In Illness and Disability , by J.K. Rowling, she clearly states: "This is the reason that Gilderoy Lockhart, victim of his own mangled Memory Charm, has permanent amnesia..." Yet there were situations where the Memory Charm was reversed. For example, in The Deathly Hallows , Hermione reversed the Obliviate Charm on the Death Eaters and the waiter: "Then, on Harry’s count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily..." Does a spell backfiring not have a cure? Besides Ron and his slugs, the only time a spell backfired that I can recall is Voldemort's, which he was able to cure in the end, and that was a Killing Curse, which is supposed to be incurable and unblockable. Any thoughts? Answer Gilderoy Lockhart was a very accomplished Obliviate user. “So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?” said Harry incredulously. “Harry, Ha...

In the Harry Potter series, Ronald Weasley is shown to be extremely afraid of spiders, and his fear of spiders is portrayed in many scenes. Is any reason given in the series as to why he is so afraid of spiders? Answer Ron mentions this during the Second Book. Fred (or George, one of the twins) transfigured his teddy bear into a giant spider, and the way it moved its legs mentally scarred him for life. "I just don't like the way they move .... Hermione giggled. "It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a great big fiIthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick .... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and. . . " He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh.

When Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, it would seem they had two options: either fly straight towards Federation space in the Alpha Quadrant, or go to the far end of the Bajorn wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant. A common response to this question is that the end of the Bajoran wormhole would have been no closer. Indeed, maps of the galaxy that I’ve seen show that the distance is pretty much the same. This makes distance a non-factor, but I can think of two others: The Federation knows about the approximate location of Borg space because Q took the Enterprise D there. Voyager should have known that flying directly towards Starfleet HQ would take them through Borg space. The Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant would surely be a much lesser evil. The direct route to the Alpha Quadrant would take Voyager closer to the centre of the galaxy, where stars are denser, therefore there would likely be more civilisations, therefore more potential for conflict. (Voyager could not know in advanc...

There was a book I read 28 years ago. Remembering it was a good read I just want to re-read it, but I don't remember its name. The synopsis is (as I remember): Mankind is about to go to the Moon for the first time, and after they get there they find traces of civilization, with still-working machines. They find a lot of clues which lead them to think that aliens who lived there are still located on the Mars. They build one communication device and try to communicate with aliens on Mars, and they respond. With plans given from Mars they build some stronger rocket, and the main protagonist flies to Mars also. He finds there that the "aliens" look just like common people, although they are taller a bit. And there was also a third species in the solar system, I think on Ganymede. They were 20 feet tall, called themselves "Lothar" or something similar. They had some kind of taboo about flying to the inner part of the solar system, so they never actually made real con...

Towards the end of the movie, as the crew of the Falcon are taking off to follow the map, the Resistance gathers to wave goodbye. Taking the image from this question : While this image doesn't show it well, after seeing the movie 3 times, I'm positive that C-3PO no longer has his red arm and instead is fully gold again. When did C-3PO get his arm fixed and if this answer is correct in it being a memento, why did he get it fixed? Answer It was replaced. We don't know why or how, yet, but the WGA script explicitly notes that: EXT. D'QAR - DAY The Millennium Falcon RISES. Leia, with Poe, BB-8, and C-3PO ( with his proper arm replaced ), watches the next generation of Jedi begin her journey. We know it was replaced AFTER the attack on Tacodana: C-3PO Goodness! Han Solo! It is I, SeeThreepio! (sees Han, stops) You probably don't recognize me because of the red arm. (sees Leia, increasingly awkward) Look who it is! Did you see who? Oh. Excuse me, Prin-- uh, General. So...

In " Parallels ", our Worf finds himself uncontrollably shifting into alternate "quantum" realities, one after the other. Eventually, the crew of various alt-Enterprises succeed in locating the prime "quantum" Universe, and hail "our" Enterprise to arrange for Worf to go home. He's replaced the Worf in each quantum universe, and discussions with alt-Troi suggest a belief that when he leaves one, there is no Worf in that universe from that point on. Notwithstanding that everything apparently reset to zero at the end of the episode (so those alternate Worfs presumably poofed back into existence), who was the Worf on the bridge of the prime Enterprise during the hail? Where did he come from? If this was also "our" Worf, that's very confusing because now one consciousness is apparently being copied across Universes, which makes one wonder why you'd bother sending "traveller" Worf anywhere at all: he's a duplicat...

We know Sauron intentionally let Gollum go so that Gollum would lead Sauron's minions towards the Ring, and Sauron knew Gollum would look and follow the Ring at all costs. So when Shagrat sees Shelob with her "sneak," why did Sauron order the orcs to let him roam freely whenever he liked, and surely Sauron must have realised that Gollum was actually following the Ring bearer into Mordor.

Doctor Strange can teleport. There's no question of this. Thus, by teleporting - he is theoretically capable of going FTL. Now sending messages FTL could cause causality paradoxes - i.e. an event where the effect happens before the cause. Could Doctor Strange theoretically use this principle to change the outcome of an event or damage the timeline (as he could with the Infinity Stone) using only his teleportation? If he can, are there any examples of him doing this?

In Revenge of the Sith , we learn that Anakin's final seduction to the Dark Side occurs because of his obsession with power and especially his obsession with the power to cheat death to save Padme. PALPATINE: Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your wife from certain death. (Note, save your wife from certain death , not resurrect ) This obsession is motivated by Anakin's repeated visions of Padme's death during childbirth. Also, we have PALPATINE: To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret. Yet when Padme confronts Anakin on Mustafar, and then Luke and Leia are born, they are full term or close to it. Answer In universe, Anakin is not very bright, and he trusts Sidious implicitly. He describes Sidious to Obi-Wan as "a mentor and a friend". Sidious has had more than ten years to cultivate a rela...

Read a sci-fi novel years ago, set on an alien planet that featured a giant statue of a naked human woman lying on the ground. If I remember, the statue was hundreds if not thousands of kilometers long. Possibly her belly button was a lake. Seem to remember the story started with the protagonist hiking on the statue. Only other thing I can remember is the protagonist had 11 fingers.

The books (and the movies) talk about the origin of Gollum and how he first attained the one ring. It also talks about how the ring warps his mind and body (and prevent Gollum from ageing normally). But I've always been curious about how long Gollum actually had the ring for, and how long the ring had been warping and corrupting him. Is this ever talked about in the books? Answer Approximately 478 years. From The Tale of Years, Appendix B of Return of the King : 2463: The White Council is formed. About this time Déagol the Stoor finds the One Ring, and is murdered by Sméagol. ... 2941: Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf visit Bilbo in the Shire. Bilbo meets Sméagol-Gollum and finds the Ring. Both years are in the Third Age calendar, which is dated from the fall of Sauron to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

What were the black monoliths? My initial thoughts were that they came from a more advanced species in order to assist man with advancement, shortly after it came to the primates, they discovered they could use bones as weapons. Answer In the book 2001: A Space Odyssey it was made explicitly clear that the monoliths were the emissary(s) of a benevolent alien species whose main aim was the advancement of less evolved species; Night after night, the spectacle of those four plump man-apes was repeated, until it had become a source of fascinated exasperation, serving to increase Moon-Watcher's eternal, gnawing hunger. The evidence of his eyes could not have produced this effect; it needed psychological reinforcement. There were gaps in Moon-Watcher's life now that he would never remember, when the very atoms of his simple brain were being twisted into new patterns. If he survived, those patterns would become eternal, for his genes would pass them on to future generations. It was...

The default answer among most people to my previous question seems to be that Obi-Wan was referring to becoming a force ghost. Now whilst this seems pretty cool, you are now hindered into well Kyle Jones says it best Force Immortality seems like a bust to me. Obi-Wan could get around the galaxy without a starship, true, but the fine print of the immortality contract restricted him to visiting only a few close friends. Seems like being alive with a good galactic cellphone plan would be an all-around better deal. And of course there were the women... – Kyle Jones So what gives? Are you inherently more powerful as a force ghost? Answer "Become more powerful than you could possibly imagine" should be taken with a grain of salt. This is the kind of mystico-cryptic phrase old wizards like to say to their nemesis to plant the seed of doubt in their soul. Imagine it from the point of view of Vader, you are about to strike down your old Master, and he inexplicably disappears after ...

In TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" the Enterprise C (the last starship with that name before TNG's time) travels in time 22 years to the future (TNG's present) just before being destroyed by the Romulans. This event causes an alteration of the timeline and in the present of TNG, there is now a long war between the Federation and the Klingons, a war the Federation is losing. There the Enterprise C meets the Enterprise D. We know the fate of the Enterprise C in the original timeline (being destroyed) but i dont remember any reference from the episode to what happened to the Enterprise C in the alternate timeline. Did she just disappeared 22 years ago or returned to the federation? People in Enterprise D should know her fate. Answer It was presumed to be destroyed Per Chakoteya : Military log, Combat date 43625.2. While investigating an unusual radiation anomaly, the Enterprise has encountered what could almost be called a ghost from its own past, the Enterpri...

In HP is there ever a mentioning of a person that exists or did exist in reality? I'm looking for specific persons (e.g. George Bush) not titles (e.g. President of the USA). Answer JK Rowling has specifically said that the Nicholas Flamel in Harry Potter is the real person: Nicholas Flamel is in the book 'the Da Vinci Code', did you get his name from there? No, Nicholas Flamel is a historical character. Flamel lived in France in the fourteenth century and is supposed to have discovered how to make a philosopher's stone. There are mentions of sightings of him through the centuries because he was supposed to have gained immortality. There are still streets named after Flamel and his wife Perenelle in Paris. ( old jkrowling.com ) Nicolas Flamel was a real person. I read about him in my early twenties when I came across one of the versions of his life story. It told how he had bought a mysterious book called The Book of Abraham the Jew, which was full of strange symbols ...

In this story an astronaut is questioned regularly by a psychiatrist. He thinks he's on a spaceship, but he's actually in an experiment. The astronaut also thinks the psychiatrist is part of the crew, but he actually leaves the "spaceship" everyday. In the end the astronaut finds out the truth. It may be a JG Ballard short story, but I'm not sure... I read it in the early 90's. Answer There is a Ballard short story, Thirteen to Centaurus that has the major elements you describe (fake ship that's really a dome on earth, residents don't know it's fake but psychiatrist does, it's an experiment to determine psychological effects of space travel, psychiatrist enters/leaves as he pleases). Couple of differences between the synopsis and points in the question. The astronaut is a 16 year old Wunderkind named Abel and sounds more like he had conversations with the psychiatrist (because he was curious about things) than him being questioned by the psy...

In the 11th Doctor episode The Big Bang , the Doctor sets up the ending by telling Amy: A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always going to take it back. Oh, that box, Amy. You'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient. And the bluest blue ever. The setup here is obviously for the wedding custom of 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' (unfortunately, like most modern takes, missing the "and a silver sixpence in her shoe"). The Doctor has always maintained that he "borrowed" the TARDIS, so that fits, and it's clearly both blue and old. I don't really understand how the TARDIS can be considered "new". It's at least at old as he is (debatable, but at least 900). It had a refresh of the interior with the introduction of the 11th Doctor (as is usual with a reincarnat...

Eragon and Arya asked Angela how she killed twenty men at once she said What is time but motion? What is motion but heat? And are not heat and energy but different names for the same thing? When you understand the implications of that, you'll understand how and what I did. What does she mean and how does this explain what she did? Answer TL;DR : Even though Angela's explanation made no sense to Eragon (or the reader), it's enough that she understands the connection between time, motion, heat, and energy. What She Meant by Her Explanation In the Inheritance Cycle universe, magic is simply an understanding of things. Once you understand a thing, you can control a thing. In the movie Eragon , Brom explains magic to young Eragon like this: BROM: Magic must be your last resort. It has rules. It has limitations. And before you cast a spell, you must first learn the ancient language of the elves. ERAGON: Brisingr? BROM: Brisingr means "fire," it is fire. The thi...

When Gandalf describes his titanic battle with the Balrog of Moria, Durin's Bane, he mentions encountering ancient creatures that gnaw at the earth, older than Sauron: Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. What are they? Primordial spirits possibly from the same realm Ungoliant is thought to have come from?

In the fourth episode of Star Wars, "A New Hope", Obi-Wan tells Luke that he hasn't used "Obi-Wan" since a long time before Luke was born. But in the third movie, "Revenge of the Sith", Obi-Wan uses his name through the whole movie. Is this an error in the third movie, or can we just assume that Obi-Wan has a bad memory? Answer As you can see here , the Ben alias is a way for Obi-Wan to stay incognito on Tatooine. He moved there after the events of Revenge of the Sith , 19 years before A New Hope . We can safely deduce that Obi-Wan assumed the alternate identity of Ben as soon as he relocated, and those 19 years can be thought of as "a long time". Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke he "hasn't used 'Obi-Wan' since a long time before Luke was born." Here is the actual quotation, directly from the script of A New Hope : BEN: Obi-Wan Kenobi...Obi-Wan? Now thats a name I haven't heard in a long time...a long time. LUKE: I t...

During the final battle in Avengers: Endgame , apart from the obvious death of Tony Stark , were there any other known protagonist casualties such as Asgardians , Sorcerers , Wakandans etc.

I believe that Asimov himself recommended reading them in chronological order, however I read them in the order that they were published and think that this is the best way to do it. What is the correct order? Answer I too read them initially in their order of publication, but now whenever I re-read them I prefer the chronological order, which actually makes more sense. My favourite full-immersion approach to Asimov is Robots - Empire - Foundation in strict chronological order, and sometimes I also like to add End of Eternity at the beginning.

According to wikipedia , the movie makers decided The specific choice of vehicle was a DeLorean DMC-12 for the purposes of it looking like an alien spaceship due to its characteristic gullwing doors. Is there a reason from within the storyline (comic books, cartoons, video games, deleted scenes) that explains why Emmett Brown choose that particular make and model? Answer I believe the storyline reason is that Doc thought that DeLoreans were stylish: Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean? Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux disperal... Watch out!

If you've watched the first episodes of Star Wars, or listened to Weird Al's The Saga Begins , then you know that the Jedi council originally forbade Anakin's force training. But why in the world would the Jedi council not want to train all the Force users they could? It seems like by not training someone in the Force, they may end out going to the Dark Side. Or is shunning someone from Force training Dark/Light neutral? Answer The most specific reason given by the Jedi in opposition to training Anakin (beyond merely stating that he is too old) is: He is too old. There is already too much anger in him. Mace Windu, Star Wars : Epsiode I The Phantom Menace Anakin has had time to grow up with the injustice of slavery for both him and his mother, and this is just one reason why he's developed some anger which makes him more likely to turn to the dark side. Although it's possible that Anakin might have turned to the dark side even without training, at least in that ca...

If targeted at a group of individuals and with the intention to kill them, could a single invocation of Avada Kedavra eliminate an entire group? I am asking for, er, a friend who has, um, a pest problem. For example, if I aim over an anthill and I mean to kill all the ants, will I have to kill one at a time? Again, asking for a friend. I don't have any problem with the ants. Answer It seems like once Avada Kedavra hits one living target, it’s “used up”. Fawkes was able to take a Killing Curse for Dumbledore. Once it hit him, it couldn’t hit Dumbledore. “But even as he shouted, another jet of green light flew at Dumbledore from Voldemort’s wand and the snake struck – Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide and swallowed the jet of green light whole: he burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless.” - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 36 (The Only One He Ever Feared) For blocking the Killing Curse like this to be e...

While getting to the past obviously requires some effort or accident, why (in-universe) are the crews going to such lengths to recreate the time-travel circumstances instead of simply travelling around at almost the speed of light for a while and exploit time dilation to get to the future without much of their own time being spent? Answer Ships did not seem capable of moving fast enough for meaningful time dilation to occur. For example, from https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Impulse_drive : The 'Star Trek Voyager Technical Manual' page 13 has full impulse listed as ¼ of the speed of light which is 167,000,000 mph or 74,770 km/s. At full impulse, they would still require about 97 hours to travel 100 hours into the future. (sqrt(1 - (0.25)**2) is approximately 0.968). Given that the typical problem is being thrown years or decades (or longer) into the past, time dilation is not a practical solution to the problem of returning to your original point in time.

I've just re-read Summer Knight , and in it, there's a lot of mentions of how outmatched Harry always is. Now I'm listening to Dead Beat , which is the seventh book in the series, and it's talking about how he's in the top-10 for power, he just has no fine control. Was there an actual switch where they started acknowledging that Harry's a bit of a powerful but imprecise magician, or did it just evolve during writing? And has this ever been discussed by Jim Butcher? EDIT: To be clear, I'm aware that Harry was always this powerful, my question is at what point did the books start drawing your attention to it? Answer Harry Dresden has described himself as 'easily in the top 40, world-wide, for raw power'. What he lacks is precision, experience, and technique. His power has never really 'spiked' without outside assistance. Rather, his technique and precision have improved and he has gained experience. He's gotten more powerful as well, but...

I'm looking for a sf story that was broadcast on BBC children's TV in the early 1980's probably as part of the long running Jackanory series. Based on what i recall of other events at the time of watching I think this was 1982. The story is of a group of children who are either orphans or in a boarding school and who build a spaceship from the scrap of other ships and (I think) an asteroid. They launch it into space and have subsequent adventures. One scene that particularly sticks in my mind was the oxygen failing on the ship and the children all falling asleep except for a girl who is bullied by a robot into fixing the problem. I'm reasonably sure that the author of the stories would be british as it was an adaptation for the BBC. I also have a feeling that this was adapted from a series of children's books with each volume being compressed into one episode. It ran monday to friday for one week. I vaguely recall a female narrator. The story was interspersed with s...

River Song only really knew two Doctors, as far as we know, and was clearly most familiar with Eleventh. Why would Tasha Lem think he has a new body if she's an incarnation of River? Why would Eleventh rally her against the "psychopath" she's been fighting "all her life" if she isn't River?

Are Gotham and Metropolis neighboring cities? If not, how do Batman and Superman meet each other? And in the upcoming film trailer for Dawn of Justice , Batman is shown watching his Wayne tower being destroyed by Superman. How are they in the same city? Answer There is a DC Comics-licensed Atlas of the DC Universe (published 1990) : Subsequently, a fan used the information and maps from this atlas to create a free web-based version: Here is a panel showing Gotham and Metropolis: They're fairly close together geographically — less than 50 miles by this map's scale, if we go the way the crow flies! Statement from the author of the web version: The information presented in this atlas is based on the Atlas of the DC Universe supplement for Mayfair Games' DC Heroes RPG and the Secret Files: Guide to the DC Universe 2000 comic. I have tried to included up-to-date information from recent comics but I sadly can't know everything.

We know that wizards need a wand to focus their magic (wizards can cast spells without a wand, but they are unfocused and weaker). But some wizards aren't known to carry wands. Instead they carry something that works like a wand, but isn't. Mad-Eye Moody uses a staff as his wand. Hagrid uses his pink umbrella, which was made from pieces of his broken wand. Are there any other examples of wizards using something other than a normal wand to cast their spells? What are these objects? Do they work like normal wands, and what gives them their power? Would it be possible to use a magical weapon as a substitute for a wand? (Like, say, used the Sword of Gryffindor to channel your spells.) Answer A wand is merely a way to focus/concentrate your magic better. A wizard can do magic without a wand (see Harry Potter as a kid doing all sorts of magic from freeing python from glass cage to blowing up Aunt Marge). Ergo, ANY object can be used to concentrate magic at least as well as your own...

Someone forwarded me this link titled Sudden Star Trek realization : (Also found on reddit ) So, is there any clue that indicate that Picard is really speaking French and being translated to English by the universal translator? Answer No. In fact, I would say there is small evidence to suggest he is speaking Federation Standard (thought to be a form of English). In 11001001 (S1E15), the Bynars upgrade the Holodeck to create characters and environments that produce more realistic interactions. Riker creates a jazz bar and it is populated with a sophisticated holographic women named Minuet. At some point, Picard goes to the Holodeck to see how Riker is doing, and meets Minuet. She recognizes his French surname and begins talking to Picard in French, and he replies in French. Meanwhile, Riker stands there looking impressed that Minuet knows French. (The entire script for the episode can be found here .) The point of that little anecdote is that if the universal translators were const...

I remember a long time ago (in the 80's), my Batman comics took a cool turn... he turned into a vampire. This story ran for a while, but I can't find any info on it. I see there were a few other books, but those aren't what I'm looking for. Could someone point me in the right direction?

In the beginning of season 6 of Doctor Who , The Doctor was shot by an astronaut which triggered the regeneration process of The Doctor. But, he was shot again in the middle of regeneration process which killed him permanently. In the end of the season, we learned that that wasn't The Doctor who got killed. That was Teselecta (Justice Department Vehicle Number 6018 from the future) in the form of Doctor. Maybe, a machine from the future can disguise regeneration special effects of a Time Lord, but why bother? I mean, why on the Earth The Doctor planned his own fake death? Whom was he making fool? Definitely, he couldn't make the Spacetime fool. His death was a fixed Spacetime event. So, if "original" he died originally, he couldn't replace himself with Teselecta or time would stop to create an alternate reality. It means, it was Teselecta whose fake death was shown in the beginning of season 6. Update: Fooling The Silence is out of question because: By the time h...

I recently heard a story that Mark Hamill was in a serious car accident between the filming of Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back , and the resulting surgery, causing visible changes to his face, was the reason for the Wampa attack scene in The Empire Strikes Back . Apparently this scene was only filmed so that the change in Hamill's face due to real injuries could be explained away by in-universe injuries to Luke Skywalker. [embedded content] Is there any truth to the tale that this scene was influenced by Hamill's real-life injuries, or was it already planned beforehand? Answer Seemingly, no it wasn't On the DVD commentary for The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas denied that the Wampa scene was created to address Hamill’s injuries, noting that the scene had been written some time earlier. From IMDB However, George Lucas explains in the DVD commentary that this attack was merely to keep the audience interested while the Empire searched for t...

In Dora the Explorer, Swiper often tries to swipe an object that Dora and Boots need to reach their destination. If they confront him and say "Swiper, no swiping!" three times before he reaches it, he'll say "Oh, man!" and leave. However, I've seen in some episodes they only manage to say it once and he grabs the item. Is there any in-universe explanation for why they need to say this three times, or for how it prevents him from then taking the item? Clearly, simply being seen doing it is not sufficient to prevent him. I've only seen most of seasons 1 and 3 of Dora the Explorer. I have not seen the full seven seasons or any other related canon material for Dora the Explorer, so I'm wondering if the answer appears there. Answer This is discussed at some considerable length in this article from howstuffworks. In short, his swiping is to be viewed less as a character flaw and more of a character trait : Show co-creator Valerie Walsh gives us some fu...

Most incarnations of The Hulk I've seen or read about state that he is as strong as he needs, basically meaning that there is no limit to how strong he can get. Is there any canon regarding this? Have we seen the upper limit of the Hulk's strength? Answer As of World War Hulk, Hulk has been able to withstand and beat the strongest Marvel character at the time, Sentry (Void/Angel of Death). Hulk was not defeated by Sentry, instead he surrendered and turned back into Bruce Banner. To compare, Void almost destroyed all active superheroes in Siege, again only being killed when he turned back into human form and begged Thor to kill him. As for upper limits of the Hulk's strength, as with all comics, it depends on the writer and the plot. At any given time though, Hulk is always considered a threat on par with a force of nature/act of god, unstoppable total destruction.

One of the elements of midichlorians is that it canonized the idea that one's capacity for using the Force comes from heredity and/or environment. Personally, I didn't see any issue with this, as the importance of Luke Skywalker to me always was partially due to his particularly high capability to use the Force. I'd always taken Obi-Wan and Yoda's "The Force is strong with this one," and "The Force is strong with your father, you, and your sister," to indicate that Luke and Leia had this skill due to heredity. When discussing the issues that the prequels bring up, a common discussion point is on the heredity of Force adeptness. In the original trilogy, was skill in the Force something anyone could gain, or was it meant to be hereditary? Answer In the original trilogy, was skill in the Force something anyone could gain, or was it meant to be hereditary? It was not a skill anyone can gain. A lot of EU novels (pre-prequel) were about Luke searching...

Read a story once about earth being abandoned for long periods of time. Upon the return of man to earth all life forms, flora and fauna, have evolved into intricate electronic forms of themselves. Would like to find that story and it's name.

Azor Ahai is some mythical hero, who may or may not coincide with other mythical heros that are supposed to be born and save us from the eternal night (which is dark and full of terrors, if we are to believe Melisandre). But I'm interested in the origins of the name, here, in our world. More specifically because in Hebrew "Azor Ahai" means (albeit ungrammatically) "Help my brothers", or if you transliterate it differently you'd get "The Living Help". Since writers often take meaningful names to be terms from other languages (and mangle them a bit), I can't help but wonder Did GRRM reveal the origin of the name "Azor Ahai" at some point? Answer I have done a fair amount of research and have found nothing specific about the origins of the name Azor Ahai . Let's talk names In general though, George R. R. Martin tends to create his names based on what he wants them to sound like. As per the below youtube video: [embedded content]...

I'm curious whether any canonical explanation has ever been given. It seems that Time Turners must be extremely difficult to create, seeing that it's mentioned in the books that their use is tightly controlled by the Ministry of Magic (so obviously a wizard can't just wave their wand over an hourglass and turn it into a Time Turner); also because they mess with the very fabric of reality (so it's hard to imagine there being some naturally occurring magical material that just happens to be able to enable time travel.)

According to Memory Alpha, the USS Voyager embarked on its mission with 141 crew . Late in the seventh season there were 146. Between the crew complement being bolstered a few times (Maquis, Equinox, Borg, birth etc), and decreased via death or debarkation, is it possible to know how many crew members arrived on Earth? Bonus points: does the 146 quoted in Author, Author make sense when calculating the additions and subtractions? Answer In-canon, the starting complement was 141 and the final complement was either 150 or 144 (or 143) depending on whether you consider "Timeless" or "Author, Author" to be the last reference on the subject; These figures were confirmed in the following episodes; Caretaker ; STADI: That's our ship. That's Voyager. Intrepid class. Sustainable cruise velocity of warp factor nine point nine seven five. Fifteen decks. Crew complement of one hundred and forty one . Bio-neural circuitry. Timeless ; LAFORGE : If you succeed, countle...

Years ago I read short story about a man sitting in his room. Suddenly appears the same man but from the future and gives him an advice about the future. Original man seems to agree to follow that advice. Man from the future goes away. Then another version of that man from another future comes and gives a completely opposite advice and begs original man to follow it. Then this second version of this man from future also left. Original man stays alone not knowing which advice from future he must follow. Answer This sounds like Robert Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" , although the original man doesn't exactly "stay alone" at the end. Here is the beginning of the plot summary from Wikipedia (I've added emphasis to the parts which match your description): Bob Wilson locks himself in his room to finish his graduate thesis on a mathematical aspect of metaphysics, using the concept of time travel as a case in point. Someone says, "Don't bother with i...

As winter turns to spring, a young nerd's thoughts may turn from the brightly-blossoming trees and unfamiliar sunshine, towards the warm and familiar embrace of a Marvel Cinematic Universe re-watch in anticipation of the plucky low-budget upcoming feature presentation Avengers: Endgame . The original release order probably makes most sense, but thanks to the vagaries of release scheduling , it can lead to some of the background story threads being a bit disjointed. For example, the mid-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World directly foreshadows Guardians of the Galaxy , but when watching in release order we go straight to the mostly-unrelated Winter Soldier . Similarly, T’Challa is introduced in Civil War , but then we have four other movies before we see him again, right before Infinity War (in which he doesn't have a particularly big role). Is there an order for watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that keeps related plot threads closer together?

Among the bridge crew seen aboard Star Trek Discovery's Shenzhou is this: Does it have a name? Will it develop as a character? Is there an associated cast member giving it a voice and/or movement? Or is it just "background color"? Answer Lieutenant Jira Narwani We don't know a great deal about her, but she's definitely an organic. She appears to have been named by David Mack, author of the prequel novel Desperate Hours ; according to an interview he gave to TrekCore, Mack was given the leeway to craft backstories for many of the background characters seen on the Shenzhou , some of which made it back into the show: I was allowed to compile information about the minor characters, new aliens, and the principal starships into a pseudo-bible for the series. Where there were gaps, I was given latitude to fill them in. Consequently, I got to name half the bridge crew of the Shenzhou , including Keyla Detmer, Troy Jannuzzi, and Kamran Gant. Some of the characters never...