Entertainment
Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Scariest Monster Was Secretly There From The Beginning
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was filled with plenty of scary monsters, but one was infinitely more frightening than any vampire: the Judge, an ancient demon who is reassembled by Spike to wreak absolute havoc in Sunnydale. Thanks to the show’s killer makeup team, the Judge looked even scarier than his centuries-old reputation, and he remains one of the most iconic monsters the series has ever known. That makeup was so good, in fact, that most Buffy fans never realized that the Judge was played by Brian Thompson, the actor who played the show’s forgotten main villain from its very first episode!
In the Buffy series premiere, “Welcome To the Hellmouth,” Thompson played a vampire character named Luke. He is a member of the Order of Aurelius and is over 150 years old by the time he first tangles with the Slayer and her Scooby Gang. He also served as the de facto main villain of this first episode because he served the Master, an ancient vampire who has been trapped beneath Sunnydale thanks to an ancient spell.
The Original Big Bad
Luke featured heavily in the Master’s plans to escape his magical prison: specifically, this younger vampire is designated as the Master’s vessel, and when he feeds on humans, it transfers power back to his demonic boss. Once he and his undead posse take over the Bronze, it originally seems like he will have no trouble feeding on enough of Sunnydale’s young residents to finally free the Master. But Buffy outwits Luke, distracting him by mentioning a non-existent sunrise before she stakes him through the heart, dusting the vamp and temporarily foiling the Master’s escape.
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff have brought multiple vampires back from the dead (including Angel and Darla), Luke was never resurrected, but he left a lasting impact on fans. After all, since the Master was trapped, Luke served as the de facto main villain in the first episode of what would become a major television phenomenon. Eventually, however, Luke returned in a different way, when actor Brian Thompson played the Judge in the episodes “Surprise” and “Innocence.”
Here Comes The Judge
Under all that makeup, it can be hard to tell that the Judge is played by the same actor who first menaced Buffy in “Welcome to the Hellmouth.” At the very least, this new character is a major upgrade over the old one. While Luke might have been a superpowered vampire, the Judge was an ancient demon whose body was hacked to pieces ages ago by a vengeful army; however, his body parts remained alive, and in the Season 2 episode “Surprise,” Spike reassembles this ancient monster to impress Drusilla, the vampire girlfriend who first transformed him into a creature of the night.
Additionally, the Judge has a much more memorable death than Brian Thompson’s earlier villain. As a vampire, Luke was killed by a simple stake, but the Judge boasts that he cannot be killed by any weapon forged by man. Reasoning that this was only true of old-timey weapons, Buffy utilizes an exceedingly modern solution and blows the Judge up with a rocket launcher!
Two Icons, One Actor
It’s a crowd-pleasing moment, one that would remain a highlight of the entire series. But both the life and the death of the Judge are that much cooler once you realize that he is played by the first major villain the Slayer ever had to tangle with. In this way, Brian Thompson left his mark on this iconic TV series by playing two of the coolest villains in Buffy the Vampire Slayer history!
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 26, 2026
Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you’re a shining star.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
Sheen.
Mashable Top Stories
Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
The letter S appears twice.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter G.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
GLOSS
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.
Entertainment
Alan Ritchson's Extremely Graphic Sci-Fi Series Is The Best Show You've Never Watched
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Before he was Reacher, but after he was Thad, Alan Ritchson played Barbie. Not that Barbie, Arthur Bailey, the hero of SyFy’s wild series, Blood Drive. A throwback to the grindhouse cinema of the 70s, Blood Drive is the most twisted series to air on the cable channel. If you think a show about a cross-country death race in a future wrecked by environmental catastrophe and controlled by a mega corporation sounds like Death Race 2000 or Twisted Metal, well, you’re right. There’s one small difference. The cars in Blood Drive run on human blood.
Gas Is People
Set years after the United States was cracked in half by earthquakes along the Mississippi river, Blood Drive’s evil corporation, Heart Enterprises, has monopolized the rare resources exposed by the massive fault. Water’s scarce, and gas is hard to come by, so of course the solution is cars that run on blood, which have helpful grinders built into the engines for sticking human bodies. Not all of them have that of course, but when you see the inside of the psychotic Grace’s (Christina Ochoa) car, you won’t soon forget it.
Grace and Arthur, a cop trying to do the right thing, are reluctantly partnered for the cross-country race. Together, they hit one nightmare after another on the open highway, from cannibals to Amazons, with every new city and rest stop hiding a deadly secret. Every now and then, they stumble across a small town in need of a few good men. Except this is Blood Drive. There are no heroes here.
It’s no surprise which character ended up becoming the fan favorite: Julian Sink, the Blood Drive Master of Ceremonies. Played over the top by Stargate’s Colin Cunningham (also John Pope in TNT’s Falling Skies), no one can out dandy Sink. He’s eccentric, he might be insane, and you can’t help but be charmed by the man with personality to spare.
Blood Drive Was Pure Grindhouse Fun
Alan Ritchson’s involvement in Blood Drive seems weird to everyone who only knows him from Reacher. Ritchson’s sense of humor lands right in the Grindhouse aesthetic, which is why he can deliver lines like “why are hot girls so mean,” when the Amazon Queen has him tied down. It’s an insane series that is well-served by the case-of-the-week setup. In addition to the Amazons and cannibals, there are nymphomaniacs, zombies, an asylum, a fight club, and an Asian martial arts-inspired episode. Again, this is an insane series filled with blood, guts, and sex. Thanks to the two leads, there’s something here to appeal to anyone.
Blood Drive only lasted one season and it sort of wraps up the story. SyFy cited poor ratings, but then again, they didn’t do a whole lot of marketing for the show that sounds ridiculous at first, and remains ridiculous, but it hides a wicked sense of black humor. Blood Drive is hard to find streaming, with episodes only available for purchase from YouTube and Fandango at Home, and the Blu-Ray has been out of print for nearly a decade.
If you can find it, Blood Drive is the perfect watch for anyone who enjoys the old-school grindhouse aesthetic, or wants something that dares to be different. The best part of the series though, the fake commercials for Grindhouse movies, the same gag used by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double-feature, are left off the home video releases. Still, if you want to see Alan Ritchson murder people, or Colin Cunningham have the time of his life, it’s worth hunting down a copy of SyFy’s bloodiest series ever.
Entertainment
How The Best Fantasy Movie Of The Decade Was Destroyed By Corporate Greed
By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
The most successful fantasy films of all time, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Harry Potter, have reigned at the top of the mountain for decades, yet the genre has experienced a resurgence in recent years thanks to the rise of podcasts. Actual play podcasts featuring players going through a tabletop RPG have become one of the hottest genres of the new medium, and the best of them, including Critical Role, Dimension 20, and Not Another D&D Podcast, were based on Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition.
You’d think that 2023’s Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the best fantasy movie of the last decade, would have become a hit, but instead it disappointed at the box office (ironically, thanks to the franchise owner, Wizards of the Coast, horrible timing). Now it’s finally developing a following.
A Tabletop Adventure On The Big Screen
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves picks up after the adventuring party of Edvin the Bard (Chris Pine), Holga the Barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon the Sorcerer (Justice Smith), Doric the Druid (Sophia Lillis), and Forge the Thief (Hugh Grant) were betrayed by the obviously evil wizard Sofina (Daisy Head). Out for revenge, Evin and Holga get the band back together, go into an actual dungeon complete with a dragon, and pull off a fantastical heist.
The film has everything fans of the game have wanted to see on the big screen for decades, including an aarakocra and a cameo appearance by the characters from the 80s Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon. Actual spells from the tabletop game are used, and real mechanics were played out.
All of this helped make the rollicking adventure feel like someone’s homebrew campaign brought to life. Even for those who don’t play the tabletop game, the comedy beats all and makes it a fun fantasy adventure.
Why Dungeons & Dragons Failed To Find A Big Theater Audience
Mere weeks before Honor Among Thieves was released, Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons, did something so heinous it caused a boycott by fans. For more than 20 years, the game had operated under the Open Gaming License (OGL).
That OGL let independent writers and small companies create adventures, rulebooks, podcasts, and entire businesses built around D&D without fear of being shut down. And Wizards of the Coast decided to end it all.
A leaked draft of a new license Wizards of the Coast was planning appeared online. The Open Game License was being changed so that Wizards would get a 25 percent cut of everything fans earn when a creator makes more than $750,000 from monetizing the game. Worse still, the new terms would ban all online tabletop simulators and allow Wizards of the Coast to claim sole ownership of anything created by fans.
This leak of the company’s plans sparked a firestorm in the Dungeons & Dragons community. Core fans revolted en masse. An organic, fan-driven boycott of the company and everything it was involved with began. That boycott included the movie, meaning the group of people Hollywood expected as the film’s core supporters were not only avoiding it, but actively campaigning to keep it from being seen. It worked.
The film received a favorable response from those who saw it, with a 91 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from over 300 reviews by critics and a matching 92 percent from over 2,000 reviews by the public. Yet Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves underperformed, barely squeaking by with $200 million worldwide. That failure is undeniable, but it’s not the fault of the movie. Honor Among Thieves was destroyed by the greed of the company that owns its IP.
The backlash became so intense that Wizards eventually reversed course and released key D&D rules under a Creative Commons license, making them far harder to control in the future. But that change was too late to save Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Standing On Its Own
Removed from the drama of early 2023, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can now stand on its own merit. Thanks to streaming, audiences are watching and enjoying the movie.
Unfortunately, the movie’s weak performance destroyed the hope of a sequel. However, if Honor Among Thieves continues to gain a much-deserved cult following, there’s always a chance that the writer/director duo of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who also worked with Pine on Horrible Bosses 2) will get another chance to bring the game to life.
Whether Honor Among Thieves gets the sequel it deserves or not, thanks to streaming, fans can enjoy the funniest fantasy movie since Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and newcomers can get a taste of what it’s like to play the most popular tabletop role-playing game in the world.
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