Talk:List of autistic fictional characters

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This article was nominated for deletion on 5 August 2005. The result of the discussion was keep.

This article was nominated for deletion on 29 July 2007. The result of the discussion was keep.

This article was nominated for deletion on 5 September 2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

This article was nominated for deletion on 12 October 2011. The result of the discussion was keep.

Section sizes

Section size for List of autistic fictional characters (11 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	1,054	1,054
Comics	8,977	8,977
Film	49,492	49,492
Literature	36,045	36,045
Television	55,271	55,271
Theater	4,906	4,906
Video games	11,152	11,152
Other	3,993	3,993
See also	224	224
Notes	24	24
References	233	233
Total	171,371	171,371

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Autism Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Autism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of all aspects of autism and autistic culture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AutismWikipedia:WikiProject AutismTemplate:WikiProject AutismAutism
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Lists Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Lists, an attempt to structure and organize all list pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.ListsWikipedia:WikiProject ListsTemplate:WikiProject ListsList
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Fictional characters

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Fictional characters, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of fictional characters on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Fictional charactersWikipedia:WikiProject Fictional charactersTemplate:WikiProject Fictional charactersfictional character

Disability

List of autistic fictional characters is within the scope of WikiProject Disability. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.DisabilityWikipedia:WikiProject DisabilityTemplate:WikiProject DisabilityDisability

Addition?

Nora Reid from the TV show The wilds. Played by Helena Howard. She's described as being in the "high-functioning end of the spectrum" in the pilot's script. 83.39.243.170 (talk) 23:14, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a reliable source for this, then it should be added. Otherwise, no. Historyday01 (talk) 13:45, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

pilot's script page 4 http://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/2020/Drama/The_Wilds_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf 83.39.238.184 (talk) 14:18, 28 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

some additional sources about Mario (1984)

The source currently attached to the entry is not particularly reliable (AllMovie), so I tried to find more reliable sources, specifically from around the time the movie came out.

The National Film Board of Canada describes him as "un enfant bizarre, égaré, qui vit «ailleurs», dans un monde absolu" (a bizarre, lost child, living "elsewhere" in an absolute world)[1][2]. As I understand it, these descriptions are sourced from official sources like the creators of the movie, they're not just summaries/blurbs written by Some Guy.
Director Jean Beaudin says "ce pourrait être un enfant autistique" (it could be an autistic child) La presse, 1984-08-23, Collections de BAnQ
Beauding also says "enfant qui fiche certaines caractéristiques de l’enfant autistique. En est-il un? Je ne sais pas. Je ne suis pas scientifique. Je n'ai pas voulu approfondir ça" (child with certain characteristics of the autistic child. Is he one? I don't know. I'm not a scientist. I didn't want to go into this further.) Le droit, 1985-02-16, Collections de BAnQ.
Actor Xavier Norman Petermann does refer to the character as "autistique" and "autiste" Le nouvelliste, 1985-02-02, Collections de BAnQ.
"Pour présenter son rôle, le réalisateur Jean Beaudin lui a parlé d’un enfant affecté par l'autisme, un étrange phénomène où se mêle l’imaginaire, la rêverie, le repli sur soi." La tribune, 1985-01-05, Collections de BAnQ.
Actor Francis Reddy, who plays Mario's older brother Simon, refers to Mario as autistic in some kind of retrospective featurette decades after the movie came out, so I'm not sure how much that can be trusted in terms of inferring whether the character was originally autistic.
I saw someone say that Mario's autism is mentioned in the movie itself but after watching it, I didn't hear anything of that sorts.
Of course there are many reviews, both at the time the movie was released and at later times, that describe the character as autistic. This means nothing because reviewers will call any vaguely developmentally disabled autistic.

The sources are conflicting and ambiguous, like the character is not not autistic but is there enough support to justify his inclusion? Je ne sais pas. I've added the source from point 4 to the entry as well, but I'm unsure how to further proceed with this character. TheZoodles (talk) 09:51, 22 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 21 November 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Adumbrativus (talk) 08:50, 5 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

List of autistic fictional characters → List of autistic characters – WP:CONCISE if we still had a list of autistic people it would make sence to have "characters" in the name to make sure people don't mix them up. But that list has been deleted years ago and "characters" already imply's that they are fictional it makes sense to make this shorter. Anthony2106 (talk) 07:36, 21 November 2024 (UTC) — Relisting. cyberdog958^Talk 07:42, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support per nomination. "Fictional" is redundant to "character" 98% of the time. SnowFire (talk) 17:12, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose - current title is WP:CONSISTENT with List of fictional characters with disabilities and List of fictional characters with bipolar disorder. estar8806 (talk) ★ 23:02, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Estar8806 Should they all be changed or just leave this one? Anthony2106 (talk) 23:26, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No. None of them should be changed. Historyday01 (talk) 21:03, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per estar8806. Theparties (talk) 00:05, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per Estar's consistency point. The term 'fictional' also makes clear that the word 'characters' implies fictional, which may be unclear to some readers. Randy Kryn (talk) 10:40, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. My concern about this name change as it will, likely, set in motion a rash of name changes to similarly named pages which would not be welcome. or helpful in any way, shape, or form, to users. Let's be the clearest, as possible, when it comes to page titles. We don't want any confusion.Historyday01 (talk) 18:33, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose, for similar reasons of consistency (pages with a similar topic, and more broadly many pages and category names use the "fictional character" construct). TheZoodles (talk) 16:03, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock & Co

I would like to suggest Sherlock Holmes from the audio drama Sherlock & Co. He is stated to be autistic in the first episode around minute 12:05. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sx519r7YVuUwQeLcxgHib 2806:109F:12:2442:2CB2:A598:3ED8:B48D (talk) 02:42, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

reasons for removing Kazan from Cube

I want to provide a bit more context for why I am removing Kazan from Cube, given that he is extremely commonly labelled as autistic and has been on this list for a very long time. My arguments from strongest to weakest are:

Lack of reliable sources explicitly confirming autism. This is the primary reason why I am removing him, and he should not be added back until a reliable source can be provided. "Reliable source" in this context means a statement from the writer, director, actor, or other person closely involved with the creation of the character, who says explicitly that Kazan is autistic. Preference should be given to sources from around the time the movie was released (as opposed to retrospectives which may be skewed by the extremely pervasive pop culture autism interpretation).
On-screen semi-explicit reference to intellectual disability. In Cube itself, the doctor character says "I think he's mentally handicapped" after meeting Kazan for the first time. This is the only explicit reference to the nature of his disability in the movie, aside from another character who derogatorily refers to him as "the retard". "I think he's mentally handicapped" is not 100% waterproof confirmation that the writers actually intended Kazan to have intellectual disability but if we take it as evidence of any disability, it would be evidence in favor of intellectual disability, not autism.
In Cube Zero, another character gets essentially lobotomized and is shown to be the exact same as Kazan afterwards (same physical mannerisms, speech pattern, calling out room colors, another character saying "I think he's mentally handicapped."). The reference to Kazan is implicit but extremely transparent. If it taken as evidence for Kazan's disability, it is not evidence for autism, but for cognitive disability due to a brain injury.
I read that in the DVD extras for Cube Zero, the director explicitly says this shows how Kazan became the way he was. However I have not been able to confirm this because I don't have the DVD. If it is true (which it may not be given that I don't have access to the DVD to verify), one may still argue that it is a retcon and not part of how Kazan was originally portrayed. However, regardless of whether or not one accepts the brain injury lore as part of Kazan's canon, this again does not take away from the fact that there are no sources for autism to begin with.

Again, the first point is the primary reason for removal (lack of sources confirming autism), and reasons 2-4 are contextual clues that point towards either intellectual disability (Cube) or cognitive disability due to brain injury (Cube Zero). TheZoodles (talk) 09:52, 6 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]