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Sandbox / And I Must Scream Wick Check

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This page will cover a wick check for the trope And I Must Scream.

Progress: 111/111

Why?: This trope is one of the most popular and recognisable on the wiki, with over 12,000 wicks... And as a result it has become bloated and is used for any situation even tenuously related to the Trope Namer - namely, that a character suffers an eternal (or extremely prolonged) Fate Worse than Death where they are completely paralyzed/isolated and possibly tortured. Aiming for a TRS to correct the misuse.

Comments in bold.

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     Correct usage - Eternal or extremely prolonged (47/111) 

     Somewhat prolonged and/or death still possible (6/111) 
  • Recap.Firefly E 09 Ariel: Mind Rape: Simon and Jayne discover that the Alliance did this to River surgically, in essence guaranteeing that her existence would be little more than a continuous mind rape experience
  • Anime.Pokemon The Series Diamond And Pearl: "Sandshrew's Locker!" features Mira, who has lost her Sandshrew after her town was flooded. The Pokémon was in the Poké Ball for decades deep under the water. If Ash and friends hadn't rescued it, who knows how much longer it would have stayed there. Pokémon have been shown leaving their own Poké Balls in the anime; remaining in the Ball was likely the safest option for the Sandshrew.
  • NightmareFuel.Marvel Zombies:
    • Black Panther's initial fate in the story definitely qualifies as an instance of And I Must Scream. The zombie Hank Pym keeps him in a sedated state, so he can amputate bits of him over time to eat, while still keeping him alive just so he can have someone to talk to. Black Panther eventually manages to escape, but not in one piece.
    • Hawkeye spent forty years as a head trapped under some rubble, unable to escape or talk to anyone. When he's left alone, he cries. When someone tried to take off his mask, he thought they were trying to rip off his face!
  • Recap.House S 5 E 19 Locked In: This week's patient, suffering from locked-in syndrome.
  • Characters.Undead Unluck Negators: After G-Liner breaks and "Anno Un" sacrifices himself to age up Rip, the real Akira Kuno is now permanently unnoticeable by other people.
  • Heavenly Delusion: Hate Sink: The Chief of the Water Filtration Plant becomes one after he raped Kiruko. He was earlier revealed to be Robin, who at one point was Kiruko’s Big Brother Mentor she looked up to — even going on a long journey for several years to find him, only to be betrayed in one of the worst ways possible. The authorities of the town later discovered Robin had also been performing experiments on a woman, whose limbs had been removed with her body connected to a docile Man-Eater via tubes. Even worse, she appeared to be aware of her situation and in complete pain, unable to do anything about her situation.

     Trapped, death by starvation/exposure likely (1/111) 
  • Series.Intruders: Qui Reverti punishes Marcus Fox for nearly exposing them by putting him inside a wall alive.

     Temporary paralysis (4/111) 
  • Recap.Jane The Virgin S 2 E 22 Chapter Forty Four: A character is sedated, recovers shortly after.
  • Recap.Animaniacs Episode 8: In the end, Flaxseed ends up getting trapped in a giant chocolate bunny, which is given to orphans.
    Yakko: Wait until they get to the cream filling.
  • Characters.Collar 6: Her punishment after the Xor-Talatia saga. A week of solitary confinement in a device called a vacbed. With only three hours of freedom a day
  • No-Harm Requirement: In Sinnoh, the gang has to deal with Hunter J who is an Evil Poacher who poaches Pokemon, whether they are owned or rare, and sell them to clients via a black market. To ensure maximum pay for her quarry, she zaps the Pokemon with a petrification ray and seals them in clear pods.

     Slow and painful death, possibly involving paralysis (4/111) 

     Character is mind-controlled or possessed but still conscious (12/111) 
  • Fanfic.Strengths Of The Heart And Mind: "While cap-tured by Conicus, Mario is fully conscious but is unable to control his eyes, voice, or movements in any way (except for when Luigi is in immediate danger). To make matters worse, he can still feel physical pain while Conicus cannot, a fact that Conicus readily uses to his advantage when Mario angers him or refuses to do what he wants." Time unclear, fact Mario can feel pain suggests he can be killed
  • NightmareFuel.Disenchantment: "And the fact that Bean is aware of what's happening to her (and groaning in pain) is even worse."
  • Characters.Death Battle Season Two Part 1: "What makes him a cyborg as opposed to a robot is that Fulgore uses the brain of former Killer Instinct competitor and winner Black Eagle as basically a CPU ... all of this done unwillingly, with Black Eagle said to still be conscious of what is going on, but completely incapable of resisting his horrible, ironic fate."
  • Characters.RWBY Chibi: "Upon being hypnotized into being Ruby's "bestie"."
  • Characters.Pokemon Generation IX Families — Ambiguous Situation:
    • Just how aware Pecharunt's victims are of their possession is unclear. Some of their reactions (like Arven being embarrassed at the silly dance it makes him do, Penny hamming up her "villain" performance, and Nemona still having the same banter she would usually have during a battle with the player) imply that they're still at least somewhat aware of their situation but are helpless to stop it or control themselves. However, when they're all freed from its control, Arven, Penny, and Carmine claim to have no memory of the whole thing, and Nemona initially thinks the battle was a dream. Additionally, Kieran's Grandma offers her husband mochi (which results in him being possessed), but it's unclear if that was her talking while possessed or if Pecharunt was speaking "through" her somehow.
  • Fanfic.Security Worm: It's shown to have its own conditions. Mike has virtually all the power and can take control whenever he wants. However, not only does he not want to do this (knowing it would be incredibly traumatic for Amy to be kept a prisoner in her own head, but while taking over, he can't use her powers.
  • Literature.Prince Roger: The narration of the toot zombie early in the first book states that deep inside, the real person is struggling not to do what she's doing.
  • Fridge.Bo Boi Boy: In Baraju, BoBoiBoy mention when Blaze and Ice suffers amnesia for separating almost two days, the two not only slowly forget their allies name and mission, but also start to act like how Pyrapi and Mawais when they were alive 100 years ago. Unlike what already happens to "Original Element trio" in Original season, this because he was in Baraju and its environment slowly trigger the past user memories. Unlike the incident in past, this event cause BoBoiBoy traumatized not only because he almost killing everyone, he almost losing himself and ''aware'' this but unable to control or stop his Elemental Form rampage.
  • Fanfic.Blood Bond Blood Omen Series: All the people that were being used by the Unshaper would have remembered exactly what they had done. Kim and Ron use magic to give a mercy brain wipe to everyone that deserves it.
  • Fridge.The Last Of Us The infected called "Runners" aka. people who just recently turned are recognized by how they will stand in a cowering position and sound like they're crying or walk around with pained grunts and noises in general, giving the impression that the person they were is still partly or completely conscious and is making the tortured noises they do due to eiher the pain of the transformation or the experience of feeling themselves turning while not being able to stop it.
  • Fanfic.Outcast: Berwald/ Sweden's fate, if Ancient Scandinavia takes control of his body for good. Normally Ancient Scandinavia can subdue Berwald's consciousness completely (which is why Berwald can't remember any of the previous murders Ancient Scandinavia committed while in control), but Tino's involvement has given Berwald the strength to fight back and remain conscious during these bouts of possession... not that it makes much of a difference against an ancient and extremely powerful spirit hell-bent on vengeance. Ancient Scandinavia teases Tino by saying that Berwald is like "a mouse trapped in a glass cage" at the back of his own mind — conscious of everything the malevolent ghost is doing with his body, but unable to do anything to stop it.
  • NightmareFuel.Resident Evil 3 Remake:
    • And let's talk more about that new ability of his. The Nemesis Alpha parasite in his body can asexually reproduce by latching its tentacles onto a zombie's head and take over its body! Great! Nemesis has become Las Plagas! And if these zombies catch Jill when she's low on health? The parasite devours her head and takes over her body, just like the headcrabs in Half-Life. One has to wonder if a part of Jill is aware of what is happening to her.
    • What’s even more terrifying is that when a Nemesis Alpha attaches itself, you can tell for several seconds that Jill’s still in control of her body as she tries to push it off her head, suggesting that it’s injecting chemicals into her spinal cord overriding signals from her brain to the rest of her body, which ultimately means that through the whole thing she’s conscious but has no control.

     Other misuse (17/111) 
  • Fanfic.Heartless Dirch: The first few moments as a Heartless were this for Drich. She had no idea what the hell was going on and, when she tried to scream, realized she had no mouth. Cue Freak Out. She got used to it later on, but the first few moments were pretty horrible.
  • Characters.Is This A Zombie: Adaptational Nice Guy: In the anime, the worst she does is launch her students into suborbital flight, and even then she teleports them safely back to the ground. In the light novels, however, the first thing she does after revealing her true nature and stealing Haruna's power is kill Saras and seal Ayumu in a parallel dimension, for no apparent reason other than to prove that she's top dog. They barely manage to get out alive, if only for the help of the Demon Baron. In Volume 7, she tries to destroy Tokyo with one of Ariel's bombs so Ariel would get arrested by the queen of Villiers.
  • Film.Electric Dreams: Edgar, who feels love for Madeline, but has no way to physically express it.
    Edgar: I want to touch her!
    Miles: (quietly) Perhaps you already have.
  • Film.Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark 2019: With the exception of Chief Turner, whose neck was snapped by the Jangly Man when he got in his way, the fate of nearly every victim of Sarah's curse is left ambiguous. Stella thinks they are all still alive and can be brought back.
  • Monster.Fullmetal Alchemist: "An Alchemist's Anguish": Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, is known for his ability to create chimeras capable of speech. He's introduced to the Elric brothers as an awkward man with a 4-year-old daughter named Nina. With his State Alchemist license soon to expire, Tucker created another Chimera by fusing Nina and her dog Alexander into a miserable Half-Human Hybrid which is in constant agony. When the Elric brothers discovered Nina's new state, Edward's rage nearly drove him to kill Tucker. It is then revealed that the other speaking Chimera was actually his wife and Nina's mother, whom Tucker created by fusing her to another animal, earning him his State Alchemist status in the first place. Tucker refuses to admit what he did was horrible, going as far as to tell the Elric brothers that they shouldn't have a problem with his actions and that anybody else in his position would have done the same thing. While only appearing in one chapter, Shou Tucker manages to be one of the most depraved characters in the manga and Brotherhood anime. Nina is Mercy Killed by Scar shortly thereafter; Fate Worse than Death would be a better fit.
  • NightmareFuel.Amanda The Adventurer: The Petting Zoo episode.
    • Wooly slowly regressing into a regular sheep is both heartbreaking and terrifying. It starts with him doing one harmless bleat at the start of the episode, then gets worse as Amanda forbids him to talk because it's not something animals do, after which he actually loses the ability to speak and can only make scared bleats. When Amanda proposes (reads: orders) that they visit the sheep enclosure, Wooly looks horrified and tries to get Riley to stop what's going on. When Riley is inevitably forced to do what Amanda wants, the next time we see Wooly is as a fully converted sheep, happily bleating away on a meadow with no memory of who he was or what happened to him. Literally cannot scream, and according to other pages, he dies shortly afterwards.
  • NightmareFuel.Infinity Train: Alan Dracula's powers start freaking out as he struggles against the control of Perry the parasite. When he finally breaks through, it's by growing a second head on his chest that lets out a horrific distressed screech that shows he is NOT enjoying the experience.
  • Literature.Unwind:
    • It's quite possible, though never fully confirmed, that you're still alive after being unwound. This is, in fact, the entire point.
    • If not all Unwinds, then certainly Tyler, the Unwind who is about 1/8 of CyFi's brain, though that's an atypical case. Still, Tyler is definitely conscious to a degree, and what's worse, doesn't even know he's been unwound. Not only that, but CyFi did not receive a part of Tyler's brain that uses words, and is trapped, unable to think using words.
    • The process of unwinding itself is a lot like this. The process is finally shared with the reader from Roland's point of view as he's being unwound. The person feels no pain, but is fully conscious for the entire procedure. Roland's thoughts get progressively simpler until all that's left is an ellipsis.
  • Manga.Life Is Money: The Dice Game restricts one of the five senses, depending on what each player rolls. (The sixth possible roll is "spirit," which removes all previous restraints.) When "taste" is rolled, the player's mouth is gagged so that they can't talk. The moderator proposes that losing all five senses will result in being driven mad by lack of human interaction.
  • Deconstructed Trope.Worm: Psycho for Hire: The Slaughterhouse Nine is probably the most insane, bloodthirsty gang in the country, to the extent that basically all neighboring villains will immediately be considered A Lighter Shade of Black by the heroes of any town they arrive to. Nevertheless, in the past, some brilliant capes have attempted to hire the bastards to kill off their enemies. They did so seemingly unaware that, if you plan to hire someone that loves killing so much they'll disregard the substantial leeway granted by cape society, you should be damn sure their bloodlust is outweighed by something like a code of honor, Mask of Sanity, or Money Fetish so you can control them. As it stands, if you're lucky (like the Teeth), the Nine will turn on you after the job's done and kill you quickly For the Evulz. If you're unlucky (like Ravager), they will betray you immediately, find your intended target, and hand you both off to Bonesaw to be forcibly spliced together into an unholy abomination/pet while still conscious.
  • Characters.Genshin Impact Furina: A variant, and a self-inflicted one to boot. Sure, she's alive, surrounded by luxuries and can get all the fancy pastries she ever wants, but underneath all that is a girl who's absolutely exhausted from her 500-year role, questioning when it will ever end. The crux of it all, and what makes it fit this trope, is that she can never, ever confide this to anyone, on the off chance the Heavenly Principles take notice and undo all her hard work, ensuring her solitude for centuries. Even when pushed to the brink with the potential of death by dissolution, or visited in her own mental world, she still chooses to remain in-character rather than break the facade.
  • Literature.Katalepsis: The main cast does find a cultist that is still alive at the site of the massacre in Arc 7. The cultist is a breathing, gurgling ring of human flesh, disfigured to the point of unrecognizability.
  • Recap.Black Lightning 2018 S 1 E 12 The Book Of Pain: Lala seems absolutely shocked at how out-of-control he is when subjected to his Trigger Phrase.
  • YMMV.Total Trauma: Nightmare Fuel: The comic's interpretation of Alejandro's time in the robot exploits the Fridge Horror in the show for all it's worth. In short: Chris put the burnt Alejandro in the suit and essentially kidnapped him to protect Total Drama's reputation, used him as a slave, then left Alejandro in Chef's care after Chris was arrested, where he was mostly locked up in a basement. The claim in All Stars that Alejandro's voice chip broke was a lie, as in reality, Chef removed the chip to prevent Alejandro from complaining, something even Chris is shook by. Oh, and Alejandro walking on his hands in the canon and then revealing he was able to walk by the end? His legs are actually permanently damaged; Chris refused to give him a wheelchair out of pure spite, then forced him to claim that he was able to walk all along. Even though Heather and Alejandro sue the hell out of Chris for this, the comic shows that Alejandro has severe PTSD as a result of this torture. "Casket" is especially creepy as it offers a look at what the inside of the robot looked like, with Alejandro strapped to the robot, badly scarred, and crying.
  • Bit-by-Bit Transformation: In the Radiohead music video for "There There", Thom Yorke's transformation into a tree starts with his left foot, and progresses through his right foot, legs, torso, and arms. His face, still frozen in a scream at the end of the video, changes offscreen.
  • Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: Nightmare Fuel: The series opens with the entire body of students from the Hayate School being turned into cards by Chuuzubo and Furabijo and then getting pulverized by the Jakanja's spaceship along with their school's building, none of them come back and can be heard helplessly screaming while still trapped in their card forms seconds before they're pulverized. Even worse is that Oboro confirms this event happened worldwide, with only the Hurricaneger trio, the Gouraigers and Shurikenger being confirmed to have survived the massacre.
  • YMMV.Legend Of The Blue Wolves: The Woobie: Leonard Schteinberg also counts. He lost his younger brother who died in an accident, who he is grieving over and blames himself for not being able to save him, and he ends up being captured by aliens and turned into a war-machine.

    Unsure/Unsortable 4/ 111 

     ZCEs (19/111) 

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