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Wind from Beneath My Wings - TV Tropes

  • ️Mon Mar 08 2010

Wind from Beneath My Wings (trope)

A Sub-Trope of Blow You Away, in which the character generates powerful wind currents by strongly flapping their 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).

This is 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 direction 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.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the song by Bette Midler titled "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

  • A Certain Magical Index: The #2 ranked Level 5, Kakine Teitoku, is able to use his "Dark Matter" ability to manifest angelic white wings behind him that do something similar. They're not precisely gusts, but he can infuse the wind generated by these wings with upwards of 20,000 vector fronts to blast away opponents.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The villainous Gundam Heaven's Sword has two attacks that work like this: Heaven's Tornado and Wind Fire.
  • Pokémon the Series: 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.
  • Digimon V-Tamer 01 has Zeromaru defend himself from an explosive blast in this manner after evolving. Saiba Neo complains about how "using the wind as a shield" from such an attack violates all laws of physics, and starts calling Zero and Yagami "bugs". Yagami Taichi describes it(outside of Sabai's ear range) as "calling on the wind guardian", suggesting Zero is making use of some sort of defensive program while letting Neo think he's doing something blatantly impossible, but Zero later does use wind from his wings to blow away solid projectiles, only to find out Saiba does have a counter measure for that.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The Lyrical Luscinia monsters are WIND monsters and attack that way. The violation of physics is justified by it all being holograms, though the attacks still look like should only push things around instead of cause direct damage.

Comic Books 

  • X-Men:
    • 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..
    • When the Uncanny X-Men return to Earth following the Secret Wars (1984) event, they unwittingly bring with them an enormous alien dragon. It promptly heads to Tokyo, where it creates hurricane-force winds just by flapping its wings, sending tanks flying and making skyscrapers sway ominously.

Films — Animation 

  • The Hobbit: Smaug the dragon in the animated version declares "My wings... are... hurricanes!" and creates gale-force winds with them to frighten and humble Bilbo Baggins.

Films — Live-Action 

  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019):
    • Rodan causes super-sonic updrafts which tear an entire town to rubble, throwing people and buses into the air, just by gliding overhead.
    • Although not clearly visible in the film, the Monarch Sciences website says that the even-larger King Ghidorah's wings generate hurricane-force winds when he flies.
    • Mothra blasts Ghidorah's stormclouds clear from the sky by beating her wings and shining her God Rays.
  • The Magic Crane: The titular crane uses this ability to battle a flock of bloodthirsty vampire bats and wins.
  • Maleficent: Maleficent can do this before she loses her wings.
  • T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous: A Pteranodon does this when it shows itself before Ally.

Literature 

  • Discworld: The Quantum Weather Butterfly is the species responsible for storms and tornadoes. You've heard of chaos theory and the idea that a single butterfly flapping its wings in South America can set off a chain of events that results in torrential hurricanes ten thousand miles away? Well, on the Discworld, it literally exists. This is the species. It is believed this ability is both a survival trait and a mating display designed to attract a partner. More is explained in Interesting Times.
  • World's Greatest Animals: As part of his wind powers, bald eagle Ace can generate strong gusts of wind by flapping his wings.

Live-Action TV 

  • 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.

Tabletop Games 

Video Games 

  • Dark Souls: The Sanctuary Guardian does this, but only when on the ground where it can anchor itself with its claws, making things slightly more plausible. It does no damage, but it does stagger you, leaving you open to a follow-up attack.
  • God of War III: Kratos 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.
  • Kaiju Wars: The Giant Flyer kaiju, Pterus Ignis, can use its Wind Force ability to destroy an adjacent flying unit by flapping its wings to create a hurricane-force wind.
  • Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories: In Marluxia's third phase, he can use a sleight called Gale of Severance, which causes the Specter to flap its wings and generate a gale that pushes Sora away.
  • League of Legends: The gargoyle hero Galio creates a tornado with his wings.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The Evil Eagle buffets Link with gusts of wind produced by its beating wings. This doesn't cause direct harm, but can send Link falling off the top of the tower it's fought on.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Helmaroc King periodically creates powerful winds with its beating wings, which can push Link into the spikes surrounding its arena.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: During the first phase of its battle, Argorok will hover in the center of its arena and try to blow Link off by churning the air with its wings. Link can avoid this effect by equipping the Iron Boots.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: After recovering from having been knocked to the ground, a Gleeok will beat its wings to create powerful gusts that knock Link away from them and keep him off while the beast climbs back into the sky.
  • Mega Man Battle Network:
    • 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.
    • One of the two versions of 6 has the final boss Falzar, who would use this technique in conjunction with Rain Of Feathers for a difficult-to-avoid attack.
  • Monster Hunter: While few winged monsters use the trope intentionally, almost all of them periodically produce gales as they fly around, which can disrupt your attacks and leave you open to abuse. An equipment skill exists to make you immune to this and can be extremely helpful. Most notable is the Kushala Daora debuting in Monster Hunter 2 (dos), a metallic Elder Dragon whose attacks are primarily wind-based and can even generate a wind shield around itself to keep hunters from getting too close, this can only be removed if you manage to poison it; the variant Rusted Kushala Daora has even stronger wind shields.
  • Pokémon: Moves like Gust, Hurricane, and Whirlwind can be assumed to work this way when used by most Flying-type Pokémon.
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon: The Winged Rhynocs in Cloud Spires use this kind of attack to push Spyro back.
  • A Total War Saga: TROY: The Griffin Patriarch can employ its massive wings to generate a powerful blast of wind, which can disrupt formations and damage enemy troops.
  • World of Warcraft: Most flying bosses use attacks like this, usually called something like "Wind Buffet". Sindragosa the Frost Queen goes one better with "Magical Buffet".
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Some of the large flying enemies do this. It causes very little damage and mostly serves to push you off cliffs if you aren't careful with your positioning.

Western Animation 

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Appa, the ten-ton sky bison, has done this a couple of times with his beaver-like tail, which he uses ordinarily to "swim" through air.
  • My Little Pony:
  • PJ Masks: Owlette can create strong gusts of wind using her cape/wings. Her PJ Pet Owly and her PJ Rider Eagle Owl have the same ability.
  • Skull Island (2023): The winds generated beneath the Hawk Monster's wings as it flies have flattened house-sized patches of the red grassfields.
  • Wakfu OVA: The Dragon of Air, Aeralfal, at one point flaps his four wings to summon a tornado to blow Sadlygrove away. Given that it's the Dragon with domain over wind and air, it's probably in his power to do so.