Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Plot Holes That Need To Be Answered

Contains spoilers for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2, Episode 10 — "Where We Belong"

"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 finally wraps up the story of the surprisingly benevolent Titan X in the season finale, "Where We Belong." The season delivers kaiju mayhem that rivals some of the wildest giant monster fights in movies, and effectively closes the book on major MonsterVerse figure Bill Randa (Anders Holm) by covering the story between his youth and eventual transformation into the jaded Monarch official played by John Goodman in "Kong: Skull Island." 

By making the season's key kaiju a sympathetic figure that becomes the victim of human interference, the show delves deep into the intricacies of the titular organization's moral dilemma: Whether to destroy titans, or learn to coexist with them. What's more, Monarch is far from the only titan-themed entity at play, as both Apex Cybernetics and the rogue Isabel Simmons (Amber Midthunder) have their own spins on exploiting Titan X and its realm for benefit. This is riveting stuff through and through, but it also means that the show is juggling a whole bunch of balls throughout the sophomore season — and unfortunately, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 kind of fumbles a fair few of said balls.

While "Legacy of Monsters" keeps things admirably coherent for a show about giant monsters, Season 2 still ends with some unresolved plot holes that we really, really need answered. Let's take a look at the most glaring ones. 

"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 1 introduces the Axis Mundi "world between worlds" that the titans use to travel between our world and Hollow Earth. It even ties Axis Mundi neatly in the Hollow Earth mythology by presenting it as a mass of passageways which doubles as an ecosystem that's influenced by both of the realms it connects. However, there's one problem: Even after "Monarch" Season 2, the Axis Mundi seems to be a concept that's exclusive to the show. 

Projects like "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" (2024) and its prequel comic, "Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted" (also 2024), underline the importance of Hollow Earth, and characters are seen traversing between the two without passing through Axis Mundi. Yet, "Monarch" Season 2 — which dropped after both and had ample opportunities to tie the Axis Mundi narrative deeper into the franchise's core lore — largely continues to do its own thing by presenting it as a portal world where time works differently.

Unless the films start embracing Axis Mundi, or potential future seasons of "Monarch" offer a good explanation as to why the gateway world doesn't seem to be a factor outside the show, the whole concept is coming across as a sort of Hollow Earth lite that the MonsterVerse small screen projects can use as a playground so they don't get in the way of the films' own version of the Hollow Earth narrative.

Remember when time travel became big in the MonsterVerse movies? Neither do we. It's strange, considering that "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" has spent two seasons setting up the technology and its applications. 

Axis Mundi's time-bending abilities influence numerous characters in Season 1, but it's more about how time moves slower on Axis Mundi than it does on Earth. This is how Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) effectively "skips" 56 years after being stranded in Axis Mundi for what to her is just weeks. However, Season 2 establishes that Axis Mundi's time-bending abilities are more complex. Older Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) communicates with his younger self (Wyatt Russell), and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) devises a plan to functionally resurrect his father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) by retrieving a past version of him from Axis Mundi. 

By the time "Monarch" Season 2 ends, it's 2017. Isabel Simmons has teamed up with Kentaro. Monarch has more information about Axis Mundi than ever, and Apex is probably also in the loop. Yet, as Looper's sister site /Film has noted, the timeline of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 is a decade behind the movies. The roaring spectacle of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" takes place in 2027, but doesn't mention Axis Mundi time travel. What, exactly, happens in the "Monarch" timeline that prevents at least one of these parties from cracking Axis Mundi time travel open during this decade? 

Cate Randa's (Anna Sawai) emerging connection with Titan X isn't that big of a curiosity, considering the franchise's track record. The MonsterVerse, after all, has precedent when it comes to plot-advancing bonds between titans and humans, courtesy of Jia Andrews (Kaylee Hottle) and Kong. What is strange, however, is just how dedicated the show is to the titan's makeshift code name instead of just calling it what it clearly is.

When young Lee Shaw, Keiko Miura, and Bill Randa are investigating titan rumors in Santa Soledad, Chile in the 1957 timeline, the locals call the titan Co'cai. That's already a name right there, but the monster's introductory territory and its nature give further indication to its true identity.

Co'cai sounds like the abbreviated name of the Chilean mythological sea monster deity Cai Cai Vilu, a draconic or serpentine giant that enjoys a fearsome reputation and is said to rule the ocean. It seems unlikely that a dedicated cryptozoologist like Bill Randa or a scientist as sharp as Keiko Miura would have missed that connection, but even if they did, they'd still have the Co'cai name to go with. Yet, the season chooses to run with the Titan X ball for the duration, which makes little sense because Monarch has never had any trouble assigning names from religion and folklore — just ask the Loch Ness-based Leviathan or the Sudanese Mokele-Mbembe.

Apart from the aforementioned issues with Axis Mundi, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 makes this mysterious peripheral world more accessible than ever. Along with the time-themed troubles that come with traversing the region, the big issue about Axis Mundi has been the fact that there haven't been reliable ways to open and maintain stable rifts without using a titan to do so, which is obviously a kaiju-sized can of worms.   

The sophomore season of "Monarch" gives the characters' rift-manipulating abilities a major upgrade, however. The recording of titans communicating is presented as a big deal, and Tim (Joe Tippett) even gets a line or two to specifically freak out about the major implications of this acquisition. This, it seems, could help Monarch to use and stabilize the rifts without titan assistance — a pretty considerable improvement as far as Axis Mundi access is concerned. Yet, literally no one is using the tech in the films set after the season.

Will the recording be destroyed before it can be put to good use? Or did they manage to reliably stabilize the rift technology at some point between Season 2 and "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," but it got lost in one of the various crises Monarch has gone through? 

The untold truth of Godzilla has provided the King of Monsters with many different situational hats to wear. The MonsterVerse iteration alone has presented Godzilla as an avatar of nature, a destructive presence, and a territorial Alpha titan. Now, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 gives him yet another role: The MonsterVerse cop.

In Episode 9, titled "Ends of the Earth," the main characters describe Godzilla as a creature who effectively enforces the proper order among the titans. He then proceeds to do this by confronting Titan X after Lee's lure attracts him to the scene. However, he's not out to kill or even truly subdue an enemy. Instead, he's almost gentle by Godzilla standards: He effectively just hoists Titan X off the desert beach that's away from its usual migratory route, and then returns to his metaphorical patrol car. Notably, Titan X doesn't really submit to Godzilla at any point, which is historically enough for any titan to get a faceful of atomic breath. Yet, Godzilla's uncharacteristic leniency stands — and is noted by and commented on by the human characters.

Yes, an argument could be made that Godzilla senses that Titan X isn't really looking for a fight, but simply wants to retrieve its stolen egg. Then again, Kong tends to be the more emotionally aware of the two MonsterVerse protagonists, and even he doesn't understand the situation in the season finale until Titan X physically shows him the egg. 

Titan X's sea scarab minions are a massive force early in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2. In episode 2, "Resonance," a single sea scarab proves to be a menace after sneaking onboard Monarch's Outpost 18 vessel, and even after it's defeated, its injured screams cause Titan X to make a beeline toward the ship to help the distressed critter. That's the kind of connection they share.

Sea scarab swarms turn up everywhere over the course of the season, as plot dictates. Sometimes, they're already present at the pit stops Titan X makes, while other times they seem to follow it around. The ambiguous nature of the sea scarabs' symbiotic on-off relationship with Titan X is particularly glaring during the season's endgame. 

One of the big "Stranger Things" finale plot holes is the absence of Demogorgons in the Abyss, which allows the main characters to fight the gigantic Mind Flayer without being harassed by tons of smaller monsters. A similar thing happens here, as the sea scarabs are completely absent from the Skull Island finale and Titan X's big fight against Kong. Granted, the little creatures would be useless against the giant ape, but Titan X seems to prefer having them around whenever possible, and they would certainly be handy against Isabel's faction. There may be some sort of logic to the sea scarabs' periodic emergences and disappearances, but it's hard to decipher from the clues "Monarch" Season 2 provides. 

Episode 7, "String Theory," is probably the most pivotal moment of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2. Here, the intricacies of Axis Mundi time travel unfold as older Lee is forced to act as mission control to his younger self, who's temporarily stranded there during the 1962 Operation Hourglass timeline. This puts old Lee in an impossible situation, especially when young Lee finds out that Keiko is still alive and also trapped in Axis Mundi. 

Old Lee manages to convince his younger version that established history should be allowed to take its course, and that Keiko should spend the whole time she's supposed to in Axis Mundi. When Keiko eventually finds out, though, she's royally ticked off that Lee's past self saw her when she but didn't confront her. 

Yes, emotions are obviously at play, here. Keiko's feelings for Lee are complex, to say the least, and her time in Axis Mundi cost her a life with her true love, Bill. Still, the extent of Keiko's hostility after finding out makes little sense. As the world's foremost Axis Mundi expert, she should understand that old Lee was thrown into the situation completely unexpectedly, and he genuinely had no way of knowing how the future would change — or if his young self or Keiko would even survive Axis Mundi — if he'd allowed his past self to mess with the timeline. 

The ending of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 is a doozy. Lee Shaw is tracking down a mysterious titan that a couple, heavily implied to be Isabel and Kentaro, are also after. The final scene of the season reveals that said titan is none other than the iconic Rodan, which implies interesting things for a potential "Monarch" Season 3. There's just one little question: Why would anyone in their right minds want to go after Rodan, of all titans?

From a human standpoint, the fire-themed, flying pterosaur that hangs out in a volcano lair is just about the most dangerous titan out there. There's no facing this one up close without being burned into a crisp, and it only needs to fly above you to annihilate you (and the landscape) with the massive sonic booms its wings can cause. For anything that's not another titan, Rodan is death from above personified. Yet, for some reason, Lee (and likely Isabel and Kentaro) is suddenly going after it instead of literally any other titan this side of Godzilla. 

With the wealth of knowledge everyone seems to have about various titans and their rift locations at this point, there's only one discernible reason why the characters would would pick Rodan as their next target: To fit in a cool, cliffhanger-y classic kaiju cameo at the closing moments of the show. It is cool, too, make no mistake. It just doesn't make a lick of sense. 

Keiko has gone through more turmoil than just about any other character on "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," but Season 2 ends with a win for her. In "Where We Belong," Monarch director Reddick Barris (Curtiss Cook) puts her in charge of a special team consisting of Cate, May, and Tim. Presented as a nimble task force of the "Monarch 2.0" variety, the group's immediate mission is to get a hold of Kentaro, presumably to foil his and Isabel's plans to mess with Axis Mundi.

There's also another implied side to this new department. Keiko's Monarch team is far and away the world's most experienced group when it comes to dealing with titans, and has a wealth of knowledge about Kong, Godzilla, and just about any other giant monster. The year of the team's founding is 2017, which is just two years before the 2019 Mass Awakening of "Godzilla: King of the Monsters." Yet, we know that they're nowhere to be seen when Earth is dealing with the major crisis of King Ghidorah, let alone the events beyond that. 

Since it's unlikely that the whole team just happens to be on vacation every time kaiju hordes suddenly start roaming the Earth, it seems pretty clear that something happens to the team before 2019 — but what? Until "Monarch" or some other project answers that question, the very existence of Keiko's expert squad is a glaring plot hole. 

As mentioned earlier, we already know the big beats of what happens in the MonsterVerse after "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 ends, since the movies are currently a full decade ahead of the show. Unfortunately, this means that "Monarch" may ultimately be rendered comparatively meaningless in the entire timeline of the MonsterVerse.

The confusing timeline of "Monarch" has always skipped and jumped across several time periods, but it comes to a hard stop in 2017, which is the closest to present day that the show has ventured so far. This ends up creating a bit of a paradox: Between the many influential characters and discoveries the show introduces, there are multiple ways the events of "Monarch" should be felt in every corner of the MonsterVerse. Yet, the movies' status quo remains undisrupted by the "Monarch" corner of the franchise.

Here's hoping that the potential future of the series will address this. Otherwise, "Monarch" will risk being marginalized within its own franchise — which would be a shame, considering that "Monarch" Season 1 was a score for the MonsterVerse and Season 2 is well-liked by the critics, as well. Meanwhile, the box office history of the MonsterVerse has been hit-and-miss. As such, maybe this is a show that the franchise should build around, instead of sidelining it.

"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV.