Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3221 to 3225 (16 - 20 May 2016)

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Milayna:
Chiming in here to mostly agree with #128, sans forum-stalking - the only other time I've viewed this forum was when Claire's trans status came up.

But yeah, as an aspie myself it definitely looks to me like Brun is autistic...my thoughts on her basically went from "she's a jerk he just wants a friggin wster / ok, I'm kinda starting to identify with her, hmmm... / (after the fire) the way she describes it, the way she just stares, I wonder if...? / Ok, she's melting down. she's definitely autistic."

I'm going to address a few other posts than say more about my reaction...

#173: Yeah how dare we try to identify with character. Especially when characters like us are nearly nonexistent! When people like you are literally every single character and our very existence down't warrant acknowledgment! Excuuuuuse us for latching onto what representation we can find! Why are you even reading this comic? (Also her behavior is not a "trivial detail".

@156: I wouldn't agree that it's a bad thing NECESSARILY to introduce her with a meltdown, but that's just my view. It's similar in a way to if Claire was introduced by someone walking into her changing. I think it kind of has to be that way though, which is itself problematic. Like, Claire can pass for Regular Woman in normal interaction, but with mental disorders, it's much harder to do that...the alternative to introducing her this way would be to have her around for months before coming out as autistic...which would invite months of people going "WTF is wrong with her, why is she acting r-------?" And it's very hard to justify her just casually dropping the a-bomb on a stranger. I actually kind of hope that Jeph is able to address this aspect...

#148: That's a fair way of stating it. When I was young my response to dealing with being overwhelmed was the opposite, to let it all and scream and hit and be uncontrollable. As I matured I was finally able to understand that my behavior was unacceptable and I needed to learn to assess, filter and control my responses to things; but given the processing needed to communicate coherent thoughts I can easily understand that shutting down under stress.

#130: I agree with this as well. Most of my like for her comes from identifying with her; so far she seems to be a jerk. Well, if I throw stones I'll end up on the same boat. I'll address this more in my own response but for now I'll say that I really hope she doesn't just confirm the idea that autistic people are too r------- to know how to act with people without being intolerable jackasses.

#115: Adding another data point. Especially after the fact, I am often able to analyze what people say and find their underpinnings; in context, when dealing with emotions and stress, it takes most of my ability to remember how to output Words in a Coherent Argument while Remembering What's Already Ben Said. Being autistic does not mean that one is incapable of understanding social things; for me, at least, it means that I have to process a lot of it intellectually because my emotional processing does not interface with my output well. #107: For me, the "Immediate" part is not in my wheelhouse; the "precise" part, I'm decent enough, I think.

Ok, so for my part: First, to continue what I said in #130 about her being a jerk: I can speculate on this: Given what she's said about her name I think she's probably been given a lot of crap in her life about being "abnormal" and expects that in general from people. It looks to me like she puts up a wall, limiting her interaction to avoid people cottoning on to her mind and causing conflict, and being standoffish so that if they DO have a problem it can be attributed to being a jerk in general, rather than a sincere effort that she failed. OF COURSE she's barely been introduced so I'm pulling this almost entirely out of my ass.

I can't remember which post but someone noted her focus on that clock...having a Thing to focus on, especially one that makes regular, predictable movement, can help greatly to calm and focus my mind, so I can concentrate on what people are doing and what's going on rather than spending half my attention controlling the other half. It's also an excuse to not look directly at people, which can be very stressful (in the bar, she looks at Clinton obliquely pretty often, and after the fire she almost never looks directly at anyone).

That's all that I have for now. If I think of something pertinent or want to address subsequent posts I may chime in again.

Oh, and kind of late I guess, but first post. Greetings to everyone here ^_^

Y:
I actually thought she had a normal reaction for someone who has just lost everything they owned. Some people would try to fight their tears in that case, other people might get mad. Though I'm a diagnosed aspie so I don't see certain behaviors as 'wrong' or abnormal.

Actually telling the police that you're not a murderer is very suspicious, so I first though Clinton was being paranoid.


--- Quote from: heyjames4 on 18 May 2016, 08:18 ---If Brun goes deeper, Clinton may panic. Which of the QC crew are best equipped to help him through it?

--- End quote ---
Not sure what you mean by deeper. I think Clinton would do fine to comfort her, she knows Clinton the best from the cast anyway.

Milayna:
I was also going to mention that she closed her eyes, she's shutting out stimulus because she's getting overwhelmed. That and her body language in the third panel, scrunching herself up, are the biggest things that signals to me that she's autistic.

Also: She wants Clinton's help, rather than the officer. While she doesn't know a LOT about Clinton, over the past few hours she's seen him enough to know that a) he's safe, and b) she's seen him enough to develop SOME familiarity with his disposition and behavior. She knows nothing at all about the officers. She doesn't know how to predict or respond to them, and she's not in a position to easily identify and analyze that. This makes a lot of sense to me, it's FAAAAR less stressful to deal with a quantity you know at least a little about and have already figured out how to deal with than one you know know nothing at all about.

aliensporebomb:
I think Milayna's assessment is spot on about the closing eyes and body language in trying to shut out stimulus - that's how I perceived it too.

And Clinton displayed unexpected leadership tendencies when he got people out of the bar safely, acted as liaison between Brun and said policewoman and made efforts to make sure she had a place to go. 

Well who wouldn't trust a guy like that to do the right thing?

Carl-E:

--- Quote from: Milayna on 18 May 2016, 09:46 ---Also: She wants Clinton's help, rather than the officer. While she doesn't know a LOT about Clinton, over the past few hours she's seen him enough to know that a) he's safe, and b) she's seen him enough to develop SOME familiarity with his disposition and behavior. She knows nothing at all about the officers. She doesn't know how to predict or respond to them, and she's not in a position to easily identify and analyze that. This makes a lot of sense to me, it's FAAAAR less stressful to deal with a quantity you know at least a little about and have already figured out how to deal with than one you know know nothing at all about.

--- End quote ---

That, and if she's an immigrant, she may be from a place where you can't really trust the police. 


Not that you always can here, of course.   :police:

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