Urban Cripple

Are My Disabled Characters With Magical Enhancements Problematic?

Jul 06, 2018
I have several characters who lost a limb or 2 or 3 who get some type of magical substitute — sometimes it works like a prosthetic, more often it’s main function is to be used as a weapon; I have a character whose new legs work as both, and another that are only as a weapon (think kicking someone in the face but your feet turns into a blade and you slice their head off) and outside of battles she uses a wheelchair and doesn’t want to change the new legs and that’s it, there’s no angst around, is like personal preference based on just some people can want something one way, and other in a different way, and it’s not my place to create some kind of deeper answer like it’s been suggested by able bodied acquaintances for something I never experienced; but I worry I shouldn’t just leave it as some of the characters only seeing the new limbs as the weapons they are, and only using like so, even if some do upgrade them for day to day use.

I have all my limbs so I can’t really speak to what might be exactly wrong with the types of characters you’re creating.

However, I am certain that a lot of folks who use prosthetic devices would find the idea of “magic weaponized limb replacement” to be problematic. The whole “there are no real disabilities because magic” thing is a trope and one that is best to be avoided.

Anon provided this followup:

just an addition: about “magic weaponized limb replacement” and “there are no real disabilities”, it’s a recurring circumstance that all the characters, able or not, get somehow bent magically into a weapon or a tool because they’re literally being used/ forced to play a part, so a limb that works as weapon, like a pair of legs, could literally not work as actual legs and become useless outside of battles — the point of them is not to solve the disability but to use the person.