Breath Weapon: Difference between revisions
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Myth and folklore are replete with [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]] and other creatures spewing [[Playing with Fire|fire]], [[Poison Is Corrosive|corrosive venom]], [[Deadly Gas|noxious gases]], energy beams, lightning, and other exotic and catastrophic exhalations. More modern media have applied the motif to fantastic beasties, creatures from alien worlds, mutants, and even the occasional robot, and expanded the effects to encompass [[Purple Prose|blazing beams of coruscant annihilation]]. In other words, [[Buffy-Speak|bright things coming from the mouths of big things that can destroy other things]].
Classically a trait of creatures that are, at least physically,
A particular type of [[Street Performer]] - known variously as a "fire-breather" or a "fire-eater" - uses the magician's sleight-of-hand to appear to do this. Such examples can go on this page as well, since such tricks can be extremely dangerous for both performer and audience.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* One of ''[[Mazinger Z|Mazinger Z's]]'' best attacks, the Rust Hurricane. Mazinger blows a jet of particle-charged wind from its mouth grill that corrodes the enemy into nothingness. Its successor ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' has the Great Typhoon, which is the same thing but without the rust effect, while [[Super Prototype]] ''[[Mazinkaiser]]'' has the Rust Tornado, an [[Up to Eleven]] version of Mazinger's attack.
** Many [[Robeast
* Most beam attacks in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', such as Hyper Beam and Aurora Beam, work this way. Pokemon that lack a
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', but villains most times. Notably Nappa, Piccolo and Cell (whose use of this trope inspired the [[Memetic Mutation|Internet memes]] "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZER", "SHOOP DA WHOOP", and [[The Lazer Collection|Dr. Octagonapus]]).
** Frieza, the ultimate [[Big Bad]], also used a variant of a breath weapon to gain access to Saichourou/Guru's hut before Nail distracted him & [[Heroic Sacrifice|lured him away to fight]].
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== Comic Books ==
* Rare example of a human with a
* [[Jack Kirby]]'s Demon, [[Etrigan]], from [[The DCU]].
* [[Superman]] has arctic breath (essentially gusts of supercooled air which tend to freeze things in their path) and [[Eye Beams|heat vision]]; as a counter to these, Bizarro has "freeze vision" and "heat breath", which is a nice way of saying that he breathes fire.
** Superman (and of course all other Kryptonians and Daxamites) also possess hurricane breath; that is, they can create and direct gale-force winds simply by exhaling, without the winds necessarily being freezing cold. Pre-Crisis, Superman and Supergirl had such precise control over this power that it basically became [[Telekinesis]].
* IDW's ''[[The Transformers IDW|Transformers]]'' comics have featured Megatron, seemingly spontaneously, developing or formatting new abilities just because of the raw power at his disposal with Ore-13 ("ultra-energon"). Among these is a
* Mammomax, an X-men enemy who was an elephant man who spat acid...
* In ''[[Hsu and Chan]]'' "Pocket Morons Platinum", the Charmander-spoof Gila Mobster performs the Flamethrower attack by taking a swig off his flask & blowing it through the cigarette lighter he holds in his tail.
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* The Red Lantern Corps members from [[Green Lantern]] don't generally make constructs like the other corps but instead spew burning red plasma from their mouths.
* [[Ghost Rider]] can breathe [[Hellfire]] and shoot chains from his mouth.
* One of [[Richie Rich (comics)|Richie Rich]]'s enemies, the Onion, uses onion breath as his weapon, even making it powerful enough to destroy walls.
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** Biollante spits out either acidic sap or a similarly corrosive effect more like a pollen spray, depending on which form she's in.
** [[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah|Destoroyah]] fires "micro-oxygen" rays that disintegrate matter.
** [[Gamera]] breathes fire ? a continuous stream in the original series, and exploding fireballs in the modern films directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The sonic rays fired by frequent nemesis Gaos straddle the line between
* Another ''Batman'' example: The Red Triangle Circus Gang in ''[[Batman Returns]]'' has a performer dressed as a devil who contributes to the atmosphere of street terrorism by "blowing fire" on a display of jumbo stuffed animals in a toy store. Batman dispatches him by turning the Batmobile around so that the car's exhaust pipe is facing him and shooting out a jet of flame, [[Hoist by His Own Petard|setting the performer on fire]].
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean|Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]]'' plays this one for laughs, as captain Jack Sparrow possesses bad breath of such potency as to be able to make people swoon.
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** The [[Book of Revelation]] has the Two Witnesses (who are about as uncorrupted as mere mortals could be), who stand around outside the Temple and breathe fire on anyone who tries to harm them. They're two olive trees and [[Beauty and the Beast|two candlesticks]]. With ''mouths''. Symbolically.
* The [[Biological Mashup|Chimera]] is described in ''[[The Iliad]]'' as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire" (VI. 179-182).
* Lord Ebondrake from the ''[[Warhammer
* In ''[[The Cycle of Fire]]'', the Mharg demons have a breath weapon that reduces all life to slime, and leaves the land barren for decades afterwards.
* In [[Robin Hobb]]'s fantasy world, dragons breathe a mist of strong acid.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Vypra in ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]'' could breathe blue fire into her hands and then launch it from them.
** ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': Various monsters can breathe fire and other dangerous things, the Mastodon Dinozord can snort freezing mist out its trunk, Titanus can launch energy balls from his mouth, [[Flying Face|Lokar]]'s Breath of Doom can upgrade monsters and cause major property damage, the Red Dragon Thunderzord can breathe fire, the Tigerzord can shoot [[Energy Ball
* Before the disastrous [[Retool]], ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki]]'' could shoot flame from his mouth. Assumedly, this ability was removed because it was too [[Nightmare Fuel
* Sheeyangs in ''[[Farscape]]'' can spit fire. Unfortunately, the same biological quirks that allow them to do this also mean that they explode violently when shot.
** Though most Scarrans prefer to emit their deadly heat-beams from their hands, at least one showed he was able to project it from his mouth while speaking.
* Female Raxacoricofallapatorians from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' can breathe poison from their lungs as a defense mechanism. One tried it on the Doctor. It didn't work.
* [[Jackie Gleason]] did a skit on his show once in which he played a long-time alcoholic. His boozy breath was '''corrosive'''; when his wife locked him out of the house, he breathed on the window latch and it fell apart in seconds.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Dragons in ''[[Dungeons
** Note that metallic dragons have TWO breath weapons (usually some kind of nonlethal but disabling gas attack and one straight-up damage attack) and that there are tons of REALLY WEIRD dragons (Iron dragons breathe molten iron, Mercury Dragons LASER BEAMS, some gem dragons breathe EXPLODING CRYSTALS...)
*** Do not forget class that give a breath weapon. The most classical example are dragon shaman and dragonfire adept
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*** Wing Dragons have the only breathweapon that OSHA (the Occupational Safety & Health Administration) would probably approve as harmless. It is sky painting smoke... that they can telekinetically control... and turn optic black... and then blind their targets by surrounding them in... and then do stuff like slitting the throats of in the dark.
*** Beige Dragons have an invisible line of pure elemental ennui that makes you stupider and less interesting as a person.
** ''[[Dungeons
*** Also, certain 'metabreath' feats can allow all these creatures to breathe something different, or even shape their breath. Often abused when one type of dragon is impersonating another...
** 4th edition dragon breath weapons are technically ''vomit'' weapons. The edition also adds the Dragonborn as a core [[Player Character]] race, who possess their namesakes' signature attack.
*** More specifically, the ''Draconomicon'' teaches that the magical energy of a D&D dragon's breath weapon is stored in the stomach, not in the lungs; this is what is meant by "vomit weapon". The expelled effect is explicitly magical, though—it is mystical energy, and not a biological by-product as found in some other D&D creatures.
** [[Erfworld]]'s dwagons; at least the red, green, blue, purple, and brown ones; have normal elemental breath weapons (fire, poison gas, lightning, sonic blast, and smoke respectively) while pink ones ''breath pink bubbles that smother enemies'', while yellow ones inverse the trope by having ''massive'' bowel movements. Yellow dragons can give you a ''[[
** Played with in ''[[Gold Digger]]''. Sliding up the scale, Iron and Copper dragons have fairly generic elemental breath weapons, usually fire. Golden dragons are renowned for having completely random breath weapons, which are affected by their magical auras as well. At the top of the peak, Platinum dragons don't have breath weapons at all, but rather "ether vents", which are essentially small points on their body that can channel destructive levels of magic effortlessly (when used for attack, [[Word of God]] has compared them to [[Star Trek]] ship phasers.)
* Many Tyranids from ''[[Warhammer
** And if the Deamons are aligned to Nurgle, they just vomit. Of course their vomit is highly corrosive and will probably infect you with every nasty disease know to man (and a few we missed), but in the end of the day you died because a Daemon puked on you.
** Ork Weirdboyz sometimes do this, vomiting a stream of pure orky psionic energy that makes [[Your Head Asplode]].
** Technically the [[Space Marine
* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' breath weapons are their own attack type and are commonly seen on dragons and other monsters. Notably the [[All Trolls Are Different|Trolls]], who have stomach acid strong enough to dissolve stone and steel, and will not hesitate to "pre-digest" you in battle.
** Most Trolls use this as a melee attack, which seems reasonable; then there's the Troll King, whose attack has the same range as a throwing axe. Projectile vomit, anyone?
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has the iconic spell [https://web.archive.org/web/20080212115635/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=129548 Firebreathing], which grants this power to a creature. Many creatures have similar abilities, especially draconic creatures of [[Kill It with Fire|the color red]].
** The ability is so common and iconic, in fact, that when a player says a creature "has firebreathing" it's immediately understood by most experienced players exactly what that means, word-for-word. It's also a fairly powerful ability as well.
*** And yet, for some reason, the developers seem reticent to actually make "firebreathing" a keyword, so its not actually the official name of the ability (the ability doesn't have a name).
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* The various Breathe Ice/Fire/Radiation/Steam spells from ''[[GURPS]]: Magic''.
* ''[[The Dresden Files (game)|The Dresden Files]]''' RPG has Breath Weapon as one of the available powers. The description broadens it so that the power can cover any self-generated projectile, even if it doesn't come from the mouth. This notably includes the [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|Shen demons]]' use of flaming poo projectiles.
* What no love for [[GURPS]] and its templates, one of which is dragon and includes a
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** Later [[Retcon|RetConned]] to be a gift from Agni, the god of fire. He's still a really nice guy.
* Sasquatch in the ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' series shoots ice beams.
* All dragons in ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'s'' Bahamut, who is especially notable for breathing what is essentially the Flare spell. That's right. Bahamut has ''nuclear fission breath.''
** Reis in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', being basically a Dragon in the shape of a woman, can breathe [[Fire, Ice, Lightning|Fire, Ice, or Electricity]]. Oh, and holy. However that works. This may not have been clear in the original translation (Where breath gets translated Braclet)...
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*** Though, since Frost Wyrms are giant reanimated dragon skeletons, its debatable if this can be called a "breath" weapon (what with them not having actual ''lungs'' and all).
* Beginning in his first game, [[Kirby]] could spit puffs of air with enough force to damage most enemies, and power-ups allowed him to spit puffs of minty-fresh or spicy-hot breath. In later games, after he learned to steal enemy powers, he could gain the ability to exhale fire or ice.
* Glass Goth, the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[
* Bloodbane in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'', "FEEL MY FLAME!"
* [[Spyro the Dragon]] isn't limited to merely fire breath - he goes as far as to launch ice, earth chunks and ''electricity'' out of his mouth. Cynder uses shadow, wind, ''poison and fear''.
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** And let's not forget those ever-annoying [[An Ice Person|Freezzards]] in the Ice Cave...
* [[Mortal Kombat|Scorpion]] can pull off his ninja hood to breathe fire, usually as a [[Finishing Move|Fatality]].
* ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak III]]'''s Dark Makers have access to giant stompy [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Spider Tank
* [[Superpowered Mooks|Boomers]] from ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' vomit upon players, thereby calling down hordes of [[Night of the Living Mooks|basic]] [[Our Zombies Are Different|zombies]] to descend upon them.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'' features a zombie called the Spitter, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|who spits acid]]. It was designed specifically to counter the usual survivor tactic of huddling together at all times.
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* The Flash game ''[[Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar]]'' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|all about this.]]..and [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]].
* The Giant Minotaur boss in ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' had a fiery breath attack.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' dragons, both manaketes and the laguz, attack with their breath. Sometimes, there are even multiple different types of breath for dragons to use.
* The final boss of ''[[Serious Sam]]'' belches huge chunks of molten lava.
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* Barthandelus, [[Big Bad]] and Master Troll of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', has two ultimate moves named "Thanatosian Smile" and "Thanatosian Laughter," both of which consist of him barfing lasers on you.
* Among the power-ups in ''Gauntlet Legends'' and its remake ''Gauntlet: Dark Legacy'' are breath weapons, including Fire Breath, Acid Breath, and Lightning Breath. Unlike most of the power-ups, these have ammo-based usage instead of being active for a limited time. A lot of the bosses use breath attacks too. Even though there's no Light Breath power-up but there's a Light Amulet, Skorne can spit beams of light at you.
* Firebrand, the Red Arremer from the ''[[
* This is one of the available monster powers in ''[[Crush Crumble and Chomp]]''
* ''[[Drakan]]'' featured among (expected) fire breath - lightning, ice and acid. One will wonder how does a dragon keep all that in him.
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== Web Comic ==
* The main enemy of Chapter Three in ''[[Supernormal Step]]'' is an [[Eldritch Abomination]] named Fenris, whose form is a [[Big Badass Wolf]] with [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]] and [[Poison Is Corrosive|poisonous]]
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': Future Dave's Calsprite can breathe ''erotic puppets.''
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', fire summons and the Bulldog Dragon are capable of shooting fireballs from their mouths and the Omega Goo could straight up breath fire from one of its many mouths.
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [
* ''[[Rival Angels]]'' is a webcomic set in a [[The Verse|'verse]] where [[Pro Wrestling Is Real]]. Not surprisingly, one character is known to use the Asian Mist attack described under [[Professional Wrestling]] above.
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** Subverted in that many Transformers with beast modes, even ones based off of mythical beasts like dragons (Snapdragon, Hun-Gurr, Sinnertwin, etc), don't have breath/mouth weapons. Sky Lynx has a laser cannon in his dinobird section's mouth but no weapons at all in his lynx section.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' allows the [[Elemental Powers]] of air (of course) and fire to be used as breath weapons, and the characters who most often do this aren't particularly atavistic.
{{quote|
''Zuko just smiles, because he knows what's coming''
'''Azula''': I'm not interested in a lengthy anecdote, Uncle.
'''Iroh''': It's more of a demonstration, really. * [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|takes a sip of his tea and proceeds to breathe fire from his mouth*]] }}
** Katara and other water benders can use their breath to cause water to freeze, though they can also use their hands and stances to make ice.
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* ''[[Godzilla: The Series]]'' has Zilla, Jr. breathe a green atomic breath, whereas Cyber-Zilla has the traditional light blue.
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] has dragons breathing fire, of course, but Spike's fire has some [[Mundane Utility|pretty unusual properties.]] Scrolls consumed by his ([[Technicolor Fire|green]]) fire breath are teleported to Princess Celestia, and she can send mail back in the form of an involuntary belch of Spike's fire.
* In ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]''
** [[Big Bad]] [[Sorcerous Overlord]] Mumm-Ra can breathe hot pink [[Pure Energy]] blasts while in his [[One-Winged Angel]] form.
** [[Paper Master]] Gami can fold a giant [[Art Initiates Life|animate]] paper dragon, which alternately breathes a [[Blow You Away|powerful wind]] or [[Technicolor Fire|purple]] bursts of [[Playing with Fire|fire]].
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== Real Life ==
* Fire-breathing is a trivial feat in reality, but strongly associated with tooth decay. Many traditional fire-breathers use gasoline or kerosene, which even diluted causes instant halitosis and rapidly rots the teeth. High proof alcohols (150+) are better; though they can cause notable browning within a week of regular performance, the damage is reversible with more frequent brushing and taking time for the enamel to recover.
* Meet [https://web.archive.org/web/20131011223223/http://www.yanobe.com/aw/aw_g_torayan.html Giant Torayan]. To quote the website: "This GIANT TORATAN doll is the ultimate child's weapon, as it sings, dances, breathes fire, and follows only those orders given by children." Thank you Japan, for bringing the world one step closer to the robot apocalypse.
* Spitting Cobras can spray their venom into the eyes of predators, blinding them. Unlike many of the fictional examples above, the poison-spit is a purely defensive attack; when hunting, it bites like a standard cobra.
* [[Squick|Bad Breath]]. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|That's all.]]
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[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
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