No Mouth: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

A character whose mouth is not depicted because they lack one or it is otherwise obscured. When used in same vein as obscured eyes, it can create an expressionless and enigmatic character. This can be compensated by fleshing out other aspects of the character, such as giving the character unique vocal inflections (i.e., a really good voice actor) or subtle physical animations other characters would not get. Sometimes this is done for artistic reasons to call attention to something in the background that would otherwise not pull attention.

If the character doesn't have ''any'' facial features, they're [[The Blank]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Noir]]'' usually obscures characters with whatever firearms they were using.

** [[Stealth Pun|Perhaps because they let their guns do the talking]]. [[Lazy Artist|Or they were cheap]].

* Satotsu, a minor character in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', has no mouth, even in the manga. He ''does,'' however, have a ''very'' nice moustache.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' Major Alex Louis Armstrong's mustache is so big that it covers his mouth.

* [[Digimon Tamers|Renamon's]] mouth was rarely visible, due to the angle of her head

** And in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', Wizardmon's face is always covered except for about a second in a flash back and the film ''X-Evolution''.

* [[Suzumiya Haruhi|Nagato Yuki]] has a very small mouth. It's often invisible except when she's talking (which is [[The Quiet One|very rare indeed]]). Makes it easier to show how she's an [[Emotionless Girl|emotionally-repressed]] [[Artificial Human]].

* [[Ranma Half]]'s Ryoga while in his cursed P-Chan form (a little black pig) his mouth isn't visible, except when he bites, eats, yawns, and sometimes when he screams.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[DC Comics]]' The Question deliberately invokes this, going so far as to wear a mask so that he doesn't even have a ''face''.

* The mutant Jonothon Starsmore/Chamber communicates telepathically and has the lower part of his face covered because his mutant power, on manifestation, obliterated his body from below the nose to about the ribcage.

 

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy_8nnOmMHw: A short film on YouTube.]

** [[Fridge Logic|How'd she eat/drink enough to survive?]]

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Technically they have four mouths; they eat by absorbing sustenance through their hooves as they walk around (it's never clear whether their legs are hollow and they have an actual orifice there, or if they just sort of osmose nutrients out of whatever they're walking in). So you could say they're anti-this trope.

* Nom in the Second ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' has no mouth.

* Salamanders on the [[Discworld]], which are small amphibians which don't actually need mouths because they feed on the octarine wavelengths in light; the other wavelengths are akin to poop and are stored away so as to blind attackers and make a getaway. In The Truth, Otto Chriek also experiments with some cave eels which feed on and excrete the light you get when you go out the other side of dark.

* Lampshaded in The [[Horrible Histories]] book ''Woeful [[WW 2]]''. In one caricature, a crowd stands listening to Stalin making an epic speech. Then one of the listeners comments on how he lies every time he opens his mouth. Another one asks back, "[[Badass Moustache|How do you know?]]"

 

 

* [[Lio]], of the newspaper comic of the same name. It does appear, but only when it's open. Fitting, as the strip is pantomime.

* Most animals in ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' appear without mouths, except when they're yelling or screaming.

* [[Agnes]] and her aunt. Other characters' mouths are just barely visible.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Arguably for the better, as [[Filming for Easy Dub|it gave Auron's voice actor free range to do what he wanted]] and not be [[Lip Lock|limited by lip-synching]].

* ''[[Medabots]]'' didn't have mouths for the titular machines either.

* The Protoss of ''[[Starcraft]]'' have no mouth, speaking by telepathy instead. It makes it somewhat weird as their back story mentions that they evolved from a hunter-gatherer culture who was already telepathic - meaning they lost the mouth pretty damn fast, probably due to Xel'Naga intervention.

** The prequel novels say that they eat sunlight and water vapor through their skin, and were only hunter-gatherers for building materials and defense.

** Everyone else's mouths seem to disappear [[Sudden Anatomy|until they actually need them]].

* While several of the more humanoid characters in [[Yume Nikki]] lack mouths due to the simple sprite style, there is some debate as to whether or not [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Seccom Masada]] is actually supposed to have a mouth. Some of the fanart which depicts the human characters (such as Madotsuki or Poniko) more realistically still portrays Masada as having no mouth [[The Noseless|or nose]].

** Lumas also lack mouths as well, with the only exceptions being the Hungry Luma, Lumalee Lumabop, and Lubba.

* There are several [[Pokémon]] that lack a mouth or seem to lack one: Hitmonlee, Dratini, Dragonair, Beldum, Unown, Sigilyph, and Deoxys (who lacks facial features in general except for eyes).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Except when he's angry, or trying to be threatening.

* A lot of the characters from ''[[One Over Zero|1/0]]'' do not have mouths, such as Manny/Ghanny, Max, Marcus. They comment on this ([[No Fourth Wall|as is their nature to]])

* Several of the characters in ''[[General Protection Fault]]'', including protagonist Nick. When Dwayne buys everyone pupils (another feature some of them lack) for an April Fools strip, Nick points out that he has them underneath his glasses, and requests a mouth instead.

* None of the main characters in ''[[Rice Boy]]'' have mouths, although they can eat, drink, talk, and smoke cigarettes as if they did. This makes it slightly disturbing when [[Fisher King|the Tree Keeper]] has full, red lips and the [[Neglectful Precursors|White Formless]] have tiny human faces.

* For nearly twelve years, readers of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' only saw [[Talking Animal|Bun-Bun's]] a [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/19971229 couple of] [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/000206 times] and to no major effect. Then a certain [[Wham! Episode]] came along....

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', a recurring trait of the kids' guardians is that they only have one facial feature, and it's never the same - Dad has a nose, Mom has a mouth, Bro has eyes (under the shades) and Bec has a snout. Dad also sports a traditional pipe hovering where a mouth would be. (It is hypothesised that they have normal appearances but their kids envision them like this.)

** The number of times WV's mouth has been seen can be counted on one hand. Likewise, the rest of the Exiles.

** Her androids, Dyonus and Dyona, do not have mouths at all. Mostly because the speech comes from speakers built into their heads and because they do not consume.

** Other of her species (Ambis) were drawn without mouths, except for her brother Romulos, but when she got a mouth, so did everyone else.

* Thanatos of [[Bigger Than Cheeses]] apparently used to have a mouth, but lost it in a tragic milkshake accident, or something like that. As far as speaking, breathing, and not dying of starvation go, it doesn't seem to have slowed him down.

 

* Gromit from ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'' is the mouthless and [[The Voiceless|voiceless]] hero.

** Gromit was originally designed with a mouth, but the first scene in which he was animated just showed him reacting mouthlessly to a situation and the animators realized he worked better that way.

** Spoofed in, of all places, Takara's Masterpiece Convoy (aka 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime) while the face plate isn't meant to be removed (and doing so may damage the toy) removing it will reveal [http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=2070&mode=flat WHY Optimus keeps his mouth covered].

*** In the Henkei! Henkei! comics, Optimus loses his mouthplate and he turns out to be rather [[Bishonen]]-ish.