Faceless Eye: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Got no human grace,
|'''[[Billy Idol]]''', "Eyes Without A Face"}}
As [[Eye Tropes|other tropes indicate]], eyes are very, very meaningful. It's a cliché to call them windows to the soul. This trope reminds us that alone, eyeballs are fragile spheres of gel only vaguely reminiscent of their usual purpose of subtle social cues. So a single eye completely outside the context of a face is just creepy. Bad guys often favor a singular, unblinking,
Of course, being long past the [[Uncanny Valley]] already, these examples often also involve [[Technicolor Eyes]], [[Hellish Pupils]], and [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]. Contrast [[The Blank]] and [[Eyeless Face]]. See also [[Oculothorax]] for monsters whose body is primarily an eyeball. Since they are mostly an eye, they tend to be evil.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Vision Express, a chain of opticians in the UK, started an advertising campaign in 2009 using pairs of identically-dressed people with giant eyeballs for heads. [
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* "The Eye" is an insignia for the Priesthood in the ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]'' manga.
* The Gate in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has a huge disembodied eye visible in the darkness on the other side of it. Likewise, Father's original form was a black shadow-ball that could display a single eye (and a [[Slasher Smile]]).
* ''[[GeGeGe no Kitaro]]'' has Kitaro's father Medama-Oyaji the eyeball (semantic translation, ''"Old Man Eyeball"'') [https://web.archive.org/web/20130817130744/http://www.bogleech.com/gba-kitarou.html (it's a long story)] and the evil Backbeard, an incredibly creepy-looking black ball of prickly menace who'd be true [[Nightmare Fuel]] if most of his evil schemes didn't consist of crap like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq6gO-GQaDw this.]
* In the first season of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', [[Empathic Weapon|Bardiche's]] [[Power Crystal]] revealed a [[Hellish Pupils|slitted eye]] when it gets activated. This trait seemed to have disapppeared after Fate's [[Heel Face Turn]].
* Odin in ''[[Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok]]'' is only seen as a single All-Seeing Eye; either floating in the sky or in a crystal ball.
* The true form of ''[[
* One of ''Demon Detective Neuro's'' 777 Tools of Hell is Evil Friday, a swarm of little eyeballs with legs that he can see through. While most commonly used for research, reconnaissance, and tracking, they're shown to have lives and personalities of their own, and one memorable aside shows that they enjoy participating in racing. Why Evil Friday? [[Word Salad Title|Who knows?]]
* One of [[Naruto|Gaara]]'s powers was the Eye of Sand, which he used for spying, as well as to see outside the shell of sand he once used to conceal a [[Transformation Sequence]].
* The [[Artificial Human|Gizmon]] of ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' are something of a mechanical version of this trope.
* ''Pygmalion'' had a floating eyeball in the protagonist's party. Could become big enough for the hero to ride it.
* A few ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' cards have eyes with no faces: "Relinquished" and "Thousand-Eyes Idol", which can be [[Fusion Dance|fused together]] into "Thousand-Eyes Restrict". These cards have zero Attack/Defense, but "Relinquished" and "Thousand-Eyes Restrict" can steal monsters from an opponent's side of the field and effectively use them as meat shields.▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Also plays a role in ''[[V for Vendetta]]''.
* Several characters in comics, such as [[Marvel Universe|Marvel's]] The Orb, wear eyeball-shaped helmets, usually with a laser or other weapon in the pupil. Oddly enough, these characters are always villains. Wonder why?
* The Eye of Ekron, the floating, intelligent weapon of the Emerald Empress in ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]''. However, as ''[[
* The [[Justice League of America]] villain Starro is a Faceless Eye attached to a [[Combat Tentacles|five-tentacled]] [[Starfish Aliens|starfish-like body]].
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Eyes Without a Face]]'', Georges Franju's 1959/1960 Films Gaumont picture, features fun, staring creepiness that will scare anyone afraid of dolls with lifelike eyes. Real [[Nightmare Fuel]] and the source of Mr. Idol's fascination with the topic, in the first place.
* [[The Lord of the Rings|Sauron]]'s emblem is the fiery Lidless Eye. He's physically depicted as such in [[The Movie
* The [[B-Movie]], ''[[The Crawling Eye]]'', aka ''The Trollenberg Terror''.
* One of the monsters in ''Voyage Into Space'' was a giant disembodied floating eye.
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* As mentioned in the description above, possibly the most iconic use of this trope for an insane AI is HAL-9000 from ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.
* ''[[The President's Analyst]]'' has a scene (that's curiously gone missing) where James Coburn is shocked to discover there are indeed spies following him {{spoiler|including ''his girlfriend''}} and freaks out, seeing disembodied looming eyeballs everywhere (with footage pulled from the 1961 3-D movie "The Mask").
* The Film ''Planet 51'' has these as the Alien Invaders (on an Alien world) in a movie set in the clasic sense of 1950's B-movie and it features a whole bunch of them in the closing credits (of the actual film).
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''[[The Regeneration Trilogy|The Eye In The Door]]'' by Pat Barker. It wasn't a real eye, just a peephole to spy on prisoners, but it had a similar effect.
* Umbridge keeps a magical eyeball in her door in ''[[Harry Potter|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]''. That one was especially disturbing, since {{spoiler|it confirmed that Moody was indeed dead and Umbridge took his eye}}.
* The repressive theocratic government of Gilead, in Margaret Atwood's novel [[
* Similarly, [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Barrayar's]] [[Vorkosigan Saga|Imperial Security]] uses the Eye of Horus for its insignia.
* The [[Larry Niven|Ringworld]] has ''eye storms'', caused when a meteor puncture in the Ring bed drops air pressure sharply; Coriolis effects shape the surrounding cyclone into a miles-high lidded eye shape. The first time the protagonists saw one, it gave Speaker to Animals a [[Heroic BSOD]] due to his odd religious upbringing.
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* In ''[[Alan Dean Foster|Kingdoms of Light]]'', the Sea of Blue is in fact a colossal eye, known to the creatures of that sea ans the Eye of the Beholder.
* Stephen King's [[The Stand]] has Randall Flagg using a disembodied eye to spy on some of the good guys.
* [[The Lord of the Rings]] and the Eye of Sauron.
== [[Live
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Daleks have a periscope of varying design over the years in their giant-pepper-pot-of-death power armor, matching their single biological eye.
** Also the Ambassador from Alpha Centauri who appeared in a couple of 70s stories was basically a big eyeball on legs.
** The Atraxi from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Beljoxa's Eye. What happened to the rest of Beljoxa?
* ''[[Angel]]'' had the psychic/psychotic surgeon in "I Fall to Pieces", and he used his eyes and other detached body parts to spy on the girl he was stalking.
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* The [[Tom Waits]] song ''Eyeball Kid'' is about a child who is born as just an eye and details his life as a successful circus freak.
* [[The Alan Parsons Project]]'s best known song, "Eye In The Sky" from the album of the same name, is a person telling his/her significant other (in a very creepy and vindictive fashion) that he/she knows the other's been cheating and is tired of pretending to be ignorant of it. The cover of the album... the Eye of Horus.
* The music video for [[Gotye]]'s ''Coming Back'' features a bunch of aliens with giant yellow eyes for faces.
== [[New Media]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In [[Warhammer
* In ''[[Paranoia]]'', [[
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' has Groth, a planet sized eyeball that floats through space.
* Everquest - One class of monsters ia a group of small eyeball ISLANDS! (their upper lids are covered with cracks and mountains). Another monster was a gelatinous, red-veined eyeball that attached itself to ceilings and used its wet tentrils to snatch unwary prey.
* In ''[[Dungeons
▲* A few ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' cards have eyes with no faces: "Relinquished" and "Thousand-Eyes Idol", which can be [[Fusion Dance|fused together]] into "Thousand-Eyes Restrict". These cards have zero Attack/Defense, but "Relinquished" and "Thousand-Eyes Restrict" can steal monsters from an opponent's side of the field and effectively use them as meat shields.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[MARDEK]]: Chapter 3'' has giant-floaty-eye monsters called I-Orbs and Black Eyes, as well as several sessile-eyestalk monsters with varying powers. Despite appearances, these should not be taken lightly.
{{quote|
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' has '''a ton''' of enemies like this, bosses and otherwise. Most bosses you have to [[For Massive Damage|hit in the eye to kill]], including [[Giant Spider|Gohma]], Wart, [[The Undead|Bongo-Bongo]], and Morpheel. [[Big Bad|Vaati]] of ''Four Swords'', oddly enough, didn't have his eye as his weakness.
** The trope is most vividly present in the ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' boss called Vitreous, which was a giant eyeball surrounded by a dozen or so smaller eyeballs.
** Indeed, ''A Link To The Past'' had no fewer than three bosses who were ''nothing but'' eye(s). Arrghus, Kholdstare, and the aforementioned Vitreous.
** The Master Sword has been known to wink on occasion, from the golden crystal where hilt and blade join.
* ''[[Castlevania: The Adventure]]'', and ''[[
** In the new [[Wii Ware]] game ''[[Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth]]'', this enemy makes a return appearance. A huge version of it is even the boss of the first stage.
** And the Buckbairds (probably a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[GeGeGe no Kitaro]]'' villain) were a staple enemy ever since the first ''[[Castlevania (1986 video game)|Castlevania]]'' game.
* The [[Killer Robot|Reaverbots]] of ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' are all monocular.
* ''[[Altered Beast]]'' has its [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHrCAl8oDuE level 2 boss].
* A level in ''[[Zeliard]]'' features enemies that are just giant eyeballs, capable of rushing at you at high speed.
*
* Rularuu Watchers in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. Giant eyeballs with ''teeth-edged eyelids''. The also tend to gaze around in sync when idle, indicating even more that they are all connected to the same mind. They attack with [[Eye Beams]] and a sort of [[Nightmare Fuel]] chomp attack. With really good accuracy, being, yanno, giant eyeballs.
* ''[[Show Within a Show|Plane vs Eye]]'' from ''[[The Sims|MySims]]''.
* The briefing image of the Overmind in ''[[
** In ''[[Expanded Universe|Liberty's Crusade]]'', Kerrigan and Liberty come across something matching this description in a Zerg hive, just outside the hatchery room. [[BFG|Canister rifle]] [[Kill It with Fire|is applied]] [[Nightmare Fuel|with haste.]]
* [[Punny Name|Mr. I]] from ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Super Mario 64]]''.
* Almost every single roguelike has them. Their usual power is paralysis and they are usually harmless when encountered alone. ''[[Nethack]]'' and ''Angband'' have floating eyes.
* [
* [[Dragon Quest|Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior]] includes several eyeball-themed monsters, in particular the Darkeye. And an eye monster in a boot called a [[Garth Marenghi's Darkplace|Skipper]].
* ''[[Grandia II]]'' has the Eye of Valmar. The manifestation of the Eye itself looks more like some sort of pineapple that opens to reveal some eyes and tendrils, but it employs floating eyes that have the power to put people into an endless sleep. It's also [[That One Boss]].
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* Many ''[[Pokémon]]'', including the Magnemite family and Unown. Duskull is strange, as it has one pupil, but wears a human-skull-mask over it. In the 3D Pokemon games, Duskull's eye [[Nightmare Fuel|switches from eyehole to eyehole whenever it wants to.]] Its body also appears hollow inside, implying that its "eye" is more like a lamp wavering back and forth inside, perhaps being its soul or something.
* The "Mind's Eye" creatures in ''[[Three in Three|3 in Three]]''.
* The "Orbs" from the obscure [[Sierra]] ''Manhunter'' [[Adventure Game
* The Mother Brain from ''[[Metroid]]'', especially in the ''Zero Mission'' remake and ''Super Metroid''.
* {{spoiler|Ameno-sagiri, the fake final boss}} in ''[[Persona 4]]''.
* The Evil Eye and Electro Swoosh enemies in ''[[
* The final boss of ''Pandemonium''.
* [[Soul Series|Soul Edge]] developed a
* The second stage of the original ''[[R-Type]]'' game has swarms of small enemies who look like eyeballs with ondulating tails.
* The Rhombulans in ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' are led by an eye in a polygon. It narrows when it gets pissed off.
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* One of the bosses in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]''.
* In [[Deus Ex]], one of the evil AI's, Icarus, is represented by a single eyeball connected to some kind of organic machinery.
* ''[[Wild
* The [[Tool]] gig in ''[[Guitar Hero|Guitar Hero: World Tour]]'' has one of these. Tool didn't want the usual background of a virtual performance to accompany their songs, and instead created an animated background for the gig that incorporates several artistic motifs from their past album art and music videos, of which eyes feature in fairly prominently. Also arguably counts as an [[Eldritch Abomination]].
* Speaking of ''Guitar Hero'', Neversoft's [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Neversoft_Logo.png corporate logo] has a faceless eye for their "O". Most of their [[Vanity Plate
* And speaking of [[Rhythm Game
* The [[Canis Latinicus|Eyeballus Jiggium]] plants in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]''.
* The Wise One of [[Golden Sun]] fame is a rock... with a bright green eye embedded in it.
{{quote|
* The Suezo monsters from [[Monster Rancher]] were essentially this. They got mostly psychic attacks, and eye beams.
* The Ahriman family of monsters from the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series.
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* Wizeman in [[Ni GHTS]], more or less. His eyes are in his hands, not his face.
* In ''[[Eversion]]'', normal enemies turn into faceless eyes in world X-4.
* [[
* [[.hack]]: Corbenik's [[One-Winged Angel|third and final form]] is a massive floating eye, with hundreds of similar eyes flying about in the background (which is weird, since Corbenik's first two forms were a seed and a leaf... how does that trend continue to eye?)
* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] III'' has two examples, both are giant eyes on tentacles, the [[Eye Beams|Beholder/Evil Eye creature]] and the Seer's Eye, which works as a typical videogame security camera.
** ''[[Might and Magic]] V'' has a monster called a "Beholder Bat" which is, in essence, a [[Bat Out of Hell|bat]] with one small eye and one huge eyeball attached under it. And it [[Eye Beams|shoots]] [[Frickin' Laser Beams|lasers]] that inflict [[Kill It with Fire|fire damage]]. Seriously.
* The Gran Centurio of ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' features a disembodied eye as its pommel jewel, which is unnerving if you notice it, but not brought up in the storyline of the main game. {{spoiler|The [[All There in the Manual|side materials]] inform us that yes, ''this is actually someone's eye,'' which he himself [[Eye Scream|tore out]] to use in the sword's forging.}}
* The [[
** Added for good reason; Legion's headflaps were specifically installed to help [[Pronoun Trouble|Legion]] emote to players and characters, since otherwise Legion could not easily convey body language and facial expressions. The flaps also help make Legion absolutely [[Adorkable]].
* ''[[Halo
* One of the player models in ''[[Quake III Arena]]'' - Orbb - is a giant eye with legs.
* The boss at the end of ''[[Metal Slug]] 3'''s second level are six floating giant aliens with humanoid bodies, but with single eyestalks where their heads should be.
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* Kineticlops from ''[[War of the Monsters]]'' is a vaguely humanoid [[Energy Being]] focused around one giant eye.
* The 2011 Halowe'en update in [[Team Fortress 2]] introduced MONOCULUS!, a giant floating eyeball which launches smaller eyeballs as rockets when it's pissed. It's backstory is that the spirit in the bombnomicon, an eldrich tome of explosives, haunted the Demoman's eye.
* The Mogall and Arch Mogall monster classes in ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia|Fire Emblem Gaiden]]'' and ''[[Fire Emblem:
* A stylized single eye is the emblem for the [[Haunted Castle]] Hang Castle Zone in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]''. It's placed on all of the castle's waving flags and appears to be the signature of its former owner.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* At one point [[Vexxarr]] encounters some evil plant [[A Is]] who look like bloodshot eyeballs with some leaves and tendrils added. He also has a [[Starfish Alien]] shipmate who is composed entirely of eyestalks, and his own face consists entirely of one huge eye, which is usually glaring/scowling.
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has [[Space Police|Officer Zodboink,]] a member of a race of [[Starfish Aliens]] with heads that look like giant eyeballs.
* Ebbirnoth from ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' The fact that Ebbirnoth (and Uniocs in general) have a faceless eye is actually a minor plot point during one of the Credomar arcs-someone "headshots" Ebby, blasting out his eyeball and seriously pissing him off. Schlock realizes the mistake that's been made, and encourages the lieutenant to play dead; the sniper was human, and didn't realize that Unioc brains are kept in a bone cage in their pelvis.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' fought a spherical monster entirely ''covered'' with eyes that shot [[Eye Beams]], and couldn't find a way to get close enough to hit it until Blossom finds a way to make it laugh, making it close its eyes upside-down, anime-style.
* The Tooth Fairy in ''[[The Fairly
* Dr. Zin's Robot Spy from ''[[Jonny Quest]]'', which inspired the Walking Eye on ''The Venture Brothers''.
* ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' had an invisible giant eye with tentacles as the [[Monster of the Week]]. Its vulnerability was demonstrated in a [[Humiliation Conga]] as in short order it got sand, hot sauce, blindingly focused sunlight, pointed sticks and other harmful items in its... self.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* The logo for CBS. Many viewers comparing notes on [[Main/Vanity/Plates/Nightmare Fuel|scary logos]] feel the CBS Eye is a [[Giant Eye of Doom]] -- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tGEhD9_UUE as shown here].
* Know that RX symbol you see on prescriptions? It represents the Eye of Horus from Egyptian mythology. Or the astrological symbol for Jupiter. Or, most likely, it's an abbreviation of the Latin imperative "recipe", meaning "take".
* Run for the hills! Its the animatronic eyeball monster!!! http://www.instructables.com/id/SKUB6JCF8JUW9KS/{{Dead link}}
* The [[wikipedia:Information Awareness Office#The IAO seal|original logo]] for the federal government's Information Awareness Office. They had to change it after people complained about a government project to mine civilian data [[Unfortunate Implications|being represented by an all-seeing eye]]
* The Adelaide Film Festival features people with giant eyes for heads.
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