Wind from Beneath My Wings

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

A Sub-Trope of Blow You Away, in which the character generates powerful wind currents by strongly flapping his or her wings like large fans in the desired direction. This form of wind manipulation is usually limited to powerful, directional gales, although generating other standard wind techniques (tornadoes, Razor Wind, etc.) with this method isn't unheard of. Characters who fly using propellers can perform similar maneuvers by pointing their rotors at their targets and spinning them very quickly (Although they'll generally go for the Helicopter Blender, with all of its own kettle of worms).

This is a another case of Artistic License Physics; while it's true that flapping one's wings should create a noticeable gust (which is typically a central element of winged flight), that character usually should not be able to remain stationary, especially if already airborne. Unless the character is especially massive or firmly held in place, conservation of momentum says that the character should be pushed in the opposite drection to cancel out the air's newfound velocity (which is, again, typically a central element of winged flight). Given many writers' stances on physical laws of conservation, though, the fact that the characters don't fly backwards with each flap isn't very surprising.

This is a staple technique of the Giant Flyer and Winged Humanoid. Even characters with otherwise Stationary Wings will flap them to generate wind this way. If power gave the character wings, large, heavenly gales can be used to demonstrate just how powerful the character is.

---

Examples:

Anime

• In the Pokémon anime, some Flying-type moves such as Gust and Whirlwind are shown to work this way when used by winged Mons. As most winged mons can learn the Fire-type move Heat Wave (a blast of hot air), it can be presumed that it operates similarly.
• A hawk from Kimba the White Lion attacked Kimba by using this technique.

Film

• Several Giant Flyer Kaiju from the Godzilla franchise could do this. Examples include Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah.

Live Action TV

• Physics are followed (for the most part) in Warehouse13, where Daedelus's wax wings generate their own lift for flight.
• In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Femme's Finishing Move involves her swan Bond Creature Blancwing blowing her enemies off their feet like this, Femme following up by attacking them with her double-ended polearm while they're helpless. Knight Survive's Darkraider has a similar special attack, but rather than flapping it generates winds from the wheels/turbines on its wings. This obviously also applies to Siren and Wing Knight, their American counterparts from Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: This was one of the special tricks of Monster of the Week King Sphinx. Mutitus form II and the Peckster can also do it but to a lesser extent.

Comic Books

• Played with: While she does not actually possess wings, Storm has, among others, the ability to hurl gusts of wind in any direction, and usually wears a unique cape attached to her arms. When she uses this power wearing one of these attached 'wing-capes,' it creates the same visual effect.
  • Her teammate Angel has sometimes been known to do this, when he has feathered wings.

Tabletop Games

• A standard ability of various dragons in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as the various CRPGs derived from the ruleset.

Video Games

• Some large bosses in the Zelda series have been known to do this, notably The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening's Eagle boss, The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker's Helmaroc King and The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess' Argorok.
• One of the two versions of Mega Man Battle Network 6 had the final boss Falzar, who would use this technique in conjunction with Rain Of Feathers for a difficult-to-avoid attack.
  • Battle Network 5's Gyro Soul used something similar to the propeller version of this trope: Using a Wind-based chip in Gyro Soul would make the propeller on Mega Man's back spin twice as fast, which would power-up the next Wind chip used.
• In Mega Man X, Storm Eagle had attacks that functioned this way.
• Dragons in World of Warcraft use attacks like this, usually called something like "Wind Buffet". Sindragosa The Frost Queen goes one better with "Magical Buffet".
• Kratos of God of War gets a fairly realistic version of this after he gets Daedelus's wings. It's just a single gust from wings he can only really use to glide, which does push him back/up through the air when he uses it.
• The Darkwing Bat attacks like this in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
• Gargoyle hero Galio in League of Legends creates a tornado with his wings.
• This is one of Ridley's moves in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
• Feral chaos' Ventus Ire in Dissidia Final Fantasy.

Western Animation

• The (unnamed) Roc in the Popeye cartoon, Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor could do this.
• Appa, the 10-ton Sky Bison of Avatar: The Last Airbender, has done this a couple of times with his beaver-like tail, which he uses ordinarily to "swim" through air.
• Smaug the dragon in the animated version of The Hobbit declares "My wings... are... hurricanes!" and creates gale-force winds with them to frighten and humble Bilbo Baggins.
• Utter Flutter, the special magic of the Flutter Ponies from the original My Little Pony cartoon. It is the only thing that can push back and destroy Smooze. It also reduced the shadow-stealing sorcerer Erebus to almost nothing.