History Main / AngstDissonance

->''"A pair of Oxen were drawing a heavily loaded wagon along a miry country road. They had to use all their strength to pull the wagon, but they did not complain. The Wheels of the wagon were of a different sort. Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the Oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn. The poor Oxen, pulling with all their might to draw the wagon through the deep mud, had their ears filled with the loud complaining of the Wheels. And this, you may well know, made their work so much the harder to endure. 'Silence!' the Oxen cried at last, out of patience. 'What have you Wheels to complain about so loudly? We are drawing all the weight, not you, and we are keeping still about it besides.'"''\\
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'''''"They complain most who suffer least."'''''

Let's face it, life is tough, and it's not made easier when you're a ChewToy.

And when the going gets tough - and let's face it, since TrueArtIsAngsty, it ''will'' - even the tough can start to whine. Of course, [[AgeAppropriateAngst depending on age]], the whining will be different, but nonetheless they'll whine. In fiction, however, no matter how justified the character's complaints are there's a delicate balance between enough whining and too much, and unfortunately characters that should have a right to angst can lose the sympathy of the audience if the audience no longer wants to listen. Many situations in fiction do not happen in real life, therefore most audiences cannot truly sympathize with the character and can find them annoying. This phenomenon is known as Angst Dissonance.

Angst Dissonance can lead to creators going right into {{Wangst}} if the Dissonance goes way over the top, as no matter how genuine the complaint people will get turned off if the character's moaning goes too far, especially if ''all'' they're doing is complaining without attempting to effectively deal with the problem. If the creators try too hard to generate angst for the characters without accurately judging exactly how much angsty backstory the audience can reasonably tolerate, and don't take steps to pull back when they might be going too far, then DeusAngstMachina can be the result. Angst Dissonance can also be the result if the show's relying on a visit from DiabolusExMachina, which can damage the show's credibility and the audience's ability to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief suspend their disbelief]]. If the character's complaints stem from something that is actually pretty cool, then the character is CursedWithAwesome - and audiences hate it when characters ''complain'' about powers and abilities that they'd love to have.

#Alternatively, the creator may insist on returning to a particular well of suffering for a character so many times that the audience becomes irritated and bored with seeing it dragged out well past what they feel is its sell-by date. Even if the angst is relatively well-portrayed and concerning something that would be genuinely difficult to overcome, eventually the audience is going to start insisting that the character ''and'' creator both get over it and move on to something new; the beauty of fiction is that, unlike in RealLife, the grieving process doesn't ''have'' to be dragged out over a lengthy period of time and can be dealt with in a compressed fashion.

#Plain old ValuesDissonance; one culture may see something as a "problem," (for example, [[ChristmasCake a woman who isn't married by a certain age]]) where another culture sees that same "problem" as [[FirstWorldProblems minor or as a non-issue]] (or, indeed, perceives that the problem is that there ''is'' a problem).

Note that Angst Dissonance is a personal limit, and different people have different levels of tolerance for exactly how much they're willing to put up with; furthermore, a lot of these depend as much on how the character is being read / written rather than any inherent issues in the text. Nevertheless, there are a few theories as to why this occurs, and some of the key contributing factors to Angst Dissonance include:

#No matter how justified they may be in doing so, characters who whine about being [[CelebrityIsOverrated famous]], [[SoBeautifulItsACurse beautiful]] and / or wealthy are unlikely to win the audience's sympathy very easily. There may be genuine drawbacks involved, but there are also ''lots'' of advantages to being beautiful, famous and wealthy that makes people who have these things whining about them [[FirstWorldProblems particularly insufferable to people who don't]].

Essentially, as noted above, this trope largely exists due to a prevailing belief among some that TrueArtIsAngsty; that 'art' should ''only'' be concerned with exploring angst and pain and thus (in theory) reflect the real world. Of course, most people engage with art and fiction at least in part to ''[[AngstAversion escape]]'' the problems of the real world in a fictional one where these problems can be resolved more easily and satisfactorily, and don't always like having them thrown back at them (especially if, as noted above, the creators are going way over the top with it). These creators also tend to ignore / forget / disdain the fact that life is also made up of uplifting, encouraging bits as well, which people like to be reminded of. This can cause problems to arise between the creators, who are attempting to make an artistic statement about their characters and the world they inhabit, and the readers, who simply find that artistic statement too depressing (or annoying).

#No matter how justified they may be in doing so, characters who whine about being [[CelebrityIsOverrated famous]], [[SoBeautifulItsACurse beautiful]] and / or wealthy are unlikely to win the audience's sympathy very easily. There may be genuine drawbacks involved, but there are also ''lots'' of advantages to being beautiful, famous and wealthy that makes people who have these things whining about them particularly insufferable to people who don't.

#Plain old ValuesDissonance; one culture may see something as a "problem," (for example, [[ChristmasCake a woman who isn't married by a certain age]]) where another culture sees that same "problem" as minor or as a non-issue (or, indeed, perceives that the problem is that there ''is'' a problem).

#The character is whining about something someone did to them, when that character has themselves [[Hypocrite done equally bad or worse things to other characters]].

#The character is whining about something someone did to them, when that character has themselves done equally bad or worse things to other characters.

Angst Dissonance can lead to creators going right into {{Wangst}} if the Dissonance goes way over the top, as no matter how genuine the complaint people will get turned off if the character's moaning goes too far, especially if ''all'' they're doing is complaining without attempting to effectively deal with the problem. If the creators try too hard to generate angst for the characters without accurately judging exactly how much angsty backstory the audience can reasonably tolerate, and don't take steps to pull back when they might be going too far, then DeusAngstMachina can be the result. Angst Dissonance can also be the result if the show's relying on a visit from DiabolusExMachina, which can damage the show's credibility and the audience's ability to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief suspend their disbelief]]. If the character's complaints stem from something that is actually pretty cool, then the character is CursedWithAwesome - and audiences hate it when characters ''complain'' about powers and abilities that they'd love to have. If overused, may cause DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

#If, in real life, a person can't stand somebody else's whining, they can try to [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan shut them up]] or just walk away. A viewer can't exactly walk away from a show if they're still curious as to what's going to happen next.

Essentially, as noted above, this trope largely exists due to a prevailing belief among some that TrueArtIsAngsty; that 'art' should ''only'' be concerned with exploring angst and pain and thus (in theory) reflect the real world. Of course, most people engage with art and fiction at least in part to ''escape'' the problems of the real world in a fictional one where these problems can be resolved more easily and satisfactorily, and don't always like having them thrown back at them (especially if, as noted above, the creators are going way over the top with it). These creators also tend to ignore / forget / disdain the fact that life is also made up of uplifting, encouraging bits as well, which people like to be reminded of. This can cause problems to arise between the creators, who are attempting to make an artistic statement about their characters and the world they inhabit, and the readers, who simply find that artistic statement too depressing (or annoying).

#Related to the above; as well as the character being fictional, the causes of their angst may be something that is entirely fictional to begin with, making it difficult for readers to full empathise with them; okay, being [[WhoWantsToLiveForever made immortal]] or [[IHateYouVampireDad turned into a vampire]] may indeed suck, but it's also something that no one outside of the fictional world is going to be able fully relate to or appreciate, making it difficult for them to fully sympathize with the character's predicament. And even if it's not explicitly fantastical, sometimes the source of angst can be so over-the-top (typically involving torture, absurd misfortune, or mass death of friends and family) that it accidentally CrossesTheLineTwice and becomes impossible to relate to.

#Related to the above; as well as the character being fictional, the causes of their angst may be something that is entirely fictional to begin with, making it difficult for readers to full empathise with them; okay, being [[WhoWantsToLiveForever made immortal]] or [[IHateYouVampireDad turned into a vampire]] may indeed suck, but it's also something that no one outside of the fictional world is going to be able fully relate to or appreciate, making it difficult for them to fully sympathize with the character's predicament.

And when the going gets tough - and let's face it, since TrueArtIsAngsty, it ''will'' - even the tough can start to whine. Of course, [[AgeAppropriateAngst depending on age]], the whining will be different, but nonetheless they'll whine. In fiction, however, no matter how justified the character's complaints are there's a delicate balance between enough whining and too much, and unfortunately characters that should have a right to angst can lose the sympathy of the audience if the audience no longer wants to listen. Many situations in fiction do not happen in real life, therefore most audiences cannot truly sympathize with the character and can find them annoying. This phenomenon is known as AngstDissonance.

Note that Angst Dissonance is a personal limit, and different people have different levels of tolerance for exactly how much they're willing to put up with; furthermore, a lot of these depend as much on how the character is being read / written rather than any inherent issues in the text. Nevertheless, there are a few theories as to why this occurs, and some of the key contributing factors to AngstDissonance include:

Using a CozyVoiceForCatastrophes can mitigate AngstDissonance, in that while the character in question is still hurting deeply, at least he's pleasantly chatty about it. Similarly, the HappyFlashback can show that characters weren't ''always'' angst-bags.