Dark Vs Edgy (Yes they're Different)

Heads up: One of the examples talks about Sexual Assault.

A thought occurred to me when writing the Setting entry, something I wanted to note in that passage but thought it would have taken up to much space and wandered away on too much of a tangent. That note being the difference between Dark and Edgy.

Full disclosure upfront, I will not be using video games as examples in this passage. One, because I can't think of two good examples, if you can, I welcome the recommendation, and two, the points I'm about to cover are not exclusive to their medium and can be easily transferred to video games. Also, fair warning, both examples are Anime, so take this time to judge me before moving on. Oh, and Spoilers ahead for both series. Anywho, let's begin.

First, let's cover definitions, so we're all on the same page here. When I refer to a story being Dark, I mean that it tackles complex and unsettling ideas in a terrifying but thoughtful manner; concepts like murder, rape, existentialism, death, corruption of power, etc. On the other hand, Edgy is more or less a snappy title given to Dark stories that fall flat on their faces. Either because they lack any real substance to them and want to show us disturbing things without context, rhyme, or reason. Or they fail at creating the appropriate atmosphere. So with vocabulary out of the way, let us dive into the dark side of the mind with Re: Zero.

For those of you who have touched another person in the past five years, Re: Zero is about protagonist Subaru being dropped into a fantasy world from ours. However, he soon discovers that he has no real power in this world besides being stuck in a Groundhog Day loop that starts whenever he dies. Something he discovers when an assassin rips his lower intestine out. With this new power, Subaru tries time and time again to change to the future to save the people he cares about, repeatedly dying in the process.

Now the main concept Re: Zero is playing with is Hope in a hopeless situation. Despite meeting several untimely and violent ends, Subaru remains upbeat, energetic, and hopeful, always trying to help out in some way. However, this becomes harder and harder to keep up the more he dies, asking the question: What does this do to a person? In Subaru's case, it slowly eats away at him, ripping away his optimism as each failure leads to a more frightful and painful future until nothing but a husk is left. Only through the help of best girl, Rem, can he bounce back and continue trying, keeping the Light of Hope lit in the dark cave that is the world he now lives in. All of that is the first step to becoming a true Dark story, having something to say about society or the human condition. For Re: Zero, its how hard we have to struggle to hold onto Hope, allowing the writers to paint a sequence of events that explore and push this idea into unsettling places, like what happens when you're met with a genuinely hopeless situation, what do you do then, can you hold out Hope when there isn't any. Re: Zero says yes, yes you can, and it can make these statements because its characters go to these dark, hopeless places and emerge battered and scarred but alive and hopeful for the future ahead.

This brings me to the second main qualifier to a Dark storyline, juxtaposition; Dark stories can't be dark all the time; you do that, and you're moving into Edgy territory. To create a compelling Dark story, you have to show your characters' lives when they are happy and not mentally or physically tortured. Picture your story as a tunnel; what goes on inside the tunnel is the messy and dark parts of the story, while what happens on either side are the lighter rest-bit scenes. Good Dark stories should always move through these tunnels and into the Light. In doing this, two things happen, one, you give the audience time to connect with your characters, making them more invested in their lives and the upcoming events. Two, you punctuate the Darker aspects of the story, making them more meaningful because the audience sees what's being taken away by this dark act and how the characters are going to get back to the other side. Light is equally, if not more, critical to a Dark storyline. It's the Light that is the goal in these kinds of stories, a point where the characters are safe and truly happy after the events in the tunnel. This catharsis of struggling against evil makes Dark stories work, of knowing that such things can be beaten, that they can be overcome. Unfortunately, some would disagree with me.

Witch now brings us to Edgy stories, and what better example than the show everyone loves to hate, Sword Art Online, or SAO. Again, for those who have regular human contact, SAO is a show about a bunch of people who get trapped in a video game wherein, if their avatar dies, they die in real life. Some of you may be scratching your head, saying, "Oi, SAO's isn't edgy; its got a light it's chasing and shows characters enjoying said light." To which I replay, yes, but theirs's no meaning behind any of it.

SAO wants to be a show about overcoming social isolation and how online personas can help overcome real-life hurdles, but none of that comes across. The main character, Kirito, never learns from his encounters about being a more social or better person.

The death of the Black Cats doesn't leave him scarred; the loss of his wife doesn't make him obsessive or throw him back into an anti-social pit, and watching said wife getting raped in front of him doesn't wholly unravel him. Put him next to Subaru for a moment; every time Subaru fails and dies, he carries that failure with him. We see how it affects him, how it changes his personality, and how he interacts with other characters. When the Bowl Hunter kills him and all his friends, he's mortified and gains a fear of death and loss. When Rem sacrifices herself for his sake only to have to world end, it breaks him, throwing him into a deep depression. When he realizes that Betelgeuse is trying to possess him, he swallows his fear of death and lets his friends kill him, saving them from the Wizard. Subaru's actions had weight on them; they affected him and the story as a whole. For better or worse, they changed something and allowed us to see that action play out. SAO throws out an idea that sounds cool and dark without giving it any weight to back it up.

Dark becomes Edgy when the events in the tunnel say nothing or lead nowhere, there only to be disturbing or to make the world seem more important or villains seem more villainous. Case and point, two out of the three human antagonists in SAO are rapists. While this could be used to explore the uncomfortable reality that makes these monsters and how their victims live with the mental and physical scars, it is instead just put in as a shallow attempt to make the villain more unlikeable. After the Fairy Dance arc, wherein Asuna is raped and felt up multiple times against her will; she doesn't change whatsoever. She goes about everything like what happened in Alfheim online didn't happen, and you may argue that this is how she chooses to cope with this trauma.

First off, ignoring a problem is never healthy, so even if she was, it should still be addressed by, oh, I don't know, her boyfriend, who may have some interest in her mental health and wellbeing. Second, even if she tries to bottle it up, trauma like this doesn't just go away if you don't think about it; there's a reason we call them mental scars. There will always be something there reminding her of what happened and pulling her back to that day. This is the writer's chance to make Asuna a better character by showing how she overcomes this trauma and give Hope to people who have also gone through a similar tragedy. However, that is not the case, and that is what puts SAO in the Edgy pit, not because it wallows in darkness, but because it doesn't give purpose to that darkness and removes all weight it can have on the story simply wishing to shock or disgust you with it, that is Edgy my friends, please don't write like this.

Hope you found something interesting

Peace