#but i have become more like marc as ive gotten older

[fdelopera]

An Autistic Perspective on Moon Knight (or, Why Steven Grant is not the only autistic alter)

Sooo Moon Knight really hit me hard. Especially as an autistic person. It hit me so hard, in fact, that it’s brought me back from my Tumblr hiatus. (I haven’t posted since 2018? what???) It was euphoric for me to see an autistic character operate as a superhero within the MCU. Especially Steven. Though Marc and Jake are also autistic — we’ll get to that.

Steven Grant as the audience surrogate wasn’t written as autistic in Jeremy Slater’s original script for the series, but Oscar Isaac took one look at him and basically said, “I’ll relate to this guy more if he’s on the spectrum.” As an autistic person, I actually love that. This choice doesn’t feel exploitative to me, like Rain Man does, for instance; instead, it feels like I’m being seen. I found it meaningful hearing Oscar Isaac say that part of his way into figuring out this role was through delving into a character who happens to be on the spectrum.

I will say that at least to my eye, Oscar Isaac has created a reasonably authentic on-screen portrayal of an autistic character, at least compared to the typical overblown Sheldon Cooper-style of characterization. It is also amazing to see an autistic superhero who is capable, courageous, and strong, even in their most vulnerable moments. Too often, we are portrayed in media as being incapable of having agency within our own lives.

So, in the future, I want to rewatch Moon Knight and analyze the scenes that were particularly impactful for me from the perspective of autistic experience.

But for this post, I want to talk about autism within the context of trauma and mental health. There is an important distinction to be made between Autism Spectrum Disorder and DID in relation to this show, and I haven’t seen a lot of people discussing it in depth.

I am writing this analysis because I believe that an autistic perspective can add some context to certain crucial aspects of this show.

I also want to acknowledge that there is a high degree of co-occurrence between autism and dissociative conditions, including DID. The extreme and constant overwhelm caused by our autistic neurology can lead to dissociative coping mechanisms.

For example, in addition to being autistic, I also depersonalize and derealize, which stems from my sensory processing and social processing issues. Ever since childhood, I dissociate when my nervous system gets too jangled and I’m unable to process the chaos of the world around me.

If Steven Is Autistic, So Are Marc and Jake (and here's why):

I've been seeing a lot of people online celebrating Steven as an autistic character, as in, “Steven Grant is the MCU’s first canonically autistic superhero!” Now, don’t get me wrong, Steven totally is a well-portrayed autistic character; however, I haven’t seen very many people involving Marc and Jake within that discussion of on-screen portrayals of autism.

But if Steven is meant to be on the spectrum, Marc and Jake should be recognized as being on the spectrum as well.

To treat Steven as the only alter who is autistic can inadvertently raise the specter (pun intended) of a harmful and outdated theory on the cause of autism.

So, I want to address two questions: What does (and doesn’t) cause autism? And why are Marc and Jake also on the spectrum if Steven is?

1. Autism Is Epigenetic:

Autism is a genetically inherited neurological variation. It is epigenetic, meaning that there are both genetic and environmental factors that affect each individual’s experience of autism, but you can’t “become” autistic without the genetic factors being present. And if you do have the epigenetic makeup for autism, it is likely that you will have some degree of autistic experience. We still don’t know exactly what this epigenetic makeup is, and I for one hope that we never find out, because Autism $peaks is ready with pitchforks and a eugenics campaign to remove us from humanity as soon as this discovery is made.

Autism’s etiology is not trauma-based. In other words, traumatic experiences can’t “make” someone autistic. However, back in the 1940s, Freudian psychiatrists Bruno Bettelheim and Leo Kanner came up with the “refrigerator mother” theory of autism (they applied it to schizophrenia, as well). They believed that if a mother was neglectful or abusive towards a young child and withheld her love during a critical developmental period, she could cause her child to become autistic. They believed that autistic people could be “cured” of their autism with the right amount of psychoanalysis. These psychiatrists and their disciples subjected countless autistic people to this “treatment” (i.e., torture) for decades.

The "refrigerator mother" theory of autism (and schizophrenia) has since been disproven. The theory was finally rejected in the 1990s when studies of identical twins showed that autism has a high degree of heritability (current research shows that autism’s heritability may be as high as 90%). If you are autistic, the environment (i.e., the people, places, and things around you) will shape your experience of autism, but your environment alone can't “make” you autistic if you don’t have the genetic predisposition for it.

2. If a System Is Autistic, Each Alter Can Have a Unique Experience of Autism:

To frame all of this within the context of Moon Knight, Wendy Spector’s abuse couldn’t “cause” autism within Marc’s system. To put it more bluntly, trauma couldn’t “make” one alter autistic (i.e., Steven), while the rest of the system remained completely allistic.

I know that a lot of you know this; I’ve just seen some troubling posts about this online from people who are neither a system nor autistic, and I needed to say something. Steven isn’t “the MCU’s first canonically autistic superhero” — the system is.

If we describe Steven as autistic, it’s important to acknowledge Marc, Jake, and the other alters within the system as autistic, as well. They would each have their own unique experiences of autism.

Now, there is a whole other discussion to be had about whether the writers and directors of Moon Knight knew this (that’s a big topic for another time). However, my understanding from listening to Oscar Isaac’s interviews and watching his performance is that his intent was to portray the system as neurodivergent, and not just Steven.

As portrayed in the show, Steven seems to do the least amount of masking (i.e., learned behaviors that hide autistic traits in order to protect the individual from harm), which makes him “appear” more autistic to an outside observer.

Within Marc’s portrayal, he seems to have learned to mask more consistently (which would make sense, since he protects Steven physically), and so he behaves in a way that could be interpreted as more allistic. 

EDIT: On further re-watches of Moon Knight, while Marc often protects Steven physically, Steven is more of Marc’s emotional and spiritual protector, as I write about in this post. Marc is more of a trauma holder, and he may mask to keep people at bay to avoid further trauma.

As for Jake, it’s hard to tell his degree of masking, since we see him for only a few brief scenes. But extrapolating from his role as an physical and emotional protector in the system, it’s possible that he has learned to mask quite effectively, as well.

As we grow older, many of us autistics learn to mask quite convincingly, myself included. Masking is exhausting, and I hate it, but for me it is what is necessary to have a job. A few people that I work with know that I’m autistic, but most don’t, and I’m careful about who I tell. It also helps that I run my own business, and so I have some say in the clients that I choose to work with.

In the future, I want to talk about scenes from the series that spoke to me as an autistc person, and I'll include Steven, Marc, and Jake in that analysis. There are so many moments where Oscar Isaac makes character choices that resonate with me from an autistic perspective. But that’s for another time. Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. :P

#moon knight #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #oscar isaac #moon knight thoughts #i clearly have a lot of thoughts about this #ive been seeing some discourse online and i had to say something #this show just means a lot to me #and I want people to recognize marc and jake as autistic because they deserve to be seen #steven is still my fave because he is like the unmasked me i wish i could be all the time #but i have become more like marc as ive gotten older

[fdelopera]

An Autistic Analysis of Moon Knight, Episode 1 (or, How to write an un-“masked” autistic superhero)

Sooo I’d like to do a further analysis of Moon Knight in the MCU from the perspective of autistic experience. This analysis will focus specifically on Oscar Isaac’s portrayal of Steven, Marc, and Jake in the MCU — in most of the comic runs, Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley are written as neurodivergent (i.e., not neurotypical), but they are not written as autistic per se.

I want to share an autistic perspective on Moon Knight because I think it will give context to certain aspects of autistic experience. I am always on the lookout for good portrayals of autism in visual media, and I consider Moon Knight to be a complex and authentic depiction of an autistic character. My analysis will therefore focus on the acting, directing, and production choices included in the show, and the way that this media has given a nuanced and realistic look into autistic life.

But first, a couple of points to cover: 1) Why the system is autistic, not just Steven. And 2) What makes for good autistic depictions in media.

1) Autistic experience impacts the system, not just Steven (a quick recap of my last post):

Oscar Isaac has said in interviews that he intended his version of Steven Grant to be on the spectrum. He explained that “Love on the Spectrum” was an inspiration for the way he portrayed Steven’s autistic experience.

Here’s an interview where he talks about this: https://collider.com/moon-knight-oscar-isaac-may-calamawy-interview/

He also inferred that Marc has learned to mask in order to protect Steven. Masking is a protective strategy of adopting certain allistic (i.e., non-autistic) behaviors to hide autistic traits. A simple example of masking is forcing oneself to make eye contact.

In my last post, I explained why the system is autistic, not just Steven. The short explanation is that autism is a genetically inherited neurological variation, which is influenced by environmental factors (i.e., it is epigenetic). If a system is autistic, each alter may have a unique experience of autism, but each will be autistic.

One of the ways that this complex autistic experience can be seen in the show is through the degree of masking that each alter engages in for their own security. Steven doesn’t mask much, Marc masks pretty consistently, and Jake (from what we have seen of him) masks, as well. This makes sense, because Marc and Jake both protect the system, and so they would have the most reason to mask as a matter of safety.

2) What makes for a good portrayal of autistic experience in media?

So why does Oscar Isaac’s performance resonate so much with me? Well, there is a certain euphoria in seeing a good portrayal of someone like me on screen. Even if the actor isn’t autistic themselves.

In a way, when I watch an actor who isn’t autistic, but who has taken the time, attention, and care to understand autistic neurology enough to depict real autistic strengths and challenges — it feels like I’m being seen.

It’s a bit like someone taking the time to learn a language in depth so they can have meaningful conversations, instead of just learning the standard touristy phrases needed to get around.

So, while it’s best to have autistic actors portray autistic characters, I am not against allistic actors portraying autistic characters if they do their research and work to understand their character’s personal experience of autism.

Over the years, I have seen many different portrayals of autism, both intentional and unintentional, by allistic actors. Some of these portrayals are good, but most are pretty terrible.

When I say “unintentional” portrayals of autism, I mean like Brent Spiner’s Data, who is still one of the best on-screen depictions of what it is like to be autistic in an allistic world. I met Brent Spiner at a Comic Con a few years ago and got a chance to tell him how much his portrayal of Data meant to me, especially as an autistic kid growing up without a diagnosis. He said that he was so happy that Data resonated with me and many other autistic fans. He also said that he was glad that he never actually “tried” to portray Data as an autistic character. He told me, “You know, if I had tried to play Data as autistic, especially based on what we knew about autism back in the 80s and 90s, I probably would have gotten him all wrong.” He somehow just had an intuitive grasp of how to show neurodivergent experience on screen.

An example of “intentional” (though not good) portrayals of autism would be Hugh Dancy’s Adam, Kier Gilchrist’s Sam from Atypical, and Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond from Rain Man. (Though I should note that the character of Raymond was based on a man named Kim Peek who wasn’t actually autistic, but rather had savantism due to an agenesis of the corpus callosum).

I find that many of these “intentional” portrayals of autism are disorder-focused instead of experience-focused. Rain Man, Adam, and Sam fall into this camp. These characterizations feel like a walking Psychology Today article about the signs and symptoms of autism. When I went to see Adam back in 2009, I remember saying to a friend, “Wow, I think the writers just read the Wikipedia article for Asperger’s and then decided to make it into a movie.” These portrayals don’t “show” us a character who happens to be autistic, living and interacting within their environment; instead, they have to “tell” us about all the ways that this individual is different because of their autism.

Then there are the “intentional” portrayals of autism that focus on broad stereotypes. Sheldon Cooper falls into this camp. These kinds of characters are written as caricatures of autistic experience. They broadcast identifiable signs and symptoms to an allistic audience. When I watch these portrayals, it doesn’t feel like I’m being seen — instead, it feels like I’m a zoo animal being stared at by outside eyes.

From my experience, none of these disorder-focused nor stereotypical portrayals of autism capture the feeling of what it is actually like to be autistic. The main objective of these movies and shows seems to be to garner praise from an allistic audience for having the “bravery” to depict an autistic character on screen, which is an extremely limited and ableist goal. These movies and shows usually don’t take the next step and show us these characters living a life outside of the most generic circumstances.

This speaks to the difference between basing a portrayal on what is “clinically known” about autism from a psychiatric/psychological standpoint (i.e., diagnostic criteria) and basing it on what autistic people actually go through in their everyday lives (i.e., lived experience). Both types of knowledge can help to inform an actor’s portrayal, but too often, actors focus on the diagnostic criteria, and not enough on the lived experience.

For me as an autistic viewer, that is why I tend to prefer genres like sci-fi as a medium to tell autistic stories. This is what I call “experience-focused” portrayals of autism. For instance, Data, Seven of Nine, and of course the OG, Spock, show us more about what it is like to be autistic than Rain Man ever could, even though none of those Star Trek characters were written as autistic.

This brings me back to Moon Knight, and why Oscar Isaac’s portrayal has resonated so strongly with me. Yes, he intentionally made the system autistic, but he manages to convey the experience of autism in an authentic way, without it being stereotypical, overblown, or feeling like a diagnostic checklist.

So now I want to talk about some scenes from Episode 1 that spoke to me as an autistic person (this post is long enough lol, so I’ll analyze the other episodes in separate posts). This analysis of Episode 1 will focus mainly on Steven, since we only meet Marc at the end of the episode.

1) The “Sleepwalking” Solution:

I have to smile at Steven’s utilitarian solution of tying himself to the bed and pouring a sand moat around it to control what he believes to be sleepwalking. There is something deeply familiar to me about the absolute practicality of it.

And side note, but can someone please get this poor man a weighted blanket? From experience, it would be comforting, and it would help him de-stress a bit while he’s lying in bed with his rubik’s cube. Weighted blankets are a top-tier invention.

Another side note, Steven is absolutely using the rubik’s cube as a fidget toy here. I think this was Oscar’s idea? I remember seeing an interview where he said that he knew how to solve them. Having a canonical MCU superhero who stims makes me so fucking happy.

I remember when I first watched this introductory scene with Steven, my Spidey senses went off, and I thought, “Oh, shit! Oscar Isaac is playing this guy as autistic, isn’t he?” Then I started looking up interviews with him and learned that indeed, he intended for the character to be on the spectrum. This is such a great example of “show, don’t tell” in terms of depicting autism on screen, and here’s why.

One of the hallmarks of autistic experience is a deep pragmatism, and I think that’s why this first scene captivated me so much. When we autistics look at a problem to be solved, our initial impulse is not usually to look for outside social cues to guide us to the “correct” or “socially acceptable” answer. That behavior has to be learned, and is a part of masking. Rather, we autistics often look at a problem and solve it from a practical standpoint that might look “a little weird” from an allistic perspective.

So, for instance, an allistic (i.e., non-autistic) person who thinks they are dealing with a sleepwalking disorder might choose to deal with the situation in a way that is … well, more socially conventional, like a sleepwalking alarm perhaps. They most likely wouldn’t tie themselves to the bed, put a sand moat around it, tape up their door, and collect the tape to show a passage of days. However, from an autistic standpoint, it makes perfect sense. The ankle restraint, sand moat, and tape are utilitarian, easy to install, and probably would be effective if Steven actually were sleepwalking. And this solution doesn’t involve putting up security cameras or anything that Marc or Jake would have to dismantle in order to protect Steven from learning about the system.

In a related point, I know that the show is explaining Steven’s “sleepwalking” as being due to Marc (or Jake) fronting. However, sleep disturbances like insomnia and irregular circadian rhythms are also incredibly common for autistic people. Many autistic people (myself included) have an evening spike in their cortisol levels, which is why so many of us are “night owls.” We sometimes also have a greater than 24-hour circadian clock, meaning that we don’t naturally fall asleep or wake up at the same time every day. This leads to a perpetual feeling of jet lag. Oscar Isaac portrays Steven, Marc, and Jake as looking perpetually exhausted, which is accurate. Since the system is autistic, any amount of sleep disturbance would be compounded by their neurology.

Now, I’ve said that Steven doesn’t mask much; however, there is an instance of masking later on in this episode, in relation to his sleepwalking solution. He says to Crawley that having an ankle restraint on his bed is “the definition of a red flag.” This is an internalized opinion based on neurotypical perspective. Part of what makes masking so damaging for autistic people is that it forces us to reframe our internal experience — the very essence of who we are — for an allistic audience. This “performative normality” often causes internally directed devaluation, which can lead to deep and lasting self-loathing and shame. In order to mask, we first have to see ourselves from an allistic standpoint, and then we have to pick apart and suppress all the things that we are doing that would “out” us as autistic. This is done as a matter of safety — for instance, many of us have to mask in order to be employed and have relationships. So, when Steven says that his perfectly reasonable autistic solution is “the definition of a red flag,” I just want to hug him.

2) Physicality:

Oscar Isaac has spoken in interviews about the facial performances that he created to differentiate Steven and Marc. A lot of this has to do with the way he uses the area around his eyes, eyebrows, and cheeks (i.e., the “mask” of the face). I could write an entire post on Isaac’s “eyebrow acting.” Just like, how does a person have that much control over their face? (Asking as an autistic/dyspraxic person who has a hard time figuring out what expression I’m making unless I look in a mirror.) Steven’s facial performance is far more open and pulled up, while Marc’s is furrowed and closed off, and Jake’s is a bit pulled down. This makes sense in terms of their respective degree of masking. Steven does the least, and so is far more open and expressive.

In relation to Steven’s physicality, there are all sorts of little moments in Isaac’s portrayal that show autistic experience. Many of us autistics (though certainly not all) have dyspraxia, which is a sensory processing condition that creates difficulty with conceiving, planning, and executing motor movements. That’s a fancy way of saying that we can appear a bit “awkward” to allistic people. Like the little wave that Isaac uses when Steven greets people — the momentum of the movement almost pulls him along with it.

But the real strength of Isaac’s performance is that Steven’s movement is not broad enough to fall into a stereotype. It never feels forced or performative. He fidgets and self-soothes, but he doesn’t depict Steven’s stimming in a way that looks unnatural. He seems to understand that stimming serves the purpose of self-regulation. Same with the way he shows Steven’s slight difficulty with eye contact — it’s noticeable, but not excessive (i.e., Steven doesn’t stare at the ground instead of looking at someone’s face).

These subtle movement choices not only differentiate Steven from Marc, but they also serve as character choices to show how Steven and Marc manage the outward appearance of their neurology. Masking is a survival strategy, after all. Marc has adopted a more sparing and controlled set of body movements, probably from military training. For those of us with dyspraxia, this kind of movement precision can be learned, but it is hard, and it takes time and effort. For instance, I know an autistic man whose parents actually hired a retired army drill sergeant to train him how to “walk right” (their words — not mine or his). Yes, that’s horribly ableist, but that’s the reality of a lot of the “interventions” (i.e., forced torture) that many of us undergo. Over the course of a year or so, this army guy taught my friend how to walk, run, and gesture so that his movements would look allistic. I have another autistic friend who actually served in the military for a few years, and learned an economical and precise style of movement that he still uses.

3) Special Interests:

I love the set decoration for Steven’s flat. I can attest that this is an autistic person’s apartment lol (i.e., enough special interest books to break the floor beams). My dad (also autistic) once collected so many books and records in the upstairs of my childhood home that he actually broke a floor beam, which made the floor uneven for the rest of the time we lived in that house (granted, it was a really old house).

I also love how they set up Steven’s special interests as heroic in this show. Honestly, this is such an important part of portraying autism within the superhero genre. Our special interests are such an integral part of who we are. Like in Episodes 3 and 4, where Steven’s special interest in Egyptology allows them to find the location of the Tomb of Alexander and Ammit’s ushabti. And it makes sense that Steven is the one that Khonshu calls on to help turn back the night sky, since his Egyptological special interest also extends to ancient astronomy.

What I find really beautiful is how Layla values Steven’s special interests. She encourages Marc to allow Steven to front in Episode 3 when they need to figure out the star map, and she listens to Steven in Episode 4 when he is able to figure out the Eye of Horus maze guarding Alexander’s tomb.

May Calamawy’s performance deserves special recognition here. She doesn’t portray Layla as being “freaked out” by Steven. After the initial shock wears off and she starts to realize that Marc is part of a system, she starts to connect with Steven as a person. By Episode 3, she has already started to develop a unique relationship with him.

When I was in college, one of my good friends was a system. I also knew their girlfriend, and I remember she explained to me that she had a different relationship with each of my friend’s alters. It was good to see some depiction of that on screen. (As opposed to having Layla demand that only one alter front, like Marlene does in the comics.)

In terms of autistic portrayals, I have to say it’s refreshing to see an autistic character who isn’t written as “math genius extraordinaire” or “obsessed with trains.” Some of us are, of course, but many are not. I remember when I was first diagnosed, the psychologist evaluating me asked, “Do you collect things? Like bottle caps or playing cards, for instance?” That was her way of asking me if I had special interests. The way she asked it, it was like she thought that special interests are a hobby or a pastime. She didn’t get that for autistic people, special interests are an integral part of us that are woven into the fiber of our being. So, I told her, no, I don’t collect those things. She then marked down in her notes that I didn’t have special interests — which, if you’ve met me, like, how could any human come to that conclusion? That was until I started telling her about my hyperfixation that I’ve had on Gaston Leroux’s Le Fantôme de l’Opéra ever since I read Leroux’s novel when I was thirteen. She seemed surprised by this, as if to say, “Well, that’s a new one.” She didn’t seem to get that special interests can exist outside of a narrow list of topics that she’d probably read about in her abnormal psych class.

Also, the study of polytheistic religions and cultures is a pretty common autistic special interest, so it’s great to see that represented through Steven. I know so many autistic people with a special interest in Ancient Egypt. For me, my main area of focus has always been the Ancient Greek pantheon (I can talk to you for days about Ancient Greek Theatre). Anyway, seeing an autistic person’s special interests depicted authentically in the MCU was another moment where I felt seen.

4) Workplace Struggles:

This part hit really close to home. Steven is a self-taught scholar of Ancient Egyptian language, religion, and culture (he’s also proficient in Ancient Greek and Hellenistic studies). He works in the Ancient Egypt collection at the British Museum, and yet he is repeatedly denied a promotion because his boss is “weirded out” by him. The sheer frustration of not being allowed to work to our full potential is the waking nightmare that many of us autistic people live when we’re employed in a conventional workplace setting.

The scene where Steven has to patiently explain to Donna that the Ennead has nine gods, not seven (when the name literally means “The Nine”), and then Donna twists the conversation to inform him that she still won’t promote him to tour guide — it’s just too real.

Also, Oscar Isaac does a good job of conveying what it feels like to want to shove your entire hand in your mouth to keep from shouting, “Nope! You’re wrong!” when someone says something way off-kilter about one of your special interests.

(Side note: I want — no, I NEED — a Taweret plushie. Pls take my money Disney.)

Another thing to add here, the way Oscar Isaac plays Steven in this scene is actually quite important. Too often, the media portrays autistic people as annoying information snobs who believe they are superior to everyone else (think Sheldon Cooper). But when we correct someone like this, it’s not because we’re trying to say, “I’m better than you.” It’s because we care so profoundly about our special interest that an incorrect statement about it actually feels painful. We also want to share all the amazing information about the topic because it genuinely is interesting to know about. In this scene, Isaac made it clear that Steven wasn’t being a know-it-all; instead, he was distressed by the error in the poster, and he knew that the public who visited the Ancient Egypt collection wouldn’t want to be given misinformation about the Egyptian pantheon.

5) Courage (i.e., being terrified of something, but doing it anyway because it’s the right thing to do):

We learn in Episode 5 that “Steven Grant” from Tomb Buster was defined by courage. “When Danger Is Near, Steven Grant Has No Fear.” Steven’s courage is shown throughout the series in sometimes subtle but always meaningful ways.

You see, being neurodivergent is fucking terrifying.

It’s like you’re placed on a movie set where everybody knows their lines and seems to know what to do, and you’re expected to play this part that you don’t know and haven’t rehearsed, and every time you mess up, people get mad at you because you’re holding the production up, even though you don’t really know what the production is. You try to play along and hope you can improvise something. Sometimes by sheer luck this improvisation works, but most of the time it doesn’t because you don’t have the broader context of where you fit in all this. It’s loud and chaotic, nothing makes any sense, and all you want to do is find a quiet place to hide. But you don’t hide, because you’ve got a role to play in this production, even though you don’t have the script. You keep going because you know that you’ve got something special and unique to add to this story that no one else can contribute.

At the end of Episode 1, when Steven goes in search of what he thinks is a wounded dog, he is clearly terrified, but he does it anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.

This is where Oscar Isaac’s portrayal really shines. Before I watched Episode 1, I assumed that the show would be about Moon Knight bravely suiting up and fighting creepy Egyptian mythological creatures. Which, to be fair, does happen. But what I wasn’t expecting was for courage to be framed in terms of a neurodivergent person dealing with genuine, realistic struggles.

Yes, trying to defeat a supernatural death cult is terrifying — but so is dealing with the day-to-day reality of living in a neurotypical world.

Steven is often terrified, but he forges ahead in spite of his fear because it is the right thing to do. Like when he challenges Harrow’s cult in Episode 2 — an allistic person might have just noped right out of there, but Steven chose to have a full-on philosophical debate about the nature of free will and the dangers of ascribing to a religion that espouses deterministic pre-judgement. Even though Harrow is threatening to summon a literal hell beast. Steven won’t back down, even though he is terrified, because he knows that what Harrow is doing is wrong. That’s what makes him such a good depiction of an autistic superhero — it’s his courage to keep on going and doing the right thing, even when everything seems lost.

Well, I’ve gone on enough for one post. I’d like to do more analyses of Steven, Marc, and Jake to look at the ways that Moon Knight captures the unique strengths and challenges of autistic experience. Next time, I’ll be looking at Episodes 2, 3, and 4 to compare the way that Oscar Isaac portrays masked and unmasked neurodivergent experience when he plays Marc and Steven.

#moon knight #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #oscar isaac #mcu moon knight #actually autistic #i clearly have a lot of thoughts about this #this show means a lot to me #steven is my fave because he is like the unmasked me i wish i could be all the time #but i have become more like marc as ive gotten older