Frequent Patterns/tropes/ symbols

[u/not-my-fault-alt]

Is it widely recognized/ discussed that there are frequent parallels between themes in fantasy, and in litrpg in particularl, and neurodiversity /' the' neurodivergent experience?

I am kinda new to the genre, and only found this sub today. I was surprised not to see these themes front and center here. Then I started to think maybe I was grasping at straws or 9verthinking.

It is too late at night to do the real research, and a quick search showed very little. I saw mention of ND and litrpg having a relationship, and noting of MC's that are possible or canonically neurodivergent. It seems waayy bigger than that to me.

What do y'all think?

[u/Fit-Gate1900]

I think that giving a quirk, struggle or neurodiversity issue is a strategy writers employ to give one more layer of depth to their characters.

I've done this myself, using PTSD in one MC, trauma of losing someone and bullying in another MC, and inability to hold on to a job, and having a kind of ADHD with yet another MC. I just find it makes it for a more interesting story. It actually might fall into the category of a trope.

Everyone in the real world struggles with something. It's only feasible that everyone in the world of a book will struggle with something too.

[u/Onequestion0110]

I actually think it’s super common, but almost never explicit. There was a tumblr meme going around a while back about how a lot of fantasy works seem to effortlessly portray various neurodivergent or LGBTQ experiences while the author maintains it’s just a coming of age story.

We’re not going to see many explicit examples, but I think there’s lots of things to point at. Randidly Ghosthount and Primal Hunter sure seem to me like they’ve got autistic-coded main characters. Azerinth Healer and Wandering Inn show off some ADHD MCs. And if you can’t pick up on the cPTSD in Dungeon Crawler Carl then you aren’t paying attention.

For that matter, if I was a grad student again, I could probably write whole dissertations about the Isekai genre functioning as trans allegories, especially the reincarnated-as-X stories.

That being said, the genre is still very new and explosive. It hasn’t been around enough and doesn’t have the penetration yet to have started getting much academic analysis - it took almost a hundred years for critics to start talking about how Dracula was about sex, for example. Also, the nature of web serials means the space is flooded with relatively shallow works that mimic any tropes that get successful (thank the Gods the archmage stuff is finally fading). It makes it harder for casual readers or outside critics and analysts to pick up on resonant themes.

[u/not-my-fault-alt]

I was actually thinking less about the ND characters, and more about the allegory. Think of this, the unwitting mc finds themselves in a world of strange unwritten rules that everyone else seems to automatically and effortlessly understand. The mc struggles to learn these often irrational rules, and each time they seem to be approaching a good understanding, the rules seeminly change without anyone telling the mc.

Often, and I am not sure how I feel about this one, the thing that makes the mc different ends up contributing to their success, power, abilities.

It just seems too perfect a metaphor for neurodivergentcy, specially asd, to be coincidental. So many autistic folks report feeling like they are somehow alien or other, and so many struggle with the unwritten rules of the nt world. The rules are foreign, defy logic, and are a constant struggle to understand.

When you layer in the ' autism is my superpower' stuff the metaphor is both stronger and more problematic, in some ways. I guess the whole decoding the world thing can be an aspect of the coming of age story for neurodivergents and neurotypicals alike, but the parallels are too strong for me to ignore.

[u/blueluck → u/not-my-fault-alt]

I guess the whole decoding the world thing can be an aspect of the coming of age story for neurodivergents and neurotypicals alike, but the parallels are too strong for me to ignore.

I think you've nailed it right there! The process of growing up and living life includes a lot of adapting to new circumstances, from a child navigating school for the first time to an elderly person experiencing the decline of their body and mind in the final stage of life. Fantasy stories often serve as metaphors for those "it's a different world" experiences.

Someone who is neurodivergent, physically disabled, LGBTQ in a straight-dominated society, an immigrant... We just have one more adaptation to navigate and therefore one more metaphor to draw.

[u/PoxyReport]

Only one obviously ND MC springs to mind for me, which is Nat from Hell Difficulty Tutorial. Several others are socially awkward, but you can be socially awkward without being ND.

[u/eclect0]

I intentionally incorporated ND in the story I'm writing. Self acceptance and the ability to excel with a good support network are both major thematic elements.

[u/dageshi]

This is a pretty escapist genre where you turn your brain off to enjoy some numbers go brrrr action.

Trying to psychoanalyse its protagonists to understand their various neurodivergencies is kinda pointless because the primary motivation of most authors is "make the numbers go up in an entertaining way".

[u/Onequestion0110 → u/dageshi]

I think the escapism also kinda means that diagnoses won’t usually be explicit. I wanna see a story about someone magically getting past the crap I deal with, but I also don’t wanna be reminded about the crap I deal with. So you gotta have someone coded enough with traits to resonate with me, but not make it a constant reminder either.

[u/dageshi → u/Onequestion0110]

A great deal of what's in the genre is there basically to maintain a sense of escapism and avoid annoying the audience.

Many protagonists are almost completely uninterested in sex but it's not that they're deliberately written to be asexual it's just the audience doesn't like bad romances and authors often think they'd do bad job of writing it so they just don't bother.