History Main / AwesomeUnderwaterWorld

To the average person, most people would not consider much what was going underwater, despite it making up 70% of the world. Given how humanity cannot survive underwater without special equipment only developed recently, it does make a fair bit of sense.

Then there is the centuries of lore and mythology associated with the ocean since humanity first set out to sea. Besides the classic romance of sailors and explorers with the sea, humanity has always maintained fascination with what magical or monstrous beings lived underwater, a new world where humanity could not tread. This has been reflected in various folktales and stories in all sorts of human mythologies. Combine this with the potential discovery for ruins of ancient or modern human creations and you have an underwater world of awe. Awe-derwater if you will.

* ''Franchise/TheLittleMermaid'' franchise's prequels were able to maintain a fairly interesting underwater setting. While [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 the first film]] took place on land a lot (it was kind of a given, since the story it was adapting was about a mermaid becoming human) - the sequels and spin-off TV series were far more focused on the underwater adventures.
* During the lesson spent as a fish in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', Merlin comments that there are all different types of underwater environments, each with their own challenges. Though we never see any of them, knowing Merlin it's probably true.

* ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' is the best-grossing film in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse on the international market, with significant chunk of the movie taking place underwater in the kingdom of Atlantis.

* ''Series/SeaHunt,'' which was quite popular in the '60's. Lloyd Bridges played sea diver Mike Nelson, and he took on a new dangerous assignment of one sort or another each week, encountering seafaring crooks, Soviet spies, a sunken ship carrying nerve gas, sharks, alligators, and even a [[NotTheNessie fake sea monster]].

* ''TabletopGame/BluePlanet'' focuses on a mostly water-covered planet named Poseidon that was discovered on the other side of a stable wormhole. Part of what makes the setting exciting is all the strange alien ''things'' lurking beneath the waves, but there's plenty of loving detail beyond that and the setting makes extensive use of real oceanography.

* Pretty much inverted in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', where (reflecting real life wildlife) there are more Water-types than any other type. They are also extremely diverse, as the Water-type has been paired with nearly every type in the game.
** Note that this only applies to fishing; surfing and diving are both extremely monotonous.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'', lyrics to "Under the Sea"

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' franchise's prequels were able to maintain a fairly interesting underwater setting. While the first film took place on land a lot (it was kind of a given, since the story it was adapting was about a mermaid becoming human) - the sequels and spin-off TV series were far more focused on the underwater adventures.

-->-- ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', lyrics to "Under the Sea"

* ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' franchise's prequels were able to maintain a fairly interesting underwater setting. While the first film took place on land a lot (it was kind of a given, since the story it was adapting was about a mermaid becoming human) - the sequels and spin-off TV series were far more focused on the underwater adventures.
* During the lesson spent as a fish in Disney's ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'', Merlin comments that there are all different types of underwater environments, each with their own challenges. Though we never see any of them, knowing Merlin it's probably true.

* The first few ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' games include an Atlantica level based on ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid''. Fans are pretty divided on the first one and its swimming mechanic, but most prefer it to the musical mini game in ''II''. ''Chain of Memories'' simply had the characters walk around on the ocean floor unimpeded, which sort-of made sense as they were in a memory world rather than physically there.

* The first expansion of ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', appropriately names ''Rising Tide''. The ocean now provides new resources and the ability to harvest existing ones, aquatic cities and an expanded roster of ocean going craft, both for the Player and the native aliens.

* ''WesterAnimation/SharkyAndGeorge'' [[ExpositoryThemeTune were the crime busters of the sea]], and they were great. This being a cartoon, they had underwater equivalents of most overland things and even an aeroplane (a whale that everyone sat inside).

** Also, Atlantis itself is still not a place you want to visit, But this is less because of nothing to do, and more with the fact that it's populated by [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]], AliensAndMonsters, StarfishAliens, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and other creatures who'd see you as a pet at best, and lunch at worst.

* ''VideoGame/PoseidonMasterOfAtlantis'' naturally seeks to use this (one of the main differences with the Greek civilization from ''VideoGame/ZeusMasterOfOlympus'' is that athletics, philosophy and theater [[ProudScholarRace are replaced by science and learning]]), though of course it all takes place ''before'' Atlantis goes under (there exists a species of FishMen with [[UnderwaterCity Underwater Cities]], but these are never seen or visited, though they can be conquered with land troops... somehow). The campaigns are an AlternateHistory in which Atlanteans conquer most of the Mediterranean before finally being destroyed.

Probably contains an UnderwaterCity (usually {{Atlantis}}) inhabited by [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]], ApparentlyHumanMerfolk and or FishPeople. For wildlife, you will find {{Sea Monster}}s, fish and dolphins, both [[FriendlyPlayfulDolphin playful]] and {{heroic|Dolphin}}.

* ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' franchise's prequels were able to maintain a fairly interesting underwater setting. But then again, that may not be due so much to the setting as the fact that it was about a spunky princess who could talk to animals and her overprotective father. The ocean aspect at times felt a bit like an afterthought. Like the "Stormy Arc" of the animated series, in which Ariel meets a TroubledButCute underwater horse (Hippocampus, but referred to as a sea horse) she wants to tame despite it being so wild.

* ''Film/{{Aquaman}}'' is the best-grossing film in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse on the international market, with significant chunk of the movie taking place underwater in the kingdom of Atlantis.

Then there is the centuries of lore and mythology associated with the ocean since humanity first set out to se. Besides the classic romance of sailors and explorers with the sea, humanity has always maintained fascination with what magical or monstrous beings lived underwater, a new world where humanity could not tread. This has been reflected in various folktales and stories in all sorts of human mythologies. Combine this with the potential discovery for ruins of ancient or modern human creations and you have an underwater world of awe. Awe-derwater if you will.

-->-- ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid''

Yet, when people were finally able to go underwater, they discovered how ''breath-taking'' it all is.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', comapred to VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 which barely cares about naval units, Red Alert 3 makes water travel easy, many land and air units are amphibious and naval units can travel in land. Plus certain buildings such as refinery's and power plants can be built on water.

* ''VideoGame/PoseidonMasterOfAtlantis'' naturally seeks to use this (one of the main differences with the Greek civilization from ZeusMasterOfOlympus is that athletics, philosophy and theater [[ProudScholarRace are replaced by science and learning]]), though of course it all takes place ''before'' Atlantis goes under (there exists a species of FishMen with UnderwaterCities, but these are never seen or visited, though they can be conquered with land troops... somehow). The campaigns are an AlternateHistory in which Atlanteans conquer most of the Mediterranean before finally being destroyed.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMTerrorFromTheDeep'' is partly aversion, partly straight playing. It's underwater, there are various runs on the sea bottom, but underwater physics are nonexistent, and weapons not so different from land weapons. The denizens of the sea bottom are Gillmen, the first or second "alien" species you will encounter in TFTD. More precisely, they are an Earthly species and have prostrated themselves before the Aliens in exchange for their miserable hides (and a slice of the surface world, once it's conquered).

Probably contains an UnderwaterCity (usually {{Atlantis}}) inhabited by [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]], ApparentlyHumanMerfolk and or FishPeople. For wildlife, you will find {{Sea Monster}}s, fish and dolphins, both [[FriendlyPlayfulDolphin playful]] and [[HeroicDolphin heroic]].

* Inverted in Rupert Brooke's ''Heaven'', which imagines Christianity from a fish's point of view, ending with "And in that Heaven of all they wish / There shall be no more land say fish.".

* One scene in the ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber Nine Princes In Amber]]'' books sees the characters going into a Castlevania-style inverse version of their own castle, which goes even further than most inverse castles by being under water. They initially go with WalkDontSwim (and they can breathe, for some reason), but eventually one of the characters gets sick of a particularly long spiral stair and swims down the bottom.

* ''Series/SeaHunt,'' which was quite popular in the '60's. Lloyd Bridges played sea diver Mike Nelson, and he took on a new dangerous assignment of one sort or another each week, encountering seafaring crooks, Soviet spies, a sunken ship carrying nerve gas, sharks, alligators, and even a [[NotTheNessie fake sea monster.]]

* ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'' is partly aversion, partly straight playing. It's underwater, there are various runs on the sea bottom, but underwater physics are nonexistent, and weapons not so different from land weapons. The denizens of the sea bottom are Gillmen, the first or second "alien" species you will encounter in TFTD. More precisely, they are an Earthly species and have prostrated themselves before the Aliens in exchange for their miserable hides (and a slice of the surface world, once it's conquered).

* PC game ''VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower'' and its successor include this trope in the science fiction phase of the game. Once players can build submarines the ocean is revealed to have a huge variety of features such as volcanoes, rifts and giant squid; sea colonies have access to many more resources than land-based ones, and in addition to the variety of undersea units, players can engineer underwater tunnels to move land units quickly around on the sea bed.(O'Neil's proposed habitats never did make practical sense.)

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': The Sea is one of the post-story environments that can be explored and its recent expansions have made it one of the best. A brutal challenge with penalities regarding obtaining wealth and items along with maintaing oxygen, you end up exploring the various areas while helping out the Sea Monkees. Then they updated it where you finally visit the mysterious city of the Mer-Kin and things quickly go Lovecraftian from there, resulting in fighting ''two'' EldritchAbominations depending on which path and each dropping a piece of gear depending on your class. This means to get the full set, you'd need to fight each of the two ''six times'', as each class before combining the pieces of gear with thier counterpart to form a new uniform which unlocks one last boss to get the last piece of equipment to one of the strongest set. One of the best post-story areas to explore and without requiring special items or equipment that involve cash donations.

* The ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'' GAME of all things. Now, if only the entire 2D portion wasn't ScrappyLevel after ScrappyLevel filled with mindbending button/mending puzzles. But until you're forced to do these mini-missions the game is quite fun. If only mode 7 had been implemented at the time... Then rather than deal with these you could have different 'scales' so when you use a different vehicle the scale zooms in. But anyway, the top-down 'overworld' is pretty good, and the first few non-NintendoHard 2D levels.

* ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline''. One of the higher level zones is "Lemuria", set in an ocean trench. The waterbreathing Lemurians have suffered a political schism, and the 'bad guy' Lemurians have taken to worshipping EldritchAbomination types called the Bleak Ones, and transformed into humanoid reptile/fish things, who use both freaky sci-fi subs and shark-shaped subs for travel faster than they can swim. Meanwhile the humanoid sharks of [[spoiler: Doctor Destroyer]] have also set up shop, there's the [[spoiler: radioactive undead crew of a]] Russian sub that sank, a ghost ship with ghost pirates (and a few robot pirates down there, too), lots of sea life both hostile and not really THAT hostile, myriad forms of plant life, etcetera. A power that summons wolves on dry land summons sharks, instead, and many other pet summons are similarly altered - robot drones have artificial fins, for example. However, this is weakened considerably by the unfortunate lag suffered in that zone, which leads many to avoid it. Sad, really, there's plenty of action down there.

** There actually are underwater ruins in the game that you get to visit. They serve as the backdrop, armaments included, for the battle with the FinalBoss, the Ceadeus. Special note must be taken in that said FinalBoss [[spoiler:is what brought said ruins underwater in the first place, and threatens to repeat this with Moga Village above.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Dominions}}'', while [[TwoDSpace Two D Water]] is in effect, the oceans have special considerations and challenges; one of the bigger hurdles in the game for land-based species is developing the ability to operate in the water, and vice versa (except for Atlantis, which is truly amphibious, and a guide for the race refers to it as "[[GameBreaker a submarine]]" when it's fully geared up).

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' actually makes very good use of underwater settings. The first 3D outing, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' introduced diving and later walking and breathing underwater. Every 3D game after except ''VideoGame/TheWindWaker'' would use it (the ocean is an in-universe symbol of death, and the land of Hyrule trapped beneath the waves is suspended in an air bubble), and even ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle Of Ages]]'' had essentially an entire other overworld under the ocean because you can transform into a merman.

* ''VideoGame/{{Abzu}}'' is a beautiful example of this. You play an anonymous individual going through beautiful and varies areas of the ocean, seeing various underwater fauna (including suppsoedly ''extinct'' ones) and even the ruins of a lost civilization. Furthermore, this is pretty much the SpiritualSuccessor to ''{{VideoGame/Journey}}'' (while not made by the same company, Abzu was conceived and created by that game's art director, Matt Nava, and scored by its composer, Austin Wintory.) You just take in the beautiful sights with no fears of drowning and trying to figure out the mystery of what you are exploring.

* Although [[NoodleIncident we never actually see it,]] ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' went to Atlantis in one episode. They had so much fun with "mermaid puss", they wanna go there again!

* Myth/JapaneseMythology: Being an island nation, stories of the sea are common in Japan, but most famous all revolve around Ryūgū-jō, the underwater palace and home to Ryūjin, the dragon god king of the seas. In fact, this was the source of inspiration for Fishman Island from ''One Piece'' and Dragon Palace from ''Okami.''

* While it's true that comics writers often have trouble making ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] interesting (as mentioned in the trope AtlantisIsBoring), there have been notable aversions. ** Creator/PeterDavid's run on ''Aquaman,'' is often lauded as an example, in which Aquaman became a badass with an extensive supporting cast, complicated cosmology, and lengthy story arc.

-> ''"The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake''
-> ''You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake."''

Then there is the centuries of lore and mythology associated with the ocean since humanity first set out to se. Besides the classic romance of sailors and explorers with the sea, humanity has always maintained fascination with what magical or monstrous beings lived underwater, a new world where humanity could not tread. This has been reflected in various folktales and stories in all sorts of human mytholgoyies. Combine this with the potential discovery for ruins of ancient or modern human creations and you have an underwater world of awe. Awe-derwater if you will.

* During the lesson spent as a fish in Disney's ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'', Merlin comments that there are all different types of underwater environments, each with their own challenges. Though we never see any of them, knowing Merlin it's probably true.

* ''{{VideoGame/Abzu}}'' is a beautiful example of this. You play an anonymous individual going through beautiful and varies areas of the ocean, seeing various underwater fauna (including suppsoedly ''extinct'' ones) and even the ruins of a lost civilization. Furthermore, this is pretty much the SpiritualSuccessor to ''{{VideoGame/Journey}}'' (while not made by the same company, Abzu was conceived and created by that game's art director, Matt Nava, and scored by its composer, Austin Wintory.) You just take in the beautiful sights with no fears of drowning and trying to figure out the mystery of what you are exploring.

* VideoGame/Okami loves showing off its beautiful art style of the game and it is taken UpToEleven in the Dragon Palace, inspired by the Japanese mythos as noted above. It includes many emotional moments and the boss fight leading up from the events is against a malicious doppelganger.

* ''{{VideoGame/Abzu}}'' is a massive subversion. You play an anonymous individual going through beautiful and varies areas of the ocean, seeing various underwater fauna (including suppsoedly ''extinct'' ones) and even the ruins of a lost civilization. Furthermore, this is pretty much the SpiritualSuccessor to ''{{VideoGame/Journey}}'' (while not made by the same company, Abzu was conceived and created by that game's art director, Matt Nava, and scored by its composer, Austin Wintory.) You just take in the beautiful sights with no fears of drowning and trying to figure out the plot.

Subtrope of SceneryPorn. Contrast AtlantisIsBoring.

'''''For some reason, AtlantisIsBoring has more ''averted'' examples than straight examples, and the averted examples are on their own page- AtlantisIsBoring.{{Aversions}}. For starters, "Atlantis Is Boring" should not be a namespace. second, if its on its own page it might as well be its own trope. ill be putting all the example from there onto this new page.'''''

'''''Not 100% sure this one needs to exist, since we already have both {{Atlantis}} and UnderwaterCity. However, i dont like all of those "Aversions" examples on AtlantisIsBoring. Id like to either cut that page or move them.'''''
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