2023 round-up

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i was barely active on this website these past few months but why not just shove everything into one single post, right? i actually consumed an obscene amount of media this year and got obsessed with a thousand of different things, so let's get into it!

no return, no reason

⋆ KPOP
snsd

how can i talk about my experience with kpop this year without talking about #them... they took over my brain in the most diabolical way possible. if you know me you know that they were the first kpop group i've ever heard and how much of an insane sone i was when i was fourteen/fifteen, and this year i finally decided to catch up with their 15th anniversary activities and... um. all of sudden it was 2015 again. and the obsession still hasn't left my body, i'm listening to snsd as i type this and i basically haven't listened to anything other than snsd for the past week or so. also, what the fuck do you guys know about ROYAL FAMILY? i'm sorry, i'm never beating the taeny shipper allegations. it was a joy to start reading snsd (esp taeny) fics and watching poorly made fmvs from 2010-2013 sones again, it felt like coming home.

overall

girl, what a meh year... a few girlgroups like aespa (btw i saw them LIVE this year??? this still feels surreal to me), rv, le sserafim, gidle, dreamcatcher, itzy, etc released good music and that was it. and no, the group with the so-called "best release of the year" mini album that isn't even fifteen minutes long is not included in this, what the fuck is wrong with everyone. these new groups are simply not it for me... like, where the fuck is wjsn?!???!?? where the fuck is REAL music? and don't get me start on choi jisu hiatus, i really lost this year. i miss my girl so much it's ridiculous.

⋆ MUSIC
top artists

1. snsd (724)
2. taylor swift (717)
3. lady gaga (249)
4. rosalia (223)
5. glee cast (220)
6. charli xcx (204)
7. little mix (203)
8. troye sivan (183)
9. marina (162)
10. allie x (141)
bonus: 11. reneé rapp (137)
& more

top songs

1. genie - snsd (71)
2. snow angel - reneé rapp (65)
3. foolish one - taylor swift (64)
4. con altura - rosalia (61)
5. loose garment - muna (55)
6. angel - pinkpantheress (55)
7. unforgiven - le sserafim (53)
8. barbie world - nicki minaj & ice spice (53)
9. lingua franca - snsd (51)
10. monsoon - tokio hotel (50)
& more

top albums

1. barbie the album - various artists (510)
2. speak now (taylor's version) - taylor swift (425)
3. snow angel - reneé rapp (134)
4. something to give each other - troye sivan (117)
5. love & peace - snsd (105)
& more

the barbie soundtrack being my most listened album this year just feels right, you know? i'll expand more on my love about barbie in the movie section but god did it rewind my brain completely. continuing on the snsd obsession topic, here you can see how serious i am about it. genie being my most listened song of 2023? not even god could have seen this one coming, but to be honest genie has been and always will be my favorite snsd song and one my favorite songs of all time so it's not that crazy.

to be honest i didn't hear as much music as i thought i would this year, i only have a little over 11k scrobbles on lastfm when i usually have over 20k, so... but that doesn't mean i thought this was a bad year for music! just a little less crowded than 2020 or 2022. other than the barbie soundtrack i also listened to speak now tv a LOT because to be honest i didn't really care or remember much about most of the songs from the stolen version, but man did the new version grab me by the neck! foolish one greatest song of the year. i also need to rant a little bit about reneé rapp... yes i did expand my top artists list to 11 because i HAD to put this girl in. snow angel is such a crazy debut album and it's so satisfying to see how much she's growing as an artist. i love love love this girlie and i can't wait to see what she does next.

⋆ TV AND CINEMA
favorite movies watched in 2023

1. barbie (2023)
2. the marvels (2023)
3. birds of prey (2020)
4. spider-man: across the spider-verse (2023)
5. is it fall yet? (2000)

favorite shows watched in 2023

1. yellowjackets s1 + s2 (2021)
2. warrior nun s1 + s2 (2020)
3. the haunting of bly manor (2020)
4. agents of shield s2 (2013)
5. supergirl s3 + s4 (2015)

first of all, i watched an INSANE amount of shows and movies in 2023 so i forced myself to make a top 5 or else this post would be way too fucking long and i would get bored halfway through. i definitely had more fun with movies/shows than music this year, like, WAY more. and here's me try to briefly go through some of my favorites without going insane... okay!

second of all, are the people who said the marvels was a bad movie okay? it's so cool to say that every mcu thing that comes out is trash now but this is by far my favorite era of the mcu... fuck the infinity saga, fuck iron man and their, what? three main women cast? please, it was so boring. where is the SPARKLE? where are the SILLY GIRLS? that being said i love phase four and phase five a thousand times more than the annoying white men fest from the past phases. the marvels is great and it touched my heart and it immediately became one of my favorite mcu movies.

okay, so... barbie. [incoherent screams] it's been months and i still find myself staring into the void while thinking about this movie. i was obviously expecting it to be a good movie given the cast and greta gerwig but it was so much better than i could've expected, it genuinely healed something in me? not to mention it gave me barbiegloria which is easily, like, top five ships of the year for me. i went through my worst margot robbie obsession so far because of this movie, which led me to rewatching suicide squad 1 (TERRIBLE MOVIE BTW. i only rewatched it because i didn't remember shit about it) and finally watch birds of prey and suicide squad two, which is so much better than the first one? i was genuinely shocked.

which takes us to, birds of prey moment! everyone that knows me knows i love harley so it might be a bit of a shock to learn that i had never watched birds of prey but, well, i finally did, and it didn't disappoint. i enjoyed every second of that movie, and because of it i became the biggest helena bertinelli stan to ever exist. i got so obsessed with her that i started reading the comics she was in and... what can i say. i'm such a birds of prey girlie now. i wish they did another bop movie with barbara gordon in it... can you imagine the power of such joint slay on a movie screen? i'd die.

shows time! which is time to talk about my biggest new obsession of the year, which was yellowjackets. good god this show rewired my brain in ways i thought could never be rewired again. back when the show first aired i was a bit reluctant to watch it because i have never watched anything with that... vibe, if you know what i mean. but now i'm glad i waited because i watched both seasons in like three days and it CHANGED MY LIFE. what a story. what a cast. so so so much thought put into each scene and each character and each arc. i successfully managed to make five different people to watch this show and become equally obsessed with it, so... if you haven't watched it, please give it a chance. this might sound extremely biased but i genuinely think it's impossible not to like yellowjackets. if you're into CRAZY WOMEN and HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT you'll love this one, i promise.

me when i'm the insane girl that decides to start watching supergirl after the show has already ended. i did it because i have the worst crush on katie mcgrath/lena luthor but i ended up really liking the show...? like of course it's a bit cringe at times because it's a cw show but i really don't mind the occasional Cringe at all? but what i do hate about supergirl is james olsen. and all male villains from this show. get them out of my screen they piss me off SO BAD that i have to take like a week off after watching five episodes so i can decompress.

i want to talk about warrior nun because it also changed my brain chemistry forever but the current situation after the show was "saved" is stressing me out so bad that i simply can't. just know that i would die for beatrice in a heart beat. [phoebe bridger's voice] whatever she wants, whatever she wants...

quick shout-out to bottoms (which i also enjoyed a lot) for making people obsessed with ayo edebiri. that's my girlfriend and i love her more than anything in this world and, wait, did i mention that we're getting married in a few months? you're all invited, by the way.

⋆ FINAL THOUGHTS
i was going to add a reading/writing section but i got lazy... i'll probably try to do a separate post for these + the insane marvel/dc comic book haul i did in december later? no promises, though. well, that's all for now. if you made it this far, thanks for reading ^-^