the principal mitchell experience
at the time of writing this, my current active interest is kirby buckets, i'm basically going back to my 2017 roots! i'm going to talk about this show and my favorite character in detail here
kirby buckets was a tv show that aired on disney xd between 2014 and 2017. it definitely isn't an obscure show, but i find it fascinating how nobody seems to be talking about it! nobody on youtube ever talked about it, and oftentimes i feel like i might be the only person who's genuinely invested in it!
the show is very silly, and while i do love calling it shitty, it's not that bad! aside from the gross-out humor and occasional questionable gags, it's rather fun. the characters are unique and i really fancy them (it's like the creators created them with me in mind), but one of them stands out...
principal mitchell... i remember back in 2017 how we were remodeling my bedroom and had to turn the living room into a temporary bedroom, including bringing my tv over there. the second episode of kirby buckets was airing on disney channel (we never had disney xd here) and of course i watched it, and since then i got really invested. s1:e2 (flice of the living dead) is also the debut episode for principal mitchell, so off to a good start. can't recall how i felt about them at first, but holy shit, this guy sure drew me in!
looking back at it, they definitely were my queer+autistic awakening. i wasn't necessarily attracted to them, but i felt a strong connection and basically became obsessed. currently, analysing them with a brand new perspective makes me realize just how autistic and queer they canonically are, let's talk about it.
principal mitchell, first name byron, is, well, the principal of kirby's high school. since the very beginning they've been characterized as quite a weirdo and very misunderstood. the first thing you'll notice about them is their hair, their iconic long blonde hair is an important part of their character too (kirby buckets has a lot of male characters with long hair for whatever reason). principal mitchell is shown to really love their hair and themselves. humans don't impress them that much, making them a pretty stern teacher who much prefers cats
therefore, they have a harder time with making friends. one early established friend is eli, who's a bit eccentric too. another friendship worth noting is established in s2:e18 (when mitchell met dad), when byron befriends kirby's dad. this is actually my favorite episode of the series, and honestly, nothing is neurotypical and heterosexual about principal mitchell in this episode. them and kirby's dad become instant best friends, bonding over a love for nautics and "a certain actress", with mitchell in turn practically suffocating kirby with various perks, to the point it becomes annoying. another dad comes into the picture and him and kirby's dad hang out without byron (they clearly stated they did not want to join), which seriously upsets byron! contextually, this feels like both a subtle love triange homoerotic situation (principal mitchell ends up binging on frozen yogurt after the "break-up"!!) or a serious display of rejection sensitive dysphoria... perhaps both.
the episode ends with the two dads planning to buy a boat together and kirby convincing mitchell to get back with his dad. in the end byron crashes their boat purchase, and after an emotional moment the three get back together and decide to have one last party on the boat...
principal mitchell's relationship status (and by extent their orientation) is entirely undefined. they are shown to wear a wedding band but there are never any references of them having a wife being made, so i like to see the ring as just something stephen kearin couldn't be bothered to take off for filming. they're implied to live alone with just their pets, and together with the episode i described earlier... this guy is painfully gay
they fit in this metrosexual man criteria extremely well, which was something i believed they were until i became enlightened (so to speak). they're canonically a binary man by default, all characters, including themselves, use he/him for them. despite this, i see principal mitchell as someone who has a different approach to gender: i see them as being agender and transneutral (projection!) and they use they/she pronouns. to the left of this section is what they (mostly) looked like in 1994... this is NOT what a cisgender man looks like in the slightest /lh
with their sexuality, things are a bit more complicated. i see her as simply identifying as queer, as their orientation would be too complex to fit into proper labels. i also see them as identifying as a gay man in their youth, but things changed over time... they'd be single during the events of the series but open to sporadic relationships (though they would be rather non-committal)
i believe i'm done with discussing principal mitchell's queerness, now let's get into their neurotype. her being autistic makes so much sense to me, a late-discovered autistic person. i believe they'd be in the same situation, just more extreme. during the events of the show they would still be unsure about this facet of themselves but the behavior is there!
some of their notable autistic-coded traits:
- intense eye contact, unusual mannerisms and facial expressions
- quirky language use
- them frequently flipping their hair over their shoulder could be considered a subtle stim
- strong interests (nautics, fancy foods, cats, mazes, etc) and a will to infodump about them
- being portrayed as rather socially immature
- fear of abandonment, difficulty forming friendships
- being prone to violent meltdowns (refer to s1:e18 and s3:e9)
- innapropriate honesty (refer to s2:e13)
- face blindness/prosopagnosia (refer to s2:e21)
- possible attention deficits (see s3:e4)
something other than their autism would be the agnosia they experience, i headcanon them as having a tbi sometime in their childhood. the signs are relatively canon but not the diagnosis or the fact that she's brain damaged.
the bottom line: i fucking adore this character and the show holds a special place in my heart. i will gladly be developing onto her story more! maybe reading this convinced you to watch the show, but should you? if you're not childish like me probably not, but you can gladly watch the episodes featuring principal mitchell! (you can check out the list of them that i've compiled here!)
made it so far and would like to read more? check out the page dedicated to my principal mitchell headcanons!