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You can't spell warrior without one I.
Something covers one of the character's eyes. It might be an eyepatch, a particularly concealing haircut, or a tilted Hachimaki. Whatever it is, it neatly conveys the fact that the wearer is either 1) an experienced combatant or 2) secretly a badass.
Perhaps both.
These characters rarely experience any problems with depth perception or suffer from the resulting reduced field of vision. In fact, sometimes the Eyepatch Of Power covers a perfectly functional - or specially-functional - eye instead of the empty hole one might suspect. This is sometimes a technique of Trickster types.
Pirates often have eye patches, which is a separate thematic concept, but the overlap of badassery and piracy is significant enough to mention.
In The Future, rough and tumble outlaws will often have a single, obvious cybernetic eye, which will give them some sort of special holdout ability or Super Senses.
When the Norse god Odin traded an eye for a drink from Mimir's well of knowledge, he made this trope Older Than Dirt.
Related to Blind Seer - power gain through the loss of an eye is a repeating motif in literature.
See also: Evil Eye, Mask Power, Eyes Always Shut, and if you're masochistic, Eye Scream. May result because Scars Are Forever.
Examples
Anime
- Kakashi in Naruto hides a special eye behind his Hachimaki. In fact, he had to switch out his old eye for it...
- A recent chapter shows that Danzo has it too. Given what happened to the Uchihas because of him, it makes you wonder how he got it.
- He took it from Shisui Uchiha who is best remembered for being the guy who got killed so that Itachi could get the Mangekyo Sharingan
- In fact, there are a lot of minor ninja with eye patches/coverings including Kuromaru (who for the uninformed is a dog
 ◊) and Tonbo Tobitake, who has a covering for both eyes. The above revelation has started a joke among the fandom that anyone who is covering their eye (doesn't even need to be with an eye patch; it can just be with hair) they must be hiding a Sharingan. Humorously, just a couple chapters later a newly introduced character from the Mist village took off his eyepatch to reveal not a Sharingan, but a Byakugan.
- Syaoran's Ultimate Eyepatch Of We're Edgy Now in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
- Ginko of Mushishi is missing one eye, but the hole is usually covered by his hair.
- Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach hides one (functioning) eye under an eyepatch made from a creature that eats his Battle Aura, which allows him to fight at a lower power-level so as not to crush lesser opponents and ruin all the fun so quickly.
- Kenpachi's evil counterpart 5th Espada Nnoitra Jigura also has an eyepatch, which conceals his Hollow hole and the remants of his mask.
- Starrk's release gives him what's either an eyepatch or a scouter. When he does this, he goes from Brilliant But Lazy to Not So Harmless.
- Fuhrer King Bradley in the Full Metal Alchemist uses a patch to hide his "Ultimate Eye", his left eye which holds his Ouroboros that gives him the foresight to see all possible outcomes of a given situation, allowing him to predict the moves of any opponent before they happen. His original eye rotted out when he was turned into a Homunculus.
- Lucia Nabashi from Venus Versus Virus wears an eyepatch in order to hide her glowing left eye.
- Jiyu Nanohana from Jubei-chan received a "Lovely Eyepatch" that turned her into a super swordswoman. Her Rival Freesia in the second season had a similar one.
- One episode in Yu-Gi-Oh GX featured Don Zaruug/Don Zaloog, a Duel Monster spirit wearing a gold eyepatch that allowed him to manifest in the physical world and bring his fellow "Dark Scorpion" gang members with him.
- Thorkell of Vinland Saga has just recently come into possession of an eye patch after losing an eye in a battle. As if he wasn't Bad Ass enough already, if this trend continues he'll soon be wearing a longcoat regardless of how anachronistic that might be to the period.
- Ryomou from Ikki Tousen, a.k.a. Battle Vixens, wears a medical bandage over her left eye. it's eventually revealed that the eyepatch is there to help Seal Evil (a "dragon" berserker spirit) In A Can.
- In Shura no Toki, two characters use this trope. Takato keeps one eye closed while the legendary Yagyuu Juubei wears a tsuba (sword guard) over one eye. In both cases they have perfectly functional binocular vision but close one eye for the sake of "training". They instantly power up when they use both eyes.
- In Black Cat, Sven Vollfied wears an eyepatch over his right eye, which has the ability to see a few seconds into the future. If he uses it extensively, it can cause extreme exhaution. He has the eye from his old partner Lloyd who had these powers of seeing the future. Foreseeing Sven's death, Lloyd went to intervene and was consequently killed himself. Sven lost an eye in the process but was given a transplant from Lloyd who had registered as an organ donor not long before.
- Coincidence? I think not.
- Itsuki Iba of Rental Magica always wears an eyepatch, though even with it, he still feels a bit of pain when he's around too much magical pollution.
- Trigun's Dominique the Cyclops has what she calls the Demon Eye. Hidden by a metal shutter over her right eye, the fake eye can temporarily put all who are near in a trance for a few moments.
- Lavi from D.Gray-Man wears an eye patch over his right eye. Under it he hides a secret "only known to Bookmen". Nobody know what it is. Yet.
- In Shura No Toki, the main character Yamato keeps one eye closed as a self-inflicted handicap. So does his son.
- Cinque of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. She once fought against an S-Rank mage. She lost her eye, he lost his life.
- Irvine from Zoids: Chaotic Century. Though his eyes are completely normal, the eyepatch he wears effectively functions as combination camera, camcorder, and binoculars.
- Somewhat subverted by Dragon Shiryu in Saint Seiya. Shiryu either blinds himself or loses his eyesight in the peak moments of his fights, then emerges much more powerful.
- His companion Cygnus Hyoga wears a more traditional one.
- Barasuishou of Rozen Maiden Traumend wears a flowery eyepatch over her left eye, acting as a seal over her emotions. Kirakishou, the doll she was based on, appears to have an identical one over her right eye, but it was revealed to be an actual rose growing from the socket.
- Akito from Air Gear's eyepatch acts as an indicator as to which half of his Split Personality is in charge: if over the right eye, sweet and innocent Akito is in control. Over the left eye, violent and brash Agito takes over. Without the eyepatch, Agito still has control, but with more power.
- Hellsing has two examples, the first being the mercenary Pip Bernadotte and the second being Integra after her eye was damaged in the final battle.
- An odd and extremely narm version of this is combined with Mask Power in Dragonaut The Resonance. When Kazuki, the Rival Turned Evil, returns from a No One Could Survive That moment, he's wearing an eyepatch...as a mask. It makes it look like he has a thong on his head.
- Makiko Nagi of Tenjho Tenge wears one, and it covers a pretty freaky scar. She got it after her lover decided to try creating an ultimate weapon out of someone else and removed the eye in question in order to give his new experimentee the abilities she'd already absorbed from other people.
- Nice Holystone of Baccano!, who conceals a small but functional bomb within the empty eye socket covered by her eyepatch.
- Saito from Ghost In The Shell has a cybernetic implant that resembles an eyepatch. His left eye was replaced with the "Hawkeye", a prosthetic eye that interfaces with satellites to allow for shots of incredible accuracy.
- Kind of subverted in Gundam 00 as the while the eyepatch Lockon Stratos receives later in the series does make him look more badass (if this is even possible for stupid, sexy Lockon), it gives Ali an advantage in the final fight causing Lockon to lose their fight and die.
- Bel Peol, a leader of the villain group Bal Masque from Shakugan No Shana, actually has three eyes, but her normal right eye is covered by an eyepatch. This only makes her look even more badass.
- Lelouch Lamperouge of Code Geass has a variation in the second season of the show, as now that his geass in his eye is on Mode Lock, he has to wear a special contact lens over it to hide that power in civilian life.
- A (slightly) more straight example can be found in Knight Of One Bismarck Waldstein, who has his left eye sewn shut. This is to seal his always-on Geass, which allows him to predict an opponent's movement.
- When Jeremiah Gottwald opens his left eye, he can nullify any Geass power. Being a badass already, it made it easy for him to deal with Rolo and Lelouch when they were unable to use their Geass on him.
- Senri from ''+Anima uses an eyepatch to control his +anima form.
- Gantai from Koi Koi 7 has one to conceal her mechanical eye. Fitting to the trope, she's incredibly dangerous when she goes berserk.
- Eyepatches and concealing hairdos abound in Leiji Matsumoto's works (Harlock, Emeraldas, Star Blazers).
- Neon Genesis Evangelion goes this route with bandages. Rei starts the series with an eyepatch, Asuka ends the movie with one (given that she's skinny, likes to wear red, and German, she should look for work in the next Matsumoto movie).
- In The Daughter Of Twenty Faces, Ken gets one after losing an eye and turns Darker And Edgier as a result.
- Natose, one of the more powerful characters in They Are My Noble Masters (which is saying something), has an eye patch which is a direct reference to her tragical past.
- Mio Sakamoto of Strike Witches wears a patch over her right (magical) eye. It allows her to see the cores of Neuroi.
- Retsudou from Lone Wolf And Cub got his after the hero tried to kill him by means of an arrow through the eye. It didn't work.
- Ciel Phantomhive of Kuroshitsuji has one to hide his Evil Eye pentagram; the sign of his Deal With The Devil contract.
- André Grandier from Rose Of Versailles has one after losing his left eye rather messily.
- Chigusa Tsukikage from Glass Mask uses her long and messy black hair to cover the scars on her face after a terrible on-stage accident.
- In MÄR, the Chess Piece Candice has one of these in addition to a mask. The eyepatch conceals a magic stone instead of an empty socket, which she uses as a Dimension Ärm.
- Shirow Watari from Rah Xephon has one. Fitting for the commander of a small army.
- "I...am Samurai Gun." Or as they say in the Gag Dub DVD extra: "I...have only one eye."
- One Piece, a manga about pirates, has to date averted this trope over a length of over 550 chapters. Word Of God is that the Eyepatch Of Power is being saved for someone special.
- In a straight, but less literal, example of this trope, Sanji's left eye is perpetually covered by his hair.
- Big O: Norman has one, along with a Badass Mustache.
- The Genbu Seishi Hikitsu from Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden wears an eyepatch over his right eye, which he calls "Shikyokan". It forces the person looking into it to remember their worst memories, and lets him see these as well.
- In the Berserk prototype story, Guts has an eyepatch. He gives it away as a souvenir at the end.
- For some unexplained reason in Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan her younger but older looking sister Zakuro wears an eye patch.
- Moritsugu Reiji's Machina Verdant in Linebarrels Of Iron has one eye destroyed, odd considering that like other machina it can heal given time, and Kouichi actually does try to use to use this to his advantage imagine his shock when Verdant suddenly heals its right eye after he took notice of the blind spot, Reiji goes on to state that verdant deliberately left the eye permanently damaged as a means of testing opponents
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Siesta 00, the commander of the Siestas (bunny-girl soldiers), has one of these.
- Lord Darcia III from Wolfs Rain: He uses a patch on his left side to hide his gold-colored wolf's eye. While its appearance in itself isn't anything special or useful, it's the result of a family curse and being descended from wolves.
- Gintama has Kyuubei (based on Yagyu Jubei in the Real Life examples below) and Takasugi.
- Elder Kaede from Inuyasha wears one because she lost her eye during an attack of demons when she was a little girl.
Comic Books
- Cyclops from the X-Men has a Visor of Power to keep his uncontrollable mutant ability in check.
- Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, in the Marvel Universe. He started as the hard-charging Sgt. Fury during WWII.
- The Phoney Pages, a 1980s-vintage parody "history" of comic books, included the "cover" of an issue of "Brooke Shields, Agent of F.U.R.Y.", which depicted the title character with two eyepatches - one on each eye.
- Pete Wisdom wore an eyepatch, but later revealed that he has full functionality in both eyes and did it just so he could pick up chicks.
- Wolverine wore an eyepatch for a short time - and went by the name Patch - as a disguise.
- Avoided in the funny pages: Beetle Bailey and his nephew Chip Flagston (from Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois, respectively) have their eyes covered by various hats and hair (again respectively). Avoided as neither are badass, and Beetle is even specifically incompetent. And let's not forget Andy Capp, a cheerful layabout whose eyes are always obscured by his near-namesake cloth cap.
- Jolly Roger of The Invisibles 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 Elf Quest 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 because when the elves and trolls are fighting he can't see a troll sneaking up on his blind side and is killed.
- The badass assassin Deathstroke from The DCU wears an eyepatch over his missing eye; his mask is split into two colors, with featureless black over his missing eye. In addition, his daughter wears an eyepatch after taking out her own eye in order to prove herself to him.
- Deathstroke's missing eye is even more Badass when you consider he lost it when his wife, standing right behind him, tried to shoot him in the back of the head. He heard her cock the gun and dodged. Well mostly. Also keep in mind that his wife was the one who initially trained him as a Special Forces operative, so she knew how to kill someone.
- In the Top Cow comic Just A Pilgram, by Garth Ennis, we are introduced to two Eyepatch Badasses. The pilgram 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 peglegs. "This be MY killing floor, mate!"
- Jesse Custer, the Bad Ass star of Preacher, acquires an eyepatch towards the end of the series, after his eye is bitten out by God.
- Y The Last Man: Rose Copen is not only an eye-patched modern pirate 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?"
- In Sonic The Hedgehog, the mirror universe version of Antoine wears one. When Evil Sonic decides to get rid of him by swapping him for the good version, he makes fun of Evil Antoine for only wearing an eyepatch to look cool. Later, when Evil Sonic becomes Scourge, and king of the mirror universe, he becomes determined to make all the evil counterparts more unique than just mirror versions, including actually cutting out Antoine's eye.
- Averted by The Goon, who lost the sight in one eye after getting clawed in the face by a dragon. He just pulls his hat down over his eyes.
- Future incarnations of Raphael, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles invariably have this.
- Female Examples - Callisto and this◊ AU zombie!pirate version of Emma Frost.
- Tallulah Black from Jonah Hex.
Film
- Rooster Cogburn, John Wayne's anti-hero from True Grit.
- Snake Plissken (pictured above) of Escape From New York and Escape From LA fame. Captain Ron... not so much.
- Angelina Jolie's character in Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004).
- All the more so, because she's a pilot.
- Benedict, the Big Bad in Last Action Hero, has a collection of unique glass eyes, most of which have special functions, like explosives.
- General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country doesn't wear an eyepatch — he's such a badass that he actually has a metal plate riveted to his face.
- In homage or (more likely, given the tone of the film) parody of the above, Big Bad Sarris from Galaxy Quest has a metal plate bolted over his damaged right eye after surviving having his ship blown up by atomic mines. He's a sadistic bastard, but that's pretty badass.
- Dilios, the sole survivor in the film 300. By definition (given his peers) a badass, he is perhaps more so because, with his one eye and his talent for storytelling, he is ordered to do the hard thing (for a Spartan): escape and live, to tell their story.
- Towards the end of the third Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, Ragetti (a Plucky Comic Relief character) gives up his wooden eye for an eyepatch since it turned out his wooden eye was one of the pieces of eight of the Pirate Lords. He doesn't really become more badass, but it does mark a shift into a more serious tone of the film.
- Dr. Serizawa, the man who killed Godzilla.
- Number Two from the first Austin Powers film neatly takes the second version: hidden in his eyepatch is a sight-enhancing camera, allowing him to cheat at blackjack.
- Dark Action Girl and Evil Counterpart of the protagonist, Elle Driver from Kill Bill has one due to getting her eye plucked out by Hermit Guru Pai Mei prior to the the film. Tarantino got the idea from a '70s exploitation film (no surprise there) called They Call Her One-Eye, about an eyepatch-wearing prostitute going on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge. Unfortunately for Driver, getting her remaining eye plucked out makes her defenseless.
- Unless there's a sequel where she's learned to fight completely blind, which would make her both a Handicapped Badass and a Disabled Hottie.
- Captain Typho, who replaces Captain Panaka in between Episodes One and Two of the Star Wars prequels as the head of Amidala's guard. The two captains look very similar besides the eyepatch, causing some viewers to mistake Typho for Panaka with battle damage.
- In Pagemaster, Adventure (Patrick Stewart) looks like a pirate, complete with eyepatch. There's nothing wrong with the eye under it - so when he needs to get a better look at something he just lifts it up.
- Emilio Largo in Thunderball. It helps that he's one of the most charismatic Bond villains ever.
- The main badass in Gangs of New York cut out his own eye because he once flinched from the protagonist's father.
- The aptly named Kid Blink from Newsies.
- In The Mummy Returns, the character Izzy is first seen wearing an eyepatch. Subverted when he openly admits that he wears it to look good; Rick pulls it off afterwards.
- Major Eden Sinclair in Doomsday. She also has a fake eye, but half the time it's being bounced around and used as a spy camera.
- "Big" Dan Teague from O Brother, Where Art Thou? wears an eyepatch when he is introduced and a one-eyed Ku Klux Klan hood later. This is a Shout Out to the Cyclops and the Greek mythology underpinning the story.
- Inspector Kemp from Young Frankenstein sports one of these, along with wooden arm (either the left or the right depending on context and funniness) and monocle (on the same eye as the eyepatch).
- Many of the publicity photos and posters for the Terminator movies show Arnie with one human-like eye and one glowing red machine eye, showing the bad-assedness of having one normal eye and one weird high-tech eye.
Literature
- Lampshaded with jollity in Garth Nix's Keystothe Kingdom series, in which Arthur encounters a band of savage looking sailors. When it's revealed that their appearances are all for show, one of them insists that he can not only have one but two eyepatches, if one-way leather is used.
- Professor Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter books has a magical glass eye.
- Mr. Teatime in the Discworld novel Hogfather is a sociopathic and highly-skilled assassin with one good eye. Many characters in the book think his glass eye (which is blank, and rumored to be made from the same glass used for crystal balls) isn't nearly as scary as his good eye (which has an unnervingly narrow pupil). Of course, considering that Discworld magic is more than a little unstable, it proves how insane he is if he put a magic prosthetic in his eye socket.
- Nevertheless, in Night Watch Vimes has to act briefly as his one-eyed mentor John Keel. He is no more badass than he normally is, which is still pretty damn badass.
- Forgotten Realms antagonist/antihero Jarlaxle has two good eyes, but sports a magical eyepatch with powers including including x-ray vision and protection against psionics, depending on which eye the patch covers. Jarlaxle leads a prestigious mercenary company and is something of a Magnificent Bastard, glorying in chaos and favored by the drow's evil spider goddess.
- Titular character Hawk of Simon R. Green's Hawk And Fisher fantasy-mystery series has an eyepatch over one eye, as well as several scars along his face. Unusually enough, he does have depth perception problems, at least to the point where he prefers to fight with a short-handled axe rather than a sword. He's almost over-the-top in levels of 'experienced badass combatant', though, even with this handicap. How Hawk lost his eye is revealed in Beyond the Blue Moon, which confirms that Hawk is Prince Rupert from Blue Moon Rising where he lost the eye in battle against a Big Bad.
- Honor Harrington wore an eyepatch in one book after her left eye was damaged, before she had it replaced with a cybernetic eye (with telescopic vision). Later, she also acquired a synthetic arm.
- Captain William Fredrickson from the Sharpe series is missing an eye (and his two front teeth). When he enters combat, he removes his eyepatch and false teeth to frighten the enemy.
- Euron Greyjoy from A Song Of Ice And Fire. Called the Crow's Eye, Euron is a vicious Magnificent Bastard with serious issues. His brother Aeron, describes Euron's uncovered eye as his "smiling eye" and makes vague, fearful references to what he hides beneath the patch.
- Corum in Michael Moorcock's novels is given the Eye of the missing god Rhynn to replace his lost eye. This allows him to see into - and summon the assistance of creatures from - other realms whenever he raises his jeweled eyepatch. Later on he has to give (the no-longer missing) Rhynn his eye back, and thereafter wears a conventional eyepatch.
- About half the men in the Wheel Of Time series manage to lose an eye in some way or another, but the binocular vision of the women remains perfectly intact.
- Molly/Sally's lens-covered eyes may count as both Scary Shiny Glasses "and" a dual Eyepatch of Power in William Gibson's books. Not only are they the cherries on her Badass sundae, they're also functional enhancements.
- The Divine Fratery of Dan Abnett's novel Ravenor Returned are an organization that dedicates their efforts to ruining the Imperium by scrying out possible futures and working to manifest the ones that would do the most harm. In order to become a full member, the supplicant must put out one of their own eyes and receive no medical treatment for any reason until they have completed fashioning the silver mirror they will use to divine the future. Constructing the mirror can take years. Those who are successful are given an augmetic eye to replace the one they sacrificed, and henceforth hide their remaining real eye behind an eye patch when not actively scrying.
Live Action TV
- Mythbusters did a segment exploring the possibility that a person with two good eyes might wear an eyepatch over one so as to be able to move from a well-lit area into a darkened room and function without having to wait for both eyes to adjust to the lower light, as the covered eye would already be dark-acclimated. Their tests showed that switching an eyepatch from one eye to the other in a darkened room made navigating an obstacle course significantly easier.
- This is because the pigments in the eye are depleted by light and take time to replenish. It takes about 30 minutes for the pigment in the rods (black and white vision, also more sensitive to light) to fully replenish and about six minutes for the cones (color vision).
- It should also be noted that this test was done specifically with respect to pirates, as the myth/theory suggests that many of them wore eye-patches to easily adjust to the dark conditions below deck on a sailing vessel, as opposed to having actually lost an eye.
- Saul Tigh, as of S3 of Battlestar Galactica. He's always been somewhat of a Poisonous Friend, almost a Magnificent Bastard, 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. He also spends several episodes beforehand with a very uncool chunk of gauze taped to his face.
- Subverted in Flight Of The Conchords: 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 the same way goatees are commonly used to depict evil Alternate Universe versions of characters in parodies (after Spock grew one in the Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror"), eyepatches are used for the same purpose, because the evil version of the Brigadier wore one in the Doctor Who serial "Inferno". And as we all know, Evil is Bad Ass, therefore, this counts as a variation on this trope.
- Ironically, unlike the "real" one, the alternate-Brigadier didn't have a mustache.
- He was however a cowardly fascist thug, so I guess losing an eye didn't make him Bad Ass enough.
- The Middleman also uses this, probably in a Shout Out in "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome." In the alternate universe, the one sporting the Eyepatch Of Power is the alt!Middleman himself. He's a Badass Biker to boot, but still a good guy.
- Mikhail from 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 Word Of God to convince fans that he could die.
- General Martok, of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 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 becomming the winningest Klingon commander of the war and eventually the new Chancellor, and you have a true badass.
- Humorously subverted in the Ferengi episode of Star Trek Voyager. 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 Of Power 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 Pushing Daisies is missing an eye due to an incident while cleaning cat litter and is definitely bad-ass, 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 misses the fact that Chuck, her niece/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...
- Travis in Blakes Seven has a skinlike eye patch. Plus a laser-firing artificial arm.
- "Archangel" loses one eye after the Evil Dr. Moffett's attack on the control tower in the pilot of Airwolf. From then on, he wears glasses with one black lens◊, as well as a white eyepatch on occasions he can't wear the glasses.
- In the pilot for Firefly, 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.
- Subverted in the Disney series Wizards Of Waverly Place during the Harry Potter spoof school for magic (where everyone must wear a bathrobe over their clothes and a pair of glasses just like Harry's to accessories 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.
- G'Kar was badass even before losing the eye, but gets downright messianic afterwards. Also, his eye was part of a prophecy involving Londo - "saving the eye that does not see" is one of three actions that would save Londo from bad, bad things. He doesn't. Then the Drakh put a Keeper on him.
- Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer got considerably more Bad Ass after Caleb takes out his eye during Season 7.
- In the Spin City 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 magnificent Catalina Craal from Cuna de Lobos, Evil Matriarch who uses her eyepatch to inflict guilt over her unfavourite son for the acident who leave her blind on that eye. She also overdoes every telenovela villan ever. Her eyepatch is so vital to her that 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.
- Richard "Yin Yang Man" Branden on WMAC Masters 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.
Music
- The music video for They Might Be Giants' song Hollywood House of Blues involves an innovative alternative rock band called The Lads, whose lead singer wears an eyepatch. The eyepatch is also key to the greater success of Lads rip-off band The Blokes.
Tabletop Games
- In Deadlands, one of the canon NPCs is a grizzled veteran of a dozen wars and conflicts with the supernatural who sports just such an eyepatch. The story goes like this: Hank Ketchum was laying in the surgeon's tent at the Battle of Gettysburg when his surgeon-to-be snapped. He had already lopped body parts off of a few other men before gouging out Ketchum's eye with a scalpel. What did the gruff Texan do? He chased the surgeon away, presumably with violence real and threatened. And that's why they call him One-Eye.
- Based off the John Wayne character Rooster Cogburn (see Movies above.)
- There's a magic item in one Dungeons And Dragons sourcebook called the Corsair's Eyepatch, which is transparent to the wearer so as not to impede vision. Depending on which eye it's worn over, the wearer can activate it to See Invisible, or gain the Blind Fight feat.
- And don't forget the Eye of Vecna. A cursed relic of an infamous arch-mage that requires the user to put out one of their own eyes and place the Eye of Vecna in the empty socket.
- Commissar Yarrick of Warhammer 40,000 replaced a missing eye with a bionic implant that could fire a laser in order to live up to ork stories that he could kill with a glance. An assortment of other characters in the setting, human and otherwise have bionic implants, though most of them lack the laser.
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High Admiral 'Lord Prince' Yriel (self-styled) also has eye implant. Rather more powerful than Yarrick's.
- Known as the Eye of Wrath... kinda says it all really. Helps that he's also a Bad Ass Eldar Space Pirate.
- His superiors wisely restored his High Admiral status after his Big Damn Heroes moment during the battle for Iyanden when he was able to drive off Hive Fleet Kraken.
Video Games
Webcomics
- Nimmel Feenix from Dominic Deegan had his right eye slashed to uselessness, so he combed his previously slicked-back hair in such a way as to cover it up. Curiously, The Infernomancer from who inflicted this injury also sported an eyepatch of power — a blindfold with long spikes on the inside, that concealed magically ever-bleeding eyes (the mark of the demonic pact that gave him his powers).
- At one point, Dominic was recovering from temporary blindness and had only gotten back his sight in one eye. He wore an eyepatch until his vision recovered; combined with his artificial leg, this gave rise to at least one pirate joke.
- In It's Walky!, Penny Worthington was double the Bad Ass for wearing the eyepatch she took from her predecessor, Dargon Chesterfield, after assassinating him.
- This is parodied in A Modest Destiny; Maureen's younger brother wears an eyepatch to impress new thieves guild members, because he thought Maureen's looked cool.
- Also parodied by The Order Of The Stick strip: Elan, after the Time Skip, is shown sporting an eyepatch... but one comic later it's revealed that he started wearing it because it made him look mysterious.
- Right-Eye, Redcloak's little brother, and Redcloak himself sport an eyepatch as well, although it actually covers a missing eye.
- In The Wotch, there's DeFrain the Pirate - a member of La Resistance, whose piratey eyepatch hides a magical eye capable of seeing through anything, as well as detecting magical auras - handy for checking out whether a ship contains anything worth stealing. He also appears to be a Ninja Pirate.
- Viktor Vasko of Lackadaisy presumably lost his eye during his career as a whiskey and gin runner.
- Agent Jim of Mayu Zane's Siege is nearly shot down in one scene because of a gunner on his left-and he's blind in his left eye, which he neglected to mention to anyone previously.
- There were previous references to his hidden face being badly hurt or burned, however.
- The First Mate, Marge, of I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space sports an eyepatch.
- Tony the Tiger in Breakfast Of The Gods
- The Suicide Girl from Sexy Losers.
- In The KAMics, Ratatosk (self-proclaimed) god of the squirrels wears one to seem more Odin-like. Since both eyes are good he occasionally switches which eye it covers.
- Chief from Goblins has a riveted-on eyepatch bearing his clan symbol (which was originally tattooed on near his lost eye. It doesn't make him markedly more badass, though. Most of the time.
Western Animation
- Dr. Director from Kim Possible, and her evil (fraternal) twin brother have eye patches, and are some of the most competent fighters in the series. Dr. Director is primarily a parody/homage to Nick Fury.
- An extra in "A Sitch In Time" [sic] showed a future Kim as Dr. Director's successor. She also wore an eyepatch.
- Somewhat subverted in Rockos Modern Life, with the Sea Captain Crappy Jack (yes that is his name).. He can't walk too well. Two wooden legs. Can't steer too well. Two wooden arms. Can't see too well. Two wooden eyes.
- While it's not technically an eyepatch, your chances of badassness go way up in Transformers if you have one optic sensor rather than two. Shockwave is probably the most obvious of these.
- Matrix, the grown-up Enzo from Reboot's third season, has a golden cybernetic eye that provides super targeting abilities, which he received after the original was cut out. By SCORPION from Mortal Kombat! Or reasonable facsimile thereoff.
- Rejected. Enzo had rebooted AS a Scorpion look-a-like. He got his eye cut out by a devil like character called Zaytan.
- Gutierrez, Ricardo Montelban's character on Freakazoid, had an eye patch. When he transformed into his "super freak" form, it had an eye painted over it, and an energy weapon behind it.
- Subversion: His eye is perfectly normal before he mutates, and this eyepatch is important to his painful defeat.
- Falcon 7, Birdman’s boss in Birdman and the Galaxy Trio has an eyepatch. That, of course, becomes a source of many jokes in Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, where Falcon 7 becomes Phil Ken Sebben.
- Ha ha! Power!
- In the "New Year's Eve Party at Brak's House" series of bumps, Hesh doesn't believe that Phil needs the patch, calling it 'Your Bum Eye And How It Doesn't Exist'.
- Hudson, from Gargoyles, has only one good eye due to a wound that either stayed with him due to its magical origin or didn't heal properly before sunrise. In either case, throughout the series it's implied that while he might be getting a little old and slow and even his good eye is starting to fail, he's a canny warrior whose insight is invaluable.
- The Pirate Captain from Mike, Lu & Og has two eyepatches (as well as two wooden legs). This doesn't seem to slow him down much, although he's not very badass because he and his men are always being defeated by a bunch of kids.
- Popeye, while not wearing an eyepatch, misses one eye. He just keeps eyelids permanently closed.
- Danger Mouse. Bad Ass mouse!
- Subversion during the pirate episode of The Backyardigans: Uniqua has an eyepatch, but she only wears it to show she's a pirate. In other words, Eyepatch Does Nothing during the episode.
- Parodied in The Tick episode "That Moustache Feeling", where the Tick meets Jim Rave, Agent of S.H.A.V.E.. Rave is a Nick Fury lookalike, down to the eyepatch-but at the episode's end, the Tick realizes Rave isn't a real special agent because he still has both eyes-the eyepatch is just ther to make him look cool.
- Tako from Sushi Pack wears a fake eyepatch that does not diminish his fighting prowess in the least. Then again, considering that his main attack is flinging paint at enemies, direct aim may not be crucial.
- Suzi X from The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto.
- Pariah Dark in Danny Phantom. Probably doesn't suffer any depth perception since he's a ghost.
- The once useless Box Ghost will eventually become a Future Badass who can fight on par with any of the major villains. His secret? An eyepatch.
- How does a ghost lose an eye?
- The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy gives us resident Bad Ass, Hoss Delgado. Complete with Swiss Army Appendage.
- Gibbs in Titan Maximum, who's both the main villain and probably one of the smartest characters in the series.
- In Street Sharks, big bad villain Dr. Paradigm wears an eyepatch for no explained reason. He starts off the show as an implied college lecturer. It's somewhat Bad Ass in context.
Web Original
- Paul Smith of Survival Of The Fittest has an eyepatch, having lost one eye after a freak barbecue accident (no, seriously). He is shown to be a more than competent fighter, being (as of the end of the 2007 school year) the second best fighter in the school and certainly something of a Badass.
- Xinjao O'Reilly in Tech Infantry wears one after being tortured by having a soldering iron thrust into one eye. This also comes shortly after he Took A Level In Badass and went from comic-relief engineer with a Porn Stash to resourceful leader of a guerilla band of engineers and admiral of his own private mercenary space fleet.
- Tom from Ruby Quest has his right eye ripped out early on; he's left with an empty socket until he and Ruby find some gauze and bandages to make an eyepatch. Eventually, this is augmented with a "DO NOT OPEN" label. In this case it only serves as an apropos emblem of his supreme badassery, as his MANLY PHYSIQUE and inclination towards smashing things prove valuable assets throughout the course of the story.
- In I Am Not Infected Amanda sports one in her first appearance. She quickly stops wearing it, and with it her status as a badass.
- Parodied in Billy Vs SNAKEMAN, where Billy's power is proportional to how many eyepatches he's wearing. When he reaches his highest level, he puts on a third eyepatch.
Real Life
- Though he didn't wear an eyepatch, Horatio Nelson lost the sight in his right eye. He later went on to be arguably the most famous Admiral in history. He famously ignored a signal not to engage a Danish fleet by holding his telescope to his blind eye and asserting that he could not see the signal to hold back. He went on to decisively win the Battle of Copenhagen. This event is considered the origin of the idiom "to turn a blind eye."
- Hannibal Barca lost his eye while on the march from pink eye. Not long after this he launches a massive ambush on Roman forces in the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
- Date Masamune, a general during the Japanese Warring States period, lost an eye as a youth and had to wear an eyepatch. It didn't hinder him much, as he went on to defeat Japan's prominent strategists of the time. The story goes that he ripped it out himself when it was rendered useless by smallpox. It earned him the nickname of One-Eyed Dragon; though it started off as a comment on his reckless nature, it later in his life became a term of respect. He, like Xiahou Dun below, is almost always portrayed with an eyepatch in fictional appearances.
- Another historical example: Xiahou Dun, a Chinese general serving under Cao Cao during the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Reputedly, he was such a Bad Ass that, when an arrow shot him in the eye, he plucked it out and swallowed it to instill fear in his enemies. In most literary and pop culture depictions of him (read: Romance Of The Three Kingdoms), he's wearing either an eyepatch or a bandanna around his eye.
- Yagyu Jubei, one of the most famous and romanticized samurai of all time, is a somewhat more ambiguous case. Although portraits from his own time show him with two eyes, somewhere along the line of centuries spent telling and retelling his story it became traditional to depict him wearing an eyepatch. Whether the historical Jubei ever wore one or it comes from Kabuki exaggerations is open to debate, but it has become a traditional part of his character, usually with the explanation that he lost it as a child while training. Other movies show him being wounded by a cut to the face as an adult, but developing his skill to greater degrees afterwards.
- Moshe Dayan, Israeli General and Defense Minister, lost his left eye while infiltrating Syria in WWII; the binoculars he was looking through were shot and the glass and metal destroyed his eye socket. He didn't like his black eyepatch, but it did make him look pretty badass.
- Supposedly true story : He was once driving at forty kph over the speed limit with Shimon Peres on the passenger side when they got stopped by a police officer. The officer of course didn't give them a ticket, but asked him how he could risk his and Peres's lives like that. Dayan's answer? "I can either look at the road or at the speedometer — which would you prefer?"
- Jan Zizka had already lost an eye, either in battle or due to a childhood accident depending on the source, by the time he became the leader of the Czech rebel faction in the Hussite Wars. He soon lost the other one as well but continued to lead his troops into battle personally despite being completely blind. As is fitting for a man of his stature, he is the subject of the world's tallest equestrian statue in Prague.
- John Pendlebury, a famous archaeologist lost one eye, and made a point of being better at athletics because people assumed he couldn't. He later became a war hero in WWII, fighting Nazis in a critical battle on Crete.
- Canadian Léo Major during WWII lost an eye in Normandy. He refused to be brought back home, saying that he "only needed one eye to aim at Germans". He went on to liberate a village in Holland from an entire German squad on his own by firing multiple rifles and throwing grenades, making the Germans rout as they believed they were being attacked by an entire platoon. He was actually awarded three DCMs, but turned the first one down because he thought General Montgomery, the man awarding it to him, was too stupid to be handing out medals. He died in 2008, and the Netherlands Ambassador to Canada was present as his funeral. The village he liberated held a vigil.
- Director Raoul Walsh lost an eye in a car accident, and took to wearing a very large black eyepatch. Opinions on his films remain pretty mixed (a common statement is that he "never let the truth get in the way of a good story," due to films like Gentleman Jim and They Died With Their Boots On taking significant historical liberties) but he's certainly one of the toughest looking directors ever. He also directed The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, They Drive By Night, White Heat, and many other famous gangster films. White Heat in particular was the most violent film at the time of its release, broke the censorship code completely, and caused several revisions to the Code, ultimately leading to its downfall twenty years later. High Sierra was also one of Humphrey Bogart's first not-completely-villainous roles, and led to his general stardom.
- According to a 1976 interview, White Heat received general release because Warner Brothers sent several studio heads to strongarm the censor board into passing it. Walsh's awesomeness cannot be denied.
- He also played John Wilkes Booth in Birth of a Nation. Wrap your brain around that one!
- The pirate stereotype may have come from pirate captains who, needing to go above and below decks constantly, would put an eyepatch over one eye above deck to avoid losing their dark-vision in that eye (see Mythbusters).
- Crime novelist and child protection lawyer Andrew Vachss.
- Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German soldier and aristocrat who lost his left eye, right hand, and two fingers from his remaining hand during an Allied air raid. As portrayed in the film Valkyrie, he healed up enough to come closer than anyone to assassinating Hitler.
- Steve Watt, a Wyoming State Trooper, was shot five times by a bank robber, one bullet of which came within about a paper's width of damaging his brain. Fortunately, he got better and while he isn't a State Trooper anymore, his eyepatch now undoubtedly adds to his presence as a D.A.R.E. instructor and ordained minister.
- As an aside, losing an eye would have very little, if any, effect on long-range rifle accuracy such as sniping - in fact, USMC recruits (at least as of the early 90's) would be taught to close the eye opposite the one being used to sight with, and even issued an eyepatch to cover that eye until they could break the habit of trying to use both eyes. At ranges over about 100 meters (give or take), human eyes simply aren't far enough apart to contribute greatly to depth perception, and visual references (the car or doorway the opponant is standing near, for example) are much better for use in estimating distance.
- Lieutenant-General Adrian Carton de Wiart was an Anglo-Belgian aristocrat, soldier and diplomat, was wounded seven times during the First World War, losing both left eye and his left hand. He went on to win a Victoria Cross at La Boiselle, afterwards saying, "Frankly I enjoyed the war." He went on to join the British military mission to Poland, fighting off Red Army cavalry with a revolver at Warsaw, and at 60 years of age led a descent on the Norwegian coast during World War Two, before being sent as Churchill's personal representative to China. He did all this looking much like Brigadier Lethbridge-Stuart's evil counterpart, with a black eyepatch and a black moustache. A badass mofo in anyone's book.
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