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Definitions, briefly
“Fantasy” broadly describes a genre of fictional works that feature incredible, unrealistic, or magical elements. Various contributors to the genre have shaped and expanded the scope-of-meaning by introducing different forms and sub-categories of fantasy. It is common for works to span multiple sub-categories.
Mood describes the way a story - or part of a story - feels to the person experiencing it.
Tone expresses the attitude of a character in a story.
Types of Fantasies
Comic fantasy
Humorous, whimsical, absurd, or un-serious tone. Not necessarily funny, as author John Scalzi has quipped: “The failure state of ‘comedy’ is ‘asshole’”.
Film: Shrek, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
TV: I Dream of Genie, Extraordinary
Books: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
Games: Munchkin, Paranoia
Contemporary/Modern fantasy
Familiar, modern-day settings with fantasy elements.
Film: Penelope, Inside Out, The Shape of Water
TV: The Magicians, Charmed
Books: American Gods, The City We Became
Games: City of Mist
Dark fantasy
Frightening or grotesque moods and horror elements. Perilous, deadly worlds with often hopeless, frustrated, or pessimistic tones.
Film: Pan’s Labyrinth, A Nightmare on Elm Street
TV: American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful, The Walking Dead
Books: the Game of Thrones series, Lovecraft Country
Games: Call of Cthulhu, Shadow of the Demon Lord, the Greyhawk Dungeons & Dragons setting
Fables and fairy tales
Usually centered on non-human beings such as talking animals and supernatural or magical entities. Fables impart some lesson or moral of the story. Usually can be attributed to specific authors.
Film: Beauty and the Beast, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Fern Gully
TV: Once Upon a Time
Books: Fables comics series, works by the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Anderson
Games:
Folklore and Tall Tales
Similar to fables and fairy tales, but without any specific author and usually components of a specific culture or mythology. These often resemble “info about a being” more than a narrative structure. Exmaples include Paul Bunyan, unicorns, werewolves, vampires, oni, John Henry, Kashi the Deathless, Ned Ludd, tanuki, jackalope, baba yaga, leprechauns, etc.
“Tall Tales” are often fantastic, wildly-exaggerated stories about real people.
Film: The Last Unicorn, Tangled
TV:
Books: Anansi Boys
Games: City of Mist, the D&D Monster Manual
Heroic fantasy
Generally hopeful- or optimistically-toned stories of the forces of good triumphing over evil.
Film: The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride
TV: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Books: Beowulf, the Taran Wanderer book series
Games: Marvel Heroic
High fantasy
Epic adventures in worlds where magical elements are well-known to exist, even if they are not necessarily commonplace.
Film: The Lord of the Rings
TV: The Wheel of Time
Books: A Wizard of Earthsea, the Scholomance series
Games: the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons settings
Historical fantasy
Set during a notable period of the real-world past and prominently featuring actual, verifiable persons, but accompanied by fantastical elements.
Film: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Indiana Jones
TV: Outlander, The Nevers
Books: the Temeraire series, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Games:
Low fantasy
The inverse of high fantasy: supernatural elements are rare, hardly believed in, or distant and aloof. Narratives are narrowly-scoped to one or very few individuals and are often centered on the mundane realities of daily life and the ways that supernatural events disrupt those customs.
Film: Pulp Fiction, I am Legend
TV: Good Omens, The Last of Us, The Twilight Zone
Books: The Indian in the Cupboard, Hellblazer
Games: Tales from the Loop
Science fantasy
A hybrid of science fiction and magical fantasy. Technology and rationality are typically dominant cultural elements but exist alongside impossible, irrational, or unknowable phenomena.
Film: Blade Runner, Cloud Atlas, Star Wars
TV: Star Trek, Doctor Who, Altered Carbon
Books: Foundryside, the Expanse series, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Games: Starfinder, Star Trek Adventures
*-punk (honorable mention)
Numerous forms exist: cyber-, steam-, solar-, aether-, diesel-, gothic-, et cetera, ad libidum.
The moods are typically tense and revolutionary, with rebellious, defiant, or anti-authority tones. Prominent themes across the genres include social alienation, economic repression, and the dynamic tensions that exist among individuals, society, and technology. Individual sub-genres tend to color specific periods of technological or social disruption in consistent ways.
Film: The Matrix, Poor Things, Mad Max,
TV: Snowpiercer, His Dark Materials
Books: Attack on Titan, Ready Player One
Games: World of Darkness, Cyberpunk