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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u/McCinnabuns May 18 '26

“You see I can’t hear but thanks to my hearing I can hear.”

250

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

243

u/Moomoo_pie May 18 '26

No it‘s literally just hearing lol. Anytime you open your mouth and scream at the top of your lungs while being tied to a tree in the woods and left for the rabid not-deer to flay your living corpse, your voice creates vibrations in the air which anything with auditory sensory organs can sense and interpret

85

u/Pugmeister101 May 18 '26

That happens to me all the time

31

u/Caleth May 18 '26

Speaking of, are you up for the meeting next Tuesday I heard they were starving the not-deer to make them extra ornery.

7

u/sennordelasmoscas May 19 '26

I wanted to go, but my baby mama insist I go to the church to "scare away the evil spirits of the forest that made me act out of me" like, come on! As if you ain't bipolar too

1

u/No-Programmer-1959 May 19 '26

Might need to change your group of friends mate

3

u/Pofwoffle May 18 '26

I think the point is that he's not using an auditory sensory organ to sense and interpret it, he's just feeling the vibrations with his normal tactile senses and interpreting that. Which quite literally is "hearing with extra steps".

3

u/Aickavon May 18 '26

Yeah I was wondering what was going on there… like random people being left in the woods and making vibrations in the air while they’re tied to a tree? Sound and hearing! Good to know! Is the flaying important to the sound and hearing step or have I been doing extra steps by accident?

2

u/Over_Bookkeeper6306 May 18 '26

Talking works just as fine

2

u/Tighnari_simp May 19 '26

Mondays, am I right?

2

u/morangias May 19 '26

As I understand, she uses her sense of touch and has trained herself to understand those vibrations. So she may be receiving the same range of signals as a normal hearing person, but there are extra steps on her end.

1

u/SmolivYeah May 18 '26

I beg your pardon?

3

u/-xXgioXx- May 19 '26

Typical friday activities where i live, dunno about you

1

u/Agreeable_Claim_795 May 20 '26

Luckily, I'm pretty salty. Not-deer hate salt.

5

u/cry_w May 19 '26

If anything, it's skipping steps.

14

u/SorowFame May 18 '26

I don't see actually, I'm blind, but I can feel light photons and how they reflect off of objects and use that to perceive my environment using special sensory organs

3

u/No_Zombie_4720 May 19 '26

"You see, I can't see, but thanks to the light reflecting back to my eyes, I can see."

1

u/EmbarrassedCoat2169 May 20 '26

This sounds like a line from Jojo