Space Whale: Difference between revisions

[[File:spacewhale-1.jpg|frame|[[Theme Tune|5...4...3...2...1...]] [[Power Rangers in Space|Whalers]] [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]].]]

 

''And sing our whaling tune!''|'''[[Futurama]]'''}}

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' had Schroedinger's Whales, which traverse the entire space-time continuum. They are an exceedingly rare treat to see, considering the chance of one existing could only happen in a ''near-infinite space''; naturally, they have a very hard time finding other Schroedinger's Whales with whom to breed.

* ''[[Macross 7|Macross Dynamite 7]]'' features space whales in a bizarre cross of [[Moby Dick]] and [[The Power of Rock]].

** Rather notable as [[Gundam]] typically has [[Absent Aliens|no aliens at all]].

** In ''Turn A Gundam'' A number of whales thrive in human built waterways on the moon. Turn A's connections with other Gundam universes leads me to question whether SEED's Space Whales are related.

* One episode in the third season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' features a painting done by Michiru that is of a whale in space. This is particularly fitting for her, since she's Sailor Neptune and has ocean/water powers.

* [[Kurohime]] one-ups this trope with a Time Whale.

 

* Ultra Boy of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' originally got his powers from being swallowed by a space whale. (To make it even better/worse, his real name is Jo Nah.)

** Still better/worse: Superboy calls him on the coincidence the first time they meet.

** And that's not even the only space whale in ''Legion Of Super-Heroes''. In the original continuity, Lightning Lad lost his arm to the "Super-Moby Dick of Space!"

* In one of the ''[[Metabarons]]'' comics, the bad guys use a kind of organic spaceship that strongly resembles a whale. Background material implies that it was developed from actual whales through [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic engineering]]. They're also called cetacyborgs, which is [[wikipedia:Cetacea|kind of a dead giveaway]].

** You haven't lived until you've seen a whale doing a high-speed close-orbit approach of a planet to free its ancestor's soul from a citadel of evil.

** On one occasion, Storm actually ''merged'' with one of the Acanti, [[Take a Third Option|as an alternative to]] either committing suicide or [[Body Horror|transforming into one of The Brood]] after [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|being implanted with a Brood egg]]. Fortunately, the X-Men and Starjammers were able to free the Acanti from slavery, and the whales' thankful shaman (yes, a giant whale sorcerer) [[A Wizard Did It|magically]] purged the Brood eggs from the mutants' bodies.

* And let us not forget [[Lobo]]'s "space dolphins", which as of ''52'' have their own religion.

** Lobo also once joined a crew of space whalers who's ship was swallowed whole by an immense albino space whale. Lobo even met a Jonas analogue inside, shortly before eating him.

* In the ''[[Green Lantern]]'' comics, it was recently revealed that the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|cosmic personification]] of willpower, Ion, looks very much like a big green whale.

** In one ''[[Animal Man]]'' mini (which takes place [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|in 2024]]) Earth's current Green Lantern is a Blue Whale thus upgrading to this trope

* In the French comic series ''Kookaburra'' has space Lamantines. They act a lot like whales though, and are hunted by whalers.

* In [[Recycled in Space|Space]] [[Usagi Yojimbo|Usagi]] there are space turtles. When they die, their shells are used as spacecraft hull. Not whales, but still impressive.

 

* ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' - Wins bonus points for having [[Space Pirates|full-rigged sailing ships in space]] as well. Still, that was kind of the POINT.

* In the "Pines of Rome" sequence of ''[[Fantasia]] 2000'', some sort of [[Negative Space Wedgie]] gives a pod of whales the power of flight, whereupon they rise into the atmosphere, enter space itself, and [[Disney Acid Sequence|ultimately breach the surface of the 'ocean' of the atmosphere]] - the animators [[Shrug of God|assure us it's intended to be ambiguous]]. Besides, the sequence's [[Crowning Music of Awesome|titular song]], by Ottorino Resphigi, is so majestic [[Rule of Cool|we can pretty much not care about that]].

* [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]] features a whale in space... [[Gravity Sucks|although only for short]].

 

** Discworld itself is carried through space on the back of [[Turtle Power|another enormous aquatic animal]].

* Terry Pratchett's ''[[The Dark Side of the Sun]]'' mentions several space-born species, and plot involves large creatures called "sundogs". They can be hired to perform [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|interstellar haulage]] service (thus falling into [[Living Ship]] category as well), usually carrying normal spaceship. That is, if this specific individual is not stupid enough to ''devour'' ship instead - fortunately, they have recognizable names.

* [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s novel ''Cachalot'' (1980), part of the [[Humanx Commonwealth]] universe. In the future, Mankind had decided to save the last survivors of the cetacean species of Earth (whales, dolphins, orcas) and transplant them to a planet almost completely covered by oceans which had no native sentient species (or so they thought, because they didn't look deep enough in the oceans). The cetaceans prospered, on a world that belonged to them and on which humans and thranx were only allowed as traders and researchers. By the time of the novel, all the cetaceans are sentient to some degree, with the toothed whales more so than the baleen whales (either due to evolution or genetic Uplifting done prior to the whale diaspora or shortly afterwards, it's not entirely clear). Some species of toothed whales have even grown more intelligent than humans and live for hundreds of years since they are no longer hunted. The book ends with the revelation that these whales have developed [[Psychic Powers|psionic powers]] like telekinesis and telepathy (since they have no hands and thus a civilizations based on song, not artifacts and tools), and with the help of these powers they can levitate their bodies from the water and travel into space.

* Wayne D. Barlowe's ''Expedition'' not only gives us a planet with a wide variety of "Floaters", several of whom are basically Air-Whales, one of these is of human-like intelligence.

* [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]]

** ''Consider Phlebas'' briefly mentions the chuy-hitsi warp animal, spacebourne creatures capable of interstellar travel.

** The Dwellers fit this - although they mostly live on gas planets as Air Whales, it is implied that they created a massive intergalactic network of wormholes. It is certain that at one point they used them. Their culture is intimately examined in [[The Algebraist]]. In some ways they are similar to the Affront from [[Excession]], being gleefully violent and cruel to their offspring, and being possessed of a rather macho attitude to life. They are, however, also quite scholarly and thoughtful at times.

* Douglas Adams' ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' featured a whale that was created randomly in the upper atmosphere of a planet, where it proceeded to fall to the ground. Questions of how it survived lack of oxygen and possibility of it burning up in the atmosphere are waived in favor of a bit of hilarious internal monologue.

* The novel ''A Deeper Sea'' by Alexander Jablokov involves a whale being turned into a spacefaring cyborg to fulfill a religious prophecy of the dolphins, with whom man has learned to communicate.

* Hinted at in the ''[[Dune]]'' series, where it claims that House Harkennon got into the Emperor's favor by 'manipulating space whale fur prices'.

** The prequel novels [[Hand Wave]] this by simply claiming they're regular whales (with fur) from the planet Lankiveil.

* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''The Integral Trees'' has the Moby, a whalish giant creature that lives within the breatheable Smoke Ring gas torus orbiting a dead neutron star. Notable in that, by the very nature of the Smoke Ring, it's both a Space Whale ''and'' an Air Whale at the same time.

* Cassie could be called this, or the air whale variant, albeit briefly, in at least two ''[[Animorphs]]'' books, although perhaps it's more of a falling whale...

 

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' there was a kind of whale analogue. It looked more like a giant dragonfly, but its method of gathering oxygen and then [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|holding its breath while it flew to another planet]] was explicitly likened to whales.

** In series 5, {{spoiler|Spaceship UK's engine is in fact a captured Space Whale, almost literally (they call it a star-whale).}}

** The Doctor Who novel ''The Resurrection Casket'' has a variation with Krarks, which are small, very vicious space [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|sharks]].

*** Not to mention in "A Christmas Carol", when there are sharks and fish in the atmosphere.

** According to the ''Enterprise'' blueprints, cetacean engineers actually '''designed''' much of the navigation system. That's engineers who are cetaceans. From Earth.

** In the TNG episode "Galaxy's Child", they're under threat by a Space Whale baby who thinks the Enterprise is its mother, and is sucking the energy from the ship.

* ''[[Farscape]]'' is set on board a [[Living Ship]] known as a Leviathan, named "Moya"; an initial conceptual design for which greatly resembled a whale, complete with eyes. The actual production version was much more "spaceshippy", though her silhouette is still suggestive of a humpback. Many of Moya's sound effects are also reminiscent of whale song.

** ''Farscape'' also features budongs, natural creatures that can grow to the size of a small moon. In one episode Talyn gets swallowed by one.

 

* The video for ''In The End'' by Linkin Park features a couple of space whales flying around.

* [[Skyclad]]'s album ''Silent Whales of Lunar Sea'', although this is actually a pun and the music features no whales.

* Speaking of 1971, [[Pink Floyd]]'s "Echoes" has lyrics that were originally space-themed (and later changed to ocean-themed,) plus a nice [[Progressive Rock|four-minute interlude]] in which David Gilmour makes his guitar sound like whalesong.

 

** Space-themed [[Spelljammer]] setting had the Kindori, your basic mouthless blue whale with many eyes/headlights. Delphinids are Space Dolphins. The godlike Great Dreamers aren't quite Space Whales proper, but rather space-traveling whales, as they float in water envelopes the size of a little moon (they are up to 20 miles long themselves).

*** And, of course, ''the Spelljammer'' itself basically is a giant space manta ray.

** Pelins, from bestiary in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine #52, were air whales, although they didn't look all that much like whales.

** Air Whales appear in a 3e supplement book, too. And they're used as blimps.

** Balaenas (later re-named "elsewhales"), an intelligent species of magical whale, can take people on trips in pockets of air it creates in its mouth.

** One old ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' article featured a species of large whale that could use astral projection as an inherent ability, making ''the Astral Plane'' home to [[Space Whales]].

* ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'' has a race called the Alunda, which are space whales with bioelectric batteries and little plasma-enabled tentacles all over them. They really hate the Branthodon, who ride around on cybernetically-enhanced Space Dragons.

* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' includes a variety of whales that are members of transhumanist society. Suryas, a genetically engineered variety, live in the corona of the sun, with light-up skin. Other uplifted types of whales can be seen in spacesuits in the vacuum of space, others in low-grav environs. The recent splatbook, Panopticon, describes cetaceans' unique 3D sensibility as an advantage for moving around in space.

** In ''[[Transhuman Space]]'' there ''probably'' aren't Space Whales. There are, however, "Whalers" or "Beyonders", a group of spacers-turned-cryptozoologists who say they encountered ''something'' massive and blue-black in the Deep Beyond. They're the butt of jokes in the inner system, but taken more seriously the further out you go.

 

** Which the Split [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|utilize as fuel]].

* What exemplifies this trope more than the ''[[Darius]]'' series' Great Thing? Nothing, that's what.

** ...except, perhaps, for its little-known relative, Great Force.

* The Gnosis Cathedral Ships in ''[[Xenosaga]]'' appear as giant alien whales.

** There was also a space whale in the Sector Y level of the game, though it had to be encountered in a special way. {{spoiler|Shoot all the small stingrays in the level 'till they turn blue, and the whale shows up near the end and drops lots of powerups for you.}}

* The Wind Fish from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' was a trapped interdimensional being that did indeed look more whale than fish.

* The [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Ever 17]]'' doesn't feature any actual space whales, but its aquatic theme park does have a "Cosmic Whale Room," with a lifelike animatronic whale suspended in a room painted to look like outer space.

* While no space whales are found in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', there is a space Flounder, and its Space Flounder spawns which all look like tadpoles with a guys face on it.

** Given the way Vyse and Aika react when they first encounter Rhaknam, and the fact that you never see any other arcwhales through the course of the game in spite of traversing the entire world, it's reasonable to assume that arcwhales are incredibly rare and seeing one is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. {{spoiler|Or they don't exist.}}

** It is not likely that they do not exist, as Rhaknam was mentioned to be an existing creature that was modified, rather than constructed from scratch. {{spoiler|Rhaknam may be the last one though.}}

* ''[[Grandia III]]'' has a whale floating above the clouds. It's surprised to see humans there when you approach it. It seems all the [[Magitek|airplanes]] in that world don't like to go that high.

* ''[[Starscape]]'' had space fire dragon-''things''...

** That's because the Overlords ''are'' mutated versions of said Space Whales.

* ''Jumping Flash'' has air whales in World 3-2. Uniquely for the game, they [[Everything Trying to Kill You|aren't trying to kill you]], and just sort of float there, wiggling their flukes, and letting you use them as platforms.

* ''[[Kirby]]'' ''Air Ride'', of all things, features big flying whale-like ''things'' on the Frozen Hillside stage.

* ''Spore'' has the ability to easily make any vehicle you want. A good number of the Featured creations are spaceships shaped sea creatures. Including one of a whale and a giant squid fighting.

** Now, with ''SotS 2'', we finally know that the {{spoiler|Suul'ka}} are actually Liir who have grown so large that, normally, the [[Square-Cube Law]] would cause them to die underwater. Instead, they choose to teleport themselves into space using their immense [[Psychic Powers]] and go mad with power. Screenshots reveal that they are, in fact, several times larger than the new ''Leviathan''-class warships (which are about 800 meters long).

* In the 1993 [[Amiga]]-Game ''Whale's Voyage'' http://hol.abime.net/1692 you're cruising around in a spaceship shaped like, well, a whale.

* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]] Future: Tools of Destruction'' has what appear to be space whales or sharks in two of its [[Space Pirate]] levels (though the first of which is on a planet with an atmosphere). Also, Stratus City has floating jellyfish. Additionally, there are the Basilisk Leviathian enemies (space serpents) in two levels and ''Quest for Booty'' had Pythors (space python-thingies).

* Guppy from ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]''.

* Comorro in [[OtherSpace]], who also acts as a massive living ship. Characters reside in various internal ducts and passages, and park their ships in her [[Is That What They're Calling It Now?|landing bay]].

* ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]'' has the Locust Queen, a massive spaceborne creature capable of "launching" waves of insect-like drones.

* The second stage of ''[[Child of Eden]]'' has space whales as well as space manta rays and a space phoenix.

* The Wahrk in ''[[Myst|Uru]]'' is a strange, [[I'm a Humanitarian|man-eating]] [[Heinz Hybrid|whale-shark-walrus hybrid thing]] that falls to Earth through the star fissure from Riven.

 

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' had a recent Strong Bad Email that reveals Strong Bad's ideal career choice as "2nd 2nd Assistant Space Whale Scrubber". In an earlier email, he put up a motivational poster of "some kinda whale...in space...".

** And the last thing the Drive-Thru Whale does in the cartoon [http://www.homestarrunner.com/drivethru.html "Drive-Thru"] is blast off into orbit after eating a Europa-pean Space Lobster. ''"Sever your leg, please. It's the greatest day."''

 

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies had a peculiar shortage of Space Whales in the movies that ''[[Darths and Droids]]''' [[The Loonie|Sally]] tried to amend [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0263.html in this strip].

* Mentioned in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' as a reference to ''[[Beowulf]]'': the poem calls the sea "the whale road", so space is "the space-whale road".

 

* "Space Moby", an episode of the [[Space Western]] cartoon series ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'', featured a species of space-whales that was being hunted to extinction. And an environmental group with the [[anvilicious]] name of "Greenspace" that was trying to save them.

* The animated series ''[[Bounty Hamster]]'' has enormous purple space whales that act as long-haul truckers, carrying cargo from planet to planet.

* The 1983 British animated short, Skywhales.

 

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes in Space]]

[[Category:Aquatic Animal Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Flying Tropes]]

[[Category:Dolphins, Dolphins, Everywhere]]