Fictional Characters With Undiagnosed Aspergers or Autism

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Oh yeah,
Sonic (X)- Dr. Eggman=Aspergers Syndrome (Ruthless scientist, Very smart in robots, speaks sophistcated language at times)

I don't see it in Hermione; she just seems to be gifted, type A, and a bit OCD, pretty rigid. But I do in Luna Lovegood (socially unaware and frequent mentionings in the text about how what she says makes others uncomfortable) and in Professor Slughorn (in his collecting students thing).

The way the actor portrayed Edward in the Twilight movie, as being incredibly awkward.

Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 10 (did I get it right? ). Never mind the whole part-Borg explanation. Do I even need to explain this one?

Mystique from X-Men not for any other reason except her need to hide her true self because that true self is unacceptable to society. I am sure camouflaging need can be empathized with by people with many different conditions but hers is like having to put on the body shape, voice, body language (I really don't like that term: it sounds dirty to me), and words of someone else to get by in the world.

Of course all of these are caricatures and stereotypes, especially the Harry Potter ones as all the characters there are caricatures anyway IMO.

Hm, my impression was that Hermione, especially in the later books, is quite tactful and socially able.

I have wondered about Luna Lovegood, though. She does possess bizarre beliefs, but she's been brought up to believe they're true so it may not be something that she's generating herself. These beliefs could be considered a special interest and she appears oblivious to the fact that others aren't interested in what she has to say. (Indeed, JKR says after the end of the books Luna discovered many creatures but that she eventually came to terms with Crumpled Horned Snorkacks not existing - suggesting that evidence does sway her, rather than delusional thinking.)

She also appears unaware of social norms regarding honesty - many times, Harry/the narrator voice comments on her "knack for embarrassing honesty". She's also tends not to engage in conversations that aren't related to her special interest (magical animals)

Although in some instances, Luna is shown as able to comfort people overall she doesn't seem to have many or any friends for much of the series. Indeed, in her 5th year she comments that the DA was almost like having friends.

Hermione is actually very socially adept--and quite advanced for her age in many ways--even when she was younger.

Yep, well summarized.

I knew a girl in high school who was eerily like Luna. Given what I know now, I think this girl was HFA, not Asperger's. There is also a lab tech at my doctor's office. She takes blood and handles the patient side of the exchange (I am sure she does some of the lab work too though) who I think overtly displays the "active but odd" stereotype. She is overly polite and helpful to the point that if you didn't know she was missing cues and misreading expressions, you'd think she was passive aggressive or rude. She's been working there for a few years. Very scattered and hyperkinetic too. She seems too like a bumblebee to look at you directly. Often you have to repeat your name I think because she has trouble understanding what someone says because she depends on being able to anticipate what they will say so she can recognize the words and convert them to meanings and then to typing or writing or repeating it back. Names are random and odd and can be harder to process in an overload situation. She has never said she has this problem to me; this is just my impression, because I've had episodes of this. I just give her my ID right off because I know she'll end up having to ask for it to see the name.

And I agree, Hermione was extremely socially adept for her age if she had ASD. I don't think an ASD girl could be that adept in that age category. Maybe as she got into her 30s if she was mild but not as a teenager/college student. This is just personal opinion.

As for the other undiagnosed aspie, Dr. Eggman. Also another villian like him, Dr. Robtnik in the 1990s Sonic SatAM also has undiagnosed Aspergers like Eggman.Robotnik like Eggmandoes not respect the opinions of others, he cannot communicate properly with his minions (which is sometimes why his plots fails), and he is obseesive in technology, robots, and putting a "utopia" under his own way. He is already gifted in other areas besides his obsessions considering his IQ of 300. By the way to make it correct in harry Potter, Hemomonie is imply gifted like you said. The one who is really an Aspie is Luna Lovegood as you said and whenI watched clips of her in the movies, she really talks in a wierd way and Harry and the freinds are like "What the heck?" when she said that.

Last edited by GoldTails95 on 19 Mar 2015, 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've never heard it mentioned, but I've always thought that Inspector Morse, in the British TV series of the same name, could be an undiagnosed Aspien. Socially awkward, never married, can't form relationships, obsessed with his detailed detective work, abrupt and likely to tell the unvarnished truth, obsessed with opera, especially Wagner (and keeps a catalogued collection of his work) etc. The same applies to the younger version of Morse in the current prequel, 'Endeavour' - very much an outsider, 'other', bullied and regarded as weird.

Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. I wanna date him.

According to interviews with the producers and writers when BBT first became a hit, Sheldon was intentionally modeled after the son of some staffer's friend who has AS, so Sheldon was kind of pre-diagnosed as he was created. They even said they spread some of the AS behaviors out among the other characters (like Raj and his selective mutism), so Sheldon wouldn't seem "too autistic" (you'll notice Shellie's obsession with trains is straight out of the DSM, where it was only intended to be a for-instance). That claim has since been scrubbed from all interviews and the show's people deny any connection between Sheldon and autism, but that's a pathetically obvious lie. I think they were afraid of complaints from the autism community, but every Aspie I've ever heard comment on it loves the show because of Sheldon's autism. My only issue with Sheldon as a representative of autism and AS in particular, is that his behaviors are more the behaviors of an autistic child, rather than those of a nearly 30 year old Aspie. I think most of us get a handle on sarcasm by the time we reach our twenties.

Last edited by will@rd on 19 Mar 2015, 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was just mentioning the movie The Apartment in another thread and one of the reasons I love that film is that Jack Lemmon's character Calvin "Bud" Baxter is such an obvious Aspie schlemiel. He talks to himself, is almost completely isolated in his workplace, right smack in the middle of hundreds of bustling coworkers, is taken advantage of by his employers, who bully and cajole him into letting them use his apartment for their sleazy extramarital affairs, while he wanders alone in the street at night - and he's in love with the elevator operator he sees every day, but can't seem to make a conversational connection with.

R2D2

Nah....R2D2 is a very social robot. Very witty, too.

Maybe you mean CP30? The gold robot with the British accent?

It was C3P0 who was the chatty one.

I actually didn't notice any Aspie traits in any of them. R2D2 was always a "person" I was delighted with.

Maybe UniBlab from the Jetson's?

Yeah like I'm sure that's what the creators of these characters had in mind - "Lets make them autistic or aspies. Then the moral guardians can flip out have the characters censored to appear "normal", like they did with Derpy Hooves.

If there's one character I think acts a lot like someone with Asperger's, however, is Ariel in The Little Mermaid. She's fascinated with the human world and not her own, collects dozens of human-made trinkets, and seems to get along better with talking marine animals than her own species.

Or she may have been just a rebellious teenager who happens to have a fishy tail instead of legs.

I always identified with Ariel.

Let's not leave out Reginald Barclay from Star Trek TNG and Voyager. He's very obsessive, socially off, and has some anxiety disorder as well.

I might mention Elsa as well, for her seclusion and withdrawal for fear of hurting (in ASD perspective: annoying, offending, or injuring feelings; rejection and fear of rejection) someone.