Destoroyah

"An Oxygen Destroyer! It can destroy everything and everybody. It's power is that awesome. Destoroyah!"

- Dr. Kensaku Ijuin "I've a feeling this is going to be Godzilla's last fight."

- Miki Saegusa as Godzilla and Destoroyah begin to battle.

Destoroyah (also known as Destroyah, or Destroyer in the English dub) is a 541 million year old giant demonic Kaiju and the primary antagonist of the 1995 40th Anniversary Godzilla film, Godzilla vs Destoroyah. He is one of Godzilla's most powerful, evil and dangerous enemies and is the true main antagonist of the Heisei series, serving as the final antagonist and originating from events of the original 1954 Godzilla film.

He was born from a colony of Precambrian crustaceans mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer, the weapon used to kill the original Godzilla. He later evolved and became a perfect form, whilst encountering the dying Godzilla and his son Godzilla Junior, both he attacked and attempted to kill.

He was portrayed by Ryō Haritani, who also suit-played SpaceGodzilla.

Origin and Rampage
After the Oxygen Destroyer went off in 1954 and destroyed the original Godzilla, it revived and mutated a group of precambrain crustaceans lying beneath Tokyo Bay. In 1996, an underwater drill accidentally released these creatures and they ran rampant through Tokyo. They eventually reached their two meter forms and proceeded to destroy a bridge then hide away in a factory. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces sent in soldiers, who proved helpless against the monsters, until they made use of flamethrowers, which forced them on the retreat and let the JSDF realize that these mutants were weak against extreme temperatures. They deployed a unit of maser tanks and missile batteries armed with Ultra Low Temperature lasers and cooling shells. The aggregates reappeared, but this time formed into two giant forms, which they proved helpless against.

Battling the Godzillas
Now with two major threats, the JSDF decided to draw Godzilla to the two monsters in the hope that he would succeed in getting rid of them. They planned to lure in Godzilla Junior in the hope that the King of the Monsters would follow his son. The JSDF used a pair of psychics, one of which was Miki Saegusa who protested against this, to make Junior come to Tokyo. Upon his arrival, the two Destoroyah monsters attacked him and easily managed to dominate the battle. However Junior managed to get in a lucky shot that brought down the flying Destoroyah. But the other managed to pin the young Godzillasaurus down and bit into his skin, injecting him with micro-oxygen, though Junior blasted the Destoroyah monster into a nearby building. Later Godzilla arrived on the scene only to be confronted by the final form of Destoroyah, which greatly resembled a demon. This new mutated demonic-like monstrosity took flight and struck down the King of the Monsters, taking Junior into its clutches. Destoroyah then dropped him to the ground, finally killing the King of the Monsters' son. Godzilla got to his feet, enraged at the death of his child, and the micro oxygen monster landed, challenging him to battle. Destoroyah blasted the King of the Monsters with its micro oxygen rays and used its mass to smash him into the ground. It then wrapped its tail around Godzilla's neck and dragged him out to sea, dropping him into the water. However the monster king attacked Destoroyah with his red spiral ray, blasting it apart, but it countered by swarming Godzilla in its aggregate forms. However a nuclear pulse from the King of the Monsters blasted away the aggregate creatures. Upon failing to revitalize his son, Godzilla's grief sent the meltdown his body was undergoing to enter critical levels. The JSDF's Super X-III and freezing maser tanks quickly attempted to stop the King of the Monsters' meltdown.

Destruction
However Destoroyah wasn't done yet and attacked Godzilla as his heart began to overheat. It began to strangle the monster king with its tail again and threw him away from his dead son. However Godzilla unleashed his atomic blast, greatly increased in power due to his meltdown, which blasted Destoroyah apart. As the King of the Monsters began to enter the final stages of his meltdown, the mutant monstrosity attempted to escape by flying away. But the JSDF blasted its wings and froze the micro-oxygen in its body, making it fall to the ground and explode into a cloud of mist upon impact.

Powers and Abilities
Destoroyah is considered to be one of the most powerful creatures that Godzilla has ever faced and even defeated him when he is at the peak of his power. When one thinks about it, Godzilla never actually defeated Destoroyah. The creature is actually composed of trillions of microscopic organisms and is able to adapt and regenerate. These creatures mainly join together to form the various forms of Destoroyah, but can separate into smaller forms. Its primary weapon is its micro oxygen ray, which all of its forms can use. However its giant form has a pair of secondary jaws, which can inject those it bites with micro oxygen. In its final and flying form, Destoroyah could use a claw on its tail that was strong enough to hold Godzilla, drain energy, unleash an electric discharge and form its horn into a powerful blade. It is later shown that even among the giant monsters, Destoroyah had immense strength. It was proven during the battle scene. Not only was it one of Godzilla's most powerful foes, but it was also one of the biggest. Destoroyah stood at 120 meters tall, and it weighed in at 80,000 tons. It also had a length of 230 meters and a wingspan of 210 meters.

This was recorded at www.tohokingdom.com/kaiju/destoroyah.

Personality
Destoroyah is often considered one of Godzilla's most merciless and evil foes, if not the most evil of Godzilla's foes, along with the Showa King Ghidorah and SpaceGodzilla. Unlike monsters that kill and destroy unintentionally and act only out of instinct or under mind control, Destoroyah seems fully aware of the death and destruction he causes, and takes pleasure in causing it. His cruelty is most visible when he attacks Godzilla Junior, and later kills him while the latter is trying to reunite with his father. While Godzilla is grieving over his son, Destoroyah attacks him on two separate occasions, even appearing to laugh while he drags Godzilla by the neck. This makes Destoroyah only the second kaiju to attack Godzilla both emotionally and physically, after SpaceGodzilla.

Non-film media also depict Destoroyah as incredibly evil and malevolent. According to Destoroyah's bio in the game Godzilla: Unleashed, Destoroyah "seeks nothing else than the total annihilation of all life-forms in existence." In the comic series Godzilla: Cataclysm, Destoroyah is described by one character as a "demon," and at one point splits apart into his juvenile forms and brutally massacres several villagers one by one. Destoroyah exhibits similar behavior in his appearances in other IDW comic series.

Godzilla: Unleashed
Destoroyah appears in the videogame Godzilla: Unleashed as a playable monster, who has sided with the Mutants faction. Destoroyah is easily one of the most powerful monsters in the game. Despite being the slowest monster in the game, he makes up for it with the ability to dish out a lot of damage while taking it.

His entry in the Character Bio states:

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

​Reception
Along with the film receiving positive reviews, Destoroyah is often considered to be one of the best Godzilla villains. Miles Imhoff of Toho Kingdom called Destoroyah "perhaps the most heartless and cruel of any kaiju to ever exist." He said "the props and suit look amazing, and are really an excellent choice for Godzilla's final Heisei foe. The reddish hues, the jagged features, and the demonic appearance of the many forms of Destoroyah are handled nicely. In fact, its wild and deadly features, coupled with its personality and several stages, can easily be seen as a loose remake of Headorah. Destoroyah's many forms are portrayed as vicious, but it is the final form that is shown to be truly cold. The portrayal of its ruthless murder of Junior is a form of cruelty truly unseen since the vicious tooth-and-claw battles of the latter Showa entries, and it is this one act that best sums up the character Destoroyah as a whole." Complex listed the character as #3 on its "The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time" list, while WatchMojo.com listed Destoroyah as #3 on their "Top 10 Godzilla Villains" list. Conversely, Godzilla historian Steve Ryfle described Destoroyah as a "laughable" mix of Predator and SpaceGodzilla which "should be placed alongside Megalon and Gigan in the back rooms of the Toho monster gallery."

Trivia

 * Destoroyah has some similarities to Hedorah, such as different forms they can change in and out of.
 * Destoroyah had an ability that was cut from the movie, the ability to open the spike like floral pattern on its chest to fire a powerful blast. This was probably cut because it would have killed Godzilla which could not have happened so Godzilla could instead tragically die via his meltdown.
 * In another scene cut from the movie, Destoroyah appeared after being shot down by the JSDF forces and was forced to fight against Godzilla as he melted down. The mutant monstrosity got pummeled and was frozen along with the monster king. The two extreme temperatures finally ended Destoroyah and it evaporated.
 * In the anime, Godannar, Milla is killed by a monster very similar to one of Destoroyah's aggregate forms.
 * In the Godzilla comic created by Marvel Comics, a monster called Terminus has stages of development very similar to that of Destoroyah and even has a weakness for cold. Since this monster was created before Destoroyah, Toho may have used Terminus as inspiration for one of their monsters.
 * Destoroyah was originally considered for an appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars, but it was cut.
 * Destoroyah's name is derived from "Destroyer," but Toho was unable to trademark the word in English markets and so came up with the English name "Destoroyah."
 * WatchMojo.com listed Destoroyah as #3 on their "Top 10 Godzilla Villains" list.

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