Aromantic Character Headcanons

[aro_elise]

i found a good one today, lads.  so i'd read rick riordan's 'heroes of olympus' series and thought it would be awesome if there were an aro child of aphrodite but i hadn't considered piper, 'cause, you know, jason.  then they show up in 'the trials of apollo' series ('the burning maze' spoilers ahead) and they've broken up and these lines of dialogue had me like ?:

 

piper: jason's great.  he's my closest friend, even more than annabeth.  but whatever i thought was there, my happily-ever-after...it just wasn't.

apollo: your relationship was born in crisis.  such romances are difficult to sustain once the crisis is over.

piper: it wasn't just that.

apollo: *anecdote about an ex*

piper: it was me.

apollo: what do you mean it was you?  you mean you realized you didn't love jason?  that's no one's fault.

narration: she grimaced, as if i (apollo) still hadn't grasped what she meant...or perhaps she wan't sure herself.

piper: i know it's nobody's fault.  i do love him.  but...like i told you, hera forced us together--the marriage goddess, arranging a happy couple.  my memories of starting to date jason, our first few months together, were a total illusion.  then, as soon as i found that out, before i could even process what it meant, aphrodite claimed me.  my mom, the goddess of love.  aphrodite pushed me into thinking i was...that i needed to...look at me, the great charmspeaker (she has the power to bend people to her will with her words).  i don't even have words.  aphrodite expects her daughters to wrap men around our little fingers, break their hearts, et cetera.

apollo: yes.  your mother has definite ideas about how romance should be.

piper: so if you take that away, the goddess of marriage pushing me to settle down with a nice boy, the goddess of love pushing me to be the perfect romantic lady or whatever--

apollo: you're wondering who you are without all that pressure.

 

ohhh man.  it's perfect.  and rick's sooo great with representation that...i mean, not getting my hopes up, but how awesome would a canon aro piper be?  anyway, that's one of my favourite headcanons of all time.

 

[MsDolly]

Might be showing my age a bit now, but growing up the only Disney film I could stomach was Mary Poppins. Never any romantic interest from her side.

[eatingcroutons]

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Edited September 1, 2021 by eatingcroutons

[snapesonalane]

I'm glad everyone agrees that Rey is aro/ace. Everyone always ships her either with Finn (whom I adore, got nothing against my fav boi) or Kylo and to me it just always felt... Odd. Like people were seeing someone they wanted to see and not what was really there. Rey just has this very platonic energy with everyone. It just feels platonic. It feels how I feel when meeting new people who others would see potential romantic interest in. So yeah, you can pry aro/ace Rey from my cold, representation-craving hands. 

 

Also Scott McCall from Teen Wolf nowadays gives me this feeling. When I initially watched the show he had a very emotional/burning with passion relationship but once that love interest was killed off every other relationship he had felt very platonic even though he had 2 other love interests. I headcanon him as demiromantic. 

[F1shCake]

All Time Lords, also Rey, Katniss, 

[Skittles87]

This is without a doubt my fave thread on Arocalypse.

 

Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems aro as hell to me, especially in Season 4. My reasoning (which is long-winded and complicated):-

 

1) When she wakes up from her coma, she's pissed at Buffy because in her eyes, Buffy screwed everything up for a guy (Angel) and now she's not even with him, but is dating some other guy (Riley). This is so relateable! It's annoying and difficult to understand when people sacrifice friendships and other important things for a romantic relationship, then break up with that person, then fall in love with someone else five minutes later.

 

2) When she has sex with Riley (in Buffy's body - it's complicated) she seems to be enjoying herself until Riley gets romantic, at which point she gets irritated and unsure. Afterwards, Riley says "I love you" and she freaks out and pushes him off her. Maybe this is supposed to be her thinking "Oh my gosh, perhaps I could be worthy of love and that's scary because I'm emotionally damaged!" but to me, it looks like that magical combination of romance repulsion and guilt because she's "using" him for sex.

 

3) More generally speaking, she just doesn't seem interested in romantic relationships. She kicks Xander out after sleeping with him, and there's this great scene where she's dancing with a bunch of guys and Buffy drags her away. She says "Call me!" but points at all of the guys instead of one of them, haha!

[felinelicks]

Kaito momota from danganronpa v3! I know the game wants me to ship him with maki but fuck that lol even when she confessed to him he didn't say one way or the other about if he feels the same. That romantic subplot was so annoying. They had a perfectly good friendship, it didn't need to change! He didn't seem in love with her to me. Kaito and shuichi are my otp, but in more of a QPP kinda way, maybe with some one-sided romance on shuichi's side.

[Confirmed Bachelor]

Endeavour Morse from the series Endeavour. 

[snapesonalane]

Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Yes! I second this! She likes sex and flirting but whenever a character gets romantically emotionally intimate she seems uncomfortable. Of course, the narrative seems to imply it's because of emotional intimacy issues, but she doesn't seem to have those problems with platonic relationships such as her friendship with angel whenever she appears in angel the series. Also, isn't it just more fun to think of her as aro instead? 

[Naegleria fowleri]

I know she's only nine but please consider Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers as aro-spec.

 

"Rudy like likes me, sick!"

 

"Why would Rudy do something like this? What kind of idiot like likes someone?"

 

Tina: Wait, Rudy likes you?

Louise: Yeah, unfortunately.

Tina: Oh. Don't you like Rudy?

Louise: No, not like that! We have a good thing going the way it is. We're buddies. (Sigh) There's gotta be a way I can stop this.

 

"Look, no, I get it. We live in a commercial culture. Love is in the movies, it's in all the songs, but we don't have to be pawns in the game."

 

[Naegleria fowleri]

Lol so I guess my attempt at attaching images to this site was a bust (they looked like pictures before I hit submit), but anyway they're all just pictures of Louise saying stuff on the episode "Bob Actually". The quotes struck a chord with me, and I'm glad that even though she kisses him at the end (it turned out Rudy like liked someone else who stood him up, and she felt bad for him), the kiss is not all that romantic, and she proceeds to slap him and tells him never to tell anyone what just happened. Classic Louise.

[Silyun]

@Skittles87 Oh my gosh, I LOVE the idea of Faith as aro ! She was my favorite character of the show, I wish she was the MC ><

 

I don't know if anyone has already said it but I see Arya Stark as aro. She doesn't want to get married and she's not interested at all in romance.

[AroAce_Fangirl]

Black Widow for sure. I totally agree about Rey too. I’ve always thought of Castiel from Supernatural as demi-romantic ace. And I’m already warming to the idea of aro!Dean in a qpr with Cas. Also Sam being greyromantic poly/pansexual. I mean we’ve never seen him really fall in love with more than about 5 peole in 13 years. Sorry I have all the hcs. I feel like Hermione might be aro ace, I mean I love Ron but their relationship felt a little forced on her side maybe more platonic. Plus besides Ron I don’t think she was ever “in love”. Melinda May from AoS feels very demi-romantic to me. Gabriel from Supernatural seems aro pan. I just want all the representation.

[WaterPhoenix]

I have a lot of aroace headcanons but one I haven't seen anyone else have is Howl from Howl's Moving Castle (the book as I've never seen the film).

In the book he has relationships with lots of women but says he cannot love any of them (and believes he is broken) so I read him as a aromantic hetrosexual.

Spoiler alert:

He thinks it is because he literally has no heart but he seems to still love his family so...

At the end he apparently has romantic attraction to Sophie so maybe demiromantic. Though there relationship isn't unambigously romantic so I'd like to think that they were in a platonic partnership. I'd also headcanoned Sophie as ace and maybe aro/arospec so I was disappointed by the sequal (they are married and have a child). The book ended up amatonormative when it had been about friendship and family relationships primarily.

[David Box]

Todd from Bojack Horseman as aroace, Keith from Voltron as aro, and Kusuo Saiki is canonically aro up until the latter half of season 2 ( ?, it does not make sense for his character AT ALL )

 

EDIT: Todd because of his coming out scene where he said love isn't for him and his friend noted how much he loves his friends, Keith because I see 0 romance for him at all and I can't imagine him with anyone at all, and Kusuo Saiki because he can read minds but can't understand romance. Faked being romantically interested in someone by giving a thumbs up. 

 

Edit 2: Micheal from Be More Chill. Reasoning: the song Michael in the bathroom is entirely platonic and he has no love interest at all in the story. Also I like him and I'm aro lol

[Neir]

I was replaying DmC: Devil May Cry recently and I had some Ideas.

 

Dante as an aro allo would make so much sense. I often see people shipping him and Kat, which I find annoying at romantic and sexual levels, but I also see them as potentially a QPR? In fact, a lot of their interactions are how I picture a QPR to unfold. It's now canon in my head. Furthermore, I headcanon Dante in pretty much all the other DMC games (that I've played) as aro.

 

Vergil as aro ace (or demi). I just get the Aro Vibe from him. He doesn't seem interested in pursuing any relationships beyond familial and platonic (and alliances). I reckon he'd want a lot more commitment and development with a person, getting to know them, before pursuing a relationship. I'm not sure if that would also mean attraction - I'm kind of ambivalent between completely aro and demi on this one, regardless of what I think his actions and behaviours might be.

[gravityspiker]

-dusts off my hands, cracks my knuckles- 

 

first off, to address headcanons from others that I saw here. 

 

I want to say that aroace John Sheppard is really, really good. I've seen him that way since I started the show, and I think I might have some scattered writings about his orientation somewhere in the depths of my google docs. Chloe Armstrong from SGU is aroflux in my head, and Lisa Park is aromantic, and Young is probably arospec of some kind as well.

 

Star Trek -- Kirk/Spock squicks me out so much, probably because I saw myself in Spock before I even knew aromanticism was a thing (hell, before I knew there were options besides "cis & het"). His relationship with Uhura was one of the (many) issues I had with the reboot films, and I will not go into details since they're not relevant to this thread (but ask if you want I suppose?). I also viewed Odo as aroace; his relationship with Kira was probably closer to a QPP in my eyes. Data I didn't necessarily read as aro so much as that he was convinced that he was incapable of romantic feelings and therefore dismissed anything along those lines as impossible. For Seven, I know a lot of people ship her with Janeway, but I think Seven is aro(spec) due to the circumstances of her upbringing and / or her new place on Voyager. Also, aroace Picard!

 

Star Wars wise, I could definitely see aro Luke, though my heart is kind of set on gay Luke. I agree that Rey comes off as aro as well. I don't think the Jedi Order is made up of aromantics in general, though; it's always seemed more of a deliberate bottling-up-and-ignoring-emotions type of thing (though I'm aware that I have some personal biases in that department since I really, really hate Yoda and the whole Jedi culture).

 

Also I forgot who brought it up, but Babylon 5! I hadn't considered aro Vir before, and I'm glad I came across this thread now so that I can in fact headcanon him that way. I also read Sinclair as aromantic, though that might be wishful thinking or projection.

 

I have some Discworld thoughts too but this is getting long so I'll refrain.

 

now for media that hasn't been mentioned:

 

Rob Hogan from Hogan's Heroes always struck me as quoiro. He's depicted as very much a ladies' man in the show, and he's always always always touching the other Heroes, and I just think he's got a whole mess of confusion about how you can have romance without sex or sex without romance. Hawkeye Pierce from the M*A*S*H tv show also read aro to me in a similar way to Hogan. Agent Maine and Agent Florida and possibly Sarge from Red vs Blue are all aromantic in my head as well. From Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Mr Norrell and John Childermass are also pretty aro(spec) to me.

 

...Sorry this got very much longer than I intended. I have more Thoughts on most of these so please hit me up if you want to talk about them.

 

[NullVector]

23 minutes ago, gravityspiker said:

since I really, really hate Yoda and the whole Jedi culture

Can you elaborate? What is it that you hate about it?

[gravityspiker]

@NullVector I do want to make it clear that I don't hate (or even dislike) most Jedi on an individual level. What I take issue with is the unwillingness to change, the hypocrisy, and the cultural / structural norms that were harmful to both adult Jedi and young children.

 

I've probably spent way too much time over the past few years thinking about this so if you weren't expecting an essay I apologize. I'm aware that this is probably unreasonable to be so invested, but the clone wars special interest has been strong for a while now.

 

(Cut for length.)
 

Spoiler

 

There's a gross mishandling of political, social, and interpersonal issues throughout the prequels. The hypocrisy of the Jedi in regard to the sanctity and value of life is clearly illustrated, most strongly during Episode III and the Clone Wars cartoon.

 

S3 Clone Wars, Citadel arc: a significant number of clones are assigned to the mission, and three (Rex, Fives, Cody) survive. The Jedi repeatedly say that there's no time to stop, or to mourn or grieve, but they do stop and take the time to give Even Piell a funeral. It would not have been unreasonable for the Jedi to at least attempt to save the lives of their troopers, especially considering later on in the series, Echo reappears, having survived the Citadel and been left for dead.

 

Episode I, when Qui-gon Jinn makes his apologies for the Jedi Order's failure to address slavery in the Outer Rim, and by taking one (1) child out of slavery, the narrative expects the audience to praise the Jedi.

 

Episode II. Kenobi visits Kamino, and is (understandably) upset / conflicted about a slave army being created on behalf of the Jedi. He calls Yoda (an authority figure / his boss) and Yoda just sort of throws up his hands like "well since we have slaves we might as well use them, I guess!" to which Kenobi replies "alright sounds good" and the ethical implications are never brought up again.

 

They take kids from their families, which I believe is explained in-universe as the Jedi saying that it is better for the child to grow up around other force-sensitive individuals. Frankly that seems bullshit to me -- if the family refuses to give up the child the Jedi are legally allowed to forcibly remove the child from their family's custody.

 

As the head of the Jedi Order, and the primary dictator of policy, I would hold Yoda responsible for much of what happened. I assume you would agree that it's unreasonable to take a nine-year-old who was born into slavery away from anything familiar (including his mother) and stand him in front of a bunch of adults and then proceed to criticise him for being afraid; moving on from that premise, Skywalker would have a not-unfounded belief that were the Jedi Council to reject him, he would be returned to slavery on Tattooine.

 

The overall education &c. for young Jedi is incredibly lacking. They are not taught to regulate emotions or to address them; instead they are told that all emotions are bad and wrong and will make sure you fall to the dark side. It's irresponsible at best to neglect a child's emotional well-being -- and on the scale of the Jedi and their role in the galaxy as peacekeepers, it could (and did) prove fatal.

 

I also think it's unwise for the Jedi Order to have completely banned even learning about the Dark Side. Instead of a real threat, and something that needs to be watched for carefully, it is reduced to a 'boogeyman' type myth used to scare children -- "if you're bad and you have Feelings then the dark side will come get you" etc.

 

There's some stuff I could probably get into about the whole absorption of the Jedi Order into the Republic economic infrastructure exacerbating preexisting issues, but I'm just going by memory right now.

 

 

[DeltaAro]

16 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

I do want to make it clear that I don't hate (or even dislike) most Jedi on an individual level.

I never met one in person. But according to the documentaries I've watched they seem like uptight, puritanical posers who are so arrogant that they don't even recognize the dark force when they literally sit above it!

[November]

22 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

I have some Discworld thoughts too but this is getting long so I'll refrain.

 

Please tell us! I'm really curious and I have some thoughts too, but I guess I'll have to reread the books again because I'm not sure ...

Anyway, I really want Susan to be aro and have a squish on Buddy (when I read Soul Music, I was really annoyed that she seemed to have a crush on him, but I didn't know that squishes exist - so maybe it fits?!)

 

[Skittles87]

On 9/28/2018 at 11:42 PM, gravityspiker said:

From Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Mr Norrell and John Childermass are also pretty aro(spec) to me.

Hell yes to this! 

[gravityspiker]

20 hours ago, November said:

 

Please tell us! I'm really curious and I have some thoughts too, but I guess I'll have to reread the books again because I'm not sure ...

Anyway, I really want Susan to be aro and have a squish on Buddy (when I read Soul Music, I was really annoyed that she seemed to have a crush on him, but I didn't know that squishes exist - so maybe it fits?!)

 

 

I definitely agree that Susan comes across as aro! I'm also quite attached to aro(spec) Carrot and Angua in a QPP. Demiro/demisexual Vimes is also close to my heart, and so is aro Granny.

 

bookhobbit on tumblr has some meta about aro(spec) Rincewind that I like a lot, ey write a lot about him in general.

 

hm. there are a few folks who like aro Vetinari, and others who like Vetinari/Vimes as a ship -- I'm not particularly fond of either, but I'd much sooner have the former than the latter.

 

I think I had some more things written down somewhere? I'll come back and edit this if I find them.

[November]

2 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

 

I definitely agree that Susan comes across as aro! I'm also quite attached to aro(spec) Carrot and Angua in a QPP. Demiro/demisexual Vimes is also close to my heart, and so is aro Granny.

 

bookhobbit on tumblr has some meta about aro(spec) Rincewind that I like a lot, ey write a lot about him in general.

 

hm. there are a few folks who like aro Vetinari, and others who like Vetinari/Vimes as a ship -- I'm not particularly fond of either, but I'd much sooner have the former than the latter.

 

I think I had some more things written down somewhere? I'll come back and edit this if I find them.

 

Hmm... I rather thought of Vimes and Sybil as a QPP. Somehow I thought that Carrot and Angua were both demi, but now that you mentioned it, I can see them in a QPP, too.

And yes, Granny is definitely aro! Maybe Nanny Ogg is aro and heterosexual ?

[Emerald Cheetah]

On 3/23/2018 at 7:04 PM, mythlady said:

A character I headcanon as aromantic is Ruby Rose from the web series RWBY. I just don't see her being romantically involved with anyone.

@mythlady YES SO TRUE.

Spoilers for non-RWBY viewers below!!!!!!

Spoiler

As much as I try to ship her with Weiss, there is literally no evidence of her being interested in anybody. And I keep thinking of what she said in volume 1 to Weiss: "And after it's all over, you're gonna be like "Wow! This Ruby girl is really, really cool...and I want to be her friend."" Yeah Ruby seems to only desire friendship with others and not relationships. Not to mention, she's 100% clueless about love and romance which can be seen in Volume 2 chapter 3 in this conversation:

 

Weiss: Actually Ruby, why don't you go with Yang. After all she is your sister. 

Ruby: But Weiss, who would go with you then?

Weiss: Well, I guess Neptune could come with me. 

Ruby: *laughs* nahh *drags Weiss out of the Room*

 

If Ruby is Aromantic, at the very least, that would explain why she didn't get the message that Weiss wanted to go with Neptune because Ruby has no idea what it feels like to have a crush on someone.