History Main / AnimalEyeSpy

* One of the psychic powers Raz learns in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is Clairvoyance, which lets him see through the eyes of not only people, but animals as well.

%%* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': This is one of [[spoiler:Makima's]] powers. Kishibe lives in a place with no animals around so as to not be spied on.

* One of the psychic powers Raz learns in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is Clairvoyance, which lets him see through the eyes of people and animals. It's mostly used to solve a few puzzles, but it also provides literal insight into how other people see Raz; for example, Sasha Nein sees Razputin as [[YouRemindMeOFX a younger version of himself]], while Raz's [[ShipTease possibly-crush]] Lili Zanotto sees him as a KnightInShiningArmor.

* ComicBook/TheFalcon, of Creator/MarvelComics, can do this with birds, with varying strength in doing so. Considering a bird's eye view, it could be pretty useful.

* The witch Arachne from ''Manga/SoulEater'' can see though the eyes of her spiders. Medusa is apparently able to do the same thing with her snakes (or anyone she's [[BodyHorror implanted]] [[ExplosiveLeash with them]]).
* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', it is one of [[spoiler:Makima's]] powers. Kishibe lives in a place with no animals around so as to not be spied on.

* Sei Arisaka from ''Manga/HimechanNoRibon'' can do this along with being TheBeastmaster. For example, he can tell his cat to spy on somebody and be able to look through their eyes without being in direct control.
* Ino from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' can use her clan's possession powers to do this.
* Fairly standard practice for familiars in ''LightNovel/FateZero''. Kiritsugu is unusual in that he prefers cameras since they can't be fooled by illusions while animal familiars still can be fooled.
* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'':
** Flutter's Satellite Dragonflies allow him to see everything his conjured dragonflies do. This ability is later "borrowed" by Leol via [[PowersAsPrograms Rental Pod]], and [[spoiler: Ikalgo while he's possessing his corpse.]]
** Later on, there is another power called "Little Eye," which allows the user to see through and control the movements of small animals. Though it was created by and belongs to one of Prince Woble's guards, it, just like the Satellite Dragonflies, got borrowed (this time voluntarily) by [[spoiler:Kurapika, who then transferred it to Woble's mother Queen Oito. She uses it to control a cockroach [[AirVentPassageway to spy on the other princes through the ventilation shafts]], only to discover]] [[spoiler: Prince Tserriednich's [[AttackAnimal Nen Beast]] within them]].
* Four characters in all use this in ''Manga/VampireKnight'': Kaname with bats, Shizuka [[spoiler: as Maria]] with a crow, Maria with an owl, and [[spoiler:Sara]] with spiders.
* In both ''Anime/GoLion'' and its adaptation, ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'', the witch antagonist (Honerva in Golion/Haggar in Voltron) can see through the eyes of her [[AllWitchesHaveCats demonic cat]](Jaga in Golion/Cova in Voltron).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Ursula uses her pet eels to spy on Ariel. Each have one magic eye that provides a stereo image back to a crystal ball in her lair.
* As seen in a DeletedScene, Shan Yu in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' was going to be capable of seeing through his falcon's eyes, but it was cut out both to save time and to avoid giving the villains too much focus.

* Eric Draven from ''Film/TheCrow'' has among his powers the ability to see through the eyes of the title bird.
* In ''Film/SnowWhiteATaleOfTerror'', Claudia uses this trick to spy on Lilli in the forest.
* ''Film/TheBeastmaster'': Dar is able to see through his animal companions' eyes. Useful for scouting/spying in general and in the middle of a fight when his own eyes are damaged at one point.
* In ''Film/ZoltanHoundOfDracula'', TheRenfield Veidt is able to see through the eyes of the vampiric hound Zoltan.

* In [[Literature/GentlemanBastard "The Lies of Locke Lamora"]], a mage can use their [[BondCreature familiars]] to spy for them.
* In ''Another Faust'', Victoria is given a swarm of moths [[spoiler:and eventually... ''other'' insects]] that allow her to spy on people. Unfortunately for her, anyone can control them as long as they're in the right room...

* In ''Literature/TheBadPlace'', [[CreepyTwins creepy twin sisters]] Violet and Verbina have this ability. They share a constant mind link with each other and the dozens of cats occupying their home. Craving wild and evocative sensation, they often drift outward to possess the bodies of hunting animals and their prey to feel both the thrill of the hunt and the pain of death. They cannot do this to humans however.
* In ''Literature/{{Desperation}}'' by Creator/StephenKing, the body-snatching EldritchAbomination Tak can enter and control animals, seeing through their eyes and feeling their thoughts, but only for short periods. [[PossessionBurnout Its presence inside living things causes them to wither and die]] and it has to [[BodySurf hop from one to the other]] fairly quickly. Tak prefers humans because they last the longest.
* In Creator/TamoraPierce's ''[[Literature/{{Tortall}} The Immortals]]'' quartet, Daine talks to animals, sees through their eyes, and even had them sabotage an army for her.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Voldemort has this connection with the snake Nagini. When Harry starts having dreams where he sees what Voldemort sees, there are several where he is experiencing the scenes through the snake.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Wargs or skinchangers do this, mostly with wolves, but other animals are possible. With training, they can learn to actually control the animal, but this trope is the first hint that you've got the potential. All of the Stark children are potential wargs, though [[spoiler: Sansa never learned how due to her direwolf being killed, and only Bran and Arya have shown themselves to be able to use it on anything other than their direwolves. This can also be done to humans, though they don't like it - when Varamyr tries to take over a human she gouges out her eyes and bites off her tongue in the fight for control of her body.]]
** In the history of the setting, the infamous [[TheSpymaster spymaster]] and EvilChancellor Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers is implied to have been a secret skinchanger who used his powers to pry on people through the eyes of crows and rats. [[spoiler:Reduced to an immobile husk literally rooted inside a cave in the main story, he continues the tendency. It's implied he's spying on the Night's Watch through Lord Commander Mormont's pet crow.]]
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'':
** Herald Eldan, seen most prominently in ''By the Sword'', has animal telepathy as one of his abilities, which gives him a touch of this as well. Many Heralds with strong "sight" Gifts can [[SeeingThroughAnothersEyes See Through Their Companions' Eyes]], but [[BondCreatures Companions]] are not horses, despite being [[SapientSteed horse-shaped]].
** Despite having no other form of Animal Mindspeech, Amily develops this ability between ''Bastion'' and ''Closer to Home'' and develops it over the course of the latter book. It proves far more useful than it seems at first glance when she becomes the [[spoiler:King's Own Herald]]. Having familiarity with the animal in question improves her range and stamina, but she can develop this familiarity by way of another animal. To spy upon one half of a [[FeudingFamilies simmering feud]], Amily gifts a pet to the lord's daughter and "introduces herself" to the rest of the house animals by looking through the little dog.
* This is essentially how Animist magic works in the book ''Literature/TheAnimist''; Animists each have a familiar they are bonded to for good, and they are able to use this ability to parse which useful spirits are in the area. The Animist is also able to full-on take over their familiar's mind if they need to -- the interesting twist here is that [[spoiler:whenever they do this, their familiar has taken over their mind too a la a BodySwap. This leads to things like the protagonist unintentionally appearing to make a complete ass of himself at a fancy dinner while switching places with his female rat familiar...]]
* In ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Bottle the squad mage was taught how to access all of the various Warrens (schools of magic), but his most important skill is his ability to control animals in his vicinity, something he [[DistinctionWithoutADifference insists is not actually a form of magic]]. This proves instrumental in keeping his squad alive while they're crossing hostile territory, as he can spread out over a large number of creatures at the same time if all he wants is their sensory input.
* In Jeramey Kraatz's ''Literature/TheCloakSociety'', this is part of Bug's superpowers -- limited to bugs, though.
* The Bestiar mages in ''Literature/KronikiDrugiegoKregu''.
* Discussed in the ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' series. In the Six Duchies it is generally assumed that the Witted can see through animal eyes. That is not so. As Fitz and others point out, they cannot see through their bond animals' eyes, yet the idea that the Witted could be spying on them creeps many people out to such an extent that -- combined with other superstitions -- it's a direct cause of BurnTheWitch

* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'': Slides have an ability to look through animals' eyes and hear with their ears when sending people's captured souls into them. [[spoiler: Nicholas used this to always stay one step ahead of Richard until he figures it out.]]
* In ''Literature/AmericanGods'' Bast can see through cats' eyes, as in Creator/NeilGaiman's other most-famous work. She uses it to keep tabs on Shadow.
* In the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' novels, the Dead Man uses Mr. Big the parrot to shadow Garrett's investigations, seeing through the bird's eyes and speaking through its mouth. John Stretch the ratman can communicate with normal rats, and (both ratman and rat vision being limited) uses them as Animal Spy ''Noses''.
* ''Literature/HereticalEdge'': The theriangelos spell creates an animal that the caster can control and see through. This is one of the features of Sovereign, Aylen's cyberform hawk.
* In ''Literature/TheArtsOfDarkAndLight'', the elves use this sort of magic as part of their intelligence service, along with more general beast-mastery and regular espionage. King Mhael can boast that wherever birds or lesser beasts are, there are his eyes and ears.
* In ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'', Torak's spirit walker powers allow him to do this, though he vows to never use it to fly again after flying as a raven angered the spirits. It's also implied that this is why he [[SpeaksFluentAnimal can talk to wolves]]; he speculates that when he was a baby being RaisedByWolves, he spirit walked into one of the pups while it was learning to communicate with its mother and siblings.

** An early symptom of Bran's ability to warg is when this begins happening in his dreams.

* BOB in ''Series/TwinPeaks'' can see what goes on in the woods through the eyes of owls, although it may be that he can transform into them. It's ambiguous.
* ''Series/{{Beastmaster}}'': Dar and his animals.
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': [[spoiler:Yavalla]] can see through the eyes of those she controls, not just humans and Blackbloods but even animals. She uses rats to infiltrate and spy on the outpost, and birds to spy on Talon and Zed as they track her through the woods.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}'', Cassie's ultimate uses her pet hawk, Zigs, to fly about and highlight all enemies to her team for a few seconds.
* In ''VideoGame/FarCryPrimal'', the protagonist can call upon an owl to scout ahead and highlight enemies and objects.

** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', Bayek can use his eagle Senu like in ''Far Cry: Primal'' and use it to highlight enemies and objects of interest. [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]]'s daughter Io:nhiòte has the same ability, which manifested when she needed to warn her father about a pack of wolves.

* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' Lotor's general Narti is blind and sees through the eyes of the cat-like Kova.

* In ''ComicBook/North40'', Luane lucked out with getting ''[[LovecraftianSuperpower just]]'' this ability. More incredibly, she handles the [[AGodAmI godlike power]] with incredible humanity, enduring dozens of [[FaintingSeer fainting spells]] to help stop the unsealing of the SealedEvilInACan.

* In [[GentlemanBastard "The Lies of Locke Lamora"]], a mage can use their [[BondCreature familiars]] to spy for them.

* ''Series/TheOutpost'': [[spoiler:Yavalla]] can see through rats' eyes she controls, and humans or Blackbloods as well.

* Tanya, a Contractor in the second season of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' has the power to summon clouds of insects and is shown to be able to use them for spying purposes. In one scene, she is able to listen and observe what's going on in another room by sending one of her bugs in there.

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Flutter's Satellite Dragonflies allow him to see everything his conjured dragonflies do. This ability is later "borrowed" by Leol via [[PowersAsPrograms Rental Pod]], and [[spoiler: Ikalgo while he's possessing his corpse.]]

* In book twelve in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' book, "Towers of Midnight", Graendal does this to a dove in order to remotely see what her enemy Rand Al'Thor is up to.

* Wargs or skinchangers do this in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', mostly with wolves, but other animals are possible. With training, they can learn to actually control the animal, but this trope is the first hint that you've got the potential. All of the Stark children are potential wargs, though [[spoiler: Sansa never learned how due to her direwolf being killed, and only Bran and Arya have shown themselves to be able to use it on anything other than their direwolves. This can also be done to humans, though they don't like it - when Varamyr tries to take over a human she gouges out her eyes and bites off her tongue in the fight for control of her body.]]

* Master Seer possesses a cat in ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'' to spy on the main character, but Lady Nora uses her shapeshifting powers to distract it.
** He later possesses a horse. Its rider is suitably wielded out.

[[quoteright:350:[[Comicbook/{{North 40}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Crow3_8331.jpg]]]]

* ''Comicbook/TheFalcon'', of Creator/MarvelComics, can do this with birds, with varying strength in doing so. Considering a bird's eye view, it could be pretty useful.
* The page image comes from the comic ''Comicbook/{{North 40}}'', Luane lucked out with getting ''[[LovecraftianSuperpower just]]'' this ability. More incredibly, she handles the [[AGodAmI godlike power]] with incredible humanity, enduring dozens of [[FaintingSeer fainting spells]] to help stop the unsealing of the SealedEvilInACan.
* The Flea in ''Comicbook/{{PS238}}'' appears to have this power at least to some degree when it comes to insects. After being swiped by a teleporter, the other characters were able to reunite with him by talking to random cockroaches, which he described as "better than cell phones."
* In ''Comicbook/{{Dreadstar}}'', the blind telepath Willow can see through the eyes of her pet monkey.

* DependingOnTheWriter, Klara of the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} has sometimes demonstrated the ability to "hear" through her roses, most notably in "Homeschooling", where she detected soldiers approaching the Malibu house because her plants told her that they were coming.

* In ''Videogame/FarCryPrimal'', the protagonist can call upon an owl to scout ahead and highlight enemies and objects.
* In ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', Bayek can use his eagle Senu like in ''Far Cry: Primal'' and use it to highlight enemies and objects of interest. [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]]'s daughter Io:nhiòte has the same ability, which manifested when she needed to warn her father about a pack of wolves.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Series/Beastmaster'': Dar and his animals.

** This one of the most useful applications of Borrowing (possession magic). A mouse can walk through cracks, an eagle can fly high and fast, and an owl can sit on your shoulder and let you read through its eyes. Crystal balls have image quality problems (especially if one is using cheap crystal or, say, an old green glass fishing float) and its efficiency drops with distance, and an Omniscope is hard to aim, so Borrowing has major advantages if the possessor is skilled enough. But if they're not skilled enough, the possessor runs a severe risk of having their mind almost [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody inseparably entangled]] with that of the creature they're possessing. Also, the possessor had better make sure they aren't mistaken for dead while they're off gallivanting around in some animal's body.

** The RatKing from ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' can see through the eyes of animals. When Maurice feels its presence in his head, he closes his own eyes to hinder its attempts to locate him.

* In both ''Anime/GoLion'' and its adaptation, ''Anime/Voltron'', the witch antagonist(Honerva in Golion/Haggar in Voltron) can see through the eyes of her [[AllWitchesHaveCats demonic cat]](Jaga in Golion/Cova in Voltron).

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has this as one of the most useful applications of Borrowing (possession magic). A mouse can walk through cracks, an eagle can fly high and fast, and an owl can sit on your shoulder and let you read through its eyes. The crystal ball has image quality problems.[[note]]if one is using a cracked green glass fishing float[[/note]]and its efficiency drops with distance[[note]]As seen during the Leshp war, when the wizards attempt to tune in on events in Leshp and even more remote Klatch: they can barely see for static[[/note]]. An Omniscope is hard to aim, and scrying without enchanted hardware may or may not exist at all,[[note]]it totally does: "we used to make do with a drop of ink in a bowl of water"[[/note]] so Borrowing has major advantages if the possessor is skilled enough.
** And if they're not skilled enough, the possessor runs a severe risk of having their mind almost [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody inseparably entangled]] with that of the creature they're possessing. Also, the possessor had better make sure they aren't mistaken for dead while they're off gallivanting around in some animal's body.
** In ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' Count de Mapyre uses his vampiric abilities to see though the eyes of hundreds of magpies.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid11989'', Ursula uses her pet eels to spy on Ariel. Each have one magic eye that provides a stereo image back to a crystal ball in her lair.

* In ''Literature/{{Desperation}}'' by Creator/StephenKing, the body-snatching EldritchAbomination Tak can enter and control animals, seeing through their eyes and feeling their thoughts, but only for short periods. Its presence inside living things causes them to wither and die and it has to hop from one to the other fairly quickly. It prefers humans because they last the longest.

* Taylor in ''FanFic/{{Intrepid}}'' is capable of doing this, much like in her [[Literature/{{Worm}} source]] material. The difference is, she's not limited to just insects.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1'', Ursula uses her pet eels to spy on Ariel. Each have one magic eye that provides a stereo image back to a crystal ball in her lair.

* In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', Ursula uses her pet eels to spy on Ariel. Each have one magic eye that provides a stereo image back to a crystal ball in her lair.
* As seen in a DeletedScene, Shan Yu in ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' was going to be capable of seeing through his falcon's eyes, but it was cut out both to save time and to avoid giving the villains too much focus.

** In ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' Count de Mapyre uses his vampiric abilities to see though the eyes of hundreds of magpies.
** The RatKing from ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' can see through the eyes of animals. When Maurice feels its presence in his head, he closes his own eyes to hinder its attempts to locate him.

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