The Dark Times: Difference between revisions

Most often, this is important to the [[Backstory]] of a series, giving writers room to introduce remnants of those old evils [[Sealed Evil in A Can|sealed in a can]]. Sometimes [[The Dark Times]] become [[The Time of Myths]] and then lead to [[Gotterdammerung]]. Alternatively, the creatures that populated [[The Dark Times]] are merely waiting [[Beneath the Earth]] until they regain their strength.

* ''[[Hellboy]]'' gives glimpses into such Times, with its [[HP Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] overtones. One of the centrals plot threads is that Hellboy was supposed to make the Dark Times return, [[Anti-Anti-Christ|but didn't want to]].

* Most [[HP Lovecraft]] stories, where [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] are just waiting [[When the Planets Align|until the right stars align]] to return. [[Cosmic Horror Story|There is nothing humans can do about it beyond slightly delaying the inevitable]].

* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' has the "Dark Times," in the beginning of the universe, a time of "blood and magic" with the [[Witch Species|Carrionites]], the [[Giant Spider|Racnoss]], and the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Great Vampires]]. The [[Living Statue|Weeping Angels]] are also implied to have originated during this era.

* Many of the races on ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' had legends concerning the last war with the [[Abusive Precursors|Shadows]] 1,000 years ago: most of the Narn telepaths followed G'Quan to war and never returned; the Minbari almost lost the war until the timely arrival of Valen and a replacement base of operations; the Markab spoke of the "great darkness" defeated long ago {{spoiler|several episodes before they were conveniently wiped out by a plague}}.

* The second age of the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Eberron]]'' was the Age of Demons. And they are, in fact, [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] [[Beneath the Earth]]...

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has ''two'' species who have a long, ''long'' list of grievances against an ancient, completely meglomanical empire of [[Abusive Precursors]]. By the time the game takes place, they've suffered a [[Karmic Death]] at the hand-[[Sapient Cetaceans|flippers]] of the Liir, but it turns out that they left around a [[Always Chaotic Evil|sentient bioweapon]] as a sort of personalized [[Taking You With Me|"fuck you"]] to the universe.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' had a time before the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule when monsters were rampant across the land and people were constantly killing each other in order to get the Triforce. Among those people were a tribe of powerful sorcerers who came closer than anyone else to getting the Triforce. Eventually, the Triforce was sealed away in the Sacred Realm (cf. ''[[A Link to The Past]]''), the monsters were [[Sealed Evil in A Can|trapped in a magic chest]] (cf. ''[[The Minish Cap]]''), and the evil sorcerers were cast into the [[Eldritch Location|Twilight Realm]] (cf. ''[[Twilight Princess]]''). ''[[Skyward Sword]]'' is the first game confirmed to take place during these times, with the only safe human settlement being in [[Floating Continent|Skyloft]]; the land below is ruled over by Ghirahim. And ''Skyward Sword'' still manages to have a ''previous'' Dark Time when an even greater evil (namely, {{spoiler|the series' equivalent of [[Satan]]}}) ruled and which Ghirahim is trying to [[Sealed Evil in A Can|unleash once again]].

* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E1 The Return of Harmony Part 1|The Return of Harmony, part 1]] has Celestia refer to a time of chaos ruled by the [[God of Evil|God of Chaos]] Discord, when ponies endlessly suffered under his rule. A stained-glass depiction shows him holding three ponies by puppet crosses and strings over a pit of fire. His reign was finally brought to a screeching halt when her and Luna [[Sealed Evil in A Can|imprisoned him]] [[Taken for Granite|in a stone prison]] with the Elements Of Harmony. The two parter deals with Discord escaping to try and begin his reign anew.