The rivalry between Godzilla and King Kong is well noted within their established mythos, including and especially the current MonsterVerse canon, but there’s one kaiju Godzilla hates far more than Kong (or any other Titan, for that matter): King Ghidorah – and there’s only one reason as to why.
While Godzilla has battled King Ghidorah a number of times throughout his vast history, his most recent conflict with the alien monster happened in the MonsterVerse, which is the newly established modern retelling of Godzilla’s collective lore. In 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Ghidorah is awakened by Titan-worshiping extremists who want to bring about the end of the world by-way of planetary kaiju attacks. However, Godzilla likes the world just the way it is, and he wasn’t going to stand for another monster causing so much needless chaos on his planet. While the battle nearly killed him, Godzilla was successful in defeating King Ghidorah, and his victory was one that was notably different from a number of his other fights: Godzilla actually killed King Ghidorah.
Godzilla Only Kills Titans Who Cause Destruction For Its Own Sake
In the canonical MonsterVerse tie-in comic Godzilla: Dominion by Greg Keyes and Drew Johnson, readers are filled-in on the period of time in Godzilla’s life between King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs Kong. Extremely weakened by his fight with King Ghidorah, Godzilla is searching for a place to lay his head, especially since his ancestral home was destroyed during the events of the previous film. However, since he is the King of the Monsters, he still has to maintain order on Earth. Throughout the comic, Godzilla is shown breaking up territory disputes between Titans, destroying ships/plants/facilities creating immense pollution in the ocean, and even battling other kaijus who wished to usurp his rule. Though with every problem he fixes, Godzilla never intentionally kills anyone, even the Titan, Tiamat, who tried to kill him. The reason is that they weren’t trying to cause chaos and destruction for its own sake, whereas King Ghidorah (and the MUTOs from the 2014 Godzilla) were.
Godzilla doesn’t fault the inhabitants of his world (humans included) for staking territorial claims or doing what they need to do to survive and thrive. He’ll step in when someone steps out of line to set them straight, but he won’t deliberately kill under normal circumstances. However, the attack on Planet Earth from King Ghidorah was not a normal circumstance. Firstly, King Ghidorah is an alien, not an ancient Titan of Earth, meaning he is not where he belongs in the universe, and Godzilla knows it. Secondly (and more importantly), King Ghidorah wasn’t trying to do anything other than utterly devastated the world. Just flying around the globe created Category 5 hurricanes, and everywhere King Ghidorah landed was subject to his wrath. For that reason, Godzilla had to kill him, and the King of the Monsters even reflected on that fact during this canon comic book.
King Kong might be Godzilla’s most popular rival, but since he’s just a challenger to Godzilla’s throne like Tiamat and not an actual danger to the entire Earth, Godzilla has no reason to hate him, and certainly won’t kill him like he did with the one Titan he does truly hate, King Ghidorah.
