History Literature / Blindfold

* TheyDo: It's heavily implied that [[spoiler:Troy and Kaliana will end up together despite their vastly different backgrounds. In the epilogue, it's mentioned that Troy's mother has finally resigned herself to stop expecting grandchildren from Troy (Kaliana, like all Truthsayers, is sterile)]].

* ObliviouslyEvil: Eli Strone really doesn’t see anything wrong with his actions. It’s noted that many of those who choose to be judged by Truthsayers feel the same way.

* NatureVsNurture: Considered by Dokken as he reviews how landholder Coman is raising Michale Van Petersden[[spoiler: who is actually one of his clones]]. [[spoiler: His others clone Tharion was an honorable man who worked hard to resist him but also proved to have a bit of his progenitors shrewdness with his BatmanGambit against Dokken, and some of his ruthlessness, as seen when he MindRaped Maximilian]]. The implication that [[spoiler: Dokken will be killed by Strone and unable to influence things or reveal the truth to Michael]]. Does give [[spoiler: Michael]]. A better chance at the end.

* AloneWithThePsycho: Literally when Trey ends up sharing a cell with KnightTemplar Eli Stone, although it's played with since Strone considers him an innocent for most of their rime together and never tries to add him to his list of victims.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Implied with the Conan’s as one of her daughters refused to use the family name and left the family lands to marry a potter, another daughter is mentally challenged chad cannot read or write, her two younger sons are unpleasant, irresponsible individuals she refused to leave her lands to and her eldest son is dead. It fell really isn’t a surprise that her HappilyAdopted ward Michael Van Petersden becomes her UnexpectedSuccessor.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Implied with the Conan’s as one of her daughters refused to use the family name and married a potter, another is mentally challenged, her two younger sons are unpleasant individuals she refused to leave her lands to and her eldest son is dead. It fell really isn’t a surprise that her HappilyAdopted ward Michael Van Petersden becomes her UnexpectedSuccessor.

* NatureVsNurture: Considered by Dokken as he reviews how landholder Coman is raising Michale Van Petersden[[spoiler: who is actually one of his clones]].

* TheWorldIsBeautiful: Joachim Sardili feels, this, acknowledging how they still don't know everything about Atlas and being impressed at finding a new kind of SeaMonster.

* AlterDiplomacy: In a minor subplot, two neighboring landholders have recently gotten engaged and are planning a merger of their territories, with the BigBad plotting to ruin their romance to prevent this and keep the other landholders divided.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Averted. All but one of the hereditary landholders and their families are portrayed as positive characters who avoid becoming disconnected from their people.

* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler:Troy and Kaliana escape from [=OrbLab=] 2 and make it to the surface, after being betrayed. They manage to get away and sneak aboard a maglev cargo train without knowing its destination. Along the way, they jump off and start walking without knowing where they are or which direction they're going. Just as they're ready to give up, they encounter a {{Prospector}} rover (and there are very few of them left) and hitch a ride to the nearest holding (the driver offers them a choice of Koman or Toth holding, and they go with the latter, as Troy knows he can't go home to Koman). After a weak of working in the quarries, landholder Emilio Toth arrives to the village with his new magistrate, Kaliana's childhood friend. They recognize one another, and Toth takes them to his estate, where Kaliana explains everything. To their surprise, Toth already knows much of that, having been working in secret against Franz Dokken for many years]].

* OrbitalBombardment: The ''[=SkySword=]'', a warship sent by Earth's totalitarian government to take control over Atlas, had missing tubes for bombarding colony from orbit, should the colonists prove to be uncooperative. After being scuttled and turned into the Truthsayer Guild temple, the tubes have been converted into troughs to water plants, while the missiles were destroyed. [[spoiler:The leader of the Platform turns out to have kept a few of the missiles and uses them at the end to destroy Dokken's estate from orbit. Unfortunately for him, he warns Dokken before the missiles hit, allowing the BigBad to enact his own plan and destroy the Platform with the rigged SpaceElevator]].

* HumanPopsicle: All starships are equipped with cryotubes to allow people to spend most of the journey (50 years) asleep. [[spoiler:Dokken keeps one of them in a secret location, using it periodically to "skip forward" to see his plans unfold without taking TheSlowPath. He also feels tired, if he waits too long before entering the tube, as it appears to be "recharging" him. This is also what has allowed him to survive for over two centuries and has given him a broad perspective on life in the colony]].

* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The Truthsayers wear white robes (blue for Guild Master Tharion) and spend their days training their mental abilities, not worrying about things like food, which are provided to them. They live in a temple with hydroponic gardens. Averted for everyone else, though. Most people live in squalor and resign themselves to backbreaking labor just to survive.

''Blindfold'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/KevinJAnderson. Anderson sent the novel to BrianHerbert as a sample of his work in order to let him collaborate on the post-FrankHerbert ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' novels.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Joachim Sardili frequently goes on yacht trips with his two sons without any servants or guards to visit his distant villages and address their issues. They are master sailors who have no problems sleeping on the hard deck of their yacht or catching fish for their meals. Emilio Toth has a private garden next to his estate. Each year, after harvesting it, he divides the fruit in two and gives the larger portion out to his people, personally driving around on a tractor full of them. Even Franz Dokken will visit his fish farms and other production facilities to address issues.

** There are two other small stations, [=OrbLab=] 1 and [=OrbLab=] 2, where Veritas is manufactured for the Truthsayers. [=OrbLab=] 1 has been abandoned since the outbreak of the deadly Mindfire plague (one of the results of Veritas manufacture), and no one has bothered to try to clear out the infection and get rid of the bodies. Instead, the second station was built with better safeguards. If a Mindfire mutation is triggered in a particular section, it's immediately sealed off and vented into space, including anyone who is in it at the time. For that reason, most of the people working at [=OrbLab=] 2 are convicts with life sentences. The only way to and from [=OrbLab=] 2 is via ballistic pods that are launched from and to the Platform (the pods themselves have no means of adjusting their trajectory, which can result in them missing and burning up in the atmosphere).

* PrisonShip: The first ship to arrive to Atlas after the original colony ship was full of prisoners exiled from Earth. They assimilated into the Atlas society fairly well, and many people can trace their ancestry to a prisoner or two.

* ReplacementGoldfish: Presumably, [[spoiler:the ''Earth Dawn'' will serve as a new SpaceStation instead of the destroyed Platform, hopefully setting up a new SpaceElevator after she arrives in 5 years]].