#aroace robot stereotype

[rjalker]

You are allowed to repost / share this comic to other web sites as long as you include the image description. Literally copy and paste it.

[ID: An MS Paint drawing showing a stick figure, labeled, "Cis bioessentialist", in comic sans, drawn with the crayon brush smiling at the camera and pointing over their shoulder, saying, "Yeah, my book has Queer rep! This brick wall is aroace and agender, and uses it/its pronouns!". Behind the stick figure is a 3D brick wall drawing tilted at an angle to the camera. In the foreground, silowets of grey and black represent a crowded audience, as various people say: "Woah…" "This is the most amazing, progressive trans representation I've ever seen!!!" "OMG!!!" "Amazing!" "We stan!!" "It doesn't get any better than this!" "So progressive!" "What a perfect ally!" End ID.]

Looking at The Murderbot Diaries in particular with this post, but this also applies to anything it applies to. If you're thinking, "Does this apply to X?" The answer is probably yes.

And guess what. I'm aroace. I'm nonbinary. My pronouns are it/its. I'm not even human.

You must fucking reckon with the fact that the only reason Murderbot is aroace, agender, and uses it/its pronouns is because it's a robot who doesn't have genitals. It is the metaphorical equivalent of a brick wall in terms of attraction.

And at the same fucking time you must also fucking respect the fact that it is aroace, it is nonbinary, and it does in fact fucking use it/its pronouns and it's touch averse.

The fact that Murderbot was only written this way because of Martha Wells' long-standing bioessentialism does not change the fact that if you erase these traits from Murderbot you are being exorsexist, aroacemisic, and ableist.

"Murderbot is only written to be this way because Martha Wells has a problem with bioessentialism that she has yet to unpack since before 2011 " and "Murderbot is aroace, nonbinary, touch averse, and uses it/its pronouns and if you erase those traits and identities you are erasing the real people who share those traits" are not conflicting statements. They are in fact part of the same fucking sentence.

If you refuse to aknowledge the bioessentialism baked into The Murderbot Diaries (with potentially only one last chance for it to be fixed in System Collapse if she on from the series), you cannot be a true ally to the people that Murderbot represents, because you still don't understand what exorsexism, and amisia, and look like.

How can Martha Wells fix the bioessssentialism rampant in her books? By talking to trans people. Talking to nonbinary people. Talking to aroace people.

By including important, reocurring human nonbinary, aroace, and it/its user characters in her books.

By including robots and other nonhumans who have male and female genders as well as nonbinary ones.

She could very easily have one of the main human characters, say, Mensah? Ratthi? Come out as nonbinary in System Collapse. And have Murderbot either reveal, or remember, that it used to have different pronouns and gender assigned to it, and that it changed those assignments when it hacked its governor module.

Introduce robot characters who are not literally just genderless and attractionless because they're the character equivalent of a brick wall.

If Three comes back, have it explore its sexuality and gender. Because we literally don't even know that its pronouns are it/its because it's not like anyone bothered to fucking ask, because Martha Wells refuses to have characters tell eachother what their pronouns are.

No, people, they do not list their pronouns in their feed bios. This is explicitly shown to us. It's literally just listing their sex, and their gender and pronouns are inferred from there. That is not progressive or inclusive, that's literally just transmisia and biological essentialism.

[rjalker]

This does absolutely nothing to refute the fact that Murderbot is only nonbinary and aroace because it has no genitals. Martha Wells has been doing this biologically essentialist crap long before she wrote The Murderbot Diaries.

There are no robots in this series that are not nonbinary, there are no human characters who are more than blatant tokenization that are nonbinary. There are no human characters even implied to be aroace.

This series is biologically essentially and people have the right to be disappointed and angry that the protagonist is literally only aroace and nonbinary because it literally has no genitals, and the author equates that to having no gender and sexuality.

Please do not lie to people about these books being more progressive about nonbinary and aspec people than they really are. It really, literally, is just the bigoted "nonbinary/aspec robot" stereotype again, with no redeeming qualities outside of "I like the characters so that means it's okay"

Martha Wells could have made it not just more biological essentialism by giving us named, important, reocurring characters who are also explicitly aroace and nonbinary, but she has not done that in over seven books now, because she is just another cis person who loves biological essentialism.

You can recommend these books to people but you cannot go around telling people it's not Actually the harmful bioessentialist stereotypes that it literally is. It is.

The only reason Murderbot or any of the robots in this series are nonbinary or aroce is because they don't have genitals and that makes Martha Wells think they can't have genders or sexualities either.

This is a *long established* pattern in her writing. She is a biological essentialist and telling people that the series ISN'T just the shallow harmful stereotypes will accomplish nothing except making people feel betrayed and hurt that you lied to them.

Do you know how many people have been driven in digust out of this fandom forever because of posts like this lying to them and telling them this series is more than the stereotypes that it has no intentions of ever fighting back against /because the author agrees with them?/

#it is not aro/ace and autistic bc it is a robot!#it is a robot that also happens to be aro/ace and autistic!!

I'm sorry but you are literally incorrect. Murderbot literally only is nonbinary and aroace because it has no genitals. That is the only reason Martha Wells wrote it this way, because that is the only way she can imagine an aroace or nonbinary character.

If this series were more than harmful shallow stereotypes, then half the Preservation Aux team would also be nonbinary and aroace despite having the genitals that Martha Wells thinks means Murderbot and any of the actual robot characters can't have sexuality or gender.

And yes, she has indeed confirmed that Murderbot is a cyborg, not an anthroid. That does not make the bioessentialism any better or less harmful.

broke: oh yay another asexual/aromantic and autistic character is a literal robot 🫩🫩🫩

woke: murderbot is a construct, part human part machine, grappling with what it means to be a person, knowing that much of it in part is the same as the humans around it (organic) and yet owing to the other different parts it was born with is unable to connect/understand so many things about humans, does it have the capacity for this and if so does it even want to be like the humans (a thinly veiled metaphor for neurodivergence and aro/aspec)?

[bean-spring]

Hot take and not to be a killjoy or the shipping police but people treating Viktor or Jinx's aroace headcanons as if they were canon is not the revolutionary take people think it is.

Headcanons are always all right but we have to acknowledge that they are somehow damaging when they apply to stereotypes. It might not be the case for everyone but most of the time people unconsciously assume that disability/mental illness=asexuality. These headcanons erase the freedom of attraction from people who are already seen as unable to have sexual/romantic experiences/desires, when it's completely untrue and harmful.

You can headcanon Viktor and Jinx as aroace, but I have seen people changing their minds once Viktor is no longer disabled (s2 with all of his other forms) and Jinx is no longer as mentally ill (alternate universe Powder). And it speaks wonders of how people see these characters.

"I never thought about Jinx being able to feel romantic/sexual attraction until s2!" To believe she's actually only capable of that when she's not "damaged" is incredibly disturbing. Especially since Jinx has always had a bit of a flirty personality too.

"I've always seen Viktor as asexual, I don't know why!" That's fine. You can headcanon him as ace. But I believe there is a reason behind it, most of the time, if for some inexplicable reason the "vibes" of the disabled character are making you think he's ace.

I say all of this being aroaspec myself, by the way. Headcanon all you want but going to people's posts commenting how "it's weird for you that they have romantic/sexual plots when they're clearly aroace" is not a win at all. It's a headcanon, after all, and it should be treated as such, and that's fine. But it also is damaging to spread stereotypes like these.

Of course the disabled character is asexual. Of course the mentally ill character is aromantic. It's not as revolutionary as you might think, tbh.

Fandom is not activism and it's all right to have any headcanons you want BUT some of them are filled with damaging stuff and perhaps we should look into ourselves more before treating these assumptions as something canon.

[plutonicbees]

diversity win! ur teenage synthezoid daughter likes girls <3

[cyncerely-bullshit]

Tommyinnit accidentally created one of the best aroace depictions i’ve seen in modern media when he made c!Tommy send post

[oopi---doopi]

People really need to let aroace characters be fucked up. Not, like, in an evil way, just fucked up.

It feels like???? Most normal person ever, an autistic stereotype, or mayyybe the most evil person on the planet.

C’mon. There are a couple of characters I know about that are 10/10 aroace rep and they ARE aroace, they say so themselves in the media. But it doesn’t count because they didn’t use the exact term “aroace”.

The most obvious example would be Saiki Kusuo from Saiki K.

I get that he fits under the “autistic stereotype” category but he’s also the main character and I think that negates most of my problems with the autistic stereotype characters in the first place. He makes a lot of meaningful connections throughout the show and it would honestly be perfect representation. It IS perfect representation.

Idk sometimes I just wanna see an aroace *character*, y’know?

Not an evil guy who would OBVIOUSLY be aroace because he’s evil. Not a robot or alien who’s aroace because they’re not human. And not a comic relief autistic stereotype that’s always being infantilized to hell and back who’s aroace because anything else seems inappropriate. And definitely not the most vanilla, unproblematic, appropriate character you could possibly imagine who’s essentially a PSA stating: “Hey! Aroace people exist and are people, have a good day!”

I just want an actual, interesting character. I want their sexuality to be addressed in an interesting way. Hell, I’d like some aroace villains who aren’t pure evil.

But everything has to “address” being aroace. Like it’s a hella touchy subject, which I guess it is? I just want some galaxy brained shit.

Why can’t we have. Anything.

[dangoarts]

I don’t remember if i sent this before but gaymaster.

oh boy an excuse to be annoying about my own identity mwahahaha

idfc if it's a stereotype i am an aroace robot and i make the rules forever

[adobe-outdesign]

I lowkey dislike the aroace Cyrus headcanon as an ace myself bc it falls into the "Unnatractive hateful evil person isn't shippable with anyone- ahem, doesn't deserve love- ahem, I mean they're Aroace" stereotype

But on the other hand, I'm all onboard for autistic Cyrus as an autistic person??? Like "Hell yeah I'm sick of neurotypicals thinking we're all soft and baby, be evil"

Very confusing

I don't think very many people see Cyrus as unattractive or unshippable. However, I'm not big on the aroace headcanon just because it seems to equate asexuals/aromantics as being unemotional or robotic, which isn't true at all (and not even really true of Cyrus).

[rjalker]

If you lie to people about how The Murderbot Diaries "isn't" literally just the harmful, biologically essentialist nonbinary/aspec robot stereotype, you are literally going to accomplish nothing except making people hate you and this series because you've now lied to people about it being more progressive than it truly is, so when they spend money to read these books you've promised them actually care about nonbinary and aspec people beyond harmful, bioessentialist stereotypes, they're going to have to find out the hard way that Martha Wells does not in fact, have a single human aroace character or even aspec character of any type in this series of more than 7 books now.

They're going to find out the hard way that the only human nonbinary characters are literal tokens who are on screen for about 2 mintues before being shoved out of the story again, never to be seen again. Long enough to get people like you to lie and claim the series cares about nonbinary people who are not bioessentialist stereotypes, but not long enough to actually commit to doing so.

Stop telling people that The Murderbot Diaries' representation of nonbinary and aroace people is more than just harmful, tired, bioessentialist stereotypes. You are fucking lying, and you are only going to make people hate you and this series because now you've fucking betrayed them and lied to get them to read something that is exactly what they didn't want to see: More shitty old bioessentialist stereotypes that you pretend are okay this time because you like the character and don't give a fuck that there is LITERALLY NOTHING in more than seven whole books now to make the stereotypes anything more than shallow, cis-minded biological essentialism.

Murderbot and every other actual robot in this series is nonbinary and aroace because they don't have genitals. Because Martha Wells is many things, including an absolute worshipper of biological essentialism.

Stop fucking lying to people and pretending these books are more progressive or ""nuanced"" in their representation of nonbinary and aroace people than they actually are.

Just because you like Murderbot does not mean it is not literally the walking nonbinary / aroace robot stereotype.

(And no, just because Martha Wells is so incompetant that Murderbot is actually a cyborg but she keeps acting like it's a robot because she does not know or care about the differences between them despite bragging that she's been reading scifi since the 70s does not make this any better)

[mattdevil]

Saw this discussion in the jayvik tag and wanted to wade in:

I think the larger problem with the "Viktor is ace!" "Ace people can still like sex/romance!" discourse is that the Viktor-being-ace bit hit a lot of people, myself included, as a kneejerk reaction from CL to try and kibosh any and all mention of there being ~something more~ between the two. It was treated as a "gotcha" in a way that implies CL doesn't have a good understanding of aspec identities, and I think a lot of people had very strong reactions to that; so in an attempt to counter what feels like bad faith stereotyping, the pendulum gets swung too far back the other direction with the unfortunate side effect of making it seem like everyone participating believes that ALL aspec folks can, or even should, also participate in sexual or romantic relationships. I think if he'd said "hey it's cool you see it that way, our intent was to have V be aroace with no interest in sexual or romantic relationships because that is criminally underrepresented in media" (which is true), there would have been a very different reaction. There were two missing elements: an expression or acknowledgement of deeper understanding of aspec identities, and a willingness to accept that creative intent doesn't somehow trump or disenfranchise how your audience receives it. He missed on both, so now we are here.

Yeah you're totally right.

I agree with the valid criticisms of what Linke did. I don't think he actually knows the difference between asexual and aromantic. Based on what he said, he just asked around about which orientation was underrepresented anyways and he seem to have gone into this with minimal research, which made this maybe well intentioned attempt at ace representation turn into a shitshow. Because I agree with him in viewing Jayvik as a platonic ship gives the dynamic a fresh spin. I believe he actually intended to make Viktor aroace, but it was kind of a shitty move to reveal this as a way of bashing all the other interpretations, which made a lot of people perceive it as homophobic as this was done in response to shippers.

People are also upset with the stereotypical implications Viktor being ace implies, such as making disabled characters ace which makes them seem devoid of sexuality.

That being said, I think a lot of people have lost the plot too because Linke is now being accused with being ableist, homophobic and aphobic a lot more than what's proportional. I've seen people say he only made Viktor asexual because he is disabled and "robotic", because he saw Viktor as undesirable and quite inhuman. These are bullshit takes and people are pulling them out of nowhere imo. I have never seen anything suggesting Linke viewing Viktor's disability as something negative. Calling him a robot is outright wrong too because he got merged with the arcane, he didn't robotise himself like in the games. So none of these really contribute to Viktor's "negative" representation. Also, Linke could very well be homophobic but it kinda doesn't seem quite anormal for creators to talk about the intended details in the show after the show is over, so I don't think he did that reveal at a very odd point. Which now got me wondering aside from giving the homophobic fans the excuse to bash Jayvik shippers, whether we jumped the gun on calling him homophobic too.

I also agree with how the reactions would be a lot better if Linke handled the creative intent speech a lot better, but I'm not sure if it still would've made stop everyone from saying "hey even if he is asexual he can still have sex with Jayce" because this is just what shipping culture is like. As I've talked about it on the previous ask, people LOVE shipping, and they make aspec characters a part of this phenomenon regardless of how their sexual or romantic desires are presented in the source material.

Overall I agree with what you're saying though. Thank you for your insight.

[pigfartsviatardis]

Does anyone else think that if Linke was so committed to ace rep in arcane - as he claims was his intention with Viktor - then wouldn’t Jayce have been a more interesting option??

I mean it’s in the name… jACE ba dum tshh 👉👉 no but seriously, linke said something about wanting to do an ace character who isn’t the usual emotionless stereotype. And I would absolutely agree that Viktor isn’t emotionless, but tbh he also doesn’t do much to push the boundaries of ace stereotypes. After the ace!viktor Thing came to light, I spoke to an aroace friend who watches arcane cause I was interested to know if Viktor gave off any vibes she’d picked up. She said she couldn’t think of anything in the storytelling that might have been trying to portray Viktor as ace, and then she said it was weird of linke to go ‘hmm I want to do an Asexual Character (and I definitely know what that word means), but I don’t want to fall into ace character stereotypes… so I’ll make it the disabled character who becomes a robot’.

Like. I have no problem with ace!viktor, but she makes a good point 😅 plus, viktor is kind of exactly what I associate the most with ace character stereotypes: he’s obsessively fixated on his one passion (science) and has very little social life or family ties.

However, Jayce actually would be kinda a groundbreaking choice for ace-spec rep. He’s not only emotional, he’s completely guided by emotion. He’s friendly and exuberant. He’s conventionally sexually attractive and successful. He’s got charisma and popularity. He’s got loving relationships with both bio family and found family. He’s got the hottest woman in the show flirting with him.

This brings me to my next point: Jayce being ace-spec would, I believe, fit well with what we know and see of him. I mean… this man had THEE Mel Medarda giving him flirty eyes for SIX YEARS, yet apparently nothing happened between them that whole time. It’s not like he’s not into women, or not into her specifically. He already seems into her BEFORE the timeskip. Everyone always talks about viktor’s salty jealous lil face in this moment (just aroace platonic bro things):

But the thing he’s reacting TO is Jayce’s heart eyes as he watches Mel walk away (fair Jayce, me too). Yet even then, it took poor Mel six goddamn years of touching his shoulder fifteen times a minute and sashaying around temptingly and telling him how special and cool he is… and EVEN THEN he was still so clueless he seemed surprised when she kissed him. I would say ‘classic lesbian’ but sadly he’s not a lesbian. However… if he were ace-spec then maybe flirting and suggestiveness and Vibes just wouldn’t be on his radar??

And it would have been amazing to have a scene where Mel is like ‘finally, I’ve been dropping hints that I’m into you for years’ and Jayce goes ‘you have???? Tbh none of that stuff ever makes any sense to me, which is why I don’t date or really ever sleep with people, but I think you’re amazing so I’m very glad this is happening’ but like a better written version by a professional screenwriter. Yknow, like ACTUAL ONSCREEN REP instead of just slapping a random label on a character after the show has aired.

Should clarify that I don’t even particularly headcanon Jayce as ace-spec, I just think it would actually fit and would be cool rep. I kinda sometimes headcanon Viktor as demi but not because of what linke said or anything in the show really, I just vibe with it for him. I mean no disrespect to the canonicity of ace!Viktor and I understand why people might be defensive of that with so little ace rep out there. I just think it was handled poorly and reads as an odd choice made for odd reasons.

[twst-hottest-takes]

Hot take: I think Rook is AroAce.

The main reason I think this is because he loves everything equally. He treats everyone and everything the same way, and before anyone says "He chose Neige over Vil in Book 5." He only had one vote, and canonically Neige did better than Vil. He loves them both equally, and he loves everything equally. But I feel like this love is strictly platonic and not romantic or sexual in nature, and I know this is a Disney game, but even in the jp version the characters are very open about having crushes on each other, and from what I've seen in the jp version Rook doesn't think of anyone romantically.

I'm sorry if any of this is harmful stereotyping for the AroAce community, I myself am not AroAce.

That's a valid read of his character I think.

Technically, I can't put stock in calling it canon, but this read really tickles my fancy. We have to remain with the mindset that any given character's attractions and preferences are left open for the sake of appealing to whatever kind of fan-content people want to plop them into, so we can stick it in the "headcanon" section. The idea that an aromantic and asexual character can exist without being turned into an emotionless robot is always appealing.

Also I just love the irony of a character so passionate about love and beauty being like "Nah, I'm not looking for that kind of relationship personally. Keep being beautiful though!"

Thank you for your take!

(Also I think the only thing people would find offensive is the idea of being lumped into any category with Rook, but that depends entirely on how much they love or hate him as a character. However, I am only ostensibly aspec so if a true aroace could come in and clarify they are more than welcome to.)

[homoeroticjunoincident]

y’all are choosing the most cowardly option

i fully understand the aroace hc for mind but like. be more creative or something

[lakunalaika]

[‼️TW: This post is not sexual content itself however it talks about asexuality and thus also discusses sex.‼️]

Before pride month ends I want to talk about Transformers characters that are on the aroace spectrum!!

I want to clarify that since Cybertonians don't reproduce sexually that makes them all asexual in cannon!

...However the fandom still has a lot of different interpretations and headcannons. Some of these include procreation while others are robots being sexual for the sake of "fun" rather than biology. I personally feel VERY uncomfortable with the idea of sexual reproduction in transformers but fandom is fandom and I am well aware of how it ignores the cannon so this list is made with that in mind.

As for the aromantic part of this post....

Sadly none of those are actually cannon since the creators haven't said anything about it and it's never said out loud in the media these characters are from HOWEVER I feel like most of these are very heavily implied. If you're confused about labels please look them up!

Sorry this post only contains three characters, I'm writing this literally last minute before going to the airport lol. I feel like there are maybe some more that I've missed so you're welcome to comment or reblog if you want to add to the list!

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Shockwave: aromantic, asexual, could be aplatonic in some continuities.

I HAD to start with him. Speaks for itself really, if you're in the fandom you're probably familiar with how little emotion Shockwave expresses in general. Sadly though most people either see him as a completely emotionless monster or make him the super ooc :( He has no interest in sex or romance and some versions of him do not care for platonic bonds either.

The fandom sadly does not understand this, I'm not completely against him being shipped with other characters I just wish it was written properly and with his sexual/romantic orientation in mind. I feel like there's some interesting queer platonic lab partner shipping potential here but again this fandom is terrible at not sexualising him for some reason.

He does show care for others in SOME continuities, in Cyberverse we see that he used to be friends with Wheeljack and possibly some other characters. He does have emotions, even in other shows/media, we see him get visibly angry in TFP and Earthspark. So just saying that he doesn't feel anything is a straight up lie. He follows logic although we do see him make non logical choices when influenced by emotions, it's rare but it has happened.

I'm planning to make more content about him and being aroace spec soon. I want to show people that just because you don't feel forms of attraction or love towards others doesn't mean you're completely heartless. And yes I know an extremely stereotypical evil robot probably isn't the best character to use to prove a point like this but I just need people to stop mischaracterising him.

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Shadowstriker: aromantic, asexual.

[most of this is refering to her in Cyberverse, thought I do mention IDW briefly]

What is it with clearly aroace female characters, usually villains, and being called masc lesbians? No offence to lesbians but please y'all let us have some representation. Sorry pooks she doesn't want a girl, she doesn't want anyone actually. Which doesn't mean she doesn't value friendship, just look at how she interacts with Soundwave and Lazerbeak! That's found family if I've ever seen it!

I think she's someone who struggles a lot with emotions and intimacy just in general, though we do actually see her emotions slipping through the "mask" more towards the end of the show, even being happy [thought it was quite bittersweet] and part of a group hug in the last episode. Well done her for actually accepting physical touch that isn't punching someone in the face! She's a very untrusting character who tends to assume the worst in everyone and is really aggressive for most of the show. She has absolutely no interest in romance or sex and is probably apothisexual/apothiromantic. But as previously stated I think platonic love is really important to her. She's the type of person who would kill for her found family, in fact considering she's a Decepticon she probably has.

She's one of those extremely interesting and emotionally complex characters and yet somehow she's always overlooked. I see people talking about wanting more well written female characters and HERE SHE IS! Honestly I'd recommend watching Cyberverse even if you're just doing it for her, it's worth it. I could write a whole essay all about her. Can y'all tell she's my favourite? Because she is.

As for shipping I do like the idea of her being in a queer platonic ship with Flamewar and Slipstream in the IDW comics they're in, though again, I don't think people know how to write qp relationships...

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TFP Soundwave: demiromantic, asexual.

This one is only specific to one continuity and that's Transformers Prime. Not saying other versions aren't on the spectrum, I have a quite couple headcannons, though I feel they might be a bit ooc/self indulgent so I'm not including them since I'm trying to keep this list as "likely to be cannon" as I can.

In the show he doesn't speak and doesn't really have a face so he doesn't really express himself a lot. Though he still definitely shows emotion, just, differently I guess? He is uninterested in sex, I think he could be in a romantic relationship but it would have to be someone he's already emotionally attached to. Platonic love is extremely important to him but specifically his cassettes, they're his family. Others however.... I feel like he doesn't really care for a lot of the characters in the show but then again he doesn't show emotions much so he could just be hiding it.

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[screemnch]

Statement: having robot and alien characters be genderqueer and villains be aroace feeds into negative stereotypes about queer identities, portraying that as inhuman or evil. Linking the gender binary with the sense of “normalcy” and experience of attraction with “moral value” erases the idea that a person can be both good an evil, both an insider and an outsider, regardless of their gender identity or sexuality.

Counter argument: Why would robots or aliens have our sense of gender? Wouldn’t it be pointless to a robot? Wouldn’t aliens have their own genders beyond our comprehension, if they have them at all? Doesn’t a villain have something better to do? Wouldn’t it be cool to have a villain completely unaffected by something that people foolishly believe to be the answer to any conflict (and allow them to have more complex motivation than the good old “avenging a fridged partner” story)?

Solution: make the humans genderqueer too. Make the protag aroace too. Fuck it, just make everyone genderqueer and aroace.

[acetypeface]

doug ramsey for the ask game with 2, 15, and 24!

Doug Ramsey yapping?? On my good DC obsessed blog?? More likely than you might think!

Gonna take a moment here to note that it looks like they've gone back on that ugly ass Revelation design and have restored him to his former boyfailure twink glory. I'm going to have to start following Adjectiveless just to read the issue he's in (which I think comes out in July).

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

I have to choose just one? I mean, there's the fact that he's Just a Dude-- while yeah, that got him killed off in the 80s, I have such a soft spot for X-Men who don't have big, flashy powers or are larger-than-life type people. Doug's just a guy. Just a guy named Doug. And I adore him for it.

I do also really appreciate his autistic subtext. It would be nice to have a canon austistic character who isn't (overly) infantalized, or stereotypical, or weirdly retconned (not touching that Monet storyline with a ten foot pole). Which looking back at the question, Doug being autistic isn't a canon thing about him, but the subtext is strong.

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

The superior Douglock, of course. While I headcanon Doug as aroace-spec, it's canon in my heart that he and Warlock are in a qpr. This is of course no shade to Bei, I adore her and love the panels of her carrying Doug around, I just also think he should be in a queerplatonic relationship with his techno-organic alien robot best friend.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Gonna blame the DC/Batfamily brainrot but Tim Drake. I mean, they're both such boy scouts with a mean streak who have a strong personal code. Is that code moral? They think so, and that's what matters. Also, they both have incredibly strong queer subtext with their best friend that got ignored. And they're short. I don't actually know how tall Doug is in canon, but he gives short vibes.

Thanks for the Doug ask, I needed an excuse to think about him again! I'm in DC brainrot hell, and it's good for the health to spin the X-Men around in my mind.