This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Batman Can Breathe In Space!: From YKTTW
Nate The Great: Okay, are these really examples of characters who can "breathe" in space? There are many characters that just plain don't need oxygen, or else carry along their own air a la Iron Man. Second question: by "breathe" are we implying characters who can talk in space without mechanical or psychic transmission?
Prfnoff: Any objections to renaming this to Can Breathe In Space? Sure, the current trope name is a Memetic Mutation, but not a literal quote and it's needlessly Batman-specific.
Trouser Wearing Barbarian: Objection! Can Breathe In Space isn't funny.
Seven Seals: These examples seem really weak, so I'm pulling them out. Thor is a god. Apollo doesn't breathe, he holds his breath (just like Modern Age Superman). Sailor Moon: as pointed out, they're magical. What "mutated respiratory systems"? It's magic, man. Mutated respiratory systems wouldn't allow you to breathe in space either.
- Marvel Comics' Thor. He can literally go weeks without breathing if the situation requires it, so he's good to go in any space situation
- Of course, Thor IS a god, so it's hard to say whether or not he even really needs to breathe in the first place.
- The Authority's Apollo survives in space by not breathing.
- Sailor Moon. Yes, they're from space, and they're Magical Girls, but that's no excuse for such impossibly mutated respiratory systems not causing any problems during yearly school medical exams.
J: I removed the Chars Counter Attack example, because this trope doesn't really apply as far as I can tell.
Sotanaht The majority of this trope goes with Required Secondary Powers. Anyone who can enter space on their own (super)power requires the ability to survive theere for it to make sense on any level. I am looking for a way to mention that, but can't figure out where to fit it.
Caswin: When did Batman break into the Watchtower without a shuttle or teleporter?
Trigger Loaded: Pulled this, simply because Xen isn't space. It's floating islands in an astral-like void. Since all the creatures you fight don't have spacesuits either, and there are even plants growing on the bigger islands, it clearly isn't space, and has air. The reason for the helmets was probably because they didn't know the air was safe to breathe at first. As well as general safety.
- In Half-Life, you eventually go to Xen, an alien world in deep space. You have no helmet, but can still breathe, and you also see corpses of other explorers with HEV suits, but WITH their helmets!
- The wildly dodgy physics in some of the following examples, with a universal up and down, objects "falling", air and even wind in space appears to derive from Leiji Matsumoto's 1970s space opera anime such as Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999. Lampshaded in the latter series when Tetsuro is baffled to hear the sound of distant church bells as the 999 approaches a planet. Maetel explains that its inhabitants are so arrogantly pious that they assembled a vast array of gravitational wave emitters on the surface, which broadcast an intense graviton carrier wave precisely modulated to induce a resonant vibration in the bulkheads of passing spacecraft which replicates with perfect fidelity the sound of distant church bells. Impressed, Tetsuro rolls down the window and sticks his head out to get a better look.
Mike Rosoft: Moved from main article (user-created content in Hotel iWin):
- Here's my "real life" subversion of this trope. http://www.iwin.com/hotel/?room=007ofnine If the link works right, use the 'elevator' button to go to the 6th floor, titled "First Contact".
Beacon80: Removed the Vulture from the Starcraft example. While the Vultures are bikes, to a degree, the rider is in a cockpit shielding him from the elements (or lack thereof).
