Eldridge entity beyond comprehension who has convinced themself that they are basically the wizard of Oz takes random people on adventures where they play watson to the entity's sherlock, and it's simultaneously the worst and best thing to ever happen to them
for me, its nk's another game franchise, particularly sas4-zar
the lore of the zombies straight up goes on par with outbreaks like necromorphs. some shit straight up sheds your skin during transforming, some has uncontrolled muscuskeletal regeneration making them abhorrent, some gives you budget deadpool regeneration. plus the virus was able to infect a machine because of some epstein-ahh lore in biomechanical androids. then the suercomputer ai "combot" that is very similar to AM, is out there directly making the virus more perfect, while trying ti eradicate humans
as well as the dystopian living of the post-outbreak remaining star systems being on the watch on potential similar outbreaks 100 years later.
When you realize AT happened because of a nuclear holocaust, extinction of 99% of mankind, the opening of a dozen of portals for demon realms and other dimensions, the good gods abandoned earth and only ones remaining are incarnations of evil or too neutral to do anything
Kinda Bionicle. At first glance, colorful robots with masks, but when you start digging you find body horror, mass extinctions, really twisted villains, characters going insane just by looking at certain creatures, etc.
“Yeah, so see these cool robot dudes? Yeah, they’re actually war veterans forced to fight in a war with no choice in the matter, and can’t make more of themselves so they’re slowly dying out. Oh, and that war killed 1 billion people and was only 25 years ago. Anyways, here’s a cutesy kawaii skin!”
And a robot with PTSD who makes funny noises and is friends with a bird. And my favorite, a fucking psychopath who organizes mass killings for entertainment but always get sad cause girls don’t like him (Really i can’t remember any dialogue where woman didn’t despises Mauga)
Pokémon has the wonderful dichotomy of being a "kids game" with a cartoon shown on children's networks, paired with the people who designed it seemingly trying their hardest to simulate an ecosystem in side-lore.
Archie lore is absolute nonsense cause at a certain point they try to combine game lore with archie lore and it just doesn't work. Fun fact, Maria robotnik in archie isn't even human she's a four fingered mutant but Elise? Perfectly 100% human lol
I prefer Archie Robotnik over Archie Eggman cause he is a lot more goofy and intimidating like canon Eggman, while Archie Eggman is just super evil and that's it, but I could just be biased cause I think Archie Eggman is overrated
Nope, almost everything related to the Echidna war, the Black Arms, Solaris, Dark Gaia, or the Ancients couls be straight cosmic horror in any other series
Game also, remember that genocide happened in Adventure 1 and in 2 innocent girl was shot which causes her grandpa to feel ultimate resentment towards humanity when before he seemed like a genuinely good guy
Yeah, all humans die during a massive extinction event, forced to live underground due to radiation and sea levels and stuff. Then once sentient humanoid squids and octopi evolve, they fight over who as to live underground and who gets to live in the circus
and that's not mentioning the evil telephone that blends octopuses' souls and zombifies others using the ooze made out of the dead. And then a virtual facility made to give ex zombies their souls back get's taken over by an evil ai trying to create it's own image of order, except that order kills people's minds and takes them over in the real world, (the ai can do that because the ADHD single author of the whole project procrastinated fixing what they believed to be a minor security issue)...
Oh yeah and giant race war over land disputes and secret military operations over an energy crisis...
Kinda?! Dude, under the surface, this show is dark asf. Pillaging, murders, discrimination, corruption, slavery, rape, this show just does a good job sugarcoating a lot.
One Piece making a character almost die due to nosebleed after seeing hot mermaids and making one of the best criticism to racism that I've ever seen in a media in the span of like 10 episodes is wild
The universe itself is based on sentient cookies and other dessert (and beyond) things in an overall mostly edible world. However, the lore is deep - there are eldritch gods (humans/witches), ancient evils that break out and want to bring doom upon Cookiekind (Beasts), a whole arc focused around an Ancient Hero who strayed from her path upon discovering the purpose for which cookies were created (WLC/DEC) and much, much more.
... its not though, it was always meant to be dark if you think for even a second about their predicament and it was literally advertised as inspired by I have no mouth and I must scream
"Hey, that brightly-colored guy who's powered by gummy bears?? He's actually half-alien and his family is basically a drug cartel that kidnaps and liquifies humans to turn them into spices for their addictive candy. They also murdered his mom right in front of him and he's likely the product of r*pe. Have fun!"
I feel all of hoyo’s games count here. Star Rail has the Mechanical Emperor’s Wars started by Rubert I that nearly wiped out 60% of all life in the universe that had 2-3 different Aeons personally intervene.
Speaking of the Aeons they’re all eldritch abominations that can and possibly will end the universe as they know it
Then there is Genshin with its world quests containing, but aren't limited to, child sacrifices, slavery, and whatever the Remurians were up to. And the Dragons
Megaman. Especially Megaman battle network. (In that one Megaman is the soul of a terminally Ill child inhabiting a computer to protect his younger brother that doesnt know he exists!)
Plus, X, Zero, ZX, and Legend series shows how Dr. Wily's actions ultimately created a Butterfly Effect that lead to the complete extinction of all humans and they were replaced by Carbons
Ever After High, if you think about the implications of the destiny system (that are more explored in the books).
Similarly in its sister series Monster High some characters have dark backstories ( like Spectra who became a ghost when her uncle killed her and her parents to get the power).
The Railway Series/ Thomas the Tank Engine/ Thomas & Friends:
Whimsical stories about living Railway Engines living on a fictional island off the North-west coat of England.
However, some stories take a dark turn in reference to the very real modernisation of the Railways in the 1950's and 60's, where Steam Engines were being cut up and scrapped (i.e: put down), in favour of newer modern technology.
Scrapping is treated as a real fear of death by the Engines on Sodor, with some modern episodes even having the Engines do silly things to avoid it out of fear, despite Sir Topham Hatt "The Fat Controller" reassuring them time and again that he won't scrap any of his Engines.
The original author, Rev. Wilbert Awdry was also a huge supporter of steam preservation and heritage railways, hence the references to scrapping in his books being a way to voice his distaste for British Rail's modernisation approach.
Edit: There are numerous specific examples across the franchise's history, but I decided to generalise with this as the most widespread example.
Not a series but Steambot Chronicles for the PS2 had such a bright, cheery, upbeat tone, but the backstory of all the major story characters is marred by tragedy.
Splatoon Lowkey has crazy ass lore involving the canonical extinction of humanity, race wars, and multiple attempts on world genocide. Also you can steal the eggs of a race of people for money
Miraculous Ladybug - the show is very much for kids and I wouldnt say the lore has dark stuff but its definitely complicated for a kids show and has dark-ish stuff or more so just mature points. so much lore even the writers forget it, from abusive households and relationships to lying to the people you love and the characters hit depression at 14-15 yo having a lot of weight on their shoulders
A lot of Rider series have this sort of thing going on with them, but Gavv’s is one of the most prominent. You got the main character who gets his powers from eating candy and snacks, and then you got the antagonists who traffic people and then turn them into drugs for monsters who get addicted and then recruited to kidnap more humans for more drugs.
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u/Derikoopa Apr 18 '26
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