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On Saturday, hundreds of drones took flight in Shanghai to perform a light show, culminating in the machines forming a massive QR code over the city’s waterfront, as first reported by Vice.

The event was put on by the Chinese video-streaming company Bilibili to commemorate the one-year anniversary of its release of the mobile game Princess Connect! Re:Dive, a popular Japanese role-playing game. The game was first launched in Japan three years ago.

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The armada of 1,500 drones performed over the Bund, a waterfront area, using lights to form the Princess Connect! Re:Dive logo as well as the likenesses of various characters from the title. The final QR code links to the game’s homepage, allowing users to download the title and its one-year anniversary package.

Drone performances above Shanghai’s waterfront have become a more common advertising strategy over the past few years. However, the inclusion of a precisely rendered, scannable QR code is a particularly novel element of Bilibili’s advertising campaign.

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Bilibili used a similar advertising strategy last year to launch Princess Connect! Re:Dive. The publisher put a scannable QR code on the side of a building, which navigated users to the game’s download page.

QR codes are an everyday tool in China. Millions use them to add friends on social media apps and pay for items. Local governments even assigned citizens QR codes to track COVID-19 transmission, requiring residents to display their code before entering public venues.

Last year, Masahiro Hara, the creator of the QR code, expressed his pride that his invention was being used to help improve people’s safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo Credit: Bilibili

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s finale!

Be sure to check out IGN’s review of the new episode!

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has ended its six-episode run on Disney+. While it remains to be seen whether the series will get a second season, it’s clearly setting up a number of future plot points in the MCU — not the least of which is Captain America 4. The finale may even be laying the groundwork for the Samuel L. Jackson-starring Secret Invasion series.

How does Sam Wilson’s rise as Captain America play into that alien conspiracy? Read on to find out.

Is Sharon Carter Really the Power Broker?

Sharon Carter’s character arc may well be the series’ most controversial element among MCU fans. While many have been clamoring for Emily van De Camp’s elite secret agent to the return to the spotlight, they weren’t necessarily pulling for Sharon to become an outright villain in the process. But that appears to be what’s happening. Sharon has been revealed as the Power Broker, and she’s keen to use her newly acquired pardon as a way of growing her underground network.

Why has Sharon undergone such a drastic transformation? The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would have us believe she’s simply disillusioned. Having been branded a fugitive by the system she swore to uphold, Sharon has now turned on that system. She cares only about personal profit, even if that means arming a new generation of super-soldiers and turning them loose on the world.

We have to imagine there’s more to Sharon’s sudden heel turn, however. Would Peggy Carter’s favorite niece really turn her back on her allies and her country? This is one case where the most outlandish explanation may be the correct one. This isn’t Sharon Carter at all. She’s actually a Skrull impostor. That final phone call was likely to her fellow Skrull sleeper agents.

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Marvel is gearing up to begin filming Secret Invasion later in 2021. We don’t have many firm details about the plot of that series yet, but we do know it reunites Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos as they work to uncover an alien conspiracy on Earth. The original Secret Invasion comic revealed the Skrulls have spent years kidnapping and replacing various superhumans and politicians, paving the way for a complete global takeover. Even though Kevin Feige has confirmed the Secret Invasion TV series won’t focus on the Avengers as much as the comic did, we can assume the basic premise remains the same. Expect the MCU to undergo a Battlestar Galactica phase over the next couple years, as more and more familiar characters turn out to be shape-shifting impostors.

This would explain why Sharon has gone down such a dark road. The real Sharon may have been replaced at some point in the seven years between Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Her Skrull doppelganger is now using Sharon’s face and connections to build an underground criminal network, all with the goal of destabilizing major governments and sowing chaos. If Skrull Sharon does her job well, Earth’s heroes may be too busy putting out fires to notice an alien invasion taking place right under their collective nose. It may be that even the Flag-Smasher movement is really a Skrull front. Perhaps “One world, one people” isn’t meant to represent humanity’s post-Blip destiny, but is instead the mantra of the Skrull Empire as it seeks to claim Earth for its own.

Contessa and Nick Fury

The finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier again features Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, further teasing a prominent role for this new character in the years to come. Contessa has successfully recruited John Walker to her cause, transforming him from Captain America to US Agent. Contessa tells her new super-soldier that things are about to get “weird,” ad we can only assume US Agent is the first member of a team designed to battle whatever weirdness is afoot.

Marvel has yet to reveal where Contessa will appear next in the MCU, though at one point she was meant to have a cameo in Black Widow. Secret Invasion seems the most likely option. The simple fact that Contessa and Nick Fury have such a close-knit relationship in the comics makes her a natural fit for a Fury-centric Disney+ series. We may come to learn Contessa is working with Fury to build this new team. The Avengers served their purpose, but now Fury needs a group of superhumans willing to cross lines and do whatever it takes to get the job done. Whether that team winds up being called the Secret Avengers, Secret Warriors, Dark Avengers or something else entirely, their mission may be to stop the Skrull invasion at all costs.

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That said, we shouldn’t be taking Contessa at face value, either. While she was depicted as a faithful agent of SHIELD for most of her comic book career, 2009’s Secret Warriors revealed Contessa has actually been a triple agent all along. She betrayed Fury in service of Hydra, only to then turn on Hydra and defect to the Russian organization Leviathan. Even before that reveal, Contessa was among the many heroes replaced by a Skrull during the Secret Invasion crossover.

It remains to be seen whether either of these plot twists is in Contessa’s MCU future. But that recent comic book history suggests she’s not a character to be trusted in any universe. Fury clearly has his hands full these days, but he should be keeping his one good eye on Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Where Is the Real Sharon Carter?

This theory raises an important question. If the Sharon Carter seen in this series is actually a Skrull, where is the real Sharon? Is she dead, or simply a captive of whatever Skrull faction is preparing an invasion of Earth?

If the comic is any indication, it’s the latter option. The Skrulls don’t kill the heroes they abduct, in part because they use them as genetic fodder to create a new generation of Super-Skrulls. Like the original Super-Skrull, who was granted the powers of all four members of the Fantastic Four, these Skrulls have been given major upgrades that mimic the powers of various Avengers and X-Men. One particularly nasty Super-Skrull was even able to wield Beta Ray Bill’s hammer, Stormbreaker.

Ultimately, those heroes and villains who were abducted by Skrulls are able to return to Earth and resume their old lives, but at a cost. How do you reintegrate into humanity when an alien has been wearing your face and living your life for months or years? That struggle is most embodied by Spider-Woman, who essentially becomes the face of the invasion after she’s replaced by the Skrull Queen Veranke. The post-Secret Invasion series Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD deals with that lingering trauma, showing Jessica Drew becoming an agent of SWORD as a way of escaping her ruined life on Earth.

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Again, the MCU version of Secret Invasion isn’t as centered on costumed superheroes as the comic. The MCU has yet to even introduce Spider-Woman (that seems to be more in Sony’s ballpark). With that in mind, Sharon may wind up filling that Spider-Woman role in this version of the story. How will the real Sharon react to being replaced? Will her old friends still accept her after the Skrull invasion? If Sharon has indeed been replaced, then the real Sharon will have a lot to atone for when she finally wins back her freedom. The MCU might combine elements of Secret Invasion with that of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run. In that series, Steve Rogers is seemingly assassinated after the events of Civil War, and a brainwashed Sharon Carter is revealed to be the shooter. The idea being that while shooting Steve isn’t her fault, Sharon still faces a long, uphill battle to atone for her actions and recover psychologically.

Sharon’s story may well continue in Secret Invasion and into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Season 2 or even a Sharon Carter: Agent of SWORD spinoff. So if you’re disappointed in the direction the MCU has taken Sharon, know that this is probably just the start of something much bigger for the character.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

New details have been revealed for The Continental, the John Wick spinoff series that takes place 40 years before the films, including that Keanu Reeves will not be making an appearance.

Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs told Deadline that the new prequel series will focused on a younger version of Ian McShane’s Winston, and will be set in 1970s New York City.

“What we’re exploring in The Continental is the young Winston and how it came to be that he and his team of confederates found their way into this hotel which we have met for the first time in the movie franchise 40 years later.” Beggs explained.

McShane had previously confirmed that he won’t be appearing in The Continental, but that he may return for some voice-over work.

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The Continental is a major location in the John Wick trilogy, and is the assassin’s hotel that has a rule that you can’t kill anyone when inside its grounds. However, step one foot outside its boundaries and all bets are off.

The studio took a lot of pitches for this spinoff series, but the one that won out was from the creative team of “this obscure little show called Wayne that was on YouTube.” Beggs was impressed because it solved “a lot of problems” and even used The Sopranos as an inspiration.

It will feature “a crumbling New York in the 1970s with a garbage strike that has piled up bags of garbage to the third floor of most brownstones, the mafia muscling in on that business which is why in The Sopranos he’s in the sanitation business, and other things that are really real as an interesting backdrop to explore the origins of The Continental…” Beggs explained.

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Beggs also shared that the way they are approaching the first season is as “three essentially 90-minute events which you could construe as a limited series or a limited event series.”

Those hoping for Keanu Reeves to make an appearance may be disappointed, as this story takes place “way back pre-John Wick and even pre-young John-Wick” and, according to Beggs, he will not be finding “his way into the universe.” However, he is in talks to executive produce the series.

“We are in the John Wick universe, but it’s way back in time,” Beggs said. “Think about the Game of Thrones prequels before you know any of the players, but you do know the world. But Keanu and Chad have read every draft and been enthusiastic supporters of expanding this universe in a meaningful way. So, I never rule out anything, but at this point he’s pretty busy making his movies which are very important to us.”

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While they will be missing series creator Derek Kolstad, those craving more of John Wick’s adventure can rest easy knowing that both John Wick 4 and 5 are set to be filmed back-to-back in 2021, with John Wick: Chapter 4 arriving on May 27, 2022.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Full SPOILERS ahead for Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train and the first season of Demon Slayer.

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From the moment it was announced, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train became a really interesting and anticipated film because, rather than telling an original and non-canon story unconnected from the main series, Mugen Train was meant to pick up right where the Season 1 finale left off — acting as a Season 1.5, if you will. With the movie finally out in the US, and with us just about finished wiping out the tears from our faces, it’s time to look forward to the next chapter in the story.

Though Mugen Train was a mostly self-contained story, it still plants many seeds for the already-announced Season 2, so we’re here to recap everything that was left unanswered in the movie that we hope is explored in Demon Slayer Season 2.

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What Will Tanjiro Learn About His Dad’s Secret Technique?

One of the biggest reveals from the show’s first season came during the mindblowing episode 19, where Tanjiro had a flashback to a memory of his frail father teaching him about a special breathing technique that allowed him to go out into the snow on New Year’s and performing a ceremonial dance to the God of Fire. Because that was the one and only memory he had of the dance, he doesn’t really know how much about it, and every time he tried asking other Demon Slayers about it, they had no clue what he was talking about. It is clear that the technique is fire-related, given the fire visuals that show up when Tanjiro uses it, but not even the Flame Hashira (or Pillar), Kyōjuro Rengoku, recognizes the name of the dance.

When Rengoku meets his tear-jerking demise at the hands of the demon Akaza, he tells Tanjiro with his dying words to go to his family residence. Inside, Rengoku says, is a book with notes left from previous Flame Hashiras, and they may contain some records on the Hinokami Kagura dance that Tanjiro’s dad practiced.

It would be quite a surprise if we don’t see Tanjiro go to the Rengoku residence in Season 2, but once he visits, he should have an emotional meeting with the former Flame Hashira’s brother, Senjuro, and his father as they get the sad news of Kyōjuro’s passing.

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Will We See More Of The Twelve Kizuki’s Upper Ranks?

Though Tanjiro has faced formidable opponents before, Mugen Train introduces a whole new level of villains: the Twelve Kizuki’s Upper Ranks. As opposed to the Lower Ranks, which we saw in the first season, the Upper Ranks are six incredibly powerful demons who answer directly to the originator of all demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. Whereas the Lower Ranks are constantly hunted down and killed by the Hashira, no one has killed an Upper Rank demon in over a century, as they can easily kill even the strongest Hashira.

In Mugen Train, we meet the Upper Rank 3 demon named Akaza. An absolutely formidable and intimidating villain, he manages to kill Rengoku, and escape with his life, though Tanjiro did stab him from a distance. It is likely Akaza, let alone Muzan, will not be happy that he was nearly defeated and that Tanjiro almost delivered the killing blow. Last season we saw Muzan order the Lower Rank demons to hunt down and kill Tanjiro, so we expect him to raise the stakes by sending more powerful demons after him now.

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Will Tanjiro Become the Next Hashira?

Though we don’t know a lot about the Hashira, we do know they are nine incredibly powerful demon slayers, with each of the Hashira developing their own unique and powerful breathing technique. With Rengoku now gone, someone has to take his place as the Flame Hashira, as he tells Tanjiro early in the movie that there’s always been a Water and a Flame Hashira, regardless of the era.

Of course, we would love to see our headbutting-enthusiast Tanjiro get the job, but he isn’t exactly at the level of other Hashira just yet and hasn’t really killed many demons. He did defeat a member of the Twelve Kizuki, Enmu, but he did it with the help of Inosuke, so it’s unclear if that counts. If news travels that Tanjiro defeated a member of the 12, then we expect him to get better and more demanding training in order to try out to fill the Hashira spot left by Rengoku.

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What Do We Know About Demon Slayer Season 2?

Though the announcement teaser for Season 2 had no plot details — possibly to avoid spoiling the movie — we do know some things. For starters, the official subtitle for the new season is “Entertainment District Arc” and it will bring back the cast and crew of the first season.

The poster features one of the nine Hashira, more specifically Tengen, the Sound Hashira. We actually met him back in episode 22. He was very enthusiastic about the idea of executing Tanjiro for being around Nezuko — that’s a big no-no in the Demon Slayer Corps. Tengen is all about grandeur, as he interjects the word “grandiose” in every sentence. In the next arc, Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu are tasked with aiding Tengen on a mission to find a number of wives that go missing in the titular entertainment district of Yoshiwara.

This arc serves as a sort of halfway point for the story of Demon Slayer, as it leaves the sort of episodic format to Tanjiro’s missions and heads laying the groundwork for the story’s endgame.

Will Tanjiro unlock new abilities, or even join the Hashira? Will Muzan make an appearance? Will it make us cry again? We’ll have to wait for Season 2 to find out.

Let us know in the comments what you want to see happen in Demon Slayer’s second season!

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Today you can save on the latest Apple Macbooks and Mac Minis with new M1 chip. The M1 chip is the fastest mobile chip we’ve seen so far, and surprisingly Apple hasn’t raised the price because of it. Continuing with Apple news, the new Apple AirTag is up for preorder. It pairs with your iPhone and functions as a key/wallet finder. In other deal news, the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells are back in stock (for now), some very lightweight Dell XPS laptops have been discounted by 30% or more, you can score all of the Middle Earth movies in 4K UHD for less than $45.

Apple MacBook Laptops and Mac Minis with M1 Chip

Amazon is offering the best prices right now on the late-2020 Apple MacBook Air and Pro laptops and Mac Mini desktops with the new Apple M1 chip. If you haven’t been catching up with the latest and greatest, Apple put in their very own CPU/GPU combo in their latest batch of Mac Minis and 13″ MacBook laptops. Reviews show that this new chip is a speed demon offers better performance while  generating less heat and consuming less power than the Intel chips that Apple has used in previous models. The best thing about this whole thing? There’s no ridiculous price markup!

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Daily Deals for April 23

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More Video Game Deals

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

As with the other games in the Nier and Drakengard series, Nier Replicant features multiple endings. They’re critical to understanding Nier Replicant, since these endings provide a more complete picture of its story and offer critical narrative context. While it’s necessary to replay chunks of the game in order to see all the endings, you don’t have to play through the entire game again. However, there are some specific requirements you’ll need to be aware of.

I am going to avoid as many spoilers as possible in this guide, despite this being about the endings–it’s actually quite easy to explain how to get them without giving the pertinent story details away. After all, I want you all to feel and experience these emotional conclusions for yourself, too. (It’s kinda why I’m doing this for y’all.)

If you want to know how the game is overall, be sure to check out my full review of Nier Replicant, or check out our comparison video of the original Nier versus this new version. And especially for getting all the endings, be sure to have our guide for obtaining all the weapons in Nier Replicant on-hand (they are required for the additional endings).

Ending A

To see Ending A, you simply need to finish the game the first time around. Pretty simple, right? Yes. There are a few things you can do during this run to make it easier to unlock subsequent endings, such as acquiring as many weapons as possible and completing the side quests that reward you with a required weapon.

Ending B

At the beginning of your path to Ending B, you’ll be taken to a little bit past the start of the second act–this is basically the halfway point of the game. Continue to play the game as you would normally, but pay attention to the new cutscenes that play during this route. You will have subtitles for dialogue from a certain perspective this time around as well. Once you make it to the end, finish the last boss again and you will see the new ending.

You also now have access to the 15 Nightmares content in Route B (which was previously DLC for the original game). You access this by checking the left-most bookshelf in the protagonist’s house on the first floor. It’s essentially three sets of five combat arenas you need to clear. You earn a total of three weapons (one in each series), which are part of the required weapons to unlock subsequent endings.

You don’t have to finish the last fight in the third set since you’re rewarded with the third weapon before it. However, if you’re having trouble with this scenario, you can come back and do it during Route C/D when you’re a few levels higher.

Ending C And D

For Ending C and Ending D, you will need to have acquired every weapon in the game, which comes out to 33 in total. You can obtain all of them by your second run in Route B and not have to worry about them down the line, since your inventory carries over after each previous ending. For more detail on how to do this, be sure to use our guide on how to get all the weapons in Nier Replicant.

Once you have all the weapons, you need to make it to the end of the game and fight the final boss again. (Make sure you use the save point right before you enter this last dungeon and don’t overwrite it so you can reload it for the next ending).

This time around, there will be a new final boss afterward. After this new finale, you will have a choice to make (light, but necessary spoilers below).

After you defeat them, you’ll be presented with one of two dialogue options: to kill this boss or to save them. Choosing to kill them will reward you with Ending C–we would 100% recommend seeing this one first.

Once that’s done, reload your save data prior to entering the final dungeon and fight through the various enemies and bosses again. Once you defeat the new final boss again, you should now choose to save them. And yes, you will have to give up your save data. It’s okay, do it. You will then see Ending D.

Ending E

Now onto the brand-new content for this version of Nier Replicant. Once your data has been erased, you will have to start a new game from the very beginning. However, you may notice some subtle oddities here and there. Regardless, you’ll need to play through a chunk of the first act before getting to the new content.

This brand-new scenario starts after you defeat the giant Shade and talk to Kaine in The Aerie on your second main quest visit to this location–this is about two to three hours into the game if you’re mainlining it.

This new scenario is about an hour-and-a-half to two hours in length, and it is wild. It’s certainly worth the effort to get to this point. The battles ahead can be challenging, but it’s nothing you can’t overcome. This entire epilogue is great, and not only will you be rewarded with Ending E, but you’ll get a nice bonus at the end of it, as well.