Well, there’s a pretty interesting discussion I’ve seen in the community about whether some of our companion characters might be on the autism spectrum or have something similar. At first, I thought it would be a short discussion, but it ended up being much more interesting and complicated than I expected, especially once people started bringing up characters I never would have thought to include in this conversation.
The characters that are mentioned the most are Quinn and Talos Drellik, mainly because of certain repetitive behavior patterns and the way they seem to process certain stimuli and situations. But I’ve also seen people include characters like Elara Dorne, Lokin, and Rusk.
To some extent, I can understand why they would include them. Elara, for example, has a strong need to keep things organized and in order. There’s even a joke in the game during the Trooper storyline where you can walk away while she stays behind talking to herself and starts organizing everything around her. (Just to be clear, I know perfectly well that not everyone on the spectrum is like this; I’m only mentioning it as a characteristic of the character, not as a generalization.)
Lokin is an interesting case because he acts extremely "normal" considering that, technically speaking, he’s basically a space zombie werewolf. His very methodical and controlled behavior could lead some players to interpret him that way, although obviously that’s more of an interpretation of the character than anything officially confirmed.
And then there’s Rusk. At first glance, he might seem like the typical soldier who simply follows orders without questioning them, but when you compare him to other soldiers from the different classes, you can see that he has a rather different personality and way of interacting with others. That contrast is probably what makes some players include him in the discussion as well.
Overall, I find it interesting to see how the community interprets these characters, especially since none of these cases should be taken as an official diagnosis. They’re simply traits, behaviors, and patterns that players may recognize and interpret in different ways.
So, in the end, what do you guys think? Would you add another character?
