History Main / GoodEyesEvilEyes

* Much like its source material ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', the fanfic ''Fanfic/HalfPastAdventure'' describes the villainous Bandit Princess as having "catlike eyes" — although it uses the same phrasing to describe the non-villainous [[spoiler:Huntress Wizard]], making this a DownplayedTrope.
* ''Fanfic/PastSins'': From "A Secret Between Friends": Twilight reveals that she's giving Nyx eye-disguising glasses because her natural eyes look like those of agressive, and mostly villainous beings:
--> ''Twilight'': there are only a couple of things I know that have eyes like that. Dragons, the changeling queen, and… well, Nightmare Moon.

** In Case 1-5, Angel Starr actually has one of each, always [[PeekABangs covering one with her hair]] to show if she's being sweet or bitter. However, this is because she wears colored contacts to deliberately [[InvokedTrope invoke this trope]] to have people trust her or fear her accordingly. [[spoiler: Matt Engarde]] also has a hairstyle that produces this effect.

* Early episodes of the first ''{{Transformers}}'' episodes had a robot version of it: The good Autobots had blue eyes, and the evil Decepticons had red eyes. Taking this even further, there was an episode where the good guys were brainwashed into evil. The visual cue? Their eyes turned red.

* Sort of used in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''. The series does not have any heroes or villains, but Kyon, being the most cynical character, has considerably narrower eyes than the rest of the cast.

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}''; Ryuuji has narrow eyes paired up with a creepy stare, which make everyone but his friends think he's a delinquent, while he's actually a very NiceGuy.

* With the exception of Walker (whose [[EyesAlwaysShut eyes are always closed]], Izaya Orihara has some of the narrowest eyes in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' (and are also noted to be very [[TsurimeEyes sharp-looking]] in the LightNovels). He is also a [[{{Troll}} giant]] [[ManipulativeBastard fricking]] [[{{Jerkass}} asshole]] and is more or less the series' BigBad.

* [[ManipulativeBastard Kaede]] from ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'' usually has innocent looking eyes, but in episode 10, her eyes clearly shift to a more sinister look while trying to manipulate male Natsuru.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Our pupils dilate when we feel friendly and affectionate, and constrict when we feel wary and guarded. Consequently, we consider large pupils a sign of warmheartedness and small ones a sign of hostility.
** Pupil size is entirely controlled by the autonomic nervous system. The effect of mood is real, but much smaller than the far more basic accommodation for light level. It likewise is not as important as the function of the autonomic nervous system. Pupil dilation is a result of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, the part responsible for fight-or-flight. An aggressor will have dilated pupils, as will someone "wide-eyed with fright." Parasympathetic stimulation, the feed-and-breed side of the autonomic nervous system, causes constriction. Likewise, cocaine and amphetamines cause dilation, which heroin causes constriction.
** This is inverted for cats: bigger eyes with large pupils are scarier because it indicates either they're looking at prey or they are frightened, slightly narrower eyes with medium sized or smallish pupils show trust and comfort with whomever they're looking at. Really constricted pupils indicates hostility or an aggressor.
* 19th-century women used to put belladonna (aka ''deadly nightshade'') extract in their eyes to dilate the pupils, so they would look prettier.
** This is less crazy than it sounds. The key here is that the poison is in the dose or, in this case, the route. The deadly in deadly nightshade comes from atropine (as its scientific name ''Atropa belladona'' suggests). Atropine blocks pretty much the entire parasympathetic nervous system, which is the calm, feed-and-breed side of autonomic regulation. The PS system causes the pupils to constrict, so atropine (and deadly nightshade) would dilate the pupil. Used low dose topically in the eye, it doesn't really affect the rest of the body, and ophthalmologists used to use atropine for many years for some forms of glaucoma (rare today). Atropine has a few uses in emergencies (nerve gas and pesticide exposure, some heart conditions). Taken ''systemically'', deadly nightshade can live up to its name, especially before we had drugs which could counter its effects.
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* Inverted in the Franchise/{{DCAU}} where {{Comicbook/Superman}} has squinty little eyes of just an upper eyebrow and a pupil while ComicBook/LexLuthor has more normal eyes with a white to them. Also ignored in most other cases as eye size seems gender based; all ladies get big eyes no matter how evil they are.

* ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'':

** The dark outlines around Gaara's eyes make them appear narrower when he is looking menacing, but wider when he is portrayed sympathetically.

However, this trope is slightly more complex than it used to be. Instead of one eye size for goodies and another for baddies, there is a continuum between the FriendToAllLivingThings and the BigBad reflecting just how good or bad a character is. On the side of good, the AntiHero willing to ShootTheDog has eyes narrower than the hero's but wider than those of the villain. Villains with wider eyes tend to be of the KnightTemplar, WellIntentionedExtremist, or AntiVillain types; either that, or they will PetTheDog a few times.

* Elves in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' have much larger eyes than any of the human characters. Depending on the character in question, this either plays the trope straight or subverts it. Hawke's elven companions, Merrill and Fenris, have wider eyes than the rest of the group (though Fenris has narrower eyes than Merrill, being an AntiHero), and [[TheChick Merrill]] in particular is one of the nicest companions.

** In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]], [[PsychoForHire Col. Archer]] has unrepentantly narrow eyes.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' - Bellatrix Lestrange has "heavily lidded eyes". Her sister Andromeda Tonks looks a lot like her but has "wider, kinder eyes". Luna Lovegood has wide eyes.
** Likewise, while Hagrid has "bright, beetle-black eyes", Snape's are said to be black and unfathomable, like dark tunnels. And Ginny has big, bright brown eyes.

* ''Anime/{{Noir}}''. The protagonists Mirielle and Kirika, despite both being ruthless hitwomen, have [[BadassAdorable large round eyes]], whereas KnifeNut Chloe has narrow eyes. Later when Kirika starts to come under the influence of Chloe, her {{Moe}} eyes become noticeably narrower.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': Sora and Kairi have big, wide eyes (especially in the first game); AntiHero Riku's are narrower. Nearly all of Organization XIII have narrow eyes. Larxene, however, has eyes so big they rival Sora and Kairi's, and she's perhaps the [[PsychoElectro scariest]] [[KnifeNut member]] of the Org. AxCrazy Vanitas also has large eyes by virtue of being [[spoiler: a Sora look alike]].

* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' is almost a case study in the example of Innocence vs. Cynicism. Compare the eyes of Sasami, Washu, Ryoko, and Mihoshi.
* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'':
** Compare the eyes of AntiHero Kamui to those of AntiVillain Fuuma. Or those of BlindSeer Hinoto to those of her evil sister, Kanoe. Or, indeed, any Dragon of Heaven to any Dragon of Earth.
** Another example: It's easy to tell that [[spoiler:Hinoto]] has gone to the dark side when her eyes appear significantly narrower.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Yami Yugi and [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Yami Bakura]] both have narrower eyes than their hosts. Malik already has narrow eyes, but his superpowered eviller side has even narrower ones.
* Used in, oddly enough, ''Manga/{{Saikano}}''. [[spoiler:Shuji's friend who joins the military]] is a WideEyedIdealist, complete with literal wide eyes. On the other hand, the other soldiers, none of whom have any illusions about the state they'll return home in, all have extremely narrow eyes.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Protagonists generally have big eyes, with [[ActualPacifist Orihime's]] being the biggest. Among Soul Reapers, the greater the KnightTemplar tendency, the narrower the eyes. When Aizen is revealed to be the BigBad, his eyes shift a being a [[TaremeEyes gentle droop]] to [[TsurimeEyes sharp and pointy]], to reflect the revelation that his kind demeanour was a mask for his true cold, evil personality.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** [[VillainProtagonist Light]] normally has squinty, narrow eyes, but when he temporarily [[MemoryGambit has his memory erased]] and becomes a good guy, his eyes widen considerably.
*** It is even almost lampshaded; after losing his memory, Light asks L if his eyes look like those of a murderer.
** This happened in a cycle. In the beginning, his eyes were in the wider variety. Then, as time went by and he grew more conniving and duplicitous, they grew narrower (accompanied by an overall harshness to his features).
** On the opposing side of the cat-and-mouse game, L has eyes that, while dull and baggy, are pretty wide and round in contrast to Light's narrow, angular eyes.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' makes prolific use of this trope, specifically with Lucy/Nyu, who can either have large, bubbly, innocent eyes in her Nyu persona to signify her innocently ignorant mindset, or narrow, hateful, and tortured eyes (that are [[HiddenEyes hidden]] most of the time) in her Lucy persona to signify her extremely dark, murderous, and tormented mindset. In fact, a key characteristic of a diclonius who's been [[BreakTheCutie pushed too far]] is a piercing, glazed over look in their eyes, signifying their descent into murderous misanthropy (basically every diclonius in the show goes through this at one point or another, given that HumansAreBastards). For some of them this is essentially a permanent state.

* In ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires Seras]] is pretty much the only good guy who has wide eyes (she doesn't have the ScaryShinyGlasses either). Curiously, the members of [[StupidJetpackHitler Millenium]] also tend to have wider eyes, though that's probably because they [[SuccessThroughInsanity have so much fun]] with what they do. It's also worth remembering that her irises turn red when she goes ax crazy

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', good characters[[note]]Such as Goku, Chi-Chi, Roshi and Krillin[[/note]] generally have big round eyes and bad ones[[note]]Like Vegeta, Frieza and Cell[[/note]] have narrower, more triangular shaped ones. If a bad character turns good their eyes usually don't change, such as with Yamcha, Tien and Piccolo. In an interesting twist, bad characters' eyes are fully outlined, while good characters only have the outside edges of the eyes outlined. Again, this generally sticks if the character switches sides. Continuing that, when Goku, Gohan or Goten first turn Super Saiyan their eyes adopt the "bad guy" look. Trunks has the bad guy eyes even in his normal state due to him being related to Vegeta.
** Gohan for some reason gets fully outlined eyes after his "Mystic" upgrade and it sticks for the rest of the series.
** A more literal example would be Launch from the Kid Goku chapters. In her blue-haired state she is sweet and gentle, and so has massive round eyes. In her yellow-haired state she's gun-happy, aggressive and vengeful, where her eyes take on a triangular shape.

* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'': When Hei switches from his "real" personality ({{stoic}} badass PunchclockVillain {{antihero}}) to his SecretIdentity personality (dorky yet cute NiceGuy), the main difference is a) [[EvilSoundsDeep his voice going up about half an octave]] and b) his eyes getting [[http://media.photobucket.com/image/darker%20than%20black%20li/Gackt4life/darker%2520than%2520black/DTBHei-LiTrial.jpg much, much wider]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': While there is no visual indication of this, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 4 are able to tell that the MirrorUniverse counterparts of Lizzie and Numbuh 3 from "Operation: P.O.O.L." are evil just by looking into their eyes.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' tends to give the good characters the standard big watery eyes while villains tend to get scary (and mostly serpentine) peepers. Even minor "villains" like Trixie and Gilda tend to have less reflections in their eyes. Spike ([[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess except for one episode]]) averts this, as does [[spoiler:Discord after his HeelFaceTurn]].

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', the difference between ComicBook/LexLuthor and [[{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] is not too noticeable, but surprisingly, in [[spoiler:season six, "Nemesis"]], when Chloe is firmly Clark's most trusted friend and [[TheScrappy Lana]] is morally questionable, a clear comparison is made between Chloe's wide, bright eyes [[spoiler:as she more or less pleads for Clark's life]] and Lana's narrow, dark ones. They could be seen as the representatives of the arch-enemies at this point.

* Subverted in the manga ''Manga/{{Leviathan}}''; [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/leviathan/v04/c019/31.html see here.]] That's the character with arguably the biggest eyes so far, going "There's not enough killing yet."

** In addition, [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v04/c028/ Setsuna]] has narrower eyes then the rest of the cast when she's introduced, as Negi briefly suspects her of being a bad guy. [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v12/c100/8.html Later on in the series]] her eyes are wider.

* The eponymous ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' applies this constantly. When he [[OlderThanTheyLook pretends to be a kid]], he's TaremeEyes-- and would switch to TsurimeEyes in {{meitantei}} mode.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4208 enlightenment enlarges the drones' eyes.]]
* In ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000410c the newly awakened Proto Man notices]] [[MeaningfulName Dr. Wily]]'s shifty eyes.

* Subverted in the manga ''Manga/{{Leviathan}}''; see [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/leviathan/v04/c019/31.html here]]. That's the character with arguably the biggest eyes so far, going "There's not enough killing yet."

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Just compare the eyes of [[http://xfb.xanga.com/451c2a1b33130182112693/w139345007.jpg Spike]] and [[http://x95.xanga.com/732c541bd3630182113348/w139345563.jpg Vicious]], and then guess which is the AntiHero and which is the EvilCounterpart.

* In ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'' there is a good eye/crazy evil eyes version of this trope. The good-hearted, wide-eyed, main protagonist meets another good-hearted, wide-eyed, sweet girl who desperately wants to escape DW. He falls for her [[spoiler: and soon after is betrayed. She was faking the whole time in order to drop his guard. Once she shows her TrueColors her eyes become beady and wide as opposed to small and narrow.]]

** Similar to Gonta, Kaito has narrow and sharp eyes, but is really a nice guy. [[spoiler:Though, he is the final Blackened...]]
** Invoked by Kokichi, who usually has large, round, childlike eyes that give him an innocent look which he uses to his advantage, as he is a ruthless ManipulativeBastard. Although, when he really gets mad, his eyes become large and sunken in, turning black and spirally with almost no sclerae. However, [[spoiler:he's actually on the side of the students and resents the killing game, giving his life in an effort to end it]].

* ''Anime/BinanKoukouChikyuuBoueibuLove'' subverts this a bit in the last episode. Kinshiro goes from evil eyes to good eyes ''during his HeelFaceTurn'', but they go practically back to normal despite the fact that he stays turned. Turns out it was just an emotional moment.

* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}''

* ''{{Manga/Bleach}}'': Protagonists generally have big eyes, with [[ActualPacifist Orihime's]] being the biggest. Among Soul Reapers, the greater the KnightTemplar tendency, the narrower the eyes. When Aizen is revealed to be the BigBad, his eyes shift a being a [[TaremeEyes gentle droop]] to [[TsurimeEyes sharp and pointy]], to reflect the revelation that his kind demeanour was a mask for his true cold, evil personality.

* ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'':

* Subverted with ''{{Manga/Kaiji}}'''s titular lead character, whose tire-punching vandalism doesn't make him evil, just a loser.
* ''Anime/TriGun'' uses this quite a bit, especially with Vash, who either puts on his ominous ScaryShinyGlasses or gets a narrow (if not GlowingEyesOfDoom) look in his eyes, Knives, whose pupils dilate disturbingly whenever he's feeling particularly sadistic, and Legato, whose demonically evil eyes (or technically [[HiddenEyes eye]]) are specifically focused on when he makes his opening entrance (in fact, this is one of the reasons why Vash is so terrified of him).

* While nearly [[HalfIdenticalTwins identical in appearance]], there's a single major physical disparity between ''[[{{Anime/Monster}} Monster's]]'' [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monsterjohan.jpg Johan Liebert]] and his twin sister, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nina.jpg Anna]] that tells you which one's the [[EvilTwin evil one]]. You have three seconds to get it right.

* Seen with some of the characters in the anime "Wolf's Rain" Cheza being a great example of this with her red on red pupils.

* Subverted in ''{{LightNovel/Toradora}}''; Ryuuji has narrow eyes paired up with a creepy stare, which make everyone but his friends think he's a delinquent, while he's actually a very NiceGuy.
* Played straight and subverted in ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'': Il Vani, Prince Kail's adviser and close friend, has extremely narrow eyes that make him look evil-ish, at the very least. The evil queen, however, has appropriately narrow eyes.
* In ''{{Manga/Hellsing}}'', [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires Seras]] is pretty much the only good guy who has wide eyes (she doesn't have the ScaryShinyGlasses either). Curiously, the members of [[StupidJetpackHitler Millenium]] also tend to have wider eyes, though that's probably because they [[SuccessThroughInsanity have so much fun]] with what they do. It's also worth remembering that her irises turn red when she goes ax crazy

* Subverted in the manga ''{{Leviathan}}''; see [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/leviathan/v04/c019/31.html here]]. That's the character with arguably the biggest eyes so far, going "There's not enough killing yet."

* ''{{Anime/Noir}}''. The protagonists Mirielle and Kirika, despite both being ruthless hitwomen, have [[BadassAdorable large round eyes]], whereas KnifeNut Chloe has narrow eyes. Later when Kirika starts to come under the influence of Chloe, her {{Moe}} eyes become noticeably narrower.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' generally does this; the villains have noticeably narrower eyes then the heroes, though there are exceptions; [[spoiler: Chao's]] eyes are round, and Evangeline, while having narrow eyes, [[NobleDemon only thinks]] [[AntiVillain she's a villain]].

* ''Umi no Yami Tsuki no Kage'' is about a pair of twins which acquire psychic powers. One of them turns evil. You can tell by the small, cat-like pupils she suddenly sports.

* Inverted with Fubuki Shirou of VideoGame/InazumaEleven. Normally he has a sleepy look and gentle personality; so when he gets aggressive in his plays, [[spoiler:channeling his deceased twin brother,]] his eyes widen and he's... suddenly a lot harder to approach.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Homura in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. Specifically, [[spoiler:in the beginning, she was {{Tareme Eyes}}, fitting [[{{adorkable}} her]] [[CuteClumsyGirl original]] [[ShrinkingViolet personality]]. The [[BreakTheCutie effect]] of the subsequent GroundhogDayLoop-sque MentalTimeTravel culminated into her hiding all things she considered "weak"-- in addition to LettingHerHairDown and [[TheGlassesGottaGo curing her eyes with magic]],]] her eyes turned to TsurimeEyes.

* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'': When Hei switches from his "real" personality ({{stoic}} badass PunchclockVillain {{antihero}}) to his SecretIdentity personality ({{adorkable}} NiceGuy), the main difference is a) [[EvilSoundsDeep his voice going up about half an octave]] and b) his eyes getting [[http://media.photobucket.com/image/darker%20than%20black%20li/Gackt4life/darker%2520than%2520black/DTBHei-LiTrial.jpg much, much wider]].