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reasons why i think nikolai lantsov is autistic; a thread.
this thread is created by an autistic persons own observations of the character. some of these are purely observations whilst some of these are headcanons of my own.
i wanna preface this thread by making a few points to non-autistics. in the media we are shown as being socially awkward, unable to show empathy, emotionless and quiet. and while a lot of us are it’s harmful to assume that these stereotypes are all that make us.
¹ the biggest and most clear sign of nikolai being autistic is his fixation on building and creating ships and other things like the spinning wheel for example! he’s constantly thinking about and improvising on his plans. there’s always something for him to work on.
─ this is common trait in autistics. a special interest that is overtaking most of your thoughts at all times. you’re always thinking about them even when doing something completely unrelated. this interest can sometimes make it hard to focus on anything else.
² the thing that stuck out the most to me is how easily nikolai can modify and adapt himself to almost any situation. his ability to know how certain people will react and how he should present himself around them is a result of years of observing all types of people +
+ while growing up in the royal court.
─ this type of defence mechanism in autistic people is called masking. it’s the act of modifying your own behaviour and suppressing how you naturally feel to avoid being treated less than or tension and conflict. it’s a people pleasing mechanism that autistic people learn to do.
³ this part coincides with the last reason. nikolai grew up in royal court observing others and learning how to mask his true self to appear pleasant to others, but this can cause autistics to forget who they are and often lose it altogether, thus he created sturmhond. +
+ sturmhond was nikolais safe space, where he was free to be whoever he wanted to be without the pressures of his royal obligation or his need to please everyone around him. sturmhond helps nikolai be who he truly is without having to mask himself.
─ for autistic people, safe places are extremely important and precious to us as it is possibly our own space where we can simply be without fear of being judged. a place where we don’t have to mask ourselves. in nikolais case, this is shown in the form of volkvolny.
moving on to the things that are more headcanons than observations but i wanted to include them to give a better picture.
− nikolai would be so excited to tell you all about his plans for his next project. he’d go into huge amounts of detail and his eyes would light up at the opportunity to tell someone about it and be listened to without any kind of judgment. his projects are important to him +
+ he wouldn’t just reveal them to anyone though.
− nikolai would be a cat person. and i say this because cats tends to be more drawn towards people of a patient nature and autistic people have been known to acclimate well with felines. when trained properly cats can be great partner in adventures and have been known to +
+ travel with their owners everywhere they go, to different countries. i expect nikolai would be able to convert his feline friend into a sea cat in no time.
