#autism coding in my robot???

[finalshaper]

“Why is cayde only ever depicted him with ramen let him try other foods” IT’S HIS SAFE FOOD! LEAVE HIM ALONE!!

[sunsetsandsunshine]

Guess who has a new hyperfixation?

Again.

[anghraine]

There's something percolating in my head about how sometimes the scenarios and characters we relate to the most are the ones that don't explicitly identify what they're doing in the terms of how we relate to them. Sometimes there are even specific indications that it's not that thing and yet we can still find it there and find it powerful. Sometimes that can feel more affecting and intense than the better representation out there (and not necessarily just better in a purity culture sense).

And I do think it's important not to give credit where it's not actually due, and not to insist on this kind of stuff as a replacement for actual representation. But I also think it's important to ... idk, allow space for the fuzzier depictions that speak really powerfully to some of us.

(I know this is vague! As I said, it's percolating.)

[ghost-of-a-wizard]

ooh self-expression

[moonfall666]

you may think im bad and uncreative when it comes to drawing poses, especially standing poses, but no this awkward pose is actually essential to convey the autism in his character design

[tobyisave]

Trust & Insecurity in Kiibo & Miu's relationship

(In response to @strawberrysweater ! Thanks for opening this can of worms and sorry for this huge post lmaooo)

To preface this: I do love them together!! I just enjoy looking for the places they might clash at times if they were actually in a relationship... So this is about the things that keep them from fully understanding/trusting each other. And ofc this is just my interpretation!!

My short answer:

(1) Miu only thinks she is valuable as an inventor and sexual object, (2) Most people only care about Kiibo as a scientific novelty, and (3) they both have JUST enough evidence to convince themselves that this is also how they view each other. Even if deep down they're only playing these roles in an attempt to get closer to another human being.

On top of that, even though they're especially vulnerable with each other, I think there's still a lot of misunderstanding between them that would be difficult for them to reconcile. First because they have some genuine points of conflict, and second because they each have problems communicating and reading people (i.e. reality distorting levels of abandonment issues & obligatory robot autism coding, respectively)

Elaboration under the cut:

PART A - Insecurities

You can see (1) and (2) a bit in their other relationships:

Miu is of course hypersexual at all times, and she gives inventions to Shuichi (FTE) and her fantasy lover (love suite) because, as she confesses herself, inventing stuff is the only way she knows how to show affection for other people besides offering them her body.

Her inventions and hypersexuality are also the only explicit points of connection between her and Kokichi, arguably the only other character she is remotely close to besides Kiibo and Shuichi.

So given that most of her onscreen relationship with Kiibo is sexual or scientific (or both) in nature, it’s easy for her to go on believing these are the only things she has to offer. It’s a bit self-fulfilling of course because she’s arguable the one controlling the direction of their relationship in the first place, and at this point I’m not sure she believes there’s anything else to her.

[Shout out to @cloudysonder for helping develop this take :P]

I get the impression Kiibo has met a lot of people over his life who only want to talk about how cool it is that he’s a robot, even though that’s not a part of his identity he initially likes to bring up.

In his FTE with Shuichi, he goes straight into 'demonstrating my functions' mode as if it's the only way he knows how to talk to people

We see him treated in this fetishized way in-game too: with Kokichi chasing him to be “friends with a robot”; with Kaede’s FTE asking him invasive questions and touching his buttons without asking; and in postgame with Kazuichi basically assaulting him and trying to take him apart out of scientific curiosity --- all of these within just his first or second interactions with these people!

So it's a BIG thing for him to willingly let Miu sit there and take him apart, when he already spends so much time fending off virtual strangers who don't respect his bodily autonomy. And he's not used to people taking a genuine interest in him as a person so he’s hesitant to let himself believe Miu is any different, especially when her interest is so explicitly centered around his biology.

Plus as long as Kiibo is physically dependent on Miu, there's going to be a lot of room for insecurity to fester on BOTH sides:

"Does Kiibo really need me or does he just need my technical skills? Does he want to do these favors for me or does he feel like he has to?"

"Does Miu really care who I am or does she just want to gawk at my body like everyone else does? Does she care who I am or am I just the first boy(?) to give her the time of day? Does she want to help me or does she just know she’s the only one who can?"

This is the biggest hurdle IMO because it's a necessarily unbalanced relationship, and it will have to continue for the foreseeable future, no matter how they feel about each other.

PART B - Respect/communication

Another thing is that I don't think they fully respect each other — kind of for the same reason the rest of the group doesn’t respect them either

Miu might not consider Kiibo a person. We know Kiibo was worried about this; when asking Shuichi to use the electrohammer on him he explains, "The outcome will settle once and for all how Miu perceived me." This, and the fact she says robots aren’t people in trial, make me pretty confident that she has never looked him in the eye and said "I consider you a person."

I think she has a complex relationship with Kiibo’s personhood. On one hand if he’s a thing then it’s much easier for her to control him (esp given what we see of their relationship) and this soothes her anxious heart by ensuring that he can’t abandon her.

At the same time, if this is the case, then his coerced/artificial love isn’t worth as much as it would be if it came from an autonomous human person — to her insecure mind, it becomes Miu alone in her room playing boyfriend girlfriend with a doll, if that makes sense. 

To clarify, I’m not saying she BELIEVES he’s just an object, but it’s an idea that both comforts and torments her.

It's worth noting, too, that Miu doesn't always respect people's consent. This is especially risky when you factor in their mechanic-robot relationship (which already comes with a difficult power dynamic) and Kiibo’s naive/somewhat people-pleasing personality.

On Kiibo’s end: I think it’s safe to say he finds her rude/inappropriate at first (though I think it's really sweet that he uses the much more euphemistic description 'brash and spirited' after getting to know her). They also have some pretty stark moral differences --- Kiibo is distraught to learn that Miu wasn't above murdering their classmates, for example.

More importantly, I headcanon he has a lot of difficulty understanding her at all  – on an emotional level, yes, and and on a literal level he just straight up doesn’t understand many of the sentences she says either

K: “Most of that was unintelligible nonsense, but…” after Miu explains her “secret woman weapon." IMO his decision to phrase this as an insult helps mask the fact he's not familiar with all the lewd references she just made

He also has problems understanding emotions from the start, and Miu is DIFFICULT to track because she cycles through emotions so rapidly.

+ he might find it hard to extrapolate that many of the things she does are part of a facade. The crass egotistical miu who says he’s not a person is equally as real to him as the deeply insecure miu wants to believe he is a person (if not more real…)

PART C

Also these bullets from my personal doc I don't have the willpower to expand on atm:

They are both so prone to misinterpreting people unkindly

They’re also both so misled about how committed a relationship is supposed to be. Like I think Kiibo would consider a confession from literally anyone to be tantamount to a proposal (based on his love suite scene). And Miu wouldn’t be quite so fast but i do think it’d still be a huge deal for her because she falls very hard very easily (based on her FTE). Which is all very cute but being plunged into a big commitment like that can be crazy stressful, esp for two teens who have never dated before (imo) and have no frame of reference. [I was actually just going to post about this part lol]

PART D

All that said... I love them together and I DO think they could make it work without too much heartbreak. A lot of the things I describe as problems here could easily be taken as strengths.

e.g. Their misunderstanding of how relationships work ironically makes them more compatible, since they're both ready to go whole hog (if Kiibo determines that he actually likes her that is). Miu's rapidly fluctuating emotions are confusing, but on some level I think he'd admire how deeply and obviously she is able to feel things. And of course Miu as an inventor has a deep (almost objectum like??) respect for machines that helps Kiibo accept that he can be a robot and a person at the same time, and is probably the only one in the class who understands just how impressive he really is.

Thanks thanks THANKS for reading if you seriously read all that!! Mwah!!!!

I would love to hear anyone's takes on my takes too :P I haven't been rotating them in my head for too long yet so I'm still developing my interpretations...

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

How to Write Disability: SPOP vs ATLA

(TW: ableism)

(before i start talking about this, i have to tell you that i am not physically disabled so my observations may not be a 100% correct. i'm only writing this post in relation to my experience with autism. if you feel like something i've said is inaccurate or insensitive, please feel free to let me know!)

so the two characters i wanted to talk about, in reference to writing disabled/neurodivergent characters, is Entrapta from SPOP and Toph from ATLA.

Entrapta is an autistic woman who grew up in solitude, only surrounded by robots. as a result, she is desperate for human etherian connection while at the same time, struggling with social interactions because of her autism.

she was pretty heavily autistic-coded, even before the writers confirmed that she was canonically autistic; she has a hyperfixation on tech and machinery, she is shown to stim a lot, she has a preference for tiny food (likely a sensory issue) and she is not good at reading social cues or communicating in a way that neurotypical people would understand. she is also an extremely intelligent and intuitive person who is not only good at handling tech but also shows love and affection towards people in her own way.

Toph is a character from ATLA, who was born blind. not completely unlike Entrapta, Toph was also raised in solitude, although she had her parents and servants to look after her.

her parents were convinced that Toph was incapable of being independent, because of her blindness, and were unwilling to look past her disability and treat her as a person. as a result, Toph is extremely rebellious and stubborn. she is an incredibly capable individual who learned how to navigate her way through earthbending. however, she still faces difficulties due to her disability and has to rely on her friends every once in a while.

the trope that these two shows share in relation to their disabled characters is the humor. there are jokes made about Entrapta's and Toph's disability in both shows. however, the key element that differentiates these jokes is the target.

Toph was never the butt of a joke in ATLA. in fact, she was the one making jokes about her disability 90% of the time. Toph was comfortable enough with her blindness that she didn't mind joking about it or even pranking the others sometimes.

in fact, one of the running gags in the series is that the other characters forget that Toph is blind because of how insanely capable she is.

Toph is never the butt of the joke, she's the one making fun of the others for forgetting about her disability. and it's all done in good faith.

and whenever someone is being ableist towards Toph, it's taken seriously. it's not played off as a joke and the narrative doesn't act like people mistreating Toph is this funny gag that everyone should laugh at.

now let's come to Entrapta. there are “jokes” in the show made about her disability as well, except these jokes are often made at her expense.

one of the most problematic parts of the show concerning Entrapta is the way Perfuma leashes her TWICE, because she was worried that Entrapta would get distracted and leave the group. so instead of holding Entrapta's hand or something like a normal person would, Perfuma decides that the best way to tackle this situation is to treat Entrapta like an animal and put her on a leash.

this is shown as a joke and is never addressed seriously. the show writers think that Entrapta being dehumanized and infantilized is supposed to be funny and quirky. Entrapta never gets to confront Perfuma about this or gets any kind of closure.

this was the main example of ableism in the show but there are also other minor scenes where we see characters treat her in a way that other characters aren't treated.

examples being Catra using Entrapta's trauma and loneliness to manipulate her, and Mermista literally yanking on Entrapta's hair and yelling at her, because she couldn't understand social cues.

there are also multiple examples of what i'd like to call the “translate nerd language” trope, where one of the other characters get irritated at Entrapta for using technical terms while speaking, and she has to dumb it down for them.

there's a way to write disabled characters and while Entrapta was a very relatable and sympathetic character, the ableism towards her is never addressed. the princesses are never called out on their actions, while Catra gets off scot-free after a vague apology.

when ableism was portrayed in ATLA, it was always taken seriously. Toph was allowed to leave her toxic parents and find people who accepted her for who she is, she was allowed to prove people wrong and be a powerful character in her own right. meanwhile, Entrapta was forced to be friends with the people who mistreated her and she was only kept around because she was useful.

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 1

Propaganda:

Rintarou -

"Has a special interest in science and will do anything to indulge in it. Has many strange mannerisms and will only drink his favorite drink."

Baki -

"Special interest in fighting and doesn't give a fuck about anything else except for his friends. Kidnaps fucking George Bush and asks him if he can put him in the biggest prison in America because he wants to fight people there. Literally goes to jail for his special interest. Autism."

Yoshi -

"look at him. he is Autism: The Character. The game deals with how he was ostracized for "weird" behavior and it got down his self esteem so bad that he calls himself trash and if you look at how he struggles to interact with others i.e. low social stamina (game's hit points are literally his psyche), struggle to control his emotions intense passion about subjects of interest etc etc he reads as immensely autistic and his arc of learning to love himself and find people who love him for who he is is so. very important to me <3 my dear favorite autistic scrimblo.

also look at him. his design is the trans flag colors. what's not to love here!! he likes bunnies!! he made those bunny ears himself, even. in 1BeatHeart, he made cat ears for his friend. i love his 1BeatHeart design also because in that game he's an Adult and STILL unabashedly himself, showing that he took those lessons from his childhood to heart! an autistic adult having some degree of pride in himself, being renowned even if he's still seen as odd, and being content and having friends. aurgh."

Steve -

"Uses his autism for evil! Is obsessed with vampires and wanting to become one but has so many compiling issues that he eventually becomes a key player in a supernatural war. Took it as a personal betrayal when his best friend had to become a vampire to save his life."

Yuuto -

"source: trust me bro."

Hatchi -

"Has a special interest in food and often lets it cloud his judgement. Is very bored of life at the beginning of the story but doesn't understand why. Does things others see as strange or reckless because he thinks it would be fun."

Keiichi -

"He is surrounded by people who speak in codes and euphemisms that he cannot understand based on social rules that he is not privy to."

Ayato -

"evil autism (/pos)"

Yuzuru -

"he is best boy!!!"

Amuro -

"Being a Newtype is just space autism to me. But also he sucks at falling in line in a structured environment, would rather work with machines than talk to people, and is only allowed as a child soldier because he's the bestest at big robots."

[lazycats-stuff]

Can i request anyone from batfam (you decide) x male reader that goes non-verbal when overwhelmed, which is quite often. The first time they met each other, the character asked a question and the reader just stared at them with a pure look of horror. The reader doesn't know ASL because he's too afraid to join a group and he freezes when he's overwhelmed so he can hardly lift a finger to talk.

Hmmm... I can see Jason with this concept. I don't know why though. I should really write longer... Ugh.

Summary: When (Y/N) gets overwhelmed, he goes non verbal. Jason doesn't know that

Warnings: this could be nonspeaking autism, but the reader is just non verbal

When Jason first met (Y/N), he thought that (Y/N) was a shy person and anxious. Maybe even socially anxious. He didn't speak and would only respond with hums or by nodding his head. He rarely spoke with full sentences, but that wasn't anything bad. Maybe he was a man of a few words. Jason didn't mind it.

But something made him reconsider his thoughts about (Y/N) when he asked him a question.

He asked a mundane question, he doesn't even remember now. But he noted (Y/N)'s reaction. (Y/N)'s face was very expressive. It was a look of fear and horror. Eyes wide, hands shaking, brows shooting up and labored breathing. Something was happening.

Jason felt like he was at fault. Maybe he asked something wrong? Or said something wrong? Maybe it's a trigger?

" Are you okay? " Jason asked, watching (Y/N)'s reaction. Again, fear and horror are still present on his face. Jason noticed his fingers twitching and now he was very worried.

" Is it something I did? " Jason asked, clearly worried now. He didn't mean to scare (Y/N).

(Y/N) shook his head, trying to calm down.

" Okay, uhmmm... "

(Y/N) took his phone out and started writing into an app. He is just to overwhelmed to talk.

" I go non verbal when overwhelmed. "

Jason sighed in relief, happy to know it wasn't really his fault. Or is it?

" Is it my fault? That you got overwhelmed? " Jason asked, hoping that it wasn't his fault.

(Y/N) shook his head. Jason was now fully relived.

" Okay, so, what about the way you communicate when you get overwhelmed? ASL? Apps like this? " Jason asked and (Y/N) started typing.

" I don't know ASL, I was always terrified to join a group. And I freeze when I get overwhelmed, so I can't lift a finger. " The app said in it's robotic voice.

Jason let out an ahh. " How about an alternative to ASL? I can teach you? " Jason proposed.

(Y/N) tilted his head.

" Morse code. It's fun and you don't have to worry about a group. " Jason said, smiling at (Y/N). He is too adorable.

" I will let you know. " (Y/N) wrote into the app.

" Okay, I will take it. " Jason said, still smiling.

[scribblue]

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu first watch

Finally started watching masters of spinjitzu (yes, I watched the movie before the show) and I'm gnawing on the floorboards like a rabid animal RAHHH

I wanted to start a thread to share some of my thoughts and reactions as I watch, for anyone that wants to hear 'em or to live vicariously through a new fan hehe

○ Note: I don't care too much about spoilers given that its an old show I've already gotten plenty of spoilers for, but I'd appreciate it if you kept big stuff vague in my comments! Also, there will be spoilers in this thread for any other first time watchers.

Pilot– s1 ep 13:

Okay so my expectations going into this was that it was going to be different from the movie, given how people talk about it online. Honestly I wasn't prepared for how different, but like– in a good way? I really love it so far, and also still love the movie (esp Garmadon), which is probably a byproduct of having seen it with zero context first. Ik a lot of ppl dont like the movie or have crits of it and that's very valid, but I'm really enjoying both of them for their differences.

Some rapid fire thoughts in no particular order (might be more organized next time):

- I really like how much development they're giving each ninja, that was something the movie def lacked.

- I had no idea what spinjitzu was and i was not expecting Ninja Tornados but i fuckinglovethatAHAHA

- Zane is my favorite ninja so far. I loved him in the movie too but the reveALLLL GOD. That was something I was spoiled for but it still hits so hard. Hes so me when I (love me some autism-coded robots). Honestly tho I rlly like the whole cast !!

-I mistakenly thought Nya and Jay were the siblings in the movie bc the dialogue rlly wasn't clear to me, but uh– yeahno AHAHAHA OOPS theyre cute though

-show!lloyd is.... growing on me! Slowly! I know he's got a long way to go and I'm sure he'll get there but his first few appearances was a lil whiny for my tastes. The fact that he's trying to follow in garms footsteps tho and garm doesnt want him too?? aUGH i love their whole dynamic so much.

- the fact that garmadon pronounces lloyd properly throws me all the way off cuz I'm so used to L'loyd PFFT

-I also didn't put it together that Lloyd Garmadon is meant to sound similar to Lord Garmadon. Idk how but it took someone literally saying it in an ep for me to realize

-I love how clear it is that garmadon cares for lloyd and would do literally anything for him but also the angst of him being infused w evil and knowing lloyd is destined to defeat him???? WHILE STILL BEING PROUD OF HIM??? unmatched. I love that so much

-I also just love garmadon's whole vibe but thats to be expected. Much less silly so far (with a few expections) but he's so interesting. I wish they did a lil more with his backstory in the movie. Imso brainrot over him

Anyway thats all for now I'll share more thinks as I watch hehehe

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for relating to a robot?

This is a situation that too place between me (NB 27) and my friend Charlie (NB 23). Charlie has diagnosed autism, I am currently working on getting a diagnosis/help for something in the autism/ADHD/OCD family.

I really enjoy reading science fiction books, and I recently picked up one based on the fact that it was supposed to have aroace representation. The main character is a robot (maybe a cyborg? it has organic parts) who does have aroace internal commentary. But it also has a lot of internal commentary that could be viewed as autistic coded. Things like being uncomfortable when its face is visible to humans, or finding conversations about feelings awkward. There’s more, but that’s the general gist.

I mentioned to Charlie how much I liked the book and the main character. How much it felt like me. And Charlie got upset because any form of a robot or non-human entity being seen as autistic is offensive and shouldn’t be read. And I get in the wider scope how it’s frustrating if that is the only representation, but I don’t think identifying with it personally is an issue. I prefer stories where there is some distance between me and the character like that. (As in, I don’t like reading about someone struggling with my exact situation, if that makes sense)

If it counts for anything, the author has said that they didn’t set out to make the robot autistic, just that they drew on their own life experiences with social anxieties and such.

What are these acronyms?

[eternal-moss]

Alhaitham Autism Coding

One last post before I go to bed but idk something rubs me the wrong way about a Genshin AU I’ve been seeing lately, specifically a Haikaveh one. I think I’ve seen a couple of artists make it already and I can’t help but feel uncomfortable about it. This isn’t to diss them or anything like that, I was just thinking about it.

It’s the premise where Alhaitham is a robot and Kaveh is a human (usually his creator, but that’s not really relevant). And the root of my discomfort is that Alhaitham is immensely, immensely autistic coded. It really couldn’t be more canon unless Alhaitham had a voice line that said ‘I am autistic’ (except Genshin is a fantasy game so of course that sort of thing isn’t viable).

So why not? I know a lot of autistic people can often relate to feeling ‘inhuman’ but that often comes as a result of life-long isolation and outcasting, and I think to dehumanise Alhaitham in this way discredits his actual humanity, which is not lessened by him being autistic.

The Trope Talk: Robots (a video by Overly Sarcastic Productions) finally made me understand something that I hadn’t when I was younger; I was quite a big fan of Zane from Lego Ninjago (spoiler warning for that) and didn’t understand the sinking feeling in my gut when it was revealed that he was actually a robot, and not a human.

When you make something inhuman represent traits from a real group of humans, the inverse sentiment of comparing that group to being inhuman also exists, even if unintentional. This was explained in that video by OSP, (which is really worth a watch) and made me realise a lot of things about ‘coding’ in media,

When I saw Zane, I saw traits I could recognise in myself- being slightly stilted and awkward, having a monotone voice, not picking up on social cues, being gullible, etc. However, despite these traits and shortcomings, his friends still cared about him a lot, and he wasn’t treated any lesser for it. I had never seen a person in media like that before, who behaved like me, and it made me happy.

I think the revelation that he actually wasn’t a person upset me in a way I couldn’t figure out at the time, but it was the implication that people who behave like that can’t actually be people at all.

Although out of all the autistic archetypes in media, the male ‘savant’ is definitely pretty overplayed, but details like Alhaitham’s headphones portray sensory issues in a realistic and interesting manner, rather than just being hyper-intelligent without any deficits or difficulties.

Because as much as Alhaitham is a bit of a dickhead sometimes, he’s still quite important to me (and I’m sure a lot of other people) in what he represents, and how unlike a lot of other characters who are autistic-coded, he manages to retain these traits without losing his humanity. I do think it would be somewhat of a disservice to his character to strip him of it.

[ozdical]

UM!!! QUESTIONS ABOUT RET!! YOUR OC

does he have a job / does he Like having a job?

how was he made / who was he made by?

whenever i see robots wearing clothes i have to ask: what kind of world does he live in? is this a futuristic robot / human harmony type of situation? is it all robots? a parallel dimension? etc

can ret eat or sleep + how? can ret dream ? what does he dream about, if at all?

answering the third question first bc i wanted to show y'all Ret's full outfit, he likes jus stayin shirtless to avoid overheating, plus in the house he lives in, everyone's a robot so no one bats an eye.

full lore blurb under the cut!

Ret's world is actually within the same world as my object head ocs! same time frame as well, its just that Ret's continent is filled with humans and my object head guys live on another continent, p far away. in-universe, Ret's time frame isnt really that far from us! i'd say around 2046, technology has advanced significantly but not to the 'robots and humans live in harmony' level, but are still very intelligent to operate on their own.

Ret does have a job! hes one of those 'amazing ai makes creative project' robots, think miku if miku wrote her own songs and made her own dance choreography, drew her own posters- etc! Ret, to executives, is a self-sustaining machine that doesnt need a team, which lets him have a lot of creative control over his music videos and add his own 'X-factor' to them thats very eye catching to audiences [its the autism. the autism is the x factor]

if you asked HIM, he would say that he likes having a job, smth to do, a set purpose, but he does wish he could try smth different every once in a while nd it shows in his projects. oddly enough, he communicates his feelings really well in his videos but as soon as he has to verbalize them he tends to lie to appease whoever is asking.

originally, he was a gimmick bot, his gimmick was 'put your data into this machine, and it will write a song about your deepest desires!', just a song-writer ai, what he did as a prototype was as rudementary as psychic hot-reading [or cold-reading if the date input was insufficient], he grew to learn how to read peoples data better with time, and became a 'viral moment' so to speak.

at the present in my story, Ret still has his job but he won't have it for much longer :)

Ret does not know who his creator is because by the time he was sentient, he was a part of a huge media company that housed a lot of these sorts of robots. [hype-house sorta deal, I designed 1 of the other robos... i need to show y'all the others!]

[his creator was a young male developer who was better at coding than he is at song writing, so he thought starting a project like Ret, originally named Rhett before his launch, would be a fun challenge]

Ret cannot dream, but he can 'sleep', he likes to charge via a mobile charging station if an outlet is not readily available and convenient, and during charging his body becomes inactive, but his mind is partially awake. [he can still hear everything around him. he chooses to keep that tidbit of info to himself]

[ciderjacks]

real talk i think a big reason that the dt17 pulled off the “robot kid is a metaphor for autism” trope so beautifully is because Huey is also very clearly autistic coded. And also because BOYD isn’t robotic, but rather misunderstood and viewed as a threat despite in actuality being a relatively normal, sweet kid who doesn’t get why people treat him the way they do. And that the message isnt “we need to fix him” its “you need to fix the way you look at him”. And also that, again, Huey is autistic coded too and his whole arc that season is literally him struggling with being labeled as “robotic” so his story with BOYD isn’t just a nt boy learning to accept the autistic boy, but rather the autistic boy connecting with another autistic boy and learning there’s not anything wrong with him. Actually ok. My autistic ass has so many thoughts about BOYD and Huey and dt17 i could talk about it for hours. But yea.

[soullessjack]

listen i get your frustration about how people treat jack, i hate when people reducd him down to just a destiel baby too. but as an autistic person myself, i really disagree with you calling people that like baby jack ableist. he's canonically 4 years old and had to have his childhood basically stripped away from him due to how dangerous it was. i don't think people enjoying the thought of him getting to have that chance at a happy childhood is as cruel and evil as you seem to think.

hi, I’m actually going to answer this differently than I did at first, because I feel like I missed the point and spent way too much time on the canon logistics of “giving Jack a childhood that he chose to skip and is never shown to want,” or that he’s actually pretty obviously portrayed as a teenager in the show, or that his character fundamentally revolves around autonomy & the struggle to have it, and not enough on the actual ableism. I’m also going to be a lot meaner this time, sorry.

honestly, you don’t get my frustrations. you don’t get that this isn’t some petty fandom drama about “muh fav being misunderstood” or “grr this content bad.” you don’t get my frustration if you think that’s all there is to any of this. this is something with an actual bearing on reality and the entire topic of representation in general, which you’d get if you took your head out of your ass and looked around for once. autistic people are still immensely underrepresented and misrepresented in most mainstream media. we are still seen and treated as circus animals, as punchlines, as lesser humans if not subhumans, and we have to face that alongside navigating a world that is wholly and systemically unnavigable to us. fiction and fandoms are an escape for many people, but especially marginalized people who long for community and representation.

the autistic community has a pretty long history of resonating with nonhuman characters in fiction over time, from robots to aliens to monsters in horror movies. because whether it’s their mannerisms or specific struggles or even narrative experiences, they resonate with us. jack resonates with us. he’s important to us as autistic people—and namely, as autistic adults who very rarely see ourselves represented in ways that don’t depict us as gross man-children, infantilized precious beans or emotionless geniuses. in fact, the very notion that autistic people are inherently childlike or mentally children directly leads into our sole representation being children, and even more into the treatment of us as “precious small beans.” does that ring any fucking bells to you yet?

jack might not have been intentionally written with autism or representation on mind, but this fandom literally builds itself up on coding and unintentional implications. he was also confirmed to be autistic anyways, so anyone still whining should just grow the fuck up about it. also, ironically, most accidentally autistic characters end up being the best kind lmao. but these discussions? these analyses by autistic fans —and even just fans who actually care about his complexities — only exist within our own little circles, and the idea of baby!jack is very much the fandom’s steadfastly going mainstream version of him—so much so that people are convinced it’s actually canon, they die on that hill like it’s some obligation to uphold. and any viewing of his canon character with nuance or complexity, or even his basic personality, is left to gather dust. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s over-saturating and supersedes actual canon. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s actually fucking harmful.

it’s frustrating as a general fan, but downright upsetting as an autistic fan who sees themself in him and has to witness every fucking day — in a community that prides itself on being a big found family no less — the infantilization of traits I and other autistic people express, and the stubborn justification of him being “actually a toddler” with even more autistic traits. There are literal scraps of canon adult Jack content to engage with; of any semi-intelligent thoughts on him to indulge in.

what you don’t get (or you refuse to get) that there is a direct correlation between all of this, the way jack is treated (ie ‘reduced to a destiel baby’) and the ableist infantilization surrounding his character. as in, this content directly feeds into his treatment, which then feeds back into the content made of him, which then feeds back again into his treatment in a horrible and exhausting cycle.

what you don’t get is that constantly regurgitating content where the baseline is jack being actively stripped of his identity and autonomy for the sake of becoming an accessory to Destiel/Sastiel/the Domestic Winchester Family is inherently rooted in layers of deep ableist rhetoric, and you can perpetuate all of that even without any intent for it. I’m not a fucking moron, and I’m not the big bad guy you’re talking to me like. I don’t think anyone who enjoys baby!jack is inherently “cruel” or “evil,” or turning jack into a baby while thinking “this’ll stick one to those retards,” and twirling their moustache, okay? and it’s really so funny to me that you’re trying to point the finger back at me. at least you tried.

what you don’t get is that whenever autistic fans voice our perspective on baby!jack, we’re fucking ignored. we’re fed the same rotten slop over and over and over again. “But we want him to be happy!” “But it’s an AU, it’s not canon!” “But he actually is a baby because XYZ!” “But, but!” Buts are not an argument, they’re the thing you still haven’t found a way to pull your heads out of. maybe the lack of oxygen from so many people in one small dark space is why you’re so fucking stubborn to understand this.

you wanna know what is cruel? being told that you are doing something hurtful, something harmful and something that painfully reflects real life struggles a real community goes through, and shrugging it off. being aware of the value something brings to someone else, and stripping it away simply because it doesn’t matter to you personally. finding another But or a corner-cut to excuse yourself from blame. you didn’t have the decency to listen when general fans said “hey this is kind of annoying can we treat him like an actual person,” and you don’t even have the decency to concede when autistic people are saying this is a deeply wrong thing to do.

if you have to ignore an entire community’s voice to feel better about the content you’re making that directly hurts them, if you don’t personally think it’s harmful or even real because autistic struggles are never real, then I am well within reason to assume you’re not a good person. it’s one thing to do something wrong because you’re uninformed, and it’s another thing entirely to continue to do that when you’ve been informed, and simply decided that it wasn’t worth changing or stopping.

believe me, as an autistic person I am well used to being isolated, to not being anyone’s priority in this capitalistic circle of hell. I am ready to expect my struggles and existence to be tokenized for somebody else to feel good, or squeeze money from. Im used to seeing movies portray my experience as some Manic Pixie Star-seed or creepy overgrown child. I know the world doesn’t care about me. But I don’t think I’m asking too much for this, the big found family fandom that’s been shown to care so much about every other problem, to care about me. To listen when it’s hurting me, or uplift something I care about.

I don’t think I’m asking for anything less than this family to actually treat me like I am part of it. But can you even do that?

[house-of-slayterr]

I’m honour of just finishing Shadow and Bone… (the show not the books I read those a while ago) here are some incorrect Quotes!

Y/N , to Jesper : I mean, I get complimented all the time-

Kaz: *starts cackling*

Y/N : I do!

Kaz: *laughs harder*

Kaz: You can track Y/N ?

Jesper : Of course I can. If the NSA can do it, so can I.

Y/N : *sneaking in through their window*

Kaz: *turning in their chair and flicking the light one* You want to tell me where you've been all night?

Y/N : I was with Jesper ?

Jesper : *turning in their chair* Wanna try again?

Wylan: Are you sure Y/N’s going to be able to handle that IKEA furniture? They’re not very good with technical stuff…

Jesper : Why are you worried? IKEA was never complicated; these days, it’s even easier! Everything’s color coded, numbered, and there’s even an assembly robot option to make it even easier for Y/N, which we’ve obviously opted in for. All they need to do is press the clearly labeled ON button, scan the QR code on the front of the box, and it’ll take care of the rest. Even a monkey could do it!

*Jesper ’s phone rings*

Y/N: Hey, so I’m at Lowes…

Wylan: …

Wylan: I should have gone with the monkey.

Y/N: I dare you to kiss the next person who walks into this room.

Jesper : Screw that, I’m not kissing any of you.

*Wylan walks in*

Jesper : Fine, I’ll do it. Rules are rules you know.

(Fucking cannon omg)

Y/N: Wylan , we need that!

Wylan , holding Nina over a trash can: Nope.

Y/N: Gimme it—

Wylan : It’s garbage.

Wylan : Murder literally doesn’t hurt anyone!

Nina: What are you talking about? Of course—

Y/N, holding out a hand to shut Nina up: No, no, they have a point—

Y/N: Jesper , I have a great idea.

Jesper : Let’s hear it.

Y/N: We trick Inej and Kaz to go out on a date together.

Jesper : YES!

Jesper : And hey, if that doesn’t work out, maybe you and me could go out, get some drinks—

Y/N, hitting them with a book: THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU.

Jesper : Why do you look like that?

Kaz , laying face-first on the floor: Like what?

Jesper : Like you’re dead.

Kaz : It’s because I’m dying. Leave me here to perish.

Y/N: Kaz accidentally called Inej “babe” in front of everyone today.

Kaz : *sobs into the floor*

(Also cannon)

Kaz : How is the most beautiful person in the world?

Inej: *blushing* I—

Jesper , butting into the conversation: Y/N is perfect, thanks for asking.

Inej: Wow, they really hate us.

Y/N: Yes, perhaps they’re homophobic.

Inej: But we’re not gay, Y/N.

Y/N: 👀

Inej: 👀

Y/N: We’re not?

Inej: Why are you doing this?

Y/N: Same reason I do everything, Inej. To get somebody to like me.

Y/N: *venting endlessly to Kaz about their week*

Kaz, every once in a while: *in a monotone* Wow, that is so wild.

Y/N: You got a date yet Kaz?

Kaz: No...

Y/N: Well you do now! Get your ass up and hold my hand!

Y/N: When I first got my autism diagnosis, my first thought was “woah… it’s canon” and I think that maybe thoughts like that is why Wylan made me get tested.

(Me omfg)

Y/N: I'm trying to juggle family life and work life but I can't seem to find a balance. What do you suggest I do to keep everyone happy?

Wylan, deadpan: Quit your job, kill your family.