As an autistic adult who likes to watch kids' media sometimes, do I ever have some thoughts on that.

I'm gonna explain why I, personally, end up watching a lot of kids' media, and why framing this as "creepy" is inherently ableist and just a generally shitty thing do do.

First of all, there's plenty of media aimed at adults I enjoy just fine - EG, IASIP, Mad Men, The Shape Of Water.

I don't have a problem with media aimed at adults per se.

It's just... most media aimed at adults is... how to put it nicely...

Stressful, boring, and pretentious.

So many shows treat violence and death as cruise control for mature.

So many writers act as if emotionally hurting the audience is an end goal unto itself.

Violence and cruelty is treated as an inevitable fact of life, rather than a consequence of certain beliefs and values.

Then there's the fact that so much media aimed at adults is so time-consuming. Everything gotta be a long-running serial.

Better hope you have lots of time, lots of energy, and a good memory.

Often as not, the protagonists of adult-aimed media are so. damn. bland.

Like, 50% of their personality is acting like their own personal problems are the biggest thing in the universe; the other 50% is acting like their entry-level comprehension of morality makes them superior.

Elements that aren't personally relevant to these protagonists end up sidelined and forgotten, even though they had a lot of potential and could've been very interesting to explore further.

Because Heaven forbid the world doesn't revolve around these bland assholes.

And I *cannot* overemphasize how often writers of adult-aimed media *want to hurt their audience*, and how often they try to do this by hurting or killing a minority, or at least someone who is queer-coded and/or ND-coded.

I'm not here for writing where the cruelty is the point.

Meanwhile, since violence is generally considered inappropriate for kids' shows, writers generally can't use it as cruise control for "mature" or "shocking." Way less stress.

(Though Pacific Rim: Into The Black did in fact do just that, and let me tell ya, that show is garbage.)

Episodes are shorter, and stories are often more episodic, so it's easier if you don't have a lot of time and/or your memory doesn't like holding onto things. You can just watch an episode whenever and relax.

Additionally, any time a kids' show advocates helping and defending others? It's advocating community and noncompliance with cruelty.

That's more mature than a lot of adult-aimed media is willing to be.

And it's reassuring to see that *someone* out there still believes in it.

Kids' media is also way less likely to get hung up on like 1-3 characters' drama and act like nothing else matters. And if it does, the stakes are usually lower, so it's at least less glaring.

(Pacific Rim: Into The Black is an exception... and once again, it's garbage.)

Also, kids' media is more likely to have neat worldbuilding elements that are a lot of fun to do thought experiments with and build our own ideas on.

Meanwhile, adult-aimed media is more likely to make the fantastic elements hostile and punishing and very much not fun.

Oh, and as of late, adult-aimed media is reeeeeaaaaally hung up on these super dark, bland color palettes.

Kids' media has a lot of vivid colors, and a lot of autistic folks really enjoy that kind of thing.

So yeah, calling adults "creepy" for liking kids' media is inherently ableist, because a lot of kids' media are more watchable for us autistic folks than a lot of adult-aimed media.

It's not our fault that adult-aimed media is so often inaccessible to us.