autisticshepard answered:

YES! Thank you for asking. :)



Okay, so!

Shepard’s social interactions with people are very purpose-oriented. They (I’ll use “they” for pronoun, since I’m referring to all Shepards, male or female or other genders) go into a conversation, ask a bunch of questions, and then leave. They have scripts–’I should go’ being one of them–to get them through social situations. (See also: ‘I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.’) They are very often oblivious to social niceties, depending on how you play them, but even the most suave Shepard kind of fumbles things from time to time. (I love Shepard going “wait, I don’t really sound like that, do I?” to the VI made of them.)



Shepard also clearly sees the world as being a Certain Way. I got the Prothean beacon message, why can’t everyone else believe me? I know the Reapers are real, why don’t you? I talked to Vigil, why don’t you automatically trust what I’m saying is true? It evidences a certain inability to fully see things from another’s perspective, to fully understand that, no, other people don’t always know what you know (something I struggle with myself.)

Shepard is very very good at certain things. Shepard is an amazing soldier, knows all sorts of military things, guns, technology (even a not-tech Shepard), etc. etc. But other things? Very bad. And clearly so; their squadmates make fun of them for it.

See also: Shep’s inability to dance well. The Shakarian tango is exempted, but let me tell you, it’s far easier, as an autistic person, to do a dance that has steps to follow than “move your body however you feel!”

Fish. Hamsters. Tell me Shepard doesn’t have special interests there. The kiosks, I’m sure, show you what you might be interested in. So Shepard’s buying/omni-tool history implies that.



The lack of obvious struggle with dying and coming back to life fits here too–a certain lack of affect, a way in which all of that is in the inside, down deep. And some of that, too, is Being a Good Leader. You’re not supposed to break down to your crew, so you don’t. Even when you died. Even when you’re having horrible dreams. You just… don’t.

Really, so much about Shepard just suddenly clicks into place and makes sense if they’re autistic. Saying the same shit over and over, having narrow but deep interests, asking inappropriate questions about people five minutes after meeting them, having weirdness about movements in some ways but not in others (I bet that hardsuit is great for dealing with perioperceptive issues).

Also, biotics are neurodivergent by definition, so any biotic Shepard is ND at least.

Could all of this add up to something else? Sure. But I love the idea of an autistic character that’s the charming badass that everyone wants to be friends with. I love the autistic character being the hero, the galaxy-saving space marine. I see myself in Shepard, in so many ways. And I get tired of fanfic or fandom in general portraying Shepard as being super-suave or whatever… they’re not. They’re charming and friendly and compelling, but autistic people can be all these things if we learn how.

Hell, we can be really good at social stuff if we learn all the right words and scripts and ways to act–it’s just tiring. And no, not all of us can do it. Shepard clearly has a lot of spoons and the ability to socialize. Get them off-script, though, and suddenly it “time for guns” because that’s their default script in hard times and someone gave them a license to kill.

Basically: Shepard is Space James Bond, Shepard is also autistic, I love both of these ideas, and I’ll push them until the day I die. ;)

