In the Star Trek episode, " Tomorrow is Yesterday ," the USS Enterprise is thrown back in time to the 20th Century of Earth. The crew saves the life of an Air Force pilot , Captain John Christopher, by beaming him aboard. Fearing Christopher could disrupt the timeline if returned to Earth after glimpsing the future, Kirk decides Christopher must stay with the Enterprise. After Science Officer Spock later discovers that the pilot's own as-yet-unborn son will play an important role in a future space mission to Saturn, Kirk realizes he must return Christopher to Earth, but without any knowledge of Enterprise or other future events. When the Enterprise moves forward in time again, it beams Christopher back into his F-104 fighter jet at the very instant after he was beamed off his jet. When Christopher returns to his fighter, he has no memory of being aboard the Enterprise . Why does he have no memory of events aboard the Enterprise ? This seems like a plot hole to me. (Or a...

In The Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan states in his post-book interviews (audiobook version, at least) that the "Age of Legends" and beyond are supposed to be similar to our real-life modern times. Their past is our present. There are many descriptions that seem similar to modern vehicles and items to support this (trucks, helicopters, planes, guns, etc.) Some are from the First Age and some from the Age of Legends, but I can't remember which goes where. Other descriptions seems futuristic, even for 2018. What real-life time periods do the First Age and Age of Legends represent? Answer Since time is circular, it's impossible to connect Ages directly to specific periods in our history. The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. The Age in which t...

The Architect says that The One must choose 23 people (16 female, 7 male) to create new Zion. After which, you will be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals - 16 female, 7 male - to rebuild Zion. But this doesn't seem to make any sense considering the following two statements (listed in un-cited form on Matrix Wikia ) Zion, according to the Architect, has been completely destroyed five times by the time of the sixth One, Neo, meets the Architect. As a result, the actual year on Earth is estimated to be closer to 2699, not 2199. This means that Zion grows to its final pre-destruction size in only 100 years . Yet, the current Zion has - at least according to Wikia - a population of over 250,000 humans . How can one square those 3 facts? It seems completely impossible to both generate a population of quarter million, AND all that advanced Zion infrastructure, in just the space of under 5-6 generations (100 years) if you start with 23 people. (Even allowing for non-natural ...

I read this short story around 1971. The basic plot is for a steward to lead the king's son to another city state. Along the way they have a number of interactions with people/subjects that demonstrate the immaturity of the son. Last one involves the son beating up the suitor of a innkeeper's daughter. When confronted by the steward, the son displays his contempt and chauvinistic regard of his future subjects and the steward kills him. Turns out the trip was a test of his suitability to assume the crown and the steward explains to the king that he was not worthy. Been looking in all the anthologies can seem unable to find it. Thanks for your help Answer It's " Call Him Lord " by Gordon Dickson. Not fantasy, though. It involves the son of the emperor of an interstellar empire being sent to Earth for testing. Earth is kept as a "rural preserve" in order to preserve the qualities they want in the rulers. It won the Nebula for Best Novelette in 1966. A ful...

When a muggle born is accepted into Hogwarts, a teacher comes and explains it to them and their parents as we see with Harry Potter. But what if the muggle-born child in an orphanage like Tom Riddle was. In the scene when Dumbledore meets Tom for the first time, we see him explaining Hogwarts to him, but what does he say to the orphanage staff? What if they wanted to know more about the school like what subjects they teach. And in that scene we see Dumbledore leaving, how does Tom Riddle get to Diagon Alley? It is perfect reasonable that Dumbledore would have told him how to get there. Or there is a explanation that another teacher came to help him buy his things, but then again what do they say to the staff? What if they wanted to help him? As it is unlikely that they would allow a orphanage to know about the existent of the wizarding world, they would need a certain explanation? Sorry if I have got things a bit wrong, but it's been a long time since I've read the book. I'...

Who mints the money in Harry Potter? Is it the Ministry, Gringott's or some other entity? Answer Goblins, presumably in the employ of Gringotts This is stated explicitly in Order of the Phoenix , when describing Hermione's charmed Galleons (emphasis mine): "You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. " On real Galleons that’s just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. Order of the Phoenix Chapter 19: "The Lion and the Serpent" While it's not said outright that goblin coinmakers are employed by Gringotts, the nature of commerce suggests that they're in some kind of economic relationship, whether they're direct employees or tradesgoblins filling commissions.

There is a quote from the History of Middle-Earth (Morgoth's Ring) - supplied in dlanod's answer - that states: There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men, producing both Men-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men treacherous and vile. OK, I get it that creation of Orcs as an act was a Bad Juju by Morgoth (or Sauron?) originally. But: Why is merely breeding men and orcs so bad now that Orcs exist? Somehow, breeding Elves and men is a Highly Commendabe Thing (Aragorn and Elrond are both products of this). Even assuming that the breeding was not consensual on human part and this was the reason for marking the deed bad, this surely was not - by far - the wickedest thing Saruman ever did. Answer The original creation of Orcs, assuming that we accept the Silmarillion account, is described as: This it may be was the vi...

In the Game of Thrones series finale, after Jon kills Dany Drogon arrives at the scene, and Jon and Drogon have a bit of a staring contest before Drogon ultimately burns the Iron Throne while leaving Jon unharmed. I can think of a couple of interpretations of what happened here: During this "staring contest", Jon attempted to wield whatever manner of influence Targaryens have over dragons to get Drogon to submit to Jon and allow Jon to become his new master / rider, but failed. (But perhaps succeeded at the smaller feat of convincing Drogon not to kill him.) Jon didn't even try to wield influence over Drogon in this scene. Perhaps he was too overcome with emotion as a result of what he had just done to try, or perhaps he just resolved to face the consequences of his actions, whether from Drogon or from Grey Worm and co. Is there any evidence to support favouring one of these interpretations over the other? Is one of them more in character for Jon?

I have a Kindle edition of The Hobbit . In the beginning of the book, there's author's notes saying that English in ancient times wasn't perfect. That's fine, then I saw the corrections made on Runes in the book. Runes certainly weren't created by Tolkien. AFAIK, Runes have been in existence since ancient times and often attached to paranormal things. Looks to me that Tolkien's Middle-Earth series is using the same Runes. Do I need to learn Runes first in order to fully understand Tolkien's Middle-Earth series (I've emphasized fully )? Answer No. Let's go through them, and prove it 1 Most printings of all books have tengwar and/or angerthas runes in the header and footer of the inside cover. I find tengwar hard to translate, so I'm not going to try. This fellow did , and according to him they read: The Lord of the Rings translated from the Red Book of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Herein is set forth the history of the War of the Ri...

I'm trying to remember this book I read back in the 90's but I suspect may be older. Humanity gets discovered by three alien superpowers and they split humanity into three groups and take over/enslave them. I think one empire is called the exchange and they are like a capitalist empire, one is like a machine civilisation and the third are parasitic? They discover a being that resembles a demon on a planet and find out that the demons where actually an ancient race that visited all the planets in antiquity as they exist in all of the alien races mythologies. Each empire then assembles a team to try to reach the demon (can't remember why) and it's a race as to who can get to it the first. I remember the demon race travel by using tesseracts and humans are marked on their fingers with different coloured bands to tell people if they are telepathic or telekinetic etc. The book art was a guy looking at a huge block of ice in which a huge demon like creature is frozen. Answer...

In the finale of Game of Thrones, we see that Samwell Tarly is appointed Grand Maester, and given the accompanying position on the Small Council. This person stole tomes from the Citadel, never completed a link in his chain, and is a member of the Night's Watch. Any one of these things could disqualify him from the role, and yet he is appointed nonetheless. Are Grand Maesters not elected by the Citadel themselves? Is there any precedent for the King (or showrunners) directly appointing a GM, or any precedent for a non-Arch Maester becoming Grand Maester? While it is unfortunately clear on this point that many of the traditions and laws of Westeros cannot hold a candle to a dramatic series of television, is there any canon explanation for how and why this person would receive this position? Answer It's simply inexplicable fanservice. There is no possible way that the archmaesters elected a novice as their representative to the crown! The position of the Grand Maester is the on...

I'm looking for a fantasy novel, pre-2000. It's young adult fantasy. Magical abilities involved talents similar to psychic abilities. One character could hide the group, preventing others from seeing them. One character could start fires. They were on some sort of quest and had to go into the enemy territory. Argh! It's so frustrating. I can't remember much about the book, but would recognise it instantly. It's not Xanth and not Julian May. It's sort of a Stephen King's Firestarter meets Andre Norton type novel.

I read this story when I was very young and can't remember the name but it made an impression. A young man finds out that his wife has a terminal illness, so convinces her to be put into some kind of suspended animation. He plans to do the same to himself but first tries to figure out a way to become an important enough person so that there is a higher likelihood of him and his wife being saved in the event of some future tragedy. He's a musician or composer but decides to spend the next few years interviewing and gathering information about important composers, artists, etc of his day--he hopes that by gathering the more subjective, human bits of information he can become valuable to future historians as a source of knowledge that isn't easily found anywhere else. He ends up waking at certain intervals and describing the world he finds in a similar way. One thing that stood out was that in the far, far, future human's had specialized professionally to such a degree tha...

Marvel obviously have a very successful cross-medium Universe, and there are a lot of suggestions that DC are attempting some form of wider Universe themselves. Arrow and Flash are both going to share a Universe, with Barry Allen already showing up in Arrow ; but is there any suggestion that they share the same space as Man of Steel and the forthcoming Batman Vs. Superman ? There is some suggestion that, as both the TV and Movie franchises have shown a proclivity to favor the New 52 costume styles, this may be in mindfullness of a strategy to unite the universes, and make sure they are primed to be tonally similar.

I was hoping to find some answers on a very interesting anthology that I remember from the 70's, but was probably written earlier. There were a variety of stories, but 2 really stand out for me. The first is a group of genius children are being rounded up for some reason, likely to be experimented on, and they end up working together. While the adults are off planning, these genius kids create a force field that it created by distorting time by a millisecond from the area around it, so nothing can pass through. I don't remember what else happens to them, but the time distortion was memorable. The second story I remember had a scientist who was working to creating a new species, and he succeeded. It turns out they live at a much faster rate than we humans do. Not only were their lifespans shorter, they also accomplished a lot in those short lives. So when he starts seeing all of their advancements he decides to profit from them, and sells the inventions to people as his own crea...

It's a (relatively) recent movie about a kid whose scientist father is missing or presumed dead. The kid experiences strange situations (e.g., books from a case fall off). In the end, it was the father the one that was throwing those books to draw the attention of the kid. Does anyone know the name of this film? Answer This is definitely Interstellar (2014) ( Wikipedia ). The following scene may be the one you're remembering: [embedded content] And here is a quick description of the film. In the near future around the American Midwest, Cooper an ex-science engineer and pilot, is tied to his farming land with his daughter Murph and son Tom. As devastating sandstorms ravage earths crops, the people of Earth realize their life here is coming to an end as food begins to run out. Eventually stumbling upon a NASA base near Cooper's home, he is asked to go on a daring mission with a few other scientists into a wormhole because of Cooper's scientific intellect and ability to...

If I recall correctly, owls deliver only at breakfast. Who enforces lining up owls at a gate till breakfast? May students receive mail outside of breakfast time? Wild out-of-universe guess: It simulates Muggles receiving mail at school, letters are delivered at morning when students are all assembled. Answer We actively see owls arrive at various times throughout the day at both Hogwarts, as well as peoples homes. Examples of mail that arrived other times. Charlie Weasley - Sorcerer's Stone (Midnight) The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. There was a tap on the dark window. "It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!" Ministry of Magic - Chamber of Secrets (approx 9-10 pm) Aunt Petunia was just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room wi...

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , it was mentioned that Moody was defeated by both Bartemius Crouch Jr. and wormtail, but Moody is the most powerful auror the Ministry has ever had. How come? However, Dumbledore is much older than Moody is, yet Dumbledore can still take on Voldemort with no problem. Is that a plothole? Can someone explain?

In The Force Awakens , we see that FN-2187's superior, Captain Phasma, is a woman. Are there other female stormtroopers in any of the other Star Wars movies? What do we know about them? Do they have relationships, or children?

River Song is quoted by The Doctor as "Half Time Lord". She is also called daughter of the TARDIS despite the fact that she was actually born from human parents. Probably, it's a Wibbly-Wobbly stuff because the parents mated inside the TARDIS. River Song can regenerate which shows a property of a Time Lord, but how many hearts does she have? One (number of human hearts) or two (number of Time Lord hearts) or average of both i.e. 1.5 (AFAIK, hearts can only exist in integers but it's Timey-Wimey stuff, so maybe it has partial quantum superposition or something similar)? Answer To the best of my knowledge no on-screen statement has been made conclusively either way, and Doctor Who 'canon' only exists inasmuch as sometimes it doesn't actively contradict itself. But we can extrapolate that the most likely scenario is: River Song should have one heart. She's a human, not a Gallifreyan, and that makes all the difference. Being a Time Lord shouldn't ha...

In Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, bastards have the last names such as Snow, Sand, Flowers, Hill, Pyke, Rivers, Stone, Storm, Waters. In the event that they are never legitimized what happens when these bastard children become adults? Do they and their offspring forevermore hold these last names or as they grow up do they invent a name for themselves? Would that even be allowed? Edit Pt2: What happens to unacknowledged bastards? Do they get to make up names too?

Does the Hulk actually need to consume food, or is Bruce Banner's normal dietary intake enough? I'm asking because it seems transforming from the Hulk back to Bruce Banner with a half a cow in his stomach could be rough on the poor Doctor. Answer I've always assumed that Hulk gets his energy from Gamma radiation inherent within him, not unlike Superman getting his energy from the sun. While he doesn't have an ongoing source of Gamma radiation it was my understanding there is enough energy within him that it doesn't need to be recharged. This would be supported by a small sample of his blood infusing someone else with similar powers (She-hulk). While I don't think Hulk needs to eat, I think he can eat, at least in the Ultimate universe. I seem to recall in Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine, when he is confronted in Tibet he is eating a chicken leg or something. In Marvel zombies, Hulk ate and when he changed back into Bruce Banner the food inside him caused problems, ...

I have vague memories of reading this in the 90s. It was a paperback, possibly an R.L. Stine book (it seems like the right sort of plot and I have this vague memory of it being similar cover art). The main character is a girl who's pregnant. She and her boyfriend go to an abortion clinic (a legal one, not back-alley). That's where things get a little jumbled in my head. I remember the girl bleeding out on the operation chair due to a botched procedure. I also remember her and her boyfriend being stalked by a girl of the same age including a part where the protagonist gets stabbed through the stomach with a pitchfork. I want to say that the sequence of events was that they got stalked by the girl, she got stabbed, and the scene then cut to her bleeding out on the chair with the implication being that it was either just a dying dream, or that the girl who killed her was the unborn baby trying to get revenge. The reason I see it as either sci-fi or fantasy was that the scene playe...

Obscuri (Obscuruses?) are described in the wiki as the repressed energy of a child, known as an Obscurial, who is forced to repress their magical talent through physical or psychological abuse. Usually this becomes a large black blob which kills the Obscurial and people near him/her. My question is--is this what happened with Ariana Dumbledore? She was obviously magical in some way, but her power was suppressed--everyone thought she was a Squib. Aunt Muriel says of Kendra Kendra died before Ariana — of what, nobody ever seemed sure and Aberforth says this of Ariana: “It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again. She wouldn’t use magic, but she couldn’t get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn’t control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless." It seems to me that what happened was that for some reason, Ariana became an Obscurial, and this power killed Kendra and...

Hermione says in Goblet of Fire : ‘All those substitutes for magic Muggles use – electricity, and computers and radar, and all those things – they all go haywire around Hogwarts, there’s too much magic in the air.' Goblet of Fire - pages 475-476 - Bloomsbury - chapter 28, The Madness of Mr Crouch and in Chamber of Secrets Colin Creevey says this: ‘[A]nd a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures’ll move.’ Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, ‘It’s brilliant here, isn’t it?' Chamber of Secrets - page 75 - Bloomsbury - chapter 6, Gilderoy Lockhart How is it that Colin Creevey's Muggle camera works properly at Hogwarts and on the Hogwarts grounds? Further, how is it that a magical potion could create moving pictures from Muggle film, which only takes one-framed (for lack of a better description) shots at a time? I'm assuming Colin's camera is not digital, as this is 1991 ( first expensive DSLRs appeared...

Trying to remember the name/author of a book: Long book. Many many separate small chapters. Scifi about humans, on non-Earth planet. They have poisonous native life, and can only eat a few brought from Earth plants. Because of that, they practice cannibalism, to no waste human body proteins. The story opened with consuming a body of someone who recently died. It had a pretty complex plot, with politics, war, technology, social structures, etc. Social/sexual customs were kind of weird even leaving aside rituals around cannibalism. But it was NOT Heinlein, I'm sure of that :) I don't know the year it was published, but it was pretty old, I took it around 1993-95 from a library and the physical book looked well-read by that time. Answer This is " Courtship Rite " by Donald Kingsbury. I've not read it personally, but the plotline described on Wikipedia seems a solid fit. Geta is a harsh planet settled by humanity centuries before the novel begins. Geta is much drier...

I recall a short story I read many years ago about a soldier or scientist being sent forward in time to see if man survives overpopulation and if we do, how we solved the overpopulation problem. The answer was a literal "war of the sexes". The protagonist even has to drop his pants at one point to prove he's a man so some guy guarding a library (?) won't shoot him. I can't remember the title or the author's name but I believe it was in a short story collection about time travel. Answer "Flux" , a novelette by Barrington J. Bayley and Michael Moorcock , also the answer to this question ; first published in New Worlds Science Fiction #132, July 1963 , available at the Internet Archive . You probably read it in the 1967 anthology Voyagers in Time edited by Robert Silverberg , or perhaps in Peter Haining 's 1997 anthology Timescapes: Stories of Time Travel aka Time Travelers: Fiction in the Fourth Dimension . The agent is briefed on his mission...

It seems, that in The Hobbit movie (Battle of Five Armies), Thranduil leads a impressive force of Mirkwood elves to reclaim his treasure in Lonely Mountain, but he doesn't help in the Pelennor Fields battle. Heres his army in the Hobbit movie: Dain's army is featured: My question is why didn't these Elves and Dwarves help Gondor in the Battle of the Pelennor fields? After 60 long years, maybe their forces would have been built up to counter the Sauron-threat..? I have not read the books in a long time, so I cannot seem to think of an answer. Answer "War already marches on their own lands" Answered by Legolas when posed the question by Gimli: 'The Lady of the Wood! She reads many hearts and desires. Now why did not we wish for some of our own kinsfolk, Legolas?' Legolas stood before the gate and turned his bright eyes away north and east, and his fair face was troubled. 'I do not think that any would come,' he answered. ' They have no need t...

In Star Trek Beyond, Spock is punctured by a piece of a bee ship. The wound is in his lower, right abdomen. Bones comments that if his Spock's heart had been a few inches over he'd be dead already. A very similar wound befell Spock in TOS: A Private Little War. Here, Spock is shot in the upper, right chest. Bones comments that if his liver wasn't where his heart should be, he'd be dead already. Those two anatomical statements seem to work out. But in Star Trek Beyond, why did Bones use "inch" as a unit of measurement with Spock? Why isn't he on the metric system?

Did the Dark Lord feel that even Gandalf the Grey was too much for him to deal with at the time or was he simply fleeing to cover up his identity?

What concrete aid did Severus Snape offer the Order during his second "tenure" being undercover with the Death Eaters? A few things he did do that I can think of offhand: Probably the biggest and most important was smuggling Harry the Sword of Gryffindor. Plant the idea for how Harry Potter was to be moved. It's a little unclear to me exactly how that benefitted the Order or Harry Potter, though; it seemed like a very high-risk plan at best. Try to protect Harry while he was being moved Protect students at Hogwarts (to some degree) while he was Headmaster, given that they probably would've had an actual Death Eater as Headmaster if he wasn't there. In spite of his tendency to be a bully, he's significantly more restrained than the Carrows and manages to reign them in to some extent (e.g. by sending Ginny Weasley on detention with Hagrid rather than letting her being subjected to the cruciatus curse). Were there other instances that I haven't listed here?...

Since the Wells, dozen of Aes Sedai had swore fealty to him. The Black Tower was supposed to be his weapon and they were getting more and more dangerous by day. The attack on the Sun Palace certainly proved that they were getting out of control. So why didn't he require their fealty? Answer The key point here is that when the Aes Sedai swear fealty they can't break that vow (unless they are Black Ajah.) The Oath rod required them to stay "loyal" to Rand because they cannot lie. The Ashaman were already assumed to be loyal to Rand, and specifically swearing fealty does not have the same effectiveness on them, since they are not bound by the 3 oaths like the Aes Sedai. Essentially Aes Sedai as a whole are a force actively opposing and interfering with Rand, while the Ashaman as a whole are actively under his control. oaths of fealty are not binding without an oath rod.

In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) , when the company arrive to Rivendell, Gandalf is asked to attend a surprise reunion with Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman the White. Saruman then opposes himself to Gandalf's involvement with the Dwarves and his plan to get rid of Smaug. Gandalf then reveals his concerns about the Necromancer, but Saruman is skeptical, not believing the Necromancer to be a true threat and minimizes the danger. Was this speech an attempt from him to utilize his power known as " The Voice of Saruman "? Answer Highly unlikely for two reasons : Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf were all far too powerful within themselves to fall under Saruman's spells. Saruman didn't align with Sauron until a long time after The Hobbit's events took place and had no reason to convince them that the Necromancer was not Sauron. Once he was as great as his fame made him. His knowledge was deep, his thought was subtle, and his hands marvelously skilled; and h...

I'm particularly interested in how the "Millennium" part pertains to the ship itself. It wouldn't hurt to explain the "Falcon" part either though. Answer The Millennium Falcon has a long history, explained on Wookieepedia and I would strongly encourage you to read it here . The important part on that page is the below quote: The Second Chance [the Millennium Falcon before it was rechristened] was briefly rechristened the Gone to Pieces during this operation, but when he began flying the ship for the Alliance, he rechristened her the Millennium Falcon , after the bat-falcon Just to note, in the above quote, Wookieepedia explains that 'he' is Zenn Bien who had stolen it, however this source makes it sound like it was Quip Fargil who rechristened it the Millennium Falcon , but also agrees it was after a 'bat falcon'. Now a 'bat falcon' was: a swift species of flying creatures. It inspired the name of the starship Millennium Falcon....

What is the name of the short story about an attractive, smart teenage girl living on an asteroid with her asteroid-miner parents? They pay a special doctor to make the girl less intelligent and less attractive, to suppress her desire to leave the asteroid and go to college. Early to mid-fifties.

Preface: I ran into this question in real life -- getting kids I know hooked on Harry Potter. To my utter surprise, I realized we don't have this question on the site yet. So here it goes, in hopes that someone has an answer What is the best reading order for the Harry Potter ancillary books? ( Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them , Quidditch Through the Ages , and The Tales of Beedle the Bard ). Should they be read after all seven of the main books, or should they be read at different points during the main books? Or, for example, should individual sections of FBWFT be read in sync with which monsters are mentioned in the individual Potter books? Should The Tales of Beedle the Bard be read before or after Deathly Hallows ? Preference is given to answers based on J.K. Rowling's own opinion, but I am also open to well-reasoned suggestions based on pure logic, even if they contradict JKR. Answer I don’t believe JK Rowling has ever suggested a reading order for the books....

Trinity tells Neo (via his computer) to "Follow the White Rabbit" A few minutes later, Neo is invited to a club and although he initially refuses, he changes his mind when he sees that one of the would-be clubbers has a white rabbit tattoo. How could Trinity have known that Neo would see this tattoo? Answer Echoing DavidS's excellent comment " In the draft script for Matrix Reloaded it is revealed that these guys are Redpills, covertly keeping an eye on Neo " Although it's not official canon (since it comes from an earlier script version, still written by the Wachowskis but unfilmed), we learn in the Matrix Reloaded script v1 that both Choi and DuJour are in fact Redpills, he the Captain of the hovership 'Freedom' and she his trusted Lieutenant . Not only that, but it's made explicitly clear that they were working in concert with Trinity and Morpheus to assess and then rescue Neo. That being the case, it would explain how Trinity knew that t...

What are the confirmed influences on the Star Wars universe? I recall reading that Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand faces was a significant influence on the story from the first 3 Star Wars movies? I've also heard the argument made that E.E. Smith's Lensman series were also a significant influence on the idea of the Jedi Knights? Answer This seems a fairly thorough step into the subject. No hard evidence or quotes from Lucas or anything though.. In short: Saturday morning serials (scrolling narrative) Japanese anime (droids) Paperback adventure clichés (coming of age, save the princess) Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling adventures (lightsabers! Vader is Luke's father) Alan Foster's recurring "primitive natives overpowering high-tech invaders" theme (Ewoks) In the end though: "Just don't try to find deep insight in it." :)

We were just talking nonsense in the Star Wars Rumorfest chat room and then @DrRDizzle said: Force Ghost Palpatine vs Force Ghosts Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan. Also, Qui-Gon, why not. Transcript Link It got me wondering... can Force Ghosts really fight with each other? As far as I know, this has never been happened in the main canon, so I am looking for answers from Legends. Note: While the question mainly revolves around non-verbal fights like Force Push, Lightsaber battle (if ghost clothes can exist, ghost lightsaber surely can), some kind of Sith/Jedi magic attack etc., I'd also like to know whether verbal psychological warfare (which seems possible) has happened in Legends or not. Answer Within the main Star Wars canon, the only "Force ghosts" that exist are former Jedi masters such as Yoda and Ben Kenobi as well as the newly reformed Anakin Skywalker. A quote from the novelisation of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith makes it abundantly clear that there is no such thi...

When the first order attacked Maz Kanata's castle in The Force Awakens , what happened to all of the aliens and droids? Did they all suddenly flee, or were they casualties? In the movie, there seemed to be a lot of First Order ground troops for just picking up a couple people. Was there actually a fight with the castle's patrons? We see that there are Resistance as well as First Order spies there, so wouldn't it make sense to have a couple of soldiers or people capable of fighting present? Answer According to the film's official novelisation , the bar's patrons appear to have been systematically slaughtered by the attacking stormtrooper forces Swooping TIE fighters were methodically reducing the stone walls and towers to dust, while others strafed smugglers and traders who were frantically running for cover. Their panicked flight was futile, as they were quickly intercepted by squads of stormtroopers who had landed nearby. The film's script is similarly downb...

In the Men in Black film series, many celebrities are revealed to be secret aliens. I would just like to know which celebrities have been outed, either on a video screen, through a name-drop, or otherwise. Answer Men in Black On the MIB surveillance screen we see Al Roker, Isaac Mizrahi, Danny DeVito, (director) Barry Sonnenfeld, Chloe Sonnenfeld (Director's daughter), Sylvester Stallone, Dionne Warwick, Newt Gingrich, Anthony Robbins, George Lucas, and (executive producer) Steven Spielberg. Additionally, there's mention that Elvis Presley is an alien (and still very much alive). Kay: No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home As well as Dennis Rodman. Jay: Alright, let's put in a call to Dennis Rodman. He's from that planet. Men in Black II Michael Jackson (although interestingly the director says that he isn't an alien which would seem to conflict with the dialogue in the film) Z: I'm still working on the alien "affirmative action" programm...

In The Empire Strikes Back , Darth Vader looks at a picture of a shield generator on an ice planet and declares that's the rebel base. How could he know merely by looking at the picture from the probe? In the movie, an imperial officer says the message from the probe was fragmentary, so that might be further reason to distrust it. It was clear from A New Hope he did not have clairvoyance enough to find the rebels' hidden fortress. Was there something in the novelization that said he had additional knowledge of Hoth? [embedded content] Edit: I am not looking for an answer that merely says "He used the Force." The use of the Force to sense people seems inconsistent in the movies. Vader didn't sense Luke when he was standing outside the Millennium Falcon right after it was pulled into the Death Star. He didn't sense Leia when he captured her ship at the start of A New Hope. Count Dooku didn't sense Kenobi when Kenobi was hiding on Geonosis. Yet other times, ...