#none of tbis probably even makes sense lol

[arthurtristankingsmen]

Thoughts on Arthur’s Arm

SO @metalarmed-kushlover tagged me in a post about them talking about Arthur’s prosthetic and possibilities. I wanted to say my own piece after seeing the hellbent teaser, and with a bit of my own research into the topic I’ve done over time. 

I will be putting this under a read-more, because this got super long on me, haha. I would also like to add that I know it is for a cartoon and thus the suspension of belief would be more appropriate, but I enjoy speculation, and have placed my thoughts down with the idea of treating this with some modicum of realism.

Now, I mentioned in an earlier post I thought Arthur’s arm might have been taken all the way to the socket because of the sizing of the prosthetic and the like. But since then, I have adjusted my thoughts. I initially thought, by looking at the prosthetic, that Arthur’s arm was completely gone, based on size and location.

the things that threw me the most was the hinge joint right at the shoulder where it is. But in researching more styles of prosthetic arms, particularly those where most of the arm is missing, I’m more than willing to admit I was probably wrong, and that isn’t a hinge joint. In fact, it looks like the circular stations to which a harness is connected instead

This video, while poor in quality, shows kind of what i mean. The woman has a percentage of her arm that is placed in a sleeve, and the circular portion on her shoulder appears to be a place for the harness to connect. It might stand to reason that it is the same on Arthur. 

Now considering where the arm segments into each individual part, I do not think Arthur has much arm left. I don’t think he has all the way to his bicep, or even midway. I’m more leaning towards him having the deltoid at least, the trapezoid and serratus muscles, and part of the coracobrachialis where it attaches at the humerus, but I am unsure on that last part. I do not think he has much arm left, though I think he does have some left, now. 

This is mainly due, aside from the discovery of the harness part being shaped like the part at his shoulder, to two major hints. The first being an early comic drawn by artsy, one of the artists for the MSA videos. While technically what she does is not strictly canon, considering she is part of the team, I am willing to assume she knows more than I do. Added with the second hint, a mention in a post from heilos, another artist who works on the videos, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

First hint:

(picture source) 

See that what Mystery has in his mouth seems to consist of both parts of the arm, but not completely. And looking at the damage and bandages on Arthur’s shoulder, it is still there, but not in full. Not to mid bicep at least, as I had been speculating. 

On top of that (which people can easily say is not strictly canon given that it is not WoG), This was mentioned in another text post:

(picture source)

So that seems to indicate he has his shoulder at least, and a little of his arm. Enough to place in a sleeve, at any rate (though not strictly confirmed). 

Now considering Ben himself has said it’s been less than a year since the cave incident, and considering the time it would take to build a prosthetic and recover from any surgeries, I am hesitant to say that he has done the bone graft port like I had thought previously to Freaking Out, when I thought he had had more time to recover, and hadn’t pushed himself so hard. 

It would be a viable choice if he didn’t want to need straps, but given the time frame, I don’t think he’d want to ‘waste’ time waiting to heal from that before he could begin the use of his prosthetic to look for Lewis. And considering the vast majority of people are given the outdated claw prosthetic (as this guy mentions) due to it being simple but effective, I could see Arthur being settled with one from the hospital, and then taking matters into his own hands. 

For designing the prosthetic, I am sure Arthur did a lot of the legwork. Ben has said that Arthur made his own prosthetic specifically. So the end result is by Arthur, which can kind of sort of be made sense of, considering on Lance’s character thing, it mentions him not getting Arthur’s robotic-y working. So it is likely not something he just picked up. 

However, considering this is bio-engineering we are talking about, and considering the level of advanced this prosthetic is, I have very little doubt that he didn’t seek a specialist in the field, for at the very least some kind of consultation. Robotics would help him in the design for sure, but it wouldn’t give him the technical know how to build as advanced an arm as he has without any kind of assistance. 

Personally, I currently think he has undergone Targeted Muscle Reinnervation, which is a surgery in which the shift muscle nerve control in your stump to give you a greater range of mobility when it comes to nerve impulses. I think this would be easier to recover from than a bone graft and wouldn’t leave him as sensitive to the weight of the arm for a while.

To add on, this surgery seems to have around a three month recovery period where the muscles are visibly contracting, but doctors would likely want to screen him to make sure he doesn’t have TBI (traumatic brain injury). If they did so and he still all but begged to do it after doing his own research and understanding it was his best bet for prosthetic usage, I could see him undergoing it regardless of some of the worries.

Here are the advantages from Wikipedia to further add to that thought:

Advantages:

Targeted reinnervation does not require any implants. Therefore, it does not have the issue of tissue foreign body response as chronic brain implant technology does. The targeted muscle acts as a natural amplifier for the neuronal signals produced by the transferred residual nerves. This is an advantage over technologies like EEG and fMRI that utilize weaker signals. With targeted reinnervation, multiple yet independent EMG signals can be produced, thus multiple functions of the artificial limb can be controlled simultaneously.[1] For example, the patient would be able to perform actions such as throwing a ball relatively gracefully, exhibiting simultaneous control of elbow and hand.[6] The control is also intuitive to the patient because the EMG signals are generated by transferred residual limb nerves, unlike traditional myoelectric prosthetics where EMG signals have to be generated by muscles normally not involved in arm or wrist functions.[1] Also, existing commercially available myoelectric prostheses, such as powered wrists, elbows can be used.[1] There is no need to develop specific prostheses for targeted reinnervation. By means of nerve transfer, targeted reinnervation can also provide sensory feedback, which has not been achieved by any other form of prosthetics aforementioned.[1]

(source)

The ramifications seem to amount to it either not working, or phantom limb pain returning, both of which I feel Arthur would be willing to risk.

 There are already cases of arms being built with hands that can move on their own based on how a person moves (which seems fairly standard sans the hook), but there is also work into prosthesis that work off of neural impulses to move fingers (in the video mentioned earlier with the news anchor, for one), and sensation. This video was my favorite for seeing that, in which she had undergone TMR with a modification, which I could see Arthur undergoing as well. Perhaps he intended to get he more permanent bone grafting for the prosthetic to graft it to what was left of his humerus when he had found Lewis and had the time to recover from such an invasive surgery. But the other surgery might work, and his muscles wouldn’t have had too much time to atrophy from lack of use, so it might not be as difficult for him as it is for some. The prosthetic seems proto-type-ish, given how much it sparks, so I’d say he hasn’t had a whole lot of time to perfect it, but the arm seems to be the least of his current worries.

Arthur would probably at least need help in interfacing the arm when it was done too, to connect it so that it understood certain impulses meant certain movements. I could see Vivi helping him a lot with the building and doing as he instructed at parts, and then him consulting with a person who would be able to tell him for certain if he would need to make adjustments. But if it’s not directly attached, I’m sure he would have a slightly easier time with it. As for how it powers? If it is more than using the tension in his back muscles via cords attached in a similar way as the harness (which I doubt considering how much free range he has and in the shot on this post, you see none of the attachments it would need for that), then it would need some kind of capacity to charge. it is possible it would be battery powered, which might make sense, given the sparks. 

I am willing to consider there being a place he can charge his arm at, but I am still unsure as we haven’t been given many details in that regard, and I don’t want to make too many assumptions (beyond what I already have lol). But this is kind of where I stand as of now; Arthur likely has a small part of his arm left, instead of having removed it and the socket, but not much. it is sheathed inside a casing for stability, and appears to be harnessed for the moment, though perhaps in the future he had intentions to change that. Then, given the surgery seems to be one that most people with control of their arm to a fuller extent have underwent, Arthur likely had a TMR done, and recovered from that while working on the prosthetic with Vivi’s help, and consultation from medical field specialists. 

#ooc #LONG post #headcanon #for now lol #hellbent spoilers #spoilers #mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #hellbent #Arthur Kingsmen #anyone who has differing thoughts or wants to add on is more than welcome to this is just my thinking as of yet given cues we've been given #but i am more than willing to adjust my line of thought if someone gives me a reason to!