I Am Not Left-Handed

"Inigo Montoya: 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 the sword to his right hand and starts driving him back)"

- The Princess Bride

A Combat Trope in which one of the combatants reveals that (s)he's been holding back, but now decides it's time to take it up a notch.

The situation varies from example to example. A common example is for a character to fight with his non-dominant hand, as in the trope-naming example, only to switch back to his dominant hand to gain an edge. Similar to this is pretending that he has a serious handicap, then deciding to stop the charade - in other words, a seeming in-universe equivalent of an Unexplained Recovery. It can also go so far as a character revealing that he has always had a superpower which they now decide to exploit, or a Dangerous Forbidden Technique which they now have no option but to utilize.

Of course, Villains can invoke this trope, as well.

Has a couple of sub-tropes:

Heroic Examples:
 * Deadly Upgrade
 * Eleventh Hour Superpower
 * Eyepatch of Power
 * My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours

Villainous Examples:
 * One-Winged Angel
 * Turns Red

See also: Training From Hell, Restraining Bolt, Power Limiter, Willfully Weak, Just Toying With Them and Fake Weakness.

May contain unmarked spoilers.

Anime & Manga
"Sloth: """
 * Fai in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 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
 * Rock Lee in Naruto does this several times in the Chuunin exam, with both the handicap (he wears ludicrously heavy leg weights most of the time) and the Dangerous Forbidden Technique (of which he uses several in succession).
 * Zaku pretended that he still couldn't use one of his arms when fighting with Shino. But as soon as he tries attacking with 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 : Jiraiya think he's won by when it turns out  Fittingly, he reveals this by
 * When Pain fights Naruto, he believes that Naruto has used sage mode long enough, and it will expire shortly. It does, but Naruto has got a couple more sage modes stocked up elsewhere. He also generates more sage mode during the battle, while Pain is busy lecturing him.
 * 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. On an entirely unrelated note, Nanoha herself is left-handed.
 * 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.
 * Also used by Bui. When Hiei fought against him, Hiei found it annoyingly easy to fend off Bui's attacks... until Bui took off his power-limiting armor.
 * Karasu pretends that his power is to make anything he touches explode. Kurama tries to counter by fighting at a distance. But Karasu reveals that his real power is to make invisible bombs that he can move with his mind. BOOM.
 * 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 ambidextrously, 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.
 * This is probably the most prevalent in Ryoma's showdown against Yukimura in the finale of the OVA, where Ryoma almost gets out-dueled by the much feared Yukimura, and falls to the ground exhausted, but suddenly wakes up in a Deus Ex Machina and out-duels Yukimura in reverse.
 * 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.
 * Tezuka,
 * In chapter 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.
 * During the second Goku/Tien Shinhan match of Dragonball, both are about evenly matched 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.
 * 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.
 * Piccolo ditches his weighted training clothing again during his fight with 2nd-form Frieza in an attempt to try and keep up with Frieza's rising power level. It doesn't work, largely because Frieza reveals a second tansformation.
 * Freeza is the absolute worst offender: One of our heroes finally has Freeza's measure? He just transforms to a stronger form. Three times. Later on, Goku is seemingly matching Freeza's strongest form, and is confident that he can win. Freeza reveals that he's only using 1% of his power. Goku's response is to assume Freeza's bluffing...he's not. Freeza goes to 50% and begins kicking Goku's ass.
 * Slightly less extreme in the Japanese version, where the power-level Freeza is fighting at before going up to 50% is unspecified. Given that Goku manages to equal 50% Freeza when using his 20X Kaioken though he could only endure the strain for a few seconds), Freeza must have been higher than 1%.
 * Played with in the fight between Gotenks and Super Buu. Piccolo assumes Gotenks really IS outmatched, panics, and traps them all in a pocket dimension. Gotenks then reveals that he was only pretending to be losing, and that he could secretly go Super Saiyan 3 all along. He was hiding it because he thought it would be more Badass. He uses his withheld Super Saiyan 3 transformation to rip the fabric of space-time, escape said pocket dimension, and kick Super Buu's ass for five minutes anyway.
 * The tendency to fight this way gives Goku and Pan serious trouble against Haze Shenron. Pan has no problem kicking around this pathetically weak opponent but it turns out that his pollution aura has been sapping their strength, thereby giving him the upper hand. After escaping his area of influence and regaining their strength the pair are able to return and easily destroy him with an energy blast. They should have just done that in the first place.
 * Kenshiro tends to do this quite frequently to a worthy opponent in Fist of the North Star.
 * In Gintama, Kagura pulls this on . They seemed a pretty equal match, until he has her pinned to the floor and helpless, but it turns out she.
 * Not a conscious reveal so much as a Superpower Evil Side triggered in response to Shinpachi almost being killed by Abuto. Shinpachi actually has to stop Kagura from killing Abuto, knowing that in her right mind she wouldn't want to.
 * In Gundam 00, Tieria is in control of Gundam Virtue, which is capable of transforming into the ridiculously powerful, androgynously-beautiful Gundam Nadleeh.
 * Debateable -- Nadleeh is less capable of inflicting damage than Virtue and only slightly more manouverable; while it has the power to completely shut down certain opponents, it is less powerful than Virtue against all other foes.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds Psychic duelist Akiza (Aki Izayoi in the original) has a hair braid 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.
 * It seems to be more of a justified power limiter as their energy is drained a lot faster when using it. Also his allies knew about it, but it was stated that it had not used for the last two years.
 * 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 not so straight in the Greed Island arc, where Kula and Gon train with what looks like a girl their age, but isn't. Not only that but when she fights against an opponent while Kula and Gon aren't around, she turns into a huge muscley beast that is her "real form" and utterly obliterates the opposition. She's quite strong before this, so it isn't so much hiding her strength as it is she thinks the form is really ugly and doesn't want people to see it.
 * 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.
 * It is also used as an explanation of why Ryo turned out the way he is. Yes, folks - he's evil 'cause he's left handed.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * You know what, just Rakan in general is this trope.
 * Happens also in the final fight of the Mahora Festival Arc. After destroying the main secret weapon of his oponent (and his own equivalent weapon gets destroyed in the meantime as well), Negi declares that now he has an advantage because he can use magic and his oponent cannot. Then suddenly his oponent reveals that she is pretty good at using magic in battle too. Of course, he should have expected this, since
 * 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.
 * "Haha, too bad. I've only shown eighty percent of my power so far." "I've only shown half."
 * 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.
 * Eyeshield 21 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.
 * Much earlier, Edward fought Slicer/Number 48 a Boxed Crook turned Animated Armor who displays his blood seal on the back of his helmet during the fight. Ed then knocks the head off, knowing he couldn't control a body he wasn't connected to, but then it turns out "Slicer" was actually two Serial Killers (brothers), the other of which was put in the same armor, but the seal was on the torso. This is then Lampshaded after Ed beats him as well and he pokes the armor cautiously while asking if there was a third one.
 * When Ed fights Kimblee in the manga, he manages to screw up one of the half transmutations circles on Kimblee's hands and to prevent Kimblee from using any alchemy without wasting time drawing another circle, but  Explosions ensue.
 * Also in the manga (and the Brotherhood anime), when Sloth gets badly pummeled by the Armstrong siblings, he remarks it's time to "go full throttle":
 * When Ed fights Kimblee in the manga, he manages to screw up one of the half transmutations circles on Kimblee's hands and to prevent Kimblee from using any alchemy without wasting time drawing another circle, but  Explosions ensue.
 * Also in the manga (and the Brotherhood anime), when Sloth gets badly pummeled by the Armstrong siblings, he remarks it's time to "go full throttle":


 * In an extra chapter in the manga "The Military Festival" Ed and Mustang battle it out Mustang shoots flames at Ed as Ed runs around dodging. Ed suckers Mustang close enough to rip off the transmutation circle on his glove when Mustang reveals that his left hand (which was in his pocket the whole time) also has a transmuting glove on it. So it's more like I Am Not Right Handed. Later in the manga during Mustang's fight with  it tuns out to not be a gag when we see Mustang consistently using his left hand for pinpoint burning and his right hand for big explosions.
 * Parodied in Baka to Test To Shoukanjuu, when Akihisa goes up against Miho Satou, an A class student, Akihisa declares himself to be left-handed, but winds up losing anyway, because it's a fight determined by test scores.
 * In Chrono Crusade, Aion gets badly beaten by Duke Daffau when . For a moment, it looks like Aion's beaten within an inch of his life--until he reveals that he was holding back the entire time and proceeds start a trap that weakens Daffau and his troops, while activating a secret property in his sword that allows him to heal incredibly quickly.
 * In one of the Early rounds of the Do D tournament of Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Takeda claims he can handle an opponent by himself. Cue him getting whupped. He then states loudly that he's going to have to take this seriously, whereupon he takes off his shirt, revealing that he was wearing a full body spring retainer thing. This being a tournament where people have been known to die, everyone, including the announcer, declares him insane.
 * The Evangelions of Neon Genesis Evangelion have armor which doesn't protect them as much as it restrains them, even being referred to as "binders" when . After defeating a particularly tough Angel, Unit-01 tears off its armor and scares NERV enough to put it under quarantine.
 * When the Evas go berserk, they tend to do things that didn't seem within their capabilities beforehand (regenerating arms, taking damage that would have destroyed them earlier, and in Rebuild, ).
 * Katanagatari has a particularly crazy example (warning: spoils an awesome twist).
 * Also Shichika in the final episode, once he
 * Alice L. Malvin of Pumpkin Scissors pulls this bit in the final duel of the series when she switches hands mid-fight.
 * Star Driver episode 3 features a mecha sword fight. At first, Takuto's opponent is kicking his ass...until . Eventually, we learn that Takuto has been doing this the entire time. What looks like New Powers As the Plot Demands is actually nothing of the sort. He's been trained to be a Driver pretty much since birth, and knew nearly everything his mech was capable of. Since he needed every advantage he could get, he fought his opponents using the minimum amount of skill and abilities, and whenever they reached the point where he was in trouble, he revealed his next trick.
 * And then comes another I Am Not Left Handed moment after the fight itself:
 * In combat Lind of Ah My Goddess wields a massive Lochaber axe against opponents. One such opponent, believing it to be her only method of attack due to not utilizing any other power, shattered it in an attempt to cripple her. A bystander snidely commented that the axe was Lind's way of being polite; commence massive kicking of bad guy butt.
 * She also pulled this on Hild in an earlier arc. The latter thought that she couldn't fight since she no longer had her angel, Lind reply can be summed up as
 * In chapter 240 of Fairy Tail, Ultear reveals when Gray finds a way to counter her Time Arc magic.
 * In the first Drama CD of Tiger and Bunny -- set back in Kotetsu's high school days -- Kotetsu gets into a match with Antonio (who has Nigh Invulnerability as his NEXT power) and manages to fight him to a standstill... While entirely unpowered. When he ditches the fight to save someone trapped in a burning factory and activates his own NEXT abilities, Antonio is surprised to say the least.
 * Played straight in in the yaoi/baseball manga Perfect XXX. After pitching a few perfect games with his left hand, an opposing hitter actually hits a home run off of one of Kenshiro's pitches in the first inning, so the the next inning Kenshiro surprises everyone (well everyone on the other team and Ayato) by pitching with his right hand.
 * In Claymore, Teresa of the Faint Smile easily defeats the #2, #3, #4, and #5 without releasing any of her power. When the #2, Priscilla, unleashes 80% of her power and starts giving her trouble, Teresa simply releases 10% and easily defeats her again.

Bleach

 * Try 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. In fact, it's used so much that you can usually predict who will win a close fight based on who powers up first. The members of Squad 11 practically live and breathe this trope.
 * 11th squad Captain Kenpachi used to braid bells into his hair so his opponents could hear him coming. By wearing an eyepatch over a fully functional eye not only impedes his vision but is composed of power-sucking creatures that keeps his power level down. He also insists on using his sword one-handed to weaken the force of his blows. When he does finally use his sword two-handed (and with his eyepatch removed), the power that explodes from his cut is enormous.
 * Kenpachi's third seat, Ikkaku Madarame likes to be straight-forward in battle. His skills, however, are anything but.
 * He employs a predictable routine of attacking with his sword in his right hand and parrying with his scabbard in his left. Then, just as his opponent has become comfortable with this style, he'll switch his sword and scabbard in mid-strike, reversing his attacks and parries and thus revealing he's ambidextrous.
 * His shikai manifests as a spear. Except it's not. It's really a three-section staff and it can slip between spear and staff at any stage, completely catching his opponents off guard and making his attacks unpredictable.
 * He greatest secret is that he also possesses bankai. He keeps this secret out of fear that he'd be forced to leave the 11th division and become a captain of another squad. He'll even throw a fight if he can't get away with using it in secret. Iba has revealed it's actually The Not Secret and even hinted that perhaps it's an Open Secret.
 * Yumichika's zanpakutou initially transforms into something that looks like a khopesh. Then he reveals it can actually transform into a four-bladed sickle-sword, although it doesn't do anything more than give his opponents very nasty wounds. Finally, Yumichika reveals this is actually a fake shikai and his real shikai is arguably one of the most powerful zanpakutou in the entire manga, being able to absorb the life energy from anything it captures and then use that absorbed energy to heal Yumichika's wounds. The only two times he's used it, he's one-shotted both opponents. The only reason he doesn't thrash people right and left with it is because it's a kidou-type zanpakutou which is taboo in the 11th squad. He'd therefore rather die than have his squad learn the truth.
 * Aizen, believing he's Genre Savvy, deprives Yamamoto of his zanpakutou because of its reputation for being the most powerful offensive zanpakutou ever. Yamamoto promptly reveals Aizen was Wrong Genre Savvy by unleashing hell with his bare fists and some of the most powerful kidou attacks that have ever been seen in the entire manga.
 * Nnoitra's released form reveals four arms which even Kenpachi struggles to fight against. And then Nnoitra reveals he doesn't have four arms, after all. He has six.
 * Kyouraku subverts this. His shikai is a tricky set of weaponised children's games that trap both him and his opponent in the rules of the game until one or the other is dead. The three games his reveals become something of a pattern for him, one that Starrk gets used to. Then he reveals he had a fourth game all along, one that allows him to ambush strike through shadows. Subverted because Kyouraku actually doesn't choose to hide this power. His zanpakutou sets the rules and only lets him reveal his weaponised games when she's ready for them to be used.
 * When Uryuu and Mayuri fight, Mayuri believes he's resolved the fight quite quickly by paralysing Uryuu's body with poison. That's when Uryuu reveals he possesses a quincy technique that allows him to fight normally even when his limbs are otherwise completely paralysed.
 * When fighting against Gatanbainne, Sado reveals the enormously powerful right arm he's been fighting with throughout the manga is actually a defensive, shielding power. His real attack force is located in his left arm and is much more powerful than his right arm's power.
 * When Soifon and Yoruichi fight, Soifon thinks she has the upper hand and proudly displays her ultimate technique which she's only just invented and mastered and hasn't even had time to name yet... and then Yoruichi reveals the technique does have a name, Soifon didn't invent it first, hasn't in fact mastered it yet, and that Yoruichi can do it far better than Soifon even realised was possible.
 * Gin Ichimaru's bankai extends his sword to 13 kilometers length, and he demonstrates its power by slicing buildings in half with one long circular swing. But he then reveals that the true strength of the weapon is not its length, but how fast it can extend and retract (roughly 500 times the speed of sound), essentially acting as a sword-shaped railgun/machine gun..

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
 * Likewise, Mr. Tawky Tawny is involved in this crisis and the Tigerman leader he fights - Kalibak, the son of Darkseid - learns the hard way that while he may look like a wimp in his tweed business suit and bowtie, he is still a mighty tiger!
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Actually Stark confront Thor, smugly certain that his Iron Man suit can take the god of thunder. Thor takes him out with one hit!
 * Empowered turns this into a Crowning Moment of Awesome in Vol. 4:
 * Cyndablock also does this earlier, when he and Emp were getting thoroughly thrashed by a villain I forgot, he shows that the ability to manipulate concrete, masonry and pavement, but doesn't use it much because it could cause a lot of collateral damage and the aftereffects tend to linger.
 * 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 Let's 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."
 * 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.
 * X-Men - Cyclops's glasses / goggles don't just let him control his powers, they also limit them. If he's willing to take his visor off for even a few seconds, you're in trouble.
 * In Astonishing X-Men'',
 * Another instance of this is in the first volume of Ultimate X-men. Cyclops is being restrained by a sentinel because it has figured out that he operates his optic blasts by pressing a button on the side of his visor. Scott then reveals that he can activate optic blasts by snapping his fingers.
 * One issue of The Mighty Thor had Hercules telling a tall tale about a fight with Thor. He was just getting to the point in his story of beating the daylights out of the thunder god when he learned that one of the young listeners was a serious Thor fan. So Hercules abruptly changed the ending to reveal that Thor had been holding back all along, and "He flung me into a land the gods forgot: New Jersey!"
 * The last fight in Doctor Strange: The Oath is a fistfight between Strange and Nicodemus West, who also knows magic but has deployed some anti-magic phlebotinum, expecting he can take Strange in a fair fight. Doc lets West pummel him for a minute or two (and waste his energy) before breaking out the Kung Fu Wizard skills.

Film
"Marston: I seem to remember you're not too familiar with Colonel Colt's revolver, so this will be your first lesson.
 * The trope name and the page quote come from The Princess Bride. Inigo Montoya is so good that he fights with his left hand just to keep things somewhat challenging, but when faced with the Man in Black, he realises he's being outmatched, and switches the sword back to his right hand to gain the upper hand again.
 * 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.
 * Zatoichi (the 2003 film) subverts this:
 * Subverted in the Rocky series. 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 favoring his off-hand.
 * A classic example from Quigley Down Under:

(Marston continues to prattle smugly while setting up a Showdown At High Noon.)

(Quigley shoots Marston and his two henchmen before they can react.)

Quigley: I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."

"Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell: Now, are you sure you want to have a fight? Because I'm only gonna use my thumb.
 * 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,
 * Doesn't really count as it was revealed earlier. And isn't a previously unknown ass-pull.
 * The scar marking  had been visible previously, and Spooner had been seen doing arm exercises, but the audience is not explicitly shown that his arm was  until the referenced scene.
 * Lt Col Alan Caldwell, in The Presidio

Bully in Bar: Thumb?

Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell: My right thumb. Left one's much too powerful for you."


 * In Beerfest, the heroes pretend to be more drunk than they really are to trick the Germans into making a steep bet. Todd, however, really is that drunk, having been forced to use his "drunken recall" earlier.
 * 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 lefty," which causes all the guys in the field to groan in anticipation. She had been batting right-handed, but was a switch-hitting natural left-hander.
 * 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.
 * The final battle in Serenity between Mal and the Operative. Cue ass-kicking.
 * The same thing happens in a Heroes episode, when Danko finally decides to end his "partnership" with Sylar and stabs him in the back of the head into his Achilles Heel, only for Sylar to get up seconds later and reveal to the shocked Danko that he moved the spot using his shapeshifting ability.
 * In Tron Legacy,
 * In Uncommon Valor, Scott has finally had enough of the much larger Sailor and says he thinks he can teach "an undisciplined brawler" like Sailor a lesson. The huge, lumbering Sailor rushes Scott a few times only to be knocked on his butt by Scott's martial arts skills. Tiring of this, Sailor says to Scott, "Usin' that Oriental martial bullshit on me's gonna get real expensive," assumes a real fighting stance, and uses his own kung fu skill, which turns out to be superior to Scott's, to treat Scott to "the whole can of whoop-ass."
 * A variation occurs in The Quick and The Dead.
 * In Back to The Future part 3, a gun salesman is trying to teach Marty how to shoot, to demonstrate the Colt Peacemaker, and laughs at Marty's terrible shot. However, turns out Marty is not left handed, he switches to his good hand...

Literature

 * Appears a couple of times in Star Wars novels.
 * Starfighters of Adumar has a scene where Wes Janson faces a foe in a sword fight, 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.
 * In Drew Karpyshyn's Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Bane eventually has to fight Kas'im, the Blademaster from the Sith Lord academy where he had trained, who uses a two-bladed lightsaber. Though Kas'im is the foremost Master Swordsman of the Sith, Bane is stronger in the Force and, after training with Kas'im privately for countless hours, already knows all his moves. The pupil is at first beating the master... until
 * In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Count Dooku is disappointed at how easily he's defeating Obi-Wan and Anakin, until they are both revealed to be fighting in unfamiliar lightsaber styles.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Happens literally in the second installment of the Toldi Trilogy, written by János Arany. The titular hero participates in a tournament for the sake of fighting, but is not interested in claiming the prize (marrying the daughter of the host), so he agrees with a left-handed knight (who is in love with the girl in question) to impersonate him. During the final duel, he almost gives himself away when he switches hands, because he can't handle his opponent while holding the sword in his left hand. The trope is inverted when he's eventually challenged by the same left handed knight he impersonated, over a matter of honor and Toldi is unable to get an edge over him, because he's not used to fighting left handed opponents. He eventually defeats his rival using his left hand.
 * Brian Daley's The Starfollowers of Coramonde has a character named Brodur who uses his right hand in fencing while setting up a hustle bet, and insults his opponent by saying, more or less, "I could beat you, even left-handed." Brodur is left-handed, and once the bet is for big money, he shows it.
 * In the fifth Skulduggery Pleasant book (Mortal Coil), Skulduggery and China corner an expert swordsman by the name of Burgundy Dalrymple and ask him to surrender. He appears to be thoroughly beaten and remarks on how the heroes seem to have bested him when he suddenly swaps his sword to his left hand and proclaims, "I am not right handed!"
 * The Royal Manticoran Navy of the Honor Harrington series required their newly-built pod-laying Superdreadnoughts to do this in the run up to their all-out offensive, in order to conceal the existence of the ship type and their revolutionary abilities from the enemy. The result was SD(P)'s performing at a fraction of their capability...and still annihilating enemy squadrons all by themselves.
 * War Of Honor shows what happens when you reveal this too early: The Manticorans are forced back onto their heels by the Havenites unexpectedly pulling this, thanks to Admiral Shannon Foraker being a very busy girl during the Cease Fire. They reveal some devastatingly powerful new superweapons, but they are not ready to deploy them to the entire fleet yet. Realizing this, the Havenites send what is, at that point, the largest battle fleet in history in an all-or-nothing bid to crush the Manticoran homeworlds' defenses and force a surrender.
 * This was also policy later when they found themselves in skirmishes against the Solarian League, to run the starship impeller drives at lower acceleration and fire from ranges that would only need two drives of their Multi-Drive Missiles rather than the range offered by the full three. This was, in significant part, to prevent the much larger Solarian League from realizing how badly outmatched they were in case the Manticorans couldn't prevent an all out war.
 * Unfortunately for the Manticorans, this was also the case for the, who managed to conceal their entire existence behind the front of the comically inept and corrupt Mesan Navy. Their first move against the Manties?.
 * Bohun pulls this literally in first instalement of Sienkiewicz Trilogy, by throwing his saber from one hand to another (movie version makes it look very epic). It's however useless against Volodyjowski, who takes him down right after that.
 * averts this trope in A Song of Ice and Fire in the most heartbreaking way after . He tells people jokingly that he only let them do it because he wanted to make swordfighting more interesting. In reality, however, he's not remotely competent with his left hand - he can't even hit a bear with a thrown bone.

Live Action TV
"I am the best swordsman in Nottingham.
 * 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 Hand Wave 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!"

""Right now I'm crushing your windpipe."
 * 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. Vampires, for example, do not breathe, which Angel noted way back in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when a character needed mouth-to-mouth.

"Guess what I'm doing now? Not using my windpipe.""

"George Luz: Lieutenant, are you going to shoot lefty all night?
 * Jack Deveraux does this while fencing Lawrence Alamain in Days of Our Lives. Rather than reveal he's not right-handed during the fight, he waits until he's already defeated Alamain, to twist the knife in even more.
 * In the Doctor Who episode "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.
 * 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. Heffron has just enough time to realize he's been conned.

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?"

"BUFFY: When you look back at this, in the three seconds it'll take you to turn to dust, I think you'll find the mistake was touching my stuff.
 * 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).
 * Xena: Warrior Princess: 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 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.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Freshman". A vampire has busted Buffy's left arm up, and she's spent most of the episode conspicuously not using it and fighting one-handed. Then...

SUNDAY: What about breaking your arm? How'd that feel?

BUFFY: Let me answer that with a head butt. And for the record... The arm is hurt, not broken. *Punches Sunday halfway across the room with her left hand*"

"Wash: Here's something you can't do."
 * Joss Whedon scores a hat trick here; in the pilot of Firefly, the titular vessel Serenity is fleeing a Reavers vessel hot on her heels and bearing down upon her - turns out that her thrusters rotate all the way round, allowing her to pull a Crazy Ivan and escape.

"Mayor: I thought you were left-handed?
 * In Spin City, it is a rule that when you play racquetball against the mayor, you lose (intentionally). But then Charley is stressed out because of his work and the mayor taunts him one too many times. Charley switches his racket from his left to his right and gruesomely beats the mayor.

Charley: Not anymore."

Video Games
"Slash: You're more powerful than I thought! I better use all of my strength as well. [pulls sword off of wall] And you, without Cyrus... [unsheathes sword in slashing motion] You've no hope!"
 * In many shooting videogames, players are often limited to usually using a pistol or shotgun, due to lack of ammo for more powerful weapons. This often leads to them saving the BFG for Demonic Spiders or That One Boss.
 * Same with RP Gs, where players will just keep on using regular attacks on the regular mooks they encounter to save up items and MP, only to open the whole can of whoop-ass on stronger enemies.
 * Played with in Super Robot Wars. Sanger Zonvolt is best known for piloting a mech whose only weapon is the Type-3 Zankantou and which uses a custom operating system that turns it into a Motion Capture Mecha. In OG Gaiden, a villain tries to take advantage of this by disabling the Zankantou, only for Sanger to switch back to the default OS and kick his ass with the onboard weapon systems. The catch is that these weapons had never made any kind of in-game appearance before and had only been referred to via concept art in the artbooks for SRW Alpha 2 (where Daizengar made its first appearance). So it's less "I Am Not Left Handed" and more "I AM Left Handed, But I Can Kick Your Ass With My Right Hand Too".
 * Its a kind of Fridge Brilliance, if he is only capable of using his Zankantou, he wont reach a high position at the millitary, and he is a former member of the group that invented mecha combat.
 * Nero does a form of this in his fight with Dante in Devil May Cry 4: he's been keeping his Devil Bringer hidden under the pretense that his arm is broken and he must carry it in a sling. He fights Dante for the majority of their first contact with his right arm hidden in the sling, and just when Dante has the upper hand and is about to run Nero through, he suddenly throws the sling off and blocks Dante's sword with his cursed arm, stopping Dante in his tracks.
 * Vergil also does this in 3. In the first fight against him he stays in human form all the while. By the second fight he pulls out the Devil Trigger after you damage him enough. In the third and final fight, he gets to use an even more powerful Super Mode on top of the previous one with deadly Secret AI Moves.
 * It should be noted about the Devil Trigger, that before 3 it is played up like Dante has never been able to access it, so after Vergil kicks his ass in a cutscene after the bossfight that it awakens Dante's own abilities. Sort of giving Dante his own "I Am Not Left Handed". In fact in all the games save for 2 and 4 Devil Trigger isn't attained until a certain point so it's always been a hidden Super Mode technically.
 * In the first game, the default sword Force Edge is it's own "I Am Not Left Handed", in the fact it doesn't have a Devil Trigger form for Dante, and not until the right moment releases it's true power to become the sword Sparda, which let's Dante Devil Trigger into his father's Demon Form.
 * Some time after in Fire Emblem 9/10, Greil is revealed to have  When
 * Command and Conquer: "That was left-handed!"
 * Subverted by Boris. He seems to legitimately be left-handed, given from how he holds his rifle. It also appears to be a left-handed variant (given where the ejection port is).
 * In Tales of Symphonia Regal Bryant fights only using kicks, keeping his hands shackled.
 * Joshua of The World Ends With You at first appears to be a White-Haired Pretty Boy who fights with a psychic cell phone. He can't jump, and his ground combos only deal damage after the last button is pressed (Shiki and Beat can deal damage with every press). However, when Joshua and Neku are confronted by a Taboo Noise, and all hope seems lost, Joshua suddenly reveals he can levitate and proceeds to vaporize the Noise with a Jesus Beam.
 * Lufia II Rise of the Sinistrals: After the first boss fight with Gades, if you manage to defeat him, he toasts your party anyway in a cutscene.
 * Chrono Trigger: Slash, one of Magus' generals, is as famed as a legendary swordsman as his comrades are for their control over magic. When confronted, he puts up a respectable fight, but something just seems to be missing... until halfway through, when he acknowledges the team's prowess and takes his sword off the wall. Uh-oh.


 * Some gamers still have a soft spot for his old battle cry. "Yes, indeed!" heralded pain.
 * In Guild Wars, one of the NPC henchmen, Lukas, will occasionally shout "I am not right handed!" as one of his combat dialog lines. (he wields his sword in his right hand, of course)
 * Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception has the mission Time Limit, where an unstable neutralising agent forces Gryphus One to fly slowly and with reduced maneuvering. Two Leasath pilots proceed to trash talk about how he's not what the rumours make him out to be and stalk him in this near-defenceless state. When Gryphus One finally gets to discard the neutralising agent and dogfight properly, the two are taken aback by his real prowess and don't last long.
 * Oro from the Street Fighter series keeps his arm binded in his gi sleeve so he doesn't accidentally kill his opponents.
 * Shadow's story in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 seems to be setting up a Bolivian Army Ending, with Team Shadow surrounded by an evil army of magic clones. Then Shadow removes the Power Limiter rings on his gloves, and proceeds to wipe the floor with them.
 * Which is an idea that was first implemented in Sonic X where he removes the ring to better use the Chaos Emerald's powers, though weakening him in the process. This is noted mainly during the final battle of the Sonic Adventure 2 Story Arc of the show when he goes Super Mode with Sonic and stops the ARK from falling on Earth by removing the rings again to give him enough juice.
 * Ragna the Bloodedge from Blaz Blue holds great power in the Azure Grimoire  that makes up his right arm, but refuses to use it for much of the game. When he does, stuff starts hitting the fan very quickly.
 * Zeno Clash's second Hunter battle begins with the titular boss keeping one hand behind his back as he fights you. Whittle his health down enough and he brings both arms into play - and beats the living hell out of you.
 * In a cutscene in the Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core, Sephiroth and his then-friends Genesis and Angeal are having a 'play fight' on the Junon Cannon. However, when Genesis gets carried away and goes overboard, Sephiroth reveals just how much he was holding back earlier. Cue Curb Stomp Battle, complete with kickass version of One-Winged Angel.
 * It should also be noted that Sephiroth is indeed left handed.
 * World of Warcraft: The Lich King manages to pull this in the final fight in Wrath, when he stops messing around and slays your entire party with one attack.
 * Resident Evil 4 often requires this to be able to survive the tougher enemies. One can buy a rocket launcher and make quick work of what was originally to be a boss that could easily kill you. The fully upgraded Broken Butterfly will also get the job done.
 * El Gigantes are most notable examples. Instead of having to shoot them multiple times, then attack their parasites, you just need to shoot them once with a rocket.
 * Shoot Salazar's "Right Hand" with the upgraded Broken Butterfly or a rocket launcher after freezing it the first time and it will shatter.
 * The Fallout games allow you to specialise in many different weapon types. You can be really good at using ordinary ballistic firearms but choose to use energy weapons even if your skill with them is weaker but you like the pewpew effects. But when it comes down to fighting a particularly tough enemy, you can always put the laser rifle away and switch to a high-powered Anti-Materiel rifle with explosive ammunition and turn a deathclaw into bloody chunks.

Webcomics
"Tarvek: I'm sorry, Violetta -- as my days of needing the family to underestimate me appears to be over--I will no longer require your assistance in this particular charade."
 * Dominic Deegan parodies it as well.
 * In Dragon Mango, the elf Eclair wears a heavy iron armor breastplate. Iron usually causes them massive pain; Eclair turns out to be wearing it purely for the weight and pain handicaps.
 * In Juathuur, Rowasu  More specifically,.
 * Bob and George (Non alternate) Mynd tries it.
 * In Girl Genius pulled by Tarvek. First Violetta notices that he indeed was paying attention at the martial arts training. Later...


 * Gunnerkrigg Court has a training example, in sparring between Parley (who is a good fencer) and S13. They dance a little, then Parley tells to stop holding back... to a robot going extreme parkour merely to move around quickly. She also chose a much heavier blade. The next round ends pretty much before it starts and even when she's ready it doesn't take long. Of course, then Parley uses her talents fully, and she isn't constrained by the sword's inertia much when blinking around.
 * In No Rest for The Wicked, Ricardo tells the princess it would have been over much more quickly if he had use of his right hand -- though, unusually, he doesn't show it, because his right arm's in a sling.

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.
 * This backfires on him, when the very people he was protecting and risking his life for, treat him like dirt afterwards and run him out of town, albeit understandably, seeing as Zuko's father is leading the army that's been oppressing them and aside from his one stray good deed they've only ever been mistreated by the Fire Nation before.
 * 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 it is made very clear that The Flash, much like Superman, 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. He outright doesn't use his ability to phase through solid material, because it can cause explosions or instant destruction.
 * 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 have to take.
 * All this talking about holding back comes to proof when Superman fights Darkseid in the series finale. After getting beat down, Superman turns the tables and lets loose on Darkseid, knowing that he won't be killed right off, and easily kicks Darkseid's ass, sending him flying through several buildings to the other side of the city and then bashing him back down to the ground.
 * This is because his is a World of Cardboard.
 * General Grievous at the end of Star Wars Clone Wars. You thought he was tough with two arms? Well, now he has four.
 * The Simpsons: Marge Simpson, of all people, invokes this trope literally in the recent Vancouver Olympics episode. Her arm is sprained in the second-last match, and is about to give up..

Real Life

 * In a boxing match on November 4, 1947, left-handed fighter Mike Collins emerged from his corner in a right-handed stance and then shifted into a left-handed stance, flooring his opponent and winning the match in four seconds.
 * Most professional wrestliers are more than able to do this in real life. It's common knowledge that professional wrestling is largely a staged fight. What isn't so common knowledge is that a large part of the training is learning how to hold back so as not to seriously injure the opponent, and perform the moves properly so as not to kill anyone. Pretty much any match is the wrestler fighting "left handed"; in a real fight, they'll more than likely beat the stuffing out of you.
 * Billiards and particularly Snooker players sometimes switch hands to avoid awkward stretching across the table; some even actively train to become near-ambidextrous. However, only superstar Ronnie O'Sullivan will sometimes play entire frames left-handed just to mess with his opponent's head. Opinions differ on whether this is pure awesome or just jerkassery.
 * Rafael Nadal, (n°2 tennis player in the world) is right-handed however he has been taught to play left-handed for purely strategic reasons, there are not so many left-handed players in tennis and it does make a difference, thus the advantage of learning to play that way.