Theme # 12 : Subgenres of Fantasy and Sci-Fi

[wawwhite]

NEW THEME TIME!!!!!
This month's theme is what subgenre of sci-fi and/or fantasy movie are you!?! After much research, I have narrowed the choices down to 17 sci-fi and fantasy subgenres that I feel represent the very different types of movies. (I'm amazed that it came out so even.) Now, as you know, there can be a bunch of different genres represented in 1 movie. For example, The Princess Bride is fantasy, action, adventure, romance, comedy, cult classic, and heroic. WOW. That's a lot. You'll notice that on the stamps, I found movies that represent that subgenre, though almost all of them could be on multiple stamps.

Like movies, people don't fit neatly into one box. So, here's the deal. You may apply for fantasy or sci-fi subgenres (or both or don't care like usual). However, you may also opt for more than one stamp for each genre as well. For another example, if you get a bunch of votes for fantasy action and urban fantasy, I can give you both stamps if you've checked the box that says you'd like more than one stamps. I am going to limit you to the top 3 from each type. ¿Comprende?

Whatever, just tell me what you want, and I'll see what I can do!

1. Keep doing a great job voting on everyone!
2. Tag your app with !needs votes + [subgenres]
3. If you want to do just fantasy or delete the sci-fi section and vice versa.
4. Keep it real.

Application

application
Name:
Previously stamped as:
Do you want a fantasy stamp [ ], a sci-fi stamp [ ], don't care [ ], or both [ ]?
Would you like more than one stamp for each [ ] , only if there is a tie [ ], or one only [ ]?

general questions
List up to 10 of your all time favorite movies that you watch over and over again and can quote verbatim, no matter what genre.
1.
2.
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10.

Would you like your movie to contain...
[ ] fight scenes
[ ] romance
[ ] children
[ ] animals
[ ] talking animals
[ ] slapstick
[ ] a lot of dialogue
[ ] philosophical questions
[ ] unusual creatures
[ ] unusual humanoids
[ ] epic battles
[ ] mystic artifacts
[ ] foreign languages
[ ] made-up languages
[ ] quests
[ ] sidekicks
[ ] true love
[ ] happy ending
[ ] unresolved or open ending
[ ] violence, mayhem, or gore
[ ] super villians or evil emperors
[ ] unusual plot lines
[ ] angst
[ ] song and dance
[ ] really cool clothes
[ ] really fancy, pretty clothes

this or that - what you what your movie to be
fighting or romance?
funny or serious?
old or new?
cutting edge or tried and true?
popular or unknown?
understated or spectacular?
straightforward or confusing?
adult or all ages?
character-focused or action-driven
modern or historical

fantasy only questions
What character traits does your protagonist have?
What is the villain's goal? Is the villain human?
What sort of creatures are present?
What sort of magic is there?
Is there a lot of fantastic elements or is the fantasy less important?
How will the story end?

sci-fi only questions
What makes this movie sci-fi?
What is the main problem or struggle?
Is the setting on earth, space, a distant planet, or somewhere else?
What sort of technological advances are there?
Are there any unusual creatures? If yes, what are they and are they really big?
Is the movie dramatic and over-the-top or subtle and a little too realistic?
Is the world going to end?

anything else?
Is there one or two (or three) that really don't fit you?
Please list 3 new people that you have voted for!
1.
2.
3.
Alternately, check this box [ ] if you’ve voted for everyone who needs votes.

[Voters, the options for this theme are located http://community.livejournal.com/magic_machines/81038.html">here.]

"It's been said that science fiction and fantasy are two different things: science fiction the improbable made possible; fantasy, the impossible made probable..."
-Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone

Fantasy Genres

Common features of genre fantasy include:

1. A secondary world: A world whose connection with our present day world ranges from nominal to non-existent. It could be the remote past or future, or simply a-historical. The inhabitants can be anything from human only, through the standard elves, dwarves and orcs, to entirely new creatures.
2. Appeal to a pastoral ideal: Much genre fantasy, of all genres, appeals to the pastoral ideal, one reason for the pseudo-medieval settings. Even urban fantasies will quite often depict cities as blots on the landscape, whose denizens are blinded to what really matters by material ephemera. There are some fantasies, however, which deliberately take the opposite stance.
3. Magic And Powers: Functional Magic is almost always present, though its role in the world can vary widely. It might be either respected, feared, persecuted, or simply not believed in. It's frequency varies from the stuff of legend, through to rare but available to the well connected, up to a ubiquitous part of everyday life.

Explosions, battles, powerful magic, thrilling swordplay, skilled archers all make for an exciting action movie.



Quests. Adventures. Journeys.
More travel, less fighting.



2-D or 3-D hand or computer drawn features. Usually for children, but often still entertaining for adults.



Older movies that have stood the test of times. Favorites that get passed down from generation to generation.



Zany, wacky, with magic added!



Deals with more serious concepts created by fantasy. Often philosophical or mysterious.



Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson plus folklore, tall tales, and myths from all over the world. Can be for children or made darker for adults.



Appropriate for all ages! These movies stay favorites through time.



Not all movies are filmed in English! They usually have a different feel to them unique to whatever country they come from. Usually incorporate myths and stories from their own culture.



The core elements of high fantasy are

• Setting - A world other than ours. It may have a nominal connection with present day Earth, such as being our remote past or future, but this plays no role in the plot. Nevertheless it often resembles medieval Europe.
• Scale - Epic. Power politics, wars, the death of nations, gods walking the earth, and the real threat of The End Of The World As We Know It.
• Great evil - An enemy which is near enough Evil incarnate or fundamentally abhorrent.
• Methods - Victory is not achieved through force of arms, the main feature distinguishing High Fantasy from Heroic Fantasy. If Aragorn had killed Sauron in hand-to-hand combat, that would have been Heroic Fantasy.
• Functional Magic

A sub genre of Speculative Fiction, Historical Fantasy is similar to Urban Fantasy, except the setting will be a time and place in the past rather than modern times. Historical fantasy novels will be set in an actually historic and geographic location on our own Earth.



Scary movies that go beyond the normal world. I've included thrillers, which are more excitement than scariness, but they still fit the same idea.



Takes place before the rise of ancient civilizations. May be historically accurate or not.



Fantasy with an emphasis on romance, true love, and happily ever after.



Also known as Heroic Fantasy or Sword & Sandal Fantasy for more ancient movies. The exploits of mighty-thewed, sword-wielding heroes and their thiefly, wizardly and/or priestly companions, as they spend their days smiting evil, fighting monsters, recovering treasures and quaffing ale. Tends to be distinguishable from High Fantasy by its scale - the problems are generally those of the hero, not the world - and moral standards - absolute evil and absolute good make fewer appearances.



Urban Fantasy confusingly has two meanings:

1. a story which takes place in our world, or a recognizable Alternate History version of it
2. or else in a major city in a secondary world.

Might be a classic vampire made famous by Bela Lugosi with his slicked hairstyle, his sinister yet gentlemanly demeanor, his outdated yet suave clothes, his occasional dramatic flourish contrasting with a demeanor that is calm but menacing, and his Eastern European accent. Or it might be completely reinvented. Most vampires follow some or all of these "rules."
The baseline rules for vampires are:

1. They need blood. Mostly. You can also have a critter that sucks out someone's youth, or soul, or "will", or fear. It's a whole big sucking thing. Usually for a vampire, it is blood; whether or not they consume anything else varies between versions. Some are Vegetarian Vampires who get by on animals and blood banks, and sometimes all they require is a quick, easily healed swallow from humans from time to time.
2. Vampires are viral. They are capable of changing human beings into other vampires.
3. They are bad*ss. Vampires are almost always inhumanly strong and fast, as well as immune to bullets and most other mundane weapons.
4. They do have weaknesses, including sunlight, garlic, stakes, crosses, holy water, running water, etc.
5. They can be recognized by no reflection, lack of breathing, don't bleed, pale, cold, etc.
6. They are immortal, but dead.
    

Science Fiction Genres
The one defining trait of Science Fiction is that there is technology that doesn't exist in the time period the story is written in. Consider 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The story was written in a time when submarines were still at the prototype stage, so 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea falls within the boundaries of Science Fiction.
May or may not include:

1. A setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in an historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record
2. A setting in outer space, on other worlds, or involving aliens
3. Stories that involve technology or scientific principles that contradict known laws of nature
4. Stories that involve discovery or application of new scientific principle

Explosions, giant guns, mega robots - all mainstays of an awesome sci-fi action movie.



Often including action elements, the Sci-Fi Adventure movie will include a journey or quest of some kind.



Humanoid, insectiod, or nightmare-oid extraterrestrial creatures from a distant (or not so distant) planet. Can be good, evil, indifferent, cute, or scary, funny, or serious business. Rarer, sometimes us Earthlings are the aliens.



Not as common as all the animated fantasy movies, there are, nonetheless, plenty of awesome 2-D and 3-D animated movies. They can be intended for younger audiences, but many of them deal with more adult or frightening concepts.



Classic = people dressed up in crappy rubber suits. Some are incredible dumb and some are still considered great movies even by today's standards. Classic Sci-Fi movies have stood the test of time.



Space can be funny too!



A Cult Classic is a film or other work which has a devoted, even if sometimes small, fanbase. Some Cult Classics are obscure commercial failures at the time of their premiere which have since then successfully attracted a fanbase. Although this is the common public perception to a Cult Classic, some Cult movies were in fact box-office successes at the time but maintained a cult following long after public interest has moved onto the next flavour of the month. It's a good bet that a show or movie considered a cult classic 30 years ago will still be such today. Note that not all cult classics are actually good. In fact, many cult classics are hilariously bad - which is why their fans adore them. These are sometimes called "Camp Classics".



OH NO, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!
Sorry, everyone, but the world as we know it, is going to end. :(
Common world-ending scenarios are: avalanche, earthquake, meteoroids, comets, solar flares, volcanoes, floods, tsunamis, global warming, tornadoes, fires, epidemics, space disasters, chemical, nuclear, spaceships, planets, human disappearance, global war, and judgment day.



Deals with the more serious sides of Sci-Fi. Asks thought provoking questions about what will happen in the future with technology and science impacting it.



Safe and fun, often dealing with kids thrown into science-y situations.



The real scary monsters (or robots or aliens or zombies or evil people) that make a big BUMP in the night.



Yep. Often Godzilla versus ____ type deals.



Sci-Fi monsters are BIG. And usually grumpy. Look out when they come crashing through your city.



A space opera is a work set in space, often on a spaceship or a station. It has an epic character to it: The universe is big, there are lots of sprawling civilizations and empires, there are political conflicts and intrigues galore. Frequently it takes place in the Standard Sci Fi Setting. Space opera has a lot of romantic elements: big love stories, epic space battles, oversized heroes and villains.



A superhero film is an action, fantasy or science fiction film that is focused on the actions of one or more superheroes, individuals who usually possess superhuman abilities relative to a normal person and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films are almost always action-oriented, and the first film of a particular character often includes a focus on the origin of the special powers including the first fight against the character's most famous archenemy or supervillain. The plot typically revolves around the efforts of the superheroes to thwart some dire peril of significant consequence. Most superhero movies are adapted from comic books, where they are most prominent.



A thriller is a genre in visual media and literature which focuses on action, fast pacing, tension, and suspense. The conflicts are usually between desperate heroes and powerful antagonists who outmatch them by large margin. Frequent location changes, time shortage, and Cliffhangers are extremely common.



Just ordinary, run-of-the-mill walking corpses. Slow (usually...), weak (comparatively...), mostly blind, (unless they aren't) and stupid (at first...). Surprisingly squishy, but they don't really notice. Burn 'em if you can, and don't get bitten. Made with Hollywood Voodoo in older works, and The Virus in newer ones. Some of them die quickly when burned. Others...don't.

Funny explanations come from TvTropes, boring ones come from Wikipedia, and short ones come from me.