Glowing Eyes Of Doom - Television Tropes & Idioms

Whether a permanent indication of malevolence, the emergence of the Superpowered Evil Side or perhaps the result of a 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.

A Slasher Smile or other happily murderous expression doesn't hurt.

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.

Examples:

Anime

Hayate 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.
  - Also, the Evas' eyes in Neon Genesis Evangelion glow white when they enter 'Berserk Mode', which generally means their opponent is doomed.
- 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.
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.
- On a more humorous note, Ed's eyes occasionally do it too when someone insinuates that he's short.
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.
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.
Makoto Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin, after being shot through a wall, looks menacingly at the main characters with Glowing Eyes Of Doom.
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 Sunahara 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 is fond of this.
Kurosaki Ichigo in Bleach doesn't get fully-glowing eyes, but his normally-brown irises glow blue on a few occasions when he's about to so something particularly powerful.

Western Animation

On Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frylocks eyes glow blue before he zaps you.
Aang on Avatar The Last Airbender has these◊ when he's in the Avatar State.
- This seems to be a trait all Avatars have, because the previous Avatar, Roku, is shown with glowing eyes in a flashback sequence when he goes into the Avatar State (though since the arrow tattoos are exclusive to Air Nomads, Roku's eyes are the only things that glow for him).
The titular Gargoyles develop these when angered; males have glowing white eyes, while females have glowing red eyes.
- Actually, all the Gargoyles seem to be able to make their eyes glow at will, angered or otherwise. It's just that they tend to use it more when they are angry (especially during an Unstoppable Rage). They frequently glow briefly when the Gargoyles are waking up, and this troper remembers a few times when one (usually Hudson, if memory serves) wasn't angry, but made with the glowy eyes just to intimidate someone. It usually worked.
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.
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.

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.
- 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 and Sylar once he steals Isaac's power 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 referrence 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.

Videogames

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 and Watch averts this by having no eyes to speak of...
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.
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.
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, who lacks eyes).
- All members of the Draenei race have glowing blue eyes. Since the Draenei are good guys (almost insufferably so), this could count as a subversion of this trope. However, Draenei who made a Deal With The Devil to turn into demonic Eredar have their eyes turn glowing yellow as well as gaining red skin 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 thier 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!
- Death Knights in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack will all likely have glowing blue/white eyes, regardless of race.
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.
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 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.

Webcomics

The title race of Tarol Hunt's Goblins sport these when angered.
Magic users in Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire have their eyes glow when particularly focused.
Reynardine from Gunnerkrigg Court does this occasionally.
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.
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.
- This is common with enraged spellcasters in Order Of The Stick. Samantha the Sorceress and more recently, Vaarsuvius both glow with an awesome power.
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.

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
- 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.
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.

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.
- Not red as much as flaming. Which in description of the Witch King seemed quite bizarre, as it implied that the glowing eyes hung in mid-air with obviously nothing behind them. In movies the whole issue was passed, most likely because glowing eyes would have looked too cheesy.
  - I think you have the Witch-King mixed up with Lord Soth. The description given in the book is "a deadly gleam of eyes," which does not imply Glowing Eyes Of Doom - normal eyes are often described as gleaming - and certainly not flaming ones. Later on in the same passage, his eyes are mentioned "glittering," which specifically suggests that they are not Glowing Eyes Of Doom, as something that glitters is reflecting light rather than producing it.
Grand Admiral Thrawn from Timothy Zahn's Star Wars spinoff novels is a Chiss, a race of aliens with blue skin and 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, but the glow is nonetheless unsettling. The glow goes out when he dies.
Subverted in Discworld with DEATH, who has glowing blue eyes (unless he's angry) and is a lovable example of The Spock.

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.

Film

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.
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.

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