Line #1 Main/AngstAversion


1	->''"Who wants to watch a cartoon about people crying?"''
2	-->-- '''Amethyst''', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E8Reformed Reformed]]"
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4	Art is often seen as a reflection of life, for good or for bad. Thus, it is not surprising that much of art contains elements that may be considered, well, downright depressing and full of conflict that grabs the attention. Everyone agrees that artistic creators should have access to the wide range of human emotions in the characters and events depicted within their works, and no one blames them for attempting to inspire the same range within their audience. Indeed, one of the things most disquieting about Creator/{{Plato}}'s ''Literature/TheRepublic'' is how Creator/{{Socrates}} bans any emotional art from his supposed {{utopia}}. Without the influence of the tragic, we would not be able to experience some of the most critically-lauded works that have ever been created.
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6	However, art is also seen as {{Escapism}}, a way to relax from your everyday stress, and rightfully so. Lots of blockbusters are wall-to-wall SceneryPorn that shows beautiful people in lovely locales. Everyone agrees that people have their own tastes in the media they consume, and have their own particular limits in [[AngstDissonance how much fictional sadness and "interesting" conflict they are willing to put up with]], simply because everyone has their own real life problems to consider; some more than others. It is not too much to ask for entertainment to be, you know, ''entertaining''. If someone prefers a SugarWiki/WarmAndFuzzyFeeling over how the realism and catharsis of a tragedy or Current Events-based {{dystopia}}n literature that allegedly gets you to "think" (or enjoys either one depending on their mood), then more power to them. Only a very few want a world where everyone believes that "SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids" and that the only TrueArtIsAngsty, and anyone who thinks happy art cannot be good art is certainly not understanding enough.
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8	Angst aversion, then, is the situation occurring when these two conceptions collide: the personal tendency for a person to avoid a work once they hear it has a DownerEnding, and/or is generally filled with sympathetic characters that will be put through hell [[ShaggyDogStory for nothing]]. This can easily happen when a normally lighthearted work is made DarkerAndEdgier, or undergoes CerebusSyndrome -- even people who normally have nothing against not-so-lighthearted fiction may lose interest if they had previously enjoyed the work for its lighter tone.
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10	Angst aversion is likely the number two reason for ExecutiveMeddling, behind the belief that ViewersAreMorons. People like [[MoneyDearBoy (and will pay for)]] [[HappilyEverBefore happy endings]], and executives know it- though, granted, [[TropesAreTools sometimes authors do need to be held back by calmer minds]] from throwing in a CruelTwistEnding that will [[AudienceAlienatingEnding alienate their audience]] or suddenly making their work [[CerebusSyndrome far darker]] just because they were [[CreatorBreakdown going through a rough patch lately]].
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12	Compare and contrast SweetnessAversion, in which audiences are repelled by the extreme cuteness of a work. This should not be confused with TooBleakStoppedCaring, where a dark work's stakes are insufficient for audiences who willingly gave it a chance to keep caring about how it would end, though both can be caused by the same general issue. Also not to be confused with AngstWhatAngst which is when a character exhibits no or little angst in response to what should be a traumatic event.

Context Main / AngstAversion