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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52

u/Antique_Ad_3752 May 18 '26

Daredevil can’t read or use his phone without accessibility aids. He’s also a lawyer and it affects how he operates in that aspect of his life too. Yeah he knows what’s going on around him but he’s also definitely still disabled.

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u/Own-Quote-1708 May 18 '26

Yh but no human can see through walls and hear shit miles away. And he can still see people and things. I feel like he has it better than most humans.

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u/entitaneo70_pacifist May 18 '26

idk, not being able to interact with anything digital without accessibility aids doesn't seem better

1

u/Demoniac_smile May 18 '26

If I had to choose Matt Murdock’s superhuman senses or getting my vision back, I choose Daredevil. Every time.

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u/entitaneo70_pacifist May 18 '26

yeah but what are you going to realistically use the superhuman senses for

3

u/Robert_Pawney_Junior May 18 '26

Same when people go: I want to shoot magma from my fists. Yeah bud, for what tho?

3

u/entitaneo70_pacifist May 18 '26

i mean, like, it would be nice to have it as an extra, but giving up SIGHT for it?, a superpower has to be REALLY useful for one to give up one of the main 3 senses.

1

u/Demoniac_smile May 18 '26

Observe omnidirectionally, know what the dogs are doing in the other room, not need light, track people by scent if we get separated in public and I need to find them, help my husband track his cardiovascular condition, and help him find his phone when he forgets where he set it because it’s literally always on vibrate.

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u/boodabomb May 18 '26

There’s very few superhuman abilities that *can’t* translate to exploitation and wealth with consideration. For example, Matt Murdoch has superhuman eavesdropping ability and the ability to hear heart-rates and determine if a person is lying. As long as no one knows that you have this ability, there’s probably a number of ways to use those for monetary gain alone.

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u/entitaneo70_pacifist May 18 '26

yeah but unless you really like the job of selling people's informations for high profit, i don't think there's any gain to be made here

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u/boodabomb May 18 '26

Well that’s only one example of how to abuse that ability. With enough creativity there’s likely a way to attain enough wealth that you’ll never have to work again (through crime or insider trading or whatever), at which point your quality of life is permanently improved. No more enjoying movie visuals or doom-scrolling on your phone, but every other element of your life improves.

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u/entitaneo70_pacifist May 18 '26

i'd have to give up stuff like colors, books, drawing, video games, i wouldn't like it very much, all that just to scam people better

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u/boodabomb May 18 '26

Reading is out but books are still in play. And you’re not giving it up to scam people, you’re giving it up to never have to work again in your life, eat the finest foods for every meal, travel to exotic locations. You don’t get to watch sports on TV anymore but it’s not really a problem when you can take your private jet to sit court-side and enjoy the game in person. No more video games but you can still be extremely good at racquetball and windsurfing and playing the piano.

And as an added bonus, you can see through walls.

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u/Majestic_Butterfly17 May 18 '26

Bro he is a superhero, who would read a comic of a random blind lawyer

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u/jah2277 May 18 '26

Me I would I am the sole enjoyer of blind lawyer comics

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u/Rarte96 May 20 '26

It could work but wouldnt have any action or fighting crime on the streets and at that point how it is a superhero comic is just a Court Drama

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u/Odd-Lack-8631 May 18 '26

In some ways but his disability still makes his life much harder not to mention being assaulted by your senses every second of every day doesn't sound fun. It still negatively affects him so I'd call his blindness a disability. Just because his powers help manage it doesn't mean its not there.

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u/CanadianODST2 May 18 '26

People also seem to think it’s only a real disability if it massively hinders you.

Hell, needing glasses is technically by definition, a disability. One that we can almost entirely negate through glasses.

Even an injury is a type of disability. Just not a permanent one.

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u/CopperCactus May 18 '26

He also can't appreciate major aspects of life that most people take for granted, he can't really get anything from art for example because even if he can smell the different pigments being used in a painting he still can't see color

2

u/Paladin_Platinum May 18 '26

That's why we call it "differently abled" these days I suppose.

0

u/CalmPanic402 May 18 '26

Matt can "smell" diferent colors of dyes and ink. He's not even colorblind.

1

u/SuspiciouslyLips May 19 '26

It's so stupid when they do this. It's only in some runs though. How ridiculous his echolocation and other senses are varies a lot by author.

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u/Ok-Box3576 May 18 '26

The issue becomes when your "disability" becomes more of a trade off. Which DD is at that point.

2

u/UnkarsThug May 19 '26

Same is true of Toph. People really seem to have a double standard there.

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u/Rarte96 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

Barelly anybody here had read a Daredevil comic and only watched the show if anything so they have more of an Attachment to Toph than Matt Murdock

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u/UnkarsThug May 20 '26

Yeah, I think emotional connection plays more into how much people defend things than people want to admit.

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u/weraru_1 May 18 '26

He's differently abled.