Grimdark

/ˈɡɹɪmdɑːk/ · adjective

Meaning

(fandom slang) Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere..

Definitions by Sense

1. (fandom slang) Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere.
2. (literature) The literary genre of speculative fiction that is amoral, dystopian, or violent.

Example Sentences

If your character is a more-or-less ordinary little girl fighting for her life as a usual thing, that's a fairly GRIMDARK setting; it implies that there isn't any Good authority with both the power and the will to protect them.

Most original. Brilliantly so! What's not to like? "Jarringly non-grimdark," carpers will sneer. Oh, yeah? What's not Grimdark about – / * Droids? / * Vagina heads? / * Gundam suits (desu)?

The thought once occur[r]ed to me, that for a while they had the silver age Legion as the actual past of a grimdark iron age Legion. Which meant that in theory the grimdark adult legion could have traveled back to silver age Smallville, or the silver age Legion could have travelled back to the iron age DC "present" of the 90s.

[T]here is a more violent ‘barbarian’ tradition of fantasy – sometimes called ‘sword and sorcery’, to distinguish it from Tolkienian ‘heroic fantasy’ – […] This in turn leads through to modern ‘Grimdark’ writing, where nobody is honourable and Might is Right. George R. R. Martin’s ongoing fantasy sequence A Song of Fire and Ice^([sic – meaning A Song of Ice and Fire]) is surely the most successful and popular Grimdark fantasy.

It shows you piles of corpses, then revels in its mechs and future-war grimdark.

Synonyms for grimdark

Antonyms for grimdark

Related Words

Word Forms

• more grimdark
• most grimdark

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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