Moon Knight Fanfiction from the POV of Someone with DID
I don’t know how many people that write or read Moon Knight fics will see this, but I wanted to both vent and try to maybe get some tips out there about the things people are misunderstanding about DID.
I recently binged the show in preparation for the last episode coming out soon. I have fully seen the first 4 episodes and I’ve been told what happens in the 5th. The way the group works is, if I think a piece of media may be triggering in some way, but I want to see it, I let Mitchell know to watch, if he has a chance, the next time he’s fronting, and tell me if he thinks I can handle it. Sometimes Norah will do that instead of Mitchell if he doesn’t want to I guess. So, Norah actually watched the whole thing. I trust her judgement, and she said I could watch episodes 1-4, but that I should just let her summarize episode 5. Based on her summery, I don’t think I ever would have finished that episode without switching anyway. I also haven’t read the comics myself. We have some of the comics downloaded on our kindle, and they’ve been read, and while I assume Norah is the one who’s been reading them, she hasn’t said and I haven’t asked.
All that to say, I have been reading fanfiction about the show only, and I may have some blind spots on what has and hasn’t been demonstrated in the show.
The show, in my opinion, while definitely not perfect, does a pretty good job representing DID. I was very excited to find out that apparently the characters with DID are culturally Jewish and autistic as well, because I am too! That’s a lot a representation I can relate to. There are things that they do that seems a little off, but over all, I think it’s pretty good. Maybe I will review it more in depth after it’s all out.
Now, on to things I want to explain to fanfiction writers. I made a list.
1. If the body is unconscious, all alters are going to be unaware of whats going on outside of it. I’ve seen in fics where Marc, who’s in control of the body, will be knocked fully unconscious, and Steven will somehow be able to tell Marc what happened after he wakes up. What?! How?! You already have Khonshu to use for stuff like that. Say Khonshu told him if he needs to know.
2. Marc and Steven don’t require mirrors to talk to each other. We see in the first episode that Marc can say things to Steven without a mirror around. The show uses mirrors because it’s easiest for an audience to distinguish between the characters, and understand they are two different people if they physically show them both. There are fics that have them unable to talk to each other unless a reflective surface is around them. If you want them to not be able to talk to each other in the moment, just say they aren’t co-conscious.
3. They are not always co-conscious. The show has them frequently shown as being co-conscious or co-fronting, but they aren’t always. If they have DID, not OSDD, then they aren’t always going to know what the other has been up to. This, I will say, the show is not great at getting across, at least with Marc. He comes across like he knows everything about Steven and everything Steven has ever done. However, even with Marc, he doesn’t have the knowledge that Steven does about Egypt. Yet still, there are fics where Steven can’t keep secrets from Marc, because he will just know, when that is just not true. If you want to say Khonshu ratted him out to Marc, use that.
4. While sometimes you can have an out-of-body experience while being co-conscious but not in control of the body, you are not going to notice things that the body wouldn’t notice. You’re not a ghost roaming around the room. So Steven would not be able to tell what someone had hidden behind their backs to warn Marc about it, unless Marc could tell. I literally saw a fic where Steven told Marc what cards someone else had while playing poker. Not because Steven can count cards, but because he could look and see them. No. Not possible. Again, use Khonshu for that.
5. If Steven is autistic, Marc is too. Most people seem to understand this one, but some don’t. So for the people who don’t, if one alter has something like autism or ADHD, all alters will have it. Some may manage it better than others, but they all have it. I don’t want to read another fic where Marc explains to someone that Steven specifically is autistic. He can specifically be vegan, but he can’t specifically be autistic.
6. Television shows need characters to say their thoughts out loud because visually it’s better. So I don’t blame the show for showing Marc and Steven discuss things aloud, but they don’t have to. There are many fics where, whichever one is not in control of the body, will say something, and the other will not want to or be able to reply because they would be speaking out loud, and that would be bad/awkward. That’s not an issue in real life. I think some systems may prefer to reply out loud, but I don’t think any are unable to just reply by thinking.
That’s my list. It’s not long. I haven’t read a whole lot of fanfic yet, so I don’t know if those are even the biggest issues out there. I just wanted to kind of vent about the stuff I had seen.
DID isn’t magical. Yet some people write it like it is. Which for this show, is even more ridiculous to me, when Khonshu could be used as a magical all knowing outside presence.
No hate to anyone. I respect fic writers for putting stuff out there. A lot of it, even with these mistakes, is still good. I just wish people would do a little research about things they haven’t experienced before.
