Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help.
It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread
for ongoing cleanup projects.
It is an audience reaction, or ymmv, but while I'm not sure on the exact minimum my understanding of the trope is that it applies to works that are or become so dark that there's no real inventive to care about how things work out for the story and characters. I'm not sure any of the above would apply personally, but that's my own thoughts.
Edited by sgamer82
DIAA is a frequently misused trope. It is an Audience Reaction, which means that it's entirely subjective and not found within the work itself. It describes a work that is so dark and so hopeless that the audience finds no reason to care about any of the characters, since there is no meaning to any of the conflict.
As a hypothetical case, imagine a work where the protagonists and the antagonists are all evil people, just to varying degrees. It's set in a Crapsack World and most of the characters die in the end, having accomplished nothing. You can't empathize with anyone or bring yourself to care about the outcome.
Another type can come when the protagonists are heroic, but the setting is so grim that they end up struggling pointlessly to accomplish a minor goal that makes no difference in the long run. Most of them die and it's clear that their cause is ultimately hopeless. Again, the question the audience may ask is, "Why should we care?"
Many of the works you cite would seem to be gross misuses of the concept.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
A possible example if the subjectivity: I feel like that entire hypothetical just described A Song of Ice and Fire
Edited by sgamer82
I'd say that it also requires that the apathy kicks in fairly early into the work. At least before the climax. If it's afterward, then it's a Sudden Downer Ending, because the audience may have been invested but the ending is what killed the mood.
And as with all audience reaction, there has to be evidence that at least a large minority of the audience reacts in this way; it's not enough that one troper and his friend had the reaction.
You also can't retroactively declare DIAA on a work if a sequel or Word of God renders the ending darker or snatches away a victory — a hypothetical example is Aliens.
Similarly, listing DIAA for works in certain genres, particularly horror, is kind of pointless, since the audience goes in expecting things to be dark and for most or all of the protagonists to die horribly. There's no presumption that there will be a happy or satisfying ending.
Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Is Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy meant for works whose darkness caused a drop in sales and/or reviews, or just any "dark" work? Can it be used with works that, despite of their darkness (or perhaps even because of it), are a great success and do not have audience apathy? Is it meant to reflect an audience reaction, or just the opinion of some troper?
I mean, there are films like Alien, Logan, Pirates of the Caribbean, 300, etc. Literature even lists all-time classics such as Brave New World and 1984!