Destoroyah

Destoroyah (デストロイア, Desutoroia) is a crustacean created by Toho that first appeared in the 1995 Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

Name
Destoroyah's Japanese and English names both come from "destroyer." A possible reason that the name "Destroyer" isn't commonly used in various markets is because the word itself could not be trademarked by Toho. He is often referred to as "Destroyer" in dubbed versions of the film, while "Destoroyah" is Toho's official name for the character.

Appearance
Destoroyah grows quickly and adopts several appearances throughout the film, including his microscopic form, 3-mm form, insect-sized form, 2-meter form, 18-meter crab-like forms, a larger aggregate crab-like form, a bat-like flying form, and a bipedal 120-meter, demonic final form. He also has some of the same features as the aliens from the Alien franchise, such as the inner jaw.

Origins
Destoroyah originated as a colony of Precambrian crustaceans that had been awakened and mutated when the Oxygen Destroyer was detonated to kill the original Godzilla in 1954. Hedorah may be an inspiration for Destoroyah, since both go through multiple stages in their life cycles and are strong opponents who were hard for Godzilla to defeat.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Destoroyah was first seen attacking fish in a fish tank in his microscopic form, eating away at them to the bone. He eventually turned into his juvenile stage and attacked a warehouse. The army attacked Destoroyah, but many of them were killed. Flamethrowers were first discovered to be somewhat effective against the creatures, but it was then discovered that the Destoroyahs could be killed with cold temperatures, and a plan to kill them was put into action, using the DAG-MB96s that were originally designed to hold off Godzilla's meltdown. The plan seemed to work, but the juvenile Destoroyahs combined into a large aggregate Destoroyah, and it was discovered that they were prehistoric creatures that were mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer when the first Godzilla was killed. The aggregate Destoroyah tuned into Flying Destoroyah, and attacked Tokyo. Godzilla Junior arrived in Tokyo and battled Destoroyah in his aggregate form. Destoroyah nearly killed Godzilla Junior, but Godzilla arrived and saved him. Destoroyah was sent flying into a warehouse, but he reemerged in his final form. He carried Godzilla Junior off, dropped him into another warehouse, and blasted him with his Micro-Oxygen beam, killing him. Godzilla was furious, and attacked Destoroyah. Destoroyah and Godzilla fought, but Destoroyah was winning. Godzilla started to meltdown, giving him extra strength to defeat Destoroyah. Destoroyah was temporarily defeated, but he tried to fly away from Godzilla's meltdown. The military blasted him with ice canons, freezing him and sending him falling to the ground, where he died.

Godzilla: Legends
Destoroyah's first appearance in an IDW comic was in Godzilla Legends: The Underdog. In that universe, Destoroyah is the second most powerful monster next to Godzilla. He first appears attacking Sydney, Australia when a signal that was initially used to summon Godzilla instead summons Anguirus, a monster who has lived in the shadow of the Monster King. Although Destoroyah has the upper hand over Anguirus, the tide turns to Anguirus' favor when a duo who survived the more powerful 's attack on a military base offer him aid and use a cryogenic material to make Destoroyah vulnerable and allowing Anguirus to slam into him, sending Destoroyah into a full-on retreat.

Godzilla: Rulers of Earth
Aggregate Destoroyah's leg first appears fallen off of Zilla in issue #2. In issue #3, the Aggregate Destoroyahs make a full appearance and attack San Diego, but retreat to the sea after Steven Woods and his soldiers discover that a weapon named the "ice-box" is very effective against them. In issue #4, the final form of Destoroyah rises from the sea and fights Godzilla. Before Destoroyah can kill Godzilla, Mothra and her twin larvae arrive to help Godzilla. After seriously wounding Mothra, Destoroyah is seemingly killed after he is webbed up by the larvae and incinerated by Godzilla's atomic breath. Destoroyah returns in issue #11, where he fights Godzilla alongside Manda, Gezora, and Titanosaurus. After retreating from the battle with Godzilla, Destoroyah attacks a naval fleet assembled in the area. In issue #12, Destoroyah is finally destroyed when he is frozen by Kiryu's Absolute Zero cannon.

Godzilla: Cataclysm
Destoroyah emerges from Tokyo Bay at the end of Godzilla: Cataclysm #4. Hiroshi is terrified by the monster's appearance and identifies Destoroyah only as "his demon." Destoroyah splits apart into its aggregate forms and hunts down and brutally kills the villagers one-by-one, either by disintegrating them with his micro-oxygen beams or tearing them apart with his claws. Hiroshi falls on his knees and prays to Godzilla to arrive and vanquish the demon, but is impaled in the chest by an aggregate Destoroyah's claw, leaving him dying of blood loss and Biollante's core on the ground. Godzilla does arrive, and the Destoroyahs quickly merge together into a flying form. Destoroyah drags Godzilla into Tokyo with its tail, then flies by Godzilla and slices him with his laser horn katana and blasts him with micro-oxygen. Mothra, despite having been seriously wounded by Godzilla earlier, arrives to help battle Destoroyah. Destoroyah reforms into his final form, and blasts Mothra with his micro-oxygen beam, causing her to be disintegrated and burst in a flash of fiery light. Godzilla blasts Destoroyah in the back of the head with his atomic breath knocking the evil creature to the ground. Before Destoroyah can stand back up, he is restrained by Biollante's vines that suddenly erupt from the ground. With Destoroyah helpless, Godzilla blasts his head off with a blast of his spiral red heat beam, killing Destoroyah.

Abilities
Destoroyah is considered by many to be Godzilla's ultimate foe, a title that is only shared by a handful of other monsters, such as King Ghidorah, Hedorah, Gigan, MechaGodzilla and SpaceGodzilla, This is due to the fact that Destoroyah could survive multiple hits from his red spiral atomic ray (although he was shown throwing up large amounts of blood), an attack which instantly killed or crippled most enemies in one shot. Also, Destoroyah had fought Godzilla, at the point of the peak of his power many times, and actually won a majority of the encounters. Destoroyah is also one of very few monsters who have attacked Godzilla emotionally, using the death of Godzilla Junior against him.

Like Hedorah, Destoroyah is a composite life form formed from trillions of near-microscopic organisms and thus possesses vast capacities to adapt and regenerate. The base organism resembles a miniature horseshoe crab barely larger than a speck of sand. Trillions of these creatures would later combine to form Destoroyah's aggregate form which manifested as several man-sized crustacean monsters. When threatened by the JSDF, the creatures merged again into a larger aggregate form and then into its winged bat-like form. After being wounded by Godzilla Junior, Destoroyah regenerated into its demonic ultimate form and would later temporarily separate into its aggregate form in an attempt to overwhelm Godzilla during their battle. It appears that when the individual Destoroyah organisms fuse, they all die if the resulting creature is killed before it can split up into a smaller form and reform, this is shown when Godzilla nearly kills Destoroyah by blasting the exposed floral pattern on his chest and Destoroyah breaks up into a smaller form but when the Super X3 and Godzilla blasted out his wings the Super X3 used the Ice Maser and froze it at a microscopic level, he couldn't separate and thus all the Destoroyah organisms making up the final form were killed.

Destoroyah's primary weapon was a oxygen-destroyer ray fired from his mouth which could vaporize organic matter and was even capable of penetrating most metals. All of Destoroyah's forms possessed the ability to fire the ray but its aggregate form was also equipped with a pair of extending secondary jaws that injected the micro-oxygen directly into an opponent's bloodstream and drained a victim's energy. In its final form, the horn projecting from Destoroyah's forehead had the ability to generate a blade of energy powerful enough to cut through Godzilla's flesh, an ability that has since been named the Horn Katana. The aggregate forms were equipped with spiked claws similar to those of a praying mantis while Destoroyah's flying and ultimate forms possessed a tail tipped with a grappling pincer that was strong enough to even hold Godzilla and pull him along. The tail also had the ability to drain energy and give an energy discharge. In the Godzilla vs. Destoroyah manga adaptation, Destoroyah appears to have an ability where he can survive decapitation for a very short period of time. Godzilla seemingly defeats Destoroyah by tearing off his head, but Destoroyah manages to survive long enough to kill Godzilla by using a blast of his Micro-Oxygen Beam.

In the manga, Destoroyah's cut ability to fire beams from the floral pattern on his chest is preserved, and is shown to be immensely powerful, cutting through Godzilla's tail and breaking several of his in just one shot.

Filmography

 * Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
 * Godzilla Island

Video Game Appearances

 * Godzilla: Archipelago Shock
 * Godzilla Movie Studio Tour
 * Godzilla Trading Battle
 * Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact
 * Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
 * Godzilla: Save the Earth
 * CR Godzilla 3S-T Battle
 * Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii and PlayStation 2)
 * Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash
 * Godzilla: The Game

Godzilla: Save the Earth
Destoroyah appears in Save the Earth, where his rage attack in Save the Earth is the Oxygen Destroyer, where he fires a purple blast of energy into the air that comes down on his opponent, inflicting a large amount of damage.

Godzilla: Unleashed
Destoroyah is a mutant in Godzilla: Unleashed. In all of these games Destoroyah is a "bruiser" character, being able to take a lot of damage while also dishing it, but is also slow. Unlike in the film, he can't fly, but he can jump very high. He gains a new ability to create energy mines that pull his enemies and then send them flying, leaving them very vulnerable. His signature attack in the games is using the Horn Katana sword generated from his horn. The attack is strong, and can't be blocked, the only weakness to it is that uses up energy whenever used. A favored tactic used by the CPU is to repeatedly strike the enemy with the laser blade when they're knocked down, during which the opponent is helpless until either Destoroyah runs out of energy or if another monster attacks Destoroyah. The CPU also favors Destoroyah's use of the Micro-Oxygen beam, and will use it repeatedly to suck in enemies towards Destoroyah, damaging them and preventing them from attacking until he runs out of Energy. In the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed, the Horn Katana no longer uses up energy, causing some fans to view Destoroyah as unbalanced in the game (one of his grapple attacks is to impale an opponent with his laser horn and throws his opponent with his tail). However, in the PS2 version, his Horn Katana uses the same amount of energy as in Godzilla: Save the Earth, making the attack more balanced. In Godzilla: Unleashed, Destoroyah can release an orb of Micro-Oxygen energy that will suck in nearby and then detonate, which has a chance of flinging opponents across the stage. Because of Destoroyah's lack of flight in this game, he can't pull opponents with his tail, but he can strike them with it by jumping and using a special attack in midair.

Height: 110 meters Weight: 78,000 tons

"Destoroyah is death incarnate. Born from anaerobic environments deadly to all other life, Destoroyah seeks nothing else than the total annihilation of all life-forms in existence. Although his massive clawed hands, long crescent-tipped tail, and taloned feet can tear monsters apart in a heartbeat, Destoroyah tends to use ranged attacks in compensation for his sluggish land movement. He can breathe choking clouds of micro-oxygen, emit explosive spheres of micro-oxygen, and create oxygen destroyer comets of pure annihilation. His most fearsome attack, however, is the piercing Laser Horn, which extends from his central horn. This focused energy can slice through even the strongest monster flesh and reduces buildings to rubble."

Godzilla: The Game
Destoroyah appears as a boss in the game Godzilla: The Game. He has a chance of appearing in Area 10 of Stage 4. He attacks by flying at Godzilla, then hitting him with his tail. He also uses the Micro-Oxygen Beam and the laser from his horn.

Sightings

 * In the Mecha anime Godannar, Milla almost lost her life to defeat a monster that looks like the aggregate form of Destoroyah. The battle reappears many times throughout the anime, meaning the Destoroyah-like has multiple cameos.

In Other Languages

 * Russian: Дестроя

Trivia

 * Destoroyah is the second monster to attack Godzilla emotionally as well as physically, the first monster to do this was SpaceGodzilla. Curiously, both monsters brought Godzilla's son to harm in order for this to happen.
 * A deleted scene at the end of the film shows that after Destoroyah is brought to the ground when trying to escape from Godzilla's meltdown, he rises again as opposed to dissolving. With his wings torn up from the ULT lasers, he could no longer escape Godzilla's fury, thus was forced to fight Godzilla as the monster king began to meltdown. Godzilla quickly overpowered Destoroyah, grabbing him by his horn and pummeling him repeatedly. As Godzilla melts down, the JSDF rain their ULT weapons upon him, as well as Destoroyah. Unable to stand against the immense heat of Godzilla's meltdown and the freezing cold of the ULT lasers, Destoroyah falls and evaporates. However, it was thought that having Godzilla fight Destoroyah while he melted down took away the focus from Godzilla's death, which was to be the main point of the movie. So the scene was re-edited to have Destoroyah die after the JSDF shoots him down, and allow Godzilla to have center stage as he finally dies.
 * Desghidorah's wings bear a striking resemblance to the wings of Destoroyah.
 * Destoroyah is considered to be one of the most original of all of Godzilla's enemies in the Heisei series in that he is not a former Toho . His design is not influenced by Godzilla's in some way, nor does his origin have to do with being a somewhat copy of Godzilla or another monster. Biollante and SpaceGodzilla were created through Godzilla's cells, King Ghidorah, Mothra, MechaGodzilla, Rodan and Moguera had previously appeared in the Showa series, and Battra was the moral opposite of Mothra. However, Destoroyah was created from the Oxygen Destroyer, thus not making him completely original.
 * Destoroyah is the only main Godzilla faced that appeared in a Heisei Godzilla film who wasn't directly defeated by Godzilla. Instead, Godzilla critically injures him, and then he's taken down by the military.
 * Because Destoroyah is from the Precambrian, he is the oldest Godzilla monster of all time. Destoroyah is at the very least 541 million years old, the time the Precambrian ended. Megaguirus comes second, being from the Carboniferous.

Poll
Do you like Destoroyah? Yes! No. Kind of.

Destoroyah