King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah is a giant three-headed space dragon that on numerous occasions attacked Earth and Godzilla and the other Earth Defenders. He is the main antagonist of the entire Godzilla film franchise as well as being the arcnenemy of Godzilla.

Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster
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Invasion of Astro Monster
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Godzilla vs. Gigan
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Zone Fighter
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Destroy All Monsters
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Rebirth of Mothra III
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Godzilla Anime Trilogy
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Godzilla: King of the Monsters
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ghidorah, also known as "the devil with three heads" is found frozen in a wall of ice at outpost 32 in Antarctica. A group of people are attempting to reawaken this monster with the Orca device, and in doing so he breaks from the ice, where he encounters Godzilla. The two have a short battle, and Ghidorah eventually flies elsewhere.

Physical description
King Ghidorah has gone through many changes in design since his original debut in 1964. His first appearance was as a large three headed dragon covered in golden scales. He had no arms, but rather large, spoked wings unlike those of most dragons. He had two long tails that ended in spiked paddles, and his feet were flat and supportive. His heads were much like a horned, Chinese dragon, and even had a mane. Showa Ghidorah was 100 meters tall and had a wingspan of 150.

In 1991, in his heisei appearance, His wings ended in sharper points, was more of a true gold coloration, and had snake like eyes and necks. This incarnation was less bulky than previous, and was seen to be smarter, too. Other designs later on were very similar to this, and the Desghidorah design was dark red, and more dragon-esque. This new form had a height of 150 meters and a wingspan of 175.

In 2019, after a very long time since his last Toho appearance, his design has become more realistic and intimidating for the Monsterverse. His heads are similar to legendary Godzilla, ending in a mane of horns and spikes. His eyes are lava red and almost glow with evil. This new incarnation of Monster Zero has a bulky chest and theropedal legs, and a ridge of small spines along his back and necks. The two tails end in the flat spiked club, but now have the ability to rattle, much like a rattlesnake. His wings are very similar to a bat's and are extremely large in comparison to the rest of his body, giving him a massive wingspan. His height is 521 feet, and his wingspan is to be added.

Kingdom of Monsters/Rulers of Earth
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Gangsters and Goliaths
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The Half-Century War
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Cataclysm
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Godzilla In Hell
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Oblivion
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Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Kodansya Manga Series)
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The Godzilla Comic Raids Again
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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 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, King Ghidorah was able to project six bolts of lightning from each of his wings.
 * In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Ghidorah was able to do this after draining energy from a substation.

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, 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).
 * This ability is further demonstrated in the TV series Zone Fighter, with King Ghidorah using his wings to create hurricane winds during his battle with Zone Fighter on Earth, which he used to great effect and led to Zone Fighter challenging him on the planet Jupiter to prevent Ghidorah using this power.
 * In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ghidorah is able to naturally generate a storm around him that resembles a hurricane.

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 III, 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.
 * In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Ghidorah briefly used this ability after Mothra's sacrifice as it bit into a weakened Godzilla and began to drain his energy before been lured away by the ORCA.

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 III, 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 Manga series Godzilla, King of the Monsters, King Ghidorah (this version known as King Ghidorah III) had the ability to turn invisible. He was killed during his fight with Godzilla, who used his nuclear pulse to blow off two of his heads - which were later used to help create King Godzilla.
 * 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.
 * In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Ghidorah was shown as been able to regrow one of its severed heads after it was torn off in its fight with Godzilla.

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 "Xilians" 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.