hey melliot ! is jason anywhere on the aroace spectrum ?? idk if i’m reading into it too much, but as someone on the aroace spectrum, i don’t know seemed very aroace spectrum-y to me lols

Hi! Thank you for the question- I'm glad you connected to Jason through that lens and his story resonated with you!

This is a common reading of Jason's arc, and I want to reiterate what I've said on this blog before about death of the author and our intentions with the work not making fan headcanons "wrong" or "inaccurate"- your readings and connections to the material give it life and meaning beyond what we could have possibly dreamed of on our own!

The short answer is that I didn't intend for Jason to read as somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum when I wrote his arc. The long answer is below the cut!

I didn't intend to code Jason as asexual/aromantic when I was writing Princes, partially because I did think about coding Jason as autistic and wanted to avoid the stereotypical "autistic and asexual" character archetype. I think ace readings of Jason tend to read Jason's autism-coded interactions towards Maya (which I wrote more about here; moments like "don't you think it's weird you've never seen my body?" "well I'm seeing it now, aren't I?") as lack of interest in romance/sex in general. When I was writing it, I intended for Maya's female gender presentation to affect Jason's attitude towards romance and sex when he's dating her, but these interactions are not supposed to be representative of Jason's attitude towards romance and sex in general (similarly with reading 'I Don't Know' as about asexuality or aromanticism; Jason's arc isn't done yet, and what he says he feels in 'I Don't Know' -- which I intended to be "I guess I'm not in love with this objectively attractive female-presenting person" -- is only one piece to the puzzle. "I Don't Know" was in many ways the predecessor of "I Love You, I Swear" -- except in the latter, the character is already fully conscious of his attraction to men.) Jason is not interested in romance/sex with Maya because he is not attracted to women (which, Maya's gender stuff nonwithstanding, is how Jason perceives her) -- but I intended him to read as very much attracted to Louis and wanting to have a romantic relationship with him (and enjoying that romantic relationship, once it begins).

I think another reason my intention for Jason to be explicitly attracted to men doesn't always get across is that Jason's arc, more than anyone else's, was conceived of as a narrative about internalized homophobia, which by necessity requires some sense of homophobia existing -- not always a given in the Princes world. The expectations for straight people in the palace aren't as fleshed out simply because everyone but Jason is already, publicly or privately, part of the queer counterculture. Unlike anyone else in the main 5, Jason is still really trying to be the Perfect Straight Guy, inside and out. He has to overcome his internalized homophobia and reject the privilege of being perceived as straight in order to admit his love for Louis- no small task, and one that sends him into a spiral of despair when he realizes simply performing love for a woman isn't enough for her or for him. I tried to leave hints of this throughout -- his flustered aside about Louis' outfit during Talk About It With You, the musical and lyrical contrast between I Don't Know and If I Knew You Then, his verse during Love and Everything -- but it's not given much screentime simply because he isn't the main character. His struggles with how to reject power that comes with a terrible cost provide a counterpoint to Louis', and therefore didn't need as much nuance as Louis' does.

To get a little personal, I have been thinking about how common this reading is for a while, actually. Without going into too much detail, when I was quite young, my lack of interest in a bad romantic partner lead me to conclude that I was asexual. Subsequently, I dated a series of women, both because I was expected to due to my gender presentation, and because I figured if I was asexual either way, not being attracted to them wouldn't be a problem. I got a bit older and discovered I was in fact attracted to men- those emotions and desires simply hadn't existed earlier because of my age and inexperience. (I want to make explicitly clear that for some people those desires never exist, and that is awesome! And that being allo is in no way "better" than being ace- it just wasn't the right label for me, and that mismatch was causing me distress the same way I imagine it does for ace people trying to be allo.) Finally allowing myself to admit that I was attracted to men as a man was such a relief that I wanted to explore this experience in the figure of a gay man dealing with compulsory heterosexuality in Princes, which was written shortly after I had this realization in the first place.

If I were to psychoanalyze the script, I think this personal experience I had is why some parts of Jason's arc resonate so strongly with the ace community- like me, he goes through a period of believing himself to be something like asexual and aromantic, so reading "I Don't Know" that way isn't totally antithetical to the intentions of the script. On a broader level, however, I think ace people connecting to Jason reflects a wonderful moment of queer solidarity- how it is a common queer experience, regardless of your specific orientation, to come up against where society's romantic and sexual expectations for you differ from what you really want. Having to navigate that struggle is something we'll all be dealing with as long as there is an assumed cisgender, heterosexual, allosexual default, and if my art helps another queer person get the confidence to say "screw you" to those norms and pursue what they want for themself, I'm completely happy.

~Mel

P.S. I used "ace" as a catchall term here for "asexual and aromantic," but I know they're very different! I'd say in my opinion that there's a stronger argument for Jason being asexual (in the text) than aromantic (in the text), since the text deals with Jason's desire for a romantic relationship with Louis more than his physical desire for him. I can see a very fun reading where Jason and Louis are both asexual and in a happy romantic marriage at the end, which would also tie into Louis' discomfort with the pressure to perform sexually for his previous partners. I'm also not trying to say that no reading of Jason as somewhere on the ace/aro spectrum is compatible with the text as written- for example, we never see him try to date men other than Louis, so he isn't explicitly not demisexual. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't thinking of him that way when I wrote his arc, so ace readings are more of a happy accident.

r u gay

howd you know wtf

i just saw my brother shout “BOMBASTIC SIDE EYE !!!!!” to literally no one while running down the stairs what the fuck

hey loser . r u a loser .

hey homo . r u a homo .

this is under my art layer bro. @msreporter remember this

for FUCK'S sake apparently the cbc msreported and we're still waiting. I CANNOT DO ANOTHER ELECTION I'm so worried

that sucks though omg put bc out of its misery

hey melliot ! sorry to bother you again, but ehat country is taopp set in ? asking for a friend. :3

It's a fantasy kingdom! So not an irl place, lol - Elliot

we do not support jock boyfriends on this account ! the only jock we support here on the msreporter tumblr account is ambrose bassford he/him classics !!