Toho Kingdom

General monster discussion for the original King of Terror: King Ghidorah.

To start off with, in the previous forums I made a topic about King Ghidorah being a metaphor of Communism... What I'm writing may be a bit contradictory in comparison, it's just something that came to my mind and though it may be not the original intention of the ones behind the films, it could alow the character to be explored in a new way...

The thing is that King Ghidorah is usually seen as the main villain of the Showa series; it happens that in most of it's aparences it is being controled by diferent alien races for their own plans, it is in it's debut film (Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster (1964)) where we can asume the monster is free and acting as it's own will, wich is destroying worlds across the universe(s)... I know that in Zone Fighter it is explained that it was created by some kind of alien race, but at that time the franchise ws being manipulated in a lot of ways for the sake of producing...

So, considering the first idea that is given to us about the character of King Ghidorah, What do you think about King Ghidorah having a role like Galactus from the Marvel universe? A being that destroy planets to allow others to be created in some kind of cycle?

I think of Showa-era King Ghidorah (and also Grand King Ghidorah) as a planetary death sentence. Once he's unleashed on your world, your civilization will be shortly wiped out unless he's stopped. He's not so much an embodiment of the bomb as Godzilla originally was, but more like armageddon. He'd be comparable to the early Doomsday in Superman...an unstoppable, consciousless killing machine. In later Showa entries, he was used as a harvested super weapon (i.e. controlled by aliens, using him for a specific purpose) and in the Heisei film he was just a comparably meaner monster than Godzilla.

Terrier wrote:In the previous forums I made a topic about King Ghidorah being a metaphor of comunism... What I'm writing may be a bit contradictory in comparison, it's just something that came to my mind and though it may be not the original intention of the ones behind the films, it could alow the character to be explored in a new way...

The thing is that King Ghidorah is usually seen as the main villain of the Showa series; it happens that in most of it's aparences it is being controled by diferent alien races for their own plans, it is in it's debut film (Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster (1964)) where we can asume the monster is free and acting as it's own will, wich is destroying worlds across the universe(s)... I know that in Zone Fighter it is explained that it was created by some kind of alien race, but at that time the franchise ws being manipulated in a lot of ways for the sake of producing...

So, considering the first idea that is given to us about the character of King Ghidorah, What do you think about King Ghidorah having a role like Galactus from the Marvel universe? A being that destroy planets to allow others to be created in some kind of cycle?

Interesting analogy you draw. KG is my favoriate kaiju aside from Godzilla. By the same token, Galactus is my favorite comic character.

It def seems to be in the character of the original '64 Ghidorah to be a world-ender, a civlization destroyer. I was never sure whether the historical background the controller of planet x gave glen and his buddy were either truth or some story he concocted to draw their sympathy and disarm their suspicions. However that explanation falls right in line with the way the monster behaved in GTTHM: an ender of worlds. However in this regard it's unclear whether it's in KG's nature to just wreak havoc, or if he derives satisfaction from destruction. The latter cannot be said of Galactus...so there is some dissimilarity between the two. Galactus serves as a fundamental balance between abstract concepts..and thus behaves, and indeed his very role and station in the universe, is as if a force of nature. KG however...I don't see any force, at least in the toho-verse, that counter-balances his aside from Godzilla himself. And even Godzilla swiftly progressed from natural force of destruction to defender of mankind.

So if we take their original appearances as the "true" definition of their character, then KG and Godzilla are on the same side of a coin..except KG is more of an absolute force of nature, while Godzilla is a product-or nature's response to-man's abuse of power.

SuperSaiyan4Godzilla wrote:I'm still fim on the idea that Ghidorah is the Galactus of the Godzilla universe.

Maybe Desghidorah, sure, but the rest of 'em? I dunno about that.

SuperSaiyan4Godzilla wrote:

Godzilla 1995 wrote:King Ghidorah's a planetary Apocalypse. He destroys because he enjoys it. That's not a force of nature.

ACtually....

Galactus, I would imagine, likes destroying planets. Why? Because its where he gathers his nutrients. A nice, healthy, unpolluted planet is good for him. A polluted, dead planet would severely weaken him.

Its not so much about enjoying it or not. Its more about a Cosmic balance kind of things...

Now, if Ghidorah was more like the Black Lantern Corps...ok, that's a wii bit evil.

Galactus doesn't really "enjoy" devouring planets. His sole purpose is to ensure the continuity of the universe. His devouring planets has been confirmed/proved/explained whatever to be essential to meet this end. And there's actually quite a few stories of Galactus having remorse and kind of a defeatest resignation about what he has to do. That couldn't be any further from King Ghidorah, if KG does indeed actually derive satisfaction from this.

In fact there was one story 2 years ago, how Galactus consumed the homeworld of Beta Ray Bill (for those that don't know, BRB is a comrade-in-arms to Marvel's Thor character). The rest of the series was about BRB trying to hunt Galactus down to exact revenge. At the end of the series, BRB realizes that Galactus is a necessary force in the universe, but is distraught because his entire race is all but extinct; BRB is the last of his race because Galactus consumed his homeworld. He accused Galactus of being apathetic and unable to appreciate the despair of the situation. Galactus just replies "I do, more than you know" and recreates a female of his species, so that BRB is no longer alone. Galactus then tells BRB to appreciate what has just happened, because for all his power, Galactus can never do the same for himself. What does that mean? Galactus was originally a regular man, except he was alive in the previous universe. His entire planet, his species, his very universe, ended and only he survived into the current universe by ultimately becoming the being Galactus. But for all his power, he will always be unable to bring back his home or his people....


...that's as far away from KG as you can get.

Maybe it could work diferently... King Ghidorah's pleasure for destroying may indirectly allow it to preserve the balance of the universe...

Maybe feeling pleasure instead of remorse would assure King Ghidorah in completing the task... Or maybe, instead, it would make King Ghidorah go too far and become actually dangerous... Like Dark Phoenix.

King Ghidorah should be a good guy!!! i dont want him to destroy planets!! Toho make him a good guy!!!!

SuperSaiyan4Godzilla wrote:


Whoops, wrong planet destroyer.


Im glad to see I'm not the only one that made this connection.

Stranger yet, one of the images resembles a Hedorah-like creature.

Thoughts on the classic, original King of Terror?

...I feel like I've forgotten a monster :/

Godzilla just looks friggin' cool fighting him. It's a damn shame that they haven't really given us an appropriate Ghidra since RoMIII.

A fantastic looking creature. I think he looks better in MZ, though. His skin just seems less glittery and more organic.

Showa King Ghidorah is by far the best version of the creature. He is also my favorite Godzilla enemy. He is also one of my favorite Toho monsters.

Godzilla's greatest enemy. It's a real treat to watch the two brawl. I like that he blends very earthly aspects of a dragon with a bizarre, alien feel.

Ghidorah is overused, but I'd like to see him in at least one more movie where he can truly be called the King of Terror. Something along the line of showing up as an alien weapon, but then turning on his masters and setting out to destroy Earth's surface life, the native monsters, naturally led by Godzilla himself, now being the planet's last hope.

He's alright, but I've never been a fan of Showa King Ghidorah. He spams his gravity bolts, and does little else.

Legion1979 wrote:

Showa Gyaos wrote:He's alright, but I've never been a fan of Showa King Ghidorah. He spams his gravity bolts, and does little else.

Don't most Ghidoras do that?

All the other Ghidorah's got a lot more physical in their fights. Not much, admittedly, but more than Showa Ghidorah.

Tyler wrote:Hehe, best movie villain ever. Long live the King of Terror.

But really, where did that title come from? Three-Headed Monster is kind of a given, but has Toho ever really called Ghidorah the King of Terror in anything? Just wondering. Maybe I just missed something.

I'm pretty sure that the term "King of Terror" was first used in Mothra 3.

I love Showa Ghidorah. Besides the fact that he's the original, and just plain awesome, I just can't get enough of his hair. Seriously, why doesn't Ghidorah have hair more often? I bet it's all Kawakita's fault! Ever since he didn't put hair on the 1991 Ghidorah, Ghidorah hasn't been seen with hair since!

Edit: Sometimes, I also wonder: what would it be like if Ghidorah had rainbow wings, like originally intended?

Legion1979 wrote:

HayesAJones wrote:
All the other Ghidorah's got a lot more physical in their fights. Not much, admittedly, but more than Showa Ghidorah.

I'm not seeing it, considering how a lot of the battling in Ghidrah, Monster Zero and DAM, as well as most of the stuff towards the end of Gigan, was very physical. In fact, Ghidora does very little "beam spamming" in the later two movies.

It's wrong to claim that the original Ghidora was a beam spammer. Period.

I'll give you DAM. But compared to Heisei Ghidorah's stomping and strangling, Desghidorah's biting, Grand and Cretaceous King Ghidorah's grappling, GMK Ghidorah's biting, and Keizer Ghidorah's energy draining and stomping, Showa Ghidorah is the biggest beam spammer.

Ah, one of my favorite kaiju, and one of Toho's most popular creations."Nuff said.

The Showa Ghidorah is my favorite incarnation of the monster. The costume for Ghidorah looked great, my favorite part being the heads. I also think he was the hardest to take out since every fight against him required more than one monster.

it seems like every time ghidorah goes into battle he cant stop firing his gravity bolts

KG besides you know Godzilla and Baragon is my favorite monster perfect nemisis for goji.