Basic Trope: Left-handedness = unsavory.
- Straight: The bad guy is left-handed, and also evil.
- Exaggerated: Everyone with a remote chance of performing evil deeds is left-handed, whereas everyone who is right-handed is an example of Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
- Downplayed: The left-handed member of the heroes' team is the does a few unsavory deeds, but is otherwise on the side of good.
- Justified: The accident that drove the bad guy to evil claimed the use of his right hand.
- Inverted:
- The Hero is left-handed.
- Left-handedness is used to signify a character's Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
- The bad guy is right-handed.
- Subverted:
- The bad guy is left-handed, but so are several good characters.
- The Hero is ambidextrous.
- The only lefty among the bad guys is the only one to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- The clue that allegedly demonstrates the Big Bad is a southpaw was inflicted by the Big Bad with his right hand and a complicated method (such as backhanded strikes), making this a coincidence.
- Double Subverted:
- But by the end of the series, all of the good left-handed characters have turned to the side of evil.
- Thirty cases of assault to women and they all have the exact same injury pattern. It's a very auspicious coincidence.
- Parodied:
- An ambidextrous character is introduced; when he's favoring his right hand, he's good, when he's favoring his left hand, he's evil.
- In a villain school, a villain is kicked out if they are right-handed, and in a hero school, a hero is kicked out if they are left-handed.
- The bad guy had a Hilariously Abusive Childhood and plenty of other reasons to go evil, but everyone is certain his left-handedness is why he's a bad guy.
- Zig Zagged: The bad guy is seen using his left hand for things, only for him to later pull I Am Not Left-Handed in a fight. Then it turns out that is, and the previous reveal was a feint to throw The Hero off-guard.
- Averted: Laterality is no indicator of goodness.
- Enforced: "If you're not going to give The Rival scars or ominous looks, we need some way to foreshadow that he pulls a Face–Heel Turn. Make him a lefty, how about."
- Lampshaded: "A lefty, eh? I think we've found our murderer!".
- Invoked:
- To show they've made a Face–Heel Turn, the villain purposely starts using their left hand.
- The villain spreads rumours that left-handers are evil so as to turn people against the hero, who is indeed so.
- Exploited: Characters pretend to be left-handed for the intimidation factor.
- Defied: The Hero is left-handed, and makes a point to emphasize and play up his lefthandedness so people will see that not all southpaws are evil.
- Discussed: "I'm left-handed, yes, but I'm not evil!"
- Conversed: "Why are left-handed people always depicted as evil in this show?"
- Played For Drama:
- The left-handed villain became a villain because they were abused for being left-handed.
- He's an anti-villain or one that became possessed against his will with a sympathetic Freudian Excuse who just so happens to be left handed.
- Deconstructed: Everyone assumes that someone is evil just because they happen to be a southpaw. Eventually, they snap and decide Then Let Me Be Evil.
Go back and edit A Sinister Clue. Just make sure to edit with your right hand.
