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The Devil has three heads.
~ Dr. Vivienne Graham's field notes about King Ghidorah.
Long live the king.
~ Emma Russell before King Ghidorah is defeated by Godzilla.

King Ghidorah, simply known as Ghidorah and dubbed as Titanus Ghidorah, is the main antagonist of the 2019 MonsterVerse sci-fi action film Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the overarching antagonist of both its 2021 sequel Godzilla vs. Kong and the 2021 graphic novel Kingdom Kong, a prequel to Godzilla vs. Kong.

He is a malevolent, extraterrestrial, three-headed draconic Titan who arrived on Earth thousands of years ago, intent on conquering the planet and becoming the new Alpha Titan. He was so feared that humanity wrote nothing of him, as if he were intended to be forgotten throughout Earth's history.

He was trapped in Antarctic ice and, thousands of years later, was freed by Alan Jonah and Emma Russell under the mistaken belief that he would heal the Earth's ecosystem, as they were unaware of Ghidorah's alien and malicious true nature. Ghidorah briefly succeeded in usurping Godzilla's kingship over the other Titans and began wreaking global destruction, until his reign of terror entirely ended when he was eventually defeated and killed by Godzilla in combat with assistance from Mothra and Monarch, but leaving one of Ghidorah's heads behind which allows Apex Cybernetics to use it to create the artifical robotic Titan Mechagodzilla. Due to his connection to the mecha, Ghidorah's subconsciousness was able to take control over it, but was ultimately stopped again when Godzilla and Kong worked together to fight against and destroy Mechagodzilla.

Just like in other adaptations of the Godzilla franchise, he is Godzilla's arch-nemesis and by far the most powerful and dangerous Titan which he has faced in the MonsterVerse.

He was portrayed by Jason Liles (middle head, who also played Rodan in the same film), Richard Dorton (left head), and Alan Maxson (right head) in motion-capture.

What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]

In General/Background[]

  • Like his previous incarnations, he shows cruelty and hatred towards all living beings, human or not, that he encounters, even when they pose no threat to him, and he just maliciously slaughters them simply for pleasure rather than just mere hunger, self-defense, or a desire to survive.
    • This is demonstrated when he disintegrates the G-Team with his gravity beams while they are firing on him to no effect in Antarctica, devours Dr. Vivienne Graham even though she was fleeing from him, tries to kill the Monarch team and all the rescued civilians inside the Argo, and even attempts to kill Madison Russell (who was only a 12-year-old child) in Boston. In the novelization's expansion of the Washington D.C. battle, he also goes out of his way to fire his gravity beams at humans on an already-sinking battleship.
  • He cares nothing about Rodan and the other Titans, viewing them only as useful slaves to assist him in his plans to destroy the world. This is shown by how he attacked and brutally beat Rodan into submission and only refused to attack him and the other Titans once they had proclaimed their loyalty to him.
    • He also provides no assistance to Rodan after he is injured by Mothra during the final battle in Boston, although it is possible that Ghidorah may not have known about Rodan's defeat because he was distracted fighting Godzilla when it happened.
  • Unlike the other Titans, who are driven by their own survival, it is explicitly stated that Ghidorah chose to ignore his own purpose since he is not part of the Earth's natural order, thus the reason why he became archenemies with Godzilla in the first place. This proves that despite being a predator that would need to kill in order to survive, he is a genuinely evil being with a clear moral agency and is only out for himself as he attempted to destroy the Earth and remake it in his own image.
    • Even worse is the fact that he is shown sadistically smiling multiple times throughout the film, showing that he is indeed enjoying all of the suffering that he caused.
    • Furthermore, it's briefly speculated in the novelization that Ghidorah doesn't really want to xenoform Earth at all, and is just using the destruction as a means to slaughter everything that isn't him, as an end-goal in and of itself.
  • In the past, it's implied that he conquered and destroyed many planets just for fun prior to arriving on Earth and his rivalry with Godzilla.
  • It is possible that he arrived on Earth from another world or dimension in the past, seeking to destroy and recreate the planet into a more preferable habitat for himself, although his goals would then bring him into conflict with Godzilla a number of times, as Godzilla would continuously foil his archenemy's attempts to terraform Earth, turning the two into bitter enemies.
  • It's implied that he planned to go on to destroy more planets once he had finished conquering and destroying Earth.
  • While the heinous standards of the MonsterVerse franchise are high, Ghidorah stands out due to his enormous kill count and is considered to be one of the most dangerous villains in the franchise due to his severe crimes of attempting to destroy Earth so he can recreate it into a more preferable habitat for himself while enslaving the other Titans as well so they can help him with his omnicidal mission. He is also one of the MonsterVerse's villains who came the closest to killing Godzilla, which is demonstrated when he nearly killed the Titan by painfully siphoning Mothra's energy out of him during their final battle in Boston and even came the closest to killing Godzilla during their battle in Hong Kong while brainwashing Mechagodzilla.
    • Not only that, but he is also the greatest threat in the franchise as he is the only Titan with the purpose of destroying Earth. He is even the MonsterVerse's most successful villain when he becomes the alpha Titan after Godzilla gets knocked out by the Oxygen Destroyer.
  • He is considered to be the most heinous villain in the MonsterVerse as he has the highest kill count of any MonsterVerse antagonist while showing that he is far more malevolent, sadistic, heartless, ruthless, and even a much bigger threat than his previous incarnations as his plan would destroy the entire Earth rather than just a specific, localized place.
    • Because of this, he is easily the most dangerous and hostile villain Godzilla has fought in the MonsterVerse.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters[]

  • Once emerging from his icy prison, he vaporized Monarch's G-Team soldiers with his gravity beams upon eyeing them with curiosity when they started to open fire on him, even though they were no real threat to him.
  • When Madison used the ORCA to catch his attention in order to save her father Mark, he attempted to fire his gravity beams at Alan Jonah's Osprey, which would've led to him killing Madison, Emma, Jonah, and his terrorists had it not been for Emma, who reclaimed the ORCA from Madison and turned it off to prevent Ghidorah from attacking.
  • He sadistically toyed with the Monarch team in one of their Ospreys when they were unable to escape due to their aircraft being affected by Ghidorah's gravity beams, which caused all the electronic equipment to stop working, which would've led to him killing them if not for Godzilla's intervention.
  • He devoured Dr. Ishiro Serizawa's assistant, Dr. Vivienne Graham, leaving him distraught over the loss of his friend. Like the G-Team soldiers and basically all non-Titan organisms whom Ghidorah killed, Graham posed no threat to him as she was fleeing from him, yet Ghidorah chose to devour her for no reason other than for his own sadistic amusement.
  • When he came across Rodan, whom Monarch had lured out of his volcanic nest to fight against Ghidorah, he maliciously attacked and forced the latter into submission.
  • He pursued the Argo, which contained the Monarch crew and innocent civilians, which would've led to him killing them inside had it not been for Godzilla, who was able to save the group before Ghidorah could attack.
  • When he became the alpha Titan, he forcefully awakened and enslaved all the Titans on Earth (except Godzilla, Mothra, and Kong) with an alpha call and made them his servants before ordering them to attack human cities and actively unleash natural disasters of apocalyptic proportions (such as massive wildfires, mass die-offs, volcanic eruptions polluting the atmosphere with gigatons of ash and volcanic gases, etc.) around the world, leaving only him and the Titans as the dominant species once the human race has been wiped out. He even made Rodan his bodyguard, despite having engaged him in battle when he first encountered him.
    • However, despite the Titans being loyal to him, Ghidorah doesn't even care about them as he only sees them as nothing but tools that he uses to do his dirty work. While the Titans did lay waste to the Earth, this is because they are being forced to follow Ghidorah's orders, making this his actions and not theirs.
    • In the novelization, he awakened the Skullcrawlers, who attempted to leave Skull Island to join Ghidorah and the other Titans upon hearing his call and would have succeeded if not for Kong's intervention.
  • During his reign as the new alpha Titan, he spawned offshoot massive storms and spread them around the world to aid in his extinction event while he personally roosts in Washington DC, which he completely destroys and turns into a nest.
  • After tracking down the ORCA in Boston when Madison used it to broadcast sonar pulses through Fenway Park's speakers which caused the Titans to cease their rampage, he attacked her for using the ORCA to foil his plans and would have killed her had it not been for Godzilla's intervention, even though Madison was only 12 years old at the time and posed no threat to him.
    • His actions are also implied to have caused Madison to be afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder after her encounter with him.
  • When Mothra arrived to support Godzilla, Ghidorah called upon Rodan for assistance so that he could prevent Mothra from intervening while he took on Godzilla himself.
  • During his battle with Godzilla, he absorbed electricity from a nearby power substation and projected it from his wings, which incapacitated the latter. Not only did this wound Godzilla, but it also decimated the military to the point that the survivors were forced to retreat.
  • He sadistically strangles Godzilla while lifting him into the Earth's troposphere before letting his limp body plummet thousands of feet back down to the Earth until he is injured upon hitting the ground below.
  • He killed Mothra with his gravity beams after she sacrificed herself to protect Godzilla. After killing Mothra, upon sensing her energy inside Godzilla due to Mothra transferring it into him when she died, he sadistically tortures the Titan by siphoning Mothra's energy out of him through his bites, causing excruciating agony and pain to Godzilla. It would've killed him had it not been for the Russell family, who used the ORCA to distract Ghidorah long enough to give Godzilla time to recover.
  • He fatally injured Emma Russell while chasing her through Boston in her Humvee after she sacrifices herself by using the ORCA to distract Ghidorah and lure him away in order to allow her family to escape with Monarch and give Godzilla enough time to recover while he even maliciously smirks at her as he prepares to kill Emma while she lays dying.
    • However, it was hard to feel sympathy for Emma considering that she betrayed Monarch and worked with Jonah to awaken the Titans so that they would create a new world order where humanity could coexist with them, only for their plan to go wrong when Ghidorah awakens all the Titans himself and orders them to lay waste to Earth. Eventually, Emma would redeem herself upon realizing that she made a mistake due to the fact that her actions had endangered billions of innocent lives before betraying Jonah to rejoin Monarch and save her family while intending to fix what she had broken, but despite everything that she had done, her death is likely considered to be somewhat undeserving.
      • It was also shown that Emma was actually the one who freed and awakened Ghidorah earlier in order to reset Earth to its natural order, unaware that he was a dangerous and ruthless alien and not realizing how incredibly heinous Ghidorah really is because he had no interest in restoring balance due to being an invasive species.
  • In his final moments, he attempted to attack Godzilla in his burning form while trying to defend himself from the latter's thermonuclear pulses, but this would lead to his well-deserved death as he is immediately disintegrated.
    • While his death of being incinerated by Burning Godzilla's thermonuclear pulses was horrific, it wasn't played for sympathy, but rather for satisfaction as he completely deserved to die for his nefarious actions considering not only what he did to all the Titans which he had enslaved, but also for what he did to Godzilla, Mothra and humanity as well as being the black-hearted and ruthless monster he really was.
      • Furthermore, the Titans, including Rodan, are shown accepting Godzilla as the new alpha Titan after everything Ghidorah did to them before Godzilla orders them to undo the wrongdoings of the human race by repairing all the damage caused to Earth.

Kingdom Kong[]

  • Even after his death, his actions would leave a perpetual superstorm that didn't disperse with the other storms upon his death, raging in the same spot above the Pacific Ocean. Two years after Ghidorah's downfall, Camazotz stirring on Skull Island would draw Ghidorah's storm to the island, causing it to merge with the island's perpetual storm barrier, which permanently envelops the island in an endless storm and leads to its ecosystem's destruction. This would also result in Monarch containing Kong inside a dome-shaped facility to keep him safe.

Godzilla vs. Kong[]

  • He is indirectly responsible for the creation of Mechagodzilla by Apex Cybernetics after they acquired Ghidorah's severed head from Jonah when it was torn off by Godzilla during his underwater battle against Ghidorah in 2019, using the skull's telepathic pathways to control the robot.
  • He is indirectly responsible for Godzilla turning dangerously aggressive in Pensacola considering that Apex activated Mechagodzilla that sent out signals which involved a familiar alpha call (which was later revealed to be the construction of the robot). While Godzilla did destroy buildings and killed people in his way that resulted in an immense amount of damage in the process, this is because he was under the influence of Apex who are controlling Mechagodzilla, making this their actions and not his. This shows that it was entirely Apex's fault for causing all of this in the first place considering that they were responsible for provoking Godzilla into war to begin with.
    • This would also lead to humanity turning against Godzilla, even though they were being manipulated by Apex, which lied to the public that Godzilla had gone rogue on his own accord, during which thousands (if not millions) of innocent people would be killed. After a while, they would unleash Mechagodzilla to kill Godzilla and all the other Titans so that humans can become the Earth's dominant species.
      • Not only that, but this would result in Godzilla and Kong's rivalry in the first place (likely due to Godzilla's hatred against apes after one of his ancestors was killed by the Skar King which has increased him ever since), even though Kong posed no threat to Godzilla considering that he and his allies were manipulated by Apex to travel into the Hollow Earth so they can extract samples in order to upgrade Mechagodzilla to defeat Godzilla.
  • When reincarnated into Mechagodzilla, he used his newfound body to kill Apex's CEO Walter Simmons and electrocute his chief technology officer Ren Serizawa (although they both deserved it) before attempting to finish what he started by destroying all life once again.
    • He also sought revenge on Godzilla for defeating him in their last encounter, using the mecha to brutally beat him to the brink of death to the point where the Titan is visibly afraid for the first time, thus would've killed Godzilla had it not been for Kong, who saves Godzilla from near-death before the two Titans work together as a team to defeat Mechagodzilla until Ghidorah's influence would ultimately come to an end when the mecha meets its match at the hands of Godzilla and Kong.

Trivia[]

  • MonsterVerse King Ghidorah is the first Pure Evil to come from a speculative biology-themed work since the MonsterVerse era in general is more heavily focused on the biology and behavior of Kaiju species than any other era in the Godzilla franchise, and works in the spec biology genre tend to lack any clear villains, much less Pure Evils.
    • He, along with the Skar King and Kraken, were originally considered the only Pure Evil villains to come from a speculative biology, but have since been joined by the Qu. However, the Qu can also technically be considered the first, given All Tomorrows predates the MonsterVerse by 8 years, and King of the Monsters by 13, but King Ghidorah was approved as PE before the Qu.

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