3 ms·

Star Wars is not "the sci-fi cultural event of the year". It's more fantasy than sci-fi, it just happens to use space ships and lasers and stuff.

UnoriginalGuy 11y ago
If it involves "space ships, lasers and stuff" then it is, by definition, SciFi. SciFi is very rarely a genre all on its own. To give some examples: - Alien: Horror/SciFi - 2001: A Space Odyssey: Mystery/SciFi - Interstellar: Adventure/SciFi - The Martian: Drama/SciFi - The Force Awakens: Fantasy/SciFi
- cturner 11y ago
  Words are funny things. But the crowd's against you on this. Space and lasers don't make something sci-fi, and Star Wars is a conversation example of Science Fantasy - magic in space. Science fiction builds a universe on the innovation and consequence. Star Wars doesn't work when you think like this. "why doesn't all the air leak out of the hanger into space?", "why can people see energy beams in the sky that are millions of miles away?", "why don't robots shoot straight?", "why can't they write an algorithm to match BB-8's segment of the map in the map database?", "in all the vastness of space, how did Han+Chewey chance upon the Millennium Falcon?". And, the force just doesn't fit. 2001 and The Martian are fine examples of scifi.
  - UnoriginalGuy 11y ago
    > But the crowd's against you on this. [Citation Needed] Also give an example of something which you consider SciFi, because as I've shown most of what people consider the staples in the SciFi genre aren't pure SciFi.
  - gremlinsinc 11y ago
    I agree w/ you on this, I used to argue the other way w/ my aunt when I was 5 lol, but I grew up and realized the difference. Star wars is a Space Fantasy, science fiction while not ALWAYS accurate hinges on at least trying it's best to be 'real' or use as much real science as possible. Star wars on the other hand tends to put the technology and science on a back-burner, and focus more on the story and character arcs. Here's a good stackexchange article asking the same question: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/46481/did-george-lucas-consider-star-wars-to-be-science-fiction http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/46481/did-george-lu... And here's a quote from that: "No. Lucas often used the term Science Fantasy. He never referred to it as only science fiction. Star Wars doesn't hold itself to use science: space craft bank in a vacuum like airplanes do in air, there's the Force (a type of magic or at least metaphysics), .... Star Wars is about epic story telling and not one to get caught up in details such as physics and using the scientific process to solve a problem. This is also why it's felt that JJ Abrams is a great choice for directing Star Wars movies, much more so than Star Trek which spent much effort on not violating laws of physics or at least having a really good technical explanation why something works. Star Wars doesn't attempt to use science to solve problems where as science fiction series such as Star Trek expose science to the audience in an attempt to engage them as to the difficulty of the problem, some possible solutions, and how to conduct experiments to decide upon a solution."
- nilkn 11y ago
  From what I've seen, traditionally Star Trek is considered science fiction and Star Wars is considered science fantasy (or more precisely a space opera, that is, a soap opera that happens to be in space -- Lucas himself refers to it in this way).

UnoriginalGuy 11y ago

If it involves "space ships, lasers and stuff" then it is, by definition, SciFi. SciFi is very rarely a genre all on its own. To give some examples: - Alien: Horror/SciFi - 2001: A Space Odyssey: Mystery/SciFi - Interstellar: Adventure/SciFi - The Martian: Drama/SciFi - The Force Awakens: Fantasy/SciFi

cturner 11y ago
Words are funny things. But the crowd's against you on this. Space and lasers don't make something sci-fi, and Star Wars is a conversation example of Science Fantasy - magic in space. Science fiction builds a universe on the innovation and consequence. Star Wars doesn't work when you think like this. "why doesn't all the air leak out of the hanger into space?", "why can people see energy beams in the sky that are millions of miles away?", "why don't robots shoot straight?", "why can't they write an algorithm to match BB-8's segment of the map in the map database?", "in all the vastness of space, how did Han+Chewey chance upon the Millennium Falcon?". And, the force just doesn't fit. 2001 and The Martian are fine examples of scifi.
- UnoriginalGuy 11y ago
  > But the crowd's against you on this. [Citation Needed] Also give an example of something which you consider SciFi, because as I've shown most of what people consider the staples in the SciFi genre aren't pure SciFi.
- gremlinsinc 11y ago
  I agree w/ you on this, I used to argue the other way w/ my aunt when I was 5 lol, but I grew up and realized the difference. Star wars is a Space Fantasy, science fiction while not ALWAYS accurate hinges on at least trying it's best to be 'real' or use as much real science as possible. Star wars on the other hand tends to put the technology and science on a back-burner, and focus more on the story and character arcs. Here's a good stackexchange article asking the same question: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/46481/did-george-lucas-consider-star-wars-to-be-science-fiction http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/46481/did-george-lu... And here's a quote from that: "No. Lucas often used the term Science Fantasy. He never referred to it as only science fiction. Star Wars doesn't hold itself to use science: space craft bank in a vacuum like airplanes do in air, there's the Force (a type of magic or at least metaphysics), .... Star Wars is about epic story telling and not one to get caught up in details such as physics and using the scientific process to solve a problem. This is also why it's felt that JJ Abrams is a great choice for directing Star Wars movies, much more so than Star Trek which spent much effort on not violating laws of physics or at least having a really good technical explanation why something works. Star Wars doesn't attempt to use science to solve problems where as science fiction series such as Star Trek expose science to the audience in an attempt to engage them as to the difficulty of the problem, some possible solutions, and how to conduct experiments to decide upon a solution."
nilkn 11y ago
From what I've seen, traditionally Star Trek is considered science fiction and Star Wars is considered science fantasy (or more precisely a space opera, that is, a soap opera that happens to be in space -- Lucas himself refers to it in this way).