King Ghidorah

NICKNAME(S) Ghidorah Monster Zero The Devil[1] The Devil With Three Heads[2] Death Song of the Three Storms[3] The One Who is Many Mandandare Aqenomba[4] False King Invasive Species Moe, Larry, and Curly Ichi, Ni, and San a.k.a. Kevin[5] Alpha, Angry and Young[6] Azhi Dahaka[7] The Three-Headed Foe[8] World Ender

SPECIES Titanus Ghidorah HEIGHT 521 feet[3][9] WEIGHT 141,056 tons WINGSPAN 1,300 feet[10] STATUS Deceased

ENEMIES Godzilla Mothra Shimo Rodan Kong Monarch Madison Russell William Stenz Apex Cybernetics RELATIONSHIPS Mechagodzilla † (Host)

King Ghidorah also dubbed Monster Zero, Titanus Ghidorah or just simply Ghidorah, is a giant extraterrestrial three-headed dragon daikaiju created by Legendary Pictures.

The main antagonist of the MonsterVerse, Ghidorah was first alluded to during the final moments the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island, became the main antagonist of the 2019 film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and was one of the overarching antagonists of Godzilla vs. Kong.

A rival alpha predator to Godzilla, Ghidorah was discovered by Monarch lying dormant inside an Antarctic glacier. In 2019, he was freed by Emma Russell and Alan Jonah's eco-terrorist paramilitary as part of their plan to manipulate the Titans and renew the world's ecosphere; unaware that Ghidorah was an alien who was incompatible with Earth’s established natural order. Proving impossible to control with the ORCA, Ghidorah temporarily succeeded in usurping Godzilla’s dominance, spontaneously awakening the other Titans and commanding them to begin destroying both humanity and the world's ecosystems. Ghidorah managed to cause worldwide destruction and loss of life before he was defeated and killed by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Mothra, the military, Monarch and the Russell family.

Following Ghidorah's apparent demise, the skull of his leftover severed head was converted by Apex Cybernetics into a semi-organic psionic control system for Mechagodzilla. This unwittingly enabled what remained of Ghidorah's consciousness to reincarnate into the Mecha for a brief time, before it was destroyed by Godzilla and Kong with the aid of Madison Russell, Bernie Hayes and Josh Valentine.

Like most of his past incarnations, Ghidorah is larger than Godzilla. Ghidorah's wings are much larger and more bat-like in appearance than most incarnations - the membrane of each wing is supported by four bat-like phalanges extending from Ghidorah's wrists, and an additional three phalanges that extend from the sides of Ghidorah's torso. All these phalanges end in blade-like tips that emerge from the wing membrane. Though Ghidorah takes on a bipedal stance when standing still, unlike past incarnations, Ghidorah is able to move on his legs and uses his wings as forelimbs to support his massive body for crawling or even running when needed. Ghidorah still has his traditional twin tails with spiked bludgeons at their tips that can rattle as an intimidation display. His legs are digitigrade and stocky with avian-like feet, similar to the 2001 incarnation. When Ghidorah's left head is ripped off, his blood is shown to be black and oil-like.

Each head has a crown of ten horns similar to the Heisei incarnation, which tend to flare depending on Ghidorah's current mood. There are subtle differences in each head's horn array. The horns of the middle head are notably longer, more curved, and more decorative than the other two, while the left head has straighter horns than the right head. Furthermore, one of the right head's left horns is chipped. The left head appears to have a slightly more rectangular facial structure with slightly further-apart eyes than the other two. The middle head's neck has two rows of spines while the left and right necks only have one. Ghidorah's heads each have crocodilian-looking jaws with flaring nostrils, forked tongue, and brows with a generally furrowed appearance. His eyes are beady and have a fiery reddish-orange color and circular pupils, and they tend to glint or glow blazing yellow at a distance (particularly noticeable in the dark) or when he prepares to fire his gravity beams. Ghidorah's necks also emit golden light of electricity from within whenever he charges up and fires his gravity beams.

Ghidorah possesses a high-pitched, wailing roar with an underlying scratching quality. Some of the deeper vocalizations are similar to that of the Vastatosaurus rex in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, such as when he is struck by Godzilla's atomic breath upon entering Boston. He also at times produces serpentine hisses, and low growls not dissimilar to a lion's.

According to Michael Dougherty, Ghidorah's roar in the MonsterVerse is meant to emulate his original high-pitched cackling roar from the Showa series, but far more intense and louder. The unique point of this incarnation's roar is that sometimes Ghidorah's heads will roar one by one continuously three times. The filmmakers recorded sounds of snakes such as pythons and rattlesnakes to emulate Ghidorah's serpentine traits, along with some growls of a lion.[18]

Prior to his landing in Boston, Ghidorah's high-pitched ringing from the Showa films can be heard. During his fight with Godzilla in Boston, Ghidorah uses a roar from his Heisei incarnation.

Ghidorah is arguably the most malevolent and hostile Titan encountered so far. Unlike the other Titans, who attack humans or cause damage due to provocation, carnivorous hunger or merely by being indifferent to the humans and structures surrounding them, Ghidorah displays true malice. He willingly tries to kill as many humans as he can, whether they're trying to pose a threat to him or not, and there are glimpses of all three of his heads seemingly smiling when he's just killed or is about to attack (more information on that below). Ghidorah also initially displays a willingness to toy with or curiously investigate humans before killing them, such as when his heads attempted to slowly crush the human-filled Osprey in Antarctica. Ghidorah notably prefers killing humans with his gravity beams, despite this being overkill for such comparatively small creatures. Ghidorah actively seeks to usurp command of Earth's Titans from Godzilla, and upon successfully doing so, he immediately commands the other Titans to join him in creating natural disasters and wreaking destruction on a global scale, to a point where the likely end result if the global rampage continues will be the eradication of all multicellular life except for Ghidorah within a few years[19][20][8]. Upon becoming aware of Ghidorah's extraterrestrial nature, Rick Stanton compares him to an invasive species and suspects that the purpose of his apocalypse is terraforming (xenoforming) the planet into a more ideal place for Ghidorah to live. Ishiro Serizawa, Mark Russell and Emma Russell all run with the same assumption[21][22][23]; but Mark at one point alternatively speculates that Ghidorah perhaps simply hates every living thing that isn't him and desires to destroy it all as a motivation and an end-goal in and of itself[21]. Upon usurping Godzilla's position as the reigning alpha, Ghidorah seems to exhibit a controlling streak and possessiveness of his new position that he didn't have before; whereas he'd

previously disregarded the ORCA's Alpha signal in Antarctica as soon as it ceased broadcasting, during the Boston battle to maintain his control of the other Titans, Ghidorah instead went as far as immediately abandoning the fight with Godzilla once he sensed the ORCA signal challenging his dominance.

Ghidorah possesses a strong rivalry with Godzilla, the reigning alpha of Earth's Titans. Ghidorah's right and middle heads were particularly confrontational and exchanged scowls with his ancient enemy when Ghidorah and Godzilla met again after Ghidorah's awakening, and the Titans attempted to size each other up before engaging. Ghidorah likewise maintained a one-on-one battle against Godzilla for the position of alpha in Boston despite Mothra's interference, allowing Rodan to keep Mothra occupied. Each of Ghidorah's three heads, though capable of working in sync towards Ghidorah's overall goals (particularly in combative situations where they work as a single creature), has a level of independent thought from each other and a distinct personality.

The middle head (Ichi) is the most dominant and intelligent-seeming head of the three and appears to be the leader over the other two. It's also debatably the most gleefully sadistic of the heads and the most determined to go out of its way to be cruel; pulling a lopsided smirk directly before obliterating the G-Team, likewise seemingly grinning when Ghidorah was attacking the Argo, and targeting and devouring Vivienne Graham in Antarctica. The middle head appears to be quicker-acting and more focused on Ghidorah's priorities than the other two heads; being the most attentive head when Ghidorah first sensed Godzilla's approach in Antarctica and upon Emma Russell's apparent death, and twisting its neck slightly quicker than the other two heads when pursuing Emma and the ORCA.

Because of this, the middle head appears to take Ghidorah's rivalry with Godzilla more personally than the other heads when challenging the terrestrial Titan. The middle head is somewhat creative in battle, such as when it bit down on a power station in Boston. The middle head was only known to show fear at the end of Ghidorah's life, being visibly terrified by a thermonuclear Godzilla's advance after the latter destroyed the other two heads. The right head (Ni) is the most irritable and aggressive of the three, often sporting a crooked, grimacing expression which sets it apart from the other two heads. It appears to be particularly bloodthirsty and eager for battle, such as when it feebly attempted to fend Godzilla off while the other heads were incapacitated by Mothra's webbing. The right head displays pragmatism and better spatial awareness of its foes while fighting, such as when it was attempting to free the other heads from Mothra's webbing (first checking Mothra wasn't in a position to immediately strike again before the head got to the task, and quickly noticing Godzilla's approach in a building's reflection); and also at Fenway Park, where it was the first head to notice and begin disabling the Fenway Park speakers broadcasting the ORCA's signal (although this may have been frustration). Despite being mainly known for its angry-seeming disposition, the right head smiled sadistically when watching the middle head devour Vivienne Graham. This head is an obedient follower towards the middle head and is capable of interacting with the middle head without violence; often chirping suggestively to the middle head or being consulted by the middle head first (such as when Ghidorah was confused by the ORCA's deactivation in Antarctica).

The middle head in turn seems to be less violent towards this head than towards the left head, such as when it didn't berate the right head for getting distracted feeding on the G-Team's ashes the same way it berated the left head. With all this in mind, the right head appears to rank second on the trio's pecking order, devouring the crushed ice falling from the middle head's jaws (after flicking its tongue seemingly in a request) when it devoured Graham.

The left head (San, also called "Kevin") seems to be the least intelligent and least aggressive of the heads; and based on its facial expressions (or lack thereof) compared to the other heads when Ghidorah is engaged in action, it appears to be somewhat docile. The left head is easily distracted and unfocused, to the frustration and disappointment of the middle head who has to forcibly get its companion back on task. Possibly because of its behavior, the left head appears to be at the bottom of the three heads' pecking order. This head notably displays more of an inquisitive side than the other two, most prominently when Ghidorah first awakened.

Its unique first reaction among the heads was to immediately look around when they were emerging from the ice, and it responded to the G-Team shooting at Ghidorah by bending its neck to get a closer look (even nuzzling one of them with its chin). It attacked the G-Team in unison with the other two heads only after the middle head had forcefully pushed it back to get it back on task, and even so, it was quick to get distracted again moments later, licking the team's ashy remains alongside the right head. Its curiosity towards humans seemed to ebb after this, although it still seemingly scented the air with its tongue when the heads were approaching Emma Russell after injuring her, appearing mildly curious about the human who'd broadcasted the ORCA's signal. The left head also at times seems more clumsy or careless than the other two heads, seemingly firing its gravity beam in a more unfocused and broadly-destructive manner than the other two at Fenway Park, and smashing its head directly through a building when Ghidorah was pursuing Emma's Humvee through a cramped street. This head appears to be somewhat timider than the other two when the heads aren't working together, at times casting worried looks towards the other heads such as when facing Godzilla in Antarctica - the left head furthermore openly displayed fear of Godzilla at the time of Emma Russell's death when Ghidorah sensed Godzilla's approach (unlike the other two heads, who never openly showed such emotion except when Ghidorah was about to be killed).

However, the left head behaves much more confidently when engaging alongside the other two in battle with Godzilla, since it does not hesitate to strike. The left head seems to function as a sentry, mostly rearing back and watching while the other two heads engaged Godzilla in Antarctica (and observing when Godzilla's tail-fins lit up before he used his atomic breath), and at other times scanning in the direction Ghidorah's back is facing. This head seems to be more eager for food than the other two, based on its aforementioned action after the G-Team's deaths, and when it turned its attention to the remaining humans after watching the other two heads devour Graham and the ice she'd been standing on. Despite its docile streak, the left head does at times display its own savagery; being particularly eager to bite down on Godzilla's neck compared to the other two heads when Ghidorah was draining Godzilla's energy, and seemingly smiling when Ghidorah was attacking the Argo - additionally, it was this head's skull which granted Mechagodzilla an extremely violent and murderous personality of its own, even if the Mecha lacked some of the left head's key individual personality traits. Despite the heads' differing personalities (or perhaps because of the middle head's dominance, given its aforementioned focus), Ghidorah tends to be persistent to a point bordering on obsessive when something has his attention. This was seen when, after being briefly and painfully distracted by the ORCA's signal from investigating a nearby Osprey, instead of pursuing the source of his pain once it ceased, Ghidorah resumed approaching the Osprey and toying with the humans inside. However, this can also be a weakness for Ghidorah, as seen when the Russells used the ORCA to draw him away from a downed Godzilla and kept him chasing the ORCA through Boston until Godzilla recovered.

The MonsterVerse incarnation of King Ghidorah returns the character to his original roots as a villainous extraterrestrial life form. Monarch initially assumed that Ghidorah was part of Earth's natural order as one of the many Titans roaming the Earth, until it was discovered that Ghidorah survived the Oxygen Destroyer blast and regenerated his severed head in seconds. According to information pieced together from ancient mythological texts by Ilene Chen, Ghidorah "fell from the stars", which Monarch subsequently took as indicating alongside Ghidorah's non-terrestrial biology that he was an extraterrestrial lifeform who acts like an invasive species to Earth's biosphere. It is unknown where Ghidorah came from, or if there are other members of his kind in existence.

Ghidorah arrived on Earth around or during the time early humans evolved. Apparently, Ghidorah's arrival occurred some time after the original Titanus Gojira-Titanus Kong feud's formation.[8] Numerous mythological deities such as the Hydra from Greek mythology and the Rainbow Serpent of the Aboriginal Australian religion are credited as misremembered encounters with Ghidorah by ancient civilizations, while the Taza people of Highland New Guinea remembered him as Mandandare Aqenomba[4]. Still, ancient people left very few writings about Ghidorah, as if willfully trying to erase the malevolent Titan from memory.

If the aforementioned ancient texts are to be believed, Ghidorah was responsible for slaughtering humans and Titans alike. He established himself as a rival alpha to Godzilla, and the two battled each other several times before they vied for supremacy in ancient Antarctica, not much is known about this fight but Godzilla eventually blasted a hole through one of Ghidorah's wings, causing him to fall into icy waters to freeze solid[24][25][26] near the tip of the continent (specifically the Scott Mountains).[3] Ghidorah was frozen no more than a few miles away from Antarctica's vortex to the Hollow Earth, which was encased in thirty-million-year-old ice older than the ice surrounding Ghidorah, indicating that Ghidorah likely tried to enter the Hollow Earth but was stopped by Godzilla in their last battle.[8] Monarch also theorized that Shimo may have helped Godzilla in freezing and imprisoning Ghidorah.[27]

In 1973, Houston Brooks and San Lin briefed James Conrad and Mason Weaver on multiple other monsters who once ruled the world alongside Kong. This included Ghidorah, along with Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, who were all shown to the two via classified Monarch cave paintings.

2016

Ghidorah was discovered under the ice via the Reolus satellite, which detected an extreme electromagnetic pulse fluctuation from the frozen creature.[3] In 2016, Vivienne Graham led an effort to build a containment and research facility (Outpost 32) around Ghidorah. Her classified field notes contained the mysterious footnote, "The devil has three heads."[1] The creature was later dubbed 'Monster Zero' by Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell.[28]

Ghidorah is first seen frozen in Antarctic ice at Outpost 32. Eco-terrorist organization leader Alan Jonah and rogue Monarch agent Emma Russell free him with explosives and awaken him with the ORCA.

Upon awakening, Ghidorah slaughters the G-Team forces on the ground before turning his attention to a grounded Osprey aircraft. Shortly after, Godzilla emerges from the ice and the two Titans engage in battle, decimating the remains of Outpost 32. Upon briefly gaining the upper-hand over Godzilla, Ghidorah targets and eats Dr. Graham alive, but is distracted from targeting the remaining humans on the ground by Monarch's aerial forces firing missiles to distract him. When Godzilla recovers amid Ghidorah's distraction, Ghidorah escapes into the sky and flees Antarctica, rapidly forming a growing cyclone around himself as he passes over Brazil. Upon sensing Rodan's awakening at Isla de Mara, Mexico, Ghidorah's typhoon immediately changes course as he makes a beeline towards the avian Titan's location. Monarch attempts to goad the two monsters into fighting each other, with Ghidorah easily defeating Rodan by sending him falling into the ocean. Ghidorah proceeds to target and attack the USS Argo, but Godzilla emerges from the sea to fight him off. Godzilla tears off Ghidorah's left head in the ensuing struggle, but before Godzilla can finish Ghidorah off whilst the latter is prone and helpless in the ocean, they are both struck by the military's Oxygen Destroyer missile: whilst Godzilla is crippled by the blast (specifically designed to eliminate all lifeforms in the area by removing all surrounding oxygen) to the point of near-death and is forced to retreat to recuperate, Ghidorah emerges from the ocean unscathed due to his unearthly biology, and with Godzilla crippled to a point where it would likely take him years to recover, Ghidorah is now unopposed as the top Alpha Titan.

Ghidorah flies to Rodan's volcano, where he regenerates his missing head. He then calls out to the other Titans around the world, Rodan included, who all acknowledge him as their new alpha. Ghidorah immediately instructs the Titans to behave hyper-aggressively, attacking major cities and triggering rapid cataclysmic natural disasters around the world (massive wildfires, mass die-offs, volcanic eruptions polluting the atmosphere with gigatons of ash and volcanic gases); which begin rapidly wiping out the planet's ecosystems faster than the terrestrial Titans' effects can regenerate them, and threaten to spell a rapid global mass extinction[21][19]. Ghidorah himself meanwhile begins spawning offshoot massive storms from his hurricane and spreading them around the world[29], further adding to the cataclysm; and Ghidorah personally roosts in Washington, D.C. (which he completely destroys) with Rodan acting as his vanguard. Ilene Chen subsequently deduces based on Ghidorah's demonstated abnormal characteristics coupled with legends about his origins that he's an extraterrestrial, and thus has no ties to maintaining Earth's natural balance. Realizing they need Godzilla more than ever, Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself to detonate a nuclear warhead to bring Godzilla back to full strength.

As Ghidorah is lured to Boston when Madison Russell broadcasts the ORCA's signal from Fenway Park, spontaneously disrupting Ghidorah's control of his global Titan army sans Rodan, as he seeks to destroy the signal's source as a rival to his dominance. Godzilla appears to challenge his rival once more, with Mothra and Monarch joining by his side. However, Ghidorah calls upon Rodan to distract Mothra while he takes on Godzilla himself. At first, the battle goes in Godzilla's favor, until Ghidorah manages to absorb massive amounts of electrical energy by biting down on a nearby transformer: using the excess energy, he decimates Godzilla's entire airborne military escort and forces the surviving craft to immediately retreat, whilst Godzilla at this point rapidly tires. Ghidorah proceeds to pick up Godzilla using his tails and talons, carries the injured Titan seemingly above the stratosphere, and then drops him, making him plummet tens of thousands of feet down to Earth. After slamming into the ground, mortally wounding himself, Godzilla lies defenseless. Mothra, who is grievously injured from her fight with Rodan, attempts to defend him but is killed by Ghidorah's gravity beams. As she dies, however, she releases a cloud of energy, which Godzilla absorbs, causing him to glow fiery orange.

Seemingly realizing the threat posed by this energy, Ghidorah grapples Godzilla and begins draining it out of him via bites. However, a repentant Emma Russell reactivates the ORCA in order to distract Ghidorah from completing the drainage process, and the three-headed dragon promptly chases her through the city, mortally injuring her and destroying the ORCA when his gravity beams overturn Emma's jeep.

The few moments were enough for Godzilla to recover, who then enters the scene supercharged and glowing a burning red. Ghidorah manages to shield himself against Godzilla's first thermonuclear pulse, which incinerates his wings in the process. Panicking, Ghidorah tries to stop Godzilla with his gravity beams, to no effect before Godzilla unleashes a second pulse, incinerating Ghidorah's two side heads. The remaining middle head struggles vainly, as Godzilla ferociously roars and steps on the fallen Ghidorah's chest, bursting out all of his energy from his body, as well as triggering a final thermonuclear pulse that obliterates Ghidorah's body. After the storm ceased immediately when the pulse dissipates, Godzilla rises from the rubble with Ghidorah's middle head dangling from his mouth, still frantically struggling. Godzilla fires his atomic breath through Ghidorah's neck, incinerating it, seemingly leaving behind no remains and presumably killing him for good; thus avenging the deaths of Mothra, Graham, Emma and countless other humans. Sometime after Godzilla's victory, it's revealed that Ghidorah's earlier-severed left head in Mexico has been recovered by fishermen from the ocean, and is now discolored and swarming with flies, seemingly dead. Alan Jonah, seeing a potential use for it upon being led to it by the fishermen, purchases it from a trader.

Although Ghidorah is dead, his passage by Isla de Mara left a perpetual superstorm anchored above the Pacific Ocean which didn't dissipate with his other storms, described by Houston Brooks as "a gift from the Devil to remember him by." After two years raging in the same spot above the ocean, Camazotz's influence on Skull Island draws the storm away from its original position and causes it to merge with the island's perpetual storm barrier in a Fukushima effect, permanently enshrouding the island itself in an endless storm which rendered it uninhabitable over the following couple years.

At some stage after Alan Jonah acquired Ghidorah's severed left head, it was obtained by Apex Cybernetics in secret - the flesh at this point has apparently rotted away to leave only the skull. According to the novelization, a globally-wanted man who's heavily implied to be Jonah sold the skull to Walter Simmons in either 2020 or 2022 via a black market dealing.[30]

Apex fashioned the upper-skull (minus the jaw) into a psionic uplink cockpit which could remotely control Mechagodzilla by harnessing the skull's lingering telepathy, with Ren Serizawa acting as the pilot: Bernie Hayes speculated that a separated piece of Ghidorah's DNA was hardwired inside Mechagodzilla itself, acting as a receiver where the skull cockpit acted as a transmitter. However, every time Apex activated the psionic uplink, Ghidorah's remains broadcasted a corrupted version of the three-headed monster's original bio-acoustics which Godzilla detected[8], provoking him to attack Apex's facilities looking for the source.

After Apex charged Mechagodzilla (being held in Apex's Hong Kong headquarters alongside the skull) with energy from the Earth's core, remnants of Ghidorah's consciousness from the skull corrupted the system and took over Mechagodzilla, enabling the Mecha to calculate and act independently of a human pilot, whilst causing it to exhibit murderous and genocidal impulses much like Ghidorah's own - at the same time, a massive power surge was drawn to the skull and electrocuted Ren in the pilot chair. While the skull itself was presumed to be destroyed during Mechagodzilla's escape from the Apex facility, Ghidorah's influence through Mechagodzilla was ended when Kong and Godzilla destroyed the Mecha.

Despite Ghidorah's role of almost destroying Earth, some humans start to admire him. One of these humans create an online account with the username "GhidoraStan64" to harass Bernie Hayes online.

At the Monarch headquarters in Barbados, Bernie Hayes mentions Ghidorah when he proves his theory to Ilene Andrews about Godzilla's erratic behavior during the presence of a world-ending threat.

In the the prologue of the film's novelization, Monarch visited Ghidorah's frozen body as they attempted to determine how he was put on ice.

When Ghidorah became the alpha, he let out an extremely loud and powerful call that could be heard by the other Titans all around the world. Upon hearing the said call, the Titans would immediately come to Ghidorah's aid, assisting him in destroying the Earth, minus Kong, who chose to ignore the call, not wanting anything to do with it. Additionally, his call did not affect Godzilla, who was a rival alpha, or Mothra, who was loyal only to Godzilla.

Bio-electrical nature

Ghidorah had electro-receptor molecular biology, and his skin was covered with traces of gold that acted as a conductor that carried bioelectrical currents throughout his body. Besides his Gravity Beams and Meteorokinesis (see below), this seemingly enabled him to draw his storm's lightning to himself as a living conductor, as he seemed to do when fighting Godzilla in Antarctica. Immediately after absorbing electricity directly from a city transformer, Ghidorah blasted lightning bolts from the bladed tips of his wings, disabling numerous aircraft in the surrounding skies and injuring Godzilla.

The skull of Ghidorah's decapitated, decomposing left head retained not only Ghidorah's telepathic abilities, but also at the least some marked vestiges of Ghidorah's consciousnesses and murderous personality traits, and it transferred them into Mechagodzilla via its telepathic link to the Mecha; causing the machine to operate independently of a human pilot and exhibit a Ghidorah-like murderous personality.

Ghidorah's golden scales made him highly impervious to any form of weaponry. He was also able to withstand a full-force charge from both Rodan and Godzilla. Even a radiation-overloaded Godzilla's atomic breath couldn't cause any noticeable damage to Ghidorah, merely forcing him backward, though it did burn him.

Even after the destruction of Ghidorah's entire body, the middle head survived and remained completely conscious (possibly due to Ghidorah's alien biology), and it was only destroyed by Godzilla's atomic ray firing up through the head's severed neck to atomize it. Ghidorah's severed left head, by comparison, appeared to be dead and rotting by the time it was dredged up.

Ghidorah could drain energy and electricity directly into himself by biting down on power sources. He gained a catastrophically-immense burst of electrical power by biting down on a live power station in Boston; and he was also able to slowly drain and siphon Godzilla's excess radiation by biting down on the latter, an act which caused the orange-colored excess energy to visibly flow down Ghidorah's heads and necks from Godzilla.

Ghidorah's massive and powerful wings allowed him to fly with great speed at 500 knots (575.39 mph) over long distances, and he only needed to pump them downwards to get airborne off the ground. This allowed him to easily chase down Emma Russell and attempt to attack the USS Argo. FORKED TONGUES:

Similar to monitor lizards and snakes, Ghidorah possesses three forked tongues in each of his three mouths which he can use to smell using the forked tips and allow him to sense Godzilla's arrival.

Ghidorah could shoot yellow gravity beams (concentrated, lightning-like beams of electrical energy) from each of his three mouths. Much like how Godzilla's dorsal plates glow whenever he is about to release his atomic breath, Ghidorah's necks, throats, and sometimes his eyes glowed before he fired his gravity beams. The beams were extremely powerful, as they could easily obliterate buildings, seemingly caused humans to instantly combust to ashes, singed Godzilla's scales and knocked him over, and incinerated a weakened Mothra within seconds during their battle in Boston, though they did no lasting damage to the former. They were also able to generate a great amount of static electricity that shorted out the circuits of all nearby electronics, as happened in Antarctica.

Hibernation

Ghidorah is able to survive being frozen for millennia in solid ice.

Hurricane winds

Ghidorah had hyper-tensile muscle tendons in his wings that were capable of generating hurricane-force winds while in flight. This was most notably seen when rhythmic bursts of wind seeming to indicate his wing-beats caused a flag in Boston to fly and fall ahead of his (and his main storm's) arrival.

Cranial scans indicate each of Ghidorah's heads possessed different levels of cognitive function and independent thought. The middle head was the most intelligent; acting as the leader and being quicker-acting, more resourceful, as well as more goal-oriented than the other two. Meanwhile, the right head displayed a combative spatial awareness when the other two were incapacitated in combat, and the left head was an observant sentry. Ghidorah is also very intelligent overall, capable of tactical fighting and improvization.

Ghidorah could conduct electrical currents, making water vapor heat up to extreme levels and creating localized storm systems, as well as otherworldly tempests of thunder and yellow lightning. As a result, Ghidorah was effectively constantly wrapped in or accompanied by lightning-filled, otherworldly typhoon, which seemed to worsen the longer Ghidorah was active after escaping the ice - starting as anomalous winds and near-constant flashes of thunder and lightning in Antarctica, afterward progressing to the equivalent of a tropical storm the size of Central America, and subsequently to a Category 6 hurricane when Ghidorah invaded Washington DC. Ghidorah's cyclone-like storms also produced tornadoes or water spouts in his immediate surroundings. Ghidorah's storms seemed to be somewhat radiation-influenced, as a radiation-supercharged Godzilla's presence in Boston caused the lightning to turn blue like the latter's bioluminescence in his immediate vicinity.

When Ghidorah becomes the Titans' new alpha and begins using them to actively destroy the Earth, his main hurricane begins producing hundreds of offshoot super-cells, squall lines, tornadoes and thunderstorms which rapidly spread over the planet[29] - Mark Russell notes that if these storms continue pelting the planet for even a matter of weeks, the long-term dramatic decrease in sunlight alone will cause plant and animal food chains around the planet to collapse and create mass extinction, never mind the mass flooding, mass over-saturation of reefs and mass displacement of freshwater that the storms will also cause[20].

When Ghidorah's body apart from its middle head was obliterated by Godzilla's thermonuclear pulses, his hurricane immediately dissipated - whether this was due to the destruction of Ghidorah's body or the thermonuclear pulses' effects is uncertain. However, at least one of the superstorms that Ghidorah's effects on Earth's atmosphere generated continued to rage in a fixed location above the Pacific Ocean years after his death.

Oxygen independency

Due to being an extraterrestrial alien, Ghidorah did not require oxygen to survive, which made him completely immune to the Oxygen Destroyer. He appeared to produce some fogged exhalation in Antarctica however, though notably not as thick as Godzilla's breaths.

Rattling

The spikes on Ghidorah's tails could be used to create a rattling sound as a form of intimidation, similar to a rattlesnake.

Using the radiation from Rodan's volcano,[31] Ghidorah was able to regenerate the head that was decapitated by Godzilla almost instantaneously. The process was somewhat brutal, requiring that the severed head's tongue regrow first, followed by the skull (producing a bright-golden membrane, which the middle head seems to tear away from the regenerating left head prematurely), then muscle, skin, and scales. During the battle in Boston, after absorbing the Boston power grid's energy and blasting the military's airborne vehicles out of the sky, Ghidorah was able to regenerate holes in his wing membranes within seconds.

Serpentine necks

Ghidorah can use his three serpentine necks to wrap around and tighten Godzilla in combat, possibly to constrict him to death similar to constrictor snakes' method of subduing prey.

Sharp teeth

Each of Ghidorah's three heads have sharp teeth which grant him a vicious bite, as he was able to bite into Godzilla's skin during both their battles in Antarctica and Boston.

Each of Ghidorah's heads was very nimble and quick; able to lash out and quickly strike their intended targets like snakes, and also using their flexible necks and numbers to dodge attacks such as Godzilla's atomic ray. When flying, Ghidorah's top speed could reach up to 550 knots[3] - however, unlike Rodan and Mothra, he appeared to be a somewhat heavy flyer without their aerial agility, making up for this with strength, speed, ferocity, as well as his electrical and meteorokinetic abilities.

Stamina

Ghidorah showed no signs of tiring or resting in the time window between his awakening and his death (spanning at least one sunset and sunrise), despite flying from Antarctica to Mexico and finally to North America during that time, and despite engaging in multiple battles with other Titans. After fighting Godzilla for a certain amount of time in Boston, Ghidorah didn't show any signs of exhaustion while Godzilla (who was dangerously unstable due to being overloaded by a nuclear warhead's energy) had been begun to breathe heavily and slow down.

Ghidorah's intimidation style was very similar to a king cobra. Much like cobras that raise their heads and spread their necks, Ghidorah's heads arched their necks and spread his wings to make him appear twice as large as Godzilla. His fighting style was similar to that of a snake, with his heads quickly lashing out and biting onto opponents.

Ghidorah was a tactical combatant. Ghidorah's jaws and his gravity beams were his primary and preferred weapons, with all three heads tending to work together (and often firing their gravity beams in unison) to combat Ghidorah's foe. He is much stronger than most other Titans, with only Godzilla rivaling him in physical strength. Though Ghidorah initially mainly fought Godzilla with bites, his heads' ability to combine teamwork and ingenuity was disturbingly shown when the side-heads held Rodan pinned by either wing with their jaws, whilst the middle head blasted him at close-range with its gravity beam. The fact Ghidorah's heads could act independently of each other was also an advantage, limiting his opponent's ability to keep track of all three heads' actions. During the Boston battle, Ghidorah not only relied on his jaws but also used his wings to dislodge Godzilla from the ground while biting him. After consuming Boston's power supply to greatly enhance his strength, Ghidorah utilized the combined power of his wings, legs, and tails to lift Godzilla, a 99,634-ton Titan, seemingly above the Earth's troposphere. He then proceeded to drop Godzilla, resulting in severe weakening of the mighty creature.

Ghidorah has a defensive tactic where he uses his wings as shields against projectiles, like man-made missiles. He achieves this by tucking his wings over his body and heads, providing protection against incoming attacks.

According to Bernie Hayes, due to the fact the immense length of Ghidorah's necks would normally interfere with how quickly the beast could receive and interpret sensory information, Ghidorah ended up evolving telepathy so that his heads could communicate with each other instantaneously, thus bypassing any information lag he might experience. Ghidorah's bone matter in his severed head's skull retained this telepathy even beyond the head's death by decapitation, which was harnessed by Apex Cybernetics to control Mechagodzilla. The skull even appeared to produce echoes of Ghidorah's vocalizations without any vocal chords, which is what drew Madison Russell's attention to the Skull Room.

Twin tails

Similar to his previous versions, Ghidorah possesses two tails with retractable spikes on the ends, which can serve as formidable weapons. However, it appears that Ghidorah does not specifically utilize these tails as offensive weapons in combat. Instead, during his battle with Godzilla in Boston, Ghidorah is observed using his tails as prehensile limbs to restrain Godzilla while lifting him into the sky.

Even though Ghidorah is extremely powerful, he has several notable weaknesses. Freezing temperatures

Ghidorah was neutralized by freezing solid in ice after being rendered inert by Godzilla in Antarctica - being frozen rendered Ghidorah dormant for centuries to millennia, and he only recovered when he did due to human interference deliberately freeing him from the ice.

Thermonuclear pulses

Despite Ghidorah's immense durability, he could not withstand the thermonuclear pulses that Godzilla released in his burning form, which incinerated Ghidorah's wings and two of his heads in a matter of seconds.

Water

Since Ghidorah's physical structure was that of an airborne creature, he was not entirely suited to move underwater. When Godzilla dragged him into the ocean near Isla de Mara, Ghidorah struggled to fight back and got his left head easily decapitated by the former.