History Main / YourEyesCanDeceiveYou

* ''Memory'' by Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold has a variant. MilesVorkosigan reminisces about an informal stunt-flying competition he used to have with his cousin Ivan, in a mountain canyon. He won (and convinced Ivan never to do anything like that with him again) by teaching himself to fly the course with his eyes closed.

* In the 2010 version of ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans'', Io tries to train Perseus to fight with his eyes closed so he can have a chance against Medusa.

* Yoshitsune, the {{bishounen}} Ginji boss in in SukiyakiWesternDjango, has a sequence where he does this with a subordinate and BladeCatch, getting the guy killed after a RousingSpeech to the assembled gang and doing a super-dramatic demo himself. It is beautifully theatrical, and also completely unfair--''he'' could catch the sword with his eyes closed, but he'd had extensive training. The guy who got his head split open never had a chance even if he'd been allowed to look.

* ''Memory'' by LoisMcMasterBujold has a variant. MilesVorkosigan reminisces about an informal stunt-flying competition he used to have with his cousin Ivan, in a mountain canyon. He won (and convinced Ivan never to do anything like that with him again) by teaching himself to fly the course with his eyes closed.

* In ''[[Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand Spartacus: Gods of the Arena]]'', Gannicus is forced to fight a gladiator match blindfolded. He isn't hindered that much, especially because his opponent stank and made a lot of noise whenever he moved.

In an attempt to show the supernatural affinity of a character with the skill he is training, [[{{Mentors}} The Mentor]] will [[BlindfoldedVision cover the pupil's eyes with a piece of cloth]], and say some [[DontThinkFeel "Don't 'see' the enemy, 'feel' the enemy".]]A really key part of this is that the student ''always'' complains (either first thing or after getting their ass handed to them), and it rarely comes up again.

* The SDGundamForce try using invisiblity magic to sneak up on Kibaomaru, but not only has the warlord foreseen an ambush, his elite guards are good enough to sense the enemy's presence.

* As part of her assassin training, Arya Stark of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is stricken with temporary blindness. She overcomes this by relying on her other senses, but not in the way her trainers (probably) expected: she learns how to use her latent warg abilities to see through the eyes of a nearby cat.

* Syaoran went through this when he learned to use a sword in ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. Turns out people in that show have some sort of infrared sensor.

* ''{{Claymore}}'': The main protagonist, Clare, fights by ignoring what she sees and concentrating on feeling where her opponents are going to attack next. But then, she's a HalfHumanHybrid SuperSoldier and that's her MO...

* ''Franchise/StarWars''. Obi Wan makes Luke wear a helmet with the blast shield down (and Luke complains about being unable to see) before saying "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Luke proceeds to actually do really well against the training orb thing. ESP is so handy. [[ChekhovsSkill Later in the movie,]] he puts this to use by turning off his targeting computer before firing the proton torpedo.

* Subverted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[LowerDeckEpisode "The Lower Decks"]], in which Worf challenges a martial arts mentee to a test involving fighting him blindfolded and unarmed when he's armed with a stick long enough to stop her reaching him. After he beats her up a few times, it's revealed that it was actually a SecretTestOfCharacter, in keeping with Klingon culture, which you pass by showing that you have the assertiveness and self-confidence to tell your mentor to [[RageAgainstTheMentor go do something painful and improbable]]. Worf admits that "No one can fight like that" and suggests that the next time someone treats her so unfairly, perhaps she won't take as long to complain. This sets her up to take on ''Picard's'' SecretTestOfCharacter, making this training that prepares the character for something entirely unrelated to fighting.

* An exercise in the David Morrell novel ''Literature/TheFraternityOfTheStone'' has the assassin being trained via a dark room exercise -- the lesson is to not blunder around looking for the enemy but remain perfectly still and wait for him to make a noise.

* Played with a little in the ''{{Fables}}'' side story ''The Fencing Lessons'', from ''1001 Nights of Snowfall''. Preparing for a potential war with the underground-dwelling Dwarves, the humans are shown training blindfolded to accustom themselves to fighting in the dark, as they would have to underground. Then we see the Dwarves doing the exact same thing, except that instead of wearing blindfolds they're training in a well-lit room (and complaining about it just as much).

* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'': Marianne does this to herself for training. She has miniature {{Fairy Companion}}s attack her while she blocks while blindfolded and does very well.

** Buffy had to do this for the Watcher council, and earlier in the episode with the invisible girl.

-->-- ''StarWars''

* ''StarWars''. Obi Wan makes Luke wear a helmet with the blast shield down (and Luke complains about being unable to see) before saying "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Luke proceeds to actually do really well against the training orb thing. ESP is so handy. [[ChekhovsSkill Later in the movie,]] he puts this to use by turning off his targeting computer before firing the proton torpedo.

* In the Takeshi Kitano version of ''{{Zatoichi}}'', [[spoiler:Zatoichi says near the end of the film that he's been pretending to be blind so as to train himself to fight with his other senses. The last few seconds of the film reveal that he actually is blind.]]

* The scene in the movie ''BlindFury'' which the natives are training Rutger Hauer to fight blind is an all-time classic example of this trope.

* ''ThePendragonAdventure'', book six. Loor and Alder force Bobby to fight blindfolded as part of his training.

* An exercise in the David Morrell novel ''TheFraternityOfTheStone'' has the assassin being trained via a dark room exercise -- the lesson is to not blunder around looking for the enemy but remain perfectly still and wait for him to make a noise.
* The ninja assassin in ''Neuromancer'' gets blinded at one point. His mistress points out he already knows how to fight in pitch darkness.

* In ''PowerRangersMegaforce,'' Troy practices blindfolded when the team is being beaten up by a MonsterOfTheWeek with SuperSpeed. Of course, being air-powered makes him and Emma the ones best at detecting his movements via air pressure, though the rest of the team does go through the same practice routine eventually.

* It might be implied that Dark Elves in the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' ''Forgotten Realms'' universe learn this way, to take advantage of their innate darkness powers. Certainly Drizzt has demonstrated the ability to fight in complete darkness. They have the canonical power to see in even the complete absence of light, so to them there is no such thing as ''total'' darkness, but it's explicitly stated that they can't see through ''magical'' darkness. Since every dark elf can summon said darkness, blind-fighting is incredibly helpful.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', with [[CuteBruiser Toph]] (a "super blind ''girl''") training [[TheChosenOne Aang]]. The point of blindfolding Aang was to get him to learn to use tremorsense, which, as Toph has repeatedly demonstrated, is damn useful in earthbending.
** So useful, that [[spoiler:it saved him from a sneak attack by Fire Lord Ozai in the finale.]]

* Happened to that girl in the animated ''[[ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'' series.

* An episode of ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' involved the titular sponge being coached by a new boating teacher (the undersea equivalent of Driver's Ed) that insisted on this trope when practicing. Subverted when [=SpongeBob=] is completely unable to pass the test unless he ''is'' prevented from seeing.
* Inverted on ''TheBoondocks'', in which Huey attempts to train Granddad to fight the blind Colonel Stinkmeaner by having him spar with a blindfolded Tom [=DuBois=]. Naturally, Tom can't do a damn thing when Granddad starts beating up on him, and he points out that this isn't a very effective way to train. [[spoiler:It also foreshadows how Stinkmeaner didn't have {{Disability Superpower}}s, he was just lucky.]]
** Though not an example of the trope, Huey quotes the trope namer in the episode that introduces the White Shadow.

* In the second ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon Splinter taught them to fight blindfolded. It later proved useful when fighting invisible Foot Ninja.

* Also done in ''SamuraiJack'', who learned this from the Shaolin (after complaining that "No one can fight like this") and actually ''had to use it to accomplish something''. That almost ''never'' happens anywhere else.
** He didn't ''have'' to use it. He just realized that it would be much, much easier to fight his opponents on their level than to use any of his other training.
*** Considering how his normal way of training was going to get him killed, forcing himself to focus and use quicker reaction time by relying on his senses rather than his eyes was the only option available at that momment. Too bad the Earlier Robot Army that tried to rush that tower the way he did, with like 1000 troops, couldn't consider relying on faster reflexes.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The ''andabatae'' in AncientRome were [[GladiatorGames gladiators]] who were made to fight in full-faced helmets that had no eye holes and left them completely blind. Most sources suggest that these weren't super-skilled warriors, but condemned criminals who were made to fight that way for sadistic humour and so that they had no chance of surviving a combat.
* During their Jujitsu training in Japan, the hosts of the HistoryChannel reality show ''Human Weapon'' were taught a samurai trick that lets them dodge an unseen (and unknown) attack from behind and counter in one, fluid stroke. How this would be useful to the samurai - besides possibly giving them a paranoid advantage over {{Ninja}} assassinations - is never fully explained, but it looks cool.
** This is also used in modern Taijutsu: One way of proving that you're worthy of the next belt is sitting down blindfolded and being able to avoid, block or counter your master's next attack.
* Blindfolded training is sometimes done in grappling systems like wrestling, sambo, judo and brazilian jiujitsu. Because the two fighters are already in physical contact, the aim is to get them to focus more on their senses of touch and balance to tell what an opponent is doing rather than just sight.
** Particularly justified in that sweat in the eyes is very common in grappling and blood in the eyes isn't rare in MMA.
* One of the most common form of "your eyes [in fact, your whole body] can deceive you,": being trained to fly by instruments in poor visibility conditions, where a pilot not only can't use visual references outside the cockpit, but also must ignore his own sense of balance. It is possible for a plane to be doing a roll while ''feeling'' like it is flying level (which type of roll? [[DoABarrelRoll A Barrel Roll, of course.]])
* From a more metaphysical point of view, this statement sums up Plato's (and other rationalist's) stance on epistemology: The senses are not only unreliable in obtaining knowledge, they only convey a limited image of the world. Greater understanding and higher knowledge must be achieved through reason alone. See the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_cave Allegory of the Cave]] and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy_of_the_divided_line Analogy of the Divided Line]]. See also René Descartes' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes%27_meditations Meditations on First Philosophy]], which seek to build a construct of absolute knowledge through extreme scepticism of all sensory information, i.e. assuming the possibility that all we believe to know about the world is false.
** Relatedly, this is why modern science relies so heavily on double blind experiments and independent reproduction of results. It's just so easy to see things that support your ideas whether they're there or not.
* Any performance that involves rapidly manipulating objects, such as juggling items or twirling a baton, flag, rifle, sword, staff, nunchucks, etc., lends itself to this. Tracking the object mentally and by feel is much more effective than watching it with the eyes. Besides, pulling off complicated maneuvers while keeping one's eyes straight ahead just makes it look all the more {{Badass}}. A more mundane example would be touch-typing on a keyboard while looking at a monitor.
[[/folder]]

* Done to Cedric in the tourney episode of CovingtonCross. Perfectly justified, as his opponent later manages to blind him by throwing sand in his eyes.

For the "super blind man", see DisabilitySuperpower.

* Patches O'Houlihan has Peter train blindfolded in ''{{Dodgeball}}''.

* Happened in the JeanClaudeVanDamme film ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}''. This time, though, Van Damme's character also was forced to utilize it, [[spoiler:when his final opponent tossed some kind of powder in his eyes.]]

* Subverted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[LowerDeckEpisode "The Lower Decks"]], in which Worf challenges a martial arts mentee to a test involving fighting him blindfolded and unarmed when he's armed with a stick long enough to stop her reaching him. After he beats her up a few times, it's revealed that it was actually a SecretTestOfCharacter, in keeping with Klingon culture, which you pass by showing that you have the assertiveness and self-confidence to tell your mentor to [[RageAgainstTheMentor go **** himself]]. Worf admits that "No one can fight like that" and suggests that the next time someone treats her so unfairly, perhaps she won't take as long to complain. This sets her up to take on ''Picard's'' SecretTestOfCharacter, making this training that prepares the character for something entirely unrelated to fighting.

* Subverted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[LowerDeckEpisode "The Lower Decks"]], in which Worf forcing another character to use a blindfold while fighting him is portrayed as incredibly cheap. Worf admits that "No one can fight like that" and that if she hadn't objected, she would have failed the SecretTestOfCharacter.
** Worf also suggests that the next time someone treats her so unfairly, perhaps she won't take as long to complain. This sets her up to take on ''Picard's'' SecretTestOfCharacter, making this training that prepares the character for something entirely unrelated to fighting.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'', [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Mid-Boss]] tells this to [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Laharl]] word for word when Maderas is attempting to take advantage of his weakness to [[spoiler:sexy bodies and optimistic phrases]]. It's part of a grand speech about how to activate his inner energy, UseTheForce, and all these other things... [[LoveFreak Flonne]] tells him after he may have set the bar too high, so [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Mid-Boss]] simply says "Then just plug your ears and close your eyes." Even though [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Laharl]] promptly does this, this somehow doesn't seem to keep him from hearing all the relevant plot details in the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome ensuing conversation between Etna and Maderas]], or fighting at full capacity.

* In ''MarshalLaw'', this is a huge part of Private Eye's origin: His MadScientist father bound a blindfolding mechanism to him and forced him to live without sight for months if not years, engendering in him an eerie affinity for the dark.

** Repeatedly, this is why modern science relies so heavily on double blind experiments and independent reproduction of results. It's just so easy to see things that support your ideas whether they're there or not.