Let's kick of the new year with the traditional fannish round-up of the year. This was again an OK year fic-writing wise, though I started far more fics than I actually finished. My biggest accomplishment by far was finishing the WIP that I started writing literally 15 years ago...

When the Rest of Heaven Was Blue, Chapter 6 (Spike/Buffy)

But I did also post some other fics:

Doctor Who: Pay it Backwards, Chapters 3-5 (Doctor & Doctor)
Doctor Who: Friends Don't Let Friends Be Jerks (Twelve & Bill & Courtney)

The Mandalorian: The Magic Hands Thing (Din/Luke)
The Mandalorian: Duty of Care (Din & Grogu)
The Mandalorian: Family (Din & Grogu)

And then my other traditional end of the year fandom meme:

1. Your main fandom of the year?
Still The Mandalorian, though I didn't get the fannish burst of energy from S3 like I had hoped.

2. Your favorite film you watched this year?

I only saw one new movie in the theatre, and that was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It had its flaws (I think I liked Crystal Skull better), but I enjoyed it and thought it was a nice farewell to the character. It also reminded me of just how much I loved the original trilogy as a kid because to my great surprise I burst into tears when the credits started rolling and the Indy theme kicked in. I was genuinely bawling my eyes out and had to stay behind in the dark theatre pretending that I was putting on my coat because I didn't want to go into the lobby and have to explain to people that I can't stop crying because I just watched the Indiana Jones movie.

(The same thing happened to me when I saw Rise of Skywalker and started crying while watching the opening scrawl, and I think here too it was because something that I have loved since I was 13 was officially coming to an end. )

I think the only other 2023 movie I watched was Pedro Almodovar's gay western short film Strange Way of Life, which was exactly what you'd expect from a gay western short film by Pedro Almodovar.

If rereleases count, I also saw all three Lord of the Rings movies as extended editions at the legally-we-can't-call-it-IMAX theatre in May and it was glorious.

3. Your favorite book read this year?
Terry Pratchett's biography. Rob Wilkins had done a great job with it, and the book sounded (and felt) so much like PTerry it made me miss him all over again.

4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
I really don't listen to that much music anymore, so I genuinely cannot think of a single song that I would have listed a lot this year.

5. Your favorite TV show of the year?

Does the Great Pottery Throwdown count? :D

Oddly, maybe Doctor Who or Ashoka? Mainly because I enjoyed both of them far more than I expected.

I also watched The Last of Us (a few really good episodes, but as a whole I found it a bit meh), S3 of Mandalorian (also a bit eh), Narcos (which I liked more than I expected), Taskmaster (which continues to be Taskmaster), two seasons of Only Murders in the Building (this ended up being more of a hatewatch), S8 of Futurama (not as bad as I feared) and S4 of What We Do in Shadows (unpopular opinion, but I've liked each season less than the previous one).

6. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

No new discoveries this year either.

7. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

Maybe The Mandalorian season 3? There was nothing really wrong with it, and I liked Bo-Katan's arc, but I just don't care about the clone wars -related plotlines and would have preferred more of just Din & Grogu having adventures like in the first two seasons.

8. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

Probably still Pedro Pascal for no other reason than he continues to be in everything I watch. At the beginning of the year, I watched The Last of Us, then during my Japan trip in April I watched Narcos, and then when I came back, I watched The Mandalorian - and so when I went to see the Fellowship of the Rings re-release in May, there was genuinely a moment when the movie started when my brain was confused by the idea of there being media that doesn't have Pedro Pascal in it because he'd been in literally everything I'd watched in the previous three months!

9. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

This has been an unusually dude-heavy year for me fannishly, so I can't think of any.

Let's say Delenn, because watching Road Home reminded me how much I miss Mira Furlan :(

10. Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Probably Fourteen regenerating into Fifteen. He was just so delightful from his very first moment.

11. The most missed of your old fandoms?
I am always wanting to rewatch Babylon 5, especially after watching Road Home. Also, Ashoka made me want to rewatch all the Star Wars movies again.

12.Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
The new series of Doctor Who. For the first time since 2018 I'm genuinely looking forward to it. Whatever Star Wars show is coming out next (Skeleton Crew, I think?). I'm also looking forward to Peter Capaldi's new show Criminal Record (and even more the second season of his other show, Devil's Hour, which I think also comes out this year).

Also, I have my fingers crossed that Queen will announce a new European tour this year.