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Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water

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It costs a lot to get a view like this.

"And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so."

Our character just died, took a Journey to the Center of the Mind, or is in a Dream Land. The place where they end is just an endless plane of shallow water, barely covering their feet. The water is perfectly calm and reflects the sky if there is one, only stirred by ripples and splashes. The boundaries of this place may be shrouded by mist. Oftentimes, the object of the protagonist's struggle — the villain, a loved one, or a MacGuffin — stands before them with no allies or mooks to help. Expect the resulting confrontation to be a discussion instead of a physical fight in such a tranquil location, but fighting is not out of the question. It might be an Eldritch Location if weird stuff starts happening and especially if the mist is all encompassing. These characters may also start sinking if they become unbalanced.

As this location is mostly a Beautiful Void, expect this place to be a form of Purgatory and Limbo if the character had to die to get here rather than heaven. The reflective properties of water also lend themselves well to reflection tropes as the character often has to confront themselves or a Shadow Archetype. If a metaphysical location, this has the effect of being an ethereal, primordial space where only sea and sky exist outside of time. If it is a mental location, it may represent pure thought.

Compare and contrast Waist-Deep Ocean, where the body of water is explicitly supposed to be deep but characters stroll about like it's a wading pool; Walk on Water, which also conveys a spiritual experience but is more of an ability than a feature of the location itself; Portal Pool, where the body of water has a limit and the reflection within is that of another world; and Blank White Void, a similarly plain location.

Not to be confused with an Elemental Plane of water, where water itself is the main focus.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, during the Mugen Train arc, Tanjiro's innermost layer of his soul is an infinite mirror of water under a calm blue sky, filled with little friendly creatures of pure light that willingly guide people to the vital core within. It's so peaceful and pleasant, that the lackey sent to destroy the core and kill Tanjiro can't bring himself to do it.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, a variation occurs in the form of the pocket dimension in Gluttony's stomach. It's not ankle-deep water, it's ankle-deep blood.
  • One Afterlife Antechamber in the second season of Hell Girl ends on one of these, though it's played with in that it's the beginning of the villain of the week's Ironic Hell. After being near-drowned twice, he wakes up in a quiet place covered in shallow purplish water. The only structure in sight is a kabuki stage where Ai's minions confront him about his crimes. When he refuses to own up, Ai sends him to Hell proper.
  • In the finale of ID: Invaded, Kiki Asukai has a vision of meeting Narihisago in a vast expanse of water lit beautifully by the sunrise. It seems to be her own ID-well post-collapse.

    Comic Books 
  • Avengers vs. X-Men: While trying to talk down a Phoenix-possessed Cyclops, Professor Xavier uses his telepathy to put him and Scott in a place that looks like this.

    Fan Works 
  • In The Night Unfurls, the final confrontation against Shamuhaza as a scuttling insect takes place on the waters of a great lake. Sanakan and Hugh note the surreality of the location they are in.
    Sanakan and Hugh were silent, both in awe of what they were standing in.
    They stood, how it was possible neither knew, on the waters of a great lake. Underneath the waters were plant roots. In the middle of the lake was a large Lumen flower that Kyril recognized.
    He could hear its displeasure cleanly in his mind. The poor thing would probably feel right at home in the gardens of the Hunter's Dream.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos finds himself on a plane of water with only him, a young Gamora, and the gate where he initially taught her about his crusade. She asks if he succeeded at exterminating half of all life in the universe (yes) and at what cost (her).
    • Thor: Love and Thunder: Beyond the Gates of Eternity located at the center of the universe, lies Eternity's Realm. An endless shallow reflective ocean, whose sole occupant is Eternity himself, the omnipotent personification of time, and will grant the wish of whoever reaches him first.
  • In Interstellar, the first planet the Endurance crew visits is an ocean planet extremely close to the black hole Gargantua. Upon landing, they find the "ocean" to be only up to their knees. Turns out Gargantua's gravity pulls most of the planet's water into mountain-sized tidal waves. Due to extreme time dilation, one hour on the planet is seven years outside and not enough time had passed on the planet for life to evolve.
  • Referenced at the very end of The Truman Show: Truman finally escapes the television set he was raised in on a sailboat, only to crash into a solid wall painted like the sky on the other side of the water. He quickly discovers a walking surface on the wall and sets off on the edge of his known world; the shot is framed to look like him walking on an endless surface of water.

    Literature 
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: This appears in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the eastern end of the Flat World where the country of Narnia is located. As the characters sail toward the world's very edge, the water gets shallower — and full of lilies — until they have to disembark and wade. Finally, they reach a motionless wave about thirty feet high, beyond which lies Aslan's Country.
  • In the Old Kingdom series, the Afterlife Antechamber is a nine-part river, some parts much calmer than others:
    • The First Precinct, closest to Life, has only grey mist, knee-deep water, and a slight current.
    • The Sixth Precinct is shallow and still, yet extremely dangerous because powerful Dead like to lurk there.
    • Finally, the Ninth Precinct is warm, ankle-deep water beneath an infinite starry sky where souls rise up to a final, unknown destination.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron traps Galadriel into an illusion of endless planes of water under a calm blue sky, mirroring the day the met for the first time on the raft in the middle of the ocean. Unlike in the illusion, the day they met the waters were agitated and they were hit by a typhoon. His whole motivation for doing that is to ask Galadriel to rule Middle-earth with him.
  • In Stranger Things, Eleven, through ESP, enters a pitch-black void covered in a thin layer of water, containing only herself and whatever she is trying to locate, even if it is on another continent or in a different dimension.
  • In the Tatort episode "Limbus", after his car accident, Boerne finds himself in a rather staid Limbus with water less than ankle deep.

    Video Games 
  • Asura's Wrath features one for the final battle of the game's DLC. Event Horizon, the domain of Chakravartin, takes the form of this trope. But once his final form touches the ground, however, it's transformed into a White Void Room with a reflective watery floor.
  • In Bloodborne, Rom the Vacuous Spider is fought in a misty realm with water as far as the eye can see. Given the relatively grounded-in-reality locations of the last few bosses, the surreality of the arena and the boss itself acts as a mid-game Wham Shot as the Gothic Horror gives way to a Cosmic Horror Story.
  • Order's Sanctuary from Dissidia Final Fantasy, the domain of the God of Good Cosmos, is a large plain covered in shallow water as far as the eye can see. There are no buildings, just scattered shell-like structures and beams of light that players can travel on.
  • Elden Ring:
    • Rennala's second phase sees the player transported to an illusory realm to face the greatest sorceress in the Lands Between at her prime, with nothing but ankle-deep water stretching in all directions to serve as one giant reflecting pool for the colossal full moon hanging on the horizon.
    • Likewise, the Elden Beast's boss room is a placid plane of ankle-deep water with nothing but a starfield overhead and countless golden trees on the horizon for scenery. This emphasizes the Elden Beast's beautiful and divine, yet inscrutably alien nature, especially when it starts diving through the water to reposition as if it's much deeper than it actually is.
  • Final Fantasy
    • After finally managing to knock out Sin in the finale of Final Fantasy X, the party gets to investigate the monster's interior; as it turns out, a good chunk of it consists entirely of mist-shrouded oceans that Tidus can walk across as if they were only ankle deep. The mists form the walls of a maze gradually channeling players towards a flight of stairs - leading to more complex regions of the Eldritch Location.
    • The last part of the Final Day quest in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker has you fighting a rematch with Zenos at the edge of the universe, represented by an endless expanse of water being greeted by a rising sun. Unfortunately for you, the boss has a variety of water-based attacks.
  • Fire Emblem Engage: The training arena looks like a shallow sea, illuminated by polar lights. The only other things here are several large rocks, two free-standing doors back to Somniel, and a magic sigil that starts a mock battle. Here the player can fight normally-incorporeal Emblems, apparitions of heroes from other worlds.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts III reveals the existence of a locale called the Final World, a flat plane as far as the eye can see where the water on the floor reflects the skynote . It is basically the Kingdom Hearts version of Limbo, as it is a place between life and death where the hearts of entities who are still tied to the mortal realm are bound, and (in an act of Retcon) a location that Sora has unconsciously traveled through during his Dive Into the Heart in past games. Sora winds up here during the game's climax after he and the Guardians of Light are killed, with his fragmented heart tethered to the Final World via Kairi's lingering will. With the aid of Ventus' Chirithy, he manages to piece himself back together, escape the Final World, and use the power of waking to change fate and resurrect himself and his allies.
    • In the secret episode of Kingdom Hearts III: Re𝄌Mind, Sora awakens in an alternate version of the Final World where the endless water reflects a night sky. He meets Yozora there and the outcome of the ensuing boss fight determines which of them returns to the daytime version.
    • A dream version of the Final World is the final world of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, consisting of two HUD-less Dream Dive levels and a final battle against a vision of Master Xehanort. The epilogue reveals the Fairy Godmother can provide safe transport in and out of the Final World for the living, because of her power over dreams.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Ocarina Of Time: One seemingly-empty room in the infamous Water Temple looks like a vast plane of shallow water surrounded by fog, broken only by a single island in the center supporting a dead tree, and a door on the far side from the entrance. But after you run across the island, Link's reflection disappears from the water beneath him, and when you find the far door locked and turn around, Dark Link is waiting beneath the tree on the island. After his defeat, the empty vista fades away to reveal an ordinary enclosed chamber full of shallow water.
    • The final battle of Skyward Sword takes place on one of these during a thunderstorm. Link has to use the Master Sword as an Improvised Lightning Rod to fight Demise.
  • In Lost Ember, the final memory is on an ankle-deep ocean under a starry sky. The wolf and her spirit companion then journey across the ocean to the City of Light, the fabled Yanrana afterlife.
  • In The Secret World, the mission "The Vanishing Of Tyler Freeborn" finally gives the players an opportunity to don a gas mask and venture into the Fog surrounding Solomon Island. Immediately, you find yourself in a gloomy realm lit only by magical lights in the distance, lured onwards by the Siren Song; despite the fact that the path should be taking you into deeper waters, the ocean never gets above groin-height. Travel through it long enough, and you'll end up in the Red Sargassum Dream - a World of Chaos created by the Dreamers.
  • The Tekken 7 stage Infinite Azure is one of these. Where in the world it takes place is unknown, but it's heavily implied to be the Salar de Uyuni.
  • The Warframe quest "Call of the Tempestarii" treats the player to a sequence where they take control of Sevagoth's Shadow to ward off Vala Glarios' forces in an ethereal place consisting of waist-deep water beneath a sky prominently featuring Vala's capital ship in front of a nebula. After completing the quest, the player is awarded with a copy of that scene, called "The Cold Below", for use in Captura.
  • In Xenogears, the metaphysical plane where you fight the Post-Final Boss inside Deus where Krellian and Elly are waiting is represented as this. Krellian spells out that the location doesn't actually exist and is merely a representation of the Wave Existence as Fei and Elly's bodies have been absorbed into Deus and their consciousnesses are fighting to continue to exist.
  • Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana: The arena of the True Final Boss is a boundless plane of water, with only several enormous trees seen in background. The boss makes its entrance by swimming from the "depths", and then proceeding to stand on the very same water it just swum in. It also uses said water to attack, sending waves of water at the party and shooting streams of water from its mouth. This plane is likely not a real place, given that the boss is the Origin of Life, that you fight as a test from Top God Maia.

    Web Comics 
  • Sleepless Domain: On the night they awaken their powers, every Magical Girl experiences "the Dream", in which they are visited in their sleep by a mysterious woman dressed in white. In Undine's case, this Dream takes the form of her drifting passively through a dimly lit abyss, before surfacing in a tranquil plane of water where the woman in white awaits her.
  • The Dream World in Stand Still, Stay Silent is a calm ocean reflecting a night sky connecting the mages' dream safe spaces. Finnish mages walk around by summoning pillars of earth to stand on, but Icelandic mages simply walk on top of the water, splashing all the while. Monsters lurk under the surface.

    Western Animation 
  • In Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, humans that have transformed into mega-mutes mentally place themselves in a pool of water from which they control their bodies. As they lose control, however, they start to sink.
  • In Steven Universe episode Chille Tid, Steven accidentally establishes mental contact with Lapis Lazuli in his dreams, the first sign of which is her in a dark mindscape standing in ankle deep water, with more water gushing from her eyes and mouth flooding the place. The third time he contacts her, her mindscape is glowing green before she gets pulled beneath the surface by the water chains binding her, releasing Jasper shortly before she gets pulled back for Lapis' return. It becomes apparent that the mindscape represents their struggle over control of Malachite.

    Real Life 
  • Salt pans, such as those at Bonneville or in Bolivia are flat expanses where water pools and evaporates. When covered with a thin layer of water, they can be pretty otherworldly.
  • Reflecting pools are a common water feature meant to invoke this.

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