The Nintendo Switch Online paid membership program is doing quite well, it seems. Nintendo has confirmed that 9.8 million people have signed up for the paid program since the service launched back in September. This excludes free trial memberships, but it does include family subscriptions.
Nearly 10 million subscribers paying a monthly fee is likely good news for Nintendo’s bottom line, as it gives the company yet another way to make money on a regular basis. Software and services are historically the money-makers, so Nintendo investors are likely happy with this strong start for Nintendo Switch Online.
Also in the report, Nintendo called out Tetris 99 as a success story for Switch Online. The game is free, but it requires a Switch Online membership, and so far the game has been played by 2.8 million accounts. The title helped improve overall “engagement” on Nintendo Switch, the company said.
“We plan to implement in-game events to encourage consumers to keep enjoying the game,” Nintendo said.
Another pillar of Nintendo Switch Online is the library of NES titles that subscribers get access to. The library grows every month, and Nintendo said this program is being enjoyed by subscribers. Looking ahead, Nintendo said it is looking at ways to make Nintendo Switch Online “more attractive” going forward, but it didn’t say how.
The Builders are a pretty recent addition to the Marvel pantheon, but their cosmic lore packs a major whalop–maybe even more than Thanos. The long and the short of them is a little tricky–they’re an ancient race of extra-dimensional aliens who are responsible for creating and maintaining life in the universe. To do this, they created various sub-species and races to help them keep up the world like “Caretakers,” “Gardeners,” and “Curators,” all of whom answer to the Builders with unquestioning devotion.
The most interesting part of them, however, is not their status as very literal cosmic life-giving gods; it’s the fact that they treat the worlds they create as sort of clinical experiments without any real emotional concern. It’s all logic, all the way down for them, and when they see a world starting to act up–to “fail” the experiment–they deal with it handily by wiping it out of existence.
Naturally, this is what brought them into conflict with the Avengers over in the comics–they deigned Earth a failure, and the Avengers decided to say, “No, thank you.”
The MCU is in the perfect position to bring the Builders–or something inspired by the Builders–over to the live-action scene after Endgame, giving just how much of Endgame relied on the team playing fast and loose with the rules of time, space, and reality. If anything is going to flag the Earth as a failed cosmic experiment to a race of malevolent, nearly omnipotent, alien overlords, it’s probably screwing around with a bunch of random doomed timelines, right? | Meg Downey
One of Avengers: Endgame‘s most unlikely heroes is a character who has been around since the beginning: Pepper Potts, who’s last proper run-in with the front lines of a superhero showdown came in Iron Man 3. Things are a lot different this time around, thankfully, and Pepper is no longer infected with a lethal virus burning her up from the inside out–now she’s just got her very own armor, and it’s straight from the comics.
Somewhere in the five-year time skip, Tony built Pepper her very own armor as an “anniversary present”–something she apparently rarely uses, according to Tony, but she has it nonetheless. This all happens off screen so we’re left to fill in the gaps for ourselves about why a set of armor would be a great gift–did Pepper request it? Did Tony just build it because that’s what he does? Honestly, who knows. The point is, Pepper has a suit and somewhere in the last five years she apparently learned how to fly it really, really well.
The armor itself is never given a name in the movie, which is a little unusual given how much Tony likes to name things, but it’s a sleek purple get-up that seems to have all the capabilities and features of Tony’s more recent suits, including detachable wing-like guns, blasters, and more repulsor weapons than you could shake a stick at. It doesn’t appear to be nano-tech, however, but we don’t see it long enough or closely enough to really say for certain.
Where does the armor actually come from?
Pepper suiting up is a two-fold pay off. The first part is strictly for fans of the MCU who remember her brush with armoring up back in Iron Man 3 when she was infected with the deadly Extremis treatment which had been designed to help regenerate damaged tissue by the dubiously ethical Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM. She never actually–or willingly–suits up in that movie, but much like Steve’s tease with Mjolnir back in Age of Ultron, the wink to a possible future was laid out.
The idea is not unique to the MCU incarnation at all, however. Over in the comics, Pepper actually had a relatively long run as an armored hero named Rescue. Rescue’s story comes from an era in the comics where Tony Stark was declared a fugitive by Norman Osborn and HAMMER, when he refused to give Osborn the list of superhero identities and code names from the Superhero Registration Act. Osborn hunted Tony down by systematically attacking Stark Industries locations, leaving Pepper frantically trying to escape. Luckily, she found the “Mark 1616” armor Tony had made for her in secret and was able to escape Norman’s relentless attack unscathed.
To make sure the Registration Act data never fell into Norman’s hands, Tony began erasing his own mind, leaving Pepper to pick up Iron Man duties in his place–but with a twist. Norman had declared all of Tony’s various tech illegal weapons of mass destruction, making the traditional Iron Man approach completely untenable. To circumvent this problem, Tony built the Mark 1616 without any weapons–a purely defensive suit–that would effectively loophole all of Norman’s legal maneuvering and allow Pepper to operate in public. Hence the name “Rescue.”
Pepper eventually gave up the Rescue identity when Tony got back on his feet, but it remains one of her most defining eras in comics, not to mention one of her coolest.
So is that really Rescue in Endgame?
Not really. Endgame’s version of Pepper’s armor is definitely inspired by Rescue in the design silhouette, and the purple color palette was used in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures cartoon, but that’s about where the similarities end. It does carry with it plenty of implications about the future of Pepper’s character, though–and it’s always nice to see a vague idea realized completely, even if it took six years.
Whether we’ll see Pepper return for future movies is a mystery, but at the very least, we now know that anyone–even someone who isn’t an engineer or a military pilot–can eventually learn to pilot an armor in five years or less. The tech has definitely come a long way in terms of user-friendliness since Tony’s first days of testing in his garage.
Time is running out to catch Giratina in Pokemon Go. Niantic brought the Legendary Pokemon back to Raid Battles earlier this month, this time in its Origin Forme, but it’s slated to leave the mobile game once again today, April 29, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET, making this your last opportunity to capture one for the foreseeable future.
Unlike Giratina’s standard Altered Form–the form it took when it first appeared in Pokemon Go during last year’s Halloween event–its Origin Forme is more serpentine in appearance and has offense-oriented stats. In Pokemon lore, this is the form Giratina assumes in the Distortion World–a parallel universe the Pokemon was banished to.
To catch Origin Forme Giratina, you’ll first need to travel to a Gym where a Giratina Raid is taking place and team up with other players in the real world to battle it. If you manage to successfully defeat the Renegade Pokemon, you’ll be rewarded with a handful of Premier Balls and an opportunity to capture it.
Like its Altered Forme, Origin Forme Giratina is a dual Dragon/Ghost Pokemon, which makes it vulnerable to its own types. Your best bet is to bring along Pokemon like Salamence, Rayquaza, and Gengar, or Dark-types such as Tyranitar and Houndoom. You can read more tips on how to catch Giratina here.
There’s no telling yet what Legendary Pokemon will replace Origin Forme Giratina, but a couple of new ones will be available through May and June’s Field Research quests. If you achieve a Research Breakthrough during those two months, you’ll have a chance to encounter Ho-Oh, Lugia, Latios, or Latias. On top of that, Shiny Meltan is appearing in Pokemon Go again right now, but it’ll only be available until May 5.
The exact location Arya stuck her pointy end in at the episode’s conclusion may be significant. HBO’s after-episode featurette revealed that she was meant to stab the Night King in the same location as the Children of the Forest when they created the White Walkers. That can be interpreted multiple ways: Maybe she had to stab him in the heart, or maybe that event thousands of years earlier actually took place at the future location of Winterfell’s Godswood. If it’s the former, it also ties in with something the Hound taught Arya a long time ago: how to slip a knife in between your victim’s ribs to get at their heart, which is easier than stabbing them right in the chest.
Then again, with how Valyrian Steel works, she probably could have knicked him on a finger and gotten the same result.
Avengers: Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are talking about the decisions they made when scripting the final installment of the original MCU Avengers, and that includes why Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man was killed off during the film’s climax.
In a must-read interview with The New York Times, the writers talked about why Tony was always slated to die in Endgame.
“The watchword was, end this chapter, and he started the chapter,” said McFeely of Iron Man. Of course, that is true as Downey Jr. launched the MCU all the way back in 2008 with the first Iron Man film. At the time it would’ve been impossible to predict how far this shared universe of heroes and villains would go. But the fact is, Tony was the start of it all.
For the second year running, Pokemon Go developer Niantic teamed up with Playmob to host a series of Earth Day cleanup events during the month of April. The initiative turned out to be a big success; according to Niantic, more than 14,800 people participated in these events, and as thanks, the developer has rolled out a batch of exciting rewards for a limited time in the Pokemon mobile game.
From now until May 2, Ground-type Pokemon such as Diglett, Sandshrew, and others will appear in the wild more frequently than normal. On top of that, players will have a chance of finding a Shiny Diglett, marking the first time it has been available in the mobile game.
Rounding out the Earth Day rewards, players will receive two times the normal amount of Candy and Stardust each time they capture Pokemon. Finally, the Legendary Ground Pokemon Groudon will also appear as a Raid boss again until May 2. You can see the full list of rewards on Niantic’s website.
In addition to the Earth Day rewards, Niantic recently announced that a new set of Field Research tasks are coming soon to Pokemon Go. The tasks will go live beginning May 1 and will be available through the end of June. Moreover, each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough during that time frame, you’ll encounter one of the following Legendary Pokemon: Ho-Oh, Lugia, Latios, or Latias.
Shiny Meltan has also returned to Pokemon Go for a limited time. Meanwhile, the game’s next Community Day event is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 19. The featured Pokemon this month will be the Gen 3 starter, Torchic, and players will be able to earn triple the normal amount of Stardust for catching Pokemon.
For all its Easter Eggs and call backs, for all it managed to do with Tony Stark, one of the most memorable and satisfying moments of Avengers: Endgame came at the hands of fan favorite character Captain America, who, just as the battle against Thanos looked its bleakest for Thor, saved the day–by wielding Thor’s original hammer, Mjolnir.
Now, there are a lot of reasons that this moment is extremely cool–c’mon, it’s Captain America swinging a lightning-powered warhammer around, what’s not to love?–but it actually becomes even more interesting if you take a look at just what picking up a weapon like Mjolnir actually means in the context of Marvel history.
Let’s break it down.
What’s Mjolnir’s deal? Isn’t it gone?
It hasn’t come up in the MCU for a while, but Mjolnir actually has an inscription. It goes like this: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” If you think all the way back to the very first Thor movie, this part was pretty critical–Thor was stripped of his “worthiness” by Odin and cast out, leaving Mjolnir stuck in a crater on Earth with Thor unable to lift it. Of course, he eventually learned a valuable life lesson about his hubris and ego and was able to pick it up again–yay! Then, later, the “worthiness” drum was beaten again when, in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, it was played for a bit of a party trick. After the Avengers took turns trying to lift it from a coffee table, Steve was able to make it wiggle the slightest bit. At the end of the movie, it comes back as another gag with Steve, Thor, and Tony debating what would happen if you put Mjolnir in an elevator.
“Elevator’s not worthy,” Steve says, shaking his head.
The conversation was prompted after Vision, a synthetic humanoid built out of Ultron’s AI, Tony’s AI butler Jarvis, and the Mind Stone, was able to pick up Mjolnir during the final confrontation with Ultron himself. The ins and outs of Vision’s whole deal vis-a-vis worthiness aren’t really examined too thoroughly, but the implications are there. Not only is Vision a new, and therefore wholly “untainted” creation, he’s also born of one of the universe’s most powerful artifacts–a potent combination.
Since then, however, Mjolnir’s symbolism and place in the MCU has shifted dramatically. With Thor: Ragnarok, we saw Hela destroy the hammer altogether, sending Thor into a crisis. Eventually, he realized that his power–his worthiness–didn’t come from the hammer itself at all. “Are you Thor, god of Hammers?” Odin asked. Of course not–and we have a whole fight montage set to Led Zepplin to prove it. Later, in Infinity War, he’s given a new, better weapon, an ax named Stormbreaker with no worthiness clause attached.
Here in Endgame there’s a bit of an abrupt pivot. During the whole time travel adventure heist, an extremely downtrodden and depressed Thor visits the Asgard of 2013, talks with his mom before she dies, and summons the Mjolnir from 2013 into his hand. This delights him because it means, after everything, he’s still “worthy,” something he couldn’t test with Stormbreaker.
So Mjolnir–albeit a temporally displaced Mjolnir–is back in play in time for the final fight against Thanos.
What does it mean to be “worthy?”
As far as esoteric comic book things are concerned, “worthiness” and Mjolnir is up there with the Infinity Stones in terms of being, uh, fluid to say the least. In the MCU, worthiness tends to be defined through Thor’s selfishness or lack thereof–or at least by what Odin thinks is Thor’s selfishness or lack thereof. After overcoming that first brush with unworthiness, Thor does just fine–even when he’s behaving extremely brashly–which makes a reliable barometer for the MCU’s take on the concept pretty difficult to craft.
The comics, however, have it a little bit easier. Very recently, Thor was rendered unworthy by an omnipotent Nick Fury (don’t ask) who simply whispered these three words: “Gor was right.” Gor, a villain known as “The God Butcher,” had been one of Thor’s newer enemies. He was an alien who made it his life’s work to exterminate all “gods” in space. Gor’s mission stemmed from his belief that all gods were petty, useless, and selfish creatures who deluded themselves into believing they were above mere mortals. During a fight, he told Thor just that: “You know I’m right. That’s why you fight so hard. Why you try so desperately to seem noble.”
At the time, Gor’s words did nothing but make Thor more angry–and fueled him to ultimately take Gor down–but it definitely got a little under his skin. The confirmation from a man who, at the time, was literally all seeing and all knowing, was enough to completely shatter Thor’s self confidence and render him unworthy of his own weapon.
So what does that tell us? There are a couple ways to slice it, but the easier of them is that worthiness directly ties into belief in one’s self more than any lack of arrogance or hubris. You can be a pretty cocky guy, at the end of the day, but if you truly believe in what you’re doing, and are completely free of doubt, you’ll probably be worthy.
Steve’s had experiences with Mjolnir in the comics as well to really drive that idea home. The most recent was actually pretty bleak and involved an incarnation of Steve who had had his backstory cosmically re-written (comics!) to be a HYDRA agent. This evil Steve was a ruthlessly loyal HYDRA zealot who was able to pick up the hammer because–again–Mjolnir isn’t really looking to judge whether a person’s intentions are good or bad; it’s only looking for absolute confidence of self.
So, what does that mean for that Endgame scene?
Steve tossing Mjolnir around like a champ in the final battle against Thanos is not only just a smorgasbord of fantastic visuals for any MCU fan, it’s also a fun little wink to fans who have never stopped thinking about that scene in Age of Ultron. Because of the MCU’s lack of clarity on Mjolnir’s specific rules, it’s difficult to surmise whether or not it actually says anything about Steve’s character–though certainly if you prescribe the comics logic, it says he is absolutely confident that he’s in the right in that moment–and who can blame him?
Sure, if you think too hard about it, it gets a bit confusing. In the comics, Mjolnir is the conduit not only for Thor’s lightning and thunder powers but his entire identity, costume, speech pattern, and all. When a new worthy person picks up Mjolnir, they (sometimes) get a new costume out of the deal and a cool Olde English style accent as part of the package while Thor himself remains an Asgardian with strength and endurance but can’t otherwise go around zapping people with lightning or flying. In fact, when other characters pick up Mjolnir in the comics, they typically adopt Thor’s name entirely, leaving Thor to go by “Odinson” to prevent confusion.
In the MCU, however, all of Thor’s abilities exist within him innately, essentially meaning there can be two Thor-powered people running around at the same time. Thor’s own magic is no longer beholden to the hammer at all. It’s really just a very cool weapons upgrade with an extremely high level requirement–one that Steve finally hit after around a decade’s worth of work.
Does it make a ton of sense? Not really. But in the comics, a frog and a horse-monster-alien regularly toss around versions of Mjolnir like its nothing while Thor’s still kicking, so we’re more than happy to write them a pass on this one for the sake of an extremely cool fight scene.
We now live in a post-Avengers: Endgame world, which is a weird thought. A decade of storytelling all led up to one massive final chapter, and now it’s just out there for the world to experience. With Endgame in theaters and destroying box office records, there’s plenty to discuss. This will be your one and only warning: The following contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. If you haven’t seen the movie, please stop reading now.
Avengers: Endgame isn’t a perfect movie. In fact, it’s far from it. There’s plenty of criticism for the film going around, from the way it treats Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to how it concludes Captain America‘s (Chris Evans) story. And all of that criticism is valid. I see these same issues and wish they were handled so much better. As fans of this franchise, viewers watched a decade of films and came to care about these characters in major ways.
That said, there is one aspect of Endgame that is handled perfectly, and it’s one of the most important pieces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe puzzle. When it comes time to finally rid the galaxy of Thanos (Josh Brolin) with one final snap of an Infinity Gauntlet, it doesn’t come from the radioactive Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the super soldier Steve Rogers, or the god of thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Instead, it comes from the man that started it all, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
Tony being the one to ultimately defeat Thanos is not only the right call, but it’s the only one that makes sense. Since Iron Man hit theaters in 2008, Tony has been the center of this superhero universe. He may be sarcastic, egotistical, and kind of a dick most of the time, but he’s also been the most relatable character throughout the majority of the franchise.
Throughout the first 10 years of the MCU, audiences have gone through an emotional rollercoaster of a journey with Tony, as he experienced the highs and lows of choosing to become a superhero. In the aftermath of his kidnapping in the first Iron Man film, Tony gave his life over to the cause of being encased in armor as he fought villains from this planet and others.
Sure, being a superhero fed into his ego, but along the way, we also saw how it nearly destroyed him on a regular basis. At the climax of Marvel’s Avengers, Tony went into a wormhole and saw a corner of distant space that his brain could barely comprehend. The knowledge of how helpless he and Earth could be in the face of threats from throughout the galaxy drove the character forward in a heartbreaking way.
Iron Man 3, which is wildly underrated as a character piece, showed the aftermath of Avengers 1 in ways no other MCU movie did. While Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier continued to expand the larger story of the MCU, Iron Man 3 provided a window into Tony’s mind. After everything he’d experienced, Iron Man was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and experiencing anxiety attacks. In the wake of this, Tony lost much of his confidence and could have easily given up, if not for those that cared for him–namely Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), Happy (Jon Favreau), and a kid he befriended named Harley (Ty Simpkins). This was arguably the most human we’d seen any of the Avengers until that point, and it’s exactly what the franchise needed.
Then, in Captain America: Civil War, Tony’s humanity was even more evident. The loss of a parent is something that everyone will handle differently. For Tony, being confronted with devastating new information about the years-old death of his parents is a type of pain we had never seen him have to process before. It drove a wedge between him and Steve when Tony wanted to kill Bucky (Sebastian Stan). “He killed my mom,” Tony told Cap. In that, it was hard not to understand Tony’s grief.
In the end, of course, he didn’t kill Bucky. However, the friendship between Tony and Steve was over–for a while, at least. Which, of course, brings us to Avengers: Endgame and the perfect superhero ending–and one that was earned by Tony.
“You can rest now.”
First, we’re confronted once again with just how fragile the human mind can be. Upon his return to Earth, Tony lashes out at his former friend, calling Steve a liar. Cap always said when the Avengers lost, they’d do it side-by-side. But when the loss actually happened, Tony was alone on Titan. He watched Spider-Man, the teenager he’d become a mentor and father figure to, turn to ash–and Steve Rogers, the man who told Tony he’d always be there for him, was nowhere in sight. It doesn’t matter to Tony that Cap was knee-deep in fighting his own battle against Thanos in Wakanda. Tony is convinced that together, they could have handled the Mad Titan’s threat. Instead, separated, they were defeated, and Tony looked death in the eye as he floated aimlessly through space with his oxygen running out.
Tony’s rage toward Cap shows how the character has changed over the years. In the past, he was driven by logic and his own intelligence. Now, after everything he’s been through, Tony’s lashing out at Steve is illogical and based solely on emotion. He felt abandoned by the man he once called a friend, and it’s understandable why he’d feel that way.
Time heals all wounds, though. And for Tony, that time also gave him the thing he’d been missing since his parents died. Tony Stark got a family, and with it, a new purpose. Marrying Pepper and having a child reframed who Tony was at his core. Suddenly, saving the world and being a superhero wasn’t the most important thing. While the fate of the world was still a major concern, making sure his family remains intact became his top priority. Thus, when he decided to get back into the game as Iron Man one last time, it was with the warning that he was unwilling to throw away what he’d gained in the five years since Thanos snapped away half of the universe.
You can’t blame him for that. Protecting your family is the most human emotion one could possibly have. And, in the end, it didn’t stop Tony from doing what was right for the world at large. When it came down to the final battle with Thanos, Tony was willing to confront his own mortality and snap his own fingers with an Infinity Gauntlet, knowing full well it was something he had little chance of surviving.
It was a full-circle moment for the character, who had come so far from being a weapons manufacturer without a care in the world in the first Iron Man film. In the first Avengers movie, Steve had some harsh words for Tony, who he believed was only there because of his super suit. “I know guys with none of that worth 10 of you,” he told Tony. “And I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play–to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”
Tony proved time and again that he was the guy willing to sacrifice. And in Endgame, he did it one final time, allowing the character of Tony Stark to have a nearly perfect superhero ending–and, honestly, the only one that could possibly work for the character. Early on in Endgame, Tony considers not putting the time travel technology he’d created to use, while Pepper reminds him that if he didn’t join in the fight to save the humanity that was lost, he’d never be able to rest.
This is a character who has tried time and again over the last decade of MCU films to make the world a better place, though his methods were often flawed. He still never gave up. Even if he desperately wanted to, in the end, he just couldn’t give up the fight. He couldn’t rest knowing there was something he could do to keep his family and the world safe.
When Steve tells him in Civil War, “If I see a situation pointed south, I can’t ignore it. Sometimes, I wish I could.” That’s a statement just as true–if not truer–for Tony by the end of his arc. In the end, he gives his life to save the world, not as Iron Man–despite his final words–but as Tony Stark. With that, Pepper tells him, “You can rest now.” His mission is complete. And his funeral brings his presence in the MCU full circle. Tony was the beginning of the Infinity Saga, and now he’s the end.
Of course, it’s by his wife and child, the Avengers and assorted superheroes. More telling, though, is the presence of Harley. The little boy Tony met and befriended in Iron Man 3 is nearly an adult now and including him in the group attending the funeral really shows drives home how important Tony Stark was to the world, whether he was wearing his Iron Man armor or not.
