Stepping Stones in the Sky: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Technically due to Newton's Third Law of Motion this isn't actually impossible, it just requires that the rocks have enough mass to be worth pushing against, and that the character [[Super Speed|can run and jump faster than they are falling]]. It all becomes much more plausible if their destination is in freefall along with them.

 

 

{{examples}}

* While not using stones, the samurai in ''[[Samurai 7]]'' tend to leap from huge flying cyborg to huge flying cyborg, slicing apart as they go.

* The last chapter of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' features {{spoiler|''Stepping Galaxies In Outer Space!''}}

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', the character Koga, whose speed and agility are enhanced by magical jewel shards in both his legs, demonstrates the ability to run up rockslides, even while carrying another character. The title character sometimes does so, too, though it usually takes the only slightly more plausible form of leaping from one large, plummeting boulder to another.

* Jiyu and Freeshia from ''[[Jubei-chan]]'' spend a portion of their final title bout duking it out on top of a falling redwood which, for bonus points, they'd just sent flying in the first place.

* The last episode of ''[[Slayers]] Next'' has Gourry doing this. What's more remarkable is that by doing this he beats people who are simply flying their way out. The [[Power of Love]] is strong, indeed.

** What really sells this one is [http://bit.ly/ozhq74 Shungo's reaction].

* Optimus Prime in ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' does this to stop the Predacons interfering with a race. Slapper [[Lampshade Hanging|complains that he's breaking the laws of physics]].

* Justified in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' where the homunculus Wrath used his [[Evil Eye]] to know how to escape a train going off destroyed tracks by running up the rubble the blast created.

* The title character of ''[[Naruto]]'' eventually discovers he can gain some level of aerial maneuverability by [[Doppleganger Attack|making a Shadow Clone]] in midair then either kicking/shoving off of it or [[Fastball Special|having it throw him]].

** When {{spoiler|Guy}} didn't get enough distance with a jump, he {{spoiler|[[Summon Magic|summoned]] Ningame for the first time in years (both in and out of story) ''in midair'' to give him something to get extra air off of.}}

* In the ''[[Sengoku Basara]] 3'' manga, Ishida Mitsunari takes this to the extreme by slashing a group of soldiers into the air with his sword and using ''them'' as stepping stones to reach a second story balcony!

 

* Near the end of one episode of the short-lived ''[[Spider-Man]] Unlimited'' series, Spidey easily executes this to escape a [[Collapsing Lair]], with Venom and Carnage right behind.

* In the Archie continuity of [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]], the Hedgehog hero once pulled it off using sand he got out of his shoes to go from falling off a cliff to running to safety.

 

* Beautifully parodied in the movie ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'': during the final battle, in order to gain enough height to execute his [[Finishing Move]], the hero uses a ''bird in flight'' as a stepping stone.

* The end of the anime film ''Mind Game'' has the main characters escaping their prison in the stomach of a giant blue whale by running up the water pouring in when it surfaces. Then they run up planes, subway trains, boats, and a large amount of other things being swallowed by the whale with enough power to launch them far into the sky. Earlier the main character outruns God.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'', Nanaki, Yuffie, Vincent, and Tifa leap into the air and ''throw'' Cloud further upwards. It happens again in the final showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth, where part of the fight literally takes place on, in, and through falling rubble from a destroyed building.

 

* Luke, Mara, and Tahiri perform this during the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series, at a point where they're fighting a Dark Jedi with the language-less mentality of a five year old on a ruined Coruscant. Slightly easier for them as they had the help of the Force, as well as the fact that many of the rocks they were hopping across were building size.

 

 

* Every ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game ''ever''. This ranges from logs in waterfalls to the much more regular falling stepping stones. Other objects include midair springboards to floating enemies that (usually) Sonic must homing attack across.

** The intro movie in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD|Sonic CD]]'' has a particularly badass example of Sonic jumping on falling rocks before Spin Dashing through a large boulder and hopping off it before it crumbles away.

** One of the bosses in attacks Mario by throwing boulders at him, and the only way to get close enough to defeat him is to jump from boulder to boulder (in which the preceding levels have provided ample practice, but with less of the "In The Sky" factor).

** Also many hacks do this with falling springboards, shells, P switches and keys. There's also actually a trick required in the hardest of them that actually requires Mario to continually jump upwards while pulling up the key he's standing on in mid air.

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'', you can do this with fragments of buildings. That ''you cut into pieces yourself''.

* The Infocom [[Interactive Fiction|text adventure]] ''Spellbreaker'' has this as a puzzle solution ... though it makes a little more sense jumping up rocks when you've ''[[Time Stands Still|stopped time in the middle of the rock collapse]].''

* With the right Schticks, characters in the ''[[Feng Shui]]'' game can walk on hails of ''bullets''. It's still damn hard, just not impossible.

* ''[[The Lion King (Video Game)|The Lion King]]'': In the "Hakuna Matata" level, where Simba must climb up a waterfall by jumping on logs which are cascading down.

 

* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': Tex. Wash. The Meta. Falling and cracking ice shelf. It is ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]]''.

 

* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', using her name-implied superpowers, Terra performs a visual interpretation of the trope to get [[Badass Normal]] Robin into the face of a giant robot worm. Robin himself used this method several times over the course of the series.

* Tai Lung's prison break in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' involved clawing his way out of a bottomless pit by leaping from bit to bit of the falling debris that would have crushed him. Po does it later in the film with some broken off roof tiles.

* ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]''

** Optimus pulls this one once, with the somewhat [[Gag Dub|gaggy English dub]] having the Predacon Slapper protest Optimus's ignorance of gravity.

* In the ''[[Aeon Flux]]'' short "War", the sword-wielding fighter climbs by jumping off a series of enemy soldiers rappelling down from an aircraft.

* ''[[Wakfu]]''

* Agent Six's [[Establishing Character Moment]] in the first episode of ''[[Generator Rex]]'' is jumping out of a low-flying plane with a pair of katanas, toward falling debris that is about to land on a handful of squishy civilians. He proceeds to jump from piece to piece, slicing them apart as he goes, before landing on his feet while the rubble lands harmlessly around the civilians, and telling the faltering main character to get a move on. And he only gets more badass from there.

 

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[[Category:Rule of Cool]]

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