History Main / FragileFlyer

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'': The Aries are the aerial counterpart to the Leos, acting as the primary airborne {{Mooks}} of the series. Unlike the Leos, which can be equipped with either solid ammunition weapons like machine guns and bazookas or beam weapons like beam rifles in addition to a basic beam saber mounted in their shields, the Aries are armed with nothing more than a chaingun and missiles. In order to keep weight low, they also have less armour than the Leos. Notably, when [[CharClone Zechs Merquise]] leads a team to intercept the Wing Gundam as it enters Earth's atmosphere, Zech opts to pilot a Leo rather than an Aries despite the confrontation happening at high altitude.

* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': The winged sentries have the lowest overall health of the sentry types -- common sentries have the same as they do to start with, but gain a little extra when the player gets the first sword upgrade that the flying types don't benefit from. As a result, they take the fewest hits to defeat, but are harder to bring to battle thanks to staying up in the air most of the time.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', the Militia's airborne drones (Dragon and Serpent) can take much less punishment than their land-based counterparts. Dragon drones can be shot down by the Batmobile's Vulcan Cannon, while Serpent drones fall to a single charge of Explosive Gel sprayed onto them. Meanwhile, the land-based drones only take damage from the Batmobile's 60mm cannon, with them not taking damage from the Vulcan cannon unless Batman aims it at the drones' weak spots.

** Land-bound zombie hordes are notable for being very hard to put down, since they don't care about losing body parts, and, even after being entirely dismembered, they can pull themselves back together given time. The bat-like zombie nightcryers, however, are {{Glass Cannon}}s. Their [[MakeMeWannaShout sonic attacks]] are dangerous, and they're quite nimble, but if they can be hit, then their wings or bodies are easily broken or burned. Even the Elkas, who are fragile themselves, can easily take them in melee in even numbers.

* Janine in ''{{Literature/Dinoverse}}'' becomes a Quetzalcoatlus and is markedly less sturdy than the other kids, all of whom became terrestrial dinosaurs. Situations that just scuff up the others are a serious risk for her.
* Miranda in ''Literature/DrFranklinsIsland'' undergoes a SlowTransformation into a bird monster, with a middle stage that has her so twisted up and fragile that when she's taken away to the lab to finish the change, her whole bed is lifted and carried out. She's more robust once the change is complete, but when she causes trouble [[MadScientist her creator]] berates his staff telling them to be careful capturing her, [[IWantThemAlive he wants her alive to vivisect]].

* Most birds and flying mammals like bats have light, hollow bones that allow them to fly efficiently without weight being an issue; in their time, pterosaurs were built the same. However, it should be noted that the stereotype of avian creatures being fragile is exaggerated, since there are cases of them falling from heights greater than a skyscraper and still surviving because of the SquareCubeLaw being on their side. Notably, mainly or primarily terrestrial relatives of these animals, such as ratite birds like the ostrich and emu or the giant azhdarchid pterosaurs like ''Quetzacoatlus'' and ''Hatzegopterus'', tend to often be much larger and sturdier than their flying kin.