The Slow Walk

"Relaxed and ready, he waits for me to start the Walk: the long slow measuring stroll where we both psych ourselves into the killing zone. He knows there has to be a Walk; he knows I have a profound respect for tradition."
—Blade of Tyshalle

Our hero is fighting a losing battle. Every time he tries to make an attack his opponent knocks him back. Finally he tries a new strategy. He enters a state of Tranquil Fury, gets up, and starts slowly walking toward his opponent with a determined look on his face.

A few things might happen during this time. The enemy might send a barrage of projectiles heading toward the hero, which are casually dodged or deflected, or completely ignored. The hero might be in the middle of a battlefield with explosions happening all around him that don't affect him at all. He also might encounter multiple enemies during his walk, who he will dispatch effortlessly, never changing pace and never taking his eyes off his target.

Used to show the hero is really ready to beat up his opponent. It's almost guaranteed that once the hero gets within attacking range his opponent will not only be beaten, but beaten soundly. When used effectively it's a great tension builder, with audience anticipation rising as the hero gets closer and closer to the inevitable beat-down. In some variations, however, both the villain and hero approach each other with the walk, in which case you can expect a great deal of whoop-ass to be exchanged by both sides.

Subtrope of Tranquil Fury, which is the general mood when this action takes place. May be combined with Ominous Walk, Unflinching Walk, or Out of the Inferno, or even a Self-Destructive Charge, minus the charging bit. For the Video Game AI equivalent, see Perfect Play AI. Sometimes an enemy might do this - such fellows are usually Implacable Men or Juggernauts. Not to be confused with The Slow Path.

Examples of The Slow Walk include:

Anime and Manga

  • Sengoku Shunsuke from Cyber City OEDO 808 did this at the climax of the first episode. Somewhat subverted in that he realized his half-man-half-computer opponent was predicting his dodge moves, so when he started the slow walk his opponent launched attacks aimed at where he was expecting Sengoku to leap to and consequently missed. Sengoku did still take a few glancing hits, but just shrugged them off.
  • Claire from Claymore whenever she's facing down an Awakened Being. As she slowly walks toward them they usually launch a barrage of attack which all seem to miss while she just keeps walking. (Really she's sensing their energy and dodging just enough to avoid the attacks.)
  • Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: Loki does this on occasion, most noticeably when he's walking into the mansion of the Norns, and they throw both a storm of knives and a couple of evil spirits at him - and he just keeps walking, casually commenting on the 'warm reception'. Interestingly enough, he doesn't seem to be actually deflecting or dodging anything, indicating either that even the Godesses of Fate are subject to mandatory training at the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, or that Loki possesses some sort of 'probability control' power that allows him to simply make them miss.
    • Given that he's the Trickster God trapped in the form of a boy, 'tis probably the latter.
  • Done by Dukemon in season 3 of Digimon (Digimon Tamers), to chatsuramon:

Dukemon/Gallantmon, walking through the flames (from his own attack) while donning his cape, putting out the fire around him in the process: "Not even the deva are worthy opponents for Dukemon. Royal Saber!"

  • In Digimon Data Squad Shinegreymon Burst Mode does this, combined with an Out of the Inferno, just before finishing off Akihiro Kurata. Coupled with the incredible rocking hard BGM in either the original or the dub (both are awesome), this is a definite Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Death Note: Light does this in the second opening sequence.
  • Cowboy Bebop: A shared villain-and-hero walk takes place between Spike and Vincent in The Movie, just before they conclude the final fight scene.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima
    • Fate Averruncus, brazen as he is, likes to do this to his opponents to show how little he fears them.
    • Takemichi is an odd case: while he seems to choose to move slowly during combat and speak with a polite, casual air, this becomes clearer once you realize that 1. this' just his usual expression; 2. he deliberately holds back against most of his opponents in part with his slow walking for their sake (he's quite fast otherwise);3. keeping his hands in his pockets happens to be his fighting stance.
      • Takamichi, really, does Iaido. Except instead of sword and sheath, he uses hands and pocket....which then creates Beam Spam. It's handwaved as "fist pressures"; he's punching so hard that the pressure from his strikes is still incredibly strong. Then he powers it up with Kanka...
  • The movie retelling that is .hack//GU TRILOGY has Haseo performing this towards the AIDA-infected Atoli. It's not so much as facing off to defeat the opponent, it's about him reaching Atoli to give her a Cooldown Hug.
    • Deliciously subverted when he does not make it in the omake chapter, thanks to a reference multiple path he can take with regards to his relationships to other characters
  • Done in a very Badass way near the end of xxxHolic: the movie. Despite being assaulted left and right by explosions, poltergeists and the like, she walks so steady it sounds like a metronome.
  • In Tsukihime, this is how Shiki Tohno's epic-level pwnage of Nrvnqsr occurs. In the manga, he also does this to the Big Bad, before the later wisely decides to try and run away. Not that it did him much good.
  • In the third Kara no Kyoukai: film: Remaining Sense of Pain, Shiki Ryōgi does a classical example of this trope to Fujino Asagami in their climatic confrontation.
  • In Fate/stay night, Shirou does this against Gilgamesh at the climax of the Unlimited Blade Works route.
  • Elfen Lied: This seems to be a natural instinct for the diclonii; Lucy does it during her escape, and Nana does it vs. Bandou.
  • In Dragonball Z whenever Gohan as a preteen goes Super Saiyan 2, he remakes himself as this trope. He only has two speeds. Too fast to see, and the Slow Walk. Even while doing Kamehameha. Goku also does it to Broly of all people.
  • In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, the title character masters the Ryuusui Seikuuken, a technique purely designed to be used as the slow walk. I mean, he walks through a self-destructing arena like he's taking a casual stroll
  • Done by Tamahome before the final battle in Fushigi Yuugi. Given that he just escaped limbo, he looks pretty Badass doing it.
  • Luffy from One Piece, pulls this off in Movie 6 just prior to the final confrontation with the Big Bad, effortlessly dodging the homing arrows that gave him so much trouble before.
    • It's actually part of Brooks' Finishing Move- The Slow Walk meets Single-Stroke Battle. Especially more awesome because he uses it against what is essentially a clone of his fighting style. Double Slow Walk!


Comic Books

  • Rorschach in Watchmen stares down a gang of criminals and dispatches the last by silently walking towards him as he flees into the men's room (despite having no obvious powers).


Film -- Animated

  • Despicable Me: Done by Gru while rescuing the girls from Vector lair, not even Vector's pet shark is able to stop him.


Film -- Live Action

  • The Terminator owns this, in a villain example. If not the Trope Maker, darn close.
  • The Bride from Kill Bill.
  • Clint Eastwood from Unforgiven.
  • Also, Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars, although he's wearing an armor plate underneath.
  • Con Air: Nicholas Cage pulls out this move.
  • The Crow: Occurs when Eric fights Tin-Tin. He dodges one thrown knife, and stalks towards his opponent, teeth bared. He bats the next thrown knife out of the air, and eggs Tin-Tin on to try again. He catches the third knife, then throws it back.
  • The Princess Bride: Inigo Montoya does this at the end, at the same time as making a certain catch phrase of his about fifty times more quotable.
  • Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13 th series definitely fits this trope. He has that slow "zombie walk", constantly pursuing his target and is unfazed by bullets, strikes and girls with telekinesis. And despite his victims running as fast as they can, always gets ahead of them and in position to slaughter them horribly without so much as jogging.
  • The Matrix has this sort of when Neo realizes he's The One after being shot to death and getting back up. Though he does quickly turn this into a 'fast run' of sorts.
  • The Monster Squad: When Dracula finally gets tired of those pesky kids messing with his plans he starts slowly walking towards them, effortlessly swatting away all the police officers trying to stop him without even slowing down.
  • Sin City has a good example, although Marv is walking to a bar and not a fight, he's still contemplating tracking down a group of people and killing them.


Literature

  • A Signal Shattered: Jack Potter does a notable version of the slow walk when facing down the Big Bad. Having just worked out a way to teleport himself around the galaxy as well as duplicate himself, Jack has become omnipresent. He walks towards the villain only to be killed at a distance. A duplicate appears one step closer and continues the walk, only to be killed in a different way. This continues until Jack is right up in the villain's face, at which he realizes that Jack has become effectively unstoppable and decides to parlay.
  • In Bionicle, Axonn finally gets to the showdown with his former friend Brutaka. Brutaka is not only powerful enough to down all six of the main heroes and the supporting cast with one swing of is blade, he's also wearing a Mask of Dimensional Gates and is beefed up on Antidermis (a substance that works like steroids on his species). After Axonn is nearly electrocuted by the very same blades he had once given Brutaka as a gift, and is threatened by a portal to the "Zone of Darkness", he suddenly becomes very calm and does The Slow Walk towards Brutaka; now shrugging off every single energy blast and locking blades with his former comrade; all the while delivering a Badass speech about how he understands that Brutaka is completely lost and how he will deny him and his evil at all costs. Poor Brutaka didn't stand much of a chance after that.


Live Action TV

  • Power Rangers: their giant robot advances, it is being shot at, but the explosions from the projectiles are useless.
    • A rare example of one of the Rangers doing this occurs in Power Rangers Dino Thunder, where Tommy does the walk towards the Monster of the Week while effortlessly beating aside some mooks, enters super dino mode, then defeats the monster with ease.
    • Kit Taylor, from Kamen Rider Dragon Knight does this, as Kamen Rider Onyx, to his mirror twin Adam, who had become Dragon Knight. Kit clearly Took a Level in Badass here because he does it MID-FIGHT SCENE after beating the hell out of Adam in the first minute of the fight. So basically he was already winning the bout, and decided "screw it, I'm just gonna kill 'im", and started doing the walk. Adam so had it coming, though.
    • We also see it with Len. At one point, Kit had been tricked into distrusting him, and he was just generally having a bad day. So when he hears the mirror world sound, he takes out his Advent Deck... and then puts it away. We next see him walking slowly and purposefully towards two mirror monsters, his Cool Shades of Badassitude on. He proceeds to beat them down without transforming, and send them running away.


Professional Wrestling


Tabletop Games

  • In Nomine by Steve Jackson Games, has this available to angels of Stone as a power called "Inevitability"—so long as the angel continues to pursue at all, their fleeing prey is at half speed. The effect is described as being like the classic horror movie ... no matter how quickly the victim tries to flee, the walking angel keeps getting closer and closer.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has a few examples:
    • The Necrons are for the most part forced to use, and master, this trope-when they need to get around, they tend to teleport into position, then make a slow walk. In general, they don't as much dodge or block the attacks as take them head on. Their toughness is emphasized often in the fluff.
    • Another army that's prone to Slow Walking are the Thousand Sons, a faction of Chaos Space Marines backed by Tzeentch. They, like the Necrons, have a good reason for their lumbering gait: whilst the Necrons are really ancient skeletal robots, the Thousand Sons are, essentially, the souls of those Thousand Sons with no psychic powers trapped in their armor forever and ever, unless...evicted forcibly. It's only the non-psykers who do this, as the Sorcerers that lead them are capable of normal locomotion.
    • In the fluff, when the Tau enter battle-rage, they tend to do this on a battalion level, slowly pushing the battle line forward regardless of casualties while pouring a hail of gunfire into the enemy. This is said to happen sometimes when a particularly beloved Etheral is killed, though the actual rules for such events happening tend to result in the opposite effect.
      • Although essentially fixed with a particular Tau-only Planetstrike stratagem, where the death of their leader actually galvanizes the entire army into a state of fearlessness for a short time. For the Greater Good.
    • Any unit in the game that benefits from the "Slow And Purposeful" special rule tends to do this, the rule allowing the unit to fire with weapons as if they stood still even if they have moved that turn - slowly though, as they always move as if through difficult terrain, which is on average slower than otherwise.


Video Games


Web Comics


Real Life

  • Stonewall Jackson had this reputation in Real Life. Rifles at the time weren't very accurate, so hits were rare. Still it takes a real Badass to be completely unfazed as bullets are whizzing by. Jackson was a deeply religious man who said (paraphrased), "If the Lord decides it's my time to go there's nothing I can do about it except be ready to meet Him." He didn't take lunatic chances, he just did what he had to do and didn't worry with a lot of ducking and dodging. For a most excellent and true-to-life portrayal of him watch Stephen Lang in Gods And Generals.
  • In the Real World, this is basically what Humanity does best. As a species, we're a social pursuit predator. Of all the animals in the world, only canines can match human endurance, which is why they were one of the first species to be domesticated. There are African tribes that hunt by walking after the prey, not letting it rest or sleep, until it just collapses. We are the goddamn Terminator of the animal kingdom. Canine endurance is why we got them to hunt with us. Horses are at about our level, but they're not hyperintelligent and they don't dump heat as effectively. In some climates we can out-perform them on foot. We're very slow, but we can keep it up for miles in high heat. Prey collapse can be due to heatstroke as much as exhaustion.
    • About horses specifically; this is both a reason for, and obvious in, their domestication for military use. Horses may have been faster in the tactical sense but strategically, they move about as fast as infantry formations. Because they could just about match human endurance allowed them to keep up in the long run, but they didn't go any faster.
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