Clearly not a hat to be trifled with.
A discerning hero/villain just can't be seen without their Nice Hat! Harming the nice hat may be akin to kicking the dog, with disastrous results.
To show that you mean business, it's important to have style. Enter: the nice hat. It may actually have utility — even conveying special powers — but more often than not it just looks cool, or even just sexy.
Fedoras are the most common Nice Hat, probably because they inherently invoke 1920s-era Gangsterland and Film Noir we all know and love.note Wizards have their own style to worry about. Commissar Cap is also a common enough version of this to have its own sub trope. The crowns of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs (since crowns are always cool) make this Older Than Dirt. In fact, the Cool Crown as Requisite Royal Regalia always overlaps with this trope.
A Sub-Trope of Costume Porn.
A Super Trope to:
- Cool Crown
- Cool Helmet
- Dashingly Dapper Derby / Dastardly Dapper Derby
- Fedora of Asskicking
- Hat of Authority
- Hat of Power
Examples
- Advertising
- Anime and Manga
- Comics
- Film
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Manhwa
- Music
- Mythology
- New Media
- Pinball
- Professional Wrestling
- Stand-Up Comedy
- Tabletop Games
- Theater
- Toys
- Video Games
- Visual Novels
- Web Comics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Real Life
Art
- Donatello's David
(in bronze and not to be confused with Michelangelo's David in marble), which is made all the more amusing when you realize he's only wearing the hat and boots.
