The King Ghidorah (キングギドラ?) of the Kingu GidoraAniGoji continuity is the fifth incarnation of Ghidorah of the Godzilla franchise, and the first within the Reiwa era of films.
King Ghidorah was first alluded to in the 2017 and 2018 films, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters and Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, where Metphies referred to an unspeakable destructive force that destroyed his home planet, eventually revealing his name, Ghidorah, to Haruo Sakaki.
Ghidorah finally played a role in Godzilla: The Planet Eater as the main antagonist, where he finally descended onto the planet, in an attempt to consume Godzilla Earth and Earth, itself.
Design[]
Appearance[]
While Ghidorah retains the classic image of a three-headed dragon with two wings, two tails, and two legs, he is mostly different than his past incarnations. Despite having feet, he doesn’t stand upright and is positioned horizontally rather than vertically. The body of Ghidorah looks like fiery energy, and Ghidorah's heads feature a Servum-like aesthetic, with long, narrow, tooth-filled mouths and multiple eyes, a first for the iconic Kaiju.
This Ghidorah is also partially transparent, and as a result of his summoning, wasn't in possession of his full, true form. Instead, Ghidorah's body took the shape of immensely long, electric necks, which were able to wrap around targets, while being intangible to anything trying to attack him.
Roar[]
The roar of Ghidorah was first heard in The Planet Eater's first teaser, and was a loud, high pitched bellow, followed by a raspy snarl.
Like his Heisei incarnations, Ghidorah has a modified Rodan roar. When communicating with the Exif and Haruo through the Gematron Operation, it emits the shrill cackle of the Showa incarnation.
The rest of his roars, which are heard when he is attacking Godzilla and being attacked by Godzilla, are pitch-altered Heisei Ghidorah roars.
Origins[]
This incarnation of King Ghidorah is an extraterrestrial energy being from another dimension, which evolved to discard his physical form in favor of a purely energy-based form.
History[]
Pre-AniGoji trilogy[]
Ghidorah was discovered by the Exif clergy when they attempted to see beyond the boundaries of the universe, and in despair at the finiteness of existence (which is possibly a lie), they summoned him to destroy their homeworld. The few surviving members of the Exif clergy took to worshipping Ghidorah as a god of destruction, locating planets with sentient life and converting the inhabitants to their religion before sacrificing them to their god in an attempt to enable him to permanently manifest and destroy everything.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters[]
The seeds of Ghidorah's existence were first planted when Metphies referenced how all shall be according to "god's will".
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle[]
Ghidorah was later alluded to as Endurph lead a prayer on the Aratrum, during which he referenced waiting for the day where their god will descend into the world.
Later, Metphies spoke to Haruo in a cave, confirming the latter's question that their civilization was destroyed by kaiju, leaving behind nothing but their words and culture. Metphies went on to say that Godzilla is not even worth fearing in comparison to the kaiju who destroyed the Exif homeworld, and surreptitiously shares his name - which the Exif consider sacred - with Haruo: Ghidorah.
Godzilla: The Planet Eater[]
Following the fall of Mechagodzilla City, and the gaining of followers through Haruo's survival of the events there, Metphies and Endurph conspired to finally summon Ghidorah. Metphies decided to act as Ghidorah's host in lieu of Haruo's non-involvement, and he and Endurph succeed in summoning him, killing off his cult followers in the process, including Adam Bindewald (who was the only one to realize his doom).
Ghidorah then manifested in the space above the Earth and proceeded to attack and destroy the Aratrum, with his presence distorting space and time around it. He then descended upon the planet, and attacked Godzilla, with the latter being powerless as Ghidorah drained him of his energy over time, while being impervious to damage due to his ethereal nature.
Martin Lazzari later speculated that the nature of the beast is due to his extra dimensional origins, which had him abiding by a completely different set of laws of physics, and also required him to possess a host. Haruo later found out this was Metphies, and after the two engage in a battle of wills, Metphies' anchor over Ghidorah was shattered and the creature was finally rendered vulnerable to Godzilla's attacks. When he attempted to flee, Godzilla slew him with atomic blasts, and succeeded in destroying him and his portals.
After Martin demonstrated to Haruo that he had repaired the last Vulture and intended to use nanometal harvested from Yuko Tani's body to rebuild human civilization, Haruo had a Gematron-induced vision of Metphies' voice saying that Ghidorah would return to devour the Earth if this occurred - indicating that he would be resurrected through Haruo’s existence. Haruo also had a vision in which Metphies tells him that Ghidorah will always watch over Haruo, given his own nature.[5] This prompted Haruo to take the Vulture and Yuko's body, and sacrifice himself in order to destroy them and break the cycles of destruction and hatred.
Abilities[]
King Ghidorah is truly the "king" and apex predator of a universal-scaled ecosystem including other Godzillas, and Metphies noted that countless other "Godzillas" along with their planets were devoured by King Ghidorah. In the official pamphlet for the film, it has been suggested that King Ghidorah, with a fully manifested form using Haruo's call upon the god-like monster, would have destroyed the Earth instantly. He is completely immortal, having lived for more than 100,000 years and survived the destruction of his avatar, as stated by Metphies.
Spatial-Temporal Manipulation[]
King Ghidorah possesses ability to manipulate and distort space-time around himself. He can generate localized wormholes by collapsing space-time, creating singularities in the process, which allow him to travel between dimensions. Due to their nature, King Ghidorah's form gets distorted when passing through and cannot enter three-dimensional space fully. He can also use this power offensively, amplifying gravity around the objects to crush them, which he primarily uses for planetary destruction. In the movie, he uses it to destroy Aratrum. Energy beams emitted by Godzilla have no affect on King Ghidorah, as he can simply distort reality around them to make them refract from him.
Ultimate Intangibility[]
Lacking physical body, King Ghidorah utilizes an advanced form of intangibility, allowing him to attack and interact with his targets while simultaneously making them pass through, even in direct contact. As such, King Ghidorah is the only being in existence able to bypass Godzilla's Assymetrically Permeable Shield and is unaffected by immense heat.
Electricity Manipulation[]
While lacking character's trademark gravity beams, King Ghidorah can generate and manipulate extra-dimensional electricity, allowing him to bombard his targets with lightning bolts emitted from his body or discharge electricity through his bite. King Ghidorah is also capable of creating thunderstorms upon his arrival on Earth.
Technology Manipulation[]
Correlating with his electrical nature, King Ghidorah can subconsciously manipulate advanced technology, even from another dimension. Most of the time, he send messages on a device called Garbetrium to Exif, which can be used to develop artificial intelligence and carry out complex mathematical calculations, to the point where aliens can predict the future. Ghidorah uses this power offensively during his attack on Aratrum, jamming their system readings and causing their ship's core to explode. Forty seconds prior to the ship's explosion, the bridge received a message that the engine room was destroyed despite just picking a transmission from Dolu-do.
Detection Immunity[]
Because of his technological powers, King Ghidorah is impossible to be detected by advanced electronic devices and only naked eye can see him. However, the gravity distortion around him is detectable.
Energy Absorption[]
King Ghidorah is capable of absorbing life-energy from living beings through his bite, killing them in the process. Thanks to this ability, he can prevent Godzilla from transforming into his Scarlet Godzilla Earth state by absorbing his heat and reducing the temperature of his surroundings below zero.
Shadow Consumption[]
King Ghidorah can manifest himself as three serpentine-shaped shadows with jaws that can kill living beings by attacking their shadows. Mutilated body parts have an odd blue insides and targets do not appear to feel pain, simply collapsing dead on the ground.
Madness Inducement[]
The mere sight of King Ghidorah's full form can drive both humans and Houtua insane, as was the case when Adam Bindewald opened his eyes during the initial summoning ritual and when Metphies gave Miana a telepathic vision of him.
Weaknesses[]
Connection[]
Once his connection to Metphies was disrupted, Ghidorah became subject to the laws of this dimension, and showed rather meek strength in comparison to Godzilla, who was able to grapple with the monster effectively, and tear him apart.
However, it is unknown whether or not Ghidorah, with a fully-manifested physical form, differs in physical strength than what is mentioned above.
Trivia[]
- This Ghidorah's necks each measured up to 20 kilometres, making it the largest Toho kaiju to date, and the largest incarnation of King Ghidorah.
- This Ghidorah was conceptualized as a Godzilla with a completely different evolutionary path, while also being similar to a Servum, with design elements of both being present, such as the latter's multiple eyes and long, teeth filled snouts.
- This is the third incarnation of King Ghidorah to be an extraterrestrial monster.
- This Ghidorah's ability to electrify the targets by biting is similar to that of GMK's Ghidorah.
- This Ghidorah's power to lift Godzilla with its necks and drains Godzilla's internal energy is similar to that of Keizer Ghidorah.
- So far, this is the only incarnation of King Ghidorah to survive (although he might be dead with Haruo gone) the battle against its foes on the Earth.
- This incarnation of King Ghidorah is the first incarnation that does not use its iconic Gravity Beams.
List of appearances[]
- Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (First appearance) (mentioned)
- Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (mentioned)
- Godzilla: The Planet Eater
References[]
- ↑ https://2018.tiff-jp.net/news/en/?p=14458
- ↑ https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1536647674
- ↑ http://godzilla-anime.com/news/
- ↑ https://mantan-web.jp/article/20181102dog00m200022000c.html
- ↑ Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (Novelization) - During the events of the novelization, Haruo also sees Ghidorah lurking in the far off skies in this vision.
v • eAniGoji continuity | |
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Films | • • |
Novels | Godzilla: Monster Apocalypse • Godzilla: Project Mechagodzilla • Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters • Godzilla: The Planet Eater |
Kaiju | Zilla • Biollante • Orga • Anguirus • Rodan • Megaguirus • Kamacuras • Kumonga • Dagahra • Barem • Dogora • Baragon • Varan • Manda • Gabara • Ebirah • Hedorah • Megalon • Kamoebas • Gezora • Ganime • Maguma • Gorosaurus • Griffon • Giant Octopus • Mothra • Battra • Giant Condor • Gigan • King Caesar • Meganula/Meganulon • Titanosaurus | • • • •
Cast and Characters | Mamoru Miyano) • (Takahiro Sakurai) • (Kana Hanazawa) • (Junichi Suwabe) • (Kenta Miyake) • (Tomokazu Sugita) • (Yuuki Kaji) • (Daisuke Ono) • (Kenyu Horiuchi) • (Kanehira Yamamoto) • (Kazuhiro Yamaji) • (Kazuya Nakai) • (Tomisaburō Horikoshi) • (Ari Ozawa) • (Reina Ueda) • (Kenichi Suzumura) • (Saori Hayami) Novels: Akira Sakaki | (
Races | Human • Exif • Bilusaludo • Houtua |
Weapons | Electromagnetic Induction Rifle • EMP probe • EMP harpoon • Thermobaric bombs |
Vehicles | Exosuit • Landing ship • Artillery tank • Type 43 Aviation Scout • Aratrum • • |
Staff | Kobun Shizuno • Hiroyuki Seshita • Gen Urobuchi • Takayuki Hattori |
Toys | S.H. MonsterArts • Movie Monster Series • Monster King Series • Master Detail Movie Monster Series |