Basic Trope: Wearing creepy masks is a bad sign.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz wears a spiky black mask and is the Evil Overlord.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz and all his lackeys wear a variety of creepy masks. All of them are completely unpleasant, ranging from bullies to sadists to omnicidal maniacs.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz wears a spiky black mask and is an irritating jerk.
- Eddie Navarro wears a biker helmet with a skull decal whenever he's off shooting up banks.
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz would rather nobody find out that "he" is Princess Sarah in disguise.
- Emperor Evulz wears the mask for the intimidation factor.
- Inverted:
- Bob wears a creepy mask and is The Hero.
- Emperor Evulz is the only superpowered character that doesn't wear a mask.
- Subverted:
- Emperor Evulz wears a spiky black mask and is the Evil Overlord...but it turns out after Bob knocks his mask off during a fight that the mask enchants its wearer to become evil.
- Emperor Evulz wears a spiky black mask and he chases after Bob... but then it turns out that he's Good All Along and didn't mean Bob any ill.
- Double Subverted: ...But then Emperor Evulz thanks Bob. He didn't like having the mask telling him what to do; he prefers to decide how to behave evilly all by himself.
- Parodied:
- Emperor Evulz wears a spiky black mask as he litters and pops children's balloons.
- Emperor Evulz uses a Hockey Mask and Chainsaw.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No people in the story, regardless of their moral state, wear masks.
- Enforced: The author wants to pull a shocking reveal that wouldn't work if the villain's face was visible.
- Lampshaded:Bob: Here comes a guy, and he's wearing a mask...not a good sign.
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz insists that all of his lackeys wear masks to strike terror into their foes, and some of his advisors agree on wearing masks, although not for striking terror, but for concealing their identities to further cover up the evil group's crimes.
- Exploited: The Hero knocks Emperor Evulz senseless, puts on his mask, and tricks his army into surrendering.
- Defied: Emperor Evulz refuses to wear a creepy mask, despite it being expected.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Uh-oh, there's some creepy masked examples coming this way. Better escape back to Malevolent Masked Men.
