Eye Beams: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''Nonetheless, she had [[Being Watched|the sense of eyes following her]] -- given the existence of such creatures as [[Oculothorax|beholders]], not a comfortable feeling.''|'''Victor Milan''', ''[[Forgotten Realms|War in Tethyr]]''}}

{{quote|''Staring contest! You lose!''|'''[[Gag Sub]]''' of ''[[Mazinger Z]]''}}

 

 

 

(Seldom [[Required Secondary Powers|is it explained]] how a beam which can burn or injure just about anything else is contained when trapped behind the character's eye''lids'', but let's not think about that....)

 

Compare [[X-Ray Vision]], [[Evil Eye]], [[Breath Weapon]], and [[Hand Blast]]. Often [[The Glasses Come Off]] for this. A favorite attack for the [[Oculothorax]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Dejiko of ''[[Di Gi Charat]]'' has these. Puchiko does as well, but hers rarely work, instead spouting weird things from her eyes, like mud monsters.

** [[Calling Your Attacks|MEKARA BEEEEEAM!!!]] (Which means [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"Beam from the eyes"]])

* Many [[Super Robot Genre|Super Robots]] sport this power, dating all the back to the granddaddy of the genre, ''[[Mazinger Z]]''.

* Strangely enough, eye beams are rarely seen as a commodity in the very energy-based ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' anime. The only characters out of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] who exhibit the ability are Piccolo, Nappa, Freeza, Dr. Gero, and Cell.

** Also known as 'the bad guys' (at the time, for Piccolo).

** [[Dishing Out Dirt|Fate Averruncus]] has the ''Kakon Omma Petroseos'' spell, a [[Taken for Granite|petrifying]] eye laser.

* Subverted in ''[[The Five Star Stories]]''. The first time the colossal Jagd Mirage uses its eye lasers it ends up burning out its main cameras.

* In ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]] 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance'', {{spoiler|Unit 01 does this during the Zeruel battle when Shinji becomes pissed enough. Interestingly, it behaved like an actual beam rather than Zeruel's "deadly gaze" (i.e. its eyes twinkle, then the target is blow to hell and back with [[Creepy Cool Crosses]]).}}

* ''[[The Big O]]'' has a pair.

** The other two bigs, Big Fou and Big Duo also sport these. At the end of the series, Big Duo even gets its upgraded.

* In ''[[Digimon]],'' the eyes are as good a place as any from which to launch one's beam attacks, but special mention goes to Duskmon. His suit has eyes on it at various places, and his Deadly Gaze attack involves ''all of them'' focusing on you and firing death ray. Using this attack at ''far less than'' full strength can put [[Mons]] of higher levels in their place (and a Digimon being able to take on a higher-leveled one is ''extremely'' rare. If you don't count the clear [[Worf Had the Flu]] situations, you can count on one hand the times it's happened in franchise history. Dusky was something of a [[Game Breaker]].)

* Let's not forget Pegasus and Bakura's Shadow Game from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'': Ancient Egyptian Laser Beams!

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Superman]]'''s famous heat vision, which he usually uses as a "utility power" for things like escaping something, freeing someone, or other uses. If he ever uses it as a weapon against an enemy, it's usually against a robotic or other nonliving enemy (because Superman adheres to the [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] portion of the [[Comics Code]] and apparently [[Idiot Ball|can't figure out how to create nonfatal injuries despite having sufficient control to perform microsurgery with it]]), or it's a sign that you've ''truly'' [[Beware the Nice Ones|pissed him off]].

** In [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]], Superman had to wear glasses made from Kryptonian glass in order to use his heat vision while disguised as Clark Kent (otherwise the glasses would melt); [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|post-Crisis]], this power was reinvented as pyrokinesis and thus that's not necessary anymore. [[Adaptation Distillation|Naturally, the TV versions]] tend to simply discreetly move his glasses out of the way.

* And almost every [[Captain Ersatz]] of Supes, obviously.

* [[Martian Manhunter]] has his Martian Vision.

* The extreme end of the trope may be the [[The DCU]]'s [[Darkseid]], whose "Omega Effect", at full power, removes anything it hits from existence, and can travel any path he desires to hit something. {{spoiler|In ''[[Final Crisis]]'', he uses a variation of the "Omega Effect" called the "Omega Sanction", which he uses to condemn [[Batman]] to [[Fate Worse Than Death|be trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth, with each life worse than the last]].}}

** On the Marvel side with a similar character, [[Thanos]] of Titan has eye beams that seem to be similar to but more powerful than the energy blasts he shoots from his fists.

* ''Painfully'' [[Deconstructed]] in the comic ''[[Archaic]]'': {{spoiler|it kills the character's enemies but also destroys his eyes.}}

* Masked Marauder in ''[[Daredevil]]''.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Incredibles]]'' features an eye-blasting hero named [[Captain Ersatz|GazerBeam]]. {{spoiler|He's already been murdered by the villain Syndrome before the movie starts.}} He uses the power to leave an important clue: {{spoiler|the password to the computer in Syndrome's lair.}}

* Also found in the world of ''[[Kaiju|daikaiju]]'' (giant monsters), such as [[Godzilla|Battra, Mechagodzilla, and Gigan]].

* The 1985 shot-in-the-Philippines [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] film ''Warriors of the Apocalypse'' features a duel between two characters with this power.

 

== Folklore ==

** Another version of the above myth has Balor's eye be bashed out the back of his head, which cast its deadly gaze on his own army. Needless to say, they didn't win.

* Shiva got an extra eye when gods [[A Simple Plan|tried to make him stop mourning for Sati and marry Parvati]] (he didn't know she's the reincarnation of his ex-wife, and no one thought to tell him). He opened his two eyes, noticed her, the god of lust Kama shot Shiva with a bow to stir up passion in him ([[Classical Mythology|sounds familiar]]?)... and then the plan [[Incredibly Lame Pun|backfired]]: to everyone's surprise he opened a ''[[Third Eye]]'' eye and incinerated Kama with an eyebeam (Parvati found another way to become his wife and asked him to resurrect Kama). Scorching gaze of annoyed ascetics is a recurring motif for Hinduism, but mortals' anatomy doesn't change.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** [[The Munchausen|Or so he claimed]].

*** It wasn't fire, he said to be able to produce sparks.

* The [[No Name Given|unnamed]] [[The Culture|Culture]] terror weapon briefly followed at the end of ''Look To Windward'', a [[Do-Anything Robot]] made from a [[Nanomachines|nanomachine swarm]] can form pretty much any weapon it wants from its body, but isn't anywhere near as limited as the [[Terminator (franchise)|T-1000]]. It adjusts its eyes to lase in order to blind an opponent, but only in order to kill him in a more unpleasant way; this being Culture super science, it could have easily formed a [[Wave Motion Gun]] had the need arisen.

* In one of the oldest examples in fiction: the [[Creepy Centipedes|One Hundred Eyed Demon Lord]] from ''[[Journey to the West]]'' emits hot beams of light from the various eyes located on his body. Sun Wukong manages to escape by this light trap by turning in a pangolin and digging his way out.

 

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "42" {{spoiler|has the bad guy running around with these (beams of heat, in this case), with a visor that seems to be a direct [[Shout-Out]] to Cyclops.}}

* One of the villains of the week on ''[[Farscape]]'' was a blind [[Mad Scientist]] specializing in light, so naturally, he could shoot lasers out of his eyes. And [[Wall Crawling|cling to walls]].

* Although ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', surprisingly given the many different superpowers, does not have any characters with eye beams, in the season 3 episode "It's Coming", [[Psycho Electro|Elle]] shoots Sylar with so much lightning at one point that lightning actually ''comes out of his eyes'' while he's being electrocuted. [[Good Thing You Can Heal|Good Thing He Can Heal]].

* Olly, from ''[[The Sifl and Olly Show]]'', has a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJHOtzXNqIk pair of these] installed at one point. They come with the ability to [[Mind Probe|read minds]]. Side effects include extreme curiosity.

* ''[[Red Dwarf|Red Dwarf's]]'' Rimmer contracts a holovirus in the episode Quarantine, it drives him mad(der) and he puts on a red and white checked gingham dress, army boots and a penguin puppet, Mr. Flibble. The holovirus gives Rimmer Hex-Vision, with which he can shoot beams from his eyes. He can also transfer the Hex-Vision to Mr. Flibble...

* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Lily has the "You're dead to me look", which causes her eyes to glow and the object of her glare to (appear to) vaporize. Given the look's similarity to [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Dark Willow]] eyes, this is possibly an [[Actor Allusion]] to actress Alyson Hannigan's former character.

* [[Nightman]]'s costume includes (among things like a bulletproof bodysuit, an [[Anti Gravity]] belt, and an [[Invisibility Cloak]]) an eyepatch of sorts that grants him night vision and can fire a laser. He's not shy about using it to kill, though. At one point, he uses it to merely stun a bad guy, knowing the guy was going to take a two-story fall headfirst.

 

''Thousand-Fahrenheit-hot little lights behind your eyes'' }}

* "CNR" by [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al Yankovic]] have this in lyrics:

''Oh yeah'' }}

 

 

** And a handful of arcane spells like 'Eyebite' (gaze attacks with minor enchantments like charm or fear), 'Dead Man's Eyes' (caster's eyeballs turn black with white skull-shaped pupils and kills people by looking in their eyes), 'Fire Eyes' and 'Basilisk Glare'.

** Later sourcebooks even provide a Metamagic Feat that allow player characters to store ray spells in each eye for convenient simultaneous blasting for a later date.

** The spell ''Lantern Light'' gives clerics and paladins the ability to shoot eye beams.

* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'', cybereyes with built in lasers (or projectile weapons) are available. But, it is made very clear that they are [[Awesome but Impractical|very ineffective]], especially in combat. In fact, the only effective use is low end tool uses.

* "Lightning Stare" from ''[[GURPS]]: Magic'', which probably isn't a cool as it sounds since you have to make "certain facial motions" in order to cast the spell.

 

== Toys ==

* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', Heat Vision is one of the 42 Makuta powers. Other users include Rahkshi of Heat Vision and {{spoiler|Tahu}}.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game]]'', Krang's mechanical body had them.

** In the first stage of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time]]'', Krang had ''electricity''-shooting eyes. This did not, however, carry over to the year 2020.

* A number of powersets in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''City of Villains'' include laser eye beam attacks.

** Don't forget Tabuu.

* In the ''[[Kirby]]'' series, Waddle Doo's got... one of these. Makes you wonder about its biology, considering it is nothing ''but'' a huge eye on a tiny circular body with nubby arms and feet.

* A microgame from ''[[Wario Ware]]: Smooth Moves'' gives you laser eyes and instructs you to "Destroy them all". It's a blast, pardon the pun.

** Other microgames earlier in the series employ this trope, starting with Dr. Crygor's boss game, "Alien Laser Hero."

* Viy, one of the bosses of ''[[La-Mulana]]'', has a [[Wave Motion Gun]] version of this from his single eye that he can use as his most powerful attack.

** The character himself is based of Viy - a monster from a horror story by [[Nikolai Gogol]]. While the Viy did not have eye beams per se, looking at his face is what breaks the holy protection circle the protagonist uses to keep the demons away when he is forced to spend several nights in a haunted church.

** They've become one of his signature moves in all of his appearances in other [[Nippon Ichi]] games, where they're shown to be ''a lot'' more destructive, [[Everything Makes a Mushroom|creating mushroom clouds]] or [[Detonation Moon|blowing up the moon]] depending on the game.

* [[It Makes Sense in Context|Vince Carter from]] ''[[Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden|Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden]]'' [[It Makes Sense in Context|has two forms of these.]]

* Archmages in ''[[Warhammer Online]]'' get them.

* Oh, ''[[Super Robot Wars]]''... Mazinger did it, so of course they did it. The [[Super Robot Wars 4|Grungust]] series' Eyesolid Laser, [[Super Robot Wars Alpha|RyuuKoOu]]'s Rastaban Beam, the SRX's Gaun Genocider and the [[Super Robot Wars L|Rushbird]]'s Maser Eye, for example.

* Kano from ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' has an [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|artificial eye]] that could shoot a laser in later games of the series.

** {{spoiler|He kills [[Badass Normal|Stryker]] with one in ''Armageddon'''s intro.}}

* Reisen of ''[[Touhou]]'' can fire these in the fighting games. Comes in different varieties too, from the garden variety straight blast, to expanding energy rings, to short range energy bursts.

** Yuugenmagan and Kikuri had eyebeams too during their boss fights.

* In ''[[I Robot (video game)|I Robot]]'', the eye who's watching you, kills you with an eye beam if you're caught jumping.

* A bit of a variation on this trope in ''[[Star Fox 64]]'' when Andross shoots lasers from his eyes. Why is it a variation you ask? Because his eyes ''detach from his brain and chase after you, spewing red laser beams''.

* Quistis's ''Laser Eyes'' [[Power Copying|Blue Magic]] [[Limit Break]].

* ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'''s Heather Beam and Sexy Beam.

* The Praetorian from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.

* The [[Hopping Machine|X-Bot]] boss from ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' has these. Strangely, [[Giant Eye of Doom|Eyebot]] does ''not'' have this- his eye only shoots out regular shots, it's his [[Combat Tentacles]] that have the beams instead.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* [[Burnt Face Man]] from the flash animation series by the same name, attempts to use "his laser eyes" to catch a falling baby. He does not have said power. [[Dead Baby Comedy|Baby go splat]].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Black Mage actually uses them twice, the other being when Fighter shows him his "Brilliant Idea" that he's written down. Black Mage offers to "[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2003/07/01/episode-302-that-was-a-mistake/ lend those notes my critical eye... BEAMS!]" and incinerates the page.

** [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/10/14/episode-1046-anatomically-correct/ BEHOLD MY HUMAN LASER!]

* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', [[Dracula]]'s Draculabot features, among other things, eye lasers.

** And, in a variant, Dan McNinja can squirt poison from his eyes.

* ''[[Killroy And Tina]]'' both [[Powers as Programs|share]] this power. Unfortunately Tina sometimes forgets to take out her contact lenses and ''melts them to her eyes''; luckily she's also [[Nigh Invulnerable]]...

* Given to ''robot cows'' in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'': [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=604 Just like real cows, only with lasers.]

* In ''[[Gastrophobia]]'', a demon deer has this power.

* In ''[[Weesh]]'', [http://www.weeshcomic.com/archive.php?strip=2009-12-28 Tate wishes he had laser eyes.]

* Apparently, Ananth from ''[[Johnny Wander]]'' has this ability when not wearing his hat.

* This guy from ''[[Karate Bears]]'' [http://www.karatebears.com/2011/06/power-cosmic.html has eye beams]

 

* [http://www.vimeo.com/1223566 This Russian music video] grants this ability to... Mikhail Gorbachev.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AN5KpUecBs This Youtube vid] grants it to [[Everything's Better with Penguins|penguins]].

* In a ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' online ad from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', Church tells a few legends about [[Memetic Badass|Sergeant Johnson]]. One of them that his friend's cousin's neighbor told him, was that he has laser eyes. {{spoiler|He does.}}

** {{spoiler|Church}} gets one laser eye in ''Recreation''.

* "Recently we picked up a ''[[Dennis the Menace US]]'' storybook with charming Bob Paplow illustrations. What we didn't bargain on, however, was that the original owner had used a pencil and his or her imagination to turn a prosaic story of Dennis and Ruff into [http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics142.html an orgy of BLASTING MUTANT-STYLE EYEBEAMS]!!!"

* The Griffon, a hero in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', can fire beams of pure mystic energy from his eyes. Victory can do the same but with a relatively undefined "cosmic" energy.

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'': The stolen Neutro is equipped with these. Used to blow Mechakara's right hand off.

 

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' have this as part of their stock of superhero powers.

* Starfire, from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', after she goes through alien puberty.

** And prior to that, her older sister Blackfire, having already gone through said puberty.

** Unicron fired off several eye beams in the 1986 movie. Notably, he only fired beams from one eye because Hot Rod had already crashed the Quintesson ship through his other eye.

* Zok, the [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon]] from ''[[The Herculoids]]''.

* The power of the Pig Talisman in ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' is the ability to shoot heat beams from the user's eyes. In one episode, Jade notes that it's hard to accurately see when you're shooting beams from your eyes. In another, a character gets the talisman and accidentally [[Blind Without'Em|destroys his prescription sunglasses]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** [[Calling Your Attacks|HEAT BEAM EYE BLASTS!!!!]]

* Aku uses these frequently in ''[[Samurai Jack]]''.

** In "Aku's Fairy Tales", Aku tells a version of "Little Red Riding Hood", making the protagonist into an amalgam of Little Red Riding Hood and himself.

** When Aku attacks Jack in his dragon form, he uses both eye beams AND a mouth beam to combine them into ONE GIANT BEAM.

* Rather inexplicably, the ''[[Futurama]]'' version of physicist Stephen Hawking can shoot lasers from his eyes. Even he was surprised.

* The Walking Eye from ''[[Jonny Quest]]''.

** Naturally, whatever JQ has, ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' has to get too. But subverted, in that the one Venture built does not seem to actually shoot beams (or even ''work'', for that matter, other than being able to stand). He later attaches Helper's head to it.

* [[Made of Explodium|Combustion Man]] from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' doesn't quite perfectly fit this trope, but he fires his beams o' doom out of an eye tattoo over his sixth chakra, located close to the eyes.

* Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius from ''[[Danny Phantom]]''.

* Frylock from ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]''.

* In ''[[Static Shock]]'', whenever Static discharges powerful enough electricity, he could shoot electric streams from his eyes, but it's only a side effect that he doesn't use to full effect, and just a visual cue showing just how much power/how pissed he is at the moment.

* In ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]'', the Lion-men have eyebeams, but instead of harming people, they transform them into lion-men.

* Lazzar's Guardian from ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]''.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes|Jimmy Two Shoes]]'', in a monster movie Jimmy and Heloise watch.

* [[Willie Nelson]] defeated Tony Bennett on ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]'', when he took off his bandanna covering his [[Third Eye]] to vaporize his opponent.

* In ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', the first terrifying example of the Giant containing weaponry comes in this form. {{spoiler|Even the Giant wasn't consciously aware he had them.}}

 

* The Horned Lizard, or at least some species of same, has a defense mechanism whereby it can, to quote [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]], "[[Bloody Murder|squirt an aimed stream of blood from the corners of the eyes for a distance of up to 5 feet.]]" The blood is caustic, foul-tasting, and a bit of a surprise for a would-be predator.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bizarre Alien Biology]]

[[Category:Eye Tropes]]

[[Category:Special Attack]]

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Uh-Oh Eyes]]