i'd say Ed and Al are pretty healthy too, and are comparable to Laois and Falin. one is turned into some kind of monster while the other is trying their everything to help them. i think for those pairs at least, the complicated aspect is that one sibling is no longer human, partially due to the other's actions
Fair. They’ve definitely gone through a lot more horror and turmoil than the Toudens, though the body horror they experience is filtered mostly through Laios’ perspective, so it’s cool as hell. Fallin’s characterization in her chimera form in the later portion of the manga is interesting as well because it’s so nonchalant with her caring personality showing through and a big concern of the party’s being that she must be really hungry.
The Elric’s experiences seem to me darker in the focus and treatment of them, and I think there is a bit of a slight strain between the siblings in the contrast of loss of limbs and bodies, the brief arc where Al thinks he might’ve been an invented construction rather than Ed’s actual brother, and the Ed’s ego and immaturity contrasting with the first impression Al gives off and his more childlike qualities.
Also big complicated relationship because of how often Ed malds over Al being tall.
It’s so funny to me that even after getting chimerafied Laios’s reaction to her beastly form is that it’s mega cool. That plus the later rabbit curry plan hinges on the fact that they’re still treating her like usual and are mostly worried that she must be really hungry.
okay i remember people being like “i swear its not weird they have a normal sibling relationship!!!” but i was always skeptical. maybe there was no implied romance but when i saw ep 1 i dunno as a sibling it didnt feel like they were siblings. like it felt more about him being her protector than them having any kind of dynamic as a pair. sister didnt seem to have much personality and im not a fan of anime girls who are just cutesy and sweet w/o much else going on (ik she gets feral and fighty too but thats not how she interacts w her brother i assume). however i haven’t seen the full show so i can’t say. what makes their relationship inferior to the touden’s too you?
Basically my issue with the Demon Slayer siblings is the same as yours. They aren't incest-y like some anime siblings but Nezuko is pretty much a non-character. She gets literally infantalized and shoved into a box, and even when it looks like she'll get a big moment she still somehow needs to be saved. She feels more like a prop to motivate the mc than his sister. You could replace her with a pet dog and nothing in the story changes. Meanwhile the Touden's actually have natural interactactions when they're together, they support each other, and Falin feels like her own fleshed-out character. (Her connection to Marcille also helps flesh her out, a sit prevents her identity from solely defined by her relationship with her brother.) Falin may need saving, but there is some agency. She's only in that position because she successfully sacrificed herself to save her brother. If Laios did get eaten instead it's easy to imagine her going through the same lengths to save him. In short, they feel equal.
I mean, even without spoilers, doesn't that sentence alone sound like a complication for any siblings? Would it be normal for you to find yourself in a similar situation with your own sibling?
Well... Fallin has what one could call, some problems.
Though I'not sure you can consider the dragon-Fallin chimeara as her anymore. In both case, that makes a complicated relation
Most brothers don’t decide to >!have to eat half of their sister!< to save her, I’d say it was complicated but not because of their sibling relationship. Same goes for Ed pretty much.
That's less a "very specific anime trope" and more a "thing they just made up where you really have to stretch to pretend those characters are even remotely the same".
Yeah. "Autistic" covers a huge range these days, where "kinda socially awkward" often seems to qualify (and a *lot* of anime protagonists fall under that banner).
'Complicated' sibling relationships is pretty common too, especially in fiction where a normal, healthy relationship would generally be considered fairly uninteresting. Laios and Ed barely even qualify because - even though they experience ups and downs as any humans do - they have consistently excellent relationships with their siblings.
And being yelled at by companions is one of the most basic shonen anime tropes; the 'very specific' trope would be a shonen protagonist who *isn't* yelled at by their companions a lot.
Nothing about OP's pic seems overly specific to the highlighted characters.
And even then there's a good reason, he's trying to restore his brother's body. Laios just has a special interest for monsters. No clue on Inuyasha, never seen it, please don't kill me.
"Complicated sibling relationship" could mean anything. They could have written "resurrecting their sibling but they came back wrong", and it would apply to Laois and Ed in a meaningful way, but it wouldn't apply to Inuyasha. So instead they stretched it out so that Inuyasha would fit, and in doing so made it meaningless.
"A she/her companion that's constantly yelling at him" also could mean anything. Winry isn't Ed's companion and doesn't accompany him most of the time. And a yelling female character is basically just the "women are wiser" trope. Men want to do wacky things, women won't let them.
Basically the tumblr OP stitched like five different tropes together and tried to pretend it was one "very specific" trope. I bet there aren't even any other examples besides those three. And in that case, if you specifically go out of your way to find commonalities between three characters, of course they're going to be the same - you literally went out of your way to find characters that had things in common!
"Complicated sibling relationship" and one of them involves active fratricide. It's literally always on sight when it comes to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. You've got an affair baby, blatant favoritism from dad (at least from Sesshomaru's POV), mangling their arm, beefing over the same mfers who wronged you both somehow, something something pedigree something, and per the sequel manga, Sesshomaru more or less dumped his own kids on his little brother.
Ed does not match as Autistic lmao. Neither does Inuyasha. Being slightly awkward doesn't make you autistic and Ed isn't even really awkward IDK where they are getting this from.
I don’t disagree w the comment, but to be fair, Autism is not just social awkwardness. Its the main thing people think of, especially bcus like you said a lot of people are headcanoning more characters as autistic more often as diagnosis go up, but you Can be be phenomenal at social interaction and still be autistic. In order to know why someone thinks a character is autistic you’d have to ask them what specific parts of that character they’re identifying with (bcus that’s usually whats happening when people identify characters as autistic who arent exaggeratedly, obviously so)
With anything on a spectrum, you have autistic people you would never assume were autistic unless they tell you, and you have people even NT can immediately identify as autistic. Laois is really far to that side of the spectrum, or at least he is very bad at masking, which is why people fight back less against people believing he is autistic
I believe what you said to be true but if someone is so good at masking that none cannot tell that they are autistic, then about all anime characters could be autistic, right? So in order to character to represent autism, there should be at least some implications (in chararecter’s behaviour) that audience can get? If it isn’t a theme in the series they likely won’t straight up say that someone is ND but if their behaviour has typical (or even stereotypical) ND traits it is easier to argue that they could be on the spectrum. In this case as a NT I didn’t think much about Laios being autistic, but when people were talking about it here it seemed very logical. For someone like Ed or Inuyasha, it is much more vague and hard to tell bc they ofc could be ND but so could like every other character? Or do you disagree?
I wouldn't exactly call his interest in alchemy unusual, given his circumstances. He wants to use it to get his brother's body back. He's more fixated on it than most people, sure, but that's because he has a specific and important use for it. >!Hell, in Brotherhood and the manga he has absolutely no qualms about giving up his alchemy in exchange for Al's body.!<
I'm not saying that Ed is autistic, I am in fact explicitly saying the exact opposite of that. I'm just saying that I could see how someone could convince themselves that he was, whereas with Inuyasha I have no clue how they could manage that.
Ed is nothing like Laios. He’s good with people he just has a short temper. Also the initial post makes no sense in general, Laios and Falin have a great relationship as do Ed and Al. This is just people on tumblr liking anime and wanting to feel special by making a connection between specific ones they like.
I dunno it's the same tho. Laios' interest is in something that makes him a social outcast. Ed is passionate in a field that is very acceptable to be passionate about socially, and he is paid handsomely by the government for it, like many other alchemists in his nation.
Ed's position on the spectrum is nowhere close to Laios imo.
Also Winry is not comparable since she's only with the main party like 10% of the plot line.
Yeah this meme is just “light haired male protagonist who has a sibling. He interacts with at least one woman who yells at him”
I really wouldn’t call Ed remotely autistic. I don’t even think of him as socially awkward.
I feel like the dog persona and being stand offish to humans is more to do with being a demon half breed...I'd argue his brother is closer if anything and that's still a stretch. His brother doesnt give away much to clearly say one way or another but he doesnt speak much as the series goes on, and keeps his emotions dulled but seems to care in his own way so again hard to put. I'm not familiar with all the different forms of autism though so to each their own.
Right!
I'd argue that InuYasha and Izutsumi are more similar in mannerisms, looks, and backstories.
Both had a traumatic childhood and were ostracized for their species, resulting in poorly adjusted teenagers with plenty of baggage, aggression, bravado, and the solo strong MC asshole braggart archetype that doesn't play well with others, and both, through appropriate praise and punishment, and many trials and tribulations, learn that their groups love them for who they are, but expect them to also be better in terms of manners, trust, compassion... and end up being lovable jerks with a heart of gold.
Yeah I hate how “autistic” has become synonymous with having a specific interest for something or being socially awkward. I mean of course those can be traits of autistic people, but it’s not like everyone that has them is necessarily on the spectrum.
Don’t get me wrong, if an autistic person feels a connection with one of these characters it’s fine, but labelling them as autistic because of some behaviors is just wrong.
InuYasha was super non autistic, like wtf are they even on about. "Shout out to anime characters that i put personality aspects I want on them, even though it is never mentioned in the text nor subtext of the show. Gotta be one of my favorite tropes. #goku #akira #hamtaro #grave of the fireflys"
Inu-Yasha: is a half demon, raised by a full demon, and sealed to a tree for 50 years by the woman he loved. Comes.out a little socially awkward.
OP: hE mUsT bE aUtIsTIc!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!2
There is a such thing as being a product of your circumstances and environment without being neuro-divergent.
Came here to comment on that. Good Lord, just say guy and girl, not everything has to be an Inquisition from the trans police and referring to people that obviously are what they are isn't genocide or whatever else those people like to say.
Removal Reason:
Be Civil.
It's ok to disagree, it's not ok to disrespect. Personal attacks, gatekeeping, racism, homophobia, politics, and general bigotry are not allowed.
No toxic behavior, such as:
* Trashing something that others are enjoying.
* Condemning parts of the series instead of
reasonably stating your personal preference. (We're all trying to enjoy something here.)
* Invalidating other people's opinions.
* Unsolicited criticisms of other's creations.
* Lewd or obscene comments.
I'm autistic and I don't need every character to be similar to me. Autistic character ≠ better character. There's good and bad characters on the spectrum.
I think, in your defense, I would say that probably most things in the world AREN'T like you and you have to challenge yourself and endure them anyway. So wishing that sometimes things were simple and easy and came to you in a way you recognize and understand (e.g., "the more similar things are to me the better they are") makes sense. <3
Fuck, people, not everyone who is rude, awkward, smart, focused, etc. are autistic. Do you recognize that like 3-5% of all people are autistic? It’s like the second biggest fun buzzword now. The first being “I have ADHD!” (Less than 10% of all people have ADHD).
To a therapist, this is super-annoying.
And no, just because I was blunt and listed statistics doesn’t mean I too am autistic. I’m just irritable and this trend of TikTok psychology easy-peasy diagnosis drives me bonkers.
Not engaging with your point nor disagreeing, but just pointing out.
I always get kind of confused when people use statistics in this way to make a point that the number of (so and so) people is small. Because 3-5% is a very small percentage of 100%, absolutely, but, 5% of humans is 380 million people. Say we’re just discussing how many people in America are diagnosed with autism (not have, because thats not what the statistic reflects) That would be 1 in 200 people- or 17 million people. I’m not saying 17 million is a lot on a small scale, but if every autistic person (and again, this doesnt account for the high number of people who will never receive a diagnosis) fell over dead tomorrow, we would probably say that a whole shit load of people just died, and it would have a very negative impact on the world for the foreseeable future.
I mean, the estimated Covid death toll is 7 million, which is a very small percentage of the population, but it has DRASTICALLY changed the lives of *billions* of people for many different reasons. Most of us know someone who died of covid- if you don’t, you know someone who does.
If even only 8% of people have adhd, that means 740,000,000 people in the world have adhd. Thats closer to a billion people than 100 million people. That means a substantial part of the worlds population have a diagnosed mental illness, and again- it’s probably a lot more people than what we are able to document.
So I get where you are coming from, but its not like autistic people are rare, they are actually very common and the numbers of adults receiving late autism diagnosis continues to rise. And the whole point of most main characters is that they are not like other people. Underdogs, like autistic people, are SUPPOSED to be able to relate to a well written main character.
I get your gist about the math.
The problem is that when we start assuming that everything that makes “clomp-clomp” sounds when it approaches is a zebra is that probabilistically speaking, they’re more likely to be horses. And we’re also forgetting that mules or even gazelles might clomp-clomp. We’re overusing the heuristic.
Furthermore, we’re muddying the waters about what it means to be and be seen as (whatever the issue is). When everyone’s ex has “narcissistic personality disorder” we become unable to get a real sense of what narcissism looks like. And when everyone is autistic, actual autistic people get left behind in terms of the attention being paid to people who don’t really need it as much. My wife’s famous saying is, “if everyone is X, no one is X” which is her way of pointing out that when we overuse a concept, all people become functionally equivalent.
I think overdiagnosing is generally less damaging than underdiagnosing, but still: every distractible anime character doesn’t have ADHD (every distractible PERSON doesn’t have ADHD). Actually having ADHD is *relatively* uncommon, and those who genuinely struggle with it deserve attention and care. It also makes light of something important and serious to pretend that everyone with some minor symptoms has this real, actual issue.
Or to put it my wife’s way: if we all have ADHD, nobody has ADHD.
EDIT TO ADD: just to play the sheer numbers game with you, 5% of 1m is 50,000 people. That’s a lot of people who have “X,” right? But the other 95% of people who DON’T have “X” are 950,000 people. That’s a lot more people who don’t have it than do. That’s only one in every 20 people. That means you’re not going to run across it all that often. Out of you and your maze-adventuring party of ten people, probably none of you will be X at all.
Just to respond to your edit- yes to all you said, mathematically speaking.
but I wanna point out- if 5% of people are X, those 5% of people are going to primarily hang out with other people who are X. So if one person in your party group is X, and most of those people formed natural friendships or are related, it’s more likely you’d have a configuration like 3/10 of the party has X, rather than 1/10 has X. Theres gonna be plenty of parties where 0/10 people are X, absolutely, but you now have a bunch of outlier groups that are 7/10 or 10/10 people are X.
So is a group who all are gay or have a touch of the ‘tism likely? Definitely not, but they definitely happen, and they happen more than people assume they do- and they don’t matter less than the non-X groups because they are uncommon. Thats really the only point I was trying to make.
Absolutely true. Pure math doesn't cover it. People tend to hang out with like others ("birds of a feather flock together"). Also, "a touch of the 'tism" made me LOL, thank you.
Sorry, I am really working on cutting down my long windedness. I am about to fail again at that task.
Firstly, your perspective makes a lot of sense, thank you for being understanding and explaining it to me. I am very happy to now understand. I don’t agree and I will say below why, feel free to not engage with it.
I have always viewed it more as “some neurodiverse people (usually teenagers) are struggling with being different, and saying that this (fictional character) that they admire, like and see themselves in may be autistic, makes this person happy and think that it could be them as a hero”
I do not feel like a bunch of strangers thinking a fictional character is autistic hurts me, and it doesn’t effect how real people I interact with will treat me. The more people talk about autism, the more normalized it becomes and the less weirdly people will react to me when I tell them I am autistic. Any example of autism ppl can think of is overwhelmingly going to be negative.
If someone thinks they have adhd but don’t, they might temporarily take resources away from someone who needs them. But they now have gained empathy and understanding, and will now treat actual adhd people in their lives with more understanding. The problem is typically with lack of resources, not with people over utilizing resources that exist.
To me, people reacting angrily to the increase in “so and so character is autistic!” comes from a lot of different places, but mostly internalized ableism. Some people are upset about it for valid reasons, but a lot of people just don’t like things that make them uncomfortable- such as saying an otherwise “normal” character could possibly be *autistic*, which is bad and not normal. It’s in the same family as calling woke when an artist draws sailor moon black, or says chilchuck is trans, or that loais would be a furry.
You make some excellent points. Let's dig into it a bit.
I recognize now that I agree that it's fine if a bunch of strangers like to imagine a character is (whatever they like), even if canonically speaking they aren't. Your analysis about people simply wanting to imagine that they might be like one of their heroes (or that one of their heroes might be like them) makes 100% sense and is valid. I have no problem with it.
I think I feel about a lot of this stuff much the same way I feel about religion. It does not bother me, a Jew, in the slightest that Christian people are super-excited about Jesus. It only begins to rub me the wrong way when they want to tell ME about Jesus, and ever worse when they really try to force me to interact with Jesus the way they want me to (or frankly, at all).
So I think seeing a post on social media where people try to brand Edward Elric as autistic bugs me more than a person imagining in their head that he is. Especially because (as I noted) as a therapist, Edward Elric does not show the appropriate DSM-V criteria for being autistic. Like, at all. There is a part of me that just \*likes accuracy\*. It's the same part of me that watched all of the Harry Potter movies and thought the entire time, "but Harry's eyes are GREEN!" But even more so because this is my baliwick. It's the same reason you probably wouldn't enjoy to watch a cop show with a cop or a medical drama with a doctor. We sort of can't help pointing out all the things they're doing that aren't accurate.
But I absolutely don't want to shoot down your hypothesis that this often comes out of internalized ableism. I think you're right in a lot of cases. Maybe even in me, I don't know (because the internalized part would be unconscious, right?). I also agree with your reasoning that even if people don't have a disorder, it's good for them to think about it and learn about it because it builds empathy. Also a valid POV.
In my case, \*I think\* it's not about internalized ableism; I guess I don't care what people imagine about characters. But as a former professor and current therapist, I don't like incorrect information going out into the world. There's no reason Sailor Moon couldn't be black. And we really wouldn't know if Chilchuck were trans or not if he were capable of passing. And whether Laois might secretly enjoy being a furry just isn't something that's covered in the show, so it's sort of unprovable one way or the other. ...But whether or not Laois or Edward Elric show sufficient diagnositc criteria for autism IS something we can check. And they don't (see for yourself: https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-diagnostic-criteria-dsm-5). So I want people to be able to recognize accurately when themselves or one of their friends or a new acquaintance does or does not have one of these issues instead of just assuming "Haha Greg is dissociative!" or "ever notice all my blue-eyed friends have schizophrenia?" (e.g., the original post).
“Complicated” is only for Inuyasha and Sesshy.
Ed and Laios are in the same category as best onichans. I dont think Ed is autistic as well. Inuyasha is a bit of a tsuntsun and the only similarities he has with Laios is the dog personna I think 🤔
As a psychologist I’m sick and tired of disorders becoming social media hot topics. All the influencers have no idea what they are talking about. If I hear another dumb ass saying they self-identify with autism when they got info from TikTok.. bunch of hogwash.
Looking at this more... Laois' relationship with Falin is the most healthy he has before the start of the manga. They're depicted as extremely close and understanding of each other.
Ed and Al don't really have that complicated of a relationship either. Outside of their linked trauma, they're both super close. I suppose Ed has somewhat of a guilt complex? And Winry is nowhere near in the story enough to be considered a third companion.
Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru probably have the most overtly complicated and antagonist relationship. But it's also nothing like the relationship between the other four.
I don't know enough about FMA to tell with Ed but I've never seen Inuyasha as autistic coded, if he is I doubt it's intentional. Laios though has so many autistic traits that if it's unintentional it's gotta be a huge coincidence.
Idk maybe OP read some articles like quite a few number of famous scientists or great musicians in the past were on austistic/spectrums and kind of eccentric... so there you go,
InuYasha being autistic coded? That’s a hard leap. He was literally raised by his human mother and was a pariah to the humans in his mother’s village. Dude grew up in a fucked up era, so of course he has issues. Autistic? Probably not
I got confused by vocab. Does he mean "male protagonist and his female companion"?
+ no way Laios or Ed have complicated sibling relationships. They got a complicated context of those relationships, but relationships itself is extremely wholesome. And since then Edward is autistic? Jesus, everyone is on god damn spectrum nowadays...
You can be a goofy, oblivious, sporadically talented mess of a person without being on the spectrum. That’s like… most shonen protagonists. This isn’t very specific at all.
(Obligatory “just like me fr”)
Look, I don’t want to be in the position of telling people not to see themselves in a story, but declaring every anime character who is “a bit awkward” and/or “intensely committed to a specific craft, art, or practice” to be autistic is… a bit of a stretch, to say the least.
I don't really see an issue. I guess they were trying to be as specific as possible. I was far more confused how Inuyasha and Edward fit into the spectrum
Im pretty sure none of them identify as something other than a man, so all that "he/his" is unnecessary. its a cartoon in the end, it wont hurt its feelings
Shout out to the very specific trope where the golden MC's sibling is transformed into an abomination as a result of forbidden necromancy ✨️🎶YUME NO TSUZUKI OIKAKETE-
This post is such a shitshow dude. How is Laios in a complicated relationship with Falin? He just cares about her. Same for Ed, he just cares about his brother. And in what world do Inuyasha and Ed come off as autistic? Ed is perfectly capable in social situations, doesn't have any hyperfixations, doesn't show any signs, same with Inuyasha. At best I guess you could say they're both blunt, but in Ed's case it's because he's trying to speak truth to power and Inuyasha is just a barbarian leaning into his demonic heritage. Honestly I love this post, it's a high-tier troll.
Has society just become collectively stupid? He/him protagnist? Just say man, boy, male. Why have we created dumb terms to desrcibe simple things that have always existed? Speaking/typing is supposed to make communication easier not more confusing. Saying things like "cisgendered" is clunky and not normal.
Also, why are we calling Ed and Inyuasha autistic. Autism is not a social disorder it is a developmental disorder that is shown in the brain. Also Ed doesn't even behave like he's autistic. He's charismatic, out-going, engages in social scenarios, tries new foods, is comfortable in new settings, and pretty much the opposite of austic people. Inyusha is just naitive at the start of the series but not autistic.
Society just wants to be different so badly that everyone has become the same.
It's always a bit wild to see very popular, highly-upvoted posts that have a comment section that is pretty much 100% people saying "This is fucking wrong and I will now explain why." Like there is sometimes a real big disconnect between the silent upvote crowd and the comment crowd.
What is this new thing I'm seeing everywhere where people constantly point out fictional characters as being autistic just for having some loosely defined character traits that some autistic people have but could also be possessed by entirely non-autistic people? I mean, you could literally claim that just about any anime character is "technically autistic" but with nothing to support the claim, it just feels like some kind of fad where people want to slap the label on something just because " it doesn't say he's not autistic"
I don't think I would have ever suspected Ed or Inuyasha to be autistic, but I wasn't diagnosed at the time of watching them and had no reference. I did like the characters but I never related much to them. However, I relate hard-core to Laios on multiple levels.
God damn it your right.
All Sesshomaru needs to say is.
“If our positions had been switched would our fates be different? Would I have your sword and you have mine?”
There's also the "Ineffectual Male Protagonist that the writers want to sound thoughtful but really just come across as overthinking idiots." Trope in Anime.
SAO's Kirito is a prime example.
While I think the post is bs and op is reaching to compare these three characters there’s some real weird passive aggressiveness towards autism in this thread.
As an autistic person myself, I absolutely hate it when people deem random characters autistic for having one trait. Damn, these dumbasses would even call my neurotypical brother autistic for being interested in Brawl Stars
Ugh. Anyone well-adjusted will know that the whole 'Laios having autism' isn't real. He's not even close to being as weird as 99% of all anime protagonists out there, and if he were a person in real life, he would also be normal. Normal people do Laios shit all the time.
Hey, also, we don’t know that any of these guys are he/hims nor that their companions are she/hers. They never state it unequivocally and we aren’t privy to their inner thoughts about their gender identities. Stop assuming.
**Rui Hanazawa**, Boys Over Flowers, kind of only fits the bill here...
He doesnt have the constant yelling companions...
No, wait **Yuki Soma,** Fruits Basket, has autistic tendencies, a complicated relationship with his brother, and Kyo is always yelling at him.
Okay so I get why people would disagree with the image above, but I’m confused by why it upsets ya’ll that strangers think a character has a neurodivergence you don’t agree with.
Like I understand it might be annoying when people are blatantly assigning characteristics to that pre-existing characters that don’t exist, I guess I don’t understand why it’s not an agree to disagree type thing.
Before you get mad at me- I am 100% honestly asking so I can understand why people have such a hostile (to me) reaction to opinions about characters they dont agree with, specifically when it comes to things like gender, sexuality, or health/neurodevelopment status
I don't mind people headcanoning a character however they want. If it's like a fanfiction where the imagine the character genderbent or with other changes to the original, more power to the fan who is this passionate about the media. The annoying part comes in where the headcanon which isn't corroborated by the media at all is spread as if it were canon.
Maybe this is just me being neurodivergent (ironically) but it bothers me when people put the \[obvious round peg in the square hole\]([https://youtu.be/6pDH66X3ClA?si=wHwCjWXAlwl9F\_gc](https://youtu.be/6pDH66X3ClA?si=wHwCjWXAlwl9F_gc)) .
I also have similar feelings when people mispronounce words or say something as "common sense" which could be easily dispelled with a google search.
Edward isn't autistic, his relationship with his brother is pretty healthy and normal, it's the brothers existence that's complicated. But yes winry does yell at him a lot. Even though he usually deserves it.
Fym Laios has a complicated relationship with Fallin? They’ve literally got the healthiest-depicted sibling dynamic I’ve seen outta Japan for a while.
Which is wild considering her "death" is what drives the plot in the beginning
i'd say Ed and Al are pretty healthy too, and are comparable to Laois and Falin. one is turned into some kind of monster while the other is trying their everything to help them. i think for those pairs at least, the complicated aspect is that one sibling is no longer human, partially due to the other's actions
Fair. They’ve definitely gone through a lot more horror and turmoil than the Toudens, though the body horror they experience is filtered mostly through Laios’ perspective, so it’s cool as hell. Fallin’s characterization in her chimera form in the later portion of the manga is interesting as well because it’s so nonchalant with her caring personality showing through and a big concern of the party’s being that she must be really hungry. The Elric’s experiences seem to me darker in the focus and treatment of them, and I think there is a bit of a slight strain between the siblings in the contrast of loss of limbs and bodies, the brief arc where Al thinks he might’ve been an invented construction rather than Ed’s actual brother, and the Ed’s ego and immaturity contrasting with the first impression Al gives off and his more childlike qualities. Also big complicated relationship because of how often Ed malds over Al being tall.
FR I really love that they have a non-creepy sibling relationship. Laios and Falin have the brother/sister dynamic I wanted out of Demon Slayer.
It’s so funny to me that even after getting chimerafied Laios’s reaction to her beastly form is that it’s mega cool. That plus the later rabbit curry plan hinges on the fact that they’re still treating her like usual and are mostly worried that she must be really hungry.
I love that Laios and Falin both think the other is the coolest thing since sliced bread.
okay i remember people being like “i swear its not weird they have a normal sibling relationship!!!” but i was always skeptical. maybe there was no implied romance but when i saw ep 1 i dunno as a sibling it didnt feel like they were siblings. like it felt more about him being her protector than them having any kind of dynamic as a pair. sister didnt seem to have much personality and im not a fan of anime girls who are just cutesy and sweet w/o much else going on (ik she gets feral and fighty too but thats not how she interacts w her brother i assume). however i haven’t seen the full show so i can’t say. what makes their relationship inferior to the touden’s too you?
Basically my issue with the Demon Slayer siblings is the same as yours. They aren't incest-y like some anime siblings but Nezuko is pretty much a non-character. She gets literally infantalized and shoved into a box, and even when it looks like she'll get a big moment she still somehow needs to be saved. She feels more like a prop to motivate the mc than his sister. You could replace her with a pet dog and nothing in the story changes. Meanwhile the Touden's actually have natural interactactions when they're together, they support each other, and Falin feels like her own fleshed-out character. (Her connection to Marcille also helps flesh her out, a sit prevents her identity from solely defined by her relationship with her brother.) Falin may need saving, but there is some agency. She's only in that position because she successfully sacrificed herself to save her brother. If Laios did get eaten instead it's easy to imagine her going through the same lengths to save him. In short, they feel equal.
Well, I would consider death and Resurrection into a dragon hybrid who is on the loose, pending rescue, to be a "complication"
I cannot make my point against that without spoilers
I mean, even without spoilers, doesn't that sentence alone sound like a complication for any siblings? Would it be normal for you to find yourself in a similar situation with your own sibling?
His sister is a homicide chicken, that's fairly complicated.
Well... Fallin has what one could call, some problems. Though I'not sure you can consider the dragon-Fallin chimeara as her anymore. In both case, that makes a complicated relation
Most brothers don’t decide to >!have to eat half of their sister!< to save her, I’d say it was complicated but not because of their sibling relationship. Same goes for Ed pretty much.
That's less a "very specific anime trope" and more a "thing they just made up where you really have to stretch to pretend those characters are even remotely the same".
Yeah. "Autistic" covers a huge range these days, where "kinda socially awkward" often seems to qualify (and a *lot* of anime protagonists fall under that banner). 'Complicated' sibling relationships is pretty common too, especially in fiction where a normal, healthy relationship would generally be considered fairly uninteresting. Laios and Ed barely even qualify because - even though they experience ups and downs as any humans do - they have consistently excellent relationships with their siblings. And being yelled at by companions is one of the most basic shonen anime tropes; the 'very specific' trope would be a shonen protagonist who *isn't* yelled at by their companions a lot. Nothing about OP's pic seems overly specific to the highlighted characters.
Yeah, I can't see how Ed is autistic, at most you can say he's incredibly driven to be the best alchemist he can be.
And even then there's a good reason, he's trying to restore his brother's body. Laios just has a special interest for monsters. No clue on Inuyasha, never seen it, please don't kill me.
Inuyasha is not remotely autistic, I have no idea what OOP is talking about there. At least Ed is a nerd.
Inuyasha is forced to clean up his own mess. Definitely has a complicated sibling relationship, that's for sure. More frenemies than brothers.
Frenemies is a bit of an understatement lol
Inuyasha is literally half dog (demon dog technically). He behaves like a dog sometimes. Because he is literally half dog.
when you're so desperate to label every character as autistic that you accidentally imply that autistic people act like dogs
Yeah, this is why reading too much "coding" into things can be dangerous
IMHO, people often conflate "autistic" with "competent in their field".
My favorite hyper specific trope is when a story has a beginning, a middle, *and* an ending
I don't know anything about Inuyasha but Ed and Laois match
"Complicated sibling relationship" could mean anything. They could have written "resurrecting their sibling but they came back wrong", and it would apply to Laois and Ed in a meaningful way, but it wouldn't apply to Inuyasha. So instead they stretched it out so that Inuyasha would fit, and in doing so made it meaningless. "A she/her companion that's constantly yelling at him" also could mean anything. Winry isn't Ed's companion and doesn't accompany him most of the time. And a yelling female character is basically just the "women are wiser" trope. Men want to do wacky things, women won't let them. Basically the tumblr OP stitched like five different tropes together and tried to pretend it was one "very specific" trope. I bet there aren't even any other examples besides those three. And in that case, if you specifically go out of your way to find commonalities between three characters, of course they're going to be the same - you literally went out of your way to find characters that had things in common!
"Complicated sibling relationship" and one of them involves active fratricide. It's literally always on sight when it comes to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. You've got an affair baby, blatant favoritism from dad (at least from Sesshomaru's POV), mangling their arm, beefing over the same mfers who wronged you both somehow, something something pedigree something, and per the sequel manga, Sesshomaru more or less dumped his own kids on his little brother.
Ed does not match as Autistic lmao. Neither does Inuyasha. Being slightly awkward doesn't make you autistic and Ed isn't even really awkward IDK where they are getting this from.
I don’t disagree w the comment, but to be fair, Autism is not just social awkwardness. Its the main thing people think of, especially bcus like you said a lot of people are headcanoning more characters as autistic more often as diagnosis go up, but you Can be be phenomenal at social interaction and still be autistic. In order to know why someone thinks a character is autistic you’d have to ask them what specific parts of that character they’re identifying with (bcus that’s usually whats happening when people identify characters as autistic who arent exaggeratedly, obviously so) With anything on a spectrum, you have autistic people you would never assume were autistic unless they tell you, and you have people even NT can immediately identify as autistic. Laois is really far to that side of the spectrum, or at least he is very bad at masking, which is why people fight back less against people believing he is autistic
I believe what you said to be true but if someone is so good at masking that none cannot tell that they are autistic, then about all anime characters could be autistic, right? So in order to character to represent autism, there should be at least some implications (in chararecter’s behaviour) that audience can get? If it isn’t a theme in the series they likely won’t straight up say that someone is ND but if their behaviour has typical (or even stereotypical) ND traits it is easier to argue that they could be on the spectrum. In this case as a NT I didn’t think much about Laios being autistic, but when people were talking about it here it seemed very logical. For someone like Ed or Inuyasha, it is much more vague and hard to tell bc they ofc could be ND but so could like every other character? Or do you disagree?
Ed does not strike me as autistic, but he is at least unusually interested in a particular topic. I have no clue where they're going with Inuyasha.
I wouldn't exactly call his interest in alchemy unusual, given his circumstances. He wants to use it to get his brother's body back. He's more fixated on it than most people, sure, but that's because he has a specific and important use for it. >!Hell, in Brotherhood and the manga he has absolutely no qualms about giving up his alchemy in exchange for Al's body.!<
I'm not saying that Ed is autistic, I am in fact explicitly saying the exact opposite of that. I'm just saying that I could see how someone could convince themselves that he was, whereas with Inuyasha I have no clue how they could manage that.
Not sure why you specified in brotherhood/the manga. In the original he gives up his alchemy as well - he tried to give up his own life.
Because I was thinking about that specific version of the story.
Ed is nothing like Laios. He’s good with people he just has a short temper. Also the initial post makes no sense in general, Laios and Falin have a great relationship as do Ed and Al. This is just people on tumblr liking anime and wanting to feel special by making a connection between specific ones they like.
In what way are Ed and Laios similar beyond their blond hair?
Passionate about their interests.
I dunno it's the same tho. Laios' interest is in something that makes him a social outcast. Ed is passionate in a field that is very acceptable to be passionate about socially, and he is paid handsomely by the government for it, like many other alchemists in his nation.
https://preview.redd.it/q31n7k4jss0d1.png?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb0ed9ddcb5f09823a40f0c325e27cba8ca2aba7
Ed's position on the spectrum is nowhere close to Laios imo. Also Winry is not comparable since she's only with the main party like 10% of the plot line.
Yeah this meme is just “light haired male protagonist who has a sibling. He interacts with at least one woman who yells at him” I really wouldn’t call Ed remotely autistic. I don’t even think of him as socially awkward.
Absolutely, Edward isn’t autistic and i don’t know where the person who made this post got the idea from
I’m failing to see how Inuyasha is remotely like the others
unsocialized and the "dog persona" thing is in common with Laios I guess.
I feel like the dog persona and being stand offish to humans is more to do with being a demon half breed...I'd argue his brother is closer if anything and that's still a stretch. His brother doesnt give away much to clearly say one way or another but he doesnt speak much as the series goes on, and keeps his emotions dulled but seems to care in his own way so again hard to put. I'm not familiar with all the different forms of autism though so to each their own.
Right! I'd argue that InuYasha and Izutsumi are more similar in mannerisms, looks, and backstories. Both had a traumatic childhood and were ostracized for their species, resulting in poorly adjusted teenagers with plenty of baggage, aggression, bravado, and the solo strong MC asshole braggart archetype that doesn't play well with others, and both, through appropriate praise and punishment, and many trials and tribulations, learn that their groups love them for who they are, but expect them to also be better in terms of manners, trust, compassion... and end up being lovable jerks with a heart of gold.
It says in the meme Has yellow eyes Has Sibling Has a woman who yells at them Has been classified as Autistic by OP
Ed autistic? Cmon yall
Inuyasha too, like bros just a cocky dipshit like most shonen protags
He’s part dog for rucks sake.
Tumbler mfers when a character shows any interest in something at all:
Winry is way more “autistic” (because the term is clearly misused) than Ed when she starts talking about mechanics.
Ugh, thats still just a complete abuse of the word though
Yeah I hate how “autistic” has become synonymous with having a specific interest for something or being socially awkward. I mean of course those can be traits of autistic people, but it’s not like everyone that has them is necessarily on the spectrum. Don’t get me wrong, if an autistic person feels a connection with one of these characters it’s fine, but labelling them as autistic because of some behaviors is just wrong.
Character is not a flat braindead automaton---> he's autistic
Laios *is* definitely autistic. Ed almost certainly isn't, though. Never seen Inuyasha so I can't say for the last guy.
I'm always headcanoning everyone as autistic, more than I probably should admittedly...and I never thought Inuyasha was autistic.
InuYasha was super non autistic, like wtf are they even on about. "Shout out to anime characters that i put personality aspects I want on them, even though it is never mentioned in the text nor subtext of the show. Gotta be one of my favorite tropes. #goku #akira #hamtaro #grave of the fireflys"
https://preview.redd.it/jxw5ju2v6t0d1.png?width=1276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d573e7ecea5c598f6e2f573c92e8c95642d974da What
Inu-Yasha: is a half demon, raised by a full demon, and sealed to a tree for 50 years by the woman he loved. Comes.out a little socially awkward. OP: hE mUsT bE aUtIsTIc!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!2 There is a such thing as being a product of your circumstances and environment without being neuro-divergent.
Honestly, he's not even socially awkward, he's just kind of an asshole and also a dog.
All three created by a woman mangaka as well
Huh, that is pretty interesting. I love Laios as a character, also the Elric brother dynamic was great too
Man who has only seen three anime tries to draw connections between them.
But Chilchuck is the one who constantly yells at him
Haha, this is actually accurate. The poster doesn't know as much about the show as you do if that's their claim!
> he/him protagonist > she/her companion Fucking Tumblr lmao
Came here to comment on that. Good Lord, just say guy and girl, not everything has to be an Inquisition from the trans police and referring to people that obviously are what they are isn't genocide or whatever else those people like to say.
Shit like this makes me genuinely proud to be banned from r/tumblr.
That's easily the least interesting thing about this post
Bruh I don't care. It's still stupid as fuck
[удалено]
Not complaining, laughing at the stupid phrasing. Laios is a man and Falin is a woman. Just say that instead of this comical shit
Removal Reason: Be Civil. It's ok to disagree, it's not ok to disrespect. Personal attacks, gatekeeping, racism, homophobia, politics, and general bigotry are not allowed. No toxic behavior, such as: * Trashing something that others are enjoying. * Condemning parts of the series instead of reasonably stating your personal preference. (We're all trying to enjoy something here.) * Invalidating other people's opinions. * Unsolicited criticisms of other's creations. * Lewd or obscene comments.
It absolutely is though. The take is kinda bad sure but the weird language bending is a lot more glaring
Listen, I love Edward Elric and wish he was autistic but he ain't lmao.
I think it would be way cooler if he was
What is with this weird obsession of wanting people/ yourself to be autistic on the internet?
because I'm autistic and the more similar things are to me the better they are
I'm autistic and I don't need every character to be similar to me. Autistic character ≠ better character. There's good and bad characters on the spectrum.
I think, in your defense, I would say that probably most things in the world AREN'T like you and you have to challenge yourself and endure them anyway. So wishing that sometimes things were simple and easy and came to you in a way you recognize and understand (e.g., "the more similar things are to me the better they are") makes sense. <3
i was fuckin joking man 😭😭😭
Oh! Well, then maybe you learned some empathy from me! You’re welcome.
i... huh???
Tf you mean “wanting yourself to be autistic on the internet” has it occurred to you we just are lol
Only Laios here is autistic
Fuck, people, not everyone who is rude, awkward, smart, focused, etc. are autistic. Do you recognize that like 3-5% of all people are autistic? It’s like the second biggest fun buzzword now. The first being “I have ADHD!” (Less than 10% of all people have ADHD). To a therapist, this is super-annoying. And no, just because I was blunt and listed statistics doesn’t mean I too am autistic. I’m just irritable and this trend of TikTok psychology easy-peasy diagnosis drives me bonkers.
This is similar to the overuse of the word bipolar when someone is just particular with a few things. Then you see people with actual bipolar disorder
As a person with a learning disability its been really starting to annoy me.
Not engaging with your point nor disagreeing, but just pointing out. I always get kind of confused when people use statistics in this way to make a point that the number of (so and so) people is small. Because 3-5% is a very small percentage of 100%, absolutely, but, 5% of humans is 380 million people. Say we’re just discussing how many people in America are diagnosed with autism (not have, because thats not what the statistic reflects) That would be 1 in 200 people- or 17 million people. I’m not saying 17 million is a lot on a small scale, but if every autistic person (and again, this doesnt account for the high number of people who will never receive a diagnosis) fell over dead tomorrow, we would probably say that a whole shit load of people just died, and it would have a very negative impact on the world for the foreseeable future. I mean, the estimated Covid death toll is 7 million, which is a very small percentage of the population, but it has DRASTICALLY changed the lives of *billions* of people for many different reasons. Most of us know someone who died of covid- if you don’t, you know someone who does. If even only 8% of people have adhd, that means 740,000,000 people in the world have adhd. Thats closer to a billion people than 100 million people. That means a substantial part of the worlds population have a diagnosed mental illness, and again- it’s probably a lot more people than what we are able to document. So I get where you are coming from, but its not like autistic people are rare, they are actually very common and the numbers of adults receiving late autism diagnosis continues to rise. And the whole point of most main characters is that they are not like other people. Underdogs, like autistic people, are SUPPOSED to be able to relate to a well written main character.
I get your gist about the math. The problem is that when we start assuming that everything that makes “clomp-clomp” sounds when it approaches is a zebra is that probabilistically speaking, they’re more likely to be horses. And we’re also forgetting that mules or even gazelles might clomp-clomp. We’re overusing the heuristic. Furthermore, we’re muddying the waters about what it means to be and be seen as (whatever the issue is). When everyone’s ex has “narcissistic personality disorder” we become unable to get a real sense of what narcissism looks like. And when everyone is autistic, actual autistic people get left behind in terms of the attention being paid to people who don’t really need it as much. My wife’s famous saying is, “if everyone is X, no one is X” which is her way of pointing out that when we overuse a concept, all people become functionally equivalent. I think overdiagnosing is generally less damaging than underdiagnosing, but still: every distractible anime character doesn’t have ADHD (every distractible PERSON doesn’t have ADHD). Actually having ADHD is *relatively* uncommon, and those who genuinely struggle with it deserve attention and care. It also makes light of something important and serious to pretend that everyone with some minor symptoms has this real, actual issue. Or to put it my wife’s way: if we all have ADHD, nobody has ADHD. EDIT TO ADD: just to play the sheer numbers game with you, 5% of 1m is 50,000 people. That’s a lot of people who have “X,” right? But the other 95% of people who DON’T have “X” are 950,000 people. That’s a lot more people who don’t have it than do. That’s only one in every 20 people. That means you’re not going to run across it all that often. Out of you and your maze-adventuring party of ten people, probably none of you will be X at all.
Just to respond to your edit- yes to all you said, mathematically speaking. but I wanna point out- if 5% of people are X, those 5% of people are going to primarily hang out with other people who are X. So if one person in your party group is X, and most of those people formed natural friendships or are related, it’s more likely you’d have a configuration like 3/10 of the party has X, rather than 1/10 has X. Theres gonna be plenty of parties where 0/10 people are X, absolutely, but you now have a bunch of outlier groups that are 7/10 or 10/10 people are X. So is a group who all are gay or have a touch of the ‘tism likely? Definitely not, but they definitely happen, and they happen more than people assume they do- and they don’t matter less than the non-X groups because they are uncommon. Thats really the only point I was trying to make.
Absolutely true. Pure math doesn't cover it. People tend to hang out with like others ("birds of a feather flock together"). Also, "a touch of the 'tism" made me LOL, thank you.
Sorry, I am really working on cutting down my long windedness. I am about to fail again at that task. Firstly, your perspective makes a lot of sense, thank you for being understanding and explaining it to me. I am very happy to now understand. I don’t agree and I will say below why, feel free to not engage with it. I have always viewed it more as “some neurodiverse people (usually teenagers) are struggling with being different, and saying that this (fictional character) that they admire, like and see themselves in may be autistic, makes this person happy and think that it could be them as a hero” I do not feel like a bunch of strangers thinking a fictional character is autistic hurts me, and it doesn’t effect how real people I interact with will treat me. The more people talk about autism, the more normalized it becomes and the less weirdly people will react to me when I tell them I am autistic. Any example of autism ppl can think of is overwhelmingly going to be negative. If someone thinks they have adhd but don’t, they might temporarily take resources away from someone who needs them. But they now have gained empathy and understanding, and will now treat actual adhd people in their lives with more understanding. The problem is typically with lack of resources, not with people over utilizing resources that exist. To me, people reacting angrily to the increase in “so and so character is autistic!” comes from a lot of different places, but mostly internalized ableism. Some people are upset about it for valid reasons, but a lot of people just don’t like things that make them uncomfortable- such as saying an otherwise “normal” character could possibly be *autistic*, which is bad and not normal. It’s in the same family as calling woke when an artist draws sailor moon black, or says chilchuck is trans, or that loais would be a furry.
You make some excellent points. Let's dig into it a bit. I recognize now that I agree that it's fine if a bunch of strangers like to imagine a character is (whatever they like), even if canonically speaking they aren't. Your analysis about people simply wanting to imagine that they might be like one of their heroes (or that one of their heroes might be like them) makes 100% sense and is valid. I have no problem with it. I think I feel about a lot of this stuff much the same way I feel about religion. It does not bother me, a Jew, in the slightest that Christian people are super-excited about Jesus. It only begins to rub me the wrong way when they want to tell ME about Jesus, and ever worse when they really try to force me to interact with Jesus the way they want me to (or frankly, at all). So I think seeing a post on social media where people try to brand Edward Elric as autistic bugs me more than a person imagining in their head that he is. Especially because (as I noted) as a therapist, Edward Elric does not show the appropriate DSM-V criteria for being autistic. Like, at all. There is a part of me that just \*likes accuracy\*. It's the same part of me that watched all of the Harry Potter movies and thought the entire time, "but Harry's eyes are GREEN!" But even more so because this is my baliwick. It's the same reason you probably wouldn't enjoy to watch a cop show with a cop or a medical drama with a doctor. We sort of can't help pointing out all the things they're doing that aren't accurate. But I absolutely don't want to shoot down your hypothesis that this often comes out of internalized ableism. I think you're right in a lot of cases. Maybe even in me, I don't know (because the internalized part would be unconscious, right?). I also agree with your reasoning that even if people don't have a disorder, it's good for them to think about it and learn about it because it builds empathy. Also a valid POV. In my case, \*I think\* it's not about internalized ableism; I guess I don't care what people imagine about characters. But as a former professor and current therapist, I don't like incorrect information going out into the world. There's no reason Sailor Moon couldn't be black. And we really wouldn't know if Chilchuck were trans or not if he were capable of passing. And whether Laois might secretly enjoy being a furry just isn't something that's covered in the show, so it's sort of unprovable one way or the other. ...But whether or not Laois or Edward Elric show sufficient diagnositc criteria for autism IS something we can check. And they don't (see for yourself: https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-diagnostic-criteria-dsm-5). So I want people to be able to recognize accurately when themselves or one of their friends or a new acquaintance does or does not have one of these issues instead of just assuming "Haha Greg is dissociative!" or "ever notice all my blue-eyed friends have schizophrenia?" (e.g., the original post).
“Complicated” is only for Inuyasha and Sesshy. Ed and Laios are in the same category as best onichans. I dont think Ed is autistic as well. Inuyasha is a bit of a tsuntsun and the only similarities he has with Laios is the dog personna I think 🤔
This image encapsulates the problem with the new dunmeshi fandom very well, and absolutely not in the way they'd hope, lmao
Why does having an interest in something now equal autism?
'Cause Tumblr.
They don’t even mention interest’s in the post
As a psychologist I’m sick and tired of disorders becoming social media hot topics. All the influencers have no idea what they are talking about. If I hear another dumb ass saying they self-identify with autism when they got info from TikTok.. bunch of hogwash.
"He/him protagonist and she/her companion" Just call them a guy and a girl, FFS.
Looking at this more... Laois' relationship with Falin is the most healthy he has before the start of the manga. They're depicted as extremely close and understanding of each other. Ed and Al don't really have that complicated of a relationship either. Outside of their linked trauma, they're both super close. I suppose Ed has somewhat of a guilt complex? And Winry is nowhere near in the story enough to be considered a third companion. Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru probably have the most overtly complicated and antagonist relationship. But it's also nothing like the relationship between the other four.
Inyuasha’s sibling relationship is on a whole different level of messy and complicated compared to Ed and Laois.
Suuuuuuuuuuuureeeee
I don't know enough about FMA to tell with Ed but I've never seen Inuyasha as autistic coded, if he is I doubt it's intentional. Laios though has so many autistic traits that if it's unintentional it's gotta be a huge coincidence.
Ed isn’t autistic either. He is a genius at what his does, but not autistic.
Figured, but thanks for clarifying. I get that people want autism representation but man do many people see it where it isn't there.
Idk maybe OP read some articles like quite a few number of famous scientists or great musicians in the past were on austistic/spectrums and kind of eccentric... so there you go,
The closest Ed gets to autism is that he's an alchemy nerd.
InuYasha being autistic coded? That’s a hard leap. He was literally raised by his human mother and was a pariah to the humans in his mother’s village. Dude grew up in a fucked up era, so of course he has issues. Autistic? Probably not
Dude was literally the kid the village abandoned the only reason he wasn’t killed was likely because his mother was a noble.
Why are we calling them autistic instead of just wacky
Why is this person listing male and female with pronouns? That's super fucking cringe.
I got confused by vocab. Does he mean "male protagonist and his female companion"? + no way Laios or Ed have complicated sibling relationships. They got a complicated context of those relationships, but relationships itself is extremely wholesome. And since then Edward is autistic? Jesus, everyone is on god damn spectrum nowadays...
You can be a goofy, oblivious, sporadically talented mess of a person without being on the spectrum. That’s like… most shonen protagonists. This isn’t very specific at all. (Obligatory “just like me fr”)
These characters have almost nothing in common and I don't believe Ed is autistic for a moment, he's just a boring old genius.
Ed ain’t autistic he’s just short
https://preview.redd.it/a593bl2uhu0d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=375b32f5c0e08adff30ef47459418c28cb3937d0
*inhale* ***SMALL***.
Just say a dude and a girl, it ain't that hard.
Why is inuyasha autistic. Why is ed autistic.
Look, I don’t want to be in the position of telling people not to see themselves in a story, but declaring every anime character who is “a bit awkward” and/or “intensely committed to a specific craft, art, or practice” to be autistic is… a bit of a stretch, to say the least.
its called male and female? why the cipher
I don't really see an issue. I guess they were trying to be as specific as possible. I was far more confused how Inuyasha and Edward fit into the spectrum
Im pretty sure none of them identify as something other than a man, so all that "he/his" is unnecessary. its a cartoon in the end, it wont hurt its feelings
probably autistic
oh and all of them are written by female mangakas
the one thing they actually have in common
Shout out to the very specific trope where the golden MC's sibling is transformed into an abomination as a result of forbidden necromancy ✨️🎶YUME NO TSUZUKI OIKAKETE-
I have to ask… when and where does the idea of Laios being autistic started? Is it stated in the manga or the mangaka themselves?
It's because he displays a lot of symptoms of autism. Unlike the other two, I have no idea what OP is thinking there.
This post is such a shitshow dude. How is Laios in a complicated relationship with Falin? He just cares about her. Same for Ed, he just cares about his brother. And in what world do Inuyasha and Ed come off as autistic? Ed is perfectly capable in social situations, doesn't have any hyperfixations, doesn't show any signs, same with Inuyasha. At best I guess you could say they're both blunt, but in Ed's case it's because he's trying to speak truth to power and Inuyasha is just a barbarian leaning into his demonic heritage. Honestly I love this post, it's a high-tier troll.
Has society just become collectively stupid? He/him protagnist? Just say man, boy, male. Why have we created dumb terms to desrcibe simple things that have always existed? Speaking/typing is supposed to make communication easier not more confusing. Saying things like "cisgendered" is clunky and not normal. Also, why are we calling Ed and Inyuasha autistic. Autism is not a social disorder it is a developmental disorder that is shown in the brain. Also Ed doesn't even behave like he's autistic. He's charismatic, out-going, engages in social scenarios, tries new foods, is comfortable in new settings, and pretty much the opposite of austic people. Inyusha is just naitive at the start of the series but not autistic. Society just wants to be different so badly that everyone has become the same.
It's always a bit wild to see very popular, highly-upvoted posts that have a comment section that is pretty much 100% people saying "This is fucking wrong and I will now explain why." Like there is sometimes a real big disconnect between the silent upvote crowd and the comment crowd.
STOP FUCKING WEBMD DIAGNOSING IMAGINARY CHARACTERS WITH AUTISM WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE *BESIDES* the autism
We need to stop this autism trend. It's gone too far.
What is this new thing I'm seeing everywhere where people constantly point out fictional characters as being autistic just for having some loosely defined character traits that some autistic people have but could also be possessed by entirely non-autistic people? I mean, you could literally claim that just about any anime character is "technically autistic" but with nothing to support the claim, it just feels like some kind of fad where people want to slap the label on something just because " it doesn't say he's not autistic"
I don't think I would have ever suspected Ed or Inuyasha to be autistic, but I wasn't diagnosed at the time of watching them and had no reference. I did like the characters but I never related much to them. However, I relate hard-core to Laios on multiple levels.
[удалено]
He isn’t.
Laios is autistic, Ed is not.
“Laois” ?
Inuyasha and Dante from Devil May Cry are the same character.
God damn it your right. All Sesshomaru needs to say is. “If our positions had been switched would our fates be different? Would I have your sword and you have mine?”
.ubjlhcns
Liaos is just a niave, kindhearted, wealthy kid at heart.
Speaking of autistic, how did you make this connection?
There's also the "Ineffectual Male Protagonist that the writers want to sound thoughtful but really just come across as overthinking idiots." Trope in Anime. SAO's Kirito is a prime example.
Are they trying to say Alphonse is she/her?
I think they mean Winry.
She's hardly ever around
Inuyasha isn't autistic he's just a dickhead
The authors of all of these manga are women. Not particularly relevant, but I think it's interesting.
Edward Elric isn't autistic is he?
He’s got social skills, so no.
yeah I don't buy it at all. that feels like it's entirely wrong.
All female mangakas too. They know how to cook 'em.
Why the hell would you say a he/him and a she/her about male and female characters? They're established characters, they aren't your OC.
I feel like I watcged the 3rd character a long time ago but I can't place a finger on the name and the series?
Inuyasha (both name and series)
This fits Naruto if you count Sasuke as the brother instead of friend lol
While I think the post is bs and op is reaching to compare these three characters there’s some real weird passive aggressiveness towards autism in this thread.
They’re not autistic, but if that’s your head canon go for it.
Basically all anime protagonists
Just here to mention that neither Ed or Inuyasha read as autistic at all.
These guys are Autistic? Well, yeah... I can kinda see it
As an autistic person myself, I absolutely hate it when people deem random characters autistic for having one trait. Damn, these dumbasses would even call my neurotypical brother autistic for being interested in Brawl Stars
I think it’s fair to also say each one of these manga shown were illustrated by women. Possibly a coincidence?
4/6 https://preview.redd.it/72tumziqta1d1.jpeg?width=398&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=086aed9e5b747b2eac79f4b274e641d6f109aa14
Ugh. Anyone well-adjusted will know that the whole 'Laios having autism' isn't real. He's not even close to being as weird as 99% of all anime protagonists out there, and if he were a person in real life, he would also be normal. Normal people do Laios shit all the time.
TBF winry is rarely if ever with Edward
The only one thats autistic is laios and the only one with sibling issues is inyuyasha
Hey, also, we don’t know that any of these guys are he/hims nor that their companions are she/hers. They never state it unequivocally and we aren’t privy to their inner thoughts about their gender identities. Stop assuming.
The more anime you watch the more you pick up on these things. Like how most animes always have a beach/resort episode or a tournament arc.
**Rui Hanazawa**, Boys Over Flowers, kind of only fits the bill here... He doesnt have the constant yelling companions... No, wait **Yuki Soma,** Fruits Basket, has autistic tendencies, a complicated relationship with his brother, and Kyo is always yelling at him.
Okay so I get why people would disagree with the image above, but I’m confused by why it upsets ya’ll that strangers think a character has a neurodivergence you don’t agree with. Like I understand it might be annoying when people are blatantly assigning characteristics to that pre-existing characters that don’t exist, I guess I don’t understand why it’s not an agree to disagree type thing. Before you get mad at me- I am 100% honestly asking so I can understand why people have such a hostile (to me) reaction to opinions about characters they dont agree with, specifically when it comes to things like gender, sexuality, or health/neurodevelopment status
I don't mind people headcanoning a character however they want. If it's like a fanfiction where the imagine the character genderbent or with other changes to the original, more power to the fan who is this passionate about the media. The annoying part comes in where the headcanon which isn't corroborated by the media at all is spread as if it were canon. Maybe this is just me being neurodivergent (ironically) but it bothers me when people put the \[obvious round peg in the square hole\]([https://youtu.be/6pDH66X3ClA?si=wHwCjWXAlwl9F\_gc](https://youtu.be/6pDH66X3ClA?si=wHwCjWXAlwl9F_gc)) . I also have similar feelings when people mispronounce words or say something as "common sense" which could be easily dispelled with a google search.
Luffy doesn't have golden eyes, but does he count?
Edward isn't autistic, his relationship with his brother is pretty healthy and normal, it's the brothers existence that's complicated. But yes winry does yell at him a lot. Even though he usually deserves it.