History Main / PoseOfSupplication

* In the SailorMoon R movie, the four Inner Seishi go into the pose to [[spoiler: beg Fiore to spare the life of Moon, whom he intends to torture to death.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan'', Dr. Wily does this every time his [[FinalBattle most powerful war machine]] is destroyed. In the first game he seems sincere about it, but after that he usually does it to distract Mega Man so he can make his escape.

* Guardsmen bow like this in a flashback in ''[[TortallUniverse First Test]]'', after Ilane of Mindelan saves the god's swords from Scanran pirates.

* In ''{{Naruto}}'', Hiashi ends his telling Neji the truth about his father's death by entering a PoseOfSupplication and asking for his forgiveness. This is especially significant because Hiashi is head of the clan and Neji is a branch house member forced to serve him, and Neji, overwhelmed, accepts his apology and tells him to raise his head. Later on, Naruto approaches the Raikage and enters this pose to beg him to spare Sasuke, but the Raikage is unimpressed, and tells him that the strong rule the ninja world and that begging for one's comrades is not friendship. Naruto then realizes that he must ultimately deal with Sasuke himself.

* In the DresdenFiles, [[spoiler: Lasciel]] does this [[spoiler: in Harry's mind]] when Harry agrees to work with her.

* Tenma does this in ''SchoolRumble'' when her attempt to get Karasuma under a TogetherUmbrella fails.

* In the ''Phoenix Wright: AceAttorney'' manga "Turnabout Illusions", client [[PunnyName Ian Knottworthy]] does this at the drop of a hat.

* Shu, who is being targeted for recruitment as TheStrategist by the [[HelloInsertNameHere player character's]] army in ''SuikodenII'', asks [[QuicklyDemotedWoman Apple]] to assume the PoseOfSupplication before he'll consider [[JoinedYourParty joining up]]. One sign he's at least a minor JerkAss is that he admonishes her for throwing away her pride so quickly, then leaves the room.

* Mary Renault's ''ThePersianBoy'' describes serious controversy over this practice as (historically) espoused by AlexanderTheGreat. He's just conquered Persia and become Great King, so the Persians naturally accord him this respect. The Greeks and especially the Macedonians deplore it as "groveling." Alex wants all the people to adopt it to emphasize equality.

* Mary Renault's ''Literature/ThePersianBoy describes serious controversy over this practice as (historically) espoused by AlexanderTheGreat. He's just conquered Persia and become Great King, so the Persians naturally accord him this respect. The Greeks and especially the Macedonians deplore it as "groveling." Alex wants all the people to adopt it to emphasize equality.

* One of the nuns in ''SongOfBernadette'' does this after calling out Bernadette because she believed that suffering was required to meet God, and didn't believe Bernadette had. But when Bernadette revealed the tuberculosis tumor on her leg, the other nun ran into the chapel and fell down in this pose to pray for forgiveness (as is common for nuns in RealLife, see that section below.)

* According to Muslim practice, one may bow, even kneel before humans, but ''never'' prostrate oneself. Only GOD gets this treatment. It's actually ''forbidden'' to touch your forehead to the ground unless it's for Him. And if you aren't practicing, not even then. Might be a problem in Japan...
** Also in imperial China, where banging your head on the ground is considered standard formal greeting to those of high rank (when you are in a really grovelling mood, the procedure requires you to hit your forehead on the ground hard enough to make an audible noise). Remember, the emperor gets nine head-meet-grounds, miss one, and you have about 4 minutes to write your will (not that you will have anything to will away once the government gets its cut).

* When [[{{Nichijou}} Yuuko]] mistakenly buys ''yakisaba'' instead of ''yakisoba'' and nothing to go with it for Mio one lunch period, the latter starts a very heated TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and goads "stupid" Yuuko to "bow deeply." By the time Yuuko has gotten really angry, she mock bows, then proceeds to formally genuflect but continues to get chewed out and it's obvious both times she's not apologetic.

* One of the nuns in ''SongOfBurnadette'' does this after calling out Burnadette because she believed that suffering was required to meet God, and didn't believe Burnadette had. But when Burnadette revealed the tuberculosis tumor on her leg, the other nun ran into the chapel and fell down in this pose to pray for forgiveness. (as is common for nuns in RealLife, see that section below.)

* As mentioned above, for ''TheTwelveKingdoms'', in the musical ''TheKingAndI'', the titular king bans the pose of supplication from his subjects, since he's come to think of it as humiliating.

* Some orders of nuns still do this while praying in the chapel. It can often be part of praying for forgiveness, among other things.

* Pumbaa does a quaduaped version of this in ''TheLionKing'', bending his front legs and bowing his head, after the revelation that Simba's the king. And then he screws up trying to say 'grovel' at your feet' and says 'gravel' instead.