#Deaf and hoh representation

[starfall-spirit]

Read on Ao3

Summary: Hoping to score a dinner date, Sawyer approaches Jesinia after weeks of practicing sign language with his squadmates.

AN: Obviously we haven’t been given any details on handshape, orientation, or NMMs in Navarrian Sign Language, so for the purposes of the fic the signing error Sawyer makes is realistic to ASL. I don’t know any sign languages for other countries, so if this mistake is totally unrealistic in BSL, FSL, etc, I’m unfamiliar with the language.

In this work I mention Sawyer has a name sign. For readers who don't know much about ASL, a name sign is a sign created by a Deaf individual and given to a friend, coworker, aquaintance, etc. and a shorthand to avoid fingerspelling someone's full name. It is usually based around a trait in one's physical appearance or personality and can only be given by a member of the Deaf community. To make things simple, I designed Sawyer's name sign around the flicking movement for the word metal (signet), replacing the X handshape with an S handshape to tie in his first initial.

Anywhoville, enjoy!

He was just asking her out to dinner, nothing more. And if she said no... He would probably never show his face among the Aretian scribes again.

"Don't you think that's a bit dramatic, Sawyer?"  Sliseag grumbled. "The girl is passive, her companions more so. A failed romantic pursuit would not be the end of your welcome, I'm certain."

"I would not call a woman willing to commit treason on the vague word of a friend passive, Sliseag," he snipped back.

"Then this exile from scribe territory would be a self-inflicted act of cowardice? That is not a trait I chose you for, boy."

He rolled his eyes at the exaggerated remark. Exile was a rather heavy term for his potential predicament, but he wasn't about to argue semantics with a dragon. "This must be the arrogant shit Violet grumbles about when it comes to Tairn."

Hearing a scuffing sound against the stone floor, he threw his shield in place, cutting off his dragon's next quip as Jesinia stepped into view. "Good afternoon, Sawyer," she greeted him, utilizing the sign name she'd given him a few weeks after meeting. It was blunt, as most of the language was prone to be, playing off of the sign for metal thanks to his signet, though the X handshape was replaced by an S to link in his name. Her hand lingered below her chin, fingers slowly uncurling from the loose fist the sign created. Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked over his shoulder, likely noting he was unaccompanied for once. Ridoc of all people had been the one to point out that for all Sawyer's visits here and his interest in learning to sign, he'd yet to drop by without a wingman. "Are you stopping in for Violet? I sent her a missive about a translation aid I stumbled upon." 

"No. Not today. Though I'm happy to take something back, if need be. I wanted to talk to you about something outside of rider business. If you have a moment."

Brushing her dark hair back, she dipped her chin in a short nod, gesturing for him to join her at the nearest table. "Is everything alright. You seem a bit nervous."

"Nervous? No. It's just that my signing is..." He paused, trying to recall the sign for rudimentary—a word that didn't necessarily exist in NSL. "...basic," he finished, his dominant hand circling a few inches below his left. "One of my squadmates is normally here to help." Jesinia cocked her head slightly, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "So, I'm a little nervous. Not only about signing something wrong. Let me be more direct. I was hoping to take you to dinner."

Her eyes flared wide at that, and not just due to surprise at the request. Something went wrong in his request. "To eat," he tried to repair the miscommunication, whatever it had been.

Understanding seemed to dawn and it was clear she was trying to hide her amusement. "Dinner?" she asked, first fingerspelling, then double-tapping a D hand against her mouth, palm turned inward. He nodded in confirmation. Pausing a moment, she kept the D shape, bouncing it from her chin to the back of her jaw. "That sign is dorm."

He winced. "Now I look like an ass."

"You look like a man trying to learn a new means of communication. I have great appreciation for that effort. Learning languages beyond childhood can be difficult." She smiled again. "And I would love to go to dinner with you, Sawyer."

He grinned right back. "Are you free tonight?"

~~~~~

End Note: If I have any d/Deaf, hard of hearing, or CODA readers who think I could better structure this fic regarding signing elements and word choice, please know that you are more than welcome to reach out. I always appreciate polite feedback on my work and want to do everything I can to encourage representation in my writing. I am not fluent, so I know this might not be perfect. All I ask is that comments remain respectful in their correction.

[sothisisablog]

The way the Echo show portrays communication is phenomenal. For a deaf/hoh person, sign language is the prominent form of communication. Every person that truly cares for Maya incorporates sign into conversation. Which further proves the point that Fisk doesn’t care. He starts with interpreter. A completely separate person to communicate for him. Then creates a piece of technology that does the same thing. But he never learns sign. He never actually puts in the effort to actually communicate with her.

[rickypersnickety]

literally begging yall this disability pride month to remember the phys. disabled deaf people. draw them with transcription computers, draw them wearing colorful CIs and HAs, draw them using FM systems, i've never seen anyone draw them and i'd love to see representation of that. i cannot count the number of times i've been excited to see disability art only to see them all using mobility aids and feel disappointed afterwards because fuck knows when the last time you saw your disability aids.

this disability pride month include Deaf/HOH people that don't solely use sign language, who wear colorful disability aids, who use things that only their own community seems to know about

(if anyone has art of those things i mentioned i wanted seen tag me pleaseeeee)

[writing2changetheworld]

This is nowhere near the only example but it's the most recent screenshot I have so I'm using it. I am not able to watch this video yet so this may not apply to this specific video but it definitely applies to others.

Scheduled videos/video premieres are so inaccessible. I've yet to ever experience one with accurate captions. Let only a portion of human beings watch the premiere right? Exclusion is seriously not okay.

[malwaredetected]

rant: GIVE US DEAF AND HOH CHARACTERS!!! RB IF YOU SUPPORT THE DEAF COMMUNITY!!!

WE NEED MORE DEAF AND HOH REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA!!!! as a person who is hoh (almost totally on my left ear, like 50% on my right ear) and uses hearing aids in everyday life, i like NEVER see any characters in tv shows who are deaf/hoh!!!!!!! IT MAKES ME SO MAD AAAAAA because like, it kinda feels like tv and stuff only remembers we exist when it's convenient or they need a character trait to give to someone with no personality, and even that basically never happens. name one deaf or hoh character. yeah.

so please please PLEASE make deaf or hoh ocs!!! headcanon your favs!!! if you make original content, add a deaf/hoh character without making it their entire personality!!! it would literally make my day to see someone acknowledge the existence of deaf/hoh people like me. i don't usually ask for interactions, but i really need some confirmation from hearing people. reblog if you aren't deaf/hoh but support hoh pride and the commuity <3

- a hoh teenager

[thatjayjustice]

In honor of Insomniac Games winning Best Representation at the Game Accessibility Conference Awards, today we're going to stream Spider-Man 2! I was delighted to present the award for the realistic disability representation & excellent portrayal of Hailey. Thwip thwip! www.twitch.tv/ThatJayJustice

[steviewashere]

Okay, I'm getting on here to be a little bit pissy. I'm sorry in advance.

I am so in love with the headcanons regarding Steve's hearing, whether it be that he's hard of hearing, actively in the process of losing his hearing, deaf with a hearing aid, or just completely deaf—every version is fucking fantastic. I'm hard of hearing myself, it's fucking great that this representation is being written or drawn. I love it.

However, I'm going to hold your hand as I say this, stop using language such as "when he learns to lipread" or "eventually learns to lipread." Please stop.

He shouldn't have to learn to lip read. That shouldn't be an eventual skill he learns.

And, gonna give you a little bit of history here, it's historically ableist to require a deaf/hoh person to learn lip reading. From the late 1800s and into the late 1960s, there were literally programs across America that would force deaf children to write, speak, and lipread English—they were punished for signing to others in their schools, in public, in their dorms. And that didn't change until "Total Communication" was brought forth as a possibility, a philosophy that declared children would learn better using their preferred communication—whether it be oralism (the practice of writing, speaking, and lipreading) or via signing. However, oral schools that implemented total communication into their core programs had sign language that was structured with English grammar, this is commonly known as Exact Sign Language, or Exact English Sign Language. It's not American Sign Language.

Also, children who were approved for Coclear Implants in the early 1990s, were sent from residential deaf schools into day schools (public schools) that had a primary focus on oral teaching; pushed into day schools with little to no support, were discouraged from signing with even their parents. This was due to the fact that it was believed that signing at home would slow down their learning.

I am such a fan of deaf Steve or HoH Steve, but you have to be careful the language you're approaching his character with. If he has a sign language interpreter, then he most likely already knows sign language and will, also, most likely rely on an interpreter for communication with hearing people. If he is going deaf (maybe because of head trauma, maybe he gets into a traumatic accident, maybe he gets sick and just loses his hearing, maybe he listens to music too loudly and damages his ears that way), Steve will most likely already have the skills to write and speak in English, but lipreading is a skill that's difficult to garner.

I'll say, too, lipreading is fucking difficult because hearing people are so used to speaking (most of the time. I'm not talking about non-verbal hearing people in this conversation)—hearing people will typically talk fast, which makes lipreading muddy and indecipherable. I've been trying to learn this for years and I'm fucking over it, I can't do it. I speak and write, but I also use ASL, too.

Saying that Steve needs to lipread, that's ableist. Saying that he eventually or finally learns to lipread, that's ableist. Fuck it, I'm gonna say this, too—requiring or not giving Steve the option to decide whether or not he wants a hearing aid or implant device is also inherently ableist. Deaf people are (and should be) allowed to have a choice on having to hear. My own sibling made the decision recently to stop using the cochlear implant they've had their entire life because they weren't even given the choice to get one in the first place (and decided they were done with it), they hated the feedback the cochlear had, and it was just irritating in the sense that it would fall off, the volume control would change all on its own, and they just didn't like it. That's their choice. It's important to give a character that choice.

I let this get away from me, but I despise how people talk about his options for communication sometimes. It just rubs me the wrong way. And I think it's best we all reanalyze how we approach his characterization, especially how we can approach crafting the characterization without alienating a group of people.

*this post has been approved by my deaf sibling (who was born deaf), and obviously by me (somebody who can only hear out of one fucking ear. seriously be careful about volume control on your ear buds. and also wear ear plugs at shows. it hurts like hell to damage your ear drum.)

Here's a whole Wikipedia article about deaf education in the US (just in case you wanted another reason to hate America, but also if you're curious. definitely something everybody should learn).

[lumpywhump]

I need more deaf or hard of hearing characters!

tw: ableism

a whumpee that cant read lips!

whumpee that's in the process of learning how to lip read and learning a lot of angry and insulting words before anything else

a whumper that is hoh and enjoys whumpee's screams bc it's one of the few things that's loud enough for them to hear

a whumpee with cochlear implants and being allowed to have them back for good behavior

a whumper that's deaf but can clearly communicate to whumpee what they want through torture

a whumpee that's being interrogated for information and their hearing aids die mid sentence

when whumpee gets kidnapped and panics bc what are the chances that whumper knows sign language?? And then when whumpee signs something whumper understands

but plot twist! They speak different kinds of sign language!!!

maybe they're similar enough for them to get basic points across (like how asl is similar to lsf (French sign language))

deaf whumpee that can talk but not hear so whumper doesn't believe that they're deaf

a deaf whumper that can talk but accidentally shouts most of the time because they don't know how loud the room is and don't know what volume is appropriate so better safe than sorry

deaf and hoh characters that their disability has nothing to do with the plot and they're there bc deaf people just exist without plot reasons and should have more representation

[cripplecharacters]

Hi hi! My character is a party goer who user a hearing aid, but they don't exactly need or are deaf, their hearing is generally just worse because they're around loud sounds A LOT so normally they tend to use it because it's better and more comfortable for them, is that okay?

Also, what would be some problems that someone who has very worse hearing/uses hearing aid may face normally?

Hi!

Using hearing aids if you don't need them is dangerous; it can harm your hearing and it is very likely to be overstimulating (it's overstimulating even for people who do need them).

But it sounds like your character does need them--they're hard of hearing! Long-term exposure to loud sounds can lead to conductive hearing loss (damage to eardrum or middle ear structures), or high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (damage to the hairs inside the cochlea).

There's an odd conception that people with hearing aids are 100% deaf without them (and then can hear just fine with them in), but the truth is the vast majority of deaf people and hearing aid users can hear something without aid, and people with severe/profound hearing loss are often not significantly benefitted by hearing assistive devices.

To learn more about what struggles this character might face, please read over our "#deaf character", "#hearing aids", and "#hearing aid representation" tags. [Note: #deaf character includes all asks about d/Deaf/hoh characters.] If you have more specific questions about your character, feel free to drop another ask in the ask box!

Mod Rock

[baphometsss]

We need to talk about spirit hand!Inquisitor

I've been trying to put this into words for a while but it's really tricky to explain. I'm gonna try anyway bc I feel like it's an important discussion to have

First though, a disclaimer: I'm not physically disabled. Everything I'm about to say is based on me trying to relate through my own experiences of mental illness, the experiences of a disabled family member who uses a prosthetic leg, and research into how to write disabled characters properly in my own personal projects (thanks to cripplecharacters blog for helping me understand it better!) So, you know, you can take it or leave it--and please feel free to add your own experiences! This isn't a call out post or anything, I'm just trying to put my thoughts into words and start a conversation in good faith

The problem with fanworks where the inquisitor's wooden prosthetic is replaced by a magic/spirit hand is that it falls into a really tiresome trope where the character has the limb replaced with a magical prosthetic that essentially nixes the disability entirely. It's called the Cool Robot Arm or Perfect Prosthetic trope and it plays into disability erasure in a big way. This is pretty frustrating when you know having a limb amputated is a big deal that comes with a lot of pain and long-term effects, even if the amputation procedure itself was free of complications. Prosthetics are also basically a whole thing of their own, but suffice to say they also come with their risks and problems as well.

The thing with representation is that it needs to reflect real life experiences if its going to approach anything good or meaningful. Video games like Dragon Age often attempt to do this, but they also often miss the mark. I know a lot of disabled (and able-bodied) people want to see better representation of disability in media, but when that fails, we have the opportunity to do better in our fanworks. It feels like a lot DAI/DATV fanworks jump into the magical prosthetic trope far too easily and without very much thought for how it negatively impacts that representation. The Inquisitor becomes disabled through losing their left hand, and that would be a complicated journey for them. This is not a part of their character that can be written away without losing a huge part of their story--regardless of how we role-play them.

For me personally, I try to balance it out by being realistic about both the prosthetic, the spirit hand, and the remaining limb. For example, prosthetics rub and cause blisters and other skin conditions. They can be bulky and heavy and cause musculoskeletal problems. Residual limb pain is thing and can be chronic and debilitating. Learning to use a prosthetic usually requires physical therapy, and some people just prefer not to use prosthetics at all, or only some of the time or for specific tasks. Much of the discourse around prosthetics is focused on making them indistinguishable from a natural limb, when practicality and comfort should really be the focus and not this ableist idea that differently limbed people should want a prosthetic that looks identical to the one that was lost. There are so many potential stories that can be written about this experience, yet we almost never see any of them. My mage Inquisitor has a spirit hand, but she doesn't use it much because it's difficult to maintain both that and use offensive magic in battle, and she doesn't have the mental energy to use it 100% of the time. It's also not that easy to use, even when she does have the energy. She only really uses it occasionally anyway (usually to make random shapes with it to amuse other people) and prefers her prosthetic.

To put it another way--consider how deaf/HoH people who get cochlear implants often continue to use sign language afterwards anyway, even if the procedure was successful. This is because a. it's their first language, which means verbal language is a new language to them and b. gaining hearing after a long period without it can be extremely difficult to adjust to. It can be overwhelming and even painful. The point is that just because aids and treatments exist, it doesn't mean that they're a one size fits all and each individual person will have their own journey in figuring it out. That's one of the things we should be writing about, rather than just nixing it away with a magic limb because it's the easier route and it doesn't require us to consider writing outside of our own experiences. And don't get me wrong, I get that it's scary. You don't wanna upset people with your writing or make them feel even more alienated. But you have to start somewhere and be willing to listen to criticism if you're going to get better.

Furthermore: ableism for sure exists in Thedas. Can you imagine how that would affect the Inquisitor? How they'd adjust from being revered as the Herald of Andraste with a divine mark on their hand to being almost killed by it? How their political enemies would use their disability against them? How they would be affected emotionally by having to deal with that ableism potentially for the first time? Would they find community among other veterans who have become disabled through conflict? Or would they isolate themselves and carry the burden alone? Would they experience mental health issues because of it? These are all examples of how ableism affects real people. Of course, none of this is negated by the spirit hand, but it's something I've seen very little attention given in fanworks.

For me personally, I also try to think of this through my own experiences of mental illness. I have chronic depression/Dysthymia, which is not exactly the same as clinical depression. It follows similar patterns to other mood disorders like Bipolar Disorder in that it's cyclical; my baseline is being moderately depressed, and then every 2 or 3 months I will go into 'double depression' which is where I experience an intensification of symptoms that mimic going into an initial depressed state, while aggravating the symptoms I already have. It's hard to explain it, but suffice to say, it requires me to take medication to control it. I don't like it, but it's the way my brain is wired up and I've been told by multiple professionals that I will always have to take medication for it (antidepressants and antipsychotics, although I don't take the antipsychotics atm). This medication causes a variety of annoying side effects that I have to accept as a trade off so I don't regress too far.

This is just one of the mental health conditions I have to contend with, but it's one that probably effects my life the most. I know it's not comparable to amputation or other physical disabilities and I'm not trying to say it is. But I use it to understand writing for disabled characters by, in conjunction with my research, empathising, by thinking of how much it would bother me if someone wrote about my life and did everything they could to ignore this very prominent part of who I am. I would have to ask why they were so keen to ignore it. Dysthymia doesn't define me, it's not something I'm 'proud' of per se, but it does affect a big part of my life; I've struggled with it every day since I was 10 or 11--so of course it's shaped who I am. I use it to imagine how frustrating it would be if someone tried to cover up or negate this part of me and then dressed it up with something like... idk. Magical anti-depression goggles or something, or worse still decided to make my story all about the goggles. It would make me feel like I wasn't a person with experiences worth writing about, that I would be fine if it weren't for this illness I undeniably have and can't help having. That my illness is akin to a personality flaw--an ableist assumption that Dysthymia sufferers in particular have to deal with, because it's a depression that does not go away and people think it's just our personality rather than an illness.

I personally found these posts x x x really helpful in figuring out how to write my inquisitor. Tbh cripplecharacters is invaluable anyway, especially their 'magic aids' tag for writing Inky. I really strongly recommend that you read them before writing about your inquisitor's prosthetic and their perspective on losing their arm. Listening to actual disabled people when writing disabled characters is the most important part of the process and it'll only make your work better. You really have nothing to lose by doing it.

Like I said, I'm not trying to call anyone out. I have most likely missed the mark just in writing this post, because it's not my personal experience. I do think the spirit hand is a cool concept. It's just not a quick fix and writing about it needs to be done more consciously than I think most people do.

[raayllum]

I saw somebody on twitter (Yes. I Know) say Amaya was bad deaf representation because everyone just talks to her instead of signs and I was wondering your thoughts on it (sorry if too discoursey you can delete)

Honestly I find that often times labelling representation as just Good or Bad isn't always helpful, as more often the scale is "this representation does not capture all/my experiences to varying degrees" and it's worth examining what that means. (Some representation is just bad, though but again: most have Some Nuance at the very least.)

On the one hand, Amaya is a very groundbreaking character representation wise: she's a main character from S4 onwards, she's a Deaf and a butch Asian woman and a lesbian, she's in a loving inter-abled and interracial relationship, has a family unit, friends, is allowed to be flawed and heroic, etc. She's also mute and when in the singular instance she does speak, she's voiced by a Deaf actress.

On the other hand, she's not perfect. I remember seeing someone years ago say that as a Deaf person she should be more emotive to better reflect signing experiences (though I think how we express/approach that lens likewise requires nuance when talking about an Asian character, particularly an Asian woman). I also noticed some scenes — like the wedding vows in particular — where I would've appreciated seeing more signing from characters.

That said: Amaya is an expensive character to animate. Signing animation is something that requires more references than speaking and more work to animate, and then you also have to have a character speaking (Gren or Kazi) in the background. The team has talked about how they'll do shots and frames to cut down on the amount of signing due to budget constraitns, which could also be a trade off for Amaya sometimes not emoting as much (though she is a more stoic character in general, but I digress) because expressions in animation also cost money.

Lip reading is absolutely not something that most people, Deaf or not, can do accurately, so I can understand being bothered by that because that is what a lot of her scenes rely on.

So does Amaya capture some Deaf experiences? Sure. Does she reaffirm some important ones, of Deaf people being routinely accommodated, having language specific sign languages and interpreters, being fully integrated members of society? Absolutely, I think. I remember after S1 came out someone on Twitter also shared that their little brother ran into their room to excitedly sign that there was a Deaf character like him on screen (and kids are, ultimately, who TDP is for).

Does she not capture some other experiences? For sure, but I don't think any kind of 'representation' can capture everything for everyone, either; Leola as a canonically autistic character doesn't represent the majority of how my autism manifests, but it's a spectrum like anything else and that doesn't make her 'Bad' represenation. Given that most of Amaya's weaker spots seem to come down to budget constraints, I think I give it more of a pass, which is to say: I think Amaya is more net good as representation as a Deaf character than net negative. That is, of course, my stance from a non-HOH/Deaf experience, so for people who are or know someone who is quite well, I'd love to hear their thoughts.

[seeminglydark]

Oh and I am also learning ASL and loving the illustrations of Avery's signing, and glad Maddie is learning!! I love her, and I love sign for not only communicating with Deaf folks, but also as a communication option for nonverbal folks/situations or even just at loud places, so I'm excited to see representation and hope it inspires more folks to pick up some basic signs in their local sign language 💞

I LOVE SIGN. I've actually heard that its not only inspired people to pick up sign, but also to create more characters in their own media that use it too and i love that so so much i cannot even express, as someone with many friends who are sometimes nonverbal, or part of the hoh community i think its so so important. Part of the reason i dont ever fully translate when my characters use another language or means to speak is to both make people look it up and maybe remember it, and also to express the frustration of being in a place where you cant communicate the way everyone else does and how it can feel so very isolating (could be related to being an immigrant who isnt very good at the language where i currently live, and growing up in a place where i witnessed many of my friends and family who were immigrants and didn't speak english very well being ignored.) i hope it inspires people to learn at least basic ways to communicate in their community and make everyone feel seen and welcomed.

(For anyone reading this who wants to look up avery's signs, LifePrint.com is a great resource and has very comprehensive videos, gifs and step by step photos as well as grammar and alternate ways to say things!)

if you're new here you might not know yet, but i have other characters that use sign too! so here's a little halloween comic panel i made last year, you may recognize them from the detention piece even if you havent met them yet in comic <3

[moonlitlex]

ALSO. i'm not deaf or hoh so obviously this is my perspective as someone who doesn't have lived experience here but idk i kinda just. felt like the way they went about aliss's deafness in this episode was just strange. it's the future and it's illegal for nurses not not be able to sign? as if signing is a fun little bonus thing you can learn like getting your driver's license. is there only one sign language left? hello??? how many languages are they requiring medical professionals to learn? it just feels like rtd is once again trying to get brownie points for talking about a social issue but he doesn't understand anything about it.

i also think it's odd that aliss spends a lot of time simultaneously speaking and signing. i only know a few words of asl so i'm by no means an expert on signing but i've heard from countless deaf and hoh people and also hearing people who are fluent in a sign language that it's actually really hard to sign and speak at the same time. and that also seems like common sense once you understand that sign languages are actually full languages because you'll basically have to be processing two languages simultaneously. if you're multilingual try doing that shit with two of your languages. listen to a video in one language while reading in another language. it'll give you a headache. i don't buy that she would open with both. i don't understand why she would do that and why she would continue to do that when it's just increasing the mental load on her and provides no benefit.

also the fact that the doctor makes a point about people being suspicious of signing is bizzare when 1. aliss is LITERALLY SUSPECTED OF MURDERING LIEK SEVERAL DOZEN PEOPLE 2. they literally don't even keep the tech subtitle thing on when they aren't talking to her? as if she deserves to be kept out of the loop just because she's deaf??? hello??? the fuck??? like that would not have happened if she was hearing. they wouldn't have been having private conversations like that because she would be able to hear everything they were saying.

the well. uhhhhhh

pacing was bad as usual. it simultaneously felt too long and too short. i was extremely disappointed that it was LITERALLY a direct sequel to midnight. confoundingly, the midnight entity has a completely different mo this time around, so there's literally NO reason it had to be a direct sequel. the longer this season goes on, the more belinda is turning into a stock companion. i'm at least glad that she gets to use her nursing skills pretty frequently so far but it's like that's her one thing and she gets to have little else in the way of personality or character.

the thing is. this wasn't a good horror or a good mystery. the well sets up a mystery and resolves it by saying "it's just the midnight entity, but again". but unlike a good mystery, there's no way for you to figure that out for yourself. because the mo is different. in midnight, the entity was playing psychological games to make the people on that bus thing turn against each other, so that it could survive and go out into intergalactic society. it supposedly still wants the same thing in this episode, but it has a fucking WEIRD mo. why and how does it suddenly kill everyone who goes behind it? why is that a thing now? how did it gain this ability? why is IT susceptible to this? these wouldn't be questions if it wasn't a direct sequel. and like... it's not a good horror because russell is never able to fully capitalize on the tension he's creating. this episode is always on the VERGE of being an actual horror story, but it always stops just short of it.

midnight was beloved by the fandom because it was a good horror AND because it explored what people are like at their worst, most scared, most selfish. the well doesn't really.... do that. there's no exploration of the characters. in midnight, rtd developed several side characters with their own problems and perspectives. in the well, no one really has their own perspective on the problem. this is partly because of the pacing, and partly because none of the side characters are real people. they are just vehicles for the plot. midnight spends most of the first half of the episode introducing us to our cast of characters before throwing them into a crisis. the well never lets us get to know any of them, maybe with the exception of shaya the captain. in midnight we can see how trust breaks down within the group. in the well, there is nothing of the sort. it's literally just an example of doing a concept well and doing a concept poorly. and astoundingly, both these episodes are written by rtd.

i'm seriously wondering what the hell happened to him in the last few years. like.... it's a sin was good? that's recent? is he not trying or does he not care? or did he seriously just forget how to write doctor who? i can't believe people are liking this season. i genuinely feel like i'm watching a different show to the rest of you.

also. i saw that ending plot twist/cliffhanger coming a mile away.

[ollieisgone]

Okay but can I just elaborate on HOH/Deaf Will Solace, as a HOH person we need more representation in general but also I feel as though the percy jackson community is lacking in disability representation whether it's in the books or even just in the fandom. So I give to you my reasons for headcanoning will solace as HOH/Deaf. First of all it makes sense to me as a HOH person that he would have hearing problems as his mom was a singer at one point so he may have been on tours/to some of her concerts as a kid, and we all know that being around speakers/loud noises for an extended period of time can cause hearing loss. Second of all, I believe that in the Sun and the Star (correct me if im wrong), we learn that he has the ability to whistle extremely loudly aka super sonic whistle, imagine him discovering this power before he was really able to control any of his powers, practicing to be able to control this power could have affected his eardrums causing him to lose hearing in his ears after rupturing his eardrums a few too many times. Obviously, all of this is just a headcanon, but I'd like to put it out there as I feel like it may help others with similar disabilities find solace in a character they may like/relate to. Also, I know I may not be the only person with this headcanon, and I'm not in any way claiming to own this headcanon, I just wanted to elaborate further on it.

[salvadorbonaparte]

Letterboxd Lists

All of my lists are works in progress and none are exhaustive. Some may include limited series or short films. These are also just some of my lists. They're also not ranked or sorted.

Note: I will only add films I have watched but I am open for recommendations for my watchlist

Note: I will only add films I have watched but I am open for recommendations for my watchlist

[deafaq]

(part 1 of ask) Do you know of any media with characters who are hard of hearing, do not sign and do not accurately read lips? Every time I see hearing disability depicted it's pretty much completely deaf characters who sign or accurately read lips, or characters with hearing aids and then just perfectly navigate the hearing world. I do not see myself represented at all with such potrayals. I don't sign nor lip read and while I used to use hearing aids 15 years ago, they only helped some.

(part 2 of ask) I understand that more modern hearing aids can be much better and that there are probably some people whose specific hearing issues might be 100% addressed by a hearing aid. But yeah, that is again not me. I do somewhat see my own communication struggles in a hearing character with some temporary hearing loss or an elderly character losing their hearing and thus rely on an uneven mix of hearing/writing as I do but neither of these really represent me.

Hello,

sorry for the late response.

Sadly, I can't think of any such character. Deaf/hoh characters are already very rare in fiction and so we really don't have varied representation of deafness/hearing loss. It's a shame.

Maybe Hawkeye in some of the Marvel comics? But he usually has "magical lip-reading" bcs writers tend to forget about his disability.

Maybe our other readers can help out?

Mod T