44
Yes
Many things make this film on-topic. A few:
The giant dome built that a whole (fake) city fits in.
It is shown that real lighting storms can be created in it.
It’s pretty dystopian.
Truman is effectively owned by the company making the show, and they have gotten away for it for 30 years.
Even without tech like the dome, dystopias are on-topic here.
...
36
In-Universe Explanations — Even Based On Real Science — Are On-Topic
Any question that is asking for an answer within the context of a fictional universe, even if that question requires real-world science information, is on-topic.
We should not expect content creators to spell out every detail of the science in their works. We can assume that works of ...
34
What makes it "adult-only" material, rather than just "adult"? Lots of things are adult material. Murder is adult material depending on who you ask.
I think the Stack Exchange population is generally expected to have a decent enough level of maturity and professionalism to be able to handle adult material. We are not a community of immature people - ...
33
They should be allowed.
As long as it's SFF, it's fine.
We are a site about science fiction and fantasy. And, let's face it... there are very often explicit scenes in SFF. And sometimes there is a book that is erotica that is a SFF story. It is about SFF, so that's one point in its favor.
Context matters.
It's been mentioned that it could potentially ...
31
Before I get to my real answer, two things:
No, we absolutely should not migrate questions off this site if they are on-topic. There are plenty of cases in the Stack Exchange network where site scopes overlap and the rule, as far as I am aware, is always to leave the question on the site where it was asked unless it's overtly off-topic.
We need to be ...
31
Yes, it is on topic.
First of all, the user asking didn't know it was from an Axe commercial. Angels are not unusual in works of Fantasy, so this Stack was a logical place to ask.
An answer should not make a question off-topic, if the question without the answer seems on-topic.
Furthermore, angels falling from heaven are a common trope (no, I'm not linking ...
29
No. Anthropomorphic/Sentient/Talking animals don't, in and of themselves, make a film/book/TV programme/comic into a fantasy if the central conceit is that talking animals do already exist within that fictional universe. Stuart Little would be an excellent example of this.
That said, we would consider talking animals to be part of a fantasy if:
They had ...
29
Yes.
The community has already voiced its opinion on these questions. The Christopher Lee post has +33 upvotes, Terry Pratchett +34, Leonard Nimoy +29, Carrie Fisher +41 and Affable Geek +10. Although there are a small number of downvotes, they're outweighed by an average of ten to one.
Additionally, they've each successfully faced down close votes (...
29
If a question is overtly offensive, it should be flagged as such.
Gratuitous NSFW pictures, links to porn, unnecessarily graphic language ... all of these are at best things to be edited out of a question immediately, and at worst might be forms of trolling. These are the kinds of thing which really need to be off our site. I know nobody will disagree with ...
26
Generally no. Atrocities committed by Nazi Germany and other powers are history and are generally not on-topic here.
However, works of science fiction and fantasy often draw from political history; a discussion of history may be on-topic if it is necessary "to do a meaningful analysis of fictional work". For example, an alternate history in which the Axis ...
25
So long as the question is written with a reasonable level of maturity and lack of vulgarity,
No. Absolutely not.
Generally speaking, the Internet is a PG-Rated environment - on a good day. The most innocuous search will bring you results that would leave an average person silently sobbing and rocking themselves in the corner. If you have children that ...
25
Worldbuilding mod here. I would say yes to this proposal; I've seen a lot of questions redirected from Science Fiction & Fantasy to Worldbuilding.
Here's my proposed wording:
If your question is about...
Writing science fiction or fantasy, ask on Writers Stack Exchange.
Creating a fictional situation or universe of your own or investigating ...
24
Yes
As you've noted, the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons incorporate significant elements of science fiction and fantasy, quite a lot of which is internally consistent and intrudes into Calvin's reality. At the very least, asking about these is perfectly acceptable.
Additionally, the question about whether the entire strip is fantastical seems to have been ...
24
Both Science Fiction and Fantasy are broad categories but I fail to see how Peanuts fits into either of them.
There are many cartoon tropes (characters only falling after noticing they've run into thin air, stepping off falling objects at the last second without injury, drawing then opening doors) where the normal laws of nature do not apply. Perhaps a more ...
24
Science fiction and fantasy in all forms of media is welcome here.
We have tags for movie, tv, and video-games as well as for books, novel, and short-stories. (Inconsistent pluralisation, I know. Sorry.) And even beyond these tags, which are generally used only for ID questions or to distinguish between the same story in different media, a glance through ...
22
Zootopia is very firmly on topic, containing significant elements of science fiction.
Conceit/Setting
Ignoring the talking animals, the film itself is set in a futuristic world, complete with steampunk zeppelins. The city of Zootopia features impossible architecture (suggesting materials technology in advance of our own) as well as being arranged into ...
22
As base instinct I would say yes (having watched the show growing up... Let's just take a look at the theme song (I could have recited it for you, but you can't hear me through typing).
Things I see in the trailer include: knights, dragons, witches, mummies, robots, space travel...
All of this seems like it confirms my ...
22
The rules are fine as-is.
Reference:
Should questions about sex and other adult activities be off-topic?
What's our tolerance for adult content?
But phantom, there are so many arguments!
Hey, I didn't say that the whole situation is good - just that the rules are fine. Let's back up.
Based on the existing guidelines, adult content and topics are OK.
...
21
I have always felt that the "actual problems that you face" clause is generally a poor fit for SciFi and a few other SE sites.
I understand the reason for it, but I just feel that we're far enough from the topics of the sites where it originated that its value is diluted for us.
So I'd say that yes, "I'm curious" is sufficient justification for asking a ...
21
I don't really think that Zoolander fits into the genre descriptions for Scifi.
It certainly contains elements that are scifi-ish but only as part of a wider fantasy universe in which male models apparently have superpowers such as "hotness" and the ability to freeze objects in mid-air when they pose.
As is usual with these edge-cases, questions about the ...
21
Yes
It is on-topic by association with the superhero genre, like Gotham and other DC superhero-related shows. To quote from this answer about Gotham:
TL;DR - Gotham should be on-topic because being in the "superhero" genre isn't judged purely by content, but by association
...
However, this vague line, as drawn, often puts the clearly heroic as ...
20
I believe not. Mission Impossible is a series of action-spy genre, and does not to any extent fit the definitions of either Science-Fiction OR Fantasy.
This is the same as James Bond, or Jason Bourne (Hey their initials are the same!!).
I do not believe that action-spy should on-topic in sci-fi & fantasy.
There is the entire Movies stack exchange for ...
20
In general the format of these questions would be considered off-topic should be closed. The reason being that the creatures have different abilities or features across a vast number of works.
Any one question therefore may have numerous acceptable answers. As our "too broad" close reason states (emphasis mine):
There are either too many possible ...
20
In general, critical analysis is on-topic and can lead to great questions. The closed question, however, is not a good example of such a question. At the time it was closed the body of the question was
Does the movie "dark knight " portray the theme of imprisonment? If so how? And where is it shown in the film.
But what is meant by the "theme of ...
20
Should these types of comments be flagged, addressed, or merely ignored?
If you feel that a comment is not constructive, flag it.
If a comment does not relate to improving the question or one of the answers, flag it.
You are never required to respond to any comment, particularly one with any of the above problems.
Having said that, if you find a comment ...
20
The usual test is to look at conceit and marketing. Both of those heavily indicate that this book series is (science) fantasy, and hence on-topic
Central Conceit.
A group of rats has been subjected to bio-medical experimentation and has become intellectually "uplifted" to human levels of intelligence. They then develop a civilisation. Humans interacting ...
19
As long as there was a consistent science fiction theme throughout, these books would be perfectly well on topic.
We've had other questions about puzzle books (typically of the CYOA variety) as well as scifi artbooks and the community seems broadly happy with them.
19
I'd argue against it being SF&F. There is nothing in the film which isn't easily explained by fortune and superstition. I don't have enough additional words to really make an answer.
Even if you accept that the sacrifice does guarantee good weather and harvest, as Valorum states, incidental SF&F content doesn't make a mostly mundane series valid ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
