Go for the Eye: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

No matter how thick the hide, hard the chitin, or magically impervious the body, the eyes are a natural weak spot for any creature that has them.

 

 

 

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

* Near the beginning of ''[[Ninja Scroll]]'', Jubei confronts Tessai, a bad guy with the ability to harden his body like stone. Jubei casually mentions that he can't be invulnerable ''everywhere'', right before throwing a needle into his eye.

* This is the only way that the title cyborg girls from ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' can be killed due to their extensive cybernetic enhancement.

** Well, until the enemies start investing on [[Stuff Blowing Up|high-grade explosives]] and [[BFG|high caliber weaponry]].

* In ''[[Yaiba]]'', Silver's body is rubber-like everywhere, but his eye do bleed and is his weak spot. His brother Gold, however, avert this by having a rubbery eye too.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', this was the way they killed Madcoil.

 

 

* The [[Trope Namer]] is Harry Hamlin of the original [[Clash of the Titans]], who instructs this of his mechanical owl Bubo.

* [[The Specials|Tell your brother the next time he wife-beats her, hit her in the eye. Her eyes are normal.]]

* This is how [[Kill Bill|The Bride]] defeated {{spoiler|Elle Driver, who had bad luck when it came to this trope.}}

** It's not just the Decepticon mooks that fall victim to this. [[Trope Namer|Star]][[The Starscream|scream]] is killed by having his eyes taken out and a grenade dropped inside his head through one of his now-empty eyesockets.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Ender's Game]]'': {{spoiler|How Ender finally gets past the Giant's Drink in the fantasy game.}}

** Homaged in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''. {{spoiler|The Giant now wears a steel-reinforced eyepatch.}}

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|A Horse and his Boy]]'', the Hermit (remotely watching a battle) observes that one of the Narnian Giants is down, "shot through the eye, I suppose."

* Similar to the Real Life spitting cobra example below, Pip of [[Allan Dean Foster]]'s Pip and Flinx novels prefers to aim at the eyes for her one-hit kill venom.

* Lampshaded and averted in ''[[Codex Alera]]'', where it's noted that if the Vord hulk's ''had'' eyes attacking them would be a good way to take them down.

* In ''[[The War of the Flowers]]'' the preferred goblin method of killing dragons is to shoot them in the eyes with poisoned arrows.

 

* The Nigerian masked zombie-demon in the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Dead Man's Party".

*** Right after telling his fighters to "go for the (...) eyes. Everything's got eyes." Ouch.

** As the Devil points out, that's because Zeke is also a damned soul himself.

** On more than one occasion, Daleks have been incapacitated by damaging or covering their single eyestalk: "My vision is impaired!! I can not see!!"

*** Notably avoided on one occasion. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kllVlPQ1cuI&feature=related\] "MY-VISION-IS-NOT-IMPAIRED!"

'''Ace''': [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|I aimed for the eyepiece.]] }}

* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' episode "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today," when Cameron is {{spoiler|confronting Cromartie}}, she aims shotgun slugs at his eyes, and manages to damage him enough to disable him.

 

* Despite being primarily a video game trope nowadays, this is actually [[Older Than Feudalism]]. How does Odysseus defeat the Cyclops Polyphemos? By shoving a burning stick in his eye.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** The final battle of ''Shadows of Amn'' features the memorable line "Boo will finish his eyeballs so he will not rise again!"

*** The devs even have some fun with this. The boss of the Temple of Time is Armogohma, a giant spider with an eye on its back, which also serves as a weak point and a weapon. {{spoiler|Hilariously, the eye is revealed to be ''a smaller spider that was controlling the bigger spider!'' Even [[Heroic Mime|Link]] has a stunned look on his face.}}

*** It's not just the Phantoms. Bellum himself has many, many eyes in octopus form which you must attack; when he {{spoiler|possesses Linebeck}} and becomes a superpowered version of the Phantoms, and, like the Phantoms, has an eye on his back (albeit a much bigger one).

*** Most of Bellum's monsters have the same eye as Bellum. For the big blue cyclops monster, you can't go near them at all unless you fire an arrow in its eye first, thus stunning it.

*** Said defense usually consists of eyes, however.

** The Misery Mire boss [[Punny Name|Vitreous]] from ''A Link to the Past'' is nothing but a giant eye, surrounded by innumerable smaller ones. What else are you going to hit?

** Rocktites and the Ocean Temple boss Phytops in Spirit Tracks

** Basically, if it's got a big eye, you're probably supposed to shoot at it.

* Phantoon from ''Super [[Metroid]]'' can only be damaged when his eye is open as well.

** The second type of boss in ''[[Metroid Prime]]: Hunters'', which are almost nothing ''but'' huge, floating eyes.

** In ''Fusion'', some doors are blocked by giant eyes. Absorbing their Core-X restores a large heap of energy, so they are actually there to help the player [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity|(the next room usually contains a boss)]]. These doors are similar to ones found before bosses in ''Super Metroid'', and in both cases the doors are capable of shooting [[Eye Beams]].

*** ''Metroid Zero Mission'' has Mother Brain sporting both [[Eye Beams]] and the eye weakness.

* The end boss Gene Worm from the ''[[Half-Life]]'' expansion ''Opposing Force'' had this. The boss itself is invulnerable but hitting the eyes makes the boss' belly open and briefly reveal the only vulnerable area, accompanied by the boss teleporting in a [[Mook]] to keep the attacker occupied while regenerating its eyes. While blind, the boss is unable to attack but blindly thrashes around.

** The earlier Pit Worm [[Puzzle Boss]] had this trope as well; while not actually inflicting any damage, shooting it in the eye causes the worm to shriek in pain and protectively cover the eye for a moment, making it unable to use its [[Eye Beam]] for a short while.

* The Brain boss in the first stage of ''[[Gradius|Life Force]]''.

** Lord Woo Fak Fak in ''Banjo Tooie'', once he's opened his eyes (apparently his eyelids are grenade-proof).

** Additionally, the Bacoon from ''Star Fox 64'' is a giant one-eyed clam, prompting Peppy to call out this trope verbatim.

*** The person that made this page before the wipe can confirm that this is the [[Trope Namer]], actually.

**** Not surprising. Peppy's advice had a tendency to be [[Memetic Mutation|memorable]].

** It's ''also'' played straight with the boss of [[Shifting Sand Land]], two giant stone hands with eyes in the palms. Whacking 'em in the eye causes damage, but only when the eye is open.

** In ''[[Fallout]]'', Harold mentions that a Deathclaw's eyes might be its weakness. It's true. Using this knowledge you can actually go kill one at a low level. However, since it's still so tough you need to hit it dozens of times even so, this leads to perhaps the most ridiculous [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]] ever.

*** Deathclaws have incredibly sharp senses of smell and hearing, but rather weak eyesight. So blinding them is only a minor annoyance, but it's still the softest part of their surface and has a possibility of piercing to the brain. Damaging them anywhere else generally requires anti-tank weaponry.

* The final boss from ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' is an extremely odd creature with eyes on its articulated limbs. While you do have to shoot it to keep the fight moving, you kill it with the staple Resident Evil anti-boss weapon: a rocket launcher.

** Not to mention the fact that if you do shoot the eyes on the limbs, it gives you the opportunity to shove your ubiquitous knife into its main eye. ''Repeatedly.''

** The [[Nightmare Fuel|G-Mutant]] from ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles|Darkside Chronicles]]'' gets ''even more eyes every time it mutates''.

* The miniboss Eyeclops in ''[[Carn Evil]]'' has seven eyes which must be shot out before you can get past him.

* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]] [[Sonic Storybook Series|and the Secret Rings]]'', one of the bosses is an enormous, purple scorpion with four eyes (two on its tails, one on its back, and another [[Squick|in its mouth]]). Of course, Sonic must use the Homing Attack on the scorpion's eyes to defeat it.

** Previously, there were the Black Bull and Devil Doom in ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', with the unskippable obvious hint "The eye is its weak spot" in both fights. Thanks, Einstein.

* The final boss in ''[[Legacy of Kain|Legacy of Kain Defiance]]''. {{spoiler|Not surprising as he seems to be composed entirely of eyes and tentacles - you attack both, but only the eye counts for the [[Life Bar]].}}

* The [[Giant Enemy Crab|King Crabber]] boss in ''[[Summon Night|Summon Night Swordcraft Story]]'', whose only weak points are its eye stalks.

* The stage 6 boss of the GBA game ''[[Gradius|Gradius Galaxies/Generation]]'' is simply a giant eyeball. Naturally, the off-screen announcer that usually tells you to "Destroy the core!" when a boss shows up will instead tell you to "Shoot it in the eye!"

* The first boss in ''[[Light Crusader]]'' consists of a meteor with a ton of craters and an eye that pops up in random craters. Aiming for the eye is the tactic to defeat him.

* ''[[Devil May Cry|Devil May Cry 3]]'' has the boss Beowulf. While it's not compulsory to hit him in the eye to damage him, and he does have a [[Light Is Not Good|light-blast]] to- try and deter your doing so, striking him in the eye does more damage and causes him to flail about for a bit, allowing one to get a bit more distance from him. More importantly however, striking him in the eye for the hit that causes his [[Turns Red]] response will cause him to fall to the ground briefly, allowing for some more hits to be delivered against him. You will need those hits.

* The final boss in ''[[Mass Effect|Mass Effect 2]]'' has to be shot in one of three misshapen eyes. Or in the mouth. The stomach weak point isn't as easy, as it only rarely appears and is really hard to hit.

** Also, the Oculus at the beginning of the final mission is essentially a giant floating eyeball that shoots laser beams.

* In ''[[Pac-Man World]]'', King Galaxian has four eyes. You defeat it by destroying its eyes, but it becomes faster, uses more shots, and summons more difficult enemies after each eye is destroyed.

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', one of the final bosses of the old world was the EYE of Eldrich Abombination Cthun. Merely defeating Cthun's eye was for a long time considered more difficult and hardcore than any of the raids that followed it.

* ''[[Ghostbusters 2009]]'' does this at least twice. The first time is with the Collector (and it's a VERY SMALL eye), and the second is the Juvenile Slor. The JS is a ''double'' example, as you must slime the single eyeball on its head ''and'' contend with the four orbiting "eyes" which threaten you and the others. Naturally there are about a hundred eye-puns throughout.

** The Sega Genesis game does this a few times, too. There's a One-Hundred-Eye Centipede, which is nothing but eyes, and a floating egg with an eye/mouth (!) that can shoot lasers.

* This is how you have to defeat the [[Giant Eye of Doom|Eyebot]] in ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'', by attacking the eye when it is open.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Done against the Mind Wedgier in [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/030601 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip.

** But subverted in that it didn't actually work. Which is all right, because that was necessary to set up Riff's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

** [[Averted Trope|Averted]] and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/091207 this] one. And then played straight immediately after.

* [http://faultylogic.comicgenesis.com/d/20070409.html Referenced] in ''[[Faulty Logic]]''. When asked for advice on a ''Zelda'' boss, Jalyss recommends shooting it in the eye without bothering to look. She then provides a surprisingly reasonable-sounding explanation of why (apart from [[Eye Scream|the obvious]]) Zelda bosses work that way.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** It also doubles in usefulness as it's intimidating as hell.

* In medieval plate armor the eye slit of the helmet was a very vulnerable spot. If it was too small the fighter would be almost blind. If it was too big, an arrow or crossbow bolt could pass through it and kill the fighter. During a battle a knight might lift his visor to get a better look at what was happening around him only to get shot right in the eye.

** Remains symbolically true of armored vehicles: any sort of viewing slit provides a gap in the armor, whereas a camera or other remote system is itself vulnerable to being shot off.

* Several surfers and swimmers attacked by sharks have managed to get away after landing a lucky punch in their eye.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty]]

[[Category:Eye Tropes]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]

[[Category:For Massive Damage]]