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Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]''. In a fight between a group of nihilistic, mass-murdering, serial-raping assholes who want to continue ruling the world in secret and a group of nihilistic, mass-murdering, serial-raping assholes who want to rule the world openly, why should the reader really care who wins? Heck, you might as well root for the series' antagonist, Mr. Rictus. At least ''he's'' good for some [[Black Comedy]] (literally; it's that kind of comic).
* ''[[Justice League of America|Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal]]'' was responsible for destroying [[Green Arrow|Roy Harper's]] character following his dismemberment at the hands of Prometheus and the death of his daughter in ''[[Cry for Justice]]''. On the one side there is Roy, reeling from the loss of his only child, grappling with the fact that he may no longer be able to use a bow and arrow, and suffering from impotency and hallucinations (whose source was not clarified as stemming from grief, pain medication, or his infected right arm). He lashes out at his friends and family for trying to help, begins stealing pain killers from Dr. Mid-Nite, goes back on heroin, and turns into a murderous anti-hero after being goaded into killing Prometheus's ally the Electrocutioner (by a hallucination of Lian) then burning down his home. However, on the other side, his friends and family truly don't help the situation that much. They don't seem to have fully understood just what Roy has lost. Dr. Mid-Nite was completely oblivious to the fact that Roy was stealing pain killers, quite easily in fact. Cyborg designed him a shoddy mechanical arm meant to work around the infected nerve endings in Roy's arm, while simultaneously enhancing his pain and limiting whatever abilities as an archer he had left. [[The Flash|Wally West]] does absolutely nothing to help, [[Wonder Woman|Donna Troy]] stops after Roy accuses her of "whoring around in space with Kyle Rayner" while her husband and son died in a car crash. Though, someone who's gone through everything Donna has should've understood Roy's suffering a little easier. And [[Nightwing|Dick Grayson]] consigns to have Roy locked in a substance abuse center for super villains after he has a vivid hallucination while on heroin. Dick does so with the consent of [[Black Canary]], who washes her hands of Roy and considers him a lost cause. It's hard to root for Roy when he's acting like such an asshole, but given that his family and friends treat his loss with such negligence, it's hard to side with anyone in this comic.
*
== Fan Works ==
* Some readers think that ''[[Code Geass Megiddo]]'' is heading this way.
* [[Jared Ornstead|Perfect Lionheart]]'s ''[[Partially Kissed Hero]]'', full stop. To sum it up: [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]] of the [[Black and Gray Morality]] type meets [[Ron the Death Eater]] (without hyperbole in this case), written by an author that believes that [[True Art Is Angsty|True Art Is Dark And Serious]] and that Harry's regular decency and occasional
* ''[[The Road to Cydonia]]'' reveals itself as this soon after ''[[Reflections Lost on a Dark Road]]'' begins; ''[[Inuyasha]]'' shows up as a more idealistic figure, but is revealed as [[All Just a Dream]] of a schizophrenic psionic Kagome. But even that pales before the introduction of the ''[[Dark Titans]]'' - all are quickly neutralized by UNETCO forces, upon which they are repeatedly subjected to [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|intense, proselytizing cynicism]].
** Starfire runs right into Herb of the Musk, {{spoiler|who is so dedicated to [[Just Following Orders]] that despite realizing that she's desperately trying ''not'' to kill him, he just uses her hesitation to [[Curb Stomp Battle|casually beat her unconscious]]. X-COM then [[Mind Rape]]s her and almost ''[[They Would Cut You Up|vivisects]]'' her. Only the appearance of the other Titans proves her a non-combatant(due to being more subtly Mind Raped), which leads them to instead draft her without a second thought and imprison her in an environment that browbeats her with UN legislature that [[Inhumanable Alien Rights|aliens have no rights]], and she's ''not'' an exception.}}
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* One of the reasons British historical dramas of the 1980s (like ''The Borgias'' and ''[[The Cleopatras]]'') flopped so badly was because they were trying to reproduce the success of ''[[I, Claudius]]''. But whereas ''[[I, Claudius]]'' had evil characters who were partly sympathetic and ''always'' entertaining to watch, the shows that came after it featured much weaker, less sympathetic villains. ''[[The Cleopatras]]'' was especially bad in this regard, as it was essentially a drama about horrible rulers murdering their equally horrible family members. If a character started out decent, there was a good chance he/she would be forcing their subjects into costly wars for their own selfish benefit and dismembering several of their own children by the time their story arc was over.
* One of the problems with the ''[[Gormenghast]]'' miniseries was that the most sympathetic, proactive character (Titus) didn't appear until well after it was underway. Those unfamiliar with the books might have been turned off by the endless, unsavory antics of a weird, menacing royal family and the [[Affably Evil]] man who was trying to exploit them. Only when Titus appeared did the audience really have someone to root for.
* This trope is actually [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] regarding [[Black Comedy|black comedies]]. The characters are usually [[Jerkass|horrible people]] [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|almost impossible to root for]], but [[Tropes Are Tools|the main selling point]] is to see them [[Laser-Guided Karma|get their karmic retribution in hilarious ways]], which happens more often than in dark dramas. ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' and '''especially''' ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' are the most notorious examples.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' gets away with this because it is a game where you build your personal army however you want, meaning your experience is exactly as dark as you want it to be. But the ''novels'', good lord ''THE NOVELS'', which have to have actual drama to be good, tend to paint their viewpoint faction as some shade of gray (The Grey Knights [[
** Generally averted with the Imperial Guard, easy to identify with as it consists entirely of ordinary people attempting to battle the worst monsters in the galaxy. And occasionally ''winning''. Also averted with certain [[Space Marine]] chapters, such as the Ultramarines or Salamanders.
** Especially averted with [[Ciaphas Cain]], ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''',) an Imperial Guard Commissar. Despite being a (self-declared) utterly selfish abject coward, he comes across as a pretty good guy, managing to survive and succeed in the [[Darker and Edgier/Tabletop Games|Grimdark]] galaxy though a mix of quick thinking, good luck, and good friends.
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* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' can suffer from this. Mr House is very efficient and competent, but only cares about Vegas. Caesar's Legion are an expansionist, imperialistic, brutal slave army that treats women as property. The NCR means well, but it's hamstrung by bloated bureaucracy and doesn't really ''get'' how the Mojave works. You could go Wild Card, but can you forge a Vegas that's any better than what was there before?
* Taro Yoko's games are often criticized for this, though in an odd twist, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|it's the sheer bleakness and darkness that make them popular with the audience]]:
** ''[[Drakengard]]''. Dear God, ''[[Drakengard]]''. Between the incredibly bleak world and characters who have few, if ''any'' redeeming characteristics, it's practically impossible to find hope or optimism in it. {{spoiler|Thank God for ''Drakengard 3'' to partially undo the downers.}} This was clearly intentional by its creator to stand out in the JRPG industry.
** ''[[NieR]]''
** As for its sequel, ''[[Nier Automata]]'', {{spoiler|the player has the opportunity to [[Defied Trope|defy the heck out of this trope]] with its Ending E, but}} it's played straight with the sidequests. Since all of them end [[Downer Ending|depressingly]], the only reason to care
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' invariably invokes and subverts this whenever you encounter the ''[[Order Versus Chaos|Law and Chaos]]'' factions. The [[Chaotic Evil|Chaos faction]] is full of demons and 'evil' spirits, led by [[Satan|Lucifer]], personifies [[Jerkass]], and seeks a world where [[Might Makes Right]]. The [[Lawful Evil|Law faction]] is led by [[God Is Evil|YHVH]], populated by [[Stepford Smiler]] [[Our Angels Are Different|angels]], and regularly employs [[Mind Rape]] and [[Colony Drop]]. (And it's goals? [[Despotism Justifies the Means]] ''at best'', and [[Assimilation Plot]] or [[World of Silence]] at worst.) This is subverted because you're usually allowed to [[Take a Third Option]] and choose [[Omnicidal Neutral]] instead. Not only that, but it's also a case of both sides have a point. Law is not wrong for wanting to make Chaos stop killing humans...but Chaos isn't wrong for wanting Law to release humans from their shackles either.
* ''[[Manhunt]]'': One can be forgiven for not wanting to play the game, as it's about a death row convict who was not only spared from execution by a deranged movie director, said deranged movie director wants him to kill for him, even if said victims aren't the nicest people in the world. There's a journalist in the game who has a strong moral center, but it doesn't exactly seem like she can take on Starkweather by herself given just what resources he has. However, something happens in the game that actually makes it possible to root for Cash, the aforementioned convict. Starkweather decides to play a sick game with him to try to protect his family from the Wardogs, only for him to then have his family be killed by the Innocentz. And then Starkweather goes back on his deal to have the Smileys kill him. Starkweawther then reconsiders and decides that he should make a sequel with Cash after he kills Ramirez, but at this point Cash has had enough. And since Cash and the journalist decided to help each other with Starkweather, they both win.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]
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