Research

Structured research projects, working papers, and method notes. Blog posts remain the time-stream; this shelf collects projects that have grown into a stable question, method, and evidence base.

The Heroine as Interfacereader essay — Bluebird

What happens when a romance-game heroine must be specific enough to be loved, but empty enough to be inhabited? A critical essay on the heroine as interface, the characters who break containment, and the fan labor that finishes what the text leaves incomplete.

Published Jun 27, 2026·Updated Jul 4, 2026·2,904 words·12 min·research, interactive fiction, fan studies, game criticism, narrative theory

Bluebird: Transparent Protagonists and Displaced Subjectivityactive — theory, criticism, and fan repair

Bluebird asks what happens when romance interaction makes one figure both a character loved by others and an interface inhabited by the player.

Published Jun 26, 2026·Updated Jul 4, 2026·737 words·3 min·game studies, interactive fiction, otome games, fan studies, narrative theory