ironbellies:

Newt Scamander’s mannerisms and autistic behaviors. Okay, breathes out. Let me be honest this is going to end up feeling deeply personal to me. Two years ago when I was doing really badly emotionally I saw a therapist we talked about a lot of things and when I eventually revealed I was asexual she suggested to my mother that we test me for autism (specifically aspergers). At the time when I was really accepting that it was okay I was ace I vehemently refused to do it. Because it felt like she was trying to find a “problem” with me being asexual and I was… deeply uncomfortable with it. 

I’ve since realized that she was likely right and I should be tested… So this essay feels, in some way, a reflection of my own mannerisms that I see we share. I by no means can say I have a full understanding given I haven’t been fully tested, but like with all of my headcanons I’m keeping papers up and trying to do proper research. So this headcanon is as equally as a trepedition for me (personally) and something I want to carefully word with respect to everything else.

Let’s begin then.

I’ve stated it a fair few times how I feel in certain regards: Newt’s speech patterns, his awareness, behavior, and sexuality. This is going on a much more fuller spectrum that hopefully covers everything to understand in complete how I write him. This is something I have difficulty with putting into a singular sentence so expect several paragraphs on each matter. 

My Newt is on the autism spectrum, specifically, he has Asperger's syndrome. The first time I’d like to note is that at the time he was born and –worse– in a wizarding community which lacks some areas autism wasn’t something that was studied and most children with the condition… Wouldn’t have led very great life. Like Theseus gestures to Newt they’re just “me” in a way that no one else is. This isn’t a bad thing, but it would have created an even greater feeling of otherness and people wouldn’t begin to understand it (hopefully I’ve said this in the right way).

Let’s begin with a CoG fact (minor spoiler): Newt and Leta seemed to become friends in their third year. At the time Newt was hung up in a corner of Hogwarts, surrounded by tanks filled with creatures, specifically caring for a wounded animal. He is not interested in Leta’s immediate appearance until she approaches and he’s able to connect Leta with the creature (a baby raven). This is increasingly furthered by his attempt at helping her by taking her somewhere else in their sixth year and discussing something he enjoyed.

There are a few things we see in young Newt: A detachment from social events (preferring the company of creatures, for hours at times). A focus on said creatures to note “intricate social patterns”. And a reliance on speaking metaphorically or relying on facts that only he would otherwise care about. He also remembers minor details about people he meets even without associating them when others might not (remembering Leta’s family crest is a raven). We also, of course, have an aversion to looking people in the eye– but not an incapability of it.

These are the major details that we can gather from his younger self, so we’ll move on to some details from Fantastic Beasts (please note these details are not necessarily autistic traits, but what he shows): He walks with a specific gait to impersonate an animal. This is not necessarily a sign of autism, but peculiar movements are considered a sign (in this case, however, Newt takes in his “inward walking” intentionally for his line of work). He is awkward in intimate, joyful social settings.

 He can occasionally talk off topic and interjects when he realizes he knows what the other is talking about. He has difficulty expressing himself emotionally and chooses again to relate to what he knows or going around it. He has an aversion to touch– He is not against it, but prefers to initiate it himself. He acts against “societal norms” and is unafraid to act with his senses. And the final mention I’ll go to is that Newt becomes intensely focused on the situation he’s in– He still sees the bigger picture, but he gets tunnel vision.

Now that we got some of his ‘big” behaviors noted let’s go further in and dissect this information. We’ll start with two quotes:

“Watching Newt walk, we see in him an unselfconscious Keatonesque quality, a sense of a different rhythm to those around him.”
“Newt slows down and watches Mary Lou as he would observe a foreign species: no judgement, simply interest.”

These are two quotes I look at when thinking about Newt and I’d like to add a line in from the recent movie where Theseus gestures to him and is like “be less yourself” and Newt calls him on it and seems very uninclined to do so. This is a trait I think is important: Newt is aware he is not like other people. It’s part of his awkwardness, he knows that he sees the world differently, embraces it and doesn’t let it hold him back. If he did he wouldn’t do things like a mating dance in front of people or licking the ground– Newt knows others find him odd, annoying even, and simply accepts it for what it is because he isn’t going to change it.

More importantly, Newt is hyper-aware of his surroundings even in a setting filled with people. “Newt sensing the need to change…”, “Newt studies the characters in the room…” One of the things that personally make me frustrated is seeing people act like Newt is unaware of the people around him. He is constantly watching his environment, assessing it, and going by it.

 The difference is that he’s so busy looking at interactions around him that unless he’s intentionally focusing on the conversation at hand, unless it matters to him, he’s not aware of the conversation. He has to have an interest at the conversation at hand to be paying attention to it, otherwise his attention goes to the other details around him– Both a tick and something he gained from his travels (remember, he spent time in the wilds– he’d have to pay attention to everything to survive there). So Newt has too modes: Either extremely attentive to a singular person or attentive to everything else surrounding them and not a conversation at hand.

In the same, he is hyper-aware of what he’s interested in he’s also aware of his own thoughts. What I mean by this is, Newt understands who he is and why he does things. He knows he will always act when something is in need, knows that his own opinions aren’t going to be swayed, and knows what he means to say. Let me better put this to words: Newt is unselconsious of who he is and will not change it for anyone. So he speaks with brutal honesty and frankness that can be as disarming and hurtful as it is charming– People are charmed by him because Newt wears his heart on his sleeve: emotionally, honestly, and physically. He’s not held back by the social structures others are.

And the reasons for this are multiple: It is a part of his autism, yes, but it’s also not the only reason. Newt’s seen many cultures studied the people he’s been around and learned about them. He is GENUINELY interested in all beings creatures and humans. This means that he’s visited all types of people– tribes in Africa where gender roles are reversed, places where sexual identities are freer, and places where family dynamics are different.

 He’s learned and accepted all of them (this is why I’ve written that, for Newt, human nature isn’t new to him and he’s not disgusted by these acts– he is disgusted by human violence, unwillingness to see others as beings, etc). Likewise when it comes to the creature this also is a thing: We see him act as these creatures would down to their mating dances. Like humans, he’d see some species have reversed roles on sex and gender identities are ultimately a human concept. Human-based societal and sexual concepts are not things that Newt looks at, though he’s aware they exist and matter they are not things he recognizes when confronted with them.

Connecting with this is another trait I’ve mentioned time and again– largely in my defense of how I write Newt when it comes to physicality. Simple put: Newt is a man who is more comfortable with instinct and action. This is not to say that he is not aware of something or cannot use words. We see in FB Newt making the “first move” by brushing Tina’s hair back. He firmly tells her in the Death Chamber to trust him, making eye contact. In CoG he spends the entire time trying to find Tina and sort out what to say (and resulting in him going back to the aforementioned “relating to a topic he knows”/”metaphor” ways he did before). 

Newt is actually aware in all of those situations the necessity of the situation, the way he feels, everything but he also knows that there’s a certain expectation of him to “answer properly”. It’s why he has difficulty putting what he wants to say into words, why he goes to a tender movement. He knows what he means, knows what he wants to say, but has spent a longer time studying creatures and around them to learn their movements then he has human intricacies.

Because of this Newt is not touch repulsed but prefers to be the one to initiate it and would rather know it’s coming. Remember, Newt initiated the contact with Tina on both occasions (he told her to jump and that he’d catch her, he reached for her hair). It’s likely that with touch he is over-sensitive meaning that while he accepts it when he’s not expecting it he doesn’t know what to do and by the time he’s processed it he moves on (CoG screenplay says he accidentally brushes hands with Tina and they both jump).

When it comes to speaking, however, it’s not that it’s impossible for him. He can speak and short of interjections– repeating the same word, “oh” “um– he does get what he means across. He just is brutally honest and frank about it and doesn’t necessarily realize what he’s said is offensive to other people (and even if it is, he won’t take back what he feels). But he also relies on metaphors that others don’t use and are confused by because they make sense to him– Usually about creatures. Newt doesn’t necessarily realize what he says is offensive because he’s. to him, just being honest and (often) times means nothing personal…

Except, Newt truly does actually find humans dangerous. He recognizes that most are capable of bad things and we’re not actually ever told why. Likely because humans hurt others out of pleasure and a misguided idea of “I don’t understand it, it can be dangerous, kill it”. It takes a lot for Newt to trust people and he’ll be quick to call them out on their shit– He shows this with multiple characters in CoG. He’s unabashedly unafraid to say what he thinks and feels.

At the same time, however, he’s distinctly aware of how other he is to people. His own family thinks him odd and out of place, rather or not they love him. So he finds it better to simply keep to himself, and he prefers it. Newt likes the company of his creatures, he likes the rhythm of his day-to-day life (we know he was extensive schedules listing day-to-day activities of when to feed certain creatures, of what days to do certain things, etc, etc). Newt has a sense of adventure and thrives in situations of the moment, but in his own space he does prefer having things in order and knowing that tasks are completed.

Newt holds a great deal of empathy for people and creatures who are mistreated. More so creatures, but he does see those that are abused, “the outsider” and wants to help them when it comes to human company. He’s not sure how to handle it, but Newt as a person is one who recognizes wrongs being done to others and innately wants to make things right. If he has the power to do something to help, Newt will do everything he can to help them.. And the interesting and most important thing is: Newt does not allow himself to be held down by human structure to do so.

This is a man who uses everything at his disposal to survive in dangerous terrain, “fighting them all over with my traveling kettle”. A man who acts animalistically in his day-to-day life and relies on their behaviors to “get things done”. He’s a man who’s awkward and brutally honest and has difficulty expressing himself in an “acceptable away”. But even more importantly than that is he doesn’t find his thoughts weird or odd or wrong: They are him and he embraces them and has decided if others can’t accept it than he’s none-the-worse for it.