"I spy with my single eye..."
It's no secret that bats are often used for Creepy Awesome effect. They're tiny, rat-like and can fly—it's no wonder the Bat Out of Hell sends shivers down many a spine. But there's one more way to exaggerate the grotesque features of a bat.
They're already associated with blood-sucking and the undead, so why not go the extra mile and add a singular eye? Due to their body shape, this often gives off the illusion that you're being stared at by an eye with wings, and in some cases, the detached eye could be used for good potion-making. Expect animals like these to often be associated with villains or form Mooks, and in some cases, being literal Goddamned Bats.
These can become an Oculothorax when their body mass is more "eye" than "bat", but the line can be pretty unclear. Also a sub-trope of Cyclops.
If the character can summon/use more than one bat and they have dark powers, then it could be added to Barrage of Bats.
Compare Bloodsucking Bats for another inaccurate way of portraying bats. Contrast Blind Bats.
Don't be surprised if fans consider this an Ugly Cute.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Seraph of the End: Krul has a one-eyed black bat named Arukanu. He is constantly seen perched on her shoulder.
- YuYu Hakusho: The first creature Yusuke encounters in the Saint Beast's castle is the Eye Bat, which only has one eye. Hilariously, it has a squeaky voice, despite its appearance
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Comic Books
- One of the Gentry of The Multiversity is Intellectron, a giant bluish-black egg with one eye and bat wings, which, given how meta Grant Morrison usually is, may be a comment on DC Comics's obsession with Batman and occasional single-mindedness.
Films — Live-Action
- The Dark Crystal: The Skeksis use "Eye Bats" as flying spies. They consist of batlike wings grafted onto a large, single crystal which gives the effect of a cyclopian eye.
Myths & Religion
- In Tanzanian mythology, there's the Popobawa, a Tanzanian shetani (evil spirit) that often takes the form of a one-eyed bat-like creature.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: Eyewing are a low-level, one-eyed bat monster that inhabit the nether planes.
- Magic: The Gathering: The Eyetwitch, an Eye Bat creature from the Strixhaven: School of Mages set. It is a small, black bat with scruffy fur, red wings and a singular eye making up the entirety of its face.
Video Games
- Chantelise and Recettear have Eyebats, basically monsters that are eyeballs that fly on batwings, because they're set in the same universe.
- Dead Cells: A variation shows up as the Serenade Sword, which has one eye and moves via bat wings. While the hilt is styled to resemble a one-eyed bat, the object is still literally a sword.
- Final Fantasy X: One-Eye is a special enemy in Final Fantasy X created in the Species Conquest at Monster Arena. He is a gigantic bat with a yellow eye at the center, and defeating him proves very difficult as he is immune to four of five elements (Fire/Thunder/Water/Ice).
- Deep Dungeons Of Doom: The one-eyed bats are said to be aliens brought by demons. They have dark blue bodies with red tails, and have large, red eyes.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Whereas bats in the Light World look relatively normal, in the Dark World they're replaced with Faceless Eyes with bat wings.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Keese are a species of one-eyed bats with singular, glowing, orange eyes. When killed, they drop Keese eyes, which can be used to make potions that strengthen Link. Notably, in most games in the series, they have two eyes.
- Played with with the Pokémon Woobat. It has a fluffy, circular body with a giant round circle in the middle of its face, which has a black, pupil-like center. However, what appears to be a single eye is in fact its nose; its actual eyes are concealed. The overall visual effect is one of a cyclops bat, even though the actual facial features involved are different on close inspection.
- Zombidle: The Swarm of Bats are a species of blue, one-eyed bats and are the strongest minions in the game.
Western Animation
- Ben 10:
- Ben 10: Inverted by Eye Guy, who has a batlike head, but eyes all over his body (but not his head).
- Ben 10: Omniverse: Vladats have a projectile called a Corruptura that takes the form of a one-eyed bat. Anything they hit becomes mind-controlled, to fit with their vampire theme.
- Dragon Flyz: Dreadwing uses a one-eyed bat to scout the heroes.
- Gravity Falls has Ocuect lothorax-like "Eye-Bats" that can turn people to stone. There's also a separate type of creatures simply called "flying skulls" that look like fanged skulls with one slit-pupilled eye, bat wings and no lower jaw.
- The Owl House: Amity Blight's brother Edric has a bat named Batric as a pet. It has a single blue eye in the middle of its forehead.
- Planet Sheen: Dorkus' minion Pinter is an alien with one huge eye that takes up most of his body and bat-like wings.
- The Secret Saturdays: One episode, "The King of Kumari Kandam", has the Saturdays fight a one-eyed bat-like creature that resembles the Popobawa from Tanzanian mythology.
