Want to know more about Godzilla‘s foes and compatriots in the monster world? Take this opportunity, in the precious days before the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, to look over this profile of King Ghidorah, Godzilla’s arch-nemesis.
Name: King Ghidorah
Etymology: “Ghidorah” is derived from the Japanese word hidora, meaning hydra. He is called “King” because, well, he’s the king. But only until Godzilla takes him out.
Species: Golden hydra
Description: Three-headed, armless, winged bipedal dragon.
Abilities: King Ghidorah can fly, cause gale-force winds with its wings, and breathe “gravity beams” from its mouths. He can also survive in space.
First Appearance: Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Actors Who Played Him: Shoichi Hirose, Susumu Utsumi, Kanta Ina, Hurricane Ryu, Tsutomu Kitagawa, Akira Ohashi, Jason Liles, Alan Maxson, Richard Dorton.
Rundown: King Ghidorah has traditionally been the central recurring super-villain monster of the Godzilla franchise. While Godzilla himself can alternately be a destroyer or a protector of mankind, King Ghidorah is always (with one exception) hellbent on global annihilation. In his first film, Ghidorah is credited for destroying the people of the planet Venus, and has now set his six eyes on Earth.
Ghidorah is typically depicted as being much more powerful than Godzilla, and Godzilla is often seen teaming up with other monsters in order to kill him. In the 1964 film, Ghidorah is taken out by Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. In Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965), Ghidorah is taken out by just Godzilla and Rodan. In Destroy All Monsters (1968), it takes an army of Toho monsters (Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, but also Kumonga, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, and Godzilla’s son Minilla) to take down Ghidorah. There is only one monster that has typically always been at Ghidorah’s side, and that’s Gigan, a metallic, hook-handed bird creature.
Origin: In the first Godzilla continuity, called the Showa Era, Ghidorah is an impossibly ancient space-dwelling creature in the Lovecraftian vein that falls under the thrall of a series of malevolent aliens who seek to use him to conquer earth.
In the second continuity, the Heisei era, Ghidorah was the result of a nuclear blast, just like Godzilla. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), the film’s human protagonists travel back in time to the 1940s to discover, on a remote island, the still-living dinosaur that would eventually be exposed to radiation to create Godzilla. The time-traveling aliens accidentally leave a trio of cute little alien critters called dorats in the 1940s. The dorats would also be exposed to radiation, and would eventually merge together, forming King Ghidorah.
In the third continuity, the Millennium era, Ghidorah was born when the soul of a murdered Mothra merged with a lesser Ghidorah creature, forming the golden dragon we all know and love. This was depicted in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) also known as simply GMK. GMK is the only instance wherein King Ghidorah is seen as a protector, rather than a destructor, of mankind. It’s also one of a handful of films in the Godzilla franchise that acts like a direct sequel to the 1954 original, ignoring most of the continuities to come before it.
In the fourth Godzilla continuity, an anime trilogy set 20,000 years in the future, King Ghidorah has evolved into a form of energy, passing through wormholes and granted with the new ability to essentially turn into a shadow. Godzilla, meanwhile, has continued to grow on an abandoned Earth, standing larger than all previous Godzillas by a long shot (the Godzilla in the 2014 film stood over 100 meters. The anime Godzilla is about 300 meters tall).
Commentary: King Ghidorah, over the course of the films, is seen as being under the control of wrathful villains who are keen on world destruction, giving him the mantle of other peoples’ hate. If Godzilla can be seen as a metaphor for the nuclear bomb (the most common critical interpretation of the creature), King Ghidorah might represent resentment, hate, and bitter feelings of vengeance after a destructive act. With King Ghidorah being more powerful than Godzilla, we can see that hatred, spite, and revenge are much more destructive forces than any bomb.
Ghidorah returns to the screen in King of the Monsters, opening this weekend.
