Another thing I find irritating, he was born without creativity or imagination and yet somehow became scientist who discovered revolutionary things about biology. I hate works that reinforce the idea that there is no imagination all creativity involved in the sciences. That people do you think for a living do so without engaging the most important tools our brains possess
Good point, I never really noticed that before but you’re right, scientists are often portrayed as totally “right brained” (not sure if that’s even a real thing?) but to be a scientist you would likely have some fascination with the world around you or the beauty of some subject. Much like artists do.
@@bloop6111 Not only that but in order to work out something new you need to approach it from a new direction. For example if you look at the Cavendish experiment, it takes a really creative an active mind to work out that if you do this you can use it to determine how strong gravity is. Obviously replicating it Doesn’t involve much imagination working down in the first place does
I think if u want to make a disabled villain, thats fine, but making their disability their sole reason for being a villain isnt. Also another way to have a disabled villain but keep away from the idea of disability causes villainy, is to have multiple disabled characters. Have a disabled good guy as well. Its really something i wish i saw more of. It seems like most media that has a disabled character only has one disabled character. Like "oop we got this one disabled person. Thats all the disability this world needs." Edit: i just realized i left a very similar comment on the most recent video. Guess my opinion on this is very strong. I rlly love good disabled villains cause it contradicts the "poor innocent disabled child that can do no wrong"
I only Just got into watching these videos, but it also seems like one of the only "examples" of an invisible disability. And they do That to it ....having just written that i remembered that he visually looked different, so i still dont know of any invisible disability rep.
I think making their disability their reason for being a villain only works when you can actually sympathize with the character. Either their goal has to be in finding a cure so no one else has to suffer the way they did or they need to specifically target characters who use to bully them. When they start going after other people for no reason who were only trying to help them then it stops being relatable. The search for a cure also can stop being relatable if they're causing harm to others just to selfishly cure themselves as it shows they have no real sympathy for other people. A good way to do the "finding a cure" story that I've actually seen a couple of times is when the "villain" is trying to force the cure on people who may not actually want to be cured. Having a "hero" who's also disabled showing the other side of that argument and I'm using the terms hero and villain very loosely here as I think both sides are more of a grey area neither is really good or bad, but to take or not take a cure should be a choice, even if your intentions are good forcing something on someone who doesn't want it is bad. The whole getting revenge on a bully thing, the best stories I've seen that do this is when the villain eventually realize that they've become the very thing they hated in the first place. I like when a villain can be redeemed some how. But making the villain an irredeemable generic bad guy, if you're going to do that there's no reason for them to even be disabled at all. That's just lazy writing and shows there wasn't much thought put in beyond just disabled = evil which is just pretty ablest thinking. If anything society is the villain for mistreating the disabled to a point where crime is literally their only option to survive in the world. It's basically a self fulfilling prophecy, if you treat someone as a criminal when they've done nothing wrong eventually they may actually become a villain but if you treat them with the same decency and respect as everyone else then they won't. Making a story a commentary on society and how they treat people could also make it work if done right. But those types of stories can also get overly preachy. It has to be done in a way that lets the audience draw their own conclusions and figure out the message on their own cause if you're too direct with the message people are more likely to reject it and hate the story as being too political. If you don't spell it out for them in some big preachy monologue and instead let the story speak for itself they're more likely to come to the conclusion on their own and actually being more open to change.
That exactly my thing to I have special needs and I have dreams of working with Disney to create a Disney Princess movie where the Princess, Prince and Villain all have Down’s syndrome. I was thinking of the plot being that one of the good guys go to find the villain to change them because they think society shaped them into what them are and redem them. But the villain explains in their villain song that they don’t care what society thinks because they view everyone even their bullies equal as scum and beneath them. And they just a pure evil psychopath because they just are like most Disney villians. This would lead to the conflict of the movie as the good guy indirectly endangered them people and they will have to confront their internalized ableism.
I mean, depends on what you mean by making their disability their reason for their villainy. Like this case is clearly messed up but I think it’s all right if their disability is the reason in the sense that they’re an antagonist/villain because they were mistreated for it and they want revenge.
I always found it weird that they made the uncreative one a scientist who becomes obsessed with research, because at least for me, I know a lot of people who love science who are super creative and I doubt he could’ve done most of what he did without creativity. Not to mention that with the coding he has it almost reads to me like disabled people can’t be creative which is just objectively untrue throughout history.
Viceroy’s backstory and set up is interesting, if only it wasn’t butchered by the disability thing. So anyone who doesn’t have artistic ability are disabled??? Literally just a scientist mad with research from observation would have been better! Or maybe had a palid child they were trying to “fix,” at least then that villain you can cut any sympathy for and all hate him (still has to be well written) I’m someone who has amphantasia, I cannot see mental images (think of a computer running with the monitor is off.) So, the “born without creativity” kinda hurts me as it can be hard to get my ideas out of my head without having the proper image as reference. Not all of us have creativity and inspiration come to us easily.
It's also "creativity" as defined by neurotypical people. Like sure you don't imagine things, but I believe everyone has the capacity for creative thought and it saddens me that the NT dominant class convinces some ND they're not creative just for not being creative via a NT-approved script.
I don't have amphantasia, but my brain doesn't work in mental images. I can summon them, I just don't tend to. I have no use for them. I do most of my thinking as words. I remember hearing an interview from the turf herself where she complained the actors didn't match the image she had of the characters in her mind and I was a little confused as to why she had mental images of the characters. I am pretty obviously not a good artist. But I can write. And by my own metric I think I write quite well. My highschool english grades would certainly attest to that fact.
I think if Viceroy was written better and as a 3 dimensional character it could’ve worked so well. I just wish his backstory was more for sympathetic reasons. And the child thing would be very interesting. Maybe he wants to “””fix”””” his child from being a palid because he doesn’t want him to experience the same hatred. Think This new version of Viceroy like mr. freeze. A sympathetic dude who just wants their loved one to get better but still does awful things to get to that. Maybe he’s desperate and so anxious about making his child “””normal”””. And by the end he has to accept his child and himself being palid. It would be like me and my mother actually. My mother has the same anxiety disorder I do. And yet she doesn’t know how to deal with it or accept it in herself or others. And Chadam (I think it was chadam?) remarking that they wouldn’t let this happen again would mean that he would make sure people treated people born palid with respect and love. But that was never going to happen. Viceroy was always going to be a 1 dimensional character. That’s the problem with this show in general. I really don’t like how they did Chadam. He is just every generic anime boy protagonist. And his voice is SO generic. Maybe if they had taken the approach of hollow knight or little nightmares approach with Chadam where he doesn’t talk or if he does it’s very little like Mono. Because no matter what I feel like voice you give Chadam. Some of the fans won’t like because he’s such a popular character. Everyone has their own idea on how he would sound. Right now he just sounds like generic angsty teen. I do find his relationship with the weird muppet looking child though really wholesome. I think it would be cute if the reason the child was so inspired to draw was because of Chadam being an artist. And he always want to get pointers and help from Chadam on how to improve. Kind of a brother sister bond. That’s just cute. I wish it was more developed. It could’ve kind of been like tails and sonic from the new sonic movie. Just a little kid inspired from her big brother to be just as great as him. This series had so much potential with its characters but unfortunately they butchered their only chance.
It would have been amazing if they had made the villain a parent of a disabled child obsessed with "fixing" their child and the child is fine and just needs love and understanding.
I can't see mental images, and have no mental voice, but my friends often say i'm one of the most creative people I know at least with my ability to "get shit done". If you really don't have artistic ability, that's totally fine, but you might have some that others just have stopped you from developing. I want you to know that. Or hey you might have it and just no interest in it, and that's fine too.
“Ah yes I’m going to take off this mask and eat the glowing green marble I just got from someone’s still living body because it does look pretty tasty im sure eating a vital organ from one of my patients won’t go to shit really fast.”
Another thing itching at me about this series is that they seem to frame viceroy eating the creativity glands as akin to medication and framing it as unnatural and villifying it at every turn. Granted, these are glands harvested from living people so obviously it is written to be horrific, but the allegory is there. Viceroy eats the glands to feel better and make him more "normal" like everyone else, and he has to take them often or the side effects will wither. It also doesn't help that him taking the glands is also portrayed as him being addicted to them, a fear that many able-bodied people have projected onto disabled people taking their own medication. It's just kind of nasty all around
This! I’m an insomniac. So, I depend on my nighttime medication so I can fall asleep at night. If I skip my dose more than a day or two I can’t go to bed on my own. I need rest just like everyone else, I just need help to get it is all. I’m also on the Autism spectrum. So, I also have an history of “failing to properly” socialize with my peers.
As an ND science nerd who was terribly bullied in my youth, I find this particularly relevant given the (again topical) discourse on mental illness and school shootings in the US. Every time some horrible excuse for a human being shoots up a school, rather than realize America has a gun culture that both enables and effectively promotes this shit and absolutely should be dismantled, people inevitably say bullying, social isolation, and mental illness are the explanation; not guns. Which is a slap in the face to all the people who are mentally ill and/or ND and have experienced bullying only to now be told that abled neurotypicals think that such an experience would somehow lead a person to commit crimes against humanity. (I for one, am actually studying to be a school psychologist to try to protect ND/mentally ill kids from the bullying I suffered). But yeah. I just... This really seems to mirror the vibe of the current discourse on American gun violence and it's disheartening. Thanks for posting. Your videos are always so informative and enlightening
Seriously the statements of 'Mental Health' causes people to be mass shooters drives me up a wall. I am neurodivergent myself and I try to explain to people that even if mental health WAS the issue (and it clearly is not) the logical way to fix that would be making society open to them and to not reject them, that way they wouldn't feel the need to lash out/get revenge... In reality I feel the issue is systemic racism, toxic masculinity, and far right nationalism mixed with easy access to fire arms.
I wonder when I'll receive my gold stars for NOT shooting up my old school where I was horrifically bullied to the point of getting PTSD from the experience. My teacher I think was a full-on nazi, or a kind of eugenicist in her thinking, I talked to her about the bullying and only got some cryptic nonsense from her about "nature's law is the strong above the weak" or some shit like that. She was telling me if I didn't like bullying not to complain to her, who was literally the one responsible for it, but to become stronger and "stand up for myself" which is not something autistic people do well/easily. Also my autism wasn't caught in elementary school bc "quiet shy awkward girls are CUTE" and omg. The fact that I didn't become a pint-sized terrorist still astounds me. For this whole "guns vs mental illness/bullying" thing, school shootings are an issue of children having access to guns when they shouldn't, clearly that's caused by guns being owned so often by parents. And those parents are often white people hoarding weapons in their private cult compound like McMansions because they're scared of brown people. BUT OTOH I like whenever the mainstream media is also FORCED to discuss bullying, social isolation, and mental health in schools, I just wish it could be in a context that didn't also villify people like me.
@@naomistarlight6178 "Stand up for yourself" *fights back against bullies* *gets in trouble* God I hate that statement... in highscool I punched a bully of my in the face and got suspended for a few days, because I had a 'clean record' before that. But like y'all say, stand up for yourself, but not in anyway that makes it stop... even then it shouldn't be my place to do it you are the adult moderating children you fix it!
I mean you have to be really messed up to shoot something up and to take the lives of innocents, that’s not something a completely sane individual would do. America has a gun problem, but it’s not like the guns are whispering to the individual to commit atrocities. I’m autistic, come from a nightmare childhood, was bullied etc, and it’s annoying how the blame shifts but the problem requires nuance. It’s not just the guns and it’s not just the circumstances of the individuals life. What should really be disheartening is that everyone thinks they have the answer but they barely understand the question.
As an artist with aphantasia, I'd say you can teach yourself a craft of art and there are logical theories why arts work and how they affect the audience. I really don't like the separation of uwu emotional artists and stoic logical scientists
I hate the mainstream idea that disabled people lack creativity. I am an Aspie, as well as a science major and someone who does art as a hobby. Having skills and knowledge in both art and science is possible. I feel like me and many other autistic people gravitate to science because society constantly fails to answer existential questions we have about ourselves and our lonely place in society, and to fully accept people who simply think differently. Science is about facts, everything has a pattern, and it is a constant in a socially confusing, chaotic world. It explains things and makes them make sense in a clear, logical way. Its not evil to want to focus on scientific facts to figure out why you are the way you are. And I would love to be normal and experience a Neurotypical social life, but without my Aspergers, I wouldn't be me, and I wouldn't be able to hyperfocus on things as much or visualize things in my head as well. In a way, I'm grateful for my Aspergers rather than completely resentful of it.
To me , ND people are the most creative people out there. The number of artists I found out has ADHD or synesthesia, is autistic, dyslexic is insane XD
considering i recognized the chadam character from that one The Used album(?)... guitar hero seems to do the "large corporation sucking life out of talented stars" infinitely better than this. i didn't even consider the fame allegory in viceroy's backstory; it really does just feel like a shot at neurodivergent/disabled people. my goodness ,':^/
Another recent example of disability turning someone evil is Morbius. Both Morbius and the antagonist Milo inject themselves with vampire bat DNA in order to cure their rare blood disease. The effects are only temporary and can only be sustained by drinking blood. Morbius is able to skirt around the issue for a while by drinking artificial blood that he invented, but he knows that his thirst for actual blood will eventually take over. Milo on the other hand is just like: "F*ck it. I'm tired of being disabled. Let's go eat some people" for no other reason other than to give Morbius someone to fight in the climax. Not only is that lazy writing, but it's also yet another example of disability being used as a villain motif. I would love to hear your personal thoughts on this one.
I'm fine with it in the sense of "Is this moral to hurt others for my own benefit." I don't like when disabilities are the reason why someone is a villain, as if it's a brain thing. I can imagine it as a motivator but you gotta be careful with it.
If Morbius is a rich Doctor, why doesn't he just pay people to give a pint of their blood to him. Why feed on synthetic blood when you could just give people 50 bucks for a pint of blood. Open a blood bank, set up blood drives, anything would be better than just draining people without a second thought.
I was on the fence about this guy until you mentioned it wasn't a "sympathy villain". Him eating the glands sounds more like substance abuse that him trying to "fix himself" to me, but I can definitely see both sides.
Strangely, Viceroy reminds me of real life serial killers and their 'research.' In reality it is just an excuse to live out dark, cruel, childish fantasies and the 'research' is a smokescreen to give themselves some validity that they aren't childish monsters. But this would only work if there were other pallids who weren't monsters like Viceroy. Give us other pallids who are able to function in society, who are no evil. And show how people like Viceroy do nothing but make the stigma against them worse.
There's a lot of fascinating history behind the fictional portrayal of monsters, it always seems to be tied to this notion that people who look different than the standard model of human we think of as "normal" are scary or suspicious.
I appreciate how your analysis has got me thinking. I'm not just watching isolated critiques; these episodes build toward a more comprehensive understanding of these issues. Thinking back on some of the other analysis vids you've done and it frustrates me how these stories "reward" good people with a cure for their disability, while evil people are often punished looking for a cure. Like, disabled folks require a blood sacrifice or incur terrible side effects, just to get slightly better treatment options. But, able-bodied people can just magically bestow a (no-strings-attached) cure upon them? Also, it's just incredibly aggravating that disabled characters are cast as evil scientists. Despite, disabled people often being the victims of unethical experimentation.
I see someone created Viktor before Riot did. I don't know how I should feel about that. It is a mixture of "Should I even be surprised" and "How the fk did you manage to mix up your metaphors so badly"
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this beautiful little animated short film called Eggplant. It's about this boy who has this disability where he naturally pulls the wrong facial expressions for the emotions he's feeling. I've always adored it but recently i rediscovered it and fell in love with it all over again because i realised that, while it's not a clean cut one to one, i think it succeeds at being a nice metaphor for autism and how or why autistic people learn to mask. Honestly i just want someone else to know this short film exists lol, it deserves so much more recognition. On TH-cam it's uploaded as: A young boy is born with facial expressions that show the opposite of what he's feeling. | Eggplant
I am fine with disabled Villain’s because it deters the idea we are all saints /innocent “children”. But when it relies on derogatory stereotypes that perpetuates an idea of disabled people being inherently evil linked to missshapeliness/Neuro divergence being an indicator of deviance is not OK. You may have a disabled villain but let them have a nuanced backstory ,depth and fresh motivation . Thus must go beyond the idea of curing themselves since that reinforces the stereotype that disabilities need to be cured for the person to be civilized or part of society. Then it’s the idea that you mentioned the part of society erasing them instead of actually acknowledging the systems that lead to this outcome. It is irritating and devastating to see this because it’s blaming the individual rather than the environment. No one is born evil/bad often they are taught that behaviour or moulded into it by their environment thanks to exposure.
I thought Psychonauts handled it well? After all, we see many character in the. Hum. Psychiatrist hospital (sorry if this isn't the right word, english isn't my language). And most of them are perfectly nice characters. The only ones that are doing bad things -the milkman and dr loboto- are being used by the antagonist. He litteraly used his psychonaut power to twist their mind to his will. Same in Psychonauts 2, Dr Loboto go his mind twisted by the antagonist, but isn't a bad character by itself.
I just wanted to mention this but I wasn't exactly sure what video to do it on so I'll just say it here: The show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is really good with disabilities imo. One of the "second" main character group is actually a pegasus who can't fly, and in the movie there's a character with a prosthetic leg. It's never really mentioned in the movie, she just has one and that's it.
0:22 that is so relatable. I personally like to use your videos since I recently found your channel, but I’ll eventually watch every single one of your videos.
Hi, I really love your videos. I noticed that you said you have ADD and if ADD is your preferred lable and you already know all this I'm sorrt. I have ADHD, and I just wanted to say that ADD is an outdated term and no longer up to date in the DSM5. It's just ADHD now. Even if someone, like both you and I were diagnosed with ADD or ADHD inattentive type and do not present the hyperactive symptoms outwardly it is still called ADHD now. Our hyperactivity is internal, the mind racing and jumping from thing to thing at a rapid pace, the impulsive thoughts we do not follow through with, etc. There's a really good channel called How To ADHD that has so much great amazing information about the disorder. Again, sorry if ADD is your preferred lable
I genuinely did not know that. My actual diagnosis, as it was described to me by my then-psychologist two years ago is "autism with traits of ADD" so I don't know if she phrased it like that just because my main thing is autism or because I we don't live in the US...
@@Oakwyrm I'm not in the US either, it's a relatively recent change in the DSM5 that better facilitates the diagnosis of girls and adults as we more commonly show inattentive traits due to soicital conditioning and learned masking. A lot of doctors are surprisingly under educated about ADHD unless they specialise. There's a really good channel called How To ADHD that has a ton of really good, contantly updating information on ADHD and various coping mechanisms if that could be interesting for you
@@ella9310 & @Oakwyrm Well, actually -- you are both right. So feel free to enjoy (or not) this infodump about some details of medical diagnostic and insurance codes, labels & definitions. (can you tell that categorizations and taxonomies are a special interest of mine? ;-) At the WHO website we find the International Classification of Disease, 11th revision (the current, from 2018 and updated this year). This is the diagnostic & insurance codes, labels and diagnostic criteria database / list that is used in most countries, also in Finland (though the DSM has also always been taken into account and used as an additional sounding board for our Käypä Hoito / God medisinsk praxis / Current Care Guidelines). The full name of the WHO database / list is: "ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (ICD-11 MMS)" To find the specifics about ADHD, we go to the menu frame on the left of the ICD-11 main page and click open: 06 Mental, behavioural or neurodevelopmental disorders then, under it, we click open: 6A05 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Here we find these clinical presentation specifiers (sort of "subtypes" of ADHD): 6A05.0 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive presentation (this is still in practice often called "ADD" or "ADHD-I" for short, including by professionals) 6A05.1 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation (this is often called just "ADHD" though technically that is not entirely accurate -- but ADHD-H would seem rather silly) 6A05.2 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined presentation (sometimes called "ADHD-C" and to be exact I should use ADHD-C myself. I have thus far just said ADHD, though, because it has been easier as people think they know what that means and don't ask too many questions. Hmm... so maybe I _should_ start using ADHD-C to nudge people to realize that they maybe don't know as much about ADHD as they have thus far believed...) Similarly, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) calls all ADHD just ADHD but also specifies three presentations: 314.01 (F90.2) Combined presentation: If both Criterion A1 (inattention) and Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) are met for the past 6 months. 314.00 (F90.0) Predominantly inattentive presentation: If Criterion A1 (inattention) is met but Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) is not met for the past 6 months. 314.01 (F90.1) Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive presentation: If Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) is met and Criterion A1 (inattention) is not met for the past 6 months. In Finland, the recommendation in Current Care Guidelines (hoi50061 from 2019) is that only the code F90.0 should be used and the presentation should be described with words. So yes, we are all now called just ADHD, and yes, the three different presentations are still acknowledged and taken into account when a diagnosis is determined. /infodump Signed: Your friendly ADHD-C & autistic ex-nurse
Lovely video! :D This is super important to discuss, even if a niche series, cuz the trope itself is extremely wide-spread! I mean, othering a character is one of the keystone ways of making a villian villianous to audiences (be they queer-coded, disabled-coded, etc.), and I feel like we're at a point where we should be well past it! Icky!
this very much feels like a student final project because we are now in our final project and a lot of people who had good story ideas those were either shut down for "being to complex" or butchered while making because of stress. It is hard to believe but teachers criticizing complex story is oddly very normal. plus a lot of student will start to realize that they need to finish the final up and worry in the end more about the grade. which I get because my group is in the same boat, we had to cut down on our story and mechanics. It is very bland now but will get us a passing grade. and that is what this story feels like. students that had something cool and complex in mind, get criticized for that, have to cut down because of time until it becomes a hallow grossly simplified story were the message gets lost. I could be completely wrong but yeah.
The villain (Who I'll call Scientist) of this series reminds me a lot of a worse-written version of Toga from My Hero Academia. Both of them are born with something that causes them to be an outcast from society; Scientist was born missing a Gland, and Toga was born with a superpower that caused her to have a natural fascination with blood and dead things ("something that society wouldn't accept at all"). Scientist is disabled, and Toga can very, very, very, easily be read as neurodivergent. Both were rejected by society, which was ultimately what caused them to be so damaged in the first place. Where I think Toga is more well-written is how her backstory makes her more sympathetic and is specifically shown to challenge the system. Toga had a natural fascination with blood and dead things, and society scolded her for it. Her parents even said, "why can't you just be a normal girl?". She probably did wonder why she was different and struggled to make friends. She was taught to mask her tendencies and to act normal (easily read as ADHD/Autistic Masking), until she couldn't mask it anymore, attacking a student (an attack that could've easily been avoided) and going on the run. Although what really makes it better in my eyes is when she says that her world IS normal, which is something that neurodivergent people never hear, constantly being told over and over again that they're broken, that they're different, sometimes treated like they're not even human. Sorry for making this post so long
I agree with you on this one this is really irresponsibly written. It’s tiring and quite awful that they deliberately have a villain who is disabled and born that way and that’s why he’s the villain. And then not only compare ability with creativity, but a few other things that just overall make this a vile representation.
Your videos really help put understanding to things like this that I might see and think it “feels wrong” but not know why exactly. Like you have definitely influenced the way I take in media and led me to notice these tropes more. Thanks for doing what you do :)
I watched the series shortly after it came out and I was horrified how they butchered my boi. The whole story just felt so ... off! There was always something that bothered me about it and I knew it wasn't just the cliché getting to me. Thank you for finally pointing out what was bugging me all this time. Now that it was finally put into words I know why I hated it so much. They could've had SUCH a good story with this here but they completely donked it up and it's upsetting to see how bad it really is in hindsight. They could've made it a simple "mad scientist" thing but noooo. Effin hell. Thank you for the video. I jumped and squeeled when I saw the title card because you making this video, about this nieche thing I have had a love-hate relationship with for so long, just makes me so so happy. Thank you Maybe, once they see this, they'll be motivated to remedy this story with a comic or something. We can hope.
This reminds me a bit of The Queen of Hearts in Burtons Alice... she too is a villain who has become villainous because of the way society treated her, but none of the failings of society are addressed. It's like... she's evil because she's born with a riddiculously big head and it's completely normal that people are making fun of her because of that... like... no introspection at all. While what she does is evil, I could at least understand where she's coming from, but the movie totally doesn't. They put up her sister to be the "good" sister, when she's the one who lacks compassion and is really horrible if you just take a moment to think about it. Had society been kinder to both of them, they might have grown up to be good and respectable people instead. I mean... he was clearly talented in science... which makes me wonder how he did it when suposedly you need a gland to be good at something... he might have invented something to help others if only given the chance to be part of society
Bits and pieces of the villain's backstory reminds me of Thanos' backstory. Thanos was born different from how his people were, and his mother didn't want him and tried to kill him when he was just a newborn. When he was a child he did not fit in or had any friends. He grew up attracted to science and life and death. I think Thanos was dissecting animals and other students while he was growing up. He also had the weird fascination with the personification of death. Anyway, your videos was good and reminded me of Thanos, one of Marvel's most popular villain, and made me wonder if Thanos had similar flaws to his background design when compared to the Viceroy. I know Thanos is more thought out and had more opportunities and changes than Viceroy but I still find the similarities in their backstory to be interesting. If I'm wrong, please correct me. Don't be shy, I'm pretty sure I got some stuff wrong.
Ugh THIS trope! As much as I hate the new trend of giving every single villain a backstory and ridiculous "motive" for being evil, I also hate when peoples response to it is "some people are just born bad..." I saw it a lot after Cruella and ummm NO? This claim is literally, scientifically inaccurate XD
i'll be completely honest i thought the gland was straight up going to be some fictional allism gland bc of how strong that coding was. the reveal that it was a creativity gland hit me like a truck. you're telling me this guy is a scientist that did all this research on his own and he's supposed to not have any creativity??? like, with the implication that creativity makes you a good and kind and happy person or whatever it really feels like they tried to demonize a lack of empathy or depression but forgot the words
It's especially a shame I think because it feels like there's potential there for a good story about how mistreatment from the system can lead people into doing bad things- especially if the story actually had disabled good guys too.
I'm happy you're talking about lesser known topics like this- I had never heard of this series before (and now I know it's bad...) but your video was great!
I'm surprised you haven't mentioned this yet but technically hunter from The Owl House can be seen as a disabled character since he cannot do natural magic and needs to rely on a palaceman or artificial magic to use magic
I don't consume a lot of media, mainly animation, so it does make me wonder how many villains I have seen are disabled and how many more are out there. It's rather disappointing that they are so many disabled villains, especially the ones that are made evil because of it.
I thought the gland thing was also an allegory for drugs. Not like actually needed prescription drugs, but like drug abuse. I need prescription drugs and this is very different. Think about it. When he finds this gland and consumes it, he gets a high, you said those words yourself. He then becomes incredibly addicted to this high and does anything he can in order to keep having it. The gland thing is also drug abuse
The message here appears to be "Anybody who doesn't appreciate my artistic genius must be a sub-human Re***d. " Another piece in my "Failed Artist to Fascist Pipeline" theory.
Ok so what I'm about to suggest I Just started watching like a week ago: Star Wars the clones wars (I know there's 12 seasons but for disability stuff) you only have to watch season7 episode 3 and 4 (and possibly more if you like it) Basically the bad guys try and turn this guy into a machine (i don't know if you can call this a form of disability) and now he's trying to unpause his life from and use to the good guys advantage he lost an arm but his prosthetic (I don't know what it's called) can plug into star wars tech like a USB drive and he can see/read the data in his mind I'm hoping g you can do a disability rep video on this guy (if it's able to be called disability)
Great video, it’s so weird to have a setting where a random gland decides your morality. It’s possible there’s some way to make something like that work but simply saying “have gland means good, don’t have gland means bad” just feels a bit too reductive and simple to be that compelling, at least when it’s handled like this. If they really wanted this plot they could at least acknowledge that Viceroy is a victim of societal issues and that he isn’t just evil because he was “born wrong”, I’m sure someone lacking creativity can still be a decent person even if they think very differently. Also, I’m nervous to suggest it again because I don’t want to harass you or come across as obnoxious. I don’t know if you saw my other comments, it’s possible you did and me repeating myself will just be annoying and motivate you to not listen to me, or I’m just overthinking things and no one cares, I mean there’s the people that do the “day xx of asking for ___” so maybe no one cares if you repeat the same suggestion in every comment section. Well, if you’re looking for a suggestion, and if you want me to stop asking I will, I would like to see you make a video covering the TH-cam web series “Epithet Erased” and how it handles disability. There’s a character that struggles with chronic pain and also some implications of PTSD and possible autistic characters, I’d like to see you review what it does right and wrong, if you want to do so.
For viceroy I would rework the story. He can be a spoiled brat of average gland, but he never is ok with being average. He first steals from his family's employees which they cover up but expands out.
May I suggest Emara? One of the main characters is a wheelchair user and it does affects some of his fights. I'm interested how you'd think about it. It's also a fun refreshing animated superhero show i personally genuinely enjoy and it being from the emirates it could be a nice change from the usual western/japanese media. It's only 5 episodes long 10 mins each, and it's available on youtube, just search it up. I do reccomend the informal arabic dub (english caption is available) but english dub is also available.
oh man i remember this show. such a wild ride. not that i intend to defend this show, it's quite clunky in many, many ways, but i would say that it wasn't trying to say disability made viceroy evil. it was the terrible treatment growing up. the writer was simply too inept and ignorant to handle the matter.
Completely unrelated to the video i know but i wanted to ask if you had any thoughts about how disability was handled in the anime dororo since its main plot is about the main character fighting demons to recover the body parts his father sacrificed to them for power I quite like it a lot but as someone not familiar with all the disabilities present in it i don't know if they were represented well or not and hoped you had clearer thoughts about it if you want to share them
... is it sad that I am so oblivious to symbolism that I audibly went "ooooh" to your explanation of what his eating of the creativity glands was meant to represent
Idk if you'd be interested in this topic but there's a lot of disability + mental illness to dissect in the Metal Gear Solid series. In MGSV (Phantom pain), there are at least 2 amputees, multiple characters with PTSD, and a character with DID. As a warning there is a considerable amount of gore (more than the other games for some reason) and some medical malpractice
@@jordanloux3883 That is very true, I was moreso focusing on a mix of physical disability + mental illness (sure big boss in 4 has a prosthetic arm but he appears once)
Hi hello! I actually listened to the video whilst multitasking and didn't feel like I was missing context, but after reading your comment I went back and watched the whole thing again to see if there was any text on-screen I could transcribe for you! Turns out there's no text or anything on the screen, just short clips or still images that are relevent to what's being discussed. In this video, the visuals are: clips from Chadum, drawn still frames of Oakwyrm reacting/speaking, some stock footage at moments, one still of a promotional art of one of the characters in Chadum, and a screenshot of the mentioned Nightmind video (at 2:12). Please let me know if you need any further description of the videos! Accessibility is a special interest of mine, so don't be shy! I hope you have a great day! 💕
I second that. Also, in case you're asking because of 7:54 "And before you try to say I'm reaching, this is literally text", there is no text shown, they just meant it describes literally the story. I know I got confused about that, if that isn't the case for you, sorry for assuming.
Is it ok if I recommend a topic I would like to see you cover? I just think you have cool opinions and I'm curious what you would think about the topic even if I can get a baseline feel from watching some of your other videos. No matter the answer, have a wonderful day!
Go ahead! People have been suggesting topics left, right and center at least since the channel started to grow in earnest a few months back, so why not you, too?
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I just didn't want to bother anyone, still working out some internalized ableism that I put on myself. The game is called 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors or zero escape.
I know this is an older video but hasn’t ADD been pushed into the over all ADHD lable like Apesger was to Autism back in 2013 I know why Asperger’s was referred to its own idenity but I don’t know much on ADD and ADHD- I would only think it’s not a big deal bough defection between the 2 or more research
Very good video like always I’m a new subscriber. And I was just wondering if you’d cover books like the Percy Jackson series And Magnus chase(have a good representation of queer characters and all of the characters that are heroes are confirmed to have ADHD, and I think it would be good for you to get them before Disney does). I also noticed from your videos you seem to shy away from the more raunchy stuff like South Park or big mouth.. which is your prerogative I understand is someone with autism (aspergers) myself i’d rather have the shows that poke fun at everyone even people with a disability then shows that just spew hate for it. (The worst is being coddled). And honestly some of their episodes they handle things better than other Episodes.
Another thing I find irritating, he was born without creativity or imagination and yet somehow became scientist who discovered revolutionary things about biology. I hate works that reinforce the idea that there is no imagination all creativity involved in the sciences. That people do you think for a living do so without engaging the most important tools our brains possess
Hear, hear! As an engineer married to a fellow engineer I really appreciate this comment.
Physicist/artist here, yes! That like, if you can't imagine, abstract and create things you would have a hell of a time.
Good point, I never really noticed that before but you’re right, scientists are often portrayed as totally “right brained” (not sure if that’s even a real thing?) but to be a scientist you would likely have some fascination with the world around you or the beauty of some subject. Much like artists do.
Maybe it’s because of the association with science and the way that laboratories are portrayed? Cold, sterile, colorless.
@@bloop6111 Not only that but in order to work out something new you need to approach it from a new direction. For example if you look at the Cavendish experiment, it takes a really creative an active mind to work out that if you do this you can use it to determine how strong gravity is.
Obviously replicating it Doesn’t involve much imagination working down in the first place does
I think if u want to make a disabled villain, thats fine, but making their disability their sole reason for being a villain isnt. Also another way to have a disabled villain but keep away from the idea of disability causes villainy, is to have multiple disabled characters. Have a disabled good guy as well. Its really something i wish i saw more of. It seems like most media that has a disabled character only has one disabled character. Like "oop we got this one disabled person. Thats all the disability this world needs."
Edit: i just realized i left a very similar comment on the most recent video. Guess my opinion on this is very strong. I rlly love good disabled villains cause it contradicts the "poor innocent disabled child that can do no wrong"
I only Just got into watching these videos, but it also seems like one of the only "examples" of an invisible disability. And they do That to it
....having just written that i remembered that he visually looked different, so i still dont know of any invisible disability rep.
I think making their disability their reason for being a villain only works when you can actually sympathize with the character. Either their goal has to be in finding a cure so no one else has to suffer the way they did or they need to specifically target characters who use to bully them. When they start going after other people for no reason who were only trying to help them then it stops being relatable. The search for a cure also can stop being relatable if they're causing harm to others just to selfishly cure themselves as it shows they have no real sympathy for other people.
A good way to do the "finding a cure" story that I've actually seen a couple of times is when the "villain" is trying to force the cure on people who may not actually want to be cured. Having a "hero" who's also disabled showing the other side of that argument and I'm using the terms hero and villain very loosely here as I think both sides are more of a grey area neither is really good or bad, but to take or not take a cure should be a choice, even if your intentions are good forcing something on someone who doesn't want it is bad.
The whole getting revenge on a bully thing, the best stories I've seen that do this is when the villain eventually realize that they've become the very thing they hated in the first place. I like when a villain can be redeemed some how.
But making the villain an irredeemable generic bad guy, if you're going to do that there's no reason for them to even be disabled at all. That's just lazy writing and shows there wasn't much thought put in beyond just disabled = evil which is just pretty ablest thinking. If anything society is the villain for mistreating the disabled to a point where crime is literally their only option to survive in the world. It's basically a self fulfilling prophecy, if you treat someone as a criminal when they've done nothing wrong eventually they may actually become a villain but if you treat them with the same decency and respect as everyone else then they won't.
Making a story a commentary on society and how they treat people could also make it work if done right. But those types of stories can also get overly preachy. It has to be done in a way that lets the audience draw their own conclusions and figure out the message on their own cause if you're too direct with the message people are more likely to reject it and hate the story as being too political. If you don't spell it out for them in some big preachy monologue and instead let the story speak for itself they're more likely to come to the conclusion on their own and actually being more open to change.
“House of the Dragon” KINDA did this? They got the villain Larys Strong with his clubfoot, and the neutral autistic-coded Helaena.
That exactly my thing to I have special needs and I have dreams of working with Disney to create a Disney Princess movie where the Princess, Prince and Villain all have Down’s syndrome. I was thinking of the plot being that one of the good guys go to find the villain to change them because they think society shaped them into what them are and redem them. But the villain explains in their villain song that they don’t care what society thinks because they view everyone even their bullies equal as scum and beneath them. And they just a pure evil psychopath because they just are like most Disney villians. This would lead to the conflict of the movie as the good guy indirectly endangered them people and they will have to confront their internalized ableism.
I mean, depends on what you mean by making their disability their reason for their villainy. Like this case is clearly messed up but I think it’s all right if their disability is the reason in the sense that they’re an antagonist/villain because they were mistreated for it and they want revenge.
I always found it weird that they made the uncreative one a scientist who becomes obsessed with research, because at least for me, I know a lot of people who love science who are super creative and I doubt he could’ve done most of what he did without creativity. Not to mention that with the coding he has it almost reads to me like disabled people can’t be creative which is just objectively untrue throughout history.
Viceroy’s backstory and set up is interesting, if only it wasn’t butchered by the disability thing. So anyone who doesn’t have artistic ability are disabled??? Literally just a scientist mad with research from observation would have been better! Or maybe had a palid child they were trying to “fix,” at least then that villain you can cut any sympathy for and all hate him (still has to be well written)
I’m someone who has amphantasia, I cannot see mental images (think of a computer running with the monitor is off.) So, the “born without creativity” kinda hurts me as it can be hard to get my ideas out of my head without having the proper image as reference. Not all of us have creativity and inspiration come to us easily.
It's also "creativity" as defined by neurotypical people. Like sure you don't imagine things, but I believe everyone has the capacity for creative thought and it saddens me that the NT dominant class convinces some ND they're not creative just for not being creative via a NT-approved script.
I don't have amphantasia, but my brain doesn't work in mental images. I can summon them, I just don't tend to. I have no use for them. I do most of my thinking as words. I remember hearing an interview from the turf herself where she complained the actors didn't match the image she had of the characters in her mind and I was a little confused as to why she had mental images of the characters. I am pretty obviously not a good artist. But I can write. And by my own metric I think I write quite well. My highschool english grades would certainly attest to that fact.
I think if Viceroy was written better and as a 3 dimensional character it could’ve worked so well. I just wish his backstory was more for sympathetic reasons. And the child thing would be very interesting. Maybe he wants to “””fix”””” his child from being a palid because he doesn’t want him to experience the same hatred. Think This new version of Viceroy like mr. freeze. A sympathetic dude who just wants their loved one to get better but still does awful things to get to that. Maybe he’s desperate and so anxious about making his child “””normal”””. And by the end he has to accept his child and himself being palid. It would be like me and my mother actually. My mother has the same anxiety disorder I do. And yet she doesn’t know how to deal with it or accept it in herself or others. And Chadam (I think it was chadam?) remarking that they wouldn’t let this happen again would mean that he would make sure people treated people born palid with respect and love. But that was never going to happen. Viceroy was always going to be a 1 dimensional character. That’s the problem with this show in general. I really don’t like how they did Chadam. He is just every generic anime boy protagonist. And his voice is SO generic. Maybe if they had taken the approach of hollow knight or little nightmares approach with Chadam where he doesn’t talk or if he does it’s very little like Mono. Because no matter what I feel like voice you give Chadam. Some of the fans won’t like because he’s such a popular character. Everyone has their own idea on how he would sound. Right now he just sounds like generic angsty teen. I do find his relationship with the weird muppet looking child though really wholesome. I think it would be cute if the reason the child was so inspired to draw was because of Chadam being an artist. And he always want to get pointers and help from Chadam on how to improve. Kind of a brother sister bond. That’s just cute. I wish it was more developed. It could’ve kind of been like tails and sonic from the new sonic movie. Just a little kid inspired from her big brother to be just as great as him. This series had so much potential with its characters but unfortunately they butchered their only chance.
It would have been amazing if they had made the villain a parent of a disabled child obsessed with "fixing" their child and the child is fine and just needs love and understanding.
I can't see mental images, and have no mental voice, but my friends often say i'm one of the most creative people I know at least with my ability to "get shit done".
If you really don't have artistic ability, that's totally fine, but you might have some that others just have stopped you from developing. I want you to know that. Or hey you might have it and just no interest in it, and that's fine too.
Niche, yes. Fascinating? Also yes.
Added: "mild cannibalism" is a pretty damn unique content warning...
“Ah yes I’m going to take off this mask and eat the glowing green marble I just got from someone’s still living body because it does look pretty tasty im sure eating a vital organ from one of my patients won’t go to shit really fast.”
Another thing itching at me about this series is that they seem to frame viceroy eating the creativity glands as akin to medication and framing it as unnatural and villifying it at every turn. Granted, these are glands harvested from living people so obviously it is written to be horrific, but the allegory is there. Viceroy eats the glands to feel better and make him more "normal" like everyone else, and he has to take them often or the side effects will wither. It also doesn't help that him taking the glands is also portrayed as him being addicted to them, a fear that many able-bodied people have projected onto disabled people taking their own medication. It's just kind of nasty all around
This! I’m an insomniac. So, I depend on my nighttime medication so I can fall asleep at night. If I skip my dose more than a day or two I can’t go to bed on my own. I need rest just like everyone else, I just need help to get it is all. I’m also on the Autism spectrum. So, I also have an history of “failing to properly” socialize with my peers.
As an ND science nerd who was terribly bullied in my youth, I find this particularly relevant given the (again topical) discourse on mental illness and school shootings in the US. Every time some horrible excuse for a human being shoots up a school, rather than realize America has a gun culture that both enables and effectively promotes this shit and absolutely should be dismantled, people inevitably say bullying, social isolation, and mental illness are the explanation; not guns. Which is a slap in the face to all the people who are mentally ill and/or ND and have experienced bullying only to now be told that abled neurotypicals think that such an experience would somehow lead a person to commit crimes against humanity. (I for one, am actually studying to be a school psychologist to try to protect ND/mentally ill kids from the bullying I suffered). But yeah. I just... This really seems to mirror the vibe of the current discourse on American gun violence and it's disheartening. Thanks for posting. Your videos are always so informative and enlightening
Seriously the statements of 'Mental Health' causes people to be mass shooters drives me up a wall. I am neurodivergent myself and I try to explain to people that even if mental health WAS the issue (and it clearly is not) the logical way to fix that would be making society open to them and to not reject them, that way they wouldn't feel the need to lash out/get revenge...
In reality I feel the issue is systemic racism, toxic masculinity, and far right nationalism mixed with easy access to fire arms.
I think it's important to add that mass shooters being portrayed 'sympathetically' is largely only afforded to White shooters.
I wonder when I'll receive my gold stars for NOT shooting up my old school where I was horrifically bullied to the point of getting PTSD from the experience. My teacher I think was a full-on nazi, or a kind of eugenicist in her thinking, I talked to her about the bullying and only got some cryptic nonsense from her about "nature's law is the strong above the weak" or some shit like that. She was telling me if I didn't like bullying not to complain to her, who was literally the one responsible for it, but to become stronger and "stand up for myself" which is not something autistic people do well/easily. Also my autism wasn't caught in elementary school bc "quiet shy awkward girls are CUTE" and omg. The fact that I didn't become a pint-sized terrorist still astounds me.
For this whole "guns vs mental illness/bullying" thing, school shootings are an issue of children having access to guns when they shouldn't, clearly that's caused by guns being owned so often by parents. And those parents are often white people hoarding weapons in their private cult compound like McMansions because they're scared of brown people. BUT OTOH I like whenever the mainstream media is also FORCED to discuss bullying, social isolation, and mental health in schools, I just wish it could be in a context that didn't also villify people like me.
@@naomistarlight6178 "Stand up for yourself"
*fights back against bullies*
*gets in trouble*
God I hate that statement... in highscool I punched a bully of my in the face and got suspended for a few days, because I had a 'clean record' before that. But like y'all say, stand up for yourself, but not in anyway that makes it stop... even then it shouldn't be my place to do it you are the adult moderating children you fix it!
I mean you have to be really messed up to shoot something up and to take the lives of innocents, that’s not something a completely sane individual would do. America has a gun problem, but it’s not like the guns are whispering to the individual to commit atrocities. I’m autistic, come from a nightmare childhood, was bullied etc, and it’s annoying how the blame shifts but the problem requires nuance. It’s not just the guns and it’s not just the circumstances of the individuals life. What should really be disheartening is that everyone thinks they have the answer but they barely understand the question.
As an artist with aphantasia, I'd say you can teach yourself a craft of art and there are logical theories why arts work and how they affect the audience. I really don't like the separation of uwu emotional artists and stoic logical scientists
I agree but what the heck does "uwu" have to do with this? How are artists "uwu," how would scientists not be, just... why are you using this term
@@PupkinPumpkin UwU is an emoji. Typically depicting a cutie expression.
@@Waspinmymind I know what it is xD
I hate the mainstream idea that disabled people lack creativity. I am an Aspie, as well as a science major and someone who does art as a hobby. Having skills and knowledge in both art and science is possible.
I feel like me and many other autistic people gravitate to science because society constantly fails to answer existential questions we have about ourselves and our lonely place in society, and to fully accept people who simply think differently. Science is about facts, everything has a pattern, and it is a constant in a socially confusing, chaotic world. It explains things and makes them make sense in a clear, logical way. Its not evil to want to focus on scientific facts to figure out why you are the way you are.
And I would love to be normal and experience a Neurotypical social life, but without my Aspergers, I wouldn't be me, and I wouldn't be able to hyperfocus on things as much or visualize things in my head as well. In a way, I'm grateful for my Aspergers rather than completely resentful of it.
To me , ND people are the most creative people out there. The number of artists I found out has ADHD or synesthesia, is autistic, dyslexic is insane XD
"oh, a new oakwyrm video! could be nice to listen to while i draw my oc, viceroy!"
"the villain, viceroy-"
"O_O"
considering i recognized the chadam character from that one The Used album(?)... guitar hero seems to do the "large corporation sucking life out of talented stars" infinitely better than this. i didn't even consider the fame allegory in viceroy's backstory; it really does just feel like a shot at neurodivergent/disabled people. my goodness ,':^/
No one is born evil, racist, sexist, or homophobic. They are created from beliefs, lifestyles, families and and friends.
Another recent example of disability turning someone evil is Morbius. Both Morbius and the antagonist Milo inject themselves with vampire bat DNA in order to cure their rare blood disease. The effects are only temporary and can only be sustained by drinking blood. Morbius is able to skirt around the issue for a while by drinking artificial blood that he invented, but he knows that his thirst for actual blood will eventually take over. Milo on the other hand is just like: "F*ck it. I'm tired of being disabled. Let's go eat some people" for no other reason other than to give Morbius someone to fight in the climax. Not only is that lazy writing, but it's also yet another example of disability being used as a villain motif. I would love to hear your personal thoughts on this one.
I'm fine with it in the sense of "Is this moral to hurt others for my own benefit." I don't like when disabilities are the reason why someone is a villain, as if it's a brain thing. I can imagine it as a motivator but you gotta be careful with it.
If Morbius is a rich Doctor, why doesn't he just pay people to give a pint of their blood to him. Why feed on synthetic blood when you could just give people 50 bucks for a pint of blood. Open a blood bank, set up blood drives, anything would be better than just draining people without a second thought.
Did you notice that Oakwyrm has now made a video about Morbius?
I was on the fence about this guy until you mentioned it wasn't a "sympathy villain". Him eating the glands sounds more like substance abuse that him trying to "fix himself" to me, but I can definitely see both sides.
It really is good to regonize the issues with the story telling twords disabled characters even with nishe things like this
Strangely, Viceroy reminds me of real life serial killers and their 'research.' In reality it is just an excuse to live out dark, cruel, childish fantasies and the 'research' is a smokescreen to give themselves some validity that they aren't childish monsters.
But this would only work if there were other pallids who weren't monsters like Viceroy. Give us other pallids who are able to function in society, who are no evil. And show how people like Viceroy do nothing but make the stigma against them worse.
There's a lot of fascinating history behind the fictional portrayal of monsters, it always seems to be tied to this notion that people who look different than the standard model of human we think of as "normal" are scary or suspicious.
Also his story very much jumped out at me as a blood libel trope, especially considering his Voldemort-like appearance
I appreciate how your analysis has got me thinking. I'm not just watching isolated critiques; these episodes build toward a more comprehensive understanding of these issues.
Thinking back on some of the other analysis vids you've done and it frustrates me how these stories "reward" good people with a cure for their disability, while evil people are often punished looking for a cure. Like, disabled folks require a blood sacrifice or incur terrible side effects, just to get slightly better treatment options. But, able-bodied people can just magically bestow a (no-strings-attached) cure upon them?
Also, it's just incredibly aggravating that disabled characters are cast as evil scientists. Despite, disabled people often being the victims of unethical experimentation.
I see someone created Viktor before Riot did. I don't know how I should feel about that. It is a mixture of "Should I even be surprised" and "How the fk did you manage to mix up your metaphors so badly"
I’m assuming you mean LoL!Viktor and not Arcane!Viktor.
@@johnvinals7423 Well Riot are still not sure if LoL and Arcane have lore. It is a total mess. Still Arcane Victor is framed as one of the bad guys.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this beautiful little animated short film called Eggplant. It's about this boy who has this disability where he naturally pulls the wrong facial expressions for the emotions he's feeling. I've always adored it but recently i rediscovered it and fell in love with it all over again because i realised that, while it's not a clean cut one to one, i think it succeeds at being a nice metaphor for autism and how or why autistic people learn to mask. Honestly i just want someone else to know this short film exists lol, it deserves so much more recognition.
On TH-cam it's uploaded as:
A young boy is born with facial expressions that show the opposite of what he's feeling. | Eggplant
I love that film!! Glad to see another fan talk about it!
I am fine with disabled Villain’s because it deters the idea we are all saints /innocent “children”. But when it relies on derogatory stereotypes that perpetuates an idea of disabled people being inherently evil linked to missshapeliness/Neuro divergence being an indicator of deviance is not OK. You may have a disabled villain but let them have a nuanced backstory ,depth and fresh motivation . Thus must go beyond the idea of curing themselves since that reinforces the stereotype that disabilities need to be cured for the person to be civilized or part of society. Then it’s the idea that you mentioned the part of society erasing them instead of actually acknowledging the systems that lead to this outcome. It is irritating and devastating to see this because it’s blaming the individual rather than the environment. No one is born evil/bad often they are taught that behaviour or moulded into it by their environment thanks to exposure.
those models fell just uncanny valley
“I’m just not American enough for Amazon to accept my money” XD
That’s a THING???
For some (many? most?) streaming services definitely yes.
This art style really reminds me of a worse psychonauts. Speaking of psychonauts dr loboto is also def a character thats worth looking into.
I thought Psychonauts handled it well? After all, we see many character in the. Hum. Psychiatrist hospital (sorry if this isn't the right word, english isn't my language). And most of them are perfectly nice characters. The only ones that are doing bad things -the milkman and dr loboto- are being used by the antagonist. He litteraly used his psychonaut power to twist their mind to his will. Same in Psychonauts 2, Dr Loboto go his mind twisted by the antagonist, but isn't a bad character by itself.
@@Hadeshy oh im not saying he is bad rep just saying he is interesting to look at through that lens
I keep rewatching this video and I dont know why but I am going to keep doing it (this is the third time this week)
Love this niche yet in depth analysis. Love it! You’ve really changed how I interact with media.
I just wanted to mention this but I wasn't exactly sure what video to do it on so I'll just say it here: The show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is really good with disabilities imo. One of the "second" main character group is actually a pegasus who can't fly, and in the movie there's a character with a prosthetic leg. It's never really mentioned in the movie, she just has one and that's it.
Pirates having peg legs and eye patches is common. So no need to mention it
@@daraghokane4236 I mean that I'm glad it has that, as a show for kids
There's also another disabled pegasus from the movie short called Rainbow Roadtrip, the pegasus character has a prosthetic leg :)
At 6:57
It reminds me of another thing.
Blood libel.
Astute observation. Terrible, yes, and astute.
0:22 that is so relatable. I personally like to use your videos since I recently found your channel, but I’ll eventually watch every single one of your videos.
Hi, I really love your videos. I noticed that you said you have ADD and if ADD is your preferred lable and you already know all this I'm sorrt. I have ADHD, and I just wanted to say that ADD is an outdated term and no longer up to date in the DSM5. It's just ADHD now. Even if someone, like both you and I were diagnosed with ADD or ADHD inattentive type and do not present the hyperactive symptoms outwardly it is still called ADHD now. Our hyperactivity is internal, the mind racing and jumping from thing to thing at a rapid pace, the impulsive thoughts we do not follow through with, etc. There's a really good channel called How To ADHD that has so much great amazing information about the disorder. Again, sorry if ADD is your preferred lable
I genuinely did not know that. My actual diagnosis, as it was described to me by my then-psychologist two years ago is "autism with traits of ADD" so I don't know if she phrased it like that just because my main thing is autism or because I we don't live in the US...
@@Oakwyrm I'm not in the US either, it's a relatively recent change in the DSM5 that better facilitates the diagnosis of girls and adults as we more commonly show inattentive traits due to soicital conditioning and learned masking. A lot of doctors are surprisingly under educated about ADHD unless they specialise. There's a really good channel called How To ADHD that has a ton of really good, contantly updating information on ADHD and various coping mechanisms if that could be interesting for you
@@ella9310 & @Oakwyrm
Well, actually -- you are both right. So feel free to enjoy (or not) this infodump about some details of medical diagnostic and insurance codes, labels & definitions. (can you tell that categorizations and taxonomies are a special interest of mine? ;-)
At the WHO website we find the International Classification of Disease, 11th revision (the current, from 2018 and updated this year). This is the diagnostic & insurance codes, labels and diagnostic criteria database / list that is used in most countries, also in Finland (though the DSM has also always been taken into account and used as an additional sounding board for our Käypä Hoito / God medisinsk praxis / Current Care Guidelines).
The full name of the WHO database / list is:
"ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (ICD-11 MMS)"
To find the specifics about ADHD, we go to the menu frame on the left of the ICD-11 main page and click open:
06 Mental, behavioural or neurodevelopmental disorders
then, under it, we click open:
6A05 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Here we find these clinical presentation specifiers (sort of "subtypes" of ADHD):
6A05.0 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive presentation
(this is still in practice often called "ADD" or "ADHD-I" for short, including by professionals)
6A05.1 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation
(this is often called just "ADHD" though technically that is not entirely accurate -- but ADHD-H would seem rather silly)
6A05.2 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined presentation
(sometimes called "ADHD-C" and to be exact I should use ADHD-C myself. I have thus far just said ADHD, though, because it has been easier as people think they know what that means and don't ask too many questions. Hmm... so maybe I _should_ start using ADHD-C to nudge people to realize that they maybe don't know as much about ADHD as they have thus far believed...)
Similarly, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
(DSM-5) calls all ADHD just ADHD but also specifies three presentations:
314.01 (F90.2) Combined presentation: If both Criterion A1 (inattention) and Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) are met for the past 6 months.
314.00 (F90.0) Predominantly inattentive presentation: If Criterion A1 (inattention) is met but Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) is not met for the past 6 months.
314.01 (F90.1) Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive presentation: If Criterion A2 (hyperactivity-impulsivity) is met and Criterion A1 (inattention) is not met for the past 6 months.
In Finland, the recommendation in Current Care Guidelines (hoi50061 from 2019) is that only the code F90.0 should be used and the presentation should be described with words.
So yes, we are all now called just ADHD, and yes, the three different presentations are still acknowledged and taken into account when a diagnosis is determined.
/infodump
Signed: Your friendly ADHD-C & autistic ex-nurse
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Woah that was really helpful and cool! thanks for sharing
Lovely video! :D
This is super important to discuss, even if a niche series, cuz the trope itself is extremely wide-spread! I mean, othering a character is one of the keystone ways of making a villian villianous to audiences (be they queer-coded, disabled-coded, etc.), and I feel like we're at a point where we should be well past it! Icky!
Ok, Unreal Engine CAN have good animations. It’s really just the execution that was botched in this instance.
this very much feels like a student final project because we are now in our final project and a lot of people who had good story ideas those were either shut down for "being to complex" or butchered while making because of stress. It is hard to believe but teachers criticizing complex story is oddly very normal. plus a lot of student will start to realize that they need to finish the final up and worry in the end more about the grade. which I get because my group is in the same boat, we had to cut down on our story and mechanics. It is very bland now but will get us a passing grade. and that is what this story feels like. students that had something cool and complex in mind, get criticized for that, have to cut down because of time until it becomes a hallow grossly simplified story were the message gets lost. I could be completely wrong but yeah.
im just gonna put this comment to boost the algorythm and go because of the content warnings (which i thank you for)
The villain (Who I'll call Scientist) of this series reminds me a lot of a worse-written version of Toga from My Hero Academia.
Both of them are born with something that causes them to be an outcast from society; Scientist was born missing a Gland, and Toga was born with a superpower that caused her to have a natural fascination with blood and dead things ("something that society wouldn't accept at all").
Scientist is disabled, and Toga can very, very, very, easily be read as neurodivergent.
Both were rejected by society, which was ultimately what caused them to be so damaged in the first place.
Where I think Toga is more well-written is how her backstory makes her more sympathetic and is specifically shown to challenge the system. Toga had a natural fascination with blood and dead things, and society scolded her for it. Her parents even said, "why can't you just be a normal girl?". She probably did wonder why she was different and struggled to make friends. She was taught to mask her tendencies and to act normal (easily read as ADHD/Autistic Masking), until she couldn't mask it anymore, attacking a student (an attack that could've easily been avoided) and going on the run.
Although what really makes it better in my eyes is when she says that her world IS normal, which is something that neurodivergent people never hear, constantly being told over and over again that they're broken, that they're different, sometimes treated like they're not even human.
Sorry for making this post so long
I agree with you on this one this is really irresponsibly written. It’s tiring and quite awful that they deliberately have a villain who is disabled and born that way and that’s why he’s the villain. And then not only compare ability with creativity, but a few other things that just overall make this a vile representation.
Your videos really help put understanding to things like this that I might see and think it “feels wrong” but not know why exactly. Like you have definitely influenced the way I take in media and led me to notice these tropes more. Thanks for doing what you do :)
I watched the series shortly after it came out and I was horrified how they butchered my boi.
The whole story just felt so ... off!
There was always something that bothered me about it and I knew it wasn't just the cliché getting to me.
Thank you for finally pointing out what was bugging me all this time.
Now that it was finally put into words I know why I hated it so much.
They could've had SUCH a good story with this here but they completely donked it up and it's upsetting to see how bad it really is in hindsight.
They could've made it a simple "mad scientist" thing but noooo.
Effin hell.
Thank you for the video.
I jumped and squeeled when I saw the title card because you making this video, about this nieche thing I have had a love-hate relationship with for so long, just makes me so so happy.
Thank you
Maybe, once they see this, they'll be motivated to remedy this story with a comic or something.
We can hope.
This reminds me a bit of The Queen of Hearts in Burtons Alice... she too is a villain who has become villainous because of the way society treated her, but none of the failings of society are addressed. It's like... she's evil because she's born with a riddiculously big head and it's completely normal that people are making fun of her because of that... like... no introspection at all.
While what she does is evil, I could at least understand where she's coming from, but the movie totally doesn't. They put up her sister to be the "good" sister, when she's the one who lacks compassion and is really horrible if you just take a moment to think about it.
Had society been kinder to both of them, they might have grown up to be good and respectable people instead.
I mean... he was clearly talented in science... which makes me wonder how he did it when suposedly you need a gland to be good at something... he might have invented something to help others if only given the chance to be part of society
Bits and pieces of the villain's backstory reminds me of Thanos' backstory. Thanos was born different from how his people were, and his mother didn't want him and tried to kill him when he was just a newborn. When he was a child he did not fit in or had any friends. He grew up attracted to science and life and death. I think Thanos was dissecting animals and other students while he was growing up. He also had the weird fascination with the personification of death.
Anyway, your videos was good and reminded me of Thanos, one of Marvel's most popular villain, and made me wonder if Thanos had similar flaws to his background design when compared to the Viceroy. I know Thanos is more thought out and had more opportunities and changes than Viceroy but I still find the similarities in their backstory to be interesting.
If I'm wrong, please correct me. Don't be shy, I'm pretty sure I got some stuff wrong.
Ugh THIS trope! As much as I hate the new trend of giving every single villain a backstory and ridiculous "motive" for being evil, I also hate when peoples response to it is "some people are just born bad..." I saw it a lot after Cruella and ummm NO? This claim is literally, scientifically inaccurate XD
i'll be completely honest i thought the gland was straight up going to be some fictional allism gland bc of how strong that coding was. the reveal that it was a creativity gland hit me like a truck. you're telling me this guy is a scientist that did all this research on his own and he's supposed to not have any creativity??? like, with the implication that creativity makes you a good and kind and happy person or whatever it really feels like they tried to demonize a lack of empathy or depression but forgot the words
Now let's all agree
To never be creative again.
As someone who listened to The Used's album i strangely dont remember watching the Chadam animation at all
It's especially a shame I think because it feels like there's potential there for a good story about how mistreatment from the system can lead people into doing bad things- especially if the story actually had disabled good guys too.
I'm happy you're talking about lesser known topics like this- I had never heard of this series before (and now I know it's bad...) but your video was great!
I'm surprised you haven't mentioned this yet but technically hunter from The Owl House can be seen as a disabled character since he cannot do natural magic and needs to rely on a palaceman or artificial magic to use magic
I don't consume a lot of media, mainly animation, so it does make me wonder how many villains I have seen are disabled and how many more are out there. It's rather disappointing that they are so many disabled villains, especially the ones that are made evil because of it.
I thought the gland thing was also an allegory for drugs. Not like actually needed prescription drugs, but like drug abuse. I need prescription drugs and this is very different. Think about it. When he finds this gland and consumes it, he gets a high, you said those words yourself. He then becomes incredibly addicted to this high and does anything he can in order to keep having it. The gland thing is also drug abuse
i love your videos and all the information you share!
The message here appears to be "Anybody who doesn't appreciate my artistic genius must be a sub-human Re***d. "
Another piece in my "Failed Artist to Fascist Pipeline" theory.
Alex Pardee doesn’t seem to be a Fascist as far as I know.
I thought the weird animation could be a stylist choice as it makes it look more creepy
Also, why does he look so much like an anti-Black caricature out of the 1900s or so?
Ok so what I'm about to suggest I Just started watching like a week ago:
Star Wars the clones wars (I know there's 12 seasons but for disability stuff) you only have to watch season7 episode 3 and 4 (and possibly more if you like it)
Basically the bad guys try and turn this guy into a machine (i don't know if you can call this a form of disability) and now he's trying to unpause his life from and use to the good guys advantage he lost an arm but his prosthetic (I don't know what it's called) can plug into star wars tech like a USB drive and he can see/read the data in his mind I'm hoping g you can do a disability rep video on this guy (if it's able to be called disability)
Great video, it’s so weird to have a setting where a random gland decides your morality. It’s possible there’s some way to make something like that work but simply saying “have gland means good, don’t have gland means bad” just feels a bit too reductive and simple to be that compelling, at least when it’s handled like this. If they really wanted this plot they could at least acknowledge that Viceroy is a victim of societal issues and that he isn’t just evil because he was “born wrong”, I’m sure someone lacking creativity can still be a decent person even if they think very differently.
Also, I’m nervous to suggest it again because I don’t want to harass you or come across as obnoxious. I don’t know if you saw my other comments, it’s possible you did and me repeating myself will just be annoying and motivate you to not listen to me, or I’m just overthinking things and no one cares, I mean there’s the people that do the “day xx of asking for ___” so maybe no one cares if you repeat the same suggestion in every comment section. Well, if you’re looking for a suggestion, and if you want me to stop asking I will, I would like to see you make a video covering the TH-cam web series “Epithet Erased” and how it handles disability. There’s a character that struggles with chronic pain and also some implications of PTSD and possible autistic characters, I’d like to see you review what it does right and wrong, if you want to do so.
night mind viewer lessgoo
For viceroy I would rework the story. He can be a spoiled brat of average gland, but he never is ok with being average. He first steals from his family's employees which they cover up but expands out.
May I suggest Emara? One of the main characters is a wheelchair user and it does affects some of his fights. I'm interested how you'd think about it. It's also a fun refreshing animated superhero show i personally genuinely enjoy and it being from the emirates it could be a nice change from the usual western/japanese media. It's only 5 episodes long 10 mins each, and it's available on youtube, just search it up. I do reccomend the informal arabic dub (english caption is available) but english dub is also available.
Yes, I am here!
I'm watching you in 360 p. It's my default setting for TH-cam because I have to pay for my data so I sacrifice quality for quantity. Just saying.
Shit..both relatable and frustrating..fun
Hey Oakwyrm, ever thought of doing a video about “Arcane”?
"Mild Cannibalism" lmfao
oh man i remember this show. such a wild ride. not that i intend to defend this show, it's quite clunky in many, many ways, but i would say that it wasn't trying to say disability made viceroy evil. it was the terrible treatment growing up. the writer was simply too inept and ignorant to handle the matter.
the video was a little bit rough to see but it was interesting still keep up what you're doing👍
Completely unrelated to the video i know but i wanted to ask if you had any thoughts about how disability was handled in the anime dororo since its main plot is about the main character fighting demons to recover the body parts his father sacrificed to them for power
I quite like it a lot but as someone not familiar with all the disabilities present in it i don't know if they were represented well or not and hoped you had clearer thoughts about it if you want to share them
...
is it sad that I am so oblivious to symbolism that I audibly went "ooooh" to your explanation of what his eating of the creativity glands was meant to represent
At least you're not one of the jerks who say the story is being 'ruined' by 'forcing politics' into it
0:20 that’s what I do with your videos
Idk if you'd be interested in this topic but there's a lot of disability + mental illness to dissect in the Metal Gear Solid series. In MGSV (Phantom pain), there are at least 2 amputees, multiple characters with PTSD, and a character with DID. As a warning there is a considerable amount of gore (more than the other games for some reason) and some medical malpractice
Eh, the metal gear universe is full of characters like that. Look into the Beauty and The Beast Unit from MGS4...
@@jordanloux3883 That is very true, I was moreso focusing on a mix of physical disability + mental illness (sure big boss in 4 has a prosthetic arm but he appears once)
go niche or go home!
is that the thing from the used album cover
it do be him. creeped the heck out of me as a kid... still does :D
When you show text would you please read it or something?
I feel like I am missing context
Hi hello! I actually listened to the video whilst multitasking and didn't feel like I was missing context, but after reading your comment I went back and watched the whole thing again to see if there was any text on-screen I could transcribe for you!
Turns out there's no text or anything on the screen, just short clips or still images that are relevent to what's being discussed.
In this video, the visuals are: clips from Chadum, drawn still frames of Oakwyrm reacting/speaking, some stock footage at moments, one still of a promotional art of one of the characters in Chadum, and a screenshot of the mentioned Nightmind video (at 2:12).
Please let me know if you need any further description of the videos! Accessibility is a special interest of mine, so don't be shy!
I hope you have a great day! 💕
I second that. Also, in case you're asking because of 7:54 "And before you try to say I'm reaching, this is literally text", there is no text shown, they just meant it describes literally the story.
I know I got confused about that, if that isn't the case for you, sorry for assuming.
@@claudiag.9307 oh
@@LPSgirl00 what happens in the dialogue clips
And thank you for the thought
@@lahlybird895 which dialogue clips do you mean? What precedes or follows the parts that confuse you?
You should talk about Adam from the show mom
Is it ok if I recommend a topic I would like to see you cover? I just think you have cool opinions and I'm curious what you would think about the topic even if I can get a baseline feel from watching some of your other videos. No matter the answer, have a wonderful day!
Go ahead! People have been suggesting topics left, right and center at least since the channel started to grow in earnest a few months back, so why not you, too?
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I just didn't want to bother anyone, still working out some internalized ableism that I put on myself. The game is called 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors or zero escape.
I know this is an older video but hasn’t ADD been pushed into the over all ADHD lable like Apesger was to Autism back in 2013
I know why Asperger’s was referred to its own idenity but I don’t know much on ADD and ADHD- I would only think it’s not a big deal bough defection between the 2 or more research
Hi! I have s question, what do u think of Miitopia? Have you played it?
Hi
Very good video like always I’m a new subscriber. And I was just wondering if you’d cover books like the Percy Jackson series And Magnus chase(have a good representation of queer characters and all of the characters that are heroes are confirmed to have ADHD, and I think it would be good for you to get them before Disney does). I also noticed from your videos you seem to shy away from the more raunchy stuff like South Park or big mouth.. which is your prerogative I understand is someone with autism (aspergers) myself i’d rather have the shows that poke fun at everyone even people with a disability then shows that just spew hate for it. (The worst is being coddled). And honestly some of their episodes they handle things better than other Episodes.
=D
Æ
I’m a Person with ADD Listening To this as my Brain Also needs something to entertain it while I clean 😂 🫶