Land, Sea, Sky: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Land is usually depicted as steady and stable, Sea as unpredictable, and Sky as free spirited. Land may also involve death because of burials, and sky will often be the "king," especially in works created before human flight, since no matter where you are, you're always under the sky. The "sky is king" motif has become less common since flight became a thing, however.

Sea is usually depicted as the most hostile of the three; considering most of the time humans are at sea, they're on a pretty small (relatively speaking) ship, and at the mercy of the extremely unpredictable sea, which could decide to throw storms, whirlpools, tsunamis and other unpleasant things at you at any moment, this is hardly surprising.

 

 

These are considered to be the three classic Theatres of War, each with its own branch of the military (Army, Navy, and Air Force respectively) specialized to fighting in it.

 

{{examples}}

* The Bigs from ''[[The Big O]]'' fit the common characterizations of their spheres; [[The Hero|Big O (land)]] [[Wild Card|Big Duo (sky)]] [[Big Bad|Big Fau (sea)]]

* Magmatron from ''[[Beast Wars Neo]]'' has his units Landsaur, Skysaur and Seasaur.

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', there's a subtle name theming referred to these three elements in the Shiba siblings: Kaien (Kai = Sea), Ganju (Gan = Rock, hence earth) and Kukaku (Ku = Sky).

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The Terrible Trio, a group of ''[[Batman]]'' villains introduced in the [[Silver Age]], were criminals wearing masks of animals: Fox (Land), Shark (Sea) and Vulture (Sky).

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the end of ''[[The Silmarillion|Quenta Silmarillion]]'', all three of the eponymous Silmarils are distributed equally across the sky (Earendil's Silmaril), earth (Maedhros'), and sea (Maglor's).

 

* Very common in ''[[Super Sentai]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers]]'' series, such as ''[[Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan]]'' (Vul Eagle = air, Vul Shark = sea, Vul Panther = land). The most important position, that of the [[Law of Chromatic Superiority|Red Ranger]], is usually the one with sky.

** The Hayate/Wind Ninja Academy in ''[[Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' teaches these three disciplines, and the three core Rangers each wield one. Interestingly enough, the Rangers that join the team later use different abilities altogether (the next two, from a rival academy, use Thunder; and the sixth is either Fire or [[Non-Elemental]] depending on which show you're watching).

** ''[[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]'' has a team of ''two'' Rangers of each, though one of the sea Rangers was killed off in the backstory. Gosei Knight uses all three.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The transformations in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]''; Deku is air (flower helicopter), Goron is land (stone rolling), Zora is Sea (dolphin swimming).

* Three of the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' fit this mold. Each functions as the military general of their own unit: [[Blow You Away|Sage]] [[Shock and Awe|Harpuia]] commands the Rekku Army (the air force), [[An Ice Person|Fairy]] [[Making a Splash|Leviathan]] is leader of the Meikai Army (the navy), and [[Playing with Fire|Fighting Fefnir]] controls the Jin'en Army (the army). This is off-set partially by the fourth Guardian ([[Non-Elemental|Hidden Phantom]]) and his Zan'ei Army, which was Neo Arcadia's stealth force and anti-[[La Résistance|Resistance]] intelligence unit.

* ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'': Groudon (land), Kyogre (sea), and Rayquaza (sky), all of which were based on the aforementioned Three Great Beasts.

[[Category:This Index Blows]]

[[Category:The Ground Beneath Our Feet]]