#smart autistics or adorable autistics or interesting autistics and i have a crush on two of them including the cute autistic this post is ab

[yutamayo]

omg the cute autistic/mutual friend at the party I was talking ab way back just moved into our building!!! I legit ran into him omw in and exchanged instas he is SO adorable and cute and I love him like I just wanna be around him so like tf I am SO HAPPY

[inkyquince]

omg i am so with u on the “what if reader was short and adorable and sooo much smaller than (insert character)” like what about reader who is tall and is batshit crazy and is a masochist !!!!! what about us!!!!!!!!

okay, okay, okay. let me explain this theory i have using hit smash dark romantic comedy, NBC's Hannibal, and somewhat, the extended Hannibal books.

Okay so, all fannibals know that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter are the main romantic pairing. They're in love. Murder Husbands was said IN the show, that's not a thing the fandom made up. Anyway-

A HUGE reason I adore Hannibal and the fandom is that... Bedelia should be Hannibal's love interest or obsession, in the same way the slasher fandom's usual Y/N is small petite and adorable and shit.

She is his perfect equal (kinda). She is put together, she is smart, she is beautiful, she is polite, she is a fellow psychiatrist. Hell, Bedelia was changed from an old woman in the earlier drafts to the mindblowing Gillian Anderson.

By all reason, she should be the one Hannibal is in love with.

She isn't.

Directly opposite of Bedelia, is Will Graham.

He is SO me-core. He is a rude, sweaty, sarcastic, dog dad. He is disturbed and twitchy and bitchy. He is autistic with an empathy disorder.

And Hannibal has many scenes where that man is staring at Will's ass. That man is so in love. The way he looks at that depressed homicidal fucker is beautiful. Just look at Tobias Budge's last episode. Look at how miserable he is in Europe with Bedelia while pining for Will. Yes, pining is a word the show uses, not me. He KILLS another man because he tried to peek behind the curtain like Will did.

And finally, we have Hannibal Lecter's book romantic partner, Clarice. Shout out, Clary. Bad bitch, redhead, and somehow Hannibal is the only man you can even like when you read her books, cuz every other guy is a gross asshole.

So, one one side, Bedelia, on the otherside, Will and in the middle, Clarice.

For a lot of slashers, it feels like... They'd enjoy the Will Graham of love interests. The unhinged. The weird. Like Chucky, Tiffany is the only woman for him (I COULD TREAT HER BETTER).

So, on a range of reader inserts there is the Bedelia's. The ones that SHOULD hold their interest, like Greta in The Boy. Pretty and smol and adorable and oh my god girlies. The one that in practise, would be their lil obsession.

Then we get reader insert Clarice. The understanding, the bad bitch, the one who hears the lambs screaming. In between socially acceptable and unhinged. God I love Clarice. I play remothered and kiss the screen. Takes time to become. Maybe its a bit of stockholm, or Hanni's extra finger is just that good at fingering. (i cannot emphasise enough how much i love Clarice. i legit hate fanfic that try to cast her as a basic bitch. god, she was like my major crush for years.)

Then.... Willy. ehe

The one, you can fully understand and fits too well. These two men SHOW to enjoy each other's company. Hannibal excuses SO much of Will Graham's fucking bullshit because Will Graham is such a BITCH AND I LOVE HIM. Bursting in, throwing his coat, saying he kissed Alana and the only thing Hannibal can focus on? Fucker got kissed. Next episode he sends a serial killer to her house. Get your own bad bitch to kiss, Alana. Hannibal killed people for being rude, or implying rudeness. Will is CONSTANTLY RUDE AND MEAN AND BITCHY and hannibal is kicking his feet.

So, take a slasher.

Let's say.... Ghostface. Shout out Billy and Stu, you guys would have loved... Gay porn? idk man.

Reader 1 is a perfect victim. Stays quiet, all uwu, and they get hard. Neat.

Reader 2 knows who they are. Just shrugs. They're enthused that you don't care and then they get hard. Brilliant. We love a morally grey reader.

Reader 3 is just unhinged. They're strange and weird and they stab back. They get hard. Stu, please, you don't have the blood to spare to get HARD RIGHT NOW-

Anyway, its how I categorise readers. They all somewhat make sense, but my favourite reader insert will be thjrd reader. The antithesis to the slasher. They SHOULDNT be into them, but THEY ARE, and thEY DON'T KNOW WHY.

Like, I love Hannibal because it was the first time we got a Will Graham, instead of a Greta. (also the fact this bitch was called Greta. WHO CALLS THEIR KID GRET0 who cares.)

Im not sure im explaining properly but I love a love interest that is an exception to the slasher. They dont fit in their world, but because of that, its sexy.

Also, the reader being a mess. Its why i love fallen hero rebirth, you can play such a messy villain that everyone still gets hard for. Will Graham was such a breath of fresh air, he's rumpled, he's a bitch, he's tired, his brain is on fire. But Hannibal still wanted to smash, in more than one way.

I fucking love unhinged readers, more than the cute little readers who are 4'11, cant reach shelves and always wear snug weedle jumpers. Like shout out if you are that, you're adorable, but my brain wants to see if i can knock you down like bowling pins. I will read a thing where the male reader jumps on The Collector's back and starts biting and be like omf so me vibes.

Weird bitches needs more weird bitches. And Will Graham once had a weird hallucination he was having a fivesome with hannibal alana margot and a w*ndigo, which is such a weird girl vibe

[the-girl-with-the-glass-heart]

I wanna make Logan autistic in my high school au and I figure I should share my notes about it in case there’s anything I need to be corrected on

I want to make Logan autistic because as a neurodivergent person myself I figuired it would be good to add more neurodivergent representation in my Au.

I have done a fair amount of research such as reading blog posts about writing autistic characters from actual people on this sight with autism, fact checking various misconceptions or questions I have about autism, reading published news articles about writing autism from people with autism (completely avoiding anything autism speaks has ever said) and basing it a little off of personal experience because while I don’t have autism, I have ADHD and they tend to have an overlap of symptoms.

So please, if you are autistic please read and correct any information that you feel is incorrect or could be improved anyway, I really want to portray this right!

FYI I also tried to mention a bit how this affects his personal relationships since this is a big part of his identity.

-He was diagnosed when he was 12 years old and entering middle school.

-He stims by pacing, sorting things by color, hand flapping, fidget cubes and chewing pens.

-His special interests include: Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, psychology and even though he’s some what embarrassed to admit it, Crofters (he collects the jars after he’s done eating the jam and keeps them all nicely arranged on his desk for decoration, he knows a lot about how the company was founded and the personal lives of its founders)

-He has poor motor skills so he doesn’t partake in physical activity much, he can understand how sports are played but when it comes to actually playing the game he just can’t get the hand eye co ordination right, so he decides to sit on the benches instead.

-He’s sensitive to a lot of certain noises like balloons popping, books slamming on a table, really loud clapping, ect. so patton bought him a really fancy pair of indigo noise cancelling head phones for his birthday.

-For a while he was insecure about his stimming so he would sit on his hands to prevent it, Virgil actually encouraged him to be more open about it since he knows the importance of stimming.

-He doesn’t understand quite a few jokes and has trouble expressing himself partly due to a fear of being too childish and needy since he knows how often autistic people aren’t treated seriously because of their autism and are seen more as permanent children, he also can’t really express himself in the same way as others because of his autism, he often says something and it completely comes across the wrong way.

-He’s a picky eater hence why he eats crofters on toast so often since it’s one of the few foods he likes the taste and texture of.

-when he was first diagnosed he was very scared to tell his friends and honestly started to feel insecure about his intelligence, their town is very small so the autistic community was practically non existent so Logan didn’t have many resources to learn about his autism, his parents had to sit him down and talk to him about it in order for him to understand what autism fully was.

-Patton and Remus absolutely adore every time Logan infodumps about his special interests since Remus loves when people rant about weird stuff and Patton just loves how happy Logan gets when talking about it.

-Logan attends physical therapy every two weeks and has a friendly relationship with his therapist, he also sees a regular therapist every two weeks since his moms wanna make sure their little boy is doing okay all the time since they know he’s kind of a stoic over achiever.

-he often gets crushes on guys who share the same interests as him or just any guy who lets him infodump on them with out any shame *cough* Patton and Remus *cough*

-his friends always try to comfort him during meltdowns by staying calm and patient, with the expecting of Virgil of course who will panic and feel the need to leave which everyone understands, even Logan told him at one point that he doesn’t have to stick around if he thinks the situation is too stressful.

I considered making science, reading or math one of his special interest but since most resources I got for writing a character with autism told me to avoid that since it’s mostly a stereotype associated with autistic people being genius’s so instead, While Logan is smart and loves science it’s not one of his special interests, the best way I can describe it is I have ADHD so I have hyper fixations (examples: monster high, Cinderella and sander sides) and I also love art and do it all the time but that’s more of a general hobby than a hyperfixation for me.

So yeah... tell me if I should add or take away anything, don’t be shy, your feedback is definitely appreciated!

[small-birdie]

my take on ready player one

overall, i did like the movie. it was exciting, it was colorful, it was fun and basically entertainment for the sake of entertainment. it didn’t need to be deep or terribly emotional, it was made for great watching experience and references, and that’s exactly what i got. i had a blast watching it. so yeah, good movie! but it did have its flaws, quite a lot, and things it could’ve handled so much better. i want to go more in-depth though, so under the cut, there is a detailed list of stuff i liked and/or didn’t like. INCLUDES SPOILERS TO BOTH BOOK AND MOVIE (and they’re so different) SO BE CAREFUL!

likes:

• the point i already made was how different it was from the book, and i found that i liked that a lot. it felt new and exciting despite me knowing the basic outline of the plot; i wasn’t forced to re-watch what i already read. it wasn’t compliant to the book at all, but it didn’t need to be, and that’s much easier than trying to make it the same and inevitably getting some things wrong, thus getting people mad.

• parzival never getting his high five in a literal sense (like 3 people left him hanging) was hillarious. he did get the actual high five though (i mean, the people) and i felt like it was a good little joke.

• that ioi researcher girl with red hair was so cute and excited about parzival winning!! (also her quote of “halliday is making everyone watch the contest, of course, that’s so… halliday!”). she felt more like a good guy than a bad guy tbh, and that is good because it shows that not everyone who works for ioi is sorrento level terrible.

• special effects department – good fucking job!! the stacks looked awesome, and omg the ioi main “battle” room (the one with white/red circles which the sixers used as the oasis gear) was really well designed! the scenes were realistic where they needed to be (irl) and not realistic where they didn’t (in-game), and the fact that they managed to find that balance was really important imo.

• they did well with camera angles and general scene design; every time the in-game stuff was shown through the virtual reality glasses it fit the scene really well and was done masterfully.

• good character designs (at least in-game avatars) – i feel like they were imaginative enough to be realistically something people would design, yet not ridiculous enough to be distracting. (side note – i’ve heard people say usually there would be much more ridiculous designs, but i gotta point out – the players have to walk around as these characters, in those bodies. making a weird avatar would be an inconvenience to them too; besides, with how popular oasis was, avatars were basically a sign of social status. but i digress).

• following the previous point, i really loved the sixers’ designs. terrifying because they’re all identical, there’s so many of them and they’re so in-synch, and yet really cool-looking.

• aech’s actress has done a really good job, and i feel like her character was very badass even despite the whole thing with shining.

• though the curator’s character was not canon in the book, i really really like the way he was used. i even preferred the way it went about the coin thing to the book.

• HALLIDAY’S PORTRAYAL WAS AMAZING. like, he was done exactly the way i expected him to be from the book, and it was honestly so damn awesome. i’ve also heard people say that he was represented as autistic, and i can’t say anything about that, i’m nowhere near being an expert, but if he was – that’s really good, it’s always great to see representation.

• i did like the main message of the movie. reality is real, and we shouldn’t forget about it even if we have video games such as oasis to escape to. it’s nice to have distractions, but don’t forget to live in the real world as well, no matter how bad it is – instead, try to fix it for the better.

• i’m glad they kept the nightclub with no gravity as a setting, i was wondering what that would look like in live action.

• sho(to) had cool one-liners and i appreciated him a lot.

• (book spoilers!!!) daito being alive was good?? like i’m glad he didn’t die, he was a good character in my opinion and i liked him! though, more on that later.

dislikes:

• first quest. are you telling me not one player before parzival, not ever, not even because of sheer curiosity and/or desperation because there was nothing else to do, decided to drive backwards?! bullshit. i do it in racing video games all the time and those video games aren’t even about to get me trillions of dollars. did no one else know halliday didn’t like rules?

• aech was used as comic relief a lot, and i just feel like her character was a little more serious and a lot more independent in the book, and it could’ve been handled for better things than a few gags about horror movies.

• they didn’t show that aech was gay? like almost not at all? she did try to kiss a (zombie-)girl in that one scene in shining, but that was one throwaway line and i don’t think many people picked up on it. in the book that was almost the entire reason why she was living the way she was (in a van and whatnot) – conflict with her mother due to her sexuality! would be nice to have that acknowledged better.

• art3mis and parzival’s relationship was underdeveloped. like, really underdeveloped. like, “telling the person you knew for three days that you love them” sort of underdeveloped. it wasn’t even clear why parzival had a crush on her in the first place – while the book does specify the whole thing about her blog and how he’s a fan, in the movie z just has a few lines of dialogue with aech before the race, and that’s all we know about art3mis when she’s introduced. then she just proceeds to be mildly rude to parzival and yet he falls for her anyways. could’ve been much, much better, and way less rushed.

• speaking of art3mis, she was at the very least meant to have a much more noticeable birthmark. seriously. she needed something to hide. the way movie presented her, she was still conventionally attractive despite the reasonably small mark, which in no way explains why she was so defensive of her irl appearance. (not to say i don’t adore her actress because i do!! i’m just talking about the character design).

• sorrento was presented as some cowardly douchebag, and i feel like he was really meant to be much more cold and manipulative, facing off with parzival in the final battle for the easter egg, fighting side by side with sixers. but no, he was shown to be a selfish scaredy cat. one of my favorite scenes from the book is when parzival demands sorrento steps down if ioi want his help, and sorrento just smiles and says something like “consider it done”. in the film he proceeded to be insecure and mad about it, and i feel like that made him much less threatening.

• also, sorrento’s allies (i-r0ck and the unnamed lady who commanded his troops) felt sort of… redundant. there was no need for them to be as big a characters as they were. not to say i don’t like the idea of having a badass lady henchman for the bad guy, but she was presented to be sorta incompetent and at times even ridiculous; and i-r0ck was used as a comic relief in moments which didn’t need one.

• they cut out so much of the second act character conflict (or rather, conflict between characters). they kinda tried to do the whole “art3mis wants to stay alone” thing, but briefly and not too well, whereas in the book it was a massive plot point when she stopped talking to parzival. aech, too – there was time in the book when she and parzival weren’t in contact at all because she was mad at him, and when they contacted again, it was only because SHE helped him find the second key, and i feel like that would’ve established her as a much cooler and in general better character if they did that. because of that, z didn’t feel to have as much of a character arc in the movie – he didn’t really change from how he was like in the beginning.

• there are two further points to do with this. first one is, in the book art3mis figured out how to get the jade key on her own, and so did aech. they didn’t rely on parzival showing them the way, they did it themselves because they were smart and logical, and he was too full of himself after finding the first key first to concentrate enough on the second clue. it highlighted his character flaw while also establishing that the other characters are in no way dumber/less capable than him, and it was very important. the movie didn’t do this. while, sure, art3mis was the one to think of the general idea, z was the one who pointed out the movie, and aech’s contribution was overall erased.

• second point is (book spoilers again!), actually, daito’s death again. it created stakes! so much stakes! ioi was actually out to get them, it was real! and it highlighted his relationship with shoto so well, how upset the latter was and how he was mourning, and it was a very good dramatic plot point; so while i’m glad he stayed alive because i don’t like character deaths, it may have been somewhat better if he was in fact killed.

• also, shoto and daito’s general presence in the movie was very different. firstly, they were (i think?) actual brothers, and secondly they were not at all wary of getting close to parzival and co, while in the book they preferred to stick together and barely trusted them. it was a much more interesting dynamic i think, and showed things like they were more likely to play out if this scenario happened in real life. so while i don’t hate this decision, i think keeping it the way it was in the book would’ve been good too, if not better.

• stakes created by a shaking van and sorrento, who was shown to be fully capable and willing to kill the kids before, lowering his gun when they were right in front of him, seemed just a little ridiculous.

okay haha that’s about it! that’s a lot, sorry for the rant, but i tend to get strong feelings about completely random things, and i did really like the movie! i see a lot of hate out there, but while i admit it had substantial flaws, we also mustn’t fail to acknowledge the good parts!

so yeah. have a good day if you read all of this! (and if you haven’t, have a good day too ^^)

[hext00ns]

[pulls the mic to myself for a very quick moment] hi, yes, hello, resident Sonic The Hedgehog Autistic™ to highjack my lovely wonderful friend's ask to answer with their permission. It is 330am for me as I write this so bare with me dear anon also most of this is just my opinion and some ppl might think differently but shrugs

[SLAPS HAND TOGETHER] OKAY so first and foremost, much like you said, it's a different universe which already plays a HUGE part in this. If you ask me (and I'm sure others will have differing answers) there's three timelines for Sonic franchise. The main timeline which, with some finagling and tweaking, is all the games, comics, and cartoons EXCEPT for Boom, the Boom timeline which are all the Boom games and it's show, and last but not least the SCU (Sonic Cinematic Universe) timeline which is the new live action movie universe we have been so graciously gifted by the fucking heavens. Because Boom and SCU are literally whole ass different universes with different stories, backgrounds, and sometimes even different characters they are BOUND to be vastly different from the main shit. (We can already see this very clearly with the personalities of the Sonic characters in the SCU. Like similar sure but still very different.)

Now the thing with Sonic Boom is it was always made for humor. Part of it's thing was that it was made to take the canon stories and personalities, latch onto the humorous parts of them, and just start fucking yanking. Boom is a comedy before anything else. It's focused on it's humor. It also, unfortunately, takes some of that humor by making fun of it's own meta and the fans of the franchise (it's not NEARLY as bad as Teen Titans Go obvi but like. Idk man don't make fun of the thing ppl love and the ppl that love it how hard is that ;-;) But so, because of this a lot of it's characterization of it's characters is more or less all humor based.

Sonic is pretty similar but in Boom he's WAY more of a straight man character. He's still a dork but he feels more like if OVA Sonic grew up into an emotionally exhausted young adult for no other reason than it's just his personality. He's way less hyper. Still pretty snarky and with a good bit of bitchy bite to him, but again, in more of a MTV's Daria way than normal. Tails is very similar. He's more or less the same but very much also put into the role of straight man in Boom. I actually think it's VERY funny that not only are there two straight men characters in the main cast but the are two of the biggest MAIN characters and also it's. mother fucking. Sonic of all people. Like Tails totally makes sense. He was raised by Sonic and has grown a similar fun bite to him but also Tails actually wields a braincell like a good 85% of the time so he fits well in that group dynamic. I just think it's fucking hilarious that not only is Sonic a straight man but it WORKS. Like it works SO well. Especially since most straight man trope characters are also notably very smart like Tails. Sonic is a fucking buffoon. An absolute clown of a hog. And yet he some how ends up as one of the two main voices of reason amongst the group. It's absolutely fantastic.

Amy is a very interesting one because her character is already a little off? I'm not sure how to explain it but like she wasn't the most well written female character through the franchises' history. Like for a hot second there she was just The Girl Hedgehog That Likes Sonic. And sometimes she does still get accidently shoved into that role. But!!! She is so so so so SO much more and when a good writer gets their hands on Amy Rose it is a sight to behold!!! Boom Amy is like. IDK, it's like!!!!!! She sometimes gets boiled down to Feminism Joke Ha Ha Very Funny. And I'm like okay. Okay. It's better than her only personality trait being Crush On Sonic but she still feels idk kinda off. She feels like the most off out of all the show. I STILL ADORE HER I SWEAR. And she's still like SUPER funny and fun and she def has the brain cell in some eps. But yeah idk how to explain it it's 350am and all I can really describe it as they made her a "girl power feminism" joke character (all of them are jokes tho) but it's not like??? Disgustingly horribly done or anything just??? Off??? Yeah

Knuckles is. FUCKING. HYSTERICAL. So, Knuckles, despite popular belief, is not stupid. Not really. He's very gullible, yes, but please remember he was orphaned and living on an island alone with amnesia for the first like 12 years of his life or some shit. He's also very hotheaded and angys. For some reason being gullible with anger issues makes ppl think you're stupid. Idk don't ask me I couldn't tell you. BUT when they made Boom Knuckles they picked him up and threw him DIRECTLY into the Himboification Plinko. BIGGEST of heart, DUMBEST of ass, HUGEST of tits. He's fucking perfect. Every line that comes out of his mouth is golden. Knuckles is one of the funniest fucking characters on the show and it drives me nuts. He's so good.

Sticks is original to Boom so she doesn't pertain to the question but I just wanna say that if they ever make Sticks a mainline Sonic character if they ever change anything about her character I will start ATTACKING Sega with a fucking butter sock I will become VIOLENT. Sticks is perfect. Like she is the most character ever.

Eggman is more or less the same except Boom Eggman is like? A dude? HE'S JUST A GUY IN SONIC BOOM MAN! He's just some weirdo scientist that constantly is arguing and sometimes tries to kill his animal neighbors!! He's. SO goddamn funny I do not know what to do with myself as a human person. He is just some fuckin' guy.

It's 430 now and my brain is starting to eat cement so Imma try to wrap this up quickly. But last big character that I can think warrants addressing is Shadow. I've actually seen a lot of ppl HATE Boom Shadow but?? Idk why?? Like, I get that he know longer has his original story. And like yes, that background arguably is what makes Shadow Shadow. But, again, Boom is primarily a comedy? It has no real interest in sad angsty backstories. For Chaos sakes, Sticks had like angry demons trapped behind a surfboard in her house and I don't think anyone ever really addressed why the fuck that was a thing in that ep. But Boom Shadow is really funny if only cause he's some angry emo hot topic kid that wants to kick Sonic's ass cause he thinks he's a loser. That's it. And it's fucking HILARIOUS.

Boom is a comedy and that's kinda it. There's nothing wrong with that but also don't walk into it thinking you're gonna get the same emotional depth as some of the rest of the franchise or you're not gonna have much fun. But Boom is fun! It's mega fun! Just different and silly :>

Here are some other thoughts I had on Boom like forever ago if you're interested and also my ask box is always open for any other Sonic related questions o7

I know they're from a different continuity/universe but how accurate would you say the Sonic Boom characters are to their main universe counterparts?

i have never played a sonic game in my entire life I'm a little confused why you're asking me this

[becbec-reviewsfilms]

‘Forrest Gump’

★★★★

1994 – Dir. Robert Zemeckis

The drifting white feather and enchanting soundtrack immediately draw you into this heartfelt tale. Despite the film having been released over 20 years ago, it can still easily hold its own against most modern films. It’s a story that reminiscences on the most important events of the late 20th century all which are impacted by one man who only wants to try his best.

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is a kind and well-doing man. Despite having a low IQ, his mother is determined he will have the same opportunities as everyone else. This leads him to a remarkable life – playing American football, fighting in Vietnam, meeting the President several times, starting a world-famous organisation, playing ping pong for his country, but perhaps most importantly, it intertwines him with Jenny (Robin Wright), his childhood friend and later love.

It was my impression that Forrest Gump was autistic. He struggles to sometimes understand social behaviour and situations, as well as having a low IQ. This leads to discrimination against him in the public-school system – effectively showing the persecution of those deemed ‘abnormal’ in that they do not conform to society’s norms. However, it is through this that he makes friends with Jenny, originally described as an ‘angel’, yet in a way it is Forrest who actual becomes her angel throughout the play, perhaps foreshadowed by that one white feather floating at the start and end of the film.

Forrest is born with a crooked back, meaning that he must wear braces on his legs in order to walk. However, when he is being chased by bullies, Jenny calls on him to ‘Run Forrest, run!’, and in slow motion he begins to run properly and the braces break away from his legs, symbolising his new-found freedom. As it turns out, Forrest is good at running. So good, in fact, that he earns a college scholarship to play football – in which there is an amusing scene where Forrest continues to run off the pitch. His ability to run also helps him when he is in Vietnam, as he not only escapes the ambush but rescues part of his squad as well. Finally, running is obviously something that helps him to think and to cope, as when Jenny leaves him he runs across America for 3 and a half years – an impressive feat for anyone.

When Forrest graduates, he is immediately taken in by the army and meets Bubba (Mykelti Williamson). Bubba also appears to have autism like Forrest and the two get along very well. Bubba dreams of being a shrimp farmer, and when he sadly doesn’t make it back from Vietnam Forrest takes up that dream along with Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise) – their superior officer who lost both legs in the ambush, and whom Forrest saves from his depressive and suicidal life. Forrest and Bubba’s last conversation is heart-breaking, as Forrest recollects that he regrets not being able to say more but in the moment, he just couldn’t find the words. It’s tremendously well-acted, like the whole film really, but it is certainly a crushing moment.

Throughout the film we see flashes of Jenny’s life in the moments before and during her interactions with Forrest. Beginning with her abusive father, Jenny’s life takes many downhill turns. She loses her place at college after explicit photos of her are published and ends up working in a strip club. Then, rescued by Forrest, she hitchhikes her way across the country, eventually falling in with the hippie culture, but yet again ending up with an abusive boyfriend. He reunion with Forrest in Washington D.C. is quite frankly adorable, as they wade through the water to each other whilst cheered on by the crowds around them. It’s supremely sweet and works so well after the darkness of the Vietnam war. We also see that Jenny falls in with the drug culture of the 70s and her life becomes so miserable that she contemplates committing suicide. However, she manages to make her way back to Forrest. It is a recurring theme that Forrest is actually Jenny’s guardian angel, the person whom she always finds when she is in trouble. They share a sweet and tender love, but when Forrest asks Jenny to marry him to it too much for her. She has been through much in her life and the proposal seems to come too soon for her to accept it. She does what she believes she needs to do to show Forrest that she loves him, and then leaves the next morning.

In the ‘almost’ modern day setting, the beginning of the film, we see various people sitting by Forrest on the bench waiting for their buses. He recounts his life to them, strangers who show either disinterest or disbelief, but he carries on. There is one, the last one, an old woman who clearly believes his story, and who even misses her bus, saying that ‘there’ll be another one’. This ties in with the film’s theme of life being a mix of destiny and luck – it’s like ‘a box of chocolates’, Forrest’s mum repeats. Life is what you make of it – not just what others make for you. For a film with a disabled protagonist – in fact several disabled characters – it is such an important message. Don’t let society hold you back – go forth, be great, live life.

Forrest and Jenny finally reunite when he finishes his story, and he discovers that he has a son. However, this is a moment that should be wonderful for him, but instead he panics, and repeatedly asks Jenny if Forrest Jr. is ‘smart’. It’s such a heart-breaking moment, Jenny reassures him that Forrest Jr. is the smartest in his class, and a huge look of relief washes over Forrest’s face. He may not fully understand social behaviour, but he understands that he is different to everyone else, and that he was bullied mercilessly and discriminated against for that. Forrest may not have a high IQ, but he is smart in practical ways, able to build a shrimp company and handle machines quickly and effectively. It’s almost crazy that after everything he has been through, his biggest fear is that his son will have the same disability as him, because he does not want that life for his son.

Of course, after everything, there is that one final heart-breaking scene. Forrest stood by Jenny’s, his wife’s, grave. I cried a lot at this scene. Forrest isn’t an overly emotional character, but is the subtleties of Hanks’ acting that give the emotion and feeling to the scene. It’s a bittersweet ending for Jenny, and their love, but it is made happier by the blossoming relationship between Forrest and his son. And of course, parallel to the start of Forrest’s story, the film ends with Forrest Jr. boarding the school bus for the first time, and that white feather drifting free once more, flying high into the sky.

My one problem with this film is both scenes where Jenny expresses sexual interest towards Forrest. To me, it seems that these are the only times when Forrest appears ‘normal’. I think that this sort of representation could be damaging to those who have autism, who struggle with social behaviour. Whilst part of Forrest’s ‘normalised’ reaction could be due to his world-learning, it feels out of place with the rest of his character and behaviour. It annoys me, because other than that it is a brilliant film, but I cannot shake off this one annoyance.

‘Forrest Gump’ is a beautiful film, although it sometimes feels like a glorification of American historical events at that time, but it also deals with them in a realistic and hard-hitting way. The survivors guilt and PTSD of Lieutenant Dan felt very real and very shocking; the discrimination against Forrest for his mental disability; the objectification of Jenny. It is historically accurate and tells a charming story at the same time (maybe Forrest wasn’t real, but all those large events were).

It makes you laugh, it makes you cry. Zemeckis has created a wonderful film that is still a classic, even now. The light-heartedness to the story feels alien from this modern era of dark and gritty films, and whilst it may appear to be light on substance, it is packed with hard-hitting and relevant stories. It’s easy to see why this film is so beloved, and why it will continue to be a favourite for a long, long time.