Top Ten Pop Culture Moments of 2016

It’s December 23, it’s almost Christmas, so let’s do a top ten list! In this list, I will be listing my Top Ten Favourite Pop Culture Moments of the Year! That’s right, moments! There will be spoilers after this point.

1.) Deadpool’s opening credits

This is how all credits should be done. They showcased the tone of the entire movie, and even broke the fourth wall a few times! From Hugh Jackman’s sexiest man of the year cover, the Ryan Reynold’s Green Lantern trading card, to bullet holes and blood, these credits showed us exactly what we were going to get over the course of the film. Thankfully, the movie lived up its amazing opening credits!

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MjyGL0go60

2.) Jon and Sansa being reunited

These two hadn’t been seen together since the first or second episode of Game of Thrones, and they were the first of the Stark children to be reunited after all the terrible things that befell their family. It was possibly the first truly happy moment the series gave us, and it made everyone tear up with joy.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzHj-LrhwBc

3.) Spider-Man taking Cap’s shield

I could’ve listed so many things from the airport battle, but Spider-Man’s entrance with him taking Cap’s shield and webbing his wrists together was just great.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBANU6ZVFZY

4.) Wonder Woman’s entrance in BvS

There isn’t too much great we can say about BvS, but Wonder Woman’s entrance is one of them. From the electric violin, to Batman and Superman’s shocked looks, the scene showed us how could the movie could’ve been. She was in the movie for far too short of a time, but what a time.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwgPtAKTfq8

5.) Samurai ATOM

Ray Palmer’s ATOM suit, with a samurai helm, on horseback. Thank you season two of Legends of Tomorrow.

6.) Ghost Rider’s reveal

This season of Agents of Shield brought it, and brought it hard. We got LMDs, Coulsen back in the field, and Daisy going full superhero. On top of that, we got Ghost Rider, flaming skull and all. Doctor Strange brought magic and idea of other realms into the MCU, Agents of Shield brought in hell and demons all wrapped up in a glorious burning chain.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpW6XVe8JvM

7 & 8.) Battle of the Bastards and Sansa’s revenge

They’re in the same episode, so I’ll put them together on the list. First off, the battle. It was the largest battle every filmed for television and involved thousands of extras and a month of filming. It is easily on par with, or better than, the massive battles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On top the of pure scale of things, it’s a deeply emotional and human experience. There are very few things that have left me on the edge of my seat and breathless, this battle did it. And then, at the end of the amazing episode (which also featured dragons destroying a fleet of battleships), Sansa got her revenge on Ramsay Bolton by feeding him to his own dogs that he had starved for days.   

Watch the battle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsFeIVJfKsA

Watch Sansa’s revenge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6cVrn4bqdM

9.) Darth Vader takes out entire rebel platoon

So technically this happened in 2015, but the collected edition of the storyline didn’t come out until 2016, so I’m counting it. Basically, in the amazing Star Wars comics that Marvel is doing, Darth Vader gets shot down and the rebels think it’s their best shot at taking him out. At one point he gets surrounded by an entire platoon, and after insulting them (see above), he kills them by detonating their grenades. Damn.

10.) Titanfall 2: Cause and Effect mission

Easily one of the best designed video game levels ever. During the course of the mission you get a new piece of equipment that introduces a new gameplay mechanic: you can jump through time. This allows you to try so many different things over the course of the mission, and is just ridiculously fun!

I’m not posting a link to a video, as they’re all walkthroughs and super long.

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!