By definition once you pass an event horizon, you cannot return, so we should remove all entries where the character got better
Edited by giveup Hide / Show Replies
I agree. And there is only a single incident. You can't become broken forever several times. Strong candidate for extensive cleanup.
I think some examples where the character gets better are acceptable, but only if it takes something drastic — that is, if it's clear that they couldn't recover without outside intervention. (If we only allow examples where the character actually never recovers, the scope might be overly narrow.)
The examples definitely need to be cleaned up, though, because it's become way too broad in scope. I see lots of examples of a character just being sad for a short period of time, or periodically expressing melancholy. Some of this stuff wouldn't even qualify as mild depression, much less a total loss of hope.
Edited by Enthryn
Thank you! You've pointed out exactly what's been bothering me about this article! The title implies that you go over this and you never come back from it. So a number of examples don't really fit in, and should be removed.
Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!
A couple examples:
I'd say that in The Count of Monte Cristo, when Dantes gives up on being freed and almost starves himself to death, that counts (pun not intended), even though he does eventually start thinking about escape instead. It's clear that he feels totally hopeless and willing to die, and it takes Faria's intervention to get him thinking about escape instead.
On the other hand, the Lion King Adventures example says that Simba loses all hope in Series Four, but then gets over it. He loses hope again in The End. I haven't read it so I can't really judge, but this sounds more like Heroic BSOD than Despair Event Horizon to me.
Edited by Elenna123
I don't understand why the quote about the anime guy who is always freaking out about something new qualifies for this trope at all.
The comparison quote is aware of 30,000 people dieing, a singular mind-warping event. This guy freaks out regularly over (topical noun here). They are not the same thing.
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I agree. I edited out that quote.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Grin and tonic
Not sure if certain scenes from the F.E.A.R. series belong here, for example
- FEAR extraction point - where the pointman is apparently bleeding to death as the city lies in ruins
- The end of FEAR 2 - all of you team is (probably) dead and you just unwilligy fathered the bloody Antichrist
- The fact that donwned aircraft become quite common - no one is coming to help you
I'm sensing that this is something rather similar to "The Despair Code".
I found this page from Google after searching for the code, and so I figured this page might be an interesting read. It was. There are many sides to all of these codes, the Despair mainly, and each one is a beautiful base of information. I've written a piece on what the code of despair is on my website, which is linked below, if anyone is interested.
http://www.aristocrat.cash/2017/06/the-despair-code-pi.html
Part two:
http://www.aristocrat.cash/2017/06/the-despair-code-pii.html
Let me know what you guys think, especially if this contributed to you uncovering more on this subject. ^^
I write over at www.aristocrat.cash - I hope to meet a few people in this community to give me something to stay for; you all seem so nice.