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Supernatural Angst: Difference between revisions
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For added irony, a character suffering from [[Supernatural Angst]] may be [[Cursed With Awesome]] or [[Blessed With Suck]] - however, in many cases there's no such irony; there's no awesome side effects to the [[Curse]], it just sucks.
This trope is a key cause of [[Angst Dissonance]] - metaphor or not, the very fictional nature of this angst can make it difficult for the reader to fully sympathise with the character, as the cause of the angst is often something that readers will have no experience of and never will. Okay, being a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]], [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortal]] or [[Gender Bender|cursed to switch gender every time you sneeze]] may indeed suck royally, but as it's also something that your reader is almost certainly never going to experience first hand, it can be difficult to tolerate your character complaining about the subject. This is particularly the case if the character is [[Cursed With Awesome]] - if the [[Supernatural Angst]] stems from something that is actually pretty cool, with very few negative drawbacks, and that your readers would love to be able to do, then they're unlikely to react well if all your character does is whine about it. And of course, this trope can lead into [[Wangst]] or [[Deus Angst Machina]] like so many others.
Oddly, the ones most prone to this besides supernatural creatures, are [[The Hunter|the people that fight them]]. [[He Who Fights Monsters|Fighting monsters is not good for your mental health]], after all.
Related tropes include [[Blessed With Suck]], [[Can't Have Sex Ever]], [[Cursed With Awesome]], [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad]], [[What Have I Become?]], [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]. Contrast with [[Cursed With Awesome]] and [[Living Forever Is Awesome]]. Compare and contrast with [[Fantastic Angst]], which is when the Angst is caused by something which does happen in real life, but that thing is caused by something fantastic.
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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** ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'': You're a bloodsucking reanimated corpse. Your unlife will henceforth be controlled by the dictates of inhuman elders. Your only chance to survive long-term is to become like them. A monster you are, less an even worse monster you become.
** ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'': Your race is going extinct, the whole world is going to be destroyed in the worst way possible, and there's almost nothing you can do about it. Just making the End less terrible requires constant violence. You are a rage-filled, barely-controlled, inhuman danger to your loved ones, and the remainder of your short life will be spent fighting mightmarish horrors with a very real ability to [[And Then John Was a Zombie|make you one of them]].
** ''[[Kindred of the East (Tabletop Game)|Kindred of the East]]'': You sinned, you died, and you went to Hell. [[Cold
** ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion (Tabletop Game)|Wraith: The Oblivion]]'': When you died, you learned that all your beliefs about the afterlife are wrong. The Underworld is a nightmare land of despair [[Human Resources|and]] [[Industrialized Evil|casual]] [[Powered By a Forsaken Child|atrocities]], ruled by a brutal dictatorship, and the only way farward is down. You have three options: give in and become an inhuman spectre helping destroy the others; succumb to [[Cessation of Existence|Oblivion]]; or spend every ounce of your being fighting to keep what little you have left for just a bit longer.
** ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: The Reckoning]]'': Your eyes have been opened to the horrors infesting the world, abusing and preying upon humanity. Some force from on high has empowered you to fight back... except it didn't bother to give you the tools you actually need to ''succeed''. Assuming you survive appreciably long, you'll [[Sanity Slippage|slip closer and closer to insanity]], and you can't even be certain you're on the right side.
** ''[[Demon: The Fallen (Tabletop Game)|Demon: The Fallen]]'': [[God Is Evil]] and doesn't seem to care about humanity. You rebelled, hoping to make a better world for everyone, and ended up in Hell. [[The Nothing After Death|Hell sucks]] [[And I Must Scream|bigtime]], and you are not the angel you used to be. Eons later you clawed your way out, only to discover that God deliberately broke the universe out of spite and [[Have You Seen My God?|is now missing]], the world is [[Crapsack World|utterly ruined]] and literally falling apart, and humanity is going down the crapper.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* ''[[Touhou]]'' is chock full of supernaturals in the form of little girls, some of whom are or were humans. Most of them think it's kickass to be a supernatural, but the angsting ones are more notable:
** Yuyuko Saigyouji used to be a fairly normal [[Shrine Maiden]] who were tasked to seal the power a cherry blossom who lure people to their death. When that power began to taint her and she became able to kill people just by willing it, she was [[Driven to Suicide]]. These days, she largely gets over the angst and enjoy eating and drinking (despite being a ghost).
** Fujiwara-no-Mokou doesn't take being an immortal too well. She cuts off contact with everyone and lives alone in the wood. She gets a bit better after the player team laid the smack upon her and figuring out that Keine is worth everything for her. Still a [[Tall, Dark and Snarky]] Bifauxnen, though.
** Suika Ibuki (and the onis in general) is a rather [[Sad Clown]]. She would like to be drinking and fighting with humans like in ancient times, too bad humans no longer believe in the supernaturals. Doesn't matter (too much), has friends and infinite booze.
** Medicine Melancholy finds that being an animated doll --and the power that animates her is ''magical ultra-lethal toxin''-- is a miserable state of existence. [[Emo|She hates everyone]], but mellows a bit after she finds acceptance amongst the folks of Eientei (who themselves are [[Dysfunction Junction|a bunch of screwed-up people]]).
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