Instructions unclear, accidentally crippled the actors instead.

One thing to clarify that makes Roy Mustang's scene even more badass. He didn't draw the transmutation circle with his blood, he *carved it into his hand.* There are multiple episodes after where he still has scars from carving it

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change." -Avatar Aang

An old high school English teacher of mine, who is a writer, once said to me on writing characters: "If you love your characters, put them through hell," which has always stuck with me and has served me well. Similar idea.

"(Toph) didn't just give up, she uncovered a power that no one thought she had" I mean if I'm remembering correctly, she uncovered a power that NO ONE had. She invented a new technique on the spot.

Another great example of this is the BBC show Merlin, where the main character is an insanely overpowered sorcerer but lives in a kingdom where magic is illegal and so a lot of episodes center around him finding ways to solve the problems without using his powers, or they explore the character by putting him in a situation where he needs to use his powers but would have very bad consequences for doing so. Great video, as always!

To quote Hirohiko Araki, creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: "Throw your protagonist into peril". Also, your characters should be able to win battles through their own strength and cunning, instead of being rescued at the last second.

Jaime losing his hand had even more consequences in the book. His entire personality up to that point had essentially been him saying "Fine, you all call me Kingslayer, the most dishonourable man alive (despite saving 500,000 people from burning to death and being the only one to object to the Mad King raping his wife) no matter how much I try to be a good man? Fuck it. I'll be the villain." And so much of Jaime's presence as a villainous entity was through combat. With that removed, he is nowhere near as influential as before. For example, in the books he is placed in charge of the Kingsguard upon returning to King's Landing. And he is genuinely intimidated by Loras Tyrell. Loras is headstrong and only listens to a word Jaime says because he is afraid Jaime could kick his arse even with one hand. And Loras is very, very skilled. Cersei filled the Kingsguard with people like the Kettlebacks, who are average swordfighters at best. If they found out they could beat the fucking Kingslayer in a fight, Jaime would become a complete joke. Ultimately Jaime has next to no official power. It's his reputation and forceful personality that gives him power.

Ah, once I got into the video, I realised what you meant by the title. I really admire this concept, by making the character vulnerable and seeing them struggle, that's when we see their true strengths.

Even as a kid I recognized how cool it was to play as Altair having lost his rank for his recklessness. Still my favourite AC game. It's nice to have it put into actual words and writing analysis.

This is why in the Legend of Korra I was so excited when they took Korra's bending away at the end of S1. She had been defined as a bending prodigy, an Avatar who was bending three elements at five years old. She had mastered them by the time when she was 17. She based her identity on her bending skills. Then the show returned her powers half an episode later and it was a huge mistake. It made everything she could do feel unearned. It was really unfortunate.

Altair: Loses all equipment and skills Samus: "First time?"

"I thought you were Thor God of thunder not Thor of God of hammers".

Another great shout in favor of this is the turn-based video game "wildermyth." If you lose a character in battle, you can choose to keep them alive at the cost of a life altering injury. This plays into the emergent story telling and Permadeath mechanics of the game, and really helps the player get invested in the struggles of the in-game party.

Characters are meant to be on their core: Human. Humans are flawed, pathetic, and yes, crippled. Despite having these qualities, we are capable of growth and persistent resilience that allowed us to survive for 10,000 years. We learn, change, and become better (or worse). A fantastic character is our soul, our self, or our mirror, and with hard work and heart can bring a character to a living individual. That's why I love fiction. It reflects our resilience and ability to change.

One of the ideas of "crippling" and while we are so fascinated from it comes from the natural aging process. When you are Young, you are faster, stronger, sexier, etc. Then you get older and thing you took for granted go away. You get better at other things. You maybe even regain some qualities of the past, but you realize life is about change and how you adapt and what it turns you into. A good life example is watching someone you have loved for years die of a sickness. You might have been their caretaker and hero for years, but when an illness happens, you are really powerless. How you handle that defines who you really are, and when someone passes that is so central to who you are, you are forever changed by that loss. You might become stronger, or self destruct, or be a person you never imagined you would be.

Connected to this, I love nothing more than when a hero is permanently crippled. Either they try something and fail, and in failing they develop a new weakness they need to overcome, or even better, when they succeed in a way that permanently damages them.

I see the merits of this thought process. Oftentimes, taking away a character's power seems like a bit of a crutch (especially in cases when there wasn't anything foreshadowing that losing powers was even a possibility that could happen). Another alternative to this that I like is giving a player a challenge, or even a multitude of unrelated challenges, that their powers are simply no good for.

In fact, Roy is crippled on multiple levels, when he also gets all his loyal subordinates reassigned. Arakawa really enjoyed exploring him under duress, huh..?

All this crippled comic book character talk has made me remember one of my personal favorite superheroes, Daredevil. The Man Without Fear has had his fair share of stories in the past decades. One of my favorite arcs of his is where he loses his radar sense and has to learn how to overcome his fear of mortality and losing his radar vision. Losing his radar sense brought out his true strength, his bravery. When stripped of his incredible sense he had to fight his fears before he could earn it back. Matt had to look death in the eyes and march on towards unwaivering. Now lets jump forward a few years to really prove my point on how brave Mr. Murdock is. In this arc our Man Without Fear gets doused with fear gas by budget scarecrow. Matt loses all sense of anything and starts tripping. In his fear fueled bender he sees anyone that has ever hurt him and they sow in every insecurity and fear he could ever have. Matt sees this and has to truly learn what it means to be without fear. He realizes he has to be brave but not without fear. Because to be utterly fearless you must shut yourself off from people entrirely, but what kind of man would he be if he did that? He uses his bravery to beat Mr. Fear. Bravery isn't the absence of fear. It is fear. Bravery is having the amount of fear that could destroy someone and overcoming. TLDR; Daredevil is a brave guy. P.S i just wanted a reason to gush about daredevil.

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately in regards to what makes some strong characters awesome and others boring. It's not seeing powerful characters always win that makes them badass, What makes them fun to watch is seeing that strong character be dragged through hell and persevere no matter the disadvantage or damage they have to go through that makes them truly badass. Sure Guts is a powerhouse, but its the pain and loss that he pushes through despite it all that makes him a marvel to follow through Berserk.

Sometimes all a powerful character needs to be crippled is themselves, like a massive ego that could lead to their downfall if left unchecked, or a grand uncertainty over a great responsibility that they will have to grow to better use over time. Flaws play into limiting the power of a character in a way that can leave room for them to become better, or end in their tragic downfall depending on the story. Even in the show overlord where the main character is seemingly invincible with no weaknesses, conflict still stirs from those associated with him being manipulated and posing a real challenge that pushes him to use his wits to overcome, or his desire for conquest pitting him against those who viewed him as a hero to then choose their honor for their kingdom to face him and lose, which in turn will be a detriment to what little morality exists within him, and can likely lead to his downfall.

Logan is my second favorite movie ever behind Treasure Planet. Logan is a heartbreaking film especially for people who wanted to grow up and be Wolverine. Watching him in his haggard, weakened, and bitter state was hard. At the end of the film though he reminded me why I looked up to him in the firs place (besides being cool amd tough). He protected people and he's brave and heroic. He has a good heart which unfortunately ended up with a tree branch through it.

My favorite version of crippling the character would be Ben 10, especially the original classic. Although the omnitrix grants him immense power and makes him the strongest being in the universe(it does require some skill to reach that level and it is arguable that he is omnipotent) but the omnitrix has a fatal flaw in that it powers out in 10 minutes(give or take, sometimes it feels endless and sometimes it seems to end instantly) thereby stripping away all power from the protagonist. In those "moments of weakness Ben proves that even without his source of power he is not completely helpless and that he too needs help from others and isn't afraid to ask; humanizing him. It adds such a unique and beautiful duality to his character. It is a shame they mostly removed this aspect with sequels.

I would add "The Owl House" where Eda and Lilith have to relearn magic from Luz without their natural abilities and the curse (basically chronic illness) weighing them down

I feel like an important point to Mustang's character is that he is crippled by his own rage and wrath towards those who killed his friend. An emotional crippling can be as effective as a physical one

Legend of Korra both screws up and succeeds at this trope on three separate occasions. In Season 1, Korra loses her bending but almost immediately gets it back. In Season 2, she loses access to the Avatar State and her past lives, but it doesn't really have much of an impact. Seasons 3 and 4 is where they do this well. At the end of Season 4, Korra is poisoned and loses most of her bending skill and her physical independence for literal years, because of the poison and PTSD. How she struggles in the interim and then how she overcomes it is fantastic.

I've always disliked the idea of separating a character from their powers. A lot of stories tend to treat it as the character becoming too lenient on their powers and that not being able to function that well without those powers (say for example, Peter Parker walking into traffic because he lost his Spider-Sense and didn't notice) is a flaw. This makes me think of someone being blinded and then the narrative claiming that they've gotten too lenient on their eyesight.

I think the moment when I really began to like Captain America as a character was in a scene where he lost his powers and didn't care and just kept fighting anyway. It really showed the core of who he is as a person.

People love watching characters suffer and overcome alot of writers don't get that

My favorite example of this is from Yugioh 5Ds, where Yusei got thrown into prison and was stripped of his iconic deck. Usually, a duelist is defined by the deck they played, but Yusei was able to defeat the prison warden and escape using a bunch of random cards thrown together. It reinforced Yusei's character as someone who's resourceful, and a good duelist, regardless of deck. Although it didn't really make him grow as a person, but by stripping away all the excess we got to see Yusei for who he really is.

I just realized that Dalinar in the Stormlight Archive fits this trope. He's not physically crippled, but having his reputation as a merciless and unbeatable warrior weakened helped make him into a good person.

Heath Ledger Joker: *looks at title* "Very poor choice of words." Yeah but for real, really good ideas. Limitations breed creativity. That Full Metal Alchemist scenario is raw AF.

Detective Conan is a pretty great example of this, I may also add that having your crippled character as the main form makes the uncrippled form raise to mythical status, when you see Conan all the time do things a certain way due to the limitations of being a child you get so fucking hype when he can just be Shinichi Kudo for a while and utilize his privileges as a famous detective, stop the criminals and make the accusations himself in total freedom

Every good Story: "cripple your character and let them grow." Dragon ball: "GO FURTHER AND BEYOND!!!!!"

In a story I've been working on for quite some time (I am a procrastinator, otherwise it would be finished by now!), I actually "cripple" my protagonist by GIVING her powers. She is discovered to have abilities that are important to her society and religion, but with that comes special treatment that she never sought, and the ability to produce fire, which she has always been deathly afraid of since a child. So the "crippling" comes from her wanting to shirk away from this new responsibility, and fearing her power of fire to the point where to restricts herself. So as the story goes on, she has to overcome her fears and insecurities, and comes to accept her role on her own terms as she finds reasons to stand up and fight for what she believes in and cares about.

My favorite crippling of a character is John McClain from Die Hard not having shoes for most of the movie. We take for granted the comfort and protection shoes give us. So simple and human.

'Ascendance of a Bookworm' is a great example of this, take a functional introvert book obsessed librarian then kill them and have them reincarnate into a sick child in a world without books. Although there is another book series called 'The Eminence in Shadow' where the main character is deliberately making themselves appear crippled but is such a balls to the wall departure of common sense it legitimately both makes fun of common tropes as well as presents them as epic moments to be enjoyed.

as a crippled guy, seeing badass heroes getting a limp o having to deal with a drawback (dunno, a healing bone) even temporarily, gives me such a appreciation. even more if they were a bit prickly before and found a sense of humility and kindness while in that position

I have some characters that after a bad fight, they get those "pops" on their shoulders or knees after hitting them really hard. Those will be permanent, its a nice characterization how before a fight they warmup their arms or legs, making sure it doesn´t happen again. It makes them feel vulnerable, relatable, and even show a little of their personality in how they handle their knees that sting when it´s about to rain or the ancient technique use so their left shoulder is no sored.

I agree this is a great narrative tool for character exploration, however I believe it works far better in longer works. Because you are able to actually give the character things, that can then be taken away, and you can sit with it for a while rather than undoing the crippling prematurely

Something I feel like would have been good to touch on would have been father removing the ability to use alchemy in full metal alchemist. He controlled the entirety of Amestris’ alchemy. Alchemy is a core mechanic to Ed’s identity. It is the entire basis of the show. His ability to do alchemy without a circle and his fundamental understanding of it even as a child led to it being the thing he has always relied on and swore by. But in the end, Ed couldn’t use his alchemy to win the day. Then on top of that he has his auto mail arm blown off. The other core part of his identity. And he was fighting against a Fledgling GOD, so what does he do? Gets into a FIST FIGHT WITH IT.

A pretty amazing example of this is with Johnny Joestar from JJBA part 7. On top of being literally crippled at the start of the story and learning to become a better person as well as regaining confidence in his ability to race horses, he also loses pieces of tusk (the name of his Stand, which can be considered his powers) in order to learn how to better utilize the lesser parts of his own abilities and improve his own skills

Dark Tower book 2: Drawing of the Three is a great example. Roland loses his thumb and index finger to some lobster monsters. Not only does this incapacitate his ability to shoot two handed, but causes infection that nearly kills. You getto see just how far hes willing to go for the Tower and how goddamned tough he is. Another character marvels at just how powerful he is despite being wracked with fever and nearly dead.

Idk why, but the ending where the guy finally finds his Irish culture and dances to it at his school always stuck with me

8:54 I got a friend who almost lost one of his legs and when he saw this part of the movie just went poker face, not making any comment just ocassionaly laughing. When Hiccus at the end loses his leg, he started crying. Not only this makes characters real, it makes them relatable

One of my favorites examples of this technique happens in Dishonored, there is this mission where Daud takes all of your equipment (guns, weapons, elixirs etc) and you have the choice to go get your gear back, or try finishing the game without it, it's really smart.

it's really weird that this video conflates characters with actual permanent disabilities and characters who are momentarily inconvenienced

Great video. I'm writing a book about a character who has been brought low. I wanted to hit home the point that it's our limitations that make us human. So to deny our limitations (in the ultimate sense) is to deny our very humanity itself. Your point about how we are not defined by our limitations, but by how we choose to adapt and grow from them, helped me to thread that needle. I look forward to more of your content.

It's like how a long distance relationship forces you to find a deeper connection with your partner and makes the moment you actually are together all the more special.

Spiderman 2 is my favorite use of the crippled character. At the start of the movie, Peters life is miserable, because his Spiderman persona always interferes with his personal life. When he looses his powers, he suddenly becomes happier than he has ever been. His grades are excellent, he has a better relationship with his loved ones - in short, his life is better. And yet, he still chooses to pick up the mask again. Because Peter looses his powers, Spiderman 2 was able to explore, what it means to be Spiderman, in a much deeper and thorough way than any other live action Spiderman. HiTop Films talks about this way better and in more Detail and has in general a great Essay series about the Raimi Trilogy

3:53 and on And this is why the first Thor is my favorite Thor movie! His inner journey was so compelling and very personal to the character. All the Marvel movies are trying to outdo themselves, but bigger doesn't always mean better. I love the very intimate, "small" feel of the first Thor, that's what actually makes it one of the most absorbing Marvel movies for me. As for the video itself, YES, I have always said this! When I write characters, I very often take away their greatest skill during a major segment in the story and say, "Now what?". Gets my mind working, the challenge is quite thrilling! One of my favorite parts of brainstorming stories. Character is not tested in times of ease.

Yes! Such a cool concept and it can really make characters (especially op ones) seem way more interesting and just fun seeing them navigate the narrative with some sort of a crutch. Sometimes actual crutches.

Ah the old Superman complex, That best way to destroy your characters and rebuild them, kind of. I never realized that Thor had the same situation, especially in the films. Love that. In the end, It's worth it to test if this style works for you. It probably will. Works for me so how and I can't help but keep it in mind a lot of the time. Awesome video!!

A character can also be weakened by various different means. The strength itself can be removed, but so can the source of the strength; and often there are various sources. The interesting thing is that it's sometimes not obvious what a character draws from. It's like with friends - you realize how much you truly value them when they're not available, but you might take them for granted if they're always there for you.

Roy Mustang is really a perfect example for way more than one reason (HEAVY SPOILERS FRO FMA:B!) Not only is he powerful as all hell with his alchemy, he is also in a quite a high up position in the military, with a group of talented and loyal individuals and connections all around. And at different points, the show take all of it away in different ways, often multiple times. There is his innate weakness for water and too high humidity, and while his fight with Lust shows this weakness and Roys solution off really well, Roy loses something else in that fight too. He loses his anonimity, the enemy now knows exactly who they should keep an eye on. He also loses Havoc, his "man in the action" after Lust cripples him. This is of course not the first time Roy loses a valuable asset and friend, as Hughes was also murdered beforehand, stripping Roy not only of his best informant and someone who has been an integral part of his rise, but also his best friend. And then, only a while after, he loses his squad as they are all intentionally transferred away from him, taken as hostages of sort. He loses his biggest assets in the world of politics, where his flames won't solve everything. And yet he overcomes this, too, setting up a secret communication network with Grumman and Armstrong. He keeps his wits and slowly builds a counteroffensive. And then the show even takes that away from him, he loses his mind, consumed by hatred after finally finding the person responsible for his best friends death. He is barely saved from being perhaps forever consumed by his hatred by Hawkeye, Ed and Scar. With everything that happens to him though, he manages to overcome, alone or with help, Mustang keeps his eyes on the future... But that would be too nice, wouldn't it? He loses his sight! They really go and keep crippling the guy, and he keeps overcoming! He overcame this too, not gaining his sight back (at least immediately) and rather adapting to it with Hawkeyes support. 10/10 example of how to keep doing these kinds of characters, I dare say.

I remember when i first watched «how to train your dragon». It completely shocked me when i saw what happened with hicup after the battle. But i actually loved the fact it happened, as it then matched with what happened with toothless.

The core value of this seems to be putting characters in a different position than they are used to which should also be achievable by giving previously weak characters more power

In a way, this is part of the reason I like the Artemis Fowl series. The fact that Artemis is a pretty morally lacking child prodigy who manages to outthink most of his opponents never changes the fact that, at the end of the day, he's a scrawny child in places far too dangerous for that to happen. The amount of times he ends up being burden and needing rescue is great-it actually makes the characters vulnerable: without Artemis, they don't have a solution to the larger problems, but Artemis can very rarely handle upfront confrontations. In addition, there's Butler. The amount of times this man gets injured and taken out of commission is incredible for the sheer badassery that the character has. It's partially due to how effective he is when he's healthy that him taking that near fatal hit adds so much tension to the scenario. Furthermore, the villains are clever enough that most of their plans revolve around taking the main cast of characters out of commission first and foremost. Honorable mentions include Mulch Diggums, who, while being incredibly capable, is technically disabled due to not being able to do magic. Of course, this isn't cut and dry, since having magic means following the rules, and in a stealth espionage setting, "No breaking and entering human buildings" is a pretty big handicap. There's a lot of good stuff there.

A more interesting version of this might be in making the character's most obvious strengths orthogonal to the conflict at hand. This is a possibly even more effective kryptonite for Superman than kryptonite is. Sure, Superman could pretty easily cave Lex Luthor's face in, but Luthor's money and connections give him a social power that Superman can't simply punch.

The best example I can think of this in a video game is probably Metroid Fusion, not only do you get all your power skills taken from you they get turned against you in the form of the SA-X not only are you weaker, but you have to confront what is essentially you at your peak something the game will always use to humble you no matter how many big bad monsters you beat.

One of my favorite things in video games is when your character gets imprisoned, loses all of their stuff (temporarily), and has to save themselves. Almost always feels awesome!

I think this basically touches on a core concept in stories. We want to see the main character struggle, either struggle to obtain new power, struggle to keep it or struggle to get it back. Basically struggle makes a story interesting. Make an OP character that never struggles, or remove any notion of struggle from, even a weak character, and story becomes uninteresting.

Jaime is up there for the best character in Ice and Fire, and losing his sword hand is a big part of that. I think what makes this particularly effective is that it's permanent. Yeah Superman gets effected by kryptonite, but he, and the audience, are just waiting for that to wear off. Jaime not only has to cope with the practical difficulties of losing his hand, but the mental effects of knowing that he can never recover it.

To all the people getting mad about crippled supposedly being a bad word. Understand that it has multiple meanings. Cripple can also mean to handicap, or partially disable, or dysfunctional limbs. Or a damaged object. It's not a "slur". It can be used as an insult, but that doesn't make it a slur. Heck, there are certain words that can be considered "slurs" but are not for some reason, such as the word lame, which was once used to refer to the physically disabled.

JoJo's bizarre Adventure can't really do this based on how it's power system works. It did though try this method of story telling in very minor ways like the protagonist can't use a previous ability. Part 7 was the closest by literally crippling the main Joestar Johnny so he has to go on a journey to find an alternative the Spin.

I know it's not live action or animation, nor cinema in general but for me Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, represents this crippling method very well too, the character truly goes into a journey to try to become a better a person once he learns about his tuberculosis. Even though he becomes physically less capable (and it also translate in gameplay), his condition allows him to be much more lucid about not only his entourage, but also his life choices and what really matters along with what should be protected and fought for.

As a fledgling writer, you have given me some perspective I rarely get. Not a lot of suggestions I feel are worthwhile but this definitely is. Thank you!

This is something that Sanderson's cosmere books do incredibly well! They regularly find situations where the character's magic or innate abilities either cannot solve a situation or where those abilities are taken away, forcing the characters to be far more resourceful in solving the problems.

When you have much less power, how you decide to apply it reveals a lot about you.

Everyone brings up Superman and Kryptonite, but Superman under the influence of a Red Sun is just as crippling, but in a different way. Kryptonite is extremely painful to come into contact with and ultimately deadly, but a Red Sun merely depowers him, making him akin to a normal human. This presents Superman with a different kind of challenge as it can show his resourcefulness and strength of character over a longer period of time as his life is not always in immediate danger under a Red Sun's effects-- but this time with a clearer point of reference as we, being humans of the same power level, can more easily gauge the scope of whatever challenge he is facing. I guess this is to say you can 'cripple' a character in more ways than one, to different effects and results, and you should consider this when thinking about how you want your character to be seen and related to.

There's something especially satisfying about a protagonist turning a handicap into an advantage. The hobbits are small, so people underestimate them. It creates a great "I'm not as weak as you think moment", usually at the climax. Like sacrificing a piece in chess and getting to say "It was all a part of my plan".

Not gonna lie, I didn't realize I needed this video lmao

All I'm going to say the literally perfect example Johnny joestar.

"If all characters are crippled, no one is."

Always loved Metroid's use of in-game lore to both strip and then empower Samus throughout her journey(s).

I approve, I use this on a regular basis and it always improved my stories. It can also work very well at the end of a character arc to humble a character and create surprise and tension.

"At least they were paid!" That got a laugh out of me.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night literally does this. You start off the game playing as a nearly fully kitted out Alucard destroying things in an ingenious tutorial and then Death comes and strips Alucard of his power. Suddenly, you have to play the game fighting with bare basics and it's absolutely enjoyable to recollect shards of your power, and you even get more power throughout the game that Alucard didn't start off with.

you showed Todoroki, but the themes you discuss are truly what makes Deku such an interesting character, and what makes watching him get and learn his powers so engaging: every time he uses his powers, he hurts himself so badly that he has to postpone his training to recover from it, when having and using powers is basically the only thing he's wanted in life.

It seems like it’s underutilized, I remember some moments in Dororo and legend of Korra that really had a great opportunity for representation for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities and they could really explore more how the hero manages their life after losing their power or their health but didn’t go far enough imo. Also in my hero academia there was a great opportunity for someone to be a hero without superpowers as a “what if” for what Deku would be like but I don’t think they utilized him in any stories so far in the anime.

Gotta admit. I shy away from stories where the main character "flaw" of the protagonist(s) is "I'm too perfect". Unless it's supposed to be satire or something. No, I don't care if they're a loner because of it. That issue generally gets solved within one or two episodes anyway. Usually with harem or something.

I appreciate that you discussed this topic without bringing up several of the recent prominent examples of stories that failed to do this to their protagonists, and as a result, make all the characters achievements feel empty and hollow.

I love that you used both Luck of the Irish and Superman Returns. For some reason I LOVE those movies. I think the crippling of the protagonist is a part of why they are so great. Wonderful video as always. Thank you for doing what you do

Yup, doing the same for one of my characters. It even bleeds over to being their personality by being dependable, and it messes up the entire dynamic with the rest of the group. Just previously they'd gone through an arc of learning not to be so overprotective of others, but now with the knowledge that they can't even depend on themselves when worse comes to worst, they flip completely into ruthlessness, becoming a liability to the group due to the paranoia and mentality of shoot first, and fuck the questions. I feel like I should keep it there, but it being a fantasy setting, I'm having fun with the character developing other powers, where it turns out no weaponry was able to keep up with them and was actually holding them back the entire time, but that kinda flies in the face of this development. Probably best just to pass the torch onto someone else instead.

4:12 His powers were always in him. The hammer just helps him channel it, but I guess while he didn't realize that in the first film, he "technically", lost his powers in that sense.

I love this trope so much, I wish more writers took advantage of it.

This is one of the final pieces I’ve need for a story I’ve been writing for years… Thank you Please, keep up the awesome work!! ❤️

Speaking personally, it sometimes feel that characters who suffer a loss like this get written like they're two separate people. Like the creators changed their mind about who they wanted them to be and so include these changes in order to have a reason to alter who they are and how they behave 🤔

There is also a thing about literally crippling as well. One of the biggest disappointments to me in The Dragon Prince was how they undid that dude's quadriplegia after an encounter with a dragon. It grows Claudia but doesn't grow her brother much. A macho guy who doesn't have much in the way of brain space, being forced to endure a restriction of his physical ability. That sounds like it has immense story potential. And then they just use dark magic to reverse it, which kinda defuses any potential and resets you to thinking 'so what is the point of this character?'

finally I'm not the only one doing it, thank you! I've always felt crazy for being the only one guy in screenwriting class who tries to make all my characters have unfixable flaws aka crippling them. Either physical like deafness or mental like autism.

I'm not the deepest into the narrative essay side of youtube, but out of the channels I've seen, I get most excited for yours. Wonderful work.

In the thumbnail you show mustang and i really wish you brought him up. Hes a good example of becoming enotionally crippled when his friend gets murdered, and brotherhood shows how far he lets his rage go when he finds the culprit.

Oh, and the Metroid series does this all the time actually! But I think Fusion and Dread do it the best because not only is Samus basically stripped of everything but her bravery, she’s actively being hunted in both games by forces WAY more powerful than her

I'm a sucker for this kind of story, seeing the hero brought low or have them start low then overcome the limitations thrust on them is fantastic.

This was extremely helpful! I've always written in this type of way I realized while watching this, but to it's full extent as you continued to describe it and it's benefits in storytelling. This will advance my filmmaking abilities so much further. Thanks again!

Prefer to call this "depowered," especially in that it relates to superhero comics (but works in other genres as well). Hmm, I guess this is kind of the entire premise of Schitt's Creek? Worth noting, though often forgotten nowadays Thor originally had a civilian identity in the early comics named Donald Blake, where he was literally a disabled man who required a walking stick. Of course this stick was actually Mjolnir in disguise, and by striking it he could transform into Thor. But his origin story focused on a Blake who didn't remember his true identity -- he wasn't just pretending to have a disability, he actually did have a disability. But yeah, highly highly prevalent in superhero narratives to the point of near-oversaturation. In the MCU alone, we have: Iron Man (twice -- first in Afghanistan and then again when Stane steals the arc reactor), The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man 3, arguably Captain America: Civil War (I'd consider Steve's national identity part of his power), Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming (you talk about trees but I'm looking more at when Tony takes the suit away), Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther (again twice -- for his ceremonial fight with M'Baku and then by way of Killmonger), Avengers: Infinity War (looking mostly at Vision and Bruce), Captain Marvel, WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, Eternals (Sprite at the end), Spider-Man: No Way Home (loses his suit and also the ending), and now Moon Knight. That's seventeen of their thirty-two properties, just over half. Superhero stories love depowered stories, it's a time-honored tradition and part of their DNA.

Dude, YES, this is why I'm subscribed to you! You're the only one who ever appreciates these suprisingly good, cheesy B disney channel shows. 🤣 *If you ever do a Time Travel video in the future please mention, "Minute Men" or "My Science Project." They had fun lol

"Well at least they got paid" 😂🤣😂🤣😂 I'm done put that quote on a Tshirt 👕🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣

I love your message 🤣📈🔐💡 Perseverance is actually very enjoyable to watch!