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Crapsack World: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:300px-Crapsack-world 5759.png|frame|No hope. No release. No end.]]
{{quote|''The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears it is true.''|'''James Branch Cabell''', ''The Silver Stallion'', [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|misattributed to]] '''Robert Oppenheimer''' }}
A '''Crapsack World''' is a horrible setting where the [[The Cynic|pessimistic]] notion of "[[Finagle's Law|anything that can go wrong]] [[
Although there are countless ways Crapsack Worlds can be depicted (often with [[Scenery Gorn]]), it is usually [[Darker and Edgier|dark]] and on the [[Cynicism Tropes|cynical end]] of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]], so it will have either [[Grey and Gray Morality]] or [[Black and Grey Morality]], if not outright [[Evil Versus Evil]] in the worst of cases (beware of [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]] if you decide to go this route though). Settings like these are not kind at all to [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|idealists]], who usually get traumatized and/or die horribly when their attempts to change the world through idealistic means [[Deconstruction|meet up with cold hard reality]].
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From here, these worlds can be depicted by authors in various ways, whether it would be dramatic or comedic, immutable or mutable.
* A ''[[Rule of Drama|dramatic]]'' Crapsack World [[True Art Is Angsty|has plenty]] [[Dysfunction Junction|of angst]] to go around, and often makes [[Woobie]]s out of its sympathetic cast, particularly the protagonist, as they [[Trauma Conga Line|suffer horribly]] in their attempts to do the right thing or pursue their dreams. Expect characters [[Being Good Sucks|who do the right thing]] to [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished|suffer for it]]. Expect characters who do the wrong thing to prosper... and ''[[Lonely
* A ''[[Rule of Funny|comedic]]'' Crapsack World is [[Played for Laughs]] and is made up of idiots, [[Jerkass]]es, [[Butt Monkey]]s, [[Chew Toy]]s and the occasional [[Only Sane Man]], with plenty of [[Comedic Sociopathy]] to go around. These include the [[Black Comedy]], the [[Sadist Show]] and the [[World Gone Mad]]. The "upside" is that it's usually [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|parodic]] and [[Crosses the Line Twice|funny in its extremes]]. Though people die left and right, it likely has [[Negative Continuity]] to facilitate the inhabitants' suffering. Examples: ''[[Invader Zim]]'', ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' and ''[[South Park]]''.
* An ''[[Status Quo Is God|immutable]]'' Crapsack World has agony [[Inherent in the System]], both physically and metaphysically. Trying to break [[The Corruption]] [[Status Quo Is God|will instead always result]] in [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu|breaking every bone in your body]] [[Downer Ending|and it winning]], and any positive changes that you try to make will ultimately be torn down and revealed to be [[All for Nothing]] -- [[It Got Worse|or even worse]], they will only succeed in [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|making things even worse for you and the people that you were trying to help]], and/or [[Gambit Roulette|even accomplish whatever the villains wanted in the first place]]. Example: ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', ''[[Warhammer
* A ''[[Screw Destiny|mutable]]'' Crapsack World simply ''starts out'' as crappy, but a determined protagonist and his [[True Companions]], be they the [[Knight in Shining Armor|Knight In Shining]] (or in many of these cases, [[Knight in Sour Armour|Sour]]) [[Knight in Shining Armor|Armor]] or a simple old PI, can actually cause some, but mostly few, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|positive changes in the setting]]. See also [[A World Half Full]].
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This trope is also known as [[World Half Empty]], for the expression of pessimism being a state of seeing a glass with half the amount of water in it as being "Half empty". By definition, contrast [[A World Half Full]].
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