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"Her eyes! My God, what's wrong with her eyes?" — Shelley, Evil Dead
An anime character who is performing or under the influence of hypnotism or mind control will show this influence in his or her eyes: their irises become dull, flat disks of their base color without any detail, highlights, reflections or even pupils. Obviously heavy eyelids surmount the altered eyes, and sometimes drift into a half-closed position.
This is mostly for the benefit of the audience. While people around the character may note they're "acting a little funny", nobody ever notices the loss of pupils.
In live-action and some forms of animation, the standard signal for mind control or possession is totally black or totally white eyes. In some forms of Western animation, hypnosis is represented by the eyes appearing as swirling spirals. Sometimes it's also represented by changes in the dilation of the pupil; the pupil will either get really small, or really large.
The visual indication that mind control is under effect; not to be confused with the eye having this ability in the first place. A rare variation involves severe walleye in both eyes. This is a Shout Out to a traditional Japanese artistic device: a character performing superhuman feats of swordsmanship (Musashi slicing arrows out of the air... as they're coming at his back) will be depicted as severely cross-eyed, indicating that they are using "inner guidance". Another extremely rare variation is sometimes where the pupil remains the same but the sclera (the white part of the eye) may change color.
It should be noted that in Real Life, hypnotized people's eyes are likely to dilate (i.e. the pupils get a bit bigger.) This is apparently not subtle enough for animation, which prefers to Open The Iris.
This also counts as Fetish Fuel for some people. Not to be confused with Hypnotic Eyes, which is about people who can hypnotize others just by looking into their eyes.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- In Dragon Ball GT, the eyes of Baby's possessed minions glow completely red.
- Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo! gets Mind Control Eyes when Kagato directly controls her. As an extension, her eyes also change color to a light shade of green, the same color as Kagato's sword; a good example of Colour Coded For Your Convenience.
- In episode 8 of the 2005 Ah My Goddess! TV show, Urd puts Keiichi under a kind of mind control to get him to kiss Belldandy, and he, of course, gets Mind Control Eyes.
- Kohaku in Inu Yasha is often shown in this situation.
- The same happens to Kagome Higurashi thrice: when she had her soul stolen by Urasue to re-create Kikyou, when Tsubaki the Dark Priestess curses her, and when the evil baby Akago attempts to brainwash her through More Than Mind Control. Except for the first time, she breaks free pretty much out of her own and delivers a Shut Up Hannibal speech to the culprit.
- Toward the end of Variable Geo, we see a mind-controlled fighter with these eyes.
- Subverted in Project A Ko. When B-ko arrives for a timely rescue, C-ko is found with Mind Control Eyes. B-ko thinks she's been drugged; however, on coming round, C-ko explains that she "wore herself out whining and crying".
- Digimon Adventure features Sora and Matt sulking in psychically-induced angst with this kind of eyes.
- Subversion: Juri Katou in Digimon Tamers has these while she appears to be possessed. However, this "Juri" is actually a clone constructed from data, with the real Juri trapped and being constantly mind-raped inside the D-Reaper.
- Exception: In Code Geass, Lelouch's Evil Eye shows a variation, with a red sigil appearing when he uses his power. His targets, however, merely have a bright red outline around the iris that appropriately flickers, fades, and returns depending on whether the power is being fought, dispelled, or not in effect. Characters retain all normal ocular features. The staff actually reworked a scene from the first episode when it was released on DVD because the victims' reactions to Lelouch almost made this defy the "for the audience's benefit" part of the trope.
- The manga adaptation of the series (the one that shares the exact same name, that is) uses a variation of the standard Mind Control Eyes where the victims are shown with one eye turning white with a copy of the sigil inside for the duration of the effect.
- Yorito and Aono in sola. This happens with all Yaka powers though, not just mind control.
- Fumi in Mai-HiME, after her Child is defeated.
- Kirika's pupils disappear in Noir when she goes into "Gray" mode (essentially a Heroic BSOD).
- Sailor Moon, under the influence of "Wise Man." This also happens with Mamoru whenever he's brainwashed by the enemy, to the victims of the Death Busters and/or Dead Moon Circus in S and Super S, and to Uranus and Neptune when they pretend to make a Face Heel Turn on the Senshi.
- Although she isn't technically possessed, Usagi gets these when she turns into Princess Serenity for the first time.
- Ikuto has them in "Shugo Chara" on the first appearance of Death Rebel.Also the X-Egg/?-Egg victims usually have them.
- The inhabitants of Winia's hometown in Scrapped Princess all fall under this when a powerful Mauser magician orders them to kill Pacifica.
- Oh, and humans under the effects of Providence get red eyes with green pupil-less irises. D-Knights likewise have yellow, cat-slitted eyes with green whites (excuse the expression).
- Anzu and Jounouchi get these eyes as well as evil voice when they're mind-controlled by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! Something similar happens with Mokuba when he's under Pegasus' control just before his duel with Kaiba.
- As 4Kids apparently didn't like those boring eyes, they decided to make it a little more "magic" and "mystical" using digitally-added red (Noah arc) and golden (Battle City finals) pupils.
- Somewhat notably, Kaiba has these eyes when he calls Yugi in the first episode to tell him that he's kidnapped his grandfather, suggesting Kaiba was either not in complete control of himself or he was compelled by some outside force to call.
- Aki also goes through this in her Black Rose Witch persona in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
- Lina and Gourry in the last episodes of Slayers NEXT. Gourry gets them when he's captured and brainwashed by Phibrizzo. The same happens to Lina very briefly when she invokes the Lord of Nightmares throughthe Giga Slave anhd she takes over Lina's body to fight Phibrizzo in person.
- In School Days: Kotonoha gets Mind Control Eyes when she snaps from all the abuse the series has piled up on her and goes mad. Her eyes go back to normal when Makoto makes her react, but turn back to MCE when she finds him dead.
- In The Prince of Tennis: When Eiji and Oishi synchronize perfectly in the courts, they both get Mind Control Eyes.
- Dolls in Darker Than Black have permanent Mind Control Eyes. The protagonist Hei has them as well, but contractors in general do not.
- Mizkuki from Mokke gets these when she is overtaken by a very powerful spirit.
- The third Pokémon movie. After Entei's cry of "You... are... MAMA!", Ash's mother Delia gains the eyes and is brainwashed into becoming little Molly's "mother". She snaps out of it when she sees Ash on television, trying to climb up the side of the huge crystal tower.
- Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha gets a variation of these after hearing the secrets of her origin from her mother.
- In Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, characters get these eyes when they start the 'bad' kind of reminiscing. It's a step below Hellish Pupils on the anime's "things to run away from really fast" scale, and any onlookers will probably survive.
- Mytho from Princess Tutu has this happen to his eyes after Kraehe rips out his heart. They even change shape.
- In Chrono Crusade, this happens to Rosette when Aion kidnaps and brainwashes her.
- In Ghost Stories, Satsuki's best friend Momoko Koigakubo gets them thrice when possessed by the ghost of Satsuki's mother, a dead but still powerful psychic an exorcist.
- Cowboy Bebop features a variation: the Mind Control Eyes are used here to indicate blindness.
- They're also used in "Mushroom Samba" to indicate people under the influence.
- Hikaru and Umi in Magic Knight Rayearth, when they come under control of the dancing illusionist Caldina. The three girls also get this when confronting the Masshin. And in the anime, Hikaru gets these on her own when mentally-attacked by Nova as Sierra tries to re-create her sword.
- When Lafarga is brainwashed, he gets MCE too.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima Evangeline practices this on Setsuna for her apparent Secret Test Of Character;Setsuna assumed it was a battle to test her will. Eva went along with it.
- Characters sport mind control eyes for different reasons in Zatch Bell: it usually happens when a character is shocked and at a loss for words. In Kiyo's case it is usually accompanied by a dumb-founded smile.
- Ichijo from Pani Poni Dash has these eyes all the time.
- Inverted in Soul Eater. Since Maka normally doesn't have pupils, when she is in a trance, she gains pupils instead of losing them.
- Rhiannon from Tears To Tiara gets these eyes when she is forced to give up her True Name to the evil high priest Drwc. Ironically, the one who frees her spirit is the same Demon King that Drwc wanted to sacrifice her to in the first place.
- Asuka in Yu Gi Oh GX gets these when the big bad puts her into an apparently heartless state. Oddly enough, it's actually visible to the other characters. Her brother even notes that Judai shouldn't bother treating her like his {former} friend right now, it's pointless.
- Happens several times to various characters in DN Angel, most notably when Daisuke is taken inside a work of art and hypnotized into painting a place for a spirit to live in.
- In Lupin III and the Castle of Cagliostro, the lady Clarisse has pupilless eyes as a result of being drugged.
- In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyoushou Ran gets these upon being taken over by her Dark Dragon/Kokuryuu powers.
- Flat eyes are used several times in Ghost Hunt to denote possessed people.
- Subverted in episode 11 of The Daughter Of Twenty Faces when Chiko notices the mind control eyes (which appear as concentric circles instead of flat).
- Mafuyu in Seitokai No Ichizon when Minatsu brainwashes her into deciding Ken is her enemy. Then they turn [{Red Eyes Take Warning red]].
- Shows up on occasion in the Ranma One Half anime, but not in the manga. Usually, it's Ranma Saotome (particularly in male form) who gets them; one anime episode has him hypnotized by an evil sorceress's ghost, while another episode has him being controlled by his evil side brought to independent life as an Opposite Sex Clone.
Films
- In Sam Raimi's movie The Evil Dead, whenever a character is possessed by a Kandarian spirit, they become grotesquely ugly, and their eyes in particular are affected, prompting the film's memorable line, "Her eyes! What happened to her eyes?"
- Neil Gaiman uses this a fair amount as well: in the movie Mirror Mask, when Helena gets brainwashed, her eyes turn jet black (just like those of the Dark Queen), and it goes away after she is back to normal.
- The Kurgan in Highlander (the only Highlander) has very black eyes shortly after he is beheaded. Immortals also have completely white eyes when they experience the Quickening.
- In Big Trouble In Little China, the eyes of David Lo Pan's two would-be brides turn pure white when they are being mentally controlled.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Victor Krum, when under the Imperius Curse, which controls his mind, has glazed-over eyes.
- Makes you wonder why it was such a problem during Voldemort's reign(according to Moody) when anyone could tell when someone was affected by it. Probably a case of the studio deciding the audience were too dumb to understand without a visual hint.
- There do seem to be varying levels of strength one can apply to the Imperius- you can completely override someone's personality and turn them into a mindless drone, or leave them pretty much normal except for implanted commands (which is what the Death Eaters normally did- see Barty Crouch, Sr.) Presumably, only the strongest Imperiuses would cause glazed eyes.
- In the 1996 Doctor Who film, the temporary companion of the Doctor had the Fully-Black eyes when she was under mind control.
- In 28 Days Later, Infection is signaled by the victim's eyes turning red (very shortly followed by lethal aggression against anyone nearby). In the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, one character's heterochromia offers some very valuable information this way.
- A clip from the upcoming film 9 shows this happening to one of the characters due to some hypnoflashy lights. What makes this interesting is the aforementioned character is a sapient ragdoll and his eyes are camera shutters.
- In Finding Nemo, would-be vegetarian shark Bruce's eyes turn solid black when he can't control his urge to eat fish.
- Which is what sharks' eyes normally look like anyway.
- There is a variation on this in WALL-E... when WALL-E appears to have lost his personality after EVE repairs him, his normally expressive eyes appear non-emotional to the point of being disturbing.
- Oh yes, that scared the shit out of me.
- In Disney's The Little Mermaid, upon seeing Vanessa singing on the beach for the first time, her seashell amulet emits a mist that entrances Eric. It can be seen filling the pupils of Eric's eyes with an eerie yellow glow. This shows up later, but it's not as obvious.
- Kaa's eyes in Disney's adaptation of The Jungle Book turn psychedelic colorful, as do his victims eyes when hypnotized. Though this is not the origin of this image, it may be the source of its popularity.
- Also happens in The Secret of NIMH, when Jeremy is mesmerized by Mrs. Brisby's "sparkly".
Literature
- Coraline, also written by Neil Gaiman, involves sewing buttons onto people's eyes as a method of brainwashing. Both this and the Mirrormask equivalent are used by an Evil Matriarch clone of the regular mother, with these exact eyes herself.
- In A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Charles Wallace is subjected to telepathic mind control by an oversized brain referred to as IT. As this occurs, his pupils shrink until they disappear, leaving blank blue eyes.
Live Action TV
- Black eyes are a common side-effect of possession by the alien oil in The X Files.
- Same goes for demons in Supernatural.
- When they want to intimidate someone, the Goa'uld of Stargate can make the eyes (white and pupil) of their current host glow with a burst of golden light (and a quick sting in the soundtrack).
- Doctor Who used to love doing the "unfocused eyes" version.
- In the original season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Tommy's eyes periodically glowed neon green when he was under Rita's control- usually at points when the spell was asserting itself over what he would do normally, although it also happened whenever it would look the most menacing and nobody was around to see.
- Willow's eyes turn completely black in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when she is evil.
- When Kahlan confesses people in Legend of the Seeker, both her and their eyes go totally black for a period. And it shows it every time she confesses someone.
Video Games
Web Comics
- In The Order of the Stick, swirly mind-control eyes are visible to the other characters
 , rather than simply an artistic convention. (The X-eyes representing death are also visible to other characters, as in the case of Roy's death. One character even draws them over a live character's eyes to fake death. In another case, the paladin Thanh takes on Tsukiko's heterochromia when he's put under her "Dominate Person" spell.
- In Gunnerkrigg Court, when Antimony almost becomes a victim of Body Surfing, her pupils turn a flat blue. Loss of consciousness due to a head injury had a similar effect.
- A stick-figure filler strip for Sluggy Freelance lampshades and plays with the swirly-eyed version: Torg gets hit on the head and thus has swirly eyes to represent his concussion, but then when a convenient coincidence leads to him wearing a top hat and having a moustache drawn on, he immediately becomes a mind-controlling hypnotist.
Web Original
- A red-write frame is used in Captain Gamer: OOC. Slightly subverted in that it's actually noticeable for the characters, and would probably go unnoticed if the Captain hadn't called attention to it.
Western Animation
- In Avatar the Last Airbender, the victims of A Clockwork Orange-reminiscent brainwashing have their pupils dilate, nearly enveloping the iris.
- Used in Futurama. All glory to the Hypno-Toad!
- Also in the Futurama movie Bender's Big Score, Bender gets squared spirals in his eyes to indicate mind control.
- When Soundwave mind-controls the Autobots in Transformers Animated, their optics turn red.
- Mind-controlled animals or humans in Code Lyoko have an interesting variation: their pupils are replaced with the "Eye of XANA" symbol. The protagonists can see it, if they are looking for it.
- And sometimes the "Eye of XANA" flickers a little (which makes it look cooler). However, if XANA needs mind-controlled humans to look normal, their eyes will change back to normal temporarily. This doesn't always happen, though.
- In The Batman when a mixture of Kryptonite dust and mind control spores are used on Superman, his eyes glow green.
- Used in more or less every Looney Tunes short involving hypnosis, both the constricted pupil and spiral-eye versions.
- Animaniacs used the spiral eyes version in a short involving Rasputin's hypnosis of the Czar.
- Pinky and the Brain used the rare wall-eye version. When a triggering noise was heard by one of the titular characters, they would go into an uncontrollable dance ("I'm a little teapot" for Brain when he heard a tinkly bell, and a stereotypical Russian Squat-dance for Pinky when he heard a gong) with their dilated pupils swimming on the inside edges of their eyes. What makes this a real Wall Banger for This Troper is that this hypnosis was invoked using ''Pavlov's Conditioned Response!'' by Pavlov himself, no less!
- Teen Titans uses glowing red eyes for normal mind control, as well as pink eyes in the episode "Mother Mae-Eye", when characters are under the titular character's spell.
- Also spiral eyes in the first "Mad Mod" episode, whenever Beast Boy gets whammied by the hypnoscreens.
- In Barbie and the Diamond Castle, those under the villain's mind-control spell get a green glow in their eyes.
- In Danny Phantom, the color of the characters' eyes signal many things, including possessed characters having the same eye color as the ghost who possessed them. Usually, everyone seems unaware of this, although when Danny Phantom splits himself into a ghost self and a human self in one episode and the ghost Danny overshadows the human Danny, the human Danny checked his eyes in a mirror as soon as he'd forced the ghost Danny out.
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