My review of 2016

[Alolan_Apples]

2016 has been a very weird year. The internal events were fine as I had fun, but for the external events, they were crazy. There's a mix of goods and bads, but after seeing all of these internet memes, news reports, and social posts, I understand the clearer explanation of 2016.

There are 12 major highlights I would like to point out for 2016. Keep in mind that these are for external events, so stuff like what I got for my birthday or what I did last summer are not gonna be covered. This is for large-scale events.

1. Celebrity Deaths - 2016 has been a really bad year for celebrity deaths. Every year, several people are born, but several people die as well. This includes celebrities. However, 2016 has been a really bad year, not because more celebrities died this year than any other year, but a lot of major celebrities died, including those who are still at work. It started with the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, but as the year rolled by, a couple of others passed away. The actors of Admiral Ackbar, R2-D2, and Willy Wonka are dead. Harper Lee (writer of To Kill a Mockingbird) and Elie Wiesel (Holocaust survivor that written Night) also faced their last days this year. Muhammad Ali's gone too. Even one of the current Supreme Court justices died this year. And more recently, John Glenn (first American to orbit the Earth). But, is this the worst year for celebrity deaths? To be honest, I believe there are worse within the past 100 years, but the fact that so many major ones died in 2016 marks this as one of the many highlights of 2016. Hopefully 2017 won't be as bad.
2. Super Bowl 50 - one of the most anticipated events in February besides Valentine's Day is the Super Bowl, the first Sunday of February. But this year, we got to the 50th Super Bowl in history. The two teams playing were the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. Not to mention, but one of the stars of the Broncos (Peyton Manning) was retiring this year. At least he won on his last season.
3. Disasters in 2016 - I could say the Zika epidemic, the Orlando Shooting, or the recent bombing of Aleppo, but since there are so many havocs like this, I decided to put them into one bag. Every year has their share of terrorist attacks, shootings, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks. Because of how bad the world has gotten, I wouldn't be surprised to see anymore of the man-made disasters happen each year. But I wish we can go years without these.
4. Film - 2016 continues the direction the film industry has been going. There were a couple of successes and failures, but I tend to focus more on the animated branch because of my knowledge on animation. In the animated side, we had Zootopia, Moana, The Secret Life of Pets, and Finding Dory. There were more, but these were hugely successful. Granted, they weren't taken as seriously as Frozen was back in 2013-2014, but they were hits. Also, this year was the year of the very first CGI-animated R-rated movie (Sausage Party). But here's the downside of 2016 in film. We have been getting so many reboots of old movies. Over the years, originality has faded due to the obsession of sequels, prequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, and remakes. More recently, we had reboots. And this is not just limited to film, but also to television. Have you seen the new Powerpuff Girls? I heard it done poorly. Even the actors of the original Powerpuff Girls were unhappy with the new series.
5. Shooting of Harambe - pretty much one of the biggest obsessions of the year, and it was very unusual compared to previous years. Along with the many celebrity deaths and disasters, we had this, when a kid climbed into an exhibit of gorillas and fell. The gorilla that took him was shot dead on the same day. This wasn't the first time someone got into an exhibit of animals, but cases like this are rare. But this was the first time something like this happened and resulted in many memes being made. In fact, it became overdone and overrused. The Harambe memes went well past the point of sanity. I never seen so many memes based on such tragedy. Hopefully, the Harambe memes die down next year as zoos finally improve on the fencing.
6. Brexit - about half-way into 2016, the UK voted on a referendum to where they would pull out of the European Union. For a while, Europe has been going downhill because the countries involved were in a union known as the European Union. The fact that the UK voted to leave the EU shows us how globalism is a failure. It's also showing the failure of leftism. One day, the EU is gonna collapse, and maybe, the United Nations may disband due to the many failures they had when trying to bring world peace.
7. Pokemon Go - 2016 was a big year for Pokemon. As it was the year of the 20th anniversary, it was huge in the spotlight. This year, we had the releases of Red, Yellow, and Blue on the 3DS VC, Pokken Tournament on the Wii U, Pokemon Go on the mobile platforms, and Pokemon Sun and Moon on the 3DS. One of the most highlighted games of the year was Pokemon Go, where you can go catch Pokemon anywhere. So many memes were based on it too. However, as the game was popular and got many involved, it has caused controversies. There are Pokemon Go-related car accidents, people have been robbed or harmed because they used the app to go to the wrong places while criminals use it to get what they want, people have been playing in places that are not appropriate for games, and there were cases of trespassing. It's been getting several updates over time, including the one that resulted in a backlash against the developer, but they did try to improve the game.
8. 2016 Summer Olympics - every four years, there is a major international sporting event. As the winter olympics are devoted to even years indivisible by 4, the summer ones are devoted to the years divisible by 4. This year, it was set in Rio, the first olympics set in South America. The event went well, but prior to the event, it became a major concern. Due to the lack of preparation, the poor infrastructure, the Zika epidemic, and the crime and safety concerns, we believed the olympics would be a disaster, but nope. It wasn't even in the top five. I assume that one day, the olympics will be a thing of the past.
9. Anniversaries - every year has their fair share of 10-year marks or 25-year marks. Every event in 2015 turned 1 in 2016, as the events in 2011 turned 5 in 2016. But notice how much time has passed since some of these events passed. 2016 was the year of the 20th anniversaries of Pokemon, the Nintendo 64, and any film, songs, and books introduced in 1996. Star Trek turned 50 this year. It's been 75 years out since the Pearl Harbor bombing (which got us involved in the war). And WWI was still going on 100 years ago.
10. World Series 2016 - the sporting events in 2016 were pretty unusual, but nothing could get as unusual as the World Series. This year, it was down to the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. Neither team has won the world series in over 65 years. The Cubs didn't even make it that far since 1945. But they held the longest championship drought in history. But if you look back at when they last won the World Series, you'll be shocked to know about the facts. For example, New Mexico and Arizona weren't even states when they last won. Another example was that Babe Ruth wasn't even in the MLB back when the Cubs last won. And the Titanic sinking was more recent than that championship. Basically, the 108-year drought of the Chicago Cubs' championship pretty much wrapped up all of modern history. And they won again, in 2016, ending the championship drought.
11. 2016 Election - easily the biggest obsession of the year. Normally, the election was only the second biggest or third biggest event of the year as people don't start going into details until the fall. But this year, it was taken very seriously. Mainly because of two reasons. One was life under the Obama Administration. The left wing was used to all of the social progresses that happened over time, and they fear that Republicans will take control again because they would reverse the social progresses over time as the ACA (also known as Obamacare) would be repealed. On the other side, the right wing was fed up with how bad our nation went under the Obama administration. They were tired of the abuse, lies, and hypocrisies from the federal government, left-winged news agencies, and left-winged citizens. They couldn't go another four years with all that. Another reason why people taken the election seriously is because of who's running. The front runners were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both were very unpopular choices, and people did not want to see their opposing candidate take office (from both sides). Not once have people taken an election that seriously since 1972. The results were stunning. Once again (within the last 20 years), the loser of the popular vote won the electoral vote, and for the first time in nearly 30 years, three of the traditionally Democratic states flipped red. But some of the reactions were atrocious. Regardless, this was a very historic election as either candidate would achieve a presidential first.
12. Other interesting highlights - there aren't much to say, but this year had a bunch of crazy stuff and record breakers. For example, there were sightings and concerns of creepy clowns, which to me, was a very weird event. As for the record breakers, I couldn't say much, but I can say that Leonardo DiCaprio, who never won an Oscar no matter how well he did, finally got one.

If you have any comments or questions, you are free to ask in the comments section. It's been a long and crazy year.

 

[ccee633]

Don't forget that it was the american election. Canada had a little election but no one talked about it.

 

[Leela]

2016 isn't done yet. Maybe it will still go out with a bang. A catastrophe to end all others this year.