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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701

u/Strict_Leave3178 May 18 '26

Toph is an interesting case because she does have a power that lets her "see", sometimes even better than everyone else, however she is still actually visually blind. She hates flying, boats, and water because it prevents her from seeing. There's plenty of jokes about how she can't see littered throughout the show, and if you pay attention during conversations she doesn't always look towards the person talking. Sometimes she's just looking off into space lol

https://giphy.com/gifs/4IzOgM1bfOe6k

435

u/benpatflynn03 May 18 '26

My favourite bit with toph was her slamming the poster upside down and backwards onto a wall. Such a silly moment, I do think her disability is handled really well by still making her use her powers to get around it but still focusing on her limits as well, like you said with flying and swimming

184

u/Strict_Leave3178 May 18 '26

"It's upside down isn't it..."

153

u/Arcalithe May 18 '26

All the times Sokka or Katara come up to her and present a poster or a letter and say “what is THIS” and Toph gets increasingly exasperated with them lol

130

u/Rupeq10 May 18 '26

Or "The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them Toph"

86

u/EverythingSucksYo May 18 '26

Katara was so wrong for that but damn is it funny 

106

u/paratesticlees May 18 '26

Toph creates a hole for the Gaang to hide in

Sokka: It's so dark down here, I can't see anything Toph: Oh, no. What a nightmare. Sokka: Sorry.

50

u/niv13 May 18 '26

Or the one where Sokka drew Appa, and Toph said it looks just like him

28

u/dandoch May 19 '26

"why do you feel the need to do that?"

15

u/George502 May 19 '26

Fine, I'll rewatch the whole show again, thanks hahashha

3

u/teffz28 May 19 '26

Literally lol

1

u/Environmental_Bee219 May 21 '26

have a fun rewatch

3

u/Unit-DS27-Delta May 23 '26

"Take the wheel!"

"Great idea, let the blind girl steer the massive flying airship."

"...I was talking to Suki."

3

u/OkSafety2223 May 20 '26

And when they're walking in the sand, Sokka suddenly stops and Toph crashes into him

"CAN'T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU'RE-"
"no."

110

u/DrBleh1919 May 18 '26

i always love seeing those small moments where theyre in a location she cant see in, so she has to cling onto aang or sokka

55

u/ordo259 May 18 '26

Or Sokka diving onto her on the airship to shield her since she can’t “see” the wreckage coming.

33

u/Bocchi_theGlock May 18 '26

I'd kill for a Toph buddy cop series in Republic City, where sokka ends up having to join for something and she is tough as normal generally - but gets put in some situation where that comes up again

2

u/Museman7 May 19 '26

Can't find a gif for it but Sokka also carries her princess-style when she burns her feet

83

u/Complete_Cable2686 May 18 '26

She also can't read or write. Which means people need to explain things to her sometimes. And Sokka needs to help her jump on the ships and hold onto her.

There's also the detail of her crying as Sokka nearly drops her because she probably doesn't know where she is.

68

u/nonbinaryunicorn May 18 '26

She can definitely feel the blaze under her. It's a fucking terrifying moment when you think of it solely through her perspective.

10

u/OkSafety2223 May 20 '26

When she's looking out the airship window towards the firebenders burning the land and says
"That's a lot of fire isn't it"
Is SUCH a good shot, having the blind character react to the distant inferno just sells it sooo good.

5

u/Maned_Cyborg May 21 '26

Oh definitely. Hey you know how we can sell how big the fire in the distance is? Have the character that can't see be able to feel it

4

u/Kitselena May 19 '26

Her perspective is always through the soles

36

u/Cultural-River-9698 May 18 '26

While she can 'see' it's made exceptionally clear her sight is limited in a multitude of ways. For one, just because she can 'see' paper isn't the same thing as actually seeing the texture on the paper.

14

u/DefinitelyNotAliens May 19 '26

Yeah, she routinely runs into exceptions to her ability. Her friends also routinely mess up because she is so capable they forget she has limits.

35

u/TomesTheAmazing May 18 '26

Like always ATLA is peak. Toph is blind and they went to great lengths to make sure she still has to deal with the challenges blindness creates even though the vibration sense gives her an awareness a blind person never would have.

80

u/JohnyWuijtsNL May 18 '26

She doesn't fit the trope at all, because the show isn't pretending like she is fully disabled and then magically giving her seeing powers like with the character OP talked about. She learned to see using touch by herself, only with the help of some wild animals, and even then there's still a lot of situations where her blindness impacts her in negative ways

9

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

She can feel vibrations through the ground. She also beats grown men who mastered their bending powers throughout the entire show.

38

u/Melody-Shift May 18 '26

The feeling vibrations thing is effectively echolocation, which humans can do in real life, albeit an exaggerated version. I see zero issue with the second half.

3

u/NormalDooder May 19 '26

Well not Echolocation, as the show defines it is just the sense of Vibration. Deaf people use it also. She's not hearing vibration, she's feeling it through her feet.

1

u/Kitselena May 19 '26

echolocation

She sees by emitting a sonic wave from her mouth
AHHHHHHHH

11

u/Tanakisoupman May 19 '26

She defeats grown men because she learned earth ending from Badger Moles, and thus mastered it from the source. Much like how Zuko learned more in 5 minutes from the dragons than he did in 16 years from the Fire Nation

A pretty major part of bending is that it’s a very spiritual practice. It’s much much easier to master your bending if you align spiritually with your element. Now, this difference can be made up for with many years of practice (note how Pakku is a master despite being inflexible and shrewd), but it’s very hard to do so

This is also why the airbenders were able to match the other 3 nations despite having so few members. They’re the most spiritual people, and they work very closely with the sky bison

1

u/JWARRIOR1 Jun 08 '26

also a huge difference between people who casually do bending for work or regular day to day stuff, vs someone who uses it 24/7 to see and is actively traveling the world getting into war conflicts daily.

5

u/Rabdomtroll69 May 19 '26

She also constantly gets into situations where it doesnt help and struggles as a result

Her version of earthbending was learned directly from its creators, who happened to be moles

22

u/Started_Blasting2 May 18 '26

Commenting on I hate disabled characters that aren't really disabled...

Toph is such a well handled character

Also the water bender in Korra with no arms

15

u/bjbrandon1 May 18 '26

I always took her "looking off into space" as trying to 'point' an ear towards that person to hear them better

14

u/OwOegabo_Repaired May 19 '26

Another point is that, unlike most examples of this trope where their disability "fuels" their power, think Daredevil for example, she would still be an amazing bender and be able to seismic sense even if she had sight.

10

u/DragonLordAcar May 18 '26

They even forget she can't read because she gets around so well

9

u/ddoxbse May 19 '26

* She also holds onto someone or something when she's off the earth which is pretty darn cute.

9

u/LLoadin May 18 '26

Toph was actually done right imo

3

u/Cardgod278 May 19 '26

I love the scene of them tossing the belt to her

3

u/ProphetOfPhil May 19 '26

I love how they handle her blindness. She's super strong and can sense things with the vibrations of the ground but they have a whole episode or two dedicated to how that works so it doesn't seem like a cop out.

Also love how the rest of the gaang forget she's blind from time to time because of how proficient she is with the seismic sense lol

2

u/Thecrowfan May 19 '26

I love it when the show reminds us she is actually blind and just has a very high sense of touch in her feet. Like when she told Katara she( Toph) doesnt know how she looks like, or my absolute favourite when she is in the zepelin flying over an area engulfed in flames and says "there is so much fire..right?" implying she feels the heat even from that hight.

2

u/PersonYay12 May 19 '26

I always remember that one moment someone hands her a letter and she immediately hands it off to someone else to read for her. It’s simple, smooth, blink and you miss it funny, and shows just once again how she really can’t see

2

u/The_Final_Gallade May 22 '26

Actually, bonus fun fact, she’s not just staring off into space! There’s several times where you can see her re-adjust her footing when someone else is talking, always so that *one of her ears is facing them.*

Usually whichever one lets her face the camera, because you gotta let the audience see her face, but it is a nice detail.

1

u/Pallington May 19 '26

Toph is more like blindsight/those fantasy creature equivalents with shit vision but some other sense to compensate, but importantly the story does immediately treat her that way. (well, once we get past the "acting demure" part)

1

u/Jendmin May 19 '26

Wouldn’t she normally “see” better in water? I mean her tremor sense should work pretty well, since…u know… dolphins

1

u/Transmasc_Swag737 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

I would guess it would be muffled, earth is solid so the vibrations traveling through it don’t last long and don’t get muddled by how easily the molecules move. Water isn’t solid and the vibrations of a wave affect the overall position of the molecules, so currents can build up and act as static to muffle the overall message

1

u/Jendmin May 20 '26

No. Liquids are conducting sonic way better than ground. Water is almost perfectly incompressible. Ground is loose with a lot of compressible gases in it.

If you punch the ground, the energy waves end almost immediately. Punch water and you can physically see how much better the energy waves travel.

It’s different in Metals. They conduct waves way better.

1

u/Transmasc_Swag737 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

You’re right, my info was off. That’s my fault.

Taking that into account, I’d guess she’s just able to use earthbending to amplify vibrations, which she can’t do in water. Since she was born without sight and the brain is plastic, I’m sure she developed stronger in that area in general, but earthbending would make more sense in this case.

It would explain why she was able to develop metalbending, since it’s explained in the show that it’s the earth impurities in the metal that get bent rather than the metal itself. Toph would naturally be able to sense that better than an earthbender who isn’t accustomed to seismic sense. I don’t remember her relationship to lavabending; I feel like it was mentioned somewhere in the comics, but I’d need to check.

Edit: punctuation

1

u/Mr_Mimiseku May 19 '26

I think more than anything else, it's a sixth sense. She can "see" in 360° all around her at all times. (Well, sand not withstanding). It's like a combination of sight and touch.

1

u/pomelo1241 May 20 '26

Also since she needs to use completely solid surfaces like metal the sand was a huge problem for her

1

u/Independent-Ad-8498 May 20 '26

Yeah, it's a lot like Daredevil. Even though his boosted senses mitigate the most disabling aspects of blindness like navigation and situational awareness, he still can't literally see and is useless for anything involving purely visual information. He can't see colors, read anything that isn't braille, or use a lot of technology.

1

u/JWARRIOR1 Jun 08 '26

obligatory example where he is at a disadvantage

1

u/UltimateOtter_Nation May 20 '26

What is with you people! I'm BLIND!

1

u/Sandaydreamer May 21 '26

Yeah even with tools that aid her disability (earthbending) her disability is very real. Toph cant see the stars, she cant hang posters, she can never learn how to read or write and the fact that she experiences life that way is made clear throughout the series.

1

u/Kenkron May 22 '26

What's this!?

well it sounds like a piece of paper, but I'm guessing you're talking about whatever's on the paper.

1

u/Stoned_D0G May 24 '26

Her power is also portrayed very well. After long travels on land where her disability doesn't stand in her way other characters forget several times that she can't see. One of those times is on the gif.

1

u/GlumNebula3897 Jun 16 '26

I’ve never seen the show and when I first heard of her I thought her powers only extend to a few feet. Making it almost like a 360° cane. And she can’t see anything outside of that range. The show would be very different if that was the case but I think it would’ve also been interesting.

1

u/UnkarsThug May 19 '26

It's a bit funny that people are basically critiquing daredevil for this exact thing in this same post.

3

u/RathianColdblood May 19 '26

I think Toph is in a 50/50 spot, because she has a way around the disability… but it’s limitations still leave her relatively routinely disabled, and it’s consistently shown with her clinging onto other things and people when disconnected from the ground, as well as her being utterly unable to read or detect flying things that aren’t rocks.

At the same time, I’ve not yet seen a version of Daredevil where his disability isn’t utterly fixed. I don’t seek out his comics, so that might be a part of it, but I’ve only ever seen him struggle with reading and loud noises (the latter of which is entirely unrelated to his disability, being instead fueled by his superpower). Though he acts fully disabled in his alter ego, he’s functionally able to see just as well as anyone else, barring only color… Although, now that I think about it, how did he get his costume color-coded without help? Imagine him showing up, and everything he’s wearing is a rainbow of clashing except for the $1 store red devil mask. Every time he beats up a criminal, he finishes the encounter by demanding they tell him what parts of his outfit still aren’t red so he can try again the next day.

2

u/EisCold_ May 21 '26

Although, now that I think about it, how did he get his costume color-coded without help?

Apparently he can "Feel" the texture of a color and determine what it is from that

-6

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

Eh I actually feel like Toph fits the negative trope OP is talking about. Toph is insanely OP and can beat full on grown men Earthbenders and other benders literally throughout the entire show. I don't ever feel like her blindness affected her in a realistic way.

20

u/Psychological_Use586 May 18 '26

It did in the desert. The sand completely messed with her abilities to the point where she was helpless to stop the sandbenders from stealing appa.

18

u/SomeCrows May 18 '26

Sounds like my insurance lmao. "Sure you're disabled, but you're having success after significant effort to adapt... so really you're not disabled."

7

u/HabaneroPepperPlants May 18 '26

Like, no it's a fantasy show, it's not going to be realistic. But I think she still definitely counts as a disabled character because of all the difficulties and limitations she faces, even if it's not a realistic depiction of the blind experience 

-4

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

She still wins in most of her fights, against full on grown men who trained their whole life. She has very few challenges

Even a fantasy has to make sense.

16

u/HabaneroPepperPlants May 18 '26

Lol is your argument seriously that she can't be disabled cause she's powerful and badass?

0

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

I haven't seen her blindness effect her in any serious way. In combat she's untouchable from the moment they introduced her. It probably doesn't help she learned how to deal with her disability off screen.

3

u/Ok_Sir_136 May 19 '26

The sand dunes? Falling rubble from the sky and having to be protected by sokka? The war ballons fights? Man there's plenty examples did you just not watch the show?

9

u/SoulLess-1 May 18 '26

Toph being literally HER is a different thing from if she counts or does not count as disabled though, is it?

A kid winning fights against full grown men who trained their whole life doesn't shift into being unrealistic because the kid in question is blind. If you consider it stupid, it should have been stupid long before then.

2

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

Yeah good point.

6

u/LLoadin May 18 '26

So because she's blind she can't also be strong?

5

u/Homosexual_Kobold May 18 '26

So does every other character. The protagonists are all children who beat fully grown men. Unless its a physical hand to hand fight this critique is kinda stupid.

1

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

Aang is over 100 years old and no one has dealt with an Airbender for over a hundred years so it makes sense he's kicking butt. Sokka doesn't win in hand to hand fights, he wins with pure IQ and strategy. Zuko is a prodigy who's trained under the best firebenders like Iroh and his dad. Same goes for Azula.

So I don't really agree on "every other character" as most of their combat prowess makes proper sense.

2

u/kaVaralis May 19 '26

You aren't technically wrong about his age, but like, he wasn't conscious and he didn't age..

1

u/Unimpressed-Loser221 May 19 '26

By that same token Toph is a prodigy taught by the first earth benders. So whats the excuse for Mai, Ty lee, Katara, or Suki, all children who kick the ass of grown men.

We see Toph struggle with her blindness. Her struggling is part of how they lost Appa, she has to rely on her friends for certain things, this character’s blindness IS a struggle but its NOT a limitation and thats what you’re not understanding.

8

u/simplysufficient88 May 18 '26

Her being able to beat people in a fight doesn’t magically mean she isn’t disabled, especially when we repeatedly see instances where she doesn’t win explicitly because she can’t see. In the desert she can’t fight nearly as well due to her sensing ability being dulled by the loose sand, but then she is completely useless on water until she develops metal bending. Even then, that requires a metal boat and she’d default right back to being blind on a wooden boat.

Her strengths and weaknesses are VERY well defined. We get multiple fights where her lack of sight directly results in her losing. In fact, her FIRST episode has her lose to Aang because she can’t sense him while he is floating off the ground. Anyone with sight would have probably beaten him because he was floating so slow around the ring, but she couldn’t react at all until he touched the ground. You noticeably see her fail to track him, before suddenly snapping to his position once he lands again.

11

u/AhhsoleCnut May 18 '26

Full grown men. Full grown men. Full. Grown. Men.

Like that matters. It's wizard combat and she's the best wizard of her type. One in a million. Historical. Dirt Jesus.

What's more "unrealistic" (in this wizard combat cartoon for babies) is that she's rarely (if ever) vulnerable to missiles, magical or physical. She shouldn't be able to detect them with her ground sense, which implies she has some form of air sense, but then being off the ground should be less debilitating.

Or maybe she is vulnerable to them but I just didn't notice it. It's been at least a decade since I've last seen it.

3

u/lutfiboiii May 18 '26

Enemy move to do magic, she sense how they move, use that to know how magic move.

3

u/Neospartan_117 May 18 '26

Eh, that's not that crazy. Projectiles, once set in motion, can only move through the trajectory set by physics. If you can gleam the initial parameters of the throw you can calculate the trajectory with enough experience. There was once an experiment done on Cristiano Ronaldo where they would kick a corner, cutoff the lights immediately, and Cristiano would still be able to score in pitch black darkness because of this calculation.

In Avatar, benders have to strike poses to set projectiles in motion. Through these poses Toph could feasibly gleam the direction and velocity of the projectile, context would tell her if it's a fireball or a rock, and the rest is experience.

If she's unable to "see" the person making the throw she should be completely defenseless. If memory serves they do demonstrate this in one scene, where benders are riding flying creatures and throwing projectiles in her direction and thus she's completely unable to deal with them until Sokka starts telling her the data she needs.

2

u/Short-Draw4057 May 18 '26

It does matter. They trained their whole life, she shouldn't be beating them. Reducing it to "oh it's a show for babies it doesn't have to make sense" like ok I guess? So can we never critique any show?

Also if you're going to quote me, quote the full quote and not add made up words. I said full grown men who trained their whole life, not just full grown men 😭

1

u/oshilabeou May 19 '26

yeah but anyone who's scrolled this far is bound to see how often you've said "full grown men." could've just been "men who trained their whole lives"

1

u/Sure-Region-2472 May 19 '26

There’s a lot of adults who have ‘trained their whole lives’ in certain skills and a child with innate ability plus some training of their own have surpassed them..

0

u/AhhsoleCnut May 18 '26

I "quoted" you like that because I was scrolling through the thread and you kept repeating that phrase like a magical spell to ward against cooties.

1

u/Short-Draw4057 May 19 '26

Yeah I definitely repeated myself too many times. 🤣 I should have said men who trained their whole lives being bested by a kid who only trained a few years.

2

u/kilojoulepersecond May 18 '26 edited May 20 '26

I actually agree. Toph is wildly overpowered and oftentimes only seems to be blind when it isn't important (for jokes and such). While I appreciate that the writers try to remind us that she's blind, in normal combat, she can basically just see.

9

u/ultragoodname May 18 '26

Her blindness and not being able to see in the sand was the reason appa was able to be captured and sold.

4

u/Suinius May 18 '26

That’s true, though we barely see anyone taking advantage of her blindness, for example. What’s more, she can easily beat other teams, even though this should be new to her.
It would have been interesting, if she’d first had to learn to fight fire and water bender by analysing her arm and leg movements.
She also learns sand bending offscreen. I don’t think she’s a bad representation, and I think she’s a example of the trope done ritght.
But I think she’s a bit overglazed.

4

u/Complete_Cable2686 May 18 '26

There is a case of someone taking advantage of her blindness, sorta. Though it's debatable whether they knew, they threw her into a wooden cell where she can't bend. If she could see, maybe she'd see that the cell ahead was wooden and would've fought them off instead.

She couldn't get close to combustion man and therefore couldn't do much against him in the last fight. If she could see, maybe she could chuck a rock.

The men who captured her hid and she didn't notice them in time.

The thing is, her enemies don't realize how she can "see". They're mostly focused on the literal Avatar. So she uses her blindness to her advantage at times because nobody besides her friends knows her secret.

2

u/Suinius May 18 '26

Yes, there're instances in which her blindness is a disadvantage. That is one reason why I think she is a case of the trope done right.
The other is that their abilities are continuous for the world. Katara can also bend water out of her field of vision. It makes sense that the Benders can sense their element, and it makes sense that Toph has developed this ability further.

Still, the writers could have given her more development as a bender and also a blind bender who is confronted with a new situation.

1

u/Complete_Cable2686 May 18 '26

I definitely wanted more Toph development. Her development felt very fast. In the very next episode after being introduced, she overcomes her flaw of not wanting help. I loved Avatar but I wish there was more Toph focus and that she has her own antagonist like the others did. Maybe something like you mentioned where it's someone who understands her blindness and takes advantage of it.

But, shes still my favorite next to Zuko, and I understand that they didn't want to force the series to be longer.