Greatest Scifi/Fantasy ever?

[Treshulk]

So, there's a bloodbath going on at one of my favorite sites. I'm sure you're all dead tired of me even posting links from the place, but I can't help it...! It speaks to me...! Tells me to do things, tells me I'm pretty...!

But yeah, this bloodbath is a poll that occurs every year on io9 asking commenters to vote on the "Greatest work of science fiction and fantasy ever."

As you can imagine, it is not pretty at all. It's getting increasingly weird to me to see just how much blind love of a franchise will make people choose that over things that are clearly more culturally significant. If this were a "pick your favorite" kind of poll, I could see why the results are getting to be as dumb as they are, but... It's not that. Not at all. And yet, things like Dr. Who and Firefly are most likely gonna come out on top of this one. Don't get me wrong, I like Firefly just as much as the next guy, but... It freaking beat out Star Trek just now. I think there might just be a tad more great episodes and cultural significance coming from the entire Star Trek collection than from Firefly/Serenity. And as for Dr. Who... I just completely don't get the raging hard on that the fans of that show have. It's not a terrible show, and it was a decent popcorn flickshow... But it is hardly a show that demands such rabid love. I just don't get it.

If Firefly beats Star Wars in this poll I'm just gonna go cry in a corner forever. I say this not because I love Star Wars, but because everybody and their mom will get the reference if you say "May the force be with you" or bring up Darth Vader and Luke, whereas only a select bunch of people are gonna recognize the name Mal Reynolds and "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

Also, I might just be getting a little too into a poll that means absolutely nothing. That is also a thing.

Anyway, WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THIS NONSENSE?!

Bonus questions: If you got to determine the outcome, what do you think is the greatest science fiction or fantasy work ever?
Bonus to the bonus question: What are your favorite science fiction or fantasy works?

[HumanMeatPuppet]

"Greatest Work of ___" isn't objective by nature. Having a democratic means of creating a list of the "Greatest" whatever is stupid simply because you don't need to give any contextual evidence why something is better than something else. It's more, "I like this so I'm going to vote for it and not give it any thought." Rather than, "Person A makes a good argument as to why media X is better than media Y." I hate it and it's stupid and it's dumb.

[Professor Layton]

This kind of thing bothers me a lot too. This is very much like my recent rant about people everybody rubbing up on Portal 2 so hard. What your favorite thing movie/show/game happens to be is opinion... but what is more important, what has the greater impact on culture and society is not.

The problem in this kind of thing is that old internet contradiction - vocal minorities. It's different from reality where it's easy to sense the most common opinion. On the internet and fandom sites like io9 you have a very narrow demographic who is going to yell as loud as they can about what is most popular in the short run. Firefly is a great show, and in some of ways better than Star Wars... but in 20 years nobody will give a shit about it, but Star Wars will continue to be relevant in culture. You just skew the truth when you have an agenda to make sure your favorite trendy thing is the winner of whatever.

In truth, these polls are meaningless, I know this beyond a doubt... but it still bothers me that people think in such short terms and don't have the awareness to realize what will and will not stand the test of time.

[Silly]

This reminds me of when 4chan voted the L block as the best video game villain of all time. Polls like this are stoopid.

[Treshulk]

Yeah, I realized soon after I posted that it was quite similar to Layton's Portal rant, but I'll leave it here because I am interested in seeing more opinions on the matter. And yeah, these kinds of polls often are mostly bias, but I suppose I just had more faith in the community of that website than I should have, lol. Probably something I shouldn't have had in the first place.

Also, I edited in some more questions to the original post I would find interesting to see you guys answer~!

[HumanMeatPuppet]

I'm not sure what the greatest work of Fantasy/Sci-Fi would be. I actually don't like ranking things by unanimous opinion. I'd much rather see an individual's favorites just because it provides more insight and analysis.

I like a lot of things...

[Byron]

I think Greatest != Most Famous, and Firefly is better than Star Trek. I also agree with HMP's assertion that forming a consensus over Greatest X Ever is stupid, so my opinion is irrelevant.

Doctor Who is a high-concept action adventure with lots of explosions and relatable Mary Sues. It pretends to be a "smart" show, so the viewer can pretend they're smart for liking it. This is why everyone and their grandmother (myself included) likes post-revival Doctor Who.

If Firefly beats Star Wars in this poll I'm going to care very little, but I will consider the correct choice to have been made because Star Wars is dumb.

[Silly]

Mar 23, 2014 17:37:51 GMT -5 Treshulk said:

Anyway, WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THIS NONSENSE?!

Bonus questions: If you got to determine the outcome, what do you think is the greatest science fiction or fantasy work ever?
Bonus to the bonus question: What are your favorite science fiction or fantasy works?

I don't even think I ca give answers to these questions. I just have a bunch of mini rants on how things get put together. I get that brackets need to be random, but sometimes I think it's set up so they get specific results. Rather than comparing two series that are very similar, they compare apples and oranges. For example:

Wizard of Oz beat out The Exorcist in the magic & monsters category? What? I mean, if you're counting the entire Oz series by Baum then maybe I get it. Hell if you even wanted to include the Wicked series by Maguire then maybe. But I know these people are only thinking of the Judy Garland version. Which in my opinion is bullshit. I love both of those films, but for entirely different reasons. This is why things like this piss me off. You can't compare a fantasy film to a psychological horror. You just can't. Besides magic and monsters? That's like saying, well anything magical and maybe there is a monster somewhere in there. The wicked witch of the west, or Elphaba (if you're reading Wicked) aren't "monsters." Wizard is an epic fantasy and shouldn't be in there. Same goes for Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. Fuck I love these books, but they are in the wrong fucking category. They should be in the purple zone duking it out with Neverending story and Narnia.

Random thought: Kudos for leaving Twilight off that list entirely. Fuck, Twilight.

I think I might be the only person who hated a Wrinkle in Time. Granted at age ten I loathed to read. But I really, really, really, hated reading that book. Turns out it beat Avatar which as an adult, I liked. So this all comes down to bias. Silly but enjoyable kids entertainment? or required reading?

Hunger Games vs Back to the Future. This was another fight that bugged me. They should be compared to similar films and/or books of similar plot or concept. One is a quirky time travel story. The other is a political series. (By the way, Mockingjay sucked ass. What a complete disappointment.) For that reason, I would vote for Back to the Future. But I hate choosing between the two. They aren't anything alike other than being trilogies with a shitty conclusion.

God damn it, I'm getting all mad now.


Here's my favorites:

Fantasy (stand alone story): The Princess Bride
Epic Fantasy (series of films/and or books): Harry Potter Fucking Close second: Wizard of Oz series
Dystopian: Battle Royale and A Clockwork Orange love me some "ultra-violence"
Monster Flick: Frankenstein
Space Opera: Star Wars
SciFi?: Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, and Village of the Damned
Mad Science: The Fly
Superhero/comic: X-Men
Shitty SciFi: Face/Off
SciFi Comedy?: Men in Black

Ya see? I actually started referring to my watchlist on IMdb and seriously can't even list them all by category cause then I'm all, Well wait I forgot to add The Matrix!

No really, fuck Twilight.

[whipihguh]

Psh, no Sliders? This list is garbage!

Really, though, I'm gonna take the controversial choice and agree with everyone else that popularity contests like this one mean absolutely nothing, since greatest usually boils down to "Well I'm a bigger fan of Robot Hoedown than Nazi Wizard Wonderland, so Robot Hoedown must be the best!" Even if Garfield vs. Megatron is clearly the better work in an objective sense. Truth is, everyone has their biases, so there will never really be a definitive answer to these sort of things. Different stories speak to different people in different ways. I can't get into Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones because "Medieval Fantasy" simply doesn't interest me. I like Hellboy much more than Harry Potter because I have a greater appreciation for Lovecraftian horror and religious mythology than I do for teenagers holding sticks up and screaming at each other. But that doesn't mean Hellboy is the best story of the bunch, it's just the best one for me.



If I were to say what Sci-Fi/Fantasy story is the "greatest", it'd have to be Star Wars, since I feel that this poll is basically a popularity contest and Star Wars is the one I think that influenced (and will continue to influence) pop culture the most.
I haven't read or watched enough science fiction or fantasy stories to say which is the best overall and I never will, but my favorites as of now are Blindsight and The Forever War.

[Byron]

I can't really answer the bonus questions either. I couldn't determine the winner of this bracket thing because I haven't heard of half the stuff on it. (WTF is Discworld?)

I can't really say what my favorite work of sci-fi or fantasy is either. You may be surprised by this, but there aren't many that I like at all. I just don't generally care for the same escapist fantasies that appeal to most people. I would rather imagine stuff on my own than read/watch something made by someone else.

If I had to pick or die, I guess I would say... Uh... ... Adventure Time?

[Silly]

Mar 23, 2014 19:36:03 GMT -5 whipihguh said:

Psh, no Sliders? This list is garbage!

I can't get into Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones because "Medieval Fantasy" simply doesn't interest me. I like Hellboy much more than Harry Potter because I have a greater appreciation for Lovecraftian horror and religious mythology than I do for teenagers holding sticks up and screaming at each other. But that doesn't mean Hellboy is the best story of the bunch, it's just the best one for me.

Very nicely put. I was about to say I don't care much for Medieval Fantasy either, but then remembered, I love Willow. But that's pretty much the only exception I can think of.

I didn't realize how much I love dystopian stories until I was compiling my list. Maybe I like to be reminded I don't really have it so bad?

[Byron]

I'm watching Spawn right now because I have no self respect.

I used to have a t-shirt with the clown guy on it. I really wish I still had it.

[whipihguh]

OH man, Spawn. What a classic. Now that should've been on the poll for best Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Sauron's got nothing against the Violator!