Face your fate.
"Remember mom's birthday? You sent her socks! Honestly, who sends socks to a magic mask with no feet?!"
—Aku Aku to his brother Uka Uka, Crash: Mind Over Mutant
One way to indicate a Mask of Power is having it float. Sometimes, it means that the mask itself is sentient.
Note: That doesn't include masks which float with other items due to Selective Gravity.
See also Flying Face.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Noh mask in the Inuyasha episode "The Flesh Eating Noh Mask" was a floating mask that, well, ate people.
Comic Books
- The Helmet of Nabu, which gives Doctor Fate his powers.
- Johnny Sorrow's mask in Justice Society of America seemingly floats above the empty collar of his suit. However, when he removes it, his horrific true face can be seen, and kills whoever sees it. It's not clear if the mask makes his head invisible, or if it's only there when he takes it off.
Films — Animation
- The masks representing the ancestral kings of Atlantis in Atlantis: The Lost Empire float and spin around the crystal that gives Atlantis its life.
- Also, at the end of the film, a new mask, representing the now deceased King Kashekim Nedakh is actually constructed by his daughter and son-in-law upon becoming the new rulers of Atlantis, which then floats away into the sky to join the other masks representing the dead kings of Atlantis.
- And for some reason, the queens never get floating masks.
- The voodoo masks in The Princess and the Frog, which represent The Friends On The Other Side.
- Also, the Hell Gate the Friends on the Other Side use to drag Doctor "the Shadow Man" Facilier into the Other Side at the end of the film, which resembles a larger voodoo mask.
Literature
- The Haunted Mask from the Goosebumps series.
Tabletop Games
- Pathfinder: Once per day, the Mask of the Skull can fly up to 50 feet from its wearer to deliver a Touch of Death. The extra mobility actually adds several expensive prerequisites to its Item Crafting requirements.
Toys
- BIONICLE: the Ignika and Spectral Mask.
Video Games
- EXTRAPOWER: One of Blackberry's spells in Attack of Darkforce is to summon a set of large masks which suspend themselves in the air and blow their breath attacks down at the enemy. This move is also used by the Duba shaman boss fight in Giant Fist as its special attack.
- Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Maker 2: Phanto, which pursue your character if you are holding a key (Cursed Key in the latter game).
- All of the masks in the Crash Bandicoot series are like this, the most iconic of which being Aku Aku and Uka Uka. However, they do have the ability to grant abilities to those who wear them as well.
- Chrono Trigger: Queen Zeal's final form is a giant floating mask-like face and two disembodied hands.
- The Big Bad of Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.˛, Gith the Spoiler, is basically a giant floating gas mask.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: Near the end of the game, the titular mask discards the Skull Kid and begins floating around on its own.
- Jalhalla from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker seems to be this and uses a swarm of Poes to create a body.
- Carmilla's incarnation in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is of a large and very creepy mask that floats around the room and weeps flaming tears.
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves: the Mask of Dark Earth floats around the mining operation, looking for a suitable wearer.
- Banished Pantheon spirits in City of Heroes manifest as floating masks.
- The Gali type in Monster Rancher is depicted as a floating mask and cape, although it can manifest phantom appendages when fighting.
- Vector Strong Bad from StrongBadZone: "Your Head A-Splode!"
- Yamask from Pokémon Black and White, which is a ghost connected to a mask, the former of which can turn invisible.
- Some specimens of the Tiki Tak Tribe from Donkey Kong Country Returns are floating Tiki masks.
- World of Warcraft: There are floating tiki masks in some troll areas, most notably Zul'Drak and Zul'Gurub.
Web Animation
- Llamas with Hats: As Carl's atrocities continue to mount, he carries around the Paul Mask to replace his friend that had run away. Things get creepier when it starts to talk back to him ("You must finish your work, Carl.") and float around. It's actually an indication that Carl's sanity has gone off the rails.
Western Animation
- Tarakudo, the Big Bad of Season 4 of Jackie Chan Adventures.
- An episode of Aladdin: The Series is about Princess Jasmine buying an evil floating mask at a bazaar.
- In The Simpsons episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland", Ned and Homer build a Bible-themed amusement park, with their main attraction being a floating mask of Ned's late wife Maude. Unfortunately, it turns out that the mask is kept afloat by a leaking gas pipe, and their amusement park is shut down for that reason.
