Autism in Relation to Character Flaws

There’s only a week and a half until Once Stolen comes out, so I wanted to share about Cacao’s autism in relation to his less likable/more harmful attributes.

Minor spoilers for Cacao’s backstory ahead!

A (far to large) number of autistic characters fall into harmful stereotypes in which their autism is portrayed as undesirable or harmful, commonly in ways that the character themselves has little control over. I wanted to write a flawed, autistic character who’s flaws weren’t completely separate from their autism (real life is messy and interconnected; our ND traits often can’t be easily separated from the rest of who we are), but I also wanted to make it clear that this character’s autism in and of itself in no way makes them a better or worse (more harmful or less harmful) person then anyone else.

So we have Cacao.

Cacao’s flaws (selfishness, cynicism, bitterness) develop as a coping mechanism due to growing up with neurotypical people who refused to accept that he had different needs from themselves—people who treated him with bitterness and selfishness. He is still in control of his harmful actions and held accountable for the damage his coping mechanisms have done, including the damage they’ve have done to himself, because these coping mechanisms hurt him first and foremost. But Cacao is not the only one held accountable; the people responsible for his trauma are also responsible for the pain that trauma passes on.

Real life doesn’t always have such aggressive effects (sci fi and fantasy are genres made for taking pieces of our lives to the extreme) but we do see similar patterns in our world, often to the detriment of the neurodiverse people being hurt far more than anyone around them.

So, I hope readers find Cacao, not as another unlikable or harm-creating autistic character, but as a flawed individual suffering from childhood trauma and (with time) making a genuine effort to be better in spite of the people who hurt—while still being his full autistic self.