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Speculative Fiction/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
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*** Realistically, even ''with'' the Masquerade, the [[Stargate Verse]] should have by now looked a lot less [[Like Reality Unless Noted]] than it actually does.
** Budget and scheduling. Can you imagine having to write a world that is supposed to be ours ''right now'', except with all the effects that technology we probably wouldn't invent for centuries foisted on the populace in general, and how that affects culture and politics? And if you can, can you imagine doing a good enough job with that that it's plausible to do in a show produced 22 times a year? The real problem is that even the military, which had access to all of this technology, went about business as usual, treating weapons and tech as little more than bigger guns and better planes, while the real-life space program produced velcro.
* Dragons. They're really, really huge, they would have to weigh several tons. How do they keep themselves alive? It makes sense if there's other dinosaur like beings around, but oftentimes they're just tacked on into Medieval England. How do these creatures survive on one sheep a week? That would be like a human surviving on one mouse. Why don't they just destroy and eat everything in sight? They'd have to be pretty hungry.
** For most fantasy universes, [[A Wizard Did It|magic.]]
*** Then it would make more sense for them to not eat at all.
**** Elves are often presented as highly magical. Does it make more sense for them to not eat at all?
**** ''[[Dungeons
*** Perhaps their magical properties (fiery breath, etc…) are fueled by the mystical essence of their prey, while their merely physical properties are fueled by the bodies of their prey. Still, I'd imagine that while they'd eat quite a bit of mutton, that there would probably also be larger prey than sheep for them to nibble on too.
*** Some sources claim that fantasy-style dragons are not full o meat like us; rather, their body acts much like a blimp to allow them to fly. This style of dragon has very little flesh and bone for weight reasons.
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** Depending on the universe, some dragons may be ectothermic, meaning they would need to eat much less.
** Dragons in the [[Temeraire]] universe have internal gas bladders--and this is not mere air, but lighter-than-air mixtures. This makes dragons who want to be excellent swimmers, as well, as well as much lighter than they should be (imagine something the size of a blue whale weighing fifty tons, for comparison), though their wings are still realistically far too small for them to fly with.
*** Novik's dragons have their own problems, though. For one thing, they grow ''far'' too quickly. Also, I don't care how big it is, putting stress on any young animal's bones is a Very Bad Idea--that's why smart people don't ride yearling horses even though they look pretty big, and why most agility trainers will not jump a dog under eighteen months of age. Pushing a young animal too far physically is a good way to permanently cripple it. And these are considerably smaller animals with much less of a growth difference than most of the dragon breeds we're shown, particularly the heavyweights. Now, taking this into account, Temeraire is approximately two months old when Laurence first rides him in the storm. For reference, this is about the same age puppies are when you're allowed to take them home from the litter. Good god!
** Maybe they have ''really'' high metabolisms, so they wake up, fly around, eat a lot of sheep (not ''one'', some were rumoured to eat hundreds a day) then go back to their cave to sleep really, ''really'' deeply (like daily hibernation). The shiny objects around them could be to attract mates.
*** Simple, they're either omnivores or herbivores. Smaller species might be more carnivorous. The whole idea of them being terrible monsters could be exaggeration (look what they did to gorillas), [[
** The problems people have with Dragons is that they ''assume'' they're carbon-based lifeforms, let alone being made up of DNA/RNA. They could be made of lighter and stronger material(s) than humans or any other life on this planet, and have a far more efficient means of processing matter to use for energy (and the occasional fire breath).
* Somewhere on a distant planet, do aliens write stories about human invaders?
** Assuming literacy, there is no reason why they wouldn't write stories about alien invaders, where "alien" is relative to them. Successfully describing an existing alien species would be a long shot. Also, consider that few people have written stories about alien invaders who aren't capable of efficient space travel.
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* Why is it that we see lots of stories with robots and lots of stories with fairies, but almost never stories with both? Seeing beings of pure science encounter beings of pure magic would be awesome.
** I'd like to see sci-fi and fantasy combine, without the sci-fi [[Doing
*** There is the Shadowrun universe that combines fantasy and sci-fi although more cyberpunk than interstellar. It does include elves, dwarves and other fantasy elements however.
** Because "pure science" and "pure magic" are stupid terms and thinking of them as some sort of opposing force is a way to ruin a perfectly good story concept. Read Eoin Colfer's [[Artemis Fowl]] series. (The science is utterly, utterly woeful -- we're talking "cannot read howstuffworks.com" level of woeful -- but it's got a fairy nation of elves and pixies with virtual matter weaponry and magma-flare-riding subterrainian aircraft.)
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*** [[Harry Potter]] didn't invent that rule. Not sure who did, but it's in a lot of places ([[The Dresden Files]], for one). Some people might say that's because magic makes tech go haywire in real life ...
**** Never said it was invented in ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Just said it was used there. Same goes for the ''Split Infinity'' borders.
*** It kinda makes sense. If you could generate energy that allows you break the laws of physics, then theoretically some of that ambient energy might affect nearby electronics. Sometimes other electronics mess up different electronics.
** Probably because there is a very thin line between science and explained magic. Basically, once you start [[Magic A Is Magic A|explaining how stuff works]], you [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|jump off the slippery slope towards science]]. Because after all, science is basically just process of finding out what makes the world around us works. For example, [[The Dresden Files]] could easily redefine magic as the process of creating (through emotions) and manipulating energy. Its basically the lack of [[Expospeak]] and lack of explanation on why magical creatures work the way that keeps it rooted firmly in the "magic" area. A better rule of thumb would be if "[[A Wizard Did It|its magic]]" is the standard explanation for why crap happens in the story, its pure fantasy (in the sense of fantasy being magic and such). If it starts asking/explaining why, its moving closer and closer to science, [[Magic A Is Magic A|even if the rules of said universe may be different from our own]].
** Warcraft actually does this pretty well, in my opinion. Yes, it's still basically steampunk tech, but they do have sentient robots and technomages, and a lot of the Titan constructs seem to have an interesting blend of technology and magic.
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* Why is it that whenever some production shows a character reversing the flow of time, all that happens is...the Earth rotates in the opposite direction? First off, just ''stopping'' the planet would result in 1000+mph winds destroying nearly everything on the surface; nevermind what reversing it should do. And second, [[You Fail Physics Forever|Earth's rotation does not work that way.]]
** No, no, Earth is still rotating in its normal direction, but you're ''viewing'' it in backwards time. That is this troper's take on what's going on in the climactic scene in ''Superman'' and you'll not convince me differently.
* The [[Divided States of America]]. There is always a Deseret, and it is almost always a theocratic hellhole. This troper lives in Utah and was raised Mormon, and he honestly can't see how that would happen. Do people just assume the Mountain Meadows Massacre to be the inevitable end of Mormon governance?
** Not really. However, the common perception of the general population of Mormons, is that they are, to quote [[The Simpsons]], "America's most powerful weirdos". This troper disagrees with that sentiment, but it's basically the reason that Deseret is common in most works featuring a divided America.
** This troper, looking at America from an ocean away, thinks of Mormons as the nicest bunch of fundamentalist survivalists one could hope to meet, and expects that Deseret would:
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*** Legalise polygamy, but ban anyone from preaching that it was in any way compulsory.
*** Overall be an okay place to live... unless you were gay. What is it with fundamentalists and homosexuality anyway?
*** Well, with Mormons and Muslims I can't say, but the fundamentalist Christian attitude towards homosexuality is rather easy to explain. The premise of it is that Jesus of Nazareth made a second pact of worship to GOD and response from HIM(or 'covenant'), after showing how strict the first covenant had really been. In the first covenant, recorded in the Book of the Laws(Lectivus), which contained the declaration that GOD considers lying with a man as one would with a woman(i.e. sodomy) to be an abomination. As Jesus never so much as mentioned this law, it is thought to mean that no change was made to it. But an important distinction must be made: it is never said the homosexuals themselves are abominations, only sodomy and other 'improper' use of sexual organs. So yeah, hating the sinner for the sin is grossly immoral and un-GODLY. I hope that explains it.
**** There's a difference between hating homosexuals and considering homosexuality wrong.
***** Just as there is a difference betwen hating minorities and considering whites superior.
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[[Category:Tropes/Headscratchers]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction]]▼
[[Category:Headscratchers]]
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