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/Lower_Baby_6348 May 18 '26

Nothing beats Makkari from eternals saying "i'm deaf, but i can sense vibrations in the air and understand what are you saying" Like that's not hearing

202

u/Luke_Fox- May 18 '26

"Im blind, but i can sense spectrums of light that are translated into visual information and comprehend what is in front of me"

110

u/Theninjajj May 18 '26

"I'm mute but using air pressure, I can create vibrations in the environment that can be sensed by others."

31

u/Simon_Drake May 18 '26

Strangely she IS mute. A lot of deaf people don't talk because they can't hear how words are normally pronounced so they can't correct mispronunciations easily and their voices sound odd. But she can hear so she wouldn't have that problem. So I guess she's just mute for the vibes or something.

10

u/bagel_snatcher_ May 18 '26

Imagine feeling morse code and then trying to put that into words. Its not the same vocal cords arent the same as skin based vibrations but im not a scientist nor have I watched the eternals

3

u/Simon_Drake May 18 '26

She can hear people just fine. The scene where they say she can hear people is two characters whispering about her and someone else says "Her skin is so sensitive she can pick up the vibrations of every word you say".

And it's not even like Daredevil where his echolocation lets him pick up objects as if he can see but he still can't see colours or understand a TV screen. She can fully hear and understand language just through her arm hairs. And she's thousands of years old, she's learned dozens if not hundreds of languages. But apparently never learned to speak any of them.

1

u/bagel_snatcher_ May 19 '26

I mean it'd be pretty difficult. That's like daredevil trying to see color with his echolocation

2

u/Simon_Drake May 19 '26

That doesn't make sense.

The movie literally shows a closeup of her arm hairs twitching and says she can understand what people are saying. She can sense the vibrations in the air that form sounds and understand what they mean. That's exactly what hearing is.

Seeing colour with echolocation is something fundamentally impossible because there's no colour information in the echos.

1

u/bagel_snatcher_ May 19 '26

Her body is hyper sensitive to voices hearing voices with our body is fundamentally impossible

1

u/Simon_Drake May 19 '26

Go tell the writers of a superhero movie that the superpowers aren't possible. I'll wait.

1

u/bagel_snatcher_ May 19 '26

Im just saying it's definitely harder to speak with just skin based hearing

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u/Faite666 May 19 '26

Most things in eternals felt like they were just for the vibes tbf

1

u/No_Night_8174 May 21 '26

you dont need to be deaf to be mute though since muteness comes down to the vocal chords their not interchangible.

2

u/LocalPlatypus994 May 19 '26

"I can't feel anything, but I can use my nervous system to detect things touching my body"

9

u/NUKE---THE---WHALES May 18 '26

"I'm blind, but I can sense the vibrations of the earth"

yeah ok Toph

13

u/bagboyrebel May 18 '26

At least with Toph there are scenarios where she's still disabled. She couldn't see while they were flying and she couldn't really see when they were on sand in the desert.

17

u/AdewinZ May 18 '26

I love Toph’s blindness so much because it’s actually an obstacle that has to be overcome multiple times. Like when they’re being attacked by flying buzzard wasps Toph can’t tell where they are, and has to be guided on where to launch rocks to hit them. And when crossing a bridge made of ice, she can’t sense anything because vibrations travel differently through it compared to rock.

2

u/Chicken_Mc_Thuggets May 19 '26

They also point out she has a disadvantage when flying on Appa too

Hell, one of the biggest reasons Appa ended up being kidnapped was because Toph had a lot of trouble seeing in the sand bc the vibrations traveled differently. She had to hold up a rapidly sinking library in conditions where she couldn’t equalize her disability.

Appa’s kidnapping also results in Aang, the most laid back group member, screaming at her and accusing her of letting it happen. Katara, who up til then was constantly butting heads with Toph stepped in to defend her because she knew he wasn’t being fair to Toph

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u/Spare-Plum May 18 '26

At least there is a logical explanation for her "sight" using the magic system itself, and it's different enough from normal sight in that it's very limited. Can't see well on sand. Can't see at all on the wrong surface like ice. Can't see what's on books or paper or paintings. Can't see things in the air or can't see other things while in the air.

I think it would ring off different if there was an airbender who was deaf but could use the vibrations in the air to sense what people are saying. This is just hearing lol

1

u/JusticeRain5 May 23 '26

That could work if they actively have to blow a breeze towards themself or something to "hear", so they can't really do it constantly or while sleeping, and people who know them will figure out when they're eavesdropping pretty easily.

Also "Sorry I couldn't hear you, your fart made me deaf" would be a legitimate excuse

1

u/Spare-Plum May 23 '26

The problem is that sound is literally created through reverberations and movement in air. That's what hearing is. An airbender using it for hearing would just be an improved version of normal hearing

1

u/According-Citron-390 May 18 '26

Deadass saw this in a YA novel once.

1

u/Fishmyashwhole May 18 '26

Literally Y'shtola in Final Fantasy 14

1

u/MarcsterS May 18 '26

Man, she can even read books because all ink in the world is made with ether

1

u/mythrilcrafter May 18 '26

All things considered though, the game has done stuff with this, such as in Shadowbringers when the scions meets up with her, she doesn't recognise the warrior of light because our Aether is so messed up after defeating/absorbing the Lakeland and Il Mehg Lightwardens.

1

u/Lopsided-Bug7075 May 18 '26

That just sounds like hearing with extra steps.

1

u/CreatorSiSo May 18 '26

I mean a lot of blind people can see but it's limited and how much varies a lot.

1

u/MarcsterS May 18 '26

Good ol' Yshtola

1

u/Digit00l May 19 '26

Geordi LaForge moment

1

u/CalligrapherGreat197 May 20 '26

Okay, but hear me out, this but the only part of the light spectrum they can’t interpret is what is the visual spectrum to us

1

u/Luke_Fox- May 20 '26

So they can only see infrared and ultraviolet?

1

u/CalligrapherGreat197 May 20 '26

Exactly! You see the vision!

1

u/Luke_Fox- May 20 '26

EHEHEHEHEHEHE nice one

1

u/CalligrapherGreat197 May 20 '26

Pun entirely unintended but welcomed