Reverse Arm Fold

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The physical inverse of the Badass Arm-Fold, where the arms are folded behind the back. The hands may be clasped together just behind the waist (more common in the West), or gripping the opposite forearm higher up (more common in the East). This posture generates strong connotations of patience and consideration.

There are four basic character types who use this, for their own reasons:

  1. Martial artists, especially the Old Master, who will hold this pose constantly while his hands are not occupied, unless he's a monk, in which case one hand will hold a prayer position in front of his chest.
  2. Old people of the Asian persuasion in general, who take the same pose but lean forward as if for balance.
  3. The Contemplative Boss. See the picture on that page for an example.
  4. Military personnel, while on duty but not actively engaged in some activity. This stance is known as Parade Rest in the US and At Ease elsewhere.
Examples of Reverse Arm Fold include:


Anime

  • Mercenary Tao and less often Master Roshi, in Dragon Ball.
  • You sometimes see Gendo doing the Western version in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
    • The Eastern version is practically Rei's trademark pose: grasping right forearm with left hand with right arm hanging straight down. No one else in the show does it, just her. It suits her rather closely and heavily emphasizes her femininity if she does it while wearing a plugsuit.

Comic Books

Film


Literature

Live Action TV

  • In early seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Jadzia Dax walked about with her arms behind her back, to demonstrate the "old man" that was inside her.
  • Spock In Star Trek TOS uses this pose many times in the second season onward.

Music

Video Games

  • Master Chen in Shenmue walks around hunched over like this, but wow, that old guy can dodge a punch.
  • Old Master Wang Jinrei of Tekken gained one of these during his intros circa Tekken 5.
  • Citan Uzuki is frequently shown doing this.
  • Master Xehanort does this a lot, but as with the Master Chen example, he's not as frail as he looks.
  • President Max adopts this pose when discussing Matters of State.
  • Dawn of War: Imperial Guardsmen do this when capturing a point.