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THE RINGS OF POWER Gave the Doors of Durin a Backstory That’s Both Beautiful and Tragic

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The Rings of Power‘s first season began telling a beautiful backstory about the legendary Doors of Durin. That magical gateway, which famously held up Frodo and his companions in The Fellowship of the Ring, was borne from the special bond between Elrond and Durin IV. Now that passageway is ready to serve as Khazad-dûm’s West-gate. It’s also ready to serve as a lasting testament to a once unlikely connection between two proud races. Only, season two has now shown the tragic side of this otherwise touching tale. The Doors of Durin stands as a symbol of friendship between elves and dwarves, but fittingly it also stands as a testament to the dark lord whose watchful and deceiving eye it was made under.

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J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that Celebrimbor and the celebrated dwarf craftsman Narvi made the Doors of Durin together. The Rings of Power showed them doing just that in season two’s fifth episode. The sequence also highlighted the significance of this joint endeavor. “Dwarves and elves working together?” said a smiling Celebrimbor. “It was said to be impossible. But our cooperation has achieved this wonder. And today we embark on a new dream, to enshrine our friendship in stone.”

The Doors of Durin are “un-breachable, visible only by moonlight, and guarded by a password known only to friends.” (Or grey wizards who eventually figure it out long after they should have.) That gateway truly is a symbol of the “lasting friendship between elves and dwarves.”

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That friendship will see its ups and downs, just as Elrond and Durin IV have. But it will always prove true when it matters most. Elves and dwarves will soon fight side-by-side against Sauron in the The War of the Last Alliance. And they will come together in the Third Age when the world needs them. Gimli and Legolas will join Frodo on his journey to Mordor. That journey that will bring them to much more than the Doors of Durin. It will lead to a lifelong bond.

The Rings of Power has also expanded the passageway’s lore by delving deep into the creation of mithral. In season one, the show shared an original tale about a battle between a pure-hearted elven warrior and a balrog of Morgoth. They fought above a tree said to contain one of the famed Silmarils created by Celebrimbor’s grandfather Fëanor, the greatest elf craftsmen ever. When a bolt of lightning struck the tree the elven warrior poured “all his light” into saving the tree. Meanwhile the balrog “channeled all his hate” into its destruction. Legend says their combined power led to the creation of mithral, which Gil-galad described as being equally “pure in light as good” as “strong and unyielding as evil.”

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Mithral brought elves and dwarves together. Elrond asked for that special metal to save the elves of Middle-earth. But it also made both races vulnerable to Sauron’s false friendship. The Dark Lord is deceiving the world with rings of power. “Annatar” was also there when the two races came together to make the Doors of Durin, which fittingly uses mithral.. Celebrimbor made his magical moonlight inlay with ithildin, a thin, extremely refined form of mithril.

The very thing elves and dwarves made together—the one that encased their bond in stone forever, the door that will protect dwarves of Khazad-dûm until they must abandon their home because of greed driven by Sauron’s rings—contains both good and evil in it. Just as all of Middle-earth does.

Fortunately for elves and swarves the one power in Middle-earth that always proves un-breachable is friendship.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER Gave the Doors of Durin a Backstory That’s Both Beautiful and Tragic appeared first on Nerdist.

THE RINGS OF POWER Turns Nûmenor’s Ill-Fated Eyes Towards The Undying Lands

Ar-Pharazôn now rules in Númenor, but he craves much more than a scepter. He seeks something forbidden to men: eternal life. Not even the gods will stop him from trying to attain it. In The Rings of Power season two’s fifth episode, Númenor’s ambitious new king turned his gaze west across the sea to The Undying Lands. That is home to immortal beings like the Valar, Maiar, and elves. What is that very real place? Why are men are barred from entering it? And why will The Undying Lands soon vanish from sight entirely? It all began the moment Ar-Pharazôn set his sights on a kingdom he could never have.

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The Lord of the Rings fans know The Undying Lands (which we explained in-depth during season one) as a special plane of existence hidden to those on Middle-earth. One day Círdan the Shipwright will bring Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, to the realm of gods and elves. It exists outside of the physical world Hobbits and men call home know, but that wasn’t always the case.

Also known as Valinor, the Undying Lands sits on the continent of Aman. During the First Age of the world mortals were permitted to travel there. In The Rings of Power‘s first season Galadriel sailed there to live out eternity before she jumped to stay behind and fight Sauron. It’s where Gil-galad said all elves would go if they could not restore the light of the Valar in Middle-earth. All elves will go there eventually. Some never left it at all.

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Mortal beings were no longer permitted to walk in Valinor after the defeat of Morgoth during the War of Wrath. At the end of the First Age the Valar rewarded the men who suffered greatest in the fight by raising up a grand island from the sea. Those who lived there were also granted vastly longer lifespans then normal men.

For generations Nûmenoreans thrived, building beautiful cities full of skilled craftsmen and warriors. The Valar only placed one limit on the otherwise privileged Nûmenorans. The gods banned them sailing west beyond sight of their island. The Undying Lands were no longer open to mortals.

For centuries those on the island obeyed the rules. Even when they began conquering the mainland they did not sail west. That changed when evil came back with them…

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The Lord of the Rings fans know Nûmenorean survivors will go on to found great kingdoms of men in Middle-earth. The Rings of Power series will show us how they lost their island home in the first place. It will explain why the universe’s supreme being, Eru Ilúvatar, will soon make the world round so no mortal can ever sail to Valinor again. The Prime Video series has now began telling the story of Nûmenor’s end.

Ar-Pharazôn’s followers are destroying temples as he rejects something better than eternal life. The Valar barred men from their land, but Eru Ilúvatar gave men something special instead. He called their mortality “the Gift.” But when Nûmenor’s greedy King looks across the sea to the White Tower of Eressëa in The Undying Lands he only sees a limit. He wants to climb higher. In doing so he will help bring his own land down.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who would simply not be mad about Valinor. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Ismael Cruz Córdova on Arondir’s Resonant (and Personal) Journey in THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2

On The Rings of Power, Ismael Cruz Córdova plays Arondir, the most elven elf of them all. Through Arondir, we meet a whole new kind of elf, one full of rich complexities and new perspectives. And Cruz Córdova, who has long desired to play one of Tolkien’s mythical beings, brings this role to life with absolute perfection. In season two of The Rings of Power, Arondir’s journey takes a turn into grief when he loses his great love, Bronwyn. For Cruz Córdova, this journey hits intensely close to home, creating “a difficult but beautiful experience” that, indeed, many of us sadly share. But as we walk with Arondir in season two, his story becomes one of the most resonant and human tales that The Rings of Power has to offer its fans.

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Ahead of The Rings of Power season two, Ismael Cruz Córdova sat down with Nerdist to discuss Arondir’s unique perspectives, how the elf contends with grief and darkness, his relationships with humans and other elves, and how nature and nurture conspired (much to our joy) to help him become The Rings of Power‘s Arondir.

Nerdist: In many ways, Arondir is one of the true MVPs of The Rings of Power. He’s soft but strong. He has a keen sense of what’s right, and yet he has an empathy for everyone around him. Where do you think that compassion comes from for Arondir, and what is it like balancing all the layers of the character?

Cruz Córdova: I think, in life, when you are someone that is perhaps at the bottom of things, at the bottom of the pyramid, you tend to have nowhere else to look back up. And so I think that kind of being gets a more global sense of things and is able to hold more complexity and often is able to hold more empathy as well as resentment for the things that are happening. You can understand things, but also you can resent others. And I think that balancing creates a very rich being.

And I think so far, we’ve seen elves that are regal or have high political positions, positions of power, more “blessed,” more comfortable. We haven’t seen this perspective before, which to me is very; I think that’s why he sees humans as closer than perhaps other elves see them. And this fascination for them and this respect for them and trying to understand his own emotions and how is it to balance that? I think to balance that is just how we balance our every day. The complexity of emotions that you may have in a day, I’m sure that I have in a day. It’s very similar to what this guy is going through.

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In season one, encountering darkness actually pushes Arondir to evolve in certain ways and take charge of himself and those around him. But as the darkness continues to grow, do you think it pushes him to thrive and take on these leadership roles? Or does it entangle him in its grasp?

Cruz Córdova: I think there’s a little bit of both. I think he steps up when it’s needed. That’s something that we know about him. He will step up. But, of course, this grief and this darkness… I know it first-hand, and it can entangle, and it really does make you question just about everything.

I’ve experienced great loss in my life, and it’s defined my character, and it’s defined my journey through my twenties and thirties. I lost my sister when I was 20 years old, and it’s definitely a great force to try to survive. It’s something that you really have to push against and survive from, and it completely changes your perspective on things. But you’re called upon to do other things as well. I was called upon to continue my journey, to keep my dreams, to finish college, to do right by that wonderful, wonderful best friend of mine. And I think that in answer to, “What did you draw upon?” I didn’t have to move that much.

I have this little tattoo in honor of my sister, so I only had to look at that. I actually got it right before the season. And I have that hand wrap [that Arondir wears], funny thing is that I was like, let me get it right there [on the forearm] because you won’t be able to see it. But when we went to the season, and I put the hand wrap on, it ended right before!

But it was beautiful, still, too. I could see it and connect with her. My own experience was informing this character. And it was a beautiful, difficult but beautiful, experience to have to bring that to the screen and bring that reality that many of us have had to experience. This reality that is so hard to talk about, but I think people can feel it more when they see it.

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Absolutely, and, as you’re mentioning, Arondir does suffer the great loss of Bronwyn this season. How do you think that changes him and shift his motivations?

Cruz Córdova: I mean, it does both. It poses existential questions. It brings about new responsibilities because now Theo is very, very strongly his responsibility, and he promised Bronwyn that he would keep him safe.

So there’s this motivation to be a father, this is motivation to be a leader, but it’s very hard to fight against that loss. So there’s also, I feel that it definitely awakens other darker motivations, motivation for vengeance and motivation for maybe some recklessness as well. Because you’re like, “Why am I here? What is this experience of living? Is this it?” So I think it definitely awakens a set of very important new aspects of him that can definitely take him left or right.

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In season one of the most compelling scenes to me was between Arondir and Adar. And I love that of all the characters, only Adrondir seemed to acknowledge Adar’s elven roots and their shared origins and the tragedy of him. Could you discuss their relationship a little bit more and how Arondir views it?

Cruz Córdova: We talked earlier about empathy when you’re coming from a lower aspect of things. In that place, things are not black and white. There’s a lot of gray. And you recognize that there’s darkness as much as light in everyone. That everyone has a story. That often there’s a hair between a hero and a villain. That often villains, perhaps, are almost more noble than heroes in their pursuit of things. In their reality, they carry a sense of nobility. And Arondir sees that in Adar. He sees his relationship with his orcs, his children, as he calls them, and they call him Adar, they call him father. And so it begs the question, who is the villain?

Arondir is extremely curious. So it’s like: How did this man get here? How did this happen? Adar said, “You’ve been told many lies,” and that really awakened something in Arondir that I think carries through to the season. It’s like, “What does he feel about it all really?” And now, with this loss, is it going to spark danger in him? Where is he going to go?

Do you think we’ll see Adar and Arondir interact more this season? And does that nascent empathy he feels for Adar survive the explosion of Mount Doom and Bronwyn’s death?

Cruz Córdova: I can’t tell you much about their interaction. You’ll have to watch and see. I think that certain events complicate that empathy and I think it definitely has an impact on him that we see play out later in the season.

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In broad strokes, what do you think the main themes of Arondir’s storyline are this season?

Cruz Córdova: It’s pushing through. It’s battling sadness and pain, grief and duty. It’s putting one foot in front of the other. It’s reminding yourself of who you are, trying to dig deep to stay true to your beliefs while opening yourself up for different knowledge and different people. Though my pairing with Isildur, for example, that forces me to interact through grief, but also with an unlikely guy, this slow human, speed-wise. He’s like, “I don’t do fast,” and it’s like I have to drag this human around. So yeah, I mean, I think he’s trying to make it.

That’s all we can do! Speaking of his relationship with Isildur, how would you describe the duo’s dynamic and how it evolves?

Cruz Córdova: It is so improbable, but it happens, and it’s good, and it’s so unpredictable, and it’s refreshing. But it’s also mutual discovery, mutual respect. I think there’s a part of Arondir that is both equally curious about Isildur and equally annoyed, in some moments. He’s skeptical of Estrid as well. I’m equally, again, equally as admiring of humans as I am skeptical of them. I can see what they can do as well and what their motivations are.

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And were there any parts of Tolkien’s lore that you were especially excited to see come to life this season?

Cruz Córdova: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And that I can’t really tell you. But I read the script, and I definitely think that there are many, many moments that are sprinkled through the season that the fans are going to be so excited about. They are just cool, great moments. I have a couple of those. One specifically that I’m very much looking forward to seeing on the screen and sharing with the fans.

And then, just to finish off, you’ve spoken before that you had a long-time desire to be an elf. What drew you to the elves? And now that you are an elf, what has your perspective on elves changed at all?

Cruz Córdova: Yes, I had a very long-standing desire to be an elf. And what drew me to be an elf is… I don’t know, nature or nurture, I can’t tell, it’s chicken or the egg kind of thing. I grew up in the mountains in Puerto Rico, very rural. I was very contemplative. I didn’t really have a lot of friends, and I was a little bullied in school, a little… I was quite bullied in school. But also my environment growing up poor, and we didn’t have a TV, and, so I spent a lot of time just outside and by myself. I was sketching, and playing with flowers, and making ink out of flowers, and climbing trees. And one of my best friends was a mango tree that I loved, absolutely loved. I would climb it every afternoon and do my homework there after school.

And once I got my hands on The Lord of the Rings and the movies, it felt so familiar. The elves felt so familiar to me, with the reverence that they have for nature, and the whimsy and the contemplation. I would look at the clouds and just try to figure out “What is that?” I was mesmerized by everything: these giants, and the sun, and the soil, and I still am. I respect and revere it.

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So yeah, that’s what drew me to want to be one. And after playing one, has my opinion changed? No, I think they’re great. I still think they’re great. I still think they’re just magical and badass. But I love to see the more questionable aspects of them that The Rings of Power is bringing. You are like, “Hmm, you’re not the elves that I thought you were.” The decisions that you’re making, some rash decisions, some money inequality. You see that they have a hierarchy that includes just like drafted soldiers essentially. I’m from Beleriand and I was a grower and how do I end up in the military? Was I drafted? Was I taken away? Is this forcible? Do just lower, lesser elves get the appointed in these position.

I like that it’s complicating it for us and showing different heroes that are not just the regal royal elves.

The post Ismael Cruz Córdova on Arondir’s Resonant (and Personal) Journey in THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2 appeared first on Nerdist.

Thriller RED ROOMS Will Make You Feel Icky, in the Best Way

If streaming numbers are anything to go buy, our collective fascination with serial killers and horrifying true crime has all but taken over our lives. People who find bloody action movies distasteful might spend hours every evening hearing about depraved and grisly murders in explicit detail and think nothing of it. It’s an odd fixation we collectively have. How could someone, your neighbor or coworker, do something so heinous? That fixation and central question lies at the heart of Red Rooms one of the most upsetting and pulse-pounding thrillers I’ve seen in a long time.

Red Rooms garnered festival acclaim in 2023 and, as with many smaller titles, finally gets a wider release this year. Writer-director Pascal Plante focuses on the kinds of people—young women in this case—who become obsessed with serial killer cases and even in some instances become infatuated by the accused monsters. His lead character Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) and her motivations are so unknowable and seemingly disturbed and disturbing, and yet so fascinating, that we can’t take our eyes off of her.

The story revolves around the trial of accused serial murderer Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos). He is suspected of not only the brutal torture and murder of three school girls but of filming his actions. Those tapes went to the highest bidder on the dark web, in so-called Red Rooms. Only two of the videos have surfaced, to screen in the courtroom. While the media has roundly decided Chevalier is guilty, reasonable doubt makes the trial less open-and-shut.

Utopia

Kelly-Anne, a model and Montreal local, camps out every morning in order to secure a seat in the courtroom to hear all the gory details and observe the accused in the stocks and the families of the victims. Kelly-Anne lives an otherwise modest existence. She’s a fashion model, yes, but her apartment is small and sparse. She spends most of her free time either playing racquetball alone or surfing the dark web. We soon learn she is obsessed with finding the final murder video, but to what end we don’t know.

Not long into her routine she meets Clementine (Laurie Babin), a young runaway who made her way to Montreal for the trial with next to nothing but a strong belief in Chevalier’s innocence. Despite herself, Kelly-Anne starts spending time with Clementine and the two spark a very strained friendship. Has Clementine found an ally in Kelly-Anne? Or is Kelly-Anne merely using Clementine’s fanaticism for her own strange purposes? Like with most everything in Red Rooms, Plante plays everything close to the vest.

Utopia

We spend so much time with Kelly-Anne but, credit to Plante and to Gariépy’s incredible performance, we never get a sense of her true motivations. We don’t know if she believes in Chevalier’s innocence or is merely obsessed with the crimes themselves. Or if she believes he did it but idolizes him all the same. All we get are Kelly-Anne’s actions which go from confusing to troubling to downright shocking as the movie progresses. People throw around Taxi Driver whenever they talk about a lone, unhinged protagonist. While that’s apt here, the fact that this isn’t the “typical” creepy loner is part of what makes Red Rooms so compelling.

Plante displays some absolutely bravura filmmaking here. The film’s opening is a seven-minute unbroken shot of the two attorneys giving their opening statements to the jury. The camera floats around as we hear the depraved and horrendous fates of the three young victims. We get an absolute sense of the geography of the courtroom, the faces of the major players, before finally resting on Kelly-Anne’s stoic, unmoved face. It’s an amazing way to give us the circumstances, and to show us our protagonist’s unreadable expressions amid all of this horror.

Utopia.

The film also contains one of the tensest sequences of someone typing alone in their apartment I’ve ever seen. I won’t spoil what happens or why, but as the climax of the movie, Kelly-Anne going back and forth between illicit websites, and again the tremendous performance from Gariépy, is as breathlessly exciting as anything you’d find in a Mission: Impossible movie. One review from last year said Red Rooms “Out-Finchers Fincher” and this scene is exactly what they mean.

I think Red Rooms is an incredibly poignant and profoundly upsetting movie. I never thought a thriller about true crime junkies would be this effective, but I cannot stop thinking about it. I’m sure you won’t either.

Red Rooms is in limited release now. If you get a chance to see it, don’t miss it.

Red Rooms ⭐ (4.5 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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6-Foot-Tall Animatronic Beetlejuice Is This Year’s Most Wanted Halloween Decoration

After waiting for over 35 years, the “Ghost with the Most,” better known as Beetlejuice (government name: Betelgeuse) is back. With Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cleaning up at the box office, everyone is going to want Michael Keaton’s iconic bio-exorcist as part of their spooky season decorations this year. Thankfully, Home Depot just released a new life-size Beetlejuice Halloween decoration that will be the envy of everyone on your block this spooky season. Heck, maybe even in the Netherworld too. You can see images of Home Depot’s new 6-foot-tall Beetlejuice right here:

Click To View Gallery Warner Bros./Home Depot Home Depot/Warner Bros. Warner Bros./Home Depot Home Depot/Warner Bros.

The 6.4 ft./3 ft. wide Beetlejuice arrives all decked out in his classic striped suit and green hair. He is intended to be displayed indoors only. This new animated Beetlejuice has a spinning head, and speaks nine different phrases from the movies, sure to startle all your trick or treaters on October 31. This amazing Beetlejuice Halloween décor collapses for easy storage. It includes everything needed for setup, which only takes a mere fifteen minutes. This Beetlejuice has a motion and sound sensor, and a plug-in power adapter included.

Home Depot

Home Depot has other amazing animated life-size Halloween mascots available this year, including Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. That’s for all of you who might want your Beetlejuice to have another Tim Burton friend to scare house guests with. There’s also a “Victorian Vampire,” which basically is another way of saying “Nosferatu.”

The company also has the most classic of spooky season icons, like the Frankenstein monster. That one’s 7 feet tall, and it costs a little bit more than the others. And there are even other horror icons. The 6-foot-tall animated Beetlejuice will set you back $199.00. You can buy one for your home now at the official Home Depot website.

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Lucasfilm Sued Over Peter Cushing Digital Likeness Recreation in STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE

The issue of recreating the likenesses of dead actors is certainly one that is on the minds of many in the entertainment industry. In the most recent Alien: Romulus movie, for instance, the digital recreation of Ian Holm caused quite a bit of controversy. As AI becomes increasingly popular and technology improves, the idea that actors could be resurrected digitally for complex scenes has become a practical reality. Of course, given the newness of this particular ability, the legal practicalities are still catching up. And now, it seems a new court case regarding a familiar instance of likeness recreation is set to address the issue. Film producer Kevin Francis is suing Lucasfilm (and, by proxy, Disney) over the reproduction of Peter Cushing’s image in Star Wars: A Rogue One Story. In the film, the deceased actor was digitally resurrected to take a post-humous turn as Grand Moff Tarkin.

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Here are the details of the case. Kevin Francis, an old friend of Peter Cushing, claims to have a signed agreement from Cushing in which “the actor agreed not to grant permission for anyone to reproduce his appearance through special effects without his [Francis’] authorization.” As such, Francis is suing Lucasfilm and Lunak Heavy Industries (UK) for “unjust enrichment” and is seeking less than £500,000.

According to a report from The Times, Peter Cushing signed an agreement that states he would not allow his image to be used without Francis’s permission in 1993. The pair were working on a TV movie called A Heritage of Horror, which it seems never got made.

Although this all seems to be a bit extraordinary, Disney could not successfully have the case over Peter Cushing’s recreation in Rogue One dismissed by the High Court in London. A judge, Master Francesca Kaye, originally rejected Disney’s petition to have the case dismissed last year. And though Disney appealed, Judge Tom Mitcheson upheld the original ruling this week. He noted that he was “far from persuaded” that Francis would emerge victorious in the case. However, Judge Mitcheson also revealed, “I am also not persuaded that the case is unarguable to the standard required to give summary judgment or to strike it out” and additionally, wisely remarked, “In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie in the absence of a full factual enquiry.” And so it seems this legal suit over Peter Cushing’s CGI recreation in Rogue One will continue.

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For its part, Disney/Lucasfilm claims that it does have the right to reproduce Cushing’s CGI image and digital likeness/appearance in its properties. The report notes, “The Disney companies claim they did not believe permission was required to recreate Cushing because of the terms of his contract in the original film and the nature of the special effects.” Additionally, Disney paid around £28,000 to Cushing’s estate for the use of his image in Rogue One. As such, Disney notes there is no “unjust enrichment” at hand. And that instead, Disney is the “bona fide purchaser for value” for the rights to Cushing’s likeness and digital resurrection.

Of course, how one can judge the worth, cost, and ownership of dead person’s image is quite a complex question. But we’ll cross our fingers that as time goes on, there will be clearer pathways to establish this in the law, ones that respect the humanity of those who have passed away. The California senate recently passed a law requiring consent “for the use of dead performers’ likenesses for AI-created digital replicas.” And we can only hope to see more legal precedents established on such matters. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with his lawsuit over Peter Cushing in Star Wars: A Rogue One Story and how it might impact future cases.

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New CARMEN SANDIEGO Video Game Will Finally Let You Play as the Iconic Thief

As a child of the ’90s, I am always on high alert no matter where I go. That’s because you never know when you’ll be called on to find where in the world is Carmen Sandiego. The famed thief could be anywhere at anytime. Until now. Soon you’ll know exactly where to find her: a new video game from Netflix that will allow you to stop chasing her entirely. That’s because for the first-time ever you’ll be able to actually be Carmen Sandiego in a video game.

HarperCollins Productions and Gameloft are teaming up for a brand-new single-player premium puzzle adventure game. Carmen Sandiego is going to upend her original 1985 game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. In that iteration, she headed up the global crime syndicate VILE, as players chased her around the globe. This time they’ll instead put on her iconic scarlet jacket and hat. They will then “experience the thrill of being the notorious super thief as they navigate a world of espionage, utilize high-tech gadgets, and ultimately capture VILE.”

The game’s official announcement trailer provides a great look at the art and game-style. The official press release also shared more about what players can expect during their travels:

The Carmen Sandiego game will enable players to traverse the globe, immersing themselves in vibrant cultures while visiting iconic cities and landmarks. From the bustling streets of Rio de Janeiro to the picturesque shrines in Tokyo, every corner of the world becomes their playground as they unravel elaborate capers and bring VILE’s most elusive criminals to justice. Every decision players make will shape the outcome as they compile dossiers and race against the clock to foil VILE’s nefarious plans. Whether playing through story-driven campaigns or classic modes, this modernized Carmen Sandiego experience promises to enthrall both new and long-time fans alike.

Gameloft

The Carmen Sandiego game will initially debut early next year exclusively at Netflix. The streaming site is also home to the character’s animated series that premiered in 2019. It’s also where a live-action film starring Gina Rodriguez is in production. The game will then arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. It will not feature any in-game purchases (yay!) or online play (boo!).

Until it does, though, keep your eyes out. Until you are Carmen Sandiego she could be anywhere.

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Neil Gaiman Offers to Step Aside as GOOD OMENS Season 3 Production Pauses for Assault Allegations (Report)

Deadline reports that production on Good Omens season three, the third and final season of the show, has paused amid allegations of assault centering on creator Neil Gaiman. Gaiman, of course, is the executive producer, writer, and showrunner of Good Omens. And so, understandably, among multiple allegations of sexual assault, the series has paused its work for now. Deadline reports that “there are discussions about possible production changes.” However, Amazon has not made any official announcements at this time.

The latest reports now share that Neil Gaiman has offered to step aside from Good Omens season three so the production can continue. Deadline shares, “We understand that Gaiman has made an offer to Amazon and producers to take a back seat on the latest season so that it can continue amid crisis talks over the Terry Pratchett adaptation’s future.” However, the publication further notes that Gaiman’s offer to recuse himself from season three of Good Omens should not be taken as an admission of guilt regarding the assault allegations centering Gaiman.

At this time, reports suggest that Amazon is considering Gaiman’s offer but have come to no final decision. Neither Amazon nor Gaiman’s representatives have directly commented on the status of Good Omens season three.

Prime Video

Presently, four women have accused Gaiman of sexual assault. Gaiman has denied the allegations against him. An investigation is currently underway by authorities in New Zealand. In addition to this Good Omens pause, Disney’s adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book has also been put on hold. And Netflix recently canceled Dead Boy Detectives. IndieWire reports “multiple factors went into the decision” about The Graveyard Book. Nothing regarding Gaiman was cited in the Dead Boy Detectives cancellation news.

Good Omens was gearing up to begin production on season three when Amazon paused work on the project. Fans of the show undoubtedly hope the series can proceed in the best possible way. And likely, further updates will come soon.

If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual abuse, contact the  RAINN National Sexual Assault  Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

Originally published on September 10, 2024.

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RSVLTS’ STAR WARS Spooky Collection Is Delightfully Dark-Sided

Spooky season is here, complete with all the ghosts and monsters. And although they live in a galaxy far, far away, the Star Wars universe has plenty of dark-sided beings that fit in perfectly for Halloween. Kids have been dressing up as Darth Vader and other dark side characters to go trick or treating since 1977. To celebrate two great tastes that go great together, RSVLTS is offering up a new Star Wars Spooky Collection.

RSVLTS

The Star Wars Spooky Collection includes an incredible lineup of seasonal, spooky, and zombified designs, all available on RSVLTS signature Kunuflex material. They are available across classic (unisex) and women’s styles/sizing, with select designs available across youth and preschooler sizes/styles as well. There are even doggy bandanas and golf accessories, including two club headcovers featuring Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. You can check out images and pricing for each item right here:

Day of the Dark SideRSVLTS

A little Day of the Dead meets the Sith, this one comes in classic, women, youth styles/sizes, and also a dog bandana.

RSVLTSCarved WarsRSVLTS

Pumpkin styling, only in the Star Wars tradition. Carved Wars arrives in classic, women, youth & preschooler styles/sizes.

“It’s A Treat!”RSVLTS

No, it’s not a trap (or a trick), it’s a treat! Make Admiral Ackbar proud with this shirt has classic, women, as well as youth & preschooler styles and sizes.

The High GroundRSVLTS

The battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar from Revenge of the Sith comes alive in this all-day lifestyle polo.

Star Wars Spooky “Drip” Logo Dad Hat and Crew Neck ShirtRSVLTS

This “dad hat” and t-shirt give us an ooky-spooky “dripping” version of the classic Star Wars logo.

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi Golf Club Accessories RSVLTS

These driver and fairway covers showcase Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi before their epic duel.

Each adult button-down shirt retails for $70; $45 for youth sizes, and $39 for preschool. Polos are priced at $70, and $32 for t-shirts, $30 for dad hats, $16 for dog bandanas, and $60 for driver and fairway covers. You can buy these now on RSVLTS’ official site.

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The Orcs, The Ents, and the Question of Peace on THE RINGS OF POWER

Toward the end of The Rings of Power season two, episode four, the series brings us a beautiful and deeply emotional scene that meditates on some truly powerful themes. The elf Arondir, an Ent, and an Entwife find and offer one another forgiveness for wounds dealt, and a moment of peace arrives in an otherwise ominous season as healing rains fall. It’s an incredible sequence and one of the most Tolkien-esque the series has delivered so far. Lurking in the backdrop of this momentary lightness, however, in its shadows, some might say, is the specter of darkness. But, here, specifically, that darkness takes the form of The Rings of Power‘s orcs. The orcs are directly responsible for the Ents’ pain and Arondir’s, past and present. And still, the juxtaposition of their presence against the idea of forgiveness and serenity invokes one of the most complicated series of questions that The Rings of Power has proposed for itself. Are the orcs deserving of healing? Can they find forgiveness? And should they get to know peace?

Prime Video

It’s clear we’re meant to share in the heartbreak of the Ents as they mourn the destruction of their forest. And we undoubtedly do. The Ents’ pain manifests as grief in broader strokes, over the destruction of nature, and grief in more emotional strokes, over the loss of family. It’s great pain and all too resonant in both regards. It feels impossible not to ache with the Ents as they recount sundering and felling, burning and snapping. The Entwife Winterbloom wails in pain when Arondir speaks of the orcs to her. And her husband, the Ent Snaggleroot, tells Arondir, “Winterbloom nourished many of those trees from seed and sprout. Do not ask her to speak more of it.” In short, Winterbloom and Snaggleroot appear to us as grieving parents. Winterbloom has lost children.

But intended by the narrative or not, this invocation of children in the scene evokes another grief for another set of children. Indeed, grief for the culprits of destruction themselves, the orcs. After all, The Rings of Power has taken great pains to link the orcs, or Uruk, as they prefer we call them, with the idea of children. The character of Adar’s very name, which means Father in elvish, reminds us constantly that at least one figure sees the orcs as children. And so when there is mention of offspring and a conversation about orcs at once, the concept becomes especially highlighted. In this case, the scene with the Ents sets up a fascinating dichotomy: that of trees as children and orcs as children.

Prime VideoRoss Ferguson/Prime Video

It might be easy in this moment of great grief when a tearful Ent is discussing its burned offspring to imagine trees as children and the great injustice done to the forest by the orcs. It is harder, it seems, to do so when it’s a single tear in Adar’s scarred face. But ultimately, The Rings of Power presents the question, is an elf felling an orc different than an orc felling a tree? 

The Ents say that the orcs were “maiming and murdering as they marched.” And that is wince-inducing. But not so long ago, it feels quite certain that orcs were saying the same thing about Galadriel and the elves. When season one of The Rings of Power began, the elves seemed quite sure they had meaningfully eradicated the orcs. Galadriel even says, “To the ends of the earth we hunted Sauron.” (Orcs implied.) And Elrond asks Galadriel, “Do you truly believe seeking [Sauron] out will satisfy you? That one more orc upon the point of your blade will bring you peace?” The implication here is that there have been quite a few on the point of that blade already. And that some portion Galadriel’s peace has been won by spilling that blood, the blood of Adar’s children, in great quantities.

Prime Video

Though Galadriel is not at peace, she has known it. As have Ents. And that’s what allows them both to mourn the loss of it. The Ents grieve the destruction of their forest, their home. They wish for it to be untouched; they wish for it to be left alone. They wish for it to be able to heal to its fullest form and them with it. But, ultimately, that’s what the orcs seek as well on The Rings of Power, though blindly. Their entire journey has been about finding a home where they can settle, rest, and stop the long journey of enduring, knowing that they are finally safe. They are on a quest for a peace they have never tasted.

The orcs here have hurt nature, and it is easy to empathize with nature being so hurt. But are the orcs not too part of nature, though nature turns its back on them? Adar tells Galadriel, “We are creations of The One, Master of the Secret Fire, the same as you. As worthy of the breath of life, and just as worthy of a home.” Adar essentially tells Galadriel that he and the orcs are a part of nature and that they, too, have “a heart, a name.” The presence of orc babies in season two of The Rings of Power further underscores this. Does an orc baby breathe its first breath desiring to fell a tree? Probably not. But an orc baby does not ever know the peace the Ents and their tree children know. From an orc’s first moment of existence, the very progenitor of nature, the sun itself, shuns them, burns them as aberrations. And so, why should the orcs take nature into their hearts? One might even propose that without ever fully having known peace, it is quite difficult for Uruk to understand the ways in which their ruination of it deeply wounds.

Prime Video

For the orcs, there’s a very real sense of generational trauma in place, a perpetuating cycle of abuse. Sauron lays it out for us in episode one of The Rings of Power season two. He tells Adar and the orcs, “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.” After which, of course, Sauron turns and slaughters an orc. But he’s right, and every race in Middle-earth comes together together to make the narrative true. The orcs do maim and murder, but it is all they have ever known and all they have been shown. And what better outcome waits for them? To be maimed and murdered instead? No one has ever offered peace to the orcs on The Rings of Power save Adar. And choicelessly, that peace cannot come peacefully, because no one in Middle-earth will permit it.

Prime Video

The Ents have the protection of allies, the shield of their innocence. We mourn for them, for the pain the orcs have wrought on them as the forest burns. But in the subtext, the truth remains that the orcs do not have that; they have never had it. No one except Adar has ever promised an orc that time will make their lives better. And this picture invites us to mourn for the orcs, too. Would they have burned this forest if they had a safe place of their own? The Rings of Power tells us the orcs likely would not have.

But, despite it all, Adar plants a seed in the ground and prays to Yavanna, the Valar who watches over growing things, the very Valar who created the Ents, to protect his children. And are the orcs not growing things? Should the gods not protect them as they do the trees? Should the orcs, who are, too, children, Adar’s children, their parents’ children, who have children of their own, not then also deserve to know peace?

Prime Video

Isildur asks of the Ents, “Think they know what peace is?” But the Ents do know that, and it’s critical that they do. The knowledge of peace gives them precious hope and allows them to feel forgiveness. But the Orcs do not know what peace is. And perhaps, if they did, things would be different. And, indeed, if The Rings of Power has the courage of its convictions, new bark will come to cover old scars for the orcs (and Adar!) as well in the space of the series.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Forgiveness, as they say, takes an age, but eventually it arrives.

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