A way to counter True Sight
is to be covered in material that cannot be penetrated by such vision. Other examples include being in an area full of something that interferes with True Sight, or there being an object that does that.
Commonly it's lead for X-Ray Vision
, much like in Real Life
, though it can be Applied Phlebotinum
in other cases.
Contrast Kryptonite-Proof Suit
and See the Invisible
. Compare No Sell
and Fantastic Radiation Shielding
. See also Poke in the Third Eye
, Psychic Block Defense
, and Interface Screw
Anime and Manga
- Naruto: In the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, Sasuke was put inside a coffin that had some sort of magical barrier surrounding it. This barrier made it difficult for Neji to see inside the coffin with his Byakugan.
- Superman cannot use his X-Ray Vision to see through objects covered in lead or sufficiently dense materials.
- One time, Superman actually made that work to his advantage when facing The Joker. Joker claimed that he had imprisoned a number of hostages in lead lined coffins in various locations throughout Metropolis and told Superman about them, anticipating that the superhero would have to spend at least a day frantically looking for them while Joker fled the city with the hostages. It turns out that all Superman had to do was do a wide x-ray vision scan above the city from the air and the coffins instantly stood out as opaque objects to him. Thus, Supes was able to check the coffins quickly and had plenty of time to track down the Joker.
- Marvel Comics' Secret Wars has most of Earth's mightiest heroes transported to an alien battleworld. Another transport holds many of Earth's most dangerous villains. Professor X tries using his psychic powers to identify which villains are aboard, but Enchantress mystically shields her party from Professor X's psychic powers.
- This sort of thing happens to the X-Men a lot since a large number of members have psychic powers. Usually, a villain will birng along some sort of device or magic to shield them from their telepathy.
- In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, against Moody's all-seeing Eye of Vance, Harry asks Flitwick for a charm to summon a large number of brightly colored ethereal object, then make them invisible. It works.
- In Predator, Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer camouflages himself (the first time by accident) from the titular creature by covering his body in mud. The cool mud blocks the heat his skin radiates thus making him seem invisible to the predator's thermo cam. In the sequel, DEA uses actual heat blocking suits, though in the end, the predator's True Sight is revealed to be a little bit "too true" for the good of the agents, since it has a whole lot of vision modes to choose from besides infrared.
- In After Earth the alien monsters can detect humans by smelling the pheromones released by fear, Ghosting is a technique in which the subject feels no fear and becomes invisible to the monster.
- According to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the True Cloak of Invisibility is this, providing an impenetrable defense against searches. However, this is inconsistent with earlier books, in which Dumbledore and Moody each, using different means, saw Harry while he was wearing it.
- The Starcraft novelization Liberty's Crusade has Sarah Kerrigan remark that Arcturus Mengsk is really hard for her to read telepathically. As she puts it, title character Mike Liberty is "all surface," and Mengsk is "all depth." When she really works at reading him late in the book, she is horrified at what she finds.
- In The Saga of the Noble Dead, Welstiel has a magical "ring of nothing" that shields him from all forms of magical inquiry and detection.
- In Tolkien's Unfinished Tales, there is a brief suggestion that objects or areas could be 'shrouded' so a palantír could not be used to spy on them.
- Wizards in The Dresden Files have The Sight, which allows them to see all the hidden magic of the world, pierce any veil and see any being for what they truly are. However Harry's cat looks the exact same under The Sight as it does under normal vision.
- Most detection spells in Dungeons & Dragons are blocked by a thin sheet of lead.
- A Ring of X-Ray Vision allowed the wearer to see through varying thicknesses of most substances, but the user's view was blocked by lead, gold and platinum.
- A variety of spells interfere with true sight as well. Nystul's Magical Aura creates a Needle In A Stackof Needles situation, while Nondetection and other such spells can protect you from true sight (but not regular sight). In some editions Gorgon's blood has a similar effect to a thin sheet of lead.
- In Champions, X-Ray vision was blocked by lead. The more general N-Ray vision had to be defined as having a specific substance that blocked it. In 6th Edition a Sense with Penetrative works the same way.
- Shadowrun: It is possible to create barriers that block out Astral Viewing and other magical means of searching, on top of alloys existing that block X-Ray and magnetic scans.
- Warhammer 40,000 has psykers, those who are sufficiently powerful or specialized in divination or detection are able to detect events or other living beings. However, Blunters are humans give off a null "aura" that cancel out psychic powers, and clever individuals have used it to render themselves invisible to psychic detection. Oddly enough, Blunters' nastier cousin, the Pariah is described as not unlike a person-shaped psychic black hole, rendering them fairly visible in that regard.
- Metroid Prime: Samus' thermal visor works poorly in superheated areas.
- Batman: Arkham City: late-game enemy encounters and high-difficulty challenge rooms will occasionally have one or more foes amongst the pack carrying jammer systems that block Batman's "Detective Mode" vision.
- Belkar of The Order of the Stick carries around a sheet of lead just in case someone tries to use Detect Evil on him.
- Girard's Gate also turns out to be hidden behind a lead-lined stone wall.
- Stealth technology sometimes involves material that absorbs radar to prevent detection.
- One of German Intelligence's few successes during the last war was to get the British to believe a rumour that U-Boats were routinely finished in a paint rendering that baffled both acoustic and radar detection, thus making their submarines harder to find when submerged. This was principally spread to additionally demoralise British sailors who suspected they were losing the war at sea. In reality Germany had no such paint. but the Admiralty took the story so seriously that it tied up British naval research establishments in attempting to replicate this miracle paint so as to reproduce it on British submarines. However, spurred on to meet a threat which in reality did not exist, the Royal Navy had limited success during the war using surface coatings that dampened and dispersed German sonar detection. (but not to the point where HM Submarines effectively became "invisible" - nowhere near, but it was a start). A German deception contributed to the actual creation of something that was originally intended only to be a a propaganda fable. It is possible this wartime research paved the way for more sophisticated post-war developments, that eventually found fruition in the latest-generation American stealth planes.