Fannish end of year memes + Snowflake
Sorry for the spam -- it's just that between leftover end-of-year memes and Snowflake, there's a lot to catch up on... (It's OK, I'm starting working tomorrow and thus will probably have way less time to post again...)
Fannish end-of-year memes:
1. Your main fandom of the year?
I don't feel like there's a single answer to this... But here are a couple of contenders:
Terra Ignota probably edges ahead of the others because Perhaps the Stars finally happened, and it was GLORIOUS, and I spent 2 weeks basically in a fugue state of reading it and live-blogging my thoughts and reading ikel89 doing the same. I also caught Ada Palmer at Balticon panels, and while only one of them (the reading) was strictly speaking related to TI, I feel like that still counts. That, or Ada Palmer is a fandom of mine in her own right, which, honestly, is not exactly wrong.) This was short but intense enough that I think it still counts as the winner.
Dragaera fandom continued, surprisingly, to exist, to my immense excitement. I got fic gifts for it in
fandomtrees and
yuletide to bracket the year with Dragaera joy (♥
sysann &
misura ♥), and there appeared Dragaera fic that had nothing to do with me, which also hadn't happened in a while. I got a glorious chance to talk Vlad Taltos meta as
silverflight8 powered through the first bunch of novels at an amazing pace, and another flister took steps to read the first book in the near future. It wasn't quite the surprise of 2020, with
sysann picking up and embracing the fandom to an incredible degree, but it was still a delight.
But then there's MCU. I'm not a serious MCU fan, and I still haven't watched 3 out of 4 MCU movies that came out this year, but I did watch three TV shows over the course of the year (WandaVision, Loki, and What If...), tuning in mostly week by week, which is a major accomplishment for me, and I watched the Easter Egg videos and speculation videos and all the things. Like, in terms of primary source content consumed, I think this probably edges out even Terra Ignota, and definitely any other fandom. (Let's see -- Perhaps the Stars was apparently 22.5 hours of reading time, while MCU adds up to 350 min for WandaVision, 260 min for Loki, and ~270 min for What If, plus 2.5 hours for Spider-Man -- OK, no, that's shorter than TI, although if I factor in all the Easter Egg stuff, they'd probably be about even. But anyway, MCU was a significant chunk of my year.
2. Your favorite film watched this year?
I watched a lot more movies this year, including two in theaters. The full list is Soul, Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Encanto, Mitchells vs the Machines, the live action Aladdin remake, Shazam!, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Emma, Jungle Cruise, Eurovision Song Contest, and the documentary Never Surrender (about the making and legacy of Galaxy Quest).
The movies I liked the most were Encanto, Spider-Man, Shazam, and Never Surrender, and I think Encanto actually takes the edge by being the only one of these to really get to me emotionally.
But this was a good year for movies!
3. Your favorite book read this year?
Perhaps the Stars, though it was the culmination of an experience more than just a book.
4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
There are several very earwormy songs in Encanto (~"We don't talk about Bruno no no no no"~), but the one I liked best is definitely "Surface Pressure" (Luisa's song):
5. Your favorite TV show of the year?
There was a lot of TV this year, though not quite as much as last year, I think. I watched the thee MCU shows I mentioned above (WandaVision, Loki, What If...), She-Ra, Owl House, the first season of The Expanse, and rewatched some X-Men and Saved by the Bell. I'm not going to count the nostalgia rewatches for the purposes of this question, so of the new-to-me shows, I liked all of them a fair bit.
I'd rank the MCU shows as follows: WandaVision (such a cool premise, neatly executed; it made me care about both characters, which I never had done before, and enjoy Agatha Harkness a lot, and it was a beautiful mindfuck, even though the ending was the weakest part) > What If (I really liked about a third of the episodes, decently enjoyed another couple, and was meh on a couple more, so, more of a mixed back, but when it was good, I liked it a lot) > Loki (I liked it, but it never landed on anything I really cared about, and I can't say I care more about Loki now than I did before I watched the show -- any Loki). So, WandaVision is basically the show to beat.
The Expanse doesn't -- I liked some aspects of it (the lived-in grunginess of the setting, Alex, Chrisjen's saris and the scene with her and her grandson on the roof), but a lot about it was also not my thing. The Owl House doesn't -- I liked Eda and her relationship with Luz, I liked some of the humour, but there was also a lot here that was less up my alley, maaaaybe because I'm a grown-up and not the target audience.
So it's down to WandaVision and She-Ra, and it's hard to compare the two: WandaVision is a very targeted miniseries that's part of a much larger universe; She-Ra is a five season stand-alone. There are also things that worked less well for me about She-Ra (Mermista and Frosta, the sidelining of Bow in the later seasons), but I think on the whole I got even more out of She-Ra than out of WandaVision, so I think I'm going to give the edge to She-Ra.
6. Your favorite LJ community of the year?
Still Yuletide-related comms and
snowflake_challenge back in January. I didn't hang out in any year-round comms (though I did drop by to read, after the fact, the Dragaera discussion on FFA, because of course I did :)
7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
She-Ra, I guess, as the only new-to-me fandom in which I spent a considerable amount of time. I'm not really interested in the fic, which tends to be shippy, and, like, that's great, but I don't actually feel shippy about this show. But I like the original songs and animatics the fandom has produced, and it's also produced a lot of interesting meta about Catra and Adora from the standpoint of talking about psychological difficulties abused children experience, and stuff like that.
8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Did anything disappoint me this year? Oh, right -- learning that Tsalmoth currently has an April 2023 publication date (presumably due to supply chain issues), when the draft was finished over a year ago. :((( Burst is writing the next one (Lyorn), so hopefully that will make for a shorter time between books than otherwise, but still, that sucks -- I was hoping for early 2022 or even late 2021 when Brust finished the draft in October 2020
9. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Well, I mean, Morrolan always. But of the guys for whom I actually consumed media this year: Palamedes Sextus, Brand St John.
Alexander Lemtov (Eurovision) definitely does not need to be my boyfriend, but he does seem like he'd make a pretty nice friend. Gilbert (Audible's Sandman) is not really boyfriend material either, but another person I'd love to have as a friend. And I wouldn't want either Tal Charossa or Sethennai as a boyfriend, but they were definitely some of the most memorable characters I met this year.
10. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
Luisa Madrigal (Encanto); Scorpia and Entrapta (She-Ra); Agatha Harkness (WandaVision; what, she's helpful); Edalyn Clawthorne (Owl House). Naomi Nagata (book or show, at this point). Abigail Kamara (aged up), Liesl from The Last Graduate.
Also, this meme doesn't feature a question for a non-binary character, but there should be one, and while I wouldn't want Double Trouble (She-Ra) for an SO, they were great fun to watch. But Sniper (Terra Ignota) actually does seem like a great partner (except for the their kinks are not my kinks thing).
11. Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Like the entirety of Perhaps the Stars and getting to share it with ikel89. Seeing a last-minute Dragaera treat pop up on my Yuletide gifts page, and then seeing that my assignment had doubled in size and grown very RTMI tags between when I shook it last and reveals. Seeing evidence that
sysann had picked up the Vorkosigan Sage and was enjoying it.
12. The most missed of your old fandoms?
I dipped back into several nostaglia fandoms this year -- Saved by the Bell (with podcast and rewatching the show) and X-Men (I think in part after the X-Men/MCU fakeout with Pietro/Ralph in WandaVision), and read the latest Wayside School book once I learned about its existence from Yuletide. I'm not really fannish about any of those, though, so I'm not sure I had an old fandom I missed this year.
13. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
MCU What If... fandom, if it exists. I really want to see more of some of the episodes I really like (Starlord T'Challa, Killmonger/Tony, Doctor Strange timeloops), but so far what I've found is Thor/Loki from that party!Thor episode (which was my least favorite) and Strange Supreme noncon selfcest, which is not unexpected but also not what I'm looking for.
Also, The Expanse. I'm curious to see what's out there in the fandom, but I should at least catch up on the show, I guess.
In terms of actually trying new canons -- I finally did try The Expanse (books and show) after saying for years I would. I don't think any of the other things on my to-try list have a fandom...
14. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?
I think the next RoL book (Amongst Our Weapons) is due out April 12, 2022.
**
And another quick meme to wrap up the fannish year-end memes:
Favorite main character of 2021: I continue to really like El in the Scholomance books. Abigail Kamara was a fun protagonist in her novella, though I do still prefer Peter. Murderbot is a lot of fun as your narrator. And I liked Delly in A Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry -- I guess that's really the only NEW main character I feel that way about.
Favorite villain of 2021: *sings* It was Agatha allll along!
Favorite M/F couples of 2021: Did I consume any het this year? I mean, there was Wanda/Vision, but while I liked the show, I'm still not actually sold on the ship (especially the part where she controls his reality), and Loki multiverse selfcest (I liked Sylvie, but also don't ship it). It might actually kind of be Stephen Strange/Christine courtesy of that episode of What If... where he goes dark after not being able to save her. Oh, and canonically, I continue to like Elma/Nathaniel from the Lady Astronaut books, while non-canonically I now ship Elma/Stetson Parker.
Non-shippily, I liked Entrapta and Hordak's relationship (I know them being a thing is Word of God canon, but I still prefer them as friends/lab partners), and also Glimmer and Bow's friendship (both on She-Ra).
Favorite F/F couples of 2021: I read a LOT of books with f/f this year... I liked Val and Julie in We Are Satellites -- they were imperfect but relatable. Csorwe and Shuthmili in Unspoken Name were pretty cute, and if Winn makes Delly happy (in Ruthless Lady's Guide) then I'm happy for her (I found her a little boring myself). Adora/Catra on She-Ra was interesting, but a little too messy for me to ship it. Luz/Amity (The Owl House) was cute, but my interests in the show lie elsewhere. I'm glad Phoebe/Maisie finally were confirmed to be together in the Will Darling books, but I wish we'd gotten to actually see it.
There were also some platonic relationships between women that I liked a lot: Luz and Eda on Owl House, Bronca and Veneza in The City We Became (they were my favorite thing about that book).
Favorite M/M couples of 2021: I read a bunch of canonical m/m this year, and even found some of it cute. First, Kiem and Jainan are just as adorable in the published version of Winter's Orbit as in the fic version, and I was happy to see them fall in love with each other all over again. I wouldn't say I outright ship Robin/Edwin in A Marvelous Light, but I enjoyed it more than many other recent m/m ships in published fiction.
Also, this one's definitely not "cute", but I am happy to report that at the conclusion of Terra Ignota, I am still very invested in my cannibal boyfriends (not MY cannibal boyfriends, each other's cannibal boyfriends).
And I have no idea where to put them, in these categories, since they are not human and their relationship is not a romantic one in the human sense, but ART & Murderbot 5EVA, basically.
Favorite Crossover couples of 2021: You know, it hadn't occurred to me until I was listing out my girlfriends of the year, but I'd kind of love to see Agatha Harkness/Edalyn Clawthorne -- two powerful witches with interesting approaches to morality (I mean, Eda is definitely a nicer person, but it would be interesting, I think).
Also, Scorpia and Tazendra need to hang out. Whether it's a date or not is less important to me (though I wouldn't rule it out), but I feel like that would be fun.
(But Miles Vorkosigan/River Tam forever, still.).
Favorite Polyships of 2021: I don't know if it's headed for an actual canonical polyship (I hope so!) but Sel/Nick/Bree vibes in Legendborn was the most interesting thing to me about that book. I would still (like last year) be happy with a poly arrangement for the Will Darling folks that includes Kim/Will/Maisie/Phoebe. And non-canonically for sure, I'm very much on board for Mimi/Stetson Parker/Elma/Nathaniel for Lady Astronauts.
Favorite Crossover Polyships of 2021: I always have the hardest time with this question -- I never have an organic answer to it -- but when I was reading The Haunting of Tram Car 015, Onsi the nerdy junior magical policeman made me think that it would be fun to see him intract with Peter Grant. Let me add another magical nerd to this with Palamedes from the Locked Tomb books and make it a trio. I feel like all three of them would get along and find each other interesting to talk to.
NOTPs of 2021: I'm interpreting this as canonical pairings that didn't work for me, and: If this counts, it is easily the winner: Miller and protomelecule!Julie in Leviathan Wakes, because ew on many levels. Also, I guess Meddy/what's his name in Dial A for Aunties? I liked the book for the cross-generational relationships between Meddy and the aunties, but the het was very boring.
Fandom that you never expected to get into: I was not expecting to mainline five seasons of She-Ra, and I definitely was not expecting to watch Owl House.
Fandom that made an unexpected comeback: Sudoku, actually XD Look, it came about because of Yuletide, so it totally counts as a fandom.
But also Saved by the Bell -- I started listening to the podcast I forget for what reasons, and that got me to rewatch some episodes of the show, and apparently I still ship Zack/Slater, so. (I haven't watched the reimagining, but I've seen some clips and would be curious to check it out, once I figure out how I could actually watch it.)
Last fandom of 2021: Weirdly, I guess Go_A's "Shum", since I browsed a couple of Yuletide fics for it and quite enjoyed one. And I suppose the same applies to the silly Eurovision movie.
*
Challenge #2: In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.
Ooh, my favorite day is coming early in the rotation this year!
Here were the goals I set for 2021:
- Read at least 52 books -- I said: "I thought about lowering this goal, given that I'm just not reading as much, but nah. And hopefully my commute will return at some point over the course of the year." Well, my commute did not return, but I figured out a way to read without one, and made it to exactly 52 books (although some of them being novellas helped). But still -- 1/1
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list below (which should be kept updated as I keep forgetting things I want to read) -- I did pretty well on this one! Of the things that were on my list when the year started, I finally tried both the book and show version of The Expanse, Nicky Drayden's Prey of Gods, and Dim Sum Asylum. I also tried a bunch of things I added to the list (mentally) mid-year, such as Station Eleven, Victor Lavalle's The Changeling, Raybearer, and the book I'm currently reading, Light from Uncommon Stars. I'm going to reward myself with a kicker -- 1.25/1
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series -- I did pretty well here, too -- I caught up on Murderbot, the Tarot Sequence, and Lady Astronauts -- 1/1
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of -- I finished Angel of the Crows, Gideon the Ninth (after many, many months), The Hanged Man, Rogue Protocol (after several years) and decided to DNF Ten Thousand Doors of January, but I also added several more books to this list throughout the year, including The Monster of Elendhaven, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and others -- 1/1
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile -- this continues to be a bust for me... I did finish Dim Sum Asylum, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive baking, and DNF's Ten Thousand Doors -- but these were the last three books I added to the list, so I don't know that this goal is doing anything for me... -- 0.5/1
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length; see list of interest below; I may or may not add 2020 nominees to it...) -- I did not read any of the classic stuff I wanted to include in this list, but I did a whole bunch of Hugo homework and read way, way more than 5 Hugo-nominated things (in fact, I read 6 novelettes, 6 novellas, 6 short stories, and 3 nominated novels (I'd already read 2 and DNF'd one) + 4 Lodestar nominees and 3 Astounding novels -- so I'm going to call this: 2/1
- Successfully complete at least one syncread (however chaotically... :P) -- well, it was definitely chaotic, but I completed two: the Winter's Orbit sync read that had an actual post, although everyone sort of rushed through and read the book in a gulp, and a Pass-It-On impromptu sync read of Perhaps the Stars with
cafemassolit and
seriouslywhy, so -- 1/1
- Read at least 1 book in Russian (finishing 'Vereteno' will count for this) -- I read one book in Russian, "Deniskiny rasskazy i o tom kak vse bylo na samom dele" -- 1/1
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this -- I read the Alan Dundes nonfiction book, which was a reread but still counts, and I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, which has some possibly-fantastic elements, but is not I think genre. In any case -- 1/1
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago -- the Dundes book is from abou 35 years ago, so does not quite fulfill this challenge, but I'm going to give it -- 0.5/1
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below) -- with a stretch goal of 2, as this list keeps growing now that I have Netflix -- I did this by finishing out She-Ra, and also watched all of Owl House -- 1/1
- Post at least one new thing to AO3 -- I posted 3 things, between the poetry fest and Yuletide -- 1/1
- Actually comment on AO3 -- I did OK at this when I was reading fic, which was mostly at Yuletide and during the poetry fest -- 1/1
- Post at least 1 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme (I have two half-written entries but have not posted in almost three years... Hell, at this point I need to revisit some of my lists :P -- dropping the numbers to 1 post instead of 3 did not help -- I still got zero posts done -- 0/1
- Submit at least 1 poem somewhere (Submission Grinder) -- I was doing this pretty consistently throughout the year and actually sold a poem! -- 2/1
Total = 15.25/15 ~ 101.7%
So, that's way better than last year, and possibly the best I've ever done since I've started with these MBO type goals. I don't think I'm being overly generous or sandbaggy -- I feel like between the Hugos and some other things, I just read more widely this year and also pretty consistently did other things.
Goals for 2022:
- Read at least 52 books
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list below (which should be kept updated as I keep forgetting things I want to read)
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length; see list of interest below; I may or may not add 2021 nominees to it...)
- Read at least 1 book in Russian
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below)
- Post at least one new thing to AO3
- Actually comment on AO3
- Post at least 1 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme (I have two half-written entries but have not posted in almost four years... Hell, at this point I need to revisit some of my lists :P
- Submit at least 1 poem somewhere
- Special Hugo related goal: Submit a nominations ballot (since I have a supporting membership for 2021 and am eligible to nominate)
To "try" list:
Books:
- Child of a Hidden Sea (Dellamonica)
- Fire and Hemlock (DWJ) -- or Archer's Goon, now that I have a copy
- Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho
- The Coldfire Trilogy (C.S.Friedman)
- Jim Butcher's steampunk thing
- Neal Asher Polity novels
- The Night Circus
- Starglass (Phoebe North)
- See Under -- love
- something by Octavia Butler
- Scorpion Rules (or something else by Erin Bow)
- something by Daryl Gregory
- Emma Newman Split Worlds
- something by Heinlein
- Hither, Page
- The Unconquerable Sun
- She Who Became the Sun
- something by Tasha Suri
- Light from Uncommon Stars
- P.J. Manney books
TV:
- Almost Human
Backburner book series:
- Magnus Chase*
- Sapkowski's Witcher*
- Alex Verus*
- Three Body Problem*
- Oxford Time-Travel Universe*
- Iskyrne
- Guy Gavriel Kay books
- Mercy Thompson
- Kate Daniels (something else by Ilona Andrews also counts)
- Philosopher Kings* (something else by Jo Walton also counts)
- Matthew Swift-verse* (something else by any of her aliases also counts)
- Elemental Logic*
- The Magicians
- Cloud Roads*
- Craft Sequence*
- Elantra*
- Volha / Kosmo-oluhi
- Toby Daye*
- Inda*
- Attolia*
- The Bear and the Nightingale*
- Gilded Cage*
- Penric*
- Six of Crows books
- Philosopher's War
- Whyborne & Griffin*
- Cruel Prince trilogy
- Infomocracy*
- Daevabad*
- Machineries of Empire (Hexarchate Stories)
- not really a series, but more Hardinge
- Raven Cycle (Call Down the Hawk)
- Dresden Files
- Pelted Universe books
- Lymond???*
- Redemptor
* = I'm more than 1 volume behind
Books I'm in the middle of pile (defined as books I've started over a month ago, have not finished, but plan to keep reading -- OK to add to this over the course of the year) -- this year the list has really gotten out of hand
- A Terrible Country**
- Invisible Library
- Deeplight*
- Face Like Glass*
- Battle Ground*
- Philosopher's War
- My Real Children*
- Ruin of Angels*
- The King of Elfland's Daughter
- The Girl in the Tower*
- Agyar
- Flex
- Crooked Kingdom*
- Spin State
- Semiosis
- Le Ton beau de Marot**
- Under the Pendulum Sun
- The Tarnished City*
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- Kingdom of Copper*
- Alchemy of Masks and Mirrors
- Vereteno Vasilisy**
- Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
- Redemptor*
- The Jasmine Throne**
* = counts for backburner book series
** = counts for a different (main) goal
TBR pile list -- same rules as Mount TBR (own by Jan 1, have not read more than half, except Im not committing to the whole list, as that doesn't work for me)
- Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho**
- Autoboyography
- Ruin of Angels, Max Gladstone*
- Last First Snow, Max Gladstone*
- My Real Children, Jo Walton*
- Lexicon (Max Barry)
- Empress Game (Rhonda Mason)
- Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
- Hammered (Elizabeth Bear)
- The Last Dragon
- Among the Nameless Stars, Diana Peterfreund (oldest unread book on my Kindle)
- Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman
- Prisoner of Limnos*
- Deeplight, Face Like Glass, Fly by Night, Frances Hardinge*
- Archer's Goon, DWJ**
- something from the Octavia Butler omnibus**
- Between Two Thorns**
- (R)evolution by P.J. Manney**
*counts for the catching up on backburner series goal
** counts for "to try" goal
Hugo nominated list of interest (but other Hugo nominated things also count)
- The Darfsteller (novellette)
- "Allamagoosa"
- "The Star" (Clarke)
- Double Star (Heinlein novel)**
- "Or All the Seas with Oysters" (Davidson)
- "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (Bester)
- "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (Sturgeon)
- "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (Delany)
- "Nobody's Home" by Joanna Russ
- Dying Inside (Silverberg)
- "Air Raid" by John Varley under pen name
- Metropolitan (Walter Jon Williams)
** = counts for "to try"
Mid-season (or full season behind) TV shows
- Buffy, season 6
- Angel, season 2
- Korra, season 4
- Killjoys, season 3
- Grace and Frankie, season 6
- Leverage, season 1
- Person of Interest, season 2
- Lewis, season 9
- Sherlock, season 4
- Farscape (uh, whichever season I stopped on)
- White Collar, it's complicated, but let's say season 5
- Dragon Prince, season 2
- Gargoyles, season 1
- Witcher, season 2
- The Expanse, season 2
*
Also, I am 15 days late to this party and refuse to switch to the "new" LJ update page to be able to generate the actual widget, but this "how long would it take to read all your 2021 LJ entries" was too funny not to share:
(I don't think I've seen anything equal or longer on my flist. I'm sorry, guys XD Thanks for putting up with me.)
This entry was originally posted at https://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1162857.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).
Fannish end-of-year memes:
1. Your main fandom of the year?
I don't feel like there's a single answer to this... But here are a couple of contenders:
Terra Ignota probably edges ahead of the others because Perhaps the Stars finally happened, and it was GLORIOUS, and I spent 2 weeks basically in a fugue state of reading it and live-blogging my thoughts and reading ikel89 doing the same. I also caught Ada Palmer at Balticon panels, and while only one of them (the reading) was strictly speaking related to TI, I feel like that still counts. That, or Ada Palmer is a fandom of mine in her own right, which, honestly, is not exactly wrong.) This was short but intense enough that I think it still counts as the winner.
Dragaera fandom continued, surprisingly, to exist, to my immense excitement. I got fic gifts for it in
fandomtrees and
yuletide to bracket the year with Dragaera joy (♥
sysann &
misura ♥), and there appeared Dragaera fic that had nothing to do with me, which also hadn't happened in a while. I got a glorious chance to talk Vlad Taltos meta as
silverflight8 powered through the first bunch of novels at an amazing pace, and another flister took steps to read the first book in the near future. It wasn't quite the surprise of 2020, with
sysann picking up and embracing the fandom to an incredible degree, but it was still a delight.
But then there's MCU. I'm not a serious MCU fan, and I still haven't watched 3 out of 4 MCU movies that came out this year, but I did watch three TV shows over the course of the year (WandaVision, Loki, and What If...), tuning in mostly week by week, which is a major accomplishment for me, and I watched the Easter Egg videos and speculation videos and all the things. Like, in terms of primary source content consumed, I think this probably edges out even Terra Ignota, and definitely any other fandom. (Let's see -- Perhaps the Stars was apparently 22.5 hours of reading time, while MCU adds up to 350 min for WandaVision, 260 min for Loki, and ~270 min for What If, plus 2.5 hours for Spider-Man -- OK, no, that's shorter than TI, although if I factor in all the Easter Egg stuff, they'd probably be about even. But anyway, MCU was a significant chunk of my year.
2. Your favorite film watched this year?
I watched a lot more movies this year, including two in theaters. The full list is Soul, Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Encanto, Mitchells vs the Machines, the live action Aladdin remake, Shazam!, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Emma, Jungle Cruise, Eurovision Song Contest, and the documentary Never Surrender (about the making and legacy of Galaxy Quest).
The movies I liked the most were Encanto, Spider-Man, Shazam, and Never Surrender, and I think Encanto actually takes the edge by being the only one of these to really get to me emotionally.
But this was a good year for movies!
3. Your favorite book read this year?
Perhaps the Stars, though it was the culmination of an experience more than just a book.
4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
There are several very earwormy songs in Encanto (~"We don't talk about Bruno no no no no"~), but the one I liked best is definitely "Surface Pressure" (Luisa's song):
Click to view5. Your favorite TV show of the year?
There was a lot of TV this year, though not quite as much as last year, I think. I watched the thee MCU shows I mentioned above (WandaVision, Loki, What If...), She-Ra, Owl House, the first season of The Expanse, and rewatched some X-Men and Saved by the Bell. I'm not going to count the nostalgia rewatches for the purposes of this question, so of the new-to-me shows, I liked all of them a fair bit.
I'd rank the MCU shows as follows: WandaVision (such a cool premise, neatly executed; it made me care about both characters, which I never had done before, and enjoy Agatha Harkness a lot, and it was a beautiful mindfuck, even though the ending was the weakest part) > What If (I really liked about a third of the episodes, decently enjoyed another couple, and was meh on a couple more, so, more of a mixed back, but when it was good, I liked it a lot) > Loki (I liked it, but it never landed on anything I really cared about, and I can't say I care more about Loki now than I did before I watched the show -- any Loki). So, WandaVision is basically the show to beat.
The Expanse doesn't -- I liked some aspects of it (the lived-in grunginess of the setting, Alex, Chrisjen's saris and the scene with her and her grandson on the roof), but a lot about it was also not my thing. The Owl House doesn't -- I liked Eda and her relationship with Luz, I liked some of the humour, but there was also a lot here that was less up my alley, maaaaybe because I'm a grown-up and not the target audience.
So it's down to WandaVision and She-Ra, and it's hard to compare the two: WandaVision is a very targeted miniseries that's part of a much larger universe; She-Ra is a five season stand-alone. There are also things that worked less well for me about She-Ra (Mermista and Frosta, the sidelining of Bow in the later seasons), but I think on the whole I got even more out of She-Ra than out of WandaVision, so I think I'm going to give the edge to She-Ra.
6. Your favorite LJ community of the year?
Still Yuletide-related comms and
snowflake_challenge back in January. I didn't hang out in any year-round comms (though I did drop by to read, after the fact, the Dragaera discussion on FFA, because of course I did :)
7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
She-Ra, I guess, as the only new-to-me fandom in which I spent a considerable amount of time. I'm not really interested in the fic, which tends to be shippy, and, like, that's great, but I don't actually feel shippy about this show. But I like the original songs and animatics the fandom has produced, and it's also produced a lot of interesting meta about Catra and Adora from the standpoint of talking about psychological difficulties abused children experience, and stuff like that.
8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Did anything disappoint me this year? Oh, right -- learning that Tsalmoth currently has an April 2023 publication date (presumably due to supply chain issues), when the draft was finished over a year ago. :((( Burst is writing the next one (Lyorn), so hopefully that will make for a shorter time between books than otherwise, but still, that sucks -- I was hoping for early 2022 or even late 2021 when Brust finished the draft in October 2020
9. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Well, I mean, Morrolan always. But of the guys for whom I actually consumed media this year: Palamedes Sextus, Brand St John.
Alexander Lemtov (Eurovision) definitely does not need to be my boyfriend, but he does seem like he'd make a pretty nice friend. Gilbert (Audible's Sandman) is not really boyfriend material either, but another person I'd love to have as a friend. And I wouldn't want either Tal Charossa or Sethennai as a boyfriend, but they were definitely some of the most memorable characters I met this year.
10. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
Luisa Madrigal (Encanto); Scorpia and Entrapta (She-Ra); Agatha Harkness (WandaVision; what, she's helpful); Edalyn Clawthorne (Owl House). Naomi Nagata (book or show, at this point). Abigail Kamara (aged up), Liesl from The Last Graduate.
Also, this meme doesn't feature a question for a non-binary character, but there should be one, and while I wouldn't want Double Trouble (She-Ra) for an SO, they were great fun to watch. But Sniper (Terra Ignota) actually does seem like a great partner (except for the their kinks are not my kinks thing).
11. Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Like the entirety of Perhaps the Stars and getting to share it with ikel89. Seeing a last-minute Dragaera treat pop up on my Yuletide gifts page, and then seeing that my assignment had doubled in size and grown very RTMI tags between when I shook it last and reveals. Seeing evidence that
sysann had picked up the Vorkosigan Sage and was enjoying it.
12. The most missed of your old fandoms?
I dipped back into several nostaglia fandoms this year -- Saved by the Bell (with podcast and rewatching the show) and X-Men (I think in part after the X-Men/MCU fakeout with Pietro/Ralph in WandaVision), and read the latest Wayside School book once I learned about its existence from Yuletide. I'm not really fannish about any of those, though, so I'm not sure I had an old fandom I missed this year.
13. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
MCU What If... fandom, if it exists. I really want to see more of some of the episodes I really like (Starlord T'Challa, Killmonger/Tony, Doctor Strange timeloops), but so far what I've found is Thor/Loki from that party!Thor episode (which was my least favorite) and Strange Supreme noncon selfcest, which is not unexpected but also not what I'm looking for.
Also, The Expanse. I'm curious to see what's out there in the fandom, but I should at least catch up on the show, I guess.
In terms of actually trying new canons -- I finally did try The Expanse (books and show) after saying for years I would. I don't think any of the other things on my to-try list have a fandom...
14. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?
I think the next RoL book (Amongst Our Weapons) is due out April 12, 2022.
**
And another quick meme to wrap up the fannish year-end memes:
Favorite main character of 2021: I continue to really like El in the Scholomance books. Abigail Kamara was a fun protagonist in her novella, though I do still prefer Peter. Murderbot is a lot of fun as your narrator. And I liked Delly in A Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry -- I guess that's really the only NEW main character I feel that way about.
Favorite villain of 2021: *sings* It was Agatha allll along!
Favorite M/F couples of 2021: Did I consume any het this year? I mean, there was Wanda/Vision, but while I liked the show, I'm still not actually sold on the ship (especially the part where she controls his reality), and Loki multiverse selfcest (I liked Sylvie, but also don't ship it). It might actually kind of be Stephen Strange/Christine courtesy of that episode of What If... where he goes dark after not being able to save her. Oh, and canonically, I continue to like Elma/Nathaniel from the Lady Astronaut books, while non-canonically I now ship Elma/Stetson Parker.
Non-shippily, I liked Entrapta and Hordak's relationship (I know them being a thing is Word of God canon, but I still prefer them as friends/lab partners), and also Glimmer and Bow's friendship (both on She-Ra).
Favorite F/F couples of 2021: I read a LOT of books with f/f this year... I liked Val and Julie in We Are Satellites -- they were imperfect but relatable. Csorwe and Shuthmili in Unspoken Name were pretty cute, and if Winn makes Delly happy (in Ruthless Lady's Guide) then I'm happy for her (I found her a little boring myself). Adora/Catra on She-Ra was interesting, but a little too messy for me to ship it. Luz/Amity (The Owl House) was cute, but my interests in the show lie elsewhere. I'm glad Phoebe/Maisie finally were confirmed to be together in the Will Darling books, but I wish we'd gotten to actually see it.
There were also some platonic relationships between women that I liked a lot: Luz and Eda on Owl House, Bronca and Veneza in The City We Became (they were my favorite thing about that book).
Favorite M/M couples of 2021: I read a bunch of canonical m/m this year, and even found some of it cute. First, Kiem and Jainan are just as adorable in the published version of Winter's Orbit as in the fic version, and I was happy to see them fall in love with each other all over again. I wouldn't say I outright ship Robin/Edwin in A Marvelous Light, but I enjoyed it more than many other recent m/m ships in published fiction.
Also, this one's definitely not "cute", but I am happy to report that at the conclusion of Terra Ignota, I am still very invested in my cannibal boyfriends (not MY cannibal boyfriends, each other's cannibal boyfriends).
And I have no idea where to put them, in these categories, since they are not human and their relationship is not a romantic one in the human sense, but ART & Murderbot 5EVA, basically.
Favorite Crossover couples of 2021: You know, it hadn't occurred to me until I was listing out my girlfriends of the year, but I'd kind of love to see Agatha Harkness/Edalyn Clawthorne -- two powerful witches with interesting approaches to morality (I mean, Eda is definitely a nicer person, but it would be interesting, I think).
Also, Scorpia and Tazendra need to hang out. Whether it's a date or not is less important to me (though I wouldn't rule it out), but I feel like that would be fun.
(But Miles Vorkosigan/River Tam forever, still.).
Favorite Polyships of 2021: I don't know if it's headed for an actual canonical polyship (I hope so!) but Sel/Nick/Bree vibes in Legendborn was the most interesting thing to me about that book. I would still (like last year) be happy with a poly arrangement for the Will Darling folks that includes Kim/Will/Maisie/Phoebe. And non-canonically for sure, I'm very much on board for Mimi/Stetson Parker/Elma/Nathaniel for Lady Astronauts.
Favorite Crossover Polyships of 2021: I always have the hardest time with this question -- I never have an organic answer to it -- but when I was reading The Haunting of Tram Car 015, Onsi the nerdy junior magical policeman made me think that it would be fun to see him intract with Peter Grant. Let me add another magical nerd to this with Palamedes from the Locked Tomb books and make it a trio. I feel like all three of them would get along and find each other interesting to talk to.
NOTPs of 2021: I'm interpreting this as canonical pairings that didn't work for me, and: If this counts, it is easily the winner: Miller and protomelecule!Julie in Leviathan Wakes, because ew on many levels. Also, I guess Meddy/what's his name in Dial A for Aunties? I liked the book for the cross-generational relationships between Meddy and the aunties, but the het was very boring.
Fandom that you never expected to get into: I was not expecting to mainline five seasons of She-Ra, and I definitely was not expecting to watch Owl House.
Fandom that made an unexpected comeback: Sudoku, actually XD Look, it came about because of Yuletide, so it totally counts as a fandom.
But also Saved by the Bell -- I started listening to the podcast I forget for what reasons, and that got me to rewatch some episodes of the show, and apparently I still ship Zack/Slater, so. (I haven't watched the reimagining, but I've seen some clips and would be curious to check it out, once I figure out how I could actually watch it.)
Last fandom of 2021: Weirdly, I guess Go_A's "Shum", since I browsed a couple of Yuletide fics for it and quite enjoyed one. And I suppose the same applies to the silly Eurovision movie.
*
Challenge #2: In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.
Ooh, my favorite day is coming early in the rotation this year!
Here were the goals I set for 2021:
- Read at least 52 books -- I said: "I thought about lowering this goal, given that I'm just not reading as much, but nah. And hopefully my commute will return at some point over the course of the year." Well, my commute did not return, but I figured out a way to read without one, and made it to exactly 52 books (although some of them being novellas helped). But still -- 1/1
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list below (which should be kept updated as I keep forgetting things I want to read) -- I did pretty well on this one! Of the things that were on my list when the year started, I finally tried both the book and show version of The Expanse, Nicky Drayden's Prey of Gods, and Dim Sum Asylum. I also tried a bunch of things I added to the list (mentally) mid-year, such as Station Eleven, Victor Lavalle's The Changeling, Raybearer, and the book I'm currently reading, Light from Uncommon Stars. I'm going to reward myself with a kicker -- 1.25/1
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series -- I did pretty well here, too -- I caught up on Murderbot, the Tarot Sequence, and Lady Astronauts -- 1/1
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of -- I finished Angel of the Crows, Gideon the Ninth (after many, many months), The Hanged Man, Rogue Protocol (after several years) and decided to DNF Ten Thousand Doors of January, but I also added several more books to this list throughout the year, including The Monster of Elendhaven, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and others -- 1/1
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile -- this continues to be a bust for me... I did finish Dim Sum Asylum, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive baking, and DNF's Ten Thousand Doors -- but these were the last three books I added to the list, so I don't know that this goal is doing anything for me... -- 0.5/1
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length; see list of interest below; I may or may not add 2020 nominees to it...) -- I did not read any of the classic stuff I wanted to include in this list, but I did a whole bunch of Hugo homework and read way, way more than 5 Hugo-nominated things (in fact, I read 6 novelettes, 6 novellas, 6 short stories, and 3 nominated novels (I'd already read 2 and DNF'd one) + 4 Lodestar nominees and 3 Astounding novels -- so I'm going to call this: 2/1
- Successfully complete at least one syncread (however chaotically... :P) -- well, it was definitely chaotic, but I completed two: the Winter's Orbit sync read that had an actual post, although everyone sort of rushed through and read the book in a gulp, and a Pass-It-On impromptu sync read of Perhaps the Stars with
cafemassolit and
seriouslywhy, so -- 1/1
- Read at least 1 book in Russian (finishing 'Vereteno' will count for this) -- I read one book in Russian, "Deniskiny rasskazy i o tom kak vse bylo na samom dele" -- 1/1
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this -- I read the Alan Dundes nonfiction book, which was a reread but still counts, and I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, which has some possibly-fantastic elements, but is not I think genre. In any case -- 1/1
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago -- the Dundes book is from abou 35 years ago, so does not quite fulfill this challenge, but I'm going to give it -- 0.5/1
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below) -- with a stretch goal of 2, as this list keeps growing now that I have Netflix -- I did this by finishing out She-Ra, and also watched all of Owl House -- 1/1
- Post at least one new thing to AO3 -- I posted 3 things, between the poetry fest and Yuletide -- 1/1
- Actually comment on AO3 -- I did OK at this when I was reading fic, which was mostly at Yuletide and during the poetry fest -- 1/1
- Post at least 1 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme (I have two half-written entries but have not posted in almost three years... Hell, at this point I need to revisit some of my lists :P -- dropping the numbers to 1 post instead of 3 did not help -- I still got zero posts done -- 0/1
- Submit at least 1 poem somewhere (Submission Grinder) -- I was doing this pretty consistently throughout the year and actually sold a poem! -- 2/1
Total = 15.25/15 ~ 101.7%
So, that's way better than last year, and possibly the best I've ever done since I've started with these MBO type goals. I don't think I'm being overly generous or sandbaggy -- I feel like between the Hugos and some other things, I just read more widely this year and also pretty consistently did other things.
Goals for 2022:
- Read at least 52 books
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list below (which should be kept updated as I keep forgetting things I want to read)
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length; see list of interest below; I may or may not add 2021 nominees to it...)
- Read at least 1 book in Russian
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below)
- Post at least one new thing to AO3
- Actually comment on AO3
- Post at least 1 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme (I have two half-written entries but have not posted in almost four years... Hell, at this point I need to revisit some of my lists :P
- Submit at least 1 poem somewhere
- Special Hugo related goal: Submit a nominations ballot (since I have a supporting membership for 2021 and am eligible to nominate)
To "try" list:
Books:
- Child of a Hidden Sea (Dellamonica)
- Fire and Hemlock (DWJ) -- or Archer's Goon, now that I have a copy
- Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho
- The Coldfire Trilogy (C.S.Friedman)
- Jim Butcher's steampunk thing
- Neal Asher Polity novels
- The Night Circus
- Starglass (Phoebe North)
- See Under -- love
- something by Octavia Butler
- Scorpion Rules (or something else by Erin Bow)
- something by Daryl Gregory
- Emma Newman Split Worlds
- something by Heinlein
- Hither, Page
- The Unconquerable Sun
- She Who Became the Sun
- something by Tasha Suri
- Light from Uncommon Stars
- P.J. Manney books
TV:
- Almost Human
Backburner book series:
- Magnus Chase*
- Sapkowski's Witcher*
- Alex Verus*
- Three Body Problem*
- Oxford Time-Travel Universe*
- Iskyrne
- Guy Gavriel Kay books
- Mercy Thompson
- Kate Daniels (something else by Ilona Andrews also counts)
- Philosopher Kings* (something else by Jo Walton also counts)
- Matthew Swift-verse* (something else by any of her aliases also counts)
- Elemental Logic*
- The Magicians
- Cloud Roads*
- Craft Sequence*
- Elantra*
- Volha / Kosmo-oluhi
- Toby Daye*
- Inda*
- Attolia*
- The Bear and the Nightingale*
- Gilded Cage*
- Penric*
- Six of Crows books
- Philosopher's War
- Whyborne & Griffin*
- Cruel Prince trilogy
- Infomocracy*
- Daevabad*
- Machineries of Empire (Hexarchate Stories)
- not really a series, but more Hardinge
- Raven Cycle (Call Down the Hawk)
- Dresden Files
- Pelted Universe books
- Lymond???*
- Redemptor
* = I'm more than 1 volume behind
Books I'm in the middle of pile (defined as books I've started over a month ago, have not finished, but plan to keep reading -- OK to add to this over the course of the year) -- this year the list has really gotten out of hand
- A Terrible Country**
- Invisible Library
- Deeplight*
- Face Like Glass*
- Battle Ground*
- Philosopher's War
- My Real Children*
- Ruin of Angels*
- The King of Elfland's Daughter
- The Girl in the Tower*
- Agyar
- Flex
- Crooked Kingdom*
- Spin State
- Semiosis
- Le Ton beau de Marot**
- Under the Pendulum Sun
- The Tarnished City*
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- Kingdom of Copper*
- Alchemy of Masks and Mirrors
- Vereteno Vasilisy**
- Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
- Redemptor*
- The Jasmine Throne**
* = counts for backburner book series
** = counts for a different (main) goal
TBR pile list -- same rules as Mount TBR (own by Jan 1, have not read more than half, except Im not committing to the whole list, as that doesn't work for me)
- Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho**
- Autoboyography
- Ruin of Angels, Max Gladstone*
- Last First Snow, Max Gladstone*
- My Real Children, Jo Walton*
- Lexicon (Max Barry)
- Empress Game (Rhonda Mason)
- Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
- Hammered (Elizabeth Bear)
- The Last Dragon
- Among the Nameless Stars, Diana Peterfreund (oldest unread book on my Kindle)
- Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman
- Prisoner of Limnos*
- Deeplight, Face Like Glass, Fly by Night, Frances Hardinge*
- Archer's Goon, DWJ**
- something from the Octavia Butler omnibus**
- Between Two Thorns**
- (R)evolution by P.J. Manney**
*counts for the catching up on backburner series goal
** counts for "to try" goal
Hugo nominated list of interest (but other Hugo nominated things also count)
- The Darfsteller (novellette)
- "Allamagoosa"
- "The Star" (Clarke)
- Double Star (Heinlein novel)**
- "Or All the Seas with Oysters" (Davidson)
- "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (Bester)
- "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (Sturgeon)
- "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (Delany)
- "Nobody's Home" by Joanna Russ
- Dying Inside (Silverberg)
- "Air Raid" by John Varley under pen name
- Metropolitan (Walter Jon Williams)
** = counts for "to try"
Mid-season (or full season behind) TV shows
- Buffy, season 6
- Angel, season 2
- Korra, season 4
- Killjoys, season 3
- Grace and Frankie, season 6
- Leverage, season 1
- Person of Interest, season 2
- Lewis, season 9
- Sherlock, season 4
- Farscape (uh, whichever season I stopped on)
- White Collar, it's complicated, but let's say season 5
- Dragon Prince, season 2
- Gargoyles, season 1
- Witcher, season 2
- The Expanse, season 2
*
Also, I am 15 days late to this party and refuse to switch to the "new" LJ update page to be able to generate the actual widget, but this "how long would it take to read all your 2021 LJ entries" was too funny not to share:
(I don't think I've seen anything equal or longer on my flist. I'm sorry, guys XD Thanks for putting up with me.)
This entry was originally posted at https://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1162857.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).