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"Do you take your wrestling mask and boxing gloves off before you go to bed?" ... Well, that's a stupid question, Abdi. Do you take off your face and hands before you go to bed?
A character's mask is usually intended to obscure the face. In animation this used to also be a helpful cheat to draw something similar.
In order to look less wooden, however, it's very common for the mask to be essentially a character's face; or at least painted on, so to speak. The eyeholes and even the shape of the mask will contort seamlessly depending on the character's mood. This is especially true when a character's actual eyes are basically not drawn while in costume.
This can even extend to such simple things as eyeglasses, which in the hands (err, lenses) of an expressive character seemingly become organic extensions of the body: widening with surprise, narrowing with suspicion, and scaring with shiny. Interestingly cracked glasses can autorepair thanks to this property between scenes. This is similar to Open The Iris, where the iris, not the pupil, widens and shrinks.
Even if the mask, helmet, or head itself isn't very expressive, you can still get a lot of mileage out of Disembodied Eyebrows. For other emotional conveying clothing see Expressive Shirt.
Examples
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Advertising
- Commercials for the Jack-in-a-Box restaurant. The mascot's head is a giant ping-pong with a pointed nose and painted-on face, which always wears an expression suited to his tone of voice, though the actual transition only occurs when he's off-camera.
Anime and Manga
- The undisputed king of this trope is Kinnikuman, where the main character (and just about everybody on his Planet Of Hats) wears a skintight mask meant to completely replace his face. It follows each and every one of his expressions perfectly. Due to the series being primarily about Professional Wrestling, several other characters wear masks of varying properties (Mystic wood, crushed sapphire/steel alloy, etc.) that are likewise expressive, just not to the degree that Kinnikuman's is.
- Alphonse Elric from Full Metal Alchemist could be remarkably expressive with his helmet, despite the fact that it never moved (even when he talked; his voice came from inside the armor). He's actually able to blush visibly, despite being a soul bound to an empty suit of armor.
- The helmet only changes when he's drawn as chibi, the rest of the time it never changes.
- The villain Kain in the first Tenchi Muyo movie had a face that resembled a mask (including not moving when he spoke) and which changed expression occasionally, though it seems to have been a part of his body.
- Getter Robo has Stilva, a very expressive Humongous Mecha that mirrors its pilot's expressions, to the point that it even has a full set of teeth and an uvula.
- Bossborot.
- In Axis Powers Hetalia, Turkey has this, combined with his Nice Hat.
- Shinigami-sama from Soul Eater has a mask in which the eyes change shape from round and dopey to triangular when he is about to beat an enemy into the ground.
- And for a masked character who doesn't seem to have a body inside his costume, he also manages cross-popping veins and tears.
- Kakashi is a notable inversion of this: he mostly keeps his entire face save one eye covered with a mask that obscure facial movement except vaguely showing when he moves him mouth, but it's usually very successful in expressing his mood through that one eye and his eyebrows.
- In Saiunkoku Monogatari, Kou Kijin's masks themselves aren't animated, but he has a wide assortment of them made by his friend and colleague Kou Reishin, and some of them are very expressive.
Comic Books
- Batman's mask can sometimes be seen doing this. Of course, for Bats it's almost always "brow furrowed." Almost
 ◊.
- The appearance of this is explained by the live-action films: close-ups on Batman's face make clear that he's wearing eye makeup in the gap between his mask and the edges of his eyelids. (This is the most likely method for any live actors masked in the same style.)
- Except that the makeup disappears between shots when he unmasks in Batman Returns.
- Destro in GI Joe was a very good example of this, given that despite his wearing of a metal mask that completely covers his head, it was in essence "painted on", in regards to being able to furrow his brow, smile, frown, move his lips, etc.
- Spider-Man and Deadpool, both of the Marvel Universe, often manage some pretty goofy expressions even though they wear masks concealing their entire face. These are usually of the "cocked eyebrow" variety.
- Spidey's expressiveness extends to The Spectacular Spiderman Animated Series, rivaled only by the marvelously emotive full head masks of the Green Goblin and the Chameleon. Chameleon at least has a good excuse, but we've also seen Flash with a donkey head mask during a play, the mouth of which moved just as fluidly.
- They experimented with this for the movie, but decided that in live-action it moved the mask firmly into the Uncanny Valley.
- Rorschach's patterns on his mask in Watchmen (which he occasionally describes as "his real face") can be seen as either an aversion or subversion of this trope. The mask is designed to continually shift, but these patterns are mostly random and his actual emotions are conveyed entirely through body language. There is a pattern shown consistently when he is surprised, however.
- There's also one for sarcasm.
- Are you sure that's the case, and you're not just reading ink blots?
- This is the subject of much debate among the fans - Word Of God has been cited as saying that the inkblots are random, but the counter-argument is that his face will press against the material differently with particular emotions, and therefore produce recognisable blots for distinct feelings. perhaps more important, however, is how on earth Rorschach sees THROUGH the apparently opaque material of his mask...
- Both Marvel Universe characters Dr. Doom and Iron Man have masks specifically described as made of metal, yet both can show emotion when needed. The trick is the angle from which they're shown.
- But at least once, the trope was used and justified for Iron Man: he's shown creating a faceplate for his armour that follows his own expressions, the better to intimidate his foes.
- At least one print story from The Ultimate Super-Villains anthology says that Doctor Doom's updated mask contains micro-servos that can mimic expression, though he habitually keeps it locked in an arrogant scowl to better intimidate his underlings.
- Doom's mask has a built-in frown/scowl with arched eye-slits that make him appear constantly enraged.
Film
- The masks in The Incredibles are essentially dark patches on the characters' skin, changing shape as their features move and even covering their eyelids. Who knows? Given everything else their costume designer, Edna Mode, is able to make their costumes do, this might just be another feature, but even that doesn't explain how these masks actually fool people. But then, people often ask that about Clark Kent as well.
- Given the size and nature of the masks, it's quite possible that they're held in place with adhesive and naturally move with the skin behind it, thus perfectly mimicing facial expressions.
- All characters in the Bionicle films (save for a few such as Krekka who do not wear masks).
- Aversion: The character designers for the animated film The Iron Giant deliberately gave the title character's head extra hinges, shutters, etc. so that it could produce facial expressions without cartoony contortions.
- The live-action Transformers movie also averts this in a similar way, although with greater physical detail.
- While for the majority of V For Vendetta movie V's mask is just a mask, several scenes have been digitally edited so that the mask moves very, very slightly. The idea was, because people are so used to masks not moving, if they saw the eyebrow go up an unnoticeable fraction, it would make a huge subconscious difference. And it did, obviously. Watch the mask just before the big fight towards the end. It helps that it already looks a bit CGI in its normal form, but watching closely you can see it move the tiniest bit.
- In the comics, it doesn't seem to move, but lighting effects are used to make it more expressive. If you don't show the eyebrows, he looks innocently happy, but focusing on them makes him look more formidable...
- Justified in The Mask (all versions) because the thing is magic, even if it appears wooden when not being worn.
- Played for laughs in Scary Movie, where the expression of the mask worn by the killer changes between shots into anything from mad, to happy, to stoned.
Literature
- In The Belgariad and its prequels, the god Torak wears a steel mask over a severe burn that shifts as his healthy face would. To his defense, he is a god.
- Roald Dahl's book The Witches gives the Grand High Witch of All the World a mask that looks exactly like a beautiful human face, moving perfectly with her own, which is ugly and scabby. The improbability of such a mask is commented upon.
- The character of fallen and tragic Prince Gaynor the Damned turns up in several of Michael Moorcock's novels that feature an incarnation of the Eternal Champion. Prince Corum opposes Gaynor, and so does Elric at one point (in The Revenge of the Rose). Prince Gaynor the Damned is described as being sheathed from head to toe in metal armor which changes colors constantly, so that nothing of his body can be seen, and carries a great shield with the eight-arrowed star, the sign of Chaos. The colors that play over the surface of Gaynor's armor appear to change in reaction to Gaynor's emotions and moods. Indeed, Gaynor was cursed with eternal torment for betraying the Cosmic Balance and is unable to take off the armor on his own (although in one of the books, Corum rips off Gaynor's helmet and reveals a face continuously eaten alive by maggots, with the implication that the rest of the body is covered in maggot, too). Gaynor is immortal (and may be unkillable, too, as he alone survives a wound from Elric's soul-sucking runesword Stormbringer), but longs only for death.
Live Action TV
- In the Tales From The Crypt episode "Only Skin Deep", an abusive creep goes home from a costume party with a shapely young lady - himself dressed as a pirate, her as a body bag ('artificial shell with a corpse inside' - tip off number one?) and with a slightly disturbing mask. Naturally, he doesn't notice that the mouth of the 'mask' and the eyeholes move when her mouth and eyes do, respectively... typical Crypt type 90's horror ensues. It's clearly makeup, but for plot purposes, no one has ever apparently put on corpsepaint in their life, god forbid for a costume party...
Newspaper Comics
- Spaceman Spiff, interplanetary explorer extraordinaire, wears a space visor that is more like a small square black screen perched on his nose, which somehow conveys all of his eye's expressions. The standard expression is two squares. For that matter, the Calvinball masks and Stupendous Man's mask are very expressive for pieces of cloth (the Stupendous Man hood, however, does white out Calvin's eyes in his daydreams.)
Theater
- The Swiss theater troupe Mummenschanz play with, deconstruct, mash back together, and otherwise have all sorts of fun with this trope.
- The masks used in ancient Greek theater had all sorts of exaggerated expressions, making this Older Than Feudalism.
Video Games
- Not quite a mask, but Agent Sasha Nein's glasses are capable of changing shape with his expressions. He is psychic, of course, but that seems a rather trivial use of telekinesis.
- The Shy Guys from the Super Mario games do this all the time.
- The only time I've seen them do it is in Mario Strikers Charged.
- The human characters in Viva Pinata wear tribal-style full face masks that move and emote perfectly. However, given the cartoonish style of the game and related tie-ins, it's possible that these "masks" are their actual faces.
Web Comics
- The Big Bad and common Mooks for most of It's Walky! are capable of showing rage, confusion, and even bewilderment through their helmets. Sometimes even all of them at once.
- Justified in Freefall: Sam Starfall's mask was purpose-built to mimic human expressions, and he can control it with his tentacly face.
- But the same strip contains robots whose normally-oval eyes appear as semicircles when they're annoyed, or as lines. (The latter made sense when it appeared on Sawtooth Rivergrinder, however, as the ^ shapes were displayed inside his eyes, implying them to be capable of functioning as a graphical display.)
- Xykon of The Order Of The Stick doesn't wear a mask, but his skull is surprisingly expressive, even if it can't do an Evil Laugh. Of course, the rest of his body is also moving more than a normal skeleton.
- Averted in The Adventures of Doctor McNinja The masks on the titular character and his ninja family stay motionless. However, they manage to be fairly expressive through eye movements (it helps that the masks show eyebrows.)
- Any inconsistencies with the masks have gotten a preemptive Hand Wave: The Doctor and his family know a variety of "ninja tricksh" which, among other things, let them eat with their masks on.
- Butch's Jason mask.
- In this Gunnerkrigg Court strip, young Donald has quite expressive glasses.
- Not strictly a mask, but Zeetha from Girl Genius has an expressive headband which has a face on it whose expression always matches hers.
- Similarly, Buck from Buck Godot Zap Gun For Hire has a belt which sometimes changes to an appropriate expression for the situation. This seems to be a Foglio feature...
- Qujia Vloz'ress, a minor antagonist in Drow Tales wears a black, smooth, featureless mask, which is nevertheless quite expressive.
- PVP: Scratch Fury in his Christmas tree disguise, Kringus.
- In Everyday Heroes, Carrie has both expressive glasses and puppy eyes here.
Web Original
- Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, whose first ever e-mail is the opening quote. In response, he claimed that his mask and gloves were his face and hands. A recent e-mail "shows" him removing his mask offscreen with a ripping noise, and making painful gurgling sounds until he puts it back on, after which he swears "I am never doing that again!".
Western Animation
- Most Animated Adaptations of the characters in The DCU (and the Marvel Universe) have expressive masks; especially notable are Robin from Teen Titans (pictured) and JLU's Steel, whose mask is an immoble steel helmet.
- Steel's mask shows his expression in the comics as well. This troper assumed he had tiny motors in there, but a lettercol suggested it was either evidence of his superpowers (a Ret Con that was later dropped) or he had really strong facial muscles.
- Also noteworthy from the animated continutity are Atomic Skull and Blight; both have exposed skulls (the latter because of transparant skin, the former because...well...) which tend to show a greater range of emotion than you should be capable of getting from a skeletal jaw and eye-sockets.
- Music Meister wore a visor-ish mask that was detailed to look like a measure of music with a pair of one-eighth notes on it. It was quite expressive, with the notes functioning as pupils and the bar connecting them flexing like a mono-eyebrow. And, of the over a dozen costume changes he does in the course of one episode, is the one part that NEVER CHANGES.
- In an inversion, Reboot's character Hexadecimal, a computer virus of an excessively chaotic and unpredictable behavior, had no facial animation for most of the series. Her face was a "drama mask", and her expression would always change on a cut or while her face was not visible (usually blocked by her hand).
- Lampshaded in one episode where AndrAIa assumes Hex's identity. She sits in front of a mirror waving her hand back and forth in front of her face, watching the expression change and saying "Happy...sad! Happy...sad!"
- In the third and fourth seasons, after Hex becomes sane and does a Heel Face Turn, her face does become expressive and actually moves when she talks.
- The goggles that Time Squad officers wear in Time Squad act in this way. The easiest example would be Buck Tuddrussel.
- Most Transformers faces were like this. Despite being made of metal, they would easily slide into various facial expressions. This even happened in Beast Wars, in which the character in question may not even have a mouth.
- Taken to an extreme with Transformers Animated Shockwave, who has no facial features at all. Well, when he's not in Longarm Prime mode. All he has is a red circle as an optic sensor in the middle of his dark face, but it changes shape subtly according to his moods the way the other characters' optic sensors do.
- Averted in the Live Action Adaptation, in the same way as The Iron Giant (see above) did.
- Averted in one of the numerous Zorro animated adaptations, where Zorro's mask actually shows his eyes.
- Filmation's Ghostbusters Big Bad Prime Evil had a robotic skull for a face/helmet; despite the fact that it was apparently made of metal, it could cartoonishly change appearance for a variety of expressions (but then, since he's already a ghost, this could be a Justified Trope.)
- The Monarch henchmen in The Venture Brothers wear goggles that blink and move like real eyes.
- Though in commentary for the Season 1 DVD, either Doc Hammer or Jackson Publick mentioned that they hated blinking goggles.
- Not quite a mask, but many characters wear glasses capable of changing shape with their expressions:
- Dib of Invader Zim.
- Dexter of Dexters Laboratory.
- Otto of Time Squad.
- Mr. Crocker of Fairly Oddparents.
- Doctor Octopus of The Spectacular Spider Man swaps unmoving Nerd Glasses for curiously emotive goggles after his Face Heel Turn.
- Duckman. His glasses don't change shape so much, but his his eyelids (and eyes) are apparently part of his glasses, while his eyebrows float above them. As his glasses sit about a third down his bill, one can plainly see the blank yellow expanse where his eyes should be, whether or not he's got them on.
- It has been shown that the glasses contain his eyes even when he sleeps with them on the nightstand next to his bed.
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