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"For the body, notice they don't have shoulder pads, which is something that everybody seem to love to put on soldiers in video games. I don't know why. I don't know if they think that soldiers will be tackling people."
Be it pads, armor, or epaulets, the Big Bad and The Hero have the biggest shoulder-wear.
This is most common in fantasy or science fiction: fantasy armor can easily have huge pieces of armor on the shoulders, and science fiction can easily create a future costume (or armor) with huge shoulders. They may also come with a ridiculously high collar, or Spikes of Villainy.
On occasion, the shoulder pads can actually serve a purpose, by having a cape attached to them.
The corollary is that if somebody in the cast has enormous shoulder pads, they're probably evil. Other cast members can have shoulder pads, of course, they're just smaller. The exception, of course, is if they give everybody humongous shoulder guards.
There are both artistic and function-related reasons that this trope existes: Artistically, the inverted triangle (ie one point pointing down) generally conveys a more sinister form, and shoulder pads help the torso form a triangular image. From a distance, you may also be fooled into thinking you're fighting some undead headless monster. And, as the picture of the Space Marine shows... it looks quite intimidating. Also, large shoulder pads add additional mass to the upper torso and create a tapering body shape, which instinctively registers as a fit, muscular build. i.e. a do-not-mess-with-me-physique.
The functional reason is all about mobility. Because the human shoulder joint can pivot slightly over 180 degrees both horizontally and vertically, rigid shoulder armor cannot be fitted tightly to the shoulder. It must be either free-floating (fastened to the breast- and back-armor by straps or some other flexible material) or have enough room for the joint to pivot within it (a big, ball-like shape). They still don't need to be as big as most costume designers make them, however. Sometimes huge shoulders (especially on Powered Armor) are handwaved as actually being storage, as well - most often for ammo.
In video games, it's often used because the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder was very difficult to incorporate into a player model without causing clipping and an action-figure look. Modern games designers use the look because it is still very difficult to properly animate the shoulder joint- it involves four bones, several unusual muscle groups and an irritating degree of twistability. It can also be a pain to generate a texture to cover this smoothly - a shoulder pad allows artists to make one texture for the torso and a separate one for the arm without really caring how they join.
If they are round enough, they overlap with Giant Poofy Sleeves. See Shoulder Cannon for when a Cool Gun is mounted on them (for some literal "Doom"). If they're not so much shoulderpads as a pair of shoulder-mounted towers, then they're Eva Fins.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The armor of Don Krieg from OnePiece has Shoulders of Doom, which conceal some of his huge assortment of built-in guns, and also are removed and used as components for the Mighty Battle Spear.
- Post-time-skip Franky has ginormus robotic shoulders (and rectangular forearms).
- Many high ranking marines also wear coats as capes with rather broad shoulders.
- The Slayers - The humanoid villains have huge shoulder pads. Also spoofed with Lina's rival, Naga: Lina: Don't tell me that you just pricked your cheeks with the spikes on your own shoulder pads.
- To be fair, Lina's own shoulder pads aren't exactly tiny. They're also boobytrapped, as Martina discovers when she tries to swipe one of the jewels. Gourry the other PC is another example.
- Il Palazzo from Excel Saga has absolutely huge shoulder pads, as a parody of a villain. Possibly he is a parody of of Ghaleon from Lunar — they wear practically the same outfit.
- Vegeta and the other Saiyans (and everyone else in Frieza's army) in Dragon Ball Z too, so much so that when Vegeta starts on the path towards his Heel Face Turn, he gets a new outfit with no shoulder pads!
- Piccolo's cape includes outrageous shoulder pads. This seems like a subversion until you remember Piccolo was originally a demon king. The shoulder pads are also weighted. Still, they seem rather superfluous after a certain point.
- Notably, Gohan and Krillin once used sets of these armor, and Gohan noted that the shoulders don't get in the way because the material is flexible enough.
- Later on, Gohan get another set of these, alongside a Badass Cape, when he request a set of clothes designed just like Piccolo's.
- In the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, the main villain Dietlinde Eckhart gets these when she turns into her One-Winged Angel form at the end of the movie. The shoulder pads are big enough to register as weapons of mass destruction.
- At least two villains in Trigun. Legato adds mass to his shoulder with a human skull. Brilliant Dynamites Neon's shoulderpads are both nearly the size of his torso, and they glow.
- In the manga and anime, BDN's shoulderpads contain large-bore machine guns for a suprise edge in fights.
- Naraku in Inu Yasha. After re-forming into a bigger Big Bad, he gets what could be called big Spikes of Villainy holders on shoulders.
- Saint Seiya: When Shun is possessed by Hades, part of his black robes included gold shoulders of doom.
- Gundam: Played every-which-way in almost every Alternate-Universe Gundam series. Almost every mobile suit with the name "Gundam" has large shoulder pads. The 00 Gundam from the second season of Gundam 00 has its powerful twin drive system on swivel mounts on its shoulders. The fact that the drives are conical only adds to the effect.
- The Dynames, Virtue, Cherudim and Arios feature this with their own unique twists to it. The Dynames has the full shields on the shoulder which allows it to walk around and absorb gunfire like it's his birthday. The Virtue has the two pairs of GN cannons on its shoulder to unleash the beam spam with vents on it so that it can generate a GN field. The Cherudim has the shoulders as the docking points for his set of shield bits. Finally the Arios' shoulders are entirely built to hold both halves of the claw while it is not in MA form.
- The Neue Ziel◊. Who needs legs when you've got these babies?!
- Tekkaman Blade
- Tekkaman Blade carries Wave Motion Guns in his.
- Balzac Asimov later gains 360-degree Fermion Cannons in the shoulders of his Soltekkaman Mk.I Powered Armor. They resemble nothing so much as upside-down laser sprinklers.
- And in the OVA sequel, Tekkaman Sommer also has shoulder-pad-mounted Voltekkas. All of them avert the "evil" part (Balzac was an Anti-Hero at one point, but well before he got the Voltekka sprinklers).
- Patlabor - The police-modified AV-98 Ingram Labors driven by the Tokyo Police Dept. Special Vehicles Units had giant shoulders, but no one's doom was involved - turns out the shoulders on a Humongous Mecha make a great mounting point for a pair of emergency lights.
- Magic Knight Rayearth - Zagato, the Big Bad of the first season has both these and Spikes of Villainy.
- In Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix Future, the villain, Rock usually wears a very business-like outfit consisting of black dresspants, a necktie and a white collared shirt... with apparently superfluous pointy shoulderpads which are nothing more than a vain attempt to look futuristic. Worse yet he actually complains about people who don't dress in ludicrously Zeerust-y clothes because he sees it as a sign that people have given up hope for humanity's future & have retreated into nostalgia. Note that this may actually be a subversion, as Rock & the society he represents are portrayed as being quite unbalanced.
- In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann they're found on mech's used by both the good guys and the bad guys, though that's to be expected when most of the mech used by humans were stolen from Beastmen. Especially notable it the Supergalactic Gurren Lagann which has two bigass drills for shoulder that actually come off and stack together to form one oddly-shaped drill. Of course the drill is still very effective at... drilling.
- Full Metal Panic! - Let's just say that both the Arbalest and the Codarl has well-pronounced shoulders. Doesn't know if it counts but M9Es has two vertical armor plates mounted onto the upper arms.
- In Violinist of Hameln several villains wear fairly massive shoulderpads or shoulder armor pieces, including Chestra and Hell King Bass. The first prize, though, goes to Sizer. Her example also confirms that evil gets bigger shoulderpads - her normal shoulder armor pieces are already humongous, but get even bigger when she is turned/turns into her "Dark" form.
- Subverted in Record of Lodoss War, where the chick Deedlit is the one with arguably the biggest shoulder-wear. (Of course, everyone in Lodoss has huge shoulder guards.)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! - Seto Kaiba has these weird pointed-shoulder things for his cape. Here, take a look◊.
- While Neon Genesis Evangelion was the trope namer for Eva Fins, the original version of Zeruel◊ does fits this trope.
- Worn in Yaiba by almost every villain.
- A given in Eyeshield 21 since all the major characters are football players. If anything, many of the antagonists appear to have smaller shoulder pads, because their bigger builds make the shoulder pads stand out less.
- As the extras best put it, "Shoulder pads make even our scrawny hero look like a man!"
- Several Knightmare Frames in Code Geass have impressive shoulder plates, particularly the Lancelot or the Mordred.
- The Gawain has large nacelles on its shoulders which house its Hadron Cannons.
- Most, if not all, of the Zoalords in Guyver have these as part of their formal robes (with one notable costume having shoulders almost as wide as its wearer was tall). Many Zoanoids (and the Gigantic) have weapons or other functions built into large shoulder-pods.
- Rave Master's Gale Glory wears a large set of decorated epaulets on his shoulders when he first appears. He discards them when Disc One Final Boss King clips the right-hand epaulet with an ultimate attack that destroys matter in its entirety. Seeing a big chunk not just cracked or burned by the hit, but outright gone clearly indicates his armor is useless against his enemy.
Comic Books
Film
- Jafar from Aladdin has some of the biggest shoulder pads in the business.
- Simon Phoenix wears these in Demolition Man.
- Cats Don't Dance - Sometimes they just have really big shoulders, like Max though he's only The Dragon. Seriously, look at him◊.
- Monster X in Godzilla Final Wars has two large skulls on his shoulders that later grow into two of Keizer Ghidorah's heads when going One-Winged Angel.
- Also from the Godzilla series, Spacegodzilla, who's crystaline shoulder growths are so massive, they render him almost literally immobile.
- In the sequel to the Live-Action Adaptation of 101 Dalmatians, 102 Dalmatians, Cruella de Ville turned evil... and in the same moment her costume sprang with shoulder pads.
- Tina Turner in Mad Max 3. Not only her, but almost every bad guy in this movie. George Miller loves this trope.
- Worn by the hero in The Return of Captain Invincible, although he has previously been prosecuted for his dress sense.
- Even Star Wars isn't left out of this. While the various armors are not overdone, all the Star Destroyers feature two huge spheres on the bridges, serving this purpose.
The most notable character in the movies to wear them is Darth Vader, of course. The purpose was likely a mix of intimidation factor and protection of the little organic flesh he still had.
Literature
- Gruesomely evoked in Jeff Long's The Descent, when a group of soldiers is spotted with very wide, jutting shoulders and chests. Subverted when the witnesses get closer, and discover that their shoulders only look wide because hadals have extracted all their viscera, leaving these propped-up corpses' emptied abdomens so narrow that their upper torsos look massive by comparison.
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
- The Space Marines of Warhammer 40,000 have huge shoulder pads on their armour. Chaos Space Marines get the Spikes of Villainy version.
- Averted in the background. The shoulder plates are auto-responsive, meaning that if you tilt your head to look past them, the servomotors in the armour automatically lower the appropriate arm to allow you a clear view.
- Not to mention the fact that in the background fluff/stories, it's specifically said that the first generation of suits were designed for soldiers that specialized in close-quarters combat, and they not only offered obscene protection but housed the massive motors to help as such. They were so focused on this that only the upper body was armored, the legs basically just had riveted leather breaches and big boots!
- They aren't the only ones with big shoulders- Tau combat armour usually has at least one large shoulderpad, and bulkier Eldar sport them too.
- Given the Tau soldiers' firing stance, this may be a Justified Trope for the xenos - that big honkin' shoulder plate may function as a shield of sorts.
- It's explicitly stated in the designer's notes that this is the case.
- In fact, it's actually an internal rule of the setting, the bigger your Shoulder Pads, the more badass you are. The Emperor◊ is depicted with such huge shoulderpads that you can only conclude he used his enormous psychic powers just to look to his sides.
- In the official art, the shoulders and backpack give the Space Marines an intimidating silhouette of a headless giant. Sadly, the models are different.
- That's because most official art is intentionally drawn with a sort of an imaginary Hitler Cam, using the carefully adjusted angle at which the armor silhouette indeed looks like that. Terminator armors, of course, don't really need it.
- Inquisitors, when they bother to use the Power Armor at all, usually wear their own issue armor that's just a tad less advanced than the iconic Space Marine one, and has a somewhat more subdued, but very intricate shoulder pieces clearly inspired by a Roman lorica segmentata.
- As long as we're on WH40K, don't forget the Necrons. Although by the Up to Eleven standards of setting it isn't much, check out these bad boys.◊
- Necron Warriors, the basic infantry of the Necrons, had their armour save lowered in their most recent Codex. Fridge Logic provides a reason for this: Games Workshop deemed their rather tiny scapula-shaped shoulder pads to be too pathetic for them to have the same save as Space Marines. Necron Immortals, who have always had rather impressive Shoulders of Doom, still have the 3+ armour save.
- Prince Vladimir Tzepesci of the Iron Kingdoms, a Khadoran warcaster based on Vlad Tepes, has very large shoulder pads on his armor; his more experienced Epic version takes this to ridiculous extremes. This has given him the Fan Nickname of "Captain No-Peripheral Vision".
- Capitol troopers from Mutant Chronicles wear oversized shoulder pads reminiscent of American Football quarterbacks. One of the hero units, Big Bob Watts even has a pair of BFGs strapped to his. Dark Legion commanders also have Shoulders of Doom, adorned with Spikes of Villainy for the quintessential Evil Look.
- It's not just the Capitol troopers, although they have the most ridiculous variant (they even wear giant shoulderpads, with no visible way of how they are actually worn, when they put on their normal uniforms without any chest plates etc). Imperial is also fairly guilty of this trope, with their Trenchers having pads that are almost as wide as their bodies. Doorways in Imperial facilities must be quite wide as a result. Also, the actual metal miniatures for the Dark Legion's Necromutants have only one "turtle shell"-style shoulder pad, but it is even bigger.
- Major Q9 in Hero Scape is a soulborg with pauldrons that are the size of his freaking body and tower over his head, almost like the forbidden love child between Shoulders of Doom and Eva Fins. Deathwalker 9000 has some pretty wicked shoulders going on, too.
- Major Q9's shoulders actually restrict his vision in-game.
- Homebrewed especially for this trope in 3.X D&D we have the Pauldron Master.
Video Games
- Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. A notable mention goes to Cloud, who only has a (rather big) shoulder pad on his left shoulder. Crisis Core seems to show that shoulder pads are the only constant in the uniforms of 1st Class SOLDIERs. Sephiroth and Genesis both seem to have kept the pants underneath their Badass Longcoats.
- Averted in Final Fantasy VI: Two of the heroines, Terra and Celes, possess shoulder pads of admirable size (It should be noted, though, that they both started the game working for the bad guys). So does the knight Cyan, but shoulder pads are standard for his knight armor. As does Edgar, but he is a king and wears a cape as well.
- Halo - Some of the Spartans in Noble Team have some rather prominent shoulder pads.
- Final Fantasy IV - Golbez has the biggest, pointiest shoulder armour in the series, hands down. Although Exdeath of Final Fantasy V comes a close second.
- M. Bison/Vega/"Dictator" from Street Fighter has massive shoulder pads. They hold a cape, which is apparently tear-away.
- Zio from Phantasy Star IV, whose pads could each double as a chest plate. Shoulders are really important: lots of enemies have huge shoulder armor (or just shoulders), as do some of the PCs. The trope is played straight, though: the more evil someone is, the bigger their shoulders. The final form of the final boss? Two-thirds of its mass is stuff on its shoulders.
- This even applied to a limited extent in the Rockstar Games release Bully, although in this case it's American football pads worn by one of the cliques.
- Fallout, with Power Armor - and Advanced Power Armor, which actually has a smaller helmet and bigger shoulders. Not to mention most of the other armor's shoulder spikes (metal, tesla). And Frank Horrigan.
- Interestingly, in New Vegas, the strength of a power armor is apparently inversely proportional to the doominess of its Shoulders of Doom - the t-45d, with its ridiculous duck fin shoulderpads, is the weakest; the T-51b Power armor is the middle of the road, with oversized Knight Armor shoulderpads; the Advanced Power Armor and Tesla Armor are the strongest, and the shoulders themselves are fairly small. Though in the case of the Advanced and Tesla armors, it has traded the Shoulders of Doom for a massive hunchback.
- Heck, the primary purpose of most power armor seems to be giant shoulders.
- StarCraft and its many flavors of CMC armor. The armor's strength and shoulder size are positively correlated.
- And in the sequel, contrary to the page quote Tychus does actually make two attempts at tackling people. One successful, one not as much.
- The more recent Command & Conquer games seem to be using this trope, too, much to the chagrin of old-time fans.
- The most obvious ones are the Zone Troopers in Tiberium Wars which ARE very kickass units and the Tesla Trooper in Red Alert 3 which are not so much.
- Just about every Juggernaut in Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 sports these.
- The Alt Eisen from Super Robot Wars Compact 2 brings new meaning to the "Doom" part, as they're actually Humongous Mecha-sized titanium ball bearing launchers, the same kind of ball bearings used in Claymore mines. Still, it averts the "evil" part, as it's the male protagonist's mecha.
- The costume editor in the MMORPG City of Villains has all the big shoulderpads you would ever want, many complete with spikes of villainy.
- The gods of Soul Nomad & the World Eaters all have highly ornamental shoulder pads that hover above their true shoulders. Out of the ones you meet, the only one who isn't directly evil is the one who's taken human form and therefore doesn't show them.
- The Fire Emblem series. Not villains per se, but the General class has shoulder armor larger than the helmet. And several baddies are Generals, as it is arguably one of the strongest classes in the game.
- Especially the Black Knight from 9 and 10, who is a good guy in the latter... kind of.
- 9's villain, Ashnard, has these, complete with Spikes of Villainy!
- In World of Warcraft, epaulets appropriate to a character's level get progressively bigger. Presumably, this is supposed to make more experienced characters look intimidating. However, the usual result is slim characters who look off-balance and bulkier characters who just look excessive◊.
- When a bug was introduced that reduced the size of the epaulets on the ( otherwise excessive ) Male Orc model to something more benign, there was a gigantic uproar of displeasure. When the bug was fixed, it was fixed to make them larger than the pre-bug state. The addition of more Spikes of Villainy and bigger shoulder pads is on the way to becoming an Enforced Trope in World Of Warcraft development. As seen from the picture, a number of people have requested installation of an option to hide the shoulderpads as they can their cloaks and helmets, but the Blizzard line is that it's important for PvP to enable players to identify class from a distance.
- Lord Nasher in Neverwinter Nights 2 has disproportionately big shoulderpads as part of his armor, which he wears throughout the entire game, even when sitting on his throne.
- Then again, considering how much crap Neverwinter is generally involved in: If you were the ruler of that city, would you leave your bedroom without your pauldrons? He was attacked in his own throne room last game. Now he's just Crazy Prepared. And it comes in handy when he is again attacked in his own throne room.
- FlashMan.EXE from Mega Man Battle Network 3. He had an attack that was removing the orbs on his shoulders, raising them up, and releasing a blinding, paralyzing light from it. There's a reason Reynard named him Shoulderman... Metalman from the same also stored his giant Metal Wheel Boomerangs on his (already huge) shoulders.
- Special mention goes to Punk. In both his Battle Network appearances and his place in the older Megaman games his shoulder pads were shells that could enclose his entire body. A similar design is used by Shield Sheldon from the Mega Man X series. In both cases the shoulders are used for protection and performing special attacks so they're not exactly superfluous.
- Mega Man Geo-Omega from Mega Man Star Force.
- In the sixth Mega Man game Rush can turn into a huge pair of shoulder pads that turn Megaman into power Megaman.
- Some mid-game enemy Elite Mooks in Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain had truly epicly sized shoulderpads. Those actually served a purpose, making the wearers immune to instakill decapitation attacks. Incidentally, they were the only enemies to carry weapons capable of decapitation...
- Some of the armor sets in Fable fit the trope. Especially if the player character is evil.
- Luca Blight from Suikoden II has these.
- Soul Calibur's Nightmare has a mutated arm with bio-spikes, and sometimes even a mouth with big nasty teeth. It gets better: in Soul Calibur 4, Zasalamel's 2nd costume's shoulders aren't as big as Nightmare's, but they are freaking skulls. And then there's Siegfried, who has giant spikes made of ice, and even then, there's a character creator with several styles of giant shoulders.
- Dark Demon from Dynamite Headdy has what appear to be green statues sprouting from the shoulders of his costume.
- Most of the non-grunt enemy soldiers, as well as the player character, in the Crusader games have shoulder pads.
- Mortal Kombat villains Shao Kahn and Quan Chi have major Spikes of Villainy on their Shoulders of Doom.
- Completely inverted in Half-Life 2 - The Combine soldiers' armour is designed to look as purely functional and non-aesthetic as possible, to highlight the complete irrelevance of public opinion, because humans aren't worth intimidating.
- Metroid - Samus Aran's Power Suit. The giant shoulders appear starting with the Varia Suit which has increased shielding as well as the ability to function perfectly in more extreme temperatures causing many players to suggest that some of the components for these features are housed in the shoulders. So don't worry, the shoulders are actually just the heating and AC units for her suit.
- However, the Varia suit and the Varia upgrade appear to be separate things Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion both feature a Varia that does nothing to the shoulders but still increases the shielding. The "Legendary Power Suit" seems to be the traditional Varia so perhaps the upgrades are different suits entirely? Metroid Prime looks like it has the Varia Suit superimposed over the Power Suit.
- In Metroid Fusion, Samus' suit has been literally surgically chopped to pieces, and as such there's really no shoulders to augment after getting the Varia Suit or Gravity Suit upgrades. in Zero Mission, some fan theories say that the suit Samus starts with is handmade based on the Chozo technology, and therefore is incompatible with quite a few of their tech upgrades. however, the suit she's given after defeating the Chozo Ghost in the Chozo Ruins on Zebes is an actual Chozo Power Suit, fully compatible with everything.
- In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the shoulders are the housing for the Hazard Shield upgrade, visibly changing after that upgrade is acquired.
- Daos, of the Lufia games. The other male Sinistrals too, but Daos especially.
- Jak 3 - The Wastelanders' shoulder pads: so big they probably need Super Strength just to wear them. Several come with Spikes of Doom.
- The Big Bads of the Elder Scrolls series rarely have large shoulders, but the PC can wear the dremora's diabolical looking pauldrons. The Orcs wear the biggest shoulders of all, inverting Spikes of Villainy as their shoulders grew spikier while they developed from Always Chaotic Evil to ProudWarriorRaceGuys.
- F-Zero - Deathborn posesses a large pair of pauldrons, to fit the Omnicidal Maniac title.
- BlazBlue - This is basically all that Mu-12 is wearing in battle...
- Guilty Gear - Justice has them. They transform into laser cannons during her Gamma Ray super.
- Subverted with Darkrai from Pokémon, who appears to be sinister-looking but only does its job if it is threatened. Played straight in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games, however.
- The Arishok in Dragon Age II.
- Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft ... Blizzard Entertainment loves this trope!
- Heavy armor in Tribes Ascend. Previous games had this to a lesser degree, but Ascend takes it to a whole new level◊. The shoulders are even bigger in-game.
Webcomics
- Gilgamesh Wulfenbach of Girl Genius gets some pretty bitchin' spiky shoulder pads here.
- Yeagar from Nodwick, though one of the 'good guys', shows us that occasionally shoulders of doom can have their uses.
- The Noob gives us this.
- Byron the Berserker from Guilded Age claims this guy's pauldrons, even though he normally has his axe handles sticking up over his shoulders.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command's Evil Emperor Zurg has huge, pointy shoulder pads - and a cape for bonus points!
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender the Fire Nation uniforms feature shoulder pads, getting larger with rank. Fire Lord Ozai's are absolutely enormous. And when he declares himself Phoenix King he gets even bigger ones, though he takes it off in the fight. They used to be bigger.
- The stolen Fire Nation uniforms that the northern Water Tribe was planning on using had pretty large shoulder spikes, but are are quickly dismissed by Sokka as archaic and no longer used.
- Vilgax, a Big Bad from Ben 10, has these.
- Transformers
- Lockdown of Transformers Animated has these built into his body. With spikes. Somewhat appropriate, since he's a big, bad bounty hunter who lives for "upgrades". Bonus points might be awarded for his car mode, which has a huge spoiler to go with the look. Megatron and Blitzwing have, basically, towers for shoulders. So do Blurr and Bulkhead (the latter of which can turn his into a chair). Starscream's shoulders are pretty wide as well.
Animated Megs had some pretty doomy shoulders in his Cybertronian body, but his Earth-mode ones are arguably closer to Eva Fins. Are Blitzwing's shoulders vertical enough to qualify for that?
- Armada featured several characters with giant shoulders - most notably Hot Shot, whose toy's demented grin and enormous shoulders provoked the "JaAm" and "WhY mY ShOuLdErS hUrT?" memes. Demolishor has missiles sticking out of his shoulders, and Megatron's extend into tank treads. Combined with his giant horns he looks ridiculous.
- Beast Wars Transmetal Megatron has massive shoulder-pads that double as a jetpack. Other Beast Wars characters that have them include Transmetal Rattrap, Rampage and Dinobot II. Transmetal Tarantulas has a variation, with huge round shoulders that double as missile launchers.
- At one point in Danny Phantom Skulker donned upgraded armor which comes equipped with the giant shoulder guards.
- Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon has massive shoulder pads and a cape for obvious Evil Overlord effect.
- Baron Dark from Skeleton Warriors
Real Life
- Canadian Infantry armour features some nice shoulder pads, which indeed increases the level of badass nicely.
- American football players, though they're not considered evil. Usually.
- Many European armours from the first half of the 16th century feature "Haute Pieces," vertical guards added to the pauldron (shoulder armour) to protect the neck and head. They can get pretty ridiculous.
- The Eighties.
- The Roman ''lorica segmentata'' features small but incredibly iconic shoulder guards.
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