Why I have yet to find an Autistic character I like.

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To be brief: I am thoroughly disappointed with "Autistic" characters in media. Characters that attempt to capitalize off of us, Sherlock, Sheldon, even Abed, (though he isn't so bad), and now Elliot, leave a sour taste in my mouth due to exactly what is being portrayed.

If they supposedly give us someone to identify with, I do not see how I can. For example, Mr. Robot's Elliot Alderson. Asperger's? Maybe. He has the issues with eye contact, social deficits, and awkward presentation.

But wait. What does the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's say? Does he have strict routines, heightened senses, stims? These last two things are very important to me. Being tired at home is Hell for me because even people's voices grate on me. And my stims were so odd, parents have kept their children from going near me, and kids have yelled "ret*d" in my face.

I asked my mom why these "Autistic" characters don't have stims or sensory issues, and she responded, "because it's annoying."

So these characters come with, at the very least, one rigid type of Asperger's, not to actually give many of us representation, but to be theatrical, dramatic. If people find it annoying, they should have it; then NTs will have to accept us, instead of loving the "cute" and "quirky" "Autistic" characters in media.

Finally, they all have the same personality, too. Highly intelligent, hyper-logical, good at STEM kinds of guys. Yes, many of us are like that. But many aren't. Those Aspies with average or low average intellect, artistic interests, and love of people, perhaps as an interest, have no representation. These caricatures are meant to serve NTs and NTs only.

The charactors are not written to have Autistics identify with. They are written to entertain the masses, 98 percent of whom are not autistic. Because the words autism, aspergers, autistic are scary to a lot of people most of these charactors are not described as autistic.

If people are uncomfortable with a charactor en mass, they will watch something else, the network will lose money and the show will be canceled.

I suppose there cannot be shows geared towards Autistics?

There are aspects of many shows I am uncomfortable with, yet I still watch the shows.

TV is coming to that nowadays... All I need is two or three different, original characters who deal with things like stimming, sensory issues, reciprocity, etc.

I feel the same, but not for TV characters, rather for the characters I've seen in movies that are supposed to be about aspie characters. I wasn't that impressed by "Adam" or "Mozart and the Whale." I feel that most portrayals seem like cartoonish ones consisting of every most obvious trait intensified even when supposedly "high functioning."

You would like a show called "Monk." He's not autistic; he's supposed to have OCD; but he stims sometimes, and seems "weird" at other times. You might identify with him somewhat should you watch him. He's also a very good and smart detective.

I think Goren from Law and Order Criminal Intent is autistic and I just love him. Have you seen that show? I also like Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds.

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I've thought about this as well. Not that I necessarily dislike a lot of the autistic or supposedly autistic characters I've seen (Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium series is said a couple of times to have Asperger's, and I think she's great haha.) But I don't think there are a lot of real, down to earth and relatable autistic characters out there, at least not in popular media.

I've also been noticing a lot of "autism as a superpower" sorts of archetypes, where characters tend toward extreme social awkwardness, but then they end up being geniuses and doing great things, so it all supposedly balances out. "The Imitation Game" was a good example of that for me. On one hand, as someone with Asperger's it can be inspiring to see portrayals of people with autism achieving great things. Yet at the same time these portrayals really only capture rare and extreme ends of the spectrum, so it can feel to me like it's sending the message that people with autism only have worth based on what they can contribute to society (Not to mention, Alan Turing, the subject of the film, wasn't ever even properly diagnosed as having Asperger's as he's portrayed, so it's like they tried to shoehorn that entire aspect of his character into the movie as some sort of inspiring message.)

So yeah, that's my longwinded way of saying I mostly agree with you XD

He's not officially stated to, it's fan speculation.

Like I said, Abed's not that bad imo, but it still seems like the screenwriters and whatnot are taking the "coolest" symptoms of Asperger's, theatrical, but not "annoying" things, and leaving out stims and sensory issues, at least one of which most of us, if I'm not mistaken, have to deal with.

Also, there was no need to roll your eyes at me. That was kind of rude.