What exactly is the Fantasy genre?

[Blackout]

1. Does it always involve magic?
2. If the story is about a group of people who lives in a space colony of some sort (still, zero magic involved), is it full Sci-Fi, or part that and Fantasy?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Definition:
Anything that involves, but not limited to, magic, dream world, and fairy tales.

 

[Daitengu]

2. Like Star Ocean or Phantasy Star? Might as well use both scifi and fantasy

 

[NotaNuffian]

1. Does it always involve magic?
2. If the story is about a group of people who lives in a space colony of some sort (still, zero magic involved), is it full Sci-Fi, or part that and Fantasy?

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fantasy

 

[Shaelitan]

It almost always involve magic. But form a more general point of view, you can say that it needs to be a world that involve different laws (physical laws not human ones) and functioning than ours : it can be magic, monsters, ki...
The important point is, if the physical laws are exactly the same as our world and you provide a scientific or pseudo-scientific explanation (just 'it's technology' is an explanation, much like 'it's magic') on why it works the way it works, then it is pure sci-fi.
If it occurs in our world or a similar one but there are events that are supernatural and/or magic, then it goes to the genre supernatural or science-fantasy.

 

[Le_ther]

1. Does it always involve magic?
2. If the story is about a group of people who lives in a space colony of some sort (still, zero magic involved), is it full Sci-Fi, or part that and Fantasy?

Fantasy for me is something in reality couldn't exist but only live within our dreams. Mainly it would be some sort of magical world.

Sci-fi may also fall into this but the reason in my opinion think it didn't, because of the possibility it may exist.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Fantasy for me is something in reality couldn't exist but only live within our dreams.

Is owning a house a fantasy?

 

[LilRora]

Fantasy is one of the broadest categories of stories, and you can separate it into many subgroups, but what's specific to all of them is the unreal element. It has to be something that hasn't happened and simply cannot happen in reality.

Going by that definition, it certainly doesn't have to involve magic. Lemme show with an example I've read recently: if you have a story set on Earth, but with another race living in the dark, different purely biologically with no magic involved, then it will definitely belong to fantasy genre, because it does not describe reality or events realistically likely to happen in our world. There were no Homo Nocturnis on Earth last time I checked.

As for the second point, it's arguable. I would say that it is science fiction, but science fiction loosely belongs to fantasy. I believe the most correct term here would be science fiction or futuristic, though I can't give you clear justication without some research. (Futuristic is generally a subgenre of science fiction, where the events are reasonably likely to happen in the future. It's even further from fantasy, though it can be loosely categorized as such.)

 

[Cyberpunkpenguin]

Genres are not rigid definitions; they are flexible. Publishers and authors use them to help them advertise their work by comparing it to pre-existing fiction, and people use them to help them find works they are interested in consuming.

The difference between sci-fi and fantasy is difficult to understand due to how linked the two genres are. An excellent example is the story Dune, which is foundational work in fantasy and sci-fi. Star Wars is the most famous work of science fantasy that possesses spaceships and space Wizards (Jedi). And it can be argued that even Star Trek is a work of science fantasy, with how much weird stuff happens in the series.

There is also a difference between soft sci-fi and hard sci-fi. It's challenging for hard sci-fi to gain mass popularity due to its focus on how technology works. In soft sci-fi, authors can hand-wave how things work. It is a sliding scale between hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi, with most popular fiction being closer to soft sci-fi.

 

[Lloyd]

Everything can be fantasy as long as you give a character huge, gravity defying breasts.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

1. Does it always involve magic?

It doesn't. There are stories where spirits are involved, but no magic whatsoever.

2. If the story is about a group of people who lives in a space colony of some sort (still, zero magic involved), is it full Sci-Fi, or part that and Fantasy?

I've read before that the term Fantasy is really broad. In fact, if what I know still applies (do correct me if I'm wrong), there are a lot of subgenres in Fantasy, like...

1) High Fantasy--basically the setting is in another world. (Like the Tolkien Legendarium)
2) Low Fantasy--a story that is set on Earth, in a contemporary age. (Shakugan no Shana is an example)
3) Bangsian Fantasy--named after an author, it's a fantasy that involved famous dead people and their deeds after their death. (Just like in Drifters)
4) Lovecraftian Fantasy--I read this in some article a few years back; basically, stories with Lovecraft elements became separate from the standard fantasy subgenres due to many authors using and developing this trope.
5) Time-travel Fantasy--yeah, anything with time-travel stuff.
6) Sci-fi Fantasy--maybe this would be controversial (or many would disagree), but Science Fiction can also be considered 'fantasy', though it's been well-developed that it can (and did) become a genre of its own.
7) Supernatural Fantasy--a subgenre that often involves spiritualism, and the border between magic and the supernatural is blurred.

I forgot the other 'established' sub-genres, so feel free to add them.

Also, if I may add (based on what I observed):

> Isekai Fantasy--a popular fantasy 'subgenre' nowadays, where the premise is someone from contemporary Earth being transported to another world. Can be further subdivided into 'power fantasy', 'villainess', 'revenge fantasy', 'wish-fulfillment', 'survival game', and 'reverse isekai'.

Well, as someone who's involved in teaching literature to students, I believe genres--like languages--are dynamic. Those terms don't stay in their definitions for too long, and sometime later, it will evolve into several other forms. A good example of this is my above-mentioned example, Isekai. Back in early 2000s, 'isekai' is limited maybe only to the Japanese, since it's their term for another world. Then, when the light novel, Zero no Tsukaima (The Familiar of Zero) came out (and became popular to my generation; I'm already 33, btw), a lot of authors were inspired to write stories where the MC got summoned into another world, possessing and using modern Earth knowledge to their advantage.

Hence the spread of the word, 'Isekai'.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Every fictional story is fantasy story, in my opinion.

I also consider Bad argument, troll, and bigotry as Fantasy since I refuse to accept their existence.

 

[AiLovesToGrow]

Speculative Fiction: the overarching genre involving a story or world that contains elements of a fantastical, theoretical or otherwise unrealistic nature.

Science Fiction: the subgenre of Speculative Fiction where the elements that are imagined or made up involve theoretical science or a possible future.

Fantasy: the subgenre of Speculative Fiction where the elements that are imagined or made up involve mythology or folklore.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Whatever you want it to be. Fantasy includes anything and everything that isn't really possible for humans currently. Maybe it will be in the future but for now it's a fantasy.

 

[CapitaoCaverna]

If it involves a dragon, no matter the setting, it's fantasy.

If it involves magic, it's also fantasy.

If it involves something that isn't, and won't become possible with technology. That's fantasy.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Fantasy is what you want it to be, and it can overlap with other genres.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Fantasy is anything Imagined.
Fantasy genre requires it to be a tolkien-esque rip-off.

 

[Le_ther]

Is owning a house a fantasy?

Yes

 

[CubicleHermit]

Fantasy is like porn, you know it when you see it.
(edit: which is not to say that those two are mutually exclusive)

The lines are blurry. Are pseudo-historic stories set in places that didn't really exist or were idealized, but where magic isn't involved fantasy?

I don't know, but many fantasy readers would probably enjoy The Prisoner of Zenda (it's out of copyright: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/95/95-h/95-h.htm and could definitely be adapted to being an Isekai ("I was summoned to another world because I looked like the King of their country")

Similarly, the line between fantasy and SF is blurry. Lest Darkness Fall and Island in the Sea of Time both get shelved with science fiction, but look at them funny and they're basically isekai fantasies where the other world is the ancient world past. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court predates the modern genre distinctions, but could be classed as either.

Similarly, the lines between modern fantasy, magical realism, superhero stories, and supernatural horror stories is more about tone than actual premise or content.

 

[Triskele_Lynx]

If it involves a dragon, no matter the setting, it's fantasy.

Unless the setting is Pern, where the dragons were genetically engineered from fire lizards.

To invoke Sturgeon's Law, "Nothing is always absolutely so."

Fantasy is anything Imagined.
Fantasy genre requires it to be a tolkien-esque rip-off.

To invoke Sturgeon's Revelation, "Ninety percent of everything is crap." Some of the other 10% isn't Tolkienesque. Across the Nightingale Floor, for example.