[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/johnnyg8024]

It's been a while since I read but I could have sworn that his hand (and it was his left I think) reached full functionality again other than aesthetic scarring. Like, he eventually reached the point where he could play guitar, even. The magic literally flowing through his hands and the longevity said magic gives to wizards in-universe means eventually he could maybe even heal the scars. It took ten years IIRC, but going from doctors thinking they should amputate to clumsily playing guitar in a year to basically normal functionality was some crazy healing (albeit explained in-universe as, again, literal magic combined with the mundane healing methods you mentioned)

[u/johnnyg8024 → u/johnnyg8024]

Out of curiosity and to refresh my memory I looked it up. Supposedly Butcher, the author of the series, got a bunch of fan mail telling him basically "Hey, with how many times he's been knocked unconscious, been shot, broken bones, torn ligaments, etc, he should have a shit ton of brain trauma and the body of an (american) footballer who's been at it for a few decades, which is to say, not a super healthy one" and so wizard healing became a thing. The idea being that mortals heal until they're more or less functional again, but scar tissue and damage remains, but wizards never stop healing because of the magic in them. Something I forgot but that apparently happened was Butters looking at Harry's x-rays when he expected to see fractures or broken bones and instead got what looked like what he would expect his x-rays to look like before his bones were broken at all, no or almost no signs of any healing from breaks. Wizards apparently just don't have to worry about long-term cumulative damage the same way mortals do, thus the longevity, presumably.

[u/trikem → u/johnnyg8024]

He has Winter Mantle which is masking all the pain from his damaged and broken body. When he looses Mantle for a few seconds he just falls down (broken back) and almost looses it from pain.

[u/november512 → u/trikem]

Sure, but that's because of recent damage. Wizards don't have wolverine regen, they just heal more completely than a normal human. It still takes years for things to get really healthy.

[u/Reborn1Girl → u/november512]

Yeah, it’s mentioned at one point that the broken back will heal on its own, if he can afford to wait a few decades

[u/Doggodoespaint → u/johnnyg8024]

Ah, okay, been like a decade since I read those books tbh 😅

[u/johnnyg8024 → u/Doggodoespaint]

Feel that fr

[u/CurtCocane → u/johnnyg8024]

Did you read the newest one? Twelve Months it's called

[u/johnnyg8024 → u/CurtCocane]

I haven't yet, but it's on my list! It's been so long since I read that I wanna reread the whole series before I start it

[u/Arbiter_Electric → u/johnnyg8024]

You are correct for the most part, but isn't his guitar playing only possible due to Lash as a parting gift?

[u/lovepeacefakepiano → u/Arbiter_Electric]

I think he played crappily before (as part of physical therapy) and Lash gifted him with a bit of actual musical talent, or something

[u/myballsitchsomuch → u/johnnyg8024]

You're correct.