The Insessence of Grimdark

Some time ago, I watched a youtube video (mistake, I know) discussing the origins of so-called 'Grimdark' MLP fics and the most popular fics in general, using the example of the ever-infamous 'Cupcakes'.

I'm not going to use this space to discuss the merits of Cupcakes as a benchmark for quality writing or grimdark works in general, for if I did, it would devolve into a oozing pile of detritic bile centred on how anyone could find that particular fic possessing of any literary quality whatsoever (Punctuation is a thing. Use it).

No, instead, I am instead going to rant about the general overuse of the term 'grimdark'.
To be clear, this isn't a phenomenon that is exclusive to the MLP fic-writing community. It exists all over the internet, and to be frank, it bugs the hell out of me.

First, lets examine the origins of the term. 'Grimdark' was originally used by Games Workshop in their ever-popular (though obscenely overpriced) Warhammer 40K franchise, in the tagline 'In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.'
It is a phrase that is very applicable to 40K as a setting. It is both dark (both in terms of pallete displayed in most official artwork, and general literary 'dark-ness'), and grim (insomuch that a positive, happy, or favourable outcome is unlikely-to-impossible). In fact, 40K is often used as the benchmark of grimdark-ness against which other works are compared.

However, a work being 'dark' does not necessarily imply 'grimdark'.

For example, Fallout is a very dark setting. Human civilisation, by and large, has been reduced to a pale shadow of its former self. Illness, raiders, monsters, they all roam the world looking to pick apart any unfortunate survivor of the War, left to fend for themselves in a desolate, radiation-blasted hellhole.
It is no argument that the setting of Fallout is dark.
But is it grimdark? No.
Sure, there are pockets of grim-ness, must in the same way that there are pockets of grim-ness in the real world, but the overall tone of the setting, and the games, is that of positivity and hope, that despite even the greatest hardships, one can still strive to do great things and make a lasting mark on the world (case in point, project purity in Fallout 3).
Unlike 40K, Fallout lacks the 'you will eventually fail' essence of a truly grim work.

Despite this, however, people will continually use 'grimdark' as synonymous with 'extremely dark', when it's something entirely different. I can think of many extremely dark works that are not grimdark. Total Annihilation, for example, has one of the single darkest setting backgrounds in all of science fiction.

But is it grim? Hardly.

In lieu of simply listing other works often mistaken for grimdark, I shall instead pose an example of what is grimdark.

This is a bleak game. I'll be the first to admit that it is hard to get an emotional reaction out of me from a video game, but this? This left me feeling drained. You have no food, little shelter, are beset on all sides by people who want your stuff (or worse), and there is a very good chance that each time you go out at night to fetch goods, you won't come back. You have no reason to think tomorrow is going to be any better. You will likely freeze once winter comes, assuming you don't starve to death first, or someone doesn't shoot you for your cigarettes. There is no hope for a better tomorrow.
This is grimdark, make no mistake.

Now, please, stop calling everything 'grimdark' when it doesn't deserve it.

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Yes, I'm still working on The Outsiders. I just write slowly, and holy crap is it hot here. Very hard to even think with this heat, let alone write.