2013 In Review
2013 saw further change and development. It has been three years of Recession and while some nations had managed to dug themselves further out, others were struggling further, especially as the governments responded differently to them and the bailouts. The United States was becoming a prime example as the second "bailout" was aimed primarily toward the well-off and wealthy, all out of the claims to help the job creators. Instead, it was earning the ire of the American population. While the Republican party was relatively unified as more new blood displaced the old guard of neo-conservatives. the Democrats were undergoing further fractures in regards to the progressives becoming louder and demanding more to be going on. Being relatively the loudest faction, it was gathering the attention and some wondered the rammifications of the movement. It seemed like a pot further boiling and that it would reach a peak at some point or another. Perhaps more notable was in the primaries which were seeing more challengers being raised there and while a couple would get victory, it was not enought to cause major upsets. Meanwhile, the McCain Administration began focusing more on their successes in the international sector as a way to try and calm the waters and while there was some to celeberate through the patriotism, it was not enough to really counteract the growing discontent over the handlings of the economy, especially as the gas prices getting a shock in the end of the year just brought fresh chaos to a sluggish economy and people were growing desiring for change.
This was reflected in the world with growing surprises coming one after another, all in a variety of flavors and feelings. The Korean Crisis in the beginning of the year saw North Korea undergo a radical change that no one expected and the growing newsreports answered many questions people had about North Korea. The revelations of what sort of weaponry North Korea had, the status of the populations there and the growing conversations on how the Kim administration weaponized their poor against China through threat of refugees brought confounding and disturbing ideas. At the same time, there was a sense of relief that led to the administration no longer being belligerent and bellicose meant that it was one less problem. Granted, it did come at having to deal with North Korean refugees though the new Pope was willing to help out through foundations with that along with Canada and Mexico. . The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse brought fresh outrage at exploitation of the commonfolk and horrific work conditions while shock ran across the world at the end of the Chavez regime in Venezuela and the government now between Maduro, who's slurs have eld to loss of sympathy among leftists along with rising leadership clashes between other members and Capriles, who is doing his best to solidify support among the nation and from the outside world. This led to the importance of recognizing the voice of the people from a political and economic standpoint as strong elites could threaten that while the issues of Snowden and Ukraine brought matters of national security up front and led to renewed feelings of antagonism between Russia and the rest of the world, especially as its list of anti-American states was growing shorter.
Pop culture was seeing up turns. Children and adults alike wept and grieved when Fred Rogers passed away quietly in late Febuary, with his final video on supporting and caring for everyone, with special prominence toward the LGBTQ+ community. Rogers' legacy is reflected on his PBS show and YouTube channel while others have noted that he left a profound impact on Internet culture in that while some places reveled in the relative anonymity (or illusion thereof), Rogers' presence served as a powerful counterweight and enabled people to be good to themselves and each other. Various mediums gave homages and paid tribute to him in various pop culture, including Disney. Disney meanwhile showcased
Tangled, a new return to the fairy tale based films, but shown differently. While the animation is CGI, it flows and mvoes vividly, many noting there is a watercolor aesthetic to it and it helped launch Disney back into further prominence once more. Furthermore, it follows up with two new Marvel films:
Iron Man 3 and
Thor: Dark World. Iron Man 3 explores themes of imperialism and the past colliding with the future. It has Tony Stark wrestle with his PTSD from his near-death experience before he meets an old friend, Suzi Endo, who he regards like a younger sister, she has managed to climb up to head of research in the Cybernetics research department at
Stark Industries' Asian branch. She introduces to a new sponsor who concerns Tony. Tony's concerns are validated when it's revealed the sponsor is none other than the Mandarin, head of the infamous Ten Rings criminal syndicate. He notes to Tony that both are great men though of different lineage; he in fact details how proud he is of being the descendent of British and Mongolian nobility. And how the British and Mongols saw a world of chaos and brought order and prosperity by creting powerful legendary empires that forever changed the world. He notes the new chaotic world with the alien invasion and seeks to do the same, through reverse-engineered alien technology. It's revealed Suzi Endo is his great-granddaughter who he has coerced and that her cybernetics work has gone to create a neural interface with powerful warmachines, controlled by ten rings, reverse-engineered from alien tech. After a fierce fight, especially when Suzi notes that sparing Tony was part of the deal, she ends up being saved by Pepper using a spare Stark suit and Tony ending up far away. He takes shelter in the home of Harley Keener, who many note bare resemblances between him and Tony in personality. He helps Tony ground himself and provides a fresh perspective to help Tony win, providing indirect assistance through a homemade drone. Meanwhile, Suzi has been assisting Pepper in keeping Mandarin from claiming Stark tech and notes on her own insecurites with her grandfather, which Pepper helps snap her out of. Suzi ends up creating her own version of "Cybermancer" armor that focused on hacking and controlling drones like her grandfather. Mandarin's plan is stopped when he fights Tony first in their armor and later without it, symbolizing a clash between order and freedom in with tech. Tony concedes in the need of oversight, but not with what Mandarin is doing and he could've been better if he wasn't obsessed with lineage. The film recieved some great acclaim and some comic fans began speculating if Harley Keener would be Iron Lad. Meanwhile,
Thor: Dark World wrestled with questions of life and death. The "Dark world" in particular refers to Niflheim, the dark mist world where Hel ruled. Taking place some time after
Avengers, the film involves Thor trying to get answers from Loki though spans a journey to Niflheim, an otherworld prison compared to the Greek Tartarus where Hela guards with the Soul Stone. However, her loneliness is exploited and leads to a fight betwee Thor, Loki, Jane and her friends against Ymir, the first giant. While the day is saved, there has been a grave loss, mainly the death of Freya. A tragic scene occurs after the burial and where Thor falls to his knees and weeps, holding onto Jane for comfort. However, the MCU would also be matched by the
Man of Steel, a retelling of the origin of Superman and thus serving as a prequel to
Superman Returns. The film took heavy basis from the renown comic
Superman: Birthright and showing the rise of the righteous and valiant hero in Superman along with how he and Lex would become the powerful people they would become in the modenr time. Many people celeberated and applauded for bringing fresh life and humanity to Superman with various notable scenes, one being where Superman apprehands an arms dealer who sold to school shooters and shoots him with a gun before catching the bullet in midair, to teach the man sort of fear and truama he caused with his work. It also showed the sort of sociopathy a man like Luthor could have, masquerading as humanity. Other films that were successes included
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 12 Years A Slave and
Gravity while other films served as more action-based romps or popcorn flicks such as
G.I. Joe Retaliation, a sequel to the previous film with Micheal Bay returning, noting he hoped the third film would not take as long to make.
Meanwhile, video games were also seeing a new revolution with the release of the next generation of consoles. Sony brought out their Playstation 4 and Microsoft released their Xbox One. Nintendo meanwhile the bigger interest given the delay by nearly a year for it, releasing the successor to the Wii, the Nintendo Twin or "Nintwin" for short. While the consoles were all of graphically superior to their counterparts and provided more capabilities, it was the Nintwin that provided the most interesting. The Wiimotes received successors in the T-mote, which possessed the same functions to the Wii Remote Plus but further augmented along with some layout changes, including replacing the D-pad with a circle pad. Appropriately, two of the came with the Nintwin (which resembled a slightly larger, blockier and sturdier version of the Wii along with it being black and white as its default, with other varieties usually following on the dualistic pattern), but the main focus was the TwinTab, a tablet controller that would for unique gameplay opportunites in multiplayer games along with experimenting with playing console-level games on the go. Other aspects included wireless connectivity between the Nintendo UDS and the Nintwin for a variety of purposes, much like how there was a cable that connected the GBA to the Gamecube. Coming out in the latter half of the year, the games released definitely showed off plenty of potential. The Nintwin's launch titles included games like
New Super Mario Bros TW, Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, and
Game & Wario, but perhaps most shockingly would be
Persona 4 Golden TW. A remastering of Persona 4 Golden for the new console, it was a collaboration done with ATLUS as they needed to expand their market and decided to bite the bullet and go to Nintendo consoles since the Vita was sluggish in sales and it was not popular enough on Xboxes to make the up the difference. While there were some initial concerns and controversies on certain dialogue and minor events in the game being reqritten, the game ended up being beloved by Nintendo fans and surprisingly enough, the Persona fanbase. Mainly since the adjustments included things like removing the infamous "hot springs" moment from the original game along with dialogue rewrite that made the characters friendlier and more amicable to one another, something the fanbase responded with positively. The joke being that Nintendo being family-friendly made the game not only more appealing, but actually better. Furthermore, it was also the Year of Luigi, which saw various Luigi-based games come out such as
Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on the UDS along with
MArio and Luigi Dream Team focusing on the younger brother and rumors that Luigi would get his own game for the Nintwin. Other games included the revitalization of the
Fire Emblem franchise with
Fire Emblem Awakening, a new Zelda game/sequel to
Link to the Past with
Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds and the sixth generation of Pokemon games with
Pokemon X and Pokemon Y which saw the transition from sprites to 3D models. Of course, the other consoles were bringing on their A-game too. The Xbox One introduced a new Sonic game with
Sonic Lost World; Eggman ends up making his way out of his confinement and ends up in an ancient "lost wold" filled with prehistoric-inspired monsters and radical environments. However, it's not long before Sonic and Tails stumble onto him after noticing strange activity. Other games such as
Bioshock Infinite, Saints Row IV and the new
Tomb Raider among various others. The same for Sony and their Playstation 4, hoping to overcome the problems that plagued it. This included such as withholding
The Last of Us from the PS3 and putting it on the PS4 along with more games coming out for it. While the Xbox One and PS4 were the stronger consoles, Nintendo showed their delay was worth it with the Nintwin. Overall, 2013 turned out to be a pretty good year for film lovers and video game lovers as well.
