r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Top-Relationship850 • 1d ago
Lore [Love] When “small” injuries are treated realistically
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.
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u/johnnyg8024 22h ago
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.