GT25's Battle Series: King Ghidorah vs. Smaug
King Ghidorah, Godzilla, and any related material is owned by Toho Co., Ltd. Smaug, Lonely Mountain, and any related material is owned by Middle-earth Enterprises.
Hello, and welcome to the latest matchup of the Battle Series. This series is to see who would possibly win in a hypothesized battle to the death by comparing two warriors from multiple universes. This time I will compare the dragon known as Monster Zero and the archenemy of Gojira against the last great dragon that terrorized Middle Earth. These two warriors will be measured by their weapons/powers, abilities, strength/weaknesses, foes, aliases, physiology, and battle experience. Before we get to that, we need to check up on their histories.
History of the Warriors
It is unknown when exactly King Ghidorah was born, but the King of Terror came to the Planet Earth in the year 1964 after destroying who knows how many worlds. Upon reaching Earth, Ghidorah started his path of destruction in Japan kill thousands of lives in his quest to destroy all live. However, Ghidorah soon battled against Godzilla, Rodan, and a Mothra larva which he was able to get the upper hand before the three monsters teamed up and defeated the space dragon.
Later, when astronauts from Earth landed on Planet X, hidden behind Jupiter, the Xiliens revealed to the men that King Ghidorah has been attacking them for some time. After the peoples of Earth agreed to let Planet X use Godzilla and Rodan, the two Earth monsters fought and quickly defeated King Ghidorah. However, it was quickly revealed that the Xiliens had control of King Ghidorah and a couple weeks later used the three monsters to conquer Earth.
Unfortunately, the people of Earth were able to "kill" the Xiliens and stopped their control of the monsters. After a quick battle against Godzilla and Rodan a second time, the three monsters fell into the ocean and King Ghidorah quickly flew into space. King Ghidorah would continue to invade Earth, sometimes with other monsters, until he was ultimately "killed" by Godzilla and several other monsters from Earth in 1999.
Despite his exact birth being unknown, Smaug appeared in the twenty-eighth century of the Third Age appeared from the north and ruined the city of the Men of Dale before breaking through the walls of the Lonely Mountains. Quickly causing the dwarfs to flee and slaying the brave dwarfs who stayed behind, the last great dragon remained in the Lonely Mountain for two centuries and hording the riches of the mountain and the city.
It wasn't until Thorin Oakenshield and thirteen dwarfs, along with the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and the wizard Gandalf came to take the dwarfs' home back. After revealing how he has covered up his weakness to Bilbo and finding that the hobbit stole one of his treasured, Smaug went on a rampage upon the land in a murderous rage.
However, in the midst of his destruction of Lake-Town, Bard the Bowman was told of the dragon's weakness by a thrush and fired a black arrow into Smaug's chest. This causing the dragon to crash into the flaming wreckage of Lake-Town, which most likely that Smaug was killed and his body was destroyed by the flames.
Physiology
King Ghidorah is a three-headed golden dragon from space, with wings instead of forearms and can travel through space. Despite the three continuities of the Godzilla Series, we will focus on the "Original Godzilla Series". King Ghidorah is 100 meters tall, or about 328 feet, while he also has wingspan of 150 meters, or about 492 feet.
Even through the exact length of Smaug is unknown, I have estimated the last great dragon to be around 90 to 100 meters, or about 295 feet to about 328 feet, after looking at a few screenshots from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. While his length can only be speculated, Smaug is a dragon, specifically a winged fire-breathing drake.
Verdict: Despite the scarce information about the size of the last great dragon Smaug, King Ghidorah has the better advantage being from space and possible being the larger of the two. The edge for physiology goes to the space dragon.
Aliases
King Ghidorah is also called "Monster Zero" by the Xiliens, "Ghidorah" (the name I use for the original version), "The Dragon King", and the "Thousand Year-Old Dragon" in GMK.
Smaug is also called "Smaug the Golden", "Lord Smaug", "Smaug the Terrible", "The Dragon Dread", "Smaug the Magnificent", "Smaug the Impenetrable", "Smaug the Tremendous", "Smaug the Tyrannical", "Smaug the Stupendous", and "Trāgu". Okay, how many names can a dragon like Smaug need, because this is ridiculous!
Verdict: Okay, so this does not factor into the battle, but it is fun to see what the warriors also go by. However, Smaug has ten aliases and that is kind of overkill for me. So Smaug gets the edge with his overuse of aliases.
Enemies
King Ghidorah has made many enemies during the "Showa Era", but the one enemy that is the arch nemesis of the three-headed monster is Godzilla, the King of the Monsters. In many continuities of the Godzilla Series, Godzilla and King Ghidorah are often seen fighting against each other, most likely for the claim of being the "King of the Monsters".
Smaug can be the enemy of the dwarfs from the Lonely Mountain and possibly the enemy of any human settlement nearby the Lonely Mountain.
Verdict: Again, this does not factor into the match, but it is fun to compare the two warriors and who they fight. Since King Ghidorah is the main enemy of Godzilla, the edge goes to the space dragon.
Battle Experience
It can be assumed that King Ghidorah's battle experience was extremely huge, most like due to going to who-knows how many planets and eradicating the inhabitants of the planets. Upon the first battle against Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, King Ghidorah was able to quickly fight them off before the trio teamed up against him.
Despite losing against the monster trio and several other monsters with Godzilla, King Ghidorah continued to attack Earth and fighting his foes even if he is outnumbered.
Smaug's takeover of the Lonely Mountain and destruction of the city of the Men of Dale shows that he knows how to fight against both humans and dwarfs who fought against him. During the rampage against Lake-Town, the dragon was able to fend off the human defenders of the town until his death.
Verdict: King Ghidorah doesn't seem to try to change his tactics against his foes, while Smaug seems to know what the humans and dwarfs use against him. In this case, King Ghidorah has a tendency to prefer using his brawns, while Smaug has used his memory to help him when fighting against the humans from Lake-Town. The edge for battle experience goes to Smaug for his use of memory and knowing the attacks used against him.
Strengths/Weaknesses
King Ghidorah can use his two tails to swipe at his enemies, has the ability to fly and can fly through space, and has a natural armor of his golden scales. Also, King Ghidorah has hit by Godzilla's Thermonuclear Beam multiple times and has come back fighting.
Smaug has the ability to fly, can use his tail to swipe at his enemies, has reddish-gold scales that can help him defend himself, and can use the gold and jewels that he hordes to protect his unarmored belly. However, his one weakness is that he has a bare patch on the left side of his chest that can possibly be the size of a softball or a baseball.
Verdict: Despite the fact that Smaug has a weakness and King Ghidorah can travel through space, both warriors have many similarities. Both warriors have scales that can protect them, can fly through the air, and can use their tails to fight against opponents. Ultimately, both Smaug and King Ghidorah have similar strengths, so for this category both combatants are even in strengths.
Abilities
King Ghidorah can encase itself in a meteor that has magnetic properties, can create hurricane winds using his wings, and can fly through both the sky and space. Also, he has taken several hits from Godzilla's Thermonuclear Beam and, most likely due to his scales, has come back fighting.
Smaug is able to fly through the air and has a layer of scales protecting him from attacks. The dragon can also crush stone with ease by using his great physical strength and is able to talk, having conversations and can possible understand what others mean when they talk.
Verdict: Based on the fact that Smaug can talk and hold conversations, I think no one will disagree with me when I say that this is possibly a battle of brains versus brawns. In this case, Smaug is the "brains" while King Ghidorah is the "brawns". Much like the previous section, many of the two warriors' abilities, such as their ability to fly and their scales, are very similar.
However, King Ghidorah's meteor would probably be how he enters the battle and his creation of hurricane winds using his wings would help him, but not very much against another dragon. Ultimately, the edge barely goes to King Ghidorah for his much stronger scaly skin and his power to use his wings to create hurricane winds.
Weapons/Powers
The main power that King Ghidorah possesses is the ability to fire Gravity Beams from his mouth. Gravity Beams are streams of electricity that can destroy multiple structures and can be used to rake the ground of any foe or obstacles in his way. The space dragon can also use his claws, create hurricane winds using his wings, can use his necks to strangulate his foes, and can use his teeth from his three heads and the claws on his feet.
Smaug can use his feet and claws on both his wings and feet to decimate a foe's skin. However, the great dragon's only power is launching a stream of flames from his mouth can set almost any kind of structure on fire.
Verdict: Despite both warriors having only one power and can use their teeth and claws, King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams can cause more damage than the Smaug's organic flamethrower. The edge goes to King Ghidorah.
Category Edge Recap
Physiology: King Ghidorah
Battle Experience: Smaug
Strengths/Weaknesses: Even
Abilities: King Ghidorah
Weapons/Powers: King Ghidorah
Verdict: Much like I have said while talking about both warriors' abilities, this can be said to be a battle of brains against brawns. This has been shown with the categories, with Smaug (brains) having the edge in the Battle Experience category and King Ghidorah (brawns) has the edge in the Weapons/Powers category. However, Smaug's weakness and King Ghidorah's strength to fly through space have yet to be factored in yet.
In the case of Smaug's weakness, the spot on the left chest is incredibly small, which makes me think that getting a direct hit on that spot is extremely hard. The only ways that King Ghidorah may get that direct hit is either if Smaug flies over the three-headed monster or if Ghidorah gets Smaug onto his back and has the red dragon unable to move. The chances of either of these possibilities happening is extremely unlikely given the intelligence Smaug has.
For the case of Ghidorah's space travel, it is possible for the golden dragon to fly into space to fake a retreat and try to cause Smaug to either think that King Ghidorah has retreated and will let his guard down or that the red dragon will follow the golden dragon far beyond what Smaug will usually go in the clouds. However, much like Smaug's weakness, the chances of either of these possibilities happening are extremely unlikely, for I don't think Smaug will just let his guard down after his enemies retreat or go beyond his limits in the atmosphere just to try to kill an opponent.
So in terms of these two possible factors, both cases are unlikely to factor into the battle, even if they do play some sort of role in the end. However, I think the main factors at play are the warriors' Abilities and Weapons/Powers. While Smaug has an organic flamethrower that can be used at any time he needs to, the golden dragon's Gravity Beams would cause more damage and can be fired from all three of Ghidorah's mouths. Much like with the Battle Experience category and the Weapons/Powers category, Smaug can use his flamethrower to quickly hit a target and slowly burn through a foe's defenses, while King Ghidorah can use his Gravity Beams to deliver a crippling blow and quickly break through a foe's defenses. A case of using an attack and planning against an attack that hits hard without planning.
In terms of Abilities, Ghidorah can strangulate using his necks and create hurricane winds. While the hurricane winds wouldn't do much against another dragon, strangulation using his three necks does imply Ghidorah's brute strength. Smaug is able to crush rocks using his physical strength, but the argument can be made that since the golden dragon is able to survive multiple strikes from Godzilla's beam attack, Smaug is outmatch in strength against Ghidorah.
In this battle of brains, or Smaug, versus brawns, or King Ghidorah, Smaug is outmatched in abilities and powers with his battle experience being the only thing that the red dragon could rely on. However, brains won't always help in a battle like this, for one needs both brains and brawns in order to defeat an opponent. King Ghidorah may not have the brains to figure out a trap, but the gold dragon does have the greater powers and abilities that can be used to strike crippling blows.
I believe that this battle would last very long, possibly for a couple of hours that these two warriors will battle each other, with Smaug making repeated attempts at killing his foe with traps while Ghidorah would continue to pursue the red dragon while blasting away with his Gravity Beams. Ultimately, I think that Smaug will have a quick lapse of thinking towards the end of the match, which will allow King Ghidorah to deliver a couple of Gravity Beams onto the red dragon and cause a crippling blow to Smaug.
As the battle ends, Smaug will have been crippled by his foe, and King Ghidorah will be the one who triumphs thanks to his powers and abilities.
Possible Winner: King Ghidorah
Please note that this is just my opinion. I know that some might think that Smaug would win against King Ghidorah, which is why this is called GT25's Battle Series, not so-and-so's Battle series.
Have a hypothesized battle that you want to see? Leave the battle in the reviews or PM me and I will be happy to do it.