solid proof that the Captain from Ghosts is autistic
(I know someone did do this already, but I wanted to do it myself as I have my own reasons and him being autistic means so much to me. Also, I reference season in case there is more to add when more seasons come along.)
I say so hehe
his swagger stick is essentially a stim toy
and he does stim with it, constantly
he has a hyperfixation / special interest: wars, specifically the Second World War
this is not just because he was in it, because not all WWII officers are like that; it is because he is autistic
he vocally stims all the time
“a-he-hem”
“*vague self-referential noise in s1ep2*”
“good lord” (I can’t be the only autistic person who gets one word or phrase stuck in their head and never stops using it)
“ohh”
(I mean we’ve all seen that compilation of Cap and noises; vocal stims, every one)
he loves order (possibly why the army suits him so well)
and gets really upset when that order is disrupted in s1ep6
I do this too: I get very obsessive about order and keeping things how they are meant to be, but end up being controlling without realising
the army ranking system is another example of order, and he constantly pulls rank on the other ghosts
order and schedule again: “one hour a week”
oh my lord the way he hops down the stairs in s1ep6 I do exactly that; I always bounce down stairs weirdly
he’s not that well liked by the other ghosts because he is really blunt but I think he hardly realises that he is
thinking outside the box in s1ep6 and scaring Fiona away rather than giving Alison money
from the way Alison acts I guess that he has sung the Major-General song at her a hell of a lot; high tolerance for repetition and singing the one song over and over are autistic things
he treats the ghosts like soldiers because that is what he knows, and he is adapting what he does not know into what he does know
I am not sure if this is an autistic thing, but I definitely had a phase of calling everyone by their full names, and the Captain does it too; “Katherine”, “Patrick”, “Michael” (for me it was about the nice system that full names provided)
LGBT+ people are more likely to be autistic than cis/het people are
likewise, autistic people are more likely to be LGBT+ than NTs are
he gets peeved when Mary’s grammar is bad
he gets very very upset when Robin is mucking up Adam’s filming schedule by messing about with the lights (yes this is to do with his fancying Adam, but also to do with his love for order)
he is not subtle about his attractions; autistic people are regularly lacking in the subtlety department
he is happy to work on his own (and works well on his own) when the others are done with him
s1ep1 he says “I don’t see why I should” which is such an autistic thing
infodumping at Julian in s1ep3 about Monty
s2 spoilers here by the way
again with the zero subtlety: staring at the naked dude in s2ep2
and then watching his arse as he leaves
would choose the same clothes
would not change a thing
that, people, is a comfort outfit which is a very autistic thing
infodumping about Operation William
that thing where he kind of moves towards Havers and then realises not to hug him
has no clue how to act around Havers
he assumed Alison would take him literally with the “explosive” thing, because he takes people literally
just the way he sings the Tipperary song (and the Major-General one) with all the “ba ba ba da da ba da” ah you know what I mean
when they are playing Went to the Shops and Bought, he picks a really specific type of gun because he knows about his special interest and will infodump whenever he can
I cannot count the number of times I have said something and then realised how it sounded and immediately rephrased, like he does with “I shall miss you, Havers” and “he left me”
cannot dance because he has no coördination
really cares about his war documentaries because it is (a) his special interest and (b) his schedule
does an awful job of explaining why Alison should not let Mike dig up the garden (executive disfunction)
misunderstands Lady B’s very vague statement about attraction
I would have thought it would be pretty damn obvious where Alison wanted him to “stick it”, but he clarifies anyway
gets upset when Alison is not on time with stopwatching his King and Country run
and has no problem with shouting her name even though he is fully aware that she had a party the previous night
as Julian says, “square”: the Captain wants everyone to stick to the rules
his executive disfunction shows up again when he gets the letter about France and does not think what to do and starts looking out of the window
and Havers has to step in and remind him about the lockdown procedure
is a bit insensitive to Pat in s2ep6 (when Pat is clearly upset about Keith)
he twice uses military jargon and has to explain it to Kitty (not certain this is ASD but I have definitely done a similar thing of overusing the jargon of my hyperfixation): “inventory” and “twenty one hundred hours”
