The Ideal-ist: Episode 9 (Miles "Nine" Prower)

Welcome back to The Ideal-ist, the YouTube Shorts companion series to The Autistic Mile.

In this series, Shane Gaffney explores the characters, games, shows, and stories that resonate with him on a personal level—not simply because they’re entertaining, but because they can reflect real emotional struggles, social dynamics, and ways of seeing the world that may feel especially familiar to autistic individuals.

In this episode, Shane turns his attention to Nine from Sonic Prime. Nine’s story is a powerful example of how trauma can shape the way someone thinks, reacts, and interprets the intentions of others long after the original pain has passed.

Shane explores why perspective-taking and cognitive empathy matter so much when reaching out to someone who has been hurt. Good intentions alone are not always enough. If you fail to truly listen, dismiss someone’s lived experience, or assume you understand what they need without taking their perspective seriously, even an attempt to help can accidentally deepen the divide between you.

Nine also demonstrates how past experiences can create ripple effects that influence future relationships for better or worse. Someone who already feels unwanted, misunderstood, or rejected may be especially sensitive to signs that their feelings are being brushed aside—even when the other person never meant any harm.

That lesson can be particularly important when interacting with autistic individuals who may already feel alienated from the people around them. Sometimes the most meaningful thing you can do is not immediately try to fix the problem, but instead make the person feel that their perspective has been heard, understood, and treated as valid.

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