Which best solves problems?
The Power of Friendship, or a
bullet between the eyes?
The answer depends on where the series falls in the
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
In a heavily
idealistic series,
Humans Are Good, or at least
Rousseau Was Right about them.
The Hero is a
Friend to All Living Things and will be able to
settle wars,
get people to understand each other, and
convert the Big Bad by overcoming literally ANY odds,
even if it makes no sense. The world is populated by
heroic people who will help others at the drop of a hat and there is never a time when there
where there is a grey area of morality. Either the antagonists are doing evil, or it's a rare case where
no one is in the wrong and a compromise needs to be reached. The cynic is often depicted as someone who will refuse to act because of their own cowardice and/or apathy, or an impatient
General Ripper advocating
Nuke 'Em All as a solution to every problem, or even the villain, using cynicism as an excuse to abuse everyone else. Alternately, they could be a tragic villain who is ultimately foiled because he didn't realize the
love he had for his
Dead Little Sister and, upon realizing it, sees that
he wanted to be good all along.
If the world is a horrible place to live, the heroes will fix it. And
The Good Guys Always Win.
ALWAYS.
Abridged:
Right Makes Might.
In a heavily
cynical series, it's usually a
Crapsack World where humans are either
bastards or
morons or a combination of the two. Morals are
grey and grey,
black and grey or
black and black, and idealistic shows are nothing more than escapism or cheap propaganda. The
Wide-Eyed Idealist is at best
a child who needs protection from the people who know how the world
really works, or at worst, someone
doomed to suffer and/or
die horribly. Alternately, any idealism shown could be from a
Knight Templar who suffers from
Black and White Insanity and is conditioned to believe that
Utopia Justifies the Means. It's up to the
The Cynic and the
Anti-Hero, who know that sometimes
it's safer to be feared than to be loved and that solving problems involve beating them into submission, to put an end to the problems that arise. Since they themselves are human
it will probably end in The End of the World as We Know It because
they're still human and
humans are terrible.
Abridged:
Might Makes Right.
Of course, the definitions of "Good" and "Bastards"/"morons" in the above can technically mean whatever one wants them to mean.]
A story can be idealistic or cynical towards any idea. It is important to remember that idealism does not always mean optimism/
happy endings and cynicism does not always mean pessimism/
downer endings. In general, if the story positively values a particular ideology, then it is idealistic. If the story assaults an ideology, then it is cynical. Note that when this applies to characters, this does not mean good or evil. After all, it's perfectly possible for an idealist to be
evil, and a cynic to be
good. Likewise, a very cynical series could be quite
lighthearted, conversely a very idealistic series could be extremely
dark. It's also true that
comedies can be cynical as all hell, and dark dramas or brutal
deconstructions can come out
idealistic. Also, be careful not to confuse this with the
Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness.
See also:
The Cynic and
The Idealist for the archetypal characters. Also of note are the
Grumpy Bear, and the
Wide-Eyed Idealist for how the sides often portray the other. See
Cynicism Tropes, and
Idealism Tropes for lists of each.
This particular sliding scale can be the topic of fierce debate (hence
No Real Life Examples, Please!). Each person will have a different point which they tend towards. Therefore, this scale is most useful in targeting demographics and those who are sympathetic to a certain world view, and identifying where on the spectrum one's own work is.
Cerebus Syndrome describes a shift from comedy to drama and this often also results in a shift from idealism to cynicism.
Reverse Cerebus Syndrome is the inversion. When shows
Zig Zag between the two, they're on a
Cerebus Roller Coaster.
Examples
