His Behavior And Mannerisms Do Fit Very Well With Those Of Someone On The Lower End Of The Autism Spectrum.

His behavior and mannerisms do fit very well with those of someone on the lower end of the Autism Spectrum. I speak from experience.

fisk has had two scenes and i’m calling it now

A U T I S T I C

Fangirl Epiphany! Important Realization for all those who claim to be fans of Zuko or Dean Winchester! Leave me your thoughts.

So I was on Skype with my sister, talking about Dean Winchester. She said that one of Dean’s core problems is not that he’s not as smart as Sammy (there are several episodes worth of proof to the opposite in fact.) His problem is that he often acts without thinking, which gets him into all kinds of trouble. (like when he went to say goodbye to Lisa knowing that he was a vampire and dangerous now)

After she said that, I made the comment “Dean is Zuko.” I had said it totally as a joke, but then I thought about it.

At first they both portray fairly flat character archetypes. Dean: the macho badboy. Zuko: the standard villain. They both desperately seek approval from absentee fathers, who (intentionally or not ) showed far more approval to their younger siblings.

They both suffered through horrible traumas as children which then left them motherless. They’re both adopted by surrogate fathers in Iroh and Bobby. They both have extremely vitriolic tempers, though it takes more to set them both off in later seasons.

They each have severe self-worth issues, and both appear to suffer from extreme depression and/or other psychological illnesses. (This becomes more obvious for Zuko in the later comics.)

Both have “always had to struggle always fight” which has given both characters strength. They each have a very grit-your-teeth-and-do-it type attitudes to difficult or painful situations.

Zuko and Dean both put their fathers up on pedestals, and then had to confront their father’s flaws. The confrontations led each character to a “I didn’t deserve the crap you put on me” epiphany.

They both desperately seek out love, approval, respect, and family. They’re insecure and, in a way, fragile. They compensate for these feelings by masking them in anger and by focusing on the familiar. Zuko hunts the Avatar and Dean kills monsters, these are as much causes to hide behind as they are purposes that drive them. Even when they have the chance to make a new life (Dean with Lisa and Ben, and Zuko in Ba Sing Se with Iroh) they can’t quite make themselves give up their old lives.

At the end of the day, both Dean and Zuko are damaged, hurt, and frightened as children, just doing their best with the hands they’ve been delt. They’re flawed and violent, they’re emotionally distant and purposefully hard to get close to or even get along with. They are also two of the most well-loved characters of their respective stories.

Why?

Because by showing us the flaws, the struggles, and the lowest points of these characters, the writers have shown us what makes them human. We can all relate to hardships in life. (Though hopefully none of us were given burn scars by our father or had to see our mother burn to death on the ceiling.)

I never realized how very much a like these two are, but now that I’ve thought about it’s impossible not to see the parallels. Which I, personally, find really cool.

Zutara Moment (by GreenifyME)

Dean is a bit of a drama queen

“You rise with the moon; I rise with the sun.” 

Katara and Zuko at their strongest (The Puppetmaster x Sozin’s comet)

Pottermore - Draco Malfoy

Writing by J.K. Rowling about Draco Malfoy

This is just fascinating.