…

having jane written as clearly nervous to go back into the lab while kali doesn’t react at all outside of asking jane if she’s okay is also a choice

none of the characters thinking of henry as a humanbeing even in silent thought (EVEN HIS SISTERS) is also, again, a choice!!

Obvi it is amazing when neurodivergence is represented as something normal (bc it is), but I find a lot of times that neurodivergence in modern media is toned down to be more palatable and “socially acceptable.” There’s a very fine line between balancing the good and bad of neurodivergence and mental illness, and a lot of media depicting either falls short imo. A lot of times, in order to not push further stigma, modern media tends to focus on all the positives of neurodivergence and wind up completely ignoring the negatives, or treat the negatives as an easily overcome battle. But this only pushes the stigma more that neurodivergence is a cute quirky easily managed superpower, but it isn’t.

First Shadow treats neurodivergence like a superpower, sure, but it’s not a good one. Henry is a traumatized neurodivergent child who is not being properly accommodated or treated. He does not know what is happening and why his brain reacts the way it does (bc he’s not properly diagnosed), so he thinks there’s something inherently wrong with him. No one around him understands what he’s struggling with it since he can’t verbalize it properly, so they dismiss it and insist that he should just act normal. The doctors that are supposed to help him don’t, and in fact actively contribute to making him worse.

And I fucking love it. I love how weird and uncanny Henry comes across, even when he’s desperately trying to be normal. He makes friends, yeah, but it’s not a smooth-sailing friendship. He struggles with outbursts at home then instantly apologizes because he didn’t mean to, but his parents don’t know how to handle or help him. He wants to be better, be normal, but he has no clue how to be because he has no idea how to mask, how to accommodate for his differences. And all of this manifests and is represented by a fucking cosmic inter-dimensional horror murder monster and I love it so much.