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Anime & Manga
"This world is rotten."
— Light and Ryuk, Death Note
"All the good people of this world are already dead."
You know, sometimes it just feels like I'm wading through a giant sea of shit.
— Mr. Chang, Black Lagoon
For nothing but a drop of water... A child's life is taken! What horrible times!
— Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star, Chapter 18
Rock, if you think about it, other than this, what do we really value in life? God? Love? Don't make me laugh. When I was a brat, crawling around in that shithole city, it seemed God and Love were always sold out when I went looking. Before I knew better, I clung to God and prayed to Him every single night — yeah, I believed in God right up until that night the cops beat the hell out of me for no reason at all. All they saw when they looked at me was another little ghetto rat. With no power and no God, what's left for a poor little Chinese bitch to rely on? It's money, of course, and guns. Fuckin' A. With these two things, the world's a great place.
— Revy, Black Lagoon
As you could probably tell from reading any one volume, the world of Heavy Object is a shitty world where the good are not rewarded and the evil are not punished.
— Kazuma Kamachi, author of Heavy Object
It's such a shame. I really did enjoy her songs. But the real world is not so nice as the one that exists in music!
— Rau Le Creuset, before attempting to kill Lacus Clyne, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Suberoa Zinnerman: Why are you crying?
Banagher Links: It's so beautiful.
Suberoa Zinnerman: It almost makes you doubt all those stories about the Earth being polluted. Thing is, the air around here is even more polluted than it used to be. And they say the desert has advanced all the way to Dakar's doorstep. It's all humanity's doing. Indiscriminate development, the dropping of colonies and asteroids... If humanity is the product of nature, that makes all of mankind's trash and poison natural products, too. And even if it's rendered unfit for human habitation, I guess that'll be the result of nature achieving a new balance. Mother Nature has absolutely no mercy. Ancient humans understood that. As products of nature, they knew it instinctively.
Banagher Links: So to survive, they protected themselves by creating civilization and societies.
Banagher Links: So to survive, they protected themselves by creating civilization and societies.
Suberoa Zinnerman: Yeah. But they got too complicated, and before they knew it, people were forced to live for the purpose of maintaining the system. In the end, it made life hard to live. And to escape that topsy-turvy world, they went into space to find new lands. There, they created a different system. A natural development that gave hope and direction to those cast out into space, the Spacenoids. That was Zeon. The old system left behind on Earth rejected it. Because systems from two different birthplaces are never compatible. It always ends with one of them trying to force the other into submission.
Banagher Links: But in the past, a world with a unified government like the Federation and ten billion people living in space must have sounded like a fairy tale. Doesn't humanity have the possibility to do it? To make two ways of thinking merge into one someday?
Suberoa Zinnerman: We are all aren't governed fairly and equally. The hatred of the beaten and downtrodden clings to the Earth to this day.
Banagher Links: That's a sad thing.
Suberoa Zinnerman: Yeah, I suppose it is. Even though we live our lives trying to escape sadness... I wonder why that is?
(Banagher begins to weep)
Suberoa Zinnerman: Banagher?
Banagher Links: I know, I know. A man doesn't cry in front of other people, right?
Suberoa Zinnerman: No. Crying because you care is a totally different matter. I don't trust anyone who never cries; that's my philosophy...
Comic Books
"Later I find myself sobbing, choking, retching into the lavatory bowl. Is this what it all comes down to—all our dreams and hopes and aspirations? Nothing but vomit?"
—Dr. Amedeus Arkham, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"...
...and I'll look down, and whisper "No."
...and I'll look down, and whisper "No."
— Rorschach, Watchmen
Fan Works
"Since you're not from Japan, how about you tell us about what your home is like."
"Covered in shit, piss, and gore. The church is corrupt and everyone is dead or in the process of dying."
"Um...Anything more lighthearted? I mean there has to be something good if you want to go back so bad."
He was silent for a moment, contemplating his answer before responding.
"I do have something worth going back for, it's my companions....Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. We had just started carving a life for ourselves before I was summoned here. I had fought for so long and lost so much and yet I gained something in the end. There was finally a place for me. And said my place is with my friends."
"Hmmmmm "friends" huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows while giving him a cheeky grin.
He mentally apologized to Sypha in his head before making a quick comeback. "They're both male Motoyasu."
"Well. Huh. Guess you swing that way..." he muttered under his breath. "Oh wait! If you live in like the medieval times and you're some noble looking guy do you live in a castle?"
"I certainly don't live in "medieval" times as you put it. You're approximately 300 years too late with that. And to answer your question yes we happen to have the castle grounds, not including the underground hold."
Itsuki quickly interjected with an annoyed look on his face. "So let me get this straight. You're already an experienced fighter, you have your own equipment and abilities you came with and know how to use, you're already used to fighting monsters, and you live in a large castle with party members who also know how to fight said monsters?"
"In quick summation, yes."
"Covered in shit, piss, and gore. The church is corrupt and everyone is dead or in the process of dying."
"Um...Anything more lighthearted? I mean there has to be something good if you want to go back so bad."
He was silent for a moment, contemplating his answer before responding.
"I do have something worth going back for, it's my companions....Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. We had just started carving a life for ourselves before I was summoned here. I had fought for so long and lost so much and yet I gained something in the end. There was finally a place for me. And said my place is with my friends."
"Hmmmmm "friends" huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows while giving him a cheeky grin.
He mentally apologized to Sypha in his head before making a quick comeback. "They're both male Motoyasu."
"Well. Huh. Guess you swing that way..." he muttered under his breath. "Oh wait! If you live in like the medieval times and you're some noble looking guy do you live in a castle?"
"I certainly don't live in "medieval" times as you put it. You're approximately 300 years too late with that. And to answer your question yes we happen to have the castle grounds, not including the underground hold."
Itsuki quickly interjected with an annoyed look on his face. "So let me get this straight. You're already an experienced fighter, you have your own equipment and abilities you came with and know how to use, you're already used to fighting monsters, and you live in a large castle with party members who also know how to fight said monsters?"
"In quick summation, yes."
Sojiro: Be careful, alright? Avoid the city center, and don’t stay out too late. It’s a mess out there right now – riots, muggings, protests… you name it.
Ren: I’m more worried about those cults.
Ren: I’m more worried about those cults.
—Blackened Masks, "Emperor of an Empty Domain"
Films — Animated
"You will be amazed the monsters this world can create."
"The Earth is another form of Hell, and men are its demons."
—Lucifer, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic
Films — Live-Action
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
— Lawrence Walsh, Chinatown
"The Earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for her."
— Justine, Melancholia
"We live in a terrible place and time. Everything that's not you wants to kill you. Outlaws, angry drunks, scorned hookers, hungry animals, diseases, major injuries, minor injuries, Indians, the weather..."
— Albert Stark, A Million Ways to Die in the West
Tiffany: What? You’re not gonna read that shit on my time. I can tell you all about the Lord of the Flies. It’s a bunch of boys on an island and they have a conch — they have a shell — and whoever has the conch has the power and they can talk, and if you don’t have the conch, then you don’t have the power, and then there’s a little chubby boy, and they call him Piggy and they’re really mean, and then there’s a murder. I mean, humanity is just nasty and there’s no silver lining.
Pat: Wow. That was a great synopsis. I still need to read it, though.
Pat: Wow. That was a great synopsis. I still need to read it, though.
"If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."
— Luke Skywalker in regards to Tatooine, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The massacre played out exactly how Vittali predicted, but then a half-dozen other massacres happened in Sierra Leone that week. You can't stop them all. In my experience you can't stop any of them. They say "evil prevails when good men fail to act", what they ought to say is "evil prevails".
— Yuri Orlov, Lord of War
I was like you once, a long time ago. You're all... brand new and perfect, no mistakes, no regrets. People look at you and think of how wonderful your future will be. They want you to be something special, like a doctor or a lawyer. Hate to tell you this, but if you grow up here, you're more likely to wind up selling your bodies on the streets, or shooting dope from dirty needles in a bus stop... And if you're successful, you'll make money selling junk to crackheads, and won't think twice about killing someone's wife, because you won't even know it's wrong in the first place. Maybe you'll end up like me... a hobo with a shotgun.
— Hobo, to a group of newborn babies, Hobo with a Shotgun
"Your world... It's pretty terrifying."
—Sarah Connor to Kyle Reese, The Terminator
"This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it."
—Henri Verdoux, Monsieur Verdoux
"This world dries up your soul."
—Zack Stone, Oblivion (1994)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane."
—Kyoami, Ran
"What kind of world do we live in? One barren of loyalty and feeling."
—Saburo Naotara Ichimonji, Ran
"Out here, everything hurts. You wanna get through this? Do as I say. Now pick up what you can and run."
—Imperator Furiosa, Mad Max: Fury Road
"You're getting older, and you'll see that life isn't like your fairy tales. The world is a cruel place. And you'll learn that, even if it hurts."
—Carmen, Pan's Labyrinth
"My name is Yasmine. I'm three months pregnant. One day, someone said 'Men are born free with equal rights.' The world in which I live is the opposite. Who would want to be born to grow up in the chaos and the hate? I've decided to spare him the worst."
—Yasmine, Frontier(s)
-"This is your life, and its ending one minute at a time."
—The Narrator, Fight Club
"The year is 1645, England is in the grip of bloody civil war. On the one side stand the Royalist party of King Charles, on the other, Cromwell's Parliamentary party: the Roundheads. The structure of law and order has collapsed. Local Magistrates indulge their individual whims, justice and injustice are dispensed in more or less equal quantities, without opposition. An atmosphere in which the unscrupulous revel, and the likes of Matthew Hopkins take full advantage of the situation. In a time where the superstitions of country folk are still a powerful factor, Hopkins preys upon them, torturing and killing in a supposed drive to eliminate witchcraft from the country, and doing so with the full blessing of what law there is. However, his influence is confined largely to the Eastern Sector of the country: East Anglia, which is held firmly in Cromwell's grasp, but not so firmly that Roundhead cavalry patrols have everything their way. For there persists an ever present threat of the remnants of the Royalist armies, desperately foraging for food, horses and supplies."
"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance."
—Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
"The world's in terrible shape. Trouble between nations grows worse with terrorism breaking out all over the place. Everything's gone crazy!"
—Senator Gozo Mano, Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
"Every time I've seen this world change, it's always been for the worse."
—Evey Hammond, V for Vendetta
"Here's the thing, life is an endless series of train wrecks with only brief commercial-like breaks of happiness. This had been the ultimate commercial break. Which meant it was time to return to our regularly scheduled programming."
—Wade Wilson, Deadpool (2016)
Literature
"Oppression lays down blood-lust. It lays it down like a wine.”
—Martin Amis, House of Meetings
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good, and the very gentle, and the very brave, impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry."
Make the mountains twice as tall and the chasms twice as deep, and things start crumbling.
—Trickster, Worm
The LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened ... The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth.
"History...is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
— Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"For whence did Dante take the materials for his hell but from this our actual world? And yet he made a very proper hell of it. And when, on the other hand, he came to the task of describing heaven and its delights, he had an insurmountable difficulty before him, for our world affords no materials at all for this."
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
"Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. Fear, recrimination, innocence, sympathy, guilt, waste, failure, grief, were things, emotions, that no one really felt anymore. Reflection is useless, the world is senseless. Evil is its only permanence. God is not alive. Love cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in... this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged..."
— Patrick Bateman, American Psycho
"One day I was a young boy...when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. Even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued... As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that is when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."
— Lord Vetinari, Unseen Academicals
Sandor Clegane: There are no true knights, no more than there are gods. If you can't protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Sharp steel and strong arms rule this world, don't ever believe any different.
Sansa Stark: You're awful.
Sandor Clegane: I'm honest. It's the world that's awful. Now fly away, little bird, I'm sick of you peeping at me.
Sansa Stark: You're awful.
Sandor Clegane: I'm honest. It's the world that's awful. Now fly away, little bird, I'm sick of you peeping at me.
What would happen to us if we could truly sympathize with others, feel with them, suffer for them? The fact that human anguish, fear, and suffering melt away with the death of the individual, that nothing remains of the ascents, the declines, the orgasms, and the agonies, is a praiseworthy gift of evolution, which made us like the animals. If from every unfortunate, from every victim, there remained even a single atom of his feelings, if thus grew the inheritance of the generations, if even a spark could pass from man to man, the world would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling.
"Behind our sealed borders, we survived. As things stood, we could hope for little more. Survival itself was tough enough in the New World Disorder."
—John Rumford, Victoria
This world is full of broken things: broken hearts and broken promises, broken people. This world, too, is a fragile construct, a honeycomb place where the past leaches into the present, where the weight of blood, guilt and old sins causes lives to collapse and forces children to lie with the remains of their fathers in the tangled ruins of the aftermath.
I am broken and I have broken in return. Now I wonder how much hurt can be visited upon others before the universe takes action, before some outside force decides that enough has been endured. I once thought that it was a question of balance, but I no longer believe that. I think that what I have done was out of all proportion to what was done to me, but that is the nature of revenge. It escalates. It cannot be controlled. One hurt invites another, on and on until the original injury is all but forgotten in the chaos of what follows.
I was a revenger once. I will be one no more.
But this world is full of broken things.
The point of Guignol's Caillet
play was that horror was unconfined. Not limited to one madman, not on one small stage. It was all about, all-pervasive... in the statues of Saint Denis toting his raggedly-severed head and the ritualised domestic abuse of the apache dance. The Reign of Terror and the Commune were done, but Guignol's Légionnaires d'Horreur were ensconced in positions of power. Georges Du Roy could throw honest ministers to les loups but maintain Eugène Mortain in office. Riots erupted whenever the Dreyfus case was argued. War with Germany was inevitable one week, then alliance with Germany against Great Britain was equally inevitable the next. Father de Kern was appointed Inspector of Orphanages. Horrible whispers about his nighttime surprise visits to his little charges were heard with disturbing frequency, though even Zola didn't dare accuse him in print. A military coup which would have installed General Assolant as a new Napoleon had recently collapsed at the last minute. Kate liked to think of herself as a reasonable person, but she was working for a faceless creature who supposedly dropped a chandelier on the heads of an opera audience because he didn't like the casting of Marguerite in Faust. Was it all in fun? The horrors were certainly not confined to Paris...
play was that horror was unconfined. Not limited to one madman, not on one small stage. It was all about, all-pervasive... in the statues of Saint Denis toting his raggedly-severed head and the ritualised domestic abuse of the apache dance. The Reign of Terror and the Commune were done, but Guignol's Légionnaires d'Horreur were ensconced in positions of power. Georges Du Roy could throw honest ministers to les loups but maintain Eugène Mortain in office. Riots erupted whenever the Dreyfus case was argued. War with Germany was inevitable one week, then alliance with Germany against Great Britain was equally inevitable the next. Father de Kern was appointed Inspector of Orphanages. Horrible whispers about his nighttime surprise visits to his little charges were heard with disturbing frequency, though even Zola didn't dare accuse him in print. A military coup which would have installed General Assolant as a new Napoleon had recently collapsed at the last minute. Kate liked to think of herself as a reasonable person, but she was working for a faceless creature who supposedly dropped a chandelier on the heads of an opera audience because he didn't like the casting of Marguerite in Faust. Was it all in fun? The horrors were certainly not confined to Paris...This world is stagnating. Every inch of it. The timbers are rotten and the plumbing's full of frogs. Even the bloody heroes are broken. I don't give a toss about what comes after anymore. All I know is that it's got to be better than this.
—Jim, Mogworld
The onward march of progress has wandered off down a dark alley and been mugged. The Berlin Wall and Vietnam; the Rwandan Genocide, the Twin Towers, Camp Delta; suicide bombings and global warming; even Vaughn bloody Parry, the little suburban nightmare who lived just around the corner, who killed and killed and no one knew because no one bothered to find out. Edie Banister had given her loyalty to an empty throne. There was no progress. No stability. There was just the question of whether things happened far enough away.
Men and women fear to travel, for this world has grown passing strange. You saw what was left of those men yesterday, and I have told you of the sleeping woman and the enchantress that binds her. There have always been dangers in these lands, and life has never been easy, but now there are new threats and no-one can tell where they have come from. Even the king is uncertain, if the stories from his court are true. They say his time is almost done.
—Roland, The Book of Lost Things
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
"The engines on the Other Railway aren't safe now. Their Controllers are cruel. They don't like engines any more. They put them on cold damp sidings, and then, they... they c-c-cut them up."
— Percy, The Railway Series - Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, "Bluebells of England"
Live-Action TV
I travelled across the world — from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe; and everywhere I went I saw people just like you, living as slaves.
— Martha Jones, Doctor Who, "Last of the Time Lords"
"It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you."
— Commissioner Ervin Burrell, The Wire
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
"If you want justice, you've come to the wrong place."
—Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
"There is only one hell, Princess. The one we live in now."
—Melisandre, Game of Thrones
"What happened to your mother was a tragedy. But this is a tragic world."
— Daemon Targaryen to Princess Rhaenyra, House of the Dragon
Det. Rustin Cohle: People out here, it's like they don't even know the outside world exists. Might as well be living on the fucking Moon.
Det. Martin Hart: There's all kinds of ghettos in the world.
Cohle: It's all one ghetto man, giant gutter in outer space.
Det. Martin Hart: There's all kinds of ghettos in the world.
Cohle: It's all one ghetto man, giant gutter in outer space.
"...Frontios is not merely eccentric because of its interior geometries but because of its position as the absolute edge of where the TARDIS can travel. Notably, Frontios is not set at the end of the universe. There is no sense of looming heat death or the destruction of all things... What has to be stressed isn’t that the authoritarians are unusually well-entrenched here, it’s that their entrenchment is tacitly positioned as the natural order of the universe — the inevitable end. This is a society where the barbarians aren’t just at the gate, the people inside the gate are giving up and joining the barbarians. This is the endpoint of humanity — what the whole of human history is leading inexorably towards."
—El Sandifer on Doctor Who ("Frontios")
Castiel: Good things do happen, Dean.
Dean: Not in my experience.
—Supernatural, ("Lucifer Rising")
"Do you want me to sound like a minister? It's the fornicators, adulterers, sodomites, those who defile God and worship Mammon. Do you want me to sound like everyone else? Go outside and look around."
—Daniel Hendricks, Law & Order, "Apocrypha"
Zhaan: There is much cruelty in the universe.
Crichton: Yeah, we seem to have a treasure map to it.
—Farscape, ("Bone To Be Wild")
"It doesn't have a designation because it's a place so awful, so... horrific, no sane person would ever travel there."
— Harrison Wells, on Earth-Xnote , Crisis on Earth-X
"I can't rest here, not really. I open my eyes, and it's like waking from the worst nightmare. Even the light is different. The cosmos has lost its brilliance, and everywhere I turn... there's fear."
— Michael Burnham, on the Mirror Universe, Star Trek: Discovery
Woman: Excuse me, Hercules? Oh, m-my daughter, she's been in bed with a cough for days, now. It would mean so much to her if you came by to say hello.
Hercules: Sure, no problem. I'll just hold her hand and tell her she can look forward to a long life of famine, senseless war, incurable disease, petty gods, and hungry Hydras. On the plus side, if she manages to survive all that, she'll enjoy the privilege of growing old and dying, anyway. But, hey, don't worry. I mean, if she's been real, real good, she'll end up in the Elysian Fields, where she'll spend eternity in a state of perpetual boredom and ignorance. So, please, lead the way.
Hercules: Sure, no problem. I'll just hold her hand and tell her she can look forward to a long life of famine, senseless war, incurable disease, petty gods, and hungry Hydras. On the plus side, if she manages to survive all that, she'll enjoy the privilege of growing old and dying, anyway. But, hey, don't worry. I mean, if she's been real, real good, she'll end up in the Elysian Fields, where she'll spend eternity in a state of perpetual boredom and ignorance. So, please, lead the way.
— Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, "Be Deviled"
"In this solar system, if the cops and the bounty hunters don't get you, the Syndicate will. There's no happy ending here."
— Spike Spiegel, Cowboy Bebop (2021)
"Solis. You'd weep to see it. It's so polluted. No one goes outside, but why would you when the grass is black and the trees are dying? The only people who live there live in fear. There's no hope. Everything is dark..."
—Timon, Maddigan's Quest
Misc
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.
"Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse."
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell?"
“Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness.”
—Vasily Grossman
"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves."
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Much of the world today is governed by Caesars. Men are more and more treated as things. Torture is ubiquitous. And, as Sartre wrote in his preface to Henri Alleg's chilling book about Algeria, "Anybody, at any time, may equally find himself victim or executioner."
— Gore Vidal, The Twelve Caesars
"Could not all life be an illusion? Indeed, are there not certain sects of holy men in the East who are convinced that nothing exists outside their minds except for the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station? Could it not be simply that we are alone and aimless, doomed to wander in an indifferent universe, with no hope of salvation, nor any prospect except misery, death, and the empty reality of eternal nothing?"
— Woody Allen, Notes from the Overfed
Being literally anyone else [in Arbrontith] means running, hiding, swearing, scratching out whatever existence you can manage, running some more and definitely NOT farming. It means turning a blind eye to random crimes and wanton slaughter in the streets.
— Kickstarter pitch for the webseries Suspension of Disbelief
Searching the world,
Looking for an change world,
War destroyed the living land we once called home,
Reaching for life on this world,
However there is only pain I see,
I want to find hope like once before,
Sadly there is none to start with only suffering,
Dead bodies on these lands I can't escape from,
My voice screams for help from this dead world.
Looking for an change world,
War destroyed the living land we once called home,
Reaching for life on this world,
However there is only pain I see,
I want to find hope like once before,
Sadly there is none to start with only suffering,
Dead bodies on these lands I can't escape from,
My voice screams for help from this dead world.
— Youtuber user, Heaven Greed, commented on Cremona
"In Shudo-verse people like Lysandre and even Cyrus? They make sense. The world they live in is fundamentally broken. Lysandre in Shudo-verse could actually be someone who genuinely tried to fix the social problems of the world and fell into despair"
— SpaceBattles.com user, Bad Habits, comment about the original Pokédex Anime writer's vision of the world, prologue of Shudo cross Modern Ash: The Trainer who Questions Humanity
"What more is there to say about Coolsville that hasn't already been said? The public transportation is atrocious (a homeless man spit on me while I was riding to work one day), the school system is godawful, and if you're looking for culture you've definitely come to the wrong place. All I can say is that, if it were up to me this festering, David Foster Wallace-esque dystopian nightmare of twisted concrete, burning asphalt, and ineffectual, brain numbing, bite-sized entertainment would've been the testing site of a new ICBM so powerful it was guaranteed to destroy any sign that this testament to humanity's boundless hedonism ever existed. All that would be left is a smoldering crater and I hope that one day, the memory of this modern Tower of Babel would be stricken from my memory and the memory of anybody who ever had to lay eyes upon this abomination."
— A copypasta from 4chan's /tv/ board allegedly quoting the "Coolsville sucks" scene from Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed.
Music
"All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me."
And still have room for you and me."
— Tom Waits, "Misery Is the River of the World" - Blood Money
Children weep and widows wail,
Our education systems fail,
To hide our guilt we build more jails,
and we shall build still more
Our education systems fail,
To hide our guilt we build more jails,
and we shall build still more
—Motörhead, "March or Die"
The car's on fire,
And there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt
And we're all on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death.
And there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt
And we're all on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death.
— Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "The Dead Flag Blues"
Well it's a pretty tough call when all you can see
Is numbing government when you look at the TV,
And the big business Satan,
And cops who'd love to take your head off if they had half a chance
Is numbing government when you look at the TV,
And the big business Satan,
And cops who'd love to take your head off if they had half a chance
— Corb Lund, "Expectation and the Blues"
There's a place so dark you can't see the end
(Skies cock back) and shock that which can't defend
The rain then sends dripping acidic questions
Forcefully, the power of suggestion
Then with the eyes tightly shut looking thought the rust and rotten dust
A spot of light floods the floor
And pours over the rusted world of pretend
The eyes ease open and it's dark again
...
Moving all around
Screaming of the ups and downs
Pollution manifested in perpetual sound
The wheels go round and the sunset creeps past the
Street lamps, chain-link, and concrete
A little piece of paper with a picture drawn
Floats on down the street till the wind is gone
The memory now is like the picture was then
When the paper's crumpled up it can't be perfect again
(Skies cock back) and shock that which can't defend
The rain then sends dripping acidic questions
Forcefully, the power of suggestion
Then with the eyes tightly shut looking thought the rust and rotten dust
A spot of light floods the floor
And pours over the rusted world of pretend
The eyes ease open and it's dark again
...
Moving all around
Screaming of the ups and downs
Pollution manifested in perpetual sound
The wheels go round and the sunset creeps past the
Street lamps, chain-link, and concrete
A little piece of paper with a picture drawn
Floats on down the street till the wind is gone
The memory now is like the picture was then
When the paper's crumpled up it can't be perfect again
— Linkin Park, Forgotten.
Dancing on the ashes of the world
I behold the stars
Heavy gale is blowing to my face
Rising up the dust
Barren lands are desperate to blossom
Dark stars strive to shine
Still remember blue ocean
In this dying world
The seas overdumped
The rivers are all dead
All planet's cities turned a deserted land
Annihilation declares his day
Life slowly
Utters "We remain"
I behold the stars
Heavy gale is blowing to my face
Rising up the dust
Barren lands are desperate to blossom
Dark stars strive to shine
Still remember blue ocean
In this dying world
The seas overdumped
The rivers are all dead
All planet's cities turned a deserted land
Annihilation declares his day
Life slowly
Utters "We remain"
— Firelake, "Dirge For The Planet"
I see towers of flame, and corpses too
I see the doom, of me and you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies obscured, I see no light
Dark freezing days, dark sleepless nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The clouds of radiation are so pretty in the sky
Tumours on the faces of the people who survived
I see friends in the past kill each other for food
They're really starving......So will you.
I see babies die, I watch them decompose
They'll hurt much more, than I'll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
I see the doom, of me and you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies obscured, I see no light
Dark freezing days, dark sleepless nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The clouds of radiation are so pretty in the sky
Tumours on the faces of the people who survived
I see friends in the past kill each other for food
They're really starving......So will you.
I see babies die, I watch them decompose
They'll hurt much more, than I'll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
— Ghoul, "What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong cover)"
The first rock
Thrown again
Welcome to Hell, little saint
Mother Gaia
In slaughter
Welcome to Paradise, soldier!
Thrown again
Welcome to Hell, little saint
Mother Gaia
In slaughter
Welcome to Paradise, soldier!
—Nightwish, "Planet Hell"
Tabletop Games
Superficially, the World of Darkness is like the "real" world we all inhabit. The same bands are popular, violence still plagues the inner city, graft and corruption infest the same governments, and society still looks to the same cities for its culture. The World of Darkness has a Statue of Liberty, and Eiffel Tower and a CBGB's. More present than in our world, though, is the undercurrent of horror: our world's ills are all the more pronounced in the World of Darkness. Our fears are more real. Our governments are more degenerate. Our ecosystem dies a little more each night. And vampires exist.
Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned.
Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war.
There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.
In every corner of a cold and uncaring galaxy, billions die each day. Wars consume entire systems, drowning civilizations in the blood of their own people. Conceit and avarice drain populations of their riches and their futures for the benefit of a few. Broken promises, deceit, and betrayal topple regimes, sacrificing the lives of those who served them so that the twisted plans of new rulers can come to fruition. In the wake of such tragedies, suffering, and misery, pain and disease touch the minds and bodies of the survivors and cause them to despair. These are the truths of existence in the mortal realm, and the breath that speaks these truths is the same breath that gives life to the malevolent inhabitants of another domain — the Realm of Chaos.
—Black Crusade: The Tome Of Decay
For the One God guards a dying realm. In the fields of France, villagers flee from mercenaries hired to protect them; those who falter are skinned alive, raped or hung up by their balls to die. In the streets of London, children eat plague-rats while the King eats quail; those who sicken are locked in charnel houses or tossed on burial carts while still half-alive. In Rome, bishops frolic with their whores while their words kindle fires for the Adamites and witches; across the mountains, Khristos' soldiers and the Prophet's chosen feed one another to the wolves. Far off, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, skin-banners flutter for a demon-king. The world is a panorama of glorious pain, and all Creation sings. If a Divine Chain exists, its links are fragile. Each fluctuation of the Void strains the bonds, and when they snap, the Sun goes out and the world ends.
And that, you see, is what we want.
— Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade - Infernalism
Theatre
There's a hole in the world like a great black pit,
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,
And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit,
And it goes by the name of London!
At the top of the hole sit a privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo,
Turning beauty into filth and greed. I too
Have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru
But there's no place like London!
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,
And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit,
And it goes by the name of London!
At the top of the hole sit a privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo,
Turning beauty into filth and greed. I too
Have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru
But there's no place like London!
— Sweeney Todd, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
"Blow your candles out — for nowadays the world is lit by lightning!"
"Once upon a time there was a poor child who had no father and no mother, everything was dead and no one was left in the world. Everything dead, and the child went out and cried day and night. And since no one was left on earth, it tried to go up to heaven and the moon was giving it such a friendly look, and when it finally got to the moon, the moon was a piece of rotten wood and so it went to the sun and when it got there, the sun was a wilted sunflower and when it got to the stars they were little golden gnats, stuck there like the shrike sticks them on the blackthorn, and when it tried to go back down to earth, the earth was a knocked-over pot and it was all alone and it sat down and cried and it's sitting there still and it's all alone."
— Grandmother, Woyzeck
Video Games
An Infected Knight: Don't you think it's strange?
Such a big mobile platform has practically become a cage for the Infected knights. Did you know the Infected knights are examined and treated there, but they also "live" there?
As if existing like that can be called "living" at all.
Shining: ......
An Infected Knight: Alright, it seems you outsiders don't even know this much.
Shining: But if all the Infected were to live there...
An Infected Knight: Then there's not enough space, right?
Those Infected who can still make money will step back into the arena, or carry on... finding whatever odd jobs they can.
For those who can't become knights, they'll be sent to off to do some iffy work... Mining, transporting, all in dangerous environments.
And if you get hurt, and you can't even do that kind of manual labor...
Take a guess, outsider. Where do you think those Infected from Area 0 end up?
Shining: ......!
An Infected Knight: You may think it's a hospital, and the knights may think it's a prison. But let me tell you, it is neither.
The Infected are shipped there, washed of their dignity, stripped of their basic worth, and finally sent to the cutting boards to be culled.
What you're looking at, Sarkaz, is a glorified slaughterhouse.
Such a big mobile platform has practically become a cage for the Infected knights. Did you know the Infected knights are examined and treated there, but they also "live" there?
As if existing like that can be called "living" at all.
Shining: ......
An Infected Knight: Alright, it seems you outsiders don't even know this much.
Shining: But if all the Infected were to live there...
An Infected Knight: Then there's not enough space, right?
Those Infected who can still make money will step back into the arena, or carry on... finding whatever odd jobs they can.
For those who can't become knights, they'll be sent to off to do some iffy work... Mining, transporting, all in dangerous environments.
And if you get hurt, and you can't even do that kind of manual labor...
Take a guess, outsider. Where do you think those Infected from Area 0 end up?
Shining: ......!
An Infected Knight: You may think it's a hospital, and the knights may think it's a prison. But let me tell you, it is neither.
The Infected are shipped there, washed of their dignity, stripped of their basic worth, and finally sent to the cutting boards to be culled.
What you're looking at, Sarkaz, is a glorified slaughterhouse.
— Arknights, "Right and Might (NL-ST-2)"
"It matters not who lives and dies... blood is shed as it has always been... there... is nothing else... in this... forsaken.. existence..."
—Avitus, Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
"We saved Ferelden, and they're angry. We saved Orlais, and they're angry. We closed the breach—twice—and my own hand wants to kill me. Could one thing in this FUCKING world just stay fixed!?"
—The Inquisitor, Dragon Age: Inquisition
"Guess I meant, I dunno...a happier ending...for everyone involved."
"Here, for folks like us? Wrong city... wrong people."
—V and Johnny Silverhand, Cyberpunk 2077
"The world doesn't want to be saved. It wants to eat you alive."
—Lo Wang, Shadow Warrior 2
Adrift on a Sea of Misery
Step outside the lamp-light and London is an abyss of disease, poverty, despair...
—Circumstance Flavour Text on Fallen London
"This whole world is a wretched place!"
—Malos, Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Every place we send you seems to be a hotspot of human misery. It's necessary, of course, but as your handler I have become genuinely concerned with the effect this might be having on your resolve...
—Richard Sonnac, The Secret World
Krimzon Guard: By order of his eminence, the Grand Protector of Haven City, Baron Praxis: Everyone in this section is hereby under arrest for suspicion of harboring underground fugitives. Surrender and die!
Daxter: Ahhhhh, excuse me sir, don't you mean "Surrender OR die"!?
Kor: Not in this city!
Daxter: Ahhhhh, excuse me sir, don't you mean "Surrender OR die"!?
Kor: Not in this city!
Web Original
"I mean, this guy lives in a world where everything is trying to kill you, eat you, rape you, or all three at the same time. And that's just Monday."
— Boomstick on Guts, Guts VS Nightmare.
"Life is a repeated endless kick to the nuts. And then when you think you got the hang of it, Life is like 'Hey, I got these new boots I’d like to try out on your nuts.'"
"Everything. Blows. And it blows fucking hard"
..."how do you work at the Foundation and not realize what kind of world you live in, Marcus? The cosmic nightmares, the malignant godlings, the insane societies at war, the hordes of monsters beyond counting, the doomsdays upon doomsdays... there's so much that can't be stopped, so many things that could end everything, even in the better worlds that some have envisioned-"
"Some people have no friends. Some people have no food. The globe is warming. (singing) And the ocean is full of plastiiic~"
Western Animation
"Why is everybody we know depressing?"
— Stewie Griffin, Family Guy, "Grumpy Old Man"
Dib: Horrible... Nightmare visions!
Ms. Bitters: It's called life, Dib. Now, sit down.
Ms. Bitters: It's called life, Dib. Now, sit down.
— Invader Zim, "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom"
"As far as the eye can see the land is desolate and full of despair. Shadows draw across the earth and block out the light. Darkness oozes from every crevice. Hope has been eradicated; only terror reigns!"
— Aku, Samurai Jack, "Episode XXIII"
Real World
"Many readers have told me, in writing and by word of mouth, how tired they are of the kind of story that begins "Marjorie's husband was to be hanged on Tuesday, and the children were starving", or "For seven years no ray of sunlight had penetrated the dusty room where William Grocock, a retired insurance agent, lay dying of cancer"; but I don't fancy they are more tired of them than I am myself, who have to work my way through round about twenty such stories every week."
