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American Gods, Battlestar Galactica, Xena. People's fascination with gods seems to have shifted from worship to a kind of character archetype. Are "gods" essentially malleable symbols open to interpretation, or is it fundamentally incorrect to draw a line connecting pop fiction gods with their cultural basis?

Potential here to expand the subject to include comics (the Wicked the Divine), games (God of War franchise), film (Bruce Almighty, Dogma, Gods of Egypt).

We now live in a post-Wonder Woman live-action film world, and it's glorious. However, Wonder Woman cinematographer Matt Jensen revealed in a recent interview that the now-iconic No Man's Land scene almost didn't make the cut. What do you think about that? What effect did that scene have on you? (Personally, I've watched the film four times now, and I still cry every time I watch that scene. I come out of the theatre wanting to flip cars!!!)

Selfies, self promotion and social media. A common trait in all three? Self-aggrandisment or is it determination? As our perceptions change and our way of promoting ourselves alter is it fair to judge someone for posting a shameless selfie, or for constantly posting paid ads on their feed? Are they merely showing off their good looks or are they making a name for themselves? We are seeing more and more models become famous through Instagram photos rather than their actual modelling work. Have we as a generation squashed the notion of egotism or is it all that we know?

On the surface, Jesse Andrews' debut novel "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" (2012) might seem like another Young Adult novel with quirky teen characters and a bittersweet coming-of-age story. But is there more to the novel than meets the eye? Analyze how the characters comment and critique certain cliches found in YA literature and how it deconstructs this facet of the literary community.

The arts and music are the first programs cut from US public school curricula amidst current vitriolic cultural and policy debates. With STEM focus, charter secondary schools often do not include arts and music. (I'm concerned schools would cut literature, too, if savvy teachers were not able to link it to literacy.) Anecdotal and alarmist rhetoric argues that the result is an apathetic, tech-centered generation, devoid of creativity. With art and music leaving formal schooling, the response seems to be that art and music will be produced out of a well of intrinsic passion and sustained through the same. Museums of all sort in the US are struggling with dropping attendance. The arts and letters in higher education are widely derided as worthless and are also facing cuts and dropping enrollments. What is the role of K-12 education, then, if anything, in exposing young people to, nurturing, and developing aesthetic sensibilities and skills? If we as a culture and society abandon K-12 arts and music education, as we are, what effects can we attribute to that decision (e.g., declining museum patronage)?

In the last few years there have been an influx of superhero movies and they have subsequently dominated the box office. The pro-comic book inspired attitude is fairly recent but not necessarily new in terms of fandom. Things like comic-con have been going on for years, but lately they taken taken on epic proportions. Why our society crave and eat up the classic comic hero's journey again and again and again?

Finally got around to playing Dishonored 2 recently and it reminded me how brilliant level design can impact enjoyment. People love Bethesda titles such as Skyrim and (arguably) Fallout 4 for the unrestricted world they give the player to explore but can they ever be as good as games in which levels, environments, enemies etc. are designed specifically for the player to encounter in a way that the designer had in mind? You could have examples of titles that display the positives of each design philosophy and a few titles that show off the negatives (lack of structure, lack of freedom etc.) and give your own opinion of a possible ideal middle ground?

Is eternity encoded in the human DNA and, if so, is cloning overkill or counter-intuitive? In ancient Celtic lore, a warrior sword was cast away onto a body of water upon his untimely or unjust death, to symbolize his promotion to the next level of consciousness. If the human soul is in fact transient, is it more conducive to comprehend its boundaries, its depths, or its mechanism and, as such, infuse life with a honed purpose and a more enlightened experience? Is the 1997 Heaven's Gate incident an emerging (and legitimate) human alternative?

Terrorism is a tactic that relies on a small number of antagonists, performing a localised atrocity, but streaming their message to a mass audience. More and more, the media incorporates web-videos taken by citizen witnesses into their news reporting of these terrorist events, and millions of viewers watch the spectacles of horror. Are we unintentionally playing into the hands of terrorists by providing them with platforms for their vile PR? How can the media, and citizen journalists, change their reporting tactics to disrupt the modis operandi of terrorist operatives?

Analyse the trends and patterns of selling and marketing 'nostalgic' properties to the public. Is it an issue? Is it replacing the creation of new art, or is it simply a matter of adults celebrating the things they loved as children. Consider movie and television reboots and spin-offs.

Discuss modern journalism and answer the question of whether objectivity in journalism has been forsaken. On the left we have Huffington Post, and on the right we have Breitbart (of course there are other examples to use on both ends of the spectrum); question and answer why there has been an uprising in biased reporting in the Western world. Explore the causes of this and compare modern journalism to past journalism such as the 1920's (or any time period the author chooses).

Do shows like Game of Thrones deserve criticism for their depiction of sexual violence, or is their portrayal justified, given the setting of Westeros as a brutal world were violence is the common place?

There's an interesting debate to be had here about the responsibilities of show writers/directors toward how they handle sensitive topics and staying true to the fictional world they operate within.

Author Dodie Smith in "I Capture the Castle" foreshadowed her novel's ambiguous ending through this quote from the novel: "I get the feeling I do on finishing a novel with a brick-wall happy ending – I mean the kind of ending when you never think any more about the characters."

What kind of satisfaction is there in a novel's ending where the reader interprets what happens to the characters? Do readers tend to think about what happens to a character after a "brick-wall happy ending"? Is an ambiguous ending better suited to stories where the ending could be bittersweet or sad? What kind of situations merit the reader coming up with their own ending, instead of the author revealing how they imagine everything to end?

Speak to the impact Walt Whitman had on the poetry community and perhaps bring forth a discussion as to why he either does or does not remain relevant today in our fact-based, romance-lacking society.

From Jean Reno's portrayal of Léon (Léon. AKA: The Professional. 1994) to Shin Hyeon-jun's portrayal of Hyun-jun (Kiss Me, Kill Me. 2009), the Hitman who rediscovers his humanity through self-sacrifice and atonement is a familiar theme. Are these characters merely bad men turned good or do they represent a convenient scapegoat for the ills of Society in general? Perhaps more importantly, do we learn anything from them as anti-heroes or damaged role models?

While Hollywood remakes are rampant at the moment, we have been inundated with a spate of soulless cash-ins; but do video games have to share the same fate? The mechanics of video games are much more complex, and as such can do with a gamelpay and graphics overhaul every decade or two to keep the game alive.
It would be interesting for someone to put forward the case that there is actually a need for remakes within the video game market.

Often times authors create a strong image for themselves by writing in a specific genre. When you think of Stephen King you think horror. But what about those who experiment with different genres? Are they simply stretching their creative limbs or are they lost and in need of a home? While perhaps more relevant to younger writers this also applies to giants in the industry such as Lois Lowry who's most renowned for her novel "The Giver" (A dystopian novel) and "Number the Stars" (Historical fiction). These novels vary in setting, character, and most notably the year they take place. Despite being entirely different works they belong to the same author who was able to stretch her talent across genres. But how often does genre crossing work? There is also the question of slipstream in which writers cross genres, such as fantasy and science fiction, within a story. What does that entail? Does genre crossing enhance or sabotage one's career as a writer?

Analyse and argue that Wuthering Heights is the most compelling romance ever written – and that this is the main genre of the book

Over the last couple of years, we have entered a new era of filmmaking. Studios only make safe bets, some of which pay off (The Force Awakens, Mad Max, Star Trek), but many of them bomb (Baywatch, Ghostbusters and King Arthur). Is this due to the death of creativity in these fields? Is looking for the safe bet, sticking to a formula and attaching people with no care for the source material, responsible for abysmal sales?

Recently, there have been more and more movies aiming to tell more racially diverse stories, many of which have been historical events omitted or ignored in the past due to discrimination, for example 12 Years A Slave (2013). However, many films are still criticised for 'whitewashing', the term for casting white actors in historically non-white character roles, with African Americans, Native Americans, and Asians experiencing this the most. The argument most commonly used for this is that the actors are 'better qualified for the role', however the truth behind this is often that directors often choose actors of similar backgrounds. Recent shows and movies that have come under backlash for their casting include the new Power Rangers film, the Death Note adaption, and Ghost In The Shell (2017). There are certainly far less Latino, Asian, or African American actors than there are Caucasian, but is there really so few that none are good enough for these POC roles?