History Main / SuckingInLines

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the advanced firebending technique of shooting lightning requires the user to slowly gather energy from their surroundings, manifesting as streams of electricity trailing from their fingertips for several seconds (except for [[BigBad Ozai]], who is skilled enough to do it in the blink of an eye).

* Several spells in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' do this, notably Lina's signature spell, the Dragon Slave. The Giga Slave also does this when cast through the Sword of Light.

* In ''LightNovel/KazeNoStigma'' just about any large-scale magical attack forces the mages to draw in little appropriately coloured orbs of light.

* [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Mami Tomoe]]'s [[FinishingMove Tiro Finale]] gets this when she aims it at Gertrud.

** The moves Solar Beam and Hyper Beam in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' {{anime}}. In the games, [[TakingYouWithMe Explosion]] also does this.

* In the film version of ''Film/MortalKombat'', Sub-Zero sucks in particles to charge his freezing powers.

* Harry Dresden also took advantage of the necessity to draw heat from his surroundings to produce fire. To give his allies a route off a docked ship, he fired a massive blast of flame upwards, temporarily freezing over the surface of Lake Michigan.

** So does [[spoiler: the Earth]] in the last level of [[VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan Ouendan 2]] before firing the CombinedEnergyAttack.

* The Protoss Purifier Mothership in VideoGame/StarCraft2 does this while powering up its [[DeathRay Planet Cracker]] beam weapon.

* The [[{{BFG}} BFG-9000]] in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'', but in the first two games all you get is a large, expanding glow and ominous noise coming from the muzzle before the big death ball comes out.
** The [[VideoGame/Doom2016 current iteration]] visibly distorts space around the firing end as the BFG charges up its blast.

** Also, the Power Drainer of ''Halo 3''. It works like an EMP by draining in all the nearby energy until it [[ExplosiveOverclocking explodes]].

* G-Darius' {{Wave Motion Gun}}s do this whilst charging to a small degree. These are the sort of WMG that puts other [=WMGs=] to shame, too!

* In the Literature/WhateleyUniverse stary "Ayla and the Grinch", Ayla ends up fighting [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination]]. When Ayla sees all the ley lines being sucked in by the BigBad, she knows she's in ''big'' trouble.

[[folder: Film ]]

When a powerful spell, weapon, or device is about to fire, it often gives several seconds of warning by dramatically sucking in glowing lines or orbs. Sometimes it is actually gathering and condensing energy or matter from the environment, but [[RuleOfCool not always]]. A WaveMotionGun or CombinedEnergyAttack will almost always do this. Usually it's "thrown" at a target when it's BlastingTime.

** Zinv's ultimate attack in ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'' consists of sucking in lines, then blowing everything up. Probably justified, since the big attack consists of [[spoiler: using Zinv's gravity manipulation abilities to make a micro-black hole, absorb, and then redirect energy weapons]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqvYsVJ2kDU Lightning]]. What seems like a single flash that occurs within a fraction of a second, is actually an event of intense energy building in the sky before an "electrical fork" strikes the ground.
* A theoretical event during the core collapse of very massive stars, when they exceed the Chandrasekhar mass just before exploding as a supernova, and become a back hole or neutron star. These events are thought to generate the relativistic jets known as [[WaveMotionGun gamma-ray bursts]].

* A theoretical event during the core collapse of very massive stars, when they exceed the Chandrasekhar mass just before exploding as a supernova, that become a back hole or neutron star.