#it'd have to be like a cheesy fantasy trilogy name

[bipirate]

favourite things: 2023 edition

last year i made one of these and i thought it'd be fun to make another one. i have a notion spreadsheet with all the media i watch/read/play throughout the year (not just things that came out this year!) and i give them ratings. these are the highs (and some of the lows) of 2023 (not in order).

Games

Tunic - such a great and beautiful game that i do not want to spoil. seriously, play it. if you like zelda, exploration, solving puzzles, and cute little foxes, then it's a must

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - what can i say, i love a zelda

Portal 2 - just an even more excellent sequel to an excellent game

TV

Alice in Borderland - i didn't know what to expect at first but it was excellent and highly addictive

Not Me - my introduction to thai BL (for better and also definitely for worse lol). anyway this show changed my brain chemistry. it has everything: gays, a twin switch situation, leftism, arson, rooftop kiss... you know

Bad Buddy - speaking of rooftop kisses...... if you know you know. anyway this is also a thai BL and it's still rotating in my brain. i rewatched it almost immediately, that's how good it was

The King's Affection - cheesy historical kdrama about a crown prince who is secretly a woman, with a swoon-worthy romance and political intrigue. this one's for the bisexuals (after all, the male love interest falls in love with the prince before he finds out it's a woman)

Vinland Saga - this anime fucking wrecked me. season 2 had me crying every single episode. thorfinn is my new child and i WILL name my future cat after him

The Devil Judge - a kdrama about a dystopian south korea with a fucked up justice system. anyway kang yohan character of all time. oh and also toxic homosexuality (affectionate)

Books

The Poppy War trilogy by R. F. Kuang - what an excellent series to get me back into fantasy series. it was not without faults, but i was hooked anyway

Babel by R. F. Kuang - i read this brick in 5 days straight. it's beautifully written and has such interesting things to say about language and colonialism. again, it has flaws but i wasn't bothered, i was obsessed with this book

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - i didn't realise how much i missed high fantasy until i read this. it has lesbians, dragons, a bitter old homosexual, magic, and did i mention dragons and lesbians?

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker Chan - the sequel to She Who Became the Sun, my favourite book of last year. this sequel fucking DELIVERED. i went insane about it multiple times. it's a must read

Graphic novels/manga

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama - i started this manga 2 years ago, but since it's still ongoing and I've read new chapters this year, it counts for this year as well

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run by Hirohiko Araki - not finished with it yet but it is truly as good as everyone says it is

The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour by the McElroys and Carey Pietsch - i know not everyone likes the taz comics, but i do, i think theyre great adaptations, and this one looked incredible

Movies

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse - not as good as the first one, but still really good. beautifully animated and extremely entertaining

Bonus: the lowest of the low, titles that earned my 'sucked shit' rating

Theory of Love - amazing that out of the 3 thai BLs ive watched, 2 managed to make it on my favourites list, and one of them was some of the worst television i've ever seen

Where the Crawdads Sing - read the book for book club last year, we all hated it, and now we decided to watch the movie for a laugh. it also sucked

[purgatoryandme]

since you brought up AUs, I've wanted to ask about the KHR OC one for awhile. you said no one will ever read it so it's totally fine if you don't want to say

It’s a pet project from when I was a teenager, ahaha. It has good bones (built off of an entirely original piece of fiction that was like...much more childish lol), so I’m not saying no one would ever read it because it’s terrible or I’m ashamed, but rather because it’s not really what people look for in fanfiction? Especially not in a fandom as old as KHR.  Since I don’t really know what you want to know, I can outline some random things? Mostly about the MC (who I adore and is the kind of MC I really wanted to see in fiction when I was younger) since I haven’t discussed any plot things before. The main character doesn’t go by their original name or their family nickname (which is a huge trigger for them way later in the story) in the story OR by the new name they were given when they were adopted in the KHR world. Instead, they’re exclusively known by “Kaze” (wind). They don’t realize that this is them dissociating from their old identity or any new one forged for them without their consent, but that is totally what they are doing. Kaze’s death in the real world is a source of trauma that shapes their entire experience upon arriving in KHR and reshapes their personality in ways they are uncomfortable examining. A lot of their triggers don’t come up throughout their childhood as they grow up again, and so they are pretty confident they have no lasting issues. They are NOT pleased to discover they actually do.  Kaze had some gender issues prior to rebirth, accepting their body as female but struggling to fit themselves spiritually/personally into feminine roles, and has way more of them post-rebirth. They make themselves a talented fighter/gang leader and pick the one person who doesn’t give a single shit about their gender, background, or anything personal to be their best and only friend, completely avoiding any discussion of “what they are” or any attempts made by society to enforce femininity on them. When pushed, Kaze would say they are a woman, but leans heavily into androgyny stylistically and won’t actually stop other characters from calling them a boy.  TW: Sexual assault -> Kaze’s original death was brought about due to witnessing and trying to prevent a sexual assault at a graduate party in a moment where they “tried to be brave”. Self-admittedly a passive person, their interference is fairly minor, but persistent enough to earn them a stalker and an assault on their way home that ends in a broken arm and a hospital visit wherein their mother cries and tells them they shouldn’t have interfered to begin with (since all that happened was two people got hurt instead of one). Their assailant comes to visit their hospital room, and makes it clear that they intend to assault them again. Kaze has a moment of clarity (debatable clarity...) in which they decide they’d rather fight and lose than let this person win, and when shoved half out of the window as a threat, they decide to fall and take their attacker with them as a victory. Their rationalization is all about freedom and independence as a person who always felt trapped in their past life and in the situation that lead to their demise, thus the rebirth as a cloud flame user.  Kaze is ferociously (unhealthily) independent and meters out deeply personal justice where they can without remorse, and considers themselves something of an elder sibling to Hibari Kyouya and second daughter to the Hibari family (complicated gender issues! The Hibari family is matriarchy here, and so Kaze associates the position with power and relates heavily to Hibari’s mother). Secretly a deeply curious individual with unbridled passion for merging science and the mystical aspects of KHRs world - has imposter syndrome about their abilities (since so much of their knowledge comes from what is technically the future and isn’t like...natural smarts) and so often recklessly uses themselves and Kyouya as experimental subjects. Not actually very strong naturally! Nearly died countless times in an attempt to keep up with Kyouya, giving artificial power boosts that go wonky more often than not. Absolute trainwreck of a human being who loves being challenged and creating mischief EXCLUSIVELY with people who could total them. Gives off the false appearance of a cool mature older brother type.  Ultimately, Kaze is a fun exploration of how traumatic incidents don’t have easy or clearcut results. The event was terrible and had a lot of negative effects on Kaze’s thinking + relationships, but also Kaze’s response to it gave rise to an entirely new life that they wouldn’t be willing to give up for anything. They carry a lot of resentment towards their past self and have to slowly get over that throughout their story arc, realizing that they haven’t really changed so much as their perspective has and that their new environment has allowed them to explore aspects of themselves that always existed! It seemed like the perfect thematic concept for KHR, which is all about people gaining power from core personality traits (and emotions), and how self-improvement doesn’t require you to change who you are, and how big terrible events don’t make you a hero - they hurt you but also might make room for YOU to CHOOSE to make change in your own life.  Also there’s the mafia. And Kaze is part of a massive cloud-based independently-structured yakuza family based sortof loosely on how big cats maintain territory. And of course the consequences of TECHNICAL time travel when you know about a future that hasn’t occurred yet that you AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE IN.