wheelchair episode was sweet.

[dannavy85]

My wife spends most of her time in a wheelchair now and this episode was a joy to see. I'm so happy Tezuka Productions added characters like this to the Astroboy jondrah, just makes the Rocket Ranger even more cool.

[jeffbert]

I am still able to walk, but I have known many who could not even sit up without straps under their arms. Some even had straps around their foreheads, including a boy who now lives at the end of the street.

My problem is easy to misunderstand, though. With the random flagellations of my left arm, some thought me mentally retarded. I was very angry at their lack of understanding, as they seemed intent upon retaining their initial opinions. :angry: However Dr. Strangelove and the main character from the evil dead (funny as Hell, but infuriating too), seemed to indicate that such conditions were independant from intellect.

So, anyway, the evil dead had this poor guy whose right arm was possessed by an evil spirit, and it (his own arm) attacked him. There were more than a few times when my left arm socked me, tossed my glasses from my face, and made me curse the day I was born. So, I was quite pi**ed that this movie was making fun of it, but I was laughing my a** off any way. So, the guy gets a butcher knife, severs his own arm, which then crawls accross the floor, up the chair, and attacks him again. I was laughing, crying, and cursing all at once.

Well, anyway, the fact that I have been marginalized all my life stinks. People were dehumanized if they were defective. Tennyson's Idylls of the King states that:

But if a man were halt or hunch'd, in him
By those whom God had made full-limb'd and tall,
Scorn was allow'd as part of his defect

Guineverre lines 41-44.

The word monster does not discribe Godzilla, but rather, it means deformed human. By law, such a man was unworthy to inherit his father's title or estate.* Thus, the scorn upon Quasimoto, for his daring to love Esmerelda.

So, there I was applying for a job or asking a girl for a date. I soon concluded that I was cursed, and became too frustrated to continue seeking. However, somehow I was able to find three jobs and work for 10 or 11 of my 46 years. I apologize for making your thread a place to rant about this. <_< Being paralized or otherwise confined to a wheel chair is a rather mild affliction, compared to others. As long as one appears to be in control, or rather not out of control, many people understand.

So, anyway, I agree that it is good to see a character in a wheelchair depicted as having feelings, etc. However, I do not think this boy appeared more than once, except in the background. Family Guy did show a wheelchair-bound man as just one of the guys, though. Joe Swanson was an ex-cop, who was wounded in action (see Family Guy characters), and appeared in no fewer than 6 episodes. However, in this series, even the family dog is depicted with human characteristics. Both the blind man and the one-legged man in RST's Treasure Island were bad guys. The Bible has people identified as lepers, Simon the Leper, Blind Bartemaeus, the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, etc. Not even dignified with proper names, so & so, the son of whatshischops, or of [name of town] was the format used. These characters were unworthy of such distinction. Only the short guy was identified with a proper name: Zacchaeus, and a profession: tax-collector.

*Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed, rev. a. Pages 1158-59. West Publishing Co., 1968

:angry:

[jarvic]

Which episode number (title?) is this? It must be the only episode I haven't seen yet. Unless it's been cut out of the western version.

J

[jeffbert]

Originally posted by jarvic@Jan 14 2005, 09:32 PM
Which episode number (title?) is this?  It must be the only episode I haven't seen yet.  Unless it's been cut out of the western version.

J

Here is the description ion this episode in the official episode guide: Eps 15-20 of the Japanese, I do not think this one was dubbed in English.


For some reason, the tpage fails to translate. Here is google's translation page. you might need to paste this address into the box. http://astroboy.jp/c/009/story/kakuwa_04.html

I recall a discussion of this in Episode 20 thread.

[Dragonrider1227]

That's so cool! I love when I see episodes do this. I wish I could see this one.

[Atoman]

I too love this episode. It has a really cute scene of Astro playing like Peter Pan.
Say, that would be a cool animated gif. He is like Peter Pan isn't he? He'll never grow up.