Idk about tris, but I know she did that with Kel Because not ending your series with a canon love interest makes you ace, right???????????? And like I'M ACE I WOULDN'T BE UPSET IF THIS WASN'T A CHEAP RETCON THAT IGNORES CANOJ STUFF
Kel. Who is pretty clearly sexually attracted to multiple men. You could maybe sell me on her being aro, but it sure as hell ain't in the text except in that she outgrows her crushes over time and isn't in a relationship at the end of the series.
Apparently she did it with one of the Circle of Magic girls who also has a canonical crush on a dude and, like, runs around desperately trying to make herself look as cute as possible when she thinks he might be coming over, too. Because she doesn't end the series in a relationship, either. -_-
I..... what. What? But??? What??? At least Tris would make sense since she's pretty vocal about not giving a shit about romance/sex in the Circle books (albeit in part because of body image issues, but at least the text is there.) Kel literally! Has relationships! Multiple crushes! She even has the whole fluttery romantic crush periods and thoroughly enjoys having sex with other people! She's what????? edit: Wait, did she try and put Sandry in the ace category too? Because the only time Tris does that can be pretty obviously drawn to the fact that Tris, at times, tries to do what Good Girls Ought To Do because she's still got a lot of baggage from being a merchant girl who wasn't pretty enough or feminine enough to pass as a Good Girl. (Hence, also, the adamant refusal to wear anything but heavy skirts in the beginning.)
Wow, what the actual fuck? And here I thought she was supposed to be one of the more progressive authors or something...
YEAH. Like, jesus, if I was an insecure babby ace and somebody pointed me at PotS as "canon ace protag!!!" and I read it for that I would be so confused and upset.
I'm so fucking pissed off about it, because this is NOT what I want out of ace rep This is just " All my characters must hook up!!!!!!!! I didn't give these two permalove interests so SHIT THEY'RE ACE NOW"
OH MY GOD SAME YEAH protector of the small was my fav for not having creepy romance, but now I feel squicked out because Clearly the author thinks it was incomplete without it
Honestly I think it's as much "somebody asked me if any of my characters were ace and I don't really know what that means??? uh who cares the least about sex. KEL. Kel cares more about punching bad guys and saving orphans than sex! She's not going to settle down and get married, therefore she must be what they mean! Kel is ace, reader!"
Kel had.... a sex drive but it wasn't her main priority and she was too busy accomplishing things to settle down for good as soon as humanly possible, and the things she was accomplishing were important, and the relationship business being delayed until some future point was just *shrug*. And the story didn't act like she/I should be bothered that she'd wanted the thing and didn't get it. That was... important reading for me, back in the day XD
puts head in hands "Despite Tris being vocally unconcerned with romance up until the book I'm writing later, she's straight because I'm writing her a love interest. Sandry is ace despite having expressed interest in men quite frequently, because she's the heir to several major noble lines, and therefore needs to judge her suitors carefully. This is what being ace is, right?" Like, christ. I love Tamora Pierce for a lot of what she's done, and Daja being explicitly wlw did a lot of things for baby PR, but damn if this isn't a seriously tone-deaf reading of what being asexual means. I mean. I'm glad that Briar is pan and all, but. Come on. (Also let Briar kiss a fucking dude in a book then, it's nice knowing my initial read of him was right, but pls. Pls.)
Feel like I gotta sneak in here with a quick fic rec - I’m rereading Lady Knight Volante for like the twentieth time atm, and it’s basically a novel length continuation of Protector of the Small, featuring an exploration of the political consequences and fallout from Kel’s Scanra rescue in depth, finishing out the war, uncovering politics and eventual treason behind the killing devices, an awful lot of gods and dragons and the resolution of their old conflict, expanding on what can be possible in terms of invention and trade and architecture if you work alongside immortals like basilisks and griffins and stormwings and spidren under treaty, and - eventually - a well done romance with Dom, along with a good look into Kel’s personal issues with self esteem and body image Also, babby stormwing Mind the tags, but /jazz hands/ this fic completes the PotS series in such a satisfactory fashion that I consider it canon. The extra fic set in Yaman after the main story is even more hilarious
From what I've read (interactions on her tumblr I'm pretty sure?), she's a little confused about what ace means and tends to confuse it with aro or celibate. Maybe she's learned better since then? Idk, I'm inclined to be forgiving because she's one of my favorite childhood authors :P Also fwiw, I did read Kel as aromantic when I first read the POTS books, despite the fact that I didn't actually know the term "aromantic" at that point. She seemed like someone for whom momentary infatuations were the extent of her romantic feelings, and she was mistaking those for actually being in love. Somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, at least.
nge, rei ayanami unrelated, seven pounds of qualifications because i've named the source of the gripe Spoiler and i know im missing a lot of context because japan, but with what i do know, i dont think im pushing my western ideals with that interpretation of her story. and im salty with the fandom artists who draw her so sexualized, esp when its male gaze-y, which i see a lot when i seek stuff out for her. i really liked how the show itself handled it also, not that sexually abused characters can't be sexual beings it just makes me feel Bad with a lot of the stuff i see for her
