History DarkerAndEdgier / WebAnimation

* Season 9 of ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' has a notably darker tone compared to previous seasons in regards to how it portrays its fights. Several fights are portrayed with an overall tragic angle, with a large amount of them ending on a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet note]] ("[[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba Tanjiro]] VS [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Jonathan Joestar]]", "[[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Omni-Man]] VS [[ComicBook/TheBoys Homelander]]") or even a downright DownerEnding ("[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Black Adam]] VS [[ComicBook/XMen Apocalypse]]"). The season also features a lesser number of straightforward heroic characters, with the majority of the fighters being either [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]], [[AntiVillain Anti-Villains]], or outright villains.

* Season 9 of ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' has a notably darker tone compared to previous seasons in regards to how it portrays its fights. Several fights are portrayed with a overall tragic angle, with a large amount of them ending on a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet note]] ("[[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba Tanjiro]] VS [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Jonathan Joestar]]", "[[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Omni-Man]] VS [[ComicBook/TheBoys Homelander]]") or even a downright DownerEnding ("[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Black Adam]] VS [[ComicBook/XMen Apocalypse]]"). The season also features a lesser number of straightforward heroic characters, with the majority of the fighters being either [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]], [[AntiVillain Anti-Villains]], or outright villains.

* The third season of ''WebAnimation/GothamGirls'' is much darker and realistic than the last 2. In fact, many Franchise/{{DCAU}} fans consider this to be the ONLY canon season.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''[[note]](Seasons 1 -- 5)[[/note]] is a [[RandomEventsPlot Random Events Comedy]], that just [[KudzuPlot gets more insane]] as it progresses. From ''Reconstruction''[[note]](Season 6)[[/note]] onwards however, plots are a lot more focused, backstory is elaborated on, justification is provided for ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''' Random Events Plot (Without even a single {{Retcon}}), action scenes are more frequent and intense, and just about [[CharacterDevelopment every character gets rounded out]] (Some are [[HiddenDepths surprisingly complex]]). ''Revelation'' and ''The Project Freelancer Saga''[[note]](Seasons 8 - 10)[[/note]] in particular have some genuinely great character drama.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' Machinima ''Machinima/SodorDarkTimes'' is far darker then the show it was based on, as the tone is far darker and more depressing, there’s little if any humor, an AxCrazy murderous steam engine named Alfred (an alternate version of 98462 from ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'') as the BigBad, and almost all of the steam engines we’ve come to know and love being '''KilledOffForReal'''.

* Although already dark, Episode 10 of the webseries ''WebAnimation/SaladFingers'' could very well be ''[[UpToEleven darker than the previous episodes]].'' The episode in question is entitled "Birthday," and it starts with our protagonist Salad Fingers about to throw a party for Hubert Cumberdale, his finger puppet. He then goes to what he refers to as Milford Cubicle's corpse (which was still hanging from the rack where SF left it in the episode "Nettles") and asks it to take a hot bath and prepare for Hubert's party. SF then gets a knock at the door, and he sees a long pole that's extending to the sky. Worried about Milford, Salad Fingers leaves his horse Horace in charge of the house until he got back. He walks out into the forests and goes through some trash and finds a puppet that he calls Dr. Papanak. Dr. Papanak then examines him and unexpectedly bites him. Salad Fingers then throws him over to a horse that resembled Horace, and the puppet began to cut into the side of the horse. Salad Fingers witnesses this, and assures the horse that he knew it hurt, but he should try to hold still and let the puppet consume its blood. Salad Fingers then takes a nap and when he wakes up, he seemed older stating that he was asleep for probably 'Six Mondays.' He then goes back to his home to discover that more horses were at his house and that the flesh on Milford Cubicle's skeleton had been cleaned off. Salad Fingers is enraged and casts the horses out of his house. He then goes outside and sees the pole again and asks it if it was the ringleader behind Cubicle's fleshless corpse. However, it turns out that [[spoiler:five Salad Fingers-like beings had eaten the flesh off of the corpse and were seated at a table]]. Salad Fingers then goes to the table and sits down. The pole soon extended from the sky and a present was revealed to be at the top of it. Salad Fingers opens it and it turns out to be [[spoiler:a hat made out of Cubicle's face]]. SF puts it on, and stated that he'll wear this hat until his death.

** The theme song When It Falls is pretty dark. It opens with a soft piano interlude, and then the first verse enters
--> Maybe red's like roses
--> Maybe it's the pool of blood
--> The innocents will lay in
--> When in the end you've failed to save them
--> Their dying eyes
--> Are wide and white like snow
--> And now they know
--> The cost of trusting you's obliteration

* The ''WebAnimation/ThereSheIs'' series of videos at [[http://www.sambakza.net/ Sambakza.net]] feature Doki and Nabi, a rabbit who falls in love with a cat. The first two videos are cute and funny, showing Doki chasing Nabi despite his arguing that they are different species, then him getting her a birthday cake. The third and fourth videos show how society is REALLY against this pairing, with the two of them getting injured, property destroyed, pet dying, etc. Not so fun anymore, huh?
* Website/JibJab, originally, light in tone, went from gently mocking Bush and Kerry in 2004 to mocking [=McCain=] and Obama straight up in 2008, along with the broken promises made by presidents in election day that never come to light when they are actually in office. The "Year in Reviews" went from hoping it'll get better to, most recently, the 2008 Year in Review summing up everything that's bad, and adding "wars and famine" to the end.
* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LWG05S30Ig Super Smash]]'', the gritty reimagining of Super Mario Bros makes itself to be a rather awesome flash.
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' parodies this with its 2010 AprilFoolsDay gag, [[XtremeKoolLetterz HSR Xeriouxly Forxe]].
-->'''Singer''': There's new demographics when nobody asked for it!
* The third season of ''WebAnimation/GothamGirls'' is much darker and realistic than the last 2. In fact, many Franchise/{{DCAU}} fans consider this to be the ONLY canon season.
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''[[note]](Seasons 1 - 5)[[/note]] is a [[RandomEventsPlot Random Events Comedy]], that just [[KudzuPlot gets more insane]] as it progresses. From ''Reconstruction''[[note]](Season 6)[[/note]] onwards however, plots are a lot more focused, backstory is elaborated on, justification is provided for ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''' Random Events Plot (Without even a single {{Retcon}}), action scenes are more frequent and intense, and just about [[CharacterDevelopment every character gets rounded out]] (Some are [[HiddenDepths surprisingly complex]]). ''Revelation'' and ''The Project Freelancer Saga''[[note]](Seasons 8 - 10)[[/note]] in particular have some genuinely great character drama.
** Season 11 looked like it was a return to the comedy of the original format, but halfway through gets as dark as the series has ever been.
** ''The Chorus Civil War'' takes the same format. At first it started the same way as the earlier season, and things get darker as the season progresses.
* In ''WebAnimation/RatboyGenius'', earlier episodes were mostly short slice-of-life adventures, but Ratboy Genius Dreams Minecraft has an actual antagonist in the form of Little King John and a more adventurous plot, which hilariously, grew the fanbase. The sequel miniseries The Flood continues in the same vein.
* Although already dark, Episode 10 of the webseries ''WebAnimation/SaladFingers'' could very well be ''[[UpToEleven darker than the previous episodes]].'' The episode in question is entitled "Birthday," and it starts with our protagonist Salad Fingers about to throw a party for Hubert Cumberdale, his finger puppet. He then goes to what he refers to as Milford Cubicle's corpse (which was still hanging from the rack where SF left it in the episode "Nettles") and asks it to take a hot bath and prepare for Hubert's party. SF then gets a knock at the door, and he sees a long pole that's extending to the sky. Worried about Milford, Salad Fingers leaves his horse Horace in charge of the house until he got back. He walks out into the forests and goes through some trash and finds a puppet that he calls Dr. Papanak. Dr. Papanak then examines him and unexpectedly bites him. Salad Fingers then throws him over to a horse that resembled Horace, and the puppet began to cut into the side of the horse. Salad Fingers witnesses this, and assures the horse that he knew it hurt, but he should try to hold still and let the puppet consume its blood. Salad Fingers then takes a nap and when he wakes up, he seemed older stating that he was asleep for probably 'Six Mondays.' He then goes back to his home to discover that more horses were at his house and that the flesh on Milford Cubicle's skeleton had been cleaned off. Salad Fingers is enraged and casts the horses out of his house. He then goes outside and sees the pole again and asks it if it was the ringleader behind Cubicle's fleshless corpse. However, it turns out that [[spoiler:five Salad Fingers-like beings had eaten the flesh off of the corpse and were seated at a table]]. Salad Fingers then goes to the table and sits down. The pole soon extended from the sky and a present was revealed to be at the top of it. Salad Fingers opens it and it turns out to be [[spoiler:a hat made out of Cubicle's face]]. SF puts it on, and stated that he'll wear this hat until his death.