Kabru, too?

June 29, 2024 2:39 PM

An autistic YouTuber looks at neurodivergence in Delicious in Dungeon (SLYT)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker (8 comments total)

You don't need to have seen the show to understand the video. Indeed, it's free of major spoilers so you can watch it even if Delicious in Dungeon is in your Netflix queue.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 2:39 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]

Delicious in Dungeon is a favorite show in taquito household and Laios's off-the-charts but relatable autism is a favorite discussion topic*, looking forward to watching TFV

* probably second only to Senshi Fanservice honestly
posted by taquito sunrise at 5:14 PM on June 29 [5 favorites]

And for a lighter take, we have a Delicious in Dungeon AMV for (fittingly) Eat It.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:15 PM on June 29 [4 favorites]

I've also seen discussions that his sister's probably also autistic, and how people treat her differently from him is true to life as well.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:05 AM on June 30

Or, alternatively, Laois is just a big-hearted kid who just found a D&D Monster Manual and thinks that monsters are so cool! People with different personalities aren't necessarily "neurodivergent." They're just different people.
posted by SPrintF at 7:29 AM on June 30

I think it's totally fair to claim Laios for autism, and profoundly ungenerous to claim him as neurotypical but just interested in monsters. In the end, we are all on the neurodiversity spectrum. A spectrum is not a continuum between two binaries ("neurotypical" and "neurodivergent"). You can't paint a rainbow with only red and purple. I agree that it's really powerful to see a character who struggles with personal connection and has focused interests, but who perseveres through challenges and works to grow and thrive, with support from the found family he's collected. I hadn't really understood the depth of Shuro's betrayal here, because it's largely played for laughs, so I really appreciate this video explaining things to me.

It makes me understand that I was Shuro to some kids I knew in high school. I was near the bottom of the food chain, and I was far too willing to take it out on kids who were even lower than me, to tell them that they were not my friends. I wish I had the chance to do that over.
posted by rikschell at 8:32 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]

People with different personalities aren't necessarily "neurodivergent." They're just different people.

I haven't seen the show, but characters being autistic-coded is a real thing, and it's just as silly to insist that queer-coded characters are straight and must not be claimed for the queers because their queerness isn't in the text. He's a character, not a real person.

Exhibit A is the Big Bang Theory's Sheldon, who at no point is diagnosed, and the show writers have insisted that they didn't mean to make him autistic. But, come on. The character is obviously meant to be a depiction of autism and deserves to be critiqued as such.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:03 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]

also, and I expect it wasn't intended this way, but I think it's important to point out that having different personalities and being different people is not in fact incompatible with being autistic as well. Characters (and indeed people) can have disparate personalities and be autistic at the same time. the whole point of representation in media is to have characters who are fully realized personalities- that's not evidence against them being autistic!
posted by BungaDunga at 9:11 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]