kingofthemultiverse777

[kingofthemultiverse777]

July? Nonono, it's February. Happy Valentine's Day!

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Does salt go bad? Like, what eats salt other than humans. It's not really a food, it's, like, a rock.

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The Black Brothers

Regulus & Sirius

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Pleasant Interruptions 🥰

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REBLOG IF YOUR BLOG IS A SAFE SPACE FOR AROMANTIC PEOPLE AND IF YOU THINK THEY ARE VALID

I want to see how many people actually are willing to say this and not just act like it

[kingofthemultiverse777]

One armed characters

Okay, I'm just gonna rant for a bit so don't mind me.

Has anybody else noticed the weird trend growing in animated media of characters being one armed or losing an arm?

Ballister (Nimona 2023), Lute (Hazbin Hotel 2024), Eda Clawthorne (The Owl House 2020—2023), and Captain Grime (Amphibia 2019—2022).

And, of course, we can't forget the OG, Finn Mertins (Adventure Time 2010—2018).

I'm not actually saying Finn is where this trope comes from, because Ballister is technically the oldest character here. The movie, Nimona, which came out in 2023 after years of getting tossed around studios, was originally based on a webcomic, later turned graphic novel, that came out in 2011. (Remember that while Adventure time started in 2010, the episode where Finn lost his arm for the first time was season six, episode two, "Escape from the Citadel", which aired April 21, 2014.)

Before I continue, I just want to say that I don't really have a problem with this. All of these characters are amazing (except, arguably, Lute) and it's always a good thing to have more disabled representation, but there is something off putting to me, personally, about the fact that it's only this particular kind of disability being represented. I'm glad that amputees are getting representation, but why is it only amputees, and why is it always an arm? Why not a leg?

The Owl House is, in my opinion, the better of the aforementioned five as it has gone out of its way to give more representation for disabled people.

Professor Hermonculus, who uses an abomination as a mobility aid, and Principal Bump, who uses his palisman to help him see. Even Eda's curse is used a metaphor for a disability, though not any specific one. There's also a lot of neurodivergent representation throughout the main cast. Point is, The Owl House has gone out of its way to give disabled representation. I can't say that about the other examples.

Of the five one armed characters I've mentioned, three of them lost their arm in the finale or near the finale of their run.

Lute lost her arm in the finale of Hazbin Hotel's season one, Grime lost his arm in the second to last episode of Amphibia, and Eda lost her arm in the finale of The Owl House's second season (The Owl House season three only has three episodes, in which Eda only appears in two).

It seems like having a character lose an arm has just become almost an out for writers when it comes to introducing stakes into the narrative.

As a writer, you generally want your audience to feel as though there are consequences to character's actions, but you can't always kill off a character if they have more to do in the story. One way to do this is to have the characters get injured in a way that won't be completely healed, or will effect them in some way for the rest of the series. It seems like this trope has arisen as a way for writers to show stakes and consequences in stories, but why is it only in this specific way?

Losing a limb is an incredibly traumatizing experience that will permanently change how you move and interact with the world. On top of that, phantom pains can range between uncomfortable to debilitatingly painful, and can last anywhere between seconds and days. Oddly enough, we don't actually see that with most of these characters.

In Nimona, Ballister loses his arm early on in the movie, but we never really see him adapting or dealing with the consequences of that. We see him obviously in pain when the event happens, and later we see him making his prosthetic, but beyond that point, we don't see his arm effect him much at all. From that point on, he just <i>has</i> a prosthetic arm. He uses his prosthetic as easily as his flesh arm and, as far as we can tell, experiences almost no trouble with it.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing; Nimona is a Sci-fi movie and it's nice to think of a future where amputees can use prosthetics as easily as their original arm, but the thing is, amputees don't have prosthetics that work like that right now. The most modern prosthetics we have use signals and microscopic movements from leftover nerves in the upper arm, which can replicate much more intricate movements, but these kinds of prosthetics are new not easily accessible. Other prosthetics that are body powered take time to adjust to and figure out what movements to make to use the arm properly. This is something we never see Ballister do. Though, Nimona is a movie that is already very compact with the story it was trying to tell and likely wouldn't have had the time to explore Ballister getting used to his arm in the time they had.

Because Eda, Lute, and Captain Grime all lose their arms so late in the series, there's not enough time to show them adapting either. Losing an arm in the finale of a series isn't representation. We don't see these characters adapt. For the most part, it seems that them losing their arm was just a way to shock the audience and show some form of sacrifice without having to kill them off. Lute is the most egregious example because she didn't actually lose her arm in battle or to save her own life, she ripped it off herself so she could continue fighting. Her arm was trapped under debris and was, presumably, not injured to the point of requiring amputation (not to mention, if it was, having your arm amputated as a medical treatment is significantly better than having your arm savagely ripped off in the middle of battle).

Finn is the only character we see who appears to be traumatized from losing his arm. There's even an entire arm dedicated to him building a tower into space so he can get revenge by ripping off his dad's arm.

Finn is severely effected by the absence of his arm, but Adventure Time isn't without fault either. Finn loses his arm, but he also gets it back after an encounter with a magical bee. While I'm sure the decision was made for the purpose of making his design remain the same, it doesn't account to much when he ends up losing it again later in the series.

I'm not saying any of these characters are bad representation, but the thing is, from what we've seen, it just seems too much like <i>easy</i> representation. Most people only use one arm, and, assuming they don't lose their dominant hand, having a character lose an arm doesn't have to change them very much, especially if most of the characters aren't going to be shown adapting to or struggling with their new disability. Imagine if a character lost a leg instead. If that were the case, the writers would be forced to show the character moving differently and being more significantly hindered, since most people do need both legs to walk.

It just seems like writers are making this decision as a way to point and say, "Hey! Look at this disabled representation!" without actually having to do any work to put that on the screen, and while I don't actually think that of most of these examples, with the exception of Lute, it's something I can very easily foresee if this trend continues. Disability rep is important, but it also requires effort, and, frankly, having a character lose their arm in the finale, where there's not enough time to show them adapting in any way, is not representation. Having a character who loses their arm but then their prosthetic basically works as a magic arm they have no trouble using isn't representation.

Does anybody else feel this way? I'd love to hear more points of view on the subject, especially from someone who's actually an amputee or is physically disabled. I'm not physically disabled, and as an autistic person, I don't think of myself as being disabled in most situations, but it's a group I've been placed into and it's a group I care about and want to see better for.

[kingofthemultiverse777]

[kingofthemultiverse777]

So this was Draco's tactic in wooing Harry.

My ultimate sexual fantasy is to annoy a man so much that he falls in love with me

[kingofthemultiverse777]

An all-encompassing list of what to do about the Harry Potter HBO reboot:

DO:

Avoid watching.

Swipe past all official content. The less interaction, the better.

Remind people that consuming the HBO show in any way is not okay. That includes pirating, using it for edits, etc.

Remind people that JKR uses her profits to DIRECTLY hurt trans people.

Hold the ADULT actors and HBO itself accountable for choosing to work with JKR.

DO NOT:

Bully the children involved in the show. They're minors.

[kingofthemultiverse777]

Alright, it's gotta happen. Plenty of shows have called their episodes "chapters" now I want a book that labels its chapters "episodes" just to make it even.

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sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

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lesbian dragons

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Has anybody ever actually finished a game of monopoly, or does everyone just eventually get tired of playing and go to bed?

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I hear you, and I raise you, "Draco had a fairly happy childhood but when he got older and Voldemort returned, he actually started to realize how bad the death eaters were and now he looks back on every happy moment he had and every person he'd cared so much about with the staining perspective that those people are bad people, and that siding with them makes him a bad person, and he can't possibly conjure up a single good memory to cast a patronus charm because now every memory is overshadowed by the realization that his parents were never good, his friends were never good, and he was never good."

why would you attribute draco being unable to cast a patronus on him having an awful childhood and therefore no happy memories to pull from when it is soooooo much more interesting to explore the idea that he's someone who was so uncomplicatedly happy for so long that he didn't value those moments enough and when he DID finally gain perspective through suffering he was so traumatised that he struggled to remember anything except the bad things

like is it easier to say lucy bad draco sad case closed yeah but is it also the most boring shit in the world. mmmyeah

[kingofthemultiverse777]

Specifically if we are moots. pls reblog this if u support trans folks, genderqueer folks, queer folks in general and queer relationships so I know 4 sure

[kingofthemultiverse777]

A couple years ago I officially hit the age where when I went to visit my great aunt she would ask me, "So, do you have a boyfriend yet?"

Now, I have reached the age where immediately after asking the question, she would throw her arms up in exasperation and say, "OR GIRLFRIEND!"

[kingofthemultiverse777]

GF

I keep looking and reblogging Billford posts. I don't even like Billford. Y'all are just creative. Props to you.