Favourite fictional and/or historical settings?

[Kestrel]

What are your favourite settings for stories to take place in? These could be from media or even history? Do you think LotR and Star Wars are the best things since sliced bread? Do you geek out over Mongolian conquest or are you completely intrigued by the impact of the Berlin wall? And while you're at it, it might be fun to elaborate on it.

1.) Tell me what is your favourite setting?

2.) What exactly compels you so much about this setting?

3.) What are some events, works or scenes you feel capture this setting at it's best? Why?

4.) What themes does this setting lend itself especially well to?

5.) What other settings/themes would you like to see mix and match with your favourite setting? Or would you prefer it to maintain purity?

Cheers,

 

[Brovo]

Tell me what is your favourite setting?

Science fiction settings in general get my ferret revved up.

What exactly compels you so much about this setting?

It's the final frontier, the great unknown, the vast expanse. It's a sea of infinite possibilities, and can range from complete fantasy to near-perfect scientific accuracy. It's also near-infinite, so you'll never run out of proverbial space to explore.

What are some works or scenes you feel capture this setting at it's best? Why?

2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly. Numerous reasons, but generally because each and every one presents a wildly different potential future of mankind in relation to space around them. Perhaps their only weakness being that alien life is depicted in a very improbable manner (though understandable because of budgetary reasons).

Basically, back to the point of "infinite possibility."

What themes does this setting lend itself especially well to?

Horror and tension to the extreme, because you are in a metal box floating out in the extremely hostile cosmos where only 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the universe is suitable for human life. One mistake, and out into the vacuum of eye-freezing, lung-popping space you go. Curiosity, intrigue, excitement, discovery are also strong themes in space. Language and cultural barriers in the cases of aliens can also be interesting. Stretching our imagination of the universe to its limits is what sci-fi is best at, for whether that's dark or hopeful, is up to you.

What other settings/themes would you like to see mix and match with your favourite setting? Or would you prefer it to maintain purity?

Sci-Fi was born from the bosom of high fantasy, so, "purity" is kind of a laughable idea with sci-fi. Mix in whatever you like, so long as it remains coherent. Steampunk Sci-Fi could be very neat, for instance.

 

[Shiri]

1.) Tell me what is your favourite setting?
Historical, which means a lot of hair pulling is required if I'm writing it. My favorites are ancient Egypt, Japan's Meiji Era and older, and Victorian Era London.

2.) What exactly compels you so much about this setting?
The research; its my love and bane(WHY LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA WHY?!?!). I'm a big historical buff and knowledge junkie so the genre just kind of clicked with me.

3.) What are some events, works or scenes you feel capture this setting at it's best? Why?
The easy yet boring answer is documentaries. But I do like historically inspired shows like Ripper Street, Bomb Girls, and Marco Polo.

4.) What themes does this setting lend itself especially well to?
Political intrigue. Even if I'm following a different caste/class it seems to slip itself in somewhere.

5.) What other settings/themes would you like to see mix and match with your favourite setting? Or would you prefer it to maintain purity?
I'm not that picky. In fact, I find it amazingly hilarious when an era is purposely misrepresented i.e. Sengoku Basara. I also really love mixing time periods and shoving them into Sci-Fi. Blame Stargate, I know I do. xD