adormitul Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 So science fiction is still well fantasy but it makes you feel its more real that it can exist and has a logical explanation as long as you do not dig to deep. But fantasy does not do that is basically magic exists so the law the anything do not apply. In here the force is magic so yeah do any of you think like me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azudelphi Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars is "space fantasy" which falls under the broader banner of science fiction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-darko Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 So science fiction is still well fantasy but it makes you feel its more real that it can exist and has a logical explanation as long as you do not dig to deep. But fantasy does not do that is basically magic exists so the law the anything do not apply. In here the force is magic so yeah do any of you think like me? Star Wars never were nor will be Science Fiction. “Science Fiction is something that could happen – but usually you wouldn’t want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn’t happen, though often you only wish that it could.” – Arthur C Clarke. Now, this is entirely a point of view matter, - for some. But on the matter I recommend to read the following article: "Why Star Wars is not science fiction, and related matters…" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codedrago Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars is fantasy with a Sc-fi aestetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GythralSWTOR Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Clarke's third law Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Hence it seems like fantasy Also the lines between SciFi and Fantasy are often deliberately blurred (C J Cherryh (Gate of Ivrel etc.), Terry Brooks) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thoronmir Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) You mean the thing many of us have known since the late 70s? Yeah, Star Wars is Space Fantasy. It never was Science Fiction. Edited August 5, 2016 by Thoronmir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars never were nor will be Science Fiction. “Science Fiction is something that could happen – but usually you wouldn’t want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn’t happen, though often you only wish that it could.” – Arthur C Clarke. Now, this is entirely a point of view matter, - for some. But on the matter I recommend to read the following article: "Why Star Wars is not science fiction, and related matters…" Regardless of what HE defines it as, Star Wars is 100% Science Fiction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyaniteD Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) Star Wars is fantasy with a Sc-fi aestetic. Spot-on. (Although someone once argued with me that Star Wars is science fiction in regard to political and social sciences. ) Edited August 5, 2016 by KyaniteD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaricSevGirl Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars is "space fantasy" which falls under the broader banner of science fiction. Exactly, was just going to say that. Star Wars is not science fiction. It is a space fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlavivsAetivs Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 It falls under the broad category of "Space Opera" along with Star Trek, Halo, Mass Effect, etc. Real Sci-Fi can be found in books. ~ Eudoxia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdjeYo Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Indeed Star Wars is a Space Opera, however Space Opera is a subgenre of Science Fiction. I guess the Force, which plays a central role in Star Wars is mostly a fantasy thing. But there's also a lot of futuristic technology and such involved, so it clearly falls in the genre of Science Fiction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsetso Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 i guess the force, which plays a central role in star wars is mostly a fantasy thing. blasphemy. Burn the heretic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YlliyaXor Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 To me fantasy is medieval, usually has orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, there is no technology only magic, it takes place within the confines of one world. SWTOR has spaceships, droids, loads of technology, spans across many planets, from the get go we are told the scope is galactic. In pub Taris you get infected with a disease so your antibodies can be used to create a cure. Most fantasy i know has 0% scifi, SWTOR has 30% or even more fantasy, but it's still very much scifi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psandak Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 It is not just a feeling, it's well documented that Star Wars is Space Fantasy Science fiction is at least loosely based in Science fact. e.g. Star Trek is Science Fiction is that all of the techo-jargon used in the dialogue has some basis in fact. What they say it means in Star Trek may not be what it is in reality but ALL the technical dialogue comes from real science. There is very little techno-jargon in Star Wars. Star Wars was written in the model of ancient mythological and legendary story telling - "Hero's Journey" front and center (Heracles, Perseus, Odysseus, Jason, Beowulf, King Arthur, etc). Star Wars has more in common with LoTR than Star Trek. The only real differentiation is blasters and lightsabers instead of bows and swords. Therefore Star Wars is Space Fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Yeh, George Lucas wanted to create a sort of updated version of a fairy tale. It even starts with "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..." Star Wars never claimed any scientific goals or foundations for what it introduced but rather a rich fantasy with a main thread of good vs evil which is typical for fairy tales. So yeh, I call Star Wars Space Fantasy and not Science Fiction and that's fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YlliyaXor Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Indeed Star Wars is a Space Opera, however Space Opera is a subgenre of Science Fiction. I guess the Force, which plays a central role in Star Wars is mostly a fantasy thing. But there's also a lot of futuristic technology and such involved, so it clearly falls in the genre of Science Fiction. The mystic approach to the force the Jedi have is not the only opinion about it, to the Rakata it's just a form of telekinesis. The Rakata are no longer able to use the force, because they evolved to a point where for some reason they can no longer control it, this doesn't sound like magic to me. The difference between magic and science is usually someone pushing a button, and explaining how it works using complicated and sciency sounding terms (ST with their "technological" food processors, the holoroom and that solid hologram? doctor) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDutchman Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 To me fantasy is medieval, usually has orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, there is no technology only magic, it takes place within the confines of one world. SWTOR has spaceships, droids, loads of technology, spans across many planets, from the get go we are told the scope is galactic. In pub Taris you get infected with a disease so your antibodies can be used to create a cure. Most fantasy i know has 0% scifi, SWTOR has 30% or even more fantasy, but it's still very much scifi. Ever read Terry Brook's Shannara series? Even in the first bunch of books which seem to fall pretty firmly in the realm of medieval fantasy they reference old sciences and later books deliberately blurs the line between LOTR fantasy and scifi, to the point where the struggle between science and magic is an important part of the books. As for Star Wars, this really depends on your definition of fantasy and sci-fi, and whether they are actually entirely separate classifications or just two sides of the same coin. Personally I tend to hold the latter opinion. "Classic" sci-fi typically has fantastical elements to them (even if not magic, eg. Star Wars, Star "Make up a new particle" Trek) and fantasy, especially modern fantasy, often has "scientific" backgrounds to them (eg. Shannara, Inheritance, Kingkiller Chronicles). Simply put, distinguishing between the two is an exercise in futility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josephxp Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars is sci-fi, people say the force is magic but thanks to the prequils we know that the ability to use the force can come from mediclorians, microscopic bacteria so it is possible humans in the future could colonize a world and some few could have a bacteria inhabit them giving them similar abilities of what we see in the force. So ya, its sci-fi not fantasy anything like this could happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACharlieV Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) Star Wars is sci-fi, people say the force is magic but thanks to the prequils we know that the ability to use the force can come from mediclorians, microscopic bacteria so it is possible humans in the future could colonize a world and some few could have a bacteria inhabit them giving them similar abilities of what we see in the force. So ya, its sci-fi not fantasy anything like this could happen. And most material after this pretty much ignores this little thing. As they should. But Star Wars as a whole was never a pure scifi nor a pure fantasy. It's a nice blend. Edited August 5, 2016 by MACharlieV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing_Shines Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) Star Trek technobabble is not "scientific". It sounds scientific, because the creators of ST take actual science-related words and rearrange them so laymen think, "that sounds sciency", but it's still all crap. Half the stuff ST supposedly inspired the real world creation of was tech already spectualted about by older works of sci-fi. They pushed the "we use science advisors on our shows schtick" because it made them feel more legitimate and smarter than other sci-fi/fantasy, but often as not those science advisors just filled in the blanks with jargon when the writers needed the next butt-pull of the week to solve a problem before a deadline. And ST has gods, ancient beings pretending to be gods, religions that actually work, outright "magic", telepathy, space elves, space orcs, space zombies, space vampires, medieval worlds, cowboy worlds, nazi worlds, mobster worlds, Roman worlds, heroic destiny, space Lincoln, etc. etc. etc. -all things that could just as easily be labeled fantasy. Arthur C is great and all, but he doesn't get to determine what belongs in what genre just because he happened to write in that genre. Space Opera, science fantasy, sci-fi/fantasy all overlap to some degree. Star Wars tells big sweeping stories against a backdrop of FTL, energy weapons, shields, robot armies, kilometer-long spaceships, artificial moons and the Force. During those stories they usually don't bother to explain the tech, because how something happens isn't always as important as the whys, hows and whos, especially when the hows are all based on made-up science. The SW technical manuals are just as believable as their ST counterparts though, in that they both look sorta reasonable in layout and sound sciency. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter as someone else upthread said. Sci-if/fantasy are flip sides of the same coin and tend to explore the same issues, and use the same memes and tropes. I'd class both SW and ST as variants of Space Opera, subgenre to sci-fi/fantasy. Edited August 5, 2016 by Nothing_Shines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 I thought Star Wars became science fiction, by the official definition, when Lucas explained that the force was due to midichlorians (stop rolling your eyes). That explained away the whole "magical" aspect of the Force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psandak Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) I thought Star Wars became science fiction, by the official definition, when Lucas explained that the force was due to midichlorians (stop rolling your eyes). That explained away the whole "magical" aspect of the Force. The idea of midi-chlorians, microorganisms in the blood, attempts to provide a scientific explanation for the Force; but even midi-chlorians cannot explain how the Force can make bodies disappear or allow beings to become ghosts after death. Star Wars and other space opera, the science is a backdrop for the real story. This doesn't make Star Wars any less science fiction. Science Fantasy While it may feel like a cop-out, the best answer to whether Star Wars is sci-fi or fantasy is that it's a little bit of both. Calling Star Wars "sci-fi" ignores its fantasy elements, such as the Force; but calling Star Wars "fantasy" ignores its interplanetary setting and sci-fi feel. The best label for Star Wars may be "science fantasy," a subgenre that blends elements of sci-fi and the supernatural. There's no need to force Star Wars into a sci-fi or fantasy genre box when its science fiction and fantasy components work together in harmony. (quoted from http://scifi.about.com/od/starwarsglossaryandfaq/a/Star-Wars-Faq-Is-Star-Wars-Sci-Fi-Or-Fantasy.htm) After reading this I agree with the last statement: Star Wars is both Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Edited August 5, 2016 by psandak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YlliyaXor Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Ever read Terry Brook's Shannara series? Even in the first bunch of books which seem to fall pretty firmly in the realm of medieval fantasy they reference old sciences and later books deliberately blurs the line between LOTR fantasy and scifi, to the point where the struggle between science and magic is an important part of the books. As for Star Wars, this really depends on your definition of fantasy and sci-fi, and whether they are actually entirely separate classifications or just two sides of the same coin. Personally I tend to hold the latter opinion. "Classic" sci-fi typically has fantastical elements to them (even if not magic, eg. Star Wars, Star "Make up a new particle" Trek) and fantasy, especially modern fantasy, often has "scientific" backgrounds to them (eg. Shannara, Inheritance, Kingkiller Chronicles). Simply put, distinguishing between the two is an exercise in futility. I only know the tv series didn't know there were books. I agree but i don't think that's a bad thing, the last thing we want are pointless divisions choking creativity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreadtechSavant Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Star Wars is "space fantasy" which falls under the broader banner of science fiction. This. Nothing to add as it sums it up nicely. Star Wars was always more space fantasy than science fiction, of cause you really don't get space fantasy without the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GythralSWTOR Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) I only know the tv series didn't know there were books. I agree but i don't think that's a bad thing, the last thing we want are pointless divisions choking creativity. There are 27(ish) books the earliest of which is from the mid 70s, & there have always been books which blur the lines, even before the genre was well know, Edgar Rice Burroughs - War Lord of Mars from the early 20th Century (1913?) , & more recently EE Doc Smith's Lensmen books from the '60s etc Edited August 5, 2016 by GythralSWTOR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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