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Not Quite Flight: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Terrax.jpg|frame|Yes, Terrax, herald of [[Marvel Universe|Galactus]], is ''flying through outer space on a rock.'' [[Superpower Lottery|The Power Cosmic]] has its perks.]]
{{quote|"''That wasn't flying! That was falling with style!''"
|'''Woody''', ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''}}
{{quote|"''
▲{{quote|"''Ha ha! You can run, but you can't [[Pun|GLIDE]]!''"|'''Homer''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
The power of [[Flight]] has been a human dream since before speech. Is it any wonder that so many [[Superhero|Super Heroes]] can fly? Actually, it is.
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For those without any of these means of recourse, well... there's always [[Roof Hopping]]. [[Sky Surfing]] is a subtrope. See also [[Power Floats]] and [[I Believe I Can Fly]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Bleach]]'' has this in all the standard forms: Anyone with enough skill can stand on air outside of the Sereitei.
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* The ninja in ''[[Naruto]]'' make good use of [[In a Single Bound]] combined with hopping between giant tree branches to get air travel done. [[Charles Atlas Superpower|Taijutsu specialists]] are especially good at high jumps, and [[Fastball Special|launching others]]. Temari glides very well by riding her giant steel fan. For "by their own bootstraps," there's the occasional ninja whose summon or other type of creation can fly - these are often large enough to ride, as in the case of [[Mad Bomber|Deidara's]] and Sai's bird mounts. Gaara can also levitate sand, and stand on it. Deva path Pain can use his gravity power to launch himself long distances. Jugo can make a rocket with his body and fire chakra out of it to greatly extend the speed and distance of his jumps.
** However, there is the occasional true-flying character. Konan can achieve true flight on paper wings. The Tsuchikage has the ability to give flight or grant others the ability to fly by touching them.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', there are only a handful of [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]-based Devil's Fruit powers that can grant flight. However, Luffy can use elastic tension to launch himself into the air, and suck in/blow out air to propel himself somewhat. Robin can sprout many arms, then woven into wings, to glide, but it's incredibly tiresome for her. Usopp has a belt with a grappling-hook feature used mostly for [[Building Swing]] or a variant. Brook (and one of Chopper's forms) can leap tall buildings [[In a Single Bound|in a... well, you know]]. Franky can [[Squick|launch himself using gas.]] The [[CP 9]] villains have Geppou and its faster advanced form Kamisori, which are essentially [[Double Jump|extra jumps]], or "kicking off the air". Buggy the Clown can make any part of his body fly around detached as long as his feet are on a solid surface within [https://web.archive.org/web/20120617140103/http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081231204939/onepiece/images/0/0b/Bara_range.PNG an unspecified range] of his other parts (the author [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|stated]] the range to be a circle "200 Bara Bara" in diamater, but what he didn't say is how far ''that'' is). Most impressive are the majority of [[Elemental Powers|Logia]] users. They can manipulate their element, and turn themselves into their element, so they can move in something similar to flight and energy-based Logias can move around in a manner similar to teleporting.
* Black Star of ''[[Soul Eater]]'' eventually learns to stretch and control his [[Scarf of Asskicking]] so much that he can plant it in the ground and lift himself up to great heights. Lampshaded when he asks Tsubaki if this is flying. When she says it really isn't, he says he doesn't really care.
* Ange from ''[[Princess Principal]]'' can make leaps that look to span ''miles'' with the help of her "C-ball", a tiny device capable of limited anti-gravity.
== Comic Books ==
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== Fan Works ==
* The ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6051938/1/The_Sealed_Kunai The Sealed Kunai]'' gives Naruto this, as a generalization of canon's water-walking. Helps that here he's been [[Level Grinding]] his wind element.
* Two examples in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'':
** Paul at first thinks he can fly; he can't, he can just jump real far. At his highest level of strength he can jump half a mile horizontally and thousands of feet straight up. At his lower level of strength he can jump some 50 feet with little effort. He rarely has use for this ability, though, especially given the damage he causes on both launch and land.
** Ringo once levitated himself with his [[Mind Over Matter|TK]], but he was basically flying blind for seven seconds before he had a concentration failure, and he hasn't tried it again.
== Film ==
* In ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]'', Dame Vaako threatens <s>[[Judi Dench]]</s> an air elemental by opening the bomb bay of the ship they are in and pushing her towards it; she then reveals that while she can't fly, she can hover very well.
* In ''[[Condorman]]'', the titular hero invents a flying suit with giant wings. It doesn't actually fly per se, but it does glide sort of well. Except, of course, for the trial run, where he leaps off the Eiffel Tower and ends up crashing into the Seine.
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', the former [[Trope Namer]]. "It's not flying, just falling with style." The Buzz Lightyear toy, being a simple child's toy, can not actually fly. He does however, know some fancy acrobatics, and his wings seem to be at least partially aerodynamic enough to glide for a bit.
** Though he believes he can actually fly for most of the first movie.
* In ''[[Batman Begins]]'' Bruce is able to use his cape as a short-range glider due to it being made out of "memory cloth".
== Literature ==
*
* [[Whatevermancy|Allomancers]] in ''[[Mistborn]]'' can telekinetically push and pull against metals to travel long distances without touching a surface.
* In the ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy]]'' (set on a low-gravity planet), the Kindar, a tree-dwelling culture, have a garment that effectively functions as [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/patagia patagia.] This also factors into the video game based on the series where a shuba is needed to get most anywhere, and having it ripped is a ''major'' hassle.
* In Diane Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series, wizards can walk on air by suggesting to the air that it be as solid as stone for a while.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Mutant X]]'', Brennan's electricity-throwing power turns into an ion engine coming out of his hands after the [[Mid-Season Upgrade]].
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' brings us [[Puma Man]], who has [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|the ability]] to rear-project major cities—er, fly like a moron—er, "leap" great distances (yet somehow change direction while in midair).
== Newspaper Comics ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[GURPS]]'' people who can't afford Flight can get: Super Jump, Walk on Air, Glide, Super Bounce, Lighter than Air. The pulling yourself up by your bootstraps can be done with TK or Control. Absurdly high Jumping skill or just the Flying Leap skill also allow for travel that's similar to flight.
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has a number of alternatives to true flight. Magic items which mimic the effect are common. The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Immovable Rod]] can easily support a character's weight when activated, but is an ordinary metal rod when deactivated; two of them can be used for a set of mobile monkey bars. Spells like Reverse Gravity and Telekinesis can be used for flight-like effects. Like everything else, this is cranked [[Up to Eleven]] with the Epic handbook; a ridiculously high Balance skill allows one to ''balance on clouds''.
== Toys ==
* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', Lewa originally didn't fly; he could levitate one thing at a time (he could be that one thing, which was super convenient) and swung from tree to tree. He used his elemental powers (Air) to help along the way, but didn't do anything resembling flying. Once he was a Toa Nuva, he combined his improved mask of levitation , greater control over his element, and a pair of [[BFS]]es that helped him glide and sort of power him to more or less fly. This was great until the Bohrok-Kal showed up. Turns out that the flying wasn't so easy when you can't manipulate the air to do your bidding.
== Video Games ==
* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, Dodrio (which doesn't even have wings) seems to use Fly by jumping really high. In the 3D games, a Dodrio using this move will be shown ''running in place'' about 30 feet above ground to keep aloft while waiting for the opponent to make a move.
** ''[[Awkward Zombie]]'' offers an [http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=030711 alternate explanation.]
** There is also the fire-type Blaziken, whose Pokedex entry says "it cannot fly, but can jump so high that it doesn't matter."
** To a lesser extent, there's the ability Levitate, which amounts to the Pokémon gaining immunity to Ground attacks without any of the other strengths, weaknesses, or moves inherent to true Flying types.
** [[Psychic Powers|Gardevoir]] cannot fly or Levitate, but in ''[[Pokémon Sword and Shield]]'', if you have one in your party when you make a campsite, it doesn't walk or stand; [[Power Floats| it kind of floats]].
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' characters get jump jets, rocket packs, when they're of too low a level to fly. They get hover as their first step toward flying.
** Super Jump from the Leaping pool is almost as good as flight and unlike real jumping lets you turn in mid-leap and even stop moving to drop sooner than you would have.
* In ''[[Spore]]'', you can get wings in four different styles, depending on the upgrade - but they don't allow you to fly so much as they let you glide for progressively longer periods. No matter how much you press the jump button, you ''will'' come back down to earth eventually.
** The Galactic Adventures expansion does, however, let you fly. (But only by placing jump pads far away from the planet at the right angle, teleporting to them, and being launched into orbit.
* Pretty much everyone in the ''[[Touhou]]'' series can fly, with powers that range from "Manipulation of Flowers", to "Manipulation of Boundaries", which extends to anything that could possibly be conceived of as a boundary, even if it's completely imaginary. The main character Reimu originally had to use a flying turtle to fly in the PC-98 games, but inexplicably gained the ability to fly as her primary special ability in the windows games. Later in ''Imperishable Night'' Reimu inverts this trope. Instead of using a current superpower creatively in order to fly, she uses her ability to fly creatively to become completely invincible by [[Intangible Man|flying away from reality]], all the while still being able to attack things in the real world.
**
* ''[[Giants: Citizen Kabuto]]
* In ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause 2]]'', Rico can use his parachute and [[Grappling Hook Pistol|Grappling Hook Gauntlet]] in tandem to glide for pretty much indefinite periods of time just above the surface of Panau. He can also use it to not quite fly up buildings.
* Samus Aran of ''[[Metroid]]'' has a rather unorthodox method of flying: [[Jump Physics|jumping while already airborn.]] Her Space Jump upgrade goes far past double jumps, allowing Samus to spin jump ''inifinitely.'' With the right timing, Samus will never touch the ground.
* Knuckles from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'''s gliding.
** Rouge gets this later in series. Not to mention Amy's hammer-propelled-floating...ness, in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]''.
* ''[[Avalon Code]]'' features the hammer's special attack, which involves flinging oneself in a straight line to cross gaps both large and small, since the player character apparently doesn't know how to jump.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'' had Scrolls of Icarian Flight, which gave you +1000 bonus to Acrobatics. This meant that you could leap across half Vvardenfell in a single jump. This also meant that if the bonus wore off while you were still in the air, you'd leave a very messy smear on the ground when you land (unless you cast another spell to dampen your fall), just like it happened to the Scrolls' original creator.
** ''Morrowind'' also had a Levitation spell that let the caster ... well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|levitate]]. This spell was removed from later games ([[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|to some people's annoyance]]) due to its potential for breaking walled-city cells.
* ''[[Psi-Ops: The
* In ''[[Bug!]]
* The Windham Classics ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' had two objects that granted this. The parasol allowed you to make a controlled downward glide, but the Mad Hatter's hat let you catch updrafts. It also used the same engine as the [[Green-Sky Trilogy]] game.
* Most of the later ''[[Castlevania]]'' games give you an ability that allows you to infinitely super jump into the air.
** A few characters get true flight though. [[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Alucard]] and [[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Soma Cruz]] can [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|turn into a bat]], and [[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia|Shanoa]] can manifest a pair of black angel wings with the Volaticus glyph.
* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' Batman can use his improved [[Grappling Hook Pistol]] and cape to move through the city much easier than he did in the [[Batman: Arkham Asylum|first game]]. By diving and using the grapple to increase his speed and altitude, Bats can apparently move through the entire city without landing.
* Shows up in ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]''. First you get the Grip Crystal, which allows you to use a grappling-hook power for short distances (a later dungeon even includes an area where you have to Grip your way to several spires in short succession without falling). Then you find platforms made of a wind-sensitive mineral, that Whirlwind powers will lift into the air for you to hop across. Lastly, you gain an ally who can convert warm updrafts into Thermals capable of carrying the entire party, armor, weapons, and all (which completes a [[Brick Joke]] from the beginning of the game when it was mentioned that Mars Adepts can't fly).
** ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'' did it first with Hover. In fact, Hover is mentioned to be how the [[Global Airship]] upgrade on Piers's ship works.
* In ''[[The Quest of Ki]]'', Ki can continue floating upwards when she jumps so long as she doesn't hit the ceiling.
== Web Comics ==
* Lampshaded somewhat mockingly in [https://web.archive.org/web/20100325042717/http://www.kip-comics.com/?strip_id=110 this strip] of ''[[Knowledge Is Power]]''.
* [http://nonadventures.com/2006/09/09/the-torment-of-a-thousand-yesterdays/ Wonderella can't fly but she can totally jump hella high.]
** And she's quite pissed that the Godhead gave her sister Penumbra the power to "float upon the axis of reality". [http://nonadventures.com/2006/09/23/lucy-in-the-sky-with-genocide/ "Frickin' FLIGHT! I am RAGE personified!".]
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' has the "organic jetpack" which can grow out of your body if you exercise too much. It allows you to fly with [[Gasshole|methane and hydrogen]] as fuel.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* A lot of the "flying" characters in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' are actually doing this sort of thing rather than true flight. Several [[Whatevermancy|geokinetics]] ride on telekinetically controlled boulders to fly. Forcefield users ride disks of force. Magnetic heroes and villains manipulate earth's magnetic field. Gravity manipulators make pockets of "free fall", allowing them to jump impossible distances. And the super-strong merely use their leg muscles to leap entire city blocks at once.
* Phase in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' can do this by reducing his mass and so increasing his velocity after jumping; he can also drift ''slowly'' while super-light. [[How Do I Shot Web?|But it's tricky.]] Most other flyers, whether the [[Flying Brick]] package (PK supermen, PDPs with the superman ability, gravitic superman powers, etc.) or unique, [[Possession Implies Mastery|just know what to do]].
** Generator figured out how to fake flying by casting a PK copy of herself into her clothes and lifting herself into the air. Chaka figured out how to use her Ki to make wire-fu leaps through the air and run across the tops of trees.
* Starting in Volume 4, Ruby Rose of ''[[RWBY]]'' seems to have leveraged her [[Super Speed]] and [[Recoil Boost]] into something that is ''almost'' but quite true flight, including outrageously long hang times and hurtling like a comet at her opponents.
** Her sister Yang has been able to manage something like horizontal flight with her own [[Recoil Boost]] since the "Yellow" Trailer.
== Western Animation ==
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* In "I Am Legion" of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Fire is carrying Flash after bailing out of their Javelin [[It Makes Sense in Context|while battling robot condors]]. Flash tells Fire to drop him so that she can go help Hawkgirl, who is struggling in her battle with one of the condors, and Fire reluctantly does so [[The Charmer|after Flash gives her a smile and tells her to trust him]]. When Fire mentions this to Shayera, she says, "You know he can't fly, right?" He manages to improvise a quick way to "fly" on the way down:
{{quote|'''Flash''': Hey guys, look! I'm just like a helicoptor-*WHAM*...Well, sort of like a helicoptor.}}
* Seanbaby points out instances where this made [http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/hawkman.htm Hawkman] of ''Superfriends'' so [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|useless]]. He also noted events where [[Off-Model]] animation allowed ''Flash'' and '''Batman''' to fly under their own power.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Azula has used her fire for a rocket-jump on several occasions. Pretty much any firebender with enough skill can fly during Sozin's comet, as well. And Aang has that whole glider/Airbender thing.
** In addition, Katara did an Iceman-style ice-slide in the finale, and Earthbenders often raise themselves with columns. In fact, Toph seems to be able to launch herself with one of these columns if she moves it fast enough. Airbenders can fly around on pockets of air. Essentially, benders of any element can do Not Quite Flight in some way.
* Multi Man of ''[[The Impossibles]]'' can "fly" by duplicating himself, disappearing, duplicating himself, disappearing, and so on.
* In ''[[Batman: The Brave
* Starlight, [[Rainbow Brite]]'s horse, can gallop on rainbows as if on solid ground. This is always referred to in-universe as flying, although since Rainbow can create rainbows and the standard course of a rainbow is through the air, it's a distinction without a difference.
* In ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'', putting the Eye of Dashi onto the hilt of the Sword of Storms gave the sword the power to fly around, and the user with if by holding on. The same goes for the Serpent's Tail, which also [[Intangible Man|made you intangible.]]
== [[Real Life]] ==
* NASA's Space Shuttle generates 37 million horsepower at lift-off, and achieves a ground speed of 17,000 MPH to reach orbit, but has to come back to Earth unpowered, as a glider. The main engines are useless without the giant External (fuel) Tank. The shuttle gets one chance, and one chance only, at landing.
* Why were the Wright Brothers considered the first to actually pull off manned flight, even though powered heavier-than-air aircraft
** One should remember, however, that the Wright Brothers are not acknowledged as the first to actually pull off manned flight everywhere. France and Brazil both disconsider their efforts, having Santos Dummont as the inventor of the airplane.
* Gliding as a form of locomotion turns up in a wide range of vertebrates, from mammals (flying squirrels, sugar gliders, colugos) to reptiles (draco lizards, flying geckos, ''Chrysopelea'' tree snakes) to amphibians (flying frogs) to fishes (flying fish, halfbeaks). Still more powered-flight species will glide as a means of conserving energy, and several climbing species (cats, sifaka) possess a limited ability to "parachute" to slow their descent in the event of an accidental fall.
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