Arvind Pennathur
Bio
I'm a graduate law student with a love for the quieter things in life. I write on a variety of topics, along with the occasional short story or poem. My perfect evening? Give me a rainy day, a cup of coffee, and a place to sit and write.
Stories (55)
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What I Want from Zelda's 35th Anniversary
Just a couple of days ago, the gaming community received a shock when a Nintendo Direct was announced with promises of news about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, along with other games that Nintendo had planned for the first half of 2021. I think it goes without saying that a lot of people expected news about The Legend of Zelda as well, by virtue of 2021 being the 35th anniversary of the legendary franchise. The first game of the series released on February 21st, all the way back in 1986, and it hasn't looked back since, going on to become one of the most successful video game franchises in history with many of its entries being contenders for the coveted title 'the greatest game ever made.'
By Arvind Pennathur5 years ago in Gamers
5 Great Anime to Binge on Netflix
One of the first things I checked out when I got a Netflix subscription was its anime collection. I found that the site had a reasonably robust collection, with some of the most iconic shows in anime history being present, as well as several more that have popped up in the past four or five years, and even some that Netflix was producing - never did I think that streaming services would start making their own anime. I’m pretty thrilled to see how much the genre has grown over the years, and I’m eager to see which shows will join the roster that Netflix has built.
By Arvind Pennathur5 years ago in Geeks
My Basketball Experience (as a Fan in 2020)
The sport of basketball has always fascinated me; it’s a fast-paced, high energy game that demands incredible athleticism and endurance. The skill required to be among the best at the sport is staggering, and as such, I always have respected basketball players for their physical and mental prowess and the amount of effort they pour into honing their craft. However, I cannot say that I was a major basketball fan for most of my life, despite growing up in the United States; instead, tennis was my preferred sport, and once I moved to India, it became cricket. With the NBA airing at odd timings in India due to the stark time difference, I never got invested in basketball. Still, I did shoot hoops in school now and then, and if I happened to stumble upon highlights randomly while flipping through channels on TV, I would watch them for 5 minutes or so before moving on.
By Arvind Pennathur5 years ago in Unbalanced
Palm Springs: The Best of Both Worlds (Movie Review). Top Story - July 2020.
Ever since I started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I’ve been a massive fan of Andy Samberg. Of course, I had heard of his exploits on Saturday Night Live and as one of the members of The Lonely Island before, but it was after I saw him as Jake Peralta that I began to take notice of his incredible charm and talent for comedy. It was only natural, therefore, that I immediately plop myself down first thing in the morning when I heard that a new movie starring him titled Palm Springs, had been released on Hulu. I went into the movie completely blind and not knowing what to expect, and what I found was pleasantly surprising. Palm Springs is a light-hearted romantic comedy that can get surprisingly poignant at times, yet never loses itself in its more serious moments.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Geeks
The (Almost) Perfect Remake: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
The first video game system I ever bought was the Nintendo GameCube when I was around 5 or 6, and when I bought it, the only games I had were The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition and Super Monkey Ball. I played the latter and enjoyed it, and didn’t play Zelda much because it was too complicated for my kiddy brain to handle. And so, the search began for a new game I could play, and being a fan of SpongeBob SquarePants, I immediately looked to see if there was a game for the GameCube that starred the yellow sponge. Sure enough, I got my hands on SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, and everything changed.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Gamers
The Last Lecture: The Wonderful Life of Randy Pausch
In 10th grade, our teacher emailed us a video. She told us that we were to watch it once at home, and the following day at school, she would show it to us again before asking us a series of questions based on it. I was curious as to what exactly I would be watching: perhaps it was a re-enactment of a scene from As You Like It (the play we were studying at the time), or a scene from an iconic movie. However, to my surprise, it was a clip from an old episode of Oprah, where a man named Randy Pausch reprised a lecture he had given earlier at Carnegie Mellon University dubbed 'The Last Lecture'.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Motivation
History has its Eyes on You
The devil grows inside the hearts of the selfish and wicked White, brown, yellow and black - colour is not restricted You have a self destructive destiny when your inflicted And you'll be one of Gods children and fell from the top - Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in The Swamp
Game of Thrones: A Retrospective (Part II)
Around one year ago, the blockbuster TV show Game of Thrones concluded its eighth and final season, and after all the anticipation the show built up…it was a bit of a disappointment. In this two-part retrospective, I wanted to tackle some of the things I felt were severely mishandled in this season. In the first part, I covered the buildup to the eighth season as well as the first three episodes. This part will deal with the final three episodes, as well as a deep dive into one of the most frustrating choices I’ve ever seen in any television show. Let’s get started, shall we?
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Geeks
Game of Thrones: A Retrospective (Part I)
(SPOILERS FOR ALL 8 SEASONS OF GAME OF THRONES) The day was April 17th, 2011. At approximately 9 PM on HBO, people were greeted with a brand new TV show. It opened on three men on horseback riding past an open gate into a dark tunnel, only to emerge into a wintery wasteland. They encountered mysterious creatures, which proved to be their demise, and only one of the men survived. He fled from the scene, terrified, but eventually suffered the same fate as his comrades as he was executed for deserting his post. The man who sentenced him to death was also his executioner, and he told his son, "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword", after the deed was done.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Geeks
The Half of It: A (Mostly Full) Experience
Coming of age movies that center around young adults always intrigue me. They're one of my favorite genres of movies not only because of their unbelievable degree of relatability, but their capacity to tell wonderful stories about the range of emotions people can experience. Teenagers are volatile, for better or worse - they make wild decisions, try so many new things and can be very emotional, and these movies reflect that - be it the incredibly heartfelt journeys seen in movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or the narratives that are intertwined with comedy, such as Superbad or Booksmart.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Geeks
Top 5 Moments from Star Wars. Top Story - May 2020.
When we think of movie franchises, it is hard to ignore Star Wars. From the time the first film graced our screens in 1977, the space opera saga has grown into the second highest grossing franchise of all time, beating out the likes of Harry Potter and James Bond, which house some of the most iconic films the world of cinema has seen in recent years. This alone should speak volumes of how successful this franchise has grown - and now, even after 9 full feature films, 2 anthology films, eight animated TV series', and a brand new live action series, it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Admittedly, Star Wars has had its fair share of problems in the recent past and while the future looks rather uncertain for how it will be proceeding, nobody can deny its rightful place as one of the most influential film franchises to ever exist.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Futurism
Extraction: A Flashy and Exciting Time
I don't really watch alot of action movies - for me, the story is an integral part of a movie experience and most action movies aren't known for their narratives or their complex character arcs. There are of course, notable exceptions to this (the Mission Impossible franchise comes to mind), but by and large, I tend to pass them over. Every once in a while, however, I'll find myself sitting down and giving one a watch whenever I'm in need of an escape from the real world for a bit, and when I sat down to watch Extraction yesterday, that's exactly what I got.
By Arvind Pennathur6 years ago in Geeks
