A creative concept that I totally love, is the space western. The genre makes total sense in itself, the wild west was the final frontier, the wild, the place where you had to earn a living by the sweat of your brow and the quick-draw of your six-shooter!
Space, and the idea of space travel and planet terraforming, is completely compatible with these wild west concepts. The two blend together in a perfect mixing pot of awesomeness. Cowboys in themselves are cool, and space rangers are cool – combine the two and you get a really cool genre: The Space Cowboy!
Herein lies my pain… why don’t we get more space cowboy entertainment and creative works? I feel like there is a severe shortage of space cowboys going around the creative world. When last did you watch a space western themed movie, or play a space western game? There aren’t a lot of them going around. I seriously hope that this genre can make a comeback and some creatives will start pouring some love into it.
A few space westerns that come to mind:
- Cowboy bebop
Awesome anime series of a couple of bounty hunters.
- Firefly/Serenity
A TV series/movie made by Joss Weaton awesomeness – unfortunately cut short because apparently people weren’t interested.
- Trigun
A rather short but awesome anime series.
- Han Solo
I know I know, this is not a movie in itself, but hey, the stereotype space-smuggler-bandit-cowboy we all love deserves a space here.
- Bravestarr
Super cringe-able when you look at it now, but when I was a kid, this was rather awesome.
- Borderlands
Space western video game that almost feels post-apocalyptic as well.
Fantastical Muse 
The problem with the “cowboys & indians” thing is spelled out in the name… it makes cowboys out to be heroes and indians to be mindless savages. I think it’s because of this that the genre has taken knocks in popularity
LikeLike