Here's a watercolour warmup for WAUtober! Originally, this is just a ink lineart of him, but then I got carried away XDDD
Believe it or not, one of my favourite antagonists in Ejen Ali is Dr. Aaron Edison AKA. Nueve! To be honest, he wasn't really my favourite character during the first season of Ejen Ali, until I read about Dr. Edison's backstory in Ejen Ali : M.A.T.A Secret Files
(Keep reading for spoilers + commentary!)
I like the fact that in the first part, it starts off with Aaron just straight up being a brat by treating the other competitors and his teammates like garbage (lmao). However, if you were to read this comic a few times, and his dialogue, you just know that he (probably) is on the Autism Spectrum, or in someway neurodivergent.
Instead of fighting or apologising to his teammates, he straight up just explains about how humans used to fight amongst themselves to determine who is the most dominant (Alpha), genuinely thinking that this is a viable solution to the situation that he has unfortunately put himself in, due to his poor leadership and social skills.
It shows that during his juvenile years, either Aaron (or his parents) was aware about it or not, he has always been showing signs of neurodivergence ever since the beginning. Although he is a savant in STEM, and (most likely) has a special interest in human evolution, his neurodivergence has caused him to get into trouble, and struggle to interact with peers of his age.
This panel genuinely cements my headcanon that Dr. Aaron Edison has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The monochrome panel shows Aaron's attempt on deescalating the situation that he his in, by attempting to psychoanalyse his teammate (Perhaps trying to relate his teammate in some way?). However, he doesn't realise that his words can be taken as sarcasm, or as an insult. This shows that Aaron has trouble reading social cues, especially during his juvenile years.
In the second part of the comic, we see Dr. Edison, now as an young adult, is on his way to achieve his ambitions on being Cyberaya's Top Scientist. He was able to gain the attention of Dr. Tong, the Lead Biotech Researcher of Tong Industry with his prototype, the Neuro Drive.
However, he has now developed a superiority complex, believing that he is the "future of the human race", while anyone who opposes him have "small, unevolved minds".
Other than that, he has also developed some sort of an Antisocial Personality Disorder, as he not only believes that emotions are "useless" and is an obstacle to human progress, but he is willing to use others to achieve his goals, even as far as using them as unwilling lab rats for his prototypes.
We may not know what he went through before he started his career at Tong Industries, but we all know that the paths he went through his life has unfortunately shaped him into the villain he is today.
Although I wished that WAU would make him go through a redemption arc, the chances of them doing so might be quite slim. But honestly, we don't know what they're planning to do with him! Because if they just want to keep him as a villain, with or without Numeros, why even bother to write a backstory for him? 👀👀👀
If WAU were to make Dr. Edison go through an arc, it would be an absolutely, extremely hard and complex arc he would have to face. Not only he has to live and cope with the trauma working with Numeros (especially Cinco), he basically has to reevaluate his life decisions, as well as face his inner demons (I'm sure his Superiority Complex and his Antisocial Personality Disorder doesn't come out of nowhere....).
I'm sure writing an arc like this is extremely complicated, especially when Ejen Ali (the series) is primarily targeted towards kids and adolescents. But if the WAU crew is able to pull something off like this, it would've been revolutionary to Malaysia's animation industry, considering Malaysian society, especially Malaysian media, rarely touches on mental health and struggles in facing traumatic incidents, neurodivergence and mental illnesses.
Anyways, that's all I have to say. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
