Forums » The Lounge

Why do you fantasy?

  • November 20, 2017 7:42 PM EST

    As many of you know, or may not know I don't enjoy the Fantasy genre whether it be movies, games, books, or all. I have tried many times to get into it, but nothing stuck or I just wasn't interested in it at all because I found it boring. They one that was close was GoT, until they mentioned Dragons and I was like "Nope. Done." Anyways, I would like to ask what is it about the Fantasy genre you like/love?

    • 284 posts
    November 20, 2017 9:10 PM EST

    That's a tough one, Costner, but here's my answer. I like fantasy because of the world they take place in. It's a world that in real life you can never visit. Creatures that never existed in ours.

    Fallout's world may seem impossible too, but think about. You want a nuclear apocalypse? Find a submarine with nuclear warheads and go on a button pressing spree.

  • November 20, 2017 9:25 PM EST

    That is a good point, Delta. Most fantasy worlds do exist outside of ours and everything you mentioned, and I think that is one reason I never could get into it because they are unrealistic. Dragons never existed, I can't shoot fireballs from my hands, or anything of that sort so I can't get into it.

    Since you brought up Fallout's world is very possible. I do think that is why I prefer it more because things those games can happen and are happening so I can get into more for that simple fact. 

    • 585 posts
    November 21, 2017 12:46 PM EST

    The Postman said:

    That is a good point, Delta. Most fantasy worlds do exist outside of ours and everything you mentioned, and I think that is one reason I never could get into it because they are unrealistic. Dragons never existed, I can't shoot fireballs from my hands, or anything of that sort so I can't get into it.

    Funny, that's the thing that draws me to fantasy so much. If I really wanted to I could find a way to shoot guns, blow shit up yadda yadda yadda, but I'll never come close to the things in fantasy. Not only does this mean I have nothing else to base it on (ie in a shooter I might have an opinion of it based on my experience with guns and warfare etc.) so I can completely throw myself into the world, but its a nice escape. But then again I'm not a fan of sci fi and the same point could be made about that, so I guess its also because dragons and shit are cool.

  • November 21, 2017 1:52 PM EST

    Zonnonn said:

    The Postman said:

    That is a good point, Delta. Most fantasy worlds do exist outside of ours and everything you mentioned, and I think that is one reason I never could get into it because they are unrealistic. Dragons never existed, I can't shoot fireballs from my hands, or anything of that sort so I can't get into it.

    Funny, that's the thing that draws me to fantasy so much. If I really wanted to I could find a way to shoot guns, blow shit up yadda yadda yadda, but I'll never come close to the things in fantasy. Not only does this mean I have nothing else to base it on (ie in a shooter I might have an opinion of it based on my experience with guns and warfare etc.) so I can completely throw myself into the world, but its a nice escape. But then again I'm not a fan of sci fi and the same point could be made about that, so I guess its also because dragons and shit are cool.

    Everything you said is valid points about Fantasy, but I think to me to comes down to realism. That is my problem with it. It is unrealistic when compared to Sci-Fi which is a genre that has several things in it that are happening right now from Cyborgs/Androids to High-Tech Computers to Robots and beyond. I can physically see all these things, and when I watch a movie with them in it I know that it can be done. Even in Mad Max, I can physically modify my car or truck to look like their vehicles and I even know how their weapons work, except theirs has no recoil which kind of bugs me but oh well. Also, Robots > Dragons.

    • 29 posts
    November 21, 2017 2:33 PM EST
    The Fantasy genre isn't everyone's cup of tea, but nearly everyone is interested in something that is fantasy in nature. Fallout is fantasy. Superheroes are fantasy. Many of the shows and films people watch are fantasy. Hell, even the actors and singers out there put on a front that is pure fantasy. Going even further, even people who live their lives on twitter and instagram are entertaining some sort of fantasy of themselves.
    • 457 posts
    November 21, 2017 4:12 PM EST

    Great points... all of them. For me it all boils down to escapism (and when we say escapism, I'm assuming an escape from reality). There are, of course, different degrees: detective fiction or Louis L' Amor western novels are escapist, but still very real forms. Some sci-fi is quite realistic as well. I've also read low fantasy (fantasy with little or no magic, and nary a dragon to be seen ;D), but still placed in other worlds that felt both realistic AND fantastic.

    I personally tend to gravitate more to the fantasy genre because I'm more of an escapist. I love to employ a willing suspension of disbelief, and rarely get caught up in the realistic minutiae: cop shooting 20 rounds out of his pistol without reloading... why not? Midi-chlorians? My only problem with them was why even bother trying to explain The Force at all? Having 'The Force' is all the explanation I need. Impossibly huge reptiles that still manage, somehow, to get airborne... I'm all in! xD

  • November 21, 2017 7:17 PM EST

    Kodaav said: The Fantasy genre isn't everyone's cup of tea, but nearly everyone is interested in something that is fantasy in nature. Fallout is fantasy. Superheroes are fantasy. Many of the shows and films people watch are fantasy. Hell, even the actors and singers out there put on a front that is pure fantasy. Going even further, even people who live their lives on twitter and instagram are entertaining some sort of fantasy of themselves.

    I guess your definition of Fantasy and mine are two different things because Fallout isn't Fantasy nor is Superheros. Fantasy to me is stuff like LotR, WoW, and more. You know books, movies, and games that have like Elves, Dwarfs, Magic, Dragons, and more of the mythical type stuff. Also, man you are getting way too "meta and deep" on the whole actors, singers, Instagram, etc being fantasy because that is Matrix type stuff right there.

  • November 21, 2017 7:36 PM EST

    ShinJin said:

    Great points... all of them. For me it all boils down to escapism (and when we say escapism, I'm assuming an escape from reality). There are, of course, different degrees: detective fiction or Louis L' Amor western novels are escapist, but still very real forms. Some sci-fi is quite realistic as well. I've also read low fantasy (fantasy with little or no magic, and nary a dragon to be seen ;D), but still placed in other worlds that felt both realistic AND fantastic.

    I personally tend to gravitate more to the fantasy genre because I'm more of an escapist. I love to employ a willing suspension of disbelief, and rarely get caught up in the realistic minutiae: cop shooting 20 rounds out of his pistol without reloading... why not? Midi-chlorians? My only problem with them was why even bother trying to explain The Force at all? Having 'The Force' is all the explanation I need. Impossibly huge reptiles that still manage, somehow, to get airborne... I'm all in! xD.

    This is a really great answer as well Shin, but I can escape into Sci-Fi just as well as you can with Fantasy even knowing what is it in is just as real, you know. For example, I can watch Blade Runner and escape into its world and think "Yeah, in a couple of years I can see all of these happening or something close to it" or even in I, Robot I can see Robots becoming sentient and trying to kill off the Human Race for being inferior. I guess the realism of these movies speak to me because I am a "realist" or whatever you call me, but when I watched LotR I just found things that make no sense to me, for example, why didn't they just take the Eagles to Mount Doom or wherever and destroy the ring that way and I also realize it is basically a retelling of Homer's Odessey in a way.

    • 558 posts
    November 21, 2017 9:27 PM EST
    Fantasy brings us back to a simpler time, and, like you kinda said, is inspired by native Euro religions, which people of the western world quite enjoy (including me). I don't know that much about Star Trek, but the idea that world peace was achieved on our planet is way less realistic than dragons in the Elder Scrolls (a universe that isn't restricted by the laws of ours). Bashing humanity isn't my intent or my point, I am just saying that sci fi can be much less realistic than fantasy, because most fantasy is in a setting where fire-breathing lizards are realistic. Quick question: if superheroes aren't fantasy, what are they?
  • November 21, 2017 9:35 PM EST

    John Goblikon said: Fantasy brings us back to a simpler time, and, like you kinda said, is inspired by native Euro religions, which people of the western world quite enjoy (including me). I don't know that much about Star Trek, but the idea that world peace was achieved on our planet is way less realistic than dragons in the Elder Scrolls (a universe that isn't restricted by the laws of ours). Bashing humanity isn't my intent or my point, I am just saying that sci fi can be much less realistic than fantasy, because most fantasy is in a setting where fire-breathing lizards are realistic. Quick question: if superheroes aren't fantasy, what are they?

    World Peace may seem unrealistic but could be archived in Theory, unlike a Dragon which is total make-believe. You are right ES universe has no law, therefore, it doesn't make sense to me because there aren't any. I honestly always considered Superheroes in their own category since most of them take place in our universe, unless you go into like Planet 2 and whatever else DC has, and a good amount of mutations can be explained through science.

    • 558 posts
    November 22, 2017 1:09 AM EST
    I never said that the ES universe has no laws, because it does (it's clear you don't know what you're talking about). And in this universe with different laws than ours, dragons are believeable. However, I haven't seen our super advanced civilization make any advances towards world peace, and we sure haven't achieved it in the past. This theory is more like a hypothesis. I can't take something like Star Trek seriously unless I view it as the future of an alternate reality of our planet where humans have no human nature in them and we end up obtaining world peace. Unlike TES, where I can take it at face value. You don't understand fantasy because you don't take it at face value. You try to make it make sense in the rules of our universe, but they do not apply. In Star Trek I have to try to make it make sense in the universe I'm living in, and it doesn't make sense. Do you see my point?
    • 1441 posts
    November 22, 2017 1:49 AM EST

    The Postman said:

    ShinJin said:

    Great points... all of them. For me it all boils down to escapism (and when we say escapism, I'm assuming an escape from reality). There are, of course, different degrees: detective fiction or Louis L' Amor western novels are escapist, but still very real forms. Some sci-fi is quite realistic as well. I've also read low fantasy (fantasy with little or no magic, and nary a dragon to be seen ;D), but still placed in other worlds that felt both realistic AND fantastic.

    I personally tend to gravitate more to the fantasy genre because I'm more of an escapist. I love to employ a willing suspension of disbelief, and rarely get caught up in the realistic minutiae: cop shooting 20 rounds out of his pistol without reloading... why not? Midi-chlorians? My only problem with them was why even bother trying to explain The Force at all? Having 'The Force' is all the explanation I need. Impossibly huge reptiles that still manage, somehow, to get airborne... I'm all in! xD.

    This is a really great answer as well Shin, but I can escape into Sci-Fi just as well as you can with Fantasy even knowing what is it in is just as real, you know. For example, I can watch Blade Runner and escape into its world and think "Yeah, in a couple of years I can see all of these happening or something close to it" or even in I, Robot I can see Robots becoming sentient and trying to kill off the Human Race for being inferior. I guess the realism of these movies speak to me because I am a "realist" or whatever you call me, but when I watched LotR I just found things that make no sense to me, for example, why didn't they just take the Eagles to Mount Doom or wherever and destroy the ring that way and I also realize it is basically a retelling of Homer's Odessey in a way.

    Actually, there are quite a few theories on the eagle bit. One is that they'd be far more noticeable riding them 

    • 1441 posts
    November 22, 2017 1:56 AM EST

    John Goblikon said: I never said that the ES universe has no laws, because it does (it's clear you don't know what you're talking about). And in this universe with different laws than ours, dragons are believeable. However, I haven't seen our super advanced civilization make any advances towards world peace, and we sure haven't achieved it in the past. This theory is more like a hypothesis. I can't take something like Star Trek seriously unless I view it as the future of an alternate reality of our planet where humans have no human nature in them and we end up obtaining world peace. Unlike TES, where I can take it at face value. You don't understand fantasy because you don't take it at face value. You try to make it make sense in the rules of our universe, but they do not apply. In Star Trek I have to try to make it make sense in the universe I'm living in, and it doesn't make sense. Do you see my point?
    Or perhaps humanity finally put there past grievances to go on a new Age of Exploration and deal with interstellar threats

    • 558 posts
    November 22, 2017 3:00 AM EST
    At this point I think someone needs to define world peace, because I just cannot agree with the notion that humans are capable of not fighting with each other at all.
    • 140 posts
    November 22, 2017 6:24 AM EST

    That's an interesting topic, and something I haven't really put much thought into.

    I suppose the reason I like fantasy is because it's so vastly different to our own world, and since most aspects of it are made up you don't really need to bother on whether or not it "makes sense" from a realistic stand point. And for me, it's kind of "the more alien the world, the better". GoT I like, but I still find Middle-Earth and Tamriel to be more enjoyable. More new things to see and learn about, I suppose would be a good way of explaining it. Just in TES itself, I find Morrowind's world (with mushroom trees and living Gods) to be a lot more entertaining than Skyrim's (with the more familiar Norse setting and (for fantasy) dragons), which in turn I prefer over Oblivion, which Magic and Elves aside, is a lot more similar to a real-world Medieval setting.

    Which is one of the reason's I've never been able to get into Fallout. All or at least most of the places and items can be found in the real world, and I've never found it's Lore to incredibly realistic, since it's actually mean't to be in our world; it's been 200+ years, but the closest mankind's come to rebuilding is a few make-shift towns of a couple dozen people, which somehow have access to 200+ year old food that's still edible.

    Though I admit I probably put too much thought into how things like that's possible, it just makes things a lot more believabe when it's not actually in our world to begin with. Had Fallout have been based on another planet or have a completely different timeline to our world, I'd probably find it a lot more believable. If TES had a 250 year old box of mac and cheese, I could attribute that to some magic that's been keeping it edible, or making it deteriorate slower or something. But since Fallout doesn't have magic to begin with, I'm forced to believe that my character's eating food from two centuries ago.

    But again, I probably put too much thought into how food and water can survive hundreds of years, instead of just the playing the game :p

  • November 22, 2017 7:10 AM EST

    John Goblikon said: I never said that the ES universe has no laws, because it does (it's clear you don't know what you're talking about). And in this universe with different laws than ours, dragons are believeable. However, I haven't seen our super advanced civilization make any advances towards world peace, and we sure haven't achieved it in the past. This theory is more like a hypothesis. I can't take something like Star Trek seriously unless I view it as the future of an alternate reality of our planet where humans have no human nature in them and we end up obtaining world peace. Unlike TES, where I can take it at face value. You don't understand fantasy because you don't take it at face value. You try to make it make sense in the rules of our universe, but they do not apply. In Star Trek I have to try to make it make sense in the universe I'm living in, and it doesn't make sense. Do you see my point?

    Well, no shit. I never claim to know everything and anything about the Elder Scrolls, but from what I have seen there are no natural laws in that universe i.e. no Laws of Gravity. See we differ on that, I can see civilization in the future achieving World Peace, but I can also see it not being archived as well. Right, it is a hypothesis, but I say in theory meaning the action can have multiple outcomes. Yes, I do see your point, and you are right I don't take Fantasy at face value because there is no logic and reason and it throws me off, therefore, I can't get into.

  • November 22, 2017 7:12 AM EST

    Chris said:

    The Postman said:

    ShinJin said:

    Great points... all of them. For me it all boils down to escapism (and when we say escapism, I'm assuming an escape from reality). There are, of course, different degrees: detective fiction or Louis L' Amor western novels are escapist, but still very real forms. Some sci-fi is quite realistic as well. I've also read low fantasy (fantasy with little or no magic, and nary a dragon to be seen ;D), but still placed in other worlds that felt both realistic AND fantastic.

    I personally tend to gravitate more to the fantasy genre because I'm more of an escapist. I love to employ a willing suspension of disbelief, and rarely get caught up in the realistic minutiae: cop shooting 20 rounds out of his pistol without reloading... why not? Midi-chlorians? My only problem with them was why even bother trying to explain The Force at all? Having 'The Force' is all the explanation I need. Impossibly huge reptiles that still manage, somehow, to get airborne... I'm all in! xD.

    This is a really great answer as well Shin, but I can escape into Sci-Fi just as well as you can with Fantasy even knowing what is it in is just as real, you know. For example, I can watch Blade Runner and escape into its world and think "Yeah, in a couple of years I can see all of these happening or something close to it" or even in I, Robot I can see Robots becoming sentient and trying to kill off the Human Race for being inferior. I guess the realism of these movies speak to me because I am a "realist" or whatever you call me, but when I watched LotR I just found things that make no sense to me, for example, why didn't they just take the Eagles to Mount Doom or wherever and destroy the ring that way and I also realize it is basically a retelling of Homer's Odessey in a way.

    Actually, there are quite a few theories on the eagle bit. One is that they'd be far more noticeable riding them 

    Eh, it still doesn't make sense to me.

  • November 22, 2017 7:18 AM EST

    John Goblikon said: At this point I think someone needs to define world peace, because I just cannot agree with the notion that humans are capable of not fighting with each other at all.

    Humans by nature are violent that is true, but world peace as defined by me is basically when everyone can get along and not worry about terrorist attacks, mass shootings, poverty, or things like that on a daily basis.

    • 122 posts
    November 22, 2017 7:21 AM EST
    When i was six years old, my father decided to stop with picture books and Boxcar Children novels and to read my older brother and myself a chapter of C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe a night. We also read all of Lloyd Alexander, which we agreed we preferred because the characters were much more entertaining and the books less haughty.

    When I was eight, dad told me I was correcting his spelling and it was time to see if I could read more on my own. He gave me a dictionary if I didn’t know a word’s meaning while he wasn’t around, a treasured copy of a The Hobbit my mother agreed to loan, and a copy of Mossflower by Brian Jacques.

    Fantasy has always been a part of my life, less in a Peter Pan I-Don’t-Want-To-Grow-Up way and more because I loved to dive into new worlds, see how they worked, see what their people were like, and try to twist my own world-view around to theirs. As a child, it was almost a way of figuring myself out by comparing nine year old Mercurias with Taran the Assistant Pig Keeper or Matthias the Warrior of Redwall. As an adult, it’s still fun in different ways. Easier to dive in, it I’m a little more experienced. It’s sometimes hard to experience that sense of wonder unless I see something completely new (Sanderson’s Mistworld novels knocked my socks off due to its setting for all that it’s a definitely flawed series).

    Anyway, I’ve spent forty five drowsy early morning minutes on this and need to go to work. Hopefully it makes sense.
  • November 22, 2017 7:33 AM EST

    Caesar said:

    That's an interesting topic, and something I haven't really put much thought into.

    I suppose the reason I like fantasy is because it's so vastly different to our own world, and since most aspects of it are made up you don't really need to bother on whether or not it "makes sense" from a realistic stand point. And for me, it's kind of "the more alien the world, the better". GoT I like, but I still find Middle-Earth and Tamriel to be more enjoyable. More new things to see and learn about, I suppose would be a good way of explaining it. Just in TES itself, I find Morrowind's world (with mushroom trees and living Gods) to be a lot more entertaining than Skyrim's (with the more familiar Norse setting and (for fantasy) dragons), which in turn I prefer over Oblivion, which Magic and Elves aside, is a lot more similar to a real-world Medieval setting.

    Which is one of the reason's I've never been able to get into Fallout. All or at least most of the places and items can be found in the real world, and I've never found it's Lore to incredibly realistic, since it's actually mean't to be in our world; it's been 200+ years, but the closest mankind's come to rebuilding is a few make-shift towns of a couple dozen people, which somehow have access to 200+ year old food that's still edible.

    Though I admit I probably put too much thought into how things like that's possible, it just makes things a lot more believabe when it's not actually in our world to begin with. Had Fallout have been based on another planet or have a completely different timeline to our world, I'd probably find it a lot more believable. If TES had a 250 year old box of mac and cheese, I could attribute that to some magic that's been keeping it edible, or making it deteriorate slower or something. But since Fallout doesn't have magic to begin with, I'm forced to believe that my character's eating food from two centuries ago.

    But again, I probably put too much thought into how food and water can survive hundreds of years, instead of just the playing the game :p

    Thanks for saying this is interesting.

    That statement has been echoed a lot, but it is a good point none the less. Also, I have no clue on what you are talking back on the last half because I have a very limited Lore knowledge, so yeah I disagree.

    How have you never found the Fallout Lore realistic, honestly? Political corruption, Capitalism running amuck, America vs China, huge superpowers going to war, limited oil supplies, military and political figures being corrupt, and more? Dude, all of that is happening now so yes it is very realistic, unlike Elder Scrolls with Dragons, "Gods", magic, and other things of that sort which doesn't exist. The 200-year-old food is a stretch even for me, but I always rationalize it as thinking they had better food preserves then what we have now.

    I mean Fallout does take in an alternate timeline so...yeah it does take place in a different timeline than our own world so that is incorrect. Right, you could contribute food staying preserved due to Magic which doesn't exist in the first place, but not the fact that might have better food preserves then what we currently have today.

    Water can survive for hundreds easily and food can with the preserves in a way.

    • 261 posts
    November 22, 2017 7:50 AM EST
    Hoo boy. Great topic, first of all. Now... Why do I fantasy? For me, it's the same reason why I sci-fi, actually. Even if sci-fi has stuff that's theoretically possible (and sometimes not even that; look at Star Wars), it's unlikely to happen in my lifetime. Therefore, stuff like space travel falls under the same category as dragon-slaying for me; a thing only experienced in fiction.

    Also, while fantasy can be very realistic (sometimes even more than sci-fi, imo), is being unrealistic necessarily a bad thing? Look at Pokemon, which I still play. It is not, and will never be, a reality. But it is a world, with its own logic and rules that, while not our own, are equally as valid as fiction that hews closer to our world. Moreover, Pokemon is mostly a world of kindness and camaderie, stuff that mankind would do well to learn from.

    And here lies my reason, or one of them: I learn from fiction. Be it Elder Scrolls or Star Wars or Pokemon, good fiction, regardless of the level of realism, helps me better understand and cope with the world I live in. I've learned a lot from video games, books, movies.

    But mostly? I fantasy bwacaue it's fun. And that's probably why learning is fun for me too. To quote one of my favorite authors', Simon Furman, catchphrases... "Can I do less?"
  • November 22, 2017 7:52 AM EST

    Mercurias said: When i was six years old, my father decided to stop with picture books and Boxcar Children novels and to read my older brother and myself a chapter of C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe a night. We also read all of Lloyd Alexander, which we agreed we preferred because the characters were much more entertaining and the books less haughty.

    When I was eight, dad told me I was correcting his spelling and it was time to see if I could read more on my own. He gave me a dictionary if I didn’t know a word’s meaning while he wasn’t around, a treasured copy of a The Hobbit my mother agreed to loan, and a copy of Mossflower by Brian Jacques.

    Fantasy has always been a part of my life, less in a Peter Pan I-Don’t-Want-To-Grow-Up way and more because I loved to dive into new worlds, see how they worked, see what their people were like, and try to twist my own world-view around to theirs. As a child, it was almost a way of figuring myself out by comparing nine year old Mercurias with Taran the Assistant Pig Keeper or Matthias the Warrior of Redwall. As an adult, it’s still fun in different ways. Easier to dive in, it I’m a little more experienced. It’s sometimes hard to experience that sense of wonder unless I see something completely new (Sanderson’s Mistworld novels knocked my socks off due to its setting for all that it’s a definitely flawed series).

    Anyway, I’ve spent forty five drowsy early morning minutes on this and need to go to work. Hopefully it makes sense.

    Man, you say that your father read to you takes me back when my father did the same thing except he read Stephen King's The Stand to me.

    Ah, I was given a Dictionary and a Thesaurus by my granddad so I would quit asking people what this world meant or what is a word that means the same thing as this world. I still treasured my dad's copy of 1984  he gave me when I began High School and my granddad's copy of War of the Worlds which he gave me because I would always read it.

    Yes, your point makes sense to me because I can relate to it. Fantasy has always been part of your life just as Sci-Fi, Horror, Western, and Mystery have been part of my life. As a child myself I would do the similar thing like what you did, but I always wonder how could people let this happen like I wondered how people let 1984 happen or even how people let Brave New World, but now I know how it happens. Really, I guess that is my other problem with fantasy it doesn't give me the answers I seek nor does it question any of my answers if that makes sense.

    Also, yes it did make sense though there were some errors I got what you were saying.

  • November 22, 2017 8:08 AM EST

    Tenebrous said: Hoo boy. Great topic, first of all. Now... Why do I fantasy? For me, it's the same reason why I sci-fi, actually. Even if sci-fi has stuff that's theoretically possible (and sometimes not even that; look at Star Wars), it's unlikely to happen in my lifetime. Therefore, stuff like space travel falls under the same category as dragon-slaying for me; a thing only experienced in fiction. Also, while fantasy can be very realistic (sometimes even more than sci-fi, imo), is being unrealistic necessarily a bad thing? Look at Pokemon, which I still play. It is not, and will never be, a reality. But it is a world, with its own logic and rules that, while not our own, are equally as valid as fiction that hews closer to our world. Moreover, Pokemon is mostly a world of kindness and camaderie, stuff that mankind would do well to learn from. And here lies my reason, or one of them: I learn from fiction. Be it Elder Scrolls or Star Wars or Pokemon, good fiction, regardless of the level of realism, helps me better understand and cope with the world I live in. I've learned a lot from video games, books, movies. But mostly? I fantasy bwacaue it's fun. And that's probably why learning is fun for me too. To quote one of my favorite authors', Simon Furman, catchphrases... "Can I do less?"

    Thank you, and it was meant to say Why do you like Fantasy? I mean there are some things in Star Wars that are possible even right now, but I get your point. I can get behind that point. How is some Fantasy realistic? I would love for that be explained, and some Sci-Fi can be unrealistic, but it could still make some sense. To me, yes being unrealistic is a bad thing to me. Yeah...don't like Pokemon never played any of the games or anything because it is simply ten-year-olds who basically do dogfighting or cockfighting in a sense. You know I really like your last point because it echoes my previous point about me having questions and finding answers in books, movies, and games that I love and from them, it made learning fun like you said, and that is a point I will 100% agree on.

    • 585 posts
    November 22, 2017 9:33 AM EST

    The Postman said:

    Everything you said is valid points about Fantasy, but I think to me to comes down to realism. That is my problem with it. It is unrealistic when compared to Sci-Fi which is a genre that has several things in it that are happening right now from Cyborgs/Androids to High-Tech Computers to Robots and beyond. I can physically see all these things, and when I watch a movie with them in it I know that it can be done. Even in Mad Max, I can physically modify my car or truck to look like their vehicles and I even know how their weapons work, except theirs has no recoil which kind of bugs me but oh well. Also, Robots > Dragons.

    Imma shoot two questions off at ya:

    What do you think about more scientifically inspired fantasy? For example, I believe it's the Ringworld series that revolves around magic being generated by ingesting certain metals. It's got more of a chemistry vibe going on, so while it couldn't happen in the real world it is very well explained in terms of that world, and is based on something very present in our world - chemical reactions and the cool stuff that happens because of them.

    And how do you feel about low fantasy? From other comments you seem to have a grievance with the typical high fantasy tropes - elves and dwarves and that. Low fantasy is much more realistic, and some worlds could even pass as a straight medieval setting on the surface. I don't have any examples to bring, but you get my point.


    This post was edited by Zonnonn at November 22, 2017 11:43 AM EST