Is ML showing autistic/ND traits?

He is not really sensory sensitive. He is emotionally sensitive. And all the other behaviors are results of his emotional sensitivity and picking up emotional clues. The reason for his behavior is because he understands emotions of others on a highly detail manner, compared to people with ASD who mostly struggle with picking up social clues and other people's emotions (of course, like any spectrum of any kind, it varies from person to person). The core of behavior of person who is an "empath" (not really yet scientific term but whatever) and ASD is completely different, but the result - the observable behaviors, can be the similar. That's why comprehensive differential diagnosis is important because many things share similar observable symptoms that you need to then figure out the source of.

 isang18:

Agreed. ML is NT in the aspects that are important to the story.

In regard to the autistic characters from the other dramas, their design and portrayal is constrained by realism. ML, because his condition does not have a medical  description that would define it as ND but rather is, until science decides otherwise, a sociocultural label, has a lot more licence for dramatic effect.

Neurodiversity is also non medical term tho, so someone's condition does not need to have a medical label for them to be ND. For me, it's obvious ML is in fact neurodivergent, I would just disagree with then saying his neurodiversity comes from ASD.

 isang18:

I'll accept your argument on the form but not quite on the substance. Let's not quibble over definitions, though. Being a non-scientific term neither of us has to be wrong if we view ND differently. I don't feel neurodivergent for sharing ML's traits enough to recognise many of his reactions as my own. It's just a  thing that sometimes gets in the way of interactions and sometimes facilitates them. A bit behaviourally atypical, perhaps, but aren't we all?

But his sensitivity to other's emotions is more than just a little bit, that's why I think he is easily neurodivergent. Seeing how in tune he is with other's emotions he would be more on the far end of the spectrum in terms of that specific brain activity. If that's not ND, what is? Would that mean someone with ASD who does not show many symptoms, were socialized to mask them would not be ND? 

I think the key phrase here is "A bit behaviourally atypical" because ND is not about behavior, but how your brain works. ND should not be determined based on whenever someone learned how to cope with their ND symptoms, but rather, whenever they have them in the first place. 

 Kate:

He is not really sensory sensitive. He is emotionally sensitive. And all the other behaviors are results of his emotional sensitivity and picking up emotional clues. The reason for his behavior is because he understands emotions of others on a highly detail manner, compared to people with ASD who mostly struggle with picking up social clues and other people's emotions (of course, like any spectrum of any kind, it varies from person to person). The core of behavior of person who is an "empath" (not really yet scientific term but whatever) and ASD is completely different, but the result - the observable behaviors, can be the similar. That's why comprehensive differential diagnosis is important because many things share similar observable symptoms that you need to then figure out the source of. 

Hm, there was an instance where he cut off a label of his shirt or that he is light/sound sensitive. But I won't dwell onto that, it may just be me reading too much into it. It may be something really silly on the script that the actors have to act just for a scene to look good. There are a lot of other minor things that can be interpreted in many ways. But I have to mention that there are autistics such as myself who have a high level of emphaty and are very self-aware to a point it's impossible to not "absorb" other people's emotions. I relate to a certain point to the way this character was written but not sure if it was on purpose or not tbh.  It depends on the intentions of the screenwriters i guess.

 Mila Kim:

It depends on the intentions of the screenwriters i guess.

that for sure. while I can see a few secondary diagnostic criterias in him, the thing that makes me think he is not on ASD is the fact he does not really match any primary diagnostic criteria, no matter how  look at it. And the thing about secondary ones is the fact they are usually not disorder/diagnosis specific. 

At the end of the day I do feel like the script was rather specific about how ND he is, the character called it himself as highly sensitive to human's emotions, empath, so I don't really see it as vague presentation left to interpretation. Especially since that's also a representation that needs more positive representation in media (tbh... like any and all ND...)

 Kate:

that for sure. while I can see a few secondary diagnostic criterias in him, the thing that makes me think he is not on ASD is the fact he does not really match any primary diagnostic criteria, no matter how  look at it. And the thing about secondary ones is the fact they are usually not disorder/diagnosis specific. 

At the end of the day I do feel like the script was rather specific about how ND he is, the character called it himself as highly sensitive to human's emotions, empath, so I don't really see it as vague presentation left to interpretation. Especially since that's also a representation that needs more positive representation in media (tbh... like any and all ND...)

Yes!! I am not really trying to diagnose a character now lol. It just make me happy to see an ND character that is not portrayed as a pariah/outcast of society or a super genius whatever. Like, we're legit normal people with normal jobs sometimes and not all of us know an embarassing amout of info about marine life, trains or dinosaurs lmao. 

P.S: aren't u like really famous on MDL?? I've seen your reviews/comms around for years now. Such an honour!! :o daebak!!

 Kate:

for sure. one of the things I love about the drama is how it flips the expectations around. The guys who from episode one is described as being not in a norm, is actually the one that has a well balanced healthy life with good support system, while the FL who from the outside seems like a strong and well driven person, is actually the one who needs proper healing T.T

I'm just a local clown hahaha

yesss, i love that ML is "fighting the gender norms" but bro is not even trying that much. He's just being himself. I love the his soft femminine energy and confident masculinity. It's such a fresh breath of air to see compared to the other romance drama of Kim Sejong, "A Business proposal" where  she was Shin Hari. Damn, that Kang TaeMoo was so darn annoying & entitled at times, why do they write most of the chaebols like this?? I am not a big fan of hetero couples anymore, hence I cannot stand to watch the classic couple of "silly girly girl & overpossive jerk guy" dynamic, but this one is different and I like that. 

Also wdym local clown?? YOU'RE A LEGEND!!