The ABL Saga

[butt in trouble]

It seemed like during the calls with Chris Alec had to carefully check everything he said because would hang up at the drop of a hat if he felt threatened.

 

[Holdek]

Wait, so Chris thinks that all cartoons exist in an alternate reality. If so, then how come Sonichu happened, but Asperchu was apparently just a bunch of people being forced to act like the main cast of Sonichu (not to mention the problems it creates with issue 6's whole thing about Chris traveling through the two worlds)?

It's difficult to tell what Chris really believes and what he's just made up on the spot. Long story short - Cwcville is Chris' "safe place" - an imaginary world where everything makes sense and Chris is god. (This is a pretty common coping mechanism for people with autism.) ABL's Asperchu series upset Chris ("He set me on fire!") because of Chris' apparently weak understanding of the difference between reality and his imaginary world. In order to rationalize ABL's interference, he came up with the idea that Alec caught Sonichus "in the wild" for his comic world and thus has nothing to do with Chris' imaginary hugbox, Cwcville.

Maybe Chris doesn't believe that, and only said it to try to get Evan and Alec off his back about offing Simonla.

This is also entirely possible. Though it's hard to understand why Chris would become so upset about Asperchu if he didn't believe in his "Toon World" concept.

Or, and along the same lines, maybe it was he just thought Asperchu's cartoon world and characters contaminated Chris' cartoon world.

In some ways it makes me think of the concept behind the Toy Story films, where the toys are alive when we're not around. This is based on how when we're kids, we imbue things like toys with personality and consciousness and form emotional attachments to them. I'm sure we all did it, I know I did.
Possibly what we're seeing with Chris and his "toon world" is another symptom of his reluctance to grow up. He has to create these fictions to rationalize his emotional attachments to childish things and justify why he still spends his days surrounded by toys whilst drawing Sonic recolors.

It's almost like he's trying to convince himself as much as others that these things that form the backbone of his happy childhood are still relevant and he can still believe in them.

^This. I think Chris knows that CWCVille doesn't actually exist. It's more of a (childish) state of mind, man ( 8-) ) and the way he explains and justifies this abstraction to himself and others in a linear way is just saying that it's real and making up all these rules for it that are based on linear thinking.

 

[teheviltwin]

Or, and along the same lines, maybe it was he just thought Asperchu's cartoon world and characters contaminated Chris' cartoon world.

Kind of like running around the house of a person with severe OCD tilting everything slightly and rearranging their DVDs. Once he'd seen the comics he couldn't unsee it. After that every time he went to his happy place it wasn't as fun any more.

 

[Holdek]

IMHO because a couple of very important issues related to ASD in particular have never been addressed in OPL he doesn't really have the ability to just grow up. In particular Theory of mind. This leads to Chris reacting weirdly to a lot of situations because he does not understand that the people he interacts with do not know what he does or feel the way he feels. ToM is something Chris should have been taught in special school as a child.

He's still a lazy, fat waste of space but he doesn't understand that or why anyone else would think that. He's not intellectually a child, he's emotionally a child.

EDIT: HOWAMDOPOST!?

Oh, I'm certainly not suggesting that Chris is completely responsible for everything and he would be normal if he just grew up. He definitely has autism and difficulties associated with it, but I personally think that the very fact that he has the 'tism has sheltered him from being called out on a lot of his bullshit. It also empowers him to behave in certain ways.

I just personally think that Chris isn't as "retarded" as many others think he is.

In the last Facebook post we got, he mentioned Barb worrying about how the graphic nature of Resident evil will effect his mind. Barb certainly thinks her 31 year old son has the mind of a child. Which is another insight into his fucked up upbringing.

I agree that people not wanting to hurt his special feelings and being reluctant to give him open criticism throughout his life has allowed him to get away with all kinds of crap.

Barb is an absolute monster IMHO. She refused to send Chris to special ed and then didn't research how to teach him social skills at home. Chris's mind is also very literal and you just know that over the years Barb has been responsible for things like... "You're the best artist in your school", "Household chores are TORTURES"*, "You are the most handsome young man." etc. etc. etc.

While at the same time restricting his independence to the point that he never learned otherwise, such as by interacting on the genuine level (i.e. not shielded by Momma or patronizing pity) with other people, who didn't appreciate his bullshit. Hence why after high school when it started happening consistently for the first time in his life, the hit the fan.

*Didn't Barb stop cooking for her family over something really petty? Can't remember the exact details.

Spaghetti (of all the things I can't remember, it's something like this I can. I'm kind of disgusted with myself right now.)

I'm not sure Barb has autism, but I do get the vibe that she has some sort of undiagnosed (or maybe diagnosed but then promptly forgotten because she doesn't give a shit) psychological disorder. Hoarding a child - especially a grown, adult child - is not something a mentally healthy individual does.

What about cuddling with one?

Ah, okay! I missed the part where he was actually asking for help with a group home placement. Somehow I'd thought he was just asking her for some kind of tugboat upgrade to help with expenses post-Barb. That's unusually forward-thinking for Chris.

No, he was just looking for a tugboat upgrade. "Medicaid waivers" is what it's called, and it's a way to get funding for medical/mental-health services in-home instead of in a state institution. He was specifically looking to make sure he never has to set foot in any sort of structured environment. Credit where credit's due though: it was forward-thinking, and probably one of the few genuinely helpful things Rocky did for Chris.

Well, sort of. Chris was reciting verbatim from an information sheet about funding for both group home and a waiver to use that money for home care. Before he did that he admitted that it was all over his head, and I believe him.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

It seemed like during the calls with Chris Alec had to carefully check everything he said because would hang up at the drop of a hat if he felt threatened.

Everyone who calls him has to do that, if they want the conversation to continue.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

It seemed like during the calls with Chris Alec had to carefully check everything he said because would hang up at the drop of a hat if he felt threatened.

Everyone who calls him has to do that, if they want the conversation to continue.

Ignoring something or choosing not to listen appears to be the standard way of dealing with something you dislike in the Chandler household.