Heroic Dolphin: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

It seems that in most media, especially most fiction, dolphins will be portrayed primarily as heroic and helpful creatures. They're a very marketable species of hero, [[Rule of Cute|partly because of their cuteness]], but also partly because of real-life stories of dolphins saving human lives.

 

 

That said, [[Deconstruction]]s of this are becoming increasingly popular, at least in non-fictional media.

 

{{examples}}

* Porm, the dolphin who acted as a surrogate mother to ''[[Aquaman]].''

* [[Ghost Rider]] was saved from a killer shark by dolphins.

* In [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Animal Man]]'', one story features Animal Man saving dolphins from murderous Scandinavian townsfolk who kill them for fun. At the end, one of the dolphins saves an evil townsperson from drowning.

 

* ''[[Flipper]]'' might be the [[Trope Codifier]] as far as recent western media go.

* Darwin the (talking) Dolphin from ''[[SeaQuest DSV]].''

* ''The Tempests Roar'' is about a white dolphin named Apollo whose destiny is to save whalekind from destruction on this planet man calls Earth but whales know as Planet Ocean

* In ''[[The Roman Mysteries]]'' book ''The Dolphins of Laurentum'', a dolphin rescues Lupus after he nearly drowns from staying underwater too long while diving. It is also strongly implied that the same dolphin discouraged Lupus from deliberately leaving behind another diver who had been trapped by a giant octopus, though in fairness to Lupus he had a good reason for wanting the trapped person to die. The same scene is also in the [[Live Action TV]] adaptation. The book also references several examples of the use of dolphins in [[Classical Mythology]], including stories of shipwrecked sailors being rescued by dolphins.

* ''Dolphin Way Rise of the Guardians'' has a dolphin protagonist who must break his civilizations rules to save his friends.

* ''Dolphins of Expedor'' is about Timothy Shore, a yellow, fourteen year old 'talking' dolphin, gets sucked into a whirlpool adventure to save his city 'Expedor' from certain destruction

* Some editions of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' have depicted dolphins as sentient Good-aligned creatures with their own patron goddess.

* In one [[Traveller]] sourcebook a story is told of some uplifted sapient dolphins who helped bring to light a scandal involving the secret enslavement of an intelligent species by a megacorporation.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** As far as the planet-bound Liir are concerned, the Black Swimmers are all dead to them. They hold a funeral service for each Liir who signs up to join the fleet.

* Mike rescues a dolphin in the second stage of ''[[StarTropics]]''. {{spoiler|[[Androcles' Lion|It returns the favor at the end of the game]]}}.

* ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' features a few levels with Scuba-wearing Dolphins that jump out of the water regularly and can be used as platforms to reach far away areas. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|They can be eaten by Yoshi too.]]

 

* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' story Death Volley has the implication of dolphins getting revenge on [[Heroic Sociopath|Agent Bearclaw]]. His story: "One time I swam out to sea, and pretended to be injured so that dolphins would swim up to rescue me. I did this so that I could kill them with my bare hands."

 

* Subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', when Bart, Homer, Flanders and his kids stranded at sea and being approached by dolphins. Flanders is relieved, stating that dolphins always help people lost at sea. The dolphins merely chitter that they are all going to die, giggle a bit, and then leave.

** Later inverted in a Treehouse Of Horror episode when dolphins [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|rebel aganst humans, take back the land for themselves, and force humans back into the sea.]]

 

** They rape ''human women'' on occasion. Does anything really need to be said at that point?

*** AND human ''men''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Dolphins, Dolphins, Everywhere]]