Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
Well if someone wrote a physics paper on how the "One Ring" in LOTR works does that make it Science Fiction? No, we have to look at what the writing was intended as. Star Wars was not made to show how society deals with development of things like Blasters, Death Stars, and Hyperspace, it was meant to tell the story of a Farm Boy and Princess doing battle with a evil empire.
The best way to understand this is to look at Star Trek: The Next Generation (the series not the movies). On TV this is the best example of what Science Fiction is IMHO. It deals with society's reaction to new technologies, developments in science, interactions with less advanced cultures. TNG was the show that "answered the questions" of "what if?". The other Star Trek series less so (even my beloved DS9).
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If someone wrote a physics paper on how the Ring in LOTR works it wouldn't make it science fiction, since the Ring isn't supposed to be explainable by science within the LOTR universe. Just because no-one wrote a physics paper on blasters (Originally) doesn't mean it's immediately comparable to the Ring.
You're right that Star Wars doesn't deal with the effects of blasters, Death Stars and hyperspace. However, it does tell the story of a farm boy and a princess doing battle with the evil empire
in a setting which includes blasters, Death Stars and hyperspace. If you take those elements out, then it would be something else.
As you said, Star Wars is a space opera, but space opera is (as it is now) a subgenre of science fiction...