Created By: MrUnderhill on May 26, 2011
Last Edited By: StrixObscuro on July 18, 2014
Up for Grabs
A visual trick used most often (but not always) in video games to hide a masked or helmeted character's face in situations where their face would otherwise be visible. The basic idea is hide the subject's face behind convenient camera angles just before they "remove" their helmet, mask, or faceplate, without actually removing it. For extra convincing, a copy of the concealing item is put in the subject's hands to show that they really are showing their face to whoever is in the room with them, just not to the audience.
When you think about it, this trope makes a lot of sense from a design point of view. It saves the art team from having to create a new design for the unmasked version of a character, and for video games, it can keep nosy fans from spoiling the character's appearance by hacking the camera so that the subject's face becomes visible, which can be very important if said character's appearance is a plot point.
Examples:
Anime
- In Naruto, Team 7 tries to find out what Kakashi looks like under his mask, when he finally shows them—it's another mask.
- In the Grand Finale of The Prisoner, Number Six takes off Number One's mask, revealing a gorilla mask. Six takes that off to reveal...himself?
- Perhaps the most notorious example of this trope is Master Chief from the Halo series. Fans who hacked the camera so that it could be manually controlled during the end cutscene were not amused to find this trope in play.
- Vanitas from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has this in effect for a couple of early cutscenes. Attempting to scroll the camera upwards via hacking only shows a helmeted Vanitas with a copy of his helmet in his hands. At the end of Ventus' subplot, we do get to see Vanitas without his mask, and lo and behold, he looks like Sora with black hair.
Hello, Unknown Troper. You'll need to get known to lend a hand here.
Community Feedback
Replies: 36
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GiantSpaceChinchilla
- JusticeFriends: Major Glory's helmet did this in one gag.
When I say "secret identity", I mean "secret identity"!
- JusticeFriends: Major Glory's helmet did this in one gag.
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AspieOne episode of Naruto made a big deal out of what was behind Kakashi's mask, only to reveal at the end that it was another mask.
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32_FootstepsAn example featuring Cool Shades - one piece of concept art for Proto Man from Mega Man has Proto Man holding his helmet, which has shades attached as a visor... and he's wearing another pair of shades. So either this trope is in effect, or he wears shades under his shades.
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kuyanJIf I understand this correctly, the description should mention that the character still appears to be wearing a helmet.
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CidolfasOne episode of Batman The Animated Series involved a villain forcing Batman to take off his cowl. Underneath was... another cowl.
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randomsurferIn the Grand Finale of The Prisoner Number Six takes off Number One's mask, revealing a gorilla mask. Six takes that off to reveal...himself?
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DebossI suggest Mask Within A Mask for a name.
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jayteeYeah, it should just be helmets, masks too. I swear there was a scooby doo (or maybe more than one) where this happened at the end.
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NoirGrimoir
- In Naruto, Team 7 tries to find out what Kakashi looks like under his mask, when he finally shows them--it's another mask.
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SkyStrikeHalf Life: Full Life Consequences ("Free Man") has Gordan Freeman wearing 2 combine masks.
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Damr1990
- On Medabots, Underneath Space Medafighter X(Japan's 1 medafighter)'s mask is... another mask. The Phantom Renegade's mask (a famous Gentleman Theif), to be exact.
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thewriter
- Jeff and Abed once got drunk in an episode of Community as part of some Zany Scheme. Jeff wakes up the next morning an pulls off one mask (I forget what mask) just to reveal that he's wearing a Phantom Of The Opera mask underneath it.
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CommanderPandaThere was another YKTTW a week or two ago, Secret Secrecy Of Secrets, or something similar. It included the mask under mask concept as one of it's types. So, some level of coordination needs to happen between this YKTTW and that one.
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OtakukunThe Batman TAS one might make a good page image
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randomsurferThis might be covered by Multilayer Facade (which didn't exist when this ykktw started). If not it's certainly related.
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MozgwsloikuThe Pale Night, an Eldritch Abomination from D&D moves around covered in shrouds. When angered, she unfurls them and if you are tough enough, there will be another shroud underneath - a hallucination conjured by your brain to cope with seeing what shouldn't exist. If not, your brain will melt from the shock.
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DarthcaliberGIJOE: During the second Cobra civil war, having apparently defeated him, Serpentor forced Cobra Commander to remove his helmet, only to discover he was wearing a ski-mask underneath. Cobra Commander then detonated the explosives in the helmet so it exploded in Serpentor's hands.
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AurelitaIn the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles series, members of the Yuke race open their helmets once or twice, but the player never gets to actually see their faces, since they're always facing away... but they're implied to be rather unnerving...
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nmanThe Unreveal covers a lot of these. But would this be a subtrope? I think there are enough variants that aren't Unreveals, so who knows.
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electronshockMedabots: happens at 4:15 here.
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electronshockhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_jCGvHIQC4
space medafigher X is actually the phantom renagade!
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KZN02Not sure if this applies somehow. BIONICLE: in Legends of Metru Nui, Makuta Teridax, who mainly wears the Kraahlix, mask of shadows, wears Dume's Kiril upon his mask while disguising as the Turaga.
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OmeganianIn the episode "Exclusive" in the Ultimate Spider-Man series, MJ asks Spider-Man during the interview "Any chance you give me the ultimate scoop and unmask"? Well, he does...
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TBTabbyKinnikuman takes this Up To Eleven in his match against Warsman: Warsman keeps trying to unmask him, but he has a mask under a mask under a mask ad nauseam.
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DuncanIn The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lock, Shock, and Barrel wear masks that look just like their actual faces.
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AmazingLagannIn halo, someone hacked the game on PC to see what really happened in a cut-scene where the camera pans away just as master chief takes off his helmet. When master chief pulls off his helmet... he reveals another helmet.
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AstarothWebcomics: In Order Of The Stick #852, Tarquin attempts to impersonate Thog, but Roy suspects something is amiss since his fighting style is so radically different. He attempts to remove Tarquin's helmet, but Tarquin is wearing a balaclava underneath.
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OmeganianA similar case to Halo occurs in Mass Effect 2. When Shepard removes Tali's helmet, a hack reveals it's actually another helmet spawning in his hands.
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Trig[1]
wresling example
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Illemar
- Happens in Young Justice. The group is playing Truth Or Dare, and Robin is dared to remove his mask (particularly significant because out of the group, his was the only secret identity not known to them). In fact, knowing the popularity of the game and the high chance of it being played combined with their curiosity, he'd prepared for that dare.
- Also Sandman. During a nightmare, one character is confronted with Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz movie, who pulls her mask off to reveal the Wicked Witch, then that mask off to reveal another mask...
- You'll have to help me. I'm running out of hands.
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Hero_Gal_2347A Johnny Bravo / Scooby Doo crossover had the gang pull off a mask, to reveal someone...and then another mask, and another, and another, until finally the perpetrator (Johnny's aunt) yells, "All right, all right, enough with the silly masks!" and yanks them off.
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DaibhidCI'm a bit confused by this; the description appears to be referring to a specific video game trope where a character removes a mask and within the story everyone sees their face, but the actual character model (with its back to the player) is still wearing the mask. The examples don't all follow that, mostly being about characters who are Crazy Prepared enough to actually wear two masks in-universe. I think the examples may have a better trope, but the description needs rewritten to fit them.
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DAN004^ that video game approach is People Sit On Chairs anyway.
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StrixObscuroComic Books
- In one issue of Young Justice, the kids were playing truth or dare, and Robin was dared to take his mask off. He did... and under it was another mask.
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randomsurferI think this is Multilayer Facade.
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DAN004^ Yes We Do Have This One
