Star Wars and Space Operas


                   Well shit if this isn't one of largest sub genre's to tackle, that is if it even counts as sub genre considering its actually a hybrid between fantasy and science fiction. I feel like the rules of what constitutes a Space Opera was set in stone by the First Star Wars movie. A story of a young farm boy who is the chosen one, and must quest with a wise old wizard funny creature companions and the dashing rouge to save the princess from the evil wizard and empire who killed his father and learn old magical ways in the process. Except it all take place in an intergalactic empire, with space ships, guns and telepathic powers instead of magic. This ultimately set the standard of a space opera being a world with the skin and appearance of advanced technology but with the plot, story and world mechanics being direct interpretations or identical to those of a fantasy world. I think a great more modern example of this would be the world of WarHammer 40k, WH4k is not just a single piece of media it ranges from a table top game, to multiple genre's of video games as well as graphic novels. It is still very much a modern, bloody, sad space opera. The world has intergalactic travel, space ships, power armor, guns, guns attached to chainsaws, and all the xenomorph ripoffs one could want in their sci-fi story. However the world is also filled with orcs and elves and ancient gods that different factions fight for, as well as the human race who have formed a holy empire and all the different factions and races are constantly in a state of fighting one another, its like Star Trek meets Conan the barbarian. I would also like to argue the point however that a world like dnd that has an overtly fantasy setting but very modern structured cultures and their own version of advanced technology also fits into the category of Space Opera just with the sci-fi and fantasy roles reversed. Thems my thoughts.