Basic Trope: A tragic event that leads a character to lose hope.
- Straight: Bob kills Alan, which causes his sister Claire to lose all hope.
- Exaggerated:
- Claire loses hope to such a degree that she commits suicide.
- Claire loses hope to such a degree that she becomes a Straw Nihilist.
- All of Claire's friends and family die, on the same day she loses her house and her ability to walk. She becomes morbidly depressed.
- Downplayed:
- Cynicism Catalyst
- Heroic BSoD
- Took a Level in Cynic
- Break the Cutie
- Claire becomes a Knight in Sour Armor.
- Justified:
- Fate has dealt Claire a losing hand. It's natural to feel that things will never get better.
- Claire found out that the cause (religious, political or otherwise) that she dedicated her entire life to was built on lies.
- Claire was already having a hard time. Alan's death was just the last straw that broke the camel's back.
- Inverted:
- The death of Alan motivates Claire to live life to the fullest.
- While Claire lost hope ages ago, once the villain is defeated, she manages to recover some of it.
- Alice gives birth to Bob, which causes Claire to lose all hope.
- Claire was already contemplating suicide, but then Alice gives birth to Bob, and Claire gets better.
- Subverted:
- Darkest Hour - Claire starts to lose all hope after Bob kills Alan, but gets better.
- Claire gets on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and murders Bob for avenging her brother.
- Double Subverted:
- ...except it was all an act, and she really has crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
- After murdering Bob as a cold-blooded revenge, Claire has become a shell of her former self.
- Parodied:
- Bob steals Alan's pencil, which causes Claire to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Claire spills her milk, which causes her to lose all hope.
- Zig Zagged: Mood Whiplash.
- Averted: Nothing traumatic happens to Claire.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "I'll never feel happiness again."
- Invoked: Bob deliberately kills someone close to Claire to break her.
- Exploited: ... and attacks her once her guard is down.
- Defied: Claire refuses to give up hope, knowing that things will get better through time.
- Discussed: "Ever since Alan got killed, his sister Claire's not done anything but sit there, and she barely eats!"
- Conversed: "We need to show the heroine at her lowest so we can develop her character and have her recover as a stronger person."
- Implied:
- Claire is shown to go through a traumatic experience, and even after a six-month Time Skip she's still not feeling any better.
- Claire goes through a traumatic event, and despite not seeming like she's not healing, her browsing history shows she's suffering from suicidal thoughts.
- Deconstructed: Because Claire has lost all hope, this eventually leads her to adopt an extremely cynical mindset which would then cause her to go beyond the Moral Event Horizon alienating those who cared for her.
- Reconstructed: Sometimes, Despair Event Horizon is exactly what someone needs to break free from a Yank the Dog's Chain-style Epiphanic Prison, and to move on.
- Played For Laughs: She just lives the rest of her life in fetal position.
- Played For Drama: Claire completely gives up on life and abandons all hope as a result of a long Trauma Conga Line, and from there, she will either commit suicide, alienate herself and go insane, or crosses the Moral Event Horizon and commits Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Played For Horror: Alan served as Claire's Morality Chain, constantly stepping in to keep her worst impulses in check and prevent her from doing something rash. Bob ends up realizing too late that Alan was the one thing keeping Claire from butchering people, and in her despair-fueled rage, she brutally maims Bob, almost killing him (or even actually doing him in and Pummeling the Corpse right after), all while she alternates between Cry Laughing and a Death Wail. All her teammates can do is watch, horrified at what's transpiring and unsure if they should intervene.
Oh no! It's the end of the page! How can we continue on past this point? Well, we could go back to Despair Event Horizon.
