#disabled ricky potts

[haowenyang]

if i live in denial i can ignore the fact that the script got changed into something 100x more ableist

[disabled-character-showdown]

ROUND 2, SIXTH SHOWDOWN

[newwwwusername]

Fic title : His Legs Are Getting Worse

@newwwwprompts Chronic Pain Awareness Month 2023 prompt : Character with chronic pain has a flare-up in their leg(s)

Rating : General Audiences

Fandom : Ride the Cyclone

Pairing : Noel & Ricky

Additional tags : Chronic Pain, Leg Pain, Physical Disability, Disabled Ricky Potts, Good Friend Noel Gruber, Ricky Potts Uses ASL, Hurt/Comfort, Crying, Pain, Ibuprofen, Flare-ups, Degenerative Diseases

Word count : 338

[lightlysaltedsalt]

Okay, I've always been quick to say that I REALLY don't like the way rtc handled Ricky Potts' disability.

I think it's lazy and reductive to just wave his disability away for the sake of plot convenience. I think it could have been handled much better.

That being said, I see a lot of people talking about how him conceding is part of the problem, and I STRONGLY disagree. I realize a lot of people read it as a "well I'd probably die soon anyway, might as well give in now" but that's??? not what happened??? at all????

His choice to concede has nothing to do with him giving up or being hopeless and everything to do with his moral compass and beliefs. He says it himself- he just thinks it would be a dick move to vote for himself. It's an act of love, and a desire to do good in the world. He does it because helping others is important to him. It's because he is fundamentally a loving, caring, and kind human.

I know his song is silly and weird but let's not forget that the ENTIRE premise of his literal greatest fantasy is to be able to HELP people. Ricky doesn't concede because he doesn't see a point in living as a disabled person- he does it because he genuinely loves and cares for other people and wants to do one final good deed. It is his fundamental character- not his disability- that drives him to make that choice. I think it's reductive to only view his choices through the lens of his disorder and not his individual human character.

[sydneyofalltrades]

ricky should have a space age bachelor man performance where he’s fully in his wheelchair and the fact that he’s disabled shouldn’t be used as a punchline or removed in the first twenty minutes of the musical

[dizzyinglydaisy]

Yeah, you support #saverickypotts but are you normal about disabled people?

[thelegendofmik]

Stop Defending Ableists Challenge (Level: Impossible)

So the other day I made a post listing all the ableist things Jacob Richmond has included in Legoland and Ride the Cyclone.

And the response was abysmal - the amount of "well actually..." kind of responses I got was disgusting and I took down the post because I find it counterproductive to argue with teenagers on the internet. However, I stand by the belief that if you think you are old enough to post publicly on the internet, you are old enough to be held accountable for what you post.

But I think what I had to say was quite important, so I am going to reword it here.

TW here for the discussion of ableism and ableist slurs (they are all censored)

There is ZERO (0) justification for the use of THREE (3) ableist slurs across both works. I don't fucking care if it was the 2000's. The ADA predates both shows and disability activism had existed for decades before that (as yannick very kindly reminded me). So no, it was not ok for Richmond to use those slurs in his works, regardless of the time period. Because there is nothing "correct" (politically, or otherwise) about ableism.

And before you say "Oh, but it was the character who said it, not the writer..."

CHARACTERS ARE NOT SENTIENT BEINGS! They are not created in a vacuum. Their thoughts and actions are often a reflection of the author's own beliefs and morals.

It was not Ocean who decided to use the word cr*pple. It was Jacob Richmond who decided to use it. Same with the r word and sp*z in Legoland. It wasn't Penny and Ezra who decided to use those words, it was Jacob Richmond. Because each character's actions are dictated by the decisions that the author makes for that character. And in this case, the author decided to be an ableist asshole.

Yes, characters can be assholes. They can be complex and nuanced beings. But there are better ways to portray such experiences than being violently ableist (i.e.: without using slurs). And why does the ableist character get complexity and nuance, but the disabled character is simply the sad, disabled kid, with not much else in his personality until he magically becomes abled bodied. Like we deserve nuance and complexity as well, people!

In a 2022 interview with Curtain Call Bway (here), when asked who his favourite character to write was, Richmond responds with the following:

Ocean is definitely my favorite character to write because it’s based on certain people I’ve met and certain aspects of myself too.

Like he literally admits it himself, that his decisions when writing an ableist character were based off aspects of his own personality.

The reality is, disability has never been more than a comedic plot point to Richmond. He has never cared about portraying a realistic disabled experience. He has never cared about disabled people.

And the cherry on top is that his response to yannick-robin being hate-crimed was to rewrite Ricky so that he could be played by an abled and therefore production teams wouldn't have to give a shit about ensuring their spaces are safe and accessible for disabled performers. If he actually cared about disabled people and properly representing our experiences, he would have worked with a disability consultant and fixed the issues within the show. Instead, he doubles down and causes even more harm.

To add insult to injury, he then licensed that script to Sarah Rasmussen and her team of ableist cronies for the DC production. Because him choosing to continue working with Rasmussen and her team just shows that he shares the same ableist values as the McCarter/Arena team.

So by saying that "its the character, not the author", you are defending Richmond and his violent ableism. You are attempting to justify the harm he has done and CONTINUES TO DO to disabled people. YOU. ARE. A. PART. OF. THE. PROBLEM.

Ride the Cyclone and Legoland (in ALL its forms and versions) contains so much ableist violence. This violence has traumatised REAL PEOPLE, but yannick, myself, and other people speaking out are the ones ruining the vibe by calling it out? Be fucking for real people.

Now if only my university papers were this thorough...

[terabyte-teddybear]

disabled flag ricky potts lockscreens for @cpvnksabm <3

id: 3 lockscreens with the disabled flag and a square frame with ruffled edges in the middle, each has a different image of ricky potts. in one, he is played by a light skinned Black man with short curly hair, in another he is a white man with brown hair with forearm crutches, in the third he is a puerto rican person with round glasses and a backwards cap sitting in a wheelchair end id.

[id0ntwantyourbloodmoney]

Sometimes i want to conform to the fandom and be like “omg space age bachelor man is so weird!!!” (It is, but in a good way) but sometimes i just listen to it and go “wtf he is LITERALLY me”

[doyouknowthisdisabledcharacter]

Do You Know This Disabled Character?

Ricky Potts is mute, has an unspecified genetic disorder, and uses various mobility aids depending on the production.

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 5, Poll 10

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Quinni Gallagher-Jones-Heartbreak High

Qualifications:

Quinni is canonically autistic and a lesbian!

Quinn is a lesbian and is also autistic

she is autistic and sapphic

She is a lesbian and autistic

she is canonically autistic and canonically a lesbian

Propaganda:

Quinni is honestly the best. She is such a fiercely loyal friend and such an open and understanding person. Her fashion is everything! She gives way more chances to people than they may deserve. She is autistic and is very open about this. She also gets a romantic storyline. She's got great friends who stick with her through everything, especially her best friend Darren. The actress who plays Quinni is autistic and does a fantastic job with the role! She means a whole lot to me!

She is just the best ever I love her so much :) such a ray of sunshine! and the actress who plays her is also autistic so the rep is great!

quinni is canonically a lesbian and also autistic. while being autistic is an important part of her storyline it doesn’t define who she is as a character. same with being gay. quinni is a queen!

just a bubbly teen with autism who loves fantasy novels, bright makeup, wearing Crocs and girls(!!) <3

she is played by an autistic and queer actor who advocates for this kind of representation, she’s genuinely the best representation i’ve ever seen of autism especially when it comes to sensory issues and meltdowns, she also dates a girl and is an important main character

Anything Else?:

I mean look at her, the cutest ever (Submitter 2)

Ricky Potts-Ride the Cyclone

Qualifications:

he canonically has an unnamed degenerative disease and cant talk/walk without mobility aids (fuck the new script, we reject the new script, ricky is and always will be disabled) and, while not stated in cannon, is so extremely queer and trans coded

Propaganda:

the fandom all collectively agrees that his ass is NOT cis or straight, but we still fight over his exact identity (to this day ive never seen anyone who doesnt see ricky as trans), hes a badass autistic-coded silly guy who can play like 5 instruments and day dreams abt fucking alien cat women in space, and hes a big symbol for disability and ableism in theatre

[noelle-the-sleepy]

hiiii! did you see the WITW RTC movie? It was cool, but yannick has new stuff out about it that explains the truth more if you wanna know! Idk how to link here? Yannickmirko.com/blog

https://youtu.be/chOm8dsff8U?si=6fVzSEwbcZ4qct_a

If it doesn’t add here his website and YT is his name I think #saverickypotts

I did see the movie but didn't know there was more from yannick, I'll have to check it out! thanks

[disabled-character-showdown]

BRACKET 1, ROUND 1, SIXTH SHOWDOWN

Send in your submissions here:

[aspiritdrawings]

I was thinking...

When they removed Ricky's disability in that one theatre, they made him have traumatic mutism after seeing his father get killed by a snake, therefore removing his disability. I was thinking, why didn't they make him non verbal autistic? That way he would have been mute, while also still being disabled. It'd also make more sense to some degree since before they gave him the tambourine, what did Ricky even do in the choir?😭 smile and move his head to the song?😭 and this way, he would have been to hum, which can be pretty useful for a choir. And as a professionally diagnosed autistic person he has the vibe. It'd also be better if they still left him his physical disability too, im really confused on why they'd remove it in some theatres or not let disabled actors play him.

I didn't sleep last night, this was a night thought.

(Correct me if anything i said is wrong.)

[rickypottsboyfriend]

rtc fandom moved on too fast from rickys disability being cut . why the fuck is nobody talking about . it goes to show that ableds do not care about physically disabled people when it comes to media . you guys were letting his disability get erased . you maybe reblogged a link to a petition to stop if from happening . but what else did you do ? continue to share what happened ? not support productions that cut his disability ? no . you guys were performative . you dont care . the rtc fandom has moved on entirely . i have seen NOBODY other than myself talk about rickys disability being cut from the musical . fuck you guys

[dakotac0le]

No but unfortunalty i do think ricky potts is very good rep of being disabled and being nonverbal / mute beacuse literlly the core theme of his charcter is jsut. Lonlieness and isolation and creating fantasies in your head where you are *important* and *valued* and also importantly . Not disabled and not nonverbal. And living there instead. And also his fantasies are quite explicity sexual in a very teenageresque way. WICH IS WILD FOR A NONVERBAL DISABLED CHARCTER . hes a fully rounded guy (tm) in the way 90% of mute charcters very much are not.

but whyd they make him speaking yall.