As far as Travis' injuries go, disfiguring injuries can be as traumatic as disabling ones - sometimes more so. That's why there are support groups for women who've had mastectomies.

Certainly Travis' injuries are disfiguring. We don't know whether the Federation stigmatizes disfigured people, but it would be a good bet. We don't see many people with serious injuries or deformities, but the three I can think of were all disabled as adults (Travis, Hal Melanby, and Ardus [I got the impression he'd gone blind in his old age, but I'm not positive (and am I getting his name right?]). Furthermore, they were Alpha level adults with proven skills. Ardus and Travis had a proven value to the state. Also, Ardus and Hal were not disfigured (since the Federation may have wanted Hal dead anyway, his survival may not say much about his culture, but _somebody_ was manufacturing sight aids).

Certainly, Travis seems to act as though his injuries have cut him off from mainstream society. If there's subtle social pressure for him to retire from life (literally or figuratively), his vendetta may be all that keeps him going (and gives a new twist to Servalan saying there's no freedom like being a dead man [paraphrasing, I know], at least from his POV).

Then, there are still questions about how good his prosthetics are. How's sensory input? Can he feel? Judging by Melanby and Ardus, prosthetics for the blind are imperfect at best. Is other sensory input limited or nonexistant? Does he suffer phantom pain? How does he feel having lost _his own_ legs and arm? Oh, and (sorry to be a little blunt here) but, speaking of mastectomies, did he suffer any other injuries which a man might consider similarly traumatic?

And no wonder he had the weapon built into his hand. Without good vision in his lost eye (assuming the eye patch was some kind of artificial aid, it probably wasn't better than Melanby's), his depth perception's shot, a major weakness in a shoot out. Why not build a compensating device and incorporate it into his arm? It's basic unusualness would keep anyone from comparing it to a regular gun and noticing nonstandard issue features. Making it a part of him gives it an aura of threat that would keep anyone from questioning why he has it. Yet, as a brightly colored ring, it's the closest we see him come to clothes oriented vanity - something otherwise out of character.

Come to think of it, part of Travis' breaking point is when his supposedly deadly arm becomes anything but - and when Blake, having seen it stripped and useless, dismisses Travis as not worth killing (yes, we know what Blake meant, but what was Travis hearing?).

If Travis had killed Blake (and assuming no Andromedans), how long before he couldn't find reasons to keep on living?

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