Latest news with #DarkSide
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How to get Darth Maul's Lightsaber and Force Throw in Fortnite's new update
Fortnite's ongoing Star Wars: Galactic Battle crossover is in full swing, and this time it brings back one of the franchise's most iconic villains - Darth Maul. Whether you're looking to channel the Dark Side in battle or simply want to slice through enemies with his signature red lightsaber, Chapter 6 Season 3 offers a variety of ways to experience the Sith Lord's return. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Darth Maul hologram appears randomly on the map In the Battle Royale mode, Darth Maul appears not as a traditional NPC but as a hologram. He doesn't spawn in a fixed location but can be found at random points on the island, usually after the first storm circle has formed. Players can locate him via a special red lightsaber icon with a black-and-red background on the map. Interacting with the hologram grants access to a Rift Gate, leading to a cutscene where players unlock Maul's Sith Apprentice Lightsaber and Force Throw ability. While the lightsaber can sometimes be looted from other players, the Force Throw skill - allowing users to lift and launch rocks - is exclusive to those who complete Maul's training. The ability, when used effectively, can deal significant area damage. Activated by holding block and tapping attack, it offers both crowd control and destructive potential with a cooldown of around 15 seconds. Darth Maul bundle and LEGO skin Alongside the in-game powers, Epic Games has also added Darth Maul to the Item Shop. His standalone skin is priced at 1,500 V-Bucks, while the full Darth Maul Bundle is available for 2,200 V-Bucks. The bundle includes his iconic outfit, the Sith Probe Droid back bling, Maul's Poleaxe pickaxe, the Sith Infiltrator glider, and a themed weapon wrap. Players can also access a LEGO Fortnite version of Darth Maul, complete with his double-bladed lightsaber in charming brick form. This adds a unique visual twist to his otherwise menacing presence. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now From hologram interactions to stylish cosmetics, Darth Maul's addition is among the highlights of Fortnite's latest crossover. While reactions from the community vary, the new mechanics and customisations offer something fresh for both casual players and dedicated Star Wars enthusiasts. Whether you're training with the Sith or just flaunting the red and black look, now's the time to embrace the Dark Side.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Crass, flashy, outrageous: Trump media blitz redefines meaning of presidential
There was a disturbance in the Force. Donald Trump celebrated 'Star Wars Day' this week with an AI-generated image of himself as a muscle-bound warrior holding a red lightsaber in front of two US flags and eagles. It seemed like a bit of fun but appeared on the White House's official X account with a dark political message: 'Happy May the 4th to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy. You're not the Rebellion – you're the Empire. May the 4th be with you.' Star Wars nerds were quick to point out that a red lightsaber implies that Trump has embraced the Dark Side. Actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, wrote on social media: 'Proof this guy is full of SITH.' But the joking-not-joking post was also indicative of a wider trend: a revolution in the way the White House communicates with the American public. Over the past three and a half months the US president and his team have launched a relentless media offensive based on crass language, flashy tactics, shock-value videos and social media memes and posts that are outrageous by design. They have used platforms and personalities to bypass traditional outlets and directly engage the Maga (Make America great again) base. They have found new ways to drown out critics, goad opponents and antagonise the world. The embrace of viral far-right culture has nurtured a parallel information ecosystem through pro-Trump outlets enjoying a significant growth in influence, access to power and financial investment. It is helping the president dominate the 'attention economy' and reshape narratives around the economy, immigration and other policy issues. But it also alarms critics who warn that insults and lies are going unchecked. Tara Setmayer, a political commentator and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, said: 'Donald Trump has always understood mass communication and the power of propaganda and his rise and success politically will go down in history as one of the most successful propaganda operations ever. He has completely upended any semblance of decency, of class, of gravitas when it comes to presidential communications. 'It's literally turning presidential methods of communication into the WWE – the imagery, the immaturity, the outrageousness. All of those things seem to be more important than truth or respect for the office and what it means to use the power of the bully pulpit to speak to the American people and the world.' Presidential communications have come a long way. Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference in 1913. Franklin Roosevelt pioneered radio with his informal 'fireside chats' during the Great Depression and the second world war, articulating policies such as the New Deal directly to citizens. John F Kennedy leveraged TV for live addresses, for example during the Cuban missile crisis. Ronald Reagan, a former actor, relished televised addresses, earning the nickname 'the great communicator'. Barack Obama was the first president to use platforms such as YouTube and Twitter extensively, hosting online town halls and bypassing old media. Over the past decade Trump has combined the old with the new, holding traditional in-person rallies while also being prolific on Twitter during his first term – a single all caps tweet could dominate headlines, move financial markets or upend global diplomacy – and now his own Truth Social platform. But only since returning to office has he turned the White House into a quasi-content provider in its own right, continuing the aggressive media strategy they honed during his winning election campaign to achieve what his communications director, Steven Cheung, has called 'full spectrum dominance'. In January Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, posted a photo of men in chains boarding a plane and wrote: 'Deportation flights have begun.' In February the White House posted on X a Valentine's Day card with the faces of Trump and 'border czar' Tom Homan with the caption: 'Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we'll deport you.' It also posted a video of shackled migrants being loaded on to planes, with the sounds of clanking chains and whirring jet engines in the background. The caption said 'ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.' In March, on the day of Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, the White House's rapid-response account posted more than 200 times to X, promoting clips and favourable reactions. Trump has spent his career living by the rule that, when he takes a hit, he hits back harder. That philosophy now infuses the White House. When the actor Selena Gomez posted an Instagram video in which she cried about the deportation of children, it quickly produced video interviews with the mothers of children killed by undocumented immigrants. When Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man with protected legal status, was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, Leavitt said 'outrage' about the case by Democrats and the media 'has been nothing short of despicable'. Dozens of posters of arrested undocumented immigrants were placed along the White House driveway, ensuring they would appear in the live shots of TV journalists. Some content is downright bizarre. The White House shared a photo of a fake Time magazine cover with Trump in a golden crown and the caption, 'LONG LIVE THE KING.' Another post contained an AI-generated video that showed the Gaza Strip transformed into a luxurious, gilded resort called 'Trump Gaza'. And earlier this month Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself dressed as pope as the mourning of Pope Francis continued. Setmayer, who now runs the Seneca Project political action committee, commented: 'It's so outrageous that it would be comical if it weren't so serious. There's nothing funny or comical about insulting one of the world's largest religions and putting yourself in that role. It's blasphemous. But it's also a window into how Donald Trump views himself: this is part of that malignant narcissism. 'He is so desperate for adulation and attention and being all powerful that he would project himself in a cartoon-like rendering of positions of power using the white House platform to push it. This is something a maladjusted 12-year-old does. Not the most powerful man in the world.' The Trump White House has a symbiotic relationship with a new wave of podcasters, X users and YouTubers who enjoy access to the briefing room and presidential press pool, often asking Trump conspicuously sycophantic questions. Employees of outlets such as the National Pulse and the Daily Wire have been invited on foreign trips with cabinet officials. The exposure is leading to bigger advertising deals and distribution contracts. No one embodies the new era of White House communications better than Leavitt, who at 27 is the youngest ever press secretary and probably the most zealously on-message. She has shown an uncanny ability to channel Trump's political psyche, his relish for disparaging the so-called legacy media and his willingness to play fast and loose with facts. Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said: 'She's approaching it in a very different way than others have done. She is forthrightly being a person who communicates the message of the White House rather than responds to the questions of the press. You can query whether that's the job she ought to be doing but she is doing it in an outstanding way. 'She is mature beyond her years. She's articulate. She both can deliver the message and respond in an interactive way, which is something that some press secretaries have difficulty with. If the job of the press secretary is to send the message of the administration on a regular basis in person she is knocking the ball out of the park.' But Mike McCurry, who was White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, is among those who query if that is what the job is about. He said: 'She seems to be in nonstop belligerent mode and showing disdain for the reporters in the room. It's nothing but a propaganda show. She's not doing the job as it's traditionally been defined. She's got a whole different role in the Trump cosmos.' Leavitt presents a weekly 'Maga Minute' roundup video on TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. Last week also saw the launch of White House Wire, a news-style website that publishes exclusively positive coverage. Its format closely resembles the Drudge Report, the rightwing site founded in the 1990s that broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal. When he was working for Clinton, McCurry initially tried to dismiss questions about Lewinsky by retorting: 'Are you really going to ask a question based on something in the Drudge Report?' He acknowledges that today's White House is operating in a very different media environment – but argues that is no excuse for its lack of accountability. McCurry said: 'The concept is if you keep throwing stuff up against the wall all the time, the press tries to chase everything down and they get befuddled a little bit because they don't have a way of focusing back on things that might truly matter in the world 'It's a strategy to try to overwhelm all of the legitimate sources of discourse and just keep changing the tune every day to match whatever it is that you want to try to get done. It's either completely malevolent or completely brilliant. It's hard to know which.'
The Guardian
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Crass, flashy, outrageous: Trump media blitz redefines meaning of presidential
There was a disturbance in the Force. Donald Trump celebrated 'Star Wars Day' this week with an AI-generated image of himself as a muscle-bound warrior holding a red lightsaber in front of two US flags and eagles. It seemed like a bit of fun but appeared on the White House's official X account with a dark political message: 'Happy May the 4th to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy. You're not the Rebellion – you're the Empire. May the 4th be with you.' Star Wars nerds were quick to point out that a red lightsaber implies that Trump has embraced the Dark Side. Actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, wrote on social media: 'Proof this guy is full of SITH.' But the joking-not-joking post was also indicative of a wider trend: a revolution in the way the White House communicates with the American public. Over the past three and a half months the US president and his team have launched a relentless media offensive based on crass language, flashy tactics, shock-value videos and social media memes and posts that are outrageous by design. They have used platforms and personalities to bypass traditional outlets and directly engage the Maga (Make America great again) base. They have found new ways to drown out critics, goad opponents and antagonise the world. The embrace of viral far-right culture has nurtured a parallel information ecosystem through pro-Trump outlets enjoying a significant growth in influence, access to power and financial investment. It is helping the president dominate the 'attention economy' and reshape narratives around the economy, immigration and other policy issues. But it also alarms critics who warn that insults and lies are going unchecked. Tara Setmayer, a political commentator and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, said: 'Donald Trump has always understood mass communication and the power of propaganda and his rise and success politically will go down in history as one of the most successful propaganda operations ever. He has completely upended any semblance of decency, of class, of gravitas when it comes to presidential communications. 'It's literally turning presidential methods of communication into the WWE – the imagery, the immaturity, the outrageousness. All of those things seem to be more important than truth or respect for the office and what it means to use the power of the bully pulpit to speak to the American people and the world.' Presidential communications have come a long way. Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference in 1913. Franklin Roosevelt pioneered radio with his informal 'fireside chats' during the Great Depression and the second world war, articulating policies such as the New Deal directly to citizens. John F Kennedy leveraged TV for live addresses, for example during the Cuban missile crisis. Ronald Reagan, a former actor, relished televised addresses, earning the nickname 'the great communicator'. Barack Obama was the first president to use platforms such as YouTube and Twitter extensively, hosting online town halls and bypassing old media. Over the past decade Trump has combined the old with the new, holding traditional in-person rallies while also being prolific on Twitter during his first term – a single all caps tweet could dominate headlines, move financial markets or upend global diplomacy – and now his own Truth Social platform. But only since returning to office has he turned the White House into a quasi-content provider in its own right, continuing the aggressive media strategy they honed during his winning election campaign to achieve what his communications director, Steven Cheung, has called 'full spectrum dominance'. In January Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, posted a photo of men in chains boarding a plane and wrote: 'Deportation flights have begun.' In February the White House posted on X a Valentine's Day card with the faces of Trump and 'border czar' Tom Homan with the caption: 'Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we'll deport you.' It also posted a video of shackled migrants being loaded on to planes, with the sounds of clanking chains and whirring jet engines in the background. The caption said 'ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.' In March, on the day of Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, the White House's rapid-response account posted more than 200 times to X, promoting clips and favourable reactions. Trump has spent his career living by the rule that, when he takes a hit, he hits back harder. That philosophy now infuses the White House. When the actor Selena Gomez posted an Instagram video in which she cried about the deportation of children, it quickly produced video interviews with the mothers of children killed by undocumented immigrants. When Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man with protected legal status, was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, Leavitt said 'outrage' about the case by Democrats and the media 'has been nothing short of despicable'. Dozens of posters of arrested undocumented immigrants were placed along the White House driveway, ensuring they would appear in the live shots of TV journalists. Some content is downright bizarre. The White House shared a photo of a fake Time magazine cover with Trump in a golden crown and the caption, 'LONG LIVE THE KING.' Another post contained an AI-generated video that showed the Gaza Strip transformed into a luxurious, gilded resort called 'Trump Gaza'. And earlier this month Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself dressed as pope as the mourning of Pope Francis continued. Setmayer, who now runs the Seneca Project political action committee, commented: 'It's so outrageous that it would be comical if it weren't so serious. There's nothing funny or comical about insulting one of the world's largest religions and putting yourself in that role. It's blasphemous. But it's also a window into how Donald Trump views himself: this is part of that malignant narcissism. 'He is so desperate for adulation and attention and being all powerful that he would project himself in a cartoon-like rendering of positions of power using the white House platform to push it. This is something a maladjusted 12-year-old does. Not the most powerful man in the world.' The Trump White House has a symbiotic relationship with a new wave of podcasters, X users and YouTubers who enjoy access to the briefing room and presidential press pool, often asking Trump conspicuously sycophantic questions. Employees of outlets such as the National Pulse and the Daily Wire have been invited on foreign trips with cabinet officials. The exposure is leading to bigger advertising deals and distribution contracts. No one embodies the new era of White House communications better than Leavitt, who at 27 is the youngest ever press secretary and probably the most zealously on-message. She has shown an uncanny ability to channel Trump's political psyche, his relish for disparaging the so-called legacy media and his willingness to play fast and loose with facts. Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said: 'She's approaching it in a very different way than others have done. She is forthrightly being a person who communicates the message of the White House rather than responds to the questions of the press. You can query whether that's the job she ought to be doing but she is doing it in an outstanding way. 'She is mature beyond her years. She's articulate. She both can deliver the message and respond in an interactive way, which is something that some press secretaries have difficulty with. If the job of the press secretary is to send the message of the administration on a regular basis in person she is knocking the ball out of the park.' But Mike McCurry, who was White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, is among those who query if that is what the job is about. He said: 'She seems to be in nonstop belligerent mode and showing disdain for the reporters in the room. It's nothing but a propaganda show. She's not doing the job as it's traditionally been defined. She's got a whole different role in the Trump cosmos.' Leavitt presents a weekly 'Maga Minute' roundup video on TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. Last week also saw the launch of White House Wire, a news-style website that publishes exclusively positive coverage. Its format closely resembles the Drudge Report, the rightwing site founded in the 1990s that broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal. When he was working for Clinton, McCurry initially tried to dismiss questions about Lewinsky by retorting: 'Are you really going to ask a question based on something in the Drudge Report?' He acknowledges that today's White House is operating in a very different media environment – but argues that is no excuse for its lack of accountability. McCurry said: 'The concept is if you keep throwing stuff up against the wall all the time, the press tries to chase everything down and they get befuddled a little bit because they don't have a way of focusing back on things that might truly matter in the world 'It's a strategy to try to overwhelm all of the legitimate sources of discourse and just keep changing the tune every day to match whatever it is that you want to try to get done. It's either completely malevolent or completely brilliant. It's hard to know which.'
NDTV
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Google Celebrates Star Wars Day With Themed Confetti: "May The Fourth Be With You"
Every year on May 4, die-hard 'Star Wars' fans across the globe celebrate Star Wars Day. For those not versed in popular culture, the 'May the Fourth be with you' catchphrase was picked as a pun by the fans, reflecting on the date (May 4), owing to a popular dialogue from the movie franchise -- "May the Force be with you". This year, Google is also celebrating the day by throwing confetti around the search page when a user types the term "Star Wars" or "May the fourth be with you". Characters included in the confetti include Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), Wicket the Ewok, C-3PO, R2-D2, and stormtrooper helmets. There are also two types of lightsabers in the confetti, the signature light side blue and dark side red. Users can share the search page experience on social media platforms and repeat the animation as many times as they like. Why is May 4 'Star Wars' Day? The popular "May the force be with you" line is often used by Jedi masters in the movie as a sentiment of goodwill. Fans realised the phrase sounds a lot like "May the Fourth be with you". Therefore, the date on which "Star Wars" Day is celebrated every year is based solely on a pun. Many fan clubs of the popular franchise hold screenings of Star Wars films on May 4. Fans dress up as their favourite characters and get together to celebrate the movie franchise. Interesting facts about 'Star Wars' Day While May 4 is associated with the Jedi phrase - May the force be with you, May 5 has come to be known as "Revenge of the Fifth" which is a play on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. May 5 celebrates the Dark Side or the Sith lords in the Star Wars Universe. May is also a significant month for the popular franchise: the original Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977, and its creator, George Lucas, was born on May 14.
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Star Wars Day: From Baby Yoda to R2-D2 – the cutest characters of the Star Wars franchise
There's a reason George Lucas filled his galaxy far, far away with teddy bears, rolling droids, and fish-nuns: even Jedi can't resist a good 'aww.' And as the Force flows through empires and rebellions, lightsabers and Sith Lords, there remains an unsung current — the irresistible power of cuteness. Because, let's face it, the reason many millennials stayed loyal to Star Wars wasn't just the Force…it was fur, beeps, and baby eyes. So this May the Fourth, we skip the chosen ones and the high ground. We're not here for galactic politics or midichlorian counts. We're diving lightspeed into the soft power that holds the galaxy together — the ten cutest characters in Star Wars, ranked by their ability to melt hearts faster than Anakin fell to the Dark Side. 1. Grogu ( Baby Yoda ): The God of Merch Let's start with the obvious. Grogu — or, as capitalism still insists, Baby Yoda — is a biological weapon of mass adoration. Green, wrinkly, and functionally mute, he's the lovechild of Kermit the Frog and a Tamagotchi. With every side glance, soup sip, or Force-nap, he weaponises innocence. If Luke Skywalker brought balance to the Force, Grogu brought balance to Disney's quarterly revenue. This isn't a character. It's a serotonin factory. 2. BB-8 : R2-D2 , But Built for Tinder R2-D2 walked so BB-8 could roll — literally. He's a beach ball with anxiety, but somehow cooler than most humans. When he gave Finn a thumbs-up with his lighter, a million fanfics were born. BB-8 doesn't speak a word of Basic, yet we know exactly what he means. He's the only droid that could ghost you and still be forgiven. That's not software — that's charisma. 3. Porgs : Puffins on Space Crack The Porgs were born when the Last Jedi team couldn't CGI out native puffins from the set — and instead leaned in. The result? Squishy, squeaky void-faces that scream like they've just seen their cousins roasted by Chewbacca (because…they did). They don't do much, they don't say anything, but they exist to be stared at. They are what happens when a Furby and a panic attack make a baby. And we love them for it. 4. Ewoks : Teddy Bears with Grenades Before Grogu, there was Wicket W. Warrick. The original merch-bait, the Ewoks were George Lucas's masterstroke: how do you make mass murder adorable? Easy — dress it in fur and give it a spear. These homicidal build-a-bears took down an empire with tree trunks and rope. They are the embodiment of 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' Or maybe: 'Do — but know the book has a trapdoor and will eat you.' 5. R2-D2: The OG Sassbot R2-D2 is the Beyoncé of droids. He's been electrocuted, set on fire, and nearly barbecued by Jabba — yet he rolls on, throwing shade in binary and fixing plot holes with a beep. He's the only character to survive all trilogies without a character arc — because he doesn't need one. He's perfect as he is. Short, sassy, loyal, and 100% done with everyone's drama. If cuteness had a blue shell, it would be R2. 6. Babu Frik : The Tiny Techbro 'HEY HEY!' That's it. That's the moment he became a star. At 9 inches tall, Babu Frik is proof that Star Wars occasionally lets chaos reign. He's a droid mechanic with the voice of a blender and the soul of your drunk uncle. He fixes C-3PO and steals the film — in under three minutes. Legend. 7. Loth-Cats: If Your Pet Could Kill You Straight out of Star Wars Rebels, these feline fiends are both cuddly and slightly homicidal — in other words, they're cats. But in space. Which makes them cooler. Their big ears, twitchy tails, and occasional savage tendencies make them a fan-favourite among people who pretend they don't like cats but secretly watch 'cat vibing to techno' videos at 2AM. They don't talk. They don't care. They are the Force. 'Star Wars: Visions Volume 2' Trailer: Cynthia Erivo and David Diggs starrer 'Star Wars: Visions Volume 2' Official Trailer 8. Jawas: Gremlins in Hoodies Imagine your neighbourhood tech reseller was 3 feet tall, wore a hoodie, and could dismantle your Wi-Fi router while laughing in vowels. That's a Jawa. These desert-dwelling kleptos make up for what they lack in height with sheer audacity. They don't speak English, but they know the universal language of 'mine now.' Their glowing eyes peer into your soul. And into your hard drive. 9. Tauntauns: The Cold Boys You thought Han slicing one open to keep Luke warm was traumatic? Yes. But rewind 10 minutes, and you'll realise that Tauntauns are giant, slightly dumb llamas on cocaine. Their bleats are iconic. Their eyes scream 'I didn't ask to be in this movie.' And yet, they're lovable — loyal steeds in the tundra of Hoth who just want a nap and maybe fewer rebels riding them into battle. 10. Caretakers: Nun-Fish with Attitude From the sacred island of Ahch-To, the caretakers are part nun, part fish, and fully done with your Jedi nonsense. They clean up after Rey, sigh dramatically, and side-eye like they invented it. They're like your grandmother if she lived in a stone hut and judged you for swinging lightsabers near her pottery. Pure vibes. No dialogue. Maximum passive-aggression. The Cute Side of the Force In a universe where planets explode and Sith Lords throw tantrums in capes, the cute ones remind us what's at stake. The soul of Star Wars isn't just in prophecy or power — it's in the beeps, blinks, and baby ears. Because long before we debate canon or complain about Snoke's skincare routine, we first fell in love with a green puppet on Dagobah who couldn't speak proper English but spoke to our hearts. And in that moment, we were all Porgs. Happy Star Wars Day . May the adorable be with you.
