History Main / DreamCrushingHandicap

** Gender roles are a running source of vexation for a number of female characters. Brienne of Tarth is constantly ridiculed for living the lifestyle of a knight. Asha has difficulty being taken seriously as a leader of the Ironmen for being a woman. Arya is always getting into trouble for being a tomboy and must practice fencing under the guise of "dancing lessons". Cersei repeatedly curses being born a woman, which prevents her from ruling in her own right. Each of those cases is ultimately a subversion, though: Brienne is a knight for all intents and purposes, Asha is Captain of her own ship and gets more respect from her father than her brother does, Arya becomes a formidable fighter and assassin, and Cercei becomes the true power behind her easily-led son Tommen. Being a woman makes a lot of things harder in Westeros, but it's not an insurmountable obstacle.

Related to ICouldaBeenAContender. Subversions and aversions can lead to a HandicappedBadass. Inversions can be InspirationallyDisadvantaged or have a DisabilitySuperpower. If the character gains the defect during their life, then it's a CareerEndingInjury. If they're too much of a {{Determinator}} to let their handicap stop them, they may become a DeafComposer.

* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen There would've been three Manning Brothers]] in the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague in the 21st century if [[Creator/PeytonManning Peyton]] and Eli's oldest brother Cooper, who was an all-state wide receiver during his high school days in Mississippi and was considered a hot prospect recruit for Ole Miss, hadn't been diagnosed with a spinal condition that ended his playing days.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlYdp8P1s6c "Still Dancing"]] by [=OR3O=] for the conceptual album ''[[WebAnimation/CloverLoveHopeFaithAndLuck "Clover"]]'' is about this. The singer, Brenda, is a renowned tap dancer who gets struck with a disease that paralyzed her legs. Brenda's daughter defies this trope and encourages her that if she can't dance with her legs and feet, she can dance with her arms and hands. Once the disease got worse and Brenda lost use of her arms, her daughter encourages her to dance with her voice instead, and after that goes, she can dance in her mind. When Brenda finally succumbs to the disease, she dances as a ghost, [[HealthyAndHeaven unhindered by paralysis and death]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlYdp8P1s6c "Still Dancing"]] by [=OR3O=] for the conceptual album "Clover" is about this. The singer, Brenda, is a renowned tap dancer who gets struck with a disease that paralyzed her legs. Brenda's daughter defies this trope and encourages her that if she can't dance with her legs and feet, she can dance with her arms and hands. Once the disease got worse and Brenda lost use of her arms, her daughter encourages her to dance with her voice instead, and after that goes, she can dance in her mind. When Brenda finally succumbs to the disease, she dances as a ghost, unhindered by paralysis and death.

* ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'': Parodied in "Miss Dimmsdale'' when Mr. Turner's dream of entering the Miss Dimmsdale competition is stymied by him... well, being a man. He insists that this is discrimination and that he intends to prove that "men can be beautiful too!" Ironically, he actually ends up winning, if only to keep a cheating Vicky from winning by default after crippling all the other contestants, and is crowned the first male Miss Dimmsdale.

Not to be confused with AllOfTheOtherReindeer.

[[folder: Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

*** Regardless of if this is true or not now they definately want you to have perfect color vision. Personally I got turned down from West Point despite being an excellent candidate specifically because I failed too many Ishihara plates. As in I wasn't marked as a recruited athlete because they were 100% sure I'd get in anyways with a medical waiver, so they do not want color blindness.

*** Regardless of if this is true or not now they definately want you to have perfect color vision. Personally I got turned down from West Point despite being an excellent candidate specifically because I failed too many Ishihara plates.

** Of course, in the first season of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', a blind man is not only piloting the ship but a member of the main cast. Then again, Geordi's visor gives him better eyesight (in a technical sense) than any sighted person.
** By ''Voyager'', there is a tactile feedback console allowing a blind person to at least man a tactical station. ''Voyager'' hardly has the manpower to rotate people out, though, and they were in especially bad shape for that two-parter.

* ComicBook/DoctorStrange was once an amazing surgeon. Then, he got into an accident that badly mangled his hands, leaving him unable to hold a scalpel steadily. He traded the scalpel for learning magic and became the Sorcerer Supreme instead. It's notable that in most modern interpretations, the injury wasn't even that bad and didn't prevent Strange from returning to surgery, but he was such an egomaniac he wouldn't accept even the most minor loss of skill and sunk his entire fortune into trying to be completely healed. The reason he originally sought out the previous Sorceror Supreme was in the hopes that magic could fix what science couldn't.
* ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': while in the desert, Jesse runs into a guy who seems to be blowing up the ground at random. It turns out he dreamed of being an astronaut, joining the Air Force and faking paperwork so he could become one. He was kicked out about five seconds later [[DidntThinkThisThrough as he was about two heads shorter than all the other candidates]], and ever since has been carving out a giant "FUCK YOU" visible from space (and listens in on the astronauts' conversation when they see it). Notable is the man still insists he would have been a fine pilot because of his dedication and desire, not grasping the simple truth he was physically unfit to go into space.

* ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'': Parodied in "Miss Dimmsdale'' when Mr Turners dream of entering the Miss Dimmsdale competition is stymied by him... well, being a man. He insists that this is discrimination and that he intends to prove that "men can be pretty too!" Ironically, he actually ends up winning, if only to keep a cheating Vicky from winning by default after crippling all the other contestants, and is crowned the first male Miss Dimmsdale.

* ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': while in the desert, Jesse runs into a guy who seems to be blowing up the ground at random. It turns out he dreamed of being an astronaut, joining the Air Force and faking paperwork so he could become one. He was kicked out about five seconds later [[DidntThinkThisThrough as he was about two heads shorter than all the other candidates]], and ever since has been carving out a giant "FUCK YOU" visible from space (and listens in on the astronauts' conversation when they see it).

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner '': Li'l Brudder (pictured above), a character created by Strong Bad, can never be a quarterback when he grows up, because he's a one-legged puppy. His theme song calls him "king of the dregs", which, presumably, are Tenderfoot the two-legged elephant, a parrot who apparently lacks any limbs at all and has his lower half bandaged up, and a mole with a human nose instead of a face.

* Asta's dream in ''Manga/BlackClover'' is to become the [[TheArchmage Sorcery Emperor]]. [[UnSorcerer Too bad he has absolutely no magic at all]]. It also doesn't help that his best friend and rival Juno has [[TheGift extremely potent magical potential]]. The only people so far who believe that Asta can overcome this handicap with raw determination (and his spiffy new AntiMagic) are Asta... and Juno.

* In ''Manga/TongariBooshiNoAtorie'', a boy named Tartar, a young worker in the magic supply shop, has an eye disease that makes it hard for him to see colors. Because of the emphasis on witch education in visuals, he's been unable to become a full-witch.

* ''Manga/FullMoonOSagashite'': Mitsuki wants to become an IdolSinger but can't because she has throat cancer and to live she'll have to have her larynx removed... she puts this off so she can still sing, but it means she'll die before she's really going to be old enough to achieve her dream. But then she gets to do it via magic.