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A Neurodivergent Character? - How Avon can be Read as Autistic

Acknowledgments

This work is a collaboration in all parts between @comarum and @jaelijn. While it was ultimately me (Jaelijn) who ended up typing it up, it is the result of years’ worth of communications and throwing around character interpretations, and it wouldn’t exist with either of our inputs. It was edited together. We take joint ownership, and you will be in communication with both of us when you read / comment on this meta.

You will find most of this piece behind a cut. It is going to be a long one – so long, in fact, that we should let you know that the word count exceeds 12k. Due to this length, we are also doing something we have never done with meta before: cross-posting to AO3. So if you would rather read this piece over there, feel free, but it is below in full.

1. Introduction

This is not a “something is wrong with Avon and we’re are explaining what” kind of meta. This reading of Avon as neurodivergent is also a neurodivergent reading of the character (like a “queer reading”) – that is, “these are experiences / perceptions that resonate with neurodivergent folk and therefore Avon may be neurodivergent.” Instead of saying “this is wrong with Avon (and here’s how to fix him),” we are saying that there is nothing to fix, because Avon is “normal” as a neurodivergent person as he is. That is not to say that Avon is an entirely perfect human being (which individual is, really?), simply that being neurodivergent isn’t what is “wrong.” If this point sounds confusing right now, worry not – hopefully it will become clearer below.

We also want to stress that we are focussing on Avon here, but on no account mean to imply that none of the other Blake’s 7 characters can be neurodivergent. Quite on the contrary, there can be a case made that a lot of them fall somehow under the umbrella, but it seems to us that the fandom has historically most struggled with Avon’s “otherness”, so here is where we want to start this conversation.

Finally, as ever, remember that this is one reading / interpretation only – one for which we hope to provide the rationale here, but also just one of a multitude of possible ones. So, as ever, your mileage may vary, and that is fine.

1.1 Avon the Genius: Fictional Geniuses and Neurodivergent Coding

Before going into the nitty gritty details of our interpretation, let’s talk about Avon’s “obvious,” if you will, broad-stroke character traits. We will be referring to TVTropes here, but since that website is a sinkhole, we’ll spare you going over there and reading for yourself – though links are provided here for your reference.

TVTropes’s take on B7 characters

Trope: Insufferable Genius

Trope: The Spock

Specifically, we are talking here about first impression, surface level characterisation. When we meet Avon, it is as taciturn, stand-off-ish failed embezzler firstly characterised by his computer skills:

BLAKE: Do you know how those door panels work?

VILA: No, not that type.

AVON: It's simple enough. All authorised personnel have their palm prints filed in the computer. The blue sensor plate reads the print. If it conforms, the computer opens the door.

BLAKE: Neat.

AVON: Most computer-based functions are.

VILA: Blake – Kerr Avon. When it comes to computers, he's the number two man in all the Federated worlds.

NOVA: Who's number one?

VILA: The guy who caught him. [To Avon] You've got nothing to be ashamed of. D’you know, he came close to stealing five million credits out of the Federation Banking System.

BLAKE: What went wrong?

AVON: I relied on other people. Why all the questions? Or is it merely a thirst for knowledge?

Literally every word in this exchange is characterisation. The first thing Avon does is indicate that he is more highly skilled than the others – though for him, it is “simple.” Next, we learn of his affinity for computers (“Most computer-based functions are [neat].”), before Vila confirms it as Avon’s area of expertise. Finally, we receive indication that Avon has a low opinion of “other people,” or at the very least of their reliability. As the scene continues, we also learn that Avon has no compunction to insult people, and we are led to assume a certain ruthlessness – Blake’s final judgment being that “[…] he’s bright. He’d already thought of [fixing the running log for the crew in exchange for his life].”

Therefore, we are presented with a character who is highly intelligent and highly skilled, somewhat unscrupulous, and who has more affinity for computers than people. On TVTropes, this corresponds to two entries under which Avon gets listed: The Spock and The Insufferable Genius. Leaving aside, for the moment, that we might criticise this broad-stroke characterisation as at least incomplete and possible also somewhat wrong when it comes to Avon, it is the first impression we are given of him.

@jaelijn has written about the notion of Avon being akin to Spock (the actual Spock, rather than the trope) according to certain fandom interpretations before, here. But to expand on this take on Avon along the lines of the TVTropes entry, The Spock “will always think before acting.” The “relationship with his crewmates/comrades is often tense, because this character type is willing and able to ruthlessly consider ethically troubling situations without batting an eye,” and “will never lose his cool.” This trope also comes with a dash of emotionlessness and the use of chess expertise as a marker of intelligence and logic. Can you see why this trope is listed for Avon yet?

As for The Insufferable Genius, the trope’s name probably speaks for itself: “he’s very talented, he knows he’s very talented, and he doesn’t mind telling you repeatedly what a talented person he is. But the difference between him and your standard-issue loudmouth is that he really IS that good, and when you need someone with his skills to save the day, he always comes through.” (The use of the male pronoun here, too, is interesting, as there is a gendered aspect to the genius tropes, to which we will come below.) The primary characteristics of The Insufferable Genius are (justified) arrogance and perceived hidden “insecurities and shortcomings.” Often there is an implication that one such shortcoming is the lack of social graces, and it comes with a sister trope of Tall, Dark, and Snarky, of which TVTropes has to say with regards to Avon: “Not so much the tall part, but he makes up for it with a triple helping of snark.” That, on the whole, seems obvious enough.

Now, what is the point of all this? Simply that when characters are intended to be geniuses in fiction, their characterisation tends to run along these lines. Sherlock Holmes (in various incarnations, including also House MD, as well as in the original) might just be the prime example, The Doctor has shades of this, so does Rodney McKay, and, of course, Spock. When it comes to typical characterisations of geniuses (and primarily also male geniuses), the stereotypical image of Holmes will probably tick all the boxes: Male, somewhat arrogant, an undisputed expert in their field (at least), not much good with or interested in people and/or emotions – either deliberately offensive or out of a lack of social skill/interest, either way not immediately personally likable (though not rarely fan favourites). It is little surprise that the Evil Genius is a trope all on its own, for the villains of this persuasion.

So now we have an image of the stereotypical fictional genius, which Avon arguable fits. Where it gets really interesting is that these characteristics are also the ones employed when a character is coded as neurodivergent (Never heard the term neurodivergent? Read on below.), that is, actually mentally “different” from neurotypical folk (what is, for more ill than good, considered the “norm” in at least Western society). For a variety of reasons which we’ll briefly look at below, this meta doesn’t like to use the term “disorder,” but neurodiversity includes, most prominently and in medical terms, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder), among others (Note: “Aspergers” used to be an individual diagnosis, but as there is no real sustainable difference to “autism,” it is now considered to be ASD, as well).

In particular when it comes to autistic coding, these are the traits most often invoked: male, highly intelligent, socially awkward or inept, restricted or obsessive interests (especially in “things” rather than people), usually also a touch of callousness or emotionlessness. In short, all the things we also find in the genius trope. We could argue, here, that the genius trope inherently also codes characters as neurodivergent, but that would lead too far from the matter at hand.

To return to Avon, then, this meta argues that Avon, through being characterised as a genius, is also coded as neurodivergent, specifically more autistic than other neurodivergences. We will explore the aspects of this neurodivergent coding below, but before we get to that, we want to give you a brief 101 on neurodiversity theory, autism, and the general approach taken in this meta.

1.2 Neurodiversity 101: Autism Facts and Fiction

This section could be extremely long, but in the interest of keeping the meta at a somewhat reasonable length, we will spare you all the details. Suffice to say that there is a lot of discourse currently around neurodiversity and autism in particular, certainly also owning to the fact that Greta Thunberg is openly autistic, and that society is starting to be more aware of disability and mental health (not that autism is a mental health condition). Autism discourse, frankly, is a quagmire of downright harmful stereotypes to the point where we are talking eugenics. A lot of work and effort is going into counteracting these stereotypes and into describing autism from an autistic perspective. In this way, it is a hot topic for social justice advocacy for actual, real people. Far be it for us to suggest, therefore, that the conversations that are happening are in any way unimportant, but they are complicated to the point where they would need several essays alone to get even remotely close to covering them. We, however, are here to talk about a fictional character, Avon, so we have tried to keep it brief and on point.

Firstly, it bears clarifying what we have alluded to above: a lot of neurodivergent coding and stereotypes around neurodivergent characteristics are created from a neurotypical perspective, that is, from an outsider point of view. While we will address these outside appearances of / neurotypical reactions to Avon below, we will also go into how neurodivergence looks like from the perspective of the neurodivergent person, and what lies behind the observable “traits.”

Secondly, this meta uses “identity-first” language. That is, it speaks of “autistic people” rather than “people with autism”. This tends to be the preferred means of address by the autistic community, as it reflects the inseparability of one’s identity from being autistic (in the same way as we would describe someone as a “homosexual person” rather than a “person with homosexuality”). There is, however, a lot of political background attached to this terminology that we cannot go into here. Suffice to state that we will be keeping to “identity-first” language.

Thirdly, through use of the neurodiversity concept, this meta focusses on the social rather than medical model of autism. What is means, briefly, is this: The medical model (including the “diagnostic criteria” of ASD) is framed from a neurotypical perspective and very focussed on “deficit,” that is, what is “wrong” with autistic people that makes them not like “normal” people. In this view, autism is often described by the way it looks to neurotypical people and not necessarily by the way it feels to actually autistic people. It is where the term “disorder” comes into play. The medical model completely disregards any societal influences on the perception of both ASD and autistic people, as well as how the ways in which our societies work can make things more difficult for autistic people. Instead, it frames autism through a lens that ascribes to all autistic people some kind of inherent flaw.

Conversely, the concept of neurodiversity frames experiences like ASD as a question of “differently wired brains”: literally, “neurological diverse.” You’ll forgive the computer metaphor in a meta about Avon: If a neurotypical brain runs on a Windows operating system, an ASD brain runs on Linux. Neither is better or worse, nor is one functional and the other broken, they are just different. In this sense, neurodiversity covers a whole range of “different wiring,” ranging from ASD, ADHD, OCD to bipolar disorder and more, though we will focus on ASD here, at it appears to us to be the neurodivergent “operating system” most applicable to Avon.

It is worth mentioning that the original concept of “neurodiversity” rejects the notion of there being a “neurotypical” in the first place – all humans are just neurologically diverse (https://neurodiversity2.blogspot.com/p/what.html). However, as in other cases of “othering,” it is an observable societal phenomenon that one, the “neurotypical operating system,” is considered the norm, and others, which this meta calls “neurodivergent,” are the “other” (and simultaneously often also “wrong”). So while all “operating systems” fall under the umbrella of “neurodiversity” and all are therefore “neurodiverse,” it is linguistically useful to make the distinction between “neurotypical” in the sense of the “operating system” that is considered “the norm” and “neurodivergent” in the sense of the “operating systems” that are not. This is not an attempt to argue that “neurodivergent” is better.

(If you are aware of discussions around LGBTQIA+ issues, you will recognise this concept: society considers cis-heterosexual the “normative” sexuality and gender identity, everything else is “other.” “Cis-het” is still not a negative descriptor, no more than saying that someone is homosexual is. This meta understands the term “neurotypical” in this same way.)

Finally, there is no one way to be neurodivergent / autistic. There is no one “autistic person,” autistic people are as individual as everyone else, and so is Avon if read as neurodivergent. This is not an attempt to reduce his complexity to a set of traits. Importantly, we are also not saying here that Avon is a prime example for how a neurodivergent character should be written as following the concept of neurodiversity, or as would be completely appropriate and inclusive of actual neurodivergent people. In fact, Avon is probably too stereotypical for it as he tends to be framed from a neurotypical perspective by the show, though the complexity of his character in general does him credit.

All of this is to stress that we, in writing of this meta, take a view on neurodiversity that talks of “different” not “lesser”, “broken” or “wrong”. Consequently, reading a character as neurodivergent is not an insult or an offense to the character. There is nothing wrong with being neurodivergent. People of all walks of life are allowed to see their own identity reflected in fictional characters, and interpreting a character as fitting a neurodivergent identity is no more “offensive” than reading a character as being LGBTQIA+. [However, saying that Avon is “abnormal” and therefore must be neurodivergent would be ableist in the same way that saying that “X character is weird sexually so he must be queer” would be queerphobic.]

1.2.1 Autism Stereotypes

That said, it’s worth deconstructing some common ASD stereotypes – and you will notice that we have deliberately focussed on the list of “genius” traits from above: male, highly intelligent, socially awkward or inept, restricted or obsessive interests (especially in things rather than people), usually also with a touch of callousness or emotionlessness.

First, however, a very important one:

a) “Everyone is a little bit autistic”

There are three aspects to this stereotype: a) that autism has traditional been described only by how it appears to neurotypical people, rather than how it feels to people who are actually autistic, b) a lot of things autistic people do or feel are things neurotypical people do or feel as well – but often this is a question of degree rather than kind – that is, autistic people may feel certain things more strongly or do certain things more often than neurotypical people, so to a greater degree, and c) there is still a large number of “undiagnosed” neurodivergent people – or better, people who are unaware that they may be neurodivergent. This includes people who are autistic, but also other neurodivergences, as many neurodivergences have overlapping / common experiences.

So no. Not everyone is a little bit autistic. Some things autistic people do look like things neurotypical people do, but may be done for different reasons, may happen under different circumstances etc. And chances are that if someone relates a lot, consistently and deeply to common neurodivergent experiences, they may be neurodivergent in some way themselves and just not know it yet.

So, for this meta: you may be reading about things we are pointing out about Avon and going “but everyone does that.” Remember the question of degree, the importance of whys and finally consider why you are so sure that everyone does that (a lot of autistic people have been there before realising they are, in fact, autistic, because the fictional portrayals of explicitly autistic individuals often don’t have a lot in common with the everyday experience of autistic people).

b) ASD only exists in men.

This is a bias that has come through the medical concept of ASD, which has been very male-focussed: male autistic people as well as male medical professionals. It is just not true: all genders can be autistic.

There are, however, various ways in which ASD is or is not visible for the outsider. Some of these ways in which ASD “presents” have historically been more studied (and consequently been made into the “diagnostic criteria”), and this “presentation” has often been associated with men. Some of these ways in which ASD “presents” are seen as more socially acceptable in women, people presenting as female, or people AFAB, and may therefore consistently be missed by the observers or in “diagnosis.” However, there is a broader variety to ASD, leading to a large number of missed diagnoses that have disproportionately affected women and other non-male genders (but also men with different presentations), even though there is no such thing as “male autism” and “female autism”.

That is to say: Even though Avon is male and we should not necessarily have to worry about this stereotype, there is a certain expectation of how autistic men in particular are (such as there is a certain expectation to how male geniuses are). This expectation does not conform to the whole picture of ASD nor, necessarily, to how we might read Avon in particular as ASD, but more on that after this introduction.

c) Highly intelligent aka all autistic people are savants (Rain Man, we’re looking at you).

Not all RL autistic people are geniuses. There is nothing to suggest that neurodivergence has any connection with intelligence, whatever that means in the first place, any more than neurotypicality does. That is to say, it is not just Avon’s intelligence that makes him neurodivergently coded. It is, however, startling just how many fictional geniuses can be read as also being neurodivergently coded.

d) Socially awkward

This is a stereotype that is fundamentally rooted in the fact that a lot of things written about autistic people, historically, was not written by autistic people. We have talked about this concept of “wrongness” a little above, and autistic communication has long been considered “deficient.” In nicer terms, autistic folk are considered to be unable to get people or unable to communicate in socially acceptable ways.

However, there has been more research recently that explores the notion that any “difficulty communicating” neurodivergent people are thought to have emerges above all when throwing neurotypical and neurodivergent people together, not, in fact, when neurodivergent people communicate with each other (for example here). That is, neurotypical people communicate poorly with neurodivergent people and vice versa. However, there tend to be fewer difficulties when neurotypical people communicate with neurotypical people and when neurodivergent people communicate with neurodivergent people. So, autistic people communicate differently, but not “objectively worse.” The disconnect appears mostly where neurotypical and neurodivergent people clash.

Relatedly, there is also no indication whatsoever that neurodivergent people do not want to be social.

However, it is worth noting that despite this, neurodivergent people’s experiences of trying to exist in a world where the neurotypical is the norm and subsequently being ”punished” for their non-neurotypical ways of communicating/socialising can often lead to them developing social anxiety and/or aversion to social situations. This might look like social awkwardness in itself, though it is in fact a secondary consequence, rather than an inherent trait.

This point is going to be important when it comes to Avon.

e) Obsessive interests

Many autistic people do, in fact, experience intense interests or hobbies – the issue here is with the negative connotation of “obsession.” There is nothing wrong with being interested in things, and for many autistic people their interests are a source of great joy (and autistic people can also often be real experts in their fields). As fans, we have probably all experienced something similar in that non-fans can tend to look down on the intensity of our involvement with fandom. It’s the same thing with autistic “special interests”. [Aside: the term “special interest,” though intra-community as far as we can tell, has been criticised because it suggests an “abnormality” of autistic interests as opposed to neurotypical interests. As terminology, this meta finds it preferable to “obsession” but wishes to stress that we use it to describe a difference in intensity/degree, not an “abnormality.”] Autistic people are also often othered for interests that in any neurotypical person would not raise any attention simply because they are autistic.

f) Emotionlessness / lack of empathy

Like the social awkwardness above, this stereotype is also rooted in the perceptions of neurotypical people on neurodivergent people. That is, many autistic people describe experiencing emotions very intensely and are intensely empathic, but the way these emotions and this empathy are expressed does not communicate to neurotypical people. This is not “emotionlessness” – it is a disconnect between the actual experiencing of emotions and the way in which others perceive a neurodivergent person as experiencing emotions.

Again, this is an important one for Avon.

g) Autism is a “communication disorder” vs autistic brains experience sensory inputs differently

Okay, yes, this isn’t one of the genius traits, but it’s so important that it gets a mention anyway. The medical model of autism considers ASD as primarily characterised by the supposed “deficits” in social communication. Conversely, the most profoundly characteristic experience described by autistic people is a difference in sensory (including emotional) perception. That is, autistic people experience certain sensory inputs far more intensely than neurotypical people and/or experience certain sensory inputs far less intensely than neurotypical people, and these experiences are impossible to ignore.

Consequently, autistic people may have a need to remove themselves from certain sensory inputs or seek others out. For example, a low sound may be barely perceptible to a neurotypical person, and, if perceived, easy to filter out. Conversely, to the autistic person, this sound may be unbearably loud or unbearably distracting. (This is not a hallucination! It’s a difference in intensity of perceiving actually existing sensory signals.) As a consequence of this, many of the observed “behaviours” described in the diagnostic criteria of ASD are rooted in these sensory differences rather than “symptoms” in themselves.

When talking about Avon, we are faced with the difficulty that for all the power of interpretation, we cannot look into his head. We have therefore had to focus on the elements of his neurodivergence that are in some way in evidence – whether visible, or through comments made by Avon himself or by others about Avon. We have pointed out hints at differences in sensory perception below wherever we could, though we still fear that this very important aspect of autism is underrepresented simply because Avon doesn’t tend to verbally express his sensory experiences. However, we believe that there is still enough visible evidence to support the interpretation that Avon is neurodivergent / autistic, and if he is indeed, there is likely a lot more going on in terms of sensory experience than we can strictly see (and something that we can speculate about in fanworks to our hearts’ content).

There are many more of these stereotypes out there, but a lot of these are less relevant to Avon – such as that ASD is something only experienced by children (as if neurodivergent kids didn’t grow up), or the vaccine nonsense so beloved by anti-vaxxers. These issues are all highly relevant to neurodiversity activism, but less to this present meta, so we will stop this rundown here. It is important to emphasise, however, that there is a lot more to ASD and neurodiversity in general than the above, and some of it will be discussed below.

For those interested in further reading, you can read a lot more about autism and neurodiversity activism here and here or look at this post collecting resources.

This twitter thread breaks down the “official diagnosis” from an autistic perspective, and this is an interesting rundown of the how it looks (to neurotypicals) vs how it feels dichotomy. Here is a thread of things not to say to autistic people, which also gives you a quick rundown of the most common stereotypes.

This blog, though no longer updated and in some aspects outdated, is a good initial start at reading autistic own voice.

There are a lot more resources, in particular also those which address intersectionality and autism, in writing, on social media, and as video sources on YouTube. We encourage anyone interested to explore more (just stay away from anything associated with “Autism Speaks”!), but we can only cover so much here. This section is probably already getting too long.

Let’s return, then, to Avon.

2. Avon as Neurodivergent

Once more, in case you missed it earlier, we read Avon more broadly as “in some way” neurodivergently coded. That is to say, we consider it unlikely that he was written deliberately as representative of neurodivergent people (though he was, clearly, written deliberately as “genius”), nor is he in any way a “representative” case of neurodivergence “by accident,” nor is his portrayal free of stereotypes (he is male, for one!). We do, however, believe that there are a lot of characteristics to Avon that make him neurodivergently coded and therefore very easy to interpret as actually being neurodivergent.

Importantly, the terms “neurodivergent” and “autistic” are not synonyms. We believe that Avon is “in some way” neurodivergent, and our interpretation is that he is autistic in particular. We do think that this is the neurodivergence with the most traits reflected in Avon. Still, it is worth mentioning here that neurodivergences are a) highly comorbid, that is, people are likely to be both autistic and ADHD, for example, and b) have a large number of overlapping traits in some areas even as they have differences in others.

But enough of the introduction, and finally into what you have all been waiting for: What the heck makes us think that Avon may be autistic?

We have split this discussion into three categories. First, we will talk about Avon’s observable behaviour, that is, what does Avon do that reflects autistic habits. (We have tried, here, to avoid the term “behaviour”, as in autism discourse this term is often highly negatively connoted as something in need of “fixing,” but have failed to find a better word. So yes, we are talking about Avon’s “behaviour,” but not in a negative sense.). Second, we will spend some time to talk specifically about Avon’s communication style: how does he communicate, how does he say the things he says, and how is it received by the rest of the crew. There is some overlap between behaviour and communication, of course, as you will see below, so “communication” is limited here to literally how and what Avon says. Both of these points are observable – that is, there are instances in the show that we can point to and say, this looks like something that would be in this way with an autistic person. Thirdly, we will talk about psychological traits, that is, the things that happen in Avon’s mind. As we cannot look into his brain, this is probably the section most reliant on interpretation, but there is nonetheless in-show evidence here that we may speculate about as supporting an interpretation that Avon is, in fact, autistic.

2.1 Behaviour and habits

We are covering four things here: stimming, eye contact, smiles and (facial) expressions more broadly, and motor skills.

2.1.1 Stimming

What in the world is “stimming,” you ask? It is a term for sensory-seeking habits, that is sensorially “stimulating” habits. This is intrinsically linked to autism being about sensory experiences: stimming is seeking out certain sensory experiences or using certain (often repetitive) sensory experiences to regulate overwhelming, uncontrollable sensory input from elsewhere. This uncontrollable input can also be the influx of emotions, so stimming is also relevant to emotional regulation. Sometimes it is very obvious which sense a stim is supposed to address – but often it isn’t quite so simple, as one sensory input can regulate another, and all kinds of sensory inputs can be used to regulate emotions.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that because unusually intense sensory experiences as well as unusually intense emotions are characteristic for autistic people, sensory input or emotion that may not appear all that overwhelming to an outside (neurotypical) observer may still require stimming. Many autistic people slightly stim constantly just to regulate everyday sensory/emotional input, never mind highly intense inputs.

(Stimming, therefore, doesn’t have anything to do with sexual stimulation, though of course that is also “sensory seeking behaviour”.)

“Fidgeting” is the pathologised term for this, and yes, it is true that even neurotypical people “fidget” on occasion, often because of boredom (so lack of sensory input!). The difference is generally that while fidgeting for neurotypical people is a distraction, it is a focussing aid for a lot of neurodivergent people.

And regardless of the fan-favourite description of Avon as “stoic,” he does “fidget” with a persistency that no other character shows. Now stims can very much vary in intensity, or rather, visibility, and Avon’s tend to be fairly subtle and contained, but they are very much still there. (There is a lot to be said about the visibility of stims and the way in which autistic people may choose to stim as subtly as possible as to not be noticed by other (neurotypical) people; whether that is the case with Avon’s stims or whether he simply prefers subtle stims is up for further interpretation. We do not see any large “body” stims from him, though it is just possible that his choice of clothes has something to do with the sensory experience they provide or shield from.)

Let’s examine the probably most noticeable instance of Avon “stimming” in the entire show:

[ID: Two gifs of Avon about to pilot the Liberator in the episode Time Squad. He stands at the central flight deck console and is repetitively running one flat palm over the other, or “dusting off his hands”.]

Here we have Avon about to do something incredibly difficult and possibly also quite nerve-racking: piloting the freshly acquired Liberator in a delicate manoeuvre to save Blake and Jenna who are stuck on a small alien probe vessel. That the situation is tense is without question, and here Avon’s hand movement stands out so much that a lot of people have picked up on it before.

It’s a repetitive movement that has no direct correlation to piloting the ship – if anything, it feels preparatory. So what is he doing? Is he brushing off sweat? A possible explanation, but the gesture itself is ill-suited for it. Far more efficient to brush his palms against his clothes (workman’s clothes here, anyway, so neatness isn’t really an excuse). Besides, in some of the repetitions, the actual contact between Avon’s two palms is minimal, he is mostly just running his fingers over the edge of the other hand.

So we have an apparently “senseless” repetitive movement – which is often what stimming looks like, as the inner effect (when it works), that is, the regulation of overwhelming sensory input (emotional input falls under this, too!), is generally invisible to the outside observer. However, it makes perfect sense that Avon would need the gesture here to calm his nerves, to focus himself on the task at hand. Hence, it looks very much like stimming!

If this were the only incident, we may be able to dismiss it as a one-off, early-series oddity. However, it is far from the only incident.

The hand / hand edge dusting occurs at least twice more, though slightly less lengthy and probably slightly less obviously:

[ID: Two gifs of Avon standing up and pressing one flat palm against the other and then brushing one hand over the other. The first is from the teleport scene in “Rumours”, the second from the flight deck scene in “Volcano”]

Both of these are probably also about emotional regulation – obviously so in Rumours, but perhaps also in Volcano.

But there are also other expressions of Avon stimming, most visibly, perhaps, the fidgeting with small objects. If we were to properly examine Avon’s stimming at length, we may be able to determine whether he uses certain stims for certain situations, or whether there are instances where he stops stimming, but this meta has more ground to cover, so just briefly: The toying with objects seems to be a little less immediately intense emotionally than the hand dusting, and more of a general focussing aid, though we’d argue that in both the instances we will present here emotions are still very much involved.

For instance, there is Avon toying with game pieces in Trial.

[ID: Avon is seated on the flight deck sofa. He holds game pieces in one cupped hand and toys with them with the other.]

This is only a small excerpt from a longish scene, during practically the entirety of which Avon does not let go of the game pieces, turning them over and over in his hands. He even gets up with them, too, carrying them with him a few steps across the flight deck. (He only really puts them down between scenes, after which we see him working on the detector screen – which in itself may be a stim / regulatory technique.) Clearly, this is the episode immediately after Gan’s death, where Avon seems to be considering staging a mutiny on Blake.

Again, there are many more instance of Avon toying with small objects, so just one more:

[ID: Avon seated at the teleport in “City”, twisting a cylindrical object between the thumb and index fingers of both hands.]

Here it’s Avon at the teleport console after Vila has teleported down and practically been lost. Avon is confronted with a missing crewmate, with the fact that they did not get what they had been promised in exchange and with a very petulant and confrontational Tarrant. There seems to be every justification for sensory/emotional regulation.

To sum up: there is a high frequency to Avon’s “fidgeting,” and he often occupies his hands with small gestures. We could list many many more examples, some decidedly more subtle, others reflections of what we have discussed already. There are also other possible elements of Avon’s body language that may be stims that have nothing to do with hands, but for demonstration purposes this shall suffice: There is evidence that Avon uses repetitive movement (“stims”) to self-regulate.

2.1.2 Eye Contact

Part of the “autistic people don’t communicate properly” trope is “atypical” eye contact. That is, “this person never looks me in the eye when I’m talking to them!” or “this person stares at me for inappropriately long periods!”. “Atypical” eye contact is often also immediately interpreted as disinterest and/or evidence of lying, or, in the case of too much intensity, as a threat.

Of course what is “appropriate” eye contact is both culturally specific and difficult to quantify. A quick online search suggests something like 50% of time while speaking and 70% of time while listening, plus holding contact for 4-5 seconds once established, but again, these figures are hardly universal. Anecdotal evidence (which is all the evidence there is for autistic experiences, so this isn’t a devaluation) suggests that different autistic people experience this issue differently: some find that they are told that they make too intense eye contact, others find that they are told that they make too little – for many, how much eye contact they are comfortable with (if any) is also dependent on whether they are speaking or listening, and in whose company. That is, there may be certain people that are “safe” to make eye contact with even if there is a general discomfort with eye contact otherwise, or conversely there may be certain people with whom an autistic people doesn’t feel the need to pretend to be “neurotypical” and force eye contact, and with whom eye contact therefore is especially “atypical”. Generally speaking, it is possibly fair to say that neurotypical instances of being uncomfortable with eye contact also occur in autistic people – but on different levels.

Either way, there is at least some indication that the way Avon does make or doesn’t make eye contact is out of the ordinary (for the British / Western origin of Blake’s 7 as a show), at least some of the time. It is not infrequent for Avon to face towards the front when speaking with people standing to his side(s). [Out of universe, this may also have something to do with facing the camera and “olde timey” camera angles, but still no other character does it to quite the same extend as Avon, and it’s not always towards the camera either.] He is certainly nowhere near 50-70% of eye contact in many conversations, and, conversely, approaching 100% in others.

But let’s talks about the non-contact first, as it tends to be easier to see. In many conversations, Avon rarely faces people at any length when talking himself, and equally frequently doesn’t meet their eyes when they are talking to him.

[ID: Avon speaking to Jenna in their cell in “Redemption”. Jenna is looking at his face, while he is facing to the front and looking entirely past her.]

In this scene, Avon is talking directly and exclusively to Jenna. There is no one else there, and he even calls her by name – yet in this whole scene he never once looks at her, keeping his eyes instead fixed on the star constellation they are talking about (so he’s not staring into nothing). This is not ordinary conversation eye contact – note how she keeps her eyes on him as he’s talking, and if you watch the whole scene you notice that she is far closer to the 50%-70% range in attempted eye contact with Avon, whereas he is approaching 0%.

Similarly, in this scene, where Vila gets very close up and personal, Avon’s eyeline consistently does not match Vila’s - he is looking at a spot on the floor before Vila steps there, and his eyes never lift from there, even though Vila is now in the way.

[ID: Vila speaking to Avon on the flight deck in “Keeper.” Avon is facing Vila’s chest, while Vila is looking at Avon’s face as he speaks.]

For another example, let’s look at Killer. This episode is interesting because it has the opposite instances of Avon having extremely long eye contact, as well as instances of Avon avoiding eye contact.

[ID: Avon talking to Tynus in “Killer”. While we only see the back of Tynus’s head and even that is nearly out-of-frame, Avon’s eyes clearly barely divert from his face.]

Avon’s eye contact with Tynus approaches 100% – he practically only isn’t making any when Tynus is facing away, or when Avon looks, briefly, at Vila.

[ID: Avon and Vila sitting side by side in “Killer.” Avon in profile is facing consistently to the right, not once glancing towards Vila, while Vila in the background looks at Avon’s face while speaking.]

Meanwhile, in this conversation, he is back to entirely avoiding eye contact with Vila (his only conversation partner), and yes, Avon does talk here without turning his head even a fraction (not pictured in the gif). This time, there isn’t even anything to stare at, except for a closed door. The contrast to Vila’s far more varied (attempts at) eye contact is striking.

If we are permitted a little speculation, the sustained eye contact with Tynus is likely a deliberate choice and a deliberate threat – but at the same time, it gives an indication that Avon’s eye contact is not purely instinctual, and that, perhaps, he perceives sustained eye contact as more of a threat than the average person. Either way, the fact remains that we can pinpoint instances where Avon’s way of (not) making eye contact fall out of the ordinary, especially also in contrast to any of his crewmates (Vila and Jenna in these examples).

There are also instances of Avon visibly breaking eye contact in emotionally intensive / confrontational scenes, which may indicate a desire to back down, but may equally indicate a discomfort with sustained eye contact in general when it isn’t on his terms.

[ID: Avon stands facing Grant in “Countdown”, both framed in profile. Avon has just asked about Anna and immediately drops his gaze away from Grant’s face.]

In this moment in Countdown, when Grant first confronts him about Anna, Avon breaks eye contact with Grant for reasons that have definitely nothing to do with the camera – and really apart from the first and last scene, he rarely sustains eye contact with Grant.

Alongside with eye contact, we might also note that Avon rarely leans in during conversations – when seated, he is often straight-backed, leaning back, frequently with his arms crossed.

2.1.3 Smiles and facial expressions

Along with eye contact, what gets often flagged up about autistic people from a neurotypical perspective is “inappropriate,” or, shall we say, “unexpected” emotional expression. This includes lack of visible emotional expression, or better, lack of neurotypical-style visible emotional expression, but also emotional expression that do not seem to fit the situation, such as smiling while in pain.

And as we all remember that the very last thing Avon does in the show is smile, let’s talk about Avon’s smiles specifically, though there is a wider discussion to be had about how Avon’s facial expressions are neurodivergent.

Here, like with eye contact, it is important to know that facial expressions are culturally specific – they are not inherent. We learn facial expressions; we aren’t born with them. You may have encountered this in reading about whether or not people from different cultures show their teeth when smiling, and how showing too much teeth can be considered insincere / a threat. So, the meaning assigned to facial expressions is also culturally specific.

We can consider autistic people here as a culture-within-a-culture – emotions are expressed, but are often expressed differently from the emotional expression of neurotypicals in the same cultural context. Instead of frowning, nerves may be expressed by physical movement / stims. At the same time, lip biting, pacing and handwringing with a serious expression may have nothing to do with nerves or anxiety, but be simple everyday sensory regulation. Instead of smiling, happiness may be expressed by stims: clapping one’s hands, for example, or increased animated body language. Conversely, a blank face while avoiding eye contact doesn’t have to mean boredom or guilt – it may mean that the autistic person is focussing so intently on what you are saying that they have no energy to spare for facial expression or eye contact. It may also be that they drop facial expressions specifically to intensify their focus by excluding distracting influences.

Though it is difficult to pinpoint such instances in Avon, we do want to mention very briefly one example, from “Seek-Locate-Destroy.” Here, Avon appears almost disinterested, but it is very clear that he has still listened. It is only when he speaks that he looks towards Blake, while all the rest of the crew for the most part consistently look in Blake’s direction.

[ID: The crew are assembled around the flight deck sofa. While Blake speaks, all are facing him except Avon, who is turned way and looking away from everyone and towards the floor.]

Similarly, Avon’s smiles may not indicate genuine humour or amusement or happiness. That is not to say that they can’t - but that there may be more / something else going on, especially in the instances where a lot of fans have traditionally gone: “Why in the world is he smiling?!” There may be various explanations that all fit with a reading of Avon as neurodivergent, so we’ll suggest only two: some smiles are amusement, yes, but at some internal thought or some irony of the situation that isn’t immediately obvious to someone not reading Avon’s mind. Other smiles may be an expression of threat, not friendliness or happiness, and to read all of Avon’s smiles as expression of happiness is plainly a mistake.

N.B.: “Atypical” emotional expression doesn’t make anyone “cold”, “inhuman” or “crazy”, nor does a generally blank facial expression mean that no emotion is being expressed or, worse yet, that no emotion is being felt.

(That said, Avon is far more facially expressive than fandom and even his actor give him credit for, as @reasons-why-kerr-avon-is-smiling also demonstrates. PD – sorry, but that one smile per episode rule you claim to have had? It doesn’t hold true.)

2.1.4 Motor Skills

While not usually (or at least no longer) considered a defining characteristic, many autistics experience difficulties with either fine or gross motor skills. This possibly has something to do with different sensory experiences when it comes to proprioception, that is, the sense of where parts of your body are in relation to everything else, including itself.

We could debate endlessly whether this is solely the fault of PD the actor, or whether this is something we can genuinely incorporate into Avon’s character as a deliberate “actor’s choice,” but we could lead similar discussions about all of the points here, so let’s just say: if it happens in the episode, it’s Avon, and so: Avon can be physically clumsy, and it’s not just the “PD slips after kicking a chair blooper-that-made-it-in.”

Most likely, when it comes to Avon, the difficulty is in the gross, rather than the fine motor skills. He seems comfortable with handling both delicate tools as part of his work and with writing with a pen in more than one instance (while Tarrant complains that his fingers were made for pressing buttons). We may be able to argue that Avon has a heightened awareness of his fine motor movements, or that they required more concentrations, as signified also by his choice to stim with his hands and the controlled nature of his gestures, but this is a less direct indicator when it comes to motor skills.

However, it is clearly Avon who trips in “Pressure Point”, and Avon who falls in “Redemption”, and Avon who falls in the rush to the airlock in “Gold”. More subtly, he also manages to punch himself in the face with his gun in “Mission to Destiny”.

[ID: Running to the Liberator’s airlock in “Gold,” Avon trips over his own feet and falls flat.]

By itself, this certainly isn’t a sign that Avon may be neurodivergent / autistic, but in combination with other things, it is yet one more piece of evidence.

2.2 Communication

Now that we have covered Avon’s “behaviour,” let’s turn towards verbal communication with Avon. This is really also where we address all the things that concern Avon’s personality – not because his habits do not also play into the picture of him as a character, but because it is through dialogue that the (neurotypical?) impressions of who Avon is become most visible.

In terms of neurotypical stereotypes of autistic people, these seems to almost jump out at you when looking at Avon. He is, on the surface, bad with people. He is blunt, sarcastic, potentially even rude. He doesn’t care for people and seems to lack empathy. He doesn’t seem to like socialising and would rather spend his time alone with technology than with the crew. This may also be the moment to remind us of some of the stereotypes around geniuses: that they are rational, focussed on their interests and bad with people.

However, these are surface impressions, and even with Avon most fans have caught on that that’s not all there is. However, from a neurodivergent perspective, these immediate, stereotypical impressions often generate an experience of being frequently misunderstood by neurotypical people. We would argue that Avon is being misunderstood in the same way by the characters around him.

Jaelijn has talked about at least one instance of misunderstandings between the Liberator crew before, but there are more – so let’s go for the most obvious example, from “Duel.”

AVON: It's just a machine, Blake.

VILA: And he should know.

GAN: Well Avon is the expert.

VILA: That's not what I meant.

AVON: No, he was calling me a machine, but since he undoubtedly defines himself as a human being, I shall choose to accept that as more of a compliment than anything else.

[…]

VILA: Have you thought of another plan?

AVON: Yes. I'm going to get some sleep.

VILA: How can you sleep with all this happening?

AVON: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.

GAN: You're never involved, are you Avon? You ever cared for anyone?

VILA: Except yourself?

AVON: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all. [Exits]

VILA: Was that an insult or did I miss something?

CALLY: You missed something.

We’re picking out this episode / combination of scenes because it actually makes explicit a stereotype that many autistic people face: a supposed “inhumanness,” with a lack of both emotions and empathy. It is also one of the few scenes that make the misunderstandings of Avon that happen frequently explicit as misunderstanding. In other words, the fact that Avon is being misunderstood here is explicitly expressed in the text.

Vila and Gan are Avon’s foils here, the characters who read Avon and misread him. Vila’s insult about “Avon the machine” early in the episode stands in direct correlation with the later scene. It directly sets up the idea that Avon’s behaviour is “not human,” or better, “not neurotypical.” The later scene takes the set up and runs with it: It explicitly addresses the way in which Avon expresses care, and that the way in which he does express care is something that is utterly and completely missed by both Vila and Gan. Avon even explains directly (“I have never understood...”), but it still doesn’t fully communicate to (at least) Vila (in the immediate moment). What Avon expresses here is that there is nothing going on and nothing he can do in the present moment, not that he wouldn’t do anything if he could. What Avon expresses here is also that he does care, that he is involved – but the way he says it and expresses it through action reads as “too unemotional” for the others to be understood as expressions of care.

(Incidentally, it isn’t entirely not an insult, as Vila understands it. Avon basically does call their behaviour “irrational” – but that’s not all he says.)

Another outstanding example is the flashback scene to Avon with Anna.

ANNA Who are you?

AVON [O.O.S.] Isn’t it a bit late to ask that?

ANNA Why do I never know what you’re thinking, Avon?

AVON [O.O.S.] I could never say it.

ANNA Not even to me?

AVON [O.O.S.] Especially not to you.

In fandom interpretations, this has frequently been read as evidence for Avon being emotionally constipated, or in some way unable to deal with his own emotions without outside help. We would suggest that, instead, his unwillingness or inability to put his emotions in words has nothing to do with the fact that he does not understand them, but everything to do with the fact that he feels them so intensely / understands them so well that ordinary words are literally insufficient to express them. This is very much in line with Avon’s disdain for “proving” that one cares, and consequently an apparent belief that any proof of caring is insufficient anyway.

With Anna in particular, this highlight that Avon’s love language is different, and that she struggles to read him (or claims to do so, anyway) – but we would be deeply mistaken to argue that Avon does not feel love for her, or that he does not feel deeply. He goes through five days of hell for the sake of avenging Anna, and if he were lacking emotions, he would not react as deeply to betrayals of his trust as he does, and he would not have shot Blake.

However, what the Anna scene also highlights, as do the scenes in which the crew misunderstand Avon (and as does “Blake,” where Blake so badly misreads Avon that he gets himself killed), is that other people struggle to “get” Avon. Most characters have moments in which they do get Avon and moments in which they don’t to about equal measure - Blake and Servalan, for example – but there is also at least one character who consistently doesn’t get Avon (Tarrant) and two who have a higher frequency of getting him (Cally and Vila). This is likely significant, but to speculate further here would lead us too far.

2.3 Psychological Traits

With that, we have at last arrived at trying to draw from all of that some conclusions as to what is happening in Avon’s mind that echoes neurodivergent experiences. As we have said before, this is probably the section most reliant on interpretation, but, we would argue, well supported interpretation.

We’ll talk here about Avon’s response to being misunderstood, his reactions to interpersonal relationships, his issues with spontaneity or lack of planning, “special interests,” and potential indications of sensory differences. As these are more questions of interpretation than strictly observable aspects, these sections are a little shorter than the above, but no less essential to our reading of Avon as autistic – in fact, these might even be the most interesting aspects of neurodivergent Avon.

2.3.1 Misunderstandings

Firstly, there is Avon’s response to the above misunderstandings: That response is either tactical agreement or lack of any attempt to correct them. Possibly Avon just enjoys being enigmatic, but at the same time it is indicative of an experience many autistic people have: If people are set on misunderstanding you, no matter how much or how often you attempt to explain, why continue to bother? They’ll not get it anyway, and if their misunderstanding is to your advantage, you may as well use it.

The most obvious scene of this is Avon and Servalan in “Aftermath,” where Avon goes along with her right until the point of a kiss and then tells her plainly that she doesn’t understand him at all (Servalan doesn’t believe him, of course, as her later actions show – she continues to try to convert/corrupt/trick him to her side).

SERVALAN: And I thought you were the one who had conquered emotion, replaced feeling with logic.

AVON: I don't really care what you thought.

SERVALAN: Oh, you are worried, aren't you?

AVON: Skip the psychology, Servalan, it is not your strong point.

SERVALAN: You think not? You could be right. After all, we're very alike, you and I.

AVON: I doubt that.

SERVALAN: You are ambitious, ruthless... you want power and you'd never let conscience stand in the way of achieving it. Well?

AVON: You overestimate me.

SERVALAN: You have one other quality I admire. Very much.

AVON: Yes?

SERVALAN: You are infinitely corruptible. You’d sell out anybody, wouldn’t you?

AVON: I don’t know; I never really had an offer I felt was worthy of me.

[… Which leads to Servalan making what she believes is such an offer:]

SERVALAN: Forget Blake. You have control of the Liberator now. There’s no more powerful ship in the galaxy. You have Orac. Avon! Don’t you see what that means?

AVON: You tell me about it.

SERVALAN: You could rebuild it all. All those worlds could be yours, Avon, they’re there for the taking. You and I could build an empire greater and more powerful than the Federation ever was or ever could have been. Now, Avon. At this moment we can take history and shape it in our own image. Think of it: absolute power. There is nothing you can imagine that we couldn’t do.

[…]

SERVALAN: We’ll be answerable to no one. Ours will be the only voice. Imagination our only limit. [They kiss. Avon grabs her by the throat and shoves her to the ground.]

AVON: Imagination my only limit? I’d be dead in a week.

[Aside: There is a possibility that Avon’s increasing self-deprecation, in particular also in series 4, is indicative of the fact that he is not, in fact, aware that he is autistic and, through being constantly misunderstood as “bastard,” if you forgive the language, comes to believe that he is, in fact, one. This echoes the way that autistic people become convinced that they are somehow “broken” because they struggle in a neurotypical world and are given the impression of being “wrong” by the neurotypical people around them. The effects of not knowing about being autistic are highly interesting but would further explode this meta.]

2.3.2 Interpersonal Relationships

Second in the psychological traits is a certain, shall we say, sensitivity towards interpersonal relationships that is discernible in Avon. Autistic people often have a large track record of failed friendships, bullying, and sometimes outright being utilized by others to their own gain and/or amusement. We are not arguing that Avon was definitely abused as a child, as fans are fond of doing to “explain why he is like he is.” We are, however, suggesting that Avon’s sensitivity towards questions of trust is at least partially due to past negative experiences around trust that are common among autistic people.

We may not even need to look further than the show for this: Avon’s distaste for the potential of being manipulated is clearly expressed. Further, Tynus, whom Avon describes as a friend, plainly benefitted from Avon taking the fall for whatever scheme they were in together: Avon shields him and Tynus does his outmost to stab him in the back for it, something which Avon almost seems to have expected by the time they meet again in “Killer.” Therefore, it’s not unthinkable that, pre-series, Tynus gave Avon the cold shoulder the moment their scheme was up instead of showing what, from Avon’s perspective, would be necessary gratitude for not being implicated by Avon.

By the time we meet Avon, he has developed a general distaste for other people, who he believes will let him down, and he is increasingly cagey around questions of trust, responsibility, and reliability of others. That the series acerbates these difficulties is no secret, and they are at least partially responsible for the ultimate tragedy.

2.3.3 Spontaneity

We may argue that Avon evidences a certain aversion to spontaneity, or to the lack of opportunity to plan ahead. Many autistic people rely on a certain routine, or at least on a certain reliability of their day to day lives, and disruptions or unpredictability can be very distressing. With Avon, this may find expression in his distaste for Blake’s habit of not informing the crew of his plans ahead of time (though Avon certainly also has other reason for this distaste). It may, however, also be expressed in the way Avon does initially seem somewhat directionless in season 3 – the crew has just undergone a major upheaval, and Avon is having to get used to a whole new set of routines, is faced with two new crewmates who are not yet predictable, and with the loss of two crewmates to whom he had got used. (Possibly his viciousness after Gan’s death may also, in part, stem from the disruption of his day to day.) Through this lens, Avon’s desire for control – coupled with his subsequent distaste for actually being the leader – are explained by a need for predictability. Similarly, Avon’s carefulness, care in planning, and sometimes his overplanning to the point of catastrophising (Horizon, Moloch), may all be rooted in this aversion to unpredictability.

2.3.4 Special Interests

Avon is very much an expert – but even though he is sometimes read as some kind of “universal genius,” his expertise is actually highly specific to (computer) technology. More than once does Avon say that something isn’t his field. Rather than reading this as shucking off responsibility, we would argue that Avon is very much aware of what he is interested in and where that interest stops. That, in itself, isn’t necessarily a strictly autistic experience, but clearly limited interests to a high degree are certainly part of the autistic experience.

Further, as “special interests” are often the greatest source of happiness in autistic people, we would like to point to the instance where Avon gets to engage with pure computer/tech-related research, which are also instances where he seems unrestrainedly happy (and also seems happy to share that happiness).

For instance, in this early scene in “The Web” where he is exploring the teleport, he is remarkably mellow with Gan, as well as remarkably smiley.

[ID: Gan and Avon are inspecting the self-repair in the teleport unit. Partially obscured behind Gan, Avon is nonetheless clearly seen to be grinning broadly.]

We might even suggest that his experimentation with the sopron is an attempt to engage with something “special interest”-related: For autistic people, special interests are not only fun, they are also helpful to self-regulate, a coping strategy. Given what we suggest above about the potential effect of the series 3 upheaval on Avon’s need for predictability, the fact that he so single-mindedly engages with the sopron at precisely this time can be read as significant. And, clearly, that playing around also makes him happy.

2.3.5 Sensory Differences

Finally, a word or two about potential sensory issues: We have already talked about Avon’s stimming as a means of sensory regulation, but there are two other little indication that may be sensory: a potential sensitivity towards distracting noise, and “odd” reactions to physical contact from others towards Avon, as well as deliberate disregard of personal bubbles from Avon towards others. We have put these here instead of under “habits” as they aren’t necessarily things Avon does, but more things he experiences in a way that is invisible to the viewer. There are also a million potential explanations for them that have nothing to do with him being neurodivergent, but they could well be indicative of a neurodivergent psychological response to sound and touch that we simply cannot see.

a) Sound

There are several instances where Avon more or less explicitly instructs other people to stop talking at him while he’s working, for instance in “Horizon”:

BLAKE: Have you got the coordinates yet?

AVON: It takes time.

BLAKE: There may not be much time.

AVON: Then stop distracting me.

“Killer” offers a similar example, in which Avon shuts Vila down while he is trying to focus / do calculations and Vila is messing about with Tynus’s insects:

VILA: Give us a smile. [tapping on insect cage] Show us a leg. I wonder if these make good pets.

AVON: Vila!

VILA: What?

AVON: You’re a fool.

VILA: Nerves getting a little frayed?

Again, this is something a neurotypical person may well also do, but it may also be indicative of Avon being less able to tolerate / filter out certain disruptive noise when he’s focussing. Sound sensitivity may also indicate why he seems to, at least sometimes, prefer to work alone rather than where / when others are present.

b) Touch

It’s worth noting here that autistic people with sensitivity to touch often report a difference in kinds of touch – for example, unexpected, light touches can be perceived as pain, while deep pressure, so heavy, enclosing touch can be calming in the sense of a stim.

Again, Avon reacting oddly to the touch of others has a scene so visible that it has been picked up by fans before – Avon's awkwardness around Max’s handshake in “Death-Watch”.

[ID: Max shakes Avon’s hand. After he lets go, Avon stands frozen, staring at his hand, and later starts to tentative bring his fingers together.]

There is no real in-script explanation of it, except that perhaps Avon is taken aback by Max’s overenthusiasm and the fact that he hadn’t really offered his hand to be shook, but it’s a full beat after Max leaves that Avon just... looks at his hand as if it were scarcely a part of him. It is decidedly possible that it is, in fact, as much a response to the unpredicted / unexpected skin contact as it is plain surprise. It could, therefore, be indicative of a sensitivity to unexpected touches.

As with the stimming, there are numerous other, more subtle instances of Avon pausing to stare at his hands after unexpected touch.

Conversely, as with the eye contact, Avon has instances of touches prolonged beyond the ordinary, such as, for example, Avon’s near clinging to Blake in the middle of combat in “Duel.”

[ID: Avon catches Blake around the waist as the Liberator rocks in combat, rebalances him, but then hangs on until they have concluded their conversation.]

Again, this is a potential indication of sensitivity to physical contact, in this case possibly trying to draw on the grounding effect of the near-embrace.

3. Conclusion and Going Forward

We’ll stop here. There is probably more we could talk about, and some aspects could become their own, fleshed out meta, but this is intended as an introduction to this possible reading of Avon more than anything else.

Once more, we don’t think Avon is an ideal representation of neurodivergent people, nor is the way in which Avon is neurodivergent representative of all neurodivergent people. Everyone is an individual, including Avon, and he (thankfully!) does not only consist of autistic traits. Nor are we saying that all the rest of the characters in Blake’s 7 are definitely neurotypical.

But more importantly, we hope that we’ve made clear that this isn’t an invitation to “fix the autistic.” In many ways, this meta is a deliberate response to all the fandom interpretations and trends that seem keen on “fixing” Avon by first finding out / revealing what is “wrong” with him and then having the other characters help him “get over it.” It is also a response to those interpretations that argue that Avon cannot possibly be (fully) human because he doesn’t behave “normally” – whether those interpretations label him as “insane” or as a literal alien is almost beside the point. Instead, we are saying that from at least this perspective, Avon and everything Avon does is perfectly “normal,” if not neurotypical.

In this way, we would also argue that common character as well as fandom reactions to Avon are reactions that autistic people experience from neurotypical people in real life with great frequency: first and foremost and perhaps sufficient here as a summary the ‘othering’ as communicating wrongly, reacting wrongly, lacking emotion or empathy and being ‘not really human’. That, more than perhaps any minor detail or evidence we have talked about here, is highly indicative of Avon being autistic / neurodivergent – because people react to him in the same way that they react to real autistic people.

So now that you know why and how we read Avon as autistic, or better, why we think there is ample ground for thinking of Avon as autistic, what do you do with this knowledge? As ever, we don’t have any intention of “converting” you, the reader, to our interpretation. Your millage may vary, and if you disagree with everything we have said here, that is fine, too. However, you might find yourself wanting to explore the Avon as neurodivergent / autistic angle in your own writing, so we’ll conclude this meta with a couple of tips for writing neurodivergent characters in a way that is inclusive to neurodivergent readers.

3.1 Don’ts When Writing Avon As Autistic

Don’t write Avon as literally not human / less than human to write him as neurodivergent (this is the most harmful anti-autistic stereotype that leads directly to eugenics).

Don’t give Avon all sensory sensitivities at once; that is not realistic.

Don’t write Avon’s neurodiversity as an “illness” needing to be fixed.

Don’t treat discussions of potential Federation eugenics policies lightly.

Don’t infantilise Avon / write him as being unable to comprehend himself or others.

Don’t make your narrative about Avon becoming “more social,” “more normal,” “more human.”

Don’t make your narrative about Avon having to change who he is to “be a better person” and to be accepted by the people around him.

Don’t make your narrative about Avon “growing out of” being autistic or “becoming less autistic.” That’s not a thing.

Don’t make your narrative about Avon being “cured.”

Don’t say that Avon is neurodivergent due to trauma – neurodivergent people are born that way, and while many have experience with trauma due to constant gaslighting and/or issues with social interaction, that is a consequence of, not a cause for who they are.

3.2 Dos When Writing Avon As Autistic

Do write Avon as he is portrayed in the show – there is literally no need to change anything for him to read as neurodivergent. He reads as neurodivergent in canon.

Do write Avon as different, not lesser or wrong or lacking.

Do write neurodiversity as part of Avon’s inherent identity, not something that “happens” to him.

Do look at autistic people’s experiences – not every autistic person is the same and going by the “diagnostic criteria” will not give you a realistic portrayal of an autistic person.

Do research sensory sensitivities and incorporate them into writing Avon’s POV.

Before writing about meltdown/shutdown, which is further important aspect of autistic experiences that we haven’t touched here at all, research extra carefully into how it feels from an autistic perspective. Ignore anything posted/published by neurotypical carers of autistic people on this topic.

Do consider the toll it takes not to appear neurodivergent (“masking”), and how that influences Avon’s interactions with the crew and outsiders

Do make your narrative about others learning to understand and accept Avon the way he is.

Do make your narrative about Avon becoming more comfortable to be himself around others.

Do consider that Avon is healthy and complete as he is, rather than Avon being in some way “abnormal” and in need of “fixing.”

Do consider getting an actually neurodivergent sensitivity beta reader.

All of this is not to say that you cannot ever write about these topics and still write about Avon, but we ask you to consider the effect of doing so while also making Avon explicitly neurodivergent.

Beyond that, be aware that almost all of these don’t’s have ableism at their root and will squick if not trigger readers who do interpret Avon as neurodivergent, even if neurodivergence isn’t at all part of your story. We are not here to tell you that you can’t do certain things – interpretation is a free for all! – but the fandom tendency to “fix Avon” is especially unpalatable through the lens of a neurodivergent reading of the show and Avon in particular. We believe that writing more inclusively for disability / neurodiversity is not a bad thing, and, amongst writing about minority experiences, both fanfic (in particularly also the much beloved genre of h/c) and “traditional” literature have a lot of catching up to do.

But finally – have fun! Reading Avon as neurodivergent is hugely rewarding and we genuinely believe that this angle gives an understanding of Avon that is comprehensive in a way that most other interpretations of “why he is like he is” aren’t. If nothing else, take this as an opportunity to look out of your box into an interpretation that you may never have considered before, because ultimately diversity is what makes fandom interpretations worthwhile.

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