this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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Risa
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Star Trek memes and shitposts
Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Does Odo actually qualify for this? He can feel and comprehend and interpret emotions just fine, he is just deadly shy and insecure behind his stoic enforcer facade.
The doctor doesn’t fit either, just because he is modeled after an egomaniac asshole does not mean he is autistic.
This is basically describing autism too. We can feel emotions just fine. But expressing them is hard because we do so in a way that can sometimes be upsetting to others. So we become shy and put up a facade that hides how we feel about things.
Also, "ASD-coded" is different than ASD. These characters don't literally have ASD, but the fantastical sci-fi backgrounds the writers set up allow them to write the characters to behave and experience struggles in a way that is similar to someone with ASD. Especially problems fitting in with a group, socialising, and forming meaningful connections with others.
Autistic people can feel and comprehend emotions like everyone else, no difference. Not sure why those two were on your list. As far as interpreting emotion, we can, we just have to learn how instead of doing it innately, which it seems Odo did for all human behavior.
Neither does Data. He has no emotions. I feel like the maker of this meme projects a bit.
This is not a new idea
Warning: dated terminology ahead:
Many times at conventions, kids will come up to my table when I’m signing photographs and tell me they have Asperger syndrome, and that when they were growing up, Data was the only character on TV they could relate to. That’s an incredibly moving experience. Had I known, I might have encouraged the writers to write more towards that, but it might have blown the whole thing and lost the connection.