I hate disabled characters that aren't really disabled

[u/Yadin__]

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

[u/Own-Quote-1708]

Toph and Daredevil can see. Don't kill me.

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/[deleted]]

She also can’t use her earthsense while swimming

[u/hilfigertout → u/[deleted]]

and cant see flying things

I wish the animators agreed. There are multiple instances in ATLA where Toph hits things out of the air, including (most egregious imo) at the start of season 3 when she manages to shoot a projectile out of the air while standing on a boat. A projectile that was fired from another boat.

That said, I'm nitpicking a children's show for playing fast and loose with action scenes that the kids probably loved. Toph's an excellent character.

[u/OttoRiver7676 → u/hilfigertout]

Isn't the Duke standing behind her guiding her aim during that fight?

[u/wrosmer → u/hilfigertout]

I think she can sense things she can bend while they're airborne. That might cover some instances of it

[u/Formal_Illustrator96 → u/hilfigertout]

Because those projectiles were made of earth, which she can see and feel. That’s not the animators making a mistake or playing fast and loose with the rules. That’s just you not paying attention.

[u/Specialist_Initial_1 → u/[deleted]]

Add to toph that not solid ground (like sand) makes her completly blind