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Heroic Dolphin (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:eccocomic01_4388.jpg|link=Ecco the Dolphin (Video Gameseries)|right]]
 
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.
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* Porm, the dolphin who acted as a surrogate mother to ''[[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]].''
* [[Ghost Rider]] was saved from a killer shark by dolphins.
* In [[Grant Morrison (Creator)|Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Animal Man (Comic Book)|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.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Flipper]]'' might be the [[Trope Codifier]] as far as recent western media go.
* Darwin the (talking) Dolphin from ''[[Sea QuestSeaQuest DSV]].''
* In ''[[Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'', the water-themed Blue Ranger has a dolphin motif and mecha.
 
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* In ''"[[Jaws 3]]-D"'' Cindy and Sandy rescue Kay and Mike from a shark after attempting to keep them out of the Galleon.
* Fa and Be from ''Day Of The Dolphin.''
* [[The Legend of the Titanic|Both animated]] [[Titanic: theThe Legend Goes On|Titanic movies]] have them: the first has talking dolphins that are trying to stop evil whalers, and the second has dolphins who don't talk, but help save people from the sinking ship.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''Dolphin Journey'' has a dolphin protagonist and hero that goes out on a journey to create a song that will keep other dolphins from being trapped in nets.
* ''[[Dinotopia]]'' - Dolphins were responsible for bringing all shipwreck survivors to the island.
* In the first [[Age of Fire (Literature)|Age of Fire]] book, dolphins rescue a drowning baby dragon and help him to land. A few months later and considerably larger, the [[Androcles' Lion|dragon sees fishing boats attempting to capture the dolphins...]]
* In [[Carl Hiaasen|Native Tongue,]] [[Meaningful Name|Dickie]] [[Fluffy the Terrible|the Dolphin]] isn't strictly friendly, (or perhaps overly so, {{spoiler|as villian Pedro Luz finds out}}) making this perhaps a [[Double Subversion]].
 
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Some editions of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|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.
* In ''[[Rifts]]' Underseas'', [[P Cs]] can in fact choose to play as a Dolphin (or an Orca or even Humpback Whale).
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Ecco the Dolphin (Video Gameseries)|Ecco the Dolphin]]:'' Humans aren't even present, at least not in the Genesis games, but Ecco saves not only his family, but the world as a whole, from being consumed by Vortex aliens. The other dolphins also bravely show up en masse to battle the Vortex at the end of the second game, and the Resistance dolphins from ''Defender'' show some courage in helping Ecco overthrow the Clan.
* Played straight with the empathic, pacifist Liir race from ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''...until you attack them, at which point they'll declare you Suul'Ka and never stop killing you until your entire race is just a fading memory. Liir soldiers are called "Black Swimmers" and are ''never'' permitted to interact with civilian Liir, lest their murderous tendencies corrupt the entire species.
** 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 ''[[Star TropicsStarTropics]]''. {{spoiler|[[Androcles' Lion|It returns the favor at the end of the game]]}}.
* ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert|Red Alert 3]]'' is set to include dolphins with sonic weapons as seagoing infantry for the Allies, and the 3rd political party in the USA, the Federalists, adopted the Dolphin as their symbol. Of course, dolphins are already Allied sea units in ''Red Alert 2'' as anti-giant squid weapons.
* ''[[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|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.]]
 
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|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."
 
== Western Animation ==
* Subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|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 Asas Much Sense in Context|rebel aganst humans, take back the land for themselves, and force humans back into the sea.]]
 
== Real Life ==
* Brutally subverted in real life: [http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2009/05/13/dolphins_are_violent_predators_that_kill_their_own_babies.html Dolphins] are the closest thing to an [[Always Chaotic Evil]] race in real life, it seems - they have some [[Pet the Dog]] moments, but [[Everything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks|sharks]] are less vicious than the little buggers.
** They rape ''human women'' on occasion. Does anything really need to be said at that point?
*** AND human ''men''.
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