harry potter - Is there a Flaw with Gryffindor's "Characteristics"?

Is there an inherent and perpetual flaw in Gryffindor House? As someone pointed out in one of the chatrooms, some people have been questioning the sorting hat's decisions when it comes to Gryffindor:

First there were those who questioned Peter Pettigrew

And soon after came the Neville Longbottom wonderers

There was Hermione Granger, even questioned within the books by Terry Boot

Many doubted Percy Weasley (although spoiler he came back when it mattered)

I, myself, have dared to question Fred and George Weasley

And although these haven't been questioned, Remus Lupin could have been a Ravenclaw (brilliant), Lily Potter could have been a Ravenclaw (brilliant), Rubeus Hagrid could have been a Hufflepuff (kind and caring for all creatures), Oliver Wood could have been a slytherin (incredibly ambitious), and so on.

The larger problem, however, is with those who weren't in Gryffindor but where just as brave:

Tonks was a Hufflepuff, Luna Lovegood was a Ravenclaw, Snape was a Slytherin, Narcissa Malfoy was a Slytherin (yet she risked her life protecting her son, like Lily Potter), and other members of the order who are unknown, but statistically, not all of them would have been in Gryffindor.

While the Slytherins were more cunning than the other houses, the Hufflepuffs were more tolerate and understanding, and the Ravenclaws were more clever, were the Gryffindors really more brave? What about those in the other houses who fought in the Battle of Hogwarts? What about those from the other houses risking expulsion by joining Dumbledore's Army?

My question is, why is Gryffindor a house? Anyone can be brave!

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harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

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In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

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