Dhalsim

**Dhalsim** (ダルシム *Darushimu*?) is a video game character from the *Street Fighter* series, first appearing in *Street Fighter II*. He is a Yoga Master who possesses the ability to stretch his body and conjure fire.

## Biography

### Appearance

Dhalsim is often depicted with pupil-less white eyes. His build is that of a normal man who exercises and weight trains regularly, except for his abdomen and waist, which appear much out of proportion and emaciated. His arms are also quite extraordinary in length, and he uses this to create an advantage over his opponents during fights, usually opting to wear them down from the outside. He wears torn yellow saffron shorts, held tied around his waist by a piece of rope, as his only clothing attire, as well as yellow saffron wristbands and anklebands. He has three red stripes adorning his head, hoop earrings, and metallic bracelets, sometimes also anklets. In the *Street Fighter Alpha* series, he wears a turban that he removes before battle, while in the *Marvel vs. Capcom* series he removes what appears to be a one-shoulder shirt. The skulls he wears around his neck are those of village children that died during a plague.

Dhalsim's minimal clothing and necklace of skulls are reminiscent of the Hindu ascetics known as Kapalikas ("skull-bearers") who were often associated macabre practices such as cannibalism and meditating on top of rotting corpses. Like Blanka and Urien, Dhalsim's alternate costumes change his skin color, usually a shade of grey or yellow like the ash that Hindu holymen cover their bodies in.

In *Street Fighter V*, he has gained a long white beard, possibly from aging, and wears his turban rather than removing it.

### Personality

Dhalsim is quite stoic, serious, self-disciplined, humble, and also very stern when needed. Being a pacifist, he will never hurt a person more than necessary, or kill an adversary, even the most evil ones such as M. Bison. His pacifistic beliefs also allow him to be a greatly loving father and husband towards his family.

As an extremely altruistic man, Dhalsim fights mostly for the poor and oppressed, as he constantly tries his best to raise money for his poverty-stricken people. Dhalsim is aware that if he uses his power to harm, he may become evil, and frequently questions his decisions to use his powers for fighting. Furthermore, all forms of yoga are meant to aid a personal journey towards enlightenment, and not to harm others. Therefore, Dhalsim is constantly concerned about his fighting style overwhelming his own principles of non-violence.

In contrast with Ryu's youngster (but still serious and self-focused) type, Dhalsim has a more "mature" and less "enthusiastic" nature, as he regularly relies on his traditional yoga meditation rites to expand his spirituality, and keep his inner neutrality off any emotional involvement that may prejudice his discipline.

Dhalsim always remains calm and serene. When he fights, he is always in a constant state of meditation so he can focus on the opponent. He rarely speaks to his opponents outside of calling his attacks, and when he does, his words are riddles that leave the foe confused about his or her own being. However, Dhalsim is capable of being angry or annoyed; he holds a grudge against Balrog who killed one of his elephants, (the boxer was practicing his Gigaton Blow) and he is visibly annoyed by Rufus mistaking him for an alien.

### Concept

Dhalsim got his name from an Indian restaurant in Osaka near Capcom's office (*Dhal* is lentils, *shim* is Hyacinth beans).

During the development of *Street Fighter II*, the early original design for Dhalsim bore a striking resemblance to Ganesha, a Hindu god with four arms and the head of an elephant. A picture of Ganesha can be seen in the background of his *Street Fighter II* stage, and his fifth alternate costume in *Ultra Street Fighter IV* resembles him.

Lead designer of *Street Fighter II*, Akira Nishitani, stated in a interview that the concept of Dhalsim's ability to stretch his limbs comes from the Hamon Zoom Punch technique (from the manga series *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*).[7] This is reconfirmed in the comment section of Dhalism's bio in the *Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks* artbook.

## Gameplay

### Fighting style and abilities

Dhalsim's fighting style is generally given as Yoga, as in the form of exercise. Oddly enough, the manuals for the SNES and Genesis versions of *Street Fighter II* identified Dhalsim's fighting style as Kabaddi, which is actually an Indian sport.

Dhalsim's abilities also resemble those of an Indian fighter in the 1976 motion picture *Master of the Flying Guillotine* starring Jimmy Wang Yu. Like Dhalsim, the fighter in the movie used a yoga-based fighting style, and had the ability to extend his limbs to attack.

Dhalsim is the original long-range fighter of fighting games; his intense training has given him the ability to contort and extend his limbs into forms physically impossible for a normal human. He can project his arms and legs outward in order to deliver attacks that would be out of the range of normal limbs, and teleporting to maintain the distance.

Dhalsim also has the ability to breathe fire in various ways. In earlier releases, Capcom USA claimed that Dhalsim's ability to breathe fire stemmed from his consumption of curry, but Capcom of Japan changed this to a blessing from Agni, Hindu god of fire, and a later English manual of *Super Street Fighter II* for the Super Nintendo states that the flames stem from his mastery over fully unleashing his latent *kundalini* energies in his training.[*citation needed*] In *Super Street Fighter IV*, however, Gouken theorizes that it might be an energy-based ability instead. This may also explain Seth's ability to use some of Dhalsim's moves, though it is just as likely that he is more directly mimicking Bison's teleport.

Dhalsim's fire is actually an illusion that he manipulates with the help of the god Agni.[5] In the UDON comics, the flames won't hurt a person if they believe that they won't be burned; he proves it via engulfing Adon in flames, and as he recoils and notices he's not getting burned, taking advantage of Adon's confusion to knock him out. Also, in *Super Street Fighter IV*, he calms Hakan after defeating him by mentioning that his fire is only an illusion that won't burn his oil. Furthermore, when defeating Dhalsim, Zangief boasts that Dhalsim's imaginary flames have no chance against his own real muscles.

### Moveset

Dhalsim's overall style involves keeping the opponent at bay with distance attacks and projectiles, only getting close to strike with a surprise aerial attack or sliding kick. Dhalsim has both very low offense and defense, making it vital for him to avoid sustaining too many blows from a strong fighter. Dhalsim has a long airtime when he jumps so he could easily avoid projectiles and rushes, but is prone to light jump attacks, but he is very slow both on the ground and in the air, which can leave him vulnerable to a patient opponent. Dhalsim however, can create many ambiguous setups to confuse the opponent, and attack through with ease.

Dhalsim's sprite, while standing, is actually quite a small target, due to the total number of pixels it occupies while not attacking; he becomes a much larger target while attacking. As of *Super Street Fighter II Turbo*, the player can make Dhalsim perform only short range attacks by holding back on the joystick.

In addition to his fire-breathing and stretching, Dhalsim has a "slow-motion" floating jump that allows him to surprise foes with midair attacks. He can also utilize his teleport in midair to throw off opponents who attempt to knock him out of the air.

His Super Combos commonly include powerful flames attack, the most common of which is known as the Yoga Inferno. Some games also allow him to aim the Inferno upwards instead; this variant is known as the Yoga Volcano. Another relative common Super Combo is the Yoga Strike; Dhalsim uses his stretching limbs to grab a faraway foe and slam them into the ground.

In the *Street Fighter IV* games, Dhalsim's new Ultra Combos continue this trend. His first Ultra Combo is the Yoga Catastrophe, which is similar to the Metsu Hadoken, but recovers almost immediately, allowing for a plethora of cross-up combo opportunities. His second Ultra Combo, Yoga Shangri-La, is a midair grab that targets an earthbound foe; if successful, he headbutts them repeatedly using the momentum granted by his stretching limbs. Dhalsim also has the most reach with his Focus Attack, and has one of the few Personal Actions that actually have an effect on gameplay.

In *Street Fighter V*, his V-Trigger, the Yoga Burner, works similar to his Yoga Flame and he can blow fire at the opponent in mid-air. His V-Skill is the Yoga Float where he floats in mid-air to hit his opponent. The Yoga Catastrophe (Dhalsim's first Ultra Combo in *Street Fighter IV*) is now his Critical Art, Dhalsim breathes in, making his belly enlarge. He then spits out a slow-moving giant ball of flame that arcs and hits the opponent.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Dhalsim is mostly doing meditation. But during battles, he can quickly knock out an opponent without even touching them. He teaches Leo Yoga to clear his mind and let his body do his thing.

## Trivia

* Dhalsim is one of the eleven playable *Street Fighter* characters who are married or in a romantic relationship.

* Despite having the same rival as he did in *Street Fighter IV*, Dhalsim's rival fight stage has been changed in *Super Street Fighter IV*. It was the Crowded Downtown stage before, but then got changed to the Exciting Street Scene stage. This was due to the fact that the latter stage is located in India (which is Dhalsim's home country), and thus suits him better.

* Dhalsim is one of the few characters in the original *Street Fighter IV* game who only has one rival (in his case, Rufus) throughout the whole sub-series.

* In *Monster Hunter Explore*, there is a Monster called Yoga Gigginox whose coloration is based of off Dhalsim.