Shigaraki X Todoroki Stories

😳My Strange Todoroki Headcannon🧠

One of my weirder headcannons for Shoto is that he has some type of autism. I came up with this headcannon after my counselor told me that she believes that I have Aspergers, which for those who don't know is kinda like a high functioning form of autism. She told me it usually goes undiagnosed, especially in females, and I've never been diagnosed with it. Sooo she's having me see a psychologist.
Tf man.

Anyways, I also recently read a post on tumblr about someone giving very interesting examples that Shoto may have some type of Autism, and that strengthened my feelings about him actually having it.
In the actual manga he shows quite a few symptoms of Autism and/or Aspergers, which I will be explaining in the following paragraphs.

Distinctive strengths - at the beginning of the series he really only used his ice while fighting and stuck to it.

Anxiety and depression - I mean...come on. This guy is obviously unwell, even in the series.

Limited facial expressions - Shoto barely shows emotions through his face, he always has a blank expression on. This also factors into how Shoto doesn't emote like people normally do. This lack of emoting is something extremely common in people with autism, and from the research I've done it's also common with Aspergers.
It's not like people who have autism don't have emotions or don't express them at all, they just do it in a way that is hard to understand for people outside the spectrum or those who don't know the autistic individual very well. They often struggle to understand what emotion they're feeling in the first place and of course it's hard to express feelings if you don't know what you're feeling.

Shoto doesn't only show difficulty expressing his emotions but also recognizing those of other people. One of the best examples of this is the final exam arc, where he gets paired up with Yaoyorozu. In chapter 63 specifically Shoto doesn't realize that Momo is upset about something, even though to someone else it'd probably have been obvious. It's only when Aizawa points out that Shoto should have listened to Momo that our peppermint boy finally notices that he's been doing something wrong. Shoto didn't even notice she was upset and he didn't know he was being rude.

Emotions + emotional responses in general are continuously shown to be difficult for Shoto to handle and understand. On the other hand something he has absolutely no issues with are academics. Of course, we can naturally assume that he's been drilled to study hard from a very young age by his no-good-excuse-of-a-father, but he is also extremely intelligent outside of the classroom. During the sports festival he is the first person shown to figure out that the obstacle course poses a lot more disadvantages to the people in the lead, and during the practical exam he is able to come up with a solid strategy very quickly.

During the training camp arc, him and Deku are the ones to come up with a strategy to protect Bakugo on the spot. He also doesn't seem to consider his intelligence anything special. A lot of autistic people tend to assume that other people's experiences align with their own. This can be seen when he seems surprised about Denki worrying that he'll fail the written final exam. He asks how he could possibly fail if he's been attending class, like the concept is entirely foreign to him. And this likely wasn't a joke since this is Shoto Todoroki we're talking about. He is very good at logical problem solving but emotional issues seem to stump him.

His literacy and verbal filter - Another major thing that Shoto seems to struggle with is his tendency to be overly literal and very blunt. There are several instances where he says things that we as readers, as well as other characters, perceive as insensitive. Once again, his interaction with Denki about the final exams (chapter 60) can be an example. He didn't seem to think it was inappropriate, and because this is Shoto, he didn't ask to tease him either. Denki even points out that this was insensitive to say. A more subtle example is his conversation with Izuku in chapter 73, when they talk about Kota. His overall phrasing is fine, but he remains very blunt and direct and essentially ends up telling Izuku that his tendency to cut to people's hearts with his words is annoying.