Ifs ands or buts

It just got lucky, it was a video game

Even if I did accept the argument that Warhammer 40,000 and Space Marine 2 got lucky, that does not stem the flow of dark stories that has made companies rich, hit after hit. The Walking Dead, Black Mirror, Game of Thrones, West World, Squid Game. There are also the other ones I have mentioned above like Godzilla, and Gundam.

Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849 the American civil war was 1861 to 1865

In literature nothing cleanly starts or ends. No one would dare assume all men or women are alike. In the same way poets are not all of one hivemind and genres change immediately, though we may teach it that way, what we are actually teaching is what the fad or trend was for that time, whether it be romanticism or realism or something else. We see people try something different occasionally, and maybe it catches on. Sometimes they invent new genres by trying something new. And while yes, it could be demonstrated that Edar Allan Poe’s writings could not be directly connected to the tragedy of the civil war, that does not mean that there was no tragedy to be had.

“Edgar Allan Poe wrote ‘The Raven’ during a difficult period in his life. His wife, Virginia, was suffering from tuberculosis, Poe was struggling to make money as an unknown writer, and he began drinking heavily and picking fights with coworkers and other writers. It’s easy to see how he could have conjured the dark and melancholy mood of ‘The Raven.’” says Christine Sarikas of Prep Scholar.

It is not a far leap to suggest that Edgar Allan Poe wrote this dark, and now famous poem, to help channel what grimness he was feeling at the time.

Robert Frost was not only into Existentialism.

Robert Frost was into Naturalism, though with an Existentialist twist. Even though Robert Frost does explore other themes in his works such as the barriers men create in “Mending Wall”, the majority of his works convey imagery of empty nature. There is very much darkness that can be extrapolated from the emptiness and aloneness he conveys in his poetry.

America is always in a war, America has always had dark writers

Between Vietnam and Desert Storm, and multiple campaigns fighting the War on Terror, I can understand the point of view that America has warlike tendencies every few decades. However, might I also point out that America also has suffered a “great” recession, a pandemic, and for dessert, political turmoil. None of this stops the American public from feeling anxiety or tension, if anything it only encourages more it! These bottled-up negative emotions only pave the way for more writers and directors to therapeutically express their fears on paper and sometimes make a lump some of money doing so. When the general public feels down about the things around them, we can see a general acceptance of these stories and movies by their popularity and profit.

If war hammer has always been dark, why hasn’t it taken off until now

There were plenty of dark events between 1980 and now, therefore it had the chance to become big for a long time between then and now. Because it hadn’t then, it must either be a coincidence or is big now for another reason instead. I would respond by saying that there is one key difference between then and now and that is our pop culture had changed dramatically and therefore what is acceptable. Thanks to popular superhero movies of the 2000s through the 2010s paving the way, traditionally nerdier media such as Game of Thrones could now be an acceptable pastime for non-nerdy people to watch. I am modest of course, as Game of Thrones was an HBO blockbuster that had people on the edge of their seat every episode and leaving on a note that made people excitedly ready to devour the next episode, to the point they did not want to wait. The advent of nerd culture becoming pop culture in modern society has replaced the trends of past such as 80s action movies. In the 1980 it was widely accepted that nerds would be bullied for the media they consumed as well as other things like their appearance. Even I got teased for liking nerdy stuff that is now considered cool or nostalgic. “Nerd culture is pop culture” is what has enabled media like Warhammer to come into the spotlight, and because it is dark, amusing, or maybe even resonate in a few ironic instances with people who see the world as a dark place.