People were curious about the responses of the forms I posted, so I separated some of the answers that I think are the most interesting!!

I'll add some commentary to each answer, showing my POV- don't take this negatively if it was your form response that I'm giving commentary on, I just want to show my side, etc. Consider it a debate, idk, ahaha.

Once again, this isn't exactly to go against your opinions or prove that there are no mistakes in Lucid, because there 100% are, but these are just my responses.

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I agree with the last part. His religious trauma was never quite clear until he kissed Reo, but I do think that it was very, very obvious he had a fear of being gay. In the first few chapters of Lucid, he was already against calling Kaede by his first name, because it was 'gay', and his constant gay accusations also added up to it + general comments that were quite misogynistic showed his real view on society.

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It was indeed slow but I don't think it was too slow because Hana and Kaede really had to deal with themselves first, otherwise it would've been a toxic relationship. Hana had a really low self esteem and Kaede wasn't able to see her flaws.

I never associated their first kiss scene with SA at all. Yes, Hana um... fiddled with his thingy before they even kissed ! But Kaede was all in for it, and especially when they took things further, the both of them were really focused on how comfortable they were.

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I very much agree! Although there is one thing I'd like to add and that is that we did see one vulnerable moment, and that was when she had an argument with Aguni about whether or not to invite people into their group. It showed a different side of her, especially when she mentioned Hatter.

But other than that, she indeed didn't have many vulnerable scenes.

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Hmm, yes, okay. Definitely agree with the part where it was never shown that he truly stopped hurting himself (that's also why I added act 4; to show how he heals).

But there were definitely some scenes in which Shirabi and Hana looked out for him. Shirabi caught him doing it and (typically) threw a tantrum at Kaede. Later on, Shirabi actually mentioned it to Arisu and Chishiya, which led to Arisu panicking and realizing he should focus on Kaede more.

Hana patched him up quite some times and caressed his scars, etc. She used words to try to keep him from doing it again, assuring he could always come to her, etc.

But yes, no one was 'actively' trying to stop it or giving Kaede other ways to release frustration without hurting himself.

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Okay you humbled me, next

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Okay first of all, I LOVE this answer.

Secondly, my original plan was in fact to make her wake up and find out it was the Queen of Hearts messing with her mind- but not the Queen of Hearts from Lucid:

The Queen of Hearts from Sweven, act 2, meaning that Hana, Kaoru, Kaede- they all never existed.

But then I felt bad and a bit weirded out because Baya and Chishiya would have to grieve people who never even existed and just... idk. So I didn't do it.

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Yup. Shirabi's comments had been there since the beginning but most readers only caught up on them after a while. Even when he literally admitted he thinks it's weird for men to wear pink, nobody really 'noticed'.

I get where you're coming from with Sakiko being unnecessary, but I think she was an important lifeline of the group. Like, there was an unspoken rule to protect her no matter what. + Chishiya 'accepted' Kaede after he saved Koko from a burning house, and Koko helped Shirabi's character in so many ways.

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I'm afraid I have no clue how to respond to this because Lucid is like 500,000 words and the average book has 80,000 😭😭 I probably focused too much on character dynamics rather than actual important scenes tho...

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Now I'm really curious about what Kaede 'lacks' omg, if anyone has the same feeling lmk!

(With this form question, I meant lacking as in... not having as much depth as other characters. Like, a character being on a surface level, a little bit like Daishin and Elikai).

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lol quite a lot of people said this which is pretty ironic considering they're the main couple

Sorry chat I tried my best. (But yes I also noticed that they don't 'flow' the same way my other fanfic couples do. I guess they feel a bit forced).

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First of all, thank you so much!!

And here is my ultimate take on Arisu's behavior in Lucid (especially after season 3 of AIB): At first, he was like himself, but excessively bright. That was a bit of a defense mechanism, but also his personality shining through: in the trio scenes with Karube and Chota, he was also portrayed as a pretty bright person.

Then slowly, especially after the seven of hearts game, he was driven to insanity. He literally tried to run away from the game even though he knew there were lasers outside the arena. His wellbeing only went downhill after that. When Kaoru came back, it seemed like he was doing better, all happy while sleeping in Baya and Chishiya's bed, but again, it was just a defense mechanism because he hadn't seen Usagi, Miyu, and Souta for so long.

Him jumping off the hospital building wasn't to actually kill himself. He was so insane that he was convinced it would bring him to the real world again. He ended up in a coma in the Borderlands, which reversed the situation, and he woke up without memories. That's when his insanity kind of faded away.

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Helppp the way that 50% of the people are saying that it's super realistic what Hana did and that they would've done the same, and the other 50% is absolutely bashing Hana for doing it 😭

Anygays my only comeback is... do you also hate Usagi for trusting Ryuji? Same situation, different font, iykwim

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I love the way literally 80% of the people who answered this form (71 people answered) chose Kaoru and Suzume

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I think Suzume's intelligence is the part of Niragi that shined through. Not everyone has read the manga, but Niragi is very smart in it, and his specialty is actually diamonds.

The fact that Hotoke (and Reo, technically) has the same mindset as Niragi doesn't come from genes. It's the environment that they grew up in. So Suzume is more like pre-Borderlands Niragi.

Moving on to your other point: on one side, Baya and Chishiya indeed could've divorced, but they wouldn't be able to live with that. As many arguments and disagreements they have, they're lovebirds 80% of the time.

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Other statistics:

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There are so many more responses but I couldn't reply to them all. Thank you so much for taking your time and answering my questions, though! It helps me improve. I read every single one of the replies <3