Acrophobic Bird: Difference between revisions

This is more frequent if a character is around others who can't fly, as it's [[Forgot About His Powers|the only way to create a real sense of danger]]. Flying up only occurs when the danger does likewise.

Compare [[2-D Space]] and [[Water Is Air]].

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* In ''[[Nagasarete Airantou]]'' a bird being chased realizes that he can fly and the humans can't and promptly goes airborne. He muses over why he didn't think of that earlier when he looks down and remembers that ''[[Double Subversion|he is acrophobic]]''.

* Mew Mint in ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' occasionally fell victim to this, but she usually did fly up, probably because the enemies could too. We do, however, have the water-controlling, underwater-breathing porpoise-girl Mew Lettuce, who rarely ''uses'' these powers, unless she has no other choice... because she really is afraid of drowning.

* Acrophobic Parrot from ''[[38 Parrots]]'' is a literal example.

* The 1998 movie version of ''[[Godzilla (film)|Godzilla]]'' featured the eponymous lizard chasing attack helicopters through the streets of New York. The helicopters fly around the streets, being caught one by one, but never pulling ''up'' and flying away from it...

** Helicopters fly forwards faster than they can climb, due to the added push from the forward momentum. Climbing not only taxes the engine more, but it bleeds off your forward momentum and slows you down. If you are trying to climb straight up, from a stationary position, the ascent is slower still. Bottom line, if you have a 300 foot mutated iguana chasing you at 200 mph, moving forward is the fastest way to put distance between you and him/her (or whatever they determined that thing was). However this doesn't excuse the fact that they flew that low to begin with, in fact it would be easier to get a shot on the monster from a high angle where buildings wouldn't give it so much cover.

** Considering they're the same characters who'd previously encountered Imhotep as a ''sandstorm'', they may simply have realized that up wasn't really a viable escape route from him. What's to stop him shifting from water to storm again? At least being hit by water doesn't abrade your flesh down to the bone.

* In [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''[[Dragon Keeper]]'', the titular dragons are misshapen and think themselves incapable of flight. {{spoiler|The second book proves them wrong, as Heeby learns to fly. It is implied that Sintara and winged human Thymara can also learn.}}

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Peter Pan]]''. When Peter gets "wounded" by Hook, he believes himself unable to fly off Marooner's Rock. The truth is that he's fine and could fly if he really wanted to, but he takes his own imagination so seriously that there's nothing to do but leave him there.

* Averted (and possibly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in Firefly. When Wash flies into a canyon to avoid chase... only for his pursuer to fly ''over'' the canyon.

* [[Justified Trope]] in the comic strip ''[[Peanuts]]'' with Woodstock, a ''literally'' Acrophobic Bird. Going too high gave him beakbleeds, among with several other flight-related neuroses. He had a hard enough time flying forward.

** In one Sunday strip, Snoopy questions Woodstock on why it is that birds in the path of moving vehicles will hop around on the ground and not just fly away until the very last possible moment. Woodstock replies with several panels full of [[The Unintelligible|his unintelligible speech]], to which Snoopy responds "That's the worst excuse I've ever heard!"

* Guard Duck from ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' never learned to fly. This unfortunately means that he couldn't go with his flying duck girlfriend Maura when she flew away.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has flying creatures, such as hippogryphs. However, prior to Cataclysm - at least in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms - the "flying" enemies acted like they had invisible feet. For example, you spotted one on top of a short cliff, and shot it - and instead of flying straight at you, it took a very jerky path off to the side and down along the route you'd have had to walk if you were earthbound. There may still be a few mobs like this, but for the most part the flying enemies actually ''fly'' now.

** Outside a few specific quests (bombing runs and such) you can't engage in 3-dimensional combat even with a flying mount (as attacking causes you to dismount). However, killing somebody, getting on your flying mount and hovering above the corpse out of enemy reach is a common method of ganking.

* Flying units in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' can be intently moved along the ground by the players in case they need terrain bonus, like, say, make a unit move into a forest to increase chances to evade. This is useful because most of the ground enemies can attack even if your units are in the air.

* In ''[[Unicorn Jelly]]'', Lupiko is a witch who can fly on a broomstick - and is also afraid of heights.

* Averted in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''. Nanase is shown to hover occasionally while talking (much to the annoyance of her physics teacher). When Grace is in her [[Shapeshifting|Omega Form]], she often hovers. However, when she mopped herself into a corner, it [[Genius Ditz|took her a moment]] to realize [[Forgot I Could Fly|to remember she could do this]] (in her defense, she had only recently learned about her Omega Form).

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] took the [[Don Bluth]] movie ''[[Thumbelina]]'' to task on how the heroine never uses her bird sidekick's flight to solve any of her problems (until, of course, the climax):

{{quote|"Get on the bird... Get on the bird... ''Get on the fucking bird!''"}}

* Starshine, a superheroine from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' often sniped at villains from a seemingly unassailable height (having both super-acute sight and a laser blast with no effective range limit. The one time she fought a villain who could match her for accuracy and range, however, she forgot she could ''gain'' altitude (going into orbit, if necessary... she could survive vacuum exposure, too) and instead dove and zig-zagged to avoid his fire.

* In cartoons, this is often caused by replacing a generic animal in [[The Chase]] with a bird. It's especially and ''extremely'' evident in any Tweety and Sylvester cartoon.

** Granted the earliest incarnation of Tweety was colored ''pink'' because he was supposed to be a baby bird, thus unable to fly. His color change came about due to ''censorship,'' not any implications of him growing older.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]''. The gang -including Owl- has fallen into a pit and they try to get the anxiety-ridden Piglet to rescue them. Since Piglet is too terrified, Owl flies up to give the little guy a rousing speech, then flies back down into the pit once Piglet's confidence is up. The look on Rabbit's face after all this is priceless.

* This very cute story about [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030053217/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7565622/Owl-that-is-scared-of-heights-refuses-to-fly.html an owl that is scared of heights].

* Many small forest birds avoid flying above the canopy as the treetop levels are much safer. The airspace above the treeline is where the larger predatory birds tend to hang out. However, all birds know enough to fly up out of reach of land-bound predators like cats.

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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Chase Scene]]

[[Category:Flying Tropes]]