History Main / FragileFlyer

*** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' adds the Aerocudas, which, while marginally stronger than Keese, are still extremely weak, enough so as to go down to a single shot from most bows. Unlike most other enemies, they also do not come in stronger variants. Like Keese, they can be killed just by shield-parrying their diving attacks.

*** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' adds the Aerocudas, which, while marginally stronger than Keese, are still extremely weak, enough so as to go down to a single shot from most bows. Unlike most other enemies, they also do not come in stronger variants.

* ''VideoGame/SavageHalloween'': You can choose between three characters before the gane starts, a StingyJack named James, a Werewolf named Lulu and a Vampire named Dominika, the last one who has the ability of turning into a bat and fly around instead of jumping. Her stats also happens to be weakest of the three.

* In the ''Literature/SectorGeneral'' series, two sentient species -- GLNO Cinrusskin (BigCreepyCrawlies) and LSVO Nallajim (BirdPeople) -- are {{Lightworlder}}s who are capable of flight on their own planet (or on Sector General with antigravity equipment) and are extremely fragile compared to other species.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Players wearing elytra can glide and, by using certain items to boost height, outright fly. However, elytra are worn in place of chest armor, so this means having less protection compared to staying ground-bound and with a full set of armor.

This is commonly seen in games, where airborne enemies, units, and players will benefit from much less armor and health than normal.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'': The titular Gundam and its upgrade, a highly mobile areal mobile suit using the Minvosky Craft System that abandons the more bulky preceeding design language is notable among protagonist mobile suits in that how easily its various parts get trashed on a regular basis in stark contrast to how durable the Gundams are usually portrayed as.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': As a rule, Flying-type Pokémon are strongest in their Speed, Attack, and Special Attack stats, but lag in defense and health.

* ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'': Subverted. Tal's [[MixAndMatchCritters Mix-and-Match Critter]] in the magical game ''Beastmaker'' manifests as a {{Fairy Dragon|s}} with large, delicate wings. Everyone (including Tal) expects it to be a weakling, but it [[SubvertedTrope turns out to be]] tough, [[LightningBruiser agile]], tenacious, and smart enough to exploit its fragile appearance with a WoundedGazelleGambit.

** The titular Gundam and its upgrade of ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'', a highly mobile areal mobile suit using the Minvosky Craft System that abandons the more bulky preceeding design language is notable among protagonist mobile suits in that how easily its various parts get trashed on a regular basis in stark contrast to how durable the Gundams are usually portrayed as.

* In the ''Literature/SectorGeneral'' series, two sentient species -- GLNO Cinrusskin (BigCreepyCrawlies) and LSVO Nallajim (BirdPeople) -- are lightworlders who are capable of flight on their own planet (or on Sector General with antigravity equipment) and are extremely fragile compared to other species.

Flyers typically make up for this deficiency in health and armor through speed and agility. Their flight can often keep them out of their enemies' range, and allows them to simply ignore difficult terrain. They also tend to have a decent turn of speed on top of that. In essence, they rely on keeping their foes from attacking them by being very difficult to actually attack. AntiAir is thus the bane of their existence: specialized ranged attacks, as well as more unorthodox tricks such as webs and nets, negate their ability to stay safely above the action and can quickly cripple or destroy them.

This is commonly seen in games, where airborne enemies, units and players will benefit from much less armor and health than normal.

** ''VideoGame/TransformersDevastation'': The Seekers appear as {{Mooks}} used by the Decepticons utilizing the "Conehead" design made famous by Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet (who are conspicuously absent). The airborne Seeker variants (one variant primarily uses rockets and missiles while the other uses blasters) have significantly lower health than the melee combat variant that is introduced DualWielding scimitars when he attacks the Autobots. The reason for this is because the player is meant to shoot down the airborne Seekers using their ranged weaponry (and in fact the airborne Seekers are introduced during the tutorial for said weaponry) and so have less health to avoid becoming frustrating DemonicSpiders.

** "Deserts": A colony of Barbidactylus is the focus of a segment where the much larger males are competing in fierce territorial displays for the attention of the females around them. One of the fights escalates violently, as a male takes to the air to flee with another male closely pursuing. When the pursuing male gets close enough, he nips at the wings of his opponent. While it doesn?t appear that the bite does much damage, it does throw the loser off-balance and forces him to collide against the steep cliff face of the mesa the colony is using as breeding grounds, which likely killed the loser instantly (although even if he did survive that, his subsequent forty plus foot fall to the ground certainly finished the job).

** ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'': The episode that introduces Red King has it face the bat-like Chandlar, who, despite momentarily subduing Red King [[BlowYouAway by blowing gusts of wind]] into the latter's face, turns out to be a lousy fighter once Red King gets a hold of Chandlar's wings and rips them off, defeating it with ease. Later on, a different Red King fights two different monsters, the dragonfly-like Dorako and the Yeti-inspired Gigass, Dorako turning out to be the weakest of the trio and the first to be violently killed by Red King.

*** Near the end of the show there's a type of winged monsters called Zoiger that attack in swarms, but they're among the weakest enemies in the show, a few of them being destroyed by GUTS without Tiga's help.

** ''Series/UltramanMebius'' has an extraterrestrial flying monster called Arigera, one of the fastest monsters in the show and capable of flying at Mach 6, but also physically the weakest. It puts up enough of a fight via organic cannon blasts, but gets killed in a single hit via InertiaIsACruelMistress when it flies directly into Ultraman Mebius' Mebium Blade, [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe halving it vertically]].
** ''Series/UltramanOrb'': The StarterVillain is Maga-Basser, the first of five Maga-kaiju (Monster Lords) appearing in the show and one that relies entirely on flight as its gimmick. It's expectedly the lightest of the Maga-kaiju and the fastest, but goes down like a punk once Ultraman Orb slices up it's wings.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': The Hydro Mimic Raptors are {{Airborne Mook}}s made of [[MakingASplash Hydro]] that take the form of falcons and are one of the enemies that the [[FlunkyBoss Oceanid]] can spawn. They're {{Glass Cannon}}s capable of swooping down fast to deal large Hydro damage on your characters, and the fact that they remain airborne means that ground-focused characters with no aerial attack options are at a disadvantage. However, the Raptors have very low HP pools on top of having a [[ElementalRockPaperScissors weakness]] to [[ShockAndAwe Electro]], so a few timed charged arrow shots or Catalyst attacks that can reach them (especially ones with Electro properties) will put them down easily.

** During [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the One Year War era]], when the majority of the fighting is concentrated on Earth, both sides have to choose whether to move their forces using transport aircraft (the Medea and its upgrade the Medea Kai for the Earth Federation, the Fat Uncle and Gaw Attack Carrier for the Principality of Zeon) or land battleships (the Big Tray for the Federals or the Dobaday for Zeon). The transport aircraft naturally have far more range, but are also much more vulnerable to concentrated enemy fire. The Federals have an advantage in this area, since they have a variety of aircraft including dedicated air-to-air combat aircraft that can swarm and bring down even a Gaw Attack Carrier by [[ZergRush sheer weight of numbers]].

* ''VideoGame/Legend1994'': Giant ravens and bats are the fastest, but also weakest, enemy varieties. They swoop all over the place during battle, but die in just one hit.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Players wearing elytra can glide and, by using certain items to boost height, outright fly. However, elytra are worn in place of chest armor, so this means having less protection compared staying ground-bound and with a full set of armor.

* ''VideoGame/OrientalLegend'' has a BossBonanza trio consisting of three animal demons, the Lion, Elephant and Garuda, the third being an eagle-based humanoid and a FragileSpeedster with highest speed but lowest amount of health.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': As a rule, Flying-type Pokémon are strongest in their Speed, Attack and Special Attack stats, but lag in defense and health.

* 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 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.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'':
** Keese and Cursed enemies are some of the very few flying monsters in the game. [[OneHitPointWonder Both also have a single point of health apiece]], and will die from any attack. The Cursed foes' primary advantage is that, during Divine Beast segments, they simply ignore the pit-and-platform navigation puzzles that limit Link's mobility.
** Courser bee swarms are the only flying animals that will attack Link. They will also be defeated by two strikes from even a weak weapon or bow, and will rarely even close in with Link unless they catch him unawares.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Keese and Cursed enemies are some of the very few flying monsters in the game. [[OneHitPointWonder Both also have a single point of health apiece]], and will die from any attack.

** ''Series/UltramanMax'': A two-parter brings back Red King alongside two other monsters, the dinosaur-like Salamandon and winged Paragler, the latter being lowest in strength, lacking ranged attacks, and it's only advantage being its ability of flight. While both monsters are killed by Red King, Salamandon at least manages to land a few hits in -- Paragler on the other hand gets knocked out and eliminated without even scratching Red King.

** ''VideoGame/TransformersDevastation'': Based on the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers G1 cartoon]], the Seekers appear as [=Mooks=] used by the Decepticons utilising the "Conehead" design made famous by Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet (who are conspicuously absent). The airborne Seeker variants (one variant primarily uses rockets and missiles while the other uses blasters) have significantly lower health than the melee combat variant that is introduced DualWielding scimitars when he attacks the Autobots. The reason for this is because the player is meant to shoot down the airborne Seekers using their ranged weaponry (and in fact the airborne Seekers are introduced during the tutorial for said weaponry) and so have less health to avoid becoming frustrating DemonicSpiders.
** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': Skyquake, an imposing Decepticon warrior, was killed with somewhat embarrassing ease by Bumblebee, who managed to climb atop him in his jet mode and ''rip out his internals''. The resulting damage caused him to crash-land and perish.