Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
117,056
edits
Your Eyes Can Deceive You: Difference between revisions
moved real life section to end of examples
m (update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (moved real life section to end of examples) |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
{{quote|'''Obi-Wan''': This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct.
'''Luke''': With the blast shield down, I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?
'''Obi-Wan''': [[Trope Namer|Your eyes can deceive you.]] Don't trust them.
|''[[Star Wars]]''}}
In an attempt to show the supernatural affinity of a character with the skill he is training, [[Mentors|The Mentor]] will [[Blindfolded Vision|cover the pupil's eyes with a piece of cloth]], and say some [[Don't Think, Feel|"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.
In [[Real Life]], this would only make sense if the skill itself involves an invisible element, or if the practitioner expected to perform the skill under low- or no-visibility conditions (thick smoke, underground, [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|eyes gouged out]], etc.) Soldiers in a [[Training Montage]] may field-strip their weapons, disarm bombs, or perform other precision tasks while blindfolded for this reason. [[Super Soldier
For the "super blind man", see [[Disability Superpower]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Syaoran went through this when he learned to use a sword in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]''. Turns out people in that show have some sort of infrared sensor.
Line 37:
* Patches O'Houlihan has Peter train blindfolded in ''[[Dodgeball]]''.
** Peter wins the tiebreaker in the tournament final against White while blindfolded as well.
* In ''[[
* Happened in the [[Jean
* Yoshitsune, the [[Bishounen]] Ginji boss in in [[Sukiyaki Western Django]], has a sequence where he does this with a subordinate and [[Blade Catch]], getting the guy killed after a [[Rousing Speech]] 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.
** This scene is one of those that cements the fact that Yoshitsune is evil, and ridiculously awesome.
Line 47:
* ''[[The Pendragon Adventure]]'', book six. Loor and Alder force Bobby to fight blindfolded as part of his training.
* ''Memory'' by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]] has a variant. [[Miles Vorkosigan]] 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.
* This was part of Inigo's [[Training
* An exercise in the David Morrell novel ''[[The Fraternity Of The Stone]]'' has the assassin being trained via a dark room
* The ninja assassin in ''Neuromancer'' gets blinded at one point. His mistress points out he already knows how to fight in pitch darkness.
Line 61:
* Done to Cedric in the tourney episode of [[Covington Cross]]. Perfectly justified, as his opponent later manages to blind him by throwing sand in his eyes.
* In ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand|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.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* During their Jujitsu training in Japan, the hosts of the [[History Channel]] 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.▼
* 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 [[wikipedia:Plato's cave|Allegory of the Cave]] and the [[wikipedia:Analogy of the divided line|Analogy of the Divided Line]]. See also René Descartes' [[wikipedia:Descartes' 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.▼
** Empiricists dispute this claim though, stating that sensory experience is indeed very valuable, even necessary, towards understanding the universe.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* It might be implied that Dark Elves in the ''[[Dungeons
* Some RPG games and RPG video games have a skill called "Blindfighting" which, once learned, allows the person to fight while blind or in darkness. They do receive a penalty, but less than that of characters without the skill.
Line 93 ⟶ 83:
* In an episode of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', Robin went to China to train with a great martial arts master. One of the trials along the road was to defeat a giant snake in battle. When Robin protested that he had an unfair advantage since the snake was blind, the snake blew out the only candle in the cave to even the score. Unlike some examples, this proved useful later when an opponent nicked Robin's smokebombs and used them on him.
* An episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' 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 ''[[The Boondocks]]'', 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 effect way to train. {{spoiler|It also foreshadows how Stinkmeaner didn't have have [[Disability Superpower
** Though not an example of the trope, Huey quotes the trope namer in the episode that introduces the White Shadow.
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', when facing Mysterio's summons, some of which were illusory and some of which were robots or whatnot, Spidey made himself a web-blindfold so that he would only react to the real threats. It worked. Justified, as by blindfolding himself it made his spider-sense more acute, letting him see every danger in the area.
Line 99 ⟶ 89:
* Done in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', against an eyesight distorting enemy.
* In ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' a team of assassins injects sleeping Count Dooku with a poison that greatly affects his vision. Being trained as both Jedi and a Sith, he declares "I do not need my eyes to see" and dispatches the trio of assassins with relative ease.
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* During their Jujitsu training in Japan, the hosts of the [[History Channel]] 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.
▲* 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 [[wikipedia:Plato's cave|Allegory of the Cave]] and the [[wikipedia:Analogy of the divided line|Analogy of the Divided Line]]. See also René Descartes' [[wikipedia:Descartes' 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.
▲** Empiricists dispute this claim though, stating that sensory experience is indeed very valuable, even necessary, towards understanding the universe.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Skills and Training Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||