User blog comment:Weavillain/Why I Believe Leni SHOULDN'T Have a Mental Disability/@comment-4618045-20171007130152

Don’t worry. I’m not gonna use this space to insult you or get involved in a heated debate that I would regret later. I wanna give a respectful response and get some related matters off my chest.

You are entirely within your right to bring in the whole disability question since I did specifically mention it in one place. I wanna say that I don’t think Leni having a disability would a bad thing (as in, I don’t intend to use it as a means to call all autistic people stupid). Not only would doing so be wrong, but it would go against my own values. I very much appreciate the diversity and complexity within the autism spectrum and I want other people to be able to appreciate the plight of those who are on the spectrum as well. On one hand, I understand that a reveal of such a disability would make her “dumb” moments retroactively insulting. Such a result is one I neither intend nor desire. But on the other hand, I want to believe that at a future date (disability or no disability), that the writers’ attitude towards Leni’s behavior will shift the same way the whole “Lincoln vs the Sister” has. It will evolve, come to develop more meaning, or even be a part of an onset of Cerebus Syndrome (a TV Tropes term that refers to a light-hearted show becoming more serious). With that said, though, you have every right to dismiss this as wishful thinking (something I have a habit of doing when discussing Canon).

A while back, I made another blog where I talked about my stance on comedy. In most situations, I try very hard to value scenes on the show for things in addition to their comedic value. The idea of something being only a joke is one that my subjective self can only accept in limited circumstances. The notion of a character only being the butt of jokes or a lot of their actions only being for gaining quick laughs is one that I’m not content with. I like to think that characters (in addition to real life people) should be worthy of respect. Leni is a character I’ve developed a strong personal connection with (I relate to her. Don’t worry, it’s not like a romantic crush or anything) and she’s one I very much want to be see become something more than the “dumb blonde”. Her line in “It’s a 4xLoud House” is one I take very seriously, one that I use to bend with the show when it comes to writing fanfiction among other things (though I feel like you can accuse me of having my stories be too liberal with characterization).

As much as I try to be logical, I can let my passion get the better of me. If you feel that is the case with anything I have said or written, please don’t be afraid to call me out.

The biggest thing I can say about all this is that I’m surprised. I had no idea that something I did inspired someone of your profile (someone I highly respect) to write an extensive blog about it. In the back of my head, I’m worried that the blog you’re responding to (or this comment) has (have) damaged your image of me. But if there’s nothing else I can say, it’s thank you. Thank you for taking your time to compose a thoughtful response to ideas I laid out. It’s clear to me that you too express concern about Leni’s character and the show’s quality. If there’s one thing we can both agree on, it’s that both of those things are important and deserve to be move forward in a respectable way.