WEBVTT

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me arey here Anisha is a Japanese woman

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who in her own words draws

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autobiographical and fictional butch

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lesbians stories of an androgynous woman

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in often failed pursuit of an

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androgynous girlfriend from the webtoon

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description of her comic me arey is an

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unfeminine otaku that's only interested

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in androgynous women with short hair the

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problem is they never liked her back

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these are the autobiographical train

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wrecks of a single woman who loves women

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trying to make hot butch women notice

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her will she die single or find the hot

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androgynous girlfriend of her dreams

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here Anisha makes a lot of blanket

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statements and her observations about

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dating other women which surprised me

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and felt of all off putting it first

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but she does go out of her way to not

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portray her experience as the end-all

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be-all experience in fact while she uses

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butch an androgynous pretty

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interchangeably which I wouldn't do

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personally she makes sure to mark her

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personal opinions and experiences as

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such and she acknowledges repeatedly in

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the comic that definitions vary by

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person she also includes the T when

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talking about the LGBT community so the

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comic does not come across as turfy

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either its story is just a specific

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person describing a specific experience

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and has clearly marked as such versus

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some kind of comprehensive explainer on

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the universal queer experience which I

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would say doesn't really exist I just

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wanted to get that out of the way so no

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one went in expecting the latter and for

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people who really want to avoid anything

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that could be interpreted as

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essentialist

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I really love this comic though the girl

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that can't get a girlfriend is super

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super funny and endearing it's deeply

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self-deprecating without ever being self

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pitying or depressing so it's a light

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and entertaining read that's relatable

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thematically dealing with subjects that

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in a different comment could be heavier

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or more upsetting romantic frustrations

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feeling inadequate struggling with

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whether or not it's worth you changing

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yourself specifically your gender

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expression to be better liked and so on

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so far it's also very PG with stronger

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profanity censored and it focuses on

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these social and romantic aspects of

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dating rather than anything explicitly

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sexual so it would definitely be

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something I'd recommend for people with

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certain content sensitivities and for

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younger readers in like middle school

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which I can't say for a lot of what I

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review or read myself even though it's

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such a specific experience

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and I wouldn't say it should be

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extrapolated out to stand in for any

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kind of Universal lesbian experience for

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me is someone who is not a lesbian I

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find it really interesting and at times

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informative of a lifestyle I'm not super

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familiar with tyranny she being Japanese

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also impacts her dating life in ways I

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as a white person don't have to deal

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with and while it's not a focus of the

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comic so far it has come up especially

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in jokes journey she draws herself very

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simply and draws women she's attracted

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to and in almost over-the-top shoujo

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manga style to emphasize her own

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self-consciousness compared to her

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infatuation with these women one of my

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favorite panels has the person she has a

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crush on drawn as a goddess while she's

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drawn as a level 1 cockroach the writing

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outshines the art for this comic though

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he ranae she uses meme and nerd language

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and really blunt and brutal self

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deprecation for great comedic effect

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without ever coming across like a

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trihard phone nerd or speaking in a way

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that will date the comic or in a way

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that's a downer are self pitying one

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thing I really appreciate about the girl

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that can't get a girlfriend is often in

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media if someone is a romantic loser

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you're supposed to relate to its a

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down-on-his-luck sis straight guy and

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women with romantic problems outside of

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like idealized fantasy romantic comedies

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are portrayed as really really pathetic

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and weird and unattractive irony she

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walks the line of brutal self

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deprecation beautifully where she does

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all these sad and embarrassing things

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but never in a way that evokes disgust

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but rather in a way that's relatable and

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endearing and she usually circles back

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to self love and the deliberate choice

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to forge your own path and stick to your

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preferences and beliefs regardless of

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failing being made fun of or having

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trouble finding a partner and does so

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without being saccharine or cliched

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because she's so brutally

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self-deprecating the warm moments in the

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comic actually feel earned rather than

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contrived I know for me personally I

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used to get a lot of pressure to grow my

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hair out or wear makeup or otherwise be

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more feminine to express myself in a way

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that I didn't like and that made me

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uncomfortable and just sacrifice the

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comfort in exchange for being perceived

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as more conventionally attractive and

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more desirable to straightenin

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specifically but also just generally to

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anyone and I'm glad I never did it

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because I know I would have just ended

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up resentful about it and would have

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hated it similar to how certain people I

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knew in high school suddenly and

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mysteriously giving me a lot more

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attention after I lost weight in college

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just made me feel weird and upset rather

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than flattered it isn't a nice Hirt

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rewarding feeling to know that someone's

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interest in you was superficial and

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official interests are interested me

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based on me portraying myself in ways I

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don't really feel comfortable portraying

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myself or two things I do not try to

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cultivate or feel good about when I do

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cultivate them I won't spoil it but

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there's a whole plot thread in the comic

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about hearing AG going through similar

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as far as struggling with preferring an

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androgynous appearance and I enjoyed it

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and appreciated it a lot I haven't had a

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lot of the same dating or life

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experiences as she has but I definitely

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relate to the struggles of

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self-expression and weighing the

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sacrifice of authenticity to be liked or

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or be considered conventionally

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attractive that she explores in the

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comic bruni she says in her patreon

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comic that she's choosing to self-fund

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and self-published through patreon

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because most publishing companies aren't

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interested in what she writes she says

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they want to market their comics to

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street men and straight men expect more

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feminine women and their gay lady comics

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so she's very deliberately working on

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her own to bridge that gap which again

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though her dating and general life

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experiences vary a lot from mine and

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some of her views differ from how I view

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gender and sexuality and dating

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conceptually I think that's really

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really cool I love this comic and it's

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super fun to read and I support here in

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AC on patreon because I believe that one

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shortcut to having more sustained

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marginalized voices telling their own

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individual unique stories is to support

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them directly financially if you're able

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or if you're not able which obviously is

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totally understandable

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just with stuff like retweets and

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encouraging comments the comic is really

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short now it's only three chapters long

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so it wouldn't take very long at all to

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catch up and keep up with her releases i

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also suma pyrenees she made enough on

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patreon she could maybe quit her day job

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and make more comics so if you like the

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comic check out her patreon if you want

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to read a comic that is still uplifting

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and sweet but that is darker and deals

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much more with mental illness my lesbian

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experience with loneliness is another

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excellent autobiographical comic you

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should check out I considered also

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reviewing it for this video but I

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haven't read the related comics that

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came out after by the same author and I

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figured I should do a video on all that

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at once instead so I'll probably with

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all the other stuff that I plan to

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review I'll probably add that to the

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pile thank you for watching I know this

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is a shorter video but there isn't a

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time to talk about for a webcomic that

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is just three chapters long and I

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couldn't find any like interview clips

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with the author or anything else to add

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to it but I really did feel like this

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was worth talking about and just how

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brutal and

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it was and I can't promise I'll always

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check them out but I'm always open to

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recommendations for stuff like this

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like weird funny obscure niche comics or

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video games or anything like that I

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don't even remember how I found this

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comic I think it just showed up on my

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Twitter or something so if you have

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something like this or something else

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that's different that you would like to

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recommend feel free to put it in the

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comments or tweet it at me at plenty of

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alcoves or anything like that if you

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enjoyed this video please consider

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supporting me on patreon I also have the

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cofee if you want some information on a

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queer webcomic that is not light and

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Goofy and pg-rated check out my review

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for a feast for a king thanks