Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Difference between revisions
Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty (view source)
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''He meditated resentfully on the physical texture of life. Had it always been like this? Had food always tasted like this? He looked round the canteen. A low-ceilinged, crowded room, its walls grimy from the contact of innumerable bodies; battered metal tables and chairs, placed so close together that you sat with elbows touching; bent spoons, dented trays, coarse white mugs; all surfaces greasy, grime in every crack; and a sourish, composite smell of bad gin and bad coffee and metallic stew and dirty clothes...''|''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]''}}
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Compare with [[Slobs Versus Snobs]].
Shiny:
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* [[Used Future]]
* [[Wretched Hive]]
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
'''Note:''' Try to post the examples in the shininess and grittiness order, not at the bottom of each category.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]''. Except for one extremely gritty scene which is [[Played for Laughs]]
* ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'' is very idealistic, very optimistic, and - in the later half especially - everything gleams as though polished for hours.
=== Film ===
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[
** The point of this being to show the "good old days" preceding the Dark Times of the Empire. This goes back to Star Wars' fantasy roots. Star Wars is, ultimately, Space Opera. The fantasy end of Science Fiction.
** Leia's ship that gets captured at the beginning of A New Hope is also a good example. While the hallway is very smooth and shiny, the utility corridor she hides in with R2 is much more gritty.
** Also the insides of Star Destroyers, parts of Death Star II, Home One, and at times, Darth Vader's suit.
* ''
=== Live-Action TV ===
* The various ''[[Star Trek]]'' series. Even ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' mostly had sets that looked neat and tidy. Perhaps that's just an unspoken credo of the Federation.
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* ''[[CSI: Miami]]''; in addition to the exotic, fashionable city its set in, the actors have said it takes place in "a comic book world."
* ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', which takes place in a fifties [[Retro Universe]].
* ''[[Mad Men]]'': The Sterling Cooper offices are elegant examples of the International Style, the brand-new SCDP
=== Toys ===
* [[Barbie]]
=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Robot Unicorn Attack]]'' Now this one is getting a bit too far.
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* [[Space Channel 5]] series. In fact one level is so colourful, an ''Epilepsy Warning'' had to be put in it!
=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[Goblins]]'' stays on the Shiny end nearly all the time, especially for characters wearing metal armor. It only moves towards Gritty when blood is involved.
=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[My Little Pony]]''
* ''[[Rainbow Brite]]''
* The [[Disney Princess|Disney princesses]].
** ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'' has the least gritty mine and miners ever.
** For purposes of illustration only. They rarely bathe. It doesn't look it, but clean was easier to draw.
* Most [[Pixar]] movies, until the first half of ''[[WALL-E]]'', tended towards the clean end (it helps that "clean" is generally easier to do in CG).
=== Film ===
* The [[James Bond]] films can tend towards either end of the scale.
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** Although the 6th film is very washed out and bleak. The scene where Harry uses sectumsempra on Malfoy is so desaturated it is practically in black and white save for Malfoy's blood.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* Australian and New Zealand soaps (e.g., ''[[Neighbours]]'', ''[[Shortland Street]]'')
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* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' is more gritty than most teen dramas, but it can still be pretty shiny at times.
=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'''s' famous art direction included a huge amount of detail in how the places looked, including the decaying village and military base, contrasted with the ornate castle.
* ''[[World of Goo]]'' has elements common in both ends.
=== Web Comics ===
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924014530/http://www.blastwavecomic.com/index.php?p=comic&nro=1 Gone With The Blastwave]'' takes place in a completely ruined city, but the would-be [[Badass Longcoat]] soldiers manage to somehow stay fairly clean.
=== Western Animation ===
* The [[Disney Animated Canon]] usually is clean without being too obvious about it, but does fall into the shiny end when the princesses are involved.
* ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]''
=== Anime and Manga ===
* Certain anime such as ''[[Texhnolyze]]'', ''[[MD Geist]]'', and ''[[Violence Jack]]'' tend to ''really'' push the envelope for grittiness.
=== Comic Books ===
* [[Frank Miller]].
=== Film ===
* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' was gritty for the most part, especially in contrast to the [[Executive Meddling|tacked-on happy ending]].
* ''[[Monty Python and
** [[Terry Gilliam]]'s ''Jabberwocky'' is, if anything, even grittier.
* The movie ''[[Se7en]]''
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* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', very much so.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* Irish soaps (eg ''[[Fair City]], Ros na Run'')
* British soaps are the absolute champions of gritty (e.g., ''[[Coronation Street]]'', ''[[Eastenders]]'', ''[[Emmerdale]]'', ''[[Shameless]]''.)
* ''[[The Wire]]'' was intentionally shot to maximize the run-down aspects of Baltimore. The studio executives were uncertain about this decision at first, but in the end went along with
=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Machinarium]]'': Game takes place in a mechanical city made largely out of decaying buildings made out of cracking stone and rusty metal. This world is completely devoid of living animals although there is some plant life present.
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* The ''[[Diablo]]'' games are gritty in the extreme, depicting a world invaded by demons who decorate with blood, limbs, impaled corpses and tortured souls.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* [[Masamune Shirow]] tends to make the major cities in his works so shiny that they're ''reflective''. However, there's always lots of grit outside the cities or just below the surface (introduce a bit of [[More Dakka|firepower]] into the mix and it becomes a moot point). The only exception is ''[[Dominion Tank Police]]'', where ''everything'' was gritty.
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* ''[[Code Geass]]'', most notably how the shiny Imperial Enclave of Tokyo and the run-down Shinjuku ghetto, practically opposites on the scale, are separated only by a railway.
=== Comic Books ===
* [[Superman|Metropolis]] and [[Batman|Gotham]] are often compared in the DCU, with the former being the shinier (at one point, Catwoman wonders if they ever turn off the lights at night) while the latter is normally very bleak (In The DCAU, the writers admitted to being freaked out by Gotham during a clear sunny day whenever they drew it, and only did so once due to the alternate universe setting it was being presented in.) Considering the types of heroes who operate in this city, it seems the city adapted to them instead of the other way around.
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* The comic book ''[[Baker Street]]'' started out very shiny and and a bit cartoony, but became steadily more gritty and realistically-rendered as the viewpoint character became more depressed by the horrible things that were happening on the way to the [[Downer Ending]].
=== Film ===
* [[The BBC]] vs. 2005 movie versions of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' come to mind. In the BBC version, everything is shiny, even though it's the English countryside. In the movie, the Bennets' home is more realistically dirty.
** Except not particularly 'realistically'... there seems to be some misunderstanding about what the book means when the Bennets are described as 'poor'. There's no reason to suppose from the text that they don't still have a team of servants to clean the house for them- that would be a remarkable circumstance for people of their caste- servants were cheap. (A genteel Regency-era home shouldn't be ''obviously'' more dirty than most modern ones- though it would be a lot harder to keep clean, thanks to soot and lack of modern appliances like vacuum cleaners- it would be a full-time job for at least 2 maids, but said maids could be employed for nothing but their meals and a cubby-hole to sleep in.) On the other hand, the film does at least show the levels of lighting feasible from candles realistically in the evening scenes.
* ''[[The
* The original ''[[Star Wars]]'' included dirty both [[Used Future]] farms, towns, and junk traders (and the Rebel base and its equipment) and the pristine corridors of Leia's ship and of the Death Star. The blockade runner even combined the two on the same ship: the engine compartments and life pod bays have a [[Used Future]] look to them, too.
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' has a decidedly gritty real world, but the titular simulated world ranges from average to shiny.
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=== Literature ===
* ''[[Wicked Lovely]]'' contrasts a [[Red Light District]] known as Huntsdale (presumed to be in Pennsylvania) with the harsh beauty of the [[The Fair Folk|fey]] world.
* Played up in ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' where a ''very'' gritty, dystopian Real World in the satellite states, where most people are basically starving/worked to death and are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the people living in the shiny city in the centre. And it is really very shiny. Think random tech that doesn't even exist in real life and fashion obsessions.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Firefly]]'' varies quite a bit. By dint of being a [[Space Western|western in space]], it often lands on the gritty end of things, but episodes set in the Core worlds, with all the shiny spiffiness, tend to be much cleaner and pretty. This is deliberately contrasted in many parts of the series and movie.
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=== Tabletop Games ===
* ''[[Warhammer
** Slaanesh worshippers thrive on being shiny.
*** The Dark Eldar, like other followers of Slaanesh, are shiny. However, they strive to be gritty in order to express their love of inflicting [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]. So they [[Scary Impractical Armor|put blades all over their armor]], although they just end up looking [[Narm|ridiculous]].
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=== Theatre ===
* The musical ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' manages to combine both aspects with Shiz and the Emerald City being fairly shiny, but the Witchunters and Kiamo Ko being pretty gritty.
=== Video Games ===
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[Ocarina of Time]]'', Adult Zelda is shown wearing a much more elaborate dress than her younger counterpart is, even though by that point she had no home, no posessions, her kingdom is in ruins, and she has been on the run for seven years, {{spoiler|posing as a Sheikah}}.
* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' is shiny in the test chambers (and even there, there are broken parts) and gritty after the [[Wham! Episode|Wham Level]]. The first half of the game is shiny, the second half is gritty.
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** More like {{spoiler|The Sliding Scale of [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] and [[Nightmare Fuel]].}}
** {{spoiler|And that is ''some'' sliding scale.}}
* ''[[
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' CD has this as its theme. The present day levels for the most part are usually in the middle when it is bright and shiny. The past levels are the same way, just more primitive. If you're playing the good future levels, they are really bright and shiny. Though if you're playing in the bad future(the one ruled by Dr. Robotnik's/Eggman's)it is total hell. Everything's got a dark brown, rusty and muddy look, the skies have a crimson/purple look, the oceans are polluted, and so on. Those futures are so bad that even the Doc's robots are miserable and broken down. Yes it's just that bad.
* ''[[
** The Zerg are biological, normal gritty doesn't actually come into it.
** That's not grit, that's ichor. And the Zerg have plenty of that.
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* Ditto for ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]''. The LaCroix Tower explicitly stands out of the generally bleak and tarnished surroundings. As a matter of fact, the Downtown LA map where the Tower is situated features this in spades: the western half of the map features an [[Abandoned Hospital]], an awful lot of dingy-looking buildings and houses, a crackhouse, the Last Round bar, a derelict warehouse, and an underpass used by the local vagrants as shelter. The eastern half of the map, while still somewhat gritty, features the Confession Club (which used to be a cathedral), the Skyline Apartment Building, and the decidedly upmarket Empire Hotel.
* In one extent or another this is case in most of the strategy games, with the "good" fraction having shiny, or at least well-structured and regularly-shapped buildings while those of the "bad" one tend to be gritty, ominous-looking and/or battered or even cobbled together. The biggest offenders are, of course, Orcs (in ''[[Dawn of War]]'' they DO cobble their buildings together from junk), GDI/NOD are more into the Ordinary vs Ominous territory, and in ''[[Dark Reign 2]]'' the contrast was laid out with the subtlety of a battering ram: JDA, the global law-enforcers, have silvery high-tech premises and their enemies Sprawlers huddle in rusty and angular dwellings.
* ''[[
* ''[[Fallout]]'' contrasts the shininess of the Vaults and Brotherhood of Steel-related locations with the ultra-gritty Wasteland. In [[Fallout 1|the first game]] it is worth noting that the shinier a location, the more likely it was to be ultimately evil, while the gritter-looking places and people were usually mostly harmless. [[Fallout 2]] is ''much'' shinier than the original, with far more built-up cities and far more slick gangsters in the form of mafia-style families and even a porn cinema, while [[Fallout 3]] is more gritty, like the first game.
* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' series varies it's locales quite a bit, from [[Shown Their Work|elaborately modeled]] palaces, churches, mosques and temples all the way to the run-down and dirty districts of the poor. In the second game, the protagonist can lift the town of Monteriggioni from [[The Dung Ages]] by investing in renovations and [[Fisher King|art]]. However, the shiniest and prettiest parts are invariably the "temples" and vaults of [[Precursors|Those Who Came Before.]]
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=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[Insektors]]'' was basically about a war between Gritty and Shiny.
* ''[[WALL-E]]'' consciously hits both extremes: it has a very dirty setting (the ruins of Earth) and a very clean setting (the spaceship). WALL-E himself is filthy and made up of spare parts, and EVE is shiny, sleek and streamlined.
=== Real Life ===
* This is most definitely [[Truth in Television]]. Basically, the more concentrated the wealth and power, the shinier, newer, and better maintained the buildings, clothes, and people will be.
** The [[Big Applesauce]] in [[Real Life]]. Everything more than ten feet above the ground is shiny. Everything less than ten feet above the ground is gritty.
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[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:
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