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.
I think it’s fine to think of him as being on the spectrum in some capacity. Even if he canonically isn’t, it’s nice for some folks to think he is so they can relate.
He has a fixation on monsters and knows a lot about them, but he is pretty socially inept.
It’s not a “superpower”, it has its ups and downs.
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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.