Baragon

**Baragon** (バラゴン *Baragon*) is a reptilian kaiju created by Toho that first appeared in the 1965 Toho film, *Frankenstein vs. Baragon*.

## Name

Baragon's name comes from from the Japanese word *bara* (バラ), meaning rose, and *ragon* (ラゴン), from "dragon." This name refers to the ridges on his back, which supposedly resemble rose petals.

In *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*, the guardian monster Baragon's name is spelled in kanji but pronounced the same: 婆羅護吽 (*Baragon*).

## Appearance

Baragon is a four-legged mammal-like reptilian creature with reddish-brown skin, a horn on his forehead, and large, floppy dog-like ears.

## Roar

In Baragon's two appearances during the Showa era, his roar was a slightly modified version of Varan's roar. The only difference being that Baragon's version has a little more of a growling added to the mix. This growling Varan voice would give Baragon's roar a more "guard-dog" tone. Some parts of the roar comes from Godzilla.

In the Millennium era, the character's roar was completely changed. The "modified Varan" roar was discarded and replaced with a new original sound. This version of the roar starts of with a growl followed by a gurgling high pitched wail. The higher voice in the character gave it a more benevolent voice which would help with the audiences appeal to its protagonistic role, and the roar was also enhanced with leopard growls and snarls resued t rex from jurassic fight club and jurassic park

## Origins

In the Showa series, Baragon burrowed underground and survived the Cretaceous extinction event while most other dinosaurs died.

In the Millennium series, Baragon is one of the ancient Guardian Monsters of Japan.

## History

### Showa era

#### *Frankenstein vs. Baragon*

Baragon was first seen in *Frankenstein vs. Baragon* where he was awakened by sound from a nearby factory. He attacked the factory, and burrowed to a Shirane Village and attacked it. He then attacked a farm to feed on the livestock.

Baragon was not seen during these attacks, so Frankenstein was blamed for them. A worker at the factory says it was not Frankenstein, but another monster. When a group of scientists looked for Frankenstein, they caused an explosion that woke up Baragon from his sleep. He tried to eat the scientists, but he was stopped by Frankenstein. Frankenstein and Baragon battle, but Frankenstein wins when he breaks Baragon's neck. The ground then cracks and the two fall down the hole.

#### *Destroy All Monsters*

Baragon appeared briefly in *Destroy All Monsters*, where he is present during the battle between the Earth monsters and King Ghidorah, but doesn't fight. Baragon was supposed to attack Paris and destroy the Arc de Triomphe under the control of the Kilaaks, but because his suit was heavily damaged from use as other monsters in Tsuburaya Productions' *Ultra Q* and *Ultraman*, he was replaced with Gorosaurus. Baragon can very briefly be seen observing the other monsters fight King Ghidorah from a distance with Manda, and is later seen on Monsterland when all the monsters return home. Baragon's suit was given a new head for this brief appearance due to damage it had sustained.

#### *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*

Baragon was featured in *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*, where he was the guardian monster of the element of earth, and later became a model of **Komainu** (狛犬, *Wolf-like animal or Korean Dog (Koma) and Dog (Inu)*), guardian creatures of shrines in Japan.

**Baragon** (婆羅護吽, *Baragon*) was first seen causing earthquakes nearMount Myoko and throughout Japan. He fought Godzilla, but he was quickly killed by him. Later on, when all three guardian monsters were killed, he along with the other two guardian spirits, Mothra and Ghidorah, entered Godzilla's body when he was at sea which stunned him long enough to allow General Tachibana to burrow his way out of Godzilla after internally firing a D-03 missile, an explosive drill. This eventually destroyed him when he tried to use his atomic beam again after it burst out the inflicted hole in his shoulder and finally caused Godzilla to vaporize himself from within.

## Abilities

Baragon has undiscovered origins, but has shown some of his powers in his Showa era.

### Flame ray

He can fire a flame ray from his mouth that is extremely weak and it didn't even hurt the frankenstein monster. The horn on his snout occasionally glows and crackles. He has the aforementioned burrowing ability, and can jump very far. He also has natural teeth and claws.

In the Atari titles, he can breathe fire, though it's short-ranged, but can still get in beam locks.

### Ear shields

The distinctive notches in Baragon's ears originally had an unused function. Baragon could fold his ears over his eyes, with the notches interlocking with his horn. Baragon would then charge at the opponent, whilst protecting his eyes from physical blows.

### Durability

In the Millennium era he gained strong jaws and limitless perseverance. He was able to withstand Godzilla's own heat ray.

### Rage attack

In the Atari video games, Baragon can cause earthquakes and lava eruptions beneath his feet when he uses a rage attack.

### Natural healing

He can replenish his energy as long as he is in contact with the earth. In addition, he is one of the few monsters in the games who can use physical attacks in mid-air.

## Trivia

* Baragon is one of the monsters in the kaiju multiverse that appeals to female fans because of his "cuteness."
* Baragon, like his kaiju cohorts has appeared in and been referenced in external media outside of the movies and series' he's featured in.
	+ Baragon made a cameo appearance in *Dragon Ball*.
	+ The Pokémon Nidoking bares a strong resemblance to Baragon.
	+ In the Activision game *Skylanders*, the character Warnado is strongly based on Baragon's appearance.
	+ "Baragon" is the name of a character in *The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion*.

## List of appearances

### Films

#### Showa era

* *Frankenstein vs. Baragon* (First appearance)
* *Destroy All Monsters*

#### Heisei era

* *Adventure! Godzilland* (Animated segments)
* *Recommend! Godzilland*
* *Godzilla Island*

#### Millennium series

* *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*
* *Godzilla: Final Wars* (Stock Footage)

### Video games

* *Gojira-kun*
* *Godzilla (Gameboy)*
* *Godzilla: Monster of Monsters*
* *Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters*
* *Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!*
* *Godzilla Movie Studio Tour*
* *Godzilla: Trading Battle*
* *Godzilla Generations*
* *Godzilla: Save the Earth*
* *Godzilla: Unleashed*
* *Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash*
* *Godzilla*(2014 video game) (Kaiju Guide)
* *Godzilla: Kaiju Collection*

### Comics

* *Godzilla, King of the Monsters*
* *Godzilla: Ongoing*
* *Godzilla: Rulers of Earth*