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vi-the-deer · 18 days ago

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Things of 2024

2024 sure was a year, huh? 10 months of some of the best times of my life followed by two of absolute existential dread. Looking back it’s hard to put myself in the mindset I started the year in, but thankfully I took notes as the year went on in preparation for this exact moment (smart of me, right? Call it anti-ADHD protection. (Also I only started doing so around April so the beginning of the year might not be quite as fleshed out but still…)). Note that while this is a “best of” list for the year, it’s not necessarily about things that came out this year. In fact a good deal of them aren’t from this year, as I am behind on a lot of media, but oh well, it’s my list! Which is also why instead of breaking things out into different categories I’m just gonna list them all in one go, because I’m disorganized that way. Also it will be in roughly chronological order, since that’s how I have them in my notes, but otherwise the order the things are in has no particular meaning.

MagicCon Chicago

The year started out well with my then partner (and now – well we’ll get to that, hang in there) and my first Magic event together since the pandemic started. I was super excited for it from the start despite not getting selected to staff it since not only did that mean I got to play in the events but I also got to do so with my lovely partner and – spoiler alert – our mutual girlfriend! It was also close enough to her home state of Missouri that she was able to take the train to hang out with us for most of the days, which is awesome since we don’t get to see her that often and we miss her dearly when we’re apart. We had a great time, got to see some really cool announcement panels live and in person, randomly met Graham from Loading Ready Run, played in Gavin’s “Unknown” event, each won our respective games of Ravnica Clue (MKM had just come out so people hadn’t soured on the format yet), and overall had a great time both at the event and around it, finishing with a visit to the Medieval Torture Museum because of course we did. A+ experience, would do again (and might, if we’re able to go to Chicago’s MC next year) The Con was made even more special because it was the first time I’d been to Chicago, which is where two of my three partners grew up, so it was so nice to be able to see their old stomping grounds (even if they were more from the suburbs than the city). The only sad part was that we didn’t have more time to sightsee, but maybe if we go next year we’ll have a chance to do more of that.

LDXP/Commandfest Daly City

The second big Magic event of the year, which was actually mostly underwhelming, but I’m putting it here because my compensation for judging at it allowed me to be able to afford the next item on my list, the…

Steam Deck

I love video games, especially PC games, but I have this weird thing where I never actually play them very often. Mostly this is because our TV is usually shared among the three of us (myself, Robin, and our mutual nesting partner Sonic), and I never really feel like monopolizing it with my games, or sitting at a computer away from the fam. I have a gaming laptop that I used to play games on but it broke earlier in the year and it was never really that optimal in the first place since it was heavy and always needed to be plugged in to its massive power brick. Enter the Steam Deck.

Since getting it I have played more games than I think I have in the past two or three years combined. It’s not great for every game, but for the ones that I enjoy it’s ideal. I can play it on the couch while hanging with the fam even with something on the TV, and the trackpad really works surprisingly well as a mouse replacement, so even non-controller games work pretty well on it. And only recently I figured out how to stream games from my Xbox to the Steam Deck so even the more graphical showcases (Like, most recently Dragon Age: The Veilguard) can be played while the TV is in use by others. Anyway, the first game I really got into on the Steam Deck is the next entry in this list.

Disco Elysium

ENCYCLOPEDIA – You remember the name from old gaming podcasts, what has replaced the well-worn video game magazines you remember from your childhood. You can still hear the voices of praise for its unique gameplay that hearkens back to an era long lost, an era of CRPGs and Point-and-Clicks

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Medium: Success] – The plastic of the controller feels familiar in your hand. You guide your avatar among the digital landscape, exploring the streets of a world similar yet nothing like the world you exist in.

PERCEPTION [Formidable: Success] – You are able to reason out the puzzles, growing closer to your avatar as you solve problems for those around your avatar.

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – More often than not you were responsible for the problems you end up solving, but you are nonetheless able to help these wretched people with their wretched lives to give them some small measure of comfort.

DRAMA – You find yourself absorbed in your character, my liege, though he is not much like you, and at the same time exactly like you.

RHETORIC [Godly: Success] – The texture of this world is communist, but it is no utopia. It is up to you to find the hope that is buried under the muck of society and reveal it to the world, raise a shining banner just like those who failed before you. You will fail again, but in the failing you take one step closer to saving the world.

AUTHORITY [Legendary: Failure] – You extol to as many as possible the virtues of Disco Elysium, but your words often fall on deaf ears. The game is old, they say. The graphics are lackluster. The story confusing, the atmosphere oppressive. You are aware of this but you see past it to the shining lungs within, you breathe in the world and its inhabitants.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN – The game has touched you deep to your core. You are not the same person you were before you played it. You can never take it back, and you would never want to.

Night in the Woods

When this came out first I was at a very odd point in my life. My separation from my ex-wife was fresh, and depression was a spectre that was constantly looking over my shoulder. It was the perfect wrong time to play a game that wraps itself in the same kind of depression, of nostalgia and longing for a time that will never come again.

I am happy to say that I’m glad I waited. The game was excellent, and so touching and familiar even though I never lived in an American small town. The feeling of how fleeting the world can be still scares me, but games like these help me to get through them while not letting the good times and lessons of the past leave me, even when the world can never keep from changing.

Twin Peaks The Return

A podcast I enjoy was watching Twin Peaks as one of their side podcast projects, so I used that as an excuse to finally see the parts of the show that I never got around to (Fire Walk with Me and The Return, primarily). It was really interesting to dive into that world again, to see the culmination of one of the great filmmakers’ career, to reunite with the characters we fell in love with in the original, and to meet new ones to love (or sometimes hate). And one thing I will always remember, is it’s not about the bunny. (Is it about the bunny?) (No, it’s not about the bunny).

Fallout TV show

It turns out you can make a good adaptation of a video game, all you have to do is approach it with a real love of the franchise, disregard all the stories and characters that have baggage from the games, and instead tell a compelling story with great characters that are set inside the universe that people have come to love (even though I never played much of the games, I know enough to appreciate the fan service). It’s so easy! I’m actually looking forward to seeing where it can go with another season.

Fantasy High Junior Year (blimey!)

I don’t think you heard me, Blimey! Fantasy High is the first Dimension 20 series we watched, and it’s still one of the best. Being able to return to that world was so fun and exciting, and the characters are still just as vibrant and funny as they were at the start. Some of the moments (especially some of Ally’s nat twenties) will stick with me for some time, and I would easily be able to say that this was my favorite season of D20 that we watched last year, if it wasn’t for…

Never 💥 Stop 💥 Blowing 💥 Up

This was the most thrilling, off-the-rails, wacky, and just plain fun D20 series in a long time, possibly ever. Just a delightful send-up of 80’s-style action flicks, with just an amazing set of players and a GM who woke up and decided to not say no to pretty much anything the players wanted to do, no matter how wild and out-of-left-field they may be, with a new homebrew system that made Every. Single. Roll feel exciting and impactful. And remember: Without our siblings, we are nothing.

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

It was really fun to go back and rewatch this series with my then-partner. (I keep saying then-partner because it’s accurate but don’t worry, we’re still together. All will become clear later I promise). Part of the impetus was because we had just finished DS9 and were interested in seeing more Ronald D. Moore shows. Going back to this show after something like 20 years it’s interesting how my perspective has changed, how characters I didn’t care for the first time around have become faves simply because they are going through things that I can sympathize with in ways I couldn’t in my twenties. The ending is still bad but knowing it’s coming and seeing what foreshadowing they were able to include made it feel better this time around, and I still bawled like a baby at it. It’s a really good show that really holds up, even in the later seasons that were considered weaker at the time.

Anime

Frieren

One of my favorite parts of this series is that most of the names seem to come from someone looking up words in a Japanese-German dictionary, and as I speak German fluently, the results can be amusing. Like how the character who seemed like maybe might turn out to betray the party is named “Lügner” aka “liar”. Fun! But linguistics isn’t the only thing about the anime I loved. Its slow pace underlies a somber meditation on the meaning of mourning, growing, and changing that, while seen through the eyes of a millenia-old elf, nonetheless resonate in the hearts of us mere mortals. I was a bit turned off by the tournament arc, but it managed to not overstay its welcome, and I can’t wait for the second season (which is somewhat ironic given the subject matter.)

Also while I said I wouldn’t do rankings, this anime has the best ED song I’ve heard in a long, long time, and, spoiler alert, it will turn out to be relevant in a few months. Stay tuned!

Solo Leveling

(Yes I know these two are from 2023 they ended in 2024 so they still count)

I usually don’t really watch shounen anime, so I was surprised at how much this grabbed me. I’m having a hard time putting a finger on what was different about this one. I think a lot of it was in the masterfully-executed fight scenes, but the interesting worldbuilding certainly didn’t hurt. I’m looking forward to season 2 later this year.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You

Polyamory done right! A harem anime with a protagonist you don’t want to smack upside the head! Autism representation! Yuri! Age difference! And some of the best humor I’ve seen this year. 100 Girlfriends is really, really, really, really, REALLY good, and I can’t wait for the second season to start soon!

Dungeon Meshi

It’s a good thing I’m not ranking anime because it would be really hard to choose which would take the top spot. One of the candidates has to be Dungeon Meshi though. Trigger has a strong track record of amazing anime, and this one, based on a property that my girlfriend has long been a huge fan of, seems a little like a departure from their usual Sci-Fi fare. But they are still able to take opportunities to show off their amazingly fluid animation in battle scenes, and make the cooked monsters look mouth wateringly delicious at the same time. I was worried that my hang-ups around food might make this a hard watch, but it was quite the opposite. It’s rare to see this much (gay) autistic rep in a mainstream product like this, even if it was mostly subtextual. I fell in love with the party, and hope we get more of their adventures in the future.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord

A cute little isekai anime about a (subtextually) autistic girl who accidentally power levels herself to the level cap and now has to integrate into a magic school where everyone is like level 4 or 5. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though the animation was a bit rough at times. Still, very cozy and sweet.

Komi can’t Communicate

Another anime focusing on a character with social anxiety, I made the rare choice to watch this dubbed, and here’s why: The show often features on-screen text, and in the sub those texts often went untranslated because the subtitles were translating what was being spoken instead. The dub uses the extra bandwidth to make sure the text still gets conveyed – and that’s just the reason I started with the dub. Turns out the voice cast was really talented and, to my slight surprise, full of queer representation. There is (at least in the dub) a non-binary character played by a non-binary VA, and a trans-femme VA playing a character who (if not explicitly then certainly in my headcanon) is trans herself. Also this was made extra special by being an anime that a good friend of mine would watch together, so it has a special place for me.

Uzumaki

We only watched the first episode of this sadly maligned anime – the only episode worth watching, given that immediately after producing it studio executives slashed the budget to a fraction of what had been promised, as well as outsourcing much of the animation to much cheaper studios. What promise this anime had in the first episode was quite impressive though, but I really can’t recommend this anime to anyone.

Nichijou

We finished it this year and it is probably the funniest Anime I’ve ever seen. Such comedic timing, such outlandish yet relatable situations, such great chemistry between the characters, and such great animation that didn’t have to go nearly so hard. I already want to start another watchthrough, but for now we’ve switched to Azumanga Daioh for the same tone slot.

Shikanokonokonoko Koshitantan

In the running for best OP, Shikanokonoko Koshitantan (or My Deer Friend Nokotan, if you’re boring) also fit the Nichijou time slot. It was weird, and random, and self-referential, and the PS2 deer were such an odd choice, but again, I’m a mere mortal, if I see a cute anime deer girl, you already got my interest!

Ranma ½

It really is special when someone who reinterprets a work for a modern audience approaches it with as much love and sensitivity as can be seen here in Ranma ½. I haven’t seen much of the original so I don’t have as direct a comparison as my girlfriend did, but what I did know is that it had some parts that… really did not age well. This adaptation not only pays loving tribute to its manga origins, but paints a picture of the main character that, while steeped in masculinity, doesn’t have the toxicity you usually see in these kinds of characters. And he also can be seen embracing parts of his feminine side when it’s something he finds joy in. Plus the OP slaps, the animation is vibrant and fluid, the humor is sharp, and it’s full of Gender™, what’s not to love?

Dandadan

It was really hard to decide on a favorite anime this year (harder than it usually is for me to pick a favorite) since there were so many good ones to choose from. Frieren, Ranma, and especially DunMeshi really blew me away, but if I had to choose a top spot, it has to be Dandadan.

Science SARU really outdid themselves with this quirky, high-octane action-comedy series. The animation is wild and the story so funny while still having a lot of heart. And then episode seven had me bawling like a child, it’s just so good. Who would have thought that a show about aliens trying to steal people’s penises and old granny spirits who want to steal balls would be the anime of the year for me, but here we are! Also the OP is one of my favorite in recent years, it slaps so hard!

Gencon

This year we finally made a pilgrimage I’ve been wanting to do for years now, which is to go to one of the biggest gaming conventions in the country, GenCon in Indianapolis. We went with our girlfriend and her husband, and while the hotel we stayed in was, charitably, a shithole, the con itself was amazing! I don’t often get chances to play TTRPGs, let alone the indie kind that I love. I could write a whole long post about our experiences there, but the short version is we had a ton of fun, had a lot of good games and experiences, and I got to see where my girlfriend is from for the first time (though we didn’t go to her hometown, we did see St. Louis which is another of the big cities I hadn’t been to yet)

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast

This RPG is practically the definition of “cozy”. Taking elements from legacy games, this mostly GM-less game has you playing the denizens and visitors of a fantastic Bed and Breakfast in a fantastic world where all that matters is how you treat others and yourself. Conflict is left at the door – at least the serious kind – and you watch as the characters grow and change. It also is chock full of queer, POC, and disability rep, which is always a plus in my book. This was the only RPG from the show that I ended up taking home a copy of.

Brindlewood Bay

What if a group of crime-solving older ladies (think Murder she Wrote or #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) were confronted with an eldritch horror from beyond the stars? That’s the situation you find yourself in in this cozy mystery RPG. Based on PbtA, and drawing influence from nostalgic mystery procedurals (the playbooks are named after famous crime solvers from Miss Marple to Michael Knight), this game started with the players giving each other “gifts” to help build up their characters. And then at the end of the mystery, after you gather all the clues, the denouement / detective’s monologue are completely up to the players to decide who dun it (the mysteries and clues are predefined but the culprit is not), which takes a lot of the tension off of getting it right. Overall it was a lot of fun, and we hope to play another session soon.

Coyote and Crow

The game is already cool enough, taking place in an alternate timeline where travel between continents is all but impossible, so the North American native cultures were never touched by colonialism. What results is a vibrant, fully-realized world that revels in a culture that we are surrounded by the echoes of here in the USA. But the real highlight of this game (which I’ve owned a copy of since the kickstarter but was always a little intimidated by) was our GM, who just blew us all away with his dramatic flourishes that really drew out some amazing and deeply touching stories from the players. He was able to effortlessly reach into our psyches, pulling out our deepest insecurities and weaving them into our narratives in a safe-feeling way. He was native himself, and one of the contributors to the game, meaning the experience was even more authentic as a result. He was able to effortlessly reach into our psyches, pulling out our deepest insecurities and weaving them into our narratives in a safe-feeling way. I am always a fan of learning about cultures that are not my own, and this was a good way to do so with play in a safe space. C&C was our last session of the con, and it really was a good way to go out on a high note.

Arcs

The only board game to make this list this year (which is kinda a shame since I wanted to play a lot more of them than I managed to, with the exception of my daily games with a friend of mine on BGA), Arcs is a masterclass in simple mechanics combining to make a deep and intricate gestalt. At its core it’s a 4X game, but turn mechanics and victory conditions are all determined by a simple trick-taking mechanic. (I’ve said “mechanics” so often it’s lost all meaning, there has to be a better word.) It looks gorgeous as well, and I’m excited to get it the table more often in the new year!

Bloomburrow

The first two Magic sets (well, premier sets) of the year were kind of disappointing, which is a shame because I had had high hopes for the both of them. So I was worried going into the third set that it would let us down as well. Turns out I needn’t have worried. Wizards took a world where everyone was tiny, cute woodland creatures (even visitors from outside the plane who got transformed to match the theme) and realized it as a fun, strong set with great mechanics and draft themes that worked really well together. It was a masterclass on how to make archetypes that seem like they would be completely unrelated, but then making hinge cards that effortlessly combine two themes in a way that may not be obvious at first but once you start playing with them you see how subtly the interactions work to bring the two themes together. It was a home run as far as I’m concerned and I hope we return to Valley sooner rather than later (I did get my wish somewhat in Foundations, with both Bloomburrow reprints and new cards set on the plane appearing.) Which leads us to…

Magic Foundations

If you had told me that 2024 would have what is pretty much the best core set since Alpha, I’m not sure I would have believed you. If you had told me that it was one of the best sets period from the past few years, I’d really be wondering why you came from the future and were telling me this of all things and not, like, the winning lotto numbers (or at the very least tell me to start looking for jobs in Germany), but hey, we all have our priorities. Magic Foundations nailed what a core set always had the potential to be, a taste of all of what Magic has to offer, both mechanically and flavorwise, in a set that has a great draft environment and a very novel approach to putting cards in Standard without having to have them make sense in Limited as well (thanks to the Beginner Box cards). Past core sets have often fallen into the trap of thinking beginner friendly equated to low power level or low mechanical complexity. And while that certainly is true to an extent, the sets that have brought the most new players to Magic (i.e. Lord of the Rings, and Ravnica and Zendikar before that) have been anything but. In fact complexity is often something that draws players in past their first few decks and intrigues them into exploring the full infinite possibilities in this game I love. It also brought back one of my favorite ways to play Magic in Jump Start, with a high-enough power level to ensure that the Jump Start packs are constantly sold out (it’s a blessing and a curse)

Potionomics

One of the coziest, cutest video games I came across last year is Potionomics, a game that feels like it was created with a laser focus on appealing to me, specifically. One of my favorite genres of games are card-based deckbuilding roguelikes like Slay the Spire. This game takes that core mechanic and mixes it with dating elements in a way that I love. The setting is a fantasy world where you are a plucky young potions brewer trying to grow your shop and defeat (and later befriend and/or date) your rivals. The humor is really cute, the art is pretty, and it’s got queer rep as well, but what really grabbed me are the selection of dateable characters. You have:

Nonbinary disaster lesbian witch

Demonic mommy domme

Moth girl

Deer-antlered fae woman (with a wooden prosthetic and fondness for smoking herbs)

Spunky blue-haired pop star

Energetic adventurer girl

In other words it’s a bit like if you took all my headmates and made them dateable characters. And in the update that came out late this year there’s even a polyamory mode, so I can make one big, queer, loving polycule as I improve the lives of this small community of adventurers.

MagicCon Vegas

I saved the best for last (even if that broke the chronological order somewhat but oh well it’s my list I’ll do what I want.)

This is the third Magic event I went to in Vegas, and like those two I was judging again. But unlike those two, I didn’t go to this Con alone, nor was the Con the highlight of the trip. You see, in the week or so leading up to the event we started making plans of how to spend our time (we had a day in Vegas before the Con to fill) and I happened to notice that our hotel was right next door to a wedding chapel. Ha ha, I said to my then-partner (foreshadowing!). Wouldn’t it be funny if…

But then we thought about it a little more. After all, we have the time and the money. And we’ve been engaged for four years almost, and we’re not any closer to actually having… And the elections are coming up and if things go wrong… And it sure would be a fun story to tell… And… and… and…

And we “Hahaha unless…”ed ourselves into (drum roll) getting married!

I’ll back up a bit. We got engaged in 2020, and while we have been planning to some extent what we wanted our wedding to look like, we suffer from the millennial affliction of “not having any savings” and in addition our ADHD makes it difficult for any of us to plan things that are more than a few weeks out. So when the thoughts about the possibility started swirling they really just started making more and more sense. So I made some calls, compared some options, and before I knew it we had an appointment to get married in (I shudder to think about how fast we were able to arrange it but) just over a week! Another last minute change we were able to make was to book our mutual nesting partner on a plane for a whirlwind trip to Vegas with us to be our witness. Fae also wove us a handfasting rope because we always liked that option for its symbolism in addition to it being a pagan ritual, and it was a way for our partner to be present in the ceremony in a very real way.

Then the day came. We got on a flight at the ass-crack of dawn, landed in Vegas and went straight to the courthouse to get our license, then to the wedding venue for a meeting to set up the ceremony. After that we spent the afternoon, well, sleeping mostly, and getting ready for the big event. But it wasn’t long before we were being picked up in a limo for the big event.

Our venue was a rooftop garden with a lovely gazebo. We were truly blessed by the weather and the timing, as we had our ceremony just as the sun was setting. The ceremony was livestreamed so that our mutual girlfriend and those who we would have loved to have join us could still take part even if not in person. The result was truly magical. My then-partner-now-wife (I told you the choice of words would make sense) and I walked down the aisle to Home from the Undertale soundtrack, exchanged our handwritten vows with tears streaming down our faces to the ED from Frieren (I told you it would come up again!), our hands and lives were bound together, and with the pinkest fluffiest clouds I’ve ever seen behind us, we joined our lives together for eternity, and I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. (And still am).

A lot of other fun stuff happened at the con. I got to work with two judges I was a fan of from YouTube and podcasts, got to meet some influencers, got a hug from Ben Ulmer of LRR, played in a fun Unknown event with Matt Tabak and Mark Rosewater, who I was able to meet and let know how much the game he is such an integral part of has shaped my life, and overall had a great Con. I also really loved being able to show off Vegas, one of my favorite cities to visit, to my partners who had either never been or only ever been off-strip before, including splurging on dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s pub at Caesar’s, and participating in a fun escape room just before our flight home (our partner had to leave the day after the wedding, sadly, so it was just the two of us, but we were in a room designed for exactly two players that involved us being chained to one another), but really those all pale in comparison to the actual high point of us getting married!

Conclusion

Well 2024 was one of the Years of all Time for us. It can be easy to let the end of the year cloud our memories of it, but looking back, it really was an amazing time. Some of the best experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life happened in those ten months, and life didn’t stop after that. I’m still with the ones I love, I am still married, we are still persevering and we will continue to do so going forward. There are bound to be a lot of changes coming up, and 2025 is going to be a tumultuous year no matter what, but we are strong together. I love my partners so much, and I’m so happy I get to be with them even if dark times loom ahead.

#personal stuff #violet muses #2024 #retrospective #year in review #year 2024 #anime #games #tv shows #etc

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