Basic Trope: A physical defect that marks a character as evil.
- Straight: Drake's right hand is dark-red, covered in scales and Spikes of Villainy.
- Exaggerated:
- Entire right half of Drake's body is red, spiky, and constantly on fire.
- Every villain in the story has a red right hand. Even the Harmless Villain.
- Obviously Evil
- Downplayed Drake's right hand is slightly tinted red.
- Justified:
- Drake has embraced The Corruption, and his hand turning red is an outward result of it.
- Drake has a grotesque skin condition on his right hand, and it's completely unrelated to his evil.
- Drake was shunned by society for his deformity and he decides to take revenge on the society that shunned him.
- Inverted:
- Saint Charles has a Holy Halo over his head.
- Bob, a Friend to All Living Things, possesses a misleading evil-looking defect.
- Drake is utterly monstrous in appearance except for one healthy-looking part that signifies he's a Noble Demon.
- Drake has absolutely no noteworthy physical features.
- Subverted:
- The heroes are surrounded by enemy Mooks. Drake jumps in... and promptly beats the crap out of Mooks.
- Drake looks evil, but he's actually really kind unambiguously good.
- Double Subverted: But he is actually The Man Behind the Man or The Mole trying to convince heroes he's friendly.
- Parodied: Right hands are Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. Red? The Dragon. Green? Evil Genius. Black? Evil Overlord.
- Zig Zagged: Drake has a red right hand, but he's not evil. Oh wait, yes he is! Or is he? Yes, it seems he isn't. But he's still not too heroic. And now he's lost his arm- hey, is that an Arm Cannon?!
- Averted:
- Drake does not have any physical defects that mark him as evil.
- Physical defects, good or evil-looking, are completely unrelated to one's alignment.
- Enforced: "Oh, dammit, our characters are so overdressed you can't even tell a hero from villain!" "Then just make a villain's hand all red and spiky, or whatever."
- Lampshaded: "You see that onimously-colored hand? That's how you tell who is behind everything."
- Invoked: Drake's hand is, in fact, a glove made by him to look scary.
- Exploited: Drake is fairly minor to the villain's plan, but he uses his deformed hand to sell himself as a major evil overlord so that the heroes will waste time targeting him.
- Defied:
- Drake camouflages his hand for disguise purposes.
- Or, in a far more extreme variation of the above, Drake decides to cut off the hand entirely, maybe because it's messing with his brain and/or it's slowing killing him.
- Drake decides that he won't become a villain just because he has an "evil" hand.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Drake's red right hand was present since birth. Being constantly mocked by everyone and their dog is what drove him to villainy in the first place.
- Reconstructed: ...However, they were right about the hand being a sign that he had great evil in him
- Plotted A Good Waste: Drake's red right hand has nothing to do with being evil... but it does have to do with being extraterrestrial. Which is, of course, a pretty big Reveal.
- Implied: Drake has a red hand, suggesting he may be evil, but this is never confirmed.
- Played For Laughs: Drake has a red hand, leading people to joke about him being "caught red-handed".
- Played For Drama: Drake goes to desperate and horrible measures to find a cure for his red hand.
Back to Red Right Hand
