snowflake + autistic coding: a thread

myself and a few other autistic aos fans have noticed snow is very autistic coded (that is she has character traits that imply she's autistic) and i've wanted for a while to discuss that so here's a short list of them

(before i get started, wanted to point out! autism is a spectrum! not all autistics will have these traits, or any at all. also i'm not saying that her autistic status is canon. just that a lot of autistic fans see ourselves in her and so she's rep to us.)

1. special interests/hyperfixations

she has a few that are clear. her preferred weapons are knives and we see her use them exclusively, to the point she is never seen using a gun at all and even mocks her coworkers for doing so- "boys and their toys".

also she has several knives that we see over the course of the season. collections around special interests are a common trait in autistics and she's knowledgeable in the right one to use for any given fight/situation.

she also seems to take an immediate interest in terran life and customs. whether this natural curiosity was the same for other planets she'd visited with the truckers is a matter of headcanon, but she's definitely engrossed with learning about new worlds she finds herself in.

additionally she's obviously obsessed with death and dying, even being accepting and cheerful about it and it's implied through dialogue she's spent a lot of time thinking about it. which brings me to trait #2

#2: repeating words/echolalia

snow keeps telling those she's killed/about to kill that they'll be butterflies, but she also uses it for the living- mainly Deke, when she describes his soul as one- so it might be a blanket term for someone's spirit, soul, or existence for her

butterflies probably also cross over into special interest territory, given she's got a cutesy/traditionally feminine side to her and seems to be into aesthetics a lot.

also she tends to talk in a cutesy/singsong voice, or simply in a direct manner, with no inbetween

different, even unusual vocal affects aren't uncommon in autistic people, because we tend to express ourselves differently verbally. her singsong voice is almost exclusively when she's happy or excited and i read it as a vocal stim personally.

#3: lack of understanding of social norms

this one so hard... she's consistently awkward and trying to fit in. granted she's an alien on a totally different planet than her own but the rest of the truckers seem to lack difficulty adapting to their new surroundings

she openly flirts with people even as she's about to kill them, watches people she's interested in as they sleep (she does this with both may and deke), and tries to eat an entire salad out of the bowl during the reunion party in 609.

she also sees no issue with public displays of affection and isn't embarrassed, unlike deke, when the two are caught making out.

#4: meltdowns

she has one notable one, that definitely pinged to me as such, in 609, after being shot/left to die on the truck by sarge and realizing they're likely to be caught in the explosion. she's pacing and talking to herself nervously.

also in 609, she goes completely nonverbal during sarge's perp walk when her face says completely she wants to go ahead and tell him where to shove it, but she only manages to growl/whimper/nearly cry.

#5: sensory preferences

snow is the only one of the truckers to not have a heavy tactical jacket in her outfit and only light body armor compared to the dudes. her one jacket is a comfy (i know this, i own it) cropped denim jacket and her outfit is tight

to me this definitely implies a preference to not have too many cumbersome extras. on top of being practical for her melee fighting style, but i think it's safe to say she probably dresses for comfort as well. (and yes as a cosplayer it's the most comfy cosplay i do)

#6: literalism

okay so i saved the best for last. say it with me, kids.

"hacker? like, you hack off limbs? chop people up?"

probably could fall under #1, too, but she definitely took daisy's description of "hacker" as the other meaning of the term. and that's super autistic.

anyway this is just a short list! i've probably missed a few so fellow aut snow stans feel free to reply to add on! also if you see yourself in any of these, there's a good chance you might be autistic, and i'd encourage you to research it more if you think that's the case!

jumping back in post-s6 rewatch with a few more items, because I didn't catch them on the first go through and hadn't completely noticed her autism coding at the time.

first item: in 602, when Pax expresses his frustration at Jaco's inhaler (a medical device, so this scene is a 2 for 1 on rep), Sarge points out hey man he kinda needs that to replicate his home planet's atmosphere, and Snow adds "blending in can be hard sometimes."

this to me pushes her coding from implicit to explicit, since it's being mentioned after Pax's ableism is called out, in a way creating a parallel between Snow and Jaco's shared experiences as disabled crew members. Pax was a dick to Snow in that scene too, so take it as you will

second item: in 607, while she's locked up in the lighthouse, Snow is sitting on a table and rocking back and forth and kicking her feet. If this isn't deliberate stimming, I'm not sure what you call it.

she's also kicking her feet back and forth in 605, minus the rocking, while she's keeping an eye on May towards the end of the episode. In fact the scene opens on a closeup shot of her feet doing this