Spock and other Asexual Characters in Literature

[Honey_Badger]

IDK, my headcannon is that Pon Farr (or the age approaching Pon Farr... when it normally hits) is really when Vulcans get stuff like this figured out. (I also figure, based on later canon from Enterprise and Voyager, that Pon Farr varies in severity after the first one, and/or is less intense once Vulcans have a mature telepathic bond.)

I've also seen people headcannon that most vulcans are demisexual, and unlikely to feel attraction to anyone they don't have that telepathic bond with. :D

[Guest]

Seems to me that Spock is a sexual guy, by Vulcan standards, though Vulcan sexuality is pretty different from human sexuality.

Data's pretty interesting - he was never programmed to have anything resembling a human sex drive - he went through the motions of getting in a relationship in one TNG episode, but it just didn't work at all. That's something that I can identify with, being ace.

I do wonder if anything changed when Data got that emotion chip installed in Generations...

Data gets very, very turned on when the Borg Queen activates his emotion chip and seduces him. So, yes, when it's activated he has a sexual drive.

[MacAran]

I do wonder if anything changed when Data got that emotion chip installed in Generations...

Data gets very, very turned on when the Borg Queen activates his emotion chip and seduces him. So, yes, when it's activated he has a sexual drive.

A lot of us can testify that having a sex drive/getting turned is not mutually exclusive with being asexual.

[Rean]

I can't remember where I've read or heard this, but I've been under the impression that it has been said somewhere (I'm thinking the DVD commentary for The Cloud Minders, but I don't have my TOS here now) that Vulcans can have sex outside of Pon Farr. Pon Farr is to do with fertility and not sexuality/libido. In that light I think that Spock, who doesn't seem interested in sex (outside of Pon Farr) could be asexual.

Regarding similarities and differences between sexuality in humans nd Vulcans, I think it may hint something that Spock exists at all. (It's of course possible that it was some sort of artificial insemination thing.) Personally I've always seen it as somewhat far-fetched that humans and aliens could reproduce together, so it might make sense that if the species are biologically similar enough to produce offspring, these similarities might be there in sexuality also.

Reading this discussion I've realised that since I know virtually nothing of Star Trek outside of TOS/TAS, I may not be very qualified to analyse these things. Often when I read discussions on ST I'm a bit put off when people interpret things in TOS solely according to something that's been learned in some other series decades later. I realise that canon is canon, but in a way I'm inclined to think that TOS could be analysed on its own as well, since none of the other series existed yet back then and later incarnations might be at odds with what was meant originally.

If the mate didn't matter and it was a purely biological drive to procreate, why all the trouble to get the single sex partner they desire? Wouldn't anyone do? I mean, the one on Voyager gave up mating completely due to his desire for her. And Spock's mate went through all the trouble of killing a Starfleet Captain and a very decorated one at that. Intentionally causing extreme guilt in her psychic bond mate betrothed at that.

There might be several reasons outside of sexual attraction for T'Pring preferring Stonn over Spock. For all we know Stonn might be to her what Kirk is to Spock, a close friend of many years, preferred because they have a special understanding of each other or something like that. It might also be that T'Pring thought that Spock wouldn't leave his career in the Starfleet in favour of starting a family and T'Pring felt that she wanted the father to be with the family. We simply don't know.

[Tacoline]

bilbo baggins could possibly be ace. unfortunately i never read the books but according to wikipedia he could be.

if anyone reads discworld although some characters appear to be romantic its very uncommon to find a character that you can tell for sure is not ace. generally even when it shows two characters showing an interest in one another, it's generally that they're good friends.

although i read a book recently where rincewind admitted to having "unwizardly thoughts" about a woman, but i choose to believe those thoughts were romantic or platonic. because rincewind is my hero XD

[Honey_Badger]

I can't remember where I've read or heard this, but I've been under the impression that it has been said somewhere (I'm thinking the DVD commentary for The Cloud Minders, but I don't have my TOS here now) that Vulcans can have sex outside of Pon Farr. Pon Farr is to do with fertility and not sexuality/libido. In that light I think that Spock, who doesn't seem interested in sex (outside of Pon Farr) could be asexual.

Regarding similarities and differences between sexuality in humans nd Vulcans, I think it may hint something that Spock exists at all. (It's of course possible that it was some sort of artificial insemination thing.) Personally I've always seen it as somewhat far-fetched that humans and aliens could reproduce together, so it might make sense that if the species are biologically similar enough to produce offspring, these similarities might be there in sexuality also.

Reading this discussion I've realised that since I know virtually nothing of Star Trek outside of TOS/TAS, I may not be very qualified to analyse these things. Often when I read discussions on ST I'm a bit put off when people interpret things in TOS solely according to something that's been learned in some other series decades later. I realise that canon is canon, but in a way I'm inclined to think that TOS could be analysed on its own as well, since none of the other series existed yet back then and later incarnations might be at odds with what was meant originally.

If the mate didn't matter and it was a purely biological drive to procreate, why all the trouble to get the single sex partner they desire? Wouldn't anyone do? I mean, the one on Voyager gave up mating completely due to his desire for her. And Spock's mate went through all the trouble of killing a Starfleet Captain and a very decorated one at that. Intentionally causing extreme guilt in her psychic bond mate betrothed at that.

There might be several reasons outside of sexual attraction for T'Pring preferring Stonn over Spock. For all we know Stonn might be to her what Kirk is to Spock, a close friend of many years, preferred because they have a special understanding of each other or something like that. It might also be that T'Pring thought that Spock wouldn't leave his career in the Starfleet in favour of starting a family and T'Pring felt that she wanted the father to be with the family. We simply don't know.

I think it's novel canon (not show canon, though) that Spock did have to be artificially combined from his parents' gametes because vulcans have copper in their blood and humans have iron in their blood, so between that and other factors the two species can't combine naturally. (This may have been a Diane Duane book, so... practically canon?) This would explain why Spock and his father have the exact same blood type (TOS: Journey to Babel) which shouldn't occur in a natural gene combination, but if they had to excise certain genes from Amanda (like those for hemoglobin production, RH factors, location of the heart) it would make perfect sense. It would also explain why Spock has anatomy that is more or less Vulcan normal, rather than some weird mix of the species. (I'm talking about organ placement here, not outward appearance. Vulcan organ placement is ludicrous if you look it up, the heart is nowhere near the lungs...)

I also read somewhere that the person who wrote Amok Time (the Pon Farr episode) intended it to be a one-time deal, and a later writer decided on the every seven years thing. The one time deal makes a bit more sense with how the Vulcans appear to have set it up legally, with the massive ceremony for the first one, and all the fuss about the appointed place: if you've got to do all that every seven years, the first one wouldn't be that special. (And if you've got to go stir crazy every seven years, it might make you think twice about how sex-positive you were the rest of the time...)

[MasterPython]

Personally I've always seen it as somewhat far-fetched that humans and aliens could reproduce together, so it might make sense that if the species are biologically similar enough to produce offspring, these similarities might be there in sexuality also.

There was an episode of TNG where they addressed this by setting up a massive scavenger hunt across the sector to solve a ancient puzzle encoded in DNA. And at the end it turns out a very early civilization seeded the galaxy with their DNA so pretty much every humaniod lifeform is related. Otherwise other planets even having DNA with the same bases and such is rather ludicrous.

bilbo baggins could possibly be ace. unfortunately i never read the books but according to wikipedia he could be.

He could be or Tolkien just did no want to muck up his adventure novels with romance. Off the top of my head there are no female characters in The Hobbit and very few in the LOTRs. For all we know he could have been a player.

[Róisín]

Castiel from Supernatural is a character I've always considered as ace. The Doctor, too (although Eleven's messed up that headcanon.. (thanks moffat -_-)). I know neither of them are human, but I don't think there's anything wrong with headcanoning them as asexual!

[MasterPython]

The Doctor, too (although Eleven's messed up that headcanon.. (thanks moffat -_-)). I know neither of them are human, but I don't think there's anything wrong with headcanoning them as asexual!

In the older series the Doctor had a granddaughter so I presume a wife/mate and at least one child on Galafry. The is not much info on Timelord reproduction besides Rose's Mom asking if he has two wangs to go with his two hearts. They presumably could outgrow or get fed up with sexuality after a few regenerations.

[fuzzipueo]

The Doctor, too (although Eleven's messed up that headcanon.. (thanks moffat -_-)). I know neither of them are human, but I don't think there's anything wrong with headcanoning them as asexual!

In the older series the Doctor had a granddaughter so I presume a wife/mate and at least one child on Galafry. The is not much info on Timelord reproduction besides Rose's Mom asking if he has two wangs to go with his two hearts. They presumably could outgrow or get fed up with sexuality after a few regenerations.

The point of having the grandfather/granddaughter relationship was to take such speculation out of the relationship and it was a set up that lasted pretty much throughout the original run of the series (the exceptions being the Fourth Doctor and Romana2). No discussion about the Doctor's sexuality, or lack thereof, was ever held on the show or, for that matter, in the books (Targets, Virgin*, or BBC). It's really only been since 2005 that this sort of nonsense has crept into the program.

Davies and Moffat are both bad influences on Who.

*Speculation about Susan's origins were given a spin in the Virgin New Adventures in which the Time Lords are cursed with infertility by the Pythia (a Gallifreyan seeress, sorta like the one at Delphi) and the concept of genetic looms was introduced (Lungbarrow) and that the Doctor, being a product of one such loom in which Susan's actual grandfather's genetic material was, erm, recycled, takes her out of the Doctor's direct lineage. Since the BBC has never, unlike Paramount with Star Trek, pronounced that only the TV series is canon, most Whovians are willing to speculate on the idea. Also, Susan is the last, naturally, born Gallifreyan, so she holds a rather special, if lonely, position in the continuity.

[MacAran]

Castiel from Supernatural is a character I've always considered as ace. The Doctor, too (although Eleven's messed up that headcanon.. (thanks moffat -_-)). I know neither of them are human, but I don't think there's anything wrong with headcanoning them as asexual!

As much as The Doctor changes between regeneration, it seems reasonable that he might be Ace in one regeneration and not in another. (It was implied that Eccleston was at least bi-curious) but then Tennant definitely kept Jack at arms length. As for Castiel, I would agree, except ,maybe for that mess with Meg. (doesn't necessarily ruin it for me, but it makes me wonder)

[Rean]

I think it's novel canon (not show canon, though) that Spock did have to be artificially combined from his parents' gametes because vulcans have copper in their blood and humans have iron in their blood, so between that and other factors the two species can't combine naturally. (This may have been a Diane Duane book, so... practically canon?) This would explain why Spock and his father have the exact same blood type (TOS: Journey to Babel) which shouldn't occur in a natural gene combination, but if they had to excise certain genes from Amanda (like those for hemoglobin production, RH factors, location of the heart) it would make perfect sense. It would also explain why Spock has anatomy that is more or less Vulcan normal, rather than some weird mix of the species. (I'm talking about organ placement here, not outward appearance. Vulcan organ placement is ludicrous if you look it up, the heart is nowhere near the lungs...)

I also read somewhere that the person who wrote Amok Time (the Pon Farr episode) intended it to be a one-time deal, and a later writer decided on the every seven years thing. The one time deal makes a bit more sense with how the Vulcans appear to have set it up legally, with the massive ceremony for the first one, and all the fuss about the appointed place: if you've got to do all that every seven years, the first one wouldn't be that special. (And if you've got to go stir crazy every seven years, it might make you think twice about how sex-positive you were the rest of the time...)

Actually they said in Journey to Babel that Spock's blood had human elements in it as well and they had to filter them out before the transfusion, but interesting stuff nonetheless.

I can't see why I haven't read more on Amok Time. I'll have to look all this up sometime since I'm a huge fan of Theodore Sturgeon (who wrote the episode). I guess I always kind of expected that you wouldn't actually go crazy over Pon Farr but Spock had just been putting off admitting that he'd have to deal with it. (He mentions in Amok Time that he had been hoping he would be spared the experience due to his mixed heritage or some such.) It would have hade a lot more sense to apply for shore leave well in advance, seeing as he should have known when he would need it.

[JSML]

Castiel from Supernatural is a character I've always considered as ace. The Doctor, too (although Eleven's messed up that headcanon.. (thanks moffat -_-)). I know neither of them are human, but I don't think there's anything wrong with headcanoning them as asexual!

I haven't caught up in Doctor Who but as far as SPN goes...

Same, until that incident in season 9 when he slept with Rachel. Now I'm not so sure. He didn't know Rachel for very long and I'm pretty sure he wasn't wanting to turn their interactions into a relationship. Also, when Dean admitted that she was hot, Cas agreed with, "so hot!" Also, when he was first walking down the street in the city, he was drawn to the girl's breasts as she walked by him. You can see on his face his confusion; he didn't know why his eyes were drawn towards the woman's breast and butt, he just was. Castiel hadn't been a human for very long and within a short time he was already losing his virginity and seeing other people as attractive. Finding out that the person who'd taken advantage of him and tried to kill him probably killed any motivation to have sex with anyone else after that, in addition to wanting to keep a low profile. I think that Cas as a human did experience sexual attraction. As an angel, not so much.

[Guest]

Same, until that incident in season 9 when he slept with Rachel. Now I'm not so sure. He didn't know Rachel for very long and I'm pretty sure he wasn't wanting to turn their interactions into a relationship. Also, when Dean admitted that she was hot, Cas agreed with, "so hot!" Also, when he was first walking down the street in the city, he was drawn to the girl's breasts as she walked by him. You can see on his face his confusion; he didn't know why his eyes were drawn towards the woman's breast and butt, he just was. Castiel hadn't been a human for very long and within a short time he was already losing his virginity and seeing other people as attractive. Finding out that the person who'd taken advantage of him and tried to kill him probably killed any motivation to have sex with anyone else after that, in addition to wanting to keep a low profile. I think that Cas as a human did experience sexual attraction. As an angel, not so much.

As an angel, his emotions were dampened and his enjoyment of physical pleasures were ruined by his heightened senses (like his "I miss food..."). Like, when Dean took him to a hooker, he could read her pain from her daddy issues and tried to make her feel better, rather than just using her, which made her upset and she left him. If you can sense EVERYTHING and read minds and feel the very atoms of everything you touch, it's gonna be hard to enjoy something like sex. As a human, he could enjoy those things and did. Felt desires, emotions, pain, etc.

[KidGloved]

Okay guys, how about Clariel/Chlorr of the mask? Throughout most of Clariel she seemed pretty ace to me. There was one sentance where she hinted she may have liked this guy, but it made no reference to wanting to sleep with hi m I think. Generally she stated that she didn't want to be in a relationship or have sex.

[OldVulture]

I think 99% of space marines in the wh40k are ace. Most of them in the 30k horus heresy series too.

[Gumby Jellybeans III]

I never considered Spock or other Vulcans as Asexual. I just thought they suppressed lust like they do with their emotion.

But strangely i's kinda always considered Sherlock Holmes as asexual.

I always consider Sherlock as ace. I honestly cannot see him as anything else, and it annoys me when some people *cough* Moffat *cough* claim he's not because that wouldn't be interesting, that it would only be interesting if he was celibate. I mean Elementary's Sherlock is quite sexual, but then in the first episode he points out that he considers sex necessary for optimum brain function, or something, so I was totally prepared to see him as ace but not averse to sex. Unfortunately some of the later episodes don't really lend themselves to that idea.

I haven't seen the TV series, but in the original stories, Sherlock Holmes certainly seems asexual. In the books, Watson is always hoping Holmes will fall in love and settle down but Holmes is just inexplicably not interested (the stories are narrated by Watson, by the way. I don't think that usually comes through in TV/movie adaptions). Instead Holmes shows a great deal of admiration or affection for people on an aesthetic or intellectual level.

And it's not like Holmes likes to be alone, either. In later stories after Watson gets married and moves away, Holmes is always trying to find an excuse to drag him along on adventures or get him to stay a few days. He's often portrayed as distant and cold in movies, but he's really a very upbeat, kind-hearted character.

I don't know if Conan Doyle intended for Holmes to be asexual, but it looks a lot that way. I for one really wish I had someone like Watson to hang out with: a scintillating, supportive friend who lives in the same apartment but never wants to get physical? Awesome!

I guess the stories are a good approximation of reality, though. Friends like that always seem to want a sexual relationship and when they find one, off they go. I sometimes feel like it's the ace's lot in life to be left behind.

[Dodecahedron314]

Seems to me that Spock is a sexual guy, by Vulcan standards, though Vulcan sexuality is pretty different from human sexuality.

Data's pretty interesting - he was never programmed to have anything resembling a human sex drive - he went through the motions of getting in a relationship in one TNG episode, but it just didn't work at all. That's something that I can identify with, being ace.

I do wonder if anything changed when Data got that emotion chip installed in Generations...

Data gets very, very turned on when the Borg Queen activates his emotion chip and seduces him. So, yes, when it's activated he has a sexual drive.

I'd just like to thank you for warning me about this--I just watched First Contact last night, and I'm pretty sure I would have been even more uncomfortable if I hadn't known it was coming (and probably would have yelled at the TV a lot more--sexuality as the "bridge" to "being human"? Really?). I have to argue, though, that his reactions when the Borg Queen was implanting and stimulating the skin might not have been due to arousal in that sense--correct me if I'm wrong (the movies are my first foray out of TOS into TNG), but as far as I'm aware he hasn't actually had nerve endings or anything of the sort up until this point, and so when he does finally have tactile stimulus and a way to process it, it might just be so overwhelming that he has no idea how to react, and his astonishment might be mistaken for being "very, very turned on" (also: I see what you did there, Serran). He himself expresses surprise that his neural net isn't completely overloaded with all this new information.

I dunno, or it could just be the fact that I identify almost as strongly with Data as I do with Spock, and so I'm willing to interpret anything in any way possible to preserve the possibility of him being ace. I do that with a lot of characters, regardless of the fact that a not-insignificant portion of them aren't actually human.

[Angel1996]

Same, until that incident in season 9 when he slept with Rachel. Now I'm not so sure. He didn't know Rachel for very long and I'm pretty sure he wasn't wanting to turn their interactions into a relationship. Also, when Dean admitted that she was hot, Cas agreed with, "so hot!" Also, when he was first walking down the street in the city, he was drawn to the girl's breasts as she walked by him. You can see on his face his confusion; he didn't know why his eyes were drawn towards the woman's breast and butt, he just was. Castiel hadn't been a human for very long and within a short time he was already losing his virginity and seeing other people as attractive. Finding out that the person who'd taken advantage of him and tried to kill him probably killed any motivation to have sex with anyone else after that, in addition to wanting to keep a low profile. I think that Cas as a human did experience sexual attraction. As an angel, not so much.

As an angel, his emotions were dampened and his enjoyment of physical pleasures were ruined by his heightened senses (like his "I miss food..."). Like, when Dean took him to a hooker, he could read her pain from her daddy issues and tried to make her feel better, rather than just using her, which made her upset and she left him. If you can sense EVERYTHING and read minds and feel the very atoms of everything you touch, it's gonna be hard to enjoy something like sex. As a human, he could enjoy those things and did. Felt desires, emotions, pain, etc.

I think that as an angel he didn't feel those things at all. Look at Gabriel he is an archangel but as far as I can tell he likes having sex. He sends secrets messages through porn, so I don't think his senses are too strong for it. When Cas turned human he was very confused and had no one to help him, I think he thought that that having sex went with being human and that he was supposed to do it. In the beginning of the episode you can see him imitating other humans to fit in. Also with the hooker scene you can see he was uncomfortable before he read her mind, to me it looked like he just wanted to get away from that awkward place/situation :D

[Guest]

Same, until that incident in season 9 when he slept with Rachel. Now I'm not so sure. He didn't know Rachel for very long and I'm pretty sure he wasn't wanting to turn their interactions into a relationship. Also, when Dean admitted that she was hot, Cas agreed with, "so hot!" Also, when he was first walking down the street in the city, he was drawn to the girl's breasts as she walked by him. You can see on his face his confusion; he didn't know why his eyes were drawn towards the woman's breast and butt, he just was. Castiel hadn't been a human for very long and within a short time he was already losing his virginity and seeing other people as attractive. Finding out that the person who'd taken advantage of him and tried to kill him probably killed any motivation to have sex with anyone else after that, in addition to wanting to keep a low profile. I think that Cas as a human did experience sexual attraction. As an angel, not so much.

As an angel, his emotions were dampened and his enjoyment of physical pleasures were ruined by his heightened senses (like his "I miss food..."). Like, when Dean took him to a hooker, he could read her pain from her daddy issues and tried to make her feel better, rather than just using her, which made her upset and she left him. If you can sense EVERYTHING and read minds and feel the very atoms of everything you touch, it's gonna be hard to enjoy something like sex. As a human, he could enjoy those things and did. Felt desires, emotions, pain, etc.

I think that as an angel he didn't feel those things at all. Look at Gabriel he is an archangel but as far as I can tell he likes having sex. He sends secrets messages through porn, so I don't think his senses are too strong for it. When Cas turned human he was very confused and had no one to help him, I think he thought that that having sex went with being human and that he was supposed to do it. In the beginning of the episode you can see him imitating other humans to fit in. Also with the hooker scene you can see he was uncomfortable before he read her mind, to me it looked like he just wanted to get away from that awkward place/situation :D

I sincerely doubt his reactions to the angel that killed him after he slept with her were cause he wanted to fit in. He talked about enjoying it, wanted to do it again, was very into it. He wasn't the awkward Cas trying to imitate anymore. He was the "I want this" Cas. And, after he was an angel again, he felt temptation to be involved with that other angel, including several scenes involving sexual tension between them. I'm never going to see Castiel as asexual, the writers very clearly made him sexual.

Seems to me that Spock is a sexual guy, by Vulcan standards, though Vulcan sexuality is pretty different from human sexuality.

Data's pretty interesting - he was never programmed to have anything resembling a human sex drive - he went through the motions of getting in a relationship in one TNG episode, but it just didn't work at all. That's something that I can identify with, being ace.

I do wonder if anything changed when Data got that emotion chip installed in Generations...

Data gets very, very turned on when the Borg Queen activates his emotion chip and seduces him. So, yes, when it's activated he has a sexual drive.

I'd just like to thank you for warning me about this--I just watched First Contact last night, and I'm pretty sure I would have been even more uncomfortable if I hadn't known it was coming (and probably would have yelled at the TV a lot more--sexuality as the "bridge" to "being human"? Really?). I have to argue, though, that his reactions when the Borg Queen was implanting and stimulating the skin might not have been due to arousal in that sense--correct me if I'm wrong (the movies are my first foray out of TOS into TNG), but as far as I'm aware he hasn't actually had nerve endings or anything of the sort up until this point, and so when he does finally have tactile stimulus and a way to process it, it might just be so overwhelming that he has no idea how to react, and his astonishment might be mistaken for being "very, very turned on" (also: I see what you did there, Serran). He himself expresses surprise that his neural net isn't completely overloaded with all this new information.

I dunno, or it could just be the fact that I identify almost as strongly with Data as I do with Spock, and so I'm willing to interpret anything in any way possible to preserve the possibility of him being ace. I do that with a lot of characters, regardless of the fact that a not-insignificant portion of them aren't actually human.

He has never had nerve endings, no. He's had the emotion chip, sometimes. The emotion chip tends to overwhelm him, so it's something that he cannot activate all the time sort of thing. He has had sexual relationships in the past in TNG though, but without emotions behind it. The Borg Queen was trying to seduce him by activating his new emotions combined with skin, combined with showing him how sex can feel when you have emotions, vs without. Though, Data is a confusing character at times, because he cares about his friends without an emotion chip allowing him to feel love - contradiction, but there. And, he was certainly written to be responding to her seduction. I guess you could try to twist it around to it was just the tactile sensations, but I am about 99% sure the writers were not thinking that when they wrote the scene and Spiner wasn't thinking that when he acted it.

[Guest]

bilbo baggins could possibly be ace. unfortunately i never read the books but according to wikipedia he could be.

Everyone in Middle-earth appears to be asexual, pretty much. Because Tolkien actually gave a shit about telling a good story and saw no necessity to riddle it with intricate details of everyones sex lives. For all we know, Bilbo could have been into wild homosexual origies with young hobbit males. We just don't need to know that, so Tolkien never included any of it. I was just thinking about this the other day (doing an LotR audiobook marathon) ..every single character could pass as asexual, if looked at from the perspective of someone looking for signs of asexuality lol. But there are lots of books like that.

[MacAran]

Actually, it hadn't occurred to me before, but you could have some pretty interesting things with the elves. Most of the ones talked about in any depth are married at some point (particularly if you go into the Silmarillion), but given the amount of time that could pass between sexual maturity, and finding someone to marry, they would likely have either a) a very free love culture, which is possible but doesn't quite fit the vision I've always gotten of Tolkien's elves. b) a serious culture of celibacy, probably what Tolkien was thinking, if he thought about it at all. or c) A great many demi-sexuals who don't develop attraction until there's romantic attachment of some kind. I doubt it was Tolkien's intent but interpriting it as a modern day reader, with his emphasis on purity, and true love at first sight, you could make an argument for it.

Also, Serran, after the number of times I've seen that quote at the bottom of your posts, I've finally decided to check out the Farseer Trilogy this summer.

[MacAran]

Another one that just occurred to me: Ruth from Pern. Also, if you haven't read the White Dragon, there's a passage where his bonded partner asks him about his thoughts on sex and mating, and Ruth's response is something to the effect of "It makes me happy that it makes you happy, and that's enough for me." Which almost perfectly sums my feelings for myself on having (within a certain limit) sex with any non-Ace romantic partner.

[Cracticus]

I have an argument against Castiel being ace. In season 5 there's that episode where Dean gets taken to the future. Castiel is portrayed as having been human for a while and keeps organising orgies. I haven't seen much beyond season 5 so can't add more to the discussion.

Pan, while I agree that you could argue most of LOTR characters could be ace, the appendices in the books do have some details about lineages of some of the characters. Aragorn, Sam and Pippin are all shown to have kids (Sam ends up with 13). Interestingly, while Merry gets married he doesn't have kids. Bilbo however, never gets married and as far as I can tell, never shows romantic interest in someone else. In my mind I think he may also be aro.

[Rising Sun]

Pan, while I agree that you could argue most of LOTR characters could be ace, the appendices in the books do have some details about lineages of some of the characters. Aragorn, Sam and Pippin are all shown to have kids (Sam ends up with 13). Interestingly, while Merry gets married he doesn't have kids. Bilbo however, never gets married and as far as I can tell, never shows romantic interest in someone else. In my mind I think he may also be aro.

It doesn't mean anything... Many asexuals have kids. It seems like the majority on AVEN doesn't have children because the large majority of AVENites is under 25, but go to the Older asexuals and Sex partners forums to have evidence of many "older" asexuals who are parents.

[Cracticus]

I realise it is a pretty weak argument. Without knowing specifically how the characters feel, any argument placed for a character being ace based of behaviour is pretty weak. All I'm trying to say is this may provide a limited indication of the likelyhood of a character being ace, especially in a world where most of the characters aren't involved in romantic subplots.

[Rosette]

For literature.. never really though of anyone being ace and it seems a lot of literature has the main characters and other being the exact opposite. Which always annoys me because I don't read books for that.. I read them for the storyline. And I always like books a whole lot less whenever there is such things in them.. cuz it doesn't ever seem to have any purpose to the overall plot or even to the characters most of the time either.

Though I have read The Stranger by Albert Camus, and to me the main character seems like he could be ace. Then again he doesn't care about anything in general, so perhaps he's not a very good example.