You ever think about the extreme uptick in "review of media you consumed" things that various streaming services did this year? It used to be just spotify and that's fun but i saw it for so many others things and yeah it a fun refresher but it also reminds us just how much nothing on the internet goes away and everything you do is watched by one thing or another and nothing is truly free

Anywho I would say I had a pretty good year. I say that about pretty much everything though so maybe it doesn't mean anything. My top song listened to in Spotify was Blinding Lights by The Weekend, my top artist was Howard Shore, my top genre was Celtic, and my "audio aura" was mystical and affectionate (okay).

I guess I did read in 2021 though it didn't really feel like it, I watched a lot of shows and played video games though :]. I like media of all sorts but I don't usually read or watch with my criticism cap on and I can enjoy a thing based on vibes alone. I would say I'm a better critique of books then I am of movies, but maybe that's just because I watch movies for fun but I like to get a little more out of reading books and watching shows. So, because the only thing I seem to care about is consuming media :> Here we go. Excuse the slight incomprehensibleness, I no longer try to condense my thoughts. Probably not good for my IQ. Whatever

In no kind of order: BOOKS (that i remember)

Hard Contact, and Triple Zero by Karen Traviss, first two in the Republic Comando series

*extended screaming into pillow* Let me start of by saying that these are good books. However many criticisms of them I may have, it's probably just me being stupid. They are extremely complex, the good guys don't always win, and sometimes it feels like there are no good guys at all. Traviss is a good author, she nails layered and complex characters, and in some ways understand the extremely convoluted and messy existence of Star Wars, but other times it feels like she's way oversimplifying it. Idk I'm not a good critique. I simultaneously want to strangle and hug all the characters, except for Kal Skirata whom I only want to sucker punch. I also have three more books in this series to go. So...... my feelings will only get more complicated and I have not even scratched the surface here of all the feelings I do have. Many many shower and car ride rants to myself. ._. 

The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by Lori Wick 

I really like Lori Wick's style and the eras she writes in. Early colonial America doesn't get much of a spotlight except in Revolutionary contexts so her books are refreshing in that way. Historical Christian Romance is probably my favorite genre because it never disappoints. At best it's a compelling story with interesting characters and a wholesome message. At worst, it's cheesy, and I like cheese. This book was not cheesy. A lot of interesting plot twists and it gets pretty intense, and she doesn't shy away from mature topics. As it got closer to the end, I did feel my investment and care for the character slipping. Not my absolute favorite, but still fun. 

Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams

Another Star Wars book yipee. This is an Old Republic era book, and I love that era of Star Wars so I naturally enjoyed it. Starting off I was extremely engaged in the plot and all the characters. As the stakes elevated and more dirty secrets were revealed I kinda got a bit overwhelmed, I signed on for an intrigue plot, not a save-the-galaxy-from-homicidal-hyper-intelligent-droids, but despite it's slight over-intensity, a very enjoyable read. 

A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller

Okay I didn't actually finish this one, I had to return it to the library but I'd say it was pretty good! A backstory of how Kanan and Hera met which of course super cool, and a look at the Empire from a different angle then usual which was cool. Nothing bad to say about it. 

Can't think of any more books so let's move on to shows. :] This summer I got into Transformers. Sorry. Transformers is a whopper of sooooo man shows and comics and movies, and pretty much all of them have a different set of rules and different interpretation of characters. I think it's fun to keep track of the different incarnations and match names to looks and personalities, but it is kind of overwhelming. But then, I like the Silmarillion, so maybe this is just how I am.

The Transformers Generation 1

Unparalleled, perfect, supreme, there is nothing wrong with G1. More seriously: It's a silly cartoon from the 80s with the primary purpose of selling toys. With that in mind it's hard to do a serious analysis of it. Why does Megatron keep Starscream around when he's very open about his desire to usurp him? Why do none of their blasters seem to do any damage except when they do? Where does Optimus Prime's trailer come from? In short, you kinda have to turn off your brain to enjoy this show, unless you're an idiot like me and thrive off of trying to answer stupid questions. (Megatron keeps Starscream around because the occasional backstab really doesn't happen too often, and Starscream is a powerful warrior and the Decpticons only have half the numbers of the Autobots so he can't afford to destroy one of his best, and as bad of luck as Starscream has, he is very smart and if he wasn't right by Megatron's side there'd be no telling what kind of mischief he could enact so keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Keeping Starscream as second in command keeps his ego in check and makes him easy to keep an eye on)

Transformers: Prime

Excellent show. The writing, the characters, the arcs, *chef's kiss*. Aside from the occasional sloppiness that is simply inevitable, it's perfect. Now, a good chunk of the things I like about some characters *cough**starscream**cough* are pretty much purely in subtext, and one thing I struggle with with in shows especially is whether the writers were doing it on purpose. Like, yes this interpretation of a character's actions makes perfect sense with their background and their motivations, but this view is never fully expressed in the show and you have to look twice to see it, so is it actually just projection? I mean, "show don't tell" is lauded in many writing circles so I'd say the writers aren't idiots. This is an excellent show and I would highly recommend it. 

Transformers: Robots in Disguise 2015

Disappointing. (bear in mind I've only watched season 1) It's meant to be a follow up to Prime and maybe if it wasn't it'd be alright, but..... :/ It's aged down from Prime so there aren't nearly as many serious topics, it's a monster-of-the-week show and in some ways that's a great way to showcase development as the villains get harder and the good guys get better, but.... it just doesn't happen. Sideswipe and Strongarm never stop childish arguments, the ship never seems to get fixed, and things just.... don't move forward. Now, it is really fun. The animation is colorful and pretty, the Decepticons they're hunting are funny when they're not stupid, and there are some really good moments, but overall, it's not that great. I am looking forward to season 2, when I can psych myself up to spend 20 bucks on a show I might not even like, but dangit I want to see Soundwave again and I've heard good things about Starscream

Transformers: Rescue Bots

The third Aligned Continuity show and there's nothings wrong with it. It's for an even younger demographic then RiD, but it isn't stupid. Maybe it's because I'm not comparing it to Prime, but I think it is a better show. For all the good things I'd heard about it, I didn't want to watch it for a long time because I knew it was for little kids and while yes I do like kids shows and cartoons, I like a little depth and heaviness on my pallate, but Rescue Bots actually delivered. It's light, yes, but not stupid. It doesn't have anything to do with the ongoing war between Autobots and Decepticons, it's just some bots on a little island doing rescue work. Fun.

Transformers: Animated

This was another show I didn't want to watch for a while because I thought I wouldn't like it. The animation style wasn't to my taste, and it struck me as silly and shallow. I was wrong. It has a very different feel than any other Transformers show I've watched, and I think it's that it's a lot more down to earth, and it doesn't always take itself too seriously. It has a good and consistent plot, interesting characters, and a lot of good humor. One think I appreciated was taking filler episode premises and making it important to the plot. The Autobots get turned into humans?! It's actually Soundwave hypnotizing them and trying to brainwash them into serving Megatron. The technology hating human character gets trapped on Cybertron?! He's helping Ratchet retrieve the codes for Omega Supreme. Honestly, I'd almost put it right up with Prime as the best Transformers shows, but it's kinda hard to compare the two with their drastically different plots, character backgrounds, and tone. 

Transformers: Cyberverse

Yet another I didn't think I'd like but do. The episodes are only 10 minutes instead of 20 so it does feel briefer in that there's usually only one little arc per episode, as opposed to more background stuff going on, but everything does count towards the overarching... arc. It feels shallow, but I don't think it is, just brief. And it's got really good humor. Season 1 is reeeaaallly slow, but I don't think you could skip it and still get the same story. It isn't Aligned Continuity (the canon that Prime, RiD, and Rescue Bots are in) but it piggybacks on a lot of the lore, and the lore is one of the things I love about Aligned. Despite it's briefness and humor, it has some really dark and heavy bits to it that I appreciate. 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

What can I even say about this show? It's amazing I love it it feels like I've watched a million times even though I've only watched it all the way through twice. It's a seven season long monstrosity, and there's soooo much development that happens. It really fleshes out the world of Star Wars which is probably my favorite thing about it. So many different planets and factions to learn about. Honestly, I mostly engage with it via the fandom online, and every time I actually watch an episode of I re realize how varied and interesting it is. As much as I love the clones and the Jedi, the fandom really does the rest of the show a disservice by ignoring alllll the other neat details. Maybe I'm just in the wrong corner of the fandom. Excellent show. 10/10

Star Wars: Rebels

I technically started this last December, but I don't think I finished it until January so we'll count it. This is what got me into Star Wars. I watched both seasons of the Mandalorian and really enjoyed them, but it didn't make me want to get deeper into Star Wars. Rebels did. Excellent characters, cool settings, the animation gets flak, but I think it's underrated. All good things :)

The Bad Batch

Ahhhh, I'm not used to waiting a week for each episode. I think it was really good, and probably more complex then people give it credit for. The animation was stunning, and it opened up a lot of new opportunities. Maybe it was a little slow sometimes, and small minded, but I like a show that can take it's time, and there's going to be another season that I'm counting on to deliver on some dangling threads. 

Marvel's Daredevil

Excellent show. As I've said, I usually watch cartoons, and while I think kid's shows can be wonderfully complex, there's something so refreshing about a show that doesn't have to gloss over some mature themes, or get things wrapped up in just 20 minutes. One of my favorite scenes that I recall is just Daredevil and the Punisher talking for like ten minutes about their differing ideas of vigilantism. My brain craves complexity and nitpickiness. Bloody and gory, but in a way that made me realize how much it bugs me that cartoons aren't allowed to show blood. We love a show that isn't afraid to give the main character visible bruises from last night's throwdown. Near the end of season 2, it gets really caught up in the more mystical plotline which was... cool at first, kinda numbing as it went on, but climax gotta climax. The characters were all really interesting and it was cool to see Daredevil's reconciling with his double life and his own morals. Kingpin is an interesting villain because the things he does and the way he acts are almost divorced from each other. In a good way. All in all, good show, even if I did kinda make myself sick on it bingeing the last arc of season 2

Okay can't think of any more shows even though I'm sure there are more soooo Vidya games

Star Stable

I started this one last year, but I'll still talk about it. First video game I played and a nice way to warm up to the them. Open world, story based MMORPG (that means you have your characters you play as and you log onto a server with a lot of other players), which I think is my favorite kind of game. The demographic for the game in ages 8-17, and while the story starts out 8 (help Justin make amends with his grandfather :) help the baroness water her garden :) help sabotage the big mean business man's oilfields and protect the nature :) ) the way the story has been going lately, is.... 17 (unlock your magical powers and travel to an alternate dimension to defeat the shadowy foes :| watch one of your mentors dies as she tries to hold back the darkness leaving you stranded in a netherworld :|) But overall it's easy to play, and I just like riding my horse around in the woods, and listening to the background music

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Huge step up from Star Stable. They actually have voice actors doing the character dialogue and different dialogue options that will to a certain extent change your story. I have to fight enemies to get to the next part of the story now and swinging your lightsaber around is only fun for like ten minutes before it becomes a huge drag >:( Another MMORPG, but way more developed. Crafting items, modding your equipment, a bigger emphasis on social events and guilds, all of which I have pretty much ignored. In this game there's 8 different character storylines you can do. I have 5 characters so far, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, and lately, Republic Trooper. The only ones I've finished are the Jedi Knight and the Bounty Hunter, the Bounty Hunter has my favorite story and companions, and might be my favorite character, but I've enjoyed all of them so far. Excellent game. 

Lord of the Rings: Online

It's Lord of the Rings. You can play as an elven warrior and run around in the Shire and Bree and talk to Elladan and Elrohir and Tom Bombadil, and fight Barrow Wights, and decorate your own little house, and... :))) UNFORTUNATELY my computer REFUSES to let the game run, even after deleting and redownloading the entire thing >:(((((( I haven't even gotten to Rivendell yet 😫😫😫😫 I will have to do some digging and consulting my computer savvy bro to figure out how to make it run because even though it takes up a lot of GBs, it's worth it. 

Republic Commando

I like video games for the story, which means first person shooters aren't really for me. I liked this game a lot, but I don't think I'd replay it. A lot more intense then I'm used to, even though I played it on easy mode. Yes, it is satisfying to finish a level, but it doesn't exactly let you rest on your laurels. I mostly enjoyed the banter between you and your squad. "That's what I'm saying, it's a power generator... in a tree... strange..." "Sev, when this is over, I'm gonna make sure you get some R&R" Aaahhhhhh

Wellll I'm sure that doesn't cover allll the stuff I partook of this year, but I think hit all the biggest ones. What you can extrapolate from this is that I'm a drain on society. :]

HAPPY NEW YEAR :D

-GadSul