“What? Like, a disabled protagonist? How would that even work? How could someone with a disability be the hero in an action show?” local anime trash boy wonders while sitting next to his box sets of Full Metal Alchemist, showing no hint of irony or self awareness.
but is Ed really disabled? sure I get he lost his arm and leg
but he’s still able to move and do things perfectly
He has prosthetics. Having prosthetic limbs (that more than once break amd need repair) doesnt make him not disabled
It should also be noted that Ed:
-had to undergo very painful surgery to get automail
-had to relearn how to write because of his prosthesis (there’s a post going around showing he had to switch hands etc) and his handwriting is likely a lot worse due to that. This means automail isn’t super good for delicate work, unsurprising, considering what it’s made of.
-experiences phantom limb pain and therefore other associated stuff (this was only really shown in the manga)
-cannot go anywhere too cold without changing his automail or he’ll get really bad frost bite and it will stop working
-cannot go anywhere too hot, period, because the metal attached and under his skin will overheat and he will be badly burned
-Reattachment is painful, but needs to be done frequently if he breaks or outgrows his automail
- it’s HEAVY so much so that the strain has the potential to cause stress on his body, enough that it’s even theorized as possibly stunting his growth.
-it requires regular maintenance or it will break down, as shown when he forgets to do that and it…breaks down
-when it does need to be repaired, it takes time to do that, during which Ed uses regular prosthetics (that usually don’t quite fit him).
-costs a lot of money (not a problem for Ed due to high state alchemist salary/having mechanics as surrogate family, but explicitly noted to being the reason why most people in the fmaverse stick to regular prosthetics along with the painful surgery)
So Ed can’t actually do everything perfectly and experiences a lot of extra hassle, problems and pain people without automail don’t have to deal with! And any advantages he does have are more suited to fighting than day to day life (being able to incorporate weapons/fake out people who want to blow up his arm).
Arakawa did her research and thought it through. Automail is by no means a magic cure that solves all problems associated with losing a limb.
This is barely an addition, but I’m pretty sure it was proven that it stunted his growth. It was mentioned in Dublith, and then Winry made him lighter automail in Briggs. Now, after a couple of days of being together, the two of them don’t meet up again for months.
When they finally meet up again:
You could argue something about angles here, but at the end of the series?
In conclusion, the original automail did stunt his growth.
As a writer, creating a disabled character can often be difficult. Ed only worked because the world he was created in has very advanced prosthetics which (despite some draw backs) move and acts exactly like real limbs. It’s a very particular case and required some additional write-arounds to make work. And plus the disability factored into the story which is good.
In many scenarios a disabled character simply wouldn’t work. And a writer isn’t obligated to make their character disabled.
Give an example of a story in which none of the characters truly and honestly could not be disabled in some form or fashion. Explain how it “simply wouldnt work.”
Because Im a writer, and that sounds like unimaginative laziness.
Yeah I have no idea how disabled people could possibly be heroes, that’s why Luke Skywalker had all his limbs and appendages through every Star Wars movie, cause if he had a prosthetic he wouldn’t work. And that’s why Tony Stark is never written as having a life threatening heart condition and being on 24/7 life support surgically implanted into his body, then it just wouldn’t make sense for him to be Iron Man. And it’s why Bucky Barnes has all his limbs too, and why Daredevil’s known for having eyes that definitely work. And who could forget that memorable scene at the end of the first How To Train Your Dragon movie where Hiccup slays the Red Death, and then immediately jumps up and talks about how great it is he didn’t lose a foot in the process, before going on to be the lead in six TV seasons and another two movies, while definitely having both feet. God knows people are helpless the second they aren’t completely abled.
Like… the thing about disabilities is that there is always going to be a work around. That’s kind of how it works. If someone is born disabled, or suddenly becomes disabled, they don’t just shrug and go “oh well guess i’m never doing things ever again”. This may shock you, but disabled people actively work to adapt to their situation and find ways to lead the life they want to lead. So people missing limbs are going to have prosthetics, and they’re going to know what they’re doing with them, because that’s kind of the point of having a prosthetic in the first place. People missing senses will find ways to fill in the blanks that leaves behind, cause they still have lives to lead and they figure it out as they go.
Believe it or not, disabled people don’t magically stop being disabled when they’re not completely helpless.
Just nudging in to remind everyone that a lot of us are adapted to living in conditions abled people would struggle with a lot more. Like post-apocalyptic wasteland that isn’t suitable for human travel? I call that going to Tesco. World full of people who randomly hate you and wish you ill? That’s being visibly neurodivergent. We spend more time than you ever will, thinking about unconventional travel hacks and ways to avoid potentially dangerous conflict with others. You think in the event of some cataclysmic event, you’re just suddenly going to learn those skills? Go roll a manual wheelchair across 10 metres of pavement with a gentle camber and come back to me.
^THIS. Being autistic, and an adult with a good amount of control over my environment, I do so many workarounds now that are integral to how I’ve set up my home and routine and life that I do not even notice them anymore until something interrupts the adapted world I’ve built. Even just my “EDC” or EveryDayCarry stuff in my small backpack is highly specific to my needs.
Every time I move now I have to weigh the amount of energy it’s going to take me to make the effort against whatever I want to do the rest of the day, week and MONTH. Every. Time. I move. That’s a lot of statistics. I am constantly running that “math”. Probably from the same area of the brain that lets you throw a baseball by calculating angles and speeds. But I’m doing it with a damaged-functioning brain as well, because this is a neuroimmune condition.
Anyone who has been Disabled for a long time will NOT handle their disabling obstacles presented by the world in the same way as you would if you tried some kind of simulation. We have community, often online, and we learn and teach each other, swap lifehacks, and adapt to how to survive in an often actively hostile/alien environment- a world never meant for us to move through it like most of you do. How inhibited someone looks to outside eyes has nothing to do with whether they’re disabled.
Professional Ballerinas make what they do look easy when it’s actually putting incredible strain on every bone in their body. Disabled people are often very similar. We will often show you only the performance, not the pain. I could write essays on why we choose to or have to do that sometimes- how people see us and treat us is a lot of it- but! I’m outta spoons. ; )
Writing Characters with Chronic Pain and Disabilities
PSA: Writing characters with disabilities and chronic pain is great for representation, but I’m seeing harmful tropes and portrayals perpetuated in the way chronic pain and disability is treated in parts of the whump community. Abled people need to stop using chronic pain and/or disabilities purely for “fun and whumpy” purposes. To help address the (hopefully not ill intended) ignorance that likely causes perpetuation of hurtful tropes and harmful portrayals of disabled characters, I’m sorta writing a guide on what to do and not to do when you write a character who is disabled or has chronic pain. I am disabled myself (connective tissue disorder that causes chronic pain among other debilitating symptoms) but obviously all disabled experiences differ so take this all with a grain of salt.
What to do/what is okay to do: An injury causing chronic pain and that being just a part of a character, or a character who becomes disabled (or has been from birth). Their struggle is/can be obviously present and a significant part of their life BUT they must still be a rounded/whole chataver (background, personality, relationships, etc) if the narrative surrounding their disability was omitted. Writing characters with disabilities and chronic pain is good for representation! I’m not saying it’s bad to have chronic pain be caused by injuries for a character, including whump sustained injuries. A good example of a disabled character done right is Kaz from Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo is disabled herself tho which obviously plays into why he’s done so well). Kaz uses a cane and has chronic pain caused by a wrongly healed broken leg. His pain and his cane are mentioned often throughout the novel and influence his life experience and perspective. However, his narrative doesn’t focus on his chronic pain: he’s not looking desperately for a cure, his goal is not to someday stop using his cane, etc. (These things are harmful tropes because they portray disability as something completely and totally bad, to be avoided at all costs). Kaz is a badass and competent character, as developed as the other (able bodied) main characters of the story, and his disability is one of many trait about him. If you wanna write a disabled character as an abled person, try to keep those kinds of things in mind (make them developed, make sure their narrative doesn’t focus fully around their disability even tho their disability can/could be a large part of their life, don’t use the “looking for a cure” trope as their whole motive, don’t present disability as a fate worse than death or similar.)
What not to do: What I’m sorta mad about is when someone writes a character who’s constantly suffering from chronic pain/disability and is written in a way where they’re constantly miserable from it and can never feel anything other than the constant sadness/pain their disability causes them. (Perpetuates the trope that disability is constantly horrible and sometimes creates the idea that a life with disability isn’t worth living- which is harmful because it creates the idea that people with disabilities can’t be happy/successful/etc unless they’re faking their disability). It is harmful when their pain or disability is their only trait and/or is only used to make them suffer for “fun” or whump (perpetuates harmful stereotypes around disability- gives the idea that it’s impossible to be happy/a successful person/etc while disabled or having chronic pain, makes light of disability.), Do not write a disability unrealistically and do your research to prevent from ignorance turning into harm. When a character is written disabled/in pain purely for whump, harmful tropes usually end up being perpetuated (the search for a cure trope, the idea that a disability is a tragedy and must be avoided at all costs, etc). Chronic pain is not fun, disability is not whumpy. If you want to write it, do it respectfully. Putting it as the focus of a whump story or as the only trait of a character, especially if you’re an able bodied person and just want to write suffering is not okay. Doing so mitigates and makes light of the real shit people with chronic pain and disabilities live through every day.
Abed people don’t clown on this post. Do not start discourse on this post.
This is very eloquent and raises important things to think about.
I’ve been disabled for all my life but only in the last few years have I become extremely physicallydisabled, and writing has been a way to kind of process a lot of that, so I’ve given many of my characters certain problems.
I didn’t even realize that one’s journey through healing from trauma and accepting his new physicality was kind of mirroring me working through my own thought process as I worked from the initial panic at change, to grieving the things I lost, into finding a new life worth living and full of exciting things I plan to do.
I just so heartily agree that any time you’re going to write a character with a chronic illness, pain or disability, you need to keep an eye on what story you’re telling with it, and what you’re saying about the lives of people like that. people like us. Like me.
