#she’s 100% neurodivergent

[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.

[nascenticity]

i have seen a lot of headcanons (& fics!) about bucky doing crochet or knitting that i LOVE but i also need everyone to consider --

steve watching his mother doing irish crochet; maybe she even teaches him some simple things when he's sick and needs something to occupy him so he'll sit still and rest; its a creative outlet for sarah and that artistic streak is something she and steve share almost a century later, crochet comes back into fashion with millennials and gen-z, and steve looks up a youtube tutorial. he doesn't have many physical things left from his mom; but he can make some stuff that she would have loved and it helps him feel close to her.

[pixel-axel]

one of my friends tried to tell me i couldn’t have special interests because i didn’t have autism (i have adhd) and they were specifically an autism thing and im like girl idfk but i don’t think me being overly fixated on some fucking purple guy for over two years now, with my interest never wavering or fading, is a fucking neurotypical thing or just something goofy T-T

[kyttypeteater]

if anyone asks me why i love dovewing so much its because shes.. literally me. little ol' 7 year old me related to her so bad😭 the child prodigy, the gifted kid, everyone having really big expectations for you, people being so jealous of you to the point of hate.. i related to her because i saw her powers as being like my sensory issues, her troubles as being like my insecurities, i could see myself in dovepaw to dovewing. my first warriors book was fading echoes and my first favorite warriors character is dovewing. she was my favorite character and she always will be

[knotsoangelic]

shes very autism core i will die on this hill

[autisticlee]

sometimes I think about how when I went to college for a year before I dropped out (basically failed out,) the counselors/dean told me they can't help me at all or give any accommodations unless I have an official autism/adhd diagnosis. that might sound logical at first, but when you think about it more, it's actually quite fucked up. if someone is struggling really bad, what's the harm in helping them? why do they require a paper to get even the smallest amount of help? people who don't need help aren't going to be failing miserably without help! even NTs could benefit from some adjustments to the horrible school system! (but changing the entire system is a whole other conversation that the school system isnt ready for)

but even if you do agree to jump through their hoops, you realize it's even more fucked up that the diagnosis process requires YEARS in most cases (in my case it took 4 or 5 years, can't recall exactly now, for autism/adhd diagnosis, which would have meant i finished school before getting it if i managed to mot fail out, or i wait that long before going back, which is a whole struggle itself) and they also tried billing me for THOUSANDS of dollars because of insurance issues!!

so you put a ton of time and money into this, and then get told the only accommodation they are willing to give you for autism and adhd is "a little extra time on tests"

....

my test scores were the best part of my whole class experience. that was NOT what I struggled with!!!!! those tests were all online and could be done in the comfort of your home where you can accommodate yourself and have plenty of time left over when you finish them because you are comfy in your own space, (and also, no one was stopping you from having your notes/books/google open to find the answers,) and you don't even need a time consuming, expensive diagnosis for that!

SO WHAT'S THE POINT!!!!!!!

[minnieposting]

Uugghhhhhhhhhhhh why do autism evaluations have to be so complicated

[bonefall]

ACORN FUR VINDICATION RALLY YES, YES YES!

*glares at Moth Flight.* I KNEW YOU WERE EVIL I KNEW IT! YOU HURT POOR ACORN FUR'S FEELINGS JUST BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T CUT OUT TO BE A SINGLE MOM, BIRCH PLEASE!

Goddddd I hate Moth Flight, definitely one of my most hated Warriors characters

I write about her a lot, especially because it didn't have to be this way, but the Erins are utterly incapable of writing women who don't find catty, arbitrary reasons to hate each other

It's not even true that Moth Flight couldn't have raised her kits, she just denies the ample help that's available to her all book long for some asinine reason. Then she gets to have like 5 pages of condescending drivel shouting Acorn Fur down in... what I thiiiink is supposed to be some climactic "Wow now the character who has been disrespected all book is getting the backup she deserves :)" moment, but it just comes across as loathsome garbage.

I wrote about that when I was asked about Half Moon, another character I think is F-tier

I just... I hate DotC man. I hate this arc so much. I hate so many characters and things about it. I really hope that the Erins finally address Moth Flight as the horrible person that they've written her to be

And also I hope Leafpool gets to batter and fry her like shrimp tempura for what she did to her in that Squirrelflight's Hope trial scene

[little-pondhead]

My only academic talent is explaining complicated concepts to ten-year-olds using analogies of food and toys.

[impossible-rat-babies]

freaking like. eshka is getting into gender stuff that’s like. hmmmm this is really uhhhh Close and Personal huh

[dazzelmethat]

*reaches out my hand and grabs you* I have the power to subject non vocaloid people to pinop..

TW: for flashing lights

Mushroom mother analysis in my tags. ..

[fridayyy-13th]

had a very nice evening of conversation with my roommates, they’re really sweet. but, uh, there’s some things i Definitely will not be telling them about myself. nor do i really see us staying close afterwards :/

[soft-serve-soymilk]

Actually I’ve come to the conclusion that Cynthia would like Kingdom Hearts for the exact same reason she likes Graces f (the homoerotic tension,,,,,,)

[chattybugette]

Neurotypical son (Adrien) versus neurodivergent dad and assistant (Gabriel and Nathalie)

[mossy-covered-bones]

What if. I started a poll bracket to find tumblrs favorite integers

[fiendishartist2]

*describing smth that only happens in rich areas* yeah so basically i think teachers need to punish kids more