Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 227

October 3, 2024

Pokemon TCG: Terry Crews Masters Hydrapple’s Syrup Storm! | Stellar Crown Showdown


Welcome Trainers, to the Pokémon Trading Card Game: Scarlet & Violet – Stellar Crown Showdown! In this electrifying first episode, Terry Crews puts his strategic skills to the test with the new Hydrapple ex, as he squares off against host Alison Mattingly and the Stellar Tera Terapagos ex!

Pokemon TCG: Scarlet & Violet – Stellar Crown is available now!

https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/expansi...

Pokémon TCG Live Promo Code: GEEKANDSUNDRYSTELLAR

Decklists: https://nerdist.com/article/terry-cre...

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Special Guest: Terry Crews
Host: Alison Mattingly

Production Services by @HyperRPG

Director: Zachary Lim Eubank
Writer: Lucas Eubank
Executive Producers: Dan Casey and Alison Mattingly
Producers: Malika Lim Eubank and Matt Acevedo
Production Designer: Brad Bailey
Editor: Kalani Newman
Camera Ops: Manny Perez and Briana Monet
1st AC: Jeanna Kim
BTS Videographers: Matt Allan Smith and Lena Lee
Production Assistant: Dwain Joseph Burke
Audio Engineer: Jose Perez (JP Recording)
Technical Director: Jo Paloma
Mr. Crews’ HMU Artist: Annette Chaisson
HMU Artist: Lucena Herrera
Art Director: Angie Lister
Table Fabricator: Jonathan Adair-Austin
Table Designer: Monica M. Magaña
Graphic Designer: Caitlin Miller
Construction Foreman/Prop Maker: Kevin Murphy
Paint/Builder: Da’Rell Stacy Hobbs
Caterer: Jon Wong
VFX Artist: Kyle Stephens
Virtual Production Supervisor: Malika Lim Eubank
3D Artist: Kain Suwannaphin
Music Provided By: Epidemic

Pokemon Trading Card Game Live (Pokemon TCG Live) 3x digital Scarlet & Violet—Stellar Crown booster packs redemption available by redemption passcode only. Limited to one code per transaction. Pokemon TCG Live account required. Redemption limited to one code per Pokemon TCG Live account. This passcode is redeemable until 12:00 a.m. PDT October 5, 2024, or while supplies last. An internet connection is required to play the game.

Claim here: pokemon.com/redeem

#pokemon #pokemontcg #pokemontcg #geekandsundry #tcg #stellarcrown

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Published on October 03, 2024 15:21

Roam Sweet Roam | Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode | Episode 3


The Minions of Mayhem left the only home they’ve known behind and head for the town of Knack Brekka. On the way, they encounter their toughest challenge yet: talking to a stranger. Will they reign terror upon her? Or prove that they’re ghoul samaritans? Find out in this episode of Saga of Sundry: Goblin Mode.

Goblin Mode is also available wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnk.to/goblinmodepod

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Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode is a Geek & Sundry production made in partnership with Realm.
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#goblinmode #geekandsundry #rpg #ttrpg #sagasofsundry

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Published on October 03, 2024 15:19

Robert Aramayo Talks THE RINGS OF POWER’s Finale, Elrond and Durin, and His Current Favorite Tolkien Tale

In celebration of The Rings of Power‘s final episodes, Nerdist had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with Robert Aramayo, who plays the noble elf Elrond. In part one of our interview, Aramayo discussed Elrond’s controversial kiss with Galadriel. But then, of course, our attention turned to Elrond in The Rings of Power season two finale.

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As we dived into the finale with Aramayo, we touched on Elrond’s relationship with the Rings of Power, his growth throughout season two, his relationship with Durin (and how we all hope for more scenes with the pair), and, of course, delved into whether or not Elrond discovered Rivendell in the last scenes of the second season. Aramayo also treated us to some incredible insights into the tales of Tolkien he’s reading right now.

Take a look at our full chat with The Rings of Power‘s Elrond below.

Galadriel and Elrond from The Rings of Power season 2Prime Video

Nerdist: Elrond went on a very intense journey with the Rings of Power this season. What do you think in the end brought him to embrace the elven rings?

Robert Aramayo: Galadriel, I think. My experience of them, of their power, it’s more about her, really. And it’s more a question of my faith in her that ultimately is put to the test in the eighth episode when I turn up and she’s on the verge of death. It’s like you have two ways you can go and I think he chooses the right path.

When do you think we might expect Elrond to inherit his ring?

Aramayo: I don’t know. I really don’t. I mean, we know again, through the lore when he’s supposed to inherit it, but in terms of when that’s going to happen in the show, if that’s going to happen in the show, I dunno. But I know that right now all I can say is that he’s comfortable not wearing one.

Rivendell from Lord of the Rings from Ambient Worlds on Youtube.New Line Cinema

It also looks like we’ve found nascent Rivendell at the end of episode eight of Rings of Power, season two.

Aramayo: Maybe…

Well, it seems like Rivendell to us. And if it is Rivendell, how meaningful is it for Elrond and for you to arrive in that place?

Aramayo: Well, we never actually said that when we were shooting it, and there’s a lot of ambiguity as to where we are. Obviously, I asked those questions. But yeah, I think the thing is about Rivendell, and this is actually what I love about it, is we know how it begins. It begins as a strategic position. It doesn’t begin as something that means anything to anyone other than it’s a really good place to defend, and then it grows from there. And that’s why I love so much about the development of that city. And what makes it so unique, actually, is that Elrond is able to slowly pour who he is, what he’s interested in, what he wants to preserve and project into the world, into this place that builds and builds and grows and then becomes a city. But it’s built from necessity. And if it were to be in the show, which I really hope it is, that’s where I’d love to begin. So, his relationship to it, if he was there, would be just, this is a cool place to stem the coming, darkness.

Elrond and Durin's friendship on the Lord of the Rings the Rings of Power could lead to the creation of the Doors of DurinPrime Video

Elrond and Durin didn’t really get to spend much time together this season. There were kind of ships in the night, which made me sad. Do you think we might see them reunite more in upcoming seasons?

Aramayo:  I hope so, because, for Elrond, with Galadriel, for example, there’s this epicness to it. It’s sort like she’s a celebrity, she’s his hero, you know what I mean? She’s all of these things in the world, and it feels familial. But with Durin, it’s his best mate. And I like that. And also it’s always great to work with Owain Arthur because we’re best mates as well. So I really, really hope so because I love that relationship. Elrond is also really different when he is around Durin. He’s just a different elf and they understand each other on such an interesting level. So I would love to do more work with Elrond and Durin.

We’ll put it out into the world.

Aramayo: Let’s do that.

Elrond in armor riding a horse in The Rings of Power season twoPrime Video

What do you think has changed most in Elrond by the end of the season and what do you think about him has remained the same?

Aramayo: I think what has remained the same within him is that if you think about, there are lot of moments where, especially in the early episodes where he could just go, “You know what, then carry on. Just get on with it. I’m out. I’m out of here. I don’t agree with anything that you’re doing and I’m out.” But he doesn’t. And he’s in that kind of place at a few points through the season, I think. But he always is drawn back in. And what draws him back in is his sense of duty and honor and helping the sort of larger cause to do the right thing. He is a good guy and that I think is central to Elrond and remains the same.

In terms of what has changed in him, I think that he’s grown older. He’s had experiences that he’s never had before. He’s been in battle now, which he’s never even seen before, and he’s lost people who are really, really, really important to him. So I think, yeah, he’s grown older, and I’m interested in exploring what that means to him now.

You’ve earned a reputation as quite a Tolkien Scholar. Can you share your favorite poem or story from the lore?

Aramayo: Well, I’ll share my most recent one, which is at the minute, I’m rereading Children of Húrin, and I just finished The Battle of Unnumbered Tears. And I just think that’s a really interesting story as obviously it’s told in a few different books. But in that version of it, what’s interesting is that all the elves are there. They’re about to attack Morgoth, and they know what he wants them to do. He wants them to lose control charge in, like heroes, and then he’ll encircle them and destroy them, but only if he can get them to come.

Children of Hurin coverWilliam Morrow

And so they know the trap, they’re aware of the trap, but then he pulls this stunt where he kills this young prince. And even though they know that, they charge in. And I think that we often think that elves are these totally ethereal beings who have wisdom in abundance and would never do that. But to see that and to read that and to imagine that, that if you do what your heart is telling you to do, it’s going to screw you over, but you do it anyway. It’s quite human.

And I like that because it’s challenging the perception of the elf. It’s easy to think that an elf would never do this or that an elf would never do that. But there are countless examples across the Legendarium where you’re like, wow, that’s an elf that’s centuries, thousands of years old elf making this terrible choices. Fëanor and all of that. I think that that is a really interesting element of his writing that it constantly challenges what you think. So yeah, that’s just the most recent thing that I’ve read. So that’s in my head.

The post Robert Aramayo Talks THE RINGS OF POWER’s Finale, Elrond and Durin, and His Current Favorite Tolkien Tale appeared first on Nerdist.

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Published on October 03, 2024 01:00

THE RINGS OF POWER’s Charlie Vickers on Sauron’s Season 2 Anger, Pain, and Annatar’s Hair Bow

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The Rings of Men now belong to Sauron. The Dark Lord finally got ahold of them in The Rings of Power‘s season two finale. Celebrimbor gave his life trying to keep his final works away from “Annatar,” but while his efforts proved futile the legendary elf did manage to wound Sauron. Why did Celebrimbor’s words and death touch a nerve with Middle-earth’s greatest threat? And what pain does he carry with him? We asked Sauron himself, Charlie Vickers, about all of that and more following The Rings of Power‘s second year.

Sauron as the blonde-haired Annatar on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

Nerdist: Why does Sauron cry at Celebrimbor’s death?

Charlie Vickers: I don’t know. It just happened. And that’s the honest truth. As an actor you just put yourself in the moment and if something happens, it happens. It never happened to me before as Sauron and I didn’t want to block that. If they use it, they use it. And they did use it.

But you can justify it so many different ways. He had a great partner in Celebrimbor who was the greatest of Elvin smiths, someone he revered and respected. They could have done really great things together. Celebrimbor could have been an amazing tool, but he killed him. And I don’t think he wanted to kill him in that moment, but he lost control, which is very Sauron. If anything, the tear (he cries) is probably more about his own reflection un himself, what he has become, and his history with Morgoth.

Celebrimbor posterPrime Video

Morgoth was very nihilistic and destroyed everything. He was out of control all the time, wrecking stuff. Sauron didn’t want to be like that at all. And then Celebrimbor says to him, “You’ve become a slave to the rings. They are your master.” Sauron loses control and kills him when he in fact needed him to tell him where the nine rings were. There’s a lot of sadness and anger and grief at the fact, that he’s seeing reflected in his own actions. Exactly what he doesn’t want to become. But then, interestingly, when Glug (the orc) comes in, you see this really quite fast transition into, “How can I twist this now?” And he calls him an Uruk to try and get him on side, which I think is really cool writing. That transition is quite un-human.

I want to come back to Sauron’s pain, but I have one more Celebrimbor question. He says Sauron deceives himself. Does the Dark Lord understand that’s true? Or is he in complete denial about himself?

Vickers: He’s in denial, but there’s probably a little element of him that realizes that. I mean, he’s hugely emotionally intelligent. That’s how he deceives these people. There’s an element of him that would have that self-awareness, that would be, “I’ve gone down this rabbit hole now. And perhaps there is an element of truth to what you’re saying.” But as much as he realizes that, he’s trying to crush those feelings as he goes and advances forward. It’s not until all this is over that he can properly reflect on what’s happened, but at this point he’s descending down the rabbit hole.

Sauron with his Annatar hair in battle with Galadriel on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

Galadriel tells Sauron he needs to heal himself first. What is it that’s truly hurting him?

Vickers: I don’t know. She says that to him and then leaves, and certainly from his perspective and from my perspective, he’s left kind of pondering, “What does that mean?” You could interpret it as he needs to heal the hole that his treatment at the hands of Morgoth left in him. That’s if you really want to humanize the character, which I think is dangerous because he’s not human.

Psychologically, if you’ve been mistreated in your past, you are likely to go on to mistreat others. And there is an element of that with this character and what we explore with Morgoth. There’s a lot of text that backs that idea up, but I think it’s a dangerous path to fully commit to that.

There’s a lot of stuff he needs to heal in himself. He’s got quite a lot of issues, but he’s not willing to deal with that at this stage.

Sauron as the blonde-haired Annatar on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

How exactly did the Dark Lord give Adar children? What did that actually entail?

Vickers: By giving him an army of Orcs under his tutelage. Or giving him command of the Uruk, a certain division of Uruk. Then that expanded as time went on.

This is the first time I’m not going to ask you about Hot Sauron, but I am going to ask you about Annatar’s little hair bow. People are obsessed with it. What’s the story behind that bow?

Vickers: :he smiles: The bow. Flora Moody, the hair and makeup person who did the wig. She was the designer. I think she was just like, “we’ve got all this hair here, we have to do something with it,” and just put it into a bow. It’s as simple as that. And I was like, “Okay, I can’t see back there.” It was an idea that people are all around the world would be going to the salon and asking for the bow in their hair, women of America and England and everywhere.

Is it your favorite of all of Sauron’s hairstyles so far?

Vickers: The bow is pretty cool, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Charlie Vickers on Sauron’s Season 2 Anger, Pain, and Annatar’s Hair Bow appeared first on Nerdist.

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Published on October 03, 2024 01:00

THE RINGS OF POWER Finally Reveals The Stranger’s Name and Identity

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The Rings of Power‘s showrunners promised us we’d learn The Stranger’s name by the end of season two. They proved true to their word. Nori’s tall magical friend is exactly who we suspected from the moment he arrived on Middle-earth in a literal ring of fire. The Rings of Power‘s “The Stranger” is Gandalf, the most beloved wizard in all of The Lord of the Rings. How did we finally learn his true identity in the season finale? In a very silly manner that is true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore.

The Stranger sitting in Tom Bombadil's cottage on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

The Stranger and Nori are going their separate ways on The Rings of Power. But before they said goodbye to one another, the Stoors helped the wizard finally discover his own name. “Thank you kindly, Grand Elf,” said Merimac before Gundabel added, “Goodbye, Grand Elf.”

Hearing the phrase “Grand Elf” unlocked something in The Stranger’s mind. When he got back to Tom Bombadil’s cottage he knew what he’d be known as on Middle-earth. “Gandalf. That’s what they’re going to call me, isn’t it?” the wizard said on The Rings of Power season two’s final episode.

By the time the wizard spoke his own famous name it felt less like a revelation and more like a confirmation of something we already knew. From the moment he appeared on The Rings of Power all signs have pointed to The Stranger being Gandalf. The Valar sent him naked to Middle-earth in a comet. Nori found him in a ring of fire and Gandalf will one day wear the Elf ring of power Narya which represents fire. He is also immune to flames and can speak to creatures. Combined with both his appearance and his fondness for halflings, it would have been shocking if The Rings of Power‘s Stranger was anyone but Gandalf. The one thing we couldn’t predict was how he would learn his name.

The Stranger lies surrounded by the fire of his comet crash on The Rings of Power

One of the most famous, consequential figures in all of Middle-earth history getting his iconic name from a clunky blending of two words is silly enough on its own. But this reveal really doesn’t make sense in the context of the show. The Stoors might have never met an elf before, but they almost certainly know they have pointed ears and don’t grow often grow beards. Plus they know plenty about wizards thanks to the presence of the Dark Wizard in Rhûn. Also, Nori and Poppy were right there. They would have told the Stoors their heroic tall friend is a wizard and not an elf.

Merimac being confused about The Stranger’s identity might have worked on its own. However, Gundabel is too smart to make that kind of mistake. There was simply no good reason for the Stoors to call him a “Grand Elf.” But while the execution left something/a lot to be desired, the actual connection between the name “Gandalf” and calling him an “elf” on The Rings of Power comes from Tolkien.

Daniel Weyman as the Stranger smiles in the sun on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

Gandalf translates into “elf-of-the wand.” Originally the people of Middle-earth thought anyone who was immortal must be an elf. It made sense to call a magical being who couldn’t die and walked around with a big staff a “wand elf.” By the time everyone realized a bearded figure who aged could not be an elf it didn’t matter. The name had stuck and Gandalf used it when meeting new people.

The Rings of Power said a wizard does not find his name anymore than he finds his staff. They both find him. Turns out sometimes, even when it’s a name we fully expect, it finds him in a silly way. And so, we extend an official welcome to Gandalf on The Rings of Power. Hopefully, Ian McKellen doesn’t mind too much no longer being the only person to play.


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Published on October 03, 2024 01:00

THE RINGS OF POWER Introduced Middle-earth’s Most Famous Sword

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The faithful of Númenor are under attack on The Rings of Power. In the show’s season two finale a desperate Ar-Pharazôn declared his opponents traitors. The island’s rightful Queen refused to leave her people behind during their darkest hour, but Míriel sent Elendil off with something that will serve as an enduring symbol of Númenor’s true strength and devotion. She gave him the most famous sword in all of Middle-earth. Elendil now carries Narsil on The Rings of Power, the legendary sword that will one day be reforged for his descendant Aragorn to carry into battle against Sauron.

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn holding his sword in The Lord of the RingsNew Line Cinema

Pharazôn and his loyalists have declared war on their fellow Númenoreans by falsely declaring them enemies of the crown the new King stole. After his daughter tipped him off about his pending arrest, Elendil wanted to flee west with his Queen. She refused to run. Míriel told him her place is in the city while his fate lies elsewhere. We know what destiny awaits him, and clearly she does too, because she sent him off with a very important weapon. In The Rings of Power season two’s final episode, she gave him “The White Flame,” the longsword known as Narsil.

Little is known of Narsil’s origins and early history. The great dwarf smith Telchar forged it during “the deeps of time” in the First Age. At some point after the defeat of Morgoth it arrived in Númenor during the Second Age. As the The Rings of Power shows, Narsil eventually ended up in Elendil’s possession when he became the new Lord of the Andúnië.

Elendil holding the sword Narsil on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

The Lord of the Rings fans know what awaits both Elendil and his sword. (NOTE: If you don’t and would prefer to keep it that way stop reading now) Sometime in the future of The Rings of Power, Elendil will carry Narsil—a memory and symbol of Númenor’s faith in the Valar and the Andúnië’s standing among mortal men—into battle against Sauron. Elendil will wield Narsil into the War of the Last Alliance where he will face off against the Dark Lord.

Narsil, whose very name represents the Sun and Moon, will break in two during that fight. (Peter Jackson showed it breaking into many shards). But Elendil’s son will pick up both his father’s mantle and a part of Narsil to cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, something The Rings of Power will surely depict with great care. The broken pieces will then be passed down for generations to Isildur’s heirs, the Dúnedain of the North. Eventually, something we won’t see on The Rings of Power proper, since it takes place in the Third Age, Elrond will give the shards of Narsil to a young Aragorn, who will carry them with him until elves of Rivendell reforge it into the sword Andúril.

Aragorn will have Andúril with him when he departs with the Fellowship of the Ring. He will take it across Middle-earth as Sauron rules once more from Mordor. And he will carry it when the forces of good defeat the Dark Lord forever. Aragorn, the faithful and noble descendent of Elendil, will be the last one to ever wield it.

Did Queen Míriel see all of that when she looked into her palantír? Or did she merely see Elendil will literally carry the legacy of all that was good in Númenor? Only she knows that, but whatever she saw she ensured Narsil would forever be more than just a sword, on The Rings of Power and beyond. It would forever serve as a symbol of the light against the dark.

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Published on October 03, 2024 01:00

We Dive Into THE RINGS OF POWER’s Saddest Death and Say Namárië to Its Greatest Character

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In some distant, happy future, a day will come when the character I select to give my entire heart to will make it to the end of their series. Maybe he or she will fall in love, maybe find some peace, and perhaps, I shall dare to dream, they’ll get to sail off into the sunset with one very crucial thing… THEIR LIVES. But, alas, that day is not today. And so, it is with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to the greatest character The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power offered to the world and the long-standing object of my affections, an Uruk, an elf, a father of many, the magnificent Adar. Alas, as I knew would happen but could never fully prepare for, in the final episode of The Rings of Power season two, Adar met his death.

Adar and Step Adar from The Rings of PowerPrime Video

In truth, I had been mentally penning a eulogy for Adar for weeks now. Not because I knew for sure that he would die in The Rings of Power season two’s finale, but because the writing was on the wall. From the clinical perspective of the narrative outline, I can see where the story has left him behind. But there is a reason why we watch fully formed stories and not narrative outlines. And that’s because they bring to us wonderful characters that live and breathe before our eyes, that evolve as they exist on the page or screen.

Specific narrative purpose perhaps had abandoned the good Lord Father, but narrative… Adar still has plenty of that. There is so much story left inside of him, past, present, and future. And that narrative has now slipped away with Adar’s death. It is a sad loss, which I add to the pile of the many stories whose abrupt endings I mourn.

As I said in a different piece about Adar, in the end, Adar’s story is a noble one, steeped in darkness. In The Rings of Power, Adar existed as an endless series of gorgeous contradictions. Victim and Aggressor. Father and Warrior. Fragile and Enduring. Uruk and Elf. A character that is as beautiful, complex, and tragic as Adar is not easily forged in any story, let alone in one where he must stand up against some of the most recognizable characters in fiction. But, as is always the case with Adar, against all odds, he persevered.

Jump to: The Complicated (and Uncomplicated) Heroism of Adar // The Narrative Potential Adar Still Holds // An Outpouring of Adar Love

The Complicated (and Uncomplicated) Heroism of Adar in The Rings of Power

Unexpectedly, given everything we know about The Lord of the Rings, the father of the Uruk had a heart. He planted seeds in the ground to pray that gods who had long abandoned him keep the orcs, or Uruk, safe. Adar shed tears for them when they were felled. He loved his children, as he called them. Adar, it turned out, for all that darkness had touched him, for his gauntlet, and his seeming ruthlessness, was soft. Adar was damaged. He was tired. He was beyond in the throes of PTSD. Mostly, he just wanted a home, a safe place for himself and his family to finally find peace, as the rest of the world tried to stamp them out of existence and punish them for the mere crime of breathing.

Galadriel and Adar The Lord of the Rings the Rings of Power season one (1)Prime Video

It is said that every good villain is the hero of their own story. But in the end, The Rings of Power‘s Adar was so wonderful because he was not just a hero of his own story, but a hero, point blank, albeit a complicated one that presented in a way that challenged viewers to push beyond their typical definitions of the word. He was also a hero who committed great wrongs. But if we strip away what we know of The Lord of the Rings and our preconceived understandings of who an orc must be and then close our eyes to the physical mottle of “ugly” evil that touches Adar’s being and that of his children’s, beneath all these misdirecting layers, here is what we see…

An innocent being is captured by malice and tortured for many ages. At some point, his deep wish for children, for love, is granted cruelly, but he loves that family nonetheless. He cannot stand to watch them be tormented, so he frees them from their captors, only to be hunted by every other group in the world in which he lives, only to know there is no safe haven for them to exist. Desperate for their peace, he fights the armies that pursue him to create the single place where his children can live without fear. When evil again rises to threaten them, he rushes to try to stamp it out once more despite his own great personal pain.

the rings of power adar planting seeds (1)Prime Video

Is that not a heroic tale without a caveat, without the prefix “anti-” or, worse, the word “villain” involved? The Rings of Power certainly seemed to invite us to think so, as it introduced to us the notions that Uruk have hearts and names. That they wish to protect one another and their own children from harm. That they deserve the breath of life and a home. Yes, this heroism presents as “Other” and not as simply as the shining armor of the elves and their gleaming swords. But it is easy to be a hero under the latter circumstances and much more complicated to persist in nobility, in any goodness of heart, through darkness.

Undeniably, there is violence involved in Adar’s heroism on The Rings of Power. But Adar’s violence links with his specific aims, limited to what he must do to achieve his ends, not, as the violence against him is, aimed at the widespread destruction of his family. As Sauron tells Adar, the Uruk, and the viewers, in the first episode of season two. “You have nowhere else to turn. The Valar will never forgive you. Elves will never accept you. Men will never look upon you with anything but horror and disgust, a corrupted and ignoble race-worthy only to be hunted and slaughtered.”

If the Uruk truly do have hearts and names, souls, if they are creations of the secret fire, same as any other being, was it not the true villainy of everyone else to turn them into a race worth being only hunted and slaughtered? If so, then rooting for their survival is a worthy action. And Adar’s devotion to them is noble as well. Not just heroic from Adar’s perspective on The Rings of Power, but heroic, full stop.

Adar crying on The Rings of Power season twoPrime Video

Maybe if any one of these races had extended a hand to the Uruk at any point, the violence might have lessened. Maybe, it could have ceased. It seems that if the elves or man had offered sanctuary instead of blades to Adar and the Uruk after Morgoth’s fall, the story of what comes next in Middle-earth would have gone very differently. The series also makes clear that generations of abuse created the Uruk. We see and hear about Morgoth’s abuse of Sauron, and Sauron’s abuse of Adar, and Adar’s desperation to break that cycle. And could breaking age-long cycles of abuse be anything but heroic? (Not to mention that in his efforts to break the chain, Adar stopped Sauron with only the help of a few of his children, a feat no other being in The Lord of the Rings‘ world can truly claim. In doing so, he spared the whole of Middle-earth from Sauron’s evil for a good long time. And no one has ever thanked him for that.)

Adar destroys Sauron on The Rings of Power season 2Prime Video

Did Adar enact some regrettable, even evil, actions over the course of his story? He did, absolutely. But in most cases, the question “what should he have done?” is a salient one. Allowed men, elves, and dwarves to kill his children without a second thought? Put sympathy for them before their nonexistent empathy for him? Given a thought to nature, when nature had in truth abandoned him? In some cases, especially in cases where an entire world—the very fabric of the universe—is against you, merely existing is brave. And creating a safe place for those you love to exist is noble. This does not excuse Adar the harm he committed to others, which was, at points, harrowing, it certainly does not make that harm good in any way. But it does not, I believe, relegate him to villainy either. In the end, Adar never sought war; he did not push to eradicate elves or men or anyone else, all of whom would have, and did, and will hunt him and the Uruk to the ends of the Middle-earth. Adar just wanted to be left alone, free with his family. He wanted to be at peace.

The Rings of Power Adar season onePrime Video

These complicated thoughts are the absolute best ones that The Rings of Power brings us. These thoughts, I dare to say, are what allow the show not to just adapt Tolkien’s works but to enhance them. And it is through Adar that they came to exist. Adar’s presence challenged us and forced us to reexamine all our preconceived notions about light and dark in a way that few fictional figures do. His character helped to make the show as great as it is.

The Narrative Potential Adar Still Holds

Adar’s existence brought all this to the narrative, but what does his death bring? Only a fading away of so much potential. Perhaps Adar had come to the end of his narrative position as the opposing force to elves and man. But the complex stories that The Rings of Power has imbued in him could have continued far beyond that conception of his place.

Adar and the orcsPrime Video

With Adar’s passing, for instance, Galadriel is the sole bearer of truth about the Uruk. Only she will know now that they have hearts and names and that once someone loved them very much. But will she remember that truth going forward? Will it matter to her? Will she know it as the Uruk fall back into Sauron’s manipulations and eventually succumb to the total thrall of the One Ring? Or will this part of the narrative fade away alongside the Uruk’s freedom from Sauron?

Had Adar lived, he could have borne witness to the tragedy that is watching the Uruk fall back into enslavement, torture, and pure evil. Adar could have held vigil for the Uruk we have come to know in The Rings of Power. He could have fought to reclaim them somehow, as no doubt no one will now do. And allowed them to join “some of every kind” of being, as Tolkien writes, in standing against Sauron during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. No race deserves a chance to do that, in my opinion, more than the Uruk.

Had he lived, Adar’s very presence would have kept the truth of the Uruk’s depth and their suffering alive for the viewer and the other races of Middle-earth. As mentioned, the addition of a naunce for the Uruk, the anguishing victimhood of their lives, and the idea that they are not somehow “engineered to be only evil,” are some of the powerful concepts The Rings of Power has given us via Adar. To reduce the orcs back into swirling voids of canon fodder as the narrative moves on, to render them simply a group whose deaths we cheer without questioning the impulse… That would be a great shame. 

Adar and Galadriel on The Rings of Power season 2Prime Video

Adar’s character also brings into sharp relief the incredible shortcomings of the elves and their great many failings. In his interactions with them, we come to see that the elves would rather find unfeeling monsters to slay in the Uruk than hearts to save. And is that not in its way evil? Their hatred and lack of empathy for beings “less pure” than themselves indeed has long blinded them in a way that is difficult to see without Adar. Not to mention that no The Rings of Power elf on our screen has ever, at the most basic level of compassion, acknowledged that Adar and the Uruk suffered great torture at Sauron’s hands (and their own) without outright dismissing it… Let alone given any credence to the obvious truth before them that Adar was basically a prisoner of war.

Adar and Galadriel sitting at opposite ends of a long table in The Rings of Power season twoPrime Video

Again, only Galadriel seems to come some way in repairing her past mistakes in The Rings of Power season two. Throughout the episodes, she learns enough to say Uruk instead of orc and to acknowledge Adar has children and not slaves. But will she hold herself and others to account with it after Adar’s death? Had Adar continued to exist, his presence would have been directly confronting to the elves. It may have forced them to continue to evolve and fix some of their prejudices and near-sighted beliefs. It could have helped them become a force for good that is truly bright.

Arondir and Adar The Rings of PowerPrime Video

Not to mention, in my opinion, there’s nothing more delicious than seeing characters who were once in opposition forced to exist peaceably. I, for one, would have loved to witness the exquisite tension that would have come to life as Adar wrestled with reassimilating (or not) to the realities of elven existence and the continued exploration of the complex and painful dynamics between him and his kind. Arondir and Adar, too, might have had a much truer reckoning with one another if Adar had more episodes to exist. And that feels to me like a story worth delving into.

Adar stands in the sun on The Rings of PowerPrime Video

Beyond this, there’s also so much we still don’t know about Adar. So many fascinating questions that have gone unanswered. Why is it that Adar wanted children? Why could he not have had them without Sauron? What befell him in Sauron’s hands? In truth, what does it mean that he is the father of Orcs? What happened to the other Moriondor? When did Adar see the sage blossoms at Beleriend? At what point did he learn Galadirel’s Telerin name? And how did he know Melian? When did he study Rumil? What did he mean when he said there are so many lies in Middle-earth that need to be untangled? Does the song of Valinor still call to him in his heart? The Rings of Power teased so much depth in Adar that surely it could have continued exploring for episodes to come.

Halbrand who is Sauron nearly Killing Adar on the Rings of PowerPrime Video

And ultimately, there seems, to me, something so intrinsically unfair about Adar’s death. And I know that the fates of characters rarely rely on fairness. I know that. But despite this, after all that torture, after all that pain, after all that enduring, to simply end at Sauron’s feet, to die at the will of his abuser and the hands of his children, it hurts my soul. The symmetry of death might have been right for the narrative, absolutely Sauron’s idea of a payback, but for this character whose pain on pain on pain culminated only with more pain… It seems an unfitting end. I wish, if we couldn’t have had Adar’s continued life, we might have had one more shot of his body lying in the sunlight after the battle, at peace in death, if nowhere else. I wish that sage blossoms would grow alongside him.

the rings of power AdarPrime Video

To conclude, The Rings of Power‘s Adar is a character like no other. Adar endured much. More than anyone in Middle-earth, perhaps. He never got to see his children at peace. He never got to hear the song of Valinor in his heart. In so many ways, Adar was a victim of terrible tragedies. He was a survivor of torment and torture. But, although pain after pain was inflicted upon Adar, goodness remained in Adar, and he was driven at the core by love. Though in his own world, Adar was alone, in ours, many came to cheer for him, think about him, and love him.

And so we say, namárië. In our hearts, Adar will always find new life, in defiance of death. 


#Tolkientober Day 10 + #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday – Kindness / Mind🌥️

"With shadows he hid himself and his servants from Arien, the glance of whose eyes they could not endure"

Adar sewing sun-cloaks for his Uruk children out of love and kindness🖤 pic.twitter.com/BjZQku4mxw

— Ly (@LyBlacktea) October 10, 2023

https://t.co/TxLwffnyhj pic.twitter.com/R1jO7wDg6E

— 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝘀 🦕♥️🧪𝗔𝗺𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗶𝘀 (@DinosaLabs) July 26, 2024

You told us… you loved us.

– With all that is left of my heart. #Adar #RingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/KGF9UBVYsH

— • Niku30 @ 🔜 MCM London • (@niku30_) September 27, 2024


I made a brief Adar animation for #2hTolkien 🧍
ドイツからの挨拶だ!#TheRingsOfPower | @TheRingsofPower | @samuelhazeldine pic.twitter.com/nJhsfYRL7P

— Adarable 💍 art account in Rings of Power era (@macchiavato) September 28, 2024

It’s fashion, darling! #TheRingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/VW8O9TiIAd

— Rotem Rusak 🔜 NYCC (@Moondancer1626) September 10, 2024

adar & mairon: mary on a cross 🗡️ #saurdar | #theringsofpower pic.twitter.com/Xo4hZ0YLnM

— kaylen🦇💍 (@HOBBlTS) September 15, 2024

Adar the best Uruk Dad 🖤 pic.twitter.com/UZnbUZS7ZY

— MGCoco★ (@mgcoco_art) September 1, 2024

What he was promised #RingsofPower #Adar

(Finished it 🖤 it's a baby Glûg in case you are wondering ) https://t.co/wlMnfranwr pic.twitter.com/1x9F4IKk4l

— Maeglin Lómion (@MaeglinJealousy) September 22, 2024

Adar study 🌹 #LOTR pic.twitter.com/99HiJa32hd

— ✦Alienprotein✦ COMMS OPEN! (@Alienproteinnn) October 13, 2022

Adar before being corrupted.#RingsOfPower #Adar #theringsofpower #sauron #mordor #illustration #TROP pic.twitter.com/rZd1Of8ezZ

— Clefchan ✨️💍 (@Clefchan0604) September 29, 2024

愛しい我が子#2hTolkien#TheRingsOfPower #Adar

(トールキンワンツードロライ、お題「アダル」で参加させていただきました) pic.twitter.com/shsZxEzpmn

— 茶 (@lotri_ng) September 28, 2024

So yeee, this is where my mind was at#TheRingsOfPower #galadriel #adar #glug pic.twitter.com/h8cIGxCjsJ

— Suzy (@smittensy) September 19, 2024

adar & sauron | am I making you feel sick?

rings of power adar sauron mairon #IDrankItAll pic.twitter.com/3ueu44HDoa

— 𝖆𝖒𝖆𝖚𝖗𝖊𝖆 ⚔️ (@amaureacosplay) September 14, 2024

episode 8 idk #haladriel #saurondriel #adariel #adar pic.twitter.com/uMgQda2ofp

— brych ✦ (@itsbrych) September 24, 2024

#adariel
Being a single dad in front of your crush like—

And n he's not thinking motherhood suits her nah, of course not 🙄 pic.twitter.com/jt9vMPAybN

— nyx 🌱 commissions open ✨️ (@nikinikori) September 20, 2024

#2hTolkien お題「アダル」
手甲と剣がタイムアウトで塗れませんでしたが参加させていただきます。
尊父とさよならしたくない😭#Adar#TheRingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/NTNMv48fRC

— はね (@hane12oto) September 29, 2024

Oh my gosh!!! The incredibly talented @LyBlacktea drew my @nerdist interview with Morfydd and Sam and turned it into Galadriel and Adar! I am deeply touched. It's so beautiful! #TheRingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/FHeiiarHOj

— Rotem Rusak 🔜 NYCC (@Moondancer1626) September 20, 2024

#Adariel #TheRingsOfPower

I made a new drawing 😇 pic.twitter.com/52z0iDeKI1

— Lefty (@uruk_art) September 18, 2024

Adar? More like Mairon's bane 🌑 ||
i am growing more and more attached to him 🕯⛓️ https://t.co/aHh9Z42lAg pic.twitter.com/ipYKf4bq5c

— vivi 𖣂💍|| Mirkwood's Princess 🍂 (@justfairyvi) September 15, 2024

Still working on this one, but I wanted to share where it’s at so far. There’s so much left to refine, but I’m really enjoying the process of bringing this piece to life#wip #art #digitalart #procreate #darkart #elf #TheRingsofPower #SamHazeldine #Adar pic.twitter.com/hWUH5SHrzl

— iranasaty (@iranasaty) September 13, 2024

Ocean of Color #saurdar #mairon pic.twitter.com/Z9qccXpm1l

— Kneekooh 💍 (@_kneekooh_) September 22, 2024

This ship is gonna be the death of me 🤷‍♀️#adariel #TheRingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/1HDMcNteG1

— Margaux Mara (@MargauxKindhau1) October 2, 2024

"Have you forgotten your Rúmil?" pic.twitter.com/dJBI2pZwU3

— Lou 🌿 Galadriel's wife (@lialiii07) September 27, 2024

Napping Arondir and Adar🖤

For this one I wanted Adar to wear something loose, cosy and more comfortable than his armour🥺 https://t.co/yfeDL75xEd pic.twitter.com/125ZFgHM4B

— Ly (@LyBlacktea) April 30, 2024

Sauron/Adar | Look What You Made Me Do 😁 #TheRingsOfPower #SaurDar pic.twitter.com/nrEQ7HGaSd

— Rotem Rusak 🔜 NYCC (@Moondancer1626) September 7, 2024

Episode 5 🔪 / adar & galadriel pic.twitter.com/Nr5oS9690F

— Magda Kacalak (@likatnes) September 16, 2024

adar the single mom who took a day off to have fun with his kids @Imbelaris pic.twitter.com/03mYyk80XY

— Malevolent Swag (@coquettesauron) September 11, 2024

Maiden Crowned with Radiant Garland#adariel pic.twitter.com/SaAbJ7CpMK

— nyx 🌱 commissions open ✨️ (@nikinikori) September 23, 2024

Life.#TheRingsOfPower #Adar pic.twitter.com/cXiyHLWcIk

— Adarable 💍 art account in Rings of Power era (@macchiavato) August 25, 2024

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The post We Dive Into THE RINGS OF POWER’s Saddest Death and Say Namárië to Its Greatest Character appeared first on Nerdist.

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Published on October 03, 2024 01:00

October 2, 2024

Patrick Stewart Reveals His All-Time Favorite STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Episode

Over its seven-year run, Star Trek: The Next Generation had no shortage of all-time classic episodes. It had quite a few stinkers too, but hey, that’s how it was back when a show had 26-episode seasons. They couldn’t all be winners. But with 178 episodes to its name, what was Sir Patrick Stewart’s favorite chapter of the show? Well, if you’re a big TNG fan, you might have already guessed. But now we know for certain. Via Slash Film, we learned that Stewart’s favorite outing as Captain Jean Luc Picard was an episode where he (mostly) didn’t even play that character, season five’s “The Inner Light.”

Captain Picard, Data, Worf, and La Forge on the Enterprise bridge in the Star Trek: TNG episode "The Inner Light."Paramount Television

In “The Inner Light,” the Enterprise encounters an ancient alien probe (there’s always one of those) from a long-dead world. The probe scans Picard’s mind and implants the memories of an entire lifetime into his head. Picard awakens on a planet called Katann, now with the name Kamin. On Katan, he married, had children and grandchildren, and grew to old age. He even became an accomplished flute player. Eventually, he found out the life he lived was a simulation. It was a kind of time capsule recording of a planet facing extinction. When Picard returned to his old life, decades had passed for him. Yet only a few minutes had passed in the real world.

Here’s what Stewart said about the experience of making “The Inner Light:”

I become someone other than Jean-Luc Picard over decades of living a different life, and therefore become a different person. A domestic person, not a starship captain. And there is another, personal reason. My son Daniel played my son in “The Inner Light.” That was an extraordinary experience.

Picard clutches his flute from his other life in the TNG episode "The Inner Light."Paramount Television

While our favorite Star Trek: TNG episode remains season two’s “The Measure of a Man,” we certainly understand why Patrick Stewart would love “The Inner Light” so much. It’s a beautiful episode, and it afforded the classically trained actor to go through an entire lifetime of a character in the span of 50 minutes. It’s one of those episodes that always leaves you a bit teary-eyed at the end. If you plan on doing a TNG rewatch anytime soon, there are far worse places to start than with “The Inner Light.”

The post Patrick Stewart Reveals His All-Time Favorite STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Episode appeared first on Nerdist.

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Published on October 02, 2024 14:20

McDonald’s Retro-Style Boo Buckets Are Back, with Different Monsters

Did you grow up in the ’80s and ’90s? If so, then you know Halloween season only truly began when McDonald’s started offering their plastic Boo Bucket Happy Meals. This tradition began in 1986, and continued of and on for several decades. A few years ago, McDonald’s tapped into the nostalgia market and brought the original Boo Buckets back, in all their retro glory. But we’ve learned, via Design Taxi, that this year McDonald’s is bringing back the classic Boo Buckets with a bit of a more modern flavor. Gone are the witches, Jack-o-lanterns, and ghosts, because this year it’s all about the monsters.

McDonald's Boo Bucket Happy Meals for 2024McDonald’s

The monsters on the Boo Buckets for the 2024 spooky season may be new, but the colors are very familiar. The new plastic pails come in the familiar orange, green, and white colors. After all, you need to have the traditional McDonald’s Halloween color palette on display for proper nostalgic vibes. However, a blue bucket is now part of the mix this year, which replaces last year’s purple one. Is the inspiration for this new blue one Cookie Monster, or Sully from Monsters, Inc? We’re not sure, but we’re here for either one. They also include several stickers to decorate each pail with.

The 2024 McDonald's Boo Bucket pails with stickers.McDonald’s

Over the years, McDonald’s tried to make their Boo Buckets relevant to modern kids by tying them into a popular IP. There were buckets featuring the Minions, Scooby-Doo, Monster High, and even one for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! But in 2022, McDonald’s brought back the classic Boo Bucket Happy Meals, which were a big hit. These new Boo Buckets may have different designs than the ones from yesteryear, but they certainly evoke the classic style. This year’s Boo Bucket Happy Meals will be available at McDonald’s locations everywhere starting on October 15.

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Published on October 02, 2024 13:51

The Princes of Christmas and Halloween Fall in Love in THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE KISSMAS

What happens when two holiday princes collide? An incredibly charming and fun enemies to lovers romance, of course. Sara Raasch’s The Nightmare Before Kissmas brings together the Prince of Christmas and the Prince of Halloween in a story described as Red, White, & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nicholas “Coal” Claus is reckoning with his future as the reigning Santa, and Hex is ready to take on Halloween. But not all is as it seems. There is drama between the different holidays, and the tabloids are ready to leap on every bit of news. A romance between Coal and Hex would be a circus. But do they care? Can they stop themselves?

I cannot emphasize enough how delightful The Nightmare Before Kissmas is. We’re fully in spooky season, and this book is a perfect way to mark the occasion. I’m excited to share an exclusive excerpt.

The cover of The Nightmare Before Kissmas with the princes of Christmas and Halloween

But first, read the synopsis:


Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make-out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night.


But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.


Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.


It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants. And it all leads to one of the sweetest, sexiest, messiest, most delightfully unforgettable love stories of the year.


And now, please enjoy chapter five.

Headline: Christmas Prince falls into minor coma at sight of guy he kissed one and a half years ago who had the audacity to get even hotter in the interim.

Too wordy. Not sure I care. There’s nothing but a rolling air-raid siren in my head as Dad goes through all the pomp of having a royal family visiting. So glad you’re here, yadda yadda. The Halloween family comes up on stage and they pose with Dad, Iris, and her father, and I think Kris and I should join in, but no one pushes us to, so we step down into the shadows beside the stage and I have a silent panic attack.

Kris chuckles. “You’re pale. And sweating. You feel like an ass for mocking my jumpiness over their Halloween woo-woo spooky shit now, don’t you?”

“I—what? No, I’m not—that’s him.”
He gives me a puzzled look. “Him? The Halloween Prince? You—”
“No. No.” I pinch the skin over my nose. “That’s him. The guy I kissed in the alley. At the bar. After the New Koah screwup. That guy.”
Kris swings in front of me, trying to block me from any stray pictures. “Woah, woah—wait, really?”
“Yes. Yes. Holy shit—”
“Look, I love you, Coal, don’t take this the wrong way—but I was on Iris’s side in the whole is this guy real camp. It was dark, you were hammered and stressed. Maybe the Halloween prince sort of looks like the guy you thought—”
That’s the guy!” I hiss, thank god, but I want to shout. “The guy I thought was someone normal and he’s—he’s the fucking Prince of Halloween.”
Kris lifts his hands like he can contain my freak-out. “Breathe. You’re hyperventilating.”
“How is this possible? Why was he even at that bar? Christmas and Halloween don’t interact.”
“Clearly.”
“Shut up. This is serious. Did he target me? No. No, that’s insane, right?”
Did Hex know who I was? I couldn’t pick him or his family out of a lineup, so why would he have recognized me? What would have been the point? Nothing negative came of it, no leaked stories to the
press or repercussions at all, so much so that Iris and Kris don’t believe it happened.
But it did. Fuck, did it, because I’ve thought about that guy and that kiss way more than I’d ever admit to anyone. Even myself.
. . . foundations aren’t ever one thing, they’re many little things interlocked together.
In all the moments since then when I’ve asked myself what I should do instead of acting on impulse, that conversation would flash through my mind. The stranger—Hex—had known so easily what I don’t let myself admit I want. Foundation, solidity, happiness. And he was a stranger, the longer time went on and nothing popped up and I couldn’t find him afterwards, so I let the fantasy of him roil to embarrassing proportions because what did it matter, I’d never see him again.
Until now, apparently, because fuck my life.
“It was like years ago,” Kris says. “Nothing bad came of it, not from Halloween, at least. I’ll give you hat it’s weird, but I think you might be overreacting. Just a tad.”
Oh great. “Cover for me.”
I ease away and race to the bathroom where I consider dunking my head under the faucet but decide against it and pat my cheeks with cold water. The iciness washes a spurt of calm through me, and I rock forward, forehead hitting the mirror.
Kris is right. I am overreacting. It was a weird coincidence almost two years ago that didn’t result in any fallout so I have no reason to be losing my ever-loving mind.
I will not mess this up. My dad has done a fine enough job of that himself, and I’m firmly on Iris’s side—when this blows up, it will not be because of anything I do. Not again. I am a changed person, goddamn it, no matter what wayward fantasies I’ve been reliving like some lovestruck schoolboy.
Fantasies that have been, apparently, about the heir of Halloween.
I shove back and glare at my reflection.
“You will go back out there and be a perfect Christmas Prince,” I hiss at myself. “You will pull yourself together, you pathetic asshole. He’s just a guy.” My intensity wanes. “Just a guy in a corset vest.” I deflate
more. “Why did it have to be a corset vest.”
By the time I get back into the ballroom, everyone is mingling. I spot Iris and Hex across the room, Iris talking politely with someone from House Caroler while Hex stares down into a mug like he’s trying to will it to transform into something less Christmassy. Maybe he’s using Halloween’s magic to do that; cocoa into . . . what’s a Halloween drink? Apple cider? Goat blood?
Kris sidles up next to me. “You all right now? Freak-out over?”
I take a glass of eggnog from a passing server. “Of course. What could I possibly have to freak out about?”
“Oh, let me count the reasons.” Kris’s gaze trails to Iris and his levity dips.
“Are you all right?” I push back at him.
For a second, he shows me how not all right he is, but then a camera
flashes, and he forces a smile.
“Shit.” I take a gulp of the eggnog. It’s not spiked. I can’t win tonight.
Kris and I rotate around the room, expertly ducking any attempts at small talk until we haul up at a high-top table that gives a perfect view of where Iris and Hex hold court with rotating members of the
Christmas noble houses. Dad, Neo, and the Halloween King and Queen stay with them for a bit, eventually getting pulled into other groups and conversations, but it gives me a chance to study Hex’s
parents. He definitely takes after his dad, a taller, older, and somehow paler and leaner version of Hex, with less adornments and a sullen expression befitting someone who might’ve just levitated out
of a coffin. His mom is a little taller than Hex is, with intense dark eyes that mirror his initial stifled anger. She’s got a wide necklace of small pearly skulls across her collarbone, and they catch the light in
sharp flashes.
Kris grabs a handful of appetizers from a passing waiter and dumps them between us. Bacon-wrapped
dates. Score.
I pop one into my mouth and definitely do not stare at the side of Hex’s face. The way his jaw is bundled in tension.
It’s not a big deal that he’s here. That he’s that guy. It’s totally normal to know what your best friend’s fake new potential fiancé tastes like.
See? I’m fine.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas arrives on shelves on October 8. Get your pre-order in now!

The post The Princes of Christmas and Halloween Fall in Love in THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE KISSMAS appeared first on Nerdist.

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Published on October 02, 2024 13:30

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