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Description
I got a minor gift out the way so I can finally start on the last of the original monsters in the series; the infamous Bagan. I remember reading a crazy cross over fanfiction of this bastard once. It was a Godzilla/Doomed Megalopolis story were Kato ressurects our three horned friend out of his icy tomb so he can destroy the world and Tokyo in the process. All the most famous Toho daikaiju make appearances and there is human drama and kaiju battles of a deeply ruthless nature throughout the story. It is a very, very dark fic. Dark but well done. A shit load of monsters die and cameos from all sorts of sources pop up when you least expect them to but in a good way. Anyway, that was my first real impression of Bagan and it has stuck. Bagan, the ruthless imbodiment of destruction and death, no single kaiju his equal save for one; and he didn't even appear in the fic. Bagan killed a shit load of kaiju in that story and I really felt for Mothra...it was hardcore how that fight went down.

I get the feeling that alot of people see Bagan as the Gary Stue of the Godzilla world. Only existing to be an incredible bastard that beats the living hell out of everything and by some miracle be defeated in the end. I'm personally fine with that, its a rare thing in monster movies for the villain to truly be this unstoppable force for any length of time that would actually make us fear for the other characters lives. When I read that fic I could FEEL the hopelessness and dispair going on. The only other kaiju I've gotten that feeling from was the original Gojira and Mechagodzilla. Everyone else was like...yeah, thats nice, Godzilla is gonna nuke your ass anytime now...

Anyway the design of Bagan has never changed all that much over the years. There are basically two versions of him: the natural brown hell beast and the white reaper of Mankind. Both have their pros and cons but generally I like the Super Godzilla version or Game Bagan as I'm going to refer to him. Theres just generally more to work with and he's the only Bagan to actually get into some published work. Without any further ado...

Game Bagan:
The final boss of the game Super Godzilla, Bagan is the alien's last line of defense...and holy shit what a defense. Standing several stories over Godzilla and so ripped with muscle it is practically tearing out of his skin, Bagan is an ancient dragon beast taken from China in the distant past, inserted with King Ghidorah AND Godzilla cells and set to take down Godzilla once and for all, as well as the unfortuante world at large. There is really no way to beat this behemoth as normal Godzilla. Bagan is so tough, has so much life force and is so damn powerful that an a-typical Goji just can't last past the first five minutes. He certianly looks like a mad blend of genetics. He's got three distinctive horns, two sweeping ox horns on the sides and one large nasal horn shooting right off his face. He's got spikes shooting off his cheeks, down his back and these strange shoulder spike/wings that seem to just erupt from his shoulders like twin standards of doom. He's got a chest plate so you know this guy is gonna be hell (Mechagodzilla reference) and he is just fucking ripped everywhere. Seriously, Bagan has been taking some major steroids because he's just bulging with muscle in every conceivable place. Ontop of that he has armor plating ontop of said muscles so you are looking at a three horned, extremely buff, armor plated draconian juggernaut of death that is well over 100 stories high. The game graphics are hard to get a hold of so I based my interpretation from memory and the poster art Matt Frank did for Tohokingdom's little history project. It's not a full body shot but that profile shot is gold. He certianly is an imposing bastard thats for sure. One minor quirk I think is there is the lion like tail plume from a concept pic I found. Said concept had black armor but I generally hold it to be the same creature design wise. Overall Game Bagan is a solid contender and with some stylistic fine tuning he really does strike that final villan cord.

Suit Bagan:
Funny bit of trivia regarding Bagan, poor bastard has never gotten to even star in a movie. Time after time he gets dragged to the drawing board as a possible idea for a brand new adversary for either Godzilla or Mothra. Each and every time he gets shot down because either they aren't willing to risk money on something new and unexpected, or something better came up. Always a bridesmaid but never a bride...thats the story of Bagan's career in a nutshell. There is a suit though, and its a degree different than the Game Bagan that actually met the public. This unsung kaiju goes by the name of Suit Bagan and thats just what he is; a Bagan that fits the human form. This guy suffers from what all Heisei era monsters suffer and thats the thunder thighs of doom and tiny arms. Other than that Suit Bagan is pretty neat. His horns are solid black and smooth. His armor is a bone white that carries a bone motif to the legs. His shoulder spikes are a little different with the purple fleshy knobs hanging from them. His chest is more compact so that leaves room for those huge child bearing hips. There is an obvious armored plate hanging over his groin similar to rodans chest region in design. His tail is thick and powerful, much like Godzilla's and I don't know whats on the end of it but I'm guessing spikes this time, or the plume from before. His face has a lot of teeth, most of them rather thin and needle like and his eyes are set back and sunken. He's still pretty muscled but not ridiculessly so and its a brighter red so your definitely going to notice the contrast between the flesh and the armored plating. This was probably the one that would have fought Mothra but again, it was cancled.

Scatha Bagan:
There is not a lot of art of Bagan, as he's not very popular for various reasons outside of his long list of missed oppurtunities and canceled scripts. A couple artists here on DA have paid tribute to the draconian kaiju though and so I got one more version to share. Scatha Bagan, created by Scatha the Worm. The interesting thing about this Bagan is that it attempts to blend many concepts together with the Suit Bagan. It has a very draconian face that actually has a nose, no sense in not being able to breath right? The side horns are turned to the side instead looping forword like the previous incarnations. The horn shoots straight up more than it juts out so it grows more like a traditional horn might. It has a modest amount of teeth and prounced upper canines. The cheek spikes are fewer but more solid formations that seem to be apart of the skull itself. The armor is circular around the neck and bone motif of the armor is even further ingrained with it being on the arms, waist and legs. The shoulder spikes face outward like Suit Bagan but are sharper, higher, and purple flesh is replaced by orbs. The arms are longer and the tail has a set of razor spines on the end instead of the lions plume. The chest is a real treat as it takes the groin plate's same approach so there seems to be a matching set now.

Between the three I'm not really sure which one's are the most effective. Game Bagan is full of power and beastly fortitude while Suit Bagan offers a Grim Reaper like aspect to the design though I could really do without the fat thighs and the tiny arms. Scatha Bagan corrected most of Suit Bagan's problems but depending on the coloring it may be just as alien as Suit Bagan. Generally I favor Game Bagan and Scatha Bagan in terms of material. I really need some fan input on this one so if you got suggestions for a Hybrid ( which will later become the final SD ) please let me know. Brown or white? Plume or Spikes? Flesh or Muscle? You decide.

-RenDragonClaw

Description
I got a minor gift out the way so I can finally start on the last of the original monsters in the series; the infamous Bagan. I remember reading a crazy cross over fanfiction of this bastard once. It was a Godzilla/Doomed Megalopolis story were Kato ressurects our three horned friend out of his icy tomb so he can destroy the world and Tokyo in the process. All the most famous Toho daikaiju make appearances and there is human drama and kaiju battles of a deeply ruthless nature throughout the story. It is a very, very dark fic. Dark but well done. A shit load of monsters die and cameos from all sorts of sources pop up when you least expect them to but in a good way. Anyway, that was my first real impression of Bagan and it has stuck. Bagan, the ruthless imbodiment of destruction and death, no single kaiju his equal save for one; and he didn't even appear in the fic. Bagan killed a shit load of kaiju in that story and I really felt for Mothra...it was hardcore how that fight went down.

I get the feeling that alot of people see Bagan as the Gary Stue of the Godzilla world. Only existing to be an incredible bastard that beats the living hell out of everything and by some miracle be defeated in the end. I'm personally fine with that, its a rare thing in monster movies for the villain to truly be this unstoppable force for any length of time that would actually make us fear for the other characters lives. When I read that fic I could FEEL the hopelessness and dispair going on. The only other kaiju I've gotten that feeling from was the original Gojira and Mechagodzilla. Everyone else was like...yeah, thats nice, Godzilla is gonna nuke your ass anytime now...

Anyway the design of Bagan has never changed all that much over the years. There are basically two versions of him: the natural brown hell beast and the white reaper of Mankind. Both have their pros and cons but generally I like the Super Godzilla version or Game Bagan as I'm going to refer to him. Theres just generally more to work with and he's the only Bagan to actually get into some published work. Without any further ado...

Game Bagan:
The final boss of the game Super Godzilla, Bagan is the alien's last line of defense...and holy shit what a defense. Standing several stories over Godzilla and so ripped with muscle it is practically tearing out of his skin, Bagan is an ancient dragon beast taken from China in the distant past, inserted with King Ghidorah AND Godzilla cells and set to take down Godzilla once and for all, as well as the unfortuante world at large. There is really no way to beat this behemoth as normal Godzilla. Bagan is so tough, has so much life force and is so damn powerful that an a-typical Goji just can't last past the first five minutes. He certianly looks like a mad blend of genetics. He's got three distinctive horns, two sweeping ox horns on the sides and one large nasal horn shooting right off his face. He's got spikes shooting off his cheeks, down his back and these strange shoulder spike/wings that seem to just erupt from his shoulders like twin standards of doom. He's got a chest plate so you know this guy is gonna be hell (Mechagodzilla reference) and he is just fucking ripped everywhere. Seriously, Bagan has been taking some major steroids because he's just bulging with muscle in every conceivable place. Ontop of that he has armor plating ontop of said muscles so you are looking at a three horned, extremely buff, armor plated draconian juggernaut of death that is well over 100 stories high. The game graphics are hard to get a hold of so I based my interpretation from memory and the poster art Matt Frank did for Tohokingdom's little history project. It's not a full body shot but that profile shot is gold. He certianly is an imposing bastard thats for sure. One minor quirk I think is there is the lion like tail plume from a concept pic I found. Said concept had black armor but I generally hold it to be the same creature design wise. Overall Game Bagan is a solid contender and with some stylistic fine tuning he really does strike that final villan cord.

Suit Bagan:
Funny bit of trivia regarding Bagan, poor bastard has never gotten to even star in a movie. Time after time he gets dragged to the drawing board as a possible idea for a brand new adversary for either Godzilla or Mothra. Each and every time he gets shot down because either they aren't willing to risk money on something new and unexpected, or something better came up. Always a bridesmaid but never a bride...thats the story of Bagan's career in a nutshell. There is a suit though, and its a degree different than the Game Bagan that actually met the public. This unsung kaiju goes by the name of Suit Bagan and thats just what he is; a Bagan that fits the human form. This guy suffers from what all Heisei era monsters suffer and thats the thunder thighs of doom and tiny arms. Other than that Suit Bagan is pretty neat. His horns are solid black and smooth. His armor is a bone white that carries a bone motif to the legs. His shoulder spikes are a little different with the purple fleshy knobs hanging from them. His chest is more compact so that leaves room for those huge child bearing hips. There is an obvious armored plate hanging over his groin similar to rodans chest region in design. His tail is thick and powerful, much like Godzilla's and I don't know whats on the end of it but I'm guessing spikes this time, or the plume from before. His face has a lot of teeth, most of them rather thin and needle like and his eyes are set back and sunken. He's still pretty muscled but not ridiculessly so and its a brighter red so your definitely going to notice the contrast between the flesh and the armored plating. This was probably the one that would have fought Mothra but again, it was cancled.

Scatha Bagan:
There is not a lot of art of Bagan, as he's not very popular for various reasons outside of his long list of missed oppurtunities and canceled scripts. A couple artists here on DA have paid tribute to the draconian kaiju though and so I got one more version to share. Scatha Bagan, created by Scatha the Worm. The interesting thing about this Bagan is that it attempts to blend many concepts together with the Suit Bagan. It has a very draconian face that actually has a nose, no sense in not being able to breath right? The side horns are turned to the side instead looping forword like the previous incarnations. The horn shoots straight up more than it juts out so it grows more like a traditional horn might. It has a modest amount of teeth and prounced upper canines. The cheek spikes are fewer but more solid formations that seem to be apart of the skull itself. The armor is circular around the neck and bone motif of the armor is even further ingrained with it being on the arms, waist and legs. The shoulder spikes face outward like Suit Bagan but are sharper, higher, and purple flesh is replaced by orbs. The arms are longer and the tail has a set of razor spines on the end instead of the lions plume. The chest is a real treat as it takes the groin plate's same approach so there seems to be a matching set now.

Between the three I'm not really sure which one's are the most effective. Game Bagan is full of power and beastly fortitude while Suit Bagan offers a Grim Reaper like aspect to the design though I could really do without the fat thighs and the tiny arms. Scatha Bagan corrected most of Suit Bagan's problems but depending on the coloring it may be just as alien as Suit Bagan. Generally I favor Game Bagan and Scatha Bagan in terms of material. I really need some fan input on this one so if you got suggestions for a Hybrid ( which will later become the final SD ) please let me know. Brown or white? Plume or Spikes? Flesh or Muscle? You decide.

-RenDragonClaw