Fan Casting Darker and Edgier in Sort by Tropes

A Tone Shift that seeks to make a work of fiction more serious, cynical or gritty. In theory, this means that archetypes which we are accustomed to see acting in a more noble setting will have to act in one where they must think and act grimly in order to make progress, thus forcing re-examination of the tropes involved, or the use of new tropes and expansion of the setting, utilizing different sorts of characters and stories. In practice, however, writers can be too lazy to realize all that potential and end up randomly "spicing up" a work with gratuitous gore, cursing, and sex to make it more "adult" — often overdoing it in the process. This is not to be confused with Tough Love.