Dhalsim

Dhalsim
File:Streetfighter dhalsim illust.png

Dhalsim in his fighting pose.

Dhalsim in his fighting pose.

Dhalsim is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games.

Story

Generally a pacifist, Dhalsim fights to raise money for his village. The only significant part he played in the overall story of the series was to make Cammy self-aware, but he is otherwise a secondary character.

Dhalsim has the power to suspend himself in midair, read minds, and sense evil, the latter abilities he uses to locate the sinister M. Bison, and doing his part to aid those who can destroy the villain. He retired from fighting after the second World Warrior tournament, and continued to roam the world helping those in need.

Despite his normally being on the sidelines of storylines, Dhalsim appears in all versions of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha and many of the crossover games, from X-Men vs. Street Fighter to Capcom vs. SNK.

Alternate Storylines

In the Street Fighter II V, the UDON comic book series, and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Dhalsim is a wise and powerful mystic who aids Ryu in his quest to become stronger and defeat evildoers.

Appearance

Dhalsim is often depicted as having pupil-less 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. He has three coloured stripes adorning his head, and in the Street Fighter Alpha series, he wears a turban that he removes before battle. The skulls he wears around his neck are those of village children that died during a plague. In palette swap renditions of Dhalsim, his skin is often dark blue or other unnatural colors. He is the oldest of the original World Warriors.

Gameplay

Dhalsim is the original long-range fighter of fighting games. Dhalsim's intense training has given him the ability to contort and extend his extremities in ways that are physically impossible; he can project his arms and legs outward in order to deliver attacks that would be out of the range of normal limbs. Dhalsim's fighting style involves keeping the opponent at bay with distance attacks and projectiles, and optimally, only getting close to strike with a surprise aerial attack or sliding kick. Due to his reach advantage, Dhalsim has both very low offense and defense, making it vital for him to avoid sustaining too many blows from a strong fighter. Dhalsim's sprite, while standing, is actually quite a small target, due to the total number of pixels Dhalsim's sprite occupies while not attacking. Dhalsim becomes a much larger target while attacking. As of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the player can make Dhalsim do only short range attacks by holding back on the joystick.

Techniques

Using the normal moves called the Yoga Spear, Dhalsim can spin through the air at various angles, ideally landing close to his opponent so that he can deliver additional hits or throws.

Dhalsim can project from his mouth a rapid, immobilizing projectile known as Yoga Fire, and a stationary spread known as the Yoga Flame; later games incorporate the anti-air version known as the Yoga Blast. According to the English language Street Fighter II manual, eating spicy Indian curry gave Dhalsim the ability to breathe fire, but this was rewritten to being a gift from Agni, the Indian god of fire.

To escape opponents or otherwise change his physical location, Dhalsim can travel bodily through the astral plane in a form of teleportation, known as the Yoga Teleport. A glitch in the original Street Fighter II caused Dhalsim to disappear from time to time, rendering his long-reaching attacks invisible until the end of the round. While this was an unintentional error, Dhalsim was officially given the Yoga Teleport in Street Fighter II' Turbo.

Dhalsim's super moves consist of the Yoga Tempest (an enhanced Yoga Flame), the multi-hitting Yoga Inferno, and the low-striking Yoga Stream. Certain games also see Dhalsim with an anti-air grabbing super called Yoga Strike.

Actors

The majority of the time, Dhalsim is voiced by Yoshiharu Yamada. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Eiji Yano voices Dhalsim.

Dhalsim was portrayed by Roshan Seth in 1994's live action Street Fighter movie. In the movie, Dhalsim was changed from a fighter to a meek doctor working on a "supersoldier" experiment for M. Bison. His science was originally supposed to promote peace but Bison corrupted it to serve perversion instead (as he said so in the beginning). In the end, (after he's burned and altered to look more like the character in the game) he decided to die along with Shadoloo alongside with Blanka (his creation), with last words of "If good men do nothing, that is evil enough."

Character Basis

Dhalsim's abilities resemble those of an Indian fighter in the 1976 movie Master of the Flying Guillotine starring Jimmy Wang Yu. Like Dhalsim, the fighter in the movie used a yoga-based fighting style and had an unnatural ability to extend his limbs to attack. Dhalsim's personality resembles that of Mohandas Gandhi; vegetarianism, spiritualism and meditation, and simplicity, as Dhalsim wears very simple attire. Also 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. In these respects, he bears a remarkable similarity to Gandhi. 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 nonviolence.

Trivia

• Dhalsim can talk while blowing fire.
• Dhalsim apparently does not, or did not always, have an oath of celibacy, as he has a wife, Sally and son, Datta. His family can be seen in Dhalsim's ending in the Street Fighter II series, and in updated versions of these games, Datta is re-drawn to look less like an offensive caricature. Sally can be seen in the background of Dhalsim's Street Fighter Alpha stages cheering him on.
• Dhalsim often associates with elephants and with the elephant-headed god Ganesha. Elephants are visible in both his Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter II series stages. Ganesha is present as a large statue and on a tapestry in both series, respectively. Upon winning the original Street Fighter II with Dhalsim, he returns home riding an elephant named Kodal. Balrog once killed one of his elephants.
• The skulls Dhalsim wears are those of children from his village who died of plague, not those of enemies, as Dhalsim will not take human life. (This oddly contradicts his SFII victory quote "I will meditate and then destroy you!")