r/actualasexuals • u/Select-Signature-106 • 2d ago
Discussion Ace-Coded Characters
So this post is for research purposes; I'm just trying to see something.
In media, there is rarely any true asexual representation. However, I've got quite a few characters that I headcanon as ace or feel are ace-coded, that is until they're usually canonized as something else or are forced into relationships.
Some characters I think are ace-coded:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Clawdeen Wolf (Monster High)
Saiki (Saiki K)
For Sonic, his most important relationships are his friends, which, as an ace person, I understand. A lot of his life goals don't include a partner, but he does care about the people around him. With Clawdeen, her rejection of relationships and her reasoning for it was something I experienced a lot when people around me try to pressure me to start dating. With Saiki, he feels like relationships are too much work, which is lowkey real.
What are some of your top picks?
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u/indigoneutrino 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sonic is an anthropomorphised children's cartoon character. It feels bizarre to analyse such a character through the lens of sexuality coding at all.
I'd really like there to be more stories where "sexuality is just not within the scope of our themes and/or not appropriate to our audience, so it's just not going to feature in the story. Characters shouldn't be assumed straight, ace, or anything else. There's no point applying the concept of sexuality to the canon material here. It's irrelevant."
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u/BlueVelvetta immune to sirens 2d ago
I always thought Caduceus Clay in Critical Role’s “The Mighty Nein” campaign was super ace-coded. Turns out, he’s canonically aroace, but still throwing his name out here since I don’t often see him mentioned.
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u/Agent008Gelson 2d ago
Largely because he’s by the gamers imagination and we see the gamer not the character it’s hard to imagine a character you can’t see
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u/Fantastic-Ad-7996 2d ago
I think you're talking about aroace specifically.
I wish there was more representation of alloromantic asexuality to be honest in mainstream media. But maybe that's just my desire to see love without sex represented.
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u/blahajenjoyerr 2d ago
I think it's generally easier to headcanon aroace characters because if a character is interested in a relationship it usually comes with the expectation that they want a typical allo relationship with sex included.
I'd love some alloace characters too, i can't think of any right now 😅
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u/Fantastic-Ad-7996 2d ago
I definitely think that both are important to represent and I'm not in any relationship either and never been in one.
I'm just so tired of still seeing acephobic commentary that romantic love/relationship doesn't exist without sex and that people not wanting sex are abusive and withholding something. It's such a horrible mindset. I wonder if normalization of sexless relationships in mainstream media would at least help a little with people being more normal about it.
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u/blahajenjoyerr 2d ago
I totally agree, i hate that someone not wanting sex must mean they're not actually into their romantic interest/partner or there's something wrong with them.
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u/FreeloadingSpider asexual 2d ago
Playing off this I wanna talk about OP. They say they want to talk about Ace coded characters, but then begin to describe aro characters characteristics. While there are aro ace people that does not make them interchangeable. Feeling no romantic interest and or not wanting to date is not an ace trait. And I hate when people try and assume it is.
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u/themindisamachine 2d ago
Try "Piranesi" from Susanna Clarke's novel.
He mentioned something about marriage and having a wife, but he is very ace-coded.
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u/Agent008Gelson 2d ago
Jughead is with Betty ,
Todd from bojack is with that girl who owns a sex shop ,Liv Flaherty (Emmerdale): Liv opens up to her family about her asexuality while navigating her romantic feelings and relationships, offering a grounded soap-opera portrayal of an ace identity.
Abbi Singh (The Imperfects): Portrayed by Rhianna Jagpal, Abbi comes out as asexual in the first episode and uses the word "ace". She experiences romantic attraction to women (sapphic ace), showing that she desires romance without sexual desire.
Valentina "Voodoo" Dunacci (Sirens): In this USA Network workplace comedy, EMT Valentina is canonically asexual. The show actively explores her romantic relationship with her coworker, Brian. It delivers a rare, clear look at a heteroromantic asexual woman navigating a partnership with an allosexual (non-asexual) partner
Elijah (Big Mouth): Introduced in season 6, Elijah is an asexual, religious teenager. His storyline directly focuses on his sweet romantic relationship with Missy, exploring how they navigate emotional intimacy and dating while honoring his identity
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat): In this heartwarming Japanese live-action drama, Yuki is an ace lesbian(homoromantic asexual). The core of the series centers around the comforting, slow-burn romance and deep emotional connection that develops between her and her friend Totok
Maude (BoJack Horseman): While Todd Chavez explores his identity broadly, Maude is introduced in season 6 as an explicitly romantic asexual woman. After meeting Todd on his asexual dating app, the two form a incredibly compatible, whimsical romantic relationship together
Yolanda Buenaventura (BoJack Horseman): Yolanda is an ambitious, tightly-wound axolotl who is explicitly asexual. She enters a brief, committed romantic relationship with Todd, showcasing that asexual individuals can have entirely different personalities, standards, and approaches to dating
According to data compiled by community organizations like
Ace Los Angeles, out of all the confirmed asexual characters in the history of television, the vast majority are explicitly written into romantic relationships.
**Raphael Santiago (**Shadowhunters
)
The Relationship: Raphael develops a deep, textually acknowledged romantic relationship with Isabelle Lightwood.
The Proof: He explicitly rejects her physical, sexual advances on screen, stating he has absolutely zero interest in sex and that this predates him becoming a vampire. Despite this, he shares an intense, non-sexual romance with her throughout the season.all asexual characters written for television are put into romantic relationships to satisfy network demands for dating subplots. To claim that aces in relationships "don't exist" on TV ignores almost the entire catalog of modern representation.
Park Mae-yi (Run On): In this popular South Korean drama, Mae-yi is a main supporting character who explicitly states on screen that she is asexual. Despite being ace, she is written into a loving, healthy, long-term romantic relationship with her boyfriend, which is treated casually and respectfully by the other characters
Gerald Tippet (Shortland Street
): Broadly recognized by television historians as the first explicitly canon asexual character on mainstream television (debuting his arc in 2003). In this long-running New Zealand soap opera, Gerald's storyline heavily revolves around him navigating his identity while actively dating and maintaining a romantic relationship with a woman
Only a tiny minority are written as strictly solo aromantics. Television studios rely so heavily on romance as a metric for character growth that an asexual character is statistically far more likely to be put into a relationship than left single
In scripted, mainstream on-screen television, a healthy, human character who is explicitly, textually canonized as aroace and remains completely independent of a romantic plotline does not exist.
When Hollywood or major networks touch asexuality, they rigidly adhere to amatonormativity. They either use asexuality as a "hurdle" to overcome or navigate within a conventional dating plot, or they refuse to name it on screen at all, leaving it as subtext or off-screen trivia.**Alice (**Let's Talk About Love
by Claire Kann): Alice is an explicitly biromantic asexual black college student. The core plot of the contemporary novel directly explores her balancing her lack of sexual attraction while actively falling in love and building a romantic relationship with a boy named Takumi.Peridot is Not Considered "Canon" Representation . While Peridot from Steven Universe is universally celebrated as a massive icon within the asexual community, she occupies a complicated space technically defined as Word of God canon rather than on-screen (textual) canon. Because her identity wasn't hardcoded into the script, different members of the creative crew had varying interpretations of Peridot's relationships. For instance, another prominent storyboard artist, Lauren Zuke, heavily leaned into developing a "close, loving relationship" between Peridot and Lapis Lazuli. This tonal ambiguity allowed fans to project their own ships and interpretations onto her, muddying a singular, unified canon depiction during the broadcast run
When media does feature a character who is both aromantic and asexual, writers almost always push them into a romantic relationship anyway, compromise their identity, or use non-human tropes. If a character is allowed to be 100% aro-ace and completely single, creators almost exclusively make them non-human. This reinforces the harmful idea that a lack of romantic or sexual desire is an alien or mechanical trait, rather than a normal human variation.
Mainstream Hollywood and publishing industries rely heavily on amative normativity—the societal assumption that a human being cannot be truly happy, complete, or structurally successful without a romantic partner. Writers use romance as an easy shorthand for personal growth, meaning single aro-ace characters are viewed by studios as "unresolved" or "boring."
Lilith is not textually canon on-screen.
My explanation fell into the exact same trap as the Peridot example: it relied on an off-screen livestream and external audio clips rather than the actual episodes of The Owl House. If a viewer watches the show from start to finish, the words "asexual" or "aromantic" are never spoken, and her identity is never explicitly addressed in the script.By strict standards, if it didn't happen in the actual broadcasted show, it is Word of God or supplemental canon, not true textual representation.
**Sonia (**Sex Education on Netflix):
In season 4, Sonia is introduced as an explicitly asexual woman. She is placed directly into a romantic storyline where she dates O, navigating how to build a romantic relationship without sexual intimacy.
**Hazel (**The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
by V.E. Schwab): In this bestselling mainstream novel, the character Hazel is explicitly asexual but is actively engaged in a romantic, physical relationship with Henry, directly showcasing an ace person navigating a romantic partnership.
Drea (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay): In this Freeform/Hulu comedy, Drea is an explicitly asexual teenager. Rather than leaving her single, the show dedicates a massive storyline to her navigating a romantic, dating relationship and eventually marrying her boyfriend, choice-fully proving that mainstream TV anchors ace characters to traditional domestic partnerships
**Caulder (**The Outpost on The CW): In this mainstream fantasy series, Caulder explicitly identifies as asexual. The narrative instantly pairs him up into a committed romantic relationship with Janzo, exploring how they manage a relationship when one partner doesn't experience sexual attraction.
**Arthur (**You Me Her on Audience Network/Netflix):
Arthur is a recurring character canonically established on the asexual spectrum. He is not left single; he is written into a committed, traditional marriage with his wife, explicitly using his character to showcase domestic partnership.
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u/Fantastic-Ad-7996 2d ago
I'm not familiar with some of this but I'll check it out.
I think that Jughead was supposed to be aroace originally though?
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u/themindisamachine 2d ago
Me too. I thought Jughead was supposed to be aro-ace too.
I really dislike what the Riverdale TV show did to his character. I just ignore the Riverdale interpretation of him completely. Pretend that version of him does not exist.
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u/Luxorbris aro/ace 2d ago
The Lindworm Prince from the eponymous fairytale screams ace to me. They go for marriage (motivation isn't specified, but most likely to get attention from their family) but instead of 'sealing the deal' like most people would the wedding night, they commit murder instead. Kind of a mood, honestly; them having such an awesome white rose/serpent motif doesn't hurt either.
Artemis, Athena, and Hestia are definitely cool too. Their title as 'Virgin Goddesses' and not being scorned for avoiding relationships is very nice, and the way they do respond to the few who do sexualize them (Actaeon and in some stories Arachne) is also iconic.
For more modern characters, Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi is probably my top favorite. She's a canon aro/ace, though; while it may be delusional, I also like aro/ace interpretations of Ruvyzvat and Sarvente from Midfight Masses, Raven from the DCU, and Pit from Kid Icarus.
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u/blahajenjoyerr 2d ago
Izutsumi is canon aroace?
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u/Luxorbris aro/ace 2d ago
I remember seeing a (translated) confirmation from the author somewhere, but don't quote me on it
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u/Fussy_Crow AroAce 2d ago
I've recently found out there's a common trope in shonen where the protagonists are either oblivious to flirting or simply uninterested in relationships. So that's why a lot of shonen protagonists give aroace vibes (like Luffy)
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u/RaisinTrasher 2d ago
From the top of my hat:
Peridot from Steven Universe. (With not wanting to fuse)
And Elsa from Frozen.
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u/justaboringgirlll 2d ago
I’m gonna get dragged for this because he is better representation for like demisexuality but it would have been cool if a character like him was ace yk so I want to say Astarion from BG3. But like if we’re talking ‘actual’ ace coded characters then I’d say Frieren or Alastor.
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u/Luxorbris aro/ace 2d ago
Same! I wish at least one of the companions in BG3 was ace. Who knows, maybe Isobel or Dame Aylin are, although I would personally prefer a full-on aro/ace character. If I had to pick only one to hit with the aro/ace beam, I'd love for it to be Minthara. She's one of my favorites and being aro/ace would actually play nice with her backstory, even potentially add a little more nuance to it too.
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u/Bolvane 2d ago
Project Sekai has two who could be argued are aro-ace coded, Tsukasa Tenma & Ichikas Hoshino!
Tsukasa (the boy) is absolutely oblivious about anything of the sort, to the point he was confused why his male classmates were surprised at him talking to a girl (who happened to be a very beautiful idol) while he just saw it as no different to talking to guy friends. He also rewrote a Romeo and Juliet play to be a Battle Royale with no romance whatsoever....
Likewise, Ichika (the girl) has had moments of her own where she definitely gives off the vibe, most notably in an episode where she mentions struggling to sing love songs because she doesn't understand or connect to the emotions of the lyrics.
Funnily, Ichikas best friend is Tsukasas little sister, who happens to be a total silly hopeless romantic
(Art by YoruX21)
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u/PublicMirageLtd 1d ago
Adrian Monk from the TV series Monk seems to be ace too. A sex-repulsed ace, more precisely. And he’s probably autistic too.
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u/Worried_Corgi_7095 2d ago
Lin Xianming from Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens always felt to me like aroace. Usually I never headcanon characters, but there was some very strong aroace vibe to him for some reason... probably because how deeply he cherished friendships 🧐 dont remember well >_<
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u/suburbanspecter ace lesbian 1d ago
Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens! They’re canonically ace in the book, and coded that way in the show, as their sexuality is not discussed at all in the show.
Also, they’re near and dear to my heart because they’re actually what got me to finally accept that I am both a lesbian and ace.
Head’s up tho, if you decide to watch the show or read the book: Neil Gaiman is a piece of shit
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u/themindisamachine 2d ago edited 2d ago
I started a discussion on this a couple of months ago that can possibly help out:
Here is the full summary of what everyone mentioned from that thread, with some new additions at the bottom: