Through Ghidorah’s fight with Rodan, Godzilla: King of the Monsters gave the three-headed monster his first real win in a Godzilla movie. During a heated flying sequence, the King of the Skies had a dramatic clash in the air with Ghidorah. Though Rodan surpassed him in speed, he couldn’t match Ghidorah in raw power, who greatly outclassed him in terms of the strength. The fight ended with Ghidorah as a clear winner. As a result, Rodan temporarily accepted his opponent as the new alpha of the Titans.
In total, Ghidorah was a participant in four one-on-one monster showdowns. The first, which occurred when Godzilla battled Ghidorah in Antarctica, didn’t last long enough for a proper conclusion to be reached. Immediately after beating Rodan, Ghidorah fought Godzilla in a rematch in the ocean, and lost one of his three heads. This battle was an obvious loss for the False King, but he was saved from death by the military’s use of the Oxygen Destroyer. A third and final battle took place between Godzilla and Ghidorah at the end of the movie, but this time it was Ghidorah who held the advantage due to his energy absorption ability. However, timely intervention from Mothra turned the tide and gave Godzilla the power-up he needed to kill his foe.
Mothra robbed Ghidorah of what would have been his first victory over Godzilla, but nothing can take away from the fact that he did take down Rodan. Beating another monster is something that Ghidorah has never done in a Godzilla movie, despite having appeared alongside the King of the Monsters six times prior to the new film. Admittedly, he did beat Mothra in 1998’s Rebirth of Mothra III but that fight happened outside of the Godzilla franchise.
Ghidorah’s winless drought in Godzilla movies - which has lasted for over 50 years - finally ended in King of the Monsters. It’s worth exploring why it took so long for this to happen. In Ghidorah’s defense, he didn’t face very good odds in three of his six previous films. In Ghidorah, the Theee-Headed Monster, he was defeated by the duo of Godzilla and Rodan (with some assistance from Mothra). The same pair of kaiju defeated him two more times in Invasion of Astro Monster. Ghidorah never stood a chance in Destroy All Monsters against a small army of Toho kaiju that consisted of Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra, Gorosaurus, and Kumonga.
It was much more of a fair fight for him when he and Gigan teamed up against Godzilla and Angurius in Godzilla vs. Gigan, but he didn’t get to beat either monster in the movie. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, he lost both of his fights with Godzilla. Even after being rebuilt as Mecha-King Ghidorah, he still couldn’t overcome his biggest enemy. Ghidorah was also outmatched against him in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. In that movie, he was actually utilized as a hero to Godzilla’s villain, but the reversal of roles didn’t help his situation.
The MonsterVerse didn’t necessarily turn things around him since he was still denied an opportunity to beat Godzilla, but his near-triumph over him, victory over Rodan, and overall presence in the story helped Godzilla: King of the Monsters deliver a truly menacing version of Godzilla’s greatest enemy.
