so, my post about pearl from the pokemon special/adventures manga being on the spectrum got a lot of notes (for me). and that got me really thinking about the sinnoh trio as a whole and how they each seem to have this distinct lack of neurotypicality. recently i got my mom to start reading the sinnoh arc, and once she finished book 1, we sat down and had a real discussion about the way each of the trio interacts with each other and the outside world. i took away several things from this discussion, which i will share with you now.
pearl is very compelling to me when interpreted as autistic, because when broken down into his tropes, it becomes clear that he's the aspie-coded nerdy protagonist done right. now, i don't mean that he's exactly those tropes but better, but there are distinct parallels between his tropes and those commonly used in shows such as the big bang theory.
one trope like this is his lack of understanding of girls and/or femininity. most characters with this trope never grow out of it-- it's played as a running gag, and can come off especially creepy when the character is an adult. however, the way it's done in the manga, pearl unlearns this trait. he very quickly gains the experience to know that expressing certain emotions doesn't make you girly or weak or both, and it's not often brought up past book 1. something else to note is that this makes sense considering who he is and his upbringing. he's a young boy with no canonically present mother, and very little frame of reference for these things until he meets platinum.
now, in terms of interactions with diamond, something really unique surfaces. when they do their comedy routines, pearl does spell out that he uses it to communicate through rhythm. but it's not just that-- it seems to be its own sort of language, the puns, used to convey things the particpants can't get across in plain words. it's used to give hints to platinum in battle, to judge how trustworthy others are... the memory of them keeps pearl from completely losing sight of why he has to keep fighting. this dynamic (except for maybe that last part) reminds me of the way many people communicate with vine references-- these "dumb" jokes bridge any gaps they can't cross with normal words, be they situational or created by the person's social capacity.
platinum's a really interesting brand of autistic. i couldn't pinpoint why i got that feeling from her; this is because, as my friend @stygianmoondust pointed out, she's very very good at passing for nt. she's been trained for being a proper lady since day one. however, she hyperfocuses on details. the scarves are the signifier for her bodyguards and dia and pearl fit those criterium, so they MUST be the right people-- even if every other indicator says otherwise. she's also definitely got her own issues with communication, though whether this is because of her autism or her upbringing is debatable.
and with dia... dia is the character i share the most traits with, even if i'm more attached to pearl. a strong sense of justice, and of empathy, is extremely prevalent in dia. his reactions, when he has them, are intense. that much is clear. not to mention his special interest in pro team omega and cooking, as well as the aforementioned comedy-routine-as-communication thing. he's a boy who feels so much all the time that he circles back to excessive calm.
long post short: the sinnoh trio is autistic and there's nothing you can do about it
