𝙰 - 𝙳𝙰𝚈 : 𝙿𝙾𝚁𝚃𝚁𝙰𝚈𝙰𝙻 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴𝚂. firstly, i do want to say this was a wonderful game with a wonderful story. i can’t articulate how much i appreciate all the love & care that was poured into this & how amazing it was to finally see the avengers work & interact as a team & family in a way other mediums haven’t portrayed. it was really heart - warming & i loved every second of it ;_;
with all that in mind i still want to address both the things i liked, as well as inaccuracies & places where i diverge in my portrayal of natasha, especially with my own A - DAY VERSE in mind. so if you have questions about where i stand on natasha’s characterization in the game, look no further ! SPOILERS AHEAD.
𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎. as per main verse, her full ( anglicized ) legal name is NATALIA ALIANOVNA ROMANOVA. her shortened “official” name is NATASHA ROMANOVA. she will not refer to herself as romanoff, & subsequently, nor would anyone else. in addition, she does not like being called “ NAT. ” she will not correct anyone ( unless she doesn’t like them ), but when asked, her preferred nicknames ( & diminutives ) are “ TASHA, ” “ NATYA, ” or “ NATA. ”
𝚙𝚑𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎. fairly irrelevant, but natasha’s model in the game looks very little like how i portray her - check out my dossier !
𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚋𝚊𝚕 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚖𝚜. in all honesty, i’m not a fan of laura ba.iley’s take on natasha. she’s plain, dry, & oddly edgy. this is fairly in line with current comic canon, which has done a complete rehaul of how natasha carries herself & establishes herself verbally. natasha always has an air of smooth mystery to her, & certainly has a sense of humor. her general verbal mannerisms reminded me a bit too much of an arrogant 14 year old american boy hitting puberty, rather than a multi - lingual, sophisticated, wisened & experienced woman who’s been on this earth longer than you have. ( again, see my dossier for her voice claim ! )
𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚢𝚕𝚎. oh my god. where do i even start with how much i LOVE her combat ? her signature moves were so accurate to her comic style, & rightfully lacked the theatricality of pro-wrestling that is specific to her mcu counterpart. i definitely appreciate the taekwondo & savate inspired style. not to mention her gear was utilized so well - i especially adored the way her widow’s line was used both for movement as well as combat. my only gripe is how much attention her guns received over her gauntlets. natasha doesn’t like guns & avoids them when she can, especially considering her gauntlets are good for both short & long range.
𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚜 / 𝚎𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗. when kamala speaks to her in her room, kamala asks her if she ever went to school. natasha says “in a sense,” referring to her time at the red room. obviously, this is a continuity where natasha was raised in the red room, which i do not follow. natasha joined the red room at the age of 27. as for education, she did attend elementary & secondary school in the soviet union ( though her time in secondary school was in odd intervals, considering her time in the war ). after completing her secondary education, she studied philology at LOMONOSOV STATE UNIVERSITY ( now known as moscow state university ), from whence she graduated in 1950.
𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚜. natasha’s cover identity while working for AIM was “ DR. BELOVA. ” obviously an easter egg, referring to yelena belova. we don’t know if yelena is actually in this universe, but i’m putting her there, & saying that natasha would not add further insult to injury by taking yelena’s name for herself for an operation that doesn’t involve yelena in any form. instead, the cover identity my natasha used was “ DR. IRINA BEZUKHOVA. ”
𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚢. something that surprised & disappointed me was the topic of impermanency in her interactions with the other avengers when they visited her room.
NATASHA: i don’t usually stick around this long. guess the chimera’s growing on me.
THOR: it does my heart good to see you’ve found a home here. will you stay long ?
NATASHA: right now, this is where i can do the most good.
THOR: but i know that some day, that may change. & when it does, i hope you’ll at least say goodbye.
TONY: that must have been hard, not knowing when the end was coming.
NATASHA: no different than right now.
on the one hand, it is true that natasha isn’t known for being a completely consistent avenger. on the other, it isn’t like she makes a habit of disappearing from & abandoning those she holds most dear. natasha is secretive, not flighty, which is what all this dialogue seems to imply.
𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚜. natasha loves her team, & loves her friends, & certainly views them as family, which the game certainly got right. however, it couldn’t resist natasha throwing around a little verbal insult. natasha is not the kind of person to insult her friends in a humorous way, at least not to the degree that she does in the game. is she brutally honest ? maybe lacking a conventional sense of humor ? yes. but calling her colleagues idiots, calling tony specifically an idiot, & parading her rudeness beneath some sort of comedic charm is simply not something natasha would do. she shows love by loving people, not by demeaning them.
𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚗. “ what am i doing ? i don’t even like kids. ” to be frank, this line was just dumb. unfortunately, it wasn’t a throwaway, since we see natasha being particularly awkward around a younger kamala at the start of the game. i don’t know where the writers got this from, considering natasha’s LOVE FOR CHILDREN has been one of the more consistent parts of her characterization since forever. however, regardless of where she started off, i do appreciate how close she became with kamala towards the end of the game.
𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎𝚛. finally, the bane of any current portrayal of natasha : her atonement.
THOR: i know that you think you have a debt to repay, but you’ve paid it already, a thousand fold.
NATASHA: that’s not for you to say.
it was refreshing to not be bombarded with natasha’s obsession with atonement throughout the main story-line, but its mere mention was enough of a characterization point to bring up. natasha has nothing to atone for anymore, SHE KNOWS THIS, & does not need anyone else to tell her that. if there is work to be done, good to be accomplished, natasha will do so for good in itself, not to make herself feel better or rid herself of her guilt.