754 Comments

Oooh, nice little burn at the end there!

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Francis Bacon had a few words on deformity = depravity/evil, which Shakespeare certainly made use of in his Richard III characterization. Medieval thought generally perceived disability as a physical manifestation of moral depravity. Renaissance thinkers ran with it, and here we are today, with a trope so embedded in our western subconscious it's heresy to point out how utterly wrong it is.

(rwnj prosperity christianists also apply it to the poor).

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I have to say I agree with the sentiment of the argument you are making but I actually think Davros is a deeper character then his disabilities.

I do think his disabilities tho did add an iconic design that was represented of the Dalek he would create.

Now I personally believe it's good to show heroes and villains as disabled. As long as for the part of the villain the disability isn't the reason he's evil.

My biggest preference would be to have a disabled actor protray Davros as well as make it very clear to people he is a evil not because of his physical disabilities.

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Oh ffs, this is dumb. Davros was severely mutated. It isn't s slight on handicapped people, or people in wheelchairs. If ANYthing, Davros from the 70's served as a sort of foreshadowing to what the Daleks themselves are. "Davros can't be in a chair because it may offend people who are in chairs" is about the dumbest reason I've ever heard for retconning a character.

That said, I don't really have a dog in this fight, as the series reboot is absolute trash compared to the classic series, which I still enjoy very much.

This, if anything, serves as reinforcement that I've made the right choice in abandoning this nonsense.

Wisher presented a malevolent antagonist who was a bit of a contradiction, which I think when held up to what we know, and perceive about Hitler, made sense. Davros was a crippled, broken, feeble, physical presence, but his MIND, his cunning ability to forsee, and predict... his ability to outmaneuver his opponents strategically is what made him strong. No, I think Davros NEEDED to be physically broken. It made his brilliance shine, and his need for the muscle of the Daleks underscored.

The show, today, is a trainwreck, and this is another example as to why.

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I like it. I binge Who and right now I'm a few seasons behind. Looking forward to catching up.

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It's Davros pre-accident... and perhaps in a timeline where he's a bit more fortunate. Whining nerds are the worst nerds.

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Vincent still had his ear!

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I mean, making your villain disabled goes back to at least to Shakespeare making the Richard III in the play disabled even though the actual king may not have been, right?

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Sheeit we got bigger fish to fry here....let Davos walk damn it!

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Why do these a-holes think they have editorial control over what an artist or writer does or how they choose to express their talent or vision? Is that why despite Trump being physically and mentally repulsive to some of us, they depict him as strapping with big muscles (usually photoshopping another artist's work) because they cannot recognize evil unless it depicts a stereotype?

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You had me at "David Tennant has returned as the Doctor..."

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It's Science Fiction! Why wouldn't Davros use technology to make himself as mobile as anyone else. Or even moreso. With superscience and how many years in his timeline, he should be able to be whatever he wants to. Sh*t, he doesn't even have a sonic screwdriver.

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Can't wait. Tennant is my favorite Doctor!

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Nov 19·edited Nov 19Liked by Stephen Robinson

This was also an issue with The Da Vinci Code and the use of a person with albinism to fulfill the “evil, demented albino” trope. NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hyperpigmentation) requested that the character be changed in the movie because of said trope. It was refused on the grounds that the character was already set and part of the original story.

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Nov 19Liked by Stephen Robinson

“It's an iconic character design”

Yes, that’s the stereotype part!

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Weren’t these the same entitled fanboys who complained when the Doctor was (briefly) not a white man? I don’t think that was some evil Wook scheme or even an attempt to consider the look of a VERY paternalistic Brit white man going around “fixing” other cultures, usually to protect white British civilians. Rather, it was just an attempt to do something different, something unexpected.

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