White Mask of Doom: Difference between revisions

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Bonus points if the rest of the character is dark to accentuate the mask. Being white it'll show [[White Shirt of Death|bloodstains]] starkly.
 
Anime and Manga have [[wikipedia:Noh|noh masks]] to draw inspiration from. Western tradition has [http://costumes.lovetoknow.com/Greek_Drama_Masks Greek drama masks], the birdlike masks worn by medieval plague doctors (see the [[Real Life]] section), [[Monster Clown|scary clowns]], and the Ku Klux Klan. Mexicans have the masks of DiaDía de los Muertos.
 
This trope is fairly widespread in [[Anime]] and [[Manga]]. Compare [[Cool Mask]]. Sometimes doubles as a [[Mask of Power]]. Subtrope of [[Malevolent Masked Men]].
 
{{See also|The Blank}}
 
{{examples}}
== Anime &and Manga ==
 
== Anime & Manga ==
 
* [[The Heartless|Hollows]] in ''[[Bleach]]''.
* ''[[Ergo Proxy]]'' - The Proxy of Death, [[Character Title|Ergo Proxy]] himself.
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* The villain Gargoyle in ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]'' wears a white mask all throughout the series, making an already terrifying character even creepier. We never see his face until the end of the series.
 
== ComicsComic Books ==
* ''[[Night School]]'' - All [[Bond Creatures|astrals]] are basically living shadows with white masks.
 
* ''Night School'' - All [[Bond Creatures|astrals]] are basically living shadows with white masks.
* ''[[Fantomas]]'' - at least the Mexican version.
* Wild Dog, a vigilante in ''[[The DCU]]'', conceals his identity beneath a white hockey mask.
* V of ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' wears a Guy Fawkes mask.
* Elite, a [[Vigilante Man]] inspired by [[The Punisher]]. A rich man who wears a white suit and mask and kills the "undesirables" in his neighborhood. Frank is not flattered.
* Father Wrath from ''[[Hack Slash]]''.
 
== Film ==
 
* The mask worn by Ghostface in the ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' series.
* The serial killer in the horror parody ''[[Scary Movie]]''.
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* "Killer" from ''Midnight Movie''.
* Babyface from ''The Hills Run Red''.
* The Stan Laurel mask that Evil dons near the end of ''[[New YearsYear's Evil]]''.
* The Phantom from ''The Town That Dreaded Sundown''.
* In ''[[Brazil (film)|Brazil]]'', Jack Lint puts on a creepy baby mask when subjecting Sam to Information Retrieval. He gets shot in the head by [[La Résistance]].
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== Literature ==
 
* The Stranger in Pallid Mask mentioned in Robert E. Chambers' ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' short stories, and in Thom Ryng's [[Defictionalization]] of the titular play appears to be wearing something like this. The key word is [[The Faceless|appears.]]
{{quote|'''The Stranger:''' I wear no mask.}}
* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'', the protagonist Orual spends most of her life wearing a white veil, which is portrayed in the illustrations as a white mask, completely featureless save for two eyeholes. While she's not evil per se, her subjects are definitely put off by it, and rumors spread about what she's hiding under her veil.
* In the [[Discworld]] book ''Masquerade'', the Opera Ghost wears a white mask which the narration consistently describes as "like the skull of an angel".
 
== Live -Action TV ==
 
== Live Action TV ==
 
* The Carver from '''[[Nip Tuck]]''
* ''[[Ghost Adventures]]'' had the team visit Poveglia Island and don the plague masks mentioned below.
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* The nightmarish [[Vanity Plate]] for the Russian TV company [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT22uXUI-vg VID].
* The Greendale Human Being in ''[[Community]]''. In an misguided attempt to be overly political correct, the school mascot was designed to avoid all ethnical traits whatsoever: [[Uncanny Valley]] ensues.
 
 
== Newspaper Comics ==
 
* [[Funky Winkerbean]] [http://joshreads.com/?p=1275 presents] [[Fan Nickname|Masky McDeath]].
 
== Tabletop Games ==
 
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''
** Space Marine Chaplains wear a white skull helmet.
** Death Jester Eldar Aspect Warriors wear skull-masked armour. The twist is, the bones on their armour come from its previous owners.
** The assassins of the Eversor temple wear a similar white skull helmet. Where as the other temples of Officio Assassinorum rely on stealth, [[Cold Sniper|accuracy]], [[The Infiltration|misdirection]], [[The Soulless|and soul crushing power]], Eversor Assassins will crash through a wall and kill everyone in the building.
*** An Eversor's mask looks like a giant skull. It pumps a stupendous amount of combat drugs directly into the brain; the wearer becomes a screaming ball of death and terror. The assassin will kill until he is killed or there is no one left. At which point he explodes.
 
An Eversor's mask looks like a giant skull. It pumps a stupendous amount of combat drugs directly into the brain; the wearer becomes a screaming ball of death and terror. The assassin will kill until he is killed or there is no one left. At which point he explodes.
* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'':
** Creatures from the brood of the Eldrazi titan [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=261321 Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre] share their progenitor's faceless white skull.
** Among the [[Machine Worship|Machine Orthodoxy]] of ''New Phyrexia'', skin is reviled as evil, so creatures have it [[Body Horror|flayed off and replaced]] by a [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218058 porcelain-colored metal]. All the white aligned creatures, from [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=217981 Suture Priests] to [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218043 Porcelain Legionnaires] to [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214352 Elesh Norn, the Grand Cenobite] herself have shades of this trope as a result.
* In the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' universe, the [[Bedlam House|mental institution]] of the Dr Heinfroth has both the inmates and the [[Our Vampires Are Different|wardens]] wear grey monklike robes and white featureless masks.
 
 
== Theatre ==
 
* The Phantom of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' though unusually the Phantom's mask covers less than half of his face. Even though the iconic white half-mask is famous from a thousand theatre posters, in the original novel his mask was ''black''.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* [http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/shyguy.jpg Shy Guys] in ''[[Mario]]'' are a cute example.
* Darth Nihilus in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|Knights Of The Old Republic II]]''. In fact, it is of ''such'' doom that {{spoiler|he has [[Soul Jar|concealed his essence in it]], and it canonically survives centuries after you destroy him.}}
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* Curiously for a game that is all about masks, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' only features one. The Couple's Mask also subverts the usual creepiness by being a symbol of marriage and loving union; the lines it has in lieu of a face are a simplified image of an embracing couple.
 
== Web OriginalComics ==
 
== Webcomics ==
 
* The Adversary from ''[[Blip]]''.
* ''[[One Question]]'' has the appropriately named Mask who wears one of these, with a [[Slasher Smile]].
* ''[[Moképon]]'' has [https://web.archive.org/web/20130715023420/http://mokepon.smackjeeves.com/comics/1001692/chapter-3-page-24/ the guy on the giant Feraligatr]. Though his mask is only half white, and he's not the only one wearing it. Oh and it has no eyes. The author has said in an [[Alt Text]] that she has no clue how he sees.
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' has Geisha, whose mask supposedly [[Power Limiter|keeps him from petrifying the rest of the cast]].
* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'': Shambles has a mask with no mouth and some kind of zipper or seam running down the center.
 
== Web Original ==
* [http://twitpic.com/32u8yg The masked man] {{spoiler|(Tim, maybe totheark)}} from ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' wears a rather unsettling white mask. Entry 26 show someone wearing a skull mask. Yup. [[Oh Crap|There is more than one]].
* The [http://seedeater.blogspot.com Seadeater]/Stitchface. [[Not a Mask|Assuming]] it is a mask.
 
== Western Animation ==
 
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''
** Many Fire Nation war helmets have removable white face coverings that look like skulls.
** Koh, whose most memorable face is a female Noh mask.<ref>He actually has a lot of Noh-style masks, and this may have inspired his name.</ref>
* ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'': [[Big Bad|Amon]], who wears a white mask with a red circle on the forehead.
* Hexadecimal of ''[[Re BootReBoot]]'' has a whole bunch that she can switch freely between at a moment's notice.
* ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' references plague doctor's white masks (see below) when Sealab is hit with a plague.
* ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' has Dr. Facilier wear a Baron Samedi half-mask, but only during the climactic moments of his [[Villain Song]].<ref>He's also seen wearing a grinning jester mask while incognito at the Labouff's masquerade ball.</ref>
* ''[[Mark Twain|The Adventures of Mark Twain]]'' - In the ever-popular [[Nightmare Fuel]] "Mysterious Stranger" clip, Satan's face ''is'' a Greek drama mask that morphs into various faces, including an exceptionally disturbing skull.
 
== Web Original ==
 
* [http://twitpic.com/32u8yg The masked man] {{spoiler|(Tim, maybe totheark)}} from ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' wears a rather unsettling white mask. Entry 26 show someone wearing a skull mask. Yup. [[Oh Crap|There is more than one]].
* The [http://seedeater.blogspot.com Seadeater]/Stitchface. [[Not a Mask|Assuming]] it is a mask.
 
== Real Life ==
* Plague doctors during the Black Death wore white bird masks to prevent from getting the plague. These masks also had the effect of being ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131111214957/http://arts.atenveldt.com/Portals/arts/2005/plague%20mask.jpg frickin terrifying]'', despite being a dead ringer for the Black Spy from ''[[Spy vs. Spy]]''. For some plague victims, that would be one of the last sights they'd ever see. Being scary was intentional—the doctors had to be fearsome and barely-trusted, half mythical figures, or else they'd get mobbed by the sick every time they went out. They also went armed with clubs. The "beak" was stuffed with sweet -smelling herbs to mask the sickening smell of dying plague victims.
 
* Plague doctors during the Black Death wore white bird masks to prevent from getting the plague. These masks also had the effect of being ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131111214957/http://arts.atenveldt.com/Portals/arts/2005/plague%20mask.jpg frickin terrifying]'', despite being a dead ringer for the Black Spy from ''[[Spy vs. Spy]]''. For some plague victims, that would be one of the last sights they'd ever see. Being scary was intentional—the doctors had to be fearsome and barely-trusted, half mythical figures, or else they'd get mobbed by the sick every time they went out. They also went armed with clubs. The "beak" was stuffed with sweet smelling herbs to mask the sickening smell of dying plague victims.
** Strangely enough, the mask and the rest of the plague doctor outfit actually functioned as a fairly effective, though crude, biohazard suit. Since the mask covered the mucous membranes—eyes, mouth and nose—and doctors covered their bodies entirely with long, waxed robes, they were generally protected from plague spread by fleas or the victim's bodily fluids.
* Guitarist Brian "[[Buckethead]]" Carroll.
* Hip-hop dance crew the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmbh7pqYFDw&feature=fvw Jabberwokeez (with bonus Shaq!)]; spelt doom for their competition.
* [[wikipedia:Phantom Killer|The Phantom Killer]], the still unidentified perpetrator of the [[wikipedia:Texarkana Moonlight Murders|Texarkana Moonlight Murders]], wore a crude, creepy white mask during at least a few of his attacks.
* The Ku Klux Klan stereotypically wore White Hoods of Doom - not so much any more, because that identifies them as being part of the Ku Klux Klan.
* The Ku Klux Klan.
* The Guy Fawkes masks worn by Anonymous members and some Occupy Wall Street protesters.
 
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[[Category:Costume Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:White Mask of Doom{{PAGENAME}}]]