#five dark matter

[thecustomcosplayed]

part 6! lots of dm posting recently...

[darkmattersyfy]

CHARACTERS NAMED FIVE HAVE MY HEART FOREVER AND ALWAYS

[hornetvoid]

to my best friend; all lights turned off can be turned on

[ourfavesareautistic]

Five is Autistic

Character: Five / Emily Kolburn

Canon: Dark Matter (tv show)

Actor: Jodelle Ferland

Why We Think They're Autistic: The initial premise of Dark Matter is that a group of six people wake up from stasis on a spaceship with no memories. They name themselves after the order they woke up, hence Five. There are six of them plus an Android aboard the ship, and they set out to uncover their identities and pasts. By the end of the first episode, it’s revealed that they are a band of mercenaries, save for Five who was a stowaway.

Five pinged my radar as autistic within the first episode. Immediately upon being faced with the general confusion, she makes her way to a common room and finds a tech tablet and begins fiddling with it, or stimming. She fixes it using muscle memory and forgotten instincts without being aware she’s doing so. In fact, while doing so, she is having a conversation with Six that reads as infodumping, telling him facts in a calm and detached manner without reading his reaction to the conversation. She continues to be the techie throughout the show, often being relied on to find parts for the ship and maintain repairs, pointing to a special interest in engineering or mechanics. She also frequently takes things too literally or corrects other crew members when they use simple but incorrect vocabulary, such as calling the Android a “robot”. She also demonstrates one of my favorite autistic traits, which I like to call “robots are better than people.” She gets along more naturally with the ship’s Android than its other occupants, in part because the Android communicates plainly and does not use metaphor and does not require reading body language, facial expressions, and tone in order to communicate “properly”.

Why It Matters: Five often serves as an unofficial mascot of the ship. She can be the moral compass, the enthusiasm, and often the glue that binds the crew together. She is eventually revealed to have been a runaway youth, and it’s a refreshing change to see an autistic character with a vast depth of knowledge who is also allowed street smarts.

Challenging Tropes: Again, Five is a great example of some of the ways autism can present in girls. She’s also confident and vibrant, with green hair and a love for brightly patterned clothes. Seeing an autistic character who looks and acts in ways similar to me was a delight to see while the show was airing.

Bonus: The show’s creator, Joseph Mallozzi, wrote a blog post commenting on the autistic fan response to Android. (Of course, it’s common for many android/robot characters to read as autistic. And while finding connection in that is wonderful, I always hope to see more human characters filling these roles as well.)

[citrineleaf]

*clears throat*

Let Player take a nap.

Let Varian have his five weeks of solitude.

Let Five be a proper member of the team.

This has been an announcement by yours truly.

[zephyrvos]

ZEPH AND FIVE

I was deeply confused and then I looked at my Zeph post and realized ZEPH. IN THE VENTS. 

Autistic nerd girls in space, who love vents and strange fashion and are a bit awkward. I love this connection so much. (Also now I want to think about what them interacting would be like, because Five is on the tech side of things like Johnny, meanwhile Zeph is bio and we’ve seen her butt heads with techies already.)

[darthmatthewtwihard]

If you want to keep making history @SYFY , #RenewDarkMatter! #DarkMatter / @dark_matterTV

[unconsciousxreality]

just a quick question for the rest of the Dark Matter fandom: is there anyone else obsessed w the Five x Ryo/Four dynamic (especially considering the most recent ep) bc i need someone to talk to about this holy shit