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Whether a permanent indication of malevolence, the emergence of the Superpowered Evil Side or perhaps the result of a Berserk Button or Rant Inducing Slight, these eyes are clearly not a good sign. Though they aren't necessarily the province of villains — particularly powerful heroes often manifest this trope when it's time for the gloves to come off. Unlike Red Eyes Take Warning, this always means immediate trouble, and thus are near the top of the hierarchy of Uh Oh Eyes.
Very good for giving the Death Glare. A Slasher Smile or other happily murderous expression doesn't hurt either.
You can usually tell the trouble is over when the Lights Off Their Eyes.
A subtrope of Kaleidoscope Eyes or Technicolor Eyes. See also: Demon Head, Scary Shiny Glasses, Hellish Pupils and Mind Control Eyes. Part of a package deal with an Evil Makeover.
Glowing Eyelights Of Undeath is a subtrope. This trope sounds like it should go hand-in-hand with By The Lights Of Their Eyes (watch that extra 'f'), but it doesn't.
Examples:
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Anime
- For The Hero of Fist Of The North Star, Kenshiro has a seriously evil looking pair of red Glowing Eyes Of Doom whenever you get him seriously angry.
- The title character of Hayate The Combat Butler resorts to this after being hit by a car. The occupants instantly surrender.
- One of the shinigami in Death Note gains these eyes at one point while going for some dramatic kills. Light tends to do this, as well, whenever he's feeling particularly evil.
- Robots in general tend to do this, too.
- Most infamous for it is the Terminator.
- Even Humongous Mecha do this at times:
- Zeon mecha from Mobile Suit Gundam in particular are notable for a single mono-eye that seems to have no purpose other than to swivel towards the camera and glow menacingly.
- Gundam Wing took it a step further, with the image of a Gundam or other mobile suit appearing in front of an enemy bridge, eyes glowing, before the bridge explodes(usually due to a beam saber strike) becoming so visually impressive that every series since has copied it.
- Also in Gundam Wing, characters unable to control the ZERO System enter an Unstoppable Rage, marked by glowing golden eyes.
- Let's not forget about Gundam00 when the innovators use quantum brainwaves to send messages to each other. Or, alternatively, when 'fucking Ribbons' uses said quantum brainwaves to hijack their minds.
- Also, the Evas' eyes in Neon Genesis Evangelion glow white when they enter 'Berserk Mode', which generally means their opponent is doomed. DOOMED. The Rebuild of Evangelion movies go so far as to have the eyes of the pilot glow at the same, allowing Shinji to flash a particularly nice Death Glare in pitch darkness.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's title mech, the Gurren Lagann, does it as well, usually combining it with something lighting on fire as the heroes become even more resolved. The one time this is used against them is phenomenally awesome, as the main bad guy of the first part of the series gets out of his Ganmen, walks over it, on foot, with his head on fire, with glowing eyes of doom raging, and PUNCHES THE SHIT OUT OF LAGANN BARE-HANDED. Lord Genome is a force to be feared.
- Most of the cast of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni do this both humorously and seriously. Not being able to tell which is which amps up the creep factor.
- The title character of Rurouni Kenshin does this when he goes into Battousai mode.
- Girls Bravo - Humorously done by Lisa, Kosame, Fukuyama when they're pursuing Yukinari, Kirie, and Koyomi respectively, as well as Kirie at one point.
- Nagasarete Airantou - Humorously, as the women close in on their 'prey' like zombies.
- Inuyasha every time his Superpowered Evil Side takes over.
- The eyes of the Homunculi (particularly Gluttony) occasionally glow ominously in Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Azumanga Daioh's Yukari-sensei, after Tomo accidentally hits her in the face with a tray.
- Happens often in the first half of Dragonball Z, most often pertaining to Gohan, who would occasionally fall into a superpowered psychotic rage, during which his eyes would lack pupils and become more pronounced, at least during the loss of control.
- Goku also does this during his first Super Saiyan transformation.
- Kazuma's eyes in Kaze No Stigma glow blue when he taps into his full powers, and red when he's reverted to his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Vash The Stampede in Trigun does this occasionally, notably in the episode "Diablo". Basically it happens when a bad guy does something bad enough to break through his Obfuscating Stupidity, and when it happens, it's even worse than if he put on the Scary Shiny Glasses. See the page picture.
- Yuusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho gets these several times; once during his fight with Suzaku when he's about to use up all his life energy to win, once (in what this editor found to be an unintentionally comedic effect) while glaring at Younger Toguro from the stands of the Dark Tournament, and occasionally thereafter while powering up or in the middle of a particularly intense fight - especially when, at the end of the Chapter Black saga, he is taken over by his ancestor, Raizen, shortly after being killed and returning to life as a demon. Where before Yuusuke's Glowing Eyes Of Doom have always been blue, these are red, possibly to signify either his new demonic nature or the foreign presence in his body.
- In Blue Drop, Hagino Senkouji's eyes glow a brilliant blue right before she tries to strangle another character. It also happens when she summons her space ship.
- In Clannad, Kyou's eyes glow red as she strangles Tomoya and Sunohara after they pull a prank on her sister.
- In the game, though, anytime she's mad (which is quite often), Kyou will pull this off.
- Subaru of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS invokes this trope when the Numbers abduct her sister and she activates her Combat Cyborg nature in response before going completely berserk on them.
- Fate did this in the first season of the show during her first appearance, appearing as a black silhouette with Alucard-style glowing yellow circles.
- Ryoko in Tenchi Muyo does this sometimes. It's not too big a deal if they're glowing yellow — that just means she's a bit narked — but when they glow red, she's ready to kick booty at the planetary level. If they turn green, well, let's just say she's not being herself.
- Parodied in Magical Project S when Ginji Kawai (Sasami's father) gets a little over-enthusiastic while flying Washu's rocket.
- When informed of the fact that she could turn Genshiken into a cosplay research club as president, Ohno gets Glowing Eyes Of Doom. In fact she gets Glowing Eyes Of Doom whenever she gets sufficiently obsessed about something, mainly cosplay-related.
- The Count in Gankutsuou does this a few times.
- Two characters from Mai-HiME get these - Mikoto (gold) and Nao (red).
- When Chika finds a photgraph of Tina and Kaoru In Ai Yori Aoshi, Tina gets perfectly round Glowing Eyes Of Doom combined with Hidden Eyes-style shadowing. After the cutaway for various spooky imagery, Tina's bright and cheery, while Chika's petrified.
- The most powerful fighters in Ikki Tousen get these when they summon their inner dragons.
- Ichika from Uta Kata gets glowing eyes when she gets afflicted by her powers, leading one very spooky scene when she approaches Manatsu while she sleeps.
- Zelgadis in Slayers gets these when Rezo takes control over him when he needs to stall for time. A few scenes later and Rezo manages to summon Shabranigdo - only to learn that Shabranigdo was actually sealed inside his own eyes. Naturally, this leads to more glowing eyes to signify that Shabranigdo is taking over Rezo's body.
- Medusa of Soul Eater is fond of this.
- Death the Kid also starts glowing toward the end of the anime.
- Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach doesn't get fully-glowing eyes, but his normally-brown irises glow blue on a few occasions when he's about to do something particularly powerful.
- Ikkaku's eyes also glow when he uses his Bankai
- Lime in Saber Marionette J has these when first activated, and again when Hanagata pisses her off.
- The eyes of Tohno Shiki and Ryougi Shiki from the Nasuverse glows bright blue; it is the result of their Evil Eyes of death. Ryougi's eyes only does this when she activates them but Tohno's eyes are always activated. They become more apparent when he takes off his glasses, though, a sign that he is in his "killing mode."
- Not so. Both Ryougi and Tohno's eyes are constantly activated. They only glow blue when they're using their Death Perception consciously, as in, with the intent to use them. As proof, in Melty Blood, even when he doesn't have his glasses on, Tohno's eyes are their usual colour (grey). It's only when he has the intent to kill something that they change colour. The same goes for Ryougi.
- Creed from Black Cat did this when his precious time with Train was constantly interrupted by others. And no, it wasn't played for humor.
- Rail Tracer in Baccano enjoys this trope almost as much as it enjoys dragging people under moving trains and grating their limbs and faces against the rails, which is a lot.
- Black Lagoon managed to pull this off in a late episode when Rock upset Balalaika - she stood over him at an angle at which light reflected off her glass eye, evoking the trope.
- The Shin Red Eyes in Samurai Deeper Kyo is the Glowing Eyes Of Doom upgrade of the Mibu clan's regular Red Eyes.
- Used occasionally in One Piece. One notable (and hilarious) scene is during the battle with Oz
 .
- Both Alucard and Anderson from Hellsing invoke this trope whenever they stop screwing around and are about to curbstomp someone into the ground.
- One of Fushigi Yuugi's later villains, Tenkou, makes his first appearance as just a pair of glowing white eyes amidst flames. And a creepy disembodied voice.
- Himeno of Pretear occasionally gets these when she is angry.
- In the hilarious Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou OAV episode "Omoi no Arika", Kotengu manages to induce these in, of all people, Yasuaki.
- Takeda Shingen from Sengoku Basara whenever an epic beatdown is in order. Young Blood Knight Date Masamune also does this whenever he's really enjoying a fight.
- In Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple pretty much every single master in Ryozanpaku shows Glowing Eyes Of Doom periodically, and not even when fighting other masters, but rather during the training sessions with their own disciple.
- This Troper must mention the fact that Ryozampaku's masters are the good guys.
- In Berserk, the houndlike "Beast" that sometimes appears in Guts's dreams and that represents his darker side post-Eclipse has two really evil-looking red glowing eyes, and when Guts is under its sway, his good eye will often glow red like the hound, best illustrated in the PS 2 game which focuses on the Millennium Falcon arc.
- In Darker Than Black, Contractors' eyes glow red when they use their powers. It's almost the only way of identifying them.
- In the Chrono Crusade anime, the demons tend to have Glowing Eyes Of Doom when they're unleashing their full powers. Chrono in particular seems to get these when he's being overcome with Unstoppable Rage.
Comic Books
- When Superman wants to be intimidating, he likes to appear in shadow with his eyes glowing a fierce red as if ready to fire his heat vision.
- Several X-Men characters do this.
- When a villain (or Wolverine) is really getting on Cyclops' nerves, a glow can be seen through/around his shades or visor. As his Eye Beams are always on, this probably indicates that their blast is becoming far more intense.
- Storm's eyes become solid white and glowing when she uses her powers. This carries into almost all adaptations.
- When Magneto gets angry, his eyes glow as well, independent of power usage.
- Primarily in adaptations, a disguised Mystique is frequently revealed to the audience by her eyes glowing yellow (their natural color) briefly.
- Gambit's eyes have been known to give off red energy when he's intended to look particularly badass.
- Cable and his alternate-universe clone X-Man both have glowing left eyes.
- Only when Liefeld manages to remember that the left eye is the glowing eye, since he seems to forget half the time.
- Being related to Cyclops will do that. His other brother Kid Vulcan has them, and his alt-reality daughter Ruby does as well.
- Sometimes Nightcrawler is shown with Glowy-eyes when he's lurking in the shadows.
- Jean Grey and anyone else Possessed by the Phoenix Force tends to have solid glowing gold eyes when they use the Phoenix powers.
- Her daughter Rachel (who actually was the Phoenix host for far longer Jean, not that any writers remember that these days) has a glowing left eye (just like her half-brother Cable; see above), except that in addition to the glow it's surrounded by a glowing Phoenix emblem. Normally it's yellow, but a recent upgrade turned it blue.
- When Wolverine is introduced in the first Ultimate X-Men storyarc, he is seen perched up in a tree, hidden in the shadows. Except his eyes are glowing for some reason. Not "cat-eye reflected in the light" glowing either, more like "Superman about to unleash the heat vision." No explanation given.
- In the Starfox comic from Nintendo Power, Fox McCloud gets these on two occasions. One is right at the beginning, where Falco hits Fox's Berserk Button by suggesting raiding commercial freighters instead of the Imperial ships the team usually targeted in the beginning ("Feathers for brains! For the last time, we are NOT THIEVES!"). The other is right at the end when Fox goes into Unstoppable Rage mode after learning the truth about what happened to his mother and father.
- Even Badass Normals seem to get glowing eyes when they're lurking in shadows. The entire Bat-family for example seemed to have glow-in-the-dark lenses in their masks. Rule of Cool excuses this for the most part.
- Sistah Spooky from Empowered seems to get these under extreme emotional stress. How extreme? Picture watching the love of your life die as you are literally seconds from saving her, then having your worst enemy (in your own mind) show up to gloat. If things get that bad, running is not even an option. Said 'enemy' breaking down because she chose to save her over herself, is.
Film
- X Men films' Mystique's eyes glow yellow. Sometimes when she is impersonating another character the audience is shown her natural yellow glowing eyes to clue us in that it is really her in disguise, no one in the film sees, of course.
- Except at the end of the first movie, when all the X-Men catch 'the Senator' doing the glowing-eye bit on freeze-frame on the television and realize what it means.
- Star Wars' Anakin Skywalker's eyes glow a bright yellow when he goes off to kill all the youngling Jedi. He covers his head with a hood, but you can tell that they glow in the shadow. Also, he is wearing eyeliner. That's what happens when you go darkside.
- Scott Howard, the titular werewolf from Teen Wolf uses this to hilarious effect along with a demonic voice to procure beer from a curmudgeonly old liquor store keeper without having to show ID.
- The creepy children from Village of the Damned have eyes that glow bright blue whenever they use their Psychic Powers.
- Louis Tully in Ghostbusters got glowy eyes after being possessed by Keymaster Vinzdeat Clortho.
- In The Iron Giant, the title character's eyes glow red whenever he sees a weapon or is fired upon. If his rage becomes too great, he transforms into a nigh-unstoppable killing machine, that's capable of taking out tanks (and possibly battleships).
- The evil robot kids from Spy Kids have eyes which flash like this, accompanied by an electronic sound effect.
- Iron Man's eyes glow. But the trope is really invoked when, in the darkness, the Iron Monger suit's eyes switch on.
- In the film adaptation of Dune, the entire Freman race has glowing blue eyes, as a side-effect of their addiction to the Spice. In the original novels, however, it was simply altered pigmintation, and they're eyes were just a wierd kind of blue.
- If you're in Star Trek V and "God"'s eyes are glowing in response to your query to why he needs a starship, let's just say you're not going to get an honest answer.
- Three Hundred - In the scene where the emissary of Xerxes bribes the priests of the oracle; the emissary fades to a silhouette with only his eyes remaining, glowing white.
Literature
- Drool Rockworm's permanently red-glowing eyes in the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant are a typical example of this. On the other hand, Caerroil Wildwood with his silver-glowing eyes is not, being neutral to the good guys and doom for the bad guys.
- The Nazgul in The Lord Of The Rings are often depicted in art as having glowing red eyes. As they are normally invisible, this is their only visible feature.
- Grand Admiral Thrawn from Timothy Zahn's Star Wars spinoff novels is a Chiss, a race of aliens closely related to humans but with blue skin and featureless glowing red eyes. He's a gentleman military commander of a villain, rather than someone who will flip out and burn you with laser beams from his eyes, and while he's definitely a bad guy he's complex and not strictly evil. The glow is nonetheless unsettling, and goes out when he dies.
- Other Chiss show up elsewhere in the EU. While the most antagonistic any of the named ones has been was around the level of an Obstructive Bureaucrat, they all have eyes like that, and they all tend to have a little of Thrawn's inscrutability.
- Flim simulates the glow with "self-powered surface inserts".
- Subverted in Discworld with Death, who has glowing blue eyelights (unless he's angry) and is a lovable example of The Spock.
- It should be pointed out that the blue eyes in question are STARS and that in moments of 'emotional' stress (Death can't really do emotions; no glands) they go supernova. Yes, you heard me, his eyes explode when he's angry.
- An interesting variation occurs in the Lone Wolf gamebook "The Kingdoms Of Terror". Lone Wolf is being attacked by a very fast monster with glowing eyes in a pitch black castle. If you choose to fire an arrow at its eyes you actually get a bonus to your success roll since; because they're glowing, they're an easier target.
- Ba'alzamon from The Wheel OF Time has eyes that occasionally appear to be pits of fire. After he's defeated, his body has its eye sockets burned out.
- In Fiona Patton's Branion novels, royals have literally flaming eyes. In one book a four-year-old sovereign stares so hard at one of her vassals as she argues with him that her eyes grow hot and a "red-hot nimbus of flame" rises up between them. The man, old enough to be her grandfather, hastily submits to her will.
Live Action TV
- The Goa'uld from Stargate SG-1 do this for intimidation, as well as involuntarily when taking on a new host.
- Slightly subverted in the fact that the Tok'ra, the good alien cousins of the Goa'uld, also show off their glowing eyes.
- Yeah, but they usually nod before, and that's an indication that the symbiont is going to talk, not the host.
- The Doci in seasons 9-10 did this when possessed by the Ori, as did Adria on her own, both before and after ascending.
- Lyta on Babylon 5 had both a Glowing Eyes Of Doom mode when under Vorlon influence and a glossy black eyes mode when resisting (or influenced by) the Shadows.
- Willow on Buffy The Vampire Slayer gets a pair of completely black eyes when tapping into The Dark Side, once against Glory for messing with her girlfriend, and the other when she does her Face Heel Turn following Tara's murder.
- And when she did some serious white magic in the last episode, she gets a pair of completely white glowing eyes.
- Henry Scudder, Justin Crowe, and Sofie Bojakshiya in Carnivale all display completely black eyes when channelling their Dark avataric powers.
- The main villain on Thunderbirds, known as The Hood, has eyes that glow yellow when he uses his mesmeric powers.
- Heroes: Isaac and Peter along with Sylar —once he steals Isaac's power— and later Matt, for no apparent reason, get glowy eyes when their in their precognitive trances. Ted, the Radioactive Man, gets glowy eyes when he's about to explode.
- In Scrubs, when The Janitor makes the grave mistake of saying a new attractive latina nurse looks like a "young Carla", Carla gets glowy eyes and conjures up a powerful wind that blows all throughout the hospital (in an obvious Shout Out to Storm) and emits a high-pitched scream that breaks Dr. Kelso's glasses and shatters Turk into a million pieces ("So that's why they call him Glassman!"). This all happens in an Imagine Spot by the way.
- This trope was also a regular standby of Charmed. For example, Cole's eyes glowing with fire after a You Kill It You Bought It turns him into the Big Bad in season four.
- In the Star Trek The Original Series episode ''Where No Man Has Gone Before, Gary Mitchell is zapped by the galactic barrier, his eyes start to glow, and his psi powers grow exponentially. He goes power-mad and murders a crewmate. In the end, Kirk is forced to kill him.
- The Master in the Doctor Who Made For TV Movie had constantly glowing yellow eyes which he concealed behind sunglasses and used to instantly hyptonise Chang. It's unknown whether this was a result of his deteriorating body due to imperfect possession, a reference to the snake form in which he was previously, the continued influence of the Cheetah Planet that gave his last incarnation Eyes Of Gold, or the general They Just Didnt Care atmosphere of the movie.
- Another Doctor Who example would be Rose when she becomes part-TARDIS, or whatever. When the Doctor takes it out of her, his eyes glow too.
- Ditto Donna when her Time Lord metacrisis brain kicks in.
- Most werewolves on Big Wolf On Campus have eyes like this. Tommy being the most obvious example.
- When Tommy Oliver was Brainwashed And Crazy, his eyes would occasionally glow neon green.
- In an episode of How I Met Your Mother entitled Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap, we see Lily's "you're dead to me" look, which is kind of an overly dramatic Death Glare. The camera zooms in on her face, her hair starts swirling around, she starts breathing intensely, and her eyes light up with a fiery glowing.
Music
Tabletop Games
- In the original Vampire The Masquerade, the single-dot Protean power was Eyes of the Predator (or something like that). Aside from making the vampire in question's eyes glow red, which was great for intimidating some characters, a vampire using it could see in deepest night as though it was a clear day at noon.
- "Eyes of the Beast" or "Gleam of Red Eyes" depending on the edition.
- Seemingly everyone in Warhammer 40000 has these. It can only be assumed that any face-concealing helmet will have LEDs in the eyepieces.
- Tieflings in the 4th Edition of Dungeons And Dragons. Technically, they don't actually glow, but the fact that they're always a solid, often metallic, color seems to create a similar effect. For bonus points, they're often gold or red.
- In 3rd Edition Dungeons And Dragons, psionic characters would gain glowing eyes whenever they used many of their powers.
- Certain spells such as Arcane sight make a person's eyes glow blue, and Darkvision can make a character's eyes flash or glow red.
Videogames
- Dracula of Castlevania fame has glowing red eyes - as if it weren't already obvious that he's not someone you want to mess with...
- Joachim of Lament of Innocence and Walter of the same game display this, too, when they're showing the hell off with magic - Walter in a cutscene notably creepier than most of the others.
- The Heartless of the Kingdom Hearts series, at least those with visible eyes, do this constantly. So does Sora in his Anti Form.
- Common in fighting games, especially with possessed or boss characters. Akuma and Evil Ryu from the Street Fighter series always have their eyes glowing red to show they're under the influence of Satsui no Hadou.
- M. Bison has glowing white eyes in every game he's appeared in outside of Street Fighter II.
- Fighters in Super Smash Bros Brawl put their eyes all glowy and get a fiery Battle Aura when they grab a Smash Ball, which gives them a somewhat diabolic look. Check out yourself◊.
- However, Captain Falcon and Meta Knight already have these to begin with, and Mr. Game & Watch averts this by having no eyes to speak of...
- Though what amuses me is that they took the time to actually give Falcon a single, real eye under his helmet, but they didn't make it glow when he got the smash ball.
- Speaking of Brawl, Link and Toon Link both have "dark" alternate costumes featuring ebony skin, white hair and, yes, glowing red eyes.
- Zoom in on Pikachu just as Volt Tackle is being prepped - notice the position of the lips, the shape of the eyes, and the aforementioned glow - and tell this troper that that visage doesn't scream '''RAPE TIME'''!◊
- Dahlia Hawthorne from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations does this in the first case after she is revealed to be the murderer of Doug Swallow. Also, her mother Morgan Fey tends to do this when she gets angry.
- In Fable being fully evil causes your eyes to glow red. By this point, you also have demonic horns, insects buzzing around you, a red mist emanating from your footsteps, and townspeople flee at the sight of you.
- In Kings Quest VI, you can recognize a shapeshifting genie, trying to lure you to your death, by his flashing golden eyes (see Mystique, below).
- Subverted with Sparda in Devil May Cry, who is a demon but had a Heel Face Turn long before the games to become a sort of savior figure to parts of the human race. Played straight with Beowulf, whose red eye glows when he Turns Red.
- Some of the characters in The Black Heart have these; Animus' single eye glows yellow, so do Hashi's eyes. Final has two huge glowing yellow eyes, and their glow amplifies whenever he casts powerful magic. In a particularly sinister variation, Janos is always portrayed as a dark silhouette, and generally with a single red eye glowing.
- In Doom, the protagonist's eyes on the status bar become glowing and golden when an invulnerability power up is taken (or God Mode is enabled). Combine with a Berserk Pack, and you too can have fun with puns!
- Similarly, the protagonist in Wolfenstein 3D - but only on enabling of God Mode (no invincibility powerups in that game).
- City Of Heroes has several different forms of these as costume options. These range from a face-type (which predates costume auras) with solid-color eyes, to Electric Eyes, Fiery Eyes, Smoky Eyes, Sparkly Eyes, and more.
- This editor favors them heavily in his characters' costumes, whether they are proper Glowing Eyes Of Doom or arguably less threatening Glowing Goggles of Doom.
- Also, human-form Kheldians' eyes glow when using their powers as an indication that they're channelling power from their alien halves.
- World Of Warcraft sure loves its glowing eyes. A lot. Lots of races have glowing eyes; in some cases it's just a feature of their species, but in other cases it's more in line with this trope. Examples:
- The Warlock class's demon summons have glowing eyes (except the Felhunter, whose eyes are so tiny as to be practically invisible).
- All members of the Draenei race have glowing blue (or white, depending on the artist) eyes. Since the Draenei are good guys (almost insufferably so), this could count as a subversion of this trope. However, their fellow Eredar who made a Deal With The Devil to turn into demons have their eyes turn glowing yellow as well as gaining red skin, horns, and Spikes Of Villainy.
- Male Night Elves have glowing golden eyes and female Night Elves have glowing silver eyes. The Night Elves aren't evil per se, but they are distrustful of other races, are rather prideful, and have made some mistakes in their past.
- The original cinematic for World of Warcraft shows that a night elf's eyes reflect light like a cat's, not glow. This makes sense, as the night elves live up to their name by living where it's always night. But it would be difficult to show that in the graphics of the real game.
- The Forsaken Undead have glowing golden eyes. This fits into this trope nicely, as they are the closest thing WoW has to an evil player race.
- Blood elves come pretty close, as well.
- The Blood Elves have glowing green eyes that are a side-effect of their addiction to demonic magic. Before that started, they were High Elves, who just had an addiction to normal magic and had glowing blue eyes.
- Fel Orcs, who achieved their state by drinking a demon's blood, have glowing red eyes.
- And, for all races, several headpieces (usually tier set headgear) confers glowing eyes, especially Rogue and Warlock sets, but found in the odd Paladin and Hunter sets too.
- Hey, don't forget Arthas!
- Members of the new Death Knight class in the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack all have glowing blue eyes, regardless of race, due to them being partially undead. Other powerful undead, such as Liches (Lichi? Lichen?) or the special Death Knight only mount, have the same cyan/blue glow. They also have a creepy reverb in their voices.
- Virtually all the epic mounts in the game have glowing eyes, even the common ones that can be purchased. How did all these beasts of burden get these glowing eyes? No one in-universe seems to notice or care.
- Hey, they used to be the best you could get, at maximum level, of course they would try to look cool. Whether it made sense or not, it was obligatory.
- Grom Hellscream had glowing red eyes in Warcraft III, caused by his embracing demon rage with open arms. The glow dies away a moment before his death because he killed the demon who caused the rage.
- The Priests of Warcraft III have growing blue eyes as well, and the Paladins of Warcraft II have glowing yellowish-orange eyes, suggesting that it may a product of the magic of 'The Light', though spellcasters of the same magic have otherwise not been seen with glowing eyes regularly.
- The priests of Warcraft III were high elves though (see above)
- Continuing from the Mobile Suit Gundam example in the anime section, in a number of games, most mobile suits will have their eyes momentarily glow before some of the more dramatic attacks. By the latest SD Gundam game, G Generation Spirits, pretty much every single Mobile Suit in the game will have a freeze frame where nothing moves except the background and the glowing eyes of the attacking unit. Occasionally matching certain suits with certain pilots will give even more dramatic glowing eye shots. This troper's favorite is whenever Char Aznable pilots his Sazabi, which provides a particularly menacing image. Of course, it IS a Zeon MS....
- Sam Fisher of Splinter Cell is nearly always pictured wearing his night-vision goggles, with the glowing green eyepieces as a visual reference to this trope. He's not superpowered, but he's certainly not someone you'd ever want to anger.
- In The Legendof Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf's eyes start glowing hellishly just before he goes into One Winged Angel mode.
- Those infected by the Unstoppable Rage in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe have this.
- The four fiends of FFIV seem to have this, whether or not it's due to graphical limitation is debatable.
- In Overlord, YOU have these.
- Geneforge, people who use many canisters frequently develop glowing eyes. They're not necessarily evil, but they are powerful and frequently unstable. It may be intentional, rather than a random side effect—a character in the first game says glowing eyes are "designed to engender respect."
- The Little Sisters in Bioshock have glowing eyes until they're rescued.
- Phazon-corrupted characters in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sport glowing blue eyes, including Rundas, Ghor, Gandrayda, and Samus herself - the last being visibly reflected in her visor, and growing worse throughout the game.
- Freespace's Shivans have seven Glowing Eyes Of Doom. In a V shape.◊ All of them are red. As one might surmise, Shivans are scary.
- The Moon Rabbit, Reisen Udongein Inaba, from Touhou has these. She has the ability to drive people insane by using her eyes to screw around with wave lengths, with also allows her to make illusions and such. However, while you fight her, a pair of seriously freaky GIANT RED EYES appear in the background to signal that she's screwing with you. All the more fun, considering that her last Spell Card turns her attacks invisible.
- The three core characters in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness have these. Laharl and Etna show them when they're angry, whereas Flonne also sports them when she's overly excited. Bonus points for her eyes lighting on fire either way.
- Maybe-sorta used in Jak 2 and Jak 3. The Light Jak form has glowing white eyes in a shadowy blue form (plus, in the later stages, massive radiant wings); the Dark Jak form actually inverts this, with reflective all-black eyes, like Sinister Shades under the skin. While the Dark Jak form is supposed to be more dangerous, being a Superpowered Evil Side and all, the Light form is more dangerous, because it can freeze time, then blast the hell out of you with the Supernova.
- Only in Jak 3. In Jak 2, Dark Jak reigned supreme. His first power, Dark Bomb, wiped out entire rooms, and his final power is Dark Giant. Between the two he gets Invincibility, and in the third game he gets another power up. So he can fight at range too. It's a close call between the two forms.
- The Perverse Puppet that Lieselotte carries around in Arcana Heart has these as a side-effect of her dead sister possessing it.
- All of Persona 4's shadows have these when in human form.
- In Killzone, the Helghast combine their gas masks with these.
- Rider in Fate Stay Night when she actually shows her eyes... Probably because they aren't really eyes so much as (apparently) crystallized magical energy that happen to be what she sees with. Oh, and she's Medusa. Figure out the 'of doom' part.
- In the opening cutscene of Titan Quest, it is shown that the Gorgons' tendency to turn people into stone with their gaze is voluntary; you can tell when one is about to use this power because her eyes will glow. they never try doing this to player characters.
- In Katamari Damacy and all ascending games, when you fail, the King's eyes will glow and make a speech on how much you fail.
- In Starcraft, all the Protoss (and most of the Zerg) have glowing eyes
- The Kaka clan from Blazblue have glowing eyes. All. The. Time. They're descended from a living weapon, but are largely comical and harmless. Even the playable member, Taokaka, is a comic relief Cloudcuckoolander.
- Hazama/Terumi has Glowing Eyes Of Doom in the Continuum Shift trailers, and when revealed as the The Man Behind The Man in Calamity Trigger
- For some no doubt insane reason, Kim Kaphwan's eyes have been known to become sparkling white spotlights when he decides to start kicking evil in the ass.
- Sarevok's eyes glow yellow/golden, at least sometimes. Even in his portrait in Throne of Bhaal when he's no longer a Bhaalspawn.
- Fan Fiction likes to extend this to the player character as well, when they get really mad or something, for obvious reasons.
- Albert Wesker from Code Veronica to Resident Evil 5 after he gets his makeover has eyes that, although they don't glow much when seen without his glasses (When he rarely takes them off), you can see his eyes glowing THROUGH the glasses. ALL THE TIME. The only time in RE 5 that he takes them off (on purpose) is to throw at someone and then to take it back. He doesn't even take them off when in a very dark room.
- In Neverwinter Nights, a character reaching twentieth level as a monk will get glowing eyes, presumably reflecting their becoming more than mere mortals as per the 20th-level class property.
Webcomics
- The title race of Tarol Hunt's Goblins sport these when angered.
- It's not glow - it's their widened pupils. Big Ears on the other hand did recieve these when he aquired his enchanted paladin gear.
- Magic users in Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire have their eyes glow when particularly focused.
- Reynardine from Gunnerkrigg Court does this occasionally.
- His cousin Coyote's eyes (and he has many) glow when he's showing off his awesome power, which, if he wanted to use it that way, could mean certain doom for just about anyone.
- Spoofed in these two Adventurers! comics.
Tesla: I can't believe you would do something like that! We lost people on the force to glowy-eye-soul-stealing-related complications!
- Richard from Looking For Group has glowing yellow eyes. One could say he fits the trope. (But then, he is undead.)
- Order Of The Stick: Celia's eyes glow blue when she's angry, or possibly when she shoots lightning, as these tend to happen at the same time. She also likes to use them against her mother, apparently.
- In Sluggy Freelance, Lord Horribus's eyes glow so fiercely when he's mad that flames start to creep out of them (which almost always goes along with a fiery Battle Aura).
- In College Roomies From Hell, Dave's eyes glow when he's about to unleash his laser beams.
- In The KAMics, the ex-valkyries, Gertrude, Brunhilda & Nikki's, eyes glow when they are angry. Oddly enough they usually glow the same color as their hair color.
- The Seven Deadly Sins of Jack have glowing eyes, including the titular character, whose eyes grow black and become pin pricks of light when he's ticked off. The Devil subverts the trope by having completely dark black eyes.
- Basilisk class zombies in The Zombie Hunters have glowing red eyes they use to incapacitate prey.
- 8-bit Theater gives us, at long last, Black Mage. Complete with the hellish aura that was last seen when Black Mage confronted the personification of his sins ( himself), and before that, seen on Black Mage when he took over hell. Not surprisingly, Black Mage was using the power he gained from killing the personification of his sins.
- Lilah from Ctrl Alt Del likes playing Sims 3...for a very particular reason.
Western Animation
- On Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frylock's eyes glow blue before he zaps you.
- Aang on Avatar The Last Airbender has these when he's in the Avatar State.
- Every avatar does this in the Avatar State. However, when its mastered, they only enter it for about half a second (If an Avatar is killed in that state, the cycle will break, so they're vulnerable then) to gather power, then they break out the ass-kicking with normal eyes. Avatar Kyoshi is shown doing this (Eyes pulse, then she earthbends. With tectonic plates.) during the episode, "Avatar Day."
- The titular Gargoyles develop these when angered; males have glowing white eyes, while females have glowing red eyes.
- Actually I think it had something to do with alignment...although Demona was the first to show the red eyes, and then Angela, her daughter was next, so maybe it is gender...but I'm pretty sure that in the first attack on Avalon, the female gargoyles' eyes usually shone white...
- Teen Titans: When animated Starfire's eyes go from green with green-tinted whites to solid, glowing green, you don't want to be in her way. And once she gets Eye Beams, this happens whenever they're used. (Comicverse Starfire's eyes are always solid green.)
- Also, Raven's eyes generally glow solid white when she's using her powers. And if her eyes ever start glowing solid red, it's advisable to run.
- Especially when they split from two into four. But then, it's probably already too late if that's happened. (Happened in Aftershock, in season two, without recourse to the Season Four Arc.)
- Similarly, although most of the Transformers in Beast Wars have glowing eyes, Dinobot's normally red eyes shine bright green when he's charging up his Eye Beams.
- X-Men: Animated Cable's left eye glows white when using his telekinesis (or at dramatically appropriate moments) and red when using his cybernetically enhanced vision.
- Chernobog, the Slavic dark god, in the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Fantasia.
- The Secret Of NIMH has a more benign application of this. Both Nicodemus and the Great Owl have glowing eyes to indicate that they are beings of mystical wisdom.
- In Danny Phantom the titular character can make his eyes glow green when he gets serious or angry; it's one of the effects of his ghost powers.
- Appropriately mocked by Vlad, the series' resident Magnificent Bastard, when Danny tries to intimidate him.
Vlad: Ooh, the scaaaaary eyes. *fires his Eye Beams*
- The titular robot in the Ducktales episode "Armstrong", when it becomes clear that he's turned on Scrooge.
- I...AM...ARMSTRONG. I...AM...YOUR...FRIEND. Brrrr.
- Jafar in his genie form has glowing yellow eyes, visible for about two seconds before he gets stuffed in a lamp.
- Mr. Bison from Street Fighter: The Animated Series while explaining that he does not whine about it!
- A few episodes of Metalocalypse end with the band members' eyes glowing red, notably Performanceklok, which ends with them watching their therapist being ripped apart by wolves.
- "Gosh. Maybe this is weird to say, but... am I the only one who's being made to feel hungry by watching... this? "
- Green Lantern John Stewart from Justice League has glowing green eyes as long as he's wearing his power ring — Word Of God says that it's because he's been a GL for so long that it's more or less "infected" him.
- Zak Saturday's eyes glow yellow-orange whenever he uses his cryptid-controlling powers.
- Zurg's eyes glow yellow in Toy Story 2 via lightpiping, explained in the Defictionalization of a Show Within A Show Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command as being related to heat vision.
Real Life
- Parrot eyes don't glow, but they do dilate very noticably- "flashing". Somewhat akin to a cat's purring or a pet rodent chattering their teeth, this eye flashing might indicate excitement, or warn another that they are very, very PO'd.
- Unrelated note on teeth chattering/grinding: Rats bruxing their teeth is their equivalent of purring, and their happiness is Up To Eleven when their eyes rapidly go in and out of their head, due to the bruxing. I have also heard rabbits brux when they’re happy, and birds do this with their beaks.
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