History Main / TheGlassesComeOff

Note that it isn't enough just to have glasses, you have to have NerdGlasses for this trope to apply. (Compare GlassesAndPonytailCoverUp.) Some characters have ScaryShinyGlasses or CoolShades, and they are most certainly not more powerful when this happens. Except of course, when the glasses are the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness distinguishing trait]] for the character, in which case, you [[CurbStompBattle should probably back off]]. [[BerserkButton Quickly.]]

* Gradually happens in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' with Connie, starting in "An Indirect Kiss" from Season 1, where Steven shares a juice box with Connie and tells her about Amethyst's healing in exchange for letting him wear her glasses, which still have pink lenses. When she drinks from the juice box, some of Steven's magical healing saliva makes Connie's vision as good as new. She continues to wear the lens-less frames until after Season 2's "Nightmare Hospital", when she tells her mother about her experiences with the Gems, and then the frames no longer appear.

[[folder:Board Games]]
* In TabletopGame/DuelOfAges, the [[AllThereInTheManual extended description]] of the Vigilante, comments that he has "the eyes of a shop teacher" hidden behind his thick glasses. When he confronts the crackheads whose actions led to the death of a young boy in his neighborhood, he takes off the glasses and they notice his eyes "were no longer the eyes of a shop teacher."
[[/folder]]

** ComicBook/KittyPryde needs glasses, but hates wearing them and rarely does so.
** ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}. Given that the glasses used to hold back his EyeBeams, taking them all the way off usually meant something was gonna get broke in a hurry. Seldom demonstrated but awesome when it is: Cyke's visor, and shades as Scott Summers, are used to control the shape and strength of the blast even when he's actively using his powers. You don't fully understand until you see him take them off all the way and open his eyes fully. When that happens, "something" isn't gonna get broke - ''everything'' will get broke. For this reason, it's a weapon of last resort. However, if you absolutely have to get a [[HumongousMecha Sentinel]] off your lawn, it'll get vaporized.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' - When getting ready for battle, [[spoiler:Dr. Olivia Octavius aka Doc Oc]] first removes her usual glasses, and then [[InvertedTrope puts on special goggles]] that go with her combat suit.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' Ping's glasses fly off her face due to the force of her jump right before she turns into a giant red panda and bounds into action.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* ''Film/Alien3''. Dillon faces down the xenomorph in the lead mould to prevent it from escaping. It's just him and the dragon facing each other down from opposite ends of the chamber. Knowing it's about to get up close and personal, Dillon reaches up and silently pulls down his horn-rimmed glasses...

[[folder:Web Original]]

* [[spoiler: Xandra]] from ''{{Website/Neopets}}'' actually does this when she reveals to everyone her true evil self and then sends Faerieland crashing down onto Neopia to express how much she hates the Faeries and wants to destroy them one day.
* WordOfGod is Creator/BradJones removes [[WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob The Cinema Snob's]] glasses whenever he wants you to know he's breaking character and going into SincerityMode.
* Later in [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Atop the Fourth Wall's]] run, Linkara, like Snob, would also remove his glasses when making a particularly strong point.
* Parodied in an episode of ''WebVideo/JonTron'', as he doesn't normally wear glasses. Thus, they appear and are removed for only that shot.

* Subversion: ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Worst Episode Ever". Milhouse takes off his glasses before attacking Bart, but puts them back on when he realizes that he can't see without them.
* Reversed in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', when a geeky and useless boy becomes Myth/KingArthur -- a rippled Adonis and fighting machine -- when he puts glasses ''on''. After all, how good are you going to be at swordplay when you are blind?
--> '''Arnie''': (nasal nerd voice) I can see! (ActionHero voice) [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! Can!]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqgoEAzDns Fight!]]
* Gradually happens with Connie starting in [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Steven Universe's]] "An Indirect Kiss" from Season 1, where Steven shares a juice box with Connie and tells her about Amethyst's healing in exchange for letting him wear her glasses, which still have pink lenses. When she drinks from the juice box, some of Steven's magical healing saliva makes Connie's vision as good as new. She continues to wear the lens-less frames until after Season 2's "Nightmare Hospital", when she tells her mother about her experiences with the Gems, and then the frames no longer appear.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
** "Transylvania 6-500": The cartoon short's villian, Count Bloodcount, is engaged in a battle of wits and "magic potion" one-upmanship with WesternAnimation/BugsBunny when he transforms himself into a bat (the animal); Bugs turns himself into a ''baseball'' bat, prompting Count to do the trope inversion ("[[YouWouldntHitAGuyWithGlasses You wouldn't hit a bat with glasses]]?"). Yes, Bugs would ... and does.
* Done straight and to great effect in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' - faced with an invasion by several angry gargoyles, Owen Burnett calmly takes off his glasses, puts them in his pocket, and adopts a martial arts stance. The fact that he isn't remotely capable of fighting a gargoyle hand-to-hand ([[spoiler:not as Owen, anyway]]) does not make the moment any less badass.
** He does it again when everyone is fighting (and losing) against Oberon, [[spoiler:before revealing his true identity.]]
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', as Charles does not remove his glasses to fight, though he does undo his necktie before he first fights the Metal Masked Assassin. ([[spoiler:When he's blugeoned into unconsciousness by the Assassin the second time around, his glasses remain bent and broken on his face as he lies lifeless.]])
* Parodied with a hint of Ho Yay in WesternAnimation/{{CloneHigh}}, where JFK gives a makeover to Gandhi, then completes it by taking off his glasses. JFK told Gandhi he "Looks like an Angel."
* Also inverted in the 1960s cartoon ''WesternAnimation/FearlessFly''. The housefly hero is a 98-milligram weakling, until he dons his square-rimmed glasses. Inevitably, in nearly every episode, he gets them knocked off at a crucial moment.
* Played straight in the Literature/MagicSchoolBus's Dinosaur episode, where Arnold takes off his glasses and tucks them away in his shirt pocket to fight the T-Rex.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' plays this straight in a dream sequence when Miss Grotke's getting ready for a boxing match.
** Also played straight in "Gus's Last Stand", when Gus (attempts) to fight Gelman.
* Used to pretty frightening effect in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' when [[spoiler:Qilby merges with the Eliacube. His glasses ''shatter'' and he gains GlowingEyesOfDoom and a SlasherSmile.]]
* Averted in ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''. Not only is Velma [[BlindWithoutEm partially blind]] without her glasses, she also seems to lose some of her intelligence as well. One episode has her mistaken a skeleton as Shaggy and the dungeon she's in as a playroom.
** In "Jeepers, It's the Creeper," Velma is cornered by said VillainOfTheWeek. When she asks "You wouldn't hit someone with glasses, would you?", the Creeper pulls off Velma's glasses and [[WouldHurtAChild rears back to punch her.]] Velma [[LittleGirlsKickShins kicks the Creeper in the shin]] and retrieves her glasses before running off.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'' episode "A New Sparkles", when Honey Lemon believes her "niceness" is holding the team back, she pulls off her glasses as she says "It's time to be a little less Honey ... and a lot more Lemon!" She then immediately bumps into Baymax, and decides "Okay, I'm going to be tough ''with'' the glasses on. I'm gonna need those to see."
* ''WesternAnimation/FourEyes'': In one episode when Emma's human disguise malfunctioned and she can't go back to her original alien form. Because of this, she is seen for the first time without glasses. [[ItMakesSenseInContext She eventually goes back to normal after overdosing on dairy products]] and is wearing glasses once again.

** In ''Series/TheDefenders2017'', Matt removes his glasses when he and Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}} are entering Midland Circle so he can tie Jessica's scarf around her head. Only once Matt, Jessica, Luke and Danny get to the Royal Dragon does Matt return Jessica's scarf. He doesn't put his glasses back on, though, figuring he has no need to when in the company of other people with abilities. He doesn't put his glasses back on again until he's on his way to the ''Bulletin'' to ask Karen to get police protection with Foggy, Claire, Malcolm, Trish, and the others.

* ''Manhwa/DorothyOfOz'': When Selluriah's glasses come off, it usually means she's about to transform into a witch and lay down the hurt on some poor demon.

* Comes in two flavors with [[Manhwa/{{Yureka}} Jang Gun]]. He really has poor vision, but spends large amounts of time in TheMetaverse, where he acts [[WhatYouAreInTheDark considerably more badass than he does in real life]], piloting a DigitalAvatar who doesn't need them. As such, a Jang Gun without glasses is shorthand for a considerably less subdued Jang Gun. As a side effect of this he uses his glasses in real life as part of a [[ClarkKenting more subdued persona]] as a sort of defense mechanism, so when he actually has to [[LetsGetDangerous buckle down]] offline he takes them off anyway.

* Parodied with a hint of Ho Yay in WesternAnimation/CloneHigh, where JFK gives a makeover to Gandhi, then completes it by taking off his glasses. JFK told Gandhi he "Looks like an Angel."

* Parodied with a hint of Ho Yay in WesternAnimation/{{CloneHigh}}, where JFK gives a makeover to Gandhi, then completes it by taking off his glasses. JFK told Gandhi he "Looks like an Angel."

* Parodied with a hint of Ho Yay in Clone High, where JFK gives a makeover to Gandhi, then completes it by taking off his glasses. JFK told Gandhi he "Looks like an Angel."

->''"When you look at [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] when he's working at the Daily Planet, he's a reporter. He doesn't fly through the air in his glasses and his suit."''

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* Peter Parker in the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' franchise started with glasses but eventually lost them as he grew up and developed more confidence in his civilian identity. The interesting thing about how Peter learned he didn't need glasses in the comics was because of a boxing match. He agreed to a match with Flash Thompson, Flash got in one good blow that broke his glasses and Peter countered with a knock out. Once Pete realized the spider-bite fixed his vision, he really saw no need to buy a new pair or keep up the charade at that point.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The pre-[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] version of Franchise/WonderWoman wore glasses in her SecretIdentity as the prim secretary Diana Prince, and removed them as part of transitioning to acting as the hero Wonder Woman.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':

* Roffa in ''ComicBook/TheTriganEmpire'' was a fighter pilot in NerdGlasses (!). One day he took his glasses off to make a dramatically scowling gesture at the map and never put them on again. His geekiness decreased from then on too, in a few subsequent stories he seemed to have [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in badass]].
* Daniel aka Nite Owl of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' usually wears his glasses but doesn't in his Nite Owl guise. A classic example is when he and Silk Spectre were mugged, Daniel took off his glasses before kicking the gang's ass.
* A recurring character in Norwegian comics creator Christopher Nielsen's works is a small town bruiser [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname only known by his nickname]] ''Hold Brillan'' ("hold my glasses") because he always tells one of his buddies to hold his glasses when he gets into a fight ([[BloodKnight which he does often]]). Subverted in the sense that he looks pretty intimidating even when he's wearing them.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': When Bruce Banner [[HulkingOut gets angry]], the glasses come off. If he plans on getting angry, he'll take the glasses off ahead of time.

* Meilin Lee from ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' normally wears glasses as a human, but her glasses disappear every time she turns into a red panda.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has Winston's glasses disappear whenever he uses his ultimate Primal Rage. The cinematic trailer shows a variation: Winston lying on the ground, glasses already off, and when Reaper steps on them, [[BerserkButton Winston goes]] [[IncrediblyLamePun bananas]]. ''Recall'' shows Winston taking off his glasses before the fight even begins (and, naturally, are already gone by the time he activates Primal Rage).

* The queen of Denmark does this at the end of her annual New Year's speech, but only in order to deliver her [[CatchPhrase Motto]]. Good thing, too, since she really does seem to be [[BlindWithoutEm blind without them]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FourEyes'': In one episode when her human disguise malfunctioned and can't go back to her original form. Because of this, she is seen for the first time without glasses. [[ItMakesSenseInContext She eventually goes back to normal after overdosing on dairy products]] and is wearing glasses once again.

Note that it isn't enough just to have glasses, you have to have NerdGlasses for this trope to apply. (Compare GlassesAndPonytailCoverUp.) Some characters have ScaryShinyGlasses or CoolShades, and they are most certainly not more powerful when TheGlassesComeOff. Except of course, when the glasses are the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness distinguishing trait]] for the character, in which case, you [[CurbStompBattle should probably back off]]. [[BerserkButton Quickly.]]

* Comes in two flavors with [[Manhwa/{{Yureka}} Jang Gun]]. He really has poor vision, but spends large amounts of time in TheMetaverse, where he acts [[WhatYouAreInTheDark considerably more badass than he does in real life]], piloting a DigitalAvatar who doesn't need them. As such, a Jang Gun without glasses is shorthand for a considerably less subdued Jang Gun. As a side effect of this he uses his glasses in real life as part of a [[ClarkKenting more subdued persona]] as a sort of defense mechanism, so when he actually has to [[LetsGetDangerous buckle down]] offline TheGlassesComeOff anyway.

* This is [[AvertedTrope Averted]] and [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in Literature/HarryPotter. J. K. Rowling stated in an interview that the reason she gave Harry glasses was that she wore them herself as a child and was fed up with reading books in which the bespectacled character was the "brainy one." She said she wished to read about a hero who wore glasses. In all the scenes when Harry have no glasses, he is always BlindWithoutEm but, in almost any situation, whith glasses or whithout them, he shows the [[HeroicResolve Gryffindor's]] [[DefiantToTheEnd true]] [[TheDeterminator qualities]].

Given that such characters will at some point be shown to be BlindWithoutEm, it may seem strange that removing their glasses renders the characters into {{Action Hero}}es, rather than rendering them, well, blind, but [[RuleOfCool it seems to work]]. May occasionally make sense if the hero willingly removes her/his glasses to [[PowerLimiter limit her/his fighting prowess]].

* {{WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse}} - When getting ready for battle, [[spoiler:Dr. Olivia Octavius aka Doc Oc]] first removes her usual glasses, and then [[InvertedTrope puts on special goggles]] that go with her combat suit.

[[folder:Film]]

* Aozaki Toko from ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' uses her glasses to quickly change personality. She is a nicer person with the glasses on. She says it is useful for business. Unlike many other examples here, she keeps putting them on and removing without much reason.

* This happens with Nagato Yuki in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', when her glasses fall off during the fight with Ryoko, and she never puts them on again [[spoiler:except in the AlternateUniverse]], [[ShipTease probably because Kyon said he liked her better without them]].

A good way to mark your hero as an intellectual is to stick him on the far side of a pair of NerdGlasses. A good way to mark your character as a badass is to kick some ass. We also all know that guys who wear glasses can never kick asses. It's contractually forbidden. Thus, when an [[BadassBookworm intellectual is about to kick ass]], the first thing he has to do is take off his glasses. (See: Male version of FlungClothing) For an additional humourous/intellectual touch, the characters may be shown taking especial care to put their glasses away in their pocket or in some other safe place, before commencing the violence.

* Gohan in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' and ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Apparently, he has perfect vision most of the time, but will still conveniently forget to wear them on days when the MonsterOfTheWeek or BigBad might show up. When Baby possesses him, he actually smashes the glasses prior to going out and kicking Vegeta's ass.

* In ''Manga/SoulEater,'' Dr. Franken Stein tends to get badass when his glasses come off.
** Strangely enough, his are often of the [[ScaryShinyGlasses scary and shiny sort]], so it's a little bit of a variation.
* In ''Manga/XxxHOLiC'' Watanuki seems to lose his glasses more and more often as the series starts getting more serious. [[spoiler: He loses them entirely after an existential crisis linked to something major in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle.'' But then they come back after Yuuko vanishes and he decides that he will take over the shop until she returns, causing him to stop aging but be unable to leave until she returns.]]

* Another example from the Nasuverse is the subversion of [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight the Servant Rider]]. In civvies during one epilogue (and for most of ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'') she wears thick, tinted glasses, while in her battle gear for most of ''Fate/stay night'' she wears a blindfold. In her case, it's because her true identity is [[spoiler:the gorgon Medusa. When she takes off her glasses, people around her die horribly. Also, she has demonic snake eyes that look extremely unnerving from up-close (not that anyone who looks at them would care, as they'd be too busy turning into statues).]]

* Guile's pre-fight intro in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' employs this, but it's only a mild form of this trope (he pulls off his aviator sunglasses and sticks them in his back pocket). His friend Charlie Nash in the ''StreetFighter Alpha'' series is the straighter example of the two, though.