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"Vampires like it windy." - J.D., Scrubs
Sailor Venus: Do you see this? Do you see this wind? This is Revlon Wind, OK? It makes me look even hotter than usual.
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.
Or in space.
Subtrope of Empathic Environment.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
Film
- In the Hindi movie Kabhi Khushi, 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 like 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.
- When Elizabeth falls in the water in The Curse Of The Black Pearl, there is a dramatic change in wind direction, apparently triggered by the pulse the medallion sent out.
- Used many times in The Lord Of The Rings. For example, when Saruman is casting a weather spell from atop Orthanc, his wizard robes billow around him dramatically.
- Although it may be because of altitude. Wind gets faster the higher up you go, and if you're standing on top of a bloody huge tower you're gonna get hit with a Dramatic Wind.
- In Face/Off some wind blows just in time to blow Castor Troy's Badass Longcoat as he exits his vehicle in dramatic fashion. This is the scene that introduces his character in the flesh (not counting a flashback sequence).
- In Final Destination, whenever Death is around an ominous wind blows, even indoors.
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.
- Pratchett also did something similar in his pre-Discworld novel Strata. A character's cape is mentioned as having small electrical charges pulsed through it every few seconds, keeping it in a state of permanent dramatic flutter.
- Susan gets Dramatic Wind in Thief of Time, when using her Death voice to get Lobsang's attention. Of course, being who she is, she can alter reality to suit herself.
- 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.
- Parodied in the third Artemis Fowl, The Eternity Code. As Artemis and crew arrive in Chicago John Spiro's coat blows dramatically in the downdraft. The narrator remarks that "it was all very cinematic."
Tabletop Games
- 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.
- DND also has a Weapon of Legacy called the Desert Wind. When the wielder grasps the hilt, it summons a gust of warm, dry Dramatic Wind for him and him alone.
- 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.
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.
- Certain powers in ''City Of Heroes" actually generate their own wind, like "Hover." Most easily seen if you are in an outdoor leafy area, standing in a sea of shell casings from machine gun fire, or if someone around you has thrown the rose-petal emote from the Wedding Pack. Your hovering actually causes the debris to float up and away from you like it was caught in an updraft.
- 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.
- Sakura also does this, but she's wearing a skirt. The result is inevitable.
- 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.
- He does that a lot. The only thing stopping him in the original game was the fact that his cape was as stiff as a board.
- 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.
- Squall's, too. Just take a look at some of the FM Vs.
- Possibly justified by the fact that the hairstyles on both of them are longer and neither pinned up like Quistis' or hairsprayed to death like Selphie's, and therefore much more noticeable while in motion. Same goes for their clothes, which appear lighter, more flowing and less fitted.
- Ike summons up a little dramatic wind to flutter his cape when he taunts in Super Smash Bros. 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.
- This includes standing underwater.
- 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.
- Tower Tycoon Palmer's new animated sprite
 ◊ in Pokemon Platinum.
- As well as Pryce's◊ in HeartGold and SoulSilver
- Illustrated and parodied at the end of the trailer for the new Ace Attorney game (starring Edgeworth).
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has a lot of this, since its theme involves the wind anyway. In particular, Ganondorf sheds his typical armor for a kimono-like outfit with enormous sleeves that flap dramatically in the wind.
- The developers openly admitted that their main reason for setting The Wind Waker on an ocean, involving sailing, was, that they wanted to show of the Dramatic Wind-capabilities of the Game Cube.
- Vaati from The Minish Cap always has some wind blowing around him, no matter what, even indoors. Maybe justified, since he calls himself the "Wind Mage".
- Every time someone summons his or her Persona, the animation is always accompanied by a dramatic breeze.
- Main character Hotsuma of the 2002 game Shinobi sports a red scarf that is easily twice as long as his body which flows behind him in perfect dramatic wind style.
- An example from Castlevania: In both the games he's featured in, Soma Cruz's trench-coat never stops billowing in the wind, no matter how still he's standing or where he is.
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.
- Another of Strong Bad's personas, First Lieuteneral Space Captainface, also gets a nice breeze whenever he appears. When appearing in person as Space Captainface, Strong Bad goes so far as to bring a fan with him, as seen in Career Day.
- Sailor Venus of, like, Sailor Moon Abridged has "Revlon Wind", which, like, makes her look so totally hot, okay!
Webcomics
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.
- Disney's Pocahontas. And how.
- Plucky Duck parodies it in "The Return of the Toxic Revenger", where he does his dramatic intro, notices a lack of this trope and goes offscreen to turn on a giant fan. Him being an expy of Daffy Duck, of course it switches itself to maximum power and blows him away.
- Parodied in an eppisode of Danny Phantom Where Danny is split into his "superhero" side and his "normal teen" side. The superhero side constantly has his hair and bedsheet cape blowing in a nonexistant wind.
- Lightly parodied in Undergrads: when the hero's love interest shows up, there is a light breeze playing with her hair. They are indoors.
- Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs has Flint's labcoat billowing towards the beginning of the movie. The commentary reveals that the idea was that Flint has a fan offscreen to make his life seem more dramatic.
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.
- The funeral service for Pope John Paul II.
- With the notable lack of wind, dramatic or otherwise, on the moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts had a crossbar in the flag to keep it out.
Fanfiction
- In Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers fanfiction "Under The Bridge", Byronic Hero Widget waited to go on deck until the (surfaced) submarine was going the right velocity to cause her cape to flap in the wind.
- Parodied in Neon Toppa EVA Lagann, where after a hospital-gown clad Kamina makes an absurd speech, "The wind from the open window suddenly picked up, blowing the hem of his hospital gown dramatically. Unfortunately the garment was then blown upward, revealing…well…the reason why his backside was feeling drafty, and making several spectators feel terribly inadequate."
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