. Despite low visibility, at 160 fathoms below the surface, Nick Tatopoulos and Randy Hernandez spied her as she swam by, and she created a whirlpool to entrap them. While she seemed disinterested in the submarine, contact with her body cracked its glass viewing dome, causing the men to evacuate. As the monster began to surface, Nick shot a harpoon near her tail, and allowed her to drag himself and the unconscious Randy behind her to the surface. She whipped them away with her tail before coming back around to bite off the dock on which the humans stood. She did not have much time to begin destroying the institute before Godzilla arrived to defend his friends. Nessie lunged at her opponent, and bit onto Godzilla's ankle. He dragged her up onto land, whipped her away back toward the loch, and she slithered back into the water with Godzilla hot on her tail. Tatapoulos and Hernandez, suspicious of Dr. Trevor, hacked into the security feed of a sealed room in the Pisces Institute, where they discovered Nessie's captive child. H.E.A.T. operatives then sent their probe N.I.G.E.L. into the water to search for Nessie, who grabbed the robot in her mouth and began creating a whirlpool to take the team's Heat-Seeker vessel down. However, one of their agents, Monique Dupre, cut the line connecting the ship to the probe, and Nessie ceased her efforts. H.E.A.T. then began using the institute's public announcement system to broadcast the cry of Nessie's child throughout the loch, which attracted her to them much quicker than anticipated. She pushed her face through the window, flooding the room. She would have swum inside, but Godzilla was stepping on her tail, preventing this. She attacked him by encircling him and biting his shoulder before ducking under the water to avoid his Power Breath. As Dr. Trevor made to escape with her child, Nessie constricted Godzilla with her coils and tackled him into the loch's bottom. She grabbed him in a single coil near her tail fin and smacked him against a procession of rocks until hearing the cries of her infant, being played live this time, caused her to drop interest. Godzilla too heard the call, and despite Nessie's initial wariness of her former foe, allowed him to accompany her on the rescue. She punched her face into the institute once again, and after seeing that Trevor had already escaped, was able to catch up with some directions from Hernandez. She grabbed his submarine in her mouth, and brought both it and the cage containing her child to the surface. Godzilla snapped the tow rope, and tried to pry open the cage with his mouth, while Nessie flung the offending professor away. Godzilla manages to bite apart the cage, releasing the infant. It swims to its mother, and Nessie gave Godzilla a thankful hiss before swimming back into the moonlit depths with her child in tow.

Kong: The Animated Series

"The Aquanauts"

Nyssa was swimming in the loch when she came upon four interlopers: Ramone De La Porta and his thugs. They attacked her with electricity, which only enraged her. She circled back around for another attack, and De La Porta launched missiles at her, which she was able to avoid, causing the two rockets to collide and explode. She then chomped down on his submersible and began to thrash it around. The thugs, not wanting to risk hurting their boss, grabbed onto Nyssa and began to try and pull her away using their propulsion systems. Despite destroying De La Porta's sub, he was able to swim out and merge his DNA with Nyssa's using his Cyber-Link Computer, to become a single mutant being. They were then happened upon by Kong, who they attacked. With Kong so far out of his element, they simply toyed with the beast by slapping him with their tail, or ramming him with their snout. As Kong began to run out of air, the mutant snickered and allowed him to sink to the bottom of the loch. Cyber-Nessie and their cohorts later come upon the sunken city of the Aquanauts and attempt to steal their conduit to the Primal Stone of Water, which allowed the inhabitants to breathe underwater. Kong, now affixed with a waterbreathing shield, was there to stop them. Kong grappled with them in an attempt to remove De La Porta's Cyber-Link, but with the combined cleverness of De La Porta and Nessie, they were able to tear off his shield. The ensuing stress transformed Kong into his "Mega Kong" state, and with this added power boost, he grabbed Cyber-Nessie and swam to the surface, where he pinned them by the throat onto the shores of the loch, and removed the Cyber-Link before crushing it. Leaving De La Porta behind, Kong carried the beached Nyssa back into the water. who was eventually able to take the mutant monster to the surface and crush the Cyber-Link, forcing the two beings apart. Later, at a feast in Kong's honor, Kong and the back-to normal Nyssa played together outside the palace, where Jason Jenkins remarked that she appeared to be Kong's "new girlfriend."

Monsterverse

Skull Island

"Maritime Pilot"

A photograph of the Loch Ness Monster can be seen on the interior of the Once in a Maritime, a ship staffed by cryptid enthusiasts. It is based on the 1934 "Surgeon's Photograph."

Abilities

Swimming

The Loch Ness Monster is an adept swimmer.

Constriction

In Godzilla: The Series, the Loch Ness Monster can use her long, serpentine body to wrap around targets.

Teeth

The Loch Ness Monster uses her mouth full of sharp teeth to bite targets.

Whirlpool

In Godzilla: The Series, Nessie has the ability to create whirlpools to entrap foes or prey.

Weaknesses

As an aquatic creature, Nessie is most vulnerable when on land. While she seems able to breathe when out of the water, she is nowhere near as mobile in Godzilla: The Series. In Kong: The Animated Series, despite having four developed limbs, Nyssa seems completely immobile when out of the water.

Video games

  • Funko Pop! Blitz (2019; added in 2021) - Android, iOS

Comics

  • Gorgo #6 (1962)
  • King Kong Vol. 2: Magic King (1966)

King Kong (Hikari no Kuni comic)

"The Magic Emperor"

A comic adaptation of the episode "The Legend of Loch Ness" appears in this volume. There is additional art featuring Nessie alongside the Magic Emperor from the book's other comic.

Gallery

Main article: Nessie/Gallery.

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
Flagicon Japan.png Japanese ネッシー Nesshī[3] Transliteration of English name
Flagicon Russia.png Russian Несси Nessi Transliteration of English name

Trivia

  • Research conducted at Columbia University around August 2013 indicated that the reported plesiosaur-like appearance of the Loch Ness Monster was actually inspired by the Brontosaurus from King Kong (1933). Skeptic Daniel Loxton declared the evidence of this is that while King Kong was being attended by masses in London in August 1933, a man from that city named George Spicer made the first documented sighting of a creature described as resembling a plesiosaur in Loch Ness.[4]
  • It has long been rumored that a Loch Ness Monster prop created for the unproduced Toho-Hammer co-production Nessie was later reused by Teruyoshi Nakano as the Dragon for the film Princess from the Moon in 1987. However, Nessie was canceled almost a decade before Princess from the Moon was released, and only a small maquette is known to have been created for the film. Modeler Nobuyuki Yasumaru has, however, stated that he drew inspiration from the Nessie prototype for the Dragon.[5]
  • Nessie is one of the only friendly monsters, other than Godzilla and Komodithrax, to be encountered by H.E.A.T..
  • Nessie is referred to as a "mosasaur" in Godzilla: The Series, despite resembling a classic sea serpent more than any known species of mosasaur.
    • The Nessie that appears in the series resembles the cryptid Ogopogo. Most common Nessie sightings have claimed it to look more like a plesiosaur.
  • Nessie is one of two Godzilla: The Series monsters to be based on cryptids, the other being the Yeti. Both of these cryptids are also adapted in Kong: The Animated Series. They also share interpretations of the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl.
  • The Monsterverse Titan known as Leviathan resides at Outpost 49 in Loch Ness, a reference to the Loch Ness Monster.
  • The Loch Ness Monster appears in the mobile game Hungry Shark Evolution, a game which also includes a shark based on Godzilla called Sharkjira, as well as a Mecha Sharkjira based on Mechagodzilla.

External links

References

This is a list of references for Nessie. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Hayes, Steve (6 February 1999). "DeadLoch". Godzilla: The Series. Season 1. Episode 11. FOX.
  2. Morvan, Jean-David; Rondeaux, Eric (2000). "The Aquanauts". Kong: The Animated Series. Season 2. Episode 5. FOX.
  3. Mamiya 2000, p. 65.
  4. "Did King Kong inspire the myth of the Loch Ness monster?". The New Zealand Herald. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  5. Ozawa, Tomoi & Nakamura 2016, p. 227.

Bibliography

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