Fantasy Races vs Sci Fi Species. Different or not?

[Morrus]

They're synonyms in my mind.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

I treat them differently, I put the word "Space" in front of the sci-fi kind.

 

[embee]

Insert "Clarke's Third Law" here.

 

[embee]

The first thing that comes to mind is that I'm okay with fantasy races that make no bloody sense.

YOu want 47 different kinds of elf that frequently interact, can interbreed, but somehow maintain distinctiveness for thousands of years? Cool. Dragonboobs, and Lizardfolk that don't have specific issues with cold? I'm good. Monocultures? I'm okay, so long as they aren't racist retreads.

In fact, the Halves- prove, if anything, that racism really doesn't belong in D&D, as it goes to show that humans will hook up with anyone, regardless of background.

 

[J.Quondam]

For me, fantasy generally works best when the answer is "It's magic!" or "The gods did it!" So it's fine for races to have nonsensical origins and interrelationships. Not necessary, but certainly a-okay.

Sci-fi is an even more broad genre than fantasy, but assuming we're talking about the "in space!" variety, my preference is that things at least try to make some logical sense, even if it's just handwavium and technobabble at the bottom. So species are probably naturally evolved, unintentionally mutated, or deliberately engineered. Any technology involved might well be so advanced or ancient as to be completely inscrutable, but I like having an implication that there is an actual technology behind it.

In fact, now that I think about it, it's probably that implication that separates most fantasy from most sci-fi, at least in my thinking.

 

[Umbran]

... as it goes to show that humans will hook up with anyone, regardless of background.

Which Kirk and Ryker proved for the sci-fi side...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Which Kirk and Ryker proved for the sci-fi side...

I haven’t watched any of the new stuff (I don’t have those channels)- have any female (or other) gendered humans boldly gone where no one has gone before?

bow chicka wow wow

 

[billd91]

I haven’t watched any of the new stuff (I don’t have those channels)- have any female (or other) gendered humans boldly gone where no one has gone before?

bow chicka wow wow

Beckett Mariner from Lower Decks is a prime candidate.

 

[MGibster]

One of the nice things about science fiction is being able to tell stories about contemporary issues with a veneer of deniability. The Klingons of the 1960s allowed Star Trek writers to create stories that were allegories for the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Their role changed in the 1980s as the Cold War was cooling and the Klingons became allies and even a member of the crew.

Or think of the Moclus from The Orville. At the beginning of the 1st season, we're given to understand that their species is entirely male, but we learn later that some Moclus are born female and given corrective surgery because it's seen as a defect. Also, Bortus, our Moclus crewmember, has a husband named Klyden, who is dismissive of the women Bortus works with. So the Moclus allows the writers to tell stories about contemporary issues surrounding transgender issues, toxic masculinity, and even gay rights. In one episode, Klyden outed a fellow Moclun who kept his attraction to women in the closet.

I don't know if I see that kind of thing happening in fantasy stories a lot. So I suppose that's how I treat race/species differently when it comes to science fiction and fantasy. At least that's what I'd like to think. Star Wars has a Wookie just because it's cool not because it's trying to say something.

 

[Big J Money]

I don't know if I see that kind of thing happening in fantasy stories a lot. So I suppose that's how I treat race/species differently when it comes to science fiction and fantasy. At least that's what I'd like to think. Star Wars has a Wookie just because it's cool not because it's trying to say something.

I think that's more down to the writers' choice of expression than the genre. Penny Dreadful is in a setting of traditional monster horror, which is closer to fantasy than scifi, and it addressed the theme of depression through allegory. Horror has been doing this for a long time, actually. Real world ancient mythology has allegories for many things, and is arguably the original source of modern fantasy (it inspired works like Middle Earth, Conan, D&D, etc).

I wouldn't be surprised if there's an example of high fantasy that we just aren't thinking about or aware of. Oh, Arthurian legends hit a bit closer. Also fairy tales. I guess these things were kind of like the "sci fi of their times".