Hi! I have a character in the anime world, Boku No Hero Academia who’s had a prosthetic eye since the age of three years old. Right now, he’s 15, turning 16, and gets a prosthetic arm later on in the story—I wanted to ask if these things are okay?
-he often jokes that he’s “turning into a robot” (he does this when he loses his arm)
- When he DOES get a prosthetic arm, Mikumo finds it odd and kind of tedious to use. He figures he can just use his telekinesis to move things around that he can’t reach but that in and of itself makes him sick so his friends are often like “hey, you should wear this” and he’s annoyed but does so specifically when he can’t do things on his own. Since this IS a fighting anime, he does end up wearing it for fights rather than everyday mundane tasks but I’m not sure if that’s okay or not?
-With his eye, after losing it during a training exercise, he doesn’t end up getting a new one and doesn’t seem to care very much. He still has an eyepatch over it because of protection though. My main concern was that I had only figured out the prosthetic eye thing after publishing chapter one and wanted to ask if it’s possible for the eye to appear glossy / and or for the person to close their eye shut alongside the other one? I don’t particularly mention that his eye is any different than a normal one but I’m unsure if that would confuse readers when I write him doing normal stuff with one eyed vision or not? Would he have been used to seeing with one eye that it doesn’t bother him?
- With his prosthetic arm, he learns how to do things with one limb but uses the prosthetic for fighting and fighting only, or just fighting and SOME mundane tasks but he doesn’t exactly like leaving it on all the time, hence why he almost never uses it save for the specific thing mentioned. Is that falling into any tropes?
Hello, I'll try to go point by point. Standard disclaimer that we don't have amputee mods or mods with ocular prosthetics, take everything with a grain of salt.
Robot joke: Yeah, disabled people do that joke, I've heard it IRL a few times.
Prosthetic arm: I'd have to guess that it would be more of a hindrance than help? Depends on amputation level, perhaps. But either way that's a chunk of metal that is heavy and tiring to use, you might as well get a metal socket to hit other people with, genuinely seems more practical and easier to control. Especially if he doesn't have time for a bunch of occupational therapy and just wants to go back to fighting stuff.
Prosthetics eye: how does he lose it? I only ever heard of people losing their prosthetic eye in water with strong current, otherwise I think it would be hard since it's in the person's eye socket and all, you have to get your fingers in there to take it out.
Out of curiosity, if it's a result of school activity, will they repay him the cost of his prosthetic? I don't know how Japanese insurance nor law works but in the US a prosthetic eye is 2000$+, if he's 15 his parents would probably kill him for just losing it like that.
Not to mention that it would probably feel like losing a part of his body if he has been using it consistently for so long - it doesn't mean he has to want it back ASAP and worry himself sick, but he will need an adjustment period for "oh yeah I don't have that anymore" to actually click.
Technically a prosthetic eye can look in any way since the appearance/colors are just cosmetic, but the "glassy look" is generally associated with glass eyes, which just aren't really a thing anymore. Most prosthetics are acrylic and look exactly like the other eye, you really can't tell which is which (on people who have only one prosthesis) in my experience.
The biggest (and usually only) visual difference is the lacking movement of the prosthetic when compared to the other eye. But in terms of POV writing, 99% of people's first thought will be strabismus rather than a prosthetic eye.
If his prosthetic eye is fit properly he should have no problems with his eyelids, including closing and winking or whatnot. This however will change when he ditches it for an eyepatch as the eyelids will lose their shape. He might have problems using a prosthetic eye later if he just goes with a bare socket and not even a conformer (another thing his parents would probably worry about if he has been using a prosthesis for the past 13 years).
He would have probably gotten used to his monocular vision by that point, he spent his essentially whole life like that. I was born with impaired depth perception and well, I don't know anything else, it's just normal to me. Even if he did have to do some things differently, I don't think he would consider it as "bothering" him, that'd be just how he learned to do it in the first place.
Prosthetic arm again: I can mostly refer you to that post in our pinned about writing characters with an upper limb prosthesis. The thing is, if he's below the elbow, he probably really doesn't need it outside some specific activities that he could have a specialized prosthetic for (there's not that many of these activities). If he doesn't have a residual limb (or has an extremely short one), he is almost definitely not using a prosthetic since it's incredibly hard to control and weighs a ton, two things that don't really help while fighting. He can still kick ass without a prosthetic or even using his residual limb (though I wouldn't recommend punching with the limb if he has a through-bone amputation, it would hurt him more than whoever he was punching). I know that in media every arm amputee is suddenly helpless and immediately loses once they don't have their prosthetic, but that's just the "perfect magic prosthesis/disability as a superpower" BS again. A lot of completely able-bodied characters use one arm in combat, whether they use a gun or a one-handed blade or something else. It's completely possible to fight with one arm.
To figure out if it falls into tropes, you need to research how realistic it would be. He's not wearing his prosthesis 24/7 which is good, but when does he wear it? If it's while [performing activity A], try googling how amputees with the same level of amputation (!) do it. There are articles and Q&As and YouTube instruction videos about everything now - see if real life amputees actually need a prosthesis to [perform activity A]. It could be that he would need it, that he wouldn't at all, or that he wouldn't need it per se but it would speed the process up or whatever. If the conclusion is "yeah he would need it", then it's realistic and not a trope; and if he wouldn't need it, then you now know how he would actually do it. You can also alternatively look at similar resources for people with hemiplegia since it's a more common disability and some or a lot of it might apply to your character as well.
