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@Riot, which arm is Gangplank's dominant?

Ironclad Dragon·4/24/2016, 7:19:44 AM·2 votes·2,115 views

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/8/80/Gangplank_OriginalSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150802211502

I'm trying to write a small essay on Gangplank's prosthetic since I know some people in the medical field who are familiar with the subject, which, of course, led me to wonder which arm Gangplank's most dominant in. See, in-game, Gangplank's always wielded his sword in his left hand and a pistol in his right. This was the case before Burning Tides, and it's still the case after. I imagine you'd use your stronger hand with a sword since it needs more muscle behind it than a pistol does; especially if you're left eye dominant.

But in this splash, he wields a blade right handed.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/3/38/Gangplank_CaptainSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150802185103

I know splashes don't perfectly depict things as they are in lore, but I am genuinely curious if the loss of Gangplank's arm affected his ability to write (if he writes at all) or anything one commonly does with their dominant hand.

6 Comments

Sahn Uzal4/24/2016, 10:32:20 AM4 votes

Now I can not give you any official awnsers here, considering I am not a Rioter. But what I can tell you is that GP's sword arm is propably his ingame sword arm.

Splash arts are often mirrored, for example, take a look at Viktor's default splash art and Creator Viktor's splash art. His robotic arm and human arm are switched! Now Creator Viktor might be a future version of Viktor, and I don't think his arm randomly returned just so he could cut his other arm off :P

As far as being able to write goes... Remember how in the Burning tides story, GP likes to make some scrimshaw in/from (my english is letting me down here :P) living people's bones?

Captain Gangplank refers to this art in his VO "I'll carve my name into their bones."

Default GP (with the prosthetic arm) does not. It seems like he can't do things as precise anymore, so his torture methods became a lot more primal. "One slash, ear to ear." "Feed 'em their fingers." "Bones'll splinter." "A slit throat is too painless."

"Do I look like a patient man?" I can easily imagine scrimshaw takes some patience and time huh?

Esteban6664/24/2016, 2:05:01 PM2 votes

I would suggest something from a simpler point of view: See the hand he uses to peel the orange, plus, if you are shooting a gun you use your more stable arm and you need to handle the gun's kickback when a sword a strong enough arm could do some damage dominant or not I would say he'd need to use his dominant arm if he had a more sofisticated way of weilding it hence Fiora Yasuo

Niyumi4/24/2016, 9:44:44 PM2 votes

GP is ambidextrous! Question answered. ^^

Meep Man4/24/2016, 4:31:13 PM1 votes

While he might be ambidextrous, he is not using his sword for combat in either of the splash arts so I would whichever hand he uses for combat with the sword would be his dominant hand.

underscores2224/24/2016, 9:31:31 PM1 votes

People who lose functionality of a dominate limb (through a stroke, amputation, etc) can usually retrain themselves to be dominate in the previously non-dominate hand. It's a wonderful functionality our brain has called plasticity, allowing us to re-wire our brains to deal with otherwise debilitating limitations.

In GP's case, I would say after losing his arm, he is right-hand dominate, regardless of what he was before. This is assuming, of course, that his prosthetic isn't as dexterous and precise as his human arm. If the prosthetic were near-human in terms of its abilities (precision, feedback, control, etc) then he can conceivably retain his dominance in that arm. One of the main reasons we are dominate in a hand is because we prefer to use it over the other. When that choice is removed, then we retrain ourselves. If the arm is lost but we can still use a prosthetic with no limitations or drawbacks (compared to a natural limb), the prosthetic could still be dominate.

Of course, this is speculation because we are not capable of creating a prosthetic advanced enough to be near-human yet. Interfacing with nerves and feeding back information to the brain is a major problem.