I wouldn't have said so, though I freely admit I've only got a layman's knowledge. She doesn't have any real issues in social situations in general, just when someone gets close. What she does have is a temper and intimacy issues. If you look at her interactions with various other characters (Joseph is a good example) she has perfectly normal exchanges but when Mariah winds her up she snaps easily and when Marina starts becoming important to her she freaks out.

I think she is more of the type of person that can't express herself emotionally very well, i think she and Mariah are very similar and she is NOT autistic, just never learned how to be a Normal Human Being.

In the grand scheme of things, i think Marina or whatever name is, is exactly what Amber needs to learn how to be more mushy on the outside.

I know for sure Tess is more than likely one of those Genius type of people, where they have high Intelligence, but a lack of emotional expression abilities....which might or might not be caused by her big sister being the way she is, although if it is, it is NOT on purpose.

Marina and Tess's parts in the DLC were really tear jerking, it is very rare for a game to get my emotions going like that. kudos to the developers.

Not sure I completely agree. Having Aspergers doesn´t make you incapable of having emotional or social exchanges, it just makes it more difficult.
Being on the spectrum is not the same as being a sociopath, you have feelings like everyone else but usually have a hard time expressing them.
I could be wrong of course, but I definitely see tendencies usually seen as symptoms of Asperger.
Still haven´t played the DLC, I should check that out.

Originally posted by johnnyh87:

Not sure I completely agree. Having Aspergers doesn´t make you incapable of having emotional or social exchanges, it just makes it more difficult.
Being on the spectrum is not the same as being a sociopath, you have feelings like everyone else but usually have a hard time expressing them.

I never said otherwise but that's the point; Amber doesn't have difficulty with social exchanges, she's just not fond of them.

Originally posted by wayland.smith:

Originally posted by johnnyh87:

Not sure I completely agree. Having Aspergers doesn´t make you incapable of having emotional or social exchanges, it just makes it more difficult.
Being on the spectrum is not the same as being a sociopath, you have feelings like everyone else but usually have a hard time expressing them.

I never said otherwise but that's the point; Amber doesn't have difficulty with social exchanges, she's just not fond of them.

Well, that´s an assumption though. From what I could tell it´s not clear if it´s preference or predisposition.
Maybe she´s not fond of them because she has difficulty with them?
I mostly just think it´s interesting to consider regardless.

Originally posted by johnnyh87:

Well, that´s an assumption though. From what I could tell it´s not clear if it´s preference or predisposition.
Maybe she´s not fond of them because she has difficulty with them?

Except we can tell because she's the narrator, we're effectively in her brain for the story and she never expresses any such difficulties.

Originally posted by wayland.smith:

Originally posted by johnnyh87:

Well, that´s an assumption though. From what I could tell it´s not clear if it´s preference or predisposition.
Maybe she´s not fond of them because she has difficulty with them?

Except we can tell because she's the narrator, we're effectively in her brain for the story and she never expresses any such difficulties.

She might not say it directly, but I think her behavior does.
Again, I could be wrong but a lot of her behavior is common for people who are not neuro typical.

Again, we're in her head. What she says isn't at issue, we're seeing what she thinks.
I honestly don't know what behaviour you're referring to. She's anti-social but that's about it and that's hardly evidence of being on the spectrum, especially given that Amber is deep in grief at the start of the game. She interacts perfectly easily with everyone she meets except Mariah and her difficulties with her are very normal reactions to an annoying person.
Tess I could see but not Amber.

Originally posted by wayland.smith:

Again, we're in her head. What she says isn't at issue, we're seeing what she thinks.
I honestly don't know what behaviour you're referring to. She's anti-social but that's about it and that's hardly evidence of being on the spectrum, especially given that Amber is deep in grief at the start of the game. She interacts perfectly easily with everyone she meets except Mariah and her difficulties with her are very normal reactions to an annoying person.
Tess I could see but not Amber.

I disagree, her behaviour does not seem typical at all.
There is quite a few clues in her behaviour if you´re familliar with neuro non typicals.
I´m not saying you´re definitely wrong, but I just don´t see any evidence that you´re right either.
I can´t think of any concrete "evidence", it´s mostly a vibe thing.
I know people on the spectrum and I have Aspergers myself and the way she acts feels awfully familliar, wheter she is aware of it herself or not.
Hope I don´t come across as whiny or anything, I think it´s an interesting subject to discuss.

Originally posted by johnnyh87:

I disagree, her behaviour does not seem typical at all.
There is quite a few clues in her behaviour if you´re familliar with neuro non typicals.
I´m not saying you´re definitely wrong, but I just don´t see any evidence that you´re right either.
I can´t think of any concrete "evidence", it´s mostly a vibe thing.
I know people on the spectrum and I have Aspergers myself and the way she acts feels awfully familliar, wheter she is aware of it herself or not.
Hope I don´t come across as whiny or anything, I think it´s an interesting subject to discuss.

Don't sweat it, mate, you weren't whiny at all. You made your points, I made mine, we kept the whole thing civil. I think we've both made our points well enough and, as you say, no way to say for sure, so thank you for a fine discussion!

I've got friends with Asperger's so I read up on it. I can't say I got any indication from Amber that she has it, no. She just comes across as mildly misanthropic and cynical, a common trope for fiction protagonist narrators and exactly the type to get paired with a manic pixie dream girl type like Marina.

I'm not saying she's a bad character, mind you. Check out https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightInSourArmor

It's not unlikely perhaps. The way she reacts towards other people seems like a sense of overstimulation. And the way she plays music is pretty autistic even if learned from her father or whatever. She also has an almost flat expression. She has a really hard time opening up, although you could blame that on mourning, it feels like she is taken out of that mindset by Marina almost and yet she still acts that way the majority of time with her and someone else. She relies on someone to magically come into her life that can somehow resonate with her and that seems like a high difficulty of developing socially.