#It frustrates me immensely that the writing keeps associating reward for suffering with... living without disability

[bonefall]

Hi there, as an epileptic person I’m so happy to see your changes to Shadowsight’s character (I was SO disappointed that they removed his seizures!) and that you have a whole section dedicated to it in the medicines overview! It means so much to me to have such genuine representation. The only little note I have is that the technical term for a grand-mal seizure is “tonic-clonic,” not clonic-tonic! Other than that you have some really great and well-researched information ^^

Oh shoot, I didn't realize the order was important! Can you tell me why it should be tonic-clonic and spelling it as clonic-tonic should be avoided, so I can share?

With Shadowsight and Sorreltail, I did my research by looking at educational not-for-profits and trying to make sure to listen to firsthand accounts of what it's like to have it, so that the portrayal was more based in life than medical journals. I'm pretty sure I have an old post floating around somewhere with a bunch of sources and links, in addition to the herb guide you saw.

It really is such a shame they did that with Shadowsight specifically :/ you're not the first to pass through thanking me for putting his epilepsy back. I was recently revisiting the earlier books of TBC to answer an ask (ballooned into an essay) and, man, seeing all the setup, with what I know now, utterly wasted is just devastating.

What I mean is, in Book 1, they're describing his auras from his perspective and how there IS a difference between his seizure-visions and his Ashfur-visions. They're establishing that he DID always have epilepsy, it's just ASHFUR that's new. That was a MAJOR hint that something was wrong! The epilepsy was always part of him, but the possessions weren't!

But then, in Book 4, the team unceremoniously decides that no, it was Ashfur all along. Even the seizures. GoodBYE epilepsy! It was literally just a magic spirit.

Though the "seizures give visions" trope is a bit problematic on its own (like "Blind Seer"), I feel like it's even worse to set up representation, and then just yank it away midway through an arc. Like they couldn't just have him lose the visions but keep the seizures.

Frustrating. But, well, this is MY kitchen and I get to decide the disability rep.

#It frustrates me immensely that the writing keeps associating reward for suffering with... living without disability #Cinder and her reincarnation. Shadow and his seizures. Jay choosing between his sighted life in the past and returning to the present. #It's WEIRD that this keeps happening #OH AND BRIAR. BRIAR ALSO. #I think 4 times is a concerning amount of nickels at this point #5 nickels if you count Moth losing her ADHD within a few chapters because it was inconvenient #Which is the one that burns me personally as an ADHaverD #Bone babble #BB!Shadow's epilepsy doesn't give him visions btw in case you haven't seen that stated lmao #He just has epilepsy. He loses the visions when he gives Ash's lightning back #And his stuff is all reworked so he was never having visions until Ash