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orfisheus · 2 days ago

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Resources and Other Assorted Readings

I'm back! Back out of the hospital and procedures and all that other not-so-fun parts of having multiple medical mysteries occurring in your body all at once. And after a few requests for additional readings related to positive disability representation, I have a few guides, blogs, studies, as well as tips for writing disabled characters in both fandom contexts and in original works!

Let's get on with it!

Advice for drawing Tord/Red Leader

First of all, let's establish a bit of a rule here. You can ignore canon. The End, and the later scrapped character for Super Average, while the basis of these fanon ideas, aren't... the best sources of accurate inspiration. The injuries and later scarring on his face are exaggerated and inaccurate.

"But Fish!" I hear you say, "Isn't it a cartoon? Aren't cartoons an exaggerated form of life?"

True! I am an animation major, and the advice that we get when animating is to not go for realism, but for what suits the movement the best. The same goes for character design, make the details fit the point of the design. However, disabilities and facial differences are not cartoonish aspects of a character. They are real, tangible parts of human existence. And since disabled people and people with facial differences are part of a minority group, there's a lot of bigotry and misinformation in fiction that are actively harmful. You know how gay people having the same kind of representation of an effeminate gay twink becomes degrading at some point? Same goes for disabilities. I see a depiction of disability that ignores or makes the disabling aspects of our lives tragic and I yell, "I'M TIRED OF THIS, GRANDPA!!!"

So, let's get into some guides to avoid overexaggerating scars.

If you look up "how to draw burn scars", you're not going to be met with a lot of correct information. There's only one good tutorial I've been able to find by @/saszor, which I will link below.

There's a few common ways that people draw his scars, at least from I've seen in my around 8-9 years in this fandom. I understand that many of us are working off of references from google or a similar search engine, so we can only attempt to achieve what we see in these images. However, from my research, I've found that there are specific ways that a healed scar would look like. And yes, please draw it healed. If it's not healed, he better have a compression mask on or proper wrappings if he's in the hospital.

The following drawings are not based on any artist in particular, just from memory.

On the left (Yes!) are keloid, hypertrophic, and contracture scars, respectively, observed from online images and saszor's guide.

Scars tend to be, when healed, at least, closer to the body's normal skin tone, but can have hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation. The problem with the first two in the (eh...) column are that they push the pigmentation and appearance of the scar in one direction. It's an aware attempt to try to make the scars look healed, and some of these characteristics can be observed from references (hypopigmentation, leading to a lighter color of the scars in the first one, or a reddish appearance, in the second one). But, these are either one part of scarring (hypopigmentation in some areas), or only at a certain stage (If it is still that dark he needs to put that compression mask back on). Scarring with also have a direction The third one is relatively close, but the random direction of the scars gives... a kind of unnerving appearance to me, which is not what we should be going for.

The last one is just how it looks from The End. Please do not draw him like that. Bodies don't do that.

"But Fish", I hear you say again, "How do we draw these scars on him?" Great question!! Here's how I draw him in my style!

(Be kind to me, I made it at 3 AM)

The scarring here is still a bit exaggerated, but the texture and color are fairly similar to what you'd see with actual burn scars. Remember, not all scars are the same!

Few things I considered when I first made my design: The hair, with the severity of burns that necessitate amputation (so either 3rd or 4th degree), would be burned off on the areas on the scalp affected. While not every burn survivor will experience trauma to the eye (in fact, most will not), I wanted to explore the idea of why he would have an eyepatch, so I draw him with nerve damage to the eye, causing both forms of ptosis. Eyes themselves don't typically get injured by burns unless if they're chemical burns. His ear would also have damage, affecting his hearing on that side of his body. Depth perception is intact without the eyepatch. White pupil is not a cataract. It's a lore thing.

"But Fish," Wow, we're having a great conversation right now, "Your style is so realistic? How can I apply these tips to a more simplistic art style?" You're gonna love this part.

You can use lines to indicate the movement of scars, as well as subtle parts of color. If you really want to, you can add a subtle difference in color, but texture, instead of color, is more like an actual burn scar.

Second piece of advice, if you're indicating it with color... he would not be freaking red. I will find you and I will sit you down and we will watch Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution together.

DEFINITIONS

Keloid

an area of irregular fibrous tissue formed at the site of a scar or injury. (Google)

Hypertrophic

a thick raised scar. It's an abnormal response to wound healing in which extra connective tissue forms within the original wound area. The result a raised scar. (Cleveland Clinic)

Contracture

an abnormal occurrence that happens when a large area of skin is damaged and lost, resulting in a scar. The scar formation pulls the edges of the skin together, causing a tight area of skin. The decrease in the size of the skin can then affect the muscles, joints, and tendons, causing a decrease in movement. (Stanford Medicine Healthcare)

Hyperpigmentation

A common, usually harmless condition in which patches of skin are darker than the surrounding skin. (National Cancer Institute)

Hypopigmentation

a lightening of your skin color. Injuries or skin conditions are the primary cause of hypopigmentation. (Cleveland Clinic)

ADVICE FOR WRITING TORD

Fish tip: Take my word less as gospel and do your own research. I am not a burn survivor. I do not have a facial or limb difference. As stated prior, I have intense chronic pain (which worsened after I published part 1, much to my family's bank account's chagrin when I went to the emergency room for pain), unhealed injuries in my knee and foot (which have gone on long enough for it to also be chronic pain), and various mental illnesses and ADHD. These tips are mainly resources and my own perspective on how I try to tackle writing him.

Recovery from burns can take weeks to months, but recovery from burn scars can take longer. This is because the scars are extremely sensitive and fragile, and also require compression to heal. For his arm/chest, they would likely be wrapped with gauze, moisturized, and then dressed with antimicrobacterial wrapping. For the face, gauze would not be placed on it post-hospital discharge. Instead, he'd wear a compression mask (either fabric or clear. These have been described as uncomfortable by many burn survivors. Nonetheless, He Should Wear One.)

His clothes shouldn't be too tight, too warm, or too cold, as scars can be sensitive to that (learned from a @/cripplecharacters ask). Blisters can form if there’s too much tension on the scars. Uncomfortable!

Remember the rule about ignoring canon? The Red Leader mask, albeit reminiscent of the iconic Darth Vader, still perpetuates aspects of the disabled villain stereotype that treats disability and facial differences as something taboo, a moral failure, or something to shame and hide away. Ignore the mask. Unless if you can write it respectfully from experience, don't.

Understand that prosthetic arms will not function the same as a normal arm. "But Fish, this is fiction--" And prosthetic wearers have said they're tired of it. Listen to them first. The trope of the highly advanced prosthetic arm treats disability as something extraordinary, or aids as equal to original function. As someone who needs sensory aids, they will never replace my original hearing.

Don't make him depressed over the fact that he is disabled now. He can experience trauma from the fact that he received near-mortal wounds (and when it's described negatively, it's negative because they're dangerous, not that they're disabling. If his arm had to be amputated, it probably saved his life (infection, extreme tissue and/or nerve damage)), and can recognize the new adaptations he's had to make in his own life, such as different kinds of therapy (occupational, physical), the use of sunblock and sun protection, and living as an amputee.

More on him being an amputee, he's not going to a prosthetic wear an arm 24/7. In fact, there are many above the elbow amputees who actually prefer to not wear them. For one, they don't function like a normal arm, as stated prior. Two, they don't feel like an actual arm. The difference in weight is very noticeable, even the prosthetic is lighter than an arm. But, because the amputation is above the elbow (or at least is assumed by the fandom to be), the lack of balance can lead to back or spine issues. It may also be worn for specific tasks. So you don't have to disregard it completely, but understand that it's not a perfect fix.

Big trope I'm not a personal fan of: Having him be insecure about being disabled and wanting to hide it. It's not really a good message to send. But, if you have personal experience with amputation and facial differences, then, you're writing from experience and I wholeheartedly trust you to write from your own life. Can't argue with that, ya know?

For some people, having a prosthetic arm means independence to them. Understand and look into the nuances of the discussion surrounding prosthetic arms from the perspective of upper limb amputees (and know that many prosthetic companies are actively exploitative)

Thought occurred to me. Some upper limb amputees wear prosthetics because of societal pressures. That avenue could be interesting to explore with him as a public figure.

Combat: Will have to use a one-handed gun. Actually. It's completely possible to fight one-armed. Able bodied people do it all the time. But, due to the nature of modern war, a handgun or similar one-handed guns won't cut it. He'll likely not engage in actual warfare.

The above concept is something I explore in my own writing, where he switches from just being a competent fighter and soldier, to having to adapt to working behind the frontlines as a political and military leader, giving him proper experience to fully lead the army as Red Leader (A role he steps into in my AU, instead of him having that role from the start)

If your Tord is Red Leader the whole time, he'll have to have a proxy to step in for him while he recovers. Because recovery is not an easy road, and he'll need to focus a lot of time and energy on just recovering.

Yes, including phantom pain is good, but it's the bare minimum.

If you want to characterize him this way, have him ask for help with certain tasks, such as those that require two hands. But let's be real, it's gonna take a lot of character development to reach that stage.

Finally... DON'T HAVE HIS DISABILITY BE THE MAIN ASPECT OF HIS CHARACTER. Be conscious of how much focus you place on it as an able-bodied writer. I get it, it's hard to understand if you don't have the lived experience of being disabled, but we really only focus on it when it effects us, or we're doing something that isn't accessible or as easy for us. For chronic pain, sometimes we just completely go on with our lives while experiencing a 8-10 on the pain scale (I love trying to animate while my abdomen is in excruciating pain! /sar). But, you can include the above advice when it would be necessary to discuss it. That man's a military leader. He's not going to be thinking of how he feels about his prosthetic. He's planning on invading The Netherlands or something (I'm sorry The Netherlands you were the first to come to mind)

One last tidbit, most advice you will see will tell you to not have your villain have a facial difference, especially not if they're a burn survivor. A good ol' redemption story can fix that (and you'll follow the advice here, too, m'kay? He's still disabled and an amputee even if he's good or trying to do better, M'KAY?). But, if you're going in the route of him still being Red Leader, don't make him the only disabled character, nor the only character with a facial difference, nor the only burn survivor. We're trying to do damage control here.

LINKS (Not a comprehensive reading list):

FOUR BOXES

CLOTHING RELATED ASK

BURN SCAR TREATMENT

WOUND CARE POST-BURN INJURY

BURN DRESSINGS INFORMATION

CRIPPLECHARACTERSPROSTHETICTAG

HOW IT FEELS TO WEAR AN UPPER LIMB PROSTHESIS

SUBMALEVOLENTGRACE'S WONDERFUL POST ABOUT THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE AS AN UPPER ARM AMPUTEE

TIPS FOR DRAWING AND WRITING AMPUTEES BY CY-CYBORG

ACCESS TO PHEONIX SOCIETY FOR BURN SURVIVORS GUIDE TO WRITING BURN SURVIVORS

ADD MORE DISABLED CHARACTERS (ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE GOOD!)

"Okay Fish, we get it, his existence as a disabled character is harmful as we have to be very specific in how we write him." You're learning! Yay! "How do we manage that?" Add other characters who are disabled. Remember... ignore... canon...

We go into further iffy territory with fanon. Let's see, what other disabled characters exist in fanon! Okay, Future Tom is commonly depicted as blind and needing an aid to see... and also portrayed on the side of The Red Army. Oh jeez. Future Matt! He's got an eye and jaw prosthetic! Oh, oh, because of. WTFuture, we usually get the same. Hey, can y'all keep them on the good side? Or just have other disabled characters? Who else... oh hi Paul. You're. Also. Red Army. Mm. Great. (I know a lot of people also don't delve into the implications of the Red Army's existence or write them as morally grey, but it still goes against the Four Boxes' clause of Vigilantes/Villains)

Not great. Few things. Many people depict Tom as joining the Red Army, and it's common to see the same happen with Matt. This phenomenon specifically occurs in the really dark future fics, which I've tackled myself (it's a WIP). If they don't write Tord as a disabled man well enough, they don't tend to fare the same with Tom, and Matt's prosthetics don't really get considered. Because Paul's injuries happen in canon, there's less care given to writing him (he would have limited depth perception if his eye is injured, so once again, fighting and plane flying would not be done the same way as pre-injury, let alone what other symptoms he'd have with it. It's most likely an open globe injury.)

Notice how Tom only gets a minor scratch in The End, where he's the hero of the story, but when he becomes disabled, people associate him with a morally gray or evil position in the story? Yeah. The major issue here is, these characters are either morally gray or villains. And yeah, the main 3 are very morally gray in general. There's no true "good person" in Eddsworld, but it'd certainly be nice to have more positive depictions of disability in this fandom. Want to add that? I introduce you to...

HEADCANONS... and... OCs!!

With headcanons, you can project your disability onto any character as a coping mechanism! I do it all the time. You get chronic pain, you get chronic pain, we all get chronic pain! And if you're not disabled, it's a good way to go beyond tropes, because oh boy are the canon/fanon disabled characters very reliant on tropes! Maybe Laurel has an autoimmune disorder, maybe Mark uses a mobility aid like a cane or a walker. Who knows! The possibilities are pretty much endless.

The possibilities become infinite when it comes to OCs! Add your OCs to the story. Do it. Make them good. Do it. You can add characters with limb differences, facial differences, burn scars, and have them still be good people in this comedic, satirical world.

From personal experience, I'm writing a more serious take on a post-The End narrative, which also includes an expansion of the lore and universe. There are OCs that play a huge part in the story, and some of them are simply there to bring life to the world itself.

For example, here's Symon and Ulyana (from some character development sketches I did)! Symon is a congenital bilateral above the elbow amputee, and Ulyana is a below the elbow amputee with facial scars, weakness of the zygomatic branch of the facial nerve, and a traumatic brain injury. Symon is a minor character, while Ulyana is a major character in the AU. Both of them have narratives outside of their disability, and are shown either adapting to their disabilities, or learning to do so. Ulyana, as a BE amputee, eventually wears her prosthetic less and less, learning to be comfortable with her stump, and only using it when she needs to complete specific tasks that require a two-handed grip. Both characters have positive philosophies, storylines outside of their disabilities, and are on the side of good. They're not the only good characters, let alone the only good disabled characters, but, on the topic of amputees and facial differences, they felt like the best duo to bring up.

So yeah! With a little bit of creativity, it's possible! While it's preferred to have disabled characters as major characters with their own storylines, having disabled characters or headcanoning characters as disabled anywhere, even if they're minor characters, shows a bit of effort.

Hell, you can even get super bold with headcanons and give characters completely new disabilities. You know, I don't see many disabled Edd headcanons... what if I just

MORE ADVICE ON WRITING DISABLED CHARACTERS

This next section is just advice that's practical for any application!

Step one... Know that we are people. And we are also disabled. Disability affects multiple, if not every, aspects of our lives. Know that, if a character becomes disabled, they will react, they will have to change, they may find it upsetting, but they must find their way to go on. Do not give us pity. Give us understanding. Give us support. Give us accommodations. And do the same for your character, too.

Step two... Generic disability based-research!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE follow @/cripplecharacters . They are a great starting point and have great advice for how to tackle disabled characters in general, and also specific conditions. They also give advice for further research for writers

Understand the disability tropes I wrote about last time, and research negative portrayals of them in fiction.

Follow other disabled creators who discuss disability tropes. My favorites are Jessica Kellgren-Fozard (YouTube), Oakwrym (YouTube), themightyz0 (Instagram: NOTE, focuses mainly on writing Black and Brown female characters, but has some posts on writing mental health as well. Great content overall), cy-cyborg (tumblr)

Watch and read content made by disabled creatives (documentaries, movies, books, ect.). This one's more time consuming, but at least make an effort to seek out and support one piece of media! My favorite YA book, One For All, is a great OwnVoices story about a female fencer with POTS! There ya go! Fish recommendation!!

Oooo you wanna watch documentaries so bad

Step three... Specific research!

Find negative tropes related to the disability that you are representing and throw them out of the window! Thwart them, subvert them! Understand why they exist, and make your character in spite of those ideas.

Look into accounts from people who have the medical condition(s) you wish to portray, and give support to real people and activists with those conditions. Hell, if you can hire a sensitivity reader, get one.

Avoid looking at just medical studies and information, resources from the military/veterans office, or prosthetic companies. While helpful, they're not comprehensive enough of the disabled experience, and oftentimes are trying to push a specific narrative.

Do a lot of research into symptoms and how those specific symptoms impact a person's life.

Take your time. You're not going to get everything perfect on the first go. You're going to make mistakes. You won't understand everything. And, while awkward, it's okay to ask for advice. No, don't go up to a random disabled person and ask about their experience, but sending asks to blogs like cripplecharacters and blindbeta are totally okay (as long as you follow their guidelines and boundaries when it comes to asks!). For their sakes, though, Don't. Immediately go to their blogs and spam asks. Read through them first and their related tags to the disabilities you're looking to write. You most likely can find a suitable answer or advice to your question.

Value us disabled people first and our opinions on writing. You may be tempted to go off what you know (which is often fictional characters), but doing your due diligence will help more than simply assuming. If you're not willing to do that, maybe rethink writing a disabled character, and analyze why you don't want to seek out disabled people's opinions on writing

Before I developed my chronic pain (Always been neurodivergent, just didn't know it), I didn't really have a grasp on disability. A lot of my understanding of it came from fiction. After all, I "didn't know" too many disabled people in my own life (although, now that I'm older, I realize I hadn't known any wheelchair users. Once again, disability being synonymous with a certain "look" can be harmful). And that meant characters like Shiro from Voltron, with advanced prosthetics that made me, and others, believe that a prosthetic arm could actually be a superpower. Without knowing that disability is more than just having a limb missing or using one specific mobility aid, I had taken that into my own art and writing, and made inaccurate portrayals myself. Hell, I even took some inspiration from popular fanworks in my own Eddsworld fanart, and it... let's just say... did not look good. So, yes, fiction, and portrayals of disability in fiction can effect both able-bodied and disabled people's ideas, and especially can impact how able-bodied people view disabled people.

Visible Difference & Disfigurement in the Arts; Face Equality International

Step four... Go for it! You've got this! I know it's scary to write certain minority groups when you don't have the lived experience of being from that group, but do your best to be aware, do your research (do a lot of research), and remember, we're people first and foremost.

WHAT DISABLED PEOPLE (DON'T) WANT TO SEE

While writing this continuation, I asked a bunch of my friends, who are also disabled tropes they like and don't like, and what they'd want to see in the future. Keep this information in mind!

TROPES WE DIDN'T LIKE

The cured disability, or a disabled character on a search for a cure. Does this happen? Yes. But it's overdone. WE'RE TIRED OF IT, GRANDPA!! /ref. It's more important for us to gain acceptance of ourselves than to hate ourselves, ya know?

Oversimplified/flat representations. Mainly applies to mental illnesses and neurodivergences, but aside from a diversity of symptoms with each condition, people will cope with, act on, and manage their disabilities differently from someone else who has it. Once again, it simplifies disability experience and reduces it, allowing for more misinformation to take place

Having disabled characters either be disabled only in aesthetics, but functions like an able-bodied person, or have their struggles be erased/not discussed.

Homeless and fat disabled characters being demonized.

THINGS WE WANNA SEE

Characters who aren't able to do everything. Not in a condescending way, but simply as a fact of life. I used to play the saxophone. My ears are now too sensitive for that level of volume. One of my friends, Mackenzie (who is cool and awesome (I was told to say that) brought up their own experiences with not being able to participate in certain activities because of a disability. It's okay to write that! It happens! Just don't make it seem like we're incapable of doing anything at all. Even people with full-body paralysis are still people and have the autonomy to act.

On autonomy, having characters be autonomous, even if they could not be independent, was something that really struck close to home for many of us

Acknowledging social ableism (in the form of isolation, apathy, ignorance, ect.) and the impact it can have on characters. Don't use it to invoke pity on the disabled character, use it to show that some people suck and this is a real thing we have to deal with.

More characters with mobility aids! Canes, walkers, wheelchairs, crutches, ect.!

Young characters with mobility aids! Disability happens to young people, even if insurance companies don't think so! (I managed to get my medicine at an affordable price, by the way! No thanks to my insurance, haha!)

Maintenance of aids like prosthetics, or the experience of having to get a new aid because your needs are changing

Going to the doctor. Not in a traumatic way. Just as a fact of disabled life thing. Also, if the doctor you write is nice and listens to the patient you will be my favorite in the world because that is not common in real life. <3

Disabilities/conditions surrounding food (food access, food itself being harmful), such as conditions that need ostomy bags, feeding tubes.

Disabled characters making jokes about their disability. Why? Because we do it all the time. I'm so funny when I make jokes about my disabilities. It makes people very concerned for me!

Characters with autoimmune conditions!

Casual representation of disabilities. Characters who simply are disabled. Characters who are born disabled. Disability as just a normal thing to be.

Shout-out to every person who gave their input here!! The diversity of perspectives was really beneficial for me, and it was comforting to get to sit down with everyone and talk about our experiences together.

In conclusion, yeah, no, it's not a simple task to write a disabled character. And with Eddsworld, canon sets us up to automatically rely on negative tropes. So we have to do extra work to be able to avoid harmful tropes. My own writing is not a cohesive, end-all-be-all conclusion for what you should do, but I really hope it can lead you in the right direction. My advice is just that. Mine. If anyone has a different perspective, I'm open to conversation! Send your own tips in the reblogs and comments, send me asks (but be nice, because some people weren't last time. I even received some downright inappropriate and NSFW asks, which I was not comfortable with at all), I love conversation. I made a sequel because a person requested it, and I hope it's helpful to them!

"Fish..." Oh boy. "Was this really the best use of your time?" No. No it wasn't. See you next time where I criticize the US government. I am not kidding.

The Problem With the Eddsworld Fandom's Depictions of Red Leader/Future Tord, A Disabled Perspective

Disability is a contentious concept for most of society, with most either treating us with disgust, confusion, refusing to treat us as human, or to see our struggles as what they are. Ableism affects all people in many different ways, but as someone who focuses a lot of my energy in fandom spaces, the pervasiveness of ableism with how media and their fans interpet and react to disabled characters is a very personal situation for me. While many may argue that an ignorance to these topics in fiction has little bearing on real life, the prevalance of these tropes have echoed and led to feelings of othering for many disabled people, and oftentimes support the same notions that lead to the day-to-day ableism in our own personal lives.

In recent years, I have experienced this most often with the prevalance of negative disability tropes perpetrated by fanfiction surrounding the character of Tord, also known under the alias of Red Leader in some fanworks. It is a problem not just common in the Eddsworld fandom. A more recent, and much larger fandom in Mouthwashing also shares a common trend of repeated ableism in fan depictions and interpretarions of disabled characters. Most fan creators are unaware of these tropes and the harm that they cause, but as a disabled person, I am unable to ignore it.

For context on myself, you can call me Fish. Get it? Or"fish"eus? I like to think I'm funny. I am a mentally ill, disabled, and neurodivergent creative who has niche interests in representation in media and the intersection of intersectionality and fandom spaces. I experience chronic pain due to a multitude of conditions, all of which are invisible disabilities. I am NOT an amputee or have a facial difference, like the character I am analyzing. I can only speak based on my own research in my attempts to portray him positively, but I want to mainly focus on the ableist tropes I see and the real life effects they have. That is something I CAN focus on, because I've been dealing with it for years from conditions that came onset later in my life. I will be speaking from that perspective, but will be doing my best to try to educate on what I do know from my research to help authors, artists, and creatives create a better portrayal of him in fanworks.

The most common tropes I see with him are what I will call "The Disabled Villain", "The Innacurate Disability", and "The Ignored Disability". There are a few tropes in each, but for ease of organization (and the sake of your (and my) time), I will be talking about them together in these sections. There are also overlaps in many, but I will define the main issues with them.

The Disabled Villain

James Bond, Wonder Woman, The Witches. You name it. You have most likely seen this trope at work in cinema. A malicious evil-doer is revealed to have a "horrid" face symbolic of the true evil within their soul, while the beautiful, able-bodied hero is meant to stop them. It's a trope as old as time, one that goes back to even Plato. Tropes are tropes, people subvert them, so a few cases down the line may be excusable. But that has not been the case For many years, the most prevalent form of representation for disabled people was in these villains. Imagine if the only representation you had for yourself was narratives surrounding how the way you look or what your disability is and have it only be equated to evil people. It leads to a villainization of disabled people. People react to facial differences with disgust, because they are "shown" that it is "evil", or "ugly", or equal to being a horrible person. As stated by The Nora Project, "According to the book Disabilities: Insights from Across Fields and Around the World, disabled students are two to three times more likely to be bullied in comparison to their nondisabled classmates. The disabled villain trope contributes to this phenomenon in overt and subtle ways. For example, the trope implicitly encourages fear of disability and difference, while validating, and even elevating, those who fight against the evil, Disabled Villain. Bullying based on fear and disdain is almost a natural consequence of the trope when viewed in this light". Another big issue is that disabled characters have not been given space to exist outside of villainy. There are not many complex narratives surrounding them. This leads to our disabilities being downplayed, us being dehumanised, and we are seen more like props in real life, or simply tools to achieve a message in a narrative.

Tord's disability is never explicitly shown in the show. It is something more prevalent in Fanon, specifically in fanworks that focus on the "Future" era of the show's timeline, where the narrative and outside discussions on the show implies a high tech society, potentially dystopian, potentially a consequence of his actions. These ideas have taken a life of their own in the fandom, with many creators fully expressing these ideas. The problem arises when Red Leader falls in line with this trope. In many works, he is the sole disabled character, a figure of pure evil, or given little nuance in the narrative. Artists illustrate his scars as bright red, crimson, or, in TBATF, green. For some reason. In this way, they attempt to highlight the villainy by equating him with common symbols of evil: facial differences and disabilities. Unfortunately, these are not just symbols. These are conditions and scars that real people have, which the fandom tends to ignore in favor of dramatization.

This was a trope I most commonly saw explored in fanfiction when I first joined in 2016/17. The show, unfortunately, subtly and accidentally perpetrated it by having the only character visibly and irreparably "damaged" by the giant robot fight be Tord, despite the fact that Tom, who had a whole missile directed at him and got buried under a house, was fine with at most a leg injury and a cut on his arm. Luckily, we have grown past the need for ableist tropes, and the faults of the show can be left in the past!

... Not.

Disability tropes have simply evolved in how the fandom treats Tord. Even if it is now done with more consciousness and sympathy towards his character, ignorance still prevails. Let's talk about common pitfalls people fall into when writing him.

The Inaccurate Disability

In fanon perception, Red Leader is an amputee with a high tech prosthesis and a facial difference resulting from burn scars. Like many disabled characters, he suffers from a collective fandom lack of research. But never fret! That is what I have subjected myself to for the past four years, so your friendly neighborhood disabled Fish can tell you how to right your fandom wrongs! Just kidding! Take this as a pointer, and do your own research.

As is common with fictional prosthetics, his arm prosthetic is treated as a perfect fix for his amputation. It acts just like, if not better than an actual arm. The issue with this is that is isn't realistic. Yes, I know, I'm criticising Eddsworld fanfiction for not being realistic. STAY WITH ME HERE. Once again, if it was one instance, or a few, that explored prosthetics being incredibly functional in science-fiction, then it could be a cool concept. But when every sci-fi work has it, then that is no longer a concept. That is a misconception. And I have interacted with people who believed that prosthetics were 100% functional! The thing is, like all disability aids, it does not suddenly make us able-bodied. For example, I have ear defenders that I wear when I experience pain within my ears. But that does not mean my hearing will now become normal, and I will no longer experience pain from the sound I'm hearing. What WILL happen is that I will straight up not hear you. Like, literally. Can you repeat that? I had my ear defenders on. Oh, you're saying that my ear defenders aren't prosthetics and are not a fair comparison? Well, that's fair, but take this as an illustration of a disability aid and how they differ from able-bodied experiences. Also, many prosthetic users do many things without their prostheses, and some even prefer NOT to wear them. Blogs that explicitly cover disabled representation, such as @/cripplecharacters, have posts that cover WHY many amputees are not fans of this trope. The problem comes with that it erases disability, and yet also treats us like we are given a space at the table of representation. It's just another way that authors avoid actually doing research.

Other things that people tend to ignore are how burn scars, or any scars, would not only appear on a character, but also affect them. I have seen, aside from skin tones that looked like they were picked out of a crayon box instead of what would appear on a person, teeth exposed, wounds that look as if they are fresh from the explosion YEARS after they occurred, and what I like to call "paper shredder" scars. Because instead of them looking like burn or shrapnel scars, it appears as if his skin was put through a shredder. Once again, another consequence of the show's at most-30 second scene with questionable decisions that made massive ripples in the fandom. With the injuries Tord received, it is most likely that he would have two kinds of injuries: a burn on 18% of his body (minimum, based on rule of 9s), and/or shrapnel scars from debris. While shrapnel scars would manifest as darker scars, the burn scar would likely be a hypertrophic scar, as "70% of patients develop hypertrophic scars following burns" (Finnerty et. al). The scars, when healed, are warm toned on the boundaries of their areas and cool in between. When on a pale skintone, they are not too dissimilar, and would therefore not have such a drastic color difference as seen on skin. They would also not go down to the bone or skin, as that would be a completely different kind of injury, and are also commonly done to make him look "scarier", which then aids the Disabled Villain trope. It also treats these scars and injuries more like a work of fiction, rather than something that many real people have experienced, adding to continuous misinterpretations of real life disabilities and facial differences.

For writers wanting to include consequences of burns, what would be more likely to be affected are his hearing, vision, and nerves on the right side of his face, as burn scars can go as deep as nerve endings. Also, burn scars, especially third degree burns, require treatments, such as burn-specific skincare. Scars, especially burn scars, can affect you and become disabling. For artists, the main thing I don't see artists do is draw him with damaged hair follicles. Burn scars damage the scalp and eyebrows, preventing hair growth. I am sorry, but he would not still have fluffy, luscious hair. Do not kill me. He just wouldn't. And if you are saying that he had it in the show, I can't hear you because my ear defenders are on, but I hope you heard me, as we've gone over that the show is inaccurate and we should do our own research.

Even well intentioned authors and artists ignore many aspects of the disabilities he would likely have!

Which brings us to the last trope...

The Ignored Disability

Many well meaning people intend to give him nuance by trying to avoid the Disabled Villain trope. Accidentally, however, they end up completely ignoring his disabilities instead.

Just like the high-tech prosthetic, the real disabling aspects of having a disability are at best rarely mentioned. I have seen, in some fanworks, that he goes straight from amputation to having a prosthetic. And that is where his disability ends. Because the prosthetic ends up being a fix-all situation. Authors refuse, or forget, to include aspects of amputation, such as the healing process, stump or phantom pain. Artists will cover up his scars with a helmet or a mask, another trope that undermines his disabilities and attempts to brush it under the rug. I understand that there is a discomfort for able-bodied authors in thoroughly exploring how a character feels about their disability. That is something I think we should. Avoid. If you're not familiar with the experience of being that minority, you do not need to add commentary on it. And if you do, and it just falls into more negative tropes, I will send a salmon cannon at you (/j). However, I do not agree with brushing every disabling aspect of his life under the rug.

People can assume it's not a problem, like it isn't something blatantly apparent. But, if you assume that disability and being disabled is not a "big thing", you end up where your medication is denied because your insurance refuses to see your common procedure as not a necessary medical intervention because you're "too young". And that is not fiction. That is what inspired me to write this essay, because the day that I got that news was the same day I sat down and told myself that I needed to share my perspective on the perception of disabled characters by honing in on one of my favorite characters and how the fandom treated him.

Disabled characters deserve to be included in media, disability and all, with care given to how their life would operate as a result and what they would experience with their specific disability. That's why many people recommend sensitivity readers who can give proper insight upon that disability and can advise people to properly portray it.

But if you cannot afford or access that resource, what can you do?

Fish's Non-Cohesive List of Ways I Tried to Write Tord as a Non-Amputee Without a Facial Difference

Do research!! The more you are to try to understand what you are writing about, the less you are to misinterpret or misrepresent it.

Look into resources that focus on portraying disabled characters, especially with those you wish to write about. Read blogs, research tropes that are common in disabled characters, and hell, read medical journals. They can provide great insight (<< nerd who likes reading medical journals)

Include more disabled characters. Make the other boys be disabled! Want to be canon compliant? Create OCs who have disabilities! I have a bunch! It's 2024! Be cringe and be free! The character's disability would go against the traditional narrative form of "usefulness"? I'm an animator who can't wear headphones and a theatre performer who can't physically handle the volume of a band. And yet, we find ways to persist, to exist. We will always find our way to live in the way we want to, in whatever way we can.

Look into disability activism. Learn the difference between the Medical Model and Social Model of disability. Know what an invisible disability is. Listen to us when we say that we don't want to be treated as special or an inspiration for simply living (inspiration porn). The more you are aware of what we struggle in real life, the more aware you will be to not repeat those mistakes in your fiction.

Write what you can. Highlight little talked about aspects of having a burn scar or being an amputee, such as the recovery, or treatment for the chronic pain, or how different he would be in battle due to decreased depth perception. As a disabled author, I have personally touched on the experience of gaining a disability later in life, and how he copes with it. Now, not all of y'all can do that. But that is a personal experience I do have, and it is something I have highlighted in my own work. So, while I couldn't tell you the ins and outs of having a burn scar or a prosthetic arm, I could describe the shock and frustration that comes with suddenly experiencing difficulties, or even being unable to do what you had done before.

I ask that, if you are willing to do better, or to start on the right foot, you take what I have written, reflect on it, and treat disabled characters, and in turn, disabled people, better from here on out.

Fiction is not reality, but the way we deal with it is reflective of who we are and what we believe. The boundary for our own personal being does not suddenly stop within fiction. When we interact and interpret it and create for it, it is integral that we remain conscious that bigotry runs rampant, albeit often as an unseen force, within fandom spaces, and do our best to counteract that.

I have doubts that the new eddisode will treat this topic with the same respect. I hope you can all go forward with what you have read in this WAY LONGER than I expected essay, and do what those grown British men cannot. Even if they erase it, retconn it, or do not treat it with respect, let's all go forward and do better!

As for always, you can discuss more in the tags or my inbox!

I hope you have a wonderful life,

Fish

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