History Main / TheGlassesComeOff

*** 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. And if Juggernaut's trying to destroy a dam, you'll [[spoiler: actually push him back a little... but eventually get your ass kicked anyway. Still, it ''looked'' awesome.]]

* The [[ThoseTwoGuys very minor character]] [[spoiler:Riko Kanada]] does this to great effect in PrincessWaltz, [[spoiler:revealing that she's ''not'' a minor character after all, but the [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turned]] steel princess Liessel.]]

* Somewhere in the Sixth Season (I think), Xander and Willow mention in passing that Giles's habit of taking off his glasses and cleaning them was both a silent signal that he disapproved of what the Scooby Gang were doing, whether this be goofing off or doing something morally grey, and also a way of averting his eyes in the latter case so he could claim to have no knowledge of what they were doing.

[[{{Bleach}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0320x240.jpg]]
[[caption-width:318:[[XanatosGambit Believe it or not, Velma planned every mystery that Scooby and the gang had encountered.]]]]

* It actually ''is'' a good idea to take glasses off if you're going to be getting into physical confrontation, whether it be a contact sport or a fight. In addition to the possibility of them being knocked off and lost, unless you're so BlindWithoutEm that you can't ''see'' your opponent, there's little sense in having breakable glass attached [[EyeScream to your eyes]].

[[Bleach http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0320x240.jpg]]

[[ScoobyDoo http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0320x240.jpg]]

* [[Meganekko No, keep them on!]]
* This troper's karate club demands that during ''kumite'' (sparring), glasses must be off. I also tend to take them off any time I'm threatened or in trouble, simply because (even though my eyesight is very poor) I'm conditioned to fight ''better'' without them.
** As a Tae Kwon-Do practicioner, I can understand the trope: a person must be almost blind to be unable to distinguish a fist or feet approaching in close combat. Keep in mind, needing glasses normally isn´t the same thing as being blind without them, so it makes perfect sense for a combatant to remove them before fighting.
** It makes it harder to judge distances, sure, but that's better than ending up with broken glasses. Also, not quite seeing those fists and feet make them seem a bit less scary when they're coming towards you.

* Subverted in ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' film, where Allan Quatermain must put on his glasses to flat-out murder people at impossibly long distances for the period's firearms.

* Another inversion in BllueSeed: Sakura only dons her NerdGlasses to fight demons.

->''"My God ... I can't see a thing! Guess that's why I wear these."''
-->-- '''JimGaffigan'''

* In ''[[MarvelVsCapcom Marvel Vs. Capcom 3]]'' [[ResidentEvil]] Wesker]] takes his shades off whenever he does a [[LimitBreak hyper combo]]. Now consider that Wesker is a [[MemeticMutation douche who doesn't take of his shades, even at night]]...

There are practical reasons for this trope, of course; it is, after all, not a bad idea to remove your glasses before doing things where they might fly off or get broken, and preventing unwanted reflections from the lenses becomes troublesome during ChopSockey. And then there's the fact that keeping any easily shattered material near your eyes during a fight is a really bad idea (which is probably where the taboo against punching a man in grasses came from). And naturally, you might want to remove your glasses to fire your EyeBeams.

* Mousse from ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' often does this to be followed by him doing something stupid since he [[BlindWithoutEm can't see anything]].

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 be subverted if the hero willingly removes her/his glasses to [[PowerLimiter limit her/his fighting prowess]]

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]].

* [[SlightlyDamned Cliff Sinclair]] [[http://raizap.com/sdamned/pages.php?comicID=366 takes his glasses off]] before any epic battles.

* The [[ThoseTwoGuys very minor character]] [[spoiler:Riko Kanada]] does this to great effect in PrincessWaltz, [[spoiler:revealing that the comedy TallGirl classmate is actually NotSoHarmless after all.]]