Thin Chin of Sin

The number one example.

"They escape the crocodiles, and immediately stumble across the path of this lady. You can tell she's a bad guy because she's pointy. Only bad guys are pointy."

— Coded Lock Films in regards to Zira, Disney Direct DVDs: The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

A Sister Trope to Villainous Cheekbones and Sinister Schnoz. Like those two, this trope is about pointy facial features for villainous characters. While the Lantern Jaw of Justice is used to denote heroes, villains are more likely to have skinny, pointy chins. They may be short and skinny, or exaggeratedly long, extending past the face and maybe even curling upwards a little.

A pointy Beard of Evil can be used to similar effect. Bonus points if the two are combined.

This is mainly seen on Lean and Mean characters. It is usually seen on a Dastardly Whiplash, a Wicked Witch, or a Villainous Harlequin. It's also a frequent feature of Classical Movie Vampires and characters who Look Like Orlok, though neither Bela Lugosi's Dracula nor Max Schreck's Count Orlok possessed the feature themselves.^note Lugosi had a broad chin bordering on being lantern jaw with slight but noticeable jowls, and Schreck's chin was round and somewhat underdeveloped, though it appeared slightly more pointed than it was in some shots due to being accented by his sharply angled Villainous Cheekbones.

Villainous chins usually are limited to male characters and elderly female characters, because of the higher demand for female characters to be conventionally aesthetically pleasing, whether good or evil. Nonetheless, if a villainess's chin is exceptionally lean compared to the other women, she still fits the trope.

Contrast Lantern Jaw of Justice.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Count Chocula possesses an impressively narrow chin, though as a kid-friendly advertising mascot, his actual villainy is debatable, unless you count peddling excessively sugary cereal to small children.

Comic Books

• In Batman Through The Looking Glass, the Mad Hatter is given a skinny chin along with his other grotesque features.
• The Joker may be given a pointy chin Depending on the Artist. It highlights his Lean and Mean, deceptively feeble appearance.
• The Mighty Thor's nemesis, Loki, may be given one Depending on the Artist. It indicates his manipulative personality in contrast to Thor's sheer brawn.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): The Duke of Deception has a narrow protruding chin.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): As part of her emaciated appearance Decay has a long bony chin.

Films — Animation

• There are multiple Disney examples
  • Captain Hook from Peter Pan has a sharp, wedge-shaped chin
  • Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty has a triangular chin
  • Jafar from Aladdin has a pointy chin, which also extends to a longer and curlier beard.
  • Hades from Hercules has a long, thin chin with a sort of lump at the end
  • Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove has a funnel-shaped chin that curves inwards, making it very small and pointy.
  • Hans from Frozen (2013) is a downplayed example, with a very pronounced chin
• Kent Mansley, the antagonist of The Iron Giant has a long angular jawline that compliments his tall and lanky figure.
• The Jester from Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is somewhere between this trope and Lantern Jaw of Justice. His chin is long and thick, but with a pointy tip and a curve.

Films — Live-Action

• The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz has a prominently pointy chin to emphasize her nearly inhuman appearance.
• Funny Man: As part of his Villainous Harlequin appearance, the Funny Man has a very elongated chin.

Literature

• Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter is described as having a pointy chin in the books. He's a cruel, classist bully and Voldemort supporter (until he gets a dose of reality in book six).
• Opinion is divided as to whether Lord Vetinari in the Discworld classes as good or evil, or in some way transcends both. But both in writing and in pictorial descriptions, he is long, thin and angular, and has a prominent chin with goatee beard. ^note This is very reminiscent of Roger Delgrado's character of The Master in Doctor Who, in fact

Live-Action TV

• LazyTown:
  • Played straight with Robbie Rotten, who has an extended chin aided by prosthetics. While the chin isn't as pointy as other examples on this entry, it's made to look more realistic, but it is still very long and sharp. Robbie is the main villain in the show and he is focused on making the inhabitants of lazy town as gluttonous and lazy as possible.
  • Subverted with Sportacus; he has a really big and sharp chin, but he's a main good guy in the show and he is focused on making the inhabitants of Lazytown as healthy and active as possible.
• The Master in Doctor Who certainly conformed to this trope; battling Tom Baker's Doctor, he was renowned for his long prominent chin, accentuated by a thin goatee beard.

Video Games

• Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie has an exaggeratedly long chin, which is just one of the many ways in which she is a parody of the Wicked Witch of the West.
• The Marvelous Chester in the Dark Souls DLC is a mysterious merchant in the Royal Wood who sports a Joker-like pointy chin and mad grin. As you descend in to the ruins of Oolacile, he will ambush you as a Dark Spirit and try to kill you.
• Validar from Fire Emblem: Awakening has a pointy chin, as well as a long and pointier beard coming from the bottom.
• The Super Mario Bros. character Waluigi has a long pointy chin that accentuates his Lean and Mean appearance.
• Maligula of Psychonauts 2 has a very noticeable one to go with her Villainous Cheekbones. Notably, while she still this as Lucrecia Mux, she's almost always depicted at angles that make her chin look shorter and broader before her Face–Heel Turn.

Web Original

• Invoked by I Hate Everything where his avatar is an angry man with a pointy chin. While not villainous, he is cynical, negative, and hates, well, almost everything.

Western Animation

• Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "The Quilt Club'', the Stitch Sisters are a pair of ungodly thin, pale-skinned Conjoined Twins whose eeriness is supported by their pencil-thin chins.
  • Di Lung's presumable Evil Counterpart to Eustace Bagge's Lantern Jaw of Justice also deserves special mention; whenever he gets a major "villain" role in an episode, he makes Eustace look like a hero.
• Hanna-Barbera's character Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races and Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines has a pronounced chin that reaches almost as far forward as his nose. This is the villain with the fastest car in the Wacky Races yet never wins because Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat.
• Chris in Total Drama sports one, though it's slightly wider than most to keep up with his extremely vain personality.
• Starscream of Transformers: Prime has a ridiculously long and sharp chin, even among Decepticons (who tend to have these in general). His Transformers: Animated incarnation even more so which, of course, passes onto his clones (even Slipstream, the sole female of the group).
• Carmilla in Castlevania (2017) has a thin, pointy chin and is also the least sympathetic of all the vampire generals in the plot. It also gives her face a strong resemblance to the opera mask form she took in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Ace, leader of the villainous Gangreen Gang, has an incredibly long and sharp chin.
• In the 1980s Strawberry Shortcake cartoon, both the Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes have thin, long chins, fitting with their generally angular and thin bodies.
• In The Venture Bros., the Monarch (a butterfly-themed supervillain) has a thin, pointed face which is accentuated by a thin, pointed goatee.

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