Meaning of grimdark | Babel Free

Definitions

Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere.

slang

Examples

“If your character is a more-or-less ordinary little girl fighting for her life as a usual thing, that's a fairly GRIMDARK setting; it implies that there isn't any Good authority with both the power and the will to protect⟳ them.”

“Most original. Brilliantly so! What's not to like⟳? "Jarringly non-grimdark," carpers will sneer. Oh, yeah? What's not Grimdark about – / * Droids? / * Vagina heads? / * Gundam suits (desu)?”

“The thought once occur⟳[r]ed to me, that for a while they had the silver age Legion as the actual past of a grimdark iron⟳ age Legion. Which meant that in theory the grimdark adult legion could have⟳ traveled back to silver age Smallville, or the silver age Legion could have⟳ travelled back to the iron⟳ age DC "present⟳" of the 90s.”

“[T]here is a more violent ‘barbarian’ tradition of fantasy – sometimes called ‘sword and sorcery’, to distinguish it from Tolkienian ‘heroic fantasy’ – […] This in turn⟳ leads through to modern ‘Grimdark’ writing, where nobody is honourable and Might is Right. George R. R. Martin’s ongoing fantasy sequence A Song of Fire and Ice^([sic – meaning A Song of Ice and Fire]) is surely the most successful and popular Grimdark fantasy.”

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