Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: It is stated that Merida is a tomboy. What exactly made her a tomboy in the first place? Can someone also please point out her tomboy behaviors just so I can get a better idea?

Answer: Nothing "makes" a tom boy, it's something they're born with. Some girls, myself included, from earliest childhood, just prefer engaging in sports or other physical activities and like exploring and being outdoors. Merida shows she is a tom boy because she easily adapts to using the bow and arrow and also likes being in the outdoors, hunts, and can use a weapon to defend herself, rather than relying on someone else to protect her. She is a natural-born leader.

raywest

Chosen answer: It's not so much that they're necessarily competing (indeed, the Doctor would be appalled to think that they were), it's really just that Amy has, at this point in the series, rather conflicted feelings about the Doctor and Rory. While on the verge of marrying the dependable everyman Rory, she feels an attraction to the Doctor, his exciting life and offbeat ways. As a result of this episode, she comes to realise that she does truly love Rory.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: It is explained in the last episode of the series that the crack in Amy's wall is like a hole in time that's following her around, sucking in people and erasing their entire existence. When this happens, as it does with Rory mid season, Amy and everyone else who knew the person forgets all about them and their mind just sort of fills in the blanks in their past that that person would have filled. This is what happened to Amy's parents, they were erased from time before the Doctor met her, that's why he takes such an interest in her - she's the girl who doesn't make sense living all alone in such a big house. The events of the final episode set things right and restore her parents to existence along with everyone else the crack swallowed.

roboc

Does that mean the four clerics who were erased are also restored?

Question: The Hobbit trilogy takes place 60 years before Lord Of The Rings, and it is shown that Bilbo takes the Ring from Gollum and escapes the Misty Mountains with it. What exactly has Gollum been doing for the past 60 years?

Casual Person

Chosen answer: It took Gollum a few years to summon up the courage to leave his cave to try to find Bilbo, but, unsurprisingly, he found that the trail had gone cold. Wandering in the hope of picking up the scent, he ended up on the edge of Mordor, where he encountered Shelob and became her servant, spying on her behalf, luring food into her lair and so forth. Eventually, captured by Sauron's forces, he gave up the names of Baggins and the Shire under torture, alerting Sauron to the existence and potential significance of Hobbits. He was freed, only to be captured again, this time by Gandalf and Aragorn who wanted to question him about the Ring before placing him in elven custody in Mirkwood. Escaping from there, Gollum hid out in Moria where he first picked up the trail of the Fellowship.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: If Monk is afraid of germs, then why does he keep touching things that could possibly have germs on them like parking meters or books?

Answer: Notice also that in the opening credits scene when he is touching parking meters her also wipes his hand on his clothes each time he does it.

Answer: That's the thing about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It's not something rational. He just has to touch things like that. It's not something he can rationally think through. However, since part of his disorder includes an obsession with cleanliness, he also has an assistant walk around handing him wipes periodically. It's like when he gets a cold and uses both a humidifier (because that's what you use when you're congested) and a dehumidifier (to counteract the effects of the humidifier). He may spout rationalizations after he does something, but his compulsions exist outside of any rational thought whatever.

Garlonuss

Question: This may seem like an obvious one, but why wouldn't Alice just let herself get bitten by a zombie to get her powers back? (Preferably, an answer more intelligent than, "for plot purposes").

Friso94

Chosen answer: She wasn't cured of the disease. The virus has already merged with her DNA. They simply suppressed her extra-human abilities. She's still immune, but getting reinfected would do nothing for her.

Garlonuss

Question: Why is Gollum surprised when Frodo reveals to him that he intends to destroy the Ring? Didn't he know that since he was leading Frodo and Sam to Mordor that that was their goal?

Mueller

Chosen answer: Actually no, he didn't. He had no idea what they were planning to do in Mordor, and he didn't really care. Gollum is obsessed with one thing and one thing only, getting the ring back. He agrees to lead Frodo, partly because he's scared of the ring and is compelled to obey its current owner, but mostly because he's waiting for a chance to get it back. Maybe a sane person would have questioned Frodo's motives and realised his intention, but Gollum is hardly sane, is he?

roboc

Question: Why does this movie have so many differences than the book? Why don't they want to follow the actual story line according to the book?

dinieland

Chosen answer: Any book-to-film adaptation will require changes, because what works on the page will not always work cinematically, for any number of reasons. Given the length of some books (the Order of the Phoenix clocks in at well over 700 pages), there's no realistic way that everything could possibly be fitted into the length of a movie, and thus it regularly becomes necessary to eject certain subplots entirely, condense certain events, combine characters or whatever else might be necessary to tell the basic story successfully within a two hour timeframe. As a result, many cinematic adaptations can contain significant deviations from the original book, but ultimately tell what amounts to the same core story. This happens with most of the Potter films, particularly those based on the longer books, but ultimately the main storyline remains intact, even if they take a slightly different route along the way.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Amongst the many complaints people have about Jar-Jar is that he seems to be portraying an old stereotype of an ignorant black person. Lisa is probably commenting on this.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Who was Jamie's maid of honor at the wedding? I was reading some discussion on imdb and the comments seem to indicate that it was Belinda since neither she nor Dean's girlfriend were seen sitting in the pews with Dean, Eric et al. One shot does briefly show a blonde girl holding the bouquet of flowers.

Answer: Belinda was Jamie's Maid of Honor.

raywest

Answer: It was the drama teacher.

Answer: I think it is Landon's dad's new wife.

Question: When the Duke says that he "cannot" ask Lady Bess to leave his home (after the Duchess discovers their affair), does he simply not want to or is there some reason that he feels he cannot?

Answer: He is ignoring the Duchess' request by saying that he cannot ask her to leave. He does not want her to go, nor does Lady Bess wish to leave.

raywest

Question: Just a question and an observation: When does Lymangood find out what JAFO means? He didn't know when he got into Blue Thunder for the first (and last) time: "When are you going to tell me what JAFO means?" 1. They find out about the evil plot. 2. Lymangood gets the tape after they land. 3. He leaves a recording for Frank inside Blue Thunder using "Big Brother", the cabin recorder. 4. He drops the tape off at a drive-in movie dumpster. 5. He calls and leave a voice-mail for Murphy. 6. He goes home and is attacked. So when was he told what JAFO means? Also, someone had a sense of humor about naming the Special helicopter. It was to be used in project THOR (Tactical Helicopter Offensive Response, the "proposed use of military helicopters to quell disorder"). Thor is the god of thunder in Norse mythology. Did they name the helicopter Blue "Thunder" because it was going to be used in Project THOR? It would have been nice to connect the two references in the movie.

Excelsior

Chosen answer: There was plenty of time from Lymangood asks what Jafo means to when he gets killed. For all we know it could have been weeks. It was only a simply question really. As for any connection between blue thunder and Thor, it could have been an in-joke, but only the filmmakers really know.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: It is a play on the movie "Little Big Man" starring Dustin Hoffman. In that movie he portrays a white man who lives as an Indian for part of his life.

LorgSkyegon

Question: How did Littlefoot's mother die, when she had so few injuries, but the Sharptooth lived after falling the height it fell. At this point in the movie a earthquake happens, splitting the earth open, and creating cliffs. Littlefoot's mother threw the Sharptooth off of the cliff to save Cera and Littlefoot's lives. But falling of a cliff wouldn't just knock you out, it would kill you. The Sharptooth had no ill effects from the fall, except for being knocked out.

thesimslover828

Chosen answer: Littlefoot's mother has obvious grievous wounds on her neck and back. She also quite possibly has internal injuries as well. It's also possible that Sharptooth had many injuries as well, but was able to heal better or just fought through the pain because of hunger. Or perhaps he fell in ways that lessened injuries.

LorgSkyegon

Question: In the scene where Leonard rolls up to Ferdy's, and Natalie mistakes him for Jimmy, he says he's not Jimmy, she has a certain look in her eye that I just can't grasp. Why then, doesn't Natalie ever tell Lenny that he's driving Jimmy's car and is wearing his clothes? Does that imply she already knows him and perhaps she's using him to kill Jimmy for her?

Answer: No, that doesn't imply she already knows him. She used him to kill Teddy and Dodd (not Jimmy), because of her boyfriend Jimmy who was missing at that point. She was only suspicious of Leonard, because of the car and the clothes, but even more so when he showed her the coaster meant for her boyfriend.

Of Ice and Men - S2-E7

Question: Stan ditches Francine as a skating partner to skate with Roger because he's better than Francine and he does that because he wants to win the skating championship. Later in the episode, Stan realises it's not the winning that matters, then ditches Roger to skate with Francine not to win. But she declines. Why would she want to skate with him and not skate with him when he doesn't want to do it just to win?

Chosen answer: She declines because she is still angry with him for ditching her.

Question: In the wedding scene, why is Carolina wearing two different types of shoes? One is white the other is badge and strapped another way.

sunfox35

Chosen answer: The wedding takes place almost immediately after they escaped from General Marquez. She did not grab a matching pair.

MasterOfAll

Question: Does the majority of this movie takes place in 2012, meaning that Mavis was born in 1894?

Answer: Yes.

kristenlouise3

Question: When Christine is taken into the Phantom's lair for the second time - after the chandelier crash - and Raoul comes to save her, they all sing an overlapping reprise of The Point of No Return. The Phantom sings The Point of No Return, Christine sings Angel of Music, but what does Raoul sing? Is it a new tune or a particular song from the movie?

Answer: He sings the tune from All I Ask of You.

Question: I know this is just a movie, but I'm confused about how the whole jurisdiction subject is highlighted in the movie. In the scene where Hobbs tries to arrest Dom and co., they exchange words and Dom says "And your mistake is thinking you're in America". Earlier in the conversation and also earlier in film Hobbs basically says that when names of criminals come up, he hunts them down, but seems to indicate it doesn't matter where the arrest is made. There's never an indication Hobbs had a warrant to make an arrest in another country. The main characters also mention the "No extradition" policy in some countries. Does that play a part as well?

Answer: Hobbs' team is part of an international police force, so if they are called in all warrants would have been taken care of off screen. When it pertains to Dom's comment about "Your mistake is forgetting where you are, this is Brazil" wasn't so much stating that he's out of his jurisdiction. He was basically stating "Well guess what, there are different laws here. And unlike the US, here they have a lot of guns and now they're all going to point them at you and warn you that you are not going to take us in right here and now like you think you are." It had nothing to do with jurisdiction, legality or warrants or any of that. It was basically about how things are handled and done in the streets regardless if you are police or International law enforcement or not.

MasterOfAll

Also, extradition just refers to them breaking the law in the new country, they can't get shipped back to the US for their warrants. So like if they got arrested in Japan, Japan wouldn't notify the US and transport them back to be tried for their crimes there.

Answer: Maybe what he meant was if they are in America, no one probably would go against them, but in Brazil, no one is afraid of them since everyone is with a gun.

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