bigdamnhero

Great examples all. This reminds me of the GMs who complain that their players don't follow genre conventions. When we get in deeper, we discover the GM does not follow genre conventions.
 
Superman and Batman do not kill. And they prevail despite their refusal to kill. When the GM puts them in a situation where their refusal to kill guarantees they lose, the players stop building characters with Codes vs Killing, and the GM gets upset that THEY are not following genre conventions.
 
I read a great article on running an early Star Trek RPG which hit the nail on the head. When the opportunity to trade his life for that of a crew member arises, the Captain should have no hesitation in taking it. That's playing to the genre. But so is the ability of the Captain to turn his certain death into victory - the GM also has to follow genre conventions.

That's uncalled for. People having differing tastes doesn't make them stupid.

Brie Larson on what is great so far about Captain Marvel (video less than 30 seconds)
 
https://twitter.com/spacechannel/status/774351488676167681

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

A further addition.  I read some comments, and found this one hilarious:
 
 
 

I think fear of Green Lantern looms larger. That's apparently the film that led to the "no jokes" policy. Thank Odin Marvel didn't draw the same conclusion from Incredible Hulk, or we might've wound up with a "no CGI" policy for the MCU?

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

It warms my heart to see how this loving homage to pop culture is becoming beloved pop culture itself.

Yeah but inter-team distrust and paranoia is apparently a reflection of the zeitgeist. It is so now. It's like 24 went off the air and all kinds of shows rushed in to fill the void (Person of Interest, The Blacklist, Blind Spot, Agents of SHIELD, etc.).
 
I think part of the problem may have been that superhero fans wanted more superhero stuff and less political thriller stuff, while political thriller fans didn't care for the superhero/scifi elements. Notice how Peggy Carter was successful when it focused on the espionage thriller stuff, but then lost viewers when it steered into Weird Sci-Fi territory. These shows suffered from a bit of an identity crisis, if you ask me.

My understanding is that Ant-Man was planned early, but pushed back several times.  It contained a lot of MCI history, likely a key reason Whedon could not use the Wasp was that the Ant-Man backstory was set, despite the movie not being shot.
 
Black Widow has had a few series over the years, including a current book.  She's never been an A-Lister, though.
 
Practically, Hawkeye got the Ultimates version because "wisecracking Super" had been co-opted by RDJ's Iron Man.  Black Widow seems way more 616 than Ultimates to me.  The Ultimate Widow was a traitor to the team, and that role has been co-opted by Monica Chang, who probably isn't the best role for ScarJo.

BW has a fan base to the extent that lots of girls went to toy stores after the movie looking for BW merch...that didn't exist.

Sure, but that's back to being a logistical issue, not a "doesn't fit our plans for the larger narrative" issue.

Finally finished binging it - excellent show and can't wait for Season 2!
 
Re guns being worthless, well yeah it's kindof a genre thing. Bugs me too but it's hardly unique to this show.
 
Honestly the only thing that really twigged my suspension of disbelief? The fact that the "townies" were so ignorant of the Lab and its employees. This comes from my having grown up outside a DOE lab (Los Alamos). Where do you think all the lab personnel live? In the community. Half the town would be working at the lab, and everyone else would know someone who worked there. Need to know what's going on at the lab? Lemme go talk to my sister who's on the cleaning staff or my cousin who's a computer tech there. The Lab Director would be a local celebrity - not necessarily liked, but certainly known. The Sheriff would have the Lab security force on speed dial and vice-versa; I'm not saying they'd always get along or cooperate well, but they'd damn sure know one another. So it was jarring to me that folks in town barely seemed aware of the existence of what would certainly be one of the major employers in the area.
 
But that's just me and my baggage.

Finally finished the season last night. Good stuff!  My wife rated it five stars, while I rated it four. I thought there were a couple of episodes that were just OK, and there were some things that I hope will be explored in the 2nd season that weren't here (including the aforementioned pile of dead bodies left in Eleven's wake).
 
I'm looking forward to season 2. Netflix is really firing on all cylinders now. Although less than half of their original series are of any interest to me, the ones that are have been very good indeed.

What does a Black Widow film add story wise, or universe wise to the MCU? Ad far as I can see, it is mostly a "fill in the blanks" kind of thing. Yes Marvel could make it work, and indeed make a terrific film out of it, but it is a diversion to the existing plan for Phase Three -- about leading to Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. A Black Widow film is another spy film, and Marvel has already done that genre with The Winter Soldier (political thriller) thus a Black Widow film would be covering old ground in a new packaging.
 
On the other hand, Captain Marvel is something entirely new, adds new story elements, and expands the cosmic area (possibly) and also importantly has continuity with the current Thanos storyline. This is basically why Marvel is committed to Captain Marvel and not Black Widow. It is not a scheduling issue as others here have commented, but about the plan for Phase Three -- the overarching storyline involving Thanos and the Infinity Stones. 
 
As said, Marvel could make a Black Widow film -- there is certain demand for one -- however Marvel would need to fit it into the larger Phase Three story-arc. There are many Russian characters and ideas can draw from if they chose to make it and wish to tie it to Phase Three -- we know that. However, each film is a chapter in a much larger novel, and to me a Black Widow film seems like a chapter to be skipped -- i.e. it is a stand alone film, not part of current continuity. That is why, more than anything a Black Widow film is not going forward.
 
Summary: it is not a scheduling issue, but how a Black Widow film fits into Phase Three. Going over Black Widow's history involving the incident in Budapest is history which implies that it is a stand-alone film, and not part of the current Phase Three story-arc leading to the heroes clash against Thanos. IT is not about fan demand for a Black Widow film, but a film that is not part of current continuity more likely than not would cause confusion to the general film goer who is a much bigger audience than comic book fandom. But a Black Widow film on Netflix -- sure that would work. 

Well, Marvel Studios has publicly committed to making a Captain Marvel movie. They announced the casting of the actor who will play her, who is a likely up-and-comer, but doesn't have remotely the name recognition that SJ does. That Captain Marvel has a following among comic readers, but is practically unknown to the wider movie-going audience, whereas Black Widow is now well-known to that audience.
 
Purely on the profit-risk axes, I just don't see how those facts square up.

In our last FH game, our heroes' ship was attacked by pirates, but our heroes overpowered the pirates, killed their captain, and captured their ship. (Abida, the Sunni Muslim alchemist PC spent most of the fight yelling obscenities at the Shiite pirates.) Viking shield maiden Thyri took command of the captured pirate galley and sailed it on ahead to town, accompanied by @ghost-angel's priest, Father Edmondo. From some bluebooking in between games:
 
GM: "Your ship will get into Constantinople a day or so ahead of the rest of the party. What do you want to do while waiting for the others?"
Thyri: "I'll sell the ship and split the profits with the crazy Muslim lady that likes to spew profanity in odd languages.  Next, Edmondo will be dropped off at his choice of church, library, monastery, et al - to study, pray, network or whatever his kind do."
Edmondo: "Edmondo wants a cut, he's a priest not a monk. Sheesh."

Finally finished binging it - excellent show and can't wait for Season 2!
 
Re guns being worthless, well yeah it's kindof a genre thing. Bugs me too but it's hardly unique to this show.
 
Honestly the only thing that really twigged my suspension of disbelief? The fact that the "townies" were so ignorant of the Lab and its employees. This comes from my having grown up outside a DOE lab (Los Alamos). Where do you think all the lab personnel live? In the community. Half the town would be working at the lab, and everyone else would know someone who worked there. Need to know what's going on at the lab? Lemme go talk to my sister who's on the cleaning staff or my cousin who's a computer tech there. The Lab Director would be a local celebrity - not necessarily liked, but certainly known. The Sheriff would have the Lab security force on speed dial and vice-versa; I'm not saying they'd always get along or cooperate well, but they'd damn sure know one another. So it was jarring to me that folks in town barely seemed aware of the existence of what would certainly be one of the major employers in the area.
 
But that's just me and my baggage.

Finally finished binging it - excellent show and can't wait for Season 2!
 
Re guns being worthless, well yeah it's kindof a genre thing. Bugs me too but it's hardly unique to this show.
 
Honestly the only thing that really twigged my suspension of disbelief? The fact that the "townies" were so ignorant of the Lab and its employees. This comes from my having grown up outside a DOE lab (Los Alamos). Where do you think all the lab personnel live? In the community. Half the town would be working at the lab, and everyone else would know someone who worked there. Need to know what's going on at the lab? Lemme go talk to my sister who's on the cleaning staff or my cousin who's a computer tech there. The Lab Director would be a local celebrity - not necessarily liked, but certainly known. The Sheriff would have the Lab security force on speed dial and vice-versa; I'm not saying they'd always get along or cooperate well, but they'd damn sure know one another. So it was jarring to me that folks in town barely seemed aware of the existence of what would certainly be one of the major employers in the area.
 
But that's just me and my baggage.

And yet, she married you.   
 
I kid, Frank, I kid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangerThings/comments/4x8fip/where_the_upside_ends/
 

 
(It would honestly be kinda funny if they made just a few Stranger Things VHS tapes to auction off)
 
Oh, and the DOE put out a 'fact check' of the show.
http://energy.gov/articles/what-stranger-things-didn-t-get-quite-so-right-about-energy-department

In our last FH game, our heroes' ship was attacked by pirates, but our heroes overpowered the pirates, killed their captain, and captured their ship. (Abida, the Sunni Muslim alchemist PC spent most of the fight yelling obscenities at the Shiite pirates.) Viking shield maiden Thyri took command of the captured pirate galley and sailed it on ahead to town, accompanied by @ghost-angel's priest, Father Edmondo. From some bluebooking in between games:
 
GM: "Your ship will get into Constantinople a day or so ahead of the rest of the party. What do you want to do while waiting for the others?"
Thyri: "I'll sell the ship and split the profits with the crazy Muslim lady that likes to spew profanity in odd languages.  Next, Edmondo will be dropped off at his choice of church, library, monastery, et al - to study, pray, network or whatever his kind do."
Edmondo: "Edmondo wants a cut, he's a priest not a monk. Sheesh."

I forgot this one from a few weeks ago. Historical fantasy game, set in the "real" Europe of 1001 AD. The PCs have been summoned to meet with Pope Sylvester II aka Gerbert of Aurilac, who in real life was also one of Europe's leading scholars and mathematicians of his day. (Granted not a ton of competition for that title in 1001...) They find the Pope has constructed a giant room-sized abacus, with His Holiness up in the choir loft directing monks who are pushing large disks around like a giant game of shuffleboard which is apparently a thing Gerbert actually did. So I'm describing this to the players - mainly just because I thought it made for a cool visual and gives a sense for the guy's character - and I offhandedly remark that I have no idea why a giant abacus would be better at solving mathematical problems that a regular-sized one, when one player explains:
 
"Well you see, Moore's Law tells us that the maximum size of abacus stones doubles every 5 years..."

Star Wars game, referring to our captain:
"She's sticking with her core competencies: hurting people and breaking things.'
"Don't forget threatening to hurt people and break things."
"What about her piloting?"
"That would also fall under threatening to hurt people and break things..."