title: G. Callen

text: In "Humbug", an armed robber threatens Joelle in public after stealing some malware from a defense contractor. When it is learned that the robber placed the stolen malware on Joelle, Callen is forced to put himself in danger to protect her, eventually being forced to reveal to her that he is an NCIS agent. Although she appears hurt by this revelation of Callen's deception, she eventually accepts to continue their relationship as long as he tells her more about himself. Callen and Joelle are confirmed to be still together by both Sam and Callen himself. Callen later tells the team he would not be against starting a family with Joelle.


title: G. Callen

text: Callen realizes Arkady Kolchek knows more about his father than he's revealed. When a mission to find a ship with stolen barrels of oil leads to Russia, Arkady accompanies the team. While there, Arkady takes Callen to a coffee shop and shows him a photo of Callen's father (Reznikov) from the 1980s, long after he was supposedly sent to the Gulag. Through Eric's hacking, Hetty discovers that Reznikov took the name of Chernoff. Callen realises he was working in Moscow at the same time his father frequented the city.


title: G. Callen

text: In season seven, Callen admits that he and Joelle are fighting a lot. They break up off screen but still spend Christmas together to avoid being lonely. In "Matryoshka, Part 2", Callen meets Reznikov in Russia. He reveals that Callen's birth name is Grisha Aleksandrovich Nikolaev, but has to leave before he could find out any more information. Callen has since updated his personnel records and credentials with his full name.


title: G. Callen

text: Callen reunites with Reznikov in "Glasnost", where he shoots a man who went after a woman victim he was visiting and reveals he had been in touch with Arkady Kolcheck since the Russia incident back in Season Seven. Callen interrogates his father, who admits he's in LA for work—not to see his son. After Hetty takes over the interrogation, she allows Reznikov to escape to finish what he started. Callen and Sam go to his rescue, and Callen discovers that Reznikov helped a woman move to the U.S. and fathered a child with her. That child has since become a parent, so Callen has a half-sister and is now an uncle. In the episode "Payback", Callen learns from Hetty that Joelle is an undercover CIA agent who has been assigned by rogue agency moles to spy on him. Feeling betrayed, Callen permanently severs his ties with Joelle.


title: Los Angeles City College

text: Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). From 1947 to 1955, the college shared its campus with California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), then known as Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences (LASCAAS), before the university moved to its present campus of in the northeastern section of the City of Los Angeles, east of the Civic Center.


title: Los Angeles City College

text: The LACC campus was originally a farm outside Los Angeles, owned by Dennis Sullivan. It is one of nine separate college campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District. When the Pacific Electric Interurban Railroad connected downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood in 1909, the area began to develop rapidly. In 1914, the LA Board of Education moved the teachers' Normal School to the site. The Italian Romanesque campus became the original campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1919. In need of more space, UCLA moved to its present location in Westwood in 1929. On September 9, 1929, the campus opened its doors as Los Angeles Junior College with over 1,300 students and 54 teachers. The campus changed its name to Los Angeles City College in 1938.


title: Los Angeles City College

text: The California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) was founded on July 2, 1947 by an act of the California legislature and opened for classes as Los Angeles State College (LASC) on the campus of Los Angeles City College. As president of LACC, P. Victor Peterson also became the acting president of the state college.


title: Los Angeles City College

text: In 1949, when Howard S. McDonald became president of both Los Angeles State College and Los Angeles City College, they were housed in borrowed spaces with part-time faculty. He hired administrators to help him formally organize the colleges, then found a site within Los Angeles city limits for a permanent campus for Cal State LA. The Los Angeles Board of Education then bought the LACC site for $700,000.


title: Los Angeles City College

text: The in-state tuition and fees for 2017-2018 were $1,220, and out-of-state tuition and fees were $7,538. There is no application fee. The school utilizes a semester-based academic year. The student-faculty ratio is 23-to-1. Total enrollment of 13,827 full-time 3,999 and part-time 9,828 students.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from single-member electoral districts. Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, as the viceregal representative of the King of Canada. The Legislative Assembly and the Lieutenant Governor together make up the unicameral Alberta Legislature.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: The maximum period between general elections of the assembly, as set by Section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is five years, which is further reinforced in Alberta's "Legislative Assembly Act". Convention dictates the premier controls the date of election and usually selects a date in the fourth or fifth year after the preceding election. Amendments to Alberta's "Elections Act" introduced in 2011 fixed the date of election to between March 1 and May 31 in the fourth calendar year following the preceding election. Alberta has never had a minority government, so an election as a result of a vote of no confidence has never occurred.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: To be a candidate for election to the assembly, a person must be a Canadian citizen older than 18 who has lived in Alberta for at least six months before the election and has registered with Elections Alberta under the "Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act". Senators, senators-in-waiting, members of the House of Commons, and criminal inmates are ineligible.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: The first session of the first Legislature of Alberta opened on March 15, 1906, in the Thistle Rink, Edmonton, north of Jasper Avenue. After the speech from the throne, the assembly held its sessions in the McKay Avenue School. In this school Alberta MLAs chose the provincial capital, Edmonton, and the future site for the Alberta Legislature Building: the bank of the North Saskatchewan River. Allan Merrick Jeffers, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design was the architect who was chosen to build the assembly building. In September 1912 Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Governor General of Canada, declared the building officially open.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: Louise McKinney and Roberta MacAdams were the first women elected to the assembly, in the 1917 election. They were also the first women in any legislature of the British Empire.


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: The current members of the Legislature were elected in the 30th Alberta general election held on April 16, 2019. Bold indicates cabinet members, and "party leaders" are "italicized".


title: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

text: The 30th Alberta Legislative Assembly was constituted after the general election on April 16, 2019. The United Conservative Party, led by Jason Kenney, won a majority of seats and formed the government. The New Democrats, led by outgoing Premier Rachel Notley, won the second most seats and formed the official opposition.


title: The Series Finale

text: "The Series Finale" is the ninth episode and series finale of the American television miniseries "WandaVision", based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It follows Wanda as she tries to protect the idyllic suburban life and family that she created in the town of Westview, New Jersey. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by head writer Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman.


title: The Series Finale

text: Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their respective roles as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision from the film series, with Debra Jo Rupp, Teyonah Parris, Evan Peters, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn also starring. Development began by October 2018, and Schaeffer was hired to serve as head writer for the series in January 2019. Shakman joined that August. The series finale was designed as an MCU film-style conclusion with a large amount of fighting and visual effects, and it introduces a new Scarlet Witch costume. Filming took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Atlanta, Georgia, including at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and in Los Angeles. The episode ends with mid- and post-credits scenes that respectively set up the MCU films "The Marvels" (2023) and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022).


title: The Series Finale

text: "The Series Finale" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on March 5, 2021. Critics praised the performances, visual effects, and payoff for the series' emotional arc, but had mixed reactions to the action-oriented climax and Peters' character reveal. It received several accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.


title: The Series Finale

text: Agatha Harkness attempts to take Wanda Maximoff's chaos magic but is interrupted by the white, re-assembled, and re-animated Vision who attacks Maximoff, revealing S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward's orders to eliminate her. He is foiled by the version of Vision created by Maximoff who fights with White Vision across Westview while Harkness continues to attack Maximoff. Harkness frees the residents of Westview from Maximoff's spell that trapped them in sitcom personas, and they implore Maximoff to set them free.


title: The Series Finale

text: Maximoff opens the barrier, allowing the residents to escape, but her Vision and their sons Billy and Tommy begin to disintegrate. She closes the barrier again, but not before Hayward enters with multiple S.W.O.R.D. personnel. Monica Rambeau removes a magical necklace from "Pietro Maximoff", releasing him from Harkness's control and revealing his true identity as Ralph Bohner. Maximoff attempts to overpower Harkness with illusions of her past, but Harkness gains control and overpowers Maximoff. Using newly developed powers, Rambeau saves Billy and Tommy from Hayward, who is detained by Darcy Lewis.


title: The Series Finale

text: Maximoff's Vision helps unlock the White Vision's memories, and the latter departs Westview. Harkness takes Maximoff's magic but does not realize that Maximoff has created magical runes around the barrier to prevent Harkness from using her own magic. Maximoff then reclaims all of her magic and becomes the Scarlet Witch. She traps Harkness as the sitcom persona "Agnes", and then takes her family home as she collapses the barrier. Maximoff and Vision put their sons to bed and then say goodbye, before Vision, the boys, and their house all disappear. Faced with the Westview residents that she has harmed, Maximoff makes peace with Rambeau and goes into hiding.


title: The Series Finale

text: In a mid-credits scene, Hayward is arrested while Rambeau is informed by a Skrull disguised as an FBI agent that a friend of her mother Maria wants to meet with her in space. In a post-credits scene, while studying the "Darkhold" in her astral form at a remote cabin, Maximoff hears her sons calling for her help.


title: The Series Finale

text: By October 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a limited series starring Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany's Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films. In January 2019, Jac Schaeffer was hired as head writer of "WandaVision". In August, Matt Shakman was hired to direct the miniseries, with Schaeffer and Shakman executive producing alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. Feige described the series as part "Marvel epic", part "classic sitcom", that paid tribute to many eras of American sitcoms. Bettany described the ending as an epic collision. Schaeffer wrote the ninth episode, which is titled "The Series Finale".


title: The Series Finale

text: Schaeffer's outline for the series combined sitcom elements with an MCU story, building up to a big finale that had the spectacle of an MCU film. Much of the final episode's elements were known from the beginning of writing the series, with some coming from Schaeffer's initial pitch. These included the involvement of the series' supporting characters, the fights between the two Visions and between Maximoff and Agatha Harkness, and the final goodbye between Maximoff and Vision after putting Billy and Tommy to bed and before Vision disappears. The rest of the episode was then fleshed out during development, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing some further changes during filming. Schaeffer was glad that the goodbye scene between Maximoff and Vision remained in the final version of the episode, calling it the "heart of the show". The scene originally required Maximoff to release Vision by casting a binding spell that she learned from Harkness earlier, before Harkness was changed from a mentor to an antagonist. COVID-19 delays allowed Schaeffer to fine-tune the episode's logic, including adjustments to the action sequences.


title: The Series Finale

text: Co-executive producer Mary Livanos pitched the idea of using the "Darkhold" to increase the level of danger Harkness poses to Maximoff. Harkness reads about the Scarlet Witch from the "Darkhold" and says Maximoff is destined to destroy the world. This prophecy originally had a larger role, with Maximoff having to overcome that destiny, but Schaeffer found this to be too restrictive for future MCU stories and decided to end the series with Maximoff not yet learning everything about her destiny and abilities. The sequence where Maximoff is confronted by the residents of Westview was originally envisioned as a "zombie attack" before being changed to a verbal attack from the residents. Shakman believed Harkness's line in this moment where she says "heroes don't torture people" was a "huge moment" for the episode that gave Maximoff something to contemplate.


title: The Series Finale

text: Bettany portrays both Vision, created by Maximoff, and The Vision, the white body of the original character. These were differentiated in the script as "Soul Vision" and "White Vision", respectively. Bettany was apprehensive of playing The Vision due to the character's short arc and "big turn" within the episode; he differentiated the two versions by making The Vision familiar and intimidating. Schaeffer knew the fight between the two Visions would end in a logic battle, with series writer Megan McDonnell conceiving a conversation about the Ship of Theseus. The writers did not learn that there is a similar conversation about the Ship of Theseus between two versions of the Vision in the "Avengers" comics until after the episode was released. Shakman said the idea of identity was central to the episode's fights, with the two Visions discussing who the real Vision is while Harkness tries to tell Maximoff who she is. The latter fight ends with Maximoff deciding for herself to embrace the Scarlet Witch identity. Shakman said Monica Rambeau's role in the episode was constantly changing, with some versions giving her a larger role in the final fight than is seen in the episode.


title: The Series Finale

text: Discussing Harkness being forced back to her "Agnes" persona at the end of the episode, actress Kathryn Hahn initially felt that this was not a punishment, believing that Harkness had been restless and lonely for a long time and this would allow her to relax and continue forming the companionships she made with some of the Westview residents. However, Hahn later stated that this was not how she felt and she was partially joking with the earlier comment, instead believing that Maximoff had essentially lobotomized Harkness. She added that, for Harkness, "to clip her wings and put her somewhere like that with boring people and not have anything to do. It's the worst, it's a nightmare." Maximoff's "walk of shame" through the town at the end of the episode was conceived to be "like an assault of death glares from people", with Feige requesting more from that moment so the audience could "understand that what she did was terrible". Schaeffer said Maximoff would most likely face consequences for her actions in the future, and did not want to end the series in a way where Maximoff's actions could be easily forgiven. Livanos enjoyed the "texture" the ending provided of the world possibly still labeling Maximoff as a terrorist. Schaeffer believed the series ended in a way for Maximoff to "say goodbye on her own terms" in order for her to "process everything she's been through and reach acceptance". Regarding the notion that Maximoff may have gotten off "too easy" by simply flying away from Westview, Olsen felt Maximoff had a "tremendous amount of guilt" and needed to leave before those who would hold her accountable arrived. Additional material filmed for this moment that did not appear in the episode would have helped clarify these points.


title: The Series Finale

text: Dr. Stephen Strange was originally set to appear in the episode, with Benedict Cumberbatch reprising the role, in what would have been a hand-off to "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022), but this did not happen because the creatives believed he would have taken focus away from Maximoff and did not want the episode to be "commoditized to go to the next movie" or to have a white male showing Maximoff how to harness her powers. Schaeffer added that the scenes featuring the character never felt right to the writers and seemed "a little tacked on", while also presenting the question of where he had been for the rest of the series. Despite this, Olsen said the episode was a "complete tee-up" for Maximoff's appearance in "Multiverse of Madness". Schaeffer said the episode's end credits scenes were the biggest connective tissue between the series and future Marvel projects, and were being re-written until late in the process to make sure they covered what was needed for the hand-offs. This was done in discussion with the creative teams of "Multiverse of Madness" and "The Marvels" (2023). The post-credit scene shows Maximoff studying the "Darkhold" as the Scarlet Witch in her astral form, indicating a passage of time and showing that she has reached self-acceptance. Schaeffer enjoyed the duality of the scene, with Maximoff "ruminating and reflecting" while her astral form functions at an unknown level. Whether Maximoff should hear her children in the scene or not was a topic of discussion. Andi Ortiz of "TheWrap" said this scene made it unlikely that Maximoff would become a villain in "Multiverse of Madness" since she was trying to control her powers, but Chancellor Agard of "Entertainment Weekly" felt the opposite, believing Maximoff was turning to the "bad side" to search for her children in the multiverse which would put her at odds with Strange.


title: The Series Finale

text: The episode stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany as Vision and The Vision, Debra Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Evan Peters as Ralph Bohner / "Pietro Maximoff", Randall Park as Jimmy Woo, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, and Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness / "Agnes". Also starring in the episode are Julian Hilliard as Billy and Jett Klyne as Tommy, Maximoff and Vision's sons; Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward; Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon; Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor; Jolene Purdy as Isabel Matsueda; David Payton as John Collins; David Lengel as Harold Proctor; Amos Glick as the delivery man; Selena Anduze as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Rodriguez; Kate Forbes as Evanora Harkness; and Lori Livingston as the Skrull agent.


title: The Series Finale

text: The writers did not discuss the "Darkhold" appearance in Marvel Television series such as "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", where it had a different design, with "WandaVision" creative team looking more towards how the book had appeared in Marvel Comics. Despite the new design, Shakman believed it was the same book that was seen in the Marvel Television series. Thomas Bacon from "ScreenRant" felt its appearance was a step towards dismissing the creative choices from the Marvel Television series. The "Darkhold" was designed by the "Multiverse of Madness" props team, since it reappears and has more screen time in that film, for the series to use ahead of reusing it for the film.


title: The Series Finale

text: Maximoff spends most of the episode in her "sad sweats" costume from the previous two episodes. Shakman considered having her change into her "Avengers" superhero costume for the fight with Harkness, as she did for a scene in the episode "On a Very Special Episode...", but found it more satisfying in the finale to have the character be a "suburban mom fighting this witch". The end of the fight introduces a new costume for Maximoff when she takes on the mantle of the Scarlet Witch. This was designed by Andy Park of Marvel Studio's visual development team, and Rubeo worked with Ironhead Studios to create it. Shoemaking company Jitterbug Boy created the boots for the costume. The producers wanted the new costume to be more mature and less revealing than Maximoff's "Avengers" outfit, as Olsen had previously expressed concern over that "cleavage corset" costume. Olsen consulted on the new design, and adjustments were made to allow her to move and act how she needed to. Rubeo worked with the stunt coordinator to understand the technical requirements for the harnesses that Olsen needed to wear while doing wire work in the costume. There were two to four "hero" versions of the costume and then another two to three for Olsen to wear with harnesses, with two versions for Olsen's stunt double. The stunt versions had parts removed to allow for the harnesses.


title: The Series Finale

text: Rubeo wanted Harkness's witch costume to be a dress made from 10 layers of fabric that were each a different color and texture, which she was able to show due to the wire work that Hahn does in the episode. Rubeo said this created a "Medusa"-like movement in the dress. Hahn had to wear a cooling suit underneath the costume to avoid overheating while wearing it outside during the 2020 California wildfires. Hahn also wears a brooch that she had in earlier episodes to hint at her character's true identity as Harkness.


title: The Series Finale

text: Soundstage filming occurred at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Shakman directing, and Jess Hall serving as cinematographer. Filming also took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, with backlot and outdoor filming occurring in Los Angeles when the series resumed production after being on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dennings' role in the episode was reduced as she was unable to return for filming in Los Angeles. The mid-credit scene was filmed on the final day.


title: The Series Finale

text: Shakman originally filmed a sequence in which Rambeau, Bohner, and Lewis meet up with Billy and Tommy in Harkness's house and try to steal the "Darkhold" from the basement. Harkness's pet rabbit Señor Scratchy would have gone through an ""American Werewolf in London" transformation" into a demon for the scene, leading to a "Goonies" (1985)-style chase. Shakman felt this was a great, fun sequence, but he cut it from the episode because it was a big detour from the plot. Some visual effects work was completed before the scene was cut. Editor Zene Baker described editing the episode as an "all hands on deck" situation, with the series' other editors, Tim Roche and Nona Khodai, helping Baker work through all of the footage for the episode. Editing for the episode was completed two weeks before it was released; Baker had hoped to complete the episode earlier than this.


title: The Series Finale

text: Tara DeMarco served as the visual effects supervisor for "WandaVision", with the episode's visual effects created by Digital Domain, RISE, Industrial Light & Magic, Luma, Mr. X, capital T, Lola VFX, Weta Digital, Cantina Creative, and The Yard VFX. Digital Domain created the Hex boundary, using the magnetized CRT television screen design that was established in earlier episodes, including when Maximoff opens it which uses erratic-looking tears in the wall with a glitch effect. This causes Vision, Billy, and Tommy to start coming apart, which was inspired by imagery from the "House of M" comic book storyline by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel.


title: The Series Finale

text: DeMarco used Vision's introduction in "" (2015) as the definitive version of the character when approaching the visual effects for him in "WandaVision". Bettany wore a bald cap and face makeup on set to match Vision's color, as well as tracking markers for the visual effects teams to reference. Complex 3D and digital makeup techniques were then used to create the character, with sections of Bettany's face replaced with CGI on a shot-by-shot basis; the actor's eyes, nose, and mouth were usually the only elements retained. Digital Domain handled the Vision and White Vision fight sequences, including their fight over Westview and their confrontation in the library. They created fully digital versions of both the Vision and White Vision, with the model for Vision being based on the one used in "" (2018); the company did have existing models of Vision, but they were from "Age of Ultron" and were not up to the resolution required for the series. The model for White Vision had to be completely different due to the different design for the face panels and costume on White Vision from Marvel's design team; the character has more angular lines than Vision does. The digital model for Vision was then shared with other visual effects vendors for use in earlier episodes, while Digital Domain handled the reveal of White Vision at the end of the previous episode. Digital Domain artists were on set for the filming of the final episode to supervise scenes featuring the two characters, which were each filmed twice so Bettany could portray both versions. Bettany's stunt double Adam Lytle performed the scenes with him, having to learn all the lines for both characters. The visual effects team attempted to retain Bettany's performance as much as possible, in some cases completely replicating his performances on the faces of the digital models. Depicting White Vision in bright sunlight was a challenge, with the effects team having to be strategic with how white they made the character in certain shots. In some instances, they added a "thin film interference layer" that created a slight rainbow effect in front of the character and helped create some variation in the color of his costume. To complete the sequences, Digital Domain replaced the heads of stunt doubles in some instances, and added effects for phasing and Mind Stone beams as well as digital capes using cloth simulations. For the phasing effects, the vendor used a new "muscle transfer tool" that allowed them to automatically move muscle models between the two characters.


title: The Series Finale

text: Digital Domain also handled the fight between Harkness and Maximoff. The cape and hood on Olsen's costume got in the way of her wire work harness, and there were also some leather straps on the costume that she found uncomfortable to maneuver in, so these were removed on set and Digital Domain added them back in post-production using cloth simulation effects. They also used cloth simulations to replace parts of Hahn's dress where it got caught on wires. The vendor developed the look of Maximoff's chaos magic, and went through over 100 iterations of what it might look like before settling on a darker, richer red than Maximoff's previous magic. They added more depth to her magic by creating a "planet element" with additional geometry inside the magic. Digital Domain originally were creating Harkness's magic to just be a purple version of Maximoff's, but ended up adjusting it to have a black, ink-like texture to match the design that was developed by Framestore for the previous episode. For the initial confrontation with Harkness at the start of the episode, Digital Domain replaced bluescreen background elements with a 2.5D matte painting that extended the cul de sac. For the main aerial fights in the episode, they created a digital environment based on plates that we shot at the Disney Ranch and Blondie Street as well as the town of Eatonton, Georgia, outside of Atlanta which inspired some of Westview's "small-town feel". Maximoff and Harkness's fight was originally intended to take place entirely in the clouds, but this was changed during production to include fighting around the town as Shakman wanted to connect the fight to the events in Westview. There were limited plates available of the town square from the Disney Ranch, so Digital Domain spent almost six weeks building a digital environment of the town square and some of the surrounding areas so the witches could fly around in it. When Harkness and Maximoff were both in the air, the Digital Domain team treated the camera as if it was being held by a third flying witch and made sure it moved within the 3D environment in the same way that the two characters did to create natural movements for the sequence. Full digital doubles of Maximoff and Harkness were used for some shots in the episode.


title: The Series Finale

text: The coven scene where Maximoff is attacked by mummified witches was handled by Mr. X, who spent eight months developing the design and approach for the sequence and then another two months completing it as well as the opening Salem scene from the previous episode. Mr. X was asked to make the sequence "dark and scary but not too dark for [the] family friendly audience". The vendor hired more than 100 visual effects artists to complete the sequence in this episode within the short timeframe that they had to do it. Luma created the "Darkhold" for the episode, which supervisor Andrew Zink described as the introduction of the book to the MCU and something that the vendor wanted to do justice to. They created the book to appear as if it is made of metal and magical spark effects, and focused on the illustration of the Scarlet Witch that appears on one of its pages. They were then given the freedom to create designs for other pages seen in the episode, using the same design language as the Scarlet Witch image.


title: The Series Finale

text: For the scenes where Maximoff says goodbye to her family, MARZ provided some of the effects for Vision. They completed that work after the 2020 Christmas break. The effect of Vision disappearing was created by ILM, and DeMarco listed it as one of the most challenging visual effects of the series. She explained that it needed to be "beautiful and lyrical and emotional, and also really cool-looking and technical", and the visual effects team took a lot of care to make sure the scene would still have an emotional impact. Three different shots were filmed for the moment, with a tracking shot moving toward the house as the boundary of the Hex closes in, as well as two different shots of the camera rotating around Maximoff and Vision inside the house. ILM merged the three shots to create a seamless transition, and then replaced Bettany with a digital version of Vision with the actor's performance replicated onto the 3D face. The digital model is broken up to reveal glowing wires and particles that swirl and dissipate, with some of these created in 2.5D so that they existed within the 3D environment but moved in relation to the plane of the camera. For the house environment, ILM used 2D techniques to wipe between different models of the house that represented the different sitcom decades seen in the series. At the end of the sequence, they broke up the house environment into particles and added "wispy creation magic". DeMarco said one of the most difficult parts of creating this effect was making it feel like it had been filmed on set and keeping the overall effect simple.


title: The Series Finale

text: The post-credits scene's visual effects were updated by the end of June 2021 to include more trees around the cabin's location. Ethan Anderton of "/Film" said the change was subtle and strange, expressing concern that Marvel had the ability to go back to content they had released to make adjustments. He said this was "probably good for fixing little mistakes... but it also means they can make changes to their shows at any time without letting anyone know". Anderton speculated that if the cabin location was appearing in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", the change could have been made to make the location match how it would appear in the film.


title: The Series Finale

text: Composer Christophe Beck referenced Michael Giacchino's main theme from "Doctor Strange" (2016) for the post-credits scene where Maximoff studies the "Darkhold" in her astral form. This had been requested by Shakman and Marvel Studios, but Beck also independently wanted to include the reference. It is heard on the track "Reborn", which was digitally released, along with the rest of Beck's score, as part of the episode's soundtrack album by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on March 12, 2021.


title: The Series Finale

text: In December 2020, a poster for the series was released featuring Maximoff and Vision standing behind several different televisions, with each screen displaying a different image from the series or showing the section of the actors' bodies behind the screen in a different costume from the series. Cooper Hood of "Screen Rant" noted that one of the screens in front of Maximoff's upper body depicted part of a costume that had not been seen in the MCU before, and wondered if the series was introducing a new Scarlet Witch costume. Several individual character posters were released for the series a month later, with the same format of televisions being in front of each character. On the poster for Maximoff, a screen in front of her torso revealed a different part of the new costume. Other commentators, including "Nerdist" and Molly Edwards of "GamesRadar+", were surprised to discover the early costume reveal in these posters after seeing the new Scarlet Witch costume in full when watching the episode. Discussing the posters, Edwards stated that "the writing for Wanda's big transformation really was on the wall from the start." Also after the episode's release, Marvel partnered with chef Justin Warner to release a recipe for Westview Finale Snack Mix that was meant to represent many elements of the series mixing together for the final episode. Additionally, Marvel announced merchandise inspired by the episode as part of its weekly "Marvel Must Haves" promotion for each episode of the series, including apparel, toys, accessories, make-up, and jewelry.


title: The Series Finale

text: "The Series Finale" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on March 5, 2021. Upon the episode's release at midnight PST, Disney+ experienced technical difficulties, mostly on the west coast of the United States, given the influx of viewers attempting to watch the episode right when it was released. The issues only affected approximately 2,300 users.


title: The Series Finale

text: Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed "WandaVision" as the second most-watched original streaming series for the week of March 1 to 7, 2021. 924 million minutes were viewed across all episodes, the highest recorded for the series while it was being released.


title: The Series Finale

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating with an average score of 7.70/10 based on 33 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, The Series Finale' implodes "WandaVision" intimacy in favor of bigger MCU bangs, and while it might not be the finale some fans were hoping for, it offers enough breadcrumbs to keep everyone guessing about the future of the multiverse."


title: The Series Finale

text: "Vulture"s Abraham Riesman felt the general outline of the episode could be mostly predicted from the start of the series, but "even though they stayed within standard thematic lines and introduced a bunch of dumb punching and blasting, and although the first seven episodes were varying degrees of 'meh'... they mostly stuck the landing". Riesman felt the "WandaVision" was about "what it's like to be in love at the end of the world", and gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars. Writing for "Den of Geek", Rosie Knight stated, "for the most part, Matt Shakman and Jac Schaeffer do a solid job of tying up the many loose ends. While the pacing might be a little frantic at times, by the time the credits roll–and the delightful post-credits scenes surprises–you'll likely feel very satisfied by this experimental and emotional conclusion for a show that has been both of those things during its best moments." Knight added the scene between Vision and White Vision having a philosophical debate was one of the best of the MCU.


title: The Series Finale

text: Giving the finale a 7 out of 10, Matt Purslow at "IGN" described it as "simultaneously unexpected and exactly what many foresaw... Despite a little unevenness, "WandaVision"s spell holds until the final moments, making for an enjoyable last outing with a wonderfully unusual couple." Purslow felt the reveal that "Pietro" was just a person named Ralph Bohner, after the stunt casting of Peters and prolonged mystery, was "something of an unfair trick from Marvel... as if fan investment in the multiple worlds of Marvel has been leveraged to create excitement for no payoff at all"; he likened it to the Mandarin twist in "Iron Man 3" (2013) "but without the actual fun". He also felt Rambeau, Lewis, and Woo were all underutilized in the episode, with Lewis and Woo's storylines not given proper conclusions, but enjoyed the full display of Maximoff becoming the Scarlet Witch. Writing for "The A.V. Club", Stephen Robinson gave "The Series Finale" a "B" and called it "a moving final episode that lands with only a few missteps". He enjoyed the final battle between Maximoff and Harkness, particularly the "badass scene" when Maximoff gains the upper hand, but had hoped for more complex motivations from Harkness than "simply craving power for power's sake". He also felt Hahn's less grounded portrayal made the character take a "sharp turn into grandiose Disney villain", but was excited by the prospect of seeing Hahn return as "an unpredictable Loki-style foil" for Maximoff. Unlike Purslow, Robinson did not mind the reveal that Peters' role was less substantial than some predicted, and found it refreshing that no "eleventh hour, last-minute Big Bad" appeared in the series. Conversely, he felt the weakest part of the episode was its action, which he described as "superfluous", and also felt cheated that "Dottie" is revealed to just be a woman named Sarah after her identity had been intentionally withheld earlier in the series when other Westview residents had been identified.


title: The Series Finale

text: Alan Sepinwall, reviewing the finale for "Rolling Stone", said ""WandaVision" concludes very much in MCU territory, a bit for good and more for ill". He continued by saying the episode "looks good, and it has some nice emotional moments. But where so much of the series leading to this point felt like a passion project for all involved, too much of the conclusion felt obligatory, as if the mandate was to return to formula and ensure that Wanda and Monica Rambeau are ready for their upcoming appearances in, respectively, the next "Doctor Strange" and "Captain Marvel" movies." He felt the supporting characters such as Rambeau, Woo, and Lewis were largely unnecessary, only a part of the series to "make the story feel linked to the MCU", but also felt that his issues with the episode might not be as strong if he had watched all the episodes at once rather than weekly. Chancellor Agard had mixed feelings on the episode in his review for "Entertainment Weekly". Agard said Shakman and Schaeffer ensured there were moments to remind the audience that the series is about grief, such as when Harkness releases the Westview residents from Maximoff's control and when Maximoff and Vision say goodbye, and he also enjoyed the fact that Peters' casting turned out to be "a really fun piece of stunt casting". However, he felt the episode, which he gave a "B−", lost its emotional stakes in the fighting and spectacle, suffering from the superhero film cliché of having problems in their final act. For example, Agard noted that Maximoff and Vision fight evil reflections of themselves and also much of Hahn's dialogue is just exposition between energy blasts. Agard's colleague Christian Holub enjoyed the fight between Vision and White Vision more than Agard due to the "self vs. shadow self" trope, but agreed in regard to Harkness. Holub did enjoy Harkness being trapped as "Agnes", likening this to the finale of the animated series "".


title: The Series Finale

text: Hahn was named "TVLine"s "Performer of the Week" for the week of March 1, 2021, for her performance in this episode. The site noted that Hahn had been receiving praise for her performance throughout the series and this was "well overdue" acclaim after being the "secret weapon" in past comedy series. In this episode, "TVLine" felt Hahn "relished every moment" of being a villain, with a performance that "oozed with wicked delight" and a "top-notch" witch cackle. They felt Hahn's best work of the series was when Harkness is trapped as Agnes, which "didn't have Agnes's previous cheerfulness, nor did they carry the gravitas of Agatha at the height of her powers".


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: The unitary authorities of England are those local authorities which are responsible for the provision of all local government services within a district. They are constituted under the Local Government Act 1992, which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to allow the existence of counties that do not have multiple districts. They typically allow large towns to have separate local authorities from the less urbanised parts of their counties and originally provided a single authority for small counties where division into districts would be impractical. However, the UK government has more recently proposed the formation of much larger unitary authorities, including a single authority for North Yorkshire, the largest non-metropolitan county in England, at present divided into seven districts.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Unitary authorities do not cover all of England. Most were established during the 1990s, though further tranches were created in 2009 and 2019–21. Unitary authorities have the powers and functions that are elsewhere separately administered by councils of non-metropolitan counties and the non-metropolitan districts within them.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: The term "unitary authority" was first used in the Redcliffe-Maud Report in 1969 in its current sense of a local government authority which combines the functions of a county council and a district council. Strictly speaking, the term does not necessarily mean a single level of local government within an area, because in some cases there are also parish councils in the same area.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Although the term was not applied to them, county boroughs between 1889 and 1974 were effectively unitary authorities, that is, single-tier administrative units. Before 1889, local government authorities had different powers and functions, but from medieval times some cities and towns had a high degree of autonomy as counties corporate. Some smaller settlements also enjoyed some degree of autonomy from regular administration as boroughs or liberties.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: The Local Government Act 1972 created areas for local government where large towns and their rural hinterlands were administered together. The concept of unitary units was abandoned with a two-tier arrangement of county and district councils in all areas of England, except the Isles of Scilly where the small size and distance from the mainland made it impractical. In 1986 a broadly unitary system of local government was introduced in the six metropolitan counties and Greater London, where the upper-tier authorities were abolished and their functions were split between central government, the borough councils and joint boards.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: A review in the 1990s was initiated to select non-metropolitan areas where new unitary authorities could be created. The resulting structural changes were implemented between 1995 and 1998. Bristol, Herefordshire, the Isle of Wight and Rutland were established as counties of a single district; the district councils of Berkshire became unitary; the counties of Avon, Humberside and Cleveland were broken up to create several unitary authorities; and a number of districts were split off from their associated counties. The changes caused the ceremonial counties to be defined separately, as they had been before 1974. The review caused 46 unitary authorities to be created.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: A further review was initiated in 2007 and was enacted in 2009. The review established Cornwall and Northumberland as counties of a single district; established unitary authorities in County Durham, Shropshire and Wiltshire covering the part of the county that was not already split off in the 1990s review; and divided the remainder of Bedfordshire and Cheshire into two unitary authorities. The review caused nine unitary authorities to be created.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: In 2016, Oxfordshire County Council put forward a 'One Oxfordshire' proposal which would see Oxford City Council and the four other district councils in Oxfordshire abolished and replaced with a single unitary county council for Oxfordshire. In 2017, Oxford City Council voiced their opposition to the proposal. A decision on whether the proposal will go ahead was to have been announced in March 2017.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: In 2017, it was proposed that two unitary authorities be formed to cover the ceremonial county of Dorset. One of the authorities would consist of the existing unitary authorities of Bournemouth, Poole and the non-metropolitan district of Christchurch, the other would be composed of the remainder of the county. In November 2017, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid stated that he was "minded to approve the proposals" and a final decision to implement the two unitary authority model was confirmed in February 2018. Statutory instruments for the creation of two unitary authorities, to be named Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and Dorset Council, have been made and shadow authorities for the new council areas were formed ahead of their creation on 1 April 2019.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Buckinghamshire County Council and the non-metropolitan districts of Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe in Buckinghamshire were replaced by a single unitary authority known as Buckinghamshire Council on 1 April 2020. The existing unitary authority of Milton Keynes was not affected; from 1 April 2020, therefore, the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire has been composed of two unitary authorities.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: In March 2018, an independent report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, proposed structural changes to local government in Northamptonshire. These changes would see the existing county council and district councils abolished and two new unitary authorities created in their place. One authority, West Northamptonshire, would consist of the existing districts of Daventry, Northampton and South Northamptonshire and the other authority, North Northamptonshire would consist of Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough districts. This was confirmed in May 2019, with the new councils being created in April 2021.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: In July 2021 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced that in April 2023, the non-metropolitan counties of Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset will be reorganised into unitary authorities. The new authorities, Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, North Yorkshire Council and Somerset Council were first elected in May 2022 and will formally assume their powers on 1 April 2023.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: The process of changing from a two-tier local government to a structure based on unitary authorities is called 'restructuring'. The Secretary of State responsible for local government invites proposals from local areas to restructure into unitary authorities, and the Secretary decides whether or not the change should be implemented. The restructuring is carried out by an Order. There are no examples in the UK of councils restructuring back into a two-tier system.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Unitary authorities combine the powers and functions that are normally delivered separately by the councils of non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. These functions are housing, waste management, waste collection, council tax collection, education, libraries, social services, transport, planning, consumer protection, licensing, cemeteries and crematoria. The breakdown of these services is as follows:


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Unitary government has been criticised for damaging local democracy. Opponents to unitary authority criticise the 'bigger is better' assumption and highlight that larger councils breed mistrust of councillors and reduction in public engagement and voter turnout. Outside the UK, multi-level local government is the prevailing system, with major towns normally having a local authority. The average size of a local authority in England is 170,000, three times that of Europe.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Most unitary authorities are divided into a number of multiple member wards from which councillors are elected in the same way as in two-tier district council elections. The exceptions, which are divided into electoral divisions as in county council elections, are Cornwall, County Durham, the Isle of Wight, Northumberland, Shropshire and Wiltshire.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Most unitary authorities are legally defined as being coterminous non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts run by a single council. While it makes no difference, they can either be run by a county council that additionally has district powers and functions, or a district council that additionally has county powers and functions. If there is a county council, the district has no council, and vice versa. Districts can additionally have the status of borough or city, although this has no effect on their powers or functions.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a "sui generis" single-tier authority, created in 1890 and since 1930 has held the "powers, duties and liabilities" of a county council. It thus is not a unitary authority as those are such authorities created under the Local Government Act 1992. The 36 metropolitan borough councils are also the sole elected local government units in their areas (except for parish councils in a few locations), but share strategic functions with joint boards and arrangements. On the other hand, the City of London Corporation and the 32 London borough councils, although they have a high degree of autonomy, share strategic functions with the directly elected Mayor of London and London Assembly.


title: Unitary authorities of England

text: Unitary authorities should not be confused with another formation in English local government, the combined authority.


title: Geetu Mohandas

text: Gayatri Das (born 8 June 1981), known professionally as Geetu Mohandas, is an Indian actress and director known for her works in Malayalam cinema and Bollywood. In 2013, she directed the socio political film "Liar's Dice" which has received two National Film Awards, was premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and was chosen by the Government of India as India's entry for the U.S. 87th Academy Awards, but was not shortlisted or nominated.


title: Geetu Mohandas

text: Geetu's birth name is Gayatri Das. Affectionately called Geetu by her family, the name was adopted as her screen name when she starred in her fourth movie "Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare" in 1986 with Mohanlal in the lead role. Geetu was five years old then and captured the hearts of Malayalam filmgoers as a fatherless child who discovers a father in an anonymous telephone caller. She acted in the top grosser "En Bommukutty Ammavukku" as the title role, which was the Tamil remake of Fazil's "Ente Mamattikkuttiyammakku" (Malayalam) done by Baby Shalini in the title role. Geetu's first movie as an adult was Life is Beautiful starring Mohanlal in the lead. She went on to act in Thenkasi Pattanam, Valkannadi, Nammal Thammil and several other Malayalam movies. The high point of her career was Akale directed by Shyamaprasad, and produced by Tom George Kolath which won her the Kerala State Award for Best Actress in 2004. Geetu also won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Malayalam, for her role as Rose, in Akale.


title: Geetu Mohandas

text: Geetu Mohandas formed her film production house - Unplugged in 2009 which produced her directorial debut short fiction film titled Kelkkunnundo "Are you listening". The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and subsequently won 3 International awards for Best Short fiction as well as the National Film Award in India. The film has been included as a chapter in the 12th standard Kerala state syllabus since 2014. Her first feature film Liar's Dice (film) received the Hubert Bals Fund for script and project development and the film was selected in Competition for the world dramatic competition at Sundance Film Festival in 2014. Liar's Dice (film) went on to win six major international awards across the world and two National awards in India. It was also India's official entry for the Best Foreign Film category for the 87th Academy Awards. Her second feature film, Moothon was mentored by the Sundance film lab and Geetu also won the Global filmmaker award at Sundance Film Festival in 2016. Moothon had its World premiere at Toronto International film festival in 2019 and was the opening film at MAMI 2019.


title: Geetu Mohandas

text: She was born as Gayatri Das to Mohandas and Latha on 8 June 1981 at Kochi. She studied in India, Malaysia and Canada.


title: Geetu Mohandas

text: On 14 November 2009, she married cinematographer Rajeev Ravi. The wedding took place in Kochi, Kerala, India.


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" is an episode of the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants". It is the second part of the 15th episode of the second season, and the second half of the 35th episode overall. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September7, 2001. It was written by C.H. Greenblatt, Aaron Springer, and Merriwether Williams, and the animation was directed by Frank Weiss. Springer served as director, and Greenblatt served as storyboard artist.


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" follows Squidward, who recruits the citizens of Bikini Bottom to play in a marching band for the Bubble Bowl. The episode received widespread acclaim, with many fans and critics considering it the best episode of the entire series. The episode won Best Sound Editing in Television – Animation at the 2002 Golden Reel Awards.


title: Band Geeks

text: Squidward Tentacles gets a call from his wealthy former high school classmate and rival, Squilliam Fancyson, who has succeeded in everything in which Squidward has failed, including music. Squilliam reveals to Squidward that he has become the leader of a band scheduled to play at a venue called the Bubble Bowl, but he will be busy at that time and cannot attend. Squilliam derisively suggests that Squidward's band should substitute for his at the Bubble Bowl, correctly believing that Squidward does not have one. However, Squidward insists that he has a band and accepts the challenge. He assembles a large marching band composed of various Bikini Bottom residents.


title: Band Geeks

text: During their one week of training, the band performs consistently poorly and fails to improve at all. On the last day of practice, the band members start insulting and blaming each other for their poor performance, causing a huge, chaotic brawl. As band class ends, the band members calm down and start filing out of the building. Before they leave, Squidward appears outside, who despondently tells them to not perform, and goes home in distraught over his failure. However, SpongeBob convinces the other band members to go through with the performance for Squidward's sake, and he takes command of their training.


title: Band Geeks

text: On the day of the concert, Squilliam shows up at the venue entrance, where Squidward claims that his band "died in a marching accident". The band then immediately arrives, and Squidward reluctantly proceeds with the performance. They enter the Bubble Bowl, a large glass dome that elevates them into a live-action football stadium full of human fans. To Squidward's surprise, the band is tremendously successful, playing "Sweet Victory" for the crowd. Squilliam enters a state of shock and faints, leaving Squidward to happily conduct the band and celebrate.


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" was directed by Aaron Springer, and was written by Springer, C. H. Greenblatt, and Merriwether Williams. Frank Weiss served as animation director, and Greenblatt worked as storyboard artist. The writers started to work for "Band Geeks" with the idea of a rival. Williams said, "We always wanted to do a rival show, and I think we tried to do a rival show for SpongeBob, and it wasn't working. So we came up with the idea of a rival for Squidward and, in some ways it's Squidward's story, and SpongeBob and Patrick are just kind of around." The idea of having a band was unspecified. Williams remarked, "I forget who was in band. I was not in a band, but I think maybe Doug <nowiki>Lawrence</nowiki> was in a band. I think Steve <nowiki>Hillenburg</nowiki> was in a band, too."


title: Band Geeks

text: The music used in the segment of the episode where Squidward's marching band is playing while coming down the street was from Nick Carr, the series' music editor. He found a piece of marching band music that was a band intentionally playing poorly, but sound designer Jeff Hutchins said, "You could still discern the tune." Hutchins thought "Well, let's take this one step further. What if they couldn't even play their instruments, let alone a tune?" He brought his portable DAT recorder to a musical instrument retail store and met two men who worked on its loading dock, packaging and shipping the instruments. Hutchins made the two men play most of the instruments terribly. He said, "I got these two guys to squeak, blast, and squawk on most of the instruments they sold."


title: Band Geeks

text: Upon returning to the studio with the sound effects, he built a marching band, one instrument at a time. Hutchins said, "They weren't in any key and had no rhythm whatsoever. When you heard it, you just had to say 'Ouch!'" Hutchins played the sound effects for series creator Hillenburg for review. Hillenburg rejected it, saying "it was too far over the edge." Hutchins said, "a lot of effort for something that lasts only 15 seconds on screen. In this case, the whole thing never made it on the air."


title: Band Geeks

text: When storyboard artist Greenblatt, with the writers, was storyboarding "Band Geeks", they thought of "a big number" at the end, where everyone would rally together for Squidward. Greenblatt said, "The story outline called for making it a really great marching band sequence, and it usually helps to have the music ahead of time to board to, so we started searching around." The writers were able to find music, as Nickelodeon has a library of royalty-free music. The writers listened to various marching band tunes. However, Greenblatt said, "The more we heard, it didn't seem terribly funny that the finale was just them playing marching band music well."


title: Band Geeks

text: However, David Glen Eisley's song "Sweet Victory" stood out from the other tracks in the library. Greenblatt said "It was different than what we were looking for, but it was so amazing that we knew we had to use it. So we boarded the sequence to the music, and it felt like such a better ending than any song we could have written on our own." The writers gave it a freeze-frame shot for the ending. Greenblatt's favorite part was director Springer's drawings of Patrick on the electric drums and SpongeBob saying, "It's the thrill of one more kill" (an excerpt from "Sweet Victory"). The live action Bubble Bowl crowd is a combination of footage from a United States Football League game featuring the Memphis Showboats and the Tampa Bay Bandits on June 16, 1984, and footage shot specifically for the episode.


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 7, 2001, with a TV-Y parental rating. It was released on the DVD compilation titled "SpongeBob SquarePants: Halloween" on August 27, 2002, and on "SpongeBob SquarePants: Home Sweet Pineapple" that was released on January 4, 2005. The episode was also included in "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete 2nd Season" DVD released on October 19, 2004. On September 22, 2009, "Band Geeks" was released on the "SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes" DVD, alongside all episodes of seasons one through five.


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" received widespread acclaim from both fans and critics. Upon release, the episode was awarded and honored at the 2002 Golden Reel Awards for Best Sound Editing in Television – Animation category. Tom Kenny, SpongeBob's voice actor, considers "Band Geeks" one of his favorite episodes. In a 2009 review, Michael Cavna of "The Washington Post" ranked the episode at 5 in his "The Top Five "SpongeBob" Episodes: We Pick 'Em" list. He said "Squidward's mix of artistic aspiration in the face of goading, humiliation and unrelenting sub-mediocrity made this a kids' episode that adults can experience on a whole 'nother level." "The Guardian" ranked "Band Geeks" the second best episode of the show, next to "Krusty Krab Training Video". Jordan Moreau, Katcy Stephan and David Viramontes of "Variety" ranked it the best "SpongeBob" episode. They praised the Bubble Bowl performance and said that the episode "builds toward that moment through an episode packed to the gills with visual gag after visual gag".


title: Band Geeks

text: Nancy Basile of About.com ranked "Band Geeks" at 1 in her "Best "SpongeBob SquarePants" Episodes" list, writing "[The episode] has so many of the best elements of "SpongeBob", crafted into a story whose rhythm flows smoothly and quickly to reach a poignant end." She praised the entire premise, calling it "funny just to think about." Basile also lauded the ending "complete with a keytar and freeze-frame jump in the air." Emily Estep of WeGotThisCovered.com ranked the episode as the fourth-best "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode, explaining that "most of the gags in 'Band Geeks' center around Squidward's bleak existence, but it's also stuffed with one-liners from and about each of the characters on the show, such as the line 'These claws ain't just for attractin' mates!' from an about-to-brawl Mr. Krabs, and when Squidward says, 'No, Patrick, mayonnaise is not an instrument,' in response to an inevitable query from the stupid star."


title: Band Geeks

text: "Band Geeks" was one of the top episodes as chosen by viewers at Nick.com in the event "The Best Day Ever Marathon" held in 2006. In November 2007, as part of the "Top 100 Greatest Moments in Nicktoons History" during "Superstuff Nicktoons Weekend", it was ranked as the 1 greatest moment of all time. In 2012, Nickelodeon in the United Kingdom launched an event called "SpongeBob's Top 100", where viewers can vote at Nick.co.uk for their favorite episode. With over 160,000 votes cast, "Band Geeks" emerged as the winner. As of August 2022, it, alongside sister segment "The Secret Box", hold the highest rating and thus the 1 position for "SpongeBob" episodes on the series' IMDb page.


title: Band Geeks

text: The featured song "Sweet Victory" was later released on the series soundtrack album "" on November 15, 2005. "Sweet Victory" went from being a largely unknown production music track, to selling three hundred thousand iTunes downloads in one year after its exposure on the show.


title: Band Geeks

text: However, the closed captioning provided for the episode incorrectly stated the song's lyrics, which led to many mid-2000s lyric websites having incorrect lyrics for the song. Specifically, a line that was stated as "the world is ours to follow" (the real lyrics are "and the one who's last to fall"). This led APM Music to create a typed lyrics sheet, referencing SpongeBob SquarePants which skyrocketed the song to popularity.


title: Band Geeks

text: After the death of series creator Stephen Hillenburg on November 26, 2018, a Change.org petition was created which requested that the NFL pay tribute to him by playing "Sweet Victory" during the halftime show for Super Bowl LIII. By January 11, 2019, the petition received over 1.1 million signatures. On December 12, 2018, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the host stadium for Super Bowl LIII, posted a scene from the episode on their official Twitter account, hinting at a possible success from the petition's efforts. On January 13, the headlining act, Maroon 5, also released a teaser video featuring a clip of SpongeBob, which furthered speculation.


title: Band Geeks

text: During the halftime show on February 3, a short clip of Squidward and a snippet of the Bubble Bowl performance scene were used to announce guest singer Travis Scott, who Squidward described as "a true musical genius who needs no introduction." Many social media users were critical of the failure to include the "Sweet Victory" song and found the brief animated segment to be an inadequate tribute to Hillenburg. CBS News reported that the response by SpongeBob fans was mixed and noted the positive response from the animated show's official Twitter account. Despite the show's mixed reception, on-demand streams of "Sweet Victory" increased 566% after the Super Bowl, going up from 46,000 streams on February 1–2 to 310,000 on February 3–4. This led the track to enter "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s United States Hot Rock Songs chart at number 23 and the Kid Digital Song Sales chart at number two, just under Pinkfong's "Baby Shark." The day after the game, the Dallas Stars' Twitter page uploaded a modified version of the full "Sweet Victory" sequence, in which the band's uniforms were altered from red to green to match the Stars' colors, with the title "The #SuperBowl halftime show fans deserve". The Stars' video had previously been shown during their February 1 game against the Minnesota Wild.


title: Band Geeks

text: During the SpongeBob SportsPants Countdown Special, before the NFL on Nickelodeon Wild Card matchup between the Chicago Bears against the New Orleans Saints, the "Sweet Victory" sequence was #1 on the countdown. Several NFL stars appear during the sequence. In February 2021, the clip of SpongeBob performing the song from the episode was featured in the Super Bowl LV commercial to promote ViacomCBS' launch of the Paramount+ streaming service, as various characters from the ViacomCBS profolio reached the summit of Paramount Mountain. The commercial and its usage of the song received a positive reception, with many believing the inclusion of the song was done to make up for the failure to include it in the halftime show two years earlier.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served during the period of Japanese colonization. After World War II, the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government assumed the administration of the university. The Ministry of Education reorganized and renamed the university to its current name on November 15, 1945, with its roots of liberal tradition from Peking University in Beijing by former NTU President Fu Ssu-nien. The university consists of 11 colleges, 56 departments, 133 graduate institutes, about 60 research centers, and a school of professional education and continuing studies.


title: National Taiwan University

text: Notable alumni include Tsai Ing-Wen, current President of the Republic of China, former presidents Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou, Turing Award laureate Andrew Yao, and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Yuan T. Lee. NTU is affiliated with National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology as part of the NTU System.


title: National Taiwan University

text: National Taiwan University has its origins in 臺北帝國大學 Taihoku Imperial University (Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku), founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as a member of the imperial university system administered by the Empire of Japan.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The school's first president was . Taihoku Imperial University began with the faculty of Liberal Arts and Law and the Faculty of Science and Agriculture serving 60 students. The university was intended mainly for Japanese nationals; few Taiwanese students were admitted. The Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering were added in 1935 and 1943, respectively.


title: National Taiwan University

text: After World War II, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government reorganized the school as an institution for Chinese-speaking students. The school was renamed "National Taiwan University" on 15 November 1945 and Lo Tsung-lo was appointed as its president. The Literature and Politics division was divided into the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law. Additionally, colleges of Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture were established. Initially, there were six colleges with 22 departments. In 1945, student enrollment was 585.


title: National Taiwan University

text: In 1960, the night school was initiated on a trial basis, and in 1967 a new night school was established. In 1987, the College of Management was established, followed by the College of Public Health in 1993 and the College of Electrical Engineering in 1997. The College of Electrical Engineering was later reorganized as the College of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. In 1999, the College of Law has renamed the College of Social Sciences, and the Night Division and the Center for Continuing Education were combined to form the School for Professional and Continuing Studies. In 2002, the College of Agriculture has renamed the College of Bio-resources and Agriculture, and in 2002 a College of Life Sciences was added.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU selected as the national seven universities in research in 2002 (currently merged into six universities).


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU has a main campus in Daan District, Taipei City and has additional campuses in Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu County, Yunlin County, and Nantou County. The main campus is home to most college department buildings and administrative buildings. The university governs farms, forests, and hospitals for education and research purposes.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The university comprises 11 colleges: Liberal Arts, Engineering, Science, Social Sciences, Law, Bio-Resources & Agriculture, Management, Public Health, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Medicine, and Life Science. NTU offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorate degrees in many disciplines.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU requires most of its undergraduate students to take a mandatory core curriculum, comprising Chinese, freshman English, physical education, and public service. The medical school in addition dictates each of its students to take philosophy and sociology classes as well as seminars in ethics and thanatology. Military training is no longer an obligatory course for male students, but it is a prerequisite if they plan to apply to become officers during their compulsory military service.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU's programs cover a wide array of disciplines across science, arts, and the humanities, with up to 8,000 courses made available for selection each semester. Students are able to select courses offered by any of the colleges; however, compulsory subjects designated for each major needs to be completed to be awarded a degree. A student must declare a major during college application, some majors are more competitive than others and require a higher national examination score. In recent years, medicine, electrical engineering, law, and finance have been the most selective majors. Most majors take four years to complete while both the dental and the medical degrees take six years to finish.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP), founded by Stanford University, is located at National Taiwan University.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU is a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, Washington University in St. Louis's McDonnell International Scholars Academy, and the Association of East Asian Research Universities.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU also participates in several programs of the Taiwan International Graduate Program of Academia Sinica, Taiwan's most preeminent academic research institution.


title: National Taiwan University

text: National Taiwan University is widely considered to be the best university in Taiwan. The QS World University Rankings (2023) placed it at 77th worldwide. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2023) placed it at 187th worldwide. With other peering references of academic ranking, NTU also releases NTU World Universities ranking annually on the Double Ten Day, the National Holiday of the Republic of China.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The individual subject rankings from QS rankings in 2022 were: 24th in Classic and Ancient History, 36th in Modern languages, 38th in Civil and Structural Engineering, 42nd in Linguistic, 46th in Medicine, 47th in Nursing, 48th in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and 50th in Material Science.


title: National Taiwan University

text: The president heads the university. Each college is headed by a dean and each department by a chairman. Students elect their own representatives each year to attend administrative meetings.


title: National Taiwan University

text: NTU has produced many notable alumni. Tsai Ing-Wen, the current President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as well as former presidents Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou, all graduated from NTU. Both Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Yuan T. Lee and Turing Award laureate Andrew Yao received their Bachelor of Science from the university. Many NTU electrical engineering graduates have gone on to build global companies, including Quanta Computer's Barry Lam, Mediatek's Tsai Ming-kai and Garmin's Min Kao.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Transformers: Cybertron, known as in Japan, is an anime series which debuted on January 8, 2005. It is set in the "Transformers" universe. Produced by Aichi Television Broadcasting, We've, Tokyu Agency and Gonzo, the series is directed by Hiroyuki Kakudō and Manabu Ono, with Hiro Masaki handling series composition, Takashi Kumazen designing the characters, Mitsuru Ōwa serving as the mechanical and prop designer and Megumi Ōhashi composing the music. A corresponding toy line was released with the series.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: The series was conceived by Hasbro as the final installment of a trilogy formed with the previous two series, "" and "". However, the Japanese production did not follow through on this intent, scripting the series as an independent story unconnected to the preceding shows. The English dub partially modified the series to establish links back to "Armada" and "Energon", including changes to dialogue and small portions of new animation.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: In the anime, all of the Transformers are computer-generated, while the humans and backgrounds are rendered in traditional cel animation. Telecom Animation Film Company helped with the backgrounds. It was the last series in the Transformers franchise to be produced in Japan until the release of "Transformers Go!" in 2013.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: When the destruction of Unicron results in the formation of a massive black hole, the planet Cybertron, home world of the Transformers, is threatened, and its population is evacuated to Earth, taking the forms of local vehicles and machinery to hide from humanity. As this occurs, Optimus Prime's elite team of Autobot warriors are approached by the ancient Transformer Vector Prime, who has emerged from his resting place in the void outside of time to inform them of the legendary Cyber Planet Keys, ancient artifacts of power which can stop the black hole and save the universe. Lost due to an accident during an attempt to create a cross-universal space bridge network, the Cyber Planet Keys now reside on four worlds somewhere in the universe – unfortunately, Vector Prime's map showing their location is stolen by Decepticon leader Megatron, and both forces relocate to Earth as the race to find them begins.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: On Earth, the Autobots befriend three human children named Coby, Bud and Lori who aid them in locating the Omega Lock, the focusing device for the Cyber Planet Key's power. With new "Cyber Key Powers" awakened in them, the Transformers battle on many fronts, searching for the Lock on Earth while Hot Shot and Red Alert head for Velocitron, the Speed Planet which is the resting place of the first key and most of its inhabitants have racing vehicles modes. It is here that Megatron recruits known troublemakers Ransack and Crumplezone into the Decepticons. As Hot Shot competes in the planet's grand racing championship to win the key from planet leader Override, the Lock is located on Earth in the bulk of the crashed Transformer spaceship the Atlantis. Autobot Overhaul heads for Animatros the Jungle Planet which is the home of the Transformers who have beast modes. The power of Animatros' Cyber Planet Key reformats him into Leobreaker. Megatron ingratiates himself with Jungle Planet's dictator Scourge while his scheming lieutenant Starscream teams up with the mysterious Sideways, working towards his own goals.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Ultimately, the Autobots succeed in acquiring the Keys of both Velocitron and Jungle Planet, at which point the existence of Earth's own Cyber Planet Key is revealed. Starscream makes his power play and overthrows Megatron, stealing the Omega Lock and all three keys from the Autobots and using them to grow in size and power. Their forces bolstered by the ancient Autobots from Earth and the arrival of Wing Saber, who combines with Optimus Prime, the Autobots fight their way through a vengeful Megatron and defeat Starscream – but the battle is not without casualties, as Hot Shot, Red Alert and Scattershot are gravely wounded and rebuilt into the even more powerful "Cybertron Defense Team".


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Upon returning to Cybertron, the Autobots use the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys, which awakens the spirit of Primus, the deity who is creator of the Transformers, and Cybertron itself actually transforms into the god's body. After a battle in which Starscream taps the power of Primus and grows to planetary size – only to be defeated by Primus himself – the location of the fourth and final key is determined as Gigantion the Giant Planet which is the homeworld of the Minicons and the Transformers who are larger than normal while having construction vehicle modes. Gigantion, however, exists in another dimension, having fallen through a rift in space/time, And except for the kids and the Minicons, the others can't enter without having their minds separated from their bodies. Luckily, Red Alert has created a vaccine program (based on Technology from Vector prime's sword) to help but it is revealed that Jetfire has Trypanophobia and while the Autobots are able to reach the planet, the Decepticons are led there by the enigmatic Soundwave. Bested by the planet's leader Metroplex, Megatron taps the key's power to become Galvatron, and Sideways and Soundwave reveal themselves to be inhabitants of Planet X, a world destroyed by the Gigantions, upon whom they seek revenge. Galvatron blasts them and Starscream into another dimension and acquires the Lock and Keys for himself, intending to use their power to accelerate the universal degeneration caused by the black hole and remake the cosmos in his own image. Vector Prime sacrifices his life to allow the Autobots to return to their home universe, and the five planet leaders confront Galvatron within the black hole and defeat him. With all the Cyber Planet Keys now in his possession, Primus uses their power to finally seal the black hole, ending its threat.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: As the planet's various civilizations attempt to return to life as normal, Galvatron attacks the Autobots for one final time. Without any troops to call his own, Galvatron engages Optimus Prime in a one-on-one duel, and is finally destroyed for good. As Galvatron is dying, he places his fist on Optimus' chest and says his final words. In the Japanese dub, he says "Galaxy Convoy..." which is Optimus' name in the Japanese version of the show. His last words in the American dub, however, are "I still function. You haven't won. Not while my spark still burns..." As he starts chuckling evilly, Optimus says "You fought well. Goodbye, Galvatron." As Galvatron disintegrates to space dust, Optimus kneels in front of Vector Prime's sword that Optimus used to slay Galvatron, still injured. As Jetfire and the others run over to Optimus to check on him, Optimus says "Don't worry. You won't get rid of me that easily." Galvatron is later seen in the credits of the last episode engaging Vector Prime in battle. With this final victory, Optimus Prime begins a new space bridge initiative, and the Transformers set sail for the four corners of the universe, and new adventures.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Cyber Planet Keys (Planet Force in "Galaxy Force") are four mystical items that form the crux of "Transformers: Cybertron"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s plot; in order to stop the black hole that is threatening the universe, the Autobots must gather all four. Also seeking to attain them are the Decepticons, who want to use their power for their own ends.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: The Cyber Planet Keys are formed from the spark of Primus and were used eons ago in the Space Bridge project that was meant to link all populated planets together. They were carried to various planets by four Cybertronian spacecraft, the Atlantis, the Ogygia, the Hyperborea, and the Lemuria. All four are controlled by a device called the Omega Lock, and when they are all inserted, they awaken Primus's power.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Unfortunately, the effort failed and the four Cyber Planet Keys were lost. They would remain that way for eons, until the black hole threatened Cybertron. At that point, Vector Prime emerged and told the story of the Keys to the Autobots. Eventually, they agreed to attempt Vector Prime's plan. Unfortunately, Megatron also learned of the scheme and began his own effort to gain the Planet Keys.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: The Cyber Planet Keys were each marked with a symbol and colored gold. The four Cyber Planet Keys were found on Earth, Velocitron, Jungle Planet, and Gigantion.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Finally, the Autobots found the Cyber Planet Keys and the Omega Lock, and awoke Primus, who shut down the black hole, saving Cybertron and the universe. The four planets started a new space bridge project, and, finally, peace was restored.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: A manga adaptation of the series, written and illustrated by , was serialized from the February to October 2005 issues of Kodansha's Comic BomBom magazine. A tankōbon was released on August 5, 2005. Although it has the same idea of searching for Chip Squares and Planet Forces to extinguish the Grand Black Hole as in the anime, the storyline development and characterizations are unique. Due to the manga's cancellation, the final three chapters were never collected into a tankōbon.


title: Transformers: Cybertron

text: Michael Drucker at IGN, reviewed the "Transformers Cybertron: A New Beginning" DVD, criticizing it as "A lackluster update on classic characters with minimal plot". The video quality was criticized for compression artifacts. The DVD was also criticized for its lack of extra features. Overall, the DVD was given a "bad" rating of 3 out of 10.


title: Philip Billing

text: Philip Anyanwu Billing (born 11 June 1996) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder and more recently as a centre forward for club AFC Bournemouth and the Denmark national team.


title: Philip Billing

text: Billing was born in Copenhagen. After signing for Esbjerg in his native Denmark, he joined Huddersfield Town in 2013 on a youth contract. Billing signed a four-year professional contract in October 2013. After performing well for both the under-18s and under-21s, he made his first team debut for the club as a substitute in their 2–0 loss against Leicester City at the John Smith's Stadium on 26 April 2014.


title: Philip Billing

text: His first start for the Terriers came 18 months later in their 2–2 draw against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on 3 November 2015. His first goal for the club came from a 30-yard strike against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in a 2–0 win for the Terriers on 13 February 2016. On 19 November 2016, he scored his second goal for the club with a volley from 32 yards out in a 3–2 loss against Cardiff City.


title: Philip Billing

text: Billing got slowly more and more space in the squad. After 10 good matches in the 2015–16 season, Billing signed a contract extension in March 2016. He got his breakthrough in the 2016–17 season. "In-form" Billing was linked with a transfer to Premier League club Crystal Palace. He played 24 games and scored two goals in total in that season. After the season, Billing was named as the youth player of the season in Huddersfield and his goal against Cardiff City in November 2016 was voted goal of the season.


title: Philip Billing

text: On 29 July 2019, Billing signed for Premier League AFC Bournemouth on a long-term contract for a £15 million fee. He was given the No. 29 jersey. Billing made a strong start to his first season with Bournemouth, starting the first four Premier League games of the season and being nominated for the club's Player of the Month award for August. Billing scored his first goals for the club in the FA Cup Third Round fixture against Luton Town, as Bournemouth won the game 4–0. He then scored his first Premier League goal for the club, netting the opening goal against relegation rivals Aston Villa in a 2–1 win for the home side on 1 February.


title: Philip Billing

text: Billing was involved in a controversial VAR decision in a 3–0 away loss to Burnley in the Premier League on 22 February, when his knock-down from a corner to Joshua King was judged to be a handball by the VAR officials. This was one of two Bournemouth goals disallowed for handball in the match.


title: Philip Billing

text: Billing scored eight goals in the Championship for the 2020–21 season, which was also his most prolific goalscoring season to date.


title: Philip Billing

text: Billing was born in Denmark to a Danish mother and Igbo Nigerian father. Billing is a Danish youth international, having represented the U19 and U21 teams.


title: Philip Billing

text: He made his single appearance for the Danish U19s on 4 September 2014 as a substitute in their 2–1 win over Norway in Lyngdal. On 9 March 2017, he was called up to the Denmark under-20 team to face the Czech Republic and Romania. He earned his first cap for the Danish U21 team in a qualifying match for the 2019 European Championship against the Faroe Islands on 31 August 2017. It ended in a 3–0 win. He played another qualifying match a week later, a 6–0 win against Lithuania.


title: Philip Billing

text: In November 2018, Billing turned down an approach to switch his international allegiance to Nigeria. In March 2019, he received his first call-up to the Danish senior national team. He debuted in a 4–0 friendly win over the Faroe Islands on 7 October 2020.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where it is connected with the Pantanal region. This land is sometimes called the Chaco Plain.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The name Chaco comes from a word in Quechua, an indigenous language from the Andes and highlands of South America. The Quechua word "chaqu" meaning "hunting land" comes probably from the rich variety of animal life present throughout the entire region.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The Gran Chaco is about 647,500 km² (250,000 sq mi) in size, though estimates differ. It is located west of the Paraguay River and east of the Andes, and is mostly an alluvial sedimentary plain shared among Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina. It stretches from about 17 to 33°S latitude and between 65 and 60°W longitude, though estimates differ.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Historically, the Chaco has been divided in three main parts: the "Chaco Austral" or Southern Chaco, south of the Bermejo River and inside Argentinian territory, blending into the Pampa region in its southernmost end; the "Chaco Central" or Central Chaco between the Bermejo and the Pilcomayo River to the north, also now in Argentinian territory; and the "Chaco Boreal" or Northern Chaco, north of the Pilcomayo up to the Brazilian Pantanal, inside Paraguayan territory and sharing some area with Bolivia.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Locals sometimes divide it today by the political borders, giving rise to the terms Argentinian Chaco, Paraguayan Chaco, and Bolivian Chaco. (Inside Paraguay, people sometimes use the expression Central Chaco for the area roughly in the middle of the Chaco Boreal, where Mennonite colonies are established.)


title: Gran Chaco

text: The Chaco Boreal may be divided in two: closer to the mountains in the west, the "Alto Chaco" (Upper Chaco), sometimes known as "Chaco Seco" (or Dry Chaco), is very dry and sparsely vegetated. To the east, less arid conditions combined with favorable soil characteristics permit a seasonally dry higher-growth thorn tree forest, and further east still higher rainfall combined with improperly drained lowland soils result in a somewhat swampy plain called the "Bajo Chaco" (Lower Chaco), sometimes known as "Chaco Húmedo" (Humid Chaco). It has a more open savanna vegetation consisting of palm trees, quebracho trees, and tropical high-grass areas, with a wealth of insects. The landscape is mostly flat and slopes at a 0.004-degree gradient to the east. This area is also one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the Parana-Paraguay Plain division.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The areas more hospitable to development are along the Paraguay, Bermejo, and Pilcomayo Rivers. It is a great source of timber and tannin, which is derived from the native "quebracho" tree. Special tannin factories have been constructed there. The wood of the palo santo from the Central Chaco is the source of oil of guaiac (a fragrance for soap). Paraguay also cultivates mate in the lower part of the Chaco.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Large tracts of the central and northern Chaco have high soil fertility, sandy alluvial soils with elevated levels of phosphorus, and a topography that is favorable for agricultural development. Other aspects are challenging for farming: a semiarid to semihumid climate (600–1300 mm annual rainfall) with a six-month dry season and sufficient fresh groundwater restricted to roughly one-third of the region, two-thirds being without groundwater or with groundwater of high salinity. Soils are generally erosion-prone once the forest has been cleared. In the central and northern Paraguay Chaco, occasional dust storms have caused major topsoil loss.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The Chaco was occupied by nomadic peoples, notably the various groups making up the Guaycuru, who resisted Spanish control of the Chaco, often with success, from the 16th until the early 20th centuries.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Prior to national independence of the nations that compose the Chaco, the entire area was a separate colonial region named by the Spaniards as "Chiquitos".


title: Gran Chaco

text: The Gran Chaco had been a disputed territory since 1810. Officially, it was supposed to be part of Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, although a bigger land portion west of the Paraguay River had belonged to Paraguay since its independence. Argentina claimed territories north of the Bermejo River until Paraguay's defeat in the War of the Triple Alliance in 1870 established its current border with Argentina.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Over the next few decades, Bolivia began to push the natives out and settle in the Gran Chaco, while Paraguay ignored it. Bolivia sought the Paraguay River for shipping oil out into the sea (it had become a land-locked country after the loss of its Pacific coast in the War of the Pacific), and Paraguay claimed ownership of the land. This became the backdrop to the Gran Chaco War (1932–1935) between Paraguay and Bolivia over supposed oil in the Chaco Boreal (the aforementioned region north of the Pilcomayo River and to the west of the Paraguay River). Eventually, Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas mediated a ceasefire and subsequent treaty signed in 1938, which gave Paraguay three-quarters of the Chaco Boreal and gave Bolivia a corridor to the Paraguay River with the ability to use the Puerto Casado and the right to construct their own port. No oil was found in the region until 2012 when Paraguayan President Federico Franco announced the discovery of oil in the area of the Pirity river.


title: Gran Chaco

text: Mennonites immigrated into the Paraguayan part of the region from Canada in the 1920s; more came from the USSR in the 1930s and immediately following World War II. These immigrants created some of the largest and most prosperous municipalities in the deep Gran Chaco.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The region is home to over 9 million people, divided about evenly among Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, and including around 100,000 in Paraguay. The area remains relatively underdeveloped, In the 1960s, the Paraguayan authorities constructed the Trans-Chaco Highway and the Argentine National Highway Directorate, National Routes 16 and 81, in an effort to encourage access and development. All three highways extend about from east to west and are now completely paved, as is a network of nine Brazilian highways in Mato Grosso do Sul state.


title: Gran Chaco

text: It has high biodiversity, containing around 3,400 plant species, 500 birds, 150 mammals, and 220 reptiles and amphibians.


title: Gran Chaco

text: The floral characteristics of the Gran Chaco are varied given the large geographical span of the region. The dominant vegetative structure is xerophytic deciduous forests with multiple layers, including a canopy (trees), subcanopy, shrub layer, and herbaceous layer. Ecosystems include riverine forests, wetlands, savannas, and cactus stands, as well.


title: Gran Chaco

text: At higher elevations of the eastern zone of the Humid Chaco, mature forests transition from the wet forests of southern Brazil. These woodlands are dominated by canopy trees such as "Handroanthus impetiginosus" and characterized by frequent lianas and epiphytes. This declines to seasonally flooded forests, at lower elevations, that are dominated by "Schinopsis" spp., a common plains tree genus often harvested for its tannin content and dense wood. The understory comprises bromeliad and cactus species, as well as hardy shrubs such as "Schinus fasciculata". These lower areas lack lianas, but have abundant epiphytic species such as "Tillandsia". The river systems that flow through the area, such as the Rio Paraguay and Rio Parana, allow for seasonally flooded semievergreen gallery forests that hold riparian species such as "Tessaria integrifolia" and "Salix humboldtiana". Other seasonally flooded ecosystems of this area include palm-dominated ("Copernicia alba") savannas with a bunch grass-dominated herbaceous layer.