Topic on User talk:Titan of Water

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So I had a bit of an epiphany today, and although we've all mostly moved on from the discussion, I thought I'd share it here at least.

Let's take a step back and take a look at the Titans as a whole, and for a moment take their beneficial properties at face value. It shouldn't be too difficult; we follow a franchise featuring a creature that somehow breaths visible radiation and defies square cube law by merely existing, so a little more suspension of disbelief shouldn't hurt.

Let's start with Emma Russell's plan. She believes that humanity's reckless exploitation of the planet has pushed things to a point of no return, and that something drastic needs to be done to restore her idea of balance. Enter the Titans; creatures who, in spite of their massive size and destructive capabilities, also have environmental benefits that could aide in the restoration of the ecosystem. Releasing them, however, puts thousands–no, millions–of lives at risk and would wreak great havoc on civilization. But she considers the risk to be worth it if it means that the planet as a whole can ultimately survive in a better state.

After thinking about it some more, it occurred to me that this is startlingly similar to the logic used to justify the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wasn't that the US government's reasons? They figured that dropping the atom bomb would bring a swift end to the war in the Pacific and save the lives of countless US soldiers. Both plans are quite drastic and rash; given more time and thought, there could have been a way to introduce the Titans back into the ecosystem with minimal damage to the established way of life, and (while I'm not a war expert), perhaps the US could have found a way to win the fight with Japan without having to resort to the bomb.

Despite protests, Emma's scheme is put into action. And it goes completely pear-shaped, leading to a series of events that leave Ghidorah as the Alpha, and sending the Titans on a rampage of pure destruction around the world, ultimately causing more upheaval than even Emma thought was necessary, and putting the world in danger of outright annihilation.

Neither did the bomb work out so great either. In addition to the radiation killing more people than those at ground zero, everyone else–the Russians in particular–saw what we now had. Thus began the nuclear arms race, and everything else that followed. Stockpiling of nukes. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Chernobyl. Three Mile Island. The list goes on.

The point is, both situations started out with arguably noble intentions, but they were very rash plans that had the potential to cause greater harm than initially thought. And they did. In the real-world, we know this all to well.

And what of the ending? In the MonsterVerse, Godzilla eventually takes down Ghidorah, and the Titans become more docile under his control, allowing their environmental benefits to begin to take effect. But the damage is still done. Thousands, if not millions, of people are dead, and Lord knows what state society is in right now. Earth survives, and both the environment and humanity are now beginning to benefit from the Titans' return, but that does not change what went down before. And given that part of the plot synopsis for Godzilla vs. Kong allegedly involves a conspiracy to wipe out the Titans, I think it's safe to say that a good deal of people are far from likely to forget that.

Likewise, Man has found other uses for nuclear power besides weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear power is one of the cleanest sources of energy we have. NASA's Voyager probes run on nuclear fission that's kept them going for years since their launch during the 1970's. And, while a very risky procedure that is prone to side-effects, radiation has been a prominent tool in the on-going war on cancer. But even with all the benefits that nuclear power brings to the table, the scars of what it has been used for, and what it still can be used for, will linger with humanity for decades, if not centuries, to come.

In summary, the Titans as a whole could be seen as a parallel to the neutral power that the nuclear issue poses. Both can be utilized to do great good; but both are undeniably very dangerous if used or pushed the wrong way.