Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Difference between revisions

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Apocalyptic movies such as ''[[Mad Max]]'' or ''[[Desolation Alley]]'', noir comic movies such as [[The Dark Knight]] franchise, and war movies such as ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' or ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'' provide good examples of the grittier end of the scale.
 
Historical romances such as ''[[Dangerous Liaisons (Literature)|Dangerous Liaisons]]'' and adventure films such as the ''[[James Bond]]'' franchise (especially the classic Roger Moore films) tend toward the shinier end. The recent [[Robin Williams]] film ''[[What Dreams May Come]]'' is an exceptionally shiny film, in spite of its often-sombre tone.
 
Compare with [[Slobs Versus Snobs]].
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* [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]
* [[Ermine Cape Effect]] (you think royalty would look dirty?)
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Sparkles]]
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Rainbows]]
* [[Gorgeous Period Dress]]
* [[Lighter and Softer]]
* [[Living in Aa Furniture Store]]
* [[Raygun Gothic]]
* [[Scenery Porn]]
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* 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.
** The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' movie, on the other hand, has some very, [[Lens Flare|very]] shiny parts (where all the iPod-esque walls and screens appear to be scrubbed by [[Red Shirt|red shirts]] armed with with Federation-issue general-purpose cleaning solution every hour on the hour) contrasted with some grittier parts (grittier for the series, anyhow; busier, messier crowd scenes than anything previously seen in ''Trek'', the outsides of the ships are clearly not scrubbed with the same rigor as the insides, child Kirk speeds in a jalopy whose only really shiny parts are the electronics, industrial-grade rails and plastic curtains abound, and Vulcan is made of dust storms {{spoiler|even before it gets turned to dust entirely}}).
* American [[Soap Opera|soap operas]] in general are very, very shiny (e.g., ''[[The Young and The Restless]]'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'')
* Any and all children's sitcoms on the [[Disney Channel]] or [[Nickelodeon]].
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* ''[[Robot Unicorn Attack]]'' Now this one is getting a bit too far.
** Unless, of course, you are playing the [[Heavy Metal (Music)|Heavy Metal]] version.
* ''[[Loco Roco]]'' Very bright with lots of pastel colors mixed with bright colors. Seems that everything has a life of their own.
* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]''
* ''[[Kirby]]'' series. Very bright colors, except when it gets to some of the final bosses.
* ''[[MirrorsMirror's Edge]]'' is very high on the shiny scale, with lots of clean white and bright sunlight, yet it feels also very oppressive and gloomy.
* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'' juxtaposes a very shiny wealthy family and very shiny inhuman witches with horrific, gritty murders full of [[Gorn]]. However, the shiny aspects definitely win out for the overall production.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', for the most part. There are places like Winhill and the Horizon Bridge that are (or were) wrecked up, but other locations in the game and generally kept up and shiny (and in Esthar, [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] is in full effect.)
* [[Space Channel 5]] series. In fact one level is so colourful, an ''Epilepsy Warning'' had to be put in it!
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* ''[[Rainbow Brite]]''
* The [[Disney Princess|Disney princesses]].
** ''[[Snow White (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).
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* The [[James Bond]] films can tend towards either end of the scale.
* The films of ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'': Magic is sparkly; ancient castles are not; the vague [[Steampunk]] vibe is somewhere in the middle.
** 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.
 
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* ''[[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 (Video Game)|World of Goo]]'' has elements common in both ends.
 
== Web Comics ==
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* 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 (Animationanimation)|The Transformers]]''
 
'''Gritty End'''
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* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' was gritty for the most part, especially in contrast to the [[Executive Meddling|tacked-on happy ending]].
* ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'', although plenty of historical films at the time were made in reaction to [[Gorgeous Period Dress]].
** [[Terry Gilliam (Creator)|Terry Gilliam]]'s ''Jabberwocky'' is, if anything, even grittier.
* The movie ''[[Se7en]]''
* ''[[La Reine Margot (Filmfilm)|La Reine Margot]]'' made even the gorgeous period dresses look gritty.
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', especially the 1984 (yes!) film version.
** Though the Ministry of Love ({{spoiler|"the place where there is no darkness"}}) is considerably cleaner and better kept-up. The Party knows where to spend its money.
* ''[[Repo! theThe Genetic Opera]]'', where we learn that the future is [[Goth]] and cities are little spots of grime surrounded by graveyards. And seas full of dead bodies. Then again, there ''was'' that pesky organ failure epidemic...
* ''[[District 9]]''
* Most films and games that heavily feature zombies fall into this category.
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== Video Games ==
 
* ''[[Machinarium (Video Game)|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.
* ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' is gritty everywhere except in Combine buildings.
* ''[[Gish]]''. First 3 worlds are very gritty, taking place in sewers, caves and hell. Last two are shinier though since they take place in sandstone-colored Egyptian level and church.
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* [[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.
* ''[[WolfsWolf's Rain]]'' has the dirt covered, dilapidated human cities that sharply contrast with the glittery, self-indulgent decadence of the Nobles' flying ships.
** The contrast shows up in the natural world as well, with the many desolate, eerie, washed-out landscapes traversed by the heroes contrasting the occasional scene of gorgeous flowers, lush meadows, and crystal blue lakes.
* ''[[Berserk]]'', taking place in [[The Dung Ages]] and having mercenaries as the primary characters, is predominantly gritty, though the scenes taking place in Midland's royal court involved a good amount of [[Gorgeous Period Dress]]. Later episodes of the manga push the shiny end to a whole new level, though, as {{spoiler|Griffith has just pulled a shiny new capital straight from the ground using Ganishka as a power source.}}
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* [[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 Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Filmfilm)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' manages to hit every point in the spectrum. Arthur even points it out. "Well, it's a whole lot better than that dingy Vogon crate! This is my idea of a spaceship, all gleaming metal, flashing lights, everything."
* 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.
* ''[[Robo Cop|RoboCop]]'' takes place in gritty [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|Old Detroit]], but the evil and shiny OCP corporation plans to develop a cleaner and shinier Delta City "where Old Detroit now stands".
* Most adaptations of ''[[Dune]]'': Caladan is natural and shiny, Giedi Prime is dark and dirty.
* ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' is gritty for the majority of the flashbacks depicting Jamal's childhood in the slums, which starkly contrasts with the sleek, stylized look of ''[[Who Wants to Be Aa Millionaire?]]?''
* The ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movies, contrasting the orderly life of Elizabeth and Will with the chaotic life of Jack and Barbossa, or the [[Lawful Evil]] East India Trade Co. with the [[Chaotic Neutral]] (mostly) pirates.
* ''[[Twenty Eight28 Days Later]]'' takes a somewhat unorthodox approach to mixing the two. The ''look'' of the film overall is gritty (they shot it on digital camcorders for this reason), but a lot of the locations are of typically shiny and clean places (hospitals, a castle, convenience store etc). The look of the film and the locations eventually converge as the story progresses.
* The ''[[Terminator]]'' series is mostly gritty, but the T-1000 and T-X are quite literally shiny.
* ''[[Underworld (Filmfilm)|Underworld]]'' contrasts the shiny vampires and their shiny mansion and their shiny clothes with the gritty, concrete-plywood-and-brown-leather existence of the Lycans.
* The film versions of ''[[Henry V]]''. Olivier's version was very shiny, especially considering that the film was a piece of propaganda to rally the English people during WWII. Branagh's version is much grittier. Olivier's Battle of Agincourt is most memorable for [[The Oner|the charge of the French cavalry]] on a nice, sunny day with shiny armor and colorful pennants. Branagh's Battle of Agincourt is most memorable for the mud.
** Olivier's priest talking about Salic law and such speaks pompously and tosses aside cartoonishly-large pieces of paper; Branagh's mumbles through the lines quickly. When Olivier's says "It's as clear as the day!", it's still buffoonish; when Branagh's says it, he says it sarcastically with a wry smile, which is greeted with a few muffled snickers ({{spoiler|[[Don't Explain the Joke|the joke in either case is that it isn't clear at all]]}}).
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** The grittiness of the series is highlighted every time the "modern", shiny city of Caprica is shown in flashback, and the [[And Man Grew Proud]] prequel ''[[Caprica]]'' will highlight that further, showing futuristic technology from ''fifty years ago'' that (as far as I've seen) no one uses in ''Galactica'', such as electronic touch screen paper and holograms.
*** 50 years previous would have been some time before the first war with the Cylons, and given those things capacity at electronic warfare, is it any wonder that a lot of mod-cons have been traded in for something a bit less vulnerable (in the hacking sense)?
* ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' does this a fair amount. Most areas on the station are crowded, but nice enough; the command staff quarters are nice, if sometimes a bit Spartan; the ambassadorial wing is VERY shiny (or its equivalent; it's implied that for Narns, at least, "shiny" still involves furniture of rough-hewn stone); and Downbelow is just a hell-hole.
* In ''[[Andromeda]]'' the titular ship is very shiny (and the remnant of a shinier age) while everything else is gritty.
* The TARDIS interior from ''[[Doctor Who]]'', compare the sterile and minimalist console room from the old series with Ninth and Tenth's dilapidated techno-organic console, or Eleventh's cobbled-together steampunk decor.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40 K40000]]'' runs the entire spectrum, with the [[The Fair Folk|Eldar]] at the shiny end, [[The Corruption|Chaos]] at the gritty end & everybody else somewhere in the middle.
** 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 (Theatretheatre)|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 (Video Gameseries)|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.
* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'': Compare the [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] kingdom of Zeal to the run-down, [[After the End]] scenario of 2300 A.D.
* ''[[Halo]]'' - The Covenant is all shiny silver and purple, and everything is sleek and rounded. UNSC equipment is blocky and gray/tan/dull green.
* ''[[Eversion]]'' - {{spoiler|Visits the both ends of the scale and everything in between.}}
** More like {{spoiler|The Sliding Scale of [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] and [[Nightmare Fuel]].}}
** {{spoiler|And that is ''some'' sliding scale.}}
* ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]'' is an interesting example: it was once ''very'' shiny, but it was made gritty by a civil war.
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Starcraft]]'' features a war between the shiny Protoss, the gritty Terrans, and the even grittier Zerg.
** 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.
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' aggregates nice and tidy accommodations of Versalife corporation and UNATCO headquarters and the rather unpleasant urban neighborhoods (barring Paris that will look gorgeous even the world comes rolling to the doors of Hell).
* Ditto for ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]''. The [[La Croix]] 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.
* ''[[Eve Online]]'' has shiny Amarr ships versus "flying junkyard" Minmatar ships. Conversely, Gallente ships have shiny, smooth, almost organic curves while Caldari ships are angular and much more utilitarian.
* ''[[Fallout]]'' contrasts the shininess of the Vaults and Brotherhood of Steel-related locations with the ultra-gritty Wasteland. In [[Fallout 1 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.]]
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. Oddly, the towns are just as shiny after the Apocalypse as before. Except for Tzen and Mobliz.
* Taken to extremes in ''[[Dystopia (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dystopia]]'' where [[Cyberspace]] lies on the extreme end of shiny, and meatspace is on the medium-high part of gritty. This is especially noticeable in areas where cyberspace is shaped the same as meatspace. Punk architecture is usually more gritty than Corp architecture.
* Administrative and scientific areas in ''[[Doom]] 3'' are usually of a silvery tone, and polished metal prevails. Rust-orange colors and rougher materials are characteristic of maintenance sections.
* Most of ''[[The Journeyman Project]]'' is shiny, except for the [[Underwater Base]], Sinclair's lab, and the underground part of the Mars colony.