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Regarding Steampunk - I have limited exposure to it, but I've assumed we're generally seeing people as they were 'back then'. E.g. we're seeing them in Edwardian times but decades later they might be flying to the moon with magic powered vessels.

But they'd be doing that in a sailboat or whacky steam locomotive, of course. And that's part of the problem - they aren't having to think as hard about how to solve the actual science.

Maybe that's why they might end up stagnating?

I find Wakandan technology annoying. It's Future-punk magic decades ahead of the rest of the planet.

I guess it's a bit dependant on how you define Steampunk, but the first contact I had with the style was Wild Wild West, a movie that I think had (and has) quite negative reviews, but 14 year old me went 3 times to the cinema to see it and must have watched the DVD at least 40 times.
There's no magic in that movie (there IS disregard of physical laws, though ), the Steampunk instead is just Bond Villain building his giant steam attack spider with the tech that is available at the time, so stagnation is not really the issue, it's rather, just like a Bond movie, stretching the tech of the time (1870's I think?).

Wild Wild West is a really fun film. Personally I never saw why it wasn't better received. Will Smith was at his height of fame; the effects were good for its day and honestly stand up well to the test of time; the story was simple but well done and in general it was a fun adventure of a film.

That sort of thing I don’t mind so much. It knows it’s being silly and is doing so entirely wilfully.

It’s the “oh yeah, this society hit steam and just stopped in terms of further power sources. Now they am has clockwork steam power lasers” stuff.

Maybe, like some of my early forays into Anime, I’ve been unfortunate enough to only really encounter lazy drivel. But it’s such a bad experience that, unlike Anime, I feel no compunction whatsoever to attempt to explore further.

 Overread wrote:
Wild Wild West is a really fun film. Personally I never saw why it wasn't better received. Will Smith was at his height of fame; the effects were good for its day and honestly stand up well to the test of time; the story was simple but well done and in general it was a fun adventure of a film.

Indeed. Of course I see some sloppy technical errors and strange logical holes today (why is Selma Hayek just falling into the train without any explanation again? ), but it IS a fun movie, well paced, fun dialogues, good actors. And its setting is quite unique. I even like the theme and the theme song.