Snowflake Challenge #10(Note: I'm using the details tag for spoilers (since cut tags vanish with a direct link to the post). I am not sure this will actually work, particularly for screenreaders - let me know!)
I made a list of my five favorite Asian characters, but then I realized that all of them were created by white people, except for possibly Koi Boi. (He was introduced during the Ryan North-Erika Henderson run of
Squirrel Girl.) So I'm going to read a bunch more books by Asian authors and then get back to you. In the meantime, a-spec headcanons for five fandoms!
Good Omens: I see Anathema Device as an aromantic lesbian. There's an
aromantic Anathema Device tag on AO3 and a
lesbian Anathema Device tag, but no overlap. Still, be the change, right?
Spoilers for & grumping about Good Omens season 2:
I always saw Aziraphale and Crowley as aromantic asexual queerplatonic partners, but that's been thoroughly jossed by season 2. Still, hooray for queer romance! I wish it had been made explicit before the storyline turned tragic, though. It would have been so easy to just let them kiss as part of their season 1 happy ending.
Frozen: I see Elsa as aromantic, because her arc centers on platonic love, and because it's a way of reclaiming the ice queen cliché. I even wrote a short
fic about it! The fic's post-Frozen II, so I wish I'd incorporated Honeymaren, but I'm otherwise still happy with it.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: I see Frosta as an aromantic asexual, partly because of the aforementioned ice queen thing, but mostly because there's no evidence otherwise. (Also, there's
a cool fic! It's not even the only aroace Frosta fic.) I think Mermista's an aromantic pansexual who has a queerplatonic thing with Sea Hawk; it took them ages to figure out what their relationship was, which is why they keep sending conflicting messages. Entrapta reads as aromantic and agender to me, and she's literally wearing the ace pride colors, so I'll throw in ace-flux too. Entrapta is proud to identify as a triple-A battery. (Edit: She's autistic, so, quadruple-A?)
Temeraire: I really like that the Corps as a whole deprioritizes romantic love in favor of the captains' relationships with their dragons, which read as queerplatonic to me. I think Jane Roland was the first openly aromantic allosexual Laurence met, and that helped him come to terms with his own orientation. Temeraire and Iskierka are also pretty explicitly aromantic allosexuals.
Little Women: I definitely see Jo March as aroace, and definitely some flavor of trans, too. Not sure about Beth - she's so rigidly desexualized that it's hard to figure out who she is under all the ableism.
I thought I might as well spoiler-tag this, although it is, you know, over 150 years old. Note: I'm using they/them pronouns for Jo.
It's unclear if Beth ever had a crush on Laurie - when Jo says they thought Beth loved him, Beth says, "How could I, when he was so fond of you?" which... isn't quite a no. I did enjoy this fic where Jo dies and Beth lives, which has an interesting take on the siblings' relationships with Laurie.
I really liked that Jo wanting to reciprocate Laurie's romantic affection and not being able to was a major plot point. I found Jo's marriage to Professor Bhaer kind of interesting. Their marriage could be simply a cover for them becoming business partners and chosen family. Running a boys' school and marrying a poor man definitely left them freer in their gender presentation than they otherwise would have been. Remember, when Bhaer proposed, Jo said they were only marrying him because he was poor and that they would not marry him if he didn't let them work. All that being said, I'd highly recommend
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C Morrow. In addition to all the characters being Black,
Beth survives with a chronic illness, Jo is aromantic, and Laurie and Jo are in a queerplatonic relationship. Does anyone have a-spec headcanons? Or recommendations of books by Asian authors? Or the holy grail,
a-spec headcanons for books with Asian authors? (Context: The main character of the linked book self-identifies as "asexual and probably some sort of aromantic.")
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