I love love love how First Shadow handles the “ugly” sides of neurodivergence. Ik it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but as someone w CPTSD/level 2 autism combo with a dash of borderline personality disorder and psychosis, I personally love it when neurodivergence isn’t presented as some cute powerful “superpower,” because sometimes the reality is that being neurodivergent, especially not the “pretty” neurodivergent, fucking sucks.
Obvi it is amazing when neurodivergence is represented as something normal (bc it is), but I find a lot of times that neurodivergence in modern media is toned down to be more palatable and “socially acceptable.” There’s a very fine line between balancing the good and bad of neurodivergence and mental illness, and a lot of media depicting either falls short imo. A lot of times, in order to not push further stigma, modern media tends to focus on all the positives of neurodivergence and wind up completely ignoring the negatives, or treat the negatives as an easily overcome battle. But this only pushes the stigma more that neurodivergence is a cute quirky easily managed superpower, but it isn’t.
First Shadow treats neurodivergence like a superpower, sure, but it’s not a good one. Henry is a traumatized neurodivergent child who is not being properly accommodated or treated. He does not know what is happening and why his brain reacts the way it does (bc he’s not properly diagnosed), so he thinks there’s something inherently wrong with him. No one around him understands what he’s struggling with it since he can’t verbalize it properly, so they dismiss it and insist that he should just act normal. The doctors that are supposed to help him don’t, and in fact actively contribute to making him worse.
And I fucking love it. I love how weird and uncanny Henry comes across, even when he’s desperately trying to be normal. He makes friends, yeah, but it’s not a smooth-sailing friendship. He struggles with outbursts at home then instantly apologizes because he didn’t mean to, but his parents don’t know how to handle or help him. He wants to be better, be normal, but he has no clue how to be because he has no idea how to mask, how to accommodate for his differences. And all of this manifests and is represented by a fucking cosmic inter-dimensional horror murder monster and I love it so much.
I also think it’s worth pointing out that this all works because there are times throughout the show (and in Stranger Things) where we see Henry being given proper accommodations and help and it gets easier for him! Patty takes his whole deal in stride, instantly saying that she doesn’t think he’s the devil, just weird. She says maybe he should turn his nightmares into a good dream, but that it’s okay if he can’t, he can always try again. Patty repeats again and again that’s she’s not afraid OF Henry, but afraid FOR him. That’s understanding Henry and his issues, and then trying to accommodate for them. Even Joyce and Hop treat him “normally,” commenting on his weirdness side but taking it in stride.
