twenty-twenty-five in incomplete, optimistic review.

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Long time no see.

So here’s the thing, adulthood? Is kind of exhausting. Full-time jobs? Pretty exhausting. And my current full-time job has been in this constant state of stress and flux and angst since about, oh, May. I’ve managed to make time for cosplay, and I can draw while we watch movies or TV shows or YouTube or whatever, and other miscellaneous crafts and hobbies I do with my wife are done with my wife so it’s a concerted effort made to do them, but writing… as much as I love writing and as much as it’s part of my blood it’s also kind of the easiest thing to let fall to the wayside. It requires a lot of emotional energy that I frankly haven’t had a ton of in the last howevermany months. But I’m getting to the point where I don’t want the part of my brain that does things I like to be punished by the part that doesn’t, if that makes sense. I don’t want to let my corporate fatigue kill my creative energy altogether.

So. 2025.

K-Pop Demon Hunters, obviously.
Obviously because this movie has kind of been inescapable. A couple of the people I work with know it through their kids/grandkids, which has been really funny. The kids in question have been watching the movie and listening to it on repeat, naming a kitten Rumi, dressing up for Halloween, that kind of thing, and it’s like, yes, if I was their age that would absolutely have been me too. (Drift partner and I are both Zoey-coded, because Zoey is aggressively autistic and eager to please.) We’ve managed to limit ourselves, the full adults with some modicum of restraint, to listening to the album in the car a lot and buying a good bit of art at conventions (mostly featuring Big Kitty, whose actual name we choose not to use, because while we love the girls don’t get us wrong, Big Kitty is irresistible) and acknowledging that yes, when they release the Barbie-sized dolls we’ll probably have to buy them because the designs are really good okay? The interesting thing to me about K-Pop Demon Hunters, though, is that it is this genuine cultural phenomenon that inspires fandom and is so obviously inspired by fandom but it’s managed to get so much traction not just with kids and fandom nerds but in the world at large! The girls were on Time magazine for crying out loud! Huntr/x has a following larger than a lot of actual non-movie bands! And even with that, the movie doesn’t lose the K- part of things. They have Korean lyrics, the demons are Korean demons, even Big Kitty is inspired by Korean mythology about ghosts. I just think that’s really neat, and I’m proud of everyone involved.

Also, “Golden” for Best Song at the Oscars. Or…

Sinners is a literal masterpiece.
I feel like everything I say about Sinners will sound hyperbolic, but… no. I mean it. Sinners is peak Southern Gothic, with a score that had me vibrating in my seat from the first chords and such a powerful aesthetic equal parts glamor and grime and my favorite, vampires! I somehow managed not to get spoiled for the vampires (we saw it the first week it was out) and I was so giddy and delighted because that’s my jam. They’re this fun combination of feral energy and mob mentality that makes them really effective movie monsters but still has some allegorical weight (and by the film’s end you learn that can be resisted to some degree, which is good to know – nothing is more frustrating than Every Monster Is Inevitable). And my god, the performances in this movie. Every single one is phenomenal! I will highlight the women specifically because – okay, so I’m so proud of Hailee Steinfeld? Which is weird because she’s an adult and it’s not like she’s someone I know personally, but I just really love seeing people who start in the industry young and talented actually getting to grow and do cool stuff and be healthy and happy and not getting pigeonholed or anything. Jayme Lawson is an absolute smokeshow of a goddess and I know it’ll probably be “I Lied to You” getting song nominations but oh my god “Pale Pale Moon” is the bop of the year. And Wunmi Mosaku is just so compassionate and beautiful and strong and I love getting to see her really actually get to act and do things not just in brief flashes! Anyway, this is an incredible movie and if you can deal with gore you should absolutely watch it.

And it should win Best Song for one of its tracks if “Golden” doesn’t take the popular vote.

Companion, oh my god.
One of my other favorites of the year personally was Companion, which is a weird little horror movie about a man’s purpose-designed sex robot having emotions and sentience and being horrified with his actions toward both her and others. I love a good robot-with-emotions story. I love a good women-gaining-agency-and-then-doing-murder-about-it story. I love the meta about him designing her to be twee and socially anxious so she loves him the most. Most of all, though, I love Sophie Thatcher. Sophie Thatcher is in Yellowjackets, which we haven’t watched yet, but Sophie Thatcher was also on our adored The Book of Boba Fett as the leader of the Mods (characters that most people were up in arms about but that I personally loved). She was also in last year’s Heretic, which is bananas. Anyway, though, Sophie Thatcher is now my fancast Dulcie Septimus and I will hear no arguments.

Superman actually rocked.
James Gunn doing a Superman movie filled especially drift partner with dread, because James Gunn’s films are often cynical and gross, but somehow he actually managed to nail it. David Corenswet’s version of Superman is actually so endearing and trying to do the right thing and be optimistic and helpful. He’s not a broody bitch (like Henry Cavill) and he’s not full of ego and he’s not one-dimensional. He’s actually just a genuinely likable guy that’s using his powers in what he thinks is the best way he can. And Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult (who is the best at having a bad time), is literally just a jealous little freak! This movie is not subtle with its villains, but that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be, and frankly it’s a little cathartic. And surprisingly, this movie isn’t (too) weird about women! I could do without some of the Eve-related humor, but Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl are actually both fully-formed characters who aren’t subject to weird sexual humor or torture backstories and who can hold their own against everyone else around them! We haven’t seen The Marvelous Ms. Maisel despite my father’s weird pleas (in part because we’re not super comfy with how we’ve heard some of our Jewish friends describe the show’s relationship with and portrayal of Judaism) so I didn’t know how charming Rachel Brosnahan was but oh my god her Lois is the best. She’s so fidgety and weird and bisexual and clever and I love her.

Some Marvel stuff.
Thunderbolts* is a great freaking time and a surprisingly deep meditation on the nature and effect of grief, and also you guys they brought back Ghost oh my god we thought we would never see her again! So many times we fall for secondary or tertiary female characters in Marvel projects who just get forgotten after the thing they’re in (where is Helen Cho????) and we thought that would happen to Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) but it didn’t and she’s back and she’s so snarky and British and amazing. Yelena is also amazing. Florence Pugh’s performance in this movie is genuinely so moving and I want nothing but the best for her. And I’m so glad Bucky is finally a character and Sebastian Stan is getting to do things. Finally, John Walker can suck it.

Fantastic Four was actually really great too. I’ve somehow managed to miss both of the bad film versions, and I really don’t have a great understanding of these characters, but ooh you get me in a vintage setting for my superheroes and I’m all there. You also cannot go wrong with Pedro Pascal. Drift partner said Reed Richards often sucks, but Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards is just a nice autistic professor who happens to have superpowers and I think that’s great. The whole cast is pretty solid, honestly, but I must also highlight Julia Garner’s darkly voguey Shalla-Bal.

Ironheart was okay, but Dominique Thorne’s Riri is fantastic. We love her a lot and want the best for her, and hopefully it is yet to come. I also think it’s really funny that people kept being like “Mephisto is going to be in this magic show no this magic show no this magic show” and then he showed up in the show about the girl with the robot suit.

And most importantly…….

Daredevil is back.
Matthew Murdock is, at this point, one of my Top Marvel Boys. I love him so much and would follow him almost anywhere. It’s genuinely so much fun watching Charlie Cox balance the legal drama, the snarky superhero, the action, the adventure, the thriller, the romance, the everything – he manages to bring together all of these disparate parts of the world and the character and it’s just really cool and I wish people gave superhero TV more credit for being able to feature incredible performances. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Fisk and Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa are incredible villains because while they do some cartoonish things they’re such believable characters and you like them sort of in spite of yourself. I’m so happy for Nikki M. James being on TV shows and stuff (I know her from the 2005 musical Bernarda Alba, a fucked up Michael John LaChiusa psychodrama about five very emotionally tormented daughters of a strict olde-timey matriarch).

And let’s talk about My Girl Karen. Karen Page, played by the inimitable Deobrah Ann Woll, was originally not even supposed to be in the revival, but they luckily realized the error of their ways and wrote her back in. Kind of. She’s only really in the beginning and end of the season, but she’s an emotional presence throughout, and oh my god. Drift partner and I will both go on record as saying the Matt/Karen romance in season 2 of Daredevil actively sucks, simply because it feels like they’re weirdly cosplaying heterosexuality, but Matt/Karen is not a ship that’s DOA because when they’re not being romantic in the Netflix series they have so much chemistry. Well, at some point offscreen between season 3 and the beginning of Born Again Matt and Karen worked out whatever it was that wasn’t working between the two of them romantically, because they’re suddenly perfect for each other. They 100% meet each other’s freak now and they’re neither of them pretending they don’t, and I wish them a very Fight Crime And Kiss.

Severance, also.
It’s funny. Sometimes we get into things with Hype and sometimes we don’t, and Severance is one that we really did. It’s fucked up in a lot of ways that remind us of our beloved Dollhouse, and it just keeps getting more insane and everyone, again, keeps bringing it. There is not a weak link in this bunch, though I of course must draw special attention to our relatedly-beloved Dichen Lachman. If I had a nickel for every time there was an episode in the second season of a weird TV drama about neurological manipulation where the plot ground to a halt to take a deep dive into the backstory of and crimes against a character played by Dichen Lachman, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. Weird and so beautiful.

Murderbot! And my boy!
I haven’t read these books yet. Drift partner has. I will someday. Regardless, how could I resist this show? It’s a robot gaining emotions, but it’s also my #1, Alexander Skarsgard. He’s a beautiful man but in this show he gets to be funny, in a specifically autism-coded way that makes me personally so delighted. He’s just such a mood.

Dropout.
This was drift partner’s first, so all credit, and I’m not nearly as well-versed in their programming, but this last year we really dove in. Game Changer and Make Some Noise, Dirty Laundry and Parlor Room, her favorite Very Important People and our collective favorite Play It By Ear. We binged The Unsleeping City and all previous quangles before the Dimension 20 Quangle in Seattle so I’d have another full series under my belt and at least a passing knowledge of all the characters we might encounter. (I apparently can never watch Never After, because the horror is exactly not my style, and A Crown of Candy is on hold for when we’re ready to be emotionally devastated, but Fantasy High and Cloudward Ho, not to mention more of the non-main six quests, are actively on the docket for this year.) In the world of Droput-adjacency, Jess and Zack’s Off-Book live show was transcendent, and Mamma Mia But Different they wrote the book for, Love After Midnight, legitimately actually changed our lives. Shoutout especially also to Smell the Roses, Lisa Gilroy’s earnest diss track, A24 on Ice, Bee-do Mee-maw, and again all of Play It By Ear but especially “How Dare You,” “PEMDAS,” “Shortcake Stack,” and “Hey Windella.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Warriors.
This was last year technically but whatever I have things to say. What a weird thing, right? A musical version of a controversially violent 80s dystopian gang movie with most characters gender- and/or racebent… that was actually inspired in part by Gamergate. This man writes musicals based on his hyperfixations and you know, I respect it. This is the most star-studded concept album, from Broadway babes like Jasmine Cephas Jones and Philippa Soo and Amber Grey to crossmedium talents like Colman Domingo to actual royalty like Missy Elliott. This album has everything. An actual lesbian love song, K-pop, multiple potential John Mulaney references, canonically hot Philippa Soo, roller skates, a ska villain song.

I dunno, man. We rewatched Sailor Moon.
I mostly mention this because it took several months and helped stabilize me in some very weird times, and because oh my god child me was so correct to tie my horses to this wagon. This show is fundamental truth and emotional resonance in a way that many prestige dramas could only dream of being. It goes hard.

Y’know.

wicked, but if it was modern day america, kind of.

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So I love Wicked. I always have. I read the book as a high school freshman, then got obsessed with the cast recording; I saw it in New York the next summer, then, uh… three more times on tour, I believe? The most recent being last winter.

I am, regrettably, very nervous about the films. Nothing I’ve seen has inspired confidence, which could be my own picky take but who’s to say. Everyone we’ve talked to liked it. I’m very happy for them. I’m posting this, finally, mere hours before we finally watch part 1 (we wanted to wait until it was free and we could drink at home).

Watching the play, though, did make me think of one way the films could improve: clarifying the timeline. Because Act 2 especially could be really absurd if you take the timeline at face value. Let me illustrate with a fun metaphor I came up with. It also utilizes American political and educational terms.

So.

The new school year is  upon us. NYU, one of the only universities in the country, has opened its doors for another term. Enter Nessarose, 19, and Elphaba, 21. They are sisters and the daughters of the governor of Nebraska. He is a conservative. Elphaba was born with a notable and societally unacceptable dermatological difference, comparable to vitiligo or albinism although not officially diagnosable as such, and in an effort to keep this from happening to their second daughter her dad made her mom overdose on Herbalife during pregnancy. Mom died. Nessa was born with non-functioning legs. She uses a wheelchair and she’s otherwise pretty healthy, but Dad is very overprotective of her. The only reason Elphaba gets to go to NYU is to nanny her sister.

Even though sidenote: if Dad hates Elphaba so much why not send her away to school asap and be rid of her? Presumably to punish her by making her babysit Nessa forever, but also maybe because he’s afraid that if she goes to college she’ll get more crazy liberal ideas in her head. Nessa gets to go to NYU to learn how to govern, I guess? She’s going to take over as governor of Nebraska, which might be hereditary in this universe (it’s unclear). Elphaba is just there, but it turns out she has magic. There’s no metaphor for that. At orientation, it is revealed that she doesn’t have a room assignment because her dad forgot to register her. The headmistress, Madame Morrible, is surprisingly chill and offers to find a place for her, but upon realizing she can’t room with Nessarose, she lashes out magically and Nessa’s wheelchair gets possessed. The headmistress is impressed and offers to tutor her in magic exclusively, suggesting that the president (like, of the country) might want to meet her. She’s always dreamed of that.

This upsets Galinda, 19, who wants to learn magic herself. Galinda is a debutante from Maine who has already been forced to room with Elphaba but is spoiled and not used to being told no. Everyone loves her on sight except Elphaba and the headmistress.

Perhaps a week or two into the term, maybe even a month, everyone is attending history class, taught by Dr. Dillamond. He is a Goat furry. But like, be was born that way. Furries are a class of people here. Don’t ask. They’re just called Animals, which is fair because not all of them have fur, but Dr. Dillamond does! He’s very cool. Someone has graffitied his chalkboard with anti-furry propaganda (basically a slur) and he is understandably upset, do he cancels class. Elphaba stays and he tells her about anti-furry sentiment in the country. She’s shocked but also not surprised and she gets radicalized to the cause and goes on pro-furry subreddits.

Some indeterminate time later, on Friday, a new student arrives. It’s mid-term, mind you. This is Fiyero, 19, who never learned how to read. He is the Prince of New Jersey. He’s very hot and acts real dumb, and it’s kind of unclear why he’s at school at all when he hates it and keeps getting expelled. Maybe he’s trying to occupy himself without having to get a job. Anyway. Galinda thinks he’s soooooo hot and immediately tries to seduce him, but she’s interrupted by Boq, 19, also from Nebraska. He has like, English with Galinda or something and he loooooves her now, but she doesn’t actually know him. She kind of recognizes him. He asks her out, and in a panic she looks around at who nearby isn’t dating someone and sees Nessa. She says “hey that girl is pretty and also sad. Please date her” and he is a simp so he says “sure thing.” That accomplished, she turns to Fiyero and gets him to invite her out swing dancing. This is the coolest thing to do and everyone is going!

Nessa tells Elphaba she’s going and she’s very excited son please be nice. Elphaba is overcome with gratitude and gets Morrible to invite Galinda to sorcery class. Galinda meanwhile is showing an ugly hat to her sycophantic friends and they say lol give it to Elphaba so she does. Elphaba is autistic and trying to be nice to Galinda now so she takes this at face value and wears the hat swing dancing.
At the swing dancing club, everyone is wearing dressed up. They’re all dancing it’s great. Is there alcohol? Dunno. It’s unclear. 

Morrible arrives at the club to invite Galinda to her seminar. She’s a petty bitch about it but Galinda is still excited. Then she feels bad for Carrieing Elphaba.

Boq is about to tell Nessarose why he asked her out, but then she (understandably) assumes it’s because he feels bad she’s disabled and he thinks it would be better to lie so she doesn’t think that than to just tell the truth,  so he lies and says no no she’s just pretty. She takes this at face value. (This is a theme.)
Elphaba arrives and, assuming she is wanted here, starts to square dance. Everyone chuckles but Galinda, feeling bad, goes to square dance with her so square dancing looks cool suddenly. Everyone goes with it.

Galinda never speaks to her friends again.

Later that night, Galinda contrives to make over Elphaba. They chat; Galinda tells Elphaba she’s gonna marry Fiyero (who she, reminder, just met twelve hours ago). Elphaba tells Galinda about her fucked up family history. Galinda decides the best way to fix it is to style Elphaba’s hair.

The next Monday, Elphaba goes to history class. She’s wearing a better outfit, Galinda’s pink hair flower, and better-styled hair. Galinda isn’t in class for some reason; i guess she has cramps or a hangover? Fiyero is there, though. He notices the makeover, such as it is. Chaos erupts when agents of ACE (the Animal Control Experts) show up to arrest Dr. Dillamond for subversive Reddit activity. He is fired, obviously. They also bring out a baby lion in a cage. (I’m not even going to touch the potential metaphors here because it seems uncouth.) Elphaba has a magic panic attack that makes everyone but Fiyero interpretive dance and they absconded with the baby. Then they go to a nearby public park to free the baby. There is a moment of sexual tension and Fiyero flees, leaving Elphaba to be discovered by Morrible. Hey guess what! Morrible says. The president heard about your magic and wants to meet. Cool I guess, says Elphaba.

A week later, generously, Elphaba is at the train station getting ready to go to DC to meet the president. Hef friends are there to wish her well. Boq abruptly decides he cannot date Nessa anymore, even though it’s been two weeks at most, but instead of breaking up with her like an adult he just says some cryptic shit and walks off. Nessa gives chase, hoping to prove she is capable of independence.  Fiyero is broody, so Galinda is sad. She swears to drop the A from her name in protest. Fiyero leaves. Elphaba invites Glinda to DC. This is normal.

They arrive and take in the sights. They stroll the Mall, they visit museums, they take photos in front of monuments so Glinda can post on Instagram, there’s a scene where they try on funny hats and glasses, they see some guys in weird outfits do a patriotic dance. Then they arrive at the White House.
Surprise! Their headmistress is the new Vice President. When did that happen? How? Sure! She brings them to the President’s office. He has a weird puppet to diffuse his performance anxiety, but whatever he’s just a little guy and it’s his birthday! He’s totally cool with Glinda being here, because state secrets don’t matter apparently. He asks Elphaba, the college freshman, to please open this library book full of nuclear codes that are written in Sumerian hieroglyphics and do a magic to make his monkey fly. No that is not a euphemism. Sounds cool says Elphaba and begins to do this. Oh no it hurts the monkey. She is not okay with this obviously and tries to fix it but the President says no can do bucko and reveals that she had also magicked six other monkeys. Somehow.

She absconds with the nuclear codes. Glinda chases after her. Not satisfied with waiting a few goddamn minutes for Glinda to tall her down, Morrible proclaims Elphaba public enemy #1 and orders her arrest/murder. She also makes sure the whole country knows that Elphaba went on Reddit.
Glinda tries to convince Elphaba to backtrack and work for the president, even if he sucks. Elphaba says nope. They argue. Elphaba almost convinces Glinda to join her rebellion, but Glinda decides to not do that instead. Elphaba jumps out s window with that library book.

Elphaba is now WANTED FOR EVERYTHING

Act 2 begins. It is an amount of time later. A week? A month? A year? Whom could say. Not us. Now that Elphaba is a criminal, Morrible has responded by promtimg Glinda, 19, a college freshman, to the office of Speaker of the House. She has no political experience, Morrible doesn’t particularly like her, and we have yet to see her perform any magic, but hey, people seem to like her generally, and also she knows about the nuclear codes, so of course she’s qualified for the third most important role in the country. Even more baffling, Fiyero, 19, has become the Secretary of Defense, presumably just because he’s Glinda’s boyfriend. He wasn’t even there. Elphaba is maligned countrywide. Everyone is talking about how evil she is and how much she posts about furries on Reddit. To cheer the country up, Glinda announces her engagement to Fiyero. They have been dating for max a year min a month. Fiyero is not thrilled but he goes along with it.

Meanwhile, Elphaba goes home to Nebraska. She plans to appeal to her dad, the governor, so he makes everyone calm down about her not even crimes. However, it turns out he’s dead. He found out she was on Reddit and died of shame. Now Nessarose, 19, is the governor. It is apparently an inherited title. She even says she wasn’t elected. In the week to year since she took power, she has apparently committed civil rights violations against the Munchkins, but we don’t really hear about the details. All we know is that Boq, 19, her now-ex bf, is now her indentured servant. He wears a shitty little gray suit and pours her tea and he can’t leave. She tries to be nice to him, but he is not able to leave so he is mad. Valid. What caused this 180 in Nessa’s personality is never explained. I might have words about that later.

Elphaba begs for help. Nessa says some insane shit about her own internalized ableism. Elphaba enchants her shoes. Now she can walk. She shows Boq, expecting that he will understand that she no longer needs a servant because now she can walk and that makes sense. Boq instead goes cool! You can walk! You don’t need me. I’m going to go ruin Glinda’s engagement party about it. Nessarose is pissed, understandably, and then starts doing magic, not understandably. She also cannot understand the magic book herself so she almost kills him. Apparently you can do magic to shrink a heart but not to grow one, so Elphaba fixes it by turning him into metal. Metal men don’t need hearts. Then she leaves.  Boq wakes up metal and is appalled, then leaves. Nessa allows this for some reason.

Back in DC, Glinda and Fiyero are having an engagement party. It’s very fancy, probably, we don’t actually see it. The security is fucked though because Elphaba fully gets into the building. Elphaba talks to the president. He sucks. He tries to tell her he’s just a little birthday boy, and for a second maybe she buys it and they dance. Or maybe she’s just fucking with him. It’s genuinely unclear. A standoff occurs between those two, Fiyero, Glinda, and some guys, and Fiyero makes them let Elphaba leave. She does. He’s effectively resigned as Secretary of Defense, but nobody goes after him. The protectiveness of people in this government is low. The president offers Glinda alcohol.

When Elphaba leaves, Morrible the vice president decides to use the weather machines to murder Nessa. She didn’t do anything they know of to be bad, but if she dies Elphaba will show up and they can catch her there. Or something.

When next we see them, Elphaba and Fiyero are in a cave? I guess? You know, those famous East Coast caves.  They fuck in this cave. They’re gonna do cool stuff maybe but then Elphaba senses that Nessarose is in trouble. Fiyero says ok after that meet me at my house in New Jersey and we’ll do … something.

Elphaba goes back to Nebraska. Nessarose is dead, and there’s not actually any discussion about it from her constituency. Boq is literally the only Munchkin we ever see and his take is obviously understandably biased. Glinda is there and explains that she gave Nessa’s magic shoes to Dorothy, 14, who traveled here magically via weather machine portal. Why did she get the shoes? It’s unclear. Glinda presumably would have known that those might hold value to Elphaba and not just actively given them away.  It’s not like Dorothy didn’t have shoes already. Elphaba is mad. Glinda is mad she stole Fiyero. They almost throw down. Then some guards are there. Fiyero is also there, even though you’d think if he was going to be there he could have just traveled with Elphaba. Fiyero once again makes them let Elphaba go by threatening Glinda this time, with guns. There are guns now, and the erstwhile Secretary of Defense just threatened the Speaker of the House with one. The guards let Elphaba go, but then they crucify Fiyero in a field about it.

Elphaba goes somewhere. Maybe Jersey. Maybe another cave. It’s unclear. She uses the nuclear codes to protect Fiyero from whatever happens to him, somehow. She doesn’t really specify. She has an existential crisis and says fine. You callin me a bitch? I’mma be a bitch.

The vice president is leading a nationwide manhunt for Elphaba. Boq is there, somehow. He’s pissed. Nessa is dead so he has displaced his anger to Elphaba. That little furry Lion from the beginning is there too. Offscreen. Apparently he’s so broken because Elphaba took him out of a cage to the park, so now he has paralyzing anxiety. The government is exploiting him for their political gain, which is fucked but okay. Also he’s probably like 2 at most. Glinda is there and not impressed. Morrible says shut up and smile bitch.

Cut to. Jersey. Elphaba is at Fiyero’s mansion. She has kidnapped Dorothy, apparently. Dorothy is crying in a basement. Elphaba is full bitch mode. She wants the shoes! Glinda arrives. Glinda warns Elphaba about the mob. They 100% forgive each other, which is very sweet but also confusing because literally nothing has changed between now and their last meeting except Fiyero got crucified. They make up and Elphaba gives Glinda the nuclear codes, even though Glinda can’t read ancient Sumerian. Then Glinsa hides in a closet while the mob arrives. The mob lets Dorothy out of the basement? And they make her kill Elphaba because that’s what you do with a mildly traumatized 14-year-old. Glinda leaves with the nuclear codes after talking to a monkey.

Glinda goes back to DC. She confronts the president and VP. She realizes the alcohol the pres has is the same bottle Elphaba had so that means you’re her dad. Now he’s a little birthday Dad?????? Uwu he feels weird but nothing to do now.  She forces the pres to resign on charges of sucking. Then she turns her attention to the vp. She arrests the vp for weather machine murder and also sucking. Now she’s the pres. That’s how that works. Luckily nobody seems opposed.

Back in New Jersey, Elphaba opens the trapdoor she exited into and climbs out, alive. Fiyero is also there. Either when Dorothy’s gang went to Jersey to confront Elphaba he didn’t leave, or he returned. It’s unclear. He’s a scarecrow now. They’re going to leave and go to Mexico. This is the first time in the story that Mexico has even been alluded to.

Technically it’s a happy ending, but like. Is it? The furries? What’s going to happen to them? The Nebraskans? Who knows.

emerald city comic con, twenty-twenty-five.

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Been a while, etc.

I actually have a few posts sitting in drafts, including the 2024 year in review, that are nearly finished, but it turns out? Balancing a full-time job with multiple hobbies that all take a fair bit of time (writing, doing art, cosplay, dolls, media consumption) with sometimes just wanting to hang out with my wife with being a human being that doesn’t have unlimited energy with living in an absolutely exhausting political/social climate is a lot. I justify this by reminding myself that most of my favorite YouTubers upload a lot less often than they used to, too, so quality over quantity and/or frequency? Or something? Or maybe we’re all just getting old and tired.

So. Emerald City.

The weekend was, admittedly, off to a rough start. There was a Locked Tomb cosplay meetup scheduled for Thursday evening, and we hauled ass after work to get there but just barely missed it. This was very disappointing, but we did manage to connect with a couple of lingering cosplayers and make friends; I wouldn’t even bother bringing this up otherwise, but we met back up with them on Sunday, so it’s relevant.

Friday was a day we spent at home finishing projects. We were going to do a different pair of costumes one of the days this con (we’re going to do them later, so I won’t spoil, but I will say they pair with some of our custom but not Locked Tomb dolls!) but Kathryn Newton got announced as a guest very last-minute, so back out came Sammy and Lisa; it was mostly Sunday’s we had to put some finishing touches on, more on that in a minute.

Saturday!

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Literally the only change we made to Lisa was drift partner painted some glittery blood on the rhinestone axe, and just like at Rose City, damn, the axe was truly the star of the day. Kathryn Newton actually took a selfie of herself (and us) with the axe, she was so delighted by it.

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Kathryn Newton was also delighted by the major addition to Sammy: the bag of (fake) onions. As she saw us approaching in the line, the first thing she said was, from the movie, “Sammy, those are fuckin’ onions!” and she was delighted.

Kathryn Newton herself was quite frankly an icon. She was wearing a little friendship bracelet with beads that spelled “CASSIE LANG” and had beads in black and purple like Cassie’s Stature suit; she was also, as you can see in the above selfie, wearing a button of Magenta from Rocky Horror on her lapel, which immediately marked her as, y’know, one of My People. She was really sweet and talked to us for a crazy long amount of time compared to most celebrities with waiting lines; we got insider stories about Quantumania and Halt and Catch Fire and Abigail leading into her recently-announced involvement in the sequel to Ready or Not, she told us a whole story about how Lisa Frankenstein genuinely changed her life and how she approaches things. She was truly genuinely sweet and it was 100% worth it to pay for a selfie with her.

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We also paid for a selfie with Katy O’Brien. I go into more detail about Love Lies Bleeding and specifically drift partner’s reaction to it and to Katy O’Brien specifically in the 2024 post, but – we loved that movie and especially she did, and Katy O’Brien is a definite queer icon. She’s also a lovely person! She’s very relaxed and it was a good thing because we didn’t have our embarrassing “hot cool person” freakout until once the meeting was over.

Sean Maher wasn’t doing selfies, but of the Firefly cast that was present, he was the one that we hadn’t met yet, and I was personally thrilled. Simon is my favorite Firefly boy, and Sean Maher is absolutely so lovely. I made sure to tell him that, and he very playfully said, “Oh, you’re just saying that.” No, we assured him, we’re not. He and River are the namesakes of my parents’ cats! (He’s also one of the reasons I have such a thing for vests, but, y’know. I didn’t want to be weird.) He’s lovely. His booth was next to Summer Glau’s; we didn’t wait in line for her since we’ve met her several times, but we did gaze upon her beauty, and Gina Torres’ beauty a couple down, and I think it’s really cute watching Sean and Summer just casually buddying together as real life humans.

We spent the rest of Saturday casually meandering through the exhibitor hall; some of our “friends,” i.e. exhibitors we have established relationships with, were down there, including Optimysticals (seriously, check them out – we didn’t buy anything from them this time because they’ve sort of shifted into bespoke nerd-inspired rings and necklaces that are not inexpensive and therefore not so much for impulse-buying) and the artist that did our tattoos in December. (Did I mention? We got tattoos in December. They’re coordinating Bitch Planet non-compliant “nc” tattoos, mine filled in with blue and then pink and purple roses for bisexual flags and also, y’know, roses and drift partner’s with the ace flag stripes.)

Sunday we were going to try to go to the American Girl panel, but timing didn’t permit; we did, as you can see, bring dolls, so this was kind of a bummer, but we’d have brought them anyway. We’ll just have to connect with the Seattle-area doll crowd some other time or way. Whatever.

Our costumes, as you might be able to tell, were variations of Coronabeth Tridentarius and Kiriona Gaia… but the spin this time was as if they were going to Coachella. Let me explain.

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Months ago, we were at Torrid and I saw the top I’m wearing in the above outfit. It’s a crop top, technically. It’s so sparkly and ridiculous, and the second I saw it I said “CORONABETH.” In what context, I wondered, would Corona wear such a shirt? Why, Coachella. Do they have Coachella in The Locked Tomb? No, but if they had anything like that it would definitely be on the Third. I conceptualized a whole outfit: crop top, open tulle skirt over shorts over leggings, crown obviously…

And then American Girl dropped some new outfits and, amazingly, one of the outfits was the exact thing I’d been imagining (with more hot pink).

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(The leggings and sneakers were my addition; leggings because I don’t like wearing shorts, sneakers because the doll outfit came with platform sandals and for a convention, nooo. The crown is obviously also my addition.)

This is one of their newest sparkly flip outfits for dolls. The other side is hot pink sequins, if you reverse the romper. These outfits were very divisive in the doll community; some people complained they’re not enough like what people, or kids, would wear, some people complained they looked too much like what you’d wear to a festival and not enough like normal clothes. Fortunately, I was already in the market for a festival outfit!

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The next question was: what would Kiriona wear to Coachella?

Presumably it’s one of the Kiriona-raised-by-John AUs and not canon Kiriona; we actually made up a whole AU to make it make sense, but that doesn’t matter, we’re just like that. Anyway. Kiriona is essentially the lesbian version of a frat boy, so she’s wearing big comfy shorts and a tank top cut down the side and obviously her aviators and a stupid douchey hat (there’s a crown of sorts stitched to the back, but the paper crown over top was from a booth, and it says “TRASH KING” so it’s also Kiriona-approved). The shirt, you may notice, says “all girls go to heaven and god is gay” – a lyric from the Zolita song. Lots of people loved the shirt even if they didn’t know the lyric, so we got to evangelize at strangers not just about The Locked Tomb but about Zolita! That was fun.

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We basically just recreated it for the doll. The dolls were a hit; we spent most of the afternoon in Artists’ Alley, and a large part of that was lingering around booths selling Locked Tomb content hoping to start conversations and show off, and the dolls delighted everyone when we showed them off. The artists who got it got it and were delighted, and we were delighted by their art; one artist, who was selling a Team 69 print (which is to say Gideon, Palamedes, Harrow, and Camilla), actually insisted on getting our picture because she was so amused.

Anyway, we met up with our new friends at day’s end!

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Here they are, on either side of us, as Eurydice and Orpheus from Hadestown (when we found out this was their plan we kind of lost our minds about it). The latter also cosplays Corona (that’s what she’d been wearing on Thursday) which was great because it helped me start conversation with her! Some of their other friends who’d been Gideon and Harrow on Thursday popped by later, dressed as Gwenpool and X-23 this day, and they were the first ones to recognize the Zolita lyric, and apparently we were the first ones to accurately recognize X-23, so all was well. We even joined their “HOT TO GO” dance video, though I don’t know how it turned out.

I’ll be posting more pictures on Instagram, also!

creative fatigue, or something.

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I feel like everything I write these days is prefaced with “been a while, huh?”

I think this is actually a pretty normal thing for creators to go through. Either it’s that you get burned out and the longer you go before showing something, the harder it is to bring yourself to finish it or do it or whatever, or it’s that you get burned out specifically of frequent production and while you might be working on something it takes longer to finish because you want it to be quality over quantity, or maybe you’re just older and you don’t have the stamina you used to, or maybe it’s a combination of these things.

Quite frankly, friends, trying to think of pithy and unique things to write about all the time is kind of exhausting. It’s why I switched from my old post-every-day blog to this one, where my intention was to post every week, but then when I fell out of the habit of posting every week it both slipped my mind to post at all and intimidated me to get back to it because how pathetic is it that I couldn’t even keep up a weekly posting schedule?

Sure, I started blogging when I was in undergrad and while that did take up a lot of time it wasn’t on par with my current full-time work schedule.

Sure, I started blogging when I was living with my parents and didn’t really have any social life to speak of (of my volition, mostly) and now I’m married and actually have a wife I like spending time with all the time.

Sure, working part-time for a content farm kind of exhausted me and took some of the joy out of entertainment writing.

Sure, I dealt with a very toxic work environment that wasn’t creative-based at all but that basically sapped me of my energy to do anything but doodle while watching YouTube videos, and that was over a year ago now, but when you get into the habit of spending your time doodling and watching YouTube videos (which are things you both enjoy and value, in their respective ways!) it can be difficult to break yourself from that cycle.

Sure, it’s very annoying to watch my engagement across platforms (and mediums, see also: art Instagram) gradually diminish even as I put in more effort because algorithmic systems are fucked and maybe some of the people that used to be fans stopped caring, and even following trends doesn’t help it, and while I’m not in it for the clout, I do like to feel like you’re not just screaming into the void but instead connecting with people.

Sure, sometimes I’m just tired. Or I’m busy. Or I have multiple creative interests and juggling isn’t the easiest sometimes. Or I’m just running a little low on ideas.

There is nothing wrong with any of this, is what I’m saying. I’ve been feeling incredibly guilty for abandoning this blog, and I would like to try to post a bit more often, but I also don’t want to push myself into writing things if I don’t want to write them, because that takes the joy out of writing.

So what have I been up to these days?

Work, of course. I’m an optician at an independent optometrist’s office; I genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoy my job. I don’t enjoy the drama of it sometimes, but that’s true of most workplaces. (Optometry offices are, in my experience, slightly more dramatic than others, but at least I’m not directly involved in the drama at this place, as opposed to being straight-up bullied by someone the age of my parents!) I absolutely love the actual process of being an optician, though. This is not the first time I’ve done this job, but it is the first time I’ve been full-time and at a clinic that didn’t prioritize arbitrary sales goals and corporate bullshit, and it’s so much nicer. I love helping people find glasses that suit them. I love educating people about glasses so they actually know what it is they’re getting and why. I love the petty little challenges of “oh, I like this frame but it doesn’t fit, let’s find an alternative” or “I like this color and this material and this shape, let’s find something that encompasses all of that if possible” and “I have no idea what I like but let’s play around and see.” I love knowing stupid arbitrary nonsense about lens materials and adjustment techniques. It’s not library science, but it’s a good thing to do until that happens.

I’ve been drawing. I was trying to post every weekday a couple of years ago, and that’s not happening anymore, but I try to post a couple of times a week, anyway, and I do think my technique is improving. This can all be found on my art Insta, paperdoll.heart. Some of my recurring themes are:

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Picnic at Fury Road, or drawings of the Wives from Mad Max: Fury Road as if they were characters in the miniseries Picnic at Hanging Rock (set in Edwardian Australia at a fucked up little boarding school – definitely recommend, Natalie Dormer is at her most unhinged). Above is Toast and Cheedo.

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Locked Tomb lesbian pulp, which is me redrawing actual old covers of lesbian pulp novels with Locked Tomb characters. The above, obviously, stars Harrow and Alecto and Gideon.

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Humanized versions of My Little Pony characters. Mostly G1, occasionally G2, and usually for art prompt challenges. This was a magic-related challenge and starring Sunbeam.

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True Blood outfits/portraits of the episode. The above is Pam in 1.09, in her first sexy soccer mom outfit.

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Marvel Bombshells, which is Marvel characters in the style of DC Bombshells. The above is Nico, alias Sister Grimm, as a sassy gothy witch who’s also one of their universe’s version of the (baseball-inspired) Batgirls.

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American Girl characters, slightly aged-up and modernized while still inspired by their canon looks. The above is Nellie, in an outfit inspired by her holiday outfit.

Speaking of American Girl dolls, drift partner and I have jumped feetfirst into the world of adult doll collecting and customizing and thrifting. We’ve both been into the brand since childhood, but realizing that there was a whole world of adult collectors doing their own creative things with the dolls (and realizing there’s a whole world of resellers and sewists on eBay and Etsy and etc., making the hobby much more financially accessible and also giving the opportunity to support independent sellers which is very important to do!) catapulted us forward. Oops.

You can find our dolls at saintalectoshome on Instagram or saintalectoshomeforwaywardgirls on tumblr. (Explanation: our first customs came from The Locked Tomb, and we don’t feel like their moms because that would be weird but we needed a reason for them to all be in one place with the historicals and modern canon dolls and other fandoms, soooo Saint Alectos Home for Wayward Girls [etc.] is just an interdimensional dollie boarding house. Yes.) Here are some recent photos:

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Pyrrha, Palamedes, Camilla, Nona, and Dulcie enjoying a nice day outside. With Dulcie’s service dog. Pyrrha and Pal have not been altered (yet), but Cam, Nona, and Dulcie all have custom wigs.

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The Wives from Mad Max: Fury Road: Cheedo, Dag, Toast, Capable, and Angharad. We saw Furiosa this summer and I lost my little mind. Cheedo is entirely unaltered; Dag and Toast have new wigs, Capable had a little bangs-trim, Dag and Toast and Angharad have custom lip paint and tattoos or freckles or scars.

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Pam, Nora, and Eric from True Blood celebrating bisexuality during Pride Month. Pam and Nora both have custom lip paint and beauty marks, and Pam has a new wig. The joke here is that Pam told them to dress in colors and Nora and Eric picked out intentionally goofy overwrought outfits to poke fun at humans.

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Courtney from the 1980s teaching Ivy and Julie from the 1970s about computers and the internet.

We’ve done cosplay stuff. Rose City was at the beginning of this month; the above picture is drift partner and I as Sammy from Abigail (her) and Lisa Frankenstein from the film of the same name (me). The joke is that Sammy and Lisa are both played by Kathryn Newton and also Sammy turns into a vampire but Lisa is a monsterfucker so they’d get on perfectly. We had a grand old time!

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I drew on all of the tattoos. Charlie Cox, who was one of the celebrity guests, complimented them, and I’m going to be riding that high forever. He’s a lovely, lovely man with a beautiful voice and my bisexual heart swooned away. Rosario Dawson and John Cho were also lovely guests we met!

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Lisa Frankenstein is one of our favorite movies of the year. A girl who complimented my costume said “that movie is basically my entire personality now,” and yeah, no, I agree. Lisa is such a freaky little goth weirdo and I love her so much, and dressing as her was a delight. Also, you can buy this rhinestone axe at Spirit Halloween. 100/10, do recommend.

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We also took our Cam and Dulcie looks, as well as the matching dolls because that’s who we are now.

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Nothing particular to say here, but it was a good convention for sure.

What else, what else? We’ve watched a million things, as always. We’re watching Xena: Warrior Princess, which is the very most show. We got Covid again and rewatched Dollhouse because of it, because Dollhouse is our comfort show (and, y’know, our origin story) and it was comfortable. Deadpool and Wolverine delighted us, especially since Laura is drift partner’s #1 girl. Drift partner has discovered she actually quite likes some horror films and I’ve engaged with some of them; she’s also introduced me to the wonders of Dimension 20 and its cavalcade of shows (special shoutout to A Starstruck Odyssey and my #1 girl Sundry Sidney). The election is coming up and I’m hoping for the best while in the back of my mind wondering how easy it would be to relocate to Vancouver B.C.

So I’m doing okay. That’s something. I’m going to try to have insightful things to say about life and media. I’ll be here when I’m here.

emerald city comic con, twenty-twenty-four.

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ECCC was last weekend, and while we only went Saturday/Sunday we were very tired after, then we both proceeded to get varying degrees of sick (nothing serious, just tiring/annoying), so I’m just now getting around to writing it up.

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Saturday was our meeting people and being in line day, and we were dressed as Kim Pine and Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim, specifically Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (specifically the outfits from the climax of the show). I’ve done Gothic Lolita Kim Pine before and I love being Kim so much. It’s so easy to take photos as Kim because it involves not looking like you care.

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It also gives me an excuse to carry around drumsticks that I can fiddle with, so that’s nice. And it gave me an excuse to wear my Docs, which was very appreciated. More on that in a minute.

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Drift partner got a friend of hers to 3D print some glowing knives for her. (They do glow – there are glowsticks inside. It just didn’t show well under the fluorescents.) She also made a bass guitar out of plastic sheeting and cardstock, but we didn’t get any pictures because it kept deconstructing itself.

But to go back to my Docs, and comfort, and waiting in lines, and etc. etc.

Nobody enjoys waiting in line. Nobody enjoys standing in one place and moving very slowly for a long time. But it has occurred to me, much more recently than it ought to have, that I personally am less well-equipped to wait in lines than others. The longer I stand in one place, or essentially one place, the more my body starts to ache. My hips particularly get sore and stiff. You might recall that I broke my hips all those years ago and that I have pins in them. This doesn’t bother me hardly at all on a regular day. The normal cycles of moving and sitting and standing and walking and etc. don’t affect me. But at events that involve a lot of specifically standing in lines, like theme parks and concerts and conventions, my body really starts to ache more than it needs to.

I might write a longer piece on this in the future, but essentially: a couple years back I got in a different less intense car accident and a few weeks later we had tickets to Carly Rae Jepsen in concert, so I bought a cane to help me through. It took this temporary soreness to realize that hey, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little extra help in strenuous situations. Tl;dr I now bring my cane to conventions as well. (And it’s super cute! It’s pink and floral. Did I buy it specifically to vibe with Seventhcore Dulcinea Septimus things? Absolutely.)

All of this is to say that we’ve gotten ADA stickers at the last few cons we’ve been to. It’s not a huge difference, but it does help – mostly in that it means that traditionally, you wait in a shorter line that goes faster. At Rose City in September, we’d go up to a celebrity’s booth and the attendant would see my ADA sticker, then point us to the shorter line. Typically the person directing the queues will take one person/group from the regular, then one from the ADA/VIP, or some pattern like that. It’s kind of like a Fast Pass at a Disney theme park (and perhaps one of the reasons that I personally was so subconsciously reticent to claim ADA status is the social disregard for people who “fake disability” at Disney parks to get through lines faster, which is obvious bullshit but a thing that people express). The ADA/VIP line is shorter, less congested, and easier to get through, allowing people with disabilities to spend less time waiting in line/exacerbating their bodies or sensory issues or what have you.

For some unknown reason, ECCC decided to do the ADA/VIP lines differently this year. Instead of having separate queues at each celebrity’s booth, and therefore making each queuing space a little wider, they had one large chunk of ADA/VIP queues set off to one side of the autographing area. Everyone with ADA (or VIP, which just means you pay more to wait less time!) designations were shunted off to these few combination lines and, if they were lucky, would be given a sticky note with the name of the celebrity they were waiting for. Periodically a con worker would come by and shout “who’s next for Jodie Whittaker? Who’s next for Chris Evans?” and if that was you, you would have to raise your hand, fumble your way out through the clump of lines, and follow the worker to that celebrity’s booth, where either you would be shifted into another line or you would just be awkwardly kicking around waiting for the booth worker to interject you into the flow of things.

As you might be able to guess, I was absolutely not impressed with this. Our first time in the queue clump was for waiting for Jodie Whittaker. Drift partner realized she had forgotten her phone, on which the tickets were, in the car, and she had to haul ass back to the parking garage to get it. (The autographs were also in a separate building than the bulk of the convention, which isn’t uncommon but which I thought we were not going to have to deal with anymore since they built the whole new giant building.) She left to get her phone when I queued up (with sticky note) for Jodie Whittaker in the ADA/VIP line, and I was panicked that she wouldn’t be back in time. The whole journey to and from for her was at least twenty minutes, probably more, during which time I struck up a conversation with a couple and their young child who’d made his own Five Nights at Freddy’s costume (I don’t partake of FNAF but it was an impressive effort, especially for a child who was between 7-10 years old). Drift partner then returned and we waited in the line for… maybe not exactly as long, but close! Then we were called over to the Jodie Whittaker line, which was halfway across the room; for us that wasn’t a huge issue, but depending on someone’s disability it could be more aggravating for sure. Jodie Whittaker didn’t have a special ADA/VIP mini-queue, so we just awkwardly hovered around the outside of the booth (she was on the end) until they called us into the queuing order.

And Jodie Whittaker herself was lovely! Now having seen all (well, most of, since we skipped select episodes on a friend’s recommendations) of Doctor Who I can say genuinely, she’s my favorite and I love her. She’s also got such a lovely accent and she’s so friendly and enthusiastic. She specifically talked up Ncuti Gatwa, which I thought was wonderful. She’s just such a golden retriever.

But after however long queuing up, we needed to sit for a few minutes before heading back into the fray. When we returned to the queue clump, this time for Mae Whitman, we didn’t even get a sticky. They just said hey, hop into the line. We hopped. We waited. We watched as people were called off to a variety of other lines. We remarked that the system wasn’t the best. We waited. After, I would guess at least ten or fifteen minutes, we were called to the Mae Whitman-specific ADA/VIP queue at the side of her booth (she was also on the end of the row). Unlike the Jodie Whittaker line, there was a designated mini-queue, but we waited at least as long in it as we did in the first queue clump. Mae Whitman’s line did not do a consistent line/ADA/line/ADA or even line/line/ADA/line/line/ADA pattern. And the cast of the Avatar cartoon had a panel to go to, so time was running out! When they realized there was a time limit, they started taking more from the ADA line (the others were told they might have to come back later) and we did manage to get through.

And Mae Whitman herself was also lovely! We expressed our delight that Roxy Richter got her justice in …Takes Off and she agreed. She’s really a human American Girl doll, and she’s very charming. She clearly wanted to get through as many people as she could and be accommodating and friendly.

But the queuing up was just… not feasible. We broke away to get lunch, and at least there were plenty of places to sit and eat – that was nice. Not something the convention has always had!

After eating, we went to queue up for Timothy Omundsun, and given that he’s less of a big-ticket than Jodie or Mae we said screw it and just queued up in his non-ADA line. We weren’t the only ones with this idea, either. And it did take less time, even considering that we queued up before he’d even arrived. He was also lovely, of course – upon hearing we were interested in Deadwood, he made sure we’d spoken to Jim Beaver (which we hadn’t this time, but we have at a previous convention). I also just think he’s a really cool person and I’m glad that there were people there to see him. (I know most of them were probably Psych fans since his costar/co-podcaster from that was also there, and they did a podcast episode, but still!) We also complimented Galavant, which we just rewatched.

Anyway, my hot take is: just do ADA/VIP queues the traditional way. This whole clump method was foolish and counterproductive. But I’m glad that if we had to do that, I was wearing my Docs. Legitimately, if I could wear Docs with every costume, I would. I’m considering buying multiple pairs in different colors just for that purpose.

Sunday, on the other hand, was our tooling around Artist’s Alley day, and once again we were rocking our #kiribeth fits.

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No big changes here. I further embellished my corset, but I’ve also determined that the next time I do Coronabeth, I’m going to get a better corset that wasn’t purchased on Amazon and does have proper boning that doesn’t fold over at the slightest provocation. We also need to get drift partner a better wig and actually do her [spoiler].

Artist’s Alley is always nice because it’s fun to see art. Even if you don’t buy it you can tell someone that you like their art! And you can see so many cool things. You can also get attention if you’re doing good costumes – sometimes from other cosplayers, sometimes from artists! That’s always intoxicating in its way. Also we found someone selling Peggy/Angie art and we absolutely lost our minds about it.

twenty-twenty-three in incomplete, optimistic review.

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Hey, all. Been a while, I know. This has not been the best year for brains. I started the year in a job situation that got increasingly bad, to the point where I was speedrunning symptoms of depression (lack of appetite, lack of interest in usual things, lack of motivation, constant creeping dread, etc.) and also experiencing a fun stress-triggered dermatological outbreak (the likes of which I last experienced as an allergic reaction to scented detergent). My new job is much better, although still stressful at times, but getting back into old routines has been difficult to say the least. Then in the fall, a friend of mine had a health crisis, and our social circle has been affected by that; it also set off some latent things that it turns out I still needed to process about my own long-ago health crisis. Most nights and weekends, we’ve only had the energy to turn on movies or shows we’ve seen before, or YouTube videos, and maybe draw (I’ve been fairly active on my art Instagram, but the Instagram algorithm has gotten increasingly shittier, so while I still like making and posting art the potential endorphins from sharing it are basically irrelevant). Also, the world is just getting increasingly messed up!

I’m going to try to be better at posting in 2024. I don’t owe anyone that, but I’d like to for myself. I do miss blogging more regularly.

All of this is to say, the year still had highlights. Here are some.

Nancy Drew saved my soul.
I discussed the CW Nancy Drew in April, specifically regarding Nancy herself being super autistic, but the show had its fourth and final season more recently than that and I want to keep talking about it as much as I can. It’s such a good show. It’s not perfect, but it’s got elements of Buffy and Veronica Mars and Legends of Tomorrow and Warehouse 13 and, I don’t know, probably Gravity Falls or The X-Files or Twin Peaks (I’ve never watched either, but, y’know, vibes). It’s such a fun little weird show that takes inspiration from the original novels while also going completely off the wall. It’s in Maine now! Why? Because there are ghosts in Maine! Nick’s mom said so and she was right. Why are there ghosts (or witches, or shadow monsters, or)? Because that makes it fun. Normally in a fictional friendgroup of mixed gender, I will love most or all of the girls, like some of the boys, and absolutely despise others of them. Not so. I love Nancy (Kennedy McMann). I love George (Leah Lewis). I love Bess (Maddison Jaizani). I love Nick (Tunji Kasim). I love Ace (Alex Saxon). I would have been happy with literally any combination of romantic pairings (save the boys with Bess, since she is a lesbian) but I also love that ultimately the message of the show was that friendship is magic. This show unironically got me through some of the hardest bouts of bullshit I dealt with this year, and I thank it for that.

Marvel happened.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was this year, wasn’t it? That movie is fine. Not as bad as a lot of people thought, in my humble opinion, although it wasn’t a gem either. It did feature a grown-up Cassie (played by Kathryn Newton, known to us from drift partner’s beloved Halt and Catch Fire) being great and awesome, and more Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer). It also introduced Jentorra (Katy O’Brien), who is obviously a lesbian icon, and Quoz (William Jackson Harper), who is charming by virtue of being William Jackson Harper, and a little gelatin guy whose name we have willfully forgotten so as to call him Jeff (but in an Aussie accent). And, honestly, we do like Scott (Paul Rudd) now. We didn’t used to! In his first movie he completely sucked. But he got better when they let him be a giant dork, and he’s just a goofy dad now. We like him.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did nothing for me, or for drift partner; we went on a very hot weekend to get into the air conditioning and had a solidly mediocre time. The villain was nothing. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is nothing. Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) is nothing. I am happy that Drax (Dave Bautista) is a dad now, and that Nebula (Karen Gillan) is doing good things, and that Mantis (Pom Klementieff) is a horse girl, and that Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is happy I guess? I am outrageously angry about Lylla the otter (Linda Cardellini). I am angry because she is so cute and so sad but they didn’t make me any licensed plushies of her. I am angry because I had to watch her, an animated otter, kiss an animated raccoon I don’t like. I am angry because her name is Lylla, pronounced the same as Lila, which is also the name of Clint Barton’s daughter in the MCU, and Clint Barton’s wife is Laura who is played by Linda Cardellini. I know that Lylla is a character in the comics! But it still made me angry.

Loki season 2 was fine. I love Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) so much. I love Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha Raw) so much even though she might be on her way to a villain arc (and honestly, I’d be okay with that – I think Ravonna should just be the new Kang, since we have gotten rid of Kang). Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is eons more compelling to me in the show than he’s ever been in the movies. Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) is perfect and I love him so much too.

As I already said re: The Marvels.

Music.
We got more Delta Rae – specifically an album of previously unreleased songs that they put out on their membership website. There’s not a lot to say about that other than that it’s very pleasant and listenable and nice. Janelle Monae put out a new album, The Age of Pleasure, and it’s delicious. I have not seen it on the few year-end album review lists, including Autostraddle’s, and I am shocked by this because it’s so great and wonderful. It’s not as high-concept as her previous work, but an album devoted to Black joy is so important.

Barbie was a very good film.
I was a doll kid (and I’m still a doll adult) and I really enjoyed the metahumor of Barbie (directed by Greta Gerwig). Lots of other people have said more insightful things about this movie, I’m not sure what I could really add to the conversation, but I did definitely enjoy it. Highlights include Michael Cera as Allan, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie, Simu Liu as one of the Kens, and the full musical numbers.

Poor Things gets its own point.
My favorite of 2023 was barely of 2023, but it was a freaking incredible piece of art. That’s Poor Things. I liked The Favourite pretty well (the first Yorgos Lanthimos/Emma Stone collaboration) because I do love a fucked-up gay period drama, but Poor Things is otherworldly and surreal. I saw everyone comparing it to the Frankenstein story, and I would say yes, but also Candide, but also Lolita, but also it’s steampunk, but also it looks like a surrealist painting? Drift partner saw someone describe it as “Emma Stone’s diabolical fuckfest,” and then when someone in the movie actually said the phrase “diabolical fuckfest” we lost our minds, but that’s really only part of it. It’s also surprisingly philosophical and, weirdly, it has a happy ending.

Other movies.
In chronological order.
M3gan: a truly ridiculous attempt at a horror film (affectionate). Completely camp and enjoyable.
Missing: a solid thriller, very similar in tone and structure though not plot to the previous Searching. Made funny for us because the suspected criminal was Ken Leung, who played Karnak in Inhumans, and it’s not his fault but Karnak (or Carfax, as we call him) was one of the worst characters in a bad show and we didn’t like him. Sorry, Ken Leung. You seem fine.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods: we watched this much later, on streaming, and boy are we glad we did because it just did not work for us at all. They managed to underutilize Rachel Ziegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren! The murder ponies were good, though.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: 10/10 very good. Drift partner is into watching people play D&D and other TTRPGs, and sometimes playing it herself; I sometimes watch, but playing stresses me out. Regardless, we are varyingly familiar with D&D tropes and gameplay, and this movie was camp and stupid and joyful.
Fast X: 100/10, also a delight. Jason Momoa is having the most fun in this movie, and everyone else is rocking it also. There is nothing quite like this franchise.
Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse: art. Nearly flawless. Beautiful to look at. A child in our theater loudly screamed when the cliffhanger was revealed. I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say, but this is a great movie worth watching over and over so you can catch new details.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: deeply stupid, but kind of in the way that Transformers movies should be, I think? Maybe? It was dumb, but it didn’t make me angry in the way that a lot of Transformers movies do (probably because we watched it at the drive-in and riffed in the car the whole time).
Elemental: very nice! We also watched this later on streaming, but it’s pretty nice. Leah Lewis leads a pretty solid cast in a somewhat predictable but endearing story.
Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken: very goofy but very cute. Heightened by the fact that we’d just watched Schitt’s Creek and Annie Murphy was one of the voices.
Nimona: absolutely lovely. ND Stevenson’s debut graphic novel is adapted, not one-to-one but very true-to-spirit, and the cast (including Chloe Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed) is fantastic. The animation is also beautiful.
Joy Ride: a raunchy sex comedy also about friendship with a surprisingly touching ending. Very good stuff, and it even has a full musical number.
They Cloned Tyrone: a delightful Blaxploitation send-up. Teyonah Parris is a goddess. John Boyega is fantastic and phenomenal.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter: it is one chapter of Dracula set entirely on a boat where almost everyone dies. If this does not appeal this might not be for you, but it is so good and well-made and scary.
Blue Beetle: delightful! Jaime is one of drift partner’s DC boys, so she was very excited, and I was drawn into that as well. Susan Sarandon is an excellent villain. Harvey Guillen steals the show as always.
Bottoms: a raunchy sex comedy also about friendship with a surprising ending full stop. Very hilarious. I’m pretty sure it was Y2Kcore (the clothes, the soundtrack, the lack of modern technology) but also it was timeless. Hazel (Ruby Cruz) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) deserve the world and PJ (Rachel Sennott) is a protagonist who absolutely sucks, but in a realistic way.
Eileen: it’s kind of like if Carol was really fucked up. Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie are outstanding.
Waitress: the Sara Bareilles musical, starring Sara Bareilles at time of recording, was recorded and put in movie theaters. This is especially magical because we saw that on our honeymoon, after having heard Bareilles debut “She Used to Be Mine” at a concert we went to on our first big date, and it was in theaters on the weekend of our anniversary. It’s such a good show and the recording was really solid.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
I won’t say a lot about this series because you just need to watch it and experience it, but the film Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is one of the defining works of my heart, so having the entire cast and Edgar Wright return for an animated series filled my heart with joy. We watched the whole thing in like two days because it was so beautiful and delightful and good.

Other television.
We did a lot of rewatching familiar things this year, because of the aforementioned horrors, but a couple of highlights: Severance is fucked up and intriguing and we were hooked instantly. I know that’s not a 2023 debut but it’s so so good. Schmicago, the follow-up season to Schmigadoon, basically made me die laughing but also die of delight. Dove Cameon and Aaron Tveit are everything. American-Born Chinese was a children’s show but a very solid one. Cruel Summer season two was completely insane, nowhere as good as season one, but riveting nonetheless.

I dunno, man. 2023 was kind of exhausting, but it had some bright spots.