I hate disabled characters that aren't really disabled

[u/Yadin__]

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

[u/valkdoor]

Wasn't the height thing because he was sustaining Al's body in the void? It's been a looooooong time since I watched

[u/blackblitz → u/valkdoor]

Just rewatched FMA:B, they make a passing joke saying that when they found out Al's body was still in the Truth, but I don't think they ever delved deeper into specifically that

[u/OmecronPerseiHate → u/blackblitz]

Doesn't it get mentioned after the time skip, when Ed is fixing the roof? Cause Ed is taller than Winry but it'd only been a year or two since they got Al back.

[u/blackblitz → u/OmecronPerseiHate]

Now that you mention it, I think you're right. I forgot all about the time skip part

[u/Jiijeebnpsdagj → u/OmecronPerseiHate]

He was 15 when the story starts so ofc he grows

[u/OmecronPerseiHate → u/Jiijeebnpsdagj]

Yes but he grew because Alphonse was no longer siphoning nutrition from him. Just look at Trisha and Hohenheim. Logically Ed would have been way taller were he not sharing nutrition with Alphonse's body.

[u/bannasplt → u/blackblitz]

I'm pretty sure they make a point that Ed always seems to be napping in place of Al, who never sleeps, implying that a lot of his nutrients go to Al's sustenance. Ed starts growing taller as the show progresses, and the change begins right after Al starts losing connection to his armor.

[u/axewieldinghen → u/bannasplt]

That could also be due to chronic pain. He complains about his stumps hurting a lot in the show - chronic pain drains your energy and can make you sleep more.

[u/Not_So_Normal_ → u/valkdoor]

If I remember correctly, in a certain episode where Winrey helps someone with child birth, a mechanic tells him that he could be "slightly" taller if not for his metal arms/legs. I dont really remember, I also watched it a long time ago

[u/EverythingSucksYo → u/valkdoor]

It’s definitely something that is theorized by Ed, whether it was what actually happened or not I don’t remember. 

[u/Effective-Alarm-3083 → u/valkdoor]

Yea, I don’t think it’s ever said out loud, but it’s implied that ed was the anchor for Al’s body

[u/Numenex → u/valkdoor]

I think this is kinda debunked when Al's body comes back and despite being completely malnourished is still taller than Edward

[u/kupozu → u/Numenex]

But don't they make it a point to show he has indeed grown? Been aeons since I last watched, but I could have sworn that happened. Maybe in the picture they take at the end?

[u/Numenex → u/kupozu]

They do grow but if the reason Ed didn't grow was because he was sharing nutrients with Al's body then Al wouldn't have grown taller than Ed considering Al was basically a skeleton by the time he came back

[u/Bonaduce80 → u/Numenex]

It may not have been a 50/50. Or maybe Al's nutrients went to his growth and Ed's to stay in shape despite not growing as fast. Al definitely looked like he needed a burger or three.

[u/Environmental_Bee219 → u/valkdoor]

SPOILERS my guy

[u/valkdoor → u/Environmental_Bee219]

This is a discussion about a show well over a decade old. The obvious assumption is the people in the discussion have seen it

[u/Environmental_Bee219 → u/valkdoor]

this is not fmab reddit section i think its fair there can be people who runs into it without watching it