Creating Aspec Characters in My Favorite Media: A Thought Experiment

Image description: A promo image from early in development of the fourth game in the Dragon Age series. This diverse photo and the potential it represents seems perfectly fitting for a post where I play around with ideas for aspec characters. I often critique media for their lack of aspec representation, but what aspec characters would I create for my favorite media if I could? Today I answer that question.

As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time talking about the characters in my favorite pieces of media through an aspec lens, I obviously tend to focus a lot on how aspec-adjacent characters are portrayed. I look at why these characters could be reasonably seen as aspec. I look at the things in the media that supports that, and how these things are often ignored or devalued by the creators of the media or even the fans themselves. I often look at how those things are erased and discuss why that’s a problem. I even sometimes talk about how I think these problems could have been avoided and better representation could have been created instead. Think, for instance, of the many times I’ve discussed a character like Cole in Dragon Age or Seven of Nine in Star Trek. These are two characters I mention with so much frequency in part because they are aspec-adjacent characters in pieces of media that ostensibly should be rich grounds for aspec-friendly storytelling.

The video game series Dragon Age is a series known for its diversity and representation, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, the game in which Cole appears, has some incredibly written characters from various backgrounds whose identities are handled in impactful but nevertheless subtle ways. And yet, the spirit of compassion we know as Cole throughout the game shows no interest in sex and/or romance, and the game seems to find that a problem, which I believe flies in the face of the otherwise terrific commitment to representation that is not only a hallmark of the franchise, but of its developer, BioWare. Similarly, Star Trek is the posterchild for optimistic sci-fi, depicting a future where humanity has been able to shed many of its prejudices and where exploration of the stars is open to everyone. And yet, when Seven of Nine tries to take a different path as she rediscovers her humanity, the biases of our present time very much show themselves and somewhat overshadow what are the supposedly tolerant and diverse ideas of Starfleet.

Today is not going to be another post about Cole and Seven, as much as I love them; as I said, I’ve discussed them and characters like them so frequently on the blog that you can easily find my deep dives on why their portrayals leave a lot to be desired. I’ve also frequently discussed Dragon Age, Star Trek, and other pieces of media more broadly, looking at other characters and storylines, unpacking how these stories either ignored the chance for aspec representation entirely or else concocted plotlines that are downright terrible from an aspec perspective. Thus, I’m not going to be unpacking those elements in my favorite media either. Rather, I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of a thought experiment. Instead of talking about these pieces of media and examining the lack of aspec representation with what currently exists, my thought experiment is going to be as follows: if I had the chance to craft a canonically aspec character for these pieces of media, how would I do it?

Again, examining my ideas for aspec characters is likewise not a new thing, as I’ve previously looked at types of aspec relationships I think would be interesting to see in media, and have even done thought experiments on how to highlight the accidentally aspec elements of my favorite older media. But for this post, I thought it would serve as a fun challenge to implement the type of representation I’m always yearning for in my favorite media, showing how it could be done organically within those already established worlds. And what better pieces of media to use than Dragon Age and Star Trek themselves? After so long complaining about the way these pieces of media dropped the ball, how would I see it done instead? Come join me as we answer that question and craft new aspec characters along the way.

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The Boundaries of This Challenge

Before I get started, I think it pays to include a discussion of what I believe makes good representation in media. This too is a subject I did a whole post on, but to summarize, representation in media – especially for queer identities – is the act of portraying an aspect of society to a wider audience, and how that is done. This is why representation can either be good or bad, with bad representation failing to convey a subject accurately or else portraying that subject in a negative light, while good representation serves to educate a wider audience about this subject, often in thoughtful, complex, and nuanced ways. So when it comes to good aspec representation, I want representation that shows what aspec identities are and treats them as valid, allowing aspec characters to flourish and not fall into the usual problematic tropes that often plague media and real life.

As an aspec person trying to advocate for representation in media, I think there’s a temptation – one doubtless felt by many other queer identities too – to just say that every character in a story should be aspec in some way, shape, or form. But I acknowledge that this is not only unrealistic, but it also has the potential to be the exact opposite of good aspec representation. I believe that the best types of representation are those that serve as a mirror to real life, showing how queer people and non-queer people can coexist, work together, and learn from one another in meaningful ways.

If I tried to make every character queer, those inherently important elements would be lost. Therefore, I am limiting this to only a few characters who would be the sole aspec people in the narrative, not because I think aspec stories should be limited or because I think there should be fewer aspec characters, but because I believe these stories should showcase diversity of all kinds. However, in this thought experiment, I will be crafting not one aspec character per each piece of media, but two, because I also believe that the best way to showcase the varied and diverse nature of aspec identities is to show that in action. By having aspec people of various walks of life and who identify as different identities across the spectrum, I think it allows for representation to fully flourish.

That being said, I don’t think that “good” representation is inherently tied to terminology – that is to say, I don’t think a character has to use aspec terminology on screen in order for their stories to be exceptional from an aspec point of view. In fact, the two pieces of media I’ll be using for thought experiment purposes today don’t really benefit from terminology in my opinion – Dragon Age due to the fact that it takes place in a realm heavily inspired by medieval fantasy and Star Trek because it takes place so far in the future that most of this terminology seems to be rendered superfluous. In that way and in every other possible way, these hypothetical characters are designed to fit into the lore and worlds already built by these franchises that I love, still abiding by the rules and logic that are core to these universes.

Of course, I don’t work for these pieces of media and don’t know all the logistics that would go into making these things a reality; this is merely from a narrative standpoint. Naturally, the characters I’m crafting here are going to be very tailored to my own taste, so this is just one aspec person’s take on how this could go. My ideas of what makes good representation – and indeed, what makes interesting characters – may not be the same as your ideas. But I hope that this post can serve as an entertaining look at the types of aspec characters that might be interesting to exist in this world and beyond in a way that excites the imagination. Even if characters like this cannot and will not show up in my favorite pieces of media, it’s nevertheless fun to imagine that similar characters might show up in similar media someday. So, without further ado, let me share my ideas for how to do aspec representation in these pieces of media.

Thought Experiment: An aspec character in Dragon Age

Let’s start off this exploration with my favorite video game series, Dragon Age. If you’re unfamiliar with the franchise or my numerous posts about it, Dragon Age is a series of fantasy roleplaying video games taking place in the world of Thedas – a land of magic, diverse fantasy races, and some of my favorite characters of all time. The franchise spans four games, and in each game, you play a specific protagonist on a quest to save the world or just survive the tumultuous era that is the titular Dragon Age. Along the way, you will always find yourself with an eclectic cast of memorable characters, some we love and some we love to hate, whose stories will entwine with your own in meaningful ways spanning romance, friendship, rivalry and so much more.

As a roleplaying game, the decisions you make along the way when presented with various dilemmas shape much of the story around you, especially when it comes to the characters who choose to follow you, and your choices can greatly affect these characters and your dynamic with them. These choices lead to some of the most memorable moments throughout the franchise’s history, and truly make Dragon Age what it is. But it’s the characters themselves that really carry these moments, and so many of these characters represent diverse backgrounds, stories, genders, and identities. But something I’ve explored a great deal in the past is the way aspec characters are completely absent from Dragon Age’s narrative, and in some ways, the games even allow your choices to invalidate the slightly aspec elements we would otherwise have gotten in ways that are deeply disappointing.

Back when Dragon Age: The Veilguard came out, I remember talking with my best friend about how awesome it would have been if one of the companions (at the time, we had said Neve) had been a confident aspec person, who took a younger character under their wing and helped them understand their identity too. This was something we wished they had done with the character of Taash, whose non-binary representation became something of a controversy for many reasons, not the least of which was thanks to how poorly the representation was handled. Personally, I think this idea is a terrific one, and I think it would go a long way to have a character be unapologetically aspec and who could connect with a younger queer character to form an adorable mentor-mentee relationship.

Image description: Some concept art for Dragon Age 4 during its development cycle. While these characters don't represent the characters I'm imagining here, this is nevertheless a cool group.

I’d love to see that aspec character be a confident woman, middle-aged or older – someone who has been living her life boldly and fearlessly for years, who is the type of effortless queer woman that a younger queer person could look up to. I’ve previously discussed how aspec identities and aspec characters, especially older ones, are often treated as a cautionary tale to be avoided at all costs, so I think it could be incredibly powerful to have an older character who is someone to admire, not someone to pity. Whenever I need to cite an example of a character like this, I always turn to Madame Bonfamille, the older woman in the animated film The Aristocats, and while that may sound ridiculous, allow me to explain.

Madame Bonfamille, the elderly woman who owns Duchess and her kittens, is a character who is shown to have no husband or children, but who is not portrayed as a sad old maid or a wicked crone. Rather, she is shown to be elegant, warm, charming, and kind-hearted – all of which are impressive not only given how society teaches women to fear aging, but also because women who forego marriage and motherhood are not often portrayed as so overtly good. As such, I always use her as my barometer for what a character without a spouse or children can and should be portrayed as, an easy way to sidestep otherwise problematic tropes, and I think an elegant and noble character within the Dragon Age universe could stand to do likewise. Having an aspec character who is so unapologetically themselves would be incredible, and very important for representation.

Naturally, it’s impossible for me to really discuss what a character like this would do in the narrative when I’m speaking so hypothetically. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of The Veilguard’s release, the future of Dragon Age is deeply uncertain, so it’s not as though we have a potential plot for Dragon Age 5 or anything even remotely like it. Therefore, I can’t really describe how I picture this story unfolding and all of these ideas are very general, focused more on the character than any type of actual role they might have. What I can explore, however, is how I picture such a companion functioning within the narrative – what does she bring to the team, what does she bring to the story, and how do I picture her functioning as aspec representation?

Continuing with that previous thread, I believe her personality should be vibrant and memorable in the way a character like Dorian Pavus was in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Of course, since Dragon Age is at its best when you can explore the complexities of the characters around you, it would be interesting if this character’s confidence, while real and genuine, was hard fought after many years of finding herself and learning to accept who she was. Maybe she could be a noblewoman who fled her noble life so she didn’t have to be forced into an arranged marriage, not unlike Dorian.

I could picture her as being part of the Orlesian nobility; in the series, Orlais is a powerful and dangerous empire full of scheming and political machinations that the people refer to as the “Game”, so perhaps escaping the Game was difficult for this character, but she did what she had to do in order to live her own life. To that end, maybe her personal quest in the game involves having to go back to the family she abandoned so many years ago in order to settle some sort of conflict, like a land or title dispute, and our influence can help her decide how she handles the problem. There is a risk that this type of plotline retreads some of what Inquisition already did with Dorian, of course, but I think there could be a variety of reactions from her family to seeing her again after such a long time.

Her parents, if they’re still alive, could be angry and resentful. Her siblings could either be glad to see their sister again or annoyed that she is still technically the family heir. Perhaps she has nieces and nephews now who have heard stories of her exploits and now look at her as an almost mythical figure, all of which could lead to interesting stories. Additionally, a game like The Veilguard added different factions to its story, and it would be interesting to have something inherently baked into this plot where the aspec character’s family is an important part of one of those factions, leading to interesting discussions and plot points.

I think it would be amazing to discuss this character’s life with her, and to hear about her choices. This could come out in conversations if you have a good relationship with her and she tells you about how she ended up living the life she currently has. It could potentially even come up if you try to romance her. Something I love about how the more diverse romances in Inquisition are played out is that certain characters will politely turn down your efforts to flirt with them if they’re not interested in the player for reasons related to their sexuality. I can easily picture the same thing happening with this aspec companion.

Something else I could picture would be having these conversations with her, and then being able to affirm that you’ve had similar experiences, thus being able to identify your own character as aspec too. I think it would be best if this character was never explicitly identified as aromantic and/or asexual, since the use of more modern terminology was heavily scrutinized by players when it came to Taash identifying on-screen as “non-binary” rather than a more time period friendly or universe appropriate term. While a lot of this criticism had bigoted roots, there were plenty of people who supported the representation or who even identified as non-binary themselves who found the use of this terminology odd or even off-putting, something I explored in my previous post about Taash. For that reason, I wouldn’t want a canonically aspec character in Dragon Age to be identified as such, which is always a bit of a problem because it allows players to dismiss a character’s aspec identity, but I think it could still work with good writing.

This leads me back to my earlier point, where I mentioned my bestie and I brainstorming a cool plotline we wished had been used in The Veilguard. As I said at the beginning of this section, at the time, we thought it would be interesting to have an aspec character mentoring another young queer person, and I think this concept could easily work with my proposed aspec character. While I think it would be amazing to have an aspec mentor taking care of any number of young queer folks of varying identities, I also think it would be incredible to have their mentee be aspec too – a notion which reminds me a lot of Seven of Nine and Icheb from Star Trek: Voyager, both of whom always read to me as having aspec vibes.

To that end, I think it would be fun to make this other character male, especially since I think our media doesn’t have enough male aspec characters, nor does it do a good job of portraying non-sexual and/or non-romantic men and boys. If this mentee character was a bit older, I can picture them being set up to be a shy, sweet, heroic type, making it seem like they would be perfect for a romance, only to have him politely reject the player. I could see that dynamic as being quite similar to the character of Dusa in the video game Hades, where instead the player character and this aspec character can become devoted friends.

While romances are an integral part of any type of roleplaying game like Dragon Age, I think the fandom gets far too hung up on them – something I’ve explored with characters like Josephine, Cullen, and especially Lucanis, all of whom have very aspec tendencies that most players tend to ignore. There always seems to be a section of the fandom who judges characters based on how romancable they are and who look down on characters who don’t offer this playstyle. Having not only one character but two who are aspec would be interesting to me, because it would encourage the audience to see these characters as people and would force people to pay attention to their stories, not their physical appearances or romantic storylines. While I’m not naïve enough to think that people wouldn’t still want to romance these characters or try to use them in ships, it would be terrific to have such unapologetically aspec representation that doesn’t bow to the whims of shipping and/or romance paths.

But I can also picture this character being a bit younger, even potentially a teenager, thus completely locking them off from being a romantic consideration. Making this character a teenager is something my friend and I discussed in that original thought experiment, and she proposed something I really liked, which was having that character’s youth be part of the decision of how you play your character. Are you someone who welcomes and accepts this character, despite their age and inexperience? Are you someone who becomes a friend to them, acting as a mentor or even an older sibling? Or do you choose the harsher options of ignoring them, dismissing them, and scolding them? Maybe you even have the option of treating them so poorly that they leave, and the older aspec character who was mentoring them leaves too, leading to problems down the line.

I love this concept, and think it would be a fascinating dynamic with a ton of story potential and character development potential, which is why I think a teen character would work beautifully in this scenario. Again, this could even allow you as the player to choose your identity when talking to this character, because you could potentially relate to his struggles. But even if you chose not to, having the other aspec character be there would allow for that story to play out in the background. They could have amazing banter together where she encourages him, tells him her story, and assures him that it’s okay to feel the way he feels – maybe she’s even the reason why he comes to accept his aspec identity.

Image description: Another piece of DA4's concept art. This doesn't entirely fit my idea for the female aspec character in this thought experiment, but the vibes are kinda there

Okay, I know this is a lot, so let’s put all that together, starting with the first aspec character I mentioned. For ease, throughout this example, I’ve decided to name the female aspec character Adelaine (a subtle nod to the aforementioned character in The Aristocats, whose first name is Adelaide). In her youth, Adelaine was a well-to-do Orlesian noblewoman from an old and powerful family called the Desrosiers. She was the oldest of the Desrosiers’ four children, and as such, was expected to make a politically advantageous marriage, which her parents began arranging when she came of age and was formally presented in Orlesian society. Everything seemed like it would be poised so that Adelaine had a bright future as the wife of a wealthy Orlesian nobleman appropriate to her station, but the idea of marriage and producing heirs starts to weigh on her. Her concerns, however, are dismissed, and she finds she has to take drastic measures, running away from her family and never looking back.

By the time the player character meets Adelaine, years have passed from this initial event. She’s much older and wiser now, and has lived a life of adventure, which leads to both incredible stories and thoughtful insights. But she’s far from past her prime, and her dialogue – as well as her banter with other companions – would show that over the long years of having to defend herself, she picked up some skills along the way, and wields a rogue’s abilities. This could be another way to tie her into the world of the story, since there are many factions throughout the world of Thedas whose skills she could have picked up, from the Orlesian bards (assassins who are also skilled performers, allowing them to engage in subterfuge, spying, and sabotage, all on the sly) to the Antivan Crows (a legendary guild of assassins well known to players of the Dragon Age games).

Adelaine joins your player character on whatever the quest to save Thedas is this time, and it is here she connects with the other aspec character – our young male character, who I’ll call Oliver. Unlike Adelaine, Oliver is far more shy, far more reserved, and as a result, is far less confident in his identity, and so hearing about how this woman was brave enough to leave her family behind to live her truth leads to an adorable instance of hero worship. I picture Oliver as likely having no family at all, and he joins the group because he believes very passionately in doing the right thing and believes that this is his chance for his life to actually mean something.

I also picture that he’s one of the group’s warriors – utterly matching the idea of a typical knight errant or sword-wielding Prince Charming, making it all the more impactful that he’s aspec. And of course, whether or not he’s a teenager, Adelaine will protect him and take him under her wing, helping him to understand the validity of his identity and experiences, assuring him he’s not alone. Your player character could either be their good friend or their enemy, but whatever the case, Adelaine and Oliver will be a packaged deal, and their ending will always be that they stick together, no matter what, becoming the family they each deserve.

I am a firm believer that aspec representation should make sense and should fit into the story organically – a belief I hold even more thanks to the failures of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s botched representation. In this scenario I’ve created, I really did my best to balance the way the characters are portrayed as aspec characters, but also just as characters in general, and how they fit into the narrative. While this may just be a thought experiment and isn’t actually real, I think this idea should be the way media of all kinds handle their aspec characters, if not their queer characters in general. By making these characters matter to the story as well as to each other and to the player character, they become more than a walking exposition dump that exists to teach the player about their identity; rather, they feel like real people who really live in the world and interact with it accordingly.

These characters should be tied into the plot, the world, and the lore in ways that move the story forward, not force it to grind to a halt, and if the storylines surrounding them are compelling, that is only to the benefit of the story as a whole as well as the characters, not to mention the representation behind them. The best way to teach people about representation is to make the characters and their stories memorable, and allow them to be a part of that in ways that actually matter, not have these characters lecture the audience in a way that codes as condescending or unbelievable. While these examples work for Dragon Age, of course, I believe these things are essential for any story that includes aspec representation or even just aspec-friendly plotlines. And I think they would be especially relevant for the universe where my next thought experiment is set.

Thought Experiment: An aspec character in Star Trek

Moving from fantasy to sci-fi, let’s next explore my ideas for an aspec character in perhaps the most seminal piece of science fiction media and my personal favorite: Star Trek. Spanning several decades of movies and TV shows, the Star Trek franchise primarily takes place several hundred years in the future at a time where humanity has moved past the problems of today and is part of Starfleet – a peaceful federation of different planets across the galaxy whose mission is one of peaceful exploration. Although each series is varied and they deal with different overarching stories, the core of the series is always the motto “to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that I often describe Star Trek as my very first fandom, because I began watching it with my parents as a child (especially Star Trek: Voyager) and it kindled my love for science fiction from there on out. To this day, I still adore Star Trek for its optimistic vision of the future, a time period in which humanity has been able to move on to more altruistic purposes. But, as with any media that looks to the future, this vision of things can often be limited by the present, even as it tries to look forward.

As I’m sure many queer fans can doubtless tell you, Star Trek has always struggled a bit with queer diversity throughout the series, and efforts to include queer representation have been hit or miss over the years. When it comes to aspec representation or even just allowing characters to be accepted as non-sexual and/or non-romantic, this gets even worse; even more modern Trek series, which ostensibly should be more able to accept and portray a variety of queer identities, including those on the asexual and aromantic spectrums, struggle with this notion. This, of course, is not a problem just limited to Star Trek, however, but one that I think is a larger problem with science fiction in general.

Discussing aspec characters in any piece of sci-fi media is always tricky, and Star Trek is no exception. It seems almost inevitable sometimes that whenever a character in a piece of science fiction media displays unique attitudes to sex and/or romance or resists the usual societal focus surrounding these things, that character is not human in some way. Whether that means the character is literally part of an alien race or is somehow outside of “normal” instances of humanity the way Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine is, these characters may not be explicitly aspec, but the fact that they reject typical ideas about sex or romance are always inherently portrayed as “other.”

As such, if I was looking for canon aspec representation in Star Trek, I would definitely want a human aspec character to make it clear that living without sex and/or romance is not an inherently alien thing. But something Star Trek has always done exceptionally well is in making us love and care about the various types of alien characters that are a part of Starfleet, and has succeeded in portraying human struggles through these lenses on various occasions. Although I could list many alien races and characters who fall under this category, I think it’s safe to say that the best known alien race in the franchise – one which I’d say has even become synonymous with Star Trek in general – is of course the Vulcans. As such, if I had to come up with an aspec character who wasn’t human, I would make them Vulcan, specifically a Vulcan who doesn’t experience pon farr.

Two years ago, I did a whole post discussing why I believe this element of Star Trek lore is so inherently problematic, and so I highly recommend reading that post to get some background on this topic. To summarize things briefly, however, pon farr is the Vulcan mating urge, one which affects both male and female Vulcans, and which seems to be unavoidable. First introduced in The Original Series, the idea of pon farr comes up again in several TOS adjacent films, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise, cementing it as something of a mainstay of Vulcan culture as portrayed in the franchise.

Image description: The planet Vulcan as portrayed in the TOS episode "Amok Time," the first time we're introduced to pon farr as a concept. Image obtained from Memory Alpha.

One of the things that makes pon farr so problematic in my eyes is the fact that it is unavoidable – ostensibly all Vulcans experience it and they all must act on it in some way or else face dire consequences. While pon farr can sometimes be taken care of via intense meditation, the various series often go out of their way to show us instances in which this does not work, and pon farr must be excised from these Vulcans either through deadly bloodsport or, of course, “mating.” In some cases, that’s literal, as it’s even described that these pon farr cycles are occasionally when Vulcan pairs conceive their children, and while it’s established that Vulcans do not only have sex during these pon farr cycles, the idea that sex during pon farr is almost always inevitable is kind of iffy from a consent standpoint.

To me, pon farr always felt like an attempt to inject sexual tension into the otherwise stoic and “emotionless” Vulcan race, something which is strange to me on the face of it. It’s as if Star Trek cannot imagine a fully stoic race, and has to titillate the audience with the promise that sometimes “baser” urges kick in and transform the Vulcans into something else. The idea that this is not optional for Vulcans feels like it too closely mirrors the way most of society assumes everyone in the world experiences sexual attraction, and this is why I think a Vulcan who doesn’t experience pon farr would make for a great metaphor for asexuality while also staying lore appropriate.

In addition to being lore appropriate, I think it would also allow for the lore of Vulcan society to be expanded in interesting ways, especially if a character like this was a main character or was interacting with one – even potentially another Vulcan. The franchise makes it clear that pon farr is very private; Vulcans don’t even like discussing it with other Vulcans, let alone with their non-Vulcan friends and crewmates. Therefore, having a Vulcan who very obviously is not experiencing pon farr would create some interesting tension. How successfully is the character able to hide that fact? How does it affect their relationships? Are they able to be more open about these things primarily because they don’t experience the same embarrassment at this loss of logic (or whatever it is the Vulcans think about pon farr)?

Of course, since Vulcans are able to otherwise experience romantic and sexual attraction even outside of pon farr, having a character who doesn’t experience the Vulcan mating urge makes them aspec-adjacent, but maybe doesn’t quite make them fully aspec. How would I rectify that? Circling back to my earlier point about wanting a human aspec character as well, I think it would be terrific to have this Vulcan character interact with an aspec human, who could understand their experiences at least on some level. Personally, I think that would work best if the aspec human was a core feature of their series, whether that means they’re a member of the bridge crew or otherwise play an important role on the ship.

In crafting this human character, this is probably where I would most need to set my biases aside. I think it would be very tempting to have this character experience discrimination for being aspec, something which admittedly kind of flies in the face of Star Trek’s ideals and would largely be a projection of the frustrations I feel at watching how the franchise has treated its non-sexual and/or non-romantic characters over the years. Additionally, for people who come to this franchise for optimism and hope for the future, I think having an aspec character be actively discriminated against by their friends and crewmates would be extremely unpleasant.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t poke at that notion a little bit. For instance, I could have the human character otherwise be accepted and understood, but could have them complain about archaic tropes in a holodeck story they try to play; something harmless, fun, and understandable for their perspective. I also think that, while I would probably choose to avoid using explicit aspec terminology for this character, they could be marked as aspec fairly easily by the story. I’ve always been amused by the notion of what might happen if an aspec crewmember went to the pleasure planet Risa, for instance, or how they would react in one of those absurd episodes where a space virus or weird glitch is supposed to make everyone frisky. While I certainly wouldn’t want an episode where all consent is stripped away and everyone is pairing off like that, I admit it would be hilarious to have the aspec character have to be the one to save the day by virtue of being the only one who can’t be swayed by such a thing, or otherwise have them standing there in stark confusion amid the chaos.

But, as per my belief that the best way to explore aspec identities is to allow aspec characters to interact, it would be very interesting to have the human aspec character and the Vulcan who doesn’t experience pon farr get to interact in deep and meaningful ways. Maybe the human character helps the Vulcan realize that they don’t experience sexual or romantic attraction either, and that’s okay. Or maybe they help them realize they do experience romantic attraction, but not sexual attraction, and that’s okay too. I honestly think the possibilities are endless. Human and Vulcan friendships are iconic in Star Trek history thanks to Kirk and Spock, and one of my personal favorite friendships in any piece of media ever is the friendship between Captain Janeway and Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager. Therefore, the possibility of two aspec besties who also fit into this box is simply the stuff my Trekkie dreams are made of.

Image description: Janeway and Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager - aka, my fave human and Vulcan bestie duo

As with my Dragon Age example, let’s put all of this together into a more cohesive idea, starting with the Vulcan character. While it’s far more difficult to come up with a name for this character than it was for my Dragon Age thought experiment, I decided to stick with traditional Vulcan naming conventions for her and landed on T’ana – which is in and of itself a nod to the legendary Star Trek writer, Dorothy “DC” Fontana. T’ana’s early life would be relatively standard for any Vulcan, right up until the time when she was set to experience her first pon farr, at which point she is confused to find she experiences nothing. Due to the inherently private nature of pon farr, it would be difficult for her to discuss this with anyone, even her own family members, and she would logically come to assume that for some biological reason, she is going to experience it later than other Vulcans her own age.

Seven years later, however, she would find that she once again does not experience the cycle. And, if choosing to make her more traditionally aspec, it could be established that she has felt no desire to find a romantic and/or sexual partner during this time at all, and certainly has felt no increased drive to do so at any point in her life. By this point, it becomes clear that she is not having the typical Vulcan experience, and Vulcan logic might dictate that there is something “wrong” with her, something her own logic might even agree with at first. But when it’s proved that there’s nothing wrong with her and this is just how she was biologically made, I imagine she would find herself unable to reconcile her life with the rest of Vulcan society.

Perhaps, at this point, T’ana might be inspired to join Starfleet, given how she will never be able to truly fit into Vulcan society as someone who is outside of what their culture understands. By being in Starfleet and surrounded by individuals from an array of diverse species, she could feel more at ease, especially since no one would likely know or discuss this with her, given the aforementioned private nature of pon farr and how little it’s understood by other cultures anyway. I think this backstory would especially make sense if a character like T’ana was part of the main crew, since most Star Trek series follow a ship and its crew for the duration of a story, and thus we could follow this notion and explore its impact on the lore throughout more than an episode or two, developing T’ana as a character along the way.

It is here that T’ana could meet our human character, and I could honestly see a lot of different paths for this character, as eluded to above. I think we could have another amazing male-female platonic friendship, like Janeway and Tuvok, or it could be interesting instead to have a Vulcan female have a human female bestie instead, or even have the human character be non-binary or a similar identity if we really wanted to boldly go to the places the franchise has otherwise only just started to explore. So, for the sake of allowing all of these possibilities to be true at once, I’m going to refer to this character with “they/them” pronouns and call them a unisex name so their exact gender, role, etc. can be up to your whims as you read. In this case, I’ve decided to call them “Kit,” since Kit can be short for either Katherine or Christopher – something which is extra fitting when you consider Kathryn and Christopher are the names of two of my favorite Star Trek captains of all time, the aforementioned Captain Kathryn Janeway of Voyager and Captain Christopher Pike as portrayed in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Similarly to how I think Kit could be a character who fits into a lot of different roles narratively, I think they could also conceivably have a lot of different roles on the ship. For instance, it could be incredibly fun to have them be a cocksure pilot like Voyager’s Tom Paris, only to have absolutely none of the charm and womanizing that he had in the early seasons. However, in my mind, I keep coming back to having Kit be a part of the medical team onboard a ship – perhaps a medical apprentice or someone lower ranking in sickbay. I think perhaps my mind keeps going there because I feel like that could be how Kit first comes to learn T’ana’s story. Despite pon farr being very private, Kit could be prepared to deal with it at least somewhat or could even be on hand for a routine medical check up where the subject is brought up, even by T’ana herself, but that’s just a side possibility for this story; I think there is otherwise plenty of opportunity for Kit and T’ana to become friends and to quickly realize that they understand this part of each other.

Furthermore, depending on how involved T’ana is in the plot, I think having any ally like Kit in her corner could be extremely impactful, taking this beyond just an aspec friendship and turning it into an opportunity for an aspec character to advocate for another aspec character in ways that could be incredibly meaningful. It could be played that she can’t entirely escape the prejudice she faces on Vulcan, but that Kit is there to back her up in ways that reinforce not only the strength of their platonic bond, but the strength that comes about from two queer people supporting each other no matter what. Something that is always deeply appealing about human-Vulcan friendships is the emotion of the human character contrasted with the relative lack of emotion from the Vulcan one, and I imagine this could go to very interesting places as an unemotional character defends their human friend and vice versa.

Just like I said in the previous section, I firmly believe the secret sauce to creating great representation brought to us by equally great and complex characters lies in tying them to the world’s rules and lore while also letting them shine in the plot. There’s no series better for a variety of shenanigans than Star Trek, and getting to see these characters live and breathe within a diverse array of stories is what makes them truly impactful. For instance, the character of Hemmer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was only in the series a short time, but was able to become a deeply influential character just based on being allowed to be part of the story and its world, and by building bonds with the characters, so that we continue to care about him long beyond when he’s left the series. This is the same way we could introduce aspec representation – not by halting the plot to lecture or deride, but by crafting characters that people will care about and hope to see succeed as they boldly go where no one – and where no aspec person – has gone before.

Image description: Spock in TOS doing the now famous "Vulcan salute," which is usually accompanied by the iconic phrase of "live long and prosper."

Honestly, I could go on and on about this topic – and, as the word count for it shows, I certainly did – so much so that I think I’ll be exploring this topic again in a future thought experiment down the line. As I said earlier, the goal of these thought experiments is not to postulate what I think will happen in these pieces of media, or to even say that they should. It’s certainly not to claim that I could do better than the creators and writers of these stories, nor is it to say that my ideas are the be all to end all of representation and storytelling. Instead, what I wanted to convey with these thought experiments is that it’s possible. It’s entirely possible to craft aspec characters and stories that fit the world these pieces of media created. It’s possible to create aspec characters that don’t have to be fixed, dismissed, or devalued, but who can instead be integral parts of the stories they find themselves in. And it’s possible to do so in very meaningful ways. If I can do it in just a few short weeks of writing a blog post, I know other writers can do it too, and I sincerely hope they do.

But above all, my main goal with this post was to add a bit of counterbalance to the way I usually analyze these pieces of media. As I’ve said many times, I love these pieces of media and I only critique the way they fumble aspec representation because I believe they had perfect opportunities to portray aspec identities and chose not to, or else are so diverse that it makes their refusal to include aspec stories all the more glaring. I do my best to walk a fine line between demanding aspec representation in places where it does not make sense and pointing out missed opportunities, so it was nice today to have a bit more freedom to speculate, brainstorm, and generally play in my own sandbox with these franchises as a background. At the end of the day, I’ll always love these pieces of media, even when I feel they fall short on the ideal, and I’ll never stop enjoying them. But every now and then, it’s fun to dream, and where better to dream than in the pieces of media that most set my imagination on fire?