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I’ve been seeing a lot of thoughts and hc of autistic wylan lately and you seem to also be a fan of the concept. May I ask why? Exactly? I could definitely kinda see it but wanna hear you thoughts you’re always so eloquent

Hey there anon! Sorry for the delay—I’m guessing you already found an answer to this elsewhere while I was off Tumblr for a bit, but just in case, here are my thoughts. This will be heavily personal, but… well, you can’t very well ask an autistic person about autism and expect neutrality!

Autism is different for everyone and can be difficult to pin down, so while Wylan is arguably autistic, he misses several beats that for me would have made him definitively and undeniably autistic. For example, when the bells start to ring, triggering black protocol—I work in a place with a lot of bells and am frequently caught too close to one and normally press my hands over my ears until it’s over because that sound is like shrapnel raking across my insides. All of them. Not just the ear and brain parts. Wylan doesn’t have that sort of visceral reaction, but that may just mean he doesn’t have the same sensitivities that I do, or to the same level. He also never, that I recall, eats meat—as weird as that might sound, eating meat is incredibly complicated with heightened sensitivities to taste and texture. I’m not sure how old I was when I realized it was strange to get up from the table to spit out my food because it viscerally repulsed me. So it might be that Wylan is autistic and has different experiences than I do. Those are things I would include in a story as major indicators of a character being autistic. This might also mean that his father’s way of raising him taught him to hide unusual reactions and stimming behaviors. It’s not that much of a reach to assume a man who tried to abuse the dyslexia out of his son would take the same approach to autism. (More on autism and abuse later.)

So while I’m going to lay out why I read Wylan as autistic, that’s why I think it’s valid to read him as not being autistic as well. Both are valid.

A final caveat, I am well overdue for a reread of the books, so I likely left something out or could have found better examples. Take this as a few of my reasons for a personal headcanon. Anyone who feels differently, that's fine! We can each read things our own way :)

1 - Hyperfixation: The way Wylan loves music

Most of the Crows’ backgrounds color how they see the world: Kaz’s shrewdness, Matthias’s tactical thinking and superstition, Inej’s faith and Suli wisdom, etc. That’s a sign of good character writing. But very little of Wylan’s upbringing seems to have influenced how he sees the world. It comes closest when he thinks about how his father would scorn his new friends, but we never see that scorn from Wylan.

The way a hyperfixation feels, it’s like you’ve always lived in a close parallel world, never fully been a part of the other one where it seems like everyone else lives, but suddenly there’s this bright shining piece of your soul laced through the other world. It lets you connect, it lets you exist in their realm, and you can’t help but filter everything new through that lens because it’s the brightest, most wonderful thing. (I had been between hyperfixations for a while when I started a new job; six months into that work, I read Crooked Kingdom. One of my coworkers thought I had fallen in love, it was that marked a difference.)

So, combining these: Wylan never really acts like he was part of his father’s world, and indeed is in some ways separate from the other Crows, but he parses everything through music, his hyperfixation. He sets words to music to remember them, like he does with the contract. Even his own anxiety is made sense of through music, when in his first narrated chapter, he sets it to music: what am I doing here what am I doing here…. When he’s overwhelmed, his thoughts are “a jangle of misplayed chords”. The Crows have backgrounds that influence how they react to the world, but Wylan’s hyperfixation is his means of experiencing and understanding the world.

2 - Literal thinking: Wylan responds to exact words

In this post, I went into detail on the line where Wylan suggested waking up men to kill them. Wylan is generally unsupportive of killing people—Oomen, Smeet’s clerk, his father… he advocates not-murder in each of these situations. Accepting his aversion to murder, his suggestion to wake men up and kill them seems like a genuine reaction to Jesper saying he doesn’t want to kill unconscious men. Wylan takes things literally.

This happens the most with Jesper, probably because Jesper talks to Wylan the most. Nina and Matthias don’t really register him past how he might be useful, Inej is usually quite direct, and Kaz is very deliberate when he speaks with Wylan. This really interests me because Kaz tends to vary his speech more than the others do, he adapts more to being around other people. He jokes a little with Jesper, spars with Nina, speaks more openly and more sharply with Inej, and he’s precise with Wylan. Kaz may not know what autism is, but he recognizes what’s effective with Wylan.

Another example is when Wylan is sketching the Ice Court plans and Jesper says it looks like a cake. There are plenty of valid responses here: pointing out that concentric circles look like lots of things, that it’s just a sketch, telling Jesper to stop looking over his shoulder. Instead, Wylan says that the Ice Court is sort of like a cake. That… doesn’t sound like something Wylan would normally say. He’s not addressing the whole situation, he’s addressing the specific words Jesper said.

One of the most heartbreaking examples of this (to me, anyway) is with Marya. Wylan does the same thing with his mother, when she asks if he’s there for her money and says she hasn’t got any, and his response is, “I don’t either.” We understand as readers that what Marya is communicating here is that she is so accustomed to being utterly ignored unless she is being used, and if she told Wylan that no one visited but to take advantage and she assumed he was here for the same reason, he would say it wasn’t the case. But he just responds to the immediate statement.

There are a lot of examples of this.

3 — 0% perception, 100% creativity

Wylan can identify things that don’t make sense or that he doesn’t understand, but at the beginning of the series he can’t make leaps, only ask questions. On the Ferolind, he wonders about the source of water at the Ice Court; though Kaz doesn’t say as much, he was clearly wondering, too, because he eventually figured out the underground river. There’s an interesting parallel here where, in the beginning of Crooked Kingdom, Wylan asks a question about how they’ll break into Smeet’s and Kaz tells him to use his eyes instead of running his mouth—at which point Wylan is able to figure it out. I don’t think this is because he never tried before, though, but because no one ever bothered to teach him. Kaz can be harsh but he gives harsh corrections rather than harsh rejections and Wylan learns from him.

It’s hard to understand the world for people with autism. The world is designed and run by and for people whose minds are fundamentally different from ours, whose thoughts and experiences are unlike ours. Imagine trying to learn English or Spanish or Mandarin or any other spoken language if your first language was olfactory. That’s sort of what it’s like for someone with autism to just get dropped into the world and expected to figure this out.

This can be attributed to Wylan’s upbringing, but I disagree with that because none of the others were brought up in the Barrel, either, and Wylan doesn’t understand trade or politics with any special skill. Kaz wasn’t born in the Barrel, but he managed to go from “stealing is wrong” to “wrong isn’t my concern” real quick; Colm Fahey didn’t raise his son on gambling and firefights; the Ghafas never expected their daughter to be away from the family. Only Nina has relevant training—and even that’s precious little, she left school way too early. The others figured it out; Wylan needed a bit more help. He also seems surprised by the way his father conducts business. Wylan takes things on face value—like the time he’s surprised someone would do something, simply because it’s unlawful. This is something he expresses to a group of gangsters. He’s never been taught the way of any world and these things are not intuitive to him.

But Wylan isn’t stupid.

He doesn’t know how to understand the world, but he does understand how things go together. Given a pointy diamond, a handle, and a screw, he cut through Grisha glass. He carries flashbangs and magic napalm, he recreates military hardware—Wylan understands how to make things interact for a specific result. But to me the most telling thing isn’t just that he puts together chemical pieces, it’s that he figured out Jesper controlled bullets. He saw the pieces and put them together.

Wylan can understand when things don’t make sense, but he can’t make sense of them—yet when he understands things at their basic level, he understands them without preconception, for what they are. This is a very autistic way of thinking about things, it goes back to the literalism. He can’t make the leaps of logic other people can, but he also doesn’t make the assumptions they do—“I’ve never heard of a bullet Grisha, so that’s not a thing” vs “Well Jesper’s an almost impossibly good shot and he controls metal and bullets are metal, so why not?”

4 - Broken brain/body connection

Wylan’s great at chemistry and drawing and playing flute or piano—but he’s something of a disaster other times. This is in particular contrast to the other characters, all of whom are physically adept. Meanwhile it’s a challenge for Wylan to climb a rope ladder and he spends a full paragraph trying to figure out what to do with his hands. It’s easy to say, well, he’s used to a sedentary lifestyle, but at this point he’s not. He’s worked in the tannery for months. He’s just physically awkward.

I have less to say on this point only because it’s about something I don’t fully understand myself. I don’t really understand what it would be like to have a body that just… does things? Like normal stuff? Without tics and stims. No idea. Only that Wylan’s discomfort in and seeming lack of mastery of his own body feels very relatable to me.

5 - Abuse

One of the most familiar things about Wylan is how he has been so thoroughly abused and broken down that he’s afraid to do or say much of anything. Again, this is a place his background can be an obscuring factor. Of course Wylan didn’t think to blow up the walls when the first met the parem-juiced jurda and got trapped, he’s a spoiled rich kid! Except, he also startled when Jesper said his name later. Wylan didn’t hesitate because he was spoiled, he hesitated because he had no confidence.

He also thinks Kaz would laugh at him for playing music at his mother’s grave. Now, personally, I can’t see Kaz laughing at Wylan—being indifferent, thinking it’s pointless sentimentality, shaking his head, maybe commenting sharply that they need to go if they don’t have the time. But not laughing. Kaz is a snarky, sharp-edged jerk sometimes, but he doesn’t go out of his way to criticize, he just lets people know when they inconvenience him.

Wylan has been trained to identify attention as negative by an overbearing abusive father who literally saw him as less favorable than a demon. Now, that may have been hyperbole, but Jan criticized everything he could about Wylan—art, music, emotion—and made clear that he was worthless and competent to nothing. (Jan Van Eck can suck a rotten donkey dick but that’s neither here nor there.)

A lot of people with autism experience levels of bullying that have similar impacts. Or as the kids these days are calling it: we go to school. We go to school where we are weird. Where we look weird and move weird and talk about weird things and there’s a whole little bevy of asswipes to makes sure we know it. I got teased more for playing Pokemon and sitting alone reading than the kid who pissed himself onstage at assembly. (This was before Pokemon was cool. I’m old.) And that is not unusual for autistic kids. It’s also not unusual for this to be compounded by relatives or even parents who may be trying to help but don’t understand and can make things even harder.

So we can’t read social cues and we’re taught at a vicious age that everything that comes naturally to us is wrong. Imagine trying to interact in society with that background. There is no guide and most advice from neurotypical people isn’t actually what they mean. It breaks you down.

Wylan’s anxiety isn’t definitive of autism, but isn’t something that was incredibly familiar as someone whose neurodivergent experiences created a strong level of anxiety.

6 — High Compassion, Low Social Competence

Wylan isn’t very good at making friends. In fact, none of the Crows likes him much in the beginning, and only some of them soften toward him by the end. (Matthias and Nina come to respect his skills as a chemist but neither seems to particularly like him.) But you can see throughout the books that Wylan wants to connect with them and be one of them, he just… isn’t. He’s off-beat. He’s weird. He asks questions and mimics behaviors (trying to be cool and tough like Jesper, saying “mission” like Matthias does, imitating Kaz’s scheming face) but he doesn’t quite get how to adapt.

But he still cares about people. Not just them. Everyone. He cares about the people they leave in the ditch outside the prison wagon, he cares about Hanna Smeet, he cares about Alys. He cares about the people who’ll take a hit from Kaz’s sugar caper.

Wylan’s awkward social skills have undeniable big autism energy. I posit his compassion does as well. This is simply who Wylan is, and that means being someone who cares about everyone. I have nothing to back up that this is related to autism. I can say that it’s like me. (Not to brag.) I can’t turn off the part of my brain that says everyone matters. Individuals can opt out of that compassion, but they have it by default. There’s a certain agony in feeling a pull toward and love for just about everyone and yet an inability to develop meaningful connections with them, and that keen loneliness… it just burns.

Again, it’s not definitive of autism, but it’s very similar to an autistic experience.

I said in the beginning that I didn’t think Wylan certainly had autism and I stand by that, but he is a powerfully honest reflection of many people who do. So he can be understood to have autism, and that’s part of the reason some people have that headcanon.

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i KNOW tamaki suoh has internalised homophobia. like this isn’t a theory this is a fact.

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i think that the reason L death note resonates with neurodivergent fans is because he’s a rare example of an obviously neurodivergent character who is respected by both the narrative and other characters and whose neurodivergent traits are not the butt of the joke or comic relief.

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everyone say thank you to jack wolfe for not only making wylan incredibly neurodivergent but also a badass

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everyone say thank you to jack wolfe for not only making wylan incredibly neurodivergent but also a badass

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THE HOTTEST COUPLE IN KETTERDAM♥

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Sometimes you don’t NEED skin on skin

Just to really bring the point home for those who have not read the Six of Crows duology and think that Inej deserves to “have some fun before she finds her way back to her true love”, or who perhaps think that a love triangle/jealousy drama would somehow spur Kaz into action (do you even know Kaz Brekker?):

For someone connected to the production to caption a photo of the actors with the (crack) ship name of their characters (“Tonej”) and talk about “skin on skin” might seem innocent (”it’s just an Insta post”), but let’s look at the context for those who are upset by this – some of whom have suffered similar traumas and find comfort/inspiration in Inej’s character.

Here is a sample of Inej’s previous experience of skin on skin:

There were young men, old men, handsome men, ugly men. There was the man who cried and struck her when he could not perform. The man who wanted her to pretend it was their wedding night and tell him that she loved him. The man with sharp teeth like a kitten who had bitten at her breasts until she’d bled. Crooked Kingdom p. 274 Kindle version

And these are the men she remembers; mostly she forced herself to go numb, while making all the right noises and moves so Tante Heleen would not abuse her further.

Because she loves Kaz, she tells him she is willing to work on that trauma IF HE WORKS ON HIS. This does not mean that she is itching for skin on skin action there and then, it means she wants to be ready for it if they are to have a future together. 

What if he had come to her, laid his gloves aside, drawn her to him, kissed her mouth? Would she have pulled him closer? Kissed him back? Could she have been herself in such a moment or would she have broken apart and vanished, a doll in his arms, a girl who could never quite be whole? Crooked Kingdom, p. 275 Kindle version

This is her mindset as she boards that ship in S2E8. She does not need a man who is basically a stranger to be her ticket out of trauma – not even a lovely one like Tolya (who in turn does not need or want romance in his life to be fulfilled). She needs healing, a purpose and – as a character – not to be reduced to half a ship in a fling which would be nothing but a waste of precious screentime. 

EDIT: Inserting screenshot of the caption/tagging of the photo depicting Amita Suman and Lewis Tan, just to highlight the clear reference to the characters  and not the actors, whatever was claimed afterwards.

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Okay but imagine Dipcifica dressed up as Hiccstrid for Halloween.

Someone draw this PLEASE.

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I don't mind the various fandom Zuko ships in fanon (I like all the fan art) - but it always irks me a bit when the shippers try to insist they have a canon basis. For me, this goes equally for Zuko/Katara, Zuko/Aang, Zuko/Sokka, and probably more ships as well.

One reason is it doesn't fit narratively with Zuko's character arc. I'm not saying you can't write a romance where redemption is part of it, but it didn't fit with this specific character.

It's written so that Zuko doesn't gain romance from choosing redemption, but instead gives it up. That's why his canon love interest is Mai, a Fire Nation girl. That's why him taking the lightning for Katara is decidedly not romantic.

Zuko is fighting against the Fire Nation and risking his life, not for personal reasons or to achieve something, but for the selflessness he would now give freely (in opposition to the very selfish actions he took previously), out of loyalty to his new companions and his redemption of the Fire Nation. Those are his motivations - romance doesn't "oppose" it, but it muddles it.

Narratively, Zuko taking the lightning for Katara symbolizes his final act of making up for his mistakes in Ba Sing Se and the damage it led to. It shows his full dedication to his path. It's very touching, but a romantic reading diminishes the intent, in my opinion.

Long-term, I don't like the implication of Fire Lord Zuko being paired with a water-tribe person, especially Sokka or Katara. Their cultures were severely colonized by the Fire Nation, and they shouldn't be doing the job of redeeming it. I'm not shaming the shippers about the colonized/colonized aspect - this is mostly about the narrative meaning. I don't like those characters as Zuko's Fire Lady (or co-Fire Lord?). I think Zuko, again, is best paired with a Fire Nation person, as his co-ruler. Another aspect is Zuko needs to follow his own moral path, to an extent, and shouldn't have a "war victim" steering his moral path for him, so to speak.

Zuko redeeming the Fire Nation is what Zuko's entire story has been leading up to. His Fire Lady (or side-Lord) would support him, not lead him. That's why Mai - who has a dedication to support Zuko, who has a moral compass and no real affinity for the colonist Fire Nation, but hasn't out-done Zuko's redemption, is a great choice as his Fire Lady.

Zuko/Aang also couldn't work in canon. Their respective duties would make such a personal relationship impossible. I'm not saying there couldn't ever be an Avatar/Person of great world leadership-relationship. However, in the context of the war, it doesn't seem appropriate (narratively). Roku/Sozin is often used as a basis to argue for Zuko/Aang, but I think it actually works the opposite way - because Aang and Zuko are meant to be foils to that legacy.

Letting personal feelings get in the way of responsibility is what led to the war. Zuko/Aang in a romantic relationship would narratively be a terrible follow-up to the backstory they told. It's why Zuko/Aang will always have a close relationship - based on their intertwined destinies, but underneath there will also be a complicated tension of opposing responsibilities, their legacy from the past.

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When I knew Will was gay in 2016, during the first party scene, it wasn't because of some stereotype. It wasn't anything he said or the way he looked or his mannerisms or whatever.

There are just certain behaviors that a queer person can recognise for what it is. That simple act of telling Mike it was a seven behind the party's back told me all I needed to know.

Because as a queer person, I've done that.

I've looked for that extra attention, that special connection, that idea of 'us two against everything else', even our other friends. Especially at that age, when you didn't even know yet what it meant.

And sure, it could be nothing, there could technically be another explanation. But ultimately it's a clear as day sign of young love as Lucas and Dustin stalking Max. Specifically, young queer love, which looks slightly different from heterosexual crushes.

So yeah, when straight people are able to 'tell' whether a person is queer it's usually based on stereotypes, because they could never get it, but that doesn't mean it's the same for queer people. That's ultimately what 'gaydar' has always been - recognising behaviors that make you go "oh they're like me" not the typical "oh they're wearing this" or "floppy hands" or whatever. Not "oh they cuff their jeans!" or "finger guns!".

That's why 'Byler is the gay ship for gay people' - queer people recognise their behavior for what it is. That's why the GA can't connect with Mike.

They can't fathom the fact that Mike wouldn't call Will at all if he had a crush on him. But as a queer person, you recognize how figuring out your feelings often means distancing yourself from them. Both because you're fighting your queerness and because it just hurts to be around them, even - especially - if they are your best friend.

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This is makes me emotional

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Day 214

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Day 213!

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Day 212

Ok so the renewal announcement didn’t come in September like we thought, sadly. So back to fighting troops! Dm me if you want to join me in harassing Netflix to renew. I know we are all sad the announcement didn’t come. It feels depressing and crushing and saddening. I feel it too. However, there is nothing wrong or sad or bad about continuing this fight and we will try our best to continue with it. However, side note, I will say that there were 10 different articles talking about renewal of Anne. Even now when you look up “Anne with an E” and go to news there are at least two-three articles that pop up on the very first page talking about renewal. Let’s just say it’s…….suspicious, because why would these announcement or rumors come out all of sudden? Two years after cancellation??? It can’t be just due to social media buzz, because we only started buzzing AFTER the potential renewal announcement that started coming in DROVES. Anyway…let’s just say it’s suspicious 🤔 Until then, have a great day and keep fighting Anne nation! We got this!

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GUYS IT’S HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/marketresearchtelecast.com/anne-with-an-e-would-return-in-september-what-arrangement-is-there-between-cbc-and-netflix/139325/amp/

GUYS WE ALMOST MADE IT PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A PARTY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

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SCROLL TO MY THREE POSTS UNDERNEATH THIS!!!! EVERYTHING IN THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE IS CONFIRMED BY THE ARTICLES WE HAVE BEEN GATHERING FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS!!!! GUYS !!!!!!

SPREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDD

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gizmostory.com/anne-with-an-e-season-4-release-date-might-be-announced-by-september-2021/amp/

GO GO GO GO ANNE FANS GO!!!

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https://www.google.com/amp/s/marketresearchtelecast.com/anne-with-an-e-why-netflix-is-%25E2%2580%258B%25E2%2580%258Bnow-more-likely-to-renew-the-series/93259/amp/

GOOOOOOO EVERY ANNE STAN GOOOOOO