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Centaur

2017-05-06T03:51:30Z

2600:8803:1C05:F00:2C9B:5C07:E871:7CFA: /* Who were they? */

[[File:Elmore Lyra.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Female Centaurs: attractive but anatomically frustrating]]
A race of monstrous humanoids, originally from Greek mythology, best known for being a literal mix of man and horse - they have a human's upper torso (that is, the body from the top of the hips up to the top of the head) replacing the head. They appear in various fantasy settings throughout the world now.

== Who ''were'' they? ==
The Centaurs, as mentioned above, were a race of mythical creatures from Greek myth, noted for being horny bastards and massive drunks. They were one of the less important monsters of their myths, with only a handful of references. Even so they did get a constellation.

In their creation myth, the centaurs were descendents from a mythical culture called the Lapiths, via their douchebag king Ixion. In short, Ixion was an asshole who murdered his father-in-law by burning the dude alive, a ''huge'' no-no for the Greeks. Somehow, Zeus decided to be a super-chill guy, and not only forgave Ixion, but actually brought the asshole to Olympus to have dinner with the gods. Did Ixion realize just how lucky he was? Nope; asshole started eyeing Zeus's wife, Hera. Zeus got suspicious, so he made a double for Hera out of clouds, called Nephele, and had her take Hera's place serving Ixion some dinner. Ixion promptly attacked and raped Nephele, for which Zeus smote his ass with a lightning bolt, then tied his spirit to a burning wheel and sent it spinning endlessly through the "sky" of Tartarus. Nephele got pregnant and she gave birth to the Centaurs.

Ironically, one of the Centaur myths describes their interactions with the Lapiths. The Lapiths invited the Centaurs to one of their weddings, and then things went haywire very, very fast. Though the Centaurs had been benevolent beforehand, the copious amounts of wine being served got them all drunk, which meant they turned on a plate during the wedding, trying to rape the women and kill the men of the Lapiths. This ended up as one huge brawl, ending with a Lapith victory. This was the Greek way of saying [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|"Hey, nature? You suck."]].

Chiron, a great healer and teacher of heroes in Greek myth, was a rare case of a friendly centaur. The constellation Sagittarius is rendered in Chiron's image. Consequently, the prefix "sagittar-" is commonly used to denote centaurs, blissfully ignorant of the fact that "sagittarius" translates to "archer" (Chiron's favorite way of killing shit) in ''Latin'', not "centaur".

A centaur was also responsible for slaying Hercules (or, to give him his original Greek name, Heracles). He tried to kidnap Hercules' wife Megara to rape her at his leisure, and Hercules shot him with one of his poisoned arrows for it. As he was dying, he told Hercules' wife to secretly soak a cloak in his blood, promising that if Hercules' eye started to wander, all she'd have to do is make him wear it and he'd fall back in love with her. She believed him, but the gory cape was actually poisonous and drove Hercules so mad with pain. In one version it caused him to kill her and their children then awaken and see what he'd done causing him go on another adventure to atone for it, in another he simply burned himself alive on a funeral pyre to find relief.

If you want to know about the real world origin of the Centaur, well consider where Greece is. Go too much farther north and your hit the Ukrainian and Russian Steppe where the horse was first domesticated and where nomadic tribesmen practically learned to ride before they could walk. It's believed that the early Greeks saw either early horsemen or the first horsemen at a distance and could not understand that they were looking at a human ON an animal, (a distinction that the Spanish report the Aztec had trouble grasping) and instead saw a horse with the top half of a man. Hence the origin of the Centaurs.

==Biology==
Centaurs are a fascinating example of a complete [[/d/|can of worms]] when looked at from a scientific standpoint, mainly because the way the Centaur is structured consists of two torsos (removing the horse torso would make it a [[Satyr]], removing the human torso would make it a horse-themed [[Sphinx]]).

In theory, a centaur has two different sets of ribcages. Depending on how the setting has the internal anatomy work, a horse could have two pairs of lungs, two hearts, an extra stomach and possible extra intestine leading to the horse stomachs, two livers, two sets of kidneys, and most anatomy exclusive to both dedicated carnivores and to dedicated herbivores. If this version of Centaur actually existed, it would possibly be the most unspecialized and energy-efficient diet in the setting. More often however, the human half is explained to have large lungs and a large heart while the rest of the anatomy is contained within the horse half. This presents the problem of having a ridiculously long esophagus which has an elevated risk of choking while the Heimlich Maneuver would have greatly reduced ability to save the Centaur's life, although as long as food manages to make it past the human half the rest of the esophagus would not require more than a drink of water to alleviate discomfort.

They do not need to wipe their own asses, because their horse anus wipes itself through layers of sphincters. Any additional cleaning for social reasons however would require a sponge or towel on a stick. Likewise, putting garments on the horse half for reasons of modesty would be extremely difficult.

Human babies are born completely helpless and unable to do much of anything by themselves other than emit noise. Horse babies immediately run once the birth awl is cleaned off by the mother. In theory, this means centaur babies run around and play while the human half flops around helplessly. More likely is that centaur babies would have both halves as developed as that of a regular horse since the horse womb's larger opening gives more time for the head to grow.

<gallery>
Image:Horse Ass.png
Image:Centaur Babies.png
Image:Centaur Anatomy.jpg
Image:Centaur Muscles.jpg
Image:Centaur Wut.png
</gallery>

==On /tg/==
Centaurs invite ceaseless argument over whether they count as [[monstergirls]] or as [[furry]]. On the one hand, they do have human-like heads and not muzzles (though Japanese hentai seems to like portraying them with horse ears instead of human ears, and this has become more common in western art too). On the other hand, they have horse-junk at their business end (except, again, for some Japanese hentai, where they have human pussies at the front of their horse bodies instead or in addition to mare-cunts at their ass-end), which makes them in many ways ''more'' like bestiality than regular furries.

Not helping things is that both sides of the divide have embraced them. In fact, centaurs are so popular that the idea of replacing the horse with other critters that sound cool or sexy; lions, wolves, tigers, [[drider|spiders]]... heck, [[lamia]]s can be described as "centaurs that are half-snake instead of half-horse". The idea is so popular that a whole new word (arguably descended from the furries), "tauric", has popped up as a shorthand for it.
[[/d/]] alternatively loves them (because they're an excuse for pictures of huge buff guys with huge horse cocks, [[monstergirls]] with huge-ass tits, or [[monstergirls]] [[dickgirl|with huge-ass tits AND huge horse cocks]]) and loathes them (because of the aforementioned furry/bestiality connotations).

Surprisingly, despite the fact that centaurs are iconic creatures from western "Classical Mythology", the vast majority of centaur MG depictions have come from Japan. This may be because, unlike westerners, Japanese smutfans don't really make so much of a distinction between [[furry]] and [[monstergirl]], and so they don't get bothered by the whole "you're fucking a horse's hiney" thing since they pass the [[Harkness Test]].

Perhaps because of the strong association between the cavalry and the [[samurai]] caste, or because Japanese dig soft, sweet chicks to an almost disturbingly degree, almost all known Japanese centaur MGs have been tsunderes or yamato nadeshikos - that is, either sweet-girls who act like bitches because they don't wanna admit their feelings, or very sweet and demure girls with a steely core. A more mythology-accurate centaur MG would be a total ladette - a she-jock who loves to fight, hunt, drink and fuck like there's no tomorrow and aggressively chases after good-looking guys. Sort of a bro with the body of a super-model who's fine with letting you grope her cunt & titties.

== [[Warhammer]] Fantasy ==
The closest example fantasy has for Centaur are Centigors. A type of [[Beastmen]] whose upper part is that of a Gor (humanoid goat), and the standard lower horse part. Centigors are the Beastmens primary cavalry unit, they are good as shock troops and charging into the fray at lighting speed. Now if only their stats match their lore.

If thats not enough then things get bigger with Dragon Ogres, because regular centaur isn't awesome enough. Dragon Ogres have the upper part of an Ogre and their lower parts are four dragon-like legs. These Ogres made a pact with the Chaos Gods that they would serve them, in exchange for immortality (at the cost of having no female Dragon Ogres to fuck, or possibly having females but all being sterile; it's hard to say from the fluff). They are one of the oldest creatures in the Old World, and are supercharged when struck by lightning. The oldest and largest Dragon Ogres are Shaggoths.

In between those two are the Bull Centaur, which are half Chaos Dwarf and half bull, which are the result of worshiping of Hashut, the bull Chaos God. They are big, mean, muscular, have horns on their heads and curly beards like the rest of the Chaos Dwarfs.

== [[Warhammer 40K]] ==
Though the Centaur in and of itself haven't been discovered as of yet in the dark millennium (it is perfectly possible that they exist somewhere in the galaxy, mind you - there is [[Abhuman|''weirder'' shit]] out there), the [[Interex]] had a heavy infantry platform which had the shape and appearance as the Centaurs of myth. The human soldier was fit into the front of a mechanical, horselike body, (where the head would've been on a real horse) so only the upper body was visible - They even went so far as giving the soldiers laser-crossbows.

Though most would argue that this was freaking [[awesome]], they were exterminated by the Imperium, and as far as we know, the Mechanicum haven't kept anything from the [[Interex]]... But who knows, maybe the next Imperial Guard Supplement will include cyborg horse-human hybrids (of course you can make these anyway and just proxy them as rough riders on the table top). You can't know with [[Games Workshop|GW]] these days.

Centaur body is one of the common Chaos mutations, though, given the nature of Chaos you may end up with a snake tail, giant bloodhound body, or a fucking spider torso instead of your legs, and that's if you get lucky - some poor Nurglite sod may get snail or maggot body instead of his legs, or even a twisted mess of tentacles that have the mind of their own and immediately start raping all asses in proximity, including their own.

Additionally, an [[Imperial Guard]] short story (Children of the Emperor) from the [[Into the Maelstrom]] anthology features a guardsman stranded on a lost, feral world with super-high gravity, populated by [[abhuman]]s whose ancestors gave themselves centaur bodies and super-enhanced muscles to cope with high gravity and abundance of deadly predators. He gets involved with a struggle between the Emperor-worshipping locals and a [[Khorne|Khornate]] heresy, but the best he can do is to report to the Imperium when he escapes that the planet is feral, too dangerous & resource poor to colonize, and houses only some unimportant alien species, thus preventing the loyalists from being slaughtered as [[mutant]]s by more Puritanical Imperials.

Also, the [[Zoats]], a now-abandoned race of reptilian taurs that were originally envoys and propagandists for the Tyranids, before they fully embraced the Horde of Alien Locusts thing.

== Dungeons & Dragons ==
Centaurs and other "tauric" creatures have appeared throughout the editions and settings of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], from the half-lion wemics of [[Forgotten Realms]] to the [[Drider|Driders]] that have become so iconically linked with the [[Drow]].

Centaur are rarely used as Player Character races due to the difficulties of a Centaur performing non-running feats of agility, but those players who do use them find that they are both quite powerful and also have the perk of not having to buy a mount.

==[[Warcraft]]==
Warcraft features many types of Centaur as well as centaur-like creatures. The earliest Centaur are descendants to the demigod Cenarius (half-Night elf half Stag), his sons are called Keepers of the grove, they have the upper part of a night elf with antlers on their heads, one of their hands is wood like, and they have the lower parts of a stag. The female versions of them are Dryads who are female night elf and half doe.

They also have regular Centaurs who are a bastard race born from a Keeper of the grove and (the rather ugly) spirit of Earth, they thank their father for creating them by killing him. They have the traditional Centaur look, with a nomadic Mongol-like culture mostly built on harassing the cow-like Tauren.

==[[Life With Monstergirls]]==
Centaur have a long and noble history as knights and paladins, and most of their race still carry themselves with dignity. Female Centaur often adopt knightly demeanor and customs.
Their females are only fertile during certain periods of the year, and must use this time to produce offspring. Their sex drive is greatly reduced, although not non-existent, outside of estrus.
Centaur long had a history where the sexually selected traits for males was a general raw strength and bravado. This unfortunately resulted in most modern Centaur men being unattractive fratboys.
Recently, their culture is shifting towards effeminate and polite men being attractive and this means that Centaur women are beginning to more and more desire human men. The product of a human/Centaur union is a full-blooded Centaur, but the practice is still highly taboo. Instead Centaurs have been relying on human men as "teasers", a role that exists in real horses. The human man more or less arouses a female who is in estrus until she can bear to reproduce with her husband.

<gallery>
Image:Centaur Breeding.jpg|Centaur sexual habits in Daily Life with Monstergirl
</gallery>

== [[Monstergirls]] ==
In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], centaurs are a race of tsundere nomadic archers. They do still love booze, though, and have a tendency to lose control and become horny drunks who'll rape men... of course, being tsunderes, they'll bitch at the ''men'' to "take responsibility" after they sober up. For many years, constant arguments frequently sprung up about where the genitals are. The author decided to split the difference by decreeing they have two sets of genitals, one on each end. Fans are split as to whether this succeeded in solving the problem or is the stupidest thing in the history of ever.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Races]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Monstergirls]]

Grimdark

2017-05-05T00:47:57Z

2600:8803:1C05:F00:2C9B:5C07:E871:7CFA: /* Stuff considered Grimdark */

''"They say, 'Evil prevails when good men fail to act.' What they ought to say is, 'Evil prevails.'"'' 
-Yuri Orlav, ''Lord of War''
[[Image:Lovepeace.png|thumb|right|It's totally the opposite of this.]][[Image:Inspector Grimgadget.jpg|thumb|right|Inspector Gadget, reimagined with a grimdark feel.]]
[[Image:Grimdark.jpg|thumb|right|Grimdark versions of the TMNT. Their mentor is a Skaven.]]
'''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 to the franchise and its defenders, this is because the published material primarily focuses on war and [[Chaos Gods|cults]] and other [[Daemonculaba|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 fluff, they're usually to go from "0 problems" to "totally fucked", very quickly. Unless, of course, we're talking about planets in the [[Ultramar|Macragge system]]. 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. This often applies to fan-art and writefaggotry as well.

Depending on your own personal tolerances for grim darkness of course, it can be taken to the extreme, just like with all descriptive traits. There is a point in which it becomes more ridiculous than anything else, because everything is indefeasibly tragic all the time - the term for this being [[Grimdark#Grimderp|grimderp]], which is explained further below.

This is an accusation often leveled at Warhammer itself, and leads some to rail against "Grimdark" as a whole, decrying the concept as ridiculous attempts at [[edgy|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 and run with it (including Warhammer 40K itself, due to being a much more obviously comedic setting [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|in early editions]]), insisting that the detractors who take it seriously (or the ''creators'' who take it seriously) are making a mistake. Some people embrace the grimdarkness and mix it up with some humor (like painting Necrons with bright colors to make them look like edible candy figurines), especially if they are Ork players. But the schism between taking Warhammer's grimdarkness seriously or not is mostly visible with races such as the Tau, who are noticeably less grimdark than most of the other races and are either loved or absolutely hated for it (when they're not hated for being overpowered as shit). Meanwhile, another sizable percentage instead postulate that Grimdarkness lends greater moral and ethical complexity to a setting, based on [[Edgy|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 the fact that the Imperium being an effective government, civilians having normal happy lives on par with the Scandinavians, Commissars who never *BLAM* their troops was odd?. Needless to say, grimdark is [[Skub|a rather polarizing subject whose discussion often leaves little room for a middle ground]].

Speaking of, the polar opposite of grimdark is [[Noblebright]], a deliberate inversion of grim and dark nature where honor, chivalry, 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 for even starting to look a little sad from these thoughts.

== Common grimdark themes ==
*[[1984|Massive, imperialist, overbearing, bureaucratic, dystopian dictatorships]]; e.g. [[Imperium|Nazi Germany clones]], [[Tau|USSR clones and anything communistic really, successful anarcho-Communist societies like the Culture not included]], or straight out examples of [[Paranoia|"Big Brother is watching you"]].
*Constant, never ever-ending warfare.
*Horrifyingly large death tolls are perfectly normal.
*Everyone is racist towards non-humans/[[Eldar|elves]]/[[Mutant|mutants]]/[[Orks|fungus]]/[[Rak'gol|lizards]]/[[Necrons|robots]]/[[Tyranids|aliens]]/[[Chaos|each other]].
*Daily dose of [[HFY]]. [[Astral Knights|And]] [[Awesome]].
*The vast majority are poor people who literally live in shit, pollution, crime, and a plethora of [[Nurgle|all kinds of filthy diseases]], except for a [[Monopoly|few greedy upper 1% who own 99.9% of everything]].
*You, a poor bastard, are being farmed for shoots and giggles by said few greedy upper 1%.
*Most of the poor bastards are being forced to work 23 hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, in factories and/or forced labour camps, until their bodies give out. Forever.
*They're probably making weapons and equipment for [[Imperial Guard|the military]] (which is where the rest of the poor bastards are).
*Want chemotherapy or some other expensive treatment? Well, you have to make drugs with an old dropout student of yours in order to pay.
*[[Age of Strife|Dark, disgraceful and recondite past]] covered with [[Alpha Legion|lies]] [[Imperium|propanganda]], [[Tzeentch|deception]] and [[Eldar|partiality]].
*The Higher Powers do indeed give you consideration, they're just malevolent as all fuck.
*Chronic backstabbing. Just like in real life relationships.
*[[Ork Snipers|"Frie]][[Marines Malevolent|ndly]] [[Kharn|fire"]]
*Child soldiers. Just like in real life.
*Your morning alarm clock is the bullets you hope not to hit you fired by the drive-by [[Necromunda|by gangsters aiming their enemy that happens and are in the same district]] and you don't even belong or like.
*Status quo is god. [[Nurgle|Literally.]]
*[[Tzeentch|Change is worse]].
*[[Commissar|Daily forecasts reguarly call for a 80% chance or more of *BLAM*]].
*[[Judge Dredd|Police]] [[Adeptus Arbites|brutality]].
*[[Inquisition|Government agencies that are always there to fuck you over]] at the slightest hint of [[heresy]].
*The [[Erebus|cock]][[Dark Eldar|suckers]] responsible for most of the shittiness are not only getting away with it, but are surviving and thriving, without becoming major targets for the [[noblebright]] forces.
*Torture.
*Human experiments.
*Massive amounts of blood, gore, guts, pain and hatred.
*No personal opinion or choice. Only the illusion of it, in which you probably end up an [[Magnus|unwil]][[Mortarion|ling]] [[Rubric Marines|sla]][[necron|ve]]. Or...[[Chaos spawn|something worse]].
*Anti-intellectualism.
*PTSD.
*Nihilism.
*[[Call of Cthulhu|Sanity checks]].
*Criminally insane delusional psychotics tortured in filthy mental asylums (in case of no SAN checks).
*[[H.P. Lovecraft|Disgusting, horrifying, tentacled eldritch abominations]] that are often the cause of aforementioned criminal insanity.
*Rape. Just like in real life. ([[Anime|And often by said]] [[/d/|disgusting, horrifying, tentacled eldritch abominations]])
*Surgery without anesthesia. As well as other heavy metal references.
*In fact even surgery without anesthesia is a luxury available only to wealthy or important ones, as are all other forms of medicine. 99% of people are expected to die when they fall sick or get injured. That is when they don't get executed FOR falling sick or getting injured.
*Zombie plagues.
*[[Cyberpunk|Cybernetics and cyborgs]]; the less human, the better.
*Ritual cult sacrifices.
*Gothic and emo aesthetics (with the help of tons of ''"decorative"'' skulls).
*There are no "good guys". Everyone's a jerk, including yourself. ''Especially yourself.''
*[[Tau|The guys everyone refer to be "good" or "nice"]] are actually just ''the least'' evil bunch, and would still make your average high fantasy/sci-fi arch-villains look like saints in comparison.
*The REAL good guys are either [[Lamenters|the ones (usually) mostly hated, and are going to get fucked over beyond human recognition usually without any logical reason]] or [[Salamanders|too few to make any difference]].
*Aforementioned "good guys" are only "good" because they do care about their allies and civilians. They still wouldn't hesitate a second before killing a defenseless xeno child.
*You either die a [[Sanguinius|worthy death]] or you live long enough to see yourself becoming something that [[Mortarion|you've]] [[Perturabo|always]] [[Fulgrim|hated]].
*Everyone will most likely die in the end. Especially the ones important to and including the main character.
*Always polluted, never sunny.
*No ice cream.
*Death or suicide will only make things much, much worse in [[H.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] levels, as a hive of disgusting, incomprehensibly evil supernatural daemons are waiting patiently to eternally torment your un-life and roast your soul alive day and night forever and ever, again and again and again and again.
*Tremendous potential for offensive/dark comedy/[[lulz]].
*[[God-Emperor of Mankind|And if you ever, EVER try to change this shitty world or try to help one person just a little, you will probably suffer terrible consequences,]] because altruism is a dying philosophy.
*Life sucks.
*There's only war.
*You're probably going to get eaten by Tyranids.
*Good luck and have fun.

== Stuff considered Grimdark ==

[[File:Tyrus.jpg|400px|thumb|A world where the only way to beat grimdark is by introducing something even grimmer and darker]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000]] (Naturally).
* [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], but less than you'd think.
* [[Dwarf Fortress]].
* End of War.
* Most of Shakespeare's iconic plays, especially ''Macbeth'' and ''Hamlet''.
* [[1984]].
* [[Paranoia]] (though used for parodying 1984).
* The majority of the tragedy genre of stories.
* [[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.
* [[World of Darkness]].
* [[CthulhuTech]].
* [[Call of Cthulhu]].
* Everything from H.P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos.
* Playing mortals in [[Exalted]].
* Neon Genesis Evangelion. Especially the movie.
* [[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 horrific the game is. The book is even worse).
* <s>The Medieval Dark Ages that Warhammer 40,000 was originally based on.</s> 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 [[Inquisition|Witch Hunters]], a fanatical order of [[Black Templars|racist scumbags dedicated to wiping out both mages and non-humans]] in the name of the Eternal Fire). Meanwhile, the neighboring empire starts a series of wars against northern kingdoms (where the series takes place), in which both sides descend into scorched earth warfare, all the while backstabbing their allies and generally being a colossal wall of dicks to the point that close to 70% of civilian population in war-zones died from raiding, famine and occasional outbreaks of outer-dimensional plagues. To add insult to injury, the whole world is doomed due to (slowly) encroaching Ice Age, and the only person that could save it took two glances at this shitshow and decided to fuck off to a parallel universe and let them all die, ''because it would be a mercy''. (To be fair, though, she comes back, if only to save her adoptive mother and father from said Ice Age, as she still maintains her 'fuck the rest of humanity' attitude.)
* [[Dark Souls]] (the entire ''world'' is '''dying'''. That is all you should probably need to know. If you want to be specifics, 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, [[Heresy|including a naked bitch with a spider vagina]]. Also, [[Extra Heresy|FAKE TITS]]. Stuck in an infinite loop where a hero constantly saves the world, and everything goes back to normal before hitting another grimdark cycle every thousand years. Compare to nobledark and check your mileage).
* Drakengard and its related franchise: Nier. Basically god hates human so he gave them zombie aids and watch them kill eachother for the lulz. Your only hope is a group of psychopath composed of a fallen mute prince Caim (the player) who [[khorne|enjoys slaughtering any living things]], a blind pedophile priest, a baby eating elf witch and a stopped aging shota. The true ending for the game is that everyone except Caim died and he somehow end up moving a magical doomsday device created by god to other world, (our world to be exact), detonate it and doom the human race. It is said that drakengard as a series has fuck tons of timelines for each game's ending, surprisingly the ending mentioned above is consider canon and it is where the sequel Nier took place (after 700 years no less). Drakengard 2 was pretty bright light, it's part of branch timeline but not really canon while Drakngard 3 is the prequel retelling how god tries to destroy the world by stuck a parasite evil flower on some psychopathic girl. There's also dragons but who cares.
* Gears of War (decades of civil war, genocide and weapons of mass destruction 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 an uncaring fascist scumbag, the weather is often rain consisting of razor sharp ice crystals that could cut you into ribbons, you're fighting a never-ending war with genocidal monsters from the underground and the world is literally '''dying''' from super fuel.)
**To make matters even worse. Even before the Locust War, humanity was locked in a near 80 year war between two rivaling super powers over the aforementioned super fuel. The COG and the UIR. Both governments are ruthless, imperialistic, fascistic, communistic bastards of a government whose war crimes will make the likes of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany look like amateurs. When even the Locust have a point by calling us out for being exactly the same genocidal monsters as they are, you know Gears of War is fucked. Oh and the planet is called Sera, or Ares when said backwards. Yeah, even the planet is named after a god of war.
* 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... Though it can easily slide into grimderp. (A little girl seeing her mother killed while hiding in a closet? Yeah that's intense. In a moment of desperation, shove a rod into the guy's eyeball, only for him to not be mortally wounded? That's pretty unfortunate. Said guy deciding to fuck the corpse as his smashed eyeball hangs from the socket? Okay now that's just silly.)
* Bioshock (as well as Bioshock Infinite, though it comes hidden behind a smiling facade of barbershop singing and the Fourth of July).
* Anything from the [[Xeelee Sequence]].
** The 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. In fact, they are so Grimdark, that they would make even the [[Adeptus Custodes]] shit themselves in collateral fear. In fact, despite achieving time travel, conquering the entire <s>Galaxy</s> Universe through xenocide that would make the Necrons look like children and shooting Neutron Stars at .99c at the speed of light. The ICoG is still a minor nuisance compared to the scale between the Xeelee and their enemies, the Photino Birds. If anything, Stephen Baxter was able to construct the insignificance and petty malevolence of Man in a few books better than GeeDubs more [[Matt Ward|questionable]] [[CS Goto|authors]] did in decades. [[tl;dr]] the IoM wishes they would be as cool as the ICoG.
* North Korea which is essentially [[1984|"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).
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/]Children of men: a future where humans are no longer fertile and going extinct, and then someone finds a pregnant woman and nearly everyone in the world fights over her.
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] AKA Game of Thrones: Good guys screw up monumentally or never win, 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 in the end. And if they somehow survive, then another war for the Iron Throne will happen after the winner gets their revenge-boner satisfied and later, their kids would need to clean up the wankstains.
* Dishonored - Grimdark, and steampunk. Only in the "Kill fucking everyone" ending though.
* [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|X-Com]] (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.
* Path of Exile.
* [[Pokemon Tabletop Adventures]] (optionally).
* Spec Ops: The Line (Because no one felt like a hero after all this).
* Original Grimm 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 being bogged down in a 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.
**Now with the [[Halo#Halo Fleet Battles and Ground Command|newly added fluff in the Tabletop Games and other books,]] Halo seems to be going eerily strait down the WH40K route. [[Space Marines|Covenant now having different chapters and sects,]] [[Warp|Slipspace shifting more like space hell,]] [[Inquisition|the UNSC/UEG sending secret police to silence and torture innocents]] [[Abbadon|and an ancient Eldritch A.I. of malevolent aura that shares the same name to a certain armless failure.]] Seriously we ain't making this shit up!
* [[Battletech]].
* Factorio. Subtle, but, lone human, aliens want to kill you, everything you do makes smog, and your goal is to cover the world in industry, concrete, machines, and gun turrets. The world isn't dead when you arrive, but you're damn well going to kill it yourself or die trying.
* 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 Mutants, who don't even need food. Yeeeah).
* Metro series (both the books and games, but mostly in the books, where the last known humans are hiding in underground subway tunnels, and when they're not trying to finish each other off, they are fighting endless hordes of [[mutant]]s [[/b/|and other, much worse things]]. Also, let's not forget that if you're one of the stalkers, the few brave ones that head to the surface to [[Blood Ravens|loot anything they can find]], you risk [[Tyranid|being eaten by flying daemons]]. Hell, it even has [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metro-2033-Dmitry-Glukhovsky/dp/0575086254 the same "abandon all hope" vibe in the intro], just like 40k. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.)
** Note as the books go on the grimdarkness does tone down by showing the areas outside of the city to be in much better living conditions and other metros.(allthough not all the books are written by the same author).
*Madness combat - no regret, no remorse, no reason, only [[Khorne|madness]].
* LISA the RPG.
* ''The Darkness'' videogames.
* The first two Hyperion books.
* Elfen Lied (where the next step of the evolution of mankind is a group schizophrenic homicidal mutant girls with invisible tentacle hands and a hair-trigger temper who will either kill you in the worst way possible or else [[Genestealer|infect you with their gene to increase their numbers]].)
* Most of Stephen King's works.
* Crossed (Most of the world is dead or turned into [[Slaanesh|murder-raping sadists]] á la the Reavers from Firefly. Showing any 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 (courtesy 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster (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 what's 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.)
* The Slenderman Mythos (HE ALWAYS WATCHES).
* The Old Testament.
* [[Dante]]'s ''[[Warp|Inferno]]''. Put simply short, God is a fucking Sadist. For example: If you suffer from depression/PTSD so much that you commit suicide, God won't give you therapy, but rather, mutate you into an immortal tree that can still feel pain and is constantly torn apart by harpies forever. How merciful. Sins of Greed and Gluttony are punished by being eaten alive by Cerberus, who then proceed in transforming ye corpse into slowly regenerating shit mud ; after being whole again, thou art eaten while trying to flee in despair, and it start anew. For ever. Because some old dude called Minos decided so.
* The F.E.A.R. series (even the third vanilla-by-comparison game is fucked up).
* Total War: Attila (Unlike the previous titles in Total War, which were about your faction's rise to power from small backwater city/tribe/country into a mighty empire able to boss around its neighbors into doing your bidding, this one is more or less about the decline of your faction as you desperately try to survive the onslaught of the Huns, who's sole purpose in the game is to worship Tengri by burning, pillaging, and raping their way through the known world. Particularly if you are the Romans. Winning is defined by being the last guy standing who gets to clean up the rubble and dead bodies, trying to rebuild their world after Attila destroyed it. Seriously, even the music sounds depressing and foreboding as fuck.)
* Darkest Dungeon. The name speaks for itself. Your ancestor literally awokened some kind of God that is pretty much Chtulu's brother and sent you a letter before killing himself, asking to mop up the huge mess he created. Enjoy sending parties of 4 adventurers ranging from badass lepers to sickle-wielding jesters to their deaths in cultist-infested ruins, sewers filled with mutated cannibalistic pigmen, sea caverns serving as anthropomorphic sea creatures and forests corrupted by evil. And I'm not going to talk about the Darkest Dungeon itself. Also, have fun dealing with those bandits that are raiding the Hamlet for which you spent a fuckton of resources in upgrades.
* The Day After, and its worse Brit counterpart, Threads.
* Lord Of War. The worst is that it's based on real events.
* SCP universe. Why do you ask? because above all: [[Inquisition|Secure. Contain. Protect. Imagine a semi-totalitarian world power, funded by every world government to capture anomalous entities, objects and locations, contain them, so that the rest of mankind can live in a world that makes sense.]]We're talking animate statues that move when you blink (I know what you're thinking, but this predates that episode of doctor who), a creature that kills anyone that sees its face. And not all of these threats can be contained or stopped,instead the are roaming free to harm innocents. And some of the captured SCPs are not necessary hostile or evil, but the are still imprisoned in a worse case scenario (witch happens too many times than it should). Oh, and is hinted that the world and humanity is destroyed already sometimes. But still, [http://www.scp-wiki.net/black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white Secure. Contain. Protect.] Just another day at the office.
* Shisha no Teikoku, the Empire of Corpses. Steampunk, Grimdark, Zombies, Cross-References and Conspiracies everywhere. It has even become possible to ressurect the dead, giving them their soul and intelligence back, but only 2 characters profit from it in the end, while everyone else stays a slave.
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/theeternalwar/ The Eternal War], as the name suggests
* [[Dystopian Wars]], as the name suggests
* Clockup Games where you get a firsthand look a sex cult and their destructive side effects.
* Kerbal Space Program. The lives of Kerbals are unimportant. All that matters is getting to space. No matter how many ships filled with Kerbals explode.
* The World War Z book (aside that humanity have barely won a noblebright victory, the war itself was disastrous enough: The zombies that were able to "win" the firepower of some of the most powerful countries be mere [[Imperial Guard|numbers only]], some safe zones that were not overrun were fallen because of common diseases,starvation,or simply because the survivors lost their will to live. The paris catacombs turned into a giant death-hole for the refugees and later for the french military forces who were sent to clear it with nothing more than [[Imperial Guard|bals of steel]],some unreliable melee weapons and [[Lasgun|airguns]] that needed more than one bullet to kill a "zack". And that they had to be careful because if someone would miss,it would trigger a series of explosions wich would bury them alive, much less if they have used a real weapon. And you think being [[blam|shooted]] for not following your orders is bad? Imagine how the russian soldiers who rioted for the choice of refusing orders felt when they had to [[tzeentch|choose]] wicth one of their own to kill with bare rocks so they don't have to be elliminated to the last.Those and other, more terrible things that have made the previous wars look like a common club fights.And not all zombies were killed, and the governments that remain aren't all good. Russia has become a theological dictatorship that is struggling with underpopulation. The novel ends on the note that while mankind is alive and there is a functioning society, we have been set back decades and unlike in the past, the collapse of society is enhanced by the walking dead, contagion (zombies carry a host of regular diseases and other unhealthy bits).
* Armored Trooper Votoms, an old-school mech anime. Basically, mankind has been at war for so long that even the computers created to direct strategy don't know what the goal is. War isn't glorious either, most of the first arc is about a squad that goes rogue and raids their own side's armory to find some loot. While the mech designs aren't practical, they are more industrial and utilitarian than many contempoaries, being repurporsed exo-suits.
* Prototype 1 & 2. A video game series where New York City is infected with a virus created by corporation called GenTek that mutates people into casual mutant zombies to fucking huge deformed beasts. A secret division called Blackwatch is sent to brutally contain the virus. This may sound like Resident Evil but the resemblance ends here because you play as Alex Mercer (Prototype 1) and James Heller (Prototype 2), both of them infected by the virus and became superhumans who can shapeshift and gain someone's memories by consuming them (read violent absorbing them into their bodies) and can grow weapons like claws or a blade arm.
* Saw: [[Cegorach|I just wanna play a game.]]
[[File:Digimon_Tamers_Nope_Nope_Nope!.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Trap|It was going to be a kids show they say. It was going to be as whimsical as Pokemon they say...]]]]
* [[Digimon: Digital Adventures|Digimon Tamers]]. (Whilst Digimon as a franchise is noted to be surprisingly dark and adult for a kids anime in the 'Mon' genre, Digimon Tamers is noted to be exceptionally depressing even by the series standard. Tamers includes children attempting suicide, child abuse, attempted murder on a child, multiple on-screen deaths on major characters, torture, psychological mind rape on a young girl, PTSD on said young girl, eldritch abominations, horror and psychological horror. You think Tamers would have a happy ending? Lolnope, Tamers has a bittersweet ending in which the main kids lose their Digimon partners ''for ever''. Then again this is what happens when you allow a guy notorious in psychological horror anime to do a kids show. There is a reason why Tamers is considered the Neon Genesis Evangelion for kids.)
**Digimon Adventure Tri will take Tamers up a notch in just plain creepyness. Then again Tri is aimed more for adult fans of the original anime series. Adventure Tri is just as dark as Tamers as it showcase deaths, assisted suicide, infanticide of Digimon babies, psychological damage, grief-induced madness, corruption, attempted genocide, racial supremacy, racism, immense property damage with collateral damage and attempted rape from the series' former mentor and teacher becoming a creepy sexual predator molesting one of the main characters and choking another one to near death (Both are female by the way). Digimon doesn't fuck around.
* Most good 'Real Robot' anime/video games. Further discussion will result in [[skub]].
* Full Metal Alchemist: The World is coated by a side of Noblebright at the beginning but morphs into 1984 the more you watch/read. THe world Amestris starts out as fine and dandy (despite being a fascist military Dictatorship.) then it morphs into a world where the Main Country (Amestris.) is at constant war with almost all it's neighbors commits Genocides Left and right and Murder's anyone who finds out the dark truth.
* Bet On Soldier/Iron Storm: WW1 got extended by 80 years, leading to a world where war is everything (including a televised past time), peace is considered a horrifically dissident ideal and there is a shadowy cabal behind the scenes plotting to make the war last forever.
* Noir in general, from Raymond Chandler's novels to games like This is the Police.
* Wanted. (A comic book series which inspired the 2008 action flick. In a nutshell, the villains won the war against the heroes and erased them from reality. Yes, the bad guy wins, there is no longer any power struggle. The world of Wanted is one of the most horrific comic book series as it deconstructs the 'action macho man' of the superhero genre and actually insults the reader (As in break the fourth wall) if they ever felt like trying to root for the 'protagonist'. How bad is Wanted? Well being a world dominated by supervillans, where crime is not only rampant but is actually part of the law, enforced by the Fraternity (Which is essentially the Justice League for bad guys), the only way to even have the closest thing to a 'safe and happy life' is by murdering your next door neighbor out of paranoia. Furthermore, as the world is cut up into sections and ruled by different supervillains, you will most likely be born in a country ruled by either a psychotic bastard who shoots children for shits and giggles, a Lex Luthor archetype who hungers for more unrestrained power, a literal Nazi from the future who wants another Holocaust, a megalomaniac and sociopathic Chinese emperor who makes Mao Zedong like a chump or a completely immortal 'President-for-Life' Mugabe expy that will probably rule for eternity.)
**Our 'protagonist' for example, is a sociopathic, violent, sadistic rapist who assassinates people in ridiculous violent manners that makes the Punisher, Konrad Curze and Batman look like Constable Care in comparison. Seriously his first 'character development' was shooting his neighbor in the face because he was too damned nice... yeah... our 'heroes' are literally no different than the villains at all. If you could even call them 'heroes'. At least in universes like WH40K and Gears of War, characters who commit acts of crime, even Chaos, do it because they have a reason, idea or dogma behind their actions. Wanted on the other hand? The villains commit crime (Like shooting at a baby's crib) because [[Lulz|they felt like it.]] Don't even get us started with the supervillains who are so repulsive that they are barely redeemable. Wanted is one of those franchises that just makes you ''feel'' like a bastard for even trying to root for anyone. In terms of the moral scale, if DC is the classical Black and White franchise and Marvel is the classical Grey and Gray franchise, than Wanted is the classical Black and Black franchise. [[Chaos]] wishes it could be this efficiently evil.
* Grim Dawn the video game. Basically in a world called Cairn, there are magic, monsters and human using advance mid 19th century colt gunnery. One day, a bunch of stupid mage failed some sort of ritual and called in some kind of ghost spirit thingy called the aetherial that wants nothing but possessed living thing and turn them into killing machines. So the aetherials invaded the world and possessed many creatures and humans for their own world domination plan. This event is called the "Grim Dawn" (roll credits), an apocalyptic event that gave rose other ancient sinister organization like the Cthontic cult (who are like the chaos cult in this universe except they worships some kind of Cthulhu wannabe god Ch'thon) and they had a bone to pick with the aetherial for power struggles, resulting the world in an never ending war and struggle between humans and otherworldly power. As you progress the game, you learned from one of the deity came from the shrine you repaired, it tells you that there are many gods watching this world and none of them gave a shit about their followers (including him) since this is just one of the many realities they observe and the tragic event "Grim Dawn" is nothing more than a daily basis, an unavoidable natural occurrence. So yeah, you had to fight through an undercity full of undead ([[Tomb Kings|who are cursed to forever linger in the world, only to get back up as soon as they are defeated]]), a land corrupt by aetherion's green shit that is about as harmful as the warp itself, and a crimson forest filled with Cthonic cult members and its creatures who likes to blood sacrifice humans in the name of their god. In order to combat the otherworldly power, you have little choice but to side with the two faction, either a necrophilia ice ninja that will enslave the dead or a pretentious templar order type organization who is just another otherworldly power worshiper whose god planned to fucked up the future once again. The only hope lies to the survivors from the aetherion encounters that gave them strange unnatural which may or may not corrupt them in the process, basically you the player, whose memories has been wiped but is not task with rebuild and fighting back the alien entities by using their own power to against them. Even at the end of game where you defeat the major threat, nothing really change since the world now is filled with other horrify creatures, human civilizations are literary nonexistent and most of the survivors end up in the dark side, stealing and robbing the surviving human for their selfish needs other than combating the horror. The aetherion invasion is still going strong despite your effort at the very end of game and other gods are ready to back stab, corrupt, raid and torment every living creature in the world for their own selfish needs.

== 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 generally reliant on at least one party involved [[Fail|suddenly abandon all sense of reason and logic]], or else caused by a lack of forethought on the implications of how the element interacts with the world. Many long-runner grimdark works will become this sooner or later, as either the setting or the cast's morality (rather a usually extreme lack thereof) will induce complete and utter apathy in the audience and cause them to give up out of sheer pointlessness. Most "dark" anime/manga tend to be more or less grimderp, as attempts to attract mature audiences ends in violence, blood, and sex without consequence (at BEST, mind you. [[Rape|At worst...]]), all in gratuitous quantities. So... not that different from the West, really.

* [[My Little Pony|Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons]] is 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 <s>seems like</s> WOULD ACTUALLY BE the happiest ending (<s>Assuming it will end, it probably never will as long as there's enough cybernetics to keep rebuilding the constantly-dying protagonist)</s> HOLY SHIT IT ACTUALLY ENDED!), it's the prime example of how to make readers stop giving a fuck about the story at all.
* On that note, 90% of all grimdark fics are grimderp since writers are under the impression that [[Edgy|just making things dark makes it good writing]]. There are exceptions, but they are rare, because Sturgeon's Law is a thing. On the flip side, however, [[DOOM: Repercussions of Evil|certain examples]] have reached the apotheosis of Grimderp and become gut-bustingly hilarious.
* Warhammer 40,000 gets called out as this by some. Certainly it's a valid criticism of certain parts, but as we said earlier, [[Skub|you could argue about what is and is not grimderp in 40k for weeks without conclusion.]] For example, the Imperium is excessively self-destructive and tyrannical to its own people, but in the hands of a good writer, it's meant to underline how corrupt and desperate the Imperium has become without the Emperor's guidance, and how even those who are neither incompetent nor malicious still have to make brutally difficult choices. In the hands of a lesser writer, it's unnecessary evil purely for the sake of evil. We should call our next book "[[C.S. Goto|Darkness of Darkest Dark!]]"
* [[Drowtales]]: The whole series is Grimderp on steroids, but there are a few particularly nauseating examples: nothing like the protagonist [[Mary Sue]] of innocence and purity blowing up the light elf MILF slave called Maya in an argument with a rival, an argument in which she feels morally justified right after buying a fighting slave which was doomed to die in underground Arenas even most Drow find disgusting, ran by a complete monster of a drow, regularly visited to watch slaves die, that's right, by the protagonist Ariel. Maya dies crying in her native tongue about "what she did to deserve this", crying she'll never see sunlight again. Protagonist feels a bit bad about a few days, and only that when she sees a few naked light elf slaves for sale, reminiscing Maya's face. Years pass and she thinks all the slavery and needless murder isn't so cool... just before visiting a surface colony who was taken from humans. She and her lesbian lover have an orgy on the settlement they just conquered by massacre. After a blissful after-sex sleep, the settlement is counterattacked by desperate humans coming to save their kin... which are promptly murdered by the half-light half-dark elf paladin of Sharess (Yes, a [[Mary Sue]] worshipping a total [[Baldur's Gate]] rip-off) who is all high and righteous when she is burning innocent humans who wanted to save their kin from slave traders about to buy the survivors. The protagonist's lesbian empath Drow (yes, with a length of purple hair paint, straight out of Deviantart) friend berates the cornered humans with a lame excuse line of "I feel your pain, why don't you take your survivors and run?!" when the said humans scream in desperation to save their families from the town's locked buildings, die horribly and our "I'm glad my clan Sarghress prevents slavery, let's shake hands and feast on the food we just plundered!" protagonist shakes hands on it. It's not even depressing, it's plain fucking logic diarrhea with enough depressive themes to OD an edgy 13 year old. (considering the authors were that old when they started...)
* 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.
* Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, an anime with a similar premise to the already-grimdark ''Attack on Titan'': It's set in (presumably feudal) Japan, where people are hiding behind walls and communicate with each others using trains to travel from town to town, and trades the giants and horses for guns and [[zombie]]s. Several of the characters have moments of team-killing ineptitude that end up prolonging the conflict far longer than it should:
**The [[samurai]] don't bother with armor and generally aren't very combat-savvy when it comes to zombies, and their [[Lawful Stupid]] tendencies turn any defense against a wall breach into an utter clusterfuck. The antagonist is [[Abaddon|an absolute failure AND wanted for crimes against humanity]], being a [[Edgy|pretentious Che Guevara wannabe]] [[Chaos Pretty Marines|with pink hair]] and wielder of an ugly-yet-somewhat effective [[Sword|sabre]]. He also has a devoted following despite being thoroughly unable to grasp the basics of warfare and its ethics (he thinks children are cowards for not being able to fight monsters that ambush and run through trained adult fighters with ease, and [[What|considers destroying one's own resources and castles to be a viable strategy]]). Meanwhile, the main protagonist has found not one, but TWO miracle solutions that would allow mankind to fight back against the zombie plague, but no one will listen to him, especially not the main antagonist, both because of the above and because ''of course they wouldn't'', it's <s>grimderp</s> GRIMDARK.
**Ironically, Ancient Shintoism (a main religion of that period) has the only known anti-[[Nurgle|zombie]] deities: ''Kukuri hime no kami'', a goddess of purification ([[Reasonable Daemonette|''despite'' being rather sado-masochist]]) whose followers would bind a corpse with ropes, place a big stone on the chest and bury it (coffins are optional). [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|Insane as it was]], it was the most common form of burial in the Jomon period, and never went completely out of date through all the medieval period. Despite the rites being a perfect defense against [[Dark Souls|an undead invasion]], apparently they didn't take in this setting. Three guesses why.

== Grim Tragedy ==
Naturally in a universe such as 40k, the grimdarkness of the setting would mean nothing if not tied into the ironic tragedy of the lore. This includes:

*[[Imperium|A species]] so afraid of the dauntless perils of Chaos that they will brutally harass and execute entire populations out of mere suspicion, all to stop the spread of ruin while indirectly strengthening those who seek to destroy them (''particularly'' Chaos). They, as a people, have progressed massively in population, technology and power since their species conception, yet they more than anyone else have lost one vital element: their humanity.

*[[Eldar|A race who]] was once a zenith of civilization and prosperity, capable of bending the very Gods to their will, but by their own hand reduced themselves to scattered, isolated fleets and colonies always on the run; their pompous and arrogant leaders hide behind a dwindling sense of security based in superiority over other races who are far more successful and perhaps destined to be greater than they ever were. [[Dark Eldar|A number among them]], after their unholy and insidious near-demise, continue (with oblivious glee) to empower [[Slaanesh|the very being that brought them to ruin]] in order to save themselves.

*[[Orks|A race of creatures]] who possess the brightest potential, with near mastery over the psychic, near-natural physical perfection and almost limitless numbers from their highly successful methods of reproduction... and yet they are restricted by an unquenchable thirst for battle which drives each to idiocy, leaving them hopeless of advancing beyond simple barbarians.

*[[Necron|An ancient people]] whom were so envious of their neighbors' power that they were ready to cripple the entire galaxy just for the sake of petty superiority - a superiority neutered by their unwitting transformation into metaphorical and literal automatons. They are now mindless machines who, bar few, care nothing of their past and seek only one thing: war. And those who still have their personalities are either insane, demented, brooding, psychotic, or any combination of these in various proportions.

*[[Tau|A newborn race]] who innocently believes that there can be peace and acknowledgement among each other, but unfortunately the sinister methods they employ hoping that it is for [[Greater Good|something better]] is slowly, but steadily driving them into the decadence that plagues the other species. In doing so they become proof, both of the fact that [[Horus|anyone]], [[Emperor|no matter their intentions]], can be corrupted, and also of the kindness that the rest have forsaken for damnation and despair...

*The fact that, despite hundreds of thousands of years of knowing nothing but only war, these peoples are woefully unprepared for what is to come. No matter how many regiments can be raised or Craftworlds restored, what is out there is all [[Tyranids|consuming, diabolical and numberless...]] Unless, they are themselves on the verge of extinction, and as such, desperately tries to cross over the great void between galaxies, which implies fighting against [[Ork|invincibles foes]] and [[Ultramarines|fate weathing cheaters]] unnaturaly empowered by the grief of an [[Games Workshop|evil entity beyond the cosmos]]. (Well, this lore hint has been dropped a very long time ago in favor of "the good option is that there are a thousand galaxies worth of the fucking bugs, the bad option is that there are billions upon billions of galaxies worth of the fucking bugs.)

== See also ==
*[[Noblebright]]
*[[Edgy]]
*[[Eversor]]
*[[Lamenters]]

== External Links ==
* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grimdark KnowYourMeme has examples from outside of /tg/]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Samurai Jack

2017-04-28T03:09:38Z

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[[File:Samurai Jack.png|thumb|right|Title card to Samurai Jack]]

''"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an '''unspeakable evil!''' But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is '''law'''! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that. Is. '''Aku'''!"'' - Aku, in the best damn intro to any show ever

If this sounds familiar to you, [[Kaldor Draigo|that's because it was the inspiration for everyone's favorite Grey Knight]].

One of the golden age of American cartoons from Cartoon Network, and officially on the [[Approved Television]] list for /tg/. A super badass samurai warrior wielding a holy sword (created by Odin, Ra, and Vishnu) attempts to destroy a shapeshifting wizard abomination called Aku, but the monster sends him into a distant future where Aku has taken control of the galaxy. Samurai Jack now explores the world (he never leaves Earth, it just changed dramatically), helping those oppressed by Aku's evil minions and seeking a portal to return him to his own time, that he may slay Aku and undo his evil future.

Samurai Jack, is a melting pot of everything awesome and so many things /tg/ loves. It's art, first off, takes influence from old 1960s and 70s Japanese [[anime]] (most notably classic Toei Animation) and Bruce Lee-era Kung Fu movies. It is also inspired by ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Blade Runner'', and even Frank Milller's ''300'' (having a surge of popularity after the movie too). While cyberpunk is a major theme of the show, it draws influence from many other sources, such as Ancient Greece, the Volsunga Saga, feudal Japan, and even fucking 1920s Chicago. Yup. [[Awesome|Cyborg gangsters]].

Samurai Jack is one of those rare shows where there is not much [[skub]] about it, even among fans. Literally ''every'' episode is good enough for you to call it your favorite and no one would disagree with you. Most are the same though; either mercenaries or bounty hunters come after Jack, Jack learns some sort of valuable lesson, or he has a run-in with Aku. Still, each episode is a work of art figuratively and literally and are really enjoyable.

== Characters ==

'''Jack''': One badass motherfucker. However, as a character he doesn't have too much personality, being the basic stoic hero that we usually see. Still has enough to stay interesting though. However, in the final season, he has become a depressed, nihilistic shell of a man, constantly beset by bouts of schizophrenia and extreme thoughts of suicide (in true samurai fashion, he even attempts seppuku in his most deperate moments). The realization has finally set in that everyone he knows and loves is not only dead, but they died believing Jack failed or abandoned them when Aku threw him in time, made worse by the fact that his enchanted sword, the only thing that can kill Aku, is missing. And not only that, but apparently, Aku has found and destroyed most, if not all, of the time portals, leaving Jack stuck in the future. Even old age will no longer claim him, as Jack has ceased aging as a side effect of initial time travel (this is debatable as to whether it really is something scientific or a result of the Gods basically saying "Your ass doesn't get to rejoin your family until you kill that sorry son of a bitch")

'''Aku''':THA SHAPESHIFTING MASTA OV MASTAS, THE DELIVERAH OV DAHKNESS, DA SHOGUN OV SORROW, equal parts hilarious and fucking evil. Speaks in ultra engrish (but this is intentional on his voice actors part, the glorious and the late Mako Iwamatsu.) and is even more stupid evil than the love child of Skeletor, Megatron and the [[Marines Malevolent]]. Well, maybe not entirely stupid-evil. He once disguised himself [[/d/|as a woman]] that got close to Jack, and now the poor bastard has had trust issues ever since. Still, Aku is about as hammy as Skeletor, but won't bat an eye at wiping out innocent civilians without a second thought. In the final season, he has basically become a neurotic, depressed shut-in, having completely lost interesting in actively trying to kill Jack, or even doing much of ''anything'' outside his lair (he's unaware that Jackio has lost his sword, aka the one thing that can kill him). Aku now spends his time having therapy sessions with himself over the fact that he could be stuck with a now-immortal Jack ''forever,'' and occasionally roflestomping attacking armies in the hope that it might get him out of his slump (it doesn't).

'''Ashi''': One of the 'Seven Daughters of Aku', which is an assassin cult dedicated to hunting down Jack. Initially did extremely well during their first fight with Jack. Even having the honor of being the few beings in the show that were very, very close to killing Jack, as he barely escaped and was bleeding out from a gut-shot. Though after Jack gets his second wind, he kills them off one by one, with Ashi being the only confirmed survivor. At first, she utterly hates Jack and believes him to be the one responsible for ravaging the Earth, but soon comes to learn that this isn't the case at all. Oh, and that's not a black bodysuit she's wearing. [[PROMOTIONS|She's actually ass-naked the first few episodes]] - [[FATAL|because that's actually her burnt skin]]. Or tar, or... something. It's not clear. Whatever it is, it's hot and nasty. Potential love interest, if you believe the Rule 34 people. Being set up to become one of the main protagonists of the final season. Loves the beauty of Mother Nature, and this is reflected in her new choice of dress, which is basically a [[Rule 34|sexy Tinkerbell outfit]]

=== Minor Characters ===
'''DA SA-MOO-RAH''': Imagine Black Dynamite if he dressed like MC Hammer, was an arrogant and ineffectual blowhard, challenges Jack to a fight, gets his ass handed to him, saves Jack's life, learns some motherfucking humility, everyone leaves happy. Oh and he listens to Parliament apparently. Became a shit eating old bartender in the final season, resigned to listening to has-been bounty hunters whine about how Jack kicked their pathetic, robot asses.

'''The Scotsman''': The name says it all. Jack's best friend (whom tried to kill him when they first met), and is one of the more frequent characters in the series. [[AWESOME|Has a fucking machine gun for a leg]]. Can also pull a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LyFMCIpok 20-second long insult.] He died in battle, but not before [[awesome|having about a hundred daughters that served as his army and roasting Aku.]] He comes back as a ghost later a la Obi-Wan Kenobi thanks to the CHELTHICC MAGICK on his sword.

'''Jack's Father''': The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]] of Japan at the beginning of the story. He defeated Aku around the time Jack was born, and when he get's himself captured and enslaved by the demonic wizard when Aku returns from being banished to the Warp, he makes sure his son is safe and away, and arranges for Jack to be put through Space Marine levels of training in order to return and kick Aku's sorry ass back to Hell, though it's taking Jack a WEE bit longer than any of them intended.

'''The Guardian''': A Morpheus-looking brotherfucker stuck to guard a working time portal Jack wanted to use - and failed. In fact he's just about the only guy in the future capable of taking on Jack in a fight and completely and utterly [[Rape|handing him his ass]]. That's supposed to change in the future, though, as Jack was simply not destined to defeat him just yet. Aku may have defeated him off-screen to set up the final season, though we don't know for sure if Aku really did destroy ''all'' the time portals.

'''Scaramouche the Merciless''': The Pied-Piper of Ruination, the Crooner of Carnage, the Ambassador of Annihilation, the Eradicator of All, baby! A musical robot assassin, equal parts hilarious and sadistic. His first act in the new and last season is to destroy an entire village, just to get Jack's attention. This backfires horribly, and he ends up getting blown up. Now just a talking head, he has made it his mission to tell Aku that Jack has lost his sword. His preferred method of attack is, of course, through jazz, or an awesome dagger that destroys things through amplifying the wavelengths. Most of Aku's goons tend to be one-trick ponies, but much like DA SA-MOO-RAH, Scaramouche is quite memorable for his sardonic Sammy Davis Jr. persona.

== Status ==

Sadly Samurai jack has been effectively cancelled (including the planned movie) for quite some time although old episodes have started airing again. Aku's voice actor dying of throat cancer may have had something to do with it. <s> no more Jack. Just as Aku planned</s> '''WACHAAA JACK IS BACK BABY <strike>2016</strike> MARCH 11th 2017. 11PM EST. ON ADULT SWIM.'''

Season 5 has much of what made the original series great, between its gorgeous visuals and well choreographed fight scenes. However, it also represents a major shift in tone as well, if the [[Grimdark]] intro didn't tell you already (see below). Whereas the more kid-friendly early seasons were relatively light-hearted and had Jack only ever fight robots and monsters, this time there's blood aplenty - from both foes and Jack himself - as well as heavy psychological themes between Jack's Schizophrenia and Ashi's traumatic childhood flashbacks. But perhaps the most shocking moment is when Scaramouche points out that another character's head looks [[brundlepenis|like a penis]]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwHuwq8K2k Really]. It's surreal to see coming from a former kids' show.

WHAT FOOLISH SAMURAI HAS NOT YET ADDED THE NEW TRAILER TO THIS PAGE???

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSrv_n4tw7w Get Hype.]
[[Category:Not Related]]

Samurai Jack

2017-04-28T01:50:30Z

2600:8803:1C05:F00:2C9B:5C07:E871:7CFA: /* Characters */

{{Stub}}
{{/co/}}
[[File:Samurai Jack.png|thumb|right|Title card to Samurai Jack]]

''"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an '''unspeakable evil!''' But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is '''law'''! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that. Is. '''Aku'''!"'' - Aku, in the best damn intro to any show ever

If this sounds familiar to you, [[Kaldor Draigo|that's because it was the inspiration for everyone's favorite Grey Knight]].

One of the golden age of American cartoons from Cartoon Network, and officially on the [[Approved Television]] list for /tg/. A super badass samurai warrior wielding a holy sword (created by Odin, Ra, and Vishnu) attempts to destroy a shapeshifting wizard abomination called Aku, but the monster sends him into a distant future where Aku has taken control of the galaxy. Samurai Jack now explores the world (he never leaves Earth, it just changed dramatically), helping those oppressed by Aku's evil minions and seeking a portal to return him to his own time, that he may slay Aku and undo his evil future.

Samurai Jack, is a melting pot of everything awesome and so many things /tg/ loves. It's art, first off, takes influence from old 1960s and 70s Japanese [[anime]] (most notably classic Toei Animation) and Bruce Lee-era Kung Fu movies. It is also inspired by ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Blade Runner'', and even Frank Milller's ''300'' (having a surge of popularity after the movie too). While cyberpunk is a major theme of the show, it draws influence from many other sources, such as Ancient Greece, the Volsunga Saga, feudal Japan, and even fucking 1920s Chicago. Yup. [[Awesome|Cyborg gangsters]].

Samurai Jack is one of those rare shows where there is not much [[skub]] about it, even among fans. Literally ''every'' episode is good enough for you to call it your favorite and no one would disagree with you. Most are the same though; either mercenaries or bounty hunters come after Jack, Jack learns some sort of valuable lesson, or he has a run-in with Aku. Still, each episode is a work of art figuratively and literally and are really enjoyable.

== Characters ==

'''Jack''': One badass motherfucker. However, as a character he doesn't have too much personality, being the basic stoic hero that we usually see. Still has enough to stay interesting though. However, in the final season, he has become a depressed, nihilistic shell of a man, constantly beset by bouts of schizophrenia and extreme thoughts of suicide (in true samurai fashion, he even attempts seppuku in his most deperate moments). The realization has finally set in that everyone he knows and loves is not only dead, but they died believing Jack failed or abandoned them when Aku threw him in time, made worse by the fact that his enchanted sword, the only thing that can kill Aku, is missing. And not only that, but apparently, Aku has found and destroyed most, if not all, of the time portals, leaving Jack stuck in the future. Even old age will no longer claim him, as Jack has ceased aging as a side effect of initial time travel (this is debatable as to whether it really is something scientific or a result of the Gods basically saying "Your ass doesn't get to rejoin your family until you kill that sorry son of a bitch")

'''Aku''':THA SHAPESHIFTING MASTA OV MASTAS, THE DELIVERAH OV DAHKNESS, DA SHOGUN OV SORROW, equal parts hilarious and fucking evil. Speaks in ultra engrish (but this is intentional on his voice actors part, the glorious and the late Mako Iwamatsu.) and is even more stupid evil than the love child of Skeletor, Megatron and the [[Marines Malevolent]]. Well, maybe not entirely stupid-evil. He once disguised himself [[/d/|as a woman]] that got close to Jack, and now the poor bastard has had trust issues ever since. Still, Aku is about as hammy as Skeletor, but won't bat an eye at wiping out innocent civilians without a second thought. In the final season, he has basically become a neurotic, depressed shut-in, utterly terrified of a now-immortal Jack (he's unaware that Jackio has lost his sword, aka the one thing that can kill him)

'''Ashi''': One of the 'Seven Daughters of Aku', which is an assassin cult dedicated to hunting down Jack. Initially did extremely well during their first fight with Jack. Even having the honor of being the few beings in the show that were very, very close to killing Jack, as he barely escaped and was bleeding out from a gut-shot. Though after Jack gets his second wind, he kills them off one by one, with Ashi being the only confirmed survivor. At first, she utterly hates Jack and believes him to be the one responsible for ravaging the Earth, but soon comes to learn that this isn't the case at all. Oh, and that's not a black bodysuit she's wearing. [[PROMOTIONS|She's actually ass-naked the first few episodes]] - [[FATAL|because that's actually her burnt skin]]. Or tar, or... something. It's not clear. Whatever it is, it's hot and nasty. Potential love interest, if you believe the Rule 34 people. Being set up to become one of the main protagonists of the final season.

=== Minor Characters ===
'''DA SA-MOO-RAH''': Imagine Black Dynamite if he dressed like MC Hammer, was an arrogant and ineffectual blowhard, challenges Jack to a fight, gets his ass handed to him, saves Jack's life, learns some motherfucking humility, everyone leaves happy. Oh and he listens to Parliament apparently. Became a shit eating old bartender in the final season, resigned to listening to has-been bounty hunters whine about how Jack kicked their pathetic, robot asses.

'''The Scotsman''': The name says it all. Jack's best friend (whom tried to kill him when they first met), and is one of the more frequent characters in the series. [[AWESOME|Has a fucking machine gun for a leg]]. Can also pull a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LyFMCIpok 20-second long insult.] He died in battle, but not before [[awesome|having about a hundred daughters that served as his army and roasting Aku.]] He comes back as a ghost later a la Obi-Wan Kenobi thanks to the CHELTHICC MAGICK on his sword.

'''Jack's Father''': The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]] of Japan at the beginning of the story. He defeated Aku around the time Jack was born, and when he get's himself captured and enslaved by the demonic wizard when Aku returns from being banished to the Warp, he makes sure his son is safe and away, and arranges for Jack to be put through Space Marine levels of training in order to return and kick Aku's sorry ass back to Hell, though it's taking Jack a WEE bit longer than any of them intended.

'''The Guardian''': A Morpheus-looking brotherfucker stuck to guard a working time portal Jack wanted to use - and failed. In fact he's just about the only guy in the future capable of taking on Jack in a fight and completely and utterly [[Rape|handing him his ass]]. That's supposed to change in the future, though, as Jack was simply not destined to defeat him just yet. Aku may have defeated him off-screen to set up the final season, though we don't know for sure if Aku really did destroy ''all'' the time portals.

'''Scaramouche the Merciless''': The Pied-Piper of Ruination, the Crooner of Carnage, the Ambassador of Annihilation, the Eradicator of All, baby! A musical robot assassin, equal parts hilarious and sadistic. His first act in the new and last season is to destroy an entire village, just to get Jack's attention. This backfires horribly, and he ends up getting blown up. Now just a talking head, he has made it his mission to tell Aku that Jack has lost his sword. His preferred method of attack is, of course, through jazz, or an awesome dagger that destroys things through amplifying the wavelengths.

== Status ==

Sadly Samurai jack has been effectively cancelled (including the planned movie) for quite some time although old episodes have started airing again. Aku's voice actor dying of throat cancer may have had something to do with it. <s> no more Jack. Just as Aku planned</s> '''WACHAAA JACK IS BACK BABY <strike>2016</strike> MARCH 11th 2017. 11PM EST. ON ADULT SWIM.'''

Season 5 has much of what made the original series great, between its gorgeous visuals and well choreographed fight scenes. However, it also represents a major shift in tone as well, if the [[Grimdark]] intro didn't tell you already (see below). Whereas the more kid-friendly early seasons were relatively light-hearted and had Jack only ever fight robots and monsters, this time there's blood aplenty - from both foes and Jack himself - as well as heavy psychological themes between Jack's Schizophrenia and Ashi's traumatic childhood flashbacks. But perhaps the most shocking moment is when one of the characters points out that another character's head looks [[brundlepenis|like a penis]]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwHuwq8K2k Really]. It's surreal to see coming from a former kids' show.

WHAT FOOLISH SAMURAI HAS NOT YET ADDED THE NEW TRAILER TO THIS PAGE???

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSrv_n4tw7w Get Hype.]
[[Category:Not Related]]

Samurai Jack

2017-04-28T01:43:10Z

2600:8803:1C05:F00:2C9B:5C07:E871:7CFA: /* Characters */

{{Stub}}
{{/co/}}
[[File:Samurai Jack.png|thumb|right|Title card to Samurai Jack]]

''"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an '''unspeakable evil!''' But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is '''law'''! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that. Is. '''Aku'''!"'' - Aku, in the best damn intro to any show ever

If this sounds familiar to you, [[Kaldor Draigo|that's because it was the inspiration for everyone's favorite Grey Knight]].

One of the golden age of American cartoons from Cartoon Network, and officially on the [[Approved Television]] list for /tg/. A super badass samurai warrior wielding a holy sword (created by Odin, Ra, and Vishnu) attempts to destroy a shapeshifting wizard abomination called Aku, but the monster sends him into a distant future where Aku has taken control of the galaxy. Samurai Jack now explores the world (he never leaves Earth, it just changed dramatically), helping those oppressed by Aku's evil minions and seeking a portal to return him to his own time, that he may slay Aku and undo his evil future.

Samurai Jack, is a melting pot of everything awesome and so many things /tg/ loves. It's art, first off, takes influence from old 1960s and 70s Japanese [[anime]] (most notably classic Toei Animation) and Bruce Lee-era Kung Fu movies. It is also inspired by ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Blade Runner'', and even Frank Milller's ''300'' (having a surge of popularity after the movie too). While cyberpunk is a major theme of the show, it draws influence from many other sources, such as Ancient Greece, the Volsunga Saga, feudal Japan, and even fucking 1920s Chicago. Yup. [[Awesome|Cyborg gangsters]].

Samurai Jack is one of those rare shows where there is not much [[skub]] about it, even among fans. Literally ''every'' episode is good enough for you to call it your favorite and no one would disagree with you. Most are the same though; either mercenaries or bounty hunters come after Jack, Jack learns some sort of valuable lesson, or he has a run-in with Aku. Still, each episode is a work of art figuratively and literally and are really enjoyable.

== Characters ==

'''Jack''': One badass motherfucker. However, as a character he doesn't have too much personality, being the basic stoic hero that we usually see. Still has enough to stay interesting though. However, in the final season, he has become a depressed, nihilistic shell of a man, constantly beset by bouts of schizophrenia and extreme thoughts of suicide (in true samurai fashion, he even attempts seppuku in his most deperate moments). The realization has finally set in that everyone he knows and loves is not only dead, but they died believing Jack failed or abandoned them when Aku threw him in time, made worse by the fact that his enchanted sword, the only thing that can kill Aku, is missing. And not only that, but apparently, Aku has found and destroyed most, if not all, of the time portals, leaving Jack stuck in the future. Even old age will no longer claim him, as Jack has ceased aging as a side effect of initial time travel (this is debatable as to whether it really is something scientific or a result of the Gods basically saying "Your ass doesn't get to rejoin your family until you kill that sorry son of a bitch")

'''Aku''':THA SHAPESHIFTING MASTA OV MASTAS, THE DELIVERAH OV DAHKNESS, DA SHOGUN OV SORROW, equal parts hilarious and fucking evil. Speaks in ultra engrish (but this is intentional on his voice actors part, the glorious and the late Mako Iwamatsu.) and is even more stupid evil than the love child of Skeletor, Megatron and the [[Marines Malevolent]]. Well, maybe not entirely stupid-evil. He once disguised himself [[/d/|as a woman]] that got close to Jack, and now the poor bastard has had trust issues ever since. Still, Aku is about as hammy as Skeletor, but won't bat an eye at wiping out innocent civilians without a second thought.

'''Ashi''': One of the 'Seven Daughters of Aku', which is an assassin cult dedicated to hunting down Jack. Initially did extremely well during their first fight with Jack. Even having the honor of being the few beings in the show that were very, very close to killing Jack, as he barely escaped and was bleeding out from a gut-shot. Though after Jack gets his second wind, he kills them off one by one, with Ashi being the only confirmed survivor. At first, she utterly hates Jack and believes him to be the one responsible for ravaging the Earth, but soon comes to learn that this isn't the case at all. Oh, and that's not a black bodysuit she's wearing. [[PROMOTIONS|She's actually ass-naked the first few episodes]] - [[FATAL|because that's actually her burnt skin]]. Or tar, or... something. It's not clear. Whatever it is, it's hot and nasty. Potential love interest, if you believe the Rule 34 people. Being set up to become one of the main protagonists of the final season.

=== Minor Characters ===
'''DA SA-MOO-RAH''': Imagine Black Dynamite if he dressed like MC Hammer, was an arrogant and ineffectual blowhard, challenges Jack to a fight, gets his ass handed to him, saves Jack's life, learns some motherfucking humility, everyone leaves happy. Oh and he listens to Parliament apparently. Became a shit eating old bartender in the final season, resigned to listening to has-been bounty hunters whine about how Jack kicked their pathetic, robot asses.

'''The Scotsman''': The name says it all. Jack's best friend (whom tried to kill him when they first met), and is one of the more frequent characters in the series. [[AWESOME|Has a fucking machine gun for a leg]]. Can also pull a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LyFMCIpok 20-second long insult.] He died in battle, but not before [[awesome|having about a hundred daughters that served as his army and roasting Aku.]] He comes back as a ghost later a la Obi-Wan Kenobi thanks to the CHELTHICC MAGICK on his sword.

'''Jack's Father''': The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]] of Japan at the beginning of the story. He defeated Aku around the time Jack was born, and when he get's himself captured and enslaved by the demonic wizard when Aku returns from being banished to the Warp, he makes sure his son is safe and away, and arranges for Jack to be put through Space Marine levels of training in order to return and kick Aku's sorry ass back to Hell, though it's taking Jack a WEE bit longer than any of them intended.

'''The Guardian''': A Morpheus-looking brotherfucker stuck to guard a working time portal Jack wanted to use - and failed. In fact he's just about the only guy in the future capable of taking on Jack in a fight and completely and utterly [[Rape|handing him his ass]]. That's supposed to change in the future, though, as Jack was simply not destined to defeat him just yet. Aku may have defeated him off-screen to set up the final season, though we don't know for sure if Aku really did destroy ''all'' the time portals.

== Status ==

Sadly Samurai jack has been effectively cancelled (including the planned movie) for quite some time although old episodes have started airing again. Aku's voice actor dying of throat cancer may have had something to do with it. <s> no more Jack. Just as Aku planned</s> '''WACHAAA JACK IS BACK BABY <strike>2016</strike> MARCH 11th 2017. 11PM EST. ON ADULT SWIM.'''

Season 5 has much of what made the original series great, between its gorgeous visuals and well choreographed fight scenes. However, it also represents a major shift in tone as well, if the [[Grimdark]] intro didn't tell you already (see below). Whereas the more kid-friendly early seasons were relatively light-hearted and had Jack only ever fight robots and monsters, this time there's blood aplenty - from both foes and Jack himself - as well as heavy psychological themes between Jack's Schizophrenia and Ashi's traumatic childhood flashbacks. But perhaps the most shocking moment is when one of the characters points out that another character's head looks [[brundlepenis|like a penis]]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwHuwq8K2k Really]. It's surreal to see coming from a former kids' show.

WHAT FOOLISH SAMURAI HAS NOT YET ADDED THE NEW TRAILER TO THIS PAGE???

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSrv_n4tw7w Get Hype.]
[[Category:Not Related]]

Star Wars

2017-04-17T00:26:11Z

2600:8803:1C05:F00:2C9B:5C07:E871:7CFA: /* Disney and the sequel trilogy */

'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk/ Star Wars]''' is one of, if not ''the'', most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among [[/tg/|nerddom]], it is challenged by only a few others, like [[Star Trek]] and [[The Lord of the Rings]]. The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is probably the best-known film score of all time. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games.

==The Basic Concept==

Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor (no, the other one) there were no Commissars in that universe. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) followed a young man named Luke Skywalker who becomes a Jedi and re-balances the Force. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire, which is secretly led by the Sith. Luke and his Rebel companions eventually defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine, but along the way they discover that his lieutenant, Darth Vader, is actually Luke's father. A financial, critical, popular and cultural H-bomb, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by [[Necrons|General Grievous]] and secretly controlled by the Sith). It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of film VII and presumably films VIII and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka ''The Force Awakens'', was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the [[skub|skubtastic]] [[Star Trek]] reboot. So [[skub|guess what]]? Time will tell if the upcoming sequels, directed by other less controversial folks, will make things better or worse.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plotlines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett.

There are also three separate TV series. The first one, ''Clone Wars'', was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, '''''The''' Clone Wars'', was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for ''The Clone Wars'', but, since it's even worse than the Prequel Trilogy (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's ''"Rebels"'' which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes... pretty much the things that clogged up the plot of the prequel trilogy.

And then there's the whole Expanded Universe, which covers pretty much everything not covered by the films, like the Old Republic (set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, when there were a hell of a lot more Sith and Jedi around) and the New Republic (set immediately after the original trilogy, explaining what became of all the characters. Also features Force-less [[White Scars|Space Mongols]].

The EU is no longer considered in the main canon of the films and TV series, due to the new sequel trilogy which does not follow EU, the reason for this being, according to Disney, that following EU would restrict their creative freedom. The reaction to this was, well, [[skub|mixed, for lack of a better word.]] They've since noted that they'll slot ''some'' of it in on a case-by-case basis, but the canon is in a highly fluid state at the moment. EU is now officially called Star Wars Legends, though most fans still refer to it as EU.

==Why was it so popular?==

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'') or cultural background (as ''[[Star Trek]]'' sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good ''enough'' dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard. (Isaac Asimov saw and rather enjoyed the films.) All in Fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with ''Lord of the Rings'', ''D&D'', ''Star Trek'', ''Warhammer'', etc.).

Finally, there's the fact that the original trilogy films are simply good. The fact that they're not only watchable today, but still stand on their own as good films, is a testament to the story-telling ability of the team that made it. John Williams' excellent score, Ralph McQuarrie's amazing concept art, the impressive performances put in by all of the actors, and, hell, even George Lucas' drive and ambition all steered the films towards the cultural significance they enjoy today.

Also, if you think about it, 4 of the 7 films can be summarised as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villan while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

==Characters==

* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite some flaws, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order.

* Han Solo: Loveable [[rogue]] and space cowboy who shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys. Despite her appearances, she was tough to boot, could fire a laser and actually hit things, became a general by the end of the series, and went on to become a full-on Jedi warrior in the EU. [[Skub|Not in the new canon though.]]

* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist.

*Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving Han from the mafia and leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. The name of his species never has been named. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, like your nice old granddad. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'' as one of the most surprising and popular fights of the movie series stands. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars, he has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is (spoiler!) secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, '''I'' am your Father!' Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double.

* Darth Sidious/Sheev Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, years before Abaddon tried to do it, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy, moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power). Chews ''so much scenery''.

*Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the third film.

*Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke.

*Padmé Amidala: Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless pacifistic idealist (which makes her a hypocrite with all the fight scenes she's in.) Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. Way to go, dumbass. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before?

*Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that even Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3; he's actually a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ends up causing a massive war with tons of casualties and handing over the rule of the galaxy to a Sith lord. There are rumors that he was originally going to be revealed as a villain but because of his poor reception, this idea was scrapped. People who dislike Episode 7 often refer to its director as Jar Jar Abrams.

*Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] IN SPHESS. Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to "They can hate me as long as they fear me", which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance.]]

*Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently. (This became canon after Disney made the entire EU non-canon. Rumour has it Boba will be getting his own spin off movie.)

*Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/|/d/eviant]] at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism.

* Mace Windu: The original only black guy in space, he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. (That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out.) If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans.

*Qui-Gon Jinn: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. He was the only one smart enough to recognize a Sith plot, and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave.

*Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith only concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Got his legs cut off, then came back more badass than ever, until he was utterly stomped by the Emperor then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series.

* General Grievous: A cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become, Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), he is portrayed as an unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, frothing loony]] with a record of failure that even Abbadon would laugh at hysterically. Actually has a somewhat-tragic past: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but when the Separatists harvested his shredded body to repurpose into their general/assassin, Dooku had those parts cut out of his brain until only the raging killer was left.

* Stormtroopers: The elite soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Originally, these soldiers were vat clones of Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. After the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Empire switched to an enlistment system. Numerous sub-categories exist, specializing to operate in different environments (deserts, frozen tundra, zero gravity, underwater, etc.) and serve different roles (scouts, aerial jump-packers, heavy-weapons teams, etc.). They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to their Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these elite soldiers are inexplicably outmatched whenever they fetch up against the main characters of the series, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy and a complete [[Mary Sue]]. Starts out as a scavenger on a desert planet, end up flying the Millennium Falcon through a Star Destroyer while flying away from TIE Fighters during her first time flying a starship, seems to know more about the Millennium Falcon that Han Solo does, mindtricks James Bond an hour after learning she is force-sensitive without even knowing you could do such a thing with Force, out-Forces a trained Force-User on her second time using the Force and proceeds to defeat the said trained Force-User on her first time fighting with a lightsaber (in her defense, Kylo was implied to be having an off day due to emotional instability from having just killed his father, on top of receiving a bowcaster wound that knocks Stormtroopers flying, hampering his fighting ability).

* Finn: Originally known as FN-2187 who is a First Order Stormtrooper who has doubts about the First Order after his first battle and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Despite lacking force-sensitivity, can somewhat wield a lightsaber in combat, though he loses both his fights when using it.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about Force. Somehow has Anakins old lightsaber which he gives to Rey and Finn.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi who (SPOILERS) is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a complete pussy who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. Very little is known about him at the moment, though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead.

* General Hux: An officer in the First Order and a moustacheless ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech. His hairstyle can arguably be considered a 'subtle' reference to a certain President-Elect of the United States.

* TR-8R: Also known as FN-2199, a First Order Stormtrooper who wears a badass riot baton in combat. He is extremely loyal and has only one line, when he calls Finn a traitor. This is where he gets his nickname. He proceeds to kick Finns ass in a melee duel but before striking the killing blow, he is sent flying by Han with Chewies Bowcaster.

* Jyn Erso: A former member of the Space Taliban who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals, one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird.

* Cassian Andor: A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller set mere days before the simple morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly unusual. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end.

* K-2S0: What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Bootleg Hundred Eyes</s> The Real Star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and take your girl if he wants. Just kidding, he's totally homo for his bara autocannon wielding bff. Feels like he was a cheat for a film that promised no Jedi.

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's partner. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead.

==The rise of the original trilogy==

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....etc etc you all know the lines.

A man called George Lucas had the idea to create a series of epic sci-fi space operas that would become so successful that Disney would take notice and give it the franchise fluttering eye lashes, trying to seduce it.

They would be called... ''Flash Gordon''.

Unfortunately for Georgie boy, and fortunately for modern nerddom, Dino de Laurentiis already owned ''Flash Gordon'', and were busy making their own, hilariously eighties version, so he said, screw it, I'll make my own!

He decided to start with the fourth movie in the series he envisioned, for at the time he didn't have the special effects to create the first three to the standard he wanted, and/or he just kinda made up the first move up as he went along. So Episode Four ''A New Hope'' was created (simply titled ''Star Wars'' at the time) and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed the face of sci-fi and general moviemaking forever, bringing a new era of special effects and imagination to cinema and changing the lives of many who would go onto to become dedicated fan boys.

Originally, the studio had forced Lucas to take ever increasing paycuts for what they were sure was going to be a flop, and only let him keep merchandising rights. However, whatever his flaws, George Lucas was a man of vision. Having helped pioneer the summer blockbuster, he went on to do the same to ginormous piles of movie-tie-in memorabilia. His production company, Lucasfilm ended up rolling in dosh, and with Episode Five ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and Episode Six ''The Return of the Jedi'', the legend of Star Wars and its place in cultural history was assured.

tl;dr: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4w7ChpuaM Pretty much this.]

==The coming of the prequel trilogy==
{{editwar}}

With the year 2000 coming, George Lucas felt that special effects technology had reached the level he wanted and began to create the first three movies in the star wars story he had envisioned.

The hype for the movies was immense.

And then the first movie, Episode One ''The Phantom Menace'' came out.....and there was nerd rage beyond expectation.

Part of the problem was that the immense expectations of the fandom had grown until anything less-than-perfect simply would not do, so perhaps that is somewhat to blame for the reaction to the prequel trilogy. Certainly, taken on their own merits, they aren't ''[[Twilight|terrible]]'' films.

But there was nothing to cover the problems that did exist with the first movie. Jar Jar Binks has become such a figure of ire to the fandom that mentioning him will incite rage and prayers to [[Khorne]] for his swift demise, but he was by no means the only problem with the film. There was also:

*Wooden acting and stilted dialogue from most of the cast
*A confusing plot concerning the nature of the Trade Federation's invasion (note: while an understandable plot, its not just a simple good vs evil like the original movie was)
*Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. While Jar Jar was the primary focus of people's rage, Jake had his own share of annoying moments (The guy ended up becoming so hated by everyone that he eventually became a redneck meth-head).

Episode Two ''Attack of the Clones'' and Episode Three ''Revenge of the Sith'' followed after a few years each and fans complained they didn't match the greatness of the original trilogy, more concerned with flashy action and effects than competent story-telling. It didn't help that the acting wasn't exactly better; ''Attack'' makes you sit through about 15 minutes of a romance subplot between two actors who simply don't have any chemistry together. Not to forget the infamous sand quote.

''Revenge of the Sith'' did, however, receive higher ratings than ''Return of the Jedi'', and is generally seen as the best and most-complete of the three films as a story.

What was generally more well received during this time for Star Wars was the Clone Wars animated series (both the traditionally-animated ''Clone Wars'' and the later seasons of the CGI show '''''The''' Clone Wars'', the latter which most everyone agrees is what the prequels should have been), following the war between the Republic and the Confederacy that sprung up during the time between the second and third of the prequels.

Years after the release of the prequels, Star Wars community has become increasingly cancerous and has very disturbingly started to resemble [[/v/]], where people are constantly fighting about which movie is the worst and if you dare to call any of the prequels good or even comparable to the originals, you are likely to get personal insults and death threats on levels that make [[Commissar|Commissars]] look friendly in comparison.

==Disney and the sequel trilogy==

Finally, all the efforts by Disney to woo George Lucas paid off and in 2012 Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise for 4 billion dollars and immediately announced they would produce a new trilogy of films set after the original trilogy.

Expectations were almost as high as the private fears of the fans. Bringing on the creative talent behind the [[skub|skubtastic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' reboot was equally... well, [[skub|take a wild guess]].

The first of these films debuted in December of 2015, and reception was what you would expect: the film was immediately a massive success from a monetary standpoint as everyone ([[China|almost]]) everywhere rushed to the theaters in response to the hype, with children engaging in as many repeat viewings as their parent's money could allow as fans did the same thing with their own. It has become a financial hit with the general public and a (critically) generally well-reviewed piece, with decent cinematography, special effects, technical stuff, etc. It also went on to become the biggest financial success in film history, when not adjusted for inflation.

Fan response was a good deal more mixed. Many criticize the plot for rehashing Episode IV, without doing anything to establish its own identity and claim that it had a bland main character, [[Mary Sue|who had too many abilities]] whereas others find the replication of ''Star Wars'' feel an acceptable trade and praise it for being a decent action film, [[Skub|and point out the lead doesn't even outdo any of the previous main characters in anything.]] In fact, some would argue that by rehashing the original trilogy it basically nullified the accomplishments of the original crew; the Empire's still around, they've got yet another superweapon, Han & Leia split up, Luke failed to rebuild the Jedi, etc. Other fans praised it simply for being a new Star Wars that was better than the prequel trilogy.

And at least the jokes were better this time.

Disney also released ''Star Wars: Rebels'', their own CGI series, which is actually pretty ok (considering that it airs on Disney XD, it should be no surprise that they've toned down the graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, much to the chagrin of [[Neckbeards|those who love overly gory deaths]]). It focuses less on the Jedi that have come to dominate the franchise and more on the "boots on the ground" experience of the average characters, and while the show started slow and small, the plot has started to gain momentum as the series has progressed, especially after the first season. The Rebel movement has started to grow, several characters have returned from ''The Clone Wars'', and the enemies the main characters have had to face have been steadily getting darker and more dangerous as more of the Empire’s attention is attracted. When Darth Vader gets involved (played by none other than [[Awesome|James Earl Jones himself]]) he immediately proceeds to [[Awesome|open a 24-pack of unstoppable whoop-ass on the rebel scum]]. The return of Maul resulted in three character deaths (possibly four), the crippling of one main character with another well on his way down the dark side, and to top it all off Maul himself is on the loose once again. Things did not turn out so well [[Grimdark|last time that happened]], so expect the body count to rise, especially with [[Creed|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] now also coming onto the scene. The show also continues the trend set by ''The Clone Wars'' in making the Force mystical again, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on how you felt about the <s>bullshit</s> <s>scientific</s> [[Skub|skubtastic]] midichlorian explanation of the Prequels. The animation is on point with ''The Clone Wars'', which considering it's Disney should surprise less than nobody. Oh, and Steve Blum voices one of the main characters.

[[Skub|
The way that Filoni (the creator of Rebels and The Clone Wars) has handled the Mandalorians, a fan-favorite warrior-culture based upon the Scots and Vikings, has either been met with praise from those who despised Traviss and her overpowering of said culture, or utter RAGE that he turned many of them into either pacifist morons or bloodthirsty barbarians- usually that particular criticism comes from the Traviss fanboys]]. Do take note, however, that the old ways for the Mandalorians are making their way back into canon, such as the language, the emphasis on martial honor, and the decentralized nature of their government.

December of 2016 brought us the first standalone Star Wars movie, "Rogue One", showing the theft of the original Death Star plans. While "Rogue One" has been criticised for being lacking in character development, it still manages to pack more than it's fair share of awesome into the movie, with Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk and Darth Vader all used to great effect. Much, much [[Skub]] still exists of course, since no Star Wars movie will ever please all the neckbeards.

==Expanded Universe==

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering [[Warhammer 40K|other]] [[Star Trek|franchises']] track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is remarkably internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves. Sure, every once in a while the odd [[C. S. Goto|problem child such]] slips through, but on the whole it holds up well (largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together).

Disney recently said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. New and old stuff ''are'' still filtering in, but on a case-by-case basis. [[Skub|Whether or not this is good or bad depends on mostly who you ask, as some feel the EU was filled with nothing but Mary Sues trying to out-Sue one another and a pro-monarchist bias on part of the authors, while others feel as if the stories in the EU were more fleshed out, deeper, and more realistic than the new Disney canon]], [[Not As Planned| and a third group who admits the old EU had plenty of good stories and plenty of bad.]] It would appear that Disney got the message from the third group, as they've brought back fan-favorite villain Grand Admiral Thrawn for Star Wars Rebels.

==Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc==

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be ''incredibly'' hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the [[power weapon]].

==Tabletop games for Star Wars==

=== Role-playing Games ===

[[West End Games]] made a Star Wars [[role-playing game]] called [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]]. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End games.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their [[d20 System]], called [[Star Wars D20]] (imaginatively) then utterly revised that into what they called the '''Saga Edition'''. Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|its parent game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars Roleplaying Game|a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs]], whether you want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws, members of the nascent Rebellion, or exiled Jedi Knights. Unlike their [[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]] games, which are all ''juuuuust'' different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible.

=== Card Games ===

The big [[card game]] set in the Star Wars universe is the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]]. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] made the [[Star Wars Trading Card Game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars: The Card Game]].

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

=== Miniature Games ===
[[Wizards of the Coast]] did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called [[Star Wars: Miniatures]], based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, but it wasnt terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. [[HeroClix| Who could possibly stand for that?]]

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is producing the [[X-Wing]] miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what ''Star'' Wars is all about). They have also released [[Star Wars: Armada]] which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

== See Also: ==

* ''[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/ Darths & Droids]'': A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the ''Star Wars'' movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think ''DM of the Rings'' in overall visual style, though unlike ''DM of the Rings'', ''Darths & Droids'' features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer.

Samurai Jack

2017-04-17T00:20:11Z

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