LogFAQs > #946442985

21. The Dark Fantasy genre (22.5 points)
Nominated by: Shonen_Bat (1/5 remaining)
Compilation of Dark Fantasy examples: https://imgur.com/a/DcOTaOu

Importance: 10
Fear: 6.5
Snake: 6

Also known as when someone writes a horror story but they don't want to call it horror so people actually experience it. I kid mostly, dark fantasy is actually a super-important sub-genre of both fantasy and horror, with its roots in classic fables and olde fairy tales of yore. On paper, it doesn't seem to differ much from high fantasy, with its common use of monsters like orcs, dragons, goblins, trolls, and so on, but the context is a lot different. Settings tend to be cast in deep shadow, with moody tones that rely more on an ebony ambiance with a backdrop of Gothic castle-like structures that nearly eclipse the sky, moonlit swamps with decaying, desolate landscapes, and capped a sense of hopelessness or utter despair in its world, whereas normal fantasy tends to be more optimistic. Yes there's danger in both worlds but dark fantasy has this omnipresence of death and destruction that normal fantasy settings tend to lack. I also find dark fantasy to be more so character-driven than plot driven. Going back to fairy tales, we might consider Little Red Riding as one of the first ever dark fantasy stories; the plot is simple, just a little girl heading home to grandma's, but it's through her ordeal with the big bad wolf where she and us learn the costly lesson to not be so naive and trusting of total strangers. This is like dark fantasy boiled down to its most simplistic but all the elements are at play: an oppressive setting, anthropomorphic antagonist, and a somber tone in its use of sickness, trickery and death. Jumping far ahead, author Neil Gaiman basically uses many of these same tropes in works like Coraline and especially The Sandman. Coraline juxtaposes a contemporary setting with the fantastical world of "the Other', and this time uses the dour tone of Coraline's reality to at first emphasize the positive traits of the other world, before turning in on its head later on in the story, all while telling a compelling coming-of-age story where Coraline learns acceptance, patience and maturity to go along with her adventurous, brash nature. The Sandman performs familiar feats with its stories but from a more adult perspective, perhaps best emphasized in the "Dream Country" arc with fantastic issues like "Calliope" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". These are poignant, human stories and I think represents a missing piece of the dark fantasy: where you could remove all elements of the fantastic and supernatural and have the stories still carry that weight and power over you.

Of course, there's still the old reliable swords-and-sorcery forms of dark fantasy that many people probably think of first: your Dungeons & Dragons (this in particular is the ultimate codifier for this genre, unfortunately I know very little about it!) Castlevanias, Witchers, Game of Thrones. This is where I think dark fantasy becomes a lot more confusing and malleable as a separate genre, the aesthetics and elements are there but I think the tone gets lost in translation a little. This is most likely just a gripe of my own, but these are more like epics with some sprinkling of darkness thrown in here and there without that personal touch that make many other dark fantasy story lines more compelling for me. They're absolutely important to the growth and mainstream popularity of the genre for sure though, and I will admit they serve as effective gateways into darker storylines and even more full-on horror material.

In the end, a genre isn't good or bad. It's a tool to use in storytelling just like anything else, and while I feel dark fantasy has gotten absolutely watered down with box office fodder like Black Death, Solomon Kane, and Season of the Witch, there will always be potential within the genre to tell the next great fable, for us to brush with pure despair and maybe come out a changed person on the other side of it: whether that's alive or dead, of course.

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Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds
https://imgur.com/1e1e70S