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.

[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.

[lauredhel]

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

[lauredhel]

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

[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.

[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 :)

[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?)

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?

[sanguinity]

Hm. I deduce that amputations are cool.

[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 :)

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..)

[sqbr]

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

[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