Sure, it is a bit cheesy, campy, and some of the characters' acting makes you wince at times, but since the first episode, I have fallen in love with ABC's Once Upon a Time. I have a weakness for fairytales and a thirst for ones that are retold, and I find that this show retells them quite imaginatively. The show switches between a modern day world and a complete and utter fantasy land. Characters like Little Red Riding Hood, Jiminy Cricket, Cinderella, and Snow White populate both worlds.
As does a certain man, played by Robert Carlyle, called Rumplestiltskin in the fantasy world and Mr. Gold in the modern day world. Since the first episode, Rumplestiltskin is a wiry man with an eerie smile who looks completely able-bodied. But in the modern world, Mr. Gold is a wiry man with an eerie smile who walks with a cane. The cane is obviously not for show, and the way the actor moves with the cane is very convincing that Mr. Gold is not an able-bodied man.
Gold's cane
I had been withholding my judgment and thoughts about Gold's cane. I was worried that the cane was the sign of his evilness in the modern day world, and I had never been convinced that he was completely evil either.
I am glad that I kept from a knee-jerk reaction, and I have appreciated that in the modern day world, Mr. Gold has a cane and the people around him treat it as a perfectly natural thing. Gold is shown going places and at one point he is even deep into the woods. There is no mess and fuss about how Gold does not let his disability stop him. He is not portrayed as a supercrip. He is not portrayed as a bitter man, upset that he is disabled.
He is a man who uses a cane. The cane is secondary.
Episode 8: Desperate Souls
But of course, this is a fairy-tale retelling. If there is anything slightly out of the ordinary, there is going to be a reason for it. And by Desperate Souls we finally learn why Mr. Gold is shown with a cane but Rumplestiltskin is not.
Sort of, anyway.
The episode begins and we see Rumplestiltskin who looks a lot less creepy than usual. In fact, he looks downright normal. And we find him leaning heavily on a walking stick. I am rather proud that I did not immediately assume that Rumplestiltskin was soon going to find a miracle cure. The episode never allowed that thought to grow.
We learn that Rumplestiltskin ran from war and that he is a single father desperate to keep his almost fourteen-year-old son from being taken to fight. He takes his son and runs. And here is another thing I appreciated about this episode: even though Rumplestiltskin could not physically run, there is no awkward mish-mash of words to describe what they are doing without using the word run. Nope. They are running.
When they are caught by one of the king's men, the first insult is based on Rumplestiltskin's name. Only the second insult, hobblefoot, is based on his disability.
Rumplestiltskin is not angry because he is disabled. He is angry because he has no power to save his son. He has no money, no status, and no power.
Where most stories would focus on the limiting factor of disability, Once Upon a Time does not. Rumplestiltskin searches for a dagger that would give him power, power to protect his son. There is no mention of curing his disability.
And when he steals the dagger and does get the power, he is healed, but once again, it is considered a secondary thing. And there is no fuss raised about how he is healed. In fact, no one explicitly mentions it. There are no hurrahs, there is no awe and no shock.
Disability just is
It is rather brilliant, really. In Once Upon a Time, disability just is. It is shown as a perfectly normal part of life. The character who is disabled is a recurring character who plays a rather large role. He is not a one-off character. He is not teaching any lesson. You are not supposed to pity him for having a disability. And even if he is shaping up to be more of an evil character, he is still very human. He is not a cardboard cut-out of offensive stereotypes.
While in the fantasy world, Rumplestiltskin is healed and becoming darker, in the modern world, Mr. Gold is still using his cane as if it is the most natural thing in the world.
Which it is.
For the broader conversation around disability representation and access, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and RespectAbility are useful references, and our wheelchair independence article explores a related question about how disability is framed in everyday life.