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Here is a question that arose on a different thread, but I want to give it its own spot because it has major game play repercussions...

You make a rescue with some White dude and I block with Black. You have initiative and play Blessings. Initiative passes to me and I play Wrath of Satan.  I still have initiative and play Bringing Fear. Are all the heroes in play wiped out?

According to your logic above... When Bringing Fear was played, it Negated the Good Negate, and now Wrath of Satan, not having been negated, takes effect.

That is correct from my understanding.

My understanding is that (since Wrath of Satan was prevented when it was played) it would not activate at some later time when the card preventing it is negated.

The explanation I've heard is that cards only activate once.  If they're prevented (i.e. stopped before they activate) they can't activate again.

The best example I've seen is Tower of Thebez.  If it's occupied, and my EC's are Cannanite, my opponent's hero will be negated upon rescuing.  If I then block with a non-Cannanite, Tower no longer works, but the rescuing hero does not have it's ability activate.  If another hero is then banded into battle, their ability will activate.

It's a fine example.  Tower's no longer negating heroes, but the original hero does not activate.

/Though I'd certainly rule against one banding with an un-gathered Matthew.

Can I get an example where that would make a difference?  (Tired right now, could be missing something)

Right, one can't re-target after targets have been selected.  But that's targeting, not negating.

So you would rule that if I then played Bringing Fear, Zeb would be discarded?

That is not correct. In the situation above, playing Bringing Fear after Wrath of Satan would not cause Zeb to be discarded. Wrath of Satan is an instant ability (discard), therefore it cannot discard anything further after it resolves, and when it resolves Zeb is in a state of ignoring it.

The only way playing Bringing Fear after WoS could possibly discard an ignoring Zeb is if Zeb (for whatever reason) interrupted Wrath and then you played a black interrupt/play next and played Bringing Fear.

As far as I know, MJB is correct in saying that abilities activate once and if they are negated/prevented at that point then they don't activate or reactivate later.

I know I'm right about the Zeb/WoS/BF question. Zeb's ignore is active when WoS resolves, so he cannot be discarded by it even if you negate his ability later (unless, as I said, you interrupt WoS before negating Zeb).

And I've always played it the way I'm describing, and I know I'm right. See a pattern here? This will take an elder ruling.

Actually, it's not a targeting matter, it's an instant ability matter. WoS is instant, it can only discard heroes when it resolves, no other time. Zeb is ignoring when it resolves, therefore he is not discarded. That's it for WoS, it's done. It doesn't care how the battle progresses from there unless someone interrupts or negates it. It has nothing to do with targeting in this case.

And I've always played it the way I'm describing, and I know I'm right. See a pattern here? This will take an elder ruling.

WoS is an instant ability. It is not ongoing, it does not have a delayed trigger, it's just a plain discard. What possible reason do you have to justify that an instant ability with no other conditions can discard twice at two different points in a battle?

Wrath doesn't discard Zeb if you play Bringing Fear afterwards.

There's your Elder ruling for you.

I don't believe the issue is about time of activation and re-activation, but rather targeting. I believe Wrath CAN reactivate (I could be wrong), but it won't re-assess targets. It targets characters once, and that's it. So if it is then NOT negated and activates later, it will activate (once again, I'm not 100% positive) but only destroy the characters it would have already discarded if it had activated the first time.

If it enters play already negated, I'm not sure how that'd work as I'm not sure if it technically chose targets, since it was negated.

I agree. When the discard happens, it happens. It doesn't re-happen just because something new happened. You can look "discard" up in the REG and it will tell you that it's an instant ability.