#they are obviously able to observe but i want at least plausible deniability that they're doing anything more that clicking on fanart

[operafloozy]

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[strangertheories]

Do you have any headcanons for any character(s) you believe to be autistic?

Do you mean headcanons about their autism or headcanons of who's autistic? I'm going to go with the latter but you can send me another ask afterwards if you wanted the former.

First up, Robin Buckley. I've spoken about this a ton. She has sensory issues around certain textures, has issues with social ques, talks a lot when she's nervous and/or with a girl she likes (Vickie, Nancy at least to me) and seems to be hyperfixated on languages or film (or literature based off of the podcast). Not to mention her development issues as a baby with walking and her poor coordination. She's just very autistic coded in my opinion. In fact I'd argue it goes beyond coding because these are basically just diagnostic criteria.

Secondly, Dustin. This isn't one I've seen as much, but I really like interpreting him as autistic. When he's excited, he jumps up and down and moves his hands happily. The whole message with him and Eddie about how he's unapologetically himself and should never change the way he acts so he is "normal" are also a lot more meaningful with this interpretation. He's just full of pure neurodivergent joy (:

Finally, the Byers children (including Eleven). Johnathan doesn't enjoy interacting with people and he takes photos so he can observe and try to understand people more. He doesn't get why people change who they are and he likes seeing their true personality. Which could be perceived as autistic. Will just is, I don't know how to explain it.

And Eleven's social issues may be caused by growing up in a lab, but I think it's fine to interpret her as autistic too. Especially her bullying scenes where she doesn't realize they're not laughing at her until a bit later on, Angela's whole passive aggresive plausible deniability bullying, her intense desire to fit in and not quite being able to do it so she's bullied relentlessly.

Obviously having social issues doesn't make you inherently autistic and a lot of these characters don't have sensory issues, but it's still nice to interpret them this way. Thanks for the ask (: