This ain't no place for no hero
This ain't no place for no better man
This ain't no place for no hero
To call home
This ain't no place for no better man
This ain't no place for no hero
To call home
—"Short Change Hero" by The Heavy
There's a hole in the world like a great black pit,
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,
And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit,
And it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit a privileged few,
Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo,
Turning beauty into filth and greed! I too
Have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru,
But there's no place like London!
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,
And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit,
And it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit a privileged few,
Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo,
Turning beauty into filth and greed! I too
Have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru,
But there's no place like London!
— Sweeney Todd, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
"Steel Harbor, The Last Free City™, which appears to just have random things on fire at all times."
Seth: (scoffs) Shit. I been to bars make this place look like a fuckin' 4-H club!
Richie: (less confident) I gotta say I'm with Jacob on this. I been to some fucked up places in my time, but that place is fucked up.
Richie: (less confident) I gotta say I'm with Jacob on this. I been to some fucked up places in my time, but that place is fucked up.
"Around Barker's hole in the ground a town sprang up, a wretched hive of log shacks, stores of whipsawed lumber with false fronts, saloons with pianos, mirrors and champagne..."
— Bruce Hutchinson, The Fraser. In 1950.
"I've lived in Verel. That would be the place to look for degenerates, all right."
— Mirtai, The Tamuli
"Ghaal! That seething pit of vermin! That filth brimming sinkhole of despair! In such degradation there is purity. In such ugliness there is wonder. In such death and suffering, there is life, so holy to Drakaasi for it is life that must be ended!"
— Mind Journeys of a Heretic Saint, by Inquisitor Helmandar Oswain (Suppressed by order of the Ordo Hereticus), Warhammer 40,000
"I am Omega. I'm the boss, CEO, Queen, if you're feeling dramatic. Omega has no titled ruler, and only one rule: Don't. Fuck. With Aria."
— Aria T'Loak, Mass Effect 2
"I’ve only been here for a day, but let’s start with the facts: This city is out of its fucking mind."
— Victor Talbot, Baccano!! 1711 - Whitesmile''
If you're looking for justice, you've come to the wrong place.
— Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
Black strap, Rum and gin
Sexual freedom all the way
A rolling dice, an ace of hearts
One shall win and one's to pay
— "Port Royal" by Running Wild
Kohaku: What's up, boys?
Ram: Oh, um, not much....I guess...
Kohaku: ...You sound vaguely distressed. Something up?
Ram: This is a bad place.
Igno: (to Kohaku) Oh, not much, just looking around.
Igno: (to Ram) How so?
Kohaku: (to Igno) Find anything cool?
Kohaku: (to Ram) Really? Doesn't seem that bad. It reminds me a bit of home, but that's about it.
Ram: ...I was stranded here while on Pilgrimage. I was homeless here for a long time. You do not want to be homeless on Omega. ESPECIALLY if you are a quarian.
Kohaku: That bad, huh?
Igno: (to Kohaku) Uh, not yet, didn't get much time, was busy with stuff back home.
Igno: (to Ram) Oh.
Ram: There was a mad doctor that experimented on my people while I was here.
Igno: Uhhhhh...
Ram: (nods) This is a bad place.
Kohaku: I'm sure we'll be fine. It's pretty much just a thug land, right?
Igno: Looks like it.
Ram: Oh, um, not much....I guess...
Kohaku: ...You sound vaguely distressed. Something up?
Ram: This is a bad place.
Igno: (to Kohaku) Oh, not much, just looking around.
Igno: (to Ram) How so?
Kohaku: (to Igno) Find anything cool?
Kohaku: (to Ram) Really? Doesn't seem that bad. It reminds me a bit of home, but that's about it.
Ram: ...I was stranded here while on Pilgrimage. I was homeless here for a long time. You do not want to be homeless on Omega. ESPECIALLY if you are a quarian.
Kohaku: That bad, huh?
Igno: (to Kohaku) Uh, not yet, didn't get much time, was busy with stuff back home.
Igno: (to Ram) Oh.
Ram: There was a mad doctor that experimented on my people while I was here.
Igno: Uhhhhh...
Ram: (nods) This is a bad place.
Kohaku: I'm sure we'll be fine. It's pretty much just a thug land, right?
Igno: Looks like it.
"I think that if God doesn't destroy Shanghai then He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology."
—Jake Sullivan, The Grimnoir Chronicles
You're in the place they call the night side
In the shadows where the killers and the pirates hide
Stick around if you think you can survive
In the city on the night side
In the shadows where the killers and the pirates hide
Stick around if you think you can survive
In the city on the night side
—The Sword, "Night City"
"Sometimes I think this whole city was put here simply because the gods must adore crime. Pickpockets rob the common folk, merchants rob anyone they can dupe, Capa Barsavi robs the robbers and the common folk, the lesser nobles rob nearly everyone, and Duke Nicovante occasionally runs off with his army and robs the shit out of Tal Verrar or Jerem, not to mention what he does to his own nobles and his common folk."
—Locke Lamora, The Lies of Locke Lamora
"Crime wave in Gotham!" Other breaking news: "Water, wet!"
—Perry White, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
One and a half million people lived in Juárez, most of them in indescribable poverty made all the more difficult for being endured in the shadow of El Paso's wealth. Here were smugglers of drugs and people. Here were prostitutes barely into puberty, and others who would never live long enough to see puberty. Here were the maquiladoras, the huge electrical assembly plants that provided microwaves and hair dryers to the First World, the prices kept down by paying the workers $10 a day and denying them legal protection or union representation. Outside the perimeter fences stretched row upon row of crate houses, the colonias populares without sanitation, running water, electricity or paved roads, home to the men and women who labored in the maquiladoras, the more fortunate of whom were picked up each morning by the red-and-green buses once used to ferry American children to and from school, while the rest were forced to endure the perilous early-morning walk through Sitio Colosio Valle or some similarly malodorous area. Beyond their homes lay the municipal dumps, where the scavengers made more than the factory workers. Here were the brothels of Mariscal and the shooting galleries of Ugarte Street, where young men and women injected themselves with Mexican tar, a cheap heroin derivative from Sinaloa, leaving a trail of bloodied needles in their wake. here were eight hundred gangs, each roaming the streets of the city with relative impunity, their members beyond a law that was powerless to act against them - or more properly, too corrupt to care.
It is a realm of a thousand smokes, each fouler than the rest; of clanking gears that relentlessly grind up spirits and use them for fodder; of row upon row of rotting tenements and firetrap slums. Countless factories belch smog into the already-filth air. Strip-mines ravage the muddy, eroded ground, and a few architectural abortions of office buildings provide headquarters for the Banes and Weaver-spirits that oversee the whole affair. Piles of debris and garbage make travel through the cracked alleys a slow and sometimes hazardous affair. Visitors who've survived the trip have claimed that the air is so filthy that one cannot determine whether its day or night, and that one can quickly be covered in soot simply by standing still. The emanations that exist ("live" is too noble a term) in the Scar are wan, pale phantoms that exist only to run the machines of the factories, to make sure that one spirit after another is broken down for its Gnosis. Their "lives" are a mockery of industry: 80-hour work weeks, appalling working conditions, no benefits or overtime, and no future. Punishments for "dereliction of duty" range from beatings to loss of their meager energy wage note to outright termination. These creatures work to exist and exist to work.
—Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Umbra: The Velvet Shadows
"The great Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi once said of the Tatooine spaceport, Mos Eisley, 'You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.' Apparently, Obi-Wan never visited Nar Shaddaa. Jutting ominously into darkened skies, the infamous 'vertical city' teems with galactic bog slime of the lowest variety."
— Official Prima Games Strategy Guide for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Why do we always come here?
It's such an awful place.
The whole world out there hates us,
This board is a disgrace!
It's such an awful place.
The whole world out there hates us,
This board is a disgrace!
Marty: It's like we're in Hell or something!
Doc: No, it's Hill Valley, although I can't imagine Hell being much worse.
Doc: No, it's Hill Valley, although I can't imagine Hell being much worse.
At this point, though, I've got to admit that staying in Kirkwall is foolhardy. Between the blood mages, the fascist templars, the enraged Qunari and the Chantry fanatics, this town is starting to make me feel wistful for the Darkspawn. At least they never acted like their horrors were somehow justified: when they'd slit your throat, they did it for the sheer pleasure of watching you bleed. They didn't make a speech beforehand about how it was "the right thing to do."
— SF Debris reviews Dragon Age II
Kara: I'm surprised they put [the radio station] in the bad part of town.
Barry: It's cute how you think there's a good part of town.
[heavily armored van drives up, military guards pile out to protect a man with shopping bags]
Kara: Looks like the one percenters bring the good part with them.
Oliver: This is why nobody talks about Gotham, okay? City might as well be dead.
Barry: It's cute how you think there's a good part of town.
[heavily armored van drives up, military guards pile out to protect a man with shopping bags]
Kara: Looks like the one percenters bring the good part with them.
Oliver: This is why nobody talks about Gotham, okay? City might as well be dead.
What can one say of Commorragh, the Dark City of the Eldar? It is the embodiment of anarchy and terror. It is fear, hatred and desperation incarnate. How long I was enslaved in that timeless city, I cannot say. There is no day or night, just an eternal twilight, an ever-present ruddy glow that bathes all things in blood-light. The air is filled with screams and cruel laughter. When they put out my eyes, my ears alone still conveyed the omnipresent aura of dread and loathing.
—Warhammer 40,000: Codex - Dark Eldar (2nd ed)
"There he goes again! The casket maker. Only guy in town making any money. Can't make coffins fast enough. It's best not to have any gamblers at all. One boss to a town we can tolerate, but two is a disaster. Only the casket maker profits from that. Knock it off, you bastard!"
—Genji, Yojimbo
"Perhaps you have already observed that in Casablanca human life is cheap."
—Major Heinrich Strasser, Casablanca
"Remember, we in the Bronx live with death!"
—Ann, 1990: The Bronx Warriors
It's Always Night in the Nightside. It's always three o'clock in the morning, and the dawn never comes. People are always coming and going, drawn by needs that dare not speak their names, searching for pleasures and services unforgivable in the sane, daylight world. You can buy or sell anything in the Nightside, and no-one asks questions. No-one cares. There's a nightclub where you can pay to see a fallen angel forever burning inside a pentacle drawn in baby's blood. Or a decapitated goat's head, that can tell the future in enigmatic verses of perfect iambic pentameter. There's a room where silence is caged, and colours are forbidden, and another where a dead nun will show you her stigmata, for the right price. She didn't rise again, after all, but she'll still let you stick your fingers in the blood-caked holes, if you want. Everything you ever feared or dreamed of is running loose somewhere in the shifting streets of the Nightside, or waiting patiently for you in the expensive private rooms of patrons-only clubs. You can find anything in the Nightside, if it doesn't find you first. It's a sick, magical, dangerous place. You still want to go there?
— John Taylor, Something From The Nightside
The winds of this city are a more melancholy breed. They explore like lost souls, looking in at dusty gaslit windows. We are brethren, the city-winds and I. We wander together.
We have found sleeping beggars that clutch each other and congeal for warmth like lower creatures, forced back down evolutionary strata by their poverty. We have seen the city's night-porters fish the dead from the rivers. Dark-suited militia tugging with hooks and poles at bloated bodies with eyes ripped from their heads, the blood set and gelatinous in their sockets. We have watched mutant creatures crawl from sewers into cold flat starlight and whisper shyly to each other, drawing maps and messages in the faecal mud. I have sat with the wind at my side and seen cruel things, wicked things.
—Yagharek on New Crobuzon, Perdido Street Station
"Death is just like life in Sin City. It always wins."
—John Hartigan, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
"This rotten town... It soils everybody."
—Nancy Callahan, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Your city gave me asthma
So that's why I'm fucking leaving
And your water gave me cancer
And the pavement hurt my feelings
So that's why I'm fucking leaving
And your water gave me cancer
And the pavement hurt my feelings
— Wilbur Soot, "Jubilee Line"
The splendid and vivid neon décor gives the area a sense of grandeur. However, the aged skyscrapers are covered in graffiti. There's garbage piles all over, and the people look battered and weary of it all. The whole place looks so degenerate. It's somewhat unique in how lively it is despite its awful state. The greatest illegal nano factory in Asia, the base of an armed cult, a tax haven, a data pirate nest... Suzushiro is something else.
"People look at you and think of how wonderful your future will be. They want you to be something special... like a... a doctor or a lawyer. I hate to tell you this, but if you grow up here, you're more likely to wind up selling your bodies on the streets, or shooting dope from dirty needles in a bus stop. And if you're successful, you'll make money selling junk to crackheads. And you won't think twice about killing someone's wife, because you won't even know what was wrong in the first place. Or, maybe... you'll end up like me - a hobo with a shotgun."
—The Hobo, Hobo with a Shotgun“There are no laws here, so watch it.”
"You care about justice? Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. People talk about the depression as if it's history, and it's not. Things are worse than ever down here. Falcone floods our streets with crime and drugs, preying on the desperate, creating new Joe Chills every day. Falcone may not have killed your parents, Bruce, but he's destroying everything they stood for. You wanna thank him for that? Here you go. We all know where to find him, but as long as he keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared, no one will touch him. Good people like your parents who will stand against injustice, they're gone. What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?"
—Rachel Dawes, Batman Begins
"Gotham's time has come. Like Constantinople or Rome before it, the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die."
—Ra's al-Ghul, Batman Begins
"You know what Mega City One is, Dredd? It's a fucking meat grinder. People go in one end, and meat comes out the other. All we do is turn the handle."
—Judge Lex, Dredd
Michael Emerson: Is there any jobs around here?
Stranger: Nothing legal.
Stranger: Nothing legal.
"In 2077, they voted my city the worst place to live in America. Main issues? Sky high rate of violence and more people living below the poverty line than anywhere else. Can’t deny it; it’s all true..."
— V, Cyberpunk 2077
Imagine the worst scenes of Dickensian London and soak it with a sooty, smoggy, constant drizzle. Now, add to that an appalling level of governmental oppression and religious and supernatural dread. Multiply that by two, and you’ll come close to imagining just how bad things are in Dunwall.
"There is no Law on New Hong Kong."
— The Law of New Hong Kong.
"Welcome to New Hong Kong. There are no laws here, so watch it."
— Welcome sign
at New Hong Kong spaceport, Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire
at New Hong Kong spaceport, Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire"You know what I got in TJ last time I was there? Stabbed. Know what I was doing? Buying a churro."
If I was y'all wouldn't come around here
I watched folks get popped 'cause they ain't from around here
Man stay with the stizzy 'cause I'm from around here
And not even the cops come around here
So if you hit the ambulance it don't come around here
Now y'all stuck, not even cabs, they don't run around here
If y'all hungry, pizza-man, he don't come around here
And I dare Jehovas Witness to knock around here
When the pistols pop, pop, people drop around here
And even toppa top getting popped around here
Whips get stolen they never gettin towed around here
Stay in the news, but never nuthin' new around here
Pistol packed, sit back, and what'cha do around here
But it ain't my fault my momma made us move around here, man
If you ain't never been to the ghetto man
Don't ever come to the ghetto man
I watched folks get popped 'cause they ain't from around here
Man stay with the stizzy 'cause I'm from around here
And not even the cops come around here
So if you hit the ambulance it don't come around here
Now y'all stuck, not even cabs, they don't run around here
If y'all hungry, pizza-man, he don't come around here
And I dare Jehovas Witness to knock around here
When the pistols pop, pop, people drop around here
And even toppa top getting popped around here
Whips get stolen they never gettin towed around here
Stay in the news, but never nuthin' new around here
Pistol packed, sit back, and what'cha do around here
But it ain't my fault my momma made us move around here, man
If you ain't never been to the ghetto man
Don't ever come to the ghetto man
—My Hood, Suni Clay
"Cadmendoh is a pustule of a planet. A breeding ground of criminal scum. One time I suggested we clean it out with a meteor shower. The Guardians thought I was kidding."
— Thaal Sinestro, Green Lantern: First Flight
Jock: So what's next on the [scavenger] list?
Nerd: Um...(reads)...another crack pipe.
Jock: What the fuck are the odds of us finding another crack- oh, there's one right there.
Nerd: Um...(reads)...another crack pipe.
Jock: What the fuck are the odds of us finding another crack- oh, there's one right there.
— "Every Grade 7 School Field Trip...", Liam Dowling
, Liam DowlingThe Emperor of Mankind: If there is one place you do not want to find yourself alone, it is that place. If the galaxy was a run-down town, Commorragh would be the local nightclub-turned-insane asylum.
"The city of Townsville! ...Is in some serious, serious, serious trouble. Day after day, crime, lawlessness, and evil are running rampant. Its citizens have lost all hope. They are utterly helpless, and in desperate need of a true hero."
New Orleans, Home of pirates, drunks, and whores
New Orleans
Tacky overpriced souvenir stores
If you want to go to Hell, you should take a trip
To the Sodom and Gomorra on the Mississipi
New Orleans
Stinky, rotten, vomiting, vile
New Orleans
Putrid, brackish, maggoty, foul
New Orleans
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank
New Orleans
New Orleans
Tacky overpriced souvenir stores
If you want to go to Hell, you should take a trip
To the Sodom and Gomorra on the Mississipi
New Orleans
Stinky, rotten, vomiting, vile
New Orleans
Putrid, brackish, maggoty, foul
New Orleans
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank
New Orleans
— ''The Simpsons", "A Streetcar Named Marge"
