"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."
—Edmund Burke
Tropes that deal with the horrible feeling of having lost all hope.
Compare Cynicism Tropes, Sadness Tropes, Apathy Index. Contrast Hope Index.
Categories:
- Break the Badass: A badass character has an emotional breakdown.
- Break the Believer: A character's strongly-held belief is shattered.
- Break the Comedian: A comedic character is traumatized into losing their sense of humour.
- Break the Cutie: A sweet and lovable character goes through a Trauma Conga Line.
- Break the Haughty: An arrogant character goes through hell.
- Broken Bird: A (usually) sympathetic female character who became cynical or stoic to cover emotional trauma.
- Confidence Sabotage: Intentionally making someone doubt their abilities.
- Dance of Despair: Dancing to deal with a distressing situation.
- Darkest Hour: The moment in a story when all hope seems lost.
- Death by Despair: A character is so filled with despair it causes them to die.
- Despair Event Horizon: The moment a character completely loses hope.
- Despair Gambit: A villain intentionally tries to drive the hero towards the Despair Event Horizon because they can't defeat them directly.
- Despair Speech: A speech made by a character expressing that they've lost all hope.
- Desperately Craves Affection: A character who very badly wants to be loved; not getting it can cause feelings of despair.
- Desperation Attack: If a character is about to lose a fight, they become more powerful as a last-ditch effort.
- Driven to Suicide: A character is so consumed by despair they take their own life.
- Dumb Struck: A traumatised character is unable to talk.
- Heroic BSoD: A heroic character has a temporary breakdown after experiencing something traumatic.
- Hope Crusher: A villain who specializes in taking hope away from other characters.
- Hope Is Scary: A character is afraid to feel hopeful again.
- Hope Spot: Things start looking up, only for that hope to be swiftly taken away.
- I Should Have Been Better: A character thinks they weren't good enough, even if they did their best.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!: The ruined or destroyed remnants of a once-great civilization.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Repeated trauma, losses, betrayals and so on caused this character to hate other people.
- Mangst: A subtle display of despair from tough characters.
- My Greatest Failure: The one failure or mistake that haunts a character throughout their life.
- Perfection Is Addictive
- Personal Horror: A character feels alienated from their sense of self, often due to betraying a deeply held value or belief.
- Post-Historical Trauma: A character is filled with horror and despair after learning of a historical tragedy or atrocity.
- Safety in Indifference: A character acts apathetic because caring about things is too painful.
- Safe Zone Hope Spot: An area that is supposed to be safe during a crisis turns out to not be, or rapidly becomes unsafe shortly after arrival.
- Separated by the Wall: Two characters who love each other are physically and symbolically separated by a wall.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: A cynical character who thinks being idealistic is childish.
- Stopped Caring: A character thinks nothing they do matters and so stops caring.
- Straw Angst
- Straw Nihilist: An extreme depiction of an existential nihilist.
- Suicidal Sadistic Choice: Someone is offered a Sadistic Choice between killing themselves or something equally bad, if not worse.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: A character (usually a villain) wants to kill themselves and take everyone else with them.
- Symbolic Serene Submersion: A character floats limp in the water to represent their despair.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: A character having a breakdown stares off into the distant.
- Too Broken to Break: A character so broken that anything can't be done now that could affect them.
- Too Injured to Save: A character tries to save a dying comrade, even when they know it's useless.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A character who is tormented too much snaps.
