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In this world, the Protagonist is [[Just One Man|only one man]], he can't bring life instantly to an abandoned village, but he can find the materials needed to bring upon the seeds of growth that will bring life back to the once desolate town. However, such changes are not overnight miracles and in fact many of them will not be noticed in his or her lifetime. He is also quite tempted to exploit the wasteland and will have to resist such urges. More [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroic]] characters may not even bother holding back.
 
Just as before, the forces of darkness run through relatively unmolested and it is ill advised for players to confront them head on. Most of the time, the player or protagonist will skirt around the major sources of power and just go for the source of ills itself and [[Averted Trope|it will rarely result in]] [[Decapitated Army|the total destruction of the enemy,]] especially if the problem is [[Inherent in Thethe System]] and the [[Big Bad]] is, for all his current importance, ultimately replaceable.
 
However, victory is often a minor one as it is only a small portion of a constantly decaying world that has been fixed. While you may change life for the better for your people and [[Earn Your Happy Ending|solve today's ills]], everyone else could potentially suffer whether or not [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|you are deliberately or accidentally causing it]] through [[Hope Spot|false progress]] or is still suffering as usual, unaffected by the hero's successes. Nevertheless, it's still better than [[Death Seeker|waiting for the end to come]], as any [[Knight in Sour Armor]] will tell you.
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* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' exemplifies this: just because the world is torn by nuclear fire dosen't mean it can't be rebuilt, and just because violence can be used to oppress the weak doesn't mean you can't use it to protect the weak and and make the world a better place either.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'': A third of the world is ruled by an [[Omnicidal Maniac|insane]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]. Another third is ruled by the [[Evil Chancellor|corrupt advisors]] of a pre-teen child empress. They are locked into a state of perpetual war, while we never see the other third. [[Black and Grey Morality|The hero is a cynical JerkAss who commits morally questionable acts with frightening regularity]], and the nicest and most idealistic character in the series is an self-deluded [[Knight Templar]] who is complicit in genocide. However, the ending does provide some measure of hope that things will get better, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|with most of the surviving characters shown to be relatively happy]], {{spoiler|although it's a [[Bittersweet Ending]] for all of the major protagonists.}}.
* ''[[Ghost in Thethe Shell]]'' is a world half full for most of the main characters. They frequently expose corruption and conspiracies, and stop terrorists from killing more innocents, but at the end of the day, their actions don't do anything to change the corrupt and uncaring system of Japanese society. Still, they feel pretty good about what little good they can do.
* [[Gundam]]:
** ''[[After War Gundam X (Anime)|Gundam X]]'' was all about this, taking place [[After the End]]. We would expect a [[Mad Max]] or [[Hokuto no Ken]] world where the entire earth was an unsafe place where slavers took anyone they like, Raider left behind huge examples of their brutality and the government purging and reclaiming what is theirs. Instead humanity continue to move on. The world isn't some sort of badly irradiated earth despite its share of [[Colony Drop]] and humanity has begun its path towards civilization. Sure we got a few hiccups like the Frost Brothers and remnant of Earth and Space's army wanting to continue the war. But the setting notably light for a supposedly [[Crapsack World]].
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Gundam 00]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Anime)|Gundam SEED]]'' are also like this.
** And this is the reason [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Marina Ismail and the Celestial Being]] - as well as [[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Anime)|Lacus Clyne and the Three-Ship Alliance]] are here, To make sure their worlds don't become true crapsack ones.
*** The world in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Gundam 00]]'' was even prior to CB's world intervention far from being crapsack.
** ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' starts off as this. In spite of the Earth Federation being rotten and incompetent in handling the problem of the [[Ax Crazy]] UE murdering colonies mercilessly, Flit Asuno and Grodek were dedicated in saving the humanity from the UE's vile clutches and promoting peace and harmony. {{spoiler|That is, until the Diva's crew realize that the UE are human soldiers for Veigan and Grodek shows that his true goal was revenge against the man who killed his family, not to saving humanity. Worst of all, Flit Asuno refuses to accept that the Veigan soldiers are human and prefers to continue viewing himself as a savior... for the corrupt Earth Federation. And he's more than willing to take Veigan lives to become this. [[It Gets Worse|The war's only going to get worse from there...]]}}
** ''[[G Gundam]]'', once Domon finds out just how the Gundam Fights have destroyed Earth and {{spoiler|The Devil Gundam's true programing and Master Asia's intentions. He finds out that everyone he thought was a villain was really trying to restore Earth and protect it from the real bad guys.}}
* ''[[Darker Than Black (Anime)|Darker Than Black]]'' is a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Deconstruction]] of superhumans, whose protagonist is a mass-murdering assassin who's basically just working for [[The Syndicate]] for lack of other options. The world is full of superpowered [[Lack of Empathy|sociopaths]], and the governmental agencies and criminal groups that employ them are locked in a pretty much constant underground struggle to control both the Contractors and the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] from the Gate. Nevertheless, over the course of the show it becomes clear that Contractors ''can'' have feelings and morals, and that it's possible for things to improve; several mini-arcs end relatively happily, and in the end Hei manages to [[Take a Third Option]] when forced to choose between {{spoiler|allowing a genocide of all Contractors and wiping Japan off the map, and the end of the first season shows that the [[The Unmasqued World|broken]] [[Masquerade]] will help prevent rogue Contractors from running wild.}} Still a [[Bittersweet Ending]], and things haven't improved too much by the second season, but there's hope.
* [[Cozy Catastrophe|Pleasant]] as it may seem, ''[[SoSora Rano No wo ToWoto]]'''s Earth is dying a slow death while the survivors fight for the last fertile lands rather than cooperate. Yet the girls of the [[Amazon Brigade|Helvetian 1121st Tank Platoon]] and their [[Heroic Bastard|bastard]] [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|princess]] friend will have none of that.
* ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'' is a bleak world where lots of violence and death happens. The villain, Johan, is a heavy contender for [[Complete Monster|the most evil bastard ever written into existence (he was the trope image).]] But its shown that he and his supporters are the exception. Most of the people in the series are decent to really good people who just want to help others succeed or atone for past misdeeds. And those who go [[Trauma Conga Line|through horrific trauma]] can put the pieces back together and enjoy life. It's never to late to start anew. Accentuated by Nina who after the terrible things she goes through and coming so close to suicide goes on to living a normal and happy life afterwards.
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Soul Society is becoming this, thanks to Ichigo. In chapter 461, we've learned that the influence of [[The Hero|Ichigo Kurosaki]] has changed General Yamamoto so thoroughly that the previously [[Lawful Neutral]] commander of the Gotei 13 ''gave a direct order to all Gotei Captains to restore Ichigo's powers''. Captain Hitsugaya comments that before Ichigo came along, the General ''never'' would have given any such order.
* {{spoiler|Madoka's [[Abstract Apotheosis]]}} helps ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' move into this territory.
 
== Comic Books ==
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'''Doctor Fate:''' ''It was because you went back. You reminded me that it's not just the forces of evil that never give up.'' }}
** Both universes (especially the DC universe) are subversions though: the people are totally happy and just as well-off (if not even ''more'' so, considering their excellent role models/guardians and superior technology and possibilities) as people are in Real Life, because they've been dealing with that sort of thing on an everyday basis for decades, and don't consider the danger and destruction to be anything out of the ordinary, nor does this [[Seen It All]] mentality make them cynical or depressed.
** Arguably, from the point of view of mutants if nothing else, the future the [[X -Men|X-Man]] Bishop came from would be a [[World Half Full]] contrasted against the [[Crapsack World]] future of [[Days of Future Past]]. Both look like post-apocalyptic upban hellscapes whenever we see them, but Bishop's future features a mutant police force trying to put the world back together while Days of Future Past has mutants hunted almost to extinction.
* The titular hero of ''Moonshadow'' sees his mother die violently, is committed to a madhouse, fights a war and ends up in a concentration camp (among other things) in a world full of meaningless deaths, tragic ironies and no clear answers. Or to quote the title of a work of philosophy everyone in [[The Verse|this world]] has read, ''We Are All Ants In A Meaningless Cosmos''. Regardless, Moonshadow adopts a more hopeful philosophy, though, as exemplified by the ''other'' work of philosophy everyone has read, and finds peace anyway. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
* The ending of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'', possibly. It's a [[Crapsack World]] prior to the "villain's" [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] gambit, which may or may not be successful.
 
== Film ==
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** The Humans aboard the Axiom are a better example, even if it's done for comedy. Wall-E is just following his Directive, The Captain making the decision to return to Earth is this trope.
* ''[[The Postman]]'': The world as we know it was destroyed in an apocalypse. The United States no longer exists. Yet Kevin Costner, in an accidental act of heroism, reignites the U.S. Postal Service, bringing hope to the hopeless and hap to the hapless.
* Some of the [[All There in the Manual|background material]] to ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' implies that the horrific environmental destruction inflicted on Earth might ''just'' be capable of repair by imported Pandoran lifeforms, and by learning environmental respect from the Na'vi.
* ''[[Life Is Beautiful]]''. A cheerful and whimsical film set in the backdrop of the Holocaust.
* ''[[Battleship Potemkin]]'', which ended far more optimistically than the [[Real Life]] incident.
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* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[The Sharing Knife]]'': There are life-sucking demons that surface with some frequency and can only be killed with human sacrifice; the Lakewalkers, who fight the demons, don't respect the [[Muggles|farmers]] and the farmers don't trust the Lakewalkers. The heroes of the story don't believe they can eliminate the demons or even make the fight against them substantially easier, but they work to foster greater understanding between the farmer and Lakewalker populations so their society isn't undone by avoidable ignorance and mistrust.
* Nancy Farmer's ''[[House of the Scorpion (Literature)|House of the Scorpion]]'': The United States and Mexico are both [[Crapsack World]] societies, but Matt, {{spoiler|now in charge of the nation of Opium, may be able to right many of the problems that have befallen them.}}
* [[Robin Jarvis]]' [[The Deptford Mice]] resembles at [[Crapsack World|Crapsack]] [[Mouse World]] at first, with [[God of Evil|evil gods easily overpowering good,]] [[Axe Crazy]] worshippers roaming the countryside to murder and devour anyone they see, [[Anyone Can Die|death on a massive scale,]] and a villain who resurrects himself into a god right after his first defeat. Even the few "good" societies are either extremely insular and intolerant or on the brink of extinction. However, despite all of this, good always endures, and ''The Final Reckoning'' [[Bittersweet Ending|ends on a bittersweet note.]]
* Joseph Heller's ''[[Catch -22]]''. Over the course of the series, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|the entire supporting cast dies meaningless deaths]], scheming bureaucrats sacrifice lives like pawns in chess while incompetent commanders vie to out do one another in how many casualties they can rack up, and the only person who has the balls to do anything about it is a self-confessed madman. But at the end, the protagonist has the following revelation: {{spoiler|his superiors are literally too incompetent to stop him from deserting, meaning that he could have left anytime he wanted to; the only thing stopping him was his own inaction.}} He does so, an the story is given at least some semblance of a [[Happy Ending]].
* ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]''. The hero's brain is fried from Substance D but that allows him to infiltrate the drug manifacturing facility {{spoiler|the rehab clinic he was taken to}} and gather the evidence needed to destroy the syndicate making the drug.
* "Arda Marred", ie the [[Religion Tropes|fallen]] world in which most of [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s works take place. This is especially notable in ''[[The Silmarillion (Literature)|The Silmarillion]]'', a long series of defeats and bloody infighting with some [[Earn Your Happy Ending|rare uplifiting moments]] and a [[Bittersweet Ending]].
* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]''. A book in which [[Kill'Em All|almost everyone]] [[Apocalypse How|on the planet]] dies, including the main characters, yet {{spoiler|it has a happy ending}} and the planet [[Green Aesop|got better]] in the absence of all those humans.
* The galaxy shown in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] varies wildly [[Depending Onon the Writer]], but in all of [[Matt Stover]]'s books - ''[[Shatterpoint]]'', the novelization of ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', ''[[Luke Skywalker and Thethe Shadows of Mindor]]'', ''[[New Jedi Order|Traitor]]'' - it's this. The galaxy is corrupt and messy and hostile, people are ungrateful, not everyone can be saved and those who were will die soon enough anyway, nothing will ever last - but it's still worth fighting for a better day, and a difference can be made.
* [[Andrew Vachss]]'s Burke books. Beneath the veneer of civility citizens see is a veritable cesspit of crime, the system is at best apathetic and at worst actively malicious and Burke can't stamp out all crime or save everyone - in fact, each book's villain invariably has quite a few notches on his belt by the time Burke gets to him - but every scumbag he manages to put down means a few more innocents who won't have to be victims.
* [[Terry Brooks]]' ''[[The Word and The Void]]''. The war between [[God|The Word]] and [[Ultimate Evil|The Void]] will never end, [[The Heartless|the feeders]] and [[The Soulless|the demons]] will always be trying to corrupt people, and there's no real way for the Knights of the Word to do anything more than stave of Armageddon. Yet in the end, they can save a few people, and that's what really matters.
* ''[[Terminal World]]'' by [[Alastair Reynolds]]. Things are actually worse at the end of the book than at the beginning, but the characters now know not only how to fix things, but also how to make the whole world better than before. It's a very long road, but they've taken the first steps.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' [[PotterversePotter Verse|universe]]. While Harry might have been the one destined to defeat Voldemort, it's pointed out time and time again that he [[The Power of Friendship|couldn't have done it without friends]]. And even if they've defeated the [[Big Bad]], the world will need lots of support to reduce the power of pure-bloods, limit [[Fantastic Racism|Wizards-First prejudice]], reform the ''extremely'' screwed-up Ministry of Magic, and make a more peaceful place altogether.
* For those who place the ultra-dark, ultra-depressing [[The Road]] on the idealistic end of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], the characters of the novel move the world to this category. The victories they win are small and moral in nature, and tend to be along the lines of "not eating people." But the strength of spirit in the two protagonists is enough to keep a spark of genuine humanity alive.
 
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== Live Action TV ==
 
* ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]/[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]:'' The series starts with the protagonist powerless to prevent the destruction of his home world by a [[Lawful Stupid]] interplanetary bureaucracy and the final defeat of the Independents at Serenity Valley. His faith in humanity and God shattered, he abandons his cause and flees to the edge of colonized space, where begins life anew as an outlaw space pirate/mercenary. Over the course of the series, The heroes face many hardships, and even their few victories cost them dearly, but ultimately, they are able to find it in themselves to carry on. And when the dust clears, they're still flying. They may not be able to save the galaxy, but they can at least save themselves. And that's a start.<br />By the end of the movie, they've actually unveiled and broken a government human-experiment conspiracy, unlocked River Tam's hidden Badass, inadvertently brought about the decimation of the Reavers, and given the tyrannical government two black eyes and a bloody nose. Dozens of their friends and two of their crew have died, and they're now on the run for their lives from the government's vengeance, but that wasn't much different from what they had before so it's all good.<br />It is indicated that any government vengence may very well be passive at worst. From the Alliance point of view, the crew of Serenity has done all the damage they possibly could. Indeed, their (implied) victory over the Reavers' fleet could even let them spin this into a huge victory and come out in an even better position than before. It looks like they even helped repair Mal's ship, though that might have just been the {{spoiler|[[The Dragon|Operative]] using his unquestionable authority to pull strings.}} That's not to say they probably aren't still wanted criminals, with a number of enemies even amongst the outlaws, but they're still flying. Which is enough.
* While [[Joss Whedon]] likes to use [[True Art Is Angsty]], one can say one can view the world as either [[World Half Empty|half empty]] or half full in his works. For example, ''[[Titan AEA.E.]]'', Earth is gone and we have only begun to rebuild our lives after spending so many years in an inhospitable system mocked and slowly dwindling. Earth was eventually recreated and a new life begins. It will be a while before humanity becomes a superpower, but it is a start.
** The [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffyverse]], especially [[Angel (TV)|Angel]], tend to bounce back and forth on whether they live in a half full or half empty world. Angel himself expresses an existential take on the whole matter; striving for a living in-the-moment application of [[Good Feels Good]] despite the bleakness of the big picture.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]''
* ''[[Garo]]'': Horrors will [[As Long Asas There Is Evil|still arise]] and plague humanity [[Monster of the Week|on a weekly basis]], but at least the heroes managed to defeat one major menace.
* The [[Whoniverse]], composed of the series ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' and ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures (TV)|The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' could probably be best described as this. On one hand you have the Torchwood crew, who at best are able to fight aliens and threats, but find themselves weak when having to fight injustices committed by their own governments. On the other hand, you've got characters like the Doctor who swoop in and save the day- but can't (or don't) remain to help deal with the fall-out. In the end, the show is about people, as a whole, deciding to do what's right- whether that's fighting for Ood rights, overcoming corrupt governments, making peace between two races, or something else entirely. While the Doctor can save the day, it's up to the 'normal' people to keep it safe.
 
== Music ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Deadlands]]. The setting is an alternate history wild west. {{spoiler|After the Europeans settled the whole country, a large number of native americans decided to get revenge, by releasing some [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]. Needless to say, the evil is rather indiscriminate. Horrifying monsters lurk in the shadows spreading fear, and a new source of energy, Ghost Rock, has literally fueled a new technological dawn. Of course, it also has the side effect of driving those that work with it absolutely insane as demons haunt their mind.}} Still, the heroes can, if they so choose (Specifically, if they are heroes, and not merely protagonists), fight back, and make the world just a little bit of a better place, and less welcome for the antagonists.
* [[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Both]] [[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|versions]] of the World of Darkness tend to be just a [[Crapsack World]]. [[Hunter: The Vigil (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: The Vigil]], however, casts a ray of light, by allowing players to play perfectly normal humans fighting back against the monsters of the night. Likewise, any game where the DM allows the heroes to make positive changes to the world also qualifies.
** ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'': You are a monster. Your existence is pain. And if you're playing the game as it's meant to be played, you will grow past all of that, past the slings and arrows of misfortune, [[To Become Human]] and know the fruits of the soul.
** [[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]] ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'' was a [[World Half Full]] which could have a [[Bittersweet Ending]] in its canonical metaplot. Mages could and would often make notable progress. [[Changeling: The Dreaming]] offered an [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] for every [[Hope Spot]] and sign that the end was nigh. They were both dark settings, but unlike the relentless progression of evil in the other lines, there was something worth fighting for. [[Hunter: The Reckoning]] was unusually brutal, with only a few signs things might get better, by contrast to its successor game.
** Promethean took after ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion (Tabletop Game)|Wraith: The Oblivion]]'': as a wraith, you're faced with [[Enemy Within|enemies within]] and without, the perpetual danger - and temptation - of falling to the dark side, or simply ceasing to exist altogether... but there is a way out. If you can hold on, if you can resolve everything anchoring you to the world, if you can come to terms with your inner darkness, then maybe you can [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|Transcend]].
** ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'': When the eponymous Apocalypse rolls around, [[Black and Grey Morality|the grey guys will probably lose to the black]]. But probably =/= definitely.
* Quite a few [[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]] settings:
** [[Ravenloft]], often thought of as ''the'' [[Crapsack World]] of the game line, turned out to be a [[World Half Full]]. Yes, it's a ''hellish'' place, but because it's explicitly stated to be [[Gothic Horror]], it is never "Evil triumphs." The game line ever since its 2nd Edition forms explicitly states evil is being punished and justice may be delayed, but it is not denied. Player characters are often the [[Spanner in Thethe Works]] which can bring about that justice and make some small part of the world better. The 3rd Edition [[White Wolf]] version even digressed for a few pages about how in early [[Gothic Horror]] literature, evil may seem overwhelming, but there was always God or some cosmic force which saw it foiled and punished. Innocents would suffer, but the guilty were damned and would know it.
** [[Dark Sun]] is a [[Death World]] where the halflings will eat you, magic drains the world of its life, and having enough water to drink is a sign of power. Neutral characters are kind of the norm, but good characters frequently have the chance to affect some small change for the better. Players familiar with the [[Fallout]] series would understand.
** [[Forgotten Realms]] in its earliest incarnations fit this trope. The world had been ruled and toyed with by one species of [[Eldritch Abomination]] after another, and there were whole empires of twisted races as well as cruel empires. However, there were places like Cormyr and the Dales which were the proverbial candles in the dark, the good gods schemed as hard as the evil ones, and most adventures featured chances to save something of value. 4th Edition made it a lot darker, possibly pushing it straight into [[Crapsack World]].
** [[Dragonlance]] has whole races and orders of evil knights. The [[Big Good]] has to die to stop the [[Big Bad]] and the gods remove their support from mortals for a while. It's still a [[High Fantasy]] world where some hero has always stepped up in the [[Darkest Hour]]. Latter adaptations written by other writers tended to miss this element.
** [[Planescape]] has seven independent hells, each infinite, and seven heavens all of which are rather terrifying in their own way. [[Good Is Not Nice|Good is downright terrifying]] when it isn't [[Good Is Dumb|pants-on-head stupid.]] The central [[City of Adventure]] is a dystopian blend of [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]] and [[Dungeon Punk]]. Completely incompatible ideological groups have taken over vast aspects of public life and so are always a hair's breadth from civil war. Most of the planes are [[Death World|Death Worlds]] whose (mortal) inhabitants have come up with ways to survive the various demons and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]. Yet in just the published adventures, players can cripple the demons and devils forever, prevent the return of a massive [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|(the trope-naming Orcus)}}, and help free Sigil from its unending strife all before 12th level.
* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'': Extinction is approaching. '''Fight it.'''
 
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* ''[[Fallout]]'' series:
** ''[[Fallout 2 (Video Game)|Fallout 2]]'': Each town has their own ending upon the hero defeating the Enclave. The best route of options to save the Wasteland will involve Modoc being able to feed the people surrounding them with the Slags, The Den becoming a tough-but-honest bar, turning New Reno to a center of education, Redding becoming a mining town with its own say in their affairs, and NCR and Vault 15 beginning their path to rebuild civilization. This is of course the most morally correct answer, and naturally screwing up is always possible in ''[[Fallout]]'' no matter what situation you are in.
** ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'', however, is a pure [[Crapsack World]]. You are raised in a Vault that has a despotic authority over its people, a hotel tower housing a snooty man who views the survivors of the Wasteland as entertainment, Ghouls who will use you left and right for their own aims, towns that condone slavery, and our favorite untrusted government remnant come back to purge the Wasteland. Yet in spite of that, you have a father who has an ambitious dream to bring water to the Wasteland ( {{spoiler|it's a pity he gets killed for his dream}}), a radio station that preaches the hopes of the good fight and the freedom fighters who risk their safety to allow an outsider to free slaves, and for the first time in 200 years, a piece of sanctuary (Oasis) that won't get purged by the Enclave and hopefully not by you (compare that to Vault 13 in ''Fallout 2'', where {{spoiler|the last of the intelligent Deathclaws were killed off along with others}}).
** ''[[Fallout New Vegas (Video Game)|Fallout: New Vegas]]'' depicts a world in the Midwest which is steadily recovering and may not be that bad to live in. You'll find working electricity and plumbing, food and fresh water that won't give you a dose of rads with every bite, and even green trees and plants appear. Besides which, it turns out the War might have been actually beneficial to Earth. Before, it was overpopulated, companies controlled nations, and pollution and war were at an all-time high, even as natural resources were reaching their end. After the bombs fall, there are now hundreds of peaceful communities, humanity has never been more technologically advanced, hundreds of new species have evolved, and life is generally more exciting. [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Probably shorter,]] [[From a Certain Point of View|but definitely more exciting.]]
*** Instead of a world overpopulated by humans, we have a world overpopulated by giant insects and genetically-engineered horrors like the Deathclaws, a single one of which could easily wipe out a small town were it so inclined. There could be argued to be ''zero'' peaceful settlements, because every town needs at several armed guards to protect it from giant ants and Jet-addicted psychopaths. Compared to the [[Crapsack World|Capital Wasteland]], though, life in the Mojave is pretty good.
*** The ''Lonesome Road'' DLC has this at its end. Ulysses wants to rain destruction on everything because he thinks the Bear is diseased, the Bull will feed on itself, and Vegas has too many ghosts of the past to ever let go. You can however convince him that the world can be saved and civilisation built anew - after all, {{spoiler|you did it before}}.
* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict'' goes this way with the [[After the End]] setting. The world is obliterated, and many of the survivors are ''still'' fighting each other- but characters like [[The Good Captain|Captain O'Brian/Brenner]], and soon the protagonist [[The Messiah|Ed/Will]] hold strong faith in human goodness, and are fighting tooth and nail to save humanity. The 'S' rank victory animation has a touch of this theme, with white doves flying over the devastated battlefield. <ref> In Japan, doves mean death, as they're the messenger of Hachiman, God of War.</ref>
* In ''[[Epic Mickey]]'', after Mickey Mouse accidentally creates him, the Phantom Blot turns the Cartoon Wasteland into a twisted, [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney Theme Park]] themed [[Crapsack World]]. Part of the game's main plot is that Mickey must stop the Blot and restore the world to its former self.
* In the ''[[Wild Arms (Video Game)|Wild Arms]]'' series a common theme is how the environment will only last a couple more years, [[Green Aesop|so obviously the main characters save it.]] Of course, if the [[All There in the Manual|manual]] is correct, and all the games take place on the same planet, there's an invasion/war/disaster scheduled for a century or two after they ''do'' save it, and it's going to set everything back to ruined square one... but a new bunch of heroes always end up fixing things a couple thousand years later. It isn't very fun for the people in the intervening years, but things ''do'' get fixed eventually each time.
* In [[World of Warcraft]], the world is a broken mess. Demons and undead are rampant and even the local wildlife requires trained warriors and magicians to kill. Irradiated monsters, oozes, corrupt nobles, more demons, rampant racism, magical addiction, eldritch abominations... ''But.'' You ''can'' make the world better. The monsters are generally killed off and the really nasty characters are decreasing more rapidly than they appear. Things get worse at the beginning of a new expansion, but generally end up slightly better than they were before whatever catastrophe started the expansion in the first place.
** The Burning Crusade introduces outland which is a mess physically. It's the remains of a planet torn apart and the remaining pieces just stuck together at random. Things get better through player actions, though they can't fix the planet. Cataclysm will start with Azeroth undergoing the cataclysm in the title, thus getting worse before things get better.
*** Its already happening, to a degree. Yes, much of Azeroth was absolutely devastated in The Shattering. However, {{spoiler|Desolace is now once again full of plant life, the Plaguelands are slowly recovering from plague toxins due to the Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring and Argent Crusade, and Duskwood is finally on the road to recovery due to the death of Morbent Fel and the Gilneans bringing the madness cure to the Nightbane worgen, among other recovery efforts}}
* [[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]], depending on your personal beliefs, any of the endings can fall under this.
* The Milky Way in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is a dangerous and brutal place to live. Filled with monstrous aliens, pirate fleets, amoral mercenaries and cruel slavers, with the largest civilized government hamstrung by red tape and millennia of tradition and unwillingness to budge, an entire species has been driven from their homeworld and is locked in a 300 year long [[Hopeless War]] with their mechanical creations, and {{spoiler|every 50,000-odd years, all technologically advanced sapient life is purged and consumed by [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]].}} Yet in spite of this, ''[[The Messiah|one person]]'' can make an incredible difference, galactic peace can be attained, pirates can be brought to justice, slaves can be freed, the forementioned [[Hopeless War]] between the exiled species and their creations can be negotiated to a possible reconciliation, and you ''can'' [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punch out Cthulhu]].
* Arguably, the Light Side path of [[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2 is this. Either that, or the Exile is merely an [[Unwitting Pawn]].<br />It can be both for a Light Side Exile. Despite how, in the main plot, {{spoiler|Kreia}} is pretty much manipulating everyone all the time, the Exile's actions throughout the Galaxy can drastically improve life for both invididuals and for entire planets (though, this being an Obsidian Game, a lot of the 'good' decisions can end up having sizable downsides as well).
* ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]] III'' is this at the end. The world has gone straight to hell due to Kratos killing damn-near every Olympian there is. {{spoiler|However, Kratos, in one of his rare acts of selflessness, decides in the end to restore Hope back to the world by sacrificing himself rather than simply handing the power back to Athena.}}<br />It's still more like "A World ''Millionth'' Full", though, when you consider just how many people and creatures he killed [[For the Evulz]].
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'', heavily inspired by both [[Marvel]] and [[DC]], sets out its world like this. The world is filled with criminals, monsters and [[Super Villain|Supervillains]] of every imaginable kind, is recovering from an [[Alien Invasion]] that's not quite over, and looking at [[The Multiverse]], this is one of the ''best'' options. So what stands in the way of evil? [[Superhero|Superheroes]]. ''[[MMORPG|Lots and lots]]'' of superheroes. (and even the [[City of Villains|villains]] [[Noble Demon|can help out a bit]])
* ''[[Baroque]]'' is set in an [[After the End]] world where humanity has been reduced to a handful of [[Body Horror|mutated freaks]] whose forms are based on their own individual psychoses. {{spoiler|At the end, you don't fix the world. But you do make it so that the world has a chance}}.
* In [[Shin Megami Tensei (Franchise)|a franchise]] where God is almost ''always'' [[God Is Evil|evil]] or [[Devil but No God|out of the picture]], and the heroes never save the day without a [[Bittersweet Ending|huge sacrifice on their part]], ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]'' stands out by having this type of message at the end. It basically boils down to "Humans can act like assholes, but we can change for the better if we have the courage to accept [[Awful Truth|that fact]] first."
** ''[[Devil Survivor (Video Game)|Devil Survivor]]'' also qualifies. {{spoiler|God is actually ''good'' and}} will accept whatever future you build, even if you mess up ''big time''! That's right. ''{{spoiler|God}} basically trusts you to govern the entire planet'', in spite of all the horrible things human beings are capable of.
* The world of the ''[[Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)|Ace Attorney]]'' series, though the world's crappiness is much less severe (and therefore [[Fridge Horror|much less readily apparent]]) than many other examples of this trope. Crime is apparently so common that the justice system's been perverted into a series of [[Kangaroo Court|all-but-kangaroo courts]], the vast majority of prosecutors will do [[Amoral Attorney|anything]] to get their conviction, and nobody seems to give a good damn about due process or suspect's rights anymore-- nobody, that is, except for the main character and his few but loyal allies, who will willingly walk through fire for the innocent, for justice, and [[True Companions|for each other.]]
* Sera in ''[[Gears of War]]'' becomes this after {{spoiler|Adam Fenix's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. The Locust and Lambent are wiped out and the Imulsion is destroyed, but Humanity finally has its future.}}
 
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== Western Animation ==
 
* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Galaxy Rangers]]'': The Crown Empire may be crumbling, but it's still powerful. The [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen]] herself is a bloodthirsty, genocidal megalomaniac. The jail system is about as good as [[Batman|Arkham Asylum]]. Tortuna is a [[Wretched Hive]], and some other planets aren't much better. Earth's politicians are often [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|questionable]] or [[Corrupt Bureaucrat|worse]], as are the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|business-beings]]. One of the Rangers is ''essentially a slave.'' A quarter of the episodes are [[Bittersweet Ending|BittersweetEndings]]. A few are [[Downer Ending|DownerEndings]]. Oh, and Eliza is never rescued. Still, sometimes the "villains" are merely misguided. There are also [[Rousseau Was Right|GOOD Corporate executives]], [[For Science!|benevolent scientists]], [[Reasonable Authority Figure|competent military personnel]], [[I Come in Peace|friendly alien factions]], and sometimes the townsfolk have a change of heart and [[Heroic Bystander|show up to help]].
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: War, genocide, death, a cast of [[Child Soldier|Child Soldiers]] on both sides...but that just makes any success by the Gaang all the sweeter.
* The Earth, [[Wall WALL-E|after the crew and passengers from the Axiom return there.]] It's still completely covered in garbage and smog. Can it actually sustain life? Who knows, but there's at least one spot where a plant's able to germinate.
 
== Real Life ==
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