Literary Demerit

Part one of part two of Dirty Laundry (this is gonna get confusing, huh?). Keith and Lance play twenty questions, there’s a “recording your fake boyfriend in the shower” prank that goes both wrong and sexual, and Rosa makes a cum joke. We also took a look at the Fanlore article about this fic, though we’re saving some of it for later when it’s more relevant.

Content warnings: same as usual with this story; this one’s a little raunchier than typical for this fic, but not outright explicit either.

On this episode we’re covering the latter half of part one of Dirty Laundry, which contains such fascinating topics as implausible iguana behavior, Keith and Lance’s bizarre Star Wars hot takes, Lance’s innate dancing talent, and eavesdropping little sisters. We spend the second part of this episode giving our thoughts on The Secret Life of Bees, which this fanfic was heavily inspired by. 

Content warnings: the same warnings given for the last episode apply to this one, and will continue to apply throughout our coverage of this story. There’s also some discussion of antiblack racism (both within and out of universe) when we’re covering The Secret Life of Bees.

This week we’re beginning our coverage of Dirty Laundry, a notorious shipping fic (Keith/Lance) from the Voltron fandom. Unlike previous stories we’ve covered, there’s no doubt this one was written sincerely, and it’s an unbelievably popular fanfic with plenty of genuine fans; it’s also incredibly controversial, and honestly it’s so bad I think it’s been driving both of us crazy. The story is divided into “parts” rather than chapters and they’re pretty long, so this episode covers roughly half of part 1. To close out the episode, we also (re)watched season 1 of Voltron: Legendary Defender in order to provide the canon context for this fanfic.

Content warnings: in-universe, homophobia is a plot point in this story (nothing particularly violent or explicit, but it’s still something we have to discuss). Out of universe, this fic is full of racist stereotyping; in particular, Lance and his family are Mexican-American in this story and written very stereotypically. Also, while it’s most likely unintentional, there are some uncomfortable moments in this story regarding underage characters.

This is the audio-only version of our second playthrough of Maid Madness by BoldZone Games and Reicheru Ketsuekineko-Oni! It's a New Game + and includes a different ending and lots of extra content. For the version with video, check it out on Bloom Plays or follow the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tZ2zCho8wk

This is the audio-only version of our Let's Play of Maid Madness by BoldZone Games and Reicheru Ketsuekineko-Oni! For the version with video, check it out on Bloom Plays, or follow the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUuwr_qeIpg

Chapters 29-30 of Blood Raining Night. We’ve finally made it to the end! But there’s still a lot left to talk about; the final two chapters are no less weird than the rest of the story, and we have some Theories on what might be being implied if this fic is, indeed, secret genius. After having finished the fanime last week, we decided to take a look at the other videos on the creator’s YouTube account this week in our final segment.

Content warnings: remember the sex scene we had to warn for in a previous chapter between two characters with a concerning age gap? Yeah, that’s relevant again. Also there’s child abduction. Again. Also in the closing segment, we talk about another "story" Rachel wrote which includes mentions of self-harm and suicide.

Chapters 22-24 of Blood Raining Night. We have a wedding — sorry, I mean a “weeding” to attend! After that, the fic hits us with some extreme mood whiplash that we don’t want to spoil, but there’s a reason why this is our longest episode yet. Episode 8 of the fanime also contains a… surprisingly good scene that doesn’t matter to the story at all, and we spend a while unpacking how bizarre it is. 

Content warnings: some pretty extreme violence this episode (torture, gore, dismemberment), and while it’s less of a focal point this time, we do spend some time discussing the weird teacher/student interactions and uncomfortable age gap relationships in this story.

(Additional music credits for this episode: “Judai’s Theme” by Yutaka Minobe, “Lilium (Music Box)” by Manga Star.)

Chapters 15-18 of Blood Raining Night. Our reading this week covers such topics as anime-induced amnesia, more singing competitions, wedding invitations… and a surprising reveal about Reicheru’s father. We also watched episode 6 of the fanime.

Content warnings: more weird student/teacher interactions, violence, gore, cannibalism, and another ludicrously unsexy sex scene, this time between two characters with a concerning age gap.

Chapters 10-14 of Blood Raining Night. This time we’re faced with an unsolvable math problem, another high school singing contest, a Japanese-Mexican fusion restaurant, God appearing in the form of a newborn catgirl, and more! We wrap things up by talking about episode 5 of the fanime.

Content warnings: inappropriate teacher/student interactions, a scene where a character is given a nonconsensual magical abortion (which apparently has no effect), in-universe racism (also some out-of-universe racism, as the author still thinks Korra is Mexican), and childbirth.

Chapters 5-9 of Blood Raining Night. This week we have a HENTAI WARNING, take a look at some unique baby name ideas, learn all about the trouble with angles, and more! We also watched episode 4 of the fanime; the episodes are getting longer and the fanime’s plot isn’t 1:1 with the fanfic, so from here on out we’ll be tackling one episode at a time.

Content warnings: did we mention the HENTAI WARNING? Also, in the same chapter there’s a scene where a character abuses drugs and self-harms. Later chapters include some less-than-consensual sex, violence, incest (though we're not sure if the author remembers they're related), torture (including sexual torture), and also an instance where a character’s brown skin is described in a fetishistic manner.