The scary part? He's meditating to limit his powers.
"Experience tranquility."
— Zenyatta, Overwatch
Lots of Hot-Blooded heroes like to power up by doing something violent. Whether it's Punctuated! For! Emphasis! while yelling their In the Name of the Moon speech, tearing off a Power Limiter, shouting as they charge up a Ki Manipulation, flexing as they invoke the Dangerous Forbidden Technique, or even bleeding. Not this guy though; he expresses his enhanced combat ability by entering the Yoga Lotus Position or any similar seated posture.
Rather than express violence with violence, he pauses mid-battle (or pre-battle) and meditates. It doesn't have to be a twenty-minute session; usually, all he needs is five seconds, closed eyes, even breathing, mentioning a Survival Mantra or Koan to enter a state of near-perfect calm (or murderous Tranquil Fury), and then the bad people fall down.
In video, this usually comes accompanied by a sudden hush of whatever ambient sounds there might be (whether cheering crowds or noisy explosions). You can bet their opponent will be really confused and probably insulted worse than if their honor had been Trash Talked. Cue a "surprise attack" at this obviously helpless target which will result in a blocked or even reflected attack.
This is usually used by those with Enlightenment Superpowers like the Warrior Monk, Kung-Fu Wizard, and many Psychics. In Video Games, this may manifest as a form of Charged Attack which is also invulnerable.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Byakuya Kuchiki of Bleach is a good example as well. Most characters have a bright flash of energy surrounding a Zanpakutou's release, shouting the name of their release as they do so. Byakuya defies this for his Shikai by almost whispering his release command as the blade unassumingly disintegrates. His Bankai is a perfect example, as the whole room tends to go quiet, save for a soft harmonic hum, when his sword pierces the ground, and there's no gigantic explosion like nearly every other Bankai in the series.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Demon King Dabura spends some time meditating in order to prepare himself for a fight. When in an actual fight though, he's quite Hot-Blooded.
- In Dragon Ball Super, Jiren the Grey of Universe 11 is first shown meditating in his preparation for the Tournament of Power. He also meditates during the Tournament, and when some lesser fighters try to take advantage of this they discover that he's protected by a barrier of sheer willpower.
- In Hunter × Hunter we see the chairman of the Hunter Association, Netero, do this to prepare for his big battle against the Chimera Ants.
- The serene state of mind in Mobile Fighter G Gundam works exactly like this.
- Naruto:
- Naruto can pull this after learning senjutsu (sage jutsu); however, he doesn't have any way to defend himself during the meditation so its uses are limited.
- Kyuubi does this as well in order to restore his chakra after unleashing his full power for the first time.
- Virgo Shaka of Saint Seiya is an inversion, in that he meditates to limit his powers. Even his peers among the Gold Saints dread having to fight him for fear of him stopping his meditation to open his eyes. In the Hades arc, he fights three resurrected Gold Saints at the same time and they win only because he allows them to. By the end of the fight, the Gold Saints have each lost four of their five senses and gotten beat up pretty bad.
- In the Poseidon Saga, and after his invincible Golden Spear is destroyed, Chrysaor Krishna also assumes a meditating position to draw energy from the Kundalini. The point is driven even further when his Chakras manifest and Shiryu must destroy them with Excalibur in order to defeat Krishna.
- Saiyuki: When Genjyo Sanzo stops cursing and shooting at you and starts chanting and glowing? Your ass is about to get kicked seven ways to Sunday by a dusty old scroll.
- Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie: Having (just barely) shaken off Bison's Psycho Power control, Ken finds himself broken and battered and unable to help Ryu defeat the monstrous dictator. After a few desperate attempts to get on his feet, he recalls a meditation technique from his master and stands in a perfect, serene guarding pose. The background fades to black and all sounds but his chanting stop while his spirit flickers in small blue flames around his body. After a few minutes, he opens his eyes, having regained his calm, his center, and his strength to go and save his friend.
- Toriko: The titular character stated once that every time he places his hands together in prayer for the meal he's about to receive (ie. whatever animal is going to be eaten and killed by him), he's imagining the winning blows.
Comic Books
- Richard Dragon: The titular character often meditates before a fight, and if he enters a meditate state while fighting can achieve more than human feats of strength and toughness and gains Combat Clairvoyance.
Film
- Bagger in The Legend of Bagger Vance is able to induce one of these in Junuh (making every spectator seemingly disappear) by talking about the beauty of golf and onness with nature over a Whoopi Epiphany Speech.
- Star Wars:
- The Phantom Menace: Qui-Gon Jinn takes this route during a break in the fight against Darth Maul on Naboo. When the energy shields come up, Maul paces and glares, Obi-Wan looks anxious, but Qui-Gon drops to his knees and closes his eyes. When the shields go down, he's back on his feet in a second. It helps, but isn't enough.
- In The Force Awakens, Rey uses one after Kylo Ren taunts her during their duel, closing her eyes and holding her breath while maintaining a blade lock with him. Then she opens her eyes and dominates Ren for the rest of the fight.
Literature
- Cradle Series: Very common due to the absolutely universal Enlightenment Superpowers. Typically meditating and cycling takes minutes at least if not hours, but if someone is on the cusp of advancement already they might be able to take that last push in just a few quick moments of meditation, gaining the upper edge in a fight.
- Justified in Swellhead. Psychic detective Roger Jeperson is battling a reality-warping supervillain, gets into a Lotus Position and starts chanting (which he admits is a bit corny these days, but effective). However the goal is not to tap into his own power, but to shake the confidence of his enemy, who has an innate belief that Jeperson is a Worthy Opponent with skills to match his own.
- In The Wheel of Time series, meditation is key to channeling the True Source. The form of meditation differs between women and men, and channeling reliably is impossible without knowing the method.
Mythology and Religion
- Irish Mythology: Before his battle with the Fir Bolgs, the god Nuada is said to have entered a sort of meditative battle trance after a visit from one of the three Morrigna.
Tabletop Games
- Rokugani samurai berserkers in Legend of the Five Rings use this to enter a kind of Tranquil Fury martial trance in which they can slaughter their way through dozens of opponents without breaking a state of calm.
Video Games
- In Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, halfway through the battle against Elyon, he "begins meditating", with a very large targetting circle locked onto one party member. After three turns, lightning strikes that character and anything nearby, inflicting quadruple-digit damage.
- Cassette Beasts features the Meditate sticker, which puts the user to sleep for a few turns, but raises their stats in the process. The stat boost wears off quickly once the user wakes up, but at the very least it makes for a couple turns of asskicking, and it's possible to use support moves to keep the user in the fight despite them being asleep.
- In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, using the Sky Fish soul will make Soma sit down and pray. Doing so boosts his attack and luck for a short period — the longer you use the soul, the larger the boost.
- In Cognitive Dissonance, Niiue can restore his PP by meditating during battle.
- In Fire Emblem Engage Jade's personal skill "Meditation" temporarily increases her Resistance, if she ended her turn without attacking or using items. It makes her slightly less vulnerable to magic attacks.
- In Guild Wars: Factions, final boss Shiro Tagachi has the attack "Meditation of the Reaper". He goes into a meditative state and nullifies the next 500 damage he takes while in that state. He stays in the stance for 30 seconds, or until he's taken that 500 damage, whichever is shorter. You do not want him to spend the full 30 seconds in meditation because as soon as the stance ends, he steals 20 health from each party member for each second he was in the stance. For those of you playing at home, that's 600 damage to everyone in the party if he stays in it for 30 seconds.
- In Horn of the Abyss, a Game Mod for Heroes of Might and Magic III, local Feathered Dragons Couatls, tier 7 creatures of Factory, can "meditate" once per battle to become completely invulnerable for one turn. Its animation involves the dragon balancing on its coiled tail, complete with crossed legs and hands in an Buddhist "OK symbol"
gesture.
- In Overwatch, robotic monk Zenyatta's ultimate is him floating around while meditating, healing all nearby allies enormously.
- In the Pokémon games, Mewtwo is said to spend its time meditating to increase its mental powers.
- The "Meditate" move (which is called "Yoga Pose" in Japan) raises the user's Attack by one stage.
- The "Calm Mind" technique (which in Japan is appropriately called "Meditation") raises the user's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage each.
- The "Amnesia" move, which is said to have the Pokémon willingly clear its mind, raises the user's Special Defense by two stages.
- In The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4, Sims who spend long enough meditating begin to levitate, then eventually gain the ability to teleport. In The Sims 2, meditating also freezes a Sim's need decay. Also in The Sims 4: Vampires, Vampires can recharge their Vampire Energy through "Dark Meditation" rather than sleeping.
- In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Bastila's "battle meditation" is a used as a plot device; it is a rare Force ability that affects the morale and combat skills all of her allies in a given area.
- Yoshimitsu from Tekken has a move where he sits down in the lotus seat position. The longer he stays in it, the more health he restores.
- In Warframe, Nyx assumes this pose when using her ultimate power, Absorb, which creates a whirling vortex of energy around her that absorbs all incoming fire; the more damage she absorbs, the greater the resulting explosion once Absorb ends.
Webcomics
- In John Allison's Scary Go Round side-strip Giant Days, Esther's new friend Daisy flops down into Lotus position (sort of) during a fight and then unleashes the awesome power of Yogic Flying. George Harrison does not approve.
- Gunther in Collar 6 takes out a massive vault door with his bare hand, and all he needs to do it is a few seconds of focus.
- In Koan of the Day the guru can power up by meditating when he fights the tyger.
- In Laser Feet's 5th comic, one man meditates in order to gain the power to fly using his eyebrows.
Web Video
- The Corridor Digital short To The Death is about a student at a futuristic Laser Sword fighting school who needs to duel and defeat one of the school's teachers in order to graduate. In the first attempt the student is struggling with his nervousness, in the second he's lashing out due to pain, fear, and anger, by the fourth he's gotten cocky and is treating the whole thing as a game. Before the fifth and final attempt he takes a few seconds to meditate, calming his breathing and mind. With a calm mind, he finally manages to find a way to defeat the teacher.
Western Animation
- This is how Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender is supposed to activate the Avatar State. The first time he does this, he gets one-shotted in the back mid-transformation by a clever Azula. The second time he does this is the beginning of one of the greatest asskickings ever, directed towards Fire Lord Ozai at the end of the series.
- His successor, Avatar Korra, also uses meditation at times (it's actually part of her airbender training) to connect to the Avatar spirit. In an inversion, though, she doesn't get (or need) more power; instead, it helps foster her spiritual connection to the world, which she has always lacked, unlike Aang.
- This is how Callum in The Dragon Prince learns to do Sky magic. His meditations help him learn the Sky Arcanum, and later takes moment to center his thoughts when conjuring mage wings.
- Ahsoka in Star Wars Rebels sheaths her lightsabers and meditates during a lull in her fight with the Inquisitors. It allows her forcibly shut down a lightsaber and Shockwave Clap the Seventh Sister
- In "The End: Part One" of Teen Titans (2003), Raven goes into a meditation position before entering her energy raven attack to blow apart Plasmus. Though she spends a lot of time in the series meditating, this is the only time she does so during a battle.
