Rewatching the Lego Movie for the first time since middle school and like. How did younger me not see the incidental autism metaphor in this thing.
I don't think every autistic person can relate to Emmet 1-1, but in-story he does seem like an autistic person constantly masking to be 'normal' but still winds up being normal in the wrong way. While the literal instructions society gives him are the same instructions given to everyone, he follows them in a mechanical way rather than a natural one. These rules and structure are a comfort to him, but this constant masking does result in feeling isolated due to a lack of genuine connection with his peers.
And then Emmet runs into a group of creative rebels who are supposedly wild and uninhibited, and he is still out of place because they think he's doing creativity wrong. And in the beginning, he kinda is doing it wrong, because he has to unlearn the anti-creativity that a life of masking has taught him. However, the part of him that is fond of rules, structure, and the practical mechanics of how the world works, ultimately winds up as an essential part of his creative process rather than a hindrance.
Idk man, I just like this movie a little more than I used to.