I have a memory of there being a canon statement to the effect that some point during their time at Hogwarts, Harry became a "better" wizard than Hermione. I think it was around their fourth or fifth year. Was this the case, or is my memory mistaken? It may have been due to a quote from Rowlin...

Imagine many ships traveling close to the speed of light. If they diverge paths to explore distant galaxies, they could calculate their travel so that the same amount of time passes for all ships. Since traveling close to the speed of light will substantially slow down the passage of time for tho...

So I was around 3 when I watched this movie, so I don't remember much. First thing I remember is two people one of them defiantly male (brothers maybe) are driving home the one that is defiantly male is a smaller and seems to be to young to drive but it shows them driving down a road to go home w...

We learned from the film Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) that Darth Sidious or Palpatine offered to Kylo Ren a new Sith Empire along with the title of Emperor but only if he killed Rey. Later on, Sidious rejected the notion that he wanted her dead, rather brought to him to su...

While reading book 1 (Consider Phlebas) in the culture series, I'm struggling to understand what the Dra'Azon actually is. The Dra'Azon will attack ships that attempt to breach the quiet barrier around Schar's World, and it's powerful enough to prevent both the Idiran's and the Culture from breac...

This is for me the biggest unresolved question of the Books. Dumbledore planned from the beginning that Harry should first destroy all Horcruxes and then should die by the hand of Voldemort (which leads to Piton telling to Harry that he must die) and that Harry should kill Voldemort as last thing...

In Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, we see R2-D2 and C-3PO arrive at the palace of Jabba the Hutt, bearing a message from Luke Skywalker, and themselves as gifts. Then we see general Leia Organa arrive, disguised as the bounty hunter Boussh, claiming the bounty on Chewbacca. She tries ...

From Cixin Liu's 2010 sci-fi novel Death's End (pages 68–69): "A radiation sail can be made very thin and light. Based on the current state of material sciences, we can make a sail of about fifty square kilometers and limit the mass to about fifty kilograms. That should be big enough." The speak...

Growing up adjacent to the coast and valleys of central California, we always had great pride in Steinbeck and his attachment to the land there. Since moving to Arizona, I’ve wondered if there is any author who has a similar command of the land and its people. I’m not expecting a literary giant, ...

We know that Hans is based on the Devil’s Mirror from the Snow Queen fairytale, and it shows, because he mimics others perfectly. However, his Disney Wiki says that Hans is also based on the PRINCE from the same fairytale. So IS he?

I read a comic once, long since given away, where Superman fought someone who was powered by prayer, without using force. I'm hazy on the details, and there wasn't much to the story besides the 'powered by prayer' conceit. I read it some ~7-8 years ago, and it was current at the time because it w...

The long essay has a terse title, something like "On Criticism" or "On the Art of Criticism" or "Criticism"--if I recall correctly. Perhaps it's by Disraeli or Erasmus or Diderot (my bet is Erasmus). The essay begins with a very long paragraph describing how famous writer X thought the work of fa...

I initially believed that this was the original backstory for Marvel's X-Man Angel before they settled on a more vague triggering of the X-gene, but I have found no references online indicating as such, which makes me think this was another work that I conflated to Angel in my head. The protagoni...

The 2021 Community Moderator Election is now underway! Community moderator elections have three phases: Nomination phase Primary phase Election phase Most elections take between two and three weeks, but this depends on how many candidates there are. Please visit the official election page at ht...

Before War Without End, Sinclair was the head of the rangers. The rangers were a large presence at the time and they should have gotten orders from him indirectly or at least talk about "Ranger One". But the only times people saw/heard about him is when he chose to contact them. Why is that?

I just stumbled upon this well-asked and received question about the series of novels of which Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book. While certainly fictional, and predicated upon imaginative vision of prehistory, what makes this book and series on-topic for SFF.SE? Contrast with Harrison's We...

So I know next to nothing about Godzilla and haven't watched any of the movies, but I was wondering if in any of the movies there is a government or UN agency responsible for dealing with giant monsters such as Godzilla. If so, I would also like to know what sort of technology, vehicles, and othe...