Does Not Illustrate: Sinister Shades

Sinister Shades is a trope about how shades are used as a way to make a character more intimidating, with wearers generally being villains or Anti Heroes.

The picture just shows a smiling Kim Jong-Il wearing a pair of shades, illustrating the shades part but not the sinister part for those that don't recognize him by sight (Not to mention there's the inherent problem of using Real Life examples to illustrate villain related tropes).

It shouldn't be that hard to find pictures of characters wearing shades and being intimidating. For example, here's one of the Terminator I found after doing a quick Google search.

edited 28th Feb '14 5:51:59 PM by Servbot

I guess the image is supposed to be funny, but yeah, those glasses don't look very sinister at all. Terminator is fine, but considering how easy it is to find a pic, let's let the examples pile up so we'll have a nice hefty Image Links.

to the current. The suggestion is a little too dark; how are these? 1◊, 2◊ The second might be a little too close to JAFAAC, but I think the expression sells it.

Also, here's a couple of Smith: 1◊, 2◊

edited 28th Feb '14 7:39:52 PM by Willbyr

I think the first Agent Smith is the best suggestion so far.

I like the OP suggestion best. The way he carries his gun and and his expression says a lot about the sinister aspect.

3.1 could work, but the image is even darker, and the focus seems to be on the gun rather than the shades.

edited 28th Feb '14 11:44:45 PM by theAdeptrogue

I vote for pulling current immediately while collecting suggestions for a replacement.

Pull current. Of the 3 images, 3.3 has a threatening aspect that is missing from the other images.

I'm with Septimus on this one. The problem with the Ahnold images is that Ahnold looks like he could just as easily be a cheesy eighties action hero when he wears sunglasses.

Found a brighter image of the OP suggestion, although it seems to reduce the sinister aspect.

Several other suggestions: [1]◊ [2]◊ [3]◊

The third one is the best of those. I think the Terminator pics pretty much need the glowing Red Eye to work.

Is this pretty much a rare instance where a face and caption is okay? :)

Wesker With One Red Eye◊ Wesker With Two◊ Wesker looking angry◊ And Wesker with Claire just for one with context.◊

edited 9th Mar '14 5:50:45 PM by Lakija

The third one is the only one that unequivocably says "sinister" to me...it's a problem I have with most of the T2!Terminator suggestions.

I think the "sinister" part is more or less YMMV. For that matter, I don't see the Agent Smith suggestion as sinister

^^^ No. Please read the article Just a Face and a Caption. It doesn't mean literally "just a picture of a face" (in many cases that's fine); it could be called "Just A Building And A Caption" or "Just A Shoe And A Caption" (and so on) instead, but pictures of characters are by far the most common offenders. For example, the most probable JAFAAC concern with this would be about an image of a character who is sinister in the work, but doesn't look sinister in that particular image.

^ Some borderline cases may be subjective, but there are many ways a character could look unquestionably like a bad guy. The word sinister is more nuanced than bad guy, but Agent Smith's suit and scowl are good enough for me. Certainly it's an improvement on the current image, which depicts someone smiling.

Here is 11.2, cropped and 350 tall:

edited 9th Mar '14 11:20:17 PM by rodneyAnonymous

I really like that one.

Fair points. That's pretty decent.

14 is good enough, I guess

^^^^^Thanks. That's much clearer now.

Downfall◊

Persona 2 Hitter◊

The Third Reich◊ (notice the cold ghostly stare of the officer on the far left.)

And Abercrombie & Fuhrer!◊

edited 10th Mar '14 2:53:33 PM by Paktra

The only indication of "sinister" in the image is Hitler, and I'm still not sure we should be using real life people - even though it is a parody and/or fictional representation of him

Adding to that, the 19.2 is the only one where he looks sinister. 19.4 doesn't even come close.

But Swastika!…

The only reason I even added 19.4 was because it carries such morbid connotations.

I mean you should be able to put it on anything, even a Hitler in Cool Shades and a Tommy Vercetti shirt of all things, and it should look pretty sinister... or at least, Bad Guy-ish

edited 11th Mar '14 2:36:15 AM by Paktra

How does that even make sense? Swastika is not even a universally recognized symbol of evil and carries no relevance to this trope.

ITS HITLER... with shades on! If I can't make it any clearer than that, forget I ever mentioned it.

But no, really I get what you mean, but I didn't say "universal". I understand that the pinwheel sun from which it was derived hass nothing to do with its modern evil, but don't try to argue that with the German government!

My point was, in a politically correct society wouldn't slapping it on something that we wanted to mark as Evil Badness, work?

Alas, I digress... I'm fine for Crowner.

If that's the idea I think it's a rather bad one. We don't allow Hitler on our Evil pages, so he shouldn't be illustrated in that capacity either.