Kieran is autistic and you can't change my mind!
Okay, I KNOW that I'm not the only one who holds this headcanon...but I wanted to do an analysis on Kieran anyway, especially since my best friend @sinnohanvulpix said she'd love to see me do one. Credit to her for all the screenshots used btw. The GIFs on the other hand were either found on Google Images or created by me using gifrun.com and these YouTube videos:
I did not use my own footage for this at all...as proof here's what MY character in the game looks like...he has my real name but I tried to make him look like Orange which is why he has the orange eyes 😅
(Sorry for the bad quality btw...taking pictures of my Switch screen is hard 😅)
Okay, now without further ado, let's get started with the analysis!
First, Kieran has a CLEAR special interest in Ogerpon, he admires and looks up to her, he was obsessed with the story of the ogre, he was always trying to go to her den and meet her, he has a meltdown when Ogerpon chooses the player over him, etc. Carmine even says that Kieran "really really REALLY likes the ogre" and that made me think, "Ah! Special interest!"
And then at the end of the Teal Mask he gains a new special interest in getting stronger to beat the player...and he hyperfocuses HARD on that...to the point of it being detrimental to both his physical and mental health, as he was doing nothing but training during that time...he barely ate, barely slept, just trained...and that is not healthy. It's a rare example of media showcasing a special interest being unhealthy and absolutely CONSUMING one's life, and the consequences do actually show for it.
Kieran is very introverted and doesn't know how to make friends very well. I actually think the player is his first friend considering his surprised reaction when the player says they consider him a friend, and following this, he quickly becomes a bit...too attached to the player, as he doesn't quite understand how friendships work.
(This is also such a neurodivergent way to say "I'm so happy I finally have a friend")
He also struggles socially, as is a requirement for autistic people to qualify for a diagnosis. Kieran specifically has a hard time reading social cues, he struggles with making eye contact, he has clear anxiety when talking to people as proven by his little stutter he has at times.
(This is an adorable screenshot 🥺)
He also struggles with social and emotional processing (and might have alexithymia as well due to his sudden huge outbursts of emotion), and he also struggles with initiating conversation as well, as seen when he tries to talk to Penny at the League Club. They both have no idea how to even start a conversation with each other and it's honestly pretty adorable seeing the two quiet adorkable kids trying their best to hold conversation. I get it, you two, initiating conversation is really difficult for me too.
Also the way they try to start the conversation by talking about the weather...that's really funny and ironic to me because that's what NTs do all the time. NTs always use the weather as a small-talk conversation starter but NDs like me (and Kieran and Penny too apparently) just don't get that stuff.
(These two are so neurodivergent it's great and I love them both 🥺)
Kieran also has four in-game animations that I personally see as stimming. The first one is him tapping his fist against his hip when he's thinking or nervous.
(Focus your attention to his hand here and you'll see it.)
The second one is him playing with a strand of loose hair, usually when he's nervous.
(The little nervous side glance at the player is relatable and adorable 🥺)
The third one is a more agitated stim that he only does ONCE in the entire game...and that is tapping the front of his foot on the ground. I do that myself when I'm agitated or impatient, somehow it's comforting, especially since for some reason I really like the way my shoes sound when I tap them on the ground... especially since I got my brand new Infernape-themed shoes, they sound extra satisfying because they're brand new.
(This is not the way most people tap their foot...I've never seen an NT do it like this...only other NDs such as myself and one of my brothers)
The fourth and final one is, unfortunately, a stress stim...Kieran runs his hands very fast through his hair and it also looks like, to me anyway as someone who has self-injurious stims myself, that he is digging his nails into his scalp as well while doing that. I do something similar myself, though on top of running my hands through my hair and digging my nails into my scalp, I also pull at my hair...yeah... self-injurious stims are no joke...and I'm kinda glad Kieran's autism coding brings attention to that aspect of autism...at least in my eyes as someone who does those things myself.
(He's in so much stress here, poor kid 😔)
Another aspect of autism that I'm surprised and kinda glad that Kieran exhibits as an autistic-coded character is meltdowns and shutdowns. Kieran has actual meltdowns in the game! This is something we have never seen in such an in-your-face way in any Pokémon game, and as someone who regularly has meltdowns myself, it hit me in the feels whenever I saw him having them. His first meltdown is in the Teal Mask when he steals the Teal Mask and runs off to Loyalty Plaza where he battles the player. He yells at Carmine and the player for treating him like an outcast...which is unfortunately something that happens to a lot of autistic people, myself included. Kieran screams at the player and Carmine for for lying to him while doing his stress stim, before running up to the Lousy Three's shrine and punching it, without any regard for his safety, which is also something autistic people may do during meltdowns...I know I have no regard for my safety during mine. After that's all over he gives the mask back to the player and goes home, leaving the player to talk to Carmine alone, who says that she's worried and thinks it's just "teen angst". When I saw that I was like, "...Uh, Carmine...I don't think it's just that, I think your brother is neurodivergent and really needs a lot of help and support because he's struggling a lot right now..."
His second meltdown is also in the Teal Mask, when he wants Ogerpon to go with him but Ogerpon wants to go with the player...Kieran can't process that and doesn't understand how to take Ogerpon's feelings into account, instead demanding the player to battle him for the right to be Ogerpon's partner. He collapses on all fours after being defeated again, and it gets worse...he looks like he's crying while the player battles Ogerpon in order to catch her. After the player catches her, Kieran wonders why he can't be like the player, and runs off crying, locking himself in his room for the rest of the story. The end of the Teal Mask has him doing his stress stim while being consumed by a new special interest in a very detrimental way...that interest being becoming so strong that no one can defeat him...including the player.
Kieran's third meltdown is in the Indigo Disk, after the player defeats him in the championship match. That meltdown is a full-on cutscene, where it is CLEAR to see his spiraling mental state through the visuals, and he holds his hands on his head like he has a headache while trying to process the fact that he lost to the player AGAIN (which is also relatable as someone who struggles with processing difficulties myself...it really does give headaches and it is one of the worst feelings when I just can't process what's going on around me or the emotions I feel or anything really)...he collapses to his knees and looks like he's breathing very hard as he is so upset and distressed at this loss. It is definitely one of the most heartbreaking scenes for me because this is a CLEAR CUT MELTDOWN in my eyes and it hits me in the feels like a TRUCK to watch that cutscene.
Also, in the Terapagos fight, Kieran has a bit of a shutdown for a bit, standing there frozen, thinking he's useless and can't do anything right (which is relatable as I have regular shutdowns as well, and I also constantly feel like I'm a failure of a human being who can't do anything right)...but let me tell you, when the player finally gets him to snap out of it and convinces him to help and he opens his eyes revealing that the light is back in his eyes as well as visible tears...I cheered (and teared up myself). My boy was back, and I was so happy.
(When I first saw the tears I was like, "NOOOO don't cry Kieran! 😢)
Also in the Indigo Disk, Kieran seems completely different and "no longer like his usual self". His autistic traits are (mostly) nowhere to be seen as he becomes much more serious, angry, assertive,and aggressive. I personally see this as a persona he puts on by masking, which is common for autistic people to do. I myself can't mask, but Kieran definitely seems to be masking here by putting on this persona in order to get stronger and seem stronger as a person as well. This is NOT his real self, this is a FACADE!
We see him start to drop the mask again in Area Zero when he says it seems like they're in a spy movie or something and how cool that is, but once the crack in his mask is pointed out he immediately puts it back on.
After everything in the under depths ends, and you go back to Blueberry Academy, he drops the mask again completely, and goes back to his real, adorkable, relatable self...and stays that way from then on, which made me so relieved and happy.
(This is my favorite cutscene in the entire DLC because of how adorable it is and also how neurodivergent Kieran is being here while apologizing for all he did 🥺)
In conclusion, I think Kieran is a great example of an autistic-coded character who has many relatable traits, and also does a good job showcasing some of the more "unpleasant and challenging behaviors and traits" (NTs use that terminology a lot, not me... that's how NTs unfortunately view NDs a lot of the time) of autism. I used to be afraid of him during the post-Teal Mask pre-Indigo Disk era but that was my trauma and PTSD talking (I talked about the emotional rollercoaster Kieran's story arc took me on in another post from last year after I finally worked up the courage to play the Indigo Disk...feel free to check that out too if you'd like). Now though I can wholeheartedly say that I love and appreciate Kieran a lot as a character, and his relatability is definitely a big part of why he is a big comfort character for me now (please Pokémon put him in Pokémon Masters EX, PLEASE I will literally cry from joy if he gets added to the game)!
Hope you all enjoyed this autistic person's analysis of yet ANOTHER autistic-coded character in Pokémon! I know I had A LOT to say but that just proves how relatable Kieran is, and I love him for that. Let me know what you think and if I missed anything in the comments below!
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Now, I'm already a pretty liberal blocker all round, but I think I've gotten to the point in this fandom where I block people over stuff I usually didn't before. Like say:
"Wei Wuxian is stupid" Blocked
"Wei Wuxian is annoying" Blocked
"Wei Wuxian is selfish" Blocked
"Wei Wuxian is lazy" Blocked
Or stuff that's just textually or factually wrong like:
Wei Wuxian actually can't play the dizi/is terrible at music.
(I just....why??? Multiple times the story tells us that he's good. The only time it was bad was because he was using a reed and intentionally playing it wrong. It literally says, point blank, that he's doing it like that on purpose.)
Everyone found Wei Wuxian annoying, childish, etc.
(You're starting to sound like Jin Zixun. They hate him but sometimes people would outright defend him and his skills/character.)
Wei Wuxian was using Lan Wangji.
(asgfghlkjin HUH!?)
Everyone knew Wei Wuxian had come back immediately.
(They didn't. It literally took half a year for the cultivation sects to find out he had returned, and they only found out cause Jin Guangyao used information that Wei Wuxian couldn't possibly have known- Subian sealing itself. Lan Wangji found out because Wei Wuxian played the song that he didn't know Lan Wangji wrote. Jiang Cheng found out because he happened to be there when Wei Wuxian's cynophobia caused him to panic. Lan Xichen sort of knew because Lan Wangji would only bring Wei Wuxian to the Cloud Recesses. And Nie Hauisang is the reason he's back in the first place. Literally everyone found out by chance/a headshaker's planning.)
Blocked Blocked Blocked Blocked Blocked
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(SPOILER WARNING! GO WATCH ON NETFLIX FIRST IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!) So I watched an anime movie called Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop...
...And the male lead, Cherry, is SO AUTISTIC CODED and I relate to him so much!
This is him...first off, the headphones around his neck aren't used AT ALL for listening to music. He uses them SOLELY for blocking out loud noises and to give himself the APPEARANCE of listening to music just so people don't talk to him. I do this often as well, though I do also use mine for music if too much noise gets through. He gets visibly overwhelmed and is quick to put on his headphones when it gets too loud (so am I), like in this scene where Mr. Fujiyama is talking too loud for him.
You can see that he's clearly distressed by this, and when it happens again later, he even TELLS Mr. Fujiyama that he's too loud after he quickly puts his headphones back on. When he meets Smile, he bluntly points out her braces (I watched the sub, and he just stares at her braces and says the word 'braces', I don't know about the dub), which causes Smile to run away since she is self-conscious about her buck teeth and braces. Cherry also doesn't make eye contact as much as a "normal" person would, speaks with a quieter, more monotone voice than the other characters, and talks as little as he possibly can, because he is not good at talking and gets extremely anxious when he has to talk to people he isn't comfortable with. When Smile calls him to find her phone after their phones accidentally get switched, Cherry freezes up and can't speak, he can't even ANSWER the call because of his anxiety, leaving his friends to do it for him. This is just like me, I freeze up in social situations all the time, and I am physically incapable of talking on the phone without freezing up to anyone but my grandma and my mom, my mom has to do all the phone stuff for me because I have panic attacks over making phone calls.
(He's so anxious about the call, just look at him freaking out...he's seriously just like me, I freeze up on the phone too.)
When he has to recite his haiku in front of everyone, he also freezes up and takes several deep breaths before reading it as quickly as possible and then saying that haiku is a WRITTEN art form, and that it shouldn't have to be read out loud, before putting his headphones back on and sitting down, clearly embarrassed...and that's only two situations where he gets anxious. Also, when he's nervous/embarrassed, his WHOLE BODY turns tomato red.
(You can't see it in this image, but he is actually red like this ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HIS FEET!)
Speaking of haiku, Cherry writes haiku in order to better express himself, and it seems to be his special interest, as he is knowledgeable of haiku poets and their work, and lights up when he talks about it in a scene where Mr. Fujiyama recites random haiku to kinda quiz Cherry...? At least, that's how I interpreted that scene, and Cherry was correct in his answers. He keeps a haiku dictionary in his phone case, which makes it look like a brick in comparison to everyone else's, and the dictionary belonged to his dad originally, but, because his dad supports Cherry's love for haiku, he gave it to him. His mom also supports his haiku writing, and even likes all the haiku he posts online, much to his embarrassment. He also uses it to confess to Smile at the end of the movie, while still being incredibly anxious and his whole body still being that same tomato red color, it is a very sweet scene and for me personally, it was cuteness overload. He confessed to her in a very socially awkward way, using his special interest of haiku to recite some he made about her, and I know some people might find it a bit cringe, I thought it was adorable watching him struggle initially, but eventually build up the courage to express his love in the only way he knew how. I relate to this as I have always been much better at expressing myself and communicating through creative writing than actually speaking, I use creative writing to process basically anything...from things that happen in life to my own complicated emotions (I have alexithymia, which is sometimes referred to as emotional blindness, meaning 99% of the time, I have no idea how I'm feeling about anything, and this also extends to not knowing how other people are feeling as well...this is why I watch anime, because the expressions are much easier to read due to the much more expressive character design, particularly the eyes). Creative writing can help me figure out the emotions I'm trying to process, as well as just help me get my point across in a much clearer and easy to understand way...just like how writing haiku helps Cherry understand his feelings and express himself better.
(Look at him, he's trying his best and it's honestly adorable in my opinion.)
We see Cherry grow closer to Smile over the course of the movie, and I personally knew he was comfortable around her when he was finally able to take off his headphones when around her, because I'm very much the same way. If I take off my headphones around someone, it's a sign of trust, security, and affection, and it seems to be the same for Cherry. One day while walking with Smile, she points out that he's not wearing his headphones, and he replies that he doesn't need them anymore. I thought this was adorable and a good way to show that Cherry feels comfortable around Smile.
Throughout the movie he tries to tell her that he's moving away, but is either unable to bring himself to tell her or gets interrupted by someone or something else. Eventually, Smile finds out anyway and is very upset since she wanted to see the fireworks at the festival together with Cherry. Cherry obviously is DISTRAUGHT when Smile sadly continues the walk back home alone with only a "Take care", and as she walks away he tries to reach out one more time, but can't speak anymore and the world gets louder and louder until Cherry finally puts his headphones back on to make it all stop. He holds his hands over his headphones as he sinks to his knees right there where he's standing and completely breaks down shaking and crying...it's like he's having an implosive meltdown...and as someone who has both explosive and implosive meltdowns myself, I can definitely say that my implosive ones do at times resemble Cherry's breakdown in the movie, as I will also hold my hands over my headphones and put more pressure on them, and/or curl into myself or go completely into the fetal position and cry.
(He's trying to reach out, but can't and he's clearly frustrated with himself...)
(And here comes the breakdown...poor Cherry 🥺)
This scene broke me...hearing everything get louder and louder until Cherry put his headphones on and it all went quiet, and then hearing nothing but his cries for the rest of the scene with the volume increasing as it went on...yeah...I felt that to the core...the sensory experiences with the sound design in the movie really made me feel what Cherry was feeling, and it was so relatable too.
I think that's enough now, I've gone on long enough as it is, and even though I jumped around through the movie scenes in this post, I hope you can still understand it okay. This is my first attempt at a headcanon-supportive character analysis (and actually a character analysis in general), so I hope I did alright. I just wanted to express my love for my new comfort character, Cherry, because he's adorable and relatable and I love characters like that. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop can be found on Netflix. Personally, I think it's really underrated and it's a very sweet slice-of-life movie about two insecure teens and how they spend their summer together. There's nothing TOO heavy in it and I like the characters, the animation, and the color palette is very interesting and fun. All in all, it's an easy one for me to watch, and having a comfort character in it in the form of Cherry just adds to its appeal for me.
I hope you don't mind how different this post is from my usual Pokemon-related stuff, but I just had to make this because I relate to Cherry so, SO much. I'll be back with more Pokemon stuff next time though, so don't worry 😅
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