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[[File:Flyer2.jpg|link=Shadow of the Colossus|frame|[[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|In the Forbidden Land, mountain flies over you]]!]]
{{quote|''... it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of [[The Dark Times|an older world]], maybe it was...''
|'''[[J. R. R. Tolkien]]''', ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Return of the King]]''}}
Large flying creatures are a staple of [[Speculative Fiction|Fantastic Fiction]]. This trope comes in a few distinct flavors:
Most '''Giant
Some Giant Flyers actually are recruits of the [[Big Bad]]. In ''[[The Tough Guide to Fantasyland]]'', [[Diana Wynne Jones]] calls this variety "[[Good Wings, Evil Wings|Leathery Winged]] Avians" (never mind the fact that many of them are [[Good Wings, Evil Wings|feathery winged]]).
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Giant Flyers can also be [[Big Damn Heroes]]. As mentioned in [[Horse of a Different Color]], an animal that can fly ''and'' be ridden on is probably the most-desired fantasy mount. Where such Giant Flyers appear, expect there to be at least one scene where they must [[Catch a Falling Star|swoop down to rescue a non-flying character]] who has fallen from a great height. Such scenes in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' earned this subtype the name "[[Deus Ex Machina]] Airlines" from the Harvard Lampoon parody ''[[Bored of the Rings]]''.
Note that Giant Flyers can be either literally gigantic or just relatively large compared to the other characters.
Compare [[Giant Swimmer]] which, unlike its airborne cousin, is not in violation of the [[Square-Cube Law]].
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{{examples}}
==Examples of Large Flying Predators==
=== [[Anime]]
* In ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' -one of the ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' sequels-, one entire division of the army of[[Robeast]]s were giant birds.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' Slifer The Sky Dragon, The Winged Dragon of Ra, and many others.
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* These exist in [[Hunter X Hunter]]. There a scene in both Anime and Manga where it cuts to Ging, sitting on the back of giant frog. It pans out, and it shows that giant frog is on the back of [[Up to Eleven|a giant dragon,]] which takes off and flies off into the distance.
* In [[Naruto]], there is the Seven-Tailed Demon Beetle, a [[Mix-and-Match Critters|cross]] between a 6-winged dragonfly (plus tail) and an armored rhinoceros beetle.
=== Card Games ===
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** ''[[Jurassic Park III]]''
** And the inevitable [[Syfy]] original movie, ''Pterodactyl!''
** Parodied by [https://web.archive.org/web/20150512033125/http://amorphia-apparel.com/design/ptersfw/ this shirt].
*** That link leads to a 404 that [[Crowning Moment of Funny|amusingly enough also features Pterosaurs.]] Link to the actual shirt [https://web.archive.org/web/20131028172233/http://amorphia-apparel.com/design/pter/ here]
* Ray Harryhausen was a big fan of this trope. (How's that for an animation challenge?) In addition to the Pterosaurs mentioned above:
** The two-headed Roc in ''[[The 7th Voyage of Sinbad]]''
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* The Roc colossus in ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' falls into this category as it does actively attack you, whereas the Serpent pictured above simply flies around.
** To be fair, it only attacks you after you shoot at it with arrows. Otherwise it just watches you from its perch.
** Though the serpent pictured above simply flies around, thank goodness it doesn't attack. According to the [[Word of God]] in the artbook, the sucker is the longest (largest?) colossus, measuring in at about 200 meters (for non-metric folks, that's a whooping 656 ft.) The evidence is [https://web.archive.org/web/20151106210444/http://picasaweb.google.com/SotCartbook/ShadowOfTheColossusOfficialArtbook?feat=directlink#5069723636180432930 here,] though in Japanese.
* The overlord and guardian in [[
** The campaign mode of the sequel has the Leviathan, which is somewhere between thirty to fifty times the size of a battlecruiser. Even though the game's units [[Units Not to Scale|aren't to scale]], it's clearly meant to be ''enormous''.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has Giant Eagles, which is kind of a misnomer since there aren't any normal-sized eagle in the game. And then there are rocs, which are the second largest creatures in the game behind fully-grown dragons (which take fifty times as long to reach their full size). A newly-hatched roc is as big as a fully-grown giant eagle.
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== Examples of Leathery Winged Avians ==
===
* The "Birds of the Master" in the ''[[Valerian]]'' album named after them.
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* Gyaos of the ''[[Gamera]]'' series.
* The Fell Beasts used as mounts by the Ringwraiths in [[The Lord of the Rings]]. While they are more vaguely described in the books, here they are portrayed as large, leathery-winged and scaled, with two legs, long necks and blunt, snakelike heads. They are used by the Ringwaiths almost like reconnaissance planes while patrolling the lands around Mordor, but are taken directly into battle at Osgiliath, Mina Tirith and The Black Gate.
=== Gamebooks ===▼
* The Zlanbeasts and Kraan from the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series; ugly reptilian creatures with leathery wings serving the [[Evil Overlord|Darklords]] as flying mounts from them and their various troops. The Grand Master series also features the Lavas, dragon-like monsters in direct service of [[Big Bad|the god Naar]].▼
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* The ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/123 Pellucidar]'' novels by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] just cut to the chase and make the winged Mahar the [[Big Bad]]; they further feature the savage Thipdars.
* The Rooks controlled by the Dark in ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' straddle the line between this and the flying predator subtrope.
* In ''[[
* The Fell Beasts of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.
** ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'' parodies this by having the Black Riders fly killer pelicans.
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* The Lethrblaka ({{spoiler|the adult form of the Ra'zac}}) from the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]''.
* Many of Visser Three's giant morphs in ''[[Animorphs]]'' fall into this category.
* Wherries and Wher Sport from the Dragonriders of Pern, the Firelizards were originally called graceful, leathery winged avians referenced in Dragonsdawn.
=== Live Action TV ===
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=== Tabletop Games ===
▲==== Gamebooks ====
* The Tyranid Harridan in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. A huge winged monstrosity with razor sharp claws, pointy teeth and acid-shooting "bio cannons". Often carries around flocks of Gargoyles, smaller flying Tyranids.▼
▲* The Zlanbeasts and Kraan from the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series; ugly reptilian creatures with leathery wings serving the [[Evil Overlord|Darklords]] as flying mounts from them and their various troops. The Grand Master series also features the Lavas, dragon-like monsters in direct service of [[Big Bad|the god Naar]].
==== Tabletop RPG ====
* In the ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' world, any of the spawn of [[Our Dragons Are Different|Ever]][[Cosmic Horror|blight]] that happen to have wings. They all have chitinous plates where their eyes should be, but make up for it by having an prodigious number of sharp teeth, as well as a variety of other natural weapons such as claws and blight-breath. The Angelius has itself no less than six wings.▼
==== Wargames ====
▲* The Tyranid Harridan in ''[[Warhammer
** Quite a few other varieties of Tyranid come in winged strains, and then there are most of Tzeentch's demons...
* A lot of [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy Battles armies have access to one or more of these.
▲* In the ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' world, any of the spawn of [[Our Dragons Are Different|Ever]][[Cosmic Horror|blight]] that happen to have wings. They all have chitinous plates where their eyes should be, but make up for it by having an prodigious number of sharp teeth, as well as a variety of other natural weapons such as claws and blight-breath. The Angelius has itself no less than six wings.
=== Video Games ===
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=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has the Bulldog Dragon. It's basically what you'd get if you combined a bulldog, a bat, and a goat while making it the size of a small car and reptilian.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2013-05-12 these critters] (see [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2013-09-11 here] for comparison of this gunship and a human) - [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/designing-the-bristlecone-ship-coin/ Later] named "tufted wing shark".
=== Western Animation ===
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== Examples of Normal-Sized Flyers ==
===
* Orville and Wilbur in ''[[The Rescuers]]''.
* Jeremy in ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]''.
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=== Literature ===
* ''[[Discworld]]'' example: Constable Buggy Swires of the City Watch; a gnome who maintains a squad of (semi)trained pigeons (and a turkey vulture in ''[[
** Predating Buggy Swires is The Death of Rats riding Quoth the Raven and the (semi)trained pigeons (see ''[[
** One of the Nac Mac Feegle in ''[[
* ... the titular characters in ''The Minnipins''. They're tiny gnomes who ride upon birds. Of course, they happen to know a huge Mute Swan who can carry their new human friend.
* Long before he wrote it into Discworld, Pratchett gave geese to the Floridian Gnomes in ''Wings'', the last part of the [[Nomes Trilogy]].
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== Other Examples ==
=== Anime
* The adult dragons from ''[[Narutaru]]''. They can also be as [[Our Dragons Are Different|bizarre]] as the flying colossus in the example picture above.
* The Fly Card of ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', which took the form of a giant bird before Sakura sealed it in the first episode.
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===
* The Flying Whales in ''[[Battle for Terra]]''.
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* [[Tamora Pierce]] can go here because hers are varied and hard to categorize. She has traditional dragons and griffins; kudarung, which are traditional winged horses except that they come in widely varied sizes, making some of them Pocket-sized Flyers; hurroks, clawed, predatory "horse-hawks" with batlike wings; and Stormwings, which are [[Winged Humanoid|half human, half giant sharp-metal-feathered bird]], and aren't evil but do take natural pleasure in human suffering. They're all immortal unless killed (except possibly the kudarung, which aren't specifically identified as immortals and might not be, since they didn't enter the human world under the same circumstances as the immortals we know).
* In Stephen Baxter's book ''Evolution'', he invents a species of pterosaur dubbed the "air whale" with wings a hundred metres across. Living off tiny creatures in the stratosphere, it had paper thin hollow bones. They mated on the highest mountain peaks and it is suggested there are very few of them due to the lack of food. Able to circumnavigate the globe with the aid of wind currents, it need never touch the ground.
* Various species of alien fauna from Wayne Barlowe's classic [[Speculative Documentary]] sci-fi book ''Expedition'', including the fierce "[https://web.archive.org/web/20111010192734/http://www.waynebarlowe.com/expedition_pages/exped_skewer.htm Skewer]" (essentially a ''Killer'' [[Space Whale|Air Whale]]) and the bizarre "[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Expedition_cover.jpg Rugose Floater]" (seen on the cover).
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
** [[Dark Sun]] has a very dangerous monster "Cloud Rays" — giant flying manta rays appear; they use levitation to stay up.
** [[Spelljammer]], of course, got many flying critters in air and [[Space Whale|space]] alike, including an enormous (large enough to carry a village) floating [[Electric Jellyfish]].
=== Toys ===
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* The flying Colossi from ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]''.
* All of the above are very, very possible in ''[[Spore]]'', due to the existence of Epic Creatures. Flying epic creatures in particular are somewhat more deadly than regular ones, especially ones with higher levels of flight, because they can move much more silently and quickly than normal ones.
** In [[Known Unknown|This Troper]]'s first game, the area of his creature's nest was repeatedly terrorized by a giant version of one of his own creatures, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080907011944/http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=sast-500004362100 the Thoradine], which looked absolutely terrifying up close, and could literally drop in to start a killing spree at any time it wanted.
* In the skies of the [[Shadow World]] of ''[[Age of Wonders]]: Shadow Magic'' swim whale-like Skwahl. They aren't present (at least in the official ruleset), but the description of floating [http://aow2.heavengames.com/aowsm/gameinfo/units/syrons.shtml#forceship Forceship] unit says Syron make them from hollowed carcasses of old Skwahl.
* [[Our Dragons Are Different|Dragons]] in [[World of Warcraft]] get to be pretty massive, though special mention goes to [[Big Bad|Deathwing,]] who's been described as "airliner-big."
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=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[George the Dragon]]'' features a large green dragon who has the habit of swooping down from the sky to humiliate humans in sadistic games of [http://www.drunkduck.com/George_the_Dragon/index.php?p=554295 tag]{{Dead link}}.
* Hibachi the [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons|Dragon]] in the webcomic ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]''.
* Perca (Priscila S. Piccin) uses large flying creatures in multiple of her comics including a giant space whale in [http://perca.deviantart.com/art/KOM-round-3-76895404 Killer of Monsters], a flying Whale in the [http://perca.deviantart.com/art/OCBZ-Highway-Round-1-116834645 OCBZ Highway] with a man riding it called pedro, and a similar whale (plus pedro) in [http://boobtrap.smackjeeves.com/comics/483268/chapter-1-pg-4/ Boobtrap]{{Dead link}}.
* Lampshaded in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0754.html #754]. When the large-bellied, small-winged dragon ruler of The Empire of Blood decides to ''fly'' to a royal parade, a dumbstruck Vaarsuvius remarkes that he should avoid casting magic for the rest of the day, "if only to give the laws of physics time to cry alone in the corner."
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* The species of Pterosaur known as [[wikipedia:Quetzalcoatlus northropi|Quetzalcoatlus]] (where "quetzalcoatl" is Aztec for "feathered snake" and was the name of a major god) had a wingspan of 12 metres and was pretty damn tall (see the wikipedia article).
** The most commonly adapted Pterosaur, Pteranodon, was also pretty large as well, with an average wingspan of 7–10 metres (not quite as big as Quetzalcoatlus but still).
** New evidence give possible suggestion that Quetzalcoatlus was in fact too massive to fly, but this is [https://web.archive.org/web/20120508140524/http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/09/desmostylians_svpca-2010-ii.php not well accepted] among mainstream pterosaur workers.
* Another extinct animal: the [[wikipedia:Giant Teratorn|Giant Teratorn]] (''Argentavis'') had a smaller wingspan of up to 8 metres.
* For a more recently extinct animal, one that humans probably did interact with, there's always the [[wikipedia:Haast's Eagle|Haast's Eagle]] of New Zealand, at about 3 meters. They hunted moa, which ranged up to 15 times their weight (and are also ''bigger than humans''), and lived up until a few hundred years ago.
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* The still living [[wikipedia:Wandering albatross|Wandering Albatross]] has to settle for a mere 3.7 metres at the most.
** Which is pretty big, and the Albatross has to launch itself of cliffs to get into the air because it's too heavy to take off.
* Still speculative but have been theorized that in planets with more gravity than Earth the flying creatures would be bigger, that's because a thicker atmosphere would have more oxygen{{verify}} and provide more lift with less area. In the other case planets with less gravity than Earth would have a thinner atmosphere and be less prone to big flying creatures.
** Thinner atmosphere might result in a creature with a proportionally higher wing surface area in relation to body size, e.g. a robin with albatross wings.
* The mammals have [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Megabats]]. The largest currently living bat is golden-capped fruit bat [https://featuredcreature.com/you-bat-ter-brace-yourself-giant/][https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Acerodon_jubatus/], with wingspan 1.51—1.7 m (4.95—5.58 ft), length 0.178—0.290 m (7.01″—11.42″) and weight 1.05—1.2 kg (2.3–2.6 lb). With "arms" as long as human's (and not a short human, either) it got half the mass of a large rabbit — not quite in paper plane wing load category, but somewhere near balsa gliders, though they have a healthy leeway on mass, what's with eating very watery food and smaller females carrying offspring from lair to grazing area and back.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dragon Tropes]]
[[Category:Just in Time Tropes]]
[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
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[[Category:Tropes On a Plane]]
[[Category:Flying Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Giant Flyer]]
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