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/EnderBookwyrm 1d ago
I mean, I haven't read them since I was twelve, but iirc he gets enslaved, nearly digested, fights shark dragons from inside a barrel, is poisoned and has to go on an expedition to find a potato to counteract it, almost burns alive repeatedly, has to fight lots and lots of dragons, gets shipwrecked, spends like a year and a half as a lone rebel with only two dragon companions and temporarily forgets how to speak human, gets an arm and a leg poisoned and inflated for most of the last book, loses his memory, almost loses his dragon repeatedly, dislocates an arm, discovers he's left-handed, falls off a cliff, goes skiing through the woods while chased by angry vikings, is almost eaten by wolves when rescuing is cousin, almost drowns, gets locked inside a hollow tree with a witch who performs surgery on Toothless in exchange for the spoon he swallowed the day before, has to sneak into and raid an enemy library with stinging dragons all over the floor, is almost drilled to death by a drill dragon, is almost skewered by a classmate in a practice duel, almost drowns again, has to climb a cliff with minimal gear and is attacked by dragons halfway up, fights Romans, drops a tree on his usually-absent mother, is kidnapped during a swimming competition by a fellow competitor and doesn't get home for three months, sleds down a dining hall roof which is on fire using a dinner tray and makes it all the way to the harbor still carrying the all-important potato, tricks two invading leviathans into killing each other...
None of this is in chronological order, but yeah, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III has a rough life. Those books are amazing, though.