Favorite angst or grim trope

[TheMonotonePuppet]

What's your favorite angsty or grim trope? Where you enjoy the suffering of the character?

They can be overarching tropes like a slapstick series of increasingly unfortunate events.
Or personality tropes. An example being main characters that are genuinely suicidal.
The classic, time-honored tropes can't be forgotten either. The brooding vampire so serious they turn comedic or lovers that are doomed to be apart.

Personally, my favorite grim trope is where there is an entity or infection that is well-known and feared throughout society, and it ends up taking over the main character, affecting them mentally and physically. They can resist, but it causes them enough trouble that it is an genuine impending threat throughout the story (no Naruto friend bullshit). When they get isolated by fearmongerers even though they've got a ok hold and lose control as a result of that, call me basic, but I really enjoy that.

Reading suggestions:
As examples, fanfics of "worm" where the main character kills the Butcher. This passes on the Butcher mindset, a living power that has weakened versions of the past holders' powers of the Butcher mindset. It also contains copies of the minds and personalities of all prior holders, most of them being reprehensible pieces of shit that murder, r***, torture, etc. And worst of all, their filth has been allowed to ferment as they can only talk to each other and feed off of each other's insanities. Heroes that killed the Butcher, hoping to make something good out of the Butcher, just go insane as a result.
Another big favorite of mine is a huge part of why I adore superhero stories so much: "The Accidental Hero" by Matt Myklush. The main character, Jack Blank, is completely infected with the Rustov virus, which turns you into cybernetic zombies of a famous rust red color. He is safe due to his technopath power though (supposedly), so he has a lot of potential to be a cure. I'd really recommend it. It's really well-written.

 

[John_Owl]

human pinball. It's not used nearly as much now as it was back in the 80s and 90s (though, even then it was fairly rare). but one character falls, or gets launched, or something, and ends up ricocheting to different objects, bouncing around like a pinball. It's far more common in Western animation now, but even still, it never fails to make me smile, at least. a little bit of schadenfreude, I suppose.

I like any well placed and well used trope, but the classics are usually best, imo.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

human pinball. It's not used nearly as much now as it was back in the 80s and 90s (though, even then it was fairly rare). but one character falls, or gets launched, or something, and ends up ricocheting to different objects, bouncing around like a pinball. It's far more common in Western animation now, but even still, it never fails to make me smile, at least. a little bit of schadenfreude, I suppose.

I like any well placed and well used trope, but the classics are usually best, imo.

That's a good one! I like how the Cupheads show handles it. Gives those old classic cartoon vibes.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Either a character that suffers so much that they become unrecognizable from how they were in the beginning, usually to the point that they basically have no will of their own (think denji from chainsaw man), or on a darker note, taking the safety net out of something that would otherwise be a joke (once again chainsaw man makes excellent use of this).

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I like everything dark and cozy grim, but I don't think I have a specific trope I prefer. Then again, I currently explore a character in one of my Webnovels, who was raped and murdered, then brought back by a God as an immortal being in the service of said God. He gets something for it, but it was a shortsighted deal on his end. He can't live with himself anymore, starts self destructive behavior on all accounts, but only when nobody is looking. He goes into alleys behins gay bars, picking up men who either have sex with him or rape him (the pain is the point of sex in his opinion, so that's what he's looking for), murdering people by literally growing roots through their entire body or jumping off of the high rise he was originally killed in front of, lying on the floor and deciding last minute to heal himself (pardon, I said immortal, but they can decide to die; they are half human, half immortal, and if they stay "human" while dying, they will actually die, it will just take them a few minutes longer than a normal human, because they are seriously tough).
It's not far written yet, but in building up the story in my head, I went all out on his destruction course.

 

[Dragon_SAMA]

A (Not So) Simple Fetch Quest

Oh great hero! The evil Demon Lord has once again arisen to terrorise our lands, and we have summoned you to save our people! No, we don't want you to fight the demon lord! Of course not; we're the good guys! What sort of good guys kidnap people from other...

www.scribblehub.com

This is one of my favorites.

 

[expentio]

It's not a favorite (who exactly likes stuff that makes them angsty?), but what makes me most apprehensive would be slavery without hope to escape. A collar that can't be taken off, a contract that bids the soul, worst is if it directly forces actions without choice. Those things make me really want to stop reading because I can't stomach them.
In general hopelessness.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Yes, I like them all.

Either a character that suffers so much that they become unrecognizable from how they were in the beginning, usually to the point that they basically have no will of their own (think denji from chainsaw man), or on a darker note, taking the safety net out of something that would otherwise be a joke (once again chainsaw man makes excellent use of this).

That would be one of my favourites though, Land of the lustrous to my knowledge has it done the best.

 

[Corty]

I pity your MCs

 

[MotherofAThousandYoung]

Break the cutie

 

[2wordsperminute]

I pity your MCs

Warranted.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

The "Get away from me! I'm a monster!" trope has always been a guilty pleasure for me, but only if 1. they've actually done something that they would realistically think they deserve to be alone for (not just being a drama queen) and 2. they actually make an effort to stay away from everyone else, try to run away when they're found, etc. They don't just say the line and then immediately and willingly sit down and have a nice chat with the people they were just trying to stay away from.

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

I always appreciate an "embodiment of suffering" type villain. The kind whose power, pain, and life are all perpetuated by the fact that people still exist. For them to not suffer, they need to die, and for them to die, everyone must die. A righteous hero faces a difficult problem with such an antagonist, because their heroic honor won't consider that antagonist as an enemy. Noise from Suite Precure is my all time favorite villain.

 

[NightRayn]

A (Not So) Simple Fetch Quest

Oh great hero! The evil Demon Lord has once again arisen to terrorise our lands, and we have summoned you to save our people! No, we don't want you to fight the demon lord! Of course not; we're the good guys! What sort of good guys kidnap people from other...

www.scribblehub.com

This is one of my favorites.

This and also this

A Brocktonite Yankee in Queen Marika's Court (Worm/Elden Ring)

Where horrible things are happening to the MC but they have no choice but to grit their teeth and continue. And, in the end, they become so unhinged and unrecognizable but from their own perspective, they are being perfectly normal