#why does it have to be about my autism all of a sudden

[mariusaurus]

was riverdaleposting on my finsta a while back and my gf replied saying something about “do you have anyone to talk to about this? is that something you need?” and i have honestly never felt more cared for in my life like ?? you understand my need to talk about these things?? and you’re making sure that need is being met?? which is not only so considerate but helps me reframe my investment in my interests from something negative or compulsive to something normal and necessary to my self-regulation? wtf?

[chuuyaa-nakaharaa]

Really, Dazai?? Sigh

Yeah sure. Even as an ugly creature I'd still love you and whatever.

*rolling on the floor, groaning.*

— @dazaii-osamuu

Not again.. Get up you idiot!

[captain-ravioli7321]

why i think Hailey from The Music Freaks is autistic!!!

sorry this is kinda late a sinus infection was curbstomping my ass for like a week but WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just like the last yap sesh this is more of based on personal hc and assumptions rather than solid evidence, but do bare with me! :3 AND REMEMBER: NOT a professional, I just really like this freaking show

this'll be similarly formatted like when i talked about my jake autistic headcanon

Bullying: Again, this might be a tad stereotypical? But a majority of people who are autistic (or neurodivergent at all) are bullied in childhood. This is often due to autistic traits being perceived as weird.

Stage Fright: This is a common trait in folks who are neurodivergent- specifically with ADHD or Autism. Autism is based on differences in communication and sensory processing. Someone who's autistic may feel uncomfortable or nervous about the unpredictability of the audience's reactions- which seems to be Hailey's case, as shown in episode 8. Though, the reason for stage fright is caused by a runoff of OTHER symptoms, which I will get to.

Emotional Regulation: Hailey seems to have a hard time dealing with her emotions- particularly when she's under scrutiny. She's able to deal with it if it's a problem that doesn't involve her being judged directly, but in cases like her stage fright, or if Drew and the others are confronting her directly, she gets particularly pissed and upset. She's able to deal with it if it's just dumb off-hand comments like in episode 1, but if it's a one-on-one encounter or something like what happened in episode 8 (I think) when Drew, Henry, and Liam came in uninvited, she gets upset easily (rightfully so) and it takes a while for her to cool down.

Sensitive to Changes in Routine: Hailey has a hard time dealing with sudden changes in plans or routine. In episode 9 when Jake asks Hailey to do a duet, her first reaction (aside from intial shock) is hesitancy to go through with it due to a sudden change in their schedule. In the same episode when Drew, Liam, and Henry interrupt them, it ticks her off particularly, as- not only does she not like these people, but they're disturbing her and Jake's time in the club room. Drew (and some other people in his friend group I think) refer to Hailey as a control freak, or someone who "always wants her way", which I think could be related to this.

Strong Morals: In episode 7 when she and Jake talk, she explains that while she didn't LIKE Jake, she believes in second chances. She believes he earned his way into the club, and mentions that he sang with his heart and soul. While not a strictly autistic trait, this trait IS common. Strong empathy is also a common sign of autism. (So is lack of empathy, but in general, both sides of the spectrum can be a trait of autism.) She understands to an extent where Jake is coming from, and her moral compass makes her dead honest with him in how she views his friends.

Voice & Tone: I'm honestly not sure if this is just me picking up on it or if it's just how her voice actor talks, but she seems to be somewhat monotone a lot of the time. Not to an extreme, but enough that I personally notice it.

Special Interest: This one's pretty obvious. She's the president of a MUSIC club, she can SING, play GUITAR, and other instruments probably, and can WRITE SONGS. Huh. I wonder what her special interest is. /sarc

That's all I've noticed so far! I might update this if I notice more. PLSSSS YAP IN THE COMMENTS IF U AGREE/DISAGREE/WANT ME TO ADD SOMETHING I MAY HAVE MISSED RHAHHH

[dykeiism]

whenever i see people talking about the purpose of mental health diagnoses, three reasons usually come up:

to encourage self-understanding

to concisely describe treatment options to professionals

to gain access to resources and accomodations

but it's hard for me to agree with any of these. given the harm associated with diagnosis, especially diagnosis of a personality disorder, i'm finding it increasingly difficult to justify diagnosing any mental disorder at all. below the cut is a breakdown of each of these three reasons, and why i believe that none of them hold up to criticism.

(1) to encourage self-understanding.

diagnostic criteria are so rigid that they discourage self-understanding. they fragment the human experience, categorizing it into easily digestible groups of "symptoms" rather than understanding a person's struggles holistically. this is why we have a phenomenon of people thinking, "well, my anxiety tells me this, but my depression tells me that" and "i'm having an intrusive thought but can't tell if it's coming from my ocd, ptsd, or bpd." diagnosis misleads patients into believing that, much like one might cough due to either pollen in the lungs or a respiratory illness, one might feel anxious due to either their generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis or their post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. a more accurate understanding of the human mind would necessarily involve doing away with the pathology of gad versus ptsd, and instead being able to understand that the anxiety might simply result from a combination of previous negative experiences, a naturally sensitive personality, and underdeveloped emotion regulation skills. a diagnosis is a description of a pattern of thoughts and behaviours; nothing more. my mental health conditions don't cause me to think or behave a certain way. rather, my thoughts and behaviours are similar to the thoughts and behaviours of other people who have also been deemed mentally sick. this makes it possible for doctors to use a certain diagnosis as a shorthand to describe my personality and skills (i refuse to call such things "symptoms") to other doctors. it does not mean that i have a sickness that causes me to think and act in certain way.

why would i want to understand myself through the lens of a psychiatrist, anyways? psychiatry is a deeply individual solution to systemic problems. we're living in a world that evolution could not prepare us for, yet we are told that there's something wrong with our brains if we're unable to adapt to these unprecedented living conditions. i refuse to believe that my brain is sick unless somebody has looked at my brain and can tell me where the sickness is. we must not forget that we're dealing with the discipline that understood homosexuality and hysteria as mental illnesses, and that initially understood autism to be a form of schizophrenia.

(2) to concisely describe treatment options to professionals

imagine, if you will, someone with post-traumatic stress disorder. all you know about them is that they have ptsd. now, recommend a treatment method for them!

nobody can give a good treatment recommendation based on that diagnosis alone. more information is needed: is the patient dealing with persistent general anxiety, sudden panic attacks, or a phobia? does the patient have compulsions? is the patient aggressive, anxious, or depressive? depending on the answers, the ideal treatment plan will be quite different.

now let's consider borderline personality disorder. there are 4 types of bpd and there are 256 possible ways to combine the 5 symptoms required for diagnosis (there are 9 symptoms in total). the personalities, cognitive abilities, and struggles of people diagnosed with bpd are quite diverse, and they will all require varying types and degrees of professional intervention. that being said, bpd is almost always treated with dbt and a few medication options including antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and anticonvulsants. there are so many other disorders that are treated with dbt and the same drugs. so why make bpd, bipolar, ptsd, cptsd, and depression their own diagnoses? what reason is there, other than to fragment our struggles and generate stigma?

my wish for the future of psychiatry is that, instead of being diagnosed with a disorder that is simultaneously very specific yet inexplicably vague, patients will be told "your struggles are related to trauma and emotional dysregulation. i recommend that you take an antidepressant and attend dialectical behavioural therapy sessions," or "your struggles are related to catastrophization and unhelpful behaviours, i recommend that you engage in cognitive behavioural therapy."

(3) to gain access to resources and accommodations

there are better ways to do this. i don't think anyone should be turned away from the accommodations that they need. however, if resources are scarce and must be gatekept, then a simple interview or quotient test will be sufficient in determining the level of need.

[crowbasils]

What do you think about autistic Basil headcanon?

I made a post about this, I relate to him a lot and I see a lot of his behavioral patterns in me.

YES. i see it!! and i’ve been meaning to talk about the possibility of basil being autistic for quite a while, so, i’ll talk about it here. it’s harder to see it in comparison to sunny’s since he’s most likely masking (which sunny doesn’t really do), but it’s still there!!

(this tweet will kinda be a mess, since it’s not like an analysis analysis. if i’m wrong, please do correct me!)

according to the nhs (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/signs/children/) signs of autism in older children include:

- not seeming to understand what others are thinking or feeling

- unusual speech, such as repeating phrases and talking ‘at’ others

- liking a strict daily routine and getting very upset if it changes

- having a very keen interest in certain subjects or activities

- getting very upset if you ask them to do something

- finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on their own

- taking things very literally – for example, they may not understand phrases like "break a leg"

- finding it hard to say how they feel

from what we know about him & from what the duet cutscene says, he was alone for most of his life before meeting the friend group. he also has a line (though said by headspace basil) about this! while that may not necessarily be a sign of autism, it’s what he says next that stands out to me.

“you’ve all taught me so much… how to care for others and how to care for myself too!”

that specific line stands out to me because of how it tells us that basil wasn’t always as caring and cheery as he was as a 12 year old. he learned from his friends—through experience with them, and through observation.

he’s also implied to have a hard time making friends. other than aubrey (who he likely met later in his life rather than in early childhood like sunny and kel), he had no friends before that. how awkward he is in the cutscene where aubrey introduces him to her new-found friend group also implies that he hasn’t had experience with friends. (he also looks like he’s somewhat ‘copying’ aubrey’s smile, just in a more awkward way)

basil most likely has difficulty when it comes to identifying feelings—specifically ones he hasn’t experienced himself. such as the fear of spiders. he doesn’t seem to get that others can fear spiders due to how he doesn’t fear spiders and sees them as a positive instead.

(icon can’t be seen due to my bad internet, but it’s headspace basil. a lot of the headspace basil lines in blackspace and omori route help when it comes to understanding his character better. stranger’s lines help as well :3)

(it should be noted, though, that otherwise, he’s good at reading sunny specifically. may not be a sign of it on itself, but taking into consideration that sunny is also likely autistic, it might be. both of them understand each other despite their childhood different experiences due to it.)

he’s also… pretty bad at articulating and identifying feelings.

“…but the words don’t come out.”

“i don’t know if i should apologize”

“but why does part of of me still cling on?”

the feeling of not knowing if you should apologize or not, the inability to form words and articulating yourself, the feeling of not knowing why you do something… that counts, right?

basil has a very keen interest in plants and flowers. he memorized the symbolism of the flowers that the he assigned to the friend group, and we see plants all over and even outside basil’s house.

he also insists on only taking photos of people when they’re not posing for him and genuinely expressing emotion (which does give the headcanon of him observing expressions and feelings through the photo album a little more merit :3)

from OMORI canon, we know how attached he is to the past and how he dislikes sudden changes. it’s why the photo album exists, it’s why he says “everything will be okay”, it’s why he did what he did. this is something that both sunny and basil have in common!

to me, basil is an autistic person who learned how to mask because he’s afraid to be seen as weird by his friends & others. his relationship with sunny is the only one where he’s able to drop that mask and be “free” in a sense. post-incident basil tries to mask too, but fails at it since he has… a lot more going on his mind.

[winn-schott-throughtheheart]

i crash through the ceiling of your inbox to shamelessly beg for more Winn headcanons

do you have any thoughts on what the various foster homes/his childhood in general might have been like? i know there were some lines where his past was implied to be Not Great and it seemed like jeremy was adding some little details and mannerisms here and there to sort of deepen his character a little bit (bless the man, he tried) but the show proceeded to give us nothing and i thirst for more of my favorite little hobbit’s backstory

answering this Immediately because not even the lord himself could stop me from frothing at the mouth over winn schott

he never got fostered. not properly, at least. be was just bounced between different foster homes until he aged out of the system. this one is canon- he doesn't speak about any foster parents like kara does with the danvers, his "parents" will always be his biological parents

he's jewish! his dad was, at least, and they celebrated both christmas and hanukkah when he was little. none of the foster homes were very happy with this, however, and to this day he still doesn't really do hanukkah anymore.

he was actually a really trusting little kid. he fully believed in things like santa claus, because, well, who else would leave him toys specifically tailored to his likings under the tree every year?? it was only after his first christmas in foster care that he realised it had been his dad the whole time.

there's a bit of debate about the age he really was when his dad was arrested. he says he was 11 in 1x10, 10 in 2x21, and 9 when his dad threatened to kill him for the first time. assuming the middle one was just a generalisation, his mum either stopped interacting with him completely for two years beforehand, or she left that night, leaving him at the mercy of his father for two whole years, and maybe the phone call from the police station was a last ditch attempt. either way, winn was always a bit of a mamas boy, so that made it hurt even more, even though he was close with his dad.

he also gets on better with the girls than the guys because of that

he's never really been able to shake the maybe it was my fault? thoughts that linger in the back of his head.

and speaking of the night his dad threatened to kill him, he got the scar on his chin from that car crash

which also lines up irl because jerjor actually did get his scar from a car crash

he was actually diagnosed with autism quite young, but it was never really explained to him and something he had to do a lot more research on in his adult life to actually understand. it was also glaringly obvious that none of his foster homes actually cared, because he was still always treated as the outcast and told to stop being so weird, you're so difficult, why can't you just ignore it, be like the other kids.

a lot of that is why he has so much trouble asking for help even if he knows he needs it

whenever possible, he spent as much time as he could out of the house on his own. whether that be at the library, or the park, or at after school clubs, or just wandering the neighbourhood kicking rocks, he preferred to be on his own any day than stuck with everyone else. it never really mattered which home he was in.

if you look closely at his scenes, you'll notice winn actually flinches or makes himself look smaller a lot. whether it's loud noises, sudden movements or unexpected touch, he's jumpy. this is ESPECIALLY prevalent when he's with lyra. I personally take this to mean that maybe more than one foster home was physically abusive.

because of that he's also a lot more prone to shutdowns rather than meltdowns- the physical outburst response has long been trained out of him, both by said foster homes (for "acting out") and by himself, for fear of snapping and turning into his father if he showed too much negative emotion.

again, this is why he's the "comic relief" character- he isn't really all that happy, he just keeps all the unacceptable stuff down deep inside because he's scared of himself. he's learned to make jokes when he's uncomfortable instead of embracing it.

this poor guy yearns for a real father figure so bad. he was the queer, neurodivergent kid that had an unhealthy attachment to half of his teachers, because they showed him basic respect and dignity and they loved him, because he was quiet and studious and always did his homework on time and aced all his tests. he latched right onto j'onn for the exact same reason. notice how he's the only one allowed to call him papa bear?

he'd stay in various classrooms over break and lunch to avoid corridor bullying and having to eat in the bathroom. he was always happy to chat to the teacher and help with lesson plans, or catch up on some work or do some reading while he ate.

because of this isolation, he never really had any friends. he learned to fend for himself and he was skeptical of and wary around new people. he kept to himself all the way up until he met kara, who, in all her whimsy and fire and smiles, was completely insistent on getting to know him

when he left for the future, it all caught up to him very quickly after boarding the legion ship, and suddenly he was eleven years old again and being shipped between homes, having to leave behind everything he was just getting used to. that one stung a lot more than he would admit. he certainly wouldn't admit to crying himself to sleep the first night.

I think I actually said this already in a different post, but he hates the smell of teakwood and tobacco because it reminds him of an abusive foster home so much so that it literally makes him nauseous with anxiety.

he learned to hoard food because he could never be sure when his next meal was going to be, which is a habit he still carries to this day. he's defensive over his food, and still has a stash in his bedroom, even though he lives alone.

he Will work himself to the bone if someone doesn't stop him, which is because of a deep seated need to feel useful and wanted. if he isn't giving 100% of his energy at all times he feels as if he's useless, and scared he's going to be replaced.

I could definitely go on but I fear this is very long as it is lmfaooo he's just my little scrunkly scrimblo you agree.

[crow-man9000]

GET SAM AND MAX HEADCANONED (because I have no art to post due to sudden art block 💔💔)

Sam:

- mid-late 20s in the TTG, 34 in everything else (<- firm timeline theory believer + due to cartoon logic, they don't age)

- trans, aroace spectrum and bi. why? because I said so (also I think Sam considering the name Tyrone before Max suggested Sam is funny)

- has autism, at one point he was EXTREMELY hyperfixated on animals and wanted to work in a pet store, then he discovered 40s detective movies and he was like "OK NEW CAREER PLAN"

- on the topic of autism he mainly verbal stims like his long ass speech patterns he does when he's surprised

- surprisingly really good at drawing, even Sam doesn't know where he learnt it (canon basicallybut also not)

- basically just steals really vital evidence from crime scenes with the excuse of "we might need this later" (they will never need that later)

- Geek made him and Max watch spiderverse, he's now a spider noir and spiderham stan

Max

- late 20s in TTG, 35 in everything else

- gay and aroace spectrum (SAM AND MAX ARE IN A QPR AND NOBODY CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE)

- took woodwork classes in high school

- REALLY likes cowboys. idk why I just feel like he'd like cowboys

- (this is more like my interpretation of alt tdp but whatever) Max basically went through a depressive/psychotic episode during 303, pretending Sam was still alive when he damn well knew he wasn't

- he's also autistic because I'm autistic and I kin him (corn dogs are a comfort food)

- when he has to wear clothes he'll either go all out or dress like Adam Sandler, no in between

- die hard Santa believer, freaked out when he found out Santa was real in 201

- Geek introduced Max to Tomodachi Life, he instantly fell in love with it (he's pissed about the gay couples not being allowed in the game tho, so he got Miitopia so him and Sam could be in a relationship in the game)

thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[mystic-headcanons]

Autism Jumin headcanons PLEASE. I saw somewhere (i don't remember this in game) that MC said "i think you have something mentally wrong with you" and Jumin goes "i know"

that paired with autism. i cannot get out of my head.

do with this what you will

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

a lot of this is largely based on what i know about autism and my own personal experience with autism

- jumin is the number one cat expert. like this man knows everything there is to know about felines. he is THE cat expert

- HAS THE BLINKING STIM. i don’t think he would have many, if any at all, physical stims because jumin very much knows that it is Not Acceptable in the high society that he grew up in. someone also mentioned on my post that buttoning his sleeve would be a stim and i 100% agree.

- does not understand his own feelings very well. this man is VERY emotionally stunted, though how much of it is due to trauma and how much of it is because of his autism is unclear. which is why when he understands that what he feels is love towards mc, he like immediately proposes.

- he owns so. many. books. like legit has his own personal library. any special interest he has he buys books on, so there’s MANY books on cats, wines, supernatural entities, etc.

- does not like crushed velvet. i have no reasoning for this other than crushed velvet makes me want to rip off every one of my fingers and so jumin is the same way.

- he is an empathetic person, but often does not understand when he says something wrong. this is also very canon.

- when he has his autistic meltdowns, it consists of him just going completely blank. i’m talking no speaking, lifeless eyes, and does NOT let anyone into his personal space. will just sit in his bed with elizabeth the third and stare at the wall or the ceiling until he comes back to himself

- PETTING THE CAT IS HIS STIM TOO

- jumin has very few safe foods, so there is always extra stocked up in the kitchen in case of sensory overload

- if he finds someone who will listen to him talk, jumin could easily talk for hours about any one of his special interests

- very. very. literal. does not understand the common types of humor very well, and doesn’t understand sarcasm either.

- if he’s feeling a Big Unknown Emotion, jumin will literally just shut down. not in the same way as a meltdown, but in a ‘i need to process this fully and cannot be doing anything else’ type of way.

- has that autistic rizz 😎

- has been blocked by every member of the rfa, minus v, at least once for talking on and on when no one was interested.

- somewhere, probably on one of seven’s many phones, there exists a video of jumin han in cat ears and meowing at elizabeth the third because seven once told him that that’s how you connect fully with cats and jumin just. believed him.

- there was a fake website made and everything.

- if there are many overlapping sounds for an extended period of time, jumin starts to experience sensory overload.

- is fine with loud, sudden noises, though.

- it took jumin a while to become fully comfortable with the knowledge that he is autistic. it’s not something that he really talked about with his father, and jumin had to unlearn many misconceptions.

- cannot read between the lines. like, at all.

- once jumin starts opening himself up to his feelings more, he gets one (1) sharp pang of anxiety and it debilitates him.

- wine is another Very Special Interest of jumin’s. he could probably tell you the exact date and time that it was created.

- makes too much eye contact. like the man looks like he’s trying to stare into the depths of your soul.

i love jumin han so mf much <3 this is all. i have for now. i hope you liked it!!

[aritany]

I want to hear a wedding story! (Only if u want to share ofc)

GOODNESS.

where to begin. notably, the funniest part of this story is the wedding night (no, not in the way you're thinking), so stick around for that.

previous context is the divorce story, which is significantly less funny, but it does talk about boobs, so, you know.

buckle up, folks.

okay pov you're me. you're 19. your now-fiancé just proposed to you in Front Of Your Mother, with whom you have a notably Contentious Relationship. you do not take this for the red flag that it is. instead, you start planning a wedding.

also, you're in university, because you're 19, and you're taking seven courses and your now-fiancé Wants To Fuck, (as many young christian men do, also because you, as previously mentioned in divorce story, have excellent tits) so this wedding is happening in 6 months.

weddings are very expensive. notably. you, being practical, and also very nearly friendless, are keen on a <30 person event. close friends and family only. your now-fiancé, on the other hand, knows Probably All Eight Billion People On The Planet, and so if it were not for budgetary reasons, would very much like to hold a 300+ person shebang. fortunately, budgets. 130 people on the guest list, all of a sudden. you mourn your intimate wedding dream privately.

as a rule, wedding planning is very stressful, but fortunately, your now-fiancé is an Exceptional Event Planner, so he's very eager to take over on the planning, including (and this is important), wedding night accommodations.

you realize very quickly into the planning process that this wedding is exceptionally transparently a way for your mother (youngest girl of 5) to show off to her siblings (all wealthy, she married a musician, life's rough, perhaps chill out, arlene) and as such, Choices Are Being Made. you are very nervously trying to not butt heads with her, considering the aforementioned Contentious Relationship, and previous experience/fear for your life expectancy.

believe it or not, your mother marrying a musician was an important point, because they popped out several musician babies to form the Von Trapp Family Nightmare of their dreams, and as such, your mother reminds you, there are expectations in place! people are practically coming to the wedding for the music! she tells you and then gets very huffy and insists it's a joke. you let her hire a guitarist for the prelude, because, whatever.

it is possible, due to your as-yet-undiscovered autismal nature, that you are not doing as well as you might think you are at disguising that you're not all that pleased, but overall you stuff it down. compromise is a part of life, whatever. more on this later.

the wedding day approacheth. you throw a bachelorette party with 5 people including your 15 year old sibling, because you are very cool with lots of friends. you get very smashed. mother is not pleased, due to the presence of said sibling, which is perhaps her only valid moment in this story. sorry, noa.

the night before the wedding is where things get a little bit spicy. because of the Contentious Relationship, you can smell a storm coming from a mile away, but all you know for sure is that your mother is Not Pleased With You, which is very stressful until about eleven pm, when your father elects to pull you aside to Have A Chat.

in said Chat, he tells you that you could really do a lot more to make your mother feel more special during the following day. you say, father? on my wedding day? he, also autismal, also afraid of your mother, says, you heard me. you ponder this, and then end up explaining awkwardly and painstakingly why you will not be doing this, due to the Contentious Relationship, Also, Abuse. your father, now sitting with the brand-new information that his wife Sucks, Like, Severely, doubles down.

through the balcony window, your mother sees you Having A Chat. assumedly, she feels very left out. you smell danger so you go inside to mitigate. she understands that she is the topic of discussion, and, i shit you not, throws everything she's holding onto the floor and marches out of the room.

you do not see her until forty-five seconds before the ceremony. instead, you go to your room, and you cry so hard you give yourself a nosebleed, and you sleep for about three hours.

wedding's a bit of a blur. mostly you remember eating bread in a golf cart after the ceremony, and that during the reception, your dress was so uncomfortable that it overshadowed almost everything else. also, you and your dad (who does not dance) choreographed a whole 5 minute deal to one of your favourite songs for your father-daughter dance and now you can't hear it without feeling like you're going to throw up, due to the bigotry.

NOW.

let's get to the juice.

you are ready to leave about .3 seconds into the reception, but it's sort of the whole deal that this is The Party that you're supposed to really stick around for, like, the whole time. so you are VERY brave. you dance like nobody's watching, or whatever. (you dance like everybody you know and respect is watching, because they are.)

eventually, you get to leave this party. you drive away in your car together, and you're very newly married, which is, naturally, very exciting.

now, earlier, i said we'd revisit compromise. here's where that's going to happen. see, when you're planning a wedding, you have to be very careful about the budget. your fiancé-turned-husband also happens to be very frugal, a quality that is frequently very useful, however.

However.

apparently, the budget didn't extend to a very nice wedding night. and, like, you're you. you're honestly just very relieved to not be financially and emotionally dependent on your mother, for aforementioned and i hope deeply obvious reasons. you do not have high expectations. you're not expectation champagne, or anything.

however, you're also not expecting to pull up to a comfort inn in the industrial area of downtown, an institution so fine that it is now Permanently Closed. you, in your terribly uncomfortable wedding dress, traipse into reception, where the receptionist proceeds to stay on the phone for 45 minutes.

eventually, she gives you your room key and tells you that your room is in the annex.

the annex, you think. that could be nice. maybe that's a special building. and it is. oh, it is special. you lug yourself and your suitcases across the parking lot to the annex, a grey building with grey windows that looks a little bit like a hidey-hole for a serial killer. you open the door.

inside, a double bed. it is concave. in the corner, a dog bed.

you realize very abruptly that for you, on your wedding night, with intention of Consummation™, YOUR FRESH HUSBAND HAS BOOKED FOR YOU THE ROOM THAT THEY GIVE YOU WHEN YOU SAY YOU'RE TRAVELING WITH A DOG.

/fin.

[dramalets]

2024 Watch List pt1

Here we go again!

To sir, with love - This is a lakorn so it's appropriately dramatic. The mothers are absolutely foul and do an awful lot of scheming and yelling. Jam/Film are intensely watchable and make wet fish kisses look terribly romantic. Tongtong Kitsakorn as Yang was a revelation. I'm sad he's pm just a lakorn actor/pop star because he is so watchable. I loved that, though they were evil and insane, the mothers all felt fleshed out and realised. You understood why they were yikes. 3½/5 (2/1/23)

A Boss & a Babe - I quit this at episode 2 and then decided to go back to it. I don’t regret doing so. This isn’t top tier but it’s also not shit tier. Cher, the very dictionary definition of toxic positivity, and Gun, an autism coded cat man, enter into an extremely quick romance (like seriously, it’s taken hard worn lesbians longer to say I love you) the catch being they’re intern and company boss. Honestly in another drama that would have been the the huge hiccup of the series, keeping them apart, but it’s consistently shown to be more of an issue for others that it is for them. This is very low conflict, mostly romcom fluff with two weirdly intense, barely explored side stories for support characters. I didn’t loath Force in this and would actually like him to be given more roles where he’s just a soft simp and not a boring sarcastic one. Book does some good comedy work here. 3/5 (4/1/23)

The day I loved you - I know this won’t work for everyone. It’s a bittersweet ten episode love story between a boy with ASL and the ‘rebel’ exchange student at his school. Pinoy BL, for me, either really hits or really misses and this hit. It does use a questionable model of disability, namely the inspiration model, but I cant nit pick too much when this is only ten 15/20 minute episodes. I enjoyed it a lot, you may also if you’re okay with a bittersweet ending vs an out and out happy one. 3½/5 (12/1/24)

VIP Only - Well this was adorable. Slow as molasses and just as sweet. This probably won’t be for everyone, very slow and not much happens other than character growth and a love story, but it worked for me. The edit is horrendous in places and I do wish Taiwan did longer episodes, but those are my only gripes. 3½/5 (19/1/24)

I cannot reach you - I don’t really watch Jbl. There are just styles and tropes that I don’t enjoy watching that Japan uses a lot of. It’s a taste thing more than it is anything else. So keep that in mind. This is full of a lot of the things I don’t like; over action, randomly running everywhere, sudden non-con. But it’s also endearingly sweet and very well acted, so I did find myself enjoying it. I don’t think this’ll awaken a desire to watch lots of Jbl but it has made me consider some others. 3/5 (20/1/24)

Last Twilight - I had a lot of fun with this. The dialogue and acting were all top notch and, as ever with Aof productions, it was stunning to look at. It weaves the story of two broken people healing one another very well with Jimmy & Sea doing beautiful work as Mhok & Day. I think this came a little unstuck at points in the end. I liked most of the romance movie style ending but I remain a little unsure about Day’s ending. Still, this is a show that I enjoyed every week and will have no issues rewatching. 4/5 (26/1/24)

Old Fashion Cupcake - I’m working on trying out more JBL to get a feel for what I do and don’t like. This? This I like. We don’t have enough stories about older people anyway and this does it well. Togawa’s slow courting of Nozue through shared experiences and casual intimacy is delicious to watch. 4/5 (4/2/24)

Pit Babe - I love when I show wholly knows what it is and doesn’t try and be anything but that. This knew it was a big ol’ fanfic and leaned wholeheartedly into that. Whether it was the breeding program subplot or the consistently dumb toothpaste and sausage ppl it handled them both with equal aplomb. It’s also worth noting that was largely really well acted too! Pavel, Nut & Sailub particularly impressed me but there was nobody bad. 4/5 (9/2/24)

Our Dining Table - My journey into JBL continues and this was the best one yet. Soft pining between two sad boy leads with a gorgeous found family story woven in. The treacle slow courting between these two won’t be for everyone but it was wholly for me. 5/5 (17/2/24)

Cooking Crush - The edit on this was criminally bad at points, sometimes I truly felt I’d skipped a part and I hadn’t at all, but it still served up a good little story. If you’re visiting this for the romance it’s not really that, the story is in the friends and their lives more than it is in Ten & Prem’s romance. I loved the comedy in this, it hit those notes well and was never over the top. (Lots of puns that I expect are super good if you speak Thai.) Nobody is bad in this, everyone delivers, but OffGun are as watchable as they always are and the few kisses they do have are perfect. 3/5 (18/2/24)

The Novelist - When I say I don’t love JBL it’s usually because the tropes are just too tropey for my tastes. Apparently I’m a lying liar who lies because this is extremely Japanese and I loved every moody second of it. Kijima is a sad, lonely, messed up man who doesn’t think he’s deserving of anything good and it’s wildly compelling to watch. 4/5 (18/2/24)

Mood Indigo - Fucked up 4 Fucked up. Two broken, sad, lonely men mess up repeatedly, and erotically, that’s it that’s the show and I ate it up with a spoon. Deeply flawed assholes being toxic together, when it’s well written and well acted, is so disgustingly watchable to me and this certainly was. 5/5 (18/2/24)

The Novelist: Playback - Continues where The Novelist ends. I watched the clean version of this, it was what was available to me, and was still deeply entertained. So if you think people watch this series for the heat then you’re incorrect. This is another instalment of Kijima Rio being a horribly broken fuck up of a man. I loved it. 4/5 (21/2/24)

Tokyo in April is… - I love a good destined to be together trope when it’s done well and this is done beautifully. Kazuma and Ren fall in love as teenagers and are separated before finding one another again as adults. The pacing on this is a little rough, I get what they were doing with the sub-plot but it felt mildly unneeded and time would have been better given to exploring our leads generally or even Ren’s painful family issues. This is still a lovely drama that I wholly recommend. 4/5 (21/2/24)

[bearzas-art]

Kinger Can't Sleep

Paring: Kinger (TADC) x Reader Type: Platonic, fluff-ish Word Count: 987

Reader's gender is vague :P

Enjoy the result of my raging autism

Today had been a long day. You haven’t been in the circus for a while so you’re still getting used to the shenanigans and your digital body. Oddly enough, you found Ragatha to be right about the routine of going to sleep every night being calming in a way. After slipping under the covers you close your eyes. You feel your head sinking into your pillow as you start to relax before hearing a soft knock and your door creaking open a crack.

“Psst… Psst! Hey y/n, are you awake?” It was the voice of Kinger, a tall king chess piece in a purple robe with white fur that had black spots on the edges. Although your bedroom was dark, the light in the hallway allowed you to see Kinger peeking his head into your bedroom. You sit up in bed and rub your eyes tiredly while mumbling softly to yourself.

“Yeah… I’m awake.” You mutter before yawning softly. After letting your eyes adjust to the darkness you noticed Kinger seemed nervous. Sure he’s always nervous, but right now he seemed like he was more nervous than normal.  “Did you need something?” With that question, Kinger put up his index finger and hesitated before responding.

“Okay, well… I’ve got a bit of a problem.” He pauses and quickly looks behind him. His gaze locks back onto yours while rubbing his hands together nervously before continuing. “I can’t- I can’t fall asleep! No matter what I do I just- it isn’t working. I need your help. Please please please can you help me?!” He started to sound more frantic as he begged you to help. What? Why is he begging me of all people to help him sleep? What am I supposed to do?

“Okay, okay! Just… calm down, please. I need to think of something.” You prop your head up with your hand, wracking your brain of ways to make people sleep. Maybe he needs something he can’t do on his own? But what would help that he’d need-

“AAAA!” You jumped and let out a short scream in response to Kinger’s sudden yell. Clutching your chest, you look and Kinger with wide eyes. He returns the wide eyed gaze, the awkward silence filling the air. The tension could be cut with a knife.

“What was that for?!” You asked in slight annoyance. Kinger shook slightly before responding. “Sorry! Sorry about that. I um, you were quiet for so long. I thought maybe you left.” What? How does that even- whatever. I need to think of a solution before he scares the s#!% out of me again. “Alright, well how about I tuck you in?” Kinger stares at you silently for a moment, making you feel a little nervous. “What do you mean?” He asks quickly. You let out a soft sigh and get up from your bed, walking over to the door. Kinger quickly backs away a bit and looks down at you. You grab his hand, making his eyes widen more. His gaze quickly shifts from your face to your hands.

“Here, I’ll do it for you.” You and Kinger start walking down the large hallway. This felt weird, like you were the older one and not him. You were too tired to dwell on the fact that you were holding his hand and practically pulling him back to his bedroom. If this comes up in conversation, it’s for future me to deal with. You thought to yourself.

Once you both get to Kinger’s bedroom you let go of his hand and stand with him in front of the doorway. His bedroom is fairly dark as well, the only things he has is his bed, a dresser, and a framed picture of his wife Queenie. He stands there nervously rubbing his hands while his eyes dart around the room. You gesture towards his bed, expecting him to get in. “Oh, right.” He chuckles a bit to himself while walking over to his bed and laying down. What decisions have I made that brought me to tucking in a man in his 40s? You ask yourself.You walk over to the side of his bed, tucking in the nearest side of his bed then leaning over and tucking the far side. While pulling your arm back, Kinger suddenly grabs your arm and keeps it draped over his body.

“Wh- what the heck? Why did you grab my arm?” You ask quickly in confusion. Your eyebrows knit together and you look around the bed before looking back at Kinger. He mumbles something incoherently then lets out a deep sigh, his eyes already closed. Wow, that was quick. You thought. He looked so peaceful in his sleep. Since it seemed he’s been riding the line between just being insane and abstracting, it’s nice seeing him so calm. Though it doesn’t help that he’s clinging onto your arm.

You try to gently get your arm out of his surprisingly tight grasp to no avail. You tried pulling your arm away but he started to gumble in his sleep. You stopped in hopes he’d stay asleep, but assumed that if you did pull your arm away you’d have to deal with his hands being attached to you still. Admitting defeat, you slowly try to lower yourself on the ground while keeping your arm on Kinger. 

Great, now I’m not gonna get any sleep. You thought to yourself as you sat on his floor, your side pressed up against his bed. You let out a sigh, trying your best to be quiet. After admitting defeat, you rest you head on your shoulder, using it as a pillow. Hopefully you can still get some sleep. Of course you don’t really need it, but it would be nice. After a while of sitting there your eyelids start to feel heavier. Yawning softly and closing your eyes, you start to drift to sleep.

[eternal-echoes]

Does Gender Theory Hurt People? | Jason Evert

I think if we try to live in a way that's not in accord to their own human nature, we'll be fighting against ourselves. And so, the very premise of gender theory is that I can be something other than my body. And so, it's beginning with this fracture at the very root of anthropology of just that my body doesn't reveal me, it doesn't reveal my identity. But in the Catholic understanding is that, okay, your body isn't something you have, like you just have a pair of jeans, like your body is you. And so, this is easy enough to prove: if I were to say, "like okay I'm going to the store." Well, your body's probably going to be going to the store as well. I mean, the two are going to kind of stay together. But when we untether the person's identity from their body, then your identity has to attach to somewhere. But what is it going to anchor onto if not the body? It'll anchor onto the personality. But the problem is that there are as many as personalities as there are persons, and you will end up literally with an endless list or spectrum of genders. And so, then it can become fluid, it can change - my identity is this, my identity is that. And you can see in a culture where we're in, what is my meaning, what is my purpose, you know? Who's my community? What's my mission? Who am I? In a sense gender theory provides all of these in one really tight package. ... And especially if a person is wrestling with gender dysphoria, which is a mental health issue. It's in DSM-5, that's not a lot of fun to say, "okay I have a mental health issue and yeah, I also struggle with autism or depression, or I've gone through some trauma." It's not a lot of fun to identify with your brokenness or trauma or a DSM-5 label. But if my identity can be this thing, that I'm trans, then all of a sudden that's a lot of easier. Now I'm finding my true self, instead of just being diagnoses with some mental health issue. And so in a sense it's providing this sense of identity. And this is why you'll find that if you challenge individuals on this thinking, a lot of times you get a very anaphylactic reaction to it. A very, you know, very upset and it's like, "wait a minute, I didn't say anything and you're accusing me of violence and hatred and even genocide?" Genocide? No that's Mao Zedong, that's Hitler, that's Stalin all I'm doing is asking about your preferred pronoun thing and you're accusing me of genocide. Why this big reaction? And there's a book called Primal Scream and in it the author basically pointed out that the reason you get this big reaction, is because this isn't just some label, this is their identity, and it's also their community. That maybe they felt rejected by their own family, by their own faith community, and all of a sudden they found this online community or some spectrum alliance on campus that welcomed them, that understood them, that made them feel loved and dignified and brave, "this is my community, these are my homeboys, like this is my Posse," and then it's also now our mission because we're a victimized minority and now I've got a battle to fight. And so, these three core necessary parts of human existence of identity, community, and mission are all bound up in your sense of gender identity and then if someone kinda starts poking at it and looking at the philosophical foundations of that and pulling it out, it's like, "whoa, you are trying to erase me, you're trying to take away my own community, that's going to leave me with nothing, and take away my whole mission that's been entrusted to me," you're gonna get quite a reaction. And so that's why we need to thread carefully and lovingly, and it seems like an extreme example but it's almost like you're treating a burn victim: you don't go "okay let's get the bandage off soon," very gingerly, okay okay I want to look at these things with you, but be very careful in the way that you speak, and make sure that the person knows that you're loved, and that you're not just coming to them to try to win some debate.

[clownrecess]

As an autistic individual myself, I am interested in the intersection of neurodiversity and various identities.

You've mentioned that you identify as a Norse Pagan. I'm curious about how your spiritual beliefs intersect with your neurodivergent experience. Do you find that your autistic identity informs or impacts your spiritual practice in any way?

(Tw for discussions of trauma, religion, etc.)

Sorry for the late-ish response! I've been working on this post a little everyday to make sure I write it how I want it.

I dont think that my autism has impacted my religion or spirtual experiences/beliefs, but my brain as a whole does. (Update: It actually did influence it quite a bit. I'm realizing this after writing this post. So, uh, thank you for helping me realize something that I find quite interesting!)

When I was a kid, I was raised in christianity. I was very religious. I prayed everyday, I had a cross in my room, etc.

But heres the thing: I have OCD. A few different types, but out of those, one of them is religious OCD.

Most of my praying ages late 8-12 was done purely out of fear. At that point I wasnt even really a Christian, I was just really afraid, which really impacted how I viewed religion. I HATED conversation about it because it felt scary and icky to me.

I didn't understand why people would ever want to talk about it. It felt like a very private topic for me, so I figured people who go out of their way to talk about it must be trying to get extra "good points" with god (maybe that bit was caused by autism, actually.).

During that time, I would go through little phases of a month or so at a time in which I would try to "swing the opposite direction". This was around age 10-11. I was developing an intense anger toward the church, and I just wanted to be the opposite of they were, whatever that meant. Because I didn't want to think about religion (due to anxiety around it), I really didn't know what many religious labels actually meant because researching them made me very uncomfortable, so I briefly identified as a satanist (this would be on and off during ages 10-11.) despite really not knowing what that meant. I think I just wanted a way to separate myself from the church as much as possible.

A few months after I turned 12, I felt a really strong urge to research paganism out of nowhere (I didnt even know what "pagan" meant, I just suddenly felt the need to know things about it. It was very random.). It started sort of as a special interest (Maybe autism did influence me more than I thought! Interesting.), and so I would look into a lot of different branches of paganism, focusing most of my research around hellenistic paganism.

A few weeks after this, I had a very interesting experience which I now believe to have been a sign from Freyja (I dont want to go into specifics. It was personal and I want to keep that special to me. I might later, but for now it's just mine. Just know it was a very beautiful thing from her.). DIRECTLY following this event (Maybe an hour or two later), I felt another urge to research things, but this time to be looking into the Norse Gods/Goddesses (which I'd never even heard of at that point.).

At that point I ended up converting to paganism. It was an extremely sudden decision, but it made sense to me.

No matter what religion I had been apart of before, I always felt anxiety and guilt, causing me to try and fix things by becoming excessively religious again in a Christian way. But from the moment I became pagan, I just never had that ever again. It's been the only religion I've ever felt fully safe in.

It's obviously been quite a while since then, and I'm obviously still a Norse Pagan.

Whilst I now love all the gods and goddesses, Freyja will always be especially special to me.

At this point I have worked with: Freyja, Loki, Odin, Beyla, and Njord.

Now, I also think its important to mention another part of my brain that impacts my religious experience: I am in a system.

Nearly all of us identify as Norse Pagans, but we have a few Agnostics as well, a few Eclectic Pagans, an Atheistic Satanist, and a Theistic Satanist.

The primary religious identity within our system is Norse Paganism, with the majority of individuals identifying as followers of this belief system. Due to this, we say we are a Norse Pagan! We are also okay with just being called "Pagan" on it's own, though.

[ronanceautistic]

bob burger appreciation rant under the cut

i love bobs burgers man it’s a good show. i think it especially shows when they’re 15 seasons in but I’ll still hear people raving about new episodes. the christmas one last season, the one in the cemetery, and now marshmallow’s one. i think a lot of animated comedies fall into the habit of thinking nothing matters, because no one ever ages, time never passes, growth never needs to happen because we’ll never see the aftermath of it. but bobs burgers still doesn’t shy away from having more weighted stories with their already well lived-in characters, but that’s why it works. We hear every few years about Bob’s mother, until you get an entire episode dedicated to her. I think the movie did really well with explaining Louise’s hat, having her grow past feeling like she needs to wear it while not actually changing her design, or ever showing her without it. And Marshmallow, a historically background surface level character, kind of getting re-introduced to us along with her new va.

I also just like how like… free? the characters are. like with gender and sexuality and shit. I think the choice of changing Tina’s gender was kinda genius, because she’s so typical boy-crazy teen but they did it in a way that I think a lot of comedies, at least back in the day, would’ve been afraid to. They state from, like, day one, that Tina is attracted to zombies, writes erotic fiction about her classmates, and is into butts. I just like how much more open and real they are with the typical middle school crushes she gets than just “teehee i hope he calls me back”.

Gene is a walking ad for being genderfluid, he constantly references himself as being a woman, or talking about one day becoming a woman, but he’s also just very very open and expressive about his own body. I think I relate to him in the sense of I don’t think he ever really thinks about what he is, he just refers to himself with a gendered term - masculine or feminine - and people roll with it.

And one of the Louise moments that really stuck out to me was the fairy episode where she gets genuinely frustrated at herself for not liking girly stuff. Like this is a character that’s been so sure of herself for all of the show, to the point where she is making fun of the girly girls. I just love the sudden shift from a kid-like tantrum of “They don’t like this because I don’t like it.” to “Why don’t I like it?”. It’s like it comes out of nowhere, but has been there the whole time.

And Linda and Bob just never not being themselves. Linda is basically a walking parade, who supports her kids in literally everything they do and embraced every part of them. Bob is like a lighthouse you could always depend on. He’s got a lot of layers to him, the work-aholic who seems so straight cut, but is so creative with his work and absolutely loves what he does. Creative a new burger every day, talking to his food, having all these intimate, emotional moments with himself alone. He really could’ve fallen into the trap of being the grumpy dad who hates his work and kids, but instead he just grew in depth and emotion, and despite his complaining, has so much genuine and obvious care and love for his family.

It’s on my list of autism shows - aka shows where autistic traits tend to be the celebrated ones, and neurotypical traits are the out of place ones. Bobs Burgers is the best example of this, not only does every Belcher have clear autistic traits, but every single other character does. Gayle’s life is dedicated to her cats and she constantly misses social cues. Jimmy Junior tends to express his emotions physically through dance. Teddy has a rigid routine of eating at Bob’s every day that frustrates him so much that Bob ends up leaving notes outside for Teddy explaining the situation in multiple episodes. Courtney sucks on her necklace. Even Jimmy Pesto, whose main form of communication is using insults and jokes to mask his jealousy of Bob being so free and open. And additionally Trev, who constantly, like he can’t help it, explains Jimmy’s joke after the fact.

Anyways. the end !

[confusedwriter404]

Regarding some accusations I have seen and the fact that there are some people on the internet who have no sense of approaching in a passive aggressive way, I figured I should state some rules in delivering criticism since I myself run 2 (not including this one since this was originally created to be a shitposting blog) ask + roleplaying blogs.

Now I would like everyone to know that I have never received such criticisms yet, I just want to give everyone a heads-up, just in case I see some accusations in the middle of an episode I'm having (not beach episode, sadly) which can worsen my situation as it is.

1. Please greet in a respectful manner. Though, you may be conflicted about how I portray and/or create my characters for some reason whatsoever, it is still nice to try and approach in a gentle way. Some people do not take well with a sudden confrontation and have a flight response, causing your criticism to be deleted and ignored. I am one of those people, sadly enough, thanks to social anxiety and possible manifestations of autism. I am able to listen once my brain doesn't interpret you as a threat. I could do it on my own but, again, my brain and instinct makes me think otherwise.

2. Make sure you have a clear understanding of why you are criticizing any creation I have. Every character I have created is always treated like a genuine person and has a piece of myself embedded on them. Every single detail has been researched in order for there to be no offense in a community I am trying to portray. For example, Asmo is an SA survivor (see Silver And Sapphire for further details), and how he survives with that fact has been researched online. I have read every single experience of multiple people who have survived SA and how they turned out as a person now in order to make Asmo feel like a real person, making the viewers feel empathetic for him. Whatever traits my characters have has been researched, so if you see an error with the way I portray such traits, please inform me. If what you are confronting me about isn't a genuine reason for you to send a criticism, it will be deleted and ignored.

3. Do NOT assume my character is something absolutely false. If you say something like "Oh, but Connor is a child!" (he's 18-19. he barely had a childhood because of hunters.) "Asmo is a femboy!" (it's the way he presents himself as a person. also, no.) "You said Lucifer was AroAce but why does he keep acting like he loves Heather?" (ever heard of platonic love? do you love your friends so much you wanna make sure they're okay without feeling like you're romantically in love with them?) or something along those lines, please PLEASE try and see how I portray them again and try to understand it from my point of view. Any comparisons with any stereotypical portrayal or a character in media will not be taken as a criticism. People can be fluid and act differently from each other.

4. NEVER try and be insensitive to feelings. I've seen this happen with one critic and they had completely disregarded a creator's feelings with using "YAYY!!" during an argument and honestly, it can make the creator and the witnesses feel conflicted. I understand you are excited and that you are finally glad that the other party understands why you did the confrontation in the first place but for the love of all that's good, act professional. Confrontations are done in a professional manner, so if I see any critics being insensitive to how serious the situation is in the matter, I will block you and disregard your criticism no questions asked.

That's all for now. Please feel free to ask any questions regarding this post or even request some more rules.

You may reblog this post in order for your own followers to know you also have rules like these. Thank you for your time.

[tumblydovereviews]

In Defense of Caillou

Growing up, my family was one of the very few who weren't avid members of the Caillou hate wagon. It was, and still is, one of my dad's favorite shows that I watched as a kid, and he was genuinely surprised when I revealed to him all the hate the show has managed to amass. I watched plenty of Caillou as a kid, and I'm happy to report that I came out perfectly normal, if not a bit energetic for my age.

Yes, Caillou is not a perfect show by any means. With the characters having little-to-no personality outside of existing in this hairless child's kingdom, annoying voices, and the infamous tantrum scenes, it's no wonder why this show has become so hated, and still is to this day. But I don't think I'm being too generous when I say that Caillou has some merit to it that I feel is overlooked by the general public.

Contrary to public belief, Caillou isn't actually a lonely cancer patient or an alopecia victim- he is actually based off a French book series that originally depicted him as a baby rather than a toddler. To make sure kids could still recognize him even with the age increase, it was decided that Caillou would remain bald. In my personal opinion, I think the creators made the right call. Young kids are still learning how to recognize differences, and chances are if Caillou did have hair, the sudden change in appearance would be overwhelming. It may be weird to us older people, but to kids, keeping Caillou as recognizable as possible was a serviceable move.

A lot of people tend to forget that Caillou is a four-year-old, which is surprising considering that it is established in the literal first line of the theme song (I'm just a kid whose four.) Being four, Caillou is destined to have tantrums, moments where he acts bratty and less than a saint. The real issue comes with the lack of emphasis on condemning the behavior and instead focusing on solving rather than learning. Caillou's parents are the original permissive parents, and one could compare them to the overly gentle parents that exist on TikTok. They rarely call out their son when he does act out and instead dismiss his behavior to the side. The 2020s revival series does a much better job at balancing gentle fairness with firmness. When Caillou or Rosie misbehave, they are scolded for it while also steered in the right direction in an imaginative way, arguably more creative than Boris or Doris' tactics in the original show ever amounted up to being.

Caillou has surprisingly great representation for a preschool show in the 90s, especially in terms of disability and other medical conditions. The show features episodes spotlighting deafness, Down syndrome, autism, wheelchair usage, and even Type 1 diabetes. The episodes in particular talk mainly about how the chronically ill/disabled character is still able to function perfectly normally, even with the condition they have. As a diabetic myself, the episode Emma's Extra Snacks always stood out to be, even before I was officially diagnosed. Diabetes representation and the stigma surrounding it is an issue that not many pieces of media discuss, and I'm happy that Caillou has the courage to tackle a subject that can and has been botched so easily.

And let's not forget the puppet segments, arguably the best part of Caillou. These puppet segments focused on three of Caillou's furry companions: Gilbert the cat, Rexy the T-Rex, and Teddy the teddy bear as they go on miscellaneous adventures around Caillou's house. My personal favorite of the trio was Gilbert and his 'odes.' The segments, while on the more basic side, provide a good enough distraction from Caillou's escapades, even if only for five minutes, before we were forced to go back to the bald boy's basic ballads.

While writing this post, I came up a post online asking if people would rather have their kids watch Caillou or Skidibl Toilet. If faced with a decision like this in real life, I'd turn on Caillou in an instant. Caillou has done a lot of bad, but deep down, we can't forget that the show's main intention, no matter how botched it ended up turning out, was to teach kids about life. I would much rather live in a world with mildly annoying preschool shows than brain rot which serves no purpose but to gradually disintegrate a person's cognitive functions.

He's just a kid who's four, and each day he grows some more, so I think that we need to start growing on him, just a smidge more.