Science Fantasy: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' features magical girls and witches that really ''are'' magical. However, this entire arrangement was set up by a {{spoiler|hyper-advanced alien race harvesting the energy of magical girls'/witches' emotions in an attempt to hold off the heat death of the universe}}.

* ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'' features a conflict between the science side (espers, cyborgs, [[Powered Armor]], spacecraft, supercomputers) and the magic side (magicians, angels, demons, saints, Valkyries, gods).

 

== Comic Books ==

** Along with everything that has a comic book background: ''[[City of Heroes]]'', ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', ...

* The ''[[Fables]]'' universe contains [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]s of various literary concepts. Amongst the genres, Science Fiction and Fantasy are twins (and have a little brother, Superhero); at one point Fantasy remarks to her brother "We're so sympatico that sometimes it's hard to tell where I leave off and you begin."

 

== Fan Works ==

* ''[[Glorious Shotgun Princess]]'' is a crossover between the (comparatively) hard [[Sci Fi]] of ''[[Mass Effect]]'', and the clearly fantasy (and [[Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting|Kung-Fu]]) world of ''[[Exalted]]''.

 

== Film ==

* The genre of ''[[Star Wars]]'' was explicitly stated by [[Word of God|Lucas]] to be space fantasy.

* The ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' film series is, at its core, an epic fantasy story told in modern times with [[Humongous Mecha|giant transforming robots]]. It has the usual elements such as a mythical origin story, ancient artifacts of great, ambiguous power, discussions of fate, destiny, and the call to adventure, themes of absolute good versus absolute evil, and messiah and anti-Christ figures.

* ''[[Tron]]'' starts out with what looks like a fairly standard [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|evil AI]] plot, but then the main character is shot by a laser and "digitized" into a computer. He finds himself in a magical world where computer programs are people that worship godlike "users," and takes part in an epic quest to defeat an [[Evil Overlord]] (the Master Control Program) using a powerful artifact (an identity disc containing data that can destroy the MCP). The movie would probably be best described as a pure fantasy story, were it not for the fact that it was [[Setting|set]] inside computers.

* ''[[The Matrix]]'': Neo is "[[The Chosen One]]", prophecied by an ''oracle'', and he has special powers that allow him to fly, bend spoons, and dodge bullets. Oh, but it's only cause he's in a computer simulation run by intelligent machines.

* The [[Godzilla]] and [[Gamera]] franchises have monsters of both magical and scientific origin fighting or teaming up with each other, sometimes within the same movie.

 

== Literature ==

* The ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series by [[Diane Duane]], especially from the third book onwards. What do you do with your [[Magic A Is Magic A]] [[Functional Magic]] that looks suspiciously like programming? Go to Mars. And then explore the rest of the galaxy and meet up with aliens.

* In the ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' series, the faeries have both real magic and higher tech than humans.

* [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' series fits perfectly. The setting is one world split across two realities. One of them is called Proton, which is high tech, while the other is known as Phaze, where magic prevails.

* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series by Stephen King, set in a [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] world where oil refineries, nuclear-powered water pumps, and the music of [[ZZ Top]] co-exist with wizards, succubi, and gunslingers who fight for truth and justice in the [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] tradition.

* [[Anne McCaffrey]]

** The ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' books feature intelligent, telepathic, teleporting, and occasionally time-traveling dragons. These are just genetically engineered upgrades of preexisting diminutive "dragons", which have similar powers, though this [[Lost Technology]] aspect isn't explored until the prequels. Later books also feature a supercomputer.

** In ''[[The Ship Who...]] Won'', a [[Role-Playing Game]]-obsessed space ship crew discovers a planet where magic actually works. ({{spoiler|Until they discover the inhabitants are just abusing a [[Magic From Technology|Sufficiently Advanced]] weather-control system}}). Definitely sold as Sci-Fi.

** ''[[Acorna]]'' and sequels are about a foundling creature who looks like a "unicorn girl," complete with a horn on her forehead, unearthly beauty, and the power to purify water and air. Except she's not exactly magical: she's an alien, and the setting is basic science fiction with spaceships and interplanetary travel. Double subverted when it is revealed that her species is genetically-engineered by aliens who combined their own DNA with that of unicorns they rescued from Earth.

* [[Orson Scott Card]], in the afterword to an audio recording of ''[[Ender's Game]]'', talks about trying to sell a short story based in the world of ''The Worthing Saga''. He mentions that one of his rejections mentioned that it was a good story, but it wasn't right for the magazine, as it was Fantasy rather than Science Fiction. He said that the reason it was considered Fantasy was because none of the scientific backdrop was present in the story. In the end, he concluded that the only difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction is that "Fantasy has trees, [[Sci Fi]] has rivets."

 

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': Oh, where to begin. The original series was supposed to be firmly grounded in observable reality—the Doctor himself identified as a scientist on a number of different occasions, because the series was originally intended to be an [[Edutainment Show]]—but then the more zany science fiction elements took over. By now, it uses elements from all over [[Speculative Fiction]], from [[Eldritch Horror|eldritch horrors]] to Venitian [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] to [[Cyborg|Cybermen]]. And it's all brought together by a [[Time Travel]]ing TARDIS that apparently goes where and when it is needed.

* ''[[Lost]]'' has ghosts, immortal people, and sentient Islands that can move...and also well thought out time travel, exotic matter, and electromagnetism as a key plot elements. Though, really, ''[[Mind Screw|no one knows what genre it is]]''.

*The second season of [[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]], has a lot of mysticism and wonder and in one episode a blue gnome giving riddles and an invisible demon wielding a magic sword and even a dungeon crawl through space orc infested caves.

== Tabletop Games ==

* Usually, ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is average fantasy, but whenever [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|Phy]][[Exclusively Evil|re]][[Body Horror|xia]] is involved, it becomes this. Specially now that they have access to Blue mana.

* The universe of the tabletop roleplaying game ''[[The Chronicles of Fate (Darth Wiki)|Chaos]]''. You know you're in for a case of Science Fantasy when your [[The Verse|verse]] is a [[Crossover Cosmology]] [[Multiverse]] containing [[All the Myriad Ways|every possible type of universe]], but that's just the beginning. Described as “cosmic fantasy”, ''[[The Chronicles of Fate (Darth Wiki)|Chaos]]'' is intended to have all the feeling of a fantasy setting, the only thing that makes it ''not'' explicitly fantasy is that it just so happens to have sci-fi “props” and window dressing. To quote directly from the book, “''Chaos'' is an over-the-top, epic cosmic fantasy. It's got dragons and spaceships, cyborgs and wizards, knights, aliens, superheroes, gods, demons, time travel, energy weapons, parallel universes, romance, quests, wars, duels, ancient conspiracies, buried treasures and lost artifacts, distant planets, weird creatures, corrupt politicians…and a guy named [[Archangel Michael|Mike]].”

* Similarly, the tabletop RPG ''[[Rifts]]'' is set a few centuries after the high tech world of tomorrow is utterly trashed by the return of magic. Human supremacist armies of cyborgs and [[Humongous Mecha]] traipse across the landscape. Atlantis has risen. Sorcerers summon demons and raise the dead. Rifts in spacetime spew out critters from other dimensions more or less at random. Elves and dragons and goblins (oh my) roam the wilderness. Killer cyborgs from another dimension want to kill all humanoid life on Earth. Gods battle Alien invaders. Vampires openly run entire cities. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

== Video Games ==

** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' has guns and more science fiction like airships than previous titles, but the airships are powered by magical [[Applied Phlebotinum|phlebotinum]]. And all the other magical elements.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' appears to be [[Science Fiction]] at first, with guns, more "realistic" airships, mecha, and genetic engineering. But most, if not all, of the tech is powered by fal'cie, magical beings. Who can also grant magical powers to chosen humans, [[Blessed with Suck|although it sucks to be chosen this way for the human]].

* ''[[Xenoblade]]'' tends to mix the two so thoroughly that it can make one dizzy. It prologue starts with two warring [[Our Titans Are Different|titans]] whose dead bodies make up the entire world, then transitions to advanced humans fighting a war against relentless killer robots. The robots can only be stopped by a [[Cool Sword|legendary ancient sword called the Monado]], which somewhat resembles a [[Laser Blade|light-saber]]. Then the Monado starts granting the protagonist visions of the future, but that turns out to have a reasonable scientific explanation. Then it turns out that {{spoiler|the Monado is the manifestation of an evil god}}.<ref>And by the end of the game, you're fighting {{spoiler|[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|giant robot ghosts]]</ref> [[Mind Screw|in outer space]]}}.

* ''[[Albion]]'', a game where a spaceship in the future lands on a world with magic instead of technology. A lot of the time is spent in primarily fantastic or scifistic settings, but they eventually mix, and both elements are present at least a little most of the time.

* ''The Unholy War'' was a strategy game that took this to an extreme, with an army of fantasy creatures fighting an army of science fiction characters.

* In the ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' series, magic and technology once coexisted. Past misues of the two brought the [[Powers That Be]] to separate the two into Stark (technology, "our" world) and Arcadia (magic/medieval world). Attempts to alter this balance are what drives the plot.

* Starting around the sixth game in the series, the ''[[Wizardry]]'' games dove head-first into combining fantasy and sci-fi, where spells, magical creatures, and arcane artifacts are found hand-in-hand with spacefaring aliens, starships, and advanced energy weapons.

** ''Wizardry VII'' was the first of the series to embrace this trope-while the party is firmly grounded in fantasy, and the world seems to be with the full range of usual fantasy creatures and items, there's also the fact that the party arrived on the world by a starship, the [[Big Bad]] has a robotic army, two more alien races are engaged in a power struggle over the planet from their landing zones, and one of the native races travels around in rocket-powered aircraft.

* ''[[Cosmic Fantasy]]''.

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is [[Steampunk]] combined with fantasy. Most of the weird stuff can be explained by technology, but not everything. The magic includes stuff like the river Dyne (which is an apparently natural spring the waters of which make the drinker a mad genius, though in most cases it's instantly lethal), Geisterdamen (ghost-like beings), Frankenstein-esque reanimated corpses, Jaegermonsters (non-human beings with superhuman strength and [[Long Lived|lifespans]] who are former humans who drank the [[Super Serum|"Jaegerdraught"]]), multiple cases of [[Brain Uploading]], the [[Genius Loci|castle Heterodyne]]'s seemingly telekinetic ability to move chunks of itself...

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. There are robots and other advanced tech in the Court, while the Gillitie Wood is full of magic-users (including [[Physical God]] Coyote). Transformation to/from forest creatures is an accepted part of the universe, and the Court has students and teachers skilled in "etheric sciences".

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has genetically altered super-mutant assassins, aliens, mad scientists and many magic users, several of whom are main characters. Oh yeah, and one of the magic users can create a fairy version of herself, and Tedd's been hacking a [[Magitek]] [[Gender Bender|transformation ray gun]] since 2002.

* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' is set several thousand years into the future, contains nanotechnology, flying robots, and a galactic society... and also contains lots of creatures that run off of soul-based magic, including vampires, djinn, and zombies. [[Furry Comic|Also, furries.]] It's labeled [[Cyberpunk]]—but it's about as Cyberpunk as, say, [[Shadowrun]].

 

== Web Original ==

* Animated [[Urban Fantasy]] web series ''[[Broken Saints]]'' uses a lot of the technology from (probably) [[Twenty Minutes in The Future]], and just labeled "state-of-the-art" in-story. However, it also includes [[The Empath|Shandala]]'s powers of healing and... [[Beware the Nice Ones|not-so-healing...]], and Kamimura's ability to [[Soul Jar]] his pupil, holding a [[Soul Fragment|fragment]] of said pupil's consciousness within his own mind. While the first ability {{spoiler|is revealed to be part of her genetic design}} (very sci-fi), they are both firmly in the fantasy realm.

* While most of ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'' novels are fantasy with minor science fiction elements inserted in the magic system, ''Chaos Fighters II'' and ''Chaos Fighters: Chemical Warriors'' are science fiction with significant fantasy style battles.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has goblins, futuristic robots, princesses, wizards, hologram projectors, magic, and mini-anti-gravity chambers. All in a post-apocalyptic Earth.

 

* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', everyone is a [[Ambiguous Robot|mostly machine cyborg]], they all live inside a {{spoiler|giant robot}} made of [[Applied Phlebotinum]], and they sport some pretty sweet tech, but the most common way for the [[Hobbits|powerless Matoran]] to defend themselves are with [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|frisbees that can freeze, shrink, or teleport whatever they touch]], and the main heroes, Toa, [[Elemental Powers|control the elements]] with no explanation other than "elemental energy" and wear [[Cool Mask|magic masks]] that have an ever growing list of options.

** Energized Protodermis, the universe's most powerful substance that can either transform or destroy whatever it touches. What you get is based on [[Because Destiny Says So|destiny.]] Oh, and it's sentient.

** The [[Big Bad|Makuta]], a race designed to be genetic engineers, but do so by ''mixing potions in a cauldron.''

*** The origin of the Makuta. They come from a pool of slime containing their unborn, bodiless spirits—sounds fantasy enough, right? But those "spirits" are really preprogrammed artificial intelligence, and the liquid is just a strange data storage device.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Literature Genres]]