This is a list of fictional bats that appear in video games, film, television, animation, comics and literature. This list is subsidiary to the list of fictional animals.
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Since bats are mammals, yet can fly, they are considered to be liminal beings in various traditions. [1] In many cultures, including in Europe, bats are associated with darkness, death, witchcraft, and malevolence. [2] Among Native Americans such as the Creek, Cherokee and Apache, the bat is identified as a trickster. [3] In Tanzania, a winged batlike creature known as Popobawa is believed to be a shapeshifting evil spirit that assaults and sodomises its victims. [4] In Aztec mythology, bats symbolised the land of the dead, destruction, and decay. [5] [6] [7] An East Nigerian tale tells that the bat developed its nocturnal habits after causing the death of his partner, the bush-rat, and now hides by day to avoid arrest. [8]
More positive depictions of bats exist in some cultures. In China, bats have been associated with happiness, joy and good fortune. Five bats are used to symbolise the "Five Blessings": longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and peaceful death. [9] The bat is sacred in Tonga and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul. [10] In the Zapotec civilisation of Mesoamerica, the bat god presided over corn and fertility. [11]
The Weird Sisters in Shakespeare's Macbeth used the fur of a bat in their brew. [12] In Western culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with fictional characters of the night, both villainous vampires, such as Count Dracula and before him Varney the Vampire , [13] and heroes, such as the DC Comics character Batman. [14] Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing novels narrate the adventures of a young bat, [15] based on the silver-haired bat of North America. [16]