History Main / EpilepticFlashingLights

* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin VideoGame/VsSky'': The BlankWhiteVoid background flashes with the colors of the sung notes to the rhythm of the music. Even if you don't have epilepsy this can be very distracting, thankfully you have the option to turn it off.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' [[NeverLiveItDown will forever be haunted]] by the episode [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP038 "Electric Soldier Porygon"]], which leaned so far into this trope that it caused a massive scandal. It aired only once on December 16, 1997, and only in Japan. Several scenes in the episode contain red-and-blue flashing lights; the most infamously dangerous scene lasts for a full four seconds, incorporates white and dark purple into the strobe effect alongside the red and blue, and has the effect fill most of the screen (initially the entire screen, before the camera moves). The flashing lights caused seven hundred kids to have seizures, about 135 of which had to be hospitalized. [[BannedEpisode The episode was never aired anywhere else in the world, everyone involved pretends it never existed]], and holds the world record of most seizures induced by a television show. As a result of this, ''Pokémon'' was taken off the air for four months, and Porygon has never had a huge role in any episode since, despite the creature in question [[MisBlamed not being the source of]] the flashing lights (which were caused by missiles and Pikachu's electric attacks). Soon after the airing of the episode, several news outlets in Japan ''[[WhatWereYouThinking aired the offending segment again]]'' as part of stories covering the incident, [[FromBadToWorse causing even more seizures]]. The reaction flooded to other anime, as studios sought to make sure such an incident never happened again industry-wide, employing new restrictions on what patterns and effects can be displayed on TV. All sequences that employed flashing effects or complex patterns (such as stripes, whirls, and concentric circles) were slowed, downsized, and shortened to more acceptable levels and lengths. Some series even [[EpilepticFriendlyFilter dim the colors right when the scene is about to get particularly flashy]] and children's shows usually come with a warning to watch in a well-lit area at a safe distance from the TV.

* ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'': Though a borderline case, the trope is played relatively straight when BigBad Smith absorbs Neo in the Matrix and the Deux Ex Machina (no, not THAT DeusExMachina) unplugs Neo in the real world. This disconnects Smith from the Matrix, causing each and every of his multiple selves to [[FridgeLogic suffer epileptic glowing from the eyes over the next few minutes]] and [[EverythingIsBetterWithExplosions explode]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Similar to ''Incredibles 2'', people have expressed concerns over several sequences of flashing lights seen throughout the film (the first of which is during the opening logos, which start to flash pretty intensely not even a minute into the film -- the variants used suffer from Reality Bleed and rapidly change in and out of their alternate-universe forms, giving them a very glitchy appearance). Unfortunately, the one thing this doesn't have in common with ''Incredibles 2'' is that Sony never issued any official warnings for it; it didn't stop people from starting several petitions online to get them to add a warning, though, and certain theaters took to placing warnings in their buildings themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Similar to Incredibles 2, people have expressed concerns over several sequences of flashing lights seen throughout the film (the first of which is during the opening logos, which start to flash pretty intensely not even a minute into the film--the variants used suffer from Reality Bleed and rapidly change in and out of their alternate-universe forms, giving them a very glitchy appearance). Unfortunately, the one thing this doesn't have in common with Incredibles 2 is that Sony never issued any official warnings for it; it didn't stop people from starting several petitions online to get them to add a warning, though, and certain theaters took to placing warnings in their buildings themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Similar to ''Incredibles 2'', people have expressed concerns over several sequences of flashing lights seen throughout the film (the first of which is during the opening logos, which start to flash pretty intensely not even a minute into the film - the variants used suffer from RealityBleed and rapidly change in and out of their alternate-universe forms, giving them a very glitchy appearance). Unfortunately, the one thing this doesn't have in common with ''Incredibles 2'' is that Sony never issued any official warnings for it; didn't stop people from starting several petitions online to get them to add a warning, though, and certain theaters took to placing warnings in their buildings themselves.

Contrast EpilepticFriendlyFilter, which exists to avert this trope.

* Many sufferers of migraines have their attacks preceded by an aura of sensory disturbances, the most prominent one being visual. Known as a [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness scintillating scotoma]], it begins as a tiny blind spot in the center of the field of vision, which then expands towards the left or right, surrounded by a growing crescent-shaped zigzag pattern of flashing colors. It continues to expand until the zigzag pattern disappears beyond the field of vision, after which the vision gradually returns to normal and the headache kicks in. The show lasts for around an hour and can effectively be taken as a [[BlessedWithSuck warning sign]] that a migraine is imminent.

* A weird glitch at Wrestlemania 30 might have been due to a result of this being too much in effect during Batista's entrance, where the huge screens were flashing several times in several different ways to coincide with his entrance music. At around 30 seconds in, though, all of the LED screens in the entrance way stopped displaying anything besides pure blackness, likelt because the crew thought was a bit too much and chose to cut the video links to the screens before any damage was done.