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Not today Justin
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JVL
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if i look back, i am lost
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@stookyfizzpop
i’m going to single handedly save the origami yoda fandom. no other kids book had that kind of autistic representation.
my name is belle, you probably know me from supporting wilbur soot (on @belleloveswilbur), writing about his many bursonas (on @wilbursprincess) or making octonauts ocs and headcannoning them all as gay (on @ilovetheanxietypenguin). welcome.
did anyone else read the origami yoda series as a kid and subsequently become obsessed and read it over and over again a million times or was that just me
this was actually decent for the only origami yoda fic on ao3
Petition to make origami yoda mandatory reading in elementary school
How do we (origami yoda) not have a fandom yet?
A book franchise with a clever series of art doodles sprinkled throughout, pretty realistic middle schoolers, a hilariously strange premise, great neurodiversity representation, like seriously where’s our corner of the internet?
YOU.
I've been looking for you. I literally ran to tumblr because it occurred to me in the middle of nowhere that you can find your niche appreciated on tumblr...only to see like ten posts actually about the series, and the rest polls where people unanimously decided they had never heard of Origami Yoda in their lives.
I've reread the series every chance I get and it never fails to amaze me how well paced it is for a children's book. I never feel like the plot or dialogue have been simplified to keep an attention span, the story takes its time while still managing to keep the storyline fresh and interesting.
I remember on my first read through, I didn't really like Dwight in the first book. For the usual reasons a kid might find someone unappealing (picking his nose, playing with his food), but by the end of the first book and start of the second, I felt a sort of comfort in Dwight's peculiarity.
How many times have we, as neurodivergent kids said the "wrong " thing, because we wanted to feel included more than we cared to be correct? As a child, it was a powerful escapism to see someone like me get to just *be*. Normally your options are be normal, or be quiet. I didn't know how to be normal, and, unlike Dwight, I didn't know how to be free, so I chose quiet.
But I have a big personality on the inside. I'm talkative, endlessly craving the kind of in depth discussions that drive people away.
Its so, so important for Dwight to be as wild and out there as he is. A lot of autistic kids probably can't match that level of confidence in their behavior, so the fact that it is presented as not something that needs to be policed, but something that needs to be embraced? Amazing. Fascinating.
The world (specifically the people) around Dwight changes to accommodate the fact that normal does NOT equal quiet. Normal is your happy medium, yours personally. And I don't think Dwight had that in book one.
He was comfortable being himself, but there was immense push back. We can see that the others mistreat Dwight and think he's dumb, but there are two very important things about that which the author takes care to note:
A) Dwight is NOT stupid. It's obvious to the children by the end, but the only ones who know this for sure throughout the book are Dwight himself... and Sara. His next door neighbor for the past ten years, who mentions multiple times that she knows Dwight is fully aware of what he's doing, because he has this sly smirk when he's playing dumb. Playing dumb, not being dumb. He gets all A's in math, has several moments of pure clarity, and orchestrates an entire school year ending in him having friends and a girlfriend, using a piece of paper.
B) Dwight punishes kids who are cruel to him. He refuses to let Yoda give advice, or has Yoda give bad advice. For example, the mean eight grader trying to win the spelling bee, who he gives the word mulct to; not the word that can win her the spelling bee, but a word that means to punish. When Tommy insults him, he understandably gets upset and calls him and the others out on their treatment of him and how they only suck up to get to Yoda. This results in him throwing Yoda away, though he's clearly quite broken up about it.
These two facts form the depth to the narrative that helps you realize one thing: Dwight is desperately reaching out, and is fully aware he is being rejected.
For Dwight, Origami Yoda is him being normal, it's how he channels the intelligence he truly does possess. Yoda is wise, loved, even tempered, normal. Dwight sees these traits as the antithesis of himself, so contrary to his being that he sees their existence as separate entirely, devising Yoda as the entity he can express his "normal" thoughts through while maintaining the integrity of his self image. It's why he rejects Yoda's advice no matter how often it proves correct. He doesn't want to be correct, or good, or popular, if any of those things mean he can't be good ole Dwight.
In a way, Yoda was a coping mechanism, Dwight's attempt at connecting with the people around him by building a bridge between himself, and the normal. As the others come to understand Dwight more and more, he needs Yoda less. It's no longer a matter of chosing to have friends, or be himself, as he can do both.
And isn't that the ultimate wish fulfillment narrative? It's universal, the desire to have those that both understand you and accept you as you are. The best part is how approachable and accessible the vector for this narrative is. It doesn't get simpler for kids or adults than The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and honestly I'm glad it exists.
Just remembering the origami yoda series. Man those books were wild.
Book one: I'm afraid my crush doesn't like me :(
Book two: We have to prove this hand puppet is psychic or our friend will get EXPELLED
Book three: Psychic hand puppet CONSPIRACY??
Books four & five: Detailed analysis & deconstruction of the American standardized testing system and the negative effect it has on students' joy for learning.
Book six: I'm afraid my crush doesn't like me :(
I love that it ends similar to how it starts, because like ye, the stakes are technically lower in Emperor Pickletein than in Princess Labelmaker. However it feels just as important because we’ve watched these characters grow and now we’re super invested in the events of this field trip, because this is the last we’ll see them and we just want them to be ok.
i think its time for the origami yoda stans to rise up
im not joking when i say that the origami yoda books had better representation than probably 90 percent of young adult and adult fiction
like… an autistic kid as the main character? a Deaf girl who’s realistically written and never says “i wish i could hear” or anything? actually good plot arcs about how simply “understanding our differences” doesn’t work? a gay, neurodivergent-coded kid who was bullied for his sexuality but his friends stood up for him? and it very clearly painted the bullies as wrong? representation of different races whose stories include but don’t revolve around them being POC? an abused kid with anger issues who isn’t told to just “get over it” or painted as a bully? representation of kids in special education that talks about how The System isn’t really… good? well written female characters? star wars finger puppets? these books had everything
Y’know, I completely forgot about all this stuff, it just seemed normal to me because the author wrote it as normal because it is. And now I have an urge to read every single one of those books again because hot dog they were good.
They also included how akward school dances are, space ice cream and old timey dances, those books really did have it all.
Remembering that two long-running arcs of the Origami Yoda series regarding Dwight were his classmates becoming real friends with him as they stop seeing him as the ‘weird kid’ and connecting with him as a person, and Dwight starting and continuing to date Caroline, the girl he likes. These arcs present to the (presumably neurotypical) audience, an autistic-coded character as someone nuanced and human, who is capable and desirable as a partner and friend, encouraging the idea of looking past dismissive judgements of strangeness and to try to understand people, and even if you can’t, accept them and appreciate them for who they are.
I really, REALLY want a new Origmi Yoda book.
@unforeseen-idiot @goosemixtapes @beanie-on-a-string
It appears we are the four people on this website who discuss Origami Yoda. Each of you has expressed interest in forming a tumblr fandom around the series. Therefore I introduce you to each other and to me, in order to emphasize that there are other people who like this series.
anyway I think it's stooky that other people like these books
I knew we existed.
Hey yall, how’s it goin :)
heyyyyyy dead fandom enjoyers
basically what im saying here is origami yoda fandom where are you.
the fact this image hasn’t become a meme for theorists yet is a crime
i think about the origami yoda kids at least once a week like!!
they are all out here unironically taking advice from a finger puppet (who is admittedly very strong in the force) and it works every time!!! bonkers!!!!
i love every single one of them & they have done nothing wrong ever😊😊
Reject the Bible, embrace Origami Yoda
(literally, the Bible says some fucked up shit that nobody should fucking condone)
once again I am saying that all autistic children should be given copies of the Origami Yoda series at birth. this paragraph has had a death grip on me since the 3rd grade
Sometimes I think about Dwight from Origami Yoda.
Especially the book where he's transferred to a different school and everyone treats him as the "special" kid.
At first he likes it, no one makes fun of him or bullies him.
But no one actually likes him. They treat him like the class pet. Special is used like a weapon.
Someone else has an outburst "stop calling him SPECIAL hes not SPECIAL!" I think it was an allusion to calling kids Special Edd. And the new school kids gasp and cover his ears like hes a child.
I think about how he didn't stay there. Those people were never his friends. They were babying him and he got sick of it.
I think about Dwight, and his weirdness, but how in the end he's a beloved part of the series. How he communicates with people best through his puppets instead of face to face.
I think about how he's really weird and off putting and annoying. But people still like him.
I think about Dwight Alot.
