Month: October 2014

Favorite Questions and Answers of All Time

It was suggested we do a favorite questions and answers post, so here it is.

Beofett suggested the answer to Are all Stormtroopers as poor soldiers as the ones in the movies?, which was answered by Jeff.

This is my single favorite answer on the entire website. It’s one of those answers that just shattered my preconceived notions about one of my favorite titles in a way that makes me enjoy the movies more than I had originally.

Mooz’s favorite question is What is the song of ice and fire? asked by Shevliaskovic

A Pretty underrated question. It’s one of those funny ones where you see it and you’re like “why didn’t I think of that?”. The entire story hinges around this one simple line, and none of us questioned what exactly is the “song of ice and fire”…

His favorite answer is by Thaddeus to the question Is Thor the only Avenger that can’t die?

Thaddeus always takes the time to give us well-researched and wonderfully formatted answers, he even gives us a nice tl;dr for all of his answers. This one stands out for me as I really enjoyed the subject matter and all of the links and extra reading linked in the answer.

Slytherincess has exactly 3 questions favorited.

Why didn’t Fidelius charm on Shell Cottage stop the heroes from apparating there from Malfoy Manor? asked by jogabonito. Why did the Fidelius Charm on the Potters’ house break? asked byKevin. And the infamous Is Santa Claus a Time Lord? asked by Tango

She asked How Was the Sound of the Nazgûl Composed? and received an answer from Gabe Willar.

Gabe Willard’s answer was absolutely the most surprising and unexpected one I could have imagined! The question is just okay, but the answer is unbelievable.

Darth Satan has a favorite answer, his own. To the question Word for female dunedain asked by Envite.

At the risk of a (probably fair) accusation of self-promotion, I was very happy with the detective work I got to do for my answer to “Word for female dunedain”. I understand why it only got +8 rather than the obvious +several billion it undoubtedly deserves (smiley goes here) since it was a farly niche-interest question, but it’s still amazing what one can dig up in obscure footnotes and side-references.

Richard liked the question Who, or what, are the human characters in the original 1977 Hildebrandt Star Wars poster? asked by Major Stackings.

It took me a while to puzzle out why the poster (drawn after the film had been made) looked like it had completely different actors on it.

SQB says What is the origin of the phrase “on the gripping hand?” asked by Bill the Lizard and answered by Gilles.

…because I learned something that I didn’t even know I could learn.

DVK has a number of favorite questions, of which he predominately answered.

The top 4 favorite questions on the site are:

The Flash – Pilot Episode

The show opens with an 11 year old Barry Allen coming downstairs to see a swirling yellow and red thing encircling his mother. Suddenly he is teleported a few blocks away from his house. By the time he makes it back home, his mother is dead from this mysterious presence.

The Flash

Flash (pun intended) forward to a now 20-something Barry Allen. He is a junior forensics analyst for the Central City police. He’s a scientist (Batman’s a scientist!) and he is excited for the opening of a Star Labs in his town with a new particle accelerator. He ends up missing the opening day and returning to his lab only to see an explosion in the distance (the particle accelerator) and an energy wave pass through the city. Some of the energy collects above his lab and he is struck by lightning, and then rushed to the hospital (who knew to call an ambulance for him? He was alone).

At the same time his adoptive father is running down a lead on a couple of bank robbers who drive a Mustang (product placement). The perps manage to escape in a plane, but not before the same energy wave hits their plane, destroying it and leaving the two presumed dead.

Barry Allen awakens from a coma nine months later and has the abilities of The Flash (i.e. super speed and super reaction time). He works with a few people from the now defunct Star Labs (the explosion really spooked the investors) and not only starts to learn his own abilities, but also learns of the existence of other meta-humans that were created as a result of the particle accelerator gone bad.

When a man who can control the weather starts robbing banks (you might say he is something of a wizard at it) Barry has to decide if he is going to use his newly found powers for good. He has a short conversation with Arrow about it, and ultimately decides to go all super hero and become a vigilante.

Overall I thought it was a pretty decent pilot episode. I’m much more of a Batman fan, but I enjoyed The Flash pilot a lot more than I enjoyed the Gotham pilot. Gotham is apparently all about silly cameos and corrupt cops, while The Flash has a lightheartedness to it that makes it fun. I couldn’t really get into Arrow, but I’m definitely going to be following this sister-series.

Things I noted;

  • The mysterious death of Barry’s mother is obviously going to be a major plot point. Particularly since it makes a viewer think that Barry himself could potentially be responsible.
  • Barry has already revealed his secret identity to five people. This means he tells his secret faster than Batman. I wonder if that will become an issue down the road…
  • We’ve already seen a major antagonist of The Flash perish. Comic Tv shows and movies seem to hate recurring villains, I guess that is why they die so often.
  • The explosion, which potentially affected lots of people, opens the path for many meta-humans to appear in The Flash and in Arrow.
  • We see a news article 10 years in the future which says that The Flash mysteriously vanished during a crisis. Is this the kind of crisis that could span infinite Earths?

Highlights from 2014 – 3rd Quarter

The question with the highest score and the most views was Why did the Matrix simulate 1999 instead of a pre-computer year?. This was also a favorite question of Richard “the Lion Heart” Lion Heart. He felt it was a “good question that provoked a pretty good range of answers.”

The question with the highest answer score was Hogwarts: So why aren’t the kids “doing it”? which was answered by Richard “the Lion Heart” Lion Heart.

Close behind it was the answer to Why was Han Solo on Tatooine? asked by TZHX, which was a favorite answer to the aforementioned Richard “the Lion Heart” Lion Heart. It was answered by phantom42.

Speaking of “the phantom,”* he liked the question Whose underwear is this? which has the advantage of being in the #2 spot for up-voted questions, and is more appropriate than the Harry Potter sexy times question. * (not actually a phantom)

He also liked the answer to Is Big Brother an actual person in the novel 1984? asked by Santa Claus (he doesn’t have any claws at all!) and answered by Thorsten S.

Was your favorite question/answer callously forgotten? Drop a link in the comments (scifi.SE links only).

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