issue 8 // volume 43

The glory of grimdark fantasy

> They're brutal, bloody, and brilliantly entertaining

Caroline Ho
Arts Editor

 

he subgenre of “grimdark” probably

seems a bit self-explanatory based
on the term itself. It’s a category of
speculative fiction—usually fantasy—
that’s unapologetically gritty, unromantic,
and depraved in very human ways. What
its novels lack in moral messages and
optimism, they more than compensate
for with cynicism and gratuitous
violence. At first glance, grimdark and
supernatural horror or dark fantasy
might seem to have considerable
overlap, but we can usually draw a few
(nebulous) distinctions between them.
Horror tends to aim at shocking and
scaring the reader, and mostly deals with
supernatural aspects that actively work
against the protagonists. In grimdark
on the other hand, the main forces
acting against the characters are often
their own tormented personalities.

I love epic fantasy, but anyone

who’s familiar with the genre has to
acknowledge that it’s full of tropes—
orphaned, prophesied heroes, and wise,
wizardly mentor characters pitted against
the Bad Guy in a heroic light-vanquishes-
dark quest. Instead, grimdark gives you
bitter old veterans, self-satisfied cowards,
unsympathetic bigots, sociopaths, and
sadists. Stories are usually constructed
to consciously subvert fantasy tropes.
This isn’t to say that grimdark precludes
fantastic elements, and in a lot of books
and series, the setting, systems of magic,
and scope of conflict are just as epic
as your traditional fantasy. However,
characters are often apathetic about the

 

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The seemingly predominant theme of
this series is one that the characters
themselves grapple with repeatedly:

the question of evil and relativity. The
Company is tasked with combatting the
Rebel, a resistance army fighting against
the oppressive reign of the Lady; but
it’s clear that the Rebel is no force of
virtue either, and both Rebel and Lady
are probably less manifestly terrible
than the Lady’s long-dormant husband,
the Dominator. Is there such a thing as

enough divergence from the Tolkien
or C. S. Lewis brand of fantasy, given
the levels of violence, rape, and
seemingly-excessive human cruelty.
Other fantasy writers usually labelled
as archetypal grimdark authors are
Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie.
Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy
follows one of the most unforgivingly
brutal protagonists you could find,
13-year-old Jorg Ancrath, who leads
a band of thugs and murderers and

YouTube music video classics:
‘Dangerous Woman’

> Ariana Grande’s suggestive and empowering videos

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

Aw Grande has a successful
career right now, from being in
the live version of Hairspray and her
successful recent album Dangerous
Woman. The 23-year-old singer will

be doing a concert in Rogers Arena on
March 24. In anticipation of the concert,
here is a retrospective review of all

of the music videos from Dangerous
Woman. If you watch the music videos
back to back, it can almost be seen

as a visual version of the album.

Side to Side
There is a lot of interesting dancing in
this one, and Nicki Minaj collaborates

with Grande again. The music video,

: also directed by Davis, involves Grande

exercising with various girls in a gym

The first half of the video is especially

elaborate. Nicki Minaj does her thing,
and she is still great. Everyone in it

shows that they have girl power.

@ bit.ly/sidebysideOP

Everyday
The music video of the most recent hit single from the album is currently the
number one music video on iTunes, and it definitely causes a reaction. Directed
by Chris Marris Piliero, we see Grande go around town, and watch various
couples kissing. While everyone around her reacts in a surprised way to that,
she lets them do their thing and cheers them on. The people kissing are very
diverse, and the video is inclusive. It shows that anyone can be with anyone.
The song also features rapper Future, who we see in the video in an office.

@ bit.ly/EverydayOP

Let Me Love You
Grande talks about her breakup with
Big Sean in this video, which also
features Lil Wayne. Directed by Grant

and handheld camerawork, and we see
Lil Wayne give her dating advice. Just

: like the previous music video, she looks bt
: towards the camera which allows you to : :

get close with her. As the music video

to do next. Grande and Lil Wayne also
have a bit of fun near the end of it.

Y bit.ly/LetMeOP

arts // no. 7

commands their respect by being the
most thuggish and murderous of them
all. Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy is
probably the most brilliant example of
a clever subversion of fantasy tropes—
featuring wise old wizards, adventuring
(anti)heroes, and plot twist after plot
twist that leaves you repeatedly feeling
like everything that you love about the
fantasy genre is trite and meaningless.

A lot of the biggest fantasy series
in recent years have been labelled as
grimdark: R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of
Nothing, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book
of the Fallen, Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen
Bastards, and many more. The popularity
no doubt stems from ASolaF in part, and
the trends of publishers to promote books
with similar atmospheres in the hopes
of similar success. And, of course, with
every big artistic or literary trend, plenty
of critics out there claim that grimdark is
too much of a broadly-applied buzzword,
that the genre’s oversaturated, or that all
of this morbidity and moral degradation
is probably corrupting our kids.

So why read grimdark, if it seems to
be nothing but corrupted, self-loathing
characters and nihilistic themes?

Why read any piece of literature that
challenges, provokes, and explores the
most despicable traits of humanity?
Maybe because there’s something
morbidly fascinating and undeniably
meritorious in entering the minds of the
twisted and tormented, whatever the
genre. To anyone who's tired of hearing
fantasy regarded as fluffy escapism,

a retreat from “real” problems into a
world where everything is rainbows
and a bit of spellcasting solves any
problem, grimdark is the answer.

Dangerous Woman
The music video of the title song,

directed by The Young Astronauts, is

: Singer, we follow Grande with close-ups : ! shown in the form of a VHS tape. We see ;

Grande in a bed doing various things,
making it seem like you're watching
your girlfriend. Throughout the music

video, we see her looking towards the

: : : camera. The song talks about not being :
> progresses, she starts to figure out what : : :

afraid to do anything, and it is one of

her favourite songs on the album.

@ bit.ly/DangerWomanOP

Into You
The least suggestive music video of the album has a lot of interesting time lapse
visuals. Directed by the singer’s regular collaborator, Hannah Lux Davis, Grande
spends time with someone in the Honeymoon Inn. In the second half of the
video, we find out that she is dating a security guard. The music video of the song
is similar to the music video of Love Me Harder because of its visuals. The scene
when they play with the animal crackers reminded me of a scene in the movie
Armageddon (1998). Also, we see product placement for Bellini cocktails.

Y bit.ly/IntoYouOP