>>113615857Aromantic is where you want nothing close, but may still pursue orgasms. Not necessarily with someone, or you view it purely in the terms of chemical effects on the body.
Asexual is without sex. You might still cuddle, or want to live like you are dating or married, but are not interested in having sex or may just not enjoy it. Some don’t masturbate either.
Separating people who are asexual due to preference, as in they legitimately don’t want it, from people who are that way because of issues, such as strong aversion to odors from sexual fluids or traumatic events such as being molested or were trapped in a bad relationship giving them anxiety, muddles things quite a bit. By most estimates true asexuals and aromantics lifelong are VERY rare. Couple this with “confirmed bachelor” AKA being lumped in with gay folks in the closet and you have a marginal but also marginalized group. They get very little support beyond token lip service at best from most LGBTQ+ groups and are generally seen to be more on the hetero side of things in that while less people understand them, very few people aside from family members pushing them into starting families and a few teasing social peers actually look down on them.
In the context of Steven Universe it gets muddled; Fusion is both romantic and platonic. It can mean as little as an important shared goal, temporary partnership, or a friendship built on a modicum of trust or as much as being lovers or the connection between family.
Aromantic could describe most Gems other than Garnet, Pearl, Rhodonite, Pink Diamond, and Flourite. Asexual describes all of them that we know of other than Garnet, Pearl, and Pink Diamond. Possibly that hippie Quartz too.
So representing Aromantic Asexuals doesn’t prohibit Fusion in regards to Peridot. She could just not want to, or be unable to. Not wanting to merge permanently or have sex with Steven or Lapis or whoever doesn’t make her unable to Fuse.
