Back in March 2020, I argued that Godzilla was not responsible for attacking the U.S.S. Lawton, a battleship that Bill Randa was first stationed at Pearl Harbor. In Kong: Skull Island, the disappearance of the Lawton was swept under the rug on the basis that it was sunk in battle rather than attacked by an enormous creature. When Bill was being questioned by Colonel Packard, he explained as quoted, "You heard of the U.S.S. Lawton? Neither did the public. Out of a thousand young men on that ship I was the only survivor. They told my family that she was sunk in battle, but I know what I saw. It had no conscience. Just destroy. I spent the last 30 years trying to prove the truth of what I learned that day."
At the time of the 2020 article, many fans have speculated that Godzilla was the culprit. While Godzilla does tend to act territorial towards other monsters, he doesn't outright attack for no reason. You would need to really provoke him in order for Godzilla to attack. Thanks to the Apple TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, we have confirmation that Godzilla was framed! The real culprit was revealed to be a new monster called the Ion Dragon!
In the show, the Ion Dragon displayed highly aggressive nature and territorial behaviors. Debuting in the second episode "Departure," the monster actively attacked Bill Randa and Dr. Keiko Miura while they investigated the Lawton, which they discovered in the middle of the jungle in the Philippines. Before they were attacked, Bill and Keiko discovered bodies of the crew mates covered in thick mucus inside the battleship. We learn this is highly acidic as seen when the monster attacked Godzilla in the final episode. We see this monster appear again in the eighth episode where the Ion Dragon becomes the soul reason for disrupting Shaw's expedition into the Hollow Earth, which we learn is actually a mid-layer between the surface and Hollow Earth called Axis Mundi. As it turned out, the Ion Dragon was still inside Axis Mundi when Shaw, Keiko, Cate, and May were trying to return to the surface. Then in the final episode, the Ion Dragon was going to attack Shaw as he was trying to fix the device that mimics gamma signals, but then stop as soon as Godzilla arrived directing its focus on him, instead. However, the monster met a gruesome fate as he was dismembered and its body tossed away by Godzilla.
In order for the Ion Dragon to carry the Lawton from Pearl Harbor to the Philippines, it would have needed a lot of muscle and stamina since the distance between the two locations is over 5,000 miles! At the time when it was first discovered, the monster was much smaller than it was in the final episode. So it either had a crazy amount of strength or it would need to keep dropping the ship in order to keep dragging it to the designated location. Another possibility is that perhaps there were more than one of the Ion Dragons. What if the smaller one we saw in episode two was a juvenile while the big one in the final episode was the mother? It makes sense as a bigger monster means easier to carry whereas something smaller wouldn't carry the battleship very far. That would mean the other Ion Dragon is still out there.
When it comes to Godzilla, he only displays aggression when provoked into a battle, but it would definitely take a lot to provoke him. Most of the time, Godzilla's attacks have been indirect. Humans were only in the way while he dealt with the actual threats. Godzilla had walked away from being nuked in the face, hammered by battleships with heavy artillery, bombed by the oxygen destroyer, and still aimed his focus on fighting the monsters. He has shown signs of intimidation in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but this was to get Monarch's attention to get them to follow him to Antarctica where King Ghidorah was frozen. The only time Godzilla has ever been provoked by humans was in Godzilla vs Kong when Walter Simmons, the founder of APEX, was constructing MechaGodzilla. However, this was due to APEX using King Ghidorah's skull as a super computer to control the robot, which sent out signals that would provoke Godzilla into attacking. So even then, Godzilla's focus was not on humans directly, but the thing provoking him into a fight. So it didn't make sense for Godzilla to attack the U.S.S. Lawton as it would have not been seen as a threat to the king of the monsters.
Even though many have theorized that Godzilla could have attacked the Lawton, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters had debunked this theory revealing the Ion Dragon to be the culprit. Despite its highly aggressive and territorial nature, it was not strong enough to stand up against the king of the monsters. Overall, the Ion Dragon was a very cool monster and I wish the show gave us more time spent on this monster. Maybe in season two we will see the Ion Dragon return.
What were your thoughts on the Ion Dragon? Do you think we will see more of this Titan in season two? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on the Ion Dragon and the U.S.S. Lawton. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.