this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
316 points (97.9% liked)
solarpunk memes
6132 readers
251 users here now
For when you need a laugh!
The definition of a "meme" here is intentionally pretty loose. Images, screenshots, and the like are welcome!
But, keep it lighthearted and/or within our server's ideals.
Posts and comments that are hateful, trolling, inciting, and/or overly negative will be removed at the moderators' discretion.
Please follow all slrpnk.net rules and community guidelines
Have fun!
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Gears have a place in steampunk. A society that runs primarily on steam power is going to have a lot of gears. And the victorian garb comes from the narrow era between steam power and electricity, so it's not surprising that it's come to be integral to the aesthetic.
It certainly can be done badly. A shallow rendition of steampunk might have useless gears everywhere that aren't connected to anything. An AI generated steampunk aesthetic might look like that, because it doesn't understand mechanics and the uses of gears. Cheap etsy costume pieces might look like this because the seller only cares about making a buck. Bullshit pinterest inspo might look like this because the creators only care about reach and engagement.
But that doesn't make the -punk suffix misleading, it just means they're doing steampunk poorly.
Ghibli's Laputa is steampunk. Howl's Moving Castle has some steampunk elements. Those are pretty well done in my opinion.
Nausica is close to solarpunk, but it's more like windpunk which I don't know if has been coined yet.
Cyberpunk generally has a high focus on the punk aspect. I.E, anti-authoritarian, personal freedom, anti-hierarchy.
Steampunk has punk at the end purely because it's a riff on the word Cyberpunk, not because it retains any inherent anti-authoritarian punk-ness. It's more so just a label shorthand for an aesthetic and rough technological level. Dieselpunk does the same thing, using punk not to signify actual punk ideals, but instead uses it as shorthand for 'aesthetic'.
Solarpunk retains the punk aspect of Cyberpunk, but instead of dystopia, imagines a more utopic vision of punks succeeding against the corporations/governments/hierarchies, which is achieved through community building, a DIY ethos, prefiguration, and an appropriate use of technology.
I don't know, a lot of steampunk seems to have that dystopian aspect where the bad guys are oppressive rulers and the good guys are the rabble. I don't see how that isn't punk.
It's certainly possible to write a punk story in a steampunk setting, but from all the steampunk media I've encountered (and I was very much a fan of it years ago, and still enjoy it today), most of the time it's chosen as an aesthetic choice or as a backdrop for alternate history.
I'd be interested to hear any recommendations you have of steampunk works that focus on the punk angle, though, if you had some in mind.