Comics Doctor Aphra #1-6: Aphra (6/6 Released)

Asexuality is often a common theme found in fiction when one of the characters has gone through a very significant personal tragedy in their pre-teen years. The ability to love and feel love is a learned trait. Prior to their teen years most kids experiences in feeling love comes mainly from their parents and other close family members. When you abruptly take that away at such a tender age and little is done to try to repair the damage created by that loss it can significantly affect the childs ability to associate with other people in the future. Though the ability to feel sexual attraction is something we are born with the ability to make sense of it is a learned trait. In these fictional stories the character is really unable to feel sexual attraction as well because all they know of those feelings is that they bring them back to the memory of the loss of their parents.

Now in real life it is likely much more complicated than that but in fiction it is often generalized to that level. Lots of fiction stories go down that route and though the Darth Vader comic didn't delve into it that much you could really get hints of it going in that direction as well when Aphra was talking to Padme's coroner and in the Rebel Jail arc when trying to explain to Sana her difficulties in dealing with people.

So at this point I think we can mainly define Aphra as being Asexual. She doesn't have the ability to feel attraction to anyone. Sure she may know how to have sex but that doesn't necessarily mean she gets any satisfaction from sex.

 

That is not how asexuality works. We are not broken people and sex is not love.

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I can say that the character's sexuality is the last thing that comes to mind when I read a story or anything really.

 

Technically it is defined as the inability to feel sexual attraction to anyone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality

 

At the risk of continuing a line of discussion perhaps better suited to the diversity thread...are you a member of the LGBTQ community? Representation tends not to matter to people who are commonly represented.

 

No. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality asexuality or whatever name they have today, I never cared about this stuff. That's not what I'm looking for in a story. Same thing for skin color.

 

Yeah that's...exactly what I'm talking about. If you see yourself reflected plenty, there's a tendency to think the value other people place on seeing themselves is frivolous.

 

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Don't mansplain explain asexuality to an asexual.

What you have described in your longer post is partly a Freudian type of a thing, partly one of the discarded definition bits of the Histrionic and Borderline personality disorders, where everything is blamed on evil mothers. Freudian psychology is more or less outdated, the latter two are not necessarily co-morbid with any sexual orientation. On the contrary, both are known for "acting out" in different ways: an individual with HPD is demonstratively seductive, an individual with BPD may or may not engage in too much sex as a part of one of their impulsive, self-destructive patterns.

Asexuality is not co-morbid with any personality disorder by default, though the social isolation some of us experience could lead to developing one later in life, same for mood, eating on any other disorder. This basically applies to any non-cishet (a heterosexual person whose gender is identical to their biological sex), so it's not sensational.

The Wikipedia link supplies one of the possible definitions of asexuality, which is also the one found on the hero header (sorry, webdev lingo here ) of AVEN - http://www.asexuality.org/home/. But that Asexuality is a spectrum, some asexuals do feel sexual attraction, but not strong enough to act on it in any way, some may be autosexuals, some feel sexual attraction only to very specific individuals and may lack the classic primary sex drive, the physical response as it is. We can be aromantic - which does not mean a monster who cannot feel love - but we can also love deeply and yearn for romantic attachment which does not necessarily have to include sex. The framework is still in the making and it cannot be limited to just one definition.

The person who cannot feel love would more likely be a psychopath. Psychopathy and asexuality are not linked.

Hope that helps.

This said, I do not see Dr. Aphra as an asexual (though, heck yes, I would welcome an asexual character to anything, because Sheldons and Amys of the world just don't represent the rest of us), or as a person who has any of the above mentioned PDs.

Yes, that's how it works. Take a popular celebrity who's clearly not well in the head and experiencing a classic child star gone "bad" shtick because the media, executives and old pervs control her while letting her believe she's fully in control, and assume they represent all of us.

I sort of get what you're trying to say, but you're saying it in a way that's dismissing all of us.

Yup, the fact that women exist in places other than kitchens is super-edgy! Watch me use the computer!

 

Oh, you pretty things can't use a computer without it exploding. Women, know your limits!

 

So I'd put good money down inside of the first arc we have a bona-fide flashback to Aphra's "back story" that she told. It seems like a key thing for the character to expand on, especially on her own friggin book, as opposed to having it be relegated to a single page in an issue of Darth Vader before this series. I hope Kid Aphra did make an "awesome gun" and blew up everyone.

 

In the interview Gillen gave he did confirm that at least part of Aphra's story was true. In that her parents split up and her mom was killed in the war. Now rather or not her dad ever came back for her remains a mystery. Given though that he said that a big part of the story will be about the conflict she has with her dad I'd say he probably did infact abandon her permanently. We'll see though.

 

She could also be a rebellious person whose circumstances were far different than what we saw in her Naboo balcony rant. There are many possibilities.

 

Yes, I really hope we get a detailed flashback to kid Aphra in this series. I'm also curious about her spiritual mother, in what did Aphra's mom believe?

 

Pretty sure the "massive gun" is just something Aphra tells herself to make herself feel better about being helpless while her mother was killed.

I agree that we'll probably see Aphra's father at some point, place your bets on what he'll turn out to be- Ten credits on him being a rebel general!

 

When are we going to see her and Vader again ?
That's one of the more interesting relationships in Starwars

 

Not if it's Post ESB Vader where he's starting the turn

 

I dont want to over talk an actual asexual but I think some posters are mixing asexual and being an out and out sociopath.

 

That's possible. We were talking about sexual orientation though and asexual would be the closest Aphra would be like as she likely (in my opinion) would have very little to no sexual drive. But being a psychopath or sociopath would probably be the more accurate term.

 

I think you people have thought about this more than Aphra herself has.

 

Lol. True. But hey. Talking about all the effects a crazy girls family dying had on her brings back memories of this scene





And anything that can bring back memories of that crazy wacko is only a good thing.

 

We will get three new variant covers for Doctor Aphra #1, here a little tease:
https://jedi-bibliothek.de/blog/2016/10/marvel-variants-star-wars-25-doctor-aphra-1/

 

I think this'll move a lot, Civil War II is winding down and DC's Rebirth is hitting it's second stretch so people will want to jump on a shiny new #1 in December.

 

Just a note for those in the London (UK) area - or will be on Dec 7 - that Kieron Gillen and Kev Walker will be doing a signing at the Forbidden Planet Megastore. You can get more information here on the FP website.

 

Some speculation about a possible connection between Star Wars #25 and Doctor Aphra #3.

Spoiler

According to the solicits for Star Wars #26, one of the rebels will be captured and imprisoned at the end of The Last Flight of the Harbinger in Star Wars #25.
And in Doctor Aphra #3, Aphra will land in an imperial encampment.
What if the captured Rebel from Star Wars #25 will end up in that same encampment from Doctor Aphra #3 and then encounters Aphra?
Maybe it is Sana who will be captured. Imagine both Aphra's and Sana's reaction if they meet in such an environment again. I don't know if this will happen, but it would be somewhat funny if it does.