"When Carrie started to get really good at telekinesis, I noticed she used her hands a lot. She was gesturing with them like a music conductor. You know who does that when they use telekinesis? People who aren't telekinetic. Magicians and crap."
Whenever characters with energy-projecting Magic and Powers want to make a big impact crater, they'll follow the sweep of a clock when firing. Much like throwing a baseball, they will raise their arms straight up at 12, start Sucking-In Lines, then lower one or both arms to 3 (or whatever angle their target is at) and let loose. If the character is very fast, he or she may even "chain throw" Ki Manipulation by alternating charging and throwing between arms, much like a swimmer's strokes.
Similar to the Pstandard Psychic Pstance, this pose is meant to give motion and direction to what would normally be intangible forces and liven up dull scenes. Visually, there's probably also a pragmatic reason for this, as the pose allows the character to generate an Energy Ball or similar of pretty much any size without obscuring their face. If the character doing the attack also floats in the air (and they often do), it can also look threatening in a Death from Above way. In the story itself, the pose is probably justified as being necessary for the Full-Contact Magic, pyrokinesis or Combined Energy Attack to be properly executed, in which case immobilizing the arms effectively stops the attack or forces a misfire.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball Z: Goku's Spirit Bomb adapts the straight up then bomb position, while the Kamehameha used start with the arms spread wide at approximately 2 and 10 before cupping the gathered energy at the waist (though later they skipped that part and went straight to cup-and-fire); Vegeta, meanwhile, is more adept at chain blasting. Vegeta also has the Final Flash, in which he holds his arms out to his sides while charging up the attack and then brings his arms forward with hands cupped together (horizontally rather than the Kamehameha's vertical alignment) to fire the attack.
- Saint Seiya:
- Camus and later Hyoga do the double drop as part of Aurora Thunder and Aurora Execution. The former, anime only, technique executes it quickly, so that the Saint tosses several blasts in succession. For the latter, raising your hands is part of a near-ritualistic stance, rather than a gathering of power.
- Subverted by the film version of Gemini Saga's Galactic Explosion. He will raise one hand high over his head... while his other hand, held close to his side, grasps a steadily-engorging globe of naked power. The TV version follows a more standard approach. Also subverted in the manga, as he just throws his hands up. However, most of its uses happen in a different way, sometimes resembling a Kamehame Hadouken.
- "Blasting" spells in Slayers, from the basic Fireball to the Dragon Slave are often cast this way, with the mage in question raising her hands as she recites the incantation. Quite justified because the Functional Magic of Slayers is basically Theurgy, with black magic in particular requiring calling upon the power of the resident God of Evil or some of his almost-as-powerful spawn; it's basically a praying gesture.
- A few times in the Ranma ½ animation, though more often than not they will gather energy in their hands by holding them to the side rather than above. In the case of Ryouga's the Shishi Hokodan, the manga depiction will usually have him cross his arms over his chest, and he will only push his palms forward to channel the ki at the last second.
- Performed by the titular character of Hell Teacher Nube while momentarily transformed into a full oni due to his Red Right Hand. In order to defeat a vicious, nigh-invincible enemy, oni-Nube raises his hand and gathers the love and trust of his students into a sphere that he then flings down at the enemy, blasting a sizable hole through it.
- Minki, a female oni, also attempts this. But her Power Incontinence often makes her drop the ball of hellfire on top of herself.
- Digimon Fusion: In episode 31, OmegaShoutmon performs an anticlockwise version of this when unleashing a Heavy Metal Vulcan on the mass of Dorbickmon's minions through which he had just torn.
- An odd variant: when Dio Brando invokes his Time Stands Still power, he raises his arms and sweeps them down and around before throwing them out to his sides on the shout of "The World!"
- During the climax of Summer Wars, Natsuki does this with a Hanafuda card.
- Variation in Lyrical Nanoha. Nanoha does this with Raising Heart when casting Starlight Breaker, but the ball of condensed energy forms in front of her. When it's done charging, she slams Raising Heart into the ball, setting off the beam.
- In Street Fighter II V, Ryu spins his arms before cupping his hands for a Hadoken.
Comic Books
- In The Big Fables Crossover, Fantasy (as in the Genre given physical form) would routinely lob magical blasts this way.
- New Mutants: Boom-Boom would regularly hurl her psychically-generated explosives this way.
Films — Animation
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: After materializing a fireball between her palms, Sunset Shimmer in demon form throws it by raising her arms above her head before bringing it down the Equestria Girls.
Literature
- The Wheel of Time: Channeling is a purely Thought-Controlled Power, but channelers often end up performing specific gestures with their Weaves anyway and can struggle to do the latter without the former. It's a rare Aes Sedai who can throw a fireball without making some kind of throwing motion, purely because of how universal and ingrained the habit is.
Live-Action TV
- Mirai Sentai Timeranger/Power Rangers Time Force:
- The Red, Pink and Green Rangers have a special move with their Chrono Saber which has them leap in the air and merge with a clock hologram before delivering a Sword Beam slash resembling the 12 and 3 positions of a clock.
- The core five Rangers' most powerful mecha has two different Finishing Moves revolving around clock imagery. One has the mecha drawing a clock image in the air and then slashing downwards from the 12 angle. The second one has the mecha shooting out the numbers on a clock hologram. The blasts freeze the opponent in place allowing the mecha to deliver a final blast to finish off the opponent.
Tabletop Games
- In GURPS Magic, ranged offensive spells take the form or a bolt or ball that must be created and charged, then can be held in hand until shot or thrown at the enemy, and can miss! Plus they can dropped on purpose or accident. Not good with the exploding varieties.
Toys
- Exploited as a plot-point to defeat the Big Bad in BIONICLE: Makuta Teridax has to raise his arms to use his gravity-powers, with which he wants to fold the planet onto itself and make Mata Nui, the hero, watch his people and his friends die. The latter uses this opening to lunge at Makuta, crushing his head against a moon/asteroid/planet chunk (depends on the medium) that's been attracted by their combined gravity-powers.
Video Games
- In Final Fantasy VI, Sabin's Aura Bolt technique shows him raising his hands above his head to suck in a massive sphere of spiritual power, then he'll aim his hands forward and release it as a gigantic beam.
- In Granblue Fantasy Versus, Chaosbringer does this during his Super Skybound Art, Chaos Legion.
- Likewise Avatar uses a very similar move against the player.
- Ferry's Super Skybound Art Aetheryte Requiescat is an interesting case, as the relatively small Energy Ball she raises up over her head seems to act merely as the trigger for a massive explosion.
- Touhou Project fighting games:
- In a rather obvious parody of Dragon Ball Z, the Oni Spirit Bomb used by Ibuki Suika.
- Patchouli's "Saint Elmo's Pillar" also uses the Spirit Bomb pose.
- Most nature-oriented Mages in the Fire Emblem series use this form while casting spells. Shamans (dark spellcasters) do it in reverse — holding their hands in front of themselves to charge the power up before raising them to unleash it.
- Super Mario RPG:
- Mario's special attacks animations start with him raising his hands, power animation and then attacking in
- The same goes for Geno, who would do this in the opposite of normal order — pointing at the enemy first, then raising his hands with his powerup animation before using his special attack.
- Prevalent in the Disgaea games. Characters will raise their hands, conjuring massive fire or energy balls, and then throw them at their targets.
- A few attacks in City of Heroes and City of Villains use this animation, most notably Ionic Judgement (raise arms to gather lightning, release bolt), Neutron Bomb (charge up glowy orb, throw) and Thunderous Blast (shakily charge up electricity, release electrical bolt).
- Warcraft: The Blood Mage's spellcasting animation in III has him wave his arms around then bring them up. Most notable on his Flame Strike spell, which conjures up pillar of fire just as he brings his arms down.
- Zone of the Enders: Jehuty's burst attack has him generate a very large Energy Ball overhead, followed by throwing it at the enemy.
Webcomics
- In Drowtales, using mana attacks is sometimes done with this motion.
- Terra
in El Goonish Shive apparently likes flashy, though less power-efficient magic.
