King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah (キングギドラ) is a fictional daikaiju (giant monster) featured in such movies as Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs Gigan, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Rebirth of Mothra III, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and Godzilla: Final Wars as well as some other stock footage appearances.

Created as an opponent for Godzilla in 1964's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, King Ghidorah was a golden, dragon-like creature with three heads on long necks, bat-like wings, no arms, and twin tails. It was said to be 100 meters tall with a 150 meter wingspan, and to weigh 30,000 metric tons.

King Ghidorah was brought to life on the movie screen by a stunt actor inside an elaborate costume, with a team of puppeteers to control the beast's many appendages.

Initially, Ghidorah was said to have come from outer space, and was an ancient evil responsible for destroying civilizations on many planets, including Venus. Arriving on Earth in a magnetic meteorite, Ghidorah caused much destruction to the Japanese countryside before being repelled by the monstrous team of Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan.

In its next movie appearance, Invasion of Astro-Monster, it was a mind-contolled pawn of beings from Planet X, who coveted Earth's water resources. Once again, Godzilla and Rodan drove the dragon back into space.

It made two more appearances in the original Godzilla film series, both times as an agent of alien invaders. In Godzilla vs Gigan, it teamed with the cybernetic monster Gigan in a battle against Godzilla and the spiky quadraped Anguirus. In Destroy All Monsters, it was apparently killed by a combined force of ten of Earth's defending daikaiju.

The dragon was revamped with a new origin for 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Futuristic time-travellers released three genetically-engineered "Dorat" creatures onto an island where they would be exposed to radiation from atomic bomb testing. The Dorats fused to become Ghidorah, which was then used by the so-called Futurians to devastate present-day Japan. When the marauder was killed by Godzilla (who blasted the monster's middle-head off), the corpse was later recovered and used as the basis for a cyborg dubbed "Mecha-King Ghidorah." This incarnation managed to stun Godzilla with its Machine Hand weapon and attempted to carry Godzilla away from Japan before being blasted by the reptile and crashing into the sea.

In the Return of Mothra continity, another variety of Ghidorah, DeathGhidorah, was introduced. It was a quadipedial version of King Ghidorah. Later, King Ghidorah itself appeared in the 1998's 3rd installment Rebirth of Mothra III. Like the first version, this King Ghidorah came from outer space, and was responsible for the death of the dinosaurs. The giant insect Mothra battled Ghidorah in both prehistoric times and the present-day to save a group of children kidnapped by the dragon in its older 'Grand King Ghidorah' form.

In 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, it received yet another origin, this time as a legendary guardian of the Japanese isles, apparently related to Yamata no Orochi, an eight-headed dragon featured in Japanese mythology.

Other Ghidorahs

In Rebirth of Mothra, a monster called Desghidorah appears and is a black, quadrapedal three headed dragon who could create fire and open fissures into the Earth as well as absorb energy from the planet it was destroying. Mothra defeated it and sealed it away, making the world safe from its evil.

In Godzilla Final Wars, a skeletal looking monster called Monster X appears and clashes with Godzilla. As their fight seems to end in a tie, Monster X transforms into a massive golden quadrepedal Ghidorah called Keizer Ghidorah, who absorbs Godzilla's energy and nearly kills the king of the monsters, until Godzilla gets a burst of energy from the superhuman Ozaki, which makes Godzilla stronger and given a more powerful beam which is enough to cause Ghidorah to explode in the stratosphere in an massive burst of energy visible from space.ja:キングギドラ