#and autistic Zane Ninjago . you were there for me before I knew I needed it

[soullessjack]

Ok I have question! It's a pretty common take in SPN fandom that Cas and Jack (& sometimes Sam) are autistic or autism-coded. Is that problematic because they are literally nonhuman characters? And I guess side questions - will nonhuman characters always come across as autism coded because of their innate otherness? How could the line be drawn between the two via characterization so that inhumanity and autism aren't mistakenly conflated?

Please feel free to ignore if this ask in no way brings you joy 🫶

hi!! this actually brings me So Much joy thank u for asking :D

it might depend on the person you ask, but for myself and a majority of the autistic community it’s not problematic at all! autistic people very commonly relate to nonhuman characters (aliens, robots, angels in trench coats, etc) in the same way queer people have historically related to horror monsters like Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (interestingly enough, many horror villains were actually intentionally queer coded due to the Hayes Code not allowing positive/supportive representation of most minorities)

I don’t think the defining characteristic of an autistic coded character is that they’re nonhuman, but that they’re often written with traits autistic people display — lack of social awareness, blunt communication, etc — or even with the same experiences as autistic people. for example, i related a lot to Zane from Ninjago and his struggle with a sense of humor (i do understand some jokes, but sometimes they just aren’t funny to me). after the reveal that he was actually a robot, it turned out that his lacked sense of humor was because of a literal “funny switch” built into him that had been turned off the whole time. of course I didn’t know I was autistic then, but it still l felt like my own brain was being shown to me onscreen.

there’s definitely a conversation to be had about the ableism that goes into some of these characters; after all, if they aren’t being made by autistic people or with autistic representation truly in mind, then they’re just associating autistic traits with robots and aliens and other things not of this world. it follows the same logic of Punching Up vs Punching Down. autistic people and disabled people overall struggle with the idea of being burdens to others, but it’s one thing for a person in that community to create art that expresses their feelings and experiences in possibly being a burden, vs a neurotypical abled person creating art that depicts disabled people as completely burdens.

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this is a slight detour from the main road but:

from 2020-21 my mental health was at the lowest it had ever been for a Lot of reasons, but namely that I was struggling with school and just figuring out that I potentially had adhd and autism. I used to draw my persona with a lobotomy scar back then, including this as my one and only vent piece:

of course I knew the horror and medical abuse behind lobotomies (it’s been a very in-and-out interest for most of my life), and of course I knew that they were never a solution, and I never once intended to portray them as anything otherwise, but back then I wanted so badly to just be Fixed and Normal instead of being The Way I Was and struggling because of it that the concept of a lobotomy and the symbolism behind it became my way of coping for a short while.

(I doubt it matters but I have somewhat improved since then and my lobotomy scar is now just a zombie face stitch :P)

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anyways, I don’t think nonhuman characters will always be considered autistic, nor should they be seen that way inherently, because not all of them are written with our traits or experiences in mind. Like: Omni-Man is an alien, but he isn’t autistic [coded]. He doesn’t show any specific traits for mannerisms; his storylines don’t have any similarities to autistic experiences. Nothing about his character could be interpreted as autistic. but if they’re written with the express traits and experiences of an autistic person, like Cas and Jack and Zane, then they’re free game to be considered representation.

There’s also some nuance to the idea that nonhuman autistic characters could make a conflation between actual autistic people and inhuman creatures, but look at queer people and horror monsters again. there’s elements of tragedy and forbidden love, of grappling with a Hidden Side Of Yourself and being a misunderstood monster in classic horror which resonated and continues to resonate highly with queer people. should we dissuade all that since bigots already conflate us with predatory monsters? or can we joke about how they see us, satirize it to hell like Rocky Horror? Is it truly ours to reclaim if we can’t make a few jabs ourselves?

representation doesn’t always have to be perfect or sanitized to be representative of us — especially if it’s being reclaimed by us. in fact, it often serves a better purpose to truly show what our lives and experiences are like, rather than something sanded down to the basic shape of us. it’s really simple; we as Weird, Othered people very often find odd comfort in the Weird and the Other. again, it’s not the general consensus, but I know that I feel the same way about autistic representation

That’s the only line I can see that makes sense to be drawn.

this ended up being longer than I thought it would but I had fun answering it! I hope it’s helpful :3 🫶

[jinxed-ninjago]

Possibly bad take incoming?

Also to preface this I am legally disabled (autism and epilepsy) so I'm speaking on this as someone with disabilities who has experienced ableism and has trauma from said experienced ableism.

Alright, so someone asked Tommy Andreasen why Cyrus Borg was written to be disabled back in 2015. You can find that tweet here.

If you don't wanna read the tweet, essentially Tommy mentions that Cyrus was written to be disabled so the Overlord could take over his body. Of course, people were immediately like "this ain't it Tommy" and I would agree if Cyrus didn't also have a ton of screen time outside of Rebooted.

In my opinion, there's a lot of nuance with this kind of thing and especially with Cyrus specifically. If Cyrus only showed up in season 3, yeah, I might see it as really gross and not okay. But Cyrus shows up in other seasons where he's treated like a normal person. Someone mentioned that Cyrus being disabled to enable the Overlord to take over his body normalizes ableism and I just … no??

If anything it normalizes the fact that ableism is bad, because the series' overarching villain is the one committing it. Yeah, the reasoning behind Cyrus being disabled does make me uncomfortable, but there are nuances that people just. Don't acknowledge??

This also completely ignores the autistic ableism towards Zane at the start of the series. Yeah, Zane was never intended to be autistic, but some of the teasing the other ninja direct at him is absolutely ableist in nature. I'm speaking on this as someone who experienced the same kind of teasing/bullying in school before I knew I was autistic.

This is just my long winded way of saying I really don't think making Cyrus disabled for the sake of the plot was ableism, but it absolutely would've been if he'd been a one-off character for season 3. As it stands he's shown up in quite a few seasons since Rebooted, and there was only ableism shown towards him in Rebooted.

Again, maybe this is a bad take. But I don't think it's fair to accuse the writers and Tommy Andreasen of ableism when Ninjago's villains are quite frankly usually bigoted in some way, shape, or form (Cryptor and the Mechanic are sexist as fuck, Kalmaar's entire motive is racism, you could make a racism argument for Vangelis, the Overlord is all kinds of bigoted, Iron Baron is racist towards dragons, and any villain who isn't bigoted is driven purely by power). Ninjago villains and their ideas are ALWAYS portrayed as negative. If you're gonna say the Overlord taking over Cyrus's body normalizes ableism, then Kalmaar's motives normalize racism, which we all know isn't true.

If you seriously think villains doing horrible shit normalizes that horrible shit, maybe you need a reality check.

ALSO I am open to constructive discussion. Feel free to shoot me an ask/reblog/reply with your views on this subject.