Darker and Edgier/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A light work is either retooled or re-imagined to be darker than it previously was.

  • Straight: A cartoon is a fairly lighthearted action cartoon. A few years later, it's retooled into something different which is far more edgy in terms of subject matter.
  • Exaggerated:
    • The original cartoon is explicitly for children and is on the level of Teletubbies. The retool makes it a 18+ gorefest set in a Wretched Hive with genocide-scale violence and every other word being a swear.
    • Bloodier and Gorier
  • Downplayed: The retool did not change much, but things are clearly more cynical.
  • Justified:
    • Now that the heroes are stonger, stronger and more evil villains try to stop them.
    • Alternatively, the "dark" aspects of the series were vaguely implied before and now they're just being confirmed.
  • Inverted: Lighter and Softer
  • Subverted: The show has all the hallmarks of a Darker and Edgier retool but is no more edgy or dark.
  • Double Subverted: ...At first, anyway. Those first few episodes were only meant to lure in people who watched the original show.
  • Parodied:
  • Deconstructed: The darker and edgier aspects only effect the parts of the show which were pront to dark edginess to begin with, while the lighter and softer elements simply become stronger from living side by side with the darker parts of the story.
  • Reconstructed: ...But over time the darker parts of the story begin overcoming the lighter parts until everything in the story is at least a bit darker than they started with.
  • Zig Zagged: The show can never really decide which angle it wants to take. One episode will be incredibly dark, the next will be as light as the original.
  • Averted:
    • There is no retool.
    • There is a retool, but it doesn't make the series gritty or kiddish.
  • Enforced:
    • "We're not getting enough of the 18-49 demo with this cartoon. Let's make some changes and see if we can't fix this."
    • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids
    • It sells, duh.
    • The writers ran out of ideas with the show as it currently was - the retool will allow them to explore new stories, as well as some implications that were left unsaid.
  • Lampshaded: One of the characters remarks: "Wow, this place is a whole lot scarier than I remember..."
  • Invoked: Emperor Evulz deciedes to begin his conquest, and things start to get darker.
  • Defied: The Heroes train harder to prevent villians from taking over.
  • Discussed: "Remember when all we did was stand around and tell jokes?"
  • Conversed: "Ah please, that show's for kids. I mean, look, that...one guy is killing that other guy. And did he just swear?"

Get the hell back to Darker and Edgier - the trope that's been revamped for the 90s.

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