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Red Eyes Take Warning / Video Games

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Warning: Using The Dark Arts may cause insanity, disfigurement, Demonic Possession, and inflamed eyes.
  • A Way To Be Dead: Dr. Riley has glowing red eyes, and is trying to kill the survivors inside of August Valentine Hospital.
  • The cutscene that plays before the final mission in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, shows a red camera lens lighting up. Its the Zone of Endless activating, and deploying Hugin and Munin. When they show up at the Lighthouse, the first thing they do is try to kill Cossettenote , attack both Osean and Erusean forces alike, then lie in wait for the Lighthouse to power itself back up. The survivors must rally behind Trigger to stop them from using the Lighthouse to transmit data to drone factories that would start a Robot War against Strangereal.
  • In AdventureQuest Worlds, Chaos Dragonlord Vath's eyes are normally purple, but when his Berserk Button is pressed, causing him to lose his cool after he finds out that the hero freed the dwarves and they are winning against his army, guess what color they turn...
  • Akatsuki Blitzkampf:
  • Alien: Isolation: If a Working Joe's eyes turn red, or if you spot one with eyes already of that color, it means it's both functional and actively trying to kill you. White eyes mean things are safe, if only for now.
  • All Alone With Mannie: Mannie is an Ax-Crazy anthropomorphic mouse out for your blood. She has red eyes.
  • In Anarchy Reigns, Jack's eyes will turn red whenever he gets really angry (and he's already pretty bitter most of the time).
  • Jake's eyes change to red when he is being controlled by Specter in Ape Escape. Also, Specter's eyes change when he dons the Peak Point Helmet and uses his newly gained augmented intelligence to try and take over the world by changing history.
  • 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.
  • Every enemy in Arthur's Nightmare has these, as befitting a Survival Horror game.
  • Asura from Asura's Wrath has natural brown eyes. But when he crawls out of Naraka for the first time, his eyes become glowing white orbs with red-white pupils, and he's pissed. At the very end of the final DLC chapter, when Chakravartin is slain and his wrath is finally gone, Asura's eyes revert to their original brown color before he fades away.
  • Bang-On Balls: Chronicles: Bob Boss' Faceship in the Cold Race to Space level has prominent glowing red eyes. When you're spotted by them, the ship sends out aliens to attack you.
  • Nearly every Black enemy in The Battle Cats have red eyes, and they are some of the most dangerous enemies in the game.
  • In the first two BioShock games, the Big Daddies' eyes turn from yellow to red when they see an enemy. When you see those red eyes, you best get out of there. Same goes if you hear "HEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNGH!"
  • The Blackpine Outbreak: The zombies in the game have red eyes. It's not noticeable unless you get close enough to one.
  • BlazBlue:
  • Caleb, the undead asskicker and protagonist from the first-person shooter Blood, has permanent, glowing red eyes.
  • Bloons Tower Defense series:
    • The Dark Sun Temple from 5 and Monkey City, Supermonkey's Dark Sun God transformation in Bloons Adventure Time TD and Vengeful True Sun God in 6 have a dark color and glowing red eyes, and they are extremely powerful towers. Additionally, the hero Adora will also become dark-colored with red eyes when she is present and the VTSG is created.
    • In 4, the BFB has red glowing eyes, and they're the highest-ranked bloon in that game.
  • When Vivi is prepared for a Vampiric Draining of Lance in one death scene of Brain Dead 13.
  • Thorn of The Caligula Effect has red eyes, fitting for the game's Dragon-in-Chief.
  • 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 Bartley, Carmilla, etc. aren't shown with red eyes, so it's not a guaranteed vampiric trait.
    • The N64 games give us this trope as a Traitor Shot in Reinhardt's bad ending.(spoilers for how to GET the bad ending)  Keep an eye on Malus after the monologue.
    • Soma gets the red eyes after The Reveal in Aria of Sorrow.
  • Cave Story:
    • Ravils (Rabid Mimiga) have red eyes.
    • King the Mimiga has red eyes, and while he's on your side he's also the toughest and most aggressive of the Mimiga.
    • One of Ballos' eyes is red too, implying the red gem on the demon crown was his.
  • In Child of Light, Norah's eyes change color from brown to a dull red after she tricks Aurora into entering the tampered Magic Mirror to the Forgotten Tower and reveals her true, evil nature to her.
  • The Praetorian Police in City of Heroes: Going Rogue occasionally say this, "Its eyes glowed red. That's all I need to take the safety off."
  • When revealing himself to be the Night Walker at the end of the White Peaks Arc in Criminal Case: Pacific Bay, Duncan Young is shown to have red sclera.
  • Coffee Crisis have you battling alien invaders and humans possessed by aliens, the latter whose eyes glows red. Meanwhile, the heroes -including the two player characters Nick and Ashley, and their benefactor Vinzer - have normal-looking eyes.
  • Whenever the Dark Genie from Dark Cloud possesses someone, their eyes turn completely red.
  • In Dark Souls III, some enemies have red-eyed variants who are stronger than normal. The first one you will encounter is a red-eyed Lothric Knight in the area before the second boss in the game. Given that the normal Lothric Knights can be a challenge that early in the game...
  • The Black Phantoms of Demon's 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.
    • There's also a non-Black Phantom mook in the first non-tutorial level called 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.
    • If the eyes of the Dragon God boss turn red, start running and don't stop until you're behind a pillar or other large visual obstruction, unless you like the idea of a fist larger than you are smashing you through a granite wall.
  • Dante from Devil May Cry, before he goes to town on Mundus.
  • Devil May Cry 4:
    • Sanctus briefly sports these when he is revived. His eyes become red for good when he becomes Sanctus Diabolica.
    • Nero stares down Agnus with these upon activating his Devil Trigger for the first time, complete with Theme Music Power-Up, Power Echoes, Battle Aura, and a Badass Boast. It happens again when Sanctus (who's controlling an Alto Angelo at that time) escapes with Kyrie, leaving Nero to deal with some Mooks to vent his rage on. The red eyes, along with the blue aura and voice distortions, are also applied in-game as hallmark features of Nero's Devil Trigger.
  • 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.
  • Dicey Dungeons: While Lady Luck's irises are normally solid black, they turn bright red when she's fuming over the Jester's defection.
  • Most of the protagonists in Disgaea thanks to being all demons. Angel trainee Flonne even gets red eyes when she falls from the ranks of the angels at the end.
  • Dread Kong and Karate Kong in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat sport this. In Ninja Kong and Sumo Kong's case, they're more orange.
  • Doom. The Spider Mastermind (AKA Spiderdemon) has glowing red eyes. It also has a chaingun that will chop you to pieces if you give it a clear shot at you. The smaller Arachnotrons are a downplayed instance, normally featuring blue eyes, but which flash red with every shot they take at you with their built-in plasma gun.
  • Dragon Age II: Hawke never gets these. However, Meredith does, after taking possession of a certain Artifact of Doom stolen from the player and forging it into an Evil Weapon.
  • Dragon Quest:
  • The Evil Army in Drakengard initially seems to have these, but, later on, cutscenes demonstrate that 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.
  • In Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, members of The Clan from Dolphin's Nightmare all have red eyes. As the Clan are a subspecies of evolved, hyper-aggressive dolphins sporting Spikes of Villainy, no points for guessing they're the bad guys.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • The Dunmer (Dark Elves) play with this trope. They do have bright red eyes, and they are typically dour and cynical as a race, but they are no more prone to outright villainy than any other race. The eyes are however, along with their ashen-gray skin, indicative of a curse placed upon their race by the Daedric Prince Azura, supposedly due to the Tribunal's betrayal of her champion, Nerevar.
    • In Arena this is definitely part of Jagar Tharn's Evil Sorcerer-style, though in-universe the red eyes only marks him as suspect to racists (it marks him as having Dunmer somewhere recent in his ancestry).
    • Morrowind:
      • This is a trait of the Dremora, an intelligent race of lesser Daedra who are most commonly found in the service of Mehrunes Dagon as his legions of hell. (Other games give them gold or black eyes instead.)
      • This is also the case for Scamps (along with in the Dungeon Crawler spin-off game Battlespire), who are the weakest and smallest known form of lesser Daedra, also typically found in service to Dagon.
    • Shadowmere in Oblivion and Skyrim. The most badass Cool Horse in the game. Astrid, who gives you Shadowmere in Skyrim, never really tells you what the horse actually is, but Shadowmere is tougher and heals faster than all other horses, and is also extremely aggressive, and will happily take on dragons.
    • In Skyrim, Alduin, the Big Bad draconic Beast of the Apocalypse, has them. In fact, he's one of the only dragons to have them.
    • The The Elder Scrolls: Legends card-battle game depicts Goblins with these. Typical Goblins in the main series games have yellow eyes with slit-pupils instead.
  • Evolve's Goliath has glowing red eyes. Though given that it's a gigantic monster covered in spikes and scars, the warning is probably unnecessary.
  • In Fable, you can get glowing red eyes if you're evil enough.
  • NCR Veteran Rangers from Fallout: New Vegas, have glowing red visor on their helmet. They can be your hostile if you aligned yourself with their sworn enemies, The Caesar's Legion.
  • The Mothman in Fallout 76 have glowing red eyes when they are hostile. If their eyes are glowing yellow or purple, on the other hand, you need not fear them.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy IV:
    • Terra's (in-game) Esper form in Final Fantasy VI has these—though this trope is later subverted.
    • Final Fantasy VII:
      • Tifa Lockhart has blood red eyes◊... and she's one of the most loyal and endearing characters in the game so the whole "evil part" of this trope is lost on her, though Tifa's physically the strongest female in the game so still very dangerous. But really her eyes are red just to contrast to her Love Interest Cloud's Mako infused blue eyes. Tifa's eyes are only red in the original game and the remake, other portrayals give her less striking brown/black eyes.
      • In its dormant state, Jenova from resembles an albino woman with glowing red eyes, and a lifeless, fixed leer on its face.
      • Vincent Valentine has these, though it appears in Dirge of Cerberus that his eyes are naturally red in the flashbacks, and not a result of Hojo's experimentation on him, as might have previously been assumed. Partially invoked and subverted trope, as while Vincent has a tragic past and can metamorphose into four destructive demons, one with a WEAPON's level of power, he is actually an ally to the team, and thaws out toward them over time, whilst maintaining loner-ish tendencies.
    • Lulu in Final Fantasy X has one red eye showing which along with her revealing black vodo dress and cold Femme Fatale attitude is very contrasting to multicolored cheery island goers of Spira. But like Tifa, Lulu can be very warm and loving as the mother figure of the group though Lulu is still the strongest female in the game so this is mostly played straight.
      • The red-eyed Paine in X-2 is of similar mold but even more sullen than Lulu.
    • The Demon Walls in Final Fantasy XII each have three red eyes. With one of them, should you run out of time, they'll be the last thing you see.
    • Adelle from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 had these eyes when she was in Illua's influence. Illua herself has these eyes too, later in the game.
    • Final Fantasy XIV.
      • Activating the Warrior skill "Inner Beast" gives the player glowing red eyes. In-Universe, those who use the Warrior's skills without proper discipline will succumb to the 'beast within' (signified by the glowing red eyes) and need to be brought back down to reality.
      • Most people under the thrall of the elder primal Bahamut have glowing red eyes as a giveaway of their tempering. In the Coils of Bahamut, this is shown on Nael van Darnus and Louisiox Leveilleur; in the Shadowbringers weapon quests, it's also seen on Cid's father, Midas nan Garlond, in one of Cid's flashbacks.
      • The second tier of the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse 24-man dungeon, The Puppet's Bunker, has the final boss of that dungeon, Compound 2-P, made up of countless white doll androids to resemble a monstrous version of 2B, right down to her sword has these glow before the start of the boss battle.
    • In Final Fantasy XV, Noctis' eyes give off a distinct bright-red/pink glow when summoning Astrals.
  • Fire Emblem has a lot of bad guys with glowing 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.
  • Free Icecream: The killer's eyes are little red dots visible through the eye holes of the killer's hat.
  • Friday Night Funkin':
    • In Friday Night Funkin': Corruption, people affected by the titular corruption become purplish-black silhouettes with a pink Nightmare Face, pink eyes included. Notably, Soul Boyfriend's eyes, mouth, and (in his alternate form) other accents are glowing white instead, signifying him as not something tied to the corruption.
    • In The Blueballs Incident, Boyfriend himself gains red-and-blue eyes as he undergoes major Sanity Slippage thanks to Legion thinking that turning Girfriend into a Trollge just to get to him was a good idea. He also sports red eyes when he gives Legion his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, all before utterly destroying the Trollge with a screech into his microphone.
  • In the first Galaxy Angel, the Black Moon does this on Noah (or so we think) gets once it performs the Villain Override. Inverted for Vanilla among the heroes, as she has red eyes but is the most harmless and helpful member of the Angel Wing.
  • The Jitterskull from Ghouls vs. Humans. "The eyes were blacked out and little red circles were added because we all know that red eyes are EVILLLL."
  • Gloomwood: The huntsmen have glowing eyes that change color to indicate their alertness to the player. If they are red, then it means that they know where you are and will actively try and kill you.
  • Kat in Gravity Rush is a Cute Clumsy Girl with red eyes who's generally sweet and cheerful all the time. She's also a Gravity Master who can and will utterly stomp you into paste if you piss her off.
  • The Fire Clan in Golden Sun games, who show up consistently in the first two games as powerful and dangerous antagonists, even if they are actually trying to save the world. Blados in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a Card-Carrying Villain with this trope in full effect.
  • In Grounded, a creature's eyes will glow red when it decides to attack anything, not just a player character.
  • In Guts & Blackpowder, the runners have glowing red eyes. It could be a hint that the outbreak is supernatural in nature.
  • In Half-Life, the Gargantuan's eyes would turn from yellow to red when they saw an enemy.
  • Halo:
    • 343 Guilty Spark's eye turns red when he becomes Rampant. His Eye Beams turn red as well.
    • When the Didact undergoes procedures to acquire Flood immunity in the Halo 4 terminals, his eyes turn from grey to a hellish red-orange. This marks the point where he, already a little unhinged, starts to go off the deep end, culminating in attempting to harvest humanity into his personal Flood-fighting robotic army.
  • Headless Prisoner averts this for the Red Witch. She appears before Erina and has red eyes, with a black sclera. She says her first plan was to kill Erina, but she chooses to forego that and instead helps her in escaping from the prison.
  • In Honkai Impact 3rd, the Valkyrie Rita Rossweisse has eyes that are the same deep, dark red as the roses on her Umbral Rose battlesuit. This, combined with her left eye being covered by her hair, are two visual cues that she's not on the same side as the other Valkyries, which becomes evident in chs. 8 and 9 of the game's Story mode where she's introduced as the covert agent and assassin of the game's Big Bad.
  • Hoa allows you to come across a deactivated robot in the factory ruins, whose eyes are initially pale yellow as it wakes up and talks to you, informing you about what happened in the past and some exposition. But then, the machine meant for activating said robot suddenly tilts, the robot's eyes turns red... said robot only managed to blurt out "Run!" before it goes amok since its defense mechanism is now operational, and you must flee from the Killer Robot.
  • Inazuma Eleven:
    • Inverted with Kidou. He starts off as a bad guy and his eyes are red, something you wouldn't be able to tell at first because they're almost always hidden underneath his goggles. Inverted because the colour of his eyes was revealed (although via flashbacks) in the same episode where he pulled a Heel–Face Turn. The same episode revealed that he wasn't really a bad guy, he just obeyed to Kageyama's rules until he found out that the latter plots to kill the opposing team and he had reasons to be so competitive.
    • Played straight with Aphrodi, the Final Boss of the first game. When his eyes start glowing, you know he becomes really angry and dangerous.
    • Epsilon Kai from the second game is different from the original Epsilon by having glowing red eyes and being more dangerous.
  • In Injustice 2, the tyrannical Superman is often seen with his eyes glowing red, particularly in his pre-fight animations.
  • The sorcerer from Intrepid Izzy has solid red eyes.
  • Evil Overlord Baron Praxis and Villainous Glutton Krew from Jak II: Renegade both have red eyes — or actually, one each. Subverted with the monk Seem, introduced in Jak 3: Wastelander, who is hostile at first, but turns out to be benevolent and becomes an ally.
  • This is your only warning before you are about to get mauled by a war machine in Journey (2012).
  • Hunter Zolomon, aka Zoom, in Justice League Heroes: The Flash. This is a fairly common portrayal of Reverse Flash characters in general.
  • Karen Sees: The Karen who pursues Bob in the game has red eyes.
  • Kun Lan in killer7 is a Tibetan terrorist who is the reincarnation of the Buddhist temptation demon Mara Papima. He has red eyes and grey skin to highlight his sinister nature.
  • In the Killzone series, the Helghast have a "Red eyes" appearance caused by their masks worn in battle, not too differently from the Combine in Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
  • The Unversed of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep all have jagged red eyes somewhere on them. The Final Mix version also introduces True Final Boss Dark Hide, a massive animalistic Heartless with glowing red eyes. In fact, Red Eyes was one of the nicknames fans gave it before its official name was revealed.
  • In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning the antagonistic Tuatha sport glowing red eyes as a side effect of their use of Prismere. The villain of the House of Sorrows questline, Bisarane / Saturnyne, is an exception. To facilitate his infiltration of the House of Sorrows, he gave up Prismere and his eyes look normal as a result. When he reveals himself to you, he notes that he is looking forward to feeling the warmth of Prismere again.
  • Dark Matter from Kirby, with the prominent ones being their leader, Zero, who rips his own eye out in his debut, and Miracle Matter, who has 20 of them. There's also Galacta Knight, who otherwise looks very much like a good guy, what with the angelic wings, but has fully red eyes with no visible pupils.
    • It's worth noting that, in all his forms, as well as his Mirror World counterpart Dark Mind, Dark Matter is nothing but a giant red eye or some form of one.
    • In Kirby Star Allies, King Dedede's eyes are initially an unsettling hue of red as a result of him being under the influence of a Jamba Heart, though they return to normal after he takes a beating and starts channeling the heart's power to become uncomfortably ripped. Meta Knight finds himself in the same predicament, though it happens in reverse for him, with his eyes turning red after the heart's power becomes manifest.
    • Kirby and the Forgotten Land likewise shows King Dedede under the baddie's control.
  • 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 The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, the main protagonist character, Rean Schwarzer, gets red eyes and silver hair when entering his "hyper mode."
  • In The Legend of Zelda series:
  • Lie of Caelum: The first half of Kyou's duel with Kenzo is a Hopeless Boss Fight, since Kenzo uses Heal Jammer to prevent Kyou from using healing items while he's free to use them on himself. However, Kyou gets a sudden power up that turns his eyes red and allows him to dodge all of Kenzo's attacks. This is revealed to be the fully unlocked power of Kyou's 6th Eye, but this mode also makes him more willing to kill enemies.
  • Lingo Legend Language Learning describes an animated tree stump thusly:
    It had red eyes, so I knew it was evil. Evil things always have red eyes.
  • Played with in Love & War. Lavender Regale is a bright, cheerful Girl Next Door, but she has also has a violent temper. When she's about to lose it, her eyes turn red. Ryan, the protagonist, lampshades the usual usage of this trope by jokingly referring to her as "the she-devil, Lavie" whom only "the Holy Paladin, Ryan Eramond" can defeat.
  • The goddess Althena develops a nice pair when she kicks off the end of the world in Lunar: Silver Star Story. Oh, and her eyes glow red too.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the Shroobs, including the Princess and her elder sister, have red eyes.
    • The Dark Star from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, which is capable of covering the whole world in darkness, has red eyes. Fawful also gains red eyes after absorbing some of its power.
    • In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, both the gardening robot Grobot and the later defence system boss Pi'illodium having ominous glowing red eyes. The former to indicate it's broken and gone insane, the latter just to show it's evil and currently at full power (its eyes temporarily turn blue whenever its wings are destroyed and its defences weakened).
  • Mass Effect 2 has Shepard, the protagonist, who - if you play him/her as a violent renegade - gets eyes that glow red. This is due to an aftereffect of the Lazarus project: at the start of the game, you are recently brought Back from the Dead and have scars on your face and cybernetic ocular implants. If you play as a Paragon, they heal over time; whereas if you play Renegade, the red glow in Shepard's eyes becomes more pronounced, along with the scarring. Regardless of the alignment, however, you have an option to purchase an expensive upgrade to your medical bay that permanently heals the scars, after which your Paragon/Renegade actions will stop affecting your face.
    • Urdnot Wrex possesses dark, bloody-red eyes. He's actually a decent character, though he still has the typical Krogan bloodlust and isn't at all someone you'd want on the opposite side of a firefight. Some other Krogan with the trait are much less heroic, though.
  • Mega Man:
  • In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance enemies quite literally have glowing red eyes before they attack, signaling danger. Also, Raiden's one visible eye turns red when he activates Ripper Mode.
  • In Minecraft, wolves get red eyes when they become hostile, as an indicator that they're going to attack you or a sheep or skeleton.
  • Some monsters in the Monster Hunter franchise have them. The most notable being the Nargacuga, whose eyes turn glowing red when in rage mode. In Monster Hunter: World, any creature controlled by a Leshen will have glowing red eyes.
  • Mortal Glory has a subset of gladiators called Beasts, whose portraits have red eyes, their entire sprite is red, and they feature jacked up stats, and the maximum number of traits and skills.
  • Mortal Kombat X: As part of their Evil Costume Switch and subsequent transformation into the Netherrealm's Praetorian Guard, the heroes that were killed off at the end of Mortal Kombat 9 and turned into brainwashed revenants by Quan Chi and Shinnok sport reddish-orange eyes.
  • Motherload: Your boss, Mr. Natas, has subtly red eyes which can be seen when speaking to you on the transmission screen. They are one of two signs that your boss may have more skeletons in his closet than he lets on, the other being how his last name is spelt backwards.
  • In the Sega Saturn game Mr. Bones, skeletons reanimated with evil skeletism have red eyes, with the main character having blue eyes to signify that he's good. Big Bad DaGoullian also has red eyes, and losing all your health shows a cutscene of the title character's eyes turning red.
  • Subverted in Neverwinter Nights 2 with Neeshka. Her red eyes are courtesy of having a pit fiend for a grandfather, and tieflings such as her have a tendency towards evil because of their fiendish heritage (and Neeshka faces Fantastic Racism because of this). However, Neeshka is quite friendly and is at worst a Kleptomaniac Heroine, and can only turn against you because of a Geas placed on her by The Dragon when he captures her in the endgame. She can even break free of it if your Relationship Values are high enough.
  • In New World, the Corrupted all have glowing red eyes. The first time you can see them is when Captain Thorpe attacks you in the tutorial.
  • In Days of Ruin, you have the Mad Scientist Caulder/Stolos.
  • Yvon from Octopath Traveler has bright red eyes, which get some minor attention in Cyrus's third chapter. He's already an unpleasant Dean Bitterman in his first appearance, and he turns out to be one of Cyrus's main antagonists. It's implied that his eyes are red specifically because he's been studying forbidden magic.
  • In Octopath Traveler II, The Voice has glowing red eyes when it shows up in person. It's a manifestation of D'arquest's powers and is constantly goading members of Clan Ku to commit excessive amounts of bloodshed. Especially notable since it otherwise looks identical to its current "host," just with red eyes instead.
  • In Ominous Objects 4: Lumina Camera Z, who uses the title object to steal people's souls, has red eyes. So does Madeline when he uses mind control on her.
  • PAYDAY 3 does this with security cameras - red lights around the lense indicate the camera is active and capable of detecting heisters, whilst blue lights indicate the camera's been hacked and no lights at all indicate its been disabled.
  • Pigsaw: The Pig Men who work at the human processing plant have glowing red eyes.
  • Elena in Pandora's Tower has these, but it's a subversion; her eyes seem to be reddish normally, but turn blue whenever she's in the later stages of the curse turning her into a monster.
  • Phantasy Star Online 2
    • All of the Dark Falz have red eyes, signifying that they are not to be trifled with, as each of them have the power to destroy planets.
    • When Code: ABYSS is enacted during Luther’s leadership of ARKS, the operatives that go after the Protagonist all have their eyes glowing red.
    • Risa is a trigger happy member of ARKS who likes to shoot stuff. In Episode 4, she gleefully reveals that she even shoots fellow ARKS ops, both deliberately and by "accident".
    • Subverted with Matoi. While she is a ruthless fighter against Falspawn, and Dark Falz, outside of combat, she is very kind and caring towards her friends, especially the Protagonist.
  • Pokémon:
    • Ariana, the Team Rocket Admin from the same games, also has these.
    • On the subject of Pokémon, we have Cipher Admin Nascour, who happens to be Master Albert's predecessor with the whole black sclera red iris schtick. He just happens to be the face of the most evil Pokémon crime syndicate.
    • Ghetsis, a member of Team Plasma from Pokémon Black and White, takes this trope to new extremes - he has one natural red eye, a glowing red monocle, and a red eye printed on each sleeve of his robe. It becomes fitting as more of his actions and intentions are revealed.
    • Venusaur in Pokémon Stadium has a disturbingly realistic take on this trope where its eyes turn a bloodshot red while attacking, as if it was suffering from an allergy or eye infection.
    • Beedrill, a giant, territorial, poisonous bee.
    • Ninetales. It can control minds with said eyes. It's also extremely vindictive, going so far as to curse people for 1000 years for daring to grab one of its tails.
    • The Rhyhorn line. While it does not appear to be malicious, Rhyhorn is dumb and prone to charging and Rhydon is smarter, but still destructive.
    • Hydreigon. It's extremely destructive and will attack anything.
    • Mankey. It's pretty much constantly in an Unstoppable Rage and will stop at nothing to beat up whatever angered it.
    • Houndoom. The pain caused by the burn from its pungent flame never stops hurting.
    • Murkrow is a thief and is considered a bad omen. Its evolution is pretty much a slothful, merciless, grudge-holding mafia-don.
    • Persian. It fits Cats Are Mean quite well and one of them appears in the anime as a Right-Hand Cat.
    • Gyarados. Huge, vicious, and very ill tempered, it has destroyed entire cities.
    • Quilava and Typhlosion. If Typhlosion's rage peaks, everything it touches bursts into flames
    • Sneasel is said to be extremely vicious. It drives Pidgey from their nests to eat their eggs. Its evolution, Weavile, is even more devious.
    • The Larvitar line. Larvitar eats an entire mountain to grow and Pupitar's thrashing can topple a mountain. Tyranitar, too, according to various close-up shots. It's a very dangerous and aggressive Tyrannosaurus rex that can destroy entire landscapes.
    • While Totodile does not appear to be malevolent, it does not realize the strength of its bite, which is bad because it has a tendency to bite or nip anything. Its first evolution, Croconaw, will not let go when it clamps down and its final evolution, Feraligatr, is surprisingly fast and savagely tears its victim up.
    • Hippowdon, contrary to the usual cartoon portrayal of hippos, is as angry and temperamental as its real-life counterpart.
    • Cofagrigus is said to turn people into mummies.
    • Genesect. A prehistoric Pokemon. In its time, it was feared as the strongest of hunters. Apparently, Team Plasma makes it even stronger.
    • Zekrom, the legendary thunder dragon. Although it can be used for good or for evil (like most other species), it can be destructive and chaotic in the wrong handsnote .
    • Red Basculin.
    • Carvanha is a vicious Piranha that evolves into a still vicious, sly shark that can swim over 75 miles per hour and thoroughly tear apart a supertanker.
    • Primal Dialga. And Dialga, Palkia, and (especially) Giratina in general.
    • Gigalith is capable of blowing away a mountain.
    • Seismitoad shoots a paralyzing liquid from its head bumps. It can also smash boulders with one punch.
    • The Axew line. Haxorus is kind but can be relentless when defending territory.
    • New entry Pokémon Sun and Moon gives us the Midnight Forme of Lycanroc, the Pokemon answer to werewolves. It's differentiated from its Midday Forme by having the red eyes (contrasting Midday's Innocent Blue Eyes) and a Blood Knight disposition. It will, however, remain loyal to a Trainer who treats it right.
    • In the anime, Mewtwo's eyes occasionally glow red when it uses its Psychic Powers.
    • One villain from Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, is actually named Red Eyes.
    • The corrupted, brainwashed Shadow Pokémon of Pokémon GO all have glowing red eyes that indicate their heightened danger, both with their unnaturally boosted stats and hostile behaviors.
    • This trope is not universal, though. Exceptions include Flannery, Chili, Pike Queen Lucy, Sabrina (though she does play villains in Pokewood movies), and Hall Matron Argenta.
    • In the remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Tabitha has red eyes, seen only when he opens those peepers.
    • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, wild Alpha Pokémon inexplicably all have glowing red eyes (except for Zubat, which has no eyes at all), but lose them once caught.
  • The turrets in Portal and Portal 2 each have a singular red eye that emits a targeting laser.
  • Alex Mercer in the final boss fight in [PROTOTYPE 2].
  • In Resident Evil 4, village leader Bitores Mendez has extremely bloodshot eyes that appear red. One of his eyes is a prosthetic, in fact. A straighter example is the cutscene where a Ganado's eyes glow red before the Plaga bursts out of its head. Leon himself displays red eyes in some cutscenes after being injected with the Plagas.
    • The Majini in Resident Evil 5.
    • Wesker, in most of the games he appears in, has red, catlike eyes. You don't see them often though, since he has his sunglasses on most of the time. But if you do... prepare yourself for a massive beatdown.
  • Notorious Roblox urban legend, “Bloxwatch”, would IP ban players if they got to close to it in its red-eyed form.
  • In Robopon, in the second game it's revealed that Dr. Zero's visible eye is red.
  • In Sengoku Basara, the Demon King Nobunaga has glowing red eyes when tapping into the power of Hell. The anime made them permanently red, and the same for his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ishida Mitsunari is a similar case, as his pupils flash red when he's enraged.
  • Pretty much is a warning in Shadow of the Colossus. The giants' eyes are blue when they're just moving along, but if you see them turn red, it means you either attacked them or they're about to attack you—so watch out!
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
    • The various human forms of Lucifer (Louis in his male incarnations) in the series should partially qualify. One of his eyes are red. And it really is just a warning, given Lucifer's status as more "chaos" than "evil", but it's a distinctive trait worth note.
    • Once you've earned the True Demon ending in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, your character's eyes turn red.
    • Hallelujah has red eyes in demon form; his iris is dark red and his sclera is a lighter red. He's heroic, but a powerful Half-Human Hybrid who first shows off his power by curb-stomping a small army of angels.
  • Persona:
    • Played straight by the shadow selves of the heroes in Persona 2, who have the psychotic expressions to match.
    • Inverted by Labrys in Persona 4: Arena. When her eyes are red, she's a friendly Class Representative. However, when her Shadow has Supernatural Gold Eyes, and when Labrys is mind-controlled, her eyes turn a dull gray.
    • The protagonist of Persona 5 has red eyes as part of his all-out attack, despite having black eyes any other time.
    • Goro Akechi in Persona 5 has naturally red eyes, which highlight how he initially acts as the Hero Antagonist detective to the Phantom Thieves. He also happens to be Black Mask, the Ax-Crazy assassin working for the main antagonist group who is responsible for causing the mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown incidents. During the third term in Persona 5 Royal, he completely drops his Large Ham act from when he initially joins the party and his fighting style becomes the most brutal out of the Phantom Thieves, with his eyes even glowing red just before he tears his enemies into pieces during his Combination Attack with Joker.
  • Oz of Promise of Wizard: Didn’t those scarlet eyes warn you about something? He can turn you into ash in one finger snap.
  • Purgatory (RPG Maker): Initially averted with Enri, as she is an innocent girl trying to escape a horrible Serial Killer. But in the true ending path and the sequel, she becomes a dangerous (if still benevolent) demon who effortlessly kills the Butcher, then chops down Giant Spiders with little effort, and her red eyes often glow when she is in demon mode.
  • Inverted in SCP: Secret Laboratory. If a security camera in the room has a red lens, its usually safe to advance. If the lens is blue, tread with caution - SCP-079 is controlling the room, and any lights, doors and Tesla Gates inside.
  • The lawn gnome in Shut Eye has glowing red eyes when it's in your bed, looking at you.
  • Possessed Cybil in Silent Hill.
  • The eponymous endboss of Skullgirls has these, in addition to markings on her irises that make her pupils appear like the eye sockets of skulls. Aside from her, the trope is played around with with the rest of the cast: Double's Eldritch Abomination form has red eyes befitting of her serving the Skullgirl, while Filia has red eyes, yet is mild-mannered. Painwheel has glowing red eyes as well, but that's largely an effect of her synthetic Skullgirl blood; she's less a villain and more a victim of mind control. In addition, Valentine has red eyes and cross-shaped pupils. Then there's Peacock, whose mechanical eyes are also red, and she's very much eager to Paint the Town Red.
  • Sly Cooper: Dimitri gets red eyes when angered from getting humiliated by art critics, as seen here: [1].
  • Smashroom: The rat enemies Smashroom encounters in the game have red eyes.
  • The Killer Bills in Something Else. They are faster than the usual Banzai Bill, but there are red coins that reveal their next locations.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In the Soul Series, most notably the first installment, Soul Edge, Hwang in his "no-input " ending returns home, but with devilish red eyes due to prolonged exposure to Soul Edge itself, not forgetting to mention his possessed facial expression that accompanies them well...
  • Soul At Stake: One of the female devils has red eyes.
  • In Splinter Cell Conviction, the new batch of Splinter Cells have red optics for their sonar goggles.
  • 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".
  • Faize's eyes in Star Ocean: The Last Hope start glowing red to foreshadow his upcoming Roaring Rampage of Revenge...which doesn't end well as he unfortunately does it in a barely-armed shuttlecraft and promptly gets captured and possessed by the enemy.
  • Strange Flesh: In the Boyfriend ending, thanks to the Bartender's influence on him, Joe's eyes are shown to gleam red when he becomes horny.
  • Bowser, the main villain from most of the Super Mario Bros. games, has had sinister red eyes since Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • The TakeOver: In the Bad Ending, a heartbroken Vanessa comes to the conclusion that her adopted parents have abandoned her. It ends with her eyes being opened, showing glowing red eyes.
  • This is parodied in Tales of Monkey Island from Chapters 1-4 when pirates are so infected by the Pox of LeChuck, they go into Poxed rages and even shout out silly death threats.
  • 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 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 se, but he is the Big Bad of the game. He is, however, a completely unhelpful and self-righteous jackass.
    • In Tales of Graces, it was more of a "Red eye take warning". (Note the singular) You'll notice that Richard has one red eye - Which is a sign that he's possessed by Lambda. This occasionally glows, but doesn't become pronounced until much later in the game when it's rather obvious that Richard is evil. However, during the events of Lineage, Asbel becomes "Possessed" by Lambda, but instead his other eye is purple - signifying that Lambda's become more of a symbiote than a possessor like he was to Richard.
  • In Tattletail, Mama Tattletail will stalk you when the lights go out, and the only thing visible is her glowing red eyes. Making it even creepier is that looking directly at her causes your flashlight to go out.
  • Tauronos is about a guy wandering the Minotaur's maze being chased by said creature. It has red eyes.
  • ÜberCharged members of the BLU team in Team Fortress 2 will have glowing red eyes and be completely invulnerable to enemy fire for a brief period.
  • Tekken 6, Scenario Campaign: Alisa's eyes turn red when Jin disengages her Safe Mode. Main result: She's no longer able to disobey any command Jin wishes her to follow. Like kill Lars.
    • Devil Jin, the form that Jin transforms into whenever he is fully corrupted by the Devil gene, has glowing red eyes and is not a very nice guy.
    • Jin's father, Kazuya, has a glowing red left eye while his right eye is normal. His role varies from anti-hero to outright villain to anywhere inbetween at different points in the series.
  • In Telepath Tactics, due to the way Palette Swaps work, all enemy shadowlings have these. This is probably intentional, since it telegraphs their cruel nature. It's particularly noticeable with Tarion, as they are prominent in his early appearances.
  • Them's Fightin' Herds:
    • All of the Predators, the game's main antagonists, have glowing red eyes.
    • Tianhuo has red eyes with slitted pupils. Though she's one of the good guys, she's the Captain of the Guard for a reason.
  • Most youkai in Touhou Project have red eyes, ranging from the Darkness youkai Rumia, who's more likely to blind herself with her own powers and fly straight into a tree rather than actually harm anyone, to hugely overpowered oddball Yukari Yakumo, who is, while not actively evil, very bored and somewhat...playful with people (when she's not sleeping, that is). Also, other creatures, such as vampires like the Scarlet Sisters, sport them. Reisen Udongein Inaba's red eyes can even cause lunacy.
    • It's also been noted that red eyes are a sign of madness in this universe (as indicated by Reisen's Lunatic Red Eyes). In one of the good endings for Imperishable Night, Sakuya is shown with red eyes after seeing the true full moon, which suggests that she might have gone mad, though in subsequent appearances she's shown with normal blue or gray eyes and doesn't seem any worse for wear.
    • Sakuya also gets them in the fighting games whenever she's using her time-stopping powers, a depiction that carried over to many fanworks.
  • The Soulless Pacifist Ending of Undertale shows Chara with those. Fan works generally show them with red as their natural eye color, even when Chara is actually depicted as good person.
  • All vampires in Vampires Dawn gain red eyes upon transformation. The red part increases in size if they are possessed by Shadow Ghosts.
  • For the orcs in Warcraft, it'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. Grom Hellscream in particular had them for most of his life. When he gives his life to defeat Mannoroth (freeing himself and the rest of the orcs from the Burning Legion), his eyes become clear again.
  • In Wadanohara, there's an adorable fish with big red eyes. His name is Sal. While he seems innocent enough, he ends up being the main villain of the game who was behind everything.
  • Ashley from the WarioWare series generally has red eyes, though her Game & Wario design gives her pupils that default to completely black (a consequence of the game's general art style) and turn red when she's casting magic or angry. They go back to being constantly red in WarioWare Gold.
  • The Wolf and the Waves: The player's wolf form has red eyes, befitting it as the combat form of choice.
  • In The World Ends with You, red eyes are an indication that the person is under the influence of the Assimilation Plot. 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...
  • Piratez: Referenced verbatim in an article about princess Aurora, who has red eyes and poses significant danger to your operation.
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon: It isn't very obvious, but all the enemies that you fight have glowing red eyes. In modern Japan. This is because protagonist Ichiban has an overactive imagination, and sees everything as if he's the hero in an RPG.
  • You Are Not The Hero: The "Big Freakin Ghost" Petula fights aboard the haunted train has glowing red eyes.

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