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Icy Blue Eyes
aka: Cold Grey Eyes

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A man of the north.

Piercing, pale blue eyes, and sometimes gray eyes, that seem to look right through you. As a reflection of character, this variety of blue eyes indicates the coolness (as in Rule of Cool) or even coldness (as in cold and calculating) of the person who has them. Tends to overlap with Elemental Eye Colours, Blue Is Calm, and Blue Means Cold if the character is An Ice Person.

Contrast Innocent Blue Eyes. If this is supposed to be scary, it may overlap with Creepy Blue Eyes. If they're supernaturally blue, they may be Occult Blue Eyes.

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Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Annie Leonhart of Attack on Titan has these. She's cold, calculating, and occasionally very observant about her world, in addition to being a loner by choice. She's also a Titan Shifter, and one of the most dangerous beings mankind faces.
  • Griffith from Berserk has these, being not only the Big Bad of the series, but also the Manipulative Bastard, The Chessmaster, and the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing of the series, all characteristic of his cunning nature; that, and he's a stark contrast to his former-friend-now-rival Guts, who has brown eyes. But god - don't let him look at you with those eyes! You're doomed otherwise!
  • The titular character of the Black★Rock Shooter franchise's most distinctive physical features are her piercing blue eyes. She is an Emotionless Girl and a skilled, sometimes ruthless fighter, and her left eye sometimes catches on fire to highlight this.
  • In Bleach, Hitsugaya and the Ishidas have blue eyes of the "piercing, icy" variety. Hitsugaya is An Ice Person. Ishida Uryuu is an Aloof Ally (or tries to be) who comes from a clan of Energy Bow-using hollow-hunters. His father Ryuuken takes aloofness to a completely new level.
  • Yue of Cardcaptor Sakura has pale blue eyes paired with cat-like slit pupils. He starts out appearing villainous, or at least mean, and remains aloof for a while afterward, but warms up to Sakura overtime.
  • Haibara Ai of Case Closed has a very cold and calculating nature, which matches up to her blue eyes. After all, she did work for a criminal organization most of her life.
  • In Chrono Crusade, after Joshua goes insane after being recruited by the villains, his eyes are definitely "icy".
  • November 11 from Darker than Black has very light blue eyes that can most definitely be described as "icy". This is appropriate, since he's a sociopath with ice powers.
  • Mello of Death Note has blue eyes of the piercing, icy variety.
  • Decim from Death Parade has pale blue eyes to match his cold, distant, and mysterious personality. Used to great effect when giving a Death Glare.
  • Renamon from Digimon Tamers combines this with subverted Black Eyes of Crazy, resulting in a constant Death Glare -ish look, even if she doesn't mean to give that impression.
  • Android 17, Android 18 and Android 16 from Dragon Ball Z have steel-blue eyes befitting their robotic nature but they aren’t really evil (except for the Bad Future versions of 17 and 18). Played straighter with Android 19, Doctor Gero/Android 20, Android 13 and the Super 17 from Dragon Ball GT.
    • Similarly Semi-Perfect Cell has pale blue eyes, which he gains after absorbing Android 17.
    • Future Trunks has prominent pale blue eyes which is rare for Saiyans (albeit a half-blooded one). When in non-combat situations Trunks has Innocent Blue Eyes especially his younger present self.
    • The Super Saiyan Blue transformation gives Goku, Vegeta, Vegito and Gogeta electric blue eyes.
  • Mikado from Durarara!!. Early in the series, the audience thinks he's your average Naïve Newcomer, trusting and uncorrupted by Ikebukuro city, but later, we find out he's actually been the cold and calculating chessmaster and leader of the Dollars this whole time, has been Obfuscating Stupidity, and is the type of person you don't want to cross. On one occasion, he actually shivved a guy with a pen. It's at this point that you realize they were actually Icy Blue Eyes all along.
  • Eyeshield 21 has Shun Kakei which reflects both his stoic personality and his team's water motif.
  • Ray Lundgren of GUN×SWORD has very narrow and very cold blue eyes that match his cold personality.
  • Rico from Gunslinger Girl. On one hand, her Innocent Blue Eyes mark her as a Cheerful Child and a Plucky Girl. On the other, though, she is a Child Soldier who doesn't think twice about gunning down people, she has been shown to have a sadistic streak, and her cold blue eyes stand out alongside her stoic demeanor when she's on a mission.
  • Because Hello! Sandybell is set in Scotland, many characters have this, namely Leslie Christie and Kitty Shearer. Leslie is a strict yet firm Reasonable Authority Figure schoolteacher who does his best to raise his daughter as a single dad, but Kitty is a cold-hearted Alpha Bitch hell-bent on doing whatever she can to ruin Sandybell's life.
  • Lady!!: Sarah has ice-coloured eyes and is closed off and aloof to everyone. She doesn't want Lynn's friendship, and her only friend for most of her life was Arthur. In fact, when Sarah accepts Lynn's friendships, the servants of the Marble Mansion are actually surprised.
    • Lynn and Sarah's Racist Grandpa has a large pair of A10 blue eyes. He's extremely picky about the women his son allows in their life, and excludes Lynn for being half-Japanese, even critisizing George for marrying "an unknown Eastern woman". Even though he's horrible, Lynn wishes he'd accept her as his grandchild.
  • Taki's of Maiden Rose stick out. Mainly cold and icy, but also suggest his purity (probably), as well as being exotic.
  • In Hellsing, even when she's not in a Unstoppable Rage, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Seras Victoria has piercing blue eyes which glow in the dark. Usually she has cute Innocent Blue Eyes, but blood lust or anger turns her pupils red.
  • Several of the anthropomorphic nations of Hetalia: Axis Powers have these: For example, Germany, befitting his strict and serious, no-nonsense demeanor and his ancestor Germania,note  who is The Stoic and a Perpetual Frowner. Played with in Sweden's case: His blue-green eyes are piercing as well, and since has a Face of a Thug and rarely speaks, he tends to scare people when they first meet him, despite being a Gentle Giant who is a Nice Guy deep down. Switzerland and Netherlands' eyes are piercing as well, though theirs are green rather than blue.
  • Anti-Hero Killua from Hunter × Hunter has cold blue eyes, especially in the 1999 anime. He is a Creepy Child who has been trained to be an assassin his entire life.
  • Sachiko from Maria Watches Over Us is an aloof, ojou type of girl and the School Idol. Her blue eyes contrast with Yumi's soft brown eyes.
  • Char Aznable, from Mobile Suit Gundam, has these. As explained in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, this is also why Char wears a mask: Casval Rem Deikun met the real Char Aznable, and the two were practically physically identical aside from the eyes, with Char's being brown. When they swapped places so Casval could join the Zeon military under Char's name, he kept his eyes concealed so no one would realize he wasn't the real Char.
  • Both Heero Yuy and Zechs Merquise from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing have the "piercing and icy" type, as does Treize Khushrenada.
  • Naruto:
    • Naruto's father, Minato, can go from friendly to his True Companions to piercing to his enemies. Naruto himself can now also go to bone-chillingly cold when pissed, to an extent that even the Kyuubi backs off after a look from him.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asuka's light blue eyes are definitely of the "piercing, icy" variant, though they could also be blamed on the common Stereotype for Germans.
  • Yato, the titular stray god from Noragami. While not An Ice Person, he's a god of calamity that you really don't want to piss off. They seem to change based on his mood. When he acts the way he normally does, they're more bright blue, yet still piercing. Then, when he gets pissed off, that is when they start to look scary.
  • Maya from Occult Academy has sharp blue eyes to go with her Tall, Dark, and Snarky personality. They might also count as Occult Blue Eyes considering she's connected to supernatural shenanigans.
  • One Piece:
    • Nico Robin is often known by her piercing pale blue eyes complimenting her Dark and Troubled Past. Though in some instances Robin has brown eyes.
    • Played straight with Eneru in the anime who has electric blue eyes that are particularly cold, suiting his Jerkass God persona.
    • Trafalgar Law has gray eyes in the anime (in the manga they're gold), befitting his cold and calculating nature.
  • Eclair from Ouran High School Host Club has piercing blue eyes. They're so bright and in contrast with the darker colored eyes of, well, everyone else, they seem really unnatural.
  • From Saint Seiya Cygnus Hyoga, Aquarius Camus and Kraken Issac fit the An Ice Person part of this trope.
  • Amane from Sakura-chan to Amane-kun is a stern boy with blue eyes.
  • Sakuya Ookochi from Sensual Phrase has deep, piercing blue eyes, befitting his bastard nature. They are often commented upon, due to how uncommon natural blue eyes are in Japan. This is actually a plot point, since Sakuya is half-American and inherited his blue eyes from his father...the evil foreigner who raped his mother, Reiko.
  • The cynical chimera Zelgadis of Slayers has icy turquoise eyes; however, in the novel series, they're purple.
  • Izana of Snow White with the Red Hair has pale blue eyes which are all the better for his occasional death glares and fit his aloof calculating chessmaster personality while providing contrast with his brother's Innocent Blue Eyes. (Manga only, in the Anime his eyes are a dark navy that almost looks black).
  • Chrona's eyes in Soul Eater are sometimes a very pale shade of blue, which fits an odd variant of "cold piercing" in that they usually signal him/her going into 'kill mode' (or the closest thing to a Game Face Chrona gets).
  • The titular spy, Twilight aka Loid Forger, from SPY×FAMILY. As a cool, calculating, and emotionless spy, he sports some rather cold, blue, and lifeless eyes.
  • Chizuru from Squid Girl is the piercing type, but usually, she keeps them closed.
  • Talentless Nana has two examples in their superpowered "Talented" cast: Seiya Kori is An Ice Person and has pale, icy blue hair as well, while Kaori Takanashi uses color contacts and her "coldness" is more in her being a vapid bully.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew's Deep Blue has icy blue eyes to match his cold and cruel personality.
  • The entire Khun clan from Tower of God, which includes a Magnificent Bastard of a strategist, a legendary womanizer who once helped conquer the whole damn place, a stoic Pintsized Powerhouse, an outcast Playful Hacker and a Person of Mass Destruction and undiluted arrogance.
  • Knives from Trigun has light, icy blue eyes in contrast to his brother's more innocent turquoise eyes. This difference may represent their different personalities.
  • In Tsukihime, Shiki's eyes are a piercing icy blue when he's not wearing his glasses.
  • Kiba's human form from Wolf's Rain has eyes that look either blue (icy, piercing variant) or blue-gray. It denotes his Chosen One status, since the other wolves keep their amber eye color even in human form.
  • Kousei from Your Lie in April has brown eyes in the manga but dark blue eyes in the anime. He starts the anime as a quiet, depressive boy due to his abusive mother and his Parting-Words Regret towards her. Kaori has brighter blue eyes and an overall brighter personality, which rubs onto him as they become friends and she brings him out of his shell.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Seto Kaiba of Yu-Gi-Oh! has cold, blue eyes. And then there's, of course, his "Blue Eyes White Dragon".
    • Yusei Fudou of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has incredible, bright, piercing blue eyes.
  • Victor from Yuri!!! on Ice has these (when they're not Innocent Blue Eyes), fitting for a Living Legend on ice whose reputation can be quite intimidating (and early on in the story, some shots makes Victor look duplicitous or intense).

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 
  • Ultimate X-Men: Magneto's blue eyes are a notable character trait for anyone who knows him and what helped Colossus identify him when presented as a brainwashed tool of Xavier's.

    Fan Works 
  • Ace Combat: Equestria Chronicles has Flare Star, the leader of Dragon Squadron. Her eyes are a light, crisp blue, and she's by far one of the most ruthless and aggressive pegasi in the EAF. To elaborate: a scuffle with Pearl Eyes, an Exile flyer on her first mission, ended with Flare brutally thrashing Pearl and nearly squeezing her to death while she begged for mercy. The narration also makes it clear Flare was deliberately trying to crush Pearl's bones/rib cage, not just going for a choke-hold or grapple.
  • Advice and Trust: Asuka has very piercing "crystal blue eyes" -according Rei- which stare through you.
  • Smith in The Matrix fanfic Bringing Me To Life has these. His eyes are described as "Icy-blue" and looking into them is described like "Being out in a sub-arctic blizzard." they signfiy his cold and stern personality.
  • The Child of Love: Asuka's eyes have this shade of blue.
    She looked in his eyes, he looked back into hers, and he soon found himself hypnotized by their deep oceanic blue.
  • Asuka from Children of an Elder God has blue eyes, great fighting skills, and a fiery temper.
  • A Crown of Stars has Asuka. She has frigid, ocean-blue eyes... and -at the beginning- a very harsh, cold, bitter personality due to severe, non-stop trauma.
  • Evangelion 303: Asuka has ice-blue, piercing eyes. When she gets pissed off their icy stare is very scary.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Germany's eyes are icy-blue, underlining his no-nonsense attitude. They thaw a bit when they gaze upon Italy though.
  • Ghosts of Evangelion: Asuka has deep-blue eyes and a harsh, hot temper.
  • HERZ: Asuka’s sane eye is a lively, dark-blue colour in contrast with her dead eye’s milky grey. Her daughter Akiko inherited her eye colour.
  • In Last Child of Krypton Asuka is blue-eyed, harsh and indomitable.
    For a moment their gaze met, and her bright blue eyes were an utter mystery to him, as a bright placid sea hides its own depths from the eyes of those who gaze upon it.

  • Enoby Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from My Immortal has "icy blue eyes like limpid tears." The fact that she spends a lot of the story using red contacts means they aren't blue most of the time, though.
  • In My Name Is Cinder, the eponymous character's mother Brigit Stark is a selfish, gold-digging, abusive sociopath. Cinder mentions that her mother has "cold blue eyes."
  • In Once More with Feeling, Asuka has deep-blue eyes and she may be pretty cold or hostile to other people.
  • Reverse Falls AU fanworks of Gravity Falls give Dipper and Mabel these sort of eyes. They're portrayed as villains and more-often-than-not are fine with murdering people.
  • Ripples has Allora, the queen of Meridian before her daughter Weira (mother of Phobos and Elyon). Her blue eyes are described to be like ice or steel. She is a distant traditionalist who doesn't believe in helping the masses much. Neither she agrees much with her idealistic daughter. After the Heart of Meridian leaves her in favor of Weira and Elyon is born, she murders both Weira and her son-in-law Zanden and attempts to do the same to her grandson Phobos in order to make Elyon her Puppet Queen and maintain Meridian align with her visions.
  • ✨A Sadness Runs Through Him ✨ COMPLETE Snowtuft Warriors AU Map: Snowkit is deaf because he's a white, blue-eyed cat. He originally had Innocent Blue Eyes, but they became this as he grew up and became bitter.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asuka is blue-eyed and at the beginning she's pretty cool and harsh.
    She was blond, and wore a red mask that looked identical to the one Power Girl wore, through which sky blue eyes peeked out at him.
  • Sasanoyuki in Tales of the Undiscovered Swords has Creepy Blue Eyes that are described as "unnatural", in keeping with his snow-and-bamboo theme and cold, unfeeling personality.
  • In Thousand Shinji, both Shinji and Asuka have pale blue eyes and pretty arrogant personalities.
  • Noel, one of the main characters of Titan Legends, has eyes that have been described as ice-blue and piercing. His intellectual and somewhat overly-serious personality supports this.

    Films — Animated 
  • Whitney from Animal Crossing: The Movie, as in the source games, is a white wolf with blue eyes. In the games she is a "snooty" type villager but in the movie she is sophisticated and overall nicer, however she acts aloof. She starts warming up to Ai after Margie moves away.
  • A few Disney movies:
    • Gaston, the villain of Beauty and the Beast has pale blue eyes, which appropriately fits his personality as being completely opposite of that of the Beast's, who also has blue eyes, but being the hero, his is darker.
    • Queen Elsa, an Ice Queen and An Ice Person, in Frozen. Her sister Anna has softer Innocent Blue Eyes, so it's clear Elsa's eye color isn't due to her powers. Elsa comes off as cold for the first portion of the film because she represses her emotions due to her ice powers acting up when she gets overly emotional. By the end she's learned to accept herself and her powers.
    • Vitani from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride has dark blue eyes that contrast to Nala's more softer tone. She's an Outsider who is trying to overthrow Simba and his pride. She does make a Heel–Face Turn though.
    • Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog has fiendish purplish blue eyes along with dark skin. He embraces an Afro-Carribean appearance with his Borrowin' Samedi getup, but this detail implies mixed ancestry.
  • Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians has these with a distinct frost pattern. Makes sense, considering that he has powerful ice and snow powers, and he's essentially winter personified. He also seems to cross over into Innocent Blue Eyes territory. He had brown eyes as a human.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Amazing Spiderman 2: Dane Dehaan has striking light blue eyes that matches convincingly when playing Green Goblin.
  • Batman Begins: Dr. Crane has the icy, piercing, creepy variety. Tends to be a given with most characters that Cillian Murphy plays since his eyes are naturally like this.
  • Batman & Robin: Mr. Freeze (done with lenses, not only for the ice-like quality but because the actor's are green). Intentionally done to highlight that he is An Ice Person.
  • Brassed Off: There is a moment when Danny stares at Phil with icy blue eyes, after denying that there is anything wrong with his health.
  • Escape from New York: Snake Plissken may have but one eye, but that eye is of the "piercing, icy" variety and ends up creating quite a striking effect, even leading other characters (notably, the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills in Escape from L.A.) to comment upon it.
  • Ed Harris: Many of his characters make dramatic use of the actor's intensely blue eyes.
    • Major König in Enemy at the Gates, which suits him as a ruthlessly professional Cold Sniper. According to the director's commentary, the reason Ed Harris was chosen to portray him.
    • Walker: The 19th century filibuster William Walker is described in lavish articles as "the Blue-Eyed Man of Destiny" in support of his seizing control of Nicaragua. This was an an actual quote from a period article about the real mane.
  • The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings: Several characters - and in some cases the actors who play them - have eyes like this.
    • Elijah Wood has eyes of an absolutely piercing blue, and they can turn icy at times.
    • Legolas and his father Thranduil both have these eyes, which reflect their cold and distant attitudes. Although though the former is increasingly less so up to the events of The Hobbit trilogy, and the impression has mostly disappeared by The Lord of the Rings. By constrast, the close-up of the Elvenking Thranduil's striking blue eyes, his piercing gaze is rather frosty, much like his temperament.
    • Galadriel - played by Cate Blanchett - has piercing blue eyes that seem to contain literal starlight, and nothing escapes her keen powers of perception.
    • There's also Thorin, whose icy attitude is due to his Dark and Troubled Past. Apparently, it's a family trait there as well, since Thrór also has these eyes.
  • Indiana Jones:
  • The Lone Ranger: Butch Cavendish's reptilian cold-blooded demeanor is evident in his ghostly blue eyes.
  • Malcolm McDowell is famous for this.
  • Road to Perdition: Word of God says that one of the reasons Daniel Craig got hired was that his eyes are as piercing blue as Paul Newman's.
    • Speaking of Daniel Craig, he's the first (and so far only) James Bond to inherit the blue eyes of his literary incarnation. Indeed, the opening title sequence for Casino Royale (2006) end with a desaturated closeup of Daniel Craig's face — desaturated except for those piercing blue eyes... another great case is a poster for No Time to Die that is monochrome aside from Craig's eyes.
  • Steve McQueen also had piercing blue eyes, which makes one wonder if the "blue-eyed, pretty-boy badass" could be considered its own character type.
  • Saw: Courtesy of his actor (who naturally has them), Mark Hoffman has pale blue eyes that emphasize his bigger ruthlessness compared to the other Jigsaw killers.
  • Star Wars gives us Anakin Skywalker's blue eyes, which were inherited by his son, and tend to be in icy mode more often than innocent mode by the time of the Clone Wars.
  • X-Men Film Series
    • Magneto's eyes are quite a striking blue, which is a good match for his rather cold-hearted view on things.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse: Professor X's steely gaze when he looks directly at the camera is the very last shot of the movie. It's unique and significant for the character because James McAvoy's iteration either has Innocent Blue Eyes or expresses that he's in excruciating pain due to a Break the Cutie ordeal or being a Broken Bird. It hints that McAvoy's Xavier is tougher than Patrick Stewart's in the original timeline because the former had undergone horrific torture by Apocalypse, and is nearly murdered by him, and what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Charles had already fallen apart at the seams once before, and he refuses to do this again even though the hell he was forced to endure in this film is much worse, so the fierce dude etermination in his eyes is a warning that no one should mess with him or his X-Men.

    Literature 
  • Stephen Maturin of the Aubrey-Maturin series is frequently noted across the series for his pale blue "reptilian" eyes, which fit well with his status as an incredibly badass Deadly Doctor and Britain's best intelligence agent. They're his single most distinguishing feature, and he sometimes wears Cool Shades to disguise them.
  • The BattleTech Expanded Universe novels have Curaitis, one of the most pragmatic most ruthless, and most effective intelligence agents available to Victor Steiner-Davion. True to his nature as a spymaster and black-ops agent, he is rarely described in full but his most common appellation is "the ice-eyed man," signifying his coldly professional demeanor and willingness to do what must be done, regardless of how unpleasant the task at hand may be. For instance, he was the one willing to suggest Operation Gemini, a ploy by Hanse Davion to replace a dying Joshua Marik with a body double. Joshua is not even twelve years old and crippled with leukemia, so this plan involves both allowing a severely ill young boy to die far from home and finding another child to replace Joshua who could also then have their memories replaced. The novel Bred for War makes it clear that Curaitis was the one to tell Victor about his father's plan. His ruthless pragmatism is best summed up by a statement within earshot of the dying Josuha when others go to be with the boy so he won't die alone:
    Curaitis: "My job is to see to it that the universe that permits you to harbor such delicate sentiments continues to exist."
  • In The Boys from Brazil, a number of boys have been cloned and are having their lives socially engineered with the intent that they'll grow up into "Hitlers" and bring about a new Reich. They are described as having the "piercing" variety of blue eyes, including Indians with (artificially) blue eyes.
  • Most of the Whistlers of A Brother's Price are blue-eyed, and Eldest in particular is alert and calculating and it shows. Not much gets past her.
  • This is an oft-referenced characteristic of Corporal Ken "Killer" McCoy, one of the main protagonists in W.E.B. Griffin's The Corps series. We first meet McCoy in 1940, when he's stationed in Shanghai, China with the 4th Marines. He's a rather slightly-statured young man of slightly-below average height, and generally unremarkable except for his ice-cold blue eyes. He gets his nickname (which he hates) after fatally stabbing three Italians in self-defense. Afterwards, people who know his nickname (even if they don't know the story behind it) find his eyes scary. Despite his "killer's eyes", McCoy is actually a pretty decent guy, he just won't hesitate to use violence if he thinks it's necessary (he's rarely, if ever, wrong about that).
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses: Feyre's eyes are blue-gray, and she's a quite haughty person. Even after she defrosts, Mother help you if you piss her off.
  • Lilja Perhonen in Dance Of The Butterfly has eyes "of such a frosty blue as to appear white, darkening toward the edges of the iris, some parts even gray."
  • In Darkness Visible, Lord Lewis has blue eyes. In his case, they're certainly the uncomfortably piercing sort.
  • Roland Deschain of The Dark Tower has faded blue eyes to go along with a piercing stare (in the series, they're often called 'bombardier' eyes and are described as being "the color of icebergs"). He's still basically a good guy, if a complete and utter badass. Jake's eyes become these. As the story goes on, they're described as being eerily similar to Roland's eyes.
  • The Day of the Jackal. The cold grey eyes of the Jackal are noted by several characters, and are often linked to either his role as a Professional Killer, or the impenetrable personality that fits his Mysterious Past.
  • The fanatic Archbishop Edmund Loris in Deryni, falls under this category. The glares he gives his enemies are at times described as "frigid".
  • Granny Weatherwax, Vetinari, and Susan Sto Helit from Discworld have the piercing kind. (Susan has sort of inherited them from her grandfather, whose "eyes" are pinpoints of blue fire deep in his eyesockets.)
  • Earth's Children:
    • Jondalar's eyes are described as being intense "glacier blue" and are also described as "magnetic" and "charismatic", capable of seducing nearly any woman he uses them on.
    • Zolena / Zelandoni Who is First is described as having "piercing" blue eyes that miss little, and she exudes authority and confidence. She can also be quite intimidating if someone has displeased her or when she's sizing someone up.
  • Erast Fandorin. The steely "piercing" type.
  • Vigilante Man Mack Bolan's icy blue eyes are mentioned on numerous occasions in The Executioner series. For many villains, it's the last thing they ever see.
  • Brennen Caldwell from the Firebird Trilogy has eyes which are described as a penetrating, icy blue; this reflects both his telepathic powers and his exceptional ability to control his own emotions (a power related to the telepathy), which gives him an aloof air.
  • In the novel of the same name on which Hannibal is based, the main villain of the story, Mason Verger, is described as having intense, scary, piercing, bright blues eyes—as are his sister and late father (although the sister is a sympathetic character).
  • Harry Potter:
    • Albus Dumbledore and his brother Aberforth have "piercing blue eyes", but they're good guys. Mainly the intense blue is meant to signify that very little gets past them.
    • Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody possesses a magical prosthetic eye colored electric blue. Arguably the most literal manifestation of the trope, as it allows him to see through solid objects and even invisibility cloaks.
    • Igor Karkaroff - headmaster of Durmstrang Institute and former Death Eater - also has bright blue eyes, but his are more often described as "cold", matching his broader nature.
    • Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius both have "cold grey eyes".
  • In the sequel series to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, Jason Grace has them. This is due to his parentage (Jupiter), but it also signifies his cool and collected personality. Hazel cites this word-for-word when describing him.
  • Cordelia Ransom, from the Honor Harrington series, when her eyes aren't filled with fanatical fervor. This reflects her cold, predatory cunning and more than once saves Thomas Theisman from accidentally slipping and saying something that would set her sights on him. After all, Eyes Never Lie.
  • In The Iron Teeth, the bandit leader Herad's ruthlessness, sharp mind and Tranquil Fury fighting style are reflected in her cold, piercing blue eyes.
  • The title character of Ian Fleming's James Bond has his blue eyes as one of his most distinctive physical features, and it certainly helps him look more stoic and/or cold-blooded.
  • St. John Rivers, the noble but often insufferable cousin of Jane Eyre, has piercing blue eyes.
  • The grandmother in L. M. Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill. This is explicitly contrasted with her daughter's Innocent Blue Eyes.
  • Johannes Cabal: The title character has vivid blue eyes, a cold disposition, and some infamy as a Necromancer, though he improves from a Villain Protagonist to an Anti-Hero throughout the series. As they're described in The Fall of the House of Cabal:
    Looking at the stranger’s strikingly blue eyes, eyes that hinted at an incisive mind and a calloused soul, it occurred to the landlord that there might be many ungodly things in a godly world, after all.
  • Kane Series is famous for his blue eyes, which are described as burning with intense hatred and murderous lust. They are also literally his Mark of Cain.
    The eyes of Kane were like two blue-burning crystals of ice. Within them stirred a frozen fire of madness, death, torment, hellish hatred.
  • Lensman: Roger, the leader of the Space Pirates in Triplanetary, not only has grey eyes but an entirely grey pallor. This not only suggests his cold amoral nature ("not the gentle gray of the dove, but the resistless, driving gray of the super-dreadnought; the hard, inflexible, brittle gray of the fracture of high-carbon steel.") but also the fact that he's not human.
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen:
    • Udinaas' eyes are described as 'ravaged eyes, a bleakness like defiant ice in this world of fire'. He is always quick with a cold grin and a sharp-tongued comment, but his son Rud also notes how Udinaas is capable of 'ethereal ease' when he allows his harsh emotions to pass.
    • The first time Scabandari's draconic form is described, it is mentioned how his eyes are ice-blue, which is highly unusual for a Tiste Edur who usually have sandy, brown or grey eyes. Since in that same scene he knifes his best friend In the Back to secure an advantage for his own followers it becomes pretty obvious where Scabandari's priorities lie.
  • Katarina in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! thinks her eyes are cold and harsh because the role she's taken is that of an otome game villain. However, since she doesn't act like one anymore and only one of her friends even knew her when she acted like that, everyone else thinks that they look really innocent instead.
  • In Obsidian Mirror Oberon Venn has these, befitting his status as an Ice King and as the implied Winter King of the Shee.
  • The Outsiders:
    • Dallas Winston is specifically mentioned to have blue eyes like "blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world".
    • Darry Curtis, determined and tough, also has "cold" eyes like "two pieces of pale blue-green ice".
  • The identifying trait of Saint Dane's various forms in The Pendragon Adventure is his icy blue eyes. Saint Dane is, naturally, a very cold-hearted man.
  • In the novel Psycho by Robert Bloch, the private eye Arbogast is described as having eyes that are "ice-blue and ice-cold".
  • Raffles has "steely", penetrating blue eyes — similar to his inspiration, Sherlock Holmes.
  • Redwall: When Martin the Warrior gets angry, his eyes become "chips of ice".
  • Lyrah in Shadow of the Conqueror, emphasizing her cold and no-nonsense personality as an Archknight, as well as the book's Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire
    • The Others and the Wights they control are described as having Occult Blue Eyes so intense they burn like fire.
    • Both Roose Bolton and his son Ramsay have eerily pale grey eyes, variously described as "chips of dirty ice" and "paler than stone, darker than milk". It's apparently one of the distinct Bolton traits; Ramsay looks almost nothing like Roose, but the latter immediately accepted the former as his son as soon as he saw them.
    • Euron Greyjoy has one pale blue "smiling eye" which represents his cool, charismatic, and calm façade. It contrasts both with the grey eyes of his family and the "blood eye" under his eyepatch which represents his true self, which has never been explicitly described, but has been implied to be a case of either Black Eyes of Evil, Red Eyes, Take Warning, or Black Eyes of Crazy.
  • In The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries Eric Northman's defining feature are his ice blue eyes: "Eric pulled away from me and looked down at me with eyes bluer than mine and harder than mine and colder than the Arctic waste." — Club Dead
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • Tycho Celchu in the X-Wing Series gets the "piercing" variety — an incredibly fast thinker, reserved, calm, and a very good Ace Pilot. Also incorruptible and a Woobie.
    • In the same series, Ysanne Isard has one blue eye (called "Hoth-cold" in one book). Her other eye is red.
    • Anakin Solo is the only blue-eyed child in his family (his eyes are always described as icy, though not cold); his brother, sister, and parents are all dark-eyed.
    • Ben Skywalker has inherited his father Luke's blue eyes, eyes that can swing (often quite suddenly) from innocent to icy at fancy's whim, to the point where it scares Ben himself (to a small extent, anyway).
  • Tortall Universe: Beka Cooper's ice-blue eyes are piercing. Other people consider them to be Occult Blue Eyes, particularly when she's angry, and she uses them to intimidate sometimes.
  • Vampire Academy:
    • Christian Ozera's most striking physical feature. Goes well with his coolness as a bad boy, and contrasts his actual fiery personality and powers.
    • Tasha Ozera. The trait runs in the family and serves to mark her coolness. Turns out to go well with her inner ruthlessness.
  • The Vampire Chronicles' resident Anti-Hero Lestat's eyes can't really decide whether they are blue, violet or gray. Either way, they are described as piercing and so the trope is played straight... at least partially.
  • Leodegarius in Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines novel The Killing Grounds has the piercing variety. Particularly when he is Mind Probing Uriel and meets his eyes to do it.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • Both Scourge and Hawkfrost have ice-blue eyes. And they're both villains, the former being a dictator and the latter being a more sympathetic yet ambitious Manipulative Bastard.
    • While not a villain, Bluestar has sharp blue eyes to go with her blueish-grey coat. She's a stern leader figure whose glare can shut up most cats. One line even mentions "Her eyes were chips of blue ice". This gets more pronounced when she undergoes a Sanity Slippage, becoming violent and paranoid even towards her Clanmates.
  • Rand Al'Thor in The Wheel of Time is first described to have wide innocent blue eyes. As the books progress, they have changed into the piercing, ice cold type. They switch between gray and blue as well.
  • Coira and Arpazia in White as Snow both have what the narrator describes as eyes like cold water, which is neither quite blue nor gray.
  • In Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga, Icy Blue Eyes are part of a genetic package that includes telepathy and (eventually, after copious inbreeding) various other Psychic Powers.
  • A Wrinkle in Time: A Swiftly Tilting Planet: For some reason, Charles Wallace, the main character, has the intensely piercing kind (they can summon a unicorn from a star, they're that piercing).

    Live-Action TV 
  • Cases of the 1st Department: The thief and murderess in "Hatred" is a peroxide blonde with cold icy blue eyes. She is utterly scary.
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Though they're originally Mary Wardwell's eyes, their bright blue color gives Madam Satan's glare a mysterious, menacing appearance.
  • John Drake in Danger Man, where his intense blue gaze is lampshaded several times even by Drake himself.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Ninth Doctor, as played by Christopher Eccleston, has very striking blue eyes that can be either endearingly cheerful or downright scary depending on the circumstances.
    • Doctors Two through Seven also fit this trope. Eighth Doctor Paul McGann also has blue eyes, though for the the TV movie he fits the Innocent Blue Eyes trope better. His performance in the audio series is as befitting this trope as any of the other seven blue eyed Doctors. The Fourth Doctor fits Creepy Blue Eyes better, as they mostly give him a bug-eyed look and don't seem like they fit comfortably in his head.
    • The Twelfth joins the lineup of piercingly blue-eyed Doctors.
  • Downton Abbey: The (usually) cold-hearted Thomas, played by the gorgeous Rob James-Collier, has icy blue eyes. Thomas is not a very nice person.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • Dr Harrison Wells, the chessmaster mentor, has these, which is fitting since he's the most emotionally detached member of the team, and is usually the one to make the hard calls that go against the Flash's ideals. Although he does care for his team and spends a lot of time with a small, warm smile on his face, his blue stare can be extremely cold when he's angry. His Character Tic of taking his glasses on and off helps to draw attention to this. As the Reverse Flash he usually has Red Eyes, Take Warning, but his cold stare is evident whenever he isn't in costume and helps make his frequent Slasher Smiles even more unnerving.
    • His Earth-2 counterpart obviously also has cold blue eyes, and in this case they help to highlight his blunt and detached personality.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Roose Bolton has a set of these to match his dispassionate personality, much like his book counterpart. They are the actor's natural eye color.
    • Sansa's eyes go from innocent to icy toward the end of Season 4.
    • The White Walkers all feature these, bonus for being icy beings. Wights resurrected by them also gain blue eyes.
    • Yara has remarkably piercing eyes, particularly when she's angry. This is demonstrated nicely by her Death Glare.
  • In The Hollow Crown version of Henry V, the titular king has piercingly shrewd, cool, and calculating ice-blue eyes; most notably in the scene where he gives his conditions to accept the French surrender. They shift to great big Innocent Blue Eyes when he prays and woos Princess Katherine.
  • Dr. House has the "piercing stare" variety.
  • Human Target: both Chance and Guerrero have blue eyes. Even with his Harry Potter-like glasses, Guerrero's eyes are quite piercing.
  • The titular character of Jesus of Nazareth has pure, penetrating blue eyes that never blink.
  • Justified has Detroit mob lieutenant Robert Quarles (played by Neal McDonough), who has piercing, light blue eyes. In "Measures", an old woman said that Quarles had eyes like a husky.
  • Legion: When David Haller is in an especially bad mood, his blue irises take on a very cold sheen, and it's usually a sign that he'll either lash out with his powers, or he's self-destructive (like when he had tried to hang himself).
  • Life: Detective Charlie Crews' piercing blue eyes look almost electric blue in certain types of lighting.
  • The Little Drummer Girl: Khalil is revealed as having startlingly pale blue eyes, keeping with his calm, collected personality.
  • The most prominent physical trait of the eponymous character from Malcolm in the Middle is Frankie Muniz's enormous, piercing, pale blue eyes that are visually very complimentary to Malcolm's genius intellect. The creators were undoubtedly aware of it, as they were often emphasized in promotional materials and photos, and the show's trademark opening titles shot is of his peering through his fingers with a Heroic BSoD expression in them.
  • Merlin (2008): Mordred, as a child, falls closer to the Creepy Blue Eyes category, but as a teenager, veers into this trope.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: Scylla has very pale, blue-gray eyes which are piercing and always noticeable.
  • The Night Manager casts Hugh Laurie against Tom Hiddlestontwo masters of the trope. Many of their scenes together play as icy-eyed staring contests...
  • In Peaky Blinders, one of the hallmarks of the male Shelbys is that they all have piercing blue eyes, from Chessmaster Tommy to the newest Michael. Ironically enough, Big Bad Inspector/Major Campbell has them as well, to further highlight his parallels with Tommy.
  • The Prisoner (1967), whose intense gaze even psychs out his captors at times.
  • Sherlock: the titular character's eyes are pale blue, often highlighted, and scary when he gets angry.
  • Supernatural: One of the angel Castiel's signature traits, all the better to do his intense staring with.
  • Cain of Sci Fi Channel's Tin Man, played by Neal McDonough has blue-gray eyes, which go back and forth between piercing and warm (the former to threats, the latter to his True Companions).
  • The Tudors:
    • Anne Boleyn's father convinces her she can seduce Henry when he tells her that her blue eyes are "like dark hooks for the soul". Strange choice of words - dark - but Natalie Dormer does have very arresting pale blue eyes (ironically, the real Anne Boleyn had black eyes that were celebrated as her best feature, making the line an odd example of Truth in Television without being Truth in Television).
    • For that matter, Henry VIII has extremely piercing blue eyes which cause him to look truly menacing from the right angle. This is one of the few physical traits that Jonathan Rhys Meyers actually does share with the historical Henry, who was also blue-eyed.
  • The Vampire Diaries: Damon has them. They give him a very piercing stare. In 02x10 Katherine lampshaded how pretty his eyes were.
  • Vikings: Ragnar Lothbrok has these, which helps on the intimidation side of things as he's not very big.
  • The Man in Black in Westworld. Kind of inevitable when your character is played by Ed Harris, and the camera often makes use of them to emphasize how cold the Man in Black is.

    Music 
  • The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", possibly, as it's all about a person delivering a Villainous Lament on how there's more than just mean and cold behind his eyes.
  • In a possible overlap with Innocent Blue Eyes (with real life inspiration), Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O'Mine".
    She's got eyes of the bluest skies,
    As if they thought of rain.
    I hate to look into those eyes
    And see an ounce of pain.
  • In Live's "Lighting Crashes", the angel is described as opening eyes with a "pale blue colored iris" as she meets the new baby whose Guardian Angel she will become.

    Mythology & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology: One of the many titles of the Athena, goddess of wisdom, is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις) - meaning either "grey-eyed" or "blue-eyed" depending on the translation.
    • Selene also gets this same epithet, probably in the "silvery grey-eyed" sense.

    Roleplay 
  • Ivan from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues is described as having piercing blue eyes in his character bio, which match with his quiet, observational personality.

    Toys 

    Video Games 
  • Arknights: Executor has blue eyes and some rather strong The Spock tendencies from his inability to understand emotions, making all of his decisions with pure logic.
  • Vergil of Devil May Cry has this in accordance with his (usually) cold and distant persona. Interestingly, he and series protagonist Dante are identical, yet Dante's eyes seem to be of a brighter blue while Vergil's are pale-blue.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: Elven mage Solas has the extremely pale variant, verging on Creepy Blue Eyes; he also starts with Ice and Spirit magic as his base spec. Perhaps a bit of foreshadowing, as Solas turns out to be the elven god Fen'Harel, the Trickster. Leliana, the Inquisition's resident spymaster, has also acquired a decidedly icy cast to her originally Innocent Blue Eyes; you can discover through persistent questioning that years of running the Chantry's black operations as the Left Hand of the Divine has decidedly soured her outlook on life.
  • Dragon Quest V: Debora Briscoletti is a cold, haughty, blue-eyed woman.
  • Fallout: New Vegas:
    • Advertising images of Joshua Graham portray him as having piercing, pale blue eyes. Since his eyes are the only part of his face you can actually see, it's very striking.
    • Vulpes Inculta, leader of the frumentari is meant to be portrayed as this, much like Joshua Graham, as seen on the Jack of Clubs. In-game he has rather bland brown eyes but with the Fallout Character Overhaul mod his face is redesigned to properly look like intended.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • In Gears of War, this is a Fenix family trait, though its talked about more in the novels than in the games. It's so bad that Adam Fenix had to take down all the portraits of his ancestors in his home because their icy stares creeped him out that much.
  • From The Great Ace Attorney: Prosecutor Barok van Zieks has very pale blue eyes and a cold, unfriendly demeanor. Combined with an impressive Death Glare, van Zieks' piercing gaze strikes fear in the hearts of witnesses and defense lawyers alike.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry:
    • Rena Ryuugu often gets these looks when she's going crazy. Most of the time, though, her eyes are warm and friendly, but when she starts getting those contorted pupils, it's time to run.... Though most of the time she should probably be afraid of you.
    • Keiichi has blue eyes which are typically lean towards Innocent Blue Eyes but he has a Dark and Troubled Past and is prone to acts of violence in certain arcs. Most of the times Rena seems suspicious is due to Keiichi being delusional.
  • Hitman protagonist Agent 47 has blue eyes that reflect his nature as a Professional Killer. One of the targets in Hitman 2 is able to recognize 47 just by looking at his eyes.
  • In Horizon Zero Dawn, The Dragon Helis has icy blue-gray eyes that Aloy calls "dead eyes".
  • In Hustle Cat, one of Graves' eyes is specifically said to be a chilling, icy blue. It's even likened to the eye in The Tell-Tale Heart, with Graves quoting the relevant passage when he catches Avery staring at his eye.
  • inFAMOUS: Cole's eyes are pale blue and glow with electricity when he's mad. Future!Cole/Kessler's eyes have a permanent blue shine, likely due to his advanced age and powers. Lucy Kuo from inFAMOUS 2 gains literally icy blue eyes with she gets her ice powers.
  • Zexion and Marluxia of Kingdom Hearts's Organization XIII have blue eyes, and both are Manipulative Bastards. Unabashed sadist Larxene's are more on the teal side.
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has everyone you meet in the Polar Academy—all the characters there have a visual motif of snow, cold, and ice. First there's Atris, whose attitude towards the Jedi Exile can most charitably be described as "frosty". She willingly isolates herself there and operates through cold calculation in her one-woman war on the dark side. Which becomes her downfall, by the way. Her Handmaiden servants also have very pale blue eyes and are similarly frosty in their attitude towards the Exile. The one who joins the Exile is a bit of a Defrosting Ice Queen.
  • Sejuani, the Winter's Wrath from League of Legends has eyes like hard chips of blue ice. Unsurprisingly.
  • The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games has Stern the Destructor, Nanoha's (not-so) Evil Twin. Unlike the cheerful, purple-eyed original, Stern is more of The Stoic who relies mostly on logic and comes with a pair of icy blue eyes to go with her personality.
  • Mass Effect
    • Garrus Vakarian has icy blue eyes, matching his initial Cold Sniper characterization.
    • Resident Defrosting Ice Queen Miranda Lawson has them as well.
    • Aloof Lady of War Samara also has icy blue eyes, which she passed on to two of her daughters. In Morinth's case they reflect her sociopathy, while Rila's reflect her status as The Quiet One of the three sisters.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has these. But not in the fourth game, where he has red eyes.
    • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Snake's eyes are a very arresting pale blue (described in-game as 'blue-grey') that are given prominent focus on the box art — suggesting his determined and cold personality as well as hinting at his unnatural origin, being the same colour as the genetically modified blue roses that appear throughout the game (with Snake even describing himself as 'a blue rose' at one point). They are notably not the same colour as Big Boss's eyes.
  • Her hair color has gone from green to brown to blonde over the years, but one thing that hasn't changed about Metroid's badass bounty hunter protagonist Samus Aran is her eyes — every time they've been depicted, they've been a light, icy blue (except Metroid: Other M, where they're more green than usual).
  • In Mortal Kombat 9, both versions of the Sub-Zero brothers, the older slain Bi-Han who later became Noob Saibot, and the younger member of the Defenders of the Realm Kuai Liang who initially went by the codename Tundra, were shown to have these. Considering their specific special powers and stoic to the point of being aloof personalities, it makes perfect sense.
  • Darkrai from Pokémon. Appropriate, since it is often associated with nightmares.
  • Chell from Portal has a pair of shocking blue-gray eyes that seem to fit with her steely (pardon the pun) determination.
  • Potion Permit: Unlike his family's innocent light blue eyes, Garret has dark blue eyes that show how cold he is towards the Chemist.
  • [PROTOTYPE]: blue eyes run in the Mercer family, but only Alex has ones that almost glow, both highly reflective and eerie. There may or may not be a supernatural explanation for them being that way, but they certainly make him glaring from under his hoodie more intimidating when coupled with the probability that he's making up his mind whether or not to kill and eat you.
  • Eifer from RosenkreuzStilette has these to match her seemingly emotionless personality, even though her emotions and mood actually violently fluctuate.
  • Uesugi Kenshin from Sengoku Basara, who is cool and aloof, and An Ice Person. Plus the eyes match his outfit.
  • Silent Hill 2's Maria has these, which add to her slightly unsettling appearance.
  • Captain Martin Walker from Spec Ops: The Line. It's not just in the official artwork, the effect is the same in-game. Without an actual change to his eyes (rather the rest of his face and the way his character grows through the plot) they become Creepy Blue Eyes later.
  • Urien of Street Fighter fame has icy blue eyes fitting his arrogant and sadistic nature.
    • Similarly Vega an Ax-Crazy narcissist has creepy pale blue eyes which are usually the only facial features that can be seen while he wears his mask.
    • Cammy White has steely blue eyes which suits her stoic attitude. Though she occasionally shifts to Innocent Blue Eyes around her friends.
  • Both Tear and Van Grants in Tales of the Abyss.
  • Flynn in Tales of Vesperia has an interesting combination of this trope and Innocent Blue Eyes: As a Knight In Shining Armour, his personality is strict, military professionalism meets kind-hearted idealism. His "steely gaze" is actually mentioned in-story at one point and is apparently considered an attractive feature.
  • Tekken: Dragunov has pale blue-white eyes and a cold, standoffish personality to match.
  • Your Boyfriend: The Boyfriend has blue eyes, and he definitely isn't one of the good guys.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY: Weiss Schnee, along with her name meaning "white snow". She's a major Tsundere with white hair and icy blue eyes. Her older sister Winter fits this trope even more.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 


 
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Alternative Title(s): Cold Grey Eyes, Icy Gray Eyes, Icy Grey Eyes, Cold Blue Eyes, Cold Gray Eyes

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The Snow Queen

Gerda's grandmother tells Gerda and Kai about the Snow Queen who rules over the winds, blizzards and fogs from her ice palace.

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