#neurodivergent coding

[alls-fair-in-pride-and-prejudice]

I love that Claire Finn acknowledges that Isaac experiences emotion, just in a different way, and she says "he just doesn't have the machinery to express it the same way we do."

It means so much as a neurodivergent person to see that, when so many human beings are excluded from humanity for the ways in which they experience emotion or express it. People that don't experience empathy are assumed to be evil, autistics with flat affect are assumed to be robotic and unfeeling.

It all ties into that idea of utopia and humanity at its best in the Orville, that as a doctor, Dr. Finn would certainly have come across humans that don't express emotion in the conventional way, which makes her the perfect person to see how Isaac experiences life and feeling and sentience in his unique way, and she accepts him and loves him.

As she put it. "Wouldn't we all be happier if we accepted people for what they are instead of being disappointed in them for what they're not?"

[nd-coded-media]

ND-Coded Media Trait:

Neurodivergent Creator(s)/Contributor(s)

When one or more neurodivergent people significantly influence the creation of a piece of media (regardless of whether or not they know they're neurodivergent at the time), I consider it a flag for possible neurodivergent-coded elements. The neurodivergent influence could come from a writer, director, actor, artist, etc. depending on the type of media and how it's produced.

(This isn't to say that every piece of media influenced by a neurodivergent person will be ND-coded, nor that every piece of media that is ND-coded will have a neurodivergent person on staff. It's just more likely than not that a neurodivergent creator will make stuff that reflects their own experiences.)

Examples of ND-Coded Media by Confirmed Neurodivergent Creators:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV Series)

Glenn Howerton (Co-Creator, Actor for Dennis Reynolds) has shared that he was late-diagnosed with ADHD (src).

Rob McElhenney (Co-Creator, Actor for Mac) shared that he was late-diagnosed with "a host of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities" (src).

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Film)

Daniel Kwan (Co-Writer, Co-Director) discovered he had ADHD while researching it to write the movie's main character (src).

Phineas & Ferb (Cartoon)

Dan Povenmire (Co-Creator, Voice Actor for Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz) has shared videos acknowledging his ADHD on Tiktok (src) and Instagram (src).

Community (TV Series)

Dan Harmon (Creator, Writer, Executive Producer) discovered he's on the autism spectrum while researching it to write the character Abed Nadir (src).

Speculative / Unconfirmed:

Welcome to Night Vale (Podcast)

Joseph Fink (Co-Creator) may have made a social media post implying that he realized he's autistic because of people pointing out that the character Carlos Dave Robles is autistic-coded. (src). However, I've done some digging and haven't been able to find the original post or any other info on this topic. If you have sources confirming or denying this info, please share them with me!

Please do let me know if you think of any edits or additions I could make to improve this post! I'll keep an update log under a readmore once I've made changes.

[azuremist]

[misspermitted]

Not to randomly talk about Apothecary Diaries, but almost every time Mao Mao talks about Jinshi she uses the most romantic and poetic terms possible but says them with the banal factuality of a nature documentary narrator, and it is absolutely sending me. Like:

Mao Mao, completely deadpan: He is such a heavenly beauty, people would start wars over him.

Mao Mao, legitimately concerned: I best not put makeup on him. If he were made any more beautiful it would topple nations

Mao Mao, watching girls fawn over Jinshi: This makes sense, he has such otherworldly beauty that he would be irresistible to any woman or man

Mao Mao, as if taking a scientific observation: Something must be amiss with Master Jinshi, usually he glitters like the sun

(I’m not overdramatising, these exact narrations happened)

[flyndragon]

I love the idea of jedi babies with psychometry just.... latching onto random things that have good memories attached and carrying it around like a teddy bear. Like baby Quin found a spatula with a memory of a kid and their parent lovingly making cookies in it and he slept with a dollar store spatula for the next 3 years. Cal found some silverware that a happy group of friends used for all of their special occasions, so his pockets end up full of comfort spoons. and forks. and butter knives.

[androsartstuff]

Slight redesign of these two, I just needed to get the design out of my system

Edit: Still undecided about the headband pattern, might change it

[spookitordukeit]

Lamb who doesn’t know how to be a lamb…

Lamb who lost their family too early to know how lambs act…

Lamb who is a mishmash of different animal habits and mannerisms…

Lamb who has nothing but occasional instincts in the back of their brain that may or may not be lamb things…

Lamb who didn’t forget about the sheepfolks culture, lamb who never learned, lamb who never had the chance to be taught…

Lamb feeling a hole in their chest and not knowing how to fill it…

Lamb yearning for something they can’t describe…

[sunny-knight]

Different.

Undertale mini-comics (Dialogue from the movie, Fantastic Mr Fox)

Ok so im gonna cry harder than ive ever crowd

THESE SCENES MAKE ME SO UPSET- AND I LOVE THEM THEY FIT SO WELL WITH PAPYRUS I FEEL I know Ash is a bit more of a “problemed child” instead of just “weird” but STILL

Im still debating also doing the lines with “Im just…different, apparently.” but thats when Ash talks about his bad temper and i dont wanna change the lines THAT much….I might though- who knows

But ya! Papyrus makes me so upset and i love him so much and he’s also probably cutting my lifespan in half. thats the lesson here

[lexia-solve-e]

children of the house of Xue

[squidinu]

[nd-coded-media]

Neurodivergent-Coded Traits: Flat Affect

Commonly Associated Neurodivergency: Autism

Starting off my series of posts going more in-depth into individual ND-coded traits!

A character with Flat Affect is someone who is perceived as less expressive in comparison to their peers, particularly when it comes to their face and/or voice. They may deviate from their default/resting expression or voice less often and/or less obviously than others around them. Due to this they may be perceived as lacking empathy or emotional range/depth compared to their peers, even when that isn't necessarily the case.

Examples of ND-Coded Characters with this Trait:

Lan Wangji (Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / The Untamed)

Chu Wanning (Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun)

Ron Swanson and April Ludgate (Parks and Recreation)

Mado Akira (Tokyo Ghoul)

Captain Ray Holt (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Abed Nadir (Community)

Ferb Fletcher (Phineas and Ferb)

Inaho Kaizuka (Aldnoah Zero)

Hasegawa Langa (Sk8 The Infinity)

Sigrid (Sigrid)

Wednesday Addams (Wednesday)

Chu Sang Woo (Semantic Error)

Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers)

Saiki Kusuo (Saiki Kusuo no Psi-Nan)

Please do let me know if you think of any edits or additions I could make to improve this post! I'll keep an update log below the cut.

Updated 5/24/24: Added more character examples.

[ultimate-marysue]

Cassandra Cain is the most character of all times cause everyone around her is like "oh no, we need to explain to her how to people properly" meanwhile her internal monologue is something along the lines of "I'm surrounded by idiots (affectionate) but it's okay, they can't help that I'm better than them".

It's especially hilarious when she's clearly in the wrong. Like I wish we had more female characters like that.

[chikorra]

"Overstimulation"

Ruby Rose: "Please be patient with me, I have autism..."

[canonically47]

i saw a post (that must be from a WHILE back) calling connor autistic and i just haven’t been able to stop thinking about it

in addition to what they’ve said, i also want to point out some other things he does that can be considered symptoms of autism:

repetitive, self-soothing movements.

connor rubs his hands together or plays with a coin if you leave him idle, or in cutscenes. it is a form of self-regulating through repetitive and familiar actions. i think fixing his tie as often as he does can also fit into this.

additionally, there is a deleted scene in which he grabs onto his collar for comfort when amanda tries to override his control in the final mission.

inability to fit in with own kind (deviants – parallel with neurodivergent peers) but also with others (humans – parallel with neurotypical peers).

as mentioned, connor struggles to relate to and bond with hank – “i think working with an officer with personal issues is an added challenge” – despite being programmed to fit into ‘any kind of group’ (desc. from his gallery). he has difficulties understanding him and voices this to amanda.

however, he also struggles to relate to fellow deviants, or androids in general, and is very different from them. this could be partly because he is a prototype, but so is markus, and he blends in well. connor, meanwhile, had a very skewed perception of both humans and deviants (see: him picking the most dumbass outfit and pose to infiltrate jericho) and struggles to interact with them, appearing hesitant at all times (see: telling markus he understands if he decides not to trust him, sounding somewhat uncertain when proposing his plan to markus or north, his whole relationships with hank and gavin etc.)

misunderstanding or total lack of understanding of social cues, norms, or common sayings.

he displays confusion when hank says “you know where you can stick your instructions?” (“no. where?”) – which could be irony, but i read it as genuine. he has trouble interacting with people ‘normally’ and cannot emote properly, one proper example being how weird he smiles (see: awkward smiles when he talks to hank at the station the night after the interrogation, weird smile given to gavin when he does not understand his humor).

speaking of not understanding humor, not only does he find gavin unfunny, he also does not get hank’s gruesome humor (see: frowning when hank jokes “they must have really had it in for him”).

moreover, he speaks over hank (see: speaking over him in his house, thanking him for his cooperation while hank is yelling at him) without seeing it as ‘bad’ – lacking a social cue.

clear, sole focus on one single thing.

this is, of course, his mission, regardless of what it is: catching deviants (machine) or helping jericho (deviant). he always is troubled and/or upset if he fails it, and he doubts himself, is confused or disappointed when he lets androids go, and, if he explains himself, he visibly struggles in doing so: “it’s my fault, i should’ve been faster”, “i don’t know why i did it”, “there was no reason to shoot that android” etc.

sticking to routine or to familiarity.

connor does not get rid of his android uniform, nor LED, after deviating, as markus and kara do straight away. you can argue the other two do it out of need to blend in, but it is also something that frees them; connor does not take after them in this.

noticing small patterns or details other don’t

this is literally part of his programming LISTEN TO MEEEEEEE

while i don’t think all androids are neurodivergent, deviancy, in connor’s case, can be read as an allegory for neurodivergency, specifically autism.

connor always displays symptoms of deviancy regardless of your playthrough – he lies to hank in the stratford tower in ALL routes, this being a canon, non-choosable cutscene, and another solid example is fear. he expresses fear through gestures (see: flinching away from the stratford tower roof if he died from falling in the hostage chapter – fear of heights) or dialogue (see: discussing death with hank on the bridge: “nothing. there would be nothing”; being conflicted when amanda tells him he may replace him.)

machine connor is, thus, connor masking. he always has some humanity in him, but he shoves it away deep down when taking the path of a machine. he still gets frustrated (example: after his rifle stops working when he attempts to kill markus; swearing if the bomb is detonated following the deviants’ loss of the war), troubled/conflicted (example: “what’s going to happen to me?” and his little reactions when amanda presents him with rk900), and even appears sad (example: his reaction to hank’s suicide, his LED turning red, it appears as though he forces it back to blue.)

while i don’t think this is the intention of the writers, autistic connor is canon to me. he is android autistic. thank you

[avelera]

Man, there’s all these little beats in OFMD S2 1-3 where people keep EXPECTING Stede to be upset or horrified about Ed’s actions and then he’s just. Not. In a way that reminded me of how a lot of fanon kept softening Stede into someone who doesn’t swear and is horrified at Ed for setting those ships on fire when imo to my eyes he was horrified for Ed because Ed was still so clearly distressed about it.

- Zheng Yi Sao asks Stede how he’s doing now that he knows Ed did horrible things to his crew and there’s this beat and Stede just pivots to, oh yeah, sometimes Ed is troubled. Like it didn’t occur to him to be upset on the crew’s behalf he’s worried about Ed.

- Izzy keeps trying to spare Stede’s feelings and cover up Ed’s spiral, but Stede clocked what was going on with Ed immediately and wasn’t the least bit intimidated or bothered. The knives brought the room together. Of course Ed’s trying to burn the world down or die trying. Duh. And I genuinely don’t think the STUFF in the Revenge mattered even a fraction to Stede as much as the signs of Ed’s breakdown broke his heart. It’s just STUFF, who cares.

- Lucius had to SPECIFICALLY call out Stede for not being surprised or bothered by what happened to him. What Ed did. Stede has to almost consciously remind himself to express polite concern. He just doesn’t actually care, instinctively or automatically, about what happened to Lucius. Part of it is he blames himself more than Ed. Part of it is he just doesn’t care, Ed is the priority.

They’re little blink and you’ll miss it pauses in some cases. Micro-expressions. The absence of a reaction. But honestly, I will scream it to the end of time, Stede is not some nonviolent creampuff scared or upset by Ed’s evil ways. He wants to join Ed in the atrocities. The man ran away to become a pirate. He asked if Lucius was taking notes during a murderous raid.

Stede’s at least a little on some kind of whackadoodle pirate comedy neurodivergence spectrum to the point where he actually really actually struggles to empathize with people, even people he cares about!, if their feelings conflict with his hyperfixation (piracy) and the love of his life (Ed Teach). He’s always, ALWAYS going to pick Ed over Lucius or Izzy or his crew or even his own feelings, if the option is there. He will literally throw himself overboard to get to Ed’s side. No pause. No consideration of anyone else or even his own safety.

Stede sometimes seems to have to consciously remind himself things like, oh yeah, the crew, I need to see to them. Not because he’s heartless or doesn’t care, but because it takes a bit of conscious effort for him to see beyond the laser-focused spotlight of what and who he does care most about, he has to remind himself of social niceties and other people’s feelings (just see him running away in the first place!) when he gets an idea in his head. It’s as if he had to train himself to consciously care about some things other people care about and as a neurodivergent person myself, that felt very familiar in a comedically writ large sort of way. I’d even argue that’s where all his aristocratic social niceties come from. They were his guidebook for how to do things “right” in a world that otherwise made no sense to him outside his hyperfixations. He practiced being a person through the aristocratic training because it was all so foreign to him from the start, including caring, actually caring, about the needs of others. Not because he’s consciously evil or consciously a jerk. The instinct just isn’t there unless he practices at it until it becomes reflex to ask how others are doing, because on his own his brain just doesn’t really notice or care.

I just… hope the fandom notes and has as much FUN as I do noticing all the little moments where even people inside the story of OFMD expect Stede to act in a normal way and instead he remains unhinged, laser-focused on Ed.

Stede’s not just an Ed apologist, he truly doesn’t blame Ed for any of it. He blames only himself. He doesn’t always voice this but he really really only cares about anyone else including the crew as a DISTANT second and he has to consciously REMIND himself to do so. He is able to rally to take action, to care about their physical needs like safety during the rescue, but he still struggles, deeply struggles, to remember to show empathy in a non-performative way for anyone except his special person, Ed.

Stede’s not a creampuff, not a nice guy, not some emotionally or morally perfect angel. He has to consciously practice caring about literally anything else but what he wants to do and his special person. And to me that’s a thousand times more interesting than shoving him in a box labeled “the blond, pacifist do-gooder good guy” in their relationship.

[ur-fav-is-autistic]

You are Autistic!

April Fools! But not really!

I love all of you. Thanks for following and thanks for all the kinds words.