RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Yeah, that'll do it. It's a shame, hope it's not too long.
Ah I see, I saw the post but it said "Troll removed".
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On the topic of what is and isn't fantasy, technically any story is a fantasy, but there are a couple important aspects of fantasy to make it work and resonate with the audience.
1) You must establish the rules of the setting. If the setting is "this world" as it were, the story must follow the rules of this world. If the setting is a fictional setting, you must take the time to clearly establish the rules of the fictional setting, preferably over the course of the introduction and not as an infodump before the beginning. If the setting is "this world, but with some other-worldly elements thrown in" (read: magic, aliens, dystopian future robots of doom, etc.), you must clearly establish to the viewer the differences that exist and why they exist/how they came to be. This last setting is the most difficult, because the "why they exist/how they came to be" portion must be viewed by the audience as plausible. Without some amount of plausibility, it creates a hurdle in the suspension of disbelief (see almost every harem anime ever made ever).
2) You must stay true to the established rules throughout the story. A common mistake writers make is they write themselves into corners in an attempt to up the stakes, so they have to temporarily make up new rules to disrupt the old rules in order to rescue the story from the corner they trapped it in (read: deus ex machina). This is perhaps the reason that, say, the first Matrix movie was good, but the second and third were not. The first Matrix established a set of rules and followed them throughout the course of the story. Everything that eventually happened to change the hero and give him his powers were alluded to throughout the movie (the story of "The One"). However in the following movies, certain elements were thrown in that broke the rules and with implausible explanations (using "The One" as a "get out of jail free" card for the writing, as it were).
3) You may only change rules if it is established prior to the change that change is indeed possible. If part of the story entails the protagonist/antagonist/some random schmuck changing the accepted rules the story has established in order to benefit the world/benefit themselves/fuck everyone over etc., it must be established how they can do so prior to it happening. If it's not established prior, it will end up as a deus ex machina that pulls people from the story. Additionally, while not required, the method in question should preferably not involve random objects/people/places etc. who's existence can only be attributed to story convenience (e.g. the world will be destroyed unless you collect these 4 magical items that happened to be made just on the random off chance that this horrible event that nobody could have predicted would happen should happen).
