Okay but I present this: Yusuke and Futaba…… autistic friendship…. Aw yeah. I am the tism I love yusuke bro is daft af he’s out here spending money on his interest instead of eating. Silly little guy
I've never actually known the difference between a hyperfixation and a special interest! Thanks for this video and the discussion of coding vs representation; I'm surprised I've played all four of the games you talked about. I hope this gets some more views; this was a great video.
coincidentally I was just writing a post for autism month for 5 media recommendations for every type of media XD I had the most difficulty with games... we need more good rep!
Great video. Although i while playing 999 i felt like everyone was a bit autistic. You could just do a puzzle and suddenly Lotus starts talking about some article in a book she read once. I still think that the writing style was a bit too infodumpy in that game.
i didn't check until the end of the video how many likes and subscribers and stuff you had, and i was really surprised considering the quality, so i'm leaving a comment to help the algorithm
Thank you for including Isabelle in this video. Before you talked about her in your video, I had never seen an autistic character who was diagnosed at a young age. Moreover, I had never seen an autistic character who masks because of their early diagnosis and wonders if it was truly them or late-diagnosed/undiagnosed autistic people who are the lucky ones because they may not feel as pressured to mask. Isabelle’s autism story is exactly like mine, and what stands out to me is that her internal conflict about masking is exactly like mine, too. I’ve always felt so alone in experiencing that conflict, putting in so much effort into keeping on a mask, giving a perfect performance even when no one’s around (because what if someone walks into the room and sees me stimming?)-when in reality, I hate hiding my true self and denying myself my needs more than anything. Thank you, once again, for the much-needed realization that there are other people out there who are just like me. With each case of representation, we take a step closer to creating a society in which autistic people can feel free to unmask and be their true selves.
I’ve been obsessed with a game called In Stars and Time lately and the player character Siffrin is extremely autistic coded to the point where I’m wondering if it might have been intentional… like several of the characters are just obviously and blatantly queer without the words for labels ever exactly being said so it wouldn’t surprise me if Siffrin is actually intentionally meant to be read as autistic and they just don’t have the word but in either case it’s how I interpret them. I know repetition would be increased by the nature of being in a time loop but how they act early in the game and information we get about them pre-canon from their own memories and from what their friends say make it very clear they still had autistic traits before the timeloops pre-canon examples include that their friends mention that Siffrin used to mumble the same phrases over and over when sharpening or carving and they find it endearing but Siffrin is embarrassed about it, but when they actually sharpen the key knife they mumble “please be sharp” over and over. This isn’t the only time they do echolalia(there’s a section of the game where they almost ONLY use repeated phrases because they’ve created a script for the time loop and while I know that’s because of the timeloop I also really relate to having scripts for conversations) the first two acts they can repeat back bird sounds if you have them interact with the birds. Siffrin apparently told Mirabelle that being on this journey was “the happiest they could remember being” and when she got upset(presumably because traveling to try to stop the country from being frozen being the best part of your life is a bit concerning) Siffrin gets confused and assumes they said something callous by accident. And the first time Bonnie makes them malanga fritters they get so excited they stim by flailing their arms around but the second time they suppress it… Siffrin wants affection but the other members of the group avoid touching them and at first Siffrin assumes it’s because they hate him but it turns out it’s because they assumed SIFFRIN hates BEING touched because they get startled and flinch when they get touched unexpectedly. The others assumptions also seem related to that Odile another member of the group(also pretty autistic coded) ACTUALLY doesn’t like being touched and it seems like the others assumed Siffrin was exactly the same way, but Siffrin likes being touched when he knows it’s coming he just doesn’t know how to process it when he’s not expecting it and he doesn’t know how to ask. The first time Mirabelle asks if they “want a comb” they hold their hand out expecting her to physically give them one and it’s only after another time around they realize she was trying to ask if he wanted his hair brushed… they have a special interest in astronomy and are obsessed with Poterian theatre to the point where they compare their whole life in the loops to a play… I relate to so much of their internal monologue and difficulty processing change is basically how he got here, but I love how them learning to communicate better isn’t them getting less autistic coded it’s him learning he don’t need to HIDE who he is and what he actually wants they and don’t need to try to make the perfect script for every social interaction their friends will care about them anyways… it makes me really happy to see a character who is this autistic coded with a storyline about how much they care about these people so deeply but don’t know how to express it or tell if they care back and whether they’d still care if they saw more of who he really is under all the trying to act “normal” and like what he thinks they want to see which is an experience I’m VERY familiar with… so yeah… uh there’s my ramble about how autistic-coded Siffrin is… I want to talk about how much I relate to their internal dialogue but this is already too long and I’d never stop
@@aitorcat4702 This was an excellent video by the way! I need to play To The Moon now apparently (’m not used to creators actually responding to my long rambly comments…)
I’m now talking about Odile and 2 other characters being deeply autistic coded too. So first off there’s two characters in Dormont that I’m 99% sure had to be intentionally written as autistic because basic description Drawing One doesn’t ever talk and only draws and writes and also excitedly stims when Siffrin calls them talented and the other Frog-Loving One doesn’t make eye contact and is obsessed with frogs and making an embroidery of a frog that they never get to finish every time you see them in Dormont. Those are really obvious(they do have names but as dormont villagers Siffrin initially doesn’t know them and it takes some elaborate interactions around act 3 to find them out so I’m not going into that). Odile is here in Vaugarde researching… something… technically it’s also act 3 spoilers. She has the least variety of expressive talk sprites(in stark contrast to Siffrin who has very expressive sprites but seems to manually switch them sometimes) and a lot of the ones she does have primarily are expressive from her hands instead of her face and her text never wobbles implying a monotone… her approach to comforting Mirabelle is “well we’re already here so if we tried to leave at this point we’d probably just get frozen so not only is staying and helping what we want to do it’s also the only option at this point. What’s the point of wondering about possibilities that it’s too late for now anyways” which is the type of very logical attempt at comforting that I used to do a lot which is well-intentioned but usually just doesn’t work because that’s not the wavelength the other person is on… it seems much more effective on Siffrin for whom the reminder that awful things he’s thinking aren’t actually correct is actually very helpful… after her attempt at giving Mirabelle a pep talk she says that it’s good they have Isabeau because at least one person here is good at processing emotions and Siffrin agrees she asks them how they’re doing “In the spirit of being good at this whole emotions thing” which Siffrin basically responds to with “I’m fine! Feelings talk over!” the first time and you get more options of responses later… Odile calls the group “allies” on most loops seemingly not sure if she should use the word “friends” considering the rest of the group is much younger than her and she hasn’t expressly gotten permission(Siffrin unfortunately internalized this too) you can talk to her and this can change in later loops- but that’s also act 3 spoilers… as mentioned in the long message about Siffrin, Odile ACTUALLY doesn’t like being touched with the exception of ruffling other people’s hair occasionally and I feel like that Odile not liking it being implied to be part of why the others assumed Siffrin also doesn’t is a great example of “If you know one autistic person you know ONE autistic person” even tho neither is explicitly stated to be autistic in the game… Oh! And I just found out that when you’re on the aforementioned spoilery friendquest with her you can interact with basically anything and see her reaction and I got so excited having found something new! If you interact with the sheep while Odile is following she makes a “Meeeeeh” sound like what Siffrin does with the birds and I think that’s adorable… I think having multiple autistic coded characters with different experiences and each having different combinations traits that are heavily associated with autistic people adds to it a lot.
I do think if you read the loops through the lens of autistic camouflaging and scripting it all fits and it actually really bothers me when people(including Siffrin himself unfortunately towards the end) frame following the script and trying to keep their friends happy and unaware as Siffrin being manipulative rather than acknowledging the nuance of that it’s Siffrin hiding because they’re scared their friends will hate them if they know and this is hurting Siffrin’s own mental health more than anything else(much like my own experiences with autistic camouflaging)… like those are similar in some ways and it would still be better if he could tell them the truth but this is has elements of a survival mechanism that they’re doing because people have treated them poorly in the past for it and they think they’re protecting their friends… Siffrin internally going and I quote “Smart and normal words go!” before a list of slightly unhinged or strangely phrased options the first time they get a new conversation and the second time around having the option of modifying the one you picked to be slightly less unhinged to stop their friends from worrying about them feels coded more like a person trying to camouflage autistic trays because they’re scared of rejection and haven’t been accepted in the past than a person who is in control and intentionally manipulating them to get what they want… it’s notable to me that the most common response we see to less autistic coded characters when they’re in a time loop is they try absolutely EVERYTHING to get out but Siffrin seems to cling to the routine and the script and in a less brilliantly written game that might feel forced but it makes perfect sense with Siffrin’s character… they want their friends to be happy and therefore don’t want to bother them with his problems and to them this just seems to make sense as the way to do that…
I recently finished Umineko and when i was reading i thought Maria and Ange both seem autism coded i dont know if they actually were but espesually Maria with her hyper fixations and the pressure she faced from everyone to act normal. Great video btw!!
To be frank, I have to say that you're completely wrong about coding. To describe a character as [demographic]-coded is to take an interpretation and ascribe it to the portrayal of the character rather than to the interpreter, which implies intent on the part of the author/artist. It follows, therefore, that one shouldn't ascribe coding to a character without confirmation from the creators in question, as doing so can lead one to make inaccurate assumptions and cast aspersions based on stereotypes (e.g. Extra Credits infamously comparing black people to orcs). Of course, none of that is to say that interpreting characters such as Futaba or Akane as autistic is invalid. My point, I suppose, is that half of your examples of autistic representation are, by your own admission, not actually representing autism, even if they are relatable to autistic people. That doesn't mean they're unworthy of discussion, of course. Being that I'm autistic myself, there are plenty of examples I could name personally that I relate very strongly to. I do think, however, that you could've benefitted from framing and presenting the topic more clearly.
In truth I intended the title to be autistic coding AND autistic representation in games but I thought that was s little long, though I do agree the framing was poor
Luigi
The beaury of Autism is the interaction between two or more of them to the point it's almost magical.
Okay but I present this: Yusuke and Futaba…… autistic friendship…. Aw yeah. I am the tism I love yusuke bro is daft af he’s out here spending money on his interest instead of eating. Silly little guy
I've never actually known the difference between a hyperfixation and a special interest! Thanks for this video and the discussion of coding vs representation; I'm surprised I've played all four of the games you talked about. I hope this gets some more views; this was a great video.
coincidentally I was just writing a post for autism month for 5 media recommendations for every type of media XD I had the most difficulty with games... we need more good rep!
Not exactly a coincidence that two examples of rep I used are heavily implied at best
@@aitorcat4702 yeah! Even in my posts most were headcanons shared by many in the local community and/or heavily coded
You've Successfully Gotten Me Even More Interested In To The Moon, How Dare You /lh
You're welcome :3
Great video. Although i while playing 999 i felt like everyone was a bit autistic. You could just do a puzzle and suddenly Lotus starts talking about some article in a book she read once. I still think that the writing style was a bit too infodumpy in that game.
To that end I think Aistf is better in this respect where the infodumping is reserved for just Iris and Ota so it feels more natural
i didn't check until the end of the video how many likes and subscribers and stuff you had, and i was really surprised considering the quality, so i'm leaving a comment to help the algorithm
That's very kind, thank you
Thank you for including Isabelle in this video. Before you talked about her in your video, I had never seen an autistic character who was diagnosed at a young age. Moreover, I had never seen an autistic character who masks because of their early diagnosis and wonders if it was truly them or late-diagnosed/undiagnosed autistic people who are the lucky ones because they may not feel as pressured to mask. Isabelle’s autism story is exactly like mine, and what stands out to me is that her internal conflict about masking is exactly like mine, too. I’ve always felt so alone in experiencing that conflict, putting in so much effort into keeping on a mask, giving a perfect performance even when no one’s around (because what if someone walks into the room and sees me stimming?)-when in reality, I hate hiding my true self and denying myself my needs more than anything. Thank you, once again, for the much-needed realization that there are other people out there who are just like me. With each case of representation, we take a step closer to creating a society in which autistic people can feel free to unmask and be their true selves.
I'm glad her character resonated with you, I can't recommend this game enough
I’ve been obsessed with a game called In Stars and Time lately and the player character Siffrin is extremely autistic coded to the point where I’m wondering if it might have been intentional… like several of the characters are just obviously and blatantly queer without the words for labels ever exactly being said so it wouldn’t surprise me if Siffrin is actually intentionally meant to be read as autistic and they just don’t have the word but in either case it’s how I interpret them. I know repetition would be increased by the nature of being in a time loop but how they act early in the game and information we get about them pre-canon from their own memories and from what their friends say make it very clear they still had autistic traits before the timeloops pre-canon examples include that their friends mention that Siffrin used to mumble the same phrases over and over when sharpening or carving and they find it endearing but Siffrin is embarrassed about it, but when they actually sharpen the key knife they mumble “please be sharp” over and over. This isn’t the only time they do echolalia(there’s a section of the game where they almost ONLY use repeated phrases because they’ve created a script for the time loop and while I know that’s because of the timeloop I also really relate to having scripts for conversations) the first two acts they can repeat back bird sounds if you have them interact with the birds. Siffrin apparently told Mirabelle that being on this journey was “the happiest they could remember being” and when she got upset(presumably because traveling to try to stop the country from being frozen being the best part of your life is a bit concerning) Siffrin gets confused and assumes they said something callous by accident. And the first time Bonnie makes them malanga fritters they get so excited they stim by flailing their arms around but the second time they suppress it… Siffrin wants affection but the other members of the group avoid touching them and at first Siffrin assumes it’s because they hate him but it turns out it’s because they assumed SIFFRIN hates BEING touched because they get startled and flinch when they get touched unexpectedly. The others assumptions also seem related to that Odile another member of the group(also pretty autistic coded) ACTUALLY doesn’t like being touched and it seems like the others assumed Siffrin was exactly the same way, but Siffrin likes being touched when he knows it’s coming he just doesn’t know how to process it when he’s not expecting it and he doesn’t know how to ask. The first time Mirabelle asks if they “want a comb” they hold their hand out expecting her to physically give them one and it’s only after another time around they realize she was trying to ask if he wanted his hair brushed… they have a special interest in astronomy and are obsessed with Poterian theatre to the point where they compare their whole life in the loops to a play… I relate to so much of their internal monologue and difficulty processing change is basically how he got here, but I love how them learning to communicate better isn’t them getting less autistic coded it’s him learning he don’t need to HIDE who he is and what he actually wants they and don’t need to try to make the perfect script for every social interaction their friends will care about them anyways… it makes me really happy to see a character who is this autistic coded with a storyline about how much they care about these people so deeply but don’t know how to express it or tell if they care back and whether they’d still care if they saw more of who he really is under all the trying to act “normal” and like what he thinks they want to see which is an experience I’m VERY familiar with… so yeah… uh there’s my ramble about how autistic-coded Siffrin is… I want to talk about how much I relate to their internal dialogue but this is already too long and I’d never stop
That's fascinating thanks for sharing, and don't worry about long comments
This of all videos should be a place to infodump comfortably
@@aitorcat4702 Thank you!
@@aitorcat4702 This was an excellent video by the way! I need to play To The Moon now apparently (’m not used to creators actually responding to my long rambly comments…)
I’m now talking about Odile and 2 other characters being deeply autistic coded too. So first off there’s two characters in Dormont that I’m 99% sure had to be intentionally written as autistic because basic description Drawing One doesn’t ever talk and only draws and writes and also excitedly stims when Siffrin calls them talented and the other Frog-Loving One doesn’t make eye contact and is obsessed with frogs and making an embroidery of a frog that they never get to finish every time you see them in Dormont. Those are really obvious(they do have names but as dormont villagers Siffrin initially doesn’t know them and it takes some elaborate interactions around act 3 to find them out so I’m not going into that). Odile is here in Vaugarde researching… something… technically it’s also act 3 spoilers. She has the least variety of expressive talk sprites(in stark contrast to Siffrin who has very expressive sprites but seems to manually switch them sometimes) and a lot of the ones she does have primarily are expressive from her hands instead of her face and her text never wobbles implying a monotone… her approach to comforting Mirabelle is “well we’re already here so if we tried to leave at this point we’d probably just get frozen so not only is staying and helping what we want to do it’s also the only option at this point. What’s the point of wondering about possibilities that it’s too late for now anyways” which is the type of very logical attempt at comforting that I used to do a lot which is well-intentioned but usually just doesn’t work because that’s not the wavelength the other person is on… it seems much more effective on Siffrin for whom the reminder that awful things he’s thinking aren’t actually correct is actually very helpful… after her attempt at giving Mirabelle a pep talk she says that it’s good they have Isabeau because at least one person here is good at processing emotions and Siffrin agrees she asks them how they’re doing “In the spirit of being good at this whole emotions thing” which Siffrin basically responds to with “I’m fine! Feelings talk over!” the first time and you get more options of responses later… Odile calls the group “allies” on most loops seemingly not sure if she should use the word “friends” considering the rest of the group is much younger than her and she hasn’t expressly gotten permission(Siffrin unfortunately internalized this too) you can talk to her and this can change in later loops- but that’s also act 3 spoilers… as mentioned in the long message about Siffrin, Odile ACTUALLY doesn’t like being touched with the exception of ruffling other people’s hair occasionally and I feel like that Odile not liking it being implied to be part of why the others assumed Siffrin also doesn’t is a great example of “If you know one autistic person you know ONE autistic person” even tho neither is explicitly stated to be autistic in the game… Oh! And I just found out that when you’re on the aforementioned spoilery friendquest with her you can interact with basically anything and see her reaction and I got so excited having found something new! If you interact with the sheep while Odile is following she makes a “Meeeeeh” sound like what Siffrin does with the birds and I think that’s adorable… I think having multiple autistic coded characters with different experiences and each having different combinations traits that are heavily associated with autistic people adds to it a lot.
I do think if you read the loops through the lens of autistic camouflaging and scripting it all fits and it actually really bothers me when people(including Siffrin himself unfortunately towards the end) frame following the script and trying to keep their friends happy and unaware as Siffrin being manipulative rather than acknowledging the nuance of that it’s Siffrin hiding because they’re scared their friends will hate them if they know and this is hurting Siffrin’s own mental health more than anything else(much like my own experiences with autistic camouflaging)… like those are similar in some ways and it would still be better if he could tell them the truth but this is has elements of a survival mechanism that they’re doing because people have treated them poorly in the past for it and they think they’re protecting their friends… Siffrin internally going and I quote “Smart and normal words go!” before a list of slightly unhinged or strangely phrased options the first time they get a new conversation and the second time around having the option of modifying the one you picked to be slightly less unhinged to stop their friends from worrying about them feels coded more like a person trying to camouflage autistic trays because they’re scared of rejection and haven’t been accepted in the past than a person who is in control and intentionally manipulating them to get what they want… it’s notable to me that the most common response we see to less autistic coded characters when they’re in a time loop is they try absolutely EVERYTHING to get out but Siffrin seems to cling to the routine and the script and in a less brilliantly written game that might feel forced but it makes perfect sense with Siffrin’s character… they want their friends to be happy and therefore don’t want to bother them with his problems and to them this just seems to make sense as the way to do that…
I recently finished Umineko
and when i was reading i thought Maria and Ange both seem autism coded
i dont know if they actually were but espesually Maria with her hyper fixations and the pressure she faced from everyone to act normal.
Great video btw!!
I'd like to think that Aya Shameimaru from the Touhou Series fits into this category. Maybe that's just me.
I recognise the orchestra from the first few clips as the undertale one
correct!
Hey, good video! Very elaborate, and complete. Really deserve more subs!
To be frank, I have to say that you're completely wrong about coding. To describe a character as [demographic]-coded is to take an interpretation and ascribe it to the portrayal of the character rather than to the interpreter, which implies intent on the part of the author/artist. It follows, therefore, that one shouldn't ascribe coding to a character without confirmation from the creators in question, as doing so can lead one to make inaccurate assumptions and cast aspersions based on stereotypes (e.g. Extra Credits infamously comparing black people to orcs).
Of course, none of that is to say that interpreting characters such as Futaba or Akane as autistic is invalid. My point, I suppose, is that half of your examples of autistic representation are, by your own admission, not actually representing autism, even if they are relatable to autistic people. That doesn't mean they're unworthy of discussion, of course. Being that I'm autistic myself, there are plenty of examples I could name personally that I relate very strongly to. I do think, however, that you could've benefitted from framing and presenting the topic more clearly.
You're absolutely right, thank you for the critique
In truth I intended the title to be autistic coding AND autistic representation in games but I thought that was s little long, though I do agree the framing was poor
I know you are talking but all I can focuse is on the cat on your profile picture
❤