It means so much as a neurodivergent person to see that, when so many human beings are excluded from humanity for the ways in which they experience emotion or express it. People that don't experience empathy are assumed to be evil, autistics with flat affect are assumed to be robotic and unfeeling.

It all ties into that idea of utopia and humanity at its best in the Orville, that as a doctor, Dr. Finn would certainly have come across humans that don't express emotion in the conventional way, which makes her the perfect person to see how Isaac experiences life and feeling and sentience in his unique way, and she accepts him and loves him.

Neurodivergent Creator(s)/Contributor(s)

When one or more neurodivergent people significantly influence the creation of a piece of media (regardless of whether or not they know they're neurodivergent at the time), I consider it a flag for possible neurodivergent-coded elements. The neurodivergent influence could come from a writer, director, actor, artist, etc. depending on the type of media and how it's produced.

(This isn't to say that every piece of media influenced by a neurodivergent person will be ND-coded, nor that every piece of media that is ND-coded will have a neurodivergent person on staff. It's just more likely than not that a neurodivergent creator will make stuff that reflects their own experiences.)

Examples of ND-Coded Media by Confirmed Neurodivergent Creators:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV Series)

Glenn Howerton (Co-Creator, Actor for Dennis Reynolds) has shared that he was late-diagnosed with ADHD (src).

Rob McElhenney (Co-Creator, Actor for Mac) shared that he was late-diagnosed with "a host of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities" (src).

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Film)

Daniel Kwan (Co-Writer, Co-Director) discovered he had ADHD while researching it to write the movie's main character (src).

Phineas & Ferb (Cartoon)

Dan Povenmire (Co-Creator, Voice Actor for Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz) has shared videos acknowledging his ADHD on Tiktok (src) and Instagram (src).

Community (TV Series)

Dan Harmon (Creator, Writer, Executive Producer) discovered he's on the autism spectrum while researching it to write the character Abed Nadir (src).

Speculative / Unconfirmed:

Welcome to Night Vale (Podcast)

Joseph Fink (Co-Creator) may have made a social media post implying that he realized he's autistic because of people pointing out that the character Carlos Dave Robles is autistic-coded. (src). However, I've done some digging and haven't been able to find the original post or any other info on this topic. If you have sources confirming or denying this info, please share them with me!

Watch Show By Rock.

No, I'm not saying that just because it's my special interest, I'm saying it because y'all have no idea what you're missing.

Show By Rock has

Queer coding in Seasons 1-2 (Cyan and Retoree are implied to have chemistry as well as Crow and Aion) (Also, it's implied Rom and Shuzo used to be in a relationship.)

Neurodivergent coding in literally every season I've watched so far. No, I don't just mean like one character, I mean *all* the main characters are at least a little nd coded. (Crow canocally stims, Yaiba repeats words a lot, Aion feels like he has to pose to talk and is described by Rom in the dub as a "shut in with a communication disorder.")

There is a cannon queer relationship in Season 3.

It's made by SANRIO. You know, the people that made Hello Kitty?? It's wholesome!!!

Please, if you can, give this show more attention. It really deserves it.

Commonly Associated Neurodivergency: Autism

Starting off my series of posts going more in-depth into individual ND-coded traits!

A character with Flat Affect is someone who is perceived as less expressive in comparison to their peers, particularly when it comes to their face and/or voice. They may deviate from their default/resting expression or voice less often and/or less obviously than others around them. Due to this they may be perceived as lacking empathy or emotional range/depth compared to their peers, even when that isn't necessarily the case.

Examples of ND-Coded Characters with this Trait:

Lan Wangji (Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / The Untamed)

Chu Wanning (Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun)

Ron Swanson and April Ludgate (Parks and Recreation)

Mado Akira (Tokyo Ghoul)

Captain Ray Holt (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Abed Nadir (Community)

Ferb Fletcher (Phineas and Ferb)

Inaho Kaizuka (Aldnoah Zero)

Hasegawa Langa (Sk8 The Infinity)

Sigrid (Sigrid)

Wednesday Addams (Wednesday)

Chu Sang Woo (Semantic Error)

Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers)

Saiki Kusuo (Saiki Kusuo no Psi-Nan)

Please do let me know if you think of any edits or additions I could make to improve this post! I'll keep an update log below the cut.