Hey, I Just Wanted To Say That I Appreciate That You’re Willing To Call Out Potential Ableist Stereotypes

Hey, I just wanted to say that I appreciate that you’re willing to call out potential ableist stereotypes in relation to pokemon. I personally believe N was intentionally autistic-coded, and seeing headcanons about him secretly being a zoroark or whatever always bothered me. I’m glad that pokemon fans have generally moved on from that type of thing, and it’s thanks to people like you that we have.

Hi, anon! Thank you, I'm glad to know people are appreciating it! I do a lot of advocacy for neurodiversity in real life (I'm autistic with OCD, so those are my specialties, but in the case of other things I don't have personal experience with I can uplift other voices), so I'm happy people are taking it seriously!

N is absolutely a character that can be read as autistic-coded - I wrote a big post on my more serious autism advocacy blog on the subject over a year ago. I think a lot of people don't realize the ableist undertones the Zoroark theory actually has, but it feeds into the narrative that neurodiverse people are somehow "non-human." A theory regarding changeling myths is that this explained neurodiverse, particularly autistic, children, especially since some autistic traits don't show up until the baby is older. Again, these myths cast the neurodiverse child as non-human, and the parents reject it as "not their child," much like "Autism Parents" do when they mourn the "normal" child they never had. (Spoiler alert: those parents are being extremely ableist, and a lot of them will get really mad when an autistic adult points this out to them, so be careful!)

Before we had canonical representation, autistic people in particular often had to find ourselves in non-human places, with characters being similar to us often being robots and aliens (a plight we shared with asexual and aromantic people). A famous early example a lot of autistic people cite is Spock from Star Trek, who was half-human and half-Vulcan and made many autistic people feel seen for the first time. Now we're getting characters who canonically are autistic, or ADHD, or have OCD, or have Tourette's, or...I could go on forever here. But because of this, we also have the responsibility to portray neurodiversity with the nuance it deserves, and that means pointing out ableism, both of the intentional and unintentional varieties.

I play Pokemon Masters EX, and in N's event, he has a conversation with Alder. One of his lines struck me especially:

Ghetsis demeaned N by using this phrase, essentially dehumanizing him. In reality, N has animal empathy and due to his early upbringing can understand Pokemon speech. If anything, N's love and compassion for Pokemon make him immensely human; he cares deeply and wants to improve the world and protect his friends. But he had to grow up in an abusive situation where he was repeatedly dehumanized by his adoptive father. Making N a Zoroark actually does a massive disservice to his character and plays into ableist stereotypes of autistic-coded characters being "non-human" somehow.

Anyway, seeing the Zoroark stuff being brought back with Emmet, one of the most blatantly autistic characters I've ever seen in my 33 years on this planet, feels like a massive slap in the face. My roommate, who is also neurodivergent, wrote a comprehensive post that I reviewed before publication regarding the way some Submas portrayals and content can dip quite easily into ableism, and I recommend it.

If anyone is looking to get into disability and neurodiversity advocacy, I'm happy to help you get started! Thanks again, anon, and I hope you have a lovely day!