Destoroyah

**Destoroyah** (デストロイア *Desutoroia*?, lit. *Destroyer*) is a crustacean kaiju made by Toho that first appeared in *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah,* and is the film's main antagonist.

## Name

Destoroyah's Japanese and English names both come from "destroyer," which comes from the Oxygen Destroyer weapon that spawned him. A possible reason that the name "Destroyer" isn't commonly used in various markets is because the word itself could not be trademarked by Toho. He is often referred to as "Destroyer" in dubbed versions of the film, while "Destoroyah" is Toho's official name for the character.

Destoroyah receives his name in the film when Dr. Ijuin witnesses the monster's juvenile forms merge together into their aggregate form. He remarks that Micro-Oxygen does not have that kind of power, and that these creatures have become a living Oxygen Destroyer, giving it the name Destoroyah.

## Appearance

Destoroyah grows quickly and adopts several appearances throughout the film, including his microscopic form, 3-mm form, insect-sized form, 2-meter form, 18-meter crab-like forms, a larger aggregate crab-like form, a bat-like flying form, and a bipedal 120-meter, demonic final form. He also has some of the same features as the aliens from the *Alien* franchise, such as the inner jaw. In all his forms, Destoroyah's exoskeleton ranges from bright red to a wine red/maroon tone, and in his later forms, his belly is bright red.

It their pre-mutated form, the microorganisms that would become Destroyah resemble trilobites of the order *Harpetida*.

In his first form, Destroyah resembles a tiny trilobite, with a flattened shell and multiple spiked protrusions emerging from its shell which vaguely resembles its later forms' head crests. This form is about a centimeter long, and was first observed consuming fish in an aquarium.

Its next form is approximately human-sized, and moves upon six crustacean-like legs. This form already sports a horned, crested head similar to that of the final form, but its mouth is insect-like with multiple sets of mandibles.

When attacked, the numerous individual juvenile forms merge together into the aggregate form, which is nearly identical to the juvenile form except much bigger. It now has a pair of spike-pointed "arms" emerging from its back, as well as an extra protruding jaw that can inject micro-oxygen.

Its flying form has greatly reduced limbs, but instead has four sail-like appendages that function as wings. Its mouth in this form is more reptilian than the other forms, and it has a long tail. Destroyah repeatedly switches between this form and the aggregate form during the fight with Junior.

Its final form is the largest one of all. This form sports bat-like wings, large curved horns on the sides of its head, a humanoid body structure, and a long tail with a pincer at the end. This form's face is more dinosaurian with a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth, and overall resembles a traditional depiction of a demon.

## Roar

Destoroyah's roar changes based on its form at the time. Its first roar is a very traditional screech, while its second has a much more high pitched sound effect for a roar, almost akin to Mechagodzilla's. The creature's final form has a much much like its first, however, it's lower in pitch.

In his juvenile form, Destoroyah releases a series of grunts similar to pigs and donkeys.

## History

### *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*

Destoroyah was first seen attacking fish in a fish tank in his microscopic form, eating away at them to the bone. He eventually turned into his juvenile stage and attacked the Tokyo Telecom Center. The army attacked Destoroyah, but many of them were killed. Flamethrowers were first discovered to be somewhat effective against the creatures, but it was then discovered that the Destoroyahs could be killed with cold temperatures, and a plan to kill them was put into action, using the DAG-MB96s that were originally designed to hold off Godzilla's meltdown.

The plan seemed to work, but the juvenile Destoroyahs combined into a large aggregate Destoroyah, and it was discovered that they were prehistoric creatures that were mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer when the first Godzilla was killed. The aggregate Destoroyah tuned into Flying Destoroyah, and attacked Tokyo. Godzilla Junior arrived in Tokyo and battled Destoroyah in his aggregate form. Destoroyah nearly killed Godzilla Junior by injecting his Micro-Oxygen with his secondary jaw, but was ultimately defeated when Junior blasting Destoroyah with his atomic breath at point blank range, sending ancient crustacean into a nearby warehouse. But he reemerged in his final form. He flew onto Haneda Airport and knocked Godzilla onto the ground and carried Godzilla Junior away before dropped him onto the Ariake Coliseum, and blasted him with his Micro-Oxygen beam, killing him.

Godzilla was furious, and attacked Destoroyah. Destoroyah and Godzilla fought fiercely, but Destoroyah held the upper hand. Godzilla began to reach critical temperatures as he approached meltdown, critically wounding Destoroyah and forcing the evil beast to retreat. G-Force saw Destoroyah trying to fly away, and opened fire on him with their freezer cannons. Destoroyah's wings were frozen solid, sending him crashing to the ground below, which had been super-heated by Godzilla's presence. Destoroyah impacted the ground and dissipated into a white mist, destroyed for good.

## Abilities

Destoroyah is considered by many to be Godzilla's ultimate foe, a title that is only shared by a handful of other monsters, such as King Ghidorah, Gigan, Mechagodzilla and SpaceGodzilla. This is due to the fact that Destoroyah could survive multiple hits from his red spiral atomic ray (although he was shown throwing up large amounts of blood), an attack which instantly killed or crippled most enemies in one shot.

Destoroyah battled Godzilla at the peak of his power, to the point where he was on the verge of melting down from the sheer intensity of his own overloading nuclear power. While Destoroyah himself was shown to be vulnerable to extreme temperatures, the fact that Destoroyah was able to fight the overheating Godzilla many times (and actually win a majority of the encounters) is a testament of his immense strength.

Destoroyah is also one of only two monsters (the other being SpaceGodzilla) who have attacked Godzilla emotionally, using the death of Godzilla Junior against him.

### Breakdown

Like Hedorah, Destoroyah is a composite life form formed from trillions of near-microscopic organisms, and as such he possesses vast capacities to adapt and regenerate. The base organism resembles a miniature horseshoe crab barely larger than a speck of sand. Trillions of these creatures would later combine to form Destoroyah's juvenile forms, which manifested as several man-sized crustacean monsters.

When threatened by the J.S.D.F., the creatures merged again into a single, massive aggregate form, which evolved further into a winged bat-like form. After being wounded by Godzilla Junior, Destoroyah regenerated into its demonic ultimate form and would later temporarily separate into multiple copies of its aggregate form in an attempt to overwhelm Godzilla during their battle. It appears that when the individual Destoroyah organisms fuse, they all die if the resulting creature is killed before it can split up into its smaller forms and reform. This is shown when Godzilla nearly kills Destoroyah by blasting the exposed floral pattern on his chest and Destoroyah responds by breaking into a group of aggregate forms.

By contrast, when the Super X3 and the military use their ULT lasers to freeze the monster's body at a microscopic level, Destoroyah cannot separate, causing all of the organisms making up the final form to perish upon colliding with the superheated ground.

### Claw

The aggregate forms were equipped with spiked claws similar to those of a praying mantis, while Destoroyah's flying and perfect forms possessed a tail tipped with a grappling pincer that was strong enough to even hold Godzilla and pull him along. The tail also had the ability to drain energy and give an energy discharge.

### Chest Beam

Destoroyah was originally planned to have another attack, a beam fired from the floral pattern on his chest. This was cut from the film, but is present in the manga adaptation, where it is shown to be powerful enough to cut through Godzilla's tail and break several of his dorsal plates in just one shot. Deleted scenes from the film show Destoroyah using the beam (which is not animated and represented only by light and sparks), which easily knocks Godzilla off his feet.

### DNA Absorption

According to the 1996 book *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah Super Complete Works*, Destoroyah can absorb the DNA of creatures he attacks by dissolving their cells with micro-oxygen. Destoroyah used this ability to absorb Godzilla Junior's DNA when he bit into him, allowing him to further mutate into a bipedal form with an endoskeleton rather than an exoskeleton.

### Durability

In the *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah* manga adaptation, Destoroyah survives decapitation for a very short period of time. Godzilla seemingly defeats Destoroyah by tearing off his head, but Destoroyah manages to survive long enough to escape before dying by being frozen by the humans.

### Inner Jaw

Beside juvenile form, the aggregate form was also equipped with a pair of extending secondary jaws that injected the micro-oxygen directly into an opponent's bloodstream and drained a victim's energy.

### Laser Horn

In its final form, the horn projecting from Destoroyah's forehead had the ability to generate a blade of energy powerful enough to cut through Godzilla's flesh, an ability that has since been named the Horn Katana, also known as the Laser Horn or Variable Slicer.

### Micro-Oxygen Projection

Destoroyah's primary weapon was a destructive ray called the Micro-Oxygen beam fired from his mouth. This beam could vaporize organic matter and was even capable of penetrating most metals. All of Destoroyah's forms possessed the ability to fire the ray, but the color of the ray varied between forms. In the Atari/Pipeworks trilogy of Godzilla Video Games, Destoroyah could also fire Micro-Oxygen in the form of homing projectiles and even mines, to incapacitate opponents.

## Weaknesses

### Extreme temperatures

Extreme temperatures can destroy the Micro-Oxygen in Destoroyah's body and seriously injure him. Destoroyah's juvenile forms were successfully killed using flamethrowers and cadmium shells, and Godzilla's red spiral ray severely injured Destoroyah's final form, forcing him to retreat twice. The combined extreme temperatures of G-Force's ULT weapons and Godzilla's meltdown are what ultimately killed Destoroyah.

### Floral chest

The floral pattern on Destoroyah's chest may be a weak point, shown when Godzilla blasts it repeatedly with his spiral ray, causing it to bleed and causing Destoroyah to vomit large amounts of blood.