The thing that really gets to my heart about how Laios’s autism is portrayed in his conflict with Toshiro is that his pain is centered and sympathized with.
How many dozens, hundreds of stories have we gotten about that obnoxious side character who just won’t take the hint and get lost, plaguing the main character who is never up front about their actual feelings but we’re supposed to relate to? How it’s played for humor half the time, a lighthearted burden on the main to make them roll their eyes before the Big Challenges of their story, with no thought to the pain and loss of the side character investing so much emotion into caring for someone who finds them a nuisance?
I think it’s even more poignant that Ryoko Kui is writing from a Japanese perspective that puts Toshido’s approach even more in the default, culturally enforced norm, but still asks “what about the feelings of the person who doesn’t have that all-important knack for ‘reading the room’ and picking up on all those invisible messages never said aloud?” and encourages us to care
i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one
his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.
ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication
april fools is so over and i should change this anthonypocalypse pfp but i. i cant. im so chronically obsessed with it i cant bring myself to change it this is me forever now