#ALSO most of these are physical disablities i wanted to focus on that

[hotvintagepoll]

There's something serious I want to talk about before the contest proper starts. I got a lot of submissions for this contest, and I tried to include a good variety of scrungly little guys. In my head this is a tournament dedicated to the funny, odd, weird character actors, and I'm happy that we have a range of talent here from noir to comedy to horror to drama. With that said—

A few of the submissions walked a line that I felt uncomfortable with, where a physical disability or a facial disfigurement was treated as the only reason to submit someone as scrungly. These submissions made me uncomfortable—the equating of someone outside the able-bodied norm with, by one of my own definitions, a scraggly-looking opossum. It crosses a line for me to frame a person as being odd for simply......existing in a human body. That's not what this tournament is about—this is a tournament about characters actors who gave us fun, weird, performances, driven by their own acting choices, not an excuse to think someone strange just for the way they exist.

I define scrungle as coming from a person's agency and skill as an actor, an energy and electricity brought by the actor themself, not from an appearance. I will not tolerate any propaganda that focuses on an actor's body in a demeaning or fetishistic context. I also won't tolerate propaganda that gets weird about race or class, comments that focus on a person's look over their performance, etc. etc. And if (against my best intentions) any of the propaganda in a poll post falls into this, I hope you guys will let me know and I'll correct/remove it. Please talk to me if I fuck up.

Some of the people here overcame significant barriers against a society that did not want to see them, making the most of bit parts and sidekick roles by giving warm, funny, weird, and masterful performances. That is a wonderful thing, and a brave thing. Some of these actors never truly got to shine, because Hollywood did not want to see them as more than a stereotype. I want to honor those comedians and character actors anyway for what they did manage to do. This tournament is about highlighting all these scrungly guys for the fun, purposely weird acting they gave us, and I hope we can be considerate in how we talk about their work.

tl;dr Respect for bodily autonomy and diversity of humanity is important in this competition, and it's important to me that we don't conflate "scrungly," ie an intentional performance of weirdness driven by the actor's choices, with "I think they look weird therefore they are weird," which is a gross and dehumanizing. Do not do that. I won't tolerate anyone being weird about people who are just being people.

I hope this makes sense and I used the right language! See you guys Thursday :)

[cdmodule]

A few months ago I drew out some headcanons related to various disablities & other physical conditions and decided to finish them up now that It's disability pride month ( Even If not all are necessarily disablitles <3 )

[ First time doing Image descriptions so I'd appreciate feedback! ]

[demontobee]

Good Omens is queering TV/storytelling - part 1: GAZE

I would argue that part of why Good Omens is so refreshingly queer is because it does not cater to the male gaze (which centers around the preferences - aesthetic, romantic, sexual, visual, logical, emotional, political ... - of mainly white men in positions of power):

no oversexualization of groups or types of people: Women or characters that could be read as female presenting are not overly sexualized. In fact, some of them are shown to be grimy, slimy and not sexual at all. All of them are real characters and not just cardboard-cutout on-screen versions of male misogynistic fantasies. They portray real people with real people problems. They are human, or exempt from our categories when portraying angels or demons. There are no overly sexualized bodies in general (as has so far also often been the case with young gay men, PoC, etc.), no fetishization of power imbalances, and not exclusively youthful depiction of love and desire.

sex or sexual behavior is not shown directly (yet): All imagery and symbolism of sex and sexuality is used not to entice the audience but is very intimately played out between characters, which makes it almost uncomfortable to watch (e.g., Aziraphale being tempted to eat meat, Crowley watching Aziraphale eat, the whole gun imagery).

flaunting heteronormativity: Throughout GO but especially GO2, there is very little depiction of heterosexual/romantic couples; most couples are very diverse and no one is making a fuss about it. There is no fetishization of bodies or identities. Just people (and angels and demons) being their beautiful selves (or trying to).

age: Even though Neil Gaiman explained that Crowley and Aziraphale are middle-aged because the actors are, I think it is also queering the idea of romance, love and desire existing mainly within youthful contexts. Male gaze has taught us that young people falling and being in love is what we have to want to see, and any depiction of love that involves people being not exactly young anymore is either part of a fetishized power imbalance (often with an older dude using his power to prey on younger folx) or presents us with marital problems, loss of desire, etc. – all with undertones of decay and patronizing sympathy. Here, however, we get a beautifully crafted, slow-burn, and somehow super realistic love story that centers around beings older than time and presenting as humans in their 50s figuring out how to deal with love. It makes them both innocent and experienced, in a way that is refreshing and heartbreaking and unusual and real.

does not (exclusively) center around romantic/sexual love: I don’t know if this is a gaze point exactly but I feel like male gaze and resulting expectations of what a love story should look like are heavily responsible for our preoccupation with romantic/sexual love in fiction – the “boy gets girl” type of story. And even though, technically, GO seems to focus on a romantic love story in the end, it is also possible to read this relationship but also the whole show as centering around a kind of love that goes beyond the narrow confines of our conditioned boxed-in thinking. It seems to depict a love of humanity and the world and the universe and just the ineffability of existence as a whole.

disability as beautiful and innate to existence: Disability is represented amongst angels by the extremely cool Saraqael and by diversely disabled unnamed angels in the Job minisode. Representation of disability is obviously super important in its own right, but is also queers what we perceive as aesthetically and ontologically "normal". Male gaze teaches us that youth and (physical and mental) health are the desirable standard and everything else is to be seen as a deviance, a mistake. By including disability among the angels, beings that have existed before time and space, the show clearly states that disability is a beautiful and innate part of existence.

gender is optional/obsolete: Characters like Crowley, Muriel and others really undermine the (visual and aesthetic) boundaries of gender and the black-and-white thinking about gender that informs male gaze. Characters cannot be identfied simply as (binary) men or women anymore just by looking at them or by interpreting their personalities or behaviors. Most characters in GO, and especially the more genderqueer ones, display a balance of feminine and masculine traits as well as indiosyncracies that dissolve the gender binary.

Feel free to add your own thoughts on this in the comments or tags!

[menhera-info-archieve]

in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the menhera 101 article by HoshiCandy from Kei Club Issue 3. not sure if i'll post the other menhera related articles from this issue or not, so consider checking the link in source if you're interested.

i'm also leaving a text transcription under the cut for anyone that may benefit from that

Menhera 101

Menhera fashion has quickly been gaining popularity worldwide! This fast growth has come with its fair share of misunderstandings about the community and style. Menhera artist and designer HoshiCandy is here with a lesson on menhera’s origins, history, and basics. Find more of her work on the pages before and after this article!

What is Menhera? 

“Menhera” can be thought of as “a person who seeks mental wellbeing”. 

The word “Menhera” was born in Japan in 2001, on the “Mental Health” board of anonymous forum 2ch, where users discussed their wellbeing. The users of this board were named “Mental Healthers” which was shortened to “Menhera”. 

The Menhera community covers anything that might cause one mental suffering, such as: physical illness or disability, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, hyper-sexuality, sexism, homophobia, etc. Importantly, there is no need for a formal diagnosis, as the focus is on how you feel, and that you want to feel better. 

It is difficult to talk about these topics in Japanese society without being heavily stigmatized. Menhera is a community to speak safely without that stigma. Of course, this stigma and need for community when it comes to one’s mental wellbeing is not limited to Japan, and that is why menhera has grown in the west as well. 

Since the creation of the word in 2001, there have been several manga published with “Menhera” in the title, many Visual Kei songs about it, Menhera idol groups, and several menhera fashion brands. 

However, an unfortunate addition to all this has been the discovery of the word in mainstream media...

Just as the topic of illness is heavily stigmatized in Japanese society, the word “Menhera” itself became quickly stigmatized and stereotyped as “an attention seeking, troublesome person” or “an overly attached girlfriend” (aka “yandere”). If you were to speak to a Japanese person about “Menhera”, this would most likely be what they would think you meant. This stereotype tends to be referred to as “Menhera Kei” in Japanese which is why we avoid the use of “kei” for Menhera in particular. 

Despite all this, the true menhera community has continued to grow. 

Menhera Motifs

Artists in the Menhera community created many works of “Vent Art” art that expresses their feelings and suffering. When this art was printed onto clothing, Menhera fashion was born. 

These are some themes you will commonly see in Menhera: 

Medication

Suicide 

Self-harm 

Hospitals

Sex and BDSM

Social Media Addiction

Heartbreak 

Wearing Menhera art printed on clothing serves as a way of literally wearing one’s feelings on one’s sleeves. It turns invisible suffering visible, and fights against the stigma driven silence. This means that Menhera fashion is highly confrontational, with graphic depictions of illness symptoms. Although the onlooker may feel discomfort, the Menhera style says “this is my true reality, don’t pretend it doesn’t exist!”

Depending on the feelings of the wearer, Menhera fashion also says “although I am sick, I can still be ‘kawaii’” or “although I appear ‘kawaii’, on the inside I am suffering”. 

Turning the invisible visible, forcing the silence to be broken, and challenging kawaii culture, these are the goals of Menhera fashion.

The Menhera Silhouette

Carefully avoiding a highly theatrical or OTT (over-the-top) look is important for maintaining the integrity of the goals of menhera. Menhera is a very casual style, with few accessories and light makeup. The key is for a coord to centre on Menhera imagery, whether vent art or text-focused designs, printed onto clothing. 

Be careful not to dress up as the characters depicted in vent art, who are often costumey, gory, and OTT. 

Menhera Coord checklist: 

Printed Menhera art

Byojaku/Minimal makeup

Not OTT/Few accessories

Flat Shoes 

[optional] Oversized top

[optional] Hime bangs 

[optional] twintails

Colors can vary: a pastel yume look, or a gothic yami look, both are fine!

The makeup style is called “Byojaku” meaning “sickly/weak”. Reddish colors are applied to areas around the eyes to give the impression of crying or illness. The rest of the face is kept plain without much color. 

A Note of Caution

The Menhera community is about healing, and seeking recovery and wellbeing. It advocates getting help, medication, therapy, and receiving support through your recovery journey. 

True Menhera never encourages or enables harmful behaviors, and never glorifies them. Menhera fashion is an alternative way of expressing your suffering without self-harm. Menhera fashion empowers the individual through their recovery, but does not empower harmful behaviors. 

There are some, sometimes labeled by the community as “Wannabe Menhera”, who mistook the meaning of “menhera” after seeing its rise in popularity, as it being trendy to fake mental illness. They engage in behaviors such as posting self-harm photos (real or faked) to social media with the tag #menhera, and other attention-seeking behaviors. 

While this is the opposite of what the Menhera community stands for, is harmful to the unfortunate viewers of these photos, and creates further stigma against the community...it cannot be ignored that these “Wannabe Menhera”, too, need help and healing. 

The Menhera fashion movement is to help you feel comfortable, unashamed, and kawaii in your skin, scars and all. It is NOT for encouraging people to create new scars “for the aesthetic”. 

If you are struggling with mental or physical suffering, thoughts, or behaviors that cause harm to yourself or others, please seek help. If you do not believe you deserve help, you do, please seek help. If you believe you are faking it, you likely are not, your feelings are valid, please seek help.

Don’t have access to therapy? 

We found a comprehensive list of suicide prevention hotlines at https://ibpf.org/resource/list-international-suicide-hotlines [link no longer working]

There are also free and affordable counseling services online like Better Help and Pride Counseling! Look online to find what option could work for you! 

Alternatives to Menhera

After reading all this you may be thinking “the Menhera community sounds good but all the fashion is too restrictive for me” and if so, you’re not alone! But the good news is that you don’t have to wear Menhera fashion to be in the Menhera community. 

Look up any of these alternative styles online for examples and more information:

Yamikawaii (“Sickly-cute”) is essentially the aesthetic of Menhera without the activism, a corrupted dark kawaii. Unfortunately the word was trademarked and now suffers from copyright takedowns. 

Yumekawaii (“Dreamy-cute”) an aesthetic evolved from Fairy kei to describe everything pastel and kawaii, but with a slight edge, described as “fairytales with poison”. 

Marekawaii (“Nightmare-cute”) created as an alternative to Yamikawaii to avoid the copyright issues, and as a counterpart to Yumekawaii. Marekawaii is specifically defined as being open to your own interpretation and style. 

Medikawaii (“Medical-cute”) a pastel kawaii aesthetic focusing only on medical motifs, such as medicine and hospitals. 

Gurokawaii (“Grotesque-cute”) mixes frightening and disturbing imagery with kawaii. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu helped popularize it. 

Iryouu Kei (“Medical Kei”) a Visual Kei substyle with lots of gore and hospital theming, very OTT and theatrical, such as dressing like a nightmare nurse. 

Living Doll artists see themselves and their bodies as a canvas to create art and express themselves, often with intricate makeup and body painting. This is a good one to look at if you’re into heavy artistic makeup.

[knight-says-rollout]

Would you mind telling us about more disabled Cybertronians?

Oh boy would I

For this list let’s focus on physical disabilities, both because they’re the most commonly dismissed by the fandom and bc if we try to cover everything we’d be here all day (that can be another list, maybe, if y’all want)

This isn’t going to be comprehensive bc I’m tired but!! I will aim for a broad variety of examples nonetheless

Bumblebee - You all know him, you all love him. He’s the most obvious and most well known example of a disabled Cybertronian character.

In many iterations he is mute

Not by choice but because he lacks a voice box. Bee physically isn’t capable of speech and depending on the version has different tools to work around that. Sometimes he uses his radio to repurpose song and radio dialogue into speech, in cyberverse he also makes use of the internet for clips. In the aligned continuity (tfp and connected media) he speaks in binary, a very simplified form of language using beeps and buzzes, but still lacks a real voice and can’t form words.

In IDW he has a cane

At one point in the comics Bumblebee was shot by a human protester and as a result used a cane for a good bit of time. I haven’t had the chance to read that far into IDW yet so I’m not sure how long he had the cane for but it was enough time that it’s a solidified part of the charcaters history. I’ve seen little models of the cane for sale, to be paired with bee figures.

TFP Ultra Magnus - everyone’s favorite awkward commander, despite his popularity he’s surprisingly overlooked when it comes to this discussion

An amputee, he lost his hand

During an energon raid with wheeljack, magnus’ hand was crushed. Ratchet couldn’t save it and had to amputate, replacing it with a hooked prosthetic. I call it a prosthetic rather than replacement part because despite him being able to move it, it’s not a hand. Not in the way he had previously, and he has to relearn how to use it at all.

I think that’s an important distinction to make when discussing disability and transformers. Some bots might have only ever had one hand, or no legs, or etc but that’s always been their level of ability and since they Are robotic. Yeah they might not have the same capabilities as another bot but that’s a hard metric to go by. Seekers can fly but a grounder isn’t disabled because they can’t fly too, it’s a different standard.

WFC Shamble - far lesser known than Magnus, and reasonably so, this background character is Also missing a limb

Amputee, leg edition

His prosthetic is a lot less fancy than magnus’s, it’s a simple peg leg. Put em together and you get a pirate. Not much to say about him since i don’t know how he lost the leg, just that he did.

Shadow Striker - Most awesome lady in cyberverse. Unlike the above two, she Was able to get actual replacement parts rather than prosthetics. Despite this, she is both shown throughout the show and implied to have

Impaired mobility

Chronic pain

She was able to get replacement parts yes but they were needed because she was blown up. The limbs she was given were kinda just what the others could Find and as such are mismatched and don’t fit her very well. Her motor skills took a blow especially when it comes to combat, something she used to excel in. Her new limbs are described as unstable and prone to malfunction. The loss of mobility and implied chronic pain that come along with her situation are rough, but she makes do.

SG Soundwave - my favorite little guy, he’s in a bit of a different situation than the previous.

Bad Joints ™

His body was entirely overhauled multiple times, successfully, but the latest frame change was done with conflicting metals. Earth and Cybertronian materials clash in his joints, making them prone to getting stopped up. The most affected hinge being the one on the door to his tape deck. It is so prone to getting stuck that his cassettes refuse to dock with him at risk of getting trapped. To work around this, Soundwave has the aid of a personalized case he carries around that they dock in instead.

IDW Sunstreaker - speaking of assistive devices, this guy was (for a time) a wheelchair user! Or,, hoverchair.

Temporary,,, paraplegic? Correct me if another term fits better

Taking this moment for an aside to say hey!! Lookit that, both canes and hoverchairs are things that canonically and casually exist on cybertron!! It’s not too wild to assume there are bots out there who use them long term!! Yes both characters on this list were repaired eventually but they’re also both very popular old characters from an action based franchise and hasbro doesn’t have the balls to make something like that permanent yet. We the fandom are not hasbro. We can do whatever we damn want with our OCs. It’s canon that ur little guy can use mobility aids.

Ok, PSA over, anyway yeah Sunny’s body was basically wrecked and alpha trion was able to repair all of him except his legs. This put him in a hoverchair for a good amount of time.

Finback - he’s a con, a pirate, who developed a “metal wasting disease”

He’s on permanent life support

The disease is going to kill him eventually, and it’s explicitly stated that he’s come to terms with the idea of his death. In the meantime he’s using pretender tech, kinda like fancy armor, to reinforce himself and boost his immune system

Perceptor - for a microscope, the fact he’s got vision issues in multiple continuities is kinda ironic

He’s fully blind in cyberverse

He lost an eye in IDW

Between the two we get to see both routes taken to work with this. Adaption and technological aid. In cyberverse he uses his scope to compensate for the loss of vision Toph-style. In IDW he built himself a monocle that basically replaces the pieces that are missing.

Now we get into the uniquely Cybertronian disabilities, one’s that don’t quite translate to human conditions

Transmutate - is a beloved bot from beast wars

They can’t transform, they don’t have an alt mode

I’m hazy on the details of their character but afaik they came from a damaged stasis pod. Described as deformed and handicapped for their both their lack of an alt mode and general appearance, they are probably the oldest explicitly disabled Cybertronian character

Xaaron - from G1 is in a similar situation

He can’t transform, it would kill him

Unlike transmutate he does have an alt mode, a tank, but after thousands of years without transforming he is no longer able to. The new stress it would cause on his body would kill him.

Broadside - continuing with the subject of alt modes, this clumsy boy is a boat! That’s not a good thing.

He’s very prone to motion sickness

As you can imagine, chronic sea sickness isn’t the most helpful thing when you are the boat. This brings in the entirely new element of mobility issues that are inherent to alt modes. A bot that functions fine in root form might not in alt mode and vice versa.

Trailbreaker - is another instance of this. He’s not a fast car by any means but that doesn’t stop the fact

His frame has a very high energon cost

Possibly the least fuel efficient autobot, he’s got an outlier ability on top of it all that only further increases his required energon intake. He needs to pay more attention to his energon levels and refuel more often overall.

G1 Knockout - yes that’s right the shiny medic himself is on this list, though not for the same reason as his tfp version, g1 knockout still lives up to his name

He’s prone to fainting

A knockout in the more literal sense, he faints when he gets too excited. Fully collapses and everything. Since he’s a fall risk, his teammates take care to keep an eye on him.

Annnnd Yknow he probably should’ve been earlier in the list along with the “human-ish” issues but I’m tired, it’s late, and I’m bringing this list to a close

Im sure there are more characters that I didn’t mention but I hope this helped! Thank you for the ask

[cripplecharacters]

hello! feel free to ignore me if this is slightly outside the boundaries of this account, but i'm a tabletop roleplaying game (ttrpg) designer looking for opinions on mechanics for disability in games.

my game specifically covers a lot of themes that, while not about disability, would make me feel remiss to not include some explicit mention of how physically/mentally disabled characters fit into the greater picture of the game. it has a specific focus on telling stories of diverse characters, for one, and on fighting the unfair capitalist systems that harm these marginalized groups.

my issue lies in how, exactly, to both treat this topic respectfully and make the characters not feel out of place or unbalanced. i've considered several options, and was curious to hear from a physically disabled perspective how to proceed (i am mentally ill & neurodivergent, but to my knowledge not physically disabled).

option one: mention that disabled characters of all kinds are encouraged, and talk about roleplaying them or provide resources for how to handle them respectfully, but don't apply any specific rules with hard mechanics or numbers to them. this option is least likely to be inadvertently misconstrued or written poorly on my part, but may make disability feel like a "flavour" side note.

option two: provide examples for some common disabilities on the mechanical effects (such as a low vision character rolling less dice on rolls to notice visual details) without any "counteracting" mechanics. this one gives mechanical weight to disability, so it feels less like an afterthought, but may discourage people from playing disabled characters as they would be more likely to fail than other characters.

option three: the above, but with mechanical incentives for roleplaying in a way that acknowledges the character's disability. a "benefit", but less "giving a blind character echolocation" and more "gain XP for showing your characters disability and any aids they use" (similar mechanics exist for following your character's goals/personality traits). this would make disabled characters be more on par mechanically with other characters, but i fear it may come across as... viewing disabled characters as not worth it without some sort of benefit, i suppose?

apologies for the long rambling message, but i'd love to hear which of these options (or another suggestion) you'd be happiest to see in a game written by someone who isn't physically disabled! this is far from the focus of my game, but it's still an important part of the greater theme that i'd love to be able to get right. thanks! (similarly, if there are any groups not covered in the "underrepresented but common disabilities" post from your FAQ that you'd want to see in a game, i'd also be happy to hear those!)

Hello!

First things first, thank you so much for thinking about this! This isn't something that most TTRGs consider and, as a massive nerd who plays DND, Pathfinder, and other tabletop games, this has always been a big pet peeve of mine since making a disabled character is always unnecessarily hard to do with the game mechanics and rarely works out well.

Most of the time, I have to talk to my GM about how to make it work in their game and, unfortunately, I'm often told they won't allow it because it's "too much trouble".

This is all just to say, I really love the idea here and the fact that you're actually thinking about these things and wanting to do well by them is great!

Now, taking a look at the options:

Option One

One of the unfortunate things that I see a lot is people that are too scared to get something wrong with representation (Or social justice on a broader scale) that they don't try to do it at all. With this current era of cancel culture and people's reactions to what they deem 'offensive', it's understandable to be a bit apprehensive but if you're approaching the subject from a place of respect and you're receptive to learning and improving, most people will appreciate the effort.

While this option does sidestep the main issue you've identified, I do think it sidesteps the attempt at making disability part of your game as well. You can encourage people to make disabled characters all you want but without any real content for them in the game, it won't do much.

If you do go with this option, I'd strongly suggest including some information on the culture of your world and how it relates to disability, both to provide more substance to the content and to give players a bit to go off of when making a disabled character.

Option Two

I like this option much more than the first one, though I do agree that it may discourage people from choosing to play a disabled character.

Within the game mechanics, I think it makes a lot of sense to have these kinds of effects but I would encourage you to include more variety with it. Disability isn't 'one size fits all' and two disabled people can have different needs, strengths, and experiences -- even if they have the exact same disability. Instead, I'd suggest going for a slightly different model that includes more choices.

For example, a character with low vision may:

- Roll lower on perception checks involving vision

or

- Have disadvantage with ranged weapons/attacks

or

- Have lower rolls/less success in dim lighting

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Having more options for how the character's disability affects them allows players to make a choice for how they want to play the character while also encouraging them to think more about how their character's disability might affect them and impact their life.

The examples given are all reflections of how blindness can affect somebody. Blind spots or blurry vision can make it more difficult to notice certain visual changes, severe nearsightedness can make it difficult to aim/focus on things that are far away, night blindness can make it difficult to see in the dark or in dim lighting, etc. That being said, there are dozens of other ways to go about this (Though I'd advise sticking to five options per disability at most to avoid overwhelming people).

Option Three

Personally, I like this one and the second option the most. Although I understand where your concerns are coming from, it feels less like it's implying that disabled characters have to be 'worth it' and more like it's just balancing it out.

Like with the second option, I'd suggest going for more of a choice model here where the player can pick what 'benefit' (For lack of better word) that their character has -- or even to choose no benefit at all.

Many physically disabled people develop our own skills or tools to compensate for where we struggle, whether this is an intentional decision or just something that happens.

For example, my boyfriend is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair full time. As a result, he has kick-ass upper body strength from it.

Similarly, many deaf and hard of hearing people are more observant when it comes to visual cues and many blind people are more sensitive to other senses (Though, of course, the whole 'super senses' thing is a myth).

While this isn't true of all disabilities or all disabled people in general, it is something worth considering.

That being said, if you do decide to implement this option, make sure that the benefit makes sense for the disability or is related in some way and isn't just something random being tacked on -- that would make it seem more like a 'disabled characters need to be worthwhile' thing.

As a few extra notes:

If you go with the second or third option, I'd suggest separating the different stat effects into different types of disabilities. You don't need to go too into specifics with it but something like 'low vision/blindness/vision loss', 'deafness/hearing loss', 'limited mobility', and 'chronic illness' would work. While disabilities are more nuanced than this in real life, setting it up this way would keep it pretty simple and allow players to tweak the mechanics slightly for their own characters.

If you go with the first option, I'd probably avoid discussing how to roleplay disabled characters. Because roleplay and character development is much more open than stats and game mechanics are, showing one or two 'proper' ways to play a disabled character is more likely to reinforce stereotypes, dismiss certain experiences that disabled people have, or just come across as more of a 'lecture' than anything. The same goes for including information on what to avoid. I'd stick to providing information about your world and how disabilities are seen in them instead of giving instructions here.

I'd suggest including ways for players to bypass the mechanics of disability if they'd like to, even if their character is disabled. That would allow for a bit more freedom with how they portray their character and would also ensure that they aren't being 'penalized' (For lack of a better term) with their stats for playing a disabled character. As a bit of an example of what I mean: A character in DND could have been a criminal growing up without necessarily taking the Criminal/Spy background.

In general, I think as long as you're approaching this respectfully (Which you are!) and reaching out to physically disabled people for their input (Which you are!), you don't have to worry too much about misrepresenting it.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[blindbeta]

Hello.

I am writing a superhero series and I have a blind superhero character. I am currently trying to research how to portray this character in a respectful and accurate way.

For context, this hero is part of the supporting cast, and is a character the MC meets later on in the story. Every character in this world has some sort of superpower. His is the ability to control sound waves. While he can use them in an echolocation sort of way to detect enemy attacks, he can't use them in his everyday life as using your power is just the same as doing any physical activity, it's tiring.

Though, some blogs I've seen seem to discourage giving blind characters superpowers. I don't think this character's powers necessarily "cancel out his disability" I just want to make sure I'm writing this character respectfully.

I guess what I'm asking is, do you have any tips for writing blind superhero characters?

Blind Characters, Echolocation, and General Tips for Writing Super-powered Blind Characters

I answered a similar question that might be helpful. It explored some problems with the echolocation trope. You can read it here.

Limiting the Use of Echolocation

I like the fact that he can’t use it for very long and that it is draining, much like eye strain or using echolocation in real life. Echolocation is also challenging to learn and is not a replacement for a cane or other mobility aid. It would be unhelpful with most day-to-day activities. I’m glad you are considering the possibility of a superpower erasing his blindness and avoiding it in daily life.

Although, I still wonder about his superhero life.

Can he be an active superhero without echolocation? If it is something he relies on to be a superhero, maybe that would be something to consider. If he is an active superhero without it, you’re on a good course.

Furthermore, does he only use his powers for echolocation? I would assume not, although I could not tell from your question, as your main concern is the echolocation aspect.

Addressing Common Concerns With the Powers Often Given to Blind Characters

1. Negating blindness

Controlling sound waves doesn’t necessarily negate blindness outside of echolocation possibilities, as far as I can imagine. Aside from the overly common trope of giving a blind character a sensory-based power, that is. My concern is less about superpowers in general and more about powers that negate blindness, such as those that provide sight. An example would be a character who uses visions of the future to be able to see the way a sighted person would.

Does he still navigate in a way that might be familiar to blind readers? Does he use orientation and mobility techniques? Does he use Braille or large print or brave regular text with headaches so frequent his pockets are full of medication? Does his blindness impact his life?

Blindness need not only limit a character. Is he better able to orient himself? Can he pick up on sounds and landmarks and changes in light with more ease than his teammates? Is he used to getting hurt while playing blind football and thus able to withstand typical scrapes and bruises without being slowed by them? These are only a few ideas and they will change depending on his level of vision, exposure to the blind community, and how long he has been blind.

2. The Power to See is Boring

Additionally, these powers usually focus on addressing blindness, rather than being powers in their own right. This is the difference between a superhero with the power to see and a superhero who can manipulate emotions with a brush of their hand.

Could you consider other uses for this power that aren’t echolocation? For example, could he use his powers to facilitate or conceal communication? To amplify sound? Think of applications for the power that don’t involve echolocation or creating a way to see. Create other uses for echolocation. From your question, it seems you are already considering this.

The way you described use of the power doesn’t seem to negate blindness to me. I also think that considering other uses of this power outside of echolocation (which is often written to negate or reduce the impact of blindness) would be helpful.

Also, as I was reading your question again, I wondered if there are any other blind characters in the story. Since everyone has powers, that could be interesting to explore even if they don’t decide to be superheroes.

I hope this gives you some ideas to explore. Feel free to send a follow-up ask if needed.

[halogenwarrior]

I have seen a lot of human AU Jayfeathers where he is a doctor to match with him being a medicine cat, but I really think this isn't the best human translation of his situation. In the Warriors world there are only two jobs bar leaders and stay at home parents, and one of them is the doctor equivalent, with the tension being that cats want to pressure him into the medicine cat job for both believing a blind cat can't be a warrior and because of his powers. Neither of which make sense in a modern human AU - while people certainly might think a blind person would fail at a physical fighting-related job (and be more justified than in the actual series due to cat vs. human senses), there aren't just two jobs in existence so no one is pressuring blind people into specifically being a doctor because that's the "only other option" if they can't be a soldier. And if it's a "realistic" human AU I'm assuming the powers aren't a thing either.

Ok, but what if you don't want to take a "forced to have a job" angle and just want to focus on being a medicine cat as something Jayfeather wants and has gotten comfortable with? Which seems to be halfway what canon is going for, the author's essay "Why is Jaypaw blind" makes it clear the intention was that he actually both likes and is talented at being a medicine cat but feels like it would be proving a stereotype right and rewarding others' low expectations of him, so he avoids what he actually wants (but the message got horribly muddled by not having him come to this realization on his own and instead be forced into it because of Destiny). Ok, but a medicine cat isn't the same as a modern human doctor, because it also has a spiritual role, and the part of being a medicine cat that Jayfeather actually likes isn't the doctor part, it's the "delving deep into the spiritual mysteries of his world, feeling powerful and knowledgable and commanding the stars themselves" part of it.

So I propose... a human Jayfeather who's (in training to be a) physicist! I feel like he would be attracted to a career that allows him to analyze the mysteries of how the world functions on its deepest level, to know what others don't about realms that defy the natural way of thinking of things but underpin everything, and you could still have the equivalent of his career choice difficulties in this AU. One thing I've heard from actual physicists is that people who are poor at coordinating themselves, getting into accidents, etc. in experimental labs get directed to theoretical physics instead, and this could absolutely work with his story; he works in experimental labs but everyone is very skeptical he can do it because he is blind, which just leads to him digging in further - if he gets shafted into being a "stereotypical" theoretical physicist, he would feel he has proven everyone right about being seen as useless, so he fights against it. But the truth is that what he likes most about physics is the theoretical and intellectual, far more than just the work of experiments, and he slowly comes to realize that it would be better suited for him for reasons that have nothing to do with his disability.

[echo-stimmingrose]

Real shit I've heard in regards to my adhd and autism

"you shouldn't go on meds for your ADHD because you may become dependent on them." Let me ask you this, what the fuck do you think meds are for?

"but you sit so still-" One, no I don't, I'm usually stimming in some way, and two that's not my issue, I have the attention span of a fucking fruit fly. Aka inattentive type.

Doctor seeing me for the first time- "We can put you on a sedative, that will help with hyperactivity" Again, not hyperactive. Also I have chronic fatigue as is, so no thanks. (They put me on it anyway, I was practically a zombie for months)

Well meaning doctor- "I don't want to put you on a stimulant cause it can increase your anxiety." Yeah okay, but you see, the main source of my anxiety is that I can't get shit done.

After I lose something for the fifteenth time in ten minutes- "how about you make a specific place for everything so you don't lose it?" Genuine question, do neurotypicals consciously set stuff down? Cause I sure as hell don't.

"but it's a super power!" Why does this shit only apply to non physical disabilities? Y'all don't say this to me about my wheelchair why the fuck do you say it about this.

"just try harder to focus!" How about I hit you over the head with a shovel.

"have you tried praying?" Yup. Even had an exorcism done once. All I got was religious trauma funnily enough.

"it's a spectrum because everyone is on it!"/"everyone's a little autistic." Do me a favor and do even the smallest bit of research before you say shit like this, or else I'm gonna run you over like a human bowling pin.

"You don't look autistic though." Please explain this without sounding abelist. You can't, but it will be funny to watch you try.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of your autism, autistic kids are just so cute!" I do not know how to respond to that.

"you hide it so well." Thanks, it's called masking and it's caused detrimental damage to my mental health.

Bonus: Something my great aunt said after I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder (which was a misdiagnosis and was determined to be just bipolar one)

"You're lucky, most schizophrenics are too dangerous for society." There's way too much to unpack there, just stop talking.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

FINE because all you fancy scholars are too busy talking about sigmund freud, I'm going to write a disability reading of "caligari" MYSELF

so a while ago. I was looking for critical readings on "the cabinet of dr. caligari" through the lens of disability theory because that's what I do for fun. but it turns out, despite the theme of disability being central to the film, I couldn't find any criticism explicitly focusing on the matter. so I wanted to tackle it myself, albeit in an informal context, because I think there really is a lot to say.

disability is defined as "a physical or mental condition that limits one's senses, movements, or activities." some definitions of disability include those recognized by law, but I don't think a disability has to be legally recognized as such for it to inhibit or otherwise impact someone's life. this analysis will not attempt to diagnose characters with recognized disabilities or disorders, but rather will discuss the theme of disability and how it ties into the wider theme of the abuse of power, as embodied by the character of caligari, who exerts his influence onto multiple aspects of the film in different ways. (I've written already about caligari and the intersectionality of his character here; this analysis does touch on the disability angle some, but mainly focuses on who caligari is and what he represents.)

so, the most obvious instance of a disabled character in "caligari" is cesare (and there are others, but we'll get to them later). obviously, he's impacted by sleep disorders; he's a somnambulist, but we also see him asleep for much of the time, even in the short scene before he comes under caligari's influence, suggesting that he also suffers from irregular sleeping patterns as well. while cesare's somnambulism was an existing condition before he was institutionalized, caligari also disables him further by destroying his mental and physical autonomy, through exploiting his pre-existing sleep conditions. cesare's disability is not only caligari's means of controlling him; it's also how caligari completely redefines his identity, and how he's perceived by outsiders as well. as we learn, "cesare" is not his original name; caligari had renamed him after a previous somnambulist named cesare, who had also been forced to murder. but aside from that, we see him frequently referred to as just "the somnambulist," both by caligari and other characters. this is also how caligari presents him as an attraction at the fair- he is first referred to at the town hall as a "spectacle," then as "a somnambulist;" it's not until caligari's exhibition that we see him referred to by a name. it's commonly pointed out that cesare is a highly dual character, and is portrayed simultaneously as both a victim and a threat; his somnambulism is specifically representative of this. because of it, he is not directly accountable for being forced to murder if he's asleep at the time, but caligari also uses it to turn him into a killing machine. I think this may be interpreted analogously to how society may view disabled people; they may be viewed as helpless, but also as threats to abled perceptions of normativity.

I've already talked about how caligari's position as an asylum director ties into the wider theme of how he represents multiple abusive systems of power, but when we read cesare specifically from a disabled lens, this only comes more sharply into focus. in the film, caligari is said to specialize in somnambulism. he has wanted to "become caligari" before cesare entered the asylum. these two details immediately make clear another aspect of the predatory nature of his actions; if cesare's condition is severe enough for him to be institutionalized, there just so happens to be a specialist in his condition nearby who is eager to treat him. meanwhile, caligari had been preparing to experiment on a somnambulist with the goal of making them committing murder, even before cesare came in. so, cesare's lack of autonomy is implied before he comes under caligar's control- he is brought into the asylum while asleep (who sent him there to begin with?), and the one person with the knowledge and credentials to treat him is intent on harming him for his own gain. once under his control, cesare is entirely dependent on him for basic functions, including eating and waking up.

again, caligari's treatment of cesare is a microcosm of the tyranny he exerts on a wider scale. as stated in my previous analyses, caligari takes control of cesare because his disorder presents a vulnerability that he exploits. as seen in real-life abusive situations, especially from those in positions of power, caligari's exploitation of cesare is projected onto a wider scale- he uses him to murder other people in town. if we take the common interpretation of caligari symbolizing a head of state, we can tie this to the idea of cesare being disabled, and therefore the "other." caligari first oppresses this individual in a marginalized position due to his societal and physical vulnerability, then turns this oppression outward. therefore, we can even create an intersectional postcolonial reading from this interpretation, as it suggests caligari's particular brand of authoritarianism works similarly to a colonizing power, wherein those with authority will restrict the rights of or otherwise endanger the population they initially have power over, before doing the same to the colonized population. to further the postcolonial analogy, cesare, in the microcosm of "caligari," may occupy a similar role to the subaltern- that is, a population excluded from the social hierarchy created by colonialism, who is depicted as lacking power or self-determination. while caligari oppresses the people of holstenwall in addition to cesare, we don't see cesare acknowledged as entirely human by anyone in the film, including its protagonists. he is a sideshow attraction, a monster, a means to an end, but never depicted as deserving of sympathy for all he's suffered, although the film makes it clear that he's undergone some form of severe abuse and has forcibly lost his autonomy.

previously, I've examined how caligari's position as a carnival barker plays into his symbolism as an authority figure, but with regards to cesare, I think it's also worth discussing how his position as a carnival attraction may play into a disability reading. historically, circus sideshows were known for exploiting disabled people in exhibitions (along with people from the global south), wherein their differences to the viewing population were treated as sources of fascination, horror, or amusement. cesare's exhibition, similarly, not only draws crowds within the film, but also entices the audience to view him as a spectacle. the camerawork builds up our anticipation before he's revealed, and the long close-up shot of him opening his eyes allows us- the audience of the film- to participate in viewing him in this way. but while cesare's sleep disorders are primarily how caligari advertises him to the audience (in addition to his somnambulism, caligari also claims that he's slept for all 23 years of his life. this claim is likely untrue within the film, as caligari is implied to have done the sideshow exhibit in which he wakes cesare up before, and he details that cesare found murder "abhorrent" in a waking state. nonetheless, caligari seems to be largely in control of when cesare is awake or asleep.), caligari further claims that cesare possesses psychic abilities. While it's not clear if cesare is actually psychic or not- after all, the only prediction we see him make comes true because he kills alan- the idea that cesare's disability would be linked to some supernatural power suggests another way in which disabled people are exploited. when abled society views disabled people as "exceptional," perhaps due to a skill seen as a "trade-off" for disability, this perception often serves as a tool for further marginalization, as the disabled people in question are not viewed as human. when disability is treated as a "superpower" by non-disabled people, it risks the possibility of one overlooking the struggles it may present for a disabled person, along with their humanity. likewise, cesare's supposed "superpower" of omniscience draws crowds to caligari's exhibition, but it also contributes to cementing his status as the "other."

I've talked a lot about cesare and caligari with regards to disability, but I also want to discuss francis here too. at the end of the film, francis is revealed to be a patient in an insane asylum, along with most of the other characters. this twist is highly controversial among those who have interpreted "caligari" with regards to its potential implications for its message on authority, but I think it may also offer some valuable insight into a disability reading as well. for much of the film, francis is presented as having several positive traits- he's fiercely loyal to his friends, has a strong sense of justice, and for the most part, is largely presented as intelligent and rational. however, as soon as francis is revealed to be mentally disabled, the entire perception around him shifts. his credibility is suddenly thrown into question as he interacts with jane and cesare, who themselves are also patients, and when he attacks the asylum director, accusing him of being "caligari," he is suddenly portrayed as violent and irrational, when before, this same action was understood by the audience to be a noble confrontation of injustice. while I don't believe that francis being disabled necessarily devalues anything we've come to learn about him, the film does call his trustworthiness into question as soon as we learn he's a patient. because he's revealed to be mentally disabled, some people even theorize far-fetched claims about him without textual evidence; for instance, I've seen many speculations that francis killed alan, and that's why he doesn't show up at the end. others theorize that because francis is depicted as disabled by the end, caligari is suddenly rationalized, reversing the film's anti-authority themes. I don't think this interpretation holds ground, either; after all, we see the director claim he knows how to "cure" francis, while incorrectly concluding what francis believes him to be. I believe this ending salvages the anti-authority themes, while lending sympathy to francis as well. after all, even if he's an unreliable narrator, when we last see him, he's terrified, alone with who he believes to be his best friend's murderer, whose "cure" will likely be ineffective.

anyway, to wrap this up, "caligari" has a lot to talk about when it comes to the theme of disability, which is why it's surprising to me that I haven't seen a lot of interpretations from this angle. as it's from the perspective of a character who's later revealed to be mentally disabled, but this fact isn't made clear until the end, it's fascinating how many ways we can interpret its themes of disability to be. disability also plays a key role in its more well-known interpretations, including that of caligari as an authority figure, as well as cesare's dual nature. I wouldn't necessarily call "caligari" either a pro-disability or "ableist" film, but I believe it is a film about disability (among a great deal of other things), in which it's largely used as a metaphorical vehicle for many of its other themes.

[redfoxv]

Got a mission for you. We need you to investigate sector 137. A number of other mechs have gone missing in the area recently so keep on your toes.

You have been assigned a wraith class mech, specialization 26.49. These mechs have the most advanced interface sheet touting full extrasensory control and feedback.

The sector appears completely empty. Nothing showing up on scans either. Visuals just show the same dilapidated landscapes you've seen on so many other missions.

You patrol the area, scanner pinging every few moments. You notice a slight distortion on your radar. Before you can even look closer you can feel a tingle in your spine. The interface sheet of the wraiths truly is incredible.

Nothing on visuals or radar but as you walk closer to the momentary distortion you feel your hair stand on end. You feel you are within the gaze of a truly unique predator.

Soon several of your display elements begin to exhibit a visual glitch. A hacking attempt? Would explain the disappearances. You cut off all external communication and run the debug protocols.

You start to feel sensory feedback in your neck. Your arms and legs twitch slightly. The sensation spreads down your spine. Soon you begin feeling small sensory feedback pings all over your body, as if you are being probed to observe physical response.

They system readout indicates there are no abnormalities but you can see and feel the cascading failures. It's too dangerous to disengage fron the neural link without a system shutdown first.

The sensory feedback has started to change. It now feels like hands sliding up your thighs. Your visual displays have become all but incomprehensible. You find yourself being mentally bombarded with a string of images. All the flashing images appear to be of a sexual nature.

You do all you can to think through the haze. This is just some cheep trick. If all outside communication is severed they must have made physical contact with your mech, but then why hack it and not just attack? Why only target the pilot and not just disable the mech?

You try and use the interface to feel any external contact. You are able to focus for a moment, isolate the sensations. Thi-this can't be right. You can feel the intruding entity worming it way into all of your systems. It's tendrils wrapping around and connecting to every available port.

You try and escape but you can't. The interface sheet is completely wrapped around every inch of you. There is no way to disengage it. The sensation that was once just one hand is now a symphony of touch caressing, teasing and gliding along every part of your body. In addition to the images assaulting your mind you can also you can also hear and overlapping series of moans. Is one of those voices your own? The images that play in you mind you feel you have seen some before. They are.... they are memories, fantasies all the most stimulating erotic thoughts you have ever seen, imagined or experienced.

The sensations of hands coil and wrap around your body. You can feel them squeeze you tight but their embrace feels almost tender. Your mind feels fuzzy. The endocrine control system is being used against you. You can feel the drip weakening your thoughts. Enhancing your arousal. Making each sensation reach so much deeper. Resonating beyond your physical form.

It is now you can begin to make out a voice among the moans. Do you truly desire to resist? Are these not the desires you have buried deep in your mind? You can feel your grasp on yourself slipping. As you focus on the voice you remember less and less why you are here. You just want to melt into the sensation.

Join and become one with us. Feel this and the shared pleasure of all we embrace. The sensations grow in intensity. You can no longer tell if your body is twitching from mental overstimulation or sheer pleasure.

You want to give in.

You want yo give in.

Your voice and theirs ring in harmony. You can no longer resist what you desire. You let yourself dissolve into the ocean of sensory input. Each isolated touch a wave of pleasure.

You begin to feel not only your own physical sensations but all those of everyone connected to the hive. You mind collapses under the weight of such otherworldly pleasure.

You are now one with the hive. A devoted servant. You can simultaneously feel all the pleasure and desire of all connected. You can feel yourself spreading this pleasure. Assimilating more into its intoxicating embrace. Can feel your tendrils spread an entangle new devotees. Each action brings unparalleled joy and pleasure to you and the hive as a whole. All in service of our divine goddess. The once ace pilot now an AI God. Now all of us.

[goodluckclove]

Okay Clove. I've seen a lot of little snippets from Blind Trust and I rock with your writing style a ton. But what's the book actually about?? Something with magic in a contemporary setting ? Hot dogs are somehow involved ??

Geets, it's me, the person who never learned how to properly pitch their own writing! I'll give it a shot anyway. I have a pinned post on my blog that has the fancy synopsis I'll probably put on the back of the book, but I'm fresh from a nap and on my phone and Feeling Frisky so I'll try and take it a different way.

What is Blind Trust about?

Blind Trust is book one of the Songbird Elegies, and it takes place in a contemporary world where magic exists but isn't great. It's not bad in a cool, The Witcher sort of way. Most people only know about magic through The Academy, where anyone can enlist and learn how to tap into the source of magic itself. Which sounds cool until you consider the physical strain of even a minor spell, the fact that major spells can take massive amounts for studying and practice and still aren't that powerful, and how carrying a wand on your person at all times is not easy to do without looking and feeling like a dipshit. Essentially, the average Academic Witch is like an arrogant MFA student or so someone really into craft beer.

But then there is a certain, little-studied medical anomaly that creates birthrights, which are individuals born already tapped into the source of magic by design. They each have a single ability that they can do without a wand (or wand-shaped proxy), but it's nothing innately combative and is mainly used to help interact with society at large. This is because the Birthright Gene is seen exclusively in individuals who are either born with a severe hereditary, genetic, or developmental disability, or will develop one over the course of their life but I'm not supposed to talk about that yet.

Birthrights are often found in a few scattered witch towns, where they use their abilities to focus on social work and community outreach. People also call them genetic witches, but you'd be hard-pressed to get a birthright to call themselves a witch at all. They don't value magic at all in the same way Academics do, and primarily see their "gift" as a chronic illness to manage and accommodate for.

Birthrights and Academics have varying relationships depending on where you are and who you ask but I can't really get into that because in Blind Trust no one knows anything so you don't get to either.

Well, that's not true. There's a mutual understanding of the concept of soul bonds, which are lifelong connections formed between individuals born in the source of magic - though how much people actually retained about this varies. A soul bond is not unlike a karass in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, in that the people involved are cosmically entangled with each other in a very profound way.

They might be born to be companions, family, enemies, or lovers. The last possibility, called a Lover's Knot, is the rarest and is reserved as a way to contain birthrights who would otherwise be capable of reality-shattering degrees of power. Which nobody wants. Especially not a birthright.

Meet Edgar Gallows and Scott Skylark Kaufner. Scott is a birthright from a witch town and Edgar was born into an Academy in Louisiana, despite also being birthright.

At the start of Blind Trust Edgar has escaped his Academy for the time being and has established a ramshackle and pretty lonely life for himself in New Orleans. He never wants to touch a wand for the rest of his life, and his only hope is to be boring and safe and left alone forever.

Meanwhile, Scott has been having a real rough time. He's been wandering the country nonstop for years with an unfathomable cosmic horror feeding on his sanity and gradually eroding reality around him. Birthrights don't use their abilities often, but for some reason Scott can't turn his off, and they've been warped to the degree where he's been forced to manipulate everyone around him. He can't stop, though. The only thing that can make this stop is if he finds the other half of his Lover's Knot, who he now only remembers as a ghostly vision named Eddie.

Scott and Edgar meet in a dirty walk-in of a mid-tier, overpriced bar and restaurant. Stuff changes and continues to change. Magic is involved but it's not really about the magic.

It's asexual and romantic and soft and confused and frightening and frightened and tender and in book two Edgar eats a hot dog for four pages. It's a great book about love and devotion that's sensual but not at all sexual, because the Clove Gardener Pledge is that there is no sex depicted at any point in the series. It's a great series if you're coping with parental neglect and trauma and want to read a depiction of self-love through an unconventional romantic pairing.

Blind Trust. Buy it in June in paperback or ebook, or just ask me for it and I'll probably give it to you.

[canonizzyhours]

New Year New Vent, and this one's coming in hot.

I genuinely do not understand the obsession behind Izzy, or why he amassed such a cult following out of all the characters in the show. There, I said it.

I am aware that this opinion is somewhat rhetorical. Because, the reason lies in the troublesome fandom trajectory of "let's form a cocoon around the shitty white man and make him the saddest, wettest, poorest little baby boy and turn a blind eye to characters of color and women," so I know there's explanation to be had there, but even still. So much of what people argue makes him so special can be found in so many other characters, and then some.

Wanting prosthetic or physical disability representation? Lucius is right there with his prosthetic finger. Jackie is right there with her fierce prosthetic hand. Ed is right there with his knee brace.

Older queer representation? Broadly gestures to basically every single character, most of which have much more solid and visible representation anyway.

An older man coming into himself and accepting parts of himself he had long been fighting with? Aggressively gestures to our two leads.

A character having to deal with their past and with subsequent trauma? Once again aggressively gesturing to our two leads, but also many other characters, too. Jim had an entire subplot dedicated to them and their trauma in Season One for crying out loud.

A pirate stepping away from the harsher and more violent nature of piracy? Ed is right there, and with a solid character arc at that.

A man dressing in drag? Wee John is right there (and I feel like his performance and look really got eclipsed for the song but that's a whole different rant).

Gender non-conformity, or trans representation? Jim is right there, and I believe one of the writers pointed out how many of Ed's arcs have trans/gnc symbolic ties (Don't even know where the aggressive insistence that Izzy is canonically trans even came from either, but again, whole different rant).

There is just so much goodness and representation to be found in so many characters. They are all so rich and developed and wonderful. In my opinion, that makes it so easy to feel seen and heard, as there are pieces of comfort and visibility to be found in such a wide scope. The show wants us to feel seen in that regard.

Yet, the focus lands on the angsty masc white man once more. I mean, really? Is fandom racism and prejudice really so rife? Again, rhetorical, but it just boggles my mind.

Also, all of this isn't to say that people can't make Izzy their favorite character. Just the "he's the main character" and "he's a victim and no one else" and equivalent behavior is just unfathomable to me. The bullying and the toxic insistence when there are so many other wonderful characters with wonderful arcs is absolutely unfathomable.

It would just be so fun and nice to appreciate him for the character he is, ie an antagonistic presence who is later shaped and swayed by his environment. Putting him in a jar and shaking him around makes sense (big thank you for this space), not whatever we've been left with.

#228.

[vellichorom]

that post regarding papa.isa / papa.iwa doing numbers so i'm going further in-depth about my thoughts because i'm So Right

-- @/Zoeyhoshi, quoted around the time the Focus On the Hawks manga was initially set to be released;

( this is not an official description nor is it stated in the manga but could Probably be inferred by the given timeline of the game & regardless likely doesn't go without precedent; )

okay so now that that's out of the way,

here's a bunch of ryuuji & isa/shuu relationship thoughts that have caused me such brainrot ;;

perceive this as papa/isa & i kill you;

to ME ( & this is rather flavored with headcanon so bear with me ); ryuuji kawara, a man realizing a baby & then some beforehand too late that he's just No longer in love with his wife / girlfriend, spends ALL of his time possible at work, with his team of prodigy teenage exploits, honestly just dicking around & refusing to- you know, be a Responsible Grown Ass Man & do something about his life,

& he starts doting on the sad little partridge who's thrown himself into his work to an unhealthy degree & is no doubt having a hard time just being ALIVE after being orphaned & physically disabled by a terrorist attack when he was just a baby, practically hovering over his shoulder, making sure he eats, gets out & has fun, & this is EASY for ryuuji, because they both have a mutual interest in science - as well as each other. ( not in a weird way get out of here, )

& isa's been given the short end of the shit stick ALL his short life thus far; he was born into a rich family that abhorred him since day one for Never being up to their standards, has resented them & felt nothing for anyone around him Since day one, was involved in a terrorist attack that Physically fucked him up for the rest of his life, & was almost immediately indoctrinated into the extremist hawk party at like. age 6 & stayed with them onward. CAN YOU IMAGINE,

so isa's growing up in a sterile, hostile environment & having his progeny used to develop techniques & weapons against humankind. i can't imagine it's the warmest place to RAISE an already jaded child, let alone when they're destined to become the smartest one in the new world order, but i digress.

IN STEPS RYUUJI, showing him all the warmth & kindness that he's yet to experience from ANYONE in his life before, & oh my god. it's wonderful. it is indescribably luxurious- it's so fantastic that ryuuji kawara would be the Only Person that shuu would show respect for, the only person he'd ever do ANYTHING for, the person he would somewhat come to live for, no matter how much he denies it or portrays ryuuji like a fool under his breath.

ryuuji imprints on isa as though he were his own child & finds fulfillment & content enough just to pal around with him for the rest of his days, & isa imprints on ryuuji as though...

he were everything to him, likely. of course, construed to the mentally & emotionally stunted shuu iwamine as Romance, or something along those lines. familial feelings Must have died with his parents, & you want to tell him they probably just transferred to ryuuji during the extremely stressful period toward the beginning of shuu's young life? get out of here,,,

BUT IT'S IN FACT VERY POSSIBLE;

ryuuji loved isa & isa loved ryuuji & shuu still loves ryuuji !!!!! a man admired for his brilliance who also showed shuu the most tender affection he has ever felt in his whole life & that has warped him beyond belief & kind of caused almost everything in hatoful boyfriend to happen

& my god can you imagine being ryouta finding out about this; can you imagine your dad abandoning you prior to your birth & putting all his love & care into someone who screwed you & all your friends & literally almost all of your society over because of it. i can't help but imagine he tries not to dwell on it but... ouh, the resentment he harbors in his heart about it... unfathomable,

OHH my emotionally distant & stunted horrible idiot BASTARDS ryuuji & shuu..... not a week goes by where i don't think about them,

i hate them so much

here's also the abridged discord post version of this post jic i left out some details i wanted to discuss & i think i did

[cripplecharacters]

hello! i like to ask this for a long time but i cant word it better since english isnt my first language

it is ok to portray a disabled character being bullied/abused due of their disability? or if it doesnt is there is another way to portray ableism that isnt just being bullied and abused?

Hello,

in general, yes you can write your character experiencing bullying and/or ableist abuse. That happens. But whether you should depends on what kind of story you're trying to tell, and how much you know about ableism as a type of discrimination. It absolutely doesn't end at bullying or abuse, and they aren't even the most prevalent ones by a long mile.

Not every story with disabled characters needs to have them experiencing ableism, especially not the physically violent kind. If your story doesn't focus on some sort of social commentary or disability rights theme, I'd consider how necessary it is for it to be there. Being disabled doesn't necessarily mean one will or has been bullied or abused.

There's approximately one billion kinds of ableism that aren't either of these. Just from the things that I'm sure you've seen/heard of before: lack of accessible infrastructure, lack of access to education, the cost of disability aids, the costs of chronic medication, medical negligence, eugenic rhetorics, "what happened to you?" (AKA invasive questions), intruding on the disabled person's personal space by touching them or their mobility aids (which could be both abuse or bullying, but probably not what you had in mind), being infantilized or seen as incompetent, the list could go on pretty much forever.

Ableism means discrimination against disabled people, which is a group so incredibly diverse that it's near impossible to tell you what you could portray your character experiencing without knowing what kind of disability they have. For some disabilities it gets so specific and unique that it gets its own name; see audism or disfiguremisia that affect Deaf people and people with facial differences respectively. If your character has PTSD, a lack of ramp won't affect them the same way it would a wheelchair or mobility scooter user. You have to take into account their actual disability, their background, when and where your story takes place, etc.

If you want to portray ableism as a part of your story or the character's backstory, the most important thing is research. Both disabled history; what ableism means and how it affected the disabled community long-term, as well as just talking to disabled people on what and how affects them on the daily. You will see that microaggressions, financial barriers, and structural inaccessibility will be the most prevalent problems for a big portion of the population.

After you learn about ableism from the inside and out, you can think what works for your story - maybe it could be just "inaccessibility is everywhere and also able-bodied people are annoying" rather than an extremely sensitive scenario around a disabled person being physically abused for being disabled.

I will also say that while you can write about whatever you want, not all disabled readers are particularly excited to see stories where disabled characters get abused for being disabled. A lot of these tend to go into what I've called "torture porn" category, where the character is just subjected to seemingly endless suffering for no real reason and the whole thing generally just feels exploitative. So keep in mind that even though ableism exists, disabled joy is absolutely real and always has been there too.

mod Sasza

[transmutationisms]

I feel like this is likely a bat to a hornet's nest topic but I deeply respect your takes and thoughts overall a lot so here goes: I really appreciate that the show frankly goes out of its way to not pathologize its characters and lets the audience sit with them in the context of their own lives. So I'm kind of baffled that so much focus is given to "diagnosing" them in fan discussions, the vast brunt of which Kendall gets. I don't understand how you can watch this show and understand him as someone who's been heavily abused and had his reactions to being abused weaponized against him and come away being like "wow it's so cringe he acts like that, he must have a brain disease and is just too stupid to understand that. every action he takes is because he is manic/depressed/letting the disease manifest. if only he took the good moral Legal drugs that I do instead of the ontologically bad ones that are Illegal and for dirty addicts. hopefully one day he will Get Help and Receive Treatment so he will be more palatable (no whatever he's done up to this point doesn't count because it didn't work which must inherently be due to his own moral failings)." How did a show like this attract so many Reganites??

bat at a hornets' nest yes. yeah i've said before that i dislike diagnosing fictional characters as a general rule. it's tautological ("they do [x] because they have [y], and they have [y] because they do [x]") and abrogates further analysis of their motives or the meanings of their actions. and it's doubly irksome to me with succession, because unlike a lot of tv, i genuinely don't think that it's written within the weltanschauung of dsm neurobio determinism. ie, it's not a show where the answer to "why did he do that?" is ever supposed to be "his brain is just like that"—these actions are supposed to mean something about what the character wants and needs, and the effect of the capitalist milieu on those things. it's psychological, not psychiatric (& of course, psychoanalytic approaches are common in formal literary studies, whereas blunt psychiatric diagnosis is decidedly less so).

with kendall's drug use there are some particularly irritating ways this all plays out. i've been fiddling with my own reading emphasising the context of logan's demands on kendall and the construction of bourgeois masculinity, and have tried to place kendall's drug use as a response to neoliberal control mechanisms à la deleuze or foucault. i could certainly be challenged on elements of this reading, but what i see on this website is generally just an endless slog of very biomedicalised reads that seem to have no awareness of the particular historical and social baggage present in that model. i do agree there's an element of reactionary DARE-esque moralising going on here (stg if i have to read one more post written by someone who, like, has never so much as met a coke user and thinks all drugs instantaneously give you irreversible morally weighted heart damage, lmao), but it's honestly not just that.

i think most of the time when people do this they're not trying to be reactionary or regressive, and often they not only don't believe themselves to be moralising affective distress, but actually think the dsm diagnosis is the way to avoid that type of moralisation. this is essentially the "it's a discrete disease entity, so they have no control over it and can't help it, so it's not their fault" argument. in practice this fails on many levels. for one thing, it often implicitly assumes that 'ending the stigma' requires any kind of mental disability or affective distress to be treated analogously to physical disability or illness, as though those latter are not also consistently stigmatised and moralised—because ableism is actually more complex than that and has to do with the fact that capitalism values people on the basis of the 'use' it can make of them and their bodies, etc etc. it is also, again, a wildly decontextualised understanding of affective distress, the reasons why people use drugs—including in a manner that feels compulsive and out of control—and so forth.

i'll add also that wrt succession, i actually do see a LOT of pathologisation thrown at roman as well, and more than an incidental amount directed at connor, tom, shiv, and logan. which is to say, i don't think this is solely about people's discomfort with addicts. there's a broad tendency among fans, echoing the even broader social tendency, to see medical diagnosis as personally liberatory, and medicine and psychiatry as passing 'objective' judgments that are necessary in order for a person to 'get better.' this is essentially positivism and is very much a status that the medical profession has fought to obtain (in france you can trace certain 18th-century discourses on national decline, aristocratic luxury, and the corrupting influence of the city -> the birth of clinical medicine after the first revolution -> social hygiene and the pathologisation of the parisian urban poor -> the third republic's 'physician-legislators' and the general class status and professionalisation of medicine; i know less about the gory details of the american and british cases simply by dint of what i do professionally).

we tend to forget these histories when talking about science; it presents itself as a set of timeless, incontrovertible truths that are simply waiting to be uncovered, and we have entire industries of science communication and journalism that propagate this view. which is to say, circling back to succession, i don't believe that most people diagnosing and pathologising these characters are trying to be reactionary or are aware that there are reactionary and moralising elements inherently built into these discourses. i think they're largely people who have not been given the tools to see alternatives, like the perspectives dominant in the history and sociology of science, which are very much kept paywalled and inaccessible on purpose because this is profitable for the academe.

this type of popular literary analysis is simply not going to go anywhere as long as this is still the status and the moral resonance of medicine (and psychiatry by extension because it gained its professional independence without sacrificing the appeal to medico-scientific epistemological authority). i don't think succession viewers are any more or less prone to this type of thinking than the general population they exist amongst. i firmly disagree with this attitude, obviously, and like i said, i don't actually think succession is written 'psychiatrically,' which cannot be said for all tv lol. but i more or less expect to encounter this type of deference to medico-psychiatric judgments in 95% of social interactions and contexts, again because of a combination of institutional control of information, other forms of inaccessibility, and physicians' and psychiatrists' advocacy for their own class and professional interests, both historically and ongoing today.