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One strategy for disabling someone without permanently incapacitating them is to debilitate them by overloading their senses. In some cases, an intensely bright light or loud noise is just as effective as a [[Tap on the Head]], and can allow easy capture. If that fails, it's another form of [[Look Behind You!]], without having to actually talk to the opponent.
 
This is a common tactic against those with [[Super Senses]] because it turns a strength into a weakness. Technology or magic may grant [[Badass Normal|Badass Normals]]s super-human senses that can be exploited this way. Used against a machine, this often results in [[Readings Are Off the Scale]]. In a [[Video Game]], this is likely to be represented as an [[Interface Screw]] of some sort.
 
See also [[Poke in the Third Eye]] and [[First Time Feeling]]. Compare [[Sense Loss Sadness]].
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
<!-- %% The current bolding system is to highlight the character who does it on a regular basis, or has it done to them on a specific instance. Italics represents a series. Since we've got a "general" Marvel example, I wasn't sure what the best way to organize was, so here it is. -->
* [[Marvel Comics]]:
** '''Dazzler''' had an attack of multicolored, bright, and strobing lights that would disorient opponents -- evenopponents—even those without specialized eyesight.
** ''[[X-Men]]'':
*** '''Wolverine''' has super-sensitive hearing, so many villains like to use [[Make Me Wanna Shout|sonic attacks]] against him.
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* Frequently, in detective stories, a camera flash is used to blinding effect.
* Molly of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' casts a spell that creates bright lights, multi-colored and flashing. Harry calls it the One-Woman Rave.
* ''[[Uplift]]'' series: Acceptors, being designed as living [[Everything Sensor|Everything Sensors]]s, are somewhat prone to this.
* [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[Debt Ofof Honor]]'' features a light so bright it causes paralysis. Not mere incapacitation from blindness, but sensory overload so complete the subjects are entirely overwhelmed.
* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]] and the Time Paradox'', Holly incapacitates a villain by healing his sense of smell (which he'd been born without due to a congenital defect) - in the middle of a Tunesian tannery, which smells horrible even at the BEST of times. Since he'd never smelled anything before, the stench caused a complete sensory overload, knocking him out and inflicting some serious mental trauma in the process.
* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' has [[Mundane Utility]] for this. The cuisine of Kuman Khalifate is all sweet -- theysweet—they put honey even in soups and the [[The Nose Knows|Master Scenter]] swears Kuman people themselves smell of honey from such a diet. And they have a dish named "The Summit of Sweetness". It's so sweet that it's not perceived as such, since the eater's taste buds are effectively "blinded" to sweet taste -- attaste—at least until it's washed away. Speaking of Master Scenter, after it became common knowledge that Secret Investigations got a guy who can track by smell, he met more nose-disabling substances in a few years than he knew about in all his previous life.
* Jedi in [[Timothy Zahn]]'s [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novels can choose to make any or every sense keener the better to hear near-inaudible noises, see in the dark, identify chemicals by scent, etc. Virtually every time they do so, though, they're half-deafened by someone murmuring quietly to them, a dim light, etc. and have to rapidly ramp their senses back down to normal.
* In ''[[Tales of Kolmar]]'', Marik of Gundar dons an [[Invisibility Cloak]] which also lets him see in the dark. However this also makes any source of light piercing and painful; he likens the full moon to being stabbed in the eye, and is in agony when he suddenly comes upon a lit torch.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The 2nd Edition ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' supplement ''The Complete Thief's Handbook'' recommends using aniseed or dog pepper to throw off dogs that track by scent.
* One issue of ''Adventurer's Club'' (an early house organ published by Hero Games) featured a villain with hypersenses. He became a villain because it was the only way he could pay for his sensory deprivation chamber, and without it he would have gone insane.
* In ''Vampire: The Masquarade'', the first trait of Auspex gives you awesome ''super senses''... unless you get a light shined on you, or if a loud noise goes off. Then it just hurts.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The super-smelling Shirshu from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' is completely blinded when several liters of perfume are spilled onto the floor beneath him. Lashing out blindly with his poison tongue, he manages to hit Zuko, and then his own mistress.
* In the series based on Disney's ''[[Hercules (Disney1997 film)||Hercules]]'', a monster steals the heroic traits of all the heroes around. Hercules has a flash of inspiration and asks one who preciously had super vision what the worst part about it is; "Bright lights" is the answer and, indeed, one of the new [[Achilles' Heel|Achilles Heels]] that the monster stole in the process.
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]''
** One of Darkseid's earliest attempts to defeat Superman included high-tech tanks that amongst other weaponry used high-pitched focused sound to great effect against Superman's super-hearing. Blood could be seen pouring out of Superman's ears in the aftermath.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Sensory Overload{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:PagesSensory with comment tagsTropes]]
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