At the very end of the year Russia proves its martial prowess by taking two important cities. It has video evidence of their troops holding flags throughout the towns so it's not disputable. Mirnograd is basically a part of Pokrovsk, so Russia hadn't really taken Pokrovsk until now. But by taking Mirnograd and Rodinske to the north of Mirnograd, they now have firm control of the entire urban agglomeration. Pokrovsk plus its surroundings hosted 200,000 souls before the war, so this was a major conquest with major consequences for the remainder of the war. Pokrovsk is an important junction of rail and road lines, and the last major city until you reach the Dnieper river that divides the whole of Ukraine in twain. There's now nothing stopping Russia's advance.
The same is true of Gulaypole. It's a relatively big city on the Gaichur river, which Russia has now crossed. There's no better stronghold than Gulaypole from here until the Dnieper, and it fell in a couple weeks, almost without a fight. If that's the best Ukraine can do, 2026 is going to be a long year for them.
Russia has had a bunch of victories at the tail end of this year, like they were saving them up for a party. I'm feeling pretty confident how this war is going to end, and pretty good about myself for choosing the winning side from the beginning (even before 2014 I was pro-Russia.) Trump is again talking about a peaceful settlement of the war, but Russia should ignore Trump and take what they want militarily. Odessa awaits.
Spy x Family S3 ended without a sequel announcement, so I added it back to my anime wishlist. The same is true of 'Who made me a princess?'. I understand why Spy x Family would want to pause and let the manga generate more content before continuing, but 'Who made me a princess?' is already a completed light novel series, there's no reason why it shouldn't get a season 2. This lack of a season 2 is going to make it difficult for 'Who made me a princess?' to rise up in my overall rankings past its bottom rung spot of 200.
It's all the more annoying that shows like Ranma 1/2 aren't getting sequels when total crap like Undead Unluck are. It's like, if you could spare the money to give that a sequel, what's your excuse?
I made some more progress in Heaven Burns Red -- diva Ruka got an eternal daphne (I'm totally sold on her abilities. Once she gets some limit breaks she'll find a slot in a high-powered squad.) Swimsuit Adelheid got her level 2 limit break. Sci-Fi Chie got her level 1 limit break. And I'm slated to get another free SS Memoria in a week, courtesy of the continuation of the festive season. It's nice getting stronger without having to fork over any money. On Christmas HBR gifted me a massive 50 lifestones, which I've now used to help level up all my new characters. Everyone's ulevels are now max, with only the less important memoria levels left to complete. I've also leveled most of my characters' skills to max, with only a few unimportant ones left to work on. If only Chapter 5 Part 2 wasn't coming to upset the apple cart I might have actually managed to 'complete' the game. . .
The BYU vs. Georgia Tech Pop Tarts bowl was more competitive than I thought it would be. Also, congratulations to Houston on beating big-name LSU. I'm glad the Ravens were given an opportunity to reach the playoffs by beating the Steelers next week. If the Ravens were ever healthy they'd be as good as anybody in the country. So if they can just reach the playoffs and then heal up with the extra time they could go all the way. They had bad luck with injuries, but the good luck giving them a second chance basically offsets that, so now it's like the season starts today all over again. It's also nice that week 18 will have a meaningful match between Carolina and Tampa Bay, with the winner going to the playoffs. Unlike the Ravens, though, these teams will lose their first game in the playoff so it hardly matters which one gets in.
2026 has so much to do. The new winter anime season begins, with big names like Frieren and Oshi no Ko leading. I got new video games like Octopath Traveler 0 to play. I already own a Switch 2 and am simply waiting for Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave to release. The Renai 0 Km visual novel is coming out in January after being delayed from November. The Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka visual novel, featuring mai waifu Yuuhi, should be translated soon. The college football playoffs, the NFL playoffs, the winter Olympics, March Madness, the World Cup. . .
I thought 2025 was overly saturated with things to do, but 2026 is even worse. I still have the entire backlog from 2025 plus a jam-packed 2026 schedule. My only hope is 2027 is completely empty of all things fun~
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