Cerebus Rollercoaster: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There are many reasons why the tone of a story may change. Sometimes [[Cerebus Syndrome|a happy, joke-based, show goes into a much more serious and darker direction]]. Sometimes [[Reverse Cerebus Syndrome|a once dark and deadly serious series turns into a comedy]]. Sometimes the work [[Genre Shift|completely changes its genre]]. Sometimes [[Jump the Shark|writers run out of ideas and just try to put out anything they can]] or the exact opposite - [[Growing the Beard|they find what they really want to do]]. Sometimes [[Executive Meddling]] or [[Creator Breakdown]] takes the story in a new direction and turns it into something completely unrecognizable from its source material.

 

Compare [[Mood Whiplash]], which is a smaller version of this taking place in a single story rather than spaced out among multiple installments. [[Dude, Not Funny]] may occur if one character is lagging between transitions.

 

* The ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise as a whole goes through this, with series varying from ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'' to ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|Gundam ZZ]]'', to ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]'' to ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|G Gundam]]'', from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'' to ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'' to ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' to ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE|Gundam AGE]]''.

** ''Zeta'' to ''ZZ'' is a miniature example in and of itself. [[Yoshiyuki Tomino|Tomino]] himself [[Word of God|said]] that ''Zeta'' was too dark and depressing, and thus made ''ZZ'' light-hearted because he felt that anime should make people happy. However, this seems to have resulted in over-correction, resulting in ''ZZ'' being very silly at the start before evening out later on, which has lead some fans to apply [[Fanon Discontinuity]] to just the early episodes.

* [[Gintama]] exemplifies this trope, flipping from hilarious to heart wrenching in moments.

* ''[[Gate Keepers]]'' go up and down with this, in both humorous, and dark elements.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

== Film ==

* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' film series has varied quite a bit in tone over the years, ranging from a fairly serious drama in which one of the main characters died (''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'') to a lighthearted comedy set on Earth with a [[Space Whale Aesop]] (''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]''). The [[Star Trek (film)|latest entry]] in the series was more of a comedy-drama.

 

== Literature ==

 

* ''[[Scrubs]]''. Holy mother of God ''Scrubs''. The show itself is best described as a collision between a medical drama and a slapstick comedy with great big dollops of tragedy, [[Gallows Humor]], surrealism and [[Lemony Narrator]] thrown in for good measure, and it's a complete toss-up as to what each episode will give the viewer. And it's not just across the show or across seasons, it can be across a single episode: one storyline might be a [[Zany Scheme]] filled with sex jokes, pratfalls, and wacky shenanigans, while another storyline might be a gut-wrenching, savagely dark tragedy about the death of patients and the psychological fallout from one or more of the doctors, while the camera merrily [[Whip Pan]]s between the two.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' always has been, and always will be, a franchise nobody can take without a lot of [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. It's campy and [[Crazy Awesome]] in its own way, but the tone of each season varies. Lord Zedd was its [[Knight of Cerebus]] and set a much more epic arc than the original Rita arc. Both ''[[Power Rangers Zeo]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' were a step down from serious towards lighter tones, only for the series to turn into epic space opera during ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]''. The tone of the series can vary from dark, like ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'', to completely comedic, like ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]''. Even checking out the source ''[[Super Sentai]]'' material isn't any indication of which route the next series will take, as proven by the darkest series of all, ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'', which was based on a ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger|self-parody]]'' of ''Super Sentai''—but even then ''RPM'' is one of the ''funnier'' seasons, relying on humor from [[The Comically Serious]] and the [[Meta Guy]] in the cast instead of having [[Hijinks Ensue]].

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The ''[[Diablo]]'' series seems to be riding on this. Despite its immense popularity, ''Diablo II'' was sometimes derided for [[Lighter and Softer|not being as dark and edgy as the first game]]. In the books as well, the mood can range from as dark and edgy as the first game to surprisingly goofy. On the other hand, whatever [[Narm]]-ish moments the series [[Tropes Are Not Bad|can prevent it from getting]] ''[[Tropes Are Not Bad|too]]'' [[Tropes Are Not Bad|dark]].

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' knew how to keep audiences rooting for their [[Kid Hero]] protagonists, before brutally reminding us [[Would Hurt a Child|children really are being pitted against some rather cruel people]].

** Well you shouldn't expect a series to be all giggles when it kicks off with the [[Death by Origin Story|genocide of an entire race]]. Also, most of the major characters are basically [[Child Soldiers]].

* ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'' alternates between its largely-humorous episode stories and its [[Angst|very]] [[Darker and Edgier|different]] story arc.

** Season 1 started with Nightmare Moon, who represented the pinnacle of real danger the mane six faced for the entire season; almost all other conflicts were social or moral in nature - dealing with petty jerkasses, learning lessons about friendship, and the like. While occasionally dealing with creatures like dragons, hydras, and cockatrice.

** And now, with the beginning of season 2, we've come full circle - Discord is a ''much'' nastier monster than Nightmare Moon ever was. And notably for a show like this, he ''isn't'' shamed into defeat or forgiven and redeemed (until season 3, that is) - he gets put right back in the [[Fate Worse Than Death]] he crawled out of. Then you're into stories like "Pinkie Pie Babysits", "Rainbow Dash finds out that reading is fun", "Love potions cause [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity to ensue]]" and "Twilight Sparkle struggles so hard to find [[An Aesop]] [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|that her]] [[Sanity Slippage]] [[Madness Makeover|sinks into]] [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmare-inducing depths]]".

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Series Tropes]]

[[Category:Tone Shift]]