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Blind Weaponmaster

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"He knows my every move, yet, he cannot see.
As my mind fights to make sense of the impossible,
he has turned my sight into a liability."
Huey musing about Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, The Boondocks, "Granddad's Fight"

They hold their staff (or other weapon) like they know what they're doing, but since they're completely without sight surely they aren't that dangerous, right? Wrong. The Blind Weaponmasters are some of the most deadly adversaries a character can face. In possession of supernatural senses born from blindness or just Badass Normal enough to compensate for the weaponmaster's loss with other natural senses, the Blind Weaponmaster will surprise any overconfident character and make heroes push their skill to its limits. A blind weaponmaster may invoke Your Eyes Can Deceive You by fighting in a visibly challenging location such as fog or total darkness which would even out the drawback or even reverse it on the weaponmaster's opponent instead. The Blind Weaponmaster's weapon of choice is stereotypically a staff, but other blunt weapons have been used as well. Blades are rare but not unheard of.

A subtrope of Handicapped Badass. See also the aforementioned Your Eyes Can Deceive You for when normally-sighted characters would have to fight without the use of their eyes.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Basilisk:
    • Gennosuke's uncle and Big Brother Mentor Hyouma Muroga has severe eyesight problems, though the exact source and effects vary per media. In any case, he's still not to be trifled with.
    • Koushirou Chikuma falls victim to Eye Scream halfway through the series, but learns to use his hearing to compensate. That lets him defeat and kill the aforementioned Hyouma, a man who can only open his eyes briefly to use his powers... which don't work on blind opponents like Koushirou.
  • Downplayed Trope in Berserk. Guts has only lost his right eye, which still affects his depth perception and leaves him with no field of vision on his right side. Guts has learned to use his hearing to compensate.
  • Bleach: Kaname Tousen was a master of Zanjutsu, up until his Hollow transformation, which not only discards his Zanpakutou, but also gives him functional eyesight. Ironically, it was gaining sight that led to his downfall.
  • Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress has Mirei Minae, a Blind Card Game Master. She's been blind since birth, yet is an amazing Cardfighter and the leader of Team Daybreak, the main villains of Seasons 1 and 2. This is portrayed rather realistically, as in order to play Vanguard her deck has each card marked with stickers so she can tell them apart, and she frequently has an aide with her when playing who tells her what cards her opponent uses as well if they don't announce each one themselves.
  • Dario Montoya from GARO: Divine Flame, also known as ZEM the Obsidian Knight, is extremely skilled with his lance despite having blinded himself.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku has Shion, who is blind since birth, but is one of the best fighters among the cast due to his ability to perceive "waves" (later defined in-story as "Tao").
  • Kill la Kill: Uzu Sanageyama sews his own eyes shut when he finds himself relying too heavily on them, becoming even more badass in the process. He gains Hyper-Awareness and becomes virtually impossible to hit or to dodge. In the penultimate episode, he has them reopened. His intentional handicap has been taken away, AND he's still got his proficiency with his other senses, making him insanely dangerous. Thankfully, the Devas have well undergone a Heel–Face Turn by this point.
  • In Moriarty the Patriot, Von Herder is a blind engineer as he was in the original Sherlock Holmes canon, but he is seen handling a gun prepared to shoot despite the fact that he can't see where it would hit.
  • Ninja Scroll: One of the Quirky Miniboss Squad is a blind swordmaster. He can feel out the location of the sun and reflect it off his sword as a blinder, turning the tables on his seeing enemy. He loses when his attack is deflected by a knife that got stuck in bamboo earlier in the fight which he can no longer track by hearing, giving Jubei an opening.
  • One Piece: Issho, a.k.a. Admiral Fujitora is a blind swordsman and clearly based on Zatoichi. On top of his swordsmanship and Haki, he's a Gravity Master. Fujitora's lack of eyesight is compensated by his strong Observation Haki.
  • PandoraHearts: Xerxes Break eventually loses his eyesight. Doesn't stop him from being (arguably) the most badass character in the entire manga/anime.
  • Ranma ½: Mousse is not blind, per se, but so short-sighted that even with coke-bottle glasses he cannot distinguish between people and objects, fights with a range of deadly bladed weapons. Interestingly enough, while he's been known to mistake a bicycle for a long-haired Chinese girl, he has absolutely no problem fighting even deadly, fast-moving adversaries in the night and without his glasses.
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Usui, literally known as "The Blind Sword".
  • Samurai Champloo: Sara, a beautiful, barefoot blind musician whom the trio encounters near the end of their journey, turns out to be frighteningly skilled with a spear. She fights with an eerie elegance while using her senses to compensate for her lack of eyesight.
  • Shigurui:
    • Grandmaster Iwamoto Kogan blinds Irako Seigen using his secret sword cut nagare boshi (shooting star), as punishment for sleeping with his concubine Iku. Irako and Iku are rescued by a swordsman named Tsukioka Yukinosuke, who takes them to a village in the Hida Mountains. There, with the help of Iku and Yukinosuke, Irako goes through the painful and difficult process of adjusting to his blindness, and ultimately develops the ability to sword fight as efficiently as he did before. He goes beyond that, however, by inventing a technique called mumyou sakanagare ("lightless reverse flow"): it's a modification of and a counter to Kogan's nagare boshi, which is even more powerful because Irako sticks the point of his sword into the earth instead of gripping it in his other hand as Kogan did, so that he can use his whole body to charge up the sword with energy and release it like a slingshot in a vertical ascending strike as he dives toward his opponent. With this technique, Irako comes back and starts killing highly skilled members of Kogan Ryuu one after another. He eventually earns the favor of the shogun's brother, Tokugawa Tadanaga, and his fearsome reputation as the Blind Dragon spreads far and wide.
    • Later on the trope is discussed between several characters. After three members of the Kogan school are murdered in succession, each killed by an unknown swordsman using an ascending vertical strike, the remaining members get together and discuss what to do. Protagonist Fujiki Gennosuke states he suspects Irako Seigen may be the culprit, and others back him up by pointing out that each of the victims' corpses was arranged in a way that referenced Seigen's grudge against each of them. When senior instructor Ushimata Gonzaemon points out that Irako is blind, the others argue that it's possible Irako could have defeated them because Munakata and Yamazaki both faced him in the pitch black of night, while Suzunosuke was an immature pupil. Gonzaemon, however, tells them about a certain swordsman of the Sengoku era named Toda Seigen. Toda was a master of Chuujou Ryuu, who specialized in using a sword of less than two feet to subdue an opponent using a blade over three feet in length. One of his disciples was the famous Sasaki Kojiro. In 1561, Seigen was commanded by his lord to fight a match with a disciple of Shinto Ryuu named Umezu, wielding a staff three and a half feet long. This was despite the fact that Seigen had gone blind froma disease. Using a club barely more than a foot long, he won by lunging through Umezu's defense and wildly beating to a pulp at close range. Gonzaemon observes that this was how Toda had to fight, because he could not see; that is what a blind swordsman is like. In contrast, each of the warriors of Kogan Ryuu were killed by a single, incredibly precise strike. That's why at this point Gonzaemon doesn't believe it could have been Irako himself, but as they will soon find out, Irako has surpassed what a blind swordsman ought to be capable of.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul:Re, Kishou Arima turns out to be a downplayed version of this trope. Glaucoma has robbed him of the sight in his right eye, and his left is beginning to fail as well....but he manages to conceal this from all but the most observant enemies. Other than a slowing in his movements and a slight favoring of that side when fighting, he seems to have compensated enough to remain a nigh-unstoppable killing machine.
  • Until Death Do Us Part: Mamoru is a master of the katana to the point that he uses it as his only weapon IN ACTUAL MILITARY COMBAT and owns everyone's asses. And yes, he's blind without the special glasses that Igawa made which show him where objects are as wire frames on a perspective grid. He's almost as skilled without them, though.

    Comic Books 
  • King Snake, in the Batman family of comics, was blinded by gunfire at an early age, but became one of the best martial artists in the 'verse in spite of it. He's so good that on one occasion where his sight was restored, it actually threw him off his game enough that Tim Drake's Robin could hold his own against him.
  • Daredevil:
    • The title character, fighting with his cane/Escrima Stick/grappling hook.
    • Also his teacher, Stick.
    • And Stick's teacher, Master Izo ("Master" seems to be part of his name, he's that badass).
  • The Blind Master from Marvel Comics' G.I. Joe series.
  • Best Tiger from Invincible is a subversion...he can see perfectly well, but chooses to fight blindfolded because that's the only way combat is any kind of challenge to him.
  • In The Wastelands universe, an elderly Hawkeye has lost his sight. However, as long as he can hear his target, his aim is just as deadly as ever, as shown in Old Man Logan.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • In Vader's Quest, Luke is blinded, temporarily, but that doesn't slow him down, at least at first - a dozen or so people immediately try to kill him, and he beats them all without killing any of them. It's only later, when he's not fighting, that he has trouble.
    • A variant in the Expanded Universe are the Miraluka species who, at best, have vestigial eye sockets. Their "sight" is entirely Force-based. They're usually pacifists, but if you see one packing a lightsaber, you're better off running the other direction.
    • Star Wars (Marvel 1977) subverts this with Baron Tagge. He's a blind man with no Force sensitivity who trained himself to wield a lightsaber like a pro, but only by relying on a cybernetic visor which lets him see. Take away that visor, as Luke did during their duel, and the baron becomes helpless.
  • Zato Ino, "The Blind Swordspig", in Usagi Yojimbo, can "see" things thanks to his sense of smell.
  • Cyclops of the X-Men has two options when he loses his glasses: Keep his eyes open and kill everything in sight, or keep them shut and beat the living hell out of his opponents while counting his footsteps so he can find his way back to where his glasses landed.
  • X-Men villain Destiny is a Blind Seer who fights with a crossbow, her precognitive power giving her perfect aim.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Volume 1: Bellerophon was blinded by Zeus in antiquity for having the temerity to question whether the Olympians were gods and trying to fly to Olympus on Pegasus. He's still winning his fight with Wonder Woman until she brings her robot plane close enough to mess with his hearing.
    • Volume 2: After blinding herself in her fight with Medusa Wonder Woman is not much hindered by her new blindness in a fight, because she's trained blindfolded and has enhanced senses she's still a better fighter than most of the Justice League.

    Fan Works 
  • Codex Equus has one in Prince Crimson Star, an Alicorn demigod who is based on Primarch Magnus the Red. Despite being completely blind, he was able to become a really good crackshot with long-range Magitek weapons such as crossbows, though he's no slouch with fighting in close quarters, either, as he can fight with a giant-bladed glaive through which he can channel his Psychic Powers for elemental status effects.
  • RWBY: Reckoning has this in one of the story's original characters, Professor Kor. He's the teacher of weaponry at Beacon Academy, and is described as having bandaged eyes. It's later revealed that he was blinded due to a Goliath attack.
  • Fox from RWBY: Scars is a hunter-in-training who is blind. However, he's killed before he can graduate Beacon.
  • Though a Bird Can't Fly, That Doesn't Mean It Never Will chronicles Kuina (Zoro's childhood friend from One Piece) and her struggles with becoming this.
  • Warriors Rewrite: Willowpelt is an adept warrior who has very minimal vision and can only see blurry shapes.
  • X Men Evolution Season 5: When Cyclops' visor is taken from him he is still able to target the Reavers by sound and continue fighting them.

    Film — Animated 
  • Quest for Camelot: Garrett is blind and wields his quarterstaff expertly nonetheless, thanks to his training as a knight. He relies heavily on his seeing-eye hawk signaling him, though, and Kayley distracting him at the wrong moment gets him shot.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Tony Leung's character, the Blind Swordsman, in Ashes of Time. Being stripped of his sight doesn't stop him from single-handedly taking on a horde of desert marauders and killing at least 40 of them with ease.
  • Ray Charles in The Blues Brothers. Fires a couple of warning shots at a would-be guitar thief.
  • The title character from Blindman is basically a Spaghetti Western version of Zatoichi.
  • Rutger Hauer's character in Blind Fury is a blind modern day swordsman who manages to singlehandedly destroy a crime syndicate. It's essentially a Western take off on Zatoichi.
  • Walter in Blindsided: the Game wields his white cane, a knife, and a sword cane within the course of the film.
  • One of the four titular characters from Crippled Avengers is a blind swordsman. One of the other three is deaf and mute, another has prosthetic legs and the last is a man who acts as if they're playing a game while fighting.
  • Being blind himself, Matt Murdock in Daredevil (2003) uses this trope throughout, though he technically cheats by using echolocation to see.
  • The Blind Man in Don't Breathe. He may be blind, but being a Gulf War veteran means that he has the training to ensure his skills weren't dulled by this setback.
  • Parodied in Dinner for Schmucks, where one of the eponymous "schmucks" fancies himself a blind Master Swordsman. He isn't.
  • Peter LaFleur uses this technique in the climax of DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story to defeat White Goodman. Even though he blindfolded himself, he somehow gains supernatural senses thanks to his training by "Patches" O'Houlihan that allow him to dodge White's ball by less than an inch and throw his own ball back to hit White right in the face.
  • Soca Indrakusuma from the second Jaka Sembung film, a blind-but-lethal swordsman and an expert wielding his golok.
  • John Wick: Chapter 4 has Caine, who fights with a Cane Sword as well as a handgun. In the case of the latter, his typical tactic is to fire recklessly at a general direction to draw enemies out and return fire at wherever he hears them from. He's also shown making use of motion sensors that alert him to nearby enemies.
  • The titular Master of the Flying Guillotine, who's also an Improbable Weapon User.
  • Zig-zagged in Muppet Treasure Island with Old Blind Pew. When he enters the Admiral Benbow Inn he is shown blindly flailing around, and when he grabs Jim Hawkins, he mistakenly identifies Jim as a girl because of his long hair. However, when Billy Bones cocks the hammer on his pistol, Pew hears it, and goes flying across the room using his walking stick to knock the pistol aside and get right into Billy's face to threaten him about the treasure. Later he is shown blindly wandering around the inn during the pirates' attack blissfully unaware that the entire building is on fire.
  • The Harpists pair in Kung Fu Hustle are at least one-half blind (the other half is at least legally blind) and definitely a weaponmaster, as they are Musical Assasins whose guzheng (Chinese harp often used in operas) is their instrument by which they fling Razor Wind attacks at their targets.
  • Sheldon Sands in the last third of Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
  • Once Upon a Warrior revolves around a blind swordsman who works in a circus, who must save his surrogate sister from an Evil Sorceress who wants the child for a Human Sacrifice ritual. The blind hero effortlessly wipes out legions and legions of the sorceress' cultists as well in plenty of sword fights and extensive battles.
  • Orc Wars: Whitefeather, a blind swordsman who kills a whole bunch of orcs.
  • Parodied in Robin Hood: Men in Tights: During a fight scene in the Sheriff's castle, Robin's blind manservant Blinkin is shown furiously swinging his sword... the camera then pans away to reveal his "opponent" is actually a wooden pillar. In a later scene he snatches an arrow out of the air just as its about to pierce Robin's heart, claiming "I could hear that comin' from a mile away!" When Robin thanks him a second later, he cluelessly blurts out "What's that? Who's talkin'?!"
  • The Taiwanese Wuxia movie, The Seisure Soul Sword Of A Blind Girl, has the titular blind swordswoman who can take on legions and legions of baddies.
  • In Scent of a Woman blind retired Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade shows his nephew Randy that you don't insult Slade's caretaker Charlie. When Randy does so, Slade manages to get up from the dinner table, grab Randy by the throat, and slam him against the nearest wall and demonstrate a chokehold he learned in the Army.
  • Star Wars:
    • A New Hope: Luke's initial lightsaber training aboard the Millennium Falcon has Obi-Wan putting a flight helmet on Luke with the blast shield fully down. When Luke complains about not being able to see Obi-Wan explains that your normal senses can fool you and is trying to get Luke to rely on the Force instead.
    • Attack of the Clones: When Obi-Wan seeks out Yoda's help in finding the planet Kamino, he interrupts Yoda in the middle of teaching a class of younglings who are deflecting blaster bolts from training remotes while wearing helmets with blinding visors on them.
    • Rogue One: Former Guardian of the Whills Chirrut Îmwe is blind, but his connection with the Force allows him to takes down stormtroopers five at a time with his staff. In another fight he uses an energy bow to shoot a dogfighting TIE Fighter in flight in the exact way to make it crash into an anti-aircraft gun.
    Chirrut Îmwe: I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.
    • The Rise of Skywalker: The flashback scene with Luke and Leia dueling with their lightsabers while wearing helmets with the blast shields down.
  • Old Blind Pew in Yellowbeard has a sword concealed in his walking stick which he uses to dispatch an entire room full of pirates.
  • Ichi from Zatoichi (and the 2003 version), is a master of limited-yet-deadly movement fighting with his sword, which he hides within his cane.
  • In Mandy (2018), Skratch's face is covered by a leather sack without eyeholes. It doesn't stop him from riding a motorcycle, and he starts a fight against Red with his back turned. He may or may not be some sort of demon.

    Literature 
  • Maestro Killian, the trainer of Cursors in the Codex Alera book Academ's Fury. He compensates for his blindness through his furycrafting.
  • Drizzt in The Dark Elf Trilogy meets and learns from Montolio "Mooshie" Debrouchee, who is an expert with the sword, shield, and bow (His pet owl helps him aim).
  • In Ea Cycle Atara becomes a combination of this and Blind Seer after she gets blinded by the Big Bad.
  • The Fighting Fantasy series has Alkis Fearslicer, a member of the blind Sensewarriors, sightless warriors of the Gaddon People who lives in the deep chasms beneath Gorak. He may be blind, but he's an expert swordsman who can effortlessly defeat a platoon of goblins with ease. He shows up in two books in the series (Chasms of Malice, Daggers of Darkness) where he plays a supporting role, teaching the hero skills like fighting in the dark and sharpening their hearing.
  • See No Evil in A Lullaby Sinister. His eyes are closed shut by rusty cables but he somehow manages to maneuver through the halls of the Surrogate School with little difficulty as he slaughters his way through students. Furthermore, trigger him by making the slightest noise and he will make a beeline straight towards you.
  • Mortal Engines: The Cyborg Stalker Fang becomes one of these in A Darkling Plain, as, after being heavily damaged, she is found and repaired by a child named Fishcake, but he makes a point of not replacing her damaged eye crystals as he fears that if her sight was restored, she'd decide he was useless to her and abandon him. She remains a competent fighter regardless, effortlessly snapping the necks of some thugs who threaten Fishcake's life and being able to hold her own against two fully-sighted combat stalkers.
  • In Neuromancer, Hideo is able to use Zen archery to hit a target in complete darkness, or after being blinded by a laser.
  • Star Wars Legends has the Miraluka. They appears human, but living on a planet with infrared light has left them blind. They can use the Force to sense and "see", but were otherwise blind and usually wear dark glasses or a blindfold. Inquisitor Jerec is one notable character who fits this trope. A Jedi turned Dark Jedi, he was referenced first as a blind human, but was retconned to being Miraluka. There were a few Miraluka Jedi, but they also had their own Force tradition.
  • Two of them in Swordspoint. One of them Richard is regretfully forced to kill, the other one is Richard. Later in life, anyway.
  • One of the stories in World War Z details the life of a blind Japanese gardener who becomes a one-man zombie-killing army.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The blind assassin girl in the Angel episode "Blind Date". She made herself blind living in a cave, but her infrared ability will still let her kick your ass.
  • On Covert Affairs, Auggie is a former Special Forces soldier who was blinded on a mission in Tikrit. He can also fight better than any sighted person in the entire series.
  • In Season 6 of Game of Thrones, Arya draws on her experience having to fight the fully-sighted Waif while previously temporarily blinded to gain an advantage over her by putting out the candle in her cell when the Waif comes to kill her in "No One". She's next seen putting the Waif's face in the stores at the temple of the Many-Faced God.
  • In one episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, an evil version of King Arthur is sent back to Hercules' time to learn to not be evil by Merlin (long story). When he arrives he immediately challenges a barbarian king for his throne by dueling with knives while Arthur is blindfolded. Arthur manages to kill the barbarian by throwing the knife directly into the man's forehead, killing him. His companion asks how he was able to do that and Arthur says he just smelled the man's breath from all of the raw onion he had been eating.
  • When not smilingly speaking wisdom, Master Po from Kung Fu (1972) swings a pretty mean staff.
  • In See, pretty much the whole of humanity has gone blind due to The Plague. Baba Voss (Jason Momoa) is easily the most skilled warrior in the setting, be it with his cleaver weapon or with katanas.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Played straight in the episode "The Icarus Factor", which introduces the 24th century martial art "Anbo-jyutsu", which requires the fighters to wear blindfolds and fight using staves that contain proximity sensors to allow them to sense their opponent.
    • Subverted in the episode "Lower Decks" when Worf blindfolds a martial arts student as part of a test and tells her to anticipate his attacks. He kicks her ass until she quits, saying that the test is unfair. Worf admits of course you'll lose a fight if you're blind. The real test was getting the nerve to say that to his face.

    Music 
  • The Knight in Leslie Fish's "Cripple's Shield Wall." He cannot see, and must know his ground in a fight, but that's compensated for, he is scary good with the sword and unhampered by "dark, fog, or rain"
  • The Pinball Wizard from The Who's rock opera Tommy was a deaf dumb and blind kid who was the champion pin baller.
  • The Ballad Of Bill Thaxton by Marty Robbins relates the story of a retired Texas Ranger who didn't bother to tell his experienced foe that he had this handicap. It didn't do his foe any good.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Most fantasy or martial arts settings will have some way to build this character type.
  • Pathfinder
    • The Swordmaster's Blindfold blinds the wearer to everything beyond their weapon's reach, but does nice things for critical hits.
    • The Blind-Fight feat chain removes most of the impairments associated with blindness in combat, and the Blinded Blade Style feat chain gives combat-related benefits when blinded. While this only helps in melee combat and offers little benefits against ranged attacks, it's still pretty good to render gaze attacks, concealment and invisibility useless.
    • The empyreal lord Vildeis is said to have torn out her own eyes at the sight of evil, and wears a red blindfold as she roams ceaselessly through the planes seeking evildoers to kill. Some of her followers emulate her in this mutilation, or were already blind before entering her service, but either way are expected to be good fighters.
  • In Legend of the Five Rings, Phoenix Champion Shiba Tsukimi is blinded by the sunlight off her opponent's blade in a duel toward the end of a war between her clan and the Scorpion. However, her connection to the Soul of Shiba and, possibly more importantly, to the Void allows her to see without seeing. As a result, she's still a powerful fighter and skilled duelist.
  • Eltharion the Grim from Warhammer was briefly (c. 2001-2006) changed from his usual "grim Griffon-riding High Elf hero" persona and turned into a blind sword master (after Malekith, the Witch King of the Dark Elves, had his eyes put out as punishment for his unprecedented success in leading armies against Dark Elf cities). His original stylings were eventually reinstated, however, and the blinding incident retconned out of existence.
  • Mr Fixer in Sentinels of the Multiverse has been blind since birth, but ridiculously intense martial arts training has left him as, per Word of God, the single most technically skilled fighter in the world (there are more dangerous fighters, but those tend to rely upon powers rather than technique and many actually fight fairly sloppily), trained to use an aura vision that is usually very helpful, and able to kung fu so effectively he can create radiant light to destroy vampires using only his martial art skill. He's so skilled with weapons that replacing his old bo staff and nunchaku with random wrenches and crowbars from around his garage did little to prevent him from waging war on an entire crime syndicate by himself and doing very well.

    Video Games 
  • Adkin Chambers in Arcanum, despite having had his eyes cut out by Garrick Stout after losing a duel with him, remains a competent martial artist and the continent's foremost expert on dodging and defensive techniques.
  • Augus from Asura's Wrath is apparently one of these. Albeit hard to notice at first because he and Asura tend to have white glowing eyes regardless, Asura's threat to "Rip out those blind eyes" and his lack of pupils makes it obvious.
  • The Flash game The Blind Swordsman lets you play as one. The game shows a blank screen, you use audio cues to determine the location and actions of your enemies.
  • Dark Souls has the legendary Hawkeye Gough, one of Gwyn's Four Knights who shot down countless dragons with a bow and arrow (it helps that he's a giant as big as a house and his bow is as big as he is). When you meet him in Artorias of the Abyss, he has gone blind and now spends his days making wood carvings, but is still a good enough shot that he can snipe the dragon Kalameet out of the sky on his first attempt, incapacitating him enough so that you can finally have a (somewhat) fair fight with him.
    • However, if you kill Gough and take his stuff, the Flavor Text on his helmet says that a bunch of Fantastic Racists who didn't like giants stuffed the eyeholes full of pine resin to screw with him, so he might not actually be blind and only thinks he is because he can't see out of his helmet and hasn't tried removing it.
    • In Dark Souls III, neither of the Twin Princes can see all that well: Lothric is afflicted with terrible cataracts, while Lorian's Cool Crown covers his eyes (for bonus points, Lorian can also barely walk). Doesn't stop them from combining Lothric's magic and Lorian's swordplay to kick your ass over and over and over again.
  • The Old Hero from Demon's Souls is either blind or wearing a blindfold and fights you entirely based on sound and will start pushing your shit in once he finds you. While typically an interesting boss with a neat mechanic, wearing the Thief's Ring (which completely eliminates any sounds you make) trivializes this boss to an almost pathetic degree.
  • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has Fubuki, Yukimaru's older brother. When the False Zenon attacked Snow Melody 15 years prior to the game's events, the attack struck Fubuki blind, and he presumably gets around this with Aura Vision. In battle, he prefers to wield an axe as his primary weapon, but axes in-game do suffer an accuracy penalty.
  • The Asura subclass of the Slayer from Dungeon Fighter Online. Purchases powerful Sword Beam spells by selling his eyes to a demon parasite in his left arm.
  • Elden Ring: The demigod Malenia is infected with Scarlet Rot that has been eating at her body since birth, eventually consuming her right arm, both legs below the knee, and both of her eyes. While her brother Miquella was able to replace her limbs with magical prosthetics of unalloyed gold, he could not restore her eyesnote ... which did nothing to hinder Malenia from mastering the sword, earning the title of the World's Best Warrior, defeating her only real challenger, her half-brother Radahn, in the Shatteringnote , and then becoming one of the toughest Superbosses in the Soulsborne history. Scattered item descriptions indicate that she learned it from a blind swordsman who managed to seal away the Scarlet Rot with the help of a fairy.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Oblivion has retired members the Cult of the Ancestor Moth (commonly known as "Moth Priests"). Their order is based around divining the information contained within the Elder Scrolls, using a ritual known as the Ritual of the Ancestor Moth. Even with their special protective training, repeated readings of the Scrolls will render them blind. Blinded Moth Priests are sent into retirement, but despite this handicap, are still quite capable of defending themselves in combat. A group fought during the Thieves' Guild questline are some of the only characters in the game to use Akaviri Dai-Katanas other than the Blades.
    • Skyrim has the Falmer, a Morlock-like race of devolved former Snow Elves. Blinded in ancient times after being forced to ingest poisonous mushrooms by their Dwemeri cousins, they are every bit as capable of archery and sword-fighting as the other elven races thanks to their excellent hearing.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy XV: Around the halfway point of the game, Ignis is permanently blinded. He spends the next few chapters at subpar, though he gets an Attack Its Weak Point technique and some improved dodgeability at the end of the first dungeon he spends in this state. After the Time Skip for the endgame, he's back to fighting as well as (if not better than) he was before.
    Ignis: I don't need sight to sense what's around me.
    • According to the lore of the Ivalice Alliance games, the Bangaa have bad eyesight and some wear blindfolds as a result. One of the Bangaa classes in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has them wearing a blindfold and using cards as projectile weapons and causing a variety of status effects. Their accuracy is just as good as other characters with normal eyesight.
  • Sirhan Dogen from Gyakuten Kenji 2 is a blind assassin. It helps when you've trained your seeing-eye dog to kill for you, but he is also quite deadly with a knife.
  • Hogwarts Legacy has Ominus Gaunt, a teenage wizard who was born blind and has his Magic Wand guide him. In spite of this, he's no less capable of performing magic and defending himself in combat should the need arise.
  • Riku spends the majority of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days wearing a blindfold. This is because if he were to open it, he would physically turn into Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness. He stops wearing it after capturing Roxas, because it took Ansem to overpower Roxas.
  • Kenshi Takahashi from Mortal Kombat. However, he makes up for it by using his telekinesis to manipulate objects he can't physically see (including his sword, Sento).
  • Theia - The Crimson Eclipse: Asura gouges out Rudra's eyes, but the latter is still able to fight due to his training allowing him to sense his surroundings. As Gameplay and Story Integration, Rudra is immune to the blur ailment, preventing his accuracy from being debuffed.
  • Demon hunters in the Warcraft franchise, the most notable of which is Illidan (seen in the page picture), don't just wear blindfolds - their eyes are burned away by demonic energy, and they use Aura Vision instead. In the World of Warcraft expansion pack Legion, they became a playable hero class. Note, however, that since the release of World of Warcraft: Illidan, they are (in addition to aura vision) far from blind, as it was retconned that they can adjust their Spectral Sight, which allows them to see like any other normal living being.
  • Hunter from Zeno Clash is a crack shot with a sniper rifle and explosive squirrels. Later, when you fight him in hand-to-hand combat, he starts the fight literally holding one hand behind his back. When he gets bored of that and starts using both hands, the fight turns into a Hopeless Boss Fight.

    Webcomics 
  • Homestuck: Terezi is very handy with her cane, though she's not entirely blind (she can see synaesthetically via smell and taste).
  • Dame Goodlaw from Rusty and Co. always closes her eyes when she's fighting. Nobody's really sure why.
  • No Need for Bushido has Ryoku, a blind swordsman, (he's essentially an evil version of Daredevil, if Daredevil was a samurai assassin) and Cho, a blind martial arts master with a preference for using a Martial Arts Staff who claims to be guided by the Tao itself and may be the best fighter in the series despite being not only blind but also a first class Cloud Cuckoolander. The unlikeliness of there being more than one man like this is parodied at one point, when Ken, one of the main characters, is knocked out, and while he's unconscious Ryoku kidnaps Ina. When he comes to Ken is told that "the blind fighter guy" took Ina, and immediately turns on Cho and demands to know why Cho betrayed them. When told that it wasn't Cho but someone else, Ken is completely dumbfounded at learning that there are (at least) two such "blind fighter guys" in the country.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Toph Beifong's blind and uses her earthbending abilities to "see" via the vibrations she feels through her feet (also known as "Seismic Sense"). She's only 12 (and is also kind of small for her age), but is easily the most powerful non-Avatar earthbender ever, to the point of improving on the art by inventing metalbending (which was previously thought to be impossible). At age 86, she shows how much she's progressed by casually dodging airbending (admittedly, sight wouldn't be that useful against it, but it's something she can't sense via earthbending either). By this time, with her pilgrimage added in, she is without question the greatest earthbender who ever lived.
  • Subverted in The Boondocks with Stinkmeaner. In his first confrontation with granddad he kicked Robert's butt and Huey assumes it's because of this trope. Turns out he just got lucky and wasn't a good fighter at all. He literally died due to this misunderstanding.
    • Played straight in the same episode with Huey's dream of "The Blind Nigga Samurai." Which is a clear homage to the Ninja Scroll example above.
    • Averted, afterward he went to hell, and learned martial arts and weapons combat becoming a master in both, from the devil himself just so he could kill the Freeman family. Though really he was just doing it for For the Evulz.
  • Castlevania: Dracula's vampire general, Cho, easily defeats a samurai vampire hunter with her eyes closed throughout their duel.
  • In the Bad Future episode of Gargoyles, Broadway is blind but can "see" using an echolocation collar invented by Lexington, allowing him to fight.
  • In Miraculous Ladybug, Kagami's mother Tomoe Tsurugi is both blind and a world champion fencer.
  • An episode of Samurai Jack contained three blind, dog-like demons, or rather men who were possessed by a magic well, who were able to use arrows with supernatural accuracy and speed due to their incredible hearing. Jack trains himself to fight blindfolded in order to combat them.
  • Star Wars Rebels:
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): There is one episode where Donatello is sent to a Bad Future where the Shredder has enslaved the earth. This future Leonardo is heavily-scarred and wears dark, round shades instead of his mask, implying that he is blind. It doesn't stop him from being an excellent swordsman and nearly killing Karai.
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) Shredder's right hand man, Hattori Tatsu, is a blind ninja swordsman and an expert at combat. He is able to hold his own against seven opponents at once. The turtles and crew are only able to beat him by taking away the only thing that lets him fight, his hearing. Leo, Raph, and Donny use Casey Jones's explosive pucks to cover Karai's footsteps as she runs towards Tatsu and deafens him with a head strike before taking him down. When Tatsu is deafened the entire world looks like a White Void Room letting Karai take him down with little trouble.

    Real Life 
  • This guy, a champion of blind judo who beat up a mugger.
  • One of Cracked's 5 People Whose Major Disabilities Only Made Them Stronger is a blind sharpshooter. That he's not a rara avis but just a very noticeable example of a whole sport (carbine shooting for the blind, using acoustic "sights") doesn't make it less but more awesome.
  • King John the Blind of Bohemia — blind (or almost blind) for a decade — lost eyesight in 1336 but was still fighting in tournaments, before being killed in the battle of Crécy.
  • The whole point of the Spanish-origin martial art DisFiSen (from Disminuidos Físicos y Sensoriales, "physical and sensory disabled persons"), tailor-designed for people with disabilities, specifically blindness.
  • The (Spanish) description of this video states it's a sparring session of a blind woman fighting with medieval flail before her actual combat at a reenactment event. It also states she won the actual fight, to the surprise of some jerkass in the public who thought the fight was a comedic one.
  • Termites of the subfamily Nasutitermitinae utilize a specialized structure, the fontanellar gun, to project glue-like sticky projectiles that immobilize or kill attackers. They can fire these guns with great accuracy, despite being completely blind. It's something of a mystery as to how the termites can not only orient themselves towards their enemies, but fire with such precision, though it's theorized that they can sense the position of their targets through scent or hearing.
  • As seen in Dealt, Richard Turner didn't let his blindness prevent him from becoming a karate master. For his black belt test, he had to fight ten fresh fighters in full-on brawls and passed, despite breaking his arm in the process.

 
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Quest for Camelot

Despite being blind, Garrett wields his quarterstaff quite well where he manages to take down two of Ruber's henchmen.

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Main / BlindWeaponmaster

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