Cool Mask: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* The Glittering Crux Brigade from ''[[Star Driver]]'' is practically built around this trope. Their masks even let them pilot ''[[Humongous Mecha]]''.

* [[Action Girl|Juliet]] of ''[[Romeo X Juliet]]'', as part of her awesome, cross-dressing vigilante alter ego, The Red Whirlwind.

 

 

* Boy Blue from ''[[Fables]]'' when he's infiltrating the Homelands, in a clear ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' homage down to the near-identical bandana-mask. Admittedly, he doesn't wear it for most of the series, but the magical artifacts he carries at the time and from that point onward make him pretty damn powerful.

* The [[Anti-Hero]] in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' wears a Guy Fawkes mask. In the movie, the mask is such a powerful symbol, it overshadows the hero himself up to a point where it's hard to tell who's wearing whom.

 

 

* The Man in Black from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' (see page quote). He manages to kill the Rodent of Unusual Size and bluff Prince Humperdinck without the mask, but his coolest moments come while wearing his mask.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Darth Vader's face is fully masked and even if he's not the most powerful villains in the universe, he's amongst the scariest. He may have been more powerful before he needed a life support mask, but we don't recommend telling him if you appreciate being able to breathe.

* As noted in Western Animation, Cobra Commander usually wears one. Cobra Commander's mask in ''[[G.I. Joe: Retaliation|Retaliation]]''? Elicits this [[In-Universe]] reaction from Zartan: "Cool mask."

 

 

* [[Humanoid Abomination|The King in Yellow]] from the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], whose face is covered by a strange white mask. {{spoiler|Actually subverted, as like [[Edgar Allan Poe|the Red Death]], he wears no mask.}}

* How about some ''actual'' [[H.P. Lovecraft]] examples? Some I can think of:

* Legendary seducer [[Lord Byron's Don Juan|Don Juan.]] Different writers have portrayed him in various ways over the centuries- a high-spirited rascal, a heartless destroyer, even a semi-innocent victim of his own [[So Beautiful It's a Curse|good looks]]- but all the better-known accounts agree he had a penchant for wearing a mask.

 

 

* In ''[[Queen of Swords]]'', Tessa wears a very elegant black lace mask made from her mother's favourite shawl.

* Liz 10, from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Beast Below", wears a porcelain mask.

* Played with with Richard Harrow of "[[Boardwalk Empire]]"--it hides his badly mangled face and most people seem to prefer that he wears it at all times, although it's rather unsettling in and of itself. However, he is most definitely a [[Badass]], and the mask helps with the mystique.

 

* Used in the music video for [[My Chemical Romance]]'s single [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU "Na Na Na"]. All of the main protagonists in the story have some sort of headgear, the most notable being Party Poison's own masquerade-style mask.

* [[The Aquabats]], seeing as [[Stage Names|they're actual superheroes and all.]]

* The '80s [[Progressive Metal|Prog-]][[Power Metal]] band Crimson Glory deliberately distinguished itself by all wearing silver full-face masks, except for the singer, whose mouth was uncovered. So he could, you know, [[Captain Obvious|sing.]]

 

 

* Comes up on occasion, especially Mexican ''lucha libre'' - major lucha libre feuds can culminate in a "mask vs mask" match, where the loser is required to publicly unmask themselves and have their real name revealed.

** [[El Santo]] is perhaps the ultimate example. There is only one known occasion where he was publically seen without the mask. When he died, they buried him in it.

* The mask is also closely related to the [[Charlie Brown From Outta Town]] angles, where a banished/disgraced wrestler returns with a not-very-conspicuous mask under a different name to try to "clear" the banned wrestler (ie himself)'s name.

 

 

* Ethergaunts from ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. They are a race of (evil) [[Eldritch Abomination|alien supergeniuses]] dwelling on the ethereal plane whose faces are entirely covered by [[The Faceless|blank, bisected masks]], with the color of said masks indicating their rank. Of special note are the black ethergaunts, which are some of the most intelligent monsters out there, and cast spells as a 17th-level wizard.

** [[Go Mad From the Revelation|And you do NOT want to see what's underneath the mask.]]

 

 

** A full list: Shielding, Underwater Breathing, Levitation, Strength, Speed, X-Ray Vision, Time, Life, Light, Shadows, Concealment, Translation, Illusions, Night Vision, Mind Control, Telekinesis, Fate, Spirit, Detection, Telepathy, Flight, Accuracy, Radar, Kindred, Summoning, Stealth, Gravity, Reanimation, Corruption, Hunger, Silence, Repulsion, Disruption, Time Duplication, Diminishment, Clairvoyance, Quick Travel (Teleportation), Emulation, Growth, Rahi Control (Animal Control), Regeneration, Truth, Dimensional Travel, Charisma, Alternate Futures, Psychometry, Intangibility, Possibilities, Elemental Energy, Mutation, Creation, Scavenging, Incomprehension, Adaptation, Sensory Aptitude, Aging, Undeath, Conjuring, Rebounding, Biomechanics, and Fusion.

*** The abstractness of the powers grew as the series aged. One of the very cool features early on was how much the Toa mixed and matched elemental powers and mask powers, [[Fridge Brilliance|a lot like]] [[LEGO]]. Stop a lava flow from damaging an island? Mask of strength and earth elemental powers on the first Toa to dig a trench, mask of speed on the toa behind to push the digger around so that the channel was dug in time.

 

 

* Takuma Sakazaki a.k.a. Mr. Karate from ''[[Art of Fighting]]''. He acts goofy and jovial and frequently plugs his dojo when talking to others, and his kids treat him as something of an embarassment. He still is quite dangerous in a fight despite his age and mannerisms (he ''is'' a master of Kyokugen-ryu, after all).

** Then sometimes he'll get "Serious", which is your cue to run. When his son Ryo inherits the title of "Mr. Karate", he does not wear the mask (in most continuities - he does wear a different mask in ''The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2'' though).

 

 

* Baron Munchhausen in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'' always wears a strange, inhuman mask. {{spoiler|Underneath it is a strange, inhuman face. ''Sometimes.''}}

 

 

* Only his trusty driver, Kit Baxter, knows who wears the mask of [http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/redpanda/ the Red Panda!]

* [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad's]] wrestling mask.

 

 

* Dave of ''[[Narbonic]]'' fame, begins with apparently opaque round glasses. But, {{spoiler|as he realizes his mad science abilities, his glasses turn transparent.}}

* Eternion and the rest of the Eternals in ''[[Adventurers]]!''

* [[Juathuur|Weijuaru]] wears a mask whenever he goes out in public. This is half because it provides his political persona with a level of mystique that helps things work out better in his favor, and half because it hides the fact that [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|he hasn't aged a day during his reign thanks to his Shift magic]].

 

 

* Robin in ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]].'' Even if this is potentially an artifact of the comics, it was acknowledged in-show as looking cool. (Beast Boy's [[Doom Patrol]] mask, sadly, was not.) Similarly, archnemesis Slade wears a mask, and for most of the first season concealed even that in shadow. Slade's mask is ''also'' an [[Eyepatch of Power]].

** As seen in season 4's episode "The Quest", Robin's mask looks cool on everyone.

* In ''[[Rollbots]]'', Vett's mask makes him look even more [[Badass]] than he is.

 

 

* In real life, trained Gold eagles wear masks when they aren't being used. Their wing span can easily reach 8 to 9 feet at age and their claws can rip through falconers gloves and keep going to crush bones.

* Shamans of various traditions and cultures the world over wear masks of animals or spirits in ceremonies in order to assume the aspects, powers and identities associated with the animal or spirit.

 

 

* Vash the Stampede from ''[[Trigun]]''

* Kagato from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]! Ryo-Ohki''

 

 

* [[Ozzy Osbourne]].

** who was just imitating John Lennon.

 

 

* <s>Elzam von Branstein</s> Ratsel Feinschmeker of ''[[Super Robot Wars]]''.

* Iron Tager from ''[[Blaz Blue]]''.

 

 

 

 

* Tarvek Sturmvoraus from ''[[Girl Genius]]'', in the [[Chessmaster]] [[Mad Scientist]] sense; a [[Badass]] he is not. They keep falling off when he gets hit, possibly because they don't have earpieces.

** Make that a definite [[Badass]]. Check out this page, the preceding one, and the following ones: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110425

 

* Jeremy of ''[[Petopeto-san]]'' also wears one, with a heart on it, and is fairly pathetic.

* Arguably, Tuxedo Mask from ''[[Sailor Moon]]''. In the manga, at least, he has some pretty hefty informed abilities and some extra powers. Still gets pwned.

 

 

* [[WWE]] Wrestler Charlie Haas tries to gain a [[Cool Mask]] through putting on a Luchadore Mask during his matches. Most of the times it doesn't work.

* During the mid 80's-early 90's there were several masked jobber tag teams including but not limited to The Conquistadors, The Cruel Connection, The Shadows, The Galaxians, The Thunderfoots, The Executioners, The Head Hunters and various assorted Demons.

 

 

* Inversion : In the ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' universe, the whole of the Scorpion Clan (one of the 7 major factions) wear masks of one sort of the other. It doesn't give them any kind of power whatsoever, though. In fact, all it does is ''make them look shifty''. Which is the whole point, as the basis for the Clan is that they are good guys pretending to be bad guys to ferret out the bad guys within the ranks of the ''other'' good guys. Or are they?' Of course, only they know that, all the other Clans think they're just [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]] being really [[Evil Gloating|obvious]] about it. Obviously, it's all [[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]] from that point on.

 

 

* Johnny Sasaki (who wears a mask, of course) spends most of the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series as a diarrhea-plagued [[Butt Monkey]] who can't go 5 seconds without making a fool of himself. Once that mask comes off in the later part of the 4th game, however, he evolves into a [[Badass]] of such magnitude that one can't help but wonder if that mask was some kind of [[Power Limiter]].

* The narcissistic Vega of ''[[Street Fighter]]'' wears a mask to protect his face. Considering how easily it's broken in his loss images, his face must be made of ''solid steel'' to hold up that well.

 

 

* Strong Bad, of the website ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', who has a Mexican masked wrestler's mask for a face. He's more a wannabe supervillain than anything.

** When he finally takes it off, it's apparently very painful.

 

 

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', General Leopold covers half of his face with a cool mask. The Totenkopfs are fond of masks which look like skulls.

 

 

* [[Re Boot|Hexadecimal]]. While she is still at the higher end of the power scale, her mask is actually a [[Power Limiter]]. When it comes off she overloads and nearly explodes before Bob puts it back on.