Fence by C.S. Pacat & Johanna the Mad follows the journey of underdog Nicholas Cox as he earns a coveted spot on the Kings Row fencing team. Unbeknown to his teammates and his rival/roommate Seiji Katayama, Nicholas is the illegitimate son of world-renowned fencer and Kings Row alum Robert Coste. Against all odds, Nicholas is driven to become a fencing legend to finally reclaim his place in the world from his half-brother and current champion Jesse Coste.
How does a character like Aiden affect representation of queer characters overall?
A long established trope of “sports anime,” from which Fence borrows heavily from, is the use of homoerotic tension. From a narrative point of view, this can be considered an expected element in the world building. Sports are inherently charged with homoeroticism due to their homosocial nature and as a socially-accepted space for same-sex proximity and touch. From a marketing point of view, the inclusion of homoerotic tension in “sports anime” is primarily for the enjoyment of its assumed predominately female audience. Extremely few characters in the genre are explicitly queer as, it is believed, actual queer representation could alienate the target audience and thus reduce sales. Furthermore, “sports anime” is produced in Japan where queerness is heavily oppressed at the social level. This is where Fence largely diverges from its parent genre as queerness plays an explicit part of the story with characters like Bobby, Jay, and Aiden.
Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente, Jim Campbell
A six-panel page.
First panel: Aiden and Jay face each other across opposite sides of the piste.
Text box: Match 24: Jay Jones vs Aiden Kane
Second panel: A close-up of Kally, Tanner, and Harvard as they watch the match start.
Kally: Aiden’s fencing has always depended on his mood. The question is, what kind of match will this be
Third panel: Aiden and Jay touch the tip of their epées to the other’s guard.
Off-panel referee: Guard check!
Aiden: You know, Ray—
Fourth panel: A close up of Aiden with a malicious look of his face.
Aiden: —no one’s ever going to care enough about you to stick around.
Fifth panel: A close-up of Jay visibly hurt, emotionally. He’s wide-eyed and furious.
Aiden (off panel): Maybe they’ll think you’re fun for a while—but once they see the real you, they’ll know—
Sixth panel: Jay is standing still, still furious, as Aiden leans towards him mischievously.
Aiden: —You’re not worth anyone’s time or attention.
Up until chapter 11, the queer characters with the most development are Aiden and Jay. The tension caused by Aiden’s indifference towards Jay and his feelings amplify the dramatic tension during their match because if Jay wins, both Nicholas and Eugene have an almost guaranteed spot on the team. However, Jay is letting his heartbreak get the better of him, and Aiden, who’s already a very talented fencer, knows exactly how to exploit Jay’s vulnerability. It bears the question on whether a character like Aiden could be considered detrimental for queer characters depicted in media. For the most part, queer characters have gotten the short end of the stick across movies, TV, and comics, where they have been depicted as deviants, villains, tragic victims, or simply non-existing. It would be easy to argue that a character like Aiden — rich, spoiled, privileged, sexually promiscuous, and emotionally ruthless towards others — is not a positive representation of queer characters. Nonetheless, positive representation does not necessarily imply that all queer characters must exhibit unblemished morality. In fact, one might argue that positive queer representation lies in depicting the diversity that is the essence of the community in all of its forms, be it in terms of identity, orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, and morals and ethics.
Credit: Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente, Jim Campbell
A six-panel page.
First panel: Aiden walks up to Jay, who is catching his breath with his hands on his knees.
Aiden: Hey there, I just wanted to say—
Jay: Harvard made you come and apologize, didn’t he?
Aiden: Yeah.
Second panel: A close-up of Jay, sweating profusely.
Jay: I don’t need an apology. You never made me any promises. And you were right. I wasn’t good enough to make the team. Next year, I’m going to focus on college, without getting distracted by cute boys.
Third panel: Aiden is shrugging with faux modesty as a cartoonish drop appears on the back of Jay’s head to signal his disappointment.
Aiden: It’s not your fault you were distracted. I am very cute.
Fourth panel: Jay and Aiden are standing opposite each other, both with frank looks on their faces.
Jay: Can I ask you something?
Aiden: Sure.
Jay: Why do you have that rule, anyway? That you don’t sleep with guys on the team?
Aiden: So I don’t screw up...
Fifth panel: Aiden looks over his shoulder to see Harvard calling out to him.
Aiden: ...The one good thing in my life.
Harvard: Aiden! Come on!
Sixth panel: Aiden walks away with a backward wave at Jay. A cartoonish pulsing vein on the back of Jay’s head signals his annoyance.
Aiden: See you around, Ray.
While Aiden at the beginning is depicted as insensitive and unapologetically privileged, throughout the subsequent chapters he is given more nuance. At the end of chapter 7, he nonchalantly leaves his latest catch under the bleachers as soon as he gets a text from Harvard, his best — and arguably only — friend. From this point on, the layers beneath Aiden’s effortlessly perfect façade begin to show. During his match against Jay, the unnecessarily cruel comments that Aiden taunts him with seem particularly venomous. In fact, they could be easily interpreted as Aiden projecting his own thoughts about himself onto Jay. In other words, Aiden’s promiscuity might stem from a fear of intimacy. This idea can be further supported by Aiden stating that his rule of not sleeping with teammates is to keep him from screwing up the one good thing in his life, his friendship with Harvard. It possible that, in his mind, no one will ever truly love him like Harvard does, but he would never act upon those feelings as he fears he will wreck everything. Overall, this possible glimpse into Aiden’s thoughts proves he is more than just the archetypical rich, cruel pretty boy. Even if he were, though, his presence among other queer characters would also enrich the already diverse representation in the text.