Jump to content

Book etc suggestions with ace characters?


Jules_14

Recommended Posts

Anyone have suggestions for books/movies/tv shows/comics/pocasts etc with ace characters? I've heard about Welcome to Nightvale and Zdarsky's Jughead in Archie, but any other ideas?

Link to post
Share on other sites

OK so it's not really Ace characters, but the Skullduggery Pleasant Series has very little in the way of romance through most of it.
 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Who is ace in welcome to nightvale? I listen to that podcast but I haven't heard of anyone being mentioned as ace.

Sorry don't really know of any suggestions but I really want to see what others come up with! :P

Link to post
Share on other sites

One Piece has a few as pirates are too busy with adventure for anything else.

Link to post
Share on other sites
happilyirrelevant

I think Miss Marple (from Agatha Christie's mysteries)  has never married and never expresses romantic interest in others, to my knowledge. The books do sometimes have romantic subplots with other characters though.

And the Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton never have Father Brown acting sexual or romantic I believe.

Neither of those characters is described as actually aro-ace but they act like they might be.

Link to post
Share on other sites
georgiasayshello

honestly i feel like some jane austen characters are ace:

emma - has zero interest in men until she realises she's in love with guy she's known quite a while (sorry, spoiler alert lol) so many demi/gray ace or something?

in P&P, charlotte lucas says she's never been romantic or had any interest in men

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
happilyirrelevant
4 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

honestly i feel like some jane austen characters are ace:

emma - has zero interest in men until she realises she's in love with guy she's known quite a while (sorry, spoiler alert lol) so many demi/gray ace or something?

in P&P, charlotte lucas says she's never been romantic or had any interest in men

 

Nice ideas! I hadn't thought of those, but they do make sense. :) 

Link to post
Share on other sites
georgiasayshello
3 hours ago, happilyirrelevant said:

I think Miss Marple (from Agatha Christie's mysteries)  has never married and never expresses romantic interest in others, to my knowledge. The books do sometimes have romantic subplots with other characters though.

And the Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton never have Father Brown acting sexual or romantic I believe.

Neither of those characters is described as actually aro-ace but they act like they might be.

i love agatha christie so much! do you prefer miss marple or poirot? i've read a bunch of them, i think some of my faves are poirot though,  murder of roger ackroyd, three act tragedy, evil under the sun, and then there were none

Link to post
Share on other sites
8 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

honestly i feel like some jane austen characters are ace:

emma - has zero interest in men until she realises she's in love with guy she's known quite a while (sorry, spoiler alert lol) so many demi/gray ace or something?

in P&P, charlotte lucas says she's never been romantic or had any interest in men

 

We have to be careful with fiction from historical writers though, because in various eras in the past, including when Jane Austen was writing, women were considered to be asexual by nature and sex was not something one talked about. That's why "female hysteria" was treated with orgasm (and fun fact, led to the invention of the vibrator), and pretty much any problem a woman had was blamed on that.

Link to post
Share on other sites
20 hours ago, Correner said:

One Piece has a few as pirates are too busy with adventure for anything else.

Luffy is confirmed to be ace by word of god

Link to post
Share on other sites
happilyirrelevant
6 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

i love agatha christie so much! do you prefer miss marple or poirot? i've read a bunch of them, i think some of my faves are poirot though,  murder of roger ackroyd, three act tragedy, evil under the sun, and then there were none

I like Miss Marple better. I know I shouldn't judge others, but I've had a hard time liking Poirot as much since I read a book where he said he disliked nature and preferred ordered, man-made structure. :)

I haven't read all of Christie's stories by any means--I've probably read maybe thirty, including the ones I read when I was too young for me to remember them now. My favorites are probably And Then There Were None (of course!), Spider's Web (since I can relate to the heroine's habit of imagining every different possible situation a lot), and Tommy and Tuppence mysteries. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
happilyirrelevant

Oh! Also, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves both seem like they might be on the ace spectrum in P.G. Wodehouse's books. There are quite a few romance plots and subplots, but many of them involve Bertie trying to avoid marriage, and they're so funny they're practically spoofs of the romance genre anyway. 

I haven't read all the books so I could be incorrect about Bertie and Jeeves, though. Just from what I've seen so far, that's what I think.

Link to post
Share on other sites
georgiasayshello
1 minute ago, CFilipek said:

We have to be careful with fiction from historical writers though, because in various eras in the past, including when Jane Austen was writing, women were considered to be asexual by nature and sex was not something one talked about. That's why "female hysteria" was treated with orgasm (and fun fact, led to the invention of the vibrator), and pretty much any problem a woman had was blamed on that.

yeah that's true

but despite that, i find that there are subtle differences in how austen's characters view the concept of marriage. in my opinion, in her novels, if the characters are marrying for love, they are quite often marrying instead for infatuation/attraction. the couples have known each other so short a time that can you really call it love? seems to me that however subtley alluded to, sexual attraction is the driving force in a lot of austen's relationships

idk i guess what i'm trying to say is, in those days, unless you're marrying for money, marriage and sexuality seem pretty interlinked a lot of the time

so there's a stark difference when characters claim to have never had an interest in marrying anyone - to me it's like they've never been infatuated/attracted to anyone so are more likely to be asexual

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
georgiasayshello

ahaha yeah miss marple is for sure a lot more likeable than poirot, but i just find him hilarious

marple is really sweet and unassuming and flies under the radar, and poirot is just a total narcissist, so i get how you could dislike him, but i just love the comedy of it

and yeah tommy and tuppence is great too :) 

 

edit: @happilyirrelevant sorry idk why it wouldn't quote

Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, georgiasayshello said:

yeah that's true

but despite that, i find that there are subtle differences in how austen's characters view the concept of marriage. in my opinion, in her novels, if the characters are marrying for love, they are quite often marrying instead for infatuation/attraction. the couples have known each other so short a time that can you really call it love? seems to me that however subtley alluded to, sexual attraction is the driving force in a lot of austen's relationships

idk i guess what i'm trying to say is, in those days, unless you're marrying for money, marriage and sexuality seem pretty interlinked a lot of the time

so there's a stark difference when characters claim to have never had an interest in marrying anyone - to me it's like they've never been infatuated/attracted to anyone so are more likely to be asexual

 

That's fair, and I do agree with you; I just wanted to point it out, since it may be hard to distinguish for someone who isn't aware of the social beliefs and stigmas. :) I'm also sure that Jane Austen, as a woman and one who is both intelligent and observant, would have been aware that the idea that all women are naturally asexual is inaccurate and would able to distinguish between repression, reticence on the subject, and asexuality in her writing.

Link to post
Share on other sites
happilyirrelevant
1 minute ago, georgiasayshello said:

ahaha yeah miss marple is for sure a lot more likeable than poirot, but i just find him hilarious

marple is really sweet and unassuming and flies under the radar, and poirot is just a total narcissist, so i get how you could dislike him, but i just love the comedy of it

and yeah tommy and tuppence is great too :) 

 

edit: @happilyirrelevant sorry idk why it wouldn't quote

Good point. But I think my favorite thing about Miss Marple is her sweet and unassuming nature because then everybody dismisses her and she just goes and solves homicides anyway in her spare time between knitting and tea :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think Katniss (Hunger Games) may be asexual (and possibly aromantic). I only read the first book, but I've seen the movies and it seems pretty likely

Link to post
Share on other sites

There are books now that take the unjoy of guessing authorial intent out of the headache zone:

 

Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire (MC is ace - possibly aro)

Finding Your Feet - Cass Lennox (trans male/female ace pairing)

Blank Spaces - Cass Lennox (gay/male ace pairing)

Fireland: Jimmy Loves Rob -James Burke (gay/ace bromance) excellent, long term friendship of the best kind.

The Galloway Road - Catherine Adams (MC is ace)

All the Wrong Places - Ann Gallagher (MCs are both homoromantic)

How to be a Normal Person - TJ Klune (one MC is ace, the other might be a-spec)

More books!:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/61456.Asexuals_In_Fiction_

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/95185.Ace_is_the_Place_Fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/105434.Aro_and_Ace_Spectrum_Characters_in_SFF

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I didn't even think of checking goodreads! I guess I thought they wouldn't have thought of organizing books with ace characters.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 4/27/2017 at 5:29 PM, happilyirrelevant said:

Oh! Also, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves both seem like they might be on the ace spectrum in P.G. Wodehouse's books. There are quite a few romance plots and subplots, but many of them involve Bertie trying to avoid marriage, and they're so funny they're practically spoofs of the romance genre anyway. 

I haven't read all the books so I could be incorrect about Bertie and Jeeves, though. Just from what I've seen so far, that's what I think.

SAME... I watched the TV series and am currently reading the books; wish I had started it sooner!  :)

 

Another vote for the Miss Marple and Poirot series.  And of course, Sherlock Holmes is another British character who may be on the ace spectrum (in my mind there's no doubt).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Robert Howard's character, Kull, has been said to have "no interest in women" so he's an option.  Maybe Solomon Kane, although he's more likely a celibate hero.

 

Maybe most of the characters in any work by H.P. Lovecraft, but that's likely more do do with Lovecraft's obsessively puritanical views.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Mori-no-Majou

Oh my gosh, I've read Emma a zillion times, but somehow never picked up on that. Super interested in romance where it applies to other people, but not in engaging in it herself, until she falls for someone she's known literally all her life? How did I miss the demi vibes. HOW.

Anyway. This is an anime rather than a book, but someone else suggested One Piece, so: Ennis and Firo in Baccano! are a canon ace couple. Even after being together for (spoilers!) 72 years, they still never have sex (it makes sense in context).

For actual literary examples, Sherlock is the obvious one, but you've also got Jean Valjean in Les Mis (who has no interest in romance, and is happy so long as he has Cosette), and an especially prudish example in the form of Granny Weatherwax in the Discworld series (who responds to that old saying about everyone being naked under their clothes with "Not me. I've got three vests on.").

Link to post
Share on other sites
Gender-nomad
On April 26, 2017 at 8:00 PM, Ricchan said:

OK so it's not really Ace characters, but the Skullduggery Pleasant Series has very little in the way of romance through most of it.
 

I can confirm these books have very little romance. And are also just really good and funny.

Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Gender-nomad said:

I can confirm these books have very little romance. And are also just really good and funny.

(I love your avatar :wub: ) 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Raphael Santiago from Shadowhunters is a canon romantic asexual.

 

I started reading the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead a few months ago and Sydney Sage comes across as asexual a lot of the time.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hatsu/Hatz from the Korean webcomic "Tower of God" gives off a very strong impression of asexuality. The main character does too, actually, but the author confirmed he'll be getting a love interest at some point in the series. Romantic ace is still a possibility, but since there's not a huge romantic focus in Tower of God, it's easy to headcanon characters as ace in general... Those are just the two that stand out the most to me. The only missing evidence to confirm Hatsu as an aromantic ace is a Word of God.

 

Clariel from Garth Nix's the Old Kingdom series is asexual, and I believe Tamora Pierce also confirmed Sandry from the Circle of Magic quartet to be ace? I'd second a few of the previous suggestions as well, but to avoid being repetitious -- there you go. I feel like I'm forgetting someone important, but since I'm tired I'd rather go to bed than think about it more.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a really good podcast called The Bright Sessions that has two ace/aro--spec characters. There's Caleb, who's basically gray/homo-romantic and Chloe, who's canonically asexual. Also I'd highly recommend the webcomic Supernormal Step, the protagonist of which is canonically asexual.

Link to post
Share on other sites

i have the view of jamalee merridew in tomato red by daniel woodrell could either be asexual or repulsed (due to her mother being a prostitute)

 

it has been made into a film this year that i'd like to see but times didn't suit in the cinema

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...