Deadly Gaze

Image by SongOfTheSirens

"The eyes are not the windows of the soul: they are the doors. Beware what may enter there."

— Doctor Who, "The Time of Angels"

A lot of Brown Notes can literally kill or at least maim people simply by looking at them. Turning them to stone is another common effect. People may be warned against the danger of making eye contact with these beings, since often they must meet the creature's gaze for the power to work. Mirrors Reflect Everything may be a way of making the entity Hoist by His Own Petard. By default, the ability is often depicted being used by variants of Snake People as a not-so-direct connection to the creature, Medusa.

Often works through some kind of magic; see No Eye in Magic for a more general application of this principle, and Eye Beams for a more weapon-like version. Not to be confused with Death Glare, which is only metaphorically related.

---

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Basilisk: Gennosuke and Hyoma can kill people by glaring at them. Specifically, it's an eye power that reflects the Killing Intent of an attacker back on him, forcing him to kill himself with his own weapons.
• Bleach: When Äs Nödt actives his Vollständig, Tartar Foras, his Fear ability upgrades to the point that he can fill people with heart-attack inducing fear just by eye contact. It only takes one look; if the victim closes his or her eyes after the initial eye contact, the deadly fear will remain. He can also create a wall covered with eyes to surround the victim and ensure they look into at least one.
• Campione!: One of Duke Voban's Authorities was taken from Balor (mentioned in Mythology below) allowing him to turn people into pillars of salt just by looking them. Doesn't help him much fighting Gods or other Campione since their magic resistance is high enough that it only slows them down at best.
• Darker than Black: The contractor Ilya has the ability to shut down a person's brain by locking eyes with them. The effect is degenerative, giving the victim a few seconds of living out Flowers for Algernon before motor and cognitive functions give in and the victim chokes to death.
• Digimon Adventure: Cockatrimon has an attack called Petra Fire, which shines a petrifying light from its eyes and works on both humans and Digimon. Unlike the cockatrice of mythology, he doesn't need his victims to look into his eyes for it to work.
• Fairy Tail: Black Wizard Zeref kills Zancrow after looking at him. Not surprisingly, his magic kills everything around him.
• Fate/stay night: Rider has Cybele, the Mystic Eyes of Petrification, which will leave you Taken for Granite. Because her true identity is actually Medusa.
• The Garden of Sinners: Fujino Asagami has the Mystic Eyes of Distortion, enabling her to twist whatever she looks at.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: The first chapter of the spinoff "We Want to Talk About Kaguya" deals with a rumor that Kaguya can kill people just by looking at them. The truth is far more mundane; Erika ended up suffering a Cuteness Overload and passing out after Kaguya said hello to her.
• The Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Ryner Lute's Superpowered Evil Side disintegrates a Magic Knight by looking him in the eyes and uses Eye Beams to blow the heads of the rest of the squad.
• Naruto: In an anime-only arc, the villain Fūka showed she had a paralysis jutsu that turns her victim's legs to stone by looking at them. During her first fight with Naruto, after she becomes enraged at him for cutting her hair, she goes from a simple Tranquil Fury Death Glare to her eyes suddenly widening while screaming he will pay and her hair suddenly begins moving in the air on its own like snakes, making her seem similar to Medusa. This leaves Naruto helpless against her as she forces a Kiss of Death on him, but he is fortunately able to survive thanks to the Nine-Tails chakra.
• One Piece: Marines are ordered to never look directly at any of the Five Elder Stars. When St. Jaygarcia Saturn takes to the field in Egghead Island and one unfortunate Commodore makes the mistake of doing so anyways, Saturn blows his head off with just a quick glance. Effects vary against stronger foes: Sanji was violently blasted off his feet but survived, and Gear Five Luffy felt it but tanked it without breaking his stride. Vegapunk is convinced (but cannot assure) this is a Devil Fruit ability.
• Sunday Without God: Ulla has a killing glare. In fact, due to her mother's wish to kill all humans, it's not just her eyes that can kill, but also her voice and touch.

Comic Books

• Batman: One version of Clayface can dissolve people into goo just by looking at them.
• Ghost Rider: Ghost Rider's Penance Stare redirects all of suffering and pain inflicted on others by its target back onto the victim themselves. It can be downright fatal depending on who Ghosty is performing the move on. If Ghost Rider tells you to look into his eyes, you're in big trouble.
• Judge Dredd: Judge Fear is a zombified Judge whose trademark move is to force his victims to stare directly at his face (normally concealed by his helmet), which shapes itself to the person's worst fears. Unfortunately for Fear, Dredd is not only immune, but isn't having his shit.
• Justice Society of America: Johnny Sorrow, a villain, is a ghost-like entity, inhabiting a suit with a mime mask. Seeing Sorrow's face is instantly fatal to almost all living creatures, in other cases it can cause catastrophic madness; there are only two people depicted who've survived gazing upon him.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): Agahnihm paralyzes Link by glaring at him, rendering him unable to stop him from transporting Zelda to the Dark World.
• The Unknown Supergirl: Supergirl has an hallucination where she suddenly develops the uncontrollable power to kill living beings by staring at them.
• Wolverine: A villain named Gorgon can turn people to stone by looking at them. He is defeated when he sees his reflected gaze on Wolverine's claws.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): The Adjudicator can turn disintegrate people or cause them to fade right out of existence with his gaze if he so chooses.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Meeting Medusa's eyes kills by turning her victims to stone and giving their souls an express ride to Hades.
• X-Men: Ora Serrata, one of the mutants of Arakki introduced in Legion of X, is mostly a huge floating eye. Her gaze can be harmless, but when she actively chooses to look at people with her power, they cease to exist.
  • Apocalypse's son Death, one of his original Horsemen, has this power, causing anyone who he looks at directly to immediately rot away and disintegrate.

Comic Strips

• Dilbert: When a coworker fails to complete his half of an assignment, Alice is furious. In the Sunday 29 November 2015 strip, Alice gives the fool such a powerful glare that it makes his head explode. This result surprises Alice herself: "First time that worked. Practice paid off."

Fan Works

• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: Nu-13 has this ability given to her by Yuuki Terumi and Relius Clover, as they took Ruby Rose's right eye and a piece of her soul to grant Nu the powers of a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Her first use of this ability is in Chapter 76, where she incapacitates the progenitor of the Grimm, the Black Beast.
• To My Death I Fight: The nameless female Taichou's Bankai in chapter 49 has the ability to turn everything they look at, into ash.
• White Sheep (RWBY): Downplayed. Ruby Rose's silver eyes are shown to induce discomfort in Jaune and Remy and cause Lavender to faint, though the effect is not permanently harmful yet despite having the potential to eventually become lethal. It's also one of the only things that can knock Jaune out of his Berserker Mode. The God of Darkness eventually reveals that the Silver Eyes are the result of the God of Light's tampering. In the Distant Finale, Ruby and Jaune's son has silver eyes as well. What effect this will have on him is unknown, given that Silver Eyes are an anti-Grimm weapon and the kid is part Grimm.

Film — Live-Action

• Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet: Played for laughs when the hero uses this look to render a gangster unconscious in the Batman Cold Open scene.
• Conan the Barbarian (1982): Thulsa Doom uses his power to kill people by staring at them to murder Conan's mother.
• Shinobi: Heart Under Blade : Oboro is a Yamato Nadeshiko with the power of brutally killing someone just by looking at them.
• Warlock (1989): The evil sorceror curses a man simply by staring into his eyes. The man bleeds out of the eyes and very nearly dies.

Literature

• Annals of the Western Shore: Most of the titular "gifts" in the first book work this way: a look, and a gesture, and intent. The Caspros have a family legend of a brantor who had to go blindfolded in his youth due to Power Incontinence, and Orrec resorts to this as well.
• Corflambo from The Faerie Queene has fiery eyes that can kill any men who looks into them. He used this basilisk-like power to conquer kingdoms and nations by his lonesome.
• Grettir's Saga: The revenant Glam's power to curse resides in his eyes. Grettir is able to throw Glam to the ground, but as Glam is lying on his back, a cloud is drifting from the moon, making the moonlight fall on Glam's face. Grettir is struck with terror at the sight of Glam's eyes, and is paralyzed; Glam then speaks his curse on Grettir.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Muggle-born students keep turning up Petrified, apparently because of some monster loose in the school. The protagonists eventually realize that it's a basilisk, which kills with its gaze; the reason nobody has died so far is only because none of the victims saw it directly (except for Nearly-Headless Nick, who couldn't die because he already did).
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The program Potterwatch addresses the ridiculous rumor spreading amongst the populace after Voldemort's takeover of the Ministry of Magic that he has the same capability.
    Fred Weasley: So people, let's try and calm it down a bit, things are bad enough without inventing stuff! For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill you with a single glance from his eyes. That's a Basilisk, listeners! One simple test: check whether the thing that's glaring at you has legs: if it has, it's safe to look. Although, if it really is You-Know-Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do.
• The Laundry Files, given its Post-Modern Magik approach, has "gorgons" who are actually people who suffer a very rare form of brain tumor that serves as a conduit for an extra-dimensional particle-wave function that transforms carbon into silicon — in other words, a petrifying gaze. It also exists in snakes (basilisks) and chickens (cockatrices), and its effects can be recreated in a CCTV camera with a programmable chipset, thousands of which are deployed across the country as the Scorpion Stare network. So not only is Big Brother watching you, he can kill you instantly.
• The Lost Years of Merlin features Balor (see below), who in this version guards the portal to the Otherworld.
• The Man with the Terrible Eyes: Very few people like looking at the main character's eyes, although he himself is immune to their effects. Looking at them for too long tends to break them emotionally and mentally. If a person has a weak heart, there's even a risk of look at them causing a heart attack.
• The Moomins: Looking into the Lady of the Cold's eyes will freeze you solid, killing you instantly (though it's suggested that the squirrel who got frozen managed to survive somehow).
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Vera Miligan's parents transplanted a basilisk eye into her left socket, allowing her to cast a paralyzing curse with her eye, which she normally conceals with a Hiding Behind Your Bangs hairstyle. This is actually a distraction from her real trump card: a second basilisk eye implanted in the palm of her left hand.
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire: Baron Vengeous had the ability to cause a victim to rupture by glaring at them.
• The Sorcerer's Receptionist: The powerful mage Alois can set things on fire by looking at them. This is why his eyes are red and usually covered with magical glasses. According to Word of God, this quirk isn't related to his Power Incontinence, although high emotions do make it worse.
• Those Eyes, a short story by David Brin, has humans being able to kill fairies, in a form of Masquerade Enforcer. Humans that look at fairies with skepticism can utterly disintegrate the fay.
• Voyage of the Basset: Medusa has her famous gaze which can cause people to be Taken for Granite.
• Wild Cards: If it's Demise, don't look in his eyes! Demise's Wild Card allowed him to channel his own death experience into another person's by locking gazes with them. The experience was always fatal for the other person. Golden Boy is the only person who ever survived it, because his Ace made him tough-enough to withstand the effect, but only barely. As it had been about thirty years since anything had managed to hurt him at all, the experience left him badly shaken.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: If you see a Weeping Angel, you have to keep your eyes on it to keep it in its statue form. But if while doing that you look it in the eye, it can gain a foothold in your mind and kill you slowly For the Evulz.

Mythology and Legend

• Classical Mythology:
  • Anyone looking into the eyes of a basilisk or cockatrice would be instantly killed or turned to stone.
  • While Greek myth says that anyone who looks upon Medusa's face will turn to stone, the common popular depiction of her is that one has to be able to see her eyes to be stoned.
  • According to the ancient Greeks a witch could cause harm by looking at someone. Medea, as the granddaughter of Helios (the source of the power of all witches), has it powerful enough that, in one version of her encounter with the unkillable bronze giant Talos, it caused him so much pain he killed himself.
• Celtic Mythology:
  • Balor, king of the Fomorians, was said to be able to char people to ashes by looking at them with his eye.
• The online article entitled "How to Survive an Encounter With the Fairies" alleges to provide various suggestions on how to survive an encounter with The Fair Folk. In addition to the use of Iron and apotropaic symbols, the article also states that humans have the power of the evil eye which can hurt fairies by merely looking at them, or at least prevent them from using their magic. Apparently, this serves as a kind of Masquerade Enforcer, encouraging fairies to hide themselves from human observation.
• The catoblepas is a hideously ugly oxlike creature who either kills you or turns you into stone if you meet its gaze. Fortunately, most versions go on to add that the catoblepas finds its head incredibly heavy to hold up, and is thus not much of a threat to anyone who isn't lying on the ground.
• In Egyptian Mythology, the goddess known as the Eye of Ra (that depending on the version may be Hathor, Sekhmet, or Hathor transformed into Sekhmet) can make humans die in an unspecified but bloody way by glaring at them. She is unleashed on mankind in the Myth of Destruction of Mankind after far too many sinners started publicily insulting Ra... And in a single day she brought humanity on the brink of destruction by wiping out all the sinners and then turning her gaze on the innocents to drink their blood. The other gods were thankfully able to trick her to drink a lake worth of beer mixed with ochre (thus looking like blood) and get her drunk enough she calmed down.
• The Talmud (Shabbat 33b) tells the story of Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Eleazar, who spent twelve years hiding in a cave as fugitives from the Roman government, and studying Torah. When the prophet Elijah told them it was safe to come out, they were furious to see people engaging in worldly occupations instead of Torah, and "whatever they cast their eyes upon was immediately burnt up." A heavenly voice called out, "Have you emerged to destroy My world?" and ordered them back to the cave for another twelve months.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons
  • Meeting the gaze of the catoblepas causes death.
  • Pyrolisks have a gaze attack that can cause their victims to burst into flames.
  • Basilisks petrify you if you meet their eyes; one variant poisons you instead. If you're on the Astral Plane, looking at one in the eyes will simply kill you. Likewise, medusas petrify with their glare.
  • A beholder has two small eyes which cause death or disintegration to any creature they look at.
  • A nothic can inflict necrosis on any creature it can fix its single eye's sight on.
• Exalted: The Deathlords can do this to a mortal, killing them instantly, turning them to a ghost which the Deathlord can then control.
• Fabula Ultima:
  • The Hexeye enemy has two harmful gaze-based abilities. One, Doomgaze, is a spell that inflicts two status effects to the victim. The other, Chaos Glare, is an attack which inflicts dark damage and reduces the number of actions the victim can take on its next turn, if the victim was already afflicted with one of Doomgaze's status effects.
  • The Echidna has a Cold Glare attack which deals ice damage and prevents the target from taking the Objective action on its next turn.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Navigators have a Third Eye that lets them see the Warp. It also kills anyone who looks at it, which is why they wear blindfolds.
  • While not technically an example (his bionic eye shoots Eye Beams instead), the reason Commissar Yarrick got a bionic eye that could shoot lasers was hearing a rumor that he could kill with a look.
• Warhammer Fantasy: The Dark Elves can field Medusae, a gorgon-like creature with the terrifying ability to make their victims burst in showers of blood when they look at their eyes.
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse: According to the Revised Uktena tribebook, Great Uktena's gaze will cause one of the target's loved ones to die. However, Great Uktena does not inflict this curse on Uktena Garou.

Video Games

• Akatsuki Blitzkampf: Sai possesses evil eyes that can inflict several kinds of diseases and damage on his opponents if he stares at them with enough focus or removes his glasses. These can go from simply losing speed or guard, to having huge fish dropped on them when they jump, to an incredibly nasty combo of the three curses PLUS Life Drain.
• Arc Angle: Your character has a downplayed version. Their "angle of light" doesn't hurt enemies, but any bullets that enemies fire will be slowly turned into holy bullets which then home back into the enemy that fired it. An upgrade allows the "gaze" to slightly slow down enemies. The Final Boss' version on the other hand is lethal, and it covers an angle that's greater than 270-degrees.
• Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast: The demon Aec'Letec will use his death gaze on your party. First, the victim becomes paralyzed. Then, he will die and is turned into a hostile ghoul.
• This is one of Tchernobog's attacks as the Final Boss of Blood (1997). If he looks at you while there's direct line of sight between you and him, you will catch fire and slowly take extra damage until you can hide behind something.
• Dark Souls III: The Irithyll Jailers can reduce your HP just by looking at you. And it isn't just damage: they actually reduce your maximum health, meaning you can't heal. Your health bar will regenerate after about twenty seconds of not being looked at, but your actual health won't, and will need to be healed. This trait, as well as the fact that the Jailers tend to work in groups, quickly made them among the most hated enemies in the game.
• EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Power King uses the classic Portable Medusa Head as his EXTRAPOWER technique, pulling it out of his Badass Longcoat to stun everyone in her gaze and deal massive damage. Just be warned: it's everyone in her gaze. Aggressive enemies can end up in the gap between the Medusa's face and Power King himself, as he holds it at arm's length.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy XIV: A common ability for enemies, generally referred to as "gaze attacks". Early-game enemies tend to require you look at their eyes, but particularly powerful enemies invert it with abilities that inflict status effects if you are looking at them regardless if they're looking at you, but in all cases turning around is enough to render you immune to the attack.
  • Final Fantasy XI: Any attack considered a "gaze" attack" is an attack with a gaze. These mostly cause status effects rather than outright damage. Ranging from extremely annoying (Paralysis) to even more annoying (Petrification) to Death. However, all gaze attacks only work if one is looking at the user when the attack goes off. Enemies known for their gaze attacks are typically fought without the default target lock-on, so simply turning around to negate the attack is easier.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics: The flying eyeball creatures can cause nasty status ailments with a glare attack that never misses. However, if you can position your units to not look at the creatures straight in the eyes, then their gaze attacks always fail.
• Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: A Force power, Deadly Sight, is basically this. One of the bosses, Sariss, can use it against you in battle, and there's a way — if you play as a bad guy, that is — to become capable of using it yourself later in the game.
• League of Legends: Cassiopeia, the Serpent's Embrace, is a woman who was cursed into the form of a lamia-like creature. Her ultimate ability blasts all enemies in front of her with light from her eyes, damaging and petrifying them if they're facing her at the time, and merely slowing and damaging them if they have their backs turned. A somewhat downplayed version of the usual Medusa myth; due to LoL's short CC durations by MOBA standards, the petrification lasts only 2 seconds.^note Which is still very long by the standards of the game, making Cassiopeia's Petrifying Gaze an extremely powerful ability.
• Metroid Dread: E.M.M.I.-05IM has freezing vision, a power it demonstrates in a cutscene by freezing one of its support drones solid and charging through it, shattering the poor drone to pieces. This is not Cutscene Power to the Max; if it sees Samus, she will freeze solid for a few seconds, time it will spend catching up to her to attempt a One-Hit Kill. It loses this power when it enters berserk mode after she secures the Omega Cannon, however.
• UNLOVED: The Witch's "Face of Death" attack inflicts a signifcant amount of damage which pierces your armour if you stay in her line of sight for too long. A Rotten Witch's version kills instantly.

Web Animation

• Power Star: A variation of this occurs in part 4, where Devil Mario is seen using optical shockwaves against several bystanders, reducing them to mere drops of blood upon contact just before his final duel with Luigi.
• RWBY: According to legend, the Creatures of Grimm are afraid of silver-eyed warriors because the warriors are capable of striking the Grimm down with a single look. It's supposedly a ridiculous tale, but it is actually true. Ruby inherited her silver eyes from her mother, but doesn't learn about the legend until the end of Volume 3. She doesn't learn how to use them properly until she meets another silver-eyed warrior in Volume 6.

Webcomics

• Homestuck: Downplayed. While its gaze doesn't kill, the Glowing Eyes of the dragon Pyralspite are intense enough to blind people who gaze into them, and a similar dragon on Jake's island can cause "glaresplosions" through its stare.
• Noblesse: A minor villain can attack by merely looking at someone. His opponent is naturally shocked that he takes a hit without seeing any gesture from said villain.

Web Original

• Afterlife SMP: The Enigma origin is able to kill mobs and players just by staring at them, albeit slowly. Enigma Lizzie ends up accidentally murdering Angel Scott this way.

Western Animation

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Stare Master" features a cockatrice, with the penalty of looking it in the eyes of the "turning to stone" variety rather than "instant death". And the cockatrice has the power to reverse it if one can convince it that it should stop turning creatures to stone, as Fluttershy, and, in a later episode, Silverstream, successfully do.
• A Thousand and One... Americas: Near the end of the twenty-first episode, after the new cique has been chosen to govern the Quimbaya tribe and completed his (and everybody else's) offerings to the gods, he beings being transported on a throne moved by his inner circle through a path made of carpets. At this point, Chris is alerted that he must not watch directly the cique while he's being transported, or else his life will be in grave danger. Chris accidentally looks at him, and is unable to move this head to see elsewhere due to a sudden state of trance he cannot overcome (not even after a local woman shakes him to try to make him stop looking). Before the worst happens to Chris, he's brought back to reality by his girlfriend (Monica), who's been shaking him like the woman in the dream did.

---