In Episode VI, during their conversation before meeting the Emperor, Luke asks Vader to give up on the Emperor and join him instead, at which Vader replies: "You don't know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my master". What does this mean? Is Vader somehow afraid of the Emperor? P.S. Please do not say it was a lie, a deceptive trick to get Luke to join the Dark Side, because clearly it has nothing to do with that. Answer We see in EU (E.g. in the Darth Maul novel) Sith training that rigid discipline and obedience is strongly enforced, with harsh punishments. The Emperor, as a more powerful Sith Master compared to Vader, can punish and hurt him (and has done so, e.g. cutting off his hand for losing Death Star 1 as told by Mara Jade). In addition, Vader is still a Dark Side aficionado, and needs the Dark Side to be able to hope to live at some point outside his life support suit. So, he needs the Emperor. So, yes, he must obey his master, both by his training; an...

Primarily asking this question because of that new TV show "Revolution". I remember reading this novel back in the 80's about a mysterious monolith that renders all electronics in the world inoperable. The novel never explains where the monolith came from, only how civilization adjusted.

I've got three omnibus books containing 9 total Warhammer 40,000 stories. Before I mention which ones I've got, which book would you recommend as a good place to start the series?

Is there anything like replicators in the Star Wars universe (or in the extended universe)? I don't mean full fledged transporters or anything like that, but something that could take a block of raw matter, disassemble it, and re-assemble it as something else? I know in Star Trek that's done using something similar to the transporter, but it's kind of hard to believe that, with the level of technology in Star Wars, they don't have something like that. Answer Not really, I think there was a teleporter like device in a Boba Fett comic, but that was more of a Ring Gate than a dissembler/reassembler. But the SW universe is full of forge droids, forge stations, and forge moons, that take in raw materials and spit out finished or near finished droids, ships, etc. If I remember correctly that is what the Sand Crawler's original purpose was, gather raw material and churn out some finished product. Actually the tech is SW is not all that advanced, and doesn't change mu...

As every cosmic entity fell to the Beyonders during the events leading up to Secret Wars, this begs the question, where was the One Above All during all this? I assumed that the destruction of the multiverse might stir him out for a page or two somewhere during the story arc, but no. I was wondering why the One Above All was NOT included in Hickman's run of all these great comics, considering the scope and size of the event. And, since we haven't seen him, when do comic fans expect that another visit may come?

In Captain America: The First Avenger , we see that the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America was destroyed when the Nazi spy blew up the lab, and its formula lost with his dead creator, just like in most other versions across all of Marvel. In Captain America: Civil War , however; The Winter Soldier was sent by Hydra to ambush Howard Stark's car in order to steal multiple vials of Super Soldier Serum so that more Winter Soldiers can be created. It appears that the formula has been rediscovered. If that is so, why didn't the Americans produce more Captain Americas? That was the original plan back in World War II after all - they wanted an army, not just one Steve Rogers. Answer They've tried, repeatedly. But it isn't that simple. First, and most importantly, it needs to be established that the Super Soldier serum has never been replicated properly. The closest anyone has come is the version that Arnim Zola used on James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, wh...

When I was a kid, I read a book (likely from the '60s) about a pair of kids who find an ancient lizard/fish man inside a cave. The cave has been recently exposed by an earthquake and the creature is inside a super technologically advanced stasis chamber. I think this creature's name is something like "Sslaa". He takes the kids on a quest to find his lost underwater city. They end up finding the city, which is still populated by creatures like himself and protected from the ocean above by an immense diamond dome. Eventually, Sslaa has to drive an advanced mining vehicle deep into the crust of the earth, presumably to prevent his city's destruction by an impeding magma flow or other seismic event. For extra obscurity bonus points, I could swear I managed to find this book on Google several years ago, and was shocked to learn that it had originally been written in German, and then translated to English. Does anyone out there recognize this one? Answer Sounds like t...

Sound editor Walter Murch has stated that R2-D2's name originated from when George Lucas heard him say it in an editing bay while working on American Graffiti. From an old interview : One day I was mixing the second dialogue premix for reel two of American Graffiti and voice-slated it "R-2, D-2," and George, who's sitting in front working on the script of "Star Wars", suddenly stood up: "What did you say?" "Ummm, I don't know.. R-2, D-2--is that what you mean?" "R2D2!!....What a great name!" he shouted, and went back to writing his script. The rest is history. I have read rumors regarding the origin of C-3PO's name. The one I keep coming across is C3PO was named after a post office which is located at reference C3 on a map of Lucas' hometown. This isn't terribly far-fetched, but I have not been able to find any actual confirmation of this in any interviews, annotated scripts, or behind-the-scene materials. What i...

In Prisoner of Azkaban , Harry is prevented from casting "Riddikulus" by Professor Lupin's interception, hence making the boggart change its form. If Lupin didn't intercept it and Harry did cast the spell, what would the end (humourous) result be? My intial thoughts were that it would become a black blanket or some black quill ink falling to the floor. Answer It depends on what the caster pictured when casting the spell. The form the boggart takes when the riddikulus charm is used isn't dependent on the form the boggart is in, it depends on what the caster has determined to change it into. If you remember, both the book and the movie have Lupin instructing the class to imagine what they fear most and imagine a way to make it funny. With Neville, he even asked what Neville feared most and told him what to imagine before casting the spell. That said, we have no idea what Harry would have pictured for a dementor. Lupin interfered before we could find out. :-P

There is a short series of novels set primarily along a river in the US Midwest. Probably the Missouri River. It isn't obvious for quite a while that the world is post apocalyptic, though there are numerous ruins, if I remember correctly. The society has only primitive technology. The society is very small. Over the course of the novels a trek/quest reveals a larger world. There is no magic or supernatural element. No alien invasion or similar. Just a run of the mill apocalypse. The main idea is coping with a collapse of civilization and technology. This is not The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett. And not by LeGuin. I seem to remember three books. The series is older, possibly quite old. I think it is likely an obscure work and it may be that the author wrote little else than this series. Answer I have a sneaking suspicion that you are remembering the series of seven books by Paul O. Williams which is collectively called The Pelbar Cycle. Many years ago, I picked up a used cop...

As a long-time Trek fan who just finished watching the ENT series for the first time, I realized that there were very few clues on just how large and widespread the Vulcan state[1] actually was, compared to United Earth. On one hand, they have been warp-capable for many centuries and should have had the opportunity to reach much of the Alpha Quadrant before many of the rivaling spacefaring species in the region. For example, Carbon Creek indicates that they had already been aware of Earth for some time in the 1950s. This seems to provide good reason to assume that the Vulcans could have had a pretty large territory by the 2150s. Though an aggressive colonization policy does not seem very likely, not putting all of your eggs in one basket does sound like the logical thing to do, don't you think? On the other hand, we know Vulcans don't go particularly out of their way to explore unknown regions. I'm not certain if that attitude also applies to colonization and terraforming...

Until Bilbo turned 131, Gerontius Took (AKA "The Old Took") was the longest-living hobbit ever, reaching 130 years-old. Bilbo had The Ring to help extend his life, and even then, his age took a huge toll on him later in his life. Gerontius, however, didn't have The Ring to help him. Is it ever explained how he was able to live that long with out it? Answer There is no in-universe explanation given for the extreme age of the Old Took. Absent any other information, we have to assume that he was just lucky, which has been known to happen , even in our world 1 . Interestingly, Gerontius' age isn't totally unique; after him, the oldest (non-Ringbearing) hobbit is Lalia Clayhanger, also called Lalia the Fat, his granddaughter-in-law. Although she died at the age of 119, her death was accidental; Tolkien reports in Letter 214 that she was in remarkably good health, and had a number of good years left in her (bold is my emphasis, italic is Tolkien's): A well-known ...

I understand why other people might want to get their hands on someones Horcrux, but once the bad guy/gal has split his/her soul and a piece of it has been interned into whatever vessel that was chosen to be the Horcrux, why was there a need for the person that created it to be able to retrieve it? Answer As far as we know, you don't physically need the Horcrux object in your possession to resurrect yourself (at-least not with the method which Voldemort and Wormtail used in Goblet of Fire ). Note: don't confuse the Diary as a physical means of re-incarnation; as I understand it, it was the 'memory' part which was doing the resurrecting (using Ginny's life-force) and not the Horcrux part 1 . Let's look at it from Voldemort's point-of-view (since his is the only one we know of - Herpo's details are quite obscure and won't really help us here). How do I know they are ok? Voldemort needed to check-up on his Horcruxes once he found out that the trio w...

Why couldn't Harry see Thestrals at the end of Goblet of Fire after the senseless and shocking death of Cedric Diggory? At the end of Goblet of Fire , the carriages still appeared horseless to Harry: Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages which were now trundling towards them up the drive, as Krum, looking surprised, but gratified, signed a fragment of parchment for Ron . Goblet of Fire - Page 629 - British Hardcover - Adult Edition At the beginning of Order of the Phoenix , Harry sees the Thestrals for the first time: Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Harry glanced quickly at them, turned away to keep a lookout for Ron and Hermione, then did a double-take. The coaches were no longer horseless. There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts. Order of the Phoenix - Page 178 - British Hardcover - Adult Edition We know that only those who have seen death can see Thestrals...

Using magic outside of Hogwarts is illegal for wizards under seventeen. But it is also revealed that the Trace can only find the location of where spells are cast, which is why the Ministry blames Harry for the spell Dobby used to blow up the pudding. So why haven't Fred and George, who have never been good rule followers, use magic when inside their own home? The Ministry would never be able to tell if it was them or the older Weasleys. Answer They presumably have used magic outside of school. Consider the following passage from Chapter Five of Goblet of Fire : "Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that..." "We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actual...

Bane seems to inject something into the Doctor's arms before kidnapping him. Is it like a sedative, so that he will be easier to kidnap or some sort of drug?

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day , Inside Pescadero State Hospital, the T-1000 takes the "lucky day" security officer's shape just prior to slaying him. It then walks through the halls for a short time before reverting back to the default T-1000 shape. Why is this? Though the T-800 would have recognized the copy as the T-1000 in disguise, Sara and John would not have. And the T-1000, of course, had no way of knowing if John and Sara would be with the T-800 when it found them. Answer The official Frakes novelisation covers the T-1000's thought process. Officer Austin was chosen not only because of his status as a policeman but also because his physical profile was close to the T-1000's base form. Maintaining a different form requires additional energy that it doesn't want to waste: The T-1000 walked forward. Because of the man’s obesity, it had been stressing its ability to expand molecularly by remaining in the Lewis form, so it had defaulted back to the more ...

I was reading this story-id request and it reminded me of story I read somewhere in the mid 90s to the early 2000s in an anthology. A scientist finds a way to explode the iron in the Earth's crust. I want to say that it was something like a Fission bomb, but with iron rather than Uranium. At the time, it reminded me of the story I'd heard of how, in early development of fission bombs, they always did air bursts because there was a fear that the nuclear reaction wouldn't stop, and might consume the rest of the Earth. Anyhow, he reflects that, once the process is available, sooner or later, someone was going to use it, probably not a major government but a fringe organization or country who didn't care about the consequences. He considers destroying his research, but then reflects on an unhappy childhood, including a fair amount of bullying, and decides to publish. Answer Strongly reminiscent of " Judgement Day " by L. Sprague de Camp. (this is actually more ...

By the end of Return of the Jedi Luke has already killed thousands of Imperial troops by blowing up the first Death Star, sliced and diced his way through Jabba's pleasure barge not to mention shish-kebabbing and blastering literally dozens of random storm troopers. My question is why would killing Darth Vader or The Emperor be the trigger to turn Luke to the Dark Side?

In Star Wars The Force Awakens, We see Rey, a seemingly untrained Force sensitive, use a Jedi mind trick with seemingly no training. I have a friend who claims it would be impossible for any untrained Force-sensitive to use an "advanced maneuver" like the mind trick. Have we ever seen an untrained Force-sensitive individual use such a Force Power prior to The Force Awakens? Canon is preferable, but Legends will work in addition to a canon answer. Note: Precognition or flying skills do not count as Force powers. Answer Best example I can think of is in Star Wars Rebels, Season 1 Episode 1 (Droids in Distress), a barely trained (virtually untrained?) Ezra does a Force push on Agent Kallus to save Zeb at the very end of the episode. The first thing Kanan said to Ezra following that incident: Kanan: Your formal Jedi training starts tomorrow This leads you to believe that Ezra has not had much, if any, Jedi training prior to this incident. This is reinforced by some discussions...

I'm trying to find an episode of Star Trek TOS where Kirk was in a one-on-one fight, and the stunt double for Shatner was so glaringly obvious that it was laugh out loud cringeworthy. I believe the fight was in engineering, and there was a red fence behind them. If I remember correctly, the Shatner stunt double did a “hurricanrana” move on his opponent, where he wrapped his legs around the opponents neck and flipped him.

Simple question - What is the address they dial to connect with the Ancient ship Destiny in Stargate Universe from Icarus base. I have found the address on Stargate Wiki - however they have an unconfirmed order, and not sure of the validity of this. Any help deciphering the above would be great!

Despite literary analysts' constant claims, JRR Tolkien insisted that his (LOTR series) books are not commentaries on class warfare, racism, the world wars etc. and that they are purely self-contained mythologies, irrespective of people's analyses and speculation, saying: As for any inner meaning or "message", it has in the intention of the author none . It is neither allegorical nor topical.... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confused "applicability with "allegory" ; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader , and the other in the purposed domination of the author . — J.R.R Tolkien J.K Rowling's Potter series certainly contain a large slew of ideas, themes, characters and stories that definitely fit the bill o...

I suppose there is a Valyrian word for “password”. Is it known/documented somewhere? Answer Forgetting, for the moment, looking for a translation for 'password' and instead looking at how the sentence 'all passwords must die' works: The phrase 'udrir morghulis' ('udir' means 'word' and so 'udrir' means 'all words') doesn't technically translate to saying 'all words must die' but actually states the 'fact' that 'all words die' - 'valar morghulis' is actually the fact that 'all men die' (interesting and irrelevant aside: this explicitly excludes women - the phrase 'all people die' is actually 'abrar morghulis', which is also 'all women die'). Being extremely pedantic, it's really stating the fact that 'all men are currently going towards death' So, there are a few ways to go about this: Create a valyrian word for password and put this in the statement...

The Death Star is the size of a small moon. Endor being a moon (not sure if it's small or not) has a rich atmosphere. Could the Death Star hold a nitrogen/oxygen based atmosphere with its gravity? (Now re-reading my question, I suppose this sounds a lot like the plot of SpaceBalls... that was not my intention) Answer According to various sources including the fun, but alas non-canon Death Star Technical Companion and the Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novelisation , the radius of the Death Star was somewhere between 120km and 160km. The outer frame was comprised of quadanium steel and the interior was a mixture of quadanium steel and other metals. Assuming the interior is completely solid metal (which it isn't) and presuming quadanium steel is similar in density to normal steel (which we don't know) then we can calculate that the Death Star has a maximum apparent gravity of around 0.04% of Earth normal. This would be well below the point that any celestial body could ret...

Are there groups of Basilisks, or even more than one? I know that there were one or two recorded -- Herpo the Foul bred one and obviously Salazar Slytherin's did as well. Were there any wild Basilisks which nobody found?

This is probably from the mid-to-late fifties. It involved families living in what seemed to be normal, small town America of the time. But two boys found in a garbage dump or in a nearby landfill a copy of "LOOK" magazine from their time period (1955? 1957?). Their problem was that they and their families didn't recognize any of the people or events that were reported in the magazine. The tone of the articles in the magazine matched their actual lives in that the magazine reported world events, trouble spots, celebrities, politics, and had advertisements for cigarettes and TVs, etc. but the facts were completely different. I think the magazine was a magazine from 'real' America and they were living in a 'fake' America, i.e., they had been brought up in a separate isolated environment with everything different but now had found something from the 'real' world. The tone of the story was that they were never supposed to know about any of this. Maybe,...

This question was inspired by xkcd #1256's Title text and refers specifically to a scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) . The exact quote is: ARAGORN : (bows) My lord Elrond ELROND : I come on behalf of one whom I love. Arwen is dying. She will not long survive the evil that now spreads from Mordor. The light of the Evenstar is failing. As Sauron’s power grows her strength wanes. Arwen’s life is now tied to the fate of the Ring. The Shadow is upon us Aragorn. The end has come. (The quote is from www.ageofthering.com, The Return of the King Extended Edition Movie Script : Scene 30 ~ Andúril - Flame of the West ) The explainxkcd page is not helpful: it refers to the IMDB faq which just explains that she "chooses to become mortal in order to wed and remain with Aragorn" . We already discussed this . But the real question is : Why does Arwen's "strength wane" as "Sauron’s power grows" ? Why is Arwen " tied to...

When the wizards and elves leave Middle Earth the only great power that is left will be Bombadil. Towards the end of The Return of the King , when Gandalf leaves the hobbits, he mentions that he wants to have a long talk with Bombadil. ‘But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.’ So what became of him? Answer Letter 144: And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally). The end of Lord of the Rings is not a traditional wrapping-up of loose-ends and Bombadil is one that is (perhaps intentionally) left hanging. There's no mention of a subsequent history for him in either the Letters or the HoME volumes; that doesn't mean that such a subsequent history doesn't exist, of c...

Leaving aside ethical and moral considerations, the whole policy of Salazar Slytherin's "we should not teach muggle-born magic-capable children" seems to be completely counter-productive to the whole "Let's not allow Muggles to know about existence of magical world" idea. To wit, muggle-born wizards are obviously capable of performing magic (there were several examples in the book) even without wands/training, and many of them are powerful enough as far as their magical ability that it's likely to get noticed. So, short of killing off every child that has latent magical abilities (or at least those with abilities beyond some threshold) or charming them so they are unable to do any magic, wouldn't refusal to teach them all how to PROPERLY use magic and what the rules are merely get a lot more chances for Muggles to see magic being performed which totally goes against the whole "Let's not allow Muggles realize that there are magic users around...

Clearly, he speaks English not very well. So he must speak another language natively. Which one? Answer We don't know much about Yoda's species mostly because "George Lucas maintains a strict policy of keeping the history, name, origin, and whereabouts of this species secret". This is also the case for his native language. From Yoda's Wookieepedia article : Yoda spoke an unusual version of Basic. He usually tended to place verbs (especially auxiliaries) after the object and subject (an object-subject-verb format). An example of Yoda's speech pattern: "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not." Most agreed that this pattern of speech was convoluted, and while it seems as though others of his species (e.g. Yaddle ) had the same penchant for rearranging sentences, not all of them did (e.g. Vandar Tokare ). His strange syntax has a high symbolism of Yoda's personality; he always put action last. This fits well with the old...

So, re-reading this: After which, you will be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals - 16 female, 7 male - to rebuild Zion. It got me thinking - why exactly this ratio (and why exactly on that scale)? Is it based on some out-of-universe scientific research for optimal seed population? Was there some in-universe explanation for the peculiar non-1-to-1 ratio? I am fine with out-of-universe answers, but would prefer those backed by specific data (or in-universe answers based on canon material, or words from franchise workers), as opposed to pure unfounded guesses. Answer This wouldn't work for an actual population of humans. First, there is a concept in population biology called Minimum Viable Population Size. You typically need hundreds of organisms to survive. In a sheltered environment like Zion, the number could probably be reduced, but reducing it to 23 individuals (one per chromosome?!) would be a really bad idea because of how drastically it would curtail geneti...

I always thought about this whenever I saw Harry Potter movies or read books, that where exactly magic lies? Is it in wizards or wands? As mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , Harry is able to make the glass disappear. Then in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban he blows away his aunt without even touching the wand. So if magic is possible without wands why do they need it in the first place? Also, Ollivander tells Harry that wand chooses the wizards, so does wand actually have magic? Kindly help. Answer Magic is possessed by Wizards, of course. But, a Wand is required to focus and channel magic. However, exceptionally gifted wizards are sometimes able to do accidental wandless magic .

In the movie, Thomas Granger gets knocked out simply by getting too close to Aaron. The narrator then states that the problem was "recursive"; also, some viewer explanations state that Granger falls into a coma because his interaction with Aaron/Abe when he comes back results in them not telling the native version of Granger about the boxes, and therefore the time-travelling Granger "could not exist". How is that even a problem though? Throughout the movie, time-travelling versions of Aaron and Abe drug their doubles, preventing them from getting into the boxes and time travelling themselves. This doesn't seem to affect the time-travelling Aarons/Abes though, so why would a time-travelling Granger be affected? Aren't the timelines independent? Any action that a time traveller performs that would prevent his/her double from time travelling shouldn't matter, because the time traveller's native timeline is independent from the current timeline that he/s...

I just watched Game of Thrones HBO Season 4, and after the trial by combat (where one duelist wears a helmet, and the outcome might've been different if they both had), I noticed that later combats too had several people in armor but no helmets which had a lot of head injury (hammer through skull, head vs. anvil, people in full armor but no helmets punching each other in the face). All of these situations would have been affected by wearing helmets. I'm wondering if this is just a video thing (creators assume audience wants to see faces), or if in the books, too, these people and others are often wearing full armor but no helmets and suffering for it. Answer Sometimes there are advantages of being lightly armored. When Bronn fought Ser Vardis Egen as Tyrion Lannister's champion at Eyrie, Bronn was lightly armored and he was able to tire Ser Vardis Egen out. Ser Vardis Egen was dressed in steel from head to heel and found it hard to move. Ser Vardis Egen was steel from he...

In the beginning of the series, it's mentioned that Muggle-born wizards/witches are identified due to inadvertent spell-casting. However, it seems like later in the book, disarmed wizards/witches are completely helpless. What is the explanation for why some spells can be cast without a wand and is there an in-universe explanation for why this isn't done? Also, are there spells that can be cast non-verbally (with/without a wand)? Answer Yes, there are absolutely spell that can be cast without a wand. Examples include: Removing glass spell in the first book by Harry Potter Tom Riddle 's use of magic pre-Hogwarts Transfiguration , in particular from Animal back to Human Sirius's escape from Azkaban . There are some examples of some spells being done without wands even for experience wizards. I'll try and come up with some more later. As has been mentioned before, the spells are usually simpler, and less focused, without the wand, but they do occur. As for non-verba...

I have watched like two X-Men movies before (can't remember which) then I just watched X-men Days of Future Past recently. I got kinda confused about Wolverine (bone claws, then metal claws, then bone claws again) and I would like to know more about him - his story, that is. I searched in Wikipedia and found there are a couple of X-Men movies already and a lot more to be produced. What is the correct order I need to watch these movies to get a chronological story about him? Answer There are two ways to order Wolverine's appearances. Release order Wolverine is forced to kill Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) - This shows Wolverine's discovery of his powers, working with Stryker, and the bonding of adamantium to his bones/claws. X-Men: First Class (2011) - only contains a quick cameo of Wolverine. The conversation between he, Xavier and Magneto is briefly referenced in Days of Future Past The Wolverine (2013) - Shows Wolverine during the end of Wor...

It seems that a lot of emphasis is given to both the Hobbits and the Dwarves in regards to their diet, but I don't recall much being said about the Elves. (It has been about 15 years since I read LOTR and the Hobbit, and I've never read any of the other works in the Legendarium) Other than Lembas what do Tolkien's Elves eat? Answer I'm not sure if a whole diet was specified in detail, but one question that was answered conclusively ( here ) was whether Elves were vegetarians: no, at least some of them [1] ate meat: Tolkien's Elves appear to eat meat according to the earlier stages of the legendarium. From The Lay of the Children of Hurin , for example: On a time was Turin at the table of Thingol there was laughter long and the loud clamour of a countless company that quaffed the mead, amid the wine of Dor-Winion that went ungrudged in their golden goblets; and goodly meats there burdened the boards , neath the blazing torches This also indicates mead and wine as...

In the DS9 episode "Things Past" Odo creates a telepathic link with his fellow officers, a link that Dr. Bashir compares to the Great Link formed by the Founders because Odo's humanoid brain still contains traces of morphogenic enzymes. If these morphogenic enzymes were responsible for creating a telepathic link with other humanoids, is it possible that the same morphogenic enzymes in the Founders can create a link with solids?

"[...] it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips." - Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone In the first Harry Potter book/movie, we found Voldemort drinking Unicorn blood . Why did he need Unicorn blood to stay alive? Maybe, a unicorn blood works on undead soul, but wasn't he already protected by his Horcruxes in terms of being kept alive ? Answer See what I have become?' the face said. 'Mere shadow and vapour... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks......

I don't remember in which movie it was mentioned for the first time. It was some movie with John Malkovich if I remember well. Answer " The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy " was a 2005 movie where John Malkovich played " Humma Kavula " (Zaphod Beeblebrox's competitor for President of the Galaxy post). That movie was based on Douglas Adams' " The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy " book, which famously originated "42" as the " Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything ". The details on the Ultimate question are covered on Wiki

One is a regular size man and other is very short person. i think he is the one who invents the gadgets and the tall one uses them. I remember an episode in which tall man disguises his car ( by projecting a semi truck) to confuse the bad guys. It aired the same year as Air Wolf , I think. Answer This is The Wizard (1986). The title character, Simon McKay is a little person described as a "philanthropist and innovative toymaker" . He's assigned an (average-sized) CIA handler, Alex Jagger. Together they fight crime and solve mysteries, as you do . [embedded content]

In the "Goblet of Fire" from the Harry Potter series, the Triwizard champions from Hogwarts are exempt from taking exams. However, what if the student was a 7th year (or what if Harry was in his 5th year)? How would they be able to miss out on NEWT (OWL) exams? Would special accommodations have been made? It seems convenient that a 4th year student (Harry) and a 6th year student (Cedric) were chosen, sidestepping this issue altogether in the plot. Answer NEWTs and OWLs aren't necessarily requirements to work or survive in the future. Having them just proves you are certified and capable of doing x type of magic at a certain level like any other job in the real world, however experience is always key. In addition to the Fred and George comment above (leaving and starting up their own joke shop), think of Harry and Ron (who forewent going to Hogwarts for their NEWT year) "Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department," Rowling said. "They are no...

In Journey to Babel when Ambassador Sarek became critically ill, why didn't they send him home or send for a Vulcan medical expert? Since they were hosting many prominent political figures from many races, it seems strange that they did not have much medical support for a race so common as Vulcans (who are part of the Federation). Answer In the episode transcript , McCoy makes two things clear: The operation is an urgent necessity . Sarek's heart appears to be failing and it is a peculiarity of Vulcan physiology that this can't be ascertained (let alone corrected) with sensor readings alone. MCCOY: As far as I can tell from instrument readings, our prime suspect has a malfunction in one of the heart valve. It's similar to a heart attack in a human. But with Vulcan physiology, it's impossible to tell without an operation. Mrs. Sarek, has he had any previous attacks? That he (McCoy) has reasonable hands-on experience of Vulcan general practice medicine as well a...

The book cover was a tiny dog in the palm of a human hand. There were many stories and the ones I remember are as follows: A girl whose parents ignore her finds a town of people who are all shrunk to the size of dolls and a woman offers her the chance to join them Boy realizes that he can't grow older than age 5 because his parents gave him an injection and he meets an older kid who explains everything to him Please help me, It's driving me crazy

The arena in the 75th Hunger Games was set up like a clock. Is this the first time game makers used this idea or were past arenas set up in a certain shape or way or was this special for the Quarter Quell? Answer Each arena is different from the last. The one in the first book was a mix of forest and grasslands, not unlike Katniss's home turf; Katniss sticks mostly to the forested areas, as do most of the tributes, but Thresh (one of the District 11 tributes) takes to the fields, which are his home turf. Previous arenas, described from the first book, have been everything from deserts to jungle to snow-covered tundra. In all the Games, a critical part is surviving the arena itself, in addition to beating the other tributes. The majority of arenas had some nasty joke played on the tributes; in one case (Haymitch's Quarter Quell Games), the arena was a beautiful garden, a paradise, until it was learned that pretty much everything in the arena was designed to kill the tributes,...

In Attack of the Clones Padmé says: Padme: I wasn't the youngest queen ever elected, but now that I think back on it, I'm not sure I was old enough. I'm not sure I was ready... This suggests that the previous youngest ruler was also a woman. In Episode I we see Padme as the queen, and in Episode II and III there is another woman in charge... So, does Naboo only have female rulers? Is there any sources showing a male king? Answer As with everything Star Wars , this answer comes to you in two parts: Canon No, it is possible for Naboo to be ruled by a male; at least one King of Naboo has been identified in canon sources: King Veruna is revealed in the updated Star Wars: Complete Locations DK reference book to have added a library to the Theed Royal Palace: The previous ruler, King Veruna, established a vast royal library collection in this tower during his 13-year reign This image also reveals (in the blue circle) that a previous King had a cousin who established a banque...