“ | Remember it when you are in battle, and about to be swallowed in fear. There is a far greater destructive power lurking somewhere in space. Compared to that, Godzilla would not even be worth the fear... Ghidorah. | „ |
~ Metphies revealing the secret of Ghidorah to Haruo. |
“ | The planet is a seed from which life grows, and humanity is the flower that blooms from it. While the fruit that ripens is Godzilla. We Exif have witnessed this cycle countless times on many planets, and at the end of this cycle, the one who picks the fruit is indeed our god. Great King Ghidorah, the golden demise. All of the creations in this world exist for one purpose, TO BECOME AN OFFERING TO GOD! | „ |
~ Metphies explaining the Exif's ideology of Ghidorah's destroying of worlds. |
King Ghidorah is the overarching antagonist of the GODZILLA Anime Trilogy, serving specifically as the main antagonist of GODZILLA: The Planet Eater.
He is a three-headed dragon-like entity from another dimension who has causes colossal wreaks havoc by obliterating entire planets.
Biography[]
Origins[]
As with his Showa counterpart, Ghidorah is a space three-headed dragon kaiju that is responsible for the destruction of countless worlds. What made this incarnation much more powerful and terrifying than the former, however, are his nature as godlike kaiju and inversed relationship with an alien civilization: This Ghidorah evolved as an energy-based lifeform from an unknown dimension where life forms lack physical form and was worshiped by the Exif race as their God; 100,000 years ago, the Exif race sacrificed their homeworld Exifcalus to the godlike kaiju out of belief that creatures such as him are a form of divine punishment intended for decadent civilizations that pronounce themselves the lords of creation. Worshiping Ghidorah's three-headed aspect as the "Golden King," Exif wandered the vastness of space for many millennia after the destruction of the planet to convert the inhabitants of countless other worlds to their faith before summoning Ghidorah to eat them, and intended to do the same to Earth.
Some ancient human civilizations may have been aware of Ghidorah as well, possibly through contact with the Exif, as suggested by the presence of multi-headed dragons in Slavic and Turkic mythology.
GODZILLA: City on the Edge of Battle[]
Metphies reveals to Haruo the secret of Ghidorah, which alludes to the next film.
GODZILLA: The Planet Eater[]
Following the destruction of Mechagodzilla City, Metphies and his death cult see that the time has come for them to summon Ghidorah to Earth, where Ghidorah will wreak havoc on the planet and challenge Godzilla Earth's supremacy. Upon being summoned, the godlike kaiju extended his head through the black holes, destroying Aratrum and killed its occupants before making its way for Earth, alerting Godzilla who then awakens from his slumber to protect the planet from being destroyed.
Despite Godzilla's power, Ghidorah is impervious to Godzilla's attacks thanks to his otherworldly nature, making humanity realized that the godlike kaiju form they see is not from their own dimension and guided by someone through an amulet, which also established the link between him and that of their dimension. The said amulet is none other than the Garbetrium bead that Metphies replaced one of his eyes with which allow Ghidorah to perceive the Earth's surroundings and enable Metphies and his cult to communicate with the godlike kaiju via telepathy.
After Mothra's distraction allowed Haruo to shatter Metphies' Garbetrium eye, Ghidorah became trapped in the Earth's plane of reality. This allows Godzilla to rip off Ghidorah's heads before firing his atomic breath into Ghidorah's portal, causing it to explode and shatter. Though Ghidorah survived the encounter thanks to his physiology, Haruo eventually sacrificed himself so that Ghidorah could not use him to enter this world again.
Appearance[]
This King Ghidorah variation is far different in appearance from other incarnations. He does have three heads, wings, two tails, and a golden color, like the past designs. However, he has tiny legs, and a more horizontal posture. He has a powdery texture, rather hand the scaly skin seen on past incarnations. Overall, this Ghidorah's design is more alien in appearance, with large fangs in the jaws, and multiple eyes. Thorns run across the necks. Another feature of the necks is their vast length, which exceeds all the length of many other Ghidorah variations. Following the concept of Godzilla Earth's appearance, Ghidorah is plant-like in design. However, it is more like thorny plants.
Powers and Abilities[]
It is said that if Ghidorah had fully manifested on Earth by using Haruo, Ghidorah would have instantly destroyed the planet. According to Metphies, it is a common outcome for any planets with civilizations to bare kaijus as a counter force of nature against humanities, and ″Godzillas" would appear in consequences. And the apex predator of the universe-scaled ecosystem is the Ghidorah, and Ghidorah had devoured countless other planets with their ″Godziillas″.
Super Gravity[]
Ghidorah is said to use the power of Super Gravity to devour planets. A demonstration of the said ability is shown when he destroyed the Aratrum, though it was not employed in full-force since the intended target was a starship.
Interdimensional Travel[]
Due to being composed of energy rather than physical matter, Ghidorah has the ability to pass through dimensions. His heads pass into other dimensions through three black portals, and his necks can extend to incredible lengths. During his summoning ritual, Ghidorah initially manifests in this dimension as a shadow that bites down on the shadows of the cultists present at the summoning, which causes their actual bodies to be dismembered and their exposed flesh turned neon blue.
Intangibility[]
Thanks to his energy-based body composition and his extradimensional nature, Ghidorah can perform selective intangibility. Both physical and energy-based attacks from Godzilla Earth are shown to pass harmlessly through Ghidorah's body, while Ghidorah is able to bite down on Godzilla and restrain him.
Space-Time Manipulation[]
Ghidorah can cause distortion on both time and space themselves thanks to his extradimensional nature, as shown through the chaos he caused on Aratrum. In combat, Ghidorah displayed the ability to distort space and time in order to deflect energy-based attacks, all while rendering the United Earth's tracking system ineffective to measure and detect both him and distortion him caused as well as phasing through Godzilla's Asymmetrically Permeable Shield.
Gravity Beam Emission[]
As with his other incarnations, Ghidorah can project Gravity Beams at will, though only in form of an electric bite and electric shock projected from the neck area.
Gematron Communication[]
Ghidorah can communicate through the Gematrons that the Exif have.
Weaknesses[]
While in this dimension, Ghidorah can properly interact and see with the guidance of an Exif cleric who has replaced one of his own eyes with a Garbetrium bead. The destruction of the said bead would expose him to the laws of this dimension and loses his ability to see through the said Exif cleric, causing him to be vulnerable to attack as seen when Godzilla easily dispatched him back to his home dimension once his physical manifestation is destroyed.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The length of each neck manifested on Earth dimension were 20 kilometers, making him both the largest King Ghidorah incarnation, and the largest Toho Kaiju to date.
- It is also possibly the largest Kaiju ever.
- Similar to the Showa Era King Ghidorah, the King Ghidorah in Rebirth of Mothra III and many other incarnations, this King Ghidorah variation is a planet-destroying monster from space.
- Unlike those incarnations, however, whose are pawns of alien invaders, this Ghidorah is an inversion case, for he is the death god worshiped by Exif.
- This variation of Ghidorah also might have a higher kill count than those incarnations.
- The roar for this King Ghidorah variation is a variation of the Heisei Era King Ghidorah’s roar.
- Though he is King Ghidorah, he is merely referred to as just Ghidorah in the film (although he is referred to as King Ghidorah once in the film).
- The symbol of the Exif faith, a seven-pointed star, represents Ghidorah's three heads, two wings, and two tails. The number seven is significant, as it is the number of heads said to be possessed by the Beast in the Book of Revelation.
- The gesture the Exif perform when hearing a confession, two vertical motions across the confessor's body, symbolically represent the body being divided into three parts and offered to Ghidorah.
- Ghidorah and his prophet Metphies together reflect the Beast or the False Prophet from the Book of Revelation. Metphies acts as a prophet who misleads humanity with his teachings to offer their souls to Ghidorah, while Ghidorah himself is a multi-headed evil entity much like the Beast is described.
- While Ghidorah is defeated and repelled from this dimension by Godzilla, he is not actually killed as he is immortal and exists outside of this dimension. This is reinforced when Metphies tells Haruo that Ghidorah will be watching him for as long as he lived, and later when Haruo realizes Ghidorah still threatens the Earth so long as he lives. As such, Ghidorah lives on and remains a threat to the Earth by merely existing, though Haruo's actions work to prevent his return.