"No one cared who I was 'til I put on the mask."
— Bane, The Dark Knight Rises
Masks of all forms, and for all reasons.
Doesn't matter if it's for maintaining your Secret Identity while fighting crime (even if it's not that believable), dressing up for Halloween, or going to a Masquerade Ball. Masks can be useful for all of those.
Related:
- The Caped Index
- Cranium Coverings
- Disguise Tropes
- Face of the Index
- Glasses Tropes
- Standard Superhero Suits
Physical Masks:
- Anti-Climactic Unmasking
- The Blank: The facelessness is sometimes the result of a mask.
- Blatant Burglar (a mask being part of the getup)
- Broken Faceplate
- Brown Bag Mask: Someone wears a brown bag over their head.
- Coat, Hat, Mask
- Cool Mask
- Deathly Unmasking
- Domino Mask
- Dramatic Unmask
- Evil Mask
- Expressive Mask
- The Faceless: This trope often uses a mask to cover the character's face.
- Facial Façade: A mask is actually a part of a creature’s anatomy.
- Floating Mask
- Gas Mask, Longcoat
- Gas Mask Mooks
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Sometimes, characters with unusual eyes hide them with masks.
- Irisless Eye Mask Of Mystery
- Latex Perfection
- Malevolent Masked Men
- Masked Villains, Unmasked Heroes
- Mask of Confidence
- Mask of Power
- Masked Luchador
- Masking the Deformity
- Menacing Mask
- Multilayer Façade: Wearing several disguises over each other.
- Murderous Mask: A mask designed to kill the wearer.
- Mysterious Veil
- Nixon Mask
- No Face Under the Mask
- Not a Mask: What's thought to be a mask is actually the person's real face.
- One-Way Visor
- Plague Doctor
- Post-Apocalyptic Gas Mask
- Rage Helm
- Sackhead Slasher
- Sleep Mask
- Stocking Mask
- Stranger Behind the Mask: The identity of a mysterious character is someone who was previously unseen.
- Suspicious Ski Mask
- Symbol Face: The mask variant when a character wears a mask that is just a symbol.
- White Mask of Doom
Metaphorical Masks:
- Becoming the Mask: A character's cover ends up becoming their true nature.
- Beneath the Mask
- Cast as a Mask: A character and their disguise are played by separate actors.
- Mask of Sanity
- Painful Persona: Someone is forced to adopt a personality that is at odds with their true self.
- Stepford Smiler: A character hides their depression and grief by putting on a mask of happiness.
