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Dream-Crushing Handicap

616 statements
117 feature instances
54 referencing feature instances

Dream-Crushing Handicap	type	FeatureClass
Dream-Crushing Handicap	label	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap	page	DreamCrushingHandicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap	comment	The stock drama in which someone's aspirations are impossible because of a physical defect. Used for comedy and dark comedy just as much as it is for drama. This is often a crucial turning point in a story, so be warned that there are spoilers below. Related to I Coulda Been a Contender!. Subversions and aversions can lead to a Handicapped Badass. Inversions can be Inspirationally Disadvantaged or have a Disability Superpower. If the character gains the defect during their life, then it's a Career-Ending Injury. If they're too much of a Determinator to let their handicap stop them, they may become a Deaf Composer or Ironically Disabled Artist. Sub-Trope to Tragic Dream, where the aspiration is impossible due to any of a number of things. Not to Be Confused with All of the Other Reindeer.
Dream-Crushing Handicap	fetched	2024-04-09T14:00:25Z
Dream-Crushing Handicap	parsed	2024-04-09T14:00:25Z
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to ArtificialLimbs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to CardCarryingVillain: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to CloudCuckooLander: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to CoolCar: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to DisabilitySuperpower: Not an Item - IGNORE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to DoctorJerk: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to EnsembleDarkhorse: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to ExtremeDoormat: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to FlashbackTwist: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to HandicappedBadass: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to HollywoodPudgy: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to MeaningfulName: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to RecycledPlot: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to RedHeadedStepchild: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to RuleOfFunny: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to StarWarsExpandedUniverse: Not an Item - CAT
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to TheNineties: Not an Item - IGNORE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to ThimbleTheater: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to WhatCouldHaveBeen: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to playedfordrama: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingComment	Dropped link to pun: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingUnknown	ThimbleTheater
Dream-Crushing Handicap	isPartOf	DBTropes
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1367cea0	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1367cea0	comment	In Worm Prism is a minor character who triggered when a career ending injury was causing her to slowly lose touch with her family.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1367cea0	featureApplicability	1.0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1367cea0	featureConfidence	1.0
Worm	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1367cea0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_16a23355	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_16a23355	comment	In How to Be a Superhero, Captain Eagle breaks into an orphanage to find a kid whose parents were killed by a mugger and might want revenge on crime. One boy seems promising, until one of the other orphans points out "But you've only got one leg, Bobby-Ray!"
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_16a23355	featureApplicability	1.0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_16a23355	featureConfidence	1.0
How to Be a Superhero	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_16a23355
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_170c2591	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_170c2591	comment	The main character of Brass Restoration suffers from this after a train accident causes him to lose his arm, failing to become a professional drummer.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_170c2591	featureApplicability	1.0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_170c2591	featureConfidence	1.0
Brass Restoration (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_170c2591
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_195f30bf	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_195f30bf	comment	This trope is often the entire premise behind The Oblongs.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_195f30bf	featureApplicability	1.0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_195f30bf	featureConfidence	1.0
The Oblongs	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_195f30bf
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1b51bb94	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1b51bb94	comment	Lurch, the giant butler on The Addams Family television series, once revealed that his parents wanted him to be a jockey.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1b51bb94	featureApplicability	1.0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1b51bb94	featureConfidence	1.0
The Addams Family	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1b51bb94
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1d417633	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1d417633	comment	In Monsters University, Mike's dream was to be a Top Scarer. While he studies hard and learns many techniques, his small and less than imposing figure ostensibly make that impossible. That said, the central plot of the movie sees an entire house full of cuddly, unimposing monsters learn to become scarers, so make of this one however you will.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1d417633	featureApplicability	1.0
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Monsters University	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_1d417633
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_221d6520	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_221d6520	comment	An episode of CHiPs involves the younger brother of a CHP officer who'd been killed in the line of duty. He started posing as a cop in his brother's old uniform. When caught by Ponch and Jon, he protested that he couldn't join the CHP himself because he was color blind.
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CHiPs	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_221d6520
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2275c659	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2275c659	comment	House: In "The Right Stuff", a patient who was in training to become an astronaut defies this trope by seeking medical treatment off the books so her health history won't get her disqualified for space flight.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2275c659	featureApplicability	1.0
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House	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2275c659
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_23bc247b	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_23bc247b	comment	The narrator of Equestria: A History Revealed had a mother who told her she could be anything and a paternal example and cutie mark which convinced her she was destined for great things. She applied to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. As she's an earth pony with a tested IQ of 79, she got back a form letter noting a student would have to be "both gifted and a unicorn". (The "gifted" part seems to have been much more offensive; it's unclear how many of her later notable prejudices, including racial bigotry against unicorns, were already present in her home life.)
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_23bc247b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Equestria: A History Revealed / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_23bc247b
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_24a18ffe	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_24a18ffe	comment	In The Ship Who... Searched, seven-year-old Tia becomes paralyzed from the chin down thanks to a staggering degree of Parental Neglect. She pretends to be cheerful but is actually miserable, feeling like everything she'd wanted to be when she grew up - a star pilot, an archaeologist, maybe get to boys - is out of reach. The neurosurgeon who adopted her is moved to push to give her the chance to become a shellperson. He remembers that when he became a parapelegic for some reason he'd thought his dreams of going into medicine were over, but his own mentor had pushed hard and got him a Super Wheelchair.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_24a18ffe	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Ship Who...	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_24a18ffe
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_261c8d3f	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_261c8d3f	comment	In The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson can't become a saxophone virtuoso because of her stubby fingers. Negative Continuity takes care of this issue, but she's been stymied from becoming famous as a jazz player in other occasions.
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The Simpsons	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_261c8d3f
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_29516906	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_29516906	comment	Used briefly in an episode of Dragnet where Sgt. Friday explains to an applicant to the Police Department that he's too short and therefore could not effectively restrain an assailant.
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Dragnet (Franchise)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_29516906
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2cfe43cb	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2cfe43cb	comment	An episode of Adventures in Odyssey has a boy who uses a wheelchair come into the class saying that his aspiration is to become captain of the football team. He didn't mean it seriously; partly he was being bitter about the wheelchair thing, and partly he was fed up with being made to introduce himself to his classes, as teachers often make you do when you're a new kid. Also, besides saying he wanted to be captain of the football team (or possibly soccer), he also said he wanted to break the school's high jump record. He managed to mortify just about everybody, including the teacher.
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Adventures in Odyssey (Radio)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2cfe43cb
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2f2a80e	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2f2a80e	comment	Romantic-era composer/performer Robert Schumann did this to himself: he designed a machine to help extend the range of his right hand. Instead he damaged it forever, thus ending his public performance career (he continued with the compositions, though).
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Robert Schumann (Music)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2f2a80e
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2fee008d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2fee008d	comment	Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. His dream is to have a family, which we get to see in the Alternate Universe dream sequence, but it is also the one thing that he cannot have because he is a beastman and thus incapable of reproduction, and even if he settles down with a wife, he will eventually outlive her due to his immortal body.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2feff3ce	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2feff3ce	comment	Grey's Anatomy: A patient who was a gymnast loses her ability to walk. Burke (and later Derek) injured his hand and was unable to perform surgeries. Burke was okay after physical therapy, but Derek was expected not to be able to do surgeries again, but after Callie did a bunch of surgeries, she fixed it.
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Grey's Anatomy	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_2feff3ce
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3095b3a0	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3095b3a0	comment	Cyanide and Happiness, here. "I'm sorry, Joey. Your legs just don't work" was originally suspected of influencing the trope name.
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Cyanide and Happiness (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3095b3a0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30a5ebfd	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30a5ebfd	comment	Naruto: Rock Lee wants become a successful ninja despite not being able to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. He manages to get around this by solely focusing on using Taijutsu. Filler character Yakumo wants to become a ninja, but tires easily after routine exercises. She says she wants to become a ninja who can use genjutsu, but Kurenai refuses to let her, as she would have to rely on the Id within her, and seals away her ability to use genjutsu. After Yakumo's Id kills her parents when they try to console her that there are other paths to take in life, she seeks revenge on Kurenai, believing her to be responsible, but the two eventually reconcile.
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Naruto (Manga)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30a5ebfd
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30c1ffd0	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30c1ffd0	comment	In Stardew Valley, if you get to know the town doctor Harvey well enough, you'll learn he wanted to be a pilot in his youth, but it never happened because of his bad eyesight and fear of heights.
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Stardew Valley / Videogame	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_30c1ffd0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_310d6df7	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_310d6df7	comment	Stand Still, Stay Silent: In early Adventure II, Reynir gets interested in a career path that would let him use his magic to fight Plague Zombie monsters. Unfortunately, this is one of the jobs that are only for mages who are also The Immune and Reynir isn't immune.
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Stand Still, Stay Silent (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_310d6df7
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_31a8701b	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_31a8701b	comment	The Flash villain Rainbow Raider is a gifted painter, but is also, unfortunately, colorblind. This isn't in itself a huge handicap that one could get around in any number of ways, but evidently his paintings look gaudy at best no matter what he does.
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The Flash (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_31a8701b
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_342367b0	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_342367b0	comment	One of the basic concepts behind Warbot in Accounting is the titular character's tragic (yet hilarious) inability to perform many of the functions of daily life because he's a huge freaking robot with claws instead of hands.
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_342367b0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Warbot in Accounting (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_342367b0
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_37f1c1bb	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_37f1c1bb	comment	My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): Issue 81 features the story of Wind Sock, an earth pony who dreamed of becoming a Wonderbolt (which, naturally, requires being able to fly). He experimented with heavier-than-air flight, trying to develop technology that would let him fly with the pegasi. He finally subverted this trope when he built a glider, used it to rescue an injured Wonderbolt, and was rewarded with a place in their ranks.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_39f32df7	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_39f32df7	comment	In From Russia with Love, Tatiana Romanova explains that she wanted to be a ballerina, but was rejected for being too tall. In fact, "Too Tall to be a Ballerina" could be a trope in its own right: in Real Life, aspiring dancers are more likely to be rejected for being too short.
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From Russia with Love	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_39f32df7
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3b34143f	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3b34143f	comment	Harry Potter plays this for laughs with Friendly Ghost Nearly Headless Nick, who can't join the Headless Hunt and play Severed Head Sports because, well, he's only nearly headless (with half an inch of skin and sinew the only thing still connecting his head to his neck; during his execution, he was hit forty-seven times with a blunt axe).
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Harry Potter	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3b34143f
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3e5de40b	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3e5de40b	comment	Scrubs: Turk has a hard time finding the courage to tell a young concert pianist who has earned a scholarship to Julliard that he lost use of his right hand in surgery. The trope is parodied in another episode, where Eliot is taking on the incredibly unpleasant task of giving such bad news to patients simply so she can get some respect from Dr. Cox (she claims she enjoys helping people deal with such news, but it's really making her an emotional wreck). Cox tests her by asking her to tell a young woman who is a professional dancer and just had her legs amputated, that she cannot have her physical therapy (or recovery) in the hospital; as her medical insurance was through her husband, who just died. She agrees, and asks what room the patient is in. He stares at her, and then admits that there is no such patient, and he made up the most depressing thing he could think of.
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Scrubs	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3e5de40b
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3fbd173e	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3fbd173e	comment	A variant in Freefall, Winston's parents dreamed of life in space and when they conceived him they got him fitted with all of the genetic engineering modifications for people who would live in space full time. Unfortunately Winston himself suffers from an extreme phobia of space travel and was declared completely unfit for life in space causing him to pursue his current career of veterinarian specializing in parasites.
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Freefall (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_3fbd173e
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_43da6f7f	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_43da6f7f	comment	Leonard in Memento has lost his capacity for short-term memory and is repeatedly told by the other characters that his going on a quest to avenge his wife's murder is a fool's errand since, even if he does manage to succeed, he won't remember it anyway and thus won't derive any emotional closure from it. As the ending reveals, it's even worse than that. He already did avenge his wife, failed to receive the closure he wanted but kept on hunting anyway until he mistakenly killed someone completely unrelated to his wife's murder. The film ends with him starting his investigation all over again, with the strong implication that he'll kill at least one more person before he's finished.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_455e3038	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_455e3038	comment	In King of the Hill, Hank Hill was rejected from the military because of his narrow urethra, which means it takes him over twenty minutes to urinate. This holds up the restroom and would leave him vulnerable in the field. His dreams of professional football were also dashed when he snapped his ankle during a critical play in a State Championship game.
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King of the Hill	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_455e3038
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_45b21df3	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_45b21df3	comment	From Monty Python's Life of Brian:
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Monty Python's Life of Brian	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_45b21df3
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_49a88442	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_49a88442	comment	In Final Fantasy XIV, Melkoko dreamed of becoming a Pirate Girl and a member of the Sanguine Sirens. Unfortunately, she has severe motion sickness that keeps her from sailing, so she can only be a Siren as a waitress in the restaurant the crew owns.
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Final Fantasy XIV (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_49a88442
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4d8931d9	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4d8931d9	comment	Utopia Falls: Apollo is a budding musician, but after being hit by the shield he's left in a coma and has become deaf on waking up. However, it turns out he can still play piano, but with greater difficulty since he never learned to read music and just played by ear before. This is subverted as he learns to play using one hand on the instrument, feeling its vibrations as a guide.
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Utopia Falls	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4d8931d9
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4f4569ae	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4f4569ae	comment	Elephant & Piggie book "Can I Play Too?". Gerald and Piggie are playing catch and a snake optimistically asks to join them, only to finally concede he isn't physically capable of playing catch. It's subverted when Piggie has the idea to throw the snake between herself and Gerald, thus "playing catch" with him.
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Elephant & Piggie	hasFeature	Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_4f4569ae
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_50bcf7a6	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_50bcf7a6	comment	Zigzagged in Homestuck with Tavros, the paraplegic troll. Early in his story he's almost unable to progress through the game, not because of the monsters but because Vriska deliberately built him a path made mostly of stairs. Made even worse because she's responsible for his state in the first place. He eventually manages to escape by upgrading his wheelchair with rocket boosters and becoming more or less a Handicapped Badass. He did dream of joining some sort of beast-riding lancer squadron, if he wasn't culled for defects first.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_5489f51f	comment	Makai Kingdom: Overlord Zetta confines himself into The Sacred Tome to avert the total destruction of his Netherworld. Anyone with sufficient Mana can write a wish in The Tome and it will become reality. Zetta has the Mana for it, but being a book, he no longer has arms to write with. Oops! Defied by Babylon, who, when about to write, warns everyone not to ask about how he can write without hands. He should really get around to telling Zetta how he does it.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_558b8445	comment	In Griffin's Daughter, Ashinji's true dream was to become a mage, like his mother. Unfortunately for him, in elvish society, magecraft is restricted to women, and despite his aptitude for magic, training is denied him. He has to settle for being a military commander (which, admittedly, he's good at). Ashinji's magic power proves pivital in the story's endgame. As a result, he's allowed to train as a mage. Though it's not made clear if an exception was made for him or if the rules were changed.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_592c7d18	comment	Kaori from Your Lie in April loves playing the violin. She is however an ill girl. Her illness causes her to lose the ability to use her legs and arms properly. Even with physical therapy she eventually becomes unable to play instruments anymore. And eventually, she dies.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_5e150650	comment	Exalted has a few examples, given that the setting has hardwired rules about what certain Exalts can or cannot do, and a steady subtext of, "...but feel free to ignore it if you want and do the impossible." One of the more frightening examples, though, is Raksi. She's one of the most skilled Lunar sorcerers in all of Creation — but as a Lunar, she's inherently limited to the first two circles of sorcery, and not the top circle that's reserved for the Solar Exalted. But she's got her hands on a book that covers all three circles, and she's been spending centuries trying to find some way to unlock the third circle... no matter who she has to hurt to do it. Anyone who knows of her ambition devoutly hopes she never achieves it, considering that she's completely out of her mind.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_5e16d550	comment	Asta's dream in Black Clover is to become the Wizard King. Too bad he has absolutely no magic at all. It also doesn't help that his best friend and rival Yuno has incredible magical potential. The only people so far who believe that Asta can overcome this handicap with raw determination (and his spiffy new Anti-Magic) are Asta and Yuno.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_5f96cba5	comment	Galaxy Express 999 occasionally runs into characters who desperately want to leave their home planet but physically can't, including one couple from the Fog Capital who are so frail they suffer cardiac arrests on takeoff after stealing Maetel and Tetsuro's passes. This is stated to be a trait of people from that planet; their guns barely tickle Tetsuro and he easily breaks floors by jumping around.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_60156176	comment	Vorkosigan Saga: Nikolai Vorsoisson dreams of being a military jumpship pilot. Miles knows, as Nikki does not, that Nikki carries a genetic defect that will render him unqualified for military service even if successfully treated. He tries to convince Nikki to become a commercial pilot instead, but Barrayar's military-mad culture would regard this as a significant step down. And of course, Miles himself managed to flunk out of Barrayar Military Academy's entrance exams due to his ultra-brittle bones, by breaking both his legs at the start of physical testing.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6065fc7e	comment	Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon in Stuck on You. Kinnear's character wants to be a movie star despite him and Damon being conjoined twins (And Damon's character suffering from stage fright).
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_60f02ddb	comment	In American Dad!, Francine vows to find out what happened when Stan and Roger went to Atlantic City. Klaus offers to help and she responds with "How can you help? You're a FISH!"
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_62139a1d	comment	Persona EG: Vinyl Scratch eventually goes blind, but she defies this trope because she can still operate her DJ equipment without her eyes. The only things she is upset about are that she can no longer drive her Cool Car and she will never see her girlfriend Octavia Melody's lovely face and body again. Sonata Dusk's throat was damaged in a car accident and she lost her voice, so she can no longer sing. As the story progresses, she eventually gets her voice back, but for now, she can't speak above a whisper. Downplayed with Rainbow Dash. She gets a broken leg early in the story during September, is in crutches for a month and out of her brace by Halloween. However she says she can still feel slight pain in her leg and needs to improve her game if she wants to be a pro. She says she still isn't back to 100% by July.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_629cd094	comment	A downplayed version and minor subversion in Dragon Age: Origins. One possible side quest in Orzammar concerns a young dwarf woman who wants to study magic. Dwarfs are literally incapable of wielding magic so she knows that she will never be able to actually cast spells but she has nonetheless studied magic so well that she can still be of use in the study of magical theory. If the Player Character agrees to help and presents her research to First Enchanter Irving he agrees that regardless of her handicap, the young dwarf woman would still be of invaluable help to the Circle of Magi.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_62cba63c	comment	In Witch Hat Atelier, 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.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6300d32a	comment	The hunchbacked Ephialtes in 300 gets told he can't join the Spartans because he'll weaken the phalanx, as he can't raise his shield high enough to protect the men next to him. Ironically, the movie then violates this premise by having the Spartans break up their phalanx and fight individually, and, in any case, it's never quite explained why they couldn't have used him as a messenger or positioned him on the cliff and let him chuck spears as long as he could. (In the comic book, he just refuses the king's offer to do anything other than stand on the front lines.)
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_65d07453	comment	As in the comics, the first Captain America movie. In this case the viewers get a laundry list. His father died from mustard gas; his mother was a nurse in a tuberculosis ward and caught it. Displayed on the screen, he has: asthma (enough to get him 4-F'd by itself), scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, sinusitis, chronic or frequent colds, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, heart trouble, nervous trouble, a relative with diabetes or cancer, and is easily fatigued. And that's not even with accounting how small and skinny he is/was. However, these get cured from his dosage of Super Serum.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6744d821	comment	In The Owl House, Luz's hopes of becoming a witch are initially stymied because witches are actually a Mage Species with a bile sac attached to their heart that channels magical energy, and it's impossible for her to copy their methods. However, she rediscovers an alternate system based on glyphs that doesn't rely on innate ability and is able to study that magic instead.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6acc9577	comment	Smile Down the Runway: Chiyuki Fujito's greatest dream is to become a runway model. Unfortunately, in spite of her beauty, she is rejected from every agency because she is only 158 cm tall, while models have to be at least 175 cm tall. Eventually, with the help of her friend, the aspiring fashion designer Ikuto Tsumura, she manages to get accepted.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6f734712	comment	In Smallville a freak of the week, Justin, is a talented young artist who was a victim of a hit-and-run that horribly maimed his hands, which meant he can no longer use them to draw. He goes on a murderous rampage following his recovery after spontaneously developing telekinesis. (Read more at: https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4723)
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_6fd57fdb	comment	Sound of Metal is the rather tragic story of a metal drummer who begins to go deaf, and cannot afford the expensive cochlear implants that allow him to continue drumming. And when he eventually is able to get the cochlear implants, he finds the recreation they offer a pale imitation of what he could hear before, leaving his future in music in question. But he also removes the implants in the ending with a content look on his face, signalling his final acceptance of his new condition.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_701f0ece	comment	Berserk: Isidro hero-worships Guts and aspires to be just like him. Unfortunately, he is way too short and skinny, so no matter how much he works out, he can never achieve the physique to perform Guts' Lightning Bruiser style and cannot fight using a BFS effectively. Isidro is eventually convinced to accept this and to adjust his tactics to a Fragile Speedster style, making him more effective on the battlefield.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_706b3301	comment	The Jolly Roger Telephone Company is an Internet-based service which provides bots which are designed to waste the time of telemarketers and other unwanted callers. One of these bots, Ox-Gut McGee, tells the caller that he could have been an Olympic figure-skater, but one fall and that was the end of his dreams.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_7584c25	comment	It's fairly popular in fanfics for Ditzy/Derpy's ambitions of being a good mother to Dinky to be ruined because of her eye (and sometimes mental) disability. See for example Today, Tomorrow, and Forever.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_770086fc	comment	Full Moon: Mitsuki wants to become an Idol Singer 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.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_7d20ef2c	comment	Bloom County: One strip has the following exchange between Opus the Penguin and the strip's narrator: Also Opus in the book and animated special A Wish for Wings That Work.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8125b468	comment	Batman villain Crazy Quilt was a great artist (and forger) till a bullet wound to the head left him unable to see anything but blindingly vivid and disorienting colors.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_81692f99	comment	Star Trek: In an episode of Star Trek, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", viewers learn that a blind person is not allowed to pilot the Enterprise, even with the aid of assistive technology - the idea that she isn't a qualified pilot in the first place seems to have slipped everyone's mind. The blind woman, an assistant to the maddeningly ugly Medusan ambassador, also proves envious of Spock's ability to see the ambassador—even though doing so drives Spock insane. Of course, in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a blind man is not only piloting the ship but a member of the main cast. Then again, the assistive technology that Geordi uses is considerably more sophisticated than what was available in the original, so the rule may well have changed in response to those technological advances. By Voyager, there is an option to switch a console to tactile feedback, allowing a blind person to at least man a tactical station. However, Voyager hardly has the manpower to rotate people out (they were in especially bad shape for that two-parter) and also has a lot of technical innovations made by the crew over the course of the series, so it's unclear if this is standard Starfleet technology or something that the Voyager crew rigged up out of necessity after Tuvok was blinded.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_84befc57	comment	The Pigs Ear does this multiple times in one arc — it's always one of these that keeps the Barkeep from hiring the applicant of the week until Gwen shows up. They include: A black double-amputee with hooks instead of hands, who tries to play the race card when Barkeep says it's just not going to work out. A gorgon who turns both Barkeep and the customers to stone. Who has, yes, made a second appearance and calls him a racist for this grievance. A slime that Barkeep is completely sold on until he gets sucked down the drain. And a giant the size of the pub itself. Who also tries to play the race card.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_898bd243	comment	In Armageddon (1998), Dan Truman, the head of NASA and the one who recruits Harry Stamper to drill on the Asteroid, makes it clear that he would have loved to have gone up to space at some point, but the fact that he wears leg braces, probably since childhood, prohibited him from even applying to the astronaut program.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8a18ccb6	comment	Lightfur of Little Fires has an illness that makes it very easy for him to get sick. He was retired to the Elder's den before even being made a warrior.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8bed22e	comment	No Ordinary Family seems to be trying to avert this with the son's super-smarts canceling out his learning disability. His teacher has a particular awkward moment where he repeatedly calls him too stupid to have passed a quiz without cheating. Although the jury is still out on whether using a power that reveals the answers to you is cheating.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8d7f29ec	comment	Glee: Artie gets moments like this occasionally, for instance when he performs Safety Dance. In season 2 when he is allowed to join the football team and becomes a "human battering ram."
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8d814070	comment	MAS*H: Charles saves a man's leg from amputation, but the man's hand is beyond repair and loses some flexibility. After the surgery, Charles learns his patient is a concert pianist. Fortunately, as a classical music aficionado, he manages to find copies of one-handed concertos that the man can play with just his left hand. The young musician points out that he's not going to have a career playing a handful (no pun intended) of gimmicky pieces from one composer, and Charles agrees that that's not likely — what makes him a musician, however, isn't what's in his hands. Charles himself knows how to play, but he can't make music like this man can: he can write, he can teach, he can conduct, he can still make music the center of his life, even without playing. Other episodes dealt with a college football player whose career is sidelined by an amputated leg, and an infantryman whose face is disfigured and attempts suicide rather than go home and face his fiancee.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8d817ccb	comment	Lost: One of the first episodes reveals in a Flashback Twist that Locke, who is a total badass on the island, was once a delusional armchair explorer, totally oblivious to the fact that people in wheelchairs have trouble exploring. Getting stranded on the island has been a gift for him. In a much later episode, an alternate-timeline Locke gets verbally slapped upside the head with this trope by Rose, the manager of an employment agency, and finally listens to reason.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_8dd8ec81	comment	Sailor Moon: In "The Lover of Princess Kaguya", Kakeru Ohzora could not become an astronaut because he has a heart condition.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_945c8683	comment	American Gladiators: On one episode of the relaunch, they have a contestant with prosthetic legs compete. He is okay at the events that don't require much leg strength or agility, like Assault, but it is painful to watch him try to complete the Eliminator.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_95d534e1	comment	In The Dragon Prince Callum wants to be a mage, but refuses to learn Dark Magic, and as a human lacks connection to any primal arcanum, making him incapable of casting spells without an external power source. Subverted when he succeeds in creating a connection to the storm arcanum quite quickly when he refuses to accept this limitation in the second season. With the introduction of Aaravos, an elf who can use all six forms of primal magic instead of just one, it seems the idea one must be born with the connection is simply a false belief that stops most people from trying.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_960062b7	comment	In My Hero Academia, protagonist Izuku Midoriya wanted to be a superhero his entire life after watching a video of his lifelong idol, All Might, save people with a brilliant smile. Unfortunately for him, he was born Quirkless, meaning that in a world where 80% of the population have superpowers, including both of his parents, he is one of the unlucky 20% to not have any powers whatsoever. Luckily for him, a chance encounter with All Might, results in him deciding to transfer his Quirk to Midoriya and train him to become his successor.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_9a7088bc	comment	In an episode of Star Trek, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", viewers learn that a blind person is not allowed to pilot the Enterprise, even with the aid of assistive technology - the idea that she isn't a qualified pilot in the first place seems to have slipped everyone's mind. The blind woman, an assistant to the maddeningly ugly Medusan ambassador, also proves envious of Spock's ability to see the ambassador—even though doing so drives Spock insane.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_9d47a2a2	comment	A Song of Ice and Fire Bran Stark suffers from this in having dreamed about being a knight prior to being crippled. 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 is training to become an 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. Jaime Lannister experiences this after losing his sword hand while a prisoner of Vargo Hoat.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_9f89a5f0	comment	PokÃ©mon: Bagon wants to fly, despite not having wings (according to the Pokedex, the hard, helmet-like scales on top of their heads are the results of generations of Bagon jumping off cliffs headfirst trying to fulfill their dreams). However, this trope is only in effect until it finishes evolving, at which points it becomes a Salamence, an extremely fast, part-flying dragon, allowing it to fly at last. In the Sinnoh games, there is a guru who evaluates your Pokemon's friendship with you based on the way it walks and leaves footprints. He complains if you show him a Pokemon that doesn't have feet... and then does his best to give you a reading anyway.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a183d57f	comment	In Futurama, Bender's inability to taste has often been cited as a handicap to his aspirations as a chef, not that he lets that stop him from trying (one episode sees him receive training from an experienced chef who speculates that Bender's lack of taste would allow him to concentrate on the essence of pure flavour). This is not to say he's a bad cook, having made an elaborate cake among other things, but he's terrible when it comes to improvisation. In "The Bots and the Bees," Bender's son Ben wants nothing more than to be a bender unit like his father. Unfortunately, that kind of software is passed down mother-to-son, and Ben's mom didn't even have arms, being a vending machine. Poor Ben can't even bend a drinking straw. He's ultimately able to get a bending program installed, but has to sacrifice his memory card to do it since he has only one disc drive. This means he loses all of his prior memories.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a201a0af	comment	Played straight with Chai in Hi-Fi RUSH. He wants to become a 'rockstar' despite his right arm being disabled at the start of the game, which likely staggered his ability to play any instruments. But at the end of the game, armed with a new robotic prosthetic, he gets a job as an Ambassador at Vandelay and has started actually learning how to play a guitar, finally jumpstarting his dream.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a3129642	comment	Silver Age Spinnerette wanted desperately to join the Women's Army Corps and fight in Vietnam, but was refused entry, even after being imbued with Dr. Universe's experimental spider venom serum, because of the WACS minimum height requirement of five feet. So she became a superhero instead.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a49a890c	comment	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 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 that 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.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a8729c90	comment	The Fairly OddParents!: 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.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a90d239a	comment	Coach Oleander in Psychonauts. A memory vault flashback shows him denied entrance into multiple branches of the military due to his short stature, with the Psychoanuts basically stumbling across him by pure chance after his dreams had been shattered multiple times. Tellingly, this memory vault is called "Oleander's Shame", and is kept hidden away in his mind, while another, "Oleander's Pride", which is kept out in the open, is a complete delusion showing him partaking in all matter of military operations and decorated with honors.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_a9f06cb6	comment	VeggieTales opening; note, all the characters are fruits or vegetables, none of them with hands, arms, or legs: Which works by Rule of Funny as they can play instruments, as Larry does play the guitar. In an audio-only Christmas special, Larry brings along his friend Manuel to play the maracas, because he's got hands. Listeners never find out what Manuel is, but Bob sounds very bitter about him having appendages.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_ab42c63a	comment	In an episode of Get Smart, the evil guy's assistant can only grunt but wants to be a band singer.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_acb92fd0	comment	Father Ted: Played for laughs: when the theft of a whistle is pinned on Ted due to a misunderstanding with Dougal, Ted tries to justify stealing it by improvising a story about a boy who is paralyzed except for his eyes, and needs the whistle to achieve his lifelong dream of training horses.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_adf4e69	comment	Parodied in Strangers with Candy: a blind boy decides he wants to join the football team. He finally convinces everyone to let him play... and thirty seconds into the big game, gets tackled by practically the entire other team, sending him into a coma.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_aecab	comment	The whole premise of Gattaca. Anyone who is an "invalid" (a human with inferior genes, often natural-born instead of a designer baby) can't get into a number of jobs that are subject to genetic discrimination. The protagonist is an invalid who wants to be an astronaut and passes himself off as "valid" by borrowing genetic material from a "valid" person who is wheelchair-bound.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b0fc9724	comment	A Saturday Night Live skit concerned a family called The Psychos, which included a daughter who wanted to be the world's first blind ballerina. There was also Amber (Amy Poehler), who usually failed in life due to having just one leg... and a complete lack of manners.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b2c46f13	comment	Night Song: Although still able to play piano, Danâ€™s accident (that made him blind) was quite recent, so his depression leads him to stop composing music.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b30ae4db	comment	Game of Thrones: This happens to Bran, at first. After Tyrion designs a saddle that will allow him to ride, based on Tyrion's own, it gets a little better.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b3702492	comment	Rudy; Rudy, you're too short to play football!
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b55114e6	comment	Sailor Moon Abridged, Played for Laughs in Episode 13 & 14:
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b59bb850	comment	Head in the Clouds: Mia's dream of being a dancer ended due to her leg getting injured in her youth.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b70a2d3b	comment	In Safe Havens Dave kept constantly injuring his left knee, which ended up leaving it too fragile for him to compete in the NBA like he always wanted. The NBA's loss was Florence's gain, though: Dave ended up playing on an Italian basketball team instead and eventually winning Olympic gold for Team USA.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b7475bcb	comment	Subverted in Out of the Dust. It initially looks like the burns on Billie's hands will make it impossible for her to play piano again. It's shown that she can still play, however it's very painful for her. Eventually the physical pain goes away, but the emotional pain brought on by the trauma of losing her mother and unborn brother prevents her from playing. By the end however Billie's recovered enough to start playing again.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b8a652cb	comment	In Little Miss Sunshine, Dwayne discovers he's color-blind and can't become a pilot.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_b94002ee	comment	Everest: One of the kids has braces, whose tendency to contract in extreme cold would become a problem on the high altitudes of Everest. As a result, he is sent home.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_bc848d30	comment	Played for laughs in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Sponge Who Could Fly", where a fish mentions that he used to dream of being a concert pianist before realizing that he didn't have any fingers.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_be462008	comment	In-universe example: in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Chun follows a soap opera where the high school football player loses one of his legs:
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_bee47cbe	comment	Unsounded: Elan always wanted to be Peaceguard and passed the mental examines, but his heart condition meant he could never pass the physical for field work. They ended up giving him administrative duties instead.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_c06a9c1c	comment	Fox the Tryvuulian from Final Space wanted to be a violin player, however because he got drafted against his will into the war against Ventrexia he had his right hand cut off and replaced with a gun, therefore completely destroying any chance of him living out his dream in his planet, with the subsequent trauma from the war further crushing his dreams.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_c4282b71	comment	My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Scootaloo: Downplayed for the first half of the series: When she does use her wings, she can only flutter a few inches off the ground (or use them to generate thrust to accelerate to high speeds on her scooter). Yet it is left largely ambiguous whether this is because there is anything medically wrong with her wings, or whether she is simply having difficulty learning to fly (while Lauren Faust was still the showrunner, she responded to a fan's inquiry stating that she "hadn't figured it out yet"). "Flight to the Finish" directly states that she should have learned to fly at her age, and earlier episodes have shown much younger Pegasi take to the air, but the episode explicitly leaves it open as to whether she will eventually fly. Later episodes have Scootaloo implicitly wishing she could fly. In "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks", she is determined to help the griffon Gabby to get her Cutie Mark despite her not being a pony since "[she] know what it's like to want something that's out of reach". When she is turned into a sea pony in "Surf and/or Turf" and dives underwater, her first thought is "So this must be what it's like to fly!", and it accounts for a large part of her bias towards Seaquestria over Mount Aris. She still does not receive any in-universe diagnosis of anything that would prevent her from ever flying, but it does make Faust's initial claim that she "hadn't figured it out yet" somewhat less plausible.note If Scootaloo were just having trouble learning to fly, one would expect that Rainbow Dash would have taken care of that well before Season 8. In "The Washouts," when Rainbow Dash tries to convince Scootaloo to look up to the Wonderbolts again, Scootaloo screams that she'll never be a Wonderbolt because she can't fly. Made worse since Rainbow Dash is always trying to convince Scootaloo to be the best she can be—and Rainbow Dash explicitly sees the Wonderbolts as the best of the best. Scootlaoo snaps that this means she'll never be good enough. Rainbow Dash clearly never realized what she was implying. It's outright confirmed in "Growing Up Is Hard To Do" and "The Last Problem" where not only do we never see the adult Scootaloo fly, but her wings are clearly undersized to the point they apparently haven't developed past what they were when she was as a filly. Word of God has since confirmed on Twitter that yes she is disabled, but that fans are free to interpret it differently if they so wish (Given that Bulk Biceps can fly despite having even smaller wings, Scootaloo's situation is still technically open to interpretation). There's also Sunburst, a unicorn who gained his Cutie Mark in magical theory, but doesn't have the power to back it up. He's so embarrassed by it, he hid out in the Crystal Empire until his old friend Starlight Glimmer comes along in the season six premiere "The Crystalling". There's an extremely downplayed example in Derpy Hooves, if one looks closely at a Meaningful Background Event: in "Parental Glideance", a flashback shows Derpy taking part in a series of flying competitions. In the first one, she wins, but places progressively worse and worse... as her infamous Fish Eyes become more and more pronounced. Notably, she starts out ahead of several ponies (including Rainbow Dash) who ended up being Wonderbolts, implying that Derpy could've been one of the best flyers in Equestria if not for her eye problems. Adding to this is a brief flashback shot in "Where the Apple Lies" showing her with a bandage over her eyes, implying that she tried and failed to have her eyes fixed at one point. It's also a rarely positive case as, in spite of it, she's not only shown to be one of the happiest and contented characters in the series, but her popping up in the V.I.P. section of the Grand Galloping Gala, being present at the Royal Wedding, and being shown among an image of Canterlot's elite implies she's led a pretty successful life. Subverted in "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3". Rainbow Dash needs to pass a history exam to get into the Wonderbolts Reserves (which will eventually let her achieve her lifelong dream of becoming an actual Wonderbolt). She enlists Twilight Sparkle's aid in studying for said exam, but finds that she has major trouble with learning through traditional classroom techniques. Her other friends propose alternate learning methods, but none of them work. Right as her situation seems hopeless, Twilight comes up with a complete new method, one based on Rainbow's Hyper-Awareness while flying. It works, and Rainbow gets a perfect score on her exam.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_c61f3112	comment	In Justice Society of America, Nate Heywood's dreams of becoming a football star were crushed when his kneecap was shattered and the injury became infected, necessitating the amputation of one of his legs. Even worse, it's mentioned his leg could have been saved had it been treated properly, and the amputation looks as though, as Dr. Mid-Nite puts it, it was done by a butcher. As luck would have it, an encounter with a supervillain later caused him to become covered in a living metal—the same process also restoring his lost leg—which allowed him to become the reluctant superhero Citizen Steel.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_c98cc8d8	comment	In Ciconia: When They Cry, Gauntlet Knights, One-Man Army soldiers with all kinds of superpowers, are the dream job of A3W society (with the most commonly cited reason for wanting to become one being their power of flight). However, operating a Gauntlet requires intense multitasking ability, which usually requires training from a very young age while one's mind is still developing. If you did not get such training early enough, you will simply never be good enough to use a Gauntlet.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_cac20f89	comment	JAG: Harmon Rabb, Jr. was a Military Brat that longed to fly planes for the Navy ever since he could think of it. He did managed to enter the Navy and become a pilot... except that he got into an accident that damaged his eyes and gave him night blindness. As a result, he was drummed out of fighter duty and almost totally out of the Navy before he decided to become part of the Judge Advocate General.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_caf0d8fe	comment	Parodied in The Onion Movie. Introduced is the "inspirational portrait of the week", which involves a man with no legs (and then no arms) first declaring that he wanted to do ballet since he was a child. After maybe 15 seconds, what he wanted to do all his life was hockey. A sequence of him follows being tackled harshly.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d120122a	comment	Kamen Rider Kiva: Wataru's best friend Kengo, an aspiring rock guitarist, sustains injuries that render him unable to play anymore in his attempt to be a Fangire Hunter. This, among other things, leads to Kengo becoming a badass while treating everyone around him like crap. He gets better. A similar incident happened to Kaidou in Kamen Rider 555, although it takes place before the series. He's seen coming to terms with it, but it's implied that this is the reason for his Jerkass attitude.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d26874b6	comment	In one Diary of a Wimpy Kid story, Greg decides to be completely honest. This results in him telling a little kid that the kid will never be a basketball player, due to his parents being barely over 5 feet tall, and the kid himself being overweight.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d3bc03fe	comment	One Tree Hill: Lucas' dreams of playing in the NBA are crushed when he learns he has HCM, a heart condition that many young athletes die from. Similarly, Nathan's near-paralysis from a back injury in Season 5 threatens his own chances at the NBA. He gets better and gets to play with the NBA after all, but not without initial fears that further injury could leave him paralyzed for life.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d68df17d	comment	When Richard Whiteley set an atrocious time on the Top Gear test track, a blind fan wrote in to say he could do better. And then did.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d766a7ba	comment	Blue Man Group requires its performers to be between 5'10" and 6'1" with an athletic build.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_d9c602eb	comment	South Park: Played for laughs in "Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut" when Cartman suspects Mr. Garrison of being his father, only for Garrison to point out that literally every man in the town has at some point had sex with Cartman's mother. A guy then pipes up and says that he hasn't slept with Mrs. Cartman, but Mr. Garrison says "You don't count, Halfie, you don't have any legs!"
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_dac2531c	comment	An episode of Baywatch has a wannabe-lifeguard rejected because he wears contacts (and thus had bad eyesight). The plot ends with them changing that rule when the candidate points out the hypocrisy that once you passed the test you never have to retake it and that several of the older lifeguards may have once had perfect eyesight, but now wear contacts and are considered perfectly capable lifeguards.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_db30cf92	comment	In Warrior Cats this happens twice: Jaypaw just wants to be a great warrior, and won't listen when other cats tell him that he can't because of his blindness. He does get the chance to train as a warrior apprentice, but when a patrol he's on gets into a fight and he's easily beaten by an enemy apprentice because he can't make sense of what's going on, he has to come to terms with the fact that he'll never be a warrior. He ends up becoming a medicine cat instead. But not a very nice one. Snowkit is born deaf. His mother refuses to accept that he won't be able to become a warrior, and even tries training him herself. Then Snowkit gets carried off by a hawk because he couldn't hear it coming.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_e25322af	comment	Homestar Runner : Li'l Brudder, 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.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_e2cb4c1	comment	Doctor Strange 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 sank his entire fortune into trying to be completely healed. The reason he originally sought out the previous Sorcerer Supreme was in the hopes that magic could fix what science couldn't.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_ea4f62db	comment	Family Guy: Kid in Iron Lung: "I'm gonna play baseball!"
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_f01c0d5e	comment	Agnes from Run is blind. In her parents' eyes, this means that she won't ever be successful on her own. Agnes' dream, of course, is simply to get out of town and away from her family.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_f8de0279	comment	Mr Square: in which Mr Square gets a limbless dog that lives a perfectly happy life...except the also limbless Square is unable to open its food. T-rex's desire to play the piano, thwarted. "Stop Wasting Your Time"
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Dream-Crushing Handicap / int_ff9ab17f	comment	Of course, in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a blind man is not only piloting the ship but a member of the main cast. Then again, the assistive technology that Geordi uses is considerably more sophisticated than what was available in the original, so the rule may well have changed in response to those technological advances.
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Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingCategory2	Disability Tropes
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingCategory2	Indexitis
Dream-Crushing Handicap	processingCategory2	This Index Has Had a Hard Life
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Persona EG (Fanfic) / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Ash's Just Reward (Fanfic) / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Blindness (Fanfic) / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
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My Pride (Web Animation) / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
Where Was My Hero...? (Web Animation) / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
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