Listen I know I’ve made a thousand posts about this and I’ll make a thousand more but do you remember that time when Avatar: The Last Airbender had an episode where a bunch of earthbenders took over the Northern Air Temple and their leader created a bunch of steampunk inventions allowing them all to fly around:
And the reason he did all of this was so that his son, who was in a wheelchair, could get around just like everyone else:
And all throughout the episode, you saw the son going around in the wheelchair and even though the episode came out in 2005, his disability wasn’t used as inspiration porn or tragedy porn? In fact, though he was a main character in the episode, the plotline didn’t focus on his disability at all and other than the backstory and Sokka commenting on his glider chair, nobody ever brought it up but they still managed to help him when he needed it?
And not only did Tao help fight in this episode but he came back with a completely adapted tank in order to kick ass in the penultimate battle?
Because I still remember my eleven-year-old self sitting in my wheelchair, completely and utterly taken aback by this character in a wheelchair who was practically an airbender? My twenty-two-year-old self is still blown away by the episode. I still have the old wheelchair-glider toy.
(And of course, later on, Toph would come along and be an even better example of a disabled character. And years later, Korra would as well.)
Representation is important.
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