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Apologies for the mountain of text that follows this…

Firstly - I’m doing a live Q&A on Discord tonight at 7pm BST! Just via text, not voice chat (scary!!), but if you’re around and want to ask me questions, hop on over to the Heartstopper Discord at 7pm UK time. Here’s a link to join: https://discord.gg/cfdGNF6u

Secondly, I just wanted to share my thoughts about this scene, as it’s been creating a LOT of  discussion in the comments!

This will be a montage lasting a few pages, so I wanted to encourage you guys to not jump to any huge conclusions about what exactly they’re doing or not doing. You'll get a bit more context as the montage progresses, but it's also intended to allow you to make your own conclusions and inferences.

In crafting the tone of the sex scenes in this volume, I've aimed to find a middle ground between an immediate fade-to-black, and a graphic or hyperrealistic sex scene (I have no problem generally with either of these approaches towards sex in media, but I don’t feel either are right for the tone of Heartstopper). What follows here will be like the ‘first time' sex scene - a montage of small intimate/sensual moments, jumping through time, and it will not always be clear what precisely they’re doing and who’s doing what, and that’s okay and intentional. It’s also worth saying that penetrative sex is not the ultimate end goal for everyone, and that’s not the purpose of this scene. (That’s not to say N&C won’t be doing that, but that’s not why this scene exists.) The main purpose of this scene was to show that Charlie has reached a point in his mental health journey and relationship with Nick where he felt comfortable removing his shirt during sex. As for the actual contents of this scene - the intention is for people to be able to make their own conclusions, and infer what is happening, reading between the lines (or the panels I guess!) but ultimately take away that N&C are having a loving and intimate night together, and that’s what matters!

While Vol 5 doesn’t educate its readers about the exact practicalities of queer sex, it does (I hope) educate readers about trust, respect, consent, and emotional care during sexual experiences… that’s what I’ve been trying to achieve, anyway!

Sorry that’s a lot, but I hope that makes sense, and maybe I’ll be able to talk about it a bit more once the scene has finished! I know you guys have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this scene - it’s almost the end of Vol 5, after all, and it’s a very big emotional moment for N&C! I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it too! So if you feel a different way about this scene or any other scene in Heartstopper, or you don’t like how it plays out, that’s totally okay. Art is subjective and all. I just wanted to share my own thinking with you, for those who’d be interested to know what’s going through my mind when creating these scenes.