Editing Setting Aesthetics (section)

===[[Western]]===

:''See also the article [[Western]]''

One term that gets bandied a lot in discussions of Setting Aesthetics is "[[Western]]", which originally referred to stories that took place in the American West in the years between the American Civil War and World War I (although there is also the "Modern Western", which usually takes place sometime after World War II). The most important aspects of a "Western" aesthetic are roughly as follows:

* The single most distinguishing feature of a Western: Outposts of Law exist, but are far apart. While the region is somewhat lawless, this is a factor of the fact that places are distant from each other; the next town could be a week's ride away in some places, meaning reinforcements may be a very long time in coming, so the Sheriff or Rancher is more or less on his own if he can't get local support. The fact that this is actively changing is a frequent plot point of many actual historically-set-and-based Westerns.
** Yes, this means a lot of Westerns center around either [[Bandit]]ry or other outlawry, either as pro- or antagonists, and feature a certain degree of lawlessness.
* Next most important: Open ranges. Large areas where the nearest human being could be miles away. Sort of a consequence of the above, but worth mentioning on its own.
** This low population density leads to a certain degree of casual brutality and cruelty which is a frequent side-aspect of the aesthetic; with very few people to call a body out on their ugly behavior, such behavior is likely to grow into at least a minor problem of many people.
* Usually the next most important after those two: Guns, saloons, and horses. While it's possible to have a "Western" without much of one, you'll need a lot of the other two to cover for the absence. 
** If you're doing a pseudo-Western, you may need substitutes for all three. For example, Samurai-themed works usually use swords in place of guns, and limit the availability of horses, but still have some degree of all three.
*** In Science Fiction or Modern Westerns, "Off-road vehicles" can be substituted for horses.
*** Trading outposts can be freely substituted for saloons in sufficiently unsettled regions, or churches in more Christian or poverty-themed works. What matters is that it's a gathering place that's also somewhat neutral ground, where violence more serious than a fistfight is frowned upon.
** Side note: Railroads and stagecoaches are (in historically-set Westerns) the only alternatives to horses (besides donkeys and mules), and both are very restricted in how far away from their paths they can go (stagecoaches are ''heavy'', so hills can act as major barriers), so horses, donkeys and mules are your main travel options if you need to get away from those paths.
* Occasional feature of Fantasy/Science Fiction "Westerns": Natives, along the line of American Indians.
** Historically-set Westerns have plenty of American Indians, historically. It's just that, by the 1960s, most writers decided it was a better idea to center around subjects that weren't so likely to be read as making their protagonists "the real bad guys". Thus, most post-1970 westerns center purely on White vs. White conflict, or have protagonists who are sympathetic with the Indians, with a smattering of works centered on Black characters (most notably ''Blazing Saddles''). (Historically speaking, there were plenty of black cowboys, but this was ignored by most writers and producers historically, and frequently still is in the present day.)

If the above is longer than anything else on this page, it's because the "Western" aesthetic gets glued onto a '''lot''' of stuff that's very different from its historical roots. To give one example, there's been a non-trivial amount of works set in (something based on) historical Japan that have a heavy Western aesthetic--to the point that some of the earliest examples (Kurosawa films) were directly remade into Westerns, with very few changes.