#maripost

Struggles with Eye Contact

One of the most striking autistic traits Marianne has is her lack of eye contact. The lack of eye contact she makes is very visible in her pre-timeskip model in Three Houses. In her tea parties she often makes an effort to look down and away from the player, sometimes even turning and hiding her face. Post-timeskip she does look up more to represent her character growth, but she does still look away from the player when they’re not talking to her. On her expeditions in Three Hopes, her eyes twitch and she generally keeps a permanent downward stare. When being observed close-up by the player, she even mentions her struggles with eye contact.

“Sorry, eye contact is difficult for me. I struggle enough to make conversation as it is.” A lack of eye contact is a famously autistic trait, and studies show that autistic people often feel discomfort or even pain when making eye contact during conversations. While that’s not true for every autistic person, it is one of the traits psychologists look for most when diagnosing people.

Struggles with Conversation

In her supports, tea parties, and even the expedition screenshot I posted prior, Marianne frequently tells and demonstrates to people that she struggles with maintaining conversations. Sometimes when a character approaches her with an intent to start a conversation she apologizes profusely because of this struggle to start talks with people. This often makes her feel like a burden and makes her want to hide away from people.

“I make everyone uncomfortable. I just don’t know how to carry on a conversation.” Struggling with neurotypical-conforming social skills is a trait nearly every autistic person I know, including myself, has. We may try to mitigate this with masking strategies such as scripting (making up our own conversation starters), but it often feels like we can never get it quite right. 

Motor Skills

Throughout many of Marianne’s supports she is shown to be very clumsy. Most of her clumsiness comes from off-hand remarks from mostly herself, but in her supports with Hilda this aspect of her character is fully explored. These supports follow Marianne as she tries to help Hilda clean yet always seems to fail. She’d put books in the wrong order, almost break containers of potent medicines, and write in handwriting that was hardly legible. Marianne’s motor skills seem to bring her much shame, and she is shown to envy Hilda for her more delicate hands. In other supports she mentions how these motor skills affect others in battle, and on expeditions in Three Hopes she talks about struggling with posture.

“You’re also good with your hands. You can clean and organize better than almost anyone. I envy you...”

There are two kinds of motor skills - fine motor skills, which involve more delicate movements such as writing, and gross motor skills, which involve movements such as walking which require use of more of the body. Marianne seems to struggle marginally with both fine and gross motor skills, and this is very common in autistic people. Autism is often comorbid (present alongside) with dyspraxia, a neurological disability that affects movement, balance, and perception of space. I personally headcanon that Marianne has this comorbidity.

Overstimulation/Meltdown

This is a very uncommon occurrence for Marianne, but when it happens it is unmistakably present. By far the most notable occurrence of Marianne being sent into a meltdown is her C support with Lysithea in Three Houses. In this support there was a magic accident that made everybody panicked and frenzied. When Lysithea asks Marianne to help, Marianne keeps insisting that she can’t because she feels she won’t be much help. Eventually Lysithea reaches a breaking point and scolds and insults Marianne, and the support ends with Marianne running away and sobbing. Meltdowns are a scary and painful experience, but they are unfortunately common for autistic people. There are many reasons why a meltdown can happen, and the reason for Marianne’s seems to be a very common mix of things: sensory and emotional overload.

Okay, now is when things get a little more speculative. (The next passage will explore ableism against autistic people, though not thoroughly.)

The Crest of the Beast as an Autism Allegory

The major reason for Marianne’s depressive state throughout Fire Emblem: Three Houses is because of her crest. She often sees this crest as a bad omen since the most well-known bearer of it turned into a rampaging beast. This crest is said to be a curse that Marianne and her ancestors were forced to bear, and throughout the kingdom her family was mistreated for having this crest. When she was sent to Garreg Mach, Marianne was told by her adoptive father to keep the crest a secret. If one looks more deeply into this crest, they see that the main power it carries is that of communication with animals. In Raphael’s supports, Marianne is seen talking to birds. In many other supports she talks about her best friend Dorte the horse and what he says to her. In Three Hopes, hilariously, Marianne’s special attack is making this beloved horse ram into her enemies. Against her father’s wishes, Marianne tells many people about her crest. Even though it is a topic of great shame for her, her peers often tell her to embrace it. After all, she was born into these circumstances and can’t necessarily leave them, so she can’t really do much else.

The topics mentioned above would probably be very familiar to many autistic people, between the oppression and dehumanization they face, the empathy they have with animals, and the struggles they go through to embrace their autism. I often joke about how often well-written autistic coded characters end up talking to their universe’s creatures (N Harmonia coming to mind), and Marianne feels like no exception. As an autistic person with animals and zoology as one of my special interests, I can’t help but feel seen. Autistic people often really love being around animals, and sometimes feel that their dog or cat can understand them more than other people can. 

The idea of Marianne having to keep her crest a secret also rings a bell, along with it being called a curse and being shrouded in superstition. It’s important to note that this game takes place in medieval times, and many tales of beasts and fae creatures such as changelings are heavily believed to be superstitions written about disabilities including autism. In the modern day many people consider these disabilities to be a curse or a tragedy, which can make people feel shame about their disabilities. Autism is an invisible disability for some people - one that can often be masked and dismissed. As a result of all the prejudice they face from an ableist society, many autistic people don’t have a choice but to mask and seal themselves away from the world, leaving them withdrawn and anxious. That feels like a very familiar experience to what Marianne has to face with her crest. Her identity is so difficult to face head-on, but when she learns that her friends will accept her even with her crest, she begins to feel better and better. After the timeskip, her mental health seems to have improved drastically as she is more open about bearing this crest. She seems to look forward to the future, something which she never did before.