Disability Tropes by Disability

[sqbr]

I've been pondering the portrayal of disabled people in fiction, and to that end have sorted the Disability Tropes at TV Tropes into categories. It got so long I decided to separate it out from my fledgeling draft post, and anyway I think it's interesting in and of itself.


From Disability Tropes and Indexitis.

EDIT: Mental Illness has it's own large set of tropes. That could make a whole separate post :)

Amputated Limb:

• Arm Cannon
  
• Artificial Limbs
  
• Hook Hand
  
• Swiss Army Appendage
  
• We Can Rebuild Him
  

Autism:

• The Rainman

Vision problems:

• Blind Seer
  
• Milky White Eyes
  
• Mr Magoo And The Monster

Albinism:

• Evil Albino
  
• Heroic Albino

Disease:

• Ill Girl
  
• Victorian Novel Disease
  
• Soap Opera Disease
  
• Littlest Cancer Patient
  

Learning:

• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
  
• L Is For Dyslexia
  

Speech:

• Speech Impediment
  
• Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome
  
• Cute Mute
  

Mobility problems:

• Evil Cripple
  
• Genius Cripple

And now the ones that can apply to any disability:

• Disability Superpower
  
• Disabled Hottie
  
• Disabled Means Helpless
  
• Handicapped Badass
  
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged
  
• Single Episode Handicap
  
• Sorry Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs
  
• Red Right Hand
  

Are there any major tropes you think are missing? Does anyone have a problem with the way I've categorised them?

Comments

[emma_in_dream]

wacky mental illness, as Monk.

[sqbr]

Good point. That has to be in the wiki somewhere. *pokes about*

[sqbr]

Ahhhh I found the Mental Illness Tropes page, it was it's own separate section, and is huge. I've edited it in.

[lauredhel]

PTSD-affected supervillain.

This is sorta Inspirationally Disadvantaged, but with a twist: Touched By God. Impossibly selfless, good, quiet, one-dimensional characters who were simultaneously imbued with both disability and perfection by The Lord. Fictional purpose: so that others may compare themselves unfavourably and confront their own flaws. Smiles sweetly, loves unconditionally. Dies young, pale, and wan, probably as a result of charitable works.

[sqbr]

I found the Mental Illness tropes page and that was one of them (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil)

That latter one is Ill Girl, and searching for that page (since I knew I'd seen it before)found me a whole new page of illness related tropes which I have no edited in :)

[lauredhel]

Oh, Omnipotent Cyborgmeat. (Anders in Battlestar Galactica). Evil version may be a variety of Evil Cripple.

[sqbr]

I have not seen Battlestar, is this http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeCanRebuildHim ?

And your next comment went over my head completely :)

[lauredhel]

Spoiler: (skip) We Can Try To Rebuild Him with a side serve of He'll Never Be Normal Again, So Let's Shoot MartyrCyborg Into The Sun To Save Us All.

(Well, some of the other ones are really specific, aren't they?)

[sqbr]

Wow that's..blah. And maybe just a tad too specific, though if you can think of any other examples I'll stand corrected :)

[lauredhel]

Hmm. I don't suppose you can read Spike as disabled? There could be an argument there...

And I'm sure there are a fair few where the self-sacrificer is severely injured or irradiated. Didn't Aliens do that? Hm, maybe not. Terminator 2 does, though.

[sqbr]

Yeah, I'm not sure about Spike. But I think I have a better grasp of the trope now: character becomes disabled or "damaged" in someway, and so since there's No Point Living This Way/they're going to die anyway nobly sacrifice themselves for the whole undamaged characters? I have definitely seen that a bunch of times. HMM.

It was the shooting into the sun that I felt was a bit too specific :D

[lauredhel]

Yes :D I can't quite find the right trope at TVtropes - it's a variety of Heroic Sacrifice, I suppose, but it's rather different from the standard one.

[sqbr]

It's related to Death By Disfigurement too (I saw that ages ago and then took AGES to find it again. But I did, yay me!)

I might suggest it as a trope. I've never done that before, how exciting :)

[lauredhel]

ah, yes! It looks like a mix between DbD and Heroic Sacrifice.

[sqbr]

Done: I will just slow you down

[lauredhel]

And perhaps a generic one that could cross a few categories: Cipher/Someone Else's Plotline.

Halping.

[gretel]

Bags being evil cripple.

That said its cute, people can't tell I don't walk right unless I wear pants. Most of which are still incredibly painful to wear and get on, of course.

But still. I can be evil right?

Re: Halping.

[sqbr]

Bags being evil cripple.

Sure, that leaves me with Genius cripple :D (Though I feel a bit conflicted as whether or not I count, since when I can walk I walk perfectly normally..)

[sanguinity]

Hm. I deduce that amputations are cool.

[sqbr]

I think it's less the amputation itself and more the potential of prosthesis, but yes.