#i feel like I'm so bad at writing alt text but something is better than nothing ig

[snail-legs]

them!

[blindbeta]

Recently, I started writing a lot of Homestuck fanfiction, and Terezi is one of my fave characters to write, but I'm curious what your opinions on the canon portrayal of her blindness are and things that would be interesting to include in writing.

The basics if you aren't familiar with Homestuck:

Terezi is one of the troll characters, who are humanoid aliens. She was blinded by her best friend (Vriska) by being forced to stare at the sun, but learned to be able to "smell and taste colors" without being able to see them.

Here are my thoughts on the good and the bad (from other reading other stuff) as well as some things that a comment on would be nice!

At first mention, the "smelling/tasting colors" thing might come across as an instance of a power being used to negate a disability, but I feel like it meshes well with her general chaotic and even downright freakish personality. For this reason she loves and often uses wild and bright mixes/scribbles of color, which I would assume be due to them having stronger scents/tastes.

It's also shown that while the effect is better than you might expect from such a method, her "vision" through this method is still extremely blurry, often with smears (from licking her computer screen to read it) or streaks (from the drifting "scent"). (example image - https://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/02745.gif [ID: A golden planet with a matching moon attached to it in orbit by a thick golden chain, with a small sliver of the larger cloudy blue planet the golden planet is orbiting visible. The whole image has a blurry effect applied, almost looking like a messy impressionistic painting. Instead of having defined edges, the colors look smeared and drifting in places.)

She does have a cane that's clearly styled after white canes, but it does fall in the trope of a weaponized cane as it contains a sword. Her weapon specialization is also specified to be "canekind." If she ever uses this cane to help navigate, I can't remember her doing so outside of her sprites from the walkaround games; it also often seems to be commonly drawn in the comic to more closely resemble a cane that would be used for balance.

She falls into the blind seer trope, as her in-universe title is the Seer of Mind, but is not the only seer in the comic--there are a Seer of Light and a Seer of Blood who are not blind, and a Mage of Doom who...it's complicated and changes several times, he's half-blind for a while and I think he's fully blind by the end of the comic? Her role as a Seer doesn't fall as much into literal visions as some instances, she can moreso sense the outcomes of different timelines and tap into memories of other versions of herself. The Seers and Mages aren't even the only characters whose stories play with knowing the future or knowledge of the world.

Here's one thing I like and that I've seen praised elsewhere--in a timeline that ends really badly and ends up being rewritten, she is talked into getting her eyesight restored. She immediately hates it, having never resented her blindness and preferring her new ways of navigating the world, and finds the return of vision not only a huge sensory overload but also something she likes much less than her skill to navigate by smell. She takes to wearing a blindfold and continues to live and navigate as she had prior, up until she dies and the timeline is overwritten. In the new timeline, she doesn't have her vision healed, and this is shown to be a good thing.

On a meta note, however, Homestuck's writing is often...not very screen-reader accessible, and Terezi's typing is probably one of the worse offenders on that front. She speaks in all-caps and leetspeak (a = , i = 1, e = 3), making a character who I feel is pretty unique with an interesting portrayal of disability be much less accessible to an audience that might relate to her. I really need to go in sometime and remember how to put alt text for their dialogue in my published fics!

These next couple points are generally about the prevalence of vision loss throughout Homestuck: Terezi's blinding was part of a cycle of revenge in her friend group, and Vriska's response to Terezi causing an explosion that caused Vriska to lose an eye (which had previously given her powerful vision, and losing it was like losing 7/8 of her vision instead of 1/2) and an arm. However, later in the story, Vriska gets her full vision and missing arm back which is connected to the fact her idealized self didn't include those injuries, while Terezi's did include her blindness.

Other than Vriska, there is another blind character (who is blinded due to overuse of psychic powers destroying his eyes) whose blindness, while coming from injury, isn't treated as the worst possible fate by the story--Vriska is the only character who agonizes over her vision loss, but 1) this is very understandable given her living situation and 2) she is certainly not meant to be a good source of disability representation, being a...feeply flawed person who is ableist herself.

There are also a couple characters who are missing eyes not really due to injury but more like...physically reflecting damage to an object in a way that doesn't cause injury but does mean they are both missing the same eye. This isn't really brought up in-text but if I ever write those characters, it'd be cool to acknowledge.

That's all the points off the top of my head that I'd be interested in your thoughts on!

I'd also like to share a couple examples of things I currently do in my writing of her that I'd be curious to get an opinion on!

In any material that takes place after she is blind (even in the timeline where she gets healed), I avoid relying on visual descriptions from her point of view, and when I do, I challenge myself to make every color word have a taste/smell association with it to portray how she experiences them. These aren't usually literal "cherry-red"/"lemon-yellow" descriptors but things more like describing something bright green and unpleasant as "sour" and so forth.

I also often use words that have a tactile connection, again trying to connect her methods of "seeing" to the ways she can get this information. Even when she regained her vision, during the times when she isn't blindfolded, I still use this different language to show how her perception has changed.

I once wrote a scene where Terezi shows up at her Vriska's house (just after she blinded her!) having just gotten her new cane, and immediately runs upstairs as confidently as ever, which Vriska notes as a sign of how comfortable and familiar she is navigating Vriska's house. This was inspired by things I've seen about being able to navigate a familiar space like one's own home without needing aids, and was meant to act as a sign of how much time she's spent at Vriska's house.

Wow, that got long, but I'm super curious what your thoughts here are!

Homestuck / Terezi and Blindness

Disclaimer: I have no idea about Homestuck other than hearing the name and knowing that the voice of Zuko, Dante Basco, is somehow associated with it or was mentioned in it?

I’ll do my best to offer advice based on what information is included here. If anymore more familiar with the source material wants to offer ideas in the replies, that would be helpful.

Associating Colors With Taste and Smell

This is a tough one for me, because it can be a bit of a stereotype. Not all blind people develop synesthesia or have it. In the book Blind, Emma seems to develop synesthesia after losing her vision. However, a lot of totally blind folks have their own ways of associating colors with concepts or emotions. I think it depends on the person and how it is portrayed in the story.

I feel that her being a troll and a bit of a weirdo generally helps in this case. Being able to smell and taste colors feels more plausible with Homestuck than it does in more realistic fiction. It may also help if she displayed a propensity toward synesthesia or just general color associations before losing her vision. This would show that there are already many ways to experience the world that are not only about making up for the inability to see colors. For example, she might experience day-color synesthesia through developmental synesthesia before losing her vision. She could also experience color-taste synesthesia, which might include smell since taste involves smell.

Developmental synesthesia is more common than acquired, making her more likely to have had the ability to smell and taste colors since birth rather than it being associated with losing her vision. While it could be argued that her brain could be trying to create stimulus for her when her eyes no longer provide it, she would more likely experience some synesthesia initially rather than acquiring it.

The page I linked above does have a section on squired synesthesia, although it is less consistent and instead associated with brain changes. This means that if Terezi (and Emma from the book I mentioned, for that matter) had brain changes, it might make sense for them to acquire synesthesia. However, this causes a few issues:

-blindness would be caused by a traumatic brain injury to specific areas of the brain that coordinate vision, such as according to this page on TBI and total blindness. “Blindness can come from a penetrating injury like a gun shot or a non-penetrating injury like a blast in combat. It can also be a result of an injury to the back of the head — like from a fall — that destroys or damages an area that coordinates signals between the brain and the eyes. In this case, the eyes could be perfectly normal, but the function in the brain allowing the eyes and brain to communicate would be damaged and no longer work.”

-In this case, her eyes would probably be fine, although unable to communicate with her brain

-A traumatic brain injury would account for her blindness and maybe acquired synesthesia, although I don’t know what injuries area would specifically lead to acquired synesthesia, although you probably wouldn’t have to explain this much aside from explaining about a TBI

-this still leaves the issue of smelling and tasting colors as a way of making up for blindness, which is as much of a problem as negating it altogether

Whether you use actual synesthesia is up to you. However, I think showing an inclination toward this association of colors with other senses would be helpful in dispelling the ideas that all totally blind people have this ability and that blind people need something to make up for their blindness.

About Making Up For Blindness

Sometimes, characters receiving powers or devising a special way to see colors can feel like an ableist assumption that blind people are bereft without colors. The same goes for faces. I have written a few posts that might contain relevant information on these topics.

While blind people do care about colors, I feel that someone the way sighted writers focus on colors does blind characters a disservice. Blind people can lead rich and fulfilling lives without constantly wishing they could see colors or faces or whatever. Sometimes the way it is written feels inauthentic or as if sighted people cannot imagine being happy without seeing colors, cannot be happy without sight.

Accessibility

While she might lick her computer screen or other objects to taste colors, you can also focus on accessibility needs. Just because she can taste colors doesn’t mean she can read text or signs on the street. She can’t read menus at restaurants, although online pictures of food might be an interesting experience.

Consider what other tools she might use. Since you mentioned computers, something like JAWS could work or a Braille display. She could use text to speech on her phone, such as VoiceOver or TalkBack. Perhaps she writes and reads Braille, enjoying the tactile experience, which would be in line with her other sensory experiences with smell and taste from the canon material.

From there, you could also explore what eating food is like for her. What about cooking or baking? What about candles or bonfires?

What other sensory experiences are important to her and why? Does she prefer certain textures in her space? She will lose her sense of time, so does she eat certain foods to signal to her brain and body that it is time to sleep? Does her routine change to instill a sense of time so her rhythm isn’t messed up or does she say screw it and go to bed on her own schedule?

These are all things to consider that might enrich her character after see becomes blind.

Cane Use and Navigation

Cane use allows for easier navigation and route memorization. Using one would also help her benefit from others recognizing her as a blind person. Stairs are also much easier with a cane. Since she already has one in canon, you can have her use it more in everyday life.

Cane as a Weapon

While this is canon, I’m not super happy about it. Canes housing weapons inside them or being used as weapons sounds cool, but is ultimately as an overused, unrealistic trope.

A cane is not a weapon. The idea that it could be can cause problems for blind people just trying to go about their day.

A weapon, such as a sword, inside a cane would mess up navigation, vibration, and make it impossible to fold or unfold. Depending on how the weapon is designed might also be unable to fit inside the cane.

I also probably don’t have to mention that a stability cane is not the same type of cane. You could address this with different descriptions of the cane.

Focusing on navigation over weaponry might help reduce some of the issues with cane use in canon. Navigation is also still important in battle, which is another reason I don’t personally like canes as weapons. While a folded cane would do in a pinch to smack an enemy, the blind character still needs their cane to navigate.

Go ahead and let her be a sword-wielding badass, though.

Traumatic, Accident-, or Incident-Based Blindness

Traumatic accident or incident based blindness tend to be over-represented in fiction. While blindness can be acquired, this is usually due to concerns such as glaucoma, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, etc. Other causes are often work-related injuries.

Since her being blinded is part of canon, I don’t think there is much you can do to address it other than explore her feelings toward her friends and her blindness. It may be connected to trauma, but you can make this better by instead focusing on friendship and betrayal, rather than angst about her blindness. If you happen to have any other characters you could use, other blind characters who haven’t gone blind through traumatic incidents could help show a variety of experiences.

Other Blind Characters and Community

Blind characters having access to their community is important. I think having a community could make it easier for her to cope with the sudden change in her life and help her learn how to be blind.

Making Your Work Accessible

Since the source material is not always accessible, it might help to include explanations, summaries, or image descriptions of the source material in your fan work.

The Blind Seer Trope

I have written a few posts on this topic that might help. However, I think this case is okay. She isn’t the only future seer. As long as the visions don’t negate or make up for her blindness, you’re probably good. Lastly, while I don’t know what forms her visions take, I think it helps if her visions don’t require, well, actual sight, nor give her sight she wouldn’t already have.

Closing

The thoughts you included about your writing so far sound good to me. I know from the points you’ve considering already that you’re going to write her blindness with care. While canon can sometimes be hard to navigate, fanfic also gives you a chance to explore and subvert these problems. You can also include your concerns in notes along with your story.

I hope this helps. If anyone has other thoughts, feel free to share in the notes.

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Entrapta from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

- btw this isn't even all the submission notes, I can't physically fit them all on one slide. Entrapta-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Entrapta in the bottom right corner, she has her welding mask down and is surrounded by robots. There are also text boxes around her which read,

"im sure you already know this but she's canonically autistic!!! entrapta has trouble connecting with people, and is just really geeky and i love her <33"

"has trouble understanding social cues and prefers to keep to herself because of it. gets wrapped up in her special interest (mechanical engineering), etc!!!"

"she is sososososo autistic coded. I think it's been confirmed by a showrunner on twitter but not positive. techy girl with issues understanding people and only eats tiny food"

"It's canon baby"

"CANONICALLY AUTISTIC HELL YEAH"

"Her personality was literally modeled after a member of the crew that is autistic. She is canonically autistic"

"I think she is literally canonically autistic? Or at least the creators say she was written as such. She just really loves her machines and talking with people is hard and she "doesn't fit in" (code for autistic)"

"It's actually been confirmed by the showrunners for one. Second, her hyper-fixations are clear and more than just 'wacky quirky.' She is focused to the point of amoral behavior and a severely limited sense of self-preservation at times. The show even went so far as to address her feelings about all this near the finalé."

"It’s her everything. Also she’s not only word-of-god can only autistic, but she was based off an autistic woman (who I believe also did most of the writing for her.)"

"1) LOOK AT HER 2) she likes robots 3) doesnt get people 4) she's JUST like me fr"

"I saw someone say that this was confirmed canonically, but I'm unsure as to how true that is. It's been a while since I've watched the show, but I remember really liking Entrapta and connecting to her. I liked the scene where she said something along the lines of the "You actually want to her about my research?! :D!!! I've waited so long to talk about it!" Really relatable to how I feel about my special interests and my own infodumping. I can't think of more examples since it's been so long since I watched it, but she was really cool and definitely autistic!!!"

"Hyperfocus on her special interest, electronics. Only eats tiny food. Really bad at reading other peoples' intentions."

"She doesn’t get people but she gets tech and she just thought she could use tech to get people to like her but she just messed that up too AND I JUST LOVE HER SHES SO ME"

"Obsessed with robots, tiny food, writer on the show who help fleshed her out is autistic too and gave lots of pointers to the other writers on how to better portray her and her autism. A genuinely good character too"

"She hyperfixaes on technology, will info dump, has certain food preferences such as she can only eat little food, is not great at picking up social cues and also the writers confirm she was written to be Autistic."

"Everything about her <3"

"She struggles to befriend others and can only relate to the emotions and struggles of others via her special interest (robotics), she is consistently treated as other by the cast because she is "weird", and she misses out on social cues incredibly often throughout the show." End ID.]