Dhalsim



"I'm your master. Pain is a state of mind, and I don't mind your pain." —Dhalsim

Dhalsim(ダルシム) is a fictional character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is born as a Sagittarius. In the story, he hails from Kerala, India. Dhalsim is famous throughout the Street Fighter series for his stretchy body and fire attacks.

Appearance
Dhalsim is often depicted with 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 wears torn saffron shorts as his only clothing attire as well as saffron wristbands and anklebands. He has three colored 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. Also, his name could be a pun on Taoisnm (Daoism-depending on the romanization scheme) as well as the Dhali Lama.

Street Fighter Alpha series to Street Fighter II series
Generally a pacifist, Dhalsim fights to raise money for his village, but realizes that it contradicts his pacifist beliefs. The only significant part he played in the overall story of the series was to make Cammy White self-aware.

Dhalsim retired from fighting after the second World Warrior tournament, and continued to roam the world helping those in need.

Super Street Fighter IV
Dhalsim makes his return in Street Fighter IV and its sequel this time to free the flow of water to his village after S.I.N. builds a dam upstream. His son, Datta, is a penpal of Amy, Guile's daughter. When Datta informs Dhalsim that his penpal's father is away on a mission, Dhalsim recognizes that the situation is even more serious than he thought if Guile is investigating it. He is reluctant to use his powers for self-serving purposes, but feels compelled to save his village. He goes to participate in the tournament S.I.N. was organizing. When the dam base is destroyed at the end of the game, the water returns to the village. Although Dhalsim believes that Shadaloo represents an evil in the heart of humanity that will never truly be defeated, he also recognises that "the goodness in mankind's heart is also endless"[1]

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

Family

Dhalsim has a wife, Sally, and a son named Datta.

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 limbs into forms physically impossible in real life; 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
Dhalsim has the power to suspend himself in midair, stretch his extremities in ways beyond the average human, breathe fire, read minds, and sense evil, the latter abilities he uses to locate the sinister Bison, and doing his part to aid those who can defeat the villain.

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.

He 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 of fire breathing, but this was rewritten to being a gift from Agni, the Indian god of fire. In one of his win quotes in Street Fighter IV he states that his fire is an illusion, but works because the target believes they will be burned by it.

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 Hyper Fighting.

Super Moves
Dhalsim's super moves consist of the Yoga Tempest (an enhanced Yoga Flame), the multi-hitting Yoga Inferno, the aerial attacking Yoga Volcano and the low-striking Yoga Stream. Certain games also see Dhalsim with an anti-air grabbing super called Yoga Strike, and he is also able to use a multiple-hitting horizontally controllable super version of Yoga Spear called Yoga Drill and a midair combo assault called Yoga Legend in the non-canon Street Fighter EX series.

In Street Fighter IV, Dhalsim's Ultra Combo is known as Yoga Catastrophe, which is a giant, slow-moving Yoga Fire, considered by some to be one of the least harmful ultras in the game. However, there is a secret advantage to the slow speed of the Yoga Catastrophe - if Dhalsim manages to use Yoga Teleport to get to the other side while Yoga Catastrophe is moving, the opponent will turn around to face him and be completely vulnerable to the giant fireball.