"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."
— Edmund Burke
Tropes that deal with the horrible feeling of having lost all hope.
Compare Cynicism Tropes, Sadness Tropes, Apathy Index. Contrast Hope Index.
Categories:
- Break the Badass: A badass character has an emotional breakdown.
- Break the Believer: A character's strongly-held belief is shattered.
- Break the Comedian: A comedic character is traumatized into losing their sense of humour.
- Break the Cutie: A sweet and lovable character goes through a Trauma Conga Line.
- Break the Haughty: An arrogant character goes through hell.
- Broken Bird: A (usually) sympathetic female character who became cynical or stoic to cover emotional trauma.
- Confidence Sabotage: Intentionally making someone doubt their abilities.
- Dance of Despair: Dancing to deal with a distressing situation.
- Darkest Hour: The moment in a story when all hope seems lost.
- Death by Despair: A character is so filled with despair it causes them to die.
- Despair Event Horizon: The moment a character completely loses hope.
- Despair Gambit: A villain intentionally tries to drive the hero towards the Despair Event Horizon because they can't defeat them directly.
- Despair Speech: A speech made by a character expressing that they've lost all hope.
- Desperately Craves Affection: A character who very badly wants to be loved; not getting it can cause feelings of despair.
- Desperation Attack: If a character is about to lose a fight, they become more powerful as a last-ditch effort.
- Devastating Remark: Someone says something that leaves another person an emotional wreck.
- Driven to Suicide: A character is so consumed by despair they take their own life.
- Dumb Struck: A traumatised character is unable to talk.
- Face Death with Despair: When facing death, a character breaks down in hopelessness.
- Heroic BSoD: A heroic character has a temporary breakdown after experiencing something traumatic.
- Hope Crusher: A villain who specializes in taking hope away from other characters.
- Hope Is Scary: A character is afraid to feel hopeful again.
- Hope Spot: Things start looking up, only for that hope to be swiftly taken away.
- I Should Have Been Better: A character thinks they weren't good enough, even if they did their best.
- Laughing Mad: Sometimes, the only thing left to do when a character's lost everything is to slip into laughing uncontrollably, though there's no mirth to be found.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The ruined or destroyed remnants of a once-great civilization.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Repeated trauma, losses, betrayals and so on caused this character to hate other people.
- Main Character Final Boss: The main character hits despair point and ends up becoming the final boss.
- Mangst: A subtle display of despair from tough characters.
- My Greatest Failure: The one failure or mistake that haunts a character throughout their life.
- Pacifism Breaking Point: A Pacifist is forced to accept the fact that peace with an opposing party is no longer possible.
- Perfection Is Addictive
- Perfection Is Static: Never-ending perfection leads to torturous boredom and depression.
- Personal Horror: A character feels alienated from their sense of self, often due to betraying a deeply held value or belief.
- Post-Historical Trauma: A character is filled with horror and despair after learning of a historical tragedy or atrocity.
- Safety in Indifference: A character acts apathetic because caring about things is too painful.
- Safe Zone Hope Spot: An area that is supposed to be safe during a crisis turns out to not be, or rapidly becomes unsafe shortly after arrival.
- Separated by the Wall: Two characters who love each other are physically and symbolically separated by a wall.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: A cynical character who thinks being idealistic is childish.
- Stopped Caring: A character thinks nothing they do matters and so stops caring.
- Straw Nihilist: An extreme depiction of an existential nihilist.
- Suicidal Sadistic Choice: Someone is offered a Sadistic Choice between killing themselves or something equally bad, if not worse.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: A character (usually a villain) wants to kill themselves and take everyone else with them.
- Symbolic Serene Submersion: A character floats limp in the water to represent their despair.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: A character having a breakdown stares off into the distance.
- Too Broken to Break: A character so broken that anything can't be done now that could affect them.
- Too Injured to Save: A character tries to save a dying comrade, even when they know it's useless.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A character who is tormented too much snaps.
