Shin_Ryu Character Development A person is going to be blinded. No getting around that. Which do you think is better: A) Being blinded at an early age (6 years or so), once being able to see but never again. Or B) Being blind from birth and never having seen anything, but not know what you are missing, because ignorince is bliss. Thanks (oohhh and if you have time please explain why) Alucard Tepis I suppose it depends on why you are asking the question, Shin_Ryu, and the manner in which they are blind. If you are talking personally, I am ambivalent. It is obvious that a formerly sighted person may have regrets, not being able to see anymore. However, having once seen, they can relate to the sighted world and at least imagine how things would look, as opposed to a person who could never see, which would have no basis with which to even think about sight, or what things "look" like. If you are asking from the perspective of character development (your subject line) in terms of a story, I think it depends on the story you are trying to tell. Is it important that the person may have regrets? Would it be more useful to your story if they had no concept of what things looked like? Use whichever is more appropriate. In terms of character development, how they become blind can be as or more important than when, although I suppose they are related. If you became blind after you were fully aware, then you would likely have memories of what caused the blindness. Illness, accident, criminal trauma, these all can have different effects on a character's psyche. The reason for having been made blind before you were born would have less of a mental scar, unless there is some sort of residual or transfered emotional effects from one's parent(s) For example: Guilt if the cause was illness or birth defect, or anger towards the person who caused his/her child's blindness. Akagi Ritsuko If you happen to be doing an action/adventure tale with a blind hero, perhaps you would be interested in an unusual, but well-documented medical phenomenon. It seems that certain people that are made blind due to severe trauma to the back of the head have exhibited almost miraculous behavior. The neural clusters that process the conscious perception of "sight" are located near the base of the brain towards the rear on each hemisphere. Damage to this area can destroy your conscious perception of sight. Your eyes may be fully functional, but you cannot consciously "see" or know that you are looking at something. In other words, your perception of sight has been cut off to the higher order brain functions that allow you to think "about" what you are looking at. However, and here is the odd part. If the parts of the brain that handle the unconscious processing of sight are undamaged, they may still continue to function properly. There is actually a great deal of unconscious processing of what is coming in through your eyes that you never really have to consciously think about, but is used to make your life easier. This processing includes "tactical" information such as speed, distance, direction, and orientation. So, for example, there are known cases of people that are "blind" who will readily admit that they cannot see a thing, cannot tell you that you are holding up a baseball or if or when you threw it. However, if you tell them to try to catch the ball, they can, with uncanny accuracy (for a blind person, anyway, since the processing is by no means perfect). It does make one wonder if perhaps this is the medical / biological explanation of legendary blind swordsmen. A severe blow to the back of the skull with a blade or blunt object that does not kill could still leave the person blind, but with perfectly functional eyes and potentially unconscious tactical processing of vision. While they could not "see" or read, it would be possible for them to subconsciously sense the speed and direction of objects moving within their unconscious vision. Shin_Ryu You are indeed right, about this being about a story. Twin sisters the younger one is blind. I am still trying to work out a story of how it happened. I am thinking about which would be better for my story and which would effect a person more greatly. And about being better for the story, Its moot. The story is being writen about them so they aren't there to further the plot. The plot is being fit around them... (not sure if that made sence). Thank you greatly, I think I am going to go with her being blinded at the age of six due to trama, because that would provide a greater and much more moving backstory then "She was born that way". And thanks Akagi-sensei, that was really intersting. I have always been fasinated with people with that kind of handycap esp the blind. I could never imagine being like that yet what they do everyday is amazing.