User blog comment:WillTheArthurandBusterFan5050/Should TLH Include a Character with Autism?/@comment-4618045-20171106012605/@comment-24669562-20171106033218

I like your comment on this (don't get me wrong I like all your comments). Ahem, anyway, that's what I want, "done properly." They need to research before they write.

Oh before I forget, I want a autistic character to be a new character. I mean I wouldn't mind if Leni was, or I guess Lisa or Lucy, but I prefer it it was a brand new character, a fresh character, never before seen.

And I need to come up with a design and quickly, love to do it now but I cannot promise anything. I'm still at a loss with my fanfic.

Getting back to the reply (and I'm glad I started this discussion too,) I too think this should be a fair representation if I know what you're talking about. I don't want the character to be steryotypical and I don't want them pulling that mess they pull on some shows like The Simpsons and what-have-you, and not just with autistic people but anybody. Plus remember, no two autistic people are the same, we may have the same symptoms but we like everyone else have our different interests and different things that make us tick. What I mean is, what affects one autistic person may not affect another, at least not totally.

By the way forgive me please if I go off subject.

But they need to get it right if they ever decided to include such a character. I know autism, not just from seeing others with it but from me having it myself, and life as an austic person sure isn't easy, especially during the early years of ones life, or at least the early years of being in school and people expect things from you but you don't live up to their expectations and they assume bad or the worst out of you. And not all people with autism are self-aware and some probably never will be. But those of us that are, thank goodness, have the opportunity to self-improve if we want to and it does take a while to do so and we need patience and support. But, I wanna say I know autism all too well but I want to say it honestly because I still don't know all there is to know about autism and I'm over 30 years old. I'll say this, it's not a curse, at least not totally, it's a blessing too and I've learned to embrace this about myself.

Getting back to the subject at hand, having a character with autism. And you do, Gumball 2, have a point about characters being played for comedy. And that is NOT what I want for characters with autism or any other character of a race, religion (me being JW,) disability, or any of that stuff. That's what I meant when I said I don't want a steyrotypical character, someone that portrays autistic people in a poor light. I don't expect them to be perfect, who can be? But I want it so that both the character and the show the character is portrayed in is still respected and not frowned upon, although there's no guarantee that that's not going to happen.

If the Loud House does introduce an autistic character, like I said they better get it right. I mean they should show the autistic character as an autistic character but also show him as a good character, do like they did on Arthur with Carl http://arthur.wikia.com/wiki/Carl_Gould or on Sesame Street with Julia http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Julia (Julia is one character that influenced my idea of including an autistc character on The Loud House and is kind of what I want my character Cody to be somewhat modeled after,) or Andy from "Caillou" http://caillou.wikia.com/wiki/Andy, well I think he has autism, they didn't say it but the character shows signs that he probably does. Caillou also featured a character that might have Down's Syndrome http://caillou.wikia.com/wiki/Allen_(Alan), or maybe do better than they did on any of those three shows. It just has to be in a way that doesn't offend autistic people or their relatives, especially parents of such people.

//You know what I’m talking about: they’re loud, “random”, and throw the most uncomfortable tantrums known to man//  I agree with that, and sadly I'm guilty of some of that myself, at least the temper throwing part and I too was loud. And I regret the trouble I've caused others who have had to deal with me, including those who tried to help me. And I also know feelings of inferiority all too well, as well as being infuriating, even when I don't mean to be. It's even gotten to the point where I started feeling like I was useless and a waste of skin and bones, just in other people's way, and felt like others were better off without me. And that is such as sad feeling for someone, autistic or not, to have. And alienation is not a good feeling to have, I know from experience.

//Do you find yourself lying on or in the middle of the extremes that make up a large portion of the media representation? Whatever your answer is, would you be happy if the show reflected that?//  I need more time to examine this. I think I can understand it and where you're coming from, I'm just having trouble coming up with a good answer for that myself, I mean I don't know if you were asking me, well, asking anyone, but I wouldn't mind answering this question if only I could just come up with one. So I need to look into this some more before I can answer. But you raise a good point so kudos!

@Curious Poker Chip, you're absolutely right, autism is a trcky thing to nail. Yeah we autistic people (I'm not going to say autists or aspies, some may find that degrading and derogitory) but we can be rude and can be jerks, I know I can be both of those things, but that's not what we automatically are, we're that way because we choose to be, but we can also choose to be the opposite of those things and autistic people have the ability to be smart and polite. I even know an autistic person who was not so responsible in elementary school but yet in high school he was having to carry the rest of his classmates. One of his high school teachers even said she wished she had more students like him. I know it's not just with autistic people, it's with anyone, but you can have someone go from being one of the worst people on earth, or at least one of the worst people you've ever met to being one of the best, and hopefully will stick to that. (I apologize if that didn't come out right, sound right or translate well, but this is coming from someone who wasn't very popular in elementary school but was well liked, practically popular, in High School.

Yeah, we autistic people have good qualities hidden inside of us, some of them even we ourselves are not aware of or not yet aware of if we're foruntate enough to become aware of it, and CONVINCED of it too. Let me tell you, some people have tried to get me to see postive in myself but even I didn't feel all that convinced of, at least not all my positive qualities. I focused more negatively on myself than positively. I still have some negative feelings about myself and probably always will but I think I've gotten better although it's taken decades.

Autism is no skin off my bones anymore, I'm okay with it and wouldn't trade it, without it I probably wouldn't be any better of a person than I am now or have the interests I have and am proud of. I have other things about myself to worry about that are worse than autism (anxiety and OCD being two of those things). One good thing about this is I can empathise with others who have it, not just sympothise, something I wasn't always, but thankfully the on-switch of that in me was turned on! And will hopefully stay on even when I'm old(er) and gray(er.)

So if TLH decides to include an autistic character, I want it realistic but I want the character to be likeable and respectable and not depicted in a poor and negative and offensive way, causing TLH to lose fans or repulse could-have-been fans, pushing them even further away than they already are. But if no autistic character is featured, so be it.

Sorry if this was a poor reply.