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* 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.
* In "Seiketsu no Hagurama" the flying whales are actually steam-punk looking ships http://www.mangafox.com/manga/seiketsu_no_haguruma/v01/c001.1/16.html designed by a literal blue-blooded [[Gadgeteer Genius]] prince who, contrary to his intentions to use his machines for peaceful purposes, were being used to eradicate the remaining red-blooded people by his father.
== Comic Books ==
* ''Abraxas and the Earthman'' by Rick Veitch (originally serialized in ''Epic Illustrated,'' later released as a graphic novel) is all about this trope: There are space whales (which look exactly like Earth's whales, and "swim" through space with their fins and tails), and space whalers. The whalers are from a civilization based on Organic Technology; they fly in ships which look like small asteroids covered with trees—the leaves serve as "sails" with which they can reach lightspeed. And everyone can breathe in space (no explanation is even attempted for that). The Great Red Whale Abraxas = Moby Dick, of course, and Captain Rotwang = Captain Ahab.
* 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]].
* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' villains The Brood traveled in lobotomized space whales known as the Acanti.
** 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.
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* 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.
** Speaking of Lobo, in [[52]], [[Crowning Moment of Funny|he gets a talking space dolphin]] [[Morality Pet]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Side kick]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* 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
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* [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]]
** ''Consider Phlebas'' briefly mentions the chuy-hitsi warp animal, spacebourne creatures capable of interstellar travel.
** A largely un-related but voluminous B Plot in the sequel ''Look to Windward'' introduces the "dirigible behemothaur": a very, very, very large Air Whale.
** 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.
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** 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.
* It was revealed in commentary for ''[[Star Trek: The
** 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.
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** ''Farscape'' also features budongs, natural creatures that can grow to the size of a small moon. In one episode Talyn gets swallowed by one.
* Some episodes in the various ''[[Star Trek]]'' TV series occasionally feature lifeforms of deep space that resemble marine lifeforms or other tentacly things, such as a space-squid (''[[Deep Space 9]]''; although this was actually a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|changeling disguised]]—in the form of a space-squid species... seriously), a glowing space-jellyfish (the pilot episode of ''[[The Next Generation]]''), a space-amoeba (ST:TOS), and finally something very close to the classic Space Whale in ''[[The Next Generation]]'' (it looked more like a nudibranch but acted like a whale).
* ''[[Star Trek:
* The [[Speculative Documentary]] ''Alien Worlds: Blue Moon'' features Sky Whales.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** 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.
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** 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]].
* ''[[Warhammer
** The Space Wolves codex has a short story about a mutated Void Whale. It was 12,000 miles long. The little picture of the whale using a small moon to lure stuff into its mouth is pretty much to scale.
* ''[[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.
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** ...except, perhaps, for its little-known relative, Great Force.
* The Gnosis Cathedral Ships in ''[[Xenosaga]]'' appear as giant alien whales.
* The ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]]'' Nintendo Power comic (based on the game) had the main character encountering the ghost of his dead father speaking to him in the form of a spectral space whale.
** 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.
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* ''[[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''...
* The reason the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Zerg]] can survive in space, according to ''[[
** That's because the Overlords ''are'' mutated versions of said Space Whales.
** On the tournament version of the ''[[
* In the 1994 PC game ''Commander Blood'', 'Ma' is a genetically modified, unique captive Space Whale who births [[Organic Technology]], 'dolphin'-like communication probes called Orxx.
* ''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.
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* Let's not forget the Liir of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''. Some peculiar cross between Space Whales and Space Dolphins, the eldest members of the Liir are literal whales, albeit whales with immense [[Psychic Powers]] and an intelligence several times that of a human. All Liir who ever set their flippers into space are murderously insane... At least by Liir standards, as they're actually willing to harm other beings. Though they can't survive vacuum and use starships.
** 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).
* The exact species of Tanzer in ''[[
* A Space Whale figures prominently in ''[[Tales of Hearts]]'' as the ''deity'' of the Valeia Church. It turns out to be {{spoiler|an ark of [[The Precursors]] which the villain's been trying to reactivate so he can unseal a [[Cosmic Horror]]}}.
* 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.
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[http://www.kukuburi.com/2007/08/09/one/ Kukuburi]'': [http://www.kukuburi.com/2007/08/21/ten/ Airwhales!] [http://www.kukuburi.com/2008/02/12/fiftynine/ Battlewhale!] Why aren't you reading [[Rule of Cool|this]] already?
* The Magical Flying Fetus Whale of Josh Lesnick's ''Girly'' (introduced [http://girlyyy.com/go/516 here]) might qualify. Who knows? Maybe space is where the whale returns to. In any case, it can definitely fly in earth's atmosphere.
* 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].
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[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Flying Tropes]]
[[Category:Space Whale]]▼
[[Category:Dolphins, Dolphins, Everywhere]]
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