Characters / Godzilla: The Ghidorahs

1 Following

• Adaptational Goal Change: His original debut portrays him as a Planet Destroyer who single-handedly wipes every planet he descends on clean of all life seemingly under his own power; before later Showa movie appearances and the post-reboot Heisei continuity portrayed him as the Bioweapon Beast or Psycho for Hire to much more human-like villains. In Godzilla: The Planet Eater, he's a more instinctual-seeming being from a physics-warping alternate dimension, who consumes entire planets when he's summoned into the observable universe by the Exif. In the MonsterVerse, King Ghidorah is a cosmic invasive species whose mere presence on Earth causes massive storms and harms the ecosphere, and he seeks to take control of the other kaiju on Earth and to cause global chaos and mass destruction, ostensibly so he can xenoform the planet to his own tastes.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The first in a long line of extraterrestrial menaces Godzilla and company face off against (although not the first one in the entire Toho canon), setting a franchise-wide precedent that nothing good ever comes from space.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Or rather Draconic Personification, to quote the Official Godzilla Compendium: "Thanks to the force of its evil personality, Ghidorah never engenders any sympathy, coming across less as a pawn than merely the logical extension of its masters' hostile intentions".
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Franchise-wide one to Godzilla. Simply put, wherever there is a Godzilla, there will eventually be a Ghidorah, and they will fight. As of this writing he's opposed Godzilla across eight movies and all four eras, and usually the fight turns into a grudge match. Even in GMK where Godzilla is a completely evil villain, Ghidorah has been made into a defender of Japan. In continuities where King Ghidorah doesn't serve this role In-Universe, any replacement will still imitate his most famous traits or be connected to him in some fashion.
  • The Rebirth of Mothra trilogy made the species as a whole one to Mothra Leo. Desghidorah was Leo's first major opponent and the murderer of his mother. The trilogy's incarnation of King Ghidorah on the other hand was the Final Boss of the trilogy and came the closest to killing Leo.
• Armless Biped: No arms, just wings. In fighting games, he uses his left and right heads as arms to lift an opponent up.
• Ax-Crazy: Whether he's a Psycho for Hire, Bioweapon Beast or worse, it's guaranteed he'll be laughing throughout all of his massacres.
• Been There, Shaped History: In some continuities, he's the reason why the dinosaurs went extinct. Before humanity even existed, Ghidorah had already reshaped Earth's biosphere by showing up.
• Blow You Away: King Ghidorah can create hurricane-force winds by just flapping his wings.
• Breakout Villain: Ghidorah is one of the definitive Godzilla villains, having had an incarnation in every film series.
• Breath Weapon: Lightning-bolt like beams of energy described as gravity beams.
• Civilization Destroyer: One frequent trait of Ghidorah is that he travels the cosmos or time stream, landing on planets and wiping out their populations.
• Draconic Abomination: The common trait he has for almost every version is that he's a Cosmic Horror in the form of a giant three-headed space-dragon that wields electricity, though some iterations are more eldritch than others. He is always depicted as extraterrestrial and sometimes even extra-dimensional, is extremely ancient, is able to survive and travel across great distances of space, is practically immortal with a regenerative healing ability that makes him virtually unkillable, can usually manipulate lightning or gravity (sometimes both), can create storms and atmospheric disturbances (at times by sheer accident) and — except for one iteration of Ghidorah — wants to wipe out all intelligent life on Earth (possibly all life). If you were describing this to someone who doesn't know Ghidorah or didn't mention that he was a giant space dragon, they would think you were talking about one of the Old Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos.
• Dragon Their Feet: If Ghidorah plays the role of The Dragon, odds are he'll outlive his superiors. Showa Ghidorah's final chronological appearance in Destroy All Monsters is an exception, as he dies before the Kilaaks are defeated.
• Dynamic Entry: King Ghidorah is never without one. In every movie he's in, he somehow makes his entry epic.
• Evil Is Bigger: One of the most consistently evil monsters, and one of the few to dwarf Godzilla himself, usually being at least 1.5 times Godzilla's height. Indeed, the Heisei Ghidorah was the tallest (but not the heaviest) kaiju in a Godzilla film all the way from 1991 until 2017, where it was trumped by the trilogy's incarnation of Godzilla...who was in turn trumped by the trilogy's Ghidorah the following year.
• Foil:
  • Godzilla is an Earth-born, manmade mutant who destroys out of pain and anger rather than malice, and who can usually be counted upon to come through for humanity in the end. Ghidorah is an alien (whether to the planet or the time period) who destroys life for kicks, works for various other alien menaces, and poses a colossal threat to planet Earth. The contrast couldn't be much more stark.
  • Design-wise, Godzilla is based on older portrayals of real-life dinosaurs (namely, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Iguanodon, and Stegosaurus) while Ghidorah is based upon mythological portrayals of dragons (namely the hydra and the Yamata-No-Orochi). This provides a solid contrast in having a comparatively more grounded prehistoric monster and a more mythological-themed monster.
• Giant Flyer: Emphasis on the giant part. He towers over Godzilla himself.
• Horns of Villainy: All of his incarnations are usually depicted with having horns on all three of his heads that are highly identical. The horns of his Legendary incarnation are noticeably a lot more visually distinctive, making it easier to tell each head apart that displays their personalities. Subverted with his GMK appearance as he's portrayed as a benign ancient protector.
• Ironic Name: He's called King Ghidorah, yet most (though not all) of his reappearances and adaptations since his original '64 debut, including the latter's in-continuity sequels, have portrayed him as nothing more than the attack-dogs (or the Psycho for Hire at most) to other, human aliens' invasions.
• It's Personal: He and Godzilla certainly seem to take their rivalry this way in most of their battles, even when mind control is involved. Made explicit in the Scott Ciencin novel, Godzilla vs. The Space Monster where Ghidorah's mockery of his victims, revelry in destruction, and general sadism have Godzilla wanting his head(s) on a platter. Showa Godzilla and Ghidorah go for each other's throats more than once without any guidance from outside influence to fight.
• Joker Immunity: No matter how many times he's killed, blown up, or reduced to atomic dust, King Ghidorah always finds a way to return from any sort of death, largely due to his popularity as a villain (typically ranking 2nd to Godzilla himself in popularity polls), though Showa Ghidorah's immunity runs out by the time of Destroy All Monsters, where he's Killed Off for Real. Ghidorah's who only get one film will usually Come Back Strong after a seeming death for the same effect.
• Large and in Charge: He's often the Big Bad, or at least the Dragon-in-Chief, and is one of if not the largest of Toho's monsters, towering far above Godzilla's head.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very big, has the standard kaiju extreme durability, incredibly strong, and often surprisingly fast too. This could also count as a pun, since his Gravity Beams take on the appearance of electric bolts, and seem to have the same effect on living organisms.
• Multiple Head Case: Three heads, but mostly subverted as they don't typically have much personality to distinguish each one from the other. However, it's played straight with the Monsterverse Ghidorah (see that page for details) as well as Chibi Ghidorah (see below).
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: He has two long tails, which are typically tipped by spiked clubs.
• Our Dragons Are Different: King Ghidorah is a civilization-destroying three-headed alien.
• Our Hydras Are Different: Loosely based on the Lernean Hydra of Greek myth (as well as the Japanese Yamata no Orochi and the Russian Zmey Gorynych), with his name being derived from the pronunciation of "hydra" in Japanese (ヒドラ, or "hidora"). He shares the general similarity of being a multi-headed serpent-like monster, but other similarities vary between the incarnations.
• Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: In several continuities, you can thank the three-headed space dragon for wiping out the dinosaurs. Ghidorah's prehistoric rampages across Earth is a recurring bit of lore used to explain why there aren't many non-kaiju dinosaurs stomping around anymore.
• Psycho Electro: Has Shock and Awe powers and is usually a sadistic Civilization Destroyer who has razed numerous worlds in the past just because he could.
• Psycho for Hire:
  • When in the employ of various villains, as is usually the case. In the Showa continuity, he acts of his own free will in only his first appearance — Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla Vs. Gigan and the TV series Zone Fighter all have him controlled by a different alien race, while in the Heisei series, he's controlled by the Futurians. Kaiser Ghidorah goes back to working for the Xiliens, and Otaru Ghidorah inverts the dynamic.
  • The "Psycho" part, on the other hand, comes from the fact that he really seems to get a kick out of his work, letting out one Evil Laugh after another. Made explicit in the novel Godzilla vs The Space Monster, where Ghidorah's constant mockery of his victims is one of the many, many things that makes Godzilla want to kick his ass. The only real difference between Ghidorah under mind control and Ghidorah not under mind control is his creators get to pick which planet he'll to destroy.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Ghidorah is regarded as Godzilla's greatest foe, despite Mothra and her kin joining forces with the King of the Monsters to battle him in the Showa era. In the Rebirth movies, where the fights between Ghidorah's kin and Mothra Leo unfold in a distinct universe, Godzilla is notably absent from both epic clashes.
• Shock and Awe: All versions spit lightning, or gravity bolts.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Billed as such and usually lives up to it, forcing one team-up after another in order to take him down.
• Villainous Legacy: In continuities where he isn't a recurring villain, if he exists he's shaped a good chunk of the plot, either by inspiring new monsters to be made or by empowering other villains to invade Earth.

First appearance: Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster , 1964
AKA: Ghidrah, Ghidora, King of Terror, Monster Zero, Space Super Monster, Emperor of the Cosmos, Venus Hellfire, Space Super Terror-Beast, Supreme Ruler of the Cosmos
Portrayed by: Haruya Sakamoto (Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster); Shoichi Hirose (Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster — Invasion of Astro-Monster); Susumu Utsumi (Destroy All Monsters); Kanta Ina (Godzilla vs. Gigan); Isao Zushi (Zone Fighter)

In the Showa continuity, King Ghidorah is a rapacious space-faring alien dragon who wanders the galaxy destroying worlds for his own amusement. In the ancient past, Ghidorah annihilated Venus' advanced civilization and reduced the planet to an inhospitable wasteland. Arriving on Earth in a meteor, he is opposed by Mothra; who is eventually joined by Godzilla and Rodan. Repelled by the combined onslaught of the three monsters, Ghidorah retreats into space.

In subsequent appearances, he is mind-controlled and used as a weapon by various alien races, who hope to use him to help subjugate the Earth.

His appearance is partially based on Zmei Gorynych from Ilya Muromets.

• Adaptational Backstory Change: The planet that King Ghidorah devastated in the distant past was Venus in the original Japanese, but the English dub changed it to Mars.
• Alien Invasion: In Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, King Ghidorah attacks Earth of his own initiative, but in subsequent films he's mind-controlled by other invading aliens.
• Ancient Evil: Has been destroying planets for fun for 5,000 years before the events of the Showa continuity (1954-1999), with Venus being one of the planets whose civilizations he's destroyed.
• Arch-Enemy: The first Ghidorah to have a personal grudge against a Godzilla in his own continuity, rather than being merely on opposite sides. Later Ghidorah's would express this in other ways, but in the Showa version they hate each other enough mind control isn't enough to snuff it out. That massive, genuinely furious beatdown he gets in Destroy All Monsters happened when both monsters were stated to be under mind control, but
• Asshole Victim: From the destruction he causes as well as the pain he inflicts on the other kaiju with no remorse, can you actually sympathize with him as he's getting pummelled to death in Destroy All Monsters?
• Big Bad: King Ghidorah was the main threat in his first film and would not only become Godzilla's recurring arch-nemesis in the original Showa series, but he also fought Zone Fighter on his own show twice and ended the second fight in a draw. The Showa continuity ends after his death for a reason.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Godzilla vs. Gigan has Ghidorah and Gigan as Co-Dragons-In Chief to the Space Nebula M Aliens. They outlive their controllers to become the final threat of the film.
• Blood from the Mouth: As a part of the much needed beating he gets in Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla brutally stomps on one of his throats with blood splashing out of his mouth.
• Brains and Brawn: When he was partnered with the psychopathic Gigan in Godzilla vs. Gigan, he's gradually seen more as the "anvil" of the evil duo. He flaps his golden wings to fully blindside Godzilla, allowing the far more cunning Gigan to deliver a diving aerial buzzsaw slash to the shoulder to draw blood from him. Later in the film, Gigan is also seen to be instructing King Ghidorah, given the way he was "telling" him what to do with a tapping claw gesture to his space dragon ally to dispose of Godzilla, after he dragged his unconscious body all the way to his feet, and he gratefully obliged by brutishly sending him flying into the destroyed Godzilla Tower. It's also worth mentioning that both of their combat strategies are heavily contrasted, as King Ghidorah, like in most of his appearances in the Showa films, usually stands at a distance chaotically Beam Spamming his Gravity Beams everywhere, forcing his enemies to become defensive until they actually reach him while Gigan uses close-ranged abilities to inflict ungodly pain on Godzilla and Anguirus, especially when Gigan uses his hooked claw to repeatedly dent into Godzilla's cranium until his forehead starts bleeding out.
• Confusion Fu: In the earlier films, monsters would sometimes have a hard time even getting close to King Ghidorah because he'd keep moving his heads around erratically. It was hard to predict which volley of gravity beams would hit or miss, if he would rake them across an enemy monster's body, or if he would readjust his aim for another direct shot; there was no warning or delay when he spammed those rays like there was no tomorrow. True, he became a planet-destroying monster in part due to strength, but his wild fighting was his true edge; he was chaos incarnate!
• Create Your Own Hero: Apparently his malevolent and evil destruction bestowed upon the Earth as well as his assault against Mothra is what causes Godzilla himself to instantly change his ways and make a Heel–Face Turn that would stick. Since the Earth itself is Godzilla's home, his response towards the evil hydra makes it highly personal for him to drive Ghidorah off whenever he sets his sights on him and rightfully show the alien who he's dealing with. The same would go for Anguirus and Rodan, who would become Godzilla's closest friends as a result, and eventually most of Earth's surviving monsters would band together against Ghidorah.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: As a way to show off his strength and power for his grand debut in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster the very first kaiju he attacks is Mothra after she failed to form an alliance with Godzilla and Rodan. She crawls off to fight him alone, only to get tossed around like a rag doll the very second he sees her. The one-sided battle is so horrible that some of the human characters recoil in anguish every time she gets hit. When Godzilla comes to her aid to fight him, Ghidorah immediately puts him on the ropes by firing his Gravity Beams at him and knocks him onto a bridge so hard that Godzilla struggles to regain his footing. His brief fight with Rodan doesn't even phase him either when the pteranodon rams into him at full speed, with both kaiju falling to the ground hard. Rodan is left dazed from the impact whereas King Ghidorah is still standing after shrugging it off. Even when the Earth kaiju try to take him on they are either floored or resort to using other ways to distance themselves from his attacks. It isn't until all three monsters use their combined force at once that he's properly defeated.
• Demoted to Dragon: In his first appearance he is depicted as a dreaded Civilization Destroyer and interplanetary scourge. Post-Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster however, whenever he shows up in the Showa continuity it's initially as a mind-controlled slave or a Psycho for Hire for a race of human aliens. He's still the de facto main threat for Godzilla though, and would outlast his controllers or abandon them if he pleased.
• Dirty Coward: Not as much as fellow alien Gigan, but Ghidorah is the type of bully who can dish it out but can't take it. Every time he finds himself on the receiving end of a beatdown Ghidorah will fly away in fear, and he only fights with some kind of size or numbers advantage on his sizes.
• Dragon Ascendant: In films where he's Demoted to Dragon, King Ghidorah usually outlives the alien invasion forces that once controlled him to become the final threat Godzilla and his allies have to face. Godzilla vs. Gigan showcases this best—the Nebulans are all killed, but not only does Ghidorah keep fighting alongside Gigan to kill Godzilla, their respective evil personalities are unchanged despite the Mind Control being gone.
• Dragon-in-Chief: In all his subsequent appearances save the first. The fact that invading aliens have mind controlled him is typically what makes them a threat, and they need him more than the other way around. Usually when his mind-control is broken, he continues fighting without a care in the world that he was being controlled or simply leaves unless he is defeated.
• Draconic Abomination: Showa Ghidorah is an ancient evil that travels through space (presumably faster than light or being able to create wormhole given the fact that inhabited worlds are so far apart and he has a reputation as a destroyer of civilizations) just to stomp out all life on inhabitable planets For the Evulz, manipulates energy and electricity, regenerates, causes natural disasters from the atmospheric disturbances caused by his presence, and is virtually unkillable.
• Dragons Are Demonic: He is a gigantic evil alien dragon who annihilates civilizations for fun and was the cause of the extinction of life on Venus or Mars.
• The Dreaded: The Venusian (Martian?) princess from Ghidorah's debut film speaks of his coming like it's the impending apocalypse. And whenever he arrives on the scene, every kaiju (including Godzilla himself) becomes visibly concerned, if not terrified.
• Dynamic Entry: The first appearance of Ghidorah as he erupts from a meteor is a very famous one.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: In some of the Japanese movie posters during his debut he had a purple body with red, yellow, and blue colored wings as that was how he was originally going to be colored. But his color was changed to gold because it matched the color of Venus, the planet he destroyed.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Downplayed Trope. King Ghidorah never betrays or overthrows his alien controllers deliberately. That said, he has no loyalty or care for them either and will abandon them if it means saving his own skin. The Nebulans were already dying, but when he and Gigan smashed Godzilla Tower any survivors would have been killed on impact. He was at one point attempting to abandon the Kilaaks in his final battle if Godzilla hadn't intervened to prevent his escape.
• Evil Laugh: Showa Ghidorah's iconic roar is a shrill cackle — derived from instructions that his voice sound like a bell.
• Final Boss: The Kilaaks deploy him at the end of Destroy All Monsters, after their control over Godzilla and the other monsters is broken; he proceeds to fight all ten of Earth's monsters at once. As this film is officially the last in the Showa continuity, his death here is permanent. As far as video games go, the Showa King Ghidorah has been the final boss in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters and Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters.
• For the Evulz: In Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, King Ghidorah causes massive amounts of destruction because he can, and enjoys every second of it. When not brainwashed in later appearances he keeps torturing other monsters, especially Godzilla, purely for the enjoyment of it.
• Genki Guy: A very dark example. He seems gleefully sadistic as he destroys stuff.
• Giggling Villain: His cackling roar gives the impression that he's laughing constantly, even when he's being beaten to death!
• Handshake Substitute: He briefly uses one of his wings as a way of giving Gigan a "high-five" of sorts to one of his hooked claws after they had Godzilla down for the count in Godzilla vs. Gigan.
• Humiliation Conga: Each of his defeats.
  • Starting with his debut in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, as soon as all 3 monsters fully cooperate to take him down he keeps getting covered more and more by Mothra's silk with Rodan carrying her to ensure it, causing him to be All Webbed Up while his two tails are seized by Godzilla, who then tosses him off a cliff. Right as the hydra tries to depart, his blind side gets bombarded with thrown boulders numerous times. He then flies off into space while still covered by parts of the web around his heads in utter humiliation.
  • For his second outing in Invasion of Astro-Monster, during his battle with Godzilla and Rodan on Planet X, the fight comes to a close with Rodan lifting a boulder and dropping it onto his back as Godzilla leaps into him with a lunging bodyslam, forcing him to cut his losses and leave the scene. Godzilla then comically dances in celebration after besting him. While he does get some good hits on Godzilla with his Gravity Beams in the final battle, he loses again when Rodan carries Godzilla into the air, combining both mass and momentum together as the two Earth monsters collide into the dragon with all three piling onto one another, plummeting directly into the depths. After a minute or two has passed, King Ghidorah quickly flees into space once again.
  • Undoubtedly, his worst fate to ever be seen when it comes getting unquestionably trounced, bashed, brutalized, and put on a silver platter is the grand climax of Destroy All Monsters. Despite being the Kilaak's powerful trump card for world domination, all of Earth's kaiju make sure to deliver all sorts of payback to their foe. Most notably were Godzilla, Anguirus, and Gorosaurus for brining the smackdown to King Ghidorah, with Godzilla blasting him point-black with his Atomic Breath to weaken him, Anguirus sinking his teeth right into one of his heads, and Gorosaurus using his Kangaroo Kick to knock down the space beast, leaving him pinned to get horrifically curb-stomped to no end. None of the monsters allow him to either retaliate and/or get right back up, as one head tries to move about to attack only for Godzilla to strangle him and begin stomping his throat so hard, he hacks up blood. And the worst of it all? He's pathetically finished off by Minilla of all monsters, even though he's the weakest of them all. The golden space dragon was already critically injured from the overwhelming combined forces of the three kaiju that has beaten the crap out of him and the most humiliating way to ever be killed is having a blown smoke ring around the middle head's neck cut off what little oxygen he had left in his body, killing him.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Usually manages to escape alive in most of the other Showa movies despite being one of the more actively malicious kaiju, albeit after getting roughed up by Godzilla in each appearance. His luck finally runs out in Destroy All Monsters when his fight against the other monsters goes poorly and he's kicked to the ground, resulting in them beating him to death and ending his threat once and for all.
• The Kirk: The 1992 art book Special Graphix Godzilla vs. Mothra compares and contrasts him with Mechagodzilla and Gigan, claiming Ghidorah is a "dignified villain".
• Light Is Not Good: Showa Ghidorah has golden scales, and was designed to resemble real life benevolent draconic deities, but is a malevolent civilization-destroying alien monster.
• Magnetism Manipulation: His meteor form draws dozens of pick axes and other various metallic objects that latch onto it as keeps growing as time goes on. In Zone Fighter, he levitates multiple cars in mid-air.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Has been given the nickname "the King of Terror" for good reason.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: His three heads all have dark-brown/golden lion-like manes on them.
• No-Sell: He's capable of effortlessly shrugging off Godzilla's Atomic Breath.
• Omnicidal Maniac: In the Showa continuity, he apparently lives simply to wipe out all life that he encounters.
• Orochi: He's loosely based off of the Yamata-no-Orochi, and Ghidorah (or "Ghidora" in Japanese) is a slightly altered version of the Japanese word "hidora", which is "hydra".
• Planet Eater: In the Showa era, Ghidorah was the stuff of cosmic nightmares, renowned for his cosmic buffet of entire planets.
• Psycho for Hire: From Invasion of Astro-Monster onward, if Ghidorah appears to attack Earth, he's doing it at the behest of another alien race.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": He never stops cackling, usually intensifying it as he reduces major metropolitan centres to rubble.
• Sadist: There's a reason his roar is usually described as laughing during his appearances. He enjoys causing harm to others even if it means becoming controlled by aliens, and gleefully tortures Anguirus or Godzilla on several occasions. He also enjoys shooting at the humans running away from him in fear.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Arrives concealed in a meteor in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
• Shadow Archetype: To Showa Godzilla. He is what the second Godzilla would have become if he never changed his ways and fully embraced his destructive nature.
• Signature Roar: Showa Ghidorah had an iconic high-pitched cackle, intended to sound like a ringing bell. The laugh would be phased out in subsequent reboot films but is used as a stock sound for most of his video game appearances.
• Super-Strength: Even though he constantly uses his Gravity Beams left and right to keep most of his enemies at a distance, he's still shown to be a colossal threat without them. His jaws are strong enough to ward off Anguirus by biting his neck until he dropped him from a massive height in Destroy All Monsters, and by then he starts stomping on the already fallen ankylosaur until he knocks him unconscious. He doesn't hold back whenever he encounters Godzilla as he can easily knock him into a bridge and has even floored him several times. In Godzilla vs. Gigan, he's also more than capable of sending Godzilla flying into the air with no effort by slamming all 3 of his heads into his defeated body from a standing position.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: What made him stand out as an antagonist in his first appearance? The previously unstoppable Godzilla charging in to fight him head-on and getting knocked on his ass in two seconds. King Ghidorah was the first monster to outstrip Godzilla in power and required teamwork to beat in almost all his appearances. Even Zone Fighter couldn't kill him, unlike the regular Terror-beasts and barely won after a two episode conflict.
• Weak-Willed: He's brainwashed four times in a row and never once throws it off, usually being stunned if it does get removed.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Ghidorah can flap his wings hard enough to knock even Godzilla over, and deliberately used these gusts to force Godzilla into range for the Nebulans to start pelting him with their laser cannon.
• Villainous Friendship: Gigan and King Ghidorah, something that would return in other continuities. They are brainwashed servants of the Nebulans and are technically doing as commanded, at first. However they still retain their personalities, enjoying the destruction, and Ghidorah's shown taking pointers from Gigan. After he and Gigan are freed from the Nebulans mind control, they continue fighting Godzilla and Anguirus of their own free will, now mutually enjoying the other monsters' suffering. Despite some minor squabbling they work well together, nor do they intentionally attack each other despite their established murderously evil natures. When they lose, the worst that happens is Gigan ran for it first, but they're shown escaping together, unlike Gigan's explicit betrayal and abandoning of Megalon the next year.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: He basically went out of his way to strike Mothra with his Gravity Beams purely out of nothing but vileness and cruelty. Godzilla and Rodan did not respond so positively after witnessing the onslaught, especially Godzilla as he's enraged so much that he charges towards him without hesitation and this gives Godzilla something worth fighting for and kickstarts his way to become more heroic because of Ghidorah's villainy.
• Vocal Dissonance: An ominous three headed alien draconic planet destroyer who's struck fear across the galaxy, who dwarfs Godzilla as well the other kaiju in overall size, and is considered one of his most challenging enemies. You'd think he'll sound as menacing as he looks right? Instead he has high-pitched vocals that sounds almost completely dolphin-like with an ounce of unsettling laughter, but perhaps that was the intention in contrast to his appearance.

Dorats

First appearance: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, 1991

These small creatures are genetically-engineered pets of the Futurians. After relocating the injured Godzillasaurus from Lagos Island to the Bering Sea in 1945, Emmy Kano left three Dorats in its place on the island. There the creatures stayed until 1954, when the nuclear bomb test that originally mutated Godzilla instead caused the Dorats to fuse together and mutate into the Heisei incarnation of King Ghidorah.

• All Animals Are Dogs: They sound like whimpering puppies.
• All There in the Manual: According to the Japanese novelization of the film, the Dorats were genetically engineered from DNA recovered from the preserved corpse of another King Ghidorah found on Venus.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from three cute, harmless pets to a giant, three-headed monster that could hold its ground against Godzilla.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: They look like some strange hybrid between a cat, a bat, and a dragon with green hair on their heads. The fact that they fuse and mutate into King Ghidorah is even weirder. The novelization justifies it by explaining that they were cloned from the corpse of an existing King Ghidorah.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Dorats went from being a trio of adorable-looking monsters to being fused into one of the biggest threats to the planet.

King Ghidorah/Mecha-King Ghidorah

First appearance: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, 1991
AKA: Mecha-Ghidrah
Portrayed by: Hurricane Ryu

In the Heisei continuity, King Ghidorah is born after the three Dorats left on Lagos Island are fused into a single three-headed dragon. Initially under the control of the Futurians, King Ghidorah is able to fight evenly against and even overwhelm the upgraded Godzilla, but after their control over him is broken Ghidorah loses his edge and is killed — having his middle head blown off and his wings torched. In the future, Emi recovers King Ghidorah's corpse and rebuilds it as a cyborg equipped with an internal command center. The revivified Mecha-King Ghidorah is then sent back to the present to try and stop the rampage of Godzilla, incapacitating him and dragging him to the bottom of the ocean before being destroyed.

Though Mecha-King Ghidorah has never appeared in any subsequent films (besides a very brief appearance in the opening of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2 where the mechanical head is being reverse engineered to create Mechagodzilla), he has appeared in a number of video games and other media.

• Adaptation Origin Connection: Showa Ghidorah was just a random space monster who decided to make the solar system his stomping ground one day. Heisei Ghidorah was explicitly born from the nuclear blast that was meant to mutate a certain dinosaur into Godzilla.
• Adaptation Species Change: Instead being an interstellar hydra that travels through space that eradicates planets in the Showa series, the Heisei incarnation was previously three futuristic genetic bat-like critters that were eventually combined into a nuclear empowered mutation, not unlike Godzilla, after the atom bomb tests have occurred. The novelization in turn claims said bat-like critters were cloned from the corpse of an existing alien implied to resemble the Showa version, however.
• Adaptational Badass: While the opposite trope applies later, this King Ghidorah gained a massive size increase, and remains the real antagonist of the film after the Futurians are out of the picture. His wings function as a Wing Shield now, and his fight against Godzilla is a pure Curb-Stomp Battle at first. Ghidorah literally stomps Godzilla almost to death despite Godzilla's own size/power increase before they ever met and shrugs off everything short of Godzilla's last ditch blue Atomic Spiral Ray. Even the nuclear pulse only knocks him over when it previously destroyed Biollante's extensions on impact. Unlike Showa Ghidorah, this one goes from a Dirty Coward to an Implacable Man Hero Antagonist as Mecha King Ghidorah and ends the film with a draw instead of the humiliating losses Showa Ghidorah routinely suffered. This version of Ghidorah would receive similar treatment in other non-film media as the still living organic heads would occasionally take back control of their body.
• Adaptational Seriousness: King Ghidorah was always a major threat in the Showa series, but Villain Decay and the over-the-top nature of the time blunted any edges. This version, while still retaining some of the fantastic tone, is portrayed as a flying H-Bomb instead of a cackling supervillain.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Goes from an Omnicidal Maniac who kills for his own amusement to three innocent creatures who were forcibly fused into the Big Bad's attack dog.
• Adaptational Villainy: Mecha-King Ghidorah gets hit with this a few times: in Marc Cerasini's novel Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters, the comics Rulers of Earth and Monsters Unleashed, and the video game's Super Godzilla and Destroy All Monsters: Melee he's turned into an evil super weapon working under either aliens invading earth or malicious humans (though the sequels to Melee later retcon him with an alignment and origin closer to the movie version), while in the video game Godzilla: Domination he's the Big Bad behind the monsters going on a destructive frenzy.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed Trope. Showa Ghidorah had more in-built powers rather than having them derived from his controllers, required the combined forces of at least two monsters (Godzilla and Rodan, or Godzilla and Anguirus) to drive away, and only died after every monster on Earth at the time ganged up on him. Heisei King Ghidorah has the honor of being the first version of the character for their respective Godzilla to successfully beat without another monster as backup, and the first to only last one film as a threat. That said, Godzilla required a massive power upgrade to even stand a chance against this much larger King Ghidorah, and even then the fight was a Near-Villain Victory. It's easy to miss, but Ghidorah suffers no visible injuries until Godzilla broke out the Atomic Spiral Ray for the first time, and when he comes back for round 2 as Mecha King Ghidorah the battle is a draw.
• Alien Blood: Instead of bleeding out bodily fluids, golden dusty powder is seen being spewed out when his middle head gets blown off by Godzilla's powerful (blue) Spiral Ray. This was a decision to prevent child audiences being exposed to bloodshed; the franchise would notably go back on this in the next films, with Battra, Jr, and Godzilla himself all bleeding profously in later entries.
• Anti-Hero: Type V in the finale of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, where Mecha-King Ghidorah is a villain being controlled by the heroes to stop a rampaging Godzilla.
• Anti-Villain: Yes, really. Unlike the Showa King Ghidorah, this version is less outright malicious and more a victim of circumstance. The three Dorats were innocent pets that never harmed anyone, while the giant hydra only does as its masters order it to. The only thing we see Ghidorah choose to attack is Godzilla, and that's after he's been furiously trying to kill it even after the mind control was broken.
• Back from the Dead: Heisei Ghidorah was killed, but got resurrected as a cyborg in the distant future.
• Big Damn Heroes: Mecha-King Ghidorah returns from the future just in time to stop Godzilla from destroying the rest of Tokyo.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: He has three hearts (similar to an octopus) which store up leftover energy to extend his longevity. He's shown to be in a comatose state lying motionless on the ocean floor and the sound of his beating hearts are still being detected in the year 2204.
• Breath Weapon: Two of the lightning-bolt gravity beams of his original incarnation, plus a laser from his new cybernetic head. Originally, each head was going to shoot a different colored bolt, and they were to be able to combine each into a massive laser attack, but this was cut for budget reasons.
• Chest Blaster: Not quite, but Mecha-King Ghidorah can deploy an enormous clamp and electrical cables from his chest armor. Later appearances in video games show hidden weapons in the chest panels, playing this straighter.
• Clip Its Wings: After suffering a horrific decapitation, he attempts to escape until Godzilla, who decided that fleeing is futile in his eyes, blasts his new Spiral Atomic Breath which punctures a gaping hole in Ghidorah's wing, which in turn sends him plummeting into the oceanic depths where he becomes comatose for over two centuries. This misfortune happens to him again as Mecha-King Ghidorah, where he carries Godzilla with his Machine Hand, and Godzilla again blasts holes in his mechanical wings. Mecha King Ghidorah uses the antigravity devices in his legs (inside the big shackles) to fly, so this time it doesn't work.
• Choke Holds: As a response to getting overpowered by Godzilla, he wraps his middle head around Godzilla's neck as a brutal method to finish him off, to the point Godzilla starts foaming at the mouth. It almost works, but Godzilla proceeded to use a Nuclear Pulse that sent him flying.
• Composite Character: Inherited traits from the Showa Rodan and Mechagodzilla that their respective Heisei incarnations wouldn't. His new roar is a modified Rodan scream. Also like Rodan, Ghidorah is another monster equal to Godzilla born from an atomic explosion that flies instead of swims, is immune to Godzilla's standard Atomic Breath, and carries Godzilla while flying in a less cartoony fashion. Like Mechagodzilla, it's an "alien" (in the novelization, or to the time period in the film) monster born from advanced technology to conquer Japan, augmented into a cyborg after its first defeat with abilities designed to counter previous weaknesses.
• Converging-Stream Weapon: One storyboard panel for the film demonstrated Mecha-King Ghidorah using the power of his Gravity Beams from his organic heads alongside the mechanical head firing his Gravity Laser Cannon, which combines all 3 of his Breath Weapons into a powerful electrical beam. This attack itself was further implemented as one of Grand King Ghidorah's powers 7 years later. The MonsterVerse incarnation also uses this power as well.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: At first. After him and Godzilla exchange their respective beams at each other, King Ghidorah begins to take advantage of his flight speed to outmaneuver Godzilla, who is unable to attack him besides using his Atomic Ray as an attempt to bring Ghidorah down. The hydra starts gaining the upper hand by resorting to brute force when he pulls off a mid-air kick so powerful that it floors Godzilla, before repeatedly stomping him so hard that Godzilla's body gets engraved into the earth with each powerful stomp. Even the humans start becoming anxious that Godzilla is losing the fight... until the device that the Futurians are controlling him with gets destroyed.
• Cyborg: Mecha-King Ghidorah, who has a mechanical head and wings, plating over his chest and legs, and a vast array of built-in weapons. How much of him is mechanical tends to vary depending on the media and the continuity.
• Death by Cameo: The opening to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II reveals the remaining mechanical head of Mecha-King Ghidorah. The sufficiently advanced 23rd century technology became the key factor for the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center and G-Force to construct Mechagodzilla.
• Disc-One Final Boss: In Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, where Godzilla beats him and takes over as Big Bad. King Ghidorah doesn't take this lying down, returns as Mecha-King Ghidorah and fights Godzilla to a Mutual Kill. King Ghidorah and Mecha-Ghidorah also serve as literal Disc One Final Bosses in several of the Godzilla video games.
• Dragon-in-Chief: As per usual, this Ghidorah was the only reason the Futurians were a threat.
• Dragon Ascendant: Not so much in the original film, as Godzilla destroys him before he could act on it. The Futurians lose control of Ghidorah halfway through the battle with Godzilla, only for King Ghidorah to get back up. In his first moment of autonomy, Ghidorah exploits Godzilla's Logical Weakness by choking him almost to death in a Near-Villain Victory. If he'd won, Ghidorah could have turned on humanity with no one to stop him. As Mecha-King Ghidorah this applies in several non-film appearances, as the organic side does take control of their body again with deadly results.
• Evil Counterpart: This one especially compared to Heisei Godzilla. In addition to the usual contrasts other Ghidorahs have to Godzilla or Mothra, this one is another mutant born from an atomic explosion. Unlike Heisei Godzilla, this was deliberate, making Heisei King Ghidorah a "synthetic" Godzilla, used as a weapon to destroy entire cities like another living atom bomb.
• Energy Absorption: In the Pipeworks Godzilla Trilogy, Mecha-King Ghidorah takes increased damage from most weapons. To counter this, if he is struck by them while he has his defense shield up, the power will be absorbed and either completely nullified or heal him.
• Energy Weapon: Mecha-Ghidorah can fire a unique laser from his central, mechanical head.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Implied Trope. King Ghidorah is freed from the mind control halfway through his fight with Godzilla, and after a brief stumble gets back up to overpower Godzilla again of his own volition, the first choice he ever makes without brainwashing. He loses the fight, but it's implied if he'd won the fight he'd have killed Godzilla and continued destroying Japan next...and his former controllers were right there. If Godzilla hadn't killed them, the freed Ghidorah would.
• Feral Villain: Unlike Showa King Ghidorah, this one is as animalistic as Godzilla without the stubborn independence or intelligence.
• Final Boss: Is the final villain in Godzilla: The Half-Century War alongside Gigan.
  • In the Pipeworks Godzilla Trilogy, Mecha-King Ghidorah serves as the final opponent in Mechagodzilla 2's Adventure Mode, as well as the final foe in Godzilla: Domination.
• Fossil Revival: In an early draft of the script, Heisei Ghidorah was said to be a clone created from the corpse of an older extraterrestrial Ghidorah that was discovered on Venus. This extraterrestrial Ghidorah was intended to be revealed to be alive and fight Godzilla, but after it was scrapped the idea was recycled into Grand-King Ghidorah from the Mothra trilogy. The novelization also includes similar plot points.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Heisei King Ghidorah starts out as three tiny bat-like creatures. One nuclear explosion later and you've got a monster who's ready to take out most of the planet. Played With in that the novel reveals the Dorats were genetically engineered from an alien implied to be another Ghidorah found dead on Venus.
• Glass Cannon: While most versions of Ghidorah can tank Godzilla's attacks and then some, this Ghidorah is badly injured by the Nuclear Pulse and defeated when the spiral Atomic Breath clips his wings, causing him to plummet into the ocean. Mecha-King Ghidorah fits this trope even better, as he has more firepower but a massive Achilles' Heel in the form of Emiko and his prosthetics are more fragile than his flesh and blood components.
• Humongous Mecha: In a weird way, Mecha-King Ghidorah, who had a cockpit built into his chest from which Emi could operate his weapons systems and direct his actions. The organic heads do roar and move while she's unconscious, but they can't seem to direct the body without the middle anymore.
• It's Personal: In the film proper, the first choice King Ghidorah makes of his own volition? Strangle Godzilla to death. He also did not take well to Godzilla killing him in Marc Cerasini's novel Godzilla 2000 and was keen to act on his displeasure in a later book by the same author, Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters, which featured a three-on-one battle as Mecha-King Ghidorah battles Godzilla, Moguera, and Mechagodzilla. But it's Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah who have the most interaction as the two of them hate each other with a passion and act on it in brutal fashion.
• Magnetism Manipulation: While this wasn't discussed in the movie, the PC game Godzilla Movie Studio Tour says that he has a "protective magnetic casing" around himself, connected to the Futurians' mind control, which could explain why he's able to sustain many blasts from Godzilla's standard Atomic Ray without so much as a scratch on him, making his Breath Weapon ineffective. This isn't mentioned in the film, but it would explain why Godzilla needed his supercharged blue spiral ray to inflict any lasting damage in their first fight.
• Man Bites Man: At one point after suddenly lunging towards Godzilla while having him pinned down onto a building during the final fight, the organic left head gnaws straight into his throat, with the bite itself even emitting sparks.
• Meaningful Name: His English name hints at both his cyborg nature and the fact he is more a piloted mecha than a living Kaiju.
• Mighty Glacier: In the film, he gets around this through flight, but he's not much for running in all his appearances. His ground speed is sloth-like since he's one of the slowest monsters in the Pipeworks trilogy to the point where even his own flight mobility is significantly hindered. Besides that, he has numerous attacks that are undeniably powerful and have great reach from the length of his necks and tails, along with sporting incredible defense where he's less susceptible to heavier attacks that can send other kaiju flying. Mecha King Ghidorah also possess these traits as well, although in Save the Earth he goes through Divergent Character Evolution as his attacks are far more energetic and are heavily differentiated from his organic counterpart.
• More than Mind Control: Once free, the first thing Ghidorah does is get back up to strangle Godzilla out of rage instead of fleeing, as if still following the last commands. Emiko may be piloting Mecha-King Ghidorah, but the organic heads are still alive and comply without infighting.
• Near-Villain Victory: King Ghidorah overpowers Godzilla twice, and his final attempt at killing Godzilla via strangulation only fails due to doing so from the front instead of behind—the Nuclear Pulse only stunned him, but that supercharged atomic breath was another matter.
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: He's a genetically engineered radioactive dragon cyborg zombie Humongous Mecha.
• Not Quite Dead: Everyone assumed that Godzilla killed King Ghidorah when he fell into the depths while he tried to retreat. He was just dormant, lying on the ocean floor for the next 200 years.
• Nuclear Mutant: King Ghidorah was born when three Dorats were exposed to the radiation of an American hydrogen bomb test, merging them together.
• Off with His Head!: The middle head gets brutally blown off of his body from Godzilla's Atomic Ray after being subdued by his Nuclear Pulse. The effect of the blast was so deadly that what seemed to be an "esophagus" exploded out of his neck.
• Prehensile Tail: Both King Ghidorah and Mecha King Ghidorah use their 2 tails as their second grab to swing around and toss an opponent if any kaiju happens to be placed behind them.
• Robeast: Mecha-King Ghidorah's mechanical parts seem every bit as alive and enraged as his living ones.
• Shadow Archetype: Continuing the trend from Biollante, King Ghidorah is a synthetic monster representative of how Godzilla may have turned out if humans had been able to control him. Unlike Godzilla, who was an accident and repeatedly throws off any mind control attempts, King Ghidorah was intentionally created by another atomic explosion and never gains any autonomy of his own.
• Static Stun Gun: His secondary projectile weapon in the Pipeworks trilogy lets him fire smaller electrical blasts from his metallic chest that functions similarly to tasers, which will not only leave any enemy monster paralyzed, but will completely drain their entire energy meter.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Unlike his original Showa counterpart, who survived three movie appearances before finally dying for good in his swan song in Destroy All Monsters, Heisei Ghidorah is killed in his first movie. The first time, he's beaten but unconscious, still having a heartbeat. After he is reanimated as a new beast called Mecha-King Ghidorah, he finally goes down for good and doesn't return. Instead, Ghidorah starts a legacy of other Hero Antagonist mechanical monsters to bedevil Godzilla for years to come.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah succeeds in stopping a superpowered Godzilla where King Ghidorah could not.
• Tragic Monster: In a first for King Ghidorah. Believe it or not, this incarnation is simply a victim of circumstance and undergoes a Trauma Conga Line to rival that of the first Godzilla, starting out as three adorable genetically engineered pets, but then mutates and is enslaved by the Futurians into their attack dog. And the moment he's freed, he's promptly attacked and decapitated by Godzilla, only to be reanimated and killed by him again.
• Villainous Legacy: King Ghidorah was the reason Japan had to revive Godzilla therefore fear his subsequent rampages for the rest of the series. As Mecha-King Ghidorah, he would die at the end of this film, but his middle head and other components would be studied to make Mechagodzilla, Garuda and other mechanical monsters to trouble Godzilla. In the manga adaptation of the Heisei Vs. Mechagodzilla film this is more explicit as Mecha-King Ghidorah's consciousness takes over his successor to kill Godzilla of his own volition.
• Walking Armoury: Mecha-King Ghidorah, who boasts lasers, electric cables, and a massive clamp in addition to King Ghidorah's lightning spitting heads and his own immense size. Some of the video games add even more weaponry into the mix, like tasers and shields.
• Weak-Willed: Post-mutation, King Ghidorah apparently does nothing until commanded to attack Japan in 1991 almost 50 years later. In the film proper, King Ghidorah only acts as ordered and as Mecha King Ghidorah is unable to function without a pilot.
• We Can Rebuild Him: The Heisei King Ghidorah is rebuilt into Mecha-King Ghidorah; this plotline also appears in Marc Cerasini's novels and several of the video games.
• Wing Shield: At the start of the match, he pulls his wings inward to guard his front by rendering any damage from Godzilla's beam null. This form of defense can be justified since he's surrounded by magnetic casing, but even without that Godzilla can't hurt him without a specific Limit Break after his new upgrade.
• The Worf Effect: On both ends of this in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to show how tough the new Godzilla is, albeit a Godzilla who got pumped up into an even more powerful monster by a nuclear sub. He then promptly returns as Mecha-King Ghidorah and fights Godzilla to a Mutual Kill.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: While his organic heads still retain their original colors of their own respective Gravity Beams, the mechanical head's Plasma Gravity Beam has double-layered multicolored lightning with the blast being colored light blue mixed with purple fading into red mixed with green.

First appearance: Rebirth of Mothra, 1996
Portrayed by: Mizuho Yoshida

Returning to the roots of King Ghidorah, Desighidorah is a demonic space beast that ravages living worlds and leaves them as apocalyptic wastelands. Whereas the Cretaceous King Ghidorah had arrived on Earth 130 million years ago, his relative Desghidorah destroyed the population of Mars before moving on to Earth 65 million years ago, where he engaged the ancient civilization (good grief, how many of these did Earth have?!) of Elias and their guardians, the Mothras. Desighidorah was defeated and sealed away, but not before destroying the Elias, most of the Mothras, and the dinosaurs (and in eliminating the latter, finishing the job the first Ghidorah had started). In the present, he was released by one of the three surviving Elias, Belvera, and began his destruction anew, defeating Mothra and her son. The larval Mothra matured to Leo Mothra and battled Desighidorah again, defeating him and sealing him away once again.

• Aliens Are Bastards: Much like his inspiration.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Desighidorah's wings had atrophied and become useless during his imprisonment, as well as his powers diminishing. After draining enough life energy his wings are restored and his power returns to full. It doesn't help against Leo.
• Dragon-in-Chief: While he works for Belvera, he's the main reason she's even a threat. As soon as he's sealed away, she runs away screaming.
• Expy:
  • Of King Ghidorah. In-universe, they're related; Death Ghidorah apparently having modeled his body off of this continuities King Ghidorah after they fought once.
  • He's also one of Bagan from the unmade Mothra vs Bagan script, essentially taking his role from the script.
• For the Evulz: His main reason for making planets barren and lifeless.
• Giant Flyer: He's big, and he's got wings (though they were inaccessible for his fight with the adult Mothra and her son and only came back for the fight with the adult Leo).
• Ground Pound: Does this to split open a fissure and create a giant lava pit.
• Hero Killer: Mothra Leo's mother had to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to stop him and their fight used up all her strength, leading to her drowning. He's the first Ghidorah to kill another monster as a result, even indirectly.
• Knight of Cerebus: After he's free, the otherwise Lighter and Softer movie takes a darker turn, and he's the first Ghidorah to kill another monster.
• Life Energy: Desighidorah feeds on the life energy of plants, draining worlds dry of all plant energy and leaving them to die.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He looks too detailed (not to mention demonic) for a Toho-based monster. Also he's a rare quadruped.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Unlike King Ghidorah, Desighidorah is a quadruped, but still has wings. His abilities are also fire-based, and his color is a dark charcoal gray/black with red wings.
• Psycho Electro: He does have a defensive measure for the giant blind spot on his back; he electrifies himself and sends the foe flying.
• Planet Eater: In the same sense as the original Ghidorah, he scours planets clean of life.
• Playing with Fire: Spits fireballs from his mouths, has a fiery bite, and can open rifts in the ground to scorch foes with lava.
• Sadist: Takes his time torturing Mothra Leo's larva form to death, rather than simply blasting him and being done.
• Stock Sound Effects: His roars are altered off of stock Elephant sounds performed by Frank Welker.

Cretaceous King Ghidorah / Modern Type King Ghidorah

First appearance: Rebirth of Mothra III, 1998
AKA: Grand King Ghidorah, Super Dragon King Ghidorah
Portrayed by: Tsutomu Kitagawa

In the Rebirth of Mothra series, King Ghidorah is depicted as a space-traveling living disaster that takes cruel delight in the destruction of life, arriving on Earth in the ancient past as Cretaceous King Ghidorah, and causing the K/Pg extinction event. Ultimately, this King Ghidorah is seemingly destroyed by Mothra Leo when he drops the alien dragon into an active volcano. However, a severed tail burrows away and regenerates into the Modern-Type King Ghidorah — also known as Grand-King Ghidorah, who is even more powerful and is only vanquished when Mothra Leo becomes Armor Mothra.

• Always a Bigger Fish: His younger self is introduced preying on a Tyrannosaurus that was attacking a Triceratops.
• Ancient Evil: He arrived on Earth 130 million years ago, intending to wipe out all life on the planet.
• Barrier Warrior: He's able to spawn an impenetrable barrier that can defend him from almost all of Rainbow Mothra's powerful beam attacks.
• Beam Spam: As Modern Type King Ghidorah, it could fire up to six Antigravity Beams from its wings.
• Big Bad: Of Rebirth of Mothra 3, as the sole villain for the first time since his debut.
• Breath Weapon: In its Cretaceous form it can spit fireballs from its mouth, but its Modern Type form has the traditional Gravity Beams.
• Character Check: After years of being an attack dog for every new alien race, Ghidorah is once again an independent villain, acting entirely on his own.
• Child Eater: Grand King Ghidorah feeds on the souls of children to fuel his power and lifeforce.
• Clip Its Wings: Literally — during the final battle between he and Armor Mothra, Mothra flies past him and slices off one of his wings, though he's still able to hover in midair before Mothra delivers a Transcending Fate attack, flying through him and causing him to slowly crystalize before exploding.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Even in his weaker Cretaceous form he effortlessly defeats Rainbow Mothra in a fight and then tortures him while almost killing him, whereas previous antagonists monsters never went beyond the curbstomp, further highlighting his power and abilities.
• Defiant to the End: In Rebirth of Mothra 3 he refuses to flee from Mothra Leo after his wing is cut off, instead merely glaring at him in pure anger before resuming his fight.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: His younger self, Cretaceous King Ghidorah, incorporates a wide range of dinosaurian traits into his design, giving him a distinct prehistoric look. His digitigrade stance and boxy toothy heads evoke large theropods, and his body is covered in extensive plated ankylosaur osteoderms while sporting prominent ceratopsian horns. Fitting enough, he first arrived on Earth during the Early Cretaceous, around 130 million years ago.
• The Dreaded: The sheer mention of his arrival is enough to scare the Elias, the fact that Belvera helps the heroes due to fearing Ghidorah (and the fact that Belvera previously attempted to control another Ghidorah who wiped all life from Mars and Dagahra, who destroyed an ancient civilization much more advanced than humanity on its own) should speak for itself.
• Eye Beams: It could fire hypnosis beams from its eyes, using them to bend other beings to its will.
• Final Boss: Of the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, as Mothra Leo's last and most powerful adversary and his last obstacle in ensuring the safety of the Earth.
• For the Evulz: King Ghidorah is shown to be perfectly capable of mass kidnapping his prey without destruction, but does it anyway just to occupy himself while waiting for his meal to be ready.
• From a Single Cell: Mothra Leo kills his past self in the past... except for one of his tails, which buries and regenerates into a new body which eventually evolves into his adult stage.
• It's Personal: When Armor Mothra humilliates him in a fight he glares at him and refuses to flee out of anger, proving that wounding his ego by making him vulnerable is a way to make things personal for him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Moreso than even Desghidorah and Dagara, he is the only monster that Belvera does not attempt to control in any way, and drives Leo into what was quite his most brutal fight ever.
• No-Sell: Grand King Ghidorah shrugs off everything Mothra Leo throws at him, until Armored Mothra comes into the picture and Ghidorah finds himself on the receiving end of this trope.
• Mind Manipulation: A rather weaker variation as he uses his Eye Beams to take control of other beings, but the hypnosis isn't too hard to remove.
• Not Quite Dead: Mothra Leo tries to prevent Grand King Ghidorah from coming into existence by travelling 130 million years into the past to vanquish it when it was younger and weaker. However, one of Ghidorah's tails was severed and escaped, eventually being revealed to have regenerated a new body and evolved again into its adult form.
• Playing with Fire: His much younger Cretaceous King Ghidorah form could eject streams of Fireballs out of his mouths.
• Psycho Electro: It's Ghidorah, who in this incarnation destroys a city even after getting what he wants (children's souls) without a fight, simply because he's bored and wants to destroy and kill for his amusement while he awaits his meal of children's souls to be ready. Of course he has this power.
• Red Baron: The King of Terror, a title he earned for the worst possible reasons.
• Sadist: Per the norm for Ghidorah, even when he has Leo dead-to-rights, he decides to instead torture him as much as possible. Also he destroys an entire city right after taking all the children's souls without a fight, all because he's entertaining himself while waiting for the children's souls to be ready for him to devour.
• Soul Eating: Grand-King Ghidorah enjoys feeding on the souls and life-force of its victims, and has a taste for children.
• Truer to the Text: After Ghidorah's Showa sequels reduced him to the bioweapon beast or Psycho for Hire to various, more generic alien invasions, and the Heisei incarnation made Ghidorah a weaponized nuclear mutant from the future who is under human control, this incarnation largely reverts to the character's roots from his Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster debut as an ancient evil spacefaring alien who is operating entirely under his own power and wreaks havoc upon Earth's cities For the Evulz.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The hue of his Antigravity Beams that he blasts from the membrane of his wings are hot pink.

Guardian Ghidorah

First Appearance: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monster All Out Attack, 2001
AKA: God of the Sky
Portrayed by: Akira Ohashi

Vastly different from any other of Ghidorah's characterizations, in the Millennium era King Ghidorah is depicted as a guardian monster, as well as an immature Yamato no Orochi. One of the three Guardian Monsters, King Ghidorah is only concerned for the balance of nature and cares not for humanity (at first), and is awoken to fend off the revived Godzilla and put the souls of those lost in the second World War to rest. He joins Mothra at Yokohama in the night to confront Godzilla, but is ultimately overwhelmed and left vulnerable for Godzilla to deliver a fatal blow; however, Mothra sacrifices herself to save her comrade, and the energy of Mothra flows into the heavily-wounded King Ghidorah, reviving the great serpent and allowing him to carry on the fight with Godzilla; in which King Ghidorah opens a wound on Godzilla's neck. After a long battle, King Ghidorah is destroyed by Godzilla, but the wound he created is what ultimately causes Godzilla to destroy himself.

• Adaptational Intelligence: While he's weaker, he's also a lot smarter and saner than his villainous counterparts. As a result he lacks the Ax-Crazy madness or mindless aggression that hobbled his prior selves and pulls off a successful Thanatos Gambit.
• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the other Ghidorahs, this one is actually a heroic kaiju. (Conversely, Godzilla is back to being a villain)
• Adaptational Villainy: The suit for this Ghidorah was later used in footage for the CR Godzilla pachinko games, a commercial for Marubeni coffee, and the fourth and fifth Fest Godzilla short films — albeit in those, Ghidorah was an evil alien monster as he traditionally is, not the heroic, supernatural portrayal in GMK.
• Adaptational Wimp: Most versions require multiple monsters or at least a Super Mode to put down and dwarf their respective enemies. Guardian Ghidorah is the first to be smaller than Godzilla and can barely do any damage without a lot of help, and is the first Ghidorah to be killed outright by a Godzilla. He's considered to be by far the weakest incarnation of King Ghidorah yet.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • While the Showa King Ghidorah was an alien that just resembles a dragon, and the Heisei version is an atomic monster that was originally synthetic pets from a distant future, this Ghidorah is the Yamato no Orochi. But instead of having eight heads in total, he's down to three since he hasn't fully matured to be at the peak of his power.
  • That said, as mentioned above, the GMK suit was reused for King Ghidorah's appearances in the CR Godzilla pachinko games, a commercial for Marubeni coffee, and the fourth and fifth Fest Godzilla short films, which kept the character's Showa origin as an alien.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: The moment he gains his 11th-Hour Superpower is when he truly becomes "King" Ghidorah.
• Bequeathed Power: Ghidorah gains his winged Super Mode by consensually absorbing the souls of the other two Guardians. They seemingly lend him their unique powers over Earth or water as well, explaining his Big Entrance or ability to fight underwater indefinitely.
• Big Entrance: He first appears by bursting up from underground, somehow having tunneled without arms all the way to Tokyo. The merger with Baragon's soul is implied to be a factor.
• Breath Weapon: He can spit bolts of lightning.
• Composite Character: He has fins on the sides of his heads as an artifact of the fact his role in the story was originally intended to be played by Varan. The suit-maker, Fuyuki Shinada, was disappointed his favourite kaiju was replaced and added one of Varan's physical attributes to Ghidorah. This also explains his ability to burrow, swim or fly in the climax, a concept Varan originally made famous.
  • In the Wii version of Godzilla Unleashed, his appearance was hugely changed from his Heisei look as his physical appearance in the game resembles the GMK incarnation, his multiple roars and shrills are used from both his Showa and Heisei incarnations, and the sound effects of his Gravity Beams are basically ripped right from the Showa era.
• Death by Irony: King Ghidorah's killed when Godzilla absorbed his lightning beams and used them to power up his Atomic Breath, an inversion of the same tactic Ghidorah originally used to get the upper hand.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: He too goes through the exact same fate as his fellow Guardian Monster ally, Baragon, did when Godzilla completely destroys him with his Atomic Breath (that's empowered by his own thunder beams) with the explosion itself being so gigantic that it even covers most of Godzilla's head.
• Deflector Shields: Temporarily gains one after his Heroic Second Wind, which blocks Godzilla's nuclear breath. He then throws it at Godzilla, forcing the monster into the ocean.
• Dragons Are Divine: In contrast to his other incarnations, GMK Ghidorah is a benevolent entity that protects Japan from threats.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Gains one after absorbing Mothra's spirit. This is also when the characters start calling him King Ghidorah, rather than just Ghidorah.
• Energy Ball: Uses a shield that was meant to block Godzilla's nuclear breath from attacking him, but he forges the blast into a massive spherical blast that he hurtles at him. When the attack comes into contact with Godzilla, it packs quite a punch, as it managed to actually wound him.
• Expy: In a meta-sense, this Ghidorah is essentially the GMK incarnation of Varan. As awesome as Guardian Ghidorah turned out, the designer for Ghidorah put Varan's facial features into GMK Ghidorah. In the film proper, as King Ghidorah he uses Varan's unique ability to fight underwater, on land, and in the air as he pleases.

• Fusion Dance: King Ghidorah's Super Mode form is created from the other two Guardian Monsters merging their souls with the immature Ghidorah. They later weaponize this ability as a Thanatos Gambit against Godzilla.
• Gaia's Vengeance: A defender of nature specifically. It's pointed out in the English dub that the Guardian Monsters don't care for humans, but for the 'trees and rocks and forests and things.'. That said, Ghidorah goes out of his way to save a human at great risk to himself, so they're not heartless either.
• Giant Flyer: He doesn't start out as one, but becomes this after he gets powered up by Mothra.
• Glass Cannon: Managed to actually hurt Godzilla with his electrical bites and was the only monster in the movie to even wound him with his Energy Ball. However Godzilla's beam turns the tables and when he goes down he literally goes down hard.
• Good Counterpart: The only truly heroic incarnation of a Ghidorah monster. He even saves a human!
• Heel–Face Reincarnation: He was originally the mythical Yamata no Orochi, but due to being lain to rest and blessed by those that slew him, he reincarnates as a heroic monster.
• Heroic Second Wind: Gets defeated by Godzilla easily at first, but when Mothra sacrifices herself to save him, he absorbs her spirit and rises again to fight Godzilla.
• Heroic Willpower: Despite his weakness, he keeps getting back up to fight Godzilla, and even death doesn't stop him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: How he dies. He lets loose his electrical beams at Godzilla but instead of harming Godzilla he actually absorbs its power. When Ghidorah fires all of his beams at once, unaware that Godzilla is being empowered by them, the nuclear beast blasts his ray (with golden spirals wrapped around it) at the orochi point-blank, putting an end to the last guardian monster.
• Light Is Good: Begins as golden scaled, before gaining a heroic golden glow, as seen in the picture.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Gets blown to smithereens by Godzilla's empowered Atomic Ray. Chunks of his flesh are seen falling into the ocean.
• Man Bites Man: Basically his essential approach to fighting Godzilla (due to lacking arms) such as when all three of his heads clamp their jaws on his body whilst heavily electrocuting him.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: He has two tails.
• Orochi: He is an immature Yamata no Orochi, and only has three heads and two tails.
• Redemption Demotion: Nowhere near as imposing or as big a threat to Godzilla as his previous villainous showings were.
• Sanity Has Advantages: Compared to his prior villainous incarnations, he's neither mindless nor Ax-Crazy, and can think and choose for himself instead of being easily manipulated or brainwashed.
• Sealed Good in a Can: He first appears hibernating inside crystalline rock underground. He is supposedly growing in his torpor, into a Yamato no Orochi.
• Shock and Awe: One of his only similarities to other Ghidorahs, bar his appearance. He spits lightning after his 11th-Hour Superpower. Before that, he could electrocute Godzilla through his bite.
• Super Mode: A Golden Super Mode to be exact. After being revived by Mothra's essence it gave him the power of flight and an energy reflecting shield to send Godzilla's Atomic Breath right at him.
• Thanatos Gambit: Ghidorah blasts a gaping wound in Godzilla's neck that is slow to heal, giving the JSDF members a weakness to exploit. After he's killed, Ghidorah uses his soul along with the souls of the other two Guardian Monsters to paralyze Godzilla and drag him underwater, buying enough time for the humans to execute a plan that will finish the job, which works.
• Worf Had the Flu: Didn't have time to mature fully before being revived, resulting in him only having three heads instead of the eight he's supposed to have and being much weaker. It's noted that if he'd been at his full power, he'd probably have fared a lot better. He also has the upper hand on Godzilla after his upgrade from Mothra's spirit, and only loses it when the humans accidentally hit him when aiming for Godzilla.

Monster X/Keizer Ghidorah

First appearance: Godzilla: Final Wars, 2004
AKA: Monster X II
Portrayed by: Motokuni Nakagawa (as Monster X), Toshihiro Ogura (as Keizer Ghidorah)

The last and most powerful monster Godzilla fought in Final Wars, or to put it more bluntly, the only monster in the film that could actually prove a match for him. Sent down in a meteor that destroyed Tokyo, he and Godzilla fight, Monster X initially holding the upper hand. The Xiliens then send an upgraded Gigan to make sure Godzilla dies, but Gigan is killed in the battle by Mothra's Heroic Sacrifice. After a Beam-O-War between Godzilla's atomic breath and Monster X's eye beams, which ends in a draw, Monster X transforms into the quadrupedal dragon Keizer Ghidorah and nearly kills Godzilla. Godzilla is saved however, by being sent power from the mutant soldiers, which allows him to overwhelm and kill Keizer Ghidorah.

• All There in the Manual: Neither Monster X or Keizer Ghidorah ever have their names spoken in the movie. And Toho's official documents refer to Ghidorah as "Monster X-II", likely to avoid spoilers with their trademark logos. Their names are seen in the end credits, though, with the actors who played them.
• Aliens Are Bastards: A sadistic bastard, much like the original Ghidorah.
• Beam-O-War: Fights two with Godzilla, the first as Monster X ends in a draw, the next, after turning into Keizer Ghidorah, Godzilla loses.
• Canon Character All Along: Downplayed Trope. The previously unseen Monster X turns out to be a form of Ghidorah. That said, King Ghidorah and Keizer are explicitly different monsters.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Turning into Keizer Ghidorah has him dishing this out initially against Godzilla, and then he's put on the receiving end of it after Godzilla gets powered-up.
• Cyclops: Downplayed for X himself, although it's worth noting that his shoulder heads only have singular eyes. Highly inverted in his Keizer Ghidorah form where his 2 heads have eyes just like the middle head.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Godzilla destroys the rogue planet Gorath with his breath. When the smoke clears, down floats Monster X. He was inside Gorath, but until then there was no hint of him at any point.
• Draconic Humanoid: A rather frightening detail about him is how vastly anthropomorphic his body is for a kaiju, since he moves around with a lot of athletic prowess for a 120 meter and 60,000 ton beast... the draconic part becomes more distinguished after transforming himself into Keizer Ghidorah, where he's all bestial with no human-like traits to be seen.
• Dragon Ascendant: Keeps fighting long after the Xillians are defeated (in fact he doesn't turn into Keizer Ghidorah until they have been) and serves as the True Final Boss of the film. It happens again in the IDW comics after Godzilla kills SpaceGodzilla.
• Dragon Their Feet: He only transforms into Keizer Ghidorah after all the other Xiliens have been killed/defeated.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Being blasted into the stratosphere by Godzilla's Red Spiral Beam does that to you.
• Dynamic Entry: Monster X floats down slowly from an exploding meteor behind Godzilla, while his Transformation Sequence to Keizer Ghidorah is equally awe-inspiring.
• Evil Laugh: Gives a pretty creepy one when he begins transforming.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As X, his snarls and roars sound demonic and booming with a slight sense of rasp.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Keizer's shrills sound noticeably dry, husky, and outright hoarse. Some of which sort of sound like a cat hacking up a hairball.
• Expy: Is King Ghidorah's stand-in for Final Wars. Also superficially resembles Desghidorah due to being dark in coloration and quadrupedal.
• Extra Eyes: Has 2 more pair of eyes that are located on the heads placed on his shoulders. Each of those eyes eventually grow another eye after he transforms into Keizer Ghidorah.
• Eyebeams: As Monster X, he fires blasts of electricity from his eyes.
• Final Boss: Of Final Wars, and consequently of the Millennium series.
• Giant Flyer: Double subverted. He has wings, but doesn't use them in the film. When he becomes Keizer Ghidorah in the IDW comics, though, he puts them to good use.
• Gravity Master: Keizer Ghidorah's gravity beams finally act like such. He lifts Godzilla and throws him around using his beams, and drags him across the ground through buildings and debris.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When Godzilla is released from of his grasp, Keizer Ghidorah blasts him at point-blank. In retaliation, Godzilla does so in kind by blowing off his middle head. The left head tries to fight back but gets grabbed by Godzilla, by forcefully grabbing his head to have him "intentionally" fire another Gravity Beam at the right head, which outright decapitates him from the power of the blast.
  • In one scene when Monster X and a newly resurrected Gigan double-team Godzilla, X brings him closer to Gigan just to have him shredded by his chainsaws. Gigan attempts to graze him a second time, but instead, the Big G successfully moves out of the way by forcing Monster X to turn all the way around and tank a painful slice himself that causes him to howl in momentary pain.
• Ironic Name: In some ways more so than his other humanoid-serving portrayals. The "keizer" in Keizer Ghidorah's name means "emperor" in German; yet, this incarnation by all accounts is again just the Xiliens' muscle for their own invasion of Earth.
• Large and in Charge: Monster X is of a size with Godzilla; Keizer Ghidorah is even larger.
• Lean and Mean: X has a rather thin but muscular humanoid figure and is also the most cruel, brutal, and vicious monster to ever face Godzilla.
• Lightning Bruiser: Monster X is extremely fast and can fight Godzilla hand to hand.
• Made of Iron: The only monster to survive Godzilla's breath weapon in the film. Not only does it not kill him, he nearly No Sells it. When both monsters unleash their own beams at each other in a brief Beam-O-War, the enormous explosion from their combined blasts seems to do a number on them. Both him and Godzilla remain intact.
• Mighty Glacier: Keizer Ghidorah has very little in the way of agility, exchanging what he had as Monster X for sheer power and mass.
• Near-Villain Victory: If it weren't for Ozaki's Energy Donation of his Keizer power to re-energize Godzilla he would've sapped him dry and the Earth as well as the rest of humanity would've been wiped out.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Monster X has one of the darkest and gothic designs that a Godzilla movie monster could have.
• Off with His Head!: Loses two of them towards the end of the battle.
• One-Winged Angel: From humanoid Monster X to quadruped three-headed Keizer Ghidorah. The IDW comics also show he can change back into Monster X.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Like Desighidorah, Keizer Ghidorah is a quadruped, but has King Ghidorah's heads, wings and golden color.
• Power Floats: After the Gorath asteroid obliterates Tokyo (with Godzilla dead center of the destruction), X is seen slowly descending to the Earth many meters behind Godzilla as if he's a DBZ villain.
• Psycho Electro: Kaizer Ghidorah can spit bolts of lightning that can effect the gravity of things they hit.
• Psycho for Hire: If his behavior in the battle is anything to go by. Like Gigan and King Ghidorah, Keizer Ghidorah tries to kill Godzilla as slowly and painfully as possible, draining the life from the big lizard instead of simply blasting him with lightning. Not to mention the fact he continues his rampage AFTER his boss gets taken out with the same sadism as before, if not more.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His beady red eyes along with the pitch-black color combined with having a white rigid skeletal looking armor around him isn't exactly the most welcoming appearance a terrifying kaiju could possibly have. His Keizer Ghidorah form however, keeps the red eyes but dons a golden coloration with shades of a black and blue.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: One look of this menace displaying his piercing blood-red eyes is not to be taken lightly, since he did have Godzilla on the ropes way longer than the other monsters he's defeated so easily.
• Shock and Awe: Monster X fires electrical beams from his eyes and the "eyes" on his "shoulder pads". Once he becomes a Ghidorah, he reverts to form and fires lightning from his mouth.
• Shoulder Cannon: His other trails of his Destroyed Thunder Beams are also fired from the other eyes on his "shoulder pads".
• Skull for a Head: His facial design surely gives off the impression as such and looks all the more intimidating because of it. His design in his first form as a whole has a skeletal motif to him.
• Super-Strength: Proved himself to be a rather physically dominating challenge to Godzilla. He decks him with a wicked backhand to the jaw, as well as effortlessly suspending him in the air regardless of his weight while he's violently clutching and twisting his wrists. He even manages to shove Godzilla's mouth away from his face for a few seconds to avoid getting blasted by his Atomic Breath. In his Keizer Ghidorah form he's even stronger. Not unlike what Titanosaurus did beforehand, he sends Godzilla flying just by simply kicking him as if he was a football, and uses his powerful neck strength to carry his entire body just to sap his life energy.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Serves the same "evil space monster with lightning/gravity powers" as previous Ghidorahs or Spacegodzilla. Explicitly, his entrance of arriving from inside a meteor is similar to how the original King Ghidorah first appeared way back in 1964. His role as a Final Boss that opposes Godzilla and Mothra while combining aspects of previous antagonists resembles the unmade Bagan concepts
• Tail Slap: He spins himself around in mid-air so quickly that his tail thwacked Godzilla right in his jaw.
• Vampiric Draining: During the climax of the film he bites Godzilla's arms, and neck, and proceeds to try to drain the life-force from him.
• Villain Team-Up: In the IDW comics alongside SpaceGodzilla, Gigan and Hedorah.
• The Worf Effect: Godzilla easily stomps everything in the film with barely a scratch on him until this guy shows up, and is the only monster to not only still be standing hit from his Breath Weapon, but he flat out shrugs if off.
• Xenomorph Xerox: Monster X's skeletal body and elongated head make him look somewhat like a Xenomorph.

First appearance: Godzilla: The Planet Eater, 2019
AKA: The Golden Demise, Wings of Death, God of the Void

A godlike extradimensional monster that resembles a three-headed 20 kilometer-long dragon comprised of golden energy. Before the series began, Ghidorah destroyed the Exifs' homeworld and is worshipped by the survivors as a god of destruction, to whom they sacrifice planets. The Greater-Scope Villain of the anime, Ghidorah set the entire plot in motion to finally get his jaws on Earth.

• Adaptational Abomination: Not that the other versions of Ghidorah were normal-looking, but this one is from another dimension, emerging from black holes to consume entire planets, literally warping spacetime around him, and is massive on a scale measured in kilometres. It's indicated that he is eternal and will probably live beyond the heat death of our universe.
• Adaptational Badass: Godzilla Earth is the biggest and baddest incarnation of the character and King Ghidorah makes him look tame by comparison. So yes, this trope is definitely in play. Notably, this is the first Ghidorah to be a true Planet Eater and capable of destroying planets with his gravity powers. However, there's a trade-off...
• Adaptational Intelligence: Otaru Ghidorah's the one giving orders to the Exif and created an Evil Plan that they have followed successfully on countless worlds, if they're telling the truth.
• Adaptational Name Change: The "King" part of anime Ghidorah's name is written as "Otaru"/王たる rather than the standard "Kingu"/キング.
• Adaptational Wimp: When he has a tether, he's invincible, but the ritual was botched so only his heads appear, limiting him to biting Godzilla without any other strategy. Worse, he's entirely reliant on his intangibility to be a threat to Godzilla, and can't use any of his powers stated in the novel. The moment he's tangible, Godzilla is able to knock him around by turning around, he never shows any semblance of combat ability, and he's banished in a few fairly casual hits, making him easily the worst fighter and biggest coward of any Ghidorah.
• Alternate Self: Urobuchi and Seshita conceptualized Ghidorah as a "completely differently evolved Godzilla," essentially making it a giant three-headed Flying-Type Servum made of living energy. Also he is this to his other incarnations, to the point where Metphies refers to him as "Otaru Ghidorah" in Japan, rather than the usual "Kingu Gidora" spelling.
• Ambiguous Situation: Metphies' dying words and the Gematron Calculation vision that Haruo has indicate that Ghidorah isn't dead, or that others of its kind exist and could be summoned in its place. The former is likely seeing as Haruo seems to still have a connection with it at the end of the film.
• The Anti-God: To Godzilla's God, since they're both capable of destroying worlds. Taken to a new level with Ghidorah, who eats entire planets and cannot be truly killed.
• Big Bad: Of Godzilla: Planet Eater.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Godzilla Earth in the third film.
• Botanical Abomination: A downplayed example. To better act as a foil towards the more obviously plant-like Godzilla Earth, his spiky design was influenced by thorny rose stems, and he's implied to be a sort a of hyper-evolved Servum.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • Ghidorah is everything Mechagodzilla was not as an antagonist. Mechagodzilla City was a permanently grounded creation of science Gone Horribly Right, an artificial god designed to trap and kill Godzilla Earth. Otaru Ghidorah is an ancient alien eldritch monster, and spends the entire movie attacking from the heavens. Mechagodzilla City used nanometal to shield itself from Godzilla's heat ray; Ghidorah used his gravity manipulation to simply curve it in another direction. Ghidorah is immune to all the weapons Godzilla used to destroy the City.
  • Previous villainous Ghidorahs would be the Dragon-in-Chief or Dragon Ascendant if they were working with Human Alien villains, and were usually too Ax-Crazy to make a coherent plan. This one commands them, not the other way around, and their Evil Plan was made on his orders.
• The Chessmaster: The Exif reveal that Ghidorah has been pulling the strings on the operations for a long while. It commands the exif to feed it planets, and everything that happened after the escape from earth in 2048 has been directly calculated in order to prepare Earth for Ghidorah.
• Civilization Destroyer: Exaggerated Trope. It did worse to the Exifs' homeworld than what Godzilla did to Earth, and is the reason they are wandering missionaries. What makes this more sinister is that the Exif actively seek out civilized worlds to sacrifice to Ghidorah, converting the inhabitants to their religion and tricking them into summoning it. However, it turns out that the Exif willingly gave themselves to Ghidorah, and without a host, Ghidorah would not be able to enter our dimension. And Ghidorah didn't just destroy their civilization, he literally ate their entire planet, and wants Earth next.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Tears into the concept of King Ghidorah the same way Shin Godzilla did Godzilla, by looking at how a being which is wholly alien, and hence completely different to the laws of our universe, would function if summoned there. This Ghidorah is an Energy Being capable of devouring worlds, making him even more powerful and unnatural than the technically local Godzilla Earth. By being from another universe, he has no need to worry about his path of destruction negatively impacting him for long, so is free to be as destructive and evil as he likes. However, since he's not from this dimension, he's also helpless here without his followers directing him into battle, as an entity in territory unnatural to him would be. His nature means he can direct his powers in new ways which break the laws of physics and reality, but he's also incredibly fragile without a tether, since he's made of energy; energy can dissipate without a conduit. He has the sadism of the other Ghidorah incarnations, and again it's deconstructed; taking his time and drawing out Godzilla's death is what allows Godzilla Earth to last long enough to retaliate. Even the idea behind him always coming back as Godzilla's Arch-Enemy is picked apart; Haruo realizes that Ghidorah has the opportunity to return so long as he and his anger towards Godzilla exists, so ends his own life to prevent Ghidorah from coming back.
• The Dreaded: While Godzilla is capable of wiping out entire civilizations on Earth, King Ghidorah bears the epithet of "Planet Eater" and is worshiped as a deity by the Exifs due to it having destroyed their homeworld, to the extent that even saying its name is regarded with terror. Metphies explicitly states that Ghidorah is much worse than Godzilla.
• Dirty Coward: Ghidorah, despite all his vast power, screams in terror after Godzilla touches one of his necks. Once Godzilla is able to fight back, the dragon frantically tries to escape, even though he's unkillable and could easily survive..
• Draconic Abomination: Ghidorah is a giant three-headed extradimensional dragon that is made entirely of energy and eats planets. When he manifests on Earth at first, just his shadow coming across the shadows of other people causes them to lose parts of their bodies as if they are bitten off and die as a result. He actually warps time and space around him and is invincible as a result, but since he is from another universe he can't normally sustain himself in other dimensions. He needs a vessel to summon and control him, and without it he becomes vulnerable and weak. Since the sacrifice wasn't performed properly, Ghidorah can't manifest correctly when Metphies is killed, leaving him open to Godzilla's counterattack.
• Energy Being: Rather than a physical beast that's been portrayed in every other adaptation, this Ghidorah is a three-headed dragon composed of cosmic energy. Its body remains in its homeworld, with its heads being projected through black hole-like portals.
• Evil Is Bigger: Utterly dwarfs the already colossal Godzilla Earth, and his necks are stated to have a length of twenty kilometers (with no given height or weight considering his... composition).
• Eviler than Thou: Metphies describes him as such compared to Godzilla, stating that he's so much worse that Godzilla isn't even worth fearing.
• Extra Eyes: To emphasize his alien nature (even more so than other Ghidorahs of alien origin), he has numerous beady red eyes on each of his three heads.
• Fermi Paradox: All but stated that Ghidorah is this, as Metphies says that civilizations will eventually grow advanced enough to birth monsters like Godzilla, and then Ghidorah arrives to harvest them.
• Foil: Another one to Godzilla. Like Godzilla Earth, Ghidorah's design was inspired by plants. But while Godzilla Earth was based on trees, Ghidorah's design was patterned after roses and other plants with thorns, an influence which is visible in the numerous spikes sprouting from Ghidorah's necks and heads. According to Hiroyuki Seshita, Ghidorah was designed to appear both fearsome and divine. As in a rival god to Godzilla, a true one rather than an artifically made one like Mechagodzilla. Just like Godzilla Earth, Ghidorah is almost invincible, but rather than weathering attacks and guarding against them with a shield, Ghidorah renders himself intangible.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: In contrast to the usual Sadist or For the Evulz motives of most versions of the character, this Ghidorah is everything for the sake of destroying everything, without much in the way of motivation or personality to get in the way. He does panic when Godzilla gets his hands on him, though...
• Giant Flyer: Given King Ghidorah is normally even bigger than Godzilla, he makes the Flying-Type Servum look like insects in comparison, but downplayed because we never actually see him use his wings. He does however spend most of the movie hovering above ground in his portals.
• Gravity Master: Ghidorah uses "Super Gravity" to destroy planets and conjure black hole-like portals.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Moreso than Godzilla Earth. It turns out that basically everything that happened since the Exif appeared on Earth was influenced by Ghidorah's orders to the Exif. Ghidorah has been communicating with the Exif via the Gematron devices, revealing that the Gematrons aren't just amazingly advanced supercomputers that tell the future, they're actually devices Ghidorah uses to communicate orders to the Exif. The immigration, the dump of info on Godzilla's weakness in the database, the return to Earth, and the events that happened on Earth were all intentionally done on Ghidorah's orders to prepare a great sacrifice for him.
• Intangibility: Godzilla's physical attacks phase right through Ghidorah's body because since he's from another dimension, the laws of physics of our universe don't apply to him. When Metphies control over Ghidorah is broken, he becomes solid, allowing Godzilla to actually hit him and he goes down in a few hits.
• Invincible Villain: In Ghidorah's normal state in our universe, he's literally untouchable since he's able to bend space and time around him to redirect attacks, or the attacks just go through his body with no effect because he's not of tangible matter. Subverted when his tether is destroyed, he's no match at all for Godzilla. Some of Metphies lines near the end do state that he can't be truly killed however.
• It Can Think: In a reversal of their usual dynamic, King Ghidorah is ordering the Exif to do what he wants, not the other way around, and the Evil Plan they have in mind was his idea.
• Light Is Not Good: Shinier than ever, with a form even made of golden energy, and worshipped as a god. Doesn't make it any less destructive.
• Multiversal Conqueror: Since this King Ghidorah is from another universe, he is completely intangible to anyone in the universe he attacks and can carry out feats that break the laws of physics (but are within the laws of those of the universe he's from), provided his 'controller' with the Garbetrium is alive. We don't get to see what would happen if he had enough time to get a chance to recover from the loss of the controller (Metphies) before Godzilla defeats him, so who knows how strong he is without this benefit.
• Mythology Gag: Ghidorah, much like Mechagodzilla City before him, is a calvacade of these.
  • Like the original Showa Ghidorah, he's a giant alien space monster summoned by the Xilien race. He is also a sadist, a planet killer, and behind all the horrible power he is also a coward. He also at one point makes the signature cackle that the Showa Ghidorah made when communicating with the Exif.
  • Like the Heisei Ghidorahs, this Ghidorah dwarfs Godzilla in both size and power, and requires some kind of direction to function. Once stripped of this direction, Ghidorah is disoriented and Godzilla is able to get the upper hand. Also, this Ghidorah is designed to be as much of a foil to Godzilla as the 90's Ghidorah was, both of them being monsters designed after plants but taken in vastly different directions. He is also thwarted by a Mothra just like in Rebirth of Mothra 3, preys on the souls of others as nourishment, and mind rapes people the same way that Ghidorah did.
  • Like the Milliennium King Ghidorah and Keizer Ghidorah, this Ghidorah has a vicious bite that electrifies Godzilla and slowly drains the life from him. On top of that, this Ghidorah is also the Final Boss the same way Keizer Ghidorah was.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The moniker it's given in the title of the third movie, Hoshi wo Kuu Mono, variously translates to "Planet Eater" or "Eater of Stars". The Exif consider his name this, to the point they rarely if ever speak it.
• No-Sell: Ghidorah effortlessly deflects Godzilla's Atomic Breath and phases through his physical attacks.
• Not Quite Dead: Implied. After Ghidorah is defeated by Godzilla Earth, Metphies tells Haruo that Ghidorah will still be watching and will return again, and Ghidorah's roar can be heard in Haruo's thoughts. Still, Haruo pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure Ghidorah won't be back for a long time, if ever. It's totally possible that King Ghidorah is technically unkillable and can only be sent back to his home dimension.
• Oh, Crap!: Causes a major one for the crew of the Aratrum when he first appears and attacks it, especially after they see their own deaths 40 seconds early.
  • Gets one himself when Haruo doesn't comply and sacrifice himself to allow Ghidorah to exist on his own. Instead, he kills Metphies, trapping Ghidorah's projection here and allowing Godzilla to actually hurt him.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Ghidorah is a cosmic entity of destruction that resembles a three-headed two-tailed dragon, though only its heads are seen in full — its body remaining ensconced in its home dimension.
• Physical God: Like Godzilla, he is worshiped by the Exif as a god of destruction. Metphies describes him as being so much worse than Godzilla that Haruo should use the fact he's not fighting Ghidorah as a motivator not to fear Godzilla.
• Planet Eater: Ghidorah has devoured countless worlds, including the Exif homeworld Exifcalus. Unlike previous versions, this is literal planet destruction via his gravity powers.
• Psycho Electro: Ghidorah retains the electric bite a few other versions of himself used in previous movies.
• Red Baron: The Wings of Death, the Golden Demise/Death, the One Who Devours All, King/God of the Void, to name a few.
• Sadist: Ghidorah notably does not use his gravity powers to kill Godzilla Earth quickly, instead choosing to slowly torture Godzilla to death. Taking his time like this is his undoing.
• Speak of the Devil: The Exif believe this is the case, and as such rarely if ever speak his name out loud. When they do, it's only in whisper. This is because King Ghidorah is summoned by chanting his name.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Ghidorah has godlike powers and can warp reality but is never shown being able to actually fight in the film proper. As a result once the ritual is interrupted Godzilla easily banishes him.
• You Are Already Dead: Ghidorah is capable of causing time dilation as a result of him being immune to the laws of physics of the dimensions he is sent to invade. His first action is to use his immense gravitational pull to destroy the Aratrum, killing all onboard. Ghidorah's time dilation means that not one member of the crew is aware this has even happened until the bridge's computer announces that it couldn't detect any life signs in the area.

First appearance: Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D

• Aliens Are Bastards: As with the Showa, Rebirth, Anime, and Legendary incarnations, he's a space monster who seeks to destroy Earth.
• Alien Blood: When injured he bleeds blue glowing energy.
• Big Bad: The true main antagonist of the movie, as Godzilla only appeared at all to confront and destroy him.
• Evil Slinks: His movements are much more serpentine than previous incarnations.
• Gravity Master: Notably his Gravity Beams actually allow him broad gravity manipulation, with him throwing entire buildings at Godzilla during their fight. And he doesn't really fly so much as swim through the air by manipulating gravity.
• Jagged Mouth: Much like Godzilla Earth, his teeth are a part of his jaws.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Shinji jumps off the buildings he was levitating with his gravity powers to stab him in the wound Godzilla opened in his chest.
  • Godzilla ends up absorbing his Gravity Beams to recharge and finish him off in a Beam-O-War.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Shinji badly injures him by driving a sword through a wound Godzilla opened in his chest. He survives, but is weakened enough for Godzilla to kill him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: His gravity beams are what revive Godzilla after his energy is depleted, enabling him to defeat Ghidorah.
• Outside-Context Problem: If NERV sent out the EVAs, mistaking Godzilla for an Angel until after they'd arrived, they sure as hell weren't expecting that Godzilla was only on land to head Ghidorah off.

First Appearance: Do Your Best, Chibi Godzilla (2018)

Birth Date: January 11th (Source)

Voiced by: Saori Takamiya (I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla), Takuya Eguchi (Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, JP), Ryan Drees (Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, EN)

The chibi version of the King Ghidorah, as appear in the Chibi Godzilla media.

As with some of the incarnations of King Ghidorah, each of Chibi Ghidorah's heads has different personalities. Sometimes they sing together and sometimes they bicker with each other.

In Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, Chibi Ghidorah is a resident on Monster Island and one of Chibi Godzilla's friends. The individual heads' personalities are more fleshed out this time: the middle head is friendly, the left head is a hotheaded Jerkass, and the right head is Affably Evil. Because the three heads share the same body, they all gain the same nutrition from food regardless of which head eats it (though none of them want to gain weight from something one of the others ate and often break into fights because of this) and share the same pain. Later episodes reveal that they are poor due to their spending habits.

Tropes that applies to Chibi Ghidorah in general

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike the King Ghidorah in the film continuities, Chibi Ghidorah is a friend to Chibi Godzilla and friends.
• Eyes Always Shut: Chibi Ghidorah's right head always has his eyes shut even when the other two have them open.
• Multiple Head Case: It is stated that each of Chibi Ghidorah's heads has different personalities. Chibi Godzilla Raids Again takes this idea and runs with it.

Tropes that applies to Chibi Ghidorah in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again

• Adaptational Personality Change: While each of the heads' personalities was never elaborated upon in the children's book series and I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla, Chibi Godzilla Raids Again showcases the distinct personalities of Chibi Ghidorah's heads.
• Absurd Phobia: Despite his bad temper, it was later revealed in "Chibi Ghidorah Can't Get Along" that the left head is afraid of horror films. "Famous Tales From the Human World" expands it to any story with sufficiently disturbing material— even reading human folktales with unexpectedly dark plot beats is enough to make him Faint in Shock.
• Affably Evil: The right head, whose eyes are always shut, plots to exploit friendship for financial gain. Chibi Mechagodzilla even remarks that said head is the scariest. And let's not forget the time he tries to force the left head to watch a horror film...
• Breath Weapon: Chibi Ghidorah is capable of firing Gravity Beams in this adaptation. For a while, it was only known he could use it because his left head once threatened to turn it loose against Chibi Mechagodzilla. "Chibi JJ's Interrogation" shows him actually using it against Chibi Rodan in a flashback.
• Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: In their debut appearance in the show, there are two cases where all three heads say different things all at once. The English subtitles transcribe it as "#%&$#$" both times.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: The left head is quick-tempered, even threatening to fire a Gravity Beam at Chibi Mechagodzilla once.
• Knights and Knaves: Plays this role in "Chibi Minilla's First Errand", with each of his heads offering contradictory directions to the market with only one head telling the truth (much to Chibi Minilla's frustration).
• Nice Guy: The middle head is easily the most amicable of the three.
• The Nicknamer: The middle head always calls his friends by nicknames, such as Godzi-yan for Chibi Godzilla and Mego-yan for Chibi Mechagodzilla.
• Nightmare Fetishist: The right head shows shades of this in "Chibi Ghidorah Can't Get Along". It's shown he rented a horror movie, much to the left head's fright. Not only that, but he tells the left head "your shrieks of terror will make the movie better".
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: The Affably Evil right head speaks with an eerily calm tone.