{"id":44,"date":"2014-09-08T08:14:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T14:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=44"},"modified":"2014-09-05T18:20:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T00:20:41","slug":"drax-autism-and-a-different-sort-of-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2014\/09\/drax-autism-and-a-different-sort-of-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Drax, Autism and a Different Sort of Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Have you ever gone to a movie, seen a character on screen and said, \u201cHey! That person\u2019s just like me\u201d? It can be pretty special when that happens, especially when you don\u2019t see a lot of people like you anywhere else.<\/p>\n

So it was great to hear (from Legends of the Knight<\/em> director Brett Culp) about Tumblr\u2019s merryweatherblue, who posted the following to his account:<\/p>\n

\u201cI took my little brother (who falls on the autism spectrum) to see Guardians of the Galaxy and after this scene he lit up like a Christmas tree and screamed \u201cHe\u2019s like me! He can\u2019t do metaphors!\u201d And for the rest of the film my brother stared at Drax in a state of rapture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for the last 6 days I have heard my brother repeatedly quote all of the Drax lines from the movie verbatim (one of his talents), begin studying vocabulary test words, and tell everyone he knows that people with autism can also be superheroes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pretty great, huh? Probably no one at Marvel ever thought of Drax as autistic. And yet, a boy with autism found a little of himself in the big blue guy. And it makes me wonder whether the movie\u2019s ability to relate to people is one of the reasons why it\u2019s been so popular.<\/p>\n

\"movies-guardians-of-the-galaxy-drax\"<\/a>I just went to see Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> again on Friday. Near the movie\u2019s grand finale, Peter Quill\/Star Lord stands up and gives what he intends to be a rousing speech to his friends. \u201cLook at us!\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re all losers!\u201d And then he pauses and says, \u201cWell, I mean, we\u2019ve all lost something.\u201d<\/p>\n

But part of the charm of Guardians<\/em> is that they are<\/em> losers, in a way\u2014the sort of losers that most of us have felt like some time in our lives. They\u2019ve got the wrong sorts of friends or don\u2019t have any at all. They don\u2019t pick up on jokes or joke a little too much. They\u2019re like the superhero version of The Breakfast Club<\/em>\u2014high school misfits with a spaceship.<\/p>\n

Movies don\u2019t always influence us in the greatest of ways. But sometimes, they can make us feel a little less alone, a little less strange. They can help us see that the things that make us different are the things that make us special. And they can help us see, maybe, a little hero in ourselves.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t tell that to Drax. He\u2019d try to literally look inside himself to find that pesky hero, and none of us wants to see that.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever gone to a movie, seen a character on screen and said, \u201cHey! That person\u2019s just like me\u201d? It can be pretty special when that happens, especially when you don\u2019t see a lot of people like you anywhere else. So it was great to hear (from Legends of the Knight director Brett Culp) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":45,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,9,12,11,332],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-disability","tag-guardians-of-the-galaxy","tag-marvel","tag-misfits","tag-superheroes"],"yoast_head":"\nDrax, Autism and a Different Sort of Hero<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever gone to a movie, seen a character on screen and said, \u201cHey! That person\u2019s just like me\u201d? 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