Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3221 to 3225 (16 - 20 May 2016)
Penquin47:
Oh, wow. To everyone who's been wondering about Clinton's positive traits: here you are. Dude's a Good Guy (not to be confused with a Nice Guy, which is a very different thing). High degree of responsibility, calm in a crisis, willing to take care of others even when he has no obligation to do so.
Also, not a murderer. Very important for being a good guy.
mustang6172:
Please read the next sentence in the haughtiest tone possible. His status as a non-murderer remains to be proven.
SharpCookies:
So I ran to the forum which I have stalked for months now (this is my first post, hi guys) to come scream in excitement with my realization that BRUN IS TOTALLY AUTISTIC SHE IS GOING NONVERBAL SHE IS SO AUTISTIC WOW!! But it seems i already missed some of the discussion talking about it so... I guess I was late on the ball.
As a fellow autistic, seeing a canon autistic character in the comic would make me very happy. (although I always headcanoned Marigold as autistic, with her awkwardness, sort of low social skills, special interests in anime/games, trouble with executive dysfunction, etc etc, but I digress). I'm gonna have to disagree that her ability to help Clinton see the heart of the problem is something she couldn't do because she is autistic - I am a psych major and human service worker-in-training, and while I can have difficulty in those situations I am still able to decipher situations like that. Not all autistic people lack that ability - their skills and abilities differ, just like everyone's skills and abilities differ. And though she did initially come off as rude/threatening, I do think she is an interesting character and I wouldn't be too upset if she were the representation for autism as long as Jeph continues to treat it with care.
anyway NONVERBAL AUTISTIC IN A POPULAR COMIC I AM SO READY FOR THIS WOOOOH!! (sorry it gets me excited)
MrNumbers:
Regarding 'normal' and 'average' I'm actually a big fan of the usage of the words 'neurotypical' and 'neuroatypical'.
It sounds far more factual and far less judgemental than most alternatives.
mikmaxs:
--- Quote from: TheEvilDog on 17 May 2016, 19:38 ---
--- Quote from: mikmaxs on 17 May 2016, 08:42 ---I'm all for representation, but I'd rather that representation be with positive characters.
--- End quote ---
Why? Is that really an accurate representation? I think a fairer representation is showing that sometimes there can be negative people. Being different from thes societal norm doesn't preclude that sometimes people can be jerks. Even if they don't set out to be.
If we do see a broad spectrum of people in the QC-verse, than isn't it more realistic and engaging to the reader that they run the gamut of of the emotional and temperamental spectrum as well?
--- End quote ---
It's not that people can't be jerks, it's that I don't really know of many autistic characters in fiction who *aren't* jerks.
Not counting characters whose personality can be entirely summed up as 'Autistic', there are extremely few representations in popular culture, and of those who do show up, I can't really think of *any* that are 'Good' characters. The ideal is that the characters are portrayed as jerks and assholes who have some sympathetic traits, but more often than not the closest thing they get to a redeeming quality is that they function as the punchline for a joke or the driving force for a plotpoint or episode. I had to go *looking* for modern, positive portrayals in popular culture, and I could find *one* main character in a show that I'd heard of who fits the criteria. (Abed from community. I haven't seen much of the show.) And for every Abed, there's a dozen Sheldon Coopers.
I'm not saying that anyone has to be the perfect, ideal person with no character flaws in order to be good representation, but it'd be nice to have a more balanced spectrum (Pun!) of characters, rather than many, many assholes and jerks with only a few good people mixed in the bunch.
I'm optimistic about Brun, but the introduction of her character made it clear that she really wasn't a likeable person in the slightest. This might change overtime, Jeph usually takes a few weeks or months of comics to really pin down his characters, and even if the most recent comics her negative traits haven't been around at all (Though this is mostly true because there's not been a chance to showcase them), but if she keeps her personality from her introduction, she's just a repellent person to be around.
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