Heartstopper s3 comes out tomorrow and honestly, the thing I'm the most excited (and anxious) about is Isaac's arc. Of course I'm excited to see the scenes I love from the comic adapted to television; of course I'm excited to see the fluffy romance, and Charlie's struggles with his mental health and his ED, and the uni arc, and all of the characters growing up and evolving as people. But Isaac's story, not only is it completely new, it's also much more personal to me. It's still an extremely rare thing to see aroace characters represented on screen and having their stories told, and basically a nonexistent one in mainstream media (nobody I know outside of aroace circles and a few niche drama communities has any idea what Koisenu Futari is, for instance - which is a shame by the way). His arc was the most touching part of s2 to me - I cried, I laughed, and got extremely emotional in a general sense. That feeling of seeing myself in a character - in a mainstream show nonetheless - is something extremely special, and this kind of representation is a big step for the community in general too. Especially because while Isaac's s2 storyline did make me emotional, it was still quite hidden and easy to throw to the side among all the other plots. It may have been the most noteworthy part of the season to me, an aroace individual, who has the context of what the character's going through, but a lot of the general audience completely missed the intent and are still thinking to this day that the show's intentions was/is to make Isaac and James a couple. So the clarity and focus s3 is going to provide (or at least I sincerely hope it will) are extremely necessary for the character's journey and identity to be brought to the front and understood by the general public, besides doing his character arc (and what it represents to a lot of people) justice. Part of me is really nervous and afraid that they'll screw it up in some way - but mostly I'm really, really excited (especially with Alice being the one in command!). Seeing that one scene where Tao and Elle are being all lovey-dovey while he's there looking uncomfortable and isolated in the trailer really made me believe that they'll give his story the focus it deserves - and that he'll really represent and give voice to the aroace teen (and general) experience in a really accurate and heartfelt way (Alice themselves is an aroace person and the one who made Loveless - so it's safe to say my expectations are extremely high). I'll probably be back tomorrow with a lot of thoughts and emotions no matter the outcome, but I truly hope it will be with a warm heart and a lot of praise for the great representation.
