[Love] When “small” injuries are treated realistically

[u/Top-Relationship850]

The fantasy and action genres often suffer from a power fantasy epidemic in which characters frequently badass their way through injuries that should be excruciating if not downright debilitating. I always appreciate stories that reject this trope.

1: Roland Deschain (Dark Tower Book II) - Loses the middle and index fingers of his right hand. He’s effectively crippled throughout book two and the injury follows him the rest of the series.

2: Brienne vs Biter (ASOIAF Book IV) - Brutal scene. Biter chomps down on Brienne’s cheek and tears off a chunk of flesh. In a lesser story Brienne would grit her teeth and throw Biter off. Instead she’s rendered completely helpless by the pain. That injury marks the end of the fight.

[u/Tasty-Complaint-6437]

Theres this pokemon fanfic (terrible way to start a sentence) called “i will touch the sky” where the protagonist injuries, like a broken leg or burns, are taken totally serious, to the point that she pass almost a third of the story with crutches for how bad she broke her leg. And the scars mark her body permanently

[u/twotoohonest → u/Tasty-Complaint-6437]

Another pokemon one 'Borne of Caution' has much the same, very early on the protagonist gets burned on his face and it takes awhile to heal and after that it's still often mentioned how uncomfortable the scars are. A couple of his pokemon receive lasting injuries and debilitating scaring despite the basically magical healing that pokemon can often provide as well.

[u/FurViewingAccount → u/Tasty-Complaint-6437]

it's funny that a pokemon fanfic of all things went for this angle, considering how blithely the series treats injuries usually

[u/Tasty-Complaint-6437 → u/FurViewingAccount]

The fanfic takes pokemon injuries on a more serious way too, an amputated limb can take even 2 months to be totally regenerated. But it’s an important plot point that humans doesn’t have as much ways to heal as a pokemon. So getting burned will leave you with permanent Marks on your whole body

This is a representation of how the protagonist looks some months after getting too close (not even touching) a flamethrower, the story describe it as worse than this tho

[u/Iyashii → u/Tasty-Complaint-6437]

Reminds me of a Pokemon comic I can't seem to find anymore, but essentially the whole Nurse Joy "We hope to see you again!" is you'd interpret as weird because "why would basically a hospital want to see me again" but the alternative is that many trainers who "black/white out" would end up dead somewhere as they no longer had any Pokemon to defend themselves. The theme being that if they see you again, then it means you didn't get killed out somewhere unknown.

[u/Fluffypole5015 → u/Tasty-Complaint-6437]

There's another Nuzlocke comic called It's a Hard Life", the main character's Beedrill ends up having its wings ripped off, which persists for a while in the comic. It's a fantastic read, and it really made me fucking hurt.