#disabled!crows

[marielaure]

Copy of my reblog post and comment to @butterflypython in regard to people’s perspective of “Kaz can’t play sports because he’s disabled”

Also, EDIT, removed a previous part 😊

1. Kaz doesn’t have to acquire his disability like in canon

Especially in modern AU’s, you can make Kaz disabled from birth or give him a disability that is progressive and starts in puberty/teenage years

2. Adaptive Sports

Any sport you think of, there is an adaptive counterpart

If you are a person thinking a disabled sport can’t be as competitive or intense as able-bodied sports, I mean this line of thinking is why @butterflypython made this point

Competitive leagues and rec leagues in adaptive sports allow able-bodied (AB) people to play. In rec leagues, you can have as many AB’s as you want, in competitive leagues (wheelchair basketball, goalball, wheelchair rugby, etc) rosters can have 1-2 AB people to fill out the roster. So, if you want to build a strong bond between Kaz and some of the Crows, this is a genuinely amazing thing to do. I’d love to see that. From experience, as a disabled person it means the world when an AB person gets a little taste of what your life is like.

3. Kaz playing sports as a disabled person:

First, establish what his disability is and how severe. Canon!Kaz literally fractured a leg running and carrying Inej. That amount of physical activity is pretty normal in some sports. So, decide if Kaz has chronic pain, and research in order to figure out how he’d have to accommodate himself, or give Kaz a mobility disability where pain and fatigue are not the primary aspects.

Kaz might move slower, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play.

Conclusion: Kaz can play sports, it is also EXTREMELY in character for him to want to play sports and be good at it. When writing disabled characters, I suggest researching. There are also lots of blogs on here for writing disabled characters. My favorite is @cripplecharacters after researching, go to their page and look through their tags. They’re so helpful.

Me plugging ideas and miscellaneous stuff below:

Ask me please! I love helping people with their stories ESPECIALLY with something like this!

My Not-Written But Super Thought-Out AU’s Regarding Grishaverse Disabled Sports (mostly Kaz but others too!) :

Summer League Baseball AU

Disabled!Crows: features power soccer

Paralympics AU: for the 2024 Paris Paralympics I was going to do a collection of short stories the thirty days leading up to the start of the Games, maybe I’ll do it in 2028

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Characters Disabled

Make the Crows (or any other character) disabled, I do, and I have a blast doing it

Give me a Crow and I’ll tell you all the versions I’ve concocted of different disabilities they could have

Disability Pride My Dudes!!!

[drieddpetals]

i love how kaz's disability is actually described as affecting him day to day and not just there so he can use a prop in a cool way. like the recurring descriptions of how much his leg is hurting him, and how he (somewhat) struggles, even if he hides it well, to do things like walk up stairs. idk i just appreciate how leigh could have just said "kaz has a disability and needs a cane" and left it at that and just had him use his cane as a cool weapon but didn't. there are actual descriptions about his leg affecting him, and the audience is reminded of it frequently when we read from his pov, because it's something he has to deal with very frequently!! even with his mental disability too—we're reminded of it very frequently because it's a part of him and not just something he has for the excuse of giving his character gloves and being edgy. i digress. but i really do appreciate how disabilities through kaz's character aren't overly romanticized and used as a cheap excuse to add props to him.

[sprnklersplashes]

shout out to leigh bardugo for creating a disabled character who can be described as "he doesn't let his disability stop him from achieving what he wants (threat)"

[barrel-crow-n]

The "Wylan should learn how to read" thing irks me because a huge part of his arc was learning to accept that this was just something that he couldn't do, and that it can't be fixed and that he shouldn't live in shame over it.

Wylan just can't read. Van Eck tried everything. And true, at one point it would get stressful but Van Eck was a kind father at first. It's not about getting a new teacher, it's just something Wylan can't do.

A big part of his growth was learning to accept that. And Kaz is a big part of this.

Kaz is the first person not to scorn Wylan for his dyslexia. Kaz is the first person to just genuinely not care.

Kaz was the one that told Wylan that his weakness was never his disability but his shame surrounding it. He normalised the disability for Wylan, made it a small deal. It's still a part of Wylan, but not as life shattering as his father had always made it out to be.

It can be inconvenient (taking double the time to read the papers at Smeet's office) but it can be worked around. In fact, I believe taking Wylan to Smeets office was for Wylan's benefit. "I knew how long this was going to take" - dismissing Wylan's shame that Wylan is slowing him down. Reassuring him, in his own way, that it's okay. That it's not that big of a deal. It's not even really a problem.

"I didn't hire you to read." Wylan doesn't need to have the ability to read to get on well in life, despite Van Eck's opinions, and Kaz decides to show Wylan that. He decides so because that's what people said about his limp. That a disabled boy with a bad leg will die in the Barrel.

Kaz could get a healer for his leg, hell, Genya offered. But he declined. Why? Because he refuses to be ashamed. Because this is what he is and he won't change that. "It had become a declaration. There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken."

He becomes a boy to be dreaded despite the limp, no, with it. His cane is his weapon. It's not a weakness, it's also a strength. It's not fear the boy despite the limp it's fear the boy with the limp.

And I believe Kaz was truly one of the most important people in Wylan's life because he did that. He showed Wylan not to be ashamed. That he can be powerful not despite the disability, but with it. That what Wylan can do is more important than what he can't and I don't think Wylan will ever forget that.

[jasppurring]

I really can't express enough just how important characters like Kaz Brekker are for younger disabled people. I first read Six of Crows when I was sixteen years old and just starting to experience more severe symptoms of my chronic illness. I refused to get a mobility aid because I felt like it was admitting defeat, like it would make me weak. Then I read about Kaz Brekker- a boy my age going through similar pain and need for aid that I am, and he was Strong. He wasn't just strong in spite of his disability, he was stronger For it. Having such a strong, dangerous, and honestly just Really Cool character with a disability not entirely unlike my own completely shifted my view of my limitations. I got myself the cane I needed and I started to feel almost proud to walk with it. It turned from something that made me feel weak into something that felt powerful and defiant- like I was reminding a world that wasn't designed for people like me to live in that I will Not accept defeat and that I will continue to live my life using the tools at my disposal. Without that representation I might not have reached that place of acceptance, especially not so quickly..

We have disability representation in media, but often those characters are portrayed as softer, weaker, quieter characters. Those one-note portrayals made me feel like that's all I could ever be. Then Kaz Brekker came in and showed me that people like me can be strong too. That means the world to young disabled people. We need representation like this. We need to feel strong again.

[stars-and-branches]

One of my biggest pet peeves in fiction is super ornate cane handles. That shit has gotta be so rough on the hands

[dasiesanddarkness]

kaz brekker says "sounds like a you problem."

jesper fahey says "sounds like a skill issue."

[starjeweled]

Oh the struggle to exist in multiple places 😭 this was inspired by a photo a friend took of a crow checking out some kind of food package, which was seemingly very interesting 👀 🗑️ 🍿

[all-this-panic-still-no-disco]

i’m so here for authors with little-known physical disabilities giving them to characters. like yes give that criminal boss a cane. give that dragon fighter EDS. fuck it up babe.

[theyofotherwhat]

I think Tumblr will enjoy this image

[mintaikkcorpse]

Permanently stuck between "I love Sam Wilson Captain America omg he's amazing" and "Why the FUCK did Steve abandon all his friends?"

[ladyknightellen]

It's a Mobility Aid...Not a Fucking Prop!!!

I guess it's just my brand at this point to go mia for a few weeks, then come back with a rant about some new, mildly infuriating realization I've had.

This particular realization is one that's kind of been buzzing in the back of my head as something that was kind of off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was until now. The 'aha' moment came when I was looking for pictures of Kaz Brekker to add to my collection of stickers on my binder for school. As I scrolled through, I began to notice a frustrating trend in the fan art...

Kaz Brekker, a canonically disabled character, who uses a cane to walk is consistently being drawn holding his cane as if it's just a prop, or a weapon, rather than what it actually is A GODDAMN MOBILITY AID!!!!

And before you start with 'but he hits people with it' I'm going to stop you right there. Yes, he does use it as a weapon sometimes, and it's even described in canon as being designed with the intention of using it as a club if needed, but it's still a cane. It is still a mobility aid that he needs TO WALK, and when you treat it like nothing more than a prop or a weapon, you erase a very important aspect of who Kaz is as a character, and honestly, as a cane user with chronic pain myself, it feels almost violent to see how often it happens.

Whenever I see art of Kaz standing with his cane in his hands like a billy club, or holding it across one or both shoulders, all I can think about is how much pain he would be in to hold a position like that without using the cane for support. At numerous points in the books during Kaz's pov chapters, we get several very detail descriptions of what it feels like for him on a daily basis as a result of his chronic pain. We also get several instances of how it feels when he has his cane taken from him, when he uses it to fight, or when he's disguised and doesn't want to give himself away. We see the toll it takes on his body to do this, and he always pays for it later.

Kaz does not swagger around Ketterdam with his cane over his shoulder, occasionally taking a swing at rival gang members. If this is the image you have in your head of him, please, I beg you to get rid of that image. Kaz is DISABLED. He has severe chronic pain and walks with a heavy limp and that cane is making contact with the ground on every step. Based on the kind of injury he had, I would imagine that his injured leg might even be a bit shorter than the other, which would possibly be evident in a visible lack of symmetry in the height of his shoulders. And that's just one possible way it could affect his body beyond just his leg that would be outwardly visible.

There are many more, but the point is that injuries like the one Kaz experienced can affect the entire body even with the best care and therapy, and Kaz didn't have any of that. I'm not asking you to be a medical expert just to draw fanart, but I am begging you think about things like this and at the very least, PLEASE draw the mobility aid being used as a mobility aid, not a prop. Stop erasing and sanitizing what little representation we have. If you think it makes him 'look more badass' or whatever to have his cane over his shoulder, I kind of don't really care.

P.S. And don't use the tv show as a reference because Freddy Carter is yet another example of a non disabled actor playing a disabled character.

[bigmack2go]

Why do disabled people, fat people, authistic ppl and nonbinary always get hc’ed as asexual?

Dgmw have your headcannons, some of them i have too but it’s like all of them are fanon ace? Like i love the representation but is it really representiom if it’s just a concstant stereotype thats e v e r y w h e r e? And mostly no one else gets hc’ed as aro/ace it too! Like do you think just because i’m authistic and disabled and nonbinary i’m ow so innocent and i can’t have sex??? What??

[vilecemetery]

I know the shadow and bone netflix show is packed with shitty stuff and dwelling on stupid little details is futile, but there’s a small rewording that really bothers me for some reason, and it’s in the “bathroom scene” when inej asks kaz what his tell is.

in the book, he says “I’m a cripple. no one bothers to look for the others.” but in the show, instead of saying cripple, he says “my limp, my cane.” and ik that’s probably just because the show writers were worried about ~cultural sensitivity~ and didn’t think dropping the slur would be a good idea, especially not from the mouth of a man who is not disabled, but it gets to me anyway. I’ve been surrounded by that word a lot growing up—I’ve seen my mother being called crippled (along with retarted and way worse) plenty of times, including by my own father, had friends and family make jokes containing that word if they got hurt or something, and seen it used wrong in media and the like.

when kaz said “when people see a cripple crossing the street, leaning on his cane, what do they feel?” I got that. when the ice court prisoner was saying “hey cripple. crip” but kaz was like he needn’t have bothered, he knew the word in plenty of languages, I felt that. so when he says “I’m a cripple, no one bothers to look for the others.” it’s not just that he’s saying a broken leg and walking stick=weakness in a way I think a lot of able bodied people think it is. he also has this understanding of how people see him because of his disability that goes way beyond the physical disability that’s super important to me. and idk, his ‘tell’ being reduced to just the limp and his mobility aid (physical impairment and stick he needs to walk with instead of a deeply ingrained cultural notion that people undermine him because of) shows in another smaller way exactly how the show writers see kaz’s disability—edgy character trait with quirky cool accessory. I think it just reminds me of how much of kaz’s identity the show stripped away with having this 30 year old able bodied man playing him and I’m just so so angry. like they do not get him at all.

[zeinkblotpot]

Behold

The Crow Monster

For atmosphere: Song (Regal Ancestor Spirit - Elden Ring)

OG prompt by @cloudster-the-clown

Please consider reblogging, likes don't do anything on tumblr and reblogging is the only way to keep traction on a post <3

[the-angry-acrobat]

can people be normal about kaz’s disability ever. like its not that challenging guys. disabled people aren’t rare specimens, you can’t really go wrong if you treat us like human beings