hi hi I’m just here to offer some autistic!hotch thoughts
- he speaks with little to no inflection in his tone
- he’s known to always have a frown on his face or ‘never smile’ because he doesn’t mask and put a fake smile on to appease others.
- whenever he cries he tends to try to run away from the group, not knowing how to socially act when he’s so upset.
- he’ll often appear as ‘happy to sit in comfortable silence’ instead of making small talk.
- he compartmentalises to the point where almost every time on the show you *do* see hotch have a good time or smile, the case is already closed. he hyperfocuses on the cases and will feel in anyone else who’s going off topic.
- he is a great profiler. he probably knows more than he lets on about his team, but he’s overly respectful of the ‘do not profile one another’ rule because a) rules are very sacred to him and b) he tries not to make assumptions about his friends they could perceive negatively unless they have verbally told him, e.g. will revealing JJ’s pregnancy. In this scene, hotch looks crestfallen and says “jj you could have just told me.” because he likely saw her showing signs but he much prefers the security of someone verbally informing him.
- he literally wears a suit like armour every day on the job. No matter how impractical it is, if it’s hot or humid or he’s got to chase unsubs in fucking dress shoes? he still wears it because it makes him feel safe and likely meets his sensory requirements. his clothes become who he is.
- also the way hotch switches roles from boss to friend to comforting presence is so pronounced. his voice, facial expressions and his mannerisms all change.
- speaking of mannerisms!!!! Hotch stims a bit on the show. his little action he does rubbing his thumb across his other knuckles either in front of his face or down by his side. but often when je does this from anxiety, he ends up burying his hands in his pockets. Seemingly hiding it.
- he literally worked himself to exhaustion, and mid-fainting said ‘please excuse me’ because so much of his social skills toolbelt is being polite. on the show, however, he sometimes seems impolite when he’ll get an idea in his head and just chase after it without a word.
You can check out way more under @softhairedhotch ‘s blog where he does lots of headcanons including some autistic!hotch ones. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of reasons but just watching him as an autistic person, he feels so very real to me.
first of all, thank you so much for taking your time to tell me this!! and yeah i also agree, but it never came to my attention because i never saw people speak about it, because ig the way he acts isn’t exactly the “mainstream” representation of autism that’s all over social media yk. and i think that should change tbh, cause like it’s a spectrum, and there’s different ways that autism is portrayed, and it isn’t always gonna be “omg this absolute genius” sometimes it’s people like hotch 🤷♀️ or like reid, or another character that’s completely different to them too.
and i’m definitely gonna look at his account, cause now im an autistic hotch truther 😼
