Disabled Means Helpless: Difference between revisions

 

Learning this is not true is often the point of a [[Very Special Episode]]. Contrast this trope to the [[Handicapped Badass]], who everyone can instantly tell is not to be messed with.

{{examples}}

* Sometimes it seems as though Nunnaly from ''[[Code Geass]]'' feels this way. She ''is'' the one with the disability (she can't walk or open her eyes), and prefers for the entire first season to have Lelouch take care of her, even though they're ''both'' teenagers (she gets better about this and finally starts acting on her own in season 2). In Episode 21 of R2, Lelouch says that Nunnally kept smiling because, disabled as she was, it was the only way she knew how to show her gratitude to him.

 

== Comic Strips ==

* Cartoonist and artist John Callahan has a lot to say about this subject. One book title is ''Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot'' and another is ''Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up''.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Subverted horribly in the film, ''[[Blindness]]''. The men of ward 3 prove not to be harmless, and end up being harmful instead. Their self-appointed leader has {{spoiler|a gun and ends up hoarding the food from the other wards. At first, they demand valuables from everyone else in exchange for food. Unfortunately, when they have all of the valuables they then demand the women service them for food.}}

 

== Folklore ==

* An urban legend tells a tale of a guy who has one of his car's tires deflated while in front of a lunatic asylum. While he changes the tire he puts the bolts on the rim, just as a car goes through, scattering them. The man is unable to find the bolts he needs, so one of the lunatic patients tells him to use one bolt from each other wheel. He does and is surprised that the lunatic had that good idea. The lunatic's response? "I'm crazy, not stupid."

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Baby Sitters Club]]'' spin-off series ''Little Sister,'' Karen's class gets a new girl named Addie who has cerebral palsy and so is confined to a wheelchair. Karen takes it upon herself to help Addie—which means she does everything ''for'' her, despite both Addie and Ms. Colman telling her that Addie is perfectly capable to doing things for herself (such as sharpening her pencils). [[The Scrappy|She doesn't listen, and both the readers and Addie get seriously ticked off.]]

* Elizabeth Bathory's feelings of self-loathing in ''[[Count and Countess]]'' are a result of this mindset. (She suffers from severe epilepsy throughout the novel.) She later subverts it however, making her more of a [[Handicapped Badass]].

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Clark went blind in one episode of ''[[Smallville]]'', his parents thought that stepping out of his eyeline would be far enough away for him not to hear them talking about him.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Illidan in ''[[Warcraft]] III'' seems to lampshade this trope: "I'm blind, not deaf!"

 

== Visual Novels ==

'''Dahlia's mom:''' She did it with patience, friends and a father who helped her calculate [[Ramming Always Works|the proper ramming speed]] in an electric wheelchair to correct other people's assumptions.

'''Monette:''' No chair-mounted gun turret? And I thought [[Everything Is Big in Texas|he was a real Texan]]. }}

 

== Western Animation ==

* This was the villain's explicitly stated intention in one episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', when he kidnapped Uncle and cast a spell that rendered [[Monkey Morality Pose|Jackie mute, Jade deaf and Tohru blind]] so they couldn't rescue him. Needless to say, they did anyway, [[An Aesop|and a lesson was learned by all.]]

* Happens in an episode of ''[[Rocket Power]]''. Reggie is in a snowboarding competition with another girl she recently befriended who happens to use a wheelchair. Reggie lets her win... and gets a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] from her dad and everyone else. The remainder of the episode is Reggie trying to figure out [[Must Make Amends|how to make it up to her new friend]].

 

== Real Life ==