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Does anyone know of any books/movies/shows with asexual main characters?


Red Panda Banana

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Red Panda Banana

I'm specifically looking for asexual characters in fictional works. Does anyone know of any books/movies/shows where there are asexual characters, especially if there are any with an asexual as the main character(s)? I'd be really happy if someone could give me any suggestions.

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Sherlock, in the original books. The BBC TV series however, has not made Sherlock ace, because according to the creator, it's "boring".

As for other characters, off the top of my head, I don't know. Besides my own, unpublished works.

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Mycroft is Yourcroft

Carrie Pilby, the main character in the book 'Carrie Pilby' is ace :)

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Sherlock, in the original books. The BBC TV series however, has not made Sherlock ace, because according to the creator, it's "boring".

As for other characters, off the top of my head, I don't know. Besides my own, unpublished works.

A lot of people who have studied Sherlock Holmes would disagree.

He was never described as asexual, in the original books. Or gay. His sexual orientation is never made clear. It's left to the reader to judge, in fact, most books aren't his POV so it's even a double take and double risks for projection. Which is totally alright, btw. Litterature is still a part of art, and interpretations are allowed. It's not twisting facts because there are no facts.

To answer the topic, there are a few characters I suspect of being asexual or on the asexual spectrum (like, yes, Sherlock Homes, especially the BBC one => biromantic demisexual or asexual IMO, in contrast I consider Original Sherlock Holmes to be gay and sexual). But I don't know of any where it's explicit.

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Monkey D. Luffy. Sherlock Holmes. Sheldon Cooper, and his girlfriend Amy is implied to be grace.

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Considering how sex obsessed the media is, i would think its safe to say sherlock holmes, was probably meant to be asexual by conan doyle. Conan doyle himself, said he had alot of experience with spiritual people, and i would bet alot of them were asexual, and its probably one of the reasons for sherlock holmes character never having no wife, or girlfriend.

So op has to remember, the media really uses sex alot, so there really will not be many shows or movies where the character is asexual.

I can think of one movie.

Powder (1995)

the main character i would assume was asexual, and did not want to be touched or to be touching other humans. So its the only real movie i can think of that has a asexual as lead role. I would think that character was definitely asexual, and meant to be projected that way.

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The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon (Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance, Oath of Gold). Though the words are not used (the author probably didn't know them) the main character is very clearly described as aro ace. I would highly recommend these books! They're fantasy/adventure about a girl who escaped an arranged marriage by joining a mercenary army. And it just gets better from there.

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Movie wise I must confess to wracking my head with little result. For those more savvy with the silver screen would you be able to help me? I'm sincerely interested too now.

Hmm novels wise there are a few out there. Sazed from Brandon Sanderson's (READ ANYTHING HE WRITES!) Mistborn trilogy would nominally count as Asexual. The nominal part is due to him being made a eunuch before the events of the books, which means his asexuality is to some extent physically enforced. He engages in a relationship with a Terris Woman so I would say he's heteroromantic

Investigator Paula Myo from Peter F Hamilton's (also worth reading!) Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained duology is without doubt asexual. She was genetically engineered to be the perfect police officer. Dutiful, articulate, attention to detail and utterly incorruptible. She has no interest in any form of sexual attraction or relationship beyond the rare moments socialising with her colleagues.

It could be argued that Duke Leto Atreidies the II, latter known as the God-Emperor, was asexual. Granted his physiological transformation may have had an affect upon his attraction to other people. In the novel "God Emperor" Leto demonstrates great love for Hwi Noree, going as far as to propose her. However he is intrigued by his inability to use his prescience when interacting with her. She is a closed existence to him and that is what draws him to her, a love of whom she is, not what she is.

I'll wander through my mind and see if I recall more later

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Sherlock, in the original books. The BBC TV series however, has not made Sherlock ace, because according to the creator, it's "boring".

As for other characters, off the top of my head, I don't know. Besides my own, unpublished works.

A lot of people who have studied Sherlock Holmes would disagree.

He was never described as asexual, in the original books. Or gay. His sexual orientation is never made clear. It's left to the reader to judge, in fact, most books aren't his POV so it's even a double take and double risks for projection. Which is totally alright, btw. Litterature is still a part of art, and interpretations are allowed. It's not twisting facts because there are no facts.

To answer the topic, there are a few characters I suspect of being asexual or on the asexual spectrum (like, yes, Sherlock Homes, especially the BBC one => biromantic demisexual or asexual IMO, in contrast I consider Original Sherlock Holmes to be gay and sexual). But I don't know of any where it's explicit.

Yeah, it's just one of the general consensus that I've heard about in the fandom, since it's all speculation, which is why I suggested it. Cause it's more of the common knowledge, as far as people thinking or assuming Sherlock Holmes is probably ace in the books. I guess it's from cultural osmosis or something. A wild mass guess that slowly turned into something more with fandom the way it is, haha.

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Gumby Jellybeans III

I'm going to be obvious and say the original Sherlock Holmes books.

Asexuality wasn't recognised back when Arthur Conan Doyle was writing, but in the stories Watson is always frustrated with Holmes because he doesn't show any interest in anybody! He's as asexual as you could ask, really.
I always really liked the Holmes character in the books because to me he's a very relatable character with a sense of humour. He's not portrayed as antisocial or cold. I don't know how that became so cemented in the public consciousness.

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Gumby Jellybeans III

Oh yeah, and I don't know if this counts, but the way that Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons treats sex, you could interpret him as a closet asexual.

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EggplantWitch

The only piece of media I know with a canonical asexual main character is the webcomic Shades of A, but it's nsfw as hell which, ironically, makes it hard for a lot of asexual people to read. The character of Catherine in the webcomic Sister Claire is also canonically asexual. She's not the main character and the asexuality is only really talked about in the backstory pages, but fortunately she's still a very important character and the backstory pages are wonderful to read (though I'd recommend going through them after you finish getting up to speed with the main comic should you choose to read it, due to spoilers).

And hey, if you wait a couple of years I'll have published my book with two asexual main characters :P

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Alright, come on, this is getting out of hand. Just because you want someone to be asexual does not make them asexual. Lord of the Rings? Really? First of all, there is romance in LotR (much to my annoyance, but it is there) and other Tolkien books. But those books are not young-adult romance novels. They are epic stories, and besides, they were written a long time ago when society didn't talk this much about sex.

If you want possibly-asexual book/movie characters I could go on guessing which one might fit the profile and there would be many. But that profiling wouldn't be based on wishful thinking, and wouldn't be based on labeling every character who isn't obviously sexual as "asexual".

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Not so much asexual characters, but I've always been drawn to movies where the characters and plot aren't sexual or romantic based

Alice in Wonderland being a classic - I know she's a child...... But none of the characters have a sexual motive .....In fact its a world void of 'real adults' and I guess I like like premise!

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I think that there's only one character in the Young Ones that ever seems to show any interest. Mike. And he's almost never on the show.

Rik -

He has this pretentious foppish thing going.

Neil is pretty asexual, but it could just be because he seems to be stoned or from another dimension.

Vivian seems too... insane to have any sort of connection with anyone on any level

Moss from the IT crowd. He's an odd duck all around.. I love him. Hid interactions with people just seem very asexual to me.

This was just a brief Saturday Night Live Sketch called "Tales of Ribaldry" -- I think its hilarious.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/tales-of-ribaldry/n9700

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I've been watching Sirens on Netflix (a comedy about EMTs) and there's a female character who is identified as asexual.

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It's been a while since I saw the movie. There may have been romance, but I don't remember it. It was called "Spork" and the main character is intersex (thus the name Spork) It's so sweet. Even if there's a romance, it's probably awkward and doesnt go far because everyone in town knows she's intersex and most of her peers aren't comfortable with it.

I saw it on Netflix streaming. But you know how Netflix is these days. It may not be there anymore. But Spork was a great queer movie.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ScMcebf-M

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HoneyBadger97

Try the book Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The main two characters could be seen as asexual and there's also large portions of the book following a group of kids who are too young have sexual feelings

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I agree on Sherlock being asexual. Both the classic and BBC versions, i would think. I also always thought that Dumbledore was asexual before Rowling revealed him to be gay. And I would argue that most incarnations of The Doctor on Doctor Who are asexual with the exception of the first and tenth Doctors.

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Most often I think that just because a character doesn't show sexual interest doesn't actually mean that they're asexual--it just means that the plot might not really be that sexual in nature, or just about anything else. Besides that, I really think the OP wanted definite asexual characters, not "ifs" and "maybes" . . . but that's fair enough.

Anyway, the most I can really do is link you to the list that someone else has already mentioned. Asexuals in Fiction.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Eli in 'Let The Right One' In is asexual. I don't know if the author explicitly stated it, but it is made very clear, particularly in the book. It is a bit complicated considering the character's "age" and past, but I'd argue that though things might have been different if things were different, realistically Eli is ace.

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Supposedly the main character from the comic supernormal step is Asexual, I haven't read it though.

Yuma Kuga from World Trigger is permanently 11 (years old) and is implied to be asexual.

Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto seems pretty asexual to me.

Saitama and Genos from One punch man seem to care very little about it (it's never mentioned).

Sans from Undertale was described by Toby Fox (the creator) to be too lazy to actually have sex (and he's a skeleton).

As someone above said, Luffy from One Piece.

Poppy from League of Legends (as well as a bunch of other characters, and most of the non-human ones) left her home for an unknown amount of time (and still hasn't returned yet, at least according to the lore) and coming from a race that usually enjoys presence with it's own kind she seems pretty rare.

That's all I can think of for now...

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  • 5 months later...

the show 'Huge' has character who explicitly comes out as asexual

"Sirens' is another show with a character who explicitly comes out as asexual and there is a lot of discussion about it.

'Brojack Horseman' has a canon asexual person, as stated by show runners and by the character himself (as "im not gay or straight, i'm nothing").

There is a movie "Edie the Eagle" where the character was portrayed as asexual (its based on a real person who was not asexual, but directors and actors have specifically said that the character they created was asexual) and it was completely clear he was portrayed as asexual.

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Honestly I can't think of any fictional character who is asexual in canon.Strictly speaking about movies thought since we live in such sex crazed society the characters (especially the main character) must be sexual so the audience can relate to them.It's not like there is any other way to make them humane and relatable.....oh no the only way to do that is by making them sexual and have sex with other characters <_<

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nanogretchen4

Actually, the main character of The Martian could have been aro ace for all we know. The author made the unusual choice to give the main character no love interest at all, and it worked great and was a big hit.

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God of the Forest

Actually, the main character of The Martian could have been aro ace for all we know. The author made the unusual choice to give the main character no love interest at all, and it worked great and was a big hit.

Well...You see, he was stranded on mars and even if I did have a love interest, my focus would be getting off that planet and also I think the author's intention was to focus on the fight for survival and the resilience of the human spirit and a romantic sub plot would have detracted from the essence of the story.

There are many many fiction books that don't have any romance in them to speak of, nor do the characters indicate a desire to form a romantic bond in these books, does that mean the characters are ace aro? if you choose to interpret it that way then sure, but it is more often the case that there is no romantic story line or indication of romantic interest from the character because it would either 1.) Detract from the purpose of the story, or 2.) the character is poorly developed or 3.) the author's demographic (target audience) would not benefit or be interested in reading a book with a romantic story line in it (example: Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books don't contain romance because the author's demographic is for young readers (8-12) of mystery/suspense genre)

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