The Stories of 2022 (a Reflection)
Welcome to my first post of 2023! I’m back from my December break and I’m eager to dive into creating videos and blog posts again. I’m going to kick things off with something pretty straightforward and simple: a reflection of 2022. I experienced a lot of stories in 2022, and I experienced some substantial community growth as well! We’re going to dive into all of that and talk about what stories are coming up for me in 2023.
Stories I Loved in 2022
I’m going to kick this off by talking about some of the stories I really loved in 2022. I’m going to boil it down to my top five, which is pretty tough because I had some awesome experiences last year when it came to stories. Between books, games, movies, and shows, there were so many amazing stories I got to experience in 2022! Choosing was a challenge, but I think I’ve made some great selections. Let’s get into them.
The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne
John Gwynne is actually my most-read author this year. I read six John Gwynne books in 2022, beginning with The Faithful and the Fallen and ending with The Bloodsworn Saga. The first series I read by him had promise but was rather predictable and disappointing in a number of ways. I especially didn’t enjoy the first book, but it improved over time as John Gwynne’s skill as a writer escalated. By the time I got to Shadow of the Gods, the first book in The Bloodsworn Saga, John Gwynne was an absolute master of a storyteller, and Shadow of the Gods became an absolute favorite book of mine instantaneously… and then I read Hunger of the Gods, the sequel, and wow did that one blow me away. It’s my most recent book review because I just had to talk about it! Stunningly well-written, original fantasy is tough to come by despite the vast amount of fantasy that is released every day, so I have to parade through the internet when I read something this outstanding. If you love fantasy and want something unique and original, you need to grab The Bloodsworn Saga.
Elden Ring
For most folks, the story of Elden Ring probably doesn’t take precedence over the gameplay (and honestly, yeah, that’s the case for me—I love FromSoft’s soulsborne games). However, Elden Ring is still a story and an excellent one at that. I really enjoy when stories take advantage of their medium, as I’ve mentioned many times on my channel. The Last of Us is a great example of this, but FromSoft takes advantage of the video game medium as well. As a player, you can run through the game and fight all of the bosses without any understanding of the story! Or, you can take a moment to read the item descriptions and talk to the NPCs to piece together the lore of the world. Everything in Elden Ring has a purpose—it’s there for a reason; you just need to take time to figure out why. Why is Caelid a hive of scarlet rot? Why is Godrick a horrifying mutant man? Why is Ranni everyone’s wife?
What’s even better about the story of Elden Ring is that if you don’t want to take the several hours required to piece together the story, you have resources like VaatiVidya, whose entire livelihood centers around dissecting the rich worlds and stories of FromSoft’s games. There are amazing videos out there that dive into the lore FromSoft builds for its games, with people really nitpicking every little thing to figure out what in the world is going on in these stories. I love this dynamic and the community it builds. It’s an awesome way to tell a story, and it’s a kind of story you just have to experience for yourself.
Dark Age by Pierce Brown
I reviewed Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy in 2021, and I gave it a pretty low score overall. I really didn’t like the first book, and I found the conclusion to be pretty average at best. However, I continued with the series at the insistence of a few fans and I’m absolutely glad that I did. I finished Dark Age very early in 2022 and it was outstanding. This book had everything I wanted Red Rising to be and more! It had incredible action, excellent characters, intense intrigue, and (most importantly) tears. So many tears. I cried a lot while reading this absolute unit of a sci-fi novel. I am so excited for Lightbringer, which is being released this year shortly before my birthday (hint hint)! If you are someone who didn’t like the original Red Rising trilogy, I strongly encourage you to pick up the sequel trilogy. It’s so much better, and Pierce Brown’s growth as a writer absolutely shines in Iron Gold and Dark Age.
It has come to my attention that I actually did not finish Dark Age in 2022. Instead, I finished it at the end of 2021. I have released an apology for this horrible mistake on my YouTube channel. To make up for this blunder, I am instead recommending Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga. While the first two weren't quite to my test, the third and final book was an impeccable read that I loved.
Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
Wow, wow, wow, did this come out of left field! I’m a casual Critical Role fan (I say having been subscribed for two years and consistently watching their content every Thursday night for the duration of that subscription), and I definitely enjoy the stories they tell and the friendship that the players display—I aspire to create a similar atmosphere of fun and camaraderie at my own table, but I didn’t expect to be absolutely floored by the tale told by Brennan Lee Mulligan in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. Calamity tells the story of the cataclysmic event in the early days of Matt Mercer’s Exandria campaign setting, and it tells it beautifully. I love Matt Mercer’s DM style and the world he has built, but Brennan Lee Mulligan tells a compelling and heartwrenching story with his Calamity mini-series, as do his remarkable and heavily-invested players. Even if you’re not a Critical Role fan, I strongly suggest that you go and watch this four-part miniseries, especially if your a TTRPG lover like me!
Everything Everywhere All At Once
You knew this was coming. I haven’t been able to shut up about this film since I first watched it. I haven’t been able to stop watching it since I first watched it. It’s been a loop all day, every day. Even at night, I play this movie in my head. Every dream I have is just me going back in time to see this film in the theater, where I cried my heart out all by myself several times. This story seems to have been tailor-written just for me. It has just the right amount of absurdity and emotion to hook me. Absurdism is one of my absolute favorite genres, and this movie takes advantage of absurdism to a degree that I didn’t realize was even feasible. I went into this movie expecting it to be a little weird and a lot of fun, but what I got was a lot of weird and a ton of fun, but most importantly, I got a plethora of feels. So many feelings were had, and I still have them every time I sit down to watch my new number-one film.
My Own Story in 2022
Those were my favorite stories I experienced in 2022, but let’s talk about my own story in 2022. What did I get up to? What did I accomplish, and where am I at as I start the new year? There’s a lot to get into here, but I’m going to do what I can to keep it concise!
Writing Awards
I got writing awards this year! The two I am most proud of are my WotF Honorable Mention for Beneath Magenta Rain, which I published in February, and then my more recent WotF Silver Honorable Mention, the highest award I’ve gotten yet, for my short story Our World is Ending and I Love You. I’m extremely proud of that second one and can’t wait to share it with everybody, but it received such a high accolade and so much great feedback that I really want to take time to make it everything it can be before I get it published. It’s still being workshopped, but I absolutely adore it and can’t wait to get it published in the near(ish) future.
Channel Growth
I continued to figure out what kind of content I wanted to create on my YouTube channel throughout 2022. The content has always been a mixed bag of random things that interested me or that I wanted to try. Some things worked, like my Ten Reasons You Shouldn’t Read Discworld video, and others didn’t, like book reviews and their ilk. I’m continuing to experiment, but I think that my passion has come to be with story-related video essays! They’re a lot of work, but I feel far more accomplished (and even educated) every time I finish a new one! During this process, I’ve grown from about thirty to four hundred subscribers in a year, which is crazy! Thank you all so much for stopping by and deciding, for whatever reason, to stay a while. That’s awesome, and I couldn’t be more thankful.
Personal Growth
This isn’t the topic that everyone’s here for—I think I already covered that one—but I am pretty proud of the personal growth I experienced over the course of 2022. I learned a lot about myself for starters, but also just advanced and leveled up my life in a number of ways. I created several videos that I’m proud of, I wrote a ton throughout the year between work, D&D, and my website, I learned to ride a motorcycle, I bought and painted a house, I adopted a wonderful five-year-old shiba (whom I named Ellie after The Last of Us), I got my first tattoo (also inspired by The Last of Us), and I started my Discworld Read-Along, which has been so much fun!
Looking Ahead
2022 was fine and dandy in many respects, less so in others. I don’t like to set goals associated with specific years, but I do have a lot planned for 2023. These aren’t being planned just because it’s 2023—I’ve always wanted to do them—but they are upcoming and have me excited for future content. Here’s what you can expect from me this year!
Discworld Read-Along
The read-along will continue! I strongly encourage you to participate; whether you’ve already read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series or it’s your first ever readthrough, this is a great way to do a buddy-read for my absolute favorite fantasy series! I love sharing this experience with other readers, and I’m so happy that several people have been participating thus far. As a reminder, we’re talking about Equal Rites next Wednesday, so hop on over to my polls on Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube, and give me your thoughts on the book!
Actual-Play Series
Toward the end of this year, I intend to release my first ever actual-play TTRPG series. I’ve been working hard writing this all through December, which has been a serious challenge—I churned out over 70,000 words for the campaign just this past month (see, I really was busy), and I’m going to continue writing content for it until we begin filming the campaign this autumn (assuming all goes according to schedule—don’t hold me to that). I am so excited to get this started, and hopefully, I’ll have more information to unveil toward the end of the year.
Higher-Quality Videos
I have always wanted to have the time, energy, and space to put more effort into the videos I release on my YouTube channel. It was already a lot of work before, but I really did want to do more work to produce higher-quality content. Now, I can do that for a number of reasons: I have a new house that’s all my own, I’ve got plenty of places to record, I have a different work shift that (while technically more demanding) is better for my sleep schedule and is more lenient than when I worked overnights, and (here’s the kicker), I won’t be releasing videos every week.
Yeah, I’m cutting down on the amount of content I’m going to be releasing on this channel. There are several reasons for that, but the main one is just that I want to be able to focus on creating high-quality video essays as the majority of my content. The current plan is to have an essay-style video and a Discworld Read-Along video each month of the year. I’m working out the calendar for how that will work, and you’ll still get the Discworld Read-Along video next Wednesday, but after that you’ll notice fewer videos from me on this channel every month.
I intend to fill in this new gap with some videos that are easier to make in the future, like video game playthroughs posted to a separate channel (just a thought, not a guarantee). I’m excited for the freedom this will provide to me to create things I enjoy making, while ensuring that everything you see on this channel is the best that it can possibly be.
That’s going to begin with my next video essay, which will be posted on January 25th according to my current plan. I’ve been working on this one pretty heavily and can’t wait to share it—it’s probably going to be the project I’m most proud of since I started my YouTube channel. Stay tuned for it!
Conclusion
A brand new year is upon us, and I’m so grateful for the experiences granted to me by the prior year and by everyone who decided to share moments of their time with me every week. Whether you participated in the Discworld Read-Along, posted a comment, or even just liked a video, I am so grateful to you for the support you shared. It means so much to me that there are a few folks out there who want to discuss the topics I am so passionate about. Here’s to further discussion and friendship in 2023; let’s make it a good one!