Many monsters appear in media, and they all take on different forms. Their mouths are no exception. A creature's mouth can make it disturbing or scarier than it would be if it had a normal mouth. One simple way to do that is to represent a creature's mouth as a zig-zag line. This is a good way to show how twisted a creature is, unless the monster turns out to be nice, in which case it is Dark Is Not Evil. This sort of mouth can be drawn in a few ways.
- A simple zig-zag line, hinting at an animal-like nature (i.e. many Heartless from Kingdom Hearts). Often includes Goth Spirals at either end of the mouth.
- The mouth is very sharp looking or very long, hinting at insanity. Much like Type 1, may include Goth Spirals at either end of the mouth.
- A zig-zag mouth appearing on a character's shadow or silhouette. This shows how sinister they are while they are in the shadows, or to reveal that someone unassuming-looking is secretly evil or sinister; it is used a lot with Glowing Eyes of Doom. When it appears on a character's shadow, it can also be part of shadow magic. This is usually done with characters that don't have jagged mouths in the first place.
- A Jagged Mouth on a character who is neither evil nor animalistic, as part of their normal design. The character has intelligence, humanity etc., and is not sinister or insane. This is often used to mislead the protagonists (or the audience) into initially thinking that they are insane, animal-like, or evil.
Compare with Slasher Smile, which has the same effect, but is an expression rather than the way the mouth is contructed, and may be represented by this in particularly cartoonish works. Not to be confused with More Teeth than the Osmond Family, where the character's teeth could be serrated, but the mouth line outside is straight. Compare and Contrast Bizarre Alien Biology, where the mouth line could be serrated or zig-zagged for instance, but could have a different function or place on the body, sometimes mixing this trope with Belly Mouth. Subtrope to Scary Teeth.
Examples :
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Anime & Manga
- One Piece villain Gekko Moriah uses shadows that have these kinds of mouths using his Shadow-Shadow fruit powers.
- Many monsters in Digimon sport this sort of mouth type.
- Late in Land of the Lustrous, after Sensei puts Phos back together, her mouth becomes this when her mind fully breaks and becomes a villain.
- Some Yu-Gi-Oh!'s monsters use this trope
- The V2 Tailed Beast Shrouds in Naruto have this type of mouth.
- In Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Tohru manifests one when she is using her Breath Weapon or showing off her feral side in human form.
- Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters sees its version of Godzilla with his teeth as part of his jaw.
- Shrianui from Medaka Box has this in the form of her power, Real Eater.
- Baikinman from Anpanman has his mouth constantly in a zig-zag shape.
Comic Books
- Spider-Man villain Carnage is often depicted with black teeth that blend into his mask, as are several other symbiotes.
Fan Works
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In their first form, San and Vivienne Graham (Monster X) have this trope's first and fourth types (hinting at animalistic nature and also hinting at a horrific-looking but ultimately benevolent creature). Vivienne's head has ingrown serrated teeth on either side of her jaws, whilst the author's art depicts San's head with a jagged mouth-shape.
- A Diplomatic Visit: In the fourth story, The Diplomat's Life, as in canon, Rabia's form as the Pony of Shadows has fangs that blend into the rest of his face, giving him a serrated silhouette of a mouth.
Film
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): The "teeth" within Rodan's beak seem to look more like spiked protrusions jutting out of his jaws, while the previous incarnations were toothy birds.
- In Ice Age: Continental Drift, there is a Giant Enemy Crab with this sort of mouth.
Theme Parks
- King Ghidorah in Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D at Universal Studios Japan is depicted with this trope, his fangs blending into each of his jaws and mouths.
Video Games
- Nearly all Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, as well as some Nobodies have these. In particular, some Dream Eaters from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] exhibit this, such as the Skelterwild and Fishbone, who go for this look instead of having exposed teeth.
- The Dark Bats from Sonic Unleashed.
- Various Final Fantasy enemies
- The dragons in the Disgaea series have this sort of mouth, as do their more humanoid cousins, the Entei.
- Monster Hunter: The Brachydios and Gore Magala from 3 Ultimate and 4 both sport this sort of mouth. Closer inspection will reveal that they have proper teeth that are mostly obscured by the jagged edges.
- Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights has Treasure Animatis that sport these. mostly in their feral forms.
- Chillion From Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
- Water Glaboros from Kirbys Return To Dreamland
- A few Pokémon feature this sort of mouth, such as Swampert and Dusknoir.
- The Living Weapon Soul Robber from The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge has this mouth in most of its artwork.
- Kitsunoh of the Create-a-Pokémon project wears Cool Masks with jagged, smiling mouths, befitting the design of a Ghost-type Pokemon.
- Flowey of Undertale features a jagged mouth for some of his more ominous faces. The fact that you're seeing this on a tiny plant should hint at what kind of character Flowey really is.
Web Animation
- Shiromori from Mystery Skulls Animated has serrated lips and shark-like teeth behind them.
- The Grossery Gang:
- Egghead, being a living egg, has a mouth made up of a jagged line that is meant to be a crack in his shell.
- Surge, a living battery, has a jagged mouth to represent his electric abilities.
Webcomics
- Unsounded: Smoke eels are malevolent ghosts that manifest in the physical world by possessing and shaping particulate, like smoke, dust or blood, into the shape of an eel with a jagged mouth and glowing eyes.
Web Original
- Atop the Fourth Wall has the Entity Missingno portrayed with this sort of mouth in The Electric Tale of Pikachu title card.
- Deviants of Art has a few characters sporting this kind of mouth.
Web Video
- Critical Role: In Campaign 3, DM Matthew Mercer describes the character of Ira Wendagoth, The Nightmare King as having one of these, to go with his dark eyed, noseless, Humanoid Abomination appearance.
Western Animation
- Bulkhead from Transformers: Animated.
- Turu the Pteranodon from Jonny Quest.
- Starbox from Animaniacs (2020).
- Some of the Corrupted Gems from Steven Universe.
- Orthax from The Legend of Vox Machina, also manifesting as a Slasher Smile on Percy.
Real Life
- Dunkleosteus was a prehistoric armor-plated fish that had these in the form of sharpened extensions of the plates on it's face, having evolved before true teeth did.
