Anyone who has read my blog or has bee aware of my stance on “X character is autistic!” things, being autistic myself, definitely knows that I’m not a fan of these kinds of things. I’m not a fan because the “proof” is always, ALWAYS one instance of a behavior that could fall under the wide, wide umbrella of autism “symptoms”. I saw a lot of “Romelle is autistic!!!!” posts floating around after season 6 of Voltron: Legendary Defender because she covered her ears when the giant mechanical lions roared in unison, and that she wore loose, flowing clothing, like all the other Alteans in the colony wore. To me, that’s hardly proof of anything other than dressing like the members of her community and being surprised by a very loud sound. Every other character in that scene flinched or reacted to the roar in some way.

So why do I believe this case is different? Because there is a hell of a lot more behavioral evidence in this character, and a lot of it is subtle, missed on a surface level, but if one has any experience with or learning on the difficulties and mannerisms of autism, it becomes much more obvious.

Proof:

Whenever Hector is having dialogue with another character, he rarely, if ever makes eye contact. He is either forging, giving attention to his pets, or observing wildlife. The only exception is Dracula, and even in his recruitment flashback, he chooses to pay more attention to the animals in the room and his forge rather than Dracula himself. Compare this to Issac’s recruitment flashback, and the difference is much more obvious.

He does not pick up on character’s moods in their voices or recognize sarcasm. Carmilla has to get aggressive for him to realize her frustration with Dracula. He does not pick up on Issac’s irritation with him, and questions if he made a joke. (Rather, I believe, it was an underhanded insult to Hector that he missed.)

He is blunt and to the point. His first words are proof of this, though one could argue that Godbrand is also a very blunt character and no other characters talk to him with the respect as they do Dracula or Carmilla. This is not the only instance, however. He is also quite blunt in describing his work to both Godbrand and Carmilla.

He is very, very naive. Hector was easily manipulated into betrayal by Carmilla, and he didn’t fully grasp it until she flat out told him so. Dracula too, was also manipulative of him. He promised Hector not a genocide but a cull, and Hector 100% believed that was the plan the entire time. In contrast, Dracula and Issac never lied to each other, and though he is human, Issac was more than ready to exterminate his species and die himself for Dracula’s cause.

He prefers animals to humanoid relationships. Many autistic and non autistic people find companionship with animals preferable to that with people. Many autistic people would prefer to just live with animals as companions and not have to be social. Hector was doing that. In fact, he preferred the companionship of animals so much that he routinely brought them back from the dead so he could spend all the time in the world with them.

He did not see his capture coming. Carmilla is a sneaky bitch. This was not only explained by her to Hector, but was seen by her manipulation of him and others as well. Had Issac been in Hector’s place, for example, he would have been able to sense Carmilla’s intentions, and likely would have killed her. Hector was under the impression that since things had failed, he was going to go back to his animals and shack. The idea that Carmilla would formulate and execute any other plan to obtain the power she wanted never occurred to him, not because he doesn’t know her, but because his mind doesn’t work that way.

At any rate, this is what I think. This is based on my own struggles with autism, and the large amounts of reading on the disorder that I and my mother have done.

Now, they’ll never flat out say “autism” in the series, because it wasn’t “discovered” until the late 1800′s and high functioning autism wasn’t “discovered” until the 1940′s. However, this does not mean that the disorder never existed until then. Another great example of an autistic character in a time before autism diagnosis and HFA is Sherlock Holmes.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how people interpret said characters. Unless the creator of said character specifically states something is true or not, any facet of them is wide open to theory and interpretation. It’s part of what makes fiction so great. I personally see Hector as autistic, and someone else could see a severely abused boy who never really grew up, and who’s only friend was his dog, while another person can see a mix of the two.