#are they geniuses or just autistic
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creature feature songs are so funny cuz they're all "I killed someone I'm a ghost monster btw" and then some of the most insane electric guitar you have ever heard in your entire life. and each time I'm like "he raises a great point"
#creature feature band#creature feature#curtis rx#erik x#giggle giggle#are they geniuses or just autistic#or both#or neither!
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Myth vs Reality
I really don’t like the stereotype that autistic people are super smart but their social skills are nonexistent. Not all of us are geniuses. Some of us are just normal, regular people.
I wish writers, directors, and others could understand that.
Spectrum Sloth
#autism#actually autistic#myth vs reality#I don’t like how they make autistic people savants that have no social skills#not all of us are geniuses#some of us are just regular people#I wish others could understand that#neurodivergence#neurodiversity#actually neurodivergent#feel free to share/reblog#Spectrum Sloth (Facebook)
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The rats are going to hate this announcement but...Erik? The Phantom of the Opera?
Autistic.
He was a savant. Music was his special interest/area of talent.
He was quite literally masking to seem "normal" for the whole show.
He was afraid to unmask because he was afraid Christine wouldn't like what was underneath. Like...if that doesn't feel like an autistic experience idk what does.
It goes without saying that none of it excuses his actions. It does, however, provide depth for his story.
(Now go ahead and apply this to my POTOxST analysis. Denial is a river in Egypt, but your Big Bad and your hero are autistic (and queer))
#autistic people are not just some quirky child geniuses#some (not all) of them have issues and behave badly especially when they've been abused by society#kind of sounds like henry creel doesn't it#man with special abilities taken to a facility to be 'fixed' but is routinely abused instead#conversion 'therapy' AND behavioral correctional 'therapy' in one symbol with the Hawkins lab#henry/vecna/001#phantomgate
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allistic nd ppl hate him! local autistic guy may enjoy when autistic characters r just not very smart or r perceived that way bcuz it is, shockingly, relatable and comforting 2 some autistic ppl who r not Genius Savants or just very smart in general, and local autistic guy also has to stress constantly to allistics that ‘hes actually rly smart so thats why its bad to be ableist to him’ is actually not why its bad to be ableist abt autistic characters bcuz ur just saying its ok to be ableist to autistic ppl and treat us poorly if we dont hit some like level of perceived intelligence 2 u. even throwing in the ‘well hes rly intelligent in specific ways that arent useful but hes still smart!’ or whatever is like, i get what ur trying to do but it still falls flat to me bcuz ur still acting like smartz is still judging ppls worth and how much respect they should get, and its Bad to just not be very smart and its Bad to be a disabled person who is just not very smart bcuz thats a Bad Stereotype that Insults YOU, a SMART neurodiverse (allistic) person, not like those Stupid autistic people who dont deserve or get to relate to fictional autistic characters bcuz we’re Bad Rep and the world doesnt Need any more Stupid R Slurred Characters they need ✨vaguely neurodivergent✨ ones that u personally can relate to that dont make anyone uncomfortable bcuz theyre not that Severe <3 <3
#this is abt galo obviously. i wouldnt say hes stupid or something i GET where ppl come from#writing their essays over the yrs abt how galos not actually an idiot !! he is very intelligent!! like yeah hes also visibly autistic#ur whole thing abt him not ACTUALLY being stupid 98% of the time just crossing over into it makes me Uncomfy if hes autistic#in a way that makes me uncomfortable or i find unrelatable as an allistic person :( he can be Autistic Coded but he cant be autistic#and im still acting like the BESTIEST Autism Rep is when chars r SECRETLY GENIUS SAVANTS!!#BCUZ GOD FORBID AUTISTIC PPL JUST BE VISIBLY AUTISTIC /AND/ NOT THAT GOOD AT SOME THINGS#ITS ONLY OK FOR AUTISTIC PPL TO BE VISIBLY AUTISTIC IF THEYRE GENIUSES TO LIKE CANCEL OUT THE UNCOMFY WEIRD AUTISM LOOK#and allistics (and sometimes self proclaimed high functioning autisticppl unfortunately) would rather just be like#actually being basically allistic is what makes a Good autistic character. thats Rep to me i can Relate to that#WHAT ABT THE REST OF THE AUTISTICS WELL WHO GIVES A SHIT ABT THEM THEYRE WEIRD AND DUMB AND MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE
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being an ultimate is ltierally just. youre getting awared for beinf better at your autism than everyone else
#fae plays stuff#thwse are just peoples special interests#Tch. playing into the autistics are only good when theyre the quirky geniuses stereotype....#at least here everyone can be how they want to be tho? anf theres resources For doing your special interest Forever#too bad abiut the killing murder#tag don't look#tag dont look
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idk but a part of me gets annoyed whenever people compare dr ratio and alhaitham.
like yeah ok... hot buff autistic nerdy men
but their whole ideologies are completelyyy different
would alhaitham ask you to give him a 'stimulating quiz' in his free time and then proceed to design a weapon for the express even though he didnt need to? no.
would dr ratio complain about becoming the (acting) grand sage and lead sumeru? no??
alhaitham is a 'live and let live' kind of guy. he justs wants to chill and have an easy life. like be for real, he's so worried about the akademiya finding out about his true talents and power because he hates the idea of working more. the only reason he's the scribe is because it's easy and it pays well. he's not particularly interested in helping others out unless its beneficial to him or the other really needs it. as kaveh said(i think he did??? idk i dont play genshin anymore), alhaitham is a nihilist
dr ratio on the other hand? he craves being able to fix things. all he wants to do fix things. although yeah he's not gonna do everything for you, he literally said to your face that if somethings bothering you deal with it yourself BUT he did literally go out of his way to scheme that entire thing in his quest to bring the people on the space station to there senses and get them thinking for themselves instead of obsessing over those geniuses. and that whole speech he gave to screwlum after? bro was INVESTED AND INTENSELY PASSIONATE. hes extremely passionate about getting people do use and develop their talents to the best of their ability. hes a fucking doctor who somehow has 52 courses and any of the people who actually make it through all get far in their lives. alhaitham would never put in that effort even with all his talent and ngl dr ratio would hate him for that (maybe not hate but dislike).
Another difference? alhaitham isnt a bitch about what his talents although its easy to assume he is while ratio low key kind of is and since the game itself describes him as 'narcisistic' so i think its pretty safe to assume he acts a bitch and he kind of is one too (cant blame him if i did all he did i would be the same)
#oh and the aventurine and kaveh comparision just kind of... confuses me.#like i guess i could get it in the context of aventio and kavetham but only then#does this count as a character analysis??#dr ratio#hsr dr ratio#veritas ratio#babbles#hsr#honkai star rail#star rail#genshin impact#genshin#gi#alhaitham#gi alhaitham
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ON DAZAI AND EMPATHY: A character study
Before you read: Obviously diagnosing any character in fiction seriously is a fool’s errand, but I am a fool, so let’s just do this for amusement.
The main thing I desire is to discuss is the extent to which Dazai is capable of various types of empathy, as well as how that influences the way he sees and interacts with others. It will be chaotic and all over the place because I just sat down and wrote this in a fit.
Let me explain some factors in analyzing Osamu:
The author's intention is clearly to make Dazai's internal world a mystery. Since we don't have enough information, all we can do is hypothesize based on external elements.
Generally, across all novels, the only time we’ve seen anything of Dazai’s perspective is in “The Day I picked up Dazai” (Beast continuity) – where he “saves” Oda and tortures that random dude.
We don’t hear his thoughts narrated from first-person perspective, unlike many of the other novels.
Now, the crux of the issue.
For years, it’s been discussed whether Dazai is a “sociopath”. If we disregard that sociopathy is a very loaded term that can mean a lot of things depending on which specialist you consult, at the very least, Dazai does strike me as someone with a unique expression of empathy, who could qualify for Anti-social personality disorder or a related condition.
I will abandon the idea that Dazai is a sociopath, and use actual concepts that have legitimacy within this post.
Whether Dazai could qualify for ASPD or any other disorder is something I've seen discussed for many years within the fandom. I'll try to analyze how these concepts could apply to him.
In regards to mental health and Kafka (since it is a contentious matter) and the validity of any of this:
I understand that a lot of people are resistant to the idea that any of the characters could have conditions more complex than depression, anxiety, and PTSD. This is my counterpoint.
I have noticed that Asagiri emulates a lot of characteristics commonly attributed to “geniuses”, without confirming or potentially even intending to write these characters as having a specific condition.
A great example is Ranpo – who will read as autistic to any decent mental health professional (Untold Origins). Did Asagiri intentionally sit down and say “I am going to write an autistic character”? Maybe not.
However, the “genius” stereotype is profoundly connected to visions of autism, even if people aren’t aware of it. Take people like Sherlock, House and L from Death Note – they’re commonly believed to be autistic by fans.
All of these characters borrow from the same group of traits, that just happens to correspond with a certain condition - savants have always been popular in fiction.
It's been known that the favorite type of character for Asagiri is the “prodigy” type, and he has used geniuses across fiction for inspiration of most notable intelligent characters within BSD.
For Ranpo it was Sherlock, for Fyodor it was Joker from the Dark Knight (a classic sociopath), for Dazai it was Patrick from The Mentalist.
What I’m trying to say is, you can see various personality disorders connected to the portrayal of these geniuses, and even without confirming their state, it is clear they are either intentionally or unintentionally coded to be that way. Extremely intelligent characters not being able to read social cues, lacking empathy, disregarding rules etc. is something we commonly see in fiction.
Basically, a lot of people don’t even know that these stereotypes are based on certain personality types, disorders, and illnesses.
It’s sort of like drawing a character and dyeing their hair a certain shade of blue that you don’t know the particular name of: it doesn’t change the fact that you used that color, and the fact it has a name.
Most authors are not mental health experts anyways, so they may not be entirely aware of every detail of the psychological framework they write the character to possess. They also may not write it consistently, as they're mostly emulating stereotypes.
I mention Ranpo and autism because a character can embody traits of a stereotype without the author even necessarily having the intention to do so, however, to anyone who knows a thing or two, it is clear Ranpo is on the spectrum. If Ranpo were to express a few traits that go against this, it would not necessarily take away from the large-scale portrayal he is meant to exude: an autistic coded genius.
Why am I saying this? It is entirely possible for the author to write Dazai as a person with anti-social personality disorder, to “code” him in that way, but to not be entirely aware of how an individual with ASPD realistically tends to act.
Because he may be emulating a certain "stereotype" of a genius, he may also end up emulating specific psychological states, without making them entirely consistent in a realistic way. Writing the way individuals with ASPD tend to deal with empathy can be extremely difficult for anyone. It's easy to emulate a sociopath on a superficial level, but beyond that, it gets more challenging. How would a person with limited empathy act when they're hurting someone? That is an easier idea to handle. But how will they act in a friendly relationship? This is where it gets tricky.
That is likely why someone like Dazai can never be consistently compatible with a very specific disorder: but, he can come very close. Besides, concepts such as anxiety and depression are pretty well-known, but more niche mental health conditions are not as well understood.
So, BSD Osamu was written with specific attention to mental health issues because the author himself was someone who spoke heavily on the topic. I’ve read a lot of real-life Dazai Osamu, with special attention to No Longer Human (the main inspiration for BSD Dazai was Yozo) – and neither RL Dazai nor Yozo gave me the impression they could qualify for ASPD at all.
I know BSD Dazai is the opposite of the RL author in so many ways, but I guess it’s relevant to mention this because we know so little of BSD Dazai’s internal working processes, and Asagiri's main inspiration can tell us a lot about the intentions behind Dazai's portrayal.
Generally, an intention or idea behind a character can give a lot of clues to us - more than anything, I am under the impression some of the main ideas behind Dazai's creation was that:
1) He doesn't feel like he belongs among humans
2) He has mental health issues
However, we have difficulty defining the exact source of why all of this is in more realistic terms.
Naturally, since Dazai, an extremely socially intelligent person, sees himself as "othered", it is logical to assume he is not capable of fulfilling some emotional function most people can in a successful enough way.
If he were just mentally ill in more typical ways (only depression), I theorize he wouldn't feel that "othered". He specifically is not meant to feel human. Obviously, his extreme intelligence is one of the things that isolates him, but the question is what else?
We are led to believe Dazai "sees" something the rest of us don't, and that is one of the reasons he wants to die. However, there is something more to it, as I believe it to be. We have two characters who are as intelligent as Dazai: Fyodor and Ranpo, and neither of them is suicidal, as far as we know.
I believe Dazai "feels" a certain way, and then finds a way to logically justify it. Due to his intelligence, he likely falls into a complex loop which leads him to existential nihilism: but you usually don't end up in a place like that if you tend to feel alright in the first place, regardless of how smart you may be.
While Dazai is certainly isolated due to his extreme intelligence, most of the people who made an impact on him are nowhere near him in that respect. In fact, I'd argue Dazai isn't even looking for someone equally intelligent to him, unlike Fyodor (this would take another post to explain).
The man who means the world to him, Oda, is more emotionally intelligent and full of common sense, but definitely not his cognitive equal. You can tell a lot about a person depending on what they value: and due to this I believe that Dazai's main issues relate to emotional matters. He primarily feels isolated due to his emotional state, and his intelligence pushes the problem further. Otherwise, he would treasure people like Ranpo and Fyodor over guys like Oda and Atsushi: he's looking for something to ease his emotional pain. Dazai doesn't seek out raw intellectual stimulation as much as comfort/excitement.
This post will be an analysis of how Dazai compares to the "average" psychologically and some of the reasons he may feel so othered. Basically, my theory is that the feeling of being "othered" comes from his emotional profile, as much as it comes from his intellectual capacity. Those two take equal parts in his psyche.
Why would Dazai feel so emotionally "othered"? I believe it may have to deal with a specific personality disorder or condition, and mainly how he experiences empathy. One of the possibilities is ASPD.
Anyways, let’s look into common ASPD symptoms, and then we'll look into common behavioral patterns the character shows. Dazai is equal amounts portrayed seriously and in a “jokey” way, but his worst traits and moments are usually described without humor.
To preface: Keep in mind that you can have any or all of these traits without it qualifying you for a certain disorder. It is the extent to which you show it that makes a person, like Dazai, out of the norm.
1. Repeatedly breaking the law: This one goes without saying, he was in the Mob as Young as 15, and seemingly a violent criminal even before that age.
To differentiate him from other members of the Mafia, it is stated by tons of people throughout the story that Dazai was practically born for this job.
Oda in Dark Era:
He was openly murderous before the age of 15, according to both The Day I picked up Dazai and Fifteen:
Dazai and Oda interacting in TDIPUD
When talking to Kyouka, it seems that he has an “interesting relationship” with murder as a whole:
One thing is for sure, Dazai is much calmer, calculated, and more Machiavellian than most criminals in BSD, and this all started at an extremely young age. Many people kill when they're young, but they're not this casual about it. The age at which he was this cold about would be of diagnostic significance.
2. Lack of remorse:
Everything mentioned above, it is clear that Dazai has an even more complicated relationship with guilt and empathy. I’m pretty sure anyone in real life would consider him out of the norm, as it’s explicitly stated Dazai doesn’t feel remorse for all sorts of things he does, but there are some hints he is either ashamed of the way he is, or regrets his nature, but accepts it.
What is particularly significant here is how young Dazai is when he shows a marked level of these traits.
A key event that stuck with me is from the Dragon Head event in Mayoi (from my understanding it was written by Asagiri), where Shibusawa mentions Dazai will regret something (to me it sounded like he meant that killing Shibusawa will end poorly for Osamu).
However, Dazai’s reaction was interesting – it was like he was almost amused that anyone would believe Dazai “could” feel regret for anything.
Mayoi
Later down the timeline it’s quite questionable whether Dazai feels regret for some of his actions because he hides his feelings like a snake hides its legs, but there are implications he is somewhat remorseful if you read between the lines. More on that later.
Dazai has changed compared to his past self, but to talk about that, and the extent to which he has changed would take a whole other post.
More on his lack of remorse,
In “The Heartless Cur” Dazai is very young when he gets some randos from the Mafia killed in front of Akutagawa, yet his main emotions are amusement and boredom. This is not the “typical” emotional range of most people, even practiced criminals. For example, Chuuya kills people just like Dazai, but his reactions to it are entirely different.
from The Heartless Cur
Murder tends to not be the preferred or first solution Chuuya goes for: there is an expected amount of hesitance if you read into Chuuya.
He put a bomb below Chuuya’s and sabotaged Ango’s car without much bother. I’d say even if you do see It as a “means to an end”, the way he did it was really cold. Usually, when people of all kinds do bad things, they have remorse and empathy they need to suppress, but with Dazai we don't see much of that. It's like he can just "do it'.
He’s also really great at torture, in Side B at age 15-16, he already describes himself as a “specialist”. This is also touched upon when he speaks to Kouyou:
No matter how "grey" a character is, torture is a very specific process that takes a particular psychological profile to pull off. To be a "specialist" at it, you definitely need to possess dented empathy.
Lack of remorse and empathy does not mean a person is going to be a criminal at all - it simply opens the opportunity that they may get lost in those waters more easily compared to the average person.
3. Repeatedly being deceitful
I’m pretty sure we don’t have to cover this one. Yozo, the character he was loosely based on, is a big liar, and commonly uses “clowning” to distract from his real personality. Even the real Dazai Osamu wrote extensively about the concept of “lying”.
There is a lot to talk about Dazai and “masking”, and I’ll get to that in the second half of the post.
Generally, Dazai lies a lot, one can’t even be sure what his personality really is. He lies by omission, manipulates, and intentionally deceives people without any issues. There are so many quotes about this that I’d probably reach the image limit right there if I wanted to reference them all.
4. Being impulsive or incapable of planning ahead
Does not apply
5. Has difficulty sustaining long-term relationships:
Dazai is famously a hoe. From “All women are his type” (and it seems he has zero issues getting together with any woman, young, old or even taken) to being known as “the enemy of all women” (said by Chuuya), it’s clear he is very promiscuous.
Wan is in the gray area of canon, but in one of the earlier chapters he has so many love letters by different women that Atsushi burns them all. Kunikida said he hits on any woman he sees in the Entrance exam novel, which is further supported by random Wan! Chapters, silly crossovers, and everything else (literally anything female).
Not only that, but Dazai sounds like a consistently manipulative and toxic romantic partner. In an Otomedia interview, written by Asagiri, Dazai’s real type was basically something like:
“Any woman is fine, because he is confident he can shape her to suit his tastes”
which shows a remarkable lack of care for the personhood and individuality of his partner.
When answered what he’d do if his partner cheated or betrayed him, his answer was even more concerning. Depending on the translation, it goes something like:
“He has not been cheated on, but he has cheated on others” or “he set up women to cheat on him/betray him” where both are a lot, just in different ways.
Either he is compulsively unfaithful, putting all above together, or he plays mindgames with his partners. He’s also told Kunikida that:
“And from my experience, it takes only a smile and some kindness to get a woman swooning over you when she's fallen on hard times” painting an image of someone who takes advantage of people’s weaknesses to get what he wants.
Regardless, it’s clear he is very manipulative and likely emotionally abusive. I won’t even touch upon his obsession with double suicide.
There’s also the fact that he seems to use sex to get what he wants – insert scene where he fucks the nurse to get his phone back.
Other than that, Dazai appears to be rather solitary. Ango and Oda are said to be “the only ones close to him” because they respected said loneliness. Even in ADA, Dazai seems to be professionally close to people, but very few people seem to know him on a personal level. I’d say he keeps people at a distance intentionally – before it was violently, later it is by being avoidant.
For as much of a womanizer he is, there was that early comic where he spent Valentine’s Day drinking at Lupin “with Oda”, instead of going out with any particular person. I think this demonstrates how emotionally distant he is from all the people he interacts with
6. Being irritable and aggressive:
Dazai is not particularly aggressive, nor irritable, but he has moments where he slips. Tbh, reading back, it says a lot about Dazai’s character who he gets angry at and why.
It’s important to say that when Higuchi calls him out on “Hollowing out the hearts of his opponents” in incredibly brutal ways, Dazai replies that he thinks “Sadism is just a method, and how it’s boring”.
Akutagawa is the receiver of a lot of his violence to a disproportionate degree. He beats up Akutagawa beyond what could ever be “just training”. There’s something that ticks him off about Akutagawa, which is interesting, since Dazai tends to not react this way to anyone who doesn’t touch him “intimately” in some way.
A lot of people justify Dazai’s physical abuse by saying it is “training”, but it stood out to me how he kicks Akutagawa in the stomach even the first time he meets him in “Beast”, when Akutagawa is just an extremely traumatized and deprived kid he refuses to recruit. There is not much utility to that kick, to me. It felt personal.
Another example of him expressing anger is when people “called him foolish for wanting to die” – clearly he did not take it well since all of those people ended up dead. This is from “The Day I picked up Dazai” when Oda tells him he is a fool for wanting to die.
Other times Dazai expressed rage was in relation to Ango and Oda, particularly anything that related to Oda’s wellbeing.
He snaps at his subordinates when they tell him he shouldn’t be friends with someone “of such low status”, and the only time we really hear Dazai say he hates someone is when he’s torturing one of the guys who put Oda in trouble in the Beast timeline of “The day I picked up Dazai”.
Obviously, he is resentful towards Ango and incapable of forgiving him. “Dead Apple” guidebook touches on it.
“Though they were once good buddies who used to drink together, to Dazai, Ango is one of the persons who caused the death of Odasaku. He still holds that resentment up to now, and is unable to forgive. Ango also seems to feel Dazai’s silent wrath towards him.”
Harukawa has said to pay attention to how cloudy the eyes of a character are to accurately interpret their psychological state. I don't think there are many times Dazai's eyes are drawn in such an extreme way - there is no "light" she talks about here. His eyes are pure black when he talks to Mori during the Guild arc.
He also agrees with Fyodor on “Malice being the best fruit that God Bestowed upon Mankind”
There is also this with Jouno:
Basically, Dazai rarely gets angry, insults don’t work on him (as he tells Chuuya), nor does beating him up, but when he does get irritated he flies off the handle and has no issue crossing any normal boundaries.
That detail is what stands out to me – usually, people have a line they won’t cross when getting mad, but for Dazai it’s like most moral lines disappear. Imo, his anger is for social standards over disproportionate in how far he’ll go and how he'll act on it– he usually has a clear intention to harm the individual he's mad about.
In comparison, Chuuya is someone who gets angry more than Dazai, but Chuuya clearly has a line he won’t cross. There is also no pointed sadism in his reactions. Dazai will likely do almost anything.
Basically, it's not how much Dazai gets angry, but the way he gets mad that sticks out to me.
Most importantly, Dazai only ever gets enraged if it concerns something very personal and intimate: Oda and his death, his suicide attempts etc. At this point, for me, It’s safe to say that if Dazai gets extremely angry, it means the topic affects him on a deep level (a hint to whatever Is happening between him and Akutagawa, I could talk a lot about that).
More on Dazai’s unpredictable and violent nature:
Stormbringer
I think there is a valid argument in seeing Dazai’s aggression as just a tool he uses to keep others at bay, something to hold over people and control them – but even then, it shows a marked disinterest in social norms people usually respect.
7.Having a reckless disregard for their safety or the safety of others
This one builds upon all the others. However, it’s always been interesting to me how it’s clear something flies over Dazai’s head when it comes to regularly empathizing with others.
This is often seen with Chuuya. In my opinion, most of the bullying Dazai gives Chuuya is not motivated out of rage, but rather some form of spite. He goes at length to Rimbaud about planning Chuuya’s murder in “15”, then he also lets Chuuya be tortured in “Stormbringer”.
I am under the impression he sees these moments as “amusing” and doesn’t fully emotionally understand why this is something bad, even if he does on a rational level.
I’ll say that Dazai did seem to show some rage whenever anyone hurt him physically in the past (seems likely to be a hint to a traumatic past), which Chuuya did when they met, but I don’t get the impression he is generally angry with Chuuya, it’s more like he just enjoys fucking with him. Ironically, for how rarely Dazai gets angry, it seems he reserves his rage/irritation exclusively for people and things he cares about, so Dazai being specifically irritated at Chuuya is just a sign of how much the guy gets to him.
If Dazai were angry at Chuuya, it is in character that he would try to hurt him a lot more than he does. However, I'd say Dazai has a blurry space for what's ok between "keeping someone purely safe" and "deeply hurting them". There is some lack of emotional empathy there - to him, it is more amusing than anything to see someone he finds interesting struggle.
Dazai sees boundaries differently. He’ll put people into danger or through discomfort without worrying much, especially if he’s sure they’re going to walk and live after it, but sometimes not even that. (there’s so many examples of it). I’d say it’s not that Dazai doesn’t care, he just cares about people differently compared to what we’re used to socially.
Regarding personal safety, it’s pretty obvious: he’s a suicide maniac, but even more, he also puts himself in harm’s way all the time without any anxiety present. Examples are when he provokes that sniper in Dark Era (when Oda gets angry at him and wants to punch him), knows he is going to get shot by Fyodor, but lets himself get hurt anyway.
When he “dies” in 55 minutes, he seems “lightly” surprised, but there’s no strong reaction to it. To me, it seems that the only physical harm he dislikes is pain he suffers from another person (when he doesn’t plan it).
Dazai apparently doesn’t feel much “anxiety” – I remember many different times when he comments on another character’s timidness or meekness, seeing it as something unusual.
8. Behave irresponsibly and show disregard for normal social behaviour
He’s extremely eccentric, and even Ranpo says he doesn’t get him. Dazai asks women to commit suicide the moment he meets them, and often attempts suicide around people even if it distresses them (Entrance exam).
While I think he made this excuse in Dark Era to Taneda because he didn’t want to work with Ango, I do believe he believes what he said:
“You’d lose your job if I did that.” Dazai wryly smirked. “I don’t like places with lots of rules.”
Not being able to accept conventional rules is very often a telltale sign of a personality disorder.
Clearly, Dazai fits many of the criteria necessary for having ASPD, so let’s look at some other details that are common for people with ASPD.
Masking:
In psychology and sociology, masking is the process in which an individual camouflages their natural personality or behavior to conform to social pressures. Masking is common with many disorders, such as autism, ASPD etc. I am pretty sure it’s canon Dazai masks – on a BSD exhibit, the key element Asagiri wanted to talk about in Dazai’s personality was related to this.
“When I describe Dazai to the staff, there is a phrase that I always use, “an unworldly being with a mental age of two thousand years.” Dazai has far surpassed the mental dimension that human can reach, thus no-one can even tell if the emotions he shows are the real things or not.
There are rare moments when that Dazai shows his very “human” side. That is when he talks to another superhuman who is on the same level with him. The other is when he talks about his old friend who has passed.
This is the scene when Kyouka wondered “Maybe I’m, after all, just a murderer at heart.” and refused to be saved. And Dazai’s reaction to that. When he said “Don’t give me any of that!” here, he really meant it. That was an outburst from Dazai, as a 22-year-old boy, in this scene.”
Light novels often describe his smile as fake, mask-like, and I could probably find 20 panels where Harukawa clearly drew him to intentionally seem like a fake smiler. From “15” to “Entrance exam”, Dazai often drops his mask, and then goes back to acting silly just to make the other person relax. He does this with everyone, Mori, Kunikida, Atsushi, etc. Chuuya also mentions that Dazai’s “happy-go-lucky” personality in ADA is something new, and he believes it doesn’t fit him.
Kunikida says this in the Entrance Exam:
"For someone so full of eccentricities, there is something about his behavior that makes it seem as if he has an unobstructed view of the world. I don’t know exactly why, but all his emotions strike me as an act to some degree. Is he just playing dumb? Could there be more to him than he’s letting on, lurking behind his ambiguous mannerisms?"
More than anything, Dazai himself says that Oda was the person closest to seeing his “real” personality. That pretty much confirms he keeps his real self hidden away. I’d say that there are several possibilities to why this is:
He hides it because he dislikes being vulnerable, he doesn’t know how to act “normal”, people are unable to understand him, so masking makes it easier for him to communicate with others…there’s a lot of theorizing I could do here.
Dazai also tends to have interesting thoughts about personalities as a concept.
You’ll commonly see Dazai say something serious, followed by a severe reaction of the other character, ending with Dazai changing his demeanor and saying “just kidding” to lighten the air.
Manipulation:
Dazai is extremely Machiavellian – he is prone to manipulating everyone around him, regardless of how much they care about him or not. He manipulated Chuuya into joining the mafia, he does the same with Akutagawa even today:
Here we have him preying on Aku's insecurities to sabotage his self-confidence
He seems to be able to cut off his emotions from any situation, seeing people in a raw, factual sense.
There are several moments throughout the novels where Dazai talks about people as if they’re purely resources or pawns.
An example of this in Dead Apple (where Chuuya gets angry because he doesn't respect people or show enough sympathy)
The way he speaks of Atsushi, when asked what he thinks of him in a guidebook, is something like “developing as expected”. Especially in the original, it sounds extremely factual, mechanical, and cold.
To me, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about Atsushi, he’s just the type to compartmentalize his emotions in opposition to his thinking.
This is very common for a few personality disorders and mental health conditions: the capacity to totally cut off your emotions from the equation. Obviously, many people are capable of doing this to one extent or another, but the amount to which he does it is what makes it significant.
Lack of traditional empathy:
Personally, I think everything comes down to this. Dazai's experiences with empathy are one of the main themes of his character arc. I believe one of the things that makes him feel othered is his lack of emotional empathy.
People with ASPD tend to have issues experiencing what a lot of people consider “typical” empathy – however, ASPD is also on a large spectrum, so experiences certainly vary. Keep in mind that "lack of empathy" is common for all sorts of disorders, but since ASPD seems to be one of the most popular choices for Dazai, I decided to start there.
Before we continue, there are 2 types of empathy:
Cognitive empathy is the ability to recognize and understand someone’s feelings and experiences and imagine yourself in those scenarios.
Emotional empathy is experiencing shared emotions with someone or feeling emotions as though the experience is your own.
People with ASPD can commonly do the first type easily, and struggle with the second one. It does not mean they cannot experience emotional empathy, it’s just rarer for them to feel it.
In my opinion, Dazai heavily relies on Cognitive empathy compared to Emotional empathy.
You can see often that he seems to not entirely understand “why” something is wrong on a personal level, but he can logically see it. This is a running theme, and you can commonly see that Dazai doesn’t fully understand “normal”.
“15”
Asagiri seems to be writing Dazai as someone who has gone “beyond the human dimension” in his skills and intelligence, so other people can’t fully understand him, but I think this goes both ways. Dazai has lost touch with what’s the standard human experience.
One of the times Chuuya specifically calls out Dazai for not "acting human-like" is when he's not expressing empathy and respect.
It is clear that Dazai's lack of empathy is one of the aspects which make others see him as "inhuman".
There is another situation with Kunikida during the Azure Messenger arc where Dazai seems to apologize for not getting something “is normal”, it slips by you very easily. It is framed as a joke, and it can be read as him making fun of Kuni, but Kunikida asks himself why Dazai apologized. It does read a bit unusually.
To me it seems like Dazai doesn’t fully emotionally understand other people, so when his mask slips you can see that he struggles a ton with getting what’s exactly “typical”.
Because Dazai is extremely intelligent, he masks in order to fit into society, and he does it successfully since he can intellectually understand most social and emotional functions and processes. However, he slips up like everyone does.
This is why he got along with Oda well – since Oda just let him act like himself without having ulterior motives. Dazai didn’t have to “mask”. He didn't see Dazai as "just anyone", but he also realized Dazai was human. Basically, to Oda Dazai was a kid that had empathy issues, but he was struggling much like everyone else.
Personally, I feel like Dazai doesn’t feel entirely “human” because he doesn’t feel “emotional empathy” on the same level as other people, and this is one of the key issues of the character (as it's clearly stated in the Dead Apple manga, where Dazai does seem a bit upset by Chuuya's reaction)
.
The reason he felt “seen” by Oda is because Oda fully recognized this and still believed Dazai could do “good”. In our society, it is common for people to think that "empathy" and "sympathy" are conditions for being a good person, but it isn't so simple. The possible complexity of Dazai's moral state is why I find the character so interesting - a person without traditional empathy choosing to be good is really fascinating. (more on this later).
Boredom and general emptiness:
“Boredom” is an extremely common complaint for people with ASPD – in fact, intense, non-standard boredom, along with other symptoms such as atypical experience with empathy, is one of the easiest ways to recognize ASPD.
A “numbed” emotional state is common for people with ASPD, and due to their different emotional range and inability to connect with others in a more typical fashion, they are prone to “boredom” and seeking out extreme experiences.
Alcoholism/Substance abuse is common for people with ASPD, and it’s pretty much canon Dazai drinks a lot (alcohol is even in his likes).
Aside from that, Dazai often cites boredom as one of the main reasons he wants to die, and I remember so many instances where he complains about it in bizarre circumstances.
This is common for people with ASPD: depression/suicidality is comorbid, and I have heard people with ASPD mention they wanted their life to end once they no longer have enough stimulation. Dazai is often stated to be “bored”, or look bored even when extremely horrifying things are happening (people dying around him/telling their life stories..). An example with Mori where he talks about wishing to die (from 15):
Another really funny thing, a lot of people with ASPD I have seen tend to dislike “dogs”. Obviously, this hatred comes from the real life Dazai being scared of them and thinking they can attack at any moment, but it’s a funny coincidence. They tend to dislike dogs for an entirely different reason than Dazai does, to be fair.
How Dazai seems to see himself and morals in general
Generally, to me it seems like Dazai is not entirely happy with his nature. He admires Oda and doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t use his talents to rise up in ranks within the Mafia, simply because that is logical to Dazai – perhaps it is that difference between them that he enjoys so much. He is frequently attracted to displays of empathy:
Examples:
1. Ango documenting the deaths of people within the mafia even if it’s “just a waste of money”
2. Almost everything Atsushi and Oda do
He often describes altruism as “interesting”.
I am also under the impression that Dazai has a tendency to project his nature onto others, which we can gather from his “Evil expects evil from others” quote to Mori. Furthermore, he sadly remarks in Dark Era that he is “a man despised by righteousness”. so I feel like there is something up here, some sort of guilt, distaste or shame.
This tells me:
a)Dazai sees himself as “evil”
b)He is constantly assuming the worst in others or is prepared for the worst
Another thing this tells me is that Dazai is someone who is likely extremely wary of people’s intentions. This is a ubiquitous theme all across BSD, especially when we see him as a kid. Osamu tends to be skeptical of everyone and everything, as if he’s waiting for people to betray or fuck him over at any corner.
In TDIPUD, he keeps getting upset that he can't figure out Oda, since it makes no sense for him to be so charitable for absolutely no reason.
Oda said “good and evil are the same to you” – personally I interpret this as Dazai being largely amoral rather than immoral. Whether Dazai can be described as “good”, “evil” or “neutral” largely depends on your view of ethics. Just because someone lacks traditional empathy, it doesn't mean they are necessarily sadistic or bad at all.
Immoral and Amoral are two words that sound similar but have different meanings. Immoral is an adjective that describes “something against pre-established morals, ethics, or standard societal practices.” Amoral, on the other hand, is an adjective that describes “something or someone completely lacking morals.”
In common society, if you’re not “good”, you are often automatically “evil”. Basically, a person who has "no morals" is just as bad as a person who has cruel beliefs, but those two fundamentally differ.
However, in a technical, utilitarian fashion – this is often seen to be true. More or less, “good” is the neutral state, and the more you step away from it, the more “evil” you are perceived to be. The more moral conventions you break, the more "evil" you are, regardless of your intentions. The results of the actions matter more than the source and motivations. In the end, a person is dead, regardless of why you killed them or how you felt about it. The reasons why people do conventionally moral things can be all over the place too - people aren't always kind because they have sympathy.
When I hear “evil and good are the same to you”, it sounds like Dazai has no need for either, meaning, yes, he has no inherent need to do good, but no need for bad, he is simply not opposed to either of them. Regardless of what he's doing, he feels the same way.
They're both tools to satisfy particular needs. Many people read this and say "aha, so if he sees no difference between the two, that means he is evil", but I think the truth is in the middle. I always say that to estimate Dazai's moral framework, you need to judge him outside of normal conventions. Basically, his starting point in making decisions is different. He begins his process likely by thinking "what will this bring me?"
Most of his “evil” is not out of pure sadism, it’s just that he feels no need to stop himself due to moral conventions, he mostly cares about practical results. This is opposed to Kunikida who cares about ideals and morals in a vacuum and pursues them in their most idealized version (and it's well known Asagiri writes duos as opposites). Entrance exam as a novel was about how idealism can lead people to ruin when it's unrealistic.
He’s naturally immune to socialized pressure that forms the moral frameworks of most people on an emotional level. All of this is very common for ASPD, and a few other conditions.
The more I see Dazai talk about how he sees the concept of personality, murder, morality – the more I am convinced his ethical framework is focused on results rather than the inherent morality of said actions. Example: He's going to lie to you to make you happy, even though "lying is bad". There is no inherent value in staying honest if it makes an individual miserable in the long run, even though society sees frankness as a virtue.
That way, most actions are “open” for Dazai to undertake, he has no qualms most people have against them, since he doesn’t have socialized morals. A lot of the time, we only see certain things as "unconditionally bad" because we've been socialized to see them that way, even if it's not necessarily logical. He simply lacks socialized morals, leading to a tendency to be amoral. Everything is a means to an end, every action is alright if it's a tool that has more pros than cons. Oda's death was a useful character arc, since it led Dazai to taking Oda's moral framework as his own.
He doesn't believe he is better than others, nor does he enjoy hurting random people, he doesn't kill or rob randos to get something and believes he is justified in it. Things of that type would make him “immoral”. Most of Dazai’s evil actions seem utilitarian, rather than committed for the pure act of pleasure or cruelty.
When I say “amoral”, I mean this from Dazai’s point of view. Since he has no “moral boundaries”, all actions are open for him to undertake. He can go as far as he wants to any extreme largely depending on his subjective worldview and feelings (as seen in Beast, where he breaks all sorts of ethical codes of being "a good man" so Oda could get a decent life).
However, since he is aware that there is a fight between good and bad in every person, and that evil tends to win out compared to the good, under enough pressure, he admires people who selflessly continue to be kind. That is why Oda, a highly moral person even beyond what is logical (his insistence to not kill even if it harms him) is the opposite that pushed him to change.
Ulterior motives tend to be something Dazai is worried about in people, perhaps because he is possibly projecting all he is, or can be, on others. He describes Oda specifically as:
"a man who has no ulterior motive".
Oda is obviously being a good person partially out of self-interest ("people live to save themselves"), but this self-interest is not destructive. I think for Dazai, it was difficult to find people who didn't have an ulterior motive that was ultimately hurtful, and he projected that onto everyone. Oda acting in his self-interest was ultimately beneficial to everyone.
All in all, while Dazai does admire Oda's morals - I think a lot of this appreciation comes from an intimate and subjective place, where he feels comforted someone like Oda even existed. Continuing Oda's work is likely an extension of this as well.
Keep in mind, any person has the right to see Dazai's actions as bad, as they often are. I am more speaking of Dazai's internal mental framework.
Conclusion: Dazai has no inherent need to do good or bad, for the most part. He just goes as far as he needs to to satisfy his emotional needs.
Oda saved Dazai’s life in the day I picked up Dazai, and listened to him, but expected nothing in return.
I feel that Oda saw this struggle within Dazai, and the way “good and evil don’t mean much to him” due to his disorder, but recognized that Dazai perhaps didn’t want to be this way.
Since Oda saw Dazai’s “irregular” nature, and still believed he could be a good person, Dazai was touched and decided to change his life. I believe Dazai had some distaste for himself, regardless of his lack of empathy, he could recognize what he was doing was not entirely right.
As Asagiri mentioned, Oda told him exactly what he needed to hear, and the fact that these words were so life-changing to Dazai tells us a lot about what he had on his mind. In my opinion, to see who Dazai is, you need to follow exactly which words got to him.
In my opinion, it likely meant a lot that a person he actually admired wanted to be in his life, especially a person he considered so kind like Oda. He often says that Oda is “the most interesting person he knows”. Imo, this is because “empathy” is one of the things Dazai doesn’t fully understand. He had to learn it.
Since he understands human nature so well, cognitive empathy comes easy to him, but he still fucks up sometimes.
Here, I also feel like he is talking about himself – he sees himself in Kyouka. It doesn’t come naturally to Dazai to be “good”, but he is trying his best, that is his ideal now. (Asagiri said this was one of Dazai's rare human moments).
For that reason, I think Dazai admires empathetic people and tends to dislike those who are naturally violent, or even choose to be violent out of sadism.
On the BSD exhibit, Asagiri said Atsushi was "an empathy user", and how that is the key to his character. During one interview, the author mentioned that Dazai keeps testing Kunikida's ideals, but Osamu secretly hopes that Doppo will prove to be right, and Dazai wrong.
This to me paints a picture of someone who hopes that "good" is worth it, at least from an intellectual point of view.
When talking with Fyodor, he seems to admire people who live emotionally, thinking god doesn't prefer perfection, logic and harmony.
"The ones who actually make the world run
Are those who scream in the storm of uncertainty and run
with flowing blood"
Dazai seems to reject the idea that him and Fyodor and better because they are more calculating and cold - like I mentioned earlier in this god-forsaken post, this to me says Dazai believes empathetic and emotional people are better than him.
"I've come to see it many times, his gimmicks are the accidental and illogical
that's a weakness two of us have in common"
He suffers because he is not like them, and that contributes to him feeling "othered".
Negative emotions and Akutagawa
My guess is that one of the reasons Dazai has so many issues with Akutagawa is because he is projecting his own issues with his lack of empathy onto him. This makes him relate to Akutagawa, but also dislike him beyond how he usually treats people.
Akutagawa questions why Dazai's acts of violence are justified, while Osamu is judging Akutagawa: to me it sounds that Dazai sees his actions as at least partly justified because they are "logical" and utilitarian. He puts a difference between him and Aku, as if Dazai's natural instinct is not to mindlessly hurt others. However, it's interesting he needs to draw this line.
I believe Dazai sees a lot of the hurt he enacts on others as either "justified" or subconsciously defensive. "If I don't hurt others, they will hurt me", and he uses this against all kinds of people to keep them in control.
In the Dark Era novel, Dazai speaks of Akutagawa like this:
“When I first saw him over in the slums, I was horrified. His talents are extraordinary, and his skill is extremely destructive. Plus, he’s stubborn. If I’d left him to his own devices, he would’ve ended up a slave to his own powers until he destroyed himself.”
Interestingly, Dazai was "horrified" at what Akutagawa was capable of, where most things don't seem to exactly phase him. I think something about Aku's capacity for violence even scares him, and he "lashes" out in response to control him.
Later on Oda calls out Dazai's thinking indirectly in Beast, saying that hurting Aku is still bad no matter why he did it. (more on this in the next section)
However, it’s very clear he cares for Akutagawa in “Chopsticks and a Spoon”, so I do feel like he’s likely aware of it. In fact, that story contains one of the gentlest expressions Dazai has pointed at anyone, so I think he partially sees Akutagawa as "innocent" in nature, and more like a wounded animal. I'll likely write a post about it.
Since Dazai has expressed some lament or even shame regarding him being a person "hated by righteousness", I do think he is a bit ashamed of who he is.
This part is a theory:
When talking about "No Longer Human", Asagiri mentioned that he felt the book was about "embarrassment". Since Dazai is canonically famously based on Yozo to some extent, I feel that we can guess that Osamu likely does feel some shame - the question is about what. The rare times we see BSD Dazai express something similar to shame is when talking about his moral nature (when he beat up Akutagawa in Dark Era), but it's a "blink and you'll miss it" type of thing.
Yozo and RL Dazai's relationship with his father was one of the cornerstones of his work (NLH even ends with him mentioning how he would have been alright if he had a better relationship with his father). Within the book, Yozo feels all sorts of things which make him feel "inhuman", but he is terrified about being open about it due to his strict father who sees him as somewhat strange.
Since the theme of "fatherhood" was lightly touched upon when Atsushi's orphanage director died, I do think this is potentially a sore spot for BSD Dazai too.
My guess is that Dazai likely had a poor relationship with his father figure, who saw him as "strange" or "inhuman" due to the way he acted: leading BSD Dazai to feel shame over his nature. Perhaps one of the things that made his father see Dazai as inhuman was his lack of typical ethics and empathy. Osamu internalized this - and ended up becoming a criminal at a very young age, perhaps in an attempt to confirm what hurt him, seeing himself as someone who could mostly do bad (which could be one of the reasons he wanted to die so young). Perhaps Oda making a way for him to "act good" was life-changing because of that too - it targeted a specific wound.
All of this is speculation, but Dazai did mention that "self-pity leads you to living a life that is an endless nightmare". My guess is he was talking about himself there: and his own experiences with shame.
To extend this: I think one of the reasons Dazai is so harsh on Akutagawa is because he is possibly projecting his relationship with his father onto Aku.
Akutagawa is violent and troubled, and Dazai was shamed for the same thing. (but it would take a lot of time to work through this theory, so moving on..)
Dazai exhibiting empathy
However, Dazai does show empathy for Oda, and a lot of it. I’d go as far as to say that he over-empathizes with Oda, while he underempathizes with everyone else.
His relationships with the people closest to him tend to be why some people think he may have BPD. Especially due to devaluation and the "favorite person" concept.
For someone with this type of BPD relationship, a “favorite person” is someone they rely on for comfort, happiness, and validation. A FP is a person who someone with BPD relies heavily on for emotional support, seeks attention and validation from, and looks up to or idealizes. For Dazai, this is Oda.
On the other hand, In the context of BPD, “devaluation” refers to a psychological defense mechanism or coping strategy that individuals with BPD may employ in their interpersonal relationships. Devaluation involves a shift in the person’s perception of others, where they view someone they previously idealized or held in high regard as unworthy, flawed, or worthless. They become unworthy of their affection and praise. The person with BPD may engage in behaviors such as intense criticism, verbal attacks, withdrawal, or even cutting off contact with the person they have devalued. These actions are often driven by the individual’s fear of rejection, abandonment, or a desire to protect themselves from potential hurt or disappointment. For Dazai, the clearest example of this is Ango.
However, a person can exhibit the "favorite person" and project the phenomenon of devaluation without having BPD. In my opinion, Dazai does show heightened polarity in his feelings toward others, but I am not sure if BPD would be my choice for him. It's very difficult to say, as many conditions mask as BPD, and Dazai's expression of empathy is unique.
Dazai idealizes Oda, and deeply sees his pain as his own, while he always frames Akutagawa in a negative light, even though he is likely one of the people Dazai cares about the most (next to Oda, Chuuya, Ango, Atsushi, especially according to Beast). Another example of his heightened negative emotions are Ango, and Chuuya to a much lesser extent.
My guess is that Dazai doesn’t deal with caring about people well, especially when they are any sort of “threat”: which is why he tries to “bully” them down. The reason he goes easier on Chuuya than Akutagawa is because he feels Chuuya is in his nature more sympathetic.
In my opinion, the moment Dazai warmed up to Chuuya was when he realized that The Sheep were pushing Chuuya around: he was no “King of the sheep”, he was acting out of empathy and care.
Since Chuuya is so powerful, it was likely admirable to Dazai that he didn’t abuse his abilities for self-gain. This is when he decided to isolate Chuuya from the Sheep: and I think the reason above is specifically why
I'd say Dazai is likely "spikey" to anyone he cares about but has less confidence they won't hurt him. There are two camps of people:
1. Atsushi, Oda, Kunikida, Sigma (generally upright, meek, moral at the end of the day)
2. Chuuya, Akutagawa, and lastly Ango (people who are aggressive, challenging, and need to be put down in Dazai's eyes).
He cares about both camps (Sigma is debatable, I spoke of the type of personality Dazai seems to deal with easily in his case), but he likely feels "less safe" with the second type. Mori could potentially go into the second camp - there is some respect and resentment there at the same time.
He even talks about this with Kunikida in Entrance exam.
"“I guess. But you, Kunikida, I’ve got a good idea of who you are now, so nothing you do will ever surprise me. I mean, compared with me, you’re just a simple man with a simple mind, after all.”
See? You wear your heart on your sleeve. You don’t hide how you’re really feeling. It’s nice. You know what else is nice? Just knowing that you’re going to be worrying later to yourself, ‘Am I really that simple?’”
“Why, you—”
But I refrain from arguing. Whatever my response, he’s just going to end up telling me, “I knew you’d say that.”
I suppose that being around Kunikida comforts him since he is predictable, yet kind. On the other hand, someone like Chuuya excites him, because he is wild and challenging enough, but is still a good person when it comes down to it. Basically, Dazai is hypervigilant of pain.
Akutagawa is “off the chain” in comparison to all of them. I am under the impression that Dazai can care about people without treating them well at all, and 2 of the people who are at the top of his list (Chuuya and Aku) are people he “seems” to dislike (In Chuuya’s case rather openly in his profile).
It appears that the more “intense” and “unpolished” parts of Dazai’s personality are strictly reserved for people he cares about, but he is extremely selective about who he shows emotional empathy to as it’s such a rare experience for him. He may capable of "cutting off" empathy to protect himself emotionally.
It is quite clear some aspects of empathy miss him broadly in Beast, when he appears shocked that Oda would react so strongly to endangering Akutagawa since “it’s all supposed to end well if he survives”.
That sentence itself is totally tone-deaf, yet Dazai is acting as if Oda is supposed to take that normally. It’s quite clear that Dazai doesn’t treat Atsushi all that well in Beast either, as he exploits his fears for Atsushi to be totally obedient to him.
I really like this moment, because it demonstrates that even if Dazai does have some point regarding Akutagawa and the way he goes about things, the way he has treated him is still too much – and Dazai can’t exactly convince Oda, a decent person, why this is ever justifiable under any circumstances.
There is an aspect of regular empathy that misses Dazai – it doesn’t cross his mind why his actions are inherently bad.
Perhaps it is possible that Dazai was treated with little to no empathy growing up, so he accepted that as a model for acceptable behavior. A lot of the time, cruel actions don't seem to even register to him as bad, in an almost innocent way. It's like it doesn't cross his mind that stuff is out of the ordinary. When talking to Oda about this, he was described as "childlike".
However, Dazai shows a lot of extreme emotional empathy for Oda, which tends to be rare for people with ASPD (obviously, all traits of it are on a spectrum).
Dazai clearly feels as if he himself is being beaten when Oda suffers.
Furthermore, “Beast” shows that he is willing to endanger multiple people he cares about so Oda could live and write his book. In his words “the me from other worlds doesn’t care about the world” – showing that even though he may “care” about people, it’s really hard for him to fully emotionally connect with others.
This leads him to severe feelings of loneliness and isolation, but it’s quite clear Oda is the exception to this.
Dazai has multiple anxiety attacks when meeting with Oda in Beast and TIPUD:
“I see.” Oda says after he gives it a moment of thought. “I’ll do so then. That is very kind of you. You are a good guy.”
Dazai’s expression becomes distorted.
He opens his mouth, and closes it again, as if he can no longer breathe.
If he tells him everything now, maybe things will go back to how they were. The two of them will go to the bar together and have a toast. Just like that night.
“Odasa…”
Just as Dazai is about to say that name, a train passes by. The express train passing through that station cuts through the silence of the night, right next to where Dazai and Oda is."
and obviously the whole showdown at the bar. Earlier, Oda mentions that Dazai looks like he is about to cry:
An interesting part here is that Dazai gets shocked that Oda would even consider that Dazai could hurt him:
It almost sounds absurd that Dazai, who is known for scheming even against people he likes, would be that surprised someone would expect this from him.
This, to me, shows that Dazai does have that underdeveloped, childish emotional side to himself, where he doesn’t understand everything he does. It’s quite logical why Oda, or anyone else, would be consistently doubtful of Dazai, yet he is so used to not caring about anyone, that when he does feel things he is remarkably unpolished and just as illogical as anyone else.
I’d say his heart is like a knife that went blunt from lack of use. Since he has no experience dealing with people he feels strongly about, it always comes across very messy – and Asagiri himself often describes him as childish at his most vulnerable.
Furthermore, the lyrics of the song for Beast have these words to say:
“Loving you to death
won’t kill me
Because I don’t love this world enough”
And in the Beast novel, he mentions all he has to give to the world is love. I think we can certainly see that Dazai is not emotionless.
To me it seems like Dazai is capable of selective emotional empathy.
I feel like one of the reasons Oda was “the one” Dazai attached himself to the most, is because Oda was a struggling man who was also depressed (rather clear the more you read), but he was empathetic and accepted Dazai for who he was.
Him and Dazai had difficulties in common (the guy was a killer as a kid too), yet Oda did his best to be a good person – that is one of the reasons, as Asagiri mentions, why he had an “outburst” when Kyouka implied former killers can’t be good people.
Oda was a good person in his eyes, and his role model of “empathy”: someone he wished to emulate. I am pretty sure that Oda became the blueprint for the moral compass he strives towards.
Most importantly, Oda didn’t really judge Dazai when he showed his lack of empathy, while he remained firm in what he believed in.
“Odasaku is the type of person who will never lecture anyone. Because he does not consider himself a superior person who can teach and guide others. However, it doesn’t mean that he has nothing he wants to say. The sentiments that he couldn’t convey in these two scenes were finally delivered to Dazai in the last scene through the words “Become a good person.” Very meaningful scenes when read as a set.”
is how Asagiri described Oda during the exhibit.
As Asagiri says, one of the reasons he didn’t tell Dazai anything when he provoked the sniper was his modesty. Since Oda didn’t look down on him, yet showed concern and fully understood Dazai wasn’t just a struggling depressed kid, but someone with serious issues who also happened to be a child – Dazai grew to deeply care for him. Oda didn't shame him, likely avoiding Dazai's hypervigilant sensor for pain.
Selective empathy is common for many disorders – and Dazai, after not feeling “seen” his whole life, ended up making a true connection with Oda. I guess, in that sense – Oda was the one who really reached Dazai’s heart, and since he was the only one who came that close, all of Dazai’s emotional empathy is reserved for him.
In my opinion, the reason Dazai was so difficult to “get to” was that even people who had good intentions toward him never truly saw him.
To see Dazai as a depressed woobie who just needs to be saved is to idealize him – which wouldn’t exactly help him. They’re talking about a version of him that doesn’t exist. If the only way he could be seen as worthwhile was someone seeing him as more “traditionally good” than he truly is, it’s not going to work. He needs to be seen for exactly who he is, and still given a chance to be better.
Likewise, it had to be someone who wasn’t helping him in order to get something from him. I would say that one of the main reasons why Dazai got so attached to Oda was because his friend had no reason to save him, he gave him space, and didn’t even force himself into Dazai’s life.
It was purely altruistic, and for Dazai, who expects the worst from others and seems to fear people’s intentions, this was perfect. One of the main aspects of Dazai's character is his anxious-avoidant attachment style, where he is likely so afraid of potential pain, he pushes others away, or punishes anyone he cares about who might hurt him preemptively.
A lot of this is not impulsive, but calculated, which is why he feels a natural resistance to Akutagawa (but relates to him and cares all the more because of it). He understands the self-destructive nature of Akutagawa.
"If I’d left him to his own devices, he would’ve ended up a slave to his own powers until he destroyed himself.”"
I believe Dazai likely allows himself to fully empathize with Oda because he feels only Oda is "safe" in this world. The fact that Oda is dead and gone perhaps makes caring for him even safer, as his image of Oda will never change.
Conclusion:
I'd say Dazai is someone who is probably extremely traumatized, with a specific emotional profile that doesn't allow him to experience empathy like normal people do - and this is one of the defining traits of the character for me. He is able to isolate himself from normal social pressures and boundaries - and because of this and his extreme intellect, he feels like an alien in this world.
A lot of his struggle likely deals with the fact that he dislikes the hurtful person he is, but has difficulty seeing why he should be better - all while he has a distaste for sadism, cruelty and senseless violence in others. In my opinion, a lot of his own cruelty is "reactive": he acts "evil" because he expects the same from others ("evil expects evil from others), and decides he wants to beat them to the punch.
He is comforted when he is in the presence of altruistic and empathetic people, because he doesn't have to be what he dislikes (as "enemy" evil will always make him react since he is threatened). In the end, he rationally sees that cruelty is negative, but he still feels it is an effective tool. If Dazai weren't this way, he wouldn't consistently choose empathetic people for his company throughout the story, while acting callous himself most of the time.
A lot of things Dazai does to me feel like he is avoiding hurt, or attempting to "control the pain" he gets in his life.
Notably, Dazai mostly lets himself get "bullied" by people he sees as innocent and simple like Kunikida, since "Kunikida will never surprise him" - he knows that Doppo won't cross the line. Ironically, he famously says he "dislikes physical pain", but often gets himself into physically dangerous scenarios.
It's like he doesn't mind pain if he's the one in control (when Fyodor let the sniper shoot him, when that dude from Mimic shot him point blank). Avoidance of pain and control are other keys to Dazai's character.
In that sense, I think Dazai was possibly traumatized and learned to almost completely disassociate from empathy early in his life. There are so many theories I could think of here that we'd get nowhere.
It is clear that Dazai is capable of extreme emotional empathy due to his relationship with Oda, and it's possible he doesn't allow himself to feel it in most scenarios due to his avoidant nature regarding pain.
However, whatever the reason behind it, it is clear he doesn't feel a ton of emotional empathy in his day-to-day life, and this disassociation from empathy has crafted him into a person who doesn't fully understand "normal humans".
That is why he sees them as fascinating after Oda dies - he reaches Dazai's heart and opens him up to the idea that not all people are unempathetic and cruel - meaning Dazai doesn't always have to be on guard.
Does Dazai have ASPD, or is his lack of empathy a result of other things: PTSD, CPTSD, is he perhaps autistic? I can't say for sure, as it could be so many things. Personally, anyone could make an argument for any of these in my eyes. Above, I mostly analyzed his displays of empathy and tried to study which emotional patterns he appears to follow.
I think Dazai's character arc has a lot of worth specifically because we see someone for whom emotional empathy may not be natural trying to be good. It's a unique ethical dilemma, and that's one of the reasons I feel in love with the series. Since it isn't natural for him, his efforts mean a lot, and the struggle feels real and genuine.
Thank you all for reading if you made it this far <3
I've taken a lot of posts and translations I've gathered over the years, and I am sure I won't be able to thank everyone, but, I'd like to show appreciation for popopretty, aja154ever and many others for sharing info from exhibitions, databooks and so.
Have a nice day !
#bsd#bungou stray dogs#bungo stray dogs#dazai#dazai osamu#osamu dazai#osamu#oda sakunosuke#bsd dazai#theory
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Fuck it imma start weaponizing Autistic stereotypes like they're swords.
You want to infantalize me? Psyche I'm Sherlock Holmes now. You're Watson. How does it feel? 🤨
You wanna overanalyze my Autistic traits?? Okay I'm House now. I'm smarter than you. I'm psychoanalyzing you back. Since we're playing doctor now. Let's unpack YOUR neurotype shall we
Walking around like a completely unmasked Wednesday Adams. No expression whatsoever. Laughing at a joke? Never heard of it. Main Character syndrome? I don't care. I'm weird? Obviously. I'm cringe? A ridiculous concept made for shallow people.
If that's what you think we are, I'd rather that over the infantalizing overanalyzing bullshit ngl
Cause in Sherlock and House everyone around them seems to understand that this person doesn't communicate like them so just let them be as they are
Like it'll always baffle me that neurotypicals will wrongly have all these autistic characters who are savant like geniuses with asshole egos and no time for your bullshit
And then they get around actual autistic people and never consider 'hey maybe this person is smarter than me. hey maybe this person just doesn't find me amusing. hey maybe this person is really observant, or really talented, or knowledgeable, or monotone BECAUSE THEY'RE AUTISTIC'
It's like they can't put two and two together. It's like they cannot connect the two.
Its like autistics only have the potential to be funny and smooth and cool on TV. No more.
I'm reclaiming the narrative. I'm Sheldon Cooper now. You will listen to my infodump. You will listen to my bad jokes!!! Bazinga bitch!!!! 😩
#this is a rant#i know this is a whole lot of nothing but I needed to get it out#but I'm so so SO serious#like /s#i relate to Sheldon a lot actually#I feel like I'm constantly thinking 'you all are not making logical sense but okay'#neurodivergent#actually autistic#audhd#autism#neurodivergency#neurodiversity#actually audhd#actually autism#unmasking#neurodiverse#neurodivergence#actually neurodiverse#tis the tism
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One of the things within the autism community I find the most offputting are the self aggrandizing ideas you see floating around about the character of autistics.
That we are ‘the next step in evolution’, inherently more moral than NTs, inherently more intelligent than NTs, should be the ones to run society, ect. Now as a lighthearted joke, like “autism makes me cooler than the masses” or like “NTs are annoying.”- it’s whatever- punching up as a marginalized group isn’t bad. But the problem comes when people begin to genuinely believe they have more value based on their neurotype.
I think we have to understand that is inherently not healthy to put marginalized groups up on a pedestal like that. It may seem better to single out minorities with positive stereotypes, but what it really does is serve to further ostracize them. (A similar example to this is the ‘model minority myth’ when it comes to East Asians!) Even if this notion comes from inside the community, it’s not acceptable because it’s simply wrong. Autistic people are, well, people. We are just as capable of being shitty and being good as everyone else. To suggest that we aren’t is in a way denying us full personhood. (Now, this isn’t even getting into the way this sort of autistic supremacy myth completely leaves out and further maligns individuals with higher supports needs who perhaps aren’t seen as quite so ‘exceptional’…)
This isn’t to say that Autistic people don’t often have unique attributes and skills. A common thing mentioned is how a lot of seeming geniuses/ innovators were likely autistic. Broadly speaking, there are some areas where Autistic people are at an advantage over NTs. But there are also, of course, plenty of other areas where we aren’t. I do suspect that there were certain evolutionary factors that lead to the development of the autistic neurotype- I doubt that some of its traits are simply a ‘defect’. But this doesn’t make it ‘the next step in evolution’ at all, it simply means that autistic people should have an equal place in society.
#neurodivergent culture#neurodivergent community#autistic thoughts#autism community#autistic community#autism#neurodivergency#neurodivergent#neurodivergence#autistic#actually autistic#neurodiversity#asd#autism spectrum
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Autistic Person rates Autistic Characters in Media
In this post, I will be rating some autistic characters in media (specifically TV and movies) based on how well represented I feel by them as an autistic person. Keep in mind that this is thus a subjective list since autism is very individual and no two autistic people will have the same experience or opinions. I would also like to add that I am what would be considered a Low Support Needs autistic person, seen that I can generally live without too much assistance or accommodations, which means that my experience is going to not be relatable to autistic people with higher support needs than mine. On that note, also please keep in mind that “low functioning” and “high functioning” are harmful labels and that they are not the same as “low support needs” and “high support needs”. Also, obviously, since this is subjective, I am not saying that nobody else on the spectrum can’t like or relate to any of these characters; this is my own opinion, not a purely objective rating. Finally, whilst I will be rating these characters on a scale of 1 (worst) to 6 (best), I will not be ranking them in this post.
This list includes characters that are explicitly named to be autistic or that are widely accepted to be autistic, for example because the creators or actors confirmed it in retrospect or because the canon very strongly implies it and the creators have not spoken out in denial of it. Also I can obviously only rate the media I have actually seen so if your favourites aren't on this list, this is why.
CONTENT WARNINGS THAT APPLY: mentions of antisemitism (briefly), mentions of Autism Speaks, mentions of ableism, mentions of an autistic male character acting creepily towards women.
I will be signalling Pros/positive points with a + sign and Cons/negative points with a – sign.
Dr. Isidore Latham (Ato Essandoh) – Chicago Med (2/6)
- “curing autism” theme in the episodes centric on his personal experiences
- usage of the outdated and antisemitic term “Aspergers” over “Autism” (this is especially harmful considering Dr. Latham is Jewish)
+ Black autistic representation (which is rare seen that most autistic characters tend to be White) and Jewish autistic representation
+ whilst Dr. Latham is shown to not be the most social man and to be very direct, he isn’t outright rude or unprofessional
- as far as I could find out online, the actor is allistic (it is always better to cast a disabled actor for a disabled role)
Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) – The Good Doctor (0/6)
- the show collaborates with Autism Speaks, who are known to be a hate group not actually looking to help or listen to autistic people
- allistic actor
- extremely stereotypical in its portrayal (extremely antisocial, no friends, always literal, no social awareness – even though autistic people struggle with allistic tone patterns, usually they would be able to pick up at least somewhat what other people consider rude behaviour and would try to avoid it, something Shaun never seems to do)
- transphobia from the one autistic character, implying directly that autistic people are unable to understand the concept of a transgender identity (when in truth, studies show that many people on the spectrum also often identify as not on the gender binary or as transgender)
- Autistic Savant trope (portraying autistic people as geniuses when in fact, less than 5% of all autistic people are a Savant and even if we are very interested in a topic such as medicine, we still need to learn and study just as allistic people)
Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) – The Community (4/6)
+ writer of the series is on the spectrum
+ PoC autistic representation
+ whilst not clearly being labelled as autistic, the character is recognizable as an autistic person without hitting all the stereotypical tropes such as being antisocial, never joking, always being literal or being a “genius” without ever studying etc.
- allistic actor
- whilst generally not labelling a character as autistic is not a bad thing, it makes it harder for autistic people to definitely say “this character is autistic”, meaning that allistics can ignore the coding if they wish to cling to their own, often stereotyped idea of what autism “looks like”
Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (3/6)
- allistic actor
- stereotypical, but not as badly as other portrayals
+ avoids the trope of autistic people not having emotions, instead showing Alfred’s struggle expressing and understanding tone and emotions
+ generally good portrayal of a special interest being made part of the life via the job (salmon and fly fishing)
Music Gamble (Maddie Ziegler) – Music (0/6)
- creator Sia has openly shown ableist behaviour, putting down autistic people, not listening to autistic voices and criticism etc.
- allistic actress
- collaboration with Autism Speaks
- extremely stereotypical portrayal and infantalization of autistic nonverbal people
- harmful techniques such as restraining being shown on screen
- graphic meltdown scenes being shown
Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist) – Atypical (1/6)
- allistic actor
- in-universe infantilization of autistic people (via Mother Elsa)
- having the autistic character act dangerously, for example locking someone in the closet because they annoy him or borderline predatorily pursuing his therapist, sheds a harmful light on autistic people
- as far as is known, no autistic people were included in the production or writing process
- many instances show autistic-related habits or traits, for example wearing noise cancelling headphones, but frame it in a way that the audience is supposed to find it funny or laugh at the protagonist
- instead of making Sam sympathetic, he is largely just shown to make everyone around him uncomfortable
+ the ongoing portrayal of Sam’s special interest is generally well-done
- an ongoing theme is Sam’s girlfriend Paige restricting his info-dumping and by extension his special interest (something autistic people get active joy from) to three “dumps” a day so he can act “more normal” – this might teach allistic viewers that this is something they can do to their autistic friends
Sara Eriksson (Frida Argento) – Young Royals (5/6)
- usage of “Aspergers” both in the show and by the actress
+ actually autistic actress
+ autistic traits like mirroring, struggling with social context or tone and directness/bluntness as well as a special interest (horses) are shown whilst tropes like Sara being entirely unempathetic, rude and antisocial being avoided
Isadora Smackle (Ceci Balagot) and Farkle Minkus (Corey Fogelmanis) – Girl meets World (2/6)
- usage of “Aspergers”
- the original title of the episode centric on autism was “Girl Meets Normal”, implying autism is something abnormal, which is a potentially very harmful rhetoric
- autism is shown as something bad, with Farkle’s friends actively trying to fight over him being not autistic, insisting he is “normal”, generally treating autism as something they don’t want their friend to be associated with – a very harmful take in a show for kids and young teens
+ Smackle is a major, long-term autistic character rather than a One Episode throwaway character, even though she is generally quite stereotypical (but given that this show generally has every character act over the top and often fitting in specific categories this is not as bad, it just makes her fit in the framework of the show; she is not the only one who is largely stereotypically portrayed)
+ actor Ceci Balagot is themselves autistic (according to their twitter that is)
Renee (Madison Bandy) – Loop (6/6)
+ PoC nonverbal autistic character portrayed by a nonverbal autistic voice actress
+ in production, an active effort was made to make the actress feel comfortable, so that her experience working on the film would be accommodating and positive rather than unnessicarily stressful
+ generally very well-done portrayal of both sensory seeking and sensory overstimulated behaviour and the experience as an autistic person
Matilda (Kayla Cromer), Nicholas (Josh Thomas) and Drea (Lillian Carrier) – Everything is gonna be okay (6/6)
+ autistic actors playing autistic characters and autistic writer
+ very realistic portrayal of autism and how it differs in different people, as well as how it can affect interpersonal relationships (also having the sister mention that she thought she understood autism as a whole but later realized she only understood her sister's autism specifically because it is so individual)
+ realistic portrayal of sensory overload, stimming, communication between different autistic people etc.
+ queer autistic people – gay and asexual autistic main characters
+ autistic people joking, showing emotions, humour without the autistic people being the butt of the joke
+ empathetic portrayal of an adult realizing they might be on the spectrum and the denial and questioning that comes with that
+ portrayals of autistic special interests and autistic joy
Quinni (Chloé Hayden) – Heartbreak High (5.5/6)
+ autistic actress playing an autistic character
+ autistic queer representation
+ themes of ableism are included but dealt with sensitively and without making the ableism seem harmless
+ realistic portrayal of stimming, struggle with abrupt change of plans, overstimulation, meltdowns, autistic joy, info dumping etc.
+ autistic character having genuine friendships and friends who support her and know her sensory needs etc.
- because it is set in high school, this is a very specific group being represented so it is possible that the largest part of the autistic community won’t see themselves completely accurately portrayed, but chances are they can relate to Quinni nonetheless at least in aspects.
#autistic characters#autism#autistic representation#autistic characters rated#autism representation#actually autistic#heartbreak high 2022#heartbreak high quinni#everything is gonna be okay#atypical#loop pixar#salmon fishing in the yemen#abed the community#music movie#chicago med#young royals sara#young royals#girl meets world autism#girl meets world#farkle minkus#the good doctor#shaun murphy#fuck autism speaks#autism speaks doesn't speak for me
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I'm an autistic whose special interest is actually math, but... I'm bad at it. I'm dyscalculic. I study a lot, but I don't get good results academically. I still want to study more. I just wanted to say I loved your comic and it deeply resonated with me despite the apparent difference in our experiences. People tell me all the time I should "find something else to devote myself to". "Despite [x], be a genius". Your comic made me feel much less alone. Thank you.
I'm so happy that you found yourself in it- originally the comic was a bit longer and I wanted to chat about some more complicated thoughts I had with the subject matter.
I understand where you are coming from - astrophysics used to be a big interest for me and I invested so much of my life into getting in with physics but such is life! I also had dyscalcula!!!! And I never tested well no matter how much I felt like I could feel out the subject in my mind. In the end I always came back to art, and because I was only given 3 pages to work with I reduced the scope just to that. But when I talk about trying to fight my fate and become a genius I'm also talking about my experiences trying to be academically accomplished in astrophysics.
I feel like there's a lot of value put on the reclusive intellectual mathematic geniuses in theory- in practice the kids that are quiet and interested in maths are often neglected by teachers and socially exiled to the point of being unable to perform well in school anyway.
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listen i get your frustration about how people treat jack, i hate when people reducd him down to just a destiel baby too. but as an autistic person myself, i really disagree with you calling people that like baby jack ableist. he's canonically 4 years old and had to have his childhood basically stripped away from him due to how dangerous it was. i don't think people enjoying the thought of him getting to have that chance at a happy childhood is as cruel and evil as you seem to think.
hi, I’m actually going to answer this differently than I did at first, because I feel like I missed the point and spent way too much time on the canon logistics of “giving Jack a childhood that he chose to skip and is never shown to want,” or that he’s actually pretty obviously portrayed as a teenager in the show, or that his character fundamentally revolves around autonomy & the struggle to have it, and not enough on the actual ableism. I’m also going to be a lot meaner this time, sorry.
honestly, you don’t get my frustrations. you don’t get that this isn’t some petty fandom drama about “muh fav being misunderstood” or “grr this content bad.” you don’t get my frustration if you think that’s all there is to any of this. this is something with an actual bearing on reality and the entire topic of representation in general, which you’d get if you took your head out of your ass and looked around for once. autistic people are still immensely underrepresented and misrepresented in most mainstream media. we are still seen and treated as circus animals, as punchlines, as lesser humans if not subhumans, and we have to face that alongside navigating a world that is wholly and systemically unnavigable to us. fiction and fandoms are an escape for many people, but especially marginalized people who long for community and representation.
the autistic community has a pretty long history of resonating with nonhuman characters in fiction over time, from robots to aliens to monsters in horror movies. because whether it’s their mannerisms or specific struggles or even narrative experiences, they resonate with us. jack resonates with us. he’s important to us as autistic people—and namely, as autistic adults who very rarely see ourselves represented in ways that don’t depict us as gross man-children, infantilized precious beans or emotionless geniuses. in fact, the very notion that autistic people are inherently childlike or mentally children directly leads into our sole representation being children, and even more into the treatment of us as “precious small beans.” does that ring any fucking bells to you yet?
jack might not have been intentionally written with autism or representation on mind, but this fandom literally builds itself up on coding and unintentional implications. he was also confirmed to be autistic anyways, so anyone still whining should just grow the fuck up about it. also, ironically, most accidentally autistic characters end up being the best kind lmao. but these discussions? these analyses by autistic fans —and even just fans who actually care about his complexities — only exist within our own little circles, and the idea of baby!jack is very much the fandom’s steadfastly going mainstream version of him—so much so that people are convinced it’s actually canon, they die on that hill like it’s some obligation to uphold. and any viewing of his canon character with nuance or complexity, or even his basic personality, is left to gather dust. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s over-saturating and supersedes actual canon. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s actually fucking harmful.
it’s frustrating as a general fan, but downright upsetting as an autistic fan who sees themself in him and has to witness every fucking day — in a community that prides itself on being a big found family no less — the infantilization of traits I and other autistic people express, and the stubborn justification of him being “actually a toddler” with even more autistic traits. There are literal scraps of canon adult Jack content to engage with; of any semi-intelligent thoughts on him to indulge in.
what you don’t get (or you refuse to get) that there is a direct correlation between all of this, the way jack is treated (ie ‘reduced to a destiel baby’) and the ableist infantilization surrounding his character. as in, this content directly feeds into his treatment, which then feeds back into the content made of him, which then feeds back again into his treatment in a horrible and exhausting cycle.
what you don’t get is that constantly regurgitating content where the baseline is jack being actively stripped of his identity and autonomy for the sake of becoming an accessory to Destiel/Sastiel/the Domestic Winchester Family is inherently rooted in layers of deep ableist rhetoric, and you can perpetuate all of that even without any intent for it. I’m not a fucking moron, and I’m not the big bad guy you’re talking to me like. I don’t think anyone who enjoys baby!jack is inherently “cruel” or “evil,” or turning jack into a baby while thinking “this’ll stick one to those retards,” and twirling their moustache, okay? and it’s really so funny to me that you’re trying to point the finger back at me. at least you tried.
what you don’t get is that whenever autistic fans voice our perspective on baby!jack, we’re fucking ignored. we’re fed the same rotten slop over and over and over again. “But we want him to be happy!” “But it’s an AU, it’s not canon!” “But he actually is a baby because XYZ!” “But, but!” Buts are not an argument, they’re the thing you still haven’t found a way to pull your heads out of. maybe the lack of oxygen from so many people in one small dark space is why you’re so fucking stubborn to understand this.
you wanna know what is cruel? being told that you are doing something hurtful, something harmful and something that painfully reflects real life struggles a real community goes through, and shrugging it off. being aware of the value something brings to someone else, and stripping it away simply because it doesn’t matter to you personally. finding another But or a corner-cut to excuse yourself from blame. you didn’t have the decency to listen when general fans said “hey this is kind of annoying can we treat him like an actual person,” and you don’t even have the decency to concede when autistic people are saying this is a deeply wrong thing to do.
if you have to ignore an entire community’s voice to feel better about the content you’re making that directly hurts them, if you don’t personally think it’s harmful or even real because autistic struggles are never real, then I am well within reason to assume you’re not a good person. it’s one thing to do something wrong because you’re uninformed, and it’s another thing entirely to continue to do that when you’ve been informed, and simply decided that it wasn’t worth changing or stopping.
believe me, as an autistic person I am well used to being isolated, to not being anyone’s priority in this capitalistic circle of hell. I am ready to expect my struggles and existence to be tokenized for somebody else to feel good, or squeeze money from. Im used to seeing movies portray my experience as some Manic Pixie Star-seed or creepy overgrown child. I know the world doesn’t care about me. But I don’t think I’m asking too much for this, the big found family fandom that’s been shown to care so much about every other problem, to care about me. To listen when it’s hurting me, or uplift something I care about.
I don’t think I’m asking for anything less than this family to actually treat me like I am part of it. But can you even do that?
#holdthypeace.txt#spn#supernatural#jack kline#autistic jack kline#spn fandom#baby jack#baby jack au#team free will 2.0#tfw2.0#sam winchester#dean winchester#castiel#dadstiel#destiel#deancas#domestic destiel#supernatural fandom#fandom criticism#jack kline supernatural#jack spn#autistic characters#sorry this got so long lol I hope it isn’t too much for you to read#not even going into how jackgirls in general have no fandom presence that isn’t self contained#the autistic experience is being isolated everywhere forever for something everyone knows except you.#sastiel#toddler jack kline#spn family
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Oh my gosh, I just realized that L Lawliet from Death Note and Edogawa Ranpo from Bungou Stray Dogs are pretty much the same person in a different font
Like, they're both autistic coded characters whose special interest is solving crime, they view themselves to be the best detective ever, they survive purely on sweets, they are child geniuses with no supernatural powers to contrast the characters who do utilize mystical abilities, they became the wards of old people who take in those with "special talents," and they are mainly shipped with their rivals who have at least ATTEMPTED to murder them via magic book (I say attempted since Poe has yet to succeed).
#Death Note#Bungou Stray Dogs#BSD#L Lawliet#Edogawa Ranpo#Yagami Light#Edgar Allan Poe#Lawlight#Ranpoe
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THE AFTON FAMILY
sorry for being dead. i will continue to be dead becuz this took 48 HOURS.
as a treat i’m gonna infodump about my headcanons for a bit (read if you DARE)
so mrs afton isn’t pictured here because she was smart and left william, but william got full custody cause as we know, the fnaf government is VERY stupid and they apparently just love william. cc and michael both like their mother better because she was more patient and emotionally intelligent with the young boys, but elizabeth always favoured her father so she wasn’t complaining.
If it isn’t obvious, i don’t think william is a good parent. no matter how good of intentions you have, he had to be some kind of deranged for his sons death to lead to him being a serial killer, that doesn’t just HAPPEN. he particularly takes out his anger on michael because a) he feels more sympathy with the other two kids and b) michael has always challenged his father, he’s not scared of talking back or standing his ground (even if he gets hurt in the process). however despite this, michael still has a lot of love and respect for his father. as he gets older and as the accidents become worse and worse, through williams manipulation, michael basically works for him, trying to make things right again because he’s fully convinced everything was his fault (ALSO THANKS TO WILLIAM LOL)after he gets scooped he kinda puts it together that maybe his father never had the best intentions for him, and full of rage he does his thing and burns his father to the ground.
outside of william just being the worst to michael, making him a full time babysitter and whatnot, he’s not the kindest to the younger children either. elizabeth is easily the favourite because she tries to serve him as much as possible, but william is simply FAR too busy to care about that, so she gets pushed aside and neglected a lot. she doesn’t know why he’s doing these things so she just tries to be even more perfect, she urns for that attention in other places, i think that’s why she dolls herself up so much, because she loves the compliments she gets from mothers saying that she’s “just the cutest thing”. when her father finally shows her some love by making his specialty, an animatronic based off of her, she can’t help but be filled with excitement. I think as baby, she’s a lot more angry than she was before. she doesn’t understand why her father would do this to her and her anger is bigger than he child brain can comprehend, which is why she’s just so insanely mean in pizza sim and sister location, lashing out to michael and henry because she shouldn’t be an animatronic right now, she should be living her life free of this family. god i love elizabeth.
and then obviously cc, i think it’s a silly headcanon to imagine that william just forgot his name but remembered his initials but that’s mostly cuz i refuse to give him a name (btw all of you guys who put charlie or charlotte into his name are GENIUSES but i’m not you). he was really young when his parents actually separated, so he didn’t have much memory of his mother unfortunately. and ALSO unfortunately he was born with a fear of the animatronics, like how some kids are born with like an irrational fear of mascots of smth, that’s him. I think he was also the first one to die so his nightmares weren’t based off of elizabeth’s death. i also think that the fnaf 4 gameplay wasn’t cc because of MANY reasons (seriously guys look at the room layout…). but his irrational fear of the animatronics makes him almost constantly in tears, which michael obviously mocked. all the afton men were raised with the idea that boys shouldn’t show “feminine” emotions, which is why michael hated cc so much, because it wasn’t fair that he got to cry all the time with little to no repercussions and cc just couldn’t help himself whenever he cried. oh also in my headcanon he’s autistic, same with like most of the aftons, but he’s selectively mute and easily gets sensory overload, which is why meltdowns in the pizzeria were so common.
guys i love the aftons so much fill my asks with them if you wish i will answer ALL OF THEM (until the hyperfixation dies LMAO)
#fnaf#fnaf fanart#fnaf art#michael afton fnaf#michael afton#michael afton fanart#fnaf au#fnaf crying child#fnaf cc#crying child#crying child fnaf#elizabeth afton fnaf#elizabeth afton#fnaf elizabeth#fnaf elizabeth afton#william afton#william afton fnaf#fnaf william afton#fnaf afton#fnaf afton family#afton family#afton family fanart#elizabeth afton fanart#crying child fanart#i love them so much good GAWD#roy’s art tag
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Reasons I think the dragon riders are autistic:
(This was written out of order over the course of several days)
Hiccup
• His interest in dragons. Multiple people literally say “his life is dragons”. I don’t think I need to expand on this point any more
• His deal with emotions - the way it seems to me is that unless he’s very happy or genuinely angry, he doesn’t really emote much? His voice isn’t necessarily monotone but he’s very same-y (in more than just tone - also body language and stuff) almost always aside from when incredibly gleeful (e.g. riding toothless) or very angry (literally any moment where he ends up yelling at the others)
• On a similar note, there’s several times (especially in rtte) where it looks like he’s about to scold someone and then he doesn’t (in a kinda emotions/expressions not lining up with his actual thoughts and stuff way). Now, this doesn’t sound much here but an example is in the dramillion episode near the end of the ep so that kinda gives you a better idea of what I mean yknow?
• Also his massive interest in inventing, another pretty damn important thing in his life that he’s very good at, to say the least.
• Another thing with emotions - he’s pretty easy to manipulate. Which sounds so horrible to put but I mean it in like, his emotions specifically are kinda easy to manipulate and especially his empathy. They’re often used against him
• He notices details and you know how he constantly tells the twins they’re geniuses after something they say reminds him of a completely unrelated point? Yeah idk how to explain it but that’s autism, baby
Astrid
• Stubborn - it takes a lot to change her views of opinions
• Fully believes there are right and wrong ways of doing things (and usually believes those ways are the more traditional ways that she’s used to)
• Idk if there’s even proof of this but I am dead certain she sticks to her rules almost all times. She doesn’t care about other peoples rules but despite that often has very strict views on how to do things which I think is why I believe this. She also hates going off-plan and that doesn’t rlly mean anything here but that probably adds to why I’m so sure she likes rules
• Again no proof of this but she seems like the type to be very particular about her daily routine. If she decides to switch it up once she now gonna keep that for months. You can ignore this point but this is something I wholeheartedly believe.
• The vibes
Fishlegs
• He’s honestly the only character who might have actually been written as autistic (but also may not have been and instead be written as a nerd, but obviously that trope alone just makes him autistic by default)
• Same as hiccup, huge huge interest in dragons. No need to elaborate here
• Very empathetic, many autistic people experience either notably low empathy or high empathy. Fishlegs very clearly is on the high side
• Also can I just say I love how on berk he was a guide and he taught kids all about berks history and dragons and shit like that like hell yeah making your special interest your job, good for him honestly
• I just watched legend of the boneknapper and I just noticed fishlegs talks with his hands a lot and makes a bunch of gestures while talking which I am absolutely counting here cause i want to
Snotlout
• Hand gestures. Like all the time. And a lot of the same ones. And I’ve got no clue if that actually is prevalent in autism or whatever but personal experience (I.e. me and my friends) suggest so + I relate so I’m counting it
• Gonna sound dumb, but “shut up, [name]” and just common phrases he repeats.
• On that note: he yells his own name frequently (typically while doing something cool or when annoyed or etc. emotional reasons) and I interpret that as kinda a stim, helping with emotions type deal yknow?
• Again related to that, ‘Snotlout Snotlout oi oi oi’ (copied from spitelouts own version) is absolutely a vocal stim, and while I’m like 80% sure copying vocal patterns and phrases from the people around you is a thing everyone does, I’m still counting it anyway
• Very big emotions/kinda dramatic. Idk how to phrase this but at any given point it is very clear what Snotlouts emotions are - and I know a lot of autistic folk (myself included) are generally quite monotone or struggle with expressing emotion outwardly, but this feels right so again counting it. + exaggerating emotions is a thing I do all the time to make things more obvious
• Hate to say this one but just the general way he treats people - he often doesn’t notice the way people react and he just continues with his (often pretty shit) treatment of them, can be seen in the unwanted advancements towards Astrid Heather etc and how certainly initially he didn’t rlly seem to get the message
• To put the last point more clearly: this boy has the absolute worst social skills and has no idea about that
• He doesn’t always get when people are making fun of him or being sarcastic
• I mention this with Tuffnut as well, but Snotlouts also pretty sarcastic even tho he doesn’t always get other peoples sarcasm
• He’s pretty blunt. Or he confuses himself with his own words. That’s pretty much the two sides of Snotlout’s speech patterns
• he’s my favourite character <3
Ruffnut
• Her whole deal with violence, particularly in rob/dob - I don’t know how to describe it but something about that
• Her and Tuffnut both get like random interests and they know loads about it or otherwise devote a lot of time to it - e.g. science when they were sick with eel pox, theatre in Total Nightmare, other examples I’m sure but I can’t remember rn. It just reminds me of myself and hyperfixations I get
• She doesn’t really care to change how she acts around different people; regardless of whether she’s been captured by enemies, is being scolded by Hiccup or is setting up a prank with tuffnut, she’s always the same.
• On that note, she’s often pretty blunt. Like unless she’s talkin fancy deliberately or trying to trick someone shes usually pretty clear and doesn’t usually change how she acts or speaks to make others feel better.
• Yknow how her and Tuffnut were all like “woah maybe we did something… right? […] what’s this feeling is this accomplishment? I’ve never felt this before” and stuff that one time? I know it’s played off as a joke, but I’m diagnosing that with same <3
• Mirroring speech (see briefly in tuffnuts section)
Tuffnut
• Similar thing with violence
• Same as the hyperfixations thing I mentioned with Ruffnut, and just know there are plenty of things they say that I attribute to past hyperfixations
• Several occasions where he doesn’t get sarcasm
• He is pretty sarcastic tho despite that, same with Snotlout and that is something I feel is quite common - not really getting other peoples jokes or sarcasm but doing so yourself a lot
• His speech is very reminiscent of my own, he talks kinda overly fancy and deliberate most of the time (but there are also occasions where he’s almost overly casual? Which again is very relatable to me. I am now realising I may or may not have accidentally stolen tuffnuts speech patterns as a kid)
• (To the last point ignoring the part at the end) Ruffnut is also similar in this respect (as in the deliberate kinda overly wordy talk) but usually to a lesser extent - in fact, she normally only speaks like that when tuffnut is also there and speaking in such way, which to me absolutely seems like mirroring
• Similarly to the sarcasm thing, he doesn’t get rhetorical questions. Or at the very least doesn’t get them in that one episode in rtte and that’s enough for me to count it here
To be clear, at the end of the day, I see them all as autistic mostly cause I relate to and connect with the characters. And I do not know how to put that into words clearly so here’s this mess of a compilation.
@louthestarspeaker @tiggster27 @we-are-not-the-losechesters @drekialba @qualityhistorygamingwinner @maluron @scared-nightnurse @famderfries @purpleshutin @rubysparx @nonbinarynightmare77 @macabre-changeling @paradoxical-hermitcrab @bad-girl-coven
#I’m autistic so now they’re autistic too#httyd#snotlout#snotlout jorgenson#astrid hofferson#fishlegs#fishlegs ingerman#ruffnut#ruffnut thorston#tuffnut#tuffnut thorston#hiccup horrendous haddock iii#httyd rtte#race to the edge#how to train your dragon#riders of berk#defenders of berk#httyd analysis#autistic headcanon#rtte
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Which ROTTMNT characters you would date?
I'll be describing the characters from Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that you would want to date. Leave your answer in the comments.
Raphael
Raphael is the oldest of the turtle brothers (unlike his other counterparts), he is the leader of the TMNT, instead of Leonardo. He has a large muscular body that you can't help but feel attracted to him. He is exuberant (otherwise cheerful) and passionate, though he can impulsive, not rationalizing before making a decision.
Raph has a soft side, he's tender and kind. He'll always protect the people he loves and comforts them.
Leonardo
Though Leo made be frustrating to deal with, he's arrogant, wanting to prove himself he's the best, doesn't take things seriously and puts full faith in himself instead of others. But, when you get to know him better, you'll see that under the surface he's really just insecure and just wants to be accepted by others, wants to be more than "the face man". You can find him relatable that you want be accepted by others and be more than what you are. Leo would see the error of his ways and would willing to make it up for it.
There are times when he decides to be serious and sensible, he would use his charisma and relaxed, flexible nature to sway to you when you're down on your luck.
If you like a person who is flamboyant, Leo would be your type.
Dontatello
If you have a thing for nerds or geniuses, Donnie's your man. He has high intellect and skills on technology and general sciences. If, there's something technology you really want, Donnie would be the one to build it for you. He can be annoying when he brags about his high intelligence, he will describe his latest inventions at length, not realizing he maybe boring the others.
Donnie has a fear of being nothing without his brains and tech, but you'll be the one to encourage him that it's him who's important to you, not his tech.
Donnie is autistic (confirmed by the creator) as he struggles to understand certain basic human emotions and emotional outbursts, which you can relate to him how difficult it can be when you have a disability.
But, his emotional experiences are very different from the average person. Donnie can be a terrible liar, as you can easily tell by his expression and the tone of his voice.
Donnie has a passive-aggressive streak that takes people off-guard. You can be his lab partner, but his workshop is personally off-limits.
Michelangelo
If you like someone who is playful and lighthearted, Mikey is your guy. He is intuitive, able to adopt new skills quickly, determine others' problems, and at times accurately predict situational outcomes.
Mikey is creative at heart and he uses his creativity in various ways. He is family-oriented and compassionate, Mikey is openly sentimental and encourages others' emotional vulnerability.
Mikey has three personas he created: Doctor Delicate Touch, Doctor Feelings, and Doctor Positive. To deliver a harsh truth in his "Doctor Delicate Touch" method, Mikey often starts off being sweet, but quickly becomes angry and frank. Doctor Feelings uses his emotional intelligence to advise others, and Mikey faces issues with determined optimism as Doctor Positive.
Mikey never gives up and puts faith in himself and others.
Hamato Yoshi/Splinter
It would be surprising why would anyone want to date Splinter? Considering the fact that he's absent-minded, lazy, stir up mischief and trouble with his sons, but don't let his appearance fool you.
Back in his younger years, before his mutation. He was movie star as Lou Jitsu, he was famous all over even Foot Lieutenant and Foot Brute are fans of him despite being unaware that he's a member of the Hamato clan. He is also the Battle Nexus champion in Hidden City.
His appearance is mixed of Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee, that would make fawn all over him.
He is a very skilled martial artist that no human or creature can beat him, which give Baron Draxum the idea to infuse his DNA with the mutagen on the turtles. Yoshi did vowed to put his fighting aside, he's not afraid to fight in order to escape Draxum's lab with the turtles.
After, he got mutated, he choose to raise the turtles he rescued as his sons. Splinter maybe extremely flawed and doesn't spend much time in family outings, but he deeply cares for his sons.
Long ago before he ever became Lou Jitsu. When he was a young child in Japan, he listens the story of the Shredder from his grandfather Hamato Sho. Then on the spring day, his mother, Hamato Atsuko left her father and son so that she could perform her clan duty, which devasted Yoshi.
For many years, his grief over his mother leaving him made him bitter towards his own clan, disbelieving the existence of the Shredder, and decided to abandon his family duties.
You can feel bad for him, knowing what it's like to lose someone you're close to and with a reason to resent your clan or family.
Splinter may not be the young charming man that he was in the past, but he is full of surprises.
"Age has its privileges"
Baron Draxum
If you're interested in dating a villain, Draxum is the one. This Yōkai looks very amazing in his mask and bodysuit, and even has his minions: Huginn and Muninn lay on his shoulders acting like shoulder pads.
Although, he does desire to take over Earth's surface by mutating all the humans for his mutant army. But, you cannot deny his skills in combat and alchemy, even his powers, he can grow vines out of nowhere, he can create portals, and made gauntlets out of plant-like substances. If you have a taste for theatrics, Draxum is the one, he does his speeches in a dark manner and overall dramatic posing.
He may resent towards humans, and is responsible for Splinter and the turtles' mutation years ago, but he would become more sympathetic to the humans when he developed a friendship with April O'Neil.
When he was reformed, he can be hard to open up, so you have to take with him slowly.
April O'Neil
If you're looking for someone who is adventurous? April O'Neil is your girl.
She is upbeat, quick-witted, selfless, and go-with-the-flow, she is very brave and is quick to jump into action, she is not afraid to put up fight on anyone: human, mutant, creature, or animatronic.
She has a forgiving nature, she's very loyal to her friends and family, and she'll always be by their side.
Cassandra Jones
Cassandra Jones or Casey Jones may be a tough one to date with, she can be intense, do frantic speech pattern, and the tendency to shout.
But, when you get to know her better, you'll get use to her behavior.
Sunita
She made be a slimy Yōkai, but Sunita is enthusiastic, fun-loving, and feisty, embracing herself as a Yōkai in everyday life. She enjoys trying out new things and is open to experiencing all the sights and activities New York City has to offer. Sunita isn't afraid to fight and defend others.
#rottmnt mikey#rottmnt donnie#rottmnt leo#rottmnt raph#rottmnt splinter#baron draxum#rottmnt april#cassandra jones#rottmnt sunita#rise michelangelo#rise raphael#rise donatello#rise leonardo
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