Eartheater
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The Eartheater is a subterranean monster who appeared in the second episode of the 1978 Godzilla cartoon, titled "The Eartheater".
Name
The Eartheater's name stems from his appearance, origin, and behavior. The "Earth" part of his name comes from his origin of living underground, as well as the dirt comprising his body. The "eater" part of his name refers to his habit of eating any material in front of him, which included material like rock.
Design
The Eartheater is a quadrupedal, ankylosaur-like monster. Its head is colored orange on its upper half and brown on its lower jaw and has two brown prominent ridges over its orange eyes with a pair of small, orange antennae on them and a snout with zipper-like teeth and a pink tongue inside. Its round body is primarily brown with an orange patch running from the underside of its neck to its chest and olive green patches and blocky spikes running down its back to its tail, which has a gear-shaped tip that it uses as a weapon. Each of its feet have four blocky, olive-green toes.
Origins
Originally a creature from deep underground, the Eartheater tunneled his way towards San Francisco, sinking buildings in order to satiate his appetite.
History
- Godzilla (TV 1978) [episode 2]
Godzilla
"The Eartheater"
Small earthquakes struck in San Francisco, causing some buildings in the city to fall under the Earth's crust, around the same time Dr. Quinn Darian traveled to the area for a meeting. When the Calico crew arrived, they found giant holes in place of buildings, with the Eartheater in one of them. The crew used their headlights to escape the monster, but he continued to follow them. Godzooky called Godzilla, and the Eartheater started to fight Godzilla. The Eartheater attacked Godzilla, and Godzilla fought with laser eye beams. The Eartheater used a sonic blast to stun Godzilla and retreated underground.
The Calico crew planned to knock out the Eartheater with gas bombs but were interrupted when he resurfaced. Godzooky called Godzilla again, who saved their getaway car from more earthquakes before fighting the Eartheater again. Godzilla breathed fire on the Eartheater, and the monster used his sonic blasts, which Godzilla dodged. Godzilla grappled with the Eartheater until he escaped his grip and again used his sonic blasts to escape.
Godzilla and the Calico crew looked for the Eartheater, and found him scaling the Golden Gate Bridge. Godzilla immediately used his laser eyes on the Eartheater. The Eartheater tried to crush Godzooky with his tail, but he flew out of reach and the Eartheater hit the bridge under him instead, causing it to collapse and the monster to fall into the water below, where he turned into mud.
Abilities
Physical abilities
After causing several buildings to sink underneath San Francisco, the Eartheater used his maw to consume the rubble left behind. The Eartheater's tail has a gear-shaped tip, which he used to destroy a building as well as part of the Golden Gate Bridge when trying to bat Godzooky out of the air. While fighting Godzilla, the Eartheater was fast enough to dodge his fire breath and broke out of a chokehold from the reptilian by rolling around.
Sonic blasts
The Eartheater can fire blue ring-shaped sonic blasts and white sonar-shaped sonic blasts from his antennae. While chasing the Calico crew underground, the Eartheater fired his blue sonic waves at boulders above them, causing a cave-in. In battle, the Eartheater used his white sonic waves, which proved effective at stunning Godzilla and reduced buildings to rubble. He also used them for burrowing, easily splitting open roads and allowing him to make an escape during their first battle. They were also capable of shattering boulders, which the Eartheater quickly consumed. While chasing after Godzooky, the Eartheater used the white sonic blasts again, exploding the ground beneath the juvenile kaiju just as he leapt into the air.
Burrowing
While underneath San Francisco, the Eartheater created tunnels by burrowing upwards, causing several earthquakes to occur throughout the city, resulting in sinkholes that swallowed numerous buildings whole, while also causing the Golden Gate Bridge to slowly fall apart. When first encountering the Calico crew and escaping the tranquilizing gas, the Eartheater used his large head to burrow through the ground. Alternatively, the Eartheater can use his white sonic blasts to split open the ground and burrow.
Intelligence
After disorienting Godzilla with his sonic blasts, the Eartheater quickly retreated underground after realizing he was no physical match for his opponent. He performed this strategy again during their second fight, albeit without going underground and instead scaling the Golden Gate Bridge to gain the high ground against Godzilla. When tranquilizing gas was thrown into his burrow, the Eartheater created a new tunnel to the surface to escape it.
Durability
While fighting Godzilla, the Eartheater quickly got back up after being launched backwards into a building by the reptilian's laser beams. The Eartheater was merely irritated by the tranquilizing gas canisters thrown into his burrow, creating a new tunnel above ground to avoid them. During their second fight, the Eartheater showed more of a resistance to Godzilla's laser beams, only being staggered by them and even showing no reaction to them at one point.
Weaknesses
Due to being a creature made of dirt, the Eartheater's main weakness was water. After he fell from the Golden Gate Bridge, he turned into mud upon landing in the water below. The Eartheater, being a subterranean monster, was also adverse to bright lights. This allowed the Calico crew to ward off the monster during their initial encounter with their jeep's headlights, though by the time he caught up to them on the surface and fought Godzilla, Captain Majors noted that he was "getting accustomed to the light."
Gallery
- Main article: Eartheater/Gallery.
In other languages
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Trivia
- The 43rd issue of DC Comics' Scooby-Doo Team-Up mentions that the Hanna-Barbera superheroes Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles defeated the likes of Godzilla, the Eartheater, and the Cyclops Creature, all of whom make a cameo in one panel alongside a recolored version of the Time Dragon with flaps under its arms and pointed spikes on its back. The monsters were apparently under the control of (if not created by) the Mad Inventor.
References
This is a list of references for Eartheater. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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