I’m Not A Classicist, But I Suspect One Of The Reasons So Many Of The Greek Gods Are Portrayed So Unflatteringly

Do you want to write a good disabled character?

I've been seeing the topic of disabled characters being thrown around for a while now, especially when it comes to good or bad writing. Usually, the topic is what you shouldn't do. There are a lot of great posts explaining this, and I don't want to repeat what has already been said dozen of times. Instead, today, I would like to give you exemples of what I, as a disabled person, consider to be great writing, and give you further analysis on why do these characters work !

Toph from ATLA

Toph is a blind little girl who feels like she struggles to find her place in the world as her parents prevent her from doing anything but very simple activities as they fear she might get hurt

First of all, Toph is strong. Like, really strong. She's a champion who has won multiple prizes, she loves fighting, and she even became aang's mentor. She's not a cliché of a poor little girl who can't do anything on her own, and we love that.

The relationship with her parents is rather realistic and a good source of conflict for her character. Depending on the disability, family can get either overwhelmingly protective or deny you're struggling completely. Toph is in the first case, and her trying to prove to others and herself that she can do things on her own is excellent for character growth.

Her disability does define her. We have to stop demonizing the fact that yes, some people are disabled. Toph is blind, it's part of her character and she wouldn't be the same without that trait. While characters that aren't defined by their disabilities are a GREAT representation, sometimes it's really nice to see a character whose disability is an inherent part of themselves, especially when they don't care/are proud of it like Toph. Toph has no problem making jokes about it, even mocking people who forget it.

Her bending doesn't magically cure her disability. Too often in fiction, some characters are met with a cure that gets rid of all of their problems. That is not the case for Toph. Her bending does help her quite a lot, but she can't read, draw, she's completely lost when she's flying ... Everything isn't just solved by flipping a switch.

Edward from FMA/FMAB

Edward is an amputee whose goal is to find a solution to help his little brother recover his lost body and recover his own lost arm and leg that he lost after an accident.

While Edward's goal is directly linked with his disability, it doesn't define him completely. Edward mostly feels guilty towards his brother for his mistake, and seems to think more about his safety rather than recovering his own limbs. It's interesting to state since too often, disabled characters tend to have for only goal to "fix themselves"

Slowly throughout the manga/anime, his goals get more and more different, diverging completely from what he used to have in mind. This drives him even further away than him just trying to find a cure.

When you think of Edward, the first word you have in mind probably isn't disabled, despite it being shown in the first episode of both series. This character has a full personality, background, job, ideology and thoughts. He's not just "the disabled one"

Yet, with that in mind, Edward's disability is still a very important part of his life. His automails may malfunction. He needs them to be repaired rather often. The process to get them onto your body is extremely painful and you can see everything around it is very time consuming.

Eda from the Owl House

While Eda's curse isn't exactly like any other real disability (if you can find a way for my chronic pains to turn me into a harpy sign me up), her writing does have many, many similarities to chronic illnesses.

Eda is a women in her mid forties who slowly learns how to live as a criminal witch with two children to take care of and a curse that slowly grows more powerful with time

Eda's curse is something she deeply hates and desperately tries to get rid of, but it isn't something about her that's constantly shoved in our face. It does have consequences, but getting rid of this curse clearly isn't Eda's main goal during the series.

However, with that in mind, the curse does take a huge part of her life. She has to take a medication for it, with huge consequences if she forgets it, she slowly grows weaker until she's completely unable to perform something she used to be so good at (that thing being magic), the presence of the curse has a huge impact on her mental health ...

Another important thing is that this curse doesn't affect just her, but the ones she loves as well. Being unable to talk about her problem makes it difficult for her to form bonds with others, one of the main instances of that being with Raine, her ex-partner. The fact that she hides her pain and distress makes it even worse for everyone and she feels like she can't really ask for help.

Another really important thing that links her to real-life disabilities is that her mother is desperate to find a cure, even going to find quacks who pretend that they can help. At this point, eda doesn't think she can be cured, or at least not by any regular means, and feels distressed to see her mother repeatedly saying that she found a cure. This is something that happens a lot with disabled people and can be a great source of interpersonal conflicts.

Finally, Eda accepting her curse and taking it as a part of herself is a really healthy way to portray acceptation. She's not cured. She doesn't gain the magic she lost back. However, she does gain confidence and happiness with it

*cracks knuckles* I got you bitch

The Watchers Bargain - arthureameslove (Fae au)

Eye of the Storm - theinkwell33 (mix of siren and calypso magic)

See the Line where the Sky meets the Sea - The_Floating_World (vast Jon au but Martin has a major fantasy gay moment and Jon wears a blue rose in his hair so yeah)

There Are Monsters In These Woods - DoilySpider (you’ve probably heard this one, it’s a major fantasy au)

The Sea Calls Me Home - mothjons (despite the writers username this is another mer one, warning for big sad)

Beastly Behaviour - Prim_the_Amazing (beauty and the beast au but Martin is the beast)

The Unknown Watcher - authureameslove (Beauty and the beast au with a little Magnuspod flare, def worth a read)

Sing a Song of Sixpence - Kaiel (siren Jon but if you love making fun of Elias and British colonialism then this is the fic for you)

Dustcaewung - callmearcturus (you’ve probably see this, it’s just a fluffy lil’ fae au)

They keep trying to row away (series) - assigned_Jon_Kin_Again (sparrow0), Blackwood (transjon), radula, (stickpenalties), screechfox, skvadern (a body horror mermaid fic with a lot of hurt and comfort, is an archivist squad polyamory too, but it’s heavy on the jmart)

Let the bitterest god drink ambrosia - theOestofOCs (no really heavy on jonmartin but it’s defs a cryptic au)

The Lonely Knight - arthureameslove (kind of a supernatural creatures au?? From a certain angle?)

Chamomile - Dribbledscribbles (not really a supernatural creature au but there’s enough fluffy mischief I felt like recommending it anyway)

That’s all I’ve got for now! Hope that helps (and that you haven’t read them all already)

Kindly help a poor starving gay,

Does anyone have a master list of supernatural creature(s) AU for jonmartin? I read a mer!jon and selkie!martin fic and a fairy!jon fic but I crave...more...

Hey, can y’all rb this if it’s okay to send you messages asking about your ocs, cause on god I wanna interact with y’all but I am terrified of being annoying lol

Some concept art for an assignment and current pet project: Spirit of the Red, story pitch under the cut:

"After a mysterious explosion that wiped out the city of Nirashi, the race is on to find the secret behind ‘The Red’, the unimaginably destructive force that was somehow able to break one of the most foundational rules of spiritualism, and destroy life energy itself.

10 years later, one of the survivors, Sen, discovers he holds the secret to unlocking the mystery, and fearing its misuse, is now on a mission to destroy it within himself. Hopefully, before anyone else finds out it could happen again if he isn’t careful, and maybe take the world out with him."

So… like an iphone right?

In “Beauty and The Beast”, the magic mirror was the Beast’s harshest punishment. In order for him to see the outside world, he had to look at his reflection and confront the monster he’d become.

Why is this my life?

Self-deprecating inner monologue & backstory that involves several years of lethargic depression

Shut up, I don’t have a problem (･_･;)

Reblog with your most common writing cliche

I’ll go first. All my characters have a habit of Raising a Single Eyebrow. 

Update on my MHA fic Blood Born:

Trying out comics for the first time, so I figured I'd christen the medium by drawing a ROTTMNT comic feat. me and a friend of mine's (@nuggdoesart) OC's and a small snipped of their backstory.

For the illimination of any doubt, that red eared slider is their OC Titan (from their double yoke au) and the blue dragon is Wan, who's been pretty thoroughly fucked over by every crime boss they've ever had the displeasure of working for.

DW they both become friends... ish.... it's complicated.

Wan Ref here!

..... fuck

thinking about werewolves and the concept of becoming a monster and discovering that something savage and uncontrollable exists within you and the potential that has to be a liberating narrative about growth and change and courage rather than a story about controlling and concealing it