History Main / TheAirNotThere

* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': Master Hora stops time for one hour to try to destroy the Grey Men. During the timestop, Momo can still move around, as can the Grey Men and Cassiopeia. Justified because all of them carry a bit of their own time with them — Momo has the time flower, the Grey Men have their cigars, and Cassiopeia is explicitly stated to have her own time within her.

** In the short story "The New Accelerator", moving thousands of times faster than normal causes the protagonists to heat up due to friction with the air.

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Unless you're under the assumption that you swap places with the air particles you're replacing]].[[note]]Which itself has implications: What happens if you teleport into a room filled with poisonous or explosive gas, for example? Or over a large pressure difference?[[/note]] (This is more commonly averted than other examples - many works have teleporting involve a loud sound like [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]]'s "Bamf" or the *crack* of an [[Literature/HarryPotter apparating wizard]], which is presumably caused by the air being pushed out of the way at one's destination or rushing in to fill the vacuum where one disappeared from.)

* [[TheAce Mirio Togata]] of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' possesses a quirk that allows him to phase through matter. In addition to other drawbacks (losing his clothes, phasing through the ground, being unable to see), he is also incapable of breathing or hearing since air also phases through him. (Don't ask how he can talk while almost entirely phased into the ground.)

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' storyline "ComicBook/TheSuperSteedOfSteel": Discussed. Supergirl initially gives Comet a cape, warning him against going too fast since the air friction will burn it. Later she provides him a chemically-treated cape which will not catch fire when he flies.

* In ''Anime/CaptainFuture'', the heroes seize a device that allow one to turn out of phase and walks through walls. Problem is, without an additional breathing apparatus used by the villain, it's not possible to breathe while out of phase. The first time they use it, they circumvent the problem by equipping their RobotBuddy, who of course doesn't need air. When Captain Future himself dons it to confront the otherwise out-of-phase villain, he has to hold his breath for the whole fight.

* The various speedsters known as Franchise/TheFlash all have an aura specifically to protect them from air friction. (Wally West even once ''removed'' it from someone he was carrying...) A "possible future" story featured Wally's son, who had the SuperSpeed but not the aura, and was incapable of using his powers without being burned alive.

* If you [[TimeStandsStill stop time]], so that everything in the world is frozen in place except you, you can move around easily; you are not held immobile by the air molecules frozen in place around you. Suffocating is also not a problem, nor [[IWasFrozenToday freezing solid]], since if everything is stopped, in theory this would instantly reduce the temperature to 0 Kelvin (absolute zero), as heat is a manifestation of the kinetic energy molecules and atoms experience.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', when Edna Mode explains to Helen about the [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper suits]] she designed for the Parr family, she mentions specifically making Dash's suit out of a material that can "withstand enormous amounts of friction without heating up or wearing out" so he can run hundreds of miles per hour in it without the superheated air around him burning it up.

* ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad'': Averted. When the Esper protagonists teleport, it always causes a short but violent air displacement, both at the spots of departure and arrival. One episode features the variant of time-stopped people ignoring air, though.

* VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog, from ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' and onwards, is able to create a small, localized force field around him when he surpasses a particular speed (though the speed itself varies from game to game). This force field absorbs impacts from the air and other things he runs into and seems to carry the air with him as he runs, preventing air friction from burning him up. The games have also consistently averted FrictionlessReentry in that characters, when falling through the Earth's atmosphere, have to be in vehicles designed for it, in their invulnerable Super forms, or use teleportation to skip as much of the fall as possible. (This teleportation, in turn, is done via the Chaos Emeralds, which have RealityWarper abilities and don't have to follow normal physics or logic.)

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Generally averted in ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad'': when the Esper protagonists teleport, it always causes a short but violent air displacement, both at the spots of departure and arrival. One episode features the variant of time-stopped people ignoring air, though.

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Unless you're under the assumption that you swap places with the air particles you're replacing]].[[note]]Which itself has implications: What happens if you teleport into a room filled with poisonous or explosive gas, for example? Or over a large pressure difference?[[/note]] (This is more commonly averted than other examples - many works have teleporting involve a loud sound like [[Nightcrawler]]'s "Bamf" or the *crack* of an [[Literature/HarryPotter apparating wizard]], which is presumably caused by the air being pushed out of the way at one's destination or rushing in to fill the vacuum where one disappeared from.)

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Unless you're under the assumption that you swap places with the air particles you're replacing]].[[note]]Which itself has implications: What happens if you teleport into a room filled with poisonous or explosive gas, for example? Or over a large pressure difference?[[/note]] (This is more commonly averted than other examples - many works have teleporting involve a loud sound like [[Nightcrawler]]'s "Bamf" or the *crack* of an [[HarryPotter apparating wizard]], which is presumably caused by the air being pushed out of the way at one's destination or rushing in to fill the vacuum where one disappeared from.)

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Unless you're under the assumption that you swap places with the air particles you're replacing]].[[note]]Which itself has implications: What happens if you teleport into a room filled with poisonous or explosive gas, for example? Or over a large pressure difference?[[/note]]

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Okuyasu Nijimura has a play around with this trope, due to his Stand's ability to erase anything and let the remaining sides clamp back together. As such, he can perform short-distance teleports by cutting the air in front of him. Likewise, he can get rid of [[spoiler:Stray Cat's air bombs]] as well.

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Unless you're under the assumption that you swap places with the air particles you're replacing]].

* If you are [[{{Teleportation}} teleporting]] somewhere, it's important to arrive in an empty space where you won't be [[TeleFrag intersecting any solid objects]]. However, you don't have to worry about intersecting the air molecules that are probably swarming through your empty space, which should result in nasty pressure-related damage or at worst going [[YourHeadASplode splitter-splat]].[[note]]And even this ignores dust and other microscopic particles being in the atmosphere.[[/note]]

* If you [[TimeStandsStill stop time]], so that everything in the world is frozen in place except you, you can move around easily; you are not held immobile by the air molecules frozen in place around you. Suffocating is also not a problem.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsBX'', where the helicopters from ''Anime/GiantGorg'' can sortie out of the ''[[Anime/MobileSuitUnicornGundam Ra Callium]]'' or ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE Diva]]'' even for missions in the hard vacuum of interplanetary space.

* ''Fanfic/{{Quizzical}}'': In [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/68414/11/quizzical/the-big-finish "The Big Finish"]], [[spoiler:Sweetie Belle's sudden]] FlashyTeleportation makes her [[PowerGlows glow]], and then disappear with a vacuum pop.

* [[TheAce Mirio Togata]] of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' possesses a quirk that allows him to phase through matter. In addition to other drawbacks (losing his clothes and phasing through the ground), he is also incapable of breathing since air also phases through him. (Don't ask how he can talk while almost entirely phased into the ground.)

* ''Film/{{TENET}}''. A person who is inverted (moving backwards in time) must carry their own oxygen supply, because normal air can't be absorbed by inverted lungs. In long-term inverted missions, they must stay in an airlocked environment.

* ''Film/{{TENET}}''. A person who is inverted (moving backwards in time) must carry their own oxygen supply, because normal air can't be absorbed by inverted lungs. In long-term inverted missions, they must stay in an airlocked environment conditioned to have breathable air as well.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E24TheNextPhase The Next Phase]]" Geordi and Ro become intangible due to a TeleporterAccident and are believed dead (even by themselves), but they still have to walk places, using the friction on the floor. Also, breathing isn't a problem.