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{{quote|''Got no human grace, your eyes without a face.''|'''[[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, [[Faceless Eye]] as an insignia-- bonus points if said villain runs a dystopian society of unending surveillance. Even without an ominous [[Big Bad]] attached, the prospect of a thousand eyeballs shooting you to death with [[Eye Beams]] is fundamentally more unsettling than a thousand [[Mooks]] with [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]. Fighting them usually leads to "[[Go for Thethe Eye]]".
 
A cyclops character is more relatable than this kind of being, since cyclopes have a recognizable facial structure, with at least a mouth. These examples are far beyond the edges of the [[Uncanny Valley|Uncanny Continent]]. It is also interesting to note that the representations of many [[AI Is a Crapshoot|insane AIs]] use this trope - most likely to underscore their creepiness.
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== [[Anime]] ==
* "The Eye" is an insignia for the Priesthood in the ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of Thethe 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]]).
* ''[[Ge Ge GeGeGeGe no Kitaro]]'' has Kitaro's father Medama-Oyaji the eyeball (semantic translation, ''"Old Man Eyeball"'') [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 ''[[Mai-HiME (Anime)|Mai-HiME]]'s'' {{spoiler|Obsidian Lord}} is a giant eyeball centered within a pair of sword-like pillars.
* 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 (Anime)|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.
 
== [[Card Games]] ==
* 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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* The movie [[Small Soldiers]] featured Ocula, a creature with a single giant eye, a neck/eyestalk, and three legs.
* The eyes in the darkness at the beginning of [[Suspiria]].
* As mentioned in the description above, possibly the most iconic use of this trope for an insane AI is HAL-9000 from ''[[Two2001: ThousandA andSpace OneOdyssey]]''.
* ''[[The PresidentsPresident'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]] ==
* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'''s odious [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Count]] Olaf has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle, and eyes are a recurring motif throughout the books.
* ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' has Crayak, a red-eye being first glimpsed in the dying visions of a [[Puppeteer Parasite|Yeerk]] in Book Six.
* ''[[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}}.
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* 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.
* The Graii from [[Classical Mythology]] were a trio of hags who lived "north of the North Pole" with only one eye amongst them, which they who would trade around when they wanted to see something. Perseus gets ahold of it and ''[[Eye Scream|squeezes it in his hand]]'' until the hags give him information he needs to continue his [[The Quest|quest]].
* The Haunter in the Dark (one of Nyarlathotep's many avatar's) from a [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] story of the same name does have a body (some kinds of winged, tentacled [[Living Shadow]] / [[Eldritch Abomination]] type thing), but it's distinguishing feature is a huge three-lobed burning eye.
* The god Blind Io in [[Discworld]] has no eyes on his face, but a whole host of flying eyes (complete with wings and trailing optic nerve...) which can see anywhere in the world.
** There is also a passing reference to a painting whose eyes "followed you not only around the room, but also out of the gallery and all the way down the street".
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** 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 E01 The Eleventh Hour|The Eleventh Hour]]" are in fact nothing but giant floating space eyeballs, held aloft by a vaguely snowflake-shaped ring.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Beljoxa's Eye. What happened to the rest of Beljoxa?
* ''[[Angel (TV)|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.
* ''[[Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (TV)|Garth Marenghi's Darkplace]]'' episode Skipper the Eyechild features the titular monster baby who is mostly eye. Skipper's eyeball father also appears.
 
== [[Music]] ==
* Experimental Rock group [[The Residents]] usually hide their faces with large eyeball masks. The only member that doesn't wear one of these wears a large black skull mask, due to the original mask being stolen and vandalized during a tour.
* 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 (Music)|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.
 
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* ''[[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| ''It can see right into the very core of your soul. It judges you, and looks for your fears and weaknesses. It doesn't really do anything with any of this knowledge though.''}}
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|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: aA Link Toto T Hethe Past (Video Game)|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: theThe Adventure]]'', and ''[[Castlevania II Belmonts Revenge (Video Game)|Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge]]'' had rolling eyeball enemies that were [[Made of Explodium|explosive]].
** In the new [[Wii Ware]] game ''[[Castlevania: theThe Adventure Re BirthReBirth]]'', 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 ''[[Ge Ge GeGeGeGe no Kitaro]]'' villain) were a staple enemy ever since the first ''[[Castlevania 1986 (Video Game)|Castlevania 1986]]'' game.
* The [[Killer Robot|Reaverbots]] of ''[[MegamanMega Man Legends]]'' are all monocular.
* ''[[Altered Beast]]'' has its [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHrCAl8oDuE level 2 boss].
* A level in ''[[Zeliard (Video Game)|Zeliard]]'' features enemies that are just giant eyeballs, capable of rushing at you at high speed.
* Waddle Doo, an early enemy in the ''[[Kirby]]'' games, as well as Dark Matter, 02, and [[Anticlimax Boss|Dark (Nebula/Zero)]].
** The Kirby series loves this trope more than that. Most of the time as [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Most of the final bosses are an eye or multiple eyes without a face. Other common enemies are this trope, but hardly scary.
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* ''[[Show Within a Show|Plane vs Eye]]'' from ''[[The Sims|MySims]]''.
* The briefing image of the Overmind in ''[[Starcraft]]'' is a creepy tendril-covered eye floating in red goop. It's a remarkably expressive eye, swivelling around and shaking about in tune with the Overmind's "speech"
** 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 Withwith 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.
* [http://www.bogleech.com/snes-demonscrest.html Demon's Crest] on the SNES features the hidden boss Ovnunu, a collective of eyeballs suspended in green jelly.
* [[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 (TV)|Skipper]].
* ''[[Grandia II (Video Game)|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]].
* The ''Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro'' Famicom game has a Backbeard as a boss, which was also in the manga.
* The [[Eldritch Abomination|Old God]] C'Tun from ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is a bossfight with two stages. The first stage is against the Eye of C'Tun, which is (surprise, surprise!) a humongous eyeball that can fire an [[Eye Beam]] which kills players in one hit. After defeating the eye, his body rises from the ground for the stage two of the fight. Also in ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'', the warlock/ogre mage spell Eye of Kilrogg summons a floating green eye that serves as an extension of the caster's sight.
* 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]]''.
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* The final boss of ''Pandemonium''.
* [[Soul Series|Soul Edge]] developed a [[Faceless Eye]] when the series changed names to ''Soul Calibur'', and retains it in all its "awakened" forms.
* 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.
* Ichimokuren in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'' (and possibly other ''[[Shin Megami Tensei (Franchise)|Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games).
* One of the bosses in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]''.
* In [[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]], one of the evil AI's, Icarus, is represented by a single eyeball connected to some kind of organic machinery.
* ''[[Wild Arms 3 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 3]]'' loves this, having three bosses that fit this bill, Mono-eye Titan, Hecto-eye Titan, and Heimdall. The first two are faced consecutively without a chance to save in between, and the third is a powerful [[Bonus Boss]].
* 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|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|Vanity Plates]] for their ''Tony Hawk'' games play with this; not so much for their ''Guitar Hero'' plates.
* And speaking of [[Rhythm Game|Rhythm Games]], one of the ''[[Rock Band]]'' venues has a gigantic image of an eyeball (which appears to look in different directions during the performance) at the back of the stage. Surrounded by rings of teeth with tentacles coming out of the back of the stage.
* The [[Canis Latinicus|Eyeballus Jiggium]] plants in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]''.
* The Wise One of [[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]] fame is a rock... with a bright green eye embedded in it.
{{quote| '''Garet:''' Yeah, I know it's a rock, stupid!}}
* The Suezo monsters from [[Monster Rancher]] were essentially this. They got mostly psychic attacks, and eye beams.
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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.
* [[G La DOS]]' spheres in [[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]
* [[.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 Withwith 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 [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Geth]], [[Mecha -Mooks]] who form the forces of the [[Big Bad]] in the first [[Mass Effect]], have long, heads terminating in glowing "eyes" and nothing else except armour, with [[Action Girl|one character]] commenting that they have "flashlight heads". They're portrayed in a less overtly hostile light in the sequel... conveniently coinciding with a Geth "character" gaining something closer to a face. Odd.
** 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|343 Guilty Spark]] is a [[Cyber Cyclops|robotic version]].
* One of the player models in ''[[Quake III Arena (Video Game)|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.
* In ''[[Parodius]]'' for the MSX, the boss of Stage 5 is a female version of Medama-Oyaji.
* One of the bosses in ''[[Terraria]]'' is the Eye of Chthulu, which is a gigantic eye. [[Eye Scream|Which then grows a mouth.]]
* ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'' has the Combine's City Scanners, which are [[Cyber Cyclops|robotic Faceless Eyes]] that fly. Their sole purpose is to act as a surveillance system for the Combine.
* 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 (Video Game)|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 the Sacred Stones (Video Game)|Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones]]''.
* 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.
 
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* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' at one point has a passing reference to [[Evil Sorcerer|Black Mage]] invoking "my new [[Eldritch Abomination|god]], [[Punctuation Shaker|Mst'r Ieb'al]]". Guess what he looked like.
* ''[[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 (Webcomic)|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.
* Odineye from ''[[Brat Halla]]'' is one of Odin's eyes that he sacrificed to the Well of Wisdom; it escaped and is plotting revenge for its treatment. It doesn't have a lid, but for some reason it does have a brow.
 
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* The Tooth Fairy in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' conjures a giant eye with tentacles, to illustrate she should stick only to teeth.
* Dr. Zin's Robot Spy from ''[[Jonny Quest]]'', which inspired the Walking Eye on ''The Venture Brothers''.
* ''[[My Life As a Teenage Robot (Animation)|My Life Asas 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.
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Koh the Face-Stealer]] ''loves'' doing this.
* On ''[[Regular Show]]'', Benson orders a surveilance system to keep tabs on Mordecai and Rigby. When it fails, he orders the company's ultimate system: a giant floating eyeball named Peeps.
 
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