If It Swims, It Flies: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

So, you've got a nice team of heroes, each with a specialty and associated [[Giant Robot]] or vehicle. A fiery leader, a strong man, a flying ace, a cute [[The Chick|Chick]] for good measure, and a naval master.

You hit an instant snag, though. Once you are out of range of the ocean, your naval man's mech loses its special value to the team. How does one make up for this Aquaman-level flaw?

 

 

It's not just mecha, by the way. Anything that looks like an aquatic vehicle can, with the right amount of thought or lack thereof, be converted to something that flies through the air or into space. After all, [[Space Is an Ocean]], isn't it?

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'': Kamen Rider Abyss' Contract Monsters, Abysshammer and Abysslasher, are normally anthropomorphic shark monsters. However, his Final Vent card fuses them into Abyssodon, a gigantic hammerhead/sawshark combo that - you guessed it - swims AND flies.

* ''[[Super Sentai]]''/''[[Power Rangers]]'' has a few examples

** ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'': Thrice over. Kame, Kajiki, and Ika Origami/Turtle, Swordfish, and "Octo" (squid) Zords are all shown flying in combat. Ika is the only one to truly follow the trope though, as it spends it's off time in a fish tank.

** ''[[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]'': GoseiShark averts it by moving on the ground when not in the water. The [[Mecha Expansion Pack|Seaick Brothers]] play it straight a bit, though.

* Inverted in ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'': the Dai-Gurren, which looks like a ship with legs and a torso, was originally a surface battleship. Later, Leeron converted it to be seaworthy (by tacking on a giant <s>oar</s> paddle and a pair of flippers...), though they couldn't go very deep. Even later, it nabbed one of the flight spheres of the Dai-Gunten, Cytomander's [[Flying Aircraft Carrier]], gaining the ability of unassisted flight... even though Parallel Works 8 shows us hundreds of these battling the Anti-Spirals in high Earth orbit.

** Similar inversion occured in the final season: while Ganmen were shown earlier as not being water-proof, they CAN fly and fight in space. The Gurren-Lagann doesn't have this problem.

** A third inversion: the Moon-sized Chouginga Dai-Gurren can apparently operate as a submarine, even though there's no ocean big enough for it... though when they got caught in the ocean-like Death Spiral Field, the ship was almost crushed by the pressure.

* ''[[Space Battleship Yamato]]'' has it both ways: it is an ex-sea battleship that was reconfigured into a space battleship, but it can still go on water, and can indeed go underwater and survive if absolutely necessary.

'''Melody:''' If you know how. }}

* About 90% of aquatic ''[[Zoids]]'' can fly, [[Sand Is Water|swim in sand]], or both.

* [[Marvel Universe]] [[Face Heel Revolving Door|Anti-villain-hero]] Namor the Submariner could fly. Because he had wings on his ankles. [[Fridge Logic|You know, like underwater creatures do]].

** People forget, Namor isn't just a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] (a cross between baseline human and Atlantean), he's a MUTANT hybrid that exhibits a bunch of traits not found in either population.

 

 

* ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'' - the Yellow Submarine swims and flies equally well.

* The Manta Squadron fighter planes from ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]''

 

 

* The climax of ''The Course of Empire'' features {{spoiler|modern submarines converted to space warships}}.

* As seen in the ''[[Republic Commando Series]]'', the Mon Calamari have developed a hyperspace-capable submarine.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* This is a major plot point in the [[Daniel Pinkwater]] book ''Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario''. This book's version of the [[Flying Dutchman]] cannot bring any ship of his, including the pig-shaped submarine he currently lives on, within a certain distance of the shore.<ref>Before you ask, ''no'' he can't swim and ''yes'' a life preserver or another person helping him swim counts as a "ship".</ref> The protagonist figures out that if they get the sub to hydroplane fast enough to fly it won't be a ''ship'', it'll be an ''airplane'', which doesn't fall under the [[Exact Words|rules of the curse]].

 

* ''[[X-COM]]: Terror From The Deep'' features USOs, Unidentified Submersed Objects (basically, alien submarines), that can fly over land. This is mostly because the game is the original X-Com with new sprites. Oh, and your own flying subs cannot use their weapons unless they're submerged.

** It is at least justified in-game, as the submersibles used by X-Com are equipped with what are essentially underwater jet engines. When they go above water, they're just regular old jet engines.

*** And once it's in the water, it can change further into a ''submarine''. Pressing the "lift-off" button while sailing asks you whether to go "up" (into the sky) or "down" (into the ocean.)

* Vehicles in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]] Nuts and Bolts'' tend to turn out this way. Plane-ish vehicles tend to be able to navigate underwater easily (if they have the underwater capable cockpits) and Submarine vehicles tend to fly well (if given wings). Make a boat. Then add wings to it. Bam, flying boat!

* In the point-and-click adventure game ''AmerZone'', you operate a vehicle that not only invokes this trope, but does so in multiple ways: it can fly as either a prop plane or helicopter, navigate the water as a motorboat, sailboat, or fan-propelled swamp boat, and drag itself along the river with a grappling hook.

 

== Webcomics ==

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* Syndrome's manta ray jet/submarine from ''[[The Incredibles]]''.

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Futurama]]''. The Planet Express Ship was designed for space, which means it's rated for between zero and one atmospheres of pressure. It manages to survive an unplanned trip to the bottom of the ocean.

 

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Seaborne and Submersible Vehicles]]

[[Category:Flying Tropes]]