Why I love Mirabelle as aro/ace representation
IT'S 11:58pm on JUNE 30TH PEOPLE LET'S GO OUT WITH A BANG!
Hi! Like my headcanons post, this is a post I've been working on for a loooong time, and similarly to that post I feel like this could be an entire video essay if I were into that medium lmao. But I'm not. So this is a ginormous tumblr post instead. But I digress, because no matter where it is, I want to talk about all the reasons I think Mirabelle is good aro/ace rep and why I love her!! I talk about this as an aroacespec person myself and also someone with many aro, ace, and aroacespec friends. Over my life and in being in the aroace community I've done a lot of research and learned a lot about how to properly represent aroace people in media, some of my opinions on which also come from my own experience! But, OF COURSE, I do not speak for the whole community nor do I know everything about aro/ace/aroacespec stuff and we are not a monolith!!! AND SO here is your disclaimer that I in fact am just a random person on the internet, and you should ALWAYS do your own research and talk to multiple people and all that jazz if you want to know more about good rep, and especially if you are trying to write or represent a marginalized community (and especially one(s) without a lot of good established rep like the ace, aro, and aroace and aro/acespec communities). PLEASE do not use this as your only reference point for writing an aro/ace character. I'm making this post because I want to talk about and appreciate one of the best aro/ace characters I've seen in recent times, not as a guideline on how to write one. Thank you!
(Also I use "aro/ace" to mean aro and/or ace, and "aroace" to mean... well... aroace, just to be clear. I didn't want to type out "aro and/or ace" every time, it'd just make my sentences clunky...)
In In Stars and Time, Mirabelle is not our main character, but I would say she's a close second. She's the emotional heart of the party we all know and love. She is their Housemaiden, their drive for Change and the reason they are all here; after all, this is her quest.
I have a joke I like to come back to, from the Secret Sleepover Society isat streams, where every bit of lore they learned about mirabelle in act 1 theyād jokingly go āwe get it, Mirabelleās the fuckin main character!ā But likeā¦ she kind of is tho. I mean, Sif is the main character, but thatās arguably only because they got their ass stuck in a time loop. If we were playing a different, more traditional rpgāsay, one focused on the pre-canon gathering orbs time (which would be a kickass fangame btw)āMirabelle would be the main character, and sheād be a good one at that.
And Mirabelle is aromantic and asexual (and she kicks ass).
In Stars and Time is an unassuming game (although I want to say less unassuming now with Truth Scrapper, given that it's creator is Adrienne "yes it's a pronouns game with pronouns. take my hand" Bazir), and one that from the outside you would not think would have some of the best not just aro/ace but also queer rep in general that I've ever seen, but the fact that it does is one of the things that feels so magic about it (and yes, I am biased. I love this game, we know this. I tried to come at this from as objective a standpoint as I could with the research I've done, but I do get a little gushy at times. Bear with me š
). When Mirabelle essentially came out to Siffrin as aroace I could barely believe what I was fucking reading, and it only got better from there. Now having said that, it's pretty needless to say that I think Mirabelle is really good aro/ace rep. But it's pride month, and I want to uphold my fellow aro/aces, and I want to talk not just about the bad representation and what we should fix but also about the good!!! I want to appreciate her and just why she makes me and others feel so seen!! So let's go!
Probably the thing I hear discussed most often in the aro/ace, and particularly ace, representation sphere is the "emotionally unavailable intellectual" or, essentially, "repressed nerd" stereotype. While I don't think I should have to say that aro/ace people can of course be smart, academic, amazing and cool, and can of course struggle with their emotions and emotional closeness, an overwhelming majority of aro/ace representation we get is this: An academic who is glued to their work, feels and expresses little to no emotion, has trouble connecting with others coupled with little to no desire to, and potentially has a character arc where they become more open to connection and showing emotion (which may parallel an openness to more romance or sex). I could name Peridot Steven Universe, Mordecai Lackadaisy, Victor Arcane, Lilith Owl House, Jonathan Sims Magnus Archives, and several others. Another older and less currently prominent but related stereotype is the aro/ace character as an inhuman being foreign to the concept of human emotion or connection in general, which those do not fall into (...except for maybe viktor. little worrying that he's the only ace character in that show), but I thought it worth mentioning. These characters are often standoffish and unfriendly, and while they may or may not have an arc in which they grow to be more comfortable with closeness and emotional vulnerability, this stereotype sets a worrying precedent. Namely that the idea of being aro/ace is inherently tied to a lack of emotion, little desire for connection, and in some cases, a lack of empathy.
(I will say that, as it is the more widely known term, these characters are usually only explicitly 'asexual'. However, the terms 'aromantic' and 'asexual' are often confused or paired automatically. In the context of at least two of the above examples, I've seen the creators use 'asexual' when they definitely mean 'aromantic'.)
For as long as I can remember seeing aromantic and asexual people on my screen, a large majority of them have fallen into this stereotype, and even current media with other very well done queer representation often plays into it.
This is why it means so much to me that Mirabelle absolutely defies these stereotypes. Mirabelle is a bubbly, anxious, and incredibly caring friend--and of course she is very, very human. She's the first to ask Siffrin if he needs help in act 3, actually, which, in fact, sets the friendquests in motion. Siffrin likely would not have done them if it weren't for her, which is a fun little tidbit! But my point here is that Mirabelle is off to a great start in the simple fact that she does an excellent job of not playing into aro/ace stereotypes. It irks me for many reasons that the only characters usually seen as 'fitting' to be aro/ace are the repressed nerd type, and Mirabelle is such a breath of fresh air in that area. Not being able to feel sexual or romantic attraction and not feeling the desire for those things does not estrange her from the concept of human emotion or empathy or love, nor human connection. Like all the characters in this game, Mirabelle is beautifully, heartbreakingly human. She breaks the mold so well, and she doesn't just break the mold, but she creates a unique, intricate, and thoughtful aroace story that I truly adore with all my heart.
Notably, it will never not be both incredibly funny to me and an absolute triumph that we have THREE ace characters in isat, and none of them are the one actual emotionally unavailable intellectual that we have in the group. Odile is SO confirmed not aro and so very implied not ace that it's actually funny. We have thirst traps of her. One could argue she is one of the least aro/ace characters in the entire game lmao (maybe second to isabeau...) (obligatory yes she has decided that romance isn't very important to her but I think she would define that differently from being aro as she has ALSO explicitly stated that she's been in love before (Also sidenote, I love the distinction between those two!! Odile IS the kind of academic who'd rather focus on things other than romance and she is also straight up NOT our aro/ace rep. It's a different thing. Thank you isat you're the best to ever do it!!)).
And now I'd like to add an excellent quote from one of my lovely moots/irls before we move on: "We cannot take another aro/ace character who is an edgy lone wolf who runs on logic and feels nothing" -@thegayestaddams when I was having him proofread/sensitivity read this post lmao.
I haven't watched Bojack Horseman myself, but I've heard that there's some pretty good rep in that show! Todd, I believe the main ace character's name is? He's been seen as the gold standard for ace representation for quite a while now. And that is fucking AWESOME and we are getting more rep by the day (yippie!!!), and especially for it to be in such a mainstream show, it's SO COOL and I don't want to understate that. But I bring up that character to say that he is also a white, cis, heteroromantic man. And while I'm sure the rep he brings is great, he can't be one person to represent everyone. And Mirabelle is... well... different from him! She is a black woman, and I must say that never, in my life, have I seen a black aro/ace character, let alone a black aro/ace woman, before Mira. (that isn't to say that there aren't any, just that I haven't seen them. Don't withhold your recs, I WANT to see them š). Now, I can't speak to how good of POC rep Mirabelle is as I still need to research more and am not a POC myself, although I do think she's a pretty slay lady, but in terms of her intersectionality we are three for three and she is goated with the sauce.
There is a notable lack of most kinds of discrimination within Vaugarde, as you'd be hard pressed to find anyone prejudiced on the basis of skin color, gender, sexuality, very much most kinds that we have here in the real world. So her intersectionality is not explored as much as it could be in a different setting, but I still think it just being there, and being there so casually and openly at that, is really, really nice. There aren't a lot of aro/ace characters who are women, and there certainly aren't a lot who are POC. The choice to make her both of those things is, in my opinion, pretty meaningful on it's own.
This game is, of course, not as long or as versatile as, say, a show, so we're not going to get several episodes of Mirabelle POV focus, going all the way in depth into her experiences and struggles. The game is Siffrin POV, and Siffrin is struggling, so there's only so much of her experience we can truly explore. But guess what. We still get more exploration into her experience than most shows give their aro/ace characters.
Mirabelle's friendquest is, of course, the center of the aro/ace part of her narrative. The conversation between her and Siffrin is an incredibly meaningful exploration of Mirabelle's feelings towards romance, and as it progresses, she talks about her faith and how it brings her such conflicting and complicated feelings, not just in reference to her lack of attraction but her identity as a whole. I really love Mirabelle's story in general, she like all the other isat characters is complex and nuanced and multifaceted and all of the time we spend with her is undeniably great. The way her aroaceness and her experiences with it is woven so carefully, making it an important part of her but not the only part of her, making it feel like an identity not just for rep but personal to her that she has Feelings About, making her struggles feel real and human, all feels so intentional and has such care put into it, it's lovely <3.
The way she talks about it feels very integrated into her world, too! A world where maybe they don't have proper terms for these things yet, or at least not ones that the main characters know about, and so they have to get all messy and wild and wade into their feelings to try and describe them. No therapyspeak!! Not only is this rep thoughtful and personal, but also integrated into the world just like the rest of the queer rep is. For a community that often gets let down even in places with good rep for other orientations, this feels... really, really nice. Especially to have her queer story be one of the central ones in the game, it's clear we're genuinely cared about here.
We've lived for too long with the notion that aro/ace people need to be fixed. That there's something wrong with us, that a life without romance and/or sex is a life without living. One of the things I enjoy most about Mirabelle's narrative is how seamlessly it turns this on its head, how even though Change is so important to her, her story is not about needing to change these things about herself, it's about breaking out of that idea. The intersection between her orientation and her faith adds an extra layer to her identity, and... augrgh, it's all just so good!! I love the conclusion she comes to, that she is not broken and that she doesn't necessarily need to change, but perhaps the faith needs to change for her. I love the journey she goes on, I love the fact that she wants to go on this journey for herself and not be spoiled about it, I love the fact that her god themself validates her.
Mirabelle certainly struggles with her attraction or lackthereof, but at no point is she treated as lesser by the narrative for having it. It's implied that she's faced a whole lot of amatonormativity in her life to make this such a thing she is so guarded and hesitant about, but the narrative treats her like there is nothing wrong with her, because there isn't. Her story is one of accepting herself, about accepting that not everything about her is something she needs to change, and that this doesn't mean she's broken or unlovable or anything. Her main narrative is one where Siffrin connects to and validates her, and any references to her being forced to change--to endure romance, to have sex, to do the things she "should" be able to want to do--are treated in a negative light. To me, this is really refreshing. Often aro/ace characters and aro/ace people are treated like they need to be fixed, and sometimes in fiction they actually are fixed, which is something that I absolutely resent.
And also, of course, I love how it's a consistent thing throughout the story. NOT just something said once for the sole sake of it being rep and then never brought up again, never or barely to influence things and not explored or given any meaning or significance. Her narrative is given as much room to breathe as all the other queer narratives in the story, and treated with as much respect by the larger narrative and the characters as the others, and it does this while still not downplaying her struggles with it and making an actually interesting story.
This is an incredibly aroacespec positive story and I am SO here for it.
I resonate with Mirabelle a whole, whole lot. The way I write these long, essayish posts is I have a first draft where I plot down all my thoughts in bullet points and little incoherent rants, and then I try my best to put it all into a finished product in a separate post. In one of those bullet points in my first draft, I got super duper passionate about this point in particular, one place where I resonate with her story immensely, and the way she talks about and views her aroaceness. And I still stand by that long ass paragraph, so no matter how messy it is, I am still gonna put it in.
One thing I love in particular about Mirabelle's flavor of aro/ace story is how well it makes clear that both: being aro/ace is not a choice, and, not every aro/ace person is always yearning to be able to feel the things that āeveryone else can feelā or needing to be āenlightenedā or āfind the right personā. Not every aro/ace person is hopelessly lonely and wishing they had loveānot every aro/ace person, arguably not most, are to be pitied or seen as āpoor unfortunate romance-less soulsā or āsomething to be fixedā or āsomething to prove wrongāāand some done want love. And that that does not mean they donāt want connection, but Mirabelles narrative feels like breathing in and suddenly choking on all the amatonormativity out there because itās so hard to notice, but why is there so much of it!? Andā¦ what really is wrong with not wanting romance? Sex? Why does it have to be āthis wasnāt my choiceā for people to respect it? Mirabelle gives us a narrative where being aro/ace is not a choice, because itās not, and also not a bad thing!!! Not a horrible life-hindering thing!!!! Yes, it's something that gives her difficulties in interacting with her faith and with society!! But her struggles with it are not due to a supposed inherent lack of ability to feel connection or empathy or emotion, they are not due to not having something wonderful and magical that eeeveryone else has (although aro/ace stories where a character wrestles with not being able to feel romantic or sexual attraction but wanting to are also perfectly valid!!), it's about people's expectations of her and how she feels like she needs to change to conform!!! Not how being aro/ace is something that will leave someone lonely and unfulfilled all their life!!!!! It's not a strange alien disease!!!!!! IT'S NOT SOMETHING INHUMAN!!!!!!!!! And she struggles with it and she has worries and doubts but itās NOT PRESENTED IN A WAY THATāS PROMOTING OR PERPETUATING THE IDEA THAT ARO/ACE PEOPLE ARE MISERABLE AND INHUMAN AND CONNECTIONLESS AND THAT IS WHATāS GOOD ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!! She doesnāt feel romantic or sexual attraction, and she also doesnāt want romance or sexāmaybe as a product of that, or maybe notāand either way that is okay!!!!!!! [insert heavy breathing here] That is all. Thatās all I wanted to say.
And that right there is the (one of) thesis(es) ladies and gentlemen. That's some good aro/ace rep.
Some more extra points for it that I just think are awesome details, which are also some more of my bullet points from draft 1:
the game respects her wishes as a character and does not sexualize or romanticize her
AAH! AAAH!! SHE LIKES ROMANCE NOVELS!!! WE'RE PORTRAYING AN ARO/ACE CHARACTER WHO CAN STILL LIKE READING ABOUT ROMANCE OR INTERACTING WITH IT!!!! BECAUSE ARO/ACE PEOPLE ARE NOT IGNORANT TO THE CONCEPT OF ROMANCE OR INNOCENT SOULS WITH NO REASON TO WANT TO INTERACT WITH THINGS LIKE THAT!!!! MANY REAL ARO/ACE PEOPLE READ ROMANCE AND ENJOY IT!!!!! I DO!! I HAVE NO INTEREST IN REAL LIFE ROMANCE BUT READING ABOUT IT CAN BE FUN!!! SHE'S SUCH GOOD REP MY CHAAAATTTT!!!!!! Id5 really did go above and beyond with this one the more I think about it lmao id5 are you aro/ace??? ...I just like how much nuance her queerness is given my chat. Aro/ace characters almost never get this amount of attention or love or care put into them. It's so gooddd <3333
Also I kind of like that her struggle focuses mostly on aromanticicity?? Like she's definitely undeniably both, but that feels nice when most of the other representation we have focuses mostly on asexuality. (Next I want to see a narrative about a character who is aro but not ace! Please... give us all the rep please we desperately need more)
Also this is more of a fandom thing, but I often find myself appreciating how much this fandom also respects her. Obviously no fandom is perfect and not everyone does, but I find that the isat fandom respects its characters asexuality and especially mirabelle's aroaceness a lot more than soooooome fandoms I could naaaamee... but I won't... because that would be rude... and this is a positivity post. U. U Still I've read some of the best queerplatonic and platonic platonic fics I've ever seen in this fandom, it's awesome how much we embrace it!
this is a bit of a strange one. It's a sentiment I've seen expressed in conversations about aro/ace rep as an easy way to solve the stereotype issue, but I kinda just like it in general too. This is that she is not the only ace character in this story. Not just one and done for rep!! Actually awesome cool rep with multiple of us!!! Fun!!!
the way she talks about sex and romance separates them very subtly, in a way that makes them still related but not necessarily intertwined, and I like that little detail, for one because, well, they're not necessarily intertwined. And, especially not (again, necessarily, I just find aro/ace people have an easier time separating the concepts and tend to incline towards it more, but we are not a monolith and I don't speak for everyone) for aro/ace people, I've found. Also because it is a wonderful narrative segway into Sif's ace but potentially not aro experiences. it makes room for both of them who experience these identities differently, and I think that's wonderful!
Also I must give an honorable mention to sif who is also ace, and ALSO not a stereotype! Sometimes stories do a thing where they have one aro/ace character who isn't stereotypical and then one who SUPER is, and that's perfectly cool with some aro/acespec people, but I... don't really dig it, idk, I just judge it on if they've done the rep well lol. But none of the ace characters in isat are stereotypical so!! Yippie!!! (Alright, one could argue he's a bit of a lone wolf and very emotionally unavailable, but those attributes are: 1. already not portrayed in the typical way an aro/ace character with those attributes would be, 2. flaws that everyone in the party agrees he needs to work through including siffrin himself and also poor sif would literally rather die than go back to being a lone wolf again!! don't make him!!! 3. his entire. character. arc. is about wanting connection. And not learning to want connection. wanting connection FROM THE START and not knowing how to properly express that which leads to them inadvertently trapping their friends in time. You CANNOT call that an ace stereotype. It's GOOD. I'm a little sad we didn't get more exploration into Sif's experience with asexuality in the game, but it was a nonzero amount (which is more than most characters get!) and let's be honest okay they had much bigger problems, especially considering they didn't have much religious or otherwise pressure to especially care about these things in the first place. Their asexuality not being explored is more of a character thing imo, which is perfectly valid and lemme just say, on brand for them)
Here's one final note that I think ties it all together for me.
As this is in fact a game and not a show or movie or another form of media, there were almost certainly a myriad of ways to integrate her representation. A game can go in a million different ways, especially one like isat with so many choices and side quests and storylines oh my!
And so one choice that I really, really like--one that feels intentional and and... really caring, is that her quest is not optional. And I like that, because it means it isn't hidden, and it means that it can't be sidestepped. It isn't shoved into a corner for people who "disagree" or find discomfort in it to ignore. You can't complete the game without doing it, doing the friendquests is a requirement for completing act 3--and I think there's something to be said that this is her friendquest, and not one of her sidequests. It could have been, but it's not. Itās not missable. It is treated like a human struggle, treated like any of the other friendquests, but it is not sidelined and it is not kept out of the way or secret or anything. It's not hinting or coding, it is there, and through that and it is recognized and it is normalized. The game tells you that Mira is here, and this is part of her internal struggle, and it is not something "political" that can be hidden or taken back when it's unsavory, and it is not something the game (and by proxy, its creator) is ashamed of. The game enforcing this as a necessary point to its completion is both functional and symbolic. There is no Mira without this, and without Mira, there is, quite literally, no game.
(^me wishing I could leave comments on parts of a post like fuckin google docs... but...
"No, I couldn't have done it without everyone else--"
And that, right there, is the thesis ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for reading this, it was a delight to put together (if a little stressful to finish so close to the wire), and I hope my fellow aro/aces out there resonated with at least some of my points! I love Mirabelle and I love the representation she brings us and I hope you do too!! Or if you don't, feel free to tell me why I'm totally wrong about all this lmao.
Have a good night, day, or whenever, and HAPPY PRIDE!!!!!!!! ššāØ
(Also do u like the symbolism of her housmaiden armlet thingies being the flag?? bc I do... I do... At first I liked the idea of her showing her pride in her earrings bc of that whole thing y'know?? But in the end I think she'd be more inclined to throwing them away as an act of protest and/or pride than reclaiming them, so I went with different symbolism instead!)
