History Main / EyePatchOfPower

* [[DoNotCallMePaul Johnny Five]] dons an eyepatch of sorts [[spoiler: it's actually his nonfunctional eye being held in place and covered by electrical tape]] during the third act of ''Film/ShortCircuit 2''. Its reveal marks a second mood shift in the film and begins his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

** ''ComicBook/BatmanGordonOfGotham:'' Robbery Division captain Danzien has a powerful presence and an eyepatch.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanZeroYear:'' The intimidating and unyielding Norwegian queen has an eyepatch as a result of her own initiatory DuelToTheDeath.

** The badass assassin Characters/{{Deathstroke}} wears an eyepatch over his missing eye; his mask is split into two colors, with featureless black over his missing eye, because he's so badass that it doesn't matter if his opponents know he has a physical impairment. In addition, his daughter wears an eyepatch after taking out her own eye in order to prove herself to him.

** Mark Shaw (one of the characters to use the name ComicBook/{{Manhunter}}) wore one in his alternative identity of the Privateer. And, no, there was nothing wrong with his eye. He wore it purely because it was cool.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} wore an eyepatch for a short time--and went by the name Patch--as a disguise. This worked only as long as you had never met Wolverine before, and/or had never seen him unmasked, since he didn't change anything else about his appearance, including his distinctive hairstyle and facial hair.

* Jolly Roger of ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' is an anarchist with a pirate-themed alter-ego and has a closely-shaved head and an eyepatch. Also, she's a lesbian.
* One-Eye of ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' has a very prominent eyepatch, having lost an eye to humans. In the novelization, Leetah offers to heal it but finds that there's nothing left of the missing eye to heal. In any event, his missing eye turns out to be a liability [[spoiler:because when the elves and trolls are fighting he can't see a troll sneaking up on his blind side and is killed]].
* In the Top Cow comic ''ComicBook/JustAPilgrim'', by Garth Ennis, we are introduced to two Eyepatch Badasses. The pilgrim does not have an eyepatch as such, but he did burn out one of his own eyes, leaving a cross-shaped scar across his face. He seems to be the baddest dude on the planet. Till he meets the pirate king, who has TWO eyepatches, TWO hooks for hands, and TWO peg legs. "This be MY killing floor, mate!"
* Jesse Custer, the badass star of ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', acquires an eyepatch towards the end of the series, after his eye is ''bitten out by [[GodIsEvil God]]''.
** The antagonist of the same series had a horrible [[ScarsAreForever facial scar]] over one eye, two of the supporting cast were born with only one eye apiece and a minor villain who had two myopic eyes was called Odin, after the one-eyed god (no, not the one from North of Kathmandu!)
* ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'': Rose Copen is not only an eye-patched modern pirate [[spoiler: though she turns out to be working for the Australian navy]] she also manages to explode a depth charge by hitting the primer with a single bullet from an AK-47. When asked how she managed this with no depth perception the deafened Rose can only reply: "WHAT?"

** Tails' father and dr. Quack wears one of those too. Both of them lost one of their eyes in the Great War against the overlanders.
* {{Averted|Trope}} by ''ComicBook/TheGoon'', who lost the sight in one eye after getting [[spoiler: clawed in the face by a dragon]]. He just pulls his hat down over his eyes.
* Future incarnations of Raphael of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' invariably have this.
* Maj. Bludd has one of these by default in every incarnation of ''Franchise/GIJoe'' he appears in, but in the comic Billy eventually acquires one as well, cementing his status as a badass.
%%* Trench from ''ComicBook/{{Elephantmen}}''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample
* Warbow in ''ComicBook/TheSagaOfCrystarCrystalWarrior''. He lost his eye fighting a wizard and had to be changed to crystal to save his life. The process couldn't restore his eye and he notes that his lack of depth perception makes aiming his bow a bit more difficult.
* Blackjak of the ''ComicBook/AtariForce'' second series has a cybernetic camera eye plugged into his left eye socket.
* In ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'', our heroes often take disguises involving eyepatches. Luke once [[http://images.plurk.com/cdb0c27bd918ff20fa1a089b4f064062.jpg dyes his hair red]] and wears an eyepatch and a beret. In ''The Big Con'', Lando [[http://images.plurk.com/e5e87607672fd825692cf20d98b85158.jpg cosplays]] as a palette-swapped Manga/CaptainHarlock, choosing this costume in order to play up to the ruffians he's trying to get information from -- everything makes him seem more remote and mysterious. At one point he puts the patch [[http://images.plurk.com/65ad3d6e5a0636ae7194cd15119727ce.jpg on the wrong side]].
* ''Cherry Comics'': Cherry wears one in her role as Sgt. Cherry in "Sgt. Cherry and her Squealing Commandos".
%%* Commander Winter from ''ComicBook/LadyMechanika''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample
* Gareth the Bowman from ''ComicBook/{{Sojourn}}''. Various characters did wonder how someone with no depth perception could be an expert archer. In his narration, Gareth promised that there was an explanation, but the series ended before we could find out what it was.
* In one of the ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' comics, the villainous Herr Doktor Count Baron Napoleon von Strudel ([[spoiler:real name Bert Maudsley]]) sports an eyepatch to go with his DastardlyWhiplash mustache. He uses the patch to conceal [[MundaneMadeAwesome an experimental ping-pong ball that will explode if it touches the ground]].

* Spike has acquired one for some reason in the short for Issue #4 of ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'', even though both his eyes clearly work fine in the last panel. Perhaps he just felt [[RuleOfCool it looked cool]].
* ''ComicBook/HaloBloodLine'': Spartan-II Black-One has one, though in a variant it's actually a cybernetic prosthetic that lets her keep seeing despite the loss of her actual eye.
* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': [[TheStarscream Frater Sinister]] has his eye gouged out by the dragonlord he was allied with when his insurrection against the emperor falls apart, and has to wear a black eyepatch from then on as he openly joins the forces of evil.
* ''ComicBook/AgeOfTheWolf'':
** One of the female leaders of a Neo-Nazi post-apocalyptic gang is wearing a black eyepatch after half her face was burned in a fight against Rowan.
** By the time she is an old woman, Rowan herself has lost an eye that she covers with a black eyepatch as a result of her repeated fights against werewolves.
* Both Edmund Holt and Des of ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'' wear one over the left eye to remind readers they're serving the same role in the story.
* The 1980s version of ''ComicBook/{{Eagle}}'' included a strip titled "One-Eyed Jack". The title character was a Film/DirtyHarry style New York cop who loses an eye in a shootout with some crooks. Returning to the force now sporting an eyepatch, he unleashes high caliber justice on the scum of New York.
* 8-Ball from ''ComicBook/ElMarvo'' wore an eye patch, and is presumably a respected member of Sokrates' organization, as he was first seen in the comic performing executions in the name of him.
* ''ComicBook/{{Barracuda}}'': Blackdog the pirate wears a tattered red silk bandana tied across his missing left eye, which adds to his fearsome appearance.
* ''ComicBook/JuiceSqueezers'': Coach Kettleborne, the leader of the Juice Squeezers, has an eyepatch. He got it as a kid in The Battle Of Valley May Farms. A giant potato bug tried to eat his brain, so he cut its thorax in half and pulled the head out of its eye socket.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Beric Dondarrion wears one after "surviving" a dagger in the eye.
* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Aemond Targaryen wears one after the childhood brawl against his Velaryon nephews over his claiming of Vhagar that cost him an eye. He grew up a fearsome swordsman regardless.

* Saul Tigh, as of S3 of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. He's always been somewhat of a PsychoSupporter, almost a ManipulativeBastard, but perhaps not coincidentally, he becomes a significantly more formidable character at more or less the exact same point at which he loses his eye. In what may count as a subversion, Tigh forgoes a classic black eyepatch for a distinctly more medical flesh-colored patch with transparent cords. Moreover, he spends several episodes beforehand with a very uncool chunk of gauze taped to his face. It's also worthy of note that there was an episode where he was having a great deal of difficulty putting his "uncool chunk of gauze" on by himself, subverting the "no loss of depth perception" addendum above.
* Subverted in ''Series/FlightOfTheConchords'': David Bowie appears to Bret in a dream and tells him that he'd become more famous as a musician if he started wearing an eyepatch. Bret wears one for a while but stops after he complains about his poor depth perception causing him to miss chairs and run into walls. In his next dream, Bret tells Bowie what happened and he admits he had similar problems when he wore one (see Music below).
* In the same way goatees are commonly used to depict [[EvilTwin evil]] AlternateUniverse versions of characters in parodies (after Spock grew one in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Mirror Mirror"), eyepatches are used for the same purpose, because the evil version of the Brigadier wore one in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''Inferno''. And as we all know, [[EvilIsCool Evil is Bad Ass]], therefore, this counts as a variation on this trope.
** ''Series/TheMiddleman'' also uses this, probably in a ShoutOut in "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome." In the alternate universe, the one sporting the Eyepatch of Power is the alt!Middleman himself. He's a BadassBiker to boot, but still a good guy.
* Madam Kovarian from the 2011 series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' has some kind of cybernetic device over her right eye. A bunch of other characters start wearing copies of it in "The Wedding of River Song". The Doctor notes that all the servants of The Silence wear them, and as such is horrified when he sees Amy wearing one. She however is not BrainwashedAndCrazy and notes that it is not an eyepatch, [[spoiler:it lets them remember the Silents]]. Which is why both their servants, and those fighting them (like Amy's group) wear them.
** The eyepatches also [[spoiler:act as kill-devices that [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment electrocute their wearers to death]] once the Silence [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness have no further use for them.]] As Kovarian learned the painful way when Amy forced hers back on.]]
* Mikhail from ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The man survived many injuries (such a sonic fence-induced brain hemorrhage and being shot in the chest with a harpoon) relatively unscathed. It took the WordOfGod to convince fans that he ''could'' die.
* General Martok, of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', was already badass as a Klingon. Add to that the removal of his eye, the scar tissue that covered up the socket in a ''natural'' eye patch, and his becoming the winningest Klingon commander of the war and eventually the new Chancellor, and you have a true badass.
** And on top of all that, in the ExpandedUniverse he becomes the ''Klingon King Arthur''!
* Humorously subverted in the Ferengi episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. While Paris and Chakotay visit an alien planet, they're approached by a 'prophet' (read: con-man) who gives interpretations of sacred legends for a 'small fee'. This all works very well (though neither of them are actually fooled), until Paris dryly points out that his eyepatch was on the ''other'' eye the last time they spoke with him. Said con-man then switches the patch to the 'correct' eye right in front of them and holds out his hand for payment.
* Lily Charles of ''Series/PushingDaisies'' is missing an eye due to an incident while cleaning cat litter and is definitely bad-ass, [[spoiler: blowing her erstwhile assassin out the window with her shotgun after he thought her choked to death]]. Her lack of an eye is dealt with realistically, if a bit comedically, in that she [[FailedASpotCheck misses the fact]] that Chuck, her niece[[spoiler:/daughter]], is back from the dead despite Chuck standing right in front of her. You see, Chuck just happened to be in her blind-spot at the time...
* [[TheDragon Space Commander Travis]] in ''Series/BlakesSeven'' has a skinlike eye patch large enough for the TwoFaced trope to also apply. It's an [[ItsPersonalWithTheDragon injury inflicted by Blake]] in their BackStory, along with the damaged arm that's been converted into an ArmCannon.
* In the pilot for ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', [[spoiler: Lawrence Dobson gets his eye shot out by Mal. Though he survives, he harbors a massive grudge in the tie-in comic ''Those Left Behind'', and, as a nifty bonus, he gets a ''seriously'' mean-looking cybernetic eye implant grafted onto the side of his head.]] This goes hand-in-hand with his boosted badassness by that point. [[spoiler: Then subverted, as Mal ends up shooting him in the ''other'' eye (and a few dozen other places).]]
* Subverted in the Disney series ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' during the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' spoof school for magic (where everyone must wear a bathrobe over their clothes and a pair of glasses just like Harry's to accessorize the bathrobes) the rude upperclassman who acts as Justin's rival wears an Eyepatch over a functioning eye, not to make himself better but just to get out of wearing the dorky glasses.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': G'Kar was badass even before losing the eye, but gets downright messianic afterward. Also, his eye was part of a prophecy involving Londo - [[spoiler: "saving the eye that does not see" is one of three actions that would save Londo from bad, bad things. He doesn't. [[GrandTheftMe Then the Drakh put a Keeper on him]].]]
* [[spoiler: Xander]] from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' got considerably more badass after [[spoiler: Caleb takes out his eye during Season 7]]. This too subverts the "no lost depth perception" by having him state that he now has to renew his driver's license every year, due to his loss in depth perception.
** Though Dawn proves that even with his badass boost she is more badass by [[spoiler: using a taser on him soon after waking up from him chloroforming her. While he's driving.]]
* In the ''Series/SpinCity'' episode "Grand Illusion", bumbling press secretary Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind) is forced to wear an eyepatch for several days because of an accident with his new toaster. Almost immediately, it starts taking effect: Women start finding him attractive, he's able to hold his own with the people who insult him, he makes sure the press have no questions at all and is even able to order his boss around a little. At the end of the episode, he decides he doesn't need the eyepatch in order to be confident and pitches it. Needless to say, it doesn't go as planned, and he ends up trying to find it again.
* The [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]] Catalina Creel from ''Series/CunaDeLobos'', EvilMatriarch who uses her eyepatch to inflict guilt over her [[TheUnfavorite unfavourite son]] for the accident who left her blind on that eye. She also overdoes every {{telenovela}} villain ever. Her eyepatch is so vital to her that [[spoiler: the first murder we see she does, in the very first chapter, is her husband's, because he discovered that the eye under that patch is ''healthy'', and he wanted to uncover the truth.]]
** Another telenovela example is Arturo Peniche's character, Governor Fernando Sánchez de Moncada, from the recent {{Franchise/Zorro}} telenovela - ''Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa'' (Zorro: the Sword and the Rose). He's the father of [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry the antagonistic sisters]] Esmeralda and Mariangel, both interested in the main character and wears a nice black eyepatch.
* Richard "Yin Yang Man" Branden on ''Series/WMACMasters'' wore an eye patch with a yin yang symbol on it however his is legitimately blind in that eye and sometimes during exhibitions he would actually use a glass eye with the symbol on it instead.
* In the original television airings of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'', there were segments set in the present day (the ''then'' present, around 1992). These bits featured an elderly Franchise/IndianaJones, who wore an eyepatch over his right eye, and a pair of glasses over the patch. He also had a nasty facial scar trailing out from under his eyepatch. However, [[ReCut these 1990s scenes were all deleted in later airings of the show]], and still haven't become available on home video. A [[EyepatchAfterTimeSkip time skip]] was involved here, because Indy still has both eyes in all the films so far (which cover events up to 1957, and when the ''Chronicles'' first aired extended only to 1938).
* One of the most popular characters on ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' in the late 1980s was Steve 'Patch' Johnson who (in his backstory) had lost an eye in a fight with the show's main hero Bo Brady and wore a patch. Steve's initial storylines included terrorizing Bo and his wife Hope but after a HeelFaceTurn, Steve reconciled with Bo and eventually married Bo's sister after taking over from Bo as the show's main hero when Bo was [[PutOnABus put on a sailing ship]].
* In ''Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger'', the Seaick form of their GiantRobot, Gosei Great, has a literal Eyepatch Of Power; it not only adds to the pirate look of the mecha, it allows it to detect and target enemies.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'', the alternate Kamen Rider [=TheBee=] has one. He lost his eye to [[spoiler: Souji.]]
* In ''Series/TwinPeaks'', [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Nadine Hurley]] wears an eyepatch over her left eye after [[spoiler: losing it in a hunting accident on her and her husband Ed's honeymoon]]. At the beginning of the second season after [[spoiler: attempting suicide]], she not only loses her memory but also gains SuperStrength. In fact, she's so strong, she accidentally ''pulled a door off its hinges''.
* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Trent Kort seems quite unfazed and even more driven ever since losing an eye to the port-to-port killer and wearing a metallic eye patch. He even seems to enjoy the menacing look it gives him.
* Michael "Archangel" Coldsmith-Briggs, CIA agent and MissionControl for ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'', loses an eye during the GrandTheftPrototype of the eponymous helicopter in the PilotMovie. He wears a medical eyepatch at first, then for the rest of the series wears spectacles with one opaque black lens, in a variation on the trope.
* A cutaway sketch in ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' involves a [[VisualPun literal]] [[BuccaneerBroadcaster pirate radio DJ]] wearing an eyepatch. The trouble with that is, he's a cyclops. When his parrot shouts out insults he thinks the cabin boy's doing it.
* Tom Croydon of ''Series/BlueHeelers'' first had a bandage, then a medical patch after the station bombing. He's implied to kill two criminals, threatens the jobs of those around him, alienates everyone who knows him and becomes a thug for the better part of the rest of the series.
* A villainous example from ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'': The Governor, though already established as a ''very'' dangerous man, eventually dons an eyepatch after [[spoiler:Michonne [[EyeScream gauges out his eye with a piece of broken glass]]]], though unlike most examples it ''does'' take a few episodes before he puts on the actual eyepatch, though the bandages he wears in that time could still count.
* In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', [[spoiler:Slade Wilson]] wears an eyepiece that restores and enhances vision in the present-day timeline, having lost his right eye sometime in the past [[spoiler:due to having an arrow stabbed through his eye by Oliver]].
* In ''Series/MadMen'', after an incident while hunting with clients in Detroit, Ken Cosgrove wounds his right eye and is forced to wear an eyepatch.
* One episode of ''Series/Combat1962'', "Odyssey", has Sgt. Saunders pretending to a shellshocked German soldier named "Corporal Ernst Keller." Everyone buys the act, except for two characters: one is a particularly observant and highly decorated German orderly (the other is a German lieutenant later on). In an apparently intentional allusion to Polyphemus from ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', the orderly wears an eyepatch and does his best to "sniff out" Germans who are feigning their injuries, and Saunders has to continually outwit him.
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS08E20PacManFever Pac-Man Fever]]". Charlie Bradbury is in a LotusEaterMachine where she's a video game ActionGirl. When she first appears, she's wearing an entirely unnecessary eyepatch that she removes after her BigDamnHeroes.

* Portrayed by [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Spongebob]]'s voice actor, Tom Kenny, Patchy the Pirate is the President of the Spongebob Squarepants Fan Club. He sports a fashionable black eyepatch which serves seemingly no reason other than to make him appear more badass than he already is. He can be blatantly seen switching the eyepatch from eye to eye proving the previous statement.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': Subverted in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E18TheLightBrigade The Light Brigade]]", in which the Chief Weapons Officer on a spaceship has an eyepatch like you might expect of a badass combat veteran, but when we see the Weapons Room everyone there has the same patch, which is revealed to cover an ocular implant for a BrainComputerInterface.
* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': Abigail's bodyguard Bridey has an eyepatch, a reminder of her failure to save her sister.
* Colonel March sports one in ''Series/ColonelMarchOfScotlandYard''.
* ''Series/TheBoys2019'' has in the season 3 finale [[spoiler:Maeve losing an eye fighting Homelander. Before she goes on exile with her girlfriend, eye still only covered in gauze, she asks whether to get an eyepatch or a glass eye. The girlfriend replies the first, certainly very aware of this trope.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Parodied in "Arrgh!" when Spongebob and Patrick cosplay as pirates. Patrick puts eyepatches over ''both'' eyes and calls himself "[[CaptainColorbeard Blindbeard the Pirate]]". Of course, he can't see anything and trips, so he removes them.

* Crime novelist and child protection lawyer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachss Andrew Vachss]].