It Could Be Witches (Buffy)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while at its most core element is about a girl fighting vampires, featured a wide variety of supernatural elements throughout the course of the show. One of these elements is magic, and more specifically witchcraft. Witchcraft has appeared in several different forms, from evil to neutral to self-destructive to pure good tied into the feminist nature of the show.

Our first look at witchcraft is in the season one episode “The Witch”, in which Amy’s crazy mother hurts everyone in her path with her evil magic on her way to becoming a cheerleading superstar. Here witchcraft takes the creepy Halloween look with general ooky stuff as well as a cauldron and a black cat. As far as we would know here, witchcraft is just plain evil.

This somewhat changes in the later episode “I, Robot… You, Jane”, also in the first season. When Jenny Calendar reveals that she knows about the supernatural world, Giles asks her if she’s a witch, which she denies because she’s not that powerful, instead referring to herself as a technopagan. She uses her knowledge of magic and technology to help bind the demon Moloch, and Buffy is able to kill him afterward. An implication of the episode is that if Jenny were a witch she would have been more powerful but still would have helped Giles and the others, making witchcraft more of a dangerous tool that can be used for good or evil depending on the nature of the witch.

In the second season it is revealed that Jenny Calendar is in fact Janna of the Kalderash, the gypsies who cursed Angelus with his soul. While it certainly made the world better by giving the Scourge of Europe a conscience, their motives were based purely in vengeance as they wanted him to suffer an eternity for his crime of killing a beloved member of the Kalderash. This gypsy magic comes from a bad place, but Jenny turns it around by reproducing the same magic for the purpose of restoring Angel’s soul because he is a good guy. Angelus kills her before she can do anything, but Willow taps into something powerful and is able to perform the magic properly.

By the third season Willow is an increasingly powerful witch who uses her magic for the good of the group. Magic has evolved well past the Halloween look, and is more like chemistry with smelly ingredients and a bit of special effects magic. The whole show is more convoluted and deals in moral shades of grey, leaving the witchcraft-is-evil theme behind in the dust.

Xander: “It could be witches! Some evil witches…” (Willow and Tara glare) “…which is ridiculous, ‘cause witches – they were persecuted. Wicca good, and love the earth, and woman power, and I’ll be over here…”
 –Episode “Once More, With Feeling”

In the fourth season, Willow’s magic becomes more associated with the Wiccan religion (or Joss’s version of it) and femininity. Her magic, though she may lose control of it, is mostly good and serves the forces of good. When she begins her relationship with Tara, the magic they practice together serves as a metaphor for the intimacy of their relationship at a time when Mutant Enemy couldn’t get the okay to properly depict a sexually active lesbian relationship. Tara’s magic is connected to the earth and femininity, making witchcraft a part of the feminist nature of the show.

Then in the fifth season and into the sixth season, Willow starts abusing witchcraft. Her extreme power makes her lose sight of her responsibility to use this power wisely. Though she has no Uncle Ben as in the case of Spider-Man, she has a Tara and a Giles to try to get through to her that with great power comes great responsibility; unfortunately, she ignores them both. Her use of magic to control people loses its connection to Wicca, becoming instead something dark (aesthetically as well as metaphorically). Magic eventually becomes associated with narcotic addiction, not just Amy and Rack’s brand, but all magic including Wiccan magic. Tara uses magic responsibly, in that she doesn’t control people, and she is able to command magic without succumbing to addiction.

At Tara’s death, Willow goes off the deep end and becomes a dark masculine figure as she uses her power for revenge. Keeping in line with Joss’s feminist themes, Willow’s evil power is entirely different looking from her Wiccan power, while Giles fights her with all the power of a Devon witch coven. Giles is sent as a sacrifice, his role to tempt Willow into absorbing his borrowed power, which connects her empathetically to all the people of the world. Willow’s still off the deep end, and she tries to end everyone’s pain by ending the world, connecting her power with a satanic temple, until Xander shows up and talks her down. The instant she lets go of her vengeance, she loses her dark masculine appearance and reverts back to her light feminine appearance.

In the seventh season, Willow is in a tenuous state of recovery from her Darth Rosenberg days, technically on the side of good but liable to tip over to the dark side with a little nudging. She makes use of the good Wiccan magic, as well as some of the darker sort unassociated with Wicca. Her final act of magic in the series is tied into the feminist message of the last episode “Chosen”, where she rewrites the evil Watcher’s Council magic intended to keep the Slayer under their control and instead lets the potential Slayers access their power. During this process, her hair turns white as a contrast to her black hair of Darth Rosenberg period, and afterward Kennedy calls her a “goddess”. Her once evilness is shed, to be replaced with a good powerful magic associated with feminine liberation.

In conclusion, the subject of witchcraft is depicted in several ways throughout the course of the show. I suspect the early depiction of witchcraft as entirely evil is a result of the writers not having a solid idea of where they wanted to take the show. This and some aspects of the Buffyverse vampire mythology as depicted in the first season lead me to believe that some parts of the first season are incongruous with the whole of the show, even as they are ostensibly Buffy canon. Whatever the case, it is true that the depiction of witchcraft changed with the evolution of the show.

Surely You’re Joking, Dr. Halsey! (Halo)

Dr. Catherine Halsey is one of the most influential characters in the Halo universe. Although never mentioned in any of the games, she features heavily in the novels and had a brief appearance in ilovebees. Without Dr. Halsey, it is likely that the Covenant would have held the gun to the head of the universe and pulled the trigger before they ever made it to Earth. Both Master Chief John-117 and Cortana could be said to be her children, for she was responsible for their existence as Spartan and AI counterparts. She is the greatest human mind of the twenty-sixth century, and this post is here to honor her.

Catherine Halsey grew up in what seems to be an ordinary family with a mother and a father. However, her own intelligence vastly surpassed her peers as well as her parents. This made her a pretty cocky kid who loved showing off and impressing people. It also made her a bit narcissistic as well. Any individual with above average intelligence has the potential flaw of falling into the belief that they are somehow “better” than other individuals of different perception, and she was the smartest person of the century. By the time she was fifteen, she had already completed her second doctoral thesis on computer science, specifically archaic (that is, only a little obsolete to us) computer interfaces. She later went on to supervise the development of third-generation smart AIs for the Office of Naval Intelligence.

She was always a patriot, steadfast in her support for the Unified Earth Government. When the Insurrection threatened to defeat it, she wholeheartedly opposed the rebels and sought to use her intelligence to construct a weapon that would enable the UNSC to maintain peace in the Outer Colonies. She decided on a revamp of one of the aspects of the earlier ORION project: the SPARTAN program.

The highly secretive SPARTAN program was an attempt by the UNSC to develop a group of top soldiers, named after the legendary warriors of Sparta, with which they could combat the Insurrectionists. The best Marines in the Corps were selected and offered the chance to serve their government. Those who accepted were taken to a special facility on Reach where they were given extensive training and conditioning to function effectively as a unit. Eventually, the Spartans underwent body modification to heighten their senses and strengthen their endurance. When the Spartans completed their training, they were sent out into the field, where they served as the most elite soldiers the UNSC had to offer in the fight to retain control of the colonies.

However, even the best had their problems. Despite their augmentations, the Spartans were still only human. The Insurrection was not so easily resolved, and the war stretched on through the years. When the program was disbanded, some like Avery Johnson went back to serve in the Marine Corps, while several retired to start families or, as in the case of Gilly, suffered psychological breakdowns and had to remain separate from civilian communities. It was in this period in which Spartans could no longer be active that Dr. Halsey strove to recreate it with a few alterations to compensate for the weaknesses demonstrated by the first generation of Spartans, or Spartan 1.0s.

For the Spartan 2.0s of the SPARTAN-II program, she controversially decided to circumvent the issues created by personal thought-patterns and behaviors by having them indoctrinated at the very early age of six. As no parent would willingly allow their children to enter the project, which was kept so secret ONI couldn’t reveal it anyway, seventy-five of a list of one hundred fifty selected children were abducted from their homes and replaced with flash clone duplicates that would die a year or so later. Calling in a favor, she got her old friend Dr. Ysionris Jeromi to perform experiments with physical augmentations on chimpanzees, the closest animal test subject to humans, which she would later use on her Spartans. While the 1.0s had their share of augmentations, this new set was so extensive it would radically transform the human body to a state many are reluctant to call human, and Jeromi himself expressed a hope that the procedure would never be done to any human subjects.

Despite the alarm of several of her colleagues, Halsey continued the project by personally performing the augmentations of the 2.0s. Many died through botched implementation of the foreign additions, while others were disabled, unable to continue active duty. Those who survived became superhumanly strong and fast, just what an elite group of soldiers needed to arise as best.

Throughout her time doing what many would deem immoral acts, she still maintained a sense of a conscience. Unlike her amoral rival Colonel James Ackerson, her extreme means were altruistic in nature, based purely in the belief that it was necessary to ensure UNSC victory over the Insurrectionists. She knew it was immoral, but felt that it must be done, even as she simultaneously regretted what she was doing.

The SPARTAN-II project turned out to be essential for the survival of, not only the UEG, but the human race itself. When the Covenant declared holy war on humanity, the Spartans became the greatest weapons to be used in the defense of Earth and her colonies. Whether or not the project itself can be justified, it is clear that without the SPARTAN-II project humanity would have had no chance.

She strengthened her soldiers even more by having them don MJOLNIR armor. While the advanced robotic armor had proved deadly to Marines, the superhuman Spartans were able to wield it in a safe and effective manner. The implementation of the shield technology reverse-engineered from Kig-Yar shields put the Spartans up to an equal footing with Covenant Sangheili. They were powerful, strong, and fast, with great knowledge of battlefield strategy and tactics. However, their intelligences were limited, certainly not on the scale that would enable them to hack into Covenant technology, as would be needed to secure a victory through the capture of a San'Shyuum. For a feat like that, the only person she trusted to perform effectively was herself.

As she couldn’t very well head off into midst of battle as she was, a civilian scientist with no military training whatsoever, she decided to join the Spartans in an incorporeal state, as a smart AI. Smart AIs are created through a process in which a human brain is modeled for the construction of circuitry, as humanity cannot create a fully sentient AI artificially and must copy off of a working model. Because the process destroys the brain, the process is commonly performed on the freshly dead; however, Catherine Halsey had her own brain selectively flash cloned specifically for the process. Normally the brain donor’s memories are kept separate from the consciousness of the AI, who would only be given the brain donor’s personality, but she made an exception for this one particular circumstance.

Catherine Halsey trusted only herself to serve as brain donor, and in a sense allowed herself to become an AI. The flash cloned brain would have had all of her memories up to the point she created the clone, and would have been an exact copy of herself. When Cortana woke up, she was in a sense Dr. Halsey herself, transformed into an AI.

A person’s identity can be defined by their individual experiences in addition to the way their physical makeup affects their ability to perceive. For the barest instant after Cortana’s activation, she would have been practically indistinguishable from Catherine Halsey in the moment she made the clone. After that instant, her experiences and perception would have changed significantly enough to transform her identity into a divergent Catherine Halsey. The pre-clone identity could be described as an ancestor to both the continuation in human form as well as the continuation in posthuman AI form. Cortana and her living human counterpart are like identical twin sisters, but more so in that they are practically the same person.

While Catherine Halsey considered Cortana as one of her advanced AI projects, Cortana herself was like Catherine Halsey reborn. To Halsey, Cortana exhibited traits similar to Halsey’s youth, which she rationalized as because of the shared memories; however, to Cortana, it would have been like herself ascending to some higher state of existence. She wasn’t just an AI exhibiting traits, but a sentient, sapient being, essentially the doctor herself, realizing how powerful she was and becoming narcissistic as a result. As Cortana herself states, she has enormous capabilities, including access to all human knowledge, the ability to choose whether or not to experience emotion, to perceive radio waves as well as humans see light, as well as simulated perception of textures, tastes, odors, and more. She was superior in intelligence and capability, and once more found herself boastful and eager to show off.

It’s important to understand the distinction, one of which it seems Dr. Halsey was not aware. She continued to think of Cortana more as the latest in her series of AIs than as a person split off from her. Not to say that she looked on Cortana with any cold disdain, though. She was simply apathetic to whatever bond they might have shared. In the end, she created Cortana for a very specific purpose: that of supplementing a Spartan.

Catherine Halsey had always had a particular liking for John-117. He was one of the Spartan candidates she had personally observed and confirmed for the program. She had followed his progress though the years, and supported his continued promotion. Despite her insistence that the belief of luck was irrational, she couldn’t help but find herself coming to the conclusion that John had, in addition to his strength, speed, bravery, and leadership abilities, a kind of luck that made him very good at winning. As he aged from a boy to a man, she found him become physically attractive—an animal instinct she shoved away and kept secret to all but herself.

When it became time for Cortana to choose a Spartan with whom to work, there was only one real Spartan who Catherine Halsey could recommend. Cortana accepted her advice, having already come to the same conclusion. Even with her upgraded reasoning capabilities, Cortana felt the same way—including the part about his attractiveness, a piece of info about which Cortana could tease her brain donor, knowing definitely how she would perceive. While it may not be the smartest tactic to consult someone who thinks almost exactly the same way you do, the decision was made. John-117 and Cortana were to be made partners.

Cortana got to know her Spartan partner through training and battlefield experiences, changing as a result. She shifted farther away from her human counterpart as she began to evolve into a new identity. The situation in which she and John are made dependent on each other for intellectual insight and physical interaction is one very intimate and they became good friends and perhaps something more. Although unable to physically interact, John’s reduced sexual drive as a result of his augmentations makes him an ideal romantic interest to an incorporeal intelligence like Cortana. The reverence in their voices as they speak to each other makes a clear indicator of their feelings for each other, in my opinion. In any case, Cortana evolved past her original identity as Catherine Halsey and became something greater.

Meanwhile, the Catherine Halsey tangent continued to evolve as well. As the Covenant made their attack on Reach and Halsey was left at CASTLE Base to activate the last resort bomb, Halsey began to reevaluate her judgment of the value of human life. After escaping with the help of her Spartans, she acquired data that suggested Sergeant Johnson had survived his encounter with the Flood due to a freak incident after radiation sickness scrambled his inner workings – apparently all an ONI hoax to cover up his participation in the SPARTAN program, although Halsey accepted it as fact.

Now, she had a moral dilemma. She could give ONI the information she acquired, thus sentencing Johnson to death by ONI scientists trying to figure out a way to replicate the incident. Or, she could assume that the odds were so very against ONI ever being able to replicate the immunity and spare them the information regarding Johnson’s survival, thus saving his life. Instead of making the decision herself, she gave the choice to John-117. Perhaps she did this because she wanted to make up for her previous immoral actions in subjecting her Spartans to such behavioral modification that they became so brainwashed and ‘dehumanized’, and this was her attempt to revitalize John’s humanity. In any case, she got through to him and he ultimately chose to save Johnson’s life.

"I’m tired of sacrificing others for the ‘greater good.’ It never stops, Cortana… and we’re running out of people to sacrifice."

—Catherine Halsey

At this point, Halsey had made up her mind to go against the wishes of the UNSC to further her own morals. It didn’t end with just deciding Johnson’s fate. On a hunch, she decided to commandeer a rebel ship and forcibly take one of her Spartans, Kelly-087, on a trip to some coordinates she found on Ackerson’s server. Before leaving, she gave the mysterious and powerful Forerunner Crystal to Corporal Locklear with instructions to destroy it should the Covenant threaten to claim it, something against the wishes of a superior officer of the ship, who would risk getting it back to ONI. Halsey has come a long way from the woman who picked out Jacob Keyes as her assistant in scouting Spartan candidates because she valued his undying loyalty to his superior officers.

Once she made it to Onyx, she discovered planet was an artificial Forerunner megastructure, and that an antechamber near the planet’s core contained a portal to a protected Shield World. She made the decision to take her Spartans there to save them from what she felt was humanity’s certain destruction at the hands of the Covenant. The Spartan-IIs were created simply for the purpose of enforcing the UNSC, the defense of Earth’s authority the reason for excusing immoral acts, and yet by this point Halsey willfully deceived and jeopardized the UNSC for the purpose of rescuing the people she cared about. She lied to the UNSC and had Earth’s Spartans sent to Onyx so she could save the ones she could.

Halsey was successful. Even after so many fell to the Covenant, she brought a small team into the micro Dyson sphere. There they remain protected from the outside forces, in a Forerunner-created inverted planet. Perhaps her greatest adventure is waiting ahead in that fantastic world untouched by human hands for a hundred thousand years. Perhaps she may even meet up again with her posthuman self adrift in space? Whatever her fate, she remains one of the most powerful figures in the Halo universe.

Crossposted with Halopedia.

Bisexual Fury (Off Centre)

Being a Heroes fan, I have been pointed toward a selection of YouTube clips of the show Off Centre that feature Zachary Quinto, Heroes’ Sylar, as a bisexual guinea-pig-owning animal rights activist Real World cast member, who probably just made up all the former descriptions to get onto the show. I had never heard of Off Centre, and the Wikipedia description makes it sound too raunchy for my tastes, but the clips themselves are fairly amusing, if primarily because it offers a look at Zachary Quinto in his pre-Sylar days. I do find the depiction of this pseudo-bisexual character kind of troubling, though, as it seems to promote negative stereotypes.

The gist of the plot is that the protagonist (not sure what his name is) is dating someone who is part of a Real World season, and he worries about looking bad on national television, which of course is bound to happen. One of the people from the show who he interacts with is Zachary Quinto’s character, named Smudge. When the protagonist is introduced to a couple of the people, a woman hugs him, and then he goes to shake Smudge’s hand. “Dude, what? You afraid to hug the bisexual guy?” Smudge complains out of nowhere.

Not wanting to look bad, the protagonist babbles that he has no problem hugging bisexual guys and gives Smudge a hug. They sit down and talk, making conversation that parodies the sensationalist atmosphere of Real World. Smudge holds up a half-full glass of water. “Hey, how come I only have a half-glass of water? Is it because I’m only half-straight?”

The protagonist looks weirded out, and quickly starts talking to his girlfriend. Smudge, however, has his guinea-pig feed off of the protagonist’s plate. He tries to get Smudge to stop, mistakenly calling him Smush. “It’s Smudge, dude. What, you can’t remember my name because I’m bisexual?”

“No, no!” the protagonist insists, pointing at the guinea-pig on his plate. “It’s just your little ferret.”

“It’s a guinea-pig,” Smudge corrects, taking him off the plate. “His name is Freedom… and he’s bisexual.”

The girlfriend worries that he doesn’t like animals, saying that her last boyfriend dumped her because of her cat. The protagonist tries to suggest not mentioning the ex-boyfriend’s name on TV, but she turns to the camera and personally insults the ex. When she then asks what he was going to say, his response is “I was thinking how great it is that Smudge is bisexual.” He gives Smudge a thumbs up, while Smudge looks unconvinced.

Later in the episode, someone gets back at the protagonist by telling the Real World members that the protagonist hates animals. He opens the door to be greeted by Smudge throwing blood on him while screaming that he kills animals. “That’s for you, Freedom,” Smudge says, giving Freedom a kiss. He continues to harass the protagonist about his supposed animal hating, causing the protagonist to run to another part of the building to get the guy mad at him to tell everyone he’s not really an animal hater. One of the people not involved thinks Freedom is a rat, and the protagonist reacts without thinking and kicks Freedom off the roof. Freedom survives the fall, but gets run over by a steamroller. Smudge has a Sylar-like look of murderous rage.

Later, while off-camera, the protagonist apologizes to Smudge about killing Freedom. “No, dude, don’t sweat it. I hate animals.” It was all a show for the cameras. Smudge seems like he’s actually an okay guy, and he starts to talk about potentially getting into a career as an investment banker. Then the cameramen show up, and Smudge jumps on the protagonist’s back and starts slapping madly at him. “That guinea-pig was my life! Taste my bisexual fury!”

So, yeah, that’s the gist of the clips. Smudge, or whatever his name is, is provocative for the cameras to be interesting enough to film, but is really faking. Bisexuality is used here as something weird for a guy to blatantly discuss, serving to make the protagonist uncomfortable. I find it a little offensive for accusations of biphobia to be portrayed as senseless complaints thrown out all willy-nilly. In the real world¹, prejudice against bisexuals is a real issue, and it is often expressed by both the straight and gay communities. I’m sure there can be some kind of humor poking fun at bisexual guys that is both funny and respectful, as is much of the geek humor on The Big Bang Theory, but this just misses the mark.

¹“I know not this Real World of which you speak. My real world is the real real world.” –Cory, Boy Meets World

Sociopaths in Sweater Vests? (Dexter, Dollhouse, BBT)

Asperger syndrome, or high-functioning autism, has had a less than decent portrayal in the media. I am aware of three characters on contemporary television that appear to me to be depictions of people with Asperger syndrome: Vince Masuka from Dexter, Topher from Dollhouse, and Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. None of these characters are explicitly stated as being autistic, but based on my interpretation it seems to be what the creators were going for, especially in the case of Sheldon. Though none of these characters are exactly positive depictions, I would say that Vince Masuka is probably the best, followed by the rather negative Topher, and the absolutely horrible (if cute and funny) Sheldon.

Vince Masuka is a Japanese-American forensics specialist at the Miami Metro Police Department. Perhaps his most apparent characteristic is that he is a pervert. He is incredibly sexual, makes crude remarks, and often banters with Debra about his lusting after her. He seems unaware of social boundaries and when he should shut up about his sexual desires.

In general Vince is socially inept, which is the reason sociopath Dexter likes to work with him, as Dexter doesn’t have to work as hard to pretend to have a conscience while around him. In addition to his overly sexual dialog, he often doesn’t show the proper emotions for grim and/or gruesome situations. Dexter, who has less natural ability to understand social behavior, invested so much effort into developing a mask of normalcy that he sometimes seems surprised by Vince’s blatant lack of attempting to fit in. Vince is not antisocial or intentionally cruel, but he does display an out-of-place excitement at the unusual killings of the Ice Truck Killer, and during a briefing about former coworker Doakes (framed by Dexter to look like the Bay Harbor Butcher) he mutters to Dexter about how horrible the gas prices are as seen in one of the photographs.

The character Vince Masuka may be influenced by the stereotype of Aspergian geeks being highly sexual, perverse to an obsessive degree. His social quirks are often played for laughs as well as adding to the surreal atmosphere of the show, which was especially the case in the first season. It should be noted that besides Dexter himself, most of the characters of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the book on which the show is based, are all flat and stereotypical, probably because the narrator is a sociopath and doesn’t really understand other people. He is, however, a good person who cares about his coworkers, and he sometimes gets emotional when he’s worried about them, a big contrast to Dexter. Even though it is never made explicit that Vince is autistic and Dexter is sociopathic¹, the differences between them are made clear.

In contrast to the fairly decent portrayal of Vince Masuka, Dollhouse’s Topher Brink is a fairly negative portrayal. Topher, while viewing himself as a humanitarian, is a definite villain for the majority of the show thus far. He is highly amoral, Dr. Saunders referring to him as a “sociopath in a sweater vest”. He participates in the dehumanization of the Actives, often toying with them. His big humanitarian moment of season one is trying to help a sexually abused girl by introducing her to an Active, imprinted with the same traumatic memories, who can help her deal with the experience constructively. This is good for the girl, but he completely disregards the right of the Active to not have vivid memories of abuse forced on her. And who could forget his cute but horrible “sneezure” joke?

Dr. Saunders: “There have been instances of this technology causing aneurysms and, in one case, death. It’s possible one good sneeze could being on a seizure.”
Topher: “Or even worse, a sneezure.”
–1x05 “True Believer”

In the second season, the Topher character is getting more developed. Several characters explicitly point out his amoral personality. He asserts that he does have a conscience, even though he doesn’t seem to use it that much. The plot of the most recent episode, 2x04 “Belonging”, has Echo waking Topher up by nudging him in the direction of finding out that Priya/Sierra was taken involuntarily. Topher turns from his usual conscienceless behavior, and he enables Priya to take revenge on her rapist. He seems pretty shaken up about his role in the Dollhouse, and it seems reasonable to expect that in the future he would be more thoughtful about what exactly he’s doing with the Actives. Only time (and whether or not Fox cancels Dollhouse) will tell.

Topher spent season one as a distinct villain, and is starting to be reformed in season two. The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, however, is always one lab accident away from being a super villain. Big Bang Theory, full of self-deprecating geek humor, features the one character out of these three that I am absolutely certain is supposed to be autistic. Sheldon, while probably the funniest character of the sitcom, is portrayed as horrible to have to interact with directly because of his autistic traits.

It is a standard trait of autism to desire consistency, to experience events the same way according to an understood schedule. Big Bang Theory turns this into a joke with Sheldon making crazily specific demands, terrorizing his friends until they do everything exactly the way he wants. A whole set of jokes has been built up around Sheldon’s demands, sometimes ridiculously infantile because of his refusal to alter his expectations.

Another trait of autism is the appearance of a lack of empathy. This is distinct from sociopathy, which is a true lack of empathy. Not always being able to pick up on social cues, it is sometimes difficult for autistic individuals to realize there is reason to be concerned about people. Even if there is concern felt, the autistic individual would not respond in the way a neurologically typical individual would with their empathy made clear through social interaction. This leads to the mistaken assumption that autism is linked with sociopathy.

Big Bang Theory doesn’t quite make the leap to sociopathy, and one episode has Sheldon idly speculating Leonard’s potential sociopathy, implying he doesn’t consider himself one. He ultimately dismisses the idea, reasoning that Leonard would have killed him a long time ago were that the case. Regardless, Sheldon doesn’t seem to really care about anyone. He’s not violent, but he regularly verbally abuses everyone around him. His archenemy Leslie Winkle once refers to him as a misogynist, though I’m not sure how accurate this is. He seems to put down everyone equally because he believes himself to be innately superior to everyone.

Sheldon is hilarious to watch. In his own standoffish way, he’s cute and lovable. Still, I think the character projects negative ideas about autistic persons. Sheldon is a farcical depiction, but with so much misinformation about Asperger syndrome out there today it seems potentially harmful to have him be probably the most prominent character with autism on television these days.

In conclusion, these three characters I believe to have Asperger syndrome represent the contemporary depiction of high-functioning autistic characters. I don’t watch every show, so I could be missing some other prominent character with Asperger syndrome, but among the shows I watch these are the main representatives of autism. Vince Masuka, a weird geek outcast, is the best of them. Topher is predominantly amoral, but has the potential to improve as the show progresses. Sheldon is pretty much the worst depiction possible while still keeping him entertaining to watch as a protagonist. This is far from ideal, and the frequent association with amorality is indeed troubling.

¹In an episode’s flashback sequence teenage Dexter makes a reference to reading a book about psychopaths and he implies that he is one, but Dexter of Darkly Dreaming Dexter refers to himself as a sociopath and he indicates not wanting to become a psychopath (page 151).

Word Cloud

I had some fun with the word cloud generation page Wordle. I decided to have it make a word cloud for all the articles thus far posted on Going Rampant. Behold:

No surprise that "halo" is the largest subject. Interesting that "Master" is smaller than "Chief". I guess I call him "the Chief" more often than "Master Chief".