In the Hood



Somebody needs to disguise their identity and/or avoid attracting attention. Their solution? Wear a Black Cloak with a really big hood. Because nothing diverts attention away from oneself better than a big creepy black cloak that makes you look like The Grim Reaper. Its hood will cover their face in shadow, regardless of whether it's long enough to actually do so. In addition, the hood will never fall off accidentally, even if the wearer is fighting a Wind Mage in the middle of a typhoon. In modern times, a hoodie is a good substitute.

Yes, wearing a hood during a fight isn't a good idea because it constricts your peripheral vision, but who cares as long as it looks cool? Besides, being mysterious is Badass. Even more besides, no one has peripheral vision anyway.

Video game designers of older days liked the trope because throwing an all concealing hood (or suitable replacement) over an unimportant or "mysterious" character meant that they could skip on actually animating the character's speech.

This can be a Justified Trope if in a Wretched Hive or Bad Guy Bar; where this is a perfectly acceptable fashion accessory.

Contrast with the Cool Masks worn by superheroes, which disguise them by making them look more conspicuous. When not, see Malevolent Masked Men.

Not to be confused with Boyz N the Hood.

Anime and Manga

 * Zest and Lutecia of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha wear these occasionally, removing them when they go into battle.
 * Androssi, Akryung and  during their introduction in Tower of God.
 * The members of the Black Valley in Mai-Otome wear these; once it's revealed they're not evil, it gets lampshaded when there's a little girl in the group, wearing a cloak and a hood and a pink bow over the hood.
 * Sara from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch does this with a white hood. After she removes it for the first time, she never bothers with it again.
 * Subverted in Samurai Champloo, where Yukimaru uses a hood that actually covers his entire face (except for his eyes) to hide his identity from the protagonists.
 * " Colonel Ku:Nel Sanders" from Mahou Sensei Negima manages to go through an entire tournament without ever having his hood fall off (he's the semi-solid projection of a mage, so maybe A Wizard Did It).
 * Oddly enough for this trope, it doesn't generally mask his face from the reader. But the characters themselves can't see his face unless he shows them.
 * Later, after Negi is Wrongly Accused in the Magic World, he doesn't go out without a hood when he's not disguised.
 * In Death Note, Light uses this once, with a hoodie (rather less conspicuous than most hoods).
 * In Claymore, Clare wears a hooded cloak while infiltrating the Holy City of Rabona. She however has the sense to wear a dark cloak as a form of camouflage at night. Seven or so years later Clarice and Miata do the same but in broad daylight. It did not work out very well for them.
 * Oddly enough, the Seven Ghosts frequently wear these as well. Of course it is obvious they are being mysterious, but they seem more concerned with avoiding positive identification.
 * Hermit's early appearances in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple. A number of members of Yomi are also shown like this.
 * Fakir wears a hood to cover his distinctive green hair while he wears a mask in the tenth episode of Princess Tutu. This is probably in part because Fakir has a tendency to be a little theatrical when it comes to his role as the Knight.
 * Subverted with Korumi in Onegai My Melody - Not only does her black hood disguise nothing, but the second season reveals it's apparently genetic.
 * Holo from Spice and Wolf wears a hood to cover up the animalistic wolf-ears on top of her head. She switches over a less-conspicuous hat, however.
 * She switches a lot between the two. The point of the hood is to imply that she is a traveling nun, explained in the light novels to be the standard getup of any independent woman who wants to do traveling, and as such doesn't normally get a lot of attention. The hat on the other hand is a part of a typical city girl outfit, which is more convenient when she wants to go drinking and having fun, activities unsuitable for even a nun out of convenience rather than devotion.
 * When on an assassination mission, Guts from Berserk wears a dark cloak with a hood. He's also seen wearing his all black hooded cape post-Eclipse after he becomes the Black Swordsman.
 * Turkey from Axis Powers Hetalia wears a hood and a mask, when he isn't the Ottoman Turks (Where he wears a mask an a huge hat instead).
 * In Blood+ we have the schiff. Justified Trope since sunlight kills them.

Comic Books

 * Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, in Spider-Man has a hood. More often than not, it casts a shadow that hides most of his mask while leaving only his glittering red eyes visible. Very creepy. When he temporarily gave up the role, his successor kept the hood but never produced the shadow, just one of many many ways he was a failure. Eventually Kingsley came out of retirement, killed him, took the role of the Hobgoblin back, and sure enough, lots of creepy shadows.
 * Raven of the Teen Titans loves the Hood; it somehow conceals her face just as well as a mask but without that pesky glue. It even stays on when she flies. (The cartoon provides a possible explanation for this by giving her telekinesis, a power she lacks in the comics.)
 * In the comic book version of WITCH, the girls wore brown, hooded cloaks to be able to walk around undetected in Meridian. In their human forms. Notice that we're talking about the comic version of Meridian here, were everyone is green-skinned, has tentacle hair, or is otherwise downright monstrous looking. For some reason, it worked.
 * As his name suggests, Hooded Justice, the first costumed adventurer in the Backstory of Watchmen wore a hood- a black one that covered his entire face, meant to resemble an executioner or hanged criminal. The resemblance to a Klan hood was not accidental.
 * Every Host for The Spectre played this straight. And it is awesome!!!
 * How this trope could exist without mentioning The Hood?
 * You'd think he'd be the trope's image.
 * The secret conspiracy that Tintin unmasks in Cigars of the Pharaoh.
 * Bat-clan member Stephanie Brown combined a hood with a featureless black full-face mask in her original 'Spoiler' identity. It's surprisingly impressive.
 * The Oliver Queen Green Arrow during the Mike Grell series _The Longbow Hunters_ and the following _Green Arrow_ monthly series (1980s and 1990s run) wore a hood. Dinah "Black Canary" Lance designed it for him so he wouldn't catch a chill in Seattle's rainy clime. Since he had abandoned his trick and gadget arrows for broadheads instead, it was a better fit for a darker and grittier GA than the old "Robin Hood" hat from the Golden Age. Initially he still wore his domino mask underneath the hood, but after enough people explain they already knew who he was he gives up the mask and wears only the hood. Depending on the artist, it still hid the face—it was the beard that defeated the whole purpose of it all.
 * Subverted in The Traveler. While the Traveler always wears a hood, it's constantly falling off and he's shown putting it back on numerous times per issue. He wears a mask that covers everything but his eyes and mouth though, so his face still isn't seen even when the hood is down.
 * Doctor Doom of course, who probably wears it to cover his grotesquely disfigured face even more than his mask already does is Genre Savvy about the sources of badassery.
 * Skroa used this in Book 7 and 8 Les Legendaires to conceal his identity. Partially justified, as his real appearance is a giant, green, anthropomorphic bird-like demon, meaning any disguise would be better than just going around as himself. Ironically, this was actually of little use, as the only person he shew himself to in the arc died a panel later, and the protagonists instantly recognized him when confronting him at the end.
 * Time Trapper, the mysterious purple wearing X-factor villain in Legion of Super-Heroes wears one. But since his identity changes All the time it doesn't matter when S/He takes it off.

Fan Works

 * In the Harry Potter fic Rise of the Wizards, Harry's account manager sent him a note which mentioned that Gringotts' nighttime customers tended to be of the more... disreputable sort and suggested that Harry "would not look out of place with a hooded black cloak."

Film

 * The Star Wars movies both avert it and play it straight. The Jedi almost always shed their hooded cloaks before a battle. Both Palpatine and Anakin (though he isn't hiding his identity, he briefly fights with a cloak on) use this straight.
 * Obi-wan Kenobi wears a hood that hides his face at his very first appearance, making him look like a mysterious scary thing that causes the Sandpeople to flee. This was probably what determined the Jedi cloaks and hoods would become standard issue.
 * Luke wears a hood for a while in Return of the Jedi when he's dealing with Jabba and playing the mysterious scary Jedi.
 * Star Wars also had an entire In the Hood species in the form of the Jawas. Does this make them a Planet of Hoods?
 * Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings is first seen with his hood pulled up indoors, with only the light of his pipe illuminating his eyes. It's supposed to be ambiguous as to whether "Strider" is a good or bad guy at first. The evil Nazghul also wear hoods.
 * Cthulhu (2007). The protagonist sees a line of Black Cloak hooded figures coming across the bridge towards him, and is so freaked out he steals a boat to avoid them.
 * Subverted with Hot Fuzz. The ominous hoodies seen occasionally and hinted at as possible suspects are just local kids raging against authority via minor vandalism. And when you consider what that authority is doing...
 * The Alchemist in Vidocq wears a black hood over his mirrored mask. Very creepy, since when a victim to be tries to glimpse under the hood, they only see their own face staring back.
 * The Mountain Man in the third Cold Prey film hides his face under a hood.

Literature

 * Forgotten Realms' Drizzt Do'Urden rarely wears the hood on his cloak unless the sun is particularly bright, though if he's going somewhere he never has before he at least tries to keep it up in the hopes the gate guards will be stupid enough not to challenge a hooded traveler.
 * Robin Hood.
 * Zorro.
 * Lampshaded in the Discworld novel Going Postal, in which the antagonist notes that running through dark and rainy streets with a hood and cloak is the surest way to attract attention and quietly orders a subordinate killed for his incompetence.
 * Defied in The Wheel of Time: Myrddraal, the second-most common type of Shadowspawn, could easily pass for a human by wearing a dark hood. As a result, in several countries, the law states that everyone wearing a hood is to be killed on sight, just in case. In less watchful countries, this is not the case and Aes Sedai use this trick all the time.
 * Night's Dawn. Quinn Dexter adopts this trope deliberately to awe his Satanist followers and enemies, using his powers as the Possessed to make the hood particularly dark. The reader can tell he's lost his temper whenever his face makes a sudden reappearance.
 * The eponymous "Ghost Jogger" of the short story in Nancy Drew Ghost Stories makes full use of his hood to hide the fact that.
 * Older Than Print: The medieval Icelandic Saga of Grettir the Strong. Grettir was the tallest man in Iceland. He was an outlaw with a price on his head. He wore a hood and nobody ever recognized the tallest man in Iceland.
 * In the Ranger's Apprentice series, the eponymous Rangers are well-known throughout Araluen for their ability to melt into the forest and move without being seen. The prevailing superstition is that their cloaks are imbued with magic, allowing them to turn invisible. The real reason? Part of it is that the cloaks are camouflaged, with a large hood to completely conceal the wearer's face in shadow. The other part is that due to his training, a Ranger can stay perfectly still and hidden even when the enemy is looking right at them. From any farther than a few meters, a Ranger in hiding literally blends into the surround forest.

Live Action TV

 * "St. Joan" in Heroes.
 * The Red Space Ranger Andros would often wear a cloak, sometimes even when morphed. When morphed, the cloak had to cover his helmet, so the edges of the opening were almost clamped shut.
 * Smallville's Green Arrow gets by with a Unibomber-like hoodie and sunglasses-at-night. Later he gives members proto-Justice League of America matching outfits. Somehow action never knocks them off; even The Flash's hood fails to uncover his face while running at super-speed.
 * Done in Stargate SG-1 by, believe it or not, General Hammond. He was on Chulak tracking down Teal'c to help save the rest of SG-1.
 * Overdone in the 2006 BBC Robin Hood: soldiers never inspect people wearing hoods.
 * Justified in 2008 Merlin: Morgana creeps around in a hood, but all the soldiers already know she is a princess and obey.
 * Superhoodie of Misfits wears a hood, but uses a ski mask, and later a paintball helmet, to actually hide his identity of as the hood fits pretty tightly over the top of this head and therefore provides no shadow.
 * In Juken Sentai Gekiranger, Long's human form comes with one of these.
 * The Cape from, well, The Cape used to use a hood for a disguise, until it almost revealed his identity. Now he has a mask on underneath the hood.
 * Oliver Queen/The Arrow from Arrow.

Music

 * The icon of Disturbed's Mascot "The Guy".

Tabletop Games

 * Jace Beleren of Magic: The Gathering fame wears one almost all the time. His alternate art reveals that this is probably for the better.

Video Games

 * In Darksiders both Death and War have this trope well. War in his standard form and Death in his reaper form
 * In Bully, Jimmy walks around in a ninja suit. Instead of getting him in more trouble, this makes him less noticeable. You could start a fight right in front of a prefect, and nothing happens.
 * Magus of Chrono Trigger adopts this as part of his "Prophet" disguise. Since the sprites are virtually identical to his normal appearance, albeit with a hood, this counts as a Paper-Thin Disguise.
 * Gorath from Betrayal at Krondor often wears his hood to conceal that his identity from people who'd want to kill a dark elf like him, people who'd want to kill him, personally, or both. Justified, since his long ears are his most striking feature to the casual eye, and a hood does hide them well.
 * Hector, Lyn, and Eliwood in Fire Emblem, while trying to hide their identities as marquesses in an enemy country. Particularly egregious because Hector's still wearing his massive armor and Eliwood's tiara is visible.
 * From the same game we also have Ephidel, who uses his cloak to partially hide his unnatural appearance
 * Done again in Path of Radiance with the laguz, but this time getting bumped into by a stranger knocked down Ranulf's hood and revealed his Unusual Ears. Unfortunately resulted in an angry mob.
 * The main character of the Thief series. Of course, everyone who needs to know who Garrett is already knows anyway.
 * Bloodline Champions has a hood for the male Seeker outfits, one for the male Stalker outfit, and one for the officer Thorn outfit.
 * The MUD Shadows of Isildur is guilty of this- just putting up your hood allows you to disguise everything but your build and the color of your cloak.
 * Altaïr from Assassin's Creed, as shown in the title picture.
 * Interestingly, having a hood on one's traveling robe in the medieval Holy Land wasn't actually that uncommon. The shade helped keep your head cool if you needed to walk a long distance. And it also matches the local scholars' robes perfectly, making it easy to blend in.
 * Altaïr's descendant, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the protagonist of the second game, has a similar hood. Actually his outfit's amazingly similar to Altaïr's, just updated to fit with 15th Century Italian aesthetics. Amusingly, in that era and setting a hood like that is very conspicuous compared to the large hats almost everybody else is wearing, so it's most likely out of tradition.
 * It does keep his face hidden though, which given his status as a wanted criminal is something he's not exactly going to leave exposed, as evidenced by the Notoriety system.
 * Oddly enough, in Brotherhood the Notoriety system does not apply until you do the Sequence 3 Core Memory where you help the Thieves Guild, which can be done last if the player so chooses—and story-wise, Ezio and Claudio became notorious for something that's way less extreme than what Ezio pulls off earlier in the story (like dragging a Borgia captain out of his guard post and into a fatal collision with a nearby wooden scaffold).
 * That's because it's the game Justified Tutorial for the Notoriety system. In II, it occurred just after Ezio's and in that he was the one being instructed. In Brotherhood, it's Ezio doing the instructing.
 * Snake later appears in an identical hood as a Shout-Out. He was in the Middle East at the time.
 * Averted with Altaïr and Ezio's modern-day descendant Desmond Miles, who wears a hoodie but has yet to be seen with the hood up. Although presumably he may later as he now has all of Ezio's skills. It should also be noted that said hoodie is white, just like traditional Assassin costumes from the past.
 * It turns out that the hood is slightly pointed, just like his ancestors' "eagle beak" hoods.
 * Ezio's nemesis, Rodrigo Borgia, also wears a stylistically similar, but black hood. Until he upgrades to Papal vestments, anyway.
 * Also, Il Lupo, AKA The Prowler, is a Templar agent trained in the skills of the Assassins. Fittingly, his outfit is very similar to Ezio's, though black and red rather than white, and his hood is missing the distinctive point.
 * Connor keeps the tradition during his timeline. Since it's during The American Revolution and a large part of the world is snowy, his hood keeps his head warm.
 * A lot of people in Kingdom Hearts, especially Organization XIII.
 * Mickey's hood is actually altered to accommodate his ears... Which sort of defeats the purpose of having a hood conceal your face in the first place. "Who's that small person with very large, noticeable, visibly circular ears?" "Hmm, I don't know, it's a mystery!"
 * Averted with Sora, whose outfit has a hood that is never worn over his head. It is instead used to hold Jiminy Cricket and his journal.
 * Kairi also has a hood she never wears (KH 2), but it's a heck of a lot less noticeable.
 * That Man from Guilty Gear certainly qualifies. Even in the boss battle against him, his hood never falls off even when hit by a Tyrant Rave.
 * Archangel Tyrael From Diablo II wears a hood, completely concealing his face.
 * The Hunters from Left 4 Dead wear hooded shirts, and are appropriately enough the stealth experts of the Infected.
 * That's why they scream while preparing an attack. Stealth.
 * When you are being attacked by an army of rotting zombies, it is extraordinarily easy to miss that screech in the distance.
 * Although after the third time you've had your guts ripped open, you'd likely be very wary for distinctive screeches in the background ...
 * Ergo, the Hunter as Altair - Hunter's Greed.
 * The hood also helps shadow their face and hide the fact that they have no eyes.
 * Weavers in Loom wear hoods that completely conceal their face except for their glowing eyes. (They look like Jawas; since it's a LucasArts game, this may be a Shout-Out.) An in-universe myth says that it's fatal to look beneath a Weaver's hood; Cobb can't resist testing it out when he meets the main character.
 * In In Famous, the first gang of the game, the normal Reapers wear red reaper style hoods while the Conduits wear white. Oddly enough, they normally paint a skull onto the hood itself. The hood happens to hide their face, no matter how much light is actually shining on it.
 * Kessler wears a white hood.
 * In Prototype, the main character, Alex Mercer, wears a hood to cover his face. This is because Alex Mercer was wearing a hood  because he was . In the game, Alex keeps wearing that hood because  . The Blacklight Virus simply.
 * Caster in Fate/stay night though it's really not entirely clear as to why. It's clear she's a beautiful woman but she isn't really distinctive enough for it to identify her. Nevertheless, you only get one good look at her actual face. Perhaps it's to make sure the audience thinks of her as a manipulative witch and saves the reveal of her rather elfin features for when she gets all her sympathy points
 * The entire Kaka clan, including playable character Taokaka, from BlazBlue wear yellow hooded jackets that conceal their entire face, revealing only glowing eyes and a fanged mouth.
 * Platinum the Trinity wears one that obscures the top part of... their face.
 * Amusingly played with in World of Warcraft. There are several types of hood, but about 70% of them don't cast any shadows over the face. About half of what is left is composed of larger hoods that also don't hide faces. Hilariously enough, most of the hoods that actually do cast shadows over the face are intended for priests, and when examined with the rest of their matching gear sets, seem to have been made with holy priests in mind.
 * There's one for warlocks too.
 * Generally, the baddies hide their faces behind scarfs, though.
 * Death Knights start with a face-concealing shadowy hood.
 * Face-concealing scarves are mostly reserved for rogues, Defias Brotherhood, and the Syndicate. Enemy rogue NPCs are pretty rare and Defias and the Syndicate are fairly low-level enemies. Once you hit level 40 or so, there's nary a scarf in sight. A lot of hoods in Outland and Northrend, though. Pretty much every cultist and many of the spellcasters wear hoods.
 * Princess Zelda wears a hooded cloak for the majority of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Subverted in that it only conceals her identity for about 2 minutes, before she herself reveals herself to Link.
 * The semi-human "Habnabits" in Ferazel's Wand wear full-length cloaks with the hoods always up, shadowing their faces except for two features: large, vaguely human eyes, and a snout like an anteater. They're the good guys, though, as signified by the fact that their cloaks are a wide variety of colors rather than the generic black.
 * One of many clothing options for a hero or villain in City of Heroes/Villains.
 * Kasumi Goto and Tali in Mass Effect 2.
 * While a few robes and cloaks in Dragon Quest IX include hoods, they are typically shown folded back instead of actually being pulled over the wearer's head; certain helmets are the only hoods the player character can actually wear. Played straight, however, by the wandering ghost, which ironically makes her stand out.
 * The White Mage class in the Final Fantasy series have hooded robes, but whether or not they wear the hoods is variable—there are exceptions, but the general rule of thumb, as seen in Tactics, FFIII, and FFV, is that male White Mages tend to wear the hood down, while female White Mages tend to wear the hood up.
 * Particularly young or cute white mages (or related classes) may get a hood with cute cat ears on it. N'awwwww.
 * In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, runs around in such an outfit and is thus referred to as the Hooded Man. Precisely why he is disguising himself, asides from giving the player a meta thrill, is not gone into.
 * Tokugawa Ieyasu in Sengoku Basara 3 wears one, though it doesn't obscure his face. Considering his look and moveset is based off boxing, it could be due to this.
 * The various unnamed Reapers in The World Ends With You, who bar your path with invisible walls, forcing you to complete tasks for them to proceed.
 * And now there's a Pokémon based off a mohawk hoodie. Its hood is made up of the shed skin of its pre-evolved form. Slightly subverted as it doesn't really wear the hood during battle.
 * In Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, this is Sypha's chosen method of concealing herself.
 * Heavy Rain has Norman Jayden giving Ethan Mars a police coat with a hood so that he could escape.
 * The title character's hood in Amea turns out to serve as a case of Lazy Artist--.
 * The hooded figure in Resident Evil 5 that is with Wesker and Excella is.
 * Altair's peaked hood has inspired a wave of homages from other sneaky characters, such as the blade obsessed assassin Talon.
 * Dark Souls has the Thief's Hood, a hood with a scarf blocking the face, the Hollow Thief's hood, a standard hood, and the Darkwraith Helm, a hood with a skull mask.

Web Comics

 * Annyseed On page 19 we see that the sinister Coldsteem has adopted a hooded costume.
 * The Order of the Stick: Donning the hood of his green cloak is apparently all that's needed for Belkar to use his Hide skill. Examples include #107 and #469.
 * Miko Miyazaki wore a hood in her first handful of appearances, allowing for a Samus Is a Girl moment when it was knocked off.
 * The uniform of choice for the Mysterious Cloak Guys in Prismatic Vodka.
 * Sarda from 8-Bit Theater. The mustache and shiny eyes are still visible, though.
 * Sluggy Freelance had Little Dead Riding Hood subverted with Oasis in her red hoodie, which eventually developed a reputation of it's own among the underworld. With the hood up, she was much less conspicuous.
 * Rumors of War: appearing in Chapter 8 is a character by the name of Manaus. He wears a brown cloak complete with a hood, which obscures everything but his eyes, creating an implausible, yet creepy effect akin to Scary Shiny Glasses. He's implied by context to be a Devil in Plain Sight.
 * In Homestuck, hoods (or god-hoods) are a standard part of the clothing of those who have ascended to the God Tiers. They vary significantly in design - a Seer's is a normal hood, but a Knight's is a close fitting coif, while a Witch's is split and looks like a pair of stockings. Some are even more abstract; a Bard's isn't even a hood but a conical hat.
 * Girl Genius played with this one - when Agatha's party arrives in Mechanicsburg, they try a Black Cloak with hood to sneak in. They're stopped immediately by the guards looking for Agatha. Luckily, the heroes were Genre Savvy enough to put Zeetha in the hood, even using her green hair color as an excuse why she was wearing the hood in the first place. The guards conclude it's the wrong girl and let them go, while Agatha watches from a distance.
 * In Sinfest, the executioner in the dungeon Squidly falls to.
 * Ace in Eerie Cuties used a hoodie while returning borrowed uniform, to hide that . Of course, Nina thought his voice is funny because he caught cold, and her mother being a very nice and imperious lady, she insisted he must take a hot shower right now, so this didn't help much.

Web Original

 * In the webserial The Descendants, the character Occult wears a hood that magically covers her face in shadow. Subverted due to the fact that under the hood, a glamour makes her look Nordic instead of Hispanic. So what's the point of the hood?
 * So that if someone manages to pierce her disguise, they still wouldn't see her face? It's unlikely they would think of the possibility that the revealed face was a fake as well.
 * Todd in the Shadows is constantly—you guessed it—shrouded in darkness, which makes the hood a bit of a redundancy but also gives him a very unique look. The hoodie actually hides nothing out of the shadows, though, so in his own videos if he's required to be out of the darkness his back is to the camera. In crossovers, he wears a black piece of fabric completely obscuring his face from the nose up, eyes included.

Western Animation

 * Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender, because he's melodramatic like that. Aang also once tried to pull his robe up over his head cornholio-style as a "disguise."
 * Raven from Teen Titans wears an outfit that includes a blue cape and hood. She's not disguising her identity, though, because that's a bit hard to do when you have purple hair and a big red gem encrusted in the middle of your forehead. Nor does she seem to have a problem being seen with her hood down in public places, either; it's just part of her superhero chic.
 * Kenny from South Park has his face permanently obscured by a hood. Voice too, though apparently none of the main characters have a problem understanding him. In a few episodes, as well as the movie, we've been permitted a glimpse of what's underneath, but he definitely belongs here.
 * The evil Daedalus from The Mighty Hercules, who usually ends each episode being dragged off by said hood.
 * Stripperella. When supervillain Queen Clitoris first makes an appearance she's hidden under a hood, solely so Stripperella can make the inevitable Double Entendre.
 * Frollo's judges in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
 * The supervillain Grim Reaper in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes wears a hooded cape that covers his eyes.
 * Death from Family Guy.
 * The Grim Reaper from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy wears the whole hood/shroud deal, but it doesn't cover his face.
 * Mumm-ra from both ThunderCats series wears a hood while in his Shapeshifter Default Form, though it doesn't usually cover his entire face.

Real Life

 * Truth in Television: Hoodies. Many shops in the UK have banned them.
 * And if you walk into a bank wearing a hood, you will probably have a chat with the police.
 * Medieval executioners' black hoods were designed to intimidate prisoners and give would-be troublemakers pause, as well as providing a measure of anonymity for a very unpopular profession.
 * Except that this, like so many "facts" about the Middle Ages, is a Victorian myth. Medieval executioners had no standard uniform, and made no effort to hide their identity. They were usually depicted in contemporary art as bald and pox-ridden or scarred, but never with hoods. Everybody knew the executioner's identity, and shunned him for it. The small population centers of medieval times did not provide the anonymity that would have allowed a man to hide his profession by simply covering his face.
 * This probably came about due to the fact that after the English civil war, no one wanted to execute the king, so the executioner disguised himself with a black hood in order to protect his identity.
 * The popular views about the executioners varied widely even within one nation. In some times and communities they were shunned, in others they were thought of just as another trade — it generally depended on the populace's view to the capital punishment itself. In one place the execution was a dark and solemn ceremony where people gathered to think of the eternal, and in another it might be a sort of grisly spectator sport.
 * The iconic police sketch of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.