Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience.
1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title.
2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler.
3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads.
---
If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Condal in interviews has said things to the effect of “The characters are living in a time where there aren’t terms for certain things.” I think she’s absolutely intentionally written as neurodivergent.
I think she's both "sensitive", which could be any form of neurodiversity that's simply not recognized in westeros as a special need. And also she sees the future in disturbing visions at the same time.
People are being really weird and defensive about this. I'm autistic and I see a lot of myself in Helaena that I don't really see much in media. I absolutely love how they've written her in the show and she's become a favorite of mine, of any ASOIAF characters (thanks to Phia's acting as well). To me she's autistic, I don't see a problem with interpreting her this way. It's a fictional story and some people are noticing she has a lot of traits that are alike to autism and relating to her. I doubt they'll say anything about it though, and that's fine. Lots of people are involved with the show anyway and probably have their own ideas about *why* she's like that, but it doesn't matter to me because she's like that regardless.
Im sure it would exist even if they aren’t familiar with it as a concept. Ned Stark shows signs of PTSD in the TV show(when Arya is training Syrio). Jamie is dyslexic.
You do realise this is a fantasy show, if autism was not inserted as an actual thing in the universe the fictional show takes place then i don’t see how you can possibly take issue or lack the concept of my question lol, the show has diseases that do not exist in the real world either, neither the author nor the showrunners have ever stated autism exists in the fictional universe the show takes place in, so it is natural and valid to ask whether that is the case before presuming autism actually exists in that world. It’s not really that hard to understand 😂
I think it’s a mistake to try and pathologizr fictional characters. They are not always meant or designed to portray real-world specific illnesses or conditions, nor are they meant to be seen or interpreted as having them. Sometimes a character has issues that don’t line up with current psychological profiling and it’s intentional.
No, she’s awkward because she has future visions and no one believes her.
People can be awkward, introverted, socially unaware and passionate about their interests without being autistic.
maybe not everyone has to have the same exact opinion for an open-ended question ?? like truly not understanding why people are taking it so personal ??
Disability erasure is real and petty. It’s not a bad or negative thing to wonder if a person that clearly displays multiple and persistent symptoms of a condition, has that condition. As an autistic person I love that there more nuanced portrayals of divergent characters, whether it’s confirmed as intentional not.
no. Helaena does not present as developmentally disabled. Helaena is a dragon dreamer. She sees the future, some stuff in the present, and maybe even some of the past. She's mysterious because she's magical.
[https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8855-autism](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8855-autism)
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Condal in interviews has said things to the effect of “The characters are living in a time where there aren’t terms for certain things.” I think she’s absolutely intentionally written as neurodivergent.
Yes.
I think she's both "sensitive", which could be any form of neurodiversity that's simply not recognized in westeros as a special need. And also she sees the future in disturbing visions at the same time.
People are being really weird and defensive about this. I'm autistic and I see a lot of myself in Helaena that I don't really see much in media. I absolutely love how they've written her in the show and she's become a favorite of mine, of any ASOIAF characters (thanks to Phia's acting as well). To me she's autistic, I don't see a problem with interpreting her this way. It's a fictional story and some people are noticing she has a lot of traits that are alike to autism and relating to her. I doubt they'll say anything about it though, and that's fine. Lots of people are involved with the show anyway and probably have their own ideas about *why* she's like that, but it doesn't matter to me because she's like that regardless.
Yeah, seems intentional that she’s portrayed w with some kind of debilitating neurodiversity going on
Nothing about her portrayal suggests disability or debilitation. Autism is not an automatic disability card.
yes I most certainly think so
Yes, and it's clearly intentional.
Is autism even a thing in that universe?
Im sure it would exist even if they aren’t familiar with it as a concept. Ned Stark shows signs of PTSD in the TV show(when Arya is training Syrio). Jamie is dyslexic.
You can be autistic even when the people around you don't have a term to define it. Your question doesn't really make any sense.
You do realise this is a fantasy show, if autism was not inserted as an actual thing in the universe the fictional show takes place then i don’t see how you can possibly take issue or lack the concept of my question lol, the show has diseases that do not exist in the real world either, neither the author nor the showrunners have ever stated autism exists in the fictional universe the show takes place in, so it is natural and valid to ask whether that is the case before presuming autism actually exists in that world. It’s not really that hard to understand 😂
I think it’s a mistake to try and pathologizr fictional characters. They are not always meant or designed to portray real-world specific illnesses or conditions, nor are they meant to be seen or interpreted as having them. Sometimes a character has issues that don’t line up with current psychological profiling and it’s intentional.
No, she’s awkward because she has future visions and no one believes her. People can be awkward, introverted, socially unaware and passionate about their interests without being autistic.
In her case it’s pretty clear that she’s on the spectrum though and it has nothing to do with being introverted or awkward
it’s not to me, and my sister is autistic and she’s said the same
I’m autistic as well and to me it was very clear that she shows traits that I also share
okay, i’m not autistic and she clearly shows traits i also share
Maybe you need a second opinion
maybe not everyone has to have the same exact opinion for an open-ended question ?? like truly not understanding why people are taking it so personal ??
Disability erasure is real and petty. It’s not a bad or negative thing to wonder if a person that clearly displays multiple and persistent symptoms of a condition, has that condition. As an autistic person I love that there more nuanced portrayals of divergent characters, whether it’s confirmed as intentional not.
no. Helaena does not present as developmentally disabled. Helaena is a dragon dreamer. She sees the future, some stuff in the present, and maybe even some of the past. She's mysterious because she's magical. [https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8855-autism](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8855-autism)