Grimderp-How dark is too dark?

Most works seem to try and seek out a balance between light and dark to attract an audience. In some eras light is favored and in others dark is the flavor of the month. However, much as there is a point where things are too lighthearted to take seriously, there is also a point where something can be so over the top dark that it wraps it's way around to being goofy or losing the interest of the reader because there's no one to root for as everyone is terrible.

So what dear viners, is your limit for how dark a fictional work can get before it starts getting into the "why should I care, they're all worse than Hitler" territory or the "You know, when everyone eats babies and kicks puppies and laughs about it it's actually kind of funny" zone?

The "Hitler eating babies and kicking puppies, who doesn't care because it's kind of funny" zone.

I think this topic is more than worth a bump.

And I do seriously believe there is a darkness event Horizon before most audiences stop caring because you cannot root for anyone because everyone in the setting is one abominable shade of evil or another.

Would Gantz be a good example of kinda being too dark? I've never read it, so I suppose my opinion is moot, but it always seemed so.....grim

@hart7668: Has it gotten to the point where you find yourself wondering "Why should I care?" or finding it unintentionally hilarious?

I suppose not but it is a horror manga.

As far as myself personally, and with no parody, non satirical works, my tolerance for grim dark is relative to how original and fresh it is. So I can find Adventure Time doing grim and dark sort of endearing but I probably won't pick up a book about a lonely obsessive newbie detective who patrols the streets with every step he takes requiring him to wipe the scummy residue of a society of his torn and weathered shoes. His city and society is a corrupt one and everyone including his wife and newborn child are out to get him. When he comes home from work he finds everyone he loves in a mini refrigerator and he has tattoos of obscure Japanese poems and riddles all over his body. Actually I would probably read that because it sounds like a parody. Usually I like variety though, so that affects my tolerance too, I wish the New 52 had a bit more variety as far as light heartedness.

@hart7668: Horror does have different standards, but generally even then the audience/player still needs someone to identify with or look up to.

When you see joker paralyzing Barbara Gordon I say that's on the line, anything darker is too dark

I'm all for any level of 'darkness' as long as it serves a purpose. If it's there just because, it's unnecessary, and therefore too dark.

To answer that question seriously I have to go back and remember a series called Zetman. The point for me that told me I did not like the series is when a boy who was hailed as a hero was force into a situation where his admirers were trap with him in a building and he had to try to save them. Let just say that none but the boy made it out there alive. I understood why the direction the event taken place happen but to me that was why I drop the series completely. It went to dark for me because of the fact the could not save one single person there.

There is no limit, for me atleast.

So dark that it become an unintentional parody.

This reminded me of Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum by Jeph Loeb.

@russellmania77: You are just terrible.

Yeah, good examples. It stops being tragic and starts being stupid.

... But it got SOOOOO much after that

ugh

Wolf Guy, when a woman is raped for 20 chapters,for the sole purpose of her boyfriend powering up, a series become too dumb to handle.

Dark becomes too dark when it becomes a cause for events rather than a product of them. Even when darkness is used as an aesthetic choice, it is a product of the story, not a cause of it. For example, stories involving vampires have a tendency toward the gothic, but this choice is not for its own sake. Vampires are dangerous, mysterious, shadowy, and encounters with them should be reflected as such. Buildings become looming and ominous, shadows deepen, making every darkened corner fraught with peril.

Darkness becomes problematic when it is inserted unnecessarily, simply to appease some taste for morbidity. It no longer serves a narrative or aesthetic function. To capture the idea as succinctly (but unfortunately, somewhat circularly) as possible: it is problematic when a thing is made dark so that it can be dark.

My Parents keep saying that the Dark Knight Trilogy was really dark and too violent for Batman even though I keep telling them that Batman is supposed to be dark. But then again, they never read comics and they grew up watching the Adam West Batman.

-$NG

@thatguywithheadphones: I could not swallow it all, I guess I am one of those that needs a happy ending and that scene just stop me flat. It could get better afterwards but for me that was my line. Wolf Guy I'd stopped when the rape part started. I just did not think it would last that long. The main character was douchey anyways, I really wanted a good werewolf story too. Sigh

@roboadmiral: This guy/gal, I like this guy/gal.

Dark for the sake of dark is lazy, borderline insulting to the audience, uninspired.

A good story that is dark for the sake of plot is good.

I, personally, enjoy dark and serious fiction. I dislike gratuitous gore for the sake of gore, but I enjoy dark stories.

@jedixman:

I, personally, enjoy dark and serious fiction. I dislike gratuitous gore for the sake of gore, but I enjoy dark stories.

Good...Good.

It's funny how you use that picture when mocking me... but I take that as a compliment in this context. So... thanks...

Heh, Darth Plagueis is probably my favorite Star Wars novel... speaks volumes, that.

NEVER

...Did the rapist have super endurance or something because I can't imagine how someone could maintain coitus for that long.

Gang rape, *sigh*

@thatguywithheadphones: Ah...well that particular work seems like it was made by someone with issues.

You're too kind. And it's guy, btw.

Sums up my thoughts as well.