Monster of the Week: Legion

Legion is the most powerful opponent Gamera has ever faced. More powerful than the Super Gyaos and even more than Iris. Legion is the queen of an alien insect-like species.They go around from planet to planet implementing overgrown 'flowers.' They are destroyers of worlds. Legion is the catalyst, the mastermind behind all this. Step aide Mothra, you have been dethroned for toughest female monster. The Symbiotic Legion had arrived on earth via a meteorite, and were hanging out in some subway tunnels. Thanks to the orders of the intelligent Queen, they had implanted a massive flower. That is where the events of Gamera: Advent of Legion take place.

The Guardian of the Universe was the one that destroyed the flower. To retaliate, the Symbiotic Legion went and covered Gamera. (I'm guessing this is what inspired the scene with the Meganulon all attacking Godzilla four years later.) Gamera was forced to retreat into the sky. What he hadn't realized was that the Mother was underground. She had risen some moments later. In this form, she had wings. She didn't sense the flower or the Symbiotic Legion, so she had risen out of the ground to see what the heck was going on. Legion's goal in life is to make those flowers so she and her swarm can take over planets As she surveyed the area, you can see she wasn't too thrilled. Now she went to start from scratch. As she flew over the ocean, two fighter jets shot missiles. They scored a direct hit, but only a wing was found...

Another flower had popped up over in Sendai thanks to Legion's handiwork. Gamera knew this and was heading there. Legion had sensed this threat coming by and surfaced to combat it. Now she was in her full form, easily dwarfing Gamera. See, Legion is a no-mercy fighter, but she doesn't really take threats personally. She has no grudges...well, unless you do something to really anger her. More on that later, but at the moment, Legion was attempting to stop Gamera from interfering with her plans. As the battle raged on, Legion started to play bloody, stabbing her horn into Gamera. She doesn't care about monster honor or anything of that sort...she just eliminates threats to her plan. At that moment she didn't exactly care about killing Gamera, she was just stalling for the seed to launch. As the battle dragged on, Legion gave herself some space to fire her beam. By this time, she had decided it was time to finish off Gamera. One blast took out a piece of Gamera's shell. Then she fired another one when she saw that this creature was a stubborn one. And then, she fired one last one that created a huge fire. Once she saw that the fire engulfed Gamera, she shook her head in taunting victory, roared, then dug into the ground even better than what Baragon could do. She hadn't bothered to see if Gamera was alive or not. I mean, why bother? She had stalled enough time for the seed to launch, so she didn't really care whether or not our turtle friend was dead. What she had not expected was for Gamera to get up, despite his injuries. He managed to knock down the flower, but not without it exploding in his face, seemingly killing him. Knowing the failures of the two previous flowers, Legion went to go do another one personally, and nothing was going to get in her way, she is by far one of the most determined monsters out there.

Legion had risen at Ashikaga. As she surveyed the area, she didn't think much of the tanks in front....until they started firing of course. A blast of her beam took care of them easily enough. Legion is not a mindless monster, you can see that as she walks and surveys the area. When a few airplanes popped in, she sent out (this is how she creates all those little annoying things) hundreds of Symbiotic Legion from her abdomen, but they weren't released to destroy the jets. Why should she have to bother with objects that pose no threat? In that sense, her and Ghidorah are complete opposites. Legion is cold, doesn't really take joy in anything, it's just a necessity in her mind to accomplish the task. Around this time, Gamera had been revived and was flying straight toward the 'Big One.' Legion turned her head to see Gamera flying around her. The way she looks is like she's saying "Oh he's still alive?" Gamera now was unleashing his fireballs. This prompted Legion to use her barrier. Gamera had stopped skidding and was now about to face the Queen. Legion really had no use for a prolonged battle, so she summoned the swarm back to take care of Gamera. As the swarm neared, the two kaiju were locked in combat. Gamera barely missed Legion's abdomen with his elbow spike. That prompted her to run a little back, that was a major weak spot. (You should see the way she ran back, whoever said all bulky Heisei monsters are immobile be shamed.) Unfortunately the little humans had been able to draw away the swarm using electricity. Legion must have knew this, by now she wanted to end this fight. Knowing how large she is compared to the Turtle Avenger, she stood up and fell onto Gamera, pinning him to the ground. Legion was finally ready to finish off her stubborn enemy as she opened her nasal horn to fire. Gamera managed to evade by ground flying, sending a confused Legion away. At this moment, Legion decided to forget about Gamera and continue on to the planned destination. See, she doesn't consider him anything more other than a nuisance. As Gamera attacked Legion once more, she was barely attacking him with her extra limbs. It's like she was bored of this fight. Those limbs also happen to be very, very sensitive. Some missiles from fighter jets managed to blow a few off! Gamera took this opportunity and shot a fireball. Legion's automatic instinctive for any projectile is to use her barrier. Unfortunately, it's not as strong when some limbs are missing.The fireball had made an explosion, Legion felt pain. She didn't fully understand, she had never witnessed such resistance before. Legion was growing tired of this unnecessary long conflict and just ran toward Gamera. The turtle decided it was time to do a turning point...

Legion is one monster you do not want to make angry. If you do, she promises you a slow, painful death. Case in point here. Gamera had grabbed hold of her nasal horn and broke it! This disoriented Legion, and she fell to the ground. Gamera thought he had won, until Legion stood back up, eyes now red with hate. Now her task didn't matter, all that was on her mind was killing Gamera. And when I say killing, I mean killing. She had gained this new ability to shoot out these piercing laser whip things. She tested it for a bit chaotically before sending them in straight line into Gamera. These things go through, and they are painful. Legion knew this, when Gamera fell to the ground, she shot another round into him. Now Legion was walking toward Gamera. She wanted to show him that if you're going to break her nasal horn, you're going to go down hard. She shot another blast of it point blank, easily knocking down the turtle. The provoked Mother kept roaring out of anger and marched away to complete her task. See, again, Legion didn't bother making sure Gamera was dead, she just showed him what it meant to get on her bad side. After the anger had subsided, she went on to continue the task, cause that's what truly mattered to her. At this point, an explosion destroying the Symbiotic Legion made the Queen turn around. Gamera was standing up, roaring saying that he wasn't going to give up. Legion saw this glowing light going on top Gamera and walked toward it. What she had not expected was the Mana beam. In a scene like how Goku borrowed the all the humans' energy from the earth to combat Buu, Gamera used the earth's mana energy to fire one of the most powerful beams in all existence. And the scary part? Legion actually survived against it for a few seconds! While it may not sound like much, think about it. That's the WORLD'S mana energy combined into a beam, and this monster stood against it for a few seconds. Finally, the beam destroyed the Queen Legion.

And that was the end of the Mother Legion. She was a very determined monster, she didn't truly care about fighting or took any joy in it. She just wanted to complete her task. She is also one of the most powerful kaiju out there, could probably give Destoroyah a run for his money. When one thinks of Gamera villains, it's always either Gyaos or Iris. In that sense, Legion is an underrated one. It took the world's mana energy to defeat her. If that's not one for the record books, then I don't know what is. (Her vs. Keizer Ghidorah would make a very interesting match.) But really, Legion is one cool looking, powerful, and just overall awesome monster with one creepy roar.