2021
In the poster I made above I wanted to capture some of the biggest things which happened this year, and looking back, it is insane to see what took place. From an attempted fascist coup of the American government, the global supply shortage, the summer Olympics happening (for some reason), and not one, but two highly transmissible strains of C19.
Movie theaters opened back up this year (kind of). A lot of 2020 films that were pushed back saw their release. But who cares about that, we had TV show movie hybrids this year. The Marvel Studios Disney+ series elevated the definition of a TV show blockbuster to an entirely new level. On the Netflix side, Squid Games was a massive deal. The commentary it delivered, and also the story of how the creator pitched the show for over a decade is truly inspiring.
There were films this year that certainly did deserve the theater experience. Namely Shang-Chi, No Time to Die, and Spider-Man No Way Home. These films really were incredible and benefited from having the full attention of the viewer. No Way Home, I mean, no spoilers here, but the gravitas of what that film bought really needs to be experienced on the big screen. To a degree, I wish it came out later because when someone says "best MCU film since Endgame," there would be some weight to that statement and not a small two-year gap.
In music, I would say that Olivia Rodrigo kind of owned the zeitgeist of the medium this year. Never has there been a former Disney Channel star who entered the music industry as not a shill of the mouse, but as an artist with her own message to give. I also just found the entire background of Drivers License as hilarious.
The most I can remember in the realm of gaming from this year has been very recent. On the poster is Samus Aran from Metroid Dread and Master Chief from Halo Infinite. These games, although they might not be the most revolutionary, did carry an impact. Dread being thought of as a long-forgotten thread on the big N's coat returning 19 years later is a huge deal. Sora being the last character in Smash Bros. was a mind-boggling inclusion considering that the big N had to deal with the mouse.
Halo Infinite being an open world, free-to-play multiplayer, and return to form for Halo made Halo feel like it was in its early 2000s hype prime and was magical to just experience again.
On here, I try not to delve into real-world issues, but there is one deeply critical issue that I saw popping up this past year and it has its hands in virtually every issue that we are facing. That issue is: Money in politics.
Corporate lobbyists and donors pumping money directly to or to the campaigns of lawmakers have been pivotal to the setbacks and threats we have seen this past year alone. From the lack of action on the climate crisis to failing to release the C19 patent to get the world fully, are evidence of this.
Also, another thing I learned this year was that democracy is fragile. It is a scary reality to face, but seeing how close that a fascist regime could have stolen America is insane, and I feel like a lot of people are downplaying that fact.
Anyway, I hope you stayed safe this year. I hope that 2022 is a better year, for you personally. For the planet, well the Texas Children's Hospital developed a safe C19 vaccine and released the patent. So hopefully with a near fully vaxxed world, we have less room for the virus to mutate, fewer variants, and we can once and for all put an end to this pandemic.
To end 2021 appropriately, I will be selling this post as an NFT. For the uninitiated, NFT stands for:
N - The entire concept of NFT's
F- Is really stupid and enables ownership of images that can be easily shared, like who even cares that you own the original version and have access to the blockchain, I can just download the GIF, or screenshot whatever image you bought
T - This is not even touching on talented artists getting this art stolen and sold as NFT's, or how harmful this is for the environment.
Rest in peace Betty White
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