Flight of Romance

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Want to woo your love-interest, but lack nifty dancing skills? No problem, so long as you have wings, magic, superpowers, a pet dragon, or some other method of getting up in the atmosphere. Just whisk your love interest into your arms and take off. As you hold her close and float over gorgeous scenic vistas, the two of you will bond like never before. You may even get to share True Love's Kiss.

Examples of Flight of Romance include:


Anime and Manga

  • Happens in the Howl's Moving Castle anime when Howl first rescues Sophie from the guards.
  • Spirited Away: Another Miyizaki example is the scene when Chihiro flies on Haku's back.
  • In Sailor Moon, Chibiusa goes flying in the dream world with Helios.

Comic Books

  • In Elf Quest Skywise is falling for Aroree anyway, but their romance is strengthened when Aroree takes him for a ride on her giant bird.
  • X-Men took this trope to a extreme when Angel had sex with Husk in mid air in front of her mother, Nightcrawler, and several other people.
  • Green Lantern has a flashback scene where Hal takes Carol up in an old trainer/stunt plane.

Film

  • Pearl Harbor has this in a fighter plane flying over the beautiful island of Oahu, with a sunset taking place in it all.
  • Played fairly straight but also for laughs both in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and 1941.
  • Superman does this with Lois Lane in the 1978 Superman film. The romance gets short-circuited however when, while holding her hand and letting her fly at his side, she slips out of his grip and immediately starts falling to earth.
  • Aladdin: The "A Whole New World" sequence with Aladdin and Jasmine on the magic carpet is perhaps the most famous instance of this trope.
  • In How to Train Your Dragon, Astrid's first ride on Toothless turns into this for her and Hiccup after Toothless decides to play nice.
  • The Rescuers: Flying on the back of an albatross brings Bernard and Bianca closer together, but it takes until the sequel for Bernard to confess his feelings.
  • Megamind: Scarily and hilariously subverted by the actual villain (Tighten). He thinks saving his girlfriend will be cool, so he throws her out the window and dives to rescue her... then lets her fall again just so he can "save" her again. What a giant douche!
  • Two Jay Baruchel movies, namely The Sorcerer's Apprentice and She's Out of My League, end with him taking a girl flying. The former occurs aboard a flying statue of a falcon, whereas the latter occurs in a small aircraft.
  • Blu and Jewel at the end of Rio.
  • Even Underdog has this. Somehow, she was able to hold on just by putting her paw on his arm.

Literature

  • In Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine, the sorcerer Rhys creates a magical scene showing him doing this with Princess Addie, and then they do it for real.
  • Arthur and Fenchurch in So Long And Thanks For All The Fish takes this up to eleven, with them not just falling in love, but also, um, really getting to know each other.
  • The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Cimorene and her Love Interest (and future husband) Mendebar set off for their first adventure together—on a flying carpet.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Dangerously Chloe "daring escape in the air" scene - with Bridal Carry, no less. The boy gets drunk on fresh air in no time.

Teddy: Ah! Aha! Ahaha! We- we're flying! You're flying! How are we flying?!
Chloe: I have wings, dummy!
Teddy: That's... th- that's amazing! You're amazing!

Western Animation

Sam: It's -- nice. Flying is nice

  • Static Shock: Static woos Frieda this way in the first episode. He later does the same thing with his later love interest, Daisy.
  • Gargoyles: Strictly speaking, it's gliding, but Goliath and Elisa make a cute air born couple.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sokka takes Yue out for a ride on Appa, resulting in an Almost Kiss.