A Much More Cynical World of Escapism

[Blue Tempest]

This is just something I was thinking about recently and wanted to see what other people think.

I can understand we live in a not so great world and we have lives that more often then not tend to suck. But why to we let that relate in all the stories made nowadays? I'm mostly talking about TV/Movies or Comics: Western or Manga Protagonists are mostly antiheroes who do horrible things, Good honest people get killed just because they can't do anything about their world. And endings tend to mostly be bittersweet (as TVtropes would say) or even a real depressing one at worst. And what's worse, these stories are becoming common all the time, happening over and over and over in painting the world in such horrible and disgusting light that makes you wonder, why am I even reading/watching this anymore?

This is supposed to be our personal escapism. To get away from all the crap in the world. What's the point if we only end up facing exactly what we're trying to get our minds off it? When did us as humanity as a whole become so cynical and jaded that we have to have our stories be upsetting to even be considered worthy to be read/watched?

Anyone have an answer maybe?

[Grif of Hearts]

It adds a bit of depth to a character to make them an anti-hero. It often gives the more interesting motivation, whether that be revenge, desperation or one other of the many other reasons why the main character might be thrust into their question. Regular heroes tend to have no other motivation than "I want to help people," and at times that can become repetitive and often unrealistic.

If anything, story's with bad endings and dystopian settings can make people feel better than ones with peachy-sweet scenarios. They realise their lives are much better than the ones in the story. Not so much escapism as it is a chance to see how much worse things could become. A rather depressing reason to read something in an equally depressing setting, but it's just an observation.

I have no problem with these darker settings, actually. If anything I prefer them. More interesting.

[Blue Tempest]

What's so unrealistic about wanting to help people? You're saying there's no such thing as selfless people?

Andwhen it comes to depressing endings, it often leads to the question: What was the point? They had all this build up and character development for all these people, all leading to one final conclusion...

And it was pointless.

Everything that happened prior was meaningless. It might as well have not existed because its still depressing either way.

[mdk]

Every writer is different, and they all do it for different reasons I'm sure.... some people are trying to show the reader something new, make them grow, etc. Some are trying to be more realistic, perhaps to add credibility to their story. Some are just trying to be dark and cool. Some are possibly trying to market to an audience that LIKES depressing and sad. Some people find that shit beautiful, really.

Personally I haven't seen enough to say that "Oh, the trend is now that more people are going for dark endings." It honestly could be that you're changing as a person, and you might want to start looking at other media. Hard to say. There's also the distinct possibility that the stuff you're reading/watching/whatever just happened to be pointlessly depressing!

[Hellis]

Grif. A anti-hero doesn't have any more depth just becouse he is a anti-hero.

[Gwazi Magnum]

Believe it or not, people enjoy said things.

They like stories, songs etc with bad endings simply because they relate to it.
That is there reason, it may not make sense but there it is.

I personally like the fact some things end badly, but that because it's realistic and when the good guy always wins it becomes predictable and dull, I enjoy a bad ending simply for the sake of mixing it up once in a while to keep you on your toes.

However unlike others I don't only enjoy things with bad endings etc.

I remember one time at high school this song was being sung by people in an assembly about heart breaking, and it was for christmas.
I comment after that 'why are you singing about heart break for christmas, isn't christmas supposed to be a happy time?'.

To which everyone was jaw dropped surprised and shocked and stated it's because people relate to it.
They reacted to me as a total outside/outcast/foreign person etc for simply stating it doesn't make much sense to sing about heart break for christmas.

People as much as they hate they shitty drama in their lives, I think they secretly love it.
I think they love the drama, the emotions, it causes and they eventually take comfort in constantly being reminded of the pain in their lives.
To the point it becomes who they are, they don't become broken, they just learn to love the drama that painful situations provides.

To list at least one example here some people can relate to...

Think back to a past partner/ex you have.
One that was constantly hurt/made victim by others.
But then hurt you the exact same way.

[Brovo]

This is basically why. tl;dr: Authors whom are often being lazy who believe that "darker and edgier" automatically equates to "better." They're idiots, and for a while, it was the FOTM standard for years. It still is to this day.

My own RP's tend to be culprits of "Darker and Edgier", but tend to balance it out... Gah, how to explain the trend in a single post. Here we go. THIS IS ABOUT TO GET COMPLICATED. I'll be using more film and TV show examples since, well, I'm pretty sure most of us have seen most of these examples at some point, and I just can't say the same for books.

Some of the most memorable movies and books on the planet contain very dark scenes. Tolkien killed Boromir and had the "comedic relief Hobbits" get tortured repeatedly, Star Wars froze Han Solo, (which while we know ended with him being rescued and going back to being a charming rogue, at the time, it was "oh shit oh shit oh shit the charming rogue is getting off'd oh shit oh shit oh shit~"), Star Trek had Spock die (and this), the list goes on and on.

The reason why they're memorable is because they managed to mix "light" content, with "dark" content. Now how this used to work (to criminally simplify it) is that "light" content was typically comedic relief, characters that could be summarized with each idealism they believed in, etc. This was used to create likeable characters and laughter, to make the reader/viewer bond with the character and to possible lighten up an otherwise grave situation. The "dark" content was used to hit the reader/viewer with a moment of grave seriousness, to develop a situation, to show that their heroes and heroines were not invincible and were in fact human, etc. This helped readers/viewers see potential flaws or weakness in the characters that they could relate to, which helped them bond and relate on a more personal level. Not necessarily deeper--just more personal.

Examples of shows built on this concept: Babylon 5 (Darker than MASH, but set up to balance between humour and sorrow like the Drama that it was), MASH (comedic in nature so it had to be lighter more often than not, but that just made its dark moments stick out more).

Now, for why TV and film have shifted to the "oh unending darkness of unendingness~"

Darkness and grit has been equated to being "serious", to being "more intelligent." It's also "cooler" just because it's inherently edgier. It also has a lot to do with this, since it's thought that viewers are morons, and that viewers have the attention span of a goldfish, that any dark or edgy moment in TV or film has to happen sooner rather than later in order to keep the attention of the common moron.

This has naturally been equated to bathing a TV show or film in dark content, in creating antiheroes who defy the "norm" and who are themselves becoming the norm, etc. Because they assume that the average viewing audience is comprised of mostly people of middle school to high school level intelligence... And then tries to operate as per the age-old status quo, because god forbid we rock the boat with something that might question the people who make this crap. It's why the remake for Battlestar Galactica, as well done as it was, ended up being so full of unending dark and depressing scenes, and whose most memorable moments are, generally, not its "EVEN DARKIER AND EDGIERERERERRER" moments, but its most hopeful moments.

It's also that darkness sells. A lot. Because for the longest time, TV and Movies were literally not allowed to show overly dark content. Anything that tried was bullied into subpar releases, with very few exceptions. (There is a reason why the horror genre used to do so well, and why a lot of dark cartoons and anime are "classics" regardless of whether they were/are good or not by old/modern standards.) So in a sense, producers and developers were trapped.

Now they're not.

So now they're behaving like teenagers, hitting puberty.

And they're hitting it really, REALLY hard.

Mainly because they're teenagers with untold billions to spend on their pet projects. Some of which turn out pretty awesome. Others, not so much.

But no, honestly, I hope this illuminates why we've been in such an obsessive trend with darkness, and antiheroes, and grit. Because, to tl;dr it to a ridiculous degree...

#1: It sells to the lowest common denominator, whom also happen to purchase damn well near anything they find remotely appealing (which also includes "dark and gritty".)

#2: This fucking cancer. Though now we're going overkill in the opposite direction... Probably because everyone got tired of the Hays Code. Don't worry, we'll eventually get tired of this too, and eventually start to equalize ourselves.

#3: Because dark and gritty is considered more realistic, which automatically makes it more desirable for... Some... Reason...

#4: Dark content has always been there. (Spawn, anyone?) It's just that it's become the FOTM thanks to films like The Dark Knight being so popular. Just wait for someone to come along and rock the boat with a new, popular product. Then we'll go tailspinning after that one too. Because we're so original.

#5: Because even some of the most hilarious and most memorable shows of our time, like MASH, had dark moments, which have automatically been equated to "dark = good."

#6: It's easier to write because it's easier to get someone to relate to an imperfect life. The more imperfect it is, the easier it is to relate to until you hit some rock bottom drug addict... Yet, even then...

Now, I've criminally simplified this. I really have. I could give you a several page essay citing several sources that have all contributed to our current state, but I'm going to summarize it with the above, and this instead: Culture.

Culture changes.

This is our current culture.

One day, it'll change again.

[Elendra]

... pretty much what Brovo said to a T. I was actually talking with my roommate over those books that inspired True Blood, and was commenting on how being a vampire immediately turns you into a dark brooding selfish prick, and that because of this, I would totally side with whomever wants them all killed, because here you have people with fucking super powers, tangibly existing, and yet they do nothing about, say, Africa to make it better. There's even fucking FAIRY GODMOTHERS. Dude, if even the Fairy Godmothers aren't even going to bother helping out the shitholes in the world, your setting is dark and stupid.

[BeneGesserit]

The reason people tend to flock toward these more "cynical" forms of entertainment is because they are done well. That's not to say that it is always done well, but the more popular ones are. Examples:
- Breaking Bad

- The Dark Knight

- The Walking Dead

- Reservoir Dogs

- Saving Private Ryan

- The Road

- A Song of Ice and Fire

- Unforgiven

- Slaughterhouse Five

- Mother Night

These forms of entertainment aren't recent, either. Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe have seen to that. Cynical books, television shows, and movies aren't even the most popular. In the United States, the most watched television shows are football, The Big Bang Theory, and NCIS. And let's face it, people don't read and watch this stuff because they want to escape a horrible life, they watch it because they want to escape a boring one.

[Brovo]

they watch it because they want to escape a boring one.

And there is the most important quote in this entire thread.