META : DAREDEV.IL’S SENSES & RADAR .
an in - depth explanation on da.redevil’s heightened senses & radar sense,
& the extent of what he is capable of.
matt’s radar & heightened senses have gone through countless writers, all with different ideas on what they can & cannot do, & how they help & hinder matt. the purpose of this meta is to clear up what i personally believe is the extent of matt’s abilities with his senses. it is also to provide an explanation for anyone who might not be familiar with daredevil, or simply how his senses work. here i will be drawing on different bits & pieces of various canon to create my own personal interpretation of how his heightened senses function, with special focus on how they play into his vigilantism.
the first thing i want to address is a huge misconception about matt & the radar. ch.arlie co.x epically failed when addressing matt’s blindness [ while he was butchering the rest of his character in the process ] -- in his words, matt is “faking” being blind. this is entirely false. matt is completely, 100% blind. he is NLP [ no light perception ] which means that he sees absolutely nothing. the radar sense is not a replacement for sight. the radar sense does not let matt “see” anything. it is merely another way of perceiving the world, without sight. i’ve occasionally come across other debates over matt is really blind or not, & i’m tired of it.
❝ ONE THING PEOPLE NEVER REALIZE , AT LEAST PEOPLE IN THE KNOW … IS THAT I NO LONGER HAVE A NATURAL FRONT . MY SENSES REACH OUT ALL AROUND ME . SO , IF YOU’RE AT MY BACK … I MAY AS WELL BE LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU . ❞ -- DARED.EVIL VOL . 6 , # 3 .
now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually get into the radar. matt’s radar has undergone plenty of different interpretations. some really good, others… less so. one of the best descriptions in my opinion, is from waid’s run, where matt describes his radar as, “ my brain is constantly pinging my surroundings 360 degrees. but there’s a sort of tactile facet to it as well. radar sense feels like walking through the room & touching everything at once. ”
the radar is essentially a sixth sense, somewhat similar to echolocation. the radar “tells” matt where objects are. it spreads out in all directions, with a distance of about 100 feet. matt can push the radar a bit further if he concentrates, though he rarely needs to. in my opinion, i also believe the radar can spread through walls to a certain distance, albeit that takes a lot more concentration on matt’s part than usual, & he doesn’t often utilize that unless he needs to. it is also more difficult for him to tell what is in another room, as the information is “fuzzier,” but it’s good for getting a basic understanding of what might be waiting for him in the next room.
matt has no real concept of “front” or “back.” he is as aware of what’s behind him as he is what’s in front of him. this has given him a distinct advantage in fights, as it’s practically impossible to sneak up on him or surprise him. [ the best way to overcome that would be to overwhelm him either with several people attacking at the same time, or with incredibly loud noises / intense smells. ]
the radar does not “turn off” like a light switch. this has been presented in some canon, but i don’t apply it. the radar is a sense like any other, & it is constantly in use. it is as easy to use as talking -- like talking, he might need to focus to use it in a specific way, but it no longer requires any sort of “practice” to control the way it did when he was a child.
the radar also does not tell matt any details about what it is he is perceiving. he learns details from other sensory information. for example: the radar gives matt a vague idea of where someone’s head is, but it does not give him any information on what their face looks like. using his hearing, he might be able to tell if someone has long hair by the way it sounds in the wind, brushing against their shoulders, etc.
REFERENCE POINTS FOR THE RADAR :
one misconception about the radar is color. the radar sense does not have any color. [ the show’s world on fire speech & interpretation of the radar is… wrong in every way, even if some of the canon in it about how matt’s senses work is accurate. ]
the radar sense is something i’m incredibly picky on actual depictions of. comics, shows, & movies are all visual mediums, but in truth there’s no way of really “seeing” what matt sees, as the way he perceives the world is completely without visuals. thus, when drawn or shown, the radar should be abstract. it shouldn’t look like sight.
one of the better depictions of this would be here. ironically enough, the movie’s interpretation of the radar sense also isn’t a bad one -- here. [ excuse the quality, & ... everything else. ] what we see is overwhelming, all over the place & disorienting, in a similar way that matt is constantly receiving sensory input from all directions.
❝ EVEN IN MY SLEEP, I HEAR THEM. I HEAR THEM ON THEIR CELLS. I HEAR THE MOTORS IN THEIR CAMERAS WHIRRING & WINDING. I HEAR THEIR SNIDE BACKSTABBING WHISPERS TOWARD EACH OTHER. ❞ -- DAR.EDEVIL VOL . 2 , # 33 .
matt’s sense of sound is one of his greatest strengths, & one of his greatest weaknesses. a good example of just how strong it is: during a search for someone, matt stood at a high point in hell’s kitchen, & managed to track someone down who was nearly a mile away because they had a distinct cough. of course, it took a huge amount of effort on matt’s part to push it to that point. that’s a rather extreme moment, & not the “usual,” but it’s worth mentioning all the same.
however, loud noises are also the quickest way to disorient him. there have been plenty of instances in which something like a gunshot has put him in a vulnerable position, unable to perceive what is going on around him. when that happens, he falls back on basic instinct, trying to reorient himself [ usually taking a few punches while he does. ]
matt has learned to pick up on the many different tells people have through sound. one of the most common uses for his sense of hearing is listening to heartbeats -- specifically to tell if someone is lying or not by the way their heartbeat skips. this is not infallible. pacemakers have more than once fooled matt into believing someone is telling the truth when they weren’t. it can also be hard to tell if someone is telling the truth if their heart is beating fast, or if they are a very calm liar.
it’s also worth mentioning that matt can generally tell what kind of injuries people have, just from listening to them. the scene in season 1 where matt is talking with claire about what broken bones sound like is a good example of this, actually. found here. warnings for injuries + injury mentions.
to matt, each person’s heartbeat is completely distinct to them -- a bit like a fingerprint. because of this, it’s near impossible to pretend to be someone else with him -- unless you’re able to completely change how your heart beats [ one instance of this was with lady bullseye, where she came in a disguise, & matt was unable to tell if she really was lady bullseye or not, assumed it wasn’t her eventually, & got his ass kicked later for it. ]
matt has had years of practice letting most noises fall into a background hum when he isn’t in costume. while going about his day - to - day, most sounds fall into the background unless they are particularly distinct. naturally, noises such as yells or screams or bangs / explosions [ of any kind ] will put him on high alert, but otherwise he tries not to eavesdrop when he can. as daredevil, he is completely “on,” with an ear out for anything that might alert him to trouble.
MATT : oh no [ ... ] gunpowder.
NATASHA : where ?
MATT : across the street. two blocks.
NATASHA : do you know what kind -- ?
MATT : no, the woman behind me is doused in perfume & it’s screwing up my radar. i can’t--
-- conversation between matt & natasha, darede.vil vol . 2 , # 62 .
the dialogue above is a perfect example of matt’s sense of smell, & how it works. like his hearing, it’s exceptionally strong, to the point that he can identify specific smells from quite a ways off, while also surrounded by other strong smells. & just like his hearing, strong smells will throw off his radar, & make it much more difficult for him to know what is going on around him. he also only needs to smell something once to be able to identify it every time after that.
similar to heartbeats, people all have some kind of distinct smell to him as well, underneath whatever perfumes or colognes they may or may not wear. this is another way he manages to identify people, even if they are attempting to pretend to be someone else. however, it’s not quite as reliable as someone’s heartbeat, & again he can be fooled if someone knows what they are doing.
matt’s sense of touch is also highly sensitive. in the show when stick confronts matt & drags him for having silk sheets, & matt says something along the lines of, “ cotton feels like sandpaper on my skin, ” is a good example of just how sensitive matt’s skin is. matt is also sensitive to shifts in temperature, vibrations in the air, etc. essentially everything he mentions here [ same clip as before. warnings for injuries. ignore the world on fire speech. ] is a good explanation for his sense of touch.
matt’s sense of taste. not to make this about how matt is a picky eater, but his sense of taste is strong enough that if he focuses just a little, he can tell what kind of soap someone might have used when washing their hands prior to making the food. or, if they didn’t wash their hands at all ---- he prefers to make his own food, usually. he’s also highly selective with what kind of textures he will actually eat [ in waid’s run, matt mentions the texture of oysters as being highly unpleasant. ] on a slightly cooler (?) note, he can also taste things in the air.
finally, this is a headcanon i’ve come up with on my own with some small support from canon. i do headcanon matt as having an eidetic memory post - accident. in short, he only ever needs to encounter a person, a place, a smell or touch or sound once, & he will be able to identify it every time after that, & remembers every detail of encounters, outings, etc. this is especially helpful when going over information uncovered while out & about as dared.evil. this also means that he can relive the sounds, smells, etc. of his worst & best moments over & over again, but we don’t talk about that.
by the time he becomes da.redevil, matt has had years of practice learning how to control his senses, rather than letting them control him as much as they did when he was younger. every moment of the day, matt is comprehending & filtering through sensory input on a level beyond what we can really understand. his senses are both his greatest strength & his biggest weakness. they are not infallible, either. matt can absolutely miss something, & make mistakes because he missed that key detail. there is a downside for every upside, & his edge can quickly turn into a disadvantage if someone knows about his heightened senses -- or if they just get lucky.
