Today we’re going to explore Gowther, a character from the Seven Deadly Sins who has autistic traits. You can find the Seven Deadly Sins [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] anime on Netflix, or read the ongoing manga. All the characters are fascinating, but when Gowther appeared, I couldn’t stop analyzing him. He is the Lust sin and has a goat sin symbol tattoo. Although the name points to sexuality, the reality is that he’s lusting for knowledge! He loves reading books, doesn’t understand people at all, and is quite expressionless. Moreover, he has a weird sense of fashion that makes him quite fluid. It seems like he is utterly oblivious of what gender is.
If you watch the anime on Netflix, you’ll soon be puzzled by Gowther. He’s expressionless, aloof, looks manipulative, and dresses without regarding gender roles. However, the most exciting thing about him is that he seems to be into the Autistic spectrum. Remember that Autism is vast so some of the traits that Gowther has might not be shared by all autistic people.
1. He is expressionless.
His face has no emotion. He is aloof most of the time and looks puzzled at best. Many people are scared of him because his face is blank. The only time he moves his facial muscles is when he introduces himself. He does so by posing and making a cute remark. But that could be a copy of someone he saw and thought it was the way to go ahead.
2. He’s lost in context, so he says the most inappropriate things at the worse times.
Despite looking aloof most of the time, he does care about his mates and other people. He’s mostly unaware of other people’s feelings and ends up saying the wrong thing at the worst possible times. So, many people think he’s heartless or evil. Because he ends up in messes due to this, he goes beyond the line to understand people’s feelings.
3. He doesn’t understand people’s feelings at all.
Besides being lost in context all the time, he doesn’t understand people’s feelings at all. However, he does want to and goes to extreme lengths to try to understand them. And he does that with his magical powers sometimes. His ability is intruding people’s minds. He can enter into people’s minds and feast on their fears to stop them doing something. Or he can merely brainwash you. In an attempt to make Guila feel better, he influences her, and they end up being lovers. He doesn’t do this because he wants to do something wrong to her, but because he wants to understand her. Moreover, he doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is wrong either.
Because he doesn’t understand people or what they do, he is quite eclectic. He has no idea what gender roles are, or if he does, he has no regard for them. His fashion ranges from gender-neutral to girlish. He even dresses as a waitress for Meliodas’ tavern in an attempt to have more customers. And it seems it works because he’s super cute. I’d say that he’s Queer, but it’s more likely that he wouldn’t understand any labels and he would just ignore them.
4. He loves reading.
Many people on the autistic spectrum love reading and collecting books. Gowther adores reading and roleplaying what’s in the book. In fact, when he first appears in the anime, he’s in a town searching for new books. He reads them to a friend. Because he has no home address that we know of in the anime, we have no clue how many books Gowther might have. But, since he’s thrilled by books, it’s easy to imagine him having a vast library!
5. He’s in a constant pursuit for information.
Many people with autism also are keen on gathering all types of interesting information. Gowther is in continually collecting information of all sorts. As I said at the beginning of this post, he’s the deadly sin of Lust. However, his lust isn’t for sex but for knowledge. He gathers most of them from books, but also from his experiences and messes.
6. He has no idea when he’s tired.
It looks like he might also have alexithymia, the inability to recognize emotions on oneself. Gowther doesn’t get tired, feel pain, thirst or hunger. In an episode, one of the evil enemies he battles chops off his head, and he seems not to mind at all. He has healing powers, but the other characters do show pain on their faces and complain when they’re injured. So, enemies might be killing him, and he’ll keep up fighting feeling nothing.
7. He doesn’t seem to get jokes or sarcasm.
While Meliodas and the other joke, Gowther seems oblivious to it. Jokes and sarcasm escape him. Sometimes he says things that are very funny, but because he’s so lost in context he doesn’t understand that he actually made a joke! It also might be because he can be quite literal. He doesn’t understand people’s emotions, therefore in his pursuit to understand, he takes things quite literally. And it can backfire sometimes.
8. He’s very naïve.
Most people perceive Gowther as scary because he does manipulate people sometimes with his power. However, he does it to understand people or to protect his mates. He’s so naïve, and he’s so lost in the context that he ends up in comic situations out of it. His intentions aren’t evil, but those to someone who is pure and doesn’t understand anything.
I’ve only seen the available episodes on Netflix. I’m thrilled with Gowther, and the Seven Deadly Sins. Give the show a try and let me know what you think about the Lord of Lust.
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Want to know more autistic characters? Find about Sheldon Cooper, and Castiel from Supernatural.
You can also meet my Vulcan here.
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