Eyepatch Of Power - Television Tropes & Idioms

You can't spell warrior without one I.

Why do the world's best assassins always have eye patches? That's like the world's best car missing a headlight.

—Alt Text, The Non Adventures Of Wonderella

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.