Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
David: You know, I — right now I have something I want to say. I, David Cross — me, not the character ... am bald. Paul: David, I’m all right with this. Jill: David? I accept you ... but I don't accept the choice that you've made. David: It's not a choice, Jill. God made me this way. Jill: Then I reject God!
—Mr. Show, "Very Special Episode"
In fiction, baldness often equates with lack of moral fortitude. Many, many villains are recognised as such by the audience by their shiny, shaven noggins; It might be the Corrupt Corporate Executive in a political thriller, the sinister evil sorcerer, unholy priest, cult leader or Evil Overlord in sword-and-sorcery, or a thuggish Giant Mook readying to crack the hero in two. However, it is most commonly applied to the Evil Chancellor and the Mad Scientist.
Where the hero has his flowing golden locks or a boyish, tousled mop of red or brown hair to indicate his youthful purity, something about the complete absence of hair makes a bald villain look particularly nefarious, especially while he's slouched on his throne, steepling his fingers, and delivering a Hannibal Lecture while the ominous backlight shines off his gleaming chrome-dome.
This might be a throwback to ancient beliefs in hair as a symbol of health and virility, as exemplified by the Biblical story of Samson; it may also be more primal still, as a shaven head more closely resembles a skull, and combined with the natural tendency for us to lose our hair as we grow old, is therefore symbolic of aging and death. As a matter of fact, in ancient Rome, baldness was considered a gross deformity. Somehow, that didn't stop the very bald Patrick Stewart from being called "The Sexiest Man on TV" in 1992.
Whatever the original reason, Hair Hates Evil, and the about the only times you'll see a kind and moral character without his (or her) hair will be when it's an egg-headed Smart Guy (who's probably also in a wheelchair), a Buddhist monk, a Bald Black Leader Guy, or the Littlest Leukemia Patient.
The only other good guys who go shaven are Badass Anti Heroes, so if a hero shaves his head as part of an Important Haircut, it is a sure sign he's about to get Darker And Edgier.
The tendency is, indeed, for the moral decay of a character to be inversely proportionate to the length of their hair, with innocent, virginal princesses practically drowning in their romantically flowing locks while the hard-bitten Badass sports a spiky military crewcut. The most frequent aversion of this trope is the White Haired Pretty Boy, whose usually long and luscious tresses exist as a symbol of his evil, not in spite of it.
For the ultimate combination, supply a bald villain with a villainous goatee. This trope is also a function of Good Hair Evil Hair.
Taking this trope way beyond its logical extreme, occasional very mad scientists will also shave off their skin and the top of their skull, leaving their brains completely exposed.
For aversions, see Bald Of Awesome.
Examples:
open/close all folders
- Nearly all of the major villains in Dragon Ball are have no hair: Pilaf, both Piccolos, Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu. They're not exactly bald though, they just have no hair- with the possible exception of Pilaf, none of them are mammals.
- Plenty of bald heroes too: Tien, Krillin & Master Roshi.
- True, but Tenshinhan was originally a villain (albeit one who almost immediately performs a Heel Face Turn a few eps after his introduction) so the point stands.
- Not to mention, but Krillin originally convinced Master Roshi to train him by bribing him with pornography. And Krillin isn't naturally bald, as he grows his hair back (as a sign that he was no longer living as a monk who renounced all worldly pleasures) after marrying Number Eighteen.
- Considering this is a trope, I think Toriyama might be playing with this a bit. Tien is a bald villain, but becomes a good guy when he finds out people respect it more. Nappa was a classic "bald" villain (and a classic villain in many respects), but gets trumped by the true hero in mere seconds, and replaced by a preferrable haired antagonist.
- Lordgenome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Also has the Anti Hero goatee.
- And epic chest hair.
- And his scalp catches fire when he does awesome things such as beating the crap out of mechas with his bare hands.
- Ivan the Terrible (or Ivan of Russia, in the Japanese version) from Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still is bald, though he's not the most nefarious of the evil group he's part of, even though he might be one of the biggest nutcases in the entire anime. Though, to be fair, one of the guys dead-set on doing good is bald as well.
- Gluttony of Fullmetal Alchemist, although he's actually not nearly as evil as many of the other homunculi, but more of a Psychopathic Manchild.
- The evil, baldness-promoting emperor in Bobobobo Bobobo.
- The Big Bads of Skyland, Oslo and Diwan.
- Both played straight and inverted in Kinnikuman. Buffaloman, originally introduced as the most powerful Devil Superman in the series, reveals himself to be bald in the following arc. However, the reveal only happens when he officially pulls a Heel Face Turn.
- Vargus of Mahou Sensei Negima, who was initially introduced as a thuggish bully of a Giant Mook that attacked Negi in the Magic World for no reason, though it's later shown that he's actually a lot nicer than he first appeared.
- Gao Gai Gar: In FINAL, Palparepa, the lead protagonist's evil counterpart, is completely bald.
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross: In the film version, all the Zentradi are bald (though their morality varies considerably), and in the original TV series, Bodolza is very bald, and very evil (or at least so mission-oriented not to care about insiginificant things like planetary omnicide)
- Lex Luthor is a classic example, particularly considering his Silver Age motive for villainy was revenge against Superman for making him bald.
- And it wasn't really Supes' fault, but Lex blamed him after one of his experiments went wrong. Furthermore, the story then had Luthor trying to show up Superboy with grandiose engineering projects, only to have each go disastrously wrong enough to require the superhero to step in, which made Luthor irrationally convinced he was being humiliated.
- This sometimes falls afoul of adaptation decay in live-action versions where the actor doesn't want to shave his head or wear a bald cap for long periods. Gene Hackman's version of Lex wears an array of wigs and is only seen bald when imprisoned (rendering his proud "umasking" moment of whipping the rug off at the end of Superman rather confusing), and hamtacular John Shea on Lois And Clark had a full head of curls until he gets raised from the dead in season two, resulting in all his hair falling out, making Shea look even more the part of a scenery-devouring psycho. When he escapes prison in season three, he is shown in a file photo with the bald look but in the next episode turns up with his old hair back without explanation. At the time Lois And Clark started, though, the comic book Lex had shoulder-length hair (on account of being a clone with the original's brain, posing as Lex Jr).
- Hackman wanted to have some fun with Lex by heavily implying baldness without showing it. The idea would be each time we see Lex, the wig is worse and more obvious.
- Shazam villain Dr. Sivana is another bald mad scientist, who is also diminutive, gangly, ugly and wears coke-bottle glasses. He has a thing for talking worms.
- The Kingpin, in Marvel Comics. Bullseye from the Daredevil movie is also bald and goateed, which looks really wrong on paper.
- Professor Xavier of X-Men is almost a textbook example of the 'kindly eggheaded Professor' aversion, as he's sometimes portrayed as being morally ambiguous and slightly sinister, and let's not go near his various Super Powered Evil Sides. It's worth noting that Patrick Stewart is a classic example of Bald Of Awesome.
- In X-Men Evolution, Mesmero is bald, with arcane markings on his face and head. Much creepier than the original.
- Apocalypse also lacked hair.
- Marvel Universe semi-aversion: Moondragon, even when she was not being actively influenced by the malevolent Cosmic Horror she named herself after, fit The Gift trope to a tee. Her girlfriend Phyla mellowed her out, some.
- In the Teen Titans comic series, Superboy shaved his head bald before going on an insane killer rampage and beating up the entire rest of the team. This was mostly him copping to the fact that he's just as much a clone of Lex Luthor as he is Superman. I Wish I Was Making This Up.
- In the original Flash Gordon comic strips, Prince Barin sported a clean-shaven pate in his first appearances — but when he did his Heel Face Turn, his hair grew out with astonishing rapidity. Ming, however, is bald as... someone who is bald.
- The righteous Christian in any Jack Chick tract will have a full head of hair (except the Bull who started out evil). Villains, atheists and goddamn liberals will be balding, usually with embarrassing combovers or comb-back-overs.
- Spider Jerusalem. He accidentally burned off most of his body hair in the shower, but still.
- Henry Bendix, the Weatherman from The Authority and Stormwatch.
- In League of Extraordinary Gentleman Vol. 1, Big Bad Professor James Moriarty is bald (in keeping with his character in the original Sherlock Holmes stories)
- Nobeard, one of the Subway Pirates in Seven Soldiers and rival of the thick Beard Of Evil-sporting Allbeard. It's commonly believed that the two represent series writer Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.
- Voldemort in Harry Potter, to play up the whole reptile angle.
- To be fair on his case, Voldemort was so far gone from anything remotely human that having hair at all would have been a accomplishment.
- Big Bad Vorbis from the Discworld novel Small Gods deliberately shaves and polishes his scalp. Invoked Trope?
- Something of a subversion: Matilda's father (who has plenty of hair, and happens to be unscrupulous) believes that smart people have good, strong hair, and that therefore bald people are dumb. (Matilda points out that Shakespeare was bald.)
- Harap Alb, a Romanian folk tale, has the "Spân", literarly, "bald man" as the primary villain. The mai character is told that the only thing worse than a bald man is a red haired one... Guess who's daughter he is forced to win over later.
- Although he was not described specifically in the stories, Sherlock Holmes Arch Enemy Professor James Moriarty was presented as being bald in the earliest illustrations of the character.
- In many later illustrations, he just had a very badly receding hairline, which also made him look more professorial.
- Rare female example: In Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, Arnie Tenebrae becomes a psychotic, sadistic warlord. At one point, it's mentioned: "She was busy shaving her head."
- The Sontarans from Doctor Who, partly because of the People In Rubber Suits effect.
- Colin Mochrie in Whose Line Is It Anyway is a borderline case; while he's not evil per se (at least, we can hope not), he is balding with a very, very dark sense of humor.
- Although Star Trek is usually an aversion, given Patrick Stewart's impressive skull, the Borg were more often than not depicted as bald, especially when fully assimilated.
- Speaking of Patrick Stewart, he's the Big Bad in the BBC John Le Carre serials Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People.
- Rare female example: As Battlestar Galactica's president Laura Roslin loses her hair to cancer treatments she also becomes increasingly totalitarian.
- Black Hole High: Victor Pearson, the series' antagonist, is bald in the present day, but in the 1987 time zone, he has a full head of hair, almost everything we see of him in this period is sympathetic. He also manages to keep his hair in an alternate timeline where he's a slightly dotty science teacher. The final kicker: in the series finale, which reveals Pearson's ultimately noble motives, Victor is starting to grow his hair back.
- The Technomages of Babylon 5 all shave their heads, for easier access to the brain and spinal column. Their evilness varies from person to person.
- Averted in Sesame Street where the main actor who plays Gordon is completely bald, but he is never depicted as anything but the ideal father figure. It extended to real life when the actor was hugged by a little girl who was sexually abused and feared all men, but she knew she could trust good old Gordon.
- Vic Mackey, of The Shield. Though he's not so much evil as Chaotic (Chaotic Good would be a stretch) and possessed of Black And Grey Morality.
- FOOLS! YOU HAVE NOT YET LISTED ME! I! AM! DAVROS!
- Billy Zane in Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight.
- Subverted with John Locke in Lost, but played straight in the season 5 finale, when it is revealed that Locke had been dead since several episodes and that the one who had taken his shape was the Big Bad
- Eric Halfvarson. Just... Eric Halfvarson.
- WWE wrestler Kane became bald when he lost his mask in a match. By no coincidence, this is also when he started getting really, really evil. Like cackling horror-movie-villain evil.
- Every Russian wrestler ever.
- This even shows up in Adventures In Odyssey, a radio show. For a long while during the Novacom saga, Mr. Charles was informally known as "the bald guy."
- Nazi skinheads, anyone?
- Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan followed this trope consciously, although the only evil he ever did was the most banal everyday kind, completely unrelated to his choice of religion. In religious matters he was simply a Large Ham.
- How about Dick Cheney?
- Paranoia plays to this in its 2nd Edition art; the "Ultraviolet-Clearance" section contains pictures of a "typical GM", an evil-looking robed fellow who is usually seen cutting up the rules or cracking a whip, and is of course completely bald.
- One of evil magocracies of Forgotten Realms is Thay, where ruling Red Wizards
 (both men and women) has shaved and tattoed heads. This tradition was questioned when Lauzoril (the most charismatic leader there) ignored it and broken when traditional power structure was smashed by internal strife.
- Artwork of various Chaos leaders, especially sorcerers, in Warhammer 40000 usually portrays them as bald, with various Chaos symbols worn on the scalp.
- Kane from Command And Conquer is an example of the aformentioned bald-with-goatee combo.
- Knights Of The Old Republic has several examples, including the Big Bad Darth Malak, his apprentice Darth Bandon, and Sith Academy headmaster Uthar Wynn.
- And let's not forget about Darth Vader himself. And Jabba, I guess...
- And Darth Maul, bald with horns.
- Kratos in God Of War is bald with an antiheroic goatee, which should tell you everything you need to know about him at a glance.
- The same could be said for Agent 47 from the Hitman series, only replace antiheroic goatee with antiheroic barcode on the back of his head.
- The difference between the two is, instead of being an outright psychopath and evil bastard like Kratos, 47 actually has a conscience to a degree, plus he tends to bump off bad people anyways.
- Or is it professional pride?.. Maybe, both. :]
- Dr. Robotnik / Eggman from Sonic The Hedgehog. I Am The Eggman, that's what I am...
- And his nephew Snively, in the comics and cartoon, who only has five hairs.
- Also, Dr. Baldhead from the first Guilty Gear, obviously. Part of the tendency for bald villains to be doctors as well.
- The Mega Man series gave us Dr. Wily (who, admittedly, had rather wild hair on the side of his head) and Sigma.
- Bob And George added Mynd (a purple palette-swap of Sigma) and Captain Kinesis to the mix.
- Devil May Cry 3 has Arkham. Complete with giant freaking scar over half his face.
- Subverted in the forthcoming Heavy Metal adventure game Brütal Legend: General Lionwhyte, the Glam Metal traitor and servant of the main villain (voiced by Rob Halford of Judas Priest, who is bald; the irony is surely intentional), has a mane of majestic locks that allows him to fly.
- In the most recent teaser trailers for the Kingdom Hearts game franchise, the main villainous figure is a man wearing the exact same outfit as Ansem/Xehanort's Heartless, who is also older, goateed, and bald. In fact, these traits are how we know he's villainous.
- Moebius, servant of the Elder God from the Legacy of Kain series is a conniving manipulator who eschews hair of any sort, and is notably bald even in thousand year old murals depicting his younger days when he lead the rebellion against the vampires who ruled over humanity in the past.
- The Helghast in the Killzone series are all bald. Apparently, this is a side effect of having emigrated to a Death World.
- Mr. Big from the Art Of Fighting series: a crime boss who kidnapped a teenage girl to blackmail her father and force both her brother and her best friend to fight him.
- Both Sarevok of Baldur's Gate and Jon Irenicus of Baldur's Gate 2 had shaven heads.
- Bitores Mendez, one of the villains of Resident Evil 4, was both bearded and bald. In fact, he looked a lot like Rasputin.
- Both Earthquake and Gen-An Shiranui in Samurai Shodown. Granted, Gen-An has two or three hairs, but he's still an overall baldie. (See also: Simpson, Homer.)
- Portrait of Ruin has Brauner, who seems to be an Orlok double. Still second fiddle to Dracula though.
- Neff, the main bad guy from Altered Beast.
- Dr. Elvin Atombender, the Mad Scientist from Impossible Mission, making this Older Than The Nes.
- Although Mafia boss Bruto Cadaverini never actually appears in the third Ace Attorney game, his profile picture◊ reveals quite an impressive Bald Of Evil.
- Vigagi and Sikalog, both of the Inspectors (from Super Robot Wars). The first shaves his head bald (or so he says, and doubles as a Berserk Button), and the second was apparently born that way.
- Mr. Blank From Space Channel 5.
- The Watcher in KateModern is an obvious example, although the show also features Tariq Bhartti, who has a shaven head and is a likeable enough individual.
- Dr. Phineas Waldorf Steel, complete with a Beard Of Evil. Arguably a nice guy, but definitly Evil Overlord-Mad Scientist themed.
- Secondary Broken Saints villain (and big-time sleazebag) Mars is severely bald on the top of his head, with only some grey around the sides and what's left in back pulled into a ponytail.
- Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.
- ... but (probably) averted by Homer Simpson.
- Professor Farnsworth in Futurama, although he's too much of a crazy ineffective old doofus to be truly evil. Plus, he's technically a good guy, as far as taking sides is concerned.
- Cobra scientist Dr. Mindbender in G.I.Joe
- You list Mindbender first and not Destro?!? Foolish fool!
- Exception: Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender. Definitely had the Monk thing going and was arguably at his least stable when he actually grew his hair out for the first time.
- Of course, Zuko was at his most evil when he had the least hair.
- Long Feng isn't quite bald, but he mostly fits the bill. By what may or may not be coincidence, his voice actor, Clancy Brown, also played Lex Luthor in Superman The Animated Series. (Not to mention the Kurgan, who shaved his head.
- Jonny Quest's greatest adversary has always been Dr. Zin, who has always been distinctly bald.
- Asaaj Ventress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, one of the few female Balds of Evil, and surprisingly good looking.
- Freakshow of Danny Phantom. Arguably, his whole outfit has the villain look, but when surrounded by Goths, not so much.
- Baron Ünderbheit in Venture Bros. The show, however, also subverts this trope in that Rusty Venture is bald, and Brock shaves his head at the end of Season 3.
- On the other hand, it might not be so much of a subversion, when you consider the fact that it would be difficult indeed to ever see Rusty or Brock as anything close to being GOOD - one's a Jerk Ass and the other is basically a Heroic Sociopath.
- Brock didn't shave his head mind, he tore his hair off, which itself may be a CMOA.
- In the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Prototype", a cop who's Drunk On The Dark Side as the result of using a thought-
controlling controlled Powered Armor shaves his head to "ensure conductive contact".
- Mr. Rancid, a Corrupt Corporate Executive from Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers.
- The Dark Templar was a definite Subversion. On the first game, they were largely regarded as a bunch of dark, shady heretics. One of their defining traits is that they don't have tendrils on the backs of their heads (the protoss equivalent of hair), making them essentialy bald. Zeratul is the most obvious example. It turns out that they are actually one of the most heroic characters in the game.
|
|
