Mind-Control Eyes

"Her eyes! My God, what's wrong with her eyes?"

— Shelley, The Evil Dead (1981)

A character who is under the influence of hypnotism or mind control will show this influence in his or her eyes with a visual change. This is mostly for the benefit of the audience. While people around the character may note they're "acting a little funny," usually nobody In-Universe ever notices the change.

In live-action and some forms of animation, the standard signal for mind control or possession is totally black or totally white eyes. In many Western cartoons and comics, hypnosis is represented by the eyes appearing as swirling spirals or concentric circles. Sometimes it's also represented by changes in the dilation of the pupil; the pupil will either get really small, or really large. In anime, their irises become dull, flat disks of their base color without any detail, highlights, reflections or even pupils. Obviously heavy eyelids surmount the altered eyes and sometimes drift into a half-closed position.

A rare variation involves severe walleye in both eyes. This is a Shout-Out to a traditional Japanese artistic device: a character performing superhuman feats of swordsmanship (Musashi slicing arrows out of the air... as they're coming at his back) will be depicted as severely cross-eyed, indicating that they are using "inner guidance". Another extremely rare variation is sometimes where the pupil remains the same but the sclera (the white part of the eye) may change color.

It should be noted that in Real Life, hypnotized people's eyes are likely to dilate (i.e. the pupils get a bit bigger.) This is apparently not subtle enough for animation, which prefers to Open the Iris. Also note that some art styles have eyes with less detail than others, and so the eyes may have some of these traits already; this doesn't make them an example of this trope.

This also counts as Nightmare Fuel for some people. Not to be confused with Hypnotic Eyes, which is about people who can hypnotize others just by looking into their eyes. See also Red Eyes, Take Warning, which may be a form of this. Can be a variant of Wingding Eyes. Sometimes these eyes will communicate to the audience that someone else is in control, resulting in overlap with Eye-Dentity Giveaway.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In this Trix commercial, the Rabbit gets hypnotized, and the kids notice that his eyes have spirals in them. For a time after the commercial aired, boxes of Trix featured the Rabbit with "swirling hypnotized eyes".

Anime & Manga

• In Castle Town Dandelion, people under the effect of Aoi's Compelling Voice have these.
• Powerpuff Girls Z has two episodes that feature mind control. In "Charisma Biyōshi Monster!" ("Gigi the Great" in the dub), anyone hypnotised by the titular monster (Michel/Gilbert) has red eyes. In "Futari wa Torimakees!" ("Enter the Entourage" in the dub), people under the influence of the Torimakees get dark shadows under their eyes.
• In Dragon Ball GT, the eyes of Baby's possessed minions glow completely red.
  • In the Garlic Jr. arc for Dragon Ball Z, those infected by the Black Water Mist have pinkish eyes. Which leads to some Fridge Logic when it's revealed that Krillin was faking being infected even though he had pinkish eyes too, as he can't alter his body like Piccolo (also faking infection) can.
• In the Mazinger franchise (the Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer trilogy and other Mazinger series...) brainwashing, mind-control and hypnotism happened constantly. Usually the way to show the color of the sclera changed or the eyes became completely blank. An example was when Boss was hypnotized by Mechanical Beast Gumbina-M5: his sclera became greenish-yellow instead of white, and his pupils dilated.
• Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo! gets Mind-Control Eyes when Kagato directly controls her. As an extension, her eyes also change color to a light shade of green, the same color as Kagato's sword; a good example of Colour-Coded for Your Convenience.
• In episode 8 of the 2005 Ah! My Goddess TV show, Urd puts Keiichi under a kind of mind control to get him to kiss Belldandy, and he, of course, gets Mind-Control Eyes.
• Kohaku in Inuyasha is often shown in this situation.
  • The same happens to Kagome Higurashi twice: when Tsubaki the Dark Priestess curses her and when the evil baby Akago attempts to brainwash her through More than Mind Control. She breaks free pretty much on her own and delivers a Shut Up, Hannibal! speech to the culprit.
• In Hellsing Ultimate, when Alucard mind-controls someone, their eyes will typically glow like candle-flame like his. This is best illustrated in the scene when Alucard mind-controls a SWAT soldier into opening the doors of an elevator that a whole bunch of the soldier's buddies are packed in to try to escape him so that he can slaughter the whole lot of them.
• Variable Geo: Satomi's eyes are grey, but they occasionally turn day-glow blue during the early stages of the cyber drive project. Once the process is complete, they become blank white, like M. Bison's, and she speaks in Creepy Monotone.
• Subverted in Project A-Ko. When B-ko arrives for a timely rescue, C-ko is found with Mind-Control Eyes. B-ko thinks she's been drugged; however, on coming round, C-ko explains that she "wore herself out whining and crying".
• Digimon Adventure features Sora and Matt sulking in psychically-induced angst with this kind of eyes.
• Digimon Tamers: This trope is played straight with Rika in the movie. Her eyes go dull when Parisitemon possesses her.
• In Digimon Frontier, Kouichi has the dulled version of these while under the influence of Lucemon.
• Code Geass:
  • Lelouch's Magical Eye shows a variation, with a red sigil appearing when he uses his power. His targets, however, merely have a bright red outline around the iris that appropriately flickers, fades, and returns depending on whether the power is being fought, dispelled, or not in effect. Characters retain all normal ocular features. The staff actually reworked a scene from the first episode when it was released on DVD because the victims' reactions to Lelouch almost made this defy the "for the audience's benefit" part of the trope.
  • The manga adaptation of the series (the one that shares the exact same name, that is) uses a variation of the standard Mind-Control Eyes where the victims are shown with one eye turning white with a copy of the sigil inside for the duration of the effect.
• Kirika's pupils disappear in Noir when she goes into "Gray" mode (essentially a Heroic BSoD).
• Sailor Moon, under the influence of "Wise Man." This also happens with Mamoru whenever he's brainwashed by the enemy, to the victims of the Death Busters and/or Dead Moon Circus in S and Super S. This trope happens a LOT in that series.
  • Although she isn't technically possessed, Usagi gets these when she turns into Princess Serenity for the first time.
  • Similar to the above, Sailor Moon gets these at the climax of S, when she forcibly manifests her heart crystal and transforms into Super Sailor Moon without the aid of the Grail.
  • Hotaru gets these when The Messiah is in control. An especially creepy example since it comes with Red Eyes, Take Warning and Glowing Eyes of Doom, which flicker on and off again, as though there's somehow a loose electrical connection.
• Sailor Moon Crystal:
  • In Act 1, the jewelry store customers under the thrall of the Monster of the Week Morga's Hypno Trinkets gain glowing red eyes when she summons them as a mindless, Brainwashed and Crazy army to attack Sailor Moon.
  • In Act 2, Ami has the more traditional blank, Empty Eyes when under the effects of the Dark Kingdom's brainwashing program. They also change from a deep marine blue to a deep, dull green.
• Ikuto has them in Shugo Chara! on the first appearance of Death Rebel. Also the X-Egg/?-Egg victims usually have them.
• The inhabitants of Winia's hometown in Scrapped Princess all fall under this when a powerful Mauser magician orders them to kill Pacifica.
  • Oh, and humans under the effects of Providence get red eyes with green pupil-less irises. D-Knights likewise have yellow, cat-slitted eyes with green whites (excuse the expression).
• Anzu and Jounouchi get these eyes as well as an evil voice when they're mind-controlled by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! Something similar happens with Mokuba when he's under Pegasus' control just before his duel with Kaiba.
  • As 4Kids apparently didn't like those boring eyes, they decided to make it a little more "magic" and "mystical" using digitally-added red (Noah arc) and golden (Battle City finals) pupils.
  • Somewhat notably, Kaiba has these eyes when he calls Yugi in the first episode to tell him that he's kidnapped his grandfather, suggesting Kaiba was either not in complete control of himself or he was compelled by some outside force to call. However, this trope was seen for no reason during the first few volumes of the manga.
  • Mokuba also has these eyes during Kaiba's duel with Pegasus. In the dub, Téa remarks that "It's like he's been hypnotized".
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters has Joey take on crazed red eyes when corrupted. Appropriate, as he's merged with the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
  • Aki also goes through this in her Black Rose Witch persona in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.
  • Asuka in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX gets these when the big bad puts her into an apparently heartless state. Oddly enough, it's actually visible to the other characters. Her brother even notes that Judai shouldn't bother treating her like his (former) friend right now, it's pointless.
• Lina and Gourry in the last episodes of Slayers NEXT. Gourry gets them when he's captured and brainwashed by Phibrizzo. The same happens to Lina very briefly when she invokes the Lord of Nightmares through the Giga Slave and she takes over Lina's body to fight Phibrizzo in person.
• In Shakugan no Shana, most normal Torches have these.
• Mizkuki from Mokke gets these when she is overtaken by a very powerful spirit.
• Pokémon:
  • In Pokémon Adventures, any human under mind control usually have their irises shrunk, sometimes to the point of being blank scleras. This happened to Blue and Anabel.
  • In Pokémon: The Series, anyone under mind control would have their pupils disappear, leaving behind blank irises.
    • Though the move Attract typically immobilizes a Pokémon, giving them heart eyes, an evil Togepi from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl weaponizes Attract as a mind control method and thus the affected Pokémon have hypnotic, blank eyes.
    • Pokémon: The First Movie features a Nurse Joy under Mewtwo's mind control. The visual clue that something is off is her eyes, which are blank irises. When Mewtwo relieves her of the mind control, Joy's pupils return.
    • Pokémon 3. After Entei's cry of "You... are... MAMA!", Ash's mother Delia gains the eyes and is brainwashed into becoming little Molly's "mother". She snaps out of it when she sees Ash on television, trying to climb up the side of the huge crystal tower.
    • In Pokemon Arceusand The Jewel Of Life, the vilified Damos sports blank eyes when he seemingly betrays Arceus over the Jewel of Life. This is the first indication that Damos is not himself and sure enough, it's revealed he was under Bronzong's Hypnosis, sent by his underling Marcus who wants to keep the Jewel of Life rather than giving it back to Arceus.
• In Higurashi: When They Cry, characters get these eyes when they start the 'bad' kind of reminiscing. It's a step below Hellish Pupils on the anime's "things to run away from really fast" scale, and any onlookers will probably survive.
  • More of a step above, considering that the Mind-Control Eyes are actually, well, real.
  • In Umineko: When They Cry, Battler has this happen to him when he's forced to marry Erika Furudo in EP6.
    • And to similar effect in the anime, when he surrenders to Beatrice and becomes her furniture.
• Mytho from Princess Tutu has this happen to his eyes after Kraehe rips out his heart. They even change shape.
• In Chrono Crusade, this happens to Rosette when Aion kidnaps and brainwashes her.
• In Ghost Stories, Satsuki's best friend Momoko Koigakubo gets them thrice when possessed by the ghost of Satsuki's mother, a dead but still powerful psychic and exorcist.
• Cowboy Bebop: They're used in "Mushroom Samba" to indicate people under the influence.
• Hikaru and Umi in Magic Knight Rayearth, when they come under control of the dancing illusionist Caldina. The three girls also get this when confronting the Masshin. And in the anime, Hikaru gets these on her own when mentally-attacked by Nova as Sierra tries to re-create her sword.
  • When Lafarga is brainwashed, he gets MCE too.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi Evangeline practices this on Setsuna for her apparent Secret Test of Character; Setsuna assumed it was a battle to test her will. Eva went along with it.
  • Negi himself gets the Eyes when hit by The World Tree love spell.
• Characters sport mind control eyes for different reasons in Zatch Bell!: it usually happens when a character is shocked and at a loss for words. In Kiyo's case, it is usually accompanied by a dumb-founded smile.
• Inverted in Soul Eater. Since Maka normally doesn't have pupils, when she is in a trance, she gains pupils instead of losing them.
• Rhiannon from Tears to Tiara gets these eyes when she is forced to give up her True Name to the evil high priest Drwc. Ironically, the one who frees her spirit is the same Demon King that Drwc wanted to sacrifice her to in the first place.
• Little boy Keto and the rest of the other villagers of the unnamed village in Tears to Tiara 2 when the main characters happen upon their village.
• Happens several times to various characters in D.N.Angel, most notably when Daisuke is taken inside a work of art and hypnotized into painting a place for a spirit to live in.
• In The Castle of Cagliostro, Lady Clarisse has pupil-less eyes as a result of being drugged for her wedding so she would not speak up.
• In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou Ran gets these upon being taken over by her Dark Dragon/Kokuryuu powers.
  • On the other hand, in one of the Hachiyou Shou OAVs this effect is used on Yasuaki's shikigami to indicate that she is, well, a shikigami.
  • For people aside from Ran, Hachiyou Shou TV also uses a different variation — pupils shrinking to dots, without visible iris (this happens to victims of Shirin's hypnotic abilities).
• Flat eyes are used several times in Ghost Hunt to denote possessed people.
• Subverted in episode 11 of The Daughter of Twenty Faces when Chiko notices the mind control eyes (which appear as concentric circles instead of flat).
• Mafuyu in Student Council's Discretion when Minatsu brainwashes her into deciding Ken is her enemy. Then they turn red.
• Shows up on occasion in the Ranma ½ anime, but not in the manga. Usually, it's Ranma Saotome (particularly in male form) who gets them; one anime episode has him hypnotized by an evil sorceress's ghost, while another episode has him being controlled by his evil side brought to independent life as an Opposite-Sex Clone.
• Happens to Leo Aiolia in Saint Seiya after the Pope uses his mind-control powers to bend him to his will.
• Hansel from Fairy Musketeers displays these for most of the series. It's later lampshaded when his sister, Gretel notes that she can tell another character is being controlled by the same sort of spell by the look in his eyes.
• In episode five of Betrayal Knows My Name a little girl gets these when possessed by a demon.
• An interesting version in Bakugan Gundalian Invaders. When kids are brainwashed, their eyes turn gold with slitted pupils. Not only is this noticed by the heroes, but they check the eyes of everyone to tell who is brainwashed or not.
• This happened to Eureka in Eureka Seven starting end of vol 4. The Scab Coral took control of her.
  • That already was the case with Dewey's little soldiers.
• In Naruto, a phantom image of the Sharingan's tomoes appears over the iris of people or creatures being controlled by one, though this is typically seen only when the control is established or weakens. Seen with Manda, Yagura, and Kyuubi.
  • A variation crossed with Black Eyes of Evil is seen with Kabuto's variation of Edo Tensei. The sclera of the victim's eyes are permanently black; the iris remains the same color unless full control is exerted, at which point they become dull and lifeless.
  • When the Infinite Tsukiyomi is triggered by Madara, everyone who falls under its genjutsu has their eyes replaced by the Rinnegan.
• This happens in Death Note, though oddly not with everyone whose actions are controlled by the Note - just the women controlled into committing suicide.
• Mind control eyes are the indicator that Motoko of Change123 has let Zero out and whoever caused said eyes has about five seconds to make their peace, cause a major ass beating is about to ensue.
• Subversion: Stocking's eyes have a look very similar to these in the The Stinger of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, however, it is unknown if their appearance hold meaning at all.
• Chrome gets these when under the influence of Daemon Spade's mind control in Reborn! (2004).
• Alviss gets this when being mind-controlled by Phantom in MÄR.
• In episode 21 of D.N.Angel Daisuke gets these when under a trance by Freedert.
• In one episode of Rosario + Vampire, Tsukune falls prey to a very beautiful math teacher, who insists on giving him extra lessons alone together so that he can bump up his grade in the class. But it soon becomes obvious that Tsukune's sudden proficiency in math has caused him to become a formula-spewing zombie with hazy eyes and no personality. Turns out that the math teacher is a lamia and was controlling him via a weird flower-like appendage on the tip of her tail that latched onto his head and presumably fed him knowledge while sucking out unnecessary thoughts, like his friends and social life. He returns to normal after Moka kicks the lady's ass in her super-vampire form.
• In Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo, when Cruje Gapp gets mind-controlled, these eyes are shown.
• In Hayate the Combat Butler, Nagi gets these when she is being hypnotized.
• A Certain Scientific Railgun: Shokuho Misaki has permanent golden star designs in her eyes, and these show up in the eyes of the people she mind controls. The stars in her eyes are commented on, but no one ever mentions the stars in anyone else's eyes, so it might just be something to show the audience what is happening.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: When Nia is awakened as a Manchurian Agent, her eyes and hair become dim and less colorful.
• Kämpfer: When the villainous Kaede entrances protagonist Natsuru seeing an opportunity to have him go and break his unwanted-haremette Shizuku (who trusts him and is a nuisance to her), Natsuru's eyes become flat-colored until he snaps out of it.
• Panzer World Galient: In episode 3, Jordy's pupils fade and only his blue irises are visible as his mind is being controlled by the spirit within Galient.
• Happens to everyone who got brainwashed by the Despair Anime in both sides of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.
• In Durarara!!, anyone using Saika at any given time will have bright red eyes that somewhat glow. In the series, Saika Children are identified by these eyes, however the uninformed — such as Vorona — can mistake the possession for some kind of virus or infection.
• Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead: Akira develops these after running into Kosugi again and being browbeaten back into servitude. Akira's Trauma Button is so thoroughly mashed that his mind goes completely blank and he reacts on instinct the way he did back at work. He admits that he doesn't remember a thing between starting to work for Kosugi again and Shizuka snapping him out of it because of how terrified and mindlessly obedient he was.
• Ayakashi Triangle: When the Gogyosen take over Boy Matsuri, he has Dull Eyes of Unhappiness that sometimes includes a glowing pentagram, the symbol the casters are sitting around.
• Senki Zesshō Symphogear XV: Milaarc possesses the ability to hypnotize people which is indicated by her pupils becoming a distinct gold fractal pattern. This pattern is shown when Tsubasa gets hypnotized by either Milaarc or her own grandfather Fudo (who has been Running Both Sides), as her eyes briefly flash that same pattern before she falls into compliance. This also happens when Miku is being possessed by Shem-ha as her eyes become piercing dark eyes with a red ring around the pupils, which are seen in Shem-ha's original body. Later on, when Shem-ha briefly possesses Vanessa to activate Yggdrasil, Vanessa's eyes change to the same distinct eyes.

Asian Animation

• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Intriguing Alien Guests, any time Wolffy is being controlled by the Bacteria King, his pupils turn purple.

Comic Books

• Animorphs: When the protagonists acquire an animal's DNA, it goes into a trance, which is represented in the graphic novels by having swirly patterns in their eyes.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW):
  • In the first issue, a bunch of ponies (including the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Silver Spoon, and some background ponies from the show) and various animals have these. Unlike in the show's season 2 finale, these eyes are noticed instantly.
  • In the short How Much Is That Pony In The Window? Pinkie Pie gets this when the jingle of an ice-cream wagon distracts her from modelling for Rarity.
• When he is under Dracula's thrall in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 10, Xander's eye is a dull brown as if it has stopped reflecting light, which makes him look slightly off.
• In the Spirou & Fantasio comics, people under the influence of the Zorglonde (or Zorgwave) get pearly white eyes. This is noticed by at least one character.
• Superman:
  • In 2008 story arc Way of the World, Supergirl's eyes emit a purple radiance as she's under a mind-controlling spell.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), when Kara is being mind-controlled by Darkseid, their irises become red and without pupils, even though she isn't charging her heat vision.
  • In Superman/Batman #77, Kara gets glowing red eyes when she is under the influence of Scarecrow's fear toxin.
  • Subverted in Superman vs. Shazam!: When Superman is attacked by Captain Marvel, he notices Marvel's eyes are giving off an odd intense glow, and he -and readers- assumes someone is controlling him. Shortly after, it is revealed the glowing eyes were part of a Karmang's glamour spell disguising Black Adam.
• In Violine, Francois gets these after being hypnotized by Marushka.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Hypnota's victims have a Thousand-Yard Stare and sometimes the blue of her "bule hypnotic ray" is visible in their eyes while under her control.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): When Doctor Psycho fully takes over any of his victims their eyes look bulging with the veins around them sticking out.

Comic Strips

• Phoebe and Her Unicorn parodies the trope in this strip. When Phoebe tries to hypnotize Marigold, it seems to work until the unicorn reveals that she's "just showing off [her] new Spell of Eye-Swirling".

Fan Works

• The Child of Love: In the final chapter Asuka’s eyes are blank as Gendo is controlling her.
  Her eyes appear to be empty of all life, suggesting that she's either sleepwalking, or...possessed by something...or someone.
• In the 5th chapter of the Neon Genesis Evangelion fic "NonNeglecting Week", Asuka hypnotizes Fuyutsuki. While he's under a trance, he's described as having a "glazed over" look in his eyes.
• In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, every pony under the control of Envy in the climax has her red eyes in place of their own. They also speak in her voice.
• In Ginny Weasley: Double Life, Ginny is left with these after she is hypnotised by the serpent Milikan, but Word of God affirms that Ginny's eyes will return to normal whenever she is not in Milikan's presence even if she will continue to obey Milikan's 'orders'.
  • Also applies to many of those hypnotised in the spin-off one-shots in Tales From The Hypnoverse.
• In fanfic X-Men 1970, the leader of an extremist group believes Marvel Girl has been captured by one of his men... until he sees his glassy eyes and realizes he has been under her control all along.
  "Walter," said Carter. "You were gone a long time. What went down up there, Walter? Walter?"
  Walter wasn't answering. Jean moved away from in front of him. Carter saw Walter's eyes, as glassy as a zombie's.
• Guys Being Dudes: According to Blanche, when someone is possessed by a Pokemon, their eyes may appear an unusual color or not reflect and they won't blink when exposed to bright light.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time: Anyone hypnotised by Chandelure has visible blue flames in their eyes. Also, anyone under the control of the Red Chain has glowing red eyes.

Films — Animation

• A clip from 9 shows this happening to one of the characters due to some hypnoflashy lights. What makes this interesting is the aforementioned character is a sapient ragdoll and his eyes are camera shutters.
• Barbie:
  • In Barbie & The Diamond Castle, those under the villain's mind-control spell get a green glow in their eyes.
  • In Barbie: A Fairy Secret: Crystal's love potion adds the color red to the eyes of the victim who drinks it; it turned Graciella's blue eyes purple.
• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: The students get glowing Blank White Eyes when on the receiving end of Poopypants' anti-humor ray.
• Disney Animated Canon:
  • In The Little Mermaid (1989), upon seeing Vanessa singing on the beach for the first time, her seashell amulet emits a mist that entrances Eric. It can be seen filling the pupils of Eric's eyes with an eerie yellow glow. This shows up later, but it's not as obvious. It mostly shows up in a glint in his eyes, although you can tell mostly through his mannerisms.
  • Kaa's eyes in the adaptation of The Jungle Book turn psychedelic and colorful, as do his victim's eyes when hypnotized. Though this is not the origin of this image, it may be the source of its popularity. Also happens to Baloo when he's caught up in the music of King Louie and the Monkeys.
  • Aladdin: This happens when Jafar hypnotizes the Sultan using his Magic Staff.
  • In Atlantis: The Lost Empire, when Kida is exposed to light coming from the Atlantean Crystal, her eyes actually become a much lighter shade of blue than usual.
  • In Home on the Range, the cows get these when falling under the spell of Alameda Slim's hypnotic yodeling.
• In Finding Nemo, would-be vegetarian shark Bruce's eyes turn solid black (which is what great white's eyes normally look like anyway) when he can't control his urge to eat fish.
• In Hotel Transylvania, those who are "vampnotized" by Dracula get pulsing red eyes. In the TV series, they get concentric red circles instead.
• In Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, when Abraham Van Helsing uses his music to control the Kraken, its eyes burn bright red.
• In Incredibles 2, everyone under the Screenslaver's hypnosis has a vacant stare on their face.
• Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School: When the ghoul girls are mind controlled by Revolta, their eyes get spinning spirals or outlined ripples in them.
• Also happens in The Secret of NIMH, when Jeremy is mesmerized by Mrs. Brisby's "sparkly".
• There is a variation on this in WALL•E... when WALL•E appears to have lost his personality after EVE repairs him, his normally expressive eyes appear non-emotional to the point of being disturbing.
• Wreck-It Ralph: When the beacon is lit, the Cy-Bugs' and Virus King Candy's eyes change from green to blue.
• Zootopia: Any animal who has been affected by Night Howler syrum will have their eyes change their appearance to resemble that of their species in real life (Mr. Otterton's eyes become dilated, Manchas' become slitted, etc.)

Films — Live-Action

• In 28 Days Later, Infection is signaled by the victim's eyes turning red (very shortly followed by lethal aggression against anyone nearby). In the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, one character's heterochromia offers some very valuable information this way.
• An interesting variant in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. When Costello's character looks into the eyes of a woman hypnotized by Dracula, he sees the image of a flying bat in the irises.
• In Big Trouble in Little China, the eyes of David Lo Pan's two would-be brides turn pure white when they are being mentally controlled.
• Bird Box: Those affected by the creatures have their eyes go bloodshot. Crazy survivors have less pronounced changes, but enough that it's easy to tell them apart with a quick look.
• Cesare the Sohnambulist, in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, who is kept in a continuous state of hypnosis by the titular Dr. Caligari. The scene of Calagari awakening Cesare focusing heavily on him opening his entranced, blank eyes, is quite disturbing.
• In Cube Zero, the mind-controlled soldiers have green eyes whenever they're "activated".
• In the 1996 Doctor Who film, the temporary companion of the Doctor had the Fully-Black eyes when she was under mind control. And it applied In-Universe because she couldn't activate an eye scan in this state.
• In Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981), whenever a character is possessed by a Kandarian spirit, they become grotesquely ugly, and their eyes in particular are affected, prompting a memorable line that serves as the page quote.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Victor Krum, when under the Imperius Curse, has glazed-over eyes. It makes you wonder how Death Eaters got away with the Imperius defense at the end of the First Wizarding War when anyone could tell when someone was affected by it. It's noted that this is likely a change done for the purpose of giving a visual cue to the audience when someone is under the Imperius Curse since in the books, those under the spell's influence have a generic vacant expression.
  • Fanon often solves the problem by having it be very noticeable when done hastily, and perfectly hidden when done carefully.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron: Those under the control of the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter have their eyes turn pitch black momentarily, then turning into the same shade of blue as the scepter.
  • Those under the influence of Wanda Maximoff's visions have a visible red mist in their eyes. And in WandaVision, those who are completely under her control have their eyes glow a bright red, as seen when she possesses Tyler Hayward's men and compels them to point their guns at Hayward.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Peter Quill's pupils change to a sky blue when under Ego's influence.
• Neil Gaiman uses this a fair amount as well: in MirrorMask, when Helena gets brainwashed, her eyes turn jet black (just like those of the Dark Queen), and it goes away after she is back to normal.
• Nightbooks: The original Gingerbread House is irresistibly alluring and gives rainbow swirled eyes as victims mindlessly consume its candy building material.
• In Scanners II: The New Order, Officer Gelson's eyes turn milky white when David and Julie take over his body to infiltrate Dr. Morse's lab.
• X2: X-Men United: People under the influence of Stryker's mind-control serum exhibit pale, colourless irises, a fact that's highlighted very early in the film by closeups of Nightcrawler's face during his attack on the White House, as he doesn't sport his distinctive yellow eyes until after a bullet to the shoulder awakens him from his trance. Later, when Deathstryke is fatally wounded by Wolverine in their climactic battle, her eyes revert to their natural dark brown as a visual shorthand for her dying as herself.

Literature

• The Beginning After the End: When Agrona temporarily possesses the now-human Sylvie in order to talk to Arthur, her gold eyes change into Red Eyes, Take Warning.
• Coraline, also written by Neil Gaiman, involves sewing buttons onto people's eyes as a method of brainwashing. Both this and the Mirrormask equivalent are used by an Evil Matriarch clone of the regular mother, with these exact eyes herself.
• In A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Charles Wallace is subjected to telepathic mind control by an oversized brain referred to as IT. As this occurs, his pupils shrink until they disappear, leaving blank blue eyes.
• Victor, Ginger, Dibbler and others swept up in the Holy Wood craze of Moving Pictures have a tiny gold star appear at the center of each pupil.
• The final book of The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, uses a mix between the unfocused and dilated pupils. Peeta's eyes are even shown to rapidly dilate and contract in short order when he's Fighting from the Inside.
• Book the Fourth of A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Miserable Mill. On the cover, Klaus is shown with what appears to be these. It is even implied in the book, with his blank stare and wide-open eyes.
• Artemis Fowl has a variation: Someone who's been Mind Controlled repeatedly has bloodshot eyes and jagged pupils, but no other symptoms.
• In The Host (2008) a Soul-possessed human's eyes develop a silvery eye shine (given that the Souls' tissue and blood is silvery in color, this may or may not make a slight bit of sense). This is somewhat portrayed on the book's cover, though, as only part of the pupil appears silver, instead of the "all of it" kind of portion you'd get from eye shine. This is likely to show that Melanie is partially in control.
• Gerard in Theodore Sturgeon's short story "Baby Is Three" (which is the central section of his novel More Than Human) has this power. His psychiatrist's reaction to being put under his control:
  Dr. Stern: My God, I didn't look at those eyes before. I could have sworn those irises spun like wheels ...
• During the aerial Wizard Duel in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry sees Stan Shunpike fighting for the Death Eaters, but also sees in his eyes that he's been Imperioused. This prompts him to disarm him rather than stun him—and this, unfortunately, blows his cover.
• In My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, anyone who is under Frankie the goldfish's influence develops what the narrator calls a "goldfish stare".
• In The Mouse Watch, Dr. Thornpaw captures Ernie Mortenson, an elderly human security guard at the Statue of Liberty, and uses him as a test subject for his mind control formula. Ernie's eyes change hue several times before finally turning "an unearthly, sickly yellow color", indicating that the formula works.
• In the Warrior Cats book The Place of No Stars, Ashfur's enslaved ghosts are described as having pupilless, eerily blank eyes.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who used to love doing the "unfocused eyes" version.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Whenever Lestat de Lioncourt freezes time, the humans under his spell have cloudy eyes.
• Jessica Jones (2015): Kilgrave's victims don't look outwardly any different during the time period before his powers wear off, which is why people don't believe them afterwards. Their own vision, though, does take on purple tints.
• Occurs in the 2013 Halloween Episode of Jessie. In a parody of Ghostbusters, Luke and Emma become possessed by ghost to summon a powerful demon and have extremely dark red eyes. Fortunately, it was All Just a Dream.
• Kamen Rider Ghost has an interesting example. The series in general has a motif of eyes, but the third Rider in the series, Kamen Rider Necrom, has an iris pattern on his faceplate that is surrounded by a circular translucent visor when his transformation is completed. The other Riders have blank faceplates. Thus, when Alain forces Makoto (Kamen Rider Specter) to transform using the Necrom Eyecon, putting him under mind control, the resulting transformation has the translucent visor over a blank faceplate, evoking the standard solid-color-eye image.
• Lab Rats: Anyone who is under the effects of the Triton App will have their eyes get green tech symbols in them.
• When Kahlan confesses people in Legend of the Seeker, both her and their eyes go totally black for a period. And it shows it every time she confesses someone.
• Merlin (2008): In the Season 2 premiere, when Cornelius possesses someone (Cedric, Merlin) their eyes temporarily turn black.
• In the original season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Tommy's eyes periodically glowed neon green when he was under Rita's control — usually at points when the spell was asserting itself over what he would do normally, although it also happened whenever it would look the most menacing and nobody was around to see.
• Power Rangers Beast Morphers: In "Hypnotic Halloween", the team gets swirling blue eyes when they get brainwashed by a movie.
• In Smallville:
  • "Hug": Chloe's eyes briefly turn green when she is mind controlled and kisses Clark.
  • "Delete": Lana's eyes briefly glow with green symbols when she is mind-controlled. She immediately finds Chloe and beats the living daylights out of her.
  • "Persuasion": When Clark gets mind control as a temporary ability, Lois and Chloe's eyes both glow purple as he bends them to his will.
  • "Warrior": Zatanna's mind control causes the target's eyes to briefly glow blue.
• Supernatural:
  • One of the sure signs that someone is possessed by a demon is a flash of completely black eyes. Particularly powerful demons show other colors in the eyes they possess — Azazel shows yellow eyes, while Lilith and Alastair show white eyes.
  • Sam's eyes glow blue when his body is being controlled by the angel Ezekiel.
• In The Umbrella Academy, anyone on the receiving end of Allison's "rumors" will have their eyes fog over and turn completely white before returning to normal after receiving the command.

Music

• The music video for "Hypnodancer" by Little Big features these on people mesmerized by the hypnodance.

Theatre

• Rudolf in the 2016 Toho production of Elisabeth. It's very noticeable on the proshot, especially during "Yami ga hirogaru". His eyes flicker rapidly between blankness and distress as he struggles with Death's Mind Control.

Video Games

• In MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3, when Qualna controlled the King of Goznor, his eyes glowed solid pink. Not to be confused with the three priests so far who have similar eyes; in them, it's proof of their devotion to YALORT or SOLAK and the power their deity has granted them.
• Batman: Arkham Series:
  • In Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman's eyes glow red when he is under the effects of Scarecrow's gas
  • And, in Batman: Arkham Knight, Batman's eyes glow green whenever Joker — who spends the game as a Tyler Durden-esque figment of his imagination following his death in Arkham City — gets close to/succeeds in coaxing the Dark Knight into indulging some of his character traits, chiefly his sadistic brutality.
• Due to the large number of Brainwashed and Crazy in Super Robot Wars, this shows up a lot, especially on females.
• Drakengard:
  • The soldiers of the Union often refer to the soldiers of The Empire as "red-eyed devils" because the only thing they can see out of their face-concealing helmets is the red glow of their eyes. Later, when Inuart is brainwashed by the empress, he also gains Mind-Control Eyes similar to the Imperial soldiers.
  • Of course, Manah (the Empress) herself is just a plaything for the local Eldritch Abomination, and so her Red Eyes, Take Warning are also Mind Control Eyes.
• EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Victims of magical mind control normally have their eyes dulled out, most commonly seen with Miku once she's under Blackberry's spell.
• Terra sports a pair of these while under Kefka's control in Dissidia 012: Duodecim.
• In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Terra and Zack Fair have this happen to them when Maleficent and Hades manipulate the darkness within their hearts respectively.
• In the last one-sixth of The World Ends with You, everyone with Red Skull pins falls under Kitaniji's mind control, and their eyes turn solid red, and all they can say is:
  To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be...
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Ninian has these when she opens the Dragon's Gate. An arriving Nils is able to snap her out of it (and regain her memory!) before she completely summoned a dragon. There is also a part later on when Nergal attempts to take Nils, and Nils likewise has pupil-less eyes to indicate that Nergal had put him in a trance.
  • And from Fire Emblem Fates, Takumi displays similar pupil-less eyes when he's under Demonic Possession from the true Big Bad of the game.
• Half-lampshaded in Digimon World. A late-game boss's eyes look normal from the camera angle. The main character takes one look at the eyes and concludes it's brainwashed.
• Friday Night Funkin' Vs Chira: When singing one of the special spiral notes, Boyfriend makes a confused face with swirlies in his eyes and regains a significant amount of Hit Points. Whether he does this to go along with the song, or the opposite, to resist Chira's influence, is left to one's interpretation.
• Two variations in the Rival Schools series:
  • In United By Fate, anyone under the influence of Justice High's brainwashing has red pupils.
  • In Project Justice, the Darkside Council's ending has all the brainwashed students in the background with these eyes.
• Kohak Hearts in Tales of Hearts has these and a blank expression on her portrait after she becomes playable but before her soul is fully restored. After she's fully healed, she gets normal eyes and a smile.
• Rika in the second of the Devil Angel Jibril games get flat red eyes when she is corrupted by Rokoko. Also overlaps with Red Eyes, Take Warning, since her eyes are normally brown (in civilian form) or green (Holy Angel form). Hikari in the third game averts this, since her eyes turn gold when she is corrupted by Fateus but otherwise retain their luster.
• Two different flavours are used in the Sam & Max: Freelance Police series. The First season uses spinning spirals in the eyes to denote those under Hugh Bliss's hypnotic control. The Third season have Girl Stinky and Sal being enthralled by an Eldritch Abomination, and their eyes (even Sal's normally completely black eyes) are entirely milky white.
• In Legacy of Kain characters under Hylden mind control sport glowing green eyes, which can flicker back to indicate a battle for control
• Miitopia:
  • If a Mii is mind controlled by the "Pharaoh's curse" status effect, its eyes become Egyptian Pharaoh-shaped.
  • If a Mii has the "evil" status effect, it gets red eyes with black sclerae.
• In Puyo Puyo 7, when under the influence of Ecolo, Arle's eyes turn into a flatter color, accompanied by a half-closed eyelid.
  • Satan pretends to suffer the same fate in its sequel.
  • In Puyo Puyo Tetris, Raffina, Rulue, and Feli lose the white dots in their eyes after getting controlled by the Puyo and Tetris worlds merging.
  • In the precursor game, Madou Monogatari, the bosses under the control of the big bad have various forms of this.
• Hex Maniacs have them in the Japanese releases of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. For whatever reason, this was altered in international versions.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, the Hex Maniacs return, using the swirl-eye variant, and this is kept in the international versions.
• In Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Kwolok gets glowing white eyes while possessed by the Stink Spirit, and the corrupted Mora has bioluminescent green eyes matching the Cordyceps-like fungus parasitizing her.
• Strange Flesh: Anyone who stays too long in the titular bar will eventually gain pink hypno eyes.
• In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, King Dedede is seen with bright red pupils to show he's under the Big Bad's mind control.
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: When a dinosaur gets charmed by the Perfume-Shroom, their pupils are replaced by hearts.
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Any Goron who eats marbled rock roast becomes completely obsessed with devouring as much as they can find, to the point of doing nothing but munch all day. As a sign that something evil is going on, affected Gorons' eyes glow a shade of fuschia that matches the color of the rock roast. Once Link and Yunobo defeat Marbled Gohma in the Fire Temple, the rock roast vanishes and the Gorons are freed from its spell, which is signified by their eyes going back to normal.

Visual Novels

• Touko in one of the endings of Suika.
• Fate/stay night, Bad End 18. When Caster takes control of Issei and uses him to kill Shirou, the whites of his eyes turn red.
• Galaxy Angel: In the third game of the first trilogy, Eternal Lovers, Lushati's eyes turn dull and empty whenever Wein is controlling her. It's explained that the tiara she wears is actually and mind-control device, and as a Valfask he's able to control it remotely.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner: At the end of the Strong Bad Email "cartoon", Strong Bad gets swirling eyes from staring at the green lines on the Tandy for too long.
• RWBY: Those in the presence of the monstrous Apathy - which drain one's willpower with their mere presence - have their irises become dull and monochrome, as well as partially shutting.
• Spooky Month:
  • Those who stare into the Eyes of the Universe gain big, teal eyes and are rendered at least partially catatonic, and encourage others to look as well.
  • Characters gain small swirl eyes that slowly spin when under the control of the Piper's music.

Web Comics

• In The Order of the Stick, swirly mind-control eyes are visible to the other characters, rather than simply an artistic convention. (The X-eyes representing death are also visible to other characters. One character even draws them over a live character's eyes to fake death.) In another case, the paladin Thanh takes on Tsukiko's heterochromia when he's put under her "Dominate Person" spell. One comic also refers to the trope by using the swirl pattern on its panels to show what's going on in the mind of enchanted characters.
• In Gunnerkrigg Court, when Antimony almost becomes a victim of Body Surfing, her pupils turn a flat blue. Loss of consciousness due to a head injury had a similar effect. Gamma, too, when she's passing out from exhaustion. This is actually the only time we get to see her eye color at all, which incidentally seems to be hazel.
• A stick-figure filler strip for Sluggy Freelance lampshades and plays with the swirly-eyed version: Torg gets hit on the head and thus has swirly eyes to represent his concussion, but then when a convenient coincidence leads to him wearing a top hat and having a moustache drawn on, he immediately becomes a mind-controlling hypnotist.
• Chris Mann (aka "Charisman") in WCI High finds his charisma-based superpowers useful for getting dates.
• Stephen's eyes after being possessed in Fake News Rumble keeping in theme with purple denoting the presence of evil.
• Reginald in Nedroid knows a good trick.
• In Rusty and Co., Madeline's after she's been dominated by a vampire.
• Those who fall under Zenith's Mind Control in Commander Kitty tend to turn blue and have their eyes bug out. They're actually robot clones briefly suffering Glamour Failure.
• The anime-style "blank eyes" occur all the time in Squid Ops.
• Happens to an onion in Mountain Time. This despite the fact that the onions have been demonstrated not to actually HAVE eyes.
• In Bear Nuts. when Sara hypnotizes all of the male bears except for Gay and Tanked with her pheromones, their irises turn brown and their pupils disappear.
• In Homestuck, Meulin's eyes flash between shades of purple when she's being controlled by Kurloz's "chucklevoodoos".
• Though the art of Wake of the Clash does not usually portray eye color, save for extreme close-ups, Clash’s eyes can be seen to be purple once the effects of Sabre’s mind control have taken over. This is later reflected in Sabre’s own eyes in chapter 2, perhaps indicating his constant sustained hold over Clash.

Web Original

• A red-write frame is used in Captain Gamer: OOC. Slightly subverted in that it's actually noticeable for the characters, and would probably go unnoticed if the Captain hadn't called attention to it.
• In The Impossible Man, characters who were subjected to mind control, had their eyes described as being red and pupil-less.

Western Animation

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series: In "DeVil-Age Elder", when someone is under the mindlessly happy curse of DeVil Ville, their eyes become pink swirls. The one-off character Rebecca has monochromatic pink pupils for eyes when under the curse herself unlike the others, which turn blue when Spot snaps her out.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Characters normally have their pupils replaced with red spirals when hypnotized, usually by the effects of Jimmy's Hypno Beam.
• The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: In "Oh, Brother!" when Mario is under control of Kooky von Koopa's Lame Brainer, his pupils turn red and he talks robotically.
• Aladdin: Both the film and TV series employ this. In the film, whenever Jafar uses his cobra-staff to entrance the Sultan, his eyes become spirals. In one episode of the TV series, when Mirage entrances the entire city of Agrabah into a sleeping spell save Aladdin himself everyone under its effects have their pupils completely vanish.
• Amphibia:
  • "Children of the Spore": Anne, Sprig and Polly get glowing purple eyes when being mind controlled by Apothecary Gary.
  • When Marcy is possessed by the Core in Season 3, she gets a myriad of orange eyes with yellow pupils on an Eye-Obscuring Hat.
  • "Commander Anne": The wildlife of Amphibia have glowing violet eyes when under control of King Andrias' mind control collars.
• Animaniacs used the spiral eyes version in a short involving Rasputin's hypnosis of the Czar.
• Arthur:
  • "D.W.'s Name Game": Arthur gets the spiral variant in a fantasy sequence in which D.W. turns him into her "obedient hypno-brother."
  • "What Is That Thing?": When Francine hypnotizes her cat, Nemo, he gets the spiral variant briefly before his pupils contract.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The victims of A Clockwork Orange-reminiscent brainwashing have their pupils dilate, nearly enveloping the iris.
  • "The Ember Island Players": Parodied; brainwashing is represented with googly eyes.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Everyone who is under the mind control effect of The Purple Man has purple pupils.
• Back at the Barnyard: "Hypno-a-Go-Go", those who are under hypnosis get black/gold spirals in their eyes.
• The Batman: When a mixture of Kryptonite dust and mind control spores are used on Superman, his eyes glow green.
• Big City Greens:
  • "Blood Moon": The farm animals have glowing red eyes when under the spell of the Halloween blood moon.
  • "Green Mirror": The Greens minus Tilly have shrunken pencil point eyes with Exhausted Eye Bags after becoming flawless in Gwendolyn Zapp's Flawless You project.
  • "Sellouts": The eyes of Tilly's customer Angela turn pink with yellow sclerae when attempting to make a "personal connection" with her through eye contact.
  • "Squashed!": The Big Citygoers get glowing pink-purple eyes when possessed by the mutated pumpkin zombies.
• Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot: In "All You Need Is...", when Oopsy douses himself with Grizzle's love perfume, the other bears get heart eyes when Oopsy passes by, followed by Big Anime Eyes when the perfume's spell takes full effect and they become clingy for him.
• Castlevania (2017): In Season 3, the Magician's mind control magic causes those he enslaves to exhibit blank, green-glowing pupils and irises.
• Centurions: In "Whalesong", Doc Terror hires frustrated composer Madame Arpeggio to create a phony whalesong that hypnotizes the peaceful creatures, then commands them to destroy all humans. The affected whales have bloodshot eyes that revert to normal when Terror's influence is broken.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Two episodes involve most of the Rangers getting mind-controlled. Those under its effects had their pupils go from being fully rounded to tiny little barely-there dots. However, thanks to some animation errors there's a couple of times in one of them where Gadget's eyes appear normal even though she's under mind control.
• Clone High: In "The Crown: Joancoming: It's a Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World," Cleo goes power-hungry thanks to the Homecoming crown, which can hypnotize people. Anyone enslaved by Cleo gets pink rings around their pupils.
• Code Lyoko: Mind-controlled animals and humans have an interesting variation: their pupils are replaced with the "Eye of XANA" symbol. The protagonists can see it, if they are looking for it. And sometimes the "Eye of XANA" flickers a little (which makes it look cooler). However, if XANA needs mind-controlled humans to look normal, their eyes will change back to normal temporarily. This doesn't always happen, though.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation: D.A.T.E.", the Delightful Children mind control a lot of kids causing them to get glowing blue eyes. "Operation: Z.E.R.O." reveals that the Delightfuls' own eyes — icy blue with visible sclera — are this, a result of the delightfulization process that Father inflicted upon them. When briefly transformed into their true selves — Sector Z of the Kids Next Door - they all have the same Black Bead Eyes as nearly every other character.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: One episode Le Quack hypnotize Eustace and Muriel through television to steal money and gold for him. Their mind-control is noticed by the purple spirals in their eyes, which are emitting from the screen.
• Danny Phantom: The color of the characters' eyes signal many things, including possessed characters having the same eye color as the ghost who possessed them. Usually, everyone seems unaware of this, although when Danny Phantom splits himself into a ghost self and a human self in one episode and the ghost Danny overshadows the human Danny, the human Danny checked his eyes in a mirror as soon as he'd forced the ghost Danny out. In an example that crosses over with Red Eyes, Take Warning, when Danny is hypnotized by Freakshow, his pupils turn red, and (as time goes on) he gains dark rings under his eyes.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In "The Muffin King", Dad pulls a Jedi Mind Trick on Dexter to entice him into getting Mom's muffins, causing his eyes to be replaced with red ripples. It works until Dee Dee arrives to snap him out of it.
• Descendants: Wicked World: Mal gets an infernal green glow in her eyes when under the curse of her birthright jewel.
• Dinosaucers: In "Trick or Cheat", Sarah's friends easily tell that she's hypnotized because her expression is of one under a trance.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "Look Into My Eds", whoever gets affected by the hypnosis pinwheel will get black and white spiral eyes like it, followed by Blank White Eyes once they receive an order.
• Elena of Avalor:
  • "Song of the Sirenas": Elena gets glowing green eyes when under the spell of Marisa's siren song.
  • "Team Isa": Anyone who is under Tito's Mind-Control Music will have a blue glow in their eyes.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Whoever is affected with Jorgon's memory erasing neuralizer device will get dizzy swirls for eyes.
  • "Super Bike": Timmy has them when being manipulated by the epynomous bike into labandoning his family and friends to hang out woth him more. It stops working when Super Bike tries to convince him his father doesn't love him anymore.
  • "So Totally Spaced Out": Cosmo and Wanda get them when the Gigglepies enchant them with their "fluffy alien cuteness".
  • "Crocker Shocker": Mr. Crocker gets the spiral variant when his therapist is hypnotizing him into not believing in fairies.
  • "Turner & Pooch": Sparky gets two-tone purple spiral eyes when being mind controlled by Mr. Crocker.
  • "The Fair Bears": Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda and Chloe get swirling purple eyes when being mind controlled into a Forced Sleep by the Fair Bears. Timmy and Wanda later get heart-shaped pupils when under the bears' control.
• Fanboy and Chum Chum: Oz gets swirling red spiral eyes in "HypnotOZed" when being mind controlled by a vintage BoomBot into selling everything in his store.
• Final Space: When Invictus is possessing someone — be they Gary, Avocato or the horde of zombie Gary's — it causes their eyes to turn into all-purple Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Futurama: In Bender's Big Score, Bender gets squared spirals in his eyes to indicate mind control.
• Gravity Falls:
  • "Boss Mabel": Anyone seeing their worst fears conjured by the Gremloblin will have glowing yellow eyes.
  • "Dreamscaperers": Stan gets streaming blue eyes when Bill Cipher possesses his mind.
  • "Sock Opera": Bipper, Dipper Pines possessed by Bill Cipher, has Bill's yellow-tinted, slit-pupiled eyes. It's unsettling at best, and downright creepy at worst, especially when Bipper slams his hand in a drawer whilst laughing insanely and saying;
    Bipper: AHAHAHAHAH! Pain is hilarious!
  • "The Stanchurian Candidate": Bud Gleeful gets glowing Blank White Eyes when Gideon casts a mind control spell on him.
• Hamster & Gretel:
  • "Cheer Cheer Bang Bang": Anyone who is under the spell of Coach Haggerty's mind controlling whistle will have rippling grey disks in their eyes.
  • "The Earworm": Hamster & Gretel have spinning blender-like eyes when they are being controlled by the Earworm.
• Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater: In the episode, Catula, Catnip plays as the titular vampire. After barricading the door to their room with furniture, only for Chip and My Melody to turn around and see Catula, who came in through the window. Catula's eyes immediately glows red, hypnotizing the hapless bunny and seal as their own eyes glow in response.
• I ♡ Arlo: In the Season 1 finale, when Arlo is brainwashed by the Big Bad, his eyes get psychedelic red and gold rippling swirls in them.
• Inspector Gadget: Two episodes involve brainwashing. Those who are brainwashed have red eyes.
• Invincible (2021): When the Sequids possess a human host, they cause the eyes to turn pitch-black with white iris-rims.
• Justice League Action: In "The Goddess Must Be Crazy", Wonder Woman knows right away Supergirl is being mind-controlled because her eyes glow purple.
• Kaeloo: If a character gets put under mind control or hypnosis, their irises shrink and they open their eyes wider.
• The Legend of Tarzan: One episode has Queen La deposed by her leopard-men and Jane chosen as her replacement. While she's holding La's mystical staff, her eyes go blank white and she's compelled to hold it aloft and do nothing else.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: Sylas Briarwood can charm people into doing whatever he wants. His and his victims eyes glow gold when he puts them under his spell. The eyes of people that he has long-term control over occasionally flash gold.
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Swirly (Experiment 383) gives anyone who's caught by his hypnotic gaze these while they're paralyzed, but it fades once the hypnotized victim has received a suggestion on which to act.
• Looney Tunes: Used in more or less every short involving hypnosis, both the constricted pupil and spiral-eye versions.
• Monster High: In "Why Do Ghouls Fall In Love?", Draculaura gets glowing pink eyes when being bewitched by a love curse by Valentine.
• Mickey Mouse (2013): Goofy gets these in "Third Wheel" when he suffers extreme hunger issues.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • "Bridle Gossip": Pinkie Pie gets the swirling spiral version every time she sings about Zecora "putting people in trances".
  • "The Return of Harmony, Part 1", Discord puts the heroines (except Twilight) through a series of environments to reverse the part of their personality that keeps the friends and each one gets their own brainwashing to sweeten the deal, as shown by Kaa-esque rippling eyes.
  • "Lesson Zero": Ponies under the effects of the 'Want It, Need It' spell get hearts for eyes. Humorously, Derpy Hooves remains Comically Cross-Eyed when she's affected.
  • "May the Best Pet Win!": Opalescence gets swirly eyes when the butterfly uses its wings to put her in a trance.
  • "Hearts and Hooves Day": Big Mac and Cheerilee get purple spiral eyes when under the influence of the Love Potion... which is actually a Love Poison, causing them to become Sickeningly Sweethearts.
  • A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1: When Twilight's brother Shining Armor is under a villainesses' control, his eyes turn from blue to sickly green.
  • The Crystal Empire, Part 2: Twilight and Spike get King Sombra-like eyes with reptilian red irises and green scleras when they see their worst fears conjured by Sombra's dark magic.
  • "Keep Calm and Flutter On": Discord gets red and white swirling eyes as he pretends to succumb to Fluttershy's Stare.
  • "Inspiration Manifestation": Rarity's eyes turn to a sickly green as she becomes more corrupted by the titular spellbook.
  • "Every Little Thing She Does": When Starlight casts the Fiducia Compelus spell on the Mane Six minus Twilight, their eyes constrict and become faded in color.
  • "Shadow Play, Part 2": During the Pillars' flashback, the eyes of the Sirens' victims turn a sickly green when affected by their Mind-Control Music.
  • "The Beginning of the End, Part 2": Ponies under Sombra's influence have agreen glow in their eyes.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: The Canterlot High students have glowing monochromatic blue-green eyes while under the control of Devil!Sunset Shimmer.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: Celestia and Luna have their eyes flash green when they are hypnotized by the sirens' Mind-Control Music. The Canterlot High students' pupils shrink into pinpricks when being hypnotized by the sirens during the final battle.
• The Owl House:
  • "Hooty's Moving Hassle": Hooty's eyes get an eerie blue glow when under the spell of the Moonlight Conjuring.
  • "Understanding Willow": A variation occurs. Willow's pupils dilate to the point of obscuring her eye color when the accidental damage done to her memories kicks in.
  • "Watching and Dreaming" opens with Luz, Eda, and King trapped in their own respective nightmares by the Colletor, who takes control of ther captured friends and family to further torment them. Anyone being controlled has the highlights in their eyes notably absent. It briefly returns to Luz’s friends once they manage to resist the control.
    • In the same episode, while under the influence of the Collector's Nightmare Sequence Lotus-Eater Machine Eda and King both have glowing red and yellow eyes.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • "Raging Bully": Anyone affected by Doofenshmirtz's Slave-inator will have black spirals for eyes.
  • "Phineas and Ferb Interrupted": Baljeet and Buford get spinning vortex-like eyes when falling into a dullness-induced trance by Phineas' boring weather facts.
  • "Meapless in Seattle": Phineas gets giant and sparkly Animesque eyes when entranced by Mitch's cuteness.
  • "Mind Share": Morg and his friends get square-shaped pupils when hypnotized by the "quadrilateral voice commands" of the Danville Square Dance.
  • Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe: The citizens of Danville have dull grey disks for eyes when they are mind controlled by Mama.
• Pinky and the Brain uses the rare wall-eye version. When a triggering noise is heard by one of the titular characters, he goes into an uncontrollable dance ("I'm a little teapot" for Brain when he hears a tinkly bell, and a stereotypical Russian squat-dance for Pinky when he hears a gong) with their dilated pupils swimming on the inside edges of their eyes.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998).
  • In "Tough Love", Professor Utonium had glowing red eyes after Him turned all of his love for the girls into hate.
  • In "Boogie Frights", Blossom is hypnotized and her eyes are replaced with red spirals.
  • In "Stray Bullet", Mojo Jojo brainwashes the Mayor; the eye that can usually be seen through his monocle is replaced with a red spiral.
  • In "Beat Your Greens", broccoli overlords invade earth and unleash mind-controlling spores which enchant all broccoli in Townsville so whoever eats it will be rendered in a brainwashed comatose state; those who are affected will have flashing green eyes.
  • In "Cat Man Do", Professor Utonium gets slitted cat eyes with green sclerae when he is hypnotized by an evil cat.
• Rupert: In "Rupert and the Great Mephisto", whoever is under the spell of the eponymous magician will have their eyes dilated and with a blank stare.
• Samurai Jack:
  • "Jack and the Rave": The Ravers had glowing red eyes while under the influence of the evil hypno music.
  • "Episode XCVI": The blue-furred children from the factory have the same eyes while being controlled by the Dominator.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Horde Prime's clones have green eyes, indicating that they are under his mind control. When he mind-wipes Hordak, Hordak's expression goes blank and his eyes change from red to green.
  • In season 5, when someone is under the influence of one of Prime's Mind Control chips, their eyes go green as well, and white circles appear where the pupils would be when Prime uses his Villain Override on them or one of his clones.
• Sheriff Callie's Wild West: In "The Ballad of Sweet Strings", the characters get these when Johnny Strum's songs put them under his spell. Later, he briefly gets them after being overcome by Sheriff Callie.
• Shimmer and Shine: In "The Crystal Queen", the dragon Rohan normally has ice blue eyes, but when affected by Zeta's influence, they turn into purple spirals.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • "Mermaid Man vs. SpongeBob": Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy get red spiral eyes when Plankton uses mind control shampoo to brainwash them.
  • "Gary's New Toy": Gary's eyes turn a glowing infernal red as he stares at the squeeze ball on SpongeBob's shelf.
  • "Bumper to Bumper": When Mrs. Puff's mantra gets to SpongeBob's head, his eyes turn into blue spirals.
  • "Whirly Brains"" SpongeBob and Patrick get the red spiral variant as they watch the Whirly Brains commercial, and in "Doodle Dimension" when mesmerized by Sandy's dimensional portal.
  • "Feral Friends": The Bikini Bottomites get sickly green monochromatic pupils when entranced by the sight of Neptune's Moon.
  • "SpongeBob's Bad Habit": SpongeBob's eyes become red and white concentric circles when Hans hypnotizes him during his hypnotherapy session to find out why he has a habit of biting his nails.
  • "Kooky Cooks": Mrs. Puff gets the red spiral variant at the end as she hungers SpongeBob again.
• Storm Hawks: In "The Masked Masher", Junko has swirly green eyes while under the influence of a Hypno Crystal.
• Tangled: The Series:
  • Whoever is under the influence of Sugarby will get an eerie white glow in their eyes.
  • The Brotherhood of the Dark Kingdom get glowing blue Monochromatic Eyes when mind-controlled by Cassandra.
• Teamo Supremo:
  • The victims of Hypnotheria's influence will either get contracted pupils (the Teamo in "Appetite for... Dessert") or spiral eyes (the Chief in another episode).
  • When Laser Pirate gets his hands on a device that emits "relaxing" frequencies, anyone who hears these has the alternating circle type Mind-Control Eyes and speak as though hypnotized.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) has a subversion: in one episode the Rat King captures Irma and Vernon and begins exposing them to a chemical that will eventually brainwash them into his willing slaves. By the time the Turtles find them, Vernon's eyes are notably dilated and he starts mumbling incoherently, leaving everyone to think that he's succumbed to the chemical. It turns out he's actually just passed out into a daze from seeing one too many rats crawling around the area.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Glowing red eyes are used for normal mind control, as well as pink eyes in the episode "Mother Mae-Eye", when characters are under the titular character's spell.
  • "Mad Mod": Beast Boy gets spiral eyes when he's whammied by the hypnoscreens.
• Transformers: Animated: When Soundwave mind-controls the Autobots, their optics turn red. This is a callback to the G1 season 1 episode "Attack of the Autobots," in which the Decepticons do the same thing, signaled to the viewer in the same way.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots: The humans' eyes dilate when they are under mind control. The 'Bot's optics turn green.
• Trollz: In "New Girl in Town", the girls minus Ruby get spirals in their eyes when being hypnotized by Simon's cookies. The eyes of their victims get the aforementioned effect in "When Good Girlz Go Bad" when they put Trollzopolis under their control. When the girls are fully evil in "Boys and Girls Together", the catchlights on their eyes vanish.
• Trolls: TrollsTopia: In "Smooth Operator", the trolls get pink/yellow rippling eyes when affected by Chaz's Mind-Control Music.
• T.U.F.F. Puppy:
  • "Purr-fect Partners": The rats get a Sickly Green Glow in their eyes when under the control of the Kruger Rat.
  • "Dog Daze": Dudley gets the spiral variant when he is hypnotized by Snaptrap.
• Wakfu: Iops gain exaggeratedly blank eyes as they are possessed by ass kicking.
• Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa: "Circus Daze" features a stone that the Great Bovini uses to hypnotize people into stealing for him. The stone shrinks the victims' eyes. Boot Hill Buzzard, whose eyes are already that small, isn't affected.
• WordGirl:
  • Whenever a character may be under Mr. Big's trademark Mind Control, their eyes have a hypnotic green glow to them.
  • Victoria Best has the power to hypnotize people with her recorder. Said victims have pulsating pink circles in their eyes.
• Winx Club:
  • When Bloom is corrupted by the Shadow Virus and turned into Dark Bloom by Darkar, her eyes turn yellow with slitted cat pupils.
  • When Roxy is possessed by Nebula through the White Circle, her eyes turn an infernal red.
  • Anyone who is hypnotized by the illusions conjured up by Tir Nan Og will have a flashing blue glow in their pupils.
  • Tecna has glowing monochromatic blue eyes when turned into a robot after Darcy curses her phone.
  • The Singing Whales get glowing violet eyes when mind controlled by Tritannus. Musa also has these when turned into a Mutant.
  • When Stella is Brainwashed and Crazy by Selina's magic mirror, her pupils shrink.
• The X's
  • "Boy's Best Fiend": The zoo animals get red rippling eyes when mind controlled by Sasquatch.
  • "Live and Let Diaper": Parodied. Tuesday, as part of a series of pop psychology parenting experiments, attempts to hypnotize the baby the family's watching. Using the familiar "You are getting sleepy" intonation, she chants "Your eyes are becoming spinning spirals". She accidentally ends up hypnotizing herself, though this trope is still averted: her eyes simply roll around before she falls asleep.
• X-Men: The Animated Series: Brainwashed and Crazy Morph has an odd variation. When he first comes Back from the Dead, he's acquired an evil alternate personality (which is enslaved by Mr. Sinister), which takes on a zombie-like form, complete with dark patches around his eyes. As he mentally shifts between personas, he physically shapeshifts between forms. Later in the season, it's averted, as he's more fully brainwashed and obeys Sinister/fights the X-Men in his "normal" form, making it unclear what side he's on at any given time.
• Wander over Yonder:
  • Anyone who is entranced by Little Bits' cuteness will get two-tone green irises.
  • When Wander's personalities are separated from him, his pupils constrict into pen points.

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