This simple concept has created many tropes in fiction, although this index is just for tropes that actually relate to lack of light, not metaphorical meanings of "dark" and "shadow" (unless a trope involves both the literal and metaphorical meanings).
Compare Evil Tropes, Horror Tropes, Tropes in Black. Contrast Lighting Tropes.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch Silhouette
- Barrage of Bats: Dakness-aligned users are able to call upon swarms of bats as a type of darkness attack.
- Big Shadow, Little Creature
- Blackground: For areas where a pitch-black background is used for artistic reasons.
- Blackout Basement: A stock video game level that is constantly being plunged into darkness.
- Brightness Shadows: Shadows used to indicate brightness.
- Casting a Shadow: Darkness as part of the Elemental Powers.
- Casts No Shadow: Where the shadow should be, it isn't.
- Censor Shadow: Using shadows in place of a Censor Box.
- Chiaroscuro: Light and shadows as a visual artistic tool.
- Creepy Cave: Caves derive much of their creep factor from their impenetrable darkness.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: The area around a character's eyes is darkened to make them look scary.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes
- Dark Is Evil
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Dark World
- Darkness Equals Death
- The Darkness Gazes Back
- Emerging from the Shadows
- Evil Is Not Well-Lit
- Face Framed in Shadow
- Fade Around the Eyes
- Full Moon Silhouette
- God of Darkness
- Hollywood Darkness
- Impossible Shadow Puppets
- Innate Night Vision
- Kill the Lights
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition
- Lightning Reveal (In that what is revealed was in darkness before)
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies
- Lightswitch Surprise
- Living Shadow
- Looming Silhouette of Rage
- Matchlight Danger Revelation (In that what is revealed was in darkness before)
- The Night That Never Ends
- Night-Vision Goggles: Goggles that allow the user to see in the darkness.
- Nothing Is Scarier: It's not the darkness that scares you. It's not knowing what's IN the darkness.
- Nice Day, Deadly Night (Things get more dangerous at night)
- Power of the Void
- The Sacred Darkness: When Dark Is Not Evil, it can be holy as well.
- Scary Flashlight Face
- Scary Shadow Fakeout
- Sexy Silhouette
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes
- Shadow Discretion Shot
- The Shadow Knows
- Shadow of Impending Doom
- Shadow Pin
- Shadow Walker
- Sinister Silhouettes
- Sound of Darkness
- Step into the Blinding Fight
- Tendrils of Darkness
- Yin-Yang Bomb: A combination of dark and light.
