Expressive Mask: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* Commercials for the Jack-in-a-Box restaurant. The mascot's head is a giant ping-pong with a pointed nose and painted-on face, which always wears an expression suited to his tone of voice, though the actual transition only occurs when he's off-camera.

 

* A great example is ''[[Kinnikuman]]'', where the main character and just about everybody on his [[Planet of Hats]] wears a skintight mask meant to completely replace his face. It follows each and every one of his expressions perfectly. Due to the series being primarily about [[Professional Wrestling]], several other characters wear masks of varying properties (Mystic wood, crushed sapphire/steel alloy, etc.) that are likewise expressive, just not to the degree that Kinnikuman's is.

* Alphonse Elric from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' could be remarkably expressive with his helmet, despite the fact that it never moved (even when he talked; his voice came from inside the armor). He's actually able to blush visibly, despite being a soul bound to an empty suit of armor. The helmet only changes when he's drawn as [[Chibi]]. Which happens fairly often—possibly because of this trope. The rest of the time it never changes.

* No Face's noh mask in ''[[Spirited Away]]'' was meant to be a complete blank and rely on tricks of lighting to convey mood, both as real masks do and to suggest his lack of individual personality. It wound up betraying some emotion, though, with the mouth and eyes seeming to tilt up and down slightly.

 

* [[Batman]]'s mask can sometimes be seen doing this. Of course, for Bats it's almost always "brow furrowed." '''[[media:batmangasp.png|Almost]]'''. The ''appearance'' of this is [[Justified Trope|explained]] by the live-action films: close-ups on Batman's face make clear that he's wearing eye makeup in the gap between his mask and the edges of his eyelids. (This is the most likely method for any live actors masked in the same style.)

:Another good example is Cassandra/Batgirl II's mask: Unlike Batman's it's full face and even the eyes are black, but they get a lot of mileage out of changing the shading on it.

* There's also Emoticon from ''[[Welcome to Tranquility]]'', who is something of a unique example. {{spoiler|His mask actually always shows his true emoticons, and is effectively a proxy face for him, given a supervillain by the moniker of The Typist actually mutilated his face beyond recognition and rendered him utterly blind. The mask also has prosthetic eyeballs in it, allowing poor Emoticon to see. Understandably, he's got a bit of an attitude problem. Poor guy.}}

 

* The masks in ''[[The Incredibles]]'' are essentially dark patches on the characters' skin, changing shape as their features move and even covering their eyelids. Given everything else their costume designer, Edna Mode, is able to make their costumes do, this might just be another feature.

* All characters in the ''[[Bionicle]]'' films (save for a few such as Krekka who do not wear masks).

* Justified in ''[[The Mask (film)|The Mask]]'' (all versions) because the thing is magic, even if it appears wooden when not being worn.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Scary Movie]]'', where the expression of the mask worn by the killer changes between shots into anything from mad, to happy, to [[The Stoner|stoned]].

* The skeletons in ''[[Jason and the Argonauts]]'' have angry "eyebrows."

* Deadpool, in (what else?) ''[[Deadpool (film)|Deadpool]]'', has a genuinely expressive mask, the nature of which is never explained.

* Starting with his rejoining the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] in ''[[Captain America: Civil War (film)|Captain America: Civil War]]'', Spider-Man now has an expressive mask, explained as being a mechanical function engineered by Tony Stark, who created it for him.

 

* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'' and its prequels, the god Torak wears a steel mask over a severe burn that shifts as his healthy face would. To his defense, he ''is'' a god.

* [[Roald Dahl]]'s book ''[[The Witches]]'' gives the Grand High Witch of All the World a mask that looks exactly like a beautiful human face, moving perfectly with her own, which is [[Red Right Hand|ugly and scabby]]. The improbability of such a mask is commented upon.

* The character of fallen and tragic [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/gaynorthedamned.htm Prince Gaynor the Damned] turns up in [[Canon Welding|several of Michael Moorcock's novels]] that feature an incarnation of the ''[[Cosmic Plaything|Eternal Champion]]''. Prince Corum opposes Gaynor, and so does Elric at one point (in ''The Revenge of the Rose''). Prince Gaynor the Damned is described as being sheathed from head to toe in metal armor which changes colors constantly, so that nothing of his body can be seen, and carries a great shield with the eight-arrowed star, the sign of Chaos. The colors that play over the surface of Gaynor's armor appear to change in reaction to Gaynor's emotions and moods. Indeed, Gaynor was cursed with eternal torment for betraying the cosmic balance and is unable to take off the armor on his own (although in one of the books, Corum rips off Gaynor's helmet and reveals a face continuously transforming in accordance with his status as a being of Chaos; his flesh seems to writhe like a mass of maggots). Gaynor is immortal (and may be unkillable, too, as he alone survives a wound from Elric's soul-sucking runesword Stormbringer), but longs only for death.

 

* In the ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' episode "Only Skin Deep", an abusive creep goes home from a costume party with a shapely young lady - himself dressed as a pirate, her as a body bag ('artificial shell with a corpse inside' - tip off number one?) and with a slightly disturbing mask. Naturally, he doesn't notice that the mouth of the 'mask' and the eyeholes move when her mouth and eyes do, respectively... typical Crypt type 90's horror ensues. It's clearly makeup, but for plot purposes, no one has ever apparently put on corpsepaint in their life, god forbid for a costume party...

* The puppet's sunglasses in the original [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA90IlymdZ4 Mahna Mahna] video change shape to match his expression.

 

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' - Spaceman Spiff, interplanetary explorer extraordinaire, wears a space visor that is more like a small square black screen perched on his nose, which somehow conveys all of his eye's expressions. The standard expression is two squares, but he uses circles for alarm, a thin line for when he's squinting, and triangular shapes for when he's angrily blasting stuff. For that matter, the [[Calvin Ball]] masks and Stupendous Man's mask are very expressive for pieces of cloth (the Stupendous Man hood, however, does white out Calvin's eyes in his daydreams.)

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* In [[Dungeons & Dragons]] there's the Hat of Disguise, which can, when activated, become any type of headgear; thus, it could become a mask, the expression on which could be changed each round.

 

* The Swiss theater troupe [http://www.mummenschanz.com/ Mummenschanz] play with, deconstruct, mash back together, and otherwise have all sorts of fun with this trope.

* The masks used in ancient Greek theater had all sorts of exaggerated expressions, but averted this trope: they were fixed facial expressions that cannot change. The actor used his or her body to convey emotion, and nothing else.

* An Expressive Mask can be created simply by drawing the mask onto the performer's face with makeup. As well as being cheap and easy, this method doesn't hide the face like an actual mask, which could otherwise inhibit the emotion the performer conveys.

 

* ''[[Psychonauts]]'': Not quite a mask, but Agent Sasha Nein's glasses are capable of changing shape with his expressions. He ''is'' [[Psychic Powers|psychic]], of course, but that seems a rather trivial use of telekinesis.

* The Shy Guys from the [[Super Mario]] games do this, at least in Mario Strikers Charged and Paper Mario.

* Bernard from the ''[[Maniac Mansion]]'' series has expressive glasses, as shown in the ''[[Day of the Tentacle]]'' intro.

 

* The [[Big Bad]] and common [[Mooks]] for most of ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky!]]'' are capable of showing rage, confusion, and even bewilderment through their helmets. Sometimes even [https://web.archive.org/web/20130208153545/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20030216.html all of them at once].

* Justified in ''[[Freefall]]'': Sam Starfall's mask was purpose-built to mimic human expressions, and [[Mobile Suit Human|he can control it with his tentacly face]].

* In [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=539 this] ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' strip, young Donald has quite expressive glasses.

** Later awesomely—and hilariously—averted with robots: [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=638 Sky Watcher] is very expressive ''without'' visibly moving parts of the head in organic style and [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=645 KingBot] found an alternative solution.

* [[PvP]]: Scratch Fury in his Christmas tree disguise, Kringus.

** Brent's eyeglasses [https://web.archive.org/web/20120217164531/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/11/21/fine-print/ squint when he squints].

* Psycho Mantis' gasmask in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]''.

* the Pyros also in ''Nerf Now!!''.

* [http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?series=amd&ep=4&id=119 Hechter] is nothing more than a magically animated suit of armor, but he manages to have an amazing range of expression with his helmet.

* [[The Phantom of the Opera|Erik]]'s half-mask in the [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' and its [[Spin-Off]]s (''[[Girls Next Door]]'' and ''[[Down the Street]]'').

* Not in canon, but fans love to take the [[Team Fortress 2|Pyro]]'s gas-mask and deform it according to this trope.

 

* Strong Bad from ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', in his [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail1.html first ever e-mail]. In response, he claimed that his mask and gloves ''were'' his face and hands. A [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail162.html recent e-mail] [[The Un-Reveal|"shows"]] him removing his mask offscreen with a ripping noise, and making painful gurgling sounds until he puts it back on, after which he swears "I am never doing that again!".

* Parodied in [[Red vs. Blue]], which can't do this because it's Machinima in Halo, where everyone wears a helmet. Even ''talking'' is merely head-bobbing. When the Reds see the Blues talking on the screens under the canyon, but can't hear them, they comment on how ridiculous people look because you can't see their emotion. While vigorously bobbing his head.

** In fact, Machinima in general is all about getting by without live actors or this trope. Voice actors and careful posing of characters have to sell the emotion instead.

 

* Most [[Animated Adaptation]]s of the characters in [[The DCU]] (and the [[Marvel Universe]]) have expressive masks; especially notable are Robin from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' (pictured) and [[Justice League (animation)|JLU]]'s Steel, whose mask is an immoble steel helmet.

** Steel's mask shows his expression in the comics as well. A lettercol suggested it was either evidence of his superpowers (a [[Retcon]] that was later dropped) or he had ''really'' strong facial muscles.

*** Rainbow Dash's Shadowbolt costume, by extension.

* In ''[[Wakfu]]'', Nox's mask has shutters that act as eyelids. However, more often than not, we get the full unsettling effect of those unblinking [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing]] eyes.

 

== Meta ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Graphical Tropes]]

[[Category:Who Was That Masked Index?]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]