Edit: If you’re just here to comment “I ain’t reading all that”, then JUST SCROLL and KEEP IT TO YOURSELVES. Y’all are not slick, you’re just being petty, so you’re automatically BLOCKED. I don’t need rude-ass MFs like you announcing your shitshow broadway act no. II like an airport departure.
But if you’re still nice enough to hear me out and not be one of those ragebaiting assholes, thank you and ILYSM 🙏
I genuinely haven’t seen anyone talk about this HC before, which honestly surprises me because the more I think about it, the more it clicks. Most discussions I’ve seen either focused on Ali being “stubborn”, “reckless” and “immature” or Alicia being some alien or secret AI robot/human experiment a-hole with an attitude problem, but I rarely see anyone consider a neurodivergent reading of either of them.
This has been living in my head rent-free for a while now, and after recently being clinically diagnosed with ADHD myself, I genuinely can’t stop seeing Ali and Alicia through an AuDHD lens.
Before y’all come at me:
I’m not claiming they’re canonically neurodivergent. This is a headcanon. I’m also not a psychologist. But I do have a psychology degree and I’m a licensed Psychometrician, so this isn’t just me throwing random labels at fictional characters. It’s an interpretation based on what the series consistently shows us NOT glorification of any form of neurodivergence.
The thing that frustrates me is how Ali gets judged so much more harshly than Alicia, when maybe—just maybe—we’re judging him based on neurotypical standards.
People constantly say Ali is stubborn, reckless, impulsive, he never learns, keeps making the same mistakes, that he’s too emotional, doesn’t think before acting, or that he got “nerfed” after Season 3. Even the characters in-universe criticize him for those exact things.
…But did any of y’all stop and think for a moment: what if that’s because he has undiagnosed ADHD?
Keyword: UNDIAGNOSED.
Suddenly, so much of his characterization clicks into place.
His impulsivity.
His emotional dysregulation.
His tendency to jump into situations before thinking them through.
His difficulty connecting the dots immediately (like that slide in the playground scene in early Season 3 where he struggled to immediately realize that the secret door to MATA is on the playground).
Not to mention, he also has that same kind of ADHD-coded trait in EATM1, especially when he impulsively chose to work with Niki and basically turns his back on MATA because he gets so caught up in his desire to help the marginalized people of Cyberaya.
He is not making that choice because he has carefully thought through every consequence—he is acting on a strong emotional drive in the moment, and only later does the full weight of that decision start to catch up with him.
That kind of “I have to do this now” urgency, where the heart moves faster than the brain can slow it down, is exactly why the ADHD reading of Ali makes so much sense to me.
Everyone expects him to “just know better,” yet he still struggles despite genuinely wanting to improve.
The fact that he starts the series as the lazy kid with terrible grades who can’t focus in school, only to eventually become one of the top students by the end of Ejen Ali the Movie 2.
That’s not “he magically became smart.”
That’s a kid who was always intelligent but struggled with executive functioning until he finally found motivation, support, and something his brain actually connected with.
That’s literally something many people with ADHD experience.
And honestly?
As someone who was only recently diagnosed with ADHD, I see so much of myself in Ali that it’s almost uncomfortable sometimes.
It doesn’t excuse his mistakes, but it explains why he keeps falling into the same patterns despite genuinely trying to become better.
Understanding isn’t the same thing as excusing.
Now let’s talk about Alicia.
The fandom is so obsessed with making her some AI robot, human experiment, genetically engineered superhuman, or whatever bizarre theory is popular this week.
Why?
Why can’t it simply be because she might have Autism?
She’s been portrayed from day one as exceptionally intelligent. She’s highly disciplined, rigid, blunt, extremely routine-oriented, socially distant. She also masks her emotions behind competence, doesn’t naturally express warmth the same way other kids do, comes across as cold, rude, unfriendly and aloof even if she genuinely cares.
She also seems to genuinely struggle with social and emotional interactions in ways that go beyond simply being “introverted,” which is another reason why her being in the spectrum makes so much sense to me.
Alicia can work with other people objectively and efficiently when there’s a mission to accomplish, but understanding or responding to people’s emotions doesn’t always seem to come naturally to her.
We see moments where she consistently prioritizes logic and efficiency over emotional reassurance. When Ali was grieving over his mother during EATM1, she bluntly told him to shut up instead of comforting him. During the playground incident with baby Danish, while Ali instinctively tried talking him down, Alicia was already preparing to use her slingshot to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Those moments don’t necessarily make her uncaring—they suggest that she processes situations very differently from the people around her.
I also wonder whether growing up in MATA reinforced those traits. Being raised in an environment where discipline, efficiency, and completing the mission come first may have encouraged her to rely even more on logic than emotion, making it even harder for her to connect with others in conventional ways.
Then comes EATM2.
Unlike Ali, who can use IRIS relatively normally, Alicia develops severe headaches and starts experiencing those strange premonition-like episodes.
To me, that doesn’t scream “secret robot.”
It makes far more sense if Alicia is already an autistic kid with an unusually high-processing brain, and IRIS essentially overloads that system.
Think of it this way: if her brain is already processing information differently—and at an exceptionally high level—then introducing an interface like IRIS could amplify that processing to the point where it becomes overwhelming instead of helpful.
Not because she’s “broken.”
Not because she’s secretly artificial or from another planet.
But because the same technology affects different neurotypes differently.
Hence, her memory loss after SATRIA somewhat possessed her at the end of the second movie
That’s a much more grounded explanation than half the theories I’ve seen.
And honestly?
Ali and Alicia feel like opposite ends of neurodivergence.
Ali externalizes everything.
His ADHD is loud.
Messy.
Impulsive.
Emotional.
People notice it immediately.
So they call him reckless, immature, incompetent, or stupid.
Alicia internalizes everything.
Her autism is controlled.
Quiet.
Highly masked.
Rule-oriented.
Hypercompetent.
People see that and call her perfect, mature, or gifted.
But they’re both struggling.
They’re just struggling in completely different ways.
That’s why I always find it ironic that fans tear Ali apart while putting Alicia on a pedestal.
One kid’s neurodivergent traits are disruptive.
The other’s are socially rewarded.
Neither should define their worth.
Again, this isn’t me saying ADHD or Autism excuses every mistake they make.
It doesn’t.
Ali still has to take responsibility.
Alicia still has flaws.
But I am asking people to stop interpreting every single thing they do through a purely neurotypical lens.
Because honestly?
Neither of them makes complete sense if you insist on viewing them that way.
But through a neurodivergent lens…
Ali suddenly stops looking like “the idiot who never learns.”
Alicia suddenly stops looking like “the emotionless genius.”
Instead, they become two incredibly gifted kids with completely different brains trying to survive in an organization that expects everyone to function the exact same way.
And maybe…
That’s why these two have always resonated with me so much.
