Earth/Wind Juxtaposition

Earth and air/wind are two of the four classical elements. While not used as a contrast to each other as often as fire and water, earth and air do have a history of being juxtaposed.

Earth is an element associated with strength, stamina, durability, fortitude, and pride. It can also present stubbornness, filth, dirt, slowness, and boorishness. Likewise, air is associated with speed, maneuverability, freedom, grace, and enlightenment. It can also be associated with detachment, flightiness, and softness.

Expect wind to be the the finesse to earth's force. It can also potentially crossover with Life/Death Juxtaposition with earth representing death in reference to people being buried or cremated while air represents life as a reference to people needing oxygen to live. In some cases, earth will be viewed as a masculine element while wind is viewed as a feminine element, but this can just as often be flipped depending on the aspects being emphasized: The stern god of the mountains or the fertile Earth Mother, the flighty goddess of the seasons or the fickle storm god.

Compare Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition, Fire/Water Juxtaposition, and Lightning/Wind Juxtaposition. Also compare Land, Sea, Sky, for when a third water-themed element is added. This trope can be seen as the elemental equivalent to Bird vs. Serpent, which pits a creature of the sky against an animal that slithers across the ground.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• W.I.T.C.H.: Cornelia is the Guardian of Earth, and is the oldest and most mature of the girls. Hay Lin is the Guardian of Air, and is the youngest and silliest of the girls.

Films — Animation

• Mulan: Shan Yu holds the Emperor at swordpoint, demanding the latter bow to him. The Emperor only responds, "No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it." No points in guessing who is the mountain and who is the wind.

Films — Live-Action

• Conan the Barbarian (1982): At one point, Conan and Subotai discuss their respective religions. Conan's people worshipped a War God named Crom who lived in a great mountain, while Subotai's people worshipped a god of the winds and sky. When the conversation shifts to which god is stronger, Subotai points out that Crom lives underneath the sky, which will always be above him and beyond his reach.

Literature

• The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump: Throwing an earth elemental at a Flying Carpet destabilizes the air elemental that powers it. The main character notes that while fire/water is the elemental opposition everyone thinks of, earth/air is just as powerful.
• The Wheel of Time: Men who use the One Power are more adept in fire and earth magic. By contrast, women users of the One Power are more likely to wield water and air.

Live-Action TV

• Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: Yousuke Shiina/Hurricane Red is a Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero with the power of air. Kouta Bitou/Hurricane Yellow is the team's strategist with the power of earth and prefers to plan rather than rush into battle like Yousuke.

Mythology and Religion

• Classical Mythology: Gaia and Ouranos are two of the earliest primordial deities to take part in creation, with Ouranos forming the sky and Gaia the earth. At first they were lovers and equals, but Ouranos disliked the children he fathered by Gaia and imprisoned the ugliest of them, the multi-limbed Hecatonchires and one-eyed Cyclopes in Tartarus. Gaia in turn grew to loathe Ouranos and encouraged the last of her children that he had not imprisoned, the Titans, to castrate and dethrone him, and take his place as rulers of the young world.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The 5th edition Monster Manual mentions a rivalry between the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, and Ogremoch, Prince of Elemental Earth. It is said that Ogremoch's footsteps splinter the rocks he walks on, and his hatred infuses into the rock fragments and transforms them into gargoyles, creatures whose existence mocks the elemental air since they are capable of flight in spite of being made of stone. He sometimes hurls motes of gargoyles into Aaqa, where they take pleasure in battling and tormenting the Aaracokra, a race of Bird People whom the Wind Dukes employ as servants.
  • The 2nd edition book, "Tome of Magic", introduces elemental wizards. Air specialists cannot learn earth spells and vice versa.
• Forgotten Realms: The four Elemental Lords each have a rivalry with the one that embodies their opposite element. while Kossuth the Firelord duels Istishia the Water Lord Akadi the Lady of Air opposes Grumbar the Earthlord.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Subverted with Lewa and Onua. Lewa is the Toa Mata/Nuva of air and is known for being high-spirited, playful, lacking attention span, and talkative nature. Ouna, Toa Mata/Nuva of earth in contrast is thoughtful, patient, one of the wisest of the team, and only speaks when he feels it's important. However, despite their opposite temperaments, they are pretty close, with Onua being the one to pull off an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight on two occasions when Lewa was under mind control.

Video Games

• Chrono Cross: The game has a variation. The Green Element includes wind (alongside nature), and is juxtaposed with the Yellow Element which includes earth (alongside electricity).
• Genshin Impact:
  • The first two archons the player meets are the Anemo and Geo archons, Barbatos and Rex Lapis. Barbatos calls Lapis an old blockhead and Lapis calls Barbatos a drunkard.
  • In the Anemo archon's nation of Mondstadt, the defacto ruling group is the Knights of Favonius; their maid, Noelle, desperately wants to become a full knight but is distressed when the elemental vision she gained was Geo and not Anemo.
  • Similar to Liyue's story between the aforementioned two archons, we have Xiao, the last living Yaksha and Zhongli/Rex Lapis' protected, who received the Anemo element instead of Geo and also having some relationship with Venti/Barbatos.
  • In the case of gameplay, these elements also contrast each other, being the only 2 of the 7 elements that do nothing when you combine them against enemies.
• Golden Sun:
  • As a game mechanic, Venus (earth and plants) and Jupiter (wind and lightning) are opposed to each other, with earth-aligned enemies taking more damage from wind attacks and vice-versa. Killing one with a Djinni of the appropriate element gives not only extra gold and experience, but increases the chance of it dropping an item.
  • However, the characters themselves have no problems with each other for the element they're most attuned to (apart from their resistance to the opposite element being only slightly lower than the ones they're neutral towards). If anything the Magic Knight Venus-aligned characters are protective of the Squishy Wizard Jupiters.
  • In the second and third games, summons can use multiple elements together, including opposites. One of the most powerful summons is Charon, who uses Venus and Jupiter, and can potentially take out enemies in a One-Hit Kill. It's awkward to set up and usually not worth using against enemies, which is likely why the Dullahan uses it against the party.
• Heroes of Might and Magic:
  • Heroes Of Might And Magic III: Air Elementals and Earth Elementals both deal 2x damage to each other as part of the Conflux's internal Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors. They're also complete opposites tactically: Air Elementals are low-health, fast, and have a ranged attack when upgraded while Earth Elementals are sturdy Mighty Glaciers.
  • Also in III, the Air Magic skill includes the spells Haste, which boosts the speed of friendly creatures, and disrupting ray, which reduces the defences of enemy creatures. In contrast, the Earth Magic skill includes the spells slow, quicksand and forcefield, which all limit the movement of creatures, and stoneskin and shield, which boost the defence of friendly creatures.
  • In Ashan, the religion of the orcs venerates two great spirits known as Mother Earth and Father Sky. Mother Earth is seen as a protector and healer and grants a sense of community in times of peace, while Father Sky is seen as a source of elemental power, and of the strength and rage that orcs channel when it is time for them to wage war.
• Jade Cocoon 2: Each of the 4 classical elements is associated with a strategy in battle. Air minions tend to be fragile Combat Pragmatists who rely on enemy weakening attacks, inflicting Standard Status Effects such as Sleep, Blind, Poison or Confuse or reducing their enemies' defense stats. Earth minions have a focus on Status Buffs and defense, and have abilities like boosting their allies' defenses, summoning a stone wall to prevent enemy attacks, and attacks that get stronger if used on consecutive turns.
• Jade Empire: The mutually-exclusive fighting styles Stone Immortal and Tempest are themed around earth and wind respectively. Mistress Vo will only teach Stone Immortal to someone who has committed themselves to the Open Palm philosophy, since mastering earth requires harmony, awareness of one's surroundings and of the connections between all things. In contrast, Jian the Iron Fist will only teach Tempest to someone dedicated to Closed Fist, stating that wind is the most discordant element and a master of it should be committed to discord to the point of drawing strength from it.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Master Sword is revealed to have lost its power, so Link needs to take two Sages two the Earth and Wind Temples respectively so their music can empower the sacred blade. The juxtaposition between both elements is twofold: Medli (a Rito whose race has an affinity to wind and the skies) is destined to be the Earth Sage, while Makar (a Korok whose race has an affinity to earth and the forests) is destined to be the Wind Sage. Also, their respective musical plays, when played one after another, make up for the game's main theme.
• Lords of Magic: Of the eight Elemental Nations, The Earth nation consists of an alliance of dwarves, gnomes and halflings, and its units generally have high attack and defence but slow movement, while the Air nation consists of a mix of faeries and storm giants. They naturally begin the game with poor relations with each other. Overlapping with Life/Death Juxtaposition, the Air nation has above-average relations with the elves of the Life nation, and the Earth nation begins the game with cordial relations with the dark elves of the Death nation (though this relationship will degrade and turn sour eventually).
• Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero: The mid-section of the game involves Sub-Zero traversing the Temple of the Elements to gain access to Shinnok's amulet deep within its walls. The second stage is "Wind Element", where Sub-Zero has to face spinning platforms and ride a hurricane to further advance in the stage and reach Fujin, the god of wind, who looks very much human. The next stage is "Earth Element", which takes place in a mine or subterranean area filled with tunnels and crevices that open and close at random. Its boss is the Earth God, a towering Golem-like creature.
• Quest for Glory II: To defeat the Air Elemental you have to place dirt into its funnel. How one does this depends on one's character class.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • Digital Devil Saga: Argilla naturally resists Earth attacks while she is weak to Wind attacks (called Force in-game). Likewise, Gale resists Force but is weak to Earth. This pattern also holds true for many, many enemies; if something resembles a bird, there's a good chance it resists Force and is weak to Earth.
  • Persona 2: The above pattern holds true in this game as well, as Personas with Earth-element attacks and resistances tend to be weak to Wind-element and vice-versa. Interestingly, Ulala's first Persona Callisto is Earth-element, while her Ultimate Persona Astraea is Wind-element; and their resistances switch accordingly.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic represents the wind, being fast and carefree. His rival Knuckles is said to embody the earth, being strong, stubborn, and preferring to stay rooted in one place. Some games have given Sonic and Knuckles control over air and earth respectively to match their Elemental Motifs.
• Touhou Project: Suwako Mariya and Kanako Yasaka are downplayed examples. Suwako is a sky goddess and Kanako is an earth goddess; they used to be enemies, but are now good friends. However, Suwako's profile says they still argue quite often.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Airbending and earthbending are contrasted in their respective approaches to combat. Airbening favors flexibility and finding the path of least resistance while earthbending focuses on direct and decisive action. In "The King of Omashu", King Bumi mocks Aang for favoring evasion in battle and Aang is shown to have the most difficulty mastering earth when trained by Toph due to it being the opposite of his native element of air.
• The Legend of Korra: The show is a sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender and contains more examples of Earth/Wind juxtapositions:
  • Earthbender Lin Beifong and airbender Tenzin are former lovers, having grown up together (as the children of Toph and Aang) but hit a rough patch when Tenzin wanted children and Lin didn't. In the present, they have a contentious relationship, though Lin is willing to put her personal feelings aside to protect him and his family.
  • The main villain of season 3 is Zaheer, an airbender who seeks to destroy all governments and institutions of order because he believes that chaos is the natural state of existence. The main villain of season 4 is Kuvira, an earthbender who seeks to bring peace and order through tyranny in the wake of Zaheer's chaos.
• Mummies Alive!: In "Married To The Geb", Presley and the Mummies have to settle an argument between Geb, the spirit of the earth, and his wife Net, the spirit of the sky, before their fighting destroys San Francisco.
• The Real Ghostbusters: "Very Beast Friends" dealt with the rivalry between the Sumerian gods Anshar and Kishar. Anshar was god of air and water while Kishar was god of fire and earth.

Real Life

• According to the Four-Temperament Ensemble philosophy, each of the four humours (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic) can be slotted into one of the four classical elements, with Sanguine corresponding to Air and Melancholic representing Earth (rigid, inflexible).

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