#midoriya izuku is autistic

[dogwaterdish]

As promised, I'm back to talk more about Midoriya being autistic! I'll talk about special interests, stimming, social difficulties, intense emotions/empathy, and other miscellaneous things I think are better explained about him when looked through the lens of Autism.

Special Interests

One of the most obvious traits is his strong- often described as obsessive- interests. Mainly heroes, All Might, and quirks. These interests are pretty much just special interests - the level of intensity and long term hold on him is how special interests can function.

Some people might argue he's just using it as an escape from his reality of quirklessness, but these interests were visible before and after he was quirkless. When he got diagnosed as quirkless, he had already had a passionate interest in All Might.

And while All Might and heroes are loved by the majority of the population, it's been noted by many people that he has a lot stronger of an interest in them than most, to the point some call it creepy and obsessive. He's very knowledgeable about these topics, and infodumps about them very often! For example, when his class met the pussycats:

As we can see, he's very ready to start spewing hero facts, and is excited by seeing heroes. He does this often, and knows very much about most heroes- as we can see in the first chapter as well. He knew the name of Kamui woods big move despite him being a new hero, and knew several facts about him off the top of his head. This muttering is also frowned upon socially, but he doesn't pick up on that much at all, and continues his muttering until he either gets distracted or stopped by someone else. This all makes me believe that these are his special interests!

Stimming

Midoriya has some things that he does that I categorize as stimming! The biggest one is muttering, he's seen doing this often, and a lot of the time it seems to be a form of regulation. For example, during the USJ when he hurt is finger:

He is often seen muttering in times of high emotions (which is often for him with the intense emotions he experiences) and it seems to help him calm down, focus, and relax, as well as make plans.

Another example of him stimming is when he was talking with Nighteye about an All Might clip!

These motions are often used by him during times where he is excited, scared, and even focused. A common stim I've seen from him is pulling on his bottom lip!

While stimming is something everyone does to some degree, autistic people stim much more regularly for emotional regulation and to keep a proper amount of stimulation, and Midoriya falls into the latter category, where he stims much more than neurotypical people. This stimming has been pointed out by many characters and some have called it odd, mainly with his muttering.

Social Difficulties

Another major thing I see in him that is reminiscent of Autism is his abnormal behavior socially, and his cluelessness when it comes to social interactions.

Here we see Midoriya wave to Shinso, then get confused about why he ignored him. This could be just general confusion that many people would experience but I think that since stuff like this happens to him somewhat often its pointing more towards social issues n such !

Another example of this was during the final exam arc, where Tsu was asking Uraraka what her and Aoyama were talking about and Uraraka got flustered. Midoriya was clueless during this whole interaction and they made a point to put a question mark by his head. I cannot find this picture for the life of me right now, but if I do I will edit this post and put it in!

I think it's very interesting that he is often characterized as very observant (with his very detailed notes and pattern recognition with how Bakugou fights (another autism thing...)) , but when he is clueless about something it's always a social interaction. Here's some more miscellaneous pictures of him with question marks by his head:

It's very common for autistic people to be lost or confused during social interactions, and to have problems being entirely calm or oriented during conversations. Midoriya has also been shown to be a bit fretful, anxious, or quick to overexplain during conversations, such as when Iida and Uraraka were asking about the nickname "Deku".

Intense Emotions and Empathy

Midoriya is shown many times to have extremely strong emotions, it's one of his key traits along with his high empathy. These big emotions he has are very unregulated, at least early in the series, and he is prone to bursting into tears at a moments notice. This upcoming picture was when he met up with All Might after receiving his UA acceptance letter.

If you have seen any clips of MHA, you have seen how much he cries and how intense his emotions are. However, he doesnt always cry when he has strong emotions, like when he gets excited and pumped up about his classmates or heroes, and starts muttering and sometimes flapping his arms.

Along with that, he has strong empathy for other people and can "feel" the energy and emotions of others when they're particularly strong. He also has more empathy and compassion for the villains than most people, insisting he must save Shigaraki rather than just kill him like everyone suggested. Irregular emotions and empathy levels are yet another trait of autism that he possess.

Other traits

Like I said in the start of this post, some of these things aren't necessarily indicative of autism or anythin', but they make so much more sense when looked at through the lens of autism, and combined with all the other traits he has, only add to his likelihood of being Autistic!!

One thing I've seen Midoriya do quite often is doing raptor arms! Heres some examples of that:

here are also some examples of Midoriya sitting in peculiar ways as well! Not a trait of autism particularly, but I've seen odd sitting common in many autistic people!

Conclusion!!

So all that is pretty much to say Midoriya is a pretty autistic character! Whether it was intentional or not he's super autism coded and I think it's very neat. I also think it's neat we have essentially the same spins (all might!). All the info from here comes from research I've done, along with referencing my own experience as an autistic boy.

Happy birthday to him as well!! :] ty for reading all that

(also @animaatra since you wanted to be tagged :] )

[punkeropercyjackson]

I love you Tim Drake i love you Avatar Aang i love you Miles Morales i love you Izuku Midoriya i love you Hunter Noceda-Deamonne I love you male kid characters who're genuinely interesting and positive role models for young boys and are hated by pick me girls and dudebros for not being walking testoteronepilled fantasies for dogshit written self-insert purposes

[dippable]

autism and media. spoilers for criminal minds, my hero academia, and dungeon meshi.

okay so, i'm an autistic person, and i've seen portrayals of autism (both implied and explicit) and they've had.. a range of quality overall.

in explicit examples, i've seen only a few. spencer reid comes to mind first- the autistic savant with an eidetic memory and a penchant for seeming robotic. i, personally, was heavily influenced by this guy- i did (and kind of still do) enjoy criminal minds after all. however, spencer's existence as one of the first explicitly autistic characters that was seen by a wider audience. the show was insanely popular, but in the later seasons (mainly after he was sent to prison) many of his autistic traits seem to fade away. of course, he is a traumatized man who was on high alert for a WHILE, but one would expect he wouldn't lose many of his core personality traits. personally, i think these were written out since his traits weren't seen as "popular", since autistic people can offend those they love or say the wrong thing on accident and it seemed too weird.

second, my hero academia. i don't think any of these characters are explicitly autistic, but i haven't watched in a while. mainly, i see deku and tamaki as autistic (although bakugo, aizawa, and shigaraki are.... suspicious) and i believe my views on these two are mainly influenced by the rest of the fandom, so here goes. overall, i think the characterization of these two lends itself directly to their emotional or anxious nature. most media i see with one or both of them severely dumbs them down to these traits, with tamaki getting the brunt of this treatment. most don't seem to remember that both of them are strong for their age, smart, and have faith in their quirks. even if tamaki might seem pessimistic about fights, he's just that- pessimistic. he's much more inclined to believe he'll lose because if he does, he's prepared to do what he can to help whoever comes after. deku is emotional, yes, but who wouldn't be? he's a teenager who's been told over and over again that he's a failure and he'll never achieve his dream, and suddenly, he's being helped by the #1 hero to become the person that he thought was unattainable. i think horikoshi's representation of them is alright, it's just mainly the fandom that compresses them into "uwu anxious cinnamon rolls too sweet for this earth" instead of remembering they're multifaceted characters, and damaging their own interpretations of real people in the process.

in dungeon meshi, i don't know if they're explicitly autistic (however laios and falin are HEAVILY HINTED AT so.) but the representation of autism here is incredible. in the series, we see laios fuck up with shuro (and, notably, we see the fandom sweep it under the rug because laios is white) while he has real, genuinely close relationships with others (marcille is like a sister to him, and chilchuck's his best friend) so we know he is a multifaceted character. he's also tied to the tendency of autistic people to be interested in fringe interests, or alterhuman circles. he thinks (like many others) that he's weird enough to people, so he throws all caution to the wind and goes all-in on being weird. i know that when i realized i was "too weird" for others, i just stopped caring, and that's how i got into many of my favorite things- like OFF, house of leaves, etc etc. if they thought i was weird then, i don't really want to know what they think i am now, especially since i'm out here playing obscure meta rpgs or reading books that require me to flip them around.

overall, i think the representations of autistic people in media have a long way to go. there is still a critical shortage of autistic poc in media, and many representations of autism are still influenced by the savant stereotype we see with spencer reid (see: the good doctor) and there's still a variety of symptoms that haven't been shown accurately yet. i'm very proud of where we've come, though- now, i can see an incredibly accurate portrayal of myself in laios, but there's still many autistic people who haven't seen someone they can relate to on the silver screen.

[damn-it-sammie]

thinking about izuku (wow sam that’s a shocker) taking you on a museum date. my interests like to peak at random times and ive always loved dinosaurs and i just think that going to a dinosaur museum with him even though he’s not very knowledgeable about them but you are and he obviously wants to do what makes you happy so he goes and you’re just so excited that you literally start dragging his poor self around the place like a wild dog on a leash. he has to hold you by your wrists while you drag him otherwise he knows you’ll wander off :((( he knows he can’t lose you or he might not ever find you again in the sea of statues and dinosaur skeletons. you get to yap to him all you want about the useless facts you know and he’ll sit there and listen with that little eye smile he does..,,,gAh i love him.

[heinz-means-headcanons]

Your Class 1-A Faves Are Autistic!!!

Iida Tenya:

very strong sense of justice (the whole Stain incident)

rule enthusiast + loves routines

physical stims (choppy hands)

struggles with tone and volume (doesn't realise he's shouting)

Kōda Kōji:

mostly non-verbal

special interest in animals - prefers to be around animals than humans

struggles with social settings and often avoids them

Todoroki Shōto:

strong sense of justice (will break rules to do the "right" thing)

struggles with social cues/tone (genuinely thinks his smile will kill)

flat tone + expressions

specific safe foods (cold soba!)

Bakugō Katsuki:

severe emotional dysregulation

follows strict routines (same bedtime)

special interest in Heroes (specifically All Might)

low empathy + struggles with social cues

Midoriya Izuku:

special interest in Heroes (keeps extensive notes)

struggles with social cues (infodumps when people are Not Interested)

unusual way of speaking (talks very quickly + mumbles)

high empathy

physical stims (rocking back and forth)

Yaoyorozu Momo:

black and white thinking (any loss = complete failure)

struggles with social cues (trusts Mineta when he is up to no good)

special interest in science/chemistry (memorises formula (yes this is linked to her quirk but. come on.))

detail focused

Asui Tsuyu:

vocal stims (ribbiting) + physical stims (raptor hands)

blunt communication style

special interest in frogs

flat expressions

[pridewishes]

♔ || IZUKU MIDORIYA ICONS

250x250 || autistic || bordered circle

like / rb + credit + read dni if using

requested by anon !!

[mha-polls]

[outlawssweetheart]

I'm just a girl pondering my favorite autistic-coded characters. 😌 (And the characters who aren't exactly "coded," but I can see the vision. 😌)

[wholelottatransbians]

Surprised I don't have a pure IzuReiko AU, I'm a huge fan of the ship.

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Boys Side A Round 1 Match 31

Propaganda:

Shintarou -

"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. He is so autistic. He is so so autistic. He can’t make eye contact with people, can’t read social cues, can come off as very blunt, his best friend is Hatsune Miku. His special interest is Coca-Cola. He cried when talking to a middle school girl because she looked at him wrong!! But he’s also very kind and brave and would take a bullet for his friends and family!! He is the best autistic anime lad."

Deku -

"Can and will ramble for HOURS about quirks and gets so excited about new ones. That excitement also helps people who are treated badly for their powers to feel better about what they can do. Also, he's a ray of sunshine and his smile lights up the world."

[dogwaterdish]

Hi omg!! I just wanted to say your post on izuku being autistic was so amazing!! Im a special educator and it makes me so happy to see other people recognise these traits and advocate for them!!! Youre so amazing please keep talking about your amazing headcannons (and genuinely just your recognition and respect for autistic characters!) youre amazing!!! I cant say it enough!!

I'm glad you appreciated the post!! Sorry for responding a bit late lol, its reassuring to hear that other people who knows abt autism think that what I said was good - and again sorry for responding so late ! I have gotten a little sidetracked and keep forgetting to respond to this :^|

I'm so happy to hear that multiple people thought this analysis was real good and such !!!! its very reassuring to know I wasn't alone in thinking about how midoriya has autism traits

[punkeropercyjackson]

I don't think you can call loving abusive,incestous and pedophillic pairings being into dark themes and nuance tbh,that just sounds like shipping brainrot that you're pretentious about

[daisha-mochizuki]

ranting time for my 100th post

Okay. I need to scream to someone.

As an autistic person myself/someone's who is *most definitely* on the spectrum, I find that I am becoming more self aware, thus becoming aware of other people's autistic/neurodivergent behavior.

Continuing on with that information...

Does anyone else think/agree with me if I were to say that there's a pretty high chance Izuku is autistic, or at least on *some sort* of the neurodivergent spectrum??? Maybe someone else has said it before I don't know but I went on an entire spiral last night as I was trying to come up with ideas for an AU I'm doing😓

But, just listing some of the stuff he does that I personally do that I know is a hyperfixation:

Hyperfixates (most obvious being All Might/Toshinori Yagi [who could also be a special interest not just a hyperfixation], but also the other heroes and even villains)

Constantly trying to be optimistic about things/MASKING.

Immense guilt weighing you down when you think you've done something wrong even if it's something as small as putting something in the wrong spot by accident

Having hundreds of notebooks and other things to keep track of data from hyperfixations/special interests

Collecting objects of hyperfixtion/merchandise and shtuff for hyperfixations

Having a strict schedule/routine to follow (his training schedule *cough cough*)

RAMBLING NON-STOP ABOUT SPECIAL INTERESTS/HYPERFIXATIONS

When we look at Izuku's rooms, there's obviously the All Might special interest. We know all about his notebooks, and (if I'm remembering correctly) there are thirteen of them. While to some it may not seem like much (maybe idk I don't have normal interactions with people), those notebooks are filled to the *brim*. There's also *more* notebooks than that, as there's ones about his classmates, and ones about OFA, and other stuff as well.

When he was training, yes I know All Might made the routine for him, but Izuku took the routine and made it his own and followed it everyday (even though it grew unhealthy).

Izuku is honestly just a kid who doesn't know how to have a normal human interaction unless he is put in charge and is under a sort of stress in his brain. It may not seem stressful to others, but in order to have the "confidence" to be in charge, his brain creates stressors in order to function "correctly" in those situations.

He studies and trains obsessively, and is a people pleaser to all extents.

There's probably more that I could talk about, but *I've* been rambling here for a little while here now😭😭

Hope my ramblings made sense :D

(Also yayyyyyy 100 posts😭👍)

[corujalesbica]

Tododeku autism creature

[queentheweeb]

Izuku Midoriya X Quirkless Autistic Male Reader

A/N: It's sort of like one big flashback

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You always admired Izuku. The two of you bonded over being quirkless and the two of you would try to protect each other from bullies such as other students, teachers, and other adults. You didn't understand why everyone was always so mean. The two of you were best friends even though Izuku was always trying to be Katsuki's friend. You didn't like Katsuki because he told you and Izuku to die by jumping off the roof. What if the two of you did? You almost did but, Izuku stopped you and took you home to his mom Inko. You really loved Inko, she was a gentle soul and Izuku made you promise not to tell her anything that Katsuki did. You didn't tell your mother either not wanting to worry her any more than she already has been. She worried because you were not only quirkless but, you were autistic so you were in different programs with other children like you. You had met Izuku before when you were little and played together from the ages of 4 to 7 until you moved schools due to the programs your mom put you in. However, in middle school, since your program was at Aldera high school and you had two classes with everyone else you met Izuku again. He had remembered you and that was how the two of you bonded. Then that's when it came to applying to high schools and for some God-forsaken reason, Izuku convinced you to apply to the general studies. 

"Come on Y/N! It would be perfect for you. Look I'm applying for general studies too. I know the two of us can get in and we can be together!" You still had, had doubts but his smile and laughter were contagious so you did it. The two of you submitted it and to your utter shock of you, you both got in! Katsuki wasn't happy about that and had blown up cussing us out while the other students laughed and the teachers did nothing. It was embarrassing but, you were happy that you were going to be with Izuku. About two months later you noticed changes in Izuku so you decided to follow him on a day he was in a hurry. He didn't know and that's when you saw him at the beach with All Might. Of course, you went up to both of them scaring them both. It took a while but, they both explained to you everything about All for One and how Izuku was training so he can be able to withstand All Might's passed-down power. It was so cool. You promised to never tell anyone not even your mother and you told her everything.

"You have my word Izuku, I wish you would have told me but I understand that, that this is important and could cause a lot of problems if it gets out to the wrong people." All Might had agreed to let you come so that was also how you and Izuku got closer together. That's how you noticed that whenever you were around Izuku you got weird feelings in your tummy. It didn't hurt, it just made you happy. and nervous at the same time. You understood what was happening but, you googled it just to be sure even though you already knew the answer. You had a crush on Izuku but, that made you pause. Would he even want to be with you? Would he become like Katsuki and begin to bully you once he got the quirk? That was a crazy thought that you got rid of quickly because he knew how it was to be quirkless, considered the bottom of the totem pole. You stood quiet though about this crush of yours choosing to watch him, talk with him, and get him cute little gifts. You asked your mom for advice and she was excited to help you out. You had done everything right up until the day of the placement exam. It was 5 AM and Izuku had eaten All Might's hair which was unexpected. You had waited for All Might to leave to try to make a move.

 "Um, I'm not good at feelings and I'm sorry if I am doing too much or making you uncomfortable but, um, you are going to do great today." You paused to take a breath and gather your thoughts "I know you are going to get into the hero course. You deserve it and um." You decided it was too many words and so you closed your eyes and leaned in to kiss his cheek. You kept your eyes closed through the silence. You weren't sure what you were supposed to do now. Is he going to hit you? Is he going to stop being your friend? Did you mess up?

"Open your eyes Y/N." His voice was gentle so you opened your eyes slowly only to open them wide at the big smile he had on his face. This means you didn't mess up then. You were right. "Can I kiss your cheek?" You stood there stunned but, nodded your head with a smile. You stood still as he leaned in and planted a soft kiss on your cheek. "Thank you." You were confused as to why he was thanking you.

"Why are you thanking me?" You should thank him for not getting upset and liking what you did.

"For choosing me. For allowing me to be close to you." Of course, you guys were close but, you wanted to be his boyfriend. You should ask him if he's okay with that. 

"Is it okay if we can be boyfriends? I don't want to share." He smiled at that pulling you in for a hug. It was awkward at first but, you wrapped your arms around him once he rubbed your back. He smelled like sweat and pine. 

"Of course, we can be boyfriends, I don't want to share you either." You smiled big at that starting to giggle. He joined in giggling with you as the two of you kept smiling and hugging. Soon you pulled away remembering that he had a placement exam to take. 

"I can wait for you outside of U.A, I'll walk around until it is time for you to come out." Izuku smiled and nodded at that. 

"I won't keep you waiting." You smiled at that and decided to kiss him another time on the cheek. You weren't sure what was going to happen in the future but, right now he was your happy place.

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Thoughts?

[calyxthenerd]

The ‘curious and smart autistic child and their intimidating mom who adopts strays wherever she sees one’ trope was invented by Roo Kanga from Winnie the Poo and his mom