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Another easy way to tell a villainous (or sinister) character apart from the protagonists, other than giving him/her a Red Right Hand, seems to be making their eyes red. If they don't start out evil, there's a chance they may get Darker And Edgier over time, or take on a full-blown Face Heel Turn. It's not the same thing as the "red eye" phenomenon in photos, but if cameras could detect evil, these would probably be the first people they'd catch.
In the progressive algorithm of " Oh Crap" with Eyes, we have:
Eyes Of Gold → Red Eyes Take Warning → Hellish Pupils → Glowing Eyes Of Doom
The title is derived from an old saying among seafaring travelers: "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning", which means that if the sky is red at sunrise, there's bound to be tumultuous weather ahead.
This has been around so long it's become a Cyclic Trope, probably multiple times. So be warned! With the diversity of hair and eye color in anime, it is entirely possible for someone to have red eyes and be completely innocent! Those with glowing red eyes are almost without exception thoroughly evil or, at least, very dangerous.
Compare Glamour Failure. A subtrope of Technicolor Eyes. May be part of Evil Albino. If you were looking for Red Vision, you're in the wrong place.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Digimon Tamers, the main character has red eyes and appears to subvert this trope, since he is the sweetest of them all... until he gets mad and his pupils contract; what follows afterwards is pure Nightmare Fuel material: his also sweet partner, a very capable fighter who incindentaly also has golden eyes that contract, becomes a gigantic, acid drooling dragon that destroys the world by existing and starts eating a mega level (ridiculosly powerful) digimon, their friend, the demon lord of Gluttony.
- Also from Tamers, green-eyed trickster Impmon is upgraded into red-eyed killer Beelzemon. After he finally leaves The Dark Side, his eyes are green as Beelzemon as well.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion, Angels tend to have red eyes (When they have them at all.) Also: Rei Ayanami and Kaworu Nagisa
- Enma Ai, the eponymous Hell Girl.
- Makato Shishio of Rurouni Kenshin fame has narrow red eyes, his intro episode is appropriately titled "Devil of Vengeance".
- Though there are some good-natured red-eyed characters in Naruto, Itachi Uchiha is a standout and an especially sadistic type. In fact, anyone from the Uchiha clan has them when using the Sharingan, but he's always using it.
- He's actually a good guy all along. Not only that, but one who fought to protect not only his brother, but also the village, and the whole world. In fact, he wanted to take down the true Big Bad... whoever that is
- Averted in the case of Kurenai Yuhi who is not only sensible and caring but also gets a Promotion To Parent despite her deep red (two tones of red even) eyes.
- And whenever Naruto's eyes turn red, Bad Guys take warning, cause there's gonna be some epic throwdown. After a LONG speech.
- Still somewhat subverted with Naruto. Whenever Naruto uses Kyuubi's chakra and his eyes turn red (With the added bonus of Hellish Pupils) he is still aware of who's side he's on. When he reaches four tails and above his eyes turn into glowing holes and that's when everyone knows they're screwed.
- Filler character Ranmaru has red eyes when he's using his unnamed eye jutsu. He's technically not evil, just willing to assist Raiga even if it involves helping him kill people until he sees the error of his ways.
- Hidan, anyone? Said guy is an Ax Crazy Akatsuki member who loves murdering his victims so much that he almost has an orgasm when doing it.
- Misa from Death Note gets these after she receives the Shinigami eyes. Light tends to get these during moments of contemplation of particularly evil deeds.
- Though in both cases it's just a metaphorical sense.
- Kyosuke Higuchi, Teru Mikami, and Soichiro Yagami also receive shinigami eyes, making their eyes red (metaphorically, of course).
- Slightly subverted in Soichiro's case, he's not evil.
- Subversion: Mai-HiME's Shizuru Fujino has natural red eyes, but is generally a kind and amiable Student Council President...until her Face Heel Turn in Episode 23, at which point they become Dull Eyes Of Unhappiness.
- The Red-Eyes Black Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! is a literal red-eyed monster. And sure enough, it starts out owned by a minor antagonist... but it later is won by one of the good guys and becomes his signature card.
- ... and in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, it's the signature card of someone's Superpowered Evil Side.
- In Season 0, a season of Yu-Gi-Oh! never released in the U.S. because it was too violent, Yami's eyes were red. And bad guys really should take warning, because not only was Yami completely psychotic originally, but anyone who messed with his friends either ended up dead or even crazier then he was.
- Professor Daitokuji from GX also has red eyes.
- Shirahime in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer has red eyes, which contrast with her cold-coloured snow queen theme and make her look very ominous. Her operator's not evil, but it sure seems to fit with her being beautiful, unapproachable and kinda scary.
- In the first Galaxy Angel game, one member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad is actually named Red Eye. Noah (or so we think) also gets these once she performs the Villain Override.
- And of course, as a non-villainous example, there's Vanilla, due to her being a Rei Ayanami Expy.
- Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, the supreme demon lord and Sealed Evil In A Can from the first season of Slayers. Lina herself has them too, but she's not that evil, honest.
- While not all of them are evil (plenty of them are vicious, though), red eyes are the key to identifying who's a dragon in Dragonaut The Resonance.
- Lucy from Elfen Lied. Cute. Extremely deadly. Thinks almost all Humans Are Bastards.
- All humans, that is, except for Kouta. This wouldn't be spoilered, except for the fact that it's actually a massive plot twist along with the fact that she's atoning for what she did to Kouta's family.
- All the other Diclonii, too, at least in the anime. Well, definitely Mariko, Nana is more debatable — she's certainly dangerous, being a Diclonius and all, but doesn't seem particularly fond of killing people unless she thinks it's right.
- When Inu Yasha's long-running nemesis Naraku gets that ominous red glow in his eyes, you just know something bad's about to happen.
- Inu-Yasha himself gets the ominous red-eyed glow when his demonic side takes over.
- And Kagura's eyes are solid red, without pupils. She's more of an Anti Villain, though.
- Gilgamesh
 ◊ from Fate Stay Night is blond with red eyes, but considering that Gilgamesh is supposed to be from Mesopotamia, it speaks more of a Phenotype Stereotype and this trope than anything else. Also, in the "Heaven's Feel" route of the game, Sakura's Superpowered Evil Side has red eyes.
- Not to mention Ilya, who uses Mystic Eyes to immobilize and kidnap the hero (ultimately, though, she's not evil).
- Caster's use of Mind Control Eyes is an interesting variant — the whites of the victim's eyes turn red.
- Lancer has red eyes too, but he isn't evil in most of the storylines, although he initially appears as such.
- Likewise, his master Bazett Fraga McRemitz from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia has naturally red eyes, and she's one of the good guys.
- The primary theme regarding this appears to be that Servants who possess red eyes typically have varying levels of godhood. For example, Gilgamesh is 2/3s god and Lancer's true identity is a demigod as well. This also appears to apply to Berserker, who is heterochromatic, with one of his eyes being red. However, that may be the result of the Mad-Enhancement that is part and parcel to the berserker class. It is also worth mentioning that Berserker's true identity is also part-god.
- Fuuma's◊ eyes in the X1999 anime series are dark red, in contrast to his manga counterpart, whose eyes can best be described as gold-hazel (giving him something of a cat-like appearance). The change in eye color probably has to do with the You Should Know This Already aspect of his true nature in the anime series, while the manga builds up much more subtly towards the Wham Episode and his Face Heel Turn.
- Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne has garnet-colored eyes and platinum hair, and he's totally crazy and bloodthirsty. Turns out his true form is a blond haired and blue eyed girl so the hair and eyes are a side effect of the experiments performed on him.
- In an odd twist, Guu from Haré+Guu has red eyes in her "normal" form, but considering that she's that world's rough equivalent of Cthulhu, it makes sense.
- Rue/Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu, though she's more of a Tyke Bomb tragic heroine than a straight villain.
- Also Mytho when he's possessed by Raven's blood in the second season... although they're almost more of a pink than a red. Considering the Monster Raven and his servants also have red eyes, it's probably a sign of Raven's blood.
- In the recent Hellsing OAV, when Seras Victoria's eyes shift from blue to red (often glowing) expect bodies to hit the floor in numerous pieces. Not surprisingly, centuries-old vampire Alucard's eyes are always thus.
- Sastre, a one-episode (but still formidable) Witch Hunter Robin villain, has red eyes.
- Ralph Werec from Soukou No Strain takes a different approach: he may not have red pupils, but the whites of his eyes turn pink when he goes crazier than he usually is. The result is very creepy.
- Mutsumi from Utawarerumono has red eyes (as does Kamyu when she goes into vampire mode).
- Shinn Asuka, the (initial) protagonist of Gundam SEED Destiny, has red eyes. He's not evil per se, but has some anger issues.
- Only some? There's a reason Athrun beat the stupidity out of him. Multiple times.
- A mecha example in this one, Gundam 00 features this in the Gundams. The primary celestial being units feature green particles, eyes and clear pieces. The units that are not using the true GN drives feature the same pieces in red. Guess which ones are evil.
- A subversion is that all celestial being units turn red when they undergo Trans-Am which means that they are serious.
- Gets rather weird when Trans-Am burst forgets the green and the red and just goes multi-technicolor.
- The demonic nobleman in The Fantastic Adventures of Unico has reddish eyes in human form. The eyes of any creature that he corrupts or manipulates seem to turn red as well.
- Demon Eyes Kyo from Samurai Deeper Kyo is the living incarnation of this trope. Even more impressively, he manages to do this and Glowing Eyes Of Doom simultaneously. In an interesting subversion, the nature of Kyo's eyes and his connection to the enigmatic Mibu clan become central points to the plot.
- Evangeline did this occasionally did this in Negima!? In the actual Manga, the author prefers Black Eyes for scary characters.
- Nube from Hell Teacher Nube has red eyes, representative of his vast spiritual power. Also representative of his tendency to make mincemeat out of anyone who threatens his students.
- Hatsumi/Eve from Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito is a subversion. She has red eyes but is one of the more innocent and benevolent characters in the series.
- In Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the gargantuan, pillbug-like Ohmu's rows and rows and rows of blue eyes shine bright red when they're enraged. Everything in their path is devastated afterwards, and the spores that collect on their bodies expand the Sea of Corruption a little bit more with each stampede.
- Claire Stanfield from Baccano! has reddish-brown eyes rather straight-up red, but they sure as hell look blood red◊ when he's revealed to be the Rail Tracer, and he's prone to combining these◊ with Glowing Eyes Of Doom and Slasher Smiles. The Light Novels also bring in Christopher Shouldered, whose defining features are his permanently and severely bloodshot eyes that appear to be almost entirely red, save the iris.
- In Vampire Knight, the vampires' eyes turn red when they are suffering from blood lust. And Kaname's eyes are just red in general and he's not exactly the most benign person...
- Fresh Pretty Cure plays this straight intially and subverts it later. Setsuna Higashi/Eas, a member of the evil organization of Labyrinth, has dark crimson eyes in human form and bright red eyes when transformed. Then she undergoes a Heel Face Turn thanks to The Power Of Friendship and becomes the decidedly not antagonistic Cure Passion.
- Horo of Spice and Wolf has red eyes, but is usually good-natured. One should tread lightly when her eyes begin to glow in the dark, but not for the usual reasons.
- Contractors in Darker Than Black are usually completely indistinguishable from normal people, but when they use their powers, their eyes glow red.
- Bleach: Ichimaru Gin, during his fight with Hitsugaya, was surprised and opened his eyes properly for once; they were shown to be red. However, they're blue in the manga.
- Haine from DOGS Bullets And Carnage. He's not evil, but still pretty dangerous.
- Prussia from Axis Powers Hetalia has redish purple eyes.
- Evil Prince Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn has vicious bright red eyes to go with his nasty temper. Seriously, you do not want to piss him off.
- Rokudo Mukuro, also from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, has one red eye and one blue, the red one being the one he draws his powers from.
- An inversion in D.Gray-Man: If Allen's cursed left eye turns black with red concentric rings, you should probably start running. However, it's not a matter of running from him- it's because he just spotted an Akuma, and you really don't want to be around when there's bullets flying through the air that can make you dissolve.
- Yuno sports red eyes, and she's, well, Yuno.
- In Pandora Hearts Vincent's Mismatched Eyes qualify him for this trope and Eyes Of Gold.
- Break also has redish eye(s) and it turns out that back when he was the illegal contractor Kevin Regnard he was also known as the Red Eyed Ghost.
- Kurapika from Hunter X Hunter falls into the "dangerous" (though not evil) category...normally polite and reserved, but if his eyes turn red, you'd better hope he's not looking at you.
Fan Works
Films — Animation
- AUTO from WALL-E.
- Spoofed in Monsters Vs Aliens. After being imprisoned by the military merely for being a 49 foot 11 inch monster woman, Susan starts banging on the walls of her prison. The other monsters warn her not to do that, whereupon a huge door opens to reveal a dark interior with two glowing red eyes within... which merely turn out to be the lights on General Monger's Jet Pack.
Films — Live Action
- Three examples from Fright Night (1985): Jerry Dandrige and Amy Peterson in their humanoid vampire forms, and "Evil" Ed Thompson in wolf form.
- Hammer Horror vampires often have red — or rather, very bloodshot — eyes.
- In Dreamscape, the wolves chasing the heroes in the final dream sequence.
- In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eddie Valiant remembers that the toon who killed his brother had "burning red eyes." That toon is later revealed to be Judge Doom.
- The "Sith eyes" seen on Darths Maul, Sidious, and Vader in the Star Wars prequels. Maul is shown to have them all the time, but he's not human and his eye color is never seen while he's doing anything but hunting the heroes and fighting. Vader is only seen with them when he's feeling particularly eeheevil, and Sidious is apparently able to turn them off at will. Darth Tyrannus is never seen with them at all, So Yeah.
- Those are more gold. Chiss eyes are red, though.
- Although we never actually get to see their real eyes, the glowing red goggles of the Red Eyes gang in Mystery Men seem to reflect this trope.
- Most of the Terminators from, well, the Terminator franchise have glowing red eyes, which become even more obvious when only their endoskeletons are showing.
- It is probably not coincidental that Cameron has blue eyes under the meat... although the third movie features another quite malevolent Terminator similarly equipped.
- Actually, Cameron's endoskeleton have red eyes.◊ The blue light we saw in some episodes was explained by Josh Friedman: "It’s red because at the core, she’s a Terminator. Plain and simple. The lens itself is red. There’d never be a reason to change the lens color. I made it [the flash] blue in the pilot to indicate she was different but that wasn’t to suggest the hardware was blue. No reason for it." Some theorized that the blue eyes were some sort of Resistance Security Encryption Key, considering its use in unlocking access to both the TDE station in the vault (for the Connors), and the TDE complex in the future (for Derek).
- It's not the eyes, but the robots in I, Robot turn on a red chest light when being controlled by the villain.
- Justified; it's explained that the red light indicates when a robot is downloading a firmware update from US Robotics. VIKI uses this connection up upload her (twisted) logic and understanding of the Three Laws into the consumer-model NS-5's.
- Monster X in both forms in Godzilla Final Wars
- In Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S, The title character tries to charbroil Mothra's newly borne twin larvae with his atomic breath. Mothra jumps in front of her children to save them and is promptly set alight for her troubles. She explodes and at that point her children's eyes turn from a benevolent blue to a hellish red and they proceed to team-up with Mechagodzilla to beat the hell out of Godzilla.
- "Do it, Russell! Make sacrifice! Look into the red eye of your god!"
- One Hour Photo has Robin Williams in a calm dream sequence, but when he opens his eyes (they are blood red, and some blood trickles out of one. He then puts his hands on his eyes, screaming out "AAAAHHHHHHH!" while blood flies all over the place from his eyes).
- In Iron Man 2, War Machine's eye lights are red as compared to Iron Man's blue. Whether this is of any real significance is yet to be seen.
- Popeye and a very late Olive Oyl in The Movie carrying the newly discovered Swee'Pea at the door of Olive's house after being late for a date with Bluto=big trouble. Bluto, seething with anger, sees Popeye, Olive and the baby through red eyes, pummels Popeye into the ocean below, and in the next scene, persuades the taxman to tax the prestigious Oyl family into bankruptcy as revenge.
Literature
- Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs is depicted with maroon (brownish-red) eyes in the books.
- One of the villains from Madeline L'engle's books is called simply... The Man With Red Eyes.
- Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter books (although not in The Films of the Books).
- Captain Hook had light blue eyes, but when he was angry they would flash red.
- Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, while not red-eyed himself, uses a red eye on black as his symbol.
- In the Twilight novel series, the vampires who drink only human blood have red eyes.
- Terek Domar, the dragon of The Lonely Winds saga, has glowing, blood-red eyes.
- The villainous Steerpike of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series has dark red eyes.
- Melisandre from A Song of Ice and Fire is an Evil Redhead as well.
- Grand Admiral Thrawn, a nonhuman Chiss who also had blue skin, had solid red eyes that were often said to be glowing. Even when he's solidly the antagonist he is less evil, more ruthless.
- Ysanne Isard actually had Mismatched Eyes, one eye being red, the other eye being blue. She's the head of Imperial Intelligence and decidedly evil.
- The same series has the much more minor villain Zekka Thyne, who has red eyes and Hellish Pupils.
- Chillingworth from The Scarlet Letter.
- Dracula has red eyes. His houseguest Jonathan, being British, does not comment on this.
- Bored Of The Rings, a parody of The Lord Of The Rings. The Black Riders have "perfectly normal red glowing fires" where their eyes should have been.
Live Action TV
- In Star Trek Enterprise, the Na'kuhl (or, as they are better known, the "Red Eye Aliens" or "Evil Alien Nazis") all have red eyes, clinching them as candidates for the most evil-looking aliens in the history of fiction.
- Jake Sisko, and later Dukat, temporarily get them while being possessed by the Pah Wraiths.
- Darien Fawkes of The Invisible Man isn't evil, but he's prone to states of psychosis induced by the invisibility-causing gland in his brain; when he starts to flip out, his eyes go red. But when he gets to the point of no return, his eyes turn silver.
- Battlestar Galactica: Cylons. The single red flashing eye makes up a great deal of the Centurions' and Raiders' intimidation factor.
- Strangely, the only time we see a humanoid Cylon with red eyes it's Sam Anders, one of the good ones.
- When the placid "servant race" of Ood in Doctor Who get red eyes it's a sign that they've either been posessed by a Satan-like being from before the universe began, or simply overwhelmed by anger at the way they've been treated. Either way, it's bad news.
- Meanwhile, the only human that "Satan" managed to possess also gained blood-red eyes while the Beast was in control.
- Far earlier, those possessed by the similarly diabolical Fenric gained blood-red eyes, but only after they had faded from their initial shade of dark green.
- Randall Flagg in The Stand miniseries.
- In Merlin, Gaius realises that two visiting nobles are actually evil enchanters as he sees one's eyes flash red in a fit of anger. He really does take warning at the red eyes.
- Davis Bloome on Smallville gets these when he's transforming into Doomsday.
- Supernatural: Crossroads Demons. Other demons have similarly evil shades of white, yellow, or black.
- In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, after Tara is killed, Willow looks up, and her eyes are glowing red. It's even lampshaded/foreshadowed by the episode's title, "Seeing Red".
Tabletop Games
- Most versions of drow or dark elves from Dungeons & Dragons have red eyes. They are Always Chaotic Evil, and the exceptions inevitably have other eye colors such as violet or yellow. They all have red eyes in deep darkness, however. It's part of their darkvision.
- Interestingly, the original incarnation of drow as presented in the modules in which they made their first appearance were described as having amber or yellow eyes. It was only in later developments that they were described as red-eyed, possible a case of Fanon due to the misconception that the heat radiance of thermal imaging organs (or ultraviolet imaging organs) appears red to normal vision.
- The entire ork race in Warhammer40000 has evil red eyes. The warning part however usually comes from a mountain of weapon wielding green muscle charging you, besides the eyes are quite sunken and difficult to see unless up close and suicidal.
Video Games
- Akuma from Street Fighter, and Ryu under the influence of the Satsui no Hadou. In both cases, their eyes also glow, meaning you're in really big trouble.
- Albert Wesker of Resident Evil, especially in Code Veronica.
- In Resident Evil 4, village leader Bitores Mendez has extremely bloodshot eyes that appear red.
- Most of the protagonists in Disgaea. Lest you think this should be in the Counter-examples section, they're all demons. Angel trainee Flonne even gets red eyes when she falls from the ranks of the angels at the end.
- Somewhat subverted in The Legend of Zelda series. While Ganondorf has red eyes, so do the rest of the Gerudo.
- Vaati also has red eyes, and he's the Big Bad for three games.
- So do the Sheikah, but they are never portrayed as evil.
- Fire Emblem has a lot of bad guys with glowing red eyes. Berserk Ashnard, Yurius, Hardain, and the feral ones to name a few.
- Caleb, the undead asskicker and protagonist from the first-person shooter Blood, has permanent glowing red eyes.
- Bowser, the main villain from most of the Super Mario Bros. games, has had sinister red eyes since Super Mario Bros. 3.
- The Shadow Queen in Peach's body occasionally had glowing red eyes.
- The Evil Army in Drakengard initially seems to have these, but cutscenes later on demonstrate they are really Mind Control Eyes. The trope is played straight with Manah, the Big Bad. There's a bit of Fridge Logic here in that her identical twin brother has green eyes.
- Dark Matter from Kirby, with the prominent ones being the Bonus Bosses Zero (Kirby's Dream Land 3) and Zero-Two (Kirby 64).
- It's worth noting that in all his forms, as well as his Mirror Land counterpart Dark Mind, Dark Matter is nothing but a giant red eye.
- Castlevania series usually depicts Dracula as having Red Eyes, and in Portrait of Ruin — the twins Loretta and Stella both have one red eye, and Brauner also has red eyes. The twins' heterochromatic eyes is to show that they are under Brauner's sway but they are still able to be turned back to humans, losing the red eye when they do. However, other vampires such as Elizabeth Bartelby, Carmilla and etc. aren't shown with red eyes, so it's not a guaranteed Vampire trait.
- Most youkai in Touhou have red eyes, ranging from evil-but-somewhat-harmless Rumia to hugely overpowered oddball Yukari Yakumo, who is not actively evil, but what she is is very bored and somewhat... playful with people (when she's not sleeping). Also other creatures, such as vampires like the Scarlet Sisters, sport them. Reisen Udongein Inaba's red eyes can even cause lunacy.
- When they first appeared as bosses, Sakuya and Youmu both had red eyes as well; thanks to Art Evolution and playable character status, however, they went from red to dark blue.
- It has even become usual to depict Sakuya as usually having blue eyes, but having them turning red when she is about to kick your ass, as is standard for the trope. This is supported by semi-canonical game Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, where Sakuya's sprite's eyes visibly turn red when she uses some of her spellcards.
- In several cases, Touhou actually subverts this trope. Of note are the rabbits Reisen Udongein Inaba, often portrayed as a mother figure to the other rabbits, and Tewi Inaba, who can be kinda mean but is far from evil and not really dangerous. Although, Reisen's power is an Evil Eye....
- Kun Lan in killer7, as part of being an Evil Albino.
- Lieselotte Achenbach, the Enfant Terrible from Arcana Heart has red eyes, and is nicknamed "The Crimson-Eyed Criminal", as she's an emotionally scarred assassin. She also has white hair. She'd fall under Evil Albino if she were just a bit more pale.
- Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia gains red eyes when she loses her soul as part of the World Regeneration. She's not so nice when she doesn't have a soul.
- Kratos Aurion of the same game has them all the time. It could be because he's a Badass, it could be because he's The Mole to start with, or it might just be a case of Curtains Match The Window, since his hair is the exact same shade.
- Emil Castagnier's eyes go from Green to Red when he activates his Superpowered Evil Side, Ratatosk Mode, in the sequel. However this is a slight subversion, as Ratatosk Mode Emil is more of an Anti Hero than anything. Until he remembers that he wants to kill all humanity.
- Jade Curtiss in Tales of the Abyss. His eyes are clearly brown in the anime sequences, but he has his Scary Shiny Glasses to make up for it.
- If you follow a (hard to find and easy to miss) sidequest, you learn that his eyes aren't naturally red- They turned red as a side-effect of using magical phlebotinum on himself to strongly boost the power of his spells, since his eyes were where his ability to use magic was concentrated. The Scary Shiny Glasses act as a limiting mechanism preventing all the energy in his eyes from destroying himself and whatever happens to be around him. Red Eyes Take Warning indeed.
- Another example is Duke from Tales of Vesperia. He really isn't evil Per say, but he is the Big Bad of the game
- In Days of Ruin, you have the Mad Scientist Evil Albino Caulder/Stolos.
- In Star Fox Adventures, the four dinosaurs that pace along each side of the Walled City's central structure and attack you if you draw near, and the one huge dinosaur underground that serves as the boss for that part of the mission, are known collectively as "RedEye".
- In The World Ends With You, red eyes are an indication that the person is under the influence of Instrumentality. Only the Reapers actually attack, but still, that it's happening to ordinary people is a sign that something's definitely going wrong with Shibuya...
- The Raving Rabbids have red eyes whenever they snap and start yelling. That is, quite often.
- Lieselotte of Arcana Heart, an assassin who's internationally known as the Crimson-Eyed Criminal.
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, the Stakes of Purgatory always wear these eyes. Considering that they are Beatrice's furniture, one can guess what happens when they're around...
- In Left 4 Dead the Witch is distinctive (and sometimes visible only) by her glowing red eyes. Startling her, thus invoking her wrath, is a really bad idea.
- In Left 4 Dead 2, the common Infected gain red eyes that glow when you shine your flashlight into them.
- Shadow the Hedgehog. Hell, his whole BODY is red and black, like some caution signs. Seriously, anyone attacking him is typically Too Dumb to Live.
- The Black Phantoms of Demons Souls have red face orifices, which should tell you that they are much, much more powerful than your enemies up to that point and you should consider going back the way you came.
- In Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, the Shroob, including the Princess and her elder sister, have red eyes.
- In the first F.E.A.R. game, Alma's eyes were hidden by shadows and her hair, but in Project Origin, they are visible, and glow a dull red.
- Naoya in Devil Survivor has red eyes. He's about as nice as this trope suggests. They're extra-distinctive in that he's one of the few characters who doesn't invoke Curtains Match The Window.
- Played with in Final Fantasy IV—while Kain does have red eyes, due to his helmet covering the top half of his face, we only see his eye color after his final Face Heel Turn and Good Costume Switch in the sequel.
- Adelle from Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 had these eyes when she was in Illua's influence. Illua herself has these eyes too later in the game.
- In Fable, you can get glowing red eyes if you're evil enough.
- No-one's mentioned the orcs in Warcraft yet?? That's one of their defining traits. Drinking the blood of Mannoroth gave them red eyes that glow fiery red when they descend into demonic bloodlust.
- Praxis and Krew from Jak And Daxter both had red eyes (well, one each. Praxis had a metal plate over one eye and Krew had a glass eye. The monk Seem, however, subverts this by being an (initially hostile) ally.
- Forte from Mega Man has these.
- Demons Souls has the Red Eye Knight. Players that don't know what they're getting into often die within seconds of provoking him. Boss in mook clothing indeed.
- Mass Effect 2 has Shepard, the protagonist, who - if you play him/her as a violent renegade - gets eyes that glow red. If you play him/her as a Paragon and are good at it, his/her eyes eventually glow blue.
Web Animation
- Maxwell Edison, in an almost disturbingly well-done Flash video of The Beatles' "The Ballad of Maxwell Edison", is depicted with red eyes.
Web Comics
- Aaryanna, Aniz, Dark Pegasus, Kria, Regina, and Repteal, of Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures fame, all have red eyes, and are all pretty evil to varying degrees (Villainy Discretion Shots notwithstanding).
- Repteal is an occupant of Mabsland, not the DMFA canon.
- In Adventurers!, Khrima has solid red eyes. It's an impressive feat of comic-villainy that this makes him look more silly than intimidating.
- The yellow salamander / lizard-thing from Gunnerkrigg Court. It may not have been evil per se, but it was certainly dangerous.
- The "tainted" or Ver'drowendar from Drowtales have red irises; they "have been seeded by a demonic entity".
- Parson from Erfworld gains red eyes after completing his sword, in a panel that makes him look genuinely frightening for the first time in the series.
- In the The Order of the Stick, Sabine's eyes glow red in her true form. There is an early warning of her true nature in this strip, which is before she's revealed to be a fiend. Later, the glowing-red eyes are a hint for the reader that she's shapechanged.
- And Xykon has red eyes too.
- Abbey, the Badass Anti Hero protaganist of Gnoph, has red eyes, due to being an albino. She's not evil, but she's definitely dangerous.
- Marceline from God Mode is described as a "sado-masochistic chain-smoking woman". Which is more or less true.
- Tycho of Penny Arcade gets these whenever he gets particularly angry, or is acting particularly evil, apparently because his body harbors a dark spectre from the world of dreams.
- Penny Arcade sub-comic Automata. There's something in that time signature, and it changes the eyes from the standard blue to... help.
- Early on in Chasing the Sunset, whenever Leaf's eyes go red, it means he's about to unleash the Furies. Not sure if it persists later.
- Chess Piece has a number of them, Clockwork being the exception that proves the rule.
- Played for laughs in Ctrl Alt Del, usually; a recent example being when Buckley got Street Fighter IV and grew increasingly frustrated over the computer AI being cheap.
Western Animation
- Nearly all the Decepticons of the original Transformers. Later versions had a bit more optical variety.
- Transformers Animated has all red-eyed (or in the case of Soundwave, red sunglasses) Decepticons like the original cartoon, with the exception of the technically-not-a-Decepticon Swindle, who has purple eyes. However, Sari Sumdac, a human child also appears to have red eyes. They turned blue◊ after she "upgraded" herself. Also in Animated, Wreck-Gar's eyes turn red when he briefly became a Decepticon due to his Funny Schizophrenia and being incredibly suggestible. An interesting example occurs in Wasp. Originally he had blue eyes, but after his stay in prison (and subsequent madness and desire to turn Bumblebee into iron filings), they become purple. And what color do you get when you mix red and blue?
- The Autobots' eyes also turned red when they were brainwashed by Soundwave into being evil.
- Silverbolt from Beast Wars's optics are normally gold, but when Blackarachnia was killed and he uttered Tarantulas's name in a vengeful manner,they turned red.
- False Convoy in Transformers Return Of Convoy is distinguished from Optimus Prime by having red eyes instead of blue.
- The Affably Evil Emperor Zurg from Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command.
- Also, XR had red eyes during his brief stint as villain NOS-4-A2's vampire slave.
- The Dark Ace from Storm Hawks.
- After his army of undead warriors has been halted, the Horned King's eyes go angrily crimson in The Black Cauldron.
- Skeletor, nemesis of He-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In the 2002 version, his eye(sockets) function as a literal warning, as little red lights start growing in them when he gets angry or excited in evil ways.
- The Legend of Tarzan: The eyes of elephants turn glowing red when they turn rogue.
- When Thing is brainwashed in an episode of Fantastic Four, his eyes actually turn from blue to red until the effect is reversed.
- Originally used in Gargoyles for Demona, until the creators decided it would be too obvious and established that it was a feature for all female gargoyles, averting the trope; male eyes, on the other hand, glow white. The scheme is reversed for Gargoyle clones, with males' eyes glowing red and females' glowing white.
- Darla Dimple in Cats Don't Dance has eyes that flash red when she's feeling particularly insane.
- Joker in The Batman has nearly completely red eyes (but yellow pupils). His Justice League design (also used for Batman Beyond and Static Shock) also has red pupils sometimes if you look closely.
- The red eyes on the latter-day DCUA design, along with the slicked-back hair sported by the Future Joker design in Return of the Joker, were inspired by the novel's descriptions of Hannibal Lecter.
- Zarm from Captain Planet and the Planeteers has his eye turned red when totally angry and when using his More Than Mind Control.
- Several of Danny Phantom's enemies have red eyes including his arch-rival Vlad Plasmius (whose eyes are blue in human form and completely red and pupil-less in ghost-form) and his sociopathic alternate-future self, Dark Danny (AKA Dan Phantom). Red-eyed Dungeon Master Clockwork, on the other hand, despite being originally portrayed as a villain, is good-hearted but on the neutral side.
- Let's not forget Danny's red eyes when under the control of Freakshow in "Control Freaks".
- A variation exists in ReBoot; Matrix's gold cybernetic eye's "(V)" pattern begins glowing red when he's about to go into Bad Ass mode. Although Matrix isn't evil, he does have antiheroic tendencies.
- Raven of the Teen Titans has her eyes glow red whenever she's extremely angry, due to her heritage. They also can split from two to four if she completely blows her top (Aftershock, part 2). Has also happened under other circumstances while seething and in too much presence of her father's evil. (The End, pt. 1) As with Inu Yasha, it's a sign of her demonic half taking control.
- The Powerpuff Girls (and its anime and comic counterpart) gives us Brick of the Rowdyruff Boys. True to this trope Brick, while not necessarily evil, does love to cause destruction and hurt others (well, in the show and anime at least, the comic may avert this).
- The Grinch in How The Grinch Stole Christmas has red pupils on yellow for most of the film. His eyes turn blue-on-white during his Heel Face Turn, then switch back (by mistake?) for a few shots, then stay blue.
Fan Fiction
Counter-examples
Anime & Manga
- Saya, the protagonist of Blood: The Last Vampire and Blood+, is a good-natured vampire out to kill the minions of her Evil Twin, Diva (who, by contrast, has blue eyes). Her eyes are naturally dull red, but they turn bright and glowing red when her vampiric abilities kick in.
- Lina Inverse of the Slayers series is another good-natured red-eyed protagonist, but she's not above blasting villages to smithereens to save the day. Of course, her red eyes are a clue that Shabranigdo (see above) is the root source of her power.
- Another partial subversion: Fate Testarossa of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha starts out as a Dark Magical Girl and The Rival to Nanoha, but eventually turns over to the side of good and stays there for the next two seasons. It should be noted that Fate is a clone of a girl named Alicia, who also has red eyes, yet has never been evil.
- Nanoha has yet another partial subversion in the incarnate Book of Darkness/Reinforce. Much like Fate and the Wolkenritter, Rein turns out to be a pretty nice person in the wrong situation. When she is sealed, though, she reincarnates into the pint-size blue-eyed Reinforce Zwei. Still a Weapon Of Mass Destruction, of course.
- Mayura Daidouji from Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, whose red eyes don't really mean anything. When Loki's eyes change to red, though....
- Chibi-Usa from Sailor Moon has red eyes due to genetic complications of being a Half Human Hybrid of a Lunarian and an Earthling.
- For that matter, Setsuna a.k.a. Sailor Pluto; this has led to lots of fan speculations about Chibi-Usa's "true" origins. Pluto's dark red eyes are a good match to her weapon/Talisman, the Garnet Orb. In the anime version Luna has red eyes in her cat form (which made her another candidate for Chibi-Usa's "mother"), although in the original manga they are always blue, and the live-action "plushie"-Luna went with the manga version.
- Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth is 100% Genki Girl heroine.
- Rei Ayanami of Neon Genesis Evangelion. In her case, she's simply an albino. She was intended to be creepy, but not evil. Kaworu Nagisa, on the other hand... well, it's complicated.
- The creepy factor on Rei backfired so dramatically that there was a significant trend in later anime to have quiet, mysterious girls with red eyes and blue hair.
- The Kuruta tribe, including the Last Of His Kind character Kurapika, from Hunter X Hunter, have these- but only when they get emotionally aroused. The Kurutas were decimated because the color of the "scarlet eyes" was so prized. Kurapika is one of the protagonists, though, and, while occasionally a bit cranky, he's very solidly one of the good guys.
- But, when his eyes turn red, the best thing you can do is run for your life.Even his own friends were scared of him the first time.It does not help that he Took A Level In Badass in the York Shin arc.
- Kirika from Noir has these, and she's relatively friendly... even when she's putting a cap in a mark's ass. When they upgrade to Hellish Pupils, though... watch out!
- Every member of the Royal family in Princess Resurrection has red eyes and blonde hair. They're not exactly evil, per se, but the family-wide elimination game going on...sometimes things get hectic.
- Ishbalans from Fullmetal Alchemist have red or reddish-brown eyes, but except for Scar are generally victims, not villains. Edward even mentions that his people's prejudice against them is in part based on their red eyes and dark skin.
- This is an interesting inversion: for the Ishbalans, the blue eyes of the Amestrians seem sinister and terrifying.
- In Simoun, for one brief moment, one of Aaeru's eyes turns red while she is struggling with an enemy pilot. It never happens again and she remains on the side of good.
- This is actually because his blood was in her eye.
- Arcueid◊, a True Ancestor vampire from Tsukihime. Her eyes are red, but she's a somewhat ditzy good guy. However, when her eyes do change color — to gold — then you'd best take warning, as her Superpowered Evil Side is just around the corner...
- In the universe of Tsukihime red eyes are more of an indication of vampirism than anything. Satsuki gets them when she's vampirized, so do Roa, Wallachia, Sion Eltnam Atlasia when turned Tatari and SHIKI Tohno (the original one), Arcueid has them naturally... the only exception seems to be Nrvnqsr, and even then a lot of his familiars do have the red eyes anyway, and he shows them too on some particular occasions.
- Red-eyed Kurogane of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is introduced as having little regard for human life (slaughtering several guards when they try to attack his princess) but over the course of the story he ends up being the only main character who hasn't been utilized as some sort of Tyke Bomb with Cloning Blues by the Big Bad (though there was an attempt to get him that failed).
- Similarly, Yuuko of xxxHolic is usually shown with red eyes, and while she's not evil, she certainly is mysterious (the Cheshire Cat Grin doesn't help). Incidentally, this plus her hairstyle makes her resemble a grown up Enma Ai, leading to more than a few (mostly joking) Epileptic Trees on the matter.
- Mew Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew has red eyes, but she's the furthest thing from evil. In the anime, her human form has brown eyes, but her catgirl form always has red.
- Misty Cornwell in Vandread has red eyes and isn't evil.
- Ayeka and Sasami from Tenchi Muyo! both have these, though they appear to just be a mark of royalty. Ayeka's The Ojou more than anything, and Sasami...
- Horo of Spice and Wolf is a partial subversion. She is a wolf spirit, and quite dangerous when provoked. However, she spends most of her time on screen in her cute, mostly-human form, helping Lawrence with his business schemes and lusting after apples.
- In what may be the ultimate subversion, Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has red eyes and is the epitome of Determinator heroes, before Simon surpasses him, at least.
- It's emphasized early on that Sha Gojyo of Saiyuki has crimson eyes along with hair the same color because he's a half-demon. They are considered to be bad luck, though most of Gojyo's bad luck seems directed at himself rather than those around him.
- Rin from Yes! Precure 5 is perhaps the one character in the series for whom a Face Heel Turn seems least plausible.
- Yukari-sensei from Azumanga Daioh isn't evil, but if you hit her in the face with a tray, as Tomo accidentally did in her pursuit of Yomi, she might get very angry. And thwack you repeatedly with two. You wouldn't like her when she's angry.
- Himeno Awayuki, the Red Headed Hero of Pretear, whose eye color matches her hair color. Not evil, just maybe a bit hot-tempered. (If she does get angry, she gets Glowing Eyes Of Doom — those are a bad sign...) Goh has red eyes in the coloured manga pictures (in the anime they are closer to brown), but this is likely because red is his signature colour due to his element being fire.
- Chrono from Chrono Crusade has red eyes in his child-like default form, but he's not evil, despite being a demon. In fact, he's actually one of the sweeter characters in the series (despite his fierce temper). Azmaria also has red eyes, but she also has white hair, which might mean she's albino.
- However, Chrono's eyes do glow red when he's particularly angry...and that's when you really should start running.
- Jo from Bakuretsu Tenshi has red eyes, is an awesomely badass Action Girl, and is an Artificial Human.
- One more example of red eyes being a consequence of element-based color-coding is Inori from Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (and some of his "successors" from later games in the series); he may have a personality very appropriate for his element, but is still one of the good guys.
- Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier has red eyes due to her zentran blood. Brera Sterne could also be considered since he's Ranka's biological brother and turns out to be controlled by Grace O'Connor, doing a Heel Face Turn at the last chapter
- Teito from 07 Ghost gets brilliant red eyes whenever the Archangel/God Mikhail takes over to protect Teito. While this usually means no good for Teito's attacker as Mikhail possesses god like powers, his only wish is to protect Teito and his friends.
Comics
- Superman. They don't get much more fluffy and nice than he does. Except, y'know, when he's been brainwashed, or someone is threatening Lois or something happens where the writers want to take the "strange visitor from another world" into the Uncanny Valley...
- When Superman gets really, really pissed off. Just ask Thor in JLA/Avengers #3 — or even just the cover of Avengers/JLA #4◊. It's been happening more recently, though the first time "Red-Eyed Pissed" Superman appeared in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? when he found out Lana Lang was killed: "You hurt Lana?!?!", as well as when he confronted Mongul in For the Man Who Has Everything, after being trapped in a fantasy where Krypton never exploded, and his one word to the tyrant (in a Crowning Moment Of Awesome): "Burn◊."
- Another really awesome occurence was during the Sinestro Corps War, when we see Superman, Supergirl, and Power Girl displaying the glowing red eyes as they beat the snot out of Superboy-Prime.
- After the Nuke hits in Kingdom Come... hoo boy...
- Gambit from the X-Men is not really a traditional hero type, but he has red eyes and is not a villain.
- Although it has been revealed he used to work for Sinister and has done a turn as Death. It can better be said he's not usually a villain.
Literature
Live Action TV
- It is most famous in the TV version of The Incredible Hulk, but when Banner's eyes turn green, it means he's starting to change into the Hulk and the baddies are in big trouble.
- In the new Knight Rider: The heroic KITT's "eye" LED's are red, while the violent KARR's are yellow.
- When Russell T Davies wrote The Second Coming (2003) he specified that the characters possessed by demons have silver eyes, not red ones. Unfortunately the Evil People Have Red Eyes cliché was so strong he had to keep correcting his production staff who automatically assumed they had to create red eyes.
- Battlestar Galactica: see above.
Tabletop Games
- In indie RPG Cthulhu Tech, the Migou engineered their humanoid Nazzadi servitors with red eyes specifically so they'd freak out the humans. Of course, it turns out they're pretty nice guys when out from under the Migou's thumb, and they're living and fighting alongside the humans by the time the game is set.
- The Salamanders chapter of Space Marines in Warhammer 40000 all have red eyes, and they're one of the nicer groups of Marines around. Bear in mind that "nicer" is a relative term in this setting.
- Space Marines — both Chaos and Imperial — often have red as the colour of their eyepieces. Of course, this depends on the overall colour of the armour, and the modeler's personal preference.
- The Tau have red eyes — pure red, no visible pupil or iris. However, they are the good guys of the setting. Yes, they are good guys; /tg/'s stories about them are not canon, so please consult their codex before you post otherwise.
- The Dawn of War games *are* canon, and the Tau campaign ends with concentration camps, racial segregation and the sterilisation of all human inhabitants within the Tau's immediate territory. They are not Good — they're just not as Obviously Evil as the others....
- those games had an extremely unreliable narrator who was coming up with wild theories of what people are suggesting they did
- The Chosen of Battles Sidereals in Exalted all have, as their Caste markings, red-irised eyes. This indicates only their relevant area of Fate — while they preside over conflicts and have relevant abilities, they're no more likely to be psychopaths than calm masterminds or even pacifistic speakers.
Video Games
- Inverted in Xenosaga. KOS-MOS' eyes are normally red and she is quite powerful like this. However when her eyes turn blue...
- Albel Nox from Star Ocean 3, though he, uh...has a bit of a problem of dealing with people. He does start out as a villain, though.
- A BIT of a problem...? Waking people up by ramming your sword through their pillow where their head used to be moments before counts as a lot more than just "a bit of a problem"...
- Paine from Final Fantasy X-2. Not evil, just not too big on speech, either.
- Lulu too — although, for a heroic character, she's certainly dark, spooky, and lethal. I guess it's not that uncommon in Spira.
- The Dunmer (or dark elves) in The Elder Scrolls all universally have red eyes. As a race, they're grim, suspicious and xenophobic, but no more evil than any of the other main races.
- Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII has red eyes.
- In the original game, Tifa looked like she did as well. This could be chalked up to lousy graphics, however, as the Compilation reveals them to be unmistakably brown (or maroon).
- Possibly, because in Kingdom Hearts 2 her eyes couldn't be described any other way.
- Oswald from Odin Sphere has a red right eye, which becomes a full-fledged glowy eye of Doom during his shadow knight transformation. Although you still have to fight him as a boss in Mercedes' story, he is one of the game's five main characters and is more of a tragic Anti Hero than a proper villain.
- Yuri Hyuga, the hero of the first two Shadow Hearts games, has red eyes in the second game (Covenant). His cousin, the samurai Kurando Inugami, and Saki Inugami (the mother of Kurando and Yuri's aunt) also have red eyes. Supposedly the members of the Hyuga/Inugami bloodline who are capable of being Harmonixers (people who can transform into demons/monsters) all share this trait.
- Subverted by Metis from the chapter "The Answer" of Persona 3: FES. Despite the fact that she has red eyes (and, incidentally, is introduced trying to kill the party), she actually turns out to be quite willing to help them get rid of the Abyss of Time — which is why she was trying to kill them in the first place, as it was their inability to move on after the death of the Main Character from the original game that was keeping them locked in the Time Loop. She's also quite protective of her "Sister" Aegis.
- Also, Team Pet Koromaru's eyes are violently red. He's a total cutie, though (unless you're an enemy or a Shadow. Then Cerberus comes out...)
- Medli from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. And given the way the eyes don't change with ambient light — reflecting as much light while in shadow as they do in broad daylight — she also has Glowing Eyes Of Doom in some scenes. These added to the game's Deranged Animation makes her scarier-looking than a great many villains, but that's probably unintentional, and she's sweet enough.
- Inverted with Midna in Twilight Princess: bitchy, sure, but ultimately benign (be wary of her anyway).
- Kafei is one of many civilians in need of help in Majora's Mask. His blue hair and red eyes indicate... nothing, really, though many have speculated that he's descended from the Sheikah due to...
- ... the ultimate Legend of Zelda counterexample: blond-haired, red-eyed Sheik, in The Ocarina of Time. He is one of the Sheikah, the warrior race sworn to guard the royal family. Sheik appears throughout the game to assist Link in his quest, and is on the whole a good guy. (Of course, Sheik is actually Princess Zelda in disguise.)
- Zelda's caretaker Impa is also a Sheikah, and has red eyes. The Ocarina Hot Amazon version is much younger than the elderly woman she is in other games, but maintains her usual white hair. (This makes her a White Haired Pretty Girl rather than Heroic Albino, as her skin tone is normal.)
- Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic universe has red eyes. Though he's jumped from world-destroying evil then briefly to hero before settling into Anti Hero, his eyes have always been red.
- Oddly enough, when Sonic goes into Super Sonic mode, his eyes turn red as well. Depending on who's writing, he can either be the same Sonic but with Super Saiyan powers, or turned more or less evil by the raw power of the Chaos Emeralds.
- In the games, though, Super Sonic is always just Sonic powered up. In the Genesis games (that features Super Sonic, anyway), his eyes turned from plain black to green when he became Super Sonic; since now his eyes are green to begin with, the creators must have felt the need to change to another color and decided that red was really cool-looking.
- When red eyes show up on a good guy in the Fire Emblem series, it usually means there's a dragon in their family tree. Examples include Ninian, Nils, Myrrh, Almedha, and Soren.
- Rajaion is an odd subversion of this trope; when he is doped up on the feral drug, his eyes glow yellow, but after his sanity is restored, his eyes return to their natural (red) color.
- Rock Howard from the King of Fighters universe (from his debut in Garou: Mark of the Wolves as one of the main characters), son of the late Geese Howard, original KOF Big Bad, is depicted with red eyes in all of his official artwork. However, this is mostly a subversion, because he's surprisingly well adjusted, has a pretty pleasant disposition, and after Geese died in Real Bout Fatal Fury, was raised by SNK poster boy Terry Bogard.
- Mir in Ar Tonelico, who's also a pseudo-Evil Albino.
- Ashley, sinister Cute Witch, in Wario Ware.
- Selvaria, one of The Dragons from Valkyria Chronicles, is one of the most cold and brutal enemies you could ever face. Plus, she has superpowers since she's a Valkyria. On that note, Valkyria in general seem to have red eyes when their powers are activated.
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Sakutaru, the spirit that Maria puts into her lion plushie, has red eyes, but he's actually just an adorable little thing.
- Taokaka of Blazblue has Glowing Red Eyes. She's a powerful fighter, and is a member of a race descended from a living weapon, but is a goofy, well-meaning, childish, largely harmless Cloudcuckoolander. The closest she comes to having any villainous or threatening traits at all is some signs of having Covert Pervert tendencies regarding large breasts.
- Also Ragna the Blood Edge. Subversion for two reasons. Only one eye is red and although he is a good guy, he's still pretty dangerous anyway.
- Also Rachel Alucard. Yet another subversion; sure she's extremely powerful, both in-game and in-story and is actually one of the most powerful beings in the story, a vampire, a bit of a Jerk Ass, and rather manipulative, but she really does mean well. Interestingly enough, she's the reason Ragna has that one red eye.
- The game does have a totally straight example. Robot Girl Nu-13 has a red eye and a red eyepatch. And anyone who has played the game knows that she is one scary psycho Yandere SNK Boss.
- Not exactly evil, but Kate from Harvest Moon is pretty mean as a child, and rude as a teenager. Most of the other red eyed characters subvert this though.
- Halo: 343 Guilty Spark's eye turns red when he becomes Rampant. His Eye Beams turn red as well.
Web Comics
- Zeta from Gunnerkrigg Court. Caustic, rude and probably demonic in origin, her most evil action so far however is accusing another character of having a big nose. And her red eyes only appear when she's at peace.
- New most evil act: convincing Gamma, her (non-English-speaking) only friend, that everyone else hates her.
- Also, the Moddey-Dhoo was very friendly for Black Dog Grim Reaper.
- Boko De' Marl seems to be the sole exception to the DMFA examples described above. Then again, seeing as she's had about zilch in terms of actual appearances so far, anything's possible.
Web Original
- In the Whateley Universe, the protagonist Tennyo's eyes often glow red when she's angry. Sparks may also fly off her. Even other superpowered kids at Whateley Academy get intimidated.
- In the animated web comic-esque Broken Saints series, strip club owner Mars sports a pair of glowing red shades that give this exact effect.
Western Animation
- Martian Manhunter, on Justice League.
- Many Transformers series between G1 and Animated have red eyes split equally between good and bad guys.
- In the movie Bionicle: Web of Shadows, Toa Vakama has red eyes until he goes over to the Dark Side, at which point his eyes turn green.
- In Exo Squad, many Neosapiens have red eyes, most notably (and possibly as a subversion), Marsala.
- Inverted in the Batman The Brave And The Bold episode "Revenge of the Reach!": red eyes mean Jaime— the good guy— is in control.
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