Despite their lack of eyes, they can still give a Mean Look.
Heffer: [to Rocko] You're blind as a bat.
Bat: Hey! Listen, bud! We bats are sick and tired of these stereotypes! We got enough problems with the whole "vampire" shtick without being classified as visually impaired!
Heffer: Sorry.
Bat: [bumps into a wall] 'Scuse me, ma'am. [bumps into something else] Oops. Sorry, sir.
Bat: Hey! Listen, bud! We bats are sick and tired of these stereotypes! We got enough problems with the whole "vampire" shtick without being classified as visually impaired!
Heffer: Sorry.
Bat: [bumps into a wall] 'Scuse me, ma'am. [bumps into something else] Oops. Sorry, sir.
Bats are notable for their nocturnal habits, for the tendency of many species to roost in caves and other dark, enclosed spaces, and for their echolocation, which allows them to get around in low-light and lightless conditions by listening to the echoes of their own cries. In fiction, this is often exaggerated to depict them as completely blind or even as outright lacking eyes of any sort.
Idiomatically, this also leads to people with bad eyesight being referred to as being "blind as a bat".
Visually, this is often paired with exaggerated versions of the leaf-like nasal structures and enlarged ears of many bats, partly to underscore their unusual sensory arrangements and partly because these are visually dramatic and unusual features that help sell the concept of a strange, alien nocturnal hunter.
In real life, this isn't really the case — although the quality of bat vision can vary from species to species and they generally have poorer daytime vision than humans, no bat species is born without eyesight and all use their sight when flying alongside their other senses.
See also Sense-Impaired Monster, for other instances of fictional creatures being depicted as lacking a crucial sense. Contrast One-Eyed Bats. Compare Bloodsucking Bats, another trope based on a common misconception about the life habits of bats.
Examples
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Comic Books
- Godzilla vs. Kong: The prequel comic, Kingdom Kong, has Kong facing off against the bat-like Titan Camazotz. Normally living in the depths of the Hollow Earth, he's completely blind and relies on echolocation to navigate, but nonetheless cannot stand sunlight and seeks to plunge Skull Island into perpetual darkness. Camazotz's smaller bat-like minions also appear to be completely eyeless.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Subverted. Ami assumed that bats are blind, but her time as one has her learn that they have good eyesight.
- Getting Back on Your Hooves: The Ropen is a giant, blind batlike monster that hunts by sound. Since it's blind, Fluttershy's Stare has no effect on it, but Trixie temporarily cripples its echolocation by using a fireworks spell.
Films — Animation
- Aloha, Scooby-Doo!: Subverted. Shaggy brings up the old "blind as a bat" metaphor as the gang comes across a roost of sleeping bats, only for Velma to correct him that bats actually have good eyesight.
- FernGully: The Last Rainforest: When Batty Koda is introduced, his eyes are clouded up and he keeps crashing into trees because human experimentation has ruined his echolocation. Krysta uses fairy magic to restore his sight, although that doesn't make him any less clumsy.
Literature
- After Man: A Zoology of the Future: This is how several bats have evolved in the 50 million years since humans went extinct. In particular:
- Purrip bats have gradually lost their sight in favor of a frontal echolocation system, to the point where some species—they're a multi-species genus—have lost their eyes entirely.
- The nightstalker, a predatory flightless bat native to the new island chain of Batavia, has also had its eyes atrophy in favor of highly sensitive ears.
- Mossflower: The bats of Bat Mountpit are blind, as Martin learns when they feel his face to "see" him. Rockhanger the bat claims if he tried hard enough he could probably see, but the bats gave up relying on sight in the pitch-dark caves they inhabit.
- Well World: The Creit, a species of giant humanoid bats, have a very keen sense of smell but are almost blind in daylight.
Live-Action TV
- Eureeka's Castle: Batly wears glasses, but often crashes into things. He's even more clumsy without his glasses.
- Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Master Swoop is blind, and also carries the spirit of the bat.
- Primeval (ITV): The "future predators" are a species descended from bats that evolved into large, flightless carnivores. They have no eyes whatsoever and rely instead on their highly developed echolocation. This has at times been turned against them; Nick is able to disorient one by shooting out the glass panes of a greenhouse, and the resulting rain of shards confuses the Predator's sonar, while Lester is able to momentarily confuse one by playing loud music from a boombox.
Tabletop Games
- Magic: The Gathering:
- Blind Hunter
depicts a bat with nothing but smooth unbroken skin over its face.
- Deep-Cavern Bat shows another bat with tiny, atrophied eyes.
- Blind Hunter
Video Games
- Bound by Blades: Played with. Mittux is a monster consisting of a gigantic mouth with leathery, bat-like wings, without any eyes. As it turns, it does have one eye — on its tongue.
- Dominions: The Zotz from Xibalba are nearly blind, but despite this are still able to see well enough to fight in close quarters, although they struggle with any sort of ranged combat.
- Legacy of Kain: Turel, one of Kain's vampire lieutenants, gained more bat-like features over the centuries, which resulted in a gradual loss of sight in exchange for telekinetic and sound-related abilities.
- Pokémon: The cave-dwelling bat Pokémon Zubat has a completely eyeless face, though its evolutions, Golbat and Crobat, have clearly visible eyes. Its counterpart in the fifth generation of games, Woobat, may or may not have eyes, but if so, these are completely covered by its dense fur. Its evolution, Swoobat, does have eyes.
- World of Warcraft: Shriekwing, the first boss of the Castle Nathria raid, is a blind bat-like monster with a metal mask entirely covering the upper half of her face. Her encounter largely revolves around avoiding her echolocation abilities.
Web Animation
- Dorkly Originals: In "Daredevil Should Be Named Batman", one of the main arguments by the woman for why Daredevil should be named Batman is that Daredevil is blind.
Websites
- Neopets: The Karren is a batlike petpet described as having to rely on its strong hearing to make up for its terrible vision.
Western Animation
- Animaniacs (2020): One skit has the Warners going on a "blind date" with a pair of bats who keep using their echolocation at everything around them despite being in a well-lit restaurant.
- Ben 10: Ben's alien Eyeguy evokes this given he's a bat-like humanoid with an Eyeless Face. Inverted however, because he has eyes just about everywhere else.
- Eek! The Cat: In "HallowEek", a bat wearing sunglasses briefly helps Eek while the bat's off-screen wife kept yelling at him to come eat his dinner, prompting him to respond with "I'm blind, not deaf y'know!"
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "Eyes Capades", Rocko becomes farsighted around the time that he's training for a jackhammer contest. When Heffer remarks that Rocko is "blind as a bat", a giant bat approaches Heffer, being insulted by that stereotype. After Heff apologizes, the bat suddenly bumps into a wall, and apologizes to it.
- T.U.F.F. Puppy: Birdbrain's minion Bat is very visually impaired, often running into his fellow henchmen.