I created a chart of 266 OCs organized by injuries sustained.

Using sample data from: https://www.reddit.com/r/OriginalCharacter/s/a3QcH9YQSw

I gathered up 259 characters from this thread and organized them into a bar chart by each injury sustained. This chart also includes anyone that a submitted character inflicts damage to.

There are 42 categories for each injury. How this works is that for each character I looked at, I added one number to an injury category based on the text description and images if provided.

If a character has more than one injury, but it is of the same category, it still counts as one: for example, a character having two lacerations would still count as one.

However, characters that have multiple injuries in different categories, I added one point: a character having a laceration and an infection, would count as one point for laceration, and one for infection.

Some categories may seem vague at first, so I added comments that further explain what some of these categories mean:

  • Aviation disaster: Disasters involving air and spacecraft.
  • Bisection: An injury where the character's body is cut or torn in half.
  • Biting and eating: The character is bitten or eaten alive.
  • Brain damage: Any force that causes damage to the brain, including concussions and TBIs.
  • Car crash: An injury is caused by a car crash, while the character was inside as a driver or passenger.
  • Evisceration: Removal or exposure of internal organs.
  • Explosion: Injuries caused by explosions, including shrapnel.
  • Eye injury: Any injury directed towards the eye and only the eye.
  • Facial disfigurement: Injuries that leave facial scars or loss of facial features besides the eyes, including prosthesis.
  • Falling from height: Also includes injuries where the laws of physics played the main role, like being thrown in a wall.
  • Freezing: Also includes frostbite.
  • Infection: Injuries caused by viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infections. This also includes robots infected with malware.
  • Laceration: A long, deep wound, usually left by bladed weapons or claws.
  • Mech injury: Any damage to mech that is linked to the pilot controlling it.
  • Poisoning: Injuries from exposure to, or injection of, toxic substances.
  • Shooting: Injuries sustained from gunshots, projectiles and laser beams.
  • Torture and mutilation: Injuries that leave severe damage to the character's body, as a punishment or an experiment.

Let's get to the summary:

Out of all 259 OCs, 61 of them have lost limbs, including wings, tails, and prosthetics (23.6%). This is the largest category, which was what I predicted. Dismemberments are extreme and symbolize a radical transformation in the character experiencing it; it's a fairly common trope in media.

However, the following category would be "eye injuries," which I defined as any injury directed towards the eye and only the eye. This includes any injury that renders vision loss of any kind. 38 OCs have sustained an eye injury (14.6%), which I found interesting since I thought it'd be smaller. There's a high amount of characters with injuries only in the eyes, and I can't help but ask why?

Some characters had to be dropped. If the OC died as a result of the injury, they were not counted as the chart only considers survivors. Additionally, characters whose injuries were described too vaguely were disqualified. Characters that were "almost" injured were thrown out. Characters that "almost died" without details were also thrown out. Hypothetical injuries do not count; only injuries that actually took place.

Immortal and indestructible characters were especially thrown out. There was a problem I found while making the chart, and that's where I failed to consider characters with "a regeneration factor," or coming back to life. Since they lived, I counted them as part of the graph as long as those injuries were still present as scars and such. This was the first time I made a graph out of schoolwork so I plan to make a new one where regenerating characters are ruled out - the original post focuses on characters that have to live with life-changing injuries, so I'll try again next time to consider that.

Here is a full breakdown of the chart:

Dismemberment 61 Eye injury 38 Facial disfigurement 27 Laceration 27 Shooting 26 Torture and mutilation26 Burning 18 Stabbing 18 Explosion 16 Falling from height 9 Broken bones 8 Evisceration 8 Self-inflicted 8 Decapitation 5 Infection 5 Poisoning 5 Acid attack 4 Biting and eating 4 Brain damage 4 Crushing 4 Impalement 4 Bisection 3 Disintegration 3 Electrocution 3 Aviation disaster 2 Car crash 2 Donutification 2 Freezing 2 Radiation 2 Ashyxiation 1 Axing 1 Bit tongue 1 Drowning 1 Eating a black hole 1 Flaying 1 Hurt feelings 1 Mech injury 1 Pencil 1 Slapping 1 Struck by object 1 Toddler attack 1 Zombie attack 1

Now if you excuse me, it's time to charge my phone.