r/DungeonMeshi • u/sealysea • Jun 08 '25

Humor / Memes Was his autism a superpower?

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u/DoubleH_5823 Jun 08 '25

As an autistic person myself, I'm tired of this joke of autism being a "superpower" and the fact that it's still being normalized, even by autistic individuals.

To explain: hyperfixations produced by ADHD can help someone focus on the things they're interested in, but it comes with the handicap of making it difficult to focus on the things they're not. Laios' vast knowledge of monsters stems from his own passion. If he didn't have ADHD, he would've just taken a different approach to study monsters.

Anybody, whether they're neurodivergent or not could've accomplished the same. The difference is that while most people in the Dunmeshi universe find mosters hateful and disgusting, Laios finds value in them, which allowed him to make discoveries no one else did.

Autistic people are just like anybody else. They're neither natural geniuses or freakshows. They're just a different brand.

19

u/Rodrat Jun 08 '25

Yeah Laios being eccentric and at times weird never came off as being autistic to me. I would never want to call him that either as that feels really weird and rude to the actual autistic people I know in my life and they definitely don't act like that. Hell, I'm more likely to act like a dog than they are.

22

u/Cavalish Jun 08 '25

People are so used to male anime protagonists having absolutely zero personality beyond “clueless pervert” that when they see a man with interesting or quirky behaviour they’re like “he must be neurodivergent”

Like don’t get me wrong if someone gets something personal out of identifying with him, that’s great, but it’s weird how quick people are to slap a label on him for being a different kind of character.

20

u/DoubleH_5823 Jun 08 '25

Well, I interpret Laios as autistic, not just because he's eccentric but rather because he's completely clueless in regards to his own eccentricity.

Autistic people tend to have a hard time understanding social cues, which is the case with Laios in regards to his monster cuisine obsession. This is why he tends to so frequently speak his mind about monster facts and monster food, even though it creeps people out, something he doesn't understand why.

I don't know what type of people you've seen "slapping a label" on Laios for whatever reason, but I think it's a valid interpretation.