History Main / DarknessInducedAudienceApathy

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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1605236156071716500&page=1 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13222107430A61495000 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]
->''"People always say they want things dark, but if you don't have a plan to draw people out of that and show how these people overcome it, then you just leave your audience in despair."''
-->--'''Creator/DaveFiloni'''

It is often said that "conflict is the soul of drama." Without some form of {{conflict}} to fuel things there's no engine to drive the story and thus little reason to become invested in it. However, we here at Wiki/TVTropes would like to propose an amendment to this phrase which includes something important but sadly all-too-often forgotten, as [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools tropes are, after all, tools]]:

''Meaningful'' conflict is the soul of drama.

Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy occurs when a conflict exists that simply lacks any reason for the audience to care about how it is resolved. This reaction tends to crop up when the setting is extremely but meaninglessly [[DarkerAndEdgier dark and edgy]], or [[EvilVersusEvil all sides in the conflict are evil]] (or at least far enough gone that [[DistinctionWithoutADifference the difference is negligible]]). Even if the heroes are not only heroic because [[DesignatedHero the authors say they are]], stories with sympathetic heroes can still suffer from this trope because [[YouCantFightFate the characters lack any agency]]--if anything good happens to them, [[DiabolusExMachina it'll be jerked away]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog regardless]].

In other words, there is nothing really at stake. It might ''seem'' like there is, but ultimately, if you're given a choice between supporting one of two equally horrible groups of people or hoping for one of two equally despairing outcomes, then that's not really a choice at all. The outcome is going to be awful either way, so who cares who wins?

This reaction is often the result of writers believing that TrueArtIsAngsty, and going overboard with it.

Compare AngstDissonance, AudienceAlienatingPremise, SadistShow, and OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow, although they can overlap.

Contrast TastesLikeDiabetes, this trope's polar opposite, and also RootingForTheEmpire, but ''only'' when all sides involved are evil and yet the audience still likes them. Compare and contrast {{Glurge}}, which is what happens when [[JustForFun/XMeetsY you combine the sickeningly sweet and the depressingly dark]]. See also TooHappyToLive, TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth and TrueLoveIsBoring.

Not to be confused with AngstAversion, which is when people avoid a work because they hear that it is too dark or depressing. It is possible for a work to be both, of course.

!! Note to Editors
This trope frequently gets misused for a work that is dark, angsty, or depressing. That is wrong. It only applies when '''there is no meaningful conflict''' because everyone is awful and the world sucks, and therefore '''there are no stakes for the audience'''. If people enjoy the work despite its tone, this trope does not apply.

[[noreallife]]
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!!Example subpages:
[[index]]
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/AnimeAndManga
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/ComicBooks
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/FanWorks
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/{{Films}}
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/{{Literature}}
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/LiveActionTV
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/ProfessionalWrestling
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/VideoGames
[[/index]]

!!Other examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Though the comic did generally achieve an agreeable balance between the light-hearted charm of the other characters and the morose nature of Charlie Brown, the strip did always have its critics who found it too downcast overall. The infamous "Lucy and the football" running gag is particularly polarizing; some found the joke increasingly sadistic as the years (and decades) went on. The animated cartoons generally received harsher criticism for being "too mean," with ''It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown'' actually having some scenes softened for syndication.
* ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'': Very little goes right for the characters, jokes about death are frequent and everyone is just generally depressed from a melancholy in the air. Lisa's death by cancer is a good spot to mark when the strip moved into its darkness setting.
** ''ComicStrip/{{Crankshaft}}'', from the same creator, has this to a lesser degree. It's not as perpetually glum, but the main character is very hard to like as a person and the occasional death joke pops up now and then.
* This has happened with a lot of [[PoliticalCartoons politically-oriented]] Mexican comics, like ''Franchise/ElSantos'' and ''Los Miserables'': After suffering decades of government censorship, the political comic industry experienced a resurgence during TheNineties with its gritty stories and DeadpanSnarker AntiHero characters being praised as a welcome reality-grounded change from the rosy picture readers were being fed before; however, [[FranchiseOriginalSin more than 20 years later]], the BlackAndGrayMorality themes were turned UpToEleven, and several of their readers got tired of the CrapsackWorld themes, crude humor, irredeemable {{Jerkass}} protagonists and the overall message of ThisLoserIsYou.
* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' may have started to show this in the late tens, but the COVID pandemic is where Pastis threw humor into the backseat. Rat's cynicism is proved right, and he spends most of the time cussing out the year 2020, while Pig struggles to cheer up the hurting world. Even the strips signature [[{{Feghoot}} long-winded puns]] all but dried up, making in possibly the darkest comedy in the funny pages, even in that rough time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Interactive Fiction]]
* Creator/AdamCadre's ''VideoGame/{{Varicella}}'' attempts to avert this by having its VillainProtagonist, while still amoral and self-centered and willing to murder people to claim the Regency, not as evil as his rivals for the Regency, nearly all of whom are truly horrible people who seem to enjoy their acts of abuse and {{rape|IsASpecialKindOfEvil}}. But Varicella is still a short-sighted person who can't foresee [[spoiler: just how horrible things become when the prince takes the throne and becomes even worse]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/IronMaiden:
** The album ''The X Factor'' is widely disliked, largely because it is relentlessly dark and slow in tempo from "Fortunes Of War" onwards. ''Virtual XI'' gets this a bit too, though is balanced out a bit with the unnaturally happy sounding track "The Angel And The Gambler" (which is basically the "Can I Play With Madness" or "Holy Smoke" of this album, but fans saw it quite differently due to it [[EndingFatigue running close to 10 minutes]] and [[BrokenRecord the chorus being repeated 22 times]]).
** Many fans feel this way about ''A Matter Of Life And Death'', as well. With the exception of "Different World", the album is all about the horrors of war, and represents this in [[EpicRocking long dirges]] like "These Colours Don't Run" and "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns". As older fans have pointed out, this is quite similar to ''The X Factor'', but has received far better reviews due to Music/BruceDickinson singing. Newer fans, and music journalists, regard it as one of the band's best albums, mostly because it virtually lacks the pop sensibilities that are on the band's other albums and thus fits in better with the modern image of metal as being dark and serious.
* Music/JoyDivision. Ian Curtis' lyrics and low-key vocals make his [[DrivenToSuicide self-inflicted death]] of little surprise. Martin Hannett's spartan production adds to the effect; even Bernard Sumner says in the "Joy Division" docu-film that ''Music/UnknownPleasures'' is almost ''too'' dark, and he prefers the more varied arrangements of ''Music/{{Closer}}''.
** On a lesser note, Music/TheSmiths and Music/TheCure, while happier than Joy Division, also have no dearth of depressing songs that depend on equal mood to properly enjoy (''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/03/30/episode-401-civility-before-hostility/ even joked]]: "Look at those Cure albums. No emotionally balanced, healthy person would listen to that. This is obviously our perp.").
* Music/LinkinPark’s discography is retroactively a 7-album long suicide note, especially ''One More Light'', which became a literal CreatorKiller. Actually, let’s just call this a risk with any artist whose mental issues show up too much in their sound.
* Music/GeorgeMichael 's album ''Older'', written after his boyfriend's death, is widely regarded as being extremely dark and slow and a pretty difficult listen. It and its singles were very successful at the time (helped largely due to a four year gap since his last single), but tastes changed and it is very commonly found in charity shops in the UK.
* The Music/PinkFloyd albums made after Music/RogerWaters [[IAmTheBand asserted control of the band]], particularly ''Music/{{Animals}}'', ''Music/TheWall'' and ''Music/TheFinalCut'', have been criticized for their relentlessly downbeat tone. ''The Final Cut'' is one of the most divisive in the band's catalog, and also one of its lowest-selling post-''Music/DarkSideOfTheMoon'' releases.
* Gustav Mahler's song cycle ''Kindertotenlieder'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Songs on the Death of Children]]. Mahler based those songs on a large series of poems by Friedrich Rückert, who wrote them to cope with the death of two of his children. These poems were never intended for publication.
* The works of Bernd Alois Zimmerman are not often performed, due to their unrelenting nihilism; the brutal atonal sound of the music itself doesn't help either. His opera ''The Soldiers'' largely consists of selfish, manipulative ghouls meting out horrific abuse and gaslighting to a helpless woman, culminating with her becoming a beggar, that not even her own father recognises. ''Requiem for a Young Poet'' centers around three poets who committed suicide, interspersed with Cold War and Nazi audio footage; one movement contains no music at all, merely one of the poets (Konrad Bayer) laying out his reasons for killing himself. Zimmerman himself committed suicide shortly after composing this piece.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Role-Playing]]
* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' can either avoid this one or play it straight, depending on the character and scene. The setting essentially means that [[KillEmAll most of the cast will die in some way or another]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath occasionally in horrific ways]] and often at the hands of each other. While with a bit of skill handlers do avert this one entirely, there still have been moments where it feels like this trope in practice. Fortunately, there have been a fair amount of avoidance with specific examples.
* ''Roleplay/DisneyWorldOfWar'' has this problem at times. With the setting being a DarkerAndEdgier version of the traditional Disney universe. Added to this problem is the BlackAndGrayMorality which is exhibited by all three sides in the war, including the "Heroes" who are not above brutal means to win the war, makes it hard to really root for any of them because they are so willing to throw ethics out the window at times. There is also the problem of so many characters, particularly [[WouldHurtAChild child characters]], dying or traditional "good guys" being turned to the dark side because of either trauma or the realisation that TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget means even rooting for Disney protagonists is hard. Fortunately, however, the personalities of the Disney characters saves this somewhat as they still can be the characters everyone knows and loves in the brief moments of levity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' can reach this level if you care to check its backstory. The clash of multiple {{Decadent Court}}s (a clash which did not even so much as ''slow down'' when the Clans invaded) and continuous wars (against the Clans, against the Word of Blake, [[WeAREStrugglingTogether against each other]], etc) that have constantly knocked down the whole Inner Sphere can make the fluff feel to some like ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]] with HumongousMecha. There are plenty of sympathetic characters on the canon, but in the end the Inner Sphere is just not going to ''ever'' change from being a war-wreaked [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack]] ''[[UpToEleven Galaxy]]'', no matter their efforts, so why bother about seeing their success if you know in the long run it will all go to hell again?
** This was especially bad in the early days of the ''Mechwarrior: Dark Age'' series, which bumped everything ahead by about half a century--not only did this mean that most of the characters that fans had come to know and love were dead (often KilledOffscreen), but the setting had reduced the availability of 'Mechs and made them frustratingly expensive to field, which, while somewhat realistic, is also anathema to pushing the setting's unique selling point, as a HumongousMecha SpaceOpera. It did not help that the powers that be set up some thirty-odd preset characters to try and give a sense of stability to the setting (and continuity with the fan-preferred ''Classic Battletech'') and then proceeded to kill off or write out approximately a third of them within six months, including most of the major Clan characters introduced to set up that portion of the universe. As a result, many long-time fans ended up uninvested in the new Dark Age setting, declaring it a DorkAge.
* ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' is a D&D module that is known for being very ''very'' deadly to player characters, and one of the most crapsack worlds in a game filled with [[CrapsackWorld such crapsack worlds]]. Because of the high turnover rate for player characters as well as one of its unofficial catch-phrases being "What would you do if you were desparate enough?", it's very ''very'' easy for players to not feel like they have any real reason to invest in anything. While [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Some players might like having a more personal goal]], others don't - which is why Dark Sun is seen as somewhat of a controversial module if only because people have different goals.
* ''TabletopGame/DeadOfWinter'' can fall under this, depending how bad the secret objectives are. You could use that medicine to save your friend's survivor, who could really help the community... but if your secret objective requires that you keep the medicine...
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''L In the view of some of the current authors, large chunks of second edition fell into "shitdark", defined by Holden Shearer as "a setting so relentlessly shitty and miserable and hopeless that it becomes impossible to emotionally invest in it or care what happens to it."
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' is too diverse a system to fall into this generally, but several of its AlternateUniverse Earth settings fell into this for gamers; most notably, Reich-5 was retooled into a new villain for crosstime campaigns because your options there consisted of "Nazis, Nazified Americans, Imperial Japanese, and the inevitably doomed resistance". Reich-2 was this in-story for Americans after the British signed a truce with the Nazis--no one much cared whether Hitler or Stalin won the war.
* ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'': While ''Wraith'' is the worst in this regard, the World of Darkness as a whole tended to fall in this trap. Throughout each game, the main villains tended to be vast unknowable forces that could never be truly defeated: ancient conspiracies, corrupt corporations, secret government organizations, ''the spiritual force of evil itself'', etc. And they're ''winning.'' Regardless of the player characters' victories in a campaign, you're unlikely to have any effect on the large-scale machinations at work. A recurring theme throughout each game is that the heroes are fighting a losing battle against the end of the world. Have fun.
** In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', the world is threatened by the Weaver (the cosmic force of order who seeks to lock the cosmos into unchanging stasis) and the Wyrm (the cosmic force of destruction and renewal who has gone insane after being imprisoned in the Weaver's "web" of reality). In ''best case'' scenarios, these forces can be restored to sanity and balance, at the cost of billions of human and non-human lives. In ''worst case'' scenarios, one of these beings emerges triumphant over the cosmos and proceeds to either destroy it or render it a horrible {{crapsack world}}. Meanwhile, their minions are inflicting untold suffering on the world. The Gaia-aligned factions trying to stop the Weaver and Wyrm are often depicted as short-sighted, bigoted, bloodthirsty, and in the case of the Ananasi, outright sociopathic, making it difficult at times to root for them.
** ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' is a game where upon death your soul incarnates in Creator/HRGiger's worst BDSM nightmare, is taken in by a society whose repressiveness would embarrass a fascist, finds that there is no happy afterlife for him, and then must struggle to survive as a mad force of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and their howling-mad servants of Oblivion seek to unmake the world. One source book went so far as to deal with the ghosts born of the ''Holocaust''. The bleakness drove it straight into AudienceAlienatingPremise and it was definitely one of the less popular games. This is the game where your character's sweater is made out of the soul of another person who is experiencing AndIMustScream.
** ''Hunter: The Reckoning'' had this problem at release. It was advertised as a World of Darkness game in which the characters would play regular people attempting to take back their streets from the assorted vampires, werewolves, mages etc. that populate the setting. When the book was actually released, though, it was revealed that Hunters themselves also had supernatural powers granted to them by an unknown entity.. and since every powerful unknown force in the setting up to that point was a BigBad, and "I'm a monster but I have to be to defend you against the other worse monster" a central theme of all the games, Hunters appeared no longer to be the champions of regular humanity but just another type of supernatural creature.
*** Additionally, Hunter's art looks like the typical version of the idea "humans fight back the supernatural" concept might convey - namely, the Hunters are artistically depicted as tough, powerful forces smashing down other supernaturals. Unfortunately, the actual power levels of the hunters was underwhelming, and the text itself read more akin to a CosmicHorror game where the typical Hunter has the lifespan of a mayfly. If the supernatural being itself didn't kill you, the forces of government would - and that government was of course backed by and infiltrated thoroughly by supernatural forces. Basically, Hunters would find not only could most supernaturals take them on, but they could also just call in the SWAT team, and it went as well as you expect. The premise of Hunter as a break from the grimdark of the World of Darkness never was realized.
* ''TabletopGame/UnhallowedMetropolis'' takes this trope to an extreme. It is set in a world where a ZombieApocalypse has warped most of the earth, resulting in barely-surviving societies which are surrounded by blighted, polluted, unholy hellscapes. The default setting, Victorian-esque England, takes inequality to such extremes that for every [[AristocratsAreEvil stuffy noble using the blood of the poor to stay young while enjoying macabre orgies,]] there are thousands who die for want of a gas mask. Speaking of gas masks, the air is so polluted that one is essential for survival. What few leaders remain are all invariably corrupt and decadent to a level that cannot be exaggerated, while bomb-throwing anarchists and worse are ready to dismantle the system. Of course, anarchy would only lead to a failure of the few systems stopping the ghouls, vampires, mad-scientists, and other evils from visiting horrors on the populous. Nation states have fallen - there is no world system, and all the people of this new society know of other peoples is that France is even worse off. Even the heroes are inherently corrupt, and draw power by accepting further corruption. Finally, all the undeath of this setting is hinted to be a symptom of the world being fundamentally wrong on a far, far more terrible level, as observed through the unspeakable behavior of its human inhabitants.
* ''TabletopGame/WitchGirlsAdventures'' hits this hard. The titular witch girls have no sense of right and wrong and are perfectly fine with [[ImAHumanitarian turning people into food and eating them]] or [[AndIMustScream turning them into still-aware inaminate objects]] for the pettiest reasons. Their opponents, the Malleus Maleficarum, are so consumed with anti-witch hatred that they will kill any witch they see-even if said witch ''isn't'' using her power for selfish purposes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* The big plot twists of Act 2 of ''Theatre/{{Ebenezer}}'' are so dark and cynical it can be hard to care about anything that happens before or afterward, even ''A Christmas Carol'' itself. Jacob Marley was in love with Scrooge's mother, swore vengeance on the family when she died in childbirth, impregnated and killed Scrooge's sister Fran, concocted a plot to make Scrooge think Emily was cheating on him with Bob Cratchit, and foreclosed her orphanage, killing everyone there while breaking Tiny Tim's leg just to be cruel. It's then revealed Scrooge knew about it all from the start and didn't care, even though he himself attacked Emily viciously and ordered Marley to foreclose her orphanage beforehand. Scrooge's speech detailing this revelation hammers it home.
-->'''Scrooge:''' You must think me a simpleton, sir. Don't you think I've known about everything from the start? Don't you think I've known about Marley's motives all along?\\
'''Dickens:''' Then why have you stayed here?\\
'''Scrooge:''' Because I learned a long time ago that there is ''no'' goodness in this world--and whatever goodness there is is extinguished like a sputtering candle.
* Many people deem the story of Janacek's ''Theatre/{{Jenufa}}'' too grim (and most of its characters too unsympathetic) for it to be seen more than once (if at all). For context, Steva is a womanizing, sociopathic drunkard who deserts Jenufa as soon as he has gotten into her pants, Jenufa is an extremely naive young woman who falls for Steva's tricks (although she gets better), Kostelnicka [[spoiler: murders her stepdaughter's illegitamite child]], and Laca is a BaseBreakingCharacter for [[NeverLiveItDown slashing Jenufa's face in Act I]] and then ending up HappilyMarried to her in Act III.
* ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' in both a musical and the film of the musical. The basic premise is that a company controls the supply of organs needed to live, and they remove them by force if you are late making payments. The characters include an heiress addicted to drugs and surgery, a mass-murdering heir, a man who wears the removed faces of women, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who sends hitmen out to remove the organs of those who fail to pay him, and the titular Repo Man. There's only three characters with a shred of decency - the tragic opera singer, the IncorruptiblePurePureness IllGirl, and the grave-robbing, drug-dealing GreekChorus. It just keeps getting worse.
* ''Theatre/SweeneyTodd'' pits a barber who murders innocent men and sends them to his PsychoSupporter to be baked into pies, against a corrupt judge who drugged and raped a woman and then holds her daughter hostage with the intent to [[WifeHusbandry marry the girl he brought up]]. There's a TokenRomance (or RomanticPlotTumor) between a couple of flat characters, but other than that it's a revenge story between a mass murderer and the monster who wronged him.
* ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'': The protagonist is a horrible person, the antagonist is a horrible person, the side characters are horrible people, there's overreactions galore, rape, cannibalism, murder, torture, insanity, but it's so over the top and over done it just ends up unpopular and buried in the back folder of Full Annotated works of Shakespeare.
** Though it was probably meant to be a parody of similar Revenge Dramas that were very popular at the time by going completely over the top. Also, there are a some likeable characters (such as Titus' brother Marcus), and the ambiguity in some areas (such as Aaron's baby), allows some characters to be more likable.
* This is an ''intended feature'' of the works of Creator/BertoltBrecht, which he called the ''Verfremdungseffekt'' ("alienating effect"). By discouraging the audience from relating to any of the characters (which was dismissed as a form of escapism), the goal was to draw attention away from them and towards the socioeconomic system that shaped them, and by extension, that same system which exists in real life.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/CorpseParty'', even in its first incarnation, was pretty bleak, featuring a setting where [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary high school students]] are pulled into an [[DarkWorld alternate version]] of their school, featuring a StringyHairedGhostGirl and other ghosts that all want them dead, along with [[TheCorruption the Darkening]], which turns them into undead monsters if they [[DespairEventHorizon lose all hope]]. Even then, the protagonists usually solved the mystery and escaped relatively intact in the first few incarnations of the story. Later adaptions, however, go straight for the KillEmAll route. Even the OVA adaptation of the first story kills all but two of the protagonists, one of whom ends up sitting in a rocking chair for the rest of her life, too traumatized to even speak.
* The ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' games. The premise for them is already dark, in that the protagonists are all stuck in a school or on an island and the sadistic Monokuma tells them that, in order to be free, they need to kill each other and get away with it. With that as your beginning aspect, there's not much else one can do to make it even darker, but the game does, by including the revelation that TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has occurred outside of the school and the air is tainted, food is scarce and what little of 'society' remains is filled with violence. And the GaidenGame ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' flips things around and shows how bad things are outside in the world. For a game that started with simply killing students and solving murders, this got dark so fast, it's in absolute darkness.
** In ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' it actually seems to be playing with your apathy by shocking you back into being horrified again and again. What is worse than senseless murder? Senseless murder committed by children. Worse than that? Those children being abused. Near the end the main character temporarily falls into a state of this because she is shown something so horrifying to her that she stops caring about the decision she was supposed to be making, but recovers before the final boss battle soon afterwards.
** This reaches new depths in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony''. [[spoiler:The events of the first four installments of the series were apparently works of fiction in this universe, and the events of ''V3'' are actually the [=53rd=] season of a reality show spinoff. The students were brainwashed into "real fictional characters" for the show and have no way of reclaiming their original identities. On top of that, only three students survive the game (compared to six in the first game and five in the second), and now have to somehow reintegrate into a world that was ''enthralled'' with 53 iterations of a killing game between teenagers]]. On top of that, [[spoiler:all that might not even be true--one of the game's central themes is the power of lies, which mainly manifests as the villainous characters lying so much that the ambiguity is just ''irritating'']].
* This is a problem a lot of people outside of people with ravishment fetishes have with ''VisualNovel/DiabolikLovers'' and the main reason the franchise is [[AmericansHateTingle mostly despised outside Japan]]. The female lead/player character is trapped in terrible situations without '''any''' ways out (and develops StockholmSyndrome), the romantic options are horrible people with little to no redeeming qualities, there's lots of gross and {{squick}}y elements, and most of the game's MultipleEndings are overly cruel or esoterically happy.
* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo''[='=]s creators discussed this trope [[DefiedTrope and their efforts to avoid it]] on their blog. Originally the game included many more alternate bad endings ranging from depressing to absolutely soul-crushingly depressing, but they eventually decided that [[AudienceAlienatingPremise the game's very premise]] - a RomanceGame where all the character have disabilities - was sad enough as it is, and decided to cut the bad endings down to just one for each route(two for Hanako and Rin). Among the endings cut included several where [[PlayerCharacter Hisao]] dies, ones where [[ShrinkingViolet Hanako]] and [[MoodSwinger Misha]] commit suicide, and even an option to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape Hanako]].
* ''VisualNovel/AmnesiaMemories'' can feel like this to some players. The game features a total of 26 endings, with 16 of those being bad endings. This means that Bad Endings outweigh the more positive ones at a ratio of 3:1, and some of the routes require the heroine to perform actions that make it appear like she's holding an IdiotBall.
* ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', [[AvertedTrope which otherwise doesn't qualify]], has an InUniverse example with the horror movie the characters watch at their Halloween party. Raiko, the PlayerCharacter and the narrator, considers all the characters to be so unlikeable that she doesn't care what happens to them.
* Creator/{{Nitroplus}}, which is infamous for DarkerAndEdgier stories, it's not quite surprising for a number of players ended up getting tired of reading or even [[AngstAversion avoid reading visual novels created by them]]:
** ''VisualNovel/{{Hanachirasu}}'': Besides the BlackAndGreyMorality of the characters, [[ShootTheShaggyDog nothing good happens in the entire story]]. And ends with a DownerEnding where [[spoiler:[[KillThemAll all the named characters die]] (except the ones who are dead already), while Japan retains its fascist government forever]].
** ''VisualNovel/SayaNoUta'' was once popular since the release, it's now despised in some countries and is one of the darkest [[HGame H-games]] ever exist. Not just because it's written by Creator/GenUrobuchi himself, but the whole premise is also horrible: The protagonist, who used to have normal eyesight and senses, now has to live with his creepily distorted vision, in which ''everything he sees and senses'' becomes WombLevel except Saya, so she's the only one the protagonist who can befriend. Many players who are into H-scenes are [[InstantTurnOff turned off]] by TheReveal that [[spoiler:Saya is a malicious EldritchAbomination whose looks can make everyone GoMadFromTheRevelation, but it becomes "inverted" by his distorted vision]]. All endings are bittersweet at best and downers at worst, either: [[spoiler:have your senses repaired and leave Saya alone; become intimate with Saya, after which she will "grow" into a giant blob of flesh to eat the planet whole; or [[KillEmAll everyone dies]], [[TheHeroDies including the protagonist himself]], while the only character who survives suffers a GoMadFromTheRevelation]]. What's even worse is although the first ending is much better than the rest, it's considered as a BadEnd.
* ''VisualNovel/BoyfriendToDeath'': The main premise is already dark: all the male characters that a main character can romance are (almost) irredeemable and there's no other way out. [[spoiler:And at least in the first installment, [[DownerEnding all endings are bad.]]]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Ever since the [[WhamEpisode December]] arc, ''Webcomic/BittersweetCandyBowl'' has become solely about grinding the characters (''Especially'' Lucy and Mike) into the dirt. Friendships are destroyed, characters are given bleak, depressing backstories, every storyline since December has ended in tragedy, and any happy moments the characters experience are [[YankTheDogsChain quickly and cruelly shattered]].
* Almost certainly one of the reasons ''Webcomic/ChainmailBikini'' didn't work out as opposed to ''DM of the Rings'' is that, separated from the connection to ''Lord of the Rings'' with its characters and story people were familiar with, the gaming group came off less as a parody/commentary on gaming tropes and bad gaming and more just a group of people being complete dicks to each other.
* ''Webcomic/DraconiaChronicles'' is about a genocidal war between two races, Dragons and Tigers, which are full of horrible, horrible people ranging from genocidal madwomen, racist jerks, and just plain incompetent fools. Many of the participants of the war are involved for purely selfish reasons. The madwomen, jerks and fools are constantly rewarded and have good things happen to them, while the few characters who are in any way decent either get [[BreakTheCutie broken]], [[DroppedABridgeOnHim die]], or get broken ''then'' die.
* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Every time something happens in the comic, more tragedy will result than happiness. The author herself seems to have noticed this, since she's started killing off characters less often, though some may still be turned off regardless.
** The Brassmoon arc kicked off because a party member got imprisoned there, [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids through his own idealism no less]], and ended with the party recovering him in a catatonic state after he'd been tortured by the sadistic BigBad. And one of them got half their soul destroyed during the events.
** The Well of Darkness arc started because the characters involved were enslaved and forced to enter a dungeon and retrieve a magical item for the BigBad. In the aftermath, [[spoiler:two are dead, two characters are forced to cut a limb off, and a new terrifying monster has been created]].
** Perhaps the grandest example of all in the comic; [[spoiler:the romance built up between Minmax and Kin over a long period is absolutely destroyed in ''two pages'']].
*** That one gets a little better, with [[spoiler: Kin showing up in search of Minmax after she literally TookALevelInBadass by abusing the GroundhogDayLoop of the Maze of Many.]]
* [[http://comic.halfquake.com/ The Half-Quake: Amen webcomic]], based on the game of the same name, features a whole bunch of extremely cynical and [[JerkAss generally unpleasant]] characters who are either unpleasant throughout the comic's run, or have most of their screentime dedicated to them suffering, the ''Victim of Incredible Pain'' baing a case example of the latter. The viewer is told outright that the main character, ''The Victim'', [[ShootTheShaggyDog will never be able to complete his main goal, and will die.]] Later plots do eventually form, but they're mostly pointless sidequests that serve to inconvenience the protagonist even more. All of the plotlines [[TheBadGuyWins are eventually rendered poinless]] by [[BigBad Somos]], who [[KillEmAll manages to kill off whoever was still living]] near the comic's end in a rather anticlimatic fashion. Top the whole thing off with a almost-complete lack of humuor, or extremely pitch-black and short-lived humour, and you get a comic that gets boring to read through after the first ten-twenty pages.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' was ''not'' an example, with well-loved characters and plenty of jokes, but ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' are generally considered to be relentlessly downbeat to the point where even people who do like them have difficulty forcing themselves through some parts. Friendships break up, characters are DrivenToSuicide or die, Jane in one timeline becomes a fascist dictator and a rapist, Dirk in the other becomes a transphobic asshole who spends his time manipulating his friends' minds, and so on. Notably, in something of an AuthorsSavingThrow, ''Webcomic/Homestuck2'' has a quick synopsis of the Epilogues accessible from every page so that people don't have to actually slog through the real thing to get up to date.
* One of the biggest, if not ''the'' biggest complaint about ''Webcomic/NineteenNinetySomething'' is how jaded and cynical the tone is, in addition to most of the characters being either annoying or downright unlikable. Even after the author [[http://jbwarner86.deviantart.com/journal/Nineteen-Ninety-Something-vs-Off-the-Deep-End-546988596 set]] [[http://jbwarner86.deviantart.com/journal/Fixing-Joel-563129772 out]] to amend these concerns, many still found it difficult to care about either the stories or the characters. It got to the point where the author instead did a full-on reboot in 2020, with a comparatively LighterAndSofter tone and the characters being far more likable.
* ''Webcomic/{{Prequel}}'''s Katia just keeps losing everything, leading to many readers quitting the strip after [[spoiler:Sigrid takes almost everything she has]].
* The protagonists are unrepentant and hypocritical murderers, there's no point in the people who die learning last-minute lessons (or die for ''not'' learning them), and everyone else is apparently so stupid they never put two and two together to figure out the protagonists commit such horrible acts, and so they are never stopped. Congratulations, you just read everything wrong with ''Webcomic/SuicideForHire''. The only thing it has left is the BlackComedy.
* ''Webcomic/SurvivorFanCharacters'':
** The main reason a lot of people consider Season 8 to be the [[SeasonalRot worst season]] is that it became hard to root for anyone in the later stages of the game with the most positive character in the finals having devolved into a huge liar and easily-manipulated idiot and the other two finalists being an arrogant, smug [[SmallNameBigEgo Ted Baxter]] and an emotionless demon who backstabbed her best friend and rubbed many readers the wrong way about [[VillainSue how the author and everyone else seemed to practically hand the victory to her]]. The rest of the cast having a lot of characters that were either one-dimensional caricatures or people who practically exulted in being obnoxious to others didn't help.
** Season 10 went ahead and topped that with an even more unlikable cast. To start off, the author brings back hated characters like [[AttentionWhore Chloe]], [[StrawMisogynist Frank]], [[TheLoad Quadratic]] and [[VillainSue Bonnie]]; former well-liked characters like [[JerkJock Jackie]], [[UndyingLoyalty Phil]] and [[DumbBlonde Ryuia]] suffer massive {{Flanderization}}, when they're not OutOfFocus like Emilee or Kris; [[CreatorsPet Bonnie]] [[EliminationHoudini surviving over much more likable characters, such as Ventious and Starr]]; and having an overall mean-spirited feel to it.
* Nearly all the characters in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' are either complete sociopaths or borderline mentally challenged, and near the end of the comic, the "heroes" aren't even trying to save the world anymore. This can make the comic feel very bleak at times, especially when the few actually sympathetic characters are around, but of course, it ''is'' a [[BlackComedy very dark comedy]].
** While ''8-Bit Theater'' still managed to keep itself a comedy, the term hardly applied to another Creator/BrianClevinger work, ''Webcomic/WarbotInAccounting'', about a war machine sent into a regular human job, only given its inability to speak or perform human motor functions, [[KafkaKomedy all his good intentions only end causing pain for himself and others]]. Clevinger declared the goal of himself and the artist was to have each comic more depressing than the previous one, and while it only lasted 15 strips, they kept true on it!
* ''Webcomic/LasLindas'' is an inversion of ''Prequel'', but in this case, the main character having everything good happen to her happens to be a [[JerkSue major bitch]] who barely got any better at all, and [[KarmaHoudini pretty much spits in Karma's face]]. Considering that she's pretty much reaching GodModeSue territory currently, and the ProtagonistCenteredMorality is in full swing, it can be very, very difficult to get invested in what happens.
%%* Misfile has elements of this sometimes.
* ''WebComic/SonicTheComicOnline'' has this badly. When a bad SmearCampaign ruins Sonic's reputation (who here is a BitchInSheepsClothing), the entire planet of Mobius, even Sonic's old friends within the Freedom Fighters, turn against him. The only one who doesn't turn against him is Tails, who is now christened Mobius' Ultimate Hero. Sonic is attempting to pull a ClearMyName by WalkingTheEarth in search of a way to prove he's a hero, but with his main source having pulled a KarmaHoudini by escaping to another dimension, he has his work cut out for him. Making this worse is that the title suffers from an irregular schedule, so this particular plotline has dragged on for ''years''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom has a limited tolerance for this, to the point where, in 2014, it implemented [[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/dont-post-junk-threads-on-gratuitous-violence-etc.329193/ rules]] against posting scenarios that seem designed purely to fixate on mass death and gratuitous violence, such as "what if the entire population of Russia dropped dead" or "what if every tenth person became a murderous psychopath". Stories that ''have'' things like brutal wars and genocides are permitted (they're among the site's most popular stories, in fact), especially if they explore the implications of such, how they happened, and their aftermath, but a work that seems like just an excuse to show lots of people getting killed will likely get locked pretty quickly.
* ''WebVideo/BennettTheSage'' often shows the most vitriol for anime like ''Anime/{{Genocyber}}'' and ''De:Vadasy'' that he deems to have no point but to be excessively miserable. His main contention with ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' is that just because it's a ''sad'' story, doesn't mean it's a ''good'' story.
* The pixel animation short ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR74nU1TsHw Elvis & Dimmi]]'' got criticism for this. The title characters are jerks who start off mass-murdering a village of goblins and frequently mistreat their servant, Bailey, throughout. They do get some punishment for it when [[spoiler:Bailey ends up becoming giant and fights the pair]], but it's not considered proportional to the bad things they caused. Not helping matters is how the short teeters from BlackComedy to playing their actions straight, especially in the end where [[spoiler:they decide to murder Bailey]].
* For those who don't find the videos to be SoBadItsGood, a number of the infamous "[[YouAreGrounded X Gets Grounded]]" videos made in Website/GoAnimate can become this. All of the kids are constantly making everyone miserable ForTheEvulz, and the good guys often [[DisproportionateRetribution go above and beyond what anyone would deem necessary to teach them their lesson]], either by absurdly long grounding times at best, torture-laden or even fatal "[[HumiliationConga Punishment Days]]" at worst. Additionally, there's almost nothing the troublesome kids can do that will ''not'' end with them grounded [[ThrowTheDogABone outside of the rarest occasions]], not even if they do something nice or even heroic like prevent a disaster or crime. A lot of times the [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished good deed will just be outright overridden or ignored]], often for [[AssPull some random contrived reason]], just so the kids can get grounded. All the "good guys" have the potential to be [[{{Jerkass}} very mean]] to the troublemakers (sometimes even without justification) and some of them are just terrible people in general, but are [[DesignatedHero treated as heroes]] for putting the troublemakers in their place. "Baby show" characters like WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}} that exist in the [[CrapsackWorld world that the videos take place in]] are [[FantasticRacism universally hated by the world]] simply for being baby show characters, and nothing they can do can change that. With everyone in the videos having some negative qualities about them, it's almost not worth rooting for anyone except Caillou and Dora, who at least manage to be [[JerkassWoobie Jerkass Woobies]] at best.
* The story-presented-as-a-actual-television show ''Comeuppance'', by [[https://tellygunge.wordpress.com/archives/story-archive/by-tellygunge/ Tellygunge]] (Scroll down to the bottom of the link due to no separate category for the story themselves) is ''supposed'' to be like a vote-in show to make women in hated occupations go into a disgusting [[CoveredInGunge gunge tank]], and tries to convince you by making the contestants as unlikeable as possible. However, [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Sian Welby]] (the one in the story) comes off as a SmugSnake towards those that do go in the gunge tank, [[spoiler:for example, Princess Priscilla after the latter created a scathing review of the former]], mocks every occupation on the show (especially if [[StrawmanHasAPoint they have a valid point, like the bouncer or the airline clerk]]), and the contestants either come off as UnintentionallySympathetic in their plight, or those who are supposed to come off as a KarmaHoudini end up [[LaserGuidedKarma punishing Sian]] in the ways that they can towards her.
* The Tokusatsu parody ''Gun Caliber'' written and directed by the Website/YouTube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/garageprotv/ Garage Hero]] takes place in an alternate Japan where [[spoiler: Superheroes have gone the way of celebrities and have become so insufferably corrupt that the government now regulates them using a ratings system. Heroes are now treated as [[AllOftheOtherReindeer national pariahs]] because of this and [[HeroWithBadPublicity are all but underground]]]]. The story attempts to hammer home the fact that the protagonist is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but at no point does he display any of the positive qualities that make up a hero; instead coming off as a insufferable HeroicComedicSociopath who despite having a DarkAndTroubledPast that [[FreudianExcuse explains their lethargy]], does utterly nothing but go on [[ADateWithRosiePalms many dates with Rosie Palms]] and [[HatesEveryoneEqually hate everything and everybody else around him the rest of the time]]. What doesn't help is that ''eight of the thirteen episodes'' of this series are dedicated not to world-building, (Though it is there) but to how unrepentant this [[NominalHero supposed hero]] and his setting is.[[note]] Episode 5 literally has him and three Sentai Expies [[DisproportionateRetribution haze a high-schooler that calls him and his cohorts out for ranting drunkenly in a public study area]]. Other [[SarcasmMode lovely feats]] also include him interrupting a reporter while drunk and tricking a DamselInDistress into giving him a blowjob.[[/note]] By the time Gun Caliber displays any redeeming qualities, the miniseries is basically over and it's too little too late. What doesn't help is that the setting is a CrapsackWorld inhabited by [[JerkAss Jerkasses]], [[EverybodyHasLotsofSex Overly-horny fools]], or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs variations of both]]; and the two sole exceptions to this rule have a combined total of eight lines, tops. The show's attempts to send a ScrewDestiny message end up lost amid the sex jokes, stereotypes, unwavering cynicism, and utter lack of conflict. It seems like it's trying its best to be a ''Franchise/KamenRider'' parody in the same vein that ''Series/HikoninSentaiAkibaranger'' is to ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', but instead of actually parodying the source material, it puts [[UpToEleven way too much focus]] on the "mature" alcoholic sex humor. As a result, ''Gun Caliber'' comes off as a miserable, bleak, depressing mess with a few [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking amazingly-shot combat segments and nice cinematography]].
* The ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' AlternateRealityGame ''ARG/HuntTheTruth'' ends with a big DownerEnding during its first season, where [[spoiler:Ben Giraud falls for ONI's trap and his whistleblowing is discredited in public]], but it adds a [[RayOfHopeEnding note of hope]] by having his colleague Petra take up his cause. The second season, however, has no such hopeful note, ending with [[spoiler:Ben going insane in prison, Petra arrested offscreen, Maya murdered by her best friend, Bostwick JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope, Mshak fleeing to never return, and the Office of Naval Intelligence no weaker than ever. Not that it matters because humanity's also got a front row seat to watching the ancient Guardians arise and kill everybody]].
* Brought up in ''WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC: After Hours'' by [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn the Green Goblin]], in which he states that ComicBook/TheJoker's plan to make all the superheroes DarkerAndEdgier {{Nineties Antihero}}es is just plain stupid since without LighterAndSofter heroes for contrast, not only will comics get boring since all the heroes are the same, comics will just get so depressing that the audience might as well just [[DrivenToSuicide kill themselves]].
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has gotten progressively darker and grimmer since the end of Volume 3, with beloved characters being murdered or otherwise maimed or traumatized, and the political situation of Remnant becoming more and more reminiscent of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters mundane humans prove themselves capable of worse atrocities]] than the MadeOfEvil Grimm our heroes have been fighting until now. Their idealism is tested relentlessly as they try to walk a line between the lesser of two evils, between maintaining a deeply-inequitable status quo put in place to keep an eldritch evil at bay, or trying to take the fight to a BigBad that literally ''can not'' be killed. Although they do win small victories along the way, the overall trend is a downward one, and a vocal faction among the BrokenBase wishes it was still just a lighthearted action show about cute girls punching monsters.
* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' (and all Creator/{{Wildbow}}'s stories) can certainly fall into this state. Things ''always'' [[FromBadToWorse get worse]], as the series is essentially a long chain of really bad things happening that directly result in even worse things happening. As a general note, it can be tough to have any ''fun'' reading a series that's full of characters that do horrible and horrifying things on both sides, and the constant [[AnyoneCanDie deaths]] and straight up NightmareFuel gets too much for many readers. The protagonist, for example, starts off a bullying victim who experiences AdultsAreUseless, accidentally joins a gang, and, before long, finds herself committing torture, kidnapping, and murder without blinking. And she's one of the nicer characters. In the end, though, [[spoiler:[[SurprisinglyHappyEnding humanity does manage to survive the impending apocalypse and even take down the entity responsible for it.]] Of course it says something about the series that several billion people dying is consider a positive note to end on because humanity isn't literally extinct]]. The SequelSeries ''Literature/{{Ward}}'' goes to show that it's still absolutely a CrapsackWorld.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* This trope led to ''WesternAnimation/AllenGregory'' getting cancelled after just seven episodes. The main character (a pretentious, whiny 7-year-old who falls in love with his elderly principal [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and doesn't even]] [[VocalDissonance sound like a 7-year-old]]) and his father (a gay man who forces a straight man to leave his family and have a relationship with him) are both completely unsympathetic. Nearly every character in general is tremendously hard to like, and even those one can sympathize with have unfortunate baggage.
* WordOfGod is that ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' being LighterAndSofter is partly due to executive seeing this as an issue with ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'': The basic problems are with the first arc, which features the protagonists being totally unable to do ''anything'' to defeat Aggregor until his last appearance... at which point he is replaced by an AxCrazy mutated Kevin, which results in the characters running into the exact same problems as earlier, but Ben decides, [[ConflictBall for whatever reason]], to ''kill'' Kevin. The second season has a little less of this, but many, many subplots and arcs end without resolution (due to the [[AuthorExistenceFailure unfortunate passing]] of Dwayne [=McDuffie=]), which results in some characters being worse off than before. Also, the show starts to push the limits on just what you can get away with via a GoryDiscretionShot. Human-on-human outright murder, MindRape-loving {{Eldritch Abomination}}s... even grittier cartoons like, say, ''WesternAnimation/YoungJusticeOutsiders'' tell a joke now and again and show the bonds between the characters, but these two seasons of a show that, remember, started out being about the hijinks of a ten-year-old learning to be a better hero, can get ''unrelentingly'' dark for too long at a time. It's arguably worst at the Ultimate Kevin arc (all this, ''and'' the hero TookALevelInJerkass.)
* A frequent criticism of ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' is that the show tries too hard to be as outrageous and offensive as humanly possible, and as a result quickly desensitizes the viewer to its brand of humor unless they were already a fan of it. Besides that, everyone of the characters are either malicious and[=/=]or self-centered {{jerkass}}es, punching bags, or [[EthnicScrappy racial stereotypes]].
* This is one of the reasons that the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyDog'' series flopped. In the series, the Binsfords constantly disregard the well-being of their dog to the point that it borders on BlackComedyAnimalCruelty.
* ''WesternAnimation/MrPickles'': Everyone is a complete moron, there's blood and gore everywhere, and the "satire" doesn't have enough subtlety to justify any of it. And to top it off, the show doesn't put much effort in to make it humorous.
* This is one of the main reasons why ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpyAdultPartyCartoon'' got canceled after only ''seven episodes''. Most people can agree that the characters' personalities were exaggerated to the point that they are unpleasant. That, and the ComedicSociopathy, BlackComedy, KafkaComedy and [[SadistShow sadism]] taken UpToEleven. This show was so shocking and poorly received that many people, including co-creator Bob Camp, think it forever tainted the series' legacy to the point that Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} will forever refuse to make a {{Revival}}.
* This is probably one of the reasons why ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'' was such a flop. Seeing Tom constantly suffer at the hands of every other character is fairly amusing the first few times, but after several episodes of it non-stop it can get incredibly tiring.
[[/folder]]
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* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has gotten progressively darker and grimmer since the end of Volume 3, with beloved characters being murdered or otherwise maimed or traumatized, and the political situation of Remnant becoming more and more reminiscent of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters mundane humans prove themselves capable of worse atrocities]] than the MadeOfEvil Grimm our heroes have been fighting until now. Their idealism is tested relentlessly as they try to walk a line between the lesser of two evils, between maintaining a deeply-inequitable status quo put in place to hold a cosmic evil at bay, or trying to take the fight to an enemy that literally ''can not'' be killed. Although they do win small victories along the way, the overall trend is a downward one, and a vocal faction among the BrokenBase wishes it was still just a lighthearted action show about cute girls punching monsters.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has gotten progressively darker and grimmer since the end of Volume 3, with beloved characters being murdered or otherwise maimed or traumatized, and the political situation of Remnant becoming more and more reminiscent of ''Series/GameOfThrones''. The most recent Volume ends on a cliffhanger [[spoiler: with BigGood Ozpin knocked completely off his pedestal, the ArtifactOfDoom in the bad guys' hands, WellIntentionedExtremist James Ironwood about to abandon the rest of the human race to save his own kingdom, and BigBad Salem literally at his doorstep with an army of monsters.]] Some have praised the DarkerAndEdgier direction, while others miss when it was a light-hearted action series about cute girls punching monsters.

* This is one of the main reasons why ''WeasternAnimation/RenAndStimpyAdultPartyCartoon'' got canceled after only ''seven episodes''. Most people can agree that the characters' personalities were exaggerated to the point that they are unpleasant. That, and the ComedicSociopathy, BlackComedy, KafkaComedy and [[SadistShow sadism]] taken UpToEleven. This show was so shocking and poorly received that many people, including co-creator Bob Camp, think it forever tainted the series' legacy to the point that Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} will forever refuse to make a {{Revival}}.

** ''VisualNovel/SayaNoUta'' was once popular since the release, now it's despised in some countries and is one of the darkest [[HGame H-games]] ever exist. Not just because it's written by Creator/GenUrobuchi himself, but the whole premise is also horrible: The protagonist, who used to have normal eyesight and senses, now has to live with his creepily distorted vision, in which ''everything he sees and senses'' becomes WombLevel except Saya, so she's the only one the protagonist who can befriend. Many players who are into H-scenes are [[InstantTurnOff turned off]] by TheReveal that [[spoiler:Saya is a malicious EldritchAbomination whose looks can make everyone GoMadFromTheRevelation, but it becomes "inverted" by his distorted vision]]. All endings are bittersweet at best and downers at worst, either: [[spoiler:have your senses repaired and leave Saya alone; become intimate with Saya, after which she will "grow" into a giant blob of flesh to eat the planet whole; or [[KillEmAll everyone dies]], [[TheHeroDies including the protagonist himself]], while the only character who survives suffers a GoMadFromTheRevelation]]. What's even worse is although the first ending is much better than the rest, it's considered as a BadEnd.

** ''VisualNovel/SayaNoUta'' is one of the darkest [[HGame H-games]] ever exist. Not just because it's written by Creator/GenUrobuchi himself, but the whole premise is also horrible: The protagonist, who used to have normal eyesight and senses, now has to live with his creepily distorted vision, in which ''everything he sees and senses'' becomes WombLevel except Saya, so she's the only one the protagonist who can befriend. Many players who are into H-scenes are [[InstantTurnOff turned off]] by TheReveal that [[spoiler:Saya is a malicious EldritchAbomination whose looks can make everyone GoMadFromTheRevelation, but it becomes "inverted" by his distorted vision]]. All endings are bittersweet at best and downers at worst, either: [[spoiler:have your senses repaired and leave Saya alone; become intimate with Saya, after which she will "grow" into a giant blob of flesh to eat the planet whole; or [[KillEmAll everyone dies]], [[TheHeroDies including the protagonist himself]], while the only character who survives suffers a GoMadFromTheRevelation]]. What's even worse is although the first ending is much better than the rest, it's considered as a BadEnd.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** The universe skirts this, as a setting based on unending war and horror that runs on [[EvilVersusEvil Black and Black Morality]] (well, maybe Black and Very Dark Grey Morality). However, most fans accept it as part of the basic premise of the setting, and most stories are told from a smaller scale perspective where there is good and evil, and good can indeed triumph despite the bleakness of the setting as a whole. Other bits of source material and licensed novels turn things up to 11 and use the bleakness as a source of black comedy (which is what 40k started before becoming more serious). There may not be any heroic or even mostly good factions, but [[BodyHorror Chaos]] [[TheCorruption influence]], [[AndIMustScream cultists]], [[FateWorseThanDeath civilian]] [[NightmareFuel victims]], and [[TheLegionsOfHell planets]] ensure that they will always, ''always'' be the most evil faction in any conflict they appear in.
** Literature/HorusHeresy novels in particular can fall into this range after enough DoomedByCanon, unpleasant people on both sides, obligatory war crimes scenes, and downer endings.
** The ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' series avoids this by presenting the 40k universe through the lens of the eponymous regiment, detailing how ordinary human soldiers deal with the horrors of the setting and yet still managing to triumph via ingenuity and sheer determination (and a bit of luck), though not without loss.
** Literature/CiaphasCain outright defies the grimdark setting by pointing out a lot of the grimdark depictions - such as Commissars who execute willy-nilly and use Imperial Guard as little more than fodder - tend to get fragged, and depicts the Imperium as willing to negotiate with the Tau over an unimportant planet that's already been half-swayed to the Tau cause (because {{realpolitik}} means their military resources are better employed against the tyranids and necrons), something that wouldn't fly in stereotypical ''[=WH40k=]''. The series also avoids the AMillionIsAStatistic treatment of warfare common in the setting by humanizing it, such as in the sequence in ''Death or Glory'' where Cain enters a town orks have passed through and imagines the orks' treatment of the populace.
** The fans also coined the term Grimderp, which is a variation on this: An event or setting so dark and horrible it becomes {{Narm}}tastic, often throwing away logic for the sake of being grittier. Something has entered Grimderp territory whenever it gets too stupidly dark to take seriously anymore (such as the much-reviled 5th edition Grey Knights codex, featuring the Knights slaughtering a Sororitas convent to use their blood as holy protection... which canonically they wouldn't even have needed to begin with because they are ''already'' the AntimagicalFaction).