Hand Tropes

6 Following

Compare Glove Tropes and Tropes Out on a Limb. See also This Index Slaps.

Tropes:

• Accidental Hand-Hold: Two characters end up holding hands by complete accident.
• Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: Unintentionally making a gesture that was basically impolite or was accidentally changed from a polite gesture to an impolite one.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Showing affection to a character by petting their head.
• Air Quotes: Using two finger of each hand to mimic quotation marks. Used to indicate Sarcasm Mode while speaking.
• Almost Holding Hands: Two characters nearly hold hands, often with one reaching out but stopping short, highlighting unspoken attraction or hesitation.
• Angry Item Tapping: A character taps an object—such as a rolled-up newspaper, belt, or other item—to signal anger or impatience.
• Anti-Sneeze Finger: Someone tries to prevent themselves from sneezing by placing a finger at their nose.
• Badass Fingersnap: When the character is so badass they just need to snap their fingers for things to happen.
• Barehanded Bar Bending
• Bare-Handed Blade Block
• Bare-Handed Puppetry
• Bicep-Polishing Gesture
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Shooting a weapon out of someone else's hand.
• Blasting Time: Charging your hand-based energy attack with your arms raised upward before firing.
• Bloody Handprint: A handprint made of blood.
• Boom in the Hand: A character holds onto a primed explosive a little too long, potentially blowing themself up.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass
• Breaking In Old Habits: A character gets their hand replaced and ends up using the new hand to masturbate.
• Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: Stopping someone you love from leaving by grabbing onto their sleeve.
• Chain of People
• Clawing at Own Throat
• Clutching Hand Trap: A character gets their hand stuck while trying to get a treat from a jar or a hole.
• Coin Walk Flexing: A character does a coin walk to look cool or show off their dexterity.
• Contemplating Your Hands: Someone is fascinated by their hands while on drugs.
• Creepily Long Arms
• Creepy Long Fingers
• Cross-Cultural Handshake
• Crushing Handshake: A character shakes hands with another one, but they grip so hard they end up hurting them instead.
• Cuckoo Finger Twirl: A character twirls their index finger close to their ear to silently call another character a weirdo or lunatic.
• Cumbersome Claws
• Dead-Hand Shot: We see a shot of someone's hand to confirm that they have died.
• Declarative Finger
• Desperate Nail Dragging: A character being dragged by another claws at the ground as they try to get away from their captor.
• Detachable Thumb Trick: An illusionary party trick where someone pretends to remove their thumb.
• Dusting Off Your Hands
• Evil Hand: A limb (usually a hand) is manipulated to act independently of its owner.
• Extra Digits: When a character's hand has at least one more digit than is standard for the story.
• Eye Am Watching You: Aiming your index and middle finger at your eyes and another's eyes to confirm they're under your radar.
• Face Palm: Pressing your palm against your face after seeing someone do something stupid or embarrassing.
• Faux Paw: Making a cat paw movement with your hand.
• Feather Fingers: A bird's wing feathers function like fingers.
• Feeling Your Heartbeat: A person puts another's hand on their chest to feel their heartbeat.
• Femme Fatalons: A character has long, well-kept fingernails, indicating that they're a villain, untrustworthy and/or dangerous.
• Film the Hand
• Finger Extinguisher: Using your fingers to put out a flame.
• Finger Firearms
• Finger Framing
• Finger Gun
• Finger in a Barrel: Placing at least one finger inside the barrel of a gun, which typically causes it to explode.
• Finger in the Mail: Delivering a severed finger with a ransom demand as evidence of a kidnapping.
• Fingerless Hands: A character's hands do not have fingers.
• Finger Muzzle
• Finger on Lips: Censoring swear words by shushing and putting a finger or hand over one's mouth.
• Finger Poke of Doom
• Finger-Snap Lighter: When the character wants to light something up, they just snap their fingers and fire manifests.
• Finger-Snapping Street Gang: A street gang advances on someone while rhythmically snapping their fingers.
• Finger-Suck Healing
• Finger-Tenting: Manipulative characters tend to cover their faces or chests with their fingers tip-to-tip or interlocked.
• Finger-Twitching Revival
• Finger Wag
• Fingore: Violence inflicted upon fingers.
• Firing One-Handed
• Fist of Rage
• Fist Pump
• Five-Finger Fillet: Quickly stabbing a sharp object between your fingers to show boldness.
• Flipping the Bird: Insulting a person by sticking your middle finger at them.
• Forgotten Fingerprint
• Four-Fingered Hands
• Futile Hand Reach
• Giant Hands of Doom: A boss who fights with giant floating disembodied hands.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Pointing at someone is a super-dramatic and serious gesture.
• A Glass in the Hand: Fists clench, glassware broken.
• "Good Luck" Gesture
• Gotta Get Your Head Together: Victims of assault on the brain, head or ears will clutch their head.
• Got the Whole World in My Hand: Symbol of a hand grasping at the globe.
• "Got Your Nose" Gag: Someone pretends to steal a person’s nose by swiping at their face and balling their hand into a fist as if they’re holding the stolen nose.
• The Grace Face Pose: A girl puts the backside of her hand underneath her chin cunningly.
• Grasp the Sun
• Greeting Gesture Confusion: Several characters meet, and use mismatched gestures when greeting one another.
• Hand Behind Head
• Hand Blast
• Hand Gagging: Silencing someone by putting a hand over their mouth.
• Hand in the Hole
• Hand of Death: Only the killer's hand is seen prior to the reveal of their identity.
• Hand of Glory
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: A naked person covers up by placing their hands over their private parts.
• Hand on Womb: A woman rests her hand on her stomach as an early sign that she is pregnant.
• Hand Rubbing: Someone sinisterly rubs their hands together.
• Hand Seals: Ritualistic hand gestures that are commonly used as part of a magic formula, with roots in Taoism.
• "Hands Full" Gag: When a character is trying to hold too many things at once and it's Played for Laughs.
• Hands Go Down
• Handshake of Doom: A handshake that means nothing but death, sorrow and general misfortune.
• Handshake Refusal
• Handshake Substitute
• Hand Signals
• Hand Sliding Down the Glass
• Hand Stomp: Stomp on someone's hands while they're hanging for dear life.
• Hands in Pockets: Some artists just don't bother drawing certain things that should be there.
• Hands Looking Wrong: A character notices they've been transformed or changed in some other way by checking their hands.
• Hands-On Contest: A competition where all participants have to keep on hand on something at all times, with the last one to do so being the winner.
• Handy Cuffs: Cuffing an offender with their arms in front makes them still dangerous.
  • With My Hands Tied
• Handy Emotional Cues
• Hanging by the Fingers
• Has Two Thumbs and...
• Healing Hands
• Heart Hands Pose
• Helping Hands: A sentient, detached limb capable of moving on its own.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded
• Heroic Ambidexterity
• High-Five Left Hanging
• Holding Hands
  • Intertwined Fingers
• Hook Hand
• How Many Fingers?
• Humanlike Hand Anatomy
• I Broke a Nail: A woman becomes really upset because she broke a finger nail.
• Ignored Raised Hand
• I Kiss Your Hand
  • Kiss Up the Arm
• Impaled Palm
• Instant Wristwatch
• Italians Talk with Hands
• Kinky Cuffs
• Knuckle Cracking
• Knuckle Tattoos
• Last Grasp at Life
• Lying Finger Cross: A character crosses their fingers while making a vow, oath, etc., to show they're lying.
• Magnet Hands
• Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: Someone names their fists.
• Menacing Hand Shot
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous
• Multi-Armed Multitasking
• Nails on a Blackboard
• Nightmare Hands: Ghastly hands, often a source of Nightmare Fuel. invoked
• Offering a Hand
  • Lending a Backhand
• Offhand Backhand
• One-Handed Shotgun Pump
• Palm Bloodletting: Ritually cutting one's own hand open to shed blood.
• Palm-Fist Tap
• Palm on Cheek Pose
• Pinky Swear: Using pinky fingers as gesture of promise, usually by children.
• Poison Ring: A wearable accessory or item of clothing that conceals poison.
• Power Fist: Weapon that improves punches.
• Power Palms
• Prayer Pose
• Proper Pinky: Fancy, proper characters extending their pinkies out during various activities, primarily tea-drinking.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance
• Raised Hand of Survival: A person believed to be dead raises their hand onto the screen to show that they're alive.
• Rapid-Fire Nail Biting
• Razor-Sharp Hand
• Reaching Towards the Audience: You can practically touch the poster's frontmost hand, it's so close!
• The Right Hand of Doom: A character has a disproportionately large arm.
• Robotic Pincer Hands
• Rock–Paper–Scissors
• Secret Handshake
• Security Cling: Grabbing onto another person in response to something scary or distressing.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling
• Situational Hand Switch
• "Silly Me" Gesture
• A Sinister Clue: Left-handedness = evil.
  • The Killer Was Left-Handed
• Sleight of Handiness
• South Paw Advantage: A character's left-handedness gives them an advantage.
• Southpaw Stigma: Left-handed people suffer stigma and prejudice for being left-handed.
• Special Odd Hand
• Spit Shake: Two characters spit into their hands and shake them to seal an oath.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Grabbing a woman's arm will stop her in her tracks.
• Still Sucks Thumb: A character still sucks their thumb even though they're too old for it.
• Stock Clock Hand Hang
• Summon to Hand
• Take My Hand!
• Talk to the Hand
• Team Hand-Stack
• These Hands Have Killed: Someone is remorseful of the fact that they just killed someone.
• Vise Grip: A character's hands have enormous crushing power.
• V-Sign
• Warding Gestures
• Whip Wrist Wrap: Countering the use of a whip by letting it wrap around your wrist.
• Yubitsume: Cutting the tip of, or an entire finger in the Yakuza as punishment for failure.