A tournament for canon aspec characters!

Did I miss your favourite? Let me know!

Wondering where Jon Sims is? He is too powerful and would skew the poll, but rest assured I have not forgotten.

Don't know any of these? Pick a show and go listen!

Data Soong from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Data is an android and has no sexual attraction or desire. You can read about him as ace representation here and here

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Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Murderbot is a bot-human construct, made from cloned human genetic material and robotic parts. It has human emotions but is sex and romance repulsed.

"Martha Wells: When I was working on the first novella, it didn't seem logical that a SecUnit would be given any kind of reproductive system or any human parts that weren't directly useful for its security function. And the way Murderbot feels about humans, it didn't seem logical for its personality that it would identify with any one gender, or be interested in choosing a human gender for itself, and it sure wouldn't be interested in human sexual relations. So in a way I guess it was a coincidence, since I didn't plan it from the start, it was just part of the process of developing the character as I was writing. And thank you!"

A Ship Manifesto for the Ultimate OTP: Murderbot x Respect for Its Boundaries

Summary:

“As long as people don’t know about asexuality—hell, forget about the label, so long as they don’t know that saying no forever and for any reason and in any context is okay—sex education, sex therapy, and popular depictions of sex are incomplete and people don’t have the relevant information to fully consent. Sexual rights should not be assumed and self-determination must never end upon entering a relationship. You can give a no with zero caveats in each and every situation, full stop. You can say no if someone loves you and you love them back. You can say no for the rest of your life." - Ace, by Angela Chen "No, thank you, no. No." - Murderbot in Artificial Condition, on the topic of sex A series of essays on Murderbot's non-relationship with sex, what it means for asexual and aspectrum representation, and how its disinterest in sex reinforces the series' themes of self-determination.

Click through for some of the most aspec quotes hundreds of aspec fans have ever related to. I'm not even really DONE with the meta either, there's so much more about Murderbot as aspec rep to dig into- the aromantic relationship anarchy parts of the series, the way that it exists as an asexual character among allosexual characters, the way its aspec-ness isn't JUST because of its physical body/machine-ness but something that is part of its person and preferences; given the chance to get functional sexual equipment it says HELL NO. And, of course, the meat of the essay series, which is that its ace-ness and aro-ness is tied to the thematic core of personhood and self-determination, the ability to set boundaries and say no.

We've also just recently had an Aspec Murderbot Diaries event! Check out the finished fanworks @aspec-tmbd 😎

Ylfa Snorgelsson/Red Riding Hood (Dimension 20) "Forced to eat Death/the Big Bad Wolf to survive and absorbed his power (lycanthropy). She dies and is resurrected even more wolf-like, gets mentored by Death, and saves him from being destroyed. She sacrifices the memory of her grandmother—her last tether to humanity—to take up the mantle of the Big Bad Wolf (literally—she’s wearing his skin as a cloak now) and become Death. In doing so, she has a vision of killing her grandmother’s grandmother just as the Big Bad Wolf killed her--but not her, because it wasn’t her time. At the end of the campaign, she divides her human self from her wolf self—the little girl stays behind to have a mortal life, while the other half of Ylfa truly and finally embraces Death. Her story is about her grappling with the horror and grief of loss and death, culminating in her metaphorical death to become “the end of all stories”. Her grandmother was eaten, but “I met Death and Death wants me to live.”"

Death (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) "Death has been stalking Puss the whole time (even in montages and backgrounds of crowd shots) and is so fucking pissed that Puss didn’t appreciate his lives that he’s come to PERSONALLY MURDER HIM. He causes Puss to flee down a toilet, have a breakdown and retire, and later induces Puss’ panic attack just by showing up."

bit random but i just want to shout out my favorite historical aspec character matthew cuthbert from anne of green gables. been pulling off my favorite trope "aroace man with daughter" since 1905

Daughter Dooley aka The Witch Queen from Old Gods of Appalachia who is asexual and aromantic, confirmed in text and by word of god. "@oldsteveofappalachia (He/Him): Daughter Dooley has no descendents. We've been very public and very forthright about this. She's asexual and aromantic. Her line ends with her. I can promise you all right now, no one is ever going to be revealed as a secret daughter of or son of or anything tied to DD. Solitude suited her and that's how it stays."

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Sister Carpenter from The Silt Verses who is aro/ace, confirmed in text and by word of god.