"Star Wars" - Science Fiction or Fantasy?

"Star Wars" is an epic story and these days with new movies and shows like "The Mandalorian" coming out, a new audience is drawn to the story. But while most people would answer that "Star Wars" is a science fiction story, mainly due to the presence of space ships, I wonder if it isn't more of a fantasy story or maybe a cross of both. The question is what defines science fiction and what defines fantasy? 

Science fiction as the term indicates is a type of fiction that focuses on science or more precisely on science that has not yet proven or doesn't exist. A logical conclusion is therefore that most science fiction is set in a future setting, which is the first indicator that Star Wars might not be science fiction as we all know that it famously started with the text reading: 

A long time ago in galaxy far, far away... 

Another and maybe the most important factor that defines scifi is technology that doesn't exist yet and is subsequently considered futuristic. In this respect, "Star Wars" has to be at least considered to be set in a science fiction world. As mentioned before space ships and interstellar travel are a huge part of "Star Wars", as are laser guns and clone technology (Which at the time the first movie was made, was still years away from the first successful attempt). 

When is comes to identifying the markers of fantasy as a genre it gets more diffuse. While most people will immediately consider that "Lord of the Rings" is an example of this genre they will be hard pressed as to explain why, especially considering the many sub-genres such as urban fantasy to name one. The most obvious marker however is perhaps the existence of the supernatural or better yet magic. 

Almost all fantasy stories have witches or wizards or similar beings who are using either dark or white magic to move objects with their mind and who constantly fight each other. Doesn't that sound familiar? The Force although explained differently and extended in meaning shares a lot of properties with magic, which clearly puts "Star Wars" in proximity to the fantasy genre.  

Although the next point doesn't apply to all fantasy stories a large part of them is set in medieval like societies, like "Game of Thrones" or "Lord of the Rings" for example. Taking a closer look at the society of "Star Wars", we see it draws a lot from the Middle Ages: First of all the titles, as we have queens, princes and knights. In addition the main villain is addressed as "Lord Vader". 

If you take the love story between Padme and Anakin it shares a lot of traits with the concept of medieval courtly love, such as the worshipping of the lady from afar, an initial rejection and the consummation of the secret love. 

As you can see "Star Wars" shares traits with both genres. I guess the most adept description is, that it is a fantasy story in a science fiction setting, since most science fiction traits come from the setting and the fantasy traits concern the characters, as well as the story itself.  

Do you agree with my assessment or not? Leave your opinion in the comment section! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Character Analysis - Hayley Marshall-Kenner (The Originals & The Vampire Diaries)

Since some people have told me, that I always write these about characters that I like I have decided to change that and pick a character I don't like: Hayley Marshall-Kenner. Before getting into the character in details, let's clear something up: While I dislike the character, I find it is very well crafted and Phoebe Tonkin portrays her excellently. She is a stunningly beautiful woman yet manages to believably pull off the tomboy and though girl. She also does justice to the emotional range of Hayley. But let's take a closer look at the character itself.  When we meet Hayley in "The Vampire Diaries" we learn that she has helped Tyler break the sire bond, meaning that although she grew up outside of the werewolf community she has learnt about the supernatural world. Not much is known about the family that adopted her only that when she turned into a wolf her parents kicked her out.  Hayley is what can be called street smart, which makes sense since she spend time...
Read more

Science Fiction & Fantasy - Escaping Reality

When talking to people I often get the question: "Why do you write Science Fiction and Fantasy?" This is usually followed by a tirade that they don't like it, because it is so unrealistic. What they don't get: That is the point! With these two genres the fact is that the only limit to your writing is your own mind. While in reality we are limited by physics, biology or simply life. This became very evident to me when my mother, who loved those genres probably even more than I do, fell severly ill. At one point it became evident that there was nothing the doctors could do for her. My reaction was the same one as for everybody who is loosing a loved one: I tried to find a solution and went through the five stages of grief. I spent hours on the internet researching her illness and looking for the latest breakthroughs only to come to the conclusion that medicine was not yet ready to safe her. The feeling of helpnessless was overpowering especially since my writer...
Read more

11 Errors in The Hunger Games (Books)

Don't get me wrong, I love "The Hunger Games" trilogy and believe the stories are great. This is however also the reason why all the errors upset me.  To be a good writer you don't need 'just' a good story but you also need an eye for detail and sometimes is means to painstakingly comb trough your own story to eliminate flaws, no matter if they involve grammar and syntax, characters acting ilogical, plot holes or continuity errors.  "The Hunger Games" trilogy  is full of them and because of these errors instead of being an incredible book it seems like a wasted oportunity.  Of course you can ask how a non published writer dares criticizing a bestselling author. Well, just read my list and you might decide if I am right and by the way: Once my book is out I welcome all the detailed analysis as it will help me improve my writing.  Repetition: In each of the books she keeps repeating "he says", "she says", "Pee...
Read more