i have a question for my fellow disabled readers and writers: when showing disability in fantasy, where exactly is the line for the "magical cure" trope? because i have run into a wall as a writer and some outside input would be helpful.
i have a character in my fantasy adventure story who is a witch with fae ancestry. she also has chronic pain, hypermobility, and some other health issues that effect her mobility and ability to interact with the story. her disability is based very heavily on my own so i am comfortable with my descriptions of her experience and how others are interacting with it, but I've run into an issue with how she manages and accommodates.
there are some realistic things that she can do to show this. she can take breaks as needed. use potions and herbalism like medication because that's what fits in the setting. being comfortable treating injuries and flare ups. asking for help when she needs it. have a service animal. but i think that it would be hollow if that was all she did.
she uses her magic in almost every aspect of her life. it is just how she navigates the world. it feels wrong for her to not use it to manage her symptoms. if i had magic, i would use it as a mobility aid. floating just off the ground instead of walking to remove joint pressure would have a similar effect as using a wheelchair and would make adventuring through the woods easier. nature magic could be used to craft joint braces out of plants. her service animal could be her familiar. if she has to take a break while the others are doing something important, she could use divination to see what she is missing. things along these lines. they would be so integrated into how she navigates the world and so normal to the people around her that from the outside it would effectively be similar to masking, not from an effort to hide her symptoms, but in that they are managed seamlessly to the extent that it would be a fairly invisible disability.
but i don't want her doing so to fall into harmful tropes. i despise representation that ends in a cure or that uses some magic bullshit to circumnavigate the effect of the disability on the character. disabled characters should be allowed to exist as they would without having to be "fixed" or pitied by other characters or worse by the fans of the story. i also don't really like representation where the disability is the center of the character or the story. sometimes having a disabled character to accommodate will change how something is executed but it shouldn't derail the story entirely. i don't think any of this is or should be a hot take, it's just true
this is why she is not my central character. she is a main character, but it is not from her perspective because her disability does not make her the most interesting. it is also not the main thing about her. her main thing is her magic and her knowledge of the world around her. the disability and her management of it is a character detail separate from the plot and her arc. i just want to show her and the people around her accommodating her needs in a way that is realistic to the world she lives in.
i know where my own line in the sand is drawn for bad representation, but i am only one disabled person. i don't know if my line is similar to the generally understood line.and i don't want to fall on the wrong side of that line. i am not asking anyone's permission to write this story or this character, and i don't just want a simple justification in any direction. my point in making this post is to ask if this is something to edit and attempt to put out in the world when it is done or if it is better left as a personal project. because writing it and seeing this on my pages is great for me, but if i am an outlier in that i want to know. if this depiction as described would be generally received as bad representation, i don't need to contribute to that. there is plenty to go around already.
i guess my main question is how does this come across from the outside?
for other disabled people does the magic come across as a way to erase the disability or circumnavigate its effects or is it a fair way to show symptom management? does the normalcy of it from the perspective of the other characters take away from the representation or make it better? what thoughts do you have about the magic as a mobility aid idea? more generally when you see disability representation in a fantasy story of any media what are things that you are looking to see and what are things you hate? what do you want to see more of, both generally in the stories and more specific ideas and dynamics?
for non disabled people does the magic make you think that the disability is gone or ineffectual? is this representation confusing in any way? does it make you think of the character as 'inspirational', 'strong', or even 'lazy' based on only what I've said? does the idea of magic as a mobility aid make you think about disability in any different way and if so how? what is your impression of something that humanizes disability in fiction?
