Grimdark

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It's totally the opposite of this.
Inspector Gadget, reimagined with a grimdark feel.
Grimdark versions, of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Grimdark is an adjective derived from the tagline for Warhammer 40k, which states that "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." It is generally used to describe a dilapidated, dystopian "crapsack world" setting which it would really suck to live in, as say Somalia, North Korea, or the setting of Warhammer 40k itself (in fairness, this is because the published material primarily focuses on war and cults and other horrible things; there are supposed to be many pleasant and peaceful worlds and sectors in the Imperium, but they are mostly ignored as they are boring -- and when they do appear in lore or stories, they're about to go from 0 to fucked very, very soon. Unless, of course, we're talking about planets in the Macragge system. Goddamned Ultramarines). It can also be used to describe artwork that has a grimdark feel, even if the setting itself would not normally be considered grim or dark, or something sinister or uncommonly threatening/intimidating in real-life.

Being grimdark can be taken to extremes; depending on your own personal tolerances for grim darkness, there is a point at which it becomes more ridiculous than anything else because everything is indefeasibly tragic all the time. This is an accusation often levelled at Warhammer itself, and leads some to rail against "Grimdark" as a whole, decrying the concept as ridiculous attempts at edginess (typically by teenagers), and using the expression to refer solely to such over-the-top settings in a strictly pejorative manner. Others actually embrace this ridiculousness (recall especially that Warhammer 40K was, in early editions, a much more obviously comedic setting) and run with it, insisting that the detractors who take it seriously (or the creators who take it seriously) are making a mistake. This schism is mostly visible with races such as the Tau in Warhammer, who are noticeably less grimdark than most of the other races and are either loved or absolutely hated for it; when grimdark is involved, there isn't a lot of room for middle ground. Meanwhile, another sizable percentage instead postulate that Grimdarkness lends greater moral and ethical complexity to a setting (based on the fallacy that darkness always equals depth). Such people usually cite the works of Dan Abnett and many other Warhammer 40K writers to lend credence to such suppositions (these people are clearly ignoring that fact that most writers tone the grimdark WAY down, what, you didn't think that fact that the Imperium being an effective government, civilians having normal happy lives on par with the US, Commissars who never *BLAM* their troops was odd?). Needless to say, grimdark is a rather polarizing subject.

The polar opposite of grimdark is Noblebright, a deliberate inversion of grim and dark nature where honour, happiness, and high adventure rule the day, as opposed to dying in a ditch from a supernatural plague as you run out of potable water and can no longer wait for the logistics department to process your dead comrades into something slightly more palatable before you start eating them. Oh, and being *BLAM*ed by a Commissar


Common grimdark themes include:


Stuff considered Grimdark

A world where the only way to beat grimdark is by introducing something even grimmer and darker
  • Warhammer 40,000 (Naturally)
  • Dwarf Fortress
  • End of War
  • 1984
  • Paranoia (though used for parodying 1984)
  • Many stories in the Tragedy genre
  • RIFTS
  • Blame!
  • Berserk
  • Kingdom Death(Makes 40k's setting seem pleasant and cheerful)
  • Eastenders (especially at Christmas)
  • Grimdark Songwriting
  • Don't Rest Your Head
  • SLA Industries
  • Pokemon Tabletop Adventures (though optional)
  • World of Darkness
  • CthulhuTech (just about anything based on Lovecraft, such as Call of Cthulhu, will be grimdark)
  • Exalted (If playing mortals).
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion. Especially the movie.
  • Monopoly
  • Midnight setting for D&D
  • FATAL
  • Rebecca Black
  • I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream: The Game (just the title itself should give you a clue on how horrorific the game is)
  • The Medieval Dark Ages where Warhammer 40000 was originally based on. If you disregard China that is.
  • The Witcher (racism, genocides, dozens of monsters that want to eat Your face whenever You enter the random forest. Or cave. Or ruins. The third installment of the video game adaptation even features a medieval Hitler running the Witch Hunters, a fanatical order of racist scumbags dedicated to wiping out both mages and non-humans in the name of the Eternal Fire)
  • Dark Souls (the entire world is DYING. That is all you should probably need to know, if you want to be specific then in the setting, most of the population are undead, you die constantly, and you have to fight enemies larger and filthier than you are, including a naked bitch with a spider vagina. Also, FAKE TITS. Again, one of those series that makes WH40K look like a sweet stroll in the park in comparison)
  • Gears of War (decades of civil war, genocide and WMD has turned your home planet into a quasi-dead world, the human race is close to extinction, women are reduced to birthing machines, your government is a uncaring fascist scumbag, the weather rains razor ice that could cut you into ribbons, your fighting a never ending war with genocidal monsters and the world is literally dying from super fuel.)
  • Hellgate London
  • Most of David Bowie's songs about 1990.
  • The first two Hellraiser movies and also Event Horizon.
  • Cyberpunk 2020
  • Hellsing... just all of Hellsing...
  • Bioshock (Definitely Bioshock Infinite, though it comes hidden behind a smiling facade of barbershop singing and the Fourth of July)
  • Anything from the Xeelee Sequence
    • The Coalition of Man Interim Coalition of Governance for example, is such a grim-ridden shit-hole that they make the Imperium of Man look like pussies filled with sun-shine and rainbows in comparison, infact they are so Grimdark that they would make even the Adeptus Custodes shit themselves in collateral fear.
  • North Korea which is essentially "Real Life Oceania"
  • The Goon comic series by Eric Powell (because circus hillbillies, werewolves with midget hand phobias, and the Zombie Priest are the least of it all).
  • Children of Men (a future where humans are no longer fertile and going extinct. Someone finds a pregnant woman and nearly everyone in the world fights over her)
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Good guys never win or screw up monumentally, the only people who get ahead are amorally manipulative assholes and everyone is going to be massacred and enslaved by the evil ice elf necromancers at the end. And if they somehow survive another war for the Iron Throne will happen after the winner gets their revenge-boner satisfied and their kids clean up after their wankstains.
  • Dishonored - Grimdark, and steampunk. Only in the "Kill fucking everyone" ending though.
  • XCom (The remake, and the original, as a parody of the G.I. Joe Badass stereo type, you're struggling with funding and even your gods in human form, some of whom make certain chapters of Astartes weep, can get fucked over by Sectoids!)
  • Madoka Magica
  • Adventure Time's backstory.
  • Everything from H.P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos
  • Path of Exile
  • Spec Ops: The Line
  • Original fairy tales (hansel and gretel, for example)
  • Alien (as in the biomechanical, parasitic, acid-blooded brainchild of Ridley Scott and the late H.R. Giger)
  • Halo (the setting of Halo is one grand scale of a Cosmic Horror Story centered around absolute hopelessness and bleakness of a Universe governed by hyper malevolent gods. Our good guys, the UNSC? Well it's a semi-authoritarian 'Big Brother is Watching You', fascistic style government that have no qualms in dumping a barrage of nukes on a civilian population if rebellion is sighted, the UNSC also have no problems dicking over their only alien 'friends' just so it could benefit humanity while also bogged down in political quagmire. The Covenant are much, much worse while anything from the Forerunner trilogy is just a high concoction of Nightmare Fuel inside a depressing milkshake. Oh, and the hero of the setting, Master Chief? No matter how many victories he achieves, he is always losing his friends and loved ones.)
  • Battletech
  • Attack on Titan (You cannot win, ever. And if you do, you've probably lost all your friends, who've been eaten by giant freaky humans, who don't even need food. Yeeeah)
  • Metro series (In both books and games series, but mostly in the books,where the last know humans are hiding in underground, and when are not trying to kill each other out, the are fighting the endless hordes of Mutants and worse. Also lets not forget that if your are one of the stalkers, the few brave getting in the surface to loot anything the can find, you are risking to get nom nomed by flying deamons.And that is the tip of the iceberg).
  • Madness combat.
  • LISA the RPG.
  • The darkness videogames.
  • the first two Hyperion books.
  • Elfen lied (The next step of the evolution of mankind is schizoprenic homicidal mutant girls with invisible tentacle hands and a temper to kill anyone with the worst way posible or even worse, to infect you with their gene so you can make more of these.)
  • Most of Stephen King's works.
  • Crossed (Most of the world is dead or turned into murder-raping sadists ala the Reavers from Firefly, showing courage will get you killed or turned into one of the aforementioned murder-rapists and there are survivors that are just as fucked up as the infectees.)
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (You travel in a desolate landscape, filled with mutants in all the horrific varieties, failed science projects (curtesy of the USSR), anomalies that you often can't see and kill you instantly and a lot of renegades/bandits/fanatics/zombies. Your gear breaks all the time, resources are scarce and your goal is to get to the highly dangerous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Why is the Nuclear Power Plant dangerous? Because it blew the fuck up back in the 80's in real life no less and is protected by lots of fanatics with the best gear you can get. If you make it through that hellish place that is The Zone, you'll most likely get one of the 5 really grimdark endings and if you payed a lot of attention to certain seemingly useless items along the way, you may get one of the other two endings which are also grimdark. The Rest of the world also largely ignores whats happening inside The Zone, aside from a few scientists that study the deadly phenomena and the Ukrainian military that maintains a cordon around The Zone so the nasty stuff doesn't get out.)

Grimderp

Grimderp is what happens when a writer takes Grimdark so far that it goes DERP. The writer puts something in that makes the setting more Grimdark but it's reliant on a party/parties being epicly stupid or caused by a lack of forethought on the implications of how the element interacts with the world.

  • Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons - A fanfiction about magical ponies so grim, dark, and derp that it would almost be comical if it wasn't so fucking horrifying. With characters that get shit on (both figuratively and literally) more than the Lamenters, and with a world so bleak (and missing the point of Fallout, FiM, and the original Fallout Equestria) that an heroing seems like WOULD ACTUALLY BE the happiest ending (Assuming it will end, it probably never will as long as there's enough cybernetics to keep rebuilding the constantly-dying protagonist) HOLY SHIT IT ACTUALLY ENDED!
  • Speaking of fanfics, 90% of all grimdark fics are Grimderp since writers are under the impression that just making things Dark makes it good writing. There are exceptions, but they are rare. On the flip side, however, certain examples have reached the apotheosis of Grimderp and become gut-bustingly hilarious.
  • Jeph Loeb's run on Ultimate Marvel: people dying brutally (most well known being Wasp getting eaten by the Blob) and completely gratuitously (Dr. Strange is killed the one page he shows up on and is completely forgotten afterwards), lore rape worst than anything Ward ever did (the heroic Pyro is now a rapist version of the mainline Marvel Pyro with no explanation, Thor going from new age hippie to mainline-style viking with no explanation... at least that last one is kinda cool). Overall it was so bad it effectively made the Ultimate Marvel universe (with the exception of Spider-Man and his cast) completely unusable. Small wonder that years later, Marvel thought smashing it and the main Marvel universe together would be a good idea.
  • Warhammer 40,000 gets called-out as this by some. Certainly it's a valid criticism of certain parts, but you could argue about what is and is not grimderp in 40k for weeks without conclusion.
  • Many long runner Grimdark works will become Grimderp sooner or later, due to people getting bored as they feel nothing ever goes anywhere and stop rooting for the character since there's no point. See the above two-million-word-long post-apocalyptic pony fanfic.
  • Akame Ga Kiru, also known to non-weeaboos as "that Kill la Kill-looking animu that keeps popping up on Netflix". In fact most "dark" anime/manga tend to be more or less Grimderp. As quality standards are quite low in Japan.

See also

External Links

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