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I don't think it is reasonable to compare the situation Quill was in to the typical situations real people find themselves in when they make bad decisions on a daily basis. I'm sorry, but when the fate of half of the sentient universe is at stake, that excuse simply doesn't hold water. Heroes who find themselves in such epic situations are expected to rise to a much higher standard than ordinary humans. When they don't, they become tragic failures who, IMO, deserve all the cultural scorn and derision that gets hurled at them.

Upon a second viewing, I’m trying to ferret out the logic behind designing a fighter with the ability to drain its power supply—necessitating a full system reboot—in order to cover its outer surface with a single, huge electrical discharge.

I started playing Champions back in the early 80s with 2nd/3rd edition, and as great as all that was, I’m just not nostalgic for that generation of its design. If I was ever to contemplate something like Champions Now for myself, I would simply take 4e and add in a few choice nuggets from 5e. And I’d stop right there. No extra design effort needed (for me).

If Tony had succeeded (and not held back a final lethal blow at the last moment), then yes he would have killed poor Bucky. Shocking to some perhaps, but we're talking about the death of only a single individual here. Cap's stated ethos of never asking someone to sacrifice their life just to safeguard the lives of others (even countless trillions of others) sounds lofty, but makes no sense coming from a guy who proudly enlisted in and subsequently fought in the Army, and understood its grave calculus. And while Bucky's death might have haunted Tony for the rest of his life, Quill's actions could have arguably led to being judged by the Living Tribunal (if you don't believe me, just ask Reed Richards about the consequences of so noble an act as saving Galactus' life.)
 
As for Thor, well he thought he had defeated Thanos, and had no reason to strike another blow until Thanos taunted him with the "you should have aimed for my head" line, at which point it was too late to do anything (it was Thanos' Phase, and if Thor had a Held Action, he clearly lost the DEX Roll-off). At least Thor's attack was both appropriate in intent and realistic in terms of expectations for success. Quill had neither of those going for him.
 
In the end, I suspect we will learn that Quill's failure, along with the loss of half the universe's sentient life, was all part of the one "winning play" Dr. Strange alluded to. The thing is, nobody but Strange would have known this, and so while Quill's actions may be burdened by a kind of Oedipal determinism, his intentions in that moment were nevertheless unsupportable.

I think those shout-outs were purely metatextual, and only intended to say, "Hey we're a CW show too!" rather than, "Hey, we're all in the (same) CWverse!" Then again, Vixen (from LoT) could show up next season and prove me wrong.

Not only Justice League. Suicide Squad also suffered from onerous meddling and course-correcting by the studio. Then there's all the subsequent chaos of trying to get The Batman off the ground, the overall strategic decision to try and match Marvel at their game, etc. WB showed a consistent inability to get out of their own way, with their intransigent commitment to Snyder being only one example of that. Feige would never have continued with a director who was responsible for a movie that received the kind of scathing public scorn that BvS received. Yet WB doubled down with Snyder and put him in charge of Justice League. I'm sure some would call that loyalty, but others would call that poor judgment (me being among them).

A rational GM would not allow players to buy heaps of Placed Shot SLs in the first place. Such characters would be problematic in a campaign even without a vorpal sword.
 
A Hero System GM must decide just how closely he or she wants to mimic the D&D version. Do they want the fixed 5% chance to trigger the effect, or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a critical hit, even though "critical hit" has different mechanics (and a potentially higher chance of occurring than a mere 5%) from system to system? Or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a hit to the Head location (and if so, does the GM want to allow Placed Shots, or do they want Hit Locations to be completely random)?
 
A Hero System GM has lots of decisions to make with something like this. I think Ragitsu needs to clarify what aspects of the D&D vorpal mechanics he wants to replicate, and which ones he wants to discard or translate into a more native Hero System interpretation. There are too many variables that need to be set before arriving at a definitive build.

Just make it an HKA so big that with Standard Effect, it would surpass all the BODY in any creature's neck in the campaign. If you're the GM, then you know what that number is.

The Flash takes a whole season to have the unstoppable villain to be defeated because they get tricked into running into a tunnel painted on the side of a mountain.
 
Arrow has the villain run circles around the team because Oliver keeps alienating his own team leading to their near demise (watch them get trapped by explosives again).
 
Gotham is a little grim for my taste.  I have to put on Watchmen after seeing an episode to cheer myself up.

Well, that answers the question of "who watches the watchmen."

Justice League was just an action movie with costumes. It had zero character development, a flat emotional arc (I felt nothing when Superman returned), and virtually nothing for the audience to become invested in. As a piece of action cinema it was functional, but as a piece of storytelling it was empty and uninspired.

Infinity War reminds me of those epic 70s disaster movies with every well-known genre actor and "a cast of thousands". It brings together everything that has been built into the MCU over the last ten years. Justice League, on the other hand, was the culmination of one good movie, one mediocre movie, and one bad movie. Performance comparisons between the two were always destined to be a source of profound embarrassment for DC.

A rational GM would not allow players to buy heaps of Placed Shot SLs in the first place. Such characters would be problematic in a campaign even without a vorpal sword.
 
A Hero System GM must decide just how closely he or she wants to mimic the D&D version. Do they want the fixed 5% chance to trigger the effect, or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a critical hit, even though "critical hit" has different mechanics (and a potentially higher chance of occurring than a mere 5%) from system to system? Or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a hit to the Head location (and if so, does the GM want to allow Placed Shots, or do they want Hit Locations to be completely random)?
 
A Hero System GM has lots of decisions to make with something like this. I think Ragitsu needs to clarify what aspects of the D&D vorpal mechanics he wants to replicate, and which ones he wants to discard or translate into a more native Hero System interpretation. There are too many variables that need to be set before arriving at a definitive build.

A rational GM would not allow players to buy heaps of Placed Shot SLs in the first place. Such characters would be problematic in a campaign even without a vorpal sword.
 
A Hero System GM must decide just how closely he or she wants to mimic the D&D version. Do they want the fixed 5% chance to trigger the effect, or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a critical hit, even though "critical hit" has different mechanics (and a potentially higher chance of occurring than a mere 5%) from system to system? Or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a hit to the Head location (and if so, does the GM want to allow Placed Shots, or do they want Hit Locations to be completely random)?
 
A Hero System GM has lots of decisions to make with something like this. I think Ragitsu needs to clarify what aspects of the D&D vorpal mechanics he wants to replicate, and which ones he wants to discard or translate into a more native Hero System interpretation. There are too many variables that need to be set before arriving at a definitive build.

Yeah, but it would have brightened Rocket's day just a little...

Yeah, but it would have brightened Rocket's day just a little...

A rational GM would not allow players to buy heaps of Placed Shot SLs in the first place. Such characters would be problematic in a campaign even without a vorpal sword.
 
A Hero System GM must decide just how closely he or she wants to mimic the D&D version. Do they want the fixed 5% chance to trigger the effect, or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a critical hit, even though "critical hit" has different mechanics (and a potentially higher chance of occurring than a mere 5%) from system to system? Or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a hit to the Head location (and if so, does the GM want to allow Placed Shots, or do they want Hit Locations to be completely random)?
 
A Hero System GM has lots of decisions to make with something like this. I think Ragitsu needs to clarify what aspects of the D&D vorpal mechanics he wants to replicate, and which ones he wants to discard or translate into a more native Hero System interpretation. There are too many variables that need to be set before arriving at a definitive build.

A rational GM would not allow players to buy heaps of Placed Shot SLs in the first place. Such characters would be problematic in a campaign even without a vorpal sword.
 
A Hero System GM must decide just how closely he or she wants to mimic the D&D version. Do they want the fixed 5% chance to trigger the effect, or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a critical hit, even though "critical hit" has different mechanics (and a potentially higher chance of occurring than a mere 5%) from system to system? Or do they want to go with the concept of triggering on a hit to the Head location (and if so, does the GM want to allow Placed Shots, or do they want Hit Locations to be completely random)?
 
A Hero System GM has lots of decisions to make with something like this. I think Ragitsu needs to clarify what aspects of the D&D vorpal mechanics he wants to replicate, and which ones he wants to discard or translate into a more native Hero System interpretation. There are too many variables that need to be set before arriving at a definitive build.

The only way to avoid an AOE attack is to get out of the area of effect. That requires Dive for Cover--which may or may not get the target out of the area in any event--or using a movement power as a defensive move (has to be allowed by the GM, if I recall). So AOE attacks should still be reasonably effective against a villain with high CV and CSLs in things like Block, Dodge, or Deflection/Reflection.
 
Another useful power set is mental powers. His body may be quick, but maybe his mind isn't so stout. If the villain's EGO isn't that high, there are lots of ways to bring him (or her) down. Along those lines, a PRE attack might also be effective, if you have a hero with a strong enough PRE.

Just make it an HKA so big that with Standard Effect, it would surpass all the BODY in any creature's neck in the campaign. If you're the GM, then you know what that number is.

The only way to avoid an AOE attack is to get out of the area of effect. That requires Dive for Cover--which may or may not get the target out of the area in any event--or using a movement power as a defensive move (has to be allowed by the GM, if I recall). So AOE attacks should still be reasonably effective against a villain with high CV and CSLs in things like Block, Dodge, or Deflection/Reflection.
 
Another useful power set is mental powers. His body may be quick, but maybe his mind isn't so stout. If the villain's EGO isn't that high, there are lots of ways to bring him (or her) down. Along those lines, a PRE attack might also be effective, if you have a hero with a strong enough PRE.

Point of clarification: Comcast is a media conglomerate. It isn't a movie studio. Owning a studio through subsidiaries does not make you a movie studio yourself. Comcast does not produce movies. At most they facilitate financing (like Netflix does). For instance, you've never gone to a movie and seen the Comcast logo appear as the studio brand preceding the opening titles. What you see is the Universal logo with "a Comcast company" underneath. The way you read that is: "Universal made this movie, but Comcast pays its operating bills."
 
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Re: Iron Fist - The biggest reason to despise Iron Fist is because it failed so profoundly to live up to its potential. The story that was told was one of the least  interesting stories you could possibly tell given the wealth of fascinating source material at the writers'/producers' disposal. Danny being annoying and the fight choreography being third-rate are not the show's biggest weaknesses; the entire storyline and the style with which it was told was. Iron Fist should have been far more cinematic than it was, it should have been positively drenched in the aesthetics and culture of Kun Lun, but instead the show spent 100% of its running time in hum-drum, mundane New York City. Instead of the MCU version of Into the Badlands meets Kung Fu we got Dallas meets American Ninja.

Point of clarification: Comcast is a media conglomerate. It isn't a movie studio. Owning a studio through subsidiaries does not make you a movie studio yourself. Comcast does not produce movies. At most they facilitate financing (like Netflix does). For instance, you've never gone to a movie and seen the Comcast logo appear as the studio brand preceding the opening titles. What you see is the Universal logo with "a Comcast company" underneath. The way you read that is: "Universal made this movie, but Comcast pays its operating bills."
 
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Re: Iron Fist - The biggest reason to despise Iron Fist is because it failed so profoundly to live up to its potential. The story that was told was one of the least  interesting stories you could possibly tell given the wealth of fascinating source material at the writers'/producers' disposal. Danny being annoying and the fight choreography being third-rate are not the show's biggest weaknesses; the entire storyline and the style with which it was told was. Iron Fist should have been far more cinematic than it was, it should have been positively drenched in the aesthetics and culture of Kun Lun, but instead the show spent 100% of its running time in hum-drum, mundane New York City. Instead of the MCU version of Into the Badlands meets Kung Fu we got Dallas meets American Ninja.

Yeah, no doubt. I should have just said "contemporary English sword-and-sorcery novel" and not tried to get quite so specific.

It's possible Thanos' secret motivation was to protect all his video game high scores...it all makes sense now.