ok, help. i was trying to make a joke to someone about how all video game art direction in 2024 is "sky whales and friendly golems" and i was trying to find THE ORIGINAL sky whale. the first time i think i can remember seeing one is on the cover of Flight in 2004. Is there anything older? - ThreadSky

kchironis.bsky.social • 219 days ago

ok, help. i was trying to make a joke to someone about how all video game art direction in 2024 is "sky whales and friendly golems" and i was trying to find THE ORIGINAL sky whale. the first time i think i can remember seeing one is on the cover of Flight in 2004. Is there anything older?

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thesl.bsky.social•219 days ago

Whale airship in Final Fantasy 4, Bismarck in FF6.
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bismarck_(Final_Fantasy_VI)

silirrion.bsky.social•219 days ago

Not quite a 'sky' whale, but Fantasy artist Rodney Matthews had a fairly iconic painting with a space whale called 'Stop the Slaughter', late 70s iirc?

I feel like Roger Dean had also done something like that in the same era, but couldn't find what I thought I remembered.

anshin.bsky.social•219 days ago

There is a skywhale in Final Fantasy. Which one i am not sure, but pre-FF7.

maxnichols.bsky.social•219 days ago

The oldest I know of in _video games_ is The Windfish from Link’s Awakening, circa 1993.

I imagine some real life culture or another must have them in myth

willmcneese.bsky.social•219 days ago

I always wondered if there was some connection to the "bakekujira". A skeletal whale yo-kai. There's a story of fishermen persuing it and coming across a strange island that vanished after they left.

nulltwist.bsky.social•219 days ago

Possibly the one from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which debuted on radio in 1979. Granted it was only a sky whale for a minute or two until it hit the ground.

thomasthecat.bsky.social•219 days ago

This is the first time I remember being introduced to one, a book I got at the Scholastic book fair in the mid 90s:

kchironis.bsky.social•219 days ago

valid and i love this, but that is a fucking TERRIFYING sky whale lmao

thomasthecat.bsky.social•219 days ago

That book had so many cool and terrifying concepts in it. It altered my young child brain chemistry for sure.

thomasthecat.bsky.social•219 days ago

Also I feel like a lot of this has some genesis in the Christian Riese Lassen art that combined astronomy and marine life, a very popular subject for folders and trapper keepers in the 90s.

proguerammer.bsky.social•219 days ago

Maybe the Big Whale (Lunar Whale) from FF4? https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Lunar_Whale

wicketlink.bsky.social•218 days ago

Are sky whales distinct from space whales?

annabarham.bsky.social•219 days ago

Yes but how many games allow you to actually play a with sky whale 😜

liedra.net•219 days ago

As an Australian I feel like I have to offer this up even though it doesn't fit your criteria (sorry). I am very proud that this exists and that it was as controversial as it was. Definitely one of the best skywhales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skywhale

kchironis.bsky.social•219 days ago

oh.... Oh

liedra.net•219 days ago

There is also now a whole family, which is amazing. Australians love to double down on this sort of thing and I love that. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-07/skywhalepapa-unveiled-in-canberra-at-national-gallery-australia/13127580

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