So, a disability-related thing that annoys me

[terajk]

 (I'd call this a "trope" but I've only noticed it twice so far. I may not be looking in the right place.)

I've seen this thing in both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Soul Eater, where there are a) several disabled characters, b) themes about the importance of friendship and trust, and c) villains associated with paranoia, because they are Bad.

WTF?

Comments

[recessional]

I think the issue is the sequence goes "being an evil backstabber CAUSES paranoia, because you expect the same back", rather than "paranoia is evil".

Still results in an unfortunate thing. Clearly the appropriate response is to write good people with paranoia.

*looks at own work* . . . I think I've got that one.

[terajk]

I think the issue is the sequence goes "being an evil backstabber CAUSES paranoia, because you expect the same back", rather than "paranoia is evil".

I agree wrt. ATLA, totally--although in Soul Eater, it is more "paranoia is evil." In the series, there are partnerships between warriors and their humanoid weapons. The Big Bad was so afraid of his own weapon that he ate it, which is related to his Start of Darkness. He's also a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination who embodies the Madness of Fear. (There's an embodiment of the Madness of Order, too, who's pretty awesome and a fabulous subversion of Lovecraftian mad gods.) The Big Bad's portrayed more sympathetically/his disability is taken more seriously than Lovecraft would have done, but still.

Clearly the appropriate response is to write good people with paranoia.

Hell, yeah.

*looks at own work* . . . I think I've got that one.

HELL, YEAH. :D

[recessional]

IT'S ALMOST LIKE I AM PARANOID IN CERTAIN WAYS OR SOMETHING. *ahem*

[terajk]

♥

I'm pretty introverted in Real Life; I don't spend much time with other people and don't care to. I'm still awkward with people I know very well. On the one hand, the chosen family thing appeals to me a lot; on the other, it would be nice if the characters who didn't want/like the chosen family thing weren't bad.

[recessional]

I write a lot of chosen family, but even then they tend to be small chosen families that wind up together for a reason, full of prickly people with hair-triggers for whom part of being in a chosen family is the fact that nobody will accidentally ask them about that time in Reno they don't ever want to talk and/or think about again, or acknowledge exists. Or how nobody ever asks them about why they hate flowers. And everyone understands why they jump three feet in the air if you walk behind them without making a noise.

[sholio]

Yeah, I think I'd agree with recessional that it's probably meant to be villain lifestyle factors causing paranoia, rather than people being evil because they suffer from paranoia as a mental illness. Which doesn't make the Unfortunate Implications any less unfortunate, however. (ETA: Though now I've read your answer to recessional, and Soul Eater is not a canon I'm familiar with, so I'll definitely take your word for it!)

[terajk]

But you and recessional are mostly right, though! It's just that Soul Eater is weird. There's another character who's afraid of all new things, including other people, but then learns to trust people and becomes "good." Back when this person didn't trust them--not because they were the villain, but because they were badly *abused* by a villain--they were an antagonist. Then there's someone else whose alignment is technically "good" but is pretty dangerous and scary. He's a teacher who has to work really hard not to dissect everything--including his students. (He seems to find less fatal outlets for his sadistic tendencies, like writing really hard exams). This is considered "madness" and when the Big Bad sends out madness wavelengths which stir the madness already within people, he has a psychotic episode and other people have to keep him safe. He's still "good" and saves the day and all...but you've still got psychosis associated with someone who likes to cut people up now and then.

And I like this series! I like THESE PEOPLE! No, I don't make any sense at all.

[recessional]

I think on reflection that both sides of it come from a valid place - one, being evil can make you paranoid; two, being scared of things beyond reason can lead you to do Stupid, Stupid Shit that comes back to bite you later.

Like so many other things, it's the hugely-weighted-to-the-one-side that's at issue, in that there are reasons to be paranoid or scared that are totally valid, and there are ways of living with paranoia that do not lead to one being a mass murderer.