Rollerblade Good - Television Tropes & Idioms

Despite how badass motorcycles are, sometimes they're just not quite right for the situation. For one, they're large, you need to stay fully on them, it's hard to fight hand-to-hand and they can't maneuver well in tight spaces. So for some, rollerskates are better.

A person using this is very often a kid or has a childish personality, and are also often a Fragile Speedster. Also very often shows that the person is a Badass. If they're in an especially big hurry they can even add rockets for a little extra boost.

This trope frequently occurs in Humongous Mecha. Logically, they are there to make it easier & faster for the mecha to move around, but also to appease lazy animators. The wheels will either be on the feet, or the feet will transform to reveal wheels. Caterpillar tracks are common substitutes for wheels. Spider tanks under 4 meters (roughly 12.5 feet) tall will normally feature wheels on the bottom of their feet.

Not to be confused with Wheel O Feet.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Subaru, Ginga and Quint in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha all use skates with magical rocket boosters on them to get around. They also serve as Empathic Weapons. However, they are more Lightning Bruiser than Fragile Speedster.
The mecha in Code Geass seem to use this as their primary means of locomotion, excluding flying.
- As do the ones in Eureka Seven. However, since they spend the vast majority of their time in the air, it's rarely seen.
- The mecha in Armored Trooper VOTOMS also seem to use this extensively.
Sakura in Card Captor Sakura skates to school every day and uses them in battle on occasion, with one particularly impressive example when fighting The Fly.
~~Elzam V. Branstein~~ Ratsel Feinschmecker's Aussenseiter of Super Robot Wars is a Super Robot with large wheels attached to it's feet that allow it to skate along the ground to make fast attacks.
But of course, the first skating Humongous Mecha is the MS-09 Dom from Mobile Suit Gundam, which uses jets built into its legs to skate along the ground instead of running.
This is taken to an extreme in Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars, in which just about every mecha not capable of atmospheric flight can instead hover-skate over not only the ground, but the water as well.
Jango, the Humongous Mecha from Bakuretsu Tenshi, has rollerskates and a jet engine. Actually has a function, as they're meant for speeding through Tokyo's highways.
In the first episode of Kaleido Star, Sora Naegino catches a pair of loaner rollerblades to chase after a luggage thief, going awning-hopping to finally track him down.
Air Gear uses this liberally with the ATs, which actually fly.
Lil Slugger of Paranoia Agent wear rollerblades, though he isn't as good as he is utterly terrifying.
The Alien Party in Alien Nine chases extra-terrestrials around their elementary school on in-line skates. Armed with butterfly nets. And symbiotic aliens as helmets.
Suzuna from Eyeshield21 loves to wearing these, even when cheerleading. Her ice-skating skills are also top-notch, too.
Genki in the anime version of Monster Rancher uses them very often in battle.
The titular machines from Rideback are normally bikes that can transform into small-sized mecha with the bike wheels instead of feet, allowing their pilots to cover both Badass Biker and Rollerblade Good depending on situation.
Minamo from Real Drive has shoes that sprout rollerblades at opportune moments.
After her season 2 power up, Amulet Heart has a pair of rollerblades. Which can fly.
Trigun brings us Rei-Kei The Blade, a samurai who uses DangerousForbiddenTechniques with his katana against gunslingers. To compensate for his reduced effective range, he wears rocket-powered roller blades. Somehow, Vash manages to keep a straight face while fighting him.

Comic Books

In her early appearances, Jubilee was a mall rat who got around on rollerblades.
- Professor X was taught to rollerblade by Jubilee (his legs happened to be working that evening). Then she led him into the lake.
Whenever Iron Man needs to get around fast and flying is not an option, some of his armor suit boots have roller skate wheels that pop out for some speedy ground transportation.
In the Sin City graphic novel Family Values, Miho rollerblades her way through the Basin City mafia, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.
Several Marvel characters, such as Speedfreek and Blue Streak, use jet-propelled skates. Rocket Racer and Night Thrasher use skateboards.
There was a shortlived comic called Skateman, about a skating hero, but it predates rollerblades.
The Dark Action Girl Rollergrrl in The Incredibles comic series

Film

The Triplets from Dogma, being roller-hockey themed mooks.
Subverted in Jackass: The Movie, which has them trying rocket-skates which sent the guy flat on his ass after a couple feet, showing that the rocket powered skates aren't quite Truth In Television yet.
There is a scene in the live-action Transformers film where Bonecrusher transforms into his robot form and proceeds to rollerblade down the highway after the heroes, only to be blocked by Optimus Prime when he turns around to do the same.
- Sideswipe, a character in the sequel Revenge of the Fallen, literally has wheels for feet. Damn, he's good...
Rollerball, with James Caan.
The titular kids in Hackers got around on blades, and The Plague used a skateboard.
Solarbabies.
Prayer of the Rollerboys! In the wake of the rollerblade fad, this Corey Haim vehicle features a dystopic, near-future LA where the toughest gang on the streets is a bunch of teenage white supremascists who ride rollerblades into their rumbles.
In Monsters Vs Aliens, Ginormica uses cars as rollerskates to escape from the alien robot. Later she uses the same trick with hoverboards.
Rollerblade is about a group of roller-skating nuns who battle monsters and mad scientists with their magical healing switchblades. And hang around naked alot

Literature

Subverted in World War Z where a mercenary tells how he saw a kid on roller blades wielding a hockey stick with a cleaver at the end of it. He was grabbed at the ankle (making him fall), and then dragged into a gutter. And then called a "dumbass". By Paris Hilton.

Live Action TV

The Quantum Ranger's power-up armor in Power Rangers Time Force had rollerblades.
In Tomica Hero Rescue Force, the late-series Humongous Mecha Rescue Max is made from the parts of two large rescue vehicles, and thus even with "legs", it's inevitable that it's going to have to skate around on wheels. The rockets only come out when it's time for the Finishing Move.
Father Dougal Mcguire from Father Ted had to give up rollerblading as a vice for Lent in one episode.
One episode of Mythbusters had Jamie, in the course of building a hovercraft, zooming across the shop in skates wearing a homemade jetpack made from several leaf-blowers grafted together.
In one Countdown Worst Person In The World segment, the "worser" person commented on China's Olympic Torch woes and suggested getting faster runners, and Keith suggested giving them Rocket-Powered Roller Skates because that would be even better.

Tabletop Games

The mecha of Heavy Gear run with retractable roller skates for high speed movement over flatter ground. No rockets, and usually doesn't say much about the pilot's personality — they're just around to make transportation easier. Carried over to the video games.
One of the cyberbits you could've put on in Shadowrun (at least its third edition) was, basically, in-line Gadget skates.

Video Games

Fatman from Metal Gear Solid 2 is an overweight demolitions expert. Including his blast suit, he weights half a ton... so, obviously, he needs to wear roller blades for increased maneuverability. Predictably, he falls down a lot, and has trouble getting up.
Lan Hikari can switch between walking or skating, but he is not Bad Ass.
- He has his moments. Not many, but the end of the second game showed off a certain side that we don't see much.
Jet Set/Grind Radio has all the playable characters in skates. Including the unlockable characters of the last boss, the last boss' human form, and the heroes' dog.
Lilica Felchenerow from Arcana Heart.
Sammy "Skate" Hunter, Adam's kid brother from Streets Of Rage 2.
Shadow the Hedgehog doesn't need a Wheel O Feet to prove that he's fast . . . he's got rocket skates.
- Rocket hover skates, actually. Though I feel this actually makes him less badass than sonic.
An old and rightly forgotten NES game, Rollergames, revolved around the inline skating culture. Supposedly. Mostly it was just a group of skaters going around beating people up, while skating.
- Was this based on the attempted Roller Derby revival of the same name?
Area, a Mad Scientist girl from Germany, uses these in the Street Fighter EX games. As well as a BIG GAUNTLET.
Front Mission 4 has this in its intro video in a most certainly badass way.
Top Man from Mega Man 3 has roller blades on his feet. He uses them to move fast across the room while spinning and shooting spinning tops at Mega Man. Unfortunately, this means that when you get his weapon, you don't get the tops - you get his ability to do a 360. And since Mega Man doesn't have roller blades, he can only use said ability in the air. At least it's useful for getting rid of those annoying enemies that bump you into pits while you are jumping merrily around. It also kills the final boss in one hit.

Webcomics

Thog from Order Of The Stick had his beloved rocket skates...

Western Animation

Inspector Gadget is equipped with a pair of Gadget Skates. A pair of Gadget Blades were designed for the Live Action Adaptation, but were not used.
Kim Possible travels on rocket skates often enough.
Wile E. Coyote used rocket skates in his very first appearance. Needless to say, it did not end well.
In Beast Wars, Megatron's Transmetal form's beast mode is a roller-skating VTOL T-rex.
Transformers Armada Hot Shot can lower the wheels around his ankles and rollerskate on them.
In Transformers Animated, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime both have one of their wheels on each of their robot-mode that they have been occasionally been shown to move around on. On the other hand, Prowl has his vehicles mode wheels in his knees and can use them to ride up walls.
- Beast Machines gives the "wheels as feet" to Rattrap. It's pretty much a hindrance to him, though.
Static Shock: Gear invents rocket skates that can fly.
We're Back!: A Dinosaur Story has a scene in which Rex uses a pickup truck as a skateboard to escape the police. He also grinds down the wire of the Brooklyn Bridge.