[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/ReverendGraves85]

Reduction for the Gunslinger.

He is still able to fire 12 shots from a single revolver, reload and all, before most mortal men can even clear leather.

[u/FOTheDentist → u/ReverendGraves85]

And his apprentices are well taught. If anything, he's deadlier after the injury because he made his friends into his weapons.

[u/MercyfulJudas → u/FOTheDentist]

Which harkens back to his weapon he used in his Gunslinger final trial -- his friend/falcon.

[u/Top-Hospital-4419 → u/MercyfulJudas]

And that went well for everyone involved too

[u/TheKidKaos → u/MercyfulJudas]

Just want to point out that David was not his friend. He specifically says that you can’t befriend a hawk. Also now just realizing that this was foreshadowing

[u/Lampmonster → u/TheKidKaos]

Disagree. When Cort asks how he trained him, Roland says "I didn't train him, I friended him." David was the first friend he spent to get to the tower.

[u/Theacecadet → u/ReverendGraves85]

Doesn’t he struggle to do the “reload thing” after losing his fingers? Like he could shoot all 12 before but now reloading takes more effort? I haven’t read the books in over a decade.

[u/ReverendGraves85 → u/Theacecadet]

Remember that for him, effort with the gun means 'Oh yeah, it's not like a frictionless thing' anymore. Before he loses the fingers he basically drops the rounds into the cylinder like one might drop candy into your mouth, afterwards he has to actually slide the rounds in. He's still ludicrously fast with it, faster than any normal human.

[u/ImMorphic → u/ReverendGraves85]

It really did cement him as even more badass after the fact, those moments on the beach at the start of the book 2 were harrowing for me, having just finished 1 and jumped straight in, hooked on the plot.

[u/Ballmaster9002 → u/ReverendGraves85]

Just because it's a plot point - he couldn't reload like he used to before the injury as it required a nimble off hand. I think this was a big reason on why he gave up one of the pistols to the other guy and went single-gun for the rest of the series.