#reviewed 2022

[foxounderscorecube]

They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities - Eris Young

4 ⭐

This is a pretty good overview of the various complexities of non-binary genders and their implications at this point in time.

Being a non-binary person who tries to keep somewhat on top of the current queer discourse, a lot of the information in here wasn't especially new to me in itself, but it was still interesting and informative. The writing style is academic, but terminology is explained well and I feel like it's probably still accessible for most people.

I feel like, if you're questioning your gender, or if you want to get your head around non-binary genders to better understand others, this is worth reading. It also contains a lot of references and resources, which is good!

[marskiiii]

hes like a soggy bat.. i love him

[fandom]

Top 22 of 2022

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, folks. Fifty-two weeks of cold hard data measuring original posts, likes, reblogs, and searches, weighted and ranked. And it all ultimately comes down to this: not only is Stranger Things the #1 topic on Tumblr over this last year of data, but fans posted so much about Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington that they also made the list of Top Things.

Meanwhile, season 2B of the beloved animated series The Owl House aired, along with the first episode of the final season, which turned out to be a rollercoaster of coming out joy and absolute heartbreak. Evergreen favorites Critical Role’s Bells Hells, a mix of familiar and new faces, have spent the year adventuring around Marquet. And we don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no, but Encanto fans sure do. 

On the MCYT front, several new Minecraft SMP servers provided a ton of content for MCYT fans, treating them to new stories and character dynamics. This year was also marked by mourning as the community grieved the passing of one of their own—the popular streamer Technoblade. 

In other gaming news, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have players catchin’ and battlin’ away. And over the past year, Deltarune players stocked up on bananas, while Genshin Impact players hoarded primogems to wish for their favorite banner characters. 

Back on the small screen, folks have had a lot of emotions about the very gay pirate show Our Flag Means Death and the (somewhat sapphic) League of Legends animated series Arcane. House of the Dragon took us back to Westeros and really leaned into “complicated family dynamics,” while “complicated shipping dynamics” was the theme for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. And between Battinson and Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, it was a big year for a character with some serious emotional issues.

Finally, aesthetic bloggers rejoice! Cottagecore and Dark Academia are both on here. Halloween was big, which makes sense because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without BTS—some things don’t change. And to round us out, please remember to like, reblog, and thank our resident Artists on Tumblr, who continue to nourish us and our dashboards with their incredible creations. This is Tumblr’s Year In Review.

Stranger Things

The Owl House

Artists on Tumblr

Critical Role

Encanto

MCYT

Pokémon

Eddie Munson | Stranger Things

Our Flag Means Death

Deltarune

The Dream SMP Minecraft Server

Cottagecore

Star Wars

Arcane

Genshin Impact

House of the Dragon

Dark Academia

Batman | The DC Universe

Steve Harrington | Stranger Things

Halloween

BTS

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

[kebbopulos]

In my data collection, I was also curious how many of tumblr's top 100 ships were queer!

Out of these queer ships, I also broke them down to see what percent were wlw and what percent were mlm:

Keep it Queer Tumblr <3

[maxinefuckingminx]

Pearl (2022) + Letterboxd Reviews

[marsoid]

favorite pieces from 2022 x

[lousolversons]

LOUSOLVERSON’S REVIEW OF 2022 Best New Show - Severance, Apple TV+

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

a handful of my favourite letterboxd reviews

bonus: the iconic, the legendary, the sensational ~

[letterboxd-worth-a-damn]

[drarryspecificrecs]

Most popular fics of 2022

✔ subjectively sorted by Hits || alphabetically listed || as of 2023.07 (4112 works) ✔ 2022 in review : (daily) complete fics  +  (monthly) longest fics  +  list of fests ✔ most popular fics of other years

—

Accompaniment by BiscuitBrunch [E, 93k]

Across the Multiverse by @hsvh-hp [M, 108k]

Alchemy for idiots by ZiggySnape [E, 27k]

All The Bad Dreams That You Hide (Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine) by Bluemask [E, 50k]

all the western stars by @oflights [E, 78k]

An Anchor of Time by J0J0_M0J0 [M, 106k]

Are You With Me? by @ravenlost2187 [M, 106k]

As Far as Possible by Mademoiselle_A [E, 142k]

Baby News by Avonne [T, 4k]

Bad Habits by No_One_Special_01289 [E, 70k]

Because I Knew You (I Have Been Changed For Good) by @dracowillhearaboutthis [T, 23k]

The Beginning of All Wisdom by @maeglinyedi [E, 24k]

Calico Skies by @fate-and-folly [E, 134k]

Cascade by Avonne [M, 18k]

The Change Over Spell by Minzsanh --- translated by @zoooooey0610 [E, 128k]

Chronological Displacement by @bookinit02 [T, 89k]

the complete idiot's guide to losing your entire mind by @oknowkiss​ [E, 10k]

Constellations on your skin by @orange-peony [M, 56k]

a convergence of inks by @thebooktopus​ [E, 21k]

The Day Before the Wedding by @kbrick​ [E, 39k]

Dear Scorpius Draco Malfoy by gracefully_slytherin [T, 64k]

Dicking Draco Down by @lqtraintracks [E, 1k]

don't stop for me, love by @settingmoon [E, 2k]

A Down and Out Christmas by @maraudersaffair [E, 20k]

Draco Malfoy Absolutely Does Not Need to Be Loved by Harry Bloody Potter by @nv-md [E, 18k]

The Dustless Mirrors by @sugarplum-senpai [M, 90k]

Echoing Green by @thegatheringdust [E, 70k]

Elderflower by DarklingDarling [E, 1k]

Escaping Reality by @coffeedrgn87 [E, 117k]

Even From Opposite Ends of the Universe - Book I by @kbrick [E, 114k]

Eye of the Storm by @stargazing-enby [?, 26k]

Finely Drawn Lines by @the-sinking-ship [E, 61k]

Full by @orange-peony [E, 16k]

Harry Potter and the End of the Line by @drarrysworlds [E, 127k]

Harry Potter's Chastity Adventure by Spidey_Fan_700 [E, 45k]

Heal Thyself by @astolat [T, 46k]

I Just Saved Harry Potter by StarsAndCrows [?, 148k]

in my defense, i have none by @the-houseryn [E, 18k]

Jealousy Suits You, Malfoy by @peachydreamxx [E, 4k]

The Journal of Regulus Arcturus Black by gokioh [G, 141k]

The July Tree by @oknowkiss [E, 51k]

Just a trial run by @tenthousandyearsx [E, 9k]

Just Give Me a Reason by @sassy-cissa [E, 24k]

Just So I Could Call You Mine by @minty-petals [M, 16k]

Kept in Cages by @sweet-s0rr0w [E, 76k]

A Kiss to Build a Dream On by @drarrily-we-row-along [E, 23k]

The Laws of Gravity by @lettersbyelise [E, 31k]

Lily's Boy by SomewheresSword [E, 746k]

Listen To Your Heart by @ladderofyears​ [E, 65k]

Lovesick by @corvuscrowned [T, 7k]

The Magic Behind the Camera by oldenuf2nb [E, 55k]

Make love to me. by Bubbsch [E, 8k]

Make This Leap by @oflights [M, 118k]

The Matchmaker's Spell by @kbrick [E, 20k]

Meeting By Starlight by Lomonaaeren [T, 5k]

Monster by @orange-peony [E, 71k]

More Powerful Than Experience by @flightinflame [M, 89k]

Most Favourite Bedtime Story by SasuNarufan13 [M, 46k]

Never In Extremity by @flightinflame [M, 74k]

No Questions Asked by @redthoughtsblog [T, 48k]

Nobody can't stop me from being happy by Alex_ander_Chansonnette2204 [T, 47k]

Nobody Pinch Me by @dracoladon & @lazywonderlvnd [E, 17k]

Not So Different by Nightstar_Fury [M, 152k]

Obliviate by DarklingDarling [E, 1k]

Once and Never Again by Avonne [E, 40k]

Once More With Feeling by InnerLilith [E, 28k]

The Only Magic Left Between Us by @lqtraintracks [E, 24k]

Pages of You by @wolfpants [E, 101k]

Paper Rings by @lettersbyelise [E, 50k]

Paroled by Sita_Z [M, 83k]

The Parselmouth Promise by Lomonaaeren [M, 67k]

The Phantom Girl by DarkWizard [E, 60k]

Phoenix in the Fire by @lqtraintracks [E, 28k]

A Pocket Full of Stones by @amywaterwings [E, 67k]

red and green are complimentary colours by Scarlet_Moons [T, 88k]

Romp and Circumstance by @wolfpants [E, 35k]

Sagehaven by Thunderbird587 [E, 89k]

Scent game by @nelweensfic [E, 8k]

Second Chances by CrazyCatLady (Scribblesnpaws) [T, 118k]

The Silence of Your Love by malfoypolix [T, 76k]

Smoke and Sweets by BiscuitBrunch [E, 21k]

The Snake Charmer by RecklessHeartbeat [T, 25k]

Somewhere in My Memory by @maraudersaffair [E, 29k]

Stay With Me by @peachydreamxx [M, 87k]

The Strange Case of Draco Malfoy's Mysterious Illness by DarkWizard [E, 89k]

Styrax by Lune (Pwtchouli) [E, 10k]

Sublimation by @boldlyinnocent317 [E, 75k]

The Suitor by @mars-bar81 [E, 1k]

Sweetheart by DarklingDarling [E, 2k]

Trouble with your tie, Potter? by @tenthousandyearsx [E, 6k]

Two Shadows in the Night by @ubi-goes-uwu [T, 81k]

Two to Lie and One to Listen by @fluxweeed [E, 84k]

The Unspeakable by @the-sinking-ship [E, 24k]

The Waxing Gibbous: A Redemption, of Sorts by @bluesyquill [E, 126k]

We Raise Ourselves From the Ashes by @myaulophobia [E, 95k]

What If When He Sees Me (I Like Him And He Knows It?) by @dracowillhearaboutthis [M, 23k]

When Times are Dire by @aibidil [E, 130k]

The White Pawn by @soupy-george [T, 80k]

You Smell Like You're Mine by hwritesrarely [E, 4k]

You'll Still Find Stone by @flightinflame [M, 42k]

[iamamymarch]

This movie was so surprising I gave it 4/5☆

I love Jordan Peeles movies. His writing and casting are always top-tier

(Pictures off of pinterest)

[foxounderscorecube]

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

¼⭐

I'm leaving a review at all because I really passionately hate it. It's probably one of the worst books I have ever read.

As a disclaimer, this isn't a book that appealed to me a whole lot conceptually. I did my dissertation on cyberpunk media and this was one of the books I read for it, and I really wish I'd read some of the other books I'd bought and never ended up getting round to instead. I finished it only because I couldn't let such a terrible book beat me.

The book follows Wade Watts, an insufferable young man, as he competes to find an Easter egg within the OASIS - the MMORPG everyone plays in Cline's vision of the future - and win a whole load of money. Wade is very poor and very sad and so he wants to win the fortune, and because he knows so much about video games and 80s culture (much like the creator of the game), he wins, obviously, and he kisses the girl he likes and everything is lovely and happy. A lot of critical literature I read for my dissertation spoke about how cyberpunk as a whole had a tendency to be a way for nerdy guys to write a fantasy story where they were really cool and powerful as a direct result for their nerdiness, and I'd say this particularly applies here.

The misogyny is really out there. It's that weird "nice guy" flavour of misogyny. Apparently, all the girls in the OASIS have avatars that either look like supermodels (read: too skinny for Cline's self-insert) or porn stars (read: too "fake" and large-breasted for Cline's self-insert). The girl Wade likes isn't like that. She's curvy. Nerdy, too. And Wade saves all the pictures of her avatar that she posts and stalks her obsessively for years, because, you know, normal behaviour. Yes, of course he ends up dating her. No, he never faces consequences for being a massive creep, unless you count a falling-out they have at one point where he wins her affection back by stalking her some more. As in, she blocks him on everything, stops posting on her very popular blog, so he visits her in-game home repeatedly to harass her, because he reckons that's really romantic. I reiterate: he never faces consequences for this.

Similarly, there's a degree of racism, mostly in the characters of Daito and Shoto, who are always going on about "honour" and are essentially walking stereotypes. Daito gets "disappeared" by Generic Big Evil Corporation in the real world, and Wade asks if he could have possibly killed himself after losing access to his avatar (on which he had made good progress in the Easter egg hunt, and maybe you can only have one avatar, I don't recall). Shoto says "No, Daito did not commit seppuku," because, you know, he's Japanese. Not like seppuku is a very specific form of ritual suicide or anything. The scene is meant to be very serious and dark, to my recollection, and it feels like a weird joke that doesn't land.

There was a missed opportunity, I think, in that Wade would have made a good main character for something satirical, or at least something where the overall goal of the story was for him to grow from his mistakes. Instead, he remains whiny, immature, and generally dislikable, and the most character growth we see is probably after a point where he becomes depressed and stays inside masturbating constantly, and eventually decides to stop doing that.

The book relies on the reader thinking "Hey, I get that reference!" very, very heavily, and so most scenes that are clearly meant to be really cool and epic end up reading as… a bit sad, honestly. I have my own niche and/or obsessive interests, and will never put people down for loving a franchise or whatever, but "Ooh, my car is the DeLorean from Back to the Future and also the Knight Rider car and it has the Ghostbusters numberplate!" is just, I don't know. A bit much, maybe. A bit fanfic.

The book tries to have a vaguely anti-corporate message, presumably because Cline felt that was needed as part of the cyberpunk-y vibe he was going for, but it falls on its face even conceptually when it is so indulgent in the consumerist nostalgia that's so prevalent in media currently in the real world. I personally think it's perfectly fine for a book to be fun fluff in general, don't get me wrong, but I still feel like the irony is worth mentioning.

If you like to get references and you miss the nerd culture of the 80s, maybe you will like this book. A lot of people do and I would guess there's a reason for it. If you want to emulate the experience of this book without actually reading it, then I recommend reading Reddit posts by lonely "nice guys" and switching to a tab to read an entire Wikipedia article about an 80s video game every so often. I'd say that'd be rather more fun.

[nicostiel]

Stranger Things + Tumblr 2022 Year in Review

[kebbopulos]

I was curious how a ship being queer interacted with whether it is canon. So I graphed Tumblr's Year in Review top 100 ships based on whether they were canon and whether they were queer

(the percentage stands for what percent of queer ships each queer column takes up and what percent of straight ships each straight column takes up, NOT percent of all ships)

so queer ships were more likely to not be canon, and grey area ships (such as mutual pining) were more likely to be straight ships

[lolaveda]

Danielle Orchard, Lint, 2022

[lousolversons]

LOUSOLVERSON’S REVIEW OF 2022 Best Film - Everything Everywhere All At Once, Dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert