Monster Discussion #15: King Ghidorah (Showa)

[Dannybeane]

What exactly are Ghidorah‘s Gravity Beams? What are they made up of? Plasma? Electricity? Some unknown state of matter? It's never really explained and I'd really like to know.

Gravity of course! It's right there in the name!

[MoarCrossovers]

What exactly are Ghidorah‘s Gravity Beams? What are they made up of? Plasma? Electricity? Some unknown state of matter? It's never really explained and I'd really like to know.

Gravity of course! It's right there in the name!

Last time I checked, gravity doesn't cause explosions.

[Ivo-goji]

Well Ghidorah's powers are derived from magnetism and plasmic energy, so I'd guess the gravity beams are bursts of electromagnetic radiation.

Ghidorah appears to be to the electromagnetic force as Godzilla is to the atomic forces.

[Dannybeane]

What exactly are Ghidorah‘s Gravity Beams? What are they made up of? Plasma? Electricity? Some unknown state of matter? It's never really explained and I'd really like to know.

Gravity of course! It's right there in the name!

Last time I checked, gravity doesn't cause explosions.

In beam/bolt form it does!

[Rodan]

When he spit electrics don't be in y'all saunas.

His own biggest fan. And got a fan base as big as Japan.

[Lain Of The Wired]

In "Astro Monster", Fuji claims it's lightening.

[GodzillaRangerPrime]

As supposedly powerful as he is, I find it hard to believe that a monster his size can devestate entire planets like Mars lol.

Maybe he takes a couple weeks to destroy every city, then wrecks havoc with the planet's climate and gravity?

[Ivo-goji]

It probably takes Showa Ghidorah months or even years to depopulate a planet. We don't see what happened on Venus so we don't know.

[Lain Of The Wired]

As supposedly powerful as he is, I find it hard to believe that a monster his size can devestate entire planets like Mars lol.

Well, that's because he didn't destroy Mars, he destroyed Venus

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

According to the awesome GigaBowserG from a book by Tomoyuki Tanaka- the cresent horns ontop of King Ghidorah's heads have telepathic abilities that allow him to find planets with life on it to eradicate them! Definitely interesting.

[tlyon2]

It probably takes Showa Ghidorah months or even years to depopulate a planet. We don't see what happened on Venus so we don't know.

Going by what they said in the English version it took King Ghidorah over a month to wipe out Mars. So I imagine its the same thing in the Japanese version' it took him just one month to wipe everything and everyone out on Venus.

[GodzillaBurgh]

According to Zone Fighter, the evil Garoga alien army claimed to be King Ghidorah's creator. I wonder if that's legit.

[Ivo-goji]

People are always strangely skeptical about that even though there's absolutely no other origin ever offered to explain where he came from, the Garoga manufacture dozens of other kaiju, none of the other aliens had the capacity to create a single monster of their own except the Nebulans (who only had Gigan), the fact that a space traveling organism like Ghidorah makes absolutely no sense in nature, the fact that he's CONSTANTLY being controlled by aliens as if that were his entire purpose for existing-

(Several hours later)

-meteors can't even direct their own motion once they're in space, even the original film makes no sense unless some other alien intelligence had wanted Ghidorah to attack Earth, not to mention his behavior in depopulating Venus 5000 years ago then completely ignoring the neighboring planet for that entire time is completely inexplicable unless he were being controlled by someone with a motive more complex than 'kill everything everywhere'-

(Still more explanation later)

- with as many aliens stealing kaiju from each other its a wonder the Garoga didn't claim to have created Gigan, which frankly would have been more plausible given how every other alien race is on the verge of extinction because of pollution or black holes or whatever, I'm personally very confused why everyone does not IMMEDIATELY assume the Garoga created Ghidorah, much less be so utterly unconvinced when its literally, explicitly stated that they did. I mean, why? What alternative seems so much more attractive in comparison? I sincerely want to know.

[Lain Of The Wired]

I'm personally very confused why everyone does not IMMEDIATELY assume the Garoga created Ghidorah

Probably because that'd be dumb, considering the Garoga weren't even thought of by 1964...
Thats like asking why Titanosaurus wasn't in Destroy All Monsters

[tlyon2]

Unlike most of the others here I too believe that the Garogas really did created King Ghidorah, one of his nicknames is after all called the Super Space Terror Beast. Its not one of his nicknames you hear a whole lot of but its in there!

If they had done a 2nd season of Zone Fighter we would have learn more of King Ghidorah's origin in the series' I believe they had plans for that but it never happen of course due to low ratings and the oil crisis that was going on at the time.

[King of the Monsters]

I think part of the reason some people find it hard to accept the notion of the Garogas having created King Ghidorah is simply that in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster it's established that King Ghidorah attacked Venus thousands of years ago, while to my knowledge the Garogas' operations are mostly constrained to the present day. That and for some it just ruins the mystery surrounding what King Ghidorah is and where he comes from.

However, there is a possible alternate interpretation. Some books refer to the King Ghidorah from Godzilla vs. Gigan and Zone Fighter as the "Second Generation King Ghidorah" (二代目キングギドラ), with the version from his previous three film appearances being the "First Generation." I suppose this could be justified if the events of Destroy All Monsters are placed before the 70's films instead of after, and the King Ghidorah featured in those films is assumed to be a separate individual following the first one's death. If one accepts that line of thinking, perhaps the Second Generation King Ghidorah was created by the Garogas, but the original one that attacked Venus wasn't.

Not saying I personally follow that interpretation, just throwing it out there.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

Or maybe the Garoga's are thousands of years old too perhaps. Did that never occur to anyone? They're an alien species and how media tends to portray aliens, they tend to have much longer lives such as how Ultras can range from tens of thousands to millions of years old. The original Ultraman I recall is at least 20,000 years old.

There issue with the whole King Ghidorah being made by the Garoga's solved.

[KingKaiju]

Ya know, after rewatching Destroy All Monsters, I wish Honda would've had Ghidorah kill a few of the monsters. There were, what, 11 monsters in total that he fought? I feel like that would've added so much more weight, consequence, and drama to that final scene. When I was little, I always thought that Anguirus died, after he got stomped on... Until he got up again, of course. But I just think it would've said more about the character, had he killed Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Rodan, and Baragon or something.

[Gerdzerl]

Ya know, after rewatching Destroy All Monsters, I wish Honda would've had Ghidorah kill a few of the monsters. There were, what, 11 monsters in total that he fought? I feel like that would've added so much more weight, consequence, and drama to that final scene. When I was little, I always thought that Anguirus died, after he got stomped on... Until he got up again, of course. But I just think it would've said more about the character, had he killed Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Rodan, and Baragon or something.

Indeed.

I kind of feel the same way about Anguirus' fight with Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). The scene where Anguirus is limping away as fast as he can with blood leaking out of his lower jaw and he falls over into that ditch always gave younger me the impression that he died instead of just being badly injured.



The scene I'm talking about plays from 2:52-3:12 in this video. Anguirus' warbled/distorted roars in that part give me a bit of a "death rattle" vibe.

[KingKaiju]

Ya know, after rewatching Destroy All Monsters, I wish Honda would've had Ghidorah kill a few of the monsters. There were, what, 11 monsters in total that he fought? I feel like that would've added so much more weight, consequence, and drama to that final scene. When I was little, I always thought that Anguirus died, after he got stomped on... Until he got up again, of course. But I just think it would've said more about the character, had he killed Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Rodan, and Baragon or something.

Indeed.

I kind of feel the same way about Anguirus' fight with Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). The scene where Anguirus is limping away as fast as he can with blood leaking out of his lower jaw and he falls over into that ditch always gave younger me the impression that he died instead of just being badly injured.



The scene I'm talking about plays from 2:52-3:12 in this video. Anguirus' warbled/distorted roars in that part give me a bit of a "death rattle" vibe.

Exactly! But, at least in that scene, the damage done left an impression of how only MechaGodzilla's ability, but how ruthless he was too. Had Ghidorah, at least, severely injured some of the other monsters, it might've added a little more gravity to the moment.