âWhat? Like, a disabled protagonist? How would that even work? How could someone with a disability be the hero in an action show?â local anime trash boy wonders while sitting next to his box sets of Full Metal Alchemist, showing no hint of irony or self awareness.Â
but is Ed really disabled? sure I get he lost his arm and leg
but heâs still able to move and do things perfectly
He has prosthetics. Having prosthetic limbs (that more than once break amd need repair) doesnt make him not disabled
It should also be noted that Ed:
-had to undergo very painful surgery to get automail
-had to relearn how to write because of his prosthesis (thereâs a post going around showing he had to switch hands etc) and his handwriting is likely a lot worse due to that. This means automail isnât super good for delicate work, unsurprising, considering what itâs made of.Â
-experiences phantom limb pain and therefore other associated stuff (this was only really shown in the manga)
-cannot go anywhere too cold without changing his automail or heâll get really bad frost bite and it will stop working
-cannot go anywhere too hot, period, because the metal attached and under his skin will overheat and he will be badly burned
-Reattachment is painful, but needs to be done frequently if he breaks or outgrows his automail
- itâs HEAVY so much so that the strain has the potential to cause stress on his body, enough that itâs even theorized as possibly stunting his growth.
-it requires regular maintenance or it will break down, as shown when he forgets to do that and itâŚbreaks down
-when it does need to be repaired, it takes time to do that, during which Ed uses regular prosthetics (that usually donât quite fit him).
-costs a lot of money (not a problem for Ed due to high state alchemist salary/having mechanics as surrogate family, but explicitly noted to being the reason why most people in the fmaverse stick to regular prosthetics along with the painful surgery)
So Ed canât actually do everything perfectly and experiences a lot of extra hassle, problems and pain people without automail donât have to deal with! And any advantages he does have are more suited to fighting than day to day life (being able to incorporate weapons/fake out people who want to blow up his arm).Â
Arakawa did her research and thought it through. Automail is by no means a magic cure that solves all problems associated with losing a limb.
Iâm kinda sad these two might not count.
Why wouldnât they? Hiccup is missing a leg
But he doesnât struggle.
Disability isnât defined byâ struggleâ or suffering. Having a useful prosthetic doesnât make them not disabled. Get the fuck out of here with that.Â
DISABILITY ISNâT DEFINED BY SUFFERING OR STRUGGLE
I will also point out (quietly, because that last point was SO important) that choosing not to show it on screen does not necessarily indicate a lack of either adaptation or difficulty. It might simply be none of our business.
Reblogging for that last commentâŚitâs really creepy how voyeuristic people act about it sometimes. Just because you donât see it doesnât mean theyâre not strugglingâŚand their apparent struggle or lack thereof isnât what âgrantsâ them disabled status. Itâs the fact of having a disability.
Also thatâs just⌠not true. Hiccup DOES struggle sometimes and thereâs a couple instances of them showing it. The Christmas special Gift of the Night Fury (which I am not even kidding, is canon, they reference it in the third movie) shows him having trouble on ice (you know, metal leg) and the movies do occasionally show him having a little trouble getting around.
A struggle because of a disability doesnât have to be the most extreme thing. It can be a little extra annoyance that just makes things a little harder, or makes someone not able to do things like others would. Like a movie not having captions so a Dead/HoH person canât watch it.
âBut they have functional prosthetics so are they really disabled?â
Do you know the definition of the word disabled. Have you ever looked up what a disability is.
What the fuck is even happening here.
Also, Toothless very much does count as a disabled character as well, since he legitimately cannot fly without a prosthetic fin on his tail.
Plus, in HTTYD 2, Valka proceeds to introduce her son to several dragons who became disabled as a result of injuries from traps: one with a torn wing, one with a missing foot, and another thatâs entirely blind. Plus, thereâs Gobber, whoâs missing two whole limbs! He has a gangling walk from his peg leg, and has to deliberately switch âhandsâ with his other and cannot always be properly equipped. We need not get into Drago, but the point remains that Hiccup, Gobber, and these dragons very much are disabled characters.
One could easily call Sol Regem of The Dragon Prince disabled as well, since the burns on his face completely and utterly ruined his sight. He can go by smell and hearing only, which was the saving grace of two beings that he normally wouldâve been able to kill within moments. Plus, thereâs the ever lovely General AmayaâŚwho is deaf and communicates predominantly by sign and lip reading.
Plus, thereâs the ever famous Toph, who while she greatly improved her life when she mastered vibration sight, itâs still imperfect. She still would rely on her friends when she couldnât properly see (read, during the airship fight during the finale, or when they were putting up Appaâs Lost posters). Plenty of other disabled characters were also shown there.
But nothing else I can say can better enunciate the point than: Disability isnât defined byâ struggleâ or suffering.
Bless this postâŚ
anyone who says a disabled person doesnât struggle, doesnât know the fucking meaning of struggling. We hide more from the world than you could ever imagine.Â
