In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...

I know this question would usually raise other questions as to what is considered a separate language (e.g. Qenya/Quenya, Gnomish/Sindarin, etc.). The thing is that somewhere there is an official list. Quoting from the flap of Sauron Defeated : Closely associated with the Papers is a new version of the Numenorean legend, The Drowning of Anadune, which constitutes the third part of the book. At this time the language of the Men of the West, Adunaic, was first devised - Tolkien's fifteenth invented language . The book concludes with an elaborate account of the structure of this language by Arundel Lowdham, a member of the Notion Club, who learned it in his dreams. So there is an official list. What were the first fourteen? How many were made after Adunaic? What is the official order that makes Andunaic Tolkien's "fifteenth invented language"? In case this isn't clear, I'm looking for an official statement or indication as to which list Christopher employs. I...

In Night a the Museum the exhibits in the American Museum of Natural History comes alive at night. Some of them, like the mummy of Pharaoh Akhmenrah, are real historical objects / people. Others, like Teddy Roosevelt, are mannequins. [embedded content] "Actually, I never did any of those things. Teddy Roosevelt did. I was made in a mannequin factory in Poughkeepsie." Teddy dispenses Rooseveltian wisdom, but knows he isn't really the former president. Yet Attila the Hun and his fellow Huns don't seem to be aware they aren't actual Huns. Attila even responds to Larry's pseudo-psycho therapy. The cavemen, who can't even speak but only grunt, don't seem to be aware of their origins either. Larry tells Rebecca to go talk to Sacagawea for her dissertation. But how helpful would she have been, probably coming from the same mannequin factory in Poughkeepsie where Teddy came from? What do the mannequins really know about the lives and characters of the people...

As far as I always understood it Vader's yellow eyes were because of his fall to the dark side and had nothing to do with the sith themselves. If that is so as I think then why does Kylo Ren who is also fallen to the dark side not have yellow eyes?

In the Pokémon anime episode 2: Pokémon Emergency! , Ash sees the following decoration in the Viridian City Pokémon Center: Ash tells Professor Oak via videophone that the blue Pokémon in the top right corner is the Pokémon that he saw at the end of the first episode ( Ho-Oh ), although he didn't know its name. Personally, I think the one in the top left looks more like Ho-Oh, plus it is red which would match its Fire type, but what do I know. If the top right one is Ho-Oh as Ash said, what are the other Pokémon in this decoration? Answer These are the four " Legendary " pokemon that were known at the start of Season 1; Zapdos , Articuno , Moltres as well as Arcanine . Note that while Arcanine isn't one of the official "Legendary" pokemon, its original description in Ash's Pokedex read: Arcanine, a Legendary Pokémon . The evolved form of Growlithe. Arcanine is known for its bravery and fierce loyalty. Growlithe evolves into Arcanine from its use of a ...

The man "judging" (offering them the choice of exile or death) the rich and the police brought in front of him in The Dark Knight Rises looked very familiar. Have we seen him before? Answer Yes, the judge was the Scarecrow, aka Dr. Johnathon Crane (Cillian Murphy), who was also in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight . He wasn't explicitly introduced in The Dark Knight Rises .

In a recent episode of Game of Thrones , Littlefinger is walking through the Vale with Sansa and telling her about the value of its natural defenses. He mentions that the narrow passes force men to walk through the Bloody Gate in single-file, and that they made the Vale impregnable by land. That gave me pause, however. The Eyrie sits on top of a mountain, exposed on nearly all sides to the sky. If Harrenhal is any indication, this would be a death trap for anyone fighting dragons. So how was the Vale captured during the first Targaryen invasion? Did the lords there surrender once they realized it was impossible to defend themselves against dragons? I have a feeling Littlefinger's exploitation of the Vale's defenses is going to become an important plot point later in the books and show, but I'm wondering how well would it work against Dany's dragons? Answer According to a reading from The World of Ice and Fire : The Arryns (also at this time ruled by a young boy and hi...

In the Battle of the Seven Potters (Chapter 'Seven Potters' in " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows "), 6 people (Ron/Fred/George/Hermione/Fleur/Mundungus) take the Polyjuice Potion to act as decoys for Harry. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Harry to have taken the Polyjuice Potion to turn to some low-profile character instead, to escape the Dursleys' residence?

Is it stated why Bariss chose Ahsoka to frame for Bombing of the Jedi Temple Hangar?

I, Robot , the 2004 movie, has several references to the original stories by Isaac Asimov. While none of them are complete or true to the story, they exist. Some examples include: Little Lost Robot - when Sonny gets lost with the remainder of the NS-5 robots. The Evitable Conflict - in which the robots generalize the first law and permit some pain to protect humanity's future Are there others?

We've seen several examples of their Queen and she always appears to be of the same species. What species is that?

I know that in the fictional Superman universe, "X-rays" do not work like real X-rays (color, translucence etc.), but for the reader's sake the authors invented the inability to see through lead. Now is lead not the only substance which is very good to stop X-rays, but all elements with high atomic numbers (many electrons to scatter the radiation). This is hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, all heavy platinum metals, gold, mercury and uranium. Are these metals ever mentioned to have a similar effect of blocking X-ray vision or are there egregious examples where pieces of the metals above are transparent like glass? Or are there other fictitious or real materials known to block the vision? In at least one instance I remember people from the far future are sending waste back by time travel and superman encountered a "meteorite" which was so dense that his X-ray vision was useless. Just curious. Answer Superman has, over the years shown an ability to see through a wide...

I'm looking for a science fiction short story. Humans walk around an empty city that "teaches" them. At the end they transcend into energy? higher beings?

Trying to find a book I read in highschool in the early-mid 90's, and it may have been part of the highschool reading list (in australia) .I vaguely remember that one or two boys crash into a cave (or something like this) and it is inhabited by an alien life form which creates a paradise for them. Then later it sabotages their effort to return home and won't let them leave.

When talking to Anakin about Darth Plagueis, Palpatine states: "He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying..." Is there any reference to someone whom Plagueis cared so much about that he saved from death?

This comment by Slytherincess got me thinking a bit philosophically (hey, I’ve got six hours to kill in an airport—it happens). There are several characters in the Harry Potter series that are fairly unilaterally portrayed as being quite vicious, malevolent, cruel, or just plain evil (*cough* Umbridge *cough*). Some of these include: the Dursleys Dudley Umbridge Snape Draco Malfoy Lucius Malfoy Voldemort (duh) Some of these never change and end up every bit as evil as they began; others are, over the course of the series, portrayed in somewhat mollified ways, particularly towards the very end: Draco (discussed in the comments that sparked this question) and Dudley both end up in not-quite-evil-just-a-bit-of-a-prat territory, for example, and we all know (hopefully) how Snape’s portrayal changes. But are there any characters who start out being portrayed as a real ‘bad guy’, 1 and end up firmly in the ‘good guys’ camp, being completely redeemed ? The only three I can think of are Sn...

I have never read The Lord of the Rings so it might be explained in there but it always seemed odd to me that he called himself the Witch King. Can anyone explain the origin of this title? Answer He doesn't. Nowhere in LotR is it said that he calls himself the Witch-king; the only statement regarding the origin of the name is the following from the Appendices: The lord of that land was known as the Witch-king This can be seen as slightly ambiguous: who knew him as the Witch-king ? But it's nonetheless clear that this was a name that was given to him by others. Knowing this it still seems reasonable to ask why he was called this, and I believe that we can begin with two valid interpretations: one is a king of witches, the other is a king who is a witch. I can't find anything in Tolkien to suggest which one (if any) of these is intended, so perhaps it would be better to look at the definition (and particularly the origin) of the word "witch" for some more insight...

Clearly the spell which inflates Aunt Marge in book three isn't a standard spoken spell, and is cast wandless. So there is no real 'spell' to speak of. But what is it most like? Clearly she expands a considerable amount so it may be similar to engorgio , however she also floats far more easily than she should be able to by sheer buoyancy (She'd need to have inflated to about ~80 cubic meters to get any sort of lift, which is roughly 9 foot in diameter!) so there is some sort of lift element to this charm. What is the closest spell to the effect she feels when she is inflated? Answer There are quite a few spells that could be candidates. I'll bold the ones I think are the most likely to be similar to whatever type of magic occurred to cause Aunt Marge to blow up and float away. Anti-gravity mist (incantation unknown) This is a charm which creates an innocent-looking mist which hovers above the ground. A person stepping into this mist immediately finds that up and ...

I read this story a long time ago and cannot remember either the title or the author. It was written in the 60s or 70s. The setting is sometime in the 21 century. Here is a summary of the plot. One of the great classical composers (maybe it was Schubert, I'm not sure) is revived with some future technology. All the guys in the lab are very happy about it, the world cheers the achievement. The composer is also quite excited to be alive. Naturally, he is asked to perform a concert. He asks for ink and music paper. Nobody knows what that is: in those days everybody writes music directly in "frequency spectrum" and similar stuff. The composer, excited to create music again, tries to come up with something but he doesn't like anything he writes. The music is well written, but lacks something essential, it doesn't sound like his real music. Finally, the composer realizes that the lab guys recreated his mind from reviews by music critics, and his music just sounds like t...

In Deep Space Nine , we learn that Dr Bashir is genetically engineered, like Khan Due to the legal complexities of this, and he wants to hide his special talents, but in private why isn't he stronger and faster? There are many scenes where he gets his rear handed to him even though he is the only one around. Why is that? Answer Dr. Bashir was genetically enhanced, but not in the same way as Khan was. Bashir was subjected to a very specific procedure, Accelerated Critical Neural Pathway Formation , not to engineer a superman but to (over)compensate for his slow mental development as child. At age six, Bashir was small, not very bright, and a bit physically awkward for his age. In the first grade, while the other children were learning how to read and write and use a computer, Julian was still trying to tell a dog from a cat and a tree from a house. ... The focus of his "enhancements" were to increase his mental abilities and as such, his IQ jumped five points a day for...

Related: Could Voldemort have gotten into Hogwarts if someone inside had said his name? The last time I see the Taboo spell in action is when Fenrir Greyback and a band of Snatchers used it to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and subsequently took the trio to Malfoy Manor to be interrogated. Is there any instance later than this that the Taboo spell is seen in canon? It would have behooved Voldemort to have kept it in place, because Harry says "Voldemort" several times during the Battle of Hogwarts without Snatchers, Death Eaters, or Voldemort coming after him. When did Voldemort lift the Taboo spell? Why did he do this? I'm looking for a canon-based answer. Answer I don't think the Taboo was disabled. My case for the Taboo spell still being active is the following. The Taboo spell is used to identify the location someone said a specific word The Taboo spell did not necessarily identify who the speaker was. Nothing specifically mentioned this. The arriving Death Eater...

The Skittles breed of Dalek were pretty limited in number. One by one we've seen a couple meet their end, if memory serves. Which Power Ranger Daleks are still* kicking about the Universe? * Well, OK; "still" is a fluid concept. We jump around in space and time, and so do the Daleks, so we could say that — depending when we materialise — they're all alive, all the time (which, incidentally, is something that really bothers me about the Doctor deciding to fake his death). But we the viewers still magically seem to have a linear, progressing view .. so let's think in terms of televised adventures. :) Answer I count it thus: All the Daleks were thought destroyed in the Time War. Since then, one crashed on Earth in 1962 and was found in 2012 in Henry Van Statten's collection; that killed itself. The Dalek Emperor's ship also turned out to have survived, and he created an army out of harvested humans, but Bad Wolf!Rose destroyed all that. Then the Cult of Sk...

So in both the books and the films Dumbledore's (headmaster's) office is filled with the paintings of previous headmasters. Even if the person the painting is of is dead they are still there and able to respond. Do we know whether the paintings can think for themselves and learn and grow in wisdom? - although the fact they can learn or at least remember is demonstrated frequently. Do they answer with all the knowledge of, let's say, Dumbledore would? In my mind it's akin to being a ghost, or I guess even a horcrux of sorts. Leave behind some soul within a painting? Answer According to rems answer to this question , J.K. Rowling already answered. Q: All the paintings we have seen at Hogwarts are of dead people. They seem to be living through their portraits. How is this so? If there was a painting of Harry’s parents, would he be able to obtain advice from them? JKR: That is a very good question. They are all of dead people; they are not as fully realised as ghosts, a...

We know that going through the veil of death results in instant death, we also know that when they die, phoenixes burst into flames and are reborn from their ashes. But there's the thing: the veil of death doesn't only claim the life but also the body itself, that would mean no ashes to be reborn from . I ask then, what would happen if a Phoenix were to fly straight into the veil of death?

In the First Age, when the Elves first awoke and were terrorized by Morgoth, the Valar came to help as soon as they learned of it, defeated and captured Morgoth. When the Noldor went against the will of the Valar and followed Morgoth to Middle-earth, and were eventually defeated by him, the Valar listened to Eärendil's pleas and began the War of Wrath, defeated and captured Morgoth. So if Gandalf and Frodo had failed, would Sauron really have had complete dominance forever? Or would the Valar have intervened again? If not, why? Is it because in Arda Marred, the Valar are not able and/or willing to directly intervene anymore, and sending the Istari was all they could do? Are there any statements in Tolkien's writings about this? Answer Most likely not. The Valar didn't really directly intervene since bringing the Elves to Valinor and the first capture of Melkor; they were essentially powerless during the events leading to the capture of the Silmarils and the Flight of the ...

As was seen in Star Wars A New Hope the Millennium Falcon has dorsal and ventral laser cannons. During the Battle of Endor I can not recall ever seeing these weapons used, even though they probably would have been very helpful (such as when being chased by TIE fighters through the superstructure of the Death Star 2). Was there some legitimate reason for why these guns were not used? Answer According to this forum thread : Yes, the turrets were manned during the Battle of Endor. As mentioned above, those shots were deleted, however. An image in the STAR WARS: THE ACTION FIGURE ARCHIVE shows the man seated behind Lando in one of the turrets. This is confirmed on Wookiepedia list of cut scenes in ROTJ There are cut shots of rebel gunners aboard the Millennium Falcon.

The robots are controlled by sitting in a chair inside the robot and putting your hand inside two orbs fixed at the ends of the chair arms. If I remember correctly, the robots had a bit of autonomous abilities too. Answer Is it Yamato Takeru (1994)? In the anime, all the giant alien robots are called "Demon Air War Gods" or "Dark Sky Warriors" in Japanese. These robots are bio-mechanized with their own personalities, feelings, and unique powers . All the pilots of these fantastic machines are actually kidnapped children that were trained to be obedient, skillful, and murderous agents of their dark priestess. Though robotic in form, they are made through bio-mechanical incubation and have the ability to evolve over time to take even more powerful forms. All "Demon Air War Gods" recharge through special bacta-like pods which repairs and recharges their energies, but because they are also living machines they can eat as well. All their internal cockpits ha...

Trying to remember a short story (most likely from the sixties). It starts with a soldier at the front line fighting an unknown enemy on the other side of the front line. He then gets withdrawn and you realise that time is passing slower the further he moves from the front. He then spends years in peace away from the front, before being sent back to the front where only a short time (hours or days perhaps) have passed. I seem to remember their was an inference that they were actually fighting against themselves, with their attacks coming back at themselves, which was perhaps the entire cause of the war, and an interesting critique on war. I can't remember if this all this was stated explicitly, or just left for the reader to infer. Answer David Masson , “Traveller's Rest” . Collected in The Caltraps of Time and various anthologies. Another memorable detail is that the protagonist's name starts out as a single letter (“H”) and gradually lengthens as he goes away from the ...

When the children are being selected, it seems each district gathers all their children in one location to be picked from. I'm just guessing but there doesn't seem to be more than a 1000 (maybe as many as 2000?) children from Katniss Everdeen's district? Is the population that small, or are the film-makers taking great liberty with representing the total populations? Answer The population really is that small. In the first chapter of The Hunger Games , Katniss describes the population of District 12 at the reaping: The square’s quite large, but not enough to hold District 12’s population of about eight thousand . Latecomers are directed to the adjacent streets, where they can watch the event on screens as it’s televised live by the state. Recall that anybody between the ages of 12 and 18 are eligible for the Reaping (the event where the tributes are chosen). About a thousand or so 12-18 year olds in a population of eight thousand doesn’t seem unreasonable. (This passage ...

While reading this worldbuilding stackexchange question, I was reminded of a story I read "ages ago", dealing with immortals who were prone to a particularly nasty form of cancer. Unfortunately, I can't remember the title or author... Media : Book. Probably a novel; possibly a short novel. I don't think it was a short story. Original year of publication : Unknown. I read it back in the late '80s or early '90s ('88-'94, probably)... but given the collection I borrowed it from, the book could have dated back to the '20s. (My memories feel it was probably from the '50s-'80s, given the "feel" of the setting.) Major themes : Immortals. Some sort of power struggle/murder mystery - but far more action oriented than mystery oriented. I seem to recall immortals just didn't die "the first time"... but if they took enough damage, their body's cells would "regenerate" too fast (a form of cancer). Plot : Not a whol...

In the Doctor Who episode, The Witch's Familiar, The Doctor sits in Davros' chair. However, the aforementioned character has no legs. Furthermore, his lower body consists of what appear to be cables to link him to the chair. Hence, he has no need for legroom. So where did The Doctor put his legs?

I've just finished re-reading Chamber of Secrets and this stuck with me. Once it becomes clear that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again and the attacks have resumed, The Ministry of Magic arrive and send Hagrid straight to Azkaban. I just can't get my head around why. Even if Hagrid had opened the Chamber the first time, what evidence did the Ministry have that he was involved in the latest round of attacks? I can understand why they'd want to question him at least, but sending him straight to Azkaban (without even a trial, as far as I'm aware) seems a little extreme. Was there some other factor involved that I've missed, or was the Ministry just looking for a scapegoat? There's a similar question regarding the lack of due course with Sirius Black , but the accepted answer doesn't seem to apply to Hagrid's situation. Answer Becuause Fudge was a spineless, power-hungry bureaucrat tyrant, more concerned with being seen "doing something...

I have not read the book but have seen the movie. The ring almost tries to possess everyone like Boromir , Sam , Gollum , Bilbo , Frodo , etc. But why does it never affect Gandalf and Aragorn . Was it weak in front of them, or was their willpower very strong? Answer The way Tolkien describes the Ring it's clear that its effects are addictive. There is an initial temptation to use it, but to have the Ring fully take control of a user, the user must be in possession of it and have continued to use it for an extended period for it to have the full effect. I'll refer you to Tom Shippey's The Road to Middle-earth for a more complete discussion of this observation. The Ring actually does offer some temptation to Gandalf in the books (I can't recall if the same happens in the movies), as is described in Shadow of the Past : 'But I have so little of any of these things! You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?' 'No!' cried Gandalf, springing to...

In the first episode of the first season, Winter is Coming , three rangers come across a wildling camp killed by a White Walker. The walker then kills 2 of the rangers, but allows Gared to live. [embedded content] In episode 10 of the second season, Valar Morghulis , Samwell Tarly sees an army of wights led by a White Walker. The walker spares (ignores) Samwell Tarly but attacks the camp at the Fist of First Men. (Also noteworthy is that some wights also pass Sam just before the White Walker on his horse does, and either don't see him or ignore him.) [embedded content] The walkers clearly spared these two people because they could have overpowered and killed either. From a tactical point of view, the walkers gain nothing by sparing anyone. They are better off killing the person and thereby recruiting the person into their undead army. And the downside is that the survivor can warn others who would then flee the walkers. The result is that the walkers have fewer people to recruit b...

In a preface I guess you could call it. It was in Ring of Solomon and it was stated that magicians had no powers of their own except to call and restrain spirits. But numerous examples are given throughout the books that says otherwise. In book one, it was said that Jessica Whitwell conjured a void with minimal loss of life when Czech spies set a Marid on her, then it also shows her throwing a fireball at Lovelace when he attempted a coup. In second book, it gives examples of this as well. It summarizes the two year time gap between the books. It also says that Nathaniel learned how to weave Sensory Webs to stop spying and to conjure rapid Fluxes to carry away hostile magic. So what exactly is the verdict with this? Answer It's been a while since I read the trilogy. I just assumed that whenever a magician appears to 'use a spell' or do any magic at all, s/he is really instructing a subject spirit to perform an action. The magician's power depends on the strength of t...

In the book Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie most characters are indicated as female with the pronouns selected. There's some discussion about the main character being able to identify the sex because a language requires gender where as the normal language does not. So is the ancillary, Breq, just assuming everyone is female, unless there's data to say otherwise, or are most characters really just female? Answer It's neither. Some characters (e.g. Seivarden) are definitely male, and probably there are as many female as male Radchaai (at least I din't find any hint about a gender imbalance in the book.) We are essentially reading a (fictional) English translation of a Radchaai book. The Radchaai language does not mark gender in any way, but in English, we do not have gender-neutral pronouns, so the (fictional) translator has to make a choice. Usually, people chose the male pronoun in this case, but Ann Leckie chose the female pronoun . Normal Radchaai seem to be able ...

I am looking for the name of a fantasy novel, the details of which I only faintly recall from reading a different worldbuilding exchange thread. I think that thread was something like "how a war could suddenly end as soon as it started?" One answer referred to a particular war in A Song of Ice and Fire which was considered 'over' as soon as the leader of one side was killed. Then all the opposing troops retreated. Their war was a vendetta against a single man rather than against a nation. (If anyone has details about the ASOIAF reference I can run a search for the original thread. . . . ) Another (or maybe the same) answer mentioned these giants. They have a natural hatred of war but when it cannot be avoided undergo some sort of bodily transformation that makes them better at fighting, and this shows how committed to it they are. I don't know if the transformation is reversible or how it would explain a war suddenly ending. Perhaps the transformation is ultimate...

I'm looking for help identifying a story where everyone lives in a city run by machines. The main character has a helper robot who won't/can't do something or give him some information. He goes deep into the city and a bigger machine makes him a new robot that can do "the thing" and the first robot shuts down. I remember he goes up some stairs to the city wall and finds a ship, I think covered in sand outside the city walls. He then travels to another part of the planet where the "non technology" people live, they try and make him stay using mind control, but he has the robot instructed to make sure he gets back, and to ignore him if he tried to give it other orders. I thought it was by Arthur C. Clarke, but I'm not sure, I also thought it might be a two-part where the first part is written by Clarke and the second part written by someone else but I'm not to sure of these parts. Answer It could be either Against the Fall of Night (1948) or The...

We see in the Deathly Hallows Ollivander examining wands taken from the Malfoy Manor. He identifies Bellatrix's, Draco's and Pettigrew's wands. When he identifies Draco's wand, he senses that the wand changed it's allegiance to Harry. How can he tell that? Does the wand feel a certain way, does he listen to it? How can you tell whether a wand has changed allegiance? Relevant quotes from the book: “Can you identify these?” Harry asked. The wandmaker took the first of the wands and held it close to his faded eyes, rolling it between his knobble-knuckled fingers, flexing it slightly. “Walnut and dragon heartstring,” he said. “Twelve-and-threequarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.” “And this one?” Ollivander performed the same examination. “Hawthorn and unicorn hair. Ten inches precisely. Reasonably springy. This was the wand of Draco Malfoy.” “Was?” repeated Harry. “Isn’t it still his?” -Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter Tw...

I'm not sure this is ever addressed in the books, but would chocolate made by Muggles work against the effects of Dementors, or would only wizard/witch produced chocolate have an effect? Why or why not? Answer It's not addressed directly in any of the books or JKR as far as I can find. That said, I think there's an argument for the existence of magical chocolate. I think it's possible that wizarding chocolate may contain a magical component. That said, if chocolate does contain a magical element, we can't automatically assume that the magical component is what actually counteracts the Dementors. I think it's highly probable that any magical element in wizarding chocolate would indeed be what counters a Dementor's effects, though. In Order of the Phoenix , following the Dementor attack in Little Whinging on Harry and Dudley, chocolate isn't even brought up -- not by Harry, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, Arthur Weasley, Dumbledore, or Sirius. Perh...

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Sirius Black recounts that he went to Peter Pettigrew's house to check that he was safe from the Death-Eater's attacks. Peter was not there, but there was no sign of struggle. Sirius then went to James Potter's house and found James killed. Sirius thus got convinved that Peter had betrayed James. What was it that has made Sirius suspicious that night in first place so he went to check? Answer When Sirius first set out to check on Peter, it wasn’t suspicion, it was a pre-existing arrangement. We’re never given details of the arrangement, but since Voldemort would have to go through Peter to get to the Potters, it seems natural that Sirius would want to check he was safe. This is the relevant passage: “I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me… I’m to blame, I know it… The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still ...

As the title asks, is it genetically possible for a Squib to produce magical offspring, or would the Squib gene trump the magic gene in all cases? How would it be possible for a Squib to have magical children? Additionally, must a Squib come from a pureblooded union, or does the possibility of a half-blood Squib exist? Answer Yes, it's possible. In fact, it's where "Muggle-borns" come from (though usually after a few more generations). This answer cites an explanation JKR gave during a webchat ( here's a transcript of the full chat ): Muggle-borns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene re-surfaces in some unexpected places.

In the Guardians of the Galaxy movie it is stressed that a mortal human cannot wield the Infinity Stones. In the comics, however, several humans appear to have wielded one or more Infinity Gems including The Hood, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic, Beast, and Charles Xavier. I don't know the details of most of these, however, as I learned of some of them via Wikipedia... In Thor: The Dark World I can only imagine that Natalie Portman’s character somewhat wielded the red gem, though she definitely did not appear to be in control of it. I would suggest that the human-destroying nature of the purple stone in Guardians could be exclusive to that one stone, but Power and Reality (the gems that seem to fit the appearance of the purple stone) were both wielded in the comics by The Hood. So my question/s: is the idea that a simple human cannot wield the gem exclusive to the MCU/Earth 199999? Do human characters in Earth 616 (or others) have some way to more safely wield them? Answe...

I enjoy The Walking Dead , however one question keeps nagging me. The 'Walkers' are always shown to not have any intelligence or memory of having been human. This is for all seasons except the very first one. In the very first scene of Season One, Episode One, we see a little zombie girl stop to deliberately pick up a teddy bear from the ground. Later in the same episode we see a zombie apparently try to turn the door knob to get into Morgen Jones' house. Also at Atlanta they can climb fences and used rocks to break glass. After season 1 I do not recall seeing any such intelligence demonstrated by a zombie again. My question is: are these initial displays of intelligence a discrepancy in the story, or is there a plausible explanation why the Walkers performed these actions? Answer Zombies tend to follow instinct, but have been known to react to certain stimuli that do not involve food. George Romero is responsible for the typical ' zombie rules ', and his original...

I've seen lots of answers here about the episode "Force of Nature". The episode is about scientists discovering that travelling at speeds greater than warp 5 destroys subspace. It's been stated a few times here on this website that voyager's nacelles are made in a way that negates this effect, and that the rotation of the nacelles has something to do with it. Is this actually canon, and if so, how does rotating the nacelles upwards fix the problem? The Enterprises all had nacelles that were angled up from the hull. Answer In the article on the episode you mention ( Force of Nature ), it states (in "Continuity" ): According to the unpublished VOY Season 1 edition of the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Guide , by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it was suggested that because of the variable geometry pylons, warp fields may no longer have a negative impact on habitable worlds as established in this episode. The idea was that as the Voyager went into warp a...

This is a novel I read when I was young; it would have been sometime in the 1970s. I thought I remembered the author being Peter Dickinson, but I just checked a catalogue of his novels and found nothing that seemed similar (I suspect I was getting this book confused with his Changes trilogy, which I read at about the same time; there are some similarities in the setting but it's definitely not any of the Changes books). Two present-day schoolboys travel (I don't remember how) into what they first assume is the past but then realise is the future. After some apocalypse, probably nuclear war, a medieval society has been rebuilt around a religion that forbids the wheel. I distinctly remember a scene where a heretic, accused of making a wheel, is executed by being tied to a giant (golden?) wheel and rolled down a ramp to their death. The two boys help overturn the oppressive regime (don't they always?), and then one of them returns to his own time, the other choosing to stay an...

I am searching for the title of a book I read a long time ago, from the style I would say that it was "golden age" sci-fi. The Earth is attacked by a race of aliens who have set up camp on the moon and are bombarding Earth with poison gas shells. Ordinarily this would not be a problem as Earth is protected by a superweapon called AKKA, that can easily see off any threat. However due to fear of it falling into the wrong hands it is stored dismantled, and the aliens have cleverly kidnapped the scientist(s) who can can reassemble it. Our heroes, who are out on space patrol beyond Pluto survive the initial attack and travel to the aliens homeworld and rescue at least one scientist and return him to Earth. There, using just bits of random junk, he constructs an AKKA device and points it at the moon, which simply vanishes along with all the aliens on it. The meaning of AKKA is never revealed in the book, as far as I can remember. I also remember that before setting off, the heroes ...