History EyeScream / Literature

* In ''Literature/DarthBane: Path of Destruction'', pre-Bane Dessel gets into a fight with another miner. The EyeScream is averted: the miner makes several attempts to gouge out Dessel's eye, but [[spoiler: [[{{Fingore}} instead gets his thumb bitten off]]]].

* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}} novel ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'', a mook gets a rolled up recording shoved in his eye.

* In ''[[Literature/MichaelStrogoff Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar]]'' by Creator/JulesVerne the titular character gets a heat treatment to destroy his eyes by the enemies of the czar. [[spoiler:It turns out the treatment was a failure, because the hero cried like a little boy.]]

* ''[[Literature/KnownSpace The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton]]'' by Creator/LarryNiven. The protagonist Gil has a party trick where he smokes a cigarette while holding it in a psychic hand. He's captured by an [[OrganTheft organlegger]] who's fascinated by Gil's PsychicPowers and asks for a demonstration from the physically-bound Gil before he's cut up for body parts. So Gil takes the lit cigarette and jams it ''into his own eye'' destroying the valuable cornea (he figures that the eye doesn't have pain receptors, but forgets that the eyelids do). The organlegger rushes over to stop him whereupon Gil then uses his psychic hand to crush the man's heart. Later on Gil gets a cornea transplant, presumably from a legitimate donor.

* In a ''Literature/KnownSpace'' story by Creator/LarryNiven, the hero tries to prevent a gang of organleggers from stealing his corneas by ''burning one eye with a cigarette'' so it'll be useless to them. He figures that the eye doesn't have pain receptors, but forgets that the eyelids do. Later on he gets a transplant, presumably from a legitimate donor.

** Vittoria later gets revenge on said assassin when she stabs a red-hot branding iron staight into his eye, she even got to say the "[[BondOneLiner an eye for an eye]]" line.

* On the Eastern side of things, the ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' has Xiahou Dun, who ends up taking an arrow in the eye -- then plucking it out and swallowing it.
** "Essence of my father, blood of my mother, I cannot throw this away." ''So badass''.


* The ''[=StrangeMatter=]'' book ''Fly the Unfriendly Skies'' involved an evil alien race of hovering balls of black water called Cepheids. Late at night they would enter the homes of people and release drops of themselves into their eyes. These people would over the course of a day [[BodyHorror slowly transform into Cepheids]].





* In Christopher Fowler's ''Rune'', Mrs. Nahree [[spoiler: presses a soldering iron into her eyes, trying to blind herself.]]
* While it doesn't get mentioned in [[Film/WhatsEatingGilbertGrape the more-famous film version]], in the original novel of ''What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'', Arnie has a glass eye due to a childhood accident: he burst into a bedroom at the wrong moment while his drunken older siblings were tossing darts at a board on the back of the door.
* In ''[[Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie Farmer Boy]]'', which tells the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband Almanzo's childhood, Almanzo is roasting potatoes in a fire when one of the potatoes explodes. The scalding-hot contents hit him directly in the face. Fortunately he closes his eyes in the nick of time and ends up with only some nasty blistering on his eyelid and cheek.



* J.F. Gonzalez's ''Survivor'' opens with a bondage-themed lesbian tryst between a [[TheFifties 1950s]] housewife and a cheerleader. Once the cheerleader's naked and tied up, the housewife sucks her eye out with her mouth and eats it.

* In Thomas Harris's novel ''[[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Red Dragon]]'' and both its [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptations]], the titular SerialKiller puts mirror shards in the eyes of his victims. (Luckily, this is ''after'' he kills them.)
** In a later Harris novel, the AssholeVictim is not so fortunate: under the hypnotic suggestion of Dr. Lecter, [[spoiler: Mason Verger removes his ''own'' eye (and much of his face) with a shard of broken mirror. The remaining eye survives, albeit lidless.]]
* Lauchlan of ''Literature/MixBeerWithLiquorAndYouWillGetSicker'' lost his right eye very early in his adolescence and never quite got over the trauma that stemmed from the accident. [[spoiler: Later on it's revealed that Lauchlan's scotomaphobia has got less to do with the accident itself and more to do with the fact that a surgeon cut out his wounded eye without any form of anesthetic, while he was conscious and couldn't understand why the surgeon was doing it to him.]]








* Creator/RobertRMcCammon's "Pin". The title says it all.
* A. Merritt's novel ''Literature/TheShipOfIshtar'' has a fight scene in which John Kenton does this to one of his opponents, remembering something he saw in another unequal fight on a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI battlefield.

* In Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/TheStressOfHerRegard'':
** Josephine puts one of her own eyes out when she catches up with Crawford. [[spoiler:When they meet again in Rome, it turns out that she uses her glass eye to ensure that she always has a supply of garlic to ward off nephilim.]]
** The Graiae have only one eye between them, which they pass back and forth.

* In ''Literature/{{War of the Spider Queen}}'' [[spoiler:Gromph Baenre]] took out the eyes of captive drow and transplanted to replace his own damaged eyes when he had no access to adequate magical healing. And then [[spoiler:compelled rat to ''eat out'']] his own eyes. Both without any anesthesia.


* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** ''The Shadow Rising'': An Aiel chief [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad from the Revelation]] and ''eats'' his own eyeballs when {{Magitek}}-induced visions reveal the AwfulTruth that [[spoiler:his {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}} were originally pacifists who broke their IntrinsicVow]].
** ''The Fires of Heaven'': When the legendary archer [[spoiler:Birgitte]] cuts her way through a riot, she makes a point of shooting people through the eye every time -- only a minor demonstration of her ImprobableAimingSkills.
** ''Towers of Midnight'':
*** One Darkfriend has so bad a case of GoodHurtsEvil when he witnesses the true power of TheChosenOne that he puts out his own eyes with a quill.
*** One would-be assassin gets a knife in each eye.
*** [[spoiler:Mat Cauthon]] gets his left eye torn out by [[spoiler:the Eelfinn]] in exchange for [[spoiler:releasing Moiraine from captivity]]. He's resigned to it happening, thanks to [[spoiler:a prophecy he receives earlier]], but is still astonished by how much it hurts.

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** Both Brokenstar and Longtail [[spoiler:had their eyes clawed, blinding them permanently]].
** Worst of all, Brightheart had [[spoiler:her right eye ''ripped out'' by a dog]].
** Also Percy in ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny'' when his eye gets ripped out.


* ''Literature/LauraCaxton'':
** As the most obvious example, series antagonist Justinia Malvern killed herself to become a vampire by shooting herself in the head, simultaneously destroying her left eye so that she is left with a blank socket for as long as she exists.
** In ''Vampire Zero'', Caxton is able to hurt [[spoiler:her former mentor and new vampire Arkley]] by shining her gun's laser targeting beam in his eyes, his vampiric vision so vulnerable to bright light that what would blind a human for a few moments basically destroys her enemy's eyes [[spoiler:long enough for Caxton to lure him into a trap]].

* Creator/AnneRice's Literature/TheVampireChronicles: In ''The Queen of the Damned'' Maharet tells of how [[AGodAmI Akasha]] commanded that her eyes be cut out and her twin sister's [[AndIMustScream tongue be cut out]] before sealing them into coffins that she abandoned to drift in the ocean. Later, Maharet learned that she could see by stealing the eyes of her victims and sewing them into her eye sockets...
* ''The Painted Bird'' by Jerzy Kosinski contains the very graphic and detailed scene in which drunken farmer blinds his farmhand. With a spoon.
* In ''Literature/MountDragon,'' a scientist suddenly stabs himself in the eye with a fork -- the first sign of artificially-induced insanity, which the other scientists at Mount Dragon soon start showing symptoms of.
* In ''[[Literature/MichaelStrogoff Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar]]'' by Creator/JulesVerne the titular character gets a heat treatment to destroy his eyes by the enemies of the czar. [[spoiler:It turns out the treatment was a failure, because the hero cried like a little boy.]]
** "Heat treatment" doesn't do the passage justice. What the Tartars do is they jab a cavalry saber in a fire pit until it's white hot, then put it right next to his eyes to burn them. And [[spoiler: it doesn't work because Michael's tears instantly boil, thus forming a sort of insulating gas barrier]]. Either way...!
* The Literature/{{Redwall}} book ''The Long Patrol'': [[spoiler:Damug Warfang stabs and hacks away at Cregga's face as she kills him, damaging her eyes so badly she's left blind.]]
* ''Literature/TheStoneDanceOfTheChameleon'' takes place in a world where blinding people is a routine operation. ConjoinedTwins have one of the siblings blinded at birth, people of the Kharon caste have one eye plucked out at birth, and common people who see a Master unmasked face blinding -- in those cases that they aren't killed outright.

* Averted in ''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes The Valley of Fear]]'', in which a blindfolded man who is undergoing a corrupt secret society's initiation-rite feels hard points set against both his eyes, and is ordered to walk forward. The points are withdrawn as soon as he begins to take a step, as it's a ritual test of courage rather than an assault.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the ''Series/{{Psych}}'' tie-in novel ''Mind Over Magic'' (the "she" in question is a performer whose biggest trick is sticking knives in her eyes):
-->'''Gus''': "She didn't even blink."
-->'''Shawn''': "Exactly. You mention something about eyeball injury, and that's exactly what people do. They blink. It's like a guy crossing his legs when you mention the concept of [[GroinAttack castration]]."
* In the Literature/PaladinOfShadows series, [[SociopathicHero Katya]] talks about gouging out several "bad guy" eyes and injecting the poison weapon she's given in ''Choosers of the Slain'' into them, but doesn't actually get to do it until near the end of ''A Deeper Blue'', to the drug smuggler who was working with Islamic terrorists to sneak VX into the US.
* Subverted in ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheDrowSeries The Legacy]]'', one of the later sequels to the Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy penned by R.A. Salvatore. Drizzt's friend [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Bruenor]] is suffering from UnstoppableRage when he attacks a pair of the dark elves that kidnapped Drizzt and [[spoiler:he thinks]] killed Wulfgar. When the dark elves fight back, one of them slashes Bruenor across the face and gouges out his eye. It doesn't even faze the grieving dwarf, who proceeds to brutally pay the drow back in spades for what they did to his friends.
* Prior, from Literature/TheRegenerationTrilogy, has a breakdown after his trench gets hit by a shell, and he picks up one of his men's disembodied eyeballs while cleaning up the debris.
* In the TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering novel ''Literature/RathAndStorm'', the [[SmugSnake treacherous and self-serving]] Starke joins the ''Weatherlight'' crew to attack Volrath's fortress and rescue the captive Sisay, on the condition that they free his daughter Takara as well. Near the end of the adventure-slash-disaster, they find Sisay and Takara wandering around and Starke rushes over to embrace his daughter. However, both women are under a strong mind-control spell and Takara [[spoiler: (who is actually the shapeshifter Volrath in disguise)]] slashes out both of Starke's eyes with her sword.

* In ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', Revenue Agent Fechner lost an eye in a war. He has a GlassEye, but he apparently likes to use his empty eye socket as a bottle opener.
* Huor in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is killed by a poisoned arrow to the eye. Also, Gwindor's brother Gelmir is blinded by his captors.
* In the Song of Albion book ''The Silver Hand'', [[spoiler:Tegid]] has his eyes slashed out after saying that he'll never see [[spoiler:Meldron as king]].
-->"So be it."
* In Kevin G. Bufton's short story "[[http://beckah-rah.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/halloween-flash-fiction-winner-kevin.html Sentinels]]" the call-girl Sarah [[spoiler:has her eyes gouged out by Michael (with his thumbs no less!)]].
* ''Literature/TheMachineGunners'': the dead rear-gunner in the downed Heinkel bomber took a bullet in the eye. When Chas finds the corpse, the socket's full of blood and flies.
* ''Literature/MyNameIsRed'': Famed Islamic miniaturists would rather blind themselves than paint in the European style at the behest of their masters. Master Osman does the same on-page, for much the same reasons, and we get a description of how the vision of his pierced eyes dims slowly.






* In some versions of "Literature/TamLin", after Janet rescues Tam Lin the Faerie Queen says that if she'd known what he was doing, she would have plucked out his eyes and put wooden ones in their place.
* In ''Literature/{{Nevermore}}'', Angel (and the readers) are shown a video of an attempt at improving night vision years ago. The test subject is Iggy. In case you were wondering, he was awake ''the entire time.'' [[spoiler:And then the scientists do it on Angel]].
* In ''Literature/PercyJackson: The Last Olympian'', Percy stabs the Lydian Drakon in the eye with Riptide. Gory, no? It gets better. Clarisse puts out the Drakon's ''other'' eye with her enchanted electric spear. That not only puts out its other eye, but ''shatters the spear completely,'' outputting a huge amount of lightning that ends up ''electrocuting'' the beast, killing it in the process!
* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': In ''The Fire Ascending''. When Hilde orders a raven to peck an eye from a dead man's socket so as to bring vengeance to his murderer. And again, only pages later, the same bird shows up with BOTH eyes gouged out as a warning from Voss. What a charming guy, right?
* In Mollie Hunter's ''A Stranger Came Ashore'', [[spoiler: this is how Yarl and Robbie defeat Finn Larson aka [[SelkiesAndWereseals The Great Selkie]].]]
* Damien very nearly loses an eye in ''Literature/SpiderCircus'', while paralysed and conscious.
* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', if a [[SoulCuttingBlade Shardblade]] passes through a vital part of your body, your eyes shrivel up as if burned and you instantly die. Also, it turns out that [[spoiler: in Shadesmar the spren of 'dead' shardblades look like mostly-normal spren with the eyes scratched out. The other spren call these "deadeyes"]]
** Near the end of ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' [[spoiler: Adolin]] kills [[spoiler: Highprince Sadeas]] with a knife shoved into his eye.
* Amyrst in ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'' is this as a character! To shorten the story look at the book part sketch [[https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t31.0-8/10295312_646841978733192_7627059547593590948_o.jpg here]]. Worse still Phenomena is a book series rated 9+...

* ''Literature/TheScream'' : The Screamers take the eyes of their followers.
* The transsexual drug dealer Coco in Jo Nesbø's ''The Son'' is known for her use of ice pick, and she attempts use it to pry out an eye of one her clients who hasn't paid his debts. Luckily for the client, the title character pays his debts for him.

* In ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'', one of Saleem's neighbors decides to [[BullyingADragon bully Shiva]], who responds by hurling a sharp stone that blinds him in one eye. [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname He is forever after known as "Eyeslice".]]
* Jürgen and his friends in ''Literature/TheTraitorsEmblem'' attack Paul for the death of his brother Eduard, and in the scuffle loses his right eye when it is accidentally stabbed with a knife. [[spoiler:Years later, Paul has to have his own right eye stabbed out so that he can impersonate Jürgen]].

* Nathan Ausubel's ''A Treasury of Jewish Folklore'' includes a seventeenth-century tale about a pious and virginal young woman who's captured by a prince who fell in love with her and refuses to take no for an answer. When she asks what attracted him to her he says that she has "the eyes of a dove, which have taken me captive." She pretends to accept his advances and asks for time to primp a bit. Once alone in her room she ''gouges out her eyes'' and then hands them to him, saying that since he likes them so much he can do whatever he wants with them. Horrified, he lets her go and she remains a virgin for the rest of her life.

* ''Literature/ShadowPolice'': In ''The Severed Streets'', the Keel brothers cut the eyes out of their barmaid as punishment for refusing to accept payments in cash.
* ''Literature/TheTraitorSonCycle'': when attacked, [[spoiler:the Odine]] worms respond by burrowing through their victim's eyes into the brain.



* In ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'':
** The signature effect of a treshold winnower is melting the eyes of everyone within its proximity.
** One of Vidona torture methods involves scooping the victim's eyes out with a sharp spoon.

* Polly in ''Literature/QuicksandHouse'' gets one eye punctured and pulled from its socket [[spoiler: when Nanny attacks her.]] The fact that she even survived is declared a "miracle" by her brother Tick, but later credited to her [[spoiler: being a HalfHumanHybrid who is MadeOfIron.]]
* ''Literature/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin'': Poor little Celia lost an eye and have to live with having a prosthetic glass eye for the rest of her life ([[spoiler: both remaining years of it]]) after Kevin "accidentally" spilled drain cleaner in it.


* In the ''Series/{{Lovejoy}}'' novel ''The Judas Pair'', Lovejoy is forced into a duel with Dr Legrange, using a legendary (and priceless) pair of pistols. Having worked out that [[BackwardsFiringGun they fire backwards]], he points the gun at his own head -- firing straight into Legrange's eye and killing him, with a gory description of the eye exploding. The same previously happened to the last owner of the pistols (whom Legrange stole them from), who did ''not'' realize how the guns work.
* In the ''Literature/ThousandSons'' novel ''Ahriman: Exile'', the Chaos sorcerer Maroth plucks out one eye from each of several captive Space Marines, and later confides to Ahriman that he ''ate'' the eyes in an attempt to gain power. The captive Space Marines return the favour once Ahriman frees them, and while they get fancy bionic lenses to replace their missing eyes, Maroth has no such luck.
* Towards the end of ''Literature/{{TOT}}'', [[spoiler:Maximus Slade]] gets stabbed in the eye with a silver knife.
* On ''several'' occasions in the WebSerialNovel ''Literature/{{Worm}}'':
** At the end of Skitter's second fight against the [[HealingFactor massively-regenerating supervillain]] Lung, she methodically cuts out his eyes to [[spoiler:stop him from escaping before the police arrive]].
** When [[PerceptionFilter Imp]] stabs [[MadDoctor Bonesaw]] in the eye, she reacts relatively calmly, talking enthusiastically about maybe switching to a different color, or perhaps heterochromia.
** Skitter defeats Valefor, a villain whose power works via his gaze, by [[spoiler:filling his eyeballs with maggots]].
** In general, when Skitter is actively looking to hurt/kill, she takes to doing things like directing bees, wasps and other stinging insects into people's eyes.
** Implied: when they learn [[GlassShatteringSound Shatterbird]] is in town, people take off their glasses.
* ''Literature/TheTribe'': In "Homeroom Headhunters", Spencer decides to spend a class flinging pencils at the ceiling. One gets stuck in the tile at an odd angle, and comes loose just as his teacher comes over to him and looks up. The pencil hits the teacher in the eye.
* ''Literature/{{Stray}}'':
** While at an AnimalTesting lab, Pufftail routinely has untested shampoo shoved into his eyes. Pufftail describes the pain as so awful that it takes all the remaining joy out of his already miserable life.
** While saving animals from the animal testing facility, a cat without eyelids is rescued. He had his eyelids removed by testers trying to research how a lack of sleep effects beings. The cat, who Pufftail believes was [[spoiler:the former cult leader Tom-Cat]], was then forced onto a treadmill while tested.
* In the "Culhwch and Olwen" part of ''Literature/{{Mabinogion}}'', Ysbaddaden the giant throws a poisoned javelin at the protagonist. Culhwch catches the javelin and throws it back through the giant's eye. It goes all the way through his head and winds up jutting out the nape of his neck. [[MadeOfIron This does not kill him]] and his only reaction is to [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction yell a bit about how much it hurts]].

* Creator/CormacMcCarthy's ''[=The Crossing=]'' has a particularly gruesome scene involving the Mexican revolutionary. After mouthing off to the German mercenary Wirtz and spitting in his face, Wirtz proceeds to lick up the spittle, swallow it, smile, then ''[=sucks out the man's eyeballs with his mouth, leaving them to dangle down his face=]''. The revolutionary talks about how, due to his eyes hanging from his face via a handful of nerves, the world seems to jostle as his eyes sway back and forth on his march back to camp.
* ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'': A species of giant, birdlike creatures native to the Labyrinth will relentlessly attempt to peck out their prey's eyes, before devouring their target once there are rendered blind and helpless.

* In William Shakespeare's ''Theatre/KingLear'', the Earl of Gloucester finds himself on the receiving end of this trope, his attackers exclaiming, 'Out, vile jelly!' A more reserved production might skimp on the horror and make NightmareRetardant of it.
* Eyes, eyes, what eyes? Acheri, from ''Literature/HellsChildren''.
* The ''[=StrangeMatter=]'' book ''Fly the Unfriendly Skies'' involved an evil alien race of hovering balls of black water called Cepheids. Late at night they would enter the homes of people and release drops of themselves into their eyes. These people would over the course of a day [[BodyHorror slowly transform into Cepheids]].

* On the Eastern side of things, the ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' has Xiahou Dun, who ends up taking an arrow in the eye - then plucking it out and swallowing it.
** "Essence of my father, blood of my mother, I cannot throw this away." ''So badass''.

* In ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', [[spoiler:Edward]] is on the receiving end of one via a butter knife [[spoiler:[[{{DisproportionateRetribution}} because he ended up first on the initiate ranking]]. Peter does not like being in second place]].
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/SmallFavor'', Mab compels Harry Dresden to do her a favor by ''freezing the water in his eyes.'' Not only that, Mab tells him that if he questions her word again, she'll finish the job.
-->"Mab's frozen-berry lips lifted in a silent snarl, and the world turned into a curtain of white agony that centered on my eyes. Nothing had ''ever'' hurt so much. I fell down, but I wasn't lucky enough to hit my head and knock myself unconscious. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream."
** Later, in the novel ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', Harry [[spoiler:pulls it off himself, turning his right hand into an icy claw and stabbing it into the eyes of the Red King. And then, for good measure, blasting soulfire through it straight into the inside of his head. '''This is not enough to kill him'''.]]
** At the very end of the novel ''Literature/GravePeril'', [[BigBad The]] [[OurLichesAreDifferent Nightmare]], [[spoiler:also known as the ghost of Leonid Kravos]], loses his eye by Dresden's thumb in the final encounter. Squick factor slightly lessened in that The Nightmare is a ghost.
* In Dan Brown's ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'', Vittoria's father [[spoiler: has his eye cut out by an assassin trying to bypass an iris scanner and get into his lab to steal a container full of anti-matter]].
** Vittoria later gets revenge on said assassin when she stabs a red-hot branding iron staight into his eye, she even got to say the "[[BondOneLiner an eye for an eye]]" line.
* In Christopher Fowler's ''Rune'', Mrs. Nahree [[spoiler: presses a soldering iron into her eyes, trying to blind herself.]]
* While it doesn't get mentioned in [[Film/WhatsEatingGilbertGrape the more-famous film version]], in the original novel of ''What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'', Arnie has a glass eye due to a childhood accident: he burst into a bedroom at the wrong moment while his drunken older siblings were tossing darts at a board on the back of the door.
* In ''[[Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie Farmer Boy]]'', which tells the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband Almanzo's childhood, Almanzo is roasting potatoes in a fire when one of the potatoes explodes. The scalding-hot contents hit him directly in the face. Fortunately he closes his eyes in the nick of time and ends up with only some nasty blistering on his eyelid and cheek.
* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' series, Alaspinian miniature dragons spit a potent and highly corrosive neurotoxin as their primary weapon, and their preferred target is the eyes. This is every bit as horrifying and painful as it sounds, and, courtesy of Pip, we get treated to its effects many, many times throughout the novels. Although her empathic ability allows her to discriminate fairly effectively between good and bad people, it's still a nasty way to die, and those who don't are permanently scarred. The threat of death by minidrag venom also makes a very handy interrogation technique.

* In ''Literature/JurassicPark'', the dilophosaurus spits venom in [[FatBastard Dennis Nedry]]'s eyes, blinding him before it [[KarmicDeath chows down.]]
* J.F. Gonzalez's ''Survivor'' opens with a bondage-themed lesbian tryst between a [[TheFifties 1950s]] housewife and a cheerleader. Once the cheerleader's naked and tied up, the housewife sucks her eye out with her mouth and eats it.
* At the end of Robert Graves' historical novel ''Belisarius'', [[spoiler: the titular character]] has his eyes burned out by Emperor Justinian. This is actually a later legend and didn't happen to the historical [[spoiler: Belisarius]].
* In Creator/BarbaraHambly's novel ''Literature/TheLadiesOfMandrigyn'', there is an EldritchAbomination that burrows into the brain of its victim by way of the eye, then [[BodyHorror transforms said victim]] into a [[NotUsingTheZedWord mindless, ravening ghoul]]. [[spoiler:The hero survives the attack of this entity by gouging out his own eyeball]].
* In Thomas Harris's novel ''[[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Red Dragon]]'' and both its [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptations]], the titular SerialKiller puts mirror shards in the eyes of his victims. (Luckily, this is ''after'' he kills them.)
** In a later Harris novel, the AssholeVictim is not so fortunate: under the hypnotic suggestion of Dr. Lecter, [[spoiler: Mason Verger removes his ''own'' eye (and much of his face) with a shard of broken mirror. The remaining eye survives, albeit lidless.]]
* Lauchlan of ''Literature/MixBeerWithLiquorAndYouWillGetSicker'' lost his right eye very early in his adolescence and never quite got over the trauma that stemmed from the accident. [[spoiler: Later on it's revealed that Lauchlan's scotomaphobia has got less to do with the accident itself and more to do with the fact that a surgeon cut out his wounded eye without any form of anesthetic, while he was conscious and couldn't understand why the surgeon was doing it to him.]]

* In Khaled Hosseini's ''Literature/TheKiteRunner'', one of the antagonists is threatened with the loss of an eye early in the book. [[spoiler: Years later, the son of the man who made the threat carries it out.]]
* ''[[Literature/TheActsOfCaine Caine Black Knife]]'' gives us the Black Knife Kiss, a.k.a. 'how a vicious yet primitive tribe of ogrilloi neutralizes any spellcasters they capture before they can torture them', a.k.a. 'thanks a fucking lot Creator/MattStover; [[BrainBleach I didn't need to read that]]'.
** The sanitized version is: An ogrilloi (orc) bites down and sucks the eye out of the spellcaster's head. And there is one ogrilloi per eye.

* Played for laughs in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' with Quoth, a talking raven (the man who named him thought he was being clever) and Blind Io. The former acts as a mount for the Death of Rats, and mentions he's in it "for the eyeballs". The latter is the local equivalent of Odin, Zeus, and any other convenient thunder god, who has no eyes in his head, but hundreds floating around his body. He ''used'' to employ ravens as his heralds (like Odin), until he got tired of them pecking at his floating eyes.
** Also, in more of a FridgeLogic sort of way -- if [[PsychopathicManchild Jonathan Teatime's]] glass eye really is a scrying crystal of some sort... how did he get it? It's not exactly a standard accessory for victims of unfortunate but natural accidents. This has led many fans to believe that he ''purposely gouged out that eye himself'' to put the thing in. Possibly at a very young age. Not too bad compared to other examples here, but think about Teatime. It's entirely possible that that's how his judgement goes, even if it would do interesting things for one's depth perception. And, y'know, possibly sanity.
*** And the fact that Teatime was willing to put notoriously unreliable discworld magic INTO HIS OWN HEAD.
** At the end of ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' [[spoiler: Pepe attacks Andy]]. Serious eye injury is heavily implied.
** Narrowly averted in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'', in which Vimes suffers a facial injury that forces him to wear an eye patch for the duration of his sojourn in the past. Luckily his vision isn't permanently impaired.
* In Creator/RobinJarvis' ''Literature/{{Hagwood}}'' trilogy:
** Rhiannon had her provost owl eat Prince Tammedor's eyes as punishment for his rejection of her in favour of her sister. She replaced them with painful wooden pegs that are enchanted and so impossible to remove.
** At the beginning of ''Dark Waters of Hagwood'', Rhiannon has one of her scholars searching for information about the werlings. When he finds nothing and tries to excuse his failure by stating that his eyes cannot see something that isn't there, she punishes him by tearing them out with her fingernails.

* As stated above, ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' has a rather large description of [[spoiler:Chigusa]] clawing out one of [[spoiler:Niida]]'s eyes, with her middle finger and thumb (deciding that this had more strength than her pointer and thumb). This was followed by testicular crushing. But that's another trope.

* In Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's short story "The Island of the Torturers", the hero sees the corpses of other victims of the torturers, with their eyelids cut out.

* Keeps happening to demon victims, most notably Kernel Fleck, in Darren Shan's Literature/TheDemonata series.
* In ''Literature/DarthBane: Path of Destruction'', pre-Bane Dessel gets into a fight with another miner. The EyeScream is averted: the miner makes several attempts to gouge out Dessel's eye, but [[spoiler: [[{{Fingore}} instead gets his thumb bitten off]]]].
* ''Darth Bane: Rule of Two''. Darth Zannah uses Sith sorcery on one of her kidnappers halfway through the book. The kidnapper goes insane and, among other things, claws her own eyes out before falling into a comatose state.
* Painwise. Self-inflicted.
--> He pushed his thumb and forefinger between his lids and twisted until the eyeball hung wetly on his cheek.

* In ''[[Literature/HardBoiledWonderlandAndTheEndOfTheWorld Hardboiled Wonderland]]'' the narrator is not allowed into The Town until the gatekeeper is allowed to push a knife into each of his eyes for no apparent reason. The action doesn't harm him, instead the creepy factor comes from his agreeing without hesitation.
* Chun the Unavoidable from Jack Vance's ''Literature/DyingEarth'' stories and his [[spoiler:cape made out of eyeballs]].
* The Graycaps in Jeff [=VanderMeer's=] ''Literature/{{Ambergris}}'' stories make a habit of plucking out the eyes of their enemies. In the case of their first known victim, the founder of the titular city, they carefully preserved his eyeballs and left them to be found decades later along with his chronicler's journal. It's implied that they might use human eyeballs to grow some beneficial fungus on them.
* In the additional [[Literature/TheBourneSeries Bourne]] books by Eric Van Lustbader, there seems to be an unusual fixation on the ruination of eyes (and BLT sandwiches, which is, thank God, separate). In ''The Bourne Legacy'', one of the characters burns out someone's eye with a match, and Bourne jabs out the eye of an agent that has come to kill him, ''with his thumb''. In ''The Bourne Betrayal'', one of the characters [[spoiler:Martin Lindros, the Deputy Director of the CIA, is kidnapped and tortured, and his eye is removed in a pretty atrocious display of pseudoscience because it still works on retinal scans even after being implanted into someone else. Finally, when he is freed, he finds the doctor who removed his eye and jams his thumbs into the eyes of the doctor, which is described in great detail as his eyes BURST, and then driving his thumbs so deep into the eye sockets that he actually kills the doctor]].

* Literature/HonorHarrington loses an eye in ''Honor of the Queen'' when defending the Protector from goons sent by TheMole, to later be replaced by a prosthetic. Which was then damaged beyond repair a few books later by StateSec. She got better.
* In Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'', King Eric has [[spoiler:Corwin]]'s eyes burned out as a punishment for opposing him, and to prevent him from escaping. [[spoiler:They grow back]].
* In the Creator/JinYong ''{{wuxia}}'' novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, a selfish, spoiled {{Yandere}} becomes blind after being poisoned, but the ButtMonkey harboring an unrequited romance for her donates his eyes to her. Eventually, she decides to give them back...by plucking them out and throwing them at him.
* In the first ''Literature/KeysToTheKingdom'' book, the Old One's eyes are [[spoiler: destroyed and regrown once every day by a pair of clockwork monsters]] as part of a punishment inflicted on him by [[{{God}} The Architect]].
* In the final scene of David Foster Wallace's ''Literature/InfiniteJest'', [[spoiler:Fackelmann]]'s eyes are sewn open after he has been given an anti-narcotic, so he will be able to feel and see his gruesome demise.
* In one of his many books, Mark "Chopper" Read claims to have knocked out an opponent's eye, put it in a glass of beer and ... well, you can guess the rest.

* In George R. R. Martin's series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', there's a wildling tribe in the Mountains of the Moon called the Burned Men, who ritually maim themselves upon achieving adulthood. Understandably this unnerves most of the other tribes. It's considered normal to cut off a finger, and rather crazy to cut off an ear. One of the members of this tribe, Timmett, Son of Timmett, ends up serving as one of Tyrion's retinue. He chose to ''put out his own eye with a hot knife''. His own tribe was impressed and creeped out enough to make him a war leader on the spot despite his youth.
** The Weeper is a wildling raider known for his own eyes constantly watering, and putting out as many other people's eyes as he can. He puts eyeless heads on stakes outside the wall, and when he raids villages any women he leaves behind are not left their eyes.

* In Jonathan Coe's ''The House of Sleep'', the main antagonist has a bizarre and sinister fetish for resting his fingers on his partner's eyelids and applying steadily increasing pressure.

* In ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar,'' the heroes are stalked by a floating eye-like thing. So LawfulNeutral John Dart tells them to shoot at it. They realize afterward, from the splatter of blood and the horrible shriek, that they ''shot out the BigBad's actual eye.'' [[spoiler: This causes some dissonance later when the BigBad is rendered harmless as an [[AmnesiacDissonance amnesiac little girl.]] She's a cute little lass with a cute little eye patch.]]
* A major theme in the Stuart [=MacBride=] novel ''Blind Eye''. Numerous victims are very messily blinded off-screen, along with [[spoiler:one unsympathetic minor character]] on-screen (not described in much detail); however, the worst bit is the pathologist describing how the perpetrator would have gone about it.
-->"I'd say the eyes were gouged out of the head with a small hooked knife, cutting the muscles. Then the assailant takes the eye in the palm of his hand like this with the optic nerve between the middle two fingers, and yanks like he's trying to start a chainsaw."
* ''Literature/TheStoneDanceOfTheChameleon'' takes place in a world where blinding people is a routine operation. ConjoinedTwins have one of the siblings blinded at birth, people of the Kharon caste have one eye plucked out at birth, and common people who see a Master unmasked face blinding - in those cases that they aren't killed outright.

* In an early installment of ''Literature/TheDestroyer'', this is how Remo disposes of one of the villains - by putting a chess piece through his eye.
* From ''Literature/TheIliad'', book sixteen, describing the death of Kebriones, Hektor's charioter: "The sharp stone hit him in the forehead and smashed both brows in on each other, nor could the bone hold the rock, but the eyes fell out into the dust before him there at his feet, so that he valted to the earth like a diver from the carefully wrought chariot, and the life left his bones."
* From ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'', Ghostmaker. While on a completely frozen world, with temperatures well below zero, a trooper puts his eye up to the glass of a scope. It froze in place and the other Ghosts had to pull the gun away from his face. Okay, ''ouch.''
** At the end of "Only In Death," it is discovered that [[spoiler:the Blood Pact's torture of Gaunt included burning out his eyes with a heated iron.]] The short story "The Iron Star" takes its title from the incident.
* Before ''Literature/BeyondTheWesternSea'' begins, Mr. Grout has a stake driven into his eye during a prizefight.

* ''Bless Me, Ultima'' has Ultima's Owl Avatar/familiar pluck Tenorio's eye out with his talons. The books then describes it landing in the dust, and a [[NauseaFuel bloody, red, pulp]]. Despite the cruel punishment Tenorio deserves it.

* Dan Abnett's ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'', where the Inquisition remove Urisel Glaw's eyelids as part of the Ninth Action Torture. As a Slaaneshi cultist, [[TooKinkyToTorture he seems to enjoy it]].

* ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'': [[spoiler:Emperor Justinian]] has his eyes put out during the Nikas Revolt, thus [[spoiler:removing him from eligibility for the throne, under Roman law]]. In retribution, his wife later has the eyes of one of the conspirators put out, after which she [[spoiler:urinates in his now empty eye sockets, as she promised she'd do just after Justinian's eyes were put out]].
** [[spoiler:Calopodius]] later on lost his eyes in a mortar attack.
* ''[[Literature/CarrerasLegions The Lotus Eaters]]'': In the course of escaping the men sent to capture [[spoiler:Carrera]], his wife tricks one of them into position to use a letter opener to kill him, stabbing the intruder through the eye.

* A heroic example happens in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' when Neville, unable to use spells since his nose has been broken and therefore can't pronounce them properly, resorts to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sticking his wand in a Death Eater's eye.]]
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', Harry eventually has to fight a basilisk. Luckily Fawkes the phoenix blinds the snake before Harry has to worry about the basilisk's deadly gaze. And earlier in the same book, Harry asks Ron how a book could possibly be dangerous. One of the examples Ron brings up as a response is a book the Ministry of Magic confiscated: It burns its reader's eyes.
** PlayedForLaughs in, of all places, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': Harry, on his 17th birthday, casts some spells in celebration to his adulthood status. One of the spells he casts is the Summoning Charm, which he uses to fetch his glasses, only for said glasses to accidentally poke him in his eye when flying towards him. Oops.
* Menshikov from ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'' had his eyes burned when he tried and failed to awaken Ra.
* In Creator/MartinCaidin's ''Cyborg'' novels, Col. Steve Austin's bionic eye had to be physically removed in order to obtain the microfilm stored inside (in the original novels, it was a camera; it didn't provide super-vision). In the first book, during a mission in which Austin's survival is uncertain, he gives a female agent rather squicky instructions on how to remove the eye without having access to the bionics lab. For some reason, this aspect of Austin's bionics was skipped when ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'' came along.

* In ''[[Literature/ChroniclesOfTheEmergedWorld The Talisman of Power]]'', [[spoiler: Ido]] loses an eye to Deinoforo. Unlike other examples, he needs to train for several months in order to learn to fight properly with only one eye left.
* Used with tons of FridgeLogic in the Italian fantasy novel ''Heroes of the Twilight'' (think of a more grammatically correct ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon'' in Italian): one of the good guys take out a [[OurOgresAreHungrier giant ogre]] by wounding his eye. Later, as he's about to be discovered and killed by some [[LegionsOfHell demons]] he stabs again deeper his blade in the Ogre's eye, causing him to awaken in a berserk rage (rather than, you know, die because of the pierced brains).

* In a ''[[Literature/KnownSpace Gil the ARM]]'' story by Creator/LarryNiven, the hero tries to prevent a gang of organleggers from stealing his corneas by ''burning one eye with a cigarette'' so it'll be useless to them. He figures that the eye doesn't have pain receptors, but forgets that the eyelids do. Later on he gets a transplant, presumably from a legitimate donor.
* Creator/RobertReed's short story, "[[Literature/GreatShip Mere]]", has the protagonist ''carve out'' their own artificial eyes with a knife. Earlier, their original eyes were cut out for the artificial ones.
* Literature/TheDestroyer does this in spades, from poking a French soldier's corneas out in to having the elderly master of Sinanju slap a man in the face so hard that his eyes explode in detail, among many others too graphic to talk about.

* For raising the stolen Orb of Aldur in anger in desperation to save his people, [[Literature/TheBelgariad Torak]] lost his left eye and a bit more of the left half of his face to the otherworldly flame of the Orb. And since he is a God, [[WoundThatWillNotHeal the wounds never heal]], the flame that replaces his eye always burns, [[ImmortalityHurts and Torak still suffers]]…and this is ''over 5,000 years'' before the beginning of the story proper.

* ''Literature/JaneEyre'' by Creator/CharlotteBronte: Mr. Rochester loses one eye and the second one is wounded in a fire [[spoiler: caused by the MadwomanInTheAttic]]. He gets blind, but later his eye starts to heal.
* From the Literature/AgentPendergast series:
** During the climax of ''Literature/CemeteryDance'', the novel's BigBad [[spoiler: Alexander Esteban]] winds up getting his eye ripped out. However it's still stuck to the root, causing it to hang from his face and bounce off him a couple times.
** In the end of Corrie's subplot in ''Literature/TwoGraves'' she discovers that [[spoiler: Foote]] was the one who framed her father for robbery, but gets taken hostage by him. Despite being shot, Corrie's father takes one look at his daughter in danger and [[PapaWolf snaps]], leading him to take advantage of an opening and eventually gouge [[spoiler: Foote's]] eye out with a penknife, with a pretty graphic description of everything that oozes out.
* The Literature/{{GONE}} series has a boy who claws out his own eyes (and veins) in FEAR. And then there's whatever is left of Cigar's eyes after Lana tries to regrow them.
* In Louisa May Alcott's ''Jack and Jill'', Jill tells Jack about a guy who threw his fork at his brother's face during a fight and accidentally tore said bro's eye out. The brother ultimately forgave him.
** Similarly, in ''Literature/EightCousins'' [[BookWorm Mackenzie aka Mac]] subjects himself to this via carelessly reading for long hours in the sun among other things, which heavily damages his eyesight. Rose has to help him go through his treatment.
* ''Literature/AdventureHunters'': Part of the torture Marcus inflicts on [[spoiler: Golon to force Regina into helping him with the golems]] is taping the victim's eye with a chisel as the first step in gouging it out if his second victim does not cooperate.

* In Edmondo D'amici's ''Heart'', main character Enrico and his classmates begin a snowball fight. Unfortunately, one of them ([[MoneyDearBoy Garoffi]]) throws a 'ball carelessly and hits an old man in the eye, crashing his glasses as well and causing him a serious injury. [[spoiler: This also marks Garoffi's CharacterDevelopment: he is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone emotionally broken]] due to his careless actions and [[MustMakeAmends works hard to earn his inner peace]], despite having been forgiven by the old man and his family.]]

* In ''Literature/GloryInTheThunder'', the God of Sight Rashk can permanently blind people at will. But he never does this, because he considers it [[EvenEvilHasStandards the worst thing you can do to someone]].

* A crow in Creator/DavidSedaris' collection chats up a ewe and [[spoiler: pecks out her lamb's eyes while the mother isn't looking]].

* Damien very nearly loses an eye in Literature/SpiderCircus, while paralysed and conscious.

* ''Literature/JamesBond''
** In ''Literature/HighTimeToKill'', Bond uses his car's laser flash gadget to blind one of his motorcycle pursuers, which burns the guy's retinas.
** Bond's ally Mathis in ''Literature/NeverDreamOfDying'' is subjected to a form of torture where his eyes are gradually subjected to an eye laser (normally used for corrective surgeries), which eventually makes him blind. Bond also has to endure the treatment for a hwile before he manages to come up with a plan for an escape.
** In ''Solo'', Bond takes revenge on a villain for the death of his lover by first dropping a stone on the guy (which leaves him a pile broken bones), and then by continuously spraying his eyes with pepper spray.
** In the ''Literature/YoungBond'' novel ''Literature/DoubleOrDie'', Ludwig Smith kills a Cambridge professor by stabbing him in the eye with one of his Apache revolvers. Later, he tries to give Bond the same fate.

* Wesley Harrod, from ''Literature/KnifepointHorror'', removes both his eyes with a broken vodka bottle.

* [[spoiler:Rhine]] gets needles stuck through her eyes in ''[[Literature/TheChemicalGardenTrilogy Fever]]''.
* In ''Emerald Star'' by Creator/JacquelineWilson, Hetty's foster brother Gideon is discharged from the army after an incident where he loses an eye (and most of the vision in his remaining eye.) He is so traumatised that he can't or won't explain what happened to him, so we never find out ''how'' he lost his eye.
* In ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', one of the Marines loses both of his eyes during an Ork attack. The impact was so powerful, his head has to be banded with metal ring so that his skull won't fall apart, and he has his hearing improved to compensate for loss of sight.
* In ''Literature/BlackLegion'', Khayon's captors have both his eyes and psychic eyesight removed. During the Battle of Prospero, Khayon himself drove a thumb into a Space Wolf's eye to start tearing his head apart.

* When Katniss is hunting squirrels and rabbits in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', she always nails her target in the eye. Ouch. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in this case, despite the gruesomeness of it: Traders in the Seam consider this good hunting practice. Animals with weapon marks in their hides aren't worth as much, and puncturing the bowels can contaminate precious meat.
** Discussed in another instance where [[spoiler: the repeated references to this suggested a possible Chekov's Gun scenario where Katniss might shoot a human in the eye during the game. This doesn't appear to actually happen -- except possibly with Cato. Katniss describes shooting him in the skull, but given the likelihood of an arrow deflecting off bone, the most surefire way for Katniss to nail him in the skull is … you guessed it. In ''Catching Fire'', she mentions the possibility of shooting someone in the eye.]]
** In the second book, [[spoiler: during Haymitch's games, it is mentioned that the last remaining tribute besides him has a gaping hole where one of her eyes used to be.]]

* In ''Literature/TheDragonWaiting'', Peredur loses an eye as part of his initiation into wizardry. The event is described in sufficiently unsettling detail.

* {{Downplayed|Trope}}/played for humor in ''[[Literature/JWWellsAndCo Earth, Air, Fire and Custard]]'': Paul gets so frustrated that he begins stabbing the powerful creature known as [[GodInHumanForm Mr. Laertides]] in the eye with a biro. Mr. Laertides simply ignores him and goes on with his annoying exposition.
* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': Used in both the original series and the spinoff.
** Prince Rupert loses an eye in battle in book 1 (''Blue Moon Rising''). [[spoiler: It gets restored in book 4 (''Beyond the Blue Moon'')]].
** In book 3 (''Down Among the Dead Men''), this is how the Beast dies. Duncan [=MacNeil=] dives into the only part of the creature he can see -- a single massive eye -- with Wolfsbane, which proceeds to rot its way through the creature.
** In the ''Hawk & Fisher'' spinoff series' book 2 (''Winner Takes All''), after the sorcerer Wulf (an ally of Hardcastle) gets possessed by the Lord of the Gulfs, its power begins to consume him. When he eventually takes off his hood, it reveals that the Transient Being has consumed nearly all of its host's tissues, eyeballs included.
** In ''Hawk & Fisher'' #3: ''The God Killer'', one of the priesthoods interrogated by Hawk and Fisher sews its members' eyelids together because the sight of their patron Being would burn out their eyesight. Another, creepier cult's priests ''have'' no eyes, only empty sockets, but still open their eyelids and "look" at the Guards as they walk past.

* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'':
** Traitors to their guests are encased in the frozen lake Cocytus, with only their faces coming out. The intense cold freezes their tears, encrusting their eyes in ice. Any further tears cannot get out and increase pressure on the eyes.
** In Purgatory, those who committed Envy have their eyes sewn shut. Because in life they envied what they saw, so to purge their sins they see nothing.
* In the ''Series/{{Lovejoy}}'' novel ''The Judas Pair'', Lovejoy is forced into a duel with Dr Legrange, using a legendary (and priceless) pair of pistols. Having worked out that [[BackwardsFiringGun they fire backwards]], he points the gun at his own head - firing straight into Legrange's eye and killing him, with a gory description of the eye exploding. The same previously happened to the last owner of the pistols (whom Legrange stole them from), who did ''not'' realize how the guns work.
* In ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'', Swift was attacked and blinded by another jealous lioness. One eye is missing while the other is scarred beyond repair. Swift is in danger of being kicked out of the pride because she can't help hunt. It's only her exiled son Fearless returning home that persuades the dominant male Titan to let her stay.

* During the climactic battle in ''Literature/{{Hawksmaid}}'', Matty's merlin Marigold attacks the Abbess and rips her eyes out.

* ''Literature/TheFionavarTapestry'': The Dalrei tribes {{Invoke|dTrope}} the BlindSeer trope when they appoint a new shaman, throwing them a fantastic feast and then putting out their eyes. The old shaman Gereint struggles with the memory even decades later.

* ''Literature/GuardianCatsAndTheLostBooksOfAlexandria'': [[spoiler:Chin]] wears an eyepatch because a bird, or more specifically [[spoiler:Cicero in the form of a bird]], tore out one of his eyes.
* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Inheritance]]'' by Christopher Paolini, [[spoiler:Arya kills Shruikan by impaling him through the eye with a magic-nullifying lance.]]

** Later, in the novel ''Literature:{{Changes}}'', Harry [[spoiler:pulls it off himself, turning his right hand into an icy claw and stabbing it into the eyes of the Red King. And then, for good measure, blasting soulfire through it straight into the inside of his head. '''This is not enough to kill him'''.]]

* In Creator/SimonRGreen's ''The God Killer'', one of the priesthoods interrogated by Hawk and Fisher sews its members' eyelids together because the sight of their patron Being would burn out their eyesight. Another, creepier cult's priests ''have'' no eyes, only empty sockets, but still open their eyelids and "look" at the Guards as they walk past. In the previous Haven novel, ''Winner Takes All'', a sorcerer possessed by the Lord of the Gulfs takes off his hood, revealing that the Transient Being has consumed nearly all of its host's tissues, eyeballs included.

* In [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Fire Ascending]]. When Hilde orders a raven to peck an eye from a dead man's socket so as to bring vengeance to his murderer. And again, only pages later, the same bird shows up with BOTH eyes gouged out as a warning from Voss. What a charming guy, right?

* In ''Literature/PercyJackson: The Last Olympian'', Percy stabs the Lydian Drakon in the eye with Riptide. Gory, no?

** While saving animals from the animal testing facility, a cat without eyelids is rescued. He had his eyelids removed by testers trying to research how a lack of sleep effects beings. The cat, who Pufftail believes was [[spoiler:the former cult leader Tom-Cat]], was then forced onto a treadmill.

** In the short story ''[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Jaunt]]'', a boy who stays awake during a [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleport]] claws his own eyes out with madness upon his arrival.

** At the end of ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' [[spoiler: Pepe attacks Andy]]. Serious eye injury is heavily implied.
** Narrowly averted in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', in which Vimes suffers a facial injury that forces him to wear an eye patch for the duration of his sojourn in the past. Luckily his vision isn't permanently impaired.

* In Thomas Harris's novel ''[[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Red Dragon]]'' and both its [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptations]], the titular SerialKiller puts mirror shards in the eyes of his victims. Luckily, this is ''after'' he kills them.

*** It's a very cringe-worthy scene, since Nick is a deaf mute.

*** Fox used the arrow sticking out of her helmet to [[spoiler:stab the eye of the French soldier who shot her with it]]. Described in infra-red.

*** Quen Alicent's son and Rhaenyra's half-brother Prince Aemond is called One-Eye since the day he smuggled to Driftmark to claim the dragon Vhagar but was caught by his Velaryon nephews and after a fight, Lucerys Velaryon gouged his eye out.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' a Death Eater is stabbed in the eye with a wand during the final battle.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Small Favor'', Mab compels Harry Dresden to do her a favor by ''freezing the water in his eyes.'' Not only that, Mab tells him that if he questions her word again, she'll finish the job.

** Later, in the novel ''Changes'', Harry [[spoiler: pulls it off himself, turning his right hand into an icy claw and stabbing it into the eyes of the Red King. And then, for good measure, blasting soulfire through it straight into the inside of his head. '''This is not enough to kill him'''.]]
** At the very end of the novel ''Grave Peril'', [[BigBad The]] [[OurLichesAreDifferent Nightmare]], [[spoiler:also known as the ghost of Leonid Kravos]], loses his eye by Dresden's thumb in the final encounter. Squick factor slightly lessened in that The Nightmare is a ghost.

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', an [[ProudWarriorRace Aiel]] chief scratches out his own eyes after a series of visions revealing that [[spoiler: the Aiel were originally pacifists]].
** In ''Towers of Midnight'', let's see: a Darkfriend puts his own eyes out with a quill, a would-be assassin gets a knife in each eye, and [[spoiler:Mat gets his left eye torn out by the Eelfinn]].

* During the climatic battle in ''Literature/{{Hawksmaid}}'', Matty's merlin Marigold attacks the Abbess and rips her eyes out.

* A heroic example happens in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' when Neville, unable to use spells since his nose has been broken and therefore can't pronounce them properly, resorts to [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome sticking his wand in a Death Eater's eye.]]