Faceless Eye: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

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 the Eye]]".

 

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.

 

== [[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. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090201175057/http://utalkmarketing.com/Pages/CreativeShowcase.aspx?ArticleID=12944&Filter=0&Keywords=&Order=LATEST&Page=1&Title=Vision_Express_'Eyeballs'_ Here.] Is probably meant to be goofy rather than creepy.

 

* "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]]).

* 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.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Lord of the Rings]] and the Eye of Sauron.

 

* 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.

* 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 & Dragons]]'' the lich-slash-god Vecna could transform an especially devoted cultist into one of two emissaries named for the two powerful artifacts named for him, this one being The Eye of Vecna—a humanoid figure with a gigantic eyeball where a human head used to be possessed of telepathic awareness that allows him to finish the sentence of others as the least of what he can do.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The [[A.I. 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]].

* 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.