User:HanTheGene/The Ultimate Guide

The Ultimate Guide to Autistic Characters That Are Not Entirely Afwul [WIP]. Decided to start writing this up since I often find myself retyping the same thing on Reddit. They're grouped based on various criteria that I imagine people might find helpful - some fit multiple criteria so they're repeated in the relevant sections. The criteria for "not entirely awful" are a bit vague and mostly come down to ~vibes~. No judgement towards anyone who dislikes any of these or likes ones not mentioned here, personal background is an important factor of how we experience fiction. This list is more a "most people probably won't find these portrayals heinously offensive" rather than "these are the only acceptable autistic characters"

Check out the general list of autistic characters if you want an overview of all autistic characters regardless of how good or bad they are.

Dark drama
Often deal with very heavy subject matter in a graphic manner generally, just kinda depressing lol
 * Rebecca Blithely in Strange Empire - magical-realist gothic Canadian western with an autistic doctor who was previously institutionalized
 * Saga Norén in The Bridge (Bron|Broen) - Scandinoir crime series with autistic main character. Multiple remakes exist but nothing beats the original
 * Stina Vik in Modus - Scandinoir series with supporting autistic character. Less dark than The Bridge
 * Carl Destoop and Juliette Destoop in The Twelve - Belgian court drama series, two autistic supporting characters
 * Victor Hoppe in The Angel Maker - Belgian drama novel about an autistic doctor, his triplets, genetics, and more fun stuff
 * Max Horowitz in Mary and Max - dark comedy-drama claymation
 * Saitou Megumi in That's My Atypical Girl - series focused on an autistic woman and her relationship with manga artist Yokoi

Easy drama
Light drama, comedy-drama, all-around more digestible and less depressing
 * Birgit Goethals in Clan - dark comedy-drama focused on the Goethals sisters who are trying to murder their asshat of a brother-in-law
 * Carl in Drought - coming of age road trip sibling drama
 * Wendy Welcott in Please Stand By - also a coming of age road trip sibling drama, now featuring: autistic wanderlust
 * Henry in Special - comedy-drama written by and for and with queer people and people with disabilities
 * Luke and Zack in The Story of Luke - coming of age comedy-drama
 * Laura Yip in For Izzy - coming of age comedy-drama

High drama
Not too depressing but also still Properly Dramatic. Probably something your parents would watch.
 * Donald Morton and Isabelle Sorensen in Mozart and the Whale - romantic drama with two autistic savants
 * Nick Young in White Frog - coming of age teenage drama
 * Fiona Helbron in Elementary - modern reboot of Sherlock Holmes
 * Han Gue-ru in Move to Heaven - focusing on an autistic trauma cleaner after the sudden death of his dad
 * Hikaru Azuma in With the Light - series focused on an autistic child, his family, and their life throughout the years. Of great historic significance for autism awareness in Japan
 * Adam Raki in Adam - romantic drama movie

Comedy

 * Abed Nadir in Community - American sitcom set in a community college

Funky genres
Something other than drama or comedy-drama
 * Rebecca Blithely in Strange Empire - magical-realist gothic Canadian western with an autistic doctor who was previously institutionalized
 * Denise Lichtveld in On the Edge of Gone - near-future sci-fi young adult novel
 * Minnow in Planet Ripple - sci-fi
 * Zen in Chocolate - martial arts. The autistic character is the one kicking ass
 * Christian Wolff in The Accountant - action-thriller with a pinch of martial arts
 * Billy Cranston in Power Rangers - superhero movie
 * Entrapta in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - sword and planet princess adventure
 * Gary Bell in Alphas - superhero drama

Fun internet things
These are web-based productions
 * Brunhilde Khoury in Questionable Content - a very long-running webcomic. You don't need to have read the entire thing, you can pick up pretty much anywhere. I started on #3210, where Brun is first introduced
 * Barry Erry Ill and Uni Sock Cornelius in Sparklecare Hospital - a brightly colored and grimly themed exploration of the troubles with the US mental health system
 * Daniel Becket in Sharp Zero - superhero comic
 * Tegan Butter in MiCoVerse - paranormal mystery webcomic
 * Riley Almanzor in Less is Morgue - horror-comedy (but more comedy than horror) episodic podcast. Riley is one of the hosts
 * Sydney O. Sargent in Camp Here and There- horror-comedy podcast about a haunted summer camp
 * Michael Falk, autistic reporter from The Onion News Network - satirical news company, made a couple of bits with an autistic reporter
 * Cove Holden in Our Life: Beginnings & Always - romance visual novel, Cove is your love interest
 * Gin Ibushi in  Your Turn to Die -Death Game By Majority-  - episodic horror adventure visual novel style game
 * River Wyles in To the Moon - psychological narrative game that will punch you in the feels in the most beautiful way

Based on real-life autistic people
A lot of autistic characters are at least somewhat inspired by one or more real people, but these are ones that are more direct translations of real-life autistics
 * Donald Morton and Isabelle Sorensen in Mozart and the Whale - romantic drama with two autistic savants

Autistic actors playing autistic characters

 * Carl in Drought - coming of age road trip sibling drama
 * Gerda in #Gerda - humorous short film about an autistic photographer going in for his 7th job interview
 * Ollie in Circles - coming of age youth short film
 * Sash Gilbert in Casualty (S30E22) - one-time character in British hospital drama series
 * Sean in Fancy Nancy (S2E6) - one-time character to educate children about autism
 * Katy Evans in Acceptable Damage - indie British drama movie focusing on bullying and youth crime
 * Renee in Loop - short film about a nonspeaking autistic girl and the relationship with a nonautistic boy

Autistic authors writing autistic characters
This section should be fuller because there are a lot of them but I haven't gotten started on documenting them yet
 * Denise Lichtveld in On the Edge of Gone - near-future sci-fi young adult novel
 * Minnow in Planet Ripple - sci-fi

Games

 * Gin Ibushi in  Your Turn to Die -Death Game By Majority-  - episodic horror adventure visual novel style game
 * Josh Sauchak in Watch Dogs 2 - open-world type game, Josh is a main non-player character who is a hacker
 * Cove Holden in Our Life: Beginnings & Always - romance visual novel, Cove is your love interest
 * River Wyles in To the Moon - psychological narrative game that will punch you in the feels in the most beautiful way
 * Simone Cole in Clive Barker's Jericho - FPS horror, Cole is a playable character
 * Brigid Tenenbaum in BioShock - retrofuturistic FPS, dr. Tenenbaum plays a key role in the story
 * Patricia Tannis in Borderlands - space Western science-fantasy FPS
 * Shana in I Don't Have a Cue! - narrative fiction, only available as a demo

Mixed reviews
These are some things that I've seen mixed reviews about from autistic people
 * Sam Gardner in Atypical - coming of age centered on an autistic teen and his family
 * Shaun Murphy in The Good Doctor - autistic savant doctor

Manga

 * Hikaru Azuma in With the Light - series focused on an autistic child, his family, and their life throughout the years. Of great historic significance for autism awareness in Japan
 * Saitou Megumi in That's My Atypical Girl - series focused on an autistic woman and her relationship with manga artist Yokoi
 * Tatsuki Nakagawa in Sazanka - oneshot

LGBT+ folk

 * Riley Almanzor in Less is Morgue - horror-comedy (but more comedy than horror) episodic podcast. Riley is one of the hosts. Nonbinary and asexual.
 * Daniel Becket in Sharp Zero - superhero comic. Gay.
 * Shana in I Don't Have a Cue! - narrative fiction, only available as a demo. Gay.
 * Cove Holden in Our Life: Beginnings & Always - romance visual novel, Cove is your love interest, which makes it gay depending on the gender of the player-character I suppose?
 * Henry in Special - comedy-drama written by and for and with queer people and people with disabilities. Henry is gay.

For kids
and adults who are young at heart :)
 * Entrapta in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - sword and planet princess adventure
 * Liam in DinoSquad - one-time character to educate children about autism
 * Julia in Sesame Street - recurring character first developed for autism awareness campaign, developed with both ASAN and Autism Speaks, though ASAN pulled out later on
 * Pablo in Pablo - main character in a children's cartoon for autistic children and for allistic children to understand autism more. The storybook animals are also autistic as are the cast.

Obscure thingers
Characters that I've never really seen other people talk about and of which I'm not really sure if they're good or not but that I'm going to share here because I didn't hate them
 * Simone Cole in Clive Barker's Jericho - FPS horror, Cole is a playable character
 * Sunny Raei in Drive me to the End - road trip comedy-drama
 * Laura Yip in For Izzy - coming of age comedy-drama