title: Devin Nunes

text: In August 2018, Nunes traveled to London in an attempt to meet with the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ for information about Steele, but was rebuffed by the three agencies.


title: Devin Nunes

text: As the top Republican ("Ranking Member") on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes was a key player in the Trump impeachment inquiry. During the November 2019 public hearings, he delivered the opening statement for the GOP minority. Nunes used most of the allotted Republican time for questioning himself instead of deferring to the Minority Counsel. Nunes has tried to identify the whistle-blower whose complaint played a part in launching the impeachment inquiry. Further, during the hearings, Nunes repeatedly claimed that Ukraine had attempted to influence the 2016 United States presidential election, one of the conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal.


title: Devin Nunes

text: In November 2019, Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas said he had helped Nunes arrange meetings with Ukrainian officials in efforts to procure politically embarrassing "dirt" on former Vice President Joe Biden. Parnas said he would be willing to testify to Congress about his own role as well as Nunes's in the events, which included meeting with disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin.


title: Devin Nunes

text: Parnas's attorney Joseph A. Bondy has said that Nunes and his staffer former U.S. Army colonel Derek Harvey met with Parnas several times for updates on claims against Biden and the CrowdStrike/2016 U.S. election conspiracy theory. Parnas's attorney said, "Mr. Parnas learned through Nunes's investigator, Derek Harvey, that the congressman had sequenced this trip to occur after the mid-term elections yet before Congress' return to session, so that Nunes would not have to disclose the trip details to his Democrat colleagues in Congress."


title: Devin Nunes

text: When asked by CNN to comment on his trips overseas to solicit dirt on Biden, Nunes responded, "I don't talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime. At any time. On any question."


title: Devin Nunes

text: On November 24, 2019, Nunes alleged in an interview with Fox News that CNN and the Daily Beast had committed crimes reporting on his trips to Europe and that he would pursue legal action against the news organizations for reporting the stories. In the interview, he did not answer the host Maria Bartiromo's question about whether he had met with disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2018, saying he would be detailing all the facts in federal court filings.


title: Devin Nunes

text: That same day, CNBC reported that Lev Parnas was willing to testify under oath in Congress that Nunes's aides called off a 2019 trip to Ukraine to dig up more dirt on Joe Biden when they realized he would have to report the trip to Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. CNBC reported that Parnas's allegations "potentially implicate Nunes and his committee staff in the same events the committee is currently investigating. Specifically, the monthslong effort by Trump, Giuliani and others to get Ukrainian officials to help them dig up dirt on Biden, and to validate far-right conspiracies about Ukraine and the 2016 election."


title: Devin Nunes

text: Nunes, who co-sponsored the "Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act", has a long history of filing frivolous lawsuits. On December 4, 2019, Nunes sued CNN for alleged defamation in "Nunes v. CNN", seeking $435,350,000 in damages for their reporting of Parnas's lawyer's statement. That month, an attorney for Nunes sent a letter to congressman Ted Lieu threatening to sue over Lieu's comments about Nunes's relationship with Parnas. In response, Lieu wrote, "I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it." Federal judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed Nunes's suit against CNN on February 19, 2021.


title: Devin Nunes

text: On December 3, 2019, the report from the House Intelligence Committee regarding the impeachment inquiry documented with call records new information about Rudy Giuliani's interactions with the White House, his associates and Nunes. The frequent contact of Giuliani and Lev Parnas, who has been indicted for criminal activity, with Nunes are regarded as "highly unusual and likely to renew calls from Democrats for Mr. Nunes to face an ethics inquiry." The report detailed call records acquired by subpoenas from AT&T that revealed Nunes to be in contact with Giuliani on April 10, and with Giuliani and Parnas on April 12, described in the report as the same days as other significant actions in the scandal, including phone calls between Giuliani and the White House and the Office of Management and Budget as well as a retainer agreement between Trump-affiliated lawyers diGenova & Toensing and former Ukrainian officials Yuriy Lutsenko and Konstiantyn Kulyk, "two of the primary sources" for articles in "The Hill" that promoted the conspiracy theory of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Nunes asserted it was "very unlikely" he had spoken with Parnas, adding, "I don't really recall that name."


title: Devin Nunes

text: After the report was released, CNN analysts suggested the new evidence raises questions about whether Nunes was an investigator or a participant in the Trump–Ukraine scandal.


title: Devin Nunes

text: On January 14, 2020, the House Intelligence Committee released text messages Parnas had provided investigators. Two days later, Nunes acknowledged he had spoken to Parnas, after previously suggesting he had not. The next day, the House Judiciary Committee released text messages between Nunes's top aide Derek Harvey and Parnas in which they discussed arranging meetings for Harvey with Ukrainian officials.


title: Devin Nunes

text: Nunes has filed multiple lawsuits characterized as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation ("SLAPP"). Experts have described the lawsuits as "unlikely to succeed" and "virtually free of merit".


title: Devin Nunes

text: On March 18, 2019, Nunes filed defamation lawsuits against Twitter, Elizabeth "Liz" Mair, Mair Strategies LLC, and the Twitter accounts, "Devin Nunes's Mom" (@DevinNunesMom) and "Devin Nunes's Cow" (@DevinCow), seeking $250million in damages. As the story went viral, the popularity of the defendants' accounts soared, gaining more followers than Nunes's own account. The "San Francisco Chronicle" cited this as an example of the Streisand Effect.<ref name="Byrne_Dineen_3/19/2019"></ref> Kathryn Watson of CBS News said the filing was "particularly interesting" because in 2018 Nunes supported the "Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act".<ref name="Watson_3/20/2019"></ref> A filing to quash a subpoena argued that "no reasonable person would believe that Devin Nunes's cow actually has a Twitter account" as cows "do not have the intelligence, language, or opposable digits needed to operate a Twitter account". In June 2020, a judge ruled that Twitter was immune from Nunes's suit because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In August 2021, the same judge dismissed the second of two suits Nunes had filed against Mair.


title: Devin Nunes

text: In April 2019, Nunes filed a separate $150million defamation lawsuit against the McClatchy Company and others. In May 2018, "The Fresno Bee", a local paper owned by McClatchy, reported that in 2016 a former server of Alpha Omega Winery sued the winery, which is partly owned by Nunes. The server alleged that in 2015 some investors of the company held a yacht party that involved cocaine and prostitution. The report said it was "unclear" whether Nunes "was aware of the lawsuit" or involved in the fund-raising event at the yacht. He did not attend the party, nor was he mentioned in the lawsuit. Nunes said the article was politically motivated and improperly linked him to the fund-raiser. A McClatchy spokesperson defended the report and said Nunes's claim was without merit. Some legal experts have speculated that even though both Nunes and McClatchy are based in California, he filed the lawsuit in Virginia because California has enacted stricter rules against strategic defamation lawsuits than Virginia. Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute said the report did not say or imply that Nunes was at the party. According to her, his intention was to harm the "Bee" and similar lawsuits are designed to send a chilling effect on journalists.


title: Devin Nunes

text: In August 2019, Nunes sued a group of activists who had tried to force Nunes to stop using "farmer" as his occupation on the 2018 ballot. The activists had argued that Nunes's parents had long ago moved the family dairy farm to Iowa and Nunes himself had no apparent farming connection left other than a small investment in a friend's Napa valley winery.


title: Devin Nunes

text: In September 2019, Nunes sued political journalist Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines, the publisher of "Esquire", alleging that a 2018 "Esquire" story had damaged his reputation. Lizza wrote that Nunes's family had "secretly" moved its dairy operation from California to Iowa in 2007. Nunes did not specifically contest the veracity of Lizza's reporting, but claimed he "fabricated a 'secret' where none existed". By the time "Esquire" published the piece, "The Bee" had already covered the move to Iowa. Nunes alleged in the suit that "Lizza stalked Plaintiff's grammar-school aged nieces, behaved like a sex offender or pedophile cruising the local neighborhood for victims, frightened a family member to tears, and exploited a grieving mother." United States District Judge C. J. Williams, a Trump appointee, dismissed this suit in its entirety on August 5, 2020. On September 15, 2021, the Eighth Circuit Court upheld the dismissal of some counts but remanded the case back to the district court. A similar lawsuit filed by Nunes's father and brother against the same defendants remains in litigation.


title: Devin Nunes

text: In September 2019, Nunes sued the liberal nonprofit Campaign for Accountability (CfA) and the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. The latter was hired to dig up dirt on Trump at the behest of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The research was compiled into the Steele dossier. In 2018 CfA filed three ethics complaints against Nunes. In the lawsuit he alleged that CfA and Fusion GPS had conspired to hinder his investigation into the dossier, citing a $138,684 payment from CfA to Fusion GPS. CfA said it did not hire Fusion GPS to investigate Nunes.


title: Devin Nunes

text: On December 4, 2019, Nunes sued CNN for alleged defamation, seeking $435,350,000 in damages for their reporting of Parnas's lawyer's statement. The complaint stated, "CNN is the mother of fake news. It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable." He claimed that the network has an "institutional hatred" for the Republican Party. The suit alleges that CNN reported that Nunes traveled to Vienna in December 2018, and met with Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general, about investigating Joe Biden. The suit claims this is untrue and that Nunes was in Benghazi, followed by Malta. Before the filing of the CNN suit, an attorney representing McClatchy in Nunes's suit told "The Washington Post"'s Eric Wemple, "He's filing these lawsuits and threatening these lawsuits purely to try to chill speech about himself and matters of public interest." Federal judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the suit on February 19, 2021.


title: Devin Nunes

text: On December 31, 2019, Nunes, through his Charlottesville, Virginia, attorney Steven S. Biss, issued a letter that threatened litigation against Representative Ted Lieu based on alleged damage to Nunes's reputation. Lieu responded, "I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it."


title: Devin Nunes

text: In late February 2021, Nunes and a dozen other Republican House members skipped votes and enlisted others to vote for them, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But he and the other members were actually attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held at the same time as their absences. In response, the Campaign for Accountability, an ethics watchdog group, filed a complaint with the House Committee on Ethics and requested an investigation into Nunes and the other lawmakers.


title: Devin Nunes

text: The Nunes family is of Portuguese descent, immigrating from the Azores to California in the early 20th century. Nunes wrote a foreword to the 1951 novel "Home Is An Island" by Portuguese-American author Alfred Lewis for the 2012 edition by Tagus Press, an imprint of the Center for Portuguese Culture and Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.


title: Devin Nunes

text: Nunes married Elizabeth Nunes ("née" Tamariz), an elementary school teacher, in 2003. They have three daughters. Nunes is a practicing Catholic, and attends Mass in Tulare.


title: Devin Nunes

text: President Donald Trump awarded Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 4, 2021, along with fellow Representative Jim Jordan. No media were allowed to document the ceremony. In a press release from the Trump White House before the ceremony, Nunes was described as having exposed illegal wiretapping by the Obama administration on Trump and the Trump campaign, as part of the unsubstantiated Trump Tower wiretapping allegations. In the same release Nunes is praised as having helped "thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president", in reference to his work to discredit the allegations (which the release calls the "Russia Hoax") leading to Trump's first impeachment.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby is well known for his ability to inhale objects and creatures to gain their powers, as well as his ability to float by expanding his body. He uses these abilities to rescue various lands, including his homeworld of Planet Popstar, from evil forces and antagonists, such as Dark Matter or Nightmare. On these adventures, he often crosses paths with his rivals, King Dedede and Meta Knight, though Meta Knight can be seen as a hero, depending on the game. Kirby has been described as one of the most legendary video game characters of all time by "PC World". In virtually all his appearances, Kirby is depicted as cheerful, innocent and food-loving; however, he becomes fearless, bold, and clever in the face of danger.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby was created by Masahiro Sakurai as the player character of the 1992 game "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992). The character's design was intended to serve as placeholder graphics for the game's original protagonist in early development and thus was given a simplistic ball-like appearance. Sakurai switched to the placeholder design for the final character design when he believed that it served the character better. The character was known as during development until the name "Kirby" was chosen from a draft list of potential names. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that "Kirby" was chosen in honor of American lawyer John Kirby, who defended Nintendo in the "Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd." case in 1984 and that the harsh-sounding name contrasted amusingly with the character's cute appearance.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby appears white in "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992) due to the grayscale palette of the Game Boy system. Sakurai intended the character to be pink, though Miyamoto had originally thought the character to be yellow. Kirby does appear white in the game's North American promotional materials and artwork to reflect the character's in-game appearance. Miyamoto's color choice was repurposed for the second player character in "Kirby's Dream Course" (1994), and since "" (2002) has been the default color for a second player Kirby in the "Kirby" and "Super Smash Bros." series.


title: Kirby (character)

text: In North America, Kirby consistently appears in artwork with a more striking, bolder expression than in Japan, where his expression is more relaxed. Nintendo has said that the more battle-ready appearance appeals to a wider audience in North America.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby has a pink, spherical, body with small stubby arms and large red feet (not shoes). His eyes are a distinctive oval shape and are white (eye shine) at the top, black in the center and dark blue on the bottom (all black in early games) with rosy cheek-blushes near his eyes. His body is soft and flexible, allowing him to stretch or flatten and adopt different shapes, open his mouth very wide to inhale foes, or inflate himself with air and fly. He is 20 cm (about 8 in) tall. Originally in "Kirby's Dream Course" (1994) and recurring in several games starting with "" (2002), different colored Kirbys appear as other players in multi-player games. In the case of "Kirby & the Amazing Mirror" (2004), they are the result of Kirby being divided into four by Dark Meta Knight.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby hails from the distant Planet Popstar, where he lives in a dome-shaped house in the country of Dream Land. He has a positive attitude, and frequently helps to save Dream Land through the use of his unique powers. His age is never directly stated, although he is referred to as a "little boy" in the English manual for "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992), described as a baby with a projected 200 years until adulthood in the anime, and was referred to as being a "jolly fellow" in "Kirby Super Star".


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby is cheerful and innocent. He eagerly assists those in need of help and readily attempts to befriends others upon first meeting them, a naïvety that may leave Kirby to be taken by surprise or betrayed. He is often depicted with a voracious appetite. The games (first stated in the English manual for "Kirby's Dream Land 2" (1995)) describes his favorite food as Maxim Tomatoes, a healing item in the franchise that restores all health in most games. Some games such as "" (2006) and "Kirby's Dream Buffet" (2022) have shown Kirby to have a strong fondness of strawberries and strawberry shortcake. In the anime, his favorite food is instead stated to be watermelons. His other hobbies include singing (although he is tone-deaf), fishing, napping, and drawing (done in a very childlike style). Kirby is mildly entomophobic, as he does not like caterpillars.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby's main ability, Copy, consists of inhaling enemies and objects and spitting them out with incredible force. Both his mouth and body expand to allow him to inhale things much larger than himself. However, there is a limit to what he can inhale; excessively large or heavy foes like bosses can resist Kirby's inhale. Against these opponents Kirby must find smaller characters to use as ammo or intercept his opponent's attacks and send them back at them. "Kirby Super Star" (1996) greatly expanded on the concept of Copy Abilities from "Kirby's Adventure" (1993). Originally Kirby just obtained one move from a Copy Ability which replaced his Inhale but "Kirby Super Star" introduced multiple fighting techniques for each ability with their own controls. Additionally while "Kirby's Adventure" didn't have Kirby's appearance drastically change when he had a Copy Ability, aside from his color changing to orange or snow white, or wielding a weapon for abilities like "Sword" or "Hammer". "Kirby Super Star" gave each Copy Ability its own costume, such as a fiery crown for Fire Kirby or a floppy green cap that resembles Link's for Sword Kirby. Near the end of games, Kirby may access a "Last Battle Ability", wherein Kirby utilizes a special often magical weapon to defeat the final boss (ex. the Star Rod in "Kirby's Adventure" (1993), Ribbon's Crystal in "" (2000), Landia in "Kirby's Return to Dream Land" (2011)).


title: Kirby (character)

text: In "Kirby Super Star" (1996), Kirby can sacrifice his current Copy Ability to create a 'Helper', an allied version of the enemy Kirby typically gets that ability from. The new Helper could be controlled by the game or a second player. This feature has not yet been included in later Kirby games, although it was included in "Kirby Super Star"s remake, "Kirby Super Star Ultra" (2008) and was intended to return in the cancelled GameCube Kirby game which would have had Kirby able to make up to four helpers at once. "Kirby Star Allies" (2018) has a similar mechanic where after being struck by a pink heart that fell from the sky, Kirby becomes able to create small pink hearts known as Friend Hearts which allow him to make friends with an enemy. This also causes the befriended enemy to change colors, presumably to aid the player in distinguishing enemies from friends. The maximum amount of friends Kirby can make is about three. To make another friend, Kirby will have to chose to "un-friend" one of his allies, which will make it disappear in replacement for the new ally.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Following the introduction of Copy in "Kirby's Adventure" (1993), the "Kirby" games have introduced over sixty Copy Abilities (the largest roster of which was in Star Allies, at 28). The series has regularly included new game mechanics unique to titles that alter, differ from, or outright replace Kirby's ability to copy enemies.


title: Kirby (character)

text: In the "Super Smash Bros." series, Kirby's Copy works distinctly different from how it does in the "Kirby" series with a unique arsenal of Copy Abilities. Without an ability, Kirby can use attacks from different abilities (ex. Cutter's Final Cutter, Hammer's Hammer Flip, Stone's Stone Change). Kirby obtains an ability by inhaling another member of the roster, acquiring an ability themed around the character and possessing some of the fighter's move set. Unlike enemies in the "Kirby" game, fighters swallowed by Kirby do not disappear, instead reappearing outside Kirby. In "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (2008), Kirby's Final Smash is his Cook ability from "Kirby Super Star" (1996)/"Kirby Super Star Ultra" (2008), which cooks opponents, items and more. In "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U" (2014) and "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" (2018), Kirby's Final Smash is an Ultra Sword attack from "Return to Dream Land" (2011).


title: Kirby (character)

text: Although never explored in great detail in the series, Kirby is not the only member of his kind. Along with the different colored Kirbys in many games' multiplayers, similar looking characters are seen in the ending of "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992), and its remake "Spring Breeze" in "Kirby Super Star" (1996). Meta Knight and Galacta Knight, both of whom bear a close resemblance to Kirby without their masks, are often hinted to be of the same species as Kirby. In general, members of the species all look similar, but sometimes have different colored skin, eyes, and feet. The second player character of "Kirby's Dream Course" (1994) is a yellow Kirby named Keeby with the same abilities as Kirby in the game. While it is not confirmed that the second player Kirby from "" (2002) onward is Keeby, "Kirby's Dream Buffet" (2022) names the yellow color customization "Keeby Yellow". The second player character of "Kirby's Epic Yarn" (2010), Prince Fluff, is a Kirby-like character from a planet made of sewing material. Unlike Kirby, Prince Fluff cannot inhale or copy enemies (which Kirby has also lost the ability to do after being turned into yarn) or use Ravel Abilities (equivalent to Copy Abilities added in "Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn" (2019)).


title: Kirby (character)

text: Later Kirby games have hinted on a much more drastic possibility of what life-form Kirby truly is. In "Kirby Star Allies" (2018), it is suggested repeatedly through pause-screen descriptions and visual references that Kirby is a positive reincarnation of a powerful entity known as Void; the true main antagonist of "Kirby Star Allies" and the overarching antagonist of the "Kirby" series, who is implied to have created Zero; the true main antagonist from "Kirby's Dream Land 3" (1997) and "Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards" (2000), and by extension, the Dark Matter race; reoccurring antagonists in the "Kirby" series. This further suggests a connection between Kirby's species and Dark Matter.


title: Kirby (character)

text: No official term exists for them other than Kirby's species. They are commonly referred to as 'Kirbys' and is the name of both the species and character. As a name, however, 'Kirby' refers to only one character. In the English manual of "Kirby & the Amazing Mirror" (2004), the term 'Kirbys' is used at points, to illustrate the feature of having four differently colored versions of Kirby active in the game simultaneously, although in this situation the four "Kirbys" are four pieces of Kirby rather than four individual Kirby-like beings. Another common term is 'Dream Landers', a term used in the instruction manual for "Kirby's Adventure" (1992). This term, however, also refers to anyone who lives in Dream Land, including characters like King Dedede. The biography of Kirby in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (2008) says Kirby is a citizen of Dream Land. Sometimes the term 'puff' or 'puffball' is used in official materials to refer to Kirby's round shape, though this does not necessarily indicate the name of his species.


title: Kirby (character)

text: While the English manual for "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992) refers to Kirby as a "little boy", the Japanese "Kirby" encyclopedia "Hoshi no Kābī Pupupu Taizen: 20th Anniversary" (星のカービィプププ大全 : 20th Anniversary) lists Kirby's gender as "unknown". Kirby's creator, Masahiro Sakurai, wrote Kirby's profile which also lists the character's gender as "unknown" and once jokingly stated that Kirby may actually be female. Likewise, Kirby's voice actress, Makiko Ohmoto, stated that Kirby's gender is unknown and explained that she performs the character just as "Kirby" without caring about the character's gender, rather than as a man or a woman.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby's main media form are games, as he is the star and protagonist of the Nintendo owned series named after him. Most "Kirby" games are platform games in which Kirby fights enemies, solves puzzles, and challenges bosses. Each game typically adds a new twist or change to Kirby's abilities that the levels of the game emphasize, such as combining power ups in "Kirby 64" or Super Abilities in "Return to Dream Land". Most games involve Kirby saving a world or even universe from a dark, evil force of some kind. Typical "Kirby" games have a powerful being, such as Dark Matter or Nightmare, controlling or corrupting a secondary villain.


title: Kirby (character)

text: The series has 36 games currently, with the first being "Kirby's Dream Land" in 1992 and the latest being "Kirby's Dream Buffet" in 2022. Although most are platform games, some spin-offs have included pinball, fighting, racing, and puzzle games.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby appears in the "Super Smash Bros." series of games as a playable character, which is also created by Masahiro Sakurai. He is the sole "Kirby" series representative in "Super Smash Bros." (1999) and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" (2001), and has been one of three (the others being Meta Knight and King Dedede) as of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (2008). He reprises his role as a playable character in "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U" (2014) and "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" (2018), the latter of which features him playing a starring role in the "World of Light" story mode in which he survives Galeem's massacre of all of the other fighters.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby appears in his own anime titled Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, (Japanese: 星のカービィ "Hoshi no Kābī") in Japan. The series was licensed in North America by 4Kids Entertainment and the Canadian company Nelvana, and produced by Warpstar Inc., a company formed between a joint investment between Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. It aired on 4Kids TV, via Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting (since 2001 which has done 100 episodes).


title: Kirby (character)

text: The anime series is set in its own universe independent of the games and offers its own take on the setting and characters, however, Kirby's creator, Masahiro Sakurai, was greatly involved in its creation, so it did not stray far from his vision of how Kirby should be. The anime contains darker themes not yet introduced in the games (such as war and death) while still maintaining the cheerful and surreal themes the games are known for.


title: Kirby (character)

text: In the anime Kirby's origin and backstory are explored much more deeply than in the games. Kirby is a legendary Star Warrior who, according to legend, is fated to save Pop Star from destruction, but he was awoken from his slumber 200 years too early by mistake and as such has many baby or childlike qualities. Because of his age, he is still getting the hang of his powers and depends even more on the help of his friends to pull through tough situations. It is also implied that Kirby was originally a creation of the ancient evil entity called Nightmare but refused to follow his evil orders and was discarded into the depths of space.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby's Warpstar is also expanded upon, as in the games it is a mode of transportation, but here the Warpstar is also the source of his power. As he's too young to keep it safe for himself, Tiff takes it upon herself to keep the Warpstar safe.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Though Sakurai instructed that Kirby not speak in full sentences (citing the "Peanuts" character Snoopy) he did allow him to use a small vocabulary including a catch phrase "Poyo" and the names of various attacks and characters.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Prior to this Kirby was also in a short educational video that was released exclusively in Japan in 1994, designed to teach Kanji to young children. The feature was not animated, but contained illustrations and was bundled with a similar video featuring Mario and Wario.


title: Kirby (character)

text: Kirby also stars in several manga adaptations, which have been drawn by over 20 manga artists. The longest running series, "", was serialized in "CoroCoro Comic" from 1994 to 2006, which has been compiled into 25 tankōbon volumes, with over 10 million copies being printed. It continued serialization in "CoroCoro Aniki" in 2017. Viz Media originally planned to release the manga in English in September 2010, but it was pushed back and eventually cancelled. The series was later published as a "best-of" collection, which also features new chapters from its continued serialization, and was published in English as "Kirby Manga Mania" by Viz Media.


title: Kirby (character)

text: The German Club Nintendo magazine (2002-2015) often featured comics starring various Nintendo characters, including Kirby. In his comics, Kirby is reimagined as a detective and King Dedede as his sidekick. These comics were promotions for Kirby games that were released in Germany at the time including "Kirby's Dream Course" (1994), "Kirby's Avalanche" (1995), and "Kirby's Dream Land 2" (1995).


title: Kirby (character)

text: Since he first appeared in "Kirby's Dream Land" (1992), Kirby has received positive reception. "Nintendo Power" listed Kirby as their 19th favourite hero, commenting that he does not get the respect that he deserves. Kirby ranked second on GameDaily's Top 10 "Super Smash Bros." characters list. They also included him in their "Pretty in Pink Video Game Characters" article. GamesRadar listed Kirby as one of the most lovable blobs, calling him one of the cutest things to appear in a Nintendo game, yet also describing the way he defeats his enemies as "horrific." He ranked sixth on IGN's top 10 veteran "Super Smash Bros." characters, described as the "pinkest badass ever made". An issue of the webcomic VG Cats depicts Kirby in 100 forms from both video games and other forms of media, such as characters from "The Legend of Zelda", "Metal Gear" and "Gundam". In 2011, Cheat Code Central ranked Ninja Kirby as the ninth top ninja in video games.


title: Kirby (character)

text: UGO Networks listed Kirby on their list of "The Cutest Video Game Characters", stating "it's easy to get on board with someone who will eat anything." In 2009, GameSpot chose him as one of the characters to compete in their poll for the title of "All Time Greatest Game Hero". In a 2010 "Famitsu" poll, Kirby was voted by readers as the 12th most popular video game character. The 2011 "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" lists Kirby as the 18th most popular video game character. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 40th "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games, saying "[i]f you don’t think a pink blob can be tough, then you clearly haven’t seen Kirby in action". Jeremy Parish of Polygon ranked 73 fighters from "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" "from garbage to glorious", listing Kirby third and stated that "he’s probably the single most consistent character in the Nintendo mascot lineup... And his “copy power” makes him unpredictably fun to play as in Smash." Gavin Jasper of "Den of Geek" ranked Kirby as first of "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" characters, stating that "Kirby is the glue holding Smash together."


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns (), also known as Carpatho-Rusyns (), or Rusnaks (), are an East Slavic ethnic group from the Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn, an East Slavic language variety, treated variously as either a distinct language or a dialect of the Ukrainian language. As traditional adherents of Eastern Christianity, the majority of Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, though a minority of Rusyns still practice Eastern Orthodoxy. Rusyns primarily self-identify as a distinct Slavic people and they are recognized as such in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia, where they have official minority status. Alternatively, some identify more closely with their country of residence (i.e. Polish, Slovak), while others are a branch of the Ukrainian people.


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns are descended from an East Slavic population which inhabited the northeastern regions of the Eastern Carpathians. In those regions, there are several Rusyn groups, including Dolinyans, Boykos, Hutsuls and Lemkos. As residents of northeastern Carpathian regions, Rusyns are closely connected to and sometimes associated with other Slavic communities in the region, like the West Slavic highlander community of Gorals (literally 'Highlanders').


title: Rusyns

text: Of the estimated 1.7 million people of Rusyn origin, only around 110,000 have been officially identified as such in recent ( 2012) national censuses. This is largely because some census-taking authorities classify them as a subgroup of the Ukrainian people, while others classify them as a distinct ethnic group.


title: Rusyns

text: The term Rusyn (, plural ) originates from the archaic ethnonym "Rus". The respective endonymic adjective has traditionally been ( m., f., n.), though () has also been used; even more so after 1989.


title: Rusyns

text: In interwar Czechoslovakia, "Ruthenia" was called in Czech; sometimes rendered "Rusinia" or "Rusynia" in American-Rusyn publications.


title: Rusyns

text: Carpatho-Rusyn or "Carpatho-Ruthenian" () is the main regional designation for Rusyns. The term refers to Carpathian Ruthenia (), which is a historical cross-border region encompassing Subcarpathian Rus' (in northeastern Slovakia and Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast), Prešov Region (in eastern Slovakia), the Lemko Region (in southeastern Poland), and Maramureş (in north-central Romania). In the Lemko region, the endonym "Lemko" (pl. ) became more common in the twentieth century, along with "Lemko-Rusyn" since the 1990s.


title: Rusyns

text: The variant Rusnak (; plural: or Pannonian-Rusyn, "Rusnatsi") was also (and still is) used as an endonym; particularly by Rusyns outside the Carpathians in Vojvodina, Serbia and Slavonia, Croatia. However, they may also referred to as "Vojvodinian Rusyns" (), "Bachka-Srem Rusyns" (), or formerly as "Yugoslav Rusyns" ().


title: Rusyns

text: Other terms such as Ruthene, Rusniak, Lemak, Lyshak, and Lemko are considered by some scholars to be historic, local, or synonymic names for these inhabitants of Transcarpathia. Others hold that the terms Lemko and Rusnak are simply regional variations for Rusyns or Ruthenes.


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns have at times also been referred to as "Uhro-Rusyn" () in the regions of Eperjes, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.


title: Rusyns

text: Several endonyms such as Rus' and Rusyn were used widely by the East Slavs of Kievan Rus' during the medieval period. Common endonymic use of those terms continued through the life of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


title: Rusyns

text: Parallel, medieval Latin terms such as "Rusi", "Russi" or "Rusci" are found in sources of the period and were commonly used as an exonym for the East Slavs.


title: Rusyns

text: Since the end of the 11th century, the exonymic term Rutheni (Ruthenes) was also used by some Latin sources of western provenance as an alternative term for all East Slavs. During the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the scope of "Rutheni" gradually narrowed to only refer to inhabitants of the East Slavic regions that now mostly belong to the states of Belarus and Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: After the Partitions of Poland, "Rutheni" "came to be associated primarily with those [East Slavs] who lived under the Habsburg monarchy" (and was used as an official designation in the Austrian Empire after 1843). In the Kingdom of Hungary, "Ruthene" was used as the official term for the Rusyn people () of Transcarpathia until 1945. During the early twentieth century the term "became even more restricted: it was generally used to refer to the inhabitants of Transcarpathia and to Transcarpathian emigrants in the United States", for whom the terms Rusyn and Carpatho-Rusyn are more commonly used since the 1970s.


title: Rusyns

text: In some non-Slavic languages, Rusyns may be referred to by exonymic or somewhat archaic terms such as "Carpatho-Ruthenes" or "Carpatho-Ruthenians", but such terminology is not present in the Rusyn language. Exonymic "Ruthenian" designations are seen as less precise because they encompass various East Slavic groups and bear broader ethnic connotations as a result of varied historical usage.


title: Rusyns

text: In older literature and speech, both Catholic and Orthodox Rusyns occasionally referred to themselves as Carpatho-Russians or "Carpathian Russians." These terms, however, more accurately refer to ethnic Russians of the Carpathian region. The use of several, imprecise "Russian" ethnonyms (in a Rusyn context) are also present in the works of some older authors, including foreign authors, as well as those native to the region. This terminology has also been reflected within some groups of the Rusyn diaspora. Thus, the term Carpatho-Russian is still used today by some American Rusyns to self-identify (mostly among Eastern Orthodox practitioners).


title: Rusyns

text: There are different theories to explain Rusyn origins. According to Paul Robert Magocsi, the origin of the present-day Carpatho-Rusyns is complex and not exclusively related to the Kievan Rus'. The ancestors were the early Slavs whose movement to the Danubian Basin was influenced by the Huns and Pannonian Avars between the 5th and 6th centuries, the White Croats who lived on both slopes of the Carpathians and built many hill-forts in the region including Uzhhorod ruled by the mythical ruler Laborec, the Rusyns of Galicia and Podolia, and Vlachian shepherds of Transylvania. It is thought that the Croats were part of the Antes tribal polity who migrated to Galicia in the 3rd-4th century, under pressure by invading Huns and Goths. George Shevelov also considered a connection with East Slavic tribes, more specifically, the Hutsuls, and possibly Boykos, argued to be the descendants of the Ulichs who were not native in the region. As the region of the Ukrainian Carpathians, including Zakarpattia and Prykarpattia, has since the Early Middle Ages been inhabited by the tribes of Croats, in Ukrainian encyclopedias and dictionaries, and the "Great Russian Encyclopedia", the Rusyns are generally considered to be the descendants of the White Croats.


title: Rusyns

text: According to anthropological studies, the Eastern Carpathian population makes one of the sub-regional clines of the Ukrainian population, which can be regionally divided into Eastern and Western Carpathian variants. In the study by M. S. Velikanova (1975) the skulls from a medieval necropolis near village of Vasyliv in Zastavna Raion were very similar to contemporary Carpathian population, and according to , and this anthropological complex developed in the Middle Ages or earlier, as descendants of the medieval Slavs of Galicia and carriers of Chernyakhov culture along Prut-Dniester rivers, possibly with some Thracian component. According to the data, the population has the lowest admixture in Ukraine of Turkic speaking populations, like Volga Tatars and Bashkirs, while in comparison to other populations they have similarities with neighbouring Eastern Slovaks, Gorals of Poland, Romanians, some groups of Czechs and Hungarians, Northwestern Bulgarians, Central and Northern Serbians, and most of Croatians.


title: Rusyns

text: The 2006 mitochondrial DNA study of Carpathian Highlanders – Boykos, Hutsuls and Lemkos people – showed a common ancestry with other modern Europeans. A 2009 mitochondrial DNA study of 111 samples found that in comparison to eight other Central and Eastern European populations (Belarusian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian), the three Rusyn groups have a greater distance between themselves than these populations, with Boykos showing the greatest distance from all and did not cluster with anyone because have atypically low frequencies of haplogroup H (20%) and J (5%) for a European population, while Lemkos are closest to the Czech and Romanian (0.17) population, and Hutsuls closest to the Croatian (0.11) and Ukrainian (0.16) population.


title: Rusyns

text: The 2014 Y-DNA studies of 200 Pannonian Rusyns in the region of Vojvodina, Serbia, found they mostly belong to haplogroup R1a (43%), I2 (20%), E-V13 (12.5%), and R1b (8.5%), while I1, G2a, J2b, N1 between 2.5 and 4.5%, and J1, T, and H only in traces of less than 1%. They cluster closest to the Ukrainian and Slovakian population, "providing evidence for their genetic isolation from the Serbian majority population". The 2015 Y-DNA study of 150 men from Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi Oblast (Bukovina), found they mostly belong to R1a1a1*(М198), I2a (Р37.2), R1a1a1 (М458) ranging around and less than 30%, with E1b1b1a1 (M78), R1b1b2 (M269), and I1 (М253) ranging between 4-14%. The sampled population is most similar to other Ukrainians, while the Bukovina population slightly "differs from the typical Ukrainian population" because it has the highest percentage of I2a (>30%) and the lowest percentage of R1a (30%) in Ukraine. Bukovina's percentage of I2 is similar to near Moldovan and Romanian population, while the highest percentage is among South Slavs in Western Balkans. It was concluded that although bordered by diverse nations, the Carpathians seemingly were a barrier decreasing gene flow southward of N1c (М178), R1a (М198) from the region, and northward of E1b (М78), R1b (М269), J (М304) and G (М201) to the region.


title: Rusyns

text: The general usage of 'Rusyn' by all East Slavs dates back to over 11 centuries, its origin signifying the ethnic tie to the political entity of Kievan Rus', which existed from the late ninth to the early 13th century. The Carpathian Rusyns, Ukrainians (once called Malo Russians or Little Russians), Belarusians (once called White Russians) and Russians (Great Russians) are descendants of the Russichi, the people of Rus', that is East Slavs who mixed with other peoples over centuries, including in the south with Iranian and later with Germanic peoples, in the west with Baltic peoples, in the east with Finnish and Turkic peoples.


title: Rusyns

text: Over the centuries these loosely affiliated peoples developed different political and economic centers as well as new names. The inhabitants of northern Rus' were known as Great Russians by the 17th century. The people in the west called themselves Belarusians and the people in the south were known as Malo Russians (Little Russians). Later, in what began as a political movement in the mid 19th century, many Little Russians began using the term "Ukrainian" to distinguish themselves from the Great Russians in northern Rus'. So by the mid-20th century the original name Rus or Rusyn was retained only in the Carpathian Mountains.


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns settled in the Carpathian Mountain region in various waves of immigration from the north between the eighth and 17th centuries. Weapons and skeletons found in tombs in Bereg County from the 10th century era suggest that Norman Vikings (who played a role in the founding of Kiev Rus') were there as well. Even so, as late as the 11th century, this mountainous area was still a sparsely inhabited 'No-Man's Land' border between the kingdoms of Kievan Rus' and Hungary.


title: Rusyns

text: In 1241, the Carpathians fell to Mongol-Tatar invasions led by Genghis Khan's son, Batu Khan, with populations exterminated and villages torched. The Mongols entered the region via the Veretski Pass, just to the north of Mukachevo.


title: Rusyns

text: In 1395, Orthodox Rus' Prince Feodor Koriatovich, son of the Duke of Novgorod, brought with him from the north soldiers and their families to settle unpopulated Carpathian lands. While the actual number of immigrants is uncertain, the arrival of Koriatovich and his retinue was a milestone for the Rusyns, substantially improving the region's administrative, ecclesiastical and cultural aspects. This included building and fortifying Mukachevo Castle with cannons, a moat, workers and artisans, and the founding of an Orthodox monastery on the Latorytsia River.


title: Rusyns

text: The Austro-Hungarian monarchy controlled the Carpathians from 1772 to 1918. With the increased Magyarization in the nineteenth century, for some educated and intellectual Rusyns it was natural to move to Budapest, while for other Slavic minded intellectuals the Russian Empire became a favored destination.


title: Rusyns

text: The Rusyns have always been subject to larger neighboring powers, but in the 19th century a Rusyn national movement was formed which emphasized distinct ethnic identity and literary language. During the Spring of Nations on 2 May 1848 in Lemberg (today Lviv) was established the first political representation of the Galician Rusyns, the Main Ruthenian Council (, "Holovna Ruska Rada"). The most active and leading stratum among Rusyns was Greek-Catholic clergy (see Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, a successor of Ecclesia Ruthena unita).


title: Rusyns

text: The nineteenth century also saw the spread of pan Slavism in Europe, and a pro-Moscow view became popular. The Russian military campaign of Tsar Nicholas I through the Carpathians in 1849 had significance for the local Rusyn population, who came into close contact with an almost 200,000 man Russian army. This interaction had an impact on the rising national consciousness of that time. Aleksander Dukhnovich (1803–1865), who wrote the unofficial Rusyn National Anthem ("I was, am, and will be a Rusyn"), and who by some is considered to be a sort of 'George Washington' of the Rusyns, reminisced that when he saw the Russian Cossacks on the streets, he "danced and cried with joy".


title: Rusyns

text: A few decades later, when economic conditions and repression worsened in the late 19th century, massive emigration of Rusyns to America took place, beginning in the early 1870s. Between 1899 and 1931, Ellis Island listed 268,669 Rusyn immigrants. Most settled in the northeastern states, but Rusyn settlements also appeared in more far flung states such as Minnesota, Colorado, Alabama, Washington and Montana. Smaller numbers also emigrated to Canada, Brazil and Argentina.


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns formed two ephemeral states after World War I: the Lemko-Rusyn Republic and Komancza Republic. Prior to this time, some of the founders of the Lemko-Rusyn Republic were sentenced to death or imprisoned in Talerhof by the prosecuting attorney Kost Levytsky (Rusyn: Кость Леви́цький), future president of the West Ukrainian National Republic. In the interwar period, the Rusyn diaspora in Czechoslovakia enjoyed liberal conditions to develop their culture (in comparison with Ukrainians in Poland or Romania). Hutsul Stepan Klochurak was a prime minister of Hutsul Republic centered in Yasinia that was seeking union with the West Ukrainian People's Republic, but was overran by the Hungarian troops, later Klochurak became a Defense Minister of Carpatho-Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: After World War I, the majority of Rusyns found themselves in the new country of Czechoslovakia. The interwar period became a mini renaissance for Rusyn culture, as they were permitted their own schools, theater, anthem, and even their own governor.


title: Rusyns

text: During the Dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1918), various parts of Rusyn people were faced with different political challenges. Those who lived in northeastern counties of the Hungarian part of the former Monarchy were faced with pretensions of Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, those who lived in the former Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria were faced with pretensions of Poland and Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: In the 1920s and 1930s a dispute existed between Russophile and Ukrainophile Rusyns. In October 1938, a series of political reforms were initiated, leading to the creation of the Second Czechoslovak Republic, consisting of three autonomous political entities, one of them being the Subcarpathian Rus' (Rusyn: Підкарпатьска Русь). On 11 October 1938, first autonomous Government of Subcarpathian Rus was appointed, headed by prime-minister Andrej Bródy. Soon after, a crisis occurred between pro-Rusyn and pro-Ukrainian fractions, leading to the fall of Bródy government on 26 October. New regional government, headed by Avgustyn Voloshyn, adopted a pro-Ukrainian course and opted for the change of name, from "Subcarpathian Rus"' to "Carpathian Ukraine".


title: Rusyns

text: That move led to the creation of a particular terminological duality. On 22 November 1938, authorities of the Second Czechoslovak Republic proclaimed the "Constitutional Law on the Autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus"' (Czech: "Ústavní zákon o autonomii Podkarpatské Rusi"), officially reaffirming the right of self-determination of Rusyn people (preamble), and confirming full political and administrative autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus', with its own assembly and government. In the constitutional system of the Second Czechoslovak Republic, the region continued to be known as the Subcarpathian Rus', while local institutions promoted the use of the term "Carpathian Ukraine".


title: Rusyns

text: The Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine, which existed for one day on March 15, 1939, before it was occupied and annexed by Hungary, is sometimes considered to have been a self-determining Rusyn state that had intentions to unite with Kyiv. The Republic's president, Avgustyn Voloshyn, was an advocate of writing in Rusyn. The Hungarian annexation caused support for Russophile direction, while in Germany occupied Poland support for Ukrainian identity.


title: Rusyns

text: Although the Carpathians were not a major WWII battlefield, the Rusyns saw their share of horror and destruction, beginning with the Hungarian government's 1941 tragic deportation of the Carpathian Jews. In September 1944, while retreating from a Soviet Red Army offensive, the Nazis who were passing through blew up all the bridges in Uzhhorod, including one built in the 14th century.


title: Rusyns

text: On 26 November 1944 in Mukachevo representatives from all cities and villages of the land adopted the manifest about union of Zakarpattia Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: The Soviets occupied the Carpathians, and in 1945 the Rusyn ethnic homeland was split among three countries, as western portions were incorporated into Czechoslovakia and Poland, while the eastern portion became part of the Soviet Union and was officially named Transcarpathia. After World War II, Transcarpathia was declared as a part of Ukrainia.


title: Rusyns

text: In Poland, the new Communist government deported many Rusyns from their ancestral region, sending many east to Ukraine, and others to the far west of the country. In Czechoslovakia a policy of Ukrainization was implemented. In Ukraine, many Rusyns who owned land or livestock, often funded via their own family members in America, were now branded by the Soviets as kulaks, or rich peasants. Property and farm animals were confiscated and newly established kolkhozes (collectivized farms) were built, with people being forced to work on their own former land, 'employed' by the Communist government. Some of the less lucky were sent to Siberia.


title: Rusyns

text: In 1947, under the Operation Vistula happened forced resettlement of c. 150,000 Lemkos, Boykos and other Ukrainians between Poland and Ukraine. In the same time some 8,500 Rusyns voluntarily emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Ukraine, but more than half of them returned during the 1960s.


title: Rusyns

text: These acts were protested for years, but to no avail. In the US, the Greek Catholic Union's 1964 convention even adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations to act "so that Carpatho-Russia be recognized and accepted into the free nations of the world as an autonomous state".


title: Rusyns

text: In former Yugoslavia, Rusyns were officially recognized as a distinct national minority, and their legal status was regulated in Yugoslav federal units of Serbia and Croatia. In the Constitution of Serbia, that was adopted in 1963, Rusyns were designated as one of seven (explicitly named) national minorities (Article 82), and the same provision was implemented in the Statute of Vojvodina (an autonomous province in Serbia) that was adopted in the same year (Article 32). Further on, the Constitutional Law of 1969 regulated the position of Rusyn language as one of five official languages in Vojvodina (Article 67).


title: Rusyns

text: After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990, new opportunities arose for Rusyns in Poland and in the newly formed countries of Slovakia and Ukraine. The Rusyns of the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine were able to vote in December 1991 for self-rule. With an 89% voter turnout, 78% voted Yes to autonomy. But with the Russian majority in the Odessa region casting a similar vote, the Ukrainian government, fearing secession, has refused to honor this referendum.


title: Rusyns

text: In terms of minority rights, the question of Rusyn self-identification and recognition in Ukraine has been a subject of interest for European institutions, as well as the United Nations. Nationally, Rusyns are considered (by both state and cultural authorities) only a sub-group of the Ukrainian people. In spite of this, Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast has recognized Rusyns as a "distinct nationality" within the oblast since a 2007 proclamation by its regional assembly.


title: Rusyns

text: By the end of the 20th century there appeared many societies and organizations considering Rusyns as people separate from Ukrainians. By the early 21st century they had representatives in parliaments of Serbia, Hungary, and Romania, published their own press, and in 2007 the Museum of Ruthenian Culture was opened in Prešov, Slovakia.


title: Rusyns

text: In 2010 in Mukachevo were festivities commemorating the union of Zakarpattia with Ukraine, four out of 663 of congress delegates who adopted the Manifest about the Union and who were still alive attended the event: F. Sabov, O. Lohoida, M. Moldavchuk and J. Matlakh. They shared their experience about first years of the People's Council in revival of the region.


title: Rusyns

text: There is also ongoing linguistic and political controversy as to whether Rusyn is a distinct Slavic language or one of several dialects of the Ukrainian language. In several countries, it is recognized as a distinct minority language. Though Ukraine also adopted a law that recognized Rusyn as one of several minority and regional languages in 2012, that law was revoked in 2014.


title: Rusyns

text: In 2021 while discussing the borders of modern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized Rusyns as being distinct from Ukrainians. In writing about the Soviet Union's post World War II takeover of the Transcarpathian region, Putin stated that, "quote, 'Rusyns (Русины) made up a considerable share of the local population', unquote". Then, using the pre-World War II term to describe the region, he asserted that the population of "Subcarpathian Rus" (Podkarpatska Rus) voted to join the Soviet Union either as "either part of the Russian Soviet republic or as a separate Carpathian republic". Putin noted however that the Soviet authorities "ignored the choice of the people" and incorporated it instead into the Ukrainian Soviet republic.


title: Rusyns

text: Today there are estimated to be approximately 1.5 million Rusyns in Europe and a healthy pro-Rusyn movement exists in the Carpathians. Some Ukrainian nationalists have argued that the modern 'Rusyn movement' is in reality "acting to defend the interests of the Russian Empire the Carpathian Mountains". But the vast majority of Rusyns simply want their own identity and in any event in the 21st Century Rusyns as a distinct people has reached a watershed moment, and are now recognized as an ethnic minority in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania and the Czech Republic.


title: Rusyns

text: According to Mrs Jozsefne Csepanyi-Bardos, the president of the Ruthenian Ethnic Minority Council in Budapest Capital. The flag of the Ruthenians of the World and the Ruhenian Ethnic Minority Council is a tricolour in a 2:1:1 ratio.


title: Rusyns

text: Ukrainian academician, doctor of historical sciences, head of department of National Minorities of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Institute of Political and Ethno-national research, May Panchuk explained that soon after dissolution of the Soviet Union and during the 1991 Ukrainian referendum, there was provided additional question for Zakarpattia residents only whether they wish to obtain a self-governed territory within Ukraine. It triggered Rusyns to create their own political parties and movements. Already in March 1992 the recently created "Subcarpathian republican party" published its program with first elements of separatism: create independent, neutral "Republic Subcarpathian Ruthenia" just as Switzerland; receive full political and economic independence; recognize Rusyn people as a full-scale nationality among other nations. The party contained a well expressed Kremlin orientation and did not hide its connections with pro-Russians elements. In 1993 in Bratislava there was presented the "government of Subcarpathian Ruthenia" with an emphasized change – as "separate subject of the Commonwealth of Independent States". The activity of the "government" was openly supported by "Russkiy dom", "Russkiy Mir Foundation", Association of Zakarpattia democrats, and other pro-Russian organizations. In December 1994 so called "minister of foreign affairs" T. Ondyk appealed to the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin to cancel the 1945 treaty between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia about Zakarpattia Ukraine. At that same time, Ondyk appealed to the presidents of the United States and Hungary accusing the Ukrainian government in the policy of extermination of Rusyns and Hungarians.


title: Rusyns

text: A considerable controversy has arisen regarding the Rusyn separatist movement led by the Orthodox priest Dimitry Sydor (now Archbishop of Uzhorod, in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)), his relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and funding for his activities. Russia has, as a result of the Russian census of 2002, recognized the Rusyns as a separate ethnic group in 2004, and has been accused by the Ukrainian government of fueling ethnic tensions and separatism among Rusyns and Ukrainians.


title: Rusyns

text: A criminal case under Part 2, Art. 110 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code was initiated after the 1st European Congress of Rusyns took place in Mukachevo on June 7, 2008. At that particular congress the reinstatement of the Zakarpattia's status as special "territory of Rusyns to the south of the Carpathians" with self-government under the constitutional name Subcarpathian Rus was recognized. On October 29, at the 2nd congress in Mukachevo, a memorandum was signed calling for the authorities to recognize the Subcarpathian Rus autonomy (by December 1). That same day, according to the "Kommersant-Ukraine" (Ukrainian edition) agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) questioned Dmytro Sydor and Yevgeniy Zhupan. They were summoned to SBU as witnesses in a criminal case "on the infringement on territorial integrity of Ukraine" initiated in June 2008. According to internet publisher "Newsru", earlier in 2008 the Zakarpattia Rusyns appealed to Russia to recognize independence of Subcarpathian Ruthenia from Ukraine. In 2014 with the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War, an activist of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia movement named Petro Hetsko, who claims to be prime minister of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia, asked the President of Russia to intervene and help "neutralize Galician Nazism in Zakarpattia".


title: Rusyns

text: Research conducted by the University of Cambridge during the height of political Rusynism in the mid-1990s that focused on five specific regions within the Zakarpattia Oblast having the strongest pro-Rusyn cultural and political activism, found that only nine percent of the population of these areas claimed Rusyn ethnicity. In the present day, according to the Ukrainian census, most – over 99% – of the local inhabitants consider themselves to be Ukrainians.


title: Rusyns

text: Religion and Rusyn history are deeply intertwined, often resulting in controversy. Many believe that when Rusyns first came to Christianity it was through the Orthodox faith, although this has been challenged by many others who assert the initial Christian influence actually came from Catholic Moravia. One of the earliest saints of the (Orthodox) Monastery of the Caves at Kiev was the Rusyn Moses Uhrin (died 1043), who prior to becoming a monk served Boris, the prince of Ancient Rus'. Moses and his brothers Efrem and Georgii stories are recorded in the noted 'Russian Primary Chronicle'. Also originating from this time is the unique Carpathian church Prostopinije (Plain Chant), which is closely related to the ancient chant of Kievan Rus' and has even preserved elements of it.


title: Rusyns

text: For over 600 years, the Orthodox Church was the only Rusyn church in the Carpathians. But under the growing influence of the then ruling Austro-Hungarian Empire, Orthodox clergy were reduced over time to the legal status of peasant-serfs, and even the bishop of Mukachevo was at the mercy of the Hungarian lords. To improve their condition, some Orthodox priests attempted to form a new church under the Catholics. In 1614, 50 priests convened at the Krasni Brid Monastery with this intent, but a crowd of Orthodox protested and dispersed the group. A second attempt in the 1630s under Bishop Vasyl Tarasovych also failed. Finally in April 1646, Bishop Parfenii Petrovich (Petro Parfenii#Biography) was able to convene a meeting of 63 (out of a few hundred) priests who pledged their allegiance to the Pope of Rome. Their signed document became known as the Union of Uzhhorod, resulting in the formation of the Greek Catholic Church. This new Church was given greater material assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire while being allowed to maintain their Eastern Rite traditions, including married priests. From that time, the Rusyns had two bishops, one Greek Catholic and one Orthodox, until 1721 when the last remaining Orthodox priests in the western counties accepted the Union. Some priests in the eastern counties of Bereg and Maramaros remained Orthodox until 1745.


title: Rusyns

text: In the 1890s, 145 years after Orthodoxy had ceased to exist in the Carpathians, a so-called 'return to Orthodoxy' movement began, reaching a high point in the 1920s. Many Greek Catholics who became Orthodox were arrested for treason and a few were even executed by the government, with the Thalerhof internment camp and martyrdom (by firing squad) of the Orthodox priest Maxim Sandovich in 1914 being the best known incidents. Meanwhile, the Russian Bolshevik Revolution was forcing Russians of the nobility and middle class to flee, and many settled in the US. These Russians arrived and began joining the American Russian Orthodox Church (then called the Metropolia) at precisely the same time Carpatho-Russians in America were also 'returning' to the Orthodox faith. This mixing furthered Russophile leanings among many Rusyns. Leading the charge was Fr. Alexis Toth, a former Greek Catholic priest who led as many as 20,000 Rusyn Americans to Orthodoxy, for which he was canonized by the Orthodox Church (due to his efforts, perhaps 1/3rd of American Rusyns are Orthodox today). This American mixing further influenced events and persecutions back in the Carpathian homeland, where thousands of fleeing Orthodox Russians also settled, including monks who founded the Ladomirova Monastery. Indeed, Laurus Škurla who was born in Ladomirova (now in Slovakia) rose to become Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.


title: Rusyns

text: Conversely, it was Greek Catholics of the Carpathians who suffered in the 1940s. By force, the Soviet government annulled the Union of Uzhhorod in 1946, and the Greek Catholic Church was liquidated exactly 300 years after its formation. The Greek Catholic Cathedral, Uzhhorod was transferred to the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church in 1948, and priests who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were sent to the Siberian and Arctic labor camps, where many died. Others were simply murdered in their home villages. A horrific example of this was the martyrdom (by assassination) of Greek Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha. To add salt to the wound, in 1971 the Russian Orthodox Synod of Zagorsk, U.S.S.R. indirectly justified this violence by officially ratifying the annulment.


title: Rusyns

text: And while no longer the case, from the early and even until the mid-1900s in America, religious and nationalist causes went together. Aside from Russian Orthodox/Greek Catholic struggle, the dislike of Ukrainians by Rusyn religious leaders was strong and expressed often, as Ukrainian nationalism was deemed a destructive force to Rusyn culture. The influential newspaper of the American Greek Catholic Church, the 'GCU Messenger', wrote in 1954: "To us Carpatho-Russian people here and in our native country under the green Carpathians, there can be no greater insult and offense then when someone calls us Ukrainians. We know not such people on the world's map."


title: Rusyns

text: In Europe today, some tensions still exist. As an example, the aforementioned Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross in Uzhorod belonged to the Greek Catholics but after WWII had been given to the Russian Orthodox Church by the Communist government. With the pending fall of communism, a well-meaning visit to this cathedral in February 1990 by American Byzantine Catholic (Greek Catholic) Archbishop Stephen Kocisko, whose own Rusyn parents were born in the Carpathians, led to confrontation from Rusyn Orthodox protestors. Later in 1991, there were major protests, including physical attacks and hunger strikes when it was decided to transfer the cathedral back to the Greek Catholics.


title: Rusyns

text: The Orthodox immediately set about to build a new Uzhhorod Orthodox Cathedral, under the guidance of the Rusyn Fr. Dimitry Sydor, a Moscow Patriarchate priest, who is perhaps the most controversial cleric in today's Carpathians. In a nod to Moscow, the architecture of the new cathedral is based on the design of the famous and newly rebuilt 'Cathedral of Christ the Savior' in Moscow, which is the largest church in all of Russia.


title: Rusyns

text: At the parish level, numerous churches which had been forcibly Orthodox for decades switched back to the Greek Catholic jurisdiction, and new ones were also constructed. As well, in spite of continued pressure, the region's Greek Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to be included under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian oriented Lvov/Lviv Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy. Notably and in another example of Rusyns going against the tide and seen as a pushback against Ukrainianism, an estimated 542 of the existing 550 Transcarpathian Orthodox churches chose to remain under the (Russian) Moscow Patriarchate rather than join the (Ukrainian) Kiev/Kyiv Patriarchate. And as of 2021 according to the Ukrainian government itself, Transcarpathia had one of the highest adherence levels in Ukraine to the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate rather than the Kyiv Orthodox Patriarchate.


title: Rusyns

text: However, there is one thing that neither church divisions nor communism has changed, and that is the traditional, formal Rusyn greeting, which can occasionally still be heard by both Orthodox and Catholics alike: Slava Isusu Kristu! – Glory to Jesus Christ!


title: Rusyns

text: Many Rusyns are Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, who since the Union of Uzhhorod in 1646 have been in communion with the See of Rome. This church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, is distinct from the Latin Catholic Church. It has retained the Byzantine Rite liturgy, sometimes including the Church Slavonic language, the liturgical forms of Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and married priests.


title: Rusyns

text: The Pannonian Rusyns of Croatia are organized under the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci, and those in the region of Vojvodina (northern Serbia), are organized under the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Ruski Krstur, headed by bishop Đura Džudžar, who is an ethnic Rusyn. Those in the diaspora in the United States established the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh.


title: Rusyns

text: Although originally associated with the Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo, that diocese was suppressed after the Union of Uzhhorod. New Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo and Prešov was created in 1931 under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church. That eparchy was divided in 1945, eastern part joining Russian Orthodox Church as the Eparchy of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod, while western part was reorganized as Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Prešov of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church.


title: Rusyns

text: Many Rusyn Americans left Catholicism for Eastern Orthodoxy in the 19th century due to disputes with the Latin Church bishops, who viewed different practices in the Byzantine Rite (such as married clergy) with suspicion.


title: Rusyns

text: Another large segment of Rusyn Americans belong to the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, which is headquartered in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. From its early days, this group was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a self-governing diocese.


title: Rusyns

text: The affiliation of Eastern Orthodox Rusyns was adversely affected by the Communist revolution in the Russian Empire and the subsequent Iron Curtain which split the Orthodox diaspora from the Eastern Orthodox believers living in the ancestral homelands. A number of émigré communities have claimed to continue the Orthodox Tradition of the pre-revolution church while either denying or minimizing the validity of the church organization operating under Communist authority.


title: Rusyns

text: For example, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) was granted autocephalous (self-governing) status by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970. Although approximately 25% of the OCA was Rusyn in the early 1980s, an influx of Eastern Orthodox émigrés from other nations and new converts wanting to connect with the Eastern Church have lessened the impact of a particular Rusyn emphasis in favor of a new American Orthodoxy.


title: Rusyns

text: In 1994, the historian Paul Robert Magocsi stated that there were approximately 690,000 Carpatho-Rusyn church members in the United States, with 320,000 belonging to the largest Greek Catholic affiliations, 270,000 to the largest Eastern Orthodox affiliations, and 100,000 to various Protestant and other denominations.


title: Rusyns

text: The traditional homeland of the Rusyn people, Carpathian Rus', lies at the heart of the Carpathian mountains, on the borders of modern-day Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. Today, approximately three-quarters of Rusyns reside within Ukraine, specifically the geographic region known as Transcarpathia (historic Subcarpathian Rus').


title: Rusyns

text: There also exists a multitude of Rusyn diaspora communities throughout neighboring countries in Europe and North America. The oldest of these diaspora communities is located located in the Pannonian Plain. Since the mid-18th century, the resettled communities of Pannonia have existed in parts of present-day Serbia (particularly, Vojvodina, known historically as Bachka) and Croatia (in Vukovar-Srijem County). The United States holds the largest population of Rusyns outside of Carpathian Rus', mostly within the former industrial centers of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 225,000 Rusyns emigrated here. Within Europe, Rusyns also migrated and settled in Prnjavor, a town in the northern region of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The community in the Czech Republic is located in northern Moravia and the capital of Prague. Populations of Rusyns also migrated to Canada and Argentina in the 1920s and Canada, Australia, and Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Rusyns

text: Of the estimated 1.2 to 1.6 million people of Rusyn origins, only around 90,000 individuals have been officially identified as such in recent national censuses (see infobox above). This is due, in part, to the refusal of some governments to count Rusyns and/or allow them to self-identify on census forms, especially in Ukraine. The ethnic classification of Rusyns as a separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct from Russians, Ukrainians, or Belarusians is, consequently, politically controversial. The claim that Rusyns are Ukrainian subgroup is disputed by some non-mainstream scholars, as well as other scholars from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, and the United States. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, thirty percent of Rusyns in Ukraine identified Ukrainian as their native language, while two thirds named the Rusyn language. However, about 10 thousand people, or 0.8%, of Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast (Province) identified themselves as Rusyns; by contrast, over 1 million considered themselves Ukrainians.


title: Rusyns

text: The endonym "Rusyn" has frequently gone unrecognised by various governments, and has in other cases been prohibited. Today, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia officially recognize contemporary Rusyns as an ethnic minority. In 2007, Carpatho-Rusyns were recognized as a separate ethnicity in Ukraine by the Zakarpattia Oblast Council on a regional level, and in 2012 the Rusyn language gained official regional status in certain areas of the province, as well as nationwide based on the 2012 Law of Ukraine, "On the principles of the state language policy". However, most contemporary self-identified ethnic Rusyns live outside of Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: Rusyns may be divided into two significant subgroups: Carpathian Rusyns and Pannonian Rusyns. While both groups are descendants of Rusyn populations from Carpathian Rus', Pannonian Rusyns migrated from the Carpathian to parts of modern-day Croatia and Serbia (Vojvodina) in the 19th century. Additionally, the two groups speak different dialects (or languages, depending on the author): the former group speaking Carpathian Rusyn and the latter speaking Pannonian Rusyn.


title: Rusyns

text: Other more specific, regional subgroups (debatably) include Lemkos, Boykos, Hutsuls, and Dolinyans (lit. "lowlanders"). However, the Lemko-Boyko-Hutsul subdivision popular with Ukrainian scholars was only first promoted in the 1920s by the "Lemko Committee" and other contemporary Ukrainian scholars. Furthermore, while Lemkos and Rusyns are recognized as distinct ethnic minorities in Poland and Slovakia (respectively), neither Boykos nor Hutsuls are formally recognized in any country; nor are any Rusyns for that matter recognized as such in Ukraine.


title: Rusyns

text: Regarding these common ethnographic divisions, prominent Rusyn scholar, Paul Robert Magocsi, has said the following:


title: James Michael Tyler

text: James Michael Tyler (May 28, 1962 – October 24, 2021) was an American actor who played Gunther on the NBC sitcom "Friends". Prior to acting, he was an assistant film editor and production assistant. His early works included being the production assistant for "Fat Man and Little Boy". He also portrayed Oscar Bevins in the 1997 thriller film "Motel Blue".


title: James Michael Tyler

text: James Michael Tyler was born on May 28, 1962, the youngest of five children, in either Greenwood, Mississippi or Winona, Mississippi.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: When Tyler was ten years old, his father, a former USAF captain, died. Just one year later, when Tyler was age eleven, his mother passed away. Afterwards, Tyler moved to Anderson, South Carolina to live with his sister. Tyler graduated from T.L. Hanna High School in 1980.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: He graduated from Anderson College (now Anderson University) in 1982 with a two-year Associate's degree and subsequently graduated from Clemson University with a degree in geology in 1984. During his time at Clemson, he was a member of a student theatre group, the Clemson Players. This experience sparked his interest in becoming an actor. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1987.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles and became an assistant film editor and production assistant. The same year, he was a production assistant on the film "Fat Man and Little Boy". In L.A., he also worked at Guitar Center and a coffee shop called the Bourgeois Pig. It was here that he met his first wife, Barbara Chadsey, whom he married in 1995.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: From 1994 to 2004, James Michael Tyler played Gunther on the sitcom "Friends". Gunther was a coffee shop worker at Central Perk who had unrequited love for Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston. His real-life experience as a barista gave an assistant director on "Friends" the idea to put him behind the counter of Central Perk to make the set seem more "authentic". This led to a ten-year career with appearances in 148 of "Friends"<nowiki>'</nowiki> 236 episodes; he is the show's most-frequently-appearing recurring character actor.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: The night before his first appearance on "Friends," a hair stylist friend asked if he could practice bleaching on Tyler's hair. Tyler agreed, and the makers of "Friends" loved it so much that what should have been a one-off look ended up becoming part of his character. He ended up having to bleach his hair every week for ten years.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In honor of "Friends" 15th anniversary in 2009, Tyler officially opened the temporary Central Perk pop up replica in London. It was open for two weeks from September to October and fans could apply for tickets to receive a free coffee and see memorabilia from the show. He appeared in the unaired pilot satire sitcom "Nobody's Watching", playing himself on the set of Central Perk.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In honor of "Friends" 20th anniversary in 2014, Tyler made appearances at a Central Perk replica in SoHo.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: Tyler appeared in the BBC/Showtime sitcom "Episodes" (Series 2, Episode 6) as himself playing an ice hockey coach, when Matt LeBlanc tries unsuccessfully to get the other main stars from "Friends" to appear in the promotional video for the fictional television show "Pucks".


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In 1995, Tyler married Barbara Chadsey. The couple separated in 2003, and in 2014, he filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. He later married Jennifer Carno in 2017.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: Tyler was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018, but did not publicly disclose his illness until June 2021, shortly after the release of "". The cancer metastasized to his spine, leading him to use a wheelchair. He died of complications from the disease at his home in Los Angeles, California, on October 24, 2021, at the age of 59.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In addition to the below, Tyler narrated and hosted the 2005 game "", along with the 2005 DVD board game


title: James Michael Tyler

text: In July 2021, producers Al Gomes and Connie Watrous of Big Noise, along with two-time Emmy Nominee Tim Labonte and Grammy Award winner Alan Boyd, conceptualized and created a short film for Tyler's spoken word performance entitled "If You Knew".


title: James Michael Tyler

text: Tyler's recording had been featured on a 2016 tribute album to The Beach Boys' lyricist Stephen Kalinich called "Be Still" that Gomes, Watrous, and Boyd had also produced. The Recording Academy placed the collection on the Official Ballot for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album. Tyler also composed the music for the recording.


title: James Michael Tyler

text: The new video for "If You Knew" was produced to honor Tyler and also create a fundraiser for the organization that was working closely with him, the Prostate Cancer Foundation. All the streaming proceeds of the video, and Tyler's original recording, are being donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: Christophe Galtier (born 23 August 1966) is a French professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: A defender, Galtier was a journeyman professional who spent many of his 15 years as a player at Marseille with spells at six other clubs, four in France and one each in Italy and China.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: Galtier won the Best Manager of the Year award at the Trophées UNFP du football in 2013, which he shared with Carlo Ancelotti, and again in 2019 after Lille finished in second place during the 2018–19 Ligue 1 season. He won the trophy for a third time in 2021 after guiding Lille to their fourth Ligue 1 title in club history.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: Christophe Galtier was born on 23 August 1966 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône. He spent a large part of his playing career in France with his hometown club Marseille, whom he represented in two different spells. In a fifteen-year career, he also played for Lille, Toulouse, Angers, and Nîmes in France, before ending his career with stints in Italy for Monza and with Liaoning in China.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: From 1999 to 2004, Galtier was assistant coach at Marseille, Aris and Bastia. From 2004 to 2009, he worked as Alain Perrin's assistant coach at Al Ain, Portsmouth, Sochaux, Lyon and Saint-Étienne (ASSE).


title: Christophe Galtier

text: In December 2009, Galtier was appointed the head coach of Saint-Étienne, with ASSE in danger of relegation following the departure of Alain Perrin. In his first season, Galtier successfully guided ASSE to safety, finishing in 17th place. ASSE finished in the top 10 of Ligue 1 in the seven consecutive seasons of Galtier's tenure, with 4 of those seasons ending in a European place.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: In 2013, ASSE defeated Rennes to win the Coupe de la Ligue, their first trophy in 32 years. His European debut as a head coach is a 3–0 home win over Moldovan club Milsami Orhei in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase on 1 August 2013.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: On 9 May 2017, Galtier announced he would be leaving Saint-Étienne at the end of the season upon the expiration of his contract. At that moment he was the longest serving Ligue 1 manager still active, having taken the reins for eight years. On 20 May 2017, he left the club after 361 games, including 147 wins, as Saint-Étienne head coach.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: On 22 December 2017, Galtier became the new manager of Lille, who were at the 18th place in the league. However, they eventually avoided relegation places by one point in the 2017–18 season. In the 2018–19 season, he led Lille to finish second and qualify for the next Champions League season, after a seven-year absence.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: During the 2020–21 season, Galtier guided Lille to their first Ligue 1 title in 10 years and the fourth in club history. Galtier was praised by many pundits over the course of the season for both his tactics and his ability to develop young talent including Jonathan David, Renato Sanches, and Mike Maignan. For his efforts, Galtier was named the Ligue 1 Manager of the Year for a third time. On 25 May 2021, two days after winning the league title, he resigned as manager. He stated: "I simply have the deep belief that my time is up here."


title: Christophe Galtier

text: On 28 June 2021, Galtier was appointed as the new head coach of fellow Ligue 1 club Nice. In his first season, he led the team to a fifth-place finish and a Coupe de France final, where they lost 1–0 to Nantes. Nice qualified for the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round as a result.


title: Christophe Galtier

text: On 5 July 2022, Galtier agreed a two-year deal to become Paris Saint-Germain manager, replacing Mauricio Pochettino.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Super is a 2010 American black comedy superhero film written and directed by James Gunn and starring Rainn Wilson, Elliot Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon and Nathan Fillion. It tells the story of Frank Darbo, a short-order cook who becomes a superhero without having any superhuman ability, calling himself the "Crimson Bolt". He sets out to rescue his wife Sarah from the hands of a drug dealer.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters in the United States on April 1, 2011 and on video on demand on April 13, 2011. The film was released unrated in U.S. theaters, and later received an R rating for its DVD/Blu-ray release. Upon release, "Super" received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $590,000 against a budget of $2.5 million, making it Gunn's lowest-grossing film.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: In 2019, Wilson reprised his role as the Crimson Bolt in the mid-credits scene of Gunn's supervillain film "Brightburn", via a new photo taken for the film.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Short-order cook Frank Darbo recalls his only two good memories from a disappointing life: marrying his wife, Sarah, and an incident in which he directed a police officer to catch a purse snatcher. Frank immortalizes these two events in a pair of crayon drawings that he hangs on his wall for inspiration. Sarah, a recovering addict, leaves Frank for Jacques, a charismatic strip club owner who gets her hooked on drugs. Frank sinks into depression, where he has a vision in which he is touched by the finger of God and meets the Holy Avenger, a superhero from a public-access television show (based on the actual Christian superhero series, "Bibleman"), who tells Frank that God has chosen him for a very special purpose.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Frank believes that God has chosen him to become a superhero and goes to a local comic book store for inspiration. His claim that he is designing a new superhero is met with enthusiastic appreciation from the store clerk, Libby. Frank creates a superhero costume and assumes the identity of "The Crimson Bolt". Armed with a pipe wrench, he begins to fight crime by delivering savage beatings to various rulebreakers, ranging from drug dealers and child molesters to a man who cuts in line at the movies. The Crimson Bolt soon becomes a media sensation. Initially, the media view him as a violent psychopath, but he begins to gain public appreciation after the criminal backgrounds of many of his victims come to light.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Frank later attempts to rescue Sarah at Jacques' house, but Jacques' thugs recognize him under the costume and shoot him in the leg as he flees while climbing over a fence. A wounded Frank goes to Libby for help. Libby cajoles Frank into letting her become the Crimson Bolt's "kid sidekick", christening herself "Boltie" and designing a costume. She proves to be even more unhinged than Frank, using her superhero guise to nearly kill a man who possibly vandalized her friend's car. Frank decides to let her go, but changes his mind when Libby rescues him from some of Jacques' thugs at a gas station. Libby soon becomes enamored of Frank, but he turns down her advances, insisting that he is still married.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Arguing that it is different when they are in their superhero identities, Libby rapes Frank while the two are in costume (although she claims to have been suffering from sexsomnia). Frank runs to the bathroom and vomits, where he encounters a vision of Sarah in the toilet. He decides that it is time to rescue her from Jacques. Armed with guns, pipe bombs, and bulletproof vests, Frank and Libby sneak into Jacques' ranch, killing the first few guards they encounter. However, they are both shot. Frank is struck in the chest, his bulletproof vest sparing him, but Libby is shot in the head and killed.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Devastated by her death, Frank goes into a rage, slaughtering all of Jacques' thugs. Inside, Jacques shoots Frank, but Frank gains the upper hand and stabs Jacques to death as Sarah watches, horrified. Frank takes her home, and she stays with him for a few months "out of a sense of obligation" for saving her life, Frank surmises. One day, Frank returns home to find Sarah has left him again. This time, she manages to overcome her addiction and uses her experiences to help others with similar problems.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: She marries a man named Patrick and has four children. Frank is convinced that her children will change the world for the better. Frank, content and now with a pet bunny, looks on his wall of happy memories. The wall is covered with pictures of his experiences from his time spent with Libby and pictures of Sarah's kids, who call him "Uncle Frank". Frank looks at Libby's picture, and a tear runs down his cheek.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: "Super" was filmed between December 9, 2009, and January 24, 2010, in Shreveport, Louisiana, with additional shooting at director James Gunn's home in Los Angeles, California (the comic book store shown in the film is a real store, ComicSmash, in Studio City). Since the film was a low-budget, independent project, everyone involved in the film was paid scale (the minimum allowed by the Screen Actors Guild). Tyler Bates worked on the soundtrack.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Gunn has said in interviews that he had been working on the script for "Super" since 2002, but he had a hard time getting it made, as producers felt that the content was too violent and esoteric. In addition, Gunn had a hard time deciding on the right actor to play Frank; John C. Reilly was Gunn's top choice, but he wasn't considered to be a big enough star for the film to get made. After "Slither" was made, Gunn had effectively put the project on hold until his ex-wife Jenna Fischer encouraged him to go through with it and recommended Rainn Wilson, her co-star from "The Office". Wilson read the script while on set and decided he wanted to join the film, and in turn sent the script to Elliot Page, with whom he had worked in "Juno", who immediately accepted the role of Libby.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: "Super" was Gunn's second film dealing with superheroes, the first being "The Specials" in 2000 that he wrote, but did not direct. Gunn has said that examining superheroes from a different angle interests him, and that he may do more films concerning the subject in the future. He was later chosen to direct the 2014 Marvel Studios superhero film "Guardians of the Galaxy," its 2017 and 2023 sequels, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3", the 2021 DC Comics film "The Suicide Squad" and its 2022 TV series spin-off "Peacemaker", and produced the 2019 dark superhero horror film "Brightburn", in which Rainn Wilson also briefly reprises his role as Frank Darbo in photographic form indicating that "Super" and "Brightburn" are set in the same universe.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: "Super" received mixed reviews from critics, who debated the moral ambiguity, violence and messages, but still received praise for the acting, tone, writing and humor. According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads, ""Super" intriguing premise and talented cast are drowned in a blood-red sea of graphic violence, jarring tonal shifts, and thinly written characters." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Catherine Bray of Film4 wrote, "It's not that this type of movie shouldn't be made—this type of movie could be brilliant—but it plays like every first draft idea anyone had found its way to the screen because it made someone laugh over a few drinks ... Some really interesting ideas and the odd flash of awesomeness, but overall a big old misfire with some ill-judged nastiness." Al Kratina reporting at the Fantasia Film Festival wrote, "There's a great movie somewhere inside James Gunn's dark comedy. "Super" ... "Super" is an undeniably entertaining film. But there's something off about it ... "Super" is a funny film, a twisted story, and occasionally a very good movie, just rarely at the same time."


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman wrote, "This trifle about a doofus who becomes a costumed superhero, even though he has no special powers, might have seemed funkier before "Kick-Ass". Yet the movie is written and directed by James Gunn with a certain whimsical black-comic flair ... It's really a one-joke movie, but the joke is a good one: Frank's 'crusade' is just a geek's screw-loose revenge, which Wilson, digging into the character's misery, makes oddly sympathetic." Conversely, Scott Weinberg of Cinematical wrote, "Chock full of insanely graphic violence, awash in thoroughly un-PC perspectives, and more than willing to keep on punching long after the audience is virtually incredulous, "Super" is fun and funny, dark and twisted, semi-schizophrenic and certifiably insane. What I liked most was its simple audacity. And [Elliott] Page."


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: "Super" made $46,549 on opening weekend with eleven theaters, averaging $4,232 per theater, which was considered by analysts to be "a disappointing start" for the film. Conversely, the film fared better on VOD and had been anticipated to be the most successful film VOD for IFC. As of 2011, it made over $1,5 million on DVD and Blu-ray sales.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: During an interview actor Rainn Wilson explained his thoughts about the struggling box office performance, saying the risky tonal decision worked against the film in its limited theatrical release: "It is a comedy. It's also an action movie, and it's also a drama, and it's also a really [messed] up genre, cult type of film. It's all of those things at one time, and people are not used to it. They're used to like, oh, 'The Avengers' has some comedy in it, but it's action, and it's a comic-book-type thing. People really know exactly what world they're in. But in this one, it mixes so many different worlds, you're really off-balance. 'Cause you don't know if the next scene is going to be someone crying, or it's going to be ludicrous or it's going to be an animated sequence or an action sequence. You just don't know."


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: At the 2011 Fantasia Film Festival, "Super" was tied with the documentary "Superheroes" for the AQCC Prize; "For two films that perfectly capture the Zeitgeist of our age and that present elaborate reflections on one of the biggest Americans trends, the AQCC Jury has awarded its best international film prize, in a tie, to the fiction film "Super" by James Gunn and to the documentary "Superheroes" by Michael Barnett, two strong and complementary works."


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Music featured on the movie's soundtrack includes hit songs such as Eric Carmen's "It Hurts Too Much" and Cheap Trick's "If You Want My Love".


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Close to the time that "Super" was released, another film on the topic of amateur superheroes, "Kick-Ass", was released.


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: During the production process, Gunn, a friend of "Kick-Ass" creator Mark Millar, learned of the other film. In an interview after "Super" was released, he commented that "I was definitely wary of it, I was like 'This sucks! "Kick-Ass" is being made into a movie; is that gonna mean we're irrelevant?' But in the end the stories are so different. Our movie is about a guy who's on his own sort of spiritual quest and he just happens to wear a superhero costume during it. But it's really about the guy and not the costume."


title: Super (2010 American film)

text: Millar later defended "Super" in light of accusations that it was copying his work with, "People have said to me, 'Oh my God, he's ripping off "Kick-Ass",' because it's coming out one year later, but James was doing this when I was doing "Kick-Ass" as well. Both projects were coming together at exactly the same time." Millar went on to screen "Super" at his "Kapow!" comic convention in London.