Certainly it's quite possible it wasn't intended, which probably raises the chance of him ending up as a unique character who could be interpreted as autistic rather than a checklist of autistic traits.
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1) No.
2) I feel like this is borderline hate speech. I think I might feel insulted...
.
Urianger was engaged to a woman and into her, so we know he is straight (or if not, bi, but very leaning to straight). He doesn't present himself as a her or as a they/them, nor does anyone else in the case, who are all his friends. And FFXIV is not shy at this point on using they/them pronouns (Pixies and No Mu are all they/thems, and Lopporits come in he, she, and they/thems). So if it was their intent, they could do so.
As for his mental status, he might have some form of Asperger's, but if so, he would be classified as a "high functioning"/"coping mechanism" using one, as he either has few ticks or has learned to control them, and while he has archaic speech (though this is PARTLY a translation issue; Japanese has both "informal" and "formal" speech, like Spanish does, but English does not, so the localization team chose to use archaic English as a proxy for that), this has been described as due to his introverted and bookish nature where he spent so much time growing up reading old books because he wasn't a very social person. While that could be neurodivergent, it could also be introversion and cultural differences.
He is clearly a he, not a them. He may be on the Spectrum, which I can appreciate though this is probably a combination of different cultural norms in Japan mixed with translation choices, but he's definitely not genderqueer.
But muh brotherly love
https://i.imgur.com/xO97b1n.png
Issue is ALL healers, male or female characters, are stuck with the robe/dress style of clothes. Blame Square’s design team.
Btw wven in our own history, children under a certain age - girls AND boys wore dresses. Even priests and monks wore dresslike robes.
So let’s stop acting like it’s shocking and weird, as well as a different meaning.
Asperger's-type autism, and a lack of grasp on social cues.
When you're first introduced to the Scions as a group, everyone else says hello and he quotes prophecy at you. Then he does it again when you meet up with him in Il Mheg and you're now an old friend he hasn't seen in ages. He apparently will go on lectures about his favourite subjects even if the listener seems disinterested. He used to be the kid who would rather spend his time alone in the library than play with others, and picked up his overformal way of speaking from reading old books.
While it isn't something that has remained the case, his old outfit with the opaque goggles gave the impression of lack of eye contact as well.
There also is a thread of him being quite emotional but often not good at processing or expressing it, which is an actual Asperger trait more than the alleged lack of emotion that is often the stereotype.
He's a character with a lot of facets though, and I've loved seeing him get a bigger role in the story.
Urianger may be a bit weird, but that's no reason to insult him.