Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: Why did C-3PO go with them to Geonosis? I always figured protocol droids stayed with their masters unless they were sold?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: Anakin built C3P0, remember? And Anakin had left C3P0 to take care of his mother. However Anakin's mother, Shmi, has now died. So 3P0 is now going along with his creator.

Quantom X

Question: If Voldemort is now controlling the Ministry of Magic, why does Dolores Umbridge have a position there? In Order of the Phoenix, she refused to believe that he had returned. I wonder why he didn't kill her for opposing him.

Answer: Umbridge was an opportunistic collaborator, and once Voldemort took power, she became complicit in order to advance her own career. She never opposed Voldemort, she, like many others, simply believed he had been killed years before.

raywest

She never opposed Voldemort because she was allied with him.

Answer: She refused to acknowledge it openly, that doesn't mean she didn't believe it, or hope for it.

She knew that he returned, but was allied with him all along.

Question: Why is Maximus surprised Commodus is Caesar? After he speaks with Lucius he hides back in the cell. Proximo tells him the young emperor is having these spectacles to commemorate his father's death.

Answer: He hides because he believes Commodus might be nearby, since Lucius is there. At this point, Commodus has no idea he's still alive, and Maximus wants to keep it that way.

Question: When Obi-Wan tells Luke about Darth Vader murdering his father, Luke doesn't seem to have heard of Vader before. But he knows about the rebellion and wants to go to the Imperial Academy (so he can defect later). Shouldn't he know who Vader is?

Answer: Not necessarily. The Empire is infamous, but that doesn't mean everyone will know who their higher-ups are. I know who the Ku Klux Klan are, but I couldn't tell you who their leaders are.

Phaneron

This. Or possibly, Luke knows who Vader is but just doesn't comment while Obi-wan is talking.

Answer: For most of his early life, Luke lived a simple, rustic life. His aunt and uncle knew his parentage and no doubt suppressed information about the Empire from him. Luke is naive and still has a limited and generalized knowledge of the rebellion, most of which was gleaned from talking to friends. He has little awareness of who the key players are.

raywest

Answer: Remember that Luke was hidden on Tatooine as a baby, and Obiwan also went into hiding there, presumably as a protector to keep Luke's very existence a secret from Darth Vader. It could be that Obiwan remotely exercised Jedi mind-tricks on Luke throughout his young life to block any curiosity about Vader.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Though Vanellope did say to Ralph that glitches can't leave their game, what is the explanation behind it? Why can't glitches ever leave their game? She never explained it.

Answer: It is never explained, but the most likely answer is that glitches aren't written into the game intentionally, and only characters intentionally written can be transferred in and out of games.

oldbaldyone

Question: The end of the movie had me all confused. What happened? Is it implying that the Angels came down from Heaven and began killing all the new believers? What were we led to believe at the end?

lartaker1975

Answer: At the end locusts descend on earth from heaven to wipe out the human race. This is taken directly from the bible. Basically, everyone who was not taken during the rapture would be left on earth to be tormented and eventually all of humanity would be wiped out by a massive swarm of locusts.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Although the series creators have never confirmed this, it seems fairly obvious that MACC is inspired by Johnny 5.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why didn't the NCAA let freshmen play football before 1971? What were their reasons for not wanting freshmen to play?

Answer: The original idea was to force Freshmen players to gradually adapt to both a tougher form of football and the tougher academic requirements of college.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Even though Hades is now mortal and powerless, why wouldn't Perseus kill him to avenge Spyros and his adopted family?

Answer: The easiest explanation is that would make Perseus a murderer. He's a good, just, heroic man and killing a defenseless person for revenge would be completely out of character for him.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: After Peter is possessed by Charlie and he clicks his tongue for the first time after standing up, he starts to walk towards the tree house and heads off screen. The camera lingers though, and focuses in on something lying on the ground in the background. What is that on the ground? It almost looks like a dead dog or possibly the dead dear from earlier, but the shape isn't quite right. It does appear to be some sort of animal but I can't make it out. What is that the camera lingered on right then? And why? It's not shown again. (01:57:45)

Quantom X

Answer: Earlier in the film, Peter swerves the car to avoid hitting a dead animal in the road, resulting in Charlie's decapitation. That animal appears to be a goat (a ram) with slightly curled horns. Within the context of this movie, this is probably a Sabbatic Goat, alluding to Occult symbolism associated with the Mystic Pentagram and the Satanic deity Baphomet. The implication is that Satanic forces caused Peter to swerve off the road, killing Charlie in preparation for migrating her soul into Peter. The dead animal seen in the background at the end appears to be the Sabbatic Goat again, marking completion of Charlie's soul migration into Peter.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: I think it's the family dog. The cult members probably killed it to keep it from interfering with their plans.

Phaneron

Show generally

Question: How is it possible that Kelly got shot in the head two separate times and is still a private eye?

Answer: She had the kind of incredibly fortunate recoveries that only television writers can provide.

Michael Albert

Answer: He'd gone outside the normal system for the afterlife and offered himself as a freelancer. His punishment was to be restricted to the model until someone said his name three times.

Question: When Patton arrives at corps headquarters, a lieutenant says they have a new commander due. What is he talking about? Was their previous commanding general fired?

Answer: Due to his poor performance at Kasserine, General Eisenhower sacked Major General Lloyd Fredendal (Patton's predecessor), and he was sent back home in disgrace, never to command combat troops ever again.

stiiggy

Answer: Patton was put in charge of the American II Corps in North Africa after the Americans were badly defeated at the 1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass. The lieutenant apparently does not realise that Patton has been sent to replace the previous commander and will begin enforcing strict discipline into the troops.

raywest

OK, but what about the other part of the question? Was their previous commanding general fired?

The previous commanding general was not "fired" he was replaced. It was Major General Lloyd Fredendall who was in command of the II Corps, at the Battle of Kasserine Pass. He was reassigned stateside, then about three months later was promoted to lieutenant general. For the rest of the war he was in command of training assignments in the US.

Super Grover

He was effectively "fired", as in removed, from his commanding position, due to his weak leadership, but that did not mean to say he was fired from the U.S. Army. The term "fired" is relative here.

raywest

I feel the need to clarify the point that my original reply was to the person who asked this question: "OK, but what about the other part of the question? Was their previous commanding general fired? " Please know that my reply was not meant to come off as butting heads with your answer, raywest, I was merely answering the submitter's question and acknowledging their use of the word "fired" within their question. But since you responded directly to my original reply, I'll respond. You state in your reply to me, "He was effectively "fired", as in removed, from his commanding position, due to his weak leadership, but that did not mean to say he was fired from the U.S. Army. The term "fired" is relative here." Okay, well I really don't agree with that, because I can't see the term "fired" as being relative here, IMO. In civilian life, when a civvie is "fired" from their job it means getting laid-off, being unemployed. To say a servicemember is "fired" from the military, it would basically mean being dishonorably discharged. The OP's question was regarding Lloyd Fredendall. After his reassignment, Major General Fredendall even received a promotion and became Lieutenant General Fredendall within a few months. Anyway, those are my personal thoughts on the matter. :) Be well, raywest. With warm regards, Rikki.

Super Grover

Not fired, just relieved of command and transferred elsewhere.

Yes, he was removed (fired) from his post because his troops were so badly defeated in the battle. Patton was assigned to take over.

raywest

Question: Why would they make Anne Australian? Her nationality isn't even mentioned, so why would they let Abbie Cornish use her natural accent? What purpose does it serve? It seems like an incredibly random choice. Abbie Cornish has used an American accent in most of her roles, so of all the ones to use her natural accent, why would she use it in the one where it makes the least sense? Why would an Australian go to a small Ozarks Missouri town? I assume she stayed there because she met Bill and fell in love with him, but why would she have gone there in the first place, before she met Bill?

MikeH

Answer: Since the movie doesn't tell us how she and Bill met, any answer about how and why she was there would be mere speculation. Letting an actress speak in her native accent is not exactly "random"; random would be if she was an American and the writer/director decided to make her character Australian. However, the situation of an Australian marrying someone from, and then living in, a small Missouri town is not as outlandish or nonsensical as one might think; I used to date someone from a tiny town in Kansas, whose mother was an upper-class British woman who happened to meet and marry someone from that town.

Question: What was the name of the song they sang while they were snowed in?

Answer: "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Bishop73

Question: How is it that Han joins the empire at the beginning of Solo, and at the end Darth Maul appears in a hologram when Maul was killed in Phantom Menace, long before the rise of the empire and storm trooper army.

Answer: Not sure of the first question; This movie begins about 10 years before Episode 4. By then, the Empire is relying on conscripted soldiers as the Empire expands. Han simply enlists. For the second question, the answer is in the Clone Wars TV series: Maul didn't actually die, and even replaced his legs with cybernetic limbs.

kayelbe

Even this being true, Darth Maul was still killed by the end of the Clone Wars, which was still before the rise of the Empire, so being alive at the end and the Empire enlistment at the beginning does not fit with the timeline.

Answer: Official canon (Clone Wars TV show especially) establishes that Maul survived his encounter with Obi-Wan and comes back into relevancy during the Clone Wars, running crime syndicates and initiating war on Mandalore behind the scenes. Why he's still running Crimson Dawn in Solo is very strange, since his story arc in The Clone Wars and his own comic has all of his criminal allies abandon him (which is why Darth Maul is the way he is in Rebels). It's likely an oversight but has been someone patched up by season 7 of Clone Wars.

Answer: According to expanded universe materials, Darth Maul survived his encounter with Obi Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace. He goes on to build his own criminal empire. He has nothing at all to do with the rise of the Empire, in fact he is something of a rival to Palpatine. Solo takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. During this time period the Empire is relying on regular enlistments to make up the bulk of their army.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Despite how loyal Rattlesnake Jake was to the mayor, why did the mayor betray and attempt to kill Jake at the end?

Answer: The mayor wanted to modernize the town, getting rid of every trace of its "old west" feel. Rattlesnake Jake, being a stereotypical gunslinger archetype, was a huge part of what the mayor was trying to eliminate.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Is this a prequel? The end confused me. How can part 5 characters be on flight 180 from part 1?

Answer: Yes, it is a prequel to the original film.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Would the plan John used to help Laura escape really have worked? If not, then please explain why?

Answer: John's plan to help Laura escape would not have worked, because he would not have been able to plan ahead like he does in the movie. He would to know where Laura would be transported, and when and if she would be transported there. He would not have know any of that as the information is kept secret from the prisoners, and the public.

Even if he did find out Lara was in hospital, Lara would have been transferred to another hospital.

The movie attempts to cover this up by having him send fake diabetic results to the jail. This would not work because jails and prisons do not accept diabetic results from outside labs.

Answer: Noah falls behind, and Daryl stops to help him. Carol moves ahead and is struck by a police car. Noah stops Daryl from interfering.

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