Power Floats

And absolute powe... oh, we used that joke already?

Chip: She can fly!?
Needy: She's only hovering. It's not that impressive.
Jennifer: Do you have to undermine everything I do?

— Jennifer's Body

One of the marks of incredible power is the ability to levitate in the air without any apparent means of doing so.

Floating is a favorite pastime for many different character types among many different genres. Witches, wizards, and psychic types can levitate or fly as a spell. Supernaturals of various stripes, like vampires, ghosts, angels, etc. also enjoy floating. Vampires in particular, like to use it in a Pivotal Wake-up. Heroes and villains (especially in video games) often learn to float and levitate after going into their Super Mode as their powerup gives them the ability to defy gravity. Even inanimate objects can get in on the action, as the Mineral MacGuffin, Cosmic Keystone, or any shiny object of power will often be found be floating over a pedestal draped in light.

Other examples are people who unexpectedly float in the air after eating, drinking, or breathing something (often the advertised product) that normally would not cause a person to become lighter than air. Usually they are surprised by their sudden weightlessness, but find it enjoyable.

Generally, this is seen as badass and dangerous (on par with Unstoppable Rage) because it's far less natural than outright flight. Even though the floating itself is usually harmless, it can really freak enemies out because it implies the floater is capable of much more powerful feats. In short that he is defying physics just enough to float because it's cool, but with more hurt hidden up their sleeves just waiting to come out.

Sub Tropes include Power Gives You Wings (where sufficiently powerful beings gain the ability to sprout wings as opposed to just floating on their own) and Magical Floating Shawl (a type of clothing associated with deities, sometimes manifesting around a character from thin air when they get serious).

Expect to see some Midair Bobbing. The most common stock pose associated with this is the Levitating Lotus Position, although the Standard Power-Up Pose can be seen as well. Contrast Ghostly Glide, when a form of this trope is used to unnerve. Compare Possession Levitation, which is also meant to be scary, but rather powerful than unnerving. See also Chunky Updraft, for power causing other things to float. And if the power of love causes it, it's Love Floats.

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Example subpages:

• Video Games

Other examples

Advertising

• Mother Dairy commercial called "Taste That Lifts You" shows people floating in the air when consuming the product.
• Upcider commercial Barfly shows people floating to the ceiling of a bar. Also in a laundromat and over an apple orchard.
• A1 Internet commercial "Glasfaser Power" shows a woman floating in the air.
• Coke Light commercial has Sarah Jessica Parker floating in the air due to the lightness of the drink.
• Lipton Green Tea & White Tea commercial shows three women sipping tea which makes them float in the air due to its "incredible light taste".
• Pizza Etang ad has a group of young people floating in the air while eating pizza.
• Eureka Vacuum ad shows a woman floating and pushing a vacuum that "sweeps you off your feet".
• Metamucil ad shows a woman floating above a beach.
• Oxfam commercial shows how to give people a lift.
• Carte Noire commercial shows a couple floating in an airport lounge.
• Singha Light beer is so light it makes people float in their commercial.

Anime & Manga

• Dragon Ball:
  • Flight first appeared in the original Dragon Ball with Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu, who are the first characters depicted using the technique in the series. Longtime fans of the Z portion can be caught off-guard when Roshi dismisses it as nonsense in the English dub. It's a big deal when it's revealed that Krillin and Goku are able to do it because it was such a rare skill at that point.
  • By Dragon Ball Z's portion of the story, flight is incredibly common among the cast; a majority of them, including Gohan, learn it off-screen, and by this point all of them are able to destroy whole mountains without much effort. And when someone brings out their Super Saiyan Battle Aura, it adds to the mix rising currents of Dramatic Wind and Chunky Updraft lifting stuff up around them as they leave the ground (not to mention their hair, one of its iconic features). As an added bonus, this sometimes happened not by having characters rise off the ground, but by having a small section of the ground blown out from under them with their Battle Aura. They simply couldn't be bothered to fall a measly four inches. All-in-all, Dragon Ball is closely associated with shots of a character debuting their newest, most powerful form while floating broodingly in the air.
• Played with in Ah! My Goddess. All the paranormal types can and do float on occasion; however most of these (e.g. Belldandy) aren't especially menacing.
• Grove from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. When the others need him to, he uses a super powerful spirit form that glows and floats as he attacks. It's quite deadly.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, it's expected that wizards are to fly using wands or brooms, but at the particularly high levels, anyone may float in the air without any assistance. (Konoka, Nagi and Fate; Evangeline didn't count, for being a vampire with assumed flight ability). It was even used as a secondary clue that Fate was a high-level opponent ("and, y'know, he's floating").
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, the forced transformations of Hayate and Vivio into their respective Superpowered Evil Sides were both preceded by their bodies floating in mid-air while surrounded with their overflowing magical energies. Not to mention that pretty much the entire cast list of A's seems to have no problem with standing in thin air. It's like gravity doesn't want to pick a fight with any of them.
• Bleach justifies the trope with characters' "spiritual power" and the "spirit particles" that permeate the world. Those with enough spiritual power to be notable fighters are also powerful enough to condense spirit particles into invisible platforms, effectively standing on air.
• Naruto:
  • There's plenty of Roof Hopping and Le Parkour, but no actual flight; muscular effort is always required. Then the Big Bad is shown hovering in midair above Konoha prior to unleashing his ultimate jutsu. Oh, Crap!.
  • Later, it seems like the Tsuchikage had the trope going on, but it turns out that he actually knows a technique that lets him and his subordinates fly.
• Unlike his reverb effect, Masami Eiri does not float in his first appearance in Serial Experiments Lain but does for most of the rest of the series.
• Natsume/Sabrina from Pokémon: The Series, more so in the anime than (her illustrations in) the games. Several Pokémon also do this, such as Mewtwo.
• Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Kyubey picks this up in Puella Magi Oriko Magica.
• One Piece:
  • Shiki, the Big Bad of the tenth movie, has this as a power. In addition to being able to float himself, he can make battleships or islands float... or just let them fall.
  • Doflamingo has an interesting variation: his powers allow him to create razor-sharp strings, but he uses them to keep himself afloat during serious fights.
• Lord Kuruku from Unico in the Island of Magic floats all the time.
• Present in all versions of Sailor Moon. In the 90s Anime, most villains seem to prefer floating mid-air, often in lounging poses, when observing, appearing or gloating. In the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, the Senshi often float and/or fly themselves.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • When Jotaro and Dio were comparing attack rushes, they eventually just floated off into the sky on pure stand power, shortly afterward gaining the ability to fly Superman-style through the streets of Cairo. This ability disappeared after the battle in question and was never mentioned again.
  • Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience Requiem allows him to levitate.
• In Jujutsu Kaisen, after being nearly killed by Toji Fushiguro and returning to continue the fight, Satoru Gojo masters his spatial manipulation powers and becomes overwhelmed by the "beauty of this world", and begins using his powers unconciously to suspend himself in the air as he grins madly. He's so powerful in this state that World's Strongest Man Toji even calls him a "monster", right before Gojo uses Hollow Purple to erase half of his body.
• My Hero Academia: One of the Quirks stolen by All For One was 'Air Walk', which allowed him to do this.
• This is the signature power of Yama Rikudo from Makaryuudo Demon Hunter.
• Tatsumaki from One-Punch Man floats everywhere due to her psychic power.
• In Release That Witch, the Witch Lightning has the power of flight. Because of this she is rarely if ever seen standing on the ground.
• Quinella from Sword Art Online spends the majority of her time casually floating in the air. This combined with her adornments and beautiful long hair gives her the feeling of a goddess or an extremely powerful being, fitting for the one that rules the human realm. To a lesser extent Cardinal also fits the bill, as she floats/glides rather than walking.
• Queen Millennia: Larela is the supreme ruler of La-Metal and floats around her palace with her legs not visible.

Arts

• The Planet Venus: The Goddess and putti are all balanced precariously on nothing but a sheet flapping in the air. The implication being that Venus' divine nature has transformed clouds into draperies for them to stand on.

Comic Books

• Batgirl: In the story The Attack of the Annihilator, the titular villain's body starts floating when exposure to alien energies causes his body to evolve into a mutated super-being.
• Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things: Invoked directly when villainous vampire taunts Uncle Aloysius with "can you fly?" before dropping him off a roof. Aloysius immediately swoops back up, replying, "Of course I can fly, you nincompoop. I'm a warlock."
• Doctor Strange'': Doctor Strange can hover unaided and likes to meditate in a Levitating Lotus Position. His Cloak of Levitation enables him to fly.
• Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja : In the surreal 1989-1990 Larry Hama comic, the Reality Warper Alphie O'Meagan floats off his bed the first time he truly activates his power, after having a conversation with his subconscious in the form of a giant animated face coming out of his ceiling.
• The Sandman (1989): Angels never touch the ground, with the exception of the fallen angel Lucifer of course. When Remiel is forced to take over Hell, after much pleading and whimpering, he is also forced to land.
• 'Shazam!'': Black Adam has a tendency to float a few inches above the ground. Such a frequent tendency that he apparently even does it when there's no particular need to be intimidating. Lampshaded when an ally asks him to stop doing it because of how disconcerting it is.
• Superman:
  • Superman does so once he suits up and readies for battle.
  • In War World all heroes—Superman, Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, The Spectre—levitate at some point.
  • During Kryptonite Nevermore, Superman hovers over the ocean while he tries to figure out how to stop a volcano while his powers are acting up.
  • Supergirl does it constantly when she is about to fight.
  • Their counterparts Bizarro and Bizarrogirl also are able to float and levitate.
• Teen Titans: Raven and Starfire often did this when accessing their powers or engaging in battle.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: The first sight of the mutated Norman Osbourne, in full control of his power, gave this ominous feel.
  • Ultimate Galactus Trilogy: Jean Grey levitates while she takes down the door bunker all by herself, thanks to her Phoenix power.
• Universal War One: The elite warriors of the most powerful faction float thanks to miniaturised anti-gravity devices.
• Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan does it.

• X-Men: Many powerful mutants are able to levitate, but usually there is a concrete reason besides sheer badassery.
  • Storm, for example, can control the weather (and therefore could do neat things with the air around her to hold her aloft).
  • Magneto's costume is (sometimes) made of metal, though it's explained when it's introduced (fun fact: neither Magneto nor Polaris could fly until Chris Claremont came along) that just as Polaris manipulated Earth's magnetic field to get rid of Krakoa, it can be used on a much smaller scale for single-person levitation.
  • However, there are many Big Bad class X-villains who are seen flying, even when the other powers they use don't suggest they should be able to.
• Young Avengers: While Wiccan is perfectly capable of flight, when casting spells he tends to start floating and glowing blue.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: Downplayed. When Rei is arguing with Kaworu, she taps her power subconsciously, and her clothes ruffle despite the lack of wind.
• Child of the Storm: After spending almost all the story as The Ghost, Magneto makes his first Dynamic Entry floating in mid-air.
• Children of an Elder God: After stealing the powers from the Elder Gods, Yui floats when she uses her power.
• Oversaturated World:
  • By the end of Oversaturation, it seems like anyone with enough magical oomph can treat gravity as more of a suggestion.
  • From Unfriendly Competition - Outer Demons:
    Applejack tilted her hat back. "How come every magic-crazed lunatic can float?"
• RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: Corona first appears using her powers to hover in mid-air without using her wings.
• Scoob and Shag: Number One is the most powerful character in the story and his obscene amounts of Ballyhoo power allows him to freely levitate himself — indeed, he spends most of his fight scenes standing in midair.
• Thousand Shinji: Shinji ends up using this. He used his telekinesis to float when he fought Kaworu, and during the Final Battle he and his Humongous Mecha were floating in the center of a storm of energy summoned by him.
• In Chapter 41 of The Awakening of a Magus'', Harry goes to the roof in order to enjoy the feeling of a storm around him... and begins to hover in the air without even realizing it.

Films — Animation

• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games:
  • The Humane Six when they transform, with Pinkie even describing it as "floaty".
  • At the end, Twilight Sparkle floats too as she unleashes the magic. Unlike the above, it's not a pleasant experience and she looks quite distressed.
  • And then Sunset Shimmer floats too at the start of her Transformation Sequence.
• Turning Red: When Meilin Lee's ancestor Sun Yee appears on the astral plane, her legs fade into nothing, and she floats well above the ground. Justified since she's a god-touched spirit, mother-saint of her family, and received the Red Panda Blessing directly from her gods.

Films — Live-Action

• In Lord of Illusions, the Evil Sorcerer Nix uses his powers to levitate and walk through the air several times, including standing on top of a near-bottomless chasm while holding one of his victims.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • This is part of Jean Grey's powers. Her telekinesis allows her to make any object float, including her own body.
  • Storm can fly through wind manipulation.
  • Magneto can fly by manipulating the Earth's magnetic field.
• In the short film Musik in der Luft (Music in the Air), the power of the classical music played by The Philharmonics enables many people to float in the air around Vienna, Austria.
• In the film Der Var Engang En Dreng (Skymaster, A Flying Family Fairytale), the mother, played by Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis, floats in the air while singing "Jeg Vil Have en Baby".
• In the film The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, a group of beauty pageant contestants float toward the ceiling when their breasts are enlarged by a "unique gaseous substance".
• In the short film This Guy Is Falling, gravity is deactivated by the push of a button on a car dashboard, causing many people to float in the air.
• The Jiuxian Witch from The Devil's Mirror spends most of her screentime floating all over the place, thanks to her high levels of inner qi.
• In the short film Helium Man, a young man floats in the air after breathing helium.
• Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China does this when transformed from an ancient old man to a relatively spritely (if incorporeal} version of himself.
• A saintly power in Jasminum, but the saint needs to concentrate on himself very hard to do this, which might be Irony.
• In Mary Poppins, Uncle Albert, then Bert, then the children, float to the ceiling and have a tea party in mid air due to being filled with Laughing Gas. Mary joins them in the air, without laughing, using her own ability to fly. Also see Contagious Laughter.
• The title character does this in Carrie (2013), flying out of the gymnasium as it burns down around her in order to avoid stepping in the electrified water the floor was covered in.
• Jennifer's Body: Jennifer is revealed as able to levitate post-possession. Later we're shown that Needy also can.
• The Witches (2020): Unlike in the original book, the Grand High Witch, ruler of the malevolent Mage Species, takes to the air and floats around for dramatic effect while orating.

Literature

• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, drifting eerily up into the air is the first sign that a student has touched a seriously cursed Artifact of Death. And then the screaming starts.
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows we learn that Voldemort has invented a way to fly without a Flying Broomstick or other aid, a feat previously thought impossible.
• In Stephen King's The Stand, Randall Flagg likes to spend his downtime hovering and meditating on his own awesomeness. The first sign of his Villainous Breakdown which begins after Nadine kills herself and his unborn child is that he can only hover a few inches, and not for very long at that.
• Just before the final fight in Thief of Time, Newgate/Jeremy floats gently, while glowing. He's learned Rule One — "Never act incautiously when facing a small wrinkly bald smiling old man!" Still doesn't go too well for him.
• Ravenor. Stephen Hawking plus psychic powers in a floating wheelchair.
• It's a relatively simple matter for a mage in The Black Magician Trilogy to levitate around, although Dannyl lampshades the trope by poking gentle fun at colleagues who can't be bothered to walk up staircases normally.
• In Super Powereds and the Corpies spin-off, several Supers are able to levitate by using their powers. For example,
  • Gale flies by manipulating the air around her.
  • Aether floats by becoming incorporeal.
  • Violet floats by lowering her density to that of lower than air.
  • Mary and Globe can't levitate themselves but they can ride an object they're lifting telekinetically.
  • Alice flies by subconsciously manipulating gravity. This is something she learns later, as she'd always assumed that flying was her power.
• Chronicles of the Kencyrath: Jame has been captured by Lord Caineron who makes his intentions obvious. He's trying to soften her up with wine when she accuses him of trying to drug her, so Caineron drinks from her cup to prove otherwise. Turns out she's already slipped some Power Crystals into the wine, which Caineron discovers when he starts to hiccup and float in the air. It takes him a long time to stop floating, and it doesn't help that he's afraid of heights.
• The Vampire Chronicles: Very old vampires gain the power to levitate and, eventually, to fly at tremendous speeds. Lestat gets it, along with other Ancient powers, prematurely by drinking the first vampire's blood.
• The Courtship of Princess Leia: Luke levitates down to the ground at one point, awing Isolder.
• Gentleman Bastard: Discussed when Locke asks a powerful Bondsmage whether she can levitate, only for her to brush it off as a parlour trick not worth her energy.

Live-Action TV

• Angel. In "Birthday", Cordelia has to become part-demon to handle her visions. She wakes up and is delighted to discover she doesn't have horns and a tail. She then has a vision, which she casually describes without any of the usual pain and passing out. Our heroes all gape in amazement...because Cordelia is floating in mid-air.
• In Black Lightning, when Jennifer's electrical powers start manifesting, her sister finds her floating above her bed. Eventually, she learns to float consciously and even fly when necessary.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Willow during her attempt to take revenge on Glory and later on when she seeks vengeance against Warren.
  • The Gentlemen in "Hush" hover and glide a few inches off the floor, considerably upping their creep factor.
• One of Phoebe's main powers in Charmed is levitation, and she uses it to kick asses to great effect. Whitelighters (including hybrids like Paige), some Demons and a few other magical creatures have similar powers too.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "Dalek", the Dalek does this to overcome a flight of stairs, after the people it was pursuing assumed it couldn't climb stairs and stopped to gloat at their good fortune.
  • "Last of the Time Lords": The Doctor, while temporarily empowered by the thoughts of all the humans on Earth, floats and glows blue.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): According to Louis de Pointe du Lac, it's mostly the oldest vampires who develop the cloud gift, which include Lestat de Lioncourt and Armand. In behind-the-scenes footage from Season 2, a blond vampire who resembles Santiago flies over a street in the 1940s. The following exchange is from "Like Angels Put in Hell by God".
  Daniel Molloy: [Lestat] could fly?
  Louis: Yes.
  Daniel: Like Superman?
  Louis: Not like Superman. Superman is a fictional character.
  Daniel: But in the air, with a "fuck you to Newtonian physics" flying?
  Louis: He said it was more like floating, arising at will, propelling in a direction by the decision. He called it "the cloud gift."
  Daniel: (to Dr. Bhansali) Hey Doc, did you know there's a flying vampire apocalypse coming your way?
  Louis: Most vampires do not possess the cloud gift. With a few exceptions, only the most ancient of us have it.
• Garth Marenghis Darkplace: Liz Asher, at the height of her anger-induced telekinetic tantrum, is seen floating near the ceiling. That means Rick Dagless was able to see up her skirt, and when he tells her to 'hide her shame' cause her legs were spread apart, she pelts him with a fire extinguisher.
• In the Brazilian TV Series Os Mutantes, several characters (mainly Tatiana and Chris) have the power to make people (or themselves) float in the air. Tatiana's power usually involves strangulation as well.
• In the season 2 finale of Stranger Things, as El is expending maximum psychic effort to contain the Big Bad she begins to float off the ground.
  • In Season 4, Vecna makes his victims float in the air as the beginning stage of his kills, which has the added bonus for him of putting them out of reach of any potential helpers. The most notable example is twice with Max, the first time forming an iconic image for the show in the "Dear Billy" episode.
• The opening credits for Teen Wolf in season three show Scott hovering, apparently intentionally invoking this trope to clue the audience in on his growing power as a werewolf. Specifically, his transformation into a "true Alpha."

Music

• Nautilus Pompilius: In the song "Air", a man got that power because he believed in himself.

Myths & Religion

• Older Than Print: Christian folklore holds it that angels constantly float, even when not actually flying, as their feet are never to touch base earth. Reportedly many saints levitated or outright flew, so much that it has its own article on The Other Wiki. St. Joseph of Cupertino is the most well-known. In Buddhism, people who have achieved enlightenment are believed to become capable of this, along with other things, and they too have many stories about it.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The C'Tan like to slowly float over the battlefield as they kill everything in sight, though this is largely because they consider the laws of physics to be optional. Similarly, the enormously psychic Tyranid organisms known as Zoanthropes float to get around, since their brains are superdeveloped at the expense of the rest of their body — their tiny, atrophied legs can't possibly support them. Going by how the models' brains are clearly visible, neither can the rest of their bodies...
  • Dark Eldar Haemonculi go in for this in a big way too, though in their case they have to rely on high-tech suspensor crystals to do the job. They find it a fitting tribute to their own monstrous egos that they don't have to walk like their inferiors. The Scourge (Dark Eldar sugically modifiedd to have flight-capable wings) similarly claim "the ground does not deserve to touch my feet".
  • Psykers in Dark Heresy et al. can — depending on the circumstances — subvert, invert, or play this trope straight; either intentionally through power use, or accidentally through the Psychic Phenomena and Perils of the Warp tables (in particular, the Falling Upwards result constitutes a very nasty inversion, to say nothing for The Surly Bonds Of Earth)
• In Warhammer, the Slann are huge frog-like creatures, lords of the Lizardmen and some of the most powerful wizards in the world. They get around by sitting on rock thrones that hover a few metres above the ground. It is left unclear as to whether this hovering comes from lost technology or their magical powers.
  • Many other wizards also get in on the act. A good number of wizard miniatures exist that are sculpted to appear as if they float above the ground, particularly among the Elves.
  • Chaos Lord Sigvald The Magnificent, The Beloved Son of Slaanesh, was granted this power by his patron god, so that he wouldn't have to profane himself with touching the ground.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The Elocater Prestige Class's 1st class ability, "scorn earth," causes you to float a foot off the ground at all times. The ability's description implies that you're so powerful, you've just decided to ignore the ground entirely. In fact it lets you float as high as you like, but at more than 1 foot above the nearest flat surface they lose a lot of speed and stability. Still, nothing is stopping you from floating up to the tower's topmost window and gliding through.
  • Forgotten Realms has this included in most cases of Power High. The old Mystrylan ceremony of Starflight did this separately... but was often combined with Magefire cleansing ritual into one long Power High trip.
  • Justified in gameplay: when magical flight becomes readily available at the early mid-levels, marking a threshold where Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards comes in full force, Squishy Wizards and other varieties of Glass Cannon have no business on the ground.
• Referenced in Pathfinder's Golarion setting with the Magocracy of Nex: buildings like the Spire of Nex have no staircases, on the basis that people who can't even cast a simple Fly spell have no business being there in the first place.
• The Ashura of Legend of the Five Rings appear to be samurai with moth wings that float above the ground. Although they are powerful, they aren't deliberately floating — they are so utterly corrupt that the earth itself repels them.
• The Iron Kingdoms has Harbringer of Menoth, who acts as the god's personal direct vessel for action in the world, is so pumped full of divine power that she is too holy to touch the ground. Sadly for her, said power cannot quite steer , so she is guided around the battlefield by a group of men who keep her tethered with sanctified chains.

Theatre

• In Wicked, when Elphaba realizes she shouldn't be afraid of the Wizard, but he should be afraid of her, she sings "Defying Gravity." When the guards storm the attic and seize Glinda, Elphaba shouts that they should release Glinda, because she's not the one they want, it's her (Elphaba). At this moment, Elphaba levitates FOUR STORIES ABOVE THE STAGE and sings:
  So if you care to find me, look to the western sky!
  As someone told me lately, "everyone deserves the chance to fly!"
  And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free. To those who'd ground me, take a message back from me...
  Tell them how I am DEFYING GRAVITY!
  I'm flying high — defying gravity, and soon I'll match them in renown.
  And nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is or was is
  EVER GOING TO BRING ME DOWN!
  BRING! ME! DOWN! DOWN!

Toys

• BIONICLE: When Brutaka fell into the Antidermis pool and soaked up the spirits of the unborn Makuta, he gained instant powers and super-knowledge. For the remainder of the story, he floated.

Web Animation

• Used by Amber, the Fall Maiden, in RWBY, once she is given reason to fully unleash her powers, throwing down her attacks from well above head level.
  • Once Cinder gets the powers herself, she starts doing it too, though not always as high up, so it seems to be something inherent in the Maiden powers.

Webcomics

• In Sluggy Freelance, Gwynn tends to float and glow when she starts really channeling her witchy powers.
• The Way of the Metagamer. The Colour Drops all float, as do spellcasters when preparing spells.
• Magick Chicks has a scene where Melissa requests power from Genius Loci and receives a wand. After touching it, she is found unconscious, floating in midair inside a hamster-ball of force and whirl of sparkles. When the girl who fought her approached, she gets encased in another floating hamsterball.
• In El Goonish Shive, Grace can float when in her Omega form. This is justified as she floats using telekinesis and so far only in that form does she have enough power to levitate herself.
• In anti-HEROES, Quentas the Psion is always floating above the ground, never bothering to walk.
• Our Little Adventure: Angelo Souballo, one half of the Big Bad Duumvirate and arguably the world's most powerful spellcaster, usually floats a few feet off the ground, even when preening at the bathroom mirror. What sets him apart from the spellcasters who use flight magic for tactical purposes is that, somehow, he doesn't need a spell to do it.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • The high-level wizard Vaarsuvius usually uses magical flight to get around. Justified since the spell in question lasts all day and is very tactically useful.
  • The Big Bad Sorcerous Overlord Xykon also uses magical flight as a matter of course. Best exemplified when he single-handedly storms a fortress and when his flight path takes him through a castle wall without slowing down.
• Girl Genius: When Agatha drinks from the Dyne, the power causes her to float and gain glowing eyes. To hear Higgs tell it, she's lucky she didn't explode.
• She Dwarf: The enigmatic elf Drift is shown first as a No-Nonsense Nemesis with devastating magic powers and then as a Worthy Opponent willing to listen to reason. Then she soars off into the air.
  Hack: And, she flies. Of course she flies.

Web Original

• In Phaeton this happens when Trayen hyperenergises, its stated that the sheer force of approaching elements lifts him off the ground, considering he is acrophobic he is very uncomfortable about this.
• Parodied in Kickassia. The Nostalgia Critic tries to intimidate Doctor Insano with his clearly superior power by invoking this trope. Except...
  Dr. Insano: You do realize you're just standing on your tippy-toes, don't you?
• How to Hero insists that simply floating in the air is one of the most powerful looks a superhero can have.
• Critical Role: The Archmage Essek Thelyss commonly hovers just off the ground in an All-Encompassing Mantle. After he and the main characters become friends, he admits that he developed the trick to impress people in his Child Prodigy days and that people have come to expect it of him. In private with them, he walks.
• Fire Emblem on Forums: Many magic-wielding classes have Levitation as a special skill, allowing them to ignore terrain penalties while levitating. Mounted magic-wielding classes have Walking on Air instead, which only allows them to ignore terrain penalties while dismounted.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Aang floats, makes his voice echo, and glows, although the tendency to float seems tied to using the Avatar State as Unstoppable Rage rather than Super Mode.
  • Downplayed by Aang's Simple, yet Awesome airbending trick of balancing on a ball of air to hover or zip around, which cemented his Innocent Prodigy status and got him declared an Airbending Master at age ten. He developed it to goof off at the Air Temple, but during the show's run he made great use of its tactical applications.
  • Power Floats is also an extremely rare Airbending technique, supposedly achieved by a man named Guru Laghima. The Legend of Korra Book 3 Big Bad Zaheer has seeking the secret to this trick as one of his primary objectives, and he succeeds when his beloved P'Li is killed in the second to last episode of the book, severing any and all earthly desires he has.
• Danny Phantom: All ghosts can float as it is part of their ability to fly (they also come with a glowing aura too). This is due to the fact that gravity does not affect them the same way it does humans, animals, etc.
• Ron floats and glows when he taps into his inner monkey in the real Kim Possible finale.
• The Venture Bros. has wizard Dr. Orpheus, who often levitates for no reason at all.
• W.I.T.C.H.: The Heart of Kandrakar is often seen floating, usually above (or between) Will's hand(s). It's also got the glowing effect down pat.
• The villain of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, Lady Kale, once managed to take over most of the magic in Avalon and rule the kingdom. When the Jewel Riders broke into the Crystal Palace, they found her at Queen Anya's throne — or more specifically, "sitting" on it by floating high above.
• The Rooster Talisman in Jackie Chan Adventures grants the user levitation and telekinesis. Anyone using it ends up floating pretty much constantly. Other characters also invoke the trope on occasion too, such as Tso Lan the Moon Demon Sorcerer and Drago in the series finale after he acquires all of the Demon Chi powers.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Twilight Sparkle and her friends hover above the ground whenever they harness the Elements of Harmony, and in the Season 4 finale, the Rainbow Power, which also gives the non-winged Mane Six members full flight ability.
• Dawn is shown to levitate as seen in the first episode of Total Drama Revenge Of The Island, which also scares Mike.
• Star Butterfly in the season 2 premier of Star vs. the Forces of Evil has to "dip down" and use magic on her own, without the help of a Magic Wand. In addition to creating a blue aura and causing her eyes and hearts to glow bright blue, this results in her levitating about 20 feet in the air.
• Marceline of Adventure Time rarely walks a good majority of the time, pretty much floating everywhere. At first it's thought to be a part of her vampric powers and it is, in a sense. As the mini-series, "Stakes", shows, she got it from the first vampire leader she killed and inadvertently sucked up his essence due to her demon powers. After which she was granted flight, so when the essence escaped and reformed into said leader, she lost the power till she killed him again.
• Steven Universe During the events of "Change Your Mind", Pink Steven appears to walk on air, demonstrating that as the pure Gem side of Steven and Pink Diamond, he's incredibly powerful.
• In the Teen Titans (2003) episode "Switched," when Raven and Starfire are in a "Freaky Friday" Flip, they learn that their abilities to control flight are diametrically opposed - Raven's flight will be chaotic or worse if her emotions aren't rigorously controlled, while Starfire and other Tamaranians can fly simply by feeling "the unbridled joy of flight." Naturally, they both have a bad time with this until they learn more about each other's powers.
• Lavanade from Kaeloo, who possesses a range of supernatural powers, is typically shown floating around rather than walking.

Real Life

• According to the French wolves specialist Gérard Ménatory, the bipedal position of humans is, in the eyes of the wolves, the equivalent of this trope and the reason why they are scared by us and never stay close to big human settlements: "Since this animal can casually stand, walk, and run with only two paws, they must be insanely strong and we better not mess with them" was what he claimed to be the basic reasoning of wolves. Considering the man spent most of his life living with wolves and could literally summon wolf packs by howling he certainly knew what he was talking about. (Maybe it's because the only other thing that can stand on two legs in a wolf's natural habitat is a bear.)
  • However, it's all a matter of image since, according to the same man, an unarmed man has absolutely no chance to prevail in a fight against an adult wolf, especially if said wolf is a female with cubs. Though some combat martial arts taught to special forces and commandos include techniques for use against guard dogs; these ones are useful against wolves, too.
• Alligator tend to be afraid of humans too, at least on land, since their low-set eyes mean that all they see are a pair of huge legs. But they will attack if bothered, and if humans feed them, then they lose their fear, which is why it's illegal to feed wild 'gators in South Carolina and Florida (but not Louisiana for some reason).

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