History Main / KeepingTheHandicap

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Travis refused cosmetic surgery, preferring to keep his eyepatch because [[ItsPersonalWithTheDragon he wanted Blake to remember the injury he inflicted]]. It also sets him apart from the handsome staff men that Supreme Commander Servalan surrounds herself with.

** We've seen multiple Klingons in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' with eye patches, even though cloned implants are generally available. Martok in particular refuses Bashir's offer to replace his missing eye in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. This probably plays into their honor system, i.e. their "victory" would mean less if they could get back what it cost so easily. They probably also feel that it makes them look more badass, being a symbol of the battles they've fought and survived. Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E16Ethics Ethics]]", however, in which Worf would rather undergo ritual suicide/mercy-killing than live with paralysis. He willingly accepts an experimental treatment to cure it.

* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry,''

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': In "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession16BlackDogSerenade Black Dog Serenade]]", Faye questions why Jet doesn't get an organic arm replacement since, in the future of the series, organs can be cultivated and easily replace missing limbs. However Jet opts for the artificial one, largely as a reminder of the day he lost his real arm via a trap the mob [[spoiler:(and his partner, Fad, [[DirtyCop who was on their dime]],)]] lured him into and not to get too careless as he did in the past.
* In the finale of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', [[spoiler:Ed regains his lost arm and leg, only to give them up again to pull Al out of the Gate. This is in contrast with the manga and ''Brotherhood'', in which he gets his right arm back, but his left leg is still metal and he gives up his ability to perform alchemy in exchange for restoring Al's body.]]
** [[TheAtoner Doctor Tim Marcoh]] is a former State Alchemist responsible for research in creating Philosopher's Stones for the government. Beyond the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild horrific ingredients need to make a Stone]], the most prolific use of his research was as weapons for the Ishvalan War of extermination, for which Marcoh abandoned the military out of disgust. When one of the few survivors of Ishval found him years later, after seeing the depth of Doctor Marcoh's remorse, he spared his life, but [[AScarToRemember alchemically disfigured his face]]. While Doctor Marcoh could have easily used one of his remaining Philosopher's Stones to undo the damage, he decides to keep his disfigurement as part of his penance for the many atrocities his research enabled.

** {{Enforced|Trope}} in Izuku's case: after his arm becomes damaged one time too many [[PowerIncontinence due to him still not gaining proper control over One For All]], [[TheMedic Recovery Girl]] outright refuses to treat him again in order to [[HadToBeSharp force him to figure out]] how to ''not'' cripple himself after every fight. Izuku agrees with her reasoning and decides to let his arm heal normally for the time being.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': Sometime before the beginning of ''ComicBook/RunawaysRainbowRowell'', Victor Mancha's head was separated from the rest of his body in the hopes of salvaging him after his evil sister-in-law ripped out a chunk of his chest. After being revived, he refuses offers to have a new body built for him because he feels he deserved being beheaded for accidentally killing his nephew. He eventually changes his mind after getting tired of the increasingly embarrassing ways that his friends devise to get him around (at one point, they tape his head to Chase's shirt.)
* ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}'': The Kindly Ones ransack the Dreaming to torment Dream, having been given free rein to do so when he [[{{Geas}} took his own son's life as a mercy kill]]. When Dream objects to their threats, they respond by whipping him with their whip of scorpions, leaving a scar on his cheek. When asked why he keeps the scar by Lucien -- Dream being a polymorphic AnthropomorphicPersonification -- he remarks that it was foretold that he would receive a scar on his cheek as ironic karma.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass'': [[DefectorFromDecadence Sideswipe]] chose to keep the huge scratch mark on his chest (that goes over [[SmashTheSymbol his Autobot insignia]]) despite the fact that he could've had it easily repaired. He explains that he wears it as a mark of pride, reminding himself and everyone that he will have his revenge on Optimus, who tried to have him executed for [[NobleDemon disagreeing with his methods]].
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' has Whirl as a victim of "Empurata" - a cruel punishment favored by the old regime in which the victim's face was replaced with a single eye and their hands replaced with claws. This is meant to mark them as an outcast but was especially traumatic for Whirl, who was a clockmaker by trade and can no longer practice his art without hands, leading to his...[[BloodKnight antisocial tendencies]]. He keeps trying though, and in the comic's epilogue, he has apparently regained his skills. Not only does Brainstorm possess a clock he made, but when Ratchet dies and wills him his hands (of exceptional quality), Whirl rejects them because "I don't need fixing".
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': ''ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge'' introduces the Resurrection Protocols, which grant mutants ResurrectiveImmortality by creating new bodies for them. Mutants can even go through the [[DuelToTheDeath Crucible]] to die and get resurrected whenever they please. We've seen various disabled mutants react to this; [[ComicBook/NewMutants2019 Karma]] is resurrected but apparently not to restore her missing leg. (No canon reason is provided, but it's most likely due to avoid real-life accusations of ableism.) [[ComicBook/{{SWORD2020}} Wiz Kid]] has elected to stay wheelchair-bound, but provides an explanation: he'll shed his disability when he's being revived from death, but he's not willing to actively seek out his death to achieve the results. So he'll wait for an accidental or natural death, rather than trying to force it.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Doctor Strange|2016}}'': Initially, Strange intends to learn magic to heal his permanently damaged hands and work as a surgeon again, just like Jonathan Pangborn who used his magic to walk again despite a complete spinal cord injury. However, in the end, Strange decides against it and leaves his hands as they are.

* In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry,''

* ''Literature/TheCulture'': A minor character in ''Literature/{{Excession}}'' has some sort of anxiety disorder that leaves him excruciatingly shy and self-conscious. This sort of thing being both virtually unknown in the Culture and probably not impossible to fix, he soon became the focus of a long line of humans and [=AIs=] eager to see if they could treat him (which just terrified him into no longer answering messages), none of whom understood he ''preferred'' being shy and self-conscious, being an integral part of his self-image. When introduced, he's taken on a sinecure posting at one of the Culture's most distant and isolated outposts, with exactly one other person to talk to (who isn't talkative), no visitors, and absolutely nothing to do, and is perfectly content.

* A real-world, non-supernatural example occurs in ''Literature/MillenniumSeries''. After being tied up and raped by Bjurman, Lisbeth's wrist is injured from the rope. Although she knows it will fade, she elects to have it tattooed on her wrist as a reminder.

* In ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', the protagonist Tristran burns his hand, and his LoveInterest Yvaine (a star in human form) limps after her fall from the sky - and, quite unusually for the fairy tale genre, they remain somewhat crippled for life. Given that they are in a fairy land full of magic [[spoiler:and eventually become the King and Queen of it]], it's quite difficult to believe that there was no cure available for them - so it's much more likely that they refused the cure, seeing their handicaps as reminders of their love and adventures.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Travis refused cosmetic surgery, preferring to keep his eyepatch because [[ItsPersonalWithTheDragon he wanted Blake to remember the injury he inflicted]]. It also sets him apart from the handsome staff men that Supreme Commander Servalan surrounds herself with.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': "The Silencer" features a serial killer who was born deaf and given experimental cochlear implants as a teenager at his abusive mother's insistence (she was paid for participating in the trial). The implants themselves are faulty, causing him constant pain, which is probably his primary motivation for wanting them gone. Throughout the episode, he attempts to perform surgery on himself to remove them. While he never explains his reasoning beyond that, the episode clearly demonstrates that he's able to hear, but he never speaks. Since he's not mute, that's a conscious decision on his part, which implies there's also a mental factor at play in why he wants to be deaf again.

*** One of Kira's Bajoran friends, Furel, lost his arm while a member of the Resistance. He says that he prayed to the Prophets prior to a rescue mission, offering to exchange his life for those of his captured friends. He feels that surviving with only a missing arm is an act of mercy by the Prophets, and getting a new arm would be ungrateful. Of course his girlfriend Lupaza is quick to joke that he refuses to get a new arm just to avoid having to put in a full day's work.
*** We've seen multiple Klingons in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' with eye patches, even though cloned implants are generally available. Martok in particular refuses Bashir's offer to replace his missing eye. This probably plays into their honor system, i.e. their "victory" would mean less if they could get back what it cost so easily. They probably also feel that it makes them look more badass, being a symbol of the battles they've fought and survived.
*** Averted in TNG's "Ethics," however, in which Worf would rather undergo ritual suicide/mercy-killing than live with paralysis. He willingly accepts an experimental treatment to cure it.
*** An officer from a low-gravity world chooses to remain as she is rather than be permanently acclimated to normal gravity. Her reasoning is that she wouldn't be able to live long-term on her home planet anymore.

* Terezi Pyrope from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' goes blind as part of a long-winded revenge plot, but finds herself preferring being blind over when she could see. When Aranea gives her the option to heal her eyes, she declines due to what being blind has done for her. [[spoiler: In the original timeline, she does end up taking the offer out of a sense of low self-esteem and regrets being manipulated into it, making sure it never happens when she sends John out to fix the timeline with his retcon-powers.]]
* ''Webcomic/NextSoundOfTheFuture'': [[spoiler: Shine opts out of a simple surgical fix for her singing bug and instead decides to wear a device that would allow her to sing, at the cost of reducing her voice box's lifespan. Her reasoning is that the surgical method would put her potential idol career at risk due to tampering with Vocaloid voices being against the law.]]

*** During the second season, Dr. Pulaski offers ocular implants to Geordi, as she has experience with that sort of surgery. He declines at the time, saying that he's not sure the technology could equal what his VISOR can do. He does eventually get them in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' after actor Levar Burton refused to wear the painful VISOR prop anymore (Expanded Universe material suggests that Geordi was basically forced to get the implants after his VISOR being hacked played such a key part in the destruction of the ''Enterprise''-D as various Fleet officials wanted to stop such a thing happening again).

** {{Enforced|Trope}} in Izuku's case: after his arm becomes damaged one time too many [[PowerIncontinence due to him still not gaining proper control ofer One For All]], [[TheMedic Recovery Girl]] outright refuses to treat him again in order to [[HadToBeSharp force him to figure out]] how to ''not'' cripple himself after every fight. Izuku agrees with her reasoning and decides to let his arm heal normally for the time being.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', Iida receives a scar and residual damage to his arm after his fight with Stain. Although he could have had it removed with surgery, he decides to keep it as a reminder of his past mistakes until he feels he learned his lesson.

* ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon had access to several potential cures for her paraplegia because of her association with superheroes. However, she refused to use these as she felt it was unfair that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless she could use these technologies and normal people couldn't]]. In ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'', Barbara [[ThrowingOffTheDisability gets surgery to fix it]] and becomes active as ''Batgirl'' again.
* This is a recurring plotline in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}''. The main character, Matt Murdock, lost all vision after a childhood accident but obtained SuperSenses (including a radar sense) in exchange. In a number of plotlines, his eyesight is restored by some means or another, but Matt loses his enhancements and ends up incredibly disoriented and incapable of fighting. In one story, he outright begs the alien who returned his sight to him to take it back.
* In ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'', Casimira lost one of her arms below the shoulder in a childhood accident. Despite having a wealthy sister who has repeatedly offered to buy her a functional prosthetic arm, Casimira stubbornly clings to her old prosthetic long after it ceases to serve any use.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', Lucifer gives Mazikeen his RealityWarper "Morningstar" powers as a parting gift. Both are pissed that he's leaving after everything they have gone through and forcing this power on her without her consent, she swipes at him with her sword, leaving a gash on his face. While he could heal the wound, she tells him that if he did then it would prove himself a coward. Being known for his {{Pride}}, Lucifer keeps the scar to the very end of the series, the scar still present when he returns in the 2016 series.
* Sometime before the beginning of ''ComicBook/RunawaysRainbowRowell'', Victor Mancha's head was separated from the rest of his body in the hopes of salvaging him after his evil sister-in-law ripped out a chunk of his chest. After being revived, he refuses offers to have a new body built for him because he feels he deserved being beheaded for accidentally killing his nephew. He eventually changes his mind after getting tired of the increasingly embarrassing ways that his friends devise to get him around (at one point, they tape his head to Chase's shirt.)
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', the Kindly Ones ransack the Dreaming to torment Dream, having been given free rein to do so when he [[{{Geas}} took his own son's life as a mercy kill]]. When Dream objects to their threats, they respond by whipping him with their whip of scorpions, leaving a scar on his cheek. When asked why he keeps the scar by Lucien -- Dream being a polymorphic AnthropomorphicPersonification -- he remarks that it was foretold that he would receive a scar on his cheek as ironic karma.
* ''Franchise/{{Shazam}}'''s writers over the decades have struggled to justify Freddy Freeman's continuing to live his daily life with a spinal injury requiring him to use a crutch and leg brace rather than staying in Captain Marvel Jr. form at all times and simply changing into street clothes. The most direct explanation is that he feels as though "the meter is running" when he's invoked the magic and is in superpowered form.

* ''ComicBook/XMen2019'' introduces the Resurrection Protocols, which grant mutants ResurrectiveImmortality by creating new bodies for them. Mutants can even go through the [[DuelToTheDeath Crucible]] to die and get resurrected whenever they please. We've seen various disabled mutants react to this; [[ComicBook/NewMutants2019 Karma]] is resurrected but apparently not to restore her missing leg. (No canon reason is provided, but it's most likely due to avoid real-life accusations of ableism.) [[{{ComicBook/SWORD2020}} Wiz Kid]] has elected to stay wheelchair-bound, but provides an explanation: he'll shed his disability when he's being revived from death, but he's not willing to actively seek out his death to achieve the results. So he'll wait for an accidental or natural death, rather than trying to force it.

*** During the second season, Dr. Pulaski offers ocular implants to Geordi, as she has experience with that sort of surgery. He declines at the time, saying that he's not sure the technology could equal what his VISOR can do. He does eventually get them in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' after actor Levar Burton refused to wear the painful VISOR prop anymore.

::: She has a second, more sentimental reason, too: Sigdi lost her arm during the cave-in that killed her husband, and her last experience with the arm was holding his hand, trying to pull him to safety. She never let go and comforts herself with the knowledge that, in a way, her severed arm is still there, holding his hand.

* In the finale of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', [[spoiler: Ed regains his lost arm and leg, only to give them up again to pull Al out of the Gate. This is in contrast with the manga and ''Brotherhood'', in which he gets his right arm back, but his left leg is still metal and he gives up his ability to perform alchemy in exchange for restoring Al's body.]]
** [[TheAtoner Doctor Tim Marcoh]] is a former-State Alchemist responsible for research in creating Philosopher's Stones for the government. Beyond the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild horrific ingredients need to make a Stone]], the most prolific use of his research was as weapons for the Ishvalan War of extermination, for which Marcoh abandoned the military out of disgust. When one of the few survivors of Ishval found him years later, after seeing the depth of Doctor Marcoh's remorse, he spared his life, but [[AScarToRemember alchemically disfigured his face]]. While Doctor Marcoh could have easily used one of his remaining Philosopher's Stones to undo the damage, he decides to keep his disfigurement as part of his penance for the many atrocities his research enabled.

* In ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'', [[spoiler:Escanor performs an ExplosiveOverclocking ability in their fight against the Demon King. As his body burns out and dies, he gives a LoveConfession to Merlin as he does. While she did not feel the same way, she gives him a parting kiss as thanks, burning the lower-half of her face. While she could use her shapeshifting abilities to heal the burns, she decides to keep the scars as a memento of Escanor.]]

* ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon had access to several potential cures to her paraplegia because of her association with superheroes. However, she refused to use these as she felt it was unfair that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless she could use these technologies and normal people couldn't]]. In ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'', Barbara [[ThrowingOffTheDisability gets surgery to fix it]] and becomes active as ''Batgirl'' again.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', Lucifer gives Mazikeen his RealityWarper "Morningstar" powers as a parting gift. Both pissed that he's leaving after everything they have gone through and forcing this power on her without her consent, she swipes at him with her sword, leaving a gash on his face. While he could heal the wound, she tells him that if he did then it would prove himself a coward. Being known for his {{Pride}}, Lucifer keeps the scar to the very end of the series, the scar still present when he returns in the 2016 series.
* Sometime before the beginning of ''ComicBook/RunawaysRainbowRowell'', Victor Mancha's head was separated from the rest of his body in the hopes of salvaging him after his evil sister-in-law ripped out a chunk of his chest. After being revived, he refuses offers to have a new body built for him because he feels he deserved being beheaded for accidentally killing his nephew. He eventually changes his mind after getting tired of the increasingly-embarrassing ways that his friends devise for getting him around (at one point, they tape his head to Chase's shirt.)
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', the Kindly Ones ransack the Dreaming to torment Dream, having been given free reign to do so when he [[{{Geas}} took his own son's life as a mercy kill]]. When Dream objects to their threats, they respond by whipping him with their whip of scorpions, leaving a scar on his cheek. When asked why he keeps the scar by Lucien -- Dream being a polymorphic AnthropomorphicPersonification -- he remarks that it was foretold that he would receive a scar on his cheek as ironic karma.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' has Whirl as a victim of "Empurata" - a cruel punishment favored by the old regime in which the victim's face was replaced with a single eye and their hands replaced with claws. This is meant to mark them as an outcast, but was especially traumatic for Whirl, who was a clockmaker by trade and can no longer practice his art without hands, leading to his...[[BloodKnight antisocial tendencies]]. He keep trying though, and in the comic's epilogue he has apparently regained his skills. Not only does Brainstorm possess a clock he made, but when Ratchet dies and wills him his hands (of exceptional quality), Whirl rejects them because "I don't need fixing".
* ''ComicBook/XMen2019'' introduces the Resurrection Protocols, which grant mutants ResurrectiveImmortality by creating new bodies for them. Mutants can even go through the [[DuelToTheDeath Crucible]] to die and get ressurected whenever they please. We've seen various disabled mutants react to this; [[ComicBook/NewMutants2019 Karma]] is resurrected but apparently not to restore her missing leg. (No canon reason is provided, but it's most likely due to avoid real-life accusations of ableism.) [[{{ComicBook/SWORD2020}} Wiz Kid]] has elected to stay wheelchair-bound, but provides an explanation: he'll shed his disability when he's being revived from death, but he's not willing to actively seek out his death to achieve the results. So he'll wait for an accidental or natural death, rather than trying to force it.

* ''Fanfic/SnippetsOfSirinShariacsLife'': Despite not needing to do so as a Herrscher, Sirin still decides to eat, sleep and breath to keep her humanity. In a later chapter it's also revealed that Cecilia offered multiple times to restore her missing left arm with Abyss Flower, but Sirin refused to keep it as a reminder of her actions during the Second Honkai War. It doesn't impact her life much though, as she can create a replacement out of Honkai energy whenever necessary.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': per WordOfGod, Mirabel's glasses are part of who she is, which is why [[https://screenrant.com/encanto-movie-mirabel-glasses-eyesight-julieta-fix-why/ her mother doesn't just fix her daughter's eye sight with magic]]

** During the assault on Chancellor Gorkon's ship, one of his bodyguards gets his arm shot off by the assassins. Later, during the trial of Kirk and [=McCoy=] on Kronos, that guard has still only the one arm, possibly as a propaganda move to show the ruthlessness of the Federation.

** Rono has had a scar on his left temple ever since his husband Keren once lost his temper and punched him. He could easily remove it, but prefers to keep it so that he can tease Keren about it.

* In ''Literature/NoOneToHearYou'' by Samantha Hayes, the protagonist's deaf daughter Flora has broken several hearing aids when she was still an infant. The protagonist eventually realized that she doesn't want to hear, and decided to let her remain deaf.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': "The Silencer" features a serial killer who was born deaf and given experimental cochlear implants as a teenager at his abusive mother's insistence (she was paid for participating in the trial). The implants themselves are faulty, causing him constant pain, which is probably his primary motivation for wanting them gone. Throughout the episode, he attempts performing surgery on himself to remove them. While he never explains his reasoning beyond that, the episode clearly demonstrates that he's able to hear, but he never speaks. Since he's not mute, that's a conscious decision on his part, which implies there's also a mental factor at play in why he wants to be deaf again.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Harold Finch walks with a limp and is in permanent pain due to an injury. He chooses not to have the damage repaired because he believes the pain is appropriate punishment for choosing to ignore the Irrelevant list; most notably the ferry bombing whose victims included his OnlyFriend Nathan Ingram.

*** During the second season, Dr. Pulaski offers ocular implants to Geordi, as she has experience with that sort of surgery. He declines at the time, saying that he's not sure the technology could equal what his VISOR can do. He does eventually get them in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', after actor Levar Burton refused to wear the painful VISOR prop anymore.

* In ''Roleplay/EmbersInTheDusk'', [[ProudWarriorRace Avernites]] can get just about any scar removed, but tend to keep ones connected to important stories, experiences and lessons.

** Vican became a willing guinea pig for Mutran's [[TheCorruption Shadow Leeches]], and was since experimented on further, giving him a monstrous visage he'd hoped Mutran would reverse. When his corruption was cured, Vican chose to keep his mutated form as penance for his past crimes.

::: She has a second, more sentimental reason, too[=:=] Sigdi lost her arm during the cave-in that killed her husband, and her last experience with the arm was holding his hand, trying to pull him to safety. She never let go, and comforts herself with the knowledge that, in a way, her severed arm is still there, holding his hand.

** Among the priests seen at the Godsmoot, the high priestess of Odin has an eyepatch, the high priestess of Hoder is blind and the high priest of Tyr has a HookHand. Again, it would be trivial for high-level clerics to heal those disabilities, but in each cases they mimic those of their respective gods, and in fact it is very likely they were ritually self-inflicted.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Attempted in "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS13E1DiaBillIcShock Dia-Bill-Ic Shock]]": After misinterpreting his [[DrJerk jerkass doctor's]] angry ranting after being diagnosed with diabetes, Bill mistakenly believes that he is about to lose the use of his legs, and obtains a wheelchair and starts using it. He is depressed at first, but learns to enjoy life again when he meets up with a wheelchair rugby player (who calls himself Thunder) and his team. While getting drunk at a bar with his new friends, Bill subconsciously gets out of his wheelchair. He tries to explain his situation and tests his blood sugar, attempting to prove that he has a legitimate medical condition. His blood sugar level comes up normal (all the exercise he had been getting with the team had gotten his diabetes under control), and he is accused of faking. Back home, Bill starts eating handfuls of sugar in hopes of bringing back his diabetes and restoring the new life he had forged for himself. Fortunately, Hank and Thunder show up to explain that he had gotten his diabetes under control after his doctor thought he was a lost cause -- that he could be an inspiration [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged despite having working legs]].

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': After their final battle against one another costs Naruto and Sasuke [[AnArmAndALeg each an arm]]. While Naruto gets a replacement made of Hashirama's cells, [[TheAtoner Sasuke]] forgoes getting one himself, resolving to live on with a single arm as a reminder of the crimes he committed. He continues to live that way by the time of ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''.

There's a number of possible reasons why. The disabled person might just be accustomed to living with the disability. They might feel that their disability is simply part of who they are or be proud of being disabled. Someone blind or deaf since birth would have a tough time adjusting to the addition of a fifth sense, and one [[ForcedTransformation turned into a werebeast]] many years prior would have long ago become accustomed to a bestial lifestyle. A neurodivergent person might feel that being neurotypical would fundamentally alter who they are. Ultimately, the disabled character believes that it would be more of a hassle to be abled than to be disabled.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': After their final battle against one another costs Naruto and Sasuke [[AnArmAndALeg each an arm]], Sasuke forgoes getting a replacement made of Hashirama's cells, as a reminder of the crimes he committed, and continues to live that way in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''.

** Vican became a willing guinea pig for Mutran's [[TheCorruption Shadow Leeches]], and was since experimented on further, giving him a monstrous visage he'd hoped Mutran would reverse. When his corruption was cured, and the weight of his actions him, Vican chose to keep his mutated form as penance.

* Tenel Ka in ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'' loses a part of her arm due to rushing her lightsaber's construction and having it explode in her hand [[DeadlySparring right when she needed to parry a blow from Jacen Solo]]. She eventually refuses to get a replacement prosthetic like her teacher Luke Skywalker did as a reminder to not let her pride get the better of her, citing it was Luke's choice to do so as her grandmother is trying to force the artificial limb on her, until Tenel Ka [[IncrediblyLamePun "forcefully"]] destroys the prosthetic to affirm her decision.

* Many Deaf people with some remaining hearing prefer not to use hearing aids; some who have cochlear implants prefer not to use them. They can communicate perfectly well in sign (or by texting, if they need to talk to a non-signer), they can use visual signals instead of auditory ones, and their entire community may be Deaf or at least fluent in sign language; in their lives, hearing is unnecessary, so why bother?

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
** Attempted in "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS13E1DiaBillIcShock Dia-Bill-Ic Shock]]": After misinterpreting his [[DrJerk jerkass doctor's]] angry ranting after being diagnosed with diabetes, Bill mistakenly believes that he is about to lose the use of his legs, and obtains a wheelchair and starts using it. He is depressed at first, but learns to enjoy life again when he meets up with a wheelchair rugby player (who calls himself Thunder) and his team. While getting drunk at a bar with his new friends, Bill subconsciously gets out of his wheelchair. He tries to explain his situation and tests his blood sugar, attempting to prove that he has a legitimate medical condition. His blood sugar level comes up normal (all the exercise he had been getting with the team had gotten his diabetes under control), and he is accused of faking. Back home, Bill starts eating handfuls of sugar in hopes of bringing back his diabetes and restoring the new life he had forged for himself. Fortunately, Hank and Thunder show up to explain that he had gotten his diabetes under control after his doctor thought he was a lost cause -- that he could be an inspiration [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged despite having working legs]].

* Tenel Ka in ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'' loses a part of her arm due to rushing her lightsaber's construction and having it explode in her hand. She eventually refuses to get a replacement prosthetic like her teacher Luke Skywalker did as a reminder to not let her pride get the better of her, citing it was Luke's choice to do so as her grandmother is trying to force the artificial limb on her, until Tenel Ka [[IncrediblyLamePun "forcefully"]] destroys the prosthetic to affirm her decision.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Little Chubby allows his [[ItMakesSenseInContext genitals to be smashed by a pitching machine]] in order to be a better person. Subverted in his next appearance when he has them repaired because he's not good at his job when he's nice.

*** During the second season, Dr. Pulaski offers ocular implants to Geordi as she has experience with that sort of surgery. He declines at the time, saying that he's not sure the technology could equal what his VISOR can do. He does eventually get them in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', after his VISOR is used in [[Film/StarTrekGenerations the previous movie]] to help the villains destroy the ''Enterprise''. The [[Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse novel]] ''The Insolence of Office'' goes into more detail, stating that Starfleet decided [=LaForge=]'s VISOR constituted a security risk due to the ease with which hostile parties could tamper with it, and that by the 2370s bio-neural technology had resulted in a marked improvement in ocular implants. Despite basically being forced into accepting them if he wants to stay on the ''Enterprise'', [=LaForge=] decides to have the implant surgery done.

*** An officer from a low-gravity world chooses to remain as she is, rather than be permanently acclimated to normal gravity. Though from her perspective, she isn't choosing a handicap because she is normal for her species.
*** Played with when a genetically enhanced woman who was made non-verbal by her enhancements is cured. She fakes her original condition returning because she is intimidated by life as a functioning adult.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'': The Flaws system in Edition 3.5. Some of these flaws can be physical handicaps that could be readily healed with magic (for a price, if you're not the right class or level), but the character gains a free feat in exchange for said flaw. Thus, if the flaw is ever healed, the GM has grounds to rule the feat as lost too, which may not be desirable by the player.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': In "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession16BlackDogSerenade Black Dog Serenade]]", Faye questions why Jet doesn't get an organic arm replacement since, in the future of the series, organs can be cultivated and easily replace missing limbs. However Jet opts for the artificial one, largely as a reminder of the day he lost his real arm via a trap the mob [[spoiler:and his partner, Fad, [[DirtyCop who was on their dime]],]] lured him into and not to get too careless as he did in the past.

* Gouda of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' was a RidiculouslyAverageGuy before being horribly disfigured in an accident. He chose not to have his face fixed via surgery or cybernetic because his InferioritySuperiorityComplex is such that he'd rather disgust people than be forgotten by them.

* In ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'', Escanor performs an ExplosiveOverclocking ability in their fight against the Demon King. As his body burns out and dies, he gives a LoveConfession to Merlin as he does. While she did not feel the same way, she gives him a parting kiss as thanks, burning the lower-half of her face. While she could use her shapeshifting abilities to heal the burns, she decides to keep the scars as a momento of Escanor.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', the Kindly Ones randsack the Dreaming to torment Dream, having been given free reign to do so when he [[{{Geas}} took his own son's life as a mercy kill]]. When Dream objects to their threats, they respond by whipping him with their whip of scorpions, leaving a scar on his cheeck. When asked why he keeps the scar by Lucien -- Dream being a polymorphic AnthropomorphicPersonification -- he remarks that it was foretold that he would recieve a scar on his cheek as ironic karma.

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Chocolove gets himself killed by Seyram and Redseb, as a revenge on their part for him [[DarkAndTroubledPast having murdered their father in cold blood during his past life as a gang member]]. After being revived by the Gandhara, despite their powers being able to bring him back to life unharmed, he willingly chooses to go blind as a way to atone for his sins, holding no ill will towards the kids and instead trying to make them smile for his condition.

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Chocolove gets himself killed by Seyram and Redseb, as a revenge on their part for him having murdered their father in cold blood during his past life as a gang member. After being revived by the Gandhara, despite their powers being able to bring him back to life unharmed, he willingly chooses to go blind as a way to atone for his sins, holding no ill will towards the kids and instead trying to make them smile for his condition.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Halcyon Renard uses magic to transfer his mind from his dying body into a Golem. Unfortunately, this causes him to get drunk with power and become a complete {{Jerkass}}. After having a HeelRealization, he chooses to go back to his decaying body.

--->'''Xykon:''' You're not regenerating anything. That eye? That's your individual Idiot Tax. That's what this fiasco costs you personally. I want you to remember every moment of every day what happens if we sit on our lazy ASSES and rearrange the furniture in a ruined city instead of moving on to the next target. If I ever see you with more eyes than assholes, [[AssShove I'm going to shove one in the other]].