Highlights from 2016 – 3rd Quarter – The Science Fiction and Fantasy Community Blog

Top Stats

Top Question

Why doesn’t Discworld run out of water? asked by Nathaniel with a score of 104. Runner up was Why doesn’t Hogwarts have more teachers? with 90.

Top Viewed

What do the Death Stars do, other than destroying planets? with 16066 views asked by Koldito and answered by Rogue Jedi. Runner up was Why did Batman do so much better in his second fight with Bane? with 14765 views.

Top Answer

Valorum had the highest voted answer for Why does Watney’s notebook in The Martian have four holes?asked by crmdgn with 196 votes. Runner up was Why doesn’t Discworld run out of water? with 188 votes (also by Valorum).

Top Controversial

What is JK Rowling “bad” at?, with 13 down-votes to its 14 up-votes, asked by Skooba and answered by Valorum.

Bounties

There were 13 bounties awarded (strangely all of them for 500 rep each) for a total of 6500 rep.

User Favorites

Questions

I rather liked Nathaniel’s

Why doesn’t Discworld run out of water?

and RedCaio’s

Why are there barcode readers on the bridge of the Enterprise?

Answers

Tooting my own trumpet, I thought my answer to this one went above and beyond the call of duty

Why does Watney’s notebook in The Martian have four holes?

And I also rather liked my answer to this one (on the basis that there’s no kill like overkill).

Was the T-Rex the same one?

Questions in underappreciated tags

Part of my pledge to this site for a long time has been to try to popularise some relatively obscure tags (not necessarily obscure works of SF/F, but those which haven’t had many questions asked about them here on SE). As part of this, I’d like to promote a few tags which don’t have many questions but have had some good ones this quarter. Most of them are fantasy novels, because hey, that’s my thing.

animorphs Special nod to Fiksdal for helping to breathe life into this tag. Among his many good questions about this series, I chose the following one which hasn’t yet been answered:

When receiving thought-speak, does one know who else it’s addressed to?

the-princess-bride I’m very pleased with my own success in this tag this quarter, with many great answers from Radhil, but here I chose a question which Radhil and I weren’t involved with:

Why did Humperdinck want to start a war?

bartimaeus Nod to Bellerephon and Adamant for helping to breathe life into this tag.

What is the ranking order of resilience?

witcher This had a few questions this quarter, and I chose the most significant one:

How does Geralt of Rivia meet Yennefer of Vengerberg

redwall Only one question in this tag this quarter:

Suggested order for the Redwall series?

jonathan-strange I enjoyed answering this one:

Who is the dark man in the feather suit?

Answers which redeemed questions

Sometimes a question is posted which is very poorly received initially but gains more traction and upvotes after being redeemed by a great answer.

Why does the chandelier unscrew the other way? seems like a ridiculous question at first glance, but DVK-in-exile provided a canon answer which made the question look more reasonable.
Are there toilets on the Hogwarts express? initially received downvotes and even close votes, before Au101 provided a nice canon answer.
What would happen if Romulus Thread killed the District 12 victors? was initially closed as primarily opinion-based, but then it was reopened after my answer proved without doubt that the question could be objectively answered.

Apologies to anyone I forgot!

I always hate answering these “favourite questions and answers” posts, because I know that I’ll never be able to remember all the posts I particularly liked. Doubtless as soon as this goes live on the blog, I’ll remember more tags I should have mentioned, or more mediocre questions saved by great answers, or just some posts I really really liked which have slipped my mind for the moment.

However, perfectionism must at times be put aside for the sake of practicality. Yes, I’m sure there are things I’ve forgotten; but it’s better to have an imperfect list than no list at all. Thank you for reading.

Questions

Has JKR addressed the issue of ‘Love Potions’ equating to date-rape drugs?

Given the apparent inconsistencies in the books, I had often wondered what Rowling’s opinion was.

In Tolkien’s opinion, does Tom Bombadil (and the concept of pacifism) actually hold any power?

This is that rare question that (a) requires a good deal of analysis, (b) is not primarily opinion-based, and, most notably (c) attracts enough interest to produce numerous high-quality answers. Definitely a cut above the rest.

What is the name of the move that Obi-wan uses to remove Anakin’s limbs?

This is a question that at first looks a little silly. Upon thinking a bit more about Star Wars, you realize that of course they had to have a name for every single thing in the movie, and it becomes kind of brilliant.

Why doesn’t Hogwarts have more teachers?

Let’s face it, I had never though of this. It should have been obvious from how few teachers they had, but it takes a special attention to detail to notice the many more subtle ways in which Hogwarts differs from a regular boarding school.

What is Darth Vader holding on the cover of the original Star Wars novelization?

This is just funny. I would never have guessed what the cover art was going for.

Answers:

Identify movie about very advanced genetic engineering

60 upvotes for a story-identification answer. Definitely worth noting. I guess Gattaca is one of those movies whose name is always on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

Marvel comics with robot aliens and major superhero deaths

I didn’t think this could possibly get an answer, because the description was fairly broad, let alone a good one. Plus, it was Marvel Comics, famous for having a million contradictory storylines over several decades. Thaddeus and his encyclopedia knowledge of comics proved me wrong, though.

How did Jon Arryn actually find out about “the strong seed”?

Another really good answer from Aegon. I would just have assumed it was something everyone knew.

What is the significance of the titles of the Shadowhunters series?

I was wondering whether there was some meaning behind the weird names and titles of Cassandra Clare’s various series. Apparently there was a lot more there than I had imagined!