History Main / DarknessInducedAudienceApathy

** ''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 GoMadFromThe Revelation]]. What's even worse is although the first ending is much better than the rest, it's considered as a BadEnd.

* 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]]. Since this visual novel is created by Creator/{{Nitroplus}}, which is infamous for DarkerAndEdgier stories, it's not quite surprising for a number of players to [[AngstAversion avoid reading visual novels created by them.]]

Compare AngstDissonance, AudienceAlienatingPremise, SadistShow, and OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/WesternAnimation

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-Verse]]: TheVerse implies there are more than 5000 anomalous objects out there, a large portion of portion of which can range in danger from personally lethal to world endingly disastrous. Hidden in some of the entries are implications that Earth is suffering an eternal CosmicHorrorStory, doomed to die, no matter what is done. There is an entire page dedicated to showcasing just how malicious the villains of the SCP-verse can get and how entirely unstoppable they are. The reader can't even feel that the world is at least fine for now, because there are many articles detailing the various apocalyptic scenarios that are either just barely being held off (often in horrible ways), that the foundation has no idea how to hold off, or have ''already happened''. The existence of NegativeContinuity and UnreliableCanon on the wiki hopes to alleviate most of this, allowing the reader to disregard any portion of the canon they don't particularly like. The amount of humorous entries also tends alleviate much of the bleakness, too. The SCP-Verse will still be [[NightmareFuel attempting to scare your pants off]].

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.

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? The result? The dreaded EightDeadlyWords.

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? The result? The dreaded SevenDeadlyWords.

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?

* 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.

* Nothing has gone right for any of the good guys since day one of ''WebComic/GhostsOfTheFuture''. The comic even starts with the main heroes of the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise dying. The Scourge arc, in particular, is one long sequence of "one step forward, two steps back." The author has lampshaded this, saying "I show my feelings of admiration through doing horrible, horrible things to the characters I like."

* 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]].

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 and TrueLoveIsBoring.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' can reach this level if you care to check its backstory. The clash of multiple [[DeadlyDecadentCourt Deadly Decadent Courts]] (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?

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]], even stories with sympathetic heroes can suffer from this trope [[ShootTheShaggyDog because the characters lack any agency]]--if anything good happens to them, [[DiabolusExMachina it'll be jerked away regardless]].

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 appear 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]], even stories with sympathetic heroes can suffer from this trope [[ShootTheShaggyDog because the characters lack any agency]]--if anything good happens to them, [[DiabolusExMachina it'll be jerked away regardless]].

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 engage with 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]]:

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 crops up where the setting is extremely but meaninglessly DarkerAndEdgier, or all sides are EvilVersusEvil 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]], sometimes shows with sympathetic heroes have this trope happen because the heroes lack any agency--if anything good happens, [[DiabolusExMachina it'll be jerked away]].

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

This reaction is often caused as a result when the writer strongly believes that TrueArtIsAngsty, and goes overboard with it while writing.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': With the revelations in the last two Horizon adventure packs of 4th edition that the only four major factions (the Draco Foundation, the Great Dragon Hestaby, Buttercup, and Horizon) that could still be said to be in any way "good" (or even anti-heroic) are really as expedient and guilty of atrocity and terror as the rest, and only differ in the nature and scope of their self-rationalizations but are as mired in the basest of motivations as every other setting villain, some fans believe that the ''Shadowrun'' universe has finally hit this threshold.
** The part where several of the writers openly expressed scorn [[WordOfGod on forums]] at the idea of shadowrunners having any kind of ethics (even antiheroic ones) instead of just being people who gladly do horrible things for money, and the promotion in storylines and flavor text of several NPC shadowrunners who exemplified that utterly amoral attitude from "the runners even other shadowrunners look down on" to "well-respected and widely admired figures of their professional community" isn't helping much either. One of them (Haze) is canonically a serial rapist who uses drugs to incapacitate his victims. Another (Clockwork) is a {{Fantastic Racis|m}}t who makes money selling fellow runners with technomancer powers to megacorporate vivisection labs, and openly admits to anyone who asks that he'd cheerfully sell out anyone, including other team members, to the authorities in return for money (something that's normally considered an unforgivable sin among even the most depraved criminal community, and yet is entirely ignored in-setting). Another (Kane) has been the reigning world champion of excess collateral damage and carelessness with the lives of innocent bystanders for two editions. All of these characters have been promoted to ''signature NPC status'', instead of their prior canonical treatment as cautionary tales/shadowrunner antagonists.
** The 5th Edition zig-zags with this. On the one hand, the writers have tried to showcase shadowrunners as more morally varied and some things to suck less... [[spoiler:on the other hand, it's starting to become a full-on Lovecraft-style CosmicHorrorStory]].

This reaction is often caused as a result when the writer strongly believes that TrueArtIsAngsty, and then goes overboard with it while writing.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''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]]

* Nearly all the characters in ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'' 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]].

* 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.

* Brought up in ''[[WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC Marvel and DC: 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]].

* ''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 theft, kidnapping, assault and even killing people. 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]].

* ''VisualNovel/{{Hanachirasu}}'': Besides the BlackAndGreyMorality of the characters, [[ShootTheShaggyDog nothing good happens in the entire story]]. And ends with a DownerEnding where [[KillThemAll all the named characters die]] (except the ones who are dead already), while Japan retains its fascist government forever. Since this visual novel is created by Creator/{{Nitroplus}}, which is infamous for DarkerAndEdgier stories, it's not quite surprising for a number of players to [[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 [[KillThemAll all the named characters die]] (except the ones who are dead already), while Japan retains its fascist government forever. Since this visual novel is created by Creator/{{Nitro+plus}}, which is infamous for DarkerAndEdgier stories, it's not quite surprising for a number of players to [[AngstAversion avoid reading visual novels created by them.]]

* ''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 [[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.

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.