This article was originally published in December 2009.

Where would fantasy heroes be without their trusted animal companions? Just like the rest of us with our pets, they’d be lost. So let’s take a look at some of the most memorable, shall we?

(Incidentally, there are plenty of fantasy stories that involve relationships between humans and magical creatures such as unicorns and dragons, but for the purposes of this article, we’re restricting ourselves only to creatures that have a real-life counterpart here on Earth!)

Scabbers (from Harry Potter)

Hapless Ron’s unpredictable pet rat Scabbers is, of course, not a real rat at all, but it’s not until the third book in the series that he’s revealed as the polymorphed Peter Pettigrew, a coward whose treachery led to the death of Harry’s parents. Pettigrew’s animal disguise plays an instrumental role in Prisoner of Azkaban, inspiring Sirius Black’s escape from prison after he recognizes the rat in a photograph, and Scabbers figures prominently into the book’s conclusion as well.

Coolness Factor: 2 (out of 5)
Loyalty: 1 (out of 5)
Importance to the Plot: 4 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Two Torches (Out of Five)

Argo (from Xena: Warrior Princess)

Xena is no ordinary warrior — so why should she have an ordinary horse? Sure enough, hers is extraordinarily intelligent, sensing danger, responding to a number of different commands, being able to command other horses, and even once enduring having been turned into a miniature version of herself. Speaking of which, is Argo male or female? While referred to as “boy” in earlier seasons, she is eventually identified as female (and was usually portrayed by a mare). The horse died during Xena and Gabrielle’s Ares-induced 25-year sleep in the ice-cave, but gave birth to a daughter, Argo II, who, remarkably, had all of Argo’s abilities.

Incidentally, did you ever wonder why Gabrielle had no horse? According to the producers speaking at a fan convention, it took three horses to make it look like Xena had one horse. For Gabrielle to have had a horse, that would have meant having six horses on hand — something that was financially impossible.

Coolness factor: 3 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 2 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Three Torches (Out of Five)

Hedwig (Harry Potter)

There’s one question that every reader of the Harry Potter series has asked him or herself at least once: why don’t wizards have email? Then again, would you use email if you have something as cool as Hedwig, Harry’s pet snowy owl, to deliver messages to your friends? Hedwig is, of course, a gift from Hagrid, purchased in Diagon Alley in the first book in the series, and was definitely an owl with ‘tude, never willing to put up with Harry’s thoughtlessness. Sadly, Hedwig is killed in Deathly Hallows by none other than a stray curse.

Coolness Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 4 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 2 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

The Animals of Aladdin

All the main characters in the animated Disney movie Aladdin share a bond with an animal that reflects his or her underlying personality: Aladdin has his impetuous monkey Abu, Jasmine has her regal tiger Rajah, and Jafar has his mean parrot Iogo. But the animal companions don’t just mimic their owners, they also reflect the underlying theme of the movie, which is more sophisticated than it seems at first glance: when you try to possess and enslave someone else, you ultimately end up enslaving yourself. True freedom, just like true love, only comes from freeing others and giving them the choice to set you free as well.

And for the record, it applies to life, but it also applies to our relationship with our real-world pets!

Coolness Factor: 3 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 4 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Four Torches (Out of Five)

Daemons (from His Dark Materials)

In perhaps the most interesting aspect of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series of books, every human in that alternate-”Earth” is accompanied in life by a “daemon” — that person’s soul made manifest in the form of an animal. In children, the daemon changes forms, finally settling into a single animal upon adulthood — a creature that reflects that person’s underlying personality. Humans share a bond with this personification of their soul that is so intimate that touching another’s daemon is unthinkable. And while separating a human from his or her daemon is possible — and factors closely into the plot of the books — doing so turns both into virtual zombies.

Coolness Factor: 4 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 5 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Four Torches (Out of Five)

The Talking Animals (from The Chronicles of Narnia)

With a few exceptions, it’s hard to find better companions than the talking animals of Narnia. Most of these animals rarely stretch beyond their stereotypes — donkeys are stupid, owls are wise, cats can be unreliable, and dogs are loyal. But every now and then, author C.S. Lewis surprises us, as with one of the most memorable of Narnia’s talking animals, Reepicheep: the bravest, most noble creature in all of Narnia (excepting Aslan) is none other than … a mouse. And then there is Aslan. Is there another story that turns an animal into a metaphor for God?

Coolness Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 5 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Five Torches (Out of Five)

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

Q: It’s a fantasy trope that you can’t ever vanquish Great Evil completely: Sauron, Voldemort, the White Witch — somehow they always come back. I get that it’s a metaphor for how evil is eternal. But how does their ability to resurrect themselves work exactly? – MegaMouth, Manchester, NH

The Oracle Speaks:

This is a classic example of various authors basically starting from a philosophical “point” they want to make and working backwards from there: as you say, the point they’re making is that evil is a fundamental part of us all, and since we can’t ever deny our own natures, we can’t ever vanquish evil completely (although we can certainly reduce its influence and impact!).

But even apart from the fascinating philosophical question, the specifics are pretty interesting too: how do these powerfully evil beings always seem to survive death?

First, they find a magical means to ensure their immortality.

Voldemort, for example, created the multiple horcruxes — magical, hidden totems that stored bits of his soul, binding him to the material plane (Voldemort thought he had created six horcruxes — the only wizard ever to create more than one — but of course he had accidentally created seven, one being Harry Potter himself). But with each additional horcrux, he became less and less human.

Voldemort directed a Killing Curse at the infant Harry to prevent the prophecy that the boy was destined to kill him from coming true — but the spell rebounded, destroying Voldemort’s physical body (but not his soul, which was, of course, kept alive by the horcruxes).

Meanwhile, Sauron, who started out as an immortal anyway, created the One Ring to gain additional power and influence, forging it in secret to give him control over the other Rings of Power, but also requiring that he imbue it with much of his power and some degree of his essence. When Isildur cut the ring off Sauron’s finger in the War Against the Last Alliance, it destroyed his weakened physical body, but his soul lived on in hiding, desperate to regain the ring and the power it wielded over the other rings.

Finally, the White Witch (then known as Jadis) gained immortality by eating The Fruit of Everlasting Life shortly after Narnia’s creation. Subsequently, she somehow learned Deep Magic From the Dawn of Time, which bolstered her knowledge and power (but, alas, not Deeper Magic From Before the Dawn of Time, which ended up biting her in the ass).

But while these beings’ essences or souls were preserved from total destruction even in defeat, they eventually did need to draw at least some of the power necessary for regeneration from the evil in the hearts of their followers — reinforcing the authors’ philosophic point that evil lives on in the world because ultimately we allow it to.

Voldemort relies at first on weak-willed people like Quirrill and Peter Pettigrew — and later, he openly enlists other evil allies like Lucius Malfoy. But ultimately it’s the fear, prejudice, and lack of conviction on the part of the entire wizarding community that allows Voldemort to rise again.

Meanwhile, Sauron’s return to power, initially in the forests of Dol Guldur (part of Mirkwood Forest), is directly aided by the Nazgul, especially the Witch-King of Angmar — nine weak-willed former humans who were seduced and destroyed by the Rings of Power. Subsequently, infighting on the part of  the White Council and Saruman (who hoped to gain the One Ring for himself) allowed Sauron’s hatred and evil to grow unchecked.

As for the White Witch, in Prince Caspian, she is about to be brought back to life even after Aslan killed her in a previous book through black magic on the part of her evil followers, a hag and a werewolf, and also the weak-willed dwarf Nikabrik.

Incidentally, did the destruction of the One Ring in The Return of the King finally ultimately destroy Sauron, and did Harry’s defeat of Voldemort in Deathly Hallows kill the wizard?

In both cases, the answer is probably not.

In The Return of the King, Gandalf says:

If [the Ring] is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.

As for Voldemort, J.K. Rowling reportedly said in a podcast that, post-Deathly Hallows, he would be similarly diminished, living on in a form like the vision Harry has of the piece of Voldemort’s soul inside himself: a flayed naked child, whimpering and abandoned under a bench. (Truthfully, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I thought a lot of Deathly Hallows was a stretch.)

As for the White Witch, some say she reappears in The Silver Chair, reincarnated as The Lady of the Green Kettle (Glimfeather the Owl says she’s “of the same crew”), but after that, she’s never heard from again.

But is she gone forever? You know the answer to that: absolutely not.

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Death: the undiscovered country. Why is it undiscovered? Because once you cross over into the Great Beyond, there’s no going back. As a result, those who are left behind in the world of the living have no way of knowing what’s coming next.

That’s the way it is in real life anyway. Things aren’t quite so straightforward in fantasy fiction, which frequently features characters dying and returning to life.

Sadly, fantasy authors are no more privy to knowledge of life after death than the rest of us, so these forays into the afterlife usually end up just telling us something about the character — a mere emotional truth, not a literal one about the nature of death.

Damn!

Still, let’s see what some of the more interesting and famous of these fantasy resurrections have to tell us, shall we?

Xena Warrior Princess (in “Fallen Angel”)

At the end of the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena and Gabrielle both died — victims of Caesar and the culmination of a prophecy given to Xena by the evil shaman Alti at the very start of the season.

Unlike most fantasy “deaths,” the “Fallen Angel” episode shows us exactly what happens to Xena and Gabrielle after they die: the episode is actually set in the world of heaven and hell. But Xena being Xena, she just can’t help getting involved in the eternal struggle between good and evil. I could write for pages about this wonderful episode, but suffice to say: it was a thrilling, knock-our-socks-off moment when we learn that Xena sacrifices herself, choosing to spend all of eternity in hell, not for Gabrielle (as we might expect), but for her uber-nemesis Callisto. Since Xena “created” Callisto, it makes perfect sense in retrospect.

Of course, Xena died other times over the course of the series — six times total, according to some estimates. And the last time she, um, didn’t come back to life. But it’s best not to think about that, right?

Aslan (in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

In one of the most famous “Christ” metaphors in all of literature, the god-lion Aslan allows himself to be sacrificed by the White Witch in exchange for the life of the traitor Edmund, which belongs to the witch as a result of “deep magic from the dawn of time.”

But surprise! As a result of “deeper magic from before the dawn of time,” which says that death is reversed when someone willingly sacrifices himself for another, Aslan comes back the next morning — which is really good, because otherwise the witch was going to kill them all anyway!

I know this story has profound meaning for Christians, which I respect, but as a non-Christian, I gotta say: this storyline has always struck me as a bit of clunky metaphor and a colossal plot-cheat. Wouldn’t it have been better if the Pevensie kids had been more active players in their own story?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in “The Gift”)

In the sixth season musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy famously sings, “Hey, I’ve died twice.” But her most significant “death” may have been in the 5th season episode “The Gift,” when Buffy sacrifices her life to save her “new” sister Dawn by diving into (and closing) an inter-dimensional portal created by a god.

Later, Willow and the others perform a spell to “save” her … or do they? In the aforementioned musical episode, we finally learn why Buffy had been so depressed all season long: she was in heaven, finally at peace, and her friends ripped her back out again! Needless to say, the decision by Buffy’s friends to bring her back to life ends up having major ramifications, which — duh! — is exactly the way it should be.

Ged (in The Farthest Shore)

The Wizard Ged has it rough in Ursula le Guin’s The Earthsea Cycle series of books: first, he unleashes a shadow-being into the world that is impossible to “destroy.” And in The Farthest Shore, the third book in the series, he must cross the “wall” between life and death in order to stop an evil wizard who has opened a breach in the wall so that he may live forever.

Ged closes the breach, but it comes at a great cost: he loses his ability to do magic. Ged survives his fantastic (and very effectively written!) foray into the land of the dead, returning to the world of the living, and le Guin gives the character two endings: in one (later developed in subsequent books) he returns home, but in another, he sails off into the ocean, never to be seen again. The latter is a less optimistic, but bolder ending, implying — truthfully — that in any confrontation with Death, human beings ultimately always lose.

Thomas Covenant (in Fatal Revenant)

At the beginning of the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, Thomas Covenant, still in the “real” world, is stabbed in the chest by one of Lord Foul’s minions — but he and Linden Avery are transported into the magical “Land” before he can actually die. When, at the end of the three-book series, the main characters returns to the “real” world, Covenant is, in fact, dead.

Or is he? Linden hears his voice in the first book of the next series, The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and eventually encounters a being who looks very much like him — although looks can sometimes be deceiving. Has Thomas Covenant really come back to life? Not yet, but he does later in the second book, once again by command of the all-powerful Earthblood.

In fantasy literature, humans never seem to learn some lessons, namely, that we should leave the damn dead alone! Oh, and drinking the all-powerful Earthblood is generally a bad idea too.

Frodo (in The Two Towers and The Return of the King)

Okay, so Frodo isn’t really killed by Shelob’s poison in his trek into Mordor over the Ephel Dúath mountains — he’s merely paralyzed by her venom so she can keep him “fresh.” But Sam, of course, thinks Frodo is dead and carries The One Ring on without him, and I’m including the encounter here because it serves as a example of the function that resurrection often serves in fantasy fiction: that of metaphorical rebirth. When Frodo and Sam both emerge from this encounter, they are different people, having learned important truths about themselves and even more determined to continue forward.

Interesting fact: The Two Towers includes material from Shelob’s POV, and these passages make it very clear that the giant spider is trying to “kill” Frodo with her bite, not just “paralyze” him. It’s later we learn (when Sam overhears the guards) that the venom is not fatal. A cheat on Tolkien’s part?

Harry Potter (in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

Does Harry “die” at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or is he merely killed, but before he “dies” is given the opportunity, by magic, to decide whether to live or die? Then again, it’s been established that Harry can’t kill Voldemort without dying himself, so it’s pretty clear that Harry has to be truly “dead” in at least some respect.

Speaking of plot cheats … I’m not trying to get into any arguments here, and I’ll grant that J.K. Rowling did, if you squint, just barely make her whole epic saga hang together in the end.

But Voldemorte accidentally made Harry a horcrux when he was a child and now can’t kill him, because he somehow also incorporated Lily’s protective charm into him? And brilliant mind and fantastic magic-user that he is, he didn’t figure any of this out (but Dumbledore did)?

Okay, that’s not strained at all. I do, however, buy the bit at the very end of Deathly Hallows, with the Elder Wand — that Harry might figure out who the wand’s true owner is and that Voldermort, in his supreme arrogance and over-confidence, would refuse to believe it, effectively condemning himself to death.

Which brings up another fantasy “resurrection”: that of Voldemort himself. He too had died previously and come back to life. In fact, plenty of fantasy villains — Voldemort, Lord Foul, Sauron — have “died” (or been vanquished) and somehow eventually reformed themselves and returned to “life.” Evil is never really “dead,” right?

But, alas, those resurrections will have to be the subject of another article!

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Q: I confess: I’m confused by the Narnian world. It’s not a planet. So what is it exactly? – Alan, Detroit, MI

The Oracle Speaks:

The truth is, author C.S. Lewis probably didn’t have a comprehensive design for Narnia when he wrote The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — the world just sort of evolved as he wrote all seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The end is result is a world that violates most of the known laws of the universe. Created solely by Aslan’s magic, Narnia is a flat geocentric world with an impenetrable dome over it and a flaming disk of a sun the rises and falls around it. This “sun” is inhabited by great white birds and is home to “fire-flowers” and “fire-berries.”

The stars? Actual beings performing a mystical dance upon the sky — a dance which predicts the future.

Oh, and Narnia only existed for a grand total of 2555 years.

On the other hand, Charn, the only “world” other than Earth that the books explore (in The Magician’s Nephew), appears to be different from Narnia: an actual planet, with an actual sun (a “red giant,” signifying that Charm is an older world compared to Earth, which is a “younger world”) with some kind of accompanying celestial body — a planet, moon, or blue dwarf star.

Confusing? Yes. But this is all part of the books’ charm.

Q: If Hoth is the “ice planet,” what do tauntauns eat? I’m assuming tauntauns are native, because they seem to attract wampas, and if the wampas didn’t have tauntauns to eat, what do they live on? And contrary to what you might think from this question, I’m actually not at all annoying to be around! — Mike, Calgary, Canada

The Oracle Speaks:

In fact, both species are native to Hoth, and yes, the meat-eating wampa feed on the tauntauns.

What do the tauntauns eat? According to several sources in the Star Wars “expanded universe” (official books and games and the like), tauntauns feed in underground lichen caves.

And I don’t think you’re annoying at all. Hey, the All-Knowing, Fantasy-Question-Answering Oracle lives for this s**t!

Q: Who would win in a fight: Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie or Samantha from Bewitched? — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada

The Oracle Speaks:

Both seem to be virtually omnipotent — each is limited only by her ability to physically nod or twitch her nose, respectively. But Samantha can literally stop time — something Jeannie never accomplished.

On the other hand, for really big spells, Samantha needs to come up with and recite a silly rhyme, while Jeannie needs merely to visualize something (apparently) and it comes true.

For that reason, I’m giving it to Jeannie.

At my suggestion, our friends over at FactPile.com took on the Jeannie Vs. Samantha debate.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

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I’m long past believing you can tell anything about a movie from its trailer. Or am I? The just-released trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader looks pretty damn impressive: very reminiscent of the book, but distinctive and different enough to be its own thing and justify a feature film.

The movie will be released December 10th.

Like you, we’ve gotten caught up in the Olympic hullabaloo over the last two weeks. There’s something about international cooperation and elite athletes and musical montages and Bob Costas’ voice that just fills us with unusual glee.

But as much as we like those things, we can’t help but think they might be improved upon with a little help from the fantasy world. Here are some sports we here at TheTorchOnline.com would really like to see in the 2014 Winter Games:

Panserbjørne Polo — Regular old horse and pony polo doesn’t have a place in the Olympics because, frankly, it’s too elitist and boring for the average citizen of the world. But what about polo carried out in the snowy mountains on the back of an armor-covered bear? Now, that’s exciting! Especially if the player’s dæmons are running interference! We know that, strictly speaking, panserbjørnes aren’t supposed to let humans ride them, but for a chance at international glory (and a shot at landing on the cover of a Wheaties box), we’re pretty sure plenty of bears would participate.

Tesseract Track Speed Skating — If you’ve seen one speed skating race, you’ve seen them all. Oh, sure, the sport tries to keep things fresh by mixing up the distances, but after about three races, we’re begging for a pile up. To add a little adventure to speed skating, we think it should take place in more than one physical plane. After a few laps around the ice, skaters would be forced to wrinkle to another dimension. And then another. And then back to their original track. Keep your balance and wits about you in that kind of race and you deserve to win a medal.

Flux Capacitor Bobsled — Quite similar to the Tesseract Track, but in this sport, teams would strap a flux capacitor to their sleds and be forced to hit 88 miles per hour before the track runs out. Teams will finish in the next Olympics. Not only does it add an element of surprise to the competition (teams won’t be able to study the second half of the track in the future!), it also keeps viewers on the edges of their seat for another four years. It also doubles the potential television coverage. Races are finishing up from the last Olympics, and races are taking off in the current Olympics.

Middle-earth Curling — Did you know that traditional curling stones are made from a specific kind of ailsite that can only be found on Ailsa Craig, off the coast of Scotland? Experts are pretty sure there’s only enough ailsite for about 20 more years of curling. It doesn’t matter much, though, because it’s not a very exciting game. What if, instead of securing ailsite from the Highlands, curling stones were forged in the fire of Mount Doom? With, say, one stone to rule them all, one stone to find them, one stone to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. We’d like that, wouldn’t we Precious? Tricksy little sweepsers, aren’t they? Yes, yes, Precious.

Turkish Delight Cook-off — The standard for Turkish Delight belongs to the White Witch of Narnia, of course. But this blasted cold weather makes us want more, more, more! Every four years, the best chefs in the country should come together and have a bake off to see who can create the most magical version of the dessert. It becomes infinitely more interesting if Tilda Swinton judges the competition on live TV. She would make Gordon Ramsey look like a puppy.

Wonkathon — Our favorite event of the Winter Olympics is the biathlon because it reminds us of Nickelodeon’s Double Dare obstacle course from when we were kids — only a little more dangerous on account of the guns. We think an actual obstacle course would be a good add to the Winter Games, especially if it was designed by Willy Wonka. Chocolate rivers, trippy boat rides, experimental TV equipment, magical animals, Oompa-Loompas: any athlete would be lucky to make it through alive! In addition to the medals, winners of the Wonkathon would receive a lifetime supply of everlasting gobstoppers. Though, if they really are everlasting, you’d probably only need the one.

Lightsaber Skating — Figure skating is a classic favorite. We love it, we really do. But we think we could amp the entertainment value (and athletic prowess) if we turned down the lights and required each skater to compete with lightsaber. The whizzing and twirling and jumping and tossing would be even more artistic (and awesomely dangerous) with the added equipment. Plus, the sport suddenly becomes marketable. What child would leave the arena without a lightsaber of his or her own from the souvenir stand? What adult, for that matter?

Quidditch Tournament — We’ve got nothing to add to J.K. Rowling’s magical competition. We’d just like to see it in the Olympics is all.

Now, be honest — would you rather watch the IOC’s version of the Olympics or our version of The Olympics?

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Tell me something new — anything! — about David Boreanaz! Needless to say, I’m a fan. — Molly, Vancouver, BC, Canada

A: How about what he thinks, looking back now, at all the Buffy and Angel madness?

“When Buffy came out — it debuted in 97 — I remember distinctly being at a party of all the Fox executives, and feeling this energy of ‘I hope this works!’” David tells the Oracle.

Regarding the phenomenon it would soon become, “I have more of a sense now than when I was in it,” he says. “When you’re in it, everything is going on so fast. When it popped to success the way it did, it was because of the hard work and the story. But Joss [Whedon] put that into place and we just executed it.”

When did he know Buffy had become a genuine phenomenon? “I think it was episode that I got swallowed up by a statue and Buffy had to throw the sword and kill me, and I got sucked into this evil monster’s mouth. And we went to New York and did a signing at the Disney store. Four or five blocks had to be shut down, there was a riot outside — it was madness. The cops were trying to get us out of the building, but there were people on top of cars. It was a mess.”

What does he think was the secret to the show’s success? “Joss took characters, [especially] a female character that he made so strong and so likable, and put them through these archetypes or metaphors — whatever you want to call them. But each character had that drive.”

With the show’s enormous impact, the Oracle was very curious to know if David was ever afraid of being type-cast by the part.

“I never thought about it — maybe that’s the equation,” he says. “Obviously, people bring it up, but to me, it was never really an issue, because I believe in myself and my talent. You just kinda go forward and work on projects and see where that takes you.”

Was he offered similar roles, post- Angel? “No. I don’t think I was ever offered [another] vampire role. For me, it was a lot of comic book stuff. I was going to be in Resident Evil, but I couldn’t do it because the production didn’t work you. Associated with a genre that’s a little bit darker and little more fast-paced? Yeah, but I never quite got the [fear of being type-cast].”

Q: I finally had Turkish Delight. I wasn’t delighted. Thoughts? — Larry, Lakewood, CO

A: It’s a British thing. Ever had blood pudding — for breakfast no less?

Still, much depends on the specific nature of the Turkish Delight you tried. The confection, which really did originate in Turkey (and is called lokum there), is a soft, pink jelly-like confection sweetened with sugar or honey, and dusted with powdered sugar or copra (to prevent sticking). Often nuts are added.

Lewis reportedly liked it — and it, therefore, makes sense that it would be Edmund’s downfall in dealing with the White Witch.

The version you tried may not have been sweet enough for your taste-buds. If so, the Oracle suggests the sweeter Americanized version: Aplets and Cotlets, made in Washington State (although rarely referred to as “Turkish Delight”).

And keep in mind that you’ve no doubt long enjoyed a candy that was probably based on Turkish Delight: the jelly bean.

Q: So the new web series directed by Ted Raimi. What’s the deal with that? Did he write it? – John, Fort Lauderdale, FL

A: “I wrote and created the series based on a short story I wrote a few years ago,” says Suzanne Keilly, Ted’s collaborator on Playing Dead (and the star), which is about an aspiring actress recruited to play Death.

“Ted and I produced it, and Ted directed it,” she says. “We collaborated after the project was written. Once it was and he agreed to direct we talked about my script, the tone of it, who to cast, the pacing, that kind of stuff. He gave me notes on the script, which I mostly ignored to his dismay — although he snuck in some changes on the day of shooting when it was harder for me to disagree much to the better-ment of the series. The look of the show is all Ted. He really took my story and dialogue and added his own very cool vision to it.”

Incidentally, the musc is by Curtis RX of Creature Feature. Here’s the latest episode:

Watch Playing Dead.

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• Will there be a Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 2? Joss Whedon says yes, but if so, he better get on it quick, or Neil Patrick Harris says he won’t be able to fit it in for another year.

• What the hell ever happened to that Dragon Age Origins expansion pack, Return to Ostagar, that was supposed to be out earlier this month? Still not released. They didn’t take into account “changes across all the game’s platforms,” which as good an excuse as any, but only the xBox version was scheduled for release in January anyway.

• The dailies for the pilot of the would-be HBO series A Game of Thrones (based on George R. R. Martin’s amazing books) supposedly look fantastic, and the show will almost certainly be greenlit. But this quote from HBO Programming Chief Michael Lombardo is worrisome to me and indicates a deep-seated misunderstanding of fantasy: “The fantasy is so incidental, it has a very adult tone,” Lombardo said. “You forget it’s fantasy while you’re watching it, and that’s what I love about it.”

• It’s unusual for the star of a franchise to admit, mid-franchise, that one of the movies didn’t really work, but, refreshingly, that seems to be what Narnia’s Ben Barnes is saying about Prince Caspian (and I could. not. agree. more.): “There’s more joy and fun in [The Voyage of the Dawn Treader],” he says. “It’s a better story than Prince Caspian, which maybe took itself a bit too seriously.”

• Speaking of Narnia, lampposts from the movies have been recycled, and are now actually in use in a development in downtown Los Angeles. Alas, it doesn’t look to me like they’re using the lamppost.

• The latest rumor: Tobey Maguire as Bilbo. Wait, wasn’t this one already shot down? Sure enough, everyone who knows anything denies it. But I confess, I’m now thoroughly confused (and starting to really not care).

• In anticipation of the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at  Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, they’re raising their prices! Meanwhile, they’re also hiring. Wanna be a wizard? Okay, so the auditions for actors are already over, but they are hiring cashiers and greeters. Here are the latest pictures from the park.

• What’s more cynical than grinding a tired superhero franchise into the ground? Stopping mid-series and immediately “rebooting” it with another origin story, low budget-style: “The plan for the movie is to be in the $80 million range and feature a cast of relative unknowns. … And the story will be pared down to center on a high school kid who is dealing with the knowledge that his uncle died even though the teen had the power to stop it.” Still, it’s being directed by the guy who did (500) Days of Summer, which was a wonderful movie.

• Inspired by Avatar, George Lucas wants make Star Wars 3-D. How about he use that inspiration to make something that doesn’t suck? CollegeHumor.com has a pretty funny response (and wow, they got that up quick!):

• Mel Gibson will definitely not be in the Mad Max reboot. I know this shouldn’t surprise me (given “the incident”), but it kinda does.

• The New Yorker interviews Neil Gaiman.

• Tim Burton may tell the story of Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty), which sounds good on paper, but what is this but a slightly different take on Wicked?

• How very, very depressing. Publishers, specifically Bloomsbury are putting pictures of white girls on books about black characters.

• Follow us on Twitter.

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Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: I watched the first couple of episodes of Being Human, and liked it okay, but it bugged me that the girl had to be so passive and emotional. I know that’s what you’d expect of a ghost, so why didn’t they break the stereotype and make her the werewolf? What do you think? — Linda, Whidbey Island, WA

A: The Oracle definitely shares your feelings that the show didn’t break any gender stereotypes, at least in the first few episodes. But I was pleased to see that change in the third episode, where she becomes much more active.

The Oracle was curious what the actress who plays Annie, Lenora Crichlow, thought, so I decided to ask her.

“I think Annie’s a fantastic role model for women,” she tells TheTorchOnline.com. “I get annoyed with this idea that female traits are weak, to be emotional and vulnerable [is to be a bad thing]. Annie’s vulnerability, her compassion, her empathy, her wanting to do things for people, all become what save her really. Later on in the series, her empathy and her intuition as a woman become integrated into her supernatural self.”

According to Crichlow, the first season is “a journey of empowerment [for Annie, but] it’s lovely that she is vulnerable at the beginning, because I think a lot of women are. We lose ourselves in relationships, we sacrifice our careers, and all that. Not just women, obviously, but it a common thing for women. But she can’t stay the same, if Annie wants to move on, if she wants to be seen. I’ve been through that. I know what’s expected of me, but I can turn it up a notch and reach my potential. Annie does a similar thing.”

Q: Is it true that the Laurell K. Hamilton series of novels, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, is being made into a movie or TV show? — Kethlyn

A: The Oracle can reveal that in March, IFC and Lion’s Gate announced that they had optioned the series of novels, which is now also a series of graphic novels, with plans to turn them into a TV movie. At the time, they said that filming would begin this summer for a 2010 air-date.

But when contacted by the Oracle, the producers said there was nothing further to report (something the Oracle interprets to mean that filming is not beginning this summer). Hamilton’s agent suggests you check the author’s site for future updates.

Still, as long as the current vampire hysteria lasts, it’s a pretty good bet this project will get made eventually.

Q: You always hear about how C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends who each week read to each other from their drafts of Narnia and Lord of the Rings. It’s a great story, but is it true? — TheMan, Chicago, IL

A: The Oracle can reveal that, in fact, it is. The two were members of The Inklings, the famous Oxford University discussion group that met weekly (and sometimes also daily, at the local pub) to discuss their own and others’ books, and to encourage two things: strong narrative, or plot, and the genre of fantasy. For a time, Tolkien and Lewis may even have been each other’s closest friends, and Tolkien definitely contributed to Lewis’ move from atheism to Christianity; Lewis eventually became one of the most famous Christian theologians of all time.

But Tolkien and Lewis did have occasional fallings-out, sometimes serious ones, for all the ordinary reasons: disagreements over religion (Tolkien was annoyed by Lewis’ embrace of the Anglican Church, which Tolkien detested and considered anti-Catholic), and women (Tolkien felt that Lewis’ relationship with Joy Davidman, the subject of the movie Shadowlands, intruded on their friendship).

But each absolutely shared and no doubt received important feedback from the other on their most famous works, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. (Interestingly, Tolkien didn’t think much of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, arguing that the overt religious message over-powered the story.)

Q: A few weeks back, in a special about J.K. Rowling, they said she shortened her name to initials per the editor’s request so boys wouldn’t be put off by a female author. I can think of several examples of women fantasy authors going by initials or male sounding nicknames, but does it still happen as much these days? How prevalent is it in fantasy and sci-fi? — Angela, Mooresville, NC  USA

A: The Oracle is sure he doesn’t have to point out that there was a time when female authors almost had to pick a male-sounded pseudonym just to be taken seriously by the world at large. George Eliot anyone?

“Very few writers still do this, and I don’t see much advantage to doing it,” says literary agent Jennifer DeChiara of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. “When I see it on a manuscript, I think, ‘pretentious,’ and I’m sure most editors think the same thing. It also gets in the way of book promotion — how can you send an author around or talk about them if you’re hiding who they really are?”

Still, although this is far less common than it used to be, it’s probably more common in genres that have large male readerships, like fantasy and sci-fi. For example, fantasy author Margaret Ogden chose the pen name “Robin Hobb,” precisely because it’s gender-neutral. Likewise, Katherine Alice Applegate, the author of the Animorphs, Everworld, and Remnants children’s fantasy book series, chose to go by “K.A. Applegate.”

Another famous example is Dorothy Catherine, or “D.C.” Fontana, Gene Roddenberry’s former secretary who became a television writer for many classic science fiction shows, including three Star Trek series, The Six Million Dollar Men, Land of the Lost, He-Man, and Logan’s Run (she also wrote under several completely “male” pen-names).

But the Oracle believes such pen names will now mostly be a thing of the past, for two distinct reasons: (1) anti-female prejudice even in genre circles is less now, in part because brave, unapologetic pioneers like Ursula K. Le Guin proved that brilliant genre writing knows no gender and that such pseudonyms were not necessary, and (2) the female readership of science fiction and fantasy, always much bigger than most publishers knew, is now so large that a female name might not only not be a hindrance, it might even be an asset.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Ah, the “magic portal” fantasy sub-genre! Who doesn’t love it?

I’m talking, of course, about those stories that begin in the “real” world, but in which the character or characters are somehow transported to a magic one.

How? Usually through some kind of magical “gate” or portal. Let’s count down some of the all-time best, shall we?

8. The Magical Medallion in Magic Kingdom for Sale — SOLD!

Terry Brooks is at his best when he has no pretensions — when he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and when he lets the humor flow. The best example of this may be the Magic Kingdom of Landover novels, in which a depressed Chicago lawyer sees an ad for a “magic kingdom” for sale for a million dollars. Desperate for a clean change, he buys it, and is given a magical medallion that leads him through swirling mists to an actual magic kingdom. Naturally, what’s waiting for him there is not quite as simple as it sounds!

7. The Portal into John Malkovich’s Mind in Being John Malkovich

Like much of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s work, some of this movie is self-indulgent and distracting. But you gotta love the movie’s brilliant central premise: a door that leads people into the head of actor John Malkovich for 15-minute increments!

6. The Map of the Universe in Time Bandits

In my mind, Terry Gilliam is an undisputed visual genius. But I’m not sure he gets enough credit for some of the wonderful central “gimmicks” in his films, such as the map of the universe in his 1982 film, Time Bandits, which he co-wrote. A group of God’s workers were given a map of the “holes” in the space-time continuum. But rather than use the map to repair the holes as they’ve been ordered, they use it to dart in and out of time, stealing some of history’s greatest treasures. Along the way, they pick up Kevin, our eleven year-old hero — and they’re also being watched by Evil, who just might make use the map to break out of his Fortress of Ultimate Darkness.

Great visuals, great movie, great magical portals!

5. The Gates to Disneyland

Okay, sure, Disneyland (and Disneyworld) has become the attraction that everyone loves to hate, or at least grouse about. Yeah, the lines can be too long, and the food is too expensive. But more than 50 years after its founding, I think it’s difficult to truly appreciate what Walt Disney did with his famous theme parks. He made fantasy come to life! Not on a movie screen or in the pages of a book, but for real! Sure, there had been amusement parks before, but nothing like this. And, frankly, to this day, no one has done it better.

A real-life magical portal? You bet!

4. The Magic Well in Enchanted

Speaking of Disney, there’s a movie about an animated Disney princess who gets pushed through a magical well into the “real” world of New York City — and it stars Amy Adams and Susan Sarandon? Oh, please, I am so there!

3. The Dark Tower

What the hell is the Dark Tower? Not even those who’ve read Stephen King’s trippy, but breathtaking seven-book Dark Tower series can say exactly, but it seems to be some kind of a nexus where all universes coincide. But the tower is just one of a number of magic portals that enliven this classic, mind-bender of a series.

2. The Twister in The Wizard of Oz, the Rabbit Hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the Lookingglass in Through the Lookingglass, and What Alice Found There.

Some magical gates are literally doors or door-like, but other are more obscure, like the twister in The Wizard of Oz or the rabbit hole and the lookingglass that take Alice to Wonderland. And just as vaguely defined as the doors themselves are the reasons why they exist and why they go where they go. These children’s stories never really say — which is totally in keeping with their dream-like natures, and the fact that they speak the wonderful language of archetypes and imagination, not literal reality.

1. The Wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia

Was there any doubt? Yeah, this is the best magical portal of all-time, hands-down.

It’s partly the wardrobe’s wonderful synchronicity — how (assuming we read the books in their original order) we first encounter the wardrobe in the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but then eventually learn in The Magician’s Nephew how it came to be: Digory had it made from the wood of the tree that grew from the magical apple he brought back from Narnia to save his mother’s life. Later, Digory had it moved to his house in the country, where he became “the old Professor” from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The wardrobe works so well as a magical portal partly because of its quaint, old-fashioned, and British-seeming nature, which is perfectly in keeping with the tone of the books.

But mostly the wardrobe is so wonderful because it’s activated millions of imaginations; since the day Wardrobe was first published, it’s had generations of kids (and even some adults, including this one) forever peeking into the backs of closets and wardrobes … just in case.

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Sure, Frodo’s great. Those Pevensie kids are adorable. Harry Potter’s the Arthur Pendragon of our time.

But really, how interesting are any of those characters on their own?  Where would they be if it weren’t for those evildoers out there to constantly be the thorn in their sides? When one looks at what turns a good fantasy adventure into a great one, the answer is often its antagonist, be it evil witch, sexy Goblin King, or oddly well-preserved 3,000-year-old mummy.

What makes a great fantasy villain? They have to be menacing and powerful, of course, to be a true obstacle for our hero — but that can get pretty one-note after a while. Often a fantastic villain has an air of sexual allure, something to show us that wickedness is seductive.

But let’s face it: the most important ingredient of all might be likability; we may not want to be them, but we definitely have to want to watch them.

It’s not easy to find great villains. Sure, Sauron was uber-evil, but was it really that interesting to watch a fiery eye, um, look at things really hard? David Bowie was definitely a memorable presence in The Labyrinth, but were you ever actually worried about Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah?

Listed here are eight of the most engrossing fantasy villains seen on screens large and small.

Callisto - Xena: The Warrior Princess was one of the most influential and well-loved fantasy shows of all time, but even die-hard Xenites will admit its first season was a bit … shaky while the show found its voice. All that instability ended with the introduction of its first major villain, the mega-hot psycho babe Callisto. She was Xena’s physical equal, she could shriek like a banshee, and she looked damn good in chain mail. What’s more, she began her descent into evil due to losing her family when Xena’s army killed them, thus as evil as she was, well, it was always kind of Xena’s fault. You can’t ask for a better origin story than that.

Faith - While we’re on the topic of mega-hot psycho babes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was doing fine being the Chosen One — emphasis on one – until another Slayer came to town. Sultry, slutty, and just as buff as Buffy, she owned most of Season 3 and stole every scene she was in, particular when she fully embraced her dark side and started killing people. Her path to redemption took a bunch of seasons and two series (she guest starred on the spin-off Angel several times), and though she ended up good in the end, she was great when she was bad.

Darkness - It takes a lot to have any kind of charm when you’re seven feet tall, fire engine red, and the proud owner of two ginormous ebony horns, but somehow Tim Curry managed to endow his character Darkness in Legend with an astounding suavity, which complimented his pure, vicious evil. Of course, if there’s one thing Tim Curry does well, it’s charm the hell out of us while playing purely evil characters (as evidenced by his immortal turn in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) He is the very image of the Christian devil, and his mere presence is enough to send more than few shivers down your back, and yet when he gently told Mia Sara’s Lili that he simply wanted to sit and talk with her, you couldn’t help but be intrigued. Too bad those horns are such deal-breakers.

The White Witch - Come on, admit it: you knew she was evil from the moment you saw her, but weren’t you a little jealous of Edmund Pevensie when he got cruised and picked up by the cougar witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Didn’t you want to be the one snuggling with her under that blanket, eating Turkish Delight out of her icy, delicate fingers? As played by Tilda Swinton, Narnia’s reigning beeyotch was that special kind of evil that’s also slightly delicious. Sexy one minute and harsh the next, beautiful from one angle and androgynous from another, you just couldn’t take your eyes off her.

Dracula - This is an obvious choice, sure, but how can you not include the guy who made vampires sexy long before Lestat was a glimmer in Anne Rice’s eye? Though Bela Lugosi did an admirable job, it was Gary Oldman’s portrayal in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula that secured the Transylvanian Wonder as one of the most magnetic screen villains of all time. (Sorry, Gerard Butler in Dracula 2000. I know you tried your best.) When evil looks as good as Drac does in that gray suit and Jim Morrison sunglasses, you can see why Winona Ryder’s Mina Harker can’t keep help but steal his heart. Of course, Winona Ryder can’t help but steal a lot of things.  BURN! (Is that joke still relevant?)

Voldemort - The first time we saw him, he was a face on the back of some dude’s head. The second time, he was as a … ghost? echo? whatever, just go with it … of his effeminate teenage self. But when he burst out of a cauldron, fully reformed and snakalicious, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it was clear a bombastic new villain was in town, and he had some serious staying power. Plus he has no nose. It’s freaky.

The Wicked Witch of the West - Long before she was re-imagined by Gregory Maguire as the sympathetic Elphaba in Wicked, The Wicked Witch of the West struck terror into all of our hearts as portrayed by Margaret Hamilton in the classic Wizard of Oz. She originated almost all of the cliches we have for movie witches nowadays, and her constant, insane cackling gave many a tot nightmares for years. When she said, “I’ll get you, my pretty,” we knew she wasn’t kidding around, and that scene when Aunty Em’s image in the crystal ball turns into the snarling witch’s face has been putting money into therapist’s wallets for the better part of a century.

Darth Vader - Is it any surprise? I know there are those of you who insist Star Wars isn’t fantasy, but surely you would admit that if there’s a shred of possibility it could fit into the genre, then Darth Vader must top the list of all-time greatest fantasy villains. From his first appearance in Star Wars: A New Hope, Darth Vader was like a figure pulled right from our sub-conscious, that dark part of us that was devoid of humanity and existed solely for evil. But then as the series went on, we realized there was so much more to the guy in the walking coffin, and by series’ end, we shed a tear at his death. Now that is a great villain.

The list goes on and on. Here are a few villains that didn’t quite make the cut:

Dark Willow - Speaking of the dark side, fans of Buffy’s Willow got two opportunities to the see the normally squeaky-clean good witch go postal: the first in the third season as a vampire from an alternate reality, and the other when her girlfriend Tara was killed three years later. Willow, distraught with grief, allowed herself to be overcome by dark magic, and for three awesome episodes, we saw pure rage in human form. Fortunately for residents of Sunnydale, she wasn’t bad quite long enough to make the list.

Prince Humperdinck - Sexy? No. Pure evil? No, just kind of nasty. But Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride had a comic timing and flamboyant bitchiness that made him a pleasure to watch. However, he was often upstaged by Christoper Guest as the Six-Fingered Man, so it’s understandable he didn’t make the top 8. But to exclude Wallace Shawn’s diminunitve Vizzini? Inconceivable!

Dick Cheney - In an interesting departure from their usual news-only programming, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all collaborated to air an ongoing pulp serial which ran from 2000 to 2008, featuring a dastardly villain named Dick Cheney, loosely based on Gargamel from The Smurfs. Shades of 1984 and A Brave New World could be found in this colorful series about a hunch-backed old man who attempted to bring about a totalitarian dystopia, though the show lost some credibility after it had its main character “accidentally” shoot a man in the face and suffer zero legal consequences. Fortunately for fantasy fans everywhere, the news networks wised up and stopped airing this disturbing show in January of ‘09.