Unexpected parsing with single characters such as *

[benskz]

I'm trying to use an asterisk in my string but it makes everything after is Italic. I believe this behaviour is unexpectes.

Input:

This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

Expected:
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

Actual:
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

If this behaviour is expected I then one should resort to escaping the said character, however this also produces an undesirable result.

Input:

This string has something \*important, so I use an asterisk.

Expected:
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

Actual:
This string has something \*important, so I use an asterisk.

[axelpale]

This is f*king important issue ;) In our case, users might not even realise they are writing markdown. Therefore it is common to see a single asterisk to be used for something else than emphasis, for example ad hoc foot notes, curse words or wild card characters.