Too Bleak, Stopped Caring

Eveywhere I go, I see another Lincoln apologist . . . .

On topic, I have one from Battle for Dream Island that's probably misuse:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Three of BFDI’s darkest episodes, “Insectophobe’s Nightmare 2”, “Return of the Hang Glider”, and “No More Snow!”, are seen as this to the viewers. It can be undoubtedly impossible for them to pick which character they root for due to the three aforementioned episodes’ mean-spirited and violent tone, and how the characters treat each other so drastically.

Removed examples I could find regarding single episodes, citing this thread.

I'd like to dispute the removal of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy from YMMV.Parting Shots. The movie had a resoundingly negative critical reception, with many reviews specifically citing the lack of any characters one could root for as a reason the critic hated it.

In that case, re-add it but with that context added.

Speaking of The Loud House, here's the entry from the show's YMMV page:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: The show can be pretty mean-spirited from time to time, even Lincoln, who's one of the saner and nicer characters, can be equally selfish and mean as his sisters at at times. Even at times when he's not being a jerk, almost every episode ends up with something bad happening to him for any reason too minor for the punishment he gets or for no reason at all. His sisters do, who frequently act stupid, ignorant, or just straight-up mean towards him and are almost never punished for it, and whenever they are it’s normally not satisfactory enough. Season 2 and onward has toned down this aspect considerably, but it still pops up every now and then. Speaking of the sisters, one good example is Luan and her cruel and extreme pranks toward her family in the April Fools' episodes to be extremely harsh.

The show has been highly successful for Nickelodeon, so it clearly hasn’t pushed away most of its audience. The example overall just comes off as complaining about Kafka Komedy.

Edited by jandn2014 on Sep 12th 2020 at 4:39:52 AM

Found this example on YMMV.Ghostbusters that seems like misuse.

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: In the IDW comic, it can be more than a little frustrating watching Walter Peck being put in a position of authority over the Ghostbusters and continuously harassing and browbeating them with little consequence. The same goes for other city officials and organizations, who regularly present a sea of red tape the Ghostbusters have to cut through just to do their jobs. It's almost enough to make you want to see the Ghostbusters hang up their proton packs for a while and let the city deal with ghosts on their own.

Definite misuse. If the Ghostbusters still act heroically and make positive contributions (like beating the ghosts), it's not DIAA. Otherwise Spider-Man comics would be an example.

Here's one from YMMV.Digimon Frontier:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: The writers were clearly trying to reduce the Plot Armor trope to the thinest and create the most drama with what material they had, but it is common to feel they sometimes went just too far and made the entire series a borderline Failure Hero show as a result. Out of the first five recurrent enemies, Grumblemon was always a pain to merely last against even in random scuffles, Mercuremon literally one-shotted the Big Good of the series in the latter's very introduction, and Duskmon was just plain Nightmare Fuel; and for the last arc, after the heroes had received several power boosts, the Royal Knights wiped the floor with them episode after episode without any apparent advance, playing You Can't Thwart Stage One at its finest before the arrival of Lucemon. But even then, when the heroes had unlocked power to match Lucemon's, they continued taking scary beatings every time Lucemon unveiled a new form, and it ended up with the Legendary Warriors having to pull basically a Taking You with Me against him.

The show has clearly defined protagonists and anatagonists and the heroes ultimately win in the end, so I don't think it counts.

Agreed. Chop-chop.

Wouldn't it just be easier to do a wick check/on-page example check and sort out the misuse at TRS? I think there is consensus from the first page that the frequent misuse is due to the title or Missing Supertrope Syndrome, which requires TRS. I feel like Angst Aversion needs help.

EDIT: Here's the wick check: Sandbox.Darkness Induced Wick Check Apathy.

Edited by LaundryPizza03 on Sep 12th 2020 at 5:39:17 AM

@Const: Fits better under Arc Fatigue. The main complaint is that it dragged longer than it needed to.

There's an Arc Fatigue entry on the page that mentions it.

From YMMV.Total Drama

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Some have accused the show of falling into this, especially after its first season. Those who say so feel that the show and its humour have grown excessively sadistic and mean-spirited, many of the characters have become increasingly unlikeable and/or horribly mistreated as they were flanderized or derailed in an effort to squeeze as much drama as possible out of them, and Chris' love of torturing and humiliating the contestants has gone way too far.

This seems more like complaints about Seasonal Rot.

That's Seasonal Rot, yeah, and even the most mean-spirited seasons still had characters that were well-liked among fans.

I was more active in the fandom than I should have been in the later seasons. There was absolutely a dedicated fandom...sometimes a bit too dedicated.

Edited by mightymewtron on Sep 12th 2020 at 8:43:10 AM

I agree. I mean, I kinda stopped watching after Revenge of the Island, but personally it was just because I didn't care about the new characters introduced and just wanted the original cast back . However, I did notice it getting more mean-spirited as time went on, which does feel like Seasonal Rot kicked in, but it still clearly has fans.

From YMMV.X Men:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Let us be honest, they will always be "feared and hated." Any attempt at them improving their lot in life will always be at risk of being demolished by the next author who wants to change things or an editor that wants to change things, and anybody you like is most probably gonna kick the bucket at some point (and the question of when they will come back being pretty much up to said writers, editors and which Vocal Minority is loudest). And In-Universe reasons for this happening... someone will become a Jerkass and ruin everything and some villain will always come along to try and see if he can exterminate the "mutant menace" when the literal armies of mutant haters that came before them could not.
  • This is actually acknowledged and played with in Battle of the Atom; Beast's future self became fed up of fighting for the X-Men after the first mutant President is assassinated, making him hit a Despair Event Horizon as he realized that they'll likely never, truly, be accepted. When the present day X-Men talk to the future team about this, and are clearly shaken by this reality, they assure them that things will get better, but at their point in time they still have time to go. Then it's revealed he was being controlled by Xavier and Mystique's evil son the whole time.

I haven't actually read the comics, but I'm pretty sure the X-Men are still heroes, so it's not like both sides are equally bad.

Cut that.

From YMMV.Ed Edd N Eddy:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: The three main characters often go through a sheer amount of crap by the other kids, who often exclude the Eds from whatever shindig they participate in, and even in episodes where the Eds do nothing wrong, the kids still inflict cruel treatment on them just for the sake of watching them suffer. Also, the most sympathetic character, Double D, gets abused along with his friends anyway even though his only crime was being involved with his friends' antics, and Eddy, the leader of the trio, while not as cruel as Sarah or Kevin, can come off as a douchebag towards his friends at times ("Your Ed Here" has the audience sympathize for Eddy from all the humiliation Kevin puts him through (as well as the kids joining in), only to later have him turn into a jerk by having the kids make fun of Double D's middle name) and even gives the kids a good-enough reason to be pissed at him (such as giving Jimmy a wedgie in "If It Smells Like an Ed"). Despite Edd's sympathetic qualities, his Extreme Doormat tendecies to not stand up against Eddy's plans and actions, his Holier Than Thou attitude, and his Insufferable Genius personality makes him Not So Different from the others. Needless to say, it's a bit of a mess on exactly who to feel sorry for. The movie at least finally makes everything they've been through amount to something.

Given that the show lasted 10 years, it didn't drive away its audience. Furthermore, the example itself says they get a happy ending in the end.

Any additional thoughts?

Just cut it. It's a comedy gag show and the ending is agreed to be fairly uplifting.

From YMMV.Digimon Adventure Tri:

• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: An example in which the apathy slowly trickled in. It started with the 02 kids being defeated and promptly ignored for the entirety of the film series, but as the movies progressed, more and more people began to see it in a bad light. Moments meant to be dramatic only end up falling flat due to attempts to make them as edgy as possible. But the most obvious example of this apathy comes from the DigiDestined themselves, whose Skewed Priorities and Protagonist-Centered Morality make it hard for audiences to root for them.

Another show that has clearly defined protagonists and antagonists and an ultimately happy conclusion.

Cut it.

"The show has clearly defined protagonists and antagonists and the heroes ultimately win in the end, so I don't think it counts."

For the examples on Digimon Frontier and Digimon Adventure Tri. and possibly many others in the future, maybe you need to add in a replacement trope for these kind of cases rather than just simply deleting them and calling it a day. Because even with a happy ending, Failure Hero and/or unlikable protagonists even when they are clearly defined as such being enforced until the last episode is a very big valid criticism in works.

Maybe replace them with Eight Deadly Words? After all, the main issue is that rather than the heroes not succeeding at all, which is the main definition of DIAA, their issue is that they only succeed at the very end while losing all the time (Digimon Frontier) or suffer from a serious case of teenage angst which makes them very unlikable even when they are still clear-cut heroes (Digimon Tri.). If the work itself is still ongoing, this can still drive away the audience. The power of hindsight in completed works is still 20/20 and the damage dealt is often irreversible. So this more like a case of inverted Ending Aversion.

Edited by Shivader on Sep 19th 2020 at 8:58:04 PM