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"His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth."
Job 41:21, The Bible (describing Leviathan)

Myth and folklore are replete with dragons and other creatures spewing fire, corrosive venom, noxious gases, energy beams, lightning, and other exotic and catastrophic exhalations from their mouth. More modern media have applied the motif to fantastic beasties, Kaiju, creatures from alien worlds, mutants, zombies, and even the occasional robot, and expanded the effects to encompass blazing beams of coruscant annihilation. In other words, bright things coming from the mouths of big things that can destroy other things.

Classically a trait of creatures that are, at least physically, animalistic — no matter how erudite and noble they may be. When humanoids vomit destruction from their mouths, they almost always have at least a hint of corruption or, at best, atavism about them. According to anthropologist David D. Gilmore, this is because of the mouth's symbolism as the organ of predation, evoking one mankind's primal fears of what used to hunt them. Given that a human being's only experience with oral expulsions is usually spit or vomit (or in the case of certain snakes, venom), it may then follow that anything coming out of the mouth is unpleasant. Whatever the reason, it's right up there with Glowing Eyes of Doom as a surefire sign of inhumanity. Heroes will generally emit blasts of destruction from their palms or their eyes instead (though villains can do that too). This is also why, in Primate Versus Reptile stories, the reptile is more likely to have the Breath Weapon than the primate.

A number of Breath Weapons are especially common:

  • Acid: While not strictly a breath weapon per se, acidic spit is often included in lists of breath weapons. A more breath-based version also exists where a character breathes out a cloud of corrosive mist instead.
  • Darkness: Common among traditionally evil creatures like demons, this breath weapon usually manifests as semi-solid shadows, dark clouds of smoke, unnaturally colored fire, or, ironically, beams of dark-colored "light". In cases of corrupted creatures, expect to see them use variations of their natural breath weapons, but shaded in the designated "evil" colors of the setting.
  • Earth: The ability to launch sand or rock particulates with deadly force. Common for desert-dwelling or subterranean monsters. The blast can come in a large column that can crush or tear targets apart or a concentrated stream that carves through materials in its path. Rapid-fire sharpened crystal shards and metal "bullets" are common variations of the attack. Sometimes combines with fire to produce blasts of lava breath. Water can also mix to make sticky mud or quick drying concrete as is a common ability for swamp monsters.
  • Energy: Breathing vaguely-defined "energy" is common in more exotic or mystical creatures. While glowing beams or balls are most common, this breath is such an esoteric idea that it can take on many forms, including those of other breath weapons. However it looks, it will always be noted as unique from any other breath and has no obligation to behave as what its current shape would suggest. Examples include "fire" that doesn't burn or "lightning" that can bend to chase down a target. Often said to be related to lifeforce, spirit, ki energy, and/or magical energy in some manner.
  • Fire: The archetypal and most iconic breath weapon, fire is almost obligatory for dragons and related creatures, although anyone with well-developed fire powers may also demonstrate this ability. In particularly extreme cases, the breath may take the form of a beam or an explosive ball of plasma that is much more destructive than normal flame.
  • Ice: Another common breath weapon, ice is often included as a direct inversion of the popular fire breath. The most common form is a gale of icy air that freezes everything it touches, but volleys of icy shards are not unheard of. Beams of "coldness energy" that produce mass volumes of ice on contact are fairly common variations of these attacks.
  • Light: Light, when focused into a point or narrow beam, can be a very destructive force. Light-based breath weapons consequently manifest in the form of lasers, although more diffuse radiance can also prove effective against creatures that are Weakened by the Light.
  • Lightning: While also not a breath-based ability in the strictest sense, characters and creatures with strong enough ties to electricity are known to spit lightning bolts.
  • Poison: Like acid, which may or may not be treated as the same exact thing, poison-based breath weapons can come both as jets of toxic liquid and as clouds of noxious gases.
  • Radiation: Made famous by the King of the Monsters himself, this is the ability to launch blasts of focused high-intensity radiation or radioactive plasma. As radiation is often poorly understood by the general public beyond being seen as dangerous and does not conform to the traditional elements, this ability is usually reserved for monsters with a particular "otherness" to them. Most common with artificially created monsters (especially those mutated by exposure to radiation) and extraterrestrials.
  • Smoke: While often seen as a byproduct of fire breath, smoke can be an effective weapon in and of itself. As a support ability, smoke can be expelled in large volumes to obscure the target's vision or suffocate those who can't escape the area in time. Less commonly, smoke itself can be directly damaging: either by burning the target with suspended superheated ash, poisoning with toxic particulates, or somehow impacting with concussive force.
  • Sound: Some creatures and characters are capable of roaring, howling, shouting or otherwise vocalizing with sufficient volume to employ their voices as effective sonic weapons.
  • Water: An ability often suited to an aquatic creature; indeed, many Eastern dragons in particular will likely have one due to their association with water. It often takes the form of a water spray similar to that from a hose or a concentrated blast similar to a high-pressure water cutter. A variant may even combine this with fire to launch boiling water or superheated steam.
  • Wind: Making the "breath" part quite literal, this ability weaponizes exhalation. A creature need only take a deep breath before unleashing a gale-force blast of air that might as well be a localized tornado in form and destructive power. "Bullets" of compressed air or flurries of cutting wind blades are less extreme alternatives as is inhalation producing a consuming vortex.

Typically, any given character or creature only has one breath weapon. Multiple ones per person are very rare, and usually indicate that the user is special in some way. The primary exception are many-headed creatures; in these cases, it's common for each head to have a different breath weapon.

A particular type of Street Performer or member of The Freakshow — 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.

Compare Blow Gun, Booze Flamethrower, Eye Beams, Nasal Weapon, Super-Scream, Super Spit, and Super-Breath. See also Throat Light and Hand Blast.

Contrast Attack the Mouth.


Example subpages:


Examples:

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    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: The ice monster in Season 2 episode 11 and Penguin Monster in episode 40 of the same season both have ice breath.
  • Mechamato: As the Mechablaster, MechaBot shoots blue lasers from his mouth.
  • Motu Patlu: In "Dragon Motu", Motu consumes a fire-breath capsule invented by Dr. Jhatka and gains the ability to breathe fire. He uses this ability to attack John the Don and his minions when he and Patlu run into them.
  • Yamucha's-Kung Fu Academy: In episode 4, Jubby breathes fire as Nao fights her in her dream.
  • Kube from YoYo Man is able to breathe fire, befitting his dragon-like appearance.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes: In one of the Sunday comics, Calvin watches a Kaiju movie and later pretends to be a giant monster rising from the depths of his bathtub, shooting a "fireball" at his archenemy Megalon (read: spits water at his mom while naked).
  • 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.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Besides Mothra's projectile webbing, Rodan can spit fireballs from his maw like in unused Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) concept art. Meanwhile, MaNi/Elder Brother retains the ability to fire a Gravity Beam in his current state.
  • Adopted Displaced: In addition to his original ability to breathe fire, Spike acquires a variety of other breath weapons, including freezing breath (via Rundus), electricity (via Gandrayda) and Fazite breath, which is antithetical to Phazon.
  • Antipodes:
    • Tantalus can breathe out torrents of green fire.
    • The sea serpent that lives in the lake below Jigsaw and Tiptoe's home bunker can emit a powerful laser beam from its mouth.
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Thanks to using a TM on herself, Yang can use Flamethrower.
  • A Certain Droll Hivemind: From "Entry 26": Mikoto and one of her clones meet the last dragonslayer. While Mikoto is arguing over whether dragons ever existed, 11111 muses on what the Network knows of dragons.
    The original nods. "Yeah, sure," she says. She has her arms crossed, and is tapping her foot. We do not believe she is impressed. "And I suppose you've killed lots and lots of dragons. Because they're a thing that exist."
    Hamida pouts. "No! Because my great-grandfather killed the last one!"
    "Oh, right." The original crossed her arms. "How convenient."
    I agree that it is convenient. Our research has revealed that dragons are large fire-breathing mythological monsters. It would be very inconvenient to have them around. They are said to eat princesses. The original is known as the Electric Princess as one of her alternate titles. We suspect she would object violently if a dragon tried to eat her, but it is possible that we would be mistaken for her. We have not been eaten by a dragon before. We are not enthusiastic about the idea.
  • Casey Steele: When Rebecca Clause mentions her Dragon Ancestry, Casey asks if this also means that she can breathe fire.
  • Destiny Intertwined: The first form of elemental manipulation to manifest in a dragon, and which all individuals can do to at least some degree, is a breath weapon. Increased training allows this to be sustained for longer and to cause more damage.
    • Earth is a stream of nature energy, tinged either green, brown or grey and flecked with leaves, dirt, or pebbles depending on the variety.
    • Electricity manifests as a lightning bolt shot from the mouth.
    • Fire is the classic stream of flame.
    • Ice is a cloud of chill wind and powdery snow that freeze whatever they touch. Practice allows this to be condensed into projectiles of solid ice.
    • Water is a jet of high-pressure liquid. High training allows this to be ejected with enough force to serve as a pressure cutter.
    • Wind is a gust of buffeting air.
    • Shadow can be exhaled as a cloud of icy, asphyxiating black smoke.
  • Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons: In chapter 36, Sanguine reveals that one of the benefits of being a Canterlot Ghoul who isn't fused into a full-body outfit is that he has a constant supply of Pink Cloud in his lungs, which he can exhale over any threat that gets too close. He blows a gout into the face of the unicorn Priest when he tries to stop Sanguine, causing Priest's entire face to melt like a candle too close to a flame. Then, when Priest collapses to the ground, his own running facial flesh fuses to the soul where he falls.
  • Fate/Black Reflection: Kakolethros' Μηδέν (pronounced Midén, Greek for "Zero") is a stream of spiritual energy and mana that it fires fom its mouth. Although it bears a resemblance to the Cero used by Menos-class hollows, it's outright stated that it doesn't pack anywhere near as much of a punch due to Kakolethros' origins. Despite this, the technique is acknowledged as being a serious threat to a normal human or a magus.
  • Godzilla Neo: Several Kaiju are able to do it, but the one with the added ability is the Godzillasaurus. It's explained that their breath weapon was natural and when the dinosaurs mutated, so too were their attacks.
  • Half Past Adventure: The Grass Dragon has a powerful Acid Attack breath weapon, for some reason.
  • Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK: As a dragon learning magic, in addition to his regular dragon fire (which isn't as strong due to his age), Harry has learned to cast some spells with his breath, usually fire-based ones like Bluebell Flames, the fire whip spell and even Fiendfyre, but also stuff like Aguamenti that allows him to breathe water, and even the Bubble-Head Charm.
  • Hellsister Trilogy: During the war with Apokolips, Superman and Supergirl often use their ice-cold super-breath to freeze enemies and put out fires.
  • Ice and Fire (Minecraft):
    • Fire dragons can breathe a stream of flames or an explosive fireball, ice dragons breathe freezing mist, and lightning dragons spit thunderbolts.
    • Hydras spit streams of venom.
  • Origin Story: Alex Harris (a Kryptonian trapped in the Marvel Universe) uses her “super-breath” on Reed Richards to freeze him, thus nullifying his stretching capabilities. He compliments her on her creative thinking.
  • OSMU: Fanfiction Friction: The dragon that attacked Orla and goes after Oswald in Chapter 8 has the typical fire-breathing ability that most dragons have.
  • Oskar Osäker: True Omnivore: Oskar/Emerald gains the ability to breath fire or plasma after consuming a Dragon that possessed the same ability.
  • The Palaververse: Most dragons breathe fire, while certain blind and flightless specimens found deep Beneath the Earth breathe clouds of mind-clouding fumes and poison gas.
  • Past Sins: Glimpses 2: "Day": Helia has fire breath.
  • Raindrop's Hearth's Warming Eve Miracle: The Pyrefrost Beowolf breathes both fire and ice.
  • Rotting Camellias features Cul as a fire-breather who works in a circus.
  • The Siphon: The half-dragon girl Tia can breathe fire.
  • Star Wars: Galactic Folklore and Mythology:
    • Frostbite, a beast created from ice and stones by the giant Big Bloqo, is said to have been able to freeze enemies solid with his icy breath.
    • The mythical rolyetra from Frozian mythology can breathe fire. The stated reason for this is that one once heard the true name of the king of the gods, who caused the beast's breath and voice to turn to flame so that it couldn't reveal this secret.
  • Tales of the Emperasque: The Emperor, upon merging with a Tarrasque, gets its powerful kinetic/fiery roar which he combines with his own psyker powers, creating a weapon that can cause class 2 Apocalypse How.
  • Teen Titans Tokyo: This is one of Nabiki Tendo's abilities as a Were-Dragon-Girl; exhaling destructive energy. Unusually, she has three breath weapons that she knows of; fire, frost, and a corrosive purple mist that she isn't sure if it's acid or venom. It doesn't help that, when the fic starts, she has no idea how to actually use her breath weapon on purpose.
  • Under the Northern Lights:
    • Nidhoggs breathe out void-cold freezing wind.
    • Skolls are an unusual example, in that they approximate the effects of ice breath but do so by inhaling heat rather than exhaling cold. This difference proves critical against Twilight's shield spell, which is designed to keep enemy attacks out while letting allies through — since the Skolls simply make a part of their prey move towards them, their attack isn't stopped by the shield.
  • Vow of the King: While transformed, Tatsuki can fire a beam of lightning from her mouth.
  • What Lies Beyond the Walls has Gila the Putrid, whose breath is so toxic that he manages to bring a rat to his knees and makes him throw up profusely just after Gila exhales in his face.
  • With Strings Attached:
    • George, apparently an unlimited shapeshifter, does a red dragon and gets quite a bit of mileage out of his breath weapon during the battle on the Plains of Death.
    • The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: George does several dragons to take advantage of their breath weapons, including a red dragon again to wipe out most of the Laser Bats, and a brass dragon to put a room full of giant centipedes to sleep. (He also puts John and Ringo to sleep because he talks nonstop while he's the brass dragon.)
  • Wyvern: Taylor has manifested three distinct form of fire breath: an explosive fireball whose size, "fuse" and power she can deliberately control, a narrow and extremely hot blue-white cutting torch, and a broader cone of flames.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • After Earth: The Ursa can spit gouts of corrosive liquid.
  • Arachnoquake: The spiders occasionally breathe fire.
  • Batman Returns: The Red Triangle Circus Gang has the Fire Breather, 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, setting the Fire Breather on fire.
  • Big Trouble in Little China: David Lo Pan fires a blinding blast of light from his mouth. The effects are only temporary, which is apparently common knowledge to residents of Little China.
  • Blazing Saddles: During the big fight scene, Gabby Johnson the grizzled drunk mountain man grabs a bad guy by the collar and exhales in his face, knocking him out.
  • Bone Eater: The titular monster can somehow spew a gas that turns people into dust despite being a skeletal monster with no lungs.
  • Dragonheart: Draco is an odd variant: unlike the typical depiction of dragons, he shoots flames from his nostrils rather than his mouth. This is relevant to the plot, as this way he cannot just shoot flames at the knight standing in his mouth and propping his palate with a sword.
  • Gamera breathes fire — a continuous stream in the original series, and exploding plasma balls in the modern films directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The sonic rays fired by frequent nemesis Gyaos straddle the line between Breath Weapon and Super-Scream.
  • Godzilla:
    • Godzilla breathes concentrated streams of radiation. This appears to be a form of superheated vapor in the Showa era films, but becomes a pure energy beam in the 90s and beyond.
    • Omitted in Godzilla (1998) (where he technically has a "power breath" that simply makes things catch on fire rather than producing fire itself) since Roland Emmerich felt it was "unrealistic".
    • Godzilla has this power in Godzilla (2014), true to the original incarnation of him. Unlike the laser appearance from Toho's Heisei and Millennium eras, this incarnation's atomic breath is similar to the superheated vapour appearance from the Showa era (though Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) made it a bit closer to the energy beam design from the Heisei films and more beam-like in Godzilla vs. Kong, to the point he uses it to drill through the crust of the Earth into its hollow center). He uses it as the coup de grâce against the female Muto three times, but it's only when he force-feeds it to her that it has any real effect. Also, significantly, the first time he uses it he visibly inhales first. He is quite literally breathing atomic fire.
    • Ghidorah fires lightning bolts from its three mouths; these are sometimes called "gravity beams", and in Godzilla: Final Wars they actually have an anti-gravity effect.
    • Destoroyah fires "micro-oxygen" rays that disintegrate matter.
    • Really, this trope is so pervasive in the daikaiju genre that there is a great number of examples not listed here; attempting to include every one would likely prove fruitless.
    • Shin Godzilla: Godzilla is able to not only shoot a beam from his mouth, but one from a vestigial mouth from its tail, and also a Beam Spam from his spines. However, this time doing so uses up a lot of Godzilla's energy and after doing so he stops moving for several weeks to recharge.
    • Godzilla Minus One: This version of Godzilla's breath weapon (called a heat ray in this film) shows Godzilla inhaling before he fires, similar to the 2014 film. While the blue glow is still here and even travels up from the tip of his tail like his Monstervese incarnation, but now Godzilla's dorsal spines now painfully extend from his back at the same time before slamming back in to release it. This process bears a striking resemblance to how the control rods of a nuclear reactor function. It also causes a massive explosion, as if an atomic bomb had been set off, further driving home the allegory for nuclear war, as a single use destroys Ginza.
  • The Mask features this in what could be described as a literal Blow Gun: villainous Dorian goads his mobster boss into shooting him while wearing the mask... and using the device's cartoonish powers, he absorbs the bullets, takes a breath and "fires" with his mouth.
  • The Mummy (1999): Imhotep belches out a huge swarm of flies.
  • Pacific Rim, in keeping with its roots in the Kaiju genre, includes one Category 4 kaiju that spews blue corrosive slime from its mouth. The game takes it a step further, granting breath weapons to some previously unequipped kaiju.
  • 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. To put how bad his breath is in perspective, when face to... mouth with the Krakken, whose breath is said to be the foulest thing on earth he barely even reacts to it.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie: Alex uses wind element magic from her mouth on Justin.
  • Wrath of the Titans: The Chimera can breathe fire, with the horned, rhino-like head vomiting gasoline-like fluid that the fanged, ape-like head ignites with hot embers.
  • X-Men: First Class: Not quite breath, but Angel can spit Fireballs.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who: Female Raxacoricofallapatorians can breathe poison from their lungs as a defense mechanism. One tried it on the Doctor. It didn't work.
  • Farscape:
    • Sheeyangs can spit fire. Unfortunately, the same biological quirks that allow them to do this also mean that they explode violently when shot.
    • Although most Scarrans prefer to emit their deadly heat-beams from their hands, at least one projects it from his mouth while speaking.
  • Game of Thrones: The dragons have the standard ability to breath fire.
  • Kamen Rider Hibiki: Before the Retool, the Rider could shoot flame from his mouth.
  • Magic Mountain: Dragon conjures magic by blowing a breath of smoke from his mouth. Notably called his Magic Dragon Breath.
  • Power Rangers:
    • 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, 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 Balls from the tiger head when in warrior mode, Serpentera can fire an energy attack from its mouth (this was once used to vaporize a planet, although Serpentera has not been able to build up sufficient power since), the Frog Ninjazord breathes fire, and the Falconzord shoots laser bolts from its mouth. Additionally, in Zyuranger Bandora can exhale strong winds.
    • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Vypra can breathe blue fire into her hands and then launch it from them.
    • Power Rangers Samurai: Yamiror breathes out poison gas.
  • Ultra Series:
    • Kaiju can turn up with virtually every type, such as fire, acid, poison gas, lightning, generic energy beams, and many others of this sort.
    • The Ultras themselves were originally intended to possess these. But since the movable mouth for the suit intended to be used for that looked better on paper than on screen, it was scrapped.

    Music 
  • Hot Chip's video for "I Feel Better" features an angelic being that can shoot lasers from his mouth, who uses it to kill the members of the parody boy band Hot Chip is portrayed as.

    Mythology 
  • Beowulf: The Dragon is the fairly standard fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding, cave-dwelling kind. It probably eats people, too, but we never see it.
  • Beti-Pahuin Mythology:
    • Ntoutoume Mfoulou once devastated poor Ndoutoume Allogo Minko’s village with a fire ball from his mouth while battling the Flame tribe. The fireball exploded and caused a terrible inferno which could be felt beyond the mountains shielding the village.
    • Eleng Akena's pet dog rescued her from Engouang Ondo’s wrath by shooting iron balls at him that sent him flying out of the mountain and across the barren landscape to the feet of his companions.
  • The Bible:
    • The Book of Job describes the Leviathan, a fire-breathing sea dragon.
    • Book of Revelation:
      • The Two Witnesses (who are about as uncorrupted as mere mortals could be) stand around outside the Temple and breathe fire on anyone who tries to harm them. They're two olive trees and two candlesticks. With mouths. Symbolically.
      • The red dragon of seven heads that chases the woman dressed with the Sun and crowned with stars attempts to drown her with water coming from its mouth that produces a flood.
  • Classical Mythology:
    • The Chimera could breath fire. In some versions, she was actually killed by having a lead tipped spear shoved into its throat causing her to suffocate on the molten lead.
    • The Iliad: The Chimera is described 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).
  • Egyptian Mythology: The sacred uraei and serpents of the Duat breathe fire to protect the king and gods.
  • Norse Mythology: As if being a sea serpent big enough to encircle the world wasn't scary enough, Jormungandr the Midgard Serpent also has poisonous breath. In the Final Battle of Ragnarok, Thor breathes in too much of Jormungandr's breath while beating it to death with Mjölnir. He's badass enough to try and keep going, but only manages to take nine steps before finally dying.
  • In Scottish folklore, the Nuckelavee has diseased breath that blights plants and makes humans and animals ill.
  • A common version of the mythological beast catoblepas describes it as having poisonous breath (one description of the poisonous exhalation, curiously, matches the properties of the now-well known toxic gas phosgene).
  • One of the Fomorians, the legendary race who ruled Ireland before the coming of humans, is said to have had a terrible eye that turned people to frozen ice, and breath that touched everything with the blight of deep winter snow and frost. Michael Moorcock wrote the second Corum trilogy as a thinly-velied Expy of Irish myth where the "Fhoi Myore" rule the land.
  • The tripodero, a humorous cryptid, spits wads of mud at birds and small mammals to bring them down.

    Pinball 
  • Dungeons & Dragons (1987): The red dragon breathes fire, of course. Differently colored dragons breathe cold, acid, lightning, shadow, and assorted other things.
  • Medieval Madness has fire-breathing dragons.
  • Full Tilt! Pinball: The dragon from the "Dragon's Keep" table, of course, breathes fire.
  • Godzilla (Sega): The backglass art and certain animations in-gamenote  depict Godzilla shooting flames from his mouth (a noticeable departure from both the original Japanese character's blue-colored Atomic Breath and the 1998 version's lack of a real Breath Weapon).

    Puppet Shows 
  • The Muppet Show: At the end of "A Nice Girl Like Me" in the Sandy Duncan episode, Duncan — having downed an entire row of whiskies — breaths on the Muppet monsters and they all collapse from alcohol fumes.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The "poison mist" used by many wrestlers, especially in Japan. According to Japanese Kayfabe, only certain wrestlers can do it because they have a special gland that allows them to produce the mist. Most wrestlers can produce only certain colors of mist, and each has its own effects: The most common, the green mist, blinds the opponent, the red mist both blinds and burns, the blue mist puts the opponent to sleep, the yellow mist paralyzes, and The Dreaded black mist is a career ender.

    Theme Parks 

    Web Original 

    Webcomics 
  • Aurora (2019):
    • Dragons are the most common users of this, with different varieties having different effects. For a few examples, a burrower wyrm's breath disintegrates stone, a crystal drake's breath causes rapid crystal growth, and a whispdragon's breath is a sonic attack.
    • Magic can also be used this way by mages, with fire-breathers not being unheard of.
  • Corgi Quest has a somewhat unconventional example: Puffington's breath makes the target deliriously happy. She is a faerie dragon, after all.
  • Deadendia: In Issue 2, Courtney uses this on a cowboy named Murdoch.
  • Dragon City: The dragons have vestigial venom sacs in their throats that produce flammable venom. They're usually removed as hatchlings and the one time Erin uses hers they burn her throat and render her mute for weeks.
  • El Goonish Shive:
    • Fire summons and the Bulldog Dragon are capable of shooting fireballs from their mouths
    • As shown in Dragon Goo: Omega Goo could straight up breath fire from one of its many mouths.
  • Erfworld: Dwagons. 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 breathe pink bubbles that smother enemies. Yellow ones invert the trope by having massive bowel movements.
  • Homestuck: The Omnicidal Maniac Big Bad Lord English can fire a multicoloured laser from his mouth that destroys everything it touches. No exceptions. He uses it to shatter a Dream Bubble, annihilating all the ghosts residing there and damaging the fabric of reality in its wake.
  • Kill Six Billion Demons: Mammon, the Great Dragon, can spit jets of molten metal.
  • Madness In A Box: Subverted. The Combustible Crusader can breathe flame... out of her nostrils.
  • Ozy and Millie, Ozy's adoptive father Llewellyn is a dragon who breathes fire on occasion. It's usually played for laughs, i.e. setting things alight when he sneezes. Ozy hasn't quite learned how to do it himself: he's succeeded twice on-panel.
  • Rival Angels is a webcomic set in a 'verse where Pro Wrestling Is Real. Not surprisingly, one character is known to use the Asian Mist attack described under Professional Wrestling above.
  • Schlock Mercenary:
    • For a time, the Toughs' flagship is named Broken Wind, which due to the religious symbology of the culture they got it from, could also have been translated as "Angry God." Later, an ambassador dislikes it; "wind" lacks the proper spiritual aspect as it does in the original language, and "broken" isn't destructive enough. He suggests an alternative: Breath Weapon. When it's reclaimed by its original pilot from millions of years ago, the original term is a Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom...but, conveniently, it is close enough to Breath Weapon that the name is allowed to stick.
    • Tagon gets an upgraded Dragon-class cruiser with a main gun that shoots a powerful beam of plasma at short range.
      Murtaugh: My ship is keeping the name Breath Weapon. You can't have it.
    • Schlock stores his plasgun in his mouth, and has been known to fake this trope by firing it without taking it out first.
  • Slack Wyrm: The two dragons (fire drakes) featured there, Ferragus and his sister Hildegard, breathe fire.
  • Slightly Damned: Fire demons can use fire magic but almost always seem to just breathe fire with it,note  Buwaro's seems pretty weak but other fire demons are shown to be quite deadly with it.
  • Supernormal Step : The main enemy of Chapter Three is an Eldritch Abomination named Fenris, whose form is a wolf with Glowing Eyes of Doom and poisonous breath.
  • Twin Dragons: Two of the main characters, brother-sister dragon hybrids, Kai and Kaya, can each breathe fire up to a few feet away.
  • Wootlabs: Pengi is a genetically modified penguin with ice breath.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Air and firebenders can use their elements as breath weapons, and the characters who most often do this aren't particularly atavistic.
      Iroh: Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname the "Dragon of the West"?
      Azula: I'm not interested in a lengthy anecdote, Uncle.
      Iroh: It's more of a demonstration, really. *takes a sip of his tea, then breathes fire while turning in a circle*
    • Katara and other water benders can use their breath to cause water to freeze, although they can also use their hands and stances to make ice.
    • The angry spirit Hei Bai fires an energy beam out of his mouth.
    • The Legend of Korra: Korra occasionally utilizes fire breath, either out of sheer rage or to compensate for her limbs being restrained.
  • Clue Club: In one episode, D.D. and Pepper eat garlic to fend off a vampire chasing them. Pepper says "H-h-h-h-h-h-h-i!" to Woofer and Wimper, and they collapse from the fumes.
  • Cool McCool: Hurricane Harry is an overweight windbag who uses lung power to create mighty gusts that can blow anything out of his path.
  • Daffy Duck: In "China Jones," Daffy ask a lovely Chinese woman why she's called the Dragon Lady. She replies by breathing fire over him.
  • The Dragon Prince: Sun dragons have the classic fire breath, while Sky dragons can breathe blasts of lightning.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Super Bike has a dragon form that breathes fire.
  • Godzilla: The Series: Zilla, Jr. breathes a green atomic breath, while Cyber-Zilla has the traditional light blue.
  • Gumby: Prickle, being a dragon/dinosaur hybrid, can spew plumes of flame. Goo and Denali have Super Spit.
  • Inhumanoids: In a variant, Metlar has hot lava inside his mouth, which he can scoop out by the handful and throw at opponents.
  • Jamie's Got Tentacles!: Jamie breathes out fire in a few episodes, like in "The Invaders From Planet Earth" and "Unhappy Campers".
  • Kaeloo: Bad Kaeloo can breathe out blasts of air that can send people flying.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Dragons breathe fire, of course, but Spike's fire has some pretty unusual properties. Scrolls consumed by his (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. Dragonfire also seems to come in unique colors for each individual — besides Spike's green flames, Ember's fire is a hot magenta, Smolder's is yellow with a nested pink-and-blue core, and Sludge's is magenta with a yellow core.
    • Chimeras, much like in Classical Mythology, are also capable of breathing fire.
  • The New Adventures of Superman: In "The Atomic Superman", Superman starts breathing fire as an unintended side-effect of an Eat the Bomb scenario.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: Blossom breathes ice.
  • The Simpsons: Homer briefly gained this after eating a flaming stick he mistook for a shish kebab and then getting tricked by Bart into drinking lighter fluid. He wasn't happy, to put it mildly.
  • ThunderCats (2011):
  • Transformers has a couple of particularly weird variants.
    • Beast Wars: Megatron and Cheetor's Transmetal form can fire energy blasts from their alt-mode's mouth in robot mode, which uses said mouth as a hand, but don't seem to have the ability in beast mode for whatever reason.
    • Transquito from the BW toyline can spit out a missile.
    • The Transformers: Sky Lynx has a laser cannon in his dinobird section's mouth.
    • The Transformers: The Movie: Unicron fires a green-blue plasma-like ray of energy from his robot head mouth, and has a powerful tractor beam in his planetoid-mode mouth.
    • Transformers: Animated: Starscream's head can fire a beam now due to the Allspark fragment in his face.
    • Transformers: War for Cybertron: Trypticon gains a powerful mouth laser.
    • Transformers: Prime: The Predacons can breathe fire.

    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 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 spray their venom at animals they perceive as threats by squeezing it out of their fangs, as end of the venom groove points forward. Despite some species appearing to exhale as they do so, there's no evidence to show that this has any affect on the range or accuracy of the attack.
  • Archer fish use their literal breath - at least, the water they also use as an oxygen-source - as a projectile, knocking insect prey off overhanging branches with squirts of water.

Mints won't help. At all.

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Think Positive

Benson vents his anger at Mordecai and Rigby in a very explosive way.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

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Main / RageBreakingPoint

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