title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille rarely gave direction to actors; he preferred to "office-direct" where he would work with actors in his office, going over characters and reading through scripts. Any problems on the set were often fixed by writers in the office rather than on the set. DeMille did not believe a large movie set was the place to discuss minor character or line issues. DeMille was particularly adept at directing and managing large crowds in his films. Martin Scorsese recalled that DeMille had the skill to maintain control of not only the lead actors in a frame but the many extras in the frame as well. DeMille was adept at directing "thousands of extras", and many of his pictures include spectacular set pieces: the toppling of the pagan temple in "Samson and Delilah"; train wrecks in "The Road to Yesterday", "Union Pacific" and "The Greatest Show on Earth"; the destruction of an airship in "Madam Satan"; and the parting of the Red Sea in both versions of "The Ten Commandments".


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille experimented in his early films with photographic light and shade which created dramatic shadows instead of glare. His specific use of lighting, influenced by his mentor David Belasco, was for the purpose of creating "striking images" and heightening "dramatic situations". DeMille was unique in using this technique. In addition to his use of volatile and abrupt film editing, his lighting and composition were innovative for the time period as filmmakers were primarily concerned with a clear, realistic image. Another important aspect of DeMille's editing technique was to put the film away for a week or two after an initial edit in order to re-edit the picture with a fresh mind. This allowed for the rapid production of his films in the early years of the Lasky Company. The cuts were sometimes rough, but the movies were always interesting.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille often edited in a manner that favored psychological space rather than physical space through his cuts. In this way, the characters' thoughts and desires are the visual focus rather than the circumstances regarding the physical scene. As DeMille's career progressed, he increasingly relied on artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck's concept, costume, and storyboard art. Groesbeck's art was circulated on set to give actors and crew members a better understanding of DeMille's vision. His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films. DeMille adored the art of Groesbeck, even hanging it above his fireplace, but film staff found it difficult to convert his art into three-dimensional sets. As DeMille continued to rely on Groesbeck, the nervous energy of his early films transformed into more steady compositions of his later films. While visually appealing, this made the films appear more old-fashioned.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Composer Elmer Bernstein described DeMille as "sparing no effort" when filmmaking. Bernstein recalled that DeMille would scream, yell, or flatter, whatever it took to achieve the perfection he required in his films. DeMille was painstakingly attentive to details on set and was as critical of himself as he was of his crew. Costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, who worked with DeMille on "The Ten Commandments" (1956), said that he was skilled in humiliating people. Jeakins admitted that she received quality training from him, but that it was necessary to become a perfectionist on a DeMille set to avoid being fired. DeMille had an authoritarian persona on set; he required absolute attention from the cast and crew. He had a band of assistants who catered to his needs. He would speak to the entire set, sometimes enormous with countless numbers of crew members and extras, via a microphone to maintain control of the set. He was disliked by many inside and outside of the film industry for his cold and controlling reputation.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille was known for autocratic behavior on the set, singling out and berating extras who were not paying attention. Many of these displays were thought to be staged, however, as an exercise in discipline. He despised actors who were unwilling to take physical risks, especially when he had first demonstrated that the required stunt would not harm them. This occurred with Victor Mature in "Samson and Delilah". Mature refused to wrestle Jackie the Lion, even though DeMille had just tussled with the lion, proving that he was tame. DeMille told the actor that he was "one hundred percent yellow". Paulette Goddard's refusal to risk personal injury in a scene involving fire in "Unconquered" cost her DeMille's favor and a role in "The Greatest Show on Earth". DeMille did receive help in his films, notably from Alvin Wyckoff who shot forty-three of DeMille's films; brother William deMille who would occasionally serve as his screenwriter; and Jeanie Macpherson, who served as DeMille's exclusive screenwriter for fifteen years; and Eddie Salven, DeMille's favorite assistant director.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille made stars of unknown actors: Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Rod La Rocque, William Boyd, Claudette Colbert, and Charlton Heston. He also cast established stars such as Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Paulette Goddard and Fredric March in multiple pictures. DeMille cast some of his performers repeatedly, including: Henry Wilcoxon, Julia Faye, Joseph Schildkraut, Ian Keith, Charles Bickford, Theodore Roberts, Akim Tamiroff and William Boyd. DeMille was credited by actor Edward G. Robinson with saving his career following his eclipse in the Hollywood blacklist.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Cecil B. DeMille's film production career evolved from critically significant silent films to financially significant sound films. He began his career with reserved yet brilliant melodramas; from there, his style developed into marital comedies with outrageously melodramatic plots. In order to attract a high-class audience, DeMille based many of his early films on stage melodramas, novels, and short stories. He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s. By 1930, DeMille had perfected his film style of mass-interest spectacle films with Western, Roman, or Biblical themes. DeMille was often criticized for making his spectacles too colorful and for being too occupied with entertaining the audience rather than accessing the artistic and auteur possibilities that film could provide. However, others interpreted DeMille's work as visually impressive, thrilling, and nostalgic. Along the same lines, critics of DeMille often qualify him by his later spectacles and fail to consider several decades of ingenuity and energy that defined him during his generation. Throughout his career, he did not alter his films to better adhere to contemporary or popular styles. Actor Charlton Heston admitted DeMille was, "terribly unfashionable" and Sidney Lumet called Demille, "the cheap version of D.W. Griffith," adding that DeMille, "[didn't have]...an original thought in his head," though Heston added that DeMille was much more than that.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: According to Scott Eyman, DeMille's films were at the same time masculine and feminine due to his thematic adventurousness and his eye for the extravagant. DeMille's distinctive style can be seen through camera and lighting effects as early as "The Squaw Man" with the use of daydream images; moonlight and sunset on a mountain; and side-lighting through a tent flap. In the early age of cinema, DeMille differentiated the Lasky Company from other production companies due to the use of dramatic, low-key lighting they called "Lasky lighting" and marketed as "Rembrandt lighting" to appeal to the public. DeMille achieved international recognition for his unique use of lighting and color tint in his film "The Cheat". DeMille's 1956 version of "The Ten Commandments", according to director Martin Scorsese, is renowned for its level of production and the care and detail that went into creating the film. He stated that "The Ten Commandments" was the final culmination of DeMille's style.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille was interested in art and his favorite artist was Gustave Doré; DeMille based some of his most well-known scenes on the work of Doré. DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking; he created the title of "art director" on the film set. DeMille was also known for his use of special effects without the use of digital technology. Notably, DeMille had cinematographer John P. Fulton create the parting of the Red Sea scene in his 1956 film "The Ten Commandments", which was one of the most expensive special effects in film history, and has been called by Steven Spielberg "the greatest special effect in film history". The actual parting of the sea was created by releasing 360,000 gallons of water into a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, overlaying it with film of a giant waterfall that was built on the Paramount backlot, and playing the clip backwards.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Aside from his Biblical and historical epics which are concerned with how man relates to God, some of DeMille's films contained themes of "neo-naturalism" which portray the conflict between the laws of man and the laws of nature. Although he is known for his later "spectacular" films, his early films are held in high regard by critics and film historians. DeMille discovered the possibilities of the "bathroom" or "boudoir" in film without being "vulgar" or "cheap". DeMille's films "Male and Female", "Why Change Your Wife?", and "The Affairs of Anatol" can be retrospectively described as high camp and are categorized as "early DeMille films" due to their particular style of production and costume and set design. However, his earlier films "The Captive", "Kindling", "Carmen", and "The Whispering Chorus" are more serious films. It is difficult to typify DeMille's films into one specific genre. His first three films were Westerns, and he filmed many Westerns throughout his career. However, throughout his career, he filmed comedies, periodic and contemporary romances, dramas, fantasies, propaganda, Biblical spectacles, musical comedies, suspense, and war films. At least one DeMille film can represent each film genre. DeMille produced the majority of his films before the 1930s, and by the time sound films were invented, film critics saw DeMille as antiquated, with his best filmmaking years behind him.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille's films contained many similar themes throughout his career. However, the films of his silent era were often thematically different from the films of his sound era. His silent era films often included the "battle of the sexes" theme due to the era of women's suffrage and the enlarging role of women in society. Moreover, before his religious-themed films, many of his silent era films revolved around "husband-and-wife-divorce-and-remarry satires", considerably more adult-themed. According to Simon Louvish, these films reflected DeMille's inner thoughts and opinions about marriage and human sexuality. Religion was a theme that DeMille returned to throughout his career. Of his seventy films, five revolved around stories of the Bible and the New Testament; however many others, while not direct retellings of Biblical stories, had themes of faith and religious fanaticism in films such as "The Crusades" and "The Road to Yesterday". Western and frontier American were also themes that DeMille returned to throughout his career. His first several films were westerns and he produced a chain of westerns during the sound era. Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West, he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America. Another common theme in DeMille's films is the reversal of fortune and the portrayal of the rich and the poor, including the war of the classes and man versus society conflicts such as in "The Golden Chance" and "The Cheat". In relation to his own interests and sexual preferences, sadomasochism was a minor theme present in some of his films. Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Cecil B. DeMille made 70 films including several box-office hits. DeMille is one of the more commercially successful film directors in history with his films before the release of "The Ten Commandments" estimated to have grossed $650 million worldwide. Adjusted for inflation, DeMille's remake of "The Ten Commandments" is the eighth highest-grossing film in the world.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: According to Sam Goldwyn, critics did not like DeMille's films, but the audiences did and "they have the final word". Similarly, scholar David Blanke, argued that DeMille had lost the respect of his colleagues and film critics by his late film career. However, his final films maintained that DeMille was still respected by his audiences. Five of DeMille's film were the highest-grossing films at the year of their release, with only Spielberg topping him with six of his films as the highest-grossing films of the year. DeMille's highest-grossing films include: "The Sign of the Cross" (1932), "Unconquered" (1947), "Samson and Delilah" (1949), "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952), and "The Ten Commandments" (1956). Director Ridley Scott has been called "the Cecil B. DeMille of the digital era" due to his classical and medieval epics.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Despite his box-office success, awards, and artistic achievements, DeMille has been dismissed and ignored by critics both during his life and posthumously. He consistently was criticized for producing shallow films without talent or artistic care. Compared to other directors, few film scholars have taken the time to academically analyze his films and style. During the French New Wave, critics began to categorize certain filmmakers as auteurs such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Raoul Walsh. DeMille was omitted from the list, thought to be too unsophisticated and antiquated to be considered an auteur. However, Simon Louvish wrote "he was the complete master and auteur of his films" and Anton Kozlovic called him the "unsung American auteur". Andrew Sarris, a leading proponent of the auteur theory, ranked DeMille highly as an auteur in the "Far Side of Paradise", just below the "Pantheon". Sarris added that despite the influence of styles of contemporary directors throughout his career, DeMille's style remained unchanged. Robert Birchard wrote that one could argue auteurship of DeMille on the basis that DeMille's thematic and visual style remained consistent throughout his career. However, Birchard acknowledged that Sarris's point was more likely that DeMille's style was behind the development of film as an art form. Meanwhile, Sumiko Higashi sees DeMille as "not only a figure who was shaped and influenced by the forces of his era but as a filmmaker who left his own signature on the culture industry." The critic Camille Paglia has called "The Ten Commandments" one of the ten greatest films of all time.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille was one of the first directors to become a celebrity in his own right. He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director, complete with megaphone, riding crop, and jodhpurs. He was known for his unique, working wardrobe which included riding boots, riding pants, and soft, open necked shirts. Joseph Henabery recalled that DeMille looked like "a king on a throne surrounded by his court" while directing films on a camera platform.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille was liked by some of his fellow directors and disliked by others, though his actual films were usually dismissed by his peers as vapid spectacle. Director John Huston intensely disliked both DeMille and his films. "He was a thoroughly bad director," Huston said. "A dreadful showoff. Terrible. To diseased proportions." Said fellow director William Wellman: "Directorially, I think his pictures were the most horrible things I've ever seen in my life. But he put on pictures that made a fortune. In that respect, he was better than any of us." Producer David O. Selznick wrote: "There has appeared only one Cecil B. DeMille. He is one of the most extraordinarily able showmen of modern times. However much I may dislike some of his pictures, it would be very silly of me, as a producer of commercial motion pictures, to demean for an instant his unparalleled skill as a maker of mass entertainment." Salvador Dalí wrote that DeMille, Walt Disney and the Marx Brothers were "the three great American Surrealists". DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films, including the MGM comedy "Free and Easy". He often appeared in his coming-attraction trailers and narrated many of his later films, even stepping on screen to introduce "The Ten Commandments". DeMille was immortalized in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" when Gloria Swanson spoke the line: "All right, Mr. DeMille. I'm ready for my close-up." DeMille plays himself in the film. DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: As a filmmaker, DeMille was the aesthetic inspiration of many directors and films due to his early influence during the crucial development of the film industry. DeMille's early silent comedies influenced the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin's "A Woman of Paris". Additionally, DeMille's epics such as "The Crusades" influenced Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky". Moreover, DeMille's epics inspired directors such as Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and George Stevens to try producing epics. Cecil B. DeMille has influenced the work of several well-known directors. Alfred Hitchcock cited DeMille's 1921 film "Forbidden Fruit" as an influence of his work and one of his top ten favorite films. DeMille has influenced the careers of many modern directors. Martin Scorsese cited "Unconquered", "Samson and Delilah", and "The Greatest Show on Earth" as DeMille films that have imparted lasting memories on him. Scorsese said he had viewed "The Ten Commandments" forty or fifty times. Famed director Steven Spielberg stated that DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" was one of the films that influenced him to become a filmmaker. Furthermore, DeMille influenced about half of Spielberg's films, including "War of the Worlds". "The Ten Commandments" inspired DreamWorks Animation's later film about Moses, "The Prince of Egypt". As one of the establishing members of Paramount Pictures and co-founder of Hollywood, DeMille had a role in the development of the film industry. Consequently, the name "DeMille" has become synonymous with filmmaking.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Publicly Episcopalian, DeMille drew on his Christian and Jewish ancestors to convey a message of tolerance. DeMille received more than a dozen awards from Christian and Jewish religious and cultural groups, including B'nai B'rith. However, not everyone received DeMille's religious films favorably. DeMille was accused of antisemitism after the release of "The King of Kings", and director John Ford despised DeMille for what he saw as "hollow" biblical epics meant to promote DeMille's reputation during the politically turbulent 1950s. In response to the claims, DeMille donated some of the profits from "The King of Kings" to charity. In the 2012 "Sight & Sound" poll, both DeMille's "Samson and Delilah" and 1923 version of "The Ten Commandments" received votes, but did not make the top 100 films. Although many of DeMille's films are available on DVD and Blu-ray release, only 20 of his silent films are commercially available on DVD


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: The original Lasky-DeMille Barn in which "The Squaw Man" was filmed was converted into a museum named the "Hollywood Heritage Museum". It opened on December 13, 1985, and features some of DeMille's personal artifacts. The Lasky-DeMille Barn was dedicated as a California historical landmark in a ceremony on December 27, 1956; DeMille was the keynote speaker. and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The Dunes Center in Guadalupe, California contains an exhibition of artifacts uncovered in the desert near Guadalupe from DeMille's set of his 1923 version of "The Ten Commandments", known as the "Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille". Donated by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation in 2004, the moving image collection of Cecil B. DeMille is held at the Academy Film Archive and includes home movies, outtakes, and never-before-seen test footage.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: In summer 2019, The Friends of the Pompton Lakes Library hosted a Cecil B DeMille film festival to celebrate DeMille's achievements and connection to Pompton Lakes. They screened four of his films at Christ Church, where DeMille and his family attended church when they lived there. Two schools have been named after him: Cecil B. DeMille Middle School, in Long Beach, California, which was closed and demolished in 2010 to make way for a new high school; and Cecil B. DeMille Elementary School in Midway City, California. The former film building at Chapman University in Orange, California, is named in honor of DeMille. During the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin refers to himself in one instance as "Cecil B. DeAldrin", as a humorous nod to DeMille. The title of the 2000 John Waters film "Cecil B. Demented" alludes to DeMille.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille's legacy is maintained by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who serves as the president of the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation, which strives to support higher education, child welfare, and film in Southern California. In 1963, the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation donated the "Paradise" ranch to the Hathaway Foundation, which cares for emotionally disturbed and abused children. A large collection of DeMille's materials including scripts, storyboards, and films resides at Brigham Young University in L. Tom Perry Special Collections.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Cecil B. DeMille received many awards and honors, especially later in his career. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts honored DeMille with an Alumni Achievement Award in 1958. In 1957, DeMille gave the commencement address for the graduation ceremony of Brigham Young University wherein he received an honorary Doctorate of Letter degree. Additionally, in 1958, he received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Temple University. From the film industry, DeMille received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards in 1953, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America Award the same year. In the same ceremony, DeMille received a nomination from Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for "The Greatest Show on Earth". In 1952, DeMille was awarded the first Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. An annual award, the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award recognizes lifetime achievement in the film industry. For his contribution to the motion picture and radio industry, DeMille has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The first, for radio contributions, is located at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. The second star is located at 1725 Vine Street.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille received two Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "37 years of brilliant showmanship" in 1950 and a Best Picture award in 1953 for "The Greatest Show on Earth". DeMille received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and was additionally nominated for the Best Director category at the 1953 Academy Awards for the same film. He was further nominated in the Best Picture category for "The Ten Commandments" at the 1957 Academy Awards. DeMille's "Union Pacific" received a Palme d'Or in retrospect at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Two of DeMille's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: "The Cheat" (1915) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956).


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: Cecil B. DeMille made 70 features. Fifty-two of his features are silent films. The first 24 of his silent films were made in the first three years of his career (1913-1916). Eight of his films were "epics" with five of those classified as "Biblical". Six of DeMille's films—"The Arab", "The Wild Goose Chase", "The Dream Girl", "The Devil-Stone", "We Can't Have Everything", and "The Squaw Man" (1918)—were destroyed due to nitrate decomposition, and are considered lost. "The Ten Commandments" is broadcast every Saturday at Passover in the United States on the ABC Television Network.


title: Cecil B. DeMille

text: DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films. Additionally, he often starred in prologues and special trailers that he created for his films, having an opportunity to personally address the audience.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Released on July 29, it is the fourth installment of the open-world "Xenoblade Chronicles" franchise, and the eighth main entry in the "Xeno" series. "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" depicts the consequences of the worlds featured in "Xenoblade Chronicles" and "Xenoblade Chronicles 2," and concludes the trilogy's overall narrative. The development team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the first two entries in the series, while featuring content and combat gameplay from previous "Xeno" entries. The game was announced February 9th, 2022, and released July 29th the same year. Like the first two entries, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: In gameplay, the game is similar in story writing, but very different to previous entries in mechanics. The game takes place in Aionios, where two warring nations, Keves and Agnus, engage in perpetual war with soldiers with ten-year lifespans. The story follows Noah and his two childhood friends from Keves, and Mio and her two fellow servicemen from Agnus, who all gain a mysterious power and decide to cooperate to find safety. Through this journey, they uncover the mystery behind this perpetual war and the nature of their world.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" was received positively by critics, who praised its story, gameplay, music, characters, and scale, while criticism was focused on technical and graphical issues. By September 2022, it had sold 1.72 million copies.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" is an action role-playing game with a large open world to explore, being the sixth title in the "Xenoblade" series. Unlike previous "Xenoblade" series entries, the game allows for seven party members to participate in battles at once, including the main party and an additional "Hero" character. Up to 19 Heroes can be recruited to the party by completing story events or sidequests, each possessing different skills and abilities. Party members will also gain the ability to change their character class, granting them access to different abilities. Under certain conditions, specific pairs of party members—Noah and Mio; Lanz and Sena; and Eunie and Taion—can utilize the Interlink system to combine into an Ouroboros, a larger form with more powerful moves. Like the previous entries, the game employs an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that affects in-game events, such as the availability of quests and items. Similar to "Xenoblade Chronicles", the game takes place on a continuous open world, featuring a fast travel option for players to travel more quickly through the largest open world map featured in the series to date. When traversing the map, players can now turn on a quest navigation mode that will mark a line on the ground to follow if they are unsure of how to reach their destination.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" has an action-based battle system, where the player manually moves the current lead character in real-time, and party members "auto attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Unlike past entries, players have the ability to swap between characters in the middle of combat. Party members use abilities called "Arts". Some Arts may deal bonus damage or inflict a status ailment, depending on a character's position in relation to the enemy. Each character has a starting moveset based on a Class. Classes consist of different styles of fighting, which feature different abilities. There are 24 total classes currently available in the game. As a character continuously uses Arts in battle they will fill up a special gauge called the Talent Gauge. Talent Arts are special moves unique to a character that can be performed once the Talent gauge is full. Talent Arts are all unique—some will grant bonus damage against a dazed enemy, and others will regenerate health for any allies within an area. In addition to Arts, the "Break, Topple, Daze" combo will temporarily stun enemies in combat.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: Every tutorial the player receives is archived under the Tips section in the options menu. The Training Drills feature allows people to redo any combat tutorial to ensure they understand a specific mechanic. This tutorial system is greatly improved from all previous installments in the series, guiding the player in the correct direction from the beginning of the game.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: Similar to "Xenoblade Chronicles", this game features the "Chain Attack" mechanic. A gauge slowly fills as party members hit their opponents on the enemy players, and filling the gauge allows the player to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. This allows a player to select a special move on a menu with 3 options, with moves based on a character's current Class. After a player has selected one of the options, the Chain Attack turn begins. The goal of each turn is to get over 99 TP (Tactical Points). TP is rewarded on each move during the turn. The player is able to select a move from each character, where the game rewards the player by adding TP to the gauge for the current turn in the attack. TP is rewarded based on the current Class the character has equipped, the amount of times the character has been used during the chain attack, and various other conditions. By achieving over 99 TP during the turn, the attack ends for that turn. The attack goes on for as long as the party gauge is not empty.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: Set after the events of "Xenoblade Chronicles" (2010) and "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" (2017), "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" takes place in the world of Aionios, where the mechanically proficient nation of Keves and the ether-oriented nation of Agnus are at constant war with one another. The world is divided into colonies, each with their own giant metal mech called a Ferronis, which trap the life force of fallen enemy soldiers in a Flame Clock. The wars are fought by engineered soldiers with artificially limited lifespans of ten years, as they fight to fill their colony's Flame Clock in hopes of receiving a Homecoming ceremony at the end of their term. Among both forces are "off-seers", soldiers who play special flutes in rituals to send off the dead, functioning as a short funeral. The game features six main characters, including two protagonists: Noah, a Kevesi off-seer accompanied by his childhood friends Lanz and Eunie; and Mio, an Agnian off-seer accompanied by fellow servicemen Taion and Sena.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: After a victorious battle against an Agnian colony, Kevesi soldiers Noah, Lanz, and Eunie, and their Nopon support, Riku, are given a special mission to intercept a mysterious airship. However, when they reach the area, they encounter an Agnian squad consisting of Mio, Sena, and Taion, and their Nopon support, Manana. As they battle, the airship's sole survivor, Guernica Vandham, intervenes and stops the fighting, claiming he knows their "true enemy." However, he is shot by Consul D, who is a powerful being known as a Moebius and part of an organization of the same name that controls the war between Keves and Agnus. D attacks Noah and Mio's teams, forcing Guernica to activate the Ouroboros Stone he was smuggling and imbuing Noah and Mio's teams with its power. D is forced to retreat, and a mortally wounded Guernica instructs the six to head for the "City" at Swordmarch, where they can find answers.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: Realizing that the Consuls have ordered both Keves and Agnus to hunt them down, Noah and Mio's teams are forced to band together into a single party and start making their way to Swordmarch, liberating colonies along the way by destroying their Flame Clocks with a sword called "Lucky Seven" given to Noah by Riku, hidden inside his normal weapon. The Queen of Keves attacks the party with the Annihilator, a weapon of mass destruction built into Keves Castle, and threatens to destroy the liberated colonies with it, forcing the party to detour to Keves Castle. At the castle, the group destroys the Annihilator and discovers that the soldiers of both Keves and Agnus are actually clones forced to fight each other. They are then confronted by Consul N, a man physically identical to Noah, and the Queen of Keves, Melia Antiqua, from "Xenoblade Chronicles". The party defeats "Melia", who is revealed to be a robotic imposter.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: After escaping the castle, the party encounters the Lost Numbers, who are led by Guernica's daughter Monica. Monica leads them to the City, which is populated by humans with regular lifespans who oppose the Moebius as well. Monica explains that the war between Keves and Agnus is orchestrated by Moebius so they can harvest the life energy from the bloodshed to continue living, and then replace the losses with clones to repeat the cycle. The real Queens of Keves and Agnus created the power of Ouroboros to oppose Moebius before going into hiding. Monica then tasks the party to go to the prison underneath Agnus Castle and rescue a soldier named Ghondor, who is revealed to be Monica's daughter and knows the location of the Queens. The group stages a prison break, but they are ambushed by N and his partner Consul M, a woman physically identical to Mio; the party is defeated and captured, and only Ghondor escapes. The party is taken to Agnus Castle to be executed, where Noah lives through N's memories and learns that N and M lived countless lives failing to stop Moebius, leading him to accept a Faustian bargain with Moebius' leader Z to revive M and spend eternity with her; Noah and Mio are reincarnations of N and M.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: It is revealed that M used her psychic powers to switch bodies with Mio, saving her at the cost of her own life. The party drives off N and destroys the robotic imposter Queen of Agnus, then awakens the true Queen, Nia, from "Xenoblade Chronicles 2". D ambushes them and wounds Nia, but the party kills him in battle. Nia awakens and explains that in the past, the worlds of "Xenoblade Chronicles" and "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" were parallel universes after being split in two, but would inevitably merge back together, destroying all life on both planets in the process. In order to avoid this, Nia and Melia collaborated across the two universes to create Origin, which would act as an ark to store all the data and memories of both worlds and then rebuild them once the universes merged. However, Z captured Melia and hijacked Origin for his own ends, creating the current world where Moebius feeds off the endless warfare. With Nia's knowledge, the party storms Origin, defeating N and freeing Melia. They confront Z himself, who is a manifestation of Origin's digitized souls' fear of the future and desire to stay in the 'endless now'. N and M, who remained spiritually inside Noah and Mio, return in spirit form and sacrifice themselves to destroy Z for good.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: With Origin reactivated, Noah and the party decide to proceed with the reconstruction process for both worlds. However, this would require the people of Keves and Agnus to be separated and returned to their respective worlds. The Kevesi and Agnian party members say their farewells and Mio and Noah share a kiss with each other before the worlds separate, but promise to find a way to reunite one day. Melia looks fondly upon Shulk's Monado REX while Nia reunites with Poppi and looks upon a picture of her with her friends.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: In a post-credits scene, right after both universes have been split and rebuilt, Noah, Lanz, Eunie, and Joran are reincarnated in their world. As they head for a fireworks show, Noah hears the sound of Mio's flute playing and decides to follow the music.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: The first ideas for the plot of "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" came during the development of the second entry of the three games, "Xenoblade Chronicles 2". According to Tetsuya Takahashi, creator of the "Xenoblade Chronicles" series, the Monado sword featured on the cover of "Xenoblade Chronicles" and the Titan of Uraya featured on the cover of "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" is what sparked the idea of "Xenoblade Chronicles 3". Bringing the two worlds together, the broken sword of the Mechonis going through the wounded Titan of Uraya is the visual key of "Xenoblade Chronicles 3", indicating war between the two worlds, thus the starting idea for this game. In May 2018, Takahashi pitched "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" as a new game concept to Nintendo. The first production group of Monolith Soft, known for their work on the "Xenoblade Chronicles" series, started development on the game in August 2018 after "" went gold.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: As with previous numbered games in the series, the game's soundtrack was written by Yasunori Mitsuda, Manami Kiyota, ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo "CHiCO" Yamanaka), and Kenji Hiramatsu. They were joined by Mariam Abounnasr, who arranged tracks for "Xenoblade Chronicles 2". In order to create a sound that had not been heard before, Monolith Soft had custom flutes created in different sizes and tuned to different scales resembling flutes from the game. The first track Mitsuda worked on for the game was "A Life Sent On", its main theme. Takahashi told Mitsuda in advance to interweave the two melodies of Noah and Mio into a single piece of music, and Mitsuda seemed to have thought that creating the flutes would enable him to express himself easier.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: As with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Irish choral ensemble Anúna assisted in recording vocals for the game. Members Aisling and Lauren McGlynn provided vocals for tracks themed around Ouroboros and Moebius respectively, while Sara Weeda sung 'A Step Away' and the ending theme, 'Where We Belong'.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" was announced in February 2022, and was initially set for release in September. It was later shifted to an earlier release date of July 29. The game is described as featuring a narrative that will depict the respective futures for the worlds of the previous two entries. Following the announcement, a blog post on the official Nintendo website revealed preliminary details about the game's development. Takahashi was confirmed to be working on the game in an executive director position, while various other returning staff members from previous "Xenoblade Chronicles" games were revealed to be reprising their duties, including the composing team behind the first two entries and "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" lead character designer Masatsugu Saito, returning to work on the game's art alongside "Xenosaga" and "Xenoblade Chronicles" artist Koichi Mugitani.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: A collector's edition was announced on April 19, 2022 to be sold exclusively on My Nintendo Store, following the announcement of the July 29th release date. The collector's edition contains an art book, a steelbook case, and an outer collectible packaging. Preorders opened on June 7, but due to unforeseen logistical circumstances, the My Nintendo Store crashed on that day, logging various users out, leaving many unable to preorder the game. Furthermore, as a result of the release date being moved up in the year, production for the collector's edition ended up being hindered, causing certain Nintendo stores to sell the contents of the collector's edition, minus the game, as a separate item in the UK, while the extra contents of the North American special edition were delayed to ship in Fall 2022.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Nintendo Life" enjoyed the changes to the combat system, specifically praising the new ability to combine character abilities, "Interlinking is a slick addition to the action here, it adds real drama and excitement to battles and is, most importantly, easy to get your head around." "Destructoid" liked the visuals, saying they were impressive despite the Switch's constraints, "Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is impressive looking by any standard. I took a ton of screenshots of this gorgeous world for fun." While feeling the ending didn't adequately resolve the story, "Nintendo World Report" wrote the game had the best balanced combat in the series, "It is challenging yet excellently paced. I rarely found myself over or underleveled." "IGN" criticized the pacing of the game, saying the included filler was unnecessary with the 150-hour runtime, "one section that has you go undercover to perform menial tasks, or another that has you trotting across the world to collect pieces of metal, and I often felt like my time wasn't being respected." "GameSpot" praised the new Master Arts for continuously evolving the combat system, "I am well over 120 hours in now and I am still unlocking new Master Arts, leveling up different classes, and uncovering powerful new tactics." "Game Informer" felt the world didn't have enough to do, and all of the biomes seemed to blend into each other at a certain point, "Beyond challenging monsters, collecting respawnable drops, and recruiting heroes at Keves or Agnus settlements, there's not much to do or see."


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "PCMag" wrote that the Switch seemed unable to keep up with the game's large vistas and combat, "here are noticeable resolution drops and object pop-in abounds. The frame rate isn't particularly steady, either, and the game can chug at times." "Eurogamer" praised the game for capturing the sense of freedom found in older JRPGs, "the sensation of running through endless fields of long grass with your companions, facing impossible odds with a spring in your step." "Polygon" liked the new optional content, feeling it was some of the series' best, "There are well over 100 side quests, and though their objectives could be rote, each told me something about how one lives in this world. It made me care about Aionios as an amalgamation of the land and its peoples."


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 3" was the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 112,728 physical copies being sold. It was also the bestselling physical game during its first week of release in the UK, where it had the biggest launch for the entire "Xeno" franchise in terms of copies sold. As of September 30, 2022, it has sold 1.72 million copies.


title: Holden

text: Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last three years, it switched entirely to importing cars. It was headquartered in Port Melbourne, with major industrial operations in the states of South Australia and Victoria. The 164-year-old company ceased trading at the end of 2020.


title: Holden

text: Holden's primary products were its own models developed in-house, such as the Holden Commodore, Holden Caprice, and the Holden Ute. However, Holden had also offered badge-engineered models under sharing arrangements with Chevrolet, Isuzu, Nissan, Opel, Suzuki, Toyota, and Vauxhall Motors. The vehicle lineup had included models from GM Korea, GM Thailand, GM North America. Holden had also distributed GM's German Opel marque in Australia in 2012 and 2013.


title: Holden

text: Holden was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer in South Australia. In 1908, it moved into the automotive field. It became a subsidiary of the United States–based General Motors (GM) in 1931, when the company was renamed General Motors-Holden's Ltd. It was renamed Holden Ltd in 1998 and adopted the name GM Holden Ltd in 2005.


title: Holden

text: Holden briefly owned assembly plants in New Zealand during the early 1990s. The plants had belonged to General Motors from 1926 until 1990 in an earlier and quite separate operation from GM's Holden operations in Australia. Holden's production became increasingly concentrated in South Australia and Victoria after the Second World War. However, Holden had factories in all the mainland states of Australia when GM took over in 1931, due to the combining of Holden and GM factories around the country under Holden management. In the postwar period, this decentralisation was slowly reduced and, by 1989, the consolidation of final assembly at Elizabeth, South Australia was largely completed, except for some operations that continued at Dandenong, Victoria until 1994. Engine manufacturing was consolidated at Fishermans Bend, Victoria, which was expanded to supply markets overseas.


title: Holden

text: Although Holden's involvement in exports had fluctuated from the 1950s, the declining sales of large sedan cars in Australia led the company to look to international markets to increase profitability . From 2010, Holden incurred losses due to the strong Australian dollar and reductions of government grants and subsidies. This led to the announcement, on 11 December 2013, that Holden would cease vehicle and engine production by the end of 2017. On 29 November 2016, engine production at the Fishermans Bend plant was shut down. On 20 October 2017, production of the last Holden designed Commodore ceased and the vehicle assembly plant at Elizabeth was shut down. On 17 February 2020, General Motors announced that the Holden marque would be retired by 2021. On 30 October 2020, the GM Australia Design Studio at Fishermans Bend was shut down. Holden has been replaced by GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), which imports the Chevrolet Silverado and the Chevrolet Corvette. The parts supplier known as the Holden Trade Club was renamed GM Trade Parts. An extensive Holden service network continues to help maintain the many Holdens that remain in operation in Australia.


title: Holden

text: In 1852, James Alexander Holden emigrated to South Australia from Walsall, England, and in 1856 established J. A. Holden & Co., a saddlery business in Adelaide. In 1879 J. A. Holden's eldest son Henry James (H. J.) Holden, became a partner and effectively managed the company. In 1885, German-born H. A. Frost joined the business as a junior partner and J. A. Holden & Co became Holden & Frost Ltd. Edward Holden, James' grandson, joined the firm in 1905 with an interest in automobiles. From there, the firm evolved through various partnerships, and in 1908, Holden & Frost moved into the business of minor repairs to car upholstery. The company began to re-body older chassis using motor bodies produced by F. T. Hack and Co from 1914. Holden & Frost mounted the body, and painted and trimmed it. The company began to produce complete motorcycle sidecar bodies after 1913. After 1917, wartime trade restrictions led the company to start full-scale production of vehicle body shells. H. J. Holden founded a new company in late 1917, and registered Holden's Motor Body Builders Ltd (HMBB) on 25 February 1919, specialising in car bodies and using the former F. T. Hack & Co facility at 400 King William Street in Adelaide before erecting a large four-storey factory on the site.


title: Holden

text: By 1923, HMBB were producing 12,000 units per year. During this time, HMBB assembled bodies for Ford Motor Company of Australia until its Geelong plant was completed. From 1924, HMBB became the exclusive supplier of car bodies for GM in Australia, with manufacturing taking place at the new Holden Woodville Plant (which was actually in the adjacent suburb of Cheltenham). These bodies were made to suit a number of chassis imported from manufacturers including Austin, Buick, Chevrolet, Cleveland, Dodge, Essex, Fiat, Hudson, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Overland, Reo, Studebaker, and Willys-Knight.


title: Holden

text: In 1926, General Motors (Australia) Limited was established with assembly plants at Newstead, Queensland; Marrickville, New South Wales; City Road, Melbourne, Victoria; Birkenhead, South Australia; and Cottesloe, Western Australia using bodies produced by HMBB and imported complete knock down chassis. In 1930 alone, the still independent Woodville plant built bodies for Austin, Chrysler, DeSoto, Morris, Hillman, Humber, Hupmobile, and Willys-Overland, as well GM cars. The last of this line of business was the assembly of Hillman Minx sedans in 1948. The Great Depression led to a substantial downturn in production by Holden, from 34,000 units annually in 1930 to just 1,651 units one year later. In 1931, GM purchased HMBB and merged it with General Motors (Australia) Pty Ltd to form General Motors-Holden's Ltd (GM-H). Its acquisition of Holden allowed General Motors to inherit an Australian identity, which it used to cultivate nationalist appeal for the firm, largely through the use of public relations, a then novel form of business communication which was imported to Australia through the formation of General Motors (Australia) Limited. Throughout the 1920s, Holden also supplied 60 W-class tramcar bodies to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, of which several examples have been preserved in both Australia and New Zealand.


title: Holden

text: Holden's second full-scale car factory, located in Fishermans Bend (Port Melbourne), was opened on 5 November 1936 by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, with construction beginning in 1939 on a new plant in Pagewood, New South Wales. However, World War II delayed car production with efforts shifted to the construction of vehicle bodies, field guns, aircraft, and engines. Before the war ended, the Australian government took steps to encourage an Australian automotive industry. Both GM and Ford provided studies to the Australian government outlining the production of the first Australian-designed car. Ford's proposal was the government's first choice, but required substantial financial assistance. GM's study was ultimately chosen because of its low level of government intervention. After the war, Holden returned to producing vehicle bodies, this time for Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Vauxhall. The Oldsmobile Ace was also produced from 1946 to 1948.


title: Holden

text: From here, Holden continued to pursue the goal of producing an Australian car. This involved compromise with GM, as Holden's managing director, Laurence Hartnett, favoured development of a local design, while GM preferred to see an American design as the basis for "Australia's Own Car". In the end, the design was based on a previously rejected postwar Chevrolet proposal. The Holden was launched in 1948, creating long waiting lists extending through 1949 and beyond. The name "Holden" was chosen in honour of Sir Edward Holden, the company's first chairman and grandson of J. A. Holden. Other names considered were "GeM", "Austral", "Melba", "Woomerah", "Boomerang", "Emu", and "Canbra", a phonetic spelling of Canberra. Although officially designated "48–215", the car was marketed simply as the "Holden". The unofficial usage of the name "FX" originated within Holden, referring to the updated suspension on the 48–215 of 1953.


title: Holden

text: During the 1950s, Holden dominated the Australian car market. GM invested heavily in production capacity, which allowed the company to meet increased postwar demand for motor cars. Less expensive, four-cylinder cars did not offer Holdens the ability to deal with rugged rural areas. Holden 48–215 sedans were produced in parallel with the 50-2106 coupé utility from 1951; the latter was known colloquially as the "ute" and became ubiquitous in Australian rural areas as the workhorse of choice. Production of both the utility and sedan continued with minor changes until 1953, when they were replaced by the facelifted FJ model, introducing a third panel van body style. The FJ was the first major change to the Holden since its 1948 introduction. Over time, it gained iconic status and remains one of Australia's most recognisable automotive symbols. A new horizontally slatted grille dominated the front end of the FJ, which received various other trim and minor mechanical revisions. In 1954, Holden began exporting the FJ to New Zealand. Although little changed from the 48–215, marketing campaigns and price cuts kept FJ sales steady until a completely redesigned model was launched. At the 2005 Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, Holden paid homage to the FJ with the Efijy concept car. Commercial success underpinned the rise of Holden as a cultural icon, as the Holden car became synonymous with the 'Australian way of life', coming to symbolise the stability of post-war Australian capitalism.


title: Holden

text: Holden's next model, the FE, launched in 1956, offered in a new station wagon body style dubbed "Station Sedan" in the company's sales literature. In the same year, Holden commenced exports to Malaya, Thailand, and North Borneo. Strong sales continued in Australia, and Holden achieved a market share of more than 50% in 1958 with the revised FC model. This was the first Holden to be tested on the new "Holden Proving Ground" based in Lang Lang, Victoria. In 1957, Holden's export markets grew to 17 countries, with new additions including Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji, Sudan, the East Africa region, and South Africa. Indonesian market cars were assembled locally by P.T. Udatin. The opening of the Dandenong, Melbourne, production facility in 1956 brought further jobs; by 1959, Holden employed 19,000 workers country-wide. In 1959, complete knock-down assembly began in South Africa and Indonesia.


title: Holden

text: In 1960, Holden introduced its third major new model, the FB. The car's style was inspired by 1950s Chevrolets, with tailfins and a wrap-around windscreen with "dog leg" A-pillars. By the time it was introduced, many considered the appearance dated. Much of the motoring industry at the time noted that the adopted style did not translate well to the more compact Holden. The FB became the first Holden that was adapted for left-hand drive markets, enhancing its export potential, and as such was exported to New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Philippines, and Hawaii.


title: Holden

text: In 1960, Ford unveiled the new Falcon in Australia, only months after its introduction in the United States. To Holden's advantage, the Falcon was not durable, particularly in the front suspension, making it ill-suited for Australian conditions. In response to the Falcon, Holden introduced the facelifted EK series in 1961; the new model featured two-tone paintwork and optional Hydramatic automatic transmission. A restyled EJ series came in 1962, debuting the new luxury oriented Premier model. The EH update came a year later, bringing the new Red motor, providing better performance than the previous Grey motor. The HD series of 1965 had the introduction of the Powerglide automatic transmission. At the same time, an "X2" performance option with a more powerful version of the six-cylinder engine was made available. In 1966, the HR was introduced, including changes in the form of new front and rear styling and higher-capacity engines. More significantly, the HR fitted standard front seat belts; Holden thus became the first Australian automaker to provide the safety device as standard equipment across all models. This coincided with the completion of the production plant in Acacia Ridge, Queensland. By 1963, Holden was exporting cars to Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean.


title: Holden

text: Holden began assembling the compact HA series Vauxhall Viva in 1964. This was superseded by the Holden Torana in 1967, a development of the Viva ending Vauxhall production in Australia. Holden offered the LC, a Torana with new styling, in 1969 with the availability of Holden's six-cylinder engine. In the development days, the six-cylinder Torana was reserved for motor racing, but research had shown a business case existed for such a model. The LC Torana was the first application of Holden's new three-speed Tri-Matic automatic transmission. This was the result of Holden's A$16.5 million transformation of the Woodville, South Australia, factory for its production.


title: Holden

text: Holden's association with the manufacture of Chevrolets and Pontiacs ended in 1968, coinciding with the year of Holden's next major new model, the HK . This included Holden's first V8 engine, a Chevrolet engine imported from Canada. Models based on the HK series included an extended-length prestige model, the Brougham; and a two-door coupé, the Monaro. The mainstream Holden Special was rebranded the Kingswood, and the basic fleet model, the Standard, became the Belmont. On 3 March 1969, Alexander Rhea, managing director of General Motors-Holden's at the time, was joined by press photographers and the Federal Minister of Shipping and Transport, Ian Sinclair as the two men drove the two-millionth Holden, an HK Brougham, off the production line. This came just over half a decade since the one-millionth car, an EJ Premier sedan, rolled off the Dandenong line on 25 October 1962. Following the Chevrolet V8 fitted to the HK, the first Australian-designed and mass-produced V8, the Holden V8 engine debuted in the Hurricane concept of 1969 before fitment to facelifted HT model. This was available in two capacities: and . Late in HT production, use of the new Tri-Matic automatic transmission, first seen in the LC Torana was phased in as Powerglide stock was exhausted, but Holden's official line was that the HG of 1971 was the first full-sized Holden to receive it.


title: Holden

text: Despite the arrival of serious competitors—namely, the Ford Falcon, Chrysler Valiant, and Japanese cars—in the 1960s, Holden's locally produced large six- and eight-cylinder cars remained Australia's top-selling vehicles. Sales were boosted by exporting the Kingswood sedan, station wagon, and utility body styles to Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, the Philippines, and South Africa in complete knock-down form.


title: Holden

text: Holden launched the new HQ series in 1971. At this time, the company was producing all of its passenger cars in Australia, and every model was of Australian design; however, by the end of the decade, Holden was producing cars based on overseas designs. The HQ was thoroughly re-engineered, featuring a perimeter frame and semi-monocoque (unibody) construction. Other firsts included an all-coil suspension and an extended wheelbase for station wagons, while the utilities and panel vans retained the traditional coil/leaf suspension configuration. The series included the new prestige Statesman brand, which also had a longer wheelbase, replacing the Brougham. The Statesman remains noteworthy because it was not marketed as a "Holden", but rather a "Statesman".


title: Holden

text: The HQ framework led to a new generation of two-door Monaros, and despite the introduction of the similar-sized competitors, the HQ range became the top-selling Holden of all time, with 485,650 units sold in three years; 14,558 units were exported and 72,290  CKD kits were constructed. The HQ series was facelifted in 1974 with the introduction of the HJ, heralding new front-panel styling and a revised rear fascia. This new bodywork was to remain, albeit with minor upgrades, through the HX and HZ series. Detuned engines adhering to government emission standards were brought in with the HX series, whilst the HZ brought considerably improved road handling and comfort with the introduction of radial-tuned suspension. As a result of GM's toying with the Wankel rotary engine, as used by Mazda of Japan, an export agreement was initiated in 1975. This involved Holden exporting with powertrains, HJ, and later, HX series Premiers as the Mazda Roadpacer AP. Mazda then fitted these cars with the 13B rotary engine and three-speed automatic transmission. Production ended in 1977, after just 840 units sold.


title: Holden

text: Development of the Torana continued in with the larger mid-sized LH series released in 1974, offered only as a four-door sedan. The LH Torana was one of the few cars worldwide engineered to accommodate four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines. This trend continued until Holden introduced the Sunbird in 1976, essentially the four-cylinder Torana with a new name. Designated LX, both the Sunbird and Torana introduced a three-door hatchback variant. A final UC update appeared in 1978. During its production run, the Torana achieved legendary racing success in Australia, achieving victories at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales.


title: Holden

text: In 1975, Holden introduced the compact Gemini, the Australian version of the "T-car", based on the Opel Kadett C. The Gemini was an overseas design developed jointly with Isuzu, GM's Japanese affiliate; and was powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine. Fast becoming a popular car, the Gemini rapidly attained sales leadership in its class, and the nameplate lived on until 1987.


title: Holden

text: Holden's most popular car to date, the Commodore, was introduced in 1978 as the VB. The new family car was loosely based on the Opel Rekord E body shell, but with the front from the Opel Senator grafted to accommodate the larger Holden six-cylinder and V8 engines. Initially, the Commodore maintained Holden's sales leadership in Australia. However, some of the compromises resulting from the adoption of a design intended for another market hampered the car's acceptance. In particular, it was narrower than its predecessor and its Falcon rival, making it less comfortable for three rear-seat passengers. With the abandonment of left-hand drive markets, Holden exported almost 100,000 Commodores to markets such as New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Malta and Singapore.


title: Holden

text: During the 1970s, Holden ran an advertising jingle "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos, and Holden cars", a localised version of the "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pies, and Chevrolet" jingle used by GM's Chevrolet division in the United States.


title: Holden

text: Holden discontinued the Torana in 1979 and the Sunbird in 1980. After the 1978 introduction of the Commodore, the Torana became the "in-between" car, surrounded by the smaller and more economical Gemini and the larger, more sophisticated Commodore. The closest successor to the Torana was the Camira, released in 1982 as Australia's version of GM's medium-sized "J-car".


title: Holden

text: The 1980s were challenging for Holden and the Australian automotive industry. The Australian Government tried to revive the industry with the Button car plan, which encouraged car makers to focus on producing fewer models at higher, more economical volumes, and to export cars. The decade opened with the shut-down of the Pagewood, New South Wales production plant and introduction of the light commercial Rodeo, sourced from Isuzu in Japan. The Rodeo was available in both two- and four-wheel drive chassis cab models with a choice of petrol and diesel powerplants. The range was updated in 1988 with the TF series, based on the Isuzu TF. Other cars sourced from Isuzu during the 1980s were the four-wheel drive Jackaroo (1981), the Shuttle (1982) van and the Piazza (1986) three-door sports hatchback. The second generation Holden Gemini from 1985 was also based on an Isuzu design, although, its manufacture was undertaken in Australia.


title: Holden

text: While GM Australia's commercial vehicle range had originally been mostly based on Bedford products, these had gradually been replaced by Isuzu products. This process began in the 1970s and by 1982 Holden's commercial vehicle arm no longer offered any Bedford products.


title: Holden

text: The new Holden WB commercial vehicles and the Statesman WB limousines were introduced in 1980. However, the designs, based on the HQ and updated HJ, HX and HZ models from the 1970s were less competitive than similar models in Ford's lineup. Thus, Holden abandoned those vehicle classes altogether in 1984. Sales of the Commodore also fell, with the effects of the 1979 energy crisis lessening, and for the first time the Commodore lost ground to the Ford Falcon. Sales in other segments also suffered when competition from Ford intensified, and other Australian manufacturers: Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota gained market share. When released in 1982, the Camira initially generated good sales, which later declined because buyers considered the 1.6-litre engine underpowered, and the car's build and ride quality below-average. The Camira lasted just seven years, and contributed to Holden's accumulated losses of over A$500 million by the mid-1980s.


title: Holden

text: In 1984, Holden introduced the VK Commodore, with significant styling changes from the previous VH. The Commodore was next updated in 1986 as the VL, which had new front and rear styling. Controversially, the VL was powered by the 3.0-litre Nissan "RB30" six-cylinder engine and had a Nissan-built, electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. Holden even went to court in 1984 to stop local motoring magazine "Wheels" from reporting on the matter. The engine change was necessitated by the legal requirement that all new cars sold in Australia after 1986 had to consume unleaded petrol. Because it was unfeasible to convert the existing six-cylinder engine to run on unleaded fuel, the Nissan engine was chosen as the best engine available. However, changing currency exchange rates doubled the cost of the engine and transmission over the life of the VL. The decision to opt for a Japanese-made transmission led to the closure of the Woodville, South Australia assembly plant. Confident by the apparent sign of turnaround, GM paid off Holden's mounted losses of A$780 million on 19 December 1986. At GM headquarters' request, Holden was then reorganised and recapitalised, separating the engine and car manufacturing divisions in the process. This involved the splitting of Holden into "Holden's Motor Company" (HMC) and "Holden's Engine Company" (HEC). For the most part, car bodies were now manufactured at Elizabeth, South Australia, with engines as before, confined to the Fishermans Bend plant in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The engine manufacturing business was successful, building four-cylinder "Family II" engines for use in cars built overseas. The final phase of the Commodore's recovery strategy involved the 1988 VN, a significantly wider model powered by the American-designed, Australian-assembled 3.8-litre Buick V6 engine.


title: Holden

text: Holden began to sell the subcompact Suzuki Swift-based Barina in 1985. The Barina was launched concurrently with the Suzuki-sourced Holden Drover, followed by the Scurry later on in 1985. In the previous year, Nissan Pulsar hatchbacks were rebadged as the Holden Astra, as a result of a deal with Nissan. This arrangement ceased in 1989 when Holden entered a new alliance with Toyota, forming a new company: United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI). UAAI resulted in Holden selling rebadged versions of Toyota's Corolla and Camry, as the Holden Nova and Apollo respectively, with Toyota re-branding the Commodore as the Lexcen.


title: Holden

text: The company changed throughout the 1990s, increasing its Australian market share from 21 percent in 1991 to 28.2 percent in 1999. Besides manufacturing Australia's best selling car, which was exported in significant numbers, Holden continued to export many locally produced engines to power cars made elsewhere. In this decade, Holden adopted a strategy of importing cars it needed to offer a full range of competitive vehicles. During 1998, General Motors-Holden's Ltd name was shortened to "Holden Ltd".


title: Holden

text: On 26 April 1990, GM's New Zealand subsidiary Holden New Zealand announced that production at the assembly plant based in Trentham would be phased out and vehicles would be imported duty-free—this came after the 1984 closure of the Petone assembly line due to low output volumes. During the 1990s, Holden, other Australian automakers and trade unions pressured the Australian Government to halt the lowering of car import tariffs. By 1997, the federal government had already cut tariffs to 22.5 percent, from 57.5 percent ten years earlier; by 2000, a plan was formulated to reduce the tariffs to 15 percent. Holden was critical, saying that Australia's population was not large enough, and that the changes could tarnish the local industry.


title: Holden

text: Holden reintroduced its defunct Statesman title in 1990—this time under the Holden marque, as the Statesman and Caprice. For 1991, Holden updated the Statesman and Caprice with a range of improvements, including the introduction of four-wheel anti-lock brakes (ABS); although, a rear-wheel system had been standard on the Statesman Caprice from March 1976. ABS was added to the short-wheelbase Commodore range in 1992. Another returning variant was the full-size utility, and on this occasion it was based on the Commodore. The VN Commodore received a major facelift in 1993 with the VR—compared to the VN, approximately 80 percent of the car model was new. Exterior changes resulted in a smoother overall body and a "twin-kidney" grille—a Commodore styling trait that remained until the 2002 VY model and, as of 2013, remains a permanent staple on HSV variants.


title: Holden

text: Holden introduced the all-new VT Commodore in 1997, the outcome of a A$600 million development programme that spanned more than five years. The new model featured a rounded exterior body shell, improved handling and many firsts for an Australian-built car. Also, a stronger body structure increased crash safety. The locally produced Buick-sourced V6 engine powered the Commodore range, as did the 5.0-litre Holden V8 engine, and was replaced in 1999 by the 5.7-litre "LS" unit.


title: Holden

text: The UAAI badge-engineered cars first introduced in 1989 sold in far fewer numbers than anticipated, but the Holden Commodore, Toyota Camry, and Corolla were all successful when sold under their original nameplates. The first generation Nova and the donor Corolla were produced at Holden's Dandenong, Victoria facility until 1994. UAAI was dissolved in 1996, and Holden returned to selling only GM products. The Holden Astra and Vectra, both designed by Opel in Germany, replaced the Toyota-sourced Holden Nova and Apollo. This came after the 1994 introduction of the Opel Corsa replacing the already available Suzuki Swift as the source for the Holden Barina. Sales of the full-size Holden Suburban SUV sourced from Chevrolet commenced in 1998—lasting until 2001. Also in 1998, local assembly of the Vectra began at Elizabeth, South Australia. These cars were exported to Japan and Southeast Asia with Opel badges. However, the Vectra did not achieve sufficient sales in Australia to justify local assembly, and reverted to being fully imported in 2000.


title: Holden

text: In the 1990s, Holden's share of the Australian market surged and peaked at 27.5 percent in 2000 before declining to 15.2 percent in 2006. From March 2003, Holden no longer held the number one sales position in Australia, losing ground to Toyota. Commodore sales had peaked in 1998 at 94 642 vehicles and were relatively stable up to 2004 before going into a steady decline.


title: Holden

text: Total Holden sales peaked in 2002 at 178 392 vehicles and were stable up to 2005 before declining for the rest of the decade and the next.


title: Holden

text: This downturn affected Holden's profits; the company recorded a combined gain of A$842.9 million from 2002 to 2004, and a combined loss of A$290 million from 2005 to 2006. Factors contributing to the loss included the development of an all-new model, the strong Australian dollar and the cost of reducing the workforce at the Elizabeth plant, including the loss of 1,400 jobs after the closure of the third-shift assembly line in 2005, after two years in operation. Holden fared better in 2007, posting an A$6 million loss. This was followed by an A$70.2 million loss in the 2008, an A$210.6 million loss in 2009, and a profit of A$112 million in 2010. On 18 May 2005, "Holden Ltd" became "GM Holden Ltd", coinciding with the resettling to the new Holden headquarters on 191 Salmon Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria.


title: Holden

text: Holden caused controversy in 2005 with their Holden Employee Pricing television advertisement, which ran from October to December 2005. The campaign publicised, "for the first time ever, all Australians can enjoy the financial benefit of Holden Employee Pricing". However, this did not include a discounted dealer delivery fee and savings on factory fitted options and accessories that employees received. At the same time, employees were given a further discount of 25 to 29 percent on selected models.


title: Holden

text: Holden revived the Monaro coupe in 2001. Based on the Commodore VX architecture, the coupe attracted worldwide attention after being shown as a concept car at Australian auto shows. The VX Commodore received its first major update in 2002 with the VY series. A mildly facelifted VZ model launched in 2004, introducing the "High Feature" engine. This was built at the Fishermans Bend facility completed in 2003, with a maximum output of 900 engines per day. This has reportedly added A$5.2 billion to the Australian economy; exports account for about A$450 million alone. After the VZ, the "High Feature" engine powered the all-new Holden Commodore (VE). In contrast to previous models, the VE no longer used an Opel-sourced platform adapted both mechanically and in size, but was based on the Holden developed GM Zeta platform, that was earmarked to become a "Global RWD Architecture", until plans were cancelled due to the 2007/08 global financial crisis.


title: Holden

text: Throughout the 1990s, Opel had also been the source of many Holden models. To increase profitability, Holden looked to the South Korean Daewoo brand for replacements after acquiring a 44.6 percent stake—worth US$251 million—in the company in 2002 as a representative of GM. This was increased to 50.9 percent in 2005, but when GM further increased its stake to 70.1 percent around the time of its 2009 Chapter 11 reorganisation, Holden's interest was relinquished and transferred to another (undisclosed) part of GM.


title: Holden

text: The commencement of the Holden-branded Daewoo models began with the 2005 Holden Barina, which based on the Daewoo Kalos, replaced the Opel Corsa as the source of the Barina. In the same year, the Viva, based on the Daewoo Lacetti, replaced the entry-level Holden Astra Classic, although the new-generation Astra introduced in 2004 continued on. The Captiva crossover SUV came next in 2006. After discontinuing the Frontera and Jackaroo models in 2003, Holden was only left with one all-wheel drive model: the Adventra, a Commodore-based station wagon. The fourth model to be replaced with a South Korean alternative was the Vectra by the mid-size Epica in 2007. As a result of the split between GM and Isuzu, Holden lost the rights to use the "Rodeo" nameplate. Consequently, the Holden Rodeo was facelifted and relaunched as the Colorado in 2008. Following Holden's successful application for a A$149 million government grant to build a localised version of the Chevrolet Cruze in Australia from 2011, Holden in 2009 announced that it would initially import the small car unchanged from South Korea as the Holden Cruze.


title: Holden

text: Following the government grant announcement, Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister at the time, stated that production would support 600 new jobs at the Elizabeth facility; however, this failed to take into account Holden's previous announcement, whereby 600 jobs would be shed when production of the "Family II" engine ceased in late 2009. In mid-2013, Holden sought a further A$265 million, in addition to the A$275 million that was already committed by the governments of Canberra, South Australia and Victoria, to remain viable as a car manufacturer in Australia. A source close to Holden informed the "Australian" news publication that the car company is losing money on every vehicle that it produces and consequently initiated negotiations to reduce employee wages by up to A$200 per week to cut costs, following the announcement of 400 job cuts and an assembly line reduction of 65 (400 to 335) cars per day. From 2001 to 2012, Holden received over A$150 million a year in subsidy from Australian government. The subsidy from 2007 was more than Holden's capital investment of the same period. From 2004, Holden was only able to make a profit in 2010 and 2011.


title: Holden

text: In March 2012, Holden was given a $270 million lifeline by the Australian Federal Government (Labor Party of Australia) along with the South Australian and Victorian state governments. In return, Holden planned to inject over $1 billion into car manufacturing in Australia. They estimated the new investment package would return around $4 billion to the Australian economy and see GM Holden continue making cars in Australia until at least 2022.


title: Holden

text: Industry Minister Kim Carr confirmed on 10 July 2013 that talks had been scheduled between the Australian government and Holden. On 13 August 2013, 1,700 employees at the Elizabeth plant in South Australia voted to accept a three-year wage freeze to decrease the chances of the production line's closure in 2016. Holden's ultimate survival, though, depended on continued negotiations with the Federal Government—to secure funding for the period from 2016 to 2022—and the final decision of the global headquarters in Detroit, US.


title: Holden

text: Following an unsuccessful attempt to secure the extra funding required from the new Liberal/National coalition government, on 11 December 2013, General Motors announced that Holden would cease engine and vehicle manufacturing operations in Australia by the end of 2017. As a result, 2,900 jobs would be lost over four years. Beyond 2017 Holden's Australian presence would consist of a national sales company, a parts distribution centre and a global design studio.


title: Holden

text: In May 2014, GM reversed their decision to abandon the Lang Lang Proving Ground and decided to keep it as part of their engineering capability in Australia.


title: Holden

text: In 2015, Holden again began selling a range of Opel-derived cars comprising the Astra VXR and Insignia VXR (both based on the OPC models sold by Vauxhall) and Cascada. Later that year, Holden also announced plans to sell the European Astra and the South Korean Cruze alongside each other from 2017.


title: Holden

text: In December 2015, Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey commenced negotiations to buy the Commodore manufacturing plant in Elizabeth, with a view to continue producing a rebadged Zeta-based premium range of rear and all-wheel drive vehicles for local and export sales. The proposal was met with doubt in South Australia, and it later came to nothing. On 20 October 2017, Holden ceased manufacturing vehicles in Australia with the closure of the Elizabeth plant. Afterwards, Holden became an importer of rebadged cars from various GM subsidiaries located in the United States, Canada, Germany, Thailand, and South Korea.


title: Holden

text: On 17 February 2020, General Motors announced that the Holden brand would be retired by 2021, after GM stated it would no longer make right-hand drive vehicles globally, leaving the Australia and New Zealand market altogether.


title: Holden

text: On 8 May 2015, Jeff Rolfs, Holden's CFO, became interim chairman and managing director. Holden announced on 6 February 2015 that Mark Bernhard would return to Holden as chairman and managing director, the first Australian to hold the post in 25 years. In 2010, Holden sold vehicles across Australia through the Holden Dealer Network (310 authorised stores and 12 service centres), which employed more than 13,500 people.


title: Holden

text: In 1987, Holden established Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) in partnership with Tom Walkinshaw, who primarily manufactured modified, high-performance Commodore variants. To further reinforce the brand, HSV introduced the HSV Dealer Team into the V8 Supercar fold in 2005 under the naming rights of Toll HSV Dealer Team.


title: Holden

text: Holden's logo, of a lion holding a stone, was introduced in 1928. Holden's Motor Body Builders appointed Rayner Hoff to design the emblem, which refers to a fable in which observations of lions rolling stones led to the invention of the wheel. With the 1948 launch of the 48–215, Holden revised its logo. It commissioned another redesign in 1972 to better represent the company. The emblem was reworked once more in 1995.


title: Holden

text: Holden began to export vehicles in 1954, sending the FJ to New Zealand. Exports to New Zealand continued, but to broaden their export potential, Holden began to cater their Commodore, Monaro and Statesman/Caprice models for both right- and left-hand drive markets. The Middle East was Holden's largest export market, with the Commodore sold as the Chevrolet Lumina from 1998, and the Statesman from 1999 as the Chevrolet Caprice. Commodores were also sold as the Chevrolet Lumina in Brunei, Fiji and South Africa, and as the Chevrolet Omega in Brazil. Pontiac in North America also imported Commodore sedans from 2008 through to 2009 as the G8. The G8's cessation was a consequence of GM's Chapter 11 bankruptcy resulting in the demise of the Pontiac brand.


title: Holden

text: Sales of the Monaro began in 2003 to the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. Later that year a modified version of the Monaro began selling in the United States (but not in Canada) as the Pontiac GTO, and under the Monaro name through Vauxhall dealerships in the United Kingdom. This arrangement continued through to 2005 when the car was discontinued. The long-wheelbase Statesman sales in the Chinese market as the Buick Royaum began in 2005, before being replaced in 2007 by the Statesman-based Buick Park Avenue. Statesman/Caprice exports to South Korea also began in 2005. These Korean models were sold as the Daewoo Statesman, and later as the Daewoo Veritas from 2008. Holden's move into international markets proved profitable; export revenue increased from A$973 million in 1999 to just under $1.3 billion in 2006.


title: Holden

text: From 2011, the WM Caprice was exported to North America as the Chevrolet Caprice PPV, a version of the Caprice built exclusively for law enforcement in North America and sold only to police. From 2007, the HSV-based Commodore was exported to the United Kingdom as the Vauxhall VXR8.


title: Holden

text: In 2013, Chevrolet announced that exports of the Commodore would resume to North America in the form of the VF Commodore as the Chevrolet SS sedan for the 2014 model year. The Chevrolet SS Sedan was also imported to the United States (but again, not to Canada) for 2015 with only minor changes, notably the addition of Magnetic Ride Control suspension and a Tremec TR-6060 manual transmission. For the 2016 model year the SS sedan received a facelift based on the VF Series II Commodore unveiled in September 2015. In 2017, production of Holden's last two American exports, the SS and the Caprice PPV was discontinued.


title: Holden

text: Whilst previously holding the number one position in Australian vehicle sales, Holden has sold progressively fewer cars during most of the 21st century, in part due to a large drop in Commodore sales.


title: Holden

text: Holden has been involved with factory backed teams in Australian touring car racing since 1968. The main factory-backed teams have been the Holden Dealer Team (1969–1987), the Holden Racing Team (1990–2016) and Triple Eight Race Engineering (2017–2020). Holden won the Bathurst 1000 30 times, more than any other manufacturer, and has won the Australian Touring Car and Supercars Championship title 21 times. Brad Jones Racing, Team 18, Erebus Motorsport, Matt Stone Racing, Tekno Autosports and Walkinshaw Andretti United also run Holden Commodores in the series.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produce any revenue for the title holder.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: On its last creation, in 1947, the title was bestowed by George VI on Prince Philip upon his marriage to George's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth II. The title was inherited on Philip's death, in 2021, by his and Elizabeth's son, Charles, the then Prince of Wales. The title merged in the Crown on Charles's accession to the throne upon the death of his mother in 2022.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: The title was first created in the Peerage of Great Britain on 26 July 1726 by King George I, who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick, who also became Prince of Wales the following year. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent, Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon, all of which were also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The marquessate was apparently erroneously gazetted as Marquess of the Isle of Wight although Marquess of the Isle of Ely was the intended title. In later editions of the "London Gazette" the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely. Upon Frederick's death, the titles were inherited by his son Prince George. When Prince George became King George III in 1760, the titles merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: Queen Victoria re-created the title, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 May 1866 for her second son Prince Alfred, instead of Duke of York, the traditional title of the second son of the monarch. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. When Alfred became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893, he retained his British titles. His only son Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, committed suicide in 1899, so the Dukedom of Edinburgh and subsidiary titles became extinct upon the elder Alfred's death in 1900.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: The title was created for a third time on 19 November 1947 by King George VI, who bestowed it on his son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, when he married Princess Elizabeth. Subsequently, Elizabeth was styled "HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh" until her accession in 1952. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London; all these titles were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Earlier that year, Philip had renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles (he was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, being a male-line grandson of King George I of the Hellenes and male-line great-grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark) along with his rights to the Greek throne. In 1957, Philip became a Prince of the United Kingdom.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: Upon Philip's death on 9 April 2021, his eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles. Upon Charles's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022, the peerages merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: It was announced in 1999, at the time of the wedding of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, that he would eventually follow his father as Duke of Edinburgh.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: It was expected that a new, fourth, creation would be bestowed on Prince Edward after the third creation reverted to the Crown when Charles III acceded to the throne. In this scenario, James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn, would be the heir apparent, as the son of Prince Edward. In July 2021, "The Times" reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother upon accession. Clarence House stated that "[a]ll stories of this nature are speculation, no final decisions have been taken" and declined to comment further. , no announcements have been made for any future creations.


title: Duke of Edinburgh

text: A fictional Duke of Edinburgh appears in the 1983 sitcom "The Black Adder". Rowan Atkinson plays the title character, Prince Edmund, who is granted the title Duke of Edinburgh by his father, a fictitious King Richard IV.


title: Hardiness zone

text: A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely used system, developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a rough guide for landscaping and gardening, defines 13 zones by long-term average annual extreme minimum temperatures. It has been adapted by and to other countries (such as Canada) in various forms.


title: Hardiness zone

text: Unless otherwise specified, in American contexts "hardiness zone" or simply "zone" usually refers to the USDA scale. For example, a plant may be described as "hardy to zone 10": this means that the plant can withstand a minimum temperature of 30 °F (−1.1 °C) to 40 °F (4.4 °C).


title: Hardiness zone

text: Other hardiness rating schemes have been developed as well, such as the UK Royal Horticultural Society and US Sunset Western Garden Book systems. A heat zone (see below) is instead defined by annual high temperatures; the American Horticultural Society (AHS) heat zones use the average number of days per year when the temperature exceeds .


title: Hardiness zone

text: State-by-state maps, along with an electronic system that allows finding the zone for a particular zip code, can be found at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) website.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In the United States, most of the warmer zones (zones 9, 10, and 11) are located in the deep southern half of the country and on the southern coastal margins. Higher zones can be found in Hawaii (up to 12) and Puerto Rico (up to 13). The southern middle portion of the mainland and central coastal areas are in the middle zones (zones 8, 7, and 6). The far northern portion on the central interior of the mainland have some of the coldest zones (zones 5, 4, and small area of zone 3) and often have much less consistent range of temperatures in winter due to being more continental, especially further west with higher diurnal temperature variations, and thus the zone map has its limitations in these areas. Lower zones can be found in Alaska (down to 1). The low latitude and often stable weather in Florida, the Gulf Coast, and southern Arizona and California, are responsible for the rarity of episodes of severe cold relative to normal in those areas. The warmest zone in the 48 contiguous states is the Florida Keys (11b) and the coldest is in north-central Minnesota (2b). A couple of locations on the northern coast of Puerto Rico have the warmest hardiness zone in the United States at 13b. Conversely, isolated inland areas of Alaska have the coldest hardiness zone in the United States at 1a.


title: Hardiness zone

text: The first attempts to create a geographical hardiness zone system were undertaken by two researchers at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston: the first was published in 1927 by Alfred Rehder, and the second by Donald Wyman in 1938. The Arnold map was subsequently updated in 1951, 1967, and finally 1971, but eventually fell out of use completely.


title: Hardiness zone

text: The modern USDA system began at the US National Arboretum in Washington. The first map was issued in 1960, and revised in 1965. It used uniform 10-degree Fahrenheit ranges, and gradually became widespread among American gardeners.


title: Hardiness zone

text: The USDA map was revised and reissued in 1990 with freshly available climate data, this time with 5-degree distinctions dividing each zone into new "a" and "b" subdivisions.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In 2003, the American Horticultural Society (AHS) produced a draft revised map, using temperature data collected from July 1986 to March 2002. The 2003 map placed many areas approximately a half-zone higher (warmer) than the USDA's 1990 map. Reviewers noted the map zones appeared to be closer to the original USDA 1960 map in its overall zone delineations. Their map purported to show finer detail, for example, reflecting urban heat islands by showing the downtown areas of several cities (e.g., Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C. and Atlantic City, New Jersey) as a full zone warmer than outlying areas. The map excluded the detailed a/b half-zones introduced in the USDA's 1990 map, an omission widely criticized by horticulturists and gardeners due to the coarseness of the resulting map. The USDA rejected the AHS 2003 draft map and created its own map in an interactive computer format, which the American Horticultural Society now uses.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In 2006, the Arbor Day Foundation released an update of U.S. hardiness zones, using mostly the same data as the AHS. It revised hardiness zones, reflecting generally warmer recent temperatures in many parts of the country, and appeared similar to the AHS 2003 draft. The Foundation also did away with the more detailed a/b half-zone delineations.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In 2012 the USDA updated their plant hardiness map based on 1976–2005 weather data, using a longer period of data to smooth out year-to-year weather fluctuations. Two new zones (12 and 13) were added to better define and improve information sharing on tropical and semitropical plants, they also appear on the maps of Hawaii and Puerto Rico. There is a very small spot east of San Juan, Puerto Rico that includes the airport in coastal Carolina, where the mean minimum is 67 degrees F (19 C), which is classified as hardiness Zone 13b, the highest category, with temperatures rarely below . The map has a higher resolution than previous ones, and is able to show local variations due to things such as elevation or large bodies of water. Many zone boundaries were changed as a result of the more recent data, as well as new mapping methods and additional information gathered. Many areas were a half zone warmer than the previous 1990 map. The 2012 map was created digitally for the internet, and includes a ZIP Code zone finder and an interactive map.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In 2015, the Arbor Day Foundation revised another map, also with no a and b subdivisions, showing many areas having zones even warmer, with the most notable changes in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast, showing cities like Philadelphia, New York City and Washington D.C in zone 8, due to their urban heat islands.


title: Hardiness zone

text: As the USDA system is based entirely on average annual extreme minimum temperature in an area, it is limited in its ability to describe the climatic conditions a gardener may have to account for in a particular area: there are many other factors that determine whether or not a given plant can survive in a given zone.


title: Hardiness zone

text: Zone information alone is often not adequate for predicting winter survival, since factors such as frost dates and frequency of snow cover can vary widely between regions. Even the extreme minimum itself may not be useful when comparing regions in widely different climate zones. As an extreme example, due to the Gulf stream most of the United Kingdom is in zones 8–9, while in the US, zones 8–9 include regions such as the subtropical coastal areas of the southeastern US and Mojave and Chihuahuan inland deserts, thus an American gardener in such an area may only have to plan for several nights of cold temperatures per year, while their British counterpart may have to plan for several months.


title: Hardiness zone

text: In addition, the zones do not incorporate any information about duration of cold temperatures, summer temperatures, or sun intensity insolation; thus sites which may have the same mean winter minima on the few coldest nights and be in the same garden zone, but have markedly different climates. For example, zone 8 covers coastal, high latitude, cool summer locations like Seattle and London, as well as lower latitude, subtropical hot summer climates like Charleston and Madrid. Farmers, gardeners, and landscapers in the former two must plan for entirely different growing conditions from those in the latter, in terms of length of hot weather and sun intensity. Coastal Ireland and central Florida are both Zone 10, but have radically different climates 99% of the year.


title: Hardiness zone

text: The hardiness scales do not take into account the reliability of snow cover in the colder zones. Snow acts as an insulator against extreme cold, protecting the root system of hibernating plants. If the snow cover is reliable, the actual temperature to which the roots are exposed will not be as low as the hardiness zone number would indicate. As an example, Quebec City in Canada is located in zone 4, but can rely on a significant snow cover every year, making it possible to cultivate plants normally rated for zones 5 or 6. But, in Montreal, located to the southwest in zone 5, it is sometimes difficult to cultivate plants adapted to the zone because of the unreliable snow cover.


title: Hardiness zone

text: Many plants may survive in a locality but will not flower if the day length is insufficient or if they require vernalization (a particular duration of low temperature).