A list of happy things from 2016

I was going to write out my thoughts on Luke Cage (it’s amazing), but I’m not qualified to really get into it. I can’t discuss how accurate or inaccurate it is to the modern Black American experience—I know nothing about that, I’m white. Instead, I will just say this: it is an amazing show with terrific actors and phenomenal writing. And the soundtrack is well-worth multiple listens.
The world is a complicated place right now, and it is hard to focus on the good in the world right now. That’s what this post is going to do though. We’re gonna look back at 2016, and I’m going to list (kinda) the things that made me happy this year.
- Deadpool: might as well start with the low hanging fruit since it’s just dangling there anyways, flaccid in the wind.
- Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Finally, a comic’s accurate Spider-Man played by a teenager, who is sarcastic, actually poor, and has an aunt who looks like a normal aunt and not a great-grandmother.
- Bucky and Falcon’s banter: “Can you move the seat?” “No.” Classic.
- Ant-Man’s reaction to seeing Steve Rogers
- Basically all of Civil War
- Wonder Woman and her electric violin intro: by far the best thing DC has put out all year in the film department. I mean, the way she smiles before she jumps into the fray? Amazing. And the only time someone smiles in that movie.
- Saskatoon Pride 2016: just an all-around great time with some great people.
- Getting back into the Pokémon TCG: I’m a nerd, yeah. Get over it.
- Star Trek’s 50th anniversary: Always nice to see loved ones survive the test of time.
- Star Trek Beyond: A return to form for the Star Trek franchise that included using science to defeat the enemy instead of phasers.
- Starting a hilarious and amazing DnD campaign with some great people (plus Hudson): seriously, it’s kind of hilarious. My character had a fling with a bear.
- Luke Cage: I already talked about this, why would I say more?
- Mending relationships with old friends (one in particular)
- Thanksgiving at the sister’s: it was great. Plus we beaked her one friend so hard and she never picked up on our sarcasm.
- Partying with a bunch of directors at a small after party: great times, but man can they drink.
- Hitting one hundred vlogs and getting all the nice letters people sent: Seriously, that was awesome.
- Summertime swimming: nothing is better than Canadian summers spent at a beach.
- Starting a new job: new adventures are always fun. And other clichés. But seriously, I’m enjoying it.
- New Harry Potter: From the screenplay of The Cursed Child to the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it’s been a good year for the Potter-verse.
- Joe Biden memes: while not new to this year, they become more relevant.
- Expanding my musical horizons: to include actual musicals. And more varied hip-hop.
- Reading The Expanse series: finding and falling in love with new science fiction is always a good thing.
- Preacher: more Dominic Cooper is never a bad thing.
- Season 2 of Supergirl: SUPERMAN SMILED AND WAS NICE TO PEOPLE. Don’t tell Zak Synder.
- Jason Momoa’s Instagram.
- The Rock’s Instagram.
- My Instagram.
- Spending time with loved ones.
- Writing pieces that resonated with people and made a difference.
- Being able to make positive changes in people’s lives
- -Being Canadian: That makes me happy every year, but with everything that happened south of the border this year, I was especially happy about that fact this year.
- Coming out about my gender.
- Being honest about mental health.
- The sun.
- Hanging out with the puppers, and going camping with her.
- And a bunch more probably.
2016 was a rough year, but there has been good stuff too. Tell me what made you happy in the comments!  

Straight up? This is all about DC

                What a week.

                I mean, what a week. Parts of it seemed to stretch out for forever, ever since Wednesday I had thought it was Friday, but Monday feels like it was only yesterday. On top of that, I lived out my childhood (and, let’s be honest, my adult) fantasy of catching a Pokémon in the real world. It’s been a weird week.

                Let’s talk about something I don’t often bring up on these posts: the DC Extended Universe. I enjoyed Man of Steel, to the point where I have watched it by choice several times. I was excited for Batman v Superman, and, even after the extremely disappointing trailers, I still saw it opening weekend. I badly wanted to like it, honest. I loved Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, I honestly think Ben Affleck is one of the best actors to ever don the Batcowl. It’s just the movie itself. The scenes with Wonder Woman were amazing, but she’s barely in it. Affleck smirking and pretending to be drunk as Bruce Wayne was probably the funniest part of the movie. And Superman was…there? Honestly, after the humanity that was portrayed in Man of Steel, Henry Cavill feels underutilized. And there was the odd choice of making Lex Luthor a less deranged Joker, instead of a brilliant and corrupt inventor. He was basically a crazier Zuckerberg who talked about urine. Even with all my disappointment, the film looked beautiful, the fight scenes were well done, and I will watch Gal Gadot’s scenes again and again.

                I still have hope for the DCEU, though! Mainly brought on by my hopes for both Suicide Squad and the Wonder Woman solo film. The trailers for Suicide Squad are colourful and over the top, the casting choices seem on point, and I’m honestly excited for Leto’s take on the Joker. As for the WW solo film? She was the best part of BvS, the film takes place in World War 2, Chris Pine, and it has a female director! Plus the latest poster for it looks extremely badass.

                Now let’s flip to the smaller screen, and what’s affectionately known as the Arrowverse. The Arrowverse comprises of Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Constantine. All the shows DC currently has airing, and if any of you mention Gotham, I don’t care. These shows have a dedicated fanbase, and many were surprised to learn that the actors on the shows would not be playing their respective characters in the film universe. As of right now, DC has two live action Flashes, two Supermans, and two Suicide Squads. There is an interesting theory that has come out of this! The Flash has crossed over into other versions of Earth, and many believe that the film universe is actually just one of the darker universes (because of all that killing), and that DC’s endgame is a “Crisis on Infinite Earths” type movie, where the film heroes and TV heroes will cross over into an epically confusing and convoluted mess that will put the final nail into the DCEU.

                But seriously, the shows on the CW are amazing. Even with people’s gripes about Arrow’s storytelling the past couple years, the shows are all still solid and enjoyable, and aren’t super dark in the lighting department. Does Ben Affleck eat up that much of the budget or something? Get some lights on your sets DC. I know those costumes have colour somewhere!