Line #54 Main/MuckingInTheMud


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ThePhantomTollbooth https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toolboothswamp.png]]]]
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7	This is a common subtrope of GeoEffects, where boggy or swampy areas drastically impede your movement. So long as you remain in here, you'll move at a snail's pace, vulnerable to passing enemies. [[JumpPhysics Your jumping, if applicable, may or may not be affected by this, and in fact, you may be able to move quickly by repeatedly jumping in and out of the bog.]]
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9	In some cases the bog may actually [[GrimyWater be hazardous to your health,]] dealing damage over time, [[QuicksandSucks acting like quicksand and swallowing you whole if you spend too long within,]] or applying some unpleasant StatusEffects.
10
11	For some reason, you're never able to simply ''walk around'' the hazardous terrain, as the area is almost uniformly flooded like this. Any safer paths will [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence almost certainly be blocked off with fallen logs]], impassible treelines, and so on. However, some mudpits look hazardous, but are actually safe enough to cross...
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13	Not to be confused with BubblegloopSwamp or QuicksandSucks.
14
15	See also SwampsAreEvil and GrimyWater. Oddly enough, rarely combined with MudWrestling. Unrelated, except by name, to the old text game [[MultiUserDungeon MUD]] and {{MUCK}}.
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17	----
18	!!Examples:
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
22	* Juzo Honenuki from ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. His Quirk, Softening, softens any inorganic material he touches, making others go through this.
23	* A very small bit of this was seemingly featured in the Episode "Training Daze" in ''Anime/PokemonChronicles'', as an obstacle course for Jessie, James, and Meowth's first training exercise mission together.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Board Games]]
27	* ''TabletopGame/{{Candyland}}'':
28	** The Molasses Swamp, which causes anyone who lands on it to lose a turn.
29	** Dotted spaces called "cavities," which required a player be "stuck" until drawing a card with the same color as the dotted space they're currently on.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Comic Books]]
33	* In ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Batman loses his first fight with the Mutant Leader, largely because age has reduced his speed and agility. He sets up a rematch in a mud pit, ensuring that they'll ''both'' be moving slowly and ponderously.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Fan Works]]
37	* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
38	** Kyril is displeased with the mud in Scathlocke, for it, along with the cold and humidity, are responsible for bogging down the soldiers under his command.
39	** Getting stuck in the mud is one of the risks of trekking through the Dead Marshes, as Fredrick, who sinks waist deep into the muck, learns the hard way.
40	* [[https://www.wattpad.com/story/310982122-dilly-the-great-war Dilly: the great war]] The two supporting characters, Rick Raccoon and Whitney Wolf, both get stuck in mud and begins to sink. But thankfully, Y/N (the main character) rescues them.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]
44	* In ''Film/SevenMenFromNow'', Stride meets Annie and John when they are trying to get their wagon out of waist-deep mud. He helps them and joins them in their travels.
45	* ''Film/{{Clockwise}}'': During Brian's increasingly farcical journey to Norwich, he tries to direct the car through a field after taking a wrong turn, and the car ends up stuck in mud. Even though he is wearing a smart suit, he gallantly tries to push the car, but ends up covered in mud himself; especially when he kicks the car in a fit of anger, and falls flat on his face. When trying to find somebody with a tractor to pull them out, he accidentally wanders into a monastery, and ends up having a bath, in spite of his urgency.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Literature]]
49	* In ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'', the moor has the Grimpen Mire, which only Jack Stapleton knew how to cross safely. Another character who'd tried to traverse it was sucked down into its depths.
50	* OlderThanSteam: The Slough of Despond from ''Literature/PilgrimsProgress'' trapped unwary travelers unless Help came along.
51	* The River Ankh in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' is very slow and polluted, so it's really more of a swamp than a river. ''Literature/TheTruth'' has this:
52	-->'''The Duck Man''': I used to mess about in boats when I were a boy.\
53	'''Coffin Henry''': We could [[RussianReversal boat about in mess]].
54	* The Doldrums in ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' pose all the usual hazards of a sticky, goopy swamp, and top it all off with a LotusEaterMachine effect that mires minds as effectively as wheels.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* A segment of ''Series/TheBalladOfBigAl'' shows two ''Allosaurus'' falling victim to a mud trap after trying to scavenge a ''Stegosaurus'' carcass.
59	* In the ''Series/JurassicFightClub'' episode "Bloodiest Battle", two ''Stegosaurus'' and a ''Camarasaurus'' wind up trapped in the mud near a river, while an attacking ''Ceratosaurus'' and ''Allosaurus'' avoid getting stuck because their more spread out feet allow them to walk on the hard top layer without breaking through.
60	* ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'': In "Sea Fever", one of the many delays to Hyacinth and Richard boarding the [=QE2=] cruise ship is driving down increasingly rural and narrow roads, until they end up in a boggy field. When their car gets stuck, Richard orders Hyacinth to get out and push the car, which she does, and ends up covered in mud.
61	--> '''Hyacinth:''' You'll pay for this, Richard Bucket! ''({{Beat}})'' Bouquet!
62	* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'': In "The Impostors", Lady Penelope tries to apprehend the impostors by travelling through a jungle in her Rolls Royce. Unfortunately, her car gets bogged down in the mud, leaving her to walk in her high heels. Hillybilly Jeremiah's apparently run-down car does the job instead.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
66	* The parodic wargame ''TabletopGame/Turnip28'' notes that "Europe is a horrible mud pit barely fit for human habitation." Mud ranges from knee-to-waist deep everywhere, and the main source of [[BlackComedy "comedy"]] is incompetent soldiers "kicking each other to death in the mud."
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Video Games]]
70	* Applied OnceAnEpisode in the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' series: Made extra annoying because it limits the quality of your rolls and slows you immensely unless you spend stamina to run around faster.
71	** In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'', there's the ground level of Blighttown, with the added benefit of poisoning you if you stick around too long.
72	** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' doesn't have a dedicated swamp level, but it does have equipment-destroying acid or poisonous muck in several areas, including Earthen Keep, Drangelic Castle and Lord Aldia's Keep.
73	** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' sees the return of the poisonous swamp with Farron Keep
74	* The UsefulNotes/NintendoDS game ''[[VideoGame/SummonNight Summon Night: Twin Age]]'' consists of around 60% different types of sinky stuff by volume, such as "Poison Marshes" and "Desert Quicksand".
75	* In the PC game ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker2'', there's an "adventure" event which has a few swamps where you can slog around. They're not really dangerous; they have hidden secret shortcuts in them, even.
76	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
77	** In double battles, by using Water Pledge and Grass Pledge at the same time, the ground beneath the opposing team's feet is turned into a swamp for four turns, which makes them move four times slower.
78	** The Great Marsh and the southern part of nearby Route 212 in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''. The player character is greatly slowed down when he/she runs through the bog, and, in some places, he/she can even get stuck.
79	** The spinoff game ''VideoGame/PokemonDash'' has a few courses with muddy, swampy areas. These aren't particularly unique, however, as ''every'' terrain type except paved road reduces your speed.
80	** The bogs in ''Videogame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' slow the player and their ride Pokémon down and prevent crouching.
81	* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile: Lenneth'' has 2 places known, with mud, they are Nethov swamp and Salerno Academy, you can only find them on normal and hard mode.
82	* ''VideoGame/MarioStrikersCharged'' has a stage known as ''The Dump'' which is muddy.
83	* ''VideoGame/MarioParty7'': One of the special Mic minigames, Oil Crisis, has this feature. Each player is driving a car to reach a goal, making sure not to pass through oil moats as these will greatly reduce speed.
84	* The ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series has a couple of these. Perhaps most noteworthy is the poison swampy stuff in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest''.
85	* "Grail Mountain" with its purple puddles and "East Ghoss Forest" with its mud in ''VideoGame/GrandiaII''...
86	* In ''VideoGame/GretelAndHansel 2'', Gretel can wade around the swamp but can't get across completely without her brother's help because of a snake that lurks halfway across.
87	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
88	** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': Midoro Swamp is a thick marsh. You'll move more slowly both on the overworld and in battle sequences, though your enemies are completely unaffected.
89	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'': Castor Wilds consists of a quicksand-like marsh with safe zones in the form of raised land. Traversing it safely requires getting ahold of the Pegasus Shoes, which let you dash across before the muck can take hold.
90	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has pools of mud like this. If the mud is deep enough, Snake will eventually sink to his death. What's more, the mud houses leeches which will cling to Snake and sap his stamina.
91	* ''VideoGame/OnePieceUnlimitedCruise: Episode 2'' had "Boggy Isle" with this feature...
92	* ''VideoGame/LufiaRuinsOfLore'' had Jungle Spire which have mud spots that take you down to a cave area if you step in the right areas...
93	* The swamp level in ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 2'' has regular mud that slows you down, and quicksand that [[QuicksandSucks instantly sucks you down]].
94	* Although it's technically more of a swamp, both ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' feature this, complete with reduced mobility and absence of rolling. In both games, the swamp is also poisonous, so staying in it for long isn't exactly advisable. In the first game, swamp jellyfishes that live in it can be killed to provide anti-poison herbs, but the absence of rolling is lethal since any other enemies [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard can cross the swamp with nary a hitch]], unlike you. In the second game, the enemies that live on it can still charge at you at maximum speed, but an equippable ring exists so that movement penalties are removed entirely when walking on swamps. Oh, and fast rolling (<25% equip burden, or Dark Wood Grain Ring ninja flip) is not disabled in the swamp.
95	* Some of the jungle levels and one south pacific level in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' have mud that makes Lara sink if she steps in it. In some spots, the mud is deep enough to make Lara be completely submerged and she will quickly drown.
96	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has poisonous swamp water in Satorl Marsh.
97	* Water in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' reduces the survivor's running speed, though not the Infected's. The "Swamp Fever" campaign has this trope as one of its highlights, given [[BubblegloopSwamp the campaign's setting]], as does "Hard Rain".
98	* The "negative cover" system in VideoGame/DawnOfWar usually consists of swampy or at least flooded terrain. In normal cover, units move slower but take less damage, here they move slower and take ''more'' damage.
99	* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'', different types of terrain offer different degrees of resistance to tank treads. Naturally, swampy ground or bodies of water make tanks move very slowly.
100	* Jungles are the worst possible terrain for any kind of divisions in ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronII''. Armoured divisions barely make any progress at all, all troop types suffer massive penalties and on top of that they can easily start shrinking due to attrition if your supply lines and techs aren't on par. Marshes are almost as bad, but at least there's usually no attrition and Marine divisions suffer fewer penalties to combat and movement.
101	* In the ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series, swamp terrain drastically slows down army movement, unless the army is composed entirely of creatures native to that terrain type. This can be mitigated by sticking to roads... when there ''are'' roads.
102	* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'':
103	** Taopo Swamp: The actual swamp is only one screen, but it's so thick that you can ''stand'' on it, only sinking when you move forward (and standing on bubbles brings you back to the surface).
104	** The Djinni Mud reduces foes' agility by... throwing mud at them.
105	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'': Played straight with sandy terrain that reduces the movement of most non-flying units and especially horseback units and inverted for non-horseback magic units who gain a movement bonus instead on the same terrain.
106	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has several levels set in swamps that play this straight.
107	* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' has shallow pools of purple goop that prevent the player from jumping or dashing, forcing them to search for a ramp to escape. The game also likes to hide [[AttackOfTheMonsterAppendage Tentacles]] just under the pool's surface to ambush you.
108	* Some levels in ''VideoGame/MazeBurrow'' feature mud tiles and blocks stuck in them. Blocks stuck in the mud can only be pulled, not pushed.
109	* In ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'', the Fungus Bogs has pools of sticky goo that slow down anything that tries to walk through them. Mactera Goo Bombers invoke this by raining goo puddles from above.
110	* The Muck zooid in ''{{VideoGame/Sipho}}'' is this trope in the form of a weapon, spraying a cloud of goo that slows doing anything within.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Western Animation]]
114	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresFromTheBookOfVirtues''
115	** In the episode "Self-Discipline," Annie and Zach were walking on mud while they enter Plato's Peak.
116	** In one scene of the episode "Moderation", Socrates is seen stepping in a puddle of mud, much to Aristotle's annoyance.
117	* ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'':
118	** In the first act of the episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E5BadLuckBogus Bad Luck Bogus]]", Bogus and Brattus both fall into a mud puddle in the front yard of the Anybody residence.
119	** Bogus falls in a mud puddle during his first day of military training in the first act of the episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS3E5BattleActionBogus Battle Action Bogus]]".
120	* The animated film version of ''WesternAnimation/ThePhantomTollbooth'' also shows the Doldrums, a swamp that it's too easy to get mired down in both literally and figuratively. At first Milo's car just gets stuck, but as he starts to succumb to the effect the thing seems to be starting to ''melt''.
121	* Happens a few times in ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek''
122	** Near the end of "Sunday Clothes", Craig and Kelsey end up trapped in a large mud puddle and J.P. can't go in to save them since he's still wearing his Sunday clothes. He resolves the situation by [[NakedPeopleAreFunny taking the clothes off]] before going to rescue his friends.
123	** In "Memories of Bobby", Kelsey reminiscences about the time she helped the Horse Girls pull Mackenzie out of "[[QuicksandSucks quick mud]]". [[BrickJoke Near the end of the episode]], Mackenzie comes to the main trio for help because Maney got trapped in the quick mud.
124	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' episode "Forget Me Not", some elephants are shown taking a mud bath. This takes a dark turn when one of them gets stuck in another pit of mud and pulling her free requires the Thornberry's camper van.
125	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyFriendRabbit'' episode "Muddy Puddle", rabbit tries to cross a dried up river bank only to get stuck when his inflated shoes break. Thunder, Hazel, and the ducklings also get trapped and eventually they're all freed when Edweena gives them a log to climb onto.
126	* In the ''[[Series/BigBag Slim Pig]]'' episode "StickySituation", a game of fetch goes wrong when Dog ends up stuck in a mud puddle. Fortunately, he breaks free to continue playing fetch.
127	* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': In "[[Recap/MollyOfDenaliS1E11SapSeasonBookOfMammoths The Book of Mammoths]]," Travis finds himself in a mud puddle up to his waist and has to be hauled out with a rope.
128	* ''WesternAnimation/WonderPets'': One episode had the 3 main characters trying to save a baby elephant whose trunk got stuck in a patch of mud. After several failed attempts, they manage the task with the help of a local hippo.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Real Life]]
132	* In both the Napoleonic and German invasions of Russia, the Rasputitsa (Russian for "quagmire", literally "time when roads cease to exist") bogged down armies so much that there was practically no fighting for 6 weeks in the spring and fall.
133	** Ironically, the same muddy terrain that historically helped defend Russia also hampered the nation's invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
134	* The Battle of Passchendaele, from World War I. Heavy rains and silty, muddy terrain made this battle a symbol of soldiers' suffering.
135	* This was a major factor in the outcome of the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War, with the heavily-armored French troops and horses getting bogged down by a muddy battlefield as they attacked the English positions - combined [[GeoEffects with the presence of forests around their center]] as well which would have hampered flanking attacks, the English won a crushing victory against the French despite having been estimated as being numbered by around a factor of two. It's been said that the battlefield was such a mire that some of French knights drowned in the mud and the Frenchmen who reached the English lines were utterly exhausted by the advance.
136	* While the Battle of Nagashino is noted for [[FirearmsAreRevolutionary the significant use of matchlock guns]] by its victors, the Oda clan, to defeat the Takeda clan and their famed cavalry (indeed, the Takeda commander had assumed that the Oda's matchlocks would have been ruined by recent heavy rain), it was certainly also key that UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga had his forces take position so that the enemy would be forced to approach them through a shallow stream and rice paddies. In combination with palisades fortifying their positions, the Takeda were unable to effectively approach or flank Oda despite fierce attempts.
137	* It isn't uncommon to hear stories of large animals and sometimes even people needing to be rescued from mud traps.
138	* There is evidence that some fossil sites such as the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry and the Shishugou Formation Dinosaur Traps were the result of hundreds of dinosaurs dying after getting stuck in thick mud.
139	* As UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball games are played in any kind of weather (save those that are direct threats to players or fans like thunderstorms), there have been several Mud Bowls or similarly-named slopfests in the history of the NFL and college football. One of these was a 2007 Monday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins, where heavy rain turned the field into heavy mud that kept the game scoreless until just 17 seconds left, with the Steelers getting a 26-yard field goal to win 3-0. At one point in the 3rd quarter a punt resulted in the ball [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7DTNEa2E7w just going splat when it landed on the field without any kind of bounce at all]].
140	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MuckingInTheMud