'Shroomfest (Round 8) - FANTASY vs SCI-FI

Diamant

Diamant

Gallant Ninja
Core 'Shroom Staff
Awards Committee
Poll Consultant
Pronouns
He/him
MarioWiki
Ninja Squid
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'SHROOMFEST
FANTASY VS SCI-FI​

It's been a while, hasn't it? Hi there, everyone, and welcome to the eighth round of 'Shroomfest, and the first one in three years! This is Ninja Squid, your Design Manager, and I'm back in my old judge seat once again. It's good to be back in the groove and using this good ol' trusty gavel. This time around, our Directing staff has found themselves in quite the disagreement over which kind of movie we should be watching. Truth be told, it's gotten a bit out of proportion, and now, we're settling the debate: which genre reigns supreme, Fantasy or Science Fiction?

Good news: that's where you come in! Help us decide what kind of movie night we should have by showing your support for your favorite genre. Be sure to check out the 'Shroomfest section in the current issue of The 'Shroom to read our opening story, along with the first pitches from Sparks and Waluigi Time as they try to win you over to their side. And hey, if you're a little rusty on how 'Shroomfest works, or if this is your first time joining us, you'll also find the rules and guidelines there. We hope you will have good fun here with us!


What is 'Shroomfest?
A 'Shroomfest is a contest between two opposite factions who make posts to showcase the best qualities of their side, using humor, interesting facts, art, memes, or anything, really, to make their side of choice look appealing. Two team leaders, who offer their own points in support of their team, will lead the factions. The event will last for three weeks, and, during that time, you will try to earn as many points for your team as possible by participating consistently and making entertaining or interesting posts to earn bonus points.

Subject of Round 8
Which genre do you prefer, fantasy or sci-fi?

Fantasy vs Sci-Fi 'Shroomfest Committee

Rules
There are three categories in which you can earn points for your team of choice each week.. In order for a faction to come out as the winner, it must win as many categories as possible. As any given individual can earn point for their team per category per week (for a total of three points in a week, maximum), it helps your team the most if you turn out every week, and if you make entertaining posts that draw those on the sidelines into the event to support your team. For a full explanation of the rules, please click here.

  • VOTES: The number of votes for each side. To cast a vote on the 'Shroomfest poll, click here. Remember to vote once a week.
  • ENDORSEMENTS: The number of users of the community who endorse a team.
    • In order to provide an endorsement, simply post Endorse: [Team] in this thread, in bold, and offer a few short words of support (examples below) if you're so inclined.
      • Vote Fantasy
      • Go Sci-Fi!
      • I support Team Fantasy
      • Sci-Fi for the win!
  • EFFORT: The effort that has been put into the event.
    • There isn't a hard and fast rule as to what constitutes an "effort" post. As a rule of thumb, if you contribute something that reasonably takes more than a few minutes to create, it'll count.
    • Users must participate in the event by providing:
      • Arguments and Examples
      • Artwork
      • Stories
      • Memes
      • Other forms of creative work that reflect a degree of thought and effort beyond just a few words.
    • If you aren't sure if something counts as an effort post or not, ask the judge via Discord or via a PM!

'Shroomfest Guidelines
  • The designated judge (Ninja Squid) will open the event's thread. Following this post, the team leaders (Sparks and Waluigi Time) will hand over their opening post, which explains why they support their respective team and offers some initial points in support of their teams.
  • For a week, you will provide your own endorsements, facts, and ideas that support your team of choice.. You can make use of your own facts and opinions, or you can provide art, photos, stories, memes, and other forms of creative work.
  • Remember, creativity and entertainment value can be as important as detail! Something entertaining is as likely as a well-structured, detailed post to get noticed by other participants and the judge.
  • After a week, the judge will intervene with a brief note, highlighting the best posts from both teams. The judge will then reward with three bonus points to the "EFFORT" category to the side that seems to have brought the most interesting or entertaining posts.
  • Following the judge's intervention, the judge will leave both teams with a question, theme, or challenge, and the team leaders and their supporters will try to answer the judge's questions or otherwise make posts related to the judge's challenge or theme.
  • This cycle will repeat itself every week for a maximum of three weeks, offering a chance to win nine bonus points for your faction.
  • Once the three-week period has ended, the judge will conclude the event with a short message and invite the participants to come back for the results that will release during Issue 218 of The 'Shroom. Any message posted after this message won't be taken into account during the compilation of the results.
  • Please note that in an effort to keep the event civil, fun, and lighthearted, we ask that you please respect all the instructions. Any inappropriate behaviors (spam, flaming, personal attacks, etc…), and discussions regarding politics, social issues, or any controversial topics will not be tolerated.
  • The event will end on May 10th, 2025.


If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions for future 'Shroomfests, please contact Waluigi Time, Sparks, and Ninja Squid via a forum PM or on Discord.
 
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(TRUMPET FANFARE)​

Hear ye, hear ye!​

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(Reggie plays a trumpet solo before I tap him on the back) That's enough, Reggie.

*Ahem* Welcome one and all, to the most magical tournament we will ever see! I am King Sparks, and my mission is to make sure Fantasy wins this bizarre war against Commander Waluigi Time's Sci-Fi army! Hopefully I won't have to resort to any desperate measures, but I won't hesitate if it has to come to that!

Now, I have plenty of reasons why Fantasy reigns supreme! Firstly, who doesn't love dragons, wizards, ponies, knights and whatnot?
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All of these amazing subjects originated in the Fantasy genre! I could go on and on about what else Fantasy has, but I don't wanna take up most of your time.

Do you know what's even better? Fantastic franchises! We have all grown up with movies, video games, books and other forms of media that are Fantasy! I've gathered all the ones I can think of off the top of my head here:

​

My Little Pony​

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My favorite out of all them! My Little Pony has been around since the 1980's, but the fourth generation (Friendship Is Magic) is the most popular one. Adorable ponies learning valuable morals accompanied by beautiful visuals and music? Yes please! I have a Twilight Sparkle plushie too!​

Kingdom Rush​

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No doubt the best Tower Defense franchise ever made! Kingdom Rush combines comedy, a comic artstyle, riveting gameplay and pop culture references seamlessly. Currently has 5 games as well as a spinoff!​

Spyro the Dragon​

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If you had a PlayStation in the 90's, you'll recognize this iconic purple dragon! Soar and burn your way as you travel across many worlds and stop nasty villains. Collect all the treasure too! Dragons like it.​

Lord of the Rings​

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I may not know much about LotR, but I do know some of the characters! Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli, Frodo and Gollum are the most well-known (Sauron too). That's… all I know.

Shrek​

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Memes aside, Shrek combines basically every Fairy Tale into a goofy franchise with a lot of heart. There's a new film currently in development too!

Fire Emblem​

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All I know is that there are many characters from this series in Super Smash Bros. Those knowledgeable with the games please help me out! I'd greatly appreciate it!​

Monty Python and the Holy Grail​

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One of the funniest movies ever made, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a ridiculous film set in the Middle Ages, where King Arthur rules. He and his Knights of the Round Table must seek the Holy Grail, but get into several hilarious situations along the way.

The Legend of Zelda​

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While I know very little of this amazing Nintendo franchise, The Legend of Zelda has some of the highest rated games of all time, and they still hold up to today. The CDI games have had hilarious memes over the years too!
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That's not all! How about a My Little Pony/Monty Python and the Holy Grail crossover? There're more crossovers out there too!​


Whew! That was a lot. It was worth it though! Hopefully you now realize that Fantasy is the better genre! Join me as I battle against Commander Waluigi Time and his Sci-Fi army! I'll let you choose what you want to be… have you ever wanted to be a dragon or a wizard?​
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I can make that happen!
 
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Greetings, space cadets! Waluigi Time here for Team Sci-Fi with your marching orders! We have to show Sparks just why our movie's better than his. Time is short, so I'll keep this briefing brief!

There's lots of great science fiction media out there, and I'm not going to go through all of them because then you guys won't have anything to talk about, and that's not very fun! Sparks has a bunch of examples for his team, so he's got the numbers on his side, but I've got numbers too, specifically, box office numbers! Let's take a look at the highest-grossing film of all time, shall we? No, not Gone with the Wind, that's adjusted for inflation so it doesn't count. Also, that's not even fantasy or sci-fi so it would be really weird to bring that up here.

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​
That's right, Avatar! The one with all the blue aliens in it, not the one with all the elemental guys. I haven't actually seen this one, but it made more money than any other movie ever, so it's probably good and culturally impactful!

There's actually a lot of sci-fi in the highest-grossing movies. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Avatar: The Way of Water, and plenty of Marvel Cinematic Universe entries if you count those (c'mon, one of the main guys flies around in a robot suit) are all in the current top ten! Seems like the audiences respond well to these, and just check out the amount of variety in those works! You don't even need to go to outer space for sci-fi when you've got cloned dinosaurs down here!

But speaking of outer space, they say a picture's worth a thousand words. Sparks may have The Legend of Zelda on his side, but I have something just a little bit more relevant to our tastes as a community...

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Super Mariooooo... Galaxy!​
 
Oooh another Shroomfest, there hasn't been one in such a long time! This time, it's dealing with two themes that I both actually really like, so it's very hard for me to pick a side here!

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Okay here I go! This is going to be fun!

....Well anyway, I'm probably gonna be Endorsing Fantasy here, despite my love for Sci-Fi too. As you can probably see, I'm from the Dynasty Warriors series, which is based off a book (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a literary masterpiece that is as well known as Shakespeare in the West and one of the greatest of all Chinese novels), based off historical events dating all the way back to the end of the Han Dynasty, but this game has plenty of multiple fantastical elements that would qualify it, including a famous strategist using a war fan that shoots laser beams, magical sorcerers who use talisman cards, and another strategist using a scroll to generate soldiers that can fight for you!

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Back here, we may not have all that fancy technology (that we would love to have, by the way, Wi-Fi sounds super cool after all!), but our indomitable spirit and heart still burns passionately regardless! There's still so much interesting stuff that could happen in fantasy environments, we did got attacked by massive demons and dragons with so many heads and got the help of time traveling sorcerers to help us out, and we got successful! And take a look at this rocket spear!

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May not be an actual rocket you guys use, but it's still so much fun to use in its own right! Regardless of era, I think we can all agree that it's still just as fun to take off to the skies and shoot fire at bad guys, right?

Oh and there's a shapeshifting monkey!

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I would like to see what kind of cool things that come from Sci-Fi too!
 

Let's have a strong start for Team Fantasy, shall we?​


Epic battles are very common nowadays, but ones involving Fantasy will knock your socks off! For example, check out this epic magical duel between Princess Twilight Sparkle and the evil Lord Tirek! How awesome is this?!
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Taking a look over at Sci-Fi now, their fights are… underwhelming, to say the least. Captain Kirk vs. Gorn from Star Trek? So slow and boring!
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I endorse Team Fantasy! Let us show them we can't be beat!​
 
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Yoshi the SSM: "I would like to Endorse: Sci-Fi. After all, the first S in SSM stands for Space."
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Arc: "Hey. What's going on?"
Yoshi the SSM artwork.pngYoshi the SSM: "Oh. Hello, Arc. Oh. This is your first time experiencing this. This is a 'Shroomfest. It is about fantasy vs. science fiction. There have been other themes before this one."
Arc.pngArc: "Ah. Well... (looks at it) Hmm... would Technikki and Adaphne's inventions be part of science fiction? But otherwise, my world seems more like fantasy."
Yoshi the SSM artwork.pngYoshi the SSM: "While, yes, the world itself seems to lean more towards the fantasy. There are more than just the inventions for the science fiction. There is that portal that goes between two different worlds. That is also part of science fiction. Also, the final boss is computer-like and therefore science fiction."
Arc.pngArc: "Well, I will give it some more thought. Anything else for why you chose Science Fiction?"
Yoshi the SSM artwork.pngYoshi the SSM: "It's mainly space. Although, I do like the time travel stuff as well."
Arc.pngArc: "Oh. What would you do with the power to time travel?"
Yoshi the SSM artwork.pngYoshi the SSM: "Actually, I did have the power to time travel in this game. Although, it was limited to only that game's timeline. And I mainly used it to observe. But I did bring NPCs with me through time twice. One to the past, and one to the present at that time."
 
Cosmo decides to endorse Team Fantasy, and hopes Waluigi Time won't kick him out of the 'Shroom for it.
 
Bringing up Avatar in favor of sci-fi is actually a double-edged sword. Since you mentioned the other work that carries that name (the one with the elemental guys), let me tell you that Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest eastern culture-inspired fantasy cartoons (and cartoons as a whole) ever made, whereas Blue Tree People the Movie is a fairly generic and predictable story propped up by its inflated budget and effects work.

Like, I know that the hacks over at Hollywood turn their nose up at anything that is traditionally animated, but if you put the two side by side and are honest, there is really no comparison with regards to which project is more thought-provoking and unique, and which story is more impactful. I basically cry every time I see the scene where Zuko reunites with Iroh at the end of season 3, or even think about it.

Not that I'm particularly enthusiastic about fantasy as a genre either. "Fantasy" nowadays is basically an oxymoron; there is nothing inventive about the 3000th instance of someone ripping off Tolkien's work and declaring "Hey guys, look at my unique fantasy world, it is full of yet more elves, which are basically like humans but with all their negative traits removed."

But if we're making this about Avatar (the good one) vs. Avatar (the blue one), I guess I'm going to have to throw in with the bloody elves. Ugch. I guess let me go get my pointy ears out of moth balls and rub myself in boar droppings, so I can condescend to the nearest hog farmer about how in harmony with nature I am.
 
A large part of movies and games is immersion and putting yourself into a world, so it raises the question, which world would you rather see yourself in?

Imagine yourself in the lush, green, natural landscape of your typical medieval fantasy world, with knights and dragons in abundance. Now imagine what the plumbing's like.

Yeah maybe there's a chance that there's a xenomorph on my spaceship but at least I'll be able to have a hot shower. Team sci-fi for sure.
 

I shall show my support for Fantasy once more!​


Did you know fantasy-related media has plenty of memes that are still hilarious to this day? I have put togtether several examples!
​

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic​

For pony-related memes, we have Fluttershy's "YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME!!" and Starlight Glimmer's "I see…" face after drinking hot cocoa. It's the expressions that enhanced them!
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That’s devious! I mean, I see….gif

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail​

There's a scene (or scenes rather) showing Sir Lancelot of Camelot running towards a castle. The same scene is repeated few times while a serious drumbeat plays. He eventually makes it though!
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​

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring​

Gandalf's iconic "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Need I say more?
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​

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!​

Those who struggled with the infamous trolley mission in the "Breeze Harbor" stage will remember this line.
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One more thing: Ogres are like onions! They have layers!
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Go Fantasy!​
 

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Fantasy Tepig said:

I shall show my support for Fantasy once more!​


Did you know fantasy-related media has plenty of memes that are still hilarious to this day? I have put togtether several examples!
​

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic​

For pony-related memes, we have Fluttershy's "YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME!!" and Starlight Glimmer's "I see…" face after drinking hot cocoa. It's the expressions that enhanced them!
View attachment 52945View attachment 52942
​

Monty Python and the Holy Grail​

There's a scene (or scenes rather) showing Sir Lancelot of Camelot running towards a castle. The same scene is repeated few times while a serious drumbeat plays. He eventually makes it though!
View attachment 52943
​

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring​

Gandalf's iconic "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Need I say more?
View attachment 52944
​

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!​

Those who struggled with the infamous trolley mission in the "Breeze Harbor" stage will remember this line.
View attachment 52949


One more thing: Ogres are like onions! They have layers!
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Go Fantasy!​
Click to expand...
Yeah, because onions STINK!
 
BigBoom1946 said:
Yeah, because onions STINK!
Click to expand...
While it is true that onions are stinky, they also represent the ogres perfectly! They're big, ugly, and smelly, not meant to be beautiful and pretty like some of the more delicate fantasy creatures, like fairies.

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Look at Shrek! He's enjoying his peaceful mud bath. He's proud to live this lifestyle!
 
Team Sci-Fi 4eva, the perfect platform for challenging what we take as granted in society. So many fantasy writers are all too happy about regurgitating Tolkien's work and its troubling elements and sometimes making them worse, born evil "races", born good "races", "bro our monarch is actually super cool, this empire is the good one". It's one of the most unintrospective genres out there, across all mediums, sometimes you get an Undertale or a Delicious in Dungeon but nine times out of ten you get something utterly uninspired and unquestioning.

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Now, some sci-fi stories are guilty of the same crimes, looking at you Star Wars, though I don't think it's a coincidence that the ones that do often incorporate the most fantasy elements. Nonetheless, I can almost always expect even just a below-average sci-fi plot to give me something to chew on, to show me something more than a black and white fight to the death for platitudes... I can expect an attempt at nuance even from a crappy Star Trek ripoff!

...And when a rare story fails to meet those expectations?

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Watching only Glup Shitto beat the shitto outta Darth Evil will always be ten times more entertaining than watching a non-Jedi knight beat the crap out of slimes and goblins for a couple of hours. I wholeheartedly endorse team Sci-fi.
 
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