Why do people like dark and depressing shows?

DPP21 said:
The name says it all, why do so many people like to watch shows that would cause them to fall them into depression? I'll use an example: Attack on Titan. I read the manga up to the 40's and 50's chapter mark and during this time, all I can think of is: what kind of sick, twisted human being made this? You have people dieing left and right (quite guesomely I might add), a scene where it is implied that a BABY WAS EATEN, a scene where someone shoots themselves in the mouth (which says to me that if you are up angist a enemy that you can't hope to defeat, all you can do is kill you self), the fans of the show tell me there is hope when their CLEARLY isn't, etc. I just can't understand why this show would appeal to anyone when it it seems to be written by someone who should be locked up in a insane asylum. Maybe it because I only watch/read happy go lucky shonens, that might be the reason why (things like One piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online post ep 3, and the like). I think it's more than that though. Feel free to answer my question, I'm just so puzzled as to why people like these type of shows.

keragamming said:


I don't remember any scene implying that a baby was eaten in the manga. Anyways, the series is dark but its really not that dark to make you sick to the stomach tbh, and it doesn't need to be. I like it because it has a interesting cast and also a interesting plot, the violence and death just add to the atmosphere.

If you don't like those anime then don't watch them. I wonder what you would think of game of thrones then??

Ars_Moriendi said:
It´s easy , you like stuff you identify yourself the most. If you are a depressing cuck (80-90% of all otakus are depressed) then you will like to see people having the same issues / being miserable at life etc.

For example the anime Barakamon. Someone who never worked in his life, someone who never experienced real stress (burn out) and failure in his carreer will actually have a hard time understanding the greatness of Barakamon. Therefore it is a Seinen, since teenagers won´t find it interesting enough, since they mostly never experience such things as ''having a job, stress /stress relief, being in need for a new perspective etc ''


btw: Attack on Titan is a shonen, it is meant to be entertaining and not depressing...

DPP21 said:



I can't remember what volume it was in, but know that the scene involved Titans running towards a family that had a baby (could have been a small child) and then the scene got cut off, implying that family and the child were eaten.

As for Game of Thrones, there is a scene my friend described in the show where a man tricked a woman and her child to follow him somewhere where they are eaten by wolves and the man just watches.

if something like that is perfectly acceptable to air on television, our species has truly become monsters.

keragamming said:


I think a lot of persons would argue that humans are indeed monsters. Look what is going on in this world?! But calling people monsters for watching/writing dark tone stories is ridiculous! People like you're seriously complains about the wrong things.

What you should be complaining about are real people, not fictional characters getting behead/murdered rape ect. People that commit those crimes are the ones that should be called monsters! Not us people that are normal people that just so happens to enjoy violent shows! I think that's a very disrespecting thing to say, I'm sure you yourself have family members that enjoy watching violent tv series, do you believe they're monsters as well????

DPP21 said:
The name says it all, why do so many people like to watch shows that would cause them to fall them into depression? I'll use an example: Attack on Titan. I read the manga up to the 40's and 50's chapter mark and during this time, all I can think of is: what kind of sick, twisted human being made this? You have people dieing left and right (quite guesomely I might add), a scene where it is implied that a BABY WAS EATEN, a scene where someone shoots themselves in the mouth (which says to me that if you are up angist a enemy that you can't hope to defeat, all you can do is kill you self), the fans of the show tell me there is hope when their CLEARLY isn't, etc. I just can't understand why this show would appeal to anyone when it it seems to be written by someone who should be locked up in a insane asylum. Maybe it because I only watch/read happy go lucky shonens, that might be the reason why (things like One piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online post ep 3, and the like). I think it's more than that though. Feel free to answer my question, I'm just so puzzled as to why people like these type of shows.

DPP21 said:


I do have a family member that watches these types of shows, but he's my father so i can't really decry him for this. Also, I'm blaming the people who thought it was acceptable to air, hell, even write this stuff (since they are the ones who create it), not the audience (though some of the blame can be directed towards them as well, for wholeheartedly consuming this sick shit). I just can not understand what goes though their minds when they write some of these horrific events. Did they personally go though some of these events (Which I highly doubt), or do they just use that piece of paper and that pen as an outlet to write whatever their dark and twisted mind desires and show what they created to the world (which I highly believe). They might think these people are nothing more than words on a piece of paper, but not to me. To me, they are real, living, beating humans with their own hopes, desires, dreams and emotions. You might call these thoughts foolish and even insane, but I could care less. Just how their are many people who believe that their is a god who has their fates in his hands, so too do I have the fates of my characters in my own........and I will do what ever it takes to make sure they have happy, fulfilling lives.

keragamming said:


Probably you need to watch people's live reaction of those series, because from the way you're talking, you make it sounds as if people get orgasm over seeing anime characters getting behead for eg. The reaction from a character death would most likely be "shock" than "aw" and even if a person like gore and other stuff, I don't think there's anything wrong with them as long as they don't enjoy seeing it in real life.


Let me tell you this, "gore" doesn't carry a series, it is the story, characters and plot that carries the series. I know some friends that can't stomach the gore and other dark stuff in GOT, but they still watch it because they like the story so much.

Nothing doesn't bother me in fiction to the point where I'm traumatize. I might be shock, but that is about it. When I see rral life accidents with persons loosing a limb for eg, that's what traumatized me, a few years back I the made a mistake of watching a person getting beheaded, simple out of curiousity, I was traumatize for days!!!! Never once I have watch any of those cruel videos, the persons that regularly watch videos like that are the real sick and cruel person.

In my opinion you should not mix up fiction with relality, just saying. Also writers got ideas from other films, news real life experience ect, it didn't just pop up in their head.

The attack on titan mangaka got the idea of making a survival series from playing a video game, "muv luv" it had aliens in it, now for the titans he got the idea of creating titans from a drunk person, he realise how inhuman he was and that is how he got the ideas of creating the titans.

So no, your theory that these writers think of evil syories to write is wrong. Also you said it imply that the titans eat the baby, um.. Shouldn't you be giving him credit for not showing it? And respecting that some of his audience may not like him showing it?

Realistically speaking, if more than half the population is eaten by titans, that means infants are definitely included as well. That means it is implied that a lot of babies got eaten by titans. You know the type of world this is in the series, so you should expect it. So I don't see how implying is considered a bad thing.

Again, I don't remember any imply death of a baby in the series and I've rewatch/reread the series plenty of time, again, if more than half the population is dead then you know babies are part of the casuality as well.

DPP21 said:


When I ever said that Gore was the main reason why I hate these types of shows? I never said that (tho it is part of the problem). It's their themes that are the problem. Those horrible themes that say that you will never protect anyone, hope is a lie, raping people is good, you can't ever trust anyone, you will do anything to survive, even eating your own children, etc. It's disgusting things like that that makes me scared for the future. Also, you said that when see a people character, the only emotion is "shock". Do they feel any other emotion, like hatred, rage, sadness, disgust, anything at all? If all they feel only shock, then we have truly lost all of our humanity. Soon, because of these shows/games/anime, we will become so emotionless and apathetic to the plight of other people, their could be mass genocide being broadcasted on television and people wouldn't bat an eye. Also, you yourself had said that world of AOT is implied to have babies eaten, what makes you think the author won't show it onscreen? He's already shown so many horrific things, what going to stop him from showing it?

DPP21 said:


When I ever said that Gore was the main reason why I hate these types of shows? I never said that (tho it is part of the problem). It's their themes that are the problem. Those horrible themes that say that you will never protect anyone, hope is a lie, raping people is good, you can't ever trust anyone, you will do anything to survive, even eating your own children, etc. It's disgusting things like that that makes me scared for the future. Also, you said that when see a people character, the only emotion is "shock". Do they feel any other emotion, like hatred, rage, sadness, disgust, anything at all? If all they feel only shock, then we have truly lost all of our humanity. Soon, because of these shows/games/anime, we will become so emotionless and apathetic to the plight of other people, their could be mass genocide being broadcasted on television and people wouldn't bat an eye. Also, you yourself had said that world of AOT is implied to have babies eaten, what makes you think the author won't show it onscreen? He's already shown so many horrific things, what going to stop him from showing it?

ilovewendy16 said:
I feel the exact same, i have ask people the same question before, but have yet to get a solid reasonable answer that i could understand. The only thing i can think, is that fucked up people like fucked up shit.

keragamming said:


-_- I honestly hate talking to people like you, reminds me of christians vs atheist arguments. yes, of course they feel other emotion, but that depends entirely on the impact that death has, and each individual might have a different emotion than another.

The series is at chapter 82, it will end in the early 100 chapters, if he haven't shown it then why would he show it now? Why did he imply the death then, if he was going to show it anyways? there must be a reason why he did it in the first place.

''horrible themes that say that you will never protect anyone, hope is a lie, raping people is good, you can't ever trust anyone, you will do anything to survive, even eating your own children

-__- I don't know of any series that has a theme that is telling the audience that raping is good, a series that has a lot of rape does not mean it is to be look at as something that should be considered good. That is use to either show how cruel and dark the world is, or make the audience and characters in the show hate that particular character and also I'm not familiar with the eating children part.

Now I'm going to address the other themes and show you these theme are use and the positive that comes from those theme, basically.

that you will never protect anyone and there is no hope

This is your typical theme that is use on the main character where, no matter what he can't save anyone and he feel like he is useless, eventually he will overcome this obstacle and grow as a character, yawn typical story writing. -_- smh Hope and despair is the typical theme every dark tone/survival series should have. The point is, you just don't like these type of series. A lot of those themes are necessary to those type of series.

In every story there is going to be obstacles in the story, it wouldn't be a story if there isn't any obstacles in the way.

Also the I will do anything to survive theme is a pretty good theme, oh, but I guess since you're a angel and a killer for eg is trying to kill you and your family you're just going to sit back and relax and make the killer murder you and your family, simple because doing anything to survive is a bad thing correct? smh.

keragamming said:


Ok, if we are going to judge people base on the type of series they like, I guess you're a pedophile then, because you are sexual attracted to young female characters. And don't tell me you aren't you have a sexualized loli on your profile pic, you watch hentai with loli female characters having sex as well. Let me see how you will asspull yourself out of this predicament.

If we are evil monsters for liking violent shows, then I guess you are pedo for liking loli characters and seeing them having sex then? you shouldn't be trusted around real life children, maybe I should report you?

Fight ignorance with ignorance, I guess that's the only way for people like you to get my point.

keragamming said:


Ok, if we are going to judge people base on the type of series they like, I guess you're a pedophile then, because you are sexual attracted to young female characters. And don't tell me you aren't you have a sexualized loli on your profile pic, you watch hentai with loli female characters having sex as well. Let me see how you will asspull yourself out of this predicament.

If we are evil monsters for liking violent shows, then I guess you are pedo for liking loli characters and seeing them having sex then? you shouldn't be trusted around real life children, maybe I should report you?

Fight ignorance with ignorance, I guess that's the only way for people like you to get my point.

ilovewendy16 said:
you would have a point if i was like 30 years old or somthing, but i myself am still "underage" by japan's standards, so i don't rally see the problem. being underage + liking underage girls = not a pedo.

merryfistmas said:
Well Eren can turn into a titan, so there's the hope you speak of. AoT isn't even that dark. Why do people like it? probably because our lives aren't that exciting and watching a fictional society struggle against a horrible abomination isn't something we get in real life so people naturally want to write stories about it. Dark stories also allow explorations of these you can't get in other stories.You are 18, there is something very wrong with a 18 yo wanting to fuck 12 year olds. Unless you're of the mind that fiction =/= reality, in which case, your argument against people liking violent shows doesn't hold up. If you want an answer to how somebody can enjoy a dark show without being a violent sociopath, I'll give you one:

Like I said above, we get to experience a wider variety of stories and themes. I don't like Texhnolyze because it's dark and violent, I like it because it had a huge emotional impact on me that no light hearted show has. This would not have been possible if not for it's presentation.

Violence is part of human nature, and most likely always will be because of competition for resources, conflicting ideals, and a desire to elevate ourselves above each other. Representing this in art is helpful (though not required) in creating thought provoking and empathetic works. Two people can have different opinions without either one being right or wrong, sometimes they're so different that they're driven to kill each other. Maybe some goals are so important they're worth killing for. Maybe some people are so dangerous they need to be eliminated. These moral questions are important to ask ourselves and some questions can only be explored through violent content. I'm not entertained by violence in and of itself, but by what only violence can tell me about human nature. Can you watch Berserk and honestly say that only a psychopath would be able to look past the blood to be able to enjoy it's messages? is everyone who likes AoT or GoT a violent crinimal? If that's the case than there are a ton of psycho's on MAL and 90% of the worlds population probably needs mental help.

Because these things exist in real life, the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and nakama power ups, pretending otherwise is a disservice to your audience.

TheBrainintheJar said:


It doesn't even have to run that deep. Violence is something we enjoy naturally. It gives a rush of adrenaline. We like victory and defeating another - that's why sports are so popular.

merryfistmas said:
Well Eren can turn into a titan, so there's the hope you speak of. AoT isn't even that dark. Why do people like it? probably because our lives aren't that exciting and watching a fictional society struggle against a horrible abomination isn't something we get in real life so people naturally want to write stories about it. Dark stories also allow explorations of these you can't get in other stories.You are 18, there is something very wrong with a 18 yo wanting to fuck 12 year olds. Unless you're of the mind that fiction =/= reality, in which case, your argument against people liking violent shows doesn't hold up. If you want an answer to how somebody can enjoy a dark show without being a violent sociopath, I'll give you one:

Like I said above, we get to experience a wider variety of stories and themes. I don't like Texhnolyze because it's dark and violent, I like it because it had a huge emotional impact on me that no light hearted show has. This would not have been possible if not for it's presentation.

Violence is part of human nature, and most likely always will be because of competition for resources, conflicting ideals, and a desire to elevate ourselves above each other. Representing this in art is helpful (though not required) in creating thought provoking and empathetic works. Two people can have different opinions without either one being right or wrong, sometimes they're so different that they're driven to kill each other. Maybe some goals are so important they're worth killing for. Maybe some people are so dangerous they need to be eliminated. These moral questions are important to ask ourselves and some questions can only be explored through violent content. I'm not entertained by violence in and of itself, but by what only violence can tell me about human nature. Can you watch Berserk and honestly say that only a psychopath would be able to look past the blood to be able to enjoy it's messages? is everyone who likes AoT or GoT a violent crinimal? If that's the case than there are a ton of psycho's on MAL and 90% of the worlds population probably needs mental help.

Because these things exist in real life, the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and nakama power ups, pretending otherwise is a disservice to your audience.

keragamming said:
@ilovewendy16

After looking at his profile.......I truly believe he is one. Now I feel violated because I told him I thought I was the only one who thought this way. I guess I truly am alone in this.

loooool Maybe you need to explain to @DPP21 why you like those stuff and why watching those stuff doesn't make you a pedo in real life. Good luck with that! Maybe then you will realise the frustration we went through to try and explain our reason for liking violent shows with you guys and that we are still normal human beings and not monster.

merryfistmas said:
This is true but I was trying to avoid that answer. It's weird to me that someone would question why violence is popular in things like AoT or GTA, but then again, I've questioned how people are capable of liking shows that offer little outside of fan service so I guess that's not much better.