Aspie Character Advice

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Hi everyone,

I don't want to go into too much detail about my story idea in general, but I would like some feedback/advice on a specific character.

The story universe is real world-esque fantasy/sci-fi. I plan on writing one of the characters, an early antagonist, as having Aspergers traits. He is trying to organize like-minded political radicals to challenge the government, and was trained by a rival state in intelligence and surveillance. As to personality, he is a well-intentioned extremist who had a rough life, and is socially inept, but with a good (but driven to extremes) sense of right and wrong, and personal issues.

Assuming the character is unusually intelligent (e.g. photographic memory, creative thinker) and well-trained, could you see an aspie-like character succeeding in this sort of thing? Would it be within reason that his lack of skills in manipulation or schmoozing could be made up for in "impersonal" organizational tactics and techniques?

Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

I think he could succeed.

Sounds like a good idea.
Kind of reminds me of some of the characters I've created in my own mental stories (sometimes I entertain myself by creating characters and stories within my own head).

some thoughts on how such a character could make up for lack in social skills
using the internet and hijacking media platforms to spread messages en mass
using study in psychology to try to spot vulnerable people, attempt to convert those people, and using one or more of them as agents on his behalf, who can use their own social skills to his advantage
acquiring money by some means, such as theft or front schemes, and using the money to hire pawns to use for tasks, while using technology to hide his own identity from them

there are also various other possibilities depending on the specificities of the story

I think if what he says resonates with his audience of like-minded radicals it could more than make up for a lack of social intuition. Some could even admire him for his lack of manipulating and "schmoozing" as you put it... It sounds very interesting, and was something I was thinking of myself as a possible story idea. An Aspie character in a dystopian world driven to the dark side by events in their life... (Scarily I think I can relate to that way of thinking. :s)

On other concerns, do you think it's possible to make it clear that the character is not psychopathic or evil? Would it be possible for him to start out (he later is driven by doubts as to what he's doing, and who he is) as driven and fanatical and to plan and do things such as raids, stealth operations and hijacking, without compromising his capacity for empathy and morality? Or could you never see an aspie as incapable of bringing themselves to commit such acts, regardless of the purpose?

Photographic memory is kind of a cliche. I was thinking about that when I was watching Sherlock, whom they imply has Aspergers. I'd be more interested in seeing a character with Autism who has to deal with it just like most of us normal people do. Your way might be more mainstream successful though, I don't think the world is into Austim-empathy.

I think it could work, but he will have communication problems and communication seems to be at the heart of your story, so you will have to deal with that.

Or you can just do what SHerlock does and imply that he has it, but never really make it official, then you can do what you want.

I did like Sherlock, btw. I just was thinking that whenever we see Aspies on TV (or mostly), they are conveniently provided with some form of brain-based superpower. It would be lovely if that was the case in real life! Just not so. You can make him smart though, that would be realistic. Just not superpower smart. And the smart aspect would be always fighting with the executive functioning problems, the sensory issues and the social issues.

It's been a while. Had some more ideas and concerns.

Would it be unrealistic for a HFA/Aspergers' character to be good at planning, tactics or strategies? I could just write that he's unusually intelligent and driven, and spent years learning, but do you think it would be too Mary-Sue-ish?

COuld make him have obsessive compulsive disorder to balance out his personality. Maybe even keptomania.

When I think of an aspie character in a sci fi setting. I think of a character that has difficulty waking up in a brand new world and having to cope with the oversaturatedness of the future. To me an aspie character would do great facing the realities of a futuristic system as a wanderer of some sort in the futuristic cities. He would be the reason of the situation. The other characters would be trying to show the sense of the situation while the protagonist decides on his own of what decisions to make. Please don't try to pull a rain man on this story either, because to me, I don't believe you're going to get a pulitzer or oscar nomination because a guy has aspergers. I had that issue with my old post apocalyptic stories, and the characters were very unrealistic and schlocky.

Not looking for any awards, just a fanfiction based on a plot bunny I have in my head.

Without wanting to give too much away, the character I'm thinking of was "designed" purposely to be a copy of a character from the original work of fiction I'm using. Think of it as similar to Les Enfants Terrible. In this character's case, the fact that he was selectively engineered leaves him with psychological problems, including traits related to High-Functioning Autism (and possibly obsession, as was suggested).

In general, I think it would be best if I went the "Sherlock" route; I'll give the character different psychological traits, a prominent one being the "Aspergersian" difficulty in connecting with others and "getting" personality/emotional nuance. In this way, would you find it OK if I minimized problems with executive function (in terms of planning and organization, competency in which could be connected to obsessive personality, as a previous post suggested). Or would it be offensive to you, as folks on the spectrum IRL?

A good starting point is whether or not it would be possible (albeit rare) for someone on the spectrum to actually have strong executive function.