There are many subjects in Hogwarts that require magical knowledge, but not magical ability. Of course, subjects such as Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts require the student to have magic, but what stops a squib from attending Hogwarts study subjects like Care of Magical Creatures or Ancient Runes ? A squib raised in a wizarding environment should be able to comprehend these subjects. It's not as if the Ministry is stopping them, as Hogwarts isn't on a tight leash. It's just something I have wondered about, because squibs could be a functioning subculture in the wizarding society, and all they do is get exiled to the muggle world. They could hold just as much value as every other wizard with the capability to cast a spell. Answer They would certainly not be admitted, and probably wouldn’t enjoy their experience if they did attend. Admittance to Hogwarts is controlled by the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance . You name gets written in the book if yo...

For the Sith Order under the Rule of Two (i.e. from Darth Bane to Palpatine), does the Sith Apprentice hold the title "Dark Lord of the Sith"? Or is the title reserved for only the Sith Master? In the (Legends) Bane trilogy, it appears to be reserved for the Sith Master. For example, from Dynasty of Evil : That was why Bane had chosen Zannah as his apprentice: she had the potential to one day surpass even his own abilities. On that day she would usurp him as the Dark Lord of the Sith and choose an apprentice of her own. Later, Darth Zannah affirms that the Apprentice becomes the Dark Lord upon killing the Master: The Master will train his apprentice in the ways of the Sith, until one day she must challenge him. If she proves unworthy, the Master will destroy her and choose a new apprentice. If she proves the stronger, the Master will fall and she will become the new Dark Lord of the Sith, and choose an apprentice of her own. However, Darth Vader -- who never became the Sith ...

In the opening scene of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , we see a submarine crew discovering their submarine is not the largest thing in the bay. They weren't worried about that initially, figuring that there wasn't anything large left alive in the bay. [embedded content] "Relax. Anything in here'd be dead by now." How long after the events in Jurassic World did this scene take place? In my question about the Mosasaurus I assumed it to be several years, but a comment on that question asserted it to be a couple of months. So is there any canonical time frame? Answer Weeks or a month Colin Trevor discussed this in the Empire podcast: Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Spoiler Special ft. J.A. Bayona & Colin Trevorrow (47 minutes in) He was asked, 'What has the Mosasaurus been eating? : The opening sequence is set just after [Jurassic World]. There’s three years that pass [between the events of JW and the events after the opening of Jurassic World: Fallen Ki...

In Episode III, Darth Sidious explains to Anakin the power of the Dark Side to save people from death. He mentions Darth Plagueis - the Sith who discovered this. Sidious then claims he died, which seems odd, given that kind of power. Then in Episode VII ( The Force Awakens ) we find a Sith Lord who has appeared from no where. There seems to be two loose ends that fit nicely together. My question is: Is there evidence to suggest that Supreme Leader Snoke is Darth Plagueis? Answer UPDATE #3 As of The Last Jedi release (12/2017), there was almost [1] NO additional canon information that clarified who or what Snoke was . We see a better image of him in Episode VIII, we see details of his fashion sense, but that's about it - presumably, on purpose by Story group. As the intended assumption is that he's now dead by the "hand" of Kylo Ren, chances are we wouldn't be finding those details out anyway. Let The Past Die. Personally, I'm starting to fall into CBR...

This book has a female college professor that builds a tesseract in her office. Her daughter is brainwashed by her boyfriend and accuses her father, the college professor's husband, of molesting her. The professor uses the tesseract to discover her husband is innocent. I read it around 1998 or so but I think it was a few years old at the time. Answer This is Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer, published in 1998. Goodreads description: In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously. When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startlin...

In Ant-Man , we're introduced to Pym particles and a few knock-off versions of Pym particles , which when they're exposed to matter, cause the matter to shrink in size. Yet obviously they're stored in a manner that prevents this shrinkage from occurring. But we see them sprayed onto animals, dropped from a pipette, and used in weapons. And in each of those uses, only the target object gets shrunk. So how do the Pym particle storage and delivery systems avoid being shrunk? Answer We have two options: The containers are made of something that cannot be shrunk. Similar to how acid can be safely stored in glass. Its passive and doesn't require any other external resources like a battery [Very likely] An extremely powerful magnetic field is used to hold the particles in a vacuum away from the edges of the container. Similar to how antimatter is contained. This would require a fair amount of power [Less likely]

Captain America has been a soldier, so it is fair to say that he would have had his fair share of kills, but as a superhero does Captain America Kill? i.e. does he have a 'no kill' policy similar to some incarnations of Batman? I know that in the movies, we clearly see that he doesn't really hold back from killing enemies; is it the same in the comics? Answer He had no problem killing people during the war . He's killed people outside of war, but generally shows remorse over it. You can find more examples at the link above, but the long and the short of it is that Steve Rogers is the epitome of a good soldier. He doesn't want to kill, but he will when it's the best solution.

The 10th Doctor, when he was about to die/regenerate in the episode The End of Time , was very sad and visited most of his companions secretly. Doesn't he have all the memory of the previous incarnations? Even if regeneration is painful, the pain will be gone afterwards and then all is fine. Why was he so sad that he needed to visit his companions? Answer The visits are mentioned again in the Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor (featuring the 11th Doctor as a special guest). The Doctor says to Jo (a companion of the 3rd Doctor, also making a special guest appearance): JO: So you've been watching me? All this time? DOCTOR: No. Because you're right. I don't look back. I can't. But the last time I was dying I looked back on all of you. Every single one. And I was so proud. The Doctor isn't sad because he won't remember his companions, he's sad because he believes he won't see them again. The 10th Doctor was fairly unusual in that he inter...

From my memory of the last Harry Potter movie I saw, I've seen many wizards cast spells without saying the spell at all. During the final battle in Hogwarts, many wizards just swung their wands and their enemies were knocked out. I am 100% sure about this! The most remarkable spells were the ones that emit a green or red beam in the final battle of Harry Potter against Voldemort when they pushed their beams towards each other. So, the question is, are they cheating? Because, unless there are wordless spells, they must say the words for a spell. Answer I assume that the filmmakers wrote the dialogue that way for dramatic effect. My impression was that they had the characters say the words almost all the time, but that in most fight scenes they skipped out on most of the incantations in order to focus more audience attention on the action. For example, in the book version of the final fight between Harry and Voldemort, Voldemort uses the Killing Curse while Harry casts a Disarming ...

Multiple webpages claim that after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , Dolores Umbridge was sent to the prison Azkaban with a life-long sentence. In what interview did J. K. Rowling claim this? (The sentence isn't surprising, given how she's prosecuted Muggle-born wizards in the Ministry.) Answer During a Bloomsbury written chat on July 30th, 2007 : What is toadface Umbridge doing now? JKR: Glad to see you like her as much as I do! She was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.

Many fans of the Harry Potter Universe are continuing to learn more and more about the wizarding world, as the world expands through new media content, including Pottermore . One of the more recent additions, and by recent I mean in the past five years or so , comes in the form of an American school called, Ilvermorny, which like Hogwarts, has four houses. I'm sure, I like many people, have taken the Pottermore sorting quiz to see what Ilvermorny House they would belong to, but I was wondering if in-universe the induction to the houses is the same as Hogwarts? Does Ilvermorny have their own sorting hat or do they come to be inducted by another [magical] process? Answer There's no sorting hat but their sorting ceremony is still based on magical selection. One assumes that much the same legilimency-based magic is used. Marble statues of Isolt and James flank the front doors of Ilvermorny Castle. The doors open onto a circular room topped by a glass cupola. A wooden balcony r...

This morning I was riding in the train when I heard two fellows discussing an upcoming movie. They likened it to The Lord of the Rings with orcs and elves and (I think) magicians etc. They also mentioned that it is a story that originally appears in books. I've been trying to figure out what books these are, because I am interested in potentially reading them. Below are all the details I can recall: There are elves, similar to the elves in The Lord of the Rings, but these are dark elves. (They mentioned they can reuse the elves from lord of the rings when making the movie and just color the hair black) Also, there was something of red elves that may or may not be included in the story Pretty sure there is magic related to the story in one form or another There was something about different gods (e.g. god of chaos, god of x, god of y, etc.) which may or may not still exist They mentioned the name Thommas a few times in a way that makes me think he is one of the main characters They ...

We got to lay our eyes on some cool new ships and vehicles in The Last Jedi in a couple different scenarios. We got some cool new speeders, more AT-ATs, the Largest starship we've probably ever seen as well as the scariest we've ever seen. The ones that I've been wondering the most about are what I've been calling the: Gorilla AT-ATs Salt Speeders Some of the other new vehicles we'd seen was Snoke's "super duper ultra" Star Destroyer , which was the width of the entire First Order Fleet, and the menacing Dreadnought which featured at the start of the film. Finally, whether we know the name of the bomber that the A-wings and X-wings were excorting? Resistance Bomber Oh, nearly forgot: Canto Bight Air Speeders The walkers dragging the Battering Ram forwards Answer The Incredible Cross-Sections book identifies them as; Gorilla Walkers = All-Terrain MegaCalibre 6 / AT-M6 Salt Speeders = V-4X-D Ski Speeder Resistance Bomber = MG-100 StarFortress Bomber /...

So, as I vaguely remember it. It was set in the distant future were a dictator rules the Earth. By this point carbon dioxide was so high most life outside of humans was extinct. So the dictator built a special zoo with the right atmospheric conditions. Then he sent crews back in time to retrieve things. But, unbeknownst to them they were sliding sideways through the dimensions. So when they went to get a horse they got a unicorn instead, a real drake instead of a komodo dragon, etc. The unicorn gored one of them really bad. The drake burned another pretty bad. Somewhere along the way they speculate on what happened to the rocs of myth and figured it was the ostrich and they re-enabled the disabled DNA pairs and suddenly had a roc that broke free, escaped, and quickly suffocated to death in the high CO2 atmosphere. I remember them all nearly dying because someone sent to get the first automobile built by Henry Ford screwed up and accidentally destroyed the original. And that changed tim...

After the wedding, Hermione has to use a memory charm on two Death Eaters, where she states that she has never done it before, but she knows the theory. However, she states that before she left on her adventure, she made her parents forget her, and move to Australia. Is this a contradiction, or is there an explanation? Answer I don't believe it's directly addressed in the stories, but Hermione indicates things about her parents' substitute life, such as the fact that they don't have a daughter; this suggests that she didn't use the Obliviate charm, but something more complicated. Obliviate COULD remove the knowledge of them having a daughter, but at the expense of the last 17 or so years of their memory, from how it's shown being used. (Or, possibly, just the 'event' of her birth/life/etc, but that would still leave too many loose ends.) This is far from the first time we've seen her use a spell that hadn't been specifically "taught....

Quoted from The Big Bang Theory : Penny: Yeah, I do like the one where Lois Lane falls from the helicopter and Superman swooshes down and catches her, which one was that? Leonard, Sheldon and Howard together: One. (Raj raises one finger). Sheldon: You realise that scene was rife with scientific inaccuracy. Penny: Yes, I know, men can’t fly. Sheldon: Oh no, let’s assume that they can. Lois Lane is falling, accelerating at an initial rate of 32 feet per second per second. Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel. Miss Lane, who is now travelling at approximately 120 miles per hour, hits them, and is immediately sliced into three equal pieces. Leonard: Unless, Superman matches her speed and decelerates. Sheldon: In what space, sir, in what space? She’s two feet above the ground. Frankly, if he really loved her, he’d let her hit the pavement. It would be a more merciful death. Is Sheldon's argument correct?

In Prisoner of Azkaban , Professor Dumbledore explains to Harry why he cannot convince the ministry that Sirius is innocent. Yet, in the beginning of Half-Blood Prince , the Minister of Magic admits to the Muggle Prime Minister that Sirius Black was innocent: ‘Is Serious Black with – er – He Who Must Not Be Named?’ ‘Black? Black?’ said Fudge distractedly, turning his bowler rapidly in his fingers. ‘Sirius Black, you mean? Merlin's beard, no. Black's dead. Turns out we were – er – mistaken about Black. He was innocent after all. And he wasn't in league with He Who Must Not Be Named either. […]’ – The Half-Blood Prince Chapter 1: The Other Minister What has changed that has made them admit his innocence? Sirius's body disappears in the fight in Order of the Phoenix, so there's no evidence left that he has fought there. Pettigrew is still in hiding. There's still only Harry and Hermione's word against Snape's story that would prove Sirius's innocence. ...

I read a book about a man who was geneticall modified during prehistoric times by aliens, and lived forever. I keep thinking it was Ben Bova or Greg Bear story but I cannot think of it. I read it as a kid and now I cannot remember name or author. It seemed to follow his life through out history into modern times. I have googled this to no end. Anyone recall this book? Answer What you described fits a book called " In the Face of My Enemy " by Joseph H. Delaney from the early 1980s. In it a prehistoric man, Kah-Sih-Omah, is modified by aliens which allows him to totally control his genetic makeup and organic structure. He never ages, he can regenerate his limbs and resist all disease. He can alter his structure to incorporate capabilities from other species (e.g. night vision from felines, improved sight from avians, etc). The plot line continues into modern day and then into the future. The book cover and reader description can be viewed on Amazon.

Note that this is a question based on what is described in the book, rather than a question based on current actual quantum and/or cosmological physics. It wasn't quite clear to me from the discussions of wormhole transport; is it possible for a wormhole "end" a.k.a. entrance to be transported via an existing wormhole? There's a lot of description of the ships which carried wormhole ends at STL but I don't recall any mention of taking a "shortcut" via wormholes partway to the final destination. Answer There's no mention in the book of the ability to carry a wormhole entrance via an existing wormhole. That said, if it was possible to do so then logically we should see that connected systems would have multiple wormholes strewn along the the path between them and the nearest system allowing for rapid re-emplacement in case a wormhole mouth is lost by accident or destroyed by enemy action. We know that wormholes can be "emplaced" anywhere ...

According to the Ahsoka novel (written by E. K. Johnston), Kyber crystals choose Force users and present themselves to their desired owner, but dark siders don’t experience this same connection to the crystals. The only way the Sith and other dark side Force users can collect kyber crystals is by stealing them or plundering them off the bodies of their fallen foes. Even if a dark sider were to acquire a kyber crystal from a green or blue saber, the act of bending the crystal to their will in a new lightsaber will cause the crystal to “bleed,” turning it red. Anakin's second lightsaber was used by Vader to amputate Mace Windu, kill dozens padawans at Jedi Temple, slay all Separatist leaders and fight Obi-Wan on Mustafar. After dismembering Anakin in Episode III, Kenobi picked the saber up and 19 years later, he gives Anakin's second lightsaber to Luke and the blade is still blue. Shouldn't it be red now? Answer Crystals don't change colour while inside a lightsaber Th...

Question behind the question : I was actually thinking about the implications of dark curses: Anyone can use a dark curse on anyone else (provided they are properly educated in magic and so on). For Avada Kedavra and Crucio, that didn't seem too bad. In America, people are allowed to own guns, and abusive people exist. Imperio seems problematic. Anyone can control anyone else? Wow. It's like everyone has a ring of gyges. Perhaps I am cynical, but I highly suspect people would use Imperio if given the chance since they would be unlikely to be caught, or so I assume . Thinking about it more, a lot more people would be dead or abused if their murderers or abusers had higher probability of escaping justice. The somewhat dumb question: So now I, of course, question my assumptions. How would dark curse casters be caught? In general, how do aurors or anyone catch criminals, solve crimes, uncover mysteries or murder mysteries? Side question : How do you know anyone is under the Imperi...

I'm trying to remember the name of the short story, or TV episode, where the plot is that it's set at a mission control centre on Earth somewhere, and they are awaiting the signal from a probe which has been sent to a world outside our solar system. The twist of it is that one of the people there is an alien from that world; they saw the probe, and destroyed it and came looking for us after they realised it wasn't hostile, and are offering to swap their FTL technology for our probe technology if the signal is received etc. Any ideas what this was? Answer This is almost certainly "Like Banquo's Ghost" by Larry Niven from the short story collection Shape of Space (1969) larryniven.net First appeared in Worlds of If, September 1968. A short story about the first meeting between humanity and an alien race that destroys Earth's slower-than-light probe, and then arrives for a visit in faster-than-light ships. Is it the dawn of a new era or the first shot in t...

C-3PO : "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand seven hundred and twenty to one!" Han : "Never tell me the odds." C-3PO : "The odds of successfully surviving an attack on an Imperial Star Destroyer are approximately..." Leia : "Shut up!" What was the basis of his calculations for the odds he was stating?

Can someone tell me what order should the Babylon 5 movies be watched, so as to get the best out of them as a whole while watching the series? I know that release date isn't the best way to do this as they sometimes have to release movies earlier than they'd like to fit in with channel scheduling etc. Answer From the episode list at The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 That list provides the chronological order of the storyline for the episodes as well as the movies, as indicated by JMS. (Some episodes vary slightly with the release dates and the chronological ordering intended)

At the surface, it sounds like a complete butchering of the Buddhist concept of attachment, which is not what most people think , and has more to do with more to do with denying ourselves suffering and pain ( the dukkha ) than forcing ourselves to become closer to fellow human beings. The tenet is most often expressed as the fact the Jedi don't marry - which is closer aligned to Catholicism with roots in theology. Considering: There isn't anything central to the "Light Side" which prohibits love, romance or marriage The Jedi's restrictions on Anakins emotions ... ... help create the greatest mass murderer that the Galaxy has ever seen Is there some in-unviverse basis as to why this concept is even remotely a good idea? This is noting that the New Jedi Order seems to start a reversal on the idea. Is this because it was proven such a colossal failure? Answer In Episode IV Obi-Wan claims, "for a thousand generations, the Jedi were the guardians of peace and j...

I am a huge fan of the TV show Game of Thrones . I am considering reading the books. A part of me would like to know the rest of the story, i.e. starting at volume 3. Another part of me is afraid to get lost in the middle of stories that the TV didn't mention (i.e. starting at volume 1). Answer Definitely. The TV show only scratches the surface of what the books contain, in my opinion. Due to the constraints of the TV medium, several aspects of the books have been modified or deleted. You'll reap the full benefit of George R. R. Martin's creativity by reading the books. One analogy that I've come across is the Lord of the Rings. The movies were great, but still don't contain all of the depth that is present in Tolkien's original books. In the end I believe that most fans would greatly enjoy the story arcs contained within the books that the TV show was based on. You'll have the added benefit of moving ahead of where the TV series is focusing on, since the ...

As is evident from this answer , the Ministry was used to Obliviating Muggles that witnessed magic as a matter of course. Obliviators even had their own "headquarters" as part of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. When Voldemort took over the Ministry a certain amount of 'restructuring' was no doubt done to reflect the prioritisation of the Dark Arts and so on. I'm wondering whether it's likely that the Ministry would still have carried on Obliviating Muggles as a matter of course or whether it would still be trying to enforce the International Statute of Secrecy. Indeed, I wonder what would've been in Voldemort's long-term interests? On the one hand, the whole Magic is Might philosophy dictates the natural supremacy of wizards over Muggles. As such, it'd make sense to make as many public declarations of wizarding might as possible. I'm sure that there are plenty of spells that would be capable of making Muggles cower and tr...

So far, is there any suggestion, or speculation as to the reason for the name 'Rogue One' for the next Star Wars film? To me, the name seems very close to the Rogue Squadron, most known from Hoth (their leader Luke Skywalker), especially the number following Rogue like a callsign. However as far as I know, they were formed after the first Death Star destruction. So why Rogue One?

This is a tricky question that I am not sure I should even ask, but here it is: A few years ago, I read something online about Tolkien's works, especially LotR and The Silmarillion . It related to either Sauron or Saruman (or possibly - though I doubt it - Melkor/Morgoth), and the gist was as follows. Before he was pure evil, this character was basically a decent guy, although he was very egotistical. He saw suffering, death, war, hunger, hatred, chaos, cruelty, misery, sorrow, disease, etc, in the world, and it deeply troubled him. He thought that, if he was in charge, he could ease people's suffering, do away with all these terrible things, and make the world a better place in which to live. So began his quest for power over all of Arda, but for ostensibly good reasons (compared to the reasons most people try to obtain great power). But as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this is no exception. He found, unsurprisingly, that everyone else want...

The character had been killed episodes before and appeared totally unexpectedly in the episode called Unearthed . As the Wikipedia notes: Though his character Charlie Francis had been killed off earlier in the second season, former series regular Kirk Acevedo appeared in the episode, sparking confusion among some viewers. Has this ever been properly explained? Answer Basically, it was an episode they made during the first season, but didn't air. Fox decided to air it during the second season. This was explained during its original airing. The Fox promos for that episode explained it as a 'lost 1st season episode'. That's why Charlie's there, and there's no attention drawn to his presence, as he was always around during season 1. Also, in this scan of the blu-ray booklet, you could see that the Unearthed episode is within the special feature of the disk 4. So the episode number 11 is "Johari Window".

There was a great SF story I read some time ago (probably 25+ years ago) where there was a well known treasure trove, guarded by a killer robot that would ask all comers a series of difficult questions from all areas (math, physics, literature, history, etc.) But everyone eventually failed and died... until the last person managed to make it past the robot: By just answering gibberish to the robot. Unfortunately, after collecting a ton of treasure, the robot casually asked him why he wanted it, he answered in a sensible way (something like "because it's valuable"), and the robot killed him, because he failed the final test. Any ideas who wrote this? What it was titled? Answer Sounds like it could be "The Sixth Palace" by Robert Silverberg . It seems to have appeared in a number of anthologies . In a game strangely like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" a robot asks questions of adventurers looking for treasure. If you answer all the questions correctl...

In Star Trek, humans of different racial appearances exist, such as Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. But I assume that if humans have been able to travel easily around Earth, and that there is little in the way of social prejudice against interracial relationships, for hundreds of years, then there wouldn't be much racial diversity left - most humans would have many Asian, African, European, etc. ancestors. What reasons, both in-universe and out-of-universe, are there for racial diversity in humans in Star Trek? (I'm mainly familiar with TOS, but I'm open to answers related to anything in the franchise) Answer Out-of-universe, Roddenberry wanted the cast of the Enterprise to reflect his dream of what the Earth of the future would be. Therefore, the social commentary of having Africans, Asians, and Caucasians serving together and working together peacefully outweighed the need to be accurate about what a post-racial Earth might look like. In-universe, even if racial ten...

This is (I believe) a 1980s series of books set in the US after a nuclear war. The central characters I think are constant across the books although I only read one of them. One character is a weapons and explosives expert. The story features secret US government teleportation technology developed before the war and located around the country in facilities like Cheyenne Mountain. Answer " Deathlands " by James Axler comes to mind. It has a main character, "Ryan Cawdor", who is a explosive and gun expert, a amnesiac doctor who actually is a time travel experiment. The story series features extensive teleporter networks hidden in bunkers over the United States, usually with a stockpile of supplies that were kept for post apocalyptic emergencies, and the series takes place after the world has experienced a nuclear war. It's like Fallout with more science fiction, sex, violence, guns and explosive experts, mutants, and teleporters.

In Voyage of the Damned episode of Doctor Who (2005) , the Nuclear Storm Drive of the Titanic was capable of destroying all life on the planet. From the transcript : The Doctor: Oh, yes. If we hit the planet, the Nuclear Storm explodes and wipes out life on Earth. Midshipman, I need you to fire up the engine containment field and feed it back into the core. Conversation with Capricorn: Capricorn: I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins and enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches of Penhaxico Two, where the ladies, so I'm told, are very fond of metal. The Doctor: So that's the plan. A retirement plan. Two thousand people on this ship, six billion underneath us, all of them slaughtered, and why? Because Max Capricorn is a loser. In a later episode Turn Left , Donna was pushed into an alternate timeline by a fortune teller in which she never met The Doctor. Due to this, The Doctor died. Without him, the Titanic crashed into Buckingham Palace, which destr...

While Groot is a formidable brawler, he is not impervious (he is made of wood, after all), and often finds himself reduced to nothing but kindling. Thankfully, planting even a splinter of Groot's remains allows him to regenerate and regrow. How long does it take for Groot to regrow to "full" size? Can multiple splinters of Groot be replanted? Would this result in multiple Groots? Answer Groot - Marvel Cinematic Universe; Earth-199999 If Groot could speak intelligently he would tell you Groot is no mere wood! The citizens of Planet X, where Groot came from were an advanced starfaring species complete with scientists and a curiosity about life in the Universe. In Guardians of the Galaxy we are never told what happened to the citizens of Planet X, only that Groot is the last survivor of that species. Groot's physical capacity for transformation, instantaneous growth and incredible durability ensure his survival under adverse conditions. He demonstrates an ability to sp...

TV Tropes states that Collins' publishers forced her to change Gale from Katniss's cousin to a love interest. I've heard this before in different places but sometimes the facts are slightly different. Usually the popularity of the Twilight series is mentioned as the cause. I have, however, been unable to find any proof of this. Can anybody find something to prove or disprove the rumor? Answer The most authoritative reference I can find is in this interview with Collins's editor Kate Egan: What are Suzanne Collins’s strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and how do you help her as an editor? Storytelling is Suzanne’s strength. As an editor, I help her develop the characters. For example, I asked her for more of the Peeta-Katniss-Gale love triangle . Suzanne was more focused on the war story. We’ve learned to trust each other. Sometimes Suzanne thinks it’s obvious where she is going, but I tell her I don’t see it. When I need help following, it’s a sign that the manus...

Juvenile delinquents serving time in jail, are given a test, then selected based on their results for a soldier training program being conducted by off worlders in conjunction with the military. As the story progresses it becomes clear that the children selected have a natural talent for war and strategy. Their maladjustment and inability to fit into society which put them in jail was due to their natural predilections not being put to proper use. As they go through the training and find their natural place in society, the childrens attitudes transform for the better as they become men of war that view battle as the only game worth playing. Even the punishment of digging a pool for minor or major infractions turns from drudgery to joy as they evolve. The story has a philosophical message about play and work. The closer to play on the matrix you are.. the better you perform and the more sane you are. Answer The Regiment series by John Dalmas could be what you are looking for. The phi...

In the film Thor , Odin casts a spell on Mjolnir and strips Thor of his power. He then banishes Thor to Midgard (Earth). On Earth, Thor is seemingly just a strong and durable human. Later in the film, he becomes worthy, and regains control of Mjolnir. This then grants him his full power set and control over Mjolnir. My question is, prior to this, could Thor control lightning all on his own? Or is this purely an ability of Mjolnir? Answer Thor does not need Mjolnir to call lightning, cause storms or summon winds to his command. The power to command the weather is within him. In the Marvel Universe, Mjolnir is a focus of the power, not necessarily the source. Odin does not cast a spell to render Thor mortal, he strips away his fragment of the Odinforce which gives all Asgardians their fantastic abilities As the Norse god of thunder, Thor can summon the elements of the storm (lightning; rain; wind; snow) and uses Mjolnir as a tool to focus this ability, although the hammer cannot comma...