Cauldrons and Receptacles

There are all sorts of bizarre cultural trends which we don't even notice until we realize they're gone. I was just thinking the other day that cauldrons have completely disappeared from culture. It seems like when I was a kid you'd always have this stereotypical witch character with a big old rusty cauldron, stewing up something. While this was the caricature end, the same themes were seen in film and television.

In action movies, as an example, there would always be a scene involving hot magma, liquid steel, candle wax, or other liquids of some kind. The pivotal battle would involve either a fight in catwalks in which the antagonist and protagonist would duel to the death, with one ultimately plunging into the depths of the unknown fluorescent liquid (see Alien 3, Terminator 2, every episode of the Batman TV series).

I can't remember when was the last time I saw a good old hot liquid fight, and it's a shame because the younger generation doesn't have this same fear of hot liquids. I demand that this be re-introduced into culture!

Edit: Francis just reminded me that Quake had a whole lot of lava in the early days, and I remember Doom having a good amount of red and green liquids which you had to get around. This kind of stuff is probably no longer present in video games because of realism or whatever. I say fuck realism, I want my fucking lava!