The Nightmare King and the Absolute Nightmares that are Non-visible Disabilities.
(Click images for higher quality please, there are quite a few of 'em, so do it for best viewing)
I realised something about Grimm and how people overall treat non-visible disabilities. My writing, some art and screenshots below cut:
I was talking with a friend about July, pride month for those with disabilities, and how I was going to include Grimm in this series of art pieces I wanted to make.
I thought at the time that I couldn't actually include Grimm because "Those are all headcanons.", which is partly true, to be completely honest. I headcanon Grimm as having chronic pain but then I realised that he was actually disabled, I just forgot, mostly due to the fact that the community at large doesn't recognize that.
Just do me a quick favor and think about Grimm, his quest and his story for a bit. Notice how at its simplest it can be boiled down to:
"Someone who has their entire life consumed by trying to keep this part of themselves okay/functional just so they can stay alive, despite how damaged that part is."
That sounds awfully similar to what many people with disabilities have to do.
(Grimm's heart/The Nightmare Heart ^ the stitching is visible, showing signs of damage/healing)
Even if you see Grimm/Nightmare King/The Nightmare Heart differently from how I do, this can still be applied. I see Grimm and Nightmare King as the same creature with the heart being his own heart, which creates the situation of someone with a severely damaged heart. If you see Grimm as being a vessel for the heart then it's someone who's entire lively hood still depends on this piece that needs to stay intact.
What I'm saying here is that he's still disabled no matter which way you slice it.
I also want to be clear, I'm saying that the community at large doesn't recognize how disabled he is, not that they complete ignore how debilitating his situation is to him. I just think that they don't make the connection from what his deal is to just being a straight up disability.
I rarely see any content if Grimm being disabled let alone mentioned in a conversation where the other visibly disabled characters appear, like Hollow.
But, that's the thing, isn't it? He's not visibly disabled.
Mental disabilities are non-visible disabilities. People tend to forget that, but the Hollow Knight characters also get their fair share of mental issues, like CPTSD, PTSD, general bouts of anxiety or even paranoia. So why does Grimm still not get brought up? Well, sometimes he does but usually only if he happens to also be headcanoned as mentally ill.
(Side note: Now just because I, personally, haven't seen any works that acknowledged the how disabled factor to this doesn't mean it that nobody has. Please point me in the direction of anything (fics, comics, art, etc) if you know of anything good, thanks!)
The thing really is the fact that his type of disability is non-visible that causes this. Especially since it's not explicitly stated that this is a disability in text, though being able to extrapolate from incomplete data is the reason I'm making this to begin with.
Characters in fiction rarely, if ever, get non-visible disabilities like this - a physical non-visible disability as opposed to a mental one. People in real life with non-visible disabilities hardly ever get noticed, and if they do, it's seldom with respect. They're often accused of faking it for attention.
Bringing attention back to Grimm himself since this is about him but also because I can already anticipate some reactions/questions to this, such as:
1) "But, he's a God, how could he be disabled?",
2) "What about his dance?",
And the dreaded,
3) "He doesn't look disabled."
4) "He doesn't act disabled."
These are all things to think about, yes, but that doesn't negate his disability, so let me explain.
1) Grimm is a God, which means that players are already suspending their disbelief. He already is something that cannot exist, trying to add what he can and cannot be seems kinda unnecessary. Why go out of your way to make up rules just to try and make this seem untrue?
He also is confirmed in canon by Brumm that Grimm cannot see deep into certain places, such as Deepnest.
I've seen the community use World Sense to refer to an all-seeing sort of ability (I couldn't find anything on this but that's probably on me whoops) that the Gods can use, which means that Grimm's World Sense is damaged, making its range far smaller than normal. Meaning he'd be considered disabled by mortal and God terms (poor guy).
2) His dance is a dance of desperation, when we meet him is when he needs the ritual to work in order to reform once again. He needs everything to work perfectly or else he dies. I'm not surprised he reacts so negatively to being attacked by Ghost while he's bowing.
He shows you (The Knight/Ghost) respect, you -- who his entire plan depends on, his entire lively hood, the continuation of his Troupe, the reason he might be able to continue on -- decide to be disrespectful and attack him. He's under so much pressure during the ritual that when you decide to treat him and his horrible situation as a joke he lashes out aggressively. He depends on whoever lights the lantern to not flake, at any point but especially near the end, so he can accomplish his goal.
He has to do everything in his power to succeed, he would definitely push passed any limitations he may have in order to ensure that success.
3) Saying a character "doesn't look disabled" is odd, especially when they have an invisible disability, it's kinda in the name. If you did initially think this when seeing my post I encourage you to do some research on invisible disabilities and expanding your understanding of what it means to be disabled. I also encourage you to go through some of the invisible disability tags here -- like the fibromyalgia, autism, PTSD, hEDS ones (these are only a few, there are many more I have not listed) -- since understanding these disabilities is important but I believe that hearing from people who have to deal with this is just as important.
4) This is also similar to the "he doesn't look disabled" point. How exactly is someone meant to act when they have a disability? Let alone an invisible one, the entire point of the classification of invisible/non-visible/hidden disabilities is the fact that you cannot tell the person is disabled immediately based off of what you see. It is not immediately apparent.
Another thing I feel like I might see is:
"Why is this so important?"
Well, I believe that this is important. As I've stated previously, there are rarely (if ever) characters in media with non-visible disabilities. If there are some, I wouldn't be surprised if they're treated like jokes.
Grimm is not treated like a joke, he's a layered and interesting character. I believe that's an incredibly important thing here.
Non-visible disabilities are often forgotten or blatantly ignored. The latter is a result of ableism, pushing away what people consider "unimportant" or "not real", which creates room for the former, people who forget or just don't know about disabilities like these. Any form of non-negative acknowledgement is important here.
Especially when the character isn't defined by it, his personality isn't "someone with a messed up heart", he is much more than that. His disability is still a part of him but he isn't defined by it.
My point about this post is basically that people tend to just outright forget about people with non-visible physically disabilities, to the point where the rare instance for a character like that exists, they don't recognize the fact that they're disabled.
Not apologizing for the long post, I had a lot to say, but I am sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes I've missed lol
Reblogs are greatly appreciated!
