What are the conditions for certain animals/beasts/creatures being included in Care of Magical Creatures classes? We see most of the animals in C.o.M.C seem docile and unlikely to attack humans or other animals, but why do Hinkypunks and Kappas fall under Defence rather than C.o.M.C? if Professor Kettleburn was severely injured from some creatures, why would they not be part of Defence? Answer This depends on CoMC teacher, entirely. Hargid in his natural condition chooses more dangerous ones. Hagrid when afraid chose the most safe ones (flubberworms?) Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank had reasonably safe ones. But she was very explicitly NOT inclined to criticize Hagrid. Silvanus Kettleburn was more in Hagrid mold, but not quite as recless. At least his animals didn't seem to be illegal. As far as "Hinkypunks and Kappas", they don't seem to be needed to be cared for as they don't appear to possess any useful qualities, even from Hagrid's point of view; the fact that ...

I read this question, but it's not the same as mine: Why is Harry Kim senior staff? ST Voyager "Nightingale": JANEWAY: You've been in command on Voyager before. KIM: On the night shift, for a few hours. It's not the same thing. You and Chakotay are always a couple of decks away, ready to take over if anything goes wrong. I've been on Voyager for almost seven years and I'm still an Ensign. JANEWAY: If this is your way of bucking for a promotion KIM: No, no, I understand there's a command structure and that our circumstances are unique. But the fact is, if we were back home, I'd be a Lieutenant by now. Maybe even a Lieutenant Commander. During that same time Tom Paris went from a criminal prison, to Lieutenant, demoted back to Ensign, and then re-promoted back to Lieutenant. Harry only had one (minor, fell in love w/an alien) mark against him in seven years and played a major role on the ship including being included in senior staff meetings and Oper...

I once have read a story about the spaceship and a device, than can produce anything, but only once in a lifetime. Then, the spaceship encountered with an asteroid and crew start to fix it with all possible Mendeley's table elements. Answer It's " The Necessary Thing " by Robert Sheckley. Gregor sends Arnold out for supplies for their next job, but Arnold returns having spent the money on another item from Joe the Interstellar Junkman. Their ship breaks on landing, and when they try to order parts from the machine (called Configurator) they discover it's flaw. "That's interesting. I suppose someone should have thought of that possibility." "What possibility?" "Apparently the Configurator will turn out anything," Arnold said. "But only once." The rest of the story in Galaxy Magazine .

We all know about Yoda's iconic Yodaspeak. Like most people, I always assumed that this a cultural or personality trait of Yoda, but on a recent re-watching of Empire Strikes Back I noticed that during the "Yoda's Hut" scene, in his brief moment of clairvoyance while communing with Ben, Yoda's grammar is proper. I find this both interesting and unsettling. Yes, throughout the series he Yoda-speaks some sentences and not others, but here there is a clear change of expression, change of behaviour, and change of grammar , as if we're getting a glimpse into his former self - and there's no Yoda-speak. Here is the interesting bit from the "Yoda's Hut" scene, quoted from IMSDb: The Empire Strikes Back CREATURE Ah, your father. Powerful Jedi was he, powerful Jedi, mmm. LUKE (a little angry) Oh, come on. How could you know my father? You don't even know who I am. (fed up) Oh, I don't know what I'm doing here. We're wasting our time....

With the amount of super villains roaming the streets of Gotham and the massive body count that inevitably follows in their wake, has the death sentence ever been introduced to try and handle the crime epidemic? Incarceration doesn't seem to work as [ insert any super villain's name here * ] escapes ArKham / Blackgate whenever he / she feels like it. Have we ever seen the death sentence put to use in Gotham, even for a short period of time? * Extra points if you can tell me who that guy is on the left, in front of Killer Croc and behind Scarecrow in that rogue's gallery picture Answer Yes, the death sentence has been put to use in Gotham. In comics; In The Joker: Devil's Advocate , The Joker is sentenced to death, clearly indicating that in the comics, Gotham had (for at least some time) a death penalty. In film; After Bane successfully holds Gotham to ransom in the Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight Rises , Dr Jonathan Crane (AKA The Scarecrow) seems to beco...

The Death Eaters have full members (those with the Dark Mark) and affiliates (Fenrir Greyback, Scabior, etc) -- is it the same for the Order? I'm wondering if Mundungus "Dung" Fletcher was actually part of the Order of the Phoenix, or whether he was more of an affiliate. On one hand, in Deathly Hallows , we learn that Dumbledore instructed Snape to plant the idea of the Seven Potters with Mundungus using a Confundus Charm, and the Order subsequently used the idea. Furthermore, Dung is trusted to watch over Harry in Order of the Phoenix , a task which he fails at miserably, as the Dementor attacks on Harry and Dudley occur while Dung has absconded from his post at Privet Drive to go see about some stolen cauldrons. He is trusted enough for the Order to let him into No. 12 Grimmauld and to know that is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. On the other hand, Dung is a sneak thief who cleans out No. 12 Grimmauld and ends up being responsible for the the Slytherin loc...

Are there any proofs and evidences of Mirri Maz Duur's curse for Daenerys? Mirri Maz Duur said that Daenerys is cursed to be childless. But one of the possible reasons for her to say that is to make Dany suffer. Maybe maegi just lied to make Dany suffer? Answer As System Down said, no proofs so far. However, there is a popular theory suggesting that the prophecy understood to predict Daenerys' childlessness may be true, but in an unexpected way.... (potential spoilers for A Dance with Dragons below) Note this part of the prophecy regarding Daenerys' childlessness: "When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," said Mirri Maz Duur. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before." It has been speculated that "the sun rising in the west" and "setting in the east" could refer to House Martell of Sunspear, whose Hou...

This question mentions that on Pottermore there is a list of the pure-blood families (by 1930). I don't see the Potter family in there. We know that James Potter was pure-blood so both his parents must have been also pure-blood. James was born in 1960 so his parents were born around 1930-1940. So why doesn't the Potter family appear on the the 'pure-blood list'? Answer This is described elsewhere on Pottermore under the heading " The Potter Family ": Potter is a not uncommon Muggle surname, and the family did not make the so-called ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ for this reason ; the anonymous compiler of that supposedly definitive list of pure-bloods suspected that they had sprung from what he considered to be tainted blood. There's also the fact that it's explicitly noted that the family is not actually pure-blooded at all , with numerous inter-marriages with muggles: The Potters continued to marry their neighbours, occasionally Muggles, and to live in t...

In Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, almost all students have their own pets like owls, cats, toads, etc. I understand that students need owls for communication, but is it necessary that all the students must have a pet of their own? Answer No. The exact wording in the Hogwarts letter is Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad — Philosopher’s Stone , chapter 5, Diagon Alley Note “may”, not “must”. For example, Hermione doesn’t have a pet until the third year. Most students also won’t have their own owl. The school owlery has a set of owls that anybody can use for post, or there’s the post office in Hogsmeade which is accessible to the older students.

In the movie version of Fellowship of the Rings , at the beginning of film, we're shown all the rings being forged, including Sauron's One Ring of power. However, there's no indication as to what Sauron did to that ring in order to make it so powerful, omnipotent, and extraordinarily evil. Did he conduct a spell? Sacrifice a poor maiden? Channel evil and malevolent spirits in order to make the ring so powerful and to have a sentient connection with Sauron? The ring was almost loyal , an interesting trait for an inanimate object. How did Sauron create the One Ring with such an essence of malice, evil, and power? Answer From Wikipedia : The One Ring was created by the Dark Lord Sauron during the Second Age in order to gain dominion over the free peoples of Middle-earth. In disguise as Annatar, or "Lord of Gifts", he aided the Elven smiths of Eregion and their leader Celebrimbor in the making of the Rings of Power. He then forged the One Ring himself in the fires o...

In the beginning of The Matrix there's a scene where policemen (four?) go to arrest Trinity. At roughly the same time three Agents pull up outside the hotel on their way to apprehend her. Why didn't the Agents take over the policemen while they were still outside the room Trinity was in before she disabled all of them? Answer Look at the scene on the street, when the Agents, including Agent Smith, first pull up and deal with the cops. The Lieutenant uses several swear words in dealing with him, so he is either assuming the Agents are something like the FBI or some other agency that will supersede his authority or he knows what it's like to deal with them from experience. The Agents are going to have to deal with the police from time to time and that scene, where the Lieutenant seems to recognize them as soon as they pull up, indicates they have a reputation with the local police. As best I remember, once a person is taken over, they're gone. If cops disappear every t...

For large parts of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back , the Millennium Falcon is in pretty poor condition. Han and Chewie are desperately trying to fix it on Hoth while the Empire is attacking the Rebel base, and throughout the rest of the film it struggles to go into Hyper Drive. But what caused it to be this way? The ship seemed to be in fine condition at the end of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope . Answer In new canon. The first issue has the main characters attacking an imperial base and C-3PO is in the Falcon and then some scavengers attack it, they start taking it a part. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_1:_Skywalker_Strikes My understanding is when Chewie starts to fix the Falcon he screws up the Hyperdrive as there's no reference to it being damaged before that. Chances are though that he only started making those repairs because of what happened during the events of the comic.

According to Bulbapedia , Prize money is the money that a Trainer pays out at the end of a battle. So we know that the money comes directly from the trainer that just lost, and not some third-party committee or sponsor. But how is this done? It can be easy seeing the random trainers who challenge you along the way wanting to wager and then, after admitting defeat, sticking to their word and handing over their hard-earned pokebucks. Then there are the likes of Team Rocket and Giovanni, who also give money once they lose. This doesn't seem like something people in a criminal organization would willingly do. From this it appears that trainers have no say in whether or not they cough up the dough after losing, but I can't find anything on how exactly the funds are transferred from loser to winner. So how do Pokemon trainers receive their winnings?

Reading this question I was struck by an underlying assumption present in some answers that generational length (~25 years) would remain about the same. But the thing is, that may not be the case. In our world, the best time (biologically speaking) for us to have children is fairly young, while the best time for us (psychologically and economically speaking) to have children is significantly older. Having children later increases likelihoods of various complications, genetic disorders, etc. But in Star Trek, we have two fundamental differences in play. One is advancement of medical technology such that we can assume age of the parent is no longer a limiting factor. The other is economic changes which mean it is no longer more stable to have a child later in life. The limiting factors are therefore when you feel like having a child and what you want to do with your life, what sort of career and personal development you want to have before you have a child. Picard's brother, for exa...

Hi I'm looking for a series (at least 2) of fantasy novels I read in the early to mid 90's. I can't remember the author or titles, though I can remember some parts of the books. The main character isn't a very good wizard When taking a wizarding test he must extinguish a flame and does it the most difficult way, sucking the heat out of the flame. He gets attacked by a teacher(?) who wields a sword at him and he grabs the blade with his hand, cutting his palm deeply. The same teacher(?) wants to take over the school using an evil artifact (a statue). The main character is friends with another student who is extremely gifted with magic, but ultimately quits the school for a normal life and dies later. I think it starts off the hero is a keep boy and a traveling wizard conjures a tree that grows, wilts and dies. Later the hero tries scrying and knocks himself out.

I have heard of a ton of Jedi who have turned to the Dark Side and became a Sith (Exar Kun, Darth Malak). I've even heard of a few Jedi who have turned to the Dark Side and then found their way back to the Light (Revan, Anakin, Qel-Droma). But I cannot seem to recall any Sith who turned to the Light Side. I think I might have read of one, but I cannot remember the name or story. Are there any Sith who have turned to the Light? Hell, have there even been any Sith that have turned to the Light Side and then returned to the shadows of the Dark Side? Answer Note: all individuals listed here are from Legends. Sajar, formerly Darth Sajar, was a member of the Dark Council of the Sith Empire during the Great Galactic War. After dueling with the Jedi Master Tol Braga, he renounced the dark side and his title as a Sith Lord to become Braga's Padawan and study the light side. Kel'eth Ur recorded a holocron that was stored in the Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas (capital of the Sith Empir...

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier , HYDRA had a plan that seemed good on paper, but I wondered how would they deal with the Hulk? We know from Avengers that conventional guns (e.g., his suicide attempt) or the alien weapons used by the Chitauri couldn’t kill him. Did SHIELD or HYDRA have some specialised weaponry to neutralise or kill the Hulk? If they couldn’t kill him, did they have some other plan to contain him? Answer There is at least one solution I can think of while sticking to the cinematic universe canon. Based on Agents of SHIELD, SHIELD and therefore HYDRA has access to space travel and rockets. Even assuming he can not be killed, if HYDRA is able to launch him into space, probably via trickery or some kind of temporary restraint, he would be sufficiently neutralized. (I doubt it would be too hard to convince a scientist to go into space, and if they were still under the guise of SHIELD they could just claim it was some kind of mission) No matter how strong or indes...

There was a book (it actually had a second book as well) where a guy gets paid with a group of others to go to a planet that is enclosed in a metallic sphere. There are many species in this planet. I don't recall if they actually met the races in the first or the second book but there an incident where an alien in the first book ate fruit from a tree that removed any signs of gender from it. Answer While not fitting your description correctly, bad memory would justify that as a loose description of some of Larry Niven's Ringworld . The main protagonists were two humans (male and female), a Kzin (intelligent tiger) and a Pierson's Puppeteer (the organizer of the expedition). The sphere was most likely the ship bringing the protagonists to the ringworld, a General Products hull The many different species were hominids on the ringworld, which had evolved to fit all the ecological roles of animals (including disposing of corpses). One of the travellers in the first novel (a...

When I was a teen, in the '70s, I recall reading a sci-fi book about an arctic discovery. I seem to recall that explorers had found the remnants of an ancient civilization, and I think had found one of the ancient people frozen. I think there may have been a sort of pyramid on the cover of the book. Also I recall that the ancient civilization had advanced technology, and there was a gloved weapon that I seem to remember you fired by raising one of your fingers. I have become nostalgic and would love to reread this and other books I read during my youth. Thanks.

So the Death Star is huge, right? Would it be possible to coordinate a hyperdrive to come out of hyperspace in the middle of the Death Star? Maybe a small ship wouldn't be enough to destroy it, but let's say it was something the size of the Home One? Or maybe some sort of crazy explosive device inside a smaller ship. As for the pilot, I'm thinking maybe it could be done by remote control? Or a kamikaze pilot willing to sacrifice himself to take out the Empire's worst weapon. But I like remote control better. Could this plan work? And whether yes or no, why? To clarify, I may not be understanding hyperspace correctly, but I'm not talking about crashing into it from the outside . I am suggesting you exit hyperspace so that you appear in the middle of the Death Star. Related: What happens if two ships come out of hyperspace at the exact same time and place? Answer The (canon) Star Wars novel Tarkin would suggest that a capital ship reverting to realspace near to a...

Rewatching the film and reading through the wikis I'm a bit confused about the Kelvin. When comparing them, the Kelvin seems smaller (but seems to have a similar sized shuttlebay) and better armed. Is that correct or am I mistaken? Answer The excellent Ex Astris Scientia website offers a wealth of detail about the various ships seen in the Star Trek universe. Ship size The USS Kelvin approx 315m from stem to stern. Reboot Enterprise (officially) 366m from stem to stern. It's worth noting that there's some controversy over the size of the Enterprise as seen in the film, largely because of the liberties taken by the filmmakers in creating such a vast shuttlebay for the iconic landing scene. Weaponry Memory Alpha offers an overview of the armament of each vessel USS Kelvin 3 x Rapid-fire photon torpedo launchers 6 x (Pop-up type) dual phaser banks USS Enterprise 2 x Rapid-fire photon torpedo launchers 5 x Rapid-fire phaser banks Don't let the relative similarity in te...

Spoilers for Season 7 and Season 6 beyond this point. Please do not scroll if you haven't watched them yet. As the whole question is spoilersome, I won't be using spoiler tags. Daenerys was predisposed to accept Ironborn independence in S06E09: Daenerys: You've brought us 100 ships from the Iron Fleet with men to sail them. In return, I expect you want me to support your claim to the throne of the Iron Islands? [...] Theon: He [Euron] murdered our father and would have murdered us. He'll murder you as soon as you have what he wants. The Seven Kingdoms. All of them. Dany: And you don't want the Seven Kingdoms? Yara: Your ancestors defeated ours and took the Iron Islands. We ask you to give them back. Dany: And that's all? Yara: We'd like you to help us murder an uncle or two who don't think a woman's fit to rule. Dany: Reasonable. Tyrion: What if everyone starts demanding their independence? Dany: She's not demanding, she's asking. The others ...

The Elder Wand is an extremely powerful artifact that many a wizard would lie, cheat, steal and kill for. Dumbledore had hoped that he might die undefeated as it's owner, so that the wand's power would be broken. In the end of The Deathly Hallows, Harry too put it away in the hope that he will die undefeated and break the wand's power. For Harry this is an unlikely outcome, given his choice of professions. But why did neither Dumbledore or Harry think of simply snapping the wand (as in the movie), and thus effectively destroy it? As we learn in The Deathly Hallows, a broken wand is no easy thing to repair. Harry's powerful phoenix feather wand could only be repaired by the power of the Elder Wand. A wand as powerful as the Elder Wand likely could not have been repaired, or if it could it probably would recover a mere shadow of it's former power. And on the off chance that someone could repair it to full potency, two or more pieces would be easier to hide more effect...

At the very start of the movie adaptation of Prisoner of Azkaban , Harry attempts the spell Lumos Maxima in his bedroom. He then inflates his Aunt Marge and makes her float in the air. How come he is doing this outside of Hogwarts as an underage wizard? The Trace is clearly still on him! I understand the quote by the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, "Oh, come now, Harry. The Ministry does not send people to Azkaban for blowing up their aunts." But isn't that pretty much saying that casting any smaller spell is something that an underage wizard or witch can get away with?

"One ring to rule them all..." when sauron creates the one ring does he create a "Network" among the rings of power ?

This unidentified story was described in Jeff Dege 's comment on the question " Fantasy story circa 60s about a sheltered vegetarian boy who visits a slaughter house with dire results ": Earth makes contact with a galactic civilization. Which reacts in horror when they find out that domestic turkey looks exactly like alien-race-1, which is a long established and well-regarded member of the galactic alliance. Earth agrees to no longer eat turkeys, when it is discovered that cows look exactly like alien-race-2, and the chickens, and pigs, and fish, etc. Eventually, humans decide that they'll need to be vegetarian, "but at least we can still eat yogurt", to which the galactics react in horror, explaining that alien-race-X is a form of sentient bacillus culture, and that the idea of eating something so very like them is anathema. At which point Earth withdraws from negotiation, and passes a law decreeing that everyone has the right to eat whatever he damned well...

A long time ago I remember playing a PC game around the time of HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED clones... one stood out in particular. The story preface revolves around a war between Earth and aliens. Humans win by the skin of their teeth, but when the remains of the fleet comes back, they find that the war was a diversion and the aliens took Earth while they were away. The commander during his speech calls his supersoldiers "his children" and the entire game is a mix between shooter, vehicular combat, squad tactics, and a light flight combat simulator to kill aliens by the hundreds. It was interesting at the time because I remember the game letting me peek by leaning out of corners, having very tactical gameplay, and squad multiplayer with 8v8 and later I think 16v16 matches with Gamespy. Notes: 1st/3rd person shooter, PC, game came out around 2002/2003 Answer The game you are looking for just might be Breed , released in 2004. Plot synopsis After their year-long journey the fleet ar...

Han Solo is arguably the only Original Trilogy main character not to appear in the Prequel Trilogy. Does anyone know if there was ever any plan for Han Solo to appear in the prequels? Answer Actually, yes. There were initial plans for Han Solo to show up in Revenge of the Sith . Screencrush has an article about it. The book The Art of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith includes concept art of a young Han Solo and two blurbs about the original idea. Concept Artist Ian McCaig explains: It’s not in the script anymore, but we were told that Han Solo was on Kashyyyk [in 'Revenge of the Sith'] and that he was being raised by Chewbacca. He’s such a persnickety guy later on – he always has to have the best of everything – so I thought it’d be great if when he was a kid, he was an absolute slob. and it provides a dated script note January 10-24, 2003 Lucas asks for a conference room on Kashyyyk - and a costume for a young Han Solo, who is slated to meet Yoda on this planet and ...

This is a quote from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon: That man won't quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different problem. I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control even for a moment, or someone could die . But you can take it, can't you, big man? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am. Has Superman always been holding back, even in the comics? Answer Is he always holding back? I don't think so. What would his reason be to hold back against Doomsday? To hold back is to assure his own defeat. Certainly against normal humans he has to be delicate, because he could easily kill them. The real issue is that Superman has always been plagued by the inconsistencies of his powers. Sometimes he struggles to lift a large car or bus, other times he...

Trying to identify a short science fiction story where the protagonist is some kind of policeman or investigator, and at the end he chooses to live his life out hooked up to some kind of virtual reality machine. The ending describes him having his eyelids removed as he is attached to the machine, and then as the machine starts working he "becomes" a cowboy or some other western figure riding his horse downhill in a desert scene.

After spending some time reading Girl-Genius web-comic I was convinced to buy the book. I've ordered what I think is the first book in my local bookstore (yay local) and it seems to relate to the first one or two years of of web content, but I can't be sure. My question is: " how does the book series line up with the Web comic? " Does it contain specific episodes/adventures, relate to strips from a specific time-span or is it simply an assortment of episodes? UPDATE: They are amazing. It is interplanetary war in the introduction!!!! Yes! Answer The webcomic breaks itself up into volumes, each covering roughly 120 pages or around a year of the comic. Each volume usually moves the story forward multiple times, but the breaks between bigger parts of the story tends to follow every 3rd volume. The novelizations so far follow the "major break" pattern: Agatha H and the Airship City covers Volumes 1 thru 3 Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess covers Volumes 4 t...

This has been irking me for a while now. There is a brief over-view of tourney rules gathered from A song of ice and fire, The Princess and the Queen, The Dunk & Egg series. I know there are following formats of Tourneys in Westeros by my research: Melee Basically last man standing! A group of knights beat each other bloody with blunted swords, axes and other weapons. Alliances are formed, broken, reformed. The last man standing wins. (There is archery as well but lets just skip that) Jousting Here knights have a go at each other with wooden lances. The one who falls or gets disqualified for cheating or concedes defeat, loses.The loser forfeits his horse and armor to victor and must either give it up or ransom it back. There are two main types of Jousting. Knights are paired against each other and gradually move on like a Football tournament. Victor of the final tilt wins the champion's laurel. Example would be Robert Baratheon's Tourney of the hand at King's landing. K...

In A Storm of Swords 1, when Jaime Lannister and Roose Bolton meet in Harrenhal, the following conversation takes place (Jaime's PoV): "I'm a captive here, not a guest. Your goat cut off my hand. If you think some prunes will make me overlook that, you're bloody well mistaken." That took Roose Bolton aback. "Perhaps I am. Perhaps I ought to make a wedding gift of you to Edmure Tully... or strike your head off, as your sister did for Eddard Stark." "I would not advise it. Casterly Rock has a long memory." "A thousand leagues of mountain, sea, and bog lie between my walls and your rock. Lannister enmity means little to Bolton." "Lannister friendship could mean much." Jaime thought he knew the game they were playing now. But does the wench know as well? He dare not look to see. What does Jaime mean by 'knowing the game they are playing'? Does he mean the game of two enemies making some sort of deal that's advantage...

In Half-Blood Prince , Hagrid is upset that the trio haven't been to see him and then says they could've used the Time-Turners: “Ar, I always knew yeh’d find it hard ter squeeze me inter yeh timetables,” he said gruffly, pouring them more tea. “Even if yeh applied fer Time-Turners.” — Chapter 11 ( Hermione’s Helping Hand ) how did he know about them? Is their existence general knowledge to the public or did someone mention it at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban ? Answer Two theories: I believe, although I can’t find a reference now, that Hermione’s teachers were told about her Time-Turner. We know that it was definitely for academic purposes: “It’s called a Time-Turner,” Hermione whispered, “and I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day back. I’ve been using it all year to get to all my lessons . Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn’t tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was...

An extract from the Two Towers - The Choices of Master Samwise At this point Sam began to listen more attentively and pressed his ear against the stone. 'Who cut the cords she'd put round him, Shagrat? Same one as cut the web. Didn't you see that? And who stuck a pin into Her Ladyship? Same one, I reckon. And where is he? Where is he, Shagrat? ' Shagrat made no reply. `You may well put your thinking cap on, if you've got one. It's no laughing matter. No one, no one has ever stuck a pin in Shelob before, as you should know well enough. There's no grief in that; but think-there's someone loose hereabouts as is more dangerous than any other damned rebel that ever walked since the bad old times, since the Great Siege . Something has slipped.' What is this "Great Siege" the two orcs are talking about? Answer The siege that ended the War of the Last Alliance, and the Second Age, was called The Great Siege and is also explicitly referenced as s...

I watched a TV show about space station back when between 1995 to 2005 (Sorry I can't remember the exact time). The episodes that I remember: A guy created a fruit which was a mix between coconut and avocado. A space shuttle was leaving the space station and suddenly crashed in the space station and killed all people on space shuttle. There was mysterious black pyramid they found in a space ship or something. They found a rock from another planet which was melting the space station because the main material created the space station was sensitive with the rock. They had to deal with a specimen of smallpox they carried from the Earth to the space station for studying and it broke out. The space station was on fire or something, they had to evacuate all and one guy left behind his robots which looked like Wall-E. Anyone who knows the name of this TV show, please let me know. The TV show may not be American because back then in my country they were broadcasting a lot of shows from Aus...

As explored in another SCF question , the only way to answer the bootstrap paradox is to say "every time someone is sent back in time, time branches into a separate line." But if that is the case, what is the point of Skynet sending anything back in time? The chances of the same "Skynet" being created is virtually zero, so why bother? And if we just say "It just wanted to win the war and let another machine exist in another timeline," what is the point of sending Kyle Reese back in time? Humans were winning already, let the machines send a Terminator back in time, who cares? The changes it can do will not affect the current timeline they are in. And it just doesn't make sense for them to care about that "other timeline", because if there is one other timeline, there must be infinite number of timelines. Edit: Ok guys, I don't think there "must be" infinite number of timelines, you are right, that was poorly thought and worded. ...

There are many beings that have very big powers. There are beings that are worshipped as gods (Asgardians; and I would lump Azazel into that as well since Marvel seems to imply that he's - while a mutant - someone people consider to be "Devil"). There are mutants whose power would clearly have been considered as "god like" by people worshipping Greek or other polytheistic pantheons where the threshold to what made you a god was pretty low. But are there any actual major "Gods" in Marvel universe? Since there are many different definition of what a "god" is, the one that is pertinent to this question: Power wise, being able to create Universe(s); e.g. gods more in a sense of Christianity/Judaism scale rather than "Pan" or "Hestia" in Greek pantheon who merely have some limited supernatural powers over small domain of natural events. Effectively immortal, at least excluding specific exotic attacks. Origin-wise, be "sup...