Will Mothra (Imago) have her Heisei abilities in future movies?

I doubt Mothra or Rodan will get their heisei era beams in the legendary universe.

^You may be right on that, but Toho might. After all, Toho did give them those powers (besides creating them).

She certainly won't have those beams in the Legendary films, and I don't think there's a need to use them in any future Toho films. The reason Mothra was given so many beams and other flashy attacks was because her prop was incredibly stiff and made physical contact with Godzilla very limited. Kawakita, being the fan of sparks and beams that he was, decided to just give Mothra tons of beam attacks.

Now, with better special effects, I don't think Toho will have to resort to Mothra's various beam attacks from the Heisei era. GMK, Tokyo S.O.S., and Final Wars included solid physical contact between Mothra and other kaiju, but she was still given a few projectile attacks such as stingers and her reflective scales. We might see the wing lightning or some other attack from the Heisei series used by Mothra in a future film, but not to the extent that it was used in Godzilla vs. Mothra.

^Nailed.

It wasn't so much Toho that gave her all those ridiculous beams, but Kawakita, who felt like he had to revamp every monster with a beam attack.

Persoanally I hope we never see Mothra fire an energy beam again in either Legendary or Toho's movies. It just doesn't fit her. Why would a peaceful goddes/diety have so many offensive and destructive projectile weapons. (And why would a moth have laser beams? Really?) It makes more sense that her "arsenal" is more defensive based. Besides I prefer the physical contact she uses in battles. It gives her more of an underdog edge that adds more suspence to the fights.

Leave it in the games. Skip it for the movies.

^

1. So someone added several beams to a few monsters who didn't have them before. Michael Bay uses a ton of explosions and his films do fine.

2. In GMK, Mothra shot spikes at Godzilla during her fight.

3. If Mothra is the goddess of peace, why does she fight? If she was the peaceful entity she is made out to be, she would fight such fearsome monsters such as Godzilla, Battra, King Ghidorah, DesGhidorah/Death Ghidorah, Gigan and Monster X. She fights as a last resort, when the diplomacy she sends the Shobijin to do fails, she fights. She uses her powers defensively to protect herself and the Earth. An arsenal is only offensive if you use it that way. Mothra knows she must fight. If she doesn't and just does nothing but preserve the peace, the peace and the earth will be destroyed. She needs to fight to protect the peace. And when you're going up against a big destructive force like King Ghidorah or Destoroyah, you're going need more than a body slams and wing slaps.

4. What about the rest of the media. She has these abilites in video games like Godzilla Save the Earth, Godzilla Unleashed, Godzilla PS3 and Godzilla Vs. And in comics too (Godzilla Ongoing and Godzilla Rulers of Earth).

5. She needs ranged abilities. In close combat, Mothra runs the risk of haveing her wings ripped by claws and teeth. If she can't fly, she is doomed.

6. It could have something to do with her life cycle. Most of the time, Mothra is old and dying, ready to be reborn as her larva. But in Battle of Earth, Mothra had just hatched from her cocoon. Being a newly formed adult, Mothra may have been able to summon the energy to use such attacks and as she ages and prepares to lay her egg, she loses the power to do so. It may take her a lot of strenght to summon these powers again like when she fought DesGhidorah in Rebirth of Mothra (initially, before bing healed a bit by the seal of Elias). It those abilities may just be part of her life cycle and whether Mothra chooses to use them is her decision.

7. SHE'S A GODDESS! Why wouldn't Mothra have these abilites?

Seriously...You guy made these abilites of Mothra seem bad...like they shouldn't be. What about Godzilla and his red Atomic Ray, Spiral Atomic Ray and Atomic pulse? They weren't in the Showa era but they made it through Heisei and into Millennium. It is a part of who Mothra is. She is a goddess of peace. But Mothra knows well that peace can last only so long before violence breaks out. And She will fight if she needs to. And unless the threat can be reasoned with (Battra, occasionally Godzilla), Mothra Will Hold Nothing Back.

1) Michael Bay's films are mind-numbingly stupid. By your argument, you'd probably be fine with the I-Rex in Jurassic World breathing fire.

2) She was also a hornet. Technically, her name should have been Hornetra or Waspra.

3) How does any of that justify a reason for randomly giving her beam weapons? Mothra's always been the 'thinking' kaiju. In Mothra vs. Godzilla she outsmarted him and cocooned him. In Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, she united the trio against a common enemy. She does this BECAUSE she's not as powerful and she would get decimated in most cases.

4) She has beam weapons because she's based on Heisei Mothra... who had beam weapons. In the original NES game she could throw copies of her wings on enemies like projectiles. Want to give her that ability in the movies too?

5) She doesn't really NEED anything. And that's what precisely makes her interesting to watch. She's the underdog. She can lose... badly. Or she can win craftily. If you layer her with beam weapons it becomes boring and you get the Heisei Mothra trilogy, which were so incredibly dull. There wasn't any suspence (except maybe in the first one until the end), because you knew Mothra was just going to go Super Saiyan/God mode and punch a hole through the enemy.

6) None of this is ever stated in any cannon, so I'm not going to argue with fan theories.

7) She's a Goddess (sorta) only in some incarations. She's generally just a mutated moth with a flimsy telepathic link to a couple homunculi that is worshiped by a small island cult that doesn't know any better.

And Godzilla's red ray, spiral ray and most other types of rays are used as McGuffins and are just generally lazy writing.

"Okay, we came up with this creative, awesomely-powerful new threat for Godzilla! Now all we need to do is think of an interesting new way for the heroes to deal with it."

"Give Godzilla a new powerful beam!"

"... Okay. But there's still this problem with Mothra and Roday-"

"Give them beams!"

... But what about-?"

"BEAMS!"

^"She's generally a mutated moth." There you go. She's a mutated Moth. Why not give the mutated Moth some beam attacks and lightning?

While we're at it, let's give all kaiju beam attacks, so there's absolutely nothing different or creative about them. Like I said, it's just lazy writing.

Well, beam weapons are kind of a staple overall when it comes to giving a monster long-range options. Granted, I think as pure energy beams, they aren't as interesting. Indeed, I fall on the side of the line where beam weapons can't just be there to be there, and that you need to be creative with how THOSE work so that it doesn't end up as another situation that can be criticized so greatly by the likes of people like Wolfguy.

I'm not saying giving a whole bunch of monsters ranged options is bad. I'm just saying that it needs to have diversity so that it doesn't end up being completely dominated by pure energy beams thrown about.

Hornet? Mothra is a butterfly or moth, not a hornet!

Varan04276,
He was referring to her GMK incarnation.

KingKaijuGojira,
The reason so many fans consider her arsenal in the Heisei series (an especially the terrible Mothra Trilogy) a "bad thing" is because it takes away from things that made Mothra so interesting. The points that Wolfguy and TheGman123 are driving at, in the end, is that these weapons were given to her without much consideration.

You're right, Mothra DOES run the risk of having her wings clawed, torn or burned. But that's exactly the point. It gives her this underdog characteristic that makes battles more interesting and more suspenseful. Just because she runs the risk of this happening doesn't mean she needs it. It means she's a monster that will do what she can in a bad situation despite her lack of projectile garbage. That makes for fun battles.

Saying she's a goddess or a mutant moth doesn't justify giving her these abilities. All it does is persuade a carelessness to piling on abilities that could take away from the character in certain films. This goes for any monster. Mothra's most boring battles took place in the Heisei series and the Mothra trilogy where she had all these absurd powers. I'd rather her battle like a monster and not a spaceship, ala the Millennium series.

And for the record... I hate, hate, hate the Spiral Ray. Changing the color of Godzilla's ray to give him a "finishing move" was the laziest and easiest thing Okawara, Mimura and Kawakita could've done for him. Leave that in video games too.

This post above mine! 

Legendary is going for a realistic approach. Why on earth does Mothra need another beam war with other kaijus?  We will more than likely see huge gust winds and maybe the golden scales. That's a huge maybe. Realistically, Mothra will be this giant moth. 

Why are people suddenly saying Mothra is a "mutated moth?" Mothra has never been a mutated moth in any of the films. She's always been some sort of supernatural creature, and is always considered to be a goddess by her worshippers or her fairies.

But seriously, the beam weapons aren't needed. Having small projectile attacks like the stingers from GMK or her scales are fine, since they are purely defensive weapons. I wouldn't mind seeing the wing lighting maybe once, since she is a goddess and could be justified having some sort of elemental attack. But there's no need for Mothra Leo-esque beams and projectiles that completely replace her need for physical contact. Mothra works best as an underdog that is hopelessly outmatched by bigger monsters with flashy weapons and attacks, but always hangs in there and somehow comes out on top.

Which is why she is queen of the monsters. ;)

The thing is that Kawakita added those extra powers just so she would be as powerful as the heisei Godzilla. 

What we need is a good old fashioned kaiju slug fest like Gamera guardian of the universe delivered. 

While I think the scale attacks are essential (she has done a form of it in every one of her film appearances, after all), the antenna beams we can do without. As stated before, too many beams make the attacks less unique and less of an experiance to finally see happen. Imagine if every monster had an atomic breath; it would get old fast.

The lightning wings might be cool to see though. What if she absorbs the energy beams from King Ghidorah and uses her reflective scales to deflect it?

Seeing what kind of effect her scales have on other monsters' attacks sounds lightyears more interesting than handing her yet another boring beam attack. I liked how her scales in Final Wars forced Gigan's buzzsaws to malfunction and swing back around to him. I beleive Gigan is the only other monster she's used that attack with.

(Hard to tell in the Mothra trilogy when there's about 20 different rays of light shooting out from her at a time...)

Gigan's the only opponent against whom she's used the scales to reflect a projectile attack, but she used them to reflect Godzilla's atomic breath in Godzilla vs. Mothra. Honestly, the part where Mothra uses her scales as a 3-D mirror to trap Battra's prism beams so they hit Godzilla repeatedly in that movie is the only beam sequence I actually applaud, because it's just pretty impressive to watch.

In the other movies, her scales seem to just have a poisonous effect, though I seem to recall them reflecting Godzilla's atomic breath at one point in Tokyo S.O.S., though I may be mistaken.

"the only other monster she's used that attack with."

Just to clarify.

The scales did reflect Godzilla's atomic ray in Tokyo S.O.S. It was actually a more impressive looking effect in that movie since it backfired in Godzilla's face.

Sorry, I misread that post.

The thing is guys, I've never seen Mothra as the underdog you're making her out to be. She was one of the first monsters I saw fight Godzilla. She's a personal favorite. Mothra the beautiful. Mothra the magnificent. Mothra the peaceful. Just because Mothra isn't a power-house like other monsters, doesn't mean she is weak or an underdog. I know she doesn't win every fight. But neither does Godzilla. Mothra has beaten Godzilla before, even is it was by the skin of her teeth. I know that Mothra isn't the strongest of the monsters, but by no means is she really an underdog. I just can't accept that Mothra is an underdog. I think Anguirus is the underdog of the monster universe.

All of the movie Mothra vs. Godzilla was about Mothra being the underdog. She was old and dying, but she needed to rescue her young. She flew into battle against Godzilla and fought with everything she had, but couldn't beat him and died. Then her larvae hatched and took on Godzilla by themselves, even thought they were small and their only powers were biting and spitting silk. But together, they were able to somehow overcome Godzilla.

And the next year in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Mothra bravely tries to take on King Ghidorah by herself, but gets pounded. But it is her courage that convinces Godzilla and Rodan to help her.

In GMK, Mothra is completely overmatched against Godzilla, but continues throwing herself in harm's way in order to protect Ghidorah and the military, as only they can stop Godzilla.

In Tokyo S.O.S., Mothra is again old and dying, but decides to try and stop Godzilla. She is completely outmatched, but manages to hold Godzilla off long enough for Kiryu to arrive and even the odds.

In Final Wars, Mothra is completely outmatched against Gigan, and gets absolutely shredded by him, then set on fire. But using her scales to turn Gigan's razor discs against him, she is barely able to defeat him.

In short, in every movie except the Heisei series, Mothra is always the underdog. She's the monster the viewer needs to root for, but she is always either old and dying, too small or underpowered, or fighting a much more powerful opponent.

^Pretty much this. And even if you don't see her as an "underdog" there's really no denying that a lack of arsenal has shown a more interesting and inventive side to how to use her character in battle or otherwise.

^I agree with that. But even without out her arsenal, Mothra still isn't a complete underdog.

Here is how I view Mothra (With or without her arsenal). She is not an underdog who rarely wins like Anguirus. But she is not an unstopable elite who rarely loses like Godzilla or Destoroyah. Mothra is somewhere in the middle.

I would love to see Mothra use her heisei in future films. In the 60's ToHo did a great job at creating the effect of her beam and other powers. But I'm afraid that the future of her powers will not happen only because the effects of CGI  will not do her justice.

"In the 60's ToHo did a great job at creating the effect of her beam and other powers."

@Gman2887,

I'm still scratching my head on that as well. 

Mothra is a FLUFFY giant Moth that gets electrically charged by rubbing her wings or front legs together. Due to her size, the lightning that she emits is going to be huge and powerfull. The Dust on her wings can cause some massive irritations.