Dhalsim

"I will meditate, and then destroy you!"

- Dhalsim

Dhalsim (ダルシム) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is born as a Sagittarius. In the story, he hails from Kerala, India. Dhalsim is famous throughout the Street Fighter series for his unique personality, stretchy body and fire attacks.

Street Fighter Alpha series and Street Fighter II series
Generally a pacifist, Dhalsim fights to raise money for his village, but realizes that it contradicts his pacifist beliefs. In Street Fighter Alpha 2, he questions what good could come from his damaging powers, but he raised enough money to get his village medicine, food, and shelter, and also gained the respect of villagers (some call him "Great Yoga Master Dhalsim" ). In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he set out to destroy the evil M. Bison. He travels around the world and met Rose and Birdie, and used his mind control powers to get his answers. He later confronted Bison and destroyed the Shadoloo base, but this is not considered canon. The only significant part he played in the overall story of the series was making Cammy White self-aware.

Dhalsim retired from fighting after the second World Warrior tournament, and continued to roam the world helping those in need.

Super Street Fighter IV
Dhalsim makes his return in Street Fighter IV and its sequel this time to free the flow of water to his village after S.I.N. builds a dam upstream. His son, Datta, is a penpal of Amy, Guile's daughter. When Datta informs Dhalsim that his penpal's father is away on a mission, Dhalsim recognizes that the situation is even more serious than he thought if Guile is investigating it. He is reluctant to use his powers for self-serving purposes, but feels compelled to save his village. He goes to participate in the tournament S.I.N. was organizing. When the dam base is destroyed at the end of the game, the water returns to the village. Although Dhalsim believes that Shadaloo represents an evil in the heart of humanity that will never truly be defeated, he also recognizes that "the goodness in mankind's heart is also endless"

Alternate storylines
In the Street Fighter II V, the UDON comic book series, Dhalsim is a wise and powerful mystic who aids Ryu in his quest to become stronger and defeat evildoers.

Family
Dhalsim has a wife, Sally, and a son named Datta.

Appearance
Dhalsim is often depicted with having pupil-less eyes. His build is that of a normal man who exercises and weight trains regularly except for his abdomen and waist which appear much out of proportion and emaciated. He wears torn saffron shorts as his only clothing attire as well as saffron wristbands and anklebands. He has three colored stripes adorning his head, and in the Street Fighter Alpha series, he wears a turban that he removes before battle. The skulls he wears around his neck are those of village children that died during a plague. In palette swap renditions of Dhalsim, his skin is often dark blue or other unnatural colors. He is the oldest of the original World Warriors. Also, his name could be a pun on Taoism (Daoism-depending on the romanization scheme) as well as the Dhali Lama.

Gameplay
Dhalsim is the original long-range fighter of fighting games. Dhalsim's intense training has given him the ability to contort and extend his limbs into forms physically impossible for a normal human. He can project his arms and legs outward in order to deliver attacks that would be out of the range of normal limbs. Dhalsim's fighting style involves keeping the opponent at bay with distance attacks and projectiles, and optimally, only getting close to strike with a surprise aerial attack or sliding kick. Due to his reach advantage, Dhalsim has both very low offense and defense, making it vital for him to avoid sustaining too many blows from a strong fighter. Dhalsim's sprite, while standing, is actually quite a small target, due to the total number of pixels Dhalsim's sprite occupies while not attacking. Dhalsim becomes a much larger target while attacking. As of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the player can make Dhalsim do only short range attacks by holding back on the joystick.

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Trivia

 * In episode 9 of Yu Yu Hakusho, Dhalsim is clearly standing in the background.
 * His Yoga fighting style is based off of Kalarippayattu, one of the very first developed martial arts in recorded history.
 * Oddly enough, the manuals for the SNES and Genesis versions of Street Fighter II identified Dhalsim's fighting style as Kabaddi, which is actually an Indian sport.
 * Despite having the same rival as he did in Street Fighter IV, Dhalsim's rival fight stage has been changed in Super Street Fighter IV. It was the Crowded Downtown stage before, but then got changed to the Exciting Street Scene stage. This was due to the fact that the Exciting Street Scene stage is located in India (which is Dhalsim's home country), and thus suits him better.
 * Dhalsim makes a cameo appereance in the manga/anime "Ghost Sweeper Mikami", where he attacks one of the main characters with a Yoga-Flame.
 * In the anime "Shinryaku! Ika Musume", the main character Ika Musume plays a video game called "Super Stocking Fighters IV" (an obvious spoof of Super Street Fighter IV), where she plays as "Mr. Yoga", who strongly resembles Dhalsim in one of his alternate outfits.
 * The 1975 kung fu movie "Master of the Flying Guillotine" also involves a Yoga master with arms that extend and retract.
 * The South-Korean pop/rock duo Norazo refers to one of Dhalsim's fire-based moves (Yoga Fire) in the lyrics of their song Curry, because of Dhalsim's Indian nationality.
 * Based on the information off of SFII, Dhalsim was born on November 22, 1952 (He is 59 years old).