which tbh i think really gives them fundamentally different upbringings. they were raised in the same house but they had functionally different parents and it's very clear in the way fuyumi/natsuo... behave. i guess

Disclaimer 1: These are just my opinions! You're welcome to have whatever opinions you want, or listen to other pwDID about the how good or bad the representation is!! These are just my opinions. I've been in the community since 2022 and diagnosed since 2024, which is what I'm basing everything off of.

Disclaimer 2: I'm white. I have some very surface-level knowledge on Egyptian mythology, but if there's any symbolism layered into the DID rep, I missed it.

I did looked for reviews i could link from Egyptian pwDID but honestly, I struggled to find any reviews from people in the OSDD/DID community at all, much less something as niche as that. If I manage to find any, I'll update the post and link them here!! :)

The main draw of the show for me was the positive reviews I've heard from inside the OSDD/DID community— that Moon Knight is "good DID rep". I don't think that's necessarily a misnomer, but it isn't the full truth, either. Moon Knight falls into a couple of really common tropes about DID, which I'll talk about in the post.

This is more criticism than a glowing review, but I'll do my best to explain why I don't like things instead of saying "this is bad".

Originally I was going to split this up into strengths and weaknesses, but I struggled to find enough strengths to make it worthwhile, so… essay-adjacent format it is. spoilers ahead!

The show starts with a very normal, average day. Steven Grant works at a gift shop, and for all intents and purposes, he's just a guy! But something seems off— he keeps doing stuff he doesn't remember. This is one of the highlights for me! I love that they gave him amnesia, it makes the character of Steven/Marc (sterc? marven??) genuinely read like someone like me.

This is also, unfortunately, where my first criticism comes in. the moon system's level of amnesia is very stereotypical— which isn't necessarily bad; some people's OSDD/DID does present like that! I was just hoping for… more, out of a show like this.

for people who don't know a ton about systems, let me take a second to explain! →

if you've ever seen a show or read a book about someone with DID, it's really likely that the only way you've seen DID depicted is that someone will "black out". when they wake up again, they're in a different place or doing something else. there's this big, glaring gap in their memory.

the reality is that the vast, vast majority of people with DID experience this very rarely. there are three commonly-discussed types of amnesia. emotional amnesia (where you remember an event but feel emotionally disconnected from it), greyout amnesia (where you remember some things about the event but not everything), and blackout amnesia (where you forget everything).

the most common of these is greyout amnesia! that's what what most pwDID have on a day-to day basis.

back to normal! ->

Don't get me wrong, I understand that the moon system having this much amnesia is what carries the show's plot as a whole. They can't get rid of it; it's the whole point!

But, unfortunately, that does mean that depicting realistic DID is second to the entertainment of the show, which is already a huge issue in every show about DID.

My other criticism about the amnesia is how wishy-washy it is. I'd be more fine with that amount of amnesia if the writers committed, but instead, Marc and Steven remembered everything… when it was convenient.

IMO, if you're going to establish the system as having really bad amnesia, you can't magically go back on it when it's convenient for you.

Unfortunately, the first episode was overall my least favourite and very nearly lead me to stop watching. I hated… whatever they did with Marc moving the body while not fronting. I Hated that. genuinely, when it started and didn't stop, I had to pause the show to laugh because it was almost unbelievably cringy.

I've never heard of this. Ever. It's not a severity issue— I have what could be colloquially considered "severe" DID. Some systems might experience this, but it's incredibly dramatized in the show and doesn't at all take into account the severe vertigo and dissociation that would be involved.

Similarly to the amnesia— it's about making DID entertaining.

The moon system also has immediate, perfect and clear communication. Steven and Marc can hear each other perfectly, and chat back-and-forth with no issue. Rare, but not impossible.

This leads me into my second big criticism, which is the glaringly obvious "my alter kills people" trope, aka the basis of the show.

moon knight IS the best depiction of The Trope we have, but it is still The Trope, and therefore there's only so good it can be, because... it's constrained by The Trope

→ this is a thing in real life, too— there have been many serial killers/criminals who blamed their crimes on their alters, despite not having DID!

But, also unfortunately, the overdramatized switches don't stop there.

My least favourite part of this whole show is that their eyes roll back when they switch. Personally, I find it genuinely offensive, and I had to pause to laugh every single fucking time it happened because it was so immersion-breaking.

I get that they need to show switches somehow, but they had a fantastic actor on their hands! Oscar Isaac did switches without the eyerolly thing and it was incredibly clear who was fronting, just based on facial expressions!

Oscar Isaac carried the whole show. Genuinely, Mar/ven as a character wouldn't be believable without his absolutely knock-out work on the show.

The eyes-rolling-back was what solidified to me that this show isn't for systems; for people without OSDD/DID to ooh and ahh over "oh wow this mental illness is so cool!".

→ I don't mind people without OSDD/DID learning about it or engaging with media depicting or centering it. Anyone taking the time to learn is really, truly appreciated! The sucky thing isn't you guys, it's when shows fetishize my mental illness.

One of Moon Knight's big strengths was letting Marc and Steven have different memories and viewpoints of things.

Marc has more traumatic memories, and is an EP— or "Emotional Part". Steven is the host, and is an ANP— "Apparently Normal Part". They both serve different functions for Mar/ven as a unit, and (more or less) work together to keep them both alive.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure this is on purpose. Moon Knight has structured the Mar/ven system around something called "core theory", or the idea that there's an "original alter": the "core".

Core theory is outdated and, while some therapists do still use it, among the community it's agreed-upon that this is BS and any medical professional worth their salt won't still be following it.

Moon Knight has some pretty cringey lines relating to it— some of the worst being "I thought I was the original", "you made me up", and something along the lines of "did Marc create Steven or did Steven create Marc".

→ in case you're wondering, here's a really good comic illustrating how OSDD/DID systems actually form in early childhood!

Steven having a heavy English accent would also be noticeable to their parents or anyone who knew Marc— something that was suspiciously never touched on.

Systems who present overtly, like myself and Mar/ven, are noticeable. People can tell something's up, and it doesn't just fly under the radar.

If Marc and Steven really were that different, and Steven interacted with Mar/ven's family, they would have noticed. Point blank.

The header for these following paragraphs was titled "more of a symbiote than DID; specially abled", which… honestly sums up the show.

Moon Knight picks and chooses the pieces of DID (especially overtly-presenting DID) that are flashy and easily digestible.

Towards the later episodes, the amnesia vanishes, and it gives up the pretense of DID as a whole. Narratively, their diagnosis is treated as an extra superpower to make fights flashier by changing costumes a bunch.

"You're the only real superpower I had" is… an incredibly cringy, incorrect, and fetishizing line, because it's coming from someone without DID. To put it bluntly.

It's giving "specially abled", not "empowered superhero".

The writers clearly view DID as a cool gimmick to toy around with, and IMO it's entirely inappropriate to be writing about DID like this if you don't have it. Supposedly they did have sensitivity readers, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that they had a team of people with OSDD/DID and this much bullshit passed through.

At best, the sensitivity readers were able to cut down on the majority of the bullshit, and this slop is what resulted from it. At worst, they didn't have a sensitivity team at all.

This is actually a great time to bring in one of my favourite internet pages for writing advice— Denise Madre is an author and a sensitivity reader who does an amazing job explaining the three levels of representation over on her Instagram!

I'd encourage you to go watch her entire series now, because not only is it incredibly well-explained, but it's extra important to listen to Black voices in the writing community! I'm missing a ton of nuance in this following paragraph that she explains in full in her videos.

→ For people without Instagram, Madre explains that there are three levels of representation.

1: Including. This media includes a character from X marginalized group.

2: Required. The character being from X marginalized group is needed in order for their role in this media to work.

And 3: About. This media is about this character being from X marginalized group.

Madre continues that, if you are not from X group, you should be very careful and even at times, avoid writing levels 2 and ESPECIALLY 3. If you aren't from that same group, it isn't your story to tell.

I think Moon Knight is a story that's about DID, and therefore, considering how delicate and nuanced the topic is (we have NO good representation out there), it's a story that should not be told by someone who doesn't have it. Period.

To sum everything up, I don't think Moon Knight is good representation, because it was written by someone outside the community who seems to be fully ignorant to what DID is actually like. Its depiction was cringe and often straight-up offensive. The only good thing about it was Oscar Isaac, who carried the writing and made the show finishable. If he wasn't cast as Mar/ven, I would've dropped Moon Knight on episode one.

Stories about DID should be left to people with the disorder, and bastardizing it like this only leads to more misinformation.