There’s Something Inspiring About Unhinged Women — Faith Crossan

We all know of them. In recent years, you may have seen them referred to as “manic pixie dream girls.” Completely unhinged, medically insane women have a unique charm in today’s media. In the ’90s, you’d know them as Fiona Apple, Courtney Love, maybe a touch of Björk. They circulate in depressing, aesthetically dreary movies like the queen herself, Clementine, in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Something is addicting and incredibly charming about watching mentally-ill women feel absolutely no shame when it comes to their obviously demented psyches. 

A logical explanation for the strange addictive quality these women hold over the public is simple. Misogyny! It’s so rare to see Patrick Bateman-esque women praised in the media because rather than being attractively crazy, they are seen as only the latter. I absolutely adore watching, hearing, or reading as women shamelessly flaunt their emotional instability, wearing it like a Girl Scout’s badge of honor. Women are expected to be even-tempered, submissive beings and are harshly scorned when perceived as over-emotional or irrational. But there is nothing wrong with those traits! Humanity is stunning, and for too long we have watched as women are portrayed as robotic beings, lacking in fire and want. 

Crazy women are far more entertaining than crazy men. Men become murderous, with their hatred of women driving them, whereas women become hungry. The passion that drives women like Jennifer Check is intoxicating. Decked in leather and last-nights eyeliner, these women run society from the bottom of the socially-acceptable ladder. Self-aware or not, I can’t help but defend them with my entire being; an unapologetic woman is breathtaking because it shocks every audience.

Adult Animation Is Bad (Usually) — Alex Kim

There is an idea attached to animated films and television shows that implies that they are for children. In response, many individuals and studios have attempted to make their own animated movies that provide more adult content. 

I typically hate these movies and think they are usually wrong on a fundamental level. Animated movies’ target audience is children, yes. But anyone can like a kid’s movie. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being considered a movie aimed at children. 

Many adult animations, however, see this tie to children as a source of embarrassment. They make an active effort to show that their movies are for REAL adults and will contain extreme scenes of gratuity or be purely depression pieces with nothing to say. 

There is nothing wrong with being a movie made for children. The world needs more good children’s movies. The issue with animated films or shows for adults stems from individuals who want to seem more mature and different from the status quo.

Donda 2 Won’t Be Worth It — Brandon Kim

After the renowned success of Ye’s (aka Kanye West) album Donda, fans were overjoyed when an announcement was made that a consecutive Donda 2 album would be released as well. The announcement was made almost randomly, not even a full year after the original Donda album was released, and was declared to be fully available to the public on February 2, 2022. Though the assembly of a full new album appeared to be hastily thrown together since it was made in a seemingly minuscule amount of time, Ye fans everywhere were still left waiting on the edge of their seats for the release of the new album. 

Features for the album included rappers like Future, Baby Keem, Soulja Boy, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, and XXXTENTACION. However, an odd change of plans was put into place a few days before the anticipated release of the album; Ye announced that his album would only be available for listening exclusively only on the Stem Player and not on other music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and even YouTube. The Stem Player is a device developed by Kanye that can easily control the bass, drums, and vocals of virtually any song with relative ease, but the conflict of being able to listen to his music became apparent when fans began discovering that the device was on sale for $200 each. Not to mention, fans who were dedicated to listening to the album that purchased the Stem Player gave news that it wasn’t even finished, making their purchase of the device completely pointless. 

Personally, I don’t think it’s worth $200 to listen to a single album, especially one that is unfinished. I think it’s safe to say that we should wait until Donda 2 is officially released to the public, though there’s sadly no telling of when that time may come.

Have Music Award Shows Become Meaningless? — Kennedy Starr

Whether it is the Grammys, CMAs, or IHeart Music Awards, the world flocks to their televisions to watch their favorite artists perform and possibly win an award. But as the years pass, I can’t help but notice how little value they now hold. I watch the ceremonies to see one, maybe two artists I like perform, then I tune out. Now they spend time teasing and focusing heavily on one genre—in most cases pop—and cut out all the other nominees who could be in the heavy metal genre. On top of the biases, there is no objectivity for the artists even winning either.

A committee or “academy” decides who wins the categories in every award show. But who are these esteemed people, and why are they worthy of judging the value of someone else’s art? For the Grammys, there are five steps to obtaining the privilege of voting:

1. Have been credited with 12 physical or digital tracks released online only and currently available for purchase, with at least one track in the past five years

2. Have six credits on commercially released tracks currently available for sale and distributed through physical distribution outlets (such as record stores), with at least one track in the past five years

3. Have won a Grammy before

4. Get an endorsement from a current voting member

5. Once you’ve done all of these, you still have to pay 100 dollars in yearly dues

On top of these steps, most of those who have the right to vote have no clue who half of the artists are. So the more famous a person is, the more likely they are to win because the voters are clueless. As an artist, you have to meet several requirements to even be nominated, and even if you meet these arbitrary requirements, they could still not even come close to winning. 

The time has long passed when award shows meant anything to the world. Adults remember a time when the MTV music awards captivated the nation, but now the younger generation must suffer with the popularity contest that has taken over music appreciation.

Open-World Games are Becoming Overrated — Tiffani Pe

Following the release of beloved open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there’s been a sharp increase in the number of nonlinear games. I’m happy for the steadfast fans of the mechanic, but personally, it’s starting to stale for me.

Seeing big companies pop out titles describing “brand new worlds full of exploration” and then finding out it’s another basic game with the usual “climb mountains, loot enemies, and complete side-quests” shtick is tiring. And there’s a lot—from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to Dragon Age: Inquisition and the Fallout series. 

Sometimes, there’s too much of a good thing. And games of the open-world variety are expected to last hundreds of hours (without replays to boot!). But a game’s quality isn’t decided by how many hours it takes to beat—check out the dozens of top-tier indie games lasting sub-ten hours—but more so by aspects like gameplay, narrative (if applicable), and entertainment level.

To pad the game’s length, it often feels as if developers add in whatever idea they think of to implement as one of the hundred-plus side quests. Repetitive side quests are no fun, though, and make the game feel like a slog to get through. Who wants to be running fetch quest chores while trying to escape reality?

Speaking of which, there’s nothing worse than feeling like a lonely soul because of a world’s unfathomable vastness and severe lack of exciting landmarks or NPCs. Traveling from point A to point B yet never seeing even one computer-generated person can be depressing, to say the least. 

Overall, open-world games may be getting lots of praise and hype, but they frequently lack fleshed-out stories, fresh combat, and most importantly—fun. The intrigue of discovery finds itself going old when you find yourself exploring identical mountains for the umpteenth time.

Spider-Man is the Best — Karam Askar

I believe that Spider-Man is the best superhero, has the best game… he’s the best in general. Spider-Man was my favorite superhero growing up, and the evolution of his character is just insane. I truly loved watching and playing Spider-Man. It was my favorite thing to do. Spider-Man inspired me to be my best self and do the best I possibly could. Spider-Man is an ordinary high school student fighting bad guys while being brilliant academically. It’s wild how he can balance his life. These aspects make Spider-Man relatable to fans.

Nobody can be Spider-Man besides Peter Parker, but new representations of this classic character show Spider-Man’s true strength and what he can accomplish all by himself. The new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, offers more superpowers to the beloved character. He can turn invisible, and his hands can produce electricity. He is something else, something better—more potent than anything seen before. Morales, like Peter Parker, will live up to his legacy and be the greatest ever. Despite my love of the new Miles Morales, Peter Parker will remain my favorite depiction of Spider-Man until I see more of Morales in the future.