The Dramatic Palm Slice

Have you ever watched a movie (probably fantasy based) and someone either makes a promise, performs a ritual or invokes a sacred something or other and then they take a knife and slice the palm of their hand?  I have seen this so much lately on many shows I tune in to and it is driving me crazy!  Two weeks ago I ripped the calluses off both my palms in my pole class.  It sucked!  My hands were burning when the smallest drop of sweat would get into them (I finished my class).  It has since taken two weeks for them to heal, and this is just a small cut, not deep at all.  I can't imagine the pain of having a deep wound on a hand would be like, let alone the healing time.  This is a fabulous blog post on the dramatic palm slice I found.

Every time I see this trope in action I have to roll my eyes.  Seriously, it's almost as bad as the girl hearing a noise in a horror movie and then going all alone in the dark to investigate.  I wish writers and directors would have some more sense and slice the actors arm or leg instead of the palm.  It seems more realistic.  We have been working our way through all the seasons of Supernatural (I'm so a Dean fan) on Netflix and they did the dramatic palm slice in almost every other episode it seems (I may be exaggerating a little, but not much.) However, it's like the director could read my thoughts, because just when I thought I couldn't take a single more dramatic palm slice, Dean slices his arm!  Porter and I couldn't believe it.  And since then, most of the slicing of flesh have been other places other than the palm.  Hopefully other writers and directors will take note and stop this silly trope.  So now when you watch a fantasy show that has the dramatic palm slice in it, you can think of me, rolling my eyes and ranting about how silly it is.