Dominariaâs story features new and returning characters rich in the history of Magicâs home plane. Catch up on some of Dominariaâs lore with a closer look at the Legends that shaped it.
This poll is about worlds youâd like to return to. You can list as many as you like but please put them in order of preference so that your number one choice is where you may want to return.
We've only ever been there in core sets but I really did like Shandalar...mainly because my favorite legend is Talrand and I want more of him, but it seems like a cool location.
i adore you when you answer brucenat hate, LOL. the last post made me laugh a lot. i don't know what amazes me more: how diametrically opposed that can be the interpretations about the same characters and relationship or the image that haters seem to have of us. Seriously. We're shipping characters that don't exist! We've been so blind! *chuckles*
[contâd] No, but seriously. I think the problem resides in the difference between comics and movies. I think some people donât distinguish yet that they are two totally different universes. Because no way that people can watch the Marvel movies and then deny and twist some things.
Haha, Iâm glad you donât find it annoying! (Apologies to those that do!) I just love the opportunity to break out some sarcastic gifs. Plus, I really do like getting in there an analyzing why I love the pairing.
And, yeah, I definitely agree that a lot of times the comics characters and the movie characters seem to get conflated too much. The comics, as I understand them, do develop the characters, but they do them on a huge long timeline where these changes can take decades (or new writers, artists, and alternative timelines). The MCU is developing characters in real time. Natasha has undergone the most growth â demonstrating new depth of personality with each movie. Itâs been 4/5 years since we met her in Iron Man 2, and sheâs gone through some pretty heavy life upheavals. Itâs logical that she would grow from those experiences.
I dunno. People are always going to have different opinions, which I totally appreciate. Variety is the spice of life and all that. But it really rankles when people adopt this holier-than-thou attitude â Brucenat is problematic! says the fandom that thinks Loki is a precious teddy bear. Brucenat is abusive! says the fandom that thinks Nat with someone who trained her to kill as a child is hunky dory.Â
But you know why I donât mind either of those things at all? Because theyâre interesting. Everything is problematic! Talk about it at length! But donât get all uppity about a ship that, really, is not anymore problematic than any Nat or Bruce ship, if you just think about it with an open mind.
Ship and let ship!
Thanks for the opportunity to rant and rave when I should be working, Anon. Hee.
So, something I always like to say when talking about any sort of media is âThereâs more to the story than just the story.â
What I mean by that is there are a lot of factors outside a work that can have an influence on the work itself. This is especially true in Movie and Television productions that have more moving parts than any other medium.
But itâs true in everything and leads to a lot of interesting differences in mediums.
One of the interesting aspects of superhero comics, specifically the ones by Marvel and DC that we are all so familiar with, is that they are pretty much the only medium which is indefinitely serialized.
What I mean by that is, those big name comics are pretty much the only form of writing that takes place under the assumption that the story will go on forever.
This creates some interesting challenges and quirks, one of which is that characters are actually forbidden from developing, at least in the long term.
Think about it, the Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Superman, etc. of today are all very similar to their counterparts from decades ago where they first appeared.
They have experienced lots of changes and developments through different arcs, but they always inevitably return to their baseline. They never experience any real, lasting change. (Almost never, some changes to stick, but these are few and far between. i.e. the original Superman did not have the powers of flight.)
This is because the work needs to be continually accessible to new readers. You need to be able to pick up a Spider-man comic and be able to understand everything you need to know about Peter Parker from that comic alone, without having to read through 50+ years of published work.
The worlds of DC and Marvel comics are like rubber bands. They occasionally stretch and deform in interesting ways, but they always snap back to the same basic shape.
The movies donât have that issue. Their story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, so they can have characters undergo lasting changes through the story.
Note: After watching Age of Ultron, I have gone crazy for Brucenat, despite its controversy. I like it, I think it was pretty well done, and after reading some really lovely fics about them, I just had to get one done to try and exorcise this shipper energy so I can get back to my other projects.
I hope you enjoy.
     There was really only one word for it.
     Devastation.
Plain and simple as that. Once there had been a vast complex dug into a mesa deep in a south american forest.
Now there was no complex, the mesaâs structural integrity was looking sketchy, and quite a bit of forest was now mulch.
âIs everyone clear?â Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow asked into her new and improved Stark earpiece. The Iron Man himself answered her.
âYeah, everyoneâs out, med teams are hauling the last of the bad guys to the helipad for airlift.â
âAlmost everyone.â That would be the Captain, concerned as ever.
âTrue, seems Bruce and change took exception to being fired on. Those Hydra guys must have some really bad intel.â
âHey, serves âem right for attacking a medical convoy that was, letâs face it, meant mostly for them.â That was her best friend, Clint Barton, Hawkeye.
âIs there nothing we can do for the good Doctor Banner?â Thor asked.
âNah, itâs one thing when Bruce decides to change, when itâs spontaneous like this it can take him a while to calm down.â Tony replied. âBest thing we can do right now is give him a wide berth. You guys go ahead and pull out. Iâll park a Quinjet at the base of the mountain and wait for him to come back.â
Natasha looked down from her high ground at the giant who stood amid the wreckage, continuing to pulverize rocks the size of her body into dust like clumps of brown sugar.
âNat, Iâm at the rendezvous point, whatâs your eta?â She heard Clint ask.
She remembered the first time she had seen the Hulk in person. Sheâd read all the reports, seen all the footage, thought sheâd been afraid.
Life or death situations were common enough for her, hazard of the biz. There had been plenty of dark moments where she had thought this is where I die.
With the Hulk it had not been like that. There was no thought or regret or plan. She hadnât had any coherent thoughts at all. Something old and reptile that her motherâs motherâs mother she had forgotten existed had woken up and there had been nothing but movement.
Run!
Her whole life down to one word, to one, billion year old year old instinct.
After she escaped she had just laughed, without any control or decency as her brain flooded her with chemicals and all her complexity and experience and dimension burned to ash against a burning word.
Life!
âHey, Nat, you reading me?â
âIâm here.â She said when she trusted her voice.
âWell get your butt in gear, I swear Iâve lost a pint of blood to mosquitoes already.â
She tried swallowing but her mouth was dry.
âYeah, about that. Why donât you go on ahead, Iâll catch a ride back with Stark.â
â...Nat, I recognize that tone. Itâs your âI have a really bad ideaâ tone.â
âI have a really bad idea tone?â
âWhat are you planning to do?â
âDonât worry about it, just...keep Cap off my back okay?â
Her friend gave a long-suffering sigh.
âFine, I just hope you know what youâre doing.â
Natasha didnât respond, she just started making her way down to the field of rubble.
 âThe âfight-or-flightâ thing is really too simplistic.â Agent McGill had once told her as she pulled apart a butter croissant in the old Helicarrierâs cafeteria. It was starting to get packed with agents scrounging for breakfast, but Natasha could always count on getting a table to herself.
âIs that so?â
The young biologist nodded. Most agents gave the infamous Black Widow a wide berth, and Natasha could count on one hand the members of S.H.I.E.L.D who werenât afraid of her. McGill was one, though the girl was hardly her friend. Natasha only had one friend. Rather, Natasha had always gotten the feeling that McGill found her a particularly intriguing specimen to study.
âYep, studies of early tribal cultures and other social mammals, Chimpanzees in particular, suggests that, in itâs natural state, human combat rarely devolves to the kind of casual violence that you and people like you are trained for, no offence.â
The woman didnât give Natasha a chance to respond to the comment one way or the other as she plowed on.
âNo, Iâd like to add some bits to the old adage. So a conflict starts, and there are about four possible options. Thereâs fight, flight, posture, and submit.
 Natasha climbed up the pile of rubble until she was only a few yards away. Since the Avengers had re-assembled, she had done her best to be far away whenever Doctor Bannerâs alter ego had been needed. She had forgotten how big he was. Easily two to three times taller than a normal human. So far he seemed not to see her as he swung a support beam of reinforced steel around in his hand and crumpled it like a paper fan.
The Hulk roared like a roll of thunder that echoed off the hills and through the trees. Natasha felt the sound shake her bones and tremble her heart. The gasp was involuntary and it was heard. The Hulk whirled with a speed that belonged nowhere near something so massive and now it was staring her down and an old snake coiled around her spine was whispering.
Run!
She stamped it down and stood in place as the mass of green muscle threw himself forward, massive hands crashing down on either side of her and roared again just a foot from her face.
She barely heard it over her own pulse in her ears.
She crouched down, keeping her eyes down, hands held out to either side, supine.
The Hulk continued growling and huffing but she just sat there, thinking very carefully of nothing but the Hulk jumping into the sky to stop Tony Stark, crashing toward New York, an Iron Comet; the Hulk, twisting in mid air to shield Tony from the impact with the asphalt.
 âUltimately, the idea was to protect people.â Doctor Banner had said to her once late at night as they both indulged in some suspiciously cheap and fast delivery Thai food.
The other Avengers were long asleep, and scenes like this had become increasingly common ever since Natasha learned that Doctor Banner was one of the few people on Earth that slept as little as she did.
âYou know, Iâm sure, about what happened to my mother.â
Natasha chewed slowly and nodded. It had been in the file, but now she felt guilty about having known.
âDonât worry, Iâm not offended or anything, I understand.â He gave her one of his little smiles that would flit in and out of existence. âBut I think thatâs why I did it. I mean, when you just stop and think about it, the idea âhey letâs take this old super-soldier recipe that we only have half of and have never successfully reproduced and shoot it full of Gamma radiation to see if that fixes the bugsâ is really the kind of mad-science idea you only see in pulp sci-fi.â
Natasha gave him an assenting lift of her eyebrow and tilt of her head.
âI just wanted...I donât know.â He turned away from her, somewhere far now. âI just wanted to make people stronger, to make them...safe.â
 The Hulk finally decided not to pulp her or snap her or any of the thousand things it could do to kill her. It backed away from her and turned around, losing interest.
Natasha gulped for oxygen and tried to get her spaghettified legs to obey her.
The Hulk was stalking away from her, heading back into the forest.
âHey,â she croaked. âHey, wait.â A little louder now.
He turned and looked at her as she found her feet. He snorted and turned back, lumbering toward the forest, just slow enough for her to catch up.
 âDoc, what are you still doing up?â Natasha had found her way into one of Stark Towerâs many labs at four in the morning. She hadnât gotten used to thinking of it as âAvengerâs Towerâ.
Doctor Banner was sitting in a rolling office chair, staring at what looked like some kind of spectrographic analysis.
The chair swiveled so he could face her and he smiled.
âJust getting some work done. You?â
âIâm used to burning the midnight oil. Back when I had a job, there was always something to do. Now...I donât know, to be honest I think Iâm kind of bored.â
âWell, we certainly donât want the world's greatest spy getting bored in the middle of the night in the worldâs most technologically hyper advanced building.â
The smile eroded.
âI meant that as a joke, but now that I think about it, that is kinda good advice in general.â
Natasha laughed.
âSo, Doc, if you donât mind me asking, shouldnât someone who needs to stay as un-cranky as possible get more sleep?â
His head turned ever so slightly to the wall.
âI learned itâs best for me to go to sleep fully exhausted. It helps prevent any...night time incidents.â
His eyes seemed to grow heavy, and Natasha could see him leading himself down to a darker place.
âGood point, weâd hate for you to have any ânight time incidentsâ while you're at a sleepover with your friends.â She smirked at him as he scrunched his brow in confusion.
Clarity came to him.
âOh, grow up, Agent Romanoff!â He grinned at her.
âNatasha,â she said, surprised at how quiet she became. âIâm not an agent anymore.â
His grin faded and he nodded. âMiss Romanoff, then?â
âNatasha,â she insisted.
âNatasha,â he capitulated.
His hands fidgeted with a pencil.
âHow are you doing?â
âIâm fine,â she said automatically.
âOf course you are.â She knew he didnât believe her.
She sighed and walked over to one of the labâs many work desks and leaned on it.
âI donât know...Iâm working it out.â
He nodded.
There was a stretch of silence, and then the Doctor all but leapt out of his chair.
âYou know what we need? We need some comfort food, something either sinfully sweet or illegally greasy.â
She scrunched her nose at him.
âIs anyone even delivering this late?â
âHey, we can find out. Jarvis?â
The even, British-synth tones of Tonyâs omnipresent computer butler answered.
âYes, Doctor Banner?â
 Theyâd been trekking for several miles, through the forest and now halfway up a mountain. Various things had clung, cut, and bitten into her, but she continued following and the Hulk didnât leave her behind.
âWait,â she huffed as she finally reached her limit on the side of a sharp cliff that overlooked the forest valley, ablaze with the sunset. She was no longer surprised when the Hulk stopped and turned to keep an eye on her. She leaned against a tree and looked out over the landscape.
âHey, Big Guy,â she said, doubting he was listening to her. âSunâs gettinâ real low. Donât you think itâs time for us to go home and rest?â
The Hulk snorted and plodded off. Natasha sighed and rose to follow when she heard him groan. He collapsed on the ground and his body shook and writhed as he began his transformation back into Bruce Banner.
She quickly tapped her earpiece.
âClint, itâs me. You guys have my location?â
A secondâs silence.
âYeah, Nat, we got you. Need us to pick you up?â
âPlease and thank you.â
âYou alone?â
âNo,â she smiled, âIâve got company.
Clint gave another exaggerated sigh.
âNat, we have the weirdest friends.â
Natasha watched Doctor Banner, himself once more, gasp on the hard earth, and couldnât help a smile.
âYeah...we do have the weirdest friends, donât we?â
I want to say something about this, I really do, but I donât know what. Maybe: I thought I wasnât going to die of heat because itâs white, but boy was I so wrong. Or: I wish I knew how to correctly put on a kimono better because it would help with the tunic.
I hate wearing my cosplays because Iâm so afraid Iâm going to break it. ;___;
Major spoilers below. So I've seen Fury Road like three times now and I had some time to think. Furiosa is a lot more badass than even we seem to realize. I'm not even talking about all the ass we see her kick during the movie. I'm talking about all the ass she must have kicked before the movie. So Imorten Joe has built this whole hypermasculine suicide death cult of Warboys who are all male to a T. He keeps a harem of "breeders" and has other lactating women working as milk factories. Clearly not someone who thinks women have any place near combat. But Furiosa is one of his Imperators. It's never explicitly stated, but there's no way Imperator is not a military title, probably like a general or some such. I mean, it comes from the old word for Emperor. Given the whole Warboy culture, it makes sense that the Imperators must be the best fighters of the lot, and of the bunch, Furiosa must be the very best. She would have to be, to have the title both as a woman and missing an arm. I can't get over this. Furiosa kicks so much ass, the super sexist Tyrant respects and fears her enough to put her in charge of the army over all his other soldiers. And clearly the Warboys feel the same. When Furiosa first goes off road, one of them asks if there's been a change of plans. When she says "heading east" the guy doesn't even blink, he just passes the info down the line. The Warboys are clearly used to taking orders from Furiosa and respect her enough that they don't question her. When the Warboys back at the Citadel are gearing up and Nux asks what happened, one of the Warboys tells him Furiosa has gone rogue. You can tell from the way he says her name and the look on both their faces that this freaks them out. I can almost hear Nux thinking "oh god, why her?" And Imorten doesn't just go after her himself, he calls EVERY LAST WARBOY HE HAS, not to mention everyone from Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, which is why the Citadel is undefended and our heroes can do their crazy plan. Because Imorten literally sent every soldier he had to take down this one woman.
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