August 15, 2019
[This guide was copied, as is, from Wattpad. At the time, I had no intention of posting it here. Please excuse any discrepancies.]
This section focuses on disabled cats in fanfictions, and the mistakes often made when writing them. It also discusses what to watch for when writing them and the fandom's perception of disability. As a disclaimer, I am not disabled or impaired in any way.
Disabilities have always been a tip-toe subject in literature. In western fiction, they are often used for comedy or token representation with little to no outstanding character traits other than their disability. In the Warriors fandom, people flock and flaunt over them like celebrities due to the circumstances of the canon arcs. Some people actually look to disabled characters as a way to show that such a condition or state of mind does not have to exclude one from all the things that normal people do. In this and many other fandoms, those looking forward to disabled characters will usually be disappointed.
DISABILITY IN CANON WARRIORS
Warriors actually has quite a few disabled cats. Many super editions and auxiliary stories feature them in some capacity, often physical disabilities. Though not one of these major examples is a good one that can be studied for writing purposes. Not one major disabled character is written well.
Our example cat was obvious: Jayfeather. He was, by far, the most unrealistic cat to ever grace the Warriors universe. No, it was not his powers or personality that made him so. It was his disability. Jayfeather was a blind cat. Ignoring the fact that a blind surface-dwelling mammal is a death sentence for all but humans and pets, Jayfeather was easily able to sidestep his disability with his power to walk in the dreams of other cats and visit afterlifes from time to time (even after losing his powers in A Vision of Shadows, his place has already been solidified in the fandom). His disability was treated more like a gimmick than an actual disadvantage. Replace it with a missing leg or a speech impediment and it would have no effect on the plots he was a part of. But fans love Jayfeather. If he was not blind, they would love him less. And, by the Erin's standard on disabled characters, he is a good example. He is not.
Jayfeather's disability did not reflect what his reality would have been; he was a romanticized cat. It was added for namesake only, or by an overzealous mind championizing disability instead of portraying empathy. No matter the origins, Jayfeather's personality or powers are not the discussion here. It is his blindness. Want a more realistic example from canon? Snowkit from the Dawn of the Clans side arc. Snowkit was carried off by an eagle because he did not hear it coming. Not nearly as interesting, but it is a more accurate depiction of a disabled mammal in the wild. Granted, Snowkit was nowhere near as important as Jayfeather to any event in canon, but his disability is not romanticized (and he does not get enough 'screen time' for it to be so). Romanticizing a disability does not have your readers empathize with said condition, instead allowing them to view it as an exotic advantage of some kind, or as a charming trait, or even self-indulge for those who may look to said characters for relatability. It may be nice in some areas of fiction, but disabilities are one trope romanticism should be left out of.
But this section is not here to bash the Erin's writing. It is here to help you not write disabilities like they have in regards to their main characters (unless that is your goal; romanticized disabled characters are common across fanfiction in all fandoms).
DISABILITIES IN FANFICTIONS
As a disclaimer before going any further, real cats have a very small pool of schizophrenic and confusion-based mental disorders they can suffer from. And of course there are birth defects, just like any other mammal. Humans have a far wider array of disorders and disabilities they can suffer from, more than any other creature on the planet, and many of them are human-only conditions. That is just the nature of our ultra-complex biology.
Due to the subpar example set by the Erins in this regard, the fandom has no good examples to pull from for disabled major characters. So disabled cats in fanfictions are often mary-sue representations of the disability in question (as it pertains to humans). This can be said about any fandom that features a disabled character in their canon. But it is especially prevalent in YA fiction like Warriors. Romanticised is what I mentioned previously. Romanticism sees an emphasis on emotion and individuality, as well as glorification for the past and what is natural. If a birth defect is a natural thing that happens sometimes, it can be romanticized. In fanfictions, unlike canon, disabilities are always a very pronounced character trait. Instead of simply romanticizing the character with the disability, the disability itself is the focus of the romanticizing. Worse yet, the empathy or help one with said disability might receive is also romanticized.
What do I mean by that? We need two examples from our nonexistent fanfiction. One for a physical and one for a mental disability:
- Catclaw had finally been promoted to warrior, despite being born completely deaf. She had trained hard, but her friend, Otherpaw, had finally managed to convince the medicine cat to let her pass on. She was proud, a hard worker, but proved less than useful on the battlefield. She could hear nothing, forcing her to constantly look around. ShadowClan's leader kept her on camp watch, and she sadly passed her time dealing with kits. One day, the kits who followed her around started to mimic her constant head turning. It served them well in training exercises when looking for signs of an approaching cat. The leader decided to let Catclaw return to full warrior duties, including educating the rest of the clan in her unique method of spotting danger without sound...
...
- For her entire life, Catclaw seemed to be afraid. Unable to look another cat in the eye, jumping at shadows, keeping her ears down to try and block out what she deemed noise. Being completely healthy, ShadowClan's leader saw no need to take her off warrior duties. Otherleaf, the medicine cat, could find no problem and admitted she had no fix for what was going on inside her mind. Catclaw always felt alone and unwanted, her clanmates deeming her too different. One day, she decided to break her cycle of pity by teaching apprentices and showing ShadowClan she could be normal. She taught them to be overly cautious of their surroundings and listen to the forest around them. One night, this perception saved an apprentice from a ThunderClan ambush. The leader was so impressed with her that he made her teach every apprentice and warrior the perceptionary tricks born of her affliction. Catclaw finally gained the respect and acceptance she craved...
Had I gone into these examples more, there would have definitely been some teasing as a kit or a long scene where the medicine cat 'exposition-explains' everyone what specific condition Catclaw had.
These two examples show two disorders that hinder quality of life to varying degrees. But they are not good examples. They are more typical of what would be seen in Warriors fanfics. The disability is romanticized. How? Both our physical and mental disabilities prove their use to those around them, and equate themselves to a normal-functioning cat. Deafness provides no advantages that hearing does not. And autism cannot be as good in a group setting as a normal mind. These conditions are called conditions (or disabilities depending on severity) for a reason. You do not have to write exploitation fiction, where our disabled character would be bullied, prove inadequate, and depressed the whole story, but you do not want to write fiction where the disability is an advantage. Because only in fiction could losing a normal function be advantageous.
This is not a hit on disabled people. It is reality… or as much reality as can be injected in a fictional universe about cats. If a disability is spun into some kind of advantage, it takes away any impact that said disability can bring from a literary standpoint. The person who may be reading this character and looking to them for some semblance of relatability will see a character who is better off for being disadvantaged. No one is better off from being disabled. And promoting such afflictions in this way sees people congratulate and praise being disabled rather than looking for ways to mitigate or cure the disability. Warriors fanfics especially have a problem with romanticizing it. Not that fanfiction is the sole cause for people of the western world praising instead of helping. But we are dangerously close to the Steven Universe and Undertale fandoms when it comes to pandering to romantic ideas of being disabled.
It is not all bad. As TvTropes said, the remaining 10% of fanfiction is worth going to StarClan for. So there are ways to do this trope well.
A DISABLED MAIN CHARACTER
As I stated earlier, the fandom tends to use disabilities as a character trait more than the Erins did. Odds are if you have decided to include one, they will likely be the protagonist, or at least a major character. But we have established that most (not all) fanfictions romanticize the disability, portraying it as some kind of advantage and not acknowledging it as an issue. How can you prevent yourself from doing this, whether on accident or on purpose? Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing disabled main characters.
First, remember that, and I mean this with no offense or prejudice, that a disability is always a hinderance, especially among wild animals. The idea is that a healthy person can do things more efficiently and easier than a disabled one. That is why the status is called 'disabled'. And if your goal is to portray one, do not forget that you are portraying a disadvantage. Whether it be physical or mental, detrimental to quality of life or a constant nuisance, this is not a positive aspect of modern life. It is a delicate subject that is hard to discuss sometimes.
On that note, remember not to have your clan (or whatever your main group) overcompensate for a disabled character. This especially applies to mental disorders. Speaking from pure logic, a disabled cat would either be kicked out of the clan or confined to camp duties. No leader would rely on a disabled cat in battle or in crucial positions. Clanmates overcompensating is part of the disability romanticism. It makes readers believe disability is something to be celebrated rather than aided. If our characters are afflicted just to gain praise and sympathy, they might as well be healthy mary-sues.
Third, and I cannot believe I have to mention this, research the disability you want to use. Physical and mental disabilities can be vastly different in terms of severity and classification. And most conditions do not even classify as a disability. It does not surprise me to see fanfics across the web take such broad liberties with the term 'disabled'. Some classify temporary depression from a mate dying as disabled. Others call a mild speech impediment a mental disorder. Anything to romanticize it, I guess. We are not the Steven Universe or Undertale fandoms. We Warriors fans are better than that. Much better than that. A cat with two broken legs is not disabled. A cat with a missing leg is. Do some research and read how the disability you want to portray works. Think about how to incorporate it into the character, or into events if they are a main character.
Finally, I should elaborate on the fact that animals suffer from a much smaller list of disorders and defects than humans. That is the nature of not evolving the brains or built-in tools to work through complex problems. For humans, it is a biological price paid for our complexity and intelligence. For example, ADHD is a popular disorder to use in this fandom. A cat in real life cannot suffer from ADHD because their brains are not complex enough. So if you wanted to portray that disorder, you would have to justify its existence and incorporate it in a way that makes sense within the literary confindes of the Warriors universe. In short, do not put in the description of your story "in my headcanon cats know what ADHD is so they can identify it btw my character has ADHD." Do not do that. Instead, show the disorder in action when facing a problem and write about it how cats might view it, especially since they lack the tools and intelligence to diagnose it so accurately like humans can. You are writing an animal story, after all.
All of these points are here to remind you that your character has a disorder or is disabled and is a main character or the protagonist. Ideally, if you decided, the disability would play into the conflict, plot, events, or character development in some way, shape, or form. To a healthy clan cat, a disability is always a negative. Keep that tension, whether it be anger, pity, or self reflection, in your story. If you want being disabled to be part of the conflict, then make it a problem. Jayfeather is a romanticized example that we do not want to emulate. Many fanfic writers love him, and many emulate him for their own disabled characters. Unless your intention is this type of character, avoid it.
If you keep those points above in mind, you should be in good shape for adding disability to the forefront of your characterization. This section is not the definitive answer, but it is as close to one as you will find in regards to Warriors fanfics.
IN CONCLUSION…
While there are more disabled cats in fanfics than there are in canon, they are never written in such a way that portrays disability. The characterization of such an affliction is just as important as the character's other traits. We do not want to romanticize the disability and we certainly do not want to championize it as a good thing. That trivializes both the disability and the character portraying it. Now, some fans will want to write those kinds of stories, and that is fine. I certainly will not stop them. Just note that that you can do better. You have this, and many other, guides out there to help you write to your fullest in regards to this trope.
The last thing this fandom needs are more mary-sue cardboard cutout tragic fanservice romanticized protagonists. Especially disabled ones.
- Tyto
