I recently got hyper fixated on a game called In Stars and Time which is an RPG where you play as a small non-binary rogue named Siffrin (who is one of the most autistic-coded characters I’ve ever seen) who’s stuck in a time loop of the two days before their party/friends/found family are going to fight the King. I played the prologue first and it was really good.

I don’t normally like TOO many major spoilers but my friend gave me content warnings (more specific than the ones on the website and that show up when you first start) because on top of being autistic I’ve also experienced depression and suicidal thoughts and some of the content towards the end of the game could be triggering for me if I didn’t get time to prepare. For me I need to know the basic shape of it and like the specifics of the parts that could be triggering so I can avoid them or at least prepare myself but not so much that I don’t get the fun of speculating.

Using the more unrealistic methods of looping back like the tears and the plantain peel is basically unavoidable but there’s optional content in acts 3 and 4 that I successful avoided that happens if you ask Loop if there’s a faster way and there’s some level of what could be interpreted as suicidal thoughts in act 5.

Siffrin scripts their conversations to try to stop the others from figuring out that something is wrong and even tho I know that’s timeloop related it seems like clinging to the routine and being like “well I’ve found the optimal script for social interactions” isn’t the response to being in a time loop most characters are depicted as having.

They honestly really remind me of myself when I was at one of the worst points in my life where I was doing so much masking autistic traits that I was scripting near-constantly and starting to crash and burn internally as I tried to hide the burnout and the depression it induced until I couldn’t anymore.

I don’t know if they’re intentionally written to be autistic especially considering other characters like Odile (another member of the group I’ll talk about her more later) and Frog-loving One (Dormont villager that doesn’t make eye contact and is extremely enthusiastic about frogs and always working on a frog embroidery they never get to finish) are also extremely autistic coded. Also because several characters are obviously queer but don’t ever use the word. Like I’m not talking coding I’m talking Bonnie just has “they/them” in their bio and everyone just refers to them correctly and it’s never commented on, Isabeau talks about how everyone perceived him as a girl when he was young and he didn’t like that so he Changed, Mirabelle talks about struggling to accept that she has never felt romantic nor sexual attraction and doesn’t think she ever will, Odile implies she’s been in relationships with other women before, and Siffri n(who uses he/they pronouns) at one point outright states he’s not a man (although that bit is missable and plenty of binary men use he/they so I get why someone might not realize they’re non-binary even tho he canonically is).

Siffrin is so deeply autistic-coded I wouldn’t be surprised if it was similarly intentional and just he doesn’t have the word, the first time Bonnie makes them malanga fritters they get so happy they stim by flailing their arms, but the second time they make it for him he suppresses it, when sharpening the keyknife he repeats “please be sharp, please be sharp” and his friends find it endearing but he’s embarrassed and you have the option to try to not say that the next time around but it turns out poorly, the first time Mirabelle asks them “would you like a comb?” he puts his hand out as though expecting her to give them a physical comb and it takes another time around for them to realize she was trying to ask if he would like his hair brushed, in early acts you can interact with the birds and Siffrin will repeat back bird sounds, Siffrin doesn’t know how to process unexpected touch and flinches and this combined with that Odile ACTUALLY doesn’t like touch causes the rest of the group to assume he also doesn’t like touch even tho he actually wants to be touched he just doesn’t know how to ask or how to process it when it’s not expected and this somehow manages to be a “you know one autistic person, you know ONE autistic person” situation without either character being explicitly labeled as autistic, I also think it’s interesting that Odile has the least expressive talk sprites and her text never wobbles implying to me flat affect and possibly a monotone and on the other hand Siffrin has some of the largest range of expressive talk sprites but also thinks of themself as an “actor” and changes them manually sometimes which evokes masking to me.

How deeply Siffrin loves and cares about the other members of their family, but he doesn’t know how to express it or how to tell them how much he wants them to stay or how to tell if they care back is a major part of the core of the story and I related to it soooo much. I was worried that the story was going to resolve his difficulty communicating by making him less autistic coded but instead the message is that he shouldn’t feel like he has to hide who he is and what he wants from them and they’ll accept him.

Sometimes, not often, I unintentionally spoil a book in my reviews. Or I give way to much information. But I try to do neither. Rather I prefer to write short summaries and longer reviews. What I thought and felt. That is how I want to entice you to read a book I’ve reviewed. I guess you’d probably glide over my reviews searching for something I haven’t given you.

Totally valid! I enjoy surprises (if the person who recommended the book or show to me can be trusted to know what I love and what will upset me), but there’s definitely tension involved in not knowing what’s next. I disagree that surprises are selfish- the emotional impact of experiencing something with fresh eyes (not being biased toward or against it by someone else’s personal opinion) is something I value, because it’s a truly “me” moment. For me, spoilers can ruin my experience *not* because I then know what’s going to happen, but because what’s going to happen has been filtered through the perception of someone else. I might’ve loved how they set up that shot, the dialogue between characters, or the way something was described, but someone else has completely different subtext in their perspective, which may bias them against those same things. That said, there’s a world of difference in spoilers that are “he dies at the end” vs “here’s the entire plot and my take on everything in it”.

I’m Autistic too, but I’m the opposite to you: I don’t like spoilers and I don’t read any reviews of anything because I like being able to go into a book with no outside influences whatsoever. I will look at trigger warnings if I think that I might not be able to handle something, but that’s pretty much it. However, if I do get spoilers for something, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to experience that myself but it’s not the end of the world because I’m pretty indifferent to surprises.

Your source come from Today news media website. Given how bias the news media is, this source cannot be taken seriously.

Judging by the fact that you used a made-up word, able-ist. You come off as hostile and prone to calling people names. You do NOT want any discussion.

I am your people!!! lol

I love (& even need) spoilers so I can relax and enjoy the reading experience. If I feel too tense reading, it ruins everything for me.

I’m also similar, in that I need them in small doses. I’ll skim the last page so I know the basics but not the details. But if I’m reading and things are looking very dicey, then I’ll root around for more detail.

I have a friend who’s reading is very similar to mine who will spoil me in the correct amount. ha!

Karen @For What It’s Worth

I generally try to avoid spoilers, but I’ll definitely admit that the times I’ve come across them they haven’t ruined my reading/viewing experience. Knowing something specific is going to happen just makes me wonder how the heck we get to that point the while time I’m reading. That can end up being a real positive. As for your own reviews, I say, “You do you.” If you like spoilers and want to include them, go for it. As long as you warn people, I don’t see a problem.