harry potter - Why the title "Goblet of Fire" for book 4?

HP and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone - that Stone is what the book's all about, finding it or taking it or keeping it safe.

HP and the Chamber of Secrets - again, the book is all about the Chamber being opened and what happens then and who opened it.

HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - from very early on in the book, the existence of the escaped Sirius Black is what drives events, from the Dementors to the Grim to the dormitory breakin.

HP and the Goblet of Fire - what's so significant about the Goblet? It appears for just a few short scenes IIRC. Why not HP and the Triwizard Tournament, or even HP and the Triwizard Cup if you want a physical object? Or even HP and the Yule Ball, aka Dating for Dummies: at least the Ball takes up a few chapters rather than just one or two scenes!

HP and the Order of the Phoenix - again this is slightly odd, and surely HP and the Ministry Coverup would be a more relevant title. But still, this is the book that introduces us to the Order and its importance, and its members show up at all the key places in the story.

HP and the Half-Blood Prince - I could think of more relevant titles, but Harry is learning a lot from the Prince throughout the book, and the revelation of his real identity connects up with the mega-event at the end of the book.

HP and the Deathly Hallows - the learning curve is slow, but once we and the protagonists learn about the Hallows, it becomes clear that they're incredibly important and in a way the key to everything.

One title stands out among the seven for its apparent incongruousness and insignificance. Is there any record of why Rowling chose that title, or what other titles she considered?

Answer

In an Entertainment Weekly interview, J.K. Rowling said

I changed my mind twice on what it was. The working title had got out – ”Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.” Then I changed ”Doomspell” to ”Triwizard Tournament.” Then I was teetering between ”Goblet of Fire” and ”Triwizard Tournament.” In the end, I preferred ”Goblet of Fire” because it’s got that kind of ”cup of destiny” feel about it, which is the theme of the book. (emphasis mine)

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

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