I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts on Catra also being autistic 👀
Oh jeez I’m sorry I didn’t see this until now.
Reasons why I think Catra is autistic-
Being touch adverse or liking personal space
This is also related to her trauma (but keep in mind autists being touched against our will over and over is traumatizing) but there are plenty of us that don’t like to be touched unless it’s by the Special Person (ie Adora) and only like to be touched on our own terms. Catra is not a very touchy person, even with people she considers friends and clearly likes to have a wide circle around her.
Copying- a lot of autists, especially girls and women, tend to do this as a way of social blending and we tend to do it on the sense of “Oh this is just the way Things Are Done” and don’t question it, even if it causes us great distress and pain. Catra tends to copy Shadow Weavers behavior, despite it obviously not being her true nature and causing her to eventually crumble (see S4). She also tries to copy Adora in someways as well as other recruits. It seems to give her a sense of safety and that This Is The Way It Must Be.
Alexithymia: Catra, while have very strong and all consuming emotions (also a symptom of autism for some of us) doesn’t seem to understand them very much and often misinterprets them, which also leads to some other autistic traits I’ll get into. She misreads her sense of loneliness and wanting love and safety as wanting power and responsibility and to be In Control. She doesn’t seem to fully register her feelings for Adora to be love until S5 and seems to compartmentalize her emotions and have a hard time reading them.
Meltdowns and Bridge Burning
Meltdowns are common and all of us autists are familiar with them, and to me hers looks like mine a lot, crying, yelling, screaming, breaking things. Often when she’s overloaded she’ll hit or claw something, cry uncontrollably, and can’t console herself for a good while. She even pulls at her hair.
Bridge burning is a little lesser known subject, I’d call them “social meltdowns”. Pretty much “this person/suitation is making me feel bad and overwhelmed and therefor Is Bad and I must cut off all connection and push them away” which we see Catra do with multiple characters; Adora, Scorpia, Entrapta, etc. often happens more in times of stress and when we feel we have the world on our shoulders.
Masking: in this case, sometimes literally
She tends to conform to what others expect of her and hides her true self and feelings, doesn’t let others see her be vulnerable or breakdown. She puts on the front she believes others want to see or will keep her safe. ND says she’s a “hufflepuff trying to be a slythirin” for lack of better terms.
I interpret a lot of her cat sounds (purring, chirping, hissing) as stims for either when she’s happy or overwhelmed. She’s also seen flapping sometimes or doing repetitive movements with her hands- her tail flicking and swishing I also interpret as stims, ones that show her true emotions.
And there’s also the fact that I just relate to her *a lot* and have a similar story to her (without the war crimes lol), her story has moved me so much and this story will always mean something to me. I love her
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
blakekathryn
dededos
prguitarman
