Autism in 《Extraordinary Attorney Woo》 S1 E06

📁 Note: These reflections on 《Extraordinary Attorney Woo》 (《이상한 변호사 우영우》)'s depiction of autism and autistic persons are imported from a community forum. The original format and my initial thoughts remain largely unchanged for this archive. ♾️ Disclosure: I do not speak for the autistic community as a whole. My goal is to share explanations rooted in my own lived experience and the stories and concerns shared by other autistic individuals. ‼️ Spoiler Alert! Young Woo threw the Judge's argument back Yeah, why not? It's logical. What's wrong with it? But in the neurotypical world, there are 'social rules' to follow and what Young Woo did is not acceptable, it is considered rude and especially disrespectful for a judge who is higher in rank. But again, autistics think more on the logical side and don't understand 'social rules' the way neurotypicals do. For neurotypicals, they understand these 'social rules' naturally, for autistics, we don't. You have to tell us, then you have to explain it logically, then we will add it in our already long list of "Do's and Dont's" that is draining us. Letting Attorney Choi speak first 🎭 Scene: Court trial. This one is not easy to generalize so I'll just react if I'm in their shoes. Even though Young Woo and I are different, I would not be able to take advantage of that opportunity wherein the jury was feeling sympathetic over the witness. My approach and thinking will still be logical which always appear harsh for neurotypicals. It's all about "x + y", especially in an argument (like debates and courtrooms). Literalism and idiomatic expressions 🎭 Scene: "Why the long face?" Then Young Woo checked her face. Literalism This is one thing I've been waiting for them to touch on, "literalism". They could've done this in a lot of ways but they chose something funny. That is good, I applaud them for their choice on how to portray this. In other shows I've watched, literalism was portrayed on a more serious scenario, either by telling an autistic to "wait here" when in fact the neurotypical girl left him and he did not realize he was dumped. Or, the autistic was confused because s/he can not tell if they should take it literally or not. Extraordinary Attorney Woo chose a more lighthearted way to portray literalism. I like that. However, I hope they touch on it again in a more serious occassion because this is one of the most misunderstood aspect of an autistic and if one is not careful—especially if they already know the person is autistic—it might not turn out well. For example, if one tells an autistic to "wait here", there are autistics who will wait for as long as they can. They may ask someone to buy food so they can stay there and wait because they were told to "wait here". THEN! When the person who told them to "wait here" sees them, they'll blame the autistic person for being stupid for taking it literally. Idiomatic expressions or idioms It is not easy for us to understand idiomatic expressions. Like in this example, "long face", Young Woo did not understand the idiom. From my own experience, in the Philippine elementary education system (at least back in the 80s), it is part of our curicculum to teach kids about idioms. So I understand many of the basic and common idiomatic expressions, like "fall in line" (which is used a lot in schools). There are also idioms that makes sense so even if it is new to me, I can deduce some meaning to it and react accordingly. But there are idiomatic expressions I have to ask about or research to understand what it means, some examples are: - "Break a leg": for the longest time, I never understood this. If used in a context, I understood it as "go change things" or "go prove to them you are right". But what it actually means, and I found this out only today, is "good luck". - "Easy does it": what it means to me is, "Easy, right?" Just today, I found out it means to "slow down" or "take it slow". - "Give the benefit of the doubt": what it means to me is literally that, give a person a benefit of the doubt. Meaning, give them an opportunity maybe they are right or they are telling the truth. Give them a chance. But I learned today, it means to "trust what someone says". That's way over my head. "Trust" is such a huge word. The idiom "give the benefit of the doubt" does not fit "trust" in any way. As far as I'm concerned, I'm just giving you a chance. - "A perfect storm": is as literal as it gets. I have no idea this is used as an idiom until today which means "the worst scenario". Because I also love to read fiction novels, I had the chance to get exposed to these idiomatic expressions and many other nuances of the English language. Whenever I encountered something I don't understand, I keep re-reading the sentence or the paragraph for the context, deduce some meaning, then I go check a dictionary or thesaurus to confirm if I understood it correctly; today, I just go online and search for it to confirm. Here is another example: In the UK their greeting is, "How do you do." You reply with, "How do you do." It is not a question about your situation or day, it is a statement, a greeting. For an autistic, the reaction (verbally or in thought) is, "How do I do what?" This was portrayed in the film 《A Brilliant Young Mind》 (a.k.a. 《X + Y》). Such expressions are confusing. My reaction is the same and it took me a long time to get used to it. Still, there are other expressions that I have to pause because I have to figure out what it means. My personal pet peeve is this: apologizing when someone mentions a relative or friend of theirs passed away. I will never understand this 'social rule'. It simply does not make sense especially if the person passed away years ago. But it is a 'social rule' so it is in my checklist. This is why it is draining for us, we have to keep a list in our mind of 'social rules' and react accordingly when encountered, otherwise people will whisper "rude", "what's wrong with him/her", etc. For me, the more appropriate reaction is either silence or tapping them on their back or ask them if they are fine but apparently those are rude. It's similar with "condolence" and "sorry for your loss". I just say "thank you" if they're telling it to me. I just say "condolence" if someone I know is grieving. Does it mean I am not sincere? Not at all. It just does not make any sense but since it is a 'social rule' … However, since I've been watching K-dramas and recently there were a lot of mourning scenes, I think I found what I can appreciate and agree with: the Korean way of mourning. I have not fully looked into it but the Korean way makes far more sense than "condolence" or "sorry for your loss". You visit them, pay your respects, if you are relative or very close you do 2.5 bows. If a colleague, you do a head bow. Then you eat the food they offer not because it is part of the "ritual" but because it is part of paying your respects. It is like the last meal you'll share together. That makes far more sense to me. Avoiding crowded places > "I don't like department stores" —Attorney Woo Young Woo, 《Extraordinary Attorney Woo》 (《이상한 변호사 우영우》) Why? - Too many people. It is draining us. - Too much noise. Hypersensitivity. - Confusing. I've seen other autistics share this explanation why they avoid malls and department stores. - Noticing things to 'fix'. Like imbalanced ddistribution of products, or a very slightly tilted display. - Unfamiliar place. Most autistic persons thrive on familiarity and routine, which helps in mental preparation and coping with sensations. This is one reason why many autistics are afraid to travel alone. We can but first need to prepare for it. To find order to things. To have a checklist in our mind. We go through with it again and again. - "No touching" policy. She was more sensitive to it than usual because she was already trying to calm herself because of the unfamiliar place and onslaught of sensations, and it's only adding more pressure to her brain and chemistry. Young Woo's suspected mother may be in the spectrum too 💡 Scene: She fixed the shoe display. It looked like they are going to touch on the most common understanding that autism is genetics and can be passed on. Besides that, this is also interesting. If her [suspected] mother is in the spectrum too, it appears that she is masking her autism so well like most autistic women in real life. She likely have no idea she is autistic herself which is the situation in real life, far too many were and are undetected and undiagnosed. Romance It is good that they are not pushing it. I think the message here is that it should be taken slowly to let an autistic find his/her way to it and make them comfortable. If it is rushed, the tendency is to take flight. Autistic women are the best ones to explain this. 🤝🏽 Clarity: While I identify as autistic and draw from shared community experiences, these views are my own and do not represent the entire autistic population. --- These reflections on 《Extraordinary Attorney Woo》 (《이상한 변호사 우영우》)'s depiction of autism and autistic persons were first shared on MyDramaList on 2022-07-15 at 05:07 UTC+8. Content license (2026-02-03): CC-BY-SA 4.0 International; see Legal Notice for more details.