2021 Year in Review

The fact that I totally forgot about this annual posting ritual is a serious signal of where my head is at right now. I'll probably do my fandom in review post later today, will hold fic in review and 2022 goals for tomorrow.

Take the first line of the first post of each month, and that's your year in review. (Skipping writing goals posts.)

January: I've had this lyric in my head for weeks (from The Who's Tommy). [The lyric, which was the subject of the post, was "Got a feeling '21/Is gonna be a good year". Yeah, so much for that.]

February: seventhe and lassarina have brought back one of my favorite fandom events ever, the Final Fantasy Kiss Battle!

March: Yesterday (Friday) was my birthday.

April: Interesting that they seem to be alternating between giving Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan top billing in the closing credits. [re. episode three of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier]

May: Arrowverse update: I'm currently caught up on Supergirl (to Episode 5) and have watched The Flash through Episode 6 (one episode behind as of this writing).

June: Wow, I haven't written about this show in awhile, have I? [re. the Critical Role campaign 2 finale]

July: I'm sitting at a cafe table with my laptop and a latte and I can barely believe it.

August: One of my favorite podcasts ever aired its series finale today, and I'm both warm and fuzzy with contentment to have experienced a wonderful story, and so sad to see it come to an end. [re. The Magpies If you haven't yet checked out this show, why haven't you checked out this show??]

September: Arrowverse update: I look a bit of a break from these shows -- the last time I posted about them was in early May, and I think I watched through about the end of May - up to whatever week was the Supergirl midseason finale.

October: We spent much of this weekend moving furniture around, and so I'm now writing from you from my temporary office, which is also our temporary bedroom as well as the permanent living room.

November: Astute readers probably noticed that I said I would write something every day in November, not post something every day.

December: WorldCon started today.

2021 Fandom Year in Review

Your main fandom of the year? I wrote the most stuff for and paid the most attention to Dragon Age -- getting back into the games definitely helped with that, although my replay time dropped off a lot when I started revisiting Ace Attorney, and now it's all about Hades. But I'm about done with Hades, so going back to DA again (next up is Awakenings) is definitely part of the plan for 2022.

Your favorite movie seen this year? Nothing really stands out. Maybe Free Guy as the most recently memorable, anyway.

Your favorite book read this year? Toss up between Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee and The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrak.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year? Probably the most honest answer to this question is the Ace Attorney Trilogy soundtracks and other Ace Attorney music.

Your favorite TV show of the year? Maybe Ted Lasso (both seasons) or Only Murders in the Building, although Arcane was also excellent.

Your favorite video game of the year? No question, Hades. We haven't reached the epilogue yet -- and may decide it's not worth the grinding it would take to get there -- but it's one of the most perfect mergers of gameplay and storytelling I've ever seen, and its Best Game Hugo award was richly deserved.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Not sure I have one.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? WorldCon. I decided somewhat last minute not to attend in person (it sounds like I made the right decision), the timing made it impossible for me to engage virtually, and while for the most part the Hugo ceremony and the slate of winners made me really happy, the last minute announcement that weapons manufacturer Raytheon was sponsoring the ceremony cast a serious shadow over the whole thing. There's a bunch of reasons I haven't talked about that issue in more detail here, but I can say that the finalists were as blindsided as everyone else by that piece of information, and almost everyone was extremely unhappy about it. Probably I should write a real post about this later. I do want to make clear that I do not include the fact that Best Fanzine was awarded to Nerds of a Feather in that disappointment -- NoaF is a fantastic blog run by an amazing team, and their recognition with a Hugo rocket was long overdue.

Your fandom boyfriend/girlfriend of the year? Zagreus (from Hades) and Vi and Caitlin (from Arcane).

Your biggest squee moment of the year? The SF Giants winning the National League West. I wish they'd gotten further in the playoffs, but just watching them pull off that accomplishment was a huge rush.

The most missed of your old fandoms? As usual the answer to this is everything. How do I even fandom anymore?

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? Not sure. Maybe Arcane? Hades?

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? Top of this list is Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn that is due to be released in February.