The basic definition given for Disabled Love Interest is "a Love Interest, most often Inspirationally Disabled. She'll overcome her challenges in the end, and have a steamy kiss while she's at it."
Reading through the full definition and all the examples given on the trope page, it is apparent that when this trope is in play, the disability is one of the defining character traits of the love interest. Thus, the hero does not just have a romance with an attractive, blond scientist, they have a romance with an attractive, blond scientist in a wheelchair.
In Toy Story 4, neither Bo nor Woody are really defined by their handicaps and we have to agree that the "magic" that enables toys to become mobile does somewhat obfuscate the notion of a disability.
Bo, for instance, isn't wearing some advanced prosthetic arm, it's her actual arm that when both halves are touching, magically becomes fully functional and when the tape slips off it becomes inert. I would wager that a majority of the audience was completely unaware that Bo's arm was broken off and that she was "disabled" until the humorous moment it comes off in Woody's hand. Even then, there's a moment of laughter between them, some more tape is applied and the issue of her broken arm never resurfaces in the story.
Woody's voice box is challenging for this trope because you have to decide if the voice box is an actual part of Woody the character (like an organ) or whether it is an accessory tied to his sense of identity as "Sheriff Woody" the toy from "Woody's Roundup". If the latter, then the voice box is like his hat or sheriff badge but it just happens to be inside him.
Certainly Woody has an emotional attachment to his voicebox but he does decide to voluntarily give it to Gabby. Just as he decides to pass on his Sheriff Badge to Jessie. In both cases this represents his acceptance of shifting his identity from an "owned toy" to a "lost toy". Those accessories aren't needed in the new life he is choosing with Bo and while he is giving up a part of himself, does it really leave him disabled?
This could lead into many a complex discussion over identity, handicaps, is the voice box like a kidney transplant, etc?
However, tying back to the trope at hand, Disable Love Interest, I stand by my assessment that neither Bo nor Woody are really defined by their handicaps. Bo has a fully functional arm that never impacts her ability to be an Action Girl and one imagines that once she finds a tube of super glue lying about, her arm will be more or less permanently fixed. Woody in giving away his voice box causes him to no longer be "Sheriff Woody", but he is still fully functional as the Woody we've known for these past 4 installments.
Therefore I don't really feel that this trope applies.
Edited by rva98014
I mean, Woody's voicebox is irrelevant since as a lost toy, he doesn't need it in the slightest. It's less "losing a body part" and more "having a vestigial organ removed."
As for Bo Peep, unless the work explicitly plays up the parallel to being disabled I don't really think it fits. It's absolutely not equivalent to a good prosthetic because it's not a prosthetic, it's her own arm. It won't get better on its own because it doesn't seem to really need to get better. It's perfectly functional. It's treated as more of a Rugged Scar rather than a disability.
Neither of these characters are defined by their disabilities in terms of their romance arc. Even assuming we count them both as disabled, they're less the stock Disabled Love Interest character than they are two people who are in love. And have disabilities (which again, is arguable), leading to a very literal, but narratively irrelevant reading of the trope.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
So I pulled this:
- Self-Deprecation: Played with: Early on, Forky can't see himself as being anything other than trash. Given how he was made in part by the items Woody had grabbed from the trash, it's easy to see why he can't see himself as being a toy; it's not that he doesn't think he can be, it's that he literally (at first) struggles to see himself as anything but trash.
So, the thing is, it's not Self-Deprecation from Forky... trash is something he loves. Trash is a good thing. It comes across as self deprecating to us, but it isn't in the slightest to him. Plus he still sees himself as trash... but he's Bonnie's trash.
I wouldn't necessarily be averse to it added in some way, but the write up is really weird. Maybe as a subversion?
Edited by Larkmarn Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them. Hide / Show Replies
Forky is not making fun of himself as the trope suggests so the example doesn't count.
Edited by eroock
I think the unfair Sex Should be added, in all the major films and the shorts all the major villans were males and with maybe one exception they all came to very bad ends.
Sid got terrified of toys and is now working a string of dead end jobs Al from Al's toy barn well you saw the comerical Stinky Pete... well at least he's going to get played with but that girl draws on her barbies that has to be a nightmare for him Lotso is tied to the front of an 18 wheeler you know that eventually rips plush apart. Gabby Gabby gets a happy ending?
Hide / Show Replies
That's very much a huge stretch. The villains were hardly "doing the same thing" and get treated differently for each. The only thing they have in common is being the antagonist of their movie. To what level they deserved punishment is extremely specific to each.
Sid's doing just fine.
Gabby Gabby just plain isn't as bad as Lotso. She doesn't deserve as bad a punishment as him. A lot of the tension around Gabby Gabby relies on the fact that audiences expect her to be Lotso 2.0 even though she's almost a complete reversal.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
A request has been put in on the locked pages
thread. I imagine the mods will get to it the next time one of them checks that thread, which they do regularly.
Highcrate, For some reason I cannot open the locked pages link because the "404 Not Found" error pops up instead.
Ngh 93
Seems to be part of whatever site glitch is currently inserting backslashes whenever you use quotes in Discussion posts.
Just do a search for "locked pages requests" and it should come up.
Edited by HighCrate
THE MASTA
Why are all the pages locked? It isn't detailed on the Locked Pages page.
WE ARE NINTENDO. YOU CANNOT BEAT US...except if you cheat... or if you use a guide book... or if y— SHUT UP! Hide / Show Replies
Folks wouldn't quit adding Speculative Troping to the page, and it got to be more trouble than it was worth to keep cleaning it up. It'll be unlocked upon release.
See the speculative troping cleanup thread.
I'm pretty sure this isn't about Little Bo Peep anymore, given the teaser trailer.
Hide / Show Replies
I don't think a five second teaser trailer can tell us anything about the plot aside from showing a new character.
Edited by LadyErinNY
Disabled Love Interest was pulled on account of Bo Peep's arm being attachable with tape and Woody's voice box loss not making him a mute. Quite frankly I see that as the equivalent of saying a very good prosthetic disqualifying one from being disabled or not having a finger not counting because you have spares. Bo's arm will never get better on its own and Woody literally doesn't have a part of himself.
Hide / Show Replies