Firebird
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The Firebird (ファイヤーバード Faiyābādo) is a phoenix-like monster who served as the antagonist of the first episode of the 1978 Hanna-Barbera animated series Godzilla, "The Firebird."
Name
The Firebird's name comes from her nature as a creature that lives inside a volcano, a typically fiery place, and her appearance as an avian.
Design
The Firebird is a red avian monster with reptilian traits. Her head has a curved, yellow beak with a long and thin, orange forked tongue inside, orange eyes with red pupils and white markings around them, a yellow, curved crest, and a long neck with a dark red underside. Her body is plump and also has a dark-red underside, bat-like wings with two claw-like fingers, a pair of legs with eagle-like feet with black claws, and a long, serpentine tail.
Origins
The Firebird was initially dormant on the island of Pitkin, resting within a volcano, before suddenly being awoken and emerging from it, looking to lay her eggs in the Arctic promptly thereafter.
History
- Godzilla (TV 1978) [episode 1]
Godzilla
"The Firebird"
The Firebird lived in the magma of the Earth, but one day she was urged to go to the surface to nest. The Firebird rose from a dormant volcano that threatened to start a chain reaction around the globe. The Calico, arriving in response to geologists' distress calls, discovered the cause of the violent eruption when they ventured inside the mountain.
Enraged at finding humans intruding in her home, the Firebird broke free of the lava and rock and flew into the sky, but she had a new challenger in the form of Godzilla, who rose from the sea to fight. She fired heat waves at Godzilla and used her talons and beak against him, but the battle ended in a draw. She then flew to the Arctic to lay her eggs only for Godzilla to rise from the water to fight her again. The fight eventually sent both Godzilla and the Firebird plummeting into the water, where she fled into an underwater cave. Godzilla imprisoned her inside the cave by sealing its entrance with rocks.
Abilities
Physical abilities
The Firebird's sudden emergence was strong enough to cause an Aleutien volcano, dormant for millions of years, to begin erupting, causing tidal waves to form in the surrounding waters. Geologists observing the volcano theorized that her emergence could cause other dormant volcanoes in the Aleutien Islands to do the same. In combat, she was easily able to lift Godzilla off the ground using only her talons. Additionally, her wings were strong enough to cut through one of the icy peaks in the Arctic, and her tail smashed Godzooky into the ground. After tackling him underwater, the Firebird attempted to choke Godzilla with one of her wings, but was forced to let go.
Heat rays
The Firebird can spew intense rays of heat from her beak. She used them while flying at Godzilla, and they proved strong enough to get the reptilian to cover his body after impacting him.
Flamethrower
The Firebird can also breathe a stream of fire, demonstrated when Godzooky attempted to intervene in her battle against Godzilla in the Arctic. Although Godzooky dodged two of the fire streams, a third managed to hit him in the rear.
Flight
The Firebird is capable of flight. After Godzilla emerged from the ocean, she took off from the volcano she was perched on and flew towards him. She proved fast enough in the air to dodge Godzilla's eye lasers and traveled to the Arctic rather quickly. During their fight in the Arctic, the Firebird employed a flying tackle to overpower Godzilla, toppling him into the frigid waters below them.
High body temperature
As the Firebird normally lives in the Earth's magma, not only does she have a naturally high body temperature, but she is also able to withstand the extremely hot temperatures of her environment. When emerging from an active volcano, the Firebird let off a vast amount of flames from her body which engulfed the surrounding area. While near the volcano, her body was constantly covered in flames. When she migrated to the Arctic to lay her eggs, her high body temperature risked melting the region's ice. Upon being confronted by Godzilla in the Arctic, she let out a blast of body heat towards the reptilian which melted a glacial mountain. After tackling Godzilla into the Arctic waters, they immediately began to steam and boil.
Amphibiousness
Despite her fiery nature, the Firebird was not inhibited underwater, and was shown to be as capable of a swimmer as Godzilla.
Durability
Due to living within the Earth's magma, the Firebird was completely unharmed after emerging from an active volcano, and sank back underneath the magma after roaring out. In combat, she was disorientated after being batted out of the air by Godzilla's tail.
Weaknesses
While the Firebird was more agile than Godzilla, she faltered in direct combat, being swatted out of the air by his tail and struggling to keep him in a chokehold. She was ultimately defeated after he trapped her in an underwater cave when she tried swimming away from him.
Gallery
- Main article: Firebird/Gallery.
References
This is a list of references for Firebird. 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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