King Ghidorah (キングギドラ Kingu Gidora) is a created by that first faced in the , .

Contents

Height: 100-150 meters

Weight: 30,000-70,000 metric tons

Wingspan: 150-175 meters

[]

King Ghidorah's name is composed of "King" (キングKingu) and "Ghidorah." The "Ghidorah" part of King Ghidorah's name comes from the Japanese word for "hydra" (ヒドラ Hidora), which is spelled very similarly to the katakana for Ghidorah.

King Ghidorah was referred to as either "Ghidrah" or "Ghidorah" in the American versions of his first three movies, , and , presumably because they sounded more like "hydra." He wasn't referred to as "King Ghidorah" in an original American release of one of his movies until .

King Ghidorah is a golden dragon monster with two legs, three heads on long necks, giant bat-like wings, and two tails. King Ghidorah's multiple heads were inspired by Yamata no Orochi, an eight-headed dragon from Japanese mythology.

King Ghidorah was brought to life on the movie screen by a stunt actor inside an elaborate three-piece suit, with a team of puppeteers to control the suit's many appendages allowing realistic movement. His design was mostly created by based on a minimal description in the script: "It has three heads, two tails, and a voice like a bell."

King Ghidorah's roar in the Showa era is very much akin to laughter, albeit at a higher pitch.

King Ghidorah does not have much of a developed personality because he is under someone's control in most of his appearances. The only times he was not under mind-control throughout most of the film were , , and .

He temporarily was free of mind-control in , and . In each instance, he became confused due to no longer receiving commands from his masters and was overwhelmed by and his allies, eventually trying to retreat. It seems that each of King Ghidorah's heads can think for themselves separately, although the middle head appears to be dominant which could easily be a cause of not being coordinated.

In , King Ghidorah was said to be evil, and he destroyed civilizations on several planets for unknown reasons. He tried destroying and its civilizations, but he fought the three monsters that got in his way and retreated eventually.

King Ghidorah has traditionally been depicted as an evil destructive creature from outer space, although his origin has varied throughout his appearances.

In the , King Ghidorah is an alien dragon said to have attacked under his own power many thousands of years ago, wiping out the planet's entire civilization. He later attacked , but was repelled by Earth's monsters. At some point, he was taken control of by the and used as a pawn in their invasion of Earth. King Ghidorah was destined to be taken control of by different alien races, losing his history on the way. The later claimed to have created King Ghidorah, but whether this is true or not is never definitively explained, given the monster's ancient history.

in

Thousands of years ago, King Ghidorah attacked the planet , eradicating the planet's advanced civilization and rendering Venus an uninhabitable wasteland. The few Venusians that survived the monster's attacks fled to , where they interbred with the native humans and gradually began to lose their identity.

In the present day, a meteor shower was visible in the skies above Earth, with one meteor crashing down in the Kurobe Valley in . A scientific team led by Professor Murai traveled to the valley to examine the meteor, which exuded a strange glow and even produced its own magnetic field that fluctuated in strength. After several days of study, Murai and his colleagues observed that the meteor was actually growing in size. One day, the meteor began producing an extremely powerful magnetic field before splitting open and launching a ball of fire into the sky above. The fireball exploded several times before finally taking the form of King Ghidorah, having come to do to to Earth what he did to Venus in the past.

King Ghidorah flew over Japan, leveling cities effortlessly with his gravity beams. As the cosmic terror approached the area, tried to convince her fellow Earth monsters and to cease their fighting and join forces against King Ghidorah. The monsters refused, forcing Mothra to take on King Ghidorah by herself. King Ghidorah blasted the larva with his gravity beams, arousing the anger of Godzilla and Rodan, who finally entered the battle. While King Ghidorah was more powerful than the three monsters individually, he was no match for their combined might, and was beaten into submission and covered in a silken cocoon. As Godzilla pelted King Ghidorah with boulders and threw him off a cliff, King Ghidorah finally retreated and flew back into the void of outer space.

in

When astronauts and arrived on the newly-discovered , they encountered an intelligent and technologically advanced alien race called the . The Xiliens' leader, the , explained that his people lived in constant terror due to the attacks of a horrific space monster known as Monster Zero. The Controller showed the two a video feed of the creature, revealing it to be none other than King Ghidorah.

The Controller explained that he knew and drove off King Ghidorah when the monster attacked , and asked that his people be allowed to "borrow" the two monsters to fight off King Ghidorah on Planet X. When the two astronauts returned to Earth and received the support of the world's leaders, the Xiliens revealed themselves, having already been operating on Earth in secret. The Controller apologized for the secrecy, but thanked Earth's leaders and ordered the to transport Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X, with Glenn, Fuji and their superior Dr. Sakurai accompanying them to oversee the mission. When the monsters were placed on Planet X, King Ghidorah flew overhead and attacked them. Godzilla and Rodan joined forces again, and managed to force the space monster to retreat. The Controller remarked that this was a triumphant day for Planet X, and provided Glenn and Fuji with a tape he claimed contained the cure for cancer. The Controller sent the astronauts on their way, keeping Godzilla and Rodan on Planet X.

When the astronauts returned to Earth, they found the tape was actually an ultimatum demanding that Earth surrender to Planet X and become a colony. King Ghidorah had actually been under the Xiliens' control the entire time, and now both Godzilla and Rodan had become their pawns as well. When humanity refused to surrender, the Xiliens released the mind-controlled Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah on Earth to destroy its major cities. Thankfully, Fuji and several Earth scientists discovered a . The device was activated, while the assaulted the Xiliens' hidden base.

The Xiliens lost their control over the monsters, while their forces were defeated by the J.S.D.F. When Godzilla regained consciousness, he woke up Rodan and the two attacked King Ghidorah once again. During the battle, Rodan grabbed Godzilla and carried him in the air, slamming into King Ghidorah and sending all three monsters plummeting into the sea below. After a few moments, King Ghidorah flew out of the water and retreated back to outer space, while Godzilla and Rodan disappeared beneath the waves.

in

When the crew of the destroyed the device the were using to control 's monsters, and his fellow monsters assembled near the Kilaaks' base at , preparing to assault it. The Kilaaks proceeded to unleash their trump card, King Ghidorah, to defend their base.

King Ghidorah descended and attacked the Earth monsters, managing to hold his own against several opponents. bit down on King Ghidorah's neck, causing him to take flight and send Anguirus falling to the Earth. King Ghidorah landed and stomped Anguirus into the dust, then reentered battle against Godzilla and his allies. Anguirus, undeterred, got back up and attacked King Ghidorah again. As King Ghidorah battled Godzilla and his allies, landed a devastating kangaroo-kick on his back, knocking him to the ground. Godzilla proceeded to stomp on King Ghidorah's necks, causing him to cough up blood. fired a smoke ring that choked King Ghidorah's remaining head and caused it to fall limp to the ground.

When Godzilla found the Kilaaks' base and destroyed it, it caused a huge fissure to open in the ground, with King Ghidorah's lifeless body falling into it. With King Ghidorah defeated for good and the alien invasion thwarted, Godzilla and the other monsters returned to to live out their days in peace.

in

As part of their plan to conquer the , the took control of King Ghidorah and allied him with their own cybernetic monster, . Controlling the two monsters from the located in World Children's Land, the Nebulans unleashed Gigan and King Ghidorah in . The space monsters razed the city and withstood all of the 's attempts to stop them, leaving humanity helpless. Thankfully, and became aware of the invaders' scheme, and swam to Tokyo to battle Gigan and King Ghidorah. However, King Ghidorah and his cybernetic ally proved to be more than a match for the Earth monsters. Godzilla was badly wounded by Gigan's hook-tipped appendages and the Godzilla Tower's laser beam, leaving Anguirus at the mercy of both space monsters. Fortunately, a group of humans managed to destroy the Godzilla Tower, severing the Nebulans' control over Gigan and King Ghidorah and leaving them confused. Godzilla and Anguirus regrouped and assaulted their foes once more, seizing the upper hand. Gigan eventually retreated, allowing Godzilla and Anguirus to double-team King Ghidorah. Godzilla held King Ghidorah still from behind while Anguirus rammed him with his spiky carapace. King Ghidorah soon retreated as well, leaving Godzilla and Anguirus victorious and the Earth safe once again.

in

King Ghidorah was taken control of by an evil race of aliens called the , who claimed to also be his creators, and was deployed to . While on Earth, King Ghidorah was confronted by , who defeated the space demon after a vicious struggle. King Ghidorah managed to escape with his life, something few of Zone Fighter's enemies, not even , managed to do.

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. His different forms in the different movies have their own abilities.

King Ghidorah withstands 's atomic breath from point-blank in

King Ghidorah is usually portrayed as being extremely durable and resistant to damage, often to an extent close to Godzilla. He withstands conventional weaponry with no noticeable effect, and can even shrug off point-blank blasts from Godzilla's atomic breath. In , he survives having his middle head decapitated and his wings shredded, and remains alive but comatose for over 200 years laying on the sea floor.

King Ghidorah tends to use his durability to his advantage, as he often prefers to escape from a battle that he can't win before he suffers more injuries than necessary.

King Ghidorah is able to fly up to speeds of mach 3 in the Earth's atmosphere. He exceeds this speed while flying through space. In and , King Ghidorah can encase himself within a meteorite while traveling from planet to planet. In he encases himself in a large diamond-like structure while traveling through space.

King Ghidorah firing his gravity beams

King Ghidorah's most famous ability is the golden lightning bolt-like gravity beams he spits from his three mouths. These beams are roughly equal in power to Godzilla's atomic breath, and are capable of causing large-scale explosions when fired at buildings. King Ghidorah's younger form from , Cretaceous King Ghidorah, spit fireballs from his mouths instead of gravity beams.

King Ghidorah can produce hurricane-force winds by flapping his wings, which are capable of blowing away buildings and knocking other kaiju off their feet.

In , while encased in the meteorite, King Ghidorah had the ability to generate what appeared to be magnetic fields that varied in strength from time to time. While it was never stated directly what purpose they served, it was stated that they were somehow connected to its powers.

It seems possible that King Ghidorah used them as a form of levitation. In the Game Boy Advance video game , the space monster King Ghidorah has two new, never-before-seen fighting abilities: first, the ability to emit devastating magnetic beams from his mouth, and second, the ability to produce a powerful magnetic pull around him which will draw nearby monsters closer and injure them. King Ghidorah is able to maintain the presence of his magnetic pull for roughly ten seconds before halting the attack and needing to recharge in order to reuse the attack.

King Ghidorah in

"If Gigan is the hammer of the Vortaak invasion forces, then King Ghidorah is the anvil. King Ghidorah is the most physically powerful monster in the universe, and blends immense size, incredible strength, and near invulnerability into a unified engine of monstrous destruction. The Vortaak often hesitate to deploy King Ghidorah at all, lest he demolish their enemies and leave nothing to subjugate.

King Ghidorah is at home in the vacuum of space, and travels between planets under his own power. King Ghidorah's wings allow him to fly in 's atmosphere, though his great mass hinders his aerial mobility. He naturally generates intense electrical energy that he unleashes as a powerful Triple Gravity Beam from his three heads. Despite all this, King Ghidorah's greatest ability is his asset to withstand damage-all known forms of attack splinter against his thick golden scales.

„

— Godzilla: Unleashed bio

"This fearsome space monster destroyed a once highly developed civilization on in mere days, earning it the name "Venus Hellfire" by the . It absorbs solar heat and cosmic rays with its golden wings and converts them into energy. It arrived on via a meteor that landed in . It began to ravage , shooting gravitational rays out of the mouths of its three heads. , who sensed this brutality and the crisis facing Earth, convinced its former foes and to intercept King Ghidorah at the foot of .

In the film, "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" (1991), King Ghidorah appeared in the form of a super dragon, an artificial lifeform equipped with a genetic mutation system and created by the before being warped back to the 20th century to fight Godzilla. Later, King Ghidorah became a mechanical cyborg.

In the movie "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001), it appeared as "Ghidorah," on of the three sacred guardian monsters who protected that had been stuck in hibernation under Mt. Fuji for 10,000 years, Once its energy was fully restored, it transformed into its complete form, the "Thousand Year Dragon King".

The original King Ghidorah was a full-body costume at first, with a blue body and iridescent wings. However, some of the crew mistakenly thought it was supposed to be golden, and special-effects director liked the idea so much he gave the word, having the crew change the color right before filming. As the arch-enemy of Godzilla, King Ghidorah had a costume that required 25 people to operate its three heads and two tails.

„

— King Ghidorah Kaiju Guide bio

King Ghidorah III in

In this manga produced by , King Ghidorah is the first opponent Godzilla faces in the second and final volume, although he first appears in Volume 1 approaching Earth with . He was either resurrected or acquired by and utilised as one of the many in his collection, being named as King Ghidorah III, indicating that both the Showa and Heisei King Ghidorahs are present in the manga's continuity. King Ghidorah III fought Godzilla viciously, but was defeated after Godzilla tore off his auxiliary necks. King Ghidorah is also one of the genetic donors for , and his auxiliary necks and heads form King Godzilla's arms.

King Ghidorah appeared in the The Godzilla Comic Raids Again manga, being used by the to take over . Before reaching Earth, King Ghidorah encounters , who later becomes .

King Ghidorah in

King Ghidorah was featured in IDW's Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, where he is portrayed as an ancient monster. In issue #8, he was revived after a young Asian monk performed a suicide ritual in order to revive the monster. Upon awakening, King Ghidorah flew to combat Godzilla in Washington, D.C. In the ensuing battle, King Ghidorah was beaten when knocked down by Godzilla. In a later issue, he briefly participated in a battle between Godzilla and . In the following three-way battle, fired Mechagodzilla's special weapon at both King Ghidorah and Godzilla, knocking out both monsters in the process. King Ghidorah did not appear again in the series and is presumed to be dead.

King Ghidorah later appeared in three issues of the mini-series Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths. Here, it is shown that King Ghidorah is a resident of Monster Island along with Godzilla, Mothra, Anguirus, and Battra.

King Ghidorah in

King Ghidorah appears in Godzilla: The Half-Century War, where he and Gigan were lured to Earth via a transmitter made by rogue Anti-Megalosaurus Force scientist Dr. Deverich. The device had already summoned SpaceGodzilla to Earth by accident, and soon enough, King Ghidorah and Gigan picked up the signal and headed to Earth. Upon making landfall in 2001, the duo proceeded to destroy half the world in a year. By 2002, the Anti-Megalosaurus Force had developed a weapon called the , a device that could open miniature black holes. The AMF planned to use it on the alien duo and Godzilla himself. The two aliens were lured to Antarctica, soon were involved in a four-way battle between themselves, , and Godzilla. At the fight's climax, the Dimension Tide fired and opened a miniature black hole. King Ghidorah and Gigan were soon sucked into the hole, with a heavily-damaged Kiryu following in suit shortly afterwards.

The near-dead King Ghidorah in

King Ghidorah returns as in of . In , the leader Rhizon recalls discovering the badly wounded body of King Ghidorah following his earlier battle with Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. Rhizon ordered Gigan to slice off Ghidorah's middle head so that he could replace it with a mechanical head that gave him control over the entire monster.

In , it was revealed by Rhizon in a flashback that the Cryogs' homeworld was destroyed by King Ghidorah, and that the race's emperor, Karkaro, fled the planet when King Ghidorah arrived, prompting Rhizon to seize control of the planet.

King Ghidorah destroys the homeworld in a flashback in

King Ghidorah appears in locked in battle with Godzilla. King Ghidorah bites Godzilla and shocks him through his bite, but Godzilla lifts Ghidorah by his head and slams him to the ground. Godzilla then blasts Ghidorah at point-blank range with his atomic breath and defeats him. It is unknown if King Ghidorah survived the encounter or not. Arata's grandfather later recalls that some members of his village pray to King Ghidorah as a deity that brings rain.

King Ghidorah in

King Ghidorah in

King Ghidorah appears in the of the series . He appears after Godzilla defeats the Demon and sends him into a whirlpool with his gravity beams. King Ghidorah returns in the , where he and are seen, defeated by Godzilla, in the ruins of a city.

Suddenly, both heal and get back up, then relentlessly attack Godzilla together in a recreation of Tokyo in Hell, surrounded by a wall of flesh. Any time any of the three monsters were killed or mortally wounded, they instantly recovered and continued their assault. Godzilla eventually tricked King Ghidorah and Destoroyah into aiding him in escape by ducking when they both fired their beams and combining his beam with them, creating a blast powerful enough to destroy the wall. As Godzilla marched onward, King Ghidorah, Destoroyah, and everything else on the battlefield besides Godzilla disappeared into nothingness.

In , King Ghidorah attacked and chased the humans visiting the alternate dimension in which he lived. Due to power problems, he was able to follow them through the inter-dimensional portal and began rampaging in their dimension. After emerging through the portal, King Ghidorah attacked the eastern for two weeks, completely destroying the cities of , Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. and resisting all attempts by the U.S. military, NATO, and the to stop him.

was eventually brought through to the original dimension to fight King Ghidorah. The monsters battled in Washington D.C., after which King Ghidorah grabbed Godzilla and carried him over the ocean. The military detonated a nuclear bomb in the vicinity of both monsters, which appeared to kill King Ghidorah but left Godzilla unharmed.

King Ghidorah's carcass laid still at the bottom of the ocean, missing its middle head and with shredded wings and a gaping wound in its chest. A group of humans reached the monster's location and raised him up to the surface using a giant balloon. They then brought King Ghidorah's corpse to a facility and mechanically modified it as in order to fight Godzilla and draw him back into his own dimension.

Spanish: Rey GhidorahRussian: Кинг ГидораChinese: 王者基多拉Cantonese (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, VHS dub): 大水怪Cantonese (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, DVD dub): 三頭金龍王