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alt title(s): Artificial Handicap Inigo: I admit it; you are better than I am. Man in Black: Then why are you smiling? Inigo: Because I know something you don’t know. Man in Black: And what is that? Inigo: I am not left handed! [switches sword to his right hand & they continue fighting, with Inigo winning] Man in Black: You're amazing! Inigo: I ought to be, after twenty years. Man in Black: There's something I ought to tell you. Inigo: Tell me. Man in Black: I'm not left-handed either. [switches his sword to his right hand]
The Hero lies beaten, bloody and bruised, while his Worthy Opponent cackles and croons about his innate superiority. But what’s this?! The Hero reveals that he has a heretofore unknown ability, Superpower, or handicap he's toiled under which he will now use (or lose)… and is now a true match for the now sputtering rival. The reverse, of course, is also true. Revealing that I Am Not Left Handed is a good way to create the drama and tension of an otherwise unbeatable foe without resorting to an Achilles Heel or other Applied Phlebotinum to win.
Many fighting anime will include veritable days of one-upping each other's I Am Not Left Handed as they demonstrate that My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours with oodles of Trash Talk. Smug Supers in particular enjoy lording it over their enemies by slowly removing their handicaps. On the flipside, Can't Catch Up is often remedied by revealing that the character was (un)knowingly left handed.
A more radical and visually impressive escalation of I Am Not Left Handed among Villains (and a few heroes) is the tendency to turn into a One Winged Angel. Similarly, some heroes might indulge in a bit of a Deadly Upgrade. Contrast with My Name Is Inigo Montoya where the hero keeps on fighting because of sheer grit, guts and determination, and not because he was holding back.
Heroic Examples:
Villainous Examples:
See also: Training From Hell, Restraining Bolt, Power Limiter, and Willfully Weak. This can be Truth In Television, if only because there are just some sports techniques that work better using your opposite hand. The "south paw" in boxing for instance.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- I defy you to name one fight in Bleach where this doesn't happen. Pretty much any battle will have this (and/or My Name Is Inigo Montoya) occur at least once, if not multiple times. The members of Squad 11 practically live and breathe this trope.
- Their Captain, Kenpachi braids bells into his hair so his opponents can hear him coming, and — more importantly — by wearing an eyepatch over a fully functional eye, which not only impedes his vision but is composed of power-sucking creatures which keeps his power level down. He's also proficient in traditional kendo, but normally uses his long two-hand sword with only one hand, so as to weaken the force of his blows.
- In fact, him using his second hand serves the same narrative purpose as every other character's shonen powerup.
- Bankai? Dangerous Forbidden Technique? No, I just use both hands.
- In one battle, while Ikkaku Madarame's using his unreleased zanpakuto, Ikkaku's opponent thinks his attacks will be fairly predictable: Ikkaku uses his right hand to attack with his sword, and his left hand to parry with his scabbard. Thus, his attacks will always come from the same side, allowing his opponent to dodge and have a brief opening to counterattack. But then Ikkaku reveals that he's ambidextrous, and can switch hands at any time without losing any combat effectiveness.
- Plus, he has a bankai, which he even keeps hidden from his own companions, not counting Yumichika and Renji.
- His shikai also appears to be a spear but is in fact a three-section staff.
- Yumichika's shikai first appears to be a sickle, then a five bladed sickle until it is finally revealed to be what is arguably one of the most powerful zanpakuto in the series which can drain the energy from anyone it captures and transfer it to the user. The only reason he doesn't beat people left and right with it is because it is a kido type, which is taboo in squad 11.
- Kensei of the Vizard averts this. After he rescues Mashiro from Wonderweiss the first thing he does is whip out his bankai. He still didn't use his mask, but seeing as it's got a time limit on it, and Wonderwyce did something to Mashiro that made her mask shatter hours ahead of time, it's justified.
- It's also worth noting that Kensei's combat knife is actually his Shikai, which he prefers to keep permanently released.
- It used to be that bankai counted as this, as the shinigami revealed a new level of power and BFS. However, now that we know that every captain, and a few non-captain shinigami, can use bankai, it's becoming more and more common to see a bankai right off the bat, like in the Kensei example above.
- Fai in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles begins the series with an elaborate phoenix tattoo which Yuuko demands as his payment for the fulfillment of his wish. Much later, it's revealed that the tattoo was designed to prevent his magic from growing in power each and every time he uses it, as it would otherwise naturally do.
- Rock Lee in Naruto does this several times in the Chuunin exam, with both the handicap and the Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
- Subverted when Zaku pretended that he still couldn't use one of his arms when fighting with Shino. But as soon as he tries attacking it turns out the tubes in his arms were blocked with bugs and exploded. He probably wishes he was left-handed after that.
- Used again when Jiraiya fights Pain: Jiraiya think he's won by defeating Pain's three bodies when it turns out Pain actually has three more, and one of them can repair the others.
- Hinted at in the scant handful of times where Kabuto almost loses/lost his glasses.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, the third season of the series, it's revealed that Nanoha, Fate and Hayate voluntarily put limiters on their powers in order to continue working together, officially because of the office politics of having too high a concentration of power in one unit, but actually to disguise the true power available to Section Six, the reactions when the villains found out just how well this worked were priceless.
- Likewise Alucard of Hellsing operates via a number of power limiters as per his service to Integra Hellsing. Depending on the power of vampire he's fighting, and as per her discretion, these limiters can be overridden to varying degrees.
- As does
 Experimental Comic Kotone, but inverted in that Konstantin is left-handed. This is actually a better ruse because 90% of the population is right-handed, no one would notice anything strange if a person was using their right hand.
- Younger Toguro of Yu Yu Hakusho is the king of hiding his true power. He usually stays at around 20%, and gradually increases his power (and grotesquely exaggerated muscle mass) as he meets opponents worthy of it; he displays a fondness for telling his enemies exactly how much of his power they have the honor of facing. He was eventually forced to reach 100% of his power during his final fight with Yusuke; when that wasn't enough, he decided to go up to using 120% of his power. This actually makes more sense in the dub, where he instead explains that the previously-stated 100% was really closer to 85%, and then powers up to 100% for real.
- This trope is also used by Yusuke in the same fight, who had been limited by binding energy shackles, only to remove them halfway through.
- In Black Cat Volume 2, Train Heartnet reveals that he is not right handed. As a matter of fact, he was originally left handed, learned to wield his pistol ambidexterously, and switches to his dominant hand to increase his fighting potential (i.e., speed and accuracy).
- A similar example is Maki in Hayate Cross Blade, who had always held her sword in her right hand until it was severely injured by her opponent. Another character explains that she had not been fighting with her full power previously, because the manner in which she was gripping the sword was completely different.
- Similarly, in The Prince Of Tennis, Ryoma plays his first match in canon with his right hand. He manages to upstage his opponent in this state, but eventually decides to reveal that he is not right handed, and completely crushes the terrified opponent. Ryoma is fond of confusing his opponents this way throughout the series.
- Also in The Prince Of Tennis, Inui purposefully handicaps himself with heavy weights on his ankles, which he later removes to the shock of his opponent. He's not the only one who does so, either; the non-regular Arai also uses weights. As does every other character in the series in at least one match.
- Cruelly subverted with Tezuka. As a first year, he was already better than his sempais, so he hid the fact that he was better, to not insult them. When Tezuka's cover was blown, one of the sempais lost it and hit him in the arm with his racket, this being the source of his infamous injury.
- In chaper six of Zombie Powder, It is revealed that Gamma purposely handicaps himself when he fights against women and children. At the time, Gamma was fighting an old man with the appearance of a child, and when he realized this, he began to fight seriously. And beat the mickey out of his opponent.
- Myojin pulls this in The Law Of Ueki. Ueki thinks he's figured out how to beat him, then he reveals that unlike every other power user, he was given two special powers instead of just one.
- Characters on Dragonball Z, whether hero or villain tend to do this very frequently to the point of becoming clichéd. The entire series is quite fond of the entire "I'm just holding back." "So am I!" "I'm holding back more than you." "Damn"-thing.
- Frieza being the absolute worst offender: One of our heroes finally has Frieza's measure? He just transforms to a stronger form. Three times. Another Frieza example is when, while fighting Goku in his strongest form, and Goku seemingly matching him, and now confident that he can win, Frieza bursts his bubble by revealing that even currently, in his strongest form, he's only using 1% of his power. Goku's response is to assume Frieza's bluffing...he's not. Frieza goes to 25% and begins kicking Goku's ass. Goku finds a way to catch up, at which point Frieza raises his power again to 50%. Lather, rinse, Super-Saiyan, repeat, until finally he decides to go to 100% in the example above. Slightly less extreme in the Japanese version, when his declaration is that he's at 1/3 of his full power, then powers up to 50% and then something higher than 50% before going full force. Changing 1/3 to 1% was a pretty dramatic case of a translation-induced error, because if Freeza really was 100x the power he was when he killed Vegeta, even after transforming Goku wouldn't have been able to lay a finger on him.
- This trope provides a memorable moment early in the series. Having reluctantly teamed up with Goku to stop Raditz, Piccolo gets ready for the fight by taking off his cape, revealing that it's actually weighted training gear. Goku gets a kick out of this — and takes off his weighted clothing. This itself is a throwback to the second Goku/Tien Shinhan match, where both are about evenly matched up until Goku stops and asks if he can take some of his clothes off. Tien obliges (it's apparently rather hot outside) and thinks nothing of it until Goku's undershirt lands on the floor with a heavy-sounding thud. Cue the weighted-clothing revelation and Tien's subsequent humiliation.
- Subverted in the fight between Gotenks and Super Buu. Piccolo assumes Gotenks really IS outmatched, panics, and traps them all in a pocket dimension.
- Kenshiro tends to do this quite frequently to a worthy opponent in Fist of the North Star.
- In Gintama, Kagura pulls this on Abuto. They seemed a pretty equal match, until he has her pinned to the floor and helpless, but it turns out she wasn't fighting with her full power; she then goes full-on Yato on him and proceeds to give him a thorough thrashing.
- In Gundam00, Tieria is in control of Gundam Virtue, which is capable of transforming into the ridiculously powerful, androgynously-beautiful Gundam Nadleeh. The subversion here is that he intended to hold it back as a secret weapon for Celestial Being, but was forced to reveal it early on, triggering a Heroic BSOD because of Tiera's compulsive order-following nature.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Psychic duelist Akiza (Aki Izayoi in the original) has a hairbraid that supposedly suppresses her powers (which is basically to make Duel Monsters and magic real); however, this may just be a Magic Feather.
- Ryuho of Scryed, when, pressed by Kazuma, he reveals that his Alter, Zetsui, has a level of power previously unknown even to his closest allies.
- Gou from Getter Robo Go handicaps himself during a shot put event by only using his right hand. When he uses his left hand, he can throw the weight like a baseball.
- Used almost literally in Mr. Fullswing, where ace pitcher Inukai claims to have been a softball player for most of his time in middle school and throws underhanded pitches with his right hand... until the final batter of the tryout game comes up, and he switches to his natural left handed, baseball pitching style.
- Similar to the Mr. Fullswing example above, the antagonistic billiards player Ryoji in Breakshot is narrowly defeated by main character Chinmi in a exhibition match, and it's immediately revealed that Ryoji, who had been using his right hand against Chinmi, is actually left handed and was going easy on him. When they meet again in the finals of the tournament, Ryoji reveals there's more to it than that; He actually let him win before.
- Played straight, but humorously, in Hunter x Hunter, when the hero starts an arm-wrestling contest to earn money and only barely defeats an unassuming challenger who is later reminded by a comrade that they’re not right-handed, they apparently having forgotten.
- Played straight in Shamo, where Villain Protagonist Ryo Narushima spent most of all 5 rounds struggling to fight the heavyweight karate genius before a straight punch literally knocked some sense-inducing flashbacks into him, to which he switches to a southpaw stance, completely shocking the entire crowd.
- The entire Negi/Kotaro vs. Rakan/Kage fight in Mahou Sensei Negima. The entire thing consists of the the opponents one-upping each other, to simply ludicrous levels. Negi does it five times in a single chapter.
- Rakan later combines it with Screw Destiny. When disarmed, dislegged, told he's a puppet, and shown that the Princess has been hypnotized. He responds by putting on magical armor arms and legs and getting up for round 2.
Screw that crap!!
- In an episode of Hikaru no Go, a guy named Dake-san is called in by the proprietor of a Go salon to teach a lesson to a kid who's been cheating. He pretends to be a weak player at first, among other things by holding the stones poorly - with the wrong hand.
- Justified in Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Ryohei only uses his left arm in his fight with Lussuria until he needs to. This is because he was saving the energy in his right arm so he could use his Maximum Canon.
- In Angelic Layer, during Hikaru's fight with Shirahime, Shirahime takes off her kimono, increasing her already-amazing speed and turning the tide of the battle.
- Eyeshield21 football teams tend to do this by not allowing certain players to play until needed, as to make the enemy underestimate them.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist while fighting Wrath, Scar reveals that during the three month break he has tatooed his right arm with his brother's reconstruction transmutation circle getting rid of his weakness that he could only deconstruct using alchemy.
Comic Books
- DC Comics icon Superman is prominently known for holding back all the time to avoid one-shotting his opponents' heads off as well as general collateral damage. When the gloves are off, however, fights tend to end quickly. Issue 669 explores this in depth (a flashback to his rookie years, when he had to be extra careful because humans are squishy). For what happens when Superman stops holding back, see World Of Cardboard Speech.
- In Final Crisis, Superman builds The Miracle Machine, which can grant one wish. Mandrakk arrives and says he did that for nothing, as he has no power source great enough to activate it. Superman unleashes the stored yellow sunlight within his own body, turning it on. He wishes for... a happy ending. This simply ensures that the good guys will win this battle.
- Competitor Marvel's flagship character Spider-Man does this, too, albeit at a much lower level.
- In the "What If?" Civil War special, Henry Gyrich creates an army of Thor clones to enforce registration. Reed Richards notes that Thor once told him that no matter how powerful a mortal is, he will only ever use a third of his strength for fear of killing them. The clones, of course, have no such restraint.
- Relatedly, when the real Thor comes back after Civil War, he confronts Tony Stark over what he did. With his hammer. Stark comments that Thor must have been working out, in shock at how hard he was hit. Thor replies that the only difference this time is that he isn't holding back.
- Empowered turns this into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome in Vol. 4: Emp confronts Fleshmaster, a former hero who'd turned his powers against everyone at Capes' award banquet. Emp's suit had been shredded down to gloves, rendering her naked and powerless. Fleshmaster gives her a quick Not So Different speech (They were both considered the Butt Monkeys of the hero community) and offers to spare Ninjette and Thug Boy... if Emp will give him a blowjob. Emp goes "Shut Up Hannibal"... before revealing that she could turn her suit invisible at will. Cue Curb Stomp Battle.
- Near the end run of Birds Of Prey, the team moves their headquarters from Metropolis to Platinum Flats, which just happens to be the next town over from where former member Black Canary is now living. Of course, it ultimately results in a Lets You And Him Fight between Black Canary and current Bird of Prey member Manhunter. As they battle Manhunter prattles about her recent fights against other superheroes, explaining the successes she has had in sparring matches against the likes of Wonder Woman, and is happy to finally have a chance to see how she compares against such a famed martial artist as the Canary. However, a while into the fight she questions the Canary as to why she has not used her signature Canary Cry, to which the Canary responds that she "is trying really hard not to put [the Manhunter] in the hospital."
Film
- The Princess Bride, the same movie that gives the name and quote for this trope, also provides a subversion of sorts, since the Man In Black is also Not Left-Handed.
- There is an old live action kung fu movie which uses this Trope. One villain, who has chicken in his fake mustache and calls the hero a cur, initially wields a gigantic Cloud-esque sword. Eventually, this weapon tires him, and he pulls the hilt of the weapon out of the blade, revealing a tiny blade attached to the removed hilt which he uses much more effectively.
- Zatōichi (the 2003 film) toys with this: as he is killing the last two Yakuza members, Zatōichi opens his eyes and the Yakuza boss assumed he could really see. In the very last scene of the movie, he trips over a rock and a voiceover says "Even with my eyes open, I still can't see a thing."
- A subversion of this trope is that of the boxer Rocky Balboa, as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Neither Rocky nor Stallone are left-handed, but throughout the movies he fights south-paw by preference. In fact, a substantial part of his training for the rematch against Apollo Creed in Rocky II centered on Rocky learning to fight right-handed, and switching to using his left at a crucial point in the fight to devastating effect. Rocky "Is Not Left-Handed", but unlike these other examples he is a distinctly superior fighter when favouring his off-hand.
- A classic example from Quigley Down Under:
Marston: I seem to remember you're not too familiar with Colonel Colt's revolver, so this will be your first lesson.
Quigley shoots Marston and his two henchmen before they can react.
- The movie I, Robot features a fight between Will Smith's character, Del Spooner, and an NS-5 robot that's actually trying to kill him (as opposed to the fight with Sonny, earlier in the movie). Spooner hits the robot with a metal pipe once or twice, which the robot shrugs off, and it acquires possession of the weapon. After successfully dodging the robot's first swing, the robot's second and third swings are blocked by Spooner's left arm - and on the second impact, we see part of the inside of the arm exposed, revealing that Spooner's left arm is, in fact, mechanical. (Which - when the robot looks surprised, or as surprised as a robot can be - he acknowledges the fact with an almost-apologetic "Yeah.") He connects with a hard punch and a leg sweep using that arm, and tries to punch the robot while it's on the ground - only to miss, and have his fist go through the asphalt.
- Lt Col Alan Caldwell, in The Presidio
Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell: Now, are you sure you want to have a fight? Because I'm only gonna use my thumb.
Bully in Bar: Thumb?
Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell: My right thumb. Left one's much too powerful for you.
- Beerfest. "We're not that drunk." That is all.
- Well, everyone except for Todd, who really was that drunk.
- In A League of Their Own, the "ugly" girl, Marla Hooch, has a moment like this during her batting demonstration for Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz). After several good hits, Marla's father says, "Okay, Marla, now hit leftie," which causes all the guys to moan in anticipation. She had been batting rightie, but was actually a left-handed hitter.
- A variation of this takes place in Die Hard. Gruber has John McClane at his mercy, unarmed and shirtless, with no obvious place to hide a gun. As the camera pans behind McClane, we see that he had taped a gun to his back.
Literature
- The Star Wars book "Starfighters of Adumar" has a scene where Wes Janson faces a foe in a swordfight, and uses his weapon in his left hand. This is actually a feint, as he immediately uses his free right hand to disarm his overconfident opponent. After that the fight becomes a brutal display of how his extremely skilled opponent never bothered to train for situations where he would not actually have a weapon.
- Another Star Wars example from Han Solo's Revenge: Han avoids a duel with a superior gunman by shocking both their right arms into useless paralysis - the gunman is unable to defend himself, whereas Han is ambidextrous.
- Iorek Byrnison pulls one of these in his fight against Iofur Raknison during The Golden Compass by pretending his left arm is too badly hurt to be used in the fight. It's not.
- Daniel in The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson. It's not that he discovers a new power, but more like he discovers a new combination of attacks to defeat the villain.
- Cats Have No Lord by Will Shetterly deliberately echoes the The Princess Bride trope, up until the "I'm not left-handed either," which is not true, but a ruse to distract the opponent so that sand can be thrown in his eyes.
Live Action TV
- The very first episode of Power Rangers had Zordon tell them that they should never use their Zords, except after attempting all lesser attacks, as some kind of code of honor. This is also a handwave of the Forgotten Superweapon phenomenon.
- An episode of Star Trek The Next Generation that plays with the Robin Hood legend plays with this: "I am not from Nottingham!"
- In Entourage, Ari attempts to trick a studio executive into betting Vince into a movie during a golf game - he purposefully loses the first nine holes before making the bet, and then his game miraculously improves. The exec accuses Ari of trying to trick him - then reveals that he plays much better left-handed, and goes on to defeat Ari.
- Angel does this on a regular basis, usually revealing that he's a vampire about halfway through the fight.
"Right now I'm crushing your windpipe.
"Guess what I'm doing now? Not using my windpipe."
- Doctor Who: In The Christmas Invasion, the bad guy has the Doctor at a disadvantage in their challenge sword duel, and slices off his right hand. The Doctor, however, grows a new one instantly due to previously-unknown Applied Phlebotinum, dubs it a 'fightin' hand', and proceeds to soundly defeat the bad guy.
- The final battle in Serenity between Mal and the Operative. Mal's been hit in a nerve cluster with a move intended to cause paralysis, the Operative goes into his "This is a good death" speech, Mal proceeds to notify him that that cluster was taken out by shrapnel during the war. Cue ass-kicking.
- In Band of Brothers this trope appears in such perfect form it almost looks like it was the Trope Namer. In the 4th episode ("Replacements"), Buck Compton plays darts against one of the new guys—Heffron—and loses saying, "It's a good thing we weren't gambling." Heffron suggests they bet on the next game and Buck "reluctantly" agrees. Before Buck takes his shot, he switches to his right hand and wins easily.
George Luz: Lieutenant, are you going to shoot lefty all night?
Joe Toye: Hey, c'mon.
George Luz: I'm just curious cause he's right-handed.
'Buck' Compton: [switches hands] George, what would I do without George Luz?
- In an episode of the Mad TV recurring skit "Average Asian", a man challenges said Asian to a game of ping pong. After losing, the Asian says "Let me put the paddle in my OTHER hand" needless to say, "He's an expert Asian! When it comes to ping pong!"
- Stargate SG 1: Master Bra'tac: "You are mistaken...I no longer carry a symbiote." It helps that he has a vague resemblance to Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya).
- Joxer pulls this, in an almost word-for-word sendup of the famous scene from The Princess Bride, while fighting under a spell cast by Aphrodite that turns him from The Scrappy to The Lancer at the literal ring of a bell.
- This was also an homage/send-up of a similar scene from Danny Kaye's The Court Jester, where Kaye goes from stumblebum to master swordsman with the sound of a finger-snap while fighting Basil Rathbone.
- The New Adventures of Zorro. "I am the greatest swordsman in Baja California!" "Unfortunately, you are in Alta California."
- Everybody Loves Raymond after Ray loses a ping-pong match with his father, his father reminds him that "it's a good thing he wasn't using his good hand" and switches his paddle to the other hand.
Video Games
Webcomics
Web Original
- In the final showdown between Captain S and the Game Genie, Captain S seems to have the Genie's number before the Genie proclaimed "We're not *snort* left-handed." and proceeded to transform into his true form
Western Animation
- Avatar The Last Airbender: Zuko does this when fighting an earthbender and realizing that holding back his firebending to conceal his identity is no longer an option.
- The moment when Flash surpasses any speed ever achieved by a human being in order to whup Brainiac-Luthor's ass in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall". The episode practically gave the character an immediate boost from the goofy, comic relief of the League to an absolute badass in a few seconds.
- At various times throughout the series it is made very clear that The Flash, much like Superman, holds back because his abilities can cause a lot of collateral damage if he isn't careful. As for the above example, it's implied that he was approaching the speed of light and you can see cars flipping and distant windows shattering just from how fast he is moving.
- In the recent Flash: Rebirth series, Superman is chasing after Barry Allen, when Superman begins talking about the races they've done in the past. Barry responds with "Those were for charity, Clark," and immediately speeds off, leaving Superman dumbfounded and far, far behind.
- In Justice League Batman was captured by the Injustice Gang and placed in an elaborate full-body restraint. Instead of escaping, which he later explains he could at any point, he remains chained up so he could undermine the Gang through manipulation.
- And Joker knew about him doing it, but Lex and Friends didn't listen to him.
- Also in Justice League, Superman lets himself get beaten up a lot because of this; he will never start a fight using all of his powers; indeed, he's beaten many times, but either because somebody broke out the kryptonite or because he's holding back early on and for some reason can't go back to being right handed. Case in point: when he unknowingly fought Wonder Woman, he had to stop fighting period once he realized it was her, and got badly beaten up because of that.
- In the episode where Green Lantern decides the team isn't working together enough, Superman explains he takes hits on purpose because that's one less hit the others don't have to take.
- General Grievous at the end of Star Wars Clone Wars. You thought he was tough with two arms? Well, now he has four.
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