mega clean up needed: Ambiguously Autistic

This page seems to have devolved into capturing every character in fiction and finding some way to describe them as autistic, completely ignoring the part about "These characters are not just socially challenged, nor just clumsy geeks". It needs a huge clean up, or perhaps even an example sectionectomy to get this right.

We have things like Rei Ayanami an artificial human who was raised in a testtube by a pair of mad scientists, The Doctor who is an alien, Ryouga Hibiki (who merely has a case of terminal shyness), Calvin from Calvin And Hobbes, Spock(!!), the entire species of the Thermians from Galaxy Quest (if it is an entire race then we're looking at Planet of Hats surely?), Luna Lovegood who is just a Cloud Cuckoolander, Miss Hathaway from the Beverly Hillbillies, Firefly lists River which is fair enough, but apparently her brother also is autistic (and not just a fish out of water as an upper class kid in a rough and ready setting), Spike(!!!), Lisa Simpson, Hank Hill, who is just a bit of an unimaginative stick in the mud.

Those are just the ones I am familiar with. I don't know about the rest of the series on the page, but I strongly suspect the only actually valid entry might be Sherlock Holmes. I'm afraid to even look at the links.

Perhaps with the second part of the description being "They exhibit enough little quirks that you're starting to think the quirks must be symptoms of something, but of just what is never stated." (emphasis mine), then slapping a YMMV label on it might be a good thing since it is asking the viewer to make that decision? Thankfully it seems to be mostly on the YMMV pages already, so it would just be a case of giving it the official stamp.

Mind you, I think "quirky character who is a bit off but not diagnosed as mentally ill" is already covered by a plethora of other tropes, so cutting the whole thing might be an option too.

edited 29th Jun '11 8:06:01 AM by CrypticMirror

Oof. Yeah, this either needs either some cutting down and clarifying or a YMMV label.

Also, the last line in the description seems to imply that the author always intends for such characters to be autistic, but just didn't get the details right. That needs to go.

This older thread about Ambiguously Autistic might offer some insights.

edited 29th Jun '11 12:18:08 PM by LouieW

Also, why are there percent sign notes saying that this trope is not about autism?

I'm guessing at some point this page had a long Useful Notes-style spiel about the symptoms of autism and about how eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil bigoted Hollywood distorts and misrepresents them.

Actually, you are right. Still, why not just link to Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism?

edited 29th Jun '11 12:25:28 PM by nuclearneo577

going by the previous thread Eddie doesn't want it as YMMV, but if it isn't that what is it for? It's a page full of fan-specualtion and nothing more. I never thought I'd type this, but is this a page tvtropes needs? A page for people to come and list their favourite character as being autistic. It's going to end up the same way as Complete Monster, a badge of honour that every fandom must have a mention on here.

Given that it is still "quirky character who is a bit off, but nothing specific" and that is covered by several other tropes, I think this should be cut.

Well some of the examples are more of charters that have signs of autism, but the description has no sign of that. The current description is an Audience Reaction, not the trope it should be that the title sounds like.

I say cutlist. Doesn't seem like the kind of page we need at all.

edited 29th Jun '11 3:47:51 PM by Clarste

The current description is not the least bit subjective and it is a perfectly good trope.

Dunno, seems like every part of the discussion is covered by another trope:

They have some trouble navigating the unwritten rules of society -> No Social Skills

their thought patterns sometimes confuse the other characters -> Cloud Cuckoolander

and they have unusual and compulsive patterns of behavior.-> (Several depending on the obsessions. Like Super OCD Neat Freak)

It is not about the symptoms. Any of the symptoms. It is about the character being weirder than you would expect a person to be unless they had some disorder.

It is a character. It is not a diagnosis tool.

edited 29th Jun '11 4:05:48 PM by FastEddie

The problem is that there's no clear-cut way to identify when a character falls under this trope — it's entirely subjective based on the whims of the viewer (who decides what "weirder than you expect" means?). As such, at best it might be a YMMV page, but it doesn't fit with other trope pages.

—R.J.

edited 4th Jul '11 8:15:18 AM by rjung

I say just nuke it, its way too subjective and its not much of a solid trope, its just fanwankery.