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hated and loved (quokk.au)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/Risa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] 22 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

She has entire adventures with Data, in the holodeck!

I guess maybe if you watched the show as it aired, yeah you could have some sympathetic animosity... but she's just like, busy, and has no time for bullshit, and Data sometimes does not realize he is doing a bullshit.

Like I'm autistic and highly identify with Data... people being a dick to you for seemingly no reason you can understand, this is extremely relatable and normal for an autist.

I'd argue the two of them, Data and Pulaski, in particular serve as a great model of how a neurotypical and autist can learn how to interact with each other; she indulges his special interest and they go on a Sherlock Holmes adventure together!

And in so doing, he learns about things she notices, knows, and values, that were not apparent to him before... and the same in reverse... they each respect each other more after that, and learn a bit how to avoid frustrating the other.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Data is autistic coded for sure. And yeah, you get it! They end up having a great relationship. I guess people could complain that it's just a rehash of the McCoy and Spock dynamic but, if nothing else, I'm glad she was around for a season just for Data's character growth.

    Edit: This might be a bit of a hot take but I think Picard is more of a dick to Data in general, especially in the early seasons.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Data is autistic coded for sure.

    The funny thing is, it was completely unintentional. Spiner has said he had no idea when he was doing the show that Data was appealing to neurodivergent people, and also said he's glad he didn't know at the time, because being aware of it and trying to appeal to them might have ruined the performance.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    That's interesting! Especially given how Picard and some of the others treat him. You could have fooled me saying it was written into the show that way.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    It seems that writing a character that has no emotion just naturally lends itself to comparisons with neurodivergence.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Also his tendency to info dump, his inability to fully judge social situations, how his "emotional" needs get dismissed by some people (cough picard cough). There's just a lot of social things going on with Data that feel familiar.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    No I don't think that's a hot take at all, which is why I'm confused/incredulous that Pulaski is apparently a dick... no, you're right, Picard is more often shown being pretty curt with Data in the earlier episodes.

    But again, most of the time, this makes sense... dude has quite a lot on his shoulders, and Data often has trouble basically getting to the point, in terms of 'what is the potentially relevant and actionable information needed in a high stakes situation'.

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