The movies / shows that you'd want to see but could never happen

[Fencers]

Do you have a place you can quote that defines a grimdark story as a grimdark narrative as that? Or is that you just your definition of it?

Story and narrative are not the same thing either. Narrative is the order of events into a plot, to tell a story.

The definition of narrative is thus; 1. a spoken or written account of connected events; a story; 2. the practice or art of telling stories; 3. a representation of a particular situation or process in such a way as to reflect or conform to an overarching set of aims or values.

Story is defined as such; 1. an account of incidents or events; 2. a statement regarding the facts pertinent to a situation in question 3. a fictional narrative shorter than a novel; specifically, short story; 4. the intrigue or plot of a narrative or dramatic work 5. a widely circulated rumor

All stories are narratives but not all narratives are stories.

As a subgenre, Grimdark is described as having the qualities; a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style or setting of speculative fiction (especially fantasy) that is, depending on the definition used, markedly dystopian or amoral, or particularly violent or realistic. The word was inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."

To which the cited authorial examples are; "where nobody is honourable and Might is Right", and as "the standard way of referring to fantasies that turn their backs on the more uplifting, Pre-Raphaelite visions of idealized medievaliana, and instead stress how nasty, brutish, short and, er, dark life back then 'really' was."

"Shorthand for a subgenre of fantasy fiction that claims to trade on the psychology of those sword-toting heroes, and the dark realism behind all those kingdom politics"

"A retreat into the valorisation of darkness for darkness's sake, into a kind of nihilism that portrays right action ... as either impossible or futile". This, according to her (the author), has the effect of absolving the protagonists as well as the reader from moral responsibility.

Modern dictionaries define Grimdark as having it's origins in the combination of Grim + Dark. Grim defined as; 1. forbidding or uninviting; 2. (of humor) lacking genuine levity; mirthless; black; 3. depressing or worrying to consider.

Dark is defined as such; 1. with little or no light; 2. (of a color or object) not reflecting much light; approaching black in shade 3. (of a period of time or situation) characterized by tragedy, unhappiness, or unpleasantness (synonyms tragic, disastrous, catastrophic, cataclysmic, awful, dire, terrible, woeful)

In his blog 'Grimdark' author Joe Abercrombie states; "Grimdark Fantasy, gritty fantasy, is a reaction to the clean, romantic-heroic fantasy that has come before, it is a counterbalancing to a more straightforward style of fantasy."

We have no indication at all that the style of Grimdark is as used in narratives is values or seeks to evoke hope. All use of language around Grimdark is exactly the opposite in practice and diction.

I added emphasis to forms taken from the Wiki, Merriam-Webster, Joe Ambercrombie's blog, the literature subbereddit, Grimdark Reader, Google Books and Renai LeMay literature blog.

[Arrowstormen]

A decent amount of those descriptions / people consider A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones to be grimdark, which I'm not 100% sure I would agree with. Still, none of the descriptions require evoking hope, but doesn't ever say "this story has to end sadly / badly for the characters and no characters can write a good alignment on their character sheet." The three examples I gave fulfill most of these descriptions I think.

[Feredir]

It started off as an interesting topic, but sometimes it happens

[segara82]

A series in Star Wars, after Episode 3 up to Episode 4, but this time the Empire is the 'main cast', with less-to-no insane mustache twirling bad guys at the helm.
Rooting out Separatists, warlords, pirates, traitors and Jedis they struggle to unify and pacify the galaxy after years of war unseen fo centuries.
Internal debate, political backstabbing, military resistance, sacrifices that need to be made to achieve the goals, and waching the slow decent into evil, when certain projects come to light.
When after all those hard years and battles it is no longer about peace and stability but when it becomes about power, fear and control.
Will the heroes become the monster, try to reign it in or abandon the Empire?

No clear black and white, but shades of grey, and nary a force user anywhere.

[Gemini Soul]

Warcraft animated TV show set between Third War and Vanilla, Clone Wars style, about a group of adventurers.

Would love to watch a TV series like that, so much they could do with it.

[Nihilist74]

I would love to see a detective show with lovecraftian mythos thrown in similar to the movie HBO made in the 80s called to "To cast a deadly spell." I would prefer it was more dark and less funny though similar to the movie, Lord of illusions.

[dwightyo39]

The Malazan Book of the Fallen,with each season covering at most one book.
.

I need to start reading "Midnight Tides" again. I have been enjoying the series, but I'm having a hard time getting into this one.

[RampageBW1]

I would like to see another entry in the Last Airbender franchise, but thanks to LoK storyline screw ups from the producers and Nickelodeons mismanaging of Legend of Korra's timeslot, the chances of that happening is pretty dang low.

[Deleted]

A World War Z TV Show that follows the framing device of the book (an interviewer going around and interviewing people for there various stories of surviving and fighting back against the zombies until eventual victory). You could have each episode be a different story, with moments in the present between the interviewer/interviewee showing some of how the world is now, then the majority of the episode being a flashback.

Sadly it won't happen because we got a movie that was actually kinda alright, but had absolutely nothing to do with the source material that it got its name from, to the extreme that they could have simply called it World War Zombie and they wouldn't have even had to buy the rights to the book.

Shame.

[Deleted]

there is a whole world of sci fi books that would make absolutly exceptional TV series / movies

Undying Mercenaries, a series of 6 books by BV Larson. Main protagonist is a soldier in a unit that gets all the dirtiest jobs and missions. Often very violent killing off characters left right and center, only they can be re-born.

The "Rama" Series by Arthur C Clark, a cylindrical alien starship that enters Earth's solar system and the adventures of the humans that explore it.

The Ember War Saga, An alien probe arrives and begins on a mission to advance earths technology to a point where we are able to ward off an alien race that is bent of exterminating all life in the galaxy.

[Icaras]

A second Pacific Rim with Del Toro directing *cries*

A second pacific rim that's actually made up of mostly robot fights, rather than being only 5% robot fights (with half of those being grainy footage that's part of a news report on a tv in the background. Yeah, I think i'm pretty bitter over how misleading Pacific Rim was on the robot fight front)

I'd also say a Transformers movie where the Transformers are the main stars, with the human characters only being in it a little bit. Oh yes, and design the transformers without that hideous "organic" look that makes them both look ugly as hell, but also so generic looking when scene from far away (ie: in action scenes) that you can't tell who is who.

[Arrowstormen]

A second pacific rim that's actually made up of mostly robot fights, rather than being only 5% robot fights (with half of those being grainy footage that's part of a news report on a tv in the background. Yeah, I think i'm pretty bitter over how misleading Pacific Rim was on the robot fight front)

I don't know what you've watched (Godzilla?), but it's not Pacific Rim.

[Icaras]

I don't know what you've watched (Godzilla?), but it's not Pacific Rim.

Nope, I'm totally talking about Pacific Rim. Way too many scenes of the people, not enough robot fights. (I was pretty pissed off when they reference a bad ass fight of the aussie bot in Sydney, and all we see of it is a few clips on a news report? WTF? Come on!) I went to that film for robot vs monster, I don't really care that much about the Japanese girls trauma, or charlie days adventures in hong kong. (Also hated how half the robots basically got destroyed and their pilots killed in their 1st major fight.)

Godzilla was just as bad for this crap though. "Hey Godzilla is about to fight! You know what you want? Zoom out to a little boy watching TV! Godzilla about to fight again? No, some white guy is gonna run around. And it's not even Bryan Cranston, (we killed his ass, lol) it's some other dude you don't care about". I will admit, Godzilla was worse and was boring.

[Bodakane]

- An unabridged computer animated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Quentin Tarantino written and directed Warriors remake starring everybody
- A redo of the DCU, with Bruce Timm in charge of everything.

- More seasons of:
• HBO's Carnivale
• Firefly
• Breakout Kings
• JLU

[Arrowstormen]

Nope, I'm totally talking about Pacific Rim. Way too many scenes of the people, not enough robot fights. (I was pretty pissed off when they reference a bad ass fight of the aussie bot in Sydney, and all we see of it is a few clips on a news report? WTF? Come on!) I went to that film for robot vs monster, I don't really care that much about the Japanese girls trauma, or charlie days adventures in hong kong. (Also hated how half the robots basically got destroyed and their pilots killed in their 1st major fight.)

Well, I can't relate to that at all. I thought there was a good chunk of monster/robot fighting in that movie, and it was spectacular.

[Stormcall]

A second pacific rim that's actually made up of mostly robot fights, rather than being only 5% robot fights (with half of those being grainy footage that's part of a news report on a tv in the background. Yeah, I think i'm pretty bitter over how misleading Pacific Rim was on the robot fight front)

Sorry, but the other dude is right. If you think the movie was only 5% robot fights, you did not watch Pacific Rim, period.

[Lanrefni]

-
- A redo of the DCU, with Bruce Timm in charge of everything.

That would be excellent.

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

A Dune TV series if done on HBO or Starz similar to GoT or Black Sails.

Ending for Stargate Universe

I'd definitely go for this too, toss a continuation of Atlantis in as well so it could have a proper send off.

[CR77]

A non butchered Percy Jacksons/Heroes of Olympus. I'd settle for animated even. DreamWorks could do it, the animation style of Dragons would work well.

[Mormolyce]

Live action Battletech franchise. Probably Clan Wars era.