King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah is a large carnivorous three-headed lizard that on numerous occasions attacked Earth and Godzilla and the other Earth Defenders.



Abilities
King Ghidorah has had a number of changes made to himself over the years, but most of his traditional battle characteristics have remained the same.

Breath weapons
Different incarnations have different types of attacks, some of which aren't used quite the same in battle. King Ghidorah, in most incarnations, is able to fire off powerful beams of what looks like electrical bolts of energy from each mouth, referred to as "gravity beams."
 * The gravity beams live up to their name in Zone Fighter and Godzilla: Final Wars, where they were able to lift opponents and objects off the ground and throw them around or bring them closer.
 * The beams were simply bolts of concussive thermal energy in GMK, where King Ghidorah fired bolts of electricity.
 * In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, after being converted into a cyborg, Mecha-King Ghidorah was able to fire a spiraling energy blast from his robotic head.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra Desghidorah was able to breathe a stream of flames from its middle head, known as Hell's Flame, as well as spitting balls of energized magma.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra III, Cretaceous King Ghidorah had fire breath instead of the regular energy bolts but this is likely because he was in his younger undeveloped form.

Wing lightning
In Rebirth of Mothra III, Grand King Ghidorah was able to project six bolts of lightning from each of his wings.

Golden armor
Ghidorah has armored scales that provide him with some degree of protection. However, it does not guarantee total invulnerability.
 * The Showa era KIng Ghidorah's scales made him almost immune to energy attacks, but seemed to do little else. In Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Ghidorah withstood several blasts of Godzilla's atomic ray with no ill effects. In Destroy All Monsters, Anguirus used his tusks and fangs to lacerate one of the monster's necks.
 * In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla was able to use his atomic ray to sever one of Ghidorah's necks and burn a hole through his left wing. Ghidorah's scales would later be augmented by cybernetic armor when he was reconstituted as Mecha-King Ghidorah.
 * Desghidorah's black scales appeared to be a tough armor that could shrug off all but the strongest attacks, not just energy attacks but physical attacks as well.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra III, Grand King Ghidorah had scales that were reflective and repelled even the strongest of Mothra Leo's attacks. However, when Leo reached his final armored form he was able to cut off one of Ghidorah's wings and finally completely destroy him with an energy tackle through the monster.
 * In Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla drew blood as he bit down on one of King Ghidorah's necks. At the end of the movie, Ghidorah is incinerated by a point-blank blast of Godzilla's supercharged atomic ray.

Hurricane winds
King Ghidorah is able to create hurricane-strength winds by standing and flapping his wings, or by gliding over an area at a low altitude. Ghidorah can reach interplanetary velocities, although his atmospheric speed was said to be approximately Mach 4 in Godzilla vs. Gigan (this may represent a comfortable maneuvering speed for the monster).

Life force absorption
With the exception of GMK, King Ghidorah's various incarnations after 1995 each possessed the ability to drain an enemy's life force to be harnessed for the monster's own use; although the method varies depending on the particular version.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra, Desghidorah generated a toxic gas that reduced the surrounding forests to barren wastelands.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra III, Grand King Ghidorah could create a pulsating dome that absorbed the life force of whatever was encased within. After depleting a planet of its life force, these energies would be materialized around Ghidorah as a cocoon with which it would use to propel itself through space towards a new planet.
 * Keizer Ghidorah was able to drain life force directly through its bite attack.

Assorted other abilities

 * The Showa-era King Ghidorah had the ability to generate magnetic fields, a power Godzilla imitated in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla in 1974. While the fields' purpose was never stated, it was said that they were somehow connected to his powers. It is possible that he used them as a form of levitation.
 * In Godzilla VS King Ghidorah, King Ghidorah could use his powerful necks to strangle Godzilla. After being reconstituted as a cyborg, Mecha-King Ghidorah lost that ability but was equipped with several electrified manacles and the G-grasper, a mechanical harness mounted on its chest plate.
 * In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, King Ghidorah's immature form possessed an electrified bite. Its fully energized form was capable of generating a force field that absorbed the energy of an opponent's attack, combined it with that of King Ghidorah, and then discharged it back towards its enemy.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra, Desghidorah had an explosive ability that allowed it to open fissures in the Earth's crust along with a bite attack that was capable of inflicting terrible burns on an opponent.
 * In Rebirth of Mothra III, Grand King Ghidorah appeared to have a range of psychic abilities allowing it to teleport small objects and control minds, and telekinetic capabilities strong enough for Ghidorah to levitate himself.
 * In the Showa and Heisei eras King Ghidorah showed extreme hatred towards Godzilla and vice versa. This could suggest the intellect to understand rivalry. Monsters in the Showa era were known to have near-human to human level intellect and, in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the Kaiju are known to be able to communicate with one another, which may explain this behavior in the Showa era films.

Initial ideas on his past
Initially, King Ghidorah was said to have come from outer space, an ancient evil responsible for destroying many planets, including Venus (or Mars in the US version of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster). Though his origins in the Godzilla series are left enigmatic, a later appearance in episode five of Zone Fighter he was claimed as a creation of the warlike Garoga aliens. Arriving on Earth in a magnetic meteorite, Ghidorah devastated much of the Japanese countryside before being repelled by the monstrous team of Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. In the follow-up movie, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, it was revealed to be a mind-controlled pawn of beings from Planet X, a newly discovered planet in Jupiter's umbra, who called it "Monster Zero". These "Xians" coveted Earth's water resources and took control of Godzilla and Rodan in an attempt to conquer Earth. Earth intervened by freeing the monsters, and after a fight with Godzilla and Rodan, King Ghidorah flew back into space.

King Ghidorah made two more appearances in the Shōwa Series, both times as an agent of alien invaders. In Destroy All Monsters, controlled by the Kilaaks, it fought and was killed by the combined might of ten of Earth's daikaiju. There is some confusion around this event because inGodzilla vs. Gigan, King Ghidorah returns. However, Destroy All Monsters was set in the year 1999, while Godzilla vs. Gigan is set in the 1970s. So, chronologically, Destroy All Monsters takes place after Godzilla vs. Gigan, and is the last film of the Showa series, instead of Terror of Mechagodzilla.

Ghidorah also appeared in two episodes of the tokusatsu superhero TV series, Zone Fighter. He appeared in two back-to-back episodes, and was one of the few monsters to survive defeat at the hands of Zone Fighter.