My Changing Thoughts on Science Fantasy Games

[Micah Sweet]

The midichlorians thing just about spoiled the whole franchise for me. I just try to pretend it wasn't there.

Interesting that "overtly mystical" spoils it for you while "forgotten tech" does not. But I get it, because I've got my own similar prejudices, where one thing is awesome and the other is a buzz-kill, and while I can try to offer rational explanations, it's just how I feel about it.

It doesn't spoil anything. I like science fantasy. I just see it as a different thing with similar trappings.

 

[Staffan]

The midichlorians thing just about spoiled the whole franchise for me. I just try to pretend it wasn't there.

I like to think that midichlorians are an indicator, but not a source. If you have strong force sensitivity, the midichlorians like hanging out in your blood.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

My point is that in-universe, none of that is considered magical. It's science. To me, that makes it science fiction.

Characters in a horror novel don’t know they are in a horror.

Characters in a sci-fantasy may think their magi-tech is science but that doesn’t necessarily make it actual science-fiction.

As a classification of literature, if I can remember from University Lit classes, was sci-fi strives to explain how things work while science fantasy doesn’t. It leaves things a mystery.

So, as an example, Star Trek traditionally had technology that was ‘theoretically’ possible and went through great detail to explain how the tech worked.

Star Wars had had no such thing. Tech worked because it did. The closest Star Wars ever ventured into sci-fi is when they tried to explain The Jedi’s Force Use as Metaclorions (sp?) instead of just an unexplainable force that controlled all things. But those are a made up thing anyways so probably it doesn’t truly cross over.

So if you ask, “how does that even work?”

And you can use the words “because magic” and “ because tech” interchangeably, it’s probably sci- fantasy.