Star Wars universe does have lasers of all scales and power levels.
Yet literally no one uses them well on a personal scale.
The Jedi (and Sith for that matter) imbue it with a power of magical stone, and then…use it as a saber.
To balance this stupidity, stormtroopers, clones and droids all use slow, non-continuous energy blasters. With actual lasers, they could insta-kill any Jedi, but they cannot, because otherwise the movie wouldn’t exist.
It’s fantasy, not sci-fi though
You can’t stress that enough. I love sci-fi, but I never really fancied Star Wars.
Now, as a dad, I rewatch the movies and replay scenes with my son, and the similarity with fantasy action movies strikes me. For example, the beautiful display of alien species and habitats.
We don’t need to split hairs - ‘sci-fi fantasy’ or ‘science fantasy’ is a real genre and common enough term.
Space opera, specifically.
its like BSG, its also space opera(at least the reimagined one)
I think space opera can be sci-fi or fantasy? Star Wars is definitely fantasy tho.
You’re right, though the melodrama and swashbuckling of Space Opera definitely lend themselves more towards the soft sci-fi/sci-fantasy end of the spectrum. Sort of, “if the characters and plots don’t need to bear much relation to the real world, why should the setting?”
Space Western
The most known version of which is FireFly (or Red Dwarf?)
I’d argue Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, and also Trigun are more ‘Space Western’ than StarWars is.
Laser swords and biological powers beyond our current grasp of the science behind them define it as science fiction.
I get it’s the quirky pickme trend to argue over this and I agree about the fantasy elements but don’t be the ‘actually’ guy in the room.
A humble farm boy’s guardians and village are burned, leading to him leaving his home and finding refuge with a wise old man who has special powers. He tells him he knew his father, that he was a knight and they fought together. He gives him his father’s sword, and teaches him to use his own special powers. They receive a message from a princess in distress, who tells them she’s being held hostage by the evil emperor. They travel to save her with the help of a roguish anti-hero and free the princess. Once freed, they learn of a crucial weakness in the emperor’s fortress, and together they lead a raid to siege it. They succeed with the help of a rag tag bunch of rebels and the princess awards them with medals in her throne room.
That doesn’t sound like a story about how technology, science or knowledge effects people or society to me.
Magic swords and magic powers are exactly what makes it fantasy. I cannot imagine a worse example to pick for your point.
Quote the script where magic is ever mentioned in the films. A light saber is a device with a button that Luke has the knowledge to repair.
Put it in your fantasy section if you want, I’m not even arguing it’s not fantasy, but it’s undeniably science fiction.
Quote the script where someone explains the science of how the Force works. A lightsaber is a special magic sword that can only be made by a space wizard using their magic on a special crystal. It’s magic with a futuristic flavor, that doesn’t make it science fiction.
Also MAGIC too, star wars strangely has magic in it, which in contradictory to what a sci-fi, aka the night sisters.
Just because you don’t understand the science does not make it magic. The force is described as a biological phenomenon that the Jedi have some understanding of, whether the audience learns about it or not is irrelevant, it’s science fiction by definition.
Not really, in LoTr, they have a magical sword that shines around orcs, another one that can stop a ghost sword, and there are being with biological powers beyond the grasp of our understanding.
I think you are confusing setting with genre. By your logic the star wars and star trek porn parodies are also sci-fi and not porn.
Sci-fi is only sci-fi if science plays an integral role in the story, eg. Expanse, Stargate (shows), Star trek. But these are all arguably in space, so I get your confusion, that’s the setting, shows like Black Mirror and For all mankind are also sci-fi and those are present day things.
Well actually For all mankind plays out in an alternate past where the space race continues (though I guess this is also technically in space).
Black mirror explores humanity through the lense of abusing technological/scientific inventions.
So those are science based fictions, sci-fi.
Star Wars is space fantasy, arguably if we live in an alternate universe and the original trilogy is released in the late 2000s and 2010s they could be dubbed as YA. Random teenager protagonist finds out they are indeed special and helps to overthrow an opressive regime, like Divergent, Hunger games, Maze runner
lotr isnt scifi lol, its fantasy, but a specific to medieval types.
Who said Lotr is sci-fi?
I used LotR explicitly to show that Star Wars is closer to that and therefore a fantasy than it is to any well-known sci-fi.