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"Vampires like it windy." - J.D., Scrubs
Before any fight begins or important truth is revealed, or if the character is simply standing and looking noble, a wind will invariably blow, ruffling his hair, the grass at his feet, and/or his cape if he's wearing one.
Even if he's indoors.
Examples:
Anime
Western Animation
- Overdone in the ninja-themed Shuriken School.
- Used occasionally in King of the Hill- whenever John Redcorn shares a Native American saying or story, it is accompanied by a breeze that moves through his hair.
- Parodied in an episode of Freakazoid - at one point, The Lobe was standing indoors making a rant with full dramatic wind. The camera then zoomed out to show a fan specially set up to achieve this effect.
- Robin and Raven of Teen Titans have their moments with this—justified as they're the only two members with a cape and cloak. Most notably was at the end of "The End" arc, which is a double-whammy: After saving both the world and Raven from the apocalypse, the two of them stand atop the tower in the morning sun, and have a heartwarming and goddamn inspirational conversation as the wind blows:
Raven: How do you do it, Robin?
Robin: Do what?
Raven: Keep hoping. After everything that happened, everything I did, how did you still manage to hope it could all work out?
Robin: Because of you. You don't realize it, Raven, but you're actually the most hopeful person I've ever met. From the day you were born, they said you were evil—that you were created to do unspeakable things. But you wished for more. You dared to hope that you could be a hero.
Raven: I thought it was all over. And now... suddenly...
Robin: You have your whole life ahead of you. You can decide your own destiny.
Video Games
- ProtoMan from the Mega Man series of games is a repeat offender. His long scarf would rustle in the wind even if he was standing inside a building with no visible means of ventilation. The effect was done mostly to make him look cooler then he already was.
- This was noted in the Mega Man parody webcomic Bob And George, in which the titular Bob (a Protoman recolor) asks Protoman how their scarves blow around when there's no wind. Protoman replies, "We're just that cool."
- The MMORPG City Of Heroes is filled to the brim with examples. Once a character has a cape, it is always blowing in his or her very own personal wind whenever they are standing still - get five caped heroes together and each one's cape blows in a different direction.
- Ryu's famous Victory Pose in the Street Fighter series shows him crossing his arms and disdainfully turning his back on his defeated foe. As he does so, the wind blows his headband and hair around, regardless of location.
- Solid Snake's notorious bandanna started off as an homage to Eighties Action Heroes, but evolved into a device to billow dramatically at convenient moments. The script for the second game even specifies this - "his bandanna streams behind him, even though there is no wind." (This was arguably done to add a sense of unreality to the moment, which was right in the middle of a build-up to a Gainax Ending...)
- Extremely important in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where Vincent Valentine's main thing is to stand around looking grim, explain things in a gravelly voice and have his cape blow dramatically.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, wind apparently follows Rinoa and Irvine, but only Rinoa and Irvine, wherever they go. Why their hair and clothing are liable to flapping dramatically in the breeze, but not, say, Squall or Quistis's, is never addressed or explained.
- Ike summons up a little dramatic wind to flutter his cape when he taunts in Brawl.
- In Brawl's adventure mode, Captain Falcon's dramatic entrance consists of destroying a giant robot as well as most of Olimar's Pikmin as he lands. The awkward silence that follows is punctuated by leaves blowing gently by.
- In Tales of the Abyss when Luke cuts his hair he lets a clump of it go and wind blows it away. It is extremely odd considering that they are inside a building, under the crust of the planet.
- Wielding a two-handed sword and a cape in Runescape causes this even if you are in a dimension without air.
- And who could forget the battle atop Riovanes Roof (starring Rafa the Idiot) in Final Fantasy Tactics when Elmdor's cape flaps in the wind for no apparent reason, just because he's got one of those Zodiac Stones that are all the rave.
Literature
- Parodied in Terry Pratchett's Discworld book A Hat Full of Sky, where a young witch purchases an expensive cloak designed to blow and flutter dramatically in even the lightest of breezes.
- Also parodied in Life, The Universe and Everything, the third Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy novel. Ford Prefect makes a portentous announcement: "He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off."
- Averted, unfortunately, for poor Schmendrick the Magician in The Last Unicorn. He has no convenient wind to billow his cloak, so he has to swirl it around manually to get the desired effect.
Webcomics
Web Animation
- Parodied on the web cartoon Homestar Runner; Strong Bad's alter ego Stinko Man is an anime/Mega Man-styled character with blue hair that is always blowing in a nonexistent wind.
Film
- In the Hindi soap opera Kabhi Kushi, Kabhi Gham, houses are incredibly drafty: even a small apartment seems to have high-powered fans running constantly off screen. And once the music numbers start, every conceivable thing (hair, clothes, paper, curtains, etc.) begins roiling a poorly-built suspension bridge. Fortunately, the look is too awesome to annoy the audience.
- In The Mummy, nearly every important discovery about Imhotep is accompanied by an omnious gust of wind. This is later given a lampshade when, just before the book that will release Imhotep upon the world is opened, a gust of wind blows - and one of the characters, unsettled, remarks that it does that a lot around there.
- Batman in most incarnations has a cape solely for Dramatic Wind and also to provide an intimidating shadow. In the Dark Knight Trilogy they changed that by making the cape into a firm glider to prevent hard landings. So now the Dramatic Wind is just an added bonus.
Real Life
- During the Hong Kong handover ceremony and the 2008 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, China had powerful fans blowing on their flag(s) to ensure that they flapped straight out with pride.
Tabletop RPG
- Dungeons And Dragons has a magical item called the Cloak of Billowing, whose sole property is that, yes, it billows ominously in a nonexistent wind.
- Parodied (of course) in Paranoia, where antagonist Botman employs strategically placed fans (not to mention an entire special effects crew) in an attempt to look impressive.
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