Heyo, so I’ve been getting a LOT of comments on my comic ever since I started releasing it suggesting Eli and Warren have got romantic chemistry and I have clarified many times that Eli is aroace and specifically on a part of the spectrum where he is not interested in s3x or romance in any way, and Warren is also on the aroace spectrum, similarly aligned.
It’s okay to have your own imagination on literature as long as you don’t erase queer identities, and ace and aro identities are erased a LOT and have very little representation in media.
I know as an author I can’t control how people interpret my works, but all that I ask is that readers remain respectful of asexual and aromantic identities and do not try to insistently publicly erase them in order to fulfill their own fantasies. I understand these people don’t have any malicious intents when they want to ship Eli and Warren together, but just please try to be more conscious of your thoughts before pushing it onto aroace authors online. Aroace people on my side of the spectrum hear it ALL the time where our identities are belittled and erased, or shoved onto another side of the spectrum where we don’t align, or completely outside of our orientation altogether, and it can feel kind of icky for that to happen to our characters as well. Sometimes us aroace authors just wanna write a story where two characters can be around each other without being in a relationship.
Anywho,
Aromantic people who like to be in relationships are valid.
Aromantic people who don’t want to be in a relationship are valid.
Asexual people who like intimate relationships are valid.
Asexual people who don’t want intimate relationships are valid.
All parts of the aroace spectrum are valid.
It’s all a spectrum, and one side existing doesn’t negate the other.
That’s all I’m sayin’ 🤷