Shoulders of Doom



""For the body, notice they don't have shoulder pads, which is something that everybody seem to love to put on soldiers in video games. I don't know why. I don't know if they think that soldiers will be tackling people.""

- Ted Backman, Half-Life 2: Raising The Bar

Be it pads, armor, or epaulets, the Big Bad and The Hero have the biggest shoulder-wear.

This is most common in fantasy or science fiction: fantasy armor can easily have huge pieces of armor on the shoulders, and science fiction can easily create a future costume (or armor) with huge shoulders. They may also come with a ridiculously high collar, or Spikes of Villainy.

On occasion, the shoulder pads can actually serve a purpose, by having a cape attached to them.

The corollary is that if somebody in the cast has enormous shoulder pads, they're probably evil. Other cast members can have shoulder pads, of course, they're just smaller. The exception, of course, is if they give everybody humongous shoulder guards.

There are both artistic and function-related reasons that this trope existes: Artistically, the inverted triangle (ie one point pointing down) generally conveys a more sinister form, and shoulder pads help the torso form a triangular image. From a distance, you may also be fooled into thinking you're fighting some undead headless monster. And, as the picture of the Space Marine shows... it looks quite intimidating. Also, large shoulder pads add additional mass to the upper torso and create a tapering body shape, which instinctively registers as a fit, muscular build. i.e. a do-not-mess-with-me-physique.

The functional reason is all about mobility. Because the human shoulder joint can pivot slightly over 180 degrees both horizontally and vertically, rigid shoulder armor cannot be fitted tightly to the shoulder. It must be either free-floating (fastened to the breast- and back-armor by straps or some other flexible material) or have enough room for the joint to pivot within it (a big, ball-like shape). They still don't need to be as big as most costume designers make them, however. Sometimes huge shoulders (especially on Powered Armor) are handwaved as actually being storage, as well - most often for ammo.

In video games, it's often used because the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder was very difficult to incorporate into a player model without causing clipping and an action-figure look. Modern games designers use the look because it is still very difficult to properly animate the shoulder joint- it involves four bones, several unusual muscle groups and an irritating degree of twistability. It can also be a pain to generate a texture to cover this smoothly - a shoulder pad allows artists to make one texture for the torso and a separate one for the arm without really caring how they join.

If they are round enough, they overlap with Giant Poofy Sleeves. See Shoulder Cannon for when a Cool Gun is mounted on them (for some literal "Doom"). If they're not so much shoulderpads as a pair of shoulder-mounted towers, then they're Eva Fins.

Anime & Manga

 * The armor of Don Krieg from One Piece has Shoulders of Doom, which conceal some of his huge assortment of built-in guns, and also are removed and used as components for the Mighty Battle Spear.
 * Many high ranking marines also wear coats as capes with rather broad shoulders.
 * The Slayers - The humanoid villains have huge shoulder pads. Also spoofed with Lina's rival, Naga: Lina: Don't tell me that you just pricked your cheeks with the spikes on your own shoulder pads.
 * To be fair, Lina's own shoulder pads aren't exactly tiny. They're also boobytrapped, as Martina discovers when she tries to swipe one of the jewels. Gourry the other PC is another example.
 * Il Palazzo from Excel Saga has absolutely huge shoulder pads, as a parody of a villain. Possibly he is a parody of of Ghaleon from Lunar -- they wear practically the same outfit.
 * Vegeta and the other Saiyans (and everyone else in Frieza's army) in Dragonball Z too, so much so that when Vegeta starts on the path towards his Heel Face Turn, he gets a new outfit with no shoulder pads!
 * Piccolo's cape includes outrageous shoulder pads. This seems like a subversion until you remember Piccolo was originally a demon king. The shoulder pads are also weighted. Still, they seem rather superfluous after a certain point.
 * Notably, Gohan and Krillin once used sets of these armor, and Gohan noted that the shoulders don't get in the way because the material is flexible enough.
 * Later on, Gohan get another set of these, alongside a Badass Cape, when he request a set of clothes designed just like Piccolo's.
 * In the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, the main villain Dietlinde Eckhart gets these when . The shoulder pads are big enough to register as weapons of mass destruction.
 * At least two villains in Trigun. Legato adds mass to his shoulder with a human skull. Brilliant Dynamites Neon's shoulderpads are both nearly the size of his torso, and they glow.
 * In the manga and anime, BDN's shoulderpads contain large-bore machine guns for a suprise edge in fights.
 * Naraku in Inuyasha. After re-forming into a bigger Big Bad, he gets what could be called big Spikes of Villainy holders on shoulders.
 * Saint Seiya: When Shun is possessed by Hades, part of his black robes included gold shoulders of doom.
 * Gundam: Played every-which-way in almost every Alternate-Universe Gundam series. Almost every mobile suit with the name "Gundam" has large shoulder pads. The 00 Gundam from the second season of Gundam 00 has its powerful twin drive system on swivel mounts on its shoulders. The fact that the drives are conical only adds to the effect.
 * The Dynames, Virtue, Cherudim and Arios feature this with their own unique twists to it. The Dynames has the full shields on the shoulder which allows it to walk around and absorb gunfire like it's his birthday. The Virtue has the two pairs of GN cannons on its shoulder to unleash the beam spam with vents on it so that it can generate a GN field. The Cherudim has the shoulders as the docking points for his set of shield bits. Finally the Arios' shoulders are entirely built to hold both halves of the claw while it is not in MA form.
 * The Neue Ziel. Who needs legs when you've got these babies?!
 * Tekkaman Blade
 * Tekkaman Blade carries Wave Motion Guns in his.
 * Balzac Asimov later gains 360-degree Fermion Cannons in the shoulders of his Soltekkaman Mk.I Powered Armor. They resemble nothing so much as upside-down laser sprinklers.
 * And in the OVA sequel, Tekkaman Sommer also has shoulder-pad-mounted Voltekkas. All of them avert the "evil" part (Balzac was an Anti-Hero at one point, but well before he got the Voltekka sprinklers).
 * Patlabor - The police-modified AV-98 Ingram Labors driven by the Tokyo Police Dept. Special Vehicles Units had giant shoulders, but no one's doom was involved - turns out the shoulders on a Humongous Mecha make a great mounting point for a pair of emergency lights.
 * Magic Knight Rayearth - Zagato, the Big Bad of the first season has both these and Spikes of Villainy.
 * In Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix Future, the villain, Rock usually wears a very business-like outfit consisting of black dresspants, a necktie and a white collared shirt... with apparently superfluous pointy shoulderpads which are nothing more than a vain attempt to look futuristic. Worse yet he actually complains about people who don't dress in ludicrously Zeerust-y clothes because he sees it as a sign that people have given up hope for humanity's future & have retreated into nostalgia. Note that this may actually be a subversion, as Rock & the society he represents are portrayed as being quite unbalanced.
 * In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann they're found on mech's used by both the good guys and the bad guys, though that's to be expected when most of the mech used by humans were stolen from Beastmen. Especially notable it which has two bigass drills for shoulder that actually come off and stack together to form one oddly-shaped drill. Of course the drill is still very effective at... drilling.
 * Full Metal Panic - Let's just say that both the Arbalest and the Codarl has well-pronounced shoulders. Doesn't know if it counts but M9Es has two vertical armor plates mounted onto the upper arms.
 * In Violinist of Hameln several villains wear fairly massive shoulderpads or shoulder armor pieces, including Chestra and Hell King Bass. The first prize, though, goes to Sizer..
 * Subverted in Record of Lodoss War, where the chick Deedlit is the one with arguably the biggest shoulder-wear. (Of course, everyone in Lodoss has huge shoulder guards.)
 * Yu-Gi-Oh - Seto Kaiba has these weird pointed-shoulder things for his cape. Here, take a look.
 * While Neon Genesis Evangelion was the trope namer for Eva Fins, the original version of Zeruel does fits this trope.
 * Worn in Yaiba by almost every villain.
 * A given in Eyeshield 21 since all the major characters are football players. If anything, many of the antagonists appear to have smaller shoulder pads, because their bigger builds make the shoulder pads stand out less.
 * As the extras best put it, "Shoulder pads make even our scrawny hero look like a man!"
 * Several Knightmare Frames in Code Geass have impressive shoulder plates, particularly the Lancelot or the Mordred.
 * The Gawain has large nacelles on its shoulders which house its Hadron Cannons.
 * Most, if not all, of the Zoalords in Guyver have these as part of their formal robes (with one notable costume having shoulders almost as wide as its wearer was tall). Many Zoanoids (and the Gigantic) have weapons or other functions built into large shoulder-pods.
 * Rave Master's Gale Glory wears a large set of decorated epaulets on his shoulders when he first appears. He discards them when Disc One Final Boss King clips the right-hand epaulet with an ultimate attack that destroys matter in its entirety. Seeing a big chunk not just cracked or burned by the hit, but outright gone clearly indicates his armor is useless against his enemy.
 * At the end of the Trinity Blood anime, when, his costume features some impressively spiky shoulder...thingies. And at the very end of the last episode,   apparently decides that the only way to properly combat   is by acquiring some Shoulders of Doom of his own.
 * At the end of the Trinity Blood anime, when, his costume features some impressively spiky shoulder...thingies. And at the very end of the last episode,   apparently decides that the only way to properly combat   is by acquiring some Shoulders of Doom of his own.

Comic Books
"Leonardo: Maybe all that hardware is for making coleslaw."
 * In Judge Dredd, the titular character, being a fascist future lawman, sports bulky fetishistic shoulderpads that can go into massive sizes in certain artistic depictions.
 * Completely ignored in Elf Quest where pointy shoulders are just another fashion accessory.
 * Lampshaded in one issue of X-Force, when Warpath gets a post-Liefeld costume make over, he remarks "Hey, now I can turn my head without smacking into my shoulder pads!"
 * Batman - Batman had pretty epic shoulder pads in the nineties. They were spiky as all get out, presumably to make him look like a bit more of a badass. What they accomplished was making him look like he was shrugging all the time. Apparently they were indented to simulate the "thumb" on batwings. In a straight villain example, Jason Todd had the same thing on his "Batman" costume during "Battle for the Cowl".
 * Pretty much every male character drawn by Rob Liefeld ends up with huge shoulder pads at one time or another.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Shredder in all continuities, along with Spikes of Villainy.


 * The Boys - The Homelander has a Judge Dredd-esque eagle-shaped pauldron.
 * Iron Man - When Iron Man first got his iconic red-and-gold armor, he only had rings around where the sleeves connect to the chestpiece. With the introduction of the Silver Centurion armor in 1985, though, he got big triangular Shoulders of Doom... which he even once used against a building (to provide a distraction for Ant Man to hack into the building's computers at Tony's behest). Shoulder armor has been incorporated into many subsequent designs, including War Machine.

Iron Monger had massive Shoulders of Doom. The Eighties version of Crimson Dynamo and the Gremlin version of Titanium Man also had pretty doomy shoulder armor. Iron Man 2020 features a spiked version of the original red-and-gold's shoulder rings.
 * Actually, while the Silver Centurion armor is the most well-known version of Iron Man's Shoulders of Doom, it was back during the Secret Wars (when Jim Rhodes was subbing for Tony Stark) that first gave him his shoulder pads. His armor was damaged in a fight against the villains and Reed Richards had to rebuild it for him with the technology from their base. Richards decided that as long as he was fixing up the armor, why not give it moar powah?
 * The minor Wolverine villain called Genesis was actually known in fan forums as "Shoulderpad Guy".

Film

 * Jafar from Aladdin has some of the biggest shoulder pads in the business.
 * Simon Phoenix wears these in Demolition Man.
 * Cats Don't Dance - Sometimes they just have really big shoulders, like Max though he's only The Dragon. Seriously, look at him.
 * Monster X in Godzilla Final Wars has two large skulls on his shoulders that later.
 * Also from the Godzilla series, Spacegodzilla, who's crystaline shoulder growths are so massive, they render him almost literally immobile.
 * In the sequel to the Live Action Adaptation of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 102 Dalmatians, Cruella de Ville turned evil... and in the same moment her costume sprang with shoulder pads.
 * Tina Turner in Mad Max 3. Not only her, but almost every bad guy in this movie. George Miller loves this trope.
 * Worn by the hero in The Return of Captain Invincible, although he has previously been prosecuted for his dress sense.
 * Even Star Wars isn't left out of this. While the various armors are not overdone, all the Star Destroyers feature two huge spheres on the bridges, serving this purpose.

The most notable character in the movies to wear them is Darth Vader, of course. The purpose was likely a mix of intimidation factor and protection of the little organic flesh he still had.

Literature

 * Gruesomely evoked in Jeff Long's The Descent, when a group of soldiers is spotted with very wide, jutting shoulders and chests. Subverted when the witnesses get closer, and discover that.

Live Action TV
"Buffy: Factoid 3: her fashion sense screams predator.
 * The Romulans from Star Trek the Next Generation wore truly fugly military tunics with massive shoulder padding, resembling a cross between a 1980's women's business suit and a quilted bedspread. Mercifully toned down in the movie.
 * The Tavleks from Farscape sport particularly outstanding examples of the trope.
 * Road Warrior's Hawk & Animal of the Legion of Doom (a legendary tag-team of the old AWA and NWA), with Spikes of Villainy!
 * And if you're into WWF/E pissing on badass history, you can't forget Droz or Heidenreich.
 * Kamen Rider only started using these in the 80s with Black. Now they're part of the uniform.
 * Kamen Rider Den-O in his Gun Form has particularally large ones. However, they're fully functional in that they feed energy into his gun for his Finishing Move. Climax Form has theme as well, made up of the masks of Ax and Rod Forms, but likewise, they're functional for moving down the tracks to ether the arm or the leg for a finishing move.
 * Miss French from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, Teacher's Pet:

Willow: It’s the shoulder pads."


 * The first Megazord from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers exhibited the giant robot form of this. And it rocked. The Mega Dragonzord combo takes it even further. Also, Goushi from the parent Sentai Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger wears large paldrons as part of his non-morphed combat gear.
 * Lots of them in Dynasty.

Tabletop Games

 * Games Workshop likes this trope, to the point that it's joked that you can measure a model's importance either by the quality of his hat or the size of his pauldrons. For example...
 * Space Marine Power Armor is famous for its big honkin' shoulders, as seen above, though this is justified in the background - their armor was originally designed for close-quarters combat, and the shoulders plates are auto-responsive and shift when the wearer wants to look past them. Chaos Space Marines add Spikes of Villainy to theirs.
 * Tau combat armor sports one over-sized sode-style shoulder pad, the strategic positioning of which is part of their firing stance.
 * Inquisitors' power armor usually has more subdued, but very intricate shoulder pieces clearly inspired by Roman lorica segmentata.
 * In their most recent codex, the basic Necron Warrior had its armor value reduced, because those tiny scapula-shaped shoulderblades just wouldn't offer the same protection as Space Marines. The much more impressive Necron Immortals retain their high armor value, as do their Lords.
 * Prince Vladimir Tzepesci of the Iron Kingdoms, a Khadoran warcaster based on Vlad Tepes, has very large shoulder pads on his armor; his more experienced Epic version takes this to ridiculous extremes. This has given him the Fan Nickname of "Captain No-Peripheral Vision".
 * Capitol troopers from Mutant Chronicles wear oversized shoulder pads reminiscent of American Football quarterbacks. One of the hero units, Big Bob Watts even has a pair of BFGs strapped to his. Dark Legion commanders also have Shoulders of Doom, adorned with Spikes of Villainy for the quintessential Evil Look.
 * It's not just the Capitol troopers, although they have the most ridiculous variant (they even wear giant shoulderpads, with no visible way of how they are actually worn, when they put on their normal uniforms without any chest plates etc). Imperial is also fairly guilty of this trope, with their Trenchers having pads that are almost as wide as their bodies. Doorways in Imperial facilities must be quite wide as a result. Also, the actual metal miniatures for the Dark Legion's Necromutants have only one "turtle shell"-style shoulder pad, but it is even bigger.
 * Major Q9 in Heroscape is a soulborg with pauldrons that are the size of his freaking body and tower over his head, almost like the forbidden love child between Shoulders of Doom and Eva Fins. Deathwalker 9000 has some pretty wicked shoulders going on, too.
 * Major Q9's shoulders actually restrict his vision in-game.
 * Homebrewed especially for this trope in 3.X D&D we have the Pauldron Master.
 * A fair few Battle Tech 'Mechs feature outsized shoulders, with designs such as the ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Atlas_

Video Games

 * Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. A notable mention goes to Cloud, who only has a (rather big) shoulder pad on his left shoulder. Crisis Core seems to show that shoulder pads are the only constant in the uniforms of 1st Class SOLDIERs. Sephiroth and Genesis both seem to have kept the pants underneath their Badass Longcoats.
 * Averted in Final Fantasy VI: Two of the heroines, Terra and Celes, possess shoulder pads of admirable size (It should be noted, though, that they both started the game working for the bad guys). So does the knight Cyan, but shoulder pads are standard for his knight armor. As does Edgar, but he is a king and wears a cape as well.
 * Halo - Some of the Spartans in Noble Team have some rather prominent shoulder pads.
 * Final Fantasy IV - Golbez has the biggest, pointiest shoulder armour in the series, hands down. Although Exdeath of Final Fantasy V comes a close second.
 * M. Bison/Vega/"Dictator" from Street Fighter has massive shoulder pads. They hold a cape, which is apparently tear-away.
 * Zio from Phantasy Star IV, whose pads could each double as a chest plate. Shoulders are really important: lots of enemies have huge shoulder armor (or just shoulders), as do some of the PCs. The trope is played straight, though: the more evil someone is, the bigger their shoulders. The final form of the final boss? Two-thirds of its mass is stuff on its shoulders.
 * This even applied to a limited extent in the Rockstar Games release Bully, although in this case it's American football pads worn by one of the cliques.
 * Fallout, with Power Armor - and Advanced Power Armor, which actually has a smaller helmet and bigger shoulders. Not to mention most of the other armor's shoulder spikes (metal, tesla). And Frank Horrigan.
 * Interestingly, in New Vegas, the strength of a power armor is apparently inversely proportional to the doominess of its Shoulders of Doom - the t-45d, with its ridiculous duck fin shoulderpads, is the weakest; the T-51b Power armor is the middle of the road, with oversized Knight Armor shoulderpads; the Advanced Power Armor and Tesla Armor are the strongest, and the shoulders themselves are fairly small. Though in the case of the Advanced and Tesla armors, it has traded the Shoulders of Doom for a massive hunchback.
 * Heck, the primary purpose of most power armor seems to be giant shoulders.
 * Starcraft and its many flavors of CMC armor. The armor's strength and shoulder size are positively correlated.
 * And in the sequel, contrary to the page quote Tychus does actually make two attempts at tackling people. One successful, one not as much.
 * The more recent Command and Conquer games seem to be using this trope, too, much to the chagrin of old-time fans.
 * The most obvious ones are the Zone Troopers in Tiberium Wars which ARE very kickass units and the Tesla Trooper in Red Alert 3 which are not so much.
 * Just about every Juggernaut in Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 sports these.
 * The Alt Eisen from Super Robot Wars Compact 2 brings new meaning to the "Doom" part, as they're actually Humongous Mecha-sized titanium ball bearing launchers, the same kind of ball bearings used in Claymore mines. Still, it averts the "evil" part, as it's the male protagonist's mecha.
 * Its Alternate Universe equivalent Alt Eisen Nacht of Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier, however, plays this straight.
 * Everyone in the SRX Team of Super Robot Wars Alpha takes this and runs with it, due to their Latex Space Suit. The Ascended Fanboy's shoulder pads are large enough to hide countries in.
 * The costume editor in the MMORPG City of Villains has all the big shoulderpads you would ever want, many complete with spikes of villainy.
 * The gods of Soul Nomad and The World Eaters all have highly ornamental shoulder pads that hover above their true shoulders. Out of the ones you meet, the only one who isn't directly evil is the one who's taken human form and therefore doesn't show them.
 * The Fire Emblem series. Not villains per se, but the General class has shoulder armor larger than the helmet. And several baddies are Generals, as it is arguably one of the strongest classes in the game.
 * Especially the Black Knight from 9 and 10, who
 * 9's villain, Ashnard, has these, complete with Spikes of Villainy!
 * In World of Warcraft, epaulets appropriate to a character's level get progressively bigger. Presumably, this is supposed to make more experienced characters look intimidating. However, the usual result is slim characters who look off-balance and bulkier characters who just look excessive.
 * When a bug was introduced that reduced the size of the epaulets on the ( otherwise excessive ) Male Orc model to something more benign, there was a gigantic uproar of displeasure. When the bug was fixed, it was fixed to make them larger than the pre-bug state. The addition of more Spikes of Villainy and bigger shoulder pads is on the way to becoming an Enforced Trope in World Of Warcraft development. As seen from the picture, a number of people have requested installation of an option to hide the shoulderpads as they can their cloaks and helmets, but the Blizzard line is that it's important for Pv P to enable players to identify class from a distance.
 * The upcoming Shaman class cosmetic gear beats them all in the shoulder department.
 * Lord Nasher in Neverwinter Nights 2 has disproportionately big shoulderpads as part of his armor, which he wears throughout the entire game, even when sitting on his throne.
 * Then again, considering how much crap Neverwinter is generally involved in: If you were the ruler of that city, would you leave your bedroom without your pauldrons? He was attacked in his own throne room last game. Now he's just Crazy Prepared.
 * FlashMan.EXE from Mega Man Battle Network 3. He had an attack that was removing the orbs on his shoulders, raising them up, and releasing a blinding, paralyzing light from it. There's a reason Reynard named him Shoulderman... Metalman from the same also stored his giant Metal Wheel Boomerangs on his (already huge) shoulders.
 * Special mention goes to Punk. In both his Battle Network appearances and his place in the older Mega Man games his shoulder pads were shells that could enclose his entire body. A similar design is used by Shield Sheldon from the Mega Man X series. In both cases the shoulders are used for protection and performing special attacks so they're not exactly superfluous.
 * Mega Man Geo-Omega from Mega Man Star Force.
 * In the sixth Mega Man game Rush can turn into a huge pair of shoulder pads that turn Mega Man into Power Mega Man.
 * Some mid-game enemy Elite Mooks in Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain had truly epicly sized shoulderpads. Those actually served a purpose, making the wearers immune to instakill decapitation attacks. Incidentally, they were the only enemies to carry weapons capable of decapitation...
 * Some of the armor sets in Fable fit the trope. Especially if the player character is evil.
 * Luca Blight from Suikoden II has these.
 * Soul Calibur's Nightmare has a mutated arm with bio-spikes, and sometimes even a mouth with big nasty teeth. It gets better: in Soul Calibur 4, Zasalamel's 2nd costume's shoulders aren't as big as Nightmare's, but they are freaking skulls. And then there's Siegfried, who has giant spikes made of ice, and even then, there's a character creator with several styles of giant shoulders.
 * Dark Demon from Dynamite Headdy has what appear to be green statues sprouting from the shoulders of his costume.
 * Most of the non-grunt enemy soldiers, as well as the player character, in the Crusader games have shoulder pads.
 * Mortal Kombat villains Shao Kahn and Quan Chi have major Spikes of Villainy on their Shoulders of Doom.
 * Completely inverted in Half-Life 2 - The Combine soldiers' armour is designed to look as purely functional and non-aesthetic as possible, to highlight the complete irrelevance of public opinion, because humans aren't worth intimidating.
 * Metroid - Samus Aran's Power Suit. The giant shoulders appear starting with the Varia Suit which has increased shielding as well as the ability to function perfectly in more extreme temperatures causing many players to suggest that some of the components for these features are housed in the shoulders. So don't worry, the shoulders are actually just the heating and AC units for her suit.
 * However, the Varia suit and the Varia upgrade appear to be separate things Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion both feature a Varia that does nothing to the shoulders but still increases the shielding. The "Legendary Power Suit" seems to be the traditional Varia so perhaps the upgrades are different suits entirely? Metroid Prime looks like it has the Varia Suit superimposed over the Power Suit.
 * In Metroid Fusion, Samus' suit has been literally surgically chopped to pieces, and as such there's really no shoulders to augment after getting the Varia Suit or Gravity Suit upgrades. in Zero Mission, some fan theories say that the suit Samus starts with is handmade based on the Chozo technology, and therefore is incompatible with quite a few of their tech upgrades. however, the suit she's given after defeating the is an actual Chozo Power Suit, fully compatible with everything.
 * In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the shoulders are the housing for the Hazard Shield upgrade, visibly changing after that upgrade is acquired.
 * Daos, of the Lufia games. The other male Sinistrals too, but Daos especially.
 * Jak 3 - The Wastelanders' shoulder pads: so big they probably need Super Strength just to wear them. Several come with Spikes of Doom.
 * The Big Bads of the Elder Scrolls series rarely have large shoulders, but the PC can wear the dremora's diabolical looking pauldrons. The Orcs wear the biggest shoulders of all, inverting Spikes of Villainy as their shoulders grew spikier while they developed from Always Chaotic Evil to ProudWarriorRaceGuys.
 * F Zero - Deathborn posesses a large pair of pauldrons, to fit the Omnicidal Maniac title.
 * Blaz Blue - This is basically all that Mu-12 is wearing in battle...
 * Guilty Gear - Justice has them. They transform into laser cannons during her Gamma Ray super.
 * Subverted with Darkrai from Pokémon, who appears to be sinister-looking but only does its job if it is threatened. Played straight in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games, however.
 * The Arishok in Dragon Age II.
 * Diablo, Starcraft, War Craft ... Blizzard Entertainment loves this trope!
 * Heavy armor in Tribes Ascend. Previous games had this to a lesser degree, but Ascend takes it to a whole new level. The shoulders are even bigger in-game.
 * Gears of War plays this straight and averts this depending on the example. The "standard" COG armor has prominent shoulder pads, but they're still reasonably proportional. The most notable example that's played straight is Tai Kaliso's armor in Gears 2, which has an inexplicably huge shoulder guard on the right side. Largely averted in Gears 3 because very few characters have any armor on their arms at all.
 * Notably averted with Cole, who is actually the only character that would have serious tackling skills, being a former thrashball player. His arms are so beefy that apparently they don't need any armor.
 * Many locust soldiers, particularly the Theron/Palace Guards, feature some very large shoulder armor.
 * Many locust soldiers, particularly the Theron/Palace Guards, feature some very large shoulder armor.

Webcomics

 * Gilgamesh Wulfenbach of Girl Genius gets some pretty bitchin' spiky shoulder pads here.
 * Later Agatha tries on some "armor", with one like this on panel 4.
 * Yeagar from Nodwick, though one of the 'good guys', shows us that occasionally shoulders of doom can have their uses.
 * The Noob gives us this.
 * Byron the Berserker from Guilded Age claims this guy's pauldrons, even though he normally has his axe handles sticking up over his shoulders.

Web Original
"Take a look at my nice-ass shouldah-pads!"
 * The leading male in the web-animation Hug Me To The Skies has huge shoulder-pads for no apparent reason.


 * Parodied in this animation. Shoulder-pads aren’t so great when you can't fit through the door....
 * Considered with Strong Mad's design. While not necessarily evil or armored, his rectilinear physique easily identifies him as the strongest of the Strongs.

Western Animation

 * Buzz Lightyear of Star Command's Evil Emperor Zurg has huge, pointy shoulder pads - and a cape for bonus points!
 * In Avatar: The Last Airbender the Fire Nation uniforms feature shoulder pads, getting larger with rank. Fire Lord Ozai's are absolutely enormous. . They used to be bigger.
 * The stolen Fire Nation uniforms that the northern Water Tribe was planning on using had pretty large shoulder spikes, but are are quickly dismissed by Sokka as archaic and no longer used.
 * Vilgax, a Big Bad from Ben 10, has these.
 * Transformers
 * Lockdown of Transformers Animated has these built into his body. With spikes. Somewhat appropriate, since he's a big, bad bounty hunter who lives for "upgrades". Bonus points might be awarded for his car mode, which has a huge spoiler to go with the look. Megatron and Blitzwing have, basically, towers for shoulders. So do Blurr and Bulkhead (the latter of which can turn his into a chair). Starscream's shoulders are pretty wide as well.

Animated Megs had some pretty doomy shoulders in his Cybertronian body, but his Earth-mode ones are arguably closer to Eva Fins. Are Blitzwing's shoulders vertical enough to qualify for that?
 * Armada featured several characters with giant shoulders - most notably Hot Shot, whose toy's demented grin and enormous shoulders provoked the "JaAm" and "WhY mY ShOuLdErS hUrT?" memes. Demolishor has missiles sticking out of his shoulders, and Megatron's extend into tank treads. Combined with his giant horns he looks ridiculous.
 * Beast Wars Transmetal Megatron has massive shoulder-pads that double as a jetpack. Other Beast Wars characters that have them include Transmetal Rattrap, Rampage and Dinobot II. Transmetal Tarantulas has a variation, with huge round shoulders that double as missile launchers.
 * Primus also sports massive shoulders in one of his designs. It's somewhat justified by the fact that his alternate mode is the planet Cybertron and his shoulders are just massive chunks of the planet.
 * At one point in Danny Phantom Skulker donned upgraded armor which comes equipped with the giant shoulder guards.
 * Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon has massive shoulder pads and a cape for obvious Evil Overlord effect.
 * Baron Dark from Skeleton Warriors

Real Life

 * Canadian Infantry armour features some nice shoulder pads, which indeed increases the level of badass nicely.
 * American football players, though they're not considered evil. Usually.
 * Many European armours from the first half of the 16th century feature "Haute Pieces," vertical guards added to the pauldron (shoulder armour) to protect the neck and head. They can get pretty ridiculous.
 * The Forties and The Eighties.
 * The Roman lorica segmentata features small but incredibly iconic shoulder guards.
 * Which actually inspired the shoulder pieces of Inquisitorial Power Armor in 40K.