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I forgot i had Tumblr lmfao but anyway

IM SO EXCITED FOR THE LOTM DONGHUA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;!;!!!!

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me desperately trying to continue reading CoI until the azik chapter:

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The thing about CoI is that the filler chapters are too much I think.

Something I've observed over the course of my time reading CoI vs LotM is that it takes me longer to finish 30 chapters of CoI instead of 30 chapters of LotM

In LotM it feels like the filler chapters are there to give you a breath of fresh air after an intense battle. It's very much prevalent when you read the chapters where the tarot club have a gathering after a big fight Klein had with someone. (Very awful explanation I'm sorry about that lmfao)

In CoI however, it feels more like a slice of life with a hint of mystery???? It feels like vol 1 of LotM except make it the entire novel in a sense. there are definitely hooking scenes and chapters, but after that brief period it always comes back to the original narrative of slice of life with a side of mystery in it.

I'm not saying this in a way to criticize CoI btw, this is just my observation of CoI vs LotM

Anyway I've only read till chapter 724 so take my words with a grain of salt. Better to experience it by reading it yourself instead of taking my words for it kek

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Coming into a fandom late

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HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Help why did I just realized that some of my posts got like 200-400+ interactions... Is this what being recognized feels like

@faefaye is this what you experience everytime you post on Tumblr

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what if i dont :stare:

Help why did I just realized that some of my posts got like 200-400+ interactions... Is this what being recognized feels like

@faefaye is this what you experience everytime you post on Tumblr

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Help why did I just realized that some of my posts got like 200-400+ interactions... Is this what being recognized feels like

@faefaye is this what you experience everytime you post on Tumblr

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Coming into a fandom late

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Did we as a fandom collectively realize that both Alberu and Cale are going to live hella long. Like, Alberu is 25% dark elf and Cale has the vitality of the hearth. And I imagine Alberu does not want to be the Emperor for his whole life, so let's say ha passes on the mantel to someone else in his 60s. And now you have the ex-emperor and ex-commander who still look like they are in their 20s with nothing to do but bother each other in one of Cale's many properties. So at some point, out of boredom, a prank war is declared. And 'because they are both sneaky motherfucker's they get bored with pranking each other very quickly. So they, once again out of boredom, escalate the prank war. But this time they team up against everyone else just to see what they can do. 10 years later the prank war is nationwide, their companions saw through them pretty quickly so they had to escalate it again. 20 years later, the war has spread through the both continents. And I imagine that they found a way to do all of this without moving out of one of the mansions too much. They just sit and eat cookies while watching everything through the communication devices like it's reality TV.

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i present to the members of mr.fool's cult, our own "no beta we die like ____"

Azik, we should absolutely use Azik.

for one, it serves as a decoy spoiler for anyone who decides to peruse the ao3 lotm tag before finishing the book, because instead of spoiling any of the actual deaths and removing the narrative suckerpunch that is the deaths in volume one, it leaves people on their toes for the entire book up until the end.

plus, much like azik, writers are trapped in a relentless cycle where we spend entirely too much time looking for the correct answer, only to start right back over from square one.

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finished Apothecary Diaries light novel 9

Bah, now I have to wait until January 18th for the 10th one to come out in English, but that was some good binge reading.

Spoilery thoughts under the cut. No holds barred. Stay out if you mind. Mostly just trying to untangle stuff that's been rattling around my head as I've inhaled a novel a day for the last week.

JinMao

Maomao quickly got adopted by the aro-ace community (for good reason) but as the series goes on, I think she's probably more of a graysexual / sex neutral. She's not sex repulsed. She was simply raised to view sex as a transactional thing, not a romantic thing, and never saw how it could apply to her. (She lacks certain assets.) She also saw women around her using men and being used in turn, selling their talents and bodies, and decided she wanted no part of that aspect of being a courtesan, because she could see the damage it could do to both parties of the transaction. Her own mother died of an STD. Men in the pleasure district waste all their money chasing fantasies that are not real.

That said, she was trained as a courtesan and knows exactly what women need to do to please men, to the point where she was the one running the darn sex ed class for the rear palace.

I don't think she'll ever change her views on sex as a transaction, but Lahan planted the idea in her head that she'll probably want to have at least one kid for the experience, and there's only one way to do that. So there's her incentive. It's funny because she objectively knows Jinshi is attractive (and has a decent frog, ahem) but that isn't the same as being attracted to him. He makes her flustered sometimes and there's a massive level of denial that comes from her perceived status difference, but as the story progresses, we've learned that status difference isn't nearly as steep as she thinks it is. And you can come to care for someone, even love them in a non romantic way, without being sexually attracted to them. This seems to be about where she is as of volume nine. She doesn't reciprocate his feelings, and she really doesn't understand why he picked her, but there's an affection and some level of resignation that his infatuation hasn't cooled yet, and may not ever. (She hoped it would.)

Then there's Jinshi. I pinned him as the classic nonbinary bisexual stereotype at first too, but he's more of a pure monogamist demisexual type, if anything. (Or as someone put it, he's "Maomaosexual.") Which is a disaster to have as a position such as "imperial male" whose only real job is to try to father as many children as humanly possibly.

I realize now that pretending to be a eunoch in the rear palace was his way of avoiding getting forced into his own political marriages he wasn't interested in. Taking the "eunoch medicine" (was it some sort of proto-spirolectone? was it just a libido blocker? who knows? pretty sure it stopped erections and maybe suppressed facial hair growth to some extent) wasn't a big deal for him because he, too, wasn't particularly interested in sex. Not with the randos who only wanted him for his pretty face. Probably the Emperor being a lusty bear and the horror stories about his grandfather had him also decide he wanted none of that either.

Until he fell in love with Maomao, and then he wanted to have her no matter what it was going to cost him, no matter how long it took. (And no matter how long it took him to convince her to come around to the idea - which he still hasn't done, although it seems she's finally starting to get resigned to it.)

Too bad for him, Maomao being the La princess means that's going to be a messy political marriage too. (And it's what he was trying to avoid! Who could have known that the cute little apothecary that was working as a laundry girl was the missing daughter of General Lakan?) The whole nation is apparently already aware she's been proposed for the position of the Imperial Brother's consort - and her getting dragged on the trip west with Lakan and Jinshi in this current arc is all but declaring her the front runner and daring the other factions to do something about it. I keep thinking back to the hairpins - she has Jinshi's, Gyokuyou's, and even Lihua's hairpins still. At the right place and time, those three could make a powerful statement about how many allies she has in the court.

Other Character Thoughts

The real nonbinary beauty Ah-Duo, who had a hysterectomy alongside Jinshi's birth. (I had one of those myself a few years ago. Its been swell. 10/10 highly recommend if you don't want kids.) In a modern setting you'd probably be able to keep your ovaries, but she likely lost those as well during the traumatic birth, so she went through menopause at the age of 16. That's, uh, not great from a health standpoint, but hey, she's alive, and thanks to the intentional baby swap, her son's alive. She is the mom friend everyone deserves. I'm so happy that after she "retired" that she got her own estate and became the local zookeeper for People Who The Government Had To Pretend Died For Reasons But Didn't Deserve It.

(On that note: We now know for sure that Ah-Duo knows Jinshi is her son. She proposed the swap! Anshi knows; she agreed to the swap and loves her grandson much more than she did her second real son. Suiren knows. The Emperor knows but can't say anything. Luomen knows but won't say anything. Maomao figured it out but also won't say anything. I suspect the women in the Ma family probably figured it out as well - Taimao, Maamao, and Chuo, all independently, and all tacitly keeping the secret. Gaoshun may suspect but like Maomao, knows not to think too hard about it. Gyokyuou does not know; she thinks of Jinshi as a brother-in-law, not a stepson. Probably a good thing, considering they are close in age. I think she knew that the local eunoch running the rear palace was the missing Imperial Brother, and that's how their relationship has always been. And I don't think Jinshi knows he's Ah-Duo's son. It's going to break him if he ever finds out. Being "the spare" his whole life has been bad enough. He definitely never wanted to be first in line.)

There's the bisexual Big Sister Pairen, who could have quit being a courtesan long ago if she wanted to, but she likes sex work and has a libido the exact opposite of Maomaos. Maybe some day her prince Lihaku will be able to afford to buy her out. (Hopefully Maomao gives him tips on how he needs to ride into town. On a white horse. With a parade and stuff.) Having a true sex positive character in the same series as an aro-ace spectrum character to act as a foil is a great contrast. (The fact that Pairen is also implied to be a succubus sucking out men's energy to stay youthful is also funny as heck.)

Then we've got the one off characters, like the Shrine Maiden. They never call her this by name, but today we'd flat out call her trans. Not that she had a choice... she was castrated at birth. I'm happy her tale didn't completely end in tragedy and she's now got a place on Ah-Duo's Government Secret Farm. Same with Suirei - sure, she directly or indirectly caused the deaths of a lot of people as part of a conspiracy to kill Jinshi, but she was ordered to do it by her stepmother. So she didn't have much of a choice.

Same with Lishu. Her life has been one of misery but maybe she'll finally get a chance at a happy ending in a future volume. Hated by her dad. Married to a pedophile (that her father thought might be her real father - fucking EW) .... who promptly died. Sent to the nunnery. Sent right back as a bride to his son, still as a 9 year old. Even more ew. (The emperor absolutely treated her like a daughter the whole time, thank god.) Multiple assassination attempts. Bullied by her own maids. Treated like shit. Threatened to get swapped to the Imperial Prince as a consort. Falsely accused of infidelity because stress stopped her period. Humiliated. Ended up locked in a tower. Drugged. Almost driven to suicide. Saved, but sent right back to the nunnery since clearly she wasn't fit to be a consort.

That poor girl.

But she's still got a chance at happiness, if Basen gets to claim her as his reward. Crossing my fingers for them.

Going Forward

I can't wait til volume 10. Is Lakan getting dragged over there because the Empress's brother is trying to snag Maomao (the only La family princess) as a consort for one of his family members, even as he tries to force a marriage between Jinshi and his own daughter? (Or worse, make her become a middle ranked consort to the emperor as a snub to Gyokuyou?) Or is it genuinely because there's war brewing and the general is needed to help make plans?

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Where can I read "Kusuriya no Hitorigoto" Light Novel?

Since a lot of you have been asking this question lately, here is everything you need to know in brief...

What is a Web Novel (WN) and Light Novel (LN)?

A WN is basically weekly chapters released by the main author on a weekly basis. You can find it on a lot of Japanese sites. Some amazing people also translate them on a regular basis and post those chapters. LN is a compilation of WN chapters. A number of Chapters from the WN are taken, translated, properly rewritten and edited to publish a final LN. It has a few illustrations as well like the one you can see below...

Manga, Light Novel and Anime

Basically, the LN is taken and illustrated by an artist and we call it a manga. And when the manga has reached a certain number of Chapters, and gained a lot of popularity, it is converted into an anime. So that's the flow of things. We have

WN -> LN -> Manga -> Anime

I think that clears up a lot of misunderstandings. Firstly, the WN is published on a weekly basis, some chapters from WN are taken and translated properly to make a LN. The LN is illustrated by an artist to make the manga and the manga is generally adapted to make the anime.

In case of 'Kusuriya no Hitorigoto' or 'The Apothecary Diaries', the anime is doing a great job of adapting the overall story because not only are they properly animating every scene from the manga but also adding their own scenes from the LN.

Where can I read WN, LN and Manga?

WNs are the hardest to find, since they are released on a weekly basis by the Japanese author. They are written in Japanese and a few fans translate them for everyone. You can find it here...

(They have translated chapters of vol 10, 11 and 12)

The LN has reached until vol 9 and vol 10 is scheduled to release in Jan 2024. Currently, there is no source where you can find it for free (not that I know of, because even I have purchased the e book from Amazon) though the first few pages are available to read for free! So you can check them out!

Where did the Anime, Manga left off?

The Manga has reached ch 66. If you want to start reading the light novel from where the manga left off, you can start reading from vol 4, chapter 4.

The Anime has released ep 8 and it has covered manga material till half of ch 13, if you want to read manga after finishing anime.

If you have any other questions regarding the LN, WN, Anime or Manga, feel free to ask!

~ Sunshine

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jinmao love child has 50/50 chance of either being the force that brings imperial China to its knees or the whore of Babylon 2.0 like their daddy. Either option, fictional China is finished.

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He will be mine

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is this anything

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One thing I find interesting about Wei Wuxian is that as a young man he was cocky and attention-seeking and annoying, but if you look closely he was only that in ways that would not directly eclipse his siblings in any way.

For example, it's stated that he actually can cook, he just adds an ungodly amount of spice to everything, but if he wanted he could actually cook well. But cooking is Yanli's signature, so he won't.

He is highly skilled with both sword and bow, but Jiang Cheng favors the sword, so Wei Wuxian shows off the most with a bow, even before losing his core, he only ever goes all-out with a sword in front of Lan Wangji.

He doesn't really obey Jiang Cheng, but he also doesn't go out of his way to purposely annoy him like he does with other people.

In his brash, loud way, he is trying to protect and uplift his little brother discreetly, probably because he knows Jiang Cheng would not take it well if he did that directly.

Wei Wuxian won't stop being himself, but he won't let that take attention away from the stuff his siblings are good at.

And that's just so sweet.

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WANGXIAN: PASH! illustration file 2022-2023 and PASH! MAGAZINE december edition