‘Monarch’: What Is the Dragon Monster at the End of Episode 2?
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During the events of episode 2 of ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ we were taken as far back as 1952 when Keiko Miura first met Lee Shaw and, subsequently, William Randa. The events of this episode showed that Keiko and her unlikely allies met one another in a jungle in the Philippines as they were searching for something that was related to the weird readings they were getting and strange stories that they were hearing. At the end of the episode, they even encountered a large winged creature that nearly killed them. So, what was the dragon-like monster at the end of episode 2?
Bill Randa and the rumor of dragons
While the first episode of ‘Monarch’ didn’t end so well as it led to the eventual death of Keiko Miura, who we know is an important character in the series, episode 2 took us as far back as 1952, seven years before Keiko died in Kazakhstan in 1959. It was this episode that showed how the trio of Keiko Miura, Lee Shaw, and Bill Randa met.
In 1952, Lee, who was stationed in an American military base in the Philippines, was sent to act as the escort of a scientist named Dr. Keiko Miura. Lee met Keiko on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, and they ended up having to travel in the mountains of the lush island. They drove all the way to a Philippine jungle as Keiko was investigating radioactive anomalies in the area.
As they were traversing through the jungles, they met a certain Dr. William Randa, who worked as a cryptozoologist or someone who studies animals that may or may not exist. The reason why Bill Randa was there was the fact that he was investigating matters involving a certain dragon-like creature that the locals sighted in the jungles of Mindanao. As such, he had to investigate the matter.
Keiko and Bill traveled through the jungle and found a massive ship right in the middle of the planes of the forest. This ship was the USS Lawton, which supposedly sank around a decade ago in Pearl Harbor, which is more than 5,000 miles away from Mindanao. This seems puzzling because it is almost impossible for a massive ship to end up in the middle of a jungle more than 5,000 miles away from where it supposedly sank.
They investigated the wreckage of the ship as it was clear that Bill was familiar with the ship’s layout. It was eventually revealed that he used to be a crew member of the USS Lawton during World War II and that he was the only one to survive when the ship sank. But for some reason, the ship found its way to the Philippines as Bill started hearing rumors of a dragon nearby.
There were anomalies in the ship, such as corpses covered in a saliva-like object. Parts of the ship were also damaged and torn apart by something powerful and huge. And that was when they finally encountered a creature that stalked them while they were on the ship.
Lee came to the rescue to help the duo escape the Lawson. Upon exiting the ship, they found a massive winged bat-like creature on top of the ship. Bill was both happy and terrified when he told Keiko and Lee that dragons did indeed exist. Luckily, the dragon wasn’t able to get to them as it flew through the skies while the trio hid in the forest.
This was the first MUTO as far as Bill Randa was concerned. Bill coined the term Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism to describe the mysterious large creatures that exist on Earth. And the term MUTO became a catch-all phrase for the giant monsters before Monarch started calling them Titans.
The Ion Dragon explained
As mentioned, the trio of Keiko, Bill, and Lee encountered a winged creature that resembled a bat. This creature, according to Newsweek, is called an Ion Dragon, making it one of the newest monsters in the storyline of the MonsterVerse.
The Ion Dragon is a massive flying draconic monster that resembles a bat due to its black coloration and its membrane wings. It also has claws on its wings, as it looks more like a bat than an actual dragon. Nevertheless, it comes with two horns and needle-like teeth that allow it to have a unique look. On top of that, it also has a saurian tail with spikes on it, adding to its dragon-like appearance.
From what we saw in episode 2, this creature is extremely territorial as it protected the remains found inside the USS Lawton and was not willing to leave the ship for a long time. This creature, as seen inside the ship, is capable of secreting a viscous nacre that encapsulates and preserves the bodies of its victims so that it can eat the bodies at a later time.
There is no confirmation about whether or not it was the one responsible for carrying the Lawton from Pearl Harbor to Mindanao. However, based on what we saw in episode 2, this monster was powerful enough to tear through steel using its claws.
Still, it is unlikely that it could carry the ship on its own, as there’s a good chance that something bigger was responsible for carrying or dragging the Lawton to the Philippines, opening the possibility that there might be a bigger Ion Dragon somewhere out there.
So, if that’s the case, it is very possible that we will see a new or familiar creature even bigger than the Ion Dragon. It is also possible that this Ion Dragon is but a juvenile and that there is an Ion Dragon that’s older and bigger than this one. If that’s the case, that dragon must have been responsible for carrying or dragging the USS Lawton more than 5,000 miles from Pearl Harbor to the mountainy forests of Mindanao in the Philippines.
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