Monster X

**Monster X** (モンスターエックス *Monsutā Ekkusu*), also known as **Keizer Ghidorah** (カイザーギドラ *Kaizā Gidora*), is a skeletal Ghidorah kaiju created by Toho that first appeared in the 2004 *Godzilla* film, *Godzilla: Final Wars*.

## Name

It is possible that Monster X's name is a reference to "Monster Zero," an alias for King Ghidorah. The "X" in his name could come from the Xiliens' Japanese name, the "X Aliens."

Keizer Ghidorah's name comes from the German word "kaiser," meaning emperor, and "Ghidorah," coming from the immediate name of King Ghidorah's species.

## Design

### Appearance

Monster X is a bipedal creature with an exoskeleton-like armored skin. He possesses two small half-skulls on his shoulders and a long black forked tail. Monster X has red eyes, a skeletal face, and long spikes on the top of his head.

Keizer Ghidorah incorporates elements of both King Ghidorah and Desghidorah in his appearance. Like Desghidorah, Keizer Ghidorah is quadrupedal, and like King Ghidorah he has golden skin. Keizer Ghidorah has much smaller wings than the other Ghidorahs, and lacks defined scales on his skin, instead having smooth gold skin with bluish streaks and spikes erupting from multiple spots on his body. Keizer Ghidorah's middle neck is much longer than the other two, and each of his heads has a different arrangement of horns and spikes. Keizer Ghidorah also possesses two long, whip-like tails.

### Roar

Monster X's roar appears to have been adapted from big cat growls and roars. As Keizer Ghidorah, his roar sounds like maniacal cackling, similar to King Ghidorah's characteristic cackling roar. Keizer Ghidorah's wailing cries and growls were possibly adapted from pig squeals, calls from camels, and the cries of baby jaguars.

## Personality

Unlike most of the Xiliens' other mind-controlled monsters, Monster X displays true malice in his battle with Godzilla, fighting viciously and relentlessly. He seems to take pleasure in causing Godzilla pain, such as when he twists Godzilla's wrists and suspends him into the air and when he holds Godzilla still for Gigan to slice him with his chainsaws.

Monster X's maliciousness is further demonstrated when he continues the battle even after Gigan and the Xiliens are defeated and any mind-control the Xiliens had over him is severed. After transforming into Keizer Ghidorah, Monster X blasts and beats Godzilla mercilessly across Tokyo, throwing him around with his gravity beams and kicking the weakened Godzilla in the head.

## Origins

Monster X was summoned by the Xiliens from the Gorath asteroid, which has unknown origins. Keizer Ghidorah is a form of Monster X. It is unknown if the Xiliens themselves created Monster X or if he was simply discovered by them.

In the comic series *Godzilla: Ongoing*, Monster X's origins are equally cryptic. According to the Shobijin, Monster X is a creature who is "both of this world, and not of this world." Later comics establish that Monster X is likely of the same species as King Ghidorah, who is established to be a space-faring alien beast in *Godzilla: Rulers of Earth*.

## History

### *Godzilla: Final Wars*

Monster X was summoned by X through the Gorath asteroid. Godzilla destroyed Gorath with his atomic breath in the skies over Tokyo, annihilating the city. Monster X then floated down behind Godzilla and attacked him. Monster X overpowered Godzilla in hand-to-hand combat until Godzilla retaliated, resulting in a stalemate between the two monsters. Eventually, the modified Gigan arrived to assist Monster X. Monster X held Godzilla still from behind while Gigan sliced his chest with his chainsaw hands.

Mothra arrived and knocked Monster X and Gigan down, freeing Godzilla. Mothra and Gigan then fought and destroyed each other, leaving only Monster X and Godzilla. The monsters resumed their battle, with Godzilla gaining the upper hand and pinning Monster X to the ground, then proceeding to punch him rapidly. Godzilla tried to blast Monster X in the face with his atomic breath, but Monster X pushed his head away, causing the beam to strike the Xilien Mothership instead.

After the Mothership self-destructed and the Xiliens were destroyed, Monster X and Godzilla engaged in a beam-lock, causing both monsters to be blown back. After this, Monster X transformed into Keizer Ghidorah.

#### Keizer Ghidorah

**Keizer Ghidorah** (カイザーギドラ *Kaizaa Gidora*?) is the second form of Monster X, which debuted in *Godzilla: Final Wars*. After his transformation, Keizer Ghidorah engaged in a beam lock with Godzilla, his gravity beams easily overpowering Godzilla's atomic breath. Keizer Ghidorah then repeatedly attacked the outmatched Godzilla with his gravity beams, tossing him across the ruins of Tokyo like a ragdoll.

Eventually, Keizer Ghidorah approached the fallen Godzilla and kicked him repeatedly in the head before lifting him into the air and draining his energy through his bite. The crew of the Gotengo saw Godzilla losing his energy to Keizer Ghidorah, and Shinichi Ozaki used the ship's Maser Cannon to transfer some of his Keizer energy into Godzilla. Godzilla was immediately re-energized and released a shockwave of energy, breaking him free from Keizer Ghidorah's grip.

Keizer Ghidorah tried to retaliate with his gravity beams, but Godzilla blasted off his middle head with his atomic breath and caused one of Keizer Ghidorah's gravity beams to sever another head. Godzilla then tossed the maimed Keizer Ghidorah over his shoulder by the beast's remaining neck. Finally, Godzilla threw Keizer Ghidorah into the air and blasted him with his red spiral ray, pushing Keizer Ghidorah into space and causing him to explode in the upper atmosphere.

## Abilities

### Durability

Monster X is also the only monster Godzilla fought in *Godzilla: Final Wars* that survived getting blasted by Godzilla's atomic breath at point-blank in the face, actually appearing to shrug the attack off, as well as the only one able to bring Godzilla to his knees and make him roar out in pain with just one attack.

### Flight

In the comics, Keizer Ghidorah also has the ability to fly, which is never demonstrated in the film, (likely due to the limitations of the suit).

Similarly, he is also shown to levitate for a short period of time.

### Gravity beams

Like King Ghidorah, Keizer Ghidorah is able to fire gravity beams from his mouths. These beams are stronger than Godzilla's thermonuclear breath.

### Physical abilities

Monster X is a formidable match against Godzilla physically, and this coupled with his powerful attacks were able to nearly overwhelm Godzilla.

### Telekinesis

Keizer Ghidorah can also guide their paths and pick up and throw objects with them. Keizer Ghidorah can drain energy through his bite.

## Trivia

* The name "Monster X" is also used to refer to Guilala and Jiger.
* Monster X was briefly considered for *Godzilla: Unleashed*, but according to Simon Strange, he was "not interesting enough," and his transformation into Keizer Ghidorah would have been too complex.
* Shunsuke Fujita wanted to include Monster X in the 2014 *Godzilla* video game, but couldn't because of time constraints.
* Keizer Ghidorah is the second tallest *Godzilla* series monster, behind the Heisei King Ghidorah and Mecha-King Ghidorah.
* Monster X's transformation into Keizer Ghidorah was kept secret by Toho prior to the release of *Godzilla: Final Wars*, in order to surprise fans. To further keep Keizer Ghidorah a secret, Toho trademarked it as "Monster X II" rather than under its true name.
* The villain Blight from *Justice League Dark* heavily resembles Monster X.
* He shares similarities to the following monsters:
	+ Bagan: Both are in a way crosses between Godzilla and King Ghidorah (Monster X has a humanoid appearence similar to Godzilla but has two tails like King Ghidorah and Bagan has Godzilla and King Ghidorah's DNA), were commanded by aliens, are the final enemy monsters Godzilla faces in Godzilla: Final Wars and Super Godzilla respectively, are the tallest enemy monsters in both Final Wars and Super Godzilla, have horns and were extremely powerful to the point where Godzilla had to acheive a certain power to defeat them (Godzilla required Keizer energy to kill Monster X in his Keizer Ghidorah form and needed to become Super Godzilla to kill Bagan).
	+ Destoroyah: Both have sadistic personalities, have scary appearences, possess colossal final forms, have horns, are the final enemy monsters that Godzilla faces in the Heisei and Millennium eras respectively and required Godzilla to have aid to defeat them (Godzilla needed Keizer energy to defeat Monster X and help from G-Force to defeat Destoroyah).
	+ SpaceGodzilla: Both have sadistic personalities, their respective Godzilla movies came out in the year '4 (Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla came out in December 10, 1994 and Godzilla: Final Wars came out on November 27, 2004), have forms that allow them to fly (SpaceGodzilla's flying form and Monster X's Keizer Ghidorah form), have red eyes and were destroyed by Godzilla's Red Spiral Ray.
	+ Hedorah: Both possess flying and giant final forms, have red eyes, are alien Kaiju, were killed by Godzilla respectively in Final Wars, are 120 meters (Although in the case of Monster X, he is only 120 meters in base; he is 140 meters as Keizer Ghidorah) and Godzilla required aid from humanity to defeat them.

## List of appearances

### Films

* *Godzilla: Final Wars* (First appearance)

### Video games

* *Godzilla*(2014 video game) (Kaiju Guide)
* *Godzilla: Kaiju Collection*