Note: We are go for launch.

As we know all too well, Lightning Can Do Anything.

Concurrently, electricity has many uses; one of these manifold uses is a natural taser.

This trope refers to the tendency for electricity (most especially in Video Games) to serve as a stunning mechanism. If a person can summon/harness lightning or electricity, chances are someone hit with it with be stunned, with arcs flowing across their body. Water is basically a giant taser trap waiting to be sprung by the proper application of an electric shock. Additionally, victims of said tasing with often cry out spasmodically before falling in a heap, in order to properly convey the force of the incapacitating blast.

Related to Shock And Awe, as most of the Electric weaponry related therein would carry this effect.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Hei in Darker Than Black uses his electricity power like this at times. In one case he actually pretended to have a taser, because he wasn't disguised at the time.

Film

• "Dynamo" in The Running Man

Literature

• "Tom Swift And His Ultrasonic Cycloplane" (1957). The villain had a weapon that generated electromagnetic waves which shocked the target into stunned submission.

Tabletop Games

• The Dark Conspiracy supplement Darktek had the "E.T. Stun Gun". It fired a laser to ionize the air, then discharged an electric current that followed the ionization path.
• GURPS has electrolasers. However these are merely stunguns that don't need a wire.

Video Games

• Eddie Riggs can stun the various animals in Brutal Legend, and then ride them, by calling down lightning with his guitar.
• Most Electric Pokemon's lightning attacks come with a paralysis side-effect. It doesn't pop up often, though.

  • Thunder Wave, is a move designed specifically to paralyse the enemy.

• The infamous "One-Two Punch" in Bioshock involves first stunning an enemy with one's FISTFULLALOIGHTNIN' and then whackin' 'em upside the head with your wrench.
• Custom Robo has the Stun and Thunderbolt guns, electrical weapons that stagger the opponent for an extended time if they hit.
• Metroid Prime's electricity-based Wave Beam may disable the target if charged.
• Players could control Mumbo Jumbo as a playable character in the sequel to Banjo Kazooie. His weapon, the Zap Stick, shot a continuous stream of sparks that would immobilize the victim and cause them to babble incoherently until they die. It was wonderful.
• The Thunder branch of spells in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles may inflict the "Stunned" status condition, preventing the victim from moving until it wears off.
• Zero Suit Samus' pistol in Super Smash Bros Brawl fires a bolt of what is presumably electricity which stops foes in their tracks, complete with the coursing arcs.
• In Borderlands, electric elemental damage can stun enemies.
• Golden Sun represents stunning as two bolts of lightning alongside the afflicted character.
• Warcraft 3 has Purge (hits target with lightning), which removes buffs but slows the target a great deal, as well as Storm Bolt, an electrically-charged hammer that stuns the target. Used by name without involving electricity, Thunder Clap also slows enemies by slamming the ground.
• XCOM has stun rods, which are basically electric cattle prods used to stun aliens for capture (and stun your own soldiers when they get mind-controlled).

Real Life

• Tasers obviously actually do use electricity to incapacitate people by delivering a powerful electric charge into a person's nervous system, inciting muscle spasms as well as an extremely painful sensation.