September 23, 2025 - 16:43
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cN3ca3NtqOysFMKkmrzy7iGZRnUbZa4L/view?usp=sharing
This clip appeals to the sympathetic narrative of disability with the sad music, prosthetics breaking, her ashy face and the voices in the background. You are clearly supposed to feel bad for her as she desperately struggles to move. This is specific to her disability because it wouldn't be possible if she didn't rely on her prosthetics + the idea that the ideal scenario for her is to be able-bodied.
This character's writing overall is actually a big critique on the wondrous narrative of disability but some context is needed to understand this. She's based on the 20th century circus performer Violetta Wagner who had tetra-amelia syndrome (born with no limbs). She could hop around on her torso and comb her hair and sew with her mouth. The character Violetta in the clip similarly has tetra-amelia syndrome and a background as a performer. Her story is about how abusive and dehumanizing it was for disabled performers, especially when audiences eventually got bored of them. She also didn't have prosthetics until she was sent to another circus as an adult, where someone made them for her. Although the writing is against the wondrous narrative, they definitely use the sympathetic narrative at some parts to make this point, like in the clip.
About the part near the end, I think her wish to be able-bodied is more related to how other people treated her than her disability itself. Violetta has expressed multiple times that she didn't like how people treated her differently because of her disability, looking at her "like they look at kittens and puppies" even though she was an adult. She normally didn't have issues moving around with her prosthetics on. But I think the inclusion of that as if being able-bodied was the key to her happiness is questionable even in context.
Also I believe in this scene she is dying of hypothermia but everyone dies in this so it's not really relevant here.
source: Closing Night Full Playthrough (Hullabaloo Storyline) - Identity Vwww.youtube.com › watch