I was supposed to post this last weekend, but... I forgot. Anyway, it IS (or was) that time of the year, the time for me to focus on the positive and think about all the things that gave me nerdy joy in this last year.

the music in Sinners

Look, so much about this movie was just so perfect, and I can easily name something from it in at least five different "thing that gave me joy" categories. But I will try to stick to one, and so that would be the music. Especially Preacher Boy's performance of "I Lied To You", where musicians from past, present, and future come together.

Superman being punk AF

I was never a big Supes fan, but then again, I was never a big DC fan, period. If you asked me about the comics, I would say I prefer Batman just because they tend to stick their better writers in Bat titles, but as a "superhero" I would choose Superman over some billionaire who loves to cosplay, any day.

I think people who think Superman (and Cyclops) are boring, are the sort of boring people that think acting cool and disinterested in everything is edgy. I don't like Superman necessarily, but I do think he's a good superhero, and when I do read his comics, I enjoy the complex stories some of the writers choose to tell. And when I read the statement that this new Superman movie was going to be about being a good person at a time when being good was considered uncool, I was interested because it seems like finally someone who GETS Clark Kent is making a Superman film. And then I watched it, and it was so good, and I will regret not going for a second viewing for a long time, and he is so fucking punk I can now say I do love Superman. He is in fact so punk I personally felt he was acting more like Jon Kent Superman than Clark Kent Superman, but (1), I am not complaining, and (2), as I said I'm not a big Supes reader, and I do just happen to read more Jon Kent Superman than Clark Kent Superman, so it's possible that I am just wrong.

the music in The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All

Okay, if I was being really really honest, I got sick of BL/GL books years ago. Most weren't really well written, and tropey af (this coming from someone who usually loves genre tropes), and even icky or disturbing or misogynist or weirdly queerphobic despite being "queer". So I wasn't likely to start reading this series, except for the fact that the art is so freaking pretty.

I can't afford a single volume, so I was also mostly reading at work. And, you know what, this is one of my favourite newer manga now. The GL element is still barely there and almost queer-baity at this point (I am up to volume 2), but the connection between the characters as two teens obsessed with western rock music.

I loved the depiction of each girl, one as a loner content to be friendless because of not knowing anyone who shares her interest (and having social anxiety), and the other as a popular girl who hides this other side of herself because it would set her as an outsider in her social groups.

And then there's the music itself, which was mostly stuff I used to love as a teen, which made me wonder was this supposed to be set in the 90s or are these girls just specifically into "oldies". Either way, the music is on point and there are playlists online now for this series. I haven't been this into a music-focused manga since BECK!

the new generation of mutants

I love me some X-Men, but even as Jean-and-Cyclops own my heart as two of the five OG mutants, I always love the introduction of new mutants. And this year, I have been getting acquainted with two different group of kids, one from Gail Simone's Uncanny X-Men run, and the other from Eve L. Ewing's Exceptional X-Men run.

Gail Simone's kids have a slight edge for me because I absolutely adore Hotoru (aka DeathDream, how angsty teen is that) and Sofia Yong (aka Jitter) both of whom I am absolutely adopting as my new favourite X babies. On the other side there's Ewing's Alejandro Luna (aka Axo) who would have been chased into the morlock tunnels if we were still in the 90s.

unexpected mixing of fandoms

I don't think I really thought about just how interconnected all the things I love are, until somewhat recently. There was Hank Green appearing in Dimension 20 last year, of course (I think it was last year?). And seeing Ify and BDG appearing on MTG shows this year. And realising that Beardsley plays MTG, too. And finding out that so do Matt Mercer and Amy Vorpahl and Emily Axford. And Caroline from Dropout? And Irene the Alien? And Seanan McGuire?? Who apparently not only plays the game but contributed to the lore?

So this year MinMaxxed, a collab between martial arts influencers I follow was kickstarted, where they're all going to... play D&D together. And I'm so excited about it.

Lorwyn Eclipsed story

Speaking of Seanan McGuire. She wrote the story for Lorwyn Eclipsed, which is coming out next year (the set, that is - the story is already out). And I just love it so much? Part of it is nostalgia, for sure - the original Lorwyn block was the last set I played and truly loved before I quit MTG back in 2007/2008. And then there's the fact that she wove in Strixhaven, the set that lured me back into MTG, as well as elements from Eldraine, the set that I still wish I was around for when it came out. The reveal of the backstory of a character I love, and the introduction of the new Strixhaven students, it's all so good.

Invoker 2025 (and Other Cons)

I usually have several Cons to list for these yearly things, but this time around, there's just Invoker really. I went to CAFKL, but it was more of a work thing than a fun thing, because I took a paid gig (and wasn't very happy with my performance, but other people seem ok with it) and had no friends around for support, just the people who employed me and I guess other people that they employ. It was fine. I did get invited to a dinner with a whole bunch of totally cool people and I felt like a fish out of water, I was so uncool. (I'm not even being self-deprecating here, I am just using the word as an accurate description.)

And then there's International TableTop Day, during which I barely got to look at booths or talk to people, although I got to play Obojima which was really nice. So that leaves Invoker 2025, which was already a win based on the fact that it's an MTG-focused event. I was a volunteer at the event, which was good because it meant I had something to do all day, and not so good because it meant I didn't get to spend as much time as my non-volunteering friends as I would have liked. But some of them did drop by to say hi and it was just an overall fun event to be a part of.

Chill Commanders

Sometimes you just meet people and they turn out to be awesome. This year I met a few people at various events, like one of the Kino events I run, a Here Be Dragons event, and other random things like that. And some of the people I met were people I like playing with, so we started our own little group for when we want to game together.

We have a couple of fun gatherings planned for next year already, but this year we did a couple of commander party games, and I attended a couple of Turbo Tower events with people from the group.

being surprised by Game Changer

I subscribed to Dropout to watch a couple of Game Changer episodes, and ended up absolutely binging on it every season since. And this year's season was perfect, from the first episode to the last. I really had thought after the last season's Bingoception, that they can't possibly top themselves. I am absolutely delighted to be proven wrong.

femme friendship in The No-Girlfriend Rule

By this year, I've read more than a couple of D&D-based contemporary romances. Mostly YA. There was one adult one, but I didn't finish it - the characters just weren't compelling enough. Then I started on Christen Randall's The No-Girlfriend Rule, and now I feel like my overall standard for D&D-based books just got higher. Sure, it's a romance, but the friendships that formed in this book was what I got obsessed with. And it made me wish all over again for my own safe-space, queer, neurotype-affirming group. (I do have my chill commanders <3) The author's next book is going to be about zines so I can't wait.

Elle McNicoll and the art of writing neurospicy protagonists

(Sorry to those that hate the term neurospicy. I just feel like it does apply here.) I have had various Elle McNicoll books in my wishlists for sometime, so I was pretty excited to get access to an e-galley for Wish You Were Her, which somehow manages to combine so many of my favourite romance tropes while not one, but both lead characters are autistic. And while this book already wins as a romance that has all the tropes I enjoy, it's the autism rep that I love.

Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones' Christopher Chant Episode

This podcast isn't new, but I think I only started listening to it this year? Or late last year. Anyway, I love everything about it really, but one of the recent ones that really caught me is the episode of The Lives of Christopher Chant, which is probably my favourite Chrestomanci book most of the time. (The other times, my favourite would be either Charmed Life or The Magicians of Caprona.) It is in no way a perfect book (they do talk about the racism and orientalist ideas in the book/books by DWJ around this time in the episode), but there's just something about this book that took hold of me from the first time I read it, and refused to let go. I never really thought about it beyond that, and I think this episode kind of... made me?

They talked about how this is a book about a deeply unhappy, emotionally neglected, suicidal child, and how it's glossed over by being very very funny about it. And I guess reading it when I was a deeply unhappy, emotionally neglected, suicidal child, felt comforting. It's still a book I reread often.

The discovery of Pagebound

Again, this is something that isn't that new, but I only just discovered this year. As someone who has not been enjoying GoodReads for a long while (even excluding the fact that it belongs to BezosCo), I have been trying lots of different bookish apps/sites to supplement my LibraryThing use. Pagebound is the one that I like the most so far, and the fact that it's so cute doesn't hurt at all <3

learning to fold a 16-page zine

In 2023 and 2024 I did a mini zine every month, and I decided to stop in 2025 (partly because I was running out of things to write about, mainly because I got so busy I just couldn't). But this last week I learned to make a micro zine and it's giving me zine ideas again, so I might pick it up again in 2026!

Breezy Do'Urden

My first thought was Catti-Brie and Drizzt's daughter's name is BREEZY? (It's short for Briennelle Zaharina, and she's also known as Brie and Brie-Zara.) I have not been keeping up with the Drizzt stories at all, but when I saw The Finest Edge of Twilight I just had to read it. I love how she's not just a Drizzt-lite character - at the beginning of this story, Breezy is a monk. She's also the daughter of Drizzt Do'Urden and Catti-Brie Battlehammer, the granddaughter of Zaknafein Do'Urden and Bruenor Battlehammer (she's named after both of them), who grew up knowing her uncles Wulfgar, Jax (Jarlaxle Baenre), Artemis Entreri, and Regis. All legendary heroes of Faerun... all overly protective of her.

While she feels stifled by them and eager to show that she's worthy of being their equal, she's also a bit entitled and blind to her own privilege.

This book is her Dark Elf Trilogy, and I love following her growth into adulthood just as much as I loved following Drizzt's journey. I hope that this isn't a one-off, and that we will get more legends of Breezy in the future.

Also, Zaknafein is a paladin now!? I guess this happened in one of the books I missed. Also I have not been keeping up with the Faerunian pantheons and omg is the goddess Eilistraee badass or what. I want to read about her next.

That's most of the things that filled me with nerdy joy this year! I'm already looking forward to a few things next year, like the next season of Bridgerton, ONE OK ROCK in Malaysia, a new Imperial Radch novel, and of course, MTG's return to Lorwyn in January, and return to Strixhaven in April.

Drink more water!