#sci's musings

[sci-firenegade]

I was compelled to do this.

[aroaceleovaldez]

I have to wonder if Will being into space themed sci-fi specifically is like. A weird side effect of being an Apollo child. He's the sun god and the first major NASA expedition was called Apollo and now sometimes his kids get Space as a special interest. Doctor Who, Dune, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are also probably up his alley.

I like this thought a LOT and am immediately incorporating it into my Will hcs.

[redxdesign]

[cleopatragirlie]

❀ 𝐔𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐞𝐫 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐬) 𝐢𝐧 '𝐇𝐚𝐲𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐨' (𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟏) ❀

[entropyvoid]

Honestly with all the overlap between sci-fi and fantasy fans, I’m really surprised that “high fantasy in space” isn’t more of a thing.

There are some things generally assumed by most to be sci-fi that I’d personally label space fantasy, like Star Wars, where the high tech is just there as a backdrop to a classic heroic story of good guys vs. bad guys, who are definitely doing magic (by using the force). The point of Star Wars isn’t the tech or anything, it just happens to be a tale told in space. It contrasts pretty starkly with something like Star Trek, where the vast majority of episodes revolve around exploring whatever scientific or philosophical concept the writers thought would be kinda neat that week, using established characters as a vehicle for said exploration.

I think one of my favorite things about Honkai Star Rail is that it freely and unabashedly mixes sci-fi and fantasy. It just goes “You are a walking neutron bomb. Also turns out your bestie is from a self-reincarnating race of dragon people with powerful water and illusion magic. They live on this big, planet-sized ship that’s dedicated to hunting down this one cosmic horror that cursed all the ship’s inhabitants with immortality, under the banner of this other cosmic horror that exists solely to kill the first cosmic horror. Let’s go on vacation to the theme park planet, the actual resort is technically an Alice-in-Wonderland style dream triggered by the same kinda cosmic-horror-gifted bomb as you. Your new friend is a meme. By the way, did we tell you about the one time this super-genius harnessed the power of *imagination* to build a death ray that instantly obliterated a bunch of planets? That was kinda fucked up, huh.” Sometimes Star Rail tries to give explanations for its tech in a way that seems believably sciencey. Sometimes shit’s just straight up called magic or it’s from some deity or another and none of the characters present have a good understanding of why, so you all just go about your bullshit. It makes it work within the context of its established universe.

Cosmic horror in general is often (but not always) found in sci-fi, but where the point of sci-fi is to expand on and detail a concept in a believably scientific way or explore the impacts of a scientific thing, the point of cosmic horror is that there is a Thing that is beyond human understanding or comprehension. Sci-fi is a fun thing to insert it into, because the more scientifically sensible and well-understood elements of the world you have, the more jarring that becomes.

Then you’ve got things like Dungeon Meshi, which exists in an inverse of something like Star Rail: it takes a very Tolkien-inspired Dungeons and Dragons-esque setting, and then details it in a very scientifically sensible way. There is magic, and there are these fantastical monsters, yes, but the monsters are parts of their own delicate and intricate ecosystems, they are edible, and they have very particular nutritional values and ways you can cook them! The protag’s biggest strength lies in him being a nerd about monster biology. Magic, too, by the end of it, ends up with a plausible enough explanation as well. And the explanation is a cosmic horror! In this way, Dungeon Meshi, despite being built entirely off of very easily recognizable and classic fantasy tropes, is probably more accurately classed as sci-fi.

I just love all of it. Can I get like 50 more of these fucked up lil mixtures of science and magic please?

[humunanunga]

Commit to one or make your argument for other in the notes. If it depends, make your argument. If it's multiple of the above, make your argument. If it's "op you forgot ___" make your argument. If you wanna "well actually" and get historical or multicultural or multifandom about it, tell us which one or few should be the standard and make your argument.

Have strong opinions. Pick a hill to die on. Give a slideshow presentation for why your take is the right one. Go to war with your mutuals and die in each other's arms on the battlefield over it.

[harpuiaa]

i've been dead and gone bc of school and jobsearching and everything happening all at once but ive been playing the boktai series games lately and i'm enjoying it a lot. I just got past the third boss in boktai 2. I don't know why but i'm enthralled with these games, i highly recommend them

[shepcdr]

reflecting today on if my psds/edits obscure the fact that yishai shepard is indeed a brown person. to Me he has non-white features but i am not sure if this translates to everyone else's view

even if his family history leaves it ambiguous as to what he is at best. and though mass effect lore attempts in the books to highlight that humanity is becoming more "homogenous" like other alien species (which is just a lil silly way to try and excuse having the same game models for every NPC alien... with bad science... trust me it's ok lmao, the player knows and doesn't need an in universe explanation to distinguish that gameplay ≠ actual lore/world stuff) and that being mixed isn't really all that "unusual"(??) anymore. and despite the clear avoidance of talking about human race/ethnicity/identities and the focus instead on alien-human relations. mixed/brown shep is still my beloved

[yuanwang]

save me asian ocs.. save me...

[mindfulhavens]

In the blink of an eye, the earth had been destroyed.

But by dumb luck, a regular man named Arthur Dent found himself the sole human survivor, aboard an alien craft with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in hand. On the cover, the words:

“Don’t Panic”

[verum-artifex]

They are from the future, but still in touch with nature. 🏞️

[sci-firenegade]

Scandalous... his hair is all loose!

[my-t4t-romance]

it's always hilarious to me on like doctor who or star trek when someone says "impossible!!" about something that is happening right before their very eyes. I think you will find that Weird Shit That Contradicts What You Thought You Knew #327 is very possible

[redxdesign]

[hatefueled]

so far the only thing i have for modern boothill is he's a single father, his daughter is named camila. she was adopted by him at the age of one. he probably works as some sort of mechanic maybe... electrician could be fitting too. or he could do work a ranch so i can play around with his skillset as a literal cowboy.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@thealmightyemprex @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @piterelizabethdevries @stormandforge

There is not always a guarantee that a more realistic depiction of minority characters, our struggles and opression will be better when written in a realistic scenario.

Sometimes, the realistic scenario does a poor aproach in representation, while a fantasy or sci fi allegory or even a case where a minority viewer or reader identifies with a fantastical character that wasn't necessarily meant to be a metaphor for them, becomes the better received, most effective and respectful form of representation.

I am thinking primarily on the X-Men franchise as a comentary on passing, assimilation, minority opression and resistance, but other examples can be The Matrix, Nimona, the Star Trek franchise, fairy tales and their film adaptations, Dinosaurs, The Muppets...

Feel free to ad more examples.