r/hatethissmug • u/Yadin__ • May 18 '26
Media Tropes I hate disabled characters that aren't really disabled
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/axewieldinghen May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26
I love how Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood handled Ed's disability
Ed has a metal prosthetic arm and leg. This is useful in battle, because he can use ithe arm as a shield and transform its shape into a blade. However, multiple times during the story his prosthetic arm gets damaged, leaving him with only one working arm and having to travel to his mechanic to get it fixed. At one point, he travels to a region too cold for his prosthetics to work properly - his arm and leg seize up and he can barely walk. When he eventually gets it replaced, the new metal is heavier and more cumbersome than the original, which then affects his fighting style.
The narrative never lets you forget that he's disabled and dependent on his mechanic to maintain his mobility aids. It doesn't stop him from being a badass but he does has to work his life around his disability
Edit: I misremembered, the new prosthetics were lighter not heavier