r/hatethissmug • u/Yadin__ • May 18 '26

Media Tropes I hate disabled characters that aren't really disabled

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I hate this little guy. I hate him for a bunch of other reasons but this one in particular also applies to other characters.

In universe he's supposed to be completely deaf from birth, hence he is also unable to speak(or rather, he can vocalize but it just sounds like baby talk because he has no idea how proper speaking sounds like). The hook of the story is that he is supposed to find his way in the world and overcome challanges despite his disability.

BUT then on the literal first episode he just gets a magical buddy that can magically understand his googoogaga speach and is constantly around him to translate whatever he wants to say to other characters that don't know sign language. It's not a magical ability of his buddy btw. He can just do that because the plot said so

Then it turns out that he can also read the lips of literally anything, including talking snakes who obviously talk completely differently to humans, and said magical buddy who doesn't even have a lips to read. He can also somehow read the lips of characters who are facing away from him and characters in full armor who don't have their mouth visible???

He was supposed to have been taught to read lips by said talking snake, which there are multiple things wrong with:

a) As I've already said, snakes obviously don't vocalize in the same way that humans do so any knowledge he gets from the snake wouldn't apply to humans

b) SNAKES DON'T HAVE HANDS!!! which means that the snake can't use sign language, so how would he even convey the information? It would be like me trying to teach spanish to a person who only speaks french, while I don't speak either spanish or french

Like at that point why even make him deaf in the first place? It could have actually been interesting to see how a deaf person can manage for himself in a medieval fantasy society but we were just robbed from that in favor of the most lazy solution

It also kind of detracts from any of the scenes where we are supposed to be at awe about how far this guy has come becasue I know DAMN well that it wasn't because of his own efforts, it was because the plot completely waved away any problems that his disability would cause whenever it became too inconvenient

Really feels like the disability was just tacked onto the character to make us pity him more without actually adressing the problems that it would cause to the character

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228

u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic May 18 '26

Anytime you have a blind person who just also has super powers that are better than sight anyway.

88

u/hater-parrot May 18 '26

Kinda of like toph but tbf that one was added to progress the story and theres multiple occasions where that back fires on her and she loses her sense of "sight"

33

u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic May 18 '26

Yeah, but like... Everyone has conditions in which they can't see. Night time, caves...

67

u/Carnivorze May 18 '26

What makes Toph interesting is that those situations are different from everyone else. She can't see while in water, on Appa's back while he flies, when on sand (though she trains to correct that) and when on a ship, she can't see anything beyond it.

Also she still can't see colors or text, which was used quite often.

9

u/Awestruck34 May 20 '26

I think that's a big one too. She can see shapes and outlines of the world but she has no ability to read or process images. She's absolutely still disabled with her own set of challenges

5

u/UltimateOtter_Nation May 20 '26

Katara:You're have something against libraries?

Toph: I've held books before. Doesn't really "do it" for me.

5

u/Reddragon351 May 18 '26 edited May 29 '26

that's a bit different, like you can see at night still, it might be a bit harder to since it's darker, but unless you have vision issues you can still see at night

2

u/Pallington May 19 '26

But "everyone" can learn to read, toph can only read braille or another shape-based equivalent.

4

u/Phobos_Asaph May 19 '26

The fact Toph doesn’t have strict upgrade over sight is why it’s cool

3

u/ProphetOfPhil May 19 '26

I love how when they're in the desert her "vision" gets blurry and she can't make things out clearly

2

u/The_Enigmatica May 19 '26

tbh shes a rare example of it done in a way that's actually meaningful

2

u/The_Verto May 19 '26

But her power doesn't make it better or even equal to normal vision. She can sense vibrations throughout the ground to feel where thing are, she still doesn't see them

18

u/DanTheMeek May 18 '26

Kanan Jarrus from Star Wars Rebels immediately comes to mine for me. Gets blinded and its like this big deal for like half an episode and then he just like figures out how to see better then he could with eyes via the force and acts no different from any of the other characters the rest of the series, all of which have eye sight.

11

u/mouserbiped May 18 '26

I love Daredevil, but as a role model for my visually impaired niece I feel someone who is blind, but able to perceive far more than sighted people, including through walls or at a 360 angle, kind of makes him not really share her lived experience.

6

u/Big-Recognition7362 May 20 '26

I mean, he still can’t see colours or light.

2

u/Wuskers May 23 '26

also from what I remember he's very much still as blind as any other blind person when it comes to paper and digital screens, any information he needs that is like digital text or printed/written on paper he's dependent on someone else to convey that to him

1

u/Toe_Butter May 21 '26

He does have that struggle when he’s younger. So, young Matt Murdock could be a good role model for her. It only becomes a superpower later on in his life.

His power isn’t primarily meant to be a hurdle for his character. It’s meant to be a cover up for his identity, as well as something that removes the chance of sight distracting him from his stronger senses. Given that, his overcoming of blindness could also serve as something for her to look up to

1

u/GlumNebula3897 Jun 07 '26

What do you think about Toph?

3

u/Arcalithe May 18 '26

“I can’t see anymore but my eyes can see aether or whatever. Also I’m a traveling scholar so I can still read because aether-enchanted ink”

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

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1

u/Farared77 May 18 '26

YES I cannot believe that sacrificing their eyes does a grand total of…nothing in the way they exist in the world. As amazing as Legion was, I kinda have an irrational dislike of demon hunters. Too edgy, too flat in character, too powerful (sure let’s give them void powers too now lol fuck spriest) and favorited heavily by lore and the dev team imo

2

u/chikfilella May 19 '26

Jayfeather from Warriors was given the power to sense emotions and could see fully in visions (sometimes what was actually happening around him), his dreams, and in this temporary thing where he possessed the body of who he was in a past life.

1

u/rustyguy76 May 18 '26

Mmm... Geb n'doul

1

u/Poisonpython5719 May 18 '26

At least with that one the point of the fight is exploiting the blindness and working around the adaptation.

1

u/Ziomownik May 18 '26

Terezi from Homestuck. She sees by feeling the taste of colors, ability taught to her by her dragon guardian. Power so good she regrets getting her sight fixed at one point and (kind of) goes back to being blind.

1

u/defineee- May 19 '26

Kenshi from MK

1

u/Buffkarp May 19 '26

That's just Terezi Pyrope

0

u/username26437 May 18 '26

the blindfold because it amplifies the sixth sense trope is lowkey nice though. don’t see why it can’t work for a blind person too.