Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Nikolai Lantsov (Shadow and Bone)

*Nikolai-related spoilers.*

I hadn’t expected to do any more Neurodivergent Alley posts about Shadow and Bone, but this one just sort of cropped up in my thoughts over the last few months, and some Googling told me I wasn’t alone in the theory. I happened to be rewatching Shadow and Bone when I saw Wicked: Part 1 for the first time—I hadn’t even reached season 2 at that point, but as Fiyero started pinging my ADHD radar, my brain just went, “Wait, is Nikolai ADHD?”

I could see an argument that he’s also autistic, but this is what stood out to me. While the rest of his family is content to stay at the Grand Palace, Nikolai continually feels an itch to be doing something. The prince has a deep love for his divided country and is anxious to find a way to help it. And as a second son, he doesn’t have that much power in the palace, but his position offers him more liberty to explore his own pursuits.

And explore he does! After serving as a soldier in the First Army, Nikolai takes to the sea, posing as the privateer Sturmhond so he can freely travel, furthering Ravka’s interests under the table. This satisfies his desire to help, his need for adventure/excitement, and his love of innovation. Nikolai is a skilled and creative inventor, tinkering to create new weapons and tools that will be of use to his crew. While he isn’t capable of building all his designs himself, he works alongside Fabrikators who use their powers to put his ideas into practice. He even tests multiple prototypes of a flying machine capable of entering the Fold.

Like Fiyero, Nikolai is a skilled masker, code-switching with ease. At sea, he’s a roguish pirate captain who wins the respect and loyalty of his crew. Among soldiers, he’s a down-to-earth man of the people. At court, he’s a thoughtful prince who can practice both diplomacy and strategy. But to my eye, his masking is less detrimental than it often is for neurodivergent folks, because regardless of the setting, Nikolai never loses the core of who he is.  He has a curious mind and an adventurous spirit, and he tasks both of them with realizing the dreams of his compassionate heart. He’s charismatic and confident, playful and cheeky, shrewd and observant. He shows different sides of himself to different people, but all of them are still him.

What I really like about Nikolai is how little he resembles Jesper. I’ve talked before about The Second Autistic-Coded Character I Spot, the often AuDHD-coded character whose traits present very differently than a more archetypal autistic-coded character (Leslie Knope to Ron Swanson, Janine Teagues to Gregory Eddie, etc.) But this might be the first time I’ve really experienced the same thing with ADHD-coded characters. Jesper is an absolute poster boy for an ADHD archetype: restless, distractible, almost always moving, usually talking without thinking. But while Nikolai and Jesper have a similar flirtatious charm, Nikolai doesn’t display most of the overt outward traits that Jesper does. His restless energy is reflected more in his thoughts and actions than immediately apparent in his body.

I know that ADHD “type” labels are oversimplified and not everyone likes them, but if you were to apply that type of language to these two characters, Jesper would have the hyperactive type while Nikolai has the inattentive type. And I really haven’t found much of that in fiction so far. Maybe I just haven’t developed the right skills to look for it, but most of the ADHD-coded characters I see are more “obvious,” aligning much more with the usual archetype. Characters like Jesper, like Peter Parker, like Dewey Duck. So I really appreciate coming across an ADHD headcanon that’s less overt. I’ve come to recognize all sorts of autistic-coded characters in media, and it’s good to see the same thing with ADHD.

Unhatched Observations: Shadow and Bone

It’s that time again—looking over some of my old posts about a story with Big Neurodivergent Energy and realizing how it resonated with me as an “unhatched” autistic ADHDer. We’re looking at Shadow and Bone today. This is an interesting case, because I wrote quite a bit about Shadow and Bone/the Grishaverse, but only my Favorite Characters post on Jesper really vibes on a neurodivergent level. It’s not that he’s the only ND character in the books or the series. Far from it! But until more recently, I wasn’t writing about characters like David or Wylan.

So I’m just looking at my unhatched observations about Jesper as an ADHD character. But even though I’m only revisiting one post today, I’m really struck by how much I write about my love for what are specifically ADHD traits. Even more interestingly, while I hit on the more “obvious” things like his energy and distractibility, I also talk in detail about his hyperfocus when he’s shooting, an ADHD trait that I’d never even heard of back when this post was written. Without knowing what any of this was, it still struck a deep chord with me.

Anyway, enough talk from Present-Day Me. Let’s roll the tape!

 

Favorite Characters: Jesper Fahey

The immediate air Jesper gives off is that of the charismatic troublemaker. He’s funny and personable, he enjoys provoking people, and he has enough of a gambling problem that he allows it to get in the way of the Crows’ illegitimate business dealings. […] Kaz and Inej are both more serious than he is and, at first blush, better at what they do. They’re the ones with their head in the game, while Jesper is the one Kaz admonishes to pay attention and not screw it up.

Which would be a perfectly entertaining character type all on its own. Every ragtag band of outsiders needs some good comic relief, and story-wise, it never hurts to have a wildcard who keeps things from going too smoothly. On both counts, Jesper fits the bill nicely. And if he was just those things, he’d probably still be my favorite character, because he’s just so much fun. But what I really appreciate about Jesper is that, in a particular respect, he’s also devastatingly hyper-competent. As he points out to Kaz, the chief “Jesper talent” is to “shoot things with style” (and to look good while doing it—oh, Jesper.) He has an ever-present pair of revolvers at his side, and when he lets loose with them, his precision and focus are just stunning. When Jesper’s sharpshooting skills are called upon, he transforms. Not that he loses his humor or panache, but this ability comes from somewhere deep within him, and whether he’s saving himself and his friends from literal death or simply causing an expertly timed distraction, he’s unmatched.

I love that. I love when largely comedic characters show a different side to themselves. […] It’s an important way to show why they shouldn’t be underestimated. There are a few displays of Jesper’s unparalleled marksmanship in the first two episodes of the season, but he gets a showcase scene in episode 3—one, by the way, that comes pretty quickly on the heels of a major “lovable screw-up” moment—that instantly shows just how much he’s capable of. It’s the scene in which my opinion of Jesper went from “okay, this guy is delightful” to “I just met my new platonic crush.”

Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: David Kostyk (Shadow and Bone)

*Most of the individual moments mentioned here are specifically from the show, but this characterization is very true to the books as well.*

Thought I might as well wrap up the final member of Shadow and Bone’s neurodivergent trifecta. I poked around a little, and while there isn’t unequivocal confirmation in the books or explicit word from author Leigh Bardugo in interviews, I am absolutely certain that David is intended to be autistic, both in the books and on the show.

David is part of the Fabrikator order of Grisha, specifically a Durast. This means he can control and manipulate physical materials—while he has a particular affinity for metals, he keenly understands other materials like stones/minerals as well, and he can help other Grisha create amplifiers to boost their power. Like many Fabrikators, his role within the Second Army is considered less combat-based and more scientific. Fabrikators are primarily researchers, tinkerers, and inventors. They make the Grisha’s bulletproof keftas, the skiffs that allow them to travel the Fold, and other innovations.

Side note: even though this is the role that Fabrikators are funneled into at the Little Palace, I appreciate that it’s not an innate Fabrikator trait. After all, Jesper is a Durast as well, albeit an untrained one, and he’d go stir-crazy in a workshop far away from the action. It gets away from some essentialist “all Fabrikators are STEM nerds!” implications.

That’s just fine with David, though. He isn’t really trained for battle and prefers his workshop anyway. It keeps him safe, not only from the frontlines, but from confusing social interactions that elude his understanding (and don’t interest him.) He loves his work and can completely miss the fact that someone is even talking to him when his mind is busy brainstorming. He’s mostly unaware of Genya’s crush on him, even though he likes her himself, and her gentle flirting goes over his head.

Luca Pasqualino’s performance on the show leans into the “socially awkward genius” portrayal of David, and while that’s a particularly tropey form of autistic coding, I like that it doesn’t translate into “asshole” here, as it often does on other shows. Instead, when David ignores someone, it’s obvious that he’s simply lost in his head and isn’t intending to offend anyone. I enjoy his fidgety mannerisms and inability to read the room—there’s a great moment where Kirigan starts to point out that David doesn’t have to raise his hand when he wants to speak, then decides it’s not worth it and simply says, “Yes, David?” And it cracks me up when he’s been captured and raises his shackled wrists to wave at Alina when she comes in to question him.

In addition to his general social awkwardness and preference for being alone with his work, David’s brilliance doesn’t always extend to crisis situations. When he’s hit with something unfamiliar, he can flail—when Jesper startles him in Kirigan’s carriage, David’s first recourse is to throw a book at him. This doesn’t offer him much cover, as he’s quickly knocked unconscious. No, he works best when he has time to think, when he can come up with a plan.

I know I’m not alone in my favorite scene from David, on both the show and in the books. It’s where he finally expresses his feelings for Genya, in an incredibly David way. At this point, she’s been brutalized by Kirigan’s shadow monsters and left badly disfigured. It’s worth quoting his entire little speech here, because it’s so great:

David furrowed his brow. "I…I don't understand half of what goes on around me. I don't get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal." His fingers flexed unconsciously as if he were physically grasping for words. "Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing."

I just think it’s so lovely that David gets one of the most romantic moments in the whole series, and that his romantic moment is super autistic, right down to invoking his special interest to compliment the woman he loves. Just wonderful!