Walking on Water

I have to pay the ferry, to cross the Galilee
but not my brother (no not him) he walks across for free

—The Arrogant Worms, "Jesus' Brother Bob"

I Have the High Ground, with a body of water substituted for the slender pole. As the name implies, Walking on Water involves a person who is somehow able to stand or walk on water. This may occasionally have a tactical use, but it is usually much more about looking cool.

A common variant is the ability to only run across water (frequently by Super Speed characters such as The Flash), which is just as cool, and somewhat more scientifically plausible—high speed is what enables thrown rocks to skip across water and jet-ski boats to (no pun intended) run; in these cases, losing speed or coming to a stop will result in the character sinking, requiring them to swim. Characters with flight might achieve a similar affect by hovering just about the surface, and those characters who like Making a Splash might use water powers instead.

The most well-known water-walker is probably Jesus Christ in the New Testament, who casually walked out over a raging sea (a feat few other water-walkers have ever matched -- Jesus Was Way Cool indeed) to meet his disciples' boat. Disciple Peter followed suit, but his lack of faith caused him to sink beneath the water after a few steps and he had to be saved by his master. Despite its Biblical origin, the trope is usually executed without an especially strong Faux Symbolism feel to it, as the primary objective is, once again, about looking cool. This doesn't stop the occasional Baptist-Fundamentalist Media Watchdog from complaining about people other than Jesus being depicted as doing such a thing, despite that Peter walks on the water to Jesus almost immediately after seeing him.

Not to be confused with the 2004 Israeli movie with a similar title. Compare with Walk, Don't Swim, which is about walking under water.

Examples of Walking on Water include:

Walking/standing on water

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Anime and Manga

Milked for all it's worth in Naruto. Some of the most climactic battles of the series have taken place over a large body of water. Like their usage of I Have the High Ground, it's related to the "standard" ninja ability to channel chakra into the feet. Sometimes the animators forget that everything else is meant to sink—one filler episode showed huge clods of earth sitting happily on the surface. Perhaps they were ninja rocks?
Subverted in Ranma ½, in a scene in which Cologne is shown approaching the beach while apparently riding a wave, and the others comment on how a master of the martial arts can balance even on a twig floating on the water; at a suitably dramatic moment, however, the shark whose head Cologne has been standing on breaks the surface of the water.
Seems to be a standard ability for any sufficiently skilled mage or ninja in Mahou Sensei Negima Lampshaded during the Tournament Arc:

Spectator: Maybe it's just really shallow?

The first opening of Cardcaptor Sakura has the title character tip-toeing on a sakura petal that lands on a body of water.
Princess Tutu
- At the beginning of the first episode, Mytho dances, apparently naked, on top of a lake, with Ahiru watching hidden in the rushes.
- An underground lake is magically transformed into a dancing stage for the Magical Girl and her Dark Magical Girl rival to have a Swan Lake themed dance-off. (It Makes Sense in Context.) Fakir also uses it to fight crows, but when the battle turns in his favor, Kraehe causes the water beneath him to no longer magically hold his weight, which nearly causes him to drown.
D Gray Man's Tyki Mikk possesses the power to selectively interact with his environment. This means that, among other things, he can walk on water.
Subverted in an episode of Gundam X where it looks like someone is standing in the middle of a lake—only to reveal that he's actually standing right on top of his submarine.
Maybe more Moses than Jesus, but in Fullmetal Alchemist, when Hohenheim (who has godlike powers) goes to explore a dangerous cave where his path is blocked by water, he transmutes a smooth path out of the rocks under water and calmly walks across.
In the Pokémon anime, Suicune can walk on water.

Comic Books

Near the end of the graphic novel Watchmen, as Dr. Manhattan notes his interest in creating life, he's standing on water. The implication is obvious.
- In The Movie, the walking on water scene is visible in a commercial but lacks the symbolism.
Subverted in an issue of Superman: a priest asks him if he's able to walk on water, and Superman admits that yes, he can, but he wouldn't take advantage of the priest's faith like that.
- Although he does this in the Batcave in Kingdom Come.
In the Franco Belgian Comics Les Naufrages D Ythaq, this is part of the Water Elemental Powers set.
In Marvel Comics, all of the Eternals can levitate, and while most use this power to fly, the Interloper uses it to walk on water.

Fan Works

John does this a couple of times in With Strings Attached. Notably, the first time he does it, he screams “Look at me! Look at me! I'm Jesus!”

Films -- Animation

In Princess Mononoke, Shishigami the Forest Spirit, being a spirit of nature, is able to walk on the surface of his pond. Then again, Shishigami certainly is Crystal Dragon Jesus.
Metro Man from Megamind walks on water towards the beginning of the movie. All though he is in fact just floating directly above it. Watch his heels: they never actually touch the surface, only his toes do.

Films -- Live-Action

In Superman II, in contrast to most alien visitations, when the three Kryptonian criminals touch down on planet "Houston", they land in a lake. They then proceed, using their gravity-defying abilities, to rise above and walk on top of the surface of the lake, freaking out any onlookers nearby.
Bruce Almighty. When Bruce receives God's powers, one of the first things he does is walk on the surface of a puddle (which he's splashed himself on before). A few minutes later he and God take a stroll on a nearby body of water while the latter explains the rules.
In the X-Men movie, when various locations of and children in the Institute are being displayed as Xavier is giving Wolverine the tour, one is shown running (not-superspeed) horizontally across a tadpole pond.
Metatron does this at a pivotal moment in the movie Dogma.
Featured heavily in Wire Fu movies, particularly those which focus on the theme of spiritual enlightenment.
- A Sword Fight takes place over a lake in one of the several Rashomon stories in Hero. At times, it's only the tips of their swords that need to touch the water in order for them to maintain placement. Somewhat justifiable as this particular fight is imaginary, serving as a "eulogy" by Nameless and Broken Sword to the "defeated" Flying Snow and is made up by the Emperor as part of his theory of what REALLY happend. He's wrong.
A great way to symbolically finish the movie Being There with Peter Sellers.
In Lawrence of Arabia, Ali tells Lawrence that instead of wanting the Arabs to do reasonable things, he wants them to walk on water. Later in Deraa, Lawrence walks across a puddle and laughs.
Klaatu shortly demonstrates this in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Literature

Used in one episode of the children's series Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left. Dovis uses her powers to walk across a pond and save her friend. They then need to find some way to logically explain how she did this to Michelle (which they did by putting a log there to walk across).
In Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy, the Kiint can walk on water, probably through the use of some supertech or Psychic Powers. They think little of it.
From the same author, the Void Trilogy actually has a character called Waterwalker (it's a nickname, actually, but he did do it). His ability is derived from the fact that he lives in a universe which allows Psychic Powers, and he's a very powerful telekinetic.
In the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane, a fairly simple spell will allow a wizard to walk on water, although one has to be careful to maintain the Masquerade and not let the Muggles notice. Given a reasonably logical explanation—the spell redistributes the caster's weight to a large enough area around the feet that the surface tension of the water will support it.
Elphaba does it in Wicked (the book), frozing the water at each step and she doesn't even notice it.
Polgara of the works of David Eddings manages it, in order to make a point. Her adversary, Chabat, has a much harder time of it when trying to copy her. Still, the characters in question are sorceresses...
In Miss Smillas Feeling for Snow, the title character has an almost psychic ability to read snow and ice. Thus she can walk on a half frozen sea because she can see which ice patches will support her weight and which won't. The onlookers are suitably impressed.
Saber can do so in Fate/Zero, because of the blessing of the Lady of the Lake. It never comes up in Fate Stay Night, however. Then, in Hollow Ataraxia, it turns out that despite being able to walk over water, she can't actually swim, and freaks out in a public pool. It is hilarious.
A line in the spy novel The Hungarian Game invoked this as a statement of implausibility: the narrator's co-worker claims to have done something subtle, and the narrator notes that a vision of this fellow acting subtly is instantly followed by a vision of their boss walking across Lake Tahoe.
In Illusions, Donald Shimoda does this trick to demonstrate his powers...and then follows it up by swimming in land.
In The Dresden Files, Harry once freezes part of a lake and runs across it, and invokes this.
In the Labyrinths of Echo series, Shurf Lonli-Lokli is revealed to be able to walk on water in Green Waters of Ishma. Max lampshades it, of course, including the fact that Shurf is wearing his snow white toga-like uniform at the time.

Live-Action TV

In Arrested Development, Michael's (developmentally disabled) love interest Rita leaves both him and the series as a whole by walking thoughtlessly across the surface of a swimming pool (in a Shout-Out to Being There, mentioned above). Michael assumes that his magician brother has rigged the pool as part of his performance, but GOB tells him, "No. That's not my trick, Michael." Immediately subverted in the 'next episode' trailer: "... It's my ILLUSION!!!"
Most seasons of Power Rangers (and, by default, Super Sentai) where the Rangers' powers revolve around the elements have the liquid-controlling Blue Ranger able to stand/walk/run on water. A rare few seasons with ninjas may do it too, but if a season has both elements and ninjas, it will never be a generic ninja ability.
Rory Bremner portrayed Tony Blair as walking on water in one sketch, soon after Blair was elected.
On the Misfits Christmas Episode, an evil Priest manages to acquire an array of flashy superpowers, including the ability to walk on water, in order to convince the local population that he is the second coming of Jesus (and so he can steal vast quantities of money from the poor and sexually abuse women without repercussions).
On an episode of Glee Will does this across a swimming pool whilst proposing to Emma.

Music and Music Videos

Ric Ocasek stands on the surface of a swimming pool in the video for The Cars' song "Magic".
Marc Cohn's "Walk on Water" invokes the trope from its first lines with the image of low tide on sandflats allowing the illusion of walking on top of the water.

Myths & Religion

For obvious, Biblical-related reasons, this one is Older Than Feudalism.
Buddha did it first.
Orion came before either; one of the perks of being a son of Poseidon.
- With Euphemus the Argonaut coming straight after; helped along by the fact he was also a son of Poseidon, and his maternal grandfather was possibly the aforementioned Orion.

Tabletop Games

Dungeons & Dragons
- The boots of water-walking, a magical item which has since turned up in many D&D homages.
- Also the ring of water-walking and a water-walking spell starting 2nd edition.
- The Body Equilibrium psionic power allowed this already in the 1st edition.
GURPS has the "Walk on Liquid" advantage.
Exalted has a few Charms which enable this. Namely, the Feather-Foot Style.
In Changeling: The Lost, the first clause of the Contract of Separation allows this.

Theater

Several very skilled magicians and illusionists have performed this particularly showy trick. It gets a good reaction.
- Criss Angel performs this on his reality show Criss Angel: Mindfreak, an episode of Las Vegas, and various locations in accordance to his characteristic street magic. He assures any who may be offended that his tricks have nothing to do with being prophetic or symbolic, it's just artistic and looks cool. The crowning achievement is when he does this on Lake Mead with random onlookers moving their hands under his feet to check for stilts. When he gets pretty far, he slowly sinks. Prior to that, he walks across a shark tank. The sharks were probably more confused than anything.
- British magician Dynamo (real name Steven Frayne) once walked on the Thames, attracting quite the crowd. A canoe paddled through the path he had walked through.

Video Games

Doom
- For the first time in video gaming history ever, an FPS game has the water! But don't worry, it's actually the same friggin' floor, just with a gimmicky texture.
- Doom II, Heretic and Hexen copy the ability to stand, walk and run on water. At the very least, that's until Duke Nukem 3D came out.
Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 2, can not only move across the surface of water but can actually swim through exceptionally light water that your character will instantly sink to the bottom of and drown.
Final Fantasy
- Final Fantasy X has one scene where Yuna performs a sending by walking out onto open water, then performing the traditional sending dance while the water rises into a column under her feet. It's never explained how she did that and she never does it again. Considering Yuna's role in the plot, it was probably a case of What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic. There's also the fact that between this, the level of awesome the scene contains, the music that accompanies the scene, and the beauty of the graphics, this may be everyone involved with the making of the game showing off.
- The ability to move over water without sinking (and thus being unable to act) is a support ability of the Ninja class in Final Fantasy Tactics, and some monster classes can do so as well.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance gives us Feather Boots, which have much the same effect but can be equipped by any class. They really come in handy in the swimming tournament battles.
In the game Startopia, every species has a swimming animation, except the Zedem Monks, who walk across the surface. Their planet's hat is a papal miter, it seems.
Soma Cruz in Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow acquires the ability to walk on water. Considering who he "is" and that his last name more or less translates to "Cross", makes this troper think it's a case of What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic.
World of Warcraft
- Shamans have a spell to that effect. It's almost useless, except to kill annoying guildmates when battling a boss that requires frequent submersion, escape certain monster, and impress new players. Nonetheless, this, coupled with the class' unique ability to resurrect themselves, has spawned many "Jesus was a Shaman" jokes. It's also useful when fishing pools, or doing any quest which sends you to the middle of a lake—since, in the latter case, you don't have to swim to shore in order to eat and drink.
- The new Death Knight class does it in a slightly different way, freezing the water below them.
- There is also a water walking potion. You get them as rewards for the daily fishing quests in Dalaran, or from fishing in certain areas.
In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Illidan gained the ability to walk on water, since he teamed up with the amphibious Naga and needed to be able to move with them.
Okami
- Amaterasu can walk on water after she obtains the Water Tablet. She is a goddess, after all. Otherwise, she has Super Drowning Skills.
- Waka can do this too. It can be assumed all heavenly beings can.
Kirby can walk on water with the Ninja ability, as well as skim over it when going fast enough with the Wheel and Tornado abilities. He can also dash across it using the Water ability in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
Water-walking in Achaea is accomplished using enchanted footwear or potions of levitation, which allow easy, quick movement just as on land. Without it, swimming is slow, hard work (for those who can't, for example, turn into a turtle...)
A player of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (X360) discovered a glitch that allowed the player to stand and shoot on water hazards (dubbed, naturally, "The Jesus Shot") and posted video of it to YouTube. Electronic Arts's (the games's publisher) response: "It's not a glitch. He's just that good."
The Touhou series feature an example and a subversion. The former case is due to Yukari Yakumo's ability to manipulate boundaries, which she used to manipulate the boundary of truth and lie in order to invade the moon, through its mirrored image in a lake (she and her ghost friend Yuyuko Saigyouji invade the moon again through this method, in the official manga Silent Sinner in Blue); the subversion is that the 9th game, Phantasmagoria of Flower View, features the Sanzu River, through which the souls of the dead are ferried to be judged. This river is canonically described as unswimmable, and only a shinigami's boat is able to travel through it without sinking.
In Tactics Ogre, mermaids and ninjas can move over water tiles like land, and their sprites are shown as standing on the surface of the water.
Fisherman-cum-Tempest Devon has this ability in Ultima VIII: Pagan, and demonstrates it by going on a walk out to sea after defeating his sister in an elemental duel. The Avatar never learns to do this though, since unlike the other Magical and Elemental Powers in the game, tempestry is apparently limited to the Tenebrae royal family as an inborn talent.
A pair of magical boots allows Link to do this in The Adventure of Link, but only on one very specific body of water around the fifth palace. There's a Heart Container hidden there too.
In the original Creatures, the title creatures can actually walk around on the ocean's surface. However, one needs to abuse certain objects to get them onto the sea in the first place, so it's rather obvious that walking on water was due to programming limitations and not deliberately invoked.
Possible in Nethack with a pair of water walking boots. You can even use them to walk on lava, provided they're fireproof -- and in an aversion of Convection, Schmonvection, it'll still hurt, unless you're also fire-resistant.
A puzzle in Tomb Raider: Revelation is solved by dumping some ancient Egyptian chemicals into water that allows you to walk on it (okay, ankle-deep, but that's more due to engine limitations).
The main Pokémon series doesn't use Suicune's ability to walk on water outside of cut scenes, but it is used in the third Pokémon Ranger game.
Mother 3's hackers found out during their fiddle that Flint and Claus can walk on water in some places they aren't meant to be in. For Flint's case, this glitch racks his Memetic Badass trait up even more.
The yellow ninja from G. G. Shinobi walks on water as his special power.
In Golden Sun's Mercury Lighthouse, once Mia prays to a statue of a Goddess, certain floor tiles light up and grant Isaac (and the Party in My Pocket) the ability to hop on the surface of the Lighthouse's pools and fountains for three steps (before falling in, flailing comically, and returning to where he was).

Web Comics

The saintly hermit Calin can do this in Bruno the Bandit. He also reminisces fondly about playing "Walk-On-Water Hockey" back in divinity school.
The Order of the Stick, strip #561.

Durkon: Water Walk!
Daigo: You had Water Walk prepared?
Durkon: I live onna boat an' wear heavy armor.
Daigo: Good point.

In the comic Triquetra Cats, Rain Soricha being a magic user in the realm of complete control over the domain of water does this frequently, even going as far as creating floating disks of water that she can use as ledges to leap on to gain access to high points.

Western Animation

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Inevitably, Katara, a Water-bender, has come to express the ability. She most commonly achieves it by freezing ice around her feet and sort of skating. As her alter ego the Painted Lady, she does so without the freezing to better impress the villagers and Fire Nation soldiers.
In Code Lyoko, people possessed by XANA's specters in the real world gain the ability to move atop water.
Brother Blood in Teen Titans could do this, while strangely Aqualad could not!
Clam does it in one episode of Camp Lazlo, complete with heavenly choir and the onlooker's response "Holy mackerel".
Played with in I Am Weasel. At the end of an episode where everyone had been shunning Weasal only for him to prove himself a hero afterwards, he walks out onto a lake. The crowd rushes out after him and sink right down, prompting Weasal to quip "You know, I really need to teach these guys to stick to the shallow part."

Real Life

Certain insects, like the Gerridae, are capable of doing this thanks to cohesion (basically, they stand on the membrane the water's surface forms). Course, that's just plain ol' physics/chemistry, which as we all know well is not cool.
This can be possible in dreams without even particularly trying due to a poor representation of physics leaving the surface of dream water to behave for one's dream self almost as it does for the abovementioned insects.
Real life aversion: A priest tried to prove that one could walk on water if one only had enough faith. He demonstrated using himself as the example. It didn't go as well as he expected, earning him a Darwin Award.
A self-proclaimed messiah in early 20th-century Australia took his followers out on a boat into the middle of a lake and asked them if they believed he could walk on water. When they replied "yes", he said, "Then there is no need for me to do it."
Of course, everyone can walk on water as long as it's solid. Make sure you have at least six inches thickness of ice before trying this on a river, though. (The Old Farmer’s Almanac has more details on what is and isn't safe.)

Running on water