Evil Eye

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"You don't know of the illusion that the whole world could perish in an instant.
That is what it means to see death.
These eyes, this power isn't something you can boast about like you did."

Shiki TohnoTsukihime (game)

A character's eye has great supernatural power. Usually, the eye grants the user power over perception, either the target's (illusion, mind control) or the user's (telepathy, premonitions, clairvoyance,etc). In most cases, direct eye contact or at the very least line-of-sight is required. Other restrictions may apply.

If only one eye is an Evil Eye, an Eyepatch of Power is very likely, especially if the evil eye possesses a distinct look, like color or shape (which might only appear during active use). The Evil Eye is often used as an excuse to apply certain patterns or symbols to a particular power, therefore making it Cool and Symbolic. Even more symbolic, the eye possessing the power is almost always the character's left eye (the left eye is considered the "sinister" eye, as "sinister" was once a word for "left"). Closely related to the Red Right Hand.

Evil eyes can be any color, but are usually glowing unusual colors like Red Eyes, Take Warning or two colors at once.

See also Eye Beams for a more directly offensive use of eyes. Often part of an Evil Makeover. If the Evil Eye can cause hypnosis, its a Hypnotic Eye. Do not confuse with Faceless Eye or the more mundane Death Glare. Compare Excessive Evil Eyeshadow.

(By the way, it's possible to obtain Evil Eyes in real life. They cost twelve bucks on Amazon, but they ward off evil rather than cause it, sadly.)

Examples of Evil Eye include:

Anime and Manga

  • Lelouch of Code Geass possesses a "Geass" in one eye that allows him to compel absolute obedience to his commands. Requires direct eye contact (can be blocked by visors or bounced off mirrors) and can only be used once per person. Other characters in the series have Evil Eyes that let them read minds, paralyze people, see the future, rewrite memories, steal bodies...
    • Later on, Jeremiah Gottwald gets an "anti-Geass" that allows him to cancel the effects of ANY Geass in a certain radius. It even looks like an inverted version of the standard Evil Eye.
  • Pegasus of Yu-Gi-Oh was given the Millennium Eye, previously owned 3,000 years ago by the Turncoat Akunadin. It granted him the power to read minds, steal souls and (like the other Millennium Items) probably possessed other sinister powers if one knew how to tap into them.
  • In Death Note, characters with a Death Note could trade their eyes for the eyes of the shinigami haunting the book—granting them the ability to know the true name of anyone whose face they can see. This makes it much easier to kill using the note—and all for the low, low price of half of one's remaining lifespan. Several characters made the trade, but Light steadfastly refused, trusting his skills as The Chessmaster to see him through. A variety of characters also get glowing eyes at one point or another, but this is just a Rule of Cool art effect that isn't actually happening.
  • Fuhrer King Bradley in Fullmetal Alchemist possesses the "Ultimate Eye". This is his left eye, which holds his Ouroboros that gives him the foresight to see all possible outcomes of a given situation, allowing him to predict the moves of any opponent before they happen. His original eye rotted out when he was turned into a Homunculus and is covered by an Eyepatch of Power.
  • A couple exist in Naruto: the Sharingan grants its user what amounts to super vision as well as perfect clarity of vision and eidetic memory (one user, Kakashi, wore an Eyepatch of Power, but worked more like a Restraining Bolt as his Sharingan depleted his chakra supply extremely quickly), and the Byakugan gives three-hundred-fifty-nine-degree x-ray vision. Another is named Rinnegan. Its powers are potent and numerous.
    • The Sharingan also has an upgrade, the Mangekyo Sharinagn. You get it by killing your best friend, so it really is an evil eye. Eye contact with a person who wields it is tantamount to suicide. Probably averted by Kakashi, since he doesn't have close friends. OR played straight if he knew about a way to get said upgrade before.
      • While a few characters have been seen to use techniques, the abilities can vary based on individual users. Itachi's and Sasuke's have three techniques: Amaterasu (black flames that can burn fire), Tsukuyomi (Mind Rape raised to the eleventh power) and Susanoo (a spectral armor that works as both high-level offense and defense). The Sharingan of one Uchiha had Kotoamatsukami, the reportedly unique ability to hypnotize opponents and control their thoughts. It was later used by Danzo via stealing said Uchiha's eye (while said Uchiha was still alive) and implanting it in his own right socket. By comparison, Kakashi's has one power (that we know of) called Kamui (which sucks whatever he looks at into another dimension). He can dismember and/or behead people with it.
      • Mangekyo has a major weakness for a eye-based ability: Extended use blinds the user. However, there exists a method to counteract this. The user must replace their eyes with those of a close relative, preferably a sibling, who has also activated the Mangekyo. The benefits of this upgrade are not clear, aside from the fact that use of the abilities no longer causes progressive blindness and eventual progression to the Rinnegan.
    • Orochimaru is one of the only confirmed shinobi to have an evil eye without actually having special-powered eyes. He uses a jutsu that focuses his killing intent into his eyes; making eye contact paralyzes the victim with fear as the focused attack forces them to witness their own deaths.
      • The nature of 'killing intent' is unknown, but it's most likely not unique to Orochimaru, or eye-based for that matter. It seemed to have a similar effect on Sasuke when used by both Zabuza and Orochimaru, and the former was out of sight at the time.
  • Hiei of Yu Yu Hakusho had a "jagan" (lit. "evil eye") eye in the middle of his forehead, which bestows vaguely-defined psychic powers and a huge power boost when activated. His Eyepatch of Power came in headband form.
    • In what might be a case of Early Installment Weirdness, as it only happened once near the start of the series and in a movie of questionable canonicality, he can also turn green and sprout more Jagan-lookalikes all over his body to amplify its power.
  • Mido Ban of GetBackers inherited his jagan (see above) from his grandmother. If he makes direct eye contact with someone, he can induce a hallucination (most often in the form of Mind Rape) that lasts for exactly one minute of real-world time. Limited by the fact that he can only use it three times a day, once per person per day.
  • Lucia in Venus Versus Virus inherited an evil left eye from her demonic father but hides it under an Eyepatch of Power.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, the man-slayer Udô Jin-e uses a sword style that possesses a technique unique to it known as Shin no Ippô, in which he uses his ki to immobilize people with a glance of his eyes. He can even use his Blade Reflection to perform the Hyoki no Jutsu, in which he hypnotises himself to bring out his full strength.
  • Dominique the Cyclops from Trigun has a demonic-looking eye, complete with snake pupil, behind a mechanical eyepatch/shutter that allows her to distill her opponent's senses.
  • Itsuki in Rental Magica has Glam Sight in his right eye. When his eyepatch is removed, he can see through anything magical and command very competently...at the cost of his sanity.
  • Lord Darcia in Wolf's Rain is cursed with a yellow wolf's eye (his left) which can render people unconscious. Usually covered by a mask. After he attempts to enter paradise and is destroyed, his yellow eye is all that's left of him. While the world's ecology is regenerated by the lunar flowers, his eye turns some of them black, tainting the world with its evil.
  • The Claymores in the series of the same name have silver eyes, and are thus known to the populace as "silver-eyed witches". When they're actively drawing on their power their eyes become gold and approach the nasty slit-puipiled snake-like look when they're really serious.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle - Fye D. Flowright's blue eyes are the source of his magical powers; he gives the color up after becoming a vampire and gaining an Eyepatch of Power.
  • In Project ARMS, Kei Kuruma's nanomachine implant "Queen of Hearts" is a sensor array in her eyes that allows her to see in Bullet Time.
  • Sven Vollfied's Vision Eye in Black Cat has the power to see a few seconds in the future, although this is apparently severely fatiguing. It later upgrades into the less energy consuming "Grasper Eye" that slows down what he looks at, enabling him feats like avoiding bullets fired at him (though from the point of vue of the others, he seems to be the one whose movements are being accelerated).
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Allelujah Haptism has a greyish eye, whereas his Hallelujah persona has a brilliant yellow one. As he switches personalities, his Peek-a-Bangs flip to the other side of his face, displaying only the appropriate eye. At the end of the first season he connects to both personalities at the same time, pushing his hair out of his face and revealing both eyes at the same time.
  • Rokudo Mukuro of Katekyo Hitman Reborn has a red eye with kanji as the pupil, ranging from one to six. Each kanji represents a different "state" in the Buddhist Samsara cycle of Reincarnation, and gives him a different power. His spirit medium/possessed girl/MoralityPet/etc., Chrome Dokuro, wears an Eyepatch of Power on the same eye Mukuro does, and when it's removed, it's implied that he materializes through the power of illusions and takes over for her.
  • In Dragon Ball, General Blue has evil eyes which paralyze anyone who looks into them, glowing blue in the process. Like Medusa, but without the petrification.
    • Blue's powers are more akin to Psychic Powers, given that at one point he was able to tie Goku and his friends by manipulating several ropes with psychokinesis. On the other hand, he apparently needs to focus said powers thru his eyes; something which Goku took advantage of with his "JanKenPon" technique.
  • In Steel Ball Run, after Gyro Zeppeli gains the Saint AKA Jesus corpse's right eye, he gains X-Ray vision and the ability to see with his steel ball weapons.
    • And Diego gets the corpse's left eye and gains the ability to transform into a were-raptor.
  • Mihoko's blue eye in Saki, which allows her to perfectly analyze a game to the point of clairvoyance and seems to have a side-effect of disrupting other people's abilities, as Jun found out.
  • In Moon Phase, vampires can "charm" (read: enslave) people with their eyes.
  • Not exactly an evil eye per se, but Contractors in Darker than Black have their eyes glow red when activating their abilities. One of the Contractors can violently kill a person when looking at them, making it look very much like an Evil Eye.
  • Black Butler has Ciel whose right eye has a pentagram on it. The design makes his eye lighter and more of a purple color than his normal blue eye. He wears an Eyepatch of Power to cover his eye unless its power is needed. The pentagram is proof of his contract with Sebastian, his demon butler.
  • Wisely, one of the Noahs of D.Gray-man, has three evil eyes in his forehead. In his first appearance, he makes heads explode.
  • Unsurprisingly, Kakeru, the protagonist of of 11eyes, has a golden eye that gives him precognition.
  • Ryner Lute of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes possesses the Alpha Stigma, strange eyes that give him incredible magic skill.
  • In 666 Satan are the Cyclops who have a birthmark in the middle of their forehead. This is, in fact, a closed third eye which grants them the ability to "program" movement into inanimate objects. They can make, for example, projectiles miss the Cyclops, have lying debris suddenly hurl itself at an opponent, turn about any sharp objects into deadly projectiles, etc. Shown Cyclops using this ability are: Kirin, Mei, Tsubame and Kirin's father.
  • The Raijin Tribe in Fairy Tail all have this ability Evergreen has can turn you into stone, Bixlow has the ability to take people souls and put them into dolls and Fried's ability hasn't been explained yet.
  • Iris Zero's titular Irises are powers that 99% of kids are born with that allow kids to see things others don't. For example, Asahi sees devil tails grow out of people when they are lying, and Hijiri/Hiziri sees black butterflies gathering around people/animals that will soon die.
  • The hero and heroine of Basilisk both have evil eye abilities, hence the Market-Based Title of the series. The hero can turn the murderous impulses of others against them, filling them with pain and fear and driving them to suicide. The heroine's eyes give her an Anti-Magic ability that disables the powers of anyone she looks at.

Comic Books

  • The Emerald Empress & the Emerald Eye of Ekron, in Legion of Super-Heroes. In one memorable scene, she grows to giant size, tears out her own eye, and sticks the Emerald Eye in the socket.
  • The Justice League of America villain Despero gets vast Psychic Powers from a third eye. It was even removed once by surgery, but it grew back.
  • Wildguard: Casting Call featured the literally evil eye Wandering Eye, who attempted to use his hypnosis powers to force his was onto the team. Failing that, he hypnotized to other rejected applicants and forced them to serve his agenda of enslaving the entire world to his will, allowing him to finally be somewhat accepted by society. He was accidentally killed when Exploding Girl went critical.
  • Rayek in Elf Quest can paralyze with his stare - elves, trolls, animals - nobody's immune. Fortunately he turns out to be an Anti-Hero rather than an outright villain.
  • Tommy Monaghan from Hitman had solid black eyes (no pupil, iris, or white, just black). His powers were x-ray vision and mind-reading anyone in his line of sight (he didn't mind-read too much - it gave him migraines). This made him very difficult to sneak up on.

Film

  • Richard B. Riddick, the Anti-Hero of Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick has surgically-enhanced hypersensitive eyes which require him to wear special goggles during daytime. They allow him to see in the dark, and when he takes off his goggles his eyes are shown to glow.
    • The video game suggests his special eye powers may actually be a result of being the last surviving Furyan.
  • In the 2009 film Push, mind-influencing telepaths need to make eye contact with their targets. The so-called "pusher's" pupils dilate drastically when they use their powers
  • The Dark Side in the Star Wars movies is usually represented by yellow eyes, starting with Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi and continued by Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. Anakin's change with his mood in the last act of Revenge of the Sith (probably because they were still blue after his Heroic Sacrifice in Jedi).
  • In Shinobi Heart Under Blade, Oboro has a technique called Hagen no Do—literally "pupil of annihilation", and also translated as "Piercing Eyes". She only uses it once. It basically let her do something to the effect of causing her foe's nervous and circulatory systems to break down and explosively hemmhorage, leaving him bloody and helpless on the ground, by just looking at him.

Literature

  • Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody of Harry Potter has a glass eye that can spin in its socket to face any direction, has x-ray vision, and can see through most illusions.
    • To say nothing of the Basilisk, which can kill with a glance. Evil Eye indeed.
  • In the sequels to Ender's Game, Olhado lost his sight when he was young. Technology was advanced enough to replace his eyes with metal ones, which allowed him to videotape everything he saw and play it back in slow motion. However, he only used one functional replacement; he gave up binocular vision to have one of the eyes be a jack that he could use to upload the video of his father's abuse of his siblings.
  • Mr. Teatime of Terry Pratchett's Discworld has a grey glass eye—which some of his associates claim is in fact a scrying crystal—that seems to give him the ability to perform such feats as moving faster than the normal human eye can see and doing backflips on thin air. Also interesting is that the other characters refer to his remaining eye as the scary one. His pinprick pupil is said to see into one's soul. If the crystal rumor is true, it might explain his Ax Craziness: Discworld magic is slightly less reliable than the Winds of Chaos, and hie implanted some in his head.
  • Demise from the Wild Cards series has the power to inflict the experience of his own death (he got better) on anyone by making eye contact with them, killing them.
  • The Girl With Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts gets telekineses and some sort of vision-at-a-distance from her silver eyes.
    • Sort of... Her eyes are just an outward manifestation of the mutation that occurred when her mother and four others took an experimental anti-nausea drug while pregnant. She still has an unusual eye color, but it isn't quite the same thing as this trope.
      • This is not to be confused with the Dashiell Hammett Continental Op story of the same title, where the silver eyes are just an especially striking feature of The Vamp.
  • Boris Dragonasi, the big bad in Brian Lumley's Necroscope gains the power of the evil eye in the second half of the story. Earlier there was a legend told of the evil eye and how it can backfire on the user with gruesome results if it is used on someone who is already dead. Guess what happens to Dragonasi at the end of the book.
  • In A Wrinkle in Time, when Charles Wallace stares into the eyes of The Man With Red Eyes, he goes under the telepathic mind control of IT.
    • Just to make things creepier, Charles Wallace's own eyes change so that his pupils are swallowed up by the iris, giving him disturbing all-iris eyes.
  • The title Anti-Hero of William Beckford's Gothic novel The History of the Caliph Vathek is described as "pleasing and majestic; but when he was angry one of his eyes became so terrible that no person could bear to behold it, and the wretch upon whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and sometimes expired." The History was first published in 1782.
  • Jagang, the main antagonist of most of the Sword of Truth series, has eyes which have been describes as "twin windows into nightmare". It is not surprising that his powers are essentially mind reading and possession.
  • In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, the narrator hears of a technique used on infection: they culture some of the bacteria, and then get a man with the Evil Eye to look at them through a microscope. Later, he mentions the wonders a corporation has produced, including contact lenses that allow people with the Evil Eye to live normal lives.
  • Some Warhammer 40,000 psykers use eye contract in Mind Probe.
    • In Graham McNeill's Ultramarines novel The Killing Grounds, Uriel meet Leodegarius's ice-blue eyes and finds them filling his sight as the Mind Probe overwhelms his mental defenses.
    • In James Swallow's novel Deus Sanguinius, when Rafen subjects himself to Mephiston's Mind Probe, it seems to him that the light behind his eyes overwhelms him.
  • In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Chessmen of Mars, the kuldane's mind control depends on it; Tara learns if she looks away, she can not be controlled.
  • Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series includes Corum Jhaelen Irsei, who for the first portion of his career wields the eye and hand of a god in place of his own. By lifting the eyepatch he wears over this eye, he can see into a spectral place, where a creature dwells. He can then draw it out, where it will fight for him. Then the next time he lifts the eyepatch, whatever was killed by the creature has taken its place, and now IT can be summoned to fight, apparantly at a greater power level than it possessed before.
  • In Robert E. Howard's The Phoenix on the Sword, it is looking in the monster's eyes that lets it attack Conan the Barbarian's soul; fortunately for Conan, this makes it angry.
  • The Sibyl, in the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures novel "Time's Crucible" steals the eye from a decapitated sphinx and substitutes it for one of her own, in order to regain her waning prophetic powers.
  • The eponymous Vathek, a depraved Caliph in William Beckford's Gothic Horror set in Arabian Nights Days:

His figure was pleasing and majestic; but when he was angry one of his eyes became so terrible that no person could bear to behold it, and the wretch upon whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and sometimes expired.

Live-Action TV

  • In Farscape Nooranti had a third eye that changed color and intermittently opened when she used her powers.
  • In The Lost Room miniseries, the Glass Eye is a powerful artifact that can restore/heal or destroy all flesh. Karl Kreutzfeld had to take his own eye out to use it, as the Glass Eye must be inside the eye socket of the wearer to function.
  • Statler did this to Waldorf in one skit.
  • In Scrubs, the Janitor gives the evil eye to people who have done him wrong- an ominous glare made even more threatening since it's always accompanied with the song Koyaanisqatsi. It's always played for laughs.

Oral Tradition, Myths and Legends

  • In ancient Celtic/Irish mythology, Balor absorbed the poison of his father's druids as they were casting spells. This gave him an eye of death, which killed whoever he looked at. His eye was harnessed to bow strings so that he could open his eye properly, and he was used as a weapon. He learned from a man that his grandson would kill him, so he sealed away his daughter. Guess how well that worked?
  • The evil eye goes far back in the mythology of several countries in the Middle East, though that evil eye has more in common with a Death Glare that simply brings whoever it is given to bad luck and misfortune. Evil eye charms which ward off the effects of the evil eye are still popular in Armenia, Israel, Turkey, and a host of other countries.
    • Speaking of which, there are legends of an Armenian king who was able to break boulders with his evil eye.
  • In Ancient Rome either a bulla or a fascinum would be worn as a Protective Charm to ward off the malevolent evil that could arise from the jealousy of men, sometimes literally called Evil Eye.
  • In the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries in which this belief is prominent, Blue Eyes, and to a lesser extent Green Eyes are thought to be a warning sign that a person possesses this ability.
  • Shiva, the Lord of Destruction, was forever blasting things out of existence with his third eye. Usually it was Eye Beams.
  • This trope is goes back to at least the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, when the Eldritch Abomination serpent Apopi/Apep (Apophis) was believed to have a destructive or harmful gaze. People wore and recited charms and spells to protect themselves from him. The Pharaoh also performed a ritual in which he whacked at a ball that symbolized Apopi's eyeball.
  • A widespread European folk belief was that envy physically changed the eye and caused it to inflict misfortune on those whom the person envied. Note that this was held to be out of the person's control.

Newspaper Comics

  • Li'l Abner featured the character "Evil Eye Fleegle", a zoot-suited New Yorker whose eyes could zap people with destructive whammies of varying degrees of power. He turned up in the movie adaptation of the strip as well.

Tabletop Games

  • The Eye of Vecna, from the Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk setting, is a powerful Artifact of Doom that requires the would-be user to remove his own eye and insert it into the socket.
    • D&D also has the beholder monsters, which possess many eyes with various powers (including at-will telekinesis to make up for their lack of limbs). Certain variants had a class for cultists of various monstrous races that started to take on characteristics of the races they worshiped, and the beholder-worshipers grew eye stalks of their own.
    • 4e D&D has Cyclopes and Fomorians that both use their Evil Eyes for various purposes, such as paralysis, mind domination, eye beams, etc.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade the vampire clan Salubri derived healing, fighting, and perception based supernatural powers from their third eye. Naturally it made them stick out like sore thumbs, and being the least evil group of vampires they were almost all wiped out because it couldn't be easily hidden. One of the survivors decided "Enough is enough!" and joined up with the Sabbat. His branch of the bloodline follows a different set of powers than the others, and their third eye looks angrier as a result. And since they aren't nearly as nice as the rest, they aren't so easily killed, so they don't care about hiding it.
  • Urza's powerstone eyes, from Magic: The Gathering.
  • Hunter: The Vigil has the Cheiron Corporation and it's thaumatechnology. It involves taking bits and pieces of supernatural creatures and implanting them into humans. Among other things, there is a pair of eyes stolen from some sort of otherworldly creature. The're yellow, faceted, and provide the owner with Aura Vision.
  • The Warhammer 40k universe has Navigators: mutants with a Third Eye, called the Warp Eye in the middle of their forehead. Apart from letting them steer ships through the Warp, these eyes kill anyone who looks into them. As a result, they have to wear a bandana when not navigating.
    • In addition, most Eldar tabletop psychic powers require line of sight. Mind War comes to mind; it's essentially a Farseer staring down an opponent with such intensity that it can literally wound and even kill them. On the tabletop this is translated as the opponent taking unsaveable wounds.

Video Games

  • Radiant Dawn's Nailah has a covered eye and an exclusive skill called "Glare" which immobilizes an enemy for the whole chapter. Seems she's got her own Evil Eye.
    • Yeah, it's just a shame that the ability sucks so much (almost never hits, and you'd usually be better off just attacking) and you can't get rid of it...
  • Sacred Stones has enemies called Mogalls, which are big, floating eyes. Their basic attack is fittingly called 'Evil Eye'.
  • Zasalamel in Soul Calibur 3 has one gold eye, which contains his soul.
  • Some Pokémon attacks, such Mean Look and Miracle Eye, qualify.
    • Generation V introduces a move actually called Evil Eye.
  • The main character in Planescape: Torment, being a regenerating immortal, can equip magical eyes in place of one of his original eyes. There is also a bar, at which the barkeep is holding for you an eye removed by one of your past incarnations that you don't remember-replacing one of your eyes with that one gives you an experience bonus and lets you remember part of his life.
  • Reisen Udongein Inaba of the Touhou series is a moon rabbit whose eyes can cause lunacy.
  • Jade in Tales of the Abyss has fonic sight, which allows him to use upper-level spells with ease. He got it by applying an extremely dangerous forbidden spell on his eyes back when he was still a kid, if the picture of his bespectacled childhood self is an accurate indication.
  • Seiken Densetsu 3 has a villain specifically named "The Earl of the Evil Eye".
  • In Meteos, the planet Meteo is basically a giant yellow space eye. Now, guess where all the planet-destroying meteors that you fend off in the game are coming from.
  • Jubei Akane Yagyu and her uncle Munonori of the Onimusha series both have the Oni-eyes, complete with the Eyepatch of Power. When activated, allows extremely hightened reflexes (to the extent that time feels slowed down), illusion control (the ability to both use and see through illusions) and lethal counter-techinques (especially useful with heightened reflexes).
  • In Deus Ex it is strongly implied, if not outright stated that the otherwise relatively normal looking JC Denton wears sunglasses becsuse he has Evil Eyes.
    • In the character creation scene, you can see he has blue glowing eyes.
  • Lieselotte of Arcana Heart has her Crimson Gaze move, where she looks straight into the eyes of her opponent to smack them with a confusion status that switches up their controls.
  • GoldenEye from the James Bond game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent has a cybernetic eye upgraded with powers over the course of the game, with powers like seeing through walls and hacking electronics.
  • In the first Jedi Knight game, dark Jedi can learn a force power called Force Deadly Sight. With it activated, anyone the player sees in his vision takes damage and dies.
  • Alma in F.E.A.R. seems to be able to do this at will (that is kill them by bleeding them to death and blowing up everything all around her). It isn't necessarily an eye related ability, but it may as well be.
  • In Final Fantasy X, Seymour's aeon, Anima, has an attack where she gives an enemy an instantly fatal dose of this trope.
  • While 99% of its moves just scream Fist of the North Star, the Apotheosized form of Ialdabaoth from Super Robot Wars Original Generations has one move that starts with this, leaving even the most humongous of mecha frozen in terror before being pummeled into dust. (Even zanier: this is its weakest attack.)
  • In Dark Souls, there are special "Eye Orbs" used to invade other players and engage in PvP. The Red Eye Orb allows players to invade and kill others, while the Eyes of Death let players curse others' worlds and generate stronger versions of typical enemies. The Ring of the Evil Eye is also said to contain a demon of the name. It lets you heal by killing people.

Nasuverse

  • The Mystic Eyes, termed "Noble Colors", in the Nasuverse. Supernatural beings in general tend to have them with various abilities, from charm (the standard), to immolation, to petrification.
    • Shiki Ryougi from Kara no Kyoukai: possesses the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, the most powerful (and rarest) of them. This ability allows her to "see the concept of existence" of everything, which manifests as lines or dots. Cutting these lines/dots will allow her to instantly bring their lifespan to an end. The source of her power is being in contact with the Akashic Records after her near-death experience. She doesn't experience the same limitations as Shiki Tohno as she has the Akashic Records (the void) itself as her third personality, which extends her power to the logical conclusion -- she can reshape reality itself by cutting through the lines.
    • Shiki Tohno of Tsukihime has the same power as the other Shiki, but his power is much more limited than that of Ryougi. Since it's his mind that does the processing of the lines and not the void itself, he gets headaches just by looking at these lines, since the human mind is not tailored to understand the concept of the death of things. If the owner does not understand the concept of the existence of what he's trying to kill, he will not be able to see its existence. Shiki's eyes do not work on Servants since he does not yet comprehend their existence; they are already dead and are not truly dead when killed (they probably return to the Halls of Heroes or something). However, it's different with Shiki Ryougi; since she has contact with the Akasha itself, she fully comprehends the existence of anything tied to the Akashic Records and thus, she is most likely able to kill Servants.
    • Arcueid Brunestud of Tsukihime possesses a different power through her Mystic Eyes as do pretty much all high-level vampire. Hers is more based around mental manipulation and deceit, presumably to make feeding easier. Unfortunately, when they impact the wrong people for the wrong reasons, it can go... badly. The use of Arcueid's Mystic Eyes on Shiki, for example, almost ends up with her getting raped due to the growing feelings of the two involved, as well as a very primal thought process at the time for Arcueid.
    • Also from Kara no Kyoukai is Asagami Fujino, who has a very specific form of Telekinesis that is activated through her eyes. Specific being that she can move things clockwise and counterclockwise—doing both at the same time allows her to bend objects.
    • The epilogue of Kara no Kyoukai:, Mirai Fukuin ("Future Gospel"), introduces several different ways of seeing the future - while the villain could 'calculate' an absolute end result (which is how he is defeated - as the future is so solidified and "true" that Shiki could see and kill it), Akira Seo could occasionally catch a glimpse of 'fate'. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were also described as a form of seeing the future, as it can see 'the end of things'.
    • Also, the Shiki imposter from "Mystic Eyes Alliance" in Tsukihime Plus Disc has eyes that can see the past. Eventually, it sent him insane and he turned into a murderer.
    • Rider from Fate/stay night has the ability to petrify anyone (whose magical defense is below a certain level) in her line of sight but she has to wear a seal (a visor or glasses, depending on the moment), being unable to deactivate her mystic eyes (the seal is similar to Shiki's glasses). Those with a magical resistance of A and above are immune to the petrification, but they are affected by a "pressure" that decreases all their stats by one rank.
    • Ilya from Fate/stay night also has a form of mystic eyes, which she can use to hypnotize others or transfer information to someone else.
  • Meanwhile, Emiya Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero has an (unnamed) form of hypnosis that relies on eye contact. Crucial in keeping people out of the scene while he's attempting an assassination of Kayneth El-Melloi.

Visual Novels

  • Mary's golden eye in Shikkoku no Sharnoth gives her the ability to detect lies and see the truth, no matter how it is being hidden. It also gives her amazing intuition.

Web Comics

  • Intensely evil glowing eyes are joked off as having "cooties" in this Charby the Vampirate strip.
  • While not a evil eye, per se, Miranda Deegan from Dominic Deegan has a glare that has been referred to as an "evil eye". It basically makes someone's willpower erode and derails trains of thought. Given what others in the comic have experienced, she is capable of giving someone the eye from nearly half a mile away, as well as around corners, and even from another dimension.
    • Dominic himself may have an example of this, shown early on, when Gregory first refers to their brother, Jacob.
  • What does Joey Von Krause from Mortifer hide behind his Eyepatch of Power? Glad you asked.

Web Original

  • In The Gamers Alliance, the mage Dante's eye can control a person and put a geas on his victim which forces the victim to subconsciously obey his orders. Leon learned this the hard way when he found out that all his actions during the Yamatian Invasion arc had in fact been Dante's all along.
  • One of the main symbols of Broken Saints is a circular red eye with a black cat-like slit for a pupil—basically, it's a simplified version of the Eye of Sauron from the The Lord of the Rings movies, although the series started before the first film was released. However, in keeping with the multi-layered nature of the series, the eye is not just an eye. Take a look at the symbol and how it is used in the series, and think of what else it looks like...
    • Also, in terms of literal eyes, this trope is played with. In actuality, it seems to be a lack of eyes that represents evil. See: Lear, corrupted Shandala.
  • Taken quite literally here.
  • The play-by-post forum Fate Nuovo Guerra, which is basically an Alternate Universe of Fate/stay night, has quite a good number of Mystic Eyes users.
  • The superpowered character Sahar (literally 'Evil Eye' in Arabic) in the Whateley Universe. Her main psychic power is the ability to make a person believe that he has been cursed. Her secondary psychic power is WAY scarier. Her eyes have red rings: the folklore sign of one with the Evil Eye. Her original reputation was that of a hated and feared villain on the Whateley Academy campus, but she appears to be trying hard to become a good guy.

Western Animation

  • Duke Phillips, Jay Sherman's boss in The Critic has an evil eye that hypnotizes people into his willing servants. It's only seen once, and played for laughs (Duke was launching a Presidential campaign at the time, and used it to get out of one reporter's question.) He even uses the trope name:

Duke: Gaze into the hypnotic power of my Evil Eye!

  • Professor Screweyes from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. True, it's actually a screw buried deep on his eye socket, but it pretty much acts as a magical eye, as he seems to be able to make magic with it (not to mention that the screw's slit is in a vertical position, giving it a Hellish Pupils look). In a deleted scene where he learn he lost his left eye thanks to a crow that pecked it out, he claims he can "watch" his biggest fear, the crows, with a "real eye and a steel eye", implying that his screw eye is far from being just a scary decoration.
  • Matrix has an Evil Eye in ReBoot. It provides a visual interface with his gun, including a first person perspective of the rounds moving towards the targets, lets him see through web shields, and has tracking capabilities.

Real Life

  • The common Robin can see magnetic fluctuation with its right eye. Its left eye however, functions as an ordinary eye. It uses this to navigate much like homing pigeons do.