# Films or books with asexual main characters



## EccentricSiren (Sep 3, 2013)

I woke up kind of wondering about this. There are films and books that portray gay and lesbian characters (even though having a strong gay or lesbian character seems to be a relatively new thing) and some of them have won awards and become fairly well-known.
I'm curious if there are any films, TV shows, or books with asexual or demisexual characters, and if so, how are they portrayed? Is their sexual orientation a central part of the story or does it just get a mention here and there? Are the characters portrayed as having a problem that needs to be fixed, or is their sexual orientation shown as being just another part of who they are, or is it portrayed in some other, completely different way?


----------



## Shahada (Apr 26, 2010)

The Last Temptation of Christ...er, nevermind.


----------



## Pressed Flowers (Oct 8, 2014)

Divergent's Tris seemed kind of asexual to me. I mean, she was scared of sex... but she obviously overcame that by at least the third book...

To be completely honest, as an asexual person I just look to unmarried individuals in children's shows and such. Minnie and Mickey are symbolically my favorite couple because they never even get married, and naturally the purity and purity of their relationship implies sexual purity as well. It's not much, but it's something for me. 

Nevertheless, it would be cool to read a book where the protagonists were intended to be interpreted as asexual.


----------



## Cheveyo (Nov 19, 2010)

Any children's movie.


Before the fandoms get their sticky claws on them.


----------



## EccentricSiren (Sep 3, 2013)

In children's movies, it's more that the sexual element is taken out of the story, not that the characters do not experience sexual attraction. Characters is children's movies are still shown being attracted to other characters, marrying them, and sometimes having children with them.


----------



## Cosmic Hobo (Feb 7, 2013)

I can think of a lot of books in which sex is irrelevant to the main character; they're not asexual, just not apparently interested.

Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown are both celibate. In Holmes's case, because he chooses the intellect over passion:


> All emotions, and that one particularly [love], were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer -- excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.


----------



## Fern (Sep 2, 2012)

Light Yagami - _Death Note_

Severus Snape - _Harry Potter_

Sherlock Holmes - you know what the fuck this is from 

Possibly Dexter. Yes, he engages in intercourse but it doesn't seem to be out of any actual drive. But who knows.


----------



## Fern (Sep 2, 2012)

EccentricSiren said:


> In children's movies, it's more that the sexual element is taken out of the story, not that the characters do not experience sexual attraction. Characters is children's movies are still shown being attracted to other characters, marrying them, and sometimes having children with them.


Seriously, do you see the way Prince Eric and the Beast and Tarzan etc. look at their respective lovers?

They wanted to bone.


----------



## Khalaris (Sep 9, 2012)

According to the author, the main protagonist in The Storytellers: Anterria is asexual. I haven't read it yet, so I can't tell you if it's any good, but at least it's a canonical ace for once.


----------



## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

You know what?? Both Hercule Poirot AND Miss Marple seem asexual. As adult as Christie's books are, as complex as some of them are in their vagaries of every day human evil, neither of her characters show a real sexual attraction. In Marples case it may be due to age, but Poirot is only middle aged and doesn't show a marked preference for anyone, even his demonstrations towards women seem to be romantic old world continental manners, there's never a hint of real appetite to him sexually, nor is their a lover or a partner.


----------



## pivot_turn (Dec 10, 2014)

Thalassa said:


> You know what?? Both Hercule Poirot AND Miss Marple seem asexual. As adult as Christie's books are, as complex as some of them are in their vagaries of every day human evil, neither of her characters show a real sexual attraction. In Marples case it may be due to age, but Poirot is only middle aged and doesn't show a marked preference for anyone, even his demonstrations towards women seem to be romantic old world continental manners, there's never a hint of real appetite to him sexually, nor is their a lover or a partner.


Not really contributing much to the asexuality question here, but I had to comment on Poirot's age. He is definitely not middle aged. David Suchet, who portrays him in the TV series might be, for most of the time, but Poirot was definitely older. He's a retired police officer in the first book, and with the years that are mentioned in the books he apparently ended up well over 100 by his last book. :laughing: I think Christie admitted herself that she made a mistake there. I also think he had a thing for Vera Rossakoff at least.


----------



## Ninjaws (Jul 10, 2014)

Fern said:


> Sherlock Holmes - you know what the fuck this is from


Star Trek, right?


----------



## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

pivot_turn said:


> Not really contributing much to the asexuality question here, but I had to comment on Poirot's age. He is definitely not middle aged. David Suchet, who portrays him in the TV series might be, for most of the time, but Poirot was definitely older. He's a retired police officer in the first book, and with the years that are mentioned in the books he apparently ended up well over 100 by his last book. :laughing: I think Christie admitted herself that she made a mistake there. I also think he had a thing for Vera Rossakoff at least.


I researched it, and David Suchet said that he thought Poirot was asexual. 

I have read most of the Poirot novels, and he still seems younger in the books than Marple, who is a spinster and a senior citizen by all accounts. Christie wrote the Poirot novels for nearly forty years. He was middle aged in some of them, I would think, he was much more active and spry than Marple, there was no early indication of him being elderly, but an older gentleman, I kind of thought of him between maybe 45-65, and apparently I'm not the only one, since he is always middle aged in tv version, not just the Suchet interpretation, while Marple always looks 70+.

Also you can retire from the police force or miltary without being "old." My grandfather was retired from the military in his forties, and had a whole other career.


----------



## Pressed Flowers (Oct 8, 2014)

SpongeBob is officially asexual  and I think someone said Sherlock is supposedly asexual as well.


----------



## Mair (Feb 17, 2014)

I don't know if you guys watch anime , there are A LOT of main characters that seem asexual .


----------



## Pressed Flowers (Oct 8, 2014)

Mair said:


> I don't know if you guys watch anime , there are A LOT of main characters that seem asexual .


*whispers* Tohru Honda and that wonderful Armin kid


----------



## Fern (Sep 2, 2012)

Ninjaws said:


> Star Trek, right?


Yiss.


----------



## Hollow Man (Aug 12, 2011)

There's a guy in _the_ _Year of the Dog_ movie that officially claims to be asexual and not interested in a romantic relationship. The female lead in the movie wants to have a relationship with him, and it's interesting the way the movie shows his orientation (or lack of one) eventually. SPOILER! Whoops.


----------



## SilverFalcon (Dec 18, 2014)

Mair said:


> I don't know if you guys watch anime , there are A LOT of main characters that seem asexual .


Some of those and also fairytales are rather about romantic attraction. But since anime usually dwells deeper into the relationship, it's maybe even more aparent.

For example FULL METAL PANIC - Sagara Sousuke is prime example of demiromantic a?/demi?-sexual. I really enjoyed the psychological part in Second Raid - so easy to relate to.
On the other hand Great Teacher Onizuka is totally fullfledged heterosexual, who is not shy about it.


----------



## Ermenegildo (Feb 25, 2014)

EccentricSiren said:


> There are films and books that portray gay and lesbian characters (even though having a strong gay or lesbian character seems to be a relatively new thing) and some of them have won awards and become fairly well-known.





> *James Rawson: Why are gay characters at the top of Hollywood's kill list? *
> 
> … But in other ways, _Behind the Candelabra_ very much represents the perpetuation of the status quo. It is, like Milk, The Hours, Brokeback Mountain, Black Swan, A Single Man, Monster etc, etc, a film about an lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender character who suffers and dies. It is a film that reminds viewers that any deviancy from heterosexuality will ultimately result in death by suicide, murder or Aids.
> 
> ...





Cosmic Hobo said:


> I can think of a lot of books in which sex is irrelevant to the main character; they're not asexual, just not apparently interested.
> 
> Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown are both celibate. In Holmes's case, because he chooses the intellect over passion:


*Decoding the Subtext: Being an examination of the homoerotic subtext contained within the Sherlock Holmes Canon 

HTML: With Love, S.H. 
PDF (399 pp.): http://www.nekosmuse.com/sherlockholmes/decodingthesubtext.pdf*

Asexuality in fiction - AVENwiki


----------



## Ausserirdische (May 2, 2015)

I don't see the point in making the main character's sexuality a revelant trait of him/her. Same goes with race, nationality, or anything like that.


----------



## SilverFalcon (Dec 18, 2014)

Paranoid Android said:


> I don't see the point in making the main character's sexuality a revelant trait of him/her. Same goes with race, nationality, or anything like that.


That depends on story. If it has racial theme, race become important. Django unchained wouldn't make sense with caucasion main character. Nationality certainly matters in All Quiet on the Western Front.
Some stories would not work with asexual main character or would turn into something entirely different - Don Juan for example.


----------



## Tetsuo Shima (Nov 24, 2014)

Some people say The Doctor from Doctor Who is asexual.

I also can't exactly imagine Richard from Looking For Group loving anybody, although Cale is technically the main character.


----------



## Metalize (Dec 18, 2014)

Fantasy (and as usual, I recommend the books, not the films):

The characters in *Harry Potter* weren't asexual, but there's no emphasis (or even mention, I think) of it in the books given that it's not anyone's priority, which is just as well.

The *Bartimaeus *trilogy was a good read, rather complex characters for a more mature audience, and no mention of sex. I don't think anyone even has a relationship.

*His Dark Materials* trilogy was another good one that had very little mention of sex due to the main character being barely adolescent. There was some hinting of attraction in the last one, but no smut scenes.

Gahh. I _know_ there've got to be sci-fi and other genres with this, but I'm not recalling any at the moment. Regardless, there are definitely a lot of other books where, even the characters aren't _strictly_ asexual, there's little mention or emphasis on relationships. Oh. *Ender's Game*, since the main char is a kid.

One of the reasons I really liked anime as opposed to other mediums is because, contrary to Japan's reputation for sexual deviance, so many of the "mature" (as in, complex, multilayered, not superficial) series actually have little or no sex or relationships.


----------

