In the film Oblivion , why would the Tet Station bother using human clones at all as part of their operational scheme? Obviously it is a pretty sophisticated AI. You'd think it could just deploy AI on the ground as well, build it right into the drones. That seems like less effort than cloning thousands of Jacks and Vikas, and far less risky. Does the comic book explain this better than the movie did? (Update: Someone pointed out that there is no comic book / graphic novel . Bummer) Answer There are no answers in canon (since no canon exists as far as I know), but we can speculate starting from what we know. While the alien AI did seem very powerful, it did seem to have some limitations. Let's look at the only completely manufactured automated units that it produces: the drones. While they are marvels of engineering they are still quite limited. They are not intelligent (they are constantly being defeated by trickery), they cannot repair themselves, and they are quite cumbers...

In the JLA cartoon, it is revealed that Batman carries around a lump of Kryptonite, for 'insurance' Amazo: [ upon scanning Batman ] You don't have any powers. Batman: I have this. [Pulls out piece of kryptonite. Amazo begins to suffer its effects. ] It's a package deal. You get our powers, but you get our weaknesses too. [ Amazo jumps off the building into the sewer. ] Hawkgirl : You always carry a piece of kryptonite with you? Batman : Call it insurance. Hawkgirl : And they say I'm scary. How long has that rock been in his utility belt? Is it there in the comics? And does it have any negative effect on batman? Answer I'm not sure about before but in the post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe superman gave Batman a kryptonite ring that he took from Lex Luthor in Action Comics #654 (June 1990). The ring gave Lex Luthor cancer and caused the loss of his hand and then his life. (His mind was transferred to a new cloned body.) Superman gave it to Batman bec...

After writing an answer for this question Does the galactic civilisation in Star Wars have a policy towards primitive races? it was brought to my attention that it is possible the Ewoks were known about prior to the Imperial Base being installed on Endor because C3PO can speak to them . C3PO has said many times he is "fluent in more than six million forms of communication". He even says it when Luke questions him about it. Was C3PO programmed with knowledge of the language or was he able to figure it out by cross reference with some of the 6,000,000 forms of communications? [embedded content] Answer C-3PO learnt the Ewok language through observation. A few points from Legends have to be made to come to this conclusion: The 3PO-series protocol droids are equipped with a TranLang III communications module. It comes with up to six million galactic languages - common and obscure, organic and inorganic - at purchase. It also possessed phonetic pattern analysers that provides t...

Often in fantasies involving magic casting spells requires a certain physical or mental toll on the caster. I don't recall any mention of spells being physically or mentally taxing in the Harry Potter universe. Does this mean they can cast an unlimited number of spells in a given day without any negative effect to themselves? Answer There is definitely a canon example of spell casting exhausting the caster. In Goblet of Fire Harry is exhausted after practicing the summoning charm a zillion times (Accio) in anticipation of the First Task. There are other examples where some spell-specific resource limits particular spells: the obvious is the creation of the Horcrux which, after a homicide, requires then the splitting off of part of the soul. The casting of the Patronus Charm is contingent upon a witch or wizard being able to conjure up happy memories; several times throughout canon, Harry is unable to muster the positive energy required to produce a full corporeal Patronus. When ...

I just ran across this on TVTropes's page " Human Resources ": In The Matrix the robots use humans as batteries! (And recycle the dead into nutrient solution to help feed the living). This would have been Did Not Do the Research if it wasn't that it is all Executive Meddling. The original story had the brains of the humans being used as part of a neural network for additional computing power. But the suits thought that was too hard for people to understand. So instead we get them as batteries, which is Artistic License - Physics. So: Is it true that the original script used humans as part of a neural net? And if so, was it changed for the reason given above? Answer Yes, this is true, though its not clear how hard the Wachowskis fought to keep their original idea. The only "official statement" I know of is an off-hand comment from one of the Wachowskis on the DVD commentary for one of the director's cuts (I forget which but I think its on the Ultimate ...

In Return of the Jedi , Vader throws his lightsaber at Luke causing the catwalk come crashing down. Luke uses this in his advantage and hides from him under the throne room platform. Unable to locate his son, Vader tried to lure Luke out of hiding. But how could Luke conceal himself from Vader in the first place? Did he use a Force power of some kind to blur Vader's sensors? I mean, the underneath of the platform was pretty much an open space with very little possibilities for hiding. The only places I see in the movie are the openings on the both sides of the floor (pointed by the yellow arrows): The background of a close-up to Luke doesn't give much of a clue (although there is a round shape which could be the bottom of a window frame): But as Luke reveals himself, he appears to be beneath of the staircase to the dais, right in the middle of it: There's no way he could have hidden there all the time, because just a couple of seconds before, Vader walked towards and stared...

This is probably the most trivial question I've ever asked here, and relates to something mentioned in passing. The passage occurs in The Two Towers , Book IV, "The Taming of Smeagol". While attempting to climb down from a mountain, Frodo and Sam are caught in a fast-moving storm caused by Sauron. Tolkien writes: With that [Frodo] stood up and went down to the bottom of the gully again. He looked out. Clear sky was growing in the East once more. The skirts of the storm were lifting, ragged and wet, and the main battle had passed to spread its great wings over the Emyn Muil; upon which the dark thought of Sauron brooded for a while. Thence it turned, smiting the Vale of Anduin with hail and lightning, and casting its shadow upon Minas Tirith with threat of war. Then, lowering in the mountains, and gathering its great spires, it rolled on slowly over Gondor and the skirts of Rohan, until far away the Riders on the plain saw its black towers moving behind the sun, as they r...

In Star Wars, hyperlanes are: A hyperlane, also known as a hyperroute, hyperway, hyperspace route, hyperspace lane, spacelane, star-route, or trade route, was an area of space that had been deemed safe for hyperspace travel. The largest were known as super-hyperroutes. And the wikia's more extensive answer is: Hyperlanes were routes through space in which a spaceship could safely travel without colliding with a body in space, or some other phenomenon such as a black hole. There were about eight major routes in the galaxy, with hundreds of secondary routes and thousands of minor ones. Scouting new hyperspace routes was an incredibly dangerous task for an explorer. In many parts of the galaxy hyperlanes also involved periodic re-entry into realspace. This was so as to manually maneuver the ship towards the next hyper-point. It was in these spots that pirate raids were common. The Galactic Empire and other governments often sought to lessen this threat by constructing deep-space plat...

Is there an explanation on why Kylo Ren wears that mask in The Force Awakens ? It even has a voice synthesizer and everything. It makes him look like a Darth Vader fanboy and really tries to be/look/sound like him. It doesn’t look like he needs it or anything. Answer Psychological warfare. Vader was the death dealing wizard right hand man of the evil emperor for well over a generation. More than likely, his image is still enough to put a good portion of the population in fear. By taking up the mantle, so to speak, he is making a clear statement about the terror and power that he represents. To put this in perspective, imagine if, in the 1970's (let alone today) someone rose to power wearing a certain uniform with a red sash around his arm with a funny symbol on it, a swept haircut, and a little mustache. His belief and intent would be instantly clear to everybody around him. He would be drawing upon the associations with the look of that person, using it as a tool. In the 1970...

Dumbledore wished to die without the allegiance of the Elder Wand to pass on to someone else; he believed that if he planned his death with Snape, the Elder Wand wouldn't recognize Snape as its new master (since he didn't defeat Dumbledore); the Elder Wand would thus have no master and its true power would be lost forever. Except things didn't go according to plan, since Draco defeated Dumbledore and became the master of the Elder Wand. But this was actually a good thing, because due to a series of contrived and convenient coincidences, Harry ended being the master of the Elder Wand, which caused the Wand to refuse to kill Harry, its master. Like Harry says in the final chapter, Dumbledore's plan backfired, but it backfired against Riddle. Ok, but now suppose everything went according to Dumbledore's plan. The power of the Elder Wand is lost. Voldemort may or may not end realizing this, but, regardless, the Elder Wand will not backfire when used against Harry becaus...

In the beginning of Goblet of Fire , Harry sends Snuffles a letter. Hedwig somehow finds him after the extremely specific command from Harry, "Just find him, okay?" Theories: Hedwig has a scanning system, like Baymax in Big Hero 6 . Hedwig got super lucky. Hedwig flies really, really fast. Now I know that owls are intelligent beings in the Harry Potter canon. But.... those ideas are just as crazy as the next. So how did Hedwig do it? Answer From JK Rowling's own writing on Pottermore : "Whether because they possess an innate bent for magic (just as pigs are reputed to be innately non-magical), or because generations of their ancestors have been domesticated and trained by wizards and they have inherited the traits that make this easy, owls learn very quickly, and seem to thrive on their task of tracing and tracking the witch or wizard for whom their letters are intended. The mystical association between the name and the human who bears it has long been understood ...

I'm about to start my journey into the world of Malazan and to my despair I've found that the series consists of the following series: The Malazan Book of the Fallen (10 books) The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (5 books) Novels of the Malazan Empire (6 books) The Kharkanas Trilogy (2 -so far- books) I want to read them all but I've heard that the Malazan books are quite complicated. So, what's the best order to read them all without having spoilers and keep track of things? Answer Word of god is I spoke with Ian about this. It seems that a few years back we worked out a sequential timeline for the Malazan history we were exploring. This is that list, supplied to Tor.com by Ian. That said, I don't think it applies as an actual reading order. Rather, it was the two of us hashing stuff out. Both Ian and I would recommend the basic publication order. link Its important to know that the 10 books that make up the Malazan book of the fallen series, follow 1 compl...

There's an anime I watched around 2008 on Netflix, it's similar to Pokémon, but instead of Pokéballs, the main character has a green crystal that contains a blue moose-ish looking thing, it's like a bear with red antlers and blue fur. I remember an episode where the "gem world" (inside the gems where all the monsters are) was corrupted or infected or something. The main character sent the moose (that's what I'm calling it) back to the gem world, and the moose became infected and turned evil. In the last season, there was an episode where the villain opened up a gorge.

Quoting from Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Literature on TVTropes (TVTropes link alert!!! Don't tell me I didn't warn you!): Perhaps even more aptly: Samwise Gamgee. His name roughly translates to "halfwit", and it applies. He's overweight, easily frightened, and not very bright. He also beat a man-eating giant spider demi-god in single combat, single-handedly stormed a tower full of hostile orcs to save his friend's life, was the only Ringbearer to steadfastly resist the temptation of the One Ring, and literally carried another man up the side of a volcano for the fate of the world while starving and suffering from dehydration. There's a reason Tolkien considered him the true hero of the story. I am wondering if there is an actual direct confirmation (in-Universe or out-of-Universe quote from Tolkien) that the statement " There's a reason Tolkien considered him the true hero of the story " is true. Please note that I'm not looking for...

It was mentioned in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1 as well as in this article and confirmed here , that: Knowhere — the mining colony located on the edge of the universe in the decapitated head of a long-dead Celestial being [Links added by me] Which Celestial Being did the head belong to? (if known). I have also checked the Wikipedia page for Knowhere , but the closest thing to its origins was this line from the creators (Dan Abbnett and Andy Lanning): Honestly, they just came to us. The severed Celestial head was, I think, something that popped out of Andy's mind one day. Similarly, one morning, I said "what about a talking Russian dog?" We run with these things and develop them together. It's hard to pin down where exactly they originate. Answer The pedigree of the Celestials overall is very rare. Few have been named and even fewer have been named and killed in the Marvel Universe. No known Celestial has been identified as the head used in Knowhere...

This was a TV show aired in the UK probably sometime between 1990 and 1993, if memory serves it was only a one-off. The plot starts with the protagonist waking up in bed and being disappointed. He eventually goes outside and everyone is dead, whatever they were doing at the time they died doing it (driving, working, etc.) The protagonist is in a state of panic running around town (I seem to remember it being set in the UK) and he discovers that he's is 'alive' because he'd attempted suicide and died at the exact moment this mysterious event happened. I think he encounters others that 'died' at the time of the event and that's when he realises. I think the protagonist was a bald, white man, probably mid-thirties. Sorry for any vagaries, I was VERY young when it was on. Until recently I assumed it was The Quiet Earth but I've checked and it definitely isn't. It was in colour and was contemporary at the time so it would have been made around 1990. Ans...

In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2 , the titular Squirrel Girl tries on the helmet of an Iron Man suit and tries to take control of it. However, she finds the helmet is voice locked to Tony Stark. Tippy Toe, her squirrel companion, suggests that she try her best Stark impression, but Squirrel Girl has another idea: The phrase in the first panel is obviously a play on Victor von Doom (a.k.a. Doctor Doom), but I have no idea what it means. And I don't know why the suit recognized her since the only interaction Stark had had with Squirrel Girl before was shown earlier in the comic, where she just told her that she would become his "pard". So why could Squirrel Girl access the Iron Man suit? Answer Actually, Squirrel Girl has an explicit history with Tony Stark in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 3, #8 where she saves him from Doom (specifically from his flying doomship). From that Tony owes her a "favor", originally getting her into the Avengers, but as she never follows...

When Obi-Wan Kenobi first appears in Star Wars IV - A new Hope he scares a bunch of sand people away and then he proceeds to check Luke Skywalker, first by checking his pulse and then he sticks his hand on Luke's face as if he's checking something else. What was he doing? Picture for added reference. Answer Obi-wan actually puts his hands on a lot of people's faces. In Episode I, at the Invasion of Naboo , after Qui-Gon and Darth Maul's battle/death, Obi-wan is there for his master. In Episode II, at the Battle of Geonosis , when the Jedi are surrounded by the droid army, he is seen with his hands on the face of a fallen Jedi. In Episode III, on Mustafar , after Padme passes out from Anakin force choking her, Obi-wan puts his hand on her face. I can only assume that he is checking on the person's condition by putting his hand on their face/forehead area. Possibly he is checking for a sign of life with this technique, similar to how we check for a pulse.

They mention in the books that Grindelwald was the "Dark Lord" before Voldemort, and that Dumbledore was the one to stop him by taking the Elder Wand in a fair duel. What I couldn't find was the specifics on the rise of the dark wizard Grindelwald, and the devastation he caused. So here goes with my question: How bad (numerically by deaths) was Grindelwald's reign of terror compared to Voldemort's? Answer After much researching I haven't found an exact figure related to how many people Grindelwald killed or even imprisoned in Nurmengard. However, there was a line from wikia - Gellert Grindelwald He had absolutely no complaints about the murder of hundreds of innocent people who, from his perspective, were lesser than he This, however, doesn't confirm explicitly that he murdered them himself, potentially his followers could have committed these crimes. Yet if it was him it does at least offer some indication as to how many people he killed. To reinforce t...

We know that The One Ring had an inscription on it, revealed when heated by fire: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them Was that inscription an intended feature? (meaning, Sauron meant for the Ring to display it)? Or was it merely an artifact of the technology/magic used to produce it? I would prefer referenced canon answers. Answer The Markings were made intentionally. From the council of Elrond, Gandalf tells of his trip to Saruman and Gondor. Gandalf describes what he learned from Saruman: "The Nine, the Seven, and the Three," he said, "had each their proper gem. Not so the One. It was round and unadorned, as it were one of the lesser rings; but its maker set marks upon it that the skilled, maybe, could still see and read." Isildur wrote this about the Ring. It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede, and my hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be free of the pain of ...

Post the Yule Ball's dance, Fred and George Weasley climb on the stage and starts playing Rock music (don't exactly know what type of music it was, so Rock). The instruments they use, looked like muggle guitars. Wanted to know if they were musical instruments or regular muggle instruments? If Magical, then what was their magical power?

There was a young adult/teenage book I read a few years ago, something along the lines of a teenage girl who lives in a time when clones are considered extinct and any surviving ones are considered dangerous terrorists. Then, she learns that she is a clone, that her closest family/friends also knew, but kept it secret to protect her until she was ready. I remember the Underground Railroad had something to do with it. It was the first in a series of books. Does anyone know what this book or the series is titled? I tried to Google it but couldn't find it.

I’m looking for a short story I think was published in either Asimov’s or Analog magazine probably more than 10 years ago. It may also have been published in one of the World’s Best Sci-Fi anthologies, by Donald A. Wollheim It’s about aliens who are smuggling art-work off Earth by rewarding an exclusive club of humans with advanced technology in the form of luxury items. The narrator finds out about this club when his girlfriend drops a cigarette lighter in the pool and it miraculously still works. There is the letter “P” engraved on the lighter. He sneaks into her house and also finds all kinds of high tech items, all with an engraving of the letter “P” I thought the story was titled “ P for Perfect ” but it could be wrong. He eventually traces the Alien headquarters to a nondescript shop on a side street in the city. He eventually steals the girlfriend’s gig (she was going to dump him anyway) and takes her place in the club.

In his first appearances, Captain America's shield is an elongated triangle with three peaks at the top: Joe Simon's first sketch of Captain America Cover of Captain America issue #1, 1941 Now, of course, his shield is round. Late 60's issue of Captain America When did this change occur, and why? Answer I cannot find any in-universe reason as to why this occurred, but out-of-universe I can. Apparently the original sketch of Captain America came to the attention of Archie Comics (then MLJ Magazines) - they noticed there was a similarity between Captain America's shield and the chest detail of their own character The Shield (below). Consequently, Captain America's shield was changed to the Kite design. (Source: Cronin, Brian (2009). Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed. Plume. pp. 135–136. ISBN 978-0-452-29532-2.) When The Marvel Wikia site refers to President F D Roosevelt presenting Captain America with this. This puts it between 1933 and 1...

In the article Why Hogwarts Was All in Harry's Head: A Conspiracy Theory on Cracked.com ( WARNING: time sink) , it is proposed that Harry Potter is imagining eveything – being a wizard, Hogwarts, Hermione, Ron, and Voldemort – escaping into a fantasy world as a coping mechanism for the child abuse he receives. I think I've read the same theory elsewhere as well, but I'm not sure. I find this an interesting idea. Is there anything in canon that either supports or contradicts this theory? Please note that I'm not merely asking for your opinion if it was all just a dream ( WARNING: time sink) ; I understand that the same argument can be made about pretty much any story. I'm asking for evidence regarding this specific theory. What I'm looking for, is anything in canon or anything said or written by the author, that either gives credence to the theory, like "that dovetails nicely with X, Y, and Z", or that makes it less plausible, like "if he wa...

When Bellatrix found Harry and Hermione, she finds the Sword, and tortures Hermione to see if she took anything out of her Gringotts vault. Couldn't she have done it 10 times quicker by using Legilimency? Answer A couple of reasons spring to mind: We don’t know that Bellatrix is a Legilimens. It’s been speculated that she was – as she taught Draco Occlumency, and it would have been useful for practice – but this isn’t confirmed in canon. We do know that it’s quite a tricky branch of magic, and not generally taught. It’s quite plausible she doesn’t know how to do it. As a corollary, Bellatrix will know that Hermione is an unusually skilled witch. It’s plausible that Hermione is a capable Occlumens, who could fool Bellatrix. Given the gravity of the situation, Bellatrix may prefer to use more tried-and-tested techniques. Bellatrix has sadistic tendencies. She often takes pleasure in the suffering and pain of others. Given the choice between extracting truth via tricky magic, and vi...

Towards the beginning of Terminator 2 Judgement Day, when the T-1000 finds John Connor's address, how does he actually find him? During the year, of which the movie portrayed, there was never any GPS. Even the computer he typed the address into, did not seem advanced enough, to have a visual screen showing route by route directions.

In the game Loom, the main character carries a musical instrument, called a “distaff”. This looks like a walking stick, but is able to produce music. How does the main character play this instrument? Is it a percussion instrument, string instrument, or played like a flute? What are the origins of the instrument? Who made it? Where is the material from? What gave the distaff its magic? Answer A distaff is a real weaving tool, used to untangle and hold unspin fibers. The Guild of Weavers view all of reality as a giant weaving exercise. The prequel audio play, included with some versions of the game explains how they went from literal to metaphysical weaving: Like the other guilds the weavers had evolved a philosophy of living based on the tools and technology of their handiwork. They beheld in their great frames of wood and metal a symbol of universal truth and found ways to work subtle patterns of influence into the fabrics they wove. The cloth of the guild soon became known for vir...

There are similar aspects between Dune , and the technology in The Lazarus Effect . Noticeable similarities: Lasguns - this weapon exists in both of the books, and has similar architecture in both books. Merman and Ixians - are both technologically sophisticated in similar ways. Rely on mechanical technology as opposed to organics or similar. Is this merely Herbert sticking to his original style?

Sauron in the second age gave seven rings to the dwarf lords. This had many effects with the main one being greed and avarice. The reason he gave the dwarves these rings was presumably so that he could corrupt and control them whilst he wore the one ring. If this was not his objective then why give the rings to them in the first place? Sauron was actively searching for the one ring when he returned, to the extent that the Nazgûl were an inch away from making Frodo into a ringwraith, which would no doubt have ended with Sauron getting the ring eventually. Sauron being an archetypal dark lord would have been cocky enough to believe that there were no circumstances under which he would not eventually get the ring back. My question is: if he expected to get the ring back, wouldn't it have been better to leave the dwarves with their remaining rings? My reasoning: surely he would have been able to carry on the corruption more easily through the ring than by manually finding the dwarves a...

I was looking through comics and the TV shows and I was wondering who trained Yoda in the ways of the Force. I could be wrong but I don't remember any mention of Yoda's master.

This was an an English-language children's cartoon from the 1980s or earlier. It featured a girl with pigtails riding through underground tunnels on a gigantic (sandworm-sized?) green worm.

Update S07E05: Thank you Gilly! Haha Westeros has annulments right? It's a pretty theocratic place so I guess there's no distinction of legal vs sept. I mean what's the law with the old gods? The seven? The red god? The Many faced god? Of course most got marriages are de jure invalid because they're done politically but they're de facto valid. But what about something that's not political? I would think it's also invalid de facto. Let's take for example someone who could've really benefited from an annulment: Robb Stark. In the books it seems like Robb Stark could get an annulment since he married a girl after having sex with her out of grief. Could he have his marriage annulled? If so, why didn't he? If not, why? In the show, could Robb Stark have made up some dumb excuse* to annul his marriage for the sake of re-forming an alliance with the Freys? If so, is it that if he could he didn't want to? If not, why? *Actually I think even in modern...

In Chapter XVIII - The Return Journey of the book ' The Hobbit ', Tolkien uses the word gun . 'The roar of his voice was like drums and guns ; and he tossed wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers' As far as I know guns are not used as a weapon in Middle-earth and I don't remember them being mentioned neither in The Hobbit nor in LotR . Was this a mistake on Tolkien's part or is there another explanation? Answer In-universe, the explanation is simple: The Hobbit was Tolkien's translation into English of the original material from Common Speech, since the plot device is that both The Hobbit and LOTR are the writings of Frodo and Bilbo, that he (Tolkien) had access to and translated. The Common Speech, as the language of the Hobbits and their narratives, has inevitably been turned into modern English . In the process the difference between the varieties observable in the use of the Westron has been lessened. Some attempt has been made to...

In The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant , the eponymous (anti)hero finds himself in the mystical realm known as the Land, which only he has the power to save. However, he is - let's be honest here - a grumpy old curmudgeon, and insists that the Land cannot possibly exist and is only a figment of his fevered imagination. To support his hypothesis, he performs tests such as not shaving for days on end, to find out whether his beard stubble will still be there when he awakes in the 'real' world. But (so far at least - I'm still in the first trilogy) these tests are always foiled somehow, and when he returns to his own reality, he is unable to ascertain whether or not his experiences in the Land really happened. Is his uncertainty ever broken? Are we ever told, either in the books or e.g. via interviews with the author, whether Covenant is hallucinating or actually being transported to another world? Is it ever made clear whether the Land is real or not? Answer Short answer:...

What website references the SF awards that are awarded to science fiction books and films? Answer There's a website devoted to tracking and reporting on SF awards, so I suggest you start there. The awards they currently list are: Aeon Award Andre Norton Award Arthur C. Clarke Award Aurealis Awards Australian Shadows Awards Big Heart Award Bram Stoker Awards British Fantasy Awards British Science Fiction Association Awards Carl Brandon Awards Chesley Awards Compton Crook Award Constellation Awards Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Darrell Awards David Gemmell Awards Deutscher Phantastik Preis Deutscher Science Fiction Preis Ditmar Awards Endeavour Award ESFS Awards First Fandom Hall of Fame Award Forry Award Fountain Award Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Geffen Awards Golden Duck Awards Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire Helsinki Science Fiction Society Awards Hugo Awards International Horror Guild Awards Jack Gaughan Award James Tiptree, Jr. Award James Whi...

I know Tolkien often downplayed the influence his experiences as a messenger in World War I had on his writing, but he wasn't being entirely truthful- perhaps the memories were too horrific to think about or discuss openly. But he served through most of the Somme Campaign, and saw firsthand the horrors of war and the uniquely appalling conditions in which the fighting in Northern France and Belgium took place. Without getting into a history lesson, imagine seas of shell craters full of mud several feet deep and rotting corpses and body parts strewn about. No trees still alive, only shattered stumps. No grass or bushes or even weeds, just mud and churned up soil. He didn't try very hard to conceal the fact that the Dead Marshes especially were directly inspired by the horrors of the war in general and the Somme in particular. He showed a rare lack of subtlety in choosing to refer to an area near the Dead Marshes, at one point in LotR, as "Noman-Lands", which is so clos...