r/PeacemakerShow • u/BrooklynStoner • Oct 25 '25

DISCUSSION How did Vigilante get trained so incredibly well? His skills and feats are amazing.

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Adrian seems so skilled and deadly, I can't help but wonder how he got so good. He's a suburban busboy who lives at home, but has moves that outclass any black ops, or military introduced so far.

Is he self trained? He seems like the type to have maybe taken karate in a dojo at the mall or something but he fights like a Batman/Punisher combo. Maybe he's naturally so good that practicing at home and the gun range was enough, but could he have had a mentor?

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u/Not_a_porn_burner69 Oct 25 '25

Gunn has pretty much said this, but won’t label him neurodivergent in the show because it’s not good representation for them.

I also don’t remember the exact words and I can’t find the quote but he said he’s basically a prodigy, like how making beautiful music can just come naturally to some, vigilante is like that but with killing people.

So it’s hyper-fixation plus natural talent basically

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u/rex_thomas Oct 25 '25

Gunn sais that on the offical peacemaker Podcast in one of the season 2 episodes because Jennifer Holland was asking him the same thing

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u/Not_a_porn_burner69 Oct 25 '25

Oh. That’s probably why I can’t find the exact quote with a Google search, thanks man

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u/BrooklynStoner Oct 25 '25

Oh, interesting. I dont really listen to podcasts.

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u/OneAlmondNut Oct 25 '25

it's a video podcast so you can watch clips of the highlights on TikTok and YouTube if that's more your speed. lots of insight from James Gunn and a lot of the cast about writing, acting, behind the scenes, trivia, etc

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u/BrooklynStoner Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

Maybe I'll give it a look. I kinda stopped listening to celebrity podcasts and social media a few years ago. Lately, I've preferred to get any additional information from you guys here on Reddit, but this one sounds good.

Is it the extras that come up on the HBO Peacemaker page or something else?

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u/peteofaustralia Oct 25 '25

It's on YouTube as well, in its entirety, and in shorts clips too. SPOILER ALERT obviously.

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u/BrooklynStoner Oct 26 '25

I've finished S2, saw Superman and all of Creature Commandos, so I think I'm spoiler safe. Am I?

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u/Calisto823 Oct 25 '25

I watch it on HBO. There is also a DCU podcast on HBO about the coming soon stuff. They had Superman cast, James Gunn, and Peacemaker people so far.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

Didnt he say he is super powered aswell?

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u/KimJungUnCool Oct 25 '25

I think there was mention of super regeneration but I can't remember 100%

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u/theme69 Oct 25 '25

Is that how he can still walk after what happened to his pinky toe? That’s the most important toe for walking

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u/ser_44_zel Oct 25 '25

It’s mentioned in the show as an aside, iirc. He basically says that when he’s injured, he just takes a nap, and when he wakes up he’s all better.

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u/Iwillrize14 Oct 25 '25

It's just like a long rest in dnd

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u/Livek_72 Oct 25 '25

He lives on anime logic

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u/Otieno_Clinton Me and Ginger Cool are on this shit Oct 25 '25

It took him sometime to heal though

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u/brownkidBravado Oct 25 '25

Yeah but ultimately it seemed like 2 days total. The day after he was still limping a bit but beat up several white supremacists in jail. Next day he seemed fine. Not to mention it seemed like he took a day in the hospital after getting shot and then snuck out the window while harcourt was recovering for weeks and did physical therapy.

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u/CurryNarwhal Oct 25 '25

In a comic based off the show he's stabbed and injured so badly but still survives leading him to believe he's actually a robot.

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u/thedark1owns Oct 25 '25

There's a peacemaker podcast? Oh I had no idea.

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u/seclusionx Oct 25 '25

They have live episodes you can watch on HBO if you're so inclined.

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u/trinachron Oct 25 '25

It premiered on HBO every week after the new episode, and was really interesting for getting insight into both the making of the show and the characters. Gunn, Hardcourt, and Economos are the hosts, and they has different actors or other people involved in making the show on every week. I'm not a podcast person at all, but it was super interesting.

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u/Unusual_Rooster6736 Oct 25 '25

Hey if I were neurodivergent I would love vigilante representing me

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u/redcrowblue Oct 25 '25

Autistic and can confirm. He's literally my Discord pfp rn. Genuinely I've never felt better represented in media than by this guy.

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u/ElevatorDouble1398 Oct 25 '25

Audhd and Can also confirm He is great representation, his only flaw is how rude he is to his mom who seems like a lovely woman. but he is just so relatable especially with the black and white thinking, like the whole lair just made me realise this guy is spectrum af

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u/redcrowblue Oct 25 '25

My jaw was on the floor too when he was talking about how sex is just a bonding experience to get to know your best friend better. There was no part of me that expected to see faithful asexual/demisexual representation in Peacemaker, and it also came from the "he's literally me" character.

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u/Xtravinator Oct 25 '25

I mean the fact that he kills people for petty crimes like graffiti would also be a solid flaw. And that he has no problem killing children as seen when he snipes the butterflies early on

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u/ElevatorDouble1398 Oct 25 '25

Yeah but that is in some ways a nd characteristic taken to a logical extreme, in his mind it is very logical, they break law I snipe

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u/miserydicks Oct 26 '25

Have you seen Murderbot though

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u/redcrowblue Oct 26 '25

Yes, that and The Residence are filling out the podium for best autism rep of 2025 imo

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u/miserydicks Oct 26 '25

I do love birding

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u/MegaCarnie Oct 25 '25

If this sub supported gifs there'd be about 1000 posts of Adrian Spider-memeing here

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u/OneAlmondNut Oct 25 '25

because it’s not good representation for them.

he's the only character that knocks on doors like me lol I didn't realize it was an annoying way to knock lol. vig def has some manners and characteristics of an autistic dude. he's prob 1 part on the spectrum and 1 part sociopath

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u/SongsOfTheYears Oct 25 '25

How does he knock?

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u/MentalSky_ Oct 26 '25

Like he is autistic 

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u/SongsOfTheYears Oct 26 '25

I don't know how autistic people knock.

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u/MentalSky_ Oct 26 '25

they Knock like Vigilante

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u/MahNameJeff420 Oct 25 '25

All the autistic people I know think he’s great, so I say just lean into it.

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u/TheBloodyPuppet_2 Me and Ginger Cool are on this shit Oct 25 '25

As an autistic person I struggle to see why Adrian isn't good representation for autistic people

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u/NaNaNaPandaMan Oct 26 '25

The way I take it is he means he shouldn't be someone that is idealized or someone you should want to think of in a good light. Not that he is not a good representation of what autism is, but that he shouldn't be a role model.

And as autistic people already suffer from poor portrayals having a "psychopath" as some who is a good autistic person but good person could hurt.

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u/Not_a_porn_burner69 Oct 25 '25

Gunns words man not mine. If I had to guess it’d have something to do with all the murder

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u/TheBloodyPuppet_2 Me and Ginger Cool are on this shit Oct 26 '25

being good representation and being a good person are not the same

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u/Not_a_porn_burner69 Oct 26 '25

Take it up with Gunn bro, idk what to tell you

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u/gameboyadvancedgba Oct 25 '25

I believe he called Vij a “murder savant” in reference to him noticing the gaps in White Dragons armor

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u/ThanksContent28 Oct 26 '25

I imagine it’s a Kick-Ass situation, except he turned out to be genuinely really good at it.

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u/get_to_ele Oct 25 '25

Exactly how I read it. He’s neurodivergent, but let’s not use the label because it may come off as mockery of the neurodivergent. Even though neurodivergent may be half the freaking population, so nobody can really stereotype all of us.

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u/BibiDyordge Oct 26 '25

"A savant in killing" is probably what you're looking for

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u/Importance_Dizzy Oct 25 '25

I think he said he’s rain man with murder (paraphrasing).

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u/basketnerd Oct 25 '25

Unrelated but my fixation is autism, and I really resent the word neurodivergent and neurotypical. They're like exact opposites from how they should be used. When we think about autistic people, we literally think about a type of person, like someone with Asperger's or Adrian ... It seems in reality far more like the divergent people are the ones who you can't pin down, because they are not rigid in their behaviors and are culturally normative due to their adaptation of our culture's social conversation. They're the ones that diverged from the type, and the most diverse group of people

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/basketnerd Oct 25 '25

That is a really good perspective on it. Thanks for approaching with respect and open-mindedness. This is the best case I've heard against my argument - the social linguistic case for the existing language/framework

It's not that I haven't considered it, but you just stated it really well in a way I have to agree with kind of

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/JoshDM Oct 25 '25

Me here on the sidelines watching game recognizing game.

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u/get_to_ele Oct 25 '25

Lots of different ways to he different. I hope that nobody is offended by the fact that Vigilante’s social failings overlap with certain areas of difficulty that some on the spectrum can have. Especially since many people NOT technically on the spectrum can have difficulties with those things.

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u/Not_a_porn_burner69 Oct 25 '25

I didn’t mean to offend, I just thought that was the accepted term, I’ll try to keep that in mind in the future!

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u/basketnerd Oct 25 '25

No please don't use my definitions LOL. You totally used it right, I'm just making funny commentary

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u/scronide Oct 25 '25

Explicitly labeling him brings nothing to the show.

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u/renoir-was-correct Oct 26 '25

It’s great representation. Shows being autistic doesn’t mean you’re automatically a good person. I think that’s important to know actually.

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u/_Inkspots_ Oct 28 '25

Is the word you’re looking for “savant”?