Why??? Just... Why???

Minecraft has a lot of features. A lot of blocks. A lot of items. A lot of mobs. And therefore, a lot of surprises. There are a lot of things in Minecraft that make you go.... WHAT?! But there are some things in Minecraft that just make you go..... WHY!?! Why is this a thing? 

There are some features in Minecraft that are so utterly pointless and forgotten about, you have to wonder... why was this EVER added? Today I am going to discuss some features that are so pointless you are left scratching your head wondering why on earth this is even a thing.

Andesite, Diorite, and Granite are craftable. Andesite is crafted with cobblestone and diorite. Diorite is crafted with cobblestone and nether quartz. Granite is crafted with diorite and nether quartz. You just have to look at this and think.... WHY!?! Why on EARTH are these STONE TYPES craftable??? Why would you EVER craft these when you already find way more of them than you will ever use.

Putting Kelp in a furnace dries it out. And you can eat it. And make the ugliest block in the game with it. Dried Kelp is perhaps one of the most useless items in the game. It's a food source, but perhaps the worst one that's ever been added. It gives you half a hunger shank and next to no saturation. And yet you need to use coal and smelt it. Why??? And for the love of god why would ANYONE make a dried kelp block!!!!

Sticks are craftable.... with 2 pieces of bamboo. That's right. Because the jungles have a huge shortage of wood, you might need to dip into that bamboo supply of yours to start making sticks. Who the actual HELL would EVER waste bamboo on making STICKS!?! This feature is SO pointless and SO unnecessary you almost have to wonder if the devs were trolling us.

Iron and Gold Armour and Tools can be smelted into a single nugget. A nugget is worth 1/9 of an ingot. This means you can smelt a chestplate, worth 8 ingots, down to a single nugget. You just made a 72-fold loss. Congratulations. Again. WHY IS THIS A THING exactly!?!

Rabbit Stew. Just Rabbit Stew. The ingredients of Rabbit Stew give you 13 hunger shanks when consumed individually. Combining them together, with an additional mushroom and bowl, will REDUCE the hunger shanks they give you to 10. I'm sorry... WHO thought Rabbit Stew was a good idea??? And WHY has this never been addressed??? As you need a few extra resources to make the stew, this thing should restore 15 shanks at least, so you'd at least make SOMEWHAT of a profit for making this item! OH, AND IT DOESN'T EVEN STACK!!!!!!!!!!

End Rods are crafted using WHAT??? This is a bit less about a stupidly impractical or ridiculous recipe, and more about one that just doesn't make a LICK of sense. End Rods in Minecraft are crafted using BLAZE RODS!!! First of all, why are these craftable in the first place? Second of all, BLAZE RODS??? Why are light sources found in the far reaches of space craftable with the limbs of a monster from the depths of hell!?!? When will blazes have EVER gone to the End??? This does not even BEGIN to fit within Minecraft's lore. And for those of you who are saying they are necessary to get into the End, therefore blazes must have lived in the End, I must remind you: Endermen live in the Nether too! I mean seriously, why are these craftable to begin with??? It would be like if sea pickles were craftable!!

Basalt Generators are.... Complex. To make a Basalt Generator, you need to have lava flow over Soul Soil which is adjacent to a block of Blue Ice. Umm okay?? I'm no geologist... does this have some resemblance to the way Basalt is generated in real life?? More to the point - WHY are such specific conditions needed to generate Basalt?? It can't be soul sand, nope it's got to be soul SOIL. And it's got to be Blue Ice, not Ice or Packed Ice. Geez! And for Cobblestone all you need is to have lava flow into water!

Endermites. WHY DO THESE MOBS EXIST??????? Yet another pointless 1.8 addition, these mobs have a 5% chance of spawning when you use an Ender Pearl. Because apparently the small amount of fall damage isn't enough of a penalty. Of all the mobs in Minecraft, this has to be the most pointless. Even the Bat does serve a purpose - in being a purely ambient. The Endermite, it has absolutely NO purpose WHATSOEVER. WHY IS THIS IN THE GAME!?! I do believe the Endermite WAS meant to be more or have something to do with re-hatching the Dragon Egg or something, but seriously, why was nothing EVER done with these or gotten flat-out removed???

That Ridiculous Turtle Potion. This is your reward for successfully breeding the only mob in Minecraft that isn't bred by simply feeding two animals with a certain food. Your reward for spending actual Minecraft DAYS making sure the turtle eggs don't get broken, and that the turtles reach adulthood. You get this Turtle Shell which doesn't really do much in the way of armour. But you can brew it into a Potion of the Turtle Master. It gives you very high resistance but slows you RIGHT down. Similar to Rabbit Stew, this is one of those items that I don't think anyone in the history of Minecraft has ever unironically used. To me this comes across as more of a joke feature than anything else.

Jump Boost Potions. On the topic of silly potions - and another pointless 1.8 feature to boot - why the HECK would ANYONE brew a Potion of Jump Boost??? The level I potion doesn't even allow you to jump 2 blocks. It allows you to jump over FENCES. You have to brew an entire potion just to jump over a friggin' FENCE??? The Level II potion WILL allow you to jump 2 blocks, but a good horse can jump 4 or even 5 - permanently - while this is only a short effect. There is actually no reason for this potion to exist in Minecraft.

Oh yeah, and both of these ridiculous potions come in Tipped Arrow form, too.

Poisonous Potatoes. Did you know that if you harvest potatoes, there's a small random chance a potato will be poisonous, and if you get a poisonous one there is NOTHING you can do with it??? Why does the game occasionally throw you a dud potato?! The same doesn't happen with wheat or carrots or beetroots or any other crop... so why potatoes!?! And it's not like you can even brew these into a potion or sold to a villager or anything like that. Heck, you can't even COMPOST this item. This is one of those features that just serves no purpose other than to piss you off.

CURSES!!!!!! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DO THESE EXIST????????? There are only 2 of them, and it seems Mojang have absolutely NO plans to add more curses. So why were curses added in the first place????? And why is it they can't even be stripped with a Grindstone!!! This to me feels like another experimental feature that probably should've been removed.

Final Word

And there you have it. Features that I think are utterly pointless. From silly crafting recipes to pointless mobs to strange potions, Minecraft sure does have some very strange features that make you question what on earth went into designing these features??? Rant over.