Is Star Wars Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

Growing up, I always thought of Star Wars as being science-fiction. But lately, I'm not so sure. It certainly has a lot of the elements of science-fiction, but I think it's more fantasy than it is sci-fi.

In science-fiction, there's usually some attempt to explain the physics involved. But in Star Wars, there's none of that. In fact, the science-fiction involved is more or less just background material while the fantasy elements (Jedi vs. Sith) take center-stage.

Any other Star Wars geeks out there care to speculate?

I think it's a mix of both.

*is totally a Star Wars geek*

But then again most stories aren't purely action, or purely romance or purely historical.
A mix of genres keeps it interesting.

Okay, my AP Lit class has actually talked about this, and we came up with that Star Wars is fantasy, although it does have sci-fi elements in it, it is mainly fantasy.

I have always thought it was fantasy and my teacher just helped me solidify that assumption.

I hope I just didn't ramble on here, but I saw it and had to comment. I can't help it, it's Star Wars!

It's a fantasy that's set in space.

There's not really much that's sci-fi about it, really.

This thread has completely changed the way I viewed Star Wars! (and I'm a SW nerd). I just thought that anything with aliens is considered sci-fi.

I do believe that it is Science Fiction. The fact that the force is not explained is by no means indicative of the fact that it is something magical. In fact in some of the later Star Wars books, there are plants whose physical properties neutralize the force.

I'm also not sure if you've read the book Dune by Frank Herbert, but it too deals with certain thematic elements which appear to be fantastical.

Basically, a genre is defined by its books. Basically, the fact that Dan Brown's books contain certain science fiction elements doesn't make them science fiction, and George Lucas's fantastical elements do not make his saga fantasy.

Personally, I think Star Wars is science-fiction. And I think the reason that it's sometimes called fantasy is because of people in English departments who don't want to admit to having read "sci-fi." There's a phenomenon called the "science fiction ghetto" that crops up in academia a lot. Basically it means that speculative fiction, such as science fiction and fantasy, is often ridiculed or looked down upon because it's not "serious." It's easier to reconcile fantasy though, because a lot of the old myths were fantastical, so one can compare fantasy to things like Beowulf or some of the Arthurian myths. But, science fiction is harder to do that with.

So, in my opinion, the reason Star Wars is seen as fantasy is because of some professors somewhere trying to convince their colleagues that they don't watch "sci fi," but fantasy. So, yeah.

I've always thought that it was sci-fi. Aliens, spaceships, I usually class that as sci-fi, but I do get what you mean about fantastical elements. I'd never really thought about that. ^^

Yes Conrad, because all these Star Wars geeks are stuffy professors...
http://forums.starwars.com/thread.jspa?threadID=11640

I rather like what one of the posters said: "It's Fantasy in a Sci-Fi setting."

Edit

I also quite like this explanation from Yahoo Answers:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 804AAtGExZ

Fantasy. I've even made the argument before that's actually a western in space.

A Sci-Fi isn't just about the trappings of space. It's about fear or hope of the future, scientific progress, government, etc. It shows the progression of a world built on logic (even faulty logic), and the dangers or possibilities that entails. Terminator shows our fears of computers. War of the Worlds is about our fears of the unknown resulting from space exploration (theirs or ours). 1984 is about our fear of a dystopian government. etc.

Star Wars doesn't have anything like that. Sure, they are in a spaceship and there are robots everywhere. But they don't have any inherent meaning. But you could just as easily substitute Trigger the horse and Cookie the wagon trail cook. It's the good guy vs. the bad guy. White and Black hats, etc.

It also works as fantasy because it's the white knight against the black knight. Obi Wan and Yodo both serve as the mystical sorcerer who serves as a guide (think Merlin, Gandalf, or Dumbledore). Darth Vader / the emperor are bad guys with no underlying moral idea other than to be bad. (Sauron, Voldemort, Mordrid) Han Solo is the world-wise warrior (Aragorn). Leia the feisty princess. (Hermione or Ginny, Eowyn or Arwen, Guinevere). And Luke is the young hero out to defeat evil with innocence his strongest defence. (Frodo, Harry Potter and Lancelot or Arthur). Though it doesn't have the quest element, otherwise it's a fantasy in space.

Doesn't make it bad, it just means it doesn't deal with the same issues a sci-fi movie does.

Well, I am mistaken. I thought that this was merely an idea of academia. That was presumptuous of me, and I see that my reasoning was somewhat flawed.

The actual (sub)genre is called science fantasy. And thus, it is neither.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter, unless you make it matter.

Science-fantasy. It has elements of science-fiction (space-ships, laser guns), and elements of fantasy (Magic). When a story possesses futuristic and unscientific concepts simultaneously, it's a science-fantasy. Case closed.

I always thought it was sci-fi, because it was set in space and had aliens and such. I still have a hard time thinking of it as fantasy...but maybe I need to put down the Dragonlance and Harry Potter and see what else could be included.

I have another question for you though, why are there no Fantasy sections anymore? Everything's thrown under Sci-fi. For instance, The Last Unicorn is purely fantasy, yet it's under the sci-fi section. There's nothing scientific about it, same goes for Dragonlance.

Jigs wins because he is right. THREAD OVER. Who wants to order pizza?