I Feel Like The Infantilisation Of Autistic People In The Eyes Of Science And Psychology Really Stunts

This is... what's the word..... let's go with, a terribly good idea for the series, because it would definitely work, despite how much it'll hurt to watch.😭

OK, so, Wrecker’s inhibitor chip is starting to act up. The show is definitely implying it’s only a matter of time before Wrecker starts to go all Order 66 in a manner similar to Crosshair.

Meanwhile, there’s no confirmation on this theory one way or another, but if there’s any chance that the theory of Omega being a force-sensitive clone is true, AND given the fact that Wrecker and Omega are clearly besties…

Wrecker may go Order 66 on Omega.

And all I can say is, do it.

Dew it, Bad Batch.

Hurt me the way only a TCW-level Star Wars cartoon can hurt me.

You can't be "bitches" by yourself, the word is plural... but since I'm in the same boat, it makes sense.🤣

bitches be like “i love the bad batch.” No, you love the specific found family trope because chances are you grew up lonely with no friends and the fact that the bad batch members are all different and are accepting of differences feels like a big warm hug because you’re probably queer and/or neurodivergent and felt alienated because of it since a young age. It’s me, i’m bitches

Well, now I gotta try to draw some Mandalorian armor (despite being terrible at armor in general)...

While I'm here, though, have you done anything like this for clone trooper armor? If you have, I wanna see it.

Mandalorian Armor, a simple guide

Oh dear. Several months late, but here we go. This will be a broad term overview of mando armor in canon at the moment, not an exhaustive list. Feel free to skip “materials & history” if you’d just like some more concrete guidelines and refs! 

(Remember to click on the images for a better look!)

Material & History

A Small Intro Course

Mandalorian armor is supposed to be made out of beskar, an alloy (and yes all beskar is an alloy in disney canon (at least as of May 2021), like steel for example. Yes even “pure” beskar). The secrets of how to make it is limited to the Mandalorians, and the materials used to make it are most likely limited to Mandalore or the Mandalore system. It’s been in confirmed use as an armor material for at least 900 years & can take straight blaster bolts or hold off the circulating energy blade of a lightsaber for short periods of time, possibly until the beskar heats up enough to loose its integrity, but the heat would most likely cause serious damage to the wearers body before that.

Beskar armor is most often inherited, passed from generation to generation and reforged to suit the current wearers needs. It’s seen as passing down the history, the battles and the will of those who have worn it before and making it your own. However the material is rare, possibly because the mines have run dry ages ago (old EU), or because war and/or the New Mandalorians stopping production. The Empire interfering by taking over Mandalore and trying to get their hands on as much beskar as possibly and then later “glassing” the planet while hunting its only known creators surely did not help either, in any case.

This means that not all Mandalorians had access to the material, or at least large enough amounts to make a full suit of armor. This lead to the make of “impure” beskar that can take less of a brunt & armor made of other metals such as durasteel. This is most likely what makes up the majority of Din’s kit, beyond the helmet and possibly the chest piece, when he’s introduced in S1 and he still wears pieces that might be one of these materials as of Season 2. 

Characters like Sabine Wren, Bo-Katan Kryze and Boba Fett all inherited their armor from their aliit  (clan/family) through several generations and it’s most likely already pure beskar based on its age and how it reacts to blasterfire.

The armor is most often painted and there are various designs and colors that indicate personality, achievements or allegiances, but that would have to be another post. (Would anyone like a post on Mandalorian armor fashion? Because I have thoughts)

Helmet

Let’s start from the top. The helmet, aka the bucket. The buy’ce.

In the “modern” era it’s usually a helmet with a rounded top and some kind of cheek indents. It has a T (or occasionally closer to a Y) shaped visor that obscures the wearers face. It also contains a large amount of technology that allows for various visual filters, binoculars, built in comms and audio enhancers (allowing for near perfect 360° hearing in the old EU, as possibly shown by Din Djarin in the new), among other things. The earcaps seen on most modern styles of helmet allows for various specialized attachments, like rangefinders.

The styles of the helmets vary between clans and eras, but there’s a few distinct modern bases that are pretty easy to identify as Mandalorian and worn by all major Mandalorian characters. 

The Boba Fett, based on the original helmet as seen in the OT, and worn by basically every male character with various types of cheek indents, ridges and the like. Some are thinner or longer, but the base of the design is still very clearly the OG Boba Fett helmet. T visor, sharp slope indent that takes up the entire cheek, long ear caps & a brow ridge.

Visual Reference

The Nite Owl, based on the helmet worn by Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls in TCW. It has a cat eyed Y visor and a more of a cut out cheek indent style, or simply a less severe smaller curve under the visor ridge (the area painted red on Boba Fett’s helmet). 

Visual Reference

The Kast, is the rarest so far only seen on Rook Kast & the Maul-aligned female Mandalorians. It slopes slightly inwards below the uniquely shaped T visor and has no ear caps.

Visual References

And finally, some mandalorian helmets with slightly more unique shapes and/or shape combinations that put them outside the general easy to identify pile.

From left to right, The Armorer, Paz Vizsla, Pre Vizsla and Fenn Rau:

Chest, Neck, Back & Shoulders

As with everything else, there are various styles for these pieces of armor, but here are some basics.

Breastplate

Most commonly visibly segmented into three big parts, two on the chest and one below, with a small diamond shaped heart piece in the middle. The heart piece design can also been seen on Mandalorian clothing and architecture. In The Mandalorian these parts are generally attached together to give the armor a more solid look, but they are still distinguishable. Before the fall of the empire several female mandos favoured a more solid two part design that interlocked with their neck piece and had a thin rectangular bar instead of a classic heart piece. During the clone wars women of the faction supporting Maul (mostly clan Kast and clan Saxon) used a semi-connected two part design with six smaller pieces trailing down the stomach, three on each side. There are also various other designs with solid one part chest pieces, but most at least have a variation of the heart piece in the middle, as seen on Paz Vizsla. 

The chest piece usually does not go below the navel, for bending over reasons.

Neckplate

Either two pieces on the side of the neck, or a longer single piece that goes in front of the neck & sits over the collarbones. Both of these variations are usually semi connected to, or line up with where the backplate ends.

Shoulders

Bell type, like Din Djarin & Axe Woves wear. The Classic, aka the style worn by Boba Fett, Ursa Wren & most grunts. And finally a slightly rounded middle ground, smaller than the Bell but sits over the shoulder and is often favored by female characters like Bo-Katan, female Mauldalorians & Sabine Wren.

Backplate

Usually as long as the chest piece, used to protect the back and to mount jetpacks, and other useful things, on.

Jetpack

Technically not a piece of armor, but sometimes armored. Comes in various sizes and styles.

Visual References

Vambraces & Handplates

Vambraces

Both forearm protection and weapons. Developed to give a Mandalorian that extra edge when fighting stronger opponents. To that goal, they’re often fitted with various attachments such as flamethrowers, retractable blades, shield emitters, repulsors, grappling lines, magnets, missiles and various types of darts, including the whistling birds seen in The Mandalorian.

Handplates

It’s a plate that goes on your hand. Nothing more, nothing less. Can of course be fitted with various other weapons, as long as they fit.

Visual References

The Codpiece, Buttplate & Hip Plates

Ah yes. Well.

All pieces are usually worn tucked underneath and/or attached to the waist sash/girth belt/belt.

Codpiece

Look, it’s a codpiece. It’s there to protect your sensitive parts. There are less bulky variations for people who can do without the extra space. Those are often segmented. Some wear more of a lower stomach plate. Others don’t bother, or only wear theirs when they might need it since I imagine it can be a bit uncomfortable to wear day to day.

Buttplate

It’s a plate that goes over your butt. And I mean just above, not on. Din has one, Boba has one. It’s a thing. Why? Because bruising you tailbone hurts like hell.

Hip Plates

They’re plates that go on your hips. Only confirmed sighting has been on Din, but we’ve also got some good shots of them because of this so I put them in anyway.

Visual References

Thighs, Knees, Shins, Ankles & Feet

Varies from completely covered to almost no armor at all. On one end you’ve got Jango Fett, and on the other you’ve got Boba Fett. Ironic, in a way.

Thigh plates

Generally sit either on the front of the thigh or on the outer sides. The outward style thigh plates are more form fitting and allow for holsters to be mounted directly onto the plate, this was popular during the Clone Wars era. The front facing plates are often different sizes, possibly depending on your dominant hand/how you prefer to hold your weapon of choice.

Knee armor/pads

For knee protection, unless you’re like Boba Fett, then they’re also dart launchers. In the old EU the darts were laced with neurotoxin, but that seems to have been removed for new canon. Sit nebulously in the knee region.

Shin, Ankle and/or Boot plates

Over your shins, ankles and feet, for all your literal ass kicking needs. Comes in various types including but not limited to: boot caps, ankle plates, shin guards and of course full on greaves.

Visual References

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So there you have it! A broad overview of Mandalorian armor. This has been in my drafts for months at this point so I’m not going to go over this again so you’ll have to excuse any weird phrasing or misspelt words. And how messy the visual ref sheets got. (I’m also considering putting together something for different eras & allegiances based on design, accessories, paintjobs, etc, but that will have to be another day.)

I don't know if it's an autism but when I was a kid or even now I smile when looking at people, being around them or talking to them.

Sometimes it didn't happen but most often it did and I'd turn my back when passing by someone because I couldn't stop myself from smiling and laughing even though I didn't want to.

To this day I don't like looking at people because if that, and when I'm mad I can't express my thoughts correctly and end up smiling and laughing which bugs me because I don't want to smile and laugh.

This isn't something I've experienced, but it could be a trigger effect...your brain associates smiling with laughing... So any smiles can trigger laughter. But I can't say for certain.

I die every time I see this! Fives delivers that line PERFECTLY. It was nice knowing you Kenobi. 🤣

I just woke up, man... but no, Tumblr chose to get personal today. 😅 Well, at least I'm fully awake now.

ND culture is spending your whole childhood being told you're "too sensitive" and "need to toughen up." Then realizing as an adult that it was basically just "traumatize the ND kid until they stop melting down." Bonus points if the adults in your life still feel justified in how they treated you because you "turned out OK" despite needing years of therapy.

.

Well now I'm ugly-crying, thanks.😭

Very sad that Crosshair missed out on Omega’s first shooting lesson.

Everyone else seems to have their soapbox lately when it comes to Star Wars and representation, so here's mine.

On Autism representation.

I can't think of many examples, but the two that spring to my mind are Thrawn and Tech from TBB. In my opinion, I think they are both done well.

I haven't seen much complaining about Thrawn, but the Tech posts have been rampant. Saying he's tone-deaf, unfeeling, robotic, and misses the point frequently. People have said that this is bad representation. The thing is, that is how Autism can present itself, especially in someone that has been more socially isolated. Something that Tech experiences. His social life is limited to the rest of TBB (which all have various aspects of neurodivergency themselves) , Kaminoans (who are an entirely different species and culture that are also isolated), and the other Clones (who have been shown to treat TBB badly).

I see so many traits in him that I see in myself, my family, and a friend of mine. All of these people fall somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Because that's what Autism is, a spectrum. Everyone experiences it differently.

-leg bouncing when he's anxious

-info-dumping

-meticulously collecting information about topics that he's interested in

-not understanding "it's a feeling" in relation to flying

-frustration when things aren't going according to plan and when the things they are supposed to do are interrupted

-seemingly tone-deaf direct comments on what he sees

-focusing on what's important to him and ignoring other things around him

Everytime he does one of these things, I smile to myself, because I feel seen. The reactions of others around him are so accurate as well. Hunter rolling his eyes/shaking his head. Wrecker saying "yeah yeah we know". I've experienced those reactions my whole life.

Before you criticize representation, and automatically assume that it's bad because it might not be perfect, consider the opinions of those represented. Not their family members, not health professionals, not what you think it is.

Also that ableism term you all like to throw around? Dismissing the experiences of those with the conditions you're critiquing because they don't fit into your narrative is far more ableist than the thing you think is bad.

Source ~ @/autisticamente_marcela

Original Text:

The pathological medical model defines #Autistic play as inappropriate, restricted, and repetitive with DEFICITS in imagination, imitation, symbolism and joint attention.

A paradigm that focuses on deficits rather than strengths.

In this context, playing "appropriately" means playing with toys exactly as a typical child would play with toys.

When an autistic child plays in an unusual way, it is considered "inappropriate play." In other words, "it's different, therefore it's bad."

It's not that autistic children don't know how to play. There is no correct way to play. Play is play.

Autistic children's exploration and interaction with the world is outside of society's understanding, and just because society doesn't understand the value of doing things a certain way, it doesn't mean it's wrong.

There is nothing wrong with lining up toys. 🦒🐖🧸

There is nothing wrong with spinning the wheels of a car. 🚙

There is nothing wrong with playing with nature. 🌱

There is nothing wrong with playing with a cardboard box. 📦

Autistic play is appropriate play.

Autistic children are not broken versions of neurotypical children. Same thing goes for autistic adults (we exist by the way 😉✌️). #Autism is a natural part of the spectrum of human diversity... and diversity is beautiful.

We learn, interact and play AUTISTICALLY.

-Autísticamente Marcela 🚙 🦖 ⚽🚂

Publicación en español:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=459514795536353&id=100044335094112

[Image description: an illustration of a child smiling and sitting on the floor while holding a stick with a leaf. The child is surrounded by a display of toys and other household items that have been lined up in a curved row (a piano, a cardboard box, a bucket & pale, a stuffed bunny, a wooden train, two plastic cups, four colored markers, a broom, a toy dinosaur, a hat, two Christmas tree ornaments, a vase with flowers, a toy bus, a potato head, a pop it, a spinner, a book, a boat, a panda bear, a rattle, a number block, a beach ball, a stacking toy and a Peppa Pig). A thinking bubble above the child has a smiley face.]