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Q: Help me find this YA fantasy book!

lisa-a11enI have been searching for this for years! I got it out of the library when I was 12 or 13 so about 15 years ago now, but I have no clue when it would have been released and my family have no idea what I'm talking about. All I can remember is that it had quite a plain white/grey cover and the titl...

 
3 hours later…
02:45
What is the TV Tropes name for the following situation?There is an apparent villain, who later turns out to be holding back the real villain in some sense.
I am thinking like on Loki.
Or in Mistborn with the Lord Ruler.
"Holding back" as in preventing the worse bad from acting?
@DavidW It can include that, but it does not have to be, as in the case of Loki.
A lot of the time it is more like "If I were not around, the other person would do worse things," without the worse things necessarily being annihilation.
They can be a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but they do not have to be (they can be completely brutal, just not interested in the competition or threat), and most WIEs are not holding back a greater threat.
The second villain is almost certainly Eviller Than Thou or a Viler New Villain, but most examples of those tropes are not actually being held back by the first villain.
@DavidW Plus, that is kind of backwards. In that case, we meet the villain before they fight the oblivion, but this case, we almost always meet the decoy villain first.
They can be Good All Along, but not usually.
They are almost always a Disc One Final Boss, but there is more to them than that.
04:04
-1
Q: What does "they" refer to?

Ashley LongHagrid took his students to a dense forest. The monster book made Longbottom fall to ground. Hermoine turns to Harry: Hermoine: I think they're funny. Draco: Oh, yeah. Terribly funny. Witty. God, this place has gone to the dogs. What does "they" refer to?

 
1 hour later…
05:17
0
Q: Why didn't Darth Vader reopen the blast doors?

RichSWhen Luke Skywalker shot the control panel for the blast doors on the Death Star, the doors immediately closed, trapping Darth Vader on the other side. Why didn't Darth Vader use the Force to reopen the blast doors? Is there an explanation in the novelization? Did...

05:59
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Q: Why could Mobius M. Mobius not recognise Loki?

Severus SnapeIn the end of Loki S1 E6, Mobius M. Mobius was not able to recognise Loki. Why is it so?

 
3 hours later…
08:56
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Q: When was the second season of "The A List" filmed?

AdamantThe two seasons of The A-List were released about three or four years apart. In-universe, not much time seems to have passed between the first season of The A-List and the second one: in the first episode, the protagonists say that they have been interned in the facility for six weeks, and Mia's ...

09:20
0
Q: How was Amber able to affect everyone at once?

AdamantThe first season suggests that Amber was responsible for erasing everyone's memories. In the second season, we see a scene that suggests that she erased everyone's memories at the funeral service for Midge. That said, although she seems to be able to cause some degree of hallucinations in Mia, he...

0
Q: Did the characters ever leave Peregrine Island?

AdamantWe know that all the main characters, Mags excluded, were either campers or (in Dave's case) a counselor at a camp on Peregrine Island the year before the events of the first season. We also know that their memories of this were taken away, and they believed that it was their first time on the is...

SQB
SQB
@Adamant "if only we had a place to ask" :)
09:40
@SQB I kind of think it is potentially off-topic. There is actually nothing specifically about SF there, if you think about it.
How did you guys get the dark mode in here?
SQB
SQB
@Adamant Yet the examples you give are from WoSFaF, as it is much easier for a big evil to be real bad and real dangerous in there.
@user178758 I think we just asked pretty please. TBH, it was before my time. I do know that our styling has been giving the devs headaches, though.
Very cool, thanks.
@Marvin This one has been giving me a headache trying to figure it out.
I guess one could say the BBC leaving the production introduced some inconsistencies, but the basic tension is implied in the first season.
Either they are kept on the island for a year, with their families and friends completely unconcerned, or they come back to the island with a canceled summer camp where a friend of theirs died for another year of camp.
Are summer camps still popular today?
SQB
SQB
09:55
Apparently very much. They stayed for a year.
@SQB If they did, it was probably mind control.
Which is the only reason someone would go to a summer camp in the first place, in my opinion.
Yeah, summer school was always thought of as a punishment, iirc.
OTOH, I guess summer camp gives kids a chance to get to know others their age.
Also time away from their parents.
11:07
Ooh! I found a question that I can answer!
11:25
1
Q: How is PAW Patrol funded?

Robert ColumbiaI was watching PAW Patrol with my niece when I got to thinking that all of that advanced rescue equipment, all of those trucks, ATV's, helicopters, submarines, patrol boats, and other fancy vehicles, and, of course, the seemingly unlimited supply of pup treats can't be cheap. Is it ever explained...

3
Q: Name of sci fi book where academy entrance exam is "impossible"

jmadsenI can almost quote the text, I recall it so well, but which book it comes from is escaping me. I want to say "Starship Troopers", but that really doesn't fit. The protagonist is a young man taking a military academy entrance exam. Unlike most others, he reads through the entire question & realiz...

 
1 hour later…
13:03
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Q: Is "The Tomorrow War" based on any book?

DVK-on-Ahch-ToI know there was a lot of social media speculation before the movie release on whether "The Tomorrow War" Amazon film is based on any book (Scalzi and Haldeman were mentioned often), due to various plot similarities. Is there any official information on that?

 
2 hours later…
14:48
1
Q: Why is Bahamut the Grand Master of Flowers in the new MTG set?

AndreyAs I understand, 'Grand Master of Flowers' is a title given to the leader of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, What relationship does it have to Bahamut? The monastery appears to worship a different deity, and Bahamut is not really a god of monks. Why did Wizards print Bahamut as this monk?

 
2 hours later…
16:20
@Adamant my trope sense is tingling
posted on July 17, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: This is the best kind of fame, except for Japan-fame. Today's News:

 
2 hours later…
18:15
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Q: Post Apocaliptic Movie where Gasoline Was Very Scarce

The ImpalerI wanted to watch again an old movie but I can't find anything about it. I remember its title in Spanish only: "Los Quemadores" (the burners?). I don't know how good or accurate this translation was. This movie was probably filmed in the 70s or 80s (color movie). In the story gasoline was not ava...

18:34
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Q: Would wearing the Three Rings of Power at the same time have enabled Gandalf or another Istari to become an extremely powerful wizard?

user57467If Gandalf or another Istari had gone to the three wearers of the Three Rings of Power: Narya, Nenya and Vilya, and had asked them if he could borrow their rings for a short time in order to accomplish some great feat, would wearing these three rings of power at the same time have enabled him to ...

1
Q: Summoned to another world with four(?) classmates. Protagonist is separated but ends up with a group of female companions including a goddess

Mischievious JirachiI'm trying to locate an Isekai manga. In this one, the main character is summoned to another world with 4(?) of his other classmates, and they all have special skills. Through some weird turn of events, the main character somehow gets separated from the his classmates. All his classmates are worr...

1
Q: Huntmaster guides aliens hunting humans, but has agenda

ShaunI don't recall the name or the author, but the story involves giant aliens being taken on hunting parties against humans on Earth. The guns used shrink the soldiers, men etc for collection and the Huntmaster guides them around. The people of Earth manage to adapt some of the technologies the alie...

19:01
@Adamant I scoured those TV tropes pages, and all I could find was tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreaterScopeVillain but that doesn't cover the first villain read just holding another back part
19:23
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Q: Post-apocalyptic Movie where Gasoline Was Very Scarce

The ImpalerI wanted to watch again an old movie but I can't find anything about it. I remember its title in Spanish only: "Los Quemadores" (the burners?) I don't know how good or accurate this translation was. This movie was probably filmed in the 70s or 80s (color movie). In the story gasoline was not avai...

 
2 hours later…
21:25
0
Q: When does Tolkien use "is come" and when does he use "has come"?

WadeI've noticed that sometimes Tolkien uses the older version "is come" (i.e. replacing the auxiliary verb "to have" with the auxiliary verb "to be", as was the custom for the verb "to come" in older English), while sometimes he uses the more modern "has come". Sometimes in the very same work, and r...


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