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Character in Bojack Horseman has asexual storyline


Capslock Cadet

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Capslock Cadet

I'm not sure how many of you watch Bojack Horseman, but I absolutely adore the show. The third season recently came out, and I just finished watching it. I'll try to keep this post to a spoiler minimum, but the asexuality storyline is wrapped up in the final episode of season 3, so you have been warned!

Anyway, one of the main characters in Bojack Horseman had a really well written asexuality storyline in this season. Basically they show flashbacks to his childhood sweetheart, where it's made clear that he likes the person, but is very hesitant when it comes to making out and any kind of intimacy. This is followed by him meeting this character again, and they have a lot of fun together and bond, but the second hooking up is brought up he makes excuses, avoids the subject, and tries to get drunk. Eventually the storyline is resolved by his childhood sweetheart asking him plainly about his sexuality, and while he doesn't say "I'm asexual" (he's written like he wouldn't know the word or much LGBTQA+ terminology at all) he says that he's neither gay nor straight, and thinks that he might just be neither.

I'm so ridiculously happy. While there's always a lot of plots going on throughout a season in this show, this storyline was still framed very well and as it was halfway through I recognized myself so much in him that it hurt. But at the same time I didn't want to hope for an actual asexual storyline, you know? Because that NEVER happens. And then it happened. And I started crying. Not saying it's the epitome of representation, but it was so damn refreshing.

Edit: I should also note that his "coming out" conversation could be read as him being both asexual and aromantic.

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I love the show too! I don't post on here often but I wanted to mention this and saw you beat me to it :)

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Ahh I was going to create a thread myself but I decided to look it up first. I love it! I was thinking he was ace throughout the show but when that scene happened in the last episode, I threw my arms up and yelled "HE'S ACE!" My mom was just like ??? lol. Ah, it was really refreshing to see some ace representation in such a great show! :D

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I saw a post about it on Facebook and I started watching the show just because of it XD

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I just started watching season three. Actually I hit your thread because I'm JUST about to start the second episode. I'm thrilled.

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scarletlatitude

I'm not sure how many of you watch Bojack Horseman, but I absolutely adore the show. The third season recently came out, and I just finished watching it. I'll try to keep this post to a spoiler minimum, but the asexuality storyline is wrapped up in the final episode of season 3, so you have been warned!

Anyway, one of the main characters in Bojack Horseman had a really well written asexuality storyline in this season. Basically they show flashbacks to his childhood sweetheart, where it's made clear that he likes the person, but is very hesitant when it comes to making out and any kind of intimacy. This is followed by him meeting this character again, and they have a lot of fun together and bond, but the second hooking up is brought up he makes excuses, avoids the subject, and tries to get drunk. Eventually the storyline is resolved by his childhood sweetheart asking him plainly about his sexuality, and while he doesn't say "I'm asexual" (he's written like he wouldn't know the word or much LGBTQA+ terminology at all) he says that he's neither gay nor straight, and thinks that he might just be neither.

I'm so ridiculously happy. While there's always a lot of plots going on throughout a season in this show, this storyline was still framed very well and as it was halfway through I recognized myself so much in him that it hurt. But at the same time I didn't want to hope for an actual asexual storyline, you know? Because that NEVER happens. And then it happened. And I started crying. Not saying it's the epitome of representation, but it was so damn refreshing.

Edit: I should also note that his "coming out" conversation could be read as him being both asexual and aromantic.

Do you (or anyone) think you could get us some links where they show asexuality so that I can add it to the archive of things that mention asexuality? :)

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Do you (or anyone) think you could get us some links where they show asexuality so that I can add it to the archive of things that mention asexuality? :)

Well, it's mentioned on the Bojack Horseman wiki: http://bojackhorseman.wikia.com/wiki/Todd_Chavez

And here's a recap of the scene on tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/todd-chavez-is-asexual

Hope that helps. :)

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scarletlatitude

Do you (or anyone) think you could get us some links where they show asexuality so that I can add it to the archive of things that mention asexuality? :)

Well, it's mentioned on the Bojack Horseman wiki: http://bojackhorseman.wikia.com/wiki/Todd_Chavez

And here's a recap of the scene on tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/todd-chavez-is-asexual

Hope that helps. :)

Awesome thanks!

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Yaaaay! I haven't watched season 3 yet. Todd has always been my favourite

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I've been wanting to watch this show, and now I think I have all the reason I need. :) Hooray for ace representation!!

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Capslock Cadet

I think my favorite thing about Todd being asexual/aro is that he's as far from the "stereotypical" ace you can come. If asexuality is ever hinted at it's usually for these Sherlock-type characters who are portrayed as very anti-social and it's always very "them not liking sex/romance is weeeird and it implies them being broken".
But with Todd it's just like, he's a happy go lucky dude in his twenties and whatever mess he gets into he always means well. It's so refreshing to have this kind of character be ace/aro <3

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I just finished the show and, I thought it would be one of those situations where it's actually pretty subtle and people are reading too much into it, but it's not! I'm so excited! A cool, legitimately asexual character! Plus I like that when he said "I don't think I'm anything," Emily said "that's okay."

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Not gonna lie started watching the show because I was told there was an asexual character also not gonna lie, I legitimately yelled "woo" when I saw some asexual expression. I too like the fact that Todd is just a regular dude with friends and a life.

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Capslock Cadet

I just finished the show and, I thought it would be one of those situations where it's actually pretty subtle and people are reading too much into it, but it's not! I'm so excited! A cool, legitimately asexual character! Plus I like that when he said "I don't think I'm anything," Emily said "that's okay."

Exactly! I really appreciate how he's met with understanding and respect. They don't use it as an excuse for her to be frustrated with him, or to create drama in their relationship. It's so nice that she mostly seems happy to know how he feels and understanding him.

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Just about to start season 2 as well and am hoping to be pleasantly surprised in the 3rd.

Season 1 was very down to earth and human, which is odd since a few of the characters are anthropomorphic. Lol

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Knight of Cydonia

My SO has been trying to get me to watch it for a while. I'd tried the first couple episodes and it didn't hook me. But after I found out about an asexual character I decided to give it another chance... and I'm very glad I did. I finished binge-watching it a few days ago and I really started loving it around halfway through season 1.

They handled the whole asexual scene refreshingly well, as many of you have already said. I'm so tired of asexual characters in media being really poor ace representations, and for a main character in a popular show to be portrayed believably and realistically as asexual is huge. Todd himself is such a big part of the show and him being asexual is just one small piece of information about his character - it doesn't define him, and that's just the way it should be. He's not "Todd, the asexual guy", he's "Todd, the guy who needs to clean up his shit"!

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I think my favorite thing about Todd being asexual/aro is that he's as far from the "stereotypical" ace you can come. If asexuality is ever hinted at it's usually for these Sherlock-type characters who are portrayed as very anti-social and it's always very "them not liking sex/romance is weeeird and it implies them being broken".

But with Todd it's just like, he's a happy go lucky dude in his twenties and whatever mess he gets into he always means well. It's so refreshing to have this kind of character be ace/aro <3

I loved this so much, it was very natural and true to his character.

In those scenes I saw myself in him SO much, I've been through those exact motions and excuses. It's nice to relate to a character that way for once.

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Capslock Cadet

I think my favorite thing about Todd being asexual/aro is that he's as far from the "stereotypical" ace you can come. If asexuality is ever hinted at it's usually for these Sherlock-type characters who are portrayed as very anti-social and it's always very "them not liking sex/romance is weeeird and it implies them being broken".

But with Todd it's just like, he's a happy go lucky dude in his twenties and whatever mess he gets into he always means well. It's so refreshing to have this kind of character be ace/aro <3

I loved this so much, it was very natural and true to his character.

In those scenes I saw myself in him SO much, I've been through those exact motions and excuses. It's nice to relate to a character that way for once.

Me too! I recognized myself so much in his excuses, and how he tried to handle sexual situations. Like, I've literally done a lot of the things he did when trying to handle people showing interest in me.

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I think the writers made a smart decision not to use the word asexual. It has already been proven anyone who uses the word asexual will be attacked by the ace community and will be under constant criticism. I think the writer for Jughead should have also just made it clear Jughead wasn't interested in boys or girls. The minute he wrote the word asexual he was attacked.

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  • 2 months later...

Is this the scene?

Yep, that's it!

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