SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.

Shimo (霜,   Shimo^?) is a reptilian Titan created by Legendary Pictures and one of the two main antagonists (alongside the Skar King) of the 2024 film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. An ancient monster that holds chilling power over cold temperatures which made her a dangerous force of the Hollow Earth, Shimo was made an unwilling pawn of the Skar King and forced to obey his commands, assisting him in his plot to dominate the entire planet.

Name

The name of the creature was revealed to be "Shimo" on the boxing of a toy in Playmate's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire toy line.^[1][2] The name is based on the Japanese word shimo (霜^?), which means "frost", "white", or "cold" when translated to English.^[3]

Design

Development

The design of Shimo went through several phases of drafting. Initially planned as an "ice version of Godzilla", the lack of information with this concept led to the idea being dropped. According to designer Jared Krichevsky, Shimo's intial designs were too "dragony" and it took a long time before he finally came up with the right design. Shimo's final design was based on several real-world animals: her overall appearance is based on Komodo dragons and polar bears, and facial features modeled after chameleons.^[4]

Shimo's existence was first alluded to in the 2022 Call of Duty collaboration with Godzilla vs. Kong and was depicted in a cave painting battling Godzilla.^[5]

Appearance

Shimo is an enormous quadrupedal creature, boasting a robust frame covered in dense reptilian scutes, a striking white coloration, blue claws on each foot, and an extremely lengthy tail ending in four blue crystal thagomizers. Her head possesses two forward-facing blue eyes and a crest adorned with iridescent blue crystalline spikes protruding at a horizontal angle from the back of her head. Similar translucent spikes run down her back, and a continuous row of sharp scutes located on her sides run from her neck to the thagomizers on her tail. Despite her large size, Shimo's abdomen and legs are very slim.

Though primarily quadrupedal, Shimo is capable of very briefly rearing back on her hind legs into a semi-bipedal posture, usually when firing her frost bite blast.

As Shimo charges her frost bite blast, her eyes, blue spikes, and thagomizers glow white, while her back emits vapor.

Roar

Not much is known about Shimo's roars other than the fact that they resemble elephant-like bellows mixed with a rolling blizzard's sound effects.

Personality

Despite her past of wreaking havoc on Earth and triggering the previous Ice Age, Shimo's true nature is a peaceful and benevolent Titan whose violent actions actually come from being coerced to do the Skar King's bidding. She resents the Skar King deeply for his mistreatment and control, defiantly roaring in her attempts to resist his orders. Shimo also demonstrates a reasonable level of intelligence: when the Skar King's control over her is broken, she acts swiftly, freezing the Skar King solid, and thus allowing Kong to deliver the final blow. This highlights discernment, loyalty, and ability to make choices aligned with her own values. Once free, Shimo instinctively chooses to be with Kong and Suko, forming a strong bond. She affectionately nuzzles Kong and delights in being petted, finding joy in their companionship.

Origins

Shimo was a very ancient and extremely powerful Titan that used her powers to alter the world's climates. Several cultures in the South Pacific call Shimo "The Monster Whose Breath Makes the Ocean into Stone". It is theorized that Shimo is a former Alpha Titan and she may have aided Godzilla in freezing and imprisoning Ghidorah in Antarctica.^[6] Cave paintings also suggest that Shimo attempted to challenge Godzilla at some point, before he defeated her and made her submit.^[7]

According to Iwi prophecy, Shimo at some point became enslaved by the Skar King, and was forced to start the last great Ice Age using her frost abilities. Eventually, Godzilla fought, defeated, and imprisoned Skar King and his army of enslaved Kongs, Shimo included, in the depths of the Hollow Earth.

History

Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted

Kong comes across a cave painting illustrating Shimo battling Godzilla while exploring the Hollow Earth.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

When Kong is lead back to the Skar King's stronghold by the juvenile ape Suko, the tyrant of the Great Apes engages in a brief duel with Kong, but is eventually overwhelmed. As his warriors rush to assist him, the Skar King calls them off and instead orders for Shimo to be brought out from her imprisonment. Shackled in the bones of long deceased Titans, Shimo emerges from behind a massive lava waterfall and, under the influence from Skar King's special crystal, blasts a concentrated beam of frost directly at Kong. Though Kong is able to temporarily stave off the blast with his battle axe, frost begins to creep up his hand, eventually freezing it to the point of frostbite. As Shimo prepares to blast Kong again, the latter instead flees the stronghold. After claiming Kong's axe for himself, the Skar King sends out a group of his warriors to chase down Kong and finish him off.

During this encounter, Godzilla was able to sense Shimo stirring, and thus hastened his preparations for battle in order to confront her and the Skar King. Despite knowing the vital role she played in earth's ecosystem, he was prepared to kill her if necessary.

Later, after being informed by a scout of viable Hollow Earth vortexes to the planet's surface were located in the nearby Iwi city of Malenka, the Skar King gathers a small army, Shimo included, and sets off to begin his conquest of the surface world. As the army travels, Shimo involuntarily freezes everything in her path, leaving behind a trail of frost. Eventually, the army reaches Malenka, with the Skar King using Kong's axe to shatter its protective barrier. The Skar King then commands Shimo to freeze the Iwi's pyramids, only to be distracted when Monarch veterinarian Trapper leads a flock of Vertacines against them. Shimo eventually manages to annihilate the flock with her frost bite blast, but the arrival of Godzilla and Kong again prevents the army from proceeding. A fierce melee ensues in which Shimo and Skar King engage Godzilla and Kong, while Mothra arrives and restrains Skar King's warriors with her silk webbing.

Eventually, the Titans fall through a vortex while battling and end up on the surface world, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Having arrived first, Skar King orders Shimo to blast her frost breath into the sky, creating a monolithic blizzard, before ordering her to blast the city of Rio. Godzilla and Kong arrive soon after and the battle continues. Shimo grapples with Godzilla, destroying entire city blocks in their struggle, while Kong battles the Skar King. Suko soon arrives with Kong's axe and shatters the Skar King's crystal with which he uses to control Shimo. Having broken free from the tyrant ape's enthrallment, Godzilla then tells Shimo to take her long-awaited vengeance on the Skar King, freezing him instantly with her frost bite blast before Kong shatters him into thousands of pieces.

With the Skar King defeated, Shimo chooses to no longer fight Godzilla and Kong and watches in awe as Godzilla uses his atomic breath to revert the apocalyptic blizzard she had been forced to create. Of her own volition, Shimo chooses to stay with Kong and Suko and returns to the Skar King's former stronghold with the duo to liberate the enslaved Kongs still being held there.

Abilities

Bio-cryokinetic nature

Shimo possesses thermo-regulatory physiology, able to manipulate the ambient temperature to below freezing. In addition, her mere presence can freeze objects around her such as the ground, minerals, plants, and water. Her touch was shown to even freeze volcanic caverns like the one the Skar King locked her in. However, riding on her back does not cause Skar King and Kong to get frost bite, which implies she has complete control of which parts of her body can cause freezing.

Frost bite blast

Shimo is capable of unleashing a potent, concentrated beam of freezing ice from her mouth known as a "frost bite blast".^[1] This beam has extremely low temperatures, capable of freezing immensely strong Titans such as Godzilla and the Skar King completely solid with Godzilla needing Mothra to help him break out. It also is able to make Kong's right arm have severe frostbite and become temporarily numb, with him needing Trapper to put the B.E.A.S.T. Glove on his arm to help him recover.

When Shimo fires her frost bite blast to the sky, it creates a monolithic blizzard that could only be quickly dispersed by evolved Godzilla's atomic breath. This is supposedly what she did to start the very first Ice Age thousands of years ago.

Durability

Shimo possesses one of the most substantial levels of durability among the Titans, as she can survive prolonged exposure to evolved Godzilla's atomic breath, which was stronger than that of his normal atomic breath, while he was aiming at her neck and she came out, seemingly with little injuries. This stands out to most other creatures, who would be severely injured or almost killed by even being hit by Godzilla's normal atomic breath. Despite her cold nature, she appears capable of withstanding or enduring high temperatures, as being locked in volcanic caverns by the Skar King shows having no ill effects on her.

Speed and agility

Despite her immense size, Shimo can run on all fours and fast enough to catch up to Godzilla. Her tail is also swift enough to prevent Kong from attacking the Skar King.

Strength and combat

Shimo is shown to be a strong Titan, with even Kong and Godzilla—who had gained a boost in power after consuming large amounts of radiation—facing a challenge with her in physical strength. She was able to grapple and push Godzilla backwards, and even managed to kick the heavy Titan into the air after he tackled her when she attempted to attack Kong. Kong also had great difficulty defending himself from Shimo as she grabbed him by his right arm and threw him through buildings. She subsequently used her jaws to effortlessly lift and swing Kong away. Shimo can also use her tail offensively, as she did with Kong to keep him away from the Skar King during their battle at Rio de Janeiro. Shimo can also endure large amounts of weight, as she carried the Skar King on her back, and later, the combined weight of Suko and Kong while the latter was wielding both his battle axe and the B.E.A.S.T. Glove.

Weaknesses

Skar King's crystal

Shimo became enthralled by a special blue crystal used by the Skar King. Being under the influence of the crystal visibly causes Shimo discomfort, and she can be forced to perform any order the Skar King commands. Shimo is eventually freed from the crystal's effects after Suko used Kong's battle axe to destroy it in Rio de Janeiro.

List of appearances

Films

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (First appearance)

Comics

• Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted (Cave painting)

Novels

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization

Games

• Call of Duty: Warzone: Operation Monarch (Cave painting)^[5]
• Godzilla Battle Line

Trivia

• The crystal that the Skar King uses to control Shimo resembles the ones found in the subterranean Iwi city of Malenka. The film's novelization implies the crystal came from Shimo herself.
• She shares some physical similarities to Anguirus, both are giant quadrupedal reptiles with spikes covering their backs and the backs of their heads.
• During promotions for the film, Shimo's gender was listed differently across multiple sources. Press releases originally stated the character was intended to be male,^[8] which was also indicated by the name "Shimo" being a Japanese traditional masculine name.^[3] Conversely, some of the merchandise and product listings referred to Shimo as female.^[9] On February 14, 2024, Shimo's gender was officially confirmed as female.^[10]
• Shimo is the first known Titan to have been confirmed to be responsible for a well-known point in human history, that being the Ice Age.
• Shimo appears to serve as a counterpart to Godzilla, due to having a color scheme that is opposite to Godzilla's (white-blue and black-pink) and counteractive elemental powers (ice and fire). This is reinforced with her original design being based on Godzilla.^[4]
  • In the novelization, it is noted that Shimo's powers function similarly to Godzilla's, such as their breath attacks and spines glowing whenever they use their powers. This resemblance leads to Ilene Andrews to theorize that Shimo shares the same role as Godzilla, as a keeper of balance and protector of the planet.

References