Gone With the Wind

Teenage girls with pigtails and bat wings are surprisingly common in Japanese popular culture, but Lilica’s ether-powered rollerblades help her stand out from the crowd. Her skates were a gift from her father, but her demonic features and magical powers were actually inherited from him. (Lilica’s mother was a human who totally banged a demon.) Arcana Heart allows players to choose specific elementals for their characters in order to determine their moveset. Lilica is aligned with the wind elemental by default, and this allows for tremendous mobility and combo potential. She makes boomerangs out of wind energy, she can create towering tornadoes at will, and the power of the air can literally be seen in her crescent kicks. Her inline skates allow her to glide on the ground, but she’s just as graceful when she’s dashing through the air.

Tornadus has many attacks that highlight the power of the wind and can even create storms strong enough to blow houses away! Moves like Hurricane, Tailwind, Gust, Air Cutter, and Air Slash pretty much do exactly what you’d expect them to do, but they aren’t exactly unique to Tornadus. There are over 100 Flying-type Pokémon as of this writing, but almost all of them can more accurately be classified as dual-type Pokémon. (Charizard, for example, is a dual-type Fire/Flying Pokémon.) Tornadus has the distinction of being the only pure Flying-type Pokémon in the entire series. There are plenty of flying Pokémon with better stats, but Tornadus fits best with the theme of this list. Other Pokémon may soar through the sky, but – with its lower body wrapped in a cloud – Tornadus personifies the sky itself.

Link has harnessed the power of the wind in many ways over the years. The recorder he found during his first adventure summoned whirlwinds that could transport him to different parts of Hyrule; the gale boomerang from Twilight Princess was used for activating pinwheels; the gust bellows from Skyward Sword worked like a leaf blower; and the gust jar from Minish Cap sucked up enemies and objects like a vacuum. His role in The Wind Waker is ultimately what earns Link a spot on this list. Most of the wind-based items that Link uses are found by pure happenstance, but Link earned the right to control the wind in The Wind Waker based on his merits. His ability to change the direction of the wind was one of the defining aspects of the game and allowed him to traverse the vast seas that were in front of him.

I’ve always appreciated the simplicity of the Robot Masters in Mega Man 2. Wood Man looks like he was made out of a tree trunk, Heat Man is a giant Zippo lighter, and Air Man is basically a giant fan with arms and legs. There are so few redundancies in his design that he doesn’t even have a head! As you might imagine, the giant propeller in Air Man’s torso is able to generate powerful winds that can either push enemies away or pull them closer. His trademark Air Shooter makes him one of the most notorious Mega Man bosses, and the mini tornadoes he creates are sometimes impossible to avoid. A Japanese song chronicling the frustrations of fighting Air Man became incredibly popular in 2007 and resulted in music videos that have generated tens of millions of views around the world.

Many of Klonoa’s wind-based powers are derived from the magical ring he wields, so it’s debatable if he’s appropriate for this list. It wouldn’t be fair to call someone a pyromancer just because they use a flamethrower, but I decided that Klonoa was fair game for this list since his wind ring is basically a part of his character and he is seldom seen without it. The ring grants Klonoa the ability to fire concentrated blasts of air called wind bullets. These bullets are mostly used to inflate enemies and cause them to float helplessly in the air. Klonoa makes use of the air around him in other ways too. For example, his aptly-named “Klonoa Tornado Attack” allows him to fly around and unleash several tornadoes. Klonoa devised this move himself and was inspired by his ability to “see the wind.” They don’t call him Klonoa of the Wind for nothing.

The Skylanders series takes place in a realm filled with magic and floating islands, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a number of its characters can control the air around them. An expert in the air-based art of Monk-Ru, Fling Kong was recruited into the Skylanders army by the ethereal Master Eon after bravely defending the legendary monkey idol, Kubla-Wu, from the Gorilla-Goos. (What in the fuck did I just write!?) His backstory won’t make a lot of sense to those unfamiliar with Skylanders, but the takeaway is that Fling Kong is a fearless monkey who fights on the side of righteousness. Gusto or Jet-Vac might have been more obvious choices for this list based on their popularity, but there was no way I couldn’t give props to a monkey who flies around on magic carpets and fights by throwing Frisbees.

Thanks to his trademark copy ability, Kirby has shown mastery over all four of the classical elementals. He has more techniques than I can mention, but he has always been especially adept to air-based attacks. (The Tornado ability, for instance, allows him to become a small cyclone while the Wing ability lets him sprout wings and perform a number of high-flying moves.) Even if we were to disregard his copied abilities, Kirby would still be deserving of a place on this list based on his innate qualities. Kirby couldn’t initially steal moves from his enemies, but he has always been able to inflate himself with air and fly without restrictions. His ability to inhale enemies and spit them out as projectiles has also been with him since day one. It seems fitting that Kirby shares his name with a vacuum company.

Barbariccia is one of four elemental archfiends who serves Golbez in Final Fantasy IV. The so-called Empress of the Winds spends most of her time in a tower and relies on her minions to protect her. She is said to rule over both wind and the hearts of man, but her exquisite beauty can’t fully mask her proud cruelty. Her ability to shield herself with her own hair defines her in battle. It’s always nice when a girl lets her hair down, but Barbariccia gives “bad hair day” a whole new meaning. By wrapping her hair around her body, she is able to form a protective whirlwind that’s nearly impenetrable. While her opponents look for a way to break through her defenses, the scantily clad vixen can reduce their HP to the single digits with her signature Maelstrom technique. Barbariccia is a lot of things to a lot of people, but she’s certainly not an air-head.

Janna was forced to grow up on the streets after being orphaned as a child, but she pulled herself out of poverty after discovering her affinity for elemental air magic. Within a matter of months, she mastered her studies and surpassed those who taught her. As an added bonus, her physical appearance evolved in lockstep with the awakening of her magic and made her the center of attention when she joined the League of Legends. Janna is depicted as a beautiful sorceress by default, but her alternate weather reporter getup is every bit as captivating and lends itself well to her wind-base abilities. Janna is able to use whirlwinds as weapons, but she’s most useful in a supporting role. By harnessing the power of the air, she can increase the speed of her allies, shield them from enemies, or heal them with soothing winds.

Rashid of the Turbulent Wind is a mild-mannered Middle Eastern man and something of a wandering hero. He travels the world in search of a missing friend and gets into many battles along the way. His fighting style is derived from parkour and he has a variety of acrobatic kicks in his repertoire, but he’s best-known for his ability to control the winds. He can create small cyclones to knock his opponents inro the air or engulf himself in giant tornadoes to land multiple hits. His wind can even be used to block enemy attacks. Rashid isn’t the only Street Fighter character who was considered for this list. Guile pioneered air-based attacks in fighting games and was around for decades before Rashid’s introduction to the series. It might be a little early to give Rashid so much praise, but he’s deserving of his spot on this list as sure as the wind blows.