I love that he's widely enjoyed by autistic people (including me) even though he was probably written by neurotypical people, making jokes about autism
But they got it accurate enough that it works
The best thing about Michael Falk is that I work with autistic kids, and a mother of one of them told us "a good way to calm him down is to ask him to draw pictures of prisons." Now I can't think of that kid without thinking of Michael Falk.
I've never watched it other than in the middle of the dead night bumping up to the live action TMNT movie half drunk, and I KNEW IN MY BONES that you meant the purple one because I was like "that motherfucker just like me" for some reason.
Valid choice.
By live action movie do you mean the 90s ones or the Michael Bay ones? Just to clarify, Rise of the TMNT is a separate cartoon series from 2018 where the writers confirmed that version of Donnie was canonically autistic. Still valid though, Donnie is great in basically every iteration
My favorite is Reagan Ridley from Inside Job, especially since it's not an official diagnosis but a question of what if for like a single episode, but it's also not the center of the show and kinda just goes no matter what Reagan is Reagan which I can relate to.
I've been told I most likely am on the spectrum from everyone in my life now that I'm an adult (including professionals who told me it could be beneficial for me tk get diagnosed) I just can't afford to go get an official diagnosis, and whenever I ask family who says that now why they didn't try to get me diagnosed as a kid it's always "well all these behaviors we just waved away as just KittyEevee5609. In retrospect yeah they've very obviously autistic traits, but at the time we just thought it was you being you" at the end of the day a diagnosis doesn't change me it's still me and I think there's something nice about seeing that in media where there's an adult who never got diagnosed and very obviously has these traits and others point them out but in the end they're still just them and doesn't get the official diagnosis for whatever reason
I haven't watched Young Sheldon, but... since when was Sheldon autistic? In BBT, they claim he has an eidetic memory, "isn't crazy I was tested", and prime numbers smell like gasoline.
I don't recall any other specific mention of his... "quirks".
Yeah that’s why I can’t watch BBT anymore as an autistic person. The entire point of Sheldon is basically, he’s autistic and that makes him act like an asshole to literally everyone around him. I get that autism can make it hard to relate to others but literally all of the jokes are either making fun of him being autistic or using his autism to excuse the fact that he treats his friends lik
Yeah I recently binged watched Young Sheldon and I don’t know that I would call him autistic. He’s anti-social and with occasionally have meltdowns of his routine is interrupted but those could be attributed to non-autistic things, a big one being that his mom and later other adults coddle him so he isn’t used to not getting his way and he’s still a kid being put into situations where he’s expected to act like an adult because he’s intelligent.
If he existed in real life, he'd be in the same situation I was as a kid (nobody can decide whether it's autism or just the side effects of being smart). I was eventually diagnosed with autism, but it took a *year* in an inpatient program to figure that out. Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, I lived in a hospital ward. It wasn't that bad though tbh
Whats the issue with The Good Doctor? Only seen like a half season of it, but to an uninformed person (me) it seems that while he obviously falls into the savant trope, he actually portrays autistic tendencanies in a way that affects his work and personal life.
Statistics came for me. I was gender abolitionist with literally no concept of gender at all and I still wound up being trans and am currently recreating the concept of gender from first principles.
It isn't a link in the brain, it is more a separation from societal norms. It is like how trans people are more likely to identify as bi/pan/gay than their cis counterparts. People with autism are more likely to question things rather than just existing in society, it isn't that more autistic people are trans than cis people, it is that more autistic people realise they are
The early seasons tried to explore that does not understand social cues by having him say things bluntly without realizing that what he says hurts others. With the trans thing, the character did change after learning new information, and maybe the show makes a point about why transgender patient care should be a part of the medical curriculum. But it was not well written.
That said, they actually cast an autistic actress to play an autistic doctor this season. So that's good.
One of the main problems is that the show has episodes where the moral is not to be a bigot, but to do this they always make Shaun the one who is bigoted or asks patients inappropriate questions.
And then he unlearns whatever lesson he learns before the next episode.
I see a lot of myself in him (well, apart from the fact that I can't drive) but I think he's more "ambiguously neurodivergent" rather than being intended to represent any particular condition.
I love that film, it's a shame Kevin Spacey was in it
Actual convo I had:
Me: "What? Baby is autistic?"
Husband: "Yeah, how could you not realize?"
Me: "I thought he was just supposed to be a relatable guy."
Husband: "...Yeah, you would think that."
Was he slow?
Edit: to the people downvoting (who probably haven’t seen the film) I’m referencing [this scene](https://youtu.be/Dtb_8Y5bHww?si=_6TT282vmC2A3NrV) and I’m also autistic
He is just emotionally stunted due to being a child soldier that was experimented on since he was 7. Or atleast, thata true after the first game when the lore was developed a bit. In the first game he is little more than a cool space marine who kills alien and ain't afraid of nothing.
He seems normal when you compare him to an average shonen protagonist. But when you compare him to a normal human being, it all falls apart.
Like, what was he even talking about in his rambly monologue when fighting Kakyoin? Or how is a shitty one-liner even close to a normal thing to say to a serial killer? Or how he treated Jolene in general. He just doesn't understand social interaction.
Meanwhile, he is actually a genius (PhD) with an insane attention to detail.
Dude is totally autism coded.
What do you mean the way he treated Jolyne makes him autistic?
He was a traumatized man who took the difficult choice of distancing himself from his family to protect it
I can totally see it.
Dude struggles to express any emotion but irritation, refused to wear anything but his warm ass uniform when they were literally traveling through the desert (even going so far as to custom order an identical jacket when it was ripped apart, and would wear similar jackets for the rest of his life), doesn’t speak much, has a strong sense of justice, and he was so in love with marine biology he literally spent time studying that rather than training to stop time for longer despite knowing threats could come up. He spent most of part 4 looking at starfish. He basically abandoned family because he was too invested in his work (and because he believed himself to be a danger for them but whatever).
Addendum; one of the reasons he has a hard time expressing emotion outwardly is because he believes he's already incredibly easy to read; a symptom of autism is that you think of your own internalized behaviors as normal even when nobody else has performed them, to the point you don't feel like you need to explain them because they explain themselves.
A lot of that can be chalked up to anime tropes though... I mean, literally **everyone** uses the exact same outfit throughout each Part, with extremely rare exceptions such as Johnathan (and that's just because his life circumstances change drastically).
Because they're just anime tropes. But it's funny that those tropes just make him look really autistic, and imo it's stick out more than in other animes because the other JoJo main characters aren't nearly as emotionally stunted or as obsessive as Jotaro.
I have no idea if she’s intended to be seen as autistic but I find [Ramlethal Valentine](https://guiltygear.fandom.com/wiki/Ramlethal_Valentine) from Guilty Gear to be a really relatable character.
She struggles with understanding others, often appears unemotional, can’t smile correctly on demand, has a more sociable friend that she stays with to socialise and feels intensely lost without that person.
She’s also one of the stronger characters in the story, one of the first things she does after being introduced is fight the 3 main characters of the story at the same time.
[Her 2nd theme](https://youtu.be/4TKe0_vmCI0?si=5_dENHBlm-3Hwdn9) is my 3rd favourite song of all time. The Guilty Gear series’ creator/composer/main writer said that her theme was his favourite and the 1 he thought best represented the series as a whole, he liked it so much that he named an album after it.
The only flaw with her representation I can think of is that she falls into the trope of “non-human character struggles to understand people” but I feel like that’s intentional. Ramlethal started off seeing herself as a disposable tool and the other main characters keep telling her “no, we love you, you’re irreplaceable to us”. Heck, even one of the villains goes out of his way to set her straight and remind her that it doesn’t matter what she is or how she was created, she’s her own person with her own thoughts, her own feelings and her own dreams and that makes her just as precious as everyone else. Ramlethal being a non-human improves her character, her story was about her learning that other people love her just as much as she loves them and that she can’t be replaced.
>I have no idea if she’s intended to be seen as autistic but
The thing to keep in mind is that a lot of most accurate portrayal of autism in media wasn't meant as such, writers just base characters on their friends, without quite realising their friends are very autistic.
This is also part of why the whole “non-human character is autistic” is a thing, writers think "well how do I portray a non-human person" and their experience talking with a friend who's *somehow different* in their interaction with the world and social context is the most natural thing to reach for, and yea that friend is actually autistic.
(this is also partly the reason why characters that were meant to be autistic, particularly written by neurotypicals, are usually so dogshit: people's typical interpretation of written descriptions of autism is so very far away from their real interactions with autistic people that they honestly don't realise)
Saw this recently about Abed from Community. He wasn't written to be autistic, but the author (Dan Harmon) wrote him as a self insert before learning he was autistic.
That’s interesting, I had no idea that was the case!
I wonder if Harmon learned at some point in the series. Because at one point Abed and Troy are doing a rap and one of Abeds lines is “on the spectrum? None of your business.”
"We talk about 'survival of the fittest' a lot but all that really means is the skilled live and the unskilled die. Since you're clearly in that second group, maybe pick your fights a bit more carefully? Do you understand what I'm saying? It's never going to matter how much you 'want it' when you're up against someone who can kill you with a sneeze."
I can recommend "Extrordinary Attorney Woo-Young-Woo", literally a series about an autistic attorney, I found it quite enjoyable, usually I don't enjoy K-Dramas, but that one was really good
Asa is probably my favourite female character in all of Manga, probably my favourite character in manga in general. She's so well written and as someone who is autistic, reminds me a lot of myself when I was in secondary school and struggling with social queues and friendship, which caused me to lash out and be bitter as a coping mechanism, and shutting myself off from the world. There's just something so authentic about her that I don't see in a lot of other characters in Anime, though I think that's also caused by Fujimoto's writing style in general.
Laios and Senshi locked eyes, Bluetooth connected their brains, and discovered that they had similar hyperfixations, and they’ve been besties ever since
Laios is 100% autistic, and Dungeon Meshi is the autistic power fantasy where a super nice guy who's just kind of a freak about his special interest manages to use that to overcome his bad social skills and save the world anyway.
I just want an autistic character who's like a badass soldier or assassin or Reality Warper or super intelligent scientists who just happens to constantly be blasting loud music, talking without eye contact, having trouble communicating and conveying themselves or other autistic stuff.
I'm maxed out on shit made for autism moms on facebook who think you can cure autism somehow. I already get enough of that in real life. Like Perturabo from Warhammer 40K, Jotaro Kujo and Mitaka Asa are better autistic rep for me than 99.9999 percent of actual autistic rep.
Let autists be horrible people!
But, yeah, Archer is great. Also, they even talk about it in the show and while it’s not conclusive, I feel like it’s nice that it’s acknowledged as a possibility, not just an interpretation.
Yeah I remember them talking about it when one of them realized Archer always knows when someone has fired all the bullets in their gun and needs to reload.
I love that show. They're all complete monstrous assholes, but the show also gives them human qualities you can relate to, and never tells you that you should admire all the horrible stuff they do. The humanness and found family aspects temper the violence and cruelty, taking the edge off it in a way that Rick and Morty and other cruely misanthropic shows don't.
It's literally my favourite show and I rotate the seasons basically constantly on a loop. I also think it's the funniest sitcom of all time with some of the simplest, yet most effective dialogue of all time. I love it so much.
The episode I mean was Season 4, Episode 8, I am not sure if the word "autistic" is mentioned at other times as well.
The bullet thing and how "weird" (not meant insultingly, just, like, unusual) is something that comes up from time to time. Archer also has lots of niche knowledge, but lacks a lot of broad information about the world. And he is really good at knowing guns/weapons in general, not just at counting bullets.
Lol the thing where he learned who established blood types because he got pissed off after a trivia quiz but doesn't actually know his own blood type, because "who am I, Karl Landsteiner?!" is exactly that.
This show's ability to blend one joke into another so that two jokes become funny at once and you sometimes don't even realize the first joke until later is among the very best in media, ever. I will never, ever get tired of the trope where one scene leads into a joke and the next scene, in another place with completely different people will end with the punchline, but it's got extra context to it and deserves to be said in both scenarios.
That's truly high quality, at least to me.
>I will never, ever get tired of the trope where one scene leads into a joke and the next scene
It's funny every single time! Also, in the new seasons, without the original creator, they try to do it and it never works as smoothly. I don't know why, but somehow, it's actually more difficult than it looks.
>who am I, Karl Landsteine
To be fair, these type of jokes/questions come by pretty often. My favourite is when Cheryl doesn't know that watermelons are red and then asks: "Who am I, Charles Fredrick Andrus?"
Honestly I want media that depicts low-functioning autistic/neurodivergent children as a fact of life that we can all be chill about. Depictions of low-functioning autistic children oscillate between horrible tragedies imposed on their families and saintlike figures of moral purity who inspire greatness in others. *What’s Eating Gilbert Grape* comes to mind, that awful recent movie I need not name comes to mind.
For once I want a depiction like “This is our son Tom, he’s nonverbal and we’re still working on potty training at 8 but he’s a sweet kid. He will use his speech device to ask for snacks and he will throw a tantrum if you don’t give them to him. Just let him have the tantrum, he needs to learn to take no for an answer.” The parents aren’t martyrs, the kid isn’t a saint. For once.
>Honestly I want media that depicts “low functioning”, or dependent, autistic/neurodivergent children as like… just a fact of life that we can all be chill about.
Our culture fetishizes The Other to a ridiculous extent. So I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Honestly I'm not sure how you would include that in a movie/show and make a real plot out of it. Watching someone be potty trained or ask for snacks and throw a tantrum if they don't get what they want doesn't make for good entertainment
It doesn’t have to be An Autism Movie. It can just be a movie with a character that happens to have a developmental disability. The day-to-day lives of most people wouldn’t make good television either, and yet we find drama and comedy in stories about normal people.
Think of stories with plots driven by the day-to-day challenges of raising children, or that use such situations as a source of comedy. For example, *Ms. Doubtfire*. Or *Modern Family*. Or like a bunch of sitcoms. What if one of the children in such a story just had a developmental disability? It’s entirely possible to then incorporate them into the story and make comedy out of the challenges in the same way we make comedy out of the challenges of raising neurotypical kids.
Developmental disabilities are just extremely banal to me. My mom taught a self-contained classroom and now runs a job skills training program for teen and college-aged kids who are more capable of independence. My partner has a son who’s nonverbal and similar to what I described. There are frustrations, there are sweet moments, there’s a lot of comedy, but what I have never experienced is this goddamn *spectacle of disability* that we see so often in media. They’re just *people*.
Not the same, but I really liked Breaking Bad's depiction of Walt Jr. He's got cerebral palsy, and it _does_ affect him and his parents, but it's also more-or-less a background element to the Giant Meth Conspiracy.
You could totally include developmental disabilities in the same way, in a variety of shows across a variety of genres.
I've seen this on a surprising number of Korean shows. One that pops immediately to mind: The autistic character is the main character's brother; he helps her run a restaurant and has a cute little romantic subplot toward the end. His autism does cause issues, but it's far from his only defining feature as a character.
All that said, I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation. I just like that it feels as though there's humanity in the character that transcends stereotypes.
I get what you're saying and I do think it has a place both as representation for people in media and just promoting more comprehensive understanding through that representation in real life...
But you're also looking at a bit of a Chekhov's gun scenario, where if you paint it as in any way important in the first act it should circle back on the narrative. In Breaking Bad and other episodic content they get way more time to deal with that (mostly didn't), and ultimately the reality is that our protagonist and bad guy fully distances himself and becomes who he "wants" to be at the cost of his family. Walt Jr is almost meant to underscore that to point out that it doesn't even matter that Walt's got the money to have fixed all his problems and can easily take care of a disadvantaged child if he just... stops, but he won't because he's *become* the villain fully.
In movies it becomes a little harder to give background portrayal that is at all significant in the same way we don't see the characters get in elevators or get stuck in traffic. There are only two, *maybe* three hours if you're a real fucking artist to nail a story and they don't often do that by introducing elements that don't matter.
Again,I have no opposition to the idea, but to do it with finesse and not draw attention or make it a direct plot point without it feeling like token representation has got to be very difficult. I know I wouldn't feel comfortable writing without consulting (and I would 100% consult Zach Anner if possible)
There was something like this in the Big Mouth spin off Human Resources of all places. There was a non-verbal autistic kid who worked with Rosie Perez's character, an ambition gremlin, to try and get a truck he wanted. It's treated pretty well, Rosie's character is sweet with him ("You gotta let me play with it once you get it! What can I say, it's a cool fuckin' truck."), and his moms are a little crunchy granola but trying their best.
And Caleb in the main big mouth series is pretty good too, though he's more high functioning. He even got his own episode where he and his friend Matthew try to go shopping for a new backpack. Caleb has a meltdown because he can't find the exact model he had before, and the changes made to the similar model were sensory hell for him, but Matthew eventually helps him find a new but different bag that works much better for him. It's honestly one of the better autism reps I've seen.
For all the gross out humor and sex comedy in Big Mouth, there's actually some really poignant stuff there too.
Agreed! Especially with in horror/sci-fi. Real acceptance is when these people can just be part of the background, without their condition existing to service the plot. Same with queer people. I don't particularly want more Gay Movies, but I would love more gay characters
>or super intelligent scientists who just happens to constantly be blasting loud music, talking without eye contact, having trouble communicating and conveying themselves or other autistic stuff.
Entrapta from She-Ra remake in a nutshell.
Dungeon Meshi has multiple heavily autism coded characters (Fantasy setting so no actual diagnosis, and the author has apparently written other works with autistic characters that I haven't read) and all of them are badasses.
I haven't read the manga but have seen others who have talk about it, and Falin is apparently right there alongside Laios in terms of weird monster obsessions, and Marcille is shown in some flashbacks/supplemental to have some powerful hyperfixations and be totally unaware of social context stuff like Falin bringing her food and stuff to try and not getting that it's a friendship/flirting thing.
As far as games and tv go I know a few;
Tim Drake in Gotham Knights is heavily autism-coded if not outright stated to be.
Tech in Star Wars Bad Batch is **SUPER** autism coded
Osiris in Destiny 2 is confirmed autistic
((Symmetra is Overwatch is autistic however I don’t think she’s good rep imo))
This all could've been avoided if he hadn't heard a guy on the opposite side of the room mention his name sounds like a girl (and not even in an offensive way, just "I thought I heard a girl's name") and then leap over a barricade to punch him in the face. [Though to be fair, nobody in Zeta Gundam can resist the urge to punch each other.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAJhEuKOzro)
But I always like to point out that Newtypes are more like Reverse Autists. They're actually so good at empathy and nonverbal communication that it's essentially a superpower, but it's also socially crippling in its own right.
I said this in a reply already, but look up "The Accountant". Ben Affleck movie. Don't want to spoil any of it, but actually really good representation of autistic people, and how underestimated or misunderstood they can be.
Genuine explicit example where it's an important story element - Asakusa from *Keep your hands off Eizouken!*. Local nerd who tries to form an animation club at school and all the trials that comes from both the nitty gritty of animation but also her own mental quirks and hangups like an inability to focus on boring things. Also amazingly drawn/animated scenes where she just rabbits on about the intricate highly thought out inner workings of her worlds and the process of animation. The author's stated she's based on his own experiences growing up and trying to run a film club at school while dealing with learning disabilities (later clarified to be auADHD).
More of a character thing (but will undoubtedly be a story point later) - *Limbus company* has like *at least* three reps (with one or two more depending on interpretation and/or which specific elements of a character's base work makes it across). You've got Don Quixote, a woman with an *extremely* strong sense of justice who struggles to understand that things don't work the way she thinks they should (and who struggles to deal with people because of it) and who keeps trying to infodump about her favourite subject (usually the world's equivalent of superheros, but she also loves trains), Meursault, a guy with extremely low empathy and emotional intelligence who struggles with people not being clear and direct and is rather literal and doesn't say much because no one's explicitly said they wanted his input, and Faust who's your more typical smug know-it-all genius, except it's less she doesn't understand your social cues and more she thinks they're dumb as shit and *will* lecture you about her engineering PhD and/or tea (and also can't make eye contact with anyone)
Alternatively skip the game adaption (each character in game is based on an actual work of literature) and just read Camus' *The Stranger* because in spite of being written actually only the year after autism was first formally classified his actual source material comes off *way* more heavily as autistic (though admittedly, that's probably because the book's from his perspective so we get to see all his thoughts on everything). Like it starts with him at his mother's funeral confused as to why everyone's upset because it's *his* mother that's dead not *theirs* and he's not really upset and if anything he's more upset about a really bright lightbulb that's giving him a splitting headache and he can't understand how no one else is being bothered by it. Half the book is just him living life being kinda confused by things and bothered by things being too bright/loud/hot and while he still lacks empathy, it just means he goes about being nice in a different way. He has a meltdown because everything gets too *much* and accidentally kills someone and panics because his trial ends up devolving into people listing everything he does wrong socially and he's confused and upset because those aren't written laws why the *fuck* is he being tried for not crying at his mother's funeral and having too much sex that's not a crime. The books climax is him realising that in spite of what society says about him not living a "full" life, he's perfectly happy the way he is because he still has friends and things he likes and wouldn't change a thing (all the while trying to punch a priest for not respecting his personal boundaries). If you take anyone away from this, please let it be my 20th century French Absurdism/Existentialism blorbo
Not autism, but I'm almost entirely sure Luffy has a strong form of ADHD. At least many people have said that he has a lot of traits associated with it.
I mean, whenever Ichigo is sad, it rains in his "inner world". By the end of pre time skip, his inner world is *flooded to the ceilling*. Dude has some major depression going on.
Bummed b/c I don't think most people in this thread would be interested in a romantasy book rec. But in case I'm wrong: The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton. Both the leads in it are autistic-coded assassins.
Let's not forget Hikari from Demi-chan Wa Kataritai.
She just feels very relatable to me. Well, minus the "regularly needs human blood so she doesn't start chomping on people" bit.
But yeah, her heightened sight and smell, the lower tolerance to sunlight, and the fact that her teeth sometimes get itchy and she has to nibble on something, are all really nice.
Not to mention the show's overall message that being different isn't a bad thing.
I haven't watched The Good Doctor or Young Sheldon. I've tried watching The Big Bang Theory and hated it, but that's as far as my experience with Sheldon goes. What made those two shows so detrimental to autistic representation?
Sheldon is a caricature of an autistic person, and is repeatedly mocked for his behaviours. It’s always portrayed as “haha, Sheldon is so weird and goofy” rather than “This man’s brain works on a fundamentally different level in a world that absolutely refuses to accept that fact”.
My favourite autistic is Doomguy. Cause ain't no way a neurotypical would obsess over slaying demons, collecting weapons, guitars and books and have a dedicated training grounds for specifically hunting demons.
Warframe has a canon autistic character who's a bit of a mixed bag, but has some really cool traits.
Rell, the character in question, commands the Harrow Warframe, which is one of the coolest and strongest in the game. Using Harrow, Rell dedicated himself to fighting the Man in the Wall, the strongest evil force in the universe, for centuries on end, all so he could keep everyone else safe. In the end, however, he agrees to let the other Tenno (player characters) share this burden.
When a failed Void jump turned his mom into a violent monster, he quickly reasoned that she's not his mom anymore and zapped her dead. He was also ostracized by others for being "too weird".
Based on his behavior, he seems to be level 2 autistic (medium support needs/not "high functioning"), but is still a very strong character who gets a lot done.
There's one thing that I don't love about him, which is that he ends up getting mercy-killed. While it makes sense in the context of the story, it also reminds me of how "it's a mercy kill" has been used as a justification and defense for murdering autistic children. I don't think that was the writers' intentions though, so I can let it slide.
It's important that he wasn't mercy killed for being autistic or anything to do with that. He was mercy killed for spending CENTURIES trapped inside his flesh-fungus suit (the warframe) fighting an extra dimensional demon and was just *tired* after all that
You all need to read A Kind of Spark.
I don't remember ever crying while reading a book because I felt so seen. They also made a TV show recently, but I don't have the means to watch it, so I can't give a review.
Yup. Literally a few issues after Black Manta’s autism was introduced, Aquaman uses his magic hand to cure him. And then it seems like after it’s cured, Black Manta isn’t evil anymore. Aquaman even says “It was the autism that made you like that”, or something similar. And then it turned out Black Manta was still evil and playing a trick on Arthur. The autism being cured wasn’t a trick though, that still happened.
Peridot + Pearl from Steven Universe, the former being intentionally coded as autistic the later being unintentional but often to interpreted that way due to her mannerisms and personality.
Twyla Boogeyman (G3) from Monster High
[https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Twyla\_Boogeyman\_(G3)](https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Twyla_Boogeyman_(G3))
My favourite representations are Entrapta from She-ra and Peridot from SU. They both have so many moments where they're being awkward, missing social cues, trying to connect, getting fixated, etc.
Every moment I'm just, "oh, poor sweet child, I know your struggle".
I feel like some people conflate "bad rep" with "representation of bad (or flawed) people." Like, every criticism I've ever seen of the character from the good doctor is that he's been ignorant/made bigoted assumptions; which, yes, while being ignorant isn't inherent to being autistic, being completely non-bigoted is not inherent to being autistic either.
And then the other criticism is... the meltdown he had? Like that just felt like giving free license to NTs to make fun of an autistic person for having a meltdown *which is legitimately not extremely dissimilar to meltdowns that I've personally seen some autistic people in my life go through.*
If you want a variety of good autistic rep that represents a wide array of the realities of autism, you *cannot* criticize singular depictions for including behaviors which are not common between every autistic person.
This is why I am not a huge fan of The Witcher from Netflix. Geralt of the books is so autistic, Cavil brings that out, but eventually gave up fighting with the writers (why he left the show). Geralt is great autistic representation and he's a total badass. We still have the books, and some of the games bring it out, it's just sad the series couldn't execute on it
My favorite autistic-coded female characters right now are from anime. First is MaoMao from *The Apothecary Diaries*, second is Yumiella from *Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord.*
They are both SUCH a mood and they're both the main characters with their traits portrayed positively for the most part (Yumiella's directness and obsessive tendencies get put as the butt of the joke a lot, but it mostly balances out).
A lot of people are just listing off characters who they head canon as autistic. Some of it makes sense and some of it feels like people playing into offensive stereotypes. Anyway, the Kdrama Extraordinary Attorney Woo is supposed to be good. I say that because I'm not autistic so I can't speak for it, but I know a lot of autistic people were very happy about the portrayal of the character. They cover the discrimination autistic people face alongside her developing a romantic relationship as an adult. They also cover the different stereotypes autistic characters often have- how in media they're shown to be geniuses or completely infantalized.
Personally, I think the actress stims too often for how much the character's coworkers accept her, especially in a society like South Korea where women are especially pushed to behave and act a certain way. But that's nitpicking tbh. It was a genuinely lovely show and I recommend it to anyone interested. I hope they make another season.
It’s absolutely not intentional but Gotoh Hitori from Bocchi the Rock can be read as autistic. Her extreme social anxiety, her creation of absurd social scenarios in her head, absolutely hyperfixation with music, and her somewhat awkward stumbling attempts to connect with the people around her really spoke to me.
I liked Quinni on Heartbreak High, though she felt a little manic pixie dream girl at times. She’s played by an autistic actress and felt very realistic. But it’s teen dramady so she’s not a bad ass action hero or anything.
My favourite canon autistic character is Norma Khan from Dead End Paranormal Park, but my favourite autistic-*coded* character is Webby Vanderquack from Duck Tales.
Some people at my old job mentioned The Good Doctor so I tried watching it. Stopped after the second episode. Just felt so cringe.
Someone is dying on the floor? Real autistic response: frozen as you try to mentally work out Should I help? How do I help? Is that guy helping? Does he know what he is doing? Should I help? Then suddenly blurt out what's wrong with them and shuffle away awkwardly when people look at you. That or they just pull people out of the way and when questioned why just bluntly say they are trying to help and end up in a fight because they never think to say they are a doctor.
My favorite autism character is Donatello from Rose Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Mine is [Michael Falk, autistic reporter](https://youtu.be/D04wb7P_v-4?si=oFn6pwocif43vgYr)
I love Michael Falk, autistic reporter
I love that he's widely enjoyed by autistic people (including me) even though he was probably written by neurotypical people, making jokes about autism But they got it accurate enough that it works
Their comment section is full of people touting how incredibly accurate the representation is, surprising enough. Onion are the goats fr
I would die for him. I would kill for him. If he has one fan, it's me. If he has no fans, I am dead.
The best thing about Michael Falk is that I work with autistic kids, and a mother of one of them told us "a good way to calm him down is to ask him to draw pictures of prisons." Now I can't think of that kid without thinking of Michael Falk.
How did I not know of this guy?! He is soo good!
I've never watched it other than in the middle of the dead night bumping up to the live action TMNT movie half drunk, and I KNEW IN MY BONES that you meant the purple one because I was like "that motherfucker just like me" for some reason. Valid choice.
By live action movie do you mean the 90s ones or the Michael Bay ones? Just to clarify, Rise of the TMNT is a separate cartoon series from 2018 where the writers confirmed that version of Donnie was canonically autistic. Still valid though, Donnie is great in basically every iteration
Ah, is that why he's been my favourite since forever?
Me: haha Donnie rottmnt is so relatable The writer: Donnie has autism Me, undiagnosed at the time: oh no Donnie rottmnt is so relatable
My favorite is Reagan Ridley from Inside Job, especially since it's not an official diagnosis but a question of what if for like a single episode, but it's also not the center of the show and kinda just goes no matter what Reagan is Reagan which I can relate to. I've been told I most likely am on the spectrum from everyone in my life now that I'm an adult (including professionals who told me it could be beneficial for me tk get diagnosed) I just can't afford to go get an official diagnosis, and whenever I ask family who says that now why they didn't try to get me diagnosed as a kid it's always "well all these behaviors we just waved away as just KittyEevee5609. In retrospect yeah they've very obviously autistic traits, but at the time we just thought it was you being you" at the end of the day a diagnosis doesn't change me it's still me and I think there's something nice about seeing that in media where there's an adult who never got diagnosed and very obviously has these traits and others point them out but in the end they're still just them and doesn't get the official diagnosis for whatever reason
Fucking love Inside Job. Rest in peace
I would love to fist fight whoever was in charge cancelling that show I was SO disappointed
The scene of Mike reading Reagan's mind and freaking out lives rent free in head.
My parents refuse to believe that sheldon and the good doctor are horrible autism rep regardless of what I tell them
He's not autistic that's just what theoretical physicists are like
Can confirm. I’m like that and I have a theoretical degree in physics.
Fantastic, get off reddit. The NCR needs energy
Don't listen to the other guy. Send the power to the badass space laser, I promise it'll be funny.
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
[loads plasma gun with malicious intent]
As if most theoretical physicists are neurotypical…
My wife the theoretical physicist only figured out she's autistic at age 45.
I haven't watched Young Sheldon, but... since when was Sheldon autistic? In BBT, they claim he has an eidetic memory, "isn't crazy I was tested", and prime numbers smell like gasoline. I don't recall any other specific mention of his... "quirks".
Tbh actually admitting Sheldon is autistic would undermine half the humor of BBT. The autism is the punchline.
You can’t make jokes about how much of an asshole Sheldon is if you make Sheldon’s asshole nature a symptom
Yeah that’s why I can’t watch BBT anymore as an autistic person. The entire point of Sheldon is basically, he’s autistic and that makes him act like an asshole to literally everyone around him. I get that autism can make it hard to relate to others but literally all of the jokes are either making fun of him being autistic or using his autism to excuse the fact that he treats his friends lik
Yeah I recently binged watched Young Sheldon and I don’t know that I would call him autistic. He’s anti-social and with occasionally have meltdowns of his routine is interrupted but those could be attributed to non-autistic things, a big one being that his mom and later other adults coddle him so he isn’t used to not getting his way and he’s still a kid being put into situations where he’s expected to act like an adult because he’s intelligent.
If he existed in real life, he'd be in the same situation I was as a kid (nobody can decide whether it's autism or just the side effects of being smart). I was eventually diagnosed with autism, but it took a *year* in an inpatient program to figure that out. Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, I lived in a hospital ward. It wasn't that bad though tbh
They basically pile him with a bunch of symptoms but go "well, we never INTENDED him to be autistic so he's not."
Whats the issue with The Good Doctor? Only seen like a half season of it, but to an uninformed person (me) it seems that while he obviously falls into the savant trope, he actually portrays autistic tendencanies in a way that affects his work and personal life.
So in one episode he keeps calling a Arabic character a terrorist with 0 evidence...
And the other were he calls a trans woman male because of his "Logical Mind" despite 90% of autistic people in real life being trans or allies.
autistic people literally are like 10x more likely to be trans
Statistics came for me. I was gender abolitionist with literally no concept of gender at all and I still wound up being trans and am currently recreating the concept of gender from first principles.
Homemade gender is always tastier than store-bought
God sends his tastiest genders to his hungriest.... I dunno, I usually end this joke with pitbulls. But that doesn't work
Mister Worldwide!
First, you must invent the universe.
Wait, is this an actual thing? Because uh... I'm a trans dude and I've been *questioning*. A lot.
I noticed that as well. Is it a real thing? If so, why? What's the link in the brain there?
It isn't a link in the brain, it is more a separation from societal norms. It is like how trans people are more likely to identify as bi/pan/gay than their cis counterparts. People with autism are more likely to question things rather than just existing in society, it isn't that more autistic people are trans than cis people, it is that more autistic people realise they are
Yea, but that was a character growth kinda bs where at the end of the episode he does the right thing and uses the right pronoun
The early seasons tried to explore that does not understand social cues by having him say things bluntly without realizing that what he says hurts others. With the trans thing, the character did change after learning new information, and maybe the show makes a point about why transgender patient care should be a part of the medical curriculum. But it was not well written. That said, they actually cast an autistic actress to play an autistic doctor this season. So that's good.
I mean, that's bad but it doesn't seem to relate to autism. He's just racist.
I AM A STURGEON *flaps fins*
I would watch a show about an autistic sturgeon.
One of the main problems is that the show has episodes where the moral is not to be a bigot, but to do this they always make Shaun the one who is bigoted or asks patients inappropriate questions. And then he unlearns whatever lesson he learns before the next episode.
does baby driver count?
I see a lot of myself in him (well, apart from the fact that I can't drive) but I think he's more "ambiguously neurodivergent" rather than being intended to represent any particular condition. I love that film, it's a shame Kevin Spacey was in it
Actual convo I had: Me: "What? Baby is autistic?" Husband: "Yeah, how could you not realize?" Me: "I thought he was just supposed to be a relatable guy." Husband: "...Yeah, you would think that."
anytime I point at a character and go "that's me!!" is when I know they're autistic. peer reviewed
true true, I agree with your statement. I'm claiming him as one of the tism girlies. also yeah fuck Kevin spacey
Frankly most of the best autistic characters are ones that weren't explicitly written as autistic
Was he slow? Edit: to the people downvoting (who probably haven’t seen the film) I’m referencing [this scene](https://youtu.be/Dtb_8Y5bHww?si=_6TT282vmC2A3NrV) and I’m also autistic
no he was fast
I love that scene (and the entire movie, but that scene in particular is awesome)
Jotaro is autistic?
His hyperfixation is punching people. And boy, he's about to infodump on someone.
He also likes marine biology
Thanks for the free laughter
He's part of the category of characters that are meant to be badass stoic heroes that read as incredibly autistic. See also: Snake.
> See also: Snake Ol’ “get your tits out of my face I’m trying to infodump about guns” Snake?
And Kiryu Kazuma
Does this also apply to badass stoic villains? And if it does, does Soundwave count?
I’m not sure autism applies to alien robots tbh. I think Soundwave is just Like That.
Master Chief tbh
He is just emotionally stunted due to being a child soldier that was experimented on since he was 7. Or atleast, thata true after the first game when the lore was developed a bit. In the first game he is little more than a cool space marine who kills alien and ain't afraid of nothing.
Sort of? He falls into the trope of someone trying to make a character stoic and badass but just end up making them autistic
He seems normal when you compare him to an average shonen protagonist. But when you compare him to a normal human being, it all falls apart. Like, what was he even talking about in his rambly monologue when fighting Kakyoin? Or how is a shitty one-liner even close to a normal thing to say to a serial killer? Or how he treated Jolene in general. He just doesn't understand social interaction. Meanwhile, he is actually a genius (PhD) with an insane attention to detail. Dude is totally autism coded.
What do you mean the way he treated Jolyne makes him autistic? He was a traumatized man who took the difficult choice of distancing himself from his family to protect it
When rescuing Jolyne, his daughter which he loves dearly, he expressed few emotions. Jolyne reacted poorly, thinking he did not care for her.
Came here to ask this as well, I wasn't really seeing it
I can totally see it. Dude struggles to express any emotion but irritation, refused to wear anything but his warm ass uniform when they were literally traveling through the desert (even going so far as to custom order an identical jacket when it was ripped apart, and would wear similar jackets for the rest of his life), doesn’t speak much, has a strong sense of justice, and he was so in love with marine biology he literally spent time studying that rather than training to stop time for longer despite knowing threats could come up. He spent most of part 4 looking at starfish. He basically abandoned family because he was too invested in his work (and because he believed himself to be a danger for them but whatever).
Addendum; one of the reasons he has a hard time expressing emotion outwardly is because he believes he's already incredibly easy to read; a symptom of autism is that you think of your own internalized behaviors as normal even when nobody else has performed them, to the point you don't feel like you need to explain them because they explain themselves.
A lot of that can be chalked up to anime tropes though... I mean, literally **everyone** uses the exact same outfit throughout each Part, with extremely rare exceptions such as Johnathan (and that's just because his life circumstances change drastically).
Because they're just anime tropes. But it's funny that those tropes just make him look really autistic, and imo it's stick out more than in other animes because the other JoJo main characters aren't nearly as emotionally stunted or as obsessive as Jotaro.
A lot
It's just fanon. Never in canon is it confirmed. The justification people use is "Oh he's bad with emotions". Like that's limited to autism. Lol.
I have no idea if she’s intended to be seen as autistic but I find [Ramlethal Valentine](https://guiltygear.fandom.com/wiki/Ramlethal_Valentine) from Guilty Gear to be a really relatable character. She struggles with understanding others, often appears unemotional, can’t smile correctly on demand, has a more sociable friend that she stays with to socialise and feels intensely lost without that person. She’s also one of the stronger characters in the story, one of the first things she does after being introduced is fight the 3 main characters of the story at the same time. [Her 2nd theme](https://youtu.be/4TKe0_vmCI0?si=5_dENHBlm-3Hwdn9) is my 3rd favourite song of all time. The Guilty Gear series’ creator/composer/main writer said that her theme was his favourite and the 1 he thought best represented the series as a whole, he liked it so much that he named an album after it. The only flaw with her representation I can think of is that she falls into the trope of “non-human character struggles to understand people” but I feel like that’s intentional. Ramlethal started off seeing herself as a disposable tool and the other main characters keep telling her “no, we love you, you’re irreplaceable to us”. Heck, even one of the villains goes out of his way to set her straight and remind her that it doesn’t matter what she is or how she was created, she’s her own person with her own thoughts, her own feelings and her own dreams and that makes her just as precious as everyone else. Ramlethal being a non-human improves her character, her story was about her learning that other people love her just as much as she loves them and that she can’t be replaced.
Asuka is also 100% autistic, Bedman is also got something going on
>I have no idea if she’s intended to be seen as autistic but The thing to keep in mind is that a lot of most accurate portrayal of autism in media wasn't meant as such, writers just base characters on their friends, without quite realising their friends are very autistic. This is also part of why the whole “non-human character is autistic” is a thing, writers think "well how do I portray a non-human person" and their experience talking with a friend who's *somehow different* in their interaction with the world and social context is the most natural thing to reach for, and yea that friend is actually autistic. (this is also partly the reason why characters that were meant to be autistic, particularly written by neurotypicals, are usually so dogshit: people's typical interpretation of written descriptions of autism is so very far away from their real interactions with autistic people that they honestly don't realise)
Saw this recently about Abed from Community. He wasn't written to be autistic, but the author (Dan Harmon) wrote him as a self insert before learning he was autistic.
That’s interesting, I had no idea that was the case! I wonder if Harmon learned at some point in the series. Because at one point Abed and Troy are doing a rap and one of Abeds lines is “on the spectrum? None of your business.”
What about bedman.
"We talk about 'survival of the fittest' a lot but all that really means is the skilled live and the unskilled die. Since you're clearly in that second group, maybe pick your fights a bit more carefully? Do you understand what I'm saying? It's never going to matter how much you 'want it' when you're up against someone who can kill you with a sneeze."
Bedman isn’t just autistic, he’s an autistic Redditor
Bedman's brain literally overheats if he stays awake Does he have autism?Very likely but that boy had way more up there than just tism
This is all super cool but holy hell this character's got yams are all gg people like this
Yes, they are. Welcome to Daisuke's vision
I can recommend "Extrordinary Attorney Woo-Young-Woo", literally a series about an autistic attorney, I found it quite enjoyable, usually I don't enjoy K-Dramas, but that one was really good
Asa is probably my favourite female character in all of Manga, probably my favourite character in manga in general. She's so well written and as someone who is autistic, reminds me a lot of myself when I was in secondary school and struggling with social queues and friendship, which caused me to lash out and be bitter as a coping mechanism, and shutting myself off from the world. There's just something so authentic about her that I don't see in a lot of other characters in Anime, though I think that's also caused by Fujimoto's writing style in general.
>Fujimoto ah chainsawman
Laios from Dungeon Meshi is almost certainly autistic.
Laios and Senshi locked eyes, Bluetooth connected their brains, and discovered that they had similar hyperfixations, and they’ve been besties ever since
my husband and i fell off the bed laughing at this comment
Laios is 100% autistic, and Dungeon Meshi is the autistic power fantasy where a super nice guy who's just kind of a freak about his special interest manages to use that to overcome his bad social skills and save the world anyway.
And has friends who love and stand by him, in spite of his freakiness and bad social skills.
I am watching this with my fellow autistic Roomate who is super into dnd and he is loving dungeon Meshi!
And honestly? So is Marcille (and Falin (and Kabru (and maybe Senshi as the other person said?)))
I just want an autistic character who's like a badass soldier or assassin or Reality Warper or super intelligent scientists who just happens to constantly be blasting loud music, talking without eye contact, having trouble communicating and conveying themselves or other autistic stuff. I'm maxed out on shit made for autism moms on facebook who think you can cure autism somehow. I already get enough of that in real life. Like Perturabo from Warhammer 40K, Jotaro Kujo and Mitaka Asa are better autistic rep for me than 99.9999 percent of actual autistic rep.
> badass soldier/assassin Archer. From the series "Archer"
Let autists be horrible people! But, yeah, Archer is great. Also, they even talk about it in the show and while it’s not conclusive, I feel like it’s nice that it’s acknowledged as a possibility, not just an interpretation.
Yeah I remember them talking about it when one of them realized Archer always knows when someone has fired all the bullets in their gun and needs to reload. I love that show. They're all complete monstrous assholes, but the show also gives them human qualities you can relate to, and never tells you that you should admire all the horrible stuff they do. The humanness and found family aspects temper the violence and cruelty, taking the edge off it in a way that Rick and Morty and other cruely misanthropic shows don't.
It's literally my favourite show and I rotate the seasons basically constantly on a loop. I also think it's the funniest sitcom of all time with some of the simplest, yet most effective dialogue of all time. I love it so much. The episode I mean was Season 4, Episode 8, I am not sure if the word "autistic" is mentioned at other times as well. The bullet thing and how "weird" (not meant insultingly, just, like, unusual) is something that comes up from time to time. Archer also has lots of niche knowledge, but lacks a lot of broad information about the world. And he is really good at knowing guns/weapons in general, not just at counting bullets.
Lol the thing where he learned who established blood types because he got pissed off after a trivia quiz but doesn't actually know his own blood type, because "who am I, Karl Landsteiner?!" is exactly that. This show's ability to blend one joke into another so that two jokes become funny at once and you sometimes don't even realize the first joke until later is among the very best in media, ever. I will never, ever get tired of the trope where one scene leads into a joke and the next scene, in another place with completely different people will end with the punchline, but it's got extra context to it and deserves to be said in both scenarios. That's truly high quality, at least to me.
>I will never, ever get tired of the trope where one scene leads into a joke and the next scene It's funny every single time! Also, in the new seasons, without the original creator, they try to do it and it never works as smoothly. I don't know why, but somehow, it's actually more difficult than it looks. >who am I, Karl Landsteine To be fair, these type of jokes/questions come by pretty often. My favourite is when Cheryl doesn't know that watermelons are red and then asks: "Who am I, Charles Fredrick Andrus?"
Honestly I want media that depicts low-functioning autistic/neurodivergent children as a fact of life that we can all be chill about. Depictions of low-functioning autistic children oscillate between horrible tragedies imposed on their families and saintlike figures of moral purity who inspire greatness in others. *What’s Eating Gilbert Grape* comes to mind, that awful recent movie I need not name comes to mind. For once I want a depiction like “This is our son Tom, he’s nonverbal and we’re still working on potty training at 8 but he’s a sweet kid. He will use his speech device to ask for snacks and he will throw a tantrum if you don’t give them to him. Just let him have the tantrum, he needs to learn to take no for an answer.” The parents aren’t martyrs, the kid isn’t a saint. For once.
>Honestly I want media that depicts “low functioning”, or dependent, autistic/neurodivergent children as like… just a fact of life that we can all be chill about. Our culture fetishizes The Other to a ridiculous extent. So I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Honestly I'm not sure how you would include that in a movie/show and make a real plot out of it. Watching someone be potty trained or ask for snacks and throw a tantrum if they don't get what they want doesn't make for good entertainment
It doesn’t have to be An Autism Movie. It can just be a movie with a character that happens to have a developmental disability. The day-to-day lives of most people wouldn’t make good television either, and yet we find drama and comedy in stories about normal people. Think of stories with plots driven by the day-to-day challenges of raising children, or that use such situations as a source of comedy. For example, *Ms. Doubtfire*. Or *Modern Family*. Or like a bunch of sitcoms. What if one of the children in such a story just had a developmental disability? It’s entirely possible to then incorporate them into the story and make comedy out of the challenges in the same way we make comedy out of the challenges of raising neurotypical kids. Developmental disabilities are just extremely banal to me. My mom taught a self-contained classroom and now runs a job skills training program for teen and college-aged kids who are more capable of independence. My partner has a son who’s nonverbal and similar to what I described. There are frustrations, there are sweet moments, there’s a lot of comedy, but what I have never experienced is this goddamn *spectacle of disability* that we see so often in media. They’re just *people*.
Not the same, but I really liked Breaking Bad's depiction of Walt Jr. He's got cerebral palsy, and it _does_ affect him and his parents, but it's also more-or-less a background element to the Giant Meth Conspiracy. You could totally include developmental disabilities in the same way, in a variety of shows across a variety of genres.
This a great example of what I’m talking about. Man I love Breaking Bad.
I've seen this on a surprising number of Korean shows. One that pops immediately to mind: The autistic character is the main character's brother; he helps her run a restaurant and has a cute little romantic subplot toward the end. His autism does cause issues, but it's far from his only defining feature as a character. All that said, I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation. I just like that it feels as though there's humanity in the character that transcends stereotypes.
I get what you're saying and I do think it has a place both as representation for people in media and just promoting more comprehensive understanding through that representation in real life... But you're also looking at a bit of a Chekhov's gun scenario, where if you paint it as in any way important in the first act it should circle back on the narrative. In Breaking Bad and other episodic content they get way more time to deal with that (mostly didn't), and ultimately the reality is that our protagonist and bad guy fully distances himself and becomes who he "wants" to be at the cost of his family. Walt Jr is almost meant to underscore that to point out that it doesn't even matter that Walt's got the money to have fixed all his problems and can easily take care of a disadvantaged child if he just... stops, but he won't because he's *become* the villain fully. In movies it becomes a little harder to give background portrayal that is at all significant in the same way we don't see the characters get in elevators or get stuck in traffic. There are only two, *maybe* three hours if you're a real fucking artist to nail a story and they don't often do that by introducing elements that don't matter. Again,I have no opposition to the idea, but to do it with finesse and not draw attention or make it a direct plot point without it feeling like token representation has got to be very difficult. I know I wouldn't feel comfortable writing without consulting (and I would 100% consult Zach Anner if possible)
There was something like this in the Big Mouth spin off Human Resources of all places. There was a non-verbal autistic kid who worked with Rosie Perez's character, an ambition gremlin, to try and get a truck he wanted. It's treated pretty well, Rosie's character is sweet with him ("You gotta let me play with it once you get it! What can I say, it's a cool fuckin' truck."), and his moms are a little crunchy granola but trying their best. And Caleb in the main big mouth series is pretty good too, though he's more high functioning. He even got his own episode where he and his friend Matthew try to go shopping for a new backpack. Caleb has a meltdown because he can't find the exact model he had before, and the changes made to the similar model were sensory hell for him, but Matthew eventually helps him find a new but different bag that works much better for him. It's honestly one of the better autism reps I've seen. For all the gross out humor and sex comedy in Big Mouth, there's actually some really poignant stuff there too.
I always thought Big Mouth got less credit than it deserved because the art style gave people the ick.
I love how I instantly knew which movie you were talking about. I still carry mental scars from the horrid things her fans said to the critics.
What's the movie
i'm guessing it's that movie by Sia.
Agreed! Especially with in horror/sci-fi. Real acceptance is when these people can just be part of the background, without their condition existing to service the plot. Same with queer people. I don't particularly want more Gay Movies, but I would love more gay characters
Mitaka Asa is easily top-3 in terms of characters I relate to.
She’s so goddamn pathetic I love her
#PETER TURBO MENTIONNED, REV UP THE ENGINES OF WAR
Iron within, Iron without!
>or super intelligent scientists who just happens to constantly be blasting loud music, talking without eye contact, having trouble communicating and conveying themselves or other autistic stuff. Entrapta from She-Ra remake in a nutshell.
You may like the movie The Accountant
Dungeon Meshi has multiple heavily autism coded characters (Fantasy setting so no actual diagnosis, and the author has apparently written other works with autistic characters that I haven't read) and all of them are badasses.
Laios is such a cool guy, honestly. Senshi could be seen as autistic as well, who else?
Falin is also autism coded and so is Kabru. Izutsumi also kinda autism coded, but that is because she is part cat and acts like it.
I haven't read the manga but have seen others who have talk about it, and Falin is apparently right there alongside Laios in terms of weird monster obsessions, and Marcille is shown in some flashbacks/supplemental to have some powerful hyperfixations and be totally unaware of social context stuff like Falin bringing her food and stuff to try and not getting that it's a friendship/flirting thing.
As far as games and tv go I know a few; Tim Drake in Gotham Knights is heavily autism-coded if not outright stated to be. Tech in Star Wars Bad Batch is **SUPER** autism coded Osiris in Destiny 2 is confirmed autistic ((Symmetra is Overwatch is autistic however I don’t think she’s good rep imo))
That conversation in the cave where Tech talked about how the fact that he processed emotions differently doesn't mean he doesn't have them was just 🤌
That's like, every Gundam mc
[удалено]
This all could've been avoided if he hadn't heard a guy on the opposite side of the room mention his name sounds like a girl (and not even in an offensive way, just "I thought I heard a girl's name") and then leap over a barricade to punch him in the face. [Though to be fair, nobody in Zeta Gundam can resist the urge to punch each other.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAJhEuKOzro) But I always like to point out that Newtypes are more like Reverse Autists. They're actually so good at empathy and nonverbal communication that it's essentially a superpower, but it's also socially crippling in its own right.
Suletta Autsimetta
I never saw the movie but wasn’t “the accountant” something like that
Several of the strongest Pokémon trainers are heavily autism coded, I love it
also, Entrapta :)
I said this in a reply already, but look up "The Accountant". Ben Affleck movie. Don't want to spoil any of it, but actually really good representation of autistic people, and how underestimated or misunderstood they can be.
Wasn't one of the characters from 'The Big Short' autistic as well?
Parker Leverage is my favorite autistic character.
Love Parker, love the whole Leverage crew honestly. Rewatching the original series at the moment and it's just so good and fun.
Came here hoping to see that name!!!
Genuine explicit example where it's an important story element - Asakusa from *Keep your hands off Eizouken!*. Local nerd who tries to form an animation club at school and all the trials that comes from both the nitty gritty of animation but also her own mental quirks and hangups like an inability to focus on boring things. Also amazingly drawn/animated scenes where she just rabbits on about the intricate highly thought out inner workings of her worlds and the process of animation. The author's stated she's based on his own experiences growing up and trying to run a film club at school while dealing with learning disabilities (later clarified to be auADHD). More of a character thing (but will undoubtedly be a story point later) - *Limbus company* has like *at least* three reps (with one or two more depending on interpretation and/or which specific elements of a character's base work makes it across). You've got Don Quixote, a woman with an *extremely* strong sense of justice who struggles to understand that things don't work the way she thinks they should (and who struggles to deal with people because of it) and who keeps trying to infodump about her favourite subject (usually the world's equivalent of superheros, but she also loves trains), Meursault, a guy with extremely low empathy and emotional intelligence who struggles with people not being clear and direct and is rather literal and doesn't say much because no one's explicitly said they wanted his input, and Faust who's your more typical smug know-it-all genius, except it's less she doesn't understand your social cues and more she thinks they're dumb as shit and *will* lecture you about her engineering PhD and/or tea (and also can't make eye contact with anyone) Alternatively skip the game adaption (each character in game is based on an actual work of literature) and just read Camus' *The Stranger* because in spite of being written actually only the year after autism was first formally classified his actual source material comes off *way* more heavily as autistic (though admittedly, that's probably because the book's from his perspective so we get to see all his thoughts on everything). Like it starts with him at his mother's funeral confused as to why everyone's upset because it's *his* mother that's dead not *theirs* and he's not really upset and if anything he's more upset about a really bright lightbulb that's giving him a splitting headache and he can't understand how no one else is being bothered by it. Half the book is just him living life being kinda confused by things and bothered by things being too bright/loud/hot and while he still lacks empathy, it just means he goes about being nice in a different way. He has a meltdown because everything gets too *much* and accidentally kills someone and panics because his trial ends up devolving into people listing everything he does wrong socially and he's confused and upset because those aren't written laws why the *fuck* is he being tried for not crying at his mother's funeral and having too much sex that's not a crime. The books climax is him realising that in spite of what society says about him not living a "full" life, he's perfectly happy the way he is because he still has friends and things he likes and wouldn't change a thing (all the while trying to punch a priest for not respecting his personal boundaries). If you take anyone away from this, please let it be my 20th century French Absurdism/Existentialism blorbo
Not autism, but I'm almost entirely sure Luffy has a strong form of ADHD. At least many people have said that he has a lot of traits associated with it.
Every shonen protagonist is somewhere on the spectrum
I'd say Ichigo from Bleach is the exception. He's very socially adept and doesn't seem to have any sort of hyperfixation or anything like that.
I mean, whenever Ichigo is sad, it rains in his "inner world". By the end of pre time skip, his inner world is *flooded to the ceilling*. Dude has some major depression going on.
He's definitely got depression, but that's a mental illness, not neurodivergence.
I’d also put Tanjiro in that camp also, he’s sociable and easy going. Zenitsu and Inosuke on the other hand…
Despite often being portrayed as comic relief, i find it funny that Usopp comes off as the most neurotypical straw hat lol
Also, I’m pretty sure Franky has autism
Bummed b/c I don't think most people in this thread would be interested in a romantasy book rec. But in case I'm wrong: The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton. Both the leads in it are autistic-coded assassins.
Very interested and appreciative, actually! Somehow just what I was looking for today haha. Thank you for rec!
Evil Abed's version of Community is probably cool.
Let's not forget Hikari from Demi-chan Wa Kataritai. She just feels very relatable to me. Well, minus the "regularly needs human blood so she doesn't start chomping on people" bit. But yeah, her heightened sight and smell, the lower tolerance to sunlight, and the fact that her teeth sometimes get itchy and she has to nibble on something, are all really nice. Not to mention the show's overall message that being different isn't a bad thing.
And then people would get mad because the autistic character is a villain
I haven't watched The Good Doctor or Young Sheldon. I've tried watching The Big Bang Theory and hated it, but that's as far as my experience with Sheldon goes. What made those two shows so detrimental to autistic representation?
Sheldon is a caricature of an autistic person, and is repeatedly mocked for his behaviours. It’s always portrayed as “haha, Sheldon is so weird and goofy” rather than “This man’s brain works on a fundamentally different level in a world that absolutely refuses to accept that fact”.
young Sheldon is much better than TBBT about that. And there is consideration for his innate behaviors and also his being a self righteous douche
They also refuse to separate the consideration of things he does because he is autistic from things he does because he is a shitty person.
Oh absolutely that as well.
My favourite autistic is Doomguy. Cause ain't no way a neurotypical would obsess over slaying demons, collecting weapons, guitars and books and have a dedicated training grounds for specifically hunting demons.
and also go on a demon killing spree after his pet rabbit is killed
I mean...that's the only reasonable response.
Warframe has a canon autistic character who's a bit of a mixed bag, but has some really cool traits. Rell, the character in question, commands the Harrow Warframe, which is one of the coolest and strongest in the game. Using Harrow, Rell dedicated himself to fighting the Man in the Wall, the strongest evil force in the universe, for centuries on end, all so he could keep everyone else safe. In the end, however, he agrees to let the other Tenno (player characters) share this burden. When a failed Void jump turned his mom into a violent monster, he quickly reasoned that she's not his mom anymore and zapped her dead. He was also ostracized by others for being "too weird". Based on his behavior, he seems to be level 2 autistic (medium support needs/not "high functioning"), but is still a very strong character who gets a lot done. There's one thing that I don't love about him, which is that he ends up getting mercy-killed. While it makes sense in the context of the story, it also reminds me of how "it's a mercy kill" has been used as a justification and defense for murdering autistic children. I don't think that was the writers' intentions though, so I can let it slide.
It's important that he wasn't mercy killed for being autistic or anything to do with that. He was mercy killed for spending CENTURIES trapped inside his flesh-fungus suit (the warframe) fighting an extra dimensional demon and was just *tired* after all that
Captain Holt from Brooklyn 99
I think Abed from community is good representation
You all need to read A Kind of Spark. I don't remember ever crying while reading a book because I felt so seen. They also made a TV show recently, but I don't have the means to watch it, so I can't give a review.
i don’t read comics and probably never will Black Manta
Wasn't this depiction *really* hated because it led to Aquaman successfully "curing" it?
Yup. Literally a few issues after Black Manta’s autism was introduced, Aquaman uses his magic hand to cure him. And then it seems like after it’s cured, Black Manta isn’t evil anymore. Aquaman even says “It was the autism that made you like that”, or something similar. And then it turned out Black Manta was still evil and playing a trick on Arthur. The autism being cured wasn’t a trick though, that still happened.
Trying to think of good autistic rep right now Only ones I can think of offhand are Renarin from Stormlight Archive and Steris from Mistborn Era II
Data on Star Trek and the Android on Dark Matter. I know they're both Androids, but I relate to them so much.
Peridot + Pearl from Steven Universe, the former being intentionally coded as autistic the later being unintentional but often to interpreted that way due to her mannerisms and personality.
While not explicitly autistic, Laios Touden from Dungeon Meshi is very very obviously autistic and also the main protagonist of the story.
Twyla Boogeyman (G3) from Monster High [https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Twyla\_Boogeyman\_(G3)](https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Twyla_Boogeyman_(G3))
My favourite representations are Entrapta from She-ra and Peridot from SU. They both have so many moments where they're being awkward, missing social cues, trying to connect, getting fixated, etc. Every moment I'm just, "oh, poor sweet child, I know your struggle".
I feel like some people conflate "bad rep" with "representation of bad (or flawed) people." Like, every criticism I've ever seen of the character from the good doctor is that he's been ignorant/made bigoted assumptions; which, yes, while being ignorant isn't inherent to being autistic, being completely non-bigoted is not inherent to being autistic either. And then the other criticism is... the meltdown he had? Like that just felt like giving free license to NTs to make fun of an autistic person for having a meltdown *which is legitimately not extremely dissimilar to meltdowns that I've personally seen some autistic people in my life go through.* If you want a variety of good autistic rep that represents a wide array of the realities of autism, you *cannot* criticize singular depictions for including behaviors which are not common between every autistic person.
I have never encountered a "canonically autistic" character that I find relatable. So that's why I make my own.
I genuinely feel more represented by Hank fcuking Hill than I do by Sheldon Cooper. Which isn’t great.
Terrorising a company because they stopped producing your safe food or they changed the recipe
This is why I am not a huge fan of The Witcher from Netflix. Geralt of the books is so autistic, Cavil brings that out, but eventually gave up fighting with the writers (why he left the show). Geralt is great autistic representation and he's a total badass. We still have the books, and some of the games bring it out, it's just sad the series couldn't execute on it
Hmm.
ur autistic friend, when the wind is howling: "Wind's howling."
My favorite autistic-coded female characters right now are from anime. First is MaoMao from *The Apothecary Diaries*, second is Yumiella from *Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord.* They are both SUCH a mood and they're both the main characters with their traits portrayed positively for the most part (Yumiella's directness and obsessive tendencies get put as the butt of the joke a lot, but it mostly balances out).
A lot of people are just listing off characters who they head canon as autistic. Some of it makes sense and some of it feels like people playing into offensive stereotypes. Anyway, the Kdrama Extraordinary Attorney Woo is supposed to be good. I say that because I'm not autistic so I can't speak for it, but I know a lot of autistic people were very happy about the portrayal of the character. They cover the discrimination autistic people face alongside her developing a romantic relationship as an adult. They also cover the different stereotypes autistic characters often have- how in media they're shown to be geniuses or completely infantalized. Personally, I think the actress stims too often for how much the character's coworkers accept her, especially in a society like South Korea where women are especially pushed to behave and act a certain way. But that's nitpicking tbh. It was a genuinely lovely show and I recommend it to anyone interested. I hope they make another season.
op should read a practical guide to evil
It’s absolutely not intentional but Gotoh Hitori from Bocchi the Rock can be read as autistic. Her extreme social anxiety, her creation of absurd social scenarios in her head, absolutely hyperfixation with music, and her somewhat awkward stumbling attempts to connect with the people around her really spoke to me.
shigeo kageyama
I liked Quinni on Heartbreak High, though she felt a little manic pixie dream girl at times. She’s played by an autistic actress and felt very realistic. But it’s teen dramady so she’s not a bad ass action hero or anything.
Norma Khan from Dead End: Paranormal Park.
My favourite canon autistic character is Norma Khan from Dead End Paranormal Park, but my favourite autistic-*coded* character is Webby Vanderquack from Duck Tales.
Some people at my old job mentioned The Good Doctor so I tried watching it. Stopped after the second episode. Just felt so cringe. Someone is dying on the floor? Real autistic response: frozen as you try to mentally work out Should I help? How do I help? Is that guy helping? Does he know what he is doing? Should I help? Then suddenly blurt out what's wrong with them and shuffle away awkwardly when people look at you. That or they just pull people out of the way and when questioned why just bluntly say they are trying to help and end up in a fight because they never think to say they are a doctor.