Behold, my magically-induced Excessive Evil Eyeshadow!
As visual shorthand for "this being is magical/powerful", the being will have streamers of magic, usually (but not always) glowing, trailing from the corner of at least one, if not both, eyes. Because this is a visual effect, it's primarily seen in CGI and hand-drawn animation, sometimes in live-action, and rarely in non-visual mediums like radio and literature. Almost always overlaps with Glowing Eyes, but it's hypothetically possible for the streamers to appear without the eyes themselves glowing. It's also hypothetically possible for the streamers to be black.
Can overlap with Fireball Eyeballs, if and only if the flames or smoke extend past the boundaries denoted by the eye sockets and face.
Compare Sparkling Stream of Tears, where someone who is moving fast while crying leaves a trail of star-like tears flowing from their eyes behind them. Compare Colorful Contrails, which may apply only to a character's eyes.
Not to be confused with Eye Beams, which shoot forward from the pupils and usually deal damage.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ayakashi Triangle: When Soga Ninokuru runs at full speed, streaks of electricity come out of his eyes.
- Black★Rock Shooter has blue flames forming a long stream from one eye.
- My Hero Academia: Izuku's eyes glow and emit green lightning representing the power of One For All coursing through him when using Full Cowl.
- KonoSuba: Megumin gets a pair of rainbow ones while channeling Explosion as she prepares to blast the Slime Demon Lord into oblivion.
Comic Books
- The Mighty Thor: Thor has his eyes emitting long sparks of lightning
◊ in the comic books when he's particularly angry or determined.
- Superwoman: When Lana-as-Superwoman uses her powers, she sometimes emits thin streams of red electricity from the corners of her eyes.
- Venom: Venom's son Dylan gets smoke-like black tendrils writhing out of the outside corners of his eyes when his powers activate in Venom #18.
Fan Works
- Antipodes: During the final battle, Tantalus' eyes become pits of green flame that leave fiery trails behind them as he moves.
- Child of the Storm: Humanoid hosts of the Dark Phoenix tend to get flames rolling down their cheeks like tears. It is intensely disturbing and a sign they're leaning towards the eldritch end of Humanoid Abomination.
- Destiny Intertwined: Intense or emotional use of an element can cause it to trail from the user's eyes as streams of flame, electricity, frost, earth energy, wind, or water. Magic produces a similar effect. In Chapter 2, during Hayze's trial, Lynerius is angry to the point that he starts to lose control of his element and it begins to manifest around him, including streamers of Electricity trailing from his eyes.
- The Petriculture Cycle: In Pandelirium, when Trixie is possessed by Sombra, streamers of pale violet haze similar to his start seeping from her eyes.
Films — Live-Action
- Avengers: Infinity War: When Thor (along with Rocket Raccoon and Groot) arrives in the battle of Wakanda, he starts to go on a rampage while his eyes emit lightning sparks (being a thunder god and all). It represents his fury as he's trying to find Thanos there.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: In the "Shackled City" adventure path published in Dungeon Magazine, anyone who passes the trials to become ruler of the abyssal realm of Occipitus manifests "the Sign of the Smoking Eye", replacing one of their eyes with a small flame which trails smoke.
- In Nomine: Elder Thunder, an ethereal spirit of storms, manifests as a living stormcloud with a pair of crackling, trailing arcs of electricity for eyes.
Video Games
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Yuriko's portrait in her mini-campaign shows her eyes blazing with pionic power when she returns to the Shiro lab bent on revenge.
- Dragon Age: Origins: The nameless Grey Warden from an early promotional trailer establishes himself as a Magic Knight when, before facing the Darkspawn Horde, he enchants his sword and his eyes briefly acquire mystic blue streamers.
- DragonFable: A defining part of what sets an Avatar apart from lesser elementals, aside from their humanoid forms, are the streams of colored energy flowing from their eyes.
- Granblue Fantasy: The eyeholes of Mordekai's skull are lit with trailing blue flames.
- Team Fortress 2: The Demoman's missing eye starts to trail bright green fire as he beheads enemies with the Eyelander. Professional killstreak weapons provide a similar effect for their class, with a number of different visual effects and colors.
- Street Fighter V: During Akuma's Critical Art Shun Goku Satsu, the screen gets darkened, and his Glowing Eyes of Doom creates streaks of light as he moves in high speed to beat his foe multiple times.
- Twisted Wonderland: Each of the Overblotted characters have wisps of magic emanating from one of their eyes (right for Riddle, Vil, Idia and Malleus, left for Leona, Azul, and Jamil).
- Undertale: Undyne as Undyne the Undying has one eye emit a beam of light.
- World of Warcraft: This is your first, and maybe only, clue that the one you're talking to is a dragon taking A Form You Are Comfortable With. Most pronounced with the Dragon Aspects but, in general, the older/more powerful the dragon, the more noticeable the magic eye stream.
Web Animation
- RWBY:
- Creatures of Grimm have glowing red streamers from their equally red eyes. It helps emphasis their unnatural, otherworldly status as beings humanity doesn't fully understand.
- The Four Maidens are women who can use true magic. When activating their power, glowing flames burst from their eyes like wings. The colour of the flames will match each Maiden's Aura colour, and so will vary in appearance even between Maidens of the same season, who pass the magic on to a new recipient whenever they die. Of the two Fall Maidens, both had golden eye fire because their Auras were amber and golden while the Spring Maiden has red eye fire due to a red Aura. There have been three Winter Maidens, two with ice-blue eye fire and one with bright green.
Webcomics
- Angel Down: This happens whenever a paladin uses their powers, with visual appearance depending on the archangel that granted their abilities.
- Paladins of Azriel have black smokey eye streamers.
- Paladins of Raphiel have jagged lightning eye streamers.
- Lighter smokey eye streamers and electric eye streamers have also appeared, but it is currently unknown what angels they correspond to.
- Kill Six Billion Demons: Incubus often limits the visible manifestation of his soul flame to a small halo, but it sometimes flares up out of his eyes.
- Oglaf: Fog of War has a goblin explain to a trio of adventurers that they are indeed at the Temple of the Lich Queen, but she was killed a year ago and now the temple is only suited to very low-level characters. The next panel shows a Fighter, Mage, Thief so high-level that they all have Eye Streamers and a flying mount each.
- Scoob and Shag: When characters call upon their Ballyhoo powers, this is marked by streamers of wispy white energy trailing from their eyes, usually extending to and past the edge of the panel. When a character is particularly powerful, this energy will gain a distinct color.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In "The New Normal" when Anne sees the frozen Plantars about to be killed by the Cloak-Bot which in turn is what finally activates her Super Mode, her pupils are streaming blue wisps out of them.
- Gravity Falls: In "Dreamscaperers" when Stan's mind is taken over by Bill, his eyes turn white and have blue smoke streaming out.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: King Sombra has glowing purple streamers extending from the corners of his eyes, as does anyone using or under the influence of his magic.
