King Ghidorah (AniGoji continuity)

To that which brought the end of our civilization, we hesitate greatly to carelessly say its name. Words just have that much strength.

― Metphies (Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle)

Template:Tabber2PostMillennium Template:Infobox Monster The King Ghidorah (キングギドラ,   Kingu Gidora^?) of the AniGoji 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 its name, Ghidorah, to Haruo Sakaki.

He played a role in Godzilla: The Planet Eater as the main antagonist, where he finally descended onto the planet to fight Godzilla Earth.

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 it.

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 they summoned it 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 it 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 its 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 it, killing off his cult followers in the process, including Adam Bindewald.

Ghidorah then manifested in the space above the Earth and proceeded to attack and destroy the Aratrum, with its presence distorting space and time around it. It then descended upon the planet, and attacked Godzilla, with the latter being powerless as Ghidorah drained it of its energy over time, while being impervious to damage due to its ethereal nature.

Martin Lazzari later speculated that the nature of the beast is due to its extra dimensional origins, which had it abiding by a completely different set of laws of physics, and also required it 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 it attempted to flee, Godzilla slew it with atomic blasts, and succeeded in destroying it and its 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 it survived its battle with Godzilla. Haruo also had a vision in which Metphies tells him that Ghidorah will always watch over Haruo, given his own nature. 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.

Electricity emission

Ghidorah can emit powerful thunderbolts from its body, and can electrify targets by sending electricity and sparks through its fangs.

Longevity

Ghidorah is implied to be near-immortal, as evidenced by Metphies' dying words, and the warning that he would return should misuse of nanometal occur.

Energy siphoning

Ghidorah was shown to be able to siphon energy from Godzilla, as when the latter began to give off immense waves of heat, similar to what he did at Mechagodzilla City, Ghidorah sucked the heat from its body. Godzilla then began to cool off.

Extra-dimensional nature

When successfully summoned, this incarnation of Ghidorah boasts an advanced form of intangibility, which affords him the advantage of being able to attack, while not being able to be attacked in response. In addition, he also bends reality's space and time around himself, resulting in Godzilla's beam attacks curving erratically off target into the air, and the ground.

During his manifestation on Earth, Ghidorah first emerged as a shadowy presence and initially devoured victims' shadows then parts of their physical bodies, however the victims didn't show any signs of pain or agony while being eaten.

Ghidorah was also physically powerful to lift Godzilla Earth into the air in its ethereal form.

Gravitational powers

Ghidorah's mere presence results in extreme gravitational pressures being exerted upon anyone nearby. The Aratrum itself began to crumble under these powers, with both external plating and internal structures breaking down under the immense pressure.

Space-time distortion

This incarnation of Ghidorah can bend space and time around himself. This results in improper readings pertaining to its presence or actions, and even abnormalities in how events play out. Takeshi J. Hamamoto and Halu-elu Dolu-do held a conversation before the latter's death, which in reality had occurred around 40 seconds prior to the transmission being had. Following this, the Aratrum's crew foresaw their own demise, as they lost life signals in their location moments before Ghidorah's final attack.

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 it 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 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 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: Planet of the Monsters (Novelization)
• Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (mentioned)
• Godzilla: The Planet Eater

References

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