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Ace characters in media!


Arodash

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I just finished binge-watching This Country and Kerry, one of the main characters, is hella aroace. My reasoning:-

 

  • She shows zero interest in romance or sex throughout all three series.
  • In one episode, a guy sends her dirty letters and she looks very alarmed and says something like "That's not really my area of expertise."
  • Her mum teases her for cutting out pictures of Cain Dingle (he's a character from the soap Emmerdale) from a magazine. She says, very deadpan, "I don't fancy him, I just respect him 'cause he's the only member of his family with his head screwed on.")
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MrMagmaneos

I recently finished a short manga called The Feelings We All Must Endure that has a homoromantic ace in it. It's a pretty short series, but to name the character is a little bit of a spoiler. She doesn't ever come out and say she is ace, but she does talk a lot about sex being boring. She just wants to enjoy spending time with her partner without having sex. She only has sex with her partner every once in a while just to please the partner. Be warned though, there is a decent amount of not too explicit sex scenes.

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On 3/24/2020 at 1:27 PM, Grace the Ace said:

I just think it would be the coolest thing ever if Elsa was ace. She really seems like it to me, her reaction to Anna making the snow figures kiss in the beginning of the second movie, and her just pursuing understanding herself rather than a romantic interest just really makes me happy.

Yes!! Elsa is 100% ace to me :)

Also Merida from Brave, because duh

Also basically everyone from She-Ra, but especially Scorpia ❤️ 

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  • 2 months later...
AceAnimeFan

Queen/Akihito Kanzaki from Devil's Line (manga) is confirmed asexual in volume 12. Based on the text he is romantic and most likely sex-repulsed, though admits to feeling sexual desire - just not directed at another person. First thing I've ever read with a cannon asexual character

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13 hours ago, AceAnimeFan said:

Queen/Akihito Kanzaki from Devil's Line (manga) is confirmed asexual in volume 12. Based on the text he is romantic and most likely sex-repulsed, though admits to feeling sexual desire - just not directed at another person. First thing I've ever read with a cannon asexual character

Wow, sounds like worth checking out!  

 

Lately, I realized I'm into a lot of slice of life manga and anime. Such as yotsuba&!, K-on!, A Bride's story (though there's some romanticly/sexually tensioned moments, but it's subtle). And I think it's because of the genre; so the main focus is not on romance (so the aromantic me thanks), or sexual attraction/competition (so the asexual me thanks). Just casual cute and interesting stories about everyday life.

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AceAnimeFan

@naakka Just a heads up if you do end up reading it, Devil's Line does have a few romantic/sexually tensioned moments, though they are easily skipped over. The last chapter of volume 10 and first chapter of volume 11 are the worst about this; Queen is a relatively minor character, and rarely shows up in the text. 

I also like slice of life manga and anime, since most of them don't have any romantic or sexual components, that I've seen. 

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4 minutes ago, AceAnimeFan said:

Queen is a relatively minor character, and rarely shows up in the text. 

Surprise, since the ace characters tend to always be! 😅

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Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives, Chloe Turner from The Bright Sessions, and Sally Grissom from ars PARADOXICA (all podcasts) are all canonically asexual!!!

 

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On 10/22/2019 at 4:02 PM, fragglerock2 said:

Not canonically ace but Motoko Kusanagi, the protagonist of Ghost in the Shell, appears to be ace in the movies and the Arise series (not the original manga and not quite asexual in the Stand Alone Complex series). Probably aro as well. Her coworker and friend Batou either has romantic or strong platonic love for her and she seems to feel platonic affection back but in the movies there is no hint of her having sexual or romantic feelings. She seems to be happy about living alone.

The Major is canonically a lesbian.  She is in a fairly male dominated field of work (and her coworkers are aware of her preference), so, she doesn't show much romantic interest into her coworkers, and they won't try to make a move on her.  She doesn't live alone, she has a girlfriend, they just don't show much of her home life in the anime because the show is more about cyberpunk crime-fighting than romance.

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Fraggle Underdark
24 minutes ago, Zash said:

The Major is canonically a lesbian.  She is in a fairly male dominated field of work (and her coworkers are aware of her preference), so, she doesn't show much romantic interest into her coworkers, and they won't try to make a move on her.  She doesn't live alone, she has a girlfriend, they just don't show much of her home life in the anime because the show is more about cyberpunk crime-fighting than romance.

The character is treated fairly differently in the different works. I was talking about the movies "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) and "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" (2004) and the "Arise" series, in which she appears to live alone and there is no intimation of romantic or sexual feelings.

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43 minutes ago, fragglerock2 said:

The character is treated fairly differently in the different works. I was talking about the movies "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) and "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" (2004) and the "Arise" series, in which she appears to live alone and there is no intimation of romantic or sexual feelings.

Yeah, but, that could just be because it didn't come up in the movies.  And if she is a lesbian, romance is not going to come up much in her (male dominated) day job, since her coworkers know and aren't going to try to take a pass or anything.  

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7 hours ago, Zash said:

The Major is canonically a lesbian.  She is in a fairly male dominated field of work (and her coworkers are aware of her preference), so, she doesn't show much romantic interest into her coworkers, and they won't try to make a move on her.  She doesn't live alone, she has a girlfriend, they just don't show much of her home life in the anime because the show is more about cyberpunk crime-fighting than romance.

... You know there ARE homoromantic asexuals though ... 

No idea about Motoko (as I have only seen the original movie over a decade ago and can't remember details, or anything really other than she's cool) but. 

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Will Byers from Stranger Things. I know a lot of people seem to think he's gay, but to be fair he could be homo-asexual. 

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Priestess de Mantinea

Uncle Henrik in Lois Lowry's Number the Stars might be aromantic/asexual! He prefers to remain unmarried, and has a close bond with his sister (Annemarie's mother, Inge). His sister even teases him about it, telling him he needs a wife, but he laughs it off saying "Why would I need a wife when I have a sister?" Like many aro/ace people, it seems that Henrik prefers platonic familial love to romantic partnerships.

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Trigger warning for SM discussion (not graphic/detailed).

The other day I watched Fifty shades of grey as they showed it on tv, just to see what all the fuss was about. Definitely not a healthy representation, but apparently mr. Grey could be aromantic (but not asexual)?

Spoiler

He doesn't want anything to do with the women but the sexual activities, doesn't show any romantic feelings towards them and also doesn't want them to show any romantic feelings towards him. But yeah, not a good representation, since his sexual/romantic orientation is hinted to be due to being abused as a kid, aromantic person doesn't equal one night stands/casual acquaintances, and also he's an oppressive person who wants everything to be decided by him (not just in the SM settings in the bed, but everything the woman does with her life).

Apologizes if this was already mentioned years ago 😅

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19 hours ago, Diotima of Mantinea said:

Uncle Henrik in Lois Lowry's Number the Stars might be aromantic/asexual! He prefers to remain unmarried, and has a close bond with his sister (Annemarie's mother, Inge). His sister even teases him about it, telling him he needs a wife, but he laughs it off saying "Why would I need a wife when I have a sister?" Like many aro/ace people, it seems that Henrik prefers platonic familial love to romantic partnerships.

Good thought!  Asexuality wasn't on my radar yet the last time I read Number the Stars; this makes me want to read it again and pay more attention to Uncle Henrik.   

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Priestess de Mantinea

@dreamfae Same here! I had no idea that asexuality was a thing back in 5th grade when I read it. I also just re-read The Giver (also by Lois Lowry) and was amused to find that I had been totally ignorant of the "Stirrings" being the equivalent of sexual feelings in Jonas' world! I guess I thought back then that it was something unique to Jonas' world only and didn't pay much attention. I laughed this time upon recognizing the analogy immediately, and was like "Haha, no wonder I didn't get it back then...being asexual myself, I didn't even realize that people start having sexual attraction feelings at that age, let alone be able to identify personally with Jonas' feelings!"

 

I wonder how asexual people in Jonas' world would be treated. They would never express feelings that would make their parents start giving them the pills to suppress the Stirrings. Would the parents get suspicious and just force them to take the pills anyway after a certain age? I'm afraid that in Jonas' world of Sameness, an "anomaly" like an asexual person would suffer very much.

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Sometimes Jack

Jo March from Little Women.  Even if not asexual (though I think she could be interpreted that way) I am inclined to think aromantic.  Her response to Laurie's 'but I love you, why don't you love me, you aren't trying hard enough, you're heartless' speech felt very relatable (from Jo's side, not Laurie's, to be clear).  The writer reportedly did not want Jo to marry at all but was basically told 'you have to or the book won't sell'.  So she married her off to the utterly unromantic, unattractive guy who already had children.

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Alice from Let's Talk About Love. She's basically me, and I love her.

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Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens. They aren’t canonically asexual as far as I know, but they are canonically in a very emotionally close relationship together and everything about Aziraphale screams “I would rather eat cake than have sex.” Plus, I think Neil Gaiman said they were asexual on social media at some point. 

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Murderbot from the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is ace/aro in my mind. They are a cyborg who is also non-bionary, but their relationship with Art feels very much like a special exclusive platonic friend. I feel like there is a word for this but I dont remember what it is.

 

Edit: Queerplatonic?

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Squishsick Val

Irene Ruddock in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads episode "A Lady Of Letters", originally played by Patricia Routledge and in the new version by Imelda Staunton. Someone whose nosiness gets her into trouble, but who is obviously lonely since her beloved mother died. She has no idea about sexual behaviour until she meets an unlikely new friend.

 

iPlayer link for UK viewers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08ftr1n

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learning to acept myself

Maude from bojack horseman

I was originally going to go with todd but ive seen he's quite a popular pick already so I'm going with his girlfriend (whose name I totally didn't need to google). She's honestly just a really cute woman bunny and I think it's hilarious they made one of the animals most known for their ridiculous sex drive an asexual! also worth noting shes voiced by an asexual woman too :D. she's just a ray of sunshine.

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2 hours ago, learning to acept myself said:

She's honestly just a really cute woman bunny and I think it's hilarious they made one of the animals most known for their ridiculous sex drive an asexual!

I think that's really cool! I mean, it kinda challenges the misconception that asexuality means just low sex drive (though she still could have a low sex drive, we don't know).

2 hours ago, learning to acept myself said:

also worth noting shes voiced by an asexual woman too :D

That too is cool. Like, we exist also irl and not just in cartoons :D

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Mr Norrell, in "Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell" is most likely one, seeing how he is a man of means in Dickensian Britain in need of a wife but no interest in having one, Rincewind from the Discworld series, Gandalf, probably is ace, and I'm starting to see a pattern here. Wizards! All wizards are ace... except Harry Potter ones.

 

Oh, Naboo from the Mighty Boosh. He can't help but be Asexual... and I guess the Metatron, Loki and Bartleby in "Dogma" for same reasons.

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theimpactandtheglue

Keladry from "The Protector of the Small" quartet is canonically aroace, and while she does have some relationships when she's growing up she's never into sex and she finds romance confusing. Although she likes kissing, at one point she says "People would talk, if we - if they saw. They might not think it was friendly. They might get the wrong idea." which struck me as a very aro thing to say even before the author explicitly stated she was aroace. 

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knittinghistorian
On 6/26/2020 at 8:00 PM, Gizamaluke said:

Mr Norrell, in "Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell" is most likely one, seeing how he is a man of means in Dickensian Britain in need of a wife but no interest in having one, Rincewind from the Discworld series, Gandalf, probably is ace, and I'm starting to see a pattern here. Wizards! All wizards are ace... except Harry Potter ones.

 

Oh, Naboo from the Mighty Boosh. He can't help but be Asexual... and I guess the Metatron, Loki and Bartleby in "Dogma" for same reasons.

I mainly saw myself in Mr Norrell in his introversion and love for books (though I really hope I'd stop short of his petty bullying and hoarding behavior).  But now that you mention it, I can totally see him as aro/ace too!

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  • 4 weeks later...
doubledoc5212
On 2/13/2020 at 11:31 PM, Arodash said:

Hear me out on this one everone.... Captain Picard

Literally jumped on this thread to say this. Even when he and Beverly are having their romantic moments, it has never struck me as sexual. 

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3 hours ago, doubledoc5212 said:

Literally jumped on this thread to say this. Even when he and Beverly are having their romantic moments, it has never struck me as sexual. 

That would totally explain the episode “the empath,” especially the ending.

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I believe Granny Weatherwax from the Discworld series is ace. It is canon that she is a virgin despite having had romantic relationships and she seems unbothered by this state of affairs (although it is suggested that she had children in an alternate timeline, it doesn’t necessarily mean she isn’t ace)

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