THE ARISTOCATS (1970),dir Wolfgang Reitherman

THE ARISTOCATS (1970), dir Wolfgang Reitherman

Guess who’s planning on a Nightmare Ned cosplay?? Yep, me. Not sure if anyone else has cosplayed as Ned Needlemeyer before, but if not, I’m honored to be the first to do so!! Here’s a preview of what will be included in the cosplay!!

Honestly it would be cool if I find the pajamas he has as an alternate outfit too, but we’ll see.. :3

Shameless headcanon time: Ned Needlemeyer (Nightmare Ned) is highly likely to be autistic and he also has generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

The reason I came up with this headcanon is because I strongly relate to Ned in terms of personality and struggles. To note, I’m autistic and also have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder myself.

Reasons why I think this headcanon works:

1. Difficulty with relating to other people: When I was Ned’s age (9-10 years old), and through my years of school up to and including high school, I was pretty much the same as him. I struggled with making friends in school and was bullied plenty by classmates, simply because I didn’t “fit in” with them and preferred to spend time alone. Ned has similar struggles, especially when he encounters Conrad and Vernon who constantly pick on him. (This also goes for Billy Blackbeard in the game, who would call him “melon head.”)

2. Anxiety and stress/low stress tolerance: Ned struggles with this constantly, as shown throughout the game and TV series. For example, he loses his last baby tooth and overreacts to the idea of allowing the tooth fairy to trade his tooth for a quarter. This could also be an example of being disturbed at the slightest bit of change in routine, which is also common in autistic individuals. Like I said above, he struggles with being bullied, and because of that (and other outside factors), he gets easily nervous often over small situations, sometimes to the point of being easily upset. I struggle with this at times as well, even as a young adult.

3. Constantly retreating to his own world: The nightmares he has pretty much sum this up. That’s how he deals with the stresses of the world and combats them. I also have my own little world I go to sometimes to escape reality. For Ned though, he sometimes has difficulty differentiating between fiction and reality. I’m not sure if that specifically is an autism or anxiety disorder trait, but I find it worth noting. Also worth noting that narcolepsy plays a huge role in these nightmares too, hence he has moments when he randomly falls asleep during the day in some episodes of the TV series.

This was rather hard for me to explain but I hope it’s somewhat understandable.

“AIN’T YOU EVER SEEN A PUMPKIN BEFORE???” Had to quote those crazy pumpkins. They make me laugh every time.

The Pumpkin Punks from the Nightmare Ned PC game.

lavender