Lord Liaden

I have a friend who's big into playing the lottery, and was always nagging me to buy tickets. She kept telling me, "You can't win if you don't play," like that was a decisive argument. I finally told her, "You can't lose, either." She gave me a sour look, but never brought the topic up again.

What I heard and read is not that Hemsworth wanted Thor "lighter," but that the character wasn't growing and was in a rut, as I mentioned earlier. The tone of the film was reportedly due to Taika Waititi's input.

I've seen that point raised in commentary before. Having built his political reputation on being a "tough guy" and a "winner," Trump visibly caving as he has may be the one thing that will undercut his support.

AFAIK the info in the books you cited is all that's been released for that side of the setting. I'm not aware of any published exchanges in the club.

In the comic book Thor got soft, fat, and drunk, and was the recipient of a measure of ridicule for it. One-to-one correspondence is neither necessary nor desirable.

The Sutherland Presidency

Yes, I've noticed comic-book women usually come equipped with those.

For everyone wondering how to reach Trump-worshiping relatives or friends, this is a tack I haven't seen before, and it's a good one. The video on YouTube has a link to the list Beau refers to here.

The first twelve seconds of this clip are to the point.

Yes, as I mentioned earlier on the thread, one inspiration for this change in Thor was a story arc in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic -- that is, the original Guardians from a millennium in the future -- in which Loki had seized rulership of the Inhumans on the Moon, and was breeding them to be an army to seize Asgard. In that time line Asgard had experienced centuries of peace, which left warrior Thor bored and frustrated. He turned increasingly to food and drink for solace. When he started beating on Sif, his wife in this time, he found he was no longer worthy to lift Mjolnir, which exacerbated his self-destructive behavior.

Or don't. If you've ever spent any time role-playing in an MMORPG social instance full of horny power-fantasizing adolescents... it's like that.

I'm willing to bet it's going to be another typical snooze-fest. I haven't watched television in about five months, I'm not about to start again over this. Anything spectacular happens, there won't be anything I can do about it, so I'll find out in due course.

Biggest single lottery prize we have in Canada is the so-called "Lotto Max" that goes up to $60 million. But if it gets to that point and the prize still hasn't been won, they start adding additional million-dollar prizes you can win separate from the big jackpot. I've occasionally played the Lotto Max when there's a bunch of those side pots, which are more my size.

I thought the point was to kill mutants. There's something to be said for a range of sizes. Tactically, sometimes you need artillery to take out the enemy. At other times you need a sniper.

Son Doong Cave in Vietnam, largest cave in the world.

Too much of a sentence. Needs to be a phrase, and there needs to be a person/place name cited.

Do you mean "Duke Steel," from Nighthawk's anti-VIPER "Project Mongoose" team? (In Champions Universe: News Of The World.) If so, it's not at all clear whether or not Project Mongoose is still operating (Signal Ghost has gone back to theft, for ex), or if Duke matured into a true hero or fell back into criminality.

I am of the opinion that making Trump pay for his transgressions, big time, will be an important step in restraining that next would-be figurehead. They all need to see that there are clear and severe consequences to becoming a demagogue and aspiring tyrant, and failing. As for Republicans being "extremely likely" to retake both houses in 2022, I believe that will be strongly affected by what happens under a Biden administration. If the country is doing relatively well in two years and a socialist dictatorial asteroid didn't fall on it , the Dems may hold the line or even make some gains.

The Minuteman robot used by the Institute for Human Advancement, for the current official setting, is around 10' tall per its write-up in the Fifth Edition version of Champions Universe, the only place where it's been game-statted and drawn. The character sheet for Fourth Edition Genocide's version of the Minuteman Mark VII, from The Mutant File, lists its height from Growth at 16 meters, but the accompanying text claims it's over a hundred feet tall. I would choose the shorter height as the taller is limitingly unwieldy for many scenarios. It was also too powerful as written for how I wanted to use Genocide in my games. I was good with the 5E robot as my template because it's powerful enough to threaten standard superheroes, and can get into most places easily. However, if you wanted a true Sentinel-level threat to the world, TMF's Minutemen should be more than adequate for nearly any campaign.

Hero's Valdorian Age fantasy world setting -- stylistically resembling the fantasy fiction of Howard, Moorcock, and Leiber -- includes an interesting dynamic between the two major powers of the age, the Valdorian Empire and the Empire of Abyzinia. Abyzinia's economy is based on slavery. Even the rank-and-file of their military are slaves, albeit with more privileges than most. The rulers of Abyzinia are sorcerers, and sorcery used to be much more common among them; but during this age magic is in decline, so powerful sorcerers are rare. OTOH the Valdorian Empire was founded by rebels against non-humans who were also sorcerers, and who had conquered and enslaved their human subjects, treating them cruelly. Valdorians hated both slavery and sorcery, and outlawed the practice of both in their lands. As you might imagine, these two empires eventually came to blows, in a conflict lasting centuries which ultimately destroyed both of them as world powers.

Nope. Anyone who thinks to suplex a giant wolf gets full credit from me. One of the things I really enjoy about The Incredible Hulk is how clever Hulk is in using his strength and his environment during a fight. While he lacked any formal training, tactically he was quite imaginative when he needed to be.

I don't think you could find an actor who comes closer to "myth made reality" than Chris Hemsworth. From his first appearance on screen he fit Thor like Chris Evans fits Steve Rogers, Benedict Cumberbatch fits Stephen Strange, and Chadwick Boseman fit T'Challa. (RDJ made Tony Stark fit him, rather than the other way around.)

Definitely one of the things on my lottery list.

I would say there are other factors that influence whether these events count as displays of heroism. One is the context surrounding the fall. For example, in Superman II with Chris Reeve, Superman gives up his powers for love, only to discover he's left his world unprotected. He has to experience pain and humiliation before he could become Superman again. That paragon of never giving up, Captain America, lost faith in his country in the comics 'way back in the 1970s, and became Nomad to travel America and rediscover his idealism. In the comics Tony Stark had his first bout with alcoholism in 1979, which crept up on him subtly at first as he dealt with mounting pressures. It was resolved less dramatically than his second fall, which turned him into a derelict and which most fans felt went too far. But I think that example highlights another factor that can make a difference: repetition. Heroes can be excused losing their conviction under extraordinary circumstances, as long as those circumstances don't become the norm. What happened to Thor in the MCU was the culmination of almost unimaginable tragedy. I don't look at it as making him as flawed as any normal person. Almost anyone else would have broken under that weight long before Thor did. It speaks to his heroism and strength of will that he kept going as long as he did. Starlord in the MCU was never a hero. He's an opportunistic rogue who found people he cares enough about to fight to protect. But he's always been shown to be a cocky, undisciplined hothead. I don't know how he's depicted in comics, but his action in Endgame was predictable under the circumstances. Oh, just to respond to slikmar's point re the Hulk: I made a point of asserting that Hulk's raw power is in the same class as the other MCU big leaguers. Hulk and Thanos are close in strength (Thanos might be a shade stronger), but this Hulk always fought like a brute, relying on overwhelming force to defeat his opponents; although even when childlike he often displayed clever improvised tactics as needed. Thanos was clearly far superior in hand-to-hand training and experience, which is how he could maul Hulk. That deficiency in the Hulk's combat prowess has been exploited by Thor and Abomination, as well.

The log in McConnell's eye just caught fire...