title: Hedonism

text: Various thought experiments have been proposed for the second category, i.e. that there are intrinsically valuable things other than pleasure. The most well-known one in recent philosophy is Robert Nozick's experience machine. Nozick asks us whether we would agree to be permanently transported into a simulated reality more pleasurable than actual life. He thinks that it is rational to decline this offer since other things besides pleasure matter. This has to do with the fact that it matters to be in touch with reality and to actually "make a difference in the world" instead of just appearing to do so since life would be meaningless otherwise. Axiological hedonists have responded to this thought experiment by pointing out that our intuitions about what we should do are mistaken, for example, that there is a cognitive bias to prefer the status quo and that if we were to find out that we had spent our life already within the experience machine, we would be likely to choose to stay within the machine. Another objection within this category is that many things besides pleasure seem valuable to us, like virtue, beauty, knowledge or justice. For example, G. E. Moore suggests in a famous thought experiment that a world consisting only of a beautiful landscape is better than an ugly and disgusting world even if there is no conscious being to observe and enjoy or suffer either world. One way for the axiological hedonist to respond is to explain the value of these things in terms of instrumental values. So, for example, virtue is good because it tends to increase the overall pleasure of the virtuous person or of the people around them. This can be paired with holding that there is a psychological bias to mistake stable instrumental values for intrinsic values, thus explaining the opponent's intuition. While this strategy may work for some cases, it is controversial whether it can be applied to all counterexamples.


title: Hedonism

text: Aesthetic hedonism is the influential view in the field of aesthetics that beauty or aesthetic value can be defined in terms of pleasure, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for it to cause pleasure or that the experience of beauty is always accompanied by pleasure. A prominent articulation of this position comes from Thomas Aquinas, who treats beauty as "that which pleases in the very apprehension of it". Immanuel Kant explains this pleasure through a harmonious interplay between the faculties of understanding and imagination. A further question for aesthetic hedonists is how to explain the relation between beauty and pleasure. This problem is akin to the Euthyphro dilemma: is something beautiful because we enjoy it or do we enjoy it because it is beautiful? Identity theorists solve this problem by denying that there is a difference between beauty and pleasure: they identify beauty, or the appearance of it, with the experience of aesthetic pleasure.


title: Hedonism

text: Aesthetic hedonists usually restrict and specify the notion of pleasure in various ways in order to avoid obvious counterexamples. One important distinction in this context is the difference between "pure" and "mixed pleasure". Pure pleasure excludes any form of pain or unpleasant feeling while the experience of mixed pleasure can include unpleasant elements. But beauty can involve mixed pleasure, for example, in the case of a beautifully tragic story, which is why mixed pleasure is usually allowed in aesthetic hedonist conceptions of beauty.


title: Hedonism

text: Another problem faced by aesthetic hedonist theories is that we take pleasure from many things that are not beautiful. One way to address this issue is to associate beauty with a special type of pleasure: "aesthetic" or "disinterested pleasure". A pleasure is disinterested if it is indifferent to the existence of the beautiful object or if it did not arise due to an antecedent desire through means-end reasoning. For example, the joy of looking at a beautiful landscape would still be valuable if it turned out that this experience was an illusion, which would not be true if this joy was due to seeing the landscape as a valuable real estate opportunity. Opponents of hedonism usually concede that many experiences of beauty are pleasurable but deny that this is true for all cases. For example, a cold jaded critic may still be a good judge of beauty due to his years of experience but lack the joy that initially accompanied his work. One way to avoid this objection is to allow responses to beautiful things to lack pleasure while insisting that all beautiful things merit pleasure, that aesthetic pleasure is the only appropriate response to them.


title: Hedonism

text: The term "hedonism" derives from the Greek "hēdonismos" (; from ), which is a cognate from Proto-Indo-European "swéh₂dus" through Ancient Greek


title: Hedonism

text: Opposite to hedonism, there is hedonophobia, which is a strong aversion to experiencing pleasure. According to medical author William C. Shiel Jr., "hedonophobia" is "an abnormal, excessive, and persistent fear of pleasure." The condition of being unable to experience pleasure is "anhedonia".


title: Hedonism

text: In the original Old Babylonian version of the "Epic of Gilgamesh," Siduri gave the following advice: "Fill your belly. Day and night make merry. Let days be full of joy. Dance and make music day and night... These things alone are the concern of men." This may represent the first recorded advocacy of a hedonistic philosophy.


title: Hedonism

text: Scenes of a harper entertaining guests at a feast were common in Ancient-Egyptian tombs, and sometimes contained hedonistic elements, calling guests to submit to pleasure because they cannot be sure that they will be rewarded for good with a blissful afterlife. The following is a song attributed to the reign of one of the pharaohs around the time of the 12th dynasty, and the text was used in the 18th and 19th dynasties.


title: Hedonism

text: Democritus seems to be the earliest philosopher on record to have categorically embraced a hedonistic philosophy; he called the supreme goal of life "contentment" or "cheerfulness," claiming that "joy and sorrow are the distinguishing mark of things beneficial and harmful.


title: Hedonism

text: The Cyrenaics were a hedonist Greek school of philosophy founded in the 4th century BC by Socrates' student, Aristippus of Cyrene, although many of the principles of the school are believed to have been formalized by his grandson of the same name, Aristippus the Younger. The school was so called after Cyrene, the birthplace of Aristippus and where he began teaching. It was one of the earliest Socratic schools. The school died out within a century.


title: Hedonism

text: The Cyrenaics taught that the only intrinsic good is pleasure, which meant not just the absence of pain, but positively enjoyable momentary sensations. Of these, physical ones are stronger than those of anticipation or memory. They did, however, recognize the value of social obligation, and that pleasure could be gained from altruism.


title: Hedonism

text: The Cyrenaics were known for their skeptical theory of knowledge, reducing logic to a basic doctrine concerning the criterion of truth. They thought that we can know with certainty only our immediate sense-experiences (for instance, that one is having a sweet sensation), but can know nothing about the nature of the objects that cause these sensations (for instance, that honey is sweet). They also denied that we can have knowledge of what the experiences of other people are like. All knowledge is immediate sensation. These sensations are motions that are purely subjective, and are painful, indifferent or pleasant, according as they are violent, tranquil or gentle. Further, they are entirely individual and can in no way be described as constituting absolute objective knowledge. Feeling, therefore, is the only possible criterion of knowledge and of conduct. Our ways of being affected are alone knowable, thus the sole aim for everyone should be pleasure.


title: Hedonism

text: Cyrenaicism deduces a single, universal aim for all people: pleasure. Furthermore, all feeling is momentary and homogeneous; past and future pleasure have no real existence for us, and that among present pleasures there is no distinction of kind. Socrates had spoken of the higher pleasures of the intellect; the Cyrenaics denied the validity of this distinction and said that bodily pleasures, being more simple and more intense, were preferable. Momentary pleasure, preferably of a physical kind, is the only good for humans. However some actions which give immediate pleasure can create more than their equivalent of pain. The wise person should be in control of pleasures rather than be enslaved to them, otherwise pain will result, and this requires judgement to evaluate the different pleasures of life. Regard should be paid to law and custom, because even though these things have no intrinsic value on their own, violating them will lead to unpleasant penalties being imposed by others. Likewise, friendship and justice are useful because of the pleasure they provide. Thus the Cyrenaics believed in the hedonistic value of social obligation and altruistic behaviour.


title: Hedonism

text: Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus (), founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus and Leucippus. His materialism led him to a general stance against superstition or the idea of divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest, sustainable "pleasure" in the form of a state of tranquility and freedom from fear ("ataraxia") and absence of bodily pain ("aponia") through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood.


title: Hedonism

text: In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism. He argued that when eating, one should not eat too richly, for it could lead to dissatisfaction later, such as the grim realization that one could not afford such delicacies in the future. Likewise, sex could lead to increased lust and dissatisfaction with the sexual partner. Epicurus did not articulate a broad system of social ethics that has survived but had a unique version of the Golden Rule.


title: Hedonism

text: It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing "neither to harm nor be harmed"), and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.


title: Hedonism

text: Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism, though later it became the main opponent of Stoicism. Epicurus and his followers shunned politics. After the death of Epicurus, his school was headed by Hermarchus; later many Epicurean societies flourished in the Late Hellenistic era and during the Roman era (such as those in Antiochia, Alexandria, Rhodes and Ercolano). The poet Lucretius is its most known Roman proponent. By the end of the Roman Empire, having undergone Christian attack and repression, Epicureanism had all but died out, and would be resurrected in the 17th century by the atomist Pierre Gassendi, who adapted it to the Christian doctrine.


title: Hedonism

text: Some writings by Epicurus have survived. Some scholars consider the epic poem "On the Nature of Things" by Lucretius to present in one unified work the core arguments and theories of Epicureanism. Many of the papyrus scrolls unearthed at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum are Epicurean texts. At least some are thought to have belonged to the Epicurean Philodemus.


title: Hedonism

text: Yangism has been described as a form of psychological and ethical egoism. The Yangist philosophers believed in the importance of maintaining self-interest through "keeping one's nature intact, protecting one's uniqueness, and not letting the body be tied by other things". Disagreeing with the Confucian virtues of "li" ('propriety'), "ren" ('humaneness'), and "yi" ('righteousness'), and the Legalist virtue of "fa" (law), the Yangists saw "wei wo" (, '[everything] for myself') as the only virtue necessary for self-cultivation. Individual pleasure is considered desirable, like in hedonism, but not at the expense of the health of the individual. The Yangists saw individual well-being as the prime purpose of life, and considered anything that hindered that well-being immoral and unnecessary.


title: Hedonism

text: The main focus of the Yangists was on the concept of "xing" (), or human nature, a term later incorporated by Mencius into Confucianism. The "xing", according to sinologist A. C. Graham, is a person's "proper course of development" in life. Individuals can only rationally care for their own "xing", and should not naively have to support the "xing" of other people, even if it means opposing the emperor. In this sense, Yangism is a "direct attack" on Confucianism, by implying that the power of the emperor, defended in Confucianism, is baseless and destructive, and that state intervention is morally flawed.


title: Hedonism

text: The Confucian philosopher Mencius depicts Yangism as the direct opposite of Mohism, which promotes the idea of universal love and impartial caring. In contrast, the Yangists acted only "for themselves," rejecting the altruism of Mohism. He criticized the Yangists as selfish, ignoring the duty of serving the public and caring only for personal concerns. Mencius saw Confucianism as the "Middle Way" between Mohism and Yangism.


title: Hedonism

text: The concept of hedonism is also found in "nāstika" ('atheist', as in heterodox) schools of Hinduism, for instance the Charvaka school. However, Hedonism is criticized by "āstika" ('theist', as in orthodox) schools of thought on the basis that it is inherently egoistic and therefore detrimental to spiritual liberation.


title: Hedonism

text: Judaism believes that the world was created to serve God, and in order to do so properly, God in turn gives mankind the opportunity to experience pleasure in the process of serving Him (Talmud Kidushin 82:b). In recent years, Rabbi Noah Weinberg articulated five different levels of pleasure, of which "connecting with God" is the highest possible pleasure. The Book of Ecclesiastes (2:24) in the Old Testament proclaims: "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?


title: Hedonism

text: Ethical hedonism as part of Christian theology has also been a concept in some evangelical circles, particularly in those of the Reformed tradition. The term Christian Hedonism was first coined by Reformed-Baptist theologian John Piper in his 1986 book "Desiring God":My shortest summary of it is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Or: The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Does Christian Hedonism make a god out of pleasure? No. It says that we all make a god out of what we take most pleasure in.Piper states his term may describe the theology of Jonathan Edwards, who in his 1746 "Treatise Concerning Religious Affections" referred to "a future enjoyment of Him [God] in heaven." Already in the 17th century, the atomist Pierre Gassendi had adapted Epicureanism to the Christian doctrine.


title: Hedonism

text: In Islam, one of the main duties of a Muslim is to conquer his "nafs" (his ego, self, passions, desires) and to be free from it. Certain joys of life are permissible provided they do not lead to excess or evildoing that may bring harm. It is understood that everyone takes their passion as their idol, Islam calls these "tawaghit" (idols) and "taghut" (worship of other than Allah) so there has to be a means of controlling these nafs.


title: Hedonism

text: Utilitarianism addresses problems with moral motivation neglected by Kantianism by giving a central role to happiness. It is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall good of the society. It is thus one form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its resulting outcome. The most influential contributors to this theory are considered to be the 18th and 19th-century British philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Conjoining hedonism—as a view as to what is good for people—to utilitarianism has the result that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest total amount of happiness (measured via "hedonic calculus"). Though consistent in their pursuit of happiness, Bentham and Mill's versions of hedonism differ.


title: Hedonism

text: One school, grouped around Bentham, defends a quantitative approach. Bentham believed that the value of a pleasure could be quantitatively understood. Essentially, he believed the value of pleasure to be its intensity multiplied by its duration—so it was not just the number of pleasures, but their intensity and how long they lasted that must be taken into account.


title: Hedonism

text: Other proponents, like Mill, argue a qualitative approach. Mill believed that there can be different levels of pleasure—higher quality pleasure is better than lower quality pleasure. Mill also argues that simpler beings (he often refers to "pigs") have an easier access to the simpler pleasures; since they do not see other aspects of life, they can simply indulge in their lower pleasures. The more elaborate beings tend to spend more thought on other matters and hence lessen the time for simple pleasure. It is therefore more difficult for them to indulge in such "simple pleasures" in the same manner.


title: Hedonism

text: An extreme form of hedonism that views moral and sexual restraint as either unnecessary or harmful. Famous proponents are Marquis de Sade and John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.


title: Hedonism

text: Contemporary proponents of hedonism include Swedish philosopher Torbjörn Tännsjö, Fred Feldman, and Spanish ethic philosopher Esperanza Guisán (published a "Hedonist manifesto" in 1990). Dan Haybron has distinguished between psychological, ethical, welfare and axiological hedonism.


title: Hedonism

text: A dedicated contemporary hedonist philosopher and writer on the history of hedonistic thought is the French Michel Onfray, who has written two books directly on the subject, "L'invention du plaisir: fragments cyréaniques" and "La puissance d'exister : Manifeste hédoniste". He defines hedonism "as an introspective attitude to life based on taking pleasure yourself and pleasuring others, without harming yourself or anyone else." Onfray's philosophical project is to define an ethical hedonism, a joyous utilitarianism, and a generalized aesthetic of sensual materialism that explores how to use the brain's and the body's capacities to their fullest extent—while restoring philosophy to a useful role in art, politics, and everyday life and decisions."


title: Hedonism

text: Onfray's works "have explored the philosophical resonances and components of (and challenges to) science, painting, gastronomy, sex and sensuality, bioethics, wine, and writing. His most ambitious project is his projected six-volume Counter-history of Philosophy," of which three have been published. For Onfray:In opposition to the ascetic ideal advocated by the dominant school of thought, hedonism suggests identifying the highest good with your own pleasure and that of others; the one must never be indulged at the expense of sacrificing the other. Obtaining this balance – my pleasure at the same time as the pleasure of others – presumes that we approach the subject from different angles – political, ethical, aesthetic, erotic, bioethical, pedagogical, historiographical...For this, he has "written books on each of these facets of the same world view." His philosophy aims for "micro-revolutions", or "revolutions of the individual and small groups of like-minded people who live by his hedonistic, libertarian values."


title: Hedonism

text: The Abolitionist Society is a transhumanist group calling for the abolition of suffering in all sentient life through the use of advanced biotechnology. Their core philosophy is negative utilitarianism.


title: Hedonism

text: David Pearce is a theorist of this perspective who believes and promotes the idea that there exists a strong ethical imperative for humans to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His book-length internet manifesto "The Hedonistic Imperative" outlines how technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology, and neurosurgery could potentially converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience among human and non-human animals, replacing suffering with gradients of well-being, a project he refers to as "paradise engineering." A transhumanist and a vegan, Pearce believes that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society but also to alleviate the suffering of animals in the wild.


title: Hedonism

text: In a talk given at the Future of Humanity Institute and at the Charity International, 'Happiness Conference', Pearce said:


title: Hedonism

text: Sadly, what "won't" abolish suffering, or at least not on its own, is socio-economic reform, or exponential economic growth, or technological progress in the usual sense, or any of the traditional panaceas for solving the world's ills. Improving the external environment is admirable and important; but such improvement can't recalibrate our hedonic treadmill above a genetically constrained ceiling. Twin studies confirm there is a [partially] heritable set-point of well-being - or ill-being - around which we all tend to fluctuate over the course of a lifetime. This set-point varies between individuals. It's possible to "lower" an individual's hedonic set-point by inflicting prolonged uncontrolled stress; but even this re-set is not as easy as it sounds: suicide-rates typically go down in wartime; and six months after a quadriplegia-inducing accident, studies suggest that we are typically neither more nor less unhappy than we were before the catastrophic event. Unfortunately, attempts to build an ideal society can't overcome this biological ceiling, whether utopias of the left or right, free-market or socialist, religious or secular, futuristic high-tech or simply cultivating one's garden. Even if "everything" that traditional futurists have asked for is delivered - eternal youth, unlimited material wealth, morphological freedom, superintelligence, immersive VR, molecular nanotechnology, etc - there is no evidence that our subjective quality of life would on average significantly surpass the quality of life of our hunter-gatherer ancestors - or a New Guinea tribesman today - in the absence of reward pathway enrichment. This claim is difficult to prove in the absence of sophisticated neuroscanning; but objective indices of psychological distress e.g. suicide rates, bear it out. "Un"enhanced humans will still be prey to the spectrum of Darwinian emotions, ranging from terrible suffering to petty disappointments and frustrations - sadness, anxiety, jealousy, existential angst. Their biology is part of "what it means to be human". Subjectively unpleasant states of consciousness exist because they were genetically adaptive. Each of our core emotions had a distinct signalling role in our evolutionary past: they tended to promote behaviours that enhanced the inclusive fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment.


title: Hedonism

text: Russian physicist and philosopher Victor Argonov argues that hedonism is not only a philosophical but also a verifiable scientific hypothesis. In 2014, he suggested "postulates of pleasure principle," the confirmation of which would lead to a new scientific discipline known as hedodynamics.


title: Hedonism

text: Hedodynamics would be able to forecast the distant future development of human civilization and even the probable structure and psychology of other rational beings within the universe. In order to build such a theory, science must discover the neural correlate of pleasure—neurophysiological parameter unambiguously corresponding to the feeling of pleasure (hedonic tone).


title: Hedonism

text: According to Argonov, posthumans will be able to reprogram their motivations in an arbitrary manner (to get pleasure from any programmed activity). And if pleasure principle postulates are true, then general direction of civilization development is obvious: maximization of integral happiness in posthuman life (product of life span and average happiness). Posthumans will avoid constant pleasure stimulation, because it is incompatible with rational behavior required to prolong life. However, they can become on average much happier than modern humans.


title: Hedonism

text: Many other aspects of posthuman society could be predicted by hedodynamics if the neural correlate of pleasure were discovered. For example, optimal number of individuals, their optimal body size (whether it matters for happiness or not) and the degree of aggression.


title: Hedonism

text: Critics of hedonism have objected to its exclusive concentration on pleasure as valuable or that the retentive breadth of dopamine is limited.


title: Hedonism

text: In particular, G. E. Moore offered a thought experiment in criticism of pleasure as the sole bearer of value: he imagined two worlds—one of exceeding beauty and the other a heap of filth. Neither of these worlds will be experienced by anyone. The question then is if it is better for the beautiful world to exist than the heap of filth. In this, Moore implied that states of affairs have value beyond conscious pleasure, which he said spoke against the validity of hedonism.


title: Hedonism

text: Perhaps the most famous objection to hedonism is Robert Nozick's famous experience machine. Nozick asks us to just hypothetically imagine a machine that will allow us to experience whatever we want—if we want to experience making friends, it will give this to us. Nozick claims that by hedonistic logic, we should remain in this machine for the rest of our lives. However, he gives three reasons why this is not a preferable scenario: firstly, because we want to "do" certain things, as opposed to merely experience them; secondly, we want to be a certain kind of person, as opposed to an 'indeterminate blob' and thirdly, because such a thing would limit our experiences to only what we can imagine. Peter Singer, a hedonistic utilitarian, and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek have both argued against such an objection by saying that it only provides an answer to certain forms of hedonism, and ignores others.


title: Coup d'état

text: A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, military, or a dictator. Many scholars consider a coup successful when the usurpers seize and hold power for at least seven days.


title: Coup d'état

text: The term comes from French "coup d'État", literally meaning a 'stroke of state' or 'blow of state'. In French, the word "État" () is capitalized when it denotes a sovereign political entity.


title: Coup d'état

text: Although the concept of a coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage. It did not appear within an English text before the 19th century except when used in the translation of a French source, there being no simple phrase in English to convey the contextualized idea of a 'knockout blow to the existing administration within a state'.


title: Coup d'état

text: One early use within text translated from French was in 1785 in a printed translation of a letter from a French merchant, commenting on an arbitrary decree or "arrêt" issued by the French king restricting the import of British wool. What may be its first published use within a text composed in English is an editor's note in the London "Morning Chronicle", January 7, 1802, reporting the arrest by Napoleon in France, of Moreau, Berthier, Masséna, and Bernadotte: "There was a report in circulation yesterday of a sort of coup d'état having taken place in France, in consequence of some formidable conspiracy against the existing government."


title: Coup d'état

text: In the British press, the phrase came to be used to describe the various murders by Napoleon's alleged secret police, the "Gens d'Armes d'Elite", who executed the Duke of Enghien: "the actors in torture, the distributors of the poisoning draughts, and the secret executioners of those unfortunate individuals or families, whom Bonaparte's measures of safety require to remove. In what revolutionary tyrants call "grand[s] coups d'état", as butchering, or poisoning, or drowning, "en masse", they are exclusively employed."


title: Coup d'état

text: A soft coup, sometimes referred to as a silent coup or a bloodless coup, is an illegal overthrow of a government, but unlike a regular coup d'état it is achieved without the use of force or violence.


title: Coup d'état

text: A "palace coup" or "palace revolution" is a coup in which one faction within the ruling group displaces another faction within a ruling group. Along with popular protests, palace coups are a major threat to dictators. The Harem conspiracy of the 12th century BC was one of the earliest. Palace coups were common in Imperial China. They have also occurred among the Habsburg dynasty in Austria, the Al-Thani dynasty in Qatar, and in Haiti in the 19th to early 20th centuries. The majority of Russian tsars between 1725 and 1801 were either overthrown or usurped power in palace coups.


title: Coup d'état

text: The term "Putsch" (], from Swiss-German 'knock'), denotes the political-military actions of an unsuccessful minority reactionary coup. The term was initially coined for the "Züriputsch" of 6 September 1839 in Switzerland. It was also used for attempted coups in Weimar Germany, such as the 1920 Kapp Putsch, Küstrin Putsch, and the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch by Adolf Hitler.


title: Coup d'état

text: During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, a supposed "putsch" was the underpinning of a disinformation tactic by Hitler and other Nazi party members. After initiating a purge, the idea of an imminent coup allowed them to falsely claim the killing was justified (as a means to suppress an uprising). Germans still use the term to describe the event, the term given to it by the Nazi regime, despite the unproven implication that the murders were necessary to prevent a reactionary coup. Thus, German authors often use quotation marks or write about the ('so-called Röhm Putsch') for emphasis.


title: Coup d'état

text: One author makes a distinction between a coup and a . In a coup, it is the military, paramilitary, or opposing political faction that deposes the current government and assumes power; whereas, in the , the military deposes the existing government and installs an ostensibly civilian government.


title: Coup d'état

text: Other types of actual or attempted unilateral seizures of power are sometimes called "coups with adjectives." The appropriate term can be subjective and carries normative, analytical, and political implications.


title: Coup d'état

text: A revolution or rebellion can have the same outcome as a coup, in that a ruler or government can be replaced by unconstitutional means. However, while a coup is usually made by a small group and planned beforehand, a revolution or rebellion is usually started more spontaneously and by larger groups of uncoordinated people. The distinction is not always clear. Sometimes, a coup is also labelled as a revolution by the coup makers to try to give it a form of democratic legitimacy.


title: Coup d'état

text: According to Clayton Thyne and Jonathan Powell's coup data set, there were 457 coup attempts from 1950 to 2010, of which 227 (49.7%) were successful and 230 (50.3%) were unsuccessful. They find that coups have "been most common in Africa and the Americas (36.5% and 31.9%, respectively). Asia and the Middle East have experienced 13.1% and 15.8% of total global coups, respectively. Europe has experienced by far the fewest coup attempts: 2.6%." Most coup attempts occurred in the mid-1960s, but there were also large numbers of coup attempts in the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. From 1950 to 2010, a majority of coups failed in the Middle East and Latin America. They had a somewhat higher chance of success in Africa and Asia. Numbers of successful coups have decreased over time.


title: Coup d'état

text: The study found that about half of all coups in dictatorships—both during and after the Cold War—install new autocratic regimes. New dictatorships launched by coups engage in higher levels of repression in the year that follows the coup than existed in the year leading to the coup. One-third of coups in dictatorships during the Cold War and 10% of later ones reshuffled the regime leadership. Democracies were installed in the wake of 12% of Cold War coups in dictatorships and 40% of post-Cold War ones.


title: Coup d'état

text: Coups occurring in the post-Cold War period have been more likely to result in democratic systems than pre-Cold War coups, though coups still mostly perpetuate authoritarianism. Coups that occur during civil wars shorten the war's duration.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2003 review of the academic literature found that the following factors were associated with coups:


title: Coup d'état

text: The literature review in a 2016 study includes mentions of ethnic factionalism, supportive foreign governments, leader inexperience, slow growth, commodity price shocks, and poverty.


title: Coup d'état

text: Coups have been found to appear in environments that are heavily influenced by military powers. Multiple of the above factors are connected to military culture and power dynamics. These factors can be divided into multiple categories, with two of these categories being a threat to military interests and support for military interests. If interests go in either direction, the military will find itself either capitalizing off that power or attempting to gain it back.


title: Coup d'état

text: Often times military spending is a indicator of the likelihood of a coup taking place Nordvik found that about 75% of coups that took place in many different countries rooted from military spending and oil windfalls.


title: Coup d'état

text: The cumulative number of coups is a strong predictor of future coups. This phenomenon is called the coup trap. A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries found that the establishment of open political competition helps bring countries out of the "coup trap" and reduces cycles of political instability.


title: Coup d'état

text: Hybrid regimes are more vulnerable to coups than are very authoritarian states or democratic states. A 2021 study found that democratic regimes were not substantially more likely to experience coups. A 2015 study finds that terrorism is strongly associated with re-shuffling coups. A 2016 study finds that there is an ethnic component to coups: "When leaders attempt to build ethnic armies, or dismantle those created by their predecessors, they provoke violent resistance from military officers." Another 2016 study shows that protests increase the risk of coups, presumably because they ease coordination obstacles among coup plotters and make international actors less likely to punish coup leaders. A third 2016 study finds that coups become more likely in the wake of elections in autocracies when the results reveal electoral weakness for the incumbent autocrat. A fourth 2016 study finds that inequality between social classes increases the likelihood of coups. A fifth 2016 study finds no evidence that coups are contagious; one coup in a region does not make other coups in the region likely to follow. One study found that coups are more likely to occur in states with small populations, as there are smaller coordination problems for coup-plotters.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2019 study found that when civilian elites are polarized and electoral competition is low, civilian-recruited coups become more likely.


title: Coup d'état

text: In autocracies, the frequency of coups seems to be affected by the succession rules in place, with monarchies with a fixed succession rule being much less plagued by instability than less institutionalized autocracies.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries in the 20th-century study found the legislative powers of the presidency does not influence coup frequency.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2017 study found that autocratic leaders whose states were involved in international rivalries over disputed territory were more likely to be overthrown in a coup. The authors of the study provide the following logic for why this is: "Autocratic incumbents invested in spatial rivalries need to strengthen the military in order to compete with a foreign adversary. The imperative of developing a strong army puts dictators in a paradoxical situation: to compete with a rival state, they must empower the very agency—the military—that is most likely to threaten their own survival in office." However, two 2016 studies found that leaders who were involved in militarized confrontations and conflicts were less likely to face a coup.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2019 study found that states that had recently signed civil war peace agreements were much more likely to experience coups, in particular when those agreements contained provisions that jeopardized the interests of the military.


title: Coup d'état

text: Research suggests that protests spur coups, as they help elites within the state apparatus to coordinate coups.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2018 study found that coup attempts were less likely in states where the militaries derived significant incomes from peacekeeping missions. The study argued that militaries were dissuaded from staging coups because they feared that the UN would no longer enlist the military in peacekeeping missions.


title: Coup d'état

text: A separate 2018 study found that the presence of military academies were linked to coups. The authors argue that military academies make it easier for military officers to plan coups, as the schools build networks among military officers.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2018 study found that "oil price shocks are seen to promote coups in onshore-intensive oil countries, while preventing them in offshore-intensive oil countries." The study argues that states which have onshore oil wealth tend to build up their military to protect the oil, whereas states do not do that for offshore oil wealth.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2020 study found that elections had a two-sided impact on coup attempts, depending on the state of the economy. During periods of economic expansion, elections reduced the likelihood of coup attempts, whereas elections during economic crises increased the likelihood of coup attempts.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2021 study found that oil wealthy nations see a pronounced risk of coup attempts but these coups are unlikely to succeed.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries in the 20th century study found that coup frequency does not vary with development levels, economic inequality, or the rate of economic growth.


title: Coup d'état

text: In what is referred to as "coup-proofing," regimes create structures that make it hard for any small group to seize power. These coup-proofing strategies may include the strategic placing of family, ethnic, and religious groups in the military; creation of an armed force parallel to the regular military; and development of multiple internal security agencies with overlapping jurisdiction that constantly monitor one another. It may also involve frequent salary hikes and promotions for members of the military, and the deliberate use of diverse bureaucrats. Research shows that some coup-proofing strategies reduce the risk of coups occurring. However, coup-proofing reduces military effectiveness, and limits the rents that an incumbent can extract. One reason why authoritarian governments tend to have incompetent militaries is that authoritarian regimes fear that their military will stage a coup or allow a domestic uprising to proceed uninterrupted – as a consequence, authoritarian rulers have incentives to place incompetent loyalists in key positions in the military.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2016 study shows that the implementation of succession rules reduce the occurrence of coup attempts. Succession rules are believed to hamper coordination efforts among coup plotters by assuaging elites who have more to gain by patience than by plotting.


title: Coup d'état

text: According to political scientists Curtis Bell and Jonathan Powell, coup attempts in neighbouring countries lead to greater coup-proofing and coup-related repression in a region. A 2017 study finds that countries' coup-proofing strategies are heavily influenced by other countries with similar histories. Coup-proofing is more likely in former French colonies.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2018 study in the "Journal of Peace Research" found that leaders who survive coup attempts and respond by purging known and potential rivals are likely to have longer tenures as leaders. A 2019 study in "Conflict Management and Peace Science" found that personalist dictatorships are more likely to take coup-proofing measures than other authoritarian regimes; the authors argue that this is because "personalists are characterized by weak institutions and narrow support bases, a lack of unifying ideologies and informal links to the ruler."


title: Coup d'état

text: Research suggests that coups promoting democratization in staunchly authoritarian regimes have become less likely to end in democracy over time, and that the positive influence has strengthened since the end of the Cold War.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2014 study found that "coups promote democratization, particularly among states that are least likely to democratize otherwise". The authors argue that coup attempts can have this consequence because leaders of successful coups have incentives to democratize quickly in order to establish political legitimacy and economic growth, while leaders who stay in power after failed coup attempts see it as a sign that they must enact meaningful reforms to remain in power. A 2014 study found that 40% of post-Cold War coups were successful. The authors argue that this may be due to the incentives created by international pressure. A 2016 study found that democracies were installed in 12% of Cold War coups and 40% of the post-Cold War coups. A 2020 study found that coups tended to lead to increases in state repression, not reductions.


title: Coup d'état

text: According to a 2020 study, "external reactions to coups play important roles in whether coup leaders move toward authoritarianism or democratic governance. When supported by external democratic actors, coup leaders have an incentive to push for elections to retain external support and consolidate domestic legitimacy. When condemned, coup leaders are apt to trend toward authoritarianism to assure their survival."


title: Coup d'état

text: According to legal scholar Ilya Somin a coup to forcibly overthrow democratic government might be sometimes justified. Commenting on the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, Somin opined,


title: Coup d'état

text: According to Naunihal Singh, author of "Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups" (2014), it is "fairly rare" for the prevailing existing government to violently purge the army after a coup has been foiled. If it starts the mass killing of elements of the army, including officers who were not involved in the coup, this may trigger a "counter-coup" by soldiers who are afraid they will be next. To prevent such a desperate counter-coup that may be more successful than the initial attempt, governments usually resort to firing prominent officers and replacing them with loyalists instead.


title: Coup d'état

text: Some research suggests that increased repression and violence typically follow both successful and unsuccessful coup attempts. However, some tentative analysis by political scientist Jay Ulfelder finds no clear pattern of deterioration in human rights practices in wake of failed coups in post-Cold War era.


title: Coup d'état

text: Notable counter-coups include the Ottoman countercoup of 1909, the 1960 Laotian counter-coup, the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup, the 1967 Greek counter-coup, 1971 Sudanese counter-coup, and the Coup d'état of December Twelfth in South Korea.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2017 study finds that the use of state broadcasting by the "putschist" regime after Mali's 2012 coup did not elevate explicit approval for the regime.


title: Coup d'état

text: The international community tends to react adversely to coups by reducing aid and imposing sanctions. A 2015 study finds that "coups against democracies, coups after the Cold War, and coups in states heavily integrated into the international community are all more likely to elicit global reaction." Another 2015 study shows that coups are the strongest predictor for the imposition of democratic sanctions. A third 2015 study finds that Western states react strongest against coups of possible democratic and human rights abuses. A 2016 study shows that the international donor community in the post-Cold War period penalizes coups by reducing foreign aid. The US has been inconsistent in applying aid sanctions against coups both during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, a likely consequence of its geopolitical interests.


title: Coup d'état

text: Organizations such as the African Union (AU) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have adopted anti-coup frameworks. Through the threat of sanctions, the organizations actively try to curb coups. A 2016 study finds that the AU has played a meaningful role in reducing African coups.


title: Coup d'état

text: A 2017 study found that negative international responses, especially from powerful actors, have a significant effect in shortening the duration of regimes created in coups.


title: Coup d'état

text: According to a 2020 study, coups increase the cost of borrowing and increase the likelihood of sovereign default.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Mae Margaret Whitman (born June 9, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting in commercials as a child, making her film debut at the age of six in the romantic drama "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994). She achieved recognition as a child actress for her supporting roles in "One Fine Day" (1996), "Independence Day" (1996), "Hope Floats" (1998), and her television role on "JAG" (1998–2001).


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman gained mainstream attention for her recurring role as Ann Veal on the Fox sitcom "Arrested Development" (2004–2006, 2013) and her role as Annie Marks on the NBC drama "Good Girls". She also starred as Amber Holt in the NBC drama "Parenthood" (2010–2015), for which she received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She established herself as a prominent voice actor in children's film and television for her voice performances as Little Suzy in "Johnny Bravo" (1997–2004), Shanti in "The Jungle Book 2" (2003), in the Nickelodeon cartoon "" (2005–2008), Rose/Huntsgirl on "" (2005–2007), Tinker Bell in eponymous films, Wonder Girl / Cassie Sandsmark in "Young Justice" (2012–present), April O'Neil in the 2012 incarnation of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and Amity Blight in "The Owl House" (2020–present). She ventured into mature film roles with "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010) and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012), and made her leading role film debut in "The DUFF" (2015), for which she received critical praise and a Teen Choice Award nomination.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman was born in Los Angeles, the only child of voice actress Pat Musick and personal manager and set construction coordinator Jeffrey Whitman. She attended Ribet Academy.


title: Mae Whitman

text: She started her career with a voice-over for a Tyson Chicken commercial at the age of two. Acting coach Andrew Magarian helped her memorize lines as she could not read. In 1994, at the age of six, Whitman made her film debut acting alongside Meg Ryan in "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), playing Ryan's youngest daughter, Casey Green. She beat 700 other girls who were interested in the part. In 1996, Whitman appeared in two films: "Independence Day", playing Bill Pullman's daughter Patricia Whitmore, and "One Fine Day", playing George Clooney's daughter Maggie Taylor. The same year, Whitman guest starred in the season three episode of "Friends", "The One Where Rachel Quits". In 1998, she played Sandra Bullock's daughter, Bernice Pruitt, in "Hope Floats". During several guest appearances from 1998 until 2001, Whitman played the role of Chloe Madison on "JAG" before starring in the Fox Family series "State of Grace" in which she portrayed Grace, a girl from a Catholic background who befriends Hannah (Alia Shawkat), a Jewish girl. She was also in 17 episodes of "Chicago Hope".


title: Mae Whitman

text: From 2004 to 2006, Whitman had a recurring role on "Arrested Development". She also voiced Katara on "" from 2005 to 2008. Whitman appeared in the 2006 series "Thief" for FX Networks, playing the stepdaughter of Nick Atwater (Andre Braugher). Whitman made several high-profile guest appearances in 2006 and 2007. She also appeared on "Desperate Housewives" in the episode "Nice She Ain't" as Sarah, an unscrupulous friend of Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen). Whitman also had a recurring role on "Chicago Hope" (1994–2000), playing the daughter of Dr. Kate Austin (Christine Lahti), in the series' later years.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman was initially cast in the 2007 series remake of "The Bionic Woman", playing the deaf younger sister of the title character. On June 27, 2007, "TV Guide" reported that Whitman was being replaced in the role of Jaime's sister and Lucy Hale was cast as Whitman's replacement the following July. An NBC spokesperson confirmed this, stating "The decision was purely creatively driven. It is very common to change storylines, characters, actors after the initial pilot is shot." The sister character's hearing was restored after this recasting at the request of an NBC executive.


title: Mae Whitman

text: She also appeared in the 2008 episode "Streetwise" of "" as an on-the-street-mother who adopts street children and testifies against her husband after her adopted daughter is found murdered. She appeared in the HBO series "In Treatment" as the supporting character Rosie.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman voiced the character Tinker Bell in the Disney "Tinker Bell" films: "Tinker Bell" (2008), "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" (2009) and "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue" (2010) . As part of a deal to promote the production of the first "Tinker Bell" film, the UK's speaking clock started to use her voice at 0100GMT on October 26, 2008. Furthermore, she voiced the role as Rose in "", and played Cynder in "".


title: Mae Whitman

text: In 2009, Whitman landed a regular role in NBC's version of the Ron Howard classic "Parenthood", which premiered in 2010. She played Amber Holt, "a rebellious and willful teen whose only interest at present is her wannabe rock star boyfriend." Whitman played evil ex Roxy Richter in Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", a film adaptation of the Bryan Lee O'Malley indie comic series "Scott Pilgrim", which also starred her former "Arrested Development" co-star Michael Cera in the title role. Whitman appeared on "Family Guy" in 2010. She had a large role in the 2012 film "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" opposite Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.


title: Mae Whitman

text: In 2013, she reprised her role as Ann Veal in "Arrested Development"s season four, six years after the series was canceled. She appeared alongside Darren Criss in three episodes of season three of Lisa Kudrow's "Web Therapy", playing his girlfriend. In 2015, Whitman played the lead role in the comedy "The DUFF". She also started filming "Operator" alongside Martin Starr in June. She voiced Batgirl in DC's "Super Hero Girls" series debuting on September 10, 2016. According to co-writer and director Roland Emmerich, Whitman did not reprise her role as the President's daughter in "", the sequel to the 1996 blockbuster hit "Independence Day", because she did not want to read for the part.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman has expressed her feelings on being typecast as an outsider in various roles in television and movies. She has talked about being a child actor and her relatable experiences such as being bullied in high school for being "weird." In an interview with "Bello Mag", Whitman explains that the entertainment industry constantly tells actors what they are "not" and felt her choosing of these roles was her "trying to communicate to everyone" who may go through similar situations, that it's okay to be who they are. One of Whitman's more notable quotes is, "People should recognize who you are and how you can act rather than how famous you are."


title: Mae Whitman

text: In 2018, Whitman was cast alongside Christina Hendricks and Retta on the NBC dramedy "Good Girls". The show was renewed for a fourth season on May 15, 2020. In June 2021, the series was canceled after four seasons.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman has recorded "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" and "You Make Christmas Feel So Good" for "School's Out! Christmas", and has sung guest vocals on a number of tracks from indie-punk band Fake Problems' 2010 album "Real Ghosts Caught on Tape". Whitman has also been featured on her show "Parenthood" in the song "Gardenia" on the season two episode "The Booth Job" along with Landon Pigg. Whitman appears in the music videos for "I Was a Fool" and "Boyfriend" by Tegan and Sara. She performed a small speaking part in the rapper DVS' track "Charlie Chaplin" where she plays the part of what DVS sees as the stereotypical hipster expressing distaste with music and television to appear special.


title: Mae Whitman

text: Whitman came out as pansexual via Twitter on August 16, 2021, saying she knows she can "fall in love with people of all genders".


title: Henry Golding

text: Henry Ewan Golding (born 5 February 1987) is a Malaysian-British actor and television host. Golding has been a presenter on BBC's "The Travel Show" since 2014. He is known for his film work, playing the role of Nick Young in "Crazy Rich Asians", the title character in the action-adventure "Snake Eyes", Sean Townsend in the thriller "A Simple Favor", and Tom in the romantic comedy "Last Christmas", the latter two directed by Paul Feig.


title: Henry Golding

text: Golding was born in Sarawak in the district of Betong, Malaysia. His mother, Margaret Likan Golding, is a native-born Sarawakian of indigenous Dayak Iban ancestry. His father, Clive Golding, is British. The family lived for almost five years in Terengganu, before moving to Surrey, England, when Henry was eight years old. There he went to The Warwick School, Redhill. He moved to Kuala Lumpur when he was 21 to pursue on-camera roles after working as a hairdresser on Sloane Street in London for a couple of years.


title: Henry Golding

text: In March 2017, after a global casting call, it was announced that Golding would star in the film "Crazy Rich Asians" alongside Constance Wu. He was first brought to director Jon M. Chu's attention by accountant Lisa-Kim Ling Kuan, and Golding's charm and personality quickly won him his first acting role. "Crazy Rich Asians" was released in the United States and Canada on 15 August 2018 by Warner Bros. Pictures and was met with high critical praise, becoming the number one movie in U.S. and Canadian theatres over its opening weekend. A month later, Golding appeared in Paul Feig's thriller "A Simple Favor", co-starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, playing Sean, the husband of Lively's character. Following the success of "Crazy Rich Asians", and, to a lesser extent, "A Simple Favor", Golding was cast opposite Emilia Clarke in the romantic comedy "Last Christmas", directed by Feig (in their second collaboration). Filming commenced on 26 November 2018 and continued until February 2019, and the film was released on 8 November 2019.


title: Henry Golding

text: Golding starred alongside Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, and Michelle Dockery in "The Gentlemen", a 2019 crime film directed by Guy Ritchie. Golding went on to star in "Monsoon", a Hong Khaou film, as Kit, a man who travels from London to his birth country of Vietnam to scatter his parents' ashes.


title: Henry Golding

text: In August 2019, Golding was cast in the title role of "Snake Eyes", a spin-off from the "G.I. Joe" movie franchise, which was released in July 2021. Filming for "Snakes Eyes" began in October 2019 in Vancouver, and wrapped in February 2020 in Tokyo.


title: Henry Golding

text: On 29 April 2019, CNBC reported that Golding is to reprise his role as Nick Young in the back-to-back filming of two sequels to "Crazy Rich Asians", which are currently in pre-production.


title: Henry Golding

text: Golding stars in spy movie "Assassin Club" along with Noomi Rapace, Sam Neill, and Daniela Melchior, with Camille Delamarre directing and screenplay by Thomas C. Dunn. Production on the film has been wrapped in Turin, Italy.


title: Henry Golding

text: Golding met Liv Lo, a Taiwanese television presenter and yoga instructor, on New Year's Day 2011. They became engaged in 2015, and were married in August 2016 in Sarawak. The couple lives in Venice Beach, California with their daughter Lyla.


title: Henry Golding

text: Before his marriage, Golding completed his "bejalai"—the Iban rite of passage into manhood—in the wilderness of Borneo, filming the experience over two months (and carrying the camera equipment himself) for the documentary series "Surviving Borneo" on Discovery Channel Asia. His journey ended in him receiving a traditional hand-tapped "bejalai" tattoo by Ernesto Kalum of Borneoheadhunters Tattoo in Kuching, Sarawak. The tattoo on his right thigh is a fig tree that wraps around other trees and takes their form to become the tree itself.


title: Henry Golding

text: When interviewed by Michele Manelis of "The New Zealand Herald", Golding said of his surname, "Golding is really darn Jewish, isn't it? My grandfather during the war was in London and as the story goes, he was possibly adopted by a Jewish family by that name. Out of respect he took on their name and it was passed down. So, I'm proud to be an honorary Jew."


title: Gina Torres

text: Gina Torres (born April 25, 1969) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Zoe Washburne in the science fiction series "Firefly" (2002–2003) and its feature film sequel "Serenity" (2005), and as Jessica Pearson in the USA Network legal drama series "Suits" (2011–2018) and its spin-off series "Pearson" (2019).


title: Gina Torres

text: Torres appeared in the science fiction films "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" (both 2003), the drama film "Jam" (2006), the romantic comedy film "I Think I Love My Wife" (2007), the independent drama film "South of Pico" (2007), and the drama film "Selah and the Spades" (2019).


title: Gina Torres

text: Throughout her acting career, Torres has appeared in supporting roles in numerous television series, including "", "", "Cleopatra 2525", "Alias", "Angel", "24", "The Shield", "Gossip Girl", "The Vampire Diaries", "Hannibal", "", "Revenge", and "Westworld".


title: Gina Torres

text: Torres was born at the Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan, the youngest of three children. Her family lived briefly in Washington Heights before moving to The Bronx. Her parents were natives of Cuba, and her father worked as a typesetter for "La Prensa" and the New York "Daily News". Torres speaks fluent Spanish.


title: Gina Torres

text: Torres, a mezzo-soprano, began singing at an early age and attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. She also trained in opera and jazz and performed in a gospel choir. Torres applied and was accepted to several colleges but could not afford to attend. She chose instead to pursue her dream of being a performer.


title: Gina Torres

text: In 2001, Torres won the ALMA Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Syndicated Drama Series for her role in "Cleopatra 2525".


title: Gina Torres

text: In 2004, Torres was nominated for the International Press Academy's Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Drama, for her role as Jasmine in "Angel". Her film appearances have included "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) and "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003).


title: Gina Torres

text: In 2004, Torres appeared in seven episodes of the third season on "24" as Julia Milliken, a woman who has an affair with the White House Chief of Staff and becomes involved in a presidential scandal. In 2005, she was tapped for the pilot episode of "Soccer Moms". Also in 2005, she voiced the character of Vixen in numerous episodes of the animated series "Justice League Unlimited" and replaced the voice-over of Jada Pinkett Smith's character Niobe in "The Matrix Online".


title: Gina Torres

text: She is also known for her role in Fox's short-lived "Firefly" series, which lasted only one season. She reprised her "Firefly" role as Zoe in the film "Serenity" (2005). In 2006, Torres began her role as Cheryl Carrera in the short-lived drama series "Standoff" on the Fox network. Torres appeared in the film "I Think I Love My Wife", playing the wife of Chris Rock's character.


title: Gina Torres

text: She was cast in "Washington Field", a 2009 CBS television pilot from executive Producer Edward Allen Bernero, about the National Capital Response Squad, a unit of the FBI made up of elite experts in different areas who travel around the world, responding to events that affect American interests.


title: Gina Torres

text: She was the voice of Wonder Woman in "DC Universe Online" massively multiplayer online role-playing game until mid 2013 when the part was recast, as well as Airachnid in the "Transformers Prime" cartoon.


title: Gina Torres

text: In 2013, Torres was reunited with fellow "Firefly" costar, Nathan Fillion, in an episode of Fillion's television show, "Castle".


title: Gina Torres

text: In 2011, Torres was cast as main character Jessica Pearson on the USA Network legal drama "Suits". In 2016, it was announced that Torres would be leaving the cast of "Suits" following the summer segment of season six. In addition to her contract being up, Torres stated she had grown tired of traveling between Toronto, where "Suits" is filmed, and her home in Los Angeles. She joined the season two cast of ABC's "The Catch", which was filmed in L.A. Torres returned to "Suits" for the season six finale, which aired on March 1, 2017. Following ABC's cancellation of "The Catch" in May 2017, Torres has returned to "Suits" as a recurring cast member in season seven.


title: Gina Torres

text: In March 2018, it was announced Torres would executive produce and star in "Pearson", a "Suits" spin-off centered on her character, Jessica Pearson.


title: Gina Torres

text: It was announced on March 2, 2020, that Torres has been cast to portray Cleo Phillips in the drama pilot "The Brides", which is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, but the series was not picked up by ABC.


title: Gina Torres

text: Torres and Laurence Fishburne were engaged in February 2001, and married on September 22, 2002, at The Cloisters museum in New York City. They have a daughter together. Torres was also the stepmother to Fishburne's two children, from his previous marriage to actress Hajna O. Moss. Torres and Fishburne played a married couple on the show "Hannibal".


title: Gina Torres

text: In September 2017, Torres announced her separation from Fishburne. Fishburne filed for divorce on November 2, 2017, and the divorce was finalized effective May 11, 2018, after Torres and Fishburne reached a final settlement on April 16, 2018.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes I ( ; ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius the Great () and his mother was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great (), the founder of the Achaemenid empire. Like his father, he ruled the empire at its territorial peak. He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes I is notable in Western history for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC. His forces temporarily overran mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth until losses at Salamis and Plataea a year later reversed these gains and ended the second invasion decisively. However, Xerxes successfully crushed revolts in Egypt and Babylon. Xerxes also oversaw the completion of various construction projects at Susa and Persepolis.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes is identified with the king Ahasuerus in the biblical Book of Esther, which some scholars, including Eduard Schwartz, William Rainey Harper, and Michael V. Fox, consider to be historical romance. There is nothing close to a consensus, however, as to what historical event provided the basis for the story.


title: Xerxes I

text: "Xérxēs" () is the Greek and Latin ("Xerxes", "Xerses") transliteration of the Old Iranian "Xšaya-ṛšā" ("ruling over heroes"), which can be seen by the first part "xšaya", meaning "ruling", and the second "ṛšā", meaning "hero, man". The name of Xerxes was known in Akkadian as "Ḫi-ši-ʾ-ar-šá" and in Aramaic as "ḥšyʾrš". Xerxes would become a popular name among the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire.


title: Xerxes I

text: Much of Xerxes' bad reputation is due to propaganda by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (), who had him vilified. The modern historian Richard Stoneman regards the portrayal of Xerxes as more nuanced and tragic in the work of the contemporary Greek historian Herodotus. However, many modern historians agree that Herodotus recorded spurious information. Pierre Briant has accused him of presenting a stereotyped and biased portrayal of the Persians. Many Achaemenid-era clay tablets and other reports written in Elamite, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Aramaic are frequently contradictory to the reports of classical authors, i.e. Ctesias, Plutarch, and Justin.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes' father was Darius the Great (), the incumbent monarch of the Achaemenid Empire, albeit himself not a member of the family of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the empire. Xerxes' mother was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus. Darius and Atossa had married in 522 BC, with Xerxes being born around 518 BC.


title: Xerxes I

text: According to the Greek dialogue First Alcibiades, which describes typical upbringing and education of Persian princes; they were raised by eunuchs. When reaching the age of 7, they learned how to ride and hunt; at age 14, they were taught by four teachers of aristocratic stock, who taught them how to be "wise, just, prudent and brave". Persian princes were also taught the basics of the Zoroastrian religion, to be truthful, have self-restraint, and to be courageous. The dialogue further added that "Fear, for a Persian, is the equivalent of slavery." At the age of 16 or 17, they began their "national service" for 10 years, which included practicing archery and javelin, competing for prizes, and hunting. Afterwards they served in the military for around 25 years, and were then elevated to the status of elders and advisers of the king. Families in this time, including Xerxes', would intermarry.


title: Xerxes I

text: This account of education among the Persian elite is supported by Xenophon's description of the 5th-century BC Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, with whom he was well-acquainted. Stoneman suggests that this was the type of upbringing and education that Xerxes experienced. It is unknown if Xerxes ever learned to read or write, with the Persians favoring oral history over written literature. Stoneman suggests that Xerxes' upbringing and education was possibly not much different from that of the later Iranian kings, such as Abbas the Great, king of the Safavid Empire in the 17th-century AD. Starting from 498 BC, Xerxes resided in the royal palace of Babylon.


title: Xerxes I

text: While Darius was preparing for another war against Greece, a revolt was spurred in Egypt in 486 BC due to heavy taxes and the deportation of craftsmen to build the royal palaces at Susa and Persepolis. The king was required by Persian law to choose a successor before setting out on dangerous expeditions. When Darius decided to leave (487–486 BC), he (Darius) prepared his tomb at Naqsh-e Rustam (five kilometers from his royal palace at Persepolis) and appointed Xerxes, his eldest son by Atossa, as his successor. However, Darius could not lead the campaign due to his failing health; he died in October 486 BC at the age of 64.


title: Xerxes I

text: Artobazan claimed the crown as the eldest of all Darius' children; while Xerxes, on the other hand, argued that he was the son of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, and that Cyrus had won the Persians their freedom. Xerxes was also helped by a Spartan king in exile who was present in Persia at the time, the Eurypontid king Demaratus, who also argued that the eldest son did not universally have the best claim to the crown, as Spartan law stated that the first son born while the father is king is the heir to the kingship. Some modern scholars also view the unusual decision of Darius to give the throne to Xerxes as a result of his consideration of the particular prestige that Cyrus the Great and his daughter Atossa enjoyed. Artobazan was born to "Darius the subject", while Xerxes was the eldest son "born in the purple" after Darius' rise to the throne; and Artobazan's mother was a commoner while Xerxes' mother was the daughter of the founder of the Achaemenid empire.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes was crowned and succeeded his father in October–December 486 BC when about 32 years old. The transition of power to Xerxes was smooth - due again in part to the great authority of Atossa


title: Xerxes I

text: and his accession to royal power was not challenged by any person at court or in the Achaemenian family, or by any subject nation.


title: Xerxes I

text: At Xerxes' accession, trouble was brewing in some of his domains. A revolt occurred in Egypt, which seems to have been dangerous enough for Xerxes to personally lead the army to restore order (which also gave him the opportunity to begin his reign with a military campaign). Xerxes suppressed the revolt in January 484 BC, and appointed his full-brother Achaemenes as satrap of the country, replacing the previous satrap Pherendates, who was reportedly killed during the revolt. The suppression of the Egyptian revolt expended the army, which had been mobilized by Darius over the previous three years. Xerxes thus had to raise another army for his expedition into Greece, which took four years. There was also unrest in Babylon, which revolted at least twice against Xerxes. The first revolt broke out in June or July of 484 BC and was led by a rebel of the name Bel-shimanni. Bel-shimmani's revolt was short-lived; Babylonian documents written during his reign only account for a period of two weeks.


title: Xerxes I

text: Two years later, Babylon produced another rebel leader, Shamash-eriba. Beginning in the summer of 482 BC, Shamash-eriba seized Babylon itself and other nearby cities, such as Borsippa and Dilbat, and was only defeated in March 481 BC after a lengthy siege of Babylon. The precise cause of the unrest in Babylon is uncertain. It may have been due to tax increase. Prior to these revolts, Babylon had occupied a special position within the Achaemenid Empire, the Achaemenid kings had been titled as "King of Babylon" and "King of the Lands", perceiving Babylonia as a somewhat separate entity within their empire, united with their own kingdom in a personal union. Xerxes dropped "King of Babylon" from his titulature and divided the previously large Babylonian satrapy (accounting for most of the Neo-Babylonian Empire's territory) into smaller sub-units.


title: Xerxes I

text: Using texts written by classical authors, it is often assumed that Xerxes enacted a brutal vengeance on Babylon following the two revolts. According to ancient writers, Xerxes destroyed Babylon's fortifications and damaged the temples in the city. The Esagila was allegedly exposed to great damage and Xerxes allegedly carried the statue of Marduk away from the city, possibly bringing it to Iran and melting it down (classical authors held that the statue was entirely made of gold, which would have made melting it down possible). Modern historian Amélie Kuhrt considers it unlikely that Xerxes destroyed the temples, but believes that the story of him doing so may derive from an anti-Persian sentiment among the Babylonians. It is doubtful if the statue was removed from Babylon at all and some have even suggested that Xerxes did remove a statue from the city, but that this was the golden statue of a man rather than the statue of the god Marduk. Though mentions of it are lacking considerably compared to earlier periods, contemporary documents suggest that the Babylonian New Year's Festival continued in some form during the Achaemenid period. Because the change in rulership from the Babylonians themselves to the Persians and due to the replacement of the city's elite families by Xerxes following its revolt, it is possible that the festival's traditional rituals and events had changed considerably.


title: Xerxes I

text: Darius died while in the process of preparing a second army to invade the Greek mainland, leaving to his son the task of punishing the Athenians, Naxians, and Eretrians for their interference in the Ionian Revolt, the burning of Sardis, and their victory over the Persians at Marathon. From 483 BC, Xerxes prepared his expedition: The Xerxes Canal was dug through the isthmus of the peninsula of Mount Athos, provisions were stored in the stations on the road through Thrace, and two pontoon bridges later known as Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges were built across the Hellespont. Soldiers of many nationalities served in the armies of Xerxes from all over his multi-ethnic massive Eurasian-sized empire and beyond, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, Macedonians, European Thracians, Paeonians, Achaean Greeks, Ionians, Aegean islanders, Aeolians, Greeks from Pontus, Colchians, Indians and many more.


title: Xerxes I

text: According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes's first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flax and papyrus cables of the bridges. In retaliation, Xerxes ordered the Hellespont (the strait itself) whipped three hundred times, and had fetters thrown into the water. Xerxes's second attempt to bridge the Hellespont was successful. The Carthaginian invasion of Sicily deprived Greece of the support of the powerful monarchs of Syracuse and Agrigentum; ancient sources assume Xerxes was responsible, modern scholarship is skeptical. Many smaller Greek states, moreover, took the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly, Thebes and Argos. Xerxes was victorious during the initial battles.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes set out in the spring of 480 BC from Sardis with a fleet and army which Herodotus estimated was roughly one million strong along with 10,000 elite warriors named the Immortals. More recent estimates place the Persian force at around 60,000 combatants.


title: Xerxes I

text: At the Battle of Thermopylae, a small force of Greek warriors led by King Leonidas of Sparta resisted the much larger Persian forces, but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan phalanx after a Greek man called Ephialtes betrayed his country by telling the Persians of another pass around the mountains. At Artemisium, large storms had destroyed ships from the Greek side and so the battle stopped prematurely as the Greeks received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated.


title: Xerxes I

text: After Thermopylae, Athens was captured. Most of the Athenians had abandoned the city and fled to the island of Salamis before Xerxes arrived. A small group attempted to defend the Athenian Acropolis, but they were defeated. Xerxes ordered the Destruction of Athens and burnt the city, leaving an archaeologically attested destruction layer, known as the Perserschutt. The Persians thus gained control of all of mainland Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes was induced, by the message of Themistocles (against the advice of Artemisia of Halicarnassus), to attack the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, rather than sending a part of his ships to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armies. The Battle of Salamis (September, 480 BC) was won by the Greek fleet, after which Xerxes set up a winter camp in Thessaly.


title: Xerxes I

text: According to Herodotus, fearing that the Greeks might attack the bridges across the Hellespont and trap his army in Europe, Xerxes decided to retreat back to Asia, taking the greater part of the army with him. Another cause of the retreat might have been that the continued unrest in Babylon, a key province of the empire, required the king's personal attention.


title: Xerxes I

text: He left behind a contingent in Greece to finish the campaign under Mardonius, who according to Herodotus had suggested the retreat in the first place. This force was defeated the following year at Plataea by the combined forces of the Greek city states, ending the Persian offensive on Greece for good.


title: Xerxes I

text: After the military blunders in Greece, Xerxes returned to Persia and oversaw the completion of the many construction projects left unfinished by his father at Susa and Persepolis. He oversaw the building of the Gate of All Nations and the Hall of a Hundred Columns at Persepolis, which are the largest and most imposing structures of the palace. He oversaw the completion of the Apadana, the Tachara (Palace of Darius) and the Treasury, all started by Darius, as well as having his own palace built which was twice the size of his father's. His taste in architecture was similar to that of Darius, though on an even more gigantic scale. He had colorful enameled brick laid on the exterior face of the Apadana. He also maintained the Royal Road built by his father and completed the Susa Gate and built a palace in Susa.


title: Xerxes I

text: In August 465 BC, Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court, assassinated Xerxes with the help of a eunuch, Aspamitres. Although Artabanus bore the same name as the famed uncle of Xerxes, a Hyrcanian, his rise to prominence was due to his popularity in religious quarters of the court and harem intrigues. He put his seven sons in key positions and had a plan to dethrone the Achaemenids.


title: Xerxes I

text: Greek historians give differing accounts of events. According to Ctesias (in Persica 20), Artabanus then accused the Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes's eldest son, of the murder and persuaded another of Xerxes's sons, Artaxerxes, to avenge the patricide by killing Darius. But according to Aristotle (in Politics 5.1311b), Artabanus killed Darius first and then killed Xerxes. After Artaxerxes discovered the murder, he killed Artabanus and his sons. Participating in these intrigues was the general Megabyzus, whose decision to switch sides probably saved the Achaemenids from losing their control of the Persian throne.


title: Xerxes I

text: While there is no general consensus in scholarship whether Xerxes and his predecessors had been influenced by Zoroastrianism, it is well established that Xerxes was a firm believer in Ahura Mazda, whom he saw as the supreme deity. However, Ahura Mazda was also worshipped by adherents of the (Indo-)Iranian religious tradition. On his treatment of other religions, Xerxes followed the same policy as his predecessors; he appealed to local religious scholars, made sacrifices to local deities, and destroyed temples in cities and countries that caused disorder.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes is the central character of the Aeschylus play "The Persians". Xerxes is the protagonist of the opera "Serse" by the German-English Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in the King's Theatre London on 15 April 1738. The famous aria "Ombra mai fù" opens the opera.


title: Xerxes I

text: The murder of Xerxes by Artabanus ("Artabano"), execution of crown prince Darius ("Dario"), revolt by Megabyzus ("Megabise"), and subsequent succession of Artaxerxes I is romanticised by the Italian poet Metastasio in his opera libretto "Artaserse", which was first set to music by Leonardo Vinci, and subsequently by other composers such as Johann Adolf Hasse and Johann Christian Bach.


title: Xerxes I

text: The historical novel "Xerxes of de Hoogmoed" (1919) by Dutch writer Louis Couperus describes the Persian wars from the perspective of Xerxes. Though the account is fictionalised, Couperus nevertheless based himself on an extensive study of Herodotus. The English translation "Arrogance: The Conquests of Xerxes" by Frederick H. Martens appeared in 1930.


title: Xerxes I

text: Later generations' fascination with ancient Sparta, particularly the Battle of Thermopylae, has led to Xerxes' portrayal in works of popular culture. He was played by David Farrar in the fictional film "The 300 Spartans" (1962), where he is portrayed as a cruel, power-crazed despot and an inept commander. He also features prominently in the graphic novels "300" and "" by Frank Miller, as well as the film adaptation "300" (2007) and its sequel "" (2014), as portrayed by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro, in which he is represented as a giant man with androgynous qualities, who claims to be a god-king. This portrayal attracted controversy, especially in Iran. Ken Davitian plays Xerxes in "Meet the Spartans", a parody of the first "300" movie replete with sophomoric humour and deliberate anachronisms.


title: Xerxes I

text: Other works dealing with the Persian Empire or the Biblical story of Esther have also featured or alluded to Xerxes, such as the video game "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" and the film "One Night with the King" (2006), in which Ahasuerus (Xerxes) was portrayed by British actor Luke Goss. He is the leader of the Persian Empire in the video game "Civilization II" and "III" (along with Scheherazade), although "Civilization IV" replaces him with Cyrus the Great and Darius I. In the "Age of Empires", Xerxes featured as a short swordsman.


title: Xerxes I

text: Gore Vidal, in his historical fiction novel "Creation" (1981), describes at length the rise of the Achaemenids, especially Darius I, and presents the life and death circumstances of Xerxes. Vidal's version of the Persian Wars, which diverges from the orthodoxy of the Greek histories, is told through the invented character of Cyrus Spitama, a half-Greek, half-Persian, and grandson of the prophet Zoroaster. Thanks to his family connection, Cyrus is brought up in the Persian court after the murder of Zoroaster, becoming the boyhood friend of Xerxes, and later a diplomat who is sent to India, and later to Greece, and who is thereby able to gain privileged access to many leading historical figures of the period.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes (Ahasuerus) is portrayed by Richard Egan in the 1960 film "Esther and the King" and by Joel Smallbone in the 2013 film, "The Book of Esther". In at least one of these films, the events of the Book of Esther are depicted as taking place upon Xerxes' return from Greece.


title: Xerxes I

text: Xerxes plays an important background role (never making an appearance) in two short works of alternate history taking place generations after his complete victory over Greece. These are: "Counting Potsherds" by Harry Turtledove in his anthology "Departures" and "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton in "Alternate Generals" volume 1 (edited by Turtledove).


title: Iron Man 3

text: Iron Man 3 (titled onscreen as Iron Man Three) is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to "Iron Man" (2008) and "Iron Man 2" (2010), and the seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Shane Black from a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce, and stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stéphanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, William Sadler, Miguel Ferrer, Jon Favreau, and Ben Kingsley. In "Iron Man 3", Tony Stark wrestles with the ramifications of the events of "The Avengers" during a national terrorism campaign on the United States led by the mysterious Mandarin.


title: Iron Man 3

text: After the release of "Iron Man 2" in May 2010, director Favreau chose not to return for a third film. Black was hired to write and direct the sequel in February 2011, working with Pearce to make the script more character-centric, focus on thriller elements, and use concepts from Warren Ellis's "Extremis" comic book story arc. The film's supporting cast, including Kingsley, Pearce, and Hall, were brought on throughout April and May 2012. Filming took place from May 23 to December 17, 2012, primarily at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Additional filming took place around North Carolina as well as in Florida, Los Angeles, and China; an extended version of the film specifically for Chinese audiences was created. Seventeen companies provided the film's visual effects.


title: Iron Man 3

text: "Iron Man 3" premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on April 14, 2013, and released in the United States on May 3, as the first film in of the MCU. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences, Black's direction, and Downey's performance, though there was criticism for its portrayal of the Mandarin. The film was a box office success, grossing over $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 2013 and the sixteenth film to gross over $1 billion. It finished its theatrical run as the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, while its opening weekend was the sixth-highest of all time. The film received Best Visual Effects nominations at the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards.


title: Iron Man 3

text: At a New Year's Eve party in 1999, Tony Stark meets scientist Maya Hansen, the inventor of an experimental regenerative treatment named Extremis that allows recovery from crippling injuries. Disabled scientist Aldrich Killian offers them a place in his company Advanced Idea Mechanics, but Stark rejects him. Thirteen years later, Stark is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is having frequent panic and anxiety attacks due to his experiences during the alien invasion and subsequent battle in New York. Restless, he has built dozens of new Iron Man suits to cope with his insomnia, creating friction with his girlfriend Pepper Potts.


title: Iron Man 3

text: A string of bombings claimed by a terrorist known as the Mandarin has left intelligence agencies bewildered by a lack of forensic evidence. Stark's security chief Happy Hogan is badly injured in one such attack at the TCL Chinese Theatre and is put into a coma, prompting Stark to boldly issue a televised threat to the Mandarin, revealing his home address in the process. The Mandarin sends gunship helicopters to destroy Stark's home. Hansen, who came to warn Stark, survives the attack with Potts. Stark escapes in an experimental new Iron Man suit, which his artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S. pilots to rural Tennessee, following a flight plan from Stark's investigation into the Mandarin. Stark's new armor is not fully functional and lacks sufficient power to return to Malibu, leaving the world to believe that he is dead.


title: Iron Man 3

text: With the help of a local boy named Harley Keener, Stark investigates the remains of a local explosion bearing the hallmarks of a Mandarin attack, although it occurred years before any known attack by the terrorist. He discovers the "bombings" were triggered by soldiers subjected to Extremis whose bodies explosively rejected the treatment. These explosions were falsely attributed to a terrorist plot to cover up Extremis' flaws. Stark witnesses Extremis firsthand when Mandarin agents Savin and Brandt attack him: Stark kills Brandt and incapacitates Savin. Meanwhile, Killian resurfaces and kidnaps Potts with assistance from Hansen. American intelligence agencies continue to search for the Mandarin's location, with James Rhodes—the former War Machine, now re-branded as the Iron Patriot—lured into a trap to steal his armor.


title: Iron Man 3

text: Stark traces the Mandarin to Miami and infiltrates his headquarters using improvised weapons. Inside, he discovers the Mandarin is an English actor named Trevor Slattery, who is oblivious to the actions carried out in his image. After capturing Stark, Killian reveals he has subjected Potts to Extremis in the hope Stark will help fix Extremis's flaws while trying to save her. When Hansen betrays Killian by threatening to jeopardize his operations, Killian fatally shoots her.


title: Iron Man 3

text: Stark escapes and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One, using the Iron Patriot armor, controlled by Savin. Stark kills Savin, saving the passengers and crew, but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis and destroying Air Force One. They trace Killian to an impounded damaged oil tanker where Killian intends to kill Ellis on live television. The Vice President would then become a puppet leader, following Killian's orders, in exchange for Extremis to cure his young daughter's disability. On the platform, Stark works to save Potts, as Rhodes goes after the President. Stark summons his remaining Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by J.A.R.V.I.S., to provide air support. Rhodes secures the President and takes him to safety, while Stark discovers Potts has survived the Extremis procedure. Before he can save her, a rig collapses around them, and she falls to the platform below, causing Stark to believe her dead. Stark fights Killian but finds himself cornered. Killian, who appropriated Hansen's Extremis research as a cure for his own disability and expanded the program to include injured war veterans, reveals he is the real Mandarin behind Slattery's cover. Potts, whose Extremis powers allowed her to survive her fall, intervenes and kills Killian to save Stark.


title: Iron Man 3

text: As a gesture of his devotion to Potts, Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to destroy all the Iron Man suits. The Vice President and Slattery are arrested, and Happy awakens from his coma. With Stark's help, Potts's Extremis effects are stabilized; and Stark promises to scale back his life as Iron Man, undergoing surgery to remove the shrapnel near his heart and throwing his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea. He muses that, even without the technology, he will always be Iron Man.


title: Iron Man 3

text: Paul Bettany reprises his role from previous films as J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark's AI system. Ty Simpkins portrays Harley Keener, a child who lives in Rose Hill, Tennessee who assists Stark when the latter breaks into his garage in order to repair his suit. He later helps Stark investigate various incidents associated with the Extremis project, and afterwards he is rewarded by Stark with a garage-full of modern engineering tools and equipment. Simpkins reprises his role as Harley in a cameo in "" (2019). Simpkins has stated that he has a three-picture deal with Marvel Studios. Ashley Hamilton portrays Taggart, one of the Extremis soldiers. Adam Pally plays Gary, a cameraman who helps Stark. Shaun Toub reprises his role as Yinsen from the first "Iron Man" film in a brief cameo, and Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as a beauty pageant judge. Dale Dickey plays Mrs. Davis, mother of an Extremis subject that is framed as a terrorist. Wang Xueqi briefly plays Dr. Wu in the general release version of the film. A cut of the film produced for release exclusively in China includes additional scenes featuring Wang and an appearance by Fan Bingbing as one of his assistants. Jenna Ortega plays the vice president's daughter. Mark Ruffalo makes an uncredited cameo appearance, reprising his role as Bruce Banner from "The Avengers", in a post-credits scene. Comedians Bill Maher and Joan Rivers, and "Fashion Police" co-host George Kotsiopoulos have cameo appearances as themselves on their respective real-world television programs, as do newscasters Josh Elliott, Megan Henderson, Pat Kiernan, and Thomas Roberts.


title: Iron Man 3

text: Following the release of "Iron Man 2", a conflict between Paramount Pictures, which had distribution rights to certain Marvel properties, and The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Entertainment's then new corporate parent, clouded the timing and the distribution arrangement of a possible third film. On October 18, 2010, Walt Disney Studios agreed to pay Paramount at least $115 million for the worldwide distribution rights to "Iron Man 3", with Disney, Marvel, and Paramount announcing a May 3, 2013 release date for the film.


title: Iron Man 3

text: "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" director Jon Favreau said in December 2010 that he would not direct "Iron Man 3", opting to direct "Magic Kingdom" instead. He remained an executive producer of director Joss Whedon's crossover film "The Avengers" and also served as an executive producer of "Iron Man 3". Also in 2010, Downey reached out to Shane Black, who directed him in 2005's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", to write and direct the film. In February 2011, Black entered final negotiations to join the project, and in March it was announced that Drew Pearce, who Marvel had originally hired for a "Runaways" script, would work with Black on the script. Downey said, "Bringing in Shane Black to write and direct "Iron Man 3" to me is basically the only transition from Favreau to a 'next thing' that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on."


title: Iron Man 3

text: Shane Black described his take on the film as not being "two men in iron suits fighting each other," and more like a "Tom Clancy thriller", with Iron Man fighting real-world type villains. Drew Pearce added that they would avoid magic and space, with "Iron Man 3" being "a techno-thriller set in a more real world than even "The Avengers"". The duo spent some time discussing themes and images and ideas before starting the script. While writing, the focus was to avoid scenes of pure exposition, making every moment propel other narrative points forward. Some elements from the comics were used even if in different connotations, such as making Rhodes wear Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot armor and naming some characters with names from unrelated people in the Marvel Universe, such as Eric Savin and Jack Taggart.


title: Iron Man 3

text: The film's plot is influenced primarily by "Extremis", the 2005–2006 "Iron Man" comics storyline written by Warren Ellis. The first two acts would remain character-centric, albeit in Shane Black's words "more hectic, frenetic, and large scale" to fulfill its sequel obligations, with the third act going for more over-the-top action to what Drew Pearce described as "giving a sense of opera". The middle act was compared to "Sullivan's Travels" in having Tony meeting various people on his journey, and the writers made sure to not make the characters too similar. The initial draft had Maya Hansen herself leading the villainous operation, with the Mandarin and Killian emerging as antagonists in later versions of the script. During one of the writing sessions, Pearce suggested that the Mandarin was a fake, and Black agreed by going with making him an actor, which in turn Pearce detailed as an overacting British stage performer. Black explained: "Who would be fool enough to declare that he is an international terrorist? If you're smart, whatever regime you're part of, you'd put a puppet committee and remain your house." In turn Killian would hide Trevor Slattery in "his own frat house, in kind of a drug-related house arrest" to keep the secret alive.


title: Iron Man 3

text: According to Black, the reveal of the actual villain being Hansen was "like "Remington Steele", you think it's the man but at the end, the woman has been running the whole show." The role was eventually shifted to Killian because of objections by Marvel Entertainment executives, who were concerned with apparent merchandising losses that could come with having a female villain. The roles of several other major female characters were also made smaller in the final film compared to earlier drafts.