as the #1 henry chang fan (and bc your metas and interpretations are always very interesting and i liked your last post about adam's bisexuality) i was wondering what your thoughts are on henry saying he's "henrysexual anyway"/ his sexuality and how that fits in the sarchengsey dyanamic?
Hi! You're so sweet! (I genuinely love being asked questions, it gets me out of my head and I get to go through and analyze these books again. And this is especially fun because I've done Henry-focused annotation read throughs and now I get to take advantage of that mwahaha.) I'm so flattered about being called no. 1 henry cheng fan but I don't know if I can claim that title, when he is to my heart trc fandom's prince and should be treated as such. (But thank you dearly, because I do adore Henry Cheng, ty ty ty).
So when it comes to Henry in particular there are a few interpretations I like to take because I don't know how intentionally aroace coded or not he is? "Henrysexual" can be taken a few ways. He could be, legitimately aroace. He could be joking. He could be talking about Cheng 2. The world is his oyster and we're all sitting here with a knife trying to crack it open and he's going, "haha no, sorry, you only get me dominating the narrative for this one book. let me point and laugh. hahahaha. sucker." Cruel, isn't he?
Unlike, say, Adam being bisexual or Ronan being gay, I personally separate Henry into two categories: my fandom wants, and what I interpret through the text. Because you could read Henry's focus and want for "something more" and his dynamic with Sarchengsey as queerplatonic and aroace coding (which is actually how i interpret it), but the difference is I don't know whether it's intentional or not. It's little more dubious. We're not in Henry's head for very long. I think the area muddles. I could put this into two categories: evidence Henry Cheng is aroace and evidence Henry Cheng is not. But based on the apparenty discomfort of reading sarchengsey as romantic and the line "henrysexual" and his focus on finding a friendship which is "something more", I do think Henry is aromantic in a way the others are not written to be?
His friendship has a different measure to it than the others do with one another. Language is so particular, and where Blue is in love with all these Raven Boys, she loves them dearly, and it melds into her love for Gansey without altering or placing it on a pedestal, Henry doesn't entirely have a romantic attraction to lift this beyond. The only implication of a romantic interest on any end is Henry saying a half-cracked line about "getting his number" and Blue's fixation on how attractive Henry is in TRK. Which is not reciprocated in text as Henry dismisses and actively asserts he is not attracted to her. (And Henry is honest, at least as far as he promises Gansey, and is one of the few characters I see actively asserting a throughline of telling the reader and other characters how he feels. He's explciitly honest in a way many other characters aren't, so I do take everything he says with the value it's given.
I focus on the something more, and Henry feeling a bit lost and isolated. The friendships he is presented with are not fulfilling this need for something with more depth, more intent. There's a need for something more, and it's never given a precise name, but he finds that in Gansey and in Blue. And what I find most interesting about this is how, in contrast to other forms of explicitly sexual and romantic desire in trc, this isn't defined as a hunger. Which tells me the desire felt here is different but no less intense than that felt by his peers. I'd even say that in terms of intensity, he matches Blue with intent (who desires both friendship and romantic love, but friendship first and foremost, so this correlation of wanting a platonic yet intimate connection holds them together) and Adam in intensity. If I sit down and chart out characters who crave connection, Blue and Adam and Henry hit the top of my list. But Adam's craving for connection is a hunger, it's a sexual and romantic desire. Blue wants both platonic intimacy and a romantic connection bulit off this as well as the friendship with the boys. And Henry? Henry wants something more.
Sarchengsey, put simply, reads quite a bit like Gansey and Blue are in a romantic relationship and Henry is their queerplatonic third, if we're just working off the text of the book. Whether this was intentional or not, I can't verify. QPR define themselves on a deeper intimate bonding and life planning together, though obviously setting this in a binary contradicts the queering of relationships in TRC. And we see sarchengsey building a life around one another on a foundation of platonic intimacy (even in regards to bluesey, which begins as a friendship and why Blue feels so connected and drawn to Gansey over Adam.) and Henry's involvement is never made romantic. In fact, there are strong intentions from the narrative asserting this is not intended to be romantic, and I do choose to believe this element of Henry is written by mstief to prevent readers from taking this dynamic as a romantic one.
whether this is because she reads henry as aromantic or not, i don't know. the details are muddled because queerplatonic relationships and aromanticism exists outside a measurable and definable binary. which is beautiful in its own sense, but makes for a nightmare when analyzing the queercoding of henry cheng. personally, i apply my dynamic with being the queerplatonic third in about three relationships at this point: and i can put this onto henry however i want, actually.
But, my point with Henry is that I see him slot into a queerplatonic relationship with sarchengsey, and canon evidence has me headcanon Henry as aromantic, with strong textual evidence to back this. I feel confident saying he is aromantic, just based on how mstief writes sexuality. It feels very stiefvaterism of her to imply this character is aromantic, and explains why perhaps she's uncomfortable with romantic readings of sarchengsey.
Except, I ship sarchengsey. In every sense of the word. I'm not picky, and I will gladly read romantic or sexual interpretations of sarchengsey, because it's fiction and I'm adept at differenting between the two. was that snarky? sorry. that was not aimed at you, anon. But I like to occupy a certain fluidity to interpretations of some characters sexualities (with Henry, with Jordan and even Hennessy who is sapphic but never specified as a lesbian or as bisexual, and i've heard arguments either way) as well as gender identity. It's why I can read any trc as trans or cisgender or somewhere winding between these two rather suffocating binary lines. It's why Henry coexists as both aromantic and also as in a romantic relationship with bluesey. I think it'd be different if I knew whether aromantic readings are modern interpretations or not, because a modern 2020 lens shines a different light on the matter, and trc fandom has changed since i joined in 2016. but i chose to believe Henry is written as aromantic and queerplatonic with bluesey and this beautiful post and art by @cimtee really encapsulates that point (btw this is my favourite art of sarchengsey of all time pls give this work and other fanarts of theirs some love.
but if i'm being silly haha. my actual dream for sarchengsey is bluesey keep traveling and henry keeps traveling and they meet up every few months to spend time together. and maybe they settle down in portland and become the worst fucking poly couple known to anyone in that fuckass city. (lighthearted). this is how i reconcile the canon of bluesey going to college and henry not being there. baby, he can't, he's got a mafia gig and a modeling career to fall on. they're meeting up in florida to tear up the town and then they won't talk for another three months. but truly, sarcheng and chengsey and sarchengsey are tremendously dear to me for what they say on the depth of genuine and intimate love, platonic or otherwise, and i don't speak on them nearly enough, but i hope this answers the question <333
(yes i do interpret blue seeing henry's sweater on gansey as a sign that henry is also their soulmate. xoxoxoxo okay bye love you <3)
