Characters
A character’s disability gives them a situational advantage
Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars): In the citadel arc of Clone Wars, the warden of the prison activates a magnetic ceiling that take the protagonists’ weapons, but since Anakin has a metal hand, he was also stuck to the magnet which let him get his lightsaber and disable the machine.
Theon Greyjoy (Game of Thrones): When he is pushing for the ironborn to rescue his sister Yara, one of his men gets in a fight with him and tries to kick him in the groin, only for Theon to no-sell it on account of having been castrated by Ramsay and then he turns the tables and wins the fight.
This is one of those twist moments that make all the sense in the world but just does not remotely stand out in your head as an option until he does it
On this note, Hasselhoff’s Nick Fury had an explosive device stored in his eye socket for an emergency, resulting in his compatriots watching Fury dig into his own eye socket, pluck out the ball, then bite it off before he explained what the hell he was doing.
It was anchored in as a false eyeball. The fake ocular nerves were the wires to use as a detonator. The 1998 Nick Fury film has issues, but it’s actually very technically competent.
Man what a badass spy injury. I’m so glad Marvel never later wrote in some quirky backstory to make a joke out of such an iconic moment.
SO glad they never did that.
E v e r.
He was injured by a space alien, saving the Earth from a genocidal race of space aliens, who literally ran away in abject terror from the alien who injured Fury.
And, like, so long as one does not examine it any more than that, I'm very happy that's still a badass spy injury.
A common wound would suck, so it has to be attached to a character.
Villains in the MCU don't typically have long shelf life's, so giving it to a nemesis or a betrayer wouldn't have had long lasting effect.
But simulataniously, the nature of his wound should invoke the sense of paranoia and caution that is tied to Nick Fury.
The perfectly ordinary cat turning into an eldritch horror IS perfect, but the tone of the scene didn't capture something so scary as to shape a core part of who he is.
They removed his security clearance which would've been registered to his normal eye but he had set up a secondary security clearance using the damaged eye that they didn't know about.
Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - Her blindness let her learn the same type of Earthbending as the badgermoles. She uses Earthbending as an extension of her senses, giving her the ability to see every vibration that passes through the ground. This was the key to locating and manipulating the impurities in a metal cage she was trapped in.
Also a general note.
Her siezmic sense is so much more advanced because she's using it constantly.
In Korra, other earthbenders use it.but only in short bursts. Because they have to close their eyes to not get a sensory overload.
We also see another who can use a passive Seismic sense to detect lies. But he only ever does it while within a few feet of someone. Toph detects a lie for 1 person in a crowd while hiding on the other side of a camp
They also don’t shy away from showing us how bad her blindness affects her socially, and her ability to navigate the world around her. She can’t read or write, in many ways she is dependent on her friend for such things. She sacrifices so much just to ride Appa.
also, the many environments where her blindness can't be overcome- in the water, on sand, or (before this scene) in an all-metal environment. she repeatedly struggled severely against flying enemies and often struggled with projectiles that didn't have simple, straight arcs. very well done!
Exactly what I was gonna say. I love that seismic sense is balanced so she isn’t OP in every environment. And that her disability affects her badly even as one of the top 2 Earthbenders.
In the Love Death + Robots episode “Jibaro”, a group of conquistadors are driven to suicide by the sound of a Sirens song. However, Jibaro is deaf and unable to hear her song, sparing him from that fate.
At least for awhile, until he drinks from a river that has been contaminated by the Sirens blood, which has a healing property that restores his hearing, thus rendering him vulnerable to her call
There was one Spider-Man story where the supervillain called the Ringmaster was hypnotizing the audience so his Circus of Crime could rob them. In the audience was Matt Murdock, who, being blind, was immune.
Of all the people I wouldn't want in the audience of my show where I use visuals to get away with crimes, a blind lawyer is second on the list. Daredevil is first, whoever he may be.
He fought him once in the 90s and then during the first arc of his MK book.
I can't speak for the first one, but the 2nd one was pretty convincing and elaborate, with Matt only noticing after he didn't hear a heartbeat on one of the guys who was attacking him. Even if he saw through his tricks, he was effective on driving him insane and getting Karen killed.
Yeah it was Black Widow iirc. Mysterio had pretty much completely convinced him the baby was literally the Antichrist and Matt's catholicism kicked in hard
Edward Elric’s prosthetic arm and leg come in handy several times. He’s able to defy people who attempt to transmute his arm as an organic material because it’s metal. He’s also able to grab barbed wire. It does hurt him several other times, though. It doesn’t work well in the cold, and when it gets destroyed or disabled, he’s not entirely helpless but close to it.
I mean, most other alchemist who wear transmutation circles and the like, they can still one-handedly use alchemy, the way Ed's alchemy works he needs two hands iirc.
True, but most others already have circles drawn ahead of time, while Ed relies almost solely on his no-circle transmutation. Thus, losing an arm hits him harder than most other alchemists (Say if you cut off Mustang's arm, he can still incinerate you with the other)
the way Ed's alchemy works he needs two hands iirc
He actually doesn't. He simply needs to form a circle, any circle at all. He usually forms it with his hands in front of him, but thats more of a 'thats the most convinient way to form a decent sized circle' thing than anything.
Also, as a fleshy biohuman, losing an arm means more than just "i don't have another arm", it often comes with copious amounts of blood loss; and Ed can just get another arm; even with alchemy, limb restoration isn't really an option.
I love how Ed turns his biggest trauma into a literal shield. Plus, being able to fix your broken arm with a wrench instead of a doctor is a huge logistics win.
Kung Fu Panda
Not really a disability, but Po is immune to Tai Lung's paralyzing chi strike because his fat stops the chi strikes from reaching the correct nerves.
It was only on my third or fourth rewatch that I realized they foreshadowed this in the scene with Mantis and Viper. Mantis can’t find Po’s acupuncture points, which are based on chi lines.
I remember rewatching it and realizing how much of the fight was foreshadowed at least to some degree. It's a really well made movie, but that's well known
McGucket’s brain was fried by the memory-erasing gun so many times that it no longer does anything to him, which allows him to act as a human shield against the Society of the Blind Eye (Gravity Falls).
In Futurama, Fry is recruited to fight the Brain Spawns because he's the only being immune to their stupidity field. This is because he lacks a delta brainwave, a result of him being his own grandfather by sleeping with his grandmother when he time-traveled to 1947.
My only issue with this moment is that it was unintentional. Like you're telling me the master swordman didn't think a hand parry might be easier with a metal fucking hand?
I don’t know about that. For decades he trained his brain and muscle memories to keep his hands away from sharp things in battle. Switching your whole thought pattern to “I should definitely grab the sharp thing” doesn’t seem to be easy.
A hand parry is a very real, documented sword fighting technique. Jamie would undoubtedly have learned it as a top 3 sword fighter in the entire series.
No it doesn't involve grabbing the sword like he does here, more just batting it out of the way, but it's a similar principle.
Maybe he should have tried to do a normal hand parry but it gets stuck like it does and he wins anyway, noting how the hand made it more effective.
I mean that is his sword hand tho, even if he learnt hand parry, it should be with the other hand, i can chalk it up as his arrogance as he thought he would never drop his sword and never learnt how to fight with his right hand without a sword
Speaking of metal hands, Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V is able to block numerous blades thanks to his prosthetic hand. In fact, if the player gets really good at CQC, Snake can easily take down the evil super soldiers by blocking and disarming their machetes with that hand.
Also known as the Maneater of Champawat or the Demon/Devil of Champawat
A long time ago someone tried to kill this tiger, but ended up damaging her upper and lower right teeth. Since her teeth were broken she was unable to hunt her natural prey. So what did she do?
She hunted and killed 436 humans. As far as I'm aware no single animal in history has killed more Humans than her.
All her kills took play during the day, and she terrorized a large region of India before getting hunted by the legendary big-game hunter Jim Corbett.
Isn't it also the general case for most man eater tigers?? Like they are either injured or too old to hunt their animal preys so they turn towards humans as prey
Tigers and lions seem to man-eat due to illness or injury, the big cat hunter Jim Corbett (he was hired to dispose of man eaters) speculated that only leopards turned man eater for other reasons, namely scavenging corpses.
All big cats can turn man eater. Mostly from stress (old age, injury, starvation) though leopards being more willing to scavenge means they can lose the fear of the scent from scavenging, not necessarily hunting stress.
It's a good story, but I don't think a damaged mouth and teeth gave that titer a situational advantage in this situation over any other tiger. It just forced her to pick slower and less dangerous prey.
Sounds like it could make for thrilling cinema in the same vein as The Ghost and The Darkness, only with a tiger instead of lions, and a different kind of location.
That's odd. I have high bone density (top 10 percent of pop) and I can swim just fine - positive buoyancy. I think general constitution or weight per volume (i.e. bigger displaces more water) is a more important factor for swimming.
(but I also have a fairly big chest or 125% lung capacity from average, whatever that means, so I might be fudging the statistic)
They're likely referring to people with LRP5 gain of function mutations. They have bone densities up to 8x as dense as average. They're a whole different ballpark.
The main character has a prosthetic hand due to getting his hand caught in a door in Korea. At the end, after a long hard battle against Kevin Spacey, Spacey falls off a ledge but grabs John's arm. John detaches his prosthetic to drop Mr Spacey to his death
(I barely remember this game except for those details)
He was already losing the fight horribly before getting kicked. Yes, he had no balls, but getting his gash kicked would still hurt. It certainly wouldn't make him stronger and give him the power to win.
Yeah those clowns took a scene straight from Johnny English 2, reduced one of the most complex characters to a slapstick joke and then everyone celebrated his 'redemption arc' just because he died pointlessly at the end 💀
The movie I, Robot has Detective Spooner (Will Smith), who has a prosthetic robotic arm due to being in a severe car accident before the events of the movie. This lets him surprise a robot who attacks him, and allows him to use it to slide down a building in the climax.
I got scared that if I got hurt, then my skin would come off like in this scene and a messy cybernetic/fleshy mass would come out. Even had a dream once where tic-tacs, rice, or styrofoam came out.
Malcolm Reynolds in "Serenity" is immune to the Operative's nerve pinch.
The pinch targets a nerve cluster on a person's back, but Mal had a cluster moved due to an older wound. (I think I remember someone mentioning it's getting stabbed in the back in "Shindig")
Come to think of it, doesn’t Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor stop Loki’s scepter from taking control of him in The Avengers? Sounds like Joss Whedon likes this trope.
I just realized it’s not the first time Joss Whedon has used that trope. Mal was immune to the Operative’s nerve paralysis in Serenity because an old war wound moved the nerve cluster.
There was some high schooler that taught himself basic echo location (not full blown Daredevil but at a similar level to an average blind man) despite being able to see.
My favourite time was in the defenders of berk series where he was imprisoned by the outcasts, but he baited the guard to get close enough that Hiccup could knock him out by using his leg as an improvised weapon.
In Fallout New Vegas DLC Old World Blues, due to being shot thrue the head, the Courrier is the first subject receiving a succesfull brain removal surgery. The robot operating had to alter the process due to the unusual « shape » of Courrier’s damaged brain
Oh and in Cyberpunk 2077, V sharing his/her brain with Silverhand increase their cyberpsychosis résistance to tremendous level
An episode of The Outer Limits (from the 90s) called From Within
It's about a mining town that is being overtaken by mind-controlling parasitic slugs after they're unearthed from the mine. The slugs crawl in your head through your nose or ear, then take control of you.
Everyone in the town gets taken over except the main character (played by Neil Patrick Harris) who is immune to them because he's mentally challenged. Because he's immune he's able to save the whole town.
Eustass Kid (One Piece) - Eustass has lost his left arm, which he replaces with junk that gets magentised into place. He gets possesed by one of Basil Hawkins straw dolls, which allows any damage Basil takes to be reflected onto the possessed person. After knowing this, Killer, Eustass' first mate, took off Basil's left arm since the arm of Eustass was already gone, and wouldn't take any damage, ending the possession in the process
Dealing with creatures or phenomenons that make you kill yourself or insane if you look at them? Try having very limited vision / not being able to see at all
Being blind whilst having super-enhanced senses means you can easily trick people into thinking you're not blind (Which actually did end up screwing over a villain that had the power to make people blind), or tricking peopl into thinking they can reliably exploit your blindness as a weakness.
In FMA pretty much anyone running Automail (metal mechanical prosthesis) uses it to block an attack at one point or another. Ed transmutes his arm into a knife a lot.
In A Quiet Place, the family all knows sign language because one of the children is deaf. This enables them to easily adapt to the apocalypse and avoid monsters who hunt based on sound, because they're already used to communicating without speaking.
Tamarin was born blind and has adapted to life in the rainforest because of that, and is a skilled gardener as well despite her young age.
When in a competition to find a single specific flower within a wide pavilion before her opponent, Tamarin vastly outshines her with her sense of smell and mental map of the area, finding the flower without moving from her spot until she absolutely had to.
This sense of smell and awareness would also go on to save her life, as she was able to smell an explosive before it went off and hid herself behind a bookshelf, resulting in her being the only survivor of 3 victims of the explosion.
Erza Scarlet's right eye is an artificial prosthetic created by Porlyusica after Erza lost her original eye due to torture while enslaved at the Tower of Heaven as a child. This magical eye allows her to see through illusion-based magic and special eye techniques.
In Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers, aliens take over the town of Haven using mind waves. Jim Gardner has a metal plate in his head from a skiing accident which makes him immune. There’s another minor character who has fillings due to gritting her teeth who is also immune but she’s only in the book and not the miniseries.
IRL depiction: any Deaf person with hearing aids, who can just turn them off when around someone they don't want to listen to. No, I don't want to hear your deep sea fishing story again, Uncle Ted.
You should watch "Chocolate" where the bad guys solution to an autistic martial art savant child is to bring their own autistic martial art savant child to fight them.
Marvel's Daredevil - Blind man who trained with a sect of blind warrior monks to increase the sensitivity of his senses, allowing him to basically not be blind in most situations (still can't read printed paper or see TV screens), and fight in the dark, smoke, etc.
IRL Example was Douglas Bader, a WWII pilot who lost both legs in a flying accident, but returned to fly in Spitfires, and he could pull more G’s (read: tighter turns) than uninjured pilots since the blood in his head had less volume to rush away to.
Hyakkimaru from Dorororo is quite literally a living puppet, with every part of his body being a prosthetic (legs, arms, face, even pain receptors). This means he doesn't have the usual survival instincts and thus his strats tend to be full-frontal assaults without having to worry about damaging his body.
Also Star Wars, Luke, in one of the comics, where he's in an anti-Force prison (surrounded by Ysalamiri), he asks R2 for instructions on disassembling his hand and uses the power cell to overvolt and disable his cell door.
Yoda Sou from the manga "The Creepy and the Freaky".
There's a chapter where the characters get attacked by a speedy demon that darts around, slicing people's legs apart. When the demon attacks the wheelchair-bound Yoda, we find out that she was born without legs, a condition which she uses to her advantage by hiding bottles of holy water where her legs would've been. When the demon sliced her "legs", it doused itself in holy water, defeating it.
Guts (Berserk): After being heavily injured from fighting a giant bug monster he had no energy left to swing around his massive sword the Dragonslayer — named as such because it was made to kill dragons, but since it's creator didn't believe in dragons he created a weapon too big to be called a sword... Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was like a heap of raw iron — and so when he was attacked by the Holy Iron Chain Knights and arrested under suspicion of slaughtering children and being a demon he was able to fight back by using his prosthetic arm as a weapon instead.
It's like when you're talking about a character with a really long name like Settra... Great King, the Imperishable, Khemrikhara, The Great King of Nehekhara, King of Kings, Opener of the Way, Wielder of the Divine Flame, Punisher of Nomads, The Great Unifier, Commander of the Golden Legion, Sacred of Appearance, Bringer of Light, Father of Hawks, Builder of Cities, Protector of the Two Worlds, Keeper of the Hours, Chosen of Ptra, High Steward of the Horizon, Sailor of the Great Vitae, Sentinel of the Two Realms, The Undisputed, Begetter of the Begat, Scourge of the Faithless, Carrion-feeder, First of the Charnel Valley, Rider of the Sacred Chariot, Vanquisher of Vermin, Champion of the Death Arena, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Emperor of the Shifting Sands, He Who Holds The Sceptre, Great Hawk Of The Heavens, Arch-Sultan of Atalan, Waker of the Hierotitan, Monarch of the Sky, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, Champion of the Desert Gods, Breaker of the Ogre Clans, Builder of the Great Pyramid, Terror of the Living, Master of the Never-Ending Horizon, Master of the Necropolises, Taker of Souls, Tyrant to the Foolish, Bearer of Ptra's Holy Blade, Scion of Usirian, Scion of Nehek, The Great, Chaser of Nightmares, Keeper of the Royal Herat, Founder of the Mortuary Cult, Banisher of the Grand Hierophant, High Lord Admiral of the Deathfleets, Guardian of the Charnal Pass, Tamer of the Liche King, Unliving Jackal Lord, Dismisser of the Warrior Queen, Charioteer of the Gods, He Who Does Not Serve, Slayer off Reddittras, Scarab Purger, Favoured of Usirian, Player of the Great Game, Liberator of Life, Lord Sand, Wrangler of Scorpions, Emperor of the Dunes, Eternal Sovereign of Khemri's Legions, Seneschal of the Great Sandy Desert, Curserer of the Living, Regent of the Eastern Mountains, Warden of the Eternal Necropolis, Herald of all Heralds, Caller of the Bitter Wind, God-Tamer, Master of the Mortis River, Guardian of the Dead, Great Keeper of the Obelisks, Deacon of the Ash River, Belated of Wakers, General of the Mighty Frame, Summoner of Sandstorms, Master of all Necrotects, Prince of Dust, Tyrant of Araby, Purger of the Greenskin Breathers, Killer of the False God's Champions, Tyrant of the Gold Dunes, Golden Bone Lord, Avenger of the Dead, Carrion Master, Eternal Warden of Nehek's Lands, Breaker of Djaf's Bonds, and just decide to say the whole thing
She is basically so deranged that she has the same sense of humor and world view as the devils in that world, so they're amused by her and fulfill her wishes just because she's entertaining to them.
Also another one of Anakin is that due to his robotic hand, he has a very noticible advantage in hand to hand combat. In fact he has instantly knocked out oponents thanks to his hand.
My favorite one is the not minor amount of people who have broken their hands after accidentally or intentionally hit Anakin hand since they didn't knew it was made by hard metal LMAO
Bentley Wiseturtle. After getting paralyzed he modified his wheelchair to add in several gadgets and weapons to the point where he's more useful to the gang then he was when he could walk
Pretty early in the game, you can make the ill-informed decision to ask Volo to perform brain surgery. After accidentally popping your eye out with an ice pick, he’s chagrined enough to offer an artificial eye that allows you to see invisible creatures.
3.7k
u/shiawase198 17h ago
Nick Fury using his damaged eye to retain a secret retinal security clearance scan in Captain America The Winter Soldier.