Black Eyes of Evil: Difference between revisions

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|'''Dr Loomis''' in John Carpenter's ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'', about [[Complete Monster|Michael Myers]].}}
 
Traditionally, a cheap and easy way to show that a character is evil is the use of coloured contact lenses in live action, or coloured or [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing eyes]] in animation. Since the 1990s, however, a new trend has emerged - the '''Black Eyes of Evil'''.
 
These days, when someone is [[Demonic Possession|possessed by demons]], [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|dabbling in the dark arts]], psychically dominated by evil aliens, or gone evil in some other way, their eyes will go perfectly black with no whites at all.
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga ]] ==
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' for the (former) page image, of course. The eyes change depending on the media, though. The anime goes for cat eyes, as do the sound novels. The manga artists change between this trope and cat eyes.
* [[Ken Akamatsu]], rare in most anime and manga, which opt for [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]], prefers black eyes to make his characters in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' look scary. He's also quite fond of [[Black Eyes of Crazy]], too.
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** Kiryu from the 5D's manga.
 
== [[Comic Books ]] ==
* [[X Wing Series|]]: Baron Soontir Fel]] was, after Vader's death, the best Imperial pilot. He's not evil, though, and the solid black eyes only show up in [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/367889.html one panel], when his eyes are in shadow. But it's a panel where he looks ''very'' sinister.
 
* [[X Wing Series|Baron Soontir Fel]] was, after Vader's death, the best Imperial pilot. He's not evil, though, and the solid black eyes only show up in [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/367889.html one panel], when his eyes are in shadow. But it's a panel where he looks ''very'' sinister.
** [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Paltr_Carvin General Carvin], who, in a B-plot in those comics, is part of the Imperial Tribune, which briefly ruled the Empire after ousting Sate Pestage, and served to command and obstruct [[Manipulative Bastard|Ysanne Isard]] until she dealt with them, was always, ''[http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1229/swrsmr212.jpg always]'' shown with shadowed eyes...until Isard's plans culminated, the other two tribune members were killed, and he was [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Isards_plaything.jpg brought before her], beaten and bloody, but [[Defiant to the End|defiant]] enough to tell her he wouldn't be her plaything, and she smiled and told him he might become all manner of things once he reached the Lusankya facility.
* Dream, a.k.a. Morpheus, eponymous protagonist of the Neil Gaiman comic ''[[The Sandman|Sandman]]'', also has completely black eyes, in which, at times, pinpricks of light like distant stars can be seen, as it is said that, by staring into his eyes, you can see the vast emptiness of eternity. He isn't evil, however, or not a typical villain at least, but he can be uncaring (to the point of cruelty) and takes very long to forgive a perceived slight.
* Marvel Comics Sentry as [[Super-Powered Evil Side|The Void]]
 
== [[Film ]] ==
 
* The vampires from ''[[30 Days of Night]]''.
* During the first exploration of Carl Stargher's mind in ''[[The Cell]],'' he manifests as a pale king with gaping black voids in place of eyes.
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* Katherine Ross' doppelganger in ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'' (they're supposed to be empty eye sockets, but there was a minor [[Special Effects Failure]]).
 
== [[Literature ]] ==
 
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'' has the Other Mother, who has Black ''Button'' Eyes of Evil, along with all of her minions. They can actually be any color in the film, but apparently, black is "traditional."
* The Ra'zac and Lethrblaka from the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]''.
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* In [[Garth Nix]]'s early novel ''[[The Ragwitch]]'', the eponymous villain is described as having "black, black pupils." The horror.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls Novels]]'', Sul describes {{spoiler|Umbra as having eyes "like holes into nothing."}} However, Vuhon's eyes are pure white, instead.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Vorbis, the villain of [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', has completely black eyes. As does the god Fate, except, in his case, they aren't actually eyes, but rather openings into a boundless void.
** As are the eyes of Trymon, the villain of ''[[The Light Fantastic]]'', after reading seven of the eight spells of the Octavo.
** And [[Discworld/Hogfather|Mr. Teatime's]] artificial eye, at least in the live -action adaptation of ''[[Hogfather]]''.
* A sign of possession by some kind of alien superweapon in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel "The Fall of Yquatine".
* Subverted by the Harshini in ''The Hythrun Chronicles''—they: they have obviously inhuman, solid black eyes, but are pretty much the nicest people you could possibly meet and, with the exception of [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]]s, utterly incapable of so much as contemplating the thought of violence or malice. [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Hence why they're almost extinct at the start of the trilogy...]]
* Infected people transforming into the monstrous {{spoiler|vampires}} in Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro's novel ''[[The Strain]]'' gain "dead black" eyes, among other things. In the case of a Goth-Metal singer, people didn't even notice at first, they thought he still wore his pale make-up and black contact lenses...
* Though the most prominent character with black eyes in the [[Modern Faerie Tales]] books, Kaye Fierch is not evil. A lot of the other [[Fair Folk]] have black eyes and evil traits.
* The villain of [[Joe Hill]]'s ''Heart Shaped Box'' has eyes that look like they were scribbled out with a black Sharpie; another character refers to the black blotches as "sunglasses of the living dead".
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{{quote|"When had all the white vanished from his eyes? Now it was like staring into two vast pits. She turned dizzy, as if she might fall, when she met his gaze."}}
 
== [[Live-Action TV ]] ==
 
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' was one of the first to use this trope. When telepath Lyta Alexander makes psychic contact with the [[Big Bad]] Shadows, her eyes turn pure black. Naturally, they return to normal when contact is broken.
** After prolonged contact, she also began to weep black tears.
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* The BBC's [[Jekyll]] uses this as one of the warning signs that Hyde is about to show up, and they're one of the few cosmetic changes made to show the difference between the main character's two personalities.
 
== [[Music]] ==
* "Blackest Eyes" by [[Porcupine Tree]] is a song about serial killers with the lyrics "''Swim with me into your blackest eyes''".
* 2D from [[Gorillaz]] has these, although this case would be some sort of subversion, since he's generally nice and often a source of comic relief. Also, the trope is [[Justified Trope|justified]], because they're apparently not really black eyes, but [[wikipedia:Hyphema|eight-ball fractures]], caused by having them dented into 2D's eye sockets, which gave him his nickname (2 Dents).
 
== [[Tabletop Games ]] ==
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* Dark Fantasy and Modern Horror roleplaying games from the 1990s onwards love this trope, from ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' to the German game ''Arcane Codex'' (where this is actually a trait buyable at character creation called "Eyes of Hell" that indicates the character is a half-breed who has demonic blood).
* The Excrucians of ''[[Nobilis]]'' have a variant on this. Falling stars drift through their otherwise-black eyes.
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* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' The vampires of Innistrad - most notably, Sorin Markov has [http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily/ftl/ftl78_sorin.jpg black sclera and golden irises.]
 
== Toys ==
 
* Karzahni from [[Bionicle]] was first described as having empty, black eyes. Later, a book illustration gave him brightly glowing yellow eyes (and took other liberties with his colors), and his eventual figure sported red eyes. The change is somewhat justified in the figure's case, as it represented his mutated form, which didn't look anything like what his original description suggested. There's also the fact that Karzahni constantly rebuilds himself, so he may have possibly changed his eyes...
 
== [[Video Games ]] ==
 
* Artwork of the [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|American/European style]] of [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Robotnik]] usually depicts him with [https://web.archive.org/web/20071111063038/http://eggmanempire.sonicworld.net/downloads/images/official/soa/chaosartwork.png no eyes at all, with two pitch black eye-sockets instead.]
* In ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', the boss "Hell Orcha" has black eyes with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red pupils]].
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** Can become [[Nightmare Fuel]] if you look at her face when using the "Realistic Wolf" [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|karmic transformer]].
 
== [[Web Original Comics]] ==
 
== Webcomics ==
* Celesto Morgan from ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' has a case of this whenever he uses his dark Seer powers.
* Found on Captain Vole of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', an ex-[[Super Soldier|Jagerkin]] (no, we're not sure how that works either) who is hell-bent on killing any Heterodyne that comes his way, including Agatha.
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* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0270.html kobolds would be cute if their eyes weren't large, black, soulless eye sockets.]
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
 
== Web Original ==
* The Lovercraftian [http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/2008/12/zalgo-comic-chronicles.html ZALGO edits], which originated on [[Something Awful]].
* The Dark Queen's true form in ''[[Sailor Nothing]]''.
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* [[Big Bad|Malachite]] from ''[[Suburban Knights]]''.
 
== [[Western Animation ]] ==
 
== Western Animation ==
* Feathers McGraw, the sinister penguin in [[Wallace and Gromit|The Wrong Trousers]], has solid black eyes. Interestingly, his eyes are entirely natural.
* During a hallucination sequence in the ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' tie-in feature, ''Tales of the Black Freighter,'' the mariner's eyes turn an inky black.
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* Subverted with Jake in ''[[Adventure Time]]''. He's not evil, usually...When he thought he was evil, his eyes went swirly.
 
== [[Real Life ]] ==
 
* Not so much "real" life, but a popular urban legend/modern day campfire tale: people have reported encounters with "black-eyed kids" (also known as "black-eyed beings" and "black-eyed children", or just BEK), which are pretty much [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you would expect]]—creepy kids with pure black eyes who are said to mean humans no good at all. The original BEK tale can be found [https://web.archive.org/web/20140103014000/http://www.ufofreeparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=210 here].
== Real Life ==
* Not so much "real" life, but a popular urban legend/modern day campfire tale: people have reported encounters with "black-eyed kids" (also known as "black-eyed beings" and "black-eyed children", or just BEK), which are pretty much [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you would expect]]—creepy kids with pure black eyes who are said to mean humans no good at all. The original BEK tale can be found [http://www.ufofreeparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=210 here].
* [[wikipedia:Aniridia|Aniridia]]. You lack an iris, the colored portion of your eye. As a result, you can't see very well, if at all.
* [[wikipedia:Hyphema|Hyphema]], better known as an "eight ball hemorrhage", where blood pools inside the eye and blacks out one's vision.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Eye Color Tropes]]
[[Category:Obviously Evil]]
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[[Category:Uh-Oh Eyes]]
[[Category:Color-Coded for Your Convenience]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]